Khosru was heading a three-member team for the talks on terrorism and rule of law, for which Awami League representatives, including former foreign minister Dipu Moni, had also travelled to London.
Two of the prime minister’s advisers — Gowher Rizvi for international affairs, and Mashiur Rahman for economic affairs — were part of the delegation, according to media reports.
“We got to know just moments before that the Awami League will not be attending. We were surprised… it gave rise to an embarrassing situation,” Khosru, a BNP standing committee member, told reporters.The Awami League team said it was misled into taking part in the conference which was “initiated by an individual and not the parliament”, he said.
“Of course, it is an individual effort! These conferences are arranged by members of parliament, not the parliament itself. It is not the first time they are organising this.
“I have attended this at least six times, and the Awami League has participated in this more times than us. The conference used to be chaired by another lord who died, so Lord Carlile has taken his place.”
Lord Carlile, he said, expressed disappointment at the outcome of the conference which had assembled UK politicians, representatives from Brussels and rights groups.
“He said the move was discourteous, disrespectful to British parliament and cowardly,” Amir Khosru added.
The other reason the ruling party’s representatives provided had to do with the Jamaat-e-Islami, said Khosru. “They said they didn’t want to sit for talks with Jamaat. But they didn’t object when asked earlier by the organisers.”
Khosru was asked at the briefing if his party had advised Jamaat not to attend the talks. “We had no communication with Jamaat. We are not the sponsors of this conference, so this is not up to us.”
The BNP, he said, was hoping to hold lively discussion on the conference’s topic, terror and rule of law, “as they were very important subjects in the current political context”.
“I wonder if the ruling party’s team decided to back out because they were not prepared to answer questions on the conference’s subject matter.”
“Their decision to me is a mystery. I really don’t have an answer for it.”
Humayun Kabir, BNP’s international affairs secretary and Barrister Rumin Farhana, deputy international affairs secretary – who formed the BNP’s team for the conference – were present at the briefing.
Source: bdnews24
