Dipu for boosting friendship to end killings along border

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni on Thursday said in Parliament that the government would bring down the number of killing along the border to zero level through strengthening friendship with the neighboring countries.

“We believe in resolving problems through friendship. We’ll give our efforts to bring down the killings along the borders to zero level,” she said while speaking in response to a cut-motion on demand for grants in the budget for next fiscal (2012-13) concerning the Foreign Ministry.

Quoting figures border killings, Dipu Moni said a total of 460 people were killed along the borders during the five-year tenure of the previous BNP-Jamaat alliance government with an average of 92 killings each year.

“We’ve brought it down to 203 in the last three years of the present government. However, we think not a single killing along the border should take place,” she said.

The Foreign Minister said it is totally a false allegation that the Foreign Ministry and the Bangladesh missions abroad are doing nothing.

She said the Foreign Ministry and the missions abroad had significant role in sending increased number of workers on overseas employment, boosting remittance inflow and export.

Taking a swipe at independent lawmaker Fazlul Azim (Noakhali) for criticizing the government without citing proper statistics, Dipu Moni said Bangladesh sent a record number of Hajis last year to perform hajj smoothly.

“Bangladesh achieved second position in the world for successful hajj management last year,” she added.