India needs UN force deployed: Home adviser to Mamata

Regarding India's West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's call to deploy the UN force in Bangladesh for the safety of minorities, Home Adviser Lt Gen (Retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said she was mistaken. 

In reality, her country needs UN troops as minority groups are being repressed in India, the home adviser remarked. 

 Lt Gen (Retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury made the comment when while speaking to the journalists at a programme marking the inauguration of the International Volunteer Day. 

The event was held at the Fire Service and Civil Defence Multipurpose Training ground in Purbachal, Rupganj in Narayanganj on Thursday.

The home adviser came down heavily on the Indian media for spreading propaganda against Bangladesh, saying that no other media in the world except Indian media can do it.

"You (Bangladeshi media) know, the Indian media are conducting propaganda against Bangladesh and you can give its befitting reply by publishing the truth," he said.

Jahangir said the nation in unison would denounce such propaganda.

"We all together will condemn it," he said.

On December 2, Mamata Banerjee called for a United Nations peacekeeping force to be deployed in Bangladesh to secure the safety of religious minorities and bring stability to the country. 

At the time she was addressing the Bengal Assembly. She said, "The Government of India can take this matter up with the United Nations... so a peacekeeping force can be sent."

She also demanded Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal intervention in the matter.