Dhaka, Sep 21 (Agency) Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has said that Dhaka was gauging the situation in Afghanistan ahead of taking any stance regarding ties with new Taliban regime there but decided to offer humanitarian assistance to Afghan people under the “UN umbrella”. “We are watching the developments there,” he told a media briefing in New York when he was asked on the Afghan issue. Momen said Dhaka preferred to wait to observe the nature of the new government and see what policies they would take and “on the basis of that we will take the decision what we will do”. But, he said, Dhaka by now decided to offer humanitarian assistance to Afghan people sending materials like medicines responding to a call by UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.
Momen said that other than only three, no Bangladeshis were stranded in Afghanistan, “which is an issue of great relief for us”. He added that the three voluntarily preferred to stay there for personal reasons while at least one of them married an Afghan. “Bangladeshis in Afghanistan left that country as Dhaka issued an advisory that the situation there appeared unsafe,” the minister said. He said Bangladesh never had any enmity with Afghanistan and rather had a historic bondage while Dhaka now expects new Kabul regime to be “inclusive and progressive”. “If it (new Afghan government) could rally supports for its people, definitely we will support them,” Momen said. He, however, recalled that in recent past some Bangladeshis went to Afghanistan and started militant activities returning from Afghanistan and expected that the new regime will not allow its soil for terrorism. “We have uprooted militancy in Bangladesh with a ‘zero tolerance’ policy against any kind of terrorism and will not allow them on our soil,” Momen added.