India opened dam without notice, caused flood: BD

DHAKA: Information and Broadcasting Adviser of the interim government Nahid Islam said Friday India has shown “inhumanity’ by opening a dam without prior notice causing foods in Bangladesh.

He urged the neighbouring country to stop its “anti-people policy” while it come to Bangladesh. He also urged India to get rid of “tensions” between the two countries so that the bilateral ties can be rebuilt “on the basis of fairness”.

Nahid said this during a press briefing after the meeting of the Advisory Council at the State Guest House Jamuna in the afternoon.

Nahid Islam, also a student leader and a key coordinator of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement, said, “We can see the upstream water coming in and creating a flood situation. India has shown inhumanity and non-cooperation by opening the dams without any advance warning.”

“We will urge, and hope that India will refrain from this kind of policy against the people of Bangladesh soon. We must find a solution on how we can protect the people of Bangladesh and India from this kind of natural disaster together,” he added.

Nahid Islam also said, “Students and people of Bangladesh are angry with this policy of India.”

The people of Bangladesh have been struggling for their fair share of water for a long time, he added.

Earlier in the day, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs released a statement refuting claims that the floods were caused by the Dumbur dam.

“We have seen concerns being expressed in Bangladesh that the current situation of flood in districts on the eastern borders of Bangladesh has been caused by opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti river in Tripura. This is factually not correct,” it said in a statement today.

The Indian MEA said they they would like to point out that the catchment areas of Gumti river that flows through India and Bangladesh have witnessed heaviest rains of this year over the last few days. The flood in Bangladesh is primarily due to waters from these large catchments downstream of the dam.