The BJP and the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday traded barbs in Parliament over the developments in Bangladesh.

Trinamool’s Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay raised the issue during Zero Hour and repeated Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s demand that the Centre appeal to the United Nations to send a peacekeeping force to Bangladesh.

“In neighbouring Bangladesh, which shares a border with Bengal, Hindus and other minorities are being tortured and killed. We want the government of India to appeal to the United Nations to send peacekeeping forces,” Bandyopadhyay said. “The government of India is totally silent for reasons best known to them,” he added, demanding a statement by the external affairs minister in Parliament.

Without mentioning Trinamool, BJP Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya accused “a party” of maintaining “double standard”. Bhattacharya alleged that Rohingya refugees had settled in the neighbourhood of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Salt Lake. Bengal police were taking no action despite complaints by the institute authorities, Bhattacharya claimed.

“You are talking about atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh, but you are welcoming infiltrators. Internal security is under threat,” he said.