Dhaka:  India is sending on Friday a consignment of relief materials, an Indian high commission spokesman said in Dhaka on Wednesday, as tens of thousands of Myanmar refugees crossed into Bangladesh to evade atrocities at their home in Burma’s Rakhine state.

‘An Indian aircraft will carry the first consignment of humanitarian assistance tomorrow . . . it will land at Chittagong Airport at 11:00am,’ said the Indian spokesman.

The spokesman said Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Harsh Vardhan Shringla would hand over the materials to Bangladesh’s Road Transport and Bridges Minister and Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader.

The development came as Bangladesh visibly stepped up diplomacy to get its beside major stakeholders in handing the situation and send back the refugees as continued surges of refugees flooded its southeastern territory.

Quader earlier on Sunday said Bangladesh needed ‘crucial’ Indian support in handling the crisis saying ‘the entire world today is worried with the Rohingya issue (and) their (India’s) concern and stand beside us is very crucial at this moment’.

Foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali, at a media briefing on that day, however, referred to the Indian concern about the crisis.

India’s External Affairs Ministry in a statement earlier this week said New Delhi remained ‘deeply concerned’ about the situation in Rakhine State in Myanmar and the outflow of refugees from that region.

‘We would urge that the situation in Rakhine State be handled with restraint and maturity, focussing on the welfare of the civilian population alongside those of the security forces. It is imperative that violence is ended and normalcy in the State restored expeditiously,’ it read.