Bangladesh is happy with its 54,000 sq km territory, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Monday as she criticised as “flagitious” a proposal by a top US lawmaker to integrate Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state with her country.

The proposal was made by Congressman Bradley Sherman, Chairman of the Sub-committee on Asia Pacific, during a hearing on the State Department’s budget for South Asia.

Addressing a press conference here, a visibly irked Hasina reminded Sherman of the civil war of his country in the past and said Bangladesh would not do anything which would affect regional stability and peace.

Hasina’s comment came as the proposal was placed in the US Congress on June 13 seeking integration of Myanmar’s Rakhine with Bangladesh as millions of persecuted Rohingyas have fled Myanmar and taken refuge in the neighbouring nation’s Chittagong.

She said Bangladesh honoured Myanmar’s sovereignty while Rakhine was part of its territory and what Dhaka wanted was the safe return of the Rohingyas to their homeland.

Hasina termed the proposal a “flagitious proposition” and asked Sherman to rather mobilise a campaign for the safe return of the Rohingyas to their homeland.

Myanmar does not recognise Rohingya as an ethnic group and insists that they are Bangladeshi migrants living illegally in the country.

The continuous violence on the Rohingyas also made the UN term it as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. “Each state is a sovereign one. Why they want to attach Rakhine State with us? The US congressman expressed his audacity by placing such proposal,” she said.

However, Hasina said Bangladesh was maintaining a cordial relation with Myanmar despite it imposed its burden on its neighbour by driving out their nationals.