What is Bangladesh’s St Martin’s Island, under spotlight after Sheikh Hasina’s resignation?

Sub: IR

Sec: Places in news

Sajeeb Wazed’s Denial of Resignation Statement:

Sajeeb Wazed, son of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, dismissed as “completely false and fabricated” a newspaper statement that suggested Hasina said she could have stayed in power by handing over Bangladesh’s St. Martin’s Island and the Bay of Bengal to America.

Location and Description of St. Martin’s Island:

St. Martin’s Island is in the northeastern Bay of Bengal, near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, and is nine kilometers from the southern tip of Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf peninsula.
The island is 7.3 km long, mostly flat, with an elevation of 3.6 meters above sea level.
It is Bangladesh’s only coral island, featuring reefs 10-15 km to the west-northwest and serving as a breeding ground for sea turtles.
The island has a permanent population of about 10,000 and hosts an average of 10,000 tourists daily.

History of St. Martin’s Island:

The island was originally part of the Teknaf peninsula about 5,000 years ago but gradually submerged into the sea.
Around 450 years ago, the southern part of present-day St. Martin’s Island resurfaced, with the northern parts rising above sea level in the next 100 years.
Arab merchants were among the first settlers on the island in the 18th century. They initially named it “Jazira” (meaning “the island” or “the peninsula”) and later changed it to “Narikel Jinjira” or “Coconut Island.”
In 1900, British India annexed the island during a land survey, and by then, fishermen, either Bengali or from the Rakhine community of present-day Myanmar, had settled on the island.
During British occupation, the island was named St. Martin’s Island after the then Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong, Martin.
After the partition of British India in 1947, the island became part of Pakistan and later part of independent Bangladesh following the 1971 Liberation War.

Source: IE