Missions abroad asked to check rumours on Bangladesh situation: Hasan

The foreign ministry has directed all Bangladeshi missions abroad to combat rumours being spread regarding the current situation in Bangladesh, Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said yesterday.

"Different kinds of rumours have been spreading abroad . . . which is unexpected. We have directed all our missions to inform the expatriate Bangladesh community about the actual scenario of Bangladesh with facts," he told reporters at the ministry.

The foreign minister said he had already briefed foreign diplomats about the situation in Dhaka and elsewhere across the country while his ministry will organise a tour for foreign diplomats today to the spots which were vandalised, including the state-owned service providing establishments which were torched.

Hasan said he informed the diplomats that anti-liberation and anti-state elements and religious extremists, including the BNP and Jamaat, took advantage of the situation by infiltrating the student movement and turning it violent.

Without any instigation, he said, the terrorists group of the BNP-Jamaat torched and vandalised important government establishments, including key-point installations like national data centre, national television, metro-rail, elevated expressway and burnt hundreds of public and private vehicles.

Hasan said the situation has already been improved by the intervention of the law enforcing agencies and the condition will return to normalcy within one or two days.

Replying to a question regarding security of the foreign diplomats, Hasan said, no such situation is created in Bangladesh that foreigners would think of leaving the country.

Responding to another query whether there was involvement of any international quarter behind such destruction, Hasan said, as the foreign minister, he could not make any comment on such matters without verification.

However, he said, BNP and Jamaat have terrorist characteristics while they have connections with international terrorist groups.

Regarding the allegation against Al Jazeera television to broadcast misinformation over the Bangladesh situation, the minister said he asked the Bangladesh Ambassador to Qatar to inform the Al Jazeera headquarters in Doha that its Dhaka office has been making false and fabricated news on the Bangladesh situation.

The foreign minister also criticised Dr Yunus for his statement that was published in today's newspaper saying that in his write-up the Nobel laureate did not mention anything about the targeted attacks which were committed against the state.

Rather, Hasan said, Dr Yunus called upon the foreigners to interfere in Bangladesh's internal matters. "It is very unfortunate, such a statement from a Nobel laureate," he said.