BNP unleashed chaos to foil elections, foreign minister to foreign diplomats

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) unleashed chaos across the country on 28 October to foil the upcoming parliamentary elections, alleged Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen on Monday.

He said this in the afternoon while briefing the foreign diplomats at state guest house Jamuna, on the violence centering the BNP’s mass rally on 28 October and the ensuing events.

The diplomats of the US, the UK, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Japan, China, India, Pakistan, South Korea, Turkey, Spain, Singapore, Russia, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Brazil, Australia, Malaysia and European Union and representatives of the United Nations and different international organisations were present at the briefing.

Law minister Anisul Huq, prime minister’s advisor to private industry and investment Salman F Rahman, state minister for foreign affairs Md Shahriar Alam and foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen were also present alongside the foreign minister at the briefing.

In his welcome speech, Abdul Momen said, “We’re saddened with what happened on 28 October. But we were not much surprised as we had past experience of violence by the BNP and Jamaat (Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami). We expected they would change but they did not.”

Following the briefing, the foreign minister told the newspersons, “We condemn the acts of violence by the BNP in the name of peaceful procession and they need to be brought to book. The main objective of what they did in the last few days is that there would not be any free and fair election. They did those to foil the elections. That is why we called the foreign diplomats. We told them what happened here on the 28th. We also highlighted what happened with a person who impersonated as an adviser to President Biden.”

After this the law minister said they reiterated to the foreign diplomats about the pledges of the prime minister regarding free, fair and neutral elections.

He also informed the media that no diplomat asked any question during or after the briefing.

State minister for foreign affairs Md Shahriar Alam said, “We have sent the video footage of what happened on 28 October that was readily available to the foreign missions. They were shown video footage of violence, various documents including photographs once again today.”

Asked about the reactions of the foreign diplomats, Shahriar Alam said their expressions said they were “stunned” watching the documents.