Palak detained at airport

Former state minister for post, telecommunication and ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak has been barred from leaving the country by airport authorities.

Sources from the airport authorities said Palak, along with his two aides, went to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 3:00pm Wednesday. He was barred from boarding the plane and taken under custody in immigration.

The source added that two personal assistants of Palak wanted to go to Nepal but they were not allowed too.

The Awami League government fell following the resignation of then prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday. She fled the country in the face of a movement of students and mass people. A discussion is going on to form an interim government.

Meanwhile, Awami League’s central office, district and upazila offices were vandalized across the country. Some leaders were killed and houses of many were torched.

Leaders of Awami League have gone into hiding.

Palak was elected member of parliament from Natore-3 for the first time in 2008. He got elected three times after that. He was made state minister for ICT in 2014. In the last cabinet, he was also given charge of the ICT ministry.

Palak was criticized for shutting down the internet during the movement against discrimination and the mass upsurge that led to the fall of Hasina.