As Information and Broadcasting Adviser of Bangladesh interim government Mahfuz Alam left a SOAS-University of London programme marking the first anniversary of Bangladesh’s July uprising, a group of demonstrators threw eggs at Bangladesh High Commission vehicles and briefly tried to block their path.
London’s Metropolitan Police intervened effectively, as reports on Friday indicate Alam was not in the cars that were struck.
The Bangladesh High Commission said police were in constant contact and assured “full security” for the Adviser during his engagements.
The incident in London follows an attack on Alam a couple of weeks ago while he was on government business in New York. During an event at Bangladesh’s Consulate General, protesters threw eggs (and, per multiple accounts, bottles) and smashed glass doors; the mission subsequently wrote to local authorities, including the State Department’s local office, seeking action.
Press Secretary of the Chief Adviser Shafiqul Alam publicly condemned the attempted harassment. The Government condemns this latest attack with the same conviction that our government, the people of Bangladesh and the authorities of both host countries stand on the side of civilised values while the thugs inhabit the world of barbarism and bullying.
“This pattern of conduct has no place in any democracy that values argument over aggression and debate over thuggery. As we said after the attack in New York, violence is not protest; intimidation is not free speech. Those words apply with full force in London as they did in New York”, Bangladesh interim government said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Bangladeshi news outlet Prothom Alo reported that candidates backed by Islami Chhatra Shibir under the banner of the Oikkoboddho Shikkharthi Jote (United Students’ Alliance) have secured nine out of the 15 key posts, including the Vice President (VP), General Secretary (GS), and Assistant General Secretary (AGS).
For the VP post, Shibir leader Abu Shadik Kayem won with 14,042 votes. His closest rival, BNP’s student wing leader Abidul Islam Khan, received 5,708 votes.
Following the fall of the Awami League government in the July mass uprising, Shibir resurfaced publicly in September last year. Within just a year of re-emergence, it has now claimed a sweeping victory in the DUCSU polls. (ANI)
