Staff Reporter :
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday said the party’s acting Chairman Tarique Rahman deposited his Bangladesh passport in the British home office for asylum in that country.
“Submitting his passport to the British home office for asylum does not mean that Tarique has abandoned his Bangladeshi citizenship,” Mirza Fakhrul said this at a press briefing at the party’s Nayapaltan central office.
He said Tarique sought political asylum like any other rebel leader, which he was later granted.
“The submission of the passport is a part of the procedure. According to the UK rules, he was given a travel permit after submitting his passport to the home office. He does not need that now. When he is willing to travel home, he will get his passport back after applying to the UK authorities,” the BNP Secretary General said.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam on Monday said that the passports of Tarique, his wife and daughter were returned to the Bangladesh High Commission on June 2, 2014 through the British Home Office, which stirred controversy in the country.
“Now, they have no travel documents to come to Bangladesh,” the state minister added.
He said, “As a politician in a foreign country your passport is your identity. Returning it means you no longer need this. To me, he (Tarique) is no longer a Bangladeshi citizen.”
Mirza Fakhrul slammed the state minister’s statement saying, the documents state minister produced before the journalists are not authentic.
Fakhrul termed Shahriar’s claims mysterious and said the documents have as many as 13 flaws, which do not go with a UK state entity. He said, “Presenting such kind of fabricated information before journalists or spreading these through Facebook is nothing but political ignorance.”
Mirza Fakhrul said passport submission is a part of British procedure for asylum seekers.
He said, “We strongly protest and condemn state minister Shahriar Alam’s illogical and unlawful statement about Tarique’s citizenship.”
The BNP leader said it is shame for the nation that the state minister for foreign affairs does not know for what reasons a citizen loses his nationality.
“We would like to equivocally say that Tarique Rahman is a proud citizen of Bangladesh by birth. He was the citizen of this beloved country, he is still and will remain so in the future, too,” Fakhrul said.
The BNP leader termed the state minister’s statement as a propaganda to turn public attention in another directives from government’s trying to cling on power with Indian help. BNP Standing Committee Members Mirza Abbas and Nazrul Islam Khan, Vice Chairmen Abdul Awal Mintoo and Barkat Ullah Bulu, and Senior Joint-Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi were present at the briefing.
On Monday, Tarique sent a legal notice to Shahriar asking him to prove by 10 days his remark that he (Tarique) has relinquished his nationality by submitting his Bangladeshi passport. Or else, the BNP leader threatened to file both criminal and civil cases against Shahriar Alam.
On behalf of Tarique, BNP Law Affairs Secretary Barrister Kayser Kamal sent the notice by post to the Foreign Ministry’s address.
