'Not easy at all'

Bangladesh’s recent success in different global forums “did not come easy", says Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali.

“It’s a matter of honour for the whole nation,” he said on Thursday inaugurating bdnews24.com’s photo exhibition marking the eighth anniversary of the Bangladesh’s first internet newspaper.

The foreign minister was referring to the elections in the UN Human Rights Council, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU).

Bangladesh won those elections in recent weeks and Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury became the chair of the CPA and lawmaker Saber Hossain Chowdhury was elected president of the IPU.

The foreign minister said Bangladesh became the first nation to be elected to head these two global parliamentary forums. "This is a kind of a fairy tale."

He also mentioned Bangladesh victory in the bid to host a global meeting on migration and development in 2016, after fierce competition from Morocco.

“We were keen to host this global meeting as nearly 10 million Bangladeshis live abroad,” he said.

“This victory is for the whole country,” he said, “We all should be proud of it."

He particularly mentioned the victory in the UN Human Rights Council and said it was “very difficult”.

Bangladesh bagged 149 votes to be a member of this top UN body, he said.

“Any international achievement is the achievement of the country,” he said.

“It was not easy at all."

bdnews24.com organised the photo exhibition described by its Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi as looking back at eight “eventful years” through the lenses of his photographers.

“These eight years have been both terrific and turbulent,” he said in his introductory speech.

The foreign minister congratulated bdnews24.com for its “enviable success” and said “Bangladesh must be proud of its success”.

“This is astonishing,” he said mentioning its 4 million unique readers on an average in a month “staggering figure”.

The exhibition was supposed to be opened by the pre-eminent historian AF Salahuddin Ahmed who died four days ago.

The Editor-in-Chief said a digital photo gallery had been put up to take a look at the life of this “clean, clear and committed” personality.

Journalist and teacher Afsan Chowdhury, one of the students of this teacher, said no man could be “more polite, more decent” than Prof Ahmed.

The exhibition is open for all from Friday to Monday from 10am to 8pm at the Radius Art Gallery housed at the Bay's Galleria at Dhaka's Gulshan.