Nisha Desai Biswal office denies any record of meeting with BNP’s Jahid

The BNP foreign affairs envoy to the US Jahid F Sardar Sadi, sacked for faking a statement by six Congressmen, appears to persist with such fabrications.

Recently, Jahid appears to have made false claims about meeting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal.

Jahid issued a press release with a photograph showing both, claiming he had an ‘urgent’ meeting with Biswal on May 20.

The release, issued in the name of one Maruf Raju, says: “Nisha Desai said in the meeting that she and the US government were tirelessly trying to resolve the impasse in Bangladesh. There will be a change in the situation in Bangladesh very soon.”

But Biswal’s office in the US denied any such meeting having taken place, when bdnews24.com contacted it after publication of the news in Bangladesh media.

South and Central Asia Bureau press chief Mark Thornberg said in an email on May 22 that there was no record of  such a meeting.

“We don’t confirm the details of Biswal’s schedule beyond what’s on the public schedule, but I can tell you unofficially that I don’t have any record of her meeting that person,” reads the email.

The photograph published with the news to make it seem authentic also did not appear to be that of a meeting but taken in a corridor elsewhere.

Earlier this year, Jahid, with US-based BNP leader Mujibur Rahman Mazumdar, had sent a fake statement ostensibly by six Congressmen, in which they condemned the confinement of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and banning the publication of the views of her son Tariqueq Rahman.

Two of the Congressmen named in the statement issued angry denials after the news appeared in portions of the Bangladesh media and two US- and UK-based news portals.

Following the incident, Jahid F Sardar and Mujibur Rahman Majumdar were removed from their positions of the BNP’s foreign envoy and special adviser respectively.

BNP Vice Chairman Sadeque Hossain Khoka announced their removal by summoning a press conference in New York on Jan 13.

But unperturbed by the sacking, Jahid claimed on facebook and other social media sites that he was doing everything at the behest of Tarique Rahman, who lives in London, and would continue to do so in future.

Rahman is the elder son of Khaleda Zia and the party’s senior vice chairman.

Sadi, who hails from Barisal and claims to be a Christian, has sought political asylum in the US but has been denied the status. Meanwhile, he had been arrested at least 29 times for various crimes in Florida.

He was released in cases involving cheque fraud and monetary misappropriation after giving special undertakings.