Awami League trashes Safadi-Joy meeting report, asks BBC Bangla to be careful

The Awami League (AL) has claimed the report of a meeting between Israel’s ruling Likud Party leader Mendi N Safadi and the prime minister’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy is baseless and warned the BBC Bangla against running such news in future.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 29 May 2016, 06:49 PM
Updated : 29 May 2016, 06:49 PM

The ruling party’s Joint General Secretary Mahbub-Ul-Alam Hanif told a press briefing on Sunday that the report on Safadi and Joy’s meeting was ‘a fiction and full of lies’.

“We are frustrated, saddened and disappointed by the publication of such a baseless report by this organization. We think it was necessary for them to verify the facts before running it.

“We urge the people concerned to be more careful before running such reports,” he said.

The Awami League has sent a rejoinder to the BBC Bangla in connection with the report, Hanif added.

“We’ve also spoken to the BBC Bangla online editor about this. The editor said the matter was being looked into. We hope the BBC will reveal the truth to the public.”

The BBC Bangla on Friday ran an interview of Safadi, where the Israeli politician claimed to have had a meeting with Joy in Washington DC.

Trashing the report, Joy, who is also the adviser to his her mother Sheikh Hasina on ICT Affairs, in a Facebook post on Sunday described Safadi’s claims as lies.

Newly promoted BNP Joint Secretary General Aslam Chowdhury was arrested recently and charged with treason after his meeting with Safadi during an event in New Delhi earlier this year.

Awami League leaders have since claimed that the meeting between the two was part of a conspiracy to overthrow Hasina with help of Israeli spy agency Mossad.

But the BNP has refuted the allegation and said Aslam’s India trip was ‘personal’ in nature.

Aslam and Safadi have both admitted to meeting each other in Delhi but claimed nothing covert was discussed.

Hanif at Sunday’s media call also claimed the news of the meeting between Safadi and Joy was a ‘drama’ and blamed BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman for it.

“Our inquiries have found that BBC Bangla has no reporter named Jacob Milton under whose name the report was published.”

The AL leader claimed Khaleda’s advisor Jahid H Sardar Sadi was also involved in this.