A travel ban has been slapped on BNP leader Aslam Chowdhury, in news recently over his meeting with a leader of Israel’s ruling Likud Party Mendi N Safadi.
Published : 15 May 2016, 01:14 PM
Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) Commissioner Iqbal Bahar told the media on Sunday that Aslam has been barred from leaving the country and will be arrested the moment he is found.
A Bangladesh daily recently ran a report on a meeting between Aslam, a joint secretary general of the BNP, and the Israeli right-wing leader along with a photo of the two.
Photos of Aslam and Likud leader Safadi were found on the Facebook pages of DelAviv, an Indo-Israel relationship platform and Mendi N Safadi Center for International Diplomacy and Public Relations.
Both of them were found attending a summit in India recently.
According to media reports, Aslam did not deny his Delhi visit and confirmed the authenticity of the pictures.
The BNP leader said that he was not aware that Safadi was a Likud leader. He also told the media that his visit was personal and had nothing to do with his party.
Awami League leaders, however, claimed that Aslam’s meeting with the Israeli politician was intended to generate a ‘conspiracy’ to topple the Sheikh Hasina-led government and demanded his arrest.
Aslam, who has been made a BNP joint secretary general after its last council, is the convener of the party’s Chittagong North unit.
He owns filling stations and is involved with the real estate and ship-breaking industries.
Amid allegations of BNP's links with the Israeli intelligence Mossad, Chittagong Range's police chief said on Friday that they were looking into it.
“We are looking into whether any BNP leader has connections with Mossad,” said Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Md Shafiqul Islam.
The Palestinian envoy in Dhaka has said that it will be a ‘political suicide’ for any Bangladeshi party to have ties with Israel.
“The BNP supporters will deny the party support if such incidents happen,” Charge d’Affaires Yousuf S Ramadan said on Saturday.
In support of Palestine, Bangladesh does not recognise Israel as a state.
The envoy also said that BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and another leader came to him to confirm that the party has no relations with Mossad.