Published : 13 Oct 2026, 11:03 AM
Updated : 13 Oct 2026, 11:31 AM
Several leaders of the Awami League, whose activities are banned in Bangladesh, have been accused of harassing former interim government chief advisor Muhammad Yunus in the United States.
The Nobel laureate was mobbed as he left New York's John F Kennedy Airport in a wheelchair at 3:45pm local time on Monday.
Lamiya Morshed, the interim government's chief coordinator for SDGs and executive director of the Yunus Centre, was with him at the time, carrying his luggage.
A video circulating on social media shows Imdad Chowdhury, general secretary of the New York Metropolitan Awami League, and Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury, general secretary of the US Jubo League, and a group of others standing in front of Yunus. Then, Yunus was wheeled back into the terminal.
The harassers continued after him. One of them shouted: “You killed a thousand people in Bangladesh. You terrorist! You terrorist! You terrorist, why did you come here?... Why did you arrest 200,000 people?... He killed a thousand police in my country. He destroyed the democracy in my country….”
The Bangladesh Mission in New York was asked for comment on the incident, but has yet to make a response.
bdnews24.com is attempting to get a statement from the Yunus Centre on the incident.
Yunus was scheduled to attend the three-day World Health Summit in Berlin from Oct 11 to 13 but cancelled his visit at the last minute.
His withdrawal came after several Europe-based organisations objected to his participation in the summit.
The organisers had announced Yunus’s participation before the event, but his name was removed from the list of speakers shortly before the summit began.
Anna Stormer, representing the World Health Summit’s communications team, told bdnews24.com by email that Muhammad Yunus had withdrawn from the summit for health reasons.
bdnews24.com was unable to obtain comment from the Yunus Centre in Dhaka.
