UK returnee AL leader Kamran was ‘unaware of home quarantine’

Facing criticism for attending a national event of Mujib Barsha in Dhaka on his return from the coronavirus-hit Britain, Awami League leader Bodor Uddin Ahmed Kamran says no one at the airport told him about the 14-day home quarantine for returnees.

Netizens and opposition politicians slated the former mayor of Sylhet city as his photos attending events, including one with party chief Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Mar 17, went viral.

In the US, President Donald Trump had to undergo coronavirus test after a Brazilian official, who had met Trump, tested positive for the contagious virus.

The government has made it mandatory for returnees from foreign countries to self-quarantine at home for 14 days – the incubation period of the virus.

The authorities have punished dozens of returnees for breaking the quarantine rules by going out of home.

“Who will fine former Sylhet mayor Bodor Uddin Kamran? He joined a national event just after returning from the UK,” Fazlul Bari, an expatriate Bangladeshi in Australia, wrote on Facebook.

“He needs to be sent to mandatory quarantine for his own and everyone else’s safety. His popularity will increase if he responds himself,” Bari added.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi accused the government of double standards in the case of Kamran.

But Kamran told bdnews24.com he was “certain he is not infected with the virus”.

“Because I had filled in the yellow form they had given me at the airport on arrival. They had checked me when I got off at the Sylhet airport. I don’t have any symptoms,” he said.

He said his son, who is a doctor, was also enquiring about him all the time. “I don’t have any problem,” the former mayor said.

The Awami League leader said he had attended the event of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary because he was emotional about it.

“And no one told me and the others on the same flight that we needed to be in quarantine. I didn’t know about it. I am staying at home, not going out, after I came to know about it,” he added.