BNP doubts credibility of UK Home Office letter on Tarique’s passport

The BNP says it has its doubts about the credibility of the UK Home Office letter on Tarique Rahman’s passport, pointing out 13 ‘errors’ in it.

Tarique gave up passport for asylum: BNP

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam shared copies of the letter and the BNP acting chief’s passport with the media on Monday to back his claim that Tarique has renounced his Bangladesh citizenship.     

“How strange this government is! How weak their evil strategy is!” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Alam fumed at a news conference at their Naya Paltan headquarters in Dhaka on Tuesday.

He said Tarique surrendered his passport o the UK Home Office to seek political asylum, not to give up Bangladesh citizenship.

Until the revelation of Tarique’s legal status in the UK by the BNP secretary general, the BNP had been saying their acting chief had been in London for treatment.

Tarique was arrested during the military-controlled caretaker government. He went to London after receiving bail in 2008 and has been there with his wife and daughter since.

Two years ago, the High Court sentenced him to seven years in prison over a money laundering case. He was also sentenced to 10 years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on Feb 8.

Letter

Khaleda has been in prison since the verdict in the case was delivered. The BNP appointed Tarique as acting chairman since his mother’s imprisonment and has been following his instructions from London.

At a programme in London on Saturday, Shahriar said Tarique had surrendered his passport to renounce Bangladesh citizenship.

Facing a legal notice from a lawyer for Tarique asking him to withdraw the comments, the state minister presented the copy of the UK Home Office letter to the Bangladesh High Commission in London.

Mirza Fakhrul said, “You all must have seen the British Home Office letter. We’ve found 13 major mistakes in the letter. It’s very much unsual for the British government to make such mistakes.”

He said the name of the department in the letter is ‘Immigration and Enforcement, Home Office’, but it ‘actually is Immigration Compliance and Enforcement’.

There was no comma between the holding number and the area and no full stop after the area’s name in the address of the Bangladesh High Commission, Mirza Fakhrul said.

“And it is addressed to the ‘Bangladesh Embassy’. This isn’t an embassy, but a high commission. It’s a major mistake. The foreign offices of the Commonwealth countries in the UK are always high commission,” the BNP leader pointed out.

He also said there were mistakes in the spelling of Queen’s Gate where the high commission is situated and the telephone and fax numbers were ‘unnecessarily’ in bold fonts.

“The next point is very interesting - the letter addresses ‘Dear Sirs’. It must have been ‘Dear Sir’,” Mirza Fakhrul said.

“And the subject mentions four names – Tarique Rahman, Zaima Rahman, Zubaida Rahman and Moynul Islam, but it says ‘Please find enclosed a passport for your retention’,” he added.

He also said there was no full stop after ‘Thank you’ and the ‘F’ in ‘Yours Faithfully’ is in upper case, which a British will never write in upper case.

“And the name of the signatory is missing.

“This letter riddled with mistakes is a mystery,” the BNP leader said before adding he would speak in greater detail once Tarique’s lawyer checks the letter.