Mohammad Ali Arafat, member of parliament (MP) for the Dhaka-17 constituency, has corrected misinformation spread by the US Embassy about arrests of BNP leaders and activists across Bangladesh over clashes surrounding the party’s rally on October 28.
MP Arafat took to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday as the embassy reposted the message of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell by tagging several other organizations.
“Mr Josep Borrell posted a message in X about the number of arrests in the last 8 days. He may have been informed about this number from the media report. I have checked with the concerned department, verified the number, and found out that 8,000 arrests was an incorrect figure. Given the violence, destruction, killing, and arson that occurred on October 28th and onward, some arrests were natural, but it was definitely not 8,000; in fact, it was well below it,” said the post of Arafat.
“To my utter surprise, we can see that the US Embassy has reposted Mr Borrell’s message by tagging so many other organizations as if they are trying to pass this message on to other concerned organizations and people. It seems like a campaign to me that is unfortunately disseminating disinformation,” his post added further.
In a post shared on X on Sunday, Josep Borrell expressed concern about “the arrest of over 8,000 opposition activists” over clashes surrounding the party’s rally on October 28, urging refrain from all sides.
Later, the US embassy on Monday reposted the message saying: “We agree.”
Meanwhile, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, in response to a top EU official’s concern about arrests of opposition leaders and activists in Bangladesh, also pointed out “gaps in information” in the statement, hoping that the bloc will issue an amended one.
