Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Wednesday said that Dhaka-based diplomats were “dumbfounded” by seeing the ruins of the devastation as he took them to visit some sites of destruction during the anti-quota protest.
He said 49 diplomats of as many missions including 23 ambassadors visited the places that include state-run Bangladesh Television, metro rail stations in Mirpur and the Setu (bridges) Bhavan.
“We had plans to take them to the disaster management office and the data center but could not manage time due to traffic,” he told reporters after the visit.
Those establishments were torched during the countrywide violence following anti-quota protests.
“Diplomats said ‘this is shameful’. They also told me ‘It’s an internal issue of Bangladesh. We are with you’,” the foreign minister said.
He also thanked the diplomats for not making any public comment.
He also thanked journalists for not “provoking” diplomats for making comments on the internal affairs of Bangladesh.
“They were stunned seeing the wreckage at first hand. I was also dumbfounded,” he said.
The foreign minister said it was an attack on the state.
“It was a Pakistan like attack,” he said, adding that “houses and buildings were torched and vandalized in a similar way in 1971 by the Pakistani forces.”
The foreign minister also said that they have “specific information” that some Pakistani nationals took part in the protest programs outside Bangladesh.
“There had been a protest in Los Angeles in front of our mission. Some Pakistani nationals were there at the protest. We came to know that they (Pakistani nationals) were involved in organizing the protest,” he said.
He said in the UAE 57 Bangladeshi nationals were punished under their local law.
He said Saudi Arabia also arrested Bangladeshis for violating their local law.
When asked whether they had informed Pakistan about the issue, the foreign minister said: “It’s a local issue. Those who were involved are Pakistani expatriates.”
He said the Pakistan high commissioner also visited those sites in Dhaka with other diplomats.
When asked about a report that UN vehicles were used during the curfew patrolling, the foreign minister said: “They (armed forces) did not use any UN vehicles. Those were rented out to the UN and that’s why the UN logo was there. It was a mistake that those logos were not removed. It (logo) is now removed.”
