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The government will take necessary measures over the harassment of former interim government chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York, Prime Minister’s Information Adviser Dr Zahed Ur Rahman has said.
He made the remarks while responding to journalists at a press conference at the Department of Information’s conference room at the Secretariat on Tuesday.
A video circulating on social media shows several people approaching Yunus, who was seated in a wheelchair at the airport, and shouting slogans at him. They were heard calling him a “terrorist” and asking, “Why you come here?” They also accused him of destroying democracy in Bangladesh and chanted slogans about the role of the police.
The video shows security personnel attempting to move Yunus away from the scene quickly. He later moved forward with assistance from an aide.
Zahed Ur Rahman said Yunus was currently in the United States and had faced an attempt at harassment at the airport. He suggested the incident might be linked to Yunus taking responsibility for the state after Sheikh Hasina fled the country.
The adviser said the former chief adviser’s performance in office could be subject to legitimate criticism, adding that he himself had criticised Yunus’s government while in Bangladesh. However, such harassment was unacceptable, he said.
He also referred to similar incidents involving a senior government minister or state minister and an actress who had expressed solidarity with the July uprising. Several people associated with the movement had faced such situations during the interim government’s tenure, he added.
Zahed Ur Rahman said legal proceedings had begun over the incident involving the actress and that necessary steps would also be taken in Yunus’s case.
The government would investigate whether there had been any shortcomings in security arrangements or official protocol for Yunus in the United States, given his status as a former chief adviser and the VIP facilities he was entitled to receive, he said.
He added that the government would not allow similar actions by members of the Awami League living abroad to go unchallenged and would take necessary measures against such incidents.
