Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Wednesday came down heavily on a section of Dhaka-stationed diplomats apparently for their "overreaction" to the incidents in Bangladesh.
While talking to reporters at the foreign ministry Wednesday, he said that the attack on Ashraful Alom or Hero Alom, the independent candidate of the Dhaka-17 constituency by-poll, might be a "deep-rooted conspiracy" to undermine the upcoming general elections.
"You should also investigate whether any vested quarter, who do not like holding the general elections peacefully, is responsible for the attack," the minister said. "Maybe this incident was orchestrated by those who do not want holding the general elections. You never know" the foreign minister said.
He also blamed the media for giving undue priority to these "activist diplomats".
"I want to tell something about the activist diplomats of our country. They do not issue a statement when a person is killed in the USA or elsewhere, but whenever any such thing takes place in Bangladesh, they issue joint statements as if they can do whatever they want here and this is a lawless country. This is not acceptable," the minister, visibly angry, told the newsmen.
"In the USA, people are being killed now and then. Have you ever seen that diplomats have issued statements over those killings?" Dr Momen asked.
"A few days ago, a Bangladeshi named Faisal was killed in the USA. Have the UN or other countries issued statements over this killing? You should ask them," the minister said.
"And they issued statements to the press instead of sending it to the foreign ministry which is not acceptable," he added.
Blaming the media for "seeking dirt" everywhere, the foreign minister said that the USA is sending delegations one after another with a view to strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries, but the media always smells a rat in everything.
"They have discussed how to help improve the bilateral ties between the two countries. No other issues were discussed apart from this," he said while replying to a question regarding the significance of the series of visits of US diplomats to Bangladesh.
"And Mr Blinken also told me that the USA wants to improve and strengthen relations with Bangladesh," he said.
Blaming a section of media for "tarnishing" the country's image, he said whenever anybody visits the country, some journalists "rush to them in an uncalled-for manner, as if to hatch a conspiracy".
"You should stop doing those," he told the reporters.
mirmostafiz@yahoo.com
