The Government of Bangladesh has condemned the harassment of former interim government chief adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus at John F Kennedy Airport in New York, USA.
In a press statement on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “It appears that a group of perpetrators suspected to be linked with the banned political outfit, Bangladesh Awami League, were behind this harassment committed against Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, who is highly respected by the international community, in a foreign soil.”
The ministry asked its mission in New York to take up the matter with local law enforcement agencies to identify the perpetrators and take appropriate legal action against those who had tarnished Bangladesh’s image and that of its citizens before the world.
Former chief adviser Prof Yunus faced angry remarks from a group of Bangladeshi expatriates at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York on Monday.
Yunus arrived at the airport from Doha on a Qatar Airways flight on 12 October.
Several expatriates confronted him with irritated remarks after he reached Terminal 8, according to a video circulating on social media.
The footage shows people shouting at Yunus as he was being taken out of the airport in a wheelchair. They were heard calling him a “terrorist” and accusing him of killing Bangladeshis, undermining democracy and being responsible for the deaths of thousands of police personnel. Some also shouted, “Go back”.
Security personnel subsequently escorted him away from the scene.
