Bangladesh's response to UN rights chief: Letter to PM written ‘hastily without full information’
UNB :
Bangladesh has expressed its displeasure to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk over a recent letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and a press note on the country “without waiting for fuller information and facts.”
“We expect that human rights mechanisms would give themselves adequate time before jumping to conclusions without the benefit of full facts to avoid the risks of being influenced by rumors and unverified information,” according to Bangladesh’s response to Türk on November 10.
The letter seen by UNB notes that the UN rights chief’s letter, dated November 1, 2023, addressed to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has been written “hastily without waiting for fuller information and facts” to emerge and without allowing sufficient time for reflection.
The letter mentioned that a press note was also “hurriedly released” from Türk’s office on the same issue without consulting Bangladesh, and without taking into consideration the facts and figures the country provided along with “horrific images and video footage taken from neutral sources.”
Guided by the obligations emanated from the constitution, Bangladesh side said that the government has been allowing and extending necessary cooperation to all political parties including Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to arrange assemblies, protests, processions etc. In this spirit the government allowed mass assemblies convened by different political parties on October 28, 2023 on the streets of Dhaka despite the declared objective of a major opposition party – BNP – to create anarchy and disconnect Dhaka from other parts of Bangladesh as a pressure tactic, reads the letter.
During its rally and strike on October 28-29, the unruly activists of BNP – “misguided” by the propaganda of its leaders – took recourse to indiscriminate street violence, arson, other forms of violent activities on the apolitical law enforcement agency members, police stations, CCTV cameras, the judiciary, media personnel, innocent civilians, state institutions, hospitals, ambulances, fire service vehicles and public properties, according to Bangladesh’s reply to Türk.
A member of the police was beaten to death while more than 100 police officers were injured, a bus worker was burnt alive, residences of the chief justice of Bangladesh and other judges of the Supreme Court were attacked, it said.
