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Country’s eminent professionals, educationalists, social and cultural personalities have criticized US Ambassador Peter Haas not for hearing the statement of the ‘Maayer Kanna’ (Mother's Tears) - a platform of family members of victims of earlier regimes, specifically the administration of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman.
In a statement sent to the media on Thursday, they said, Ambassador Peter Haas’s behaviour is out of diplomatic norms and the opposite of the Vienna Convention.
They termed his behaviour as unwanted, unacceptable and sad. Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud also slammed the incident.
According to the statement, Ambassador Peter Haas went to the house of former Chhatra Dal leader Sajedul Islam Sumon, who reportedly disappeared in 2013, in the capital’s Shaheenbagh on Wednesday. When he came out from the house, members of the ‘Maayer Kanna’ wanted to give him a memorandum. But the Ambassador didn’t hear them and left the place in a hurry to avoid them.
The statement given by 34 eminent citizens includes journalist leader Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Educationalist Professor Dr A A M S Arefin Siddique, Professor Abdul Mannan, Professor Dr Mizanur Rahman, Professor Dr Anwar Hossain, Professor Dr Shariff Enamul Kabir, Professor Dr Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhury, Professor Dr Abdul Bayes, Professor Dr M Ohiduzzaman, Professor Dr Shahid Akhtar Hossain, Professor Dr Nasreen Ahmad, Professor Dr A A Mamun, senior journalist Imdadul Haq Milan, Saiful Alam, Abul Kamal Azad, Enamul Haque Chowdhury, Ajoy Dasgupta, Shyamal Dutta, Omar Faruque, Sohel Haider Chowdhury, stage director and theatre producer Ramendu Majumdar, artist Dr Rafiqun Nabi, Professor Dr Hashem Khan, Freedom Fighter Nasiruddin Yousuff Bacchu, Golam Kuddus and National Human Rights Commission former chairman Dr Mizanur Rahman.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said if the Ambassador receives the memorandum of the ‘Maayer Kanna’, then he would keep out of any controversy.
He made the remarks while briefing journalists after a view-exchange meeting with the Cable Operators Association of Bangladesh (COAB) at his Secretariat office on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Dhaka University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) on Thursday criticised the US Ambassador's acceptance of a request from ‘Mayer Daak’ and his visit to the house of Sajedul Islam Sumon, terming the incident as biased and politically motivated.
Prof Dr Md Nizamul Haque Bhuiyan, General Secretary of DUTA, signed the statement.
Besides, Workers Party of Bangladesh President Rashed Khan Menon said the behaviour of the US Ambassador Peter Haas is not only politically arrogant but also negligence to the martyrs of the Liberation War.
@ The article was published on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on December 16, 2022 and has been rewritten in English by Golam Rosul.
