Key Takeaways
- The former Bangladesh Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud was detained at Dhaka Airport while attempting to leave the country.
- Hasan Mahmud was handed over to the Bangladesh Army by the immigration police at Dhaka Airport.
- The detention of Hasan Mahmud is part of a larger political crisis in Bangladesh, with several high-ranking officials from the ruling Awami League party fleeing the country.
Dhaka: Former Bangladesh Foreign Minister and Awami League‘s joint general secretary Hasan Mahmud was on Tuesday detained at Dhaka Airport while attempting to leave the country, and later handed over to the army.
Sources at the Dhaka Airport said the immigration police at the Airport detained the former foreign minister as he was leaving the country on Tuesday, August 6.
An official of Biman Bangladesh Airlines said Hasan Mahmud went to the airport on Tuesday afternoon to leave the country where he was subsequently detained, observer.bd reported.
He said the former foreign minister was handed over to the Bangladesh Army at 8:30pm.
On Monday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India after handing her resignation letter to the president.
Before Sheikh Hasina left the country, many ministers and top leaders of the ruling Awami League party also fled the country. Those who could not leave are now trying their best to do so secretly.
Earlier on Tuesday, former state minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak was detained at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.
Airport officials and employees apprehended him when he was trying to go to India using the VIP Lounge at the airport.
Instead of allowing him to board the aircraft, he was taken to the immigration custody.
According to reports, former chief of the Detective Branch (DB) of police and additional commissioner (Crime and Ops) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Mohammad Harun ar Rashid was also detained at the Dhaka airport.
However, Harun has claimed that he was not detained. “I’m at home now.”
A state-run organisation detained Harun at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Tuesday afternoon.
Intelligence sources said Harun was questioned on whose directive he had picked up six coordinators of Anti-Discriminatory Students’ Movement when he was the head of the DB, and why did he force the coordinators to issue a statement.
Harun was also asked why he had picked up people sending DB teams to homes indiscriminately in order to suppress the students-people’s movement.
The former DB chief was also asked why he misbehaved with people holding different opinions including politicians.
