HM hopeful of Modi visit

Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said on Wednesday that they were hopeful that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi would visit Dhaka on March 17.

‘We hope that he will come but we cannot say anything more on the issue at this moment,’ the minister told reporters when he was asked whether Indian prime minister would visit Dhaka on March 17 to attend the inaugural the 100 centenary of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to be held on national parade square at the Tejgaon Old Airport.

The minister reminded the meeting the role of India in the liberation war and said that ‘it was not  our headache, who is doing what,’ refering to the on-going communal violence in Delhi. 

The minister declined to comment on whether the government would allow the protestors who vowed to resist the visit of the Indian prime minister scheduled between March 17 and 18.

Several political parties and sociocultural rights groups demanded that the Bangladesh government should cancel the visit of Narendra Modi for his failure to protect the Muslim minority communities from attacks of the religious bigots belonging to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Delhi attacks left 44 people killed, according to media reports.

Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, chief coordinator of the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Birth Centenary Celebration National Implementation Committee, said dignitaries across the world were invited and a list would be finalised shortly but mentioned some problems arose over the spread of the coronavirus. 

‘We will brief you on the arrivals of the heads of governments or states scheduled to attend the programme,’ said Naser, a retired secretary.

He was talking to the press after attending the second coordination meeting of security related sub-committee formed over 100 Years of Mujib programme.

The minister also said that although there was no threat on the celebration but they were monitoring social media platform to check any sorts of propaganda linked with the celebration.

He said one lakh people would attend the programme in Dhaka and special traffic movement would be arranged on the occasion.

About the coronavirus spread, the minister, however, said that the government expected that all the invited guests would attend and did not put restrictions on their travels.    

One of the meeting attendees told New Age that they were worried over the coronavirus spread that might cause problems for the invited guests.  

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.com