Home Affairs Adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury has claimed that there is currently no form of militancy in Bangladesh, and that the three individuals recently deported from Malaysia were not militants but had other visa-related issues.
He responded to these questions during a briefing with journalists after inspecting the Export Cargo Village at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital Sunday morning.
The adviser said, “With everyone’s cooperation, militancy has been eradicated. The media, law enforcement agencies, and all concerned parties have played a crucial role in this.”
“In the last 10 months, have you been able to report any information on militancy? When it existed, you reported it. Now that it doesn’t, you can’t. There is currently no form of militancy in Bangladesh.”
Regarding the issue of “militants detained” in Malaysia, he said, “The three individuals deported to the country are not militants. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also issued a press release on this matter. They were deported because their visas had expired.”
“The five individuals mentioned by the Malaysian police chief have not entered the country. We are attempting to contact them at the official level. We will also investigate the matter. However, they have no involvement in Bangladesh.”
Jahangir Alam Chowdhury also serves as the Agriculture adviser. During his visit to the airport, he inspected the cold storage facility of the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC).
The adviser said, “Under the initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture, vegetables, fruits, and other produce are exported from here. I visited the cargo village to observe the export process. A few days ago, due to protests by NBR (National Board of Revenue) officials and employees, we faced some difficulties in exporting fruits and vegetables. During that time, many of our traders suffered losses.”
“Since our country’s export volume has increased significantly, there are plans to expand the existing cold storage facility here.”
Jahangir Alam said, “The good news for us is that at the new export terminal under construction, if any goods cannot be loaded onto a flight immediately after scanning, they can be stored in cold storage right away.”
“Currently, if a flight is overloaded, there is no cold storage to keep the excess goods. But the new terminal will have this facility. We do not want to limit ourselves to just one or two types of products. We are exploring ways to export a variety of goods.”