The US envoy to Bangladesh Peter D. Haas’ clandestine visit to a BNP leader’s house, its leak to the press, his facing angry unwanted protesters airing grievances and beating a hasty retreat have had a knock-on effect on the political environment of the country. The day was December 14, 2022 the Martyred Intellectuals Day in the nation’s calendar, a day the people of Bangladesh observe with due solemnity and patriotic fervour in commemoration of those who were killed by the Pakistani occupation army and their collaborators during the War of Liberation in 1971. The government and people of Bangladesh expected the highly respectable US envoy to pay a visit to the martyred intellectuals memorials and sympathize with the ideals of the Liberation War. Unfortunately, he failed to meet popular expectations. Though the US Embassy on a social networking website, tried to justify Mr. Haas’ paying secret calls on the missing BNP leader’s family on humanitarian grounds, it rang hollow. T
For the past several years, Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Jamaat-e-Islami and their cohorts have been repeatedly stating that corruption has crossed “all time record” in Bangladesh. They are raising this issue through lobbyists in the US and Britain and whenever BNP-Jamaat leaders are meeting members of the diplomatic missions in Dhaka, despite the fact of reality being just the opposite.