DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT

Days after the harassment of PM’s Adviser Zahed Ur Rahman at New Delhi airport, India has finally spoken about the incident, in which he had to wait for two hours, but it did not elaborate on the matter.

Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s external affairs ministry, said Zahed reached the airport on a private passport with a Saarc visa to attend the senior officials meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA).

“He was queried by immigration officials at the airport and subsequently permitted entry after reconfirming that the purpose of the visit was to attend the multilateral meeting.

“He, however, chose to return to Dhaka on his own volition,” Jaiswal told journalists at a media briefing at the ministry in New Delhi yesterday.

He did not elaborate on why Zahed was made to wait there for two hours though Bangladesh’s foreign ministry had sent a diplomatic note on Zahed’s visit to India.

After the incident at a press conference in Dhaka on June 16, Zahed, policy and strategy affairs adviser of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, said that he had travelled to India to attend the IORA’s senior officials meeting scheduled for June 15-16 in New Delhi. India’s external affairs ministry organised the event.

The adviser said he decided to return from the Delhi airport as an immediate protest against the treatment he received at the hands of Indian immigration authorities.

He said he was made to sit there for around two hours and then he was permitted entry.

“I did not go there as an individual but as a representative of the government. Therefore, what happened to me required an instant protest. That is why I decided to return.”

He then took a flight from Delhi to Colombo and returned home the next day.

Zahed stressed that his decision was not intended to create a retaliatory or hostile situation.

Asked why he did not use a diplomatic passport, the adviser said he was carrying a Saarc visa, which also has diplomatic significance. “I don’t think this is a passport issue. A diplomatic passport is a privilege, not a requirement.”