Published on 12:16 PM, April 24, 2018

My Facebook account was hacked: Shahriar Alam

Post on Tarique deleted, he says

Bangladesh State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam today claimed that his Facebook account was hacked last night.

A post in connection to BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman "surrendering his passport" was deleted from his FB profile wall, Shahriar Alam said in a latest post this morning.

"My Facebook went through torture the whole night. Hacking. Post disappeared. You can understand who has invested in it," Shahriar Alam writes in the very latest post.

Last night, the state minister on the wall of his unverified Facebook profile posted images of Tarique's passport and a copy of an application on submission of the passport to the British Home Office.

Earlier on the same night, Shahriar Alam told reporters at a press briefing at his Gulshan residence, "Had (Tarique) he wanted renewal of passport or extension of validity, he would have handed it over to Bangladesh High Commission in the UK. But, he submitted it to the British Home Office. What does it mean? As a political person, I think, it's the refusal of nationality."

While addressing a reception hosted by the UK Awami League in honour of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in London on Sunday, Shahriar had said Tarique, living in London, gave up his nationality by handing over his Bangladesh passport to the UK Home Office almost four years ago.

The UK Home Office sent his passport to the Bangladesh High Commission, he added.

Tarique yesterday sent a legal notice to Shahriar asking him to prove by 10 days his remark that he has relinquished his nationality by submitting Bangladeshi passport.

Or else, the BNP leader threatened to file both criminal and civil cases against Shahriar Alam.

On behalf of Tarique, BNP law affairs secretary Barrister Kaiser Kamal sent the notice by post to the Foreign Ministry's address.

BNP also protested the state minister's comment and challenged the Bangladesh High Commission to show Tarique Rahman's Bangladeshi passport if he submitted it.

Tarique Rahman, facing over a dozen of cases, was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and fined Tk 20 crore by the High Court in a money laundering case in 2016.

He was also convicted along with his mother Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case where he was sentenced to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment and fined Tk 2.10 crore.