The government is not happy with US State Department’s selection of individuals whom they invited at the Advance Religious Freedom ministerial held in Washington last week.
The US government invited a pool of guests to attend the ministerial and Priya Saha was one of them.
She was not only invited but also included in the delegation of minorities who met US President Donald Trump at the White House.
Priya Saha told the US President that her land has been grabbed by Muslim fundamentalists and sought his help so that Hindu, Buddhist and Christian people can live in Bangladesh.
Her comments have drawn sharp criticism from the government and the people across the society.
Priya Saha told US President 37 million Hindu, Buddhist and Christian people have disappeared from Bangladesh.
Bangladesh strongly protests against all the blatant lies told by Priya Saha to President Trump.
“The Government of Bangladesh would expect that organizers of such a big international event would invite responsible individuals who would objectively contribute in promoting the true spirit and value of religious freedom,” said a media release issued on Saturday (Jul 20).
A government official said, “We are not happy. The State Department invited our foreign minister and he attended the programme.”
Washington also invited some other people, but the government was not aware who they were, he said.
“We are working on this to know why this happen and why she said such thing,” he added.
When asked what information the government knows about her, he said, “We collected some information from facebook.”
We found from posts of different people that her daughters live in the US and her husband works with the Anti-Corruption Commission and now we are verifying the information, he added.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministry press release said, "attention of the government has been drawn to a video on Jul 18, 2019 where Ms. Priya Saha, a Bangladesh national, was seen telling US President Donald Trump that her land has been grabbed by Muslim fundamentalists and sought his help so that Hindu, Buddhist and Christian people can live in Bangladesh."
Priya Saha participated in the Second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom held at the US Department of State in Washington, DC from Jul 16 to 18, 2019.
Bangladesh strongly protests against all the blatant lies told by Priya Saha to President Trump and condemns her remarks in the strongest possible terms.
"It appears that there was an ulterior motive behind Ms. Saha’s absolutely false and concocted stories that were targeted to malign Bangladesh," the media release added.
Bangladesh is a beacon of religious freedom and communal harmony, where people of all faiths have been living in peace for ages. The humane attitude and generosity of Government of Bangladesh have been commended by whole world when Bangladesh decided to temporarily shelter more than 1.1 million forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals (Rohingyas).