Opposition Bangladeshi politician mulling return home: Lawyer

Bangladeshi opposition politician MA Quayum is mulling whether to come home after a nine-year exile, following ex-premier Sheikh Hasina recently fleeing the country.

Quayum’s (above) lawyer Edmund Bon said they are looking into the feasibility of going back, with Bangladesh now being helmed by an interim government.

“Like all refugees in political asylum, we are seeing whether they can go back. We are considering.

“While it is safe in Malaysia, we are discussing the issue,” the lawyer told Malaysiakini this afternoon.

Hasina belonged to the previous ruling Awami League (AL), while Quayum was a Bangladeshi Nationalist Party (BNP) member who, fearing for his life, fled Bangladesh in 2015.

On Monday last week, Hasina, 76, stepped down as premier and fled to India after deadly protests against her rule.

Her downfall came on the heels of weeks of protests, initially directed against a government job reservation system but later transformed into a mass movement against AL rule.

Quayum came to the limelight early this year when he turned to the Malaysian court to challenge his detention and attempted deportation by immigration authorities.

On Jan 12, a joint operation by Bukit Aman and the National Security Intelligence of Bangladesh at his residence in Ampang led to his arrest.

Three months ago, he and Malaysian authorities achieved a consent court ruling for a withdrawal of the deportation order, in return for him resettling in another country.

Life, safety at risk

In his affidavit when his court action was still pending, Quayum contended that his life and safety would be at risk if he is deported to his homeland.

“I wish to stress here that if I am sent back to Bangladesh, my life and safety would be gravely jeopardised, because I am one of the leaders of the opposition party BNP, especially in the context of the chaotic politics in Bangladesh at this time.

“I verily state that from 1981 until now, the political oppression against politicians from the opposition party has been ongoing.

“Especially from 2008 until now, when the AL became the government of Bangladesh, many politicians and activists who oppose the AL government were arrested and disappeared (enforced disappearance),” Quayum said.

Quayum claimed that the Bangladeshi administration’s political oppression against him began when he first ran in the 2008 general election, with 60 cases filed by the AL government against him, as of this year.

He said since late 2008, to bring down BNP and himself as an opposition leader, the AL government not only filed politically motivated cases against him but had also through the enforcement authorities constantly harassed his family.

“There had been many times when the enforcement authorities carried a raid at my home, and my family and I were forced to flee the house at midnight.

“I verily state that when the AL government took steps to silence voices opposing the administration, I found that I came within their crosshairs.

“In light of the AL government’s constant and increasingly aggressive political oppression, I was forced to leave my homeland in early 2015 for my as well as my family’s safety,” Quayum lamented.

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