The Bangladesh government today slapped a travel ban on a leader of the opposition BNP over his reported recent meeting with an Israeli politician in India amid allegations that the party was trying to grab power through an unholy alliance with the Jewish state.
"Yes, we have ordered a ban on Aslam Chowdhury's travel abroad. An order has also been issued to track him down as he appears to have gone into hiding," Chittagong police commissioner Iqbal Bahar said, adding "He will be arrested wherever he is sighted".
The commissioner's comments came day after another senior police officer said they launched an investigation into the Bangladesh Nationalist Party's (BNP) reported connection with Israel's Mossad intelligence agency.
"We are investigating whether any Bangladeshi has connection with Mossad. The suspects are under surveillance," Chittagong's regional police chief Shafikul Islam said.
Muslim-majority Bangladesh does not have any diplomatic relations with Israel and Bangladeshis are banned from travelling there while Dhaka is vocal against alleged Israeli atrocities in Palestine.
"We (Bangladesh) cannot think of relations with Israel," junior foreign minister Shahriar Alam said earlier this week.
Chowdhury's reported meeting with the Israeli official sparked uproar in Bangladeshi media and political circles after he was seen in several photographs with a leader of Israel's ruling Likud party on Facebook during a conference in India.
Chowdhury, a joint secretary general of ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia-led BNP, earlier admitted that he had met the Israeli politician in New Delhi this month but claimed the meeting was "accidental".
Businessman Chowdhury known to be close to BNP senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman who took political refuge in UK to evade a number of graft and criminal cases at home in which he is being tried in absentia.
The BNP is the key opposition party outside parliament as it had boycotted the 2014 general election citing unfair conditions.
