Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Bangladeshi counterpart on threats to the leader of the Bangladesh National Party and other opposition leaders in Bangladesh.

We are deeply concerned by the ongoing violence, political unrest and wider confrontational activity in Bangladesh, which are entrenching a lack of trust between the main political parties. I raised my concern over reports that Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Leader Khaleda Zia had been confined to her office when I met the Bangladesh Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs on 20 January 2015.

Our High Commissioner to Bangladesh, along with other EU Ambassadors, met Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Mr Mahmood Ali on 14 January to express their collective concern at the ongoing violence and the shrinking of democratic space. The same day, our High Commissioner condemned a dreadful bus attack and the shooting of former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and senior BNP member, Mr Reaz Rahman. He called on the Bangladesh government to investigate these crimes and urged all sides to show restraint and respect for the rule of law - a message he repeated on 5 February in a further statement after a tragic bus fire in Comilla. Our High Commissioner met the BNP leader at her office on 11 February. He condemned the current violence as disruptive, distressing and deplorable in his statement following that meeting, and urged all parties to consider confidence building measures that would diffuse the current tensions.