Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to Bangladeshi authorities about the arrest of Shahidul Alam following comments he made about the road safety protests in Dhaka.

​I was deeply concerned by the violence we saw in Dhaka in response to road safety protests by students following the tragic deaths of two school age students on 29 July, and the subsequent arrest of Mr. Shahidul Alam. In a statement on 7 August, the British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Alison Blake, together with other EU Heads of Mission, called on government to investigate incidents of unlawful or disproportionate violence or action against protestors and journalists and to hold perpetrators to account. Subsequently, Joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development Minister Alistair Burt expressed our concern regarding the response to the road safety protests, and raised Mr Alam's case, with the Government of Bangladesh, during his visit to Bangladesh from 28-31 August. Bangladesh remains a Human Rights Priority Country for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. We raised freedom of expression as a key concern in Bangladesh during the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review.