Here is an example of a prominent Awami League activist, the General Secretary of the Portuguese Awami League, who is now living in the UK, posting a message on Facebook which is threatening the Bangladeshi expatriate community if they criticise the Awami League government over the student killings
“Expatriate [Bangladeshis] who are misleading the people of the country with provocative words for quite some time, these will be taken into consideration in the case of passport renewal and police clearance. A list is being prepared of these individuals.” (See below what he posted in the original)
It was posted on July 24, 2024 by which time, Bangladesh media was reporting that 200 people had been confirmed dead as a result of shooting by the country’s law enforcement authorities. (Three police officers were also killed). The Awami League is desperate to ignore these hundreds of law enforcement killings and focus solely on the resulting widespread criminal damage, blaming it on political opposition parties (who were not involved in any formal way with the protests)
In Bangladesh, the government in command of the airways, and having closed down FaceBook and YouTube, is simply repeating this false narrative again and again. You now have to be a brave person to speak out and say what actually happened.
However, the Awami League has less control of the narrative outside Bangladesh, and ex-patriate Bangladeshis are at the forefront of publicising the real news of what happened over the last week. The FaceBook poster is an attempt to try and silence them, saying that the Bangladesh High Commission in London is keeping a list of the Bangladesh expatriates who are deviating from the Awami Line and will stop them travelling to Bangladesh.
This conduct appears to be a form of “transnational repression” – akin to what China and Russia are accused of doing in the UK – and the UK authorities should look at this activity including the role of the Bangladesh High Commission.
