New Age editor harassed at airport

Editor of New Age Nurul Kabir yesterday said he faced harassment at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport twice this week while flying to and from Colombo to attend a media conference.
Prominent journalist Kabir went to Colombo on November 18 to attend the Asia Media Forum 2024 and arrived in Dhaka on Friday.
“The country’s immigration authorities have been harassing me at the Dhaka airport every time I go abroad for more than two decades,” Nurul Kabir wrote in a post on his verified Facebook account.
Describing his troubles with immigration in the past, Nurul Kabir said despite having proper documents, he had to face interrogation about his visits, had his passport confiscated by intelligence officials, and sometimes had to wait for hours as they photographed its pages — violating his privacy — and only to return them minutes before his flight.
He added that these occurred mostly when leaving the country, not upon returning.
“This time, on November 18, as I was going abroad for a media conference, I expected that my days of harassment at the Dhaka airport were over, at least for some time. I was wrong,” he wrote.
“It has been rather doubled this time. One hour while departing and one hour while returning home on November 22,” he added.
“Being patriotic is a matter of being a suspect by the intelligence agencies of the country. I am forced to question the patriotism of the country’s intelligence agencies concerned and those in the government/s who supervise them, if at all,” Nurul Kabir wrote.
After his post gained significant traction among his followers, the press wing of the Chief Adviser’s Office released a statement regretting the incident and said an investigation has been ordered.
“We sincerely regret the incident. The Interim Government will not tolerate harassment of any journalists in the country,” it reads.
                          “Nurul Kabir has been one of our most respected editors, a leading voice of reason and a top champion of journalistic integrity during his long career. Chief Adviser Professor Yunus has ordered an investigation into the incident,” it added.