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Bangladesh alleges slander campaign

By Haroon Habib

DHAKA Oct. 17. For the second time in two days, the Bangladesh Government has termed the sensational report carried by the Time magazine under the title, "Deadly Cargo'', as "fictitious, baseless and imaginative'' and described it as "part of an anti-Bangladesh campaign''.

The Foreign Secretary, Shamser Mobin Chowdhury, told mediapersons on Wednesday, "This is an orchestrated campaign to malign the country's international image''. Reacting angrily to the report, the Foreign Office denied the allegation that Al-Qaeda fighters fleeing Afghanistan secretly landed in Chittagong. The report has also termed Bangladesh as "a safe heaven'' for Islamic jehadis.

In its first reaction on Tuesday, the Government had described as a "figment of imagination" a Press Trust of India report, which allegedly termed Bangladesh "a hotbed of terrorists waging a war against India''. The agency had quoted the latest issue of the Time magazine to report that the country's intelligence agents "have been maintaining contact with their counterparts in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence''.

The Time correspondent, Alex Perry, who wrote the report, however, said the magazine had never described Bangladesh as "a hotbed of anti-India terrorists''.

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