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Canada has denied entry to disgraced Bangladesh politician and lawmaker Murad Hasan, who was last week made to step down as the state minister for information and broadcasting over his indecent remarks on women.
The Canada Border Service Agency refused to let him in as he landed in Toronto Pearson International Airport on Saturday noon (local time), Notun Desh, a news portal based in Canada, reported quoting several people, living in Canada, close to Mr Murad.
However, no official information about this was immediately available from the Canadian federal law enforcement agency that facilitates the flow of legitimate travellers and trade in the North American country, according to the report.
Leaving Bangladesh on a flight of Emirates Airlines for Canada at 11:20pm on Thursday (local time), Mr Murad reached the Toronto Pearson International Airport at 1:30pm (local time) on Saturday.
Soon after his landing there, officials of the Canada airport immigration and the border service agency took him in for questioning, which continued for quite a long time, and then sent him back on a Middle East country flight, Natun Desh reported.
During the questioning, they inquired the former Bangladesh state minister for information and broadcasting about recent developments in Bangladesh and also told him why they were questioning him – many Bangladeshi-Canadian citizens had applied to the Canadian government objecting to his entry, the Bengali daily also reported quoting officials at the Canada airport.
Mr Murad had last week made indecent remarks on former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s granddaughter prompting calls from the BNP for his resignation. Meanwhile, a scandalous audio leak involving a conversation between him and two actors went viral on social media.
Later on Monday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered him to resign, which he complied with the next day citing personal reasons. On the heels of his resignation as the state minister, he also aplogised to all women in a Facebook post, saying “If I have made any mistake, or my words have hurt any woman or mother.”