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WB head flees Bangladesh after death threat
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-10 13:52

The World Bank's country director in Bangladesh has left after receiving a death threat, a bank source said on Friday.

Newspaper reports said Christine Wallich received the threatening letter on Tuesday and left Bangladesh hurriedly that night.

They said the letter was mailed to Wallich from Dhaka's Gulshan area, with copies sent to several newspaper offices.

A World Bank source confirmed on Friday that Wallich had received a threatening letter and that she had left the country, but would not say if her trip was pre-planned, where she had gone or when she might return.

"We can only say she received a letter containing a threat to kill her and that she took the next available flight out of Bangladesh. But we can make no further comment on this," said the source, who declined to be named.

A senior government official said on Friday that Wallich had informed Finance Minister M. Saifur Rahman of the threat.

"The minister assured her of all sorts of security on the road and at home but yet she left," said the official, requesting anonymity.

Bomb scares and death threats have become commonplace in Bangladesh since a grenade attack on an opposition party rally in the capital on Aug. 21 that killed 19 people and wounded 150.

Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Awami League and a former prime minister, said the attack had been intended to kill her.

Wallich met Hasina just days after the attack to convey her sympathies and said such violent incidents would affect the economy and investment in impoverished Bangladesh.

Hasina blamed the attack on militants close to Islamic partners of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia's ruling coalition.

Khaleda rejected the allegation, ordered a judicial probe and called in Interpol and FBI experts to help local investigators.

Hasina demanded a neutral inquiry without using domestic experts and detectives + who she said could be influenced by the government.

Wallich is the first foreigner known to have received a death threat since the Aug. 21 incident that followed a series of unexplained blasts in the country.

British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury was among 50 people wounded in a blast in the northeastern town of Sylhet in May. Scotland Yard detectives flew in to assist local investigators but they have yet to track down the culprits.



 
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