UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has allegedly declined a request to meet with Muhammad Yunus, the caretaker prime minister of Bangladesh, on his trip to London, as per a Financial Times report.
Yunus is in the UK seeking global help to trace and recover billions of dollars he has accused as being embezzled during the tenure of previous Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times, Yunus said that the UK has a "moral responsibility" to back moves by the transitional Bangladeshi government to find and recover looted assets, some of which he suspects are hidden in Britain.
"I haven't actually spoken to him," Yunus said of Prime Minister Starmer, but that he was still hopeful of getting UK support in Bangladesh's asset hunt.
UK officials, in an interview with the Financial Times, confirmed that there is no scheduled meeting between Yunus and Starmer. They did not provide any further information. However, Yunus said that British authorities have already been cooperating with the investigation, but he called on them to do more, invoking both "legal and moral" responsibilities.
Yunus took over the interim administration of Bangladesh after Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power in a student-led protest in August last year. Hasina has remained in hiding in New Delhi since then.
In January, Tulip Siddiq — who was acting UK anti-corruption minister and is understood to be a close ally of Starmer — was forced to step down following allegations of association with individuals in the Awami League, including reported property and other perks acceptance. Siddiq is also the niece of Sheikh Hasina.
On Wednesday, Yunus informed a gathering at Chatham House in London that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had turned down his appeal to bar Hasina from issuing political statements while visiting India.
He also confirmed that his government has asked for Hasina's extradition to Bangladesh to stand trial on the charge of allegedly ordering violent police attacks against protesters in 2024.
Although his formal designation is chief adviser to the caretaker regime, Yunus has been an active diplomat, jetting around the world to garner political backing. His trip to London was not controversy-free, however.
Demonstrators appeared outside the Dorchester Hotel in Mayfair, where Yunus was a guest, on Tuesday. The protest, led by British-based members of the Awami League and other groups supporting it, had hundreds of participants.
Shouting slogans like "go back," the protesters charged Yunus with ruling over a lawless interim government, practicing political repression, releasing extremists and jailing others whom they referred to as patriots. Placards referred to him as the "architect of mob rule" and demanded his immediate resignation.
Read also| Beijing Willing to Discuss Easing Rare Earth Trade Limits with India
Read also| Watch| Trump Warms to Elon Musk, Says ‘I Like Tesla’ Amid Cooling Hostilities
