London– In what is being seen as a significant diplomatic rebuke, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has reportedly declined to meet with Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Advisor of Bangladesh’s interim government, during his ongoing visit to the United Kingdom.
According to several UK media reports citing government officials, Prime Minister Starmer has no plans to meet Yunus. The officials declined to elaborate further on the decision.
Yunus, who arrived in the UK on Tuesday for a four-day visit, did meet with UK National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell at his hotel on Wednesday. His trip had been closely followed by Bangladeshi media, which speculated extensively about a potential meeting with the British leader. However, in an interview with a British daily, Yunus acknowledged that Starmer had yet to agree to such a meeting.
The visit has sparked significant controversy and public outcry within the Bangladeshi diaspora in the UK. Hundreds of protestors rallied outside Heathrow Airport and later outside the Central London hotel where Yunus is staying. Demonstrators, many affiliated with the Awami League and reportedly exiled from Bangladesh following Yunus’s rise to power 10 months ago, held black flags and banners branding him a “killer of freedom fighters of the Liberation War.”
Chanting slogans like “Go back Yunus,” the protestors accused him of promoting militancy and radicalism in Bangladesh. Some called for the release of detained Hindu priest Chinmoy Krishna Das, insisting Yunus should face justice instead. Eyewitnesses reported that members of the crowd hurled shoes and eggs at Yunus’s convoy as it traveled from the airport to his hotel.
In a further escalation, the UK branch of the Awami League sent a formal letter to several key institutions, including 10 Downing Street, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the King’s Foundation, and the Commonwealth Secretariat. The letter urged British leaders not to recognize Yunus’s administration, citing a deteriorating political and human rights climate in Bangladesh.
The letter accused Yunus’s interim government of overseeing rising political repression, economic decline, and widespread human rights abuses—especially against women and girls. It warned that any official engagement with Yunus by the UK would risk undermining global commitments to democracy and the rule of law.
Yunus’s visit continues under a cloud of protest and diplomatic uncertainty as he seeks international recognition amid mounting domestic and diaspora opposition. (Source: IANS)
