Malaysia sending plane to evacuate citizens from Bangladesh amid deadly riots

After meeting the parents of the affected students at his office on Monday, Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said that all Malaysians in Bangladesh would be evacuated.

“We are making arrangements with the Bangladesh government to ensure Malaysians are given security to go to the High Commissioner building tonight safely and the airport tomorrow,” Hasan told the press after the meeting, adding that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had “given his approval and blessing for us to move ahead with this evacuation plan”.

According to Hasan, 124 Malaysian students in Bangladeshi universities remain trapped in the capital city of Dhaka and neighbouring Mymensingh.

The minister said they were getting a widebody plane with a capacity of 350 to make room for extra evacuees since there are more Malaysians not registered with the embassy.

03:42

Several students killed during protests against civil service job quotas in Bangladesh

Hasan said that the plane will reach Dhaka’s Shahjalal International Airport at 10am on Tuesday to ferry the Malaysian citizens back to Kuala Lumpur.

“I hope this will put all assumptions to rest, especially those that thought the government and ministry are not doing anything,” he added.

Bangladesh has faced weeks of nationwide protests triggered by the reintroduction of a quota policy that reserved 30 per cent of all civil service jobs for the descendants of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.

The protests have become increasingly violent as demonstrators continue to clash with the police and pro-government forces. The death toll from the riots has increased dramatically in the last few days, rising to at least 151 people according to the latest hospital data.

On Saturday, the Dhaka