Warning issued by different countries discouraging their citizens from travelling to Bangladesh on security ground has largely been ignored, claimed sources.
The number of foreign travellers coming to Bangladesh has increased by 14 per cent since several countries issued travel advisories to discourage its citizens willing to travel to Bangladesh.
A comparative statistics on the incoming foreigners prepared by a government agency concerned mentioned that a total of 24,653 foreign nationals from different countries arrived in Bangladesh in two weeks from September 28, the date of the killing of an Italian national, to October 11. Besides, during the same period in two weeks before the murder of the Italian national, the number of foreign travellers in Bangladesh was 21,015.
The statistics also say that a total of 360 Italian nationals arrived in Bangladesh even two weeks after the killing of the Italian, the number was 346 before the murder.
Accordingly, 756 Japanese nationals arrived in Bangladesh in two weeks after the murder of the Japanese man whereas the number was 643 before the killing.
Some specific countries had warned the people of their respective countries from travelling to Bangladesh after unidentified armed criminals shot an Italian national to death in the capital's diplomatic enclave Gulshan on September 28 and a Japanese national on October 3 in Rangpur district.
Those countries issued the warning notices after vested quarters, in guises of Middle East based militant organization Islamic State (IS), posted separate messages through different online media claiming responsibilities of the killing of the two foreign nationals.
Different law-enforcing and intelligence agencies in Bangladesh, however, rejected outright the claims and said the name of the IS was a hoax aimed at misleading investigators from finding out the actual perpetrators.