Dhaka: State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam on Tuesday claimed that his Facebook account was hacked last night.

‘My Facebook account had gone through tortures last night. Hacking! Posts were disappeared. You understand who have invested on it,’ he wrote on his Facebook wall.

The Facebook account of the state minister came under attack amid an ongoing debate over BNP acting Chairman Tarique Rahman’s passport surrender.

The minister alleged that a post in connection with Tarique Rahman ‘surrendering his passport’ was deleted from his FB wall.

On Monday evening, Shahriar Alam said BNP Tarique Rahman along with his wife and daughter handed over their passports to the British Home Office four years ago which indicates that they do not want Bangladesh nationality.

‘Had he wanted renewal of passport or extension of validity, he would have handed it over to Bangladesh High Commission in the UK. But, he submitted it to the British Home Office. What does it mean? As a political person, I think, it’s the refusal of nationality,’ he told reporters at his Gulshan residence.

Mentioning that this is interesting that a convicted criminal has sent him a legal notice, Shahriar said he is ready to face it legally as he has all the evidence regarding submission of passport. ‘I welcome it. I’m ready to face it,’ he said, adding that it is good to know that BNP got back confidence on the law of the land.

The State Minister said the passports of Tarique, his wife and daughter were returned to the High Commission on June 2, 2014 through the British Home Office. ‘Now, they’ve no travel documents to come to Bangladesh,’ he added.

Replying to a question whether Tarique is now Bangladeshi, Shahriar said, ‘I think no.’

Earlier in the day, Tarique sent a legal notice to Shahriar asking him to prove by 10 days his remark that he has relinquished his nationality by submitting Bangladeshi passport.

Or else, the BNP leader threatened to file both criminal and civil cases against Shahriar Alam.

On behalf of Tarique, BNP law affairs secretary Barrister Kaiser Kamal sent the notice by post to the Foreign Ministry’s address.

BNP also protested the state minister’s comment and challenged the Bangladesh High Commission to show Tarique Rahman’s Bangladeshi passport if he submitted it.

Tarique Rahman, facing over dozen of cases, was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment and fined Tk 20 crore by the High Court in a money laundering case in 2016.

He was also convicted along with his mother Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust case where he was sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined Tk 2.10 crore.