Noman Sabit: Officials of the Federation of Bangladeshi Associations in North America (FOBANA) have expressed deep concern over a fabricated and misleading news report linking FOBANA to human trafficking. The story, recently published in a Bengali weekly newspaper based in New York, has drawn sharp criticism from the leadership of FOBANA. Masud Rob Chowdhury, Chairperson of the 39th FOBANA Convention, and Abir Alamgir, Executive Secretary, strongly refuted the claims in an official statement.
‘We want to make it unequivocally clear that the mainstream FOBANA has absolutely no involvement with the subject matter of this news report,’ they said. ‘On behalf of the central committee of FOBANA, we categorically challenge and deny the allegations made in the report. No member of the host committee of the upcoming 39th FOBANA Convention in Atlanta, nor any official of the FOBANA central committee, has issued any visa-related invitation letter to any individual or organization. Moreover, we categorically deny any association with the activities described in the report.’
They further clarified that FOBANA is a unified platform of Bangladeshi organizations across North America, and that each year, a central committee is democratically elected by city delegates through a voting process during the annual convention.
‘We have seen time and again that when certain individuals fail to get elected through this democratic process, they go on to create parallel events using the FOBANA name—confusing the public and tarnishing the reputation of the entire FOBANA community. As a result, many people wrongly believe that there are multiple FOBANA conventions taking place. We strongly condemn such actions.’
It is worth noting that this year’s 39th FOBANA Convention will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, hosted by the Atlanta-based organization Bangladhara. The convention is set to take place at the Gas South Convention Center, with participation expected from approximately 85 organizations representing 24 cities across North America.
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