Published: 12:39 AM, 17 April 2026
Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury wonders over airport offload news!
A news broke out yesterday that senior journalist Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury was prevented from traveling to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah by immigration authorities at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.
It was propagated that the incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon (15 April 2026) when the veteran journalist arrived at the airport to board a Saudia flight to Jeddah. Despite completing initial check-in procedures, he was stopped during the immigration process and barred from leaving the country.
On the other hand, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury told Bangla Tribune that he even did not go to the airport on Wednesday. He expressed astonishment over the outbreak of the false news on his being offloaded from a flight. However, reliable sources have stated that Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury's passport had been flagged on an immigration watch list.
Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury is a prominent figure in the Bangladeshi media industry and currently serves as the Editor of The Daily Observer though during the immediate past interim government's regime, he was subjected to several orchestrated and fabricated cases for harassment purposes.
Not just Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, many more media professionals were tormented and imprisoned during Dr. Muhammad Yunus's ruling period. Some journalists have been released of late but a lot of reporters, media entrepreneurs, cultural luminaries and showbiz stars are still languishing behind the bar.
