The Bangladesh Embassy in Iraq has asked citizens to remain at safe places with political violence in the Middle Eastern country escalating.
The embassy in a notice alerting the citizens on Tuesday also asked them to contact it in case of emergency through hotline numbers, reports bdnews24.com.
No damage to the Bangladeshis was reported, Ambassador Fazlul Bari said. “We are trying to keep track of them. The people we’ve contacted so far have been asked to remain at safe places.”
Although there is no official data on how many Bangladeshis live in Iraq, the ambassador estimates the number is around 50,000.
Some of them live inside Baghdad’s Green Zone, the centre of violent clashes between rival political groups, but most are outside the zone.
This week's violence erupted after powerful cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Monday said he was withdrawing from all political activity - a decision he said was prompted by the failure of other Shia leaders and parties to reform a corrupt and decaying governing system.
He ordered his followers to end their protests in central Baghdad on Tuesday, easing a confrontation which led to the deadliest violence in the Iraqi capital in years.
Apologising to Iraqis after 22 people were killed in clashes between an armed group loyal to him and rival Shia Muslim factions backed by Iran, Sadr condemned the fighting and gave his own followers one hour to disperse.
Ambassador Bari said the situation appeared to be improving after Sadr ordered his followers to stop the clashes.
HOTLINE NUMBERS
The hotline numbers opened by the embassy are:
07827883680, 07500383075, 07813705716, 07809288680, 07729004010