Meghna Alam, an ex-beauty queen named Miss Earth Bangladesh in 2020, livestreamed what she said was an attempt to break into her home on Wednesday.

A Bangladeshi model has been arrested for allegedly threatening the country’s diplomatic ties, police said on Sunday, with her father linking the case to the former ambassador from a Gulf state.

Meghna Alam is being held without charge after falsely accusing “important individuals” with intent to worsen Bangladesh’s diplomatic ties, police said.

“These important individuals are foreign nationals,” police spokesperson Muhammad Talebur Rahman told AFP.

The 30-year-old’s father, Badrul Alam, said her arrest followed a relationship with the then ambassador of a Gulf nation to Dhaka.

“The ambassador and Meghna were in a relationship, and my daughter refused his marriage proposal because he already has a wife and children,” he said.

Alam, an ex-beauty queen named Miss Earth Bangladesh in 2020, livestreamed what she said was an attempt to break into her home on Wednesday.

Police confirmed her detention on Friday and said she was accused of “disrupting state security” and “prejudicing the country’s financial interests”.

Alam’s arrest under Bangladesh’s Special Powers Act, which permits people to be held indefinitely, was criticised by rights groups.

“We call on the authorities to either charge Meghna with an internationally recognisable crime or release her,” Amnesty International wrote Friday on social media platform X, dubbing the legislation “draconian”.

Asif Nazrul, law adviser to Bangladesh’s interim government, said on Sunday using the Special Powers Act to detain Alam “was not appropriate”.

AFP