The civil aviation and tourism minister says Bangladesh is ‘much safer’ than other countries because the government has the capacity to control ‘any situation’.

“Our media sometimes create confusion. I’ve seen a headline today – ‘Foreigners are leaving the country’. But I haven’t found it true after visiting the airport,” Menon said in a programme on Tuesday.

The 17 foreign victims of the cafe carnage included nine Italian buyers of Bangladesh’s garments, seven Japanese consultants of Dhaka Metrorail project and an Indian.

An Italian and a Japanese national were also killed in separate attacks last year.

These murders are part of an attempt to undermine Bangladesh’s image, but the attempt has failed, Menon thinks.

“We had thought foreigners would stop coming. But the number of tourists who visited Bangladesh was 10,000 more than the previous year,” he said.

Referring to the recent terror attacks at a time when Bangladesh is observing a tourism year, Workers Party chief Menon said, “I know these can hit tourism. But I want to add that we can overcome the effects if we highlight tourism properly.”

“It’s not our problem alone. It’s a global issue. We can ask the foreigners to visit our country. There is no reason to consider our country is more unsafe than any other,” he added.