One fearless journalist Mahmodur Rahman cries out to the Nation for justice.

Daily Amardesh editor Mahmodur Rahman has been taken to Police Remand again. In Bangladesh remand carries a significant meaning. It use to be for interrogation of serious crimes, such as robbery, murder, but now since this government of Sheikh Hasina came to power, remand means torture of opposition political figures, and torture of disobedient journalists who writes or reports against the government misdeeds.. Mahmodur Rahman was arrested once before under false case and had been tortured in remand after which a judge sentenced him to six month jail for contempt of court. On 14 December 2012, the government charged Mahmodur Rahman again with sedition for publishing Skype conversations in his Newspaper Amardesh, hacked by a third party, between Justice Mohammed Nizamul Huq, chairman of Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal, and Ahmed Ziauddin, an international criminal law expert and war crimes activist based in Brussels.The discussions had to do with the work of the Tribunal, and the material was published also in The Economist and another Bangladesh media outlet,Huq resigned shortly afterward because of the controversy  After charges were filed, Rahman avoided arrest by spending the next months in his newspaper's offices, leaving only to seek anticipatory bail.

On 11 April 2013, Bangladesh Police finally arrested  Mahmodur Rahman on charges of sedition related to the hacked Huq-Ziauddin conversations, other cyber-crimes, and inciting violence. They seized his electronics and storage devices. The court granted 13 days of remand for sedition and the other charges. He was severely tortured in police remand after which he under went voluntary hunger strike to protest against his illegal arrest, closure of his news paper Amrdesh and torture. Finally he was pursuaded by Mufti Shafi and his mother to break fast, but the case remaind and he was sent to jail pending court rulling. After a long respite from torture, he has been taken to remand again, and some fear due to political uncertaininty, his life maybe in serious danger this time round. It is inconceivable that a journalist of his calibre should be tortured with impunity under false case on government dictates for political reason, and put to jail without granting a bail. In any other country this would have been unimaginable, but shamefully, Bangladeshi print and electronic media are divided very much by political ideology, that a united front by the entire journalist could not take place in support of one of their colleague. Most print and electronic media in Bangladesh, apart from a few, which has already been closed down under falls pretext are owned and run by government supported Awamileague affiliate. Although some media like Ekatthor TV are fanatical Awami blind supporters, but some are moderate in their thinking, yet due to government restriction on press freedom they can’t practice their free will, and others, however, are reluctant to speak up due to their ideological loyalty. These practices by the journalists are very dangerous and unhealthy for a country like Bangladesh where corruption and government misdeeds are widespread, especially it creates impediment to ensuring government accountability and having a check on government abuses

Media suppose to be the eyes and ears of a society. It is more relevant in developing countries where injustices and corruptions are blatant. Yet we see horrendous crime taking place against journalist with impunity. On 11 February 2012, Bangladesh journalists Sagar Sarwar and his wife Meherun Runi were killed in their own apartment in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka. To this day no one has been arrested and charged for their murder. It is thought that their murder was pr-planned by powerful people connected with the Awami  government of Sheikh Hasina, when it became clear that those two reporters were about to publish evidence which they had collected about  serious government ministers corruption on energy sector. Even on this issue journalists of Bangladesh failed to put a united front against the government for the killings. There is great fear and concern that Mahmodur Rahman fate may follow Sagor Runi, but this time it may happen under government protection inside police torture chamber. Bangladesh Journalists must unite together to stop this brutal regime of Sheikh Hasina committing violence and extrajudicial murder against journalists. We demand Mahmodur Rahman’s release immediately.

 

 

 

India concoct another trick to scaremonger the international community

Recently, India and its agents media in Bangladesh are trying to paint Bangladesh Jamati Islam as the potential source of instability in India and possible exporter of terrorism. Their theory is that international terrorist and fund providers are funneling huge amount of money through Jamat allied institutions for the purpose of using the money for terrorism both in Bangladesh and India. According to this media, Sujata Singh is coming to Bangladesh to convey this fear to the government.

If anyone is not familiar with the world politics of  fearmongering, labelling, and false flags, they would have no doubt in believing them. But the world has become so small that all these tricks are a familiar examples of past policy of the USA and Israel that nobody now believes them anymore. India is using the old rotten tricks to fool the world. The recent bus burning to a lesser sophistication was an example of false flag to demonize the opposition by the Awami agents. India’s blood pressure indeed has gone up with every failures of their plot. Now they are using the media to spread the same photo plate as the American and Israeli did with Al Qayeda, so that their goal of dominating and plundering Bangladesh will be fulfilled. Our country men and brothers of the opposition should be aware of this design and do everthing possible to foil it. Bangladesh Islamic parties are a source of security, peace and stability of the country and in no way involved in the spread of terrorism.

If we look at the past five years of the Awami government, we would see that the main cause of instability and insecurity is the government itself that has time and again violated the constitution, abused human rights, killed and terrorised its own people with impunity. People could not find minimum justice under Sheikh Hasina’s rule to the extend that some political prisioners that I personally know have choosen to stay in prision rather than fight for their innocence in the courts. The judges in the lower courts and higher courts are mostly government stooges and pass sentece according to government whims. Recent arrests of senior opposition leaders on flimsy unbelievable false case has even compelled the German Ambassador to make statement in support of the accused that such crimes could not have been carried out by those people, some of whom are almost 80 years old. But guess what happened after the ambassador intervened, the German embassy received a  gift of Molotov Cocktail from Awami miscreants.

It is well documented that bus burning terrorism was first started by Awamileague in 2005. 11 passengers on a bus outside Hotel Sheraton was burned to death by Awami activists on the order of Jahangir Kabir Nanok and Mirza Azom. An Awami Presidium member Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim was seen giving description of the incident to investigators during the emergency in 1/11. This confession still can be found in youtube and social media. But Awami media is so blatant in yellow journalism that they rarely mention any aspect of Awami government misdeeds. These media are contributing to  instability of Bangladesh than peace. Their sole mission is to act for Indian supported propoganda and malign the opposition as much as possible. Media terrorism is ripe in Bangladesh and India is using these biased, immoral, unprincipled journalists, and editors to further its objective in Bangladesh, especially playing the Islamic card of terrorism. The people of Bangladesh must not allow India to spread such lies and create hatred and enmity between our people.