Joy wants arrest of Dr Kamal, Star editor for ‘treason’

Prime Minister's ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy yesterday said eminent jurist Dr Kamal Hossain, The Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam and Nagorik Oikya Convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna should be arrested and tried for "treason".

Manna is now on a 10-day remand on sedition charges over "involvement in provoking the armed forces to topple the government".  

Joy, son of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, wanted arrest of the three in his official Facebook page around 1:00am yesterday.

Following is the Facebook post as it is:

"'Civil society' leader Mahmudur Rahman Manna in a phone conversation recommends opposition kill a few people inside Dhaka University so that Government is destabilized.

"The Daily Star prints a half page copy of a poster by banned terrorist outfit Hizbut Tahrir urging army soldiers to overthrow the Government and seize power.

"This is all yet another conspiracy by our so called 'civil society' to grab power. Manna in his conversation names Kamal Hossain as a part of this plot. Manna, Kamal Hossain and the Daily Star's editor Mahfuz Anam are the same people who openly urged the military to stay in power indefinitely after 1/11.

"They disgust me. These are people who want power but have never been elected in even a single constituency without the backing of one of the major political parties. Taking advantage of the BNP-Jamaat's arson attacks over the past two months on innocent civilians these same people have been falsely trying to claim both parties were involved in violence. The Daily Star has written one false story after another about fake Chhattra League bombers, all of which have been refuted. Yet not one of them has demanded that BNP-Jamaat stop their violence.

"Now we know why. They want the violence to continue and indeed want to help the BNP-Jamaat kill more people. They want to blame our Awami League Government no matter what so that they can ride the Army's coattails back to power just like 1/11. This is treason. They should all be arrested and tried."

On February 11, The Daily Star published a snapshot of a poster of Hizb-ut Tahrir under the headline "Fanatics raise their ugly heads   again".

The caption of the photo read, "Taking advantage of the current political crisis in the country accompanied by wanton violence, banned extremist Islamist organisation Hizb-ut Tahrir published and pasted posters in the capital in an attempt to foment unrest within the armed forces. This poster was found pasted on a wall in an alleyway near the Bangla Motor intersection yesterday."

Earlier, on January 9, Joy in another Facebook post slammed The Daily Star for "publishing" a fake release attributed to six US Congressmen condemning Bangladesh government's action on the media and politicians. "I've always said they have the lowest journalistic ethics," read the post.

In fact, The Daily Star did not publish the fraudulent statement.