Rab hands over Manna to DB

More than 20 hours after "plainclothes men had picked up" Mahmudur Rahman Manna early yesterday, officials said he was arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion and handed over to the Detective Branch of police.

Around 12:30am today, several media reports quoted Rab's Additional Director General Ziaul Ahsan as saying that Manna was arrested in a case filed with Gulshan Police Station for "trying to instigate revolt by the armed forces".

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Around the same time, Assistant Commissioner Nurul Alam of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Gulshan zone) told The Daily Star that Manna was taken to the DB office on Minto Road after midnight.

The officials, however, didn't give details about his arrest.

According to family members, some plainclothes men, introducing themselves as Detective Branch officials, picked him up from his niece's residence at the capital's Banani around 3:30am yesterday.

But DB officials and Banani police throughout the day denied detaining the Nagorik Oikya convener.

Amid controversy over leaked phone conversations with BNP leader Sadeque Hossain Khoka and an unnamed person, Manna went to his niece's house on Road 17/A in Banani on Monday evening, family sources said.

"Around 3:00am, a group of people knocked at the door. They said they were from the Detective Branch," his niece Shahnama Sharmin told reporters at her house yesterday. 

As she opened the door, five to six persons went to Manna's room. "Before leaving around 3:30am, the plainclothes officials told us that Manna was being taken to the DB headquarters," she added.

Manna's wife Meher Nigar alleged the detectives dragged away her husband without showing an arrest warrant.

"They even did not give him time to change clothes and take his necessary medicines," she told The Daily Star based on Sharmin's account as she was at her own house at the time of the arrest.  

Talking to reporters at his office around noon yesterday, Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of DMP's Detective Branch, said they have no information about the detention.

He added detectives were looking into the family's claim as well as the two leaked phone tapes, which surfaced in the media on Sunday. 

In one of the conversations, Manna, also a former organising secretary of the Awami League, was heard talking to Khoka about strengthening the anti-government movement, among other issues.

The other call was made to an unknown person. Manna was asked by the man if he would like to sit with army generals purportedly about bringing a changeover in the country. 

Also yesterday, Nagorik Oikya leaders held a press briefing on the Jatiya Press Club premises, demanding an end to "propaganda" against Manna and also sought an explanation from the government over his arrest.

They said leaking out a private conversation is a violation of one's constitutional rights.

Meanwhile, Chhatra League activists erased the name of Manna from the honour boards of Dhaka University Central Students Union (DUCSU) and Chittagong University Central Students Union (CUCSU).  

Manna was the general secretary of CUCSU in 1972-1973 session. Later, he went to the DU and became the vice-president of DUCSU.

Chhatra League men also removed his photo from the CUCSU archive and declared him persona non grata at the CU campus. Also at Dhaka University, some members of the pro-government student organisation burnt posters containing his photo.