Plot to kill Joy: Mahmudur likely to be shown held

Detectives are likely to show daily Amar Desh Editor Mahmudur Rahman arrested in a case filed for alleged attempts to abduct and murder Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, a top DB official said.

“As we are getting information regarding Mahmudur Rahman’s link to the plot, we’ll show him arrested and pray before a court for an order granting his remand,” the official told The Daily Star, seeking anonymity.    

The name of one Chittagong-based businessman who now lives in the US also came up in their investigation, he added.

Earlier, a Dhaka court placed senior journalist and a pro-BNP intellectual Shafik Rehman on a five-day remand in the same case, hours after detectives arrested him from his house in the capital on Saturday morning.

Shafik Rehman’s wife Taleya Rehman today met two officials at British High Commission -- head of counsellor service Hasina Rahman and Emily Summers of political section to discuss her husband’s situation.

Also READ: Expat BNP leader sued over 'plot to kill Joy'

Taleya Rehman, also executive director of Democracy Watch, a non-government organisation promoting good governance and democracy, said the embassy officials told her that the British government is “seriously concerned” over the arrest of the 80-year-old journalist and writer.

“I have requested the UK embassy officials to ensure that Shafik, as a UK citizen, is not harassed and the government dose not violate his human rights.”

In response, the officials assured that they would look into the welfare of Shafik since he is also a UK citizen, she told The Daily Star at her Eskaton residence.

‘ARREST ON SPECIFIC ALLEGATION’

Sajeeb Wazed Joy, also ICT adviser to the prime minister, in a Facebook post yesterday said, “The US Department of Justice discovered Shafik Rehman’s direct involvement in the plot to kidnap and kill me.”

He also said, “They provided this evidence to our Government. He was arrested based on this evidence. I cannot disclose more, but the evidence is direct and irrefutable.”

Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu at a press conference at the Press Information Department said Shafik Rehman, Mahmudur Rahman and journalist leader Shawkat Mahmud were arrested on specific allegations, not for being journalists.

“And the mass media is not under any pressure,” Inu claimed in the briefing.

Shawkat Mahmud was arrested on August 18, 2015 in an arson case filed on January 28 the same year.

Mahmudur Rahman was arrested on April 11, 2013 in cases including one over publishing in his newspaper a leaked Skype conversation between a war crimes tribunal judge and an expatriate Bangladeshi legal expert.

Meanwhile on Sunday, Law Minister Anisul Huq said, “The matter is now under investigation. If he [Shafik Rehman] is found innocent in the investigation, he will be released.”

“But trial proceedings will go on if the allegation against him [Shafik Rehman] is proved,” the minister told reporters after inaugurating a special training course for district registers at city’s Judicial Administration Training Institute.

In a separate programme, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal echoed Inu and Anisul.

Meanwhile, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam on the same day termed “inhuman” the remand of journalist Shafik Rehman.

Talking to reporters after visiting Rehman’s Eskaton residence in the city, he demanded that the journalist be released immediately on cancellation of his remand.

Fakhrul along with BNP Vice-Chairman Abdullah Al Noman and BNP Chairperson’s Adviser Abdul Awal Mintoo went to Rehman’s house around 2:00pm and talked to Taleya.

“False charges are being brought against those who oppose the government and hold divergent views. They’re being harassed and arrested in one way or the other. It can’t be accepted putting a veteran journalist like Shafik Rehman on remand,” he said.

Fakhrul and Taleya had a brief one-on-one meeting.

THE CASE

Asked about the arrest, Masrukur Rahman Khaled, deputy commissioner of Detective Branch (south), told this correspondent that they were investigating the charges of attempts to abduct and murder Joy, who lives in the US.

“He [Rehman] has been arrested since his involvement was found,” he added.

The case was filed by DB Inspector Fazlur Rahman with Paltan Police Station in August last year.

In the case, police mentioned the name of Mohammad Ullah Mamun, vice-president of BNP's cultural wing Jasas, as a conspirator.

The case statement says Mamun and some top leaders of the BNP and its allies met in the UK, the US and the Jasas office at the capital's Paltan and other parts of the country before September 2012 and conspired to abduct and kill the PM's son.

In March last year, Mamun's son Rizve Ahmed Caesar was convicted by a US court for bribing an FBI special agent to collect information regarding a Bangladeshi political figure.

The US Justice Department did not name the figure, but it is thought that it was Joy.

In a Facebook post on March 9 last year, Joy, accused BNP leaders of conspiring to abduct and kill him.