Following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh, a crackdown on everyone perceived to be close to the Awami League continues under the interim government. On Wednesday, a journalist couple was arrested from Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport while they were leaving for Paris. They were earlier fired from the the News Channel where they worked, and the student group leading the protests called for banning them.
Former Ekattor Television head of news Shakil Ahmed, and his wife Farzana Rupa who was the principal correspondent of the news channel, were detained before they could board a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul at 6.20 AM, from where they were scheduled to proceed to Paris.
Airport sources said that after Rupa and Shakil went to the airport to board Turkish Airlines flight TK-713 to Istanbul, the Immigration Authorities stopped them. The Immigration police said that they didn’t have clearance from the City Special Branch of police because they are wanted in some cases filed at Shahbagh police station.
“We completed the immigration but they were wanted in cases. A requisition was given by the Detective Branch (DB) against the case, and they were taken to custody from the airport,” an official was quoted by Daily Star. However, the nature of cases against them have not been revealed.
The couple was then taken into custody by a team from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch, and they were taken to the Detective Branch office for questioning.
Notably, Shakil Ahmed and his wife Farzana Rupa were fired by Ekattor TV on 8th August, following allegations of being pro-Awami League against them. The channel had told the media, “Our management has unanimously reached this decision. The HR department will formally notify them.”
Incidentally, the names of Shakil Ahmed and Farzana Rupa were featured in a list of journalists ‘blacklisted’ by the Anti-discrimination Student Movement, the student group that toppled the government. Abdul Kader and Abdul Hannan Masud, coordinators of the group, had sent a letter to the National Press Club on 10th August that included a list of 51 journalists, accusing of supporting police and the ruling party during the protests that led to the fall of the govt.
The student body said, “Press Club is a national institution. This press club has always come forward in the difficult times of the nation. But during the Awami League government, this institution became a party institution.” Referring to the journalists listed in the letter, they added, “We think that their activities under the guise of journalism were against the national interest and against the state.” They demanded that the journalists be expelled from the press club and banned from the media field, adding that they have already asked the govt to initiate legal action against them. At least one journalist in the list was accused of being an Indian Intelligence Agency Agent in the letter.
