The High Court on Tuesday asked the government to ban and confiscate a book titled `Revolution, Military Personnel and the War of Liberation in Bangladesh` for calling Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s founder Ziaur Rahman the ‘first provisional head of state or acting president’ of the country.
The court asked the secretaries of the ministries of home, liberation war and the information to ban and confiscate the book written by Liberal Democratic Party president Oli Ahmad, Bir Bikrom, a gallant award for freedom fighters, as his statement contradicts the proclamation of the country’s independence.
The book was printed in 2010.
The court directed Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Authority to block or disable the Facebook page, Youtube channel and streaming platform of journalist Kanak Sarowar, who posted Oli`s online interview on August 17 in which his certain statement allegedly distorted the country’s history.
The bench of Justice Khasruzzaman and Justice Mahmud Hassan Talukder issued the directive after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed on November 22 by Supreme Court lawyer Imtiaz Uddin Ahmad Asif, resident of Chattogram.
The court also asked the respondents to explain why their failure and inaction in blocking the Facebook page and Youtube channel of journalist Kanak Sarowar for posting Oli’s interview would not be declared illegal.
`Since the emancipation and independence of Bangladesh no one has ever raised any question regarding Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman being the first president of Bangladesh and Syed Nazrul Islam as the first vicepresident,` the notice said adding that Oli’s statement was `a dishonest, fabricated, false statement and a distortion of historical fact,` the petitioner’s lawyer Shah Monjurul Haque quoted the book as Oli said in his interview.
`My client has doubt, whether you have read any of the Oli`s books available in the market and as such you are unable to understand the correct history and role of the valiant freedom fighters like Colonel Oli to know him in depth,` lawyer M Sarwar Hossain replied to the legal notice served on Oli by the writ petitioner.
