Journalist Mizanur Sohel released from police custody

City Desk :

Police have released Mizanur Rahman Sohel, online head of the Dainik Bhorer Kagoj newspaper, from custody 10 hours after he was whisked away by men identifying themselves as Detective Branch (DB) officers. DB Additional Commissioner Shafiqul Alam said he was released on Wednesday.

According to police, Mizanur had been questioned over an event management assignment in which he allegedly used the names of an organisation’s president and secretary without permission.

“Later, we summoned the secretary of that organisation, and since the issue was a misunderstanding, journalist Mizanur Rahman was taken back home around dawn,” said Shafiqul. Mizanur himself confirmed his release in a Facebook post, claiming that he was detained “at the behest of a government advisor” to disrupt a media briefing organised by the mobile handset traders’ association, the Mobile Business Community of Bangladesh (MBCB) as he was associated with the body as a media consultant, reports bdnews24.com. When asked why a person had been arrested in the middle of the night without a warrant, Home Affairs Advisor Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said: “This is the first I am hearing of it. I can say more after an investigation.” Five individuals, identifying themselves as members of the Detective Branch (DB), picked up Mizanur from his residence in New Badda around 12:30am on Wednesday.

His wife Sumaiya Seema said one of the five men had identified himself as “Ashraful” and told her that the DB chief wanted to speak to Mizanur and that he would be brought back shortly.
Mizanur is the vice president of the Center for Technology Journalism (CTJ), an organisation for tech journalists in Dhaka.

CTJ Secretary General Saif Ahmad condemned the action: “The removal of a journalist from his home after midnight is not only alarming, but a direct attack on press freedom.

“As the DB chief acknowledged the incident, a clear explanation for why a journalist was taken at such an hour is imperative. We are deeply concerned for Sohel’s safety and demand a neutral investigation, a full explanation, and his immediate release.”

Following his release, Mizanur said in a Facebook post that he was kept in DB custody for nearly ten and a half hours without being accused of any wrongdoing, before being returned home “with respect”.

He wrote: “Last night, around 12am, a group of DB personnel forcibly picked me up from my home on the pretext that the DB chief would speak with me. I was taken to the DB office, and my name was written in the record book for arrestees. My shoes and belt were taken off, and I was kept in a cell with detainees.

“But why was I detained? I did not know, nor could the individuals who took me there, or the senior DB officials say anything. After a long time, I understood that I was detained at the behest of a government advisor simply to give the opportunity for only nine mobile phone businessmen to run a monopoly business. The secretary of the organisation (MBCB), Abu Saeed Pias, was also detained alongside me.”

Stating that MBCB was scheduled to hold a media briefing at the Dhaka Reporters Unity on Wednesday over the National Equipment Identification Register (NEIR), he wrote: “Their main target was to stop that media briefing. But regrettably for them, the reason they tried to stop the press conference is now known to everyone.”

He alleged the NEIR system clearly conflicts with the country’s free-market policy and that the Competition Commission exists to ensure fair competition. Yet a deep conspiracy was under way to favour only nine traders at the expense of 25,000 mobile phone retailers nationwide, he says.
If the project were implemented, he said, ordinary people in rural areas and expatriates would face difficulties, the supply chain would collapse, and many traders would lose their livelihoods. He added that one of the nine traders was a school friend of the government advisor.

Mizanur concluded: “Why is the government afraid when someone speaks out against a business syndicate? Was it necessary to forcibly pick me up late at night just to stop a media briefing? Did those who preach ‘freedom of speech’ organise this to silence me? Is this the real picture of free speech in a lawless land?”