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Two days after the arrest of a journalist who has been fighting for the trial of those who opposed Bangladesh's Liberation War in 1971, the government has declared that he was engaged in seditious acts abroad.
Shahriar Kabir, acting president of the National Committee for Ekaturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee (committee for trial of killers and collaborators of 1971), was arrested Thursday on arrival at the Zia International airport from India.
An official statement on Saturday said the government was aware that journalist-turned-writer Kabir has been engaging in 'anti-state activities outside the country for quite some time'.
Customs authorities had searched Kabir's luggage and seized four Betacam videocassettes, one VHS videocassette, 10 audiocassettes and three CDs.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the material seized contained information, statements and photographic documentation against Bangladesh's interest, the government statement said.
"It was later found that the videos contain objectionable and misleading statements that are detrimental to communal harmony and subversive of the state," it continued.
It further said Kabir had made a whirlwind tour across India with the ulterior motive of shooting video films implicating the government. The videos, the release said, contain manipulated interviews to 'malign the elected government and to disturb communal harmony'.
It said Kabir made video films on atrocities on minorities after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) came to power after the October 1 election and exhibited them in Calcutta to fuel dissent against Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's BNP-led four-party nationalist alliance.
"Kabir, in the interest of vested quarters, was involved in tarnishing the image of Bangladesh and of its government before the outside world," the statement said.
It said the government was investigating the matter and will take legal action against him.
Kabir was sent to the Dhaka central jail on Friday under an order of the metropolitan magistrate's court. His bail plea is pending before a court.
Indo-Asian News Service
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