State cannot avoid responsibility

Hours after protesting writer Mushtaq Ahmed's detention under the Digital Security Act and subsequent death in custody, Ruhul Amin himself was sued under the controversial law.

"If such writings sent Mushtaq to jail and then to death, depriving him of bail six times, then arrest me too," read a Facebook post that Ruhul, a coordinator of left-leaning Shramik-Krishak-Chhatra-Janata Oikya Parishad, wrote on Friday.

He shared a digital poster of a protest march from Shahbagh to the Jatiya Sangsad, called for yesterday, and also some screenshots of Mushtaq's Facebook posts.

Around 10:00pm, Detective Branch officials picked him up along with Niyaz Murshid Dolon, convening committee member of his organisation, from their mess in Goakhali area of Khulna city.

Dolon was released later but Ruhul was made accused in a case filed by a DB inspector yesterday.

BM Nurujjaman, deputy commissioner, Detective Branch at KMP, said Ruhul was sued under the Digital Security Act for trying to destabilise the state, creating social unrest and over other reasons.

A Khulna court placed Ruhul on two days' remand yesterday.

While the demand for scrapping this law gets louder, especially after the death of writer Mushtaq, Ruhul is just another name added to the long list of people detained under DSA.  

Last year, as many as 457 people of different professions were prosecuted and arrested in 198 cases filed under the Digital Security Act, noted UK-based Article 19 in its annual report.

Of this figure, 75 were journalists, while others included teachers, students, folk musicians and cultural artists. Nearly half of the journalists prosecuted, 32, were arrested.

In a statement yesterday, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) said the "repressive" Digital Security Act, under which Mushtaq was arrested, should be abolished.

The graft watchdog observed that by formulating the DSA, a "fatal weapon" has been handed to the so-called influentials to suppress voices of dissent.

Mushtaq's death proves that the government and state machineries do not have what it takes to tolerate criticism, it further stated.

TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said there were questions as to why Mushtaq was denied bail six times while the other accused in the case was not.

"It will not be an exaggeration to say the Digital Security Act has been misused to gag the voices of dissent and critics," he added.

"Similarly, it is extraneous to claim freedom of speech and freedom to express opinions prevail while the act is in effect."

In a separate statement, the National Human Rights Commission said the state cannot avoid the responsibility of writer Mushtaq's death.

"The state or any of its agencies cannot avoid responsibility for the death [of Mushtaq] while in prison," read the statement.

"It's a gross violation of human rights."

The commission will write to the home ministry calling for a fair and impartial investigation into this, it added.

In another development, the US State Department has called on Bangladesh to conduct a transparent investigation into the death of Mushtaq Ahmed and uphold the right of freedom of expression.

"We are concerned by Bangladeshi writer Mushtaq Ahmed's death in custody while detained under the Digital Security Act," US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price tweeted yesterday, a day after 13 heads of foreign missions in Dhaka issued a joint statement on the issue.

"We call on the Government of Bangladesh to conduct a transparent investigation and for all countries to uphold the right of freedom of expression."

On May 6 last year, the Rapid Action Battalion arrested Mushtaq, 53, at his Dhaka home for "spreading rumours and carrying out anti-government activities".

Sued under DSA, he had been in Kashimpur High Security Jail-3 in Gazipur since August 20.

On Thursday evening, he fainted and then was taken to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College and Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

Mushtaq used to write under the pen name Michael Kumir Thakur. His book "Kumir Chasher Diary" was published in November 2018, and he was working on another book.

He was critical, on social media, of the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Following the news of Mushtaq's death on Thursday night, people from all walks of life took to social media to vent their anger.

Protesters took to the streets in the capital and elsewhere for the second consecutive day yesterday to press home their demands -- justice for the death of Mushtaq, scrapping of DSA and immediate release of all those imprisoned under the controversial law, including cartoonist Ahmed Kishore.

In Dhaka, police sued seven detained protesters along with 150 unnamed others with 10 charges, including attempted murder, following a clash between policemen in Shahbagh during a torch procession on Friday.

The seven are Md Tamjid Haider, 22, Nozir Amir Chowdhury Joy, 27, ASM Tanjimur Rahman, 22, Md Akib Ahmed, 22, Md Arafat Saad, 24, Nazifa Jannat, 24, and Joyoti Chakravarty, 23.

A sub-inspector of Shahbagh Police Station filed the case yesterday, confirmed SM Shamim, senior assistant commissioner (Ramna zone) of DMP.

The court sent them to jail and granted their interrogation by police at the jail gate.

Amid the protests yesterday, several hundred policemen were seen deployed in three places of the capital -- Shahbagh, Press Club, and Shaheen Minar areas.

At a rally in front of Press Club in the morning, Nagarik Oikya Convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna said the government is trying to suppress dissenting voices with controversial laws like DSA.

"Kashimpur Jail has been set up for high risk convicts. Why was a writer kept there?" he asked.

Former diplomat Sakib Ali, also a Nagarik Oikya member, said Mushtaq was an ex-cadet and he feels ashamed of the silence of this community over the death.

"I am an ex-cadet and was a student of 22th batch of Faujdarhat Cadet College. Mushtaq was a student of the 27th batch…. We knew him as the first crocodile farmer of Bangladesh. He was not a man of traditional thinking. He had been working out of the box with all of his creative mind."

Activists of left-leaning student bodies brought out a procession from the TSC area of Dhaka University around 12:30pm. They called for nationwide protests and besieging the home ministry on March 1 and a procession towards the Prime Minister's Office on March 3.

Speaking at a rally, Al Kaderi Joy, convener of Progressive Students' Alliance, demanded justice for the police action on the demonstrators on Friday and immediate release of the detained fellow activists.

Golam Mostafa, central president of Bangladesh Students Federation, said the government is gagging the voices of the people for expressing their views.

"We did not want this Bangladesh. Corruption has spread all over the country… There are constant lies from different levels of the state. Democracy cannot be established on lies. Liars must be resisted."

Leaders of the Narayanganj Cultural Alliance demanded justice for the death of Mushtaq at a protest programme in front of Narayanganj Press Club at Chashara yesterday noon.

Rafiur Rabbi, advisor to the alliance, said, "This government has taken away the right to vote in Bangladesh. This government has deprived the people of Bangladesh of their right to express. This government has taken away the right to speak, the right to justice. This government has enacted the Digital Security Act only so that people can't speak against the irregularities and corruption."

Similar protests took place in Khulna, at Jahangirnagar University, and in Munshiganj.

In a statement, the National Democratic Front demanded that DSA be repealed and people arrested under it be released immediately.

It said people responsible for Mushtaq's death must be identified through a judicial probe and given the maximum punishment.

Meanwhile, the home ministry yesterday formed a five-member committee led by its Additional Secretary Tarun Kanti Sikder to investigate Mushtaq's death and submit a report within four working days.

The Gazipur district administration also formed a two-member committee over the death of writer Mushtaq. The committee has been asked to submit its report within two working days.