Five university teachers remanded

The detained Dhaka University teachers are being taken to a Dhaka court yesterday. Photo: STAR

Courts in Dhaka and Rajshahi yesterday placed on remand the five university teachers picked up early Friday at their campus homes on charges of breaching the emergency power rules.
General Secretary of Dhaka University Teachers Association (Duta) Prof Anwar Hossain and DU Social Science Dean Prof Harun-or-Rashid each were remanded in custody for four days in a case filed by the police for making provocative and anti-state statements.
In Rajshahi, former Rajshahi University (RU) vice-chancellor Prof Saidur Rahman, Convener of RU Progressive Teachers Society Prof Abdus Sobhan and management professor Moloy Kumar Bhowmik were put on a 10-day remand each.
The three were shown arrested under section 16(2) while Anwar and Harun under section 3 (4) of the Emergency Power Rules (EPR), 2007.
None of their names was in the first information report (FIR).
According to the emergency rules, processions, rallies and protests are banned during the state of emergency to maintain security of the state or people or discipline. However, any procession or rally can be organised for religious, social, state or government purposes.
Violators will be sentenced to a maximum of five years' and a minimum of two years' rigorous imprisonment, plus fine.
Shahbagh police produced the DU professors before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, Dhaka at around 2:15pm. They petitioned the court to order for the two to be remanded for 10 days.
Granting the remand for four days, the court directed the investigation officer (IO) to exercise caution while grilling the educators. It also asked the police to take prompt measures for treatment if necessary during the remand period.
In two petitions, the defence lawyers sought court orders for carrying out medical tests of the detainees in line with a High Court observation asking to determine if the person to be grilled is fit.
The counsels also told the court that the two were tortured mentally and physically after being hauled in.
Both Harun and Anwar stood in the dock with a long face in the jam-packed courtroom while their wives and children looked worried.
In his submission, Mahbubey Alam said it is unfortunate that those who have dedicated themselves to moulding the students into nation-builders have been arrested.
In no way were they involved in the incidents mentioned and the court should not place them on remand, he contended.
Security personnel whisked the two off to unspecified places for interrogation after picking them up at their residences on the Fuller Road. The families were completely in the dark till the senior academics were taken to the court in a prison van.
In the forwarding report, IO of the case Sub-Inspector Ali Asghar Khan said the information gleaned during the interrogation suggests that the accused had endorsed the activities like processions, slogans and rampages on the DU campus between 3:00pm on August 20 and 2:00am on August 21.
Besides, they took position at different points on the campus and made statements seeking to incite the unruly students and public to pull down the army post at the DU gymnasium.
Provoked by the accused, the unruly mob set fire to tyres, put barricades on the roads and damaged public properties. They also pelted the on-duty policemen with brickbats, stones and other projectiles.
Now the detainees need to be questioned for information that might lead to capture of the other accused on the run.
In the case filed with Shahbagh Police Station, SI Sirajul Islam alleged that unidentified students, teachers and outsiders totalling up to 2,000 went on the rampage.
Our staff Correspondent in Rajshahi reports: A metropolitan magistrate's court here placed RU professors Saidur Rahman, Abdus Sobhan and Moloy Kumar Bhowmik on a 10-day remand each.
Earlier on Friday, the three were seized by the security forces at their campus residences.
The IO of the case SI Moktar Hossain successfully petitioned the court to place each of them on a 10-day remand for questing in connection with violating the EPR.
The defence lawyers claimed that the court did not bother to follow the standard procedure in granting remand and did whatever the IO had wanted it to do.
The lawyers further added that the IO failed to present the case documents and specific charges against them.
The law enforcers restricted public movement on the court premises. They did not allow the newsmen to cover the remand hearing.
Sources said the teachers on remand might be sent to Dhaka for further quizzing.
REACTION OF TEACHERS' SONS
Anwar Hossain's son Sanjeev Hossain, who met his father at the court, quoting his father, told reporters, "He (Anwar) was kept at the intelligence agencies' black hole. He was tortured not only psychologically but also physically."
"We were not prepared to hear that our father was tortured physically," Sanjeev said adding, "We received the news that he will be taken into remand. If he were taken to jail, at least no one would hurt him there. But now it's all uncertain."
"We are seriously concerned because we do not know where our father will be taken to for the next four days," he said.
Harun-or-Rashid's son Ishtiaque Rashid told reporters that he found his father exhausted when he met him.
He said, "Of course we are concerned. If teachers are treated this way and taken into remand then no one is safe and we are concerned about our own security."
"If they treat teachers like this, how would they treat ordinary citizens?"
HELAL REMANDED
The same court yesterday placed detained Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) president Azizul Baree Helal on a five-day remand in a case for disrupting law and order on the DU campus.
In the forwarding report, the IO of the case mentioned that the accused gathered students and people at different places on the DU campus from 10:30pm on August 20 to 12:00noon on August 21 violating the EPR.
The IO sought his 10-day remand to find out the names and whereabouts of his accomplices.
Defence lawyers said Helal was not involved in such activities. He has been suffering from jaundice.
They said Helal was tortured after he was arrested. The remand sought by the IO should be turned down, they added.
DB police arrested Helal from his Moghbazar residence in the capital on Friday morning.