Hefajat expresses solidarity with journos'

Hefajat-e Islam on Monday expressed solidarity with a section of journalists demonstrating for immediate release of Mahmudur Rahman, acting editor of Bangla daily Amar Desh.

Nearly 500 journalists from different media outlets of the country and professionals from other sectors started a demonstration in front of Jatiya Press Club around 11:15am.

They also demanded reopening of the newspaper's printing press, which remains sealed off since April 11.

The demonstration is part of their ongoing programme.

A delegation of nearly eight members of Hefajat, led by Mufti Fayezullah, joint secretary general of the organisation, came to the rally venue around 11:00am and stayed there more than one hour.

Ruhul Amin Gazi, president of a faction of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), was presiding over the rally which was going on when this report was filed around 1:00pm.

The publication of pro-government newspapers should also be halted if the embargo on the Amar Desh continues, Fayezullah told the rally quoting Hefajat ameer Shah Ahmad Shafi.

Hefajat also threatened to go tough, if Mahmudur is not freed and the press of the daily is not reopened immediately.

Detectives arrested Mahmudur on April 11 from the daily’s office on charges of publishing a Skype conversation between Justice Md Nizamul Huq, then chairman of International Crimes Tribunal-1, and Ahmed Ziauddin, an expatriate Bangladeshi legal expert.

A Dhaka court on the same day put Mahmudur on a 13-day remand in connection with three cases, including the one filed on December 13 last year on charges of sedition for publishing the conversation.

The other cases were filed on March 17, in connection with hartal and pre-hartal violence, and on March 26, for assaulting police and obstructing their work.