Bangladesh High Court on Wednesday ordered a ban on broadcast, publication and dissemination of statements of the “fugitive” son of Opposition leader Khaleda Zia amid heightened political tension in the country after the deadly violence on the first anniversary of the controversial polls. “The High Court asked the Government to take steps to prohibit publication, broadcast and dissemination of Tarique Rahman’s speeches and statements in print, electronic and social media as long as he remains fugitive,” Deputy Attorney General Biswajit Roy told newsmen.
The two-member bench comprising justices Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Abu Taher Mohammad Saifur Rahman issued the order, responding to a writ filed by Supreme Court lawyer Nasrin Siddiqui lina on Tuesday. lina sought the ban amid heightening political tensions after a spate of deadly violence surrounding the first anniversary of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s controversial re-election. lina said Rahman, the senior vice president of BNP who is now living in london apparently to evade justice as he is wanted by several courts in number of criminal and graft charges, was “hurting the sentiment of Bangladeshis” and disturbing peace.
In one of the cases, Rahman was accused of masterminding the deadly grenade attack on Hasina in 2004 in which 24 people were killed while in recent years he hit the headlines with his controversial remarks on Bangladesh’s history. Rahman, the presumed political heir to BNP chief Khaleda Zia, claims that the country’s father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a Pakistani collaborator during 1971 liberation War.
In several public statements in recent period, he said Bangabandhu was the “illegal prime minister” in post independent Bangladesh while his father, military-ruler-turned politician Ziaur Rahman was Bangladesh’s first President.