Journalists accused in fabricated cases in Moulvibazar

Journalists and writers have been accused in fabricated criminal cases of harassment in Moulvibazar. As a result, there has been panic among journalists, writers and poets.

According to Moulvibazar Sadar Model Police Station, criminal cases are being filed at the police station on a mass scale over the violence called in the name of the anti-discrimination student movement on August 4. In continuation of that, a leader of an Islamic political organization named Jabed Mia filed a case at the police station on Tuesday (August 20), case number GR 224/2024. He has accused 99 people, including two journalists, a writer-poet, in the case. The two journalists are Hasanat Kamal, district correspondent of Bangladesh Television (BTV) and the national daily New Age and editor of the online news portal Eye News (eyenews.news), and Panna Dutta, general secretary of Moulvibazar Press Club and district correspondent of DBC News Television. Besides, writer-poet and BNSB Eye Hospital General Secretary Syed Mosahid Ahmed Chunnu has also been made an accused. In addition, 80-90 unidentified persons have been accused in the case. 

The plaintiff in the case is Jabed Mia, father- Ahad Mia, address- Pagulia, Moulvibazar Sadar. He is known to be the leader of the student organization Islami Chhatra Shibir of the Islamic political organization Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.

KM Nazrul Islam, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Moulvibazar Sadar Model Police Station, confirmed the filing of the case. He said, "For now, there is no option but to take the case. There is a lot of pressure to take the case, there are instructions from the higher level. We have to take all the cases."

When asked about the journalists being accused in the cases, Superintendent of Police Manzur Rahman said, "Many people are filing cases at the police station in bulk over the August 4 anti-discrimination student movement. Maybe many are innocent! The journalists are reporting the news, they did not go to commit any other crime - we have seen this in the field. But now we do not have time to investigate and verify the situation. There is a lot of pressure on us. The police themselves are being victims of mob violence, being attacked. The cases that are being filed in bulk will be investigated later and action will be taken. For now, the officers-in-charge of all police stations have been instructed to take all the cases."

Meanwhile, when asked whether he knows journalists Hasanat Kamal, Panna Dutta and poet Moshad Ahmed Chunnu, the plaintiff in the case, Jabed Miah, said, "No, I do not know them directly. I do not think I have ever seen them."

When asked why he filed the case, Jabed Mia said, "their names came from a lot higher up. The seniors can say it well. I just followed their orders."

When asked, journalist Hasanat Kamal, accused in a fabricated criminal case, said in a WhatsApp audio call, “I am very worried that I have been accused in a false harassment case. I am staying outside Moulvibazar district due to fear of arrest and physical attack. I do not know if it is safe here either. I may have to change my place. I have turned off my mobile phone so that they cannot track me. I am only receiving WhatsApp calls from family and trusted people.”

He said, “I have always been a law-abiding, peace-loving person. I always avoid conflict. Yet I have been accused in a fabricated false case. This has only been done to capture my independent journalism, philosophy, progressivism and the spirit of the liberation war-1971.”

Moulvibazar Press Club General Secretary and DBC News Television district correspondent Panna Dutta said, “Journalists are never tools of political parties that they will fight in the field with sticks. But they have been accused in harassment cases to suppress professional and independent journalists.”

It is worth noting that, in the current political context of Bangladesh, violent incidents occurred in Moulvibazar on August 4, as in the rest of the country. Mass cases are being filed in the police stations of 7 upazilas of the district and in the magistrate's court over this incident. Thousands of people are being accused in these cases. Many are being accused in these cases due to ideological, political and personal resentment. Independent journalists have also been accused.