Prominent Bangladeshi blogger in hiding over fears for his life

লিখেছেন লিখেছেন নুর হুসাইন ১৪ আগস্ট, ২০১৮, ০৩:০৯:১৬ রাত

high profile Bangladeshi activist has claimed he is in hiding and in fear for his life after being summoned by Bangladesh’s intelligence agency at the height of a violent stand-off between the government and students protesting poor road safety in the capital, Dhaka, last week.

Pinaki Bhattacharya, a prolific blogger and government critic, whose personal Facebook page had over 150,000 followers until it was closed down on Monday, told The Telegraph that he is afraid he may come to physical harm if he emerges from his hiding place.

“Am I being targeted to become another victim of enforced disappearance? I am very scared for my life,” he said in an interview.

Mr Bhattacharya has long used his Facebook and Twitter accounts to highlight alleged corruption, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings. He has received many online death threats, including some in the past week.

In early August he backed students who were demonstrating en masse for the reform of Bangladesh’s unregulated and dangerous transport sector.

The protest became a catalyst for an outpouring of anger against the government and more than 100 people were injured after police fired tear gas and rubber bullets, according to witnesses and doctors. Alleged pro-government activists were also reported to have attacked the young demonstrators. The timing of the unrest was unwelcome for the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which faces looming elections.

Mr Bhattacharya was among those who threw a spotlight on the violence and on August 5 he received two calls that sent a “chill down his spine.”

They came from a man who he claimed was called Major Farhan, from the Director General of Field Intelligence. “He said he had some issues to discuss with me…And he asked me to go down to his office by that evening.”

Mr Bhattacharya refused. He felt uneasy, recalling recent shocking audio clips that recorded the death of Akramul Haque, 46, at the hands of Bangladesh’s elite Rapid Action Battalion.

The Battalion claimed he was an armed drug dealer who died in a gunfight. But in a reported recording made on his daughter’s phone, Mr Haque is heard saying “I am not involved” before two gunshots. According to the Guardian, other voices say: “Take out the bullets” and “Have his hands been untied?”

The alleged calls to Mr Bhattacharya also occurred around the same time that acclaimed photographer, Shahidul Alam, was arrested after criticising the government’s handling of the student protests. He remains in custody.

বিষয়: বিবিধ

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