Bangladesh court sends 2 journalists to police custody for questioning as chaos continues

DHAKA, Bangladesh — A court in Bangladesh’s capital Thursday allowed police to interrogate two journalists in their custody for four days in connection with the murder of a garment worker, who joined recent student protests against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that forced her to step down and flee to India earlier this month.

Ekattor TV’s former Head of News Shakil Ahmed and former Principal Correspondent Farzana Rupa were arrested on Wednesday when the couple, along with their young daughter, went to Dhaka’s main Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to travel overseas.

After hours of questioning at the airport, the couple was taken into custody. They had attempted to board a Turkish Airlines flight to Paris via Istanbul. The two journalists worked for the pro-Hasina TV channel and were fired by authorities after her government’s fall, apparently under pressure from student leaders who are regularly issuing ultimatums to remove people from various sectors.

On Thursday, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ahmed Humayun Kabir granted four days of police remand after hearing an application filed by police official Mohaiminur Rahman, who had sought a 10-day remand for questioning them.

Names of Ahmed and Rupa were not initially included in a murder case of the garment worker who died during a demonstration on Aug. 5 in Dhaka’s Uttara. The case named 39 accused including Hasina for murder. The journalists were arrested as two of the unnamed accused.

Police said Thursday that the journalist couple had instigated the government of former Hasina to kill protesters.

“We came to know based on a tip-off that the accused had instigated the (former) government to crush the students in the quota reform movement. The misery behind the incident will be revealed if police interrogate the accused thoroughly,” according to the police petition to the court.

The development came as interim leader Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel laureate, is overhauling the bureaucracy, judiciary and other public sectors, including the central bank and universities, by changing their heads.

Yunus-led government has also fired more than 1,800 elected local government representatives across the country since he took over on Aug. 8 after Hasina stepped down on Aug. 5 in the face of a mass uprising that followed attacks, vandalism and killings of many people loyal to Hasina. The parliament was also dissolved after she quit.

The United Nations said in a report recently that more than 650 people died in the violence. It said nearly 400 deaths were reported between July 16 and August 4, while around 250 people were reportedly killed following the new wave of violence between Aug. 5 and 6 after Hasina’s downfall.

On Thursday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch expressed concern over the arrest of the journalist couple.

“It is extremely concerning that the justice system is replicating its abusive and partisan behavior since the fall of the Awami League government (of Hasina), with arbitrary arrests and failure in due process, merely reversing those targeted,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy director of the agency’s Asia Division, in an email to The Associated Press.

“While there is legitimate anger over the abuses under Sheikh Hasina’s authoritarian governance, the focus should be on reform, not reprisal, which will only serve to undermine the pledges of the interim government,” she said.

The student protests, which began against a quota system for government jobs, were initially peaceful but turned violent on July 15. Later they morphed into a movement against what was considered Hasina’s increasingly autocratic administration. The uprising eventually forced Hasina to leave office, ending her 15-year rule.

Hasina, 76, was elected to a fourth consecutive term in January, but the vote was boycotted by her main opponents, with thousands of opposition activists detained beforehand.

On Thursday, a team from the United Nations arrived in Bangladesh to discuss the process of investigating alleged human rights violations during the deadly violence in the country.

The U.N. office in Bangladesh said the team will visit Dhaka on Aug. 22-29. “The purpose of this visit is to understand their priorities for assistance in promoting human rights,” it added.

Referring to the attack on at least seven TV stations and newspapers in recent weeks, A U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday that any such attacks should be accountable.

“The safety and well-being of journalists anywhere in the world is of critical importance for any country, especially for countries going through a transition. It is important that journalists be allowed to do their work, and that those who commit violence against journalists be held to account,” Dujarric said.

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Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.