Staff Reporter :
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged that writer Mushtaq Ahmed was tortured to death in jail.
“Those who are trying to express their opinions freely in the media are facing a terrible suffering. Either they have to become the victim of disappearance or to die in government custody. Mushtaq is the latest ruthless victim of it. Originally, Mushtaq Ahmed was brutally tortured to death in prison,” said Fakhrul in a statement on Friday.
He continued saying, “Mushtaq was not a looter or a black marketer, a terrorist or a robber. Mushtaq
Meanwhile, US-based rights body ‘Committee to Protect Journalists’ has called on the Bangladeshi authorities to conduct a swift, transparent, and independent investigation into the death of writer and commentator Mushtaq Ahmed in custody.
It also demanded release of jailed political cartoonist Kishore unconditionally and to investigate whether he was subjected to physical abuse in custody, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement from New York on Friday.
Brad Adams, Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, on Friday released a statement regarding the devastating death of Mushtaq Ahmed where he said the writer should not have been detained in the first place.
Meanwhile, an unnatural death case has been filed with GMP’s Joydebpur Police Station in connection with Mushtaq’s death.
Autopsy of the writer has been completed at Gazipur Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Medical College Hospital morgue. The autopsy ended at 12:30 pm.
Syed Bayezid, Sub-Inspector of Joydevpur Police Station in Gazipur who prepared the inquest report said Mushtaq’s inquest report was prepared at 10:30 am on Friday.
“Sores were found in the middle of his back. Reddish-black small spots were found on his right and left hands,” he added.
He suspects that the wounds and spots may have occurred while taking the body to the hospital with the ambulance. However, it can be confirmed after receiving the autopsy report, he added.
After the autopsy, the dead body was sent to writer’s residence in Lalmatia in the city at evening. Mushtaq’s namaj-e-janaza was likely to be held at Minar Mosque in Lalmatia after Esha prayers, said his brother Dr Nafisur Rahman.
The body will be buried at Azimpur graveyard, he added.
Writer Mushtaq Ahmed died on Thursday night in the Kashimpur High Security Jail-3 in Gazipur. He had been jailed under the controversial Digital Security Act for over nine months in the custody.
He was denied bail six times and finally passed away.
“He lost consciousness suddenly around 7:10 pm. Immediately, we took him to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital. There, doctor declared him dead around 8:20 pm,” said Gias Uddin, Acting Superintendent of Kashimpur High Security Jail.
Mushtaq was 53.
Quoting doctors, Brigadier General Md Mominur Rahman Mamun, Inspector General of Prisons, told that Mushtaq was brought dead in the hospital and that details would be known once the autopsy is done. Md Sharif, a doctor of the hospital, also said Mushtaq was dead on arrival.
He lived with his wife Lipa Akhter and elderly parents in Lalmatia.
He used to write under the pen name Michael Kumir Thakur. His book “Kumir Chasher Diary” was published in November 2018, and he was writing on another book.
He was critical, on social media, of the government’s handling of the pandemic.
On May 6 last year, Rapid Action Battalion arrested him from his Dhaka home for “spreading rumours and carrying out anti-government activities”.
The charges were filed under the DSA and he had been in that prison since August 20.
The other accused in the case are Ahmed Kabir Kishore, a cartoonist; Didarul Islam, a member of politico-civic organization called Rashtrachinta; and Minhaj Mannan Emon, Managing Director of BLE securities and shareholder-director of Dhaka Stock Exchange.
Besides, seven more people, including Swedish-Bangladeshi journalist Tasneem Khalil, who runs Netra News; US-based journalist Shahed Alam; blogger Asif Mohiuddin; and expatriate Zulkarnain Saer Khan were named in the case.
