Quader visits sedition-charged Manna at hospital

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader has visited Nagorik Oikya Convenor Mahmudur Rahman Manna, who was recently freed on bail in cases over sedition and inciting the army, at hospital.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 23 Dec 2016, 09:32 PM
Updated : 23 Dec 2016, 09:32 PM

Quader went to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University around Friday noon.

He greeted Manna with flowers and inquired about his health during the half an hour-long visit. They reminisced about the old days.

Quader, the road transport and bridges minister, requested BSMMU Vice-Chancellor Kamrul Hasan Khan on phone to arrange good treatment of the former Awami League leader.  

"We did politics together for a long time. There are relations beyond politics. I wanted to come yesterday but couldn't due to election," the Awami League general secretary told the media after the visit.

Manna defeated Quader twice consecutively to become Dhaka University Central Students' Union (DUCSU) vice-president (VP) in 1979 and 1980. Manna was a leader of JaSoD Chhatra League and Quader was from Mujibbadi Chhatra League at that time.

Manna joined the Awami League later in the 90s and was made organising secretary. Quader was a joint general secretary of the party then.

Manna formed Nagorik Oikya after he was driven out of the Awami League during the 2008 elections for expressing reformist views during the 2007-08 military-backed caretaker government.

He was arrested on Feb 25 last year after two audio clips of his telephone conversations with BNP leader Sadeque Hossain Khoka and another unidentified man were leaked.

They were heard discussing plans to engineer clashes at Dhaka University and incite the army to destabilise the government.

In the conversation with the unidentified person, Manna, a former student leader, expressed his eagerness to sit with generals for a military intervention.

He told Khoka that a few deaths could destabilise the government if a clash over occupying the Dhaka University residential halls could be engineered.

Twenty-one months after his arrest in two cases over sedition and inciting the army, Manna was freed on Dec 18 on bail and later got admitted to BSMMU for treatment.