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Published : 08 Dec 2025, 05:35 PM
A court has sent journalist Shaukat Mahmood, secretary general of the newly-formed Janata Party Bangladesh, to jail over charges under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jewel Rana passed the order on Monday, setting Thursday for hearing a police plea seeking to place Shaukat, also a former president of the National Press Club, on a 10-day remand.
Shaukat was arrested on Sunday in connection with a case filed against Bangladeshi-origin US citizen Enayet Karim Chowdhury over his involvement in a “conspiracy to topple” the interim government.
After his arrest, investigation officer Inspector Akhtar Morshed of the Detective Branch’s (DB) Ramna unit, produced him in court on Monday.
Earlier, around 2:30pm, the DB brought him to court in a microbus and kept him in the CMM court lock-up.
Sub-Inspector Jinnat Ali of the prosecution said the remand hearing was set to a later date due to the unavailability of the case documents.
In the remand plea, Inspector Akhtar Morshed said Shaukat and several unnamed suspects, working with Enayet, tried to create fear among the public and threaten the country’s security, unity and sovereignty.
He also claimed they held secret meetings with political leaders, high-ranking officials and businesspeople to topple the interim government.
The plea also said Shaukat, along with others, had been trying to destabilise Bangladesh’s political, economic and social situation on behalf of a “powerful foreign nation”. Police want to question him to find out which groups he “conspired with”.
According to the case statement, Enayet moved to the United States in 1988 and became a US citizen in 2004. He allegedly came to Bangladesh on Sept 6 as an agent of a foreign intelligence agency to help overthrow the interim government.
The case says that around 10:30am on Sept 13, he was seen “moving suspiciously” in a Toyota Prado SUV in the capital’s Minto Road. Police stopped him after becoming suspicious. When asked why he was there, he could not give an answer. Police then detained him and seized two iPhones from his possession.
