Govt closes Amar Desh

Dhaka, June 1 (bdnews24.com)— The government on Tuesday night closed opposition BNP-leaning daily Amar Desh newspaper hours after its publisher Hashmat Ali sued acting editor Mahmudur Rahman for fraud.

Police entered its office to arrest Mahmudur but was thwarted by journalists and other staff.

A journalist of the newspaper told bdnews24.com that the police shut down the press at Love Road in Tejgaon at 11:30pm.

The drama unfolding since morning--when Hashmat's family said he had been whisked away by intelligence to an undisclosed place--took a new twist with the Dhaka's deputy commissioner cancelling the paper's declaration.

The commissioner signed an order to this effect at 10pm, an official of his office said, preferring anonymity.

It was not clear on what grounds the broadsheet, which hit the stands during NNP'led government's term in Sept, 2004, was closed.

The Amar Desh building in Karwan Bazar as well as its press in Tejgaon had been surrounded by a large number of law enforcers amid swirling rumours that the paper's declaration had been cancelled.

The government last month knocked private TV station Channel 1 off the air citing irregularities.

The newspaper's chief correspondent Syed Abdal Ahmed told bdnews24.com around 11:35pm, " The press started printing Wednesday's paper an hour before but police did not allow distribution to news agent's.

"They said printing will stop."

Tejgaon Industrial Area police chief Omar Faruk earlier told bdnews24.com that a complaint had been lodged against Mahmudur, who earlier in the day alleged that the government was planning to shut down the newspaper.

The former energy adviser to ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia rushed a news conference at the pro-BNP daily's office and said he had talked with Hashmat after he had returned from his detention at National Security Intelligence office, who had told him that he was 'frightened'.

Mahmudur said the NSI men took Hasmat and forced him to sign two papers. "He was made to sit at their office until 2pm while the investigators pressed him to sign two papers."

"One of the papers was addressed to Dhaka's deputy commissioner and the other to Tejgaon police chief. The papers state that Hashmat Ali is not the publisher of Amar Desh. Legal steps can be taken as his name is being printed as the publisher."

"He was forced to sit until he signed the papers. Later Hashmat Ali signed the papers and was released after a five-hour detention," said Mahmudur.

A former chairman of the Board of Investment, Mahmudur said the press meet was organised to protest the current government's 'fascist' behaviour and conspiracy against the news media.

Hashmat's family had earlier told bdnews24.com that he had been detained for six hours after some intelligence officials whisked him away around 9am.

He returned to his Shahjahanpur residence around 3pm but went out, they said.

"He went out after a while," a member of his family said, without elaborating on the matter.

Mahmudur had claimed at around 1pm that National Security Intelligence took Hashmat and were forcibly trying to file a case against him.

Neither NSI officials nor the police admitted the detention.

NSI director Shafiqullah told bdnews24.com earlier that they had not detained anybody by that name.

"He is probably sitting at home."

"This is reminiscent of June 16, 1975 when all but four newspapers were banned," Mahmudur said of Ali's detention. "Coincidentally, this is June again."

"I have heard that he is being coerced into bringing charges against me," he told bdnews24.com. "Is this what they have learnt from the Moeen Uddins, the perpetrators of 1/11?"

"I guess they will try to file a case against me," he said.

Mahmudur took over the management of the newspaper in 2008. Later he sent a letter to the deputy commissioner for serving as editor of the newspaper. Since then he has been the acting editor of the newspaper.

He said, "[The government] has already closed down two television channels. With 'Digital Bangladesh' as their slogan they have shut down Facebook.

"Now they are conspiring to close down national dailies. As a part of this conspiracy, the Amar Desh publisher was picked up. Now they are conspiring to close down the daily and arrest me."

He also urged all journalists and media professionals, irrespective of their political inclinations, to "stand against this conspiracy".

Mahmudur, also the chairman of Amar Desh Publications Limited, said "This daily speaks for a free and sovereign state. As a result, many of its news are not going in favour of the government and are displeasing them. So they are trying to shut it down."

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