Wanted Kader Siddiqui waiting for police at home

Abdul Kader Siddiqui says he is now in the ‘custody’ of his wife and waiting for police to arrive to take him in custody ever since an arrest warrant was out for him in a defamation suit.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 12 Nov 2014, 07:21 PM
Updated : 12 Nov 2014, 08:13 PM

His wife Nasrin Siddiqui was with him when the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Janata League (BKSJL) president met the press at his home on Wednesday.

Siddiqui said he had not moved to secure bail in the case.

"The situation in the country is not good. They can arrest me any time. I am waiting for them at home,” he said.

A Dhaka court issued the warrant for the freedom-fighter, who was awarded Bir Uttam for his bravery, in a defamation case filed against him for having called former home minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir a ‘Razakar’, or a war-time collaborator of the Pakistani Army.

The National Freedom Fighter Foundation General Secretary Ruhul Amin Majumdar filed the case in Feb 19 last year.

At a discussion on Sept 2, 2012, Siddiqui had alleged that Alamgir tried to defend Pakistan as an additional deputy commissioner of Mymensingh.

He also claimed that Alamgir had created and paid vigilante groups such as the Al-Badr and Al Shams.

Siddiqui on Wednesday said, “Alamgir was loyal to Pakistan and subservient to it, an officer loyal to Pakistan whose crimes were more grave than those of the Razakars.”

He said the issuance of an arrest warrant against a freedom fighter on the basis of a defamation charge levelled by a Pakistan loyalist amounted to disrespect to all freedom fighters and to the Liberation War of 1971 itself.

"I had thought that the present government, fired by the spirit of the War of Independence, would reward me for unmasking a Razakar who had nurtured others like him.”

He also slammed the magistrate who issued the warrant. “The magistrate has issued the warrant against the Liberation War, he has ordered the arrest of all freedom fighters,” Siddique claimed.

Nasrin said her husband was quite prepared to go to jail for calling a spade a spade. “My family and I are not afraid of jail,” she said.

Siddiqui also alleged that most of the high-ranking officials in police and local administrations during the war had played the role of Razakars and demanded their punishment.