Police arrest BNP chief’s advisor Shawkat Mahmud

Advisor to the BNP Chairperson and journalist union leader Shawkat Mahmud has been arrested.

Detective branch picked him from Dhaka’s Panthapath on Tuesday while he was on his way to attend a press conference.

The police are yet to comment on the arrest, but the home minister has said that Mahmud is accused in several violence-related cases.

A former president and general secretary of the National Press Club, Mahmud heads a faction of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists.

He was on his way to attend a media briefing at a convention centre at the capital’s Panthapath.

The press meet was organised by a citizens’ platform ‘Adarsha Dhaka Andolan’, which campaigned for BNP-backed Dhaka North mayor candidate Tabith Awal during the Apr 28 polls.

Mahmud is the member secretary of the platform, which was supposed to hold the press conference over rigging allegations during the City Corporation polls.

A member of the platform and BNP leader Amjad Hossain said that police stopped the car carrying Mahmud near the convention centre and whisked him away in a white microbus.

Detective Branch is yet to comment on the matter, but one of its official, preferring anonymity, told bdnews24.com that he is accused in cases related to violence filed with the Jatrabarhi police in Dhaka. 

Meanwhile, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal says the arrest was made in pursuance of the cases.

“Shawkat Mahmud is accused in several cases. That’s why he has been arrested,” he told reporters at his office.