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Published : 16 Apr 2025, 02:45 PM
Former shipping minister Shajahan Khan, who has been behind bars for the last seven months since the fall of the Awami League government, says he is "doing well" and spent Eid in "good spirits".
The Awami League Presidium member made the remarks to reporters while being taken from the holding cell at Dhaka's Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court to the courtroom for a hearing on Wednesday.
"I'm fine," he said with a smile.
When asked how he spent Eid, Shajahan said: "It went pretty well. I'm safe from criminals. I'm keeping well."
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Minhazur Rahman authorised Shajahan's arrest in three more cases filed with the Jatrabari Police Station linked to last year's Anti-discrimination Student Movement that toppled the Sheikh Hasina regime.
During the hearing, Shajahan stood near the dock, listening attentively as the proceedings unfolded. At one point, he was seen smiling and chatting with other suspects in the dock.
Even as he was being taken back to the holding cell, with handcuffs on and wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet, the ex-minister appeared upbeat.
When asked how he spent the Bengali New Year in jail, a chuckling Shajahan said: "How much more do you want to hear from me? Why don’t you tell me something instead?"
Police arrested Shajahan on Sept 5, 2024, in Dhanmondi exactly a month after the fall of the Awami League government. He was later placed under arrest in multiple cases and remanded for question on several occasions.
Shajahan is the president of the Bangladesh Workers' Federation.
He won the Madaripur-2 parliamentary seat as an independent candidate for the first time in 1986.
He then won the same seat as an Awami League nominee in the 1991, 1996, 2001, 2008, 2014, 2018 and 2024 elections.
