Seize Oli Ahmad’s book, block Kanak Sarwar’s videos: High Court

The High Court has ordered the government to ban and seize the copies of a book, written by Oli Ahmad, the president of the Liberal Democratic Party or LDP, for distorting the history of the Liberation War.

Oli, a retired colonel and former BNP leader, has described the BNP’s founder and former military ruler Ziaur Rahman as the “first interim president of the country” in the book titled “Revolution, Military Personnel and the War of Liberation in Bangladesh”.

The court also ordered the ministries of Liberation War, home, information on Tuesday to ban and seize the other books where Oli distorted history of the 1971 war. 

It ordered Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to “ban, block, make ineffective and remove” all video contents that are “against the country” and uploaded by journalist Kanak Sarwar, including an Aug 17 interview of Oli, on Kanak’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Oli described Zia as the “first interim president of the country” in the interview as well.

The bench of Justice Md Khasruzzaman and Justice Md Mahmud Hassan Talukder passed the orders with a set of rules after initial hearing of a writ petition filed by Imtiaz Uddin Asif, a Supreme Court lawyer.

In one of the rules, the court asked the authorities why their inaction in banning,

blocking, making ineffective, and removing the interview of Oli shall not be deemed beyond their legal authority.

It also asked why it shall not order the confiscation of Oli’s “Revolution, Military Personnel and the War of Liberation in Bangladesh”, and “proper legal action” against him for “distorting history and writing things that are contradictory to the preamble of the constitution”.

Lawyer Shah Monjurul Hoque, who stood for the petitioner, said the court passed the orders and rules considering that the next generations would be misled by the book and the interview. Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar represented the state.  

Petitioner Asif first sent a legal notice to Oli on Sept 7 asking him to withdraw his comments from the interview. But Oli refused doing so in a reply on Sept 7, adding that he mentioned the comments in a book as well, the lawyer said. Asif then filed the writ petition on Nov 22.

Oli left the army and joined the BNP in 1978 after military strongman Zia formed the party. Oli went on to become a member of its policymaking body the National Standing Committee. He had also worked as a minister of BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s government.

Oli and another former BNP leader, AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, formed the LDP in 2006.

Badruddoza, who had been the president of Bangladesh once, later revived his old party Bikalpadhara Bangladesh after he fell out with Oli, whose LDP was registered by the Election Commission in 2008.