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Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy has ripped into Ganajagaran Mancha Spokesperson Imran H Sarker for condemning the arrest of journalist Shafik Rehman.
Published : 17 Apr 2016, 10:00 PM
Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Adviser, in a post on his Facebook wall on Sunday, called Sarker an ‘opportunist’.
Joy also urged his ‘friends and fans’ to stop following Sarker on the social networking site.
Sarker, also in a Facebook post, condemned the arrest and subsequent police remand of pro-BNP journalist Rehman on Saturday.
He, however, made it clear that their political views were not the same.
“I want an end to this dirty political tactics of suppressing dissent,” he explained.
The 33-year old became a well-known personality after becoming the spokesperson for the Ganajagaran Mancha in February 2013. He was the convenor of Blogger and Online Activist Network at the time.
Sarker, a leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League’s Rangpur Medical College unit, then got involved deeply with the platform’s movement, demanding maximum punishment for the 1971 war criminals.
Joy on Sunday wrote in his Facebook page, “I expected the BNP to try to lie about this. However, I am surprised at Imran Sarkar.
“Perhaps he has finally exposed his true face. It looks like he has become like most of our civil society, another opportunist and a liar. Maybe the BNP paid him off. Who knows,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son added.
He continued, “Either way, I have lost all respect for him. He needs to retract his statement and apologize to our Government.”
He went on to urge all his friends and fans who follow Sarker to unfollow/unfriend him on Facebook.
Shafik Rehman was arrested at his home at Dhaka’s Eskaton on Saturday morning.
Police then told court the senior journalist was arrested in a case filed in August last year over his alleged involvement in the ‘plot to abduct and murder' Joy.
In the afternoon, Rehman was produced before a Dhaka court, which granted police a five-day remand to question him.
Joy on Sunday also claimed the government had evidence of Rehman’s involvement in the conspiracy to kill him.
“The US Department of Justice discovered Shafik Rehman’s direct involvement in the plot to kidnap and kill me. They provided this evidence to our Government. He was arrested based on this evidence,” he wrote.
“I cannot disclose more, but the evidence is direct and irrefutable.”
A US court in March last year had sentenced one Rizve Ahmed Caesar to three and a half years in prison for bribing a former FBI official for confidential information on a Bangladeshi politician.
Caesar is the son of the BNP’s US unit leader Mohammad Ullah Mamun, the prime accused in the case filed at Dhaka’s Paltan Police Station, in which Shafik Rehman has also been implicated.
Although the US Department of Justice records kept the identity of Caesar’s intended victim a secret, the ruling Awami League claimed that it was Joy.
The former FBI Special Agent Robert Lustyik whom Caesar had bribed was also sentenced to five years in prison in September last year for taking bribes.
