BNP’s Mosharraf faces sedition charges over ‘ISI audio’

An intercepted telephone conversation purportedly between a top BNP leader and a senior official of a Pakistani spy agency has set the social media ablaze.

With the audio leaks out in the open, BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain now faces a sedition case that accuses him of plotting to “sabotage” the national election set for Dec 30.

The conversation available on YouTube feeds well into the ruling Awami League’s longstanding allegation that the opposition party has ties with the military intelligence outfit.

The ruling party seized the moment. Mohammad Ali Sumon, a retired army major and chairman of Daudkandi Upazila Parishad in Cumilla filed the case against the BNP leader with the police.

Mosharraf Hossain has been ‘plotting to sabotage’ the 11th national general election in that conversation with Mehmood, a Dubai-based operative of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, Ali alleged in the case.

Ali urged the police to take necessary steps in line with the law.

Mosharraf Hossain, on the other hand, dismissed the audio as ‘fake’ saying he never spoke to anyone from the ISI.

Daudkandi police chief Alamgir Hossain said they accepted the allegation from Ali, but any sedition case needs permission from the home ministry to proceed.

“We’re preparing to send the matter to the top authorities,” OC Alamgir Hossain said.

Mosharraf Hossain, a BNP standing committee member, is contesting as a candidate from the BNP and the Jatiya Oikya Front for Comilla-1 and 2 seats in the election.

Ali, the complainant of the case, is the son of Awami League candidate for the Comilla-1 constituency Subid Ali Bhuiyan.

Awami League leaders have long been complaining that the leaders from BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami were ‘hatching a plot’ with the Pakistan intelligence agency. Now they have found the audio clip as evidence.

Some television channels have broadcast reports based on the audio. Somoy Television has uploaded a seven-minute audio of the conversation to their YouTube channel.

The two voices in the audio are purportedly of Mosharraf Hossain and the alleged ISI operative. They had met earlier in an Islamabad hotel. They were willing to meet again but the cases filed against Mosharraf came as a deterrent.

“You know we’re really in crisis. I have several cases. And with excuse of one case my passport is seized. I cannot go out of the country. This is my position,” said a man believed to be Mosharraf Hossain.

“I am still what you think. But practical connection or communication is impossible for me. To come out, I know that would be fruitful; but what I want to mean is I will meet your man here so you can get the message. But now what I like to request you that from your side if you can cooperate with China, that will be useful before the election,” he is heard saying at one point in the conversation.

That has already been done and that is why it is better to send over a delegate, said the second man at the other end. A meeting can be arranged if there is an opportunity to travel abroad for medial reasons or for ‘Umrah,’ he said. But before it happens, they will maintain the communication through the person from their ‘office’ staying in Bangladesh, he said.

Mosharraf Hossain spoke to ISI agent Mehmood over his mobile phone about the upcoming election in Bangladesh which was published in the Asian Tribune on Dec 11, according to the complaint filed by Ali.

Mosharraf has committed a “crime of sedition” by having such discussion, Ali alleged.

“I don’t know the person called Mehmood or any other ISI personnel or official. I didn’t have any conversation with the said person or ISI official,” Mosharraf said in a statement.