Ganajagaran Mancha’s Imran H Sarker condemns arrest of Shafik Rehman

Ganajagaran Mancha spokesperson Imran H Sarker has condemned the arrest and subsequent remand of journalist Shafik Rehman to police custody.

Sarker in a Facebook post on Saturday, 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 said.

Rehman was picked up by Detective Branch officials from his home at Dhaka's Eskaton on Saturday morning.

After the arrest, DMP Deputy Commissioner (Media) Maruf Hossain Sardar had said Rehman had been nabbed in a sedition case filed in 2015 with the Paltan police.

But later he said the journalist had been shown arrested in a case over his alleged involvement in the ‘plot to abduct' Joy.

In the afternoon, Rehman was produced before a Dhaka court, which granted police a five-day remand to question him.

Condemning the arrest, Sarker pointed out that Rehman is an octogenarian. 

Sarker said it was ‘disappointing’ that a veteran journalist was arrested on ‘imaginary’ charges while murderers of bloggers, publisher, foreigners, and people of different religious views got scot free.

He hoped ‘good sense’ would prevail on the government and it would give more attention to improve the law and order instead of ‘suppressing dissents’.