A Dhaka court has granted a five-day remand for Shawkat Mahmud, former president of the National Press Club and secretary general of Janata Party Bangladesh, in a case filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act with Ramna Model Police Station.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Fahmida Khandakar Anna issued the order on Thursday after a hearing.
On 7 December, Dhaka Metropolitan Detective Police (DB) arrested him in front of his residence in Malibagh.
Later, he was shown arrested in the same case in which Bangladeshi-origin US citizen Enayet Karim Chowdhury had been detained on allegations of involvement in a conspiracy to overthrow the government.
Earlier, on 8 December at around 2:30pm, DB police brought Shawkat Mahmud to the Dhaka CMM Court in a microbus and kept him in the courtroom lock-up.
Afterwards, the investigation officer, Inspector Akhtar Morshed of DB’s Ramna Zonal Team, produced him before the court and sought a 10-day remand. The court said the hearing on the remand plea would be held on Thursday.
According to the remand petition, Shawkat Mahmud and other unidentified accused, in collusion with Enayet Karim Chowdhury, have been creating fear among the public at various times with intentions that could endanger the country’s integrity, solidarity, public safety or sovereignty.
With the aim of toppling the current government, they allegedly held secret meetings, gatherings and consultations with leaders of various political parties, high-level individuals and members of the business community.
The petition further states that in collusion with other accused, Shawkat Mahmud seeks to destabilise Bangladesh’s political, economic and social situation on behalf of an influential foreign state.
For this reason, interrogation is necessary to uncover information about which parties or organisations he has been secretly “consulting.”
