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Odhikar's Hefajat Report

2 accused of instigation

Rights body sees filing of charge sheet as 'further crackdown'

Staff Correspondent
Detectives have accused two top officials of the rights body Odhikar of publishing "a distorted report and photoshopped images" on the May 5 police action on a Hefajat-e Islam rally in the capital, in order to stoke people's religious sentiments.
On completion of their probe into the Odhikar claim of 61 deaths during the
midnight raid, the Detective Branch of police yesterday pressed charges in a Dhaka court against Odhikar Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and its Director SM Nasiruddin Elan.
"We investigated Odhikar's facts finding report uploaded on its website in Bangla and English on June 10. We found numerous distortions and false and fabricated information in the report," DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam told journalists at his office.
The cover page of the report also carried photoshopped images. In one photo, an injured Hefajat activist was depicted as dead. The photos of four other people, who died earlier in the day at
other places, were shown as victims of the midnight raid, Monirul added.
"The distorted report and the doctored images on its cover page may instigate the religious sentiments of the Muslims and malign law enforcers and the country as well as the government at home and abroad," he said.
Following Odhikar's report, the government sought from it the list of 61 dead persons, which the organisation refused to provide on the ground of protecting the families of the victims. It instead gave it a list of those who had been injured.
The rights organisation later claimed to have given the list to some international human rights organisations and local Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK). But ASK says it has not received any such list till date.
The names of 18 victims Odhikar mentioned in the report had already been published in the media. But none of these 18 people was known to have been killed during the midnight police operation at Shapla Chattar.
Following Adilur's arrest on August 10, police found a list of 61 people in Odhikar's computers that they seized last month. The law enforcers crossed checked those before concluding that the list was prepared with an ill-motive, according to Monirul.
Adilur, now in Kashimpur jail, and Nasiruddin were charged under the Information Communications Technology (ICT) Act, 2006, and the Penal Code.
The duo face up to 10 years in jail or Tk 1 crore in fine under the ICT Act and seven years in jail under the Penal Code.
Asked why only two Odhikar officials had been charged, Monirul told The Daily Star that they had so
far found the direct and active involvement of the two in the preparation, publication and dissemination of the report.
In the courtroom, where Adilur was not present, DB Inspector Ashraful Islam appealed to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, to issue an arrest order for Nasiruddin.
The court of Metropolitan Magistrate Joynab Begum will decide today on the acceptance of the charge sheet and the issuance of the arrest order.
Adilur was initially detained as a suspect under Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure, as the crime he committed was non-cognizable and it was not possible to file a case against him directly due to legal complications. He was arrested shortly after the filing of a general diary, said
the DB joint commissioner.
The cabinet has recently amended the ICT law as cognizable and police can arrest any person under the law without an arrest order.
Explaining Odhikar's distortion, Monirul said 18 people never existed at the addresses mentioned in the list, five people were named twice, four are still alive and six died in Narayanganj and Hathazari violence and one through heart attack. The serial number 10 on the list is blank.
A police sub-inspector was beaten dead by Hefajat men in the capital, but the Odhikar list did not include his name. Besides, the report is completely one-sided as it did not narrate the day-long atrocities and killings by the Hefajat activists, Monirul said.
During the day, 11 people were killed in clashes
between police and Hefajat activists in the capital. Two more people injured in the clashes died later in the hospital. Thirteen other people died in different places across the country in different incidents, including road accidents, but the Odhikar report claimed they all died in the midnight police operation, said Monirul.
Meanwhile, Odhikar yesterday described the case against its secretary and director as a move to launch a "further crackdown on the organisation".
In a press release, it said instead of producing Adilur in court, police had pressed charges against him and sought to arrest Elan.
It also claimed that detectives could not show any proof that Odhikar had distorted any image by using Photoshop software.