Senior journalist and former president of the National Press Club and Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), Shaukat Mahmud, has been released on bail after spending more than five and a half months in prison.
He was freed from Keraniganj Central Jail in Dhaka on Monday evening. Senior Jail Superintendent Faruk Ahmed confirmed the matter.
Sources concerned said Mahmud had been in custody after being shown arrested in multiple cases filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act. He was released following court approval of his bail and completion of the required legal formalities.
According to case documents, Bangladesh-born US citizen Enayet Karim Chowdhury was first arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act on September 20 last year. Later, on December 7, Mahmud was detained from Dhaka’s Malibagh area and shown arrested in the same case. Records further indicate that he was again shown arrested in the case on March 30 this year.
The case statement says Chowdhury moved to the United States in 1988 and obtained US citizenship in 2004. It alleges that he returned to Bangladesh from New York on September 6 as an agent of a foreign intelligence agency, with the intent to overthrow the country’s legally established interim government.
According to the complaint, on September 13 at around 10:30am, Chowdhury was seen moving suspiciously in a Prado vehicle in the Minto Road area. Police intercepted the vehicle, and after he failed to provide a satisfactory explanation, he was taken into custody. Two iPhones were seized from him, and a case under the Anti-Terrorism Act was filed with Ramna Model Police Station.
The case also led to the arrest of several others, including Kazi Md Mamunur Rashid, secretary general of the Rowshan faction of the Jatiya Party, among others.
