Prothom Alo journo held at dead of night

GBNEWS24DESK//

A Prothom Alo reporter was picked up from his home in Savar by law enforcers wearing plainclothes around 4:00am yesterday, triggering widespread criticism.

Samsuzzaman Shams, a staff correspondent based in Savar, was detained less than two hours after a Jubo League leader sued him under the Digital Security Act (DSA).

Journalist organisations and rights bodies condemned the incident and demanded his immediate release.

No law enforcement agencies admitted detaining him.

But at 12:36am today, Shams called a senior colleague at Prothom Alo and said a CID team was about to drop him off in front of the Bangabandhu International Conference Center, a senior reporter of the newspaper said.

The colleague then told Shams to wait for him in front of the BICC for 10 minutes.

Shams replied, “It seems there is another team there.”

He was then heard requesting someone to drop him off a few yards ahead.

Two reporters then rushed to the spot, but could not find him. Shams’ phone was also unreachable by that time.

Multiple sources including sub-inspector Raju Mondol of Ashulia Police Station, who accompanied the men in plainclothes, and Shams’ landlord Ferdous Alam, said a Criminal Investigation Department team from Dhaka picked him up from his flat in Ambagan area near Jahangirnagar University.

Ferdous told reporters that the CID members said the state has an objection to a report he wrote.

Around 1:15pm, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told journalists at his Secretariat office that a case was filed against Shams over a report published on Independence Day.

Asked why law enforcers told the landlord that the state has an objection about his report, the home minister said it was not about the state’s objection.

On Independence Day, Prothom Alo ran a report on its website, and while posting the report on social media, it made a “card” with a quote of a labourer named Zakir Hossain. Although the card contained Zakir’s quote, it had the photo of an adolescent boy taken from behind.

The mistake was noticed within 17 minutes, and the card was removed immediately. Besides, corrections were made to the report and the news was again published online mentioning the corrections.

Prothom Alo maintains that the report doesn’t mention that the quote was of that boy in the photo. Rather, the report clearly says that it was Zakir who said this.

Shams, aged 37, is the younger brother of the slain Detective Branch assistant commissioner Robiul Karim, who died at the Holey Artisan Bakery during the terrorist attack on July 1, 2016.

The man who filed the case is Syed Golam Kibria, 36, general secretary of Ward-11 committee of Dhaka North City Jubo League.

He filed the case against Shams and several unnamed others with Tejgaon Police Station under the DSA.

He wrote in the complaint that a “false and fabricated report [was published] on the website of daily Prothom Alo on Independence Day to worsen the law and order in the country.”

According to the document, the case was filed around 2:15am. Witnesses said the CID team went to Shams’s home around 4:00am.