The High Court today (August 31, 2022) cleared the way for a lower court concerned to resume the trial proceedings of a sensational case filed for killing four officials of Bangladesh Television (BTV) during the mass upsurge in 1975.
 
The four officials, who were killed in Dhaka's Rampura were the then deputy general director (programme) of BTV Monirul Alam, its administrative officer AFM Siddique, chief accountant Akmal Khan and photographer Firoz Kaiyum Chowdhury.

A year after the killings, three of their skeletons were recovered from Motijheel, but Monirul's corpse was never discovered. The remains were laid to rest in the Azimpur graveyard. The four kidnapping cases that the families had filed eventually turned into a murder case.

Today, the HC lifted the stay order issued on April 25, 2010, on the trial proceedings of the case. 

The bench of Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique and Justice Md Mahmud Hassan Talukder lifted the stay order after rejecting a petition filed by Altaf Hossain, an accused in the murder case, in 2005 seeking cancellation of the trial proceedings.   

Following today's HC order, the trial proceedings against five accused will run at the lower court as one accused has already died and proceedings against the other three accused have been scrapped by the HC earlier, Deputy Attorney General Samira Tarannum Rabyea told The Daily Star.

Attorney General AM Amin Uddin appeared for the state while lawyers Md Ozi Ullah, Md Harun Ur Rashid and Sheikh Rezaul Haque stood for accused petitioner Altaf Hossain.       

Following the assassination of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members on August 15, 1975, army personnel were reportedly stationed at radio and TV stations in Dhaka.

Third and fourth-grade BTV staff members were agitating at the time to get their demands met, but the authorities were rejecting them.

The honorary Lt Altaf Hossain of the army, stationed at the TV station in Rampura, had a meeting with the leaders of the protesting staff and agreed to help them in getting their demands met.

On November 6, 1975, Altaf and the other leaders decided to confine important officials to press for their demands.

On the morning of November 7 of that year, Altaf, BTV staff members Abul Quashem Bagoja, Abul Awal Sarkar, Lutfar Rahman Talukder, Syed Ainul Kabir, Ainuzzaman, and Md Shahjahan Miaji detained Monirul Alam, Akmal Hossain, and AB Siddique at the TV entrance and killed them.

We are hardly surprised that there was no meaningful outcome of the dialogue arranged by the Election Commission (EC) with all the registered political parties in the country on Saturday. Almost a third of the parties invited, including the BNP, did not even attend the talks, which were arranged reportedly to apprise them of its preparations to hold the upcoming 12th parliamentary election. The commission decided to hold the dialogue at a time when the ongoing political crisis had taken a turn for the worse, and there were expectations that it would play a constructive role in addressing the key concerns raised by the major political parties. However, in the absence of any real attempt to tackle the root causes of the current political impasse, such a dialogue was bound to fail.

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Compromise, not violence, must be the way out

The EC scheduled the dialogue only three days after the BNP's botched rally, which descended into chaos and violence following clashes between the party members and police. Since the October 28 mayhem, law enforcement agencies have arrested at least 7,835 BNP leaders and activists around the country till November 4, including at least seven of its top leaders, according to a Prothom Alo report. Other leaders are in hiding to escape arrest. In this situation, did the EC really expect someone from the BNP to show up at the dialogue?

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All about fair and unfair elections

Besides BNP, 16 other parties boycotted the dialogue, seeing it as a futile exercise. Bangladesh Jasod released a statement explaining that it boycotted the dialogue as it would have no influence on ensuring a conducive environment for a free and fair election. Even a former election commissioner told this daily that the EC held the talks "just to show that they have called everybody once again and that they did not get support [from all political parties]." When a country is engulfed in such turmoil, these kinds of formulaic dialogues do little to boost the political parties' confidence. The EC should have anticipated that.

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Dialogue is not optional, it’s a must at this stage

What we really need right now is some meaningful actions from the major political parties to resolve the ongoing political stalemate. The election is less than three months away, and the two main political camps, Awami League and BNP, are showing no sign of compromise. If this continues, we are afraid the spate of political violence will continue till the election, and the situation will get even worse. Unfortunately, as the crackdown on opposition leaders intensifies across the country, the hope of a constructive dialogue between the parties now seems to be a far-off dream, thanks in part to the EC, which has thus far failed to create a level playing field and inspire confidence in its ability to steer the country through a free and fair election.

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BNP is considering rallies next month to push for a roadmap to election while keeping a close watch on the issue of the president's probable removal.

The party high-ups have already discussed the programmes, which will be finalised soon, said its leaders.

"Once the decision is finalised, we may hold rallies in every district and divisional city next month," a BNP standing committee member told The Daily Star last night, wishing not to be named.

Insiders said the party believes the issue of President Mohammed Shahabuddin's removal and "intentional" audio leaks of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina are part of a big conspiracy by a vested quarter to create a constitutional vacuum, which would ultimately delay the national election. That is why the party is considering street programmes.

"By holding programmes in November, we want to make our stance clear to the people," said a senior BNP leader who is involved in the process.

BNP has already begun talks with the like-minded political parties about the issue.

At the street programmes, it will press for an election roadmap, measures to check the price hike of essentials, and withdrawal of cases against its Chairperson Khaleda Zia and acting chairman Tarique Rahman.

BNP's allies will also hold programmes to press home the same demands, the sources added.

BNP standing committee member Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury yesterday said reforms should be carried out on the basis of political consensus.

Speaking at a programme, he said 10 commissions have been formed to come up with reform proposals, and they will submit reports within 90 days. "But new demands are being made. I don't know whether the reform commissions and the interim government support those demands. These issues seem contradictory," he said without referring to any issue.

On October 23, three top BNP leaders met Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus and warned him of a potential constitutional crisis that may stem from the president's removal.

Syed Emran Saleh Prince, joint secretary general of BNP, said holding rallies and processions will be part of the party's ongoing organisational activities.

"We should step up our political activities as various issues are surfacing."

BNP leaders said the interim government's main mandate is to hold a free and fair general election to fulfil the nation's expectations, as people were deprived of their voting rights in the last three parliamentary polls.

"We can assume how much time the government needs to hold an election. We are ready to give that time. But if that time is over, we will do whatever is necessary," Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, BNP standing committee member, said at a discussion yesterday.

He said his party was ready to wait for the election, but the government has to declare a specific time for the polls.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was released today, a day after her archrival Sheikh Hasina was ousted and the military took power.

A press release from Bangabhaban said Khaleda Zia was release following a meeting between President Mohammed Shahabuddin, the chiefs of the three services, leaders of different political parties, representatives of civil society and leaders of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.

The 79-year-old former prime minister has long battled various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, and issues related to the kidney, lung, heart, and eyes.

Since her conditional release from prison in 2020, the BNP chief has been receiving medical care repeatedly at the hospital under the supervision of a medical board headed by cardiologist Prof Shahabuddin Talukder.

Khaleda's doctors have been advising to send her abroad since she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November 2021.

Khaleda was sent to the Old Dhaka Jail after a lower court sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018. Later, she was found guilty in another corruption case the same year.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with the condition that she stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country.

The attorney general's office today informed the High Court that detained BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and standing committee member Mirza Abbas have been given division facilities in jail.

Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Abdullah Al Mahmud Bashar also placed a letter issued to the HC by the law ministry section concerned during hearing of two writs seeking directives upon prison authorities to give division facilities to Fakhrul and Abbas in jail.

A prisoner is supposed to get a separate room, a bed, a table, a newspaper and some other facilities in jail if he or she is granted division facilities under the jail code.

Bashar also told the HC bench of Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Mohammad Ali that the division facilities given to Fakhrul and Abbas was executed today and therefore, the writ petitions are ineffective.

The writ petitioners' lawyers requested the HC bench to order the government to produce necessary documents of execution of the division facilities before the court.

The bench then fixed 12:00pm tomorrow for hearing and passing order on this issue.

A section of pro-BNP lawyers including AJ Mohammad Ali, Zainul Abedin, AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Bodruddoza Badal, Kayser Kamal and Md Ruhul Quddus Kazal appeared for the writ petitioners during hearing of the petitions.

Earlier in the day, Fakhrul's wife Rahat Ara Begum and Abbas's wife Afroza Abbas submitted the writ petitions to the HC, saying their husbands deserve division facilities in jail under the jail code as they are former lawmakers and ministers.

BNP Secretary General Fakhrul and the party's standing committee member Abbas are now in jail in a case filed over the December-7 clash between police and BNP men in the capital's Nayapaltan area.