Accused in Mahmudur Rahman murder attempt case arrested in Kushtia
Mahmud was in hiding since the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina on 5 August 2024, police said
Members of Detective Branch (DB) of Police in Kushtia have arrested an accused in a case filed over an attempt to kill Amar Desh Editor Mahmudur Rahman on the premises of a court in the district in 2018.
Mahmud Hasan, the arrestee, is the 26th accused in the case, said police.
Mahmud was arrested from his own house at Jugia Vegetable Farm area in Kushtia town around 10:30am today (2 April), confirmed Officer-in-Charge of Kushtia DB Moradul Islam.
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According to police, Mahmud, son of Mamunur Rashid from Ward No-14 in Kushtia municipality, is the general secretary of Kushtia Journalists' Union's pro-Awami League faction and a member of the central executive committee of Bangladesh Federal Journalists' Union (BFJU).
Mahmud was in hiding since the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina on 5 August 2024, police said.
Contacted, OC Moradul said, "Mahmud has been arrested in a case which Mahmudur Rahman had filed with Kushtia Model Police Station as plaintiff on 10 October 2024. While lodging the case, Mahmudur named 47 people and brought charges of an attempt to kill him against another 20-30 unnamed people."
According to the case statement, Mahmudur Rahman was attacked while he was coming out of a Kushtia Court after securing bail in a libel case around 4:30pm on 22 July 2018.
Mahmudur was injured after getting hit by sticks and bricks. The car carrying him was also vandalised, and later Mahmudur and his associates headed back to Dhaka in an ambulance around 5pm on that day, the case statement said.
The case against which Mahmudur had secured bail from a Kushtia court was filed by the then President of Kushtia District Chhatra league Yasir Arafat Tushar accusing the Amar Desh editor of making derogatory statement against Tulip Siddique, the grandson of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the case statement added.
Judge of Kushtia's Senior Judicial Magistrate Court MM Morshed granted bail to Mahmudur in exchange of Tk10,000 as security money. Hearing the news, local Chhatra League leaders and activists gathered at the court premises around 1pm on that day, carried out protest processions and confined Mahmudur on the court premises, the case statement added.
The protest soon turned into an attack on Mahmudur, causing him to bleed after getting injured.
