Ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) joint general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif on Thursday justified the barrage of lawsuits against The Daily Star editor Mahfuz Anam.
“Aggrieved people can file cases against him for harassing the daughter of democracy, Sheikh Hasina, as she had to languish in jails for as much as eleven months during the 2007-08 military-controlled regime,” Mahbubul Alam told a media briefing.
The AL joint general secretary came up with the remarks while replying to questioners at the press conference at the party’s Dhanmondi office, originally organised to name party nominated candidates for the upcoming Union Parishad elections.
Dwelling on the issue of the barrage of sedition and defamation cases against The Daily Star editor, the AL leader alleged Mahfuz carried the DGFI-fed corruption reports against the AL president, Sheikh Hasina, as part of “a blueprint to keep her off politics.”
He went on saying, “It wasn’t a mistake. No conscious people will believe that a talented and learned person like Mahfuz Anam carried the reports mistakenly.”
He also suggested The Daily Star editor to file cases against those who had forced him to run the corruption reports against Hasina.
Replying to another question, Hanif said it is definitely not an attempt to gag the mass media. – News Desk
