Bangladesh unrest: 'Some part' of Yunus-led government allowed attacks on newspapers - Editors' Council chief

DHAKA: Editors' Council president Nurul Kabir on Saturday said "some part" of the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government allowed the vandalism and arson at the offices of the country's leading newspapers Prothom Alo and The Daily Star, and at cultural centre Chhayanaut in Dhaka - attacks that took place following radical leader Sharif Osman Hadi's death on Dec 18.

The remarks come close on the heels of Osman's brother accusing a section within the interim govt of orchestrating the killing to delay the Feb 12 parliamentary polls and cautioned of a Sheikh Hasina-like fate if Osman's attackers are not tried quickly.


"It is clear that announcements had been made one or two days prior to destroy Prothom Alo, The Daily Star and Chhayanaut. Everyone in this country knows who made these announcements, including the govt. Under any law of Bangladesh, this is a criminal offence. Yet the govt did not arrest them beforehand to prevent it," Nurul, editor of daily New Age, said at the 6th Broadcast Conference of Broadcast Journalist Centre (BJC).

"They had already announced that these would be destroyed. That is why we have said that at least some part of the govt allowed this to happen. Then, it was an organised force that carried out this act. Among those already arrested, clear political affiliations have been found," he said in the presence of information and broadcasting adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan.

It was BNP leader Tarique Rahman - who has returned to Bangladesh after 17 years of self-exile in London - who had first linked the Osman's killing to a "conspiracy" to get the polls postponed.