Mother is arrested in Bangladesh after son in the U.S. criticizes government online
“As a son, it is very upsetting that, because of your opinion, your mother has been detained,” said Tanzilur Rahman, a doctoral student in Michigan.
www.nbcnews.com
By Brahmjot Kaur
A Ph.D. student at Michigan State University said his mother was arrested in Bangladesh after he criticized the country's government in a Facebook post.
Tanzilur Rahman, who is pursuing his doctorate in materials science and engineering, said his mother, 58, was arrested by the Bangladesh Police on Sunday. Three days before, he posted his thoughts on the Bangladesh government’s role in the war crime trials of a prominent preacher and leader in the Jamaat-e-Islami party, a major Islamist political party in the country.
“As a son, it is very upsetting that, because of your opinion, your mother has been detained. It’s really upsetting,” Rahman told NBC News.
Court documents translated by NBC News said that Rahman’s mother, Anisa Siddika, was arrested at 11:40 a.m. at her parents’ home and charged with “planning to sabotage various vital installations, conspiracies, and sabotage against the government in protest against the arrest of multiple leaders and activists of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.” Rahman said he had hired an attorney to work on the case and obtain these documents.
Siddika was charged under the Special Powers Act of 1974 after police said they were patrolling the area based on “secret information” and learned that political leaders and activists were at the home. The documents alleged that Siddika had arranged secret meetings against the government, which Rahman said was a baseless claim. She was denied bail because the police said she would “abscond,” according to the documents.
In his Facebook post, Rahman, 30, questioned the 2013 trial and sentencing of Islamic leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee and the disappearance of a key witness for his defense. Sayedee was charged with rape, murder and the persecution of Hindus during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. He died in prison last week, which prompted mass protests, Al Jazeera reported.
Rahman believes his Aug. 17 post was the real reason for his mother’s arrest.
“I don’t think any people with a logical mind would have arranged that meeting in their elderly parents’ house,” he said. Rahman said it was easy for the police to locate Siddika since his grandparents have lived in their house since 1962 and are well respected in the area.
Rahman said his family in Bangladesh only saw Siddika once during her bail hearing on Wednesday and Thursday. “We are kind of hopeless right now,” he said.
The Bangladesh Police did not respond to requests for comment. The Bangladesh Embassy and Consulate General of Bangladesh did not respond to request for comment.
Rahman’s Facebook post, which gained traction in the Bangladeshi community in and outside the country, criticized enforced disappearances in which the government directly or indirectly kidnaps people and detains them — a common practice in the country. But he said he was surprised that it was used against his mother.
