Opinion: A day to salute our media

DU student Abdul Kadar, who was brutally tortured by cops at Khilgaon Police Station, breaks down in tears while being taken to the court by a police van in 2011. Star file photo

Star Online Special

We stand proud of our media and the hard work, courage and doggedness newsmen have shown in covering two important events the results of which have been splashed in today’s newspapers.
One of them is the conviction of the officer-in-charge of Khilgaon Police Station who had found a prey in an innocent university student Abdul Kadar. The police officer with his force got hold of the boy who was returning late in the night to the dorm after a dinner and, with the motive of squeezing money from him, had tortured him and pressed criminal charges against him. As often happens, the police claimed he was carrying arms.
The incident could have ended here and Kadar would have been languishing in jail. After all who is interested in a routine arrest story?
But no, the newsmen smelled the rat and dug into the story. They found out that Kadar was an innocent victim. The reaction of the police was also typical; they tried to stick to their claim. Finally the High Court played a noble role by ordering probe into the incident. Investigation found that the police officer was at fault. Just yesterday, the officer has been awarded a three-year term.
The other incident is the final admission of the police that sex attacks were committed near the TSC on the Pahela Baishakh. Yesterday they have released pictures of eight offenders after a month of the crime. Again had the media not been so vociferous in reporting the incident, the whole thing would have been pushed under the carpet once again.
Bangladesh media, despite its many pitfalls, have been strong on standing by the helpless. Limon is another case in point. An innocent student, he was shot in the leg by Rab and then labelled as a criminal. It was the relentless efforts of the media that finally ensured justice for Limon.
This is exactly the role of media worldwide – investigating events and bringing out the truth. This is why the Watergate scandal was unearthed leading to the resignation of American president Richard Nixon.

In Bangladesh, we should also pitch for a strong media which can function without fear and with utmost professionalism. A free media is for our own interest.

Indonesian fishermen 'told not to save migrants' (video)

A rescued migrant is carried to a waiting ambulance upon his arrival at the new confinement area in the fishing town of Kuala Langsa in Aceh province on May 15, 2015 where hundreds of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh mostly Rohingyas are taking shelter after they were rescued by Indonesian fishermen.AFP PHOTO / CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN

BBC Online

Fishermen in Indonesia's Aceh province say they have been told by officials not to rescue migrants from boats off the coast, even if they are drowning.
At least 700 Bangladeshis and Rohingyas from Myanmar were rescued off Aceh last week by locals, bringing the numbers in camps there to at least 1,500.
An army official said it would be illegal for any more of the migrants to come to shore.
All countries in the region have closed their borders to the migrants.
Thousands of people - mostly Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution and poverty in Myanmar, but also Bangladeshis looking for work - are thought to be stranded out at sea.

Aid agencies say people on board the boats are severely malnourished, and should be offered immediate assistance. Survivors who have made it to shore say there have been deadly fights on board over food.
Analysis: Jonathan Head, BBC News, southern Thailand
On Monday, some of the Acehnese people involved in last week's rescue said fishing boat operators were now being told by military officials not to carry out any more rescues.
Nobody wanted to speak on the record fearing they would be punished by the government, says the BBC's Martin Patience in Langsa, where the migrants are being cared for.
But one fisherman told the BBC that despite the warning they would continue rescuing people if they saw them drowning.
"They're human beings; we need to rescue them," he said.
Military spokesperson Fuad Basya said fishermen could deliver food, fuel and water to the boats, or help with repairs, but that bringing them to shore would constitute an illegal entry into Indonesia.
Meanwhile the mayor of Langsa has said the city has no budget for aid on this scale, and that it has received no help from Jakarta.
"In short, yes, we need some help, immediately, from our national government or any other institution, including NGOs, to take care of the Rohingyas who are stranded in our place," said Usman Abdullah.The UN has called on all nations in the region to give aid and shelter to people in distress at sea.

An Indonesian aid volunteer hands water and food for Rohingya migrants from Myanmar at the new confinement area in the fishing town of Kuala Langsa in Aceh province on May 16, 2015 where hundreds of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh mostly Rohingyas are taking shelter after they were rescued by Indonesian fishermen. AFP PHOTO / ROMEO GACAD

Why has this crisis erupted?

- Rohingya Muslims mainly live in Myanmar - largely in Rakhine state - where they are not considered citizens and have faced decades of persecution.

- Rights groups say migrants feel they have "no choice" but to leave, paying people smugglers to help them. The UN estimates more than 120,000 Rohingyas have fled in the past three years.

- Traffickers usually take the migrants by sea to Thailand then overland to Malaysia, often holding them hostage until their relatives pay ransoms.

  But Thailand recently began cracking down on the migrant routes, meaning traffickers are using sea routes instead, often abandoning their passengers en route

Salahuddin wants to return home (video)

Star Online Report

BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed, now undergoing treatment at a Shillong hospital in Indian Meghalaya state, today said he wants to return home.

Video

Salahuddin wants to return home (video)

BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed, now undergoing treatment at a Shillong hospital in Indian Meghalaya state, today said he wants to return home. He talks to reporters at Shillong Hospital in India on Monday.

“Bangladesh is my country. Why will I not return to my own country?” Salauddin told reporters when he was being taken to the main building of Shillong Civil Hospital for a CT scan from the ward of under-trial prisoners. Journalists from Bangladesh and India present at the hospital told The Daily Star.

Salahuddin said his return to Bangladesh is uncertain due to the letter of request that Interpol’s National central Bureau in Dhaka sent to its New Delhi office on May 14 to arrest him.

“I did not commit any crime,” said the joint secretary general of BNP, who was found in Shillong two months after he went missing from Dhaka.

“Some people left me at Shillong blind-folded. I myself went to the local police station with the help of a local,” Salahuddin said.

“It wasn’t police who had captured me,” he added.

His wife Hasina Ahmed, who left Dhaka last night, reached Shillong around 7:00pm (Bangladesh Time), BNP’s Assistant Office Secretary Abdul Latif Jony told The Daily Star.

Jony added it will take around an hour for Hasina to complete necessary procedure to meet her husband at the hospital.

The hospital authorities carried out the CT scan, a day after Salahuddin's party colleague Abdul Latif Jony claimed that the ailing BNP leader seems to be suffering memory loss.

Jony went to Shillong on Friday to met Salahuddin.

Meghalaya police arrested Salahuddin on May 11 as he was “hanging around aimlessly” in Golf Links area of Shillong after nearly two months of his disappearance from a residence at the capital's Uttara on March 10.

Since he had no valid papers, identity proof or travel permit with him, Shillong police arrested and booked him under the Foreigners Act.

The BNP and Salahuddin's family members had been claiming that law enforcers picked him up, an allegation denied by the law enforcers and the government.

In cases of trespass like the one involving Salahuddin, police usually send the intruder back to his home country upon court order, Vivek Syiem, superintendent of police (city) of East Khasi Hills in Indian state of Meghalaya, said on May 13.

There wouldn't be much procedural complexities in sending the arrested Bangladeshi politician back home, Syiem said.