Former secretary Bhuiyan Shafiqul Islam has been arrested in the same anti-terrorism case that earlier saw former Awami League Presidium member Abdul Latif Siddique sent to jail on charges of “anti-government conspiracy”.
In a statement on Tuesday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police said Bhuiyan, along with seven other leaders and activists of the now-banned Awami League and its affiliated organisations, had been detained, reports bdnews24.com
“He has been arrested in a case under the Anti-Terrorism Act filed with Shahbagh Police Station. After obtaining information about secret collusion with Latif Siddique, Abu Alam Shahid Khan and others, he was arrested,” said Additional Commissioner Md Shafiqul Islam of the Detective Branch.
Bhuiyan served as secretary of the Planning Division in 2013 and was later appointed secretary to the President’s Office in 2015. He also once headed the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy as its director general.
Since retirement, he had turned to writing and music, publishing more than a dozen books and even releasing an album of his own songs.
His arrest came just a day after another former secretary, Abu Alam Shahid Khan, was also arrested in connection with the same case. Abu Alam, who regularly appeared on television talk shows as a political analyst, had been present at the Mancha 71 event.
The case stems from an incident on Aug 28, when Mancha 71 organised a roundtable at the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) on the Liberation War and the Constitution.
The event was stormed by a group calling itself the July Warriors, who encircled the elderly participants and disrupted the programme. Witnesses said 20–25 youths harassed attendees just as Latif arrived, while videos circulating online showed slogans such as “Catch every Awami League man, drag them to jail”.
One widely shared clip showed a freedom fighter being beaten, triggering outrage on social media. Despite being attacked, Latif and 15 others, including Dhaka University law professor Sheikh Hafizur Rahman Karzon, were arrested from the scene. Police accused them of conspiring under the banner of Mancha 71 to destabilise the country and overthrow the interim government.
A Dhaka court later sent all 16 men to jail under the Anti-Terrorism Act, rejecting their bail petitions. Police later said Abu Alam was involved in the same “anti-government conspiracy”.
