New Delhi: Hours after she wrote a series of posts on Facebook critical of the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, prominent Bangladeshi actor and filmmaker Meher Afroz Shaon was detained for questioning Thursday evening for allegedly “conspiring against the state”. The detective branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police picked her up from her Dhanmondi home, local media reported.
Another actor, Sohana Saba, was also picked up by the detective branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police for questioning later in the night.
Shaon is the daughter of Mohammed Ali and Tahura Ali, both supporters of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League. Tahura was elected to Bangladesh’s Parliament twice on an Awami League ticket, while Mohammed has in the past served as a member of the advisory council of the Awami League’s Jamalpur district unit.
Hasina fled the country last August, after 15 years at the helm, after protests against a controversial quota system burgeoned into a call for her ouster. The 77-year-old daughter of Bangladesh’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is presently in India.
According to Dhaka Metropolitan Police Additional Commissioner Rezaul Karim Mallik, Shaon’s detention stemmed from suspicion that she was involved in actions against the interim government.
The renowned actor, director, dancer, and playback singer has been critical of the interim government in posts on social media. She would often target Yunus’ press secretary, Shafiqul Alam. Her detention comes amid fresh protests and vandalism in the capital which saw the burning down of Bangladesh founder and Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Dhaka house earlier this week.
On Wednesday, when the deposed Hasina was delivering a virtual address on the significance and legacy of her father’s house, which had been turned into a museum called the “Bangabandhu Museum”, a group of students and protesters stormed the building in Dhanmondi, Dhaka. They set it on fire and destroyed parts of the structure. Shaon’s father’s house in Jamalpur was also vandalised hours before her detention. A group of local students and protesters organised a march, under the broader movement called “Bulldozer procession”, which moved through various roads before reaching the house. They pelted bricks and stones at the building and ultimately set it on fire.
Protests and acts of vandalism have continued in the country with demonstrators targeting homes of the deposed prime minister and those of her colleagues and supporters. In a statement issued on 6 February, the interim government expressed concern over the violence, vowing to take strong action to protect citizens’ lives and property. The statement also condemned actions related to an earlier attack on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Dhanmondi home last August at the height of protests against the Awami League government.
It read: “The interim government is on the highest alert to protect the lives and property of the country and the people. The law enforcement agencies are making all-out efforts to bring the situation under control. If Sheikh Hasina, who is an accused in a warrant for crimes against humanity, refrains from speaking, it is possible to avoid a recurrence of such incidents.”
Last August, Bangladeshi actor Shanto Khan and his father, producer-director Selim Khan, were killed in a mob attack during protests that continued after Hasina fled on 5 August.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)