Journalist Anis Alamgir has alleged that he was subjected to “injustice and oppression” during his arrest and detention, shortly after being released on bail.
He was released from Kashimpur Central Jail-2 on Saturday at around 2:35pm after verification of his bail documents, confirmed Senior Jail Superintendent Al Mamun.
Alamgir left the prison premises without speaking to reporters waiting at the gate. Later, in a phone conversation with journalists, he claimed that his arrest was politically motivated.
According to him, he was targeted after criticising Muhammad Yunus, the then chief adviser to the interim government.
“Prof Yunus once encouraged open criticism. After I criticised him, I was arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act,” Alamgir said.
He further alleged that a second case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) over alleged illicit wealth was “nothing but harassment.”
Describing his time in custody, Alamgir said he spent the first month in a cramped cell with 35 inmates under “inhumane conditions,” before being moved to a relatively better environment.
He also claimed that the culture of enforced disappearance and detention without trial—originating during the 2007–08 caretaker government—has evolved into a new form of “legal repression.”
Alamgir was picked up from Dhaka’s Dhanmondi area on December 14 last year and taken to the Detective Branch office on Minto Road. He was officially shown arrested the following day under the Anti-Terrorism Act and remanded for five days before being sent to jail.
On January 28, he was again shown arrested in a case filed by the ACC over allegations of acquiring assets beyond known sources of income.
A High Court bench granted him bail in the anti-terrorism case on March 5, while a Dhaka court granted bail in the corruption case on March 11.
