Dhaka Metropolitan Detective Branch (DB) police have detained Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, former information adviser to ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and editor of The Daily Observer. DB police detained him on Wednesday afternoon at the office of the private television channel DBC News in Mohakhali in the capital.
Details of why he was detained, in which case action is being taken against him, or where he was taken after his detention were not immediately known. No full statement was available from law enforcement agencies either, so it cannot yet be confirmed whether the detention is linked to any specific case or allegation.
Journalism and political ties
Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury is one of the country’s senior journalists. In a long career he has held important posts at various media outlets and journalists’ organisations. He began his career in 1972 as a staff reporter at The Bangladesh Observer and later became the paper’s editor, a post he held until the paper closed.
He has served as president of a faction of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), and was chairman of the board of directors of the state news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS). He later served as editor of The Daily Observer. He is also involved in media ownership and management.
Information adviser in the Sheikh Hasina government
Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury served as information and media adviser to Awami League president and then prime minister Sheikh Hasina. He was appointed her information adviser in 2013. On November 20, 2014, the government appointed him the prime minister’s honorary, part-time media adviser.
Besides journalism, he was involved in Awami League politics. He stood as the Awami League candidate for the Feni Sadar seat in the 2008 parliamentary election but did not win.
Questioned in the Sagar-Runi murder probe
He was once questioned in the investigation into the murder of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi. The task force formed to investigate the case summoned him to the PBI office and recorded his statement over about two and a half hours.
At the time, task force head and PBI chief Mustafa Kamal said he had been asked about statements he made at various times after the couple’s murder. No information has so far emerged to show that questioning as the reason for his current detention.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report