A mob surrounded senior Bangladesh journalist Munni Saha in Dhaka last night and accused her of spreading misinformation and "doing everything to make Bangladesh a part of India". Ms Saha was heckled as she kept saying, "This is also my country". Eventually, a police team came and took her into custody.
According to reports in Bangladesh media, Ms Saha was wanted in a case linked to a student's death during the anti-reservation protests in the neighbouring country that led to its former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ouster. Police said Ms Saha was rescued from Dhaka's Kawran Bazar area, where a mob had surrounded her.
Rezaul Karim Mallik, a senior officer of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star Newspaper, "People handed her over to the police. She suffered a panic attack. We have released her after considering her health condition and the fact that she is a woman journalist." Ms Saha has been asked to seek bail from court and comply with police summons in the future.
In a video that has now gone viral, Ms Saha is seen surrounded by a mob. A voice is heard accusing her of misguiding people regarding the 2009 Bangladesh Rifles mutiny that claimed 57 lives. "You are doing everything you can to make this country a part of India. The blood of students is on your hands," the journalist is told as she nods in denial.
"How can you be a citizen of this country and harm this country," she is told. Ms Saha responds, "How have I harmed? This is also my country."
The 55-year-old journalist is the former news head of Bengali channel ATN News. After the Sheikh Hasina administration was toppled, she and several other journalists were charged with crimes against humanity.
The heckling of Ms Saha comes amid concerns over the condition of minority Hindus in Bangladesh after the regime change. A Hindu priest Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari was arrested in Dhaka last week after a Hindu community's protest demanding legal protection and a ministry for minority affairs. The Hindu priest, who was earlier associated with ISKCON, faces a sedition case, allegedly for his remarks on the targeting of Hindus.
ISKCON has now said that two more monks, Adipurush Shyam Das and Ranganath Das Brahmachari, have been arrested after they met Chinmoy Krishna Das. The vice-president of ISKCON Kolkata also said that rioters had vandalised the ISKCON centre in Bangladesh.
Following Hasina's ouster, an interim government helmed by Grameen Bank founder and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has taken charge. Over the past few months, multiple reports of minority Hindus being targeted in Bangladesh have emerged.
In the aftermath of the priest's arrest, India expressed concern over the rise of "extremist rhetoric, increasing incidents of violence and provocation" in Bangladesh.
The Ministry of External Affairs said that India has consistently raised the issue of targeted attacks on Hindus and other minorities with the Bangladesh government. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal has urged the interim government in Bangladesh to take steps to protect minorities.
