Indian journalists and activists protest against Bangladeshi photographer’s arrest

Over 250 photographers, artists, journalists and activists have issued a statement demanding Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam’s immediate release.

Image: Munir Uz Zaman—AFP/Getty Images
 
Celebrated Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam was arrested by the Bangladesh Police late on Sunday, hours after his interview with Al Jazeera regarding student protests that have currently enveloped the country. Alam had also been sharing photos of the protests on his Facebook profile and discussing them through Facebook Live.
 
“The detective branch of the Bangladesh police picked up Shahidul Alam, a prominent Bangladeshi photojournalist, hours after his explosive interview with Al-Jazeera, to interrogate him about his Facebook posts regarding the protest and ‘provocative comments’ made in the interview. While being taken to a court for a remand hearing, he seemed unable to walk on his own. He said that he was not allowed to have a lawyer and beaten in custody by his captors who wanted to coerce him into signing a statement, reported exiled Bangladeshi journalist Tasneem Khalil. “[They] washed my blood-stained Punjabi (tunic) and made me wear it again,” Shahidul was quoted as saying by Shafiqul Alam, the AFP bureau chief in Dhaka,” reported Firstpost.
 
“He has eventually been placed on seven-day remand in a case filed against him under Bangladesh’s notorious Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act, reported local newspaper The Daily Star. While a number of journalists—especially those carrying a camera—came under attack while covering protests, Alam’s arrest was an extraordinary escalation. With a career spanning over four decades, Alam is arguably Bangladesh’s most prominent photographer, whose works have been featured by almost all major western media outlets. He has also founded Drik Gallery and Pathshala, a photography school that has trained hundreds of photographers. Committee to Protect Journalists and Amnesty International have called for his immediate release,” the report said.
 
Protests in India over his arrest
 
Around 150 journalists and photographers from the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh, Bombay News Photographers Association, Crime Reporters Association and Mumbai Press club gathered outside Mumbai’s Press Club to express solidarity. Various press organisations in Mumbai gathered together on Tuesday to protest police brutality meted out to two photojournalists – DNA’s Pravin Indrekar from Ahmedabad and Shahidul Alam in Dhaka. Journalism students also joined the protest.
 
In India, over 250 photographers, artists, journalists and activists including Ram Rahman, Vivan Sundaram, Parthiv Shah, Pushpamala N., Raghu Rai, Devika Daulet-Singh, Pablo Bartholomew, Prashant Panjiar, Dinesh Khanna, Sunil Gupta, Jitish Kalat, Krishen Khanna, Ravi Aggarwal and Gauri Gill, have issued a statement demanding Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam’s immediate release.
 
The statement forwarded by Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) is as follows:
 
In a shocking development, late night on 5 August 2018, Dr. Shahidul Alam, internationally renowned photographer, pedagogue, activist, and founder of Drik and Pathshala South Asian Media Institute, was forcibly abducted from his house in Dhanmondi, Dhaka in Bangladesh. According to eyewitnesses, around 30 to 35 plainclothes men, claiming to be from the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, forcibly entered Dr. Alam’s home, pushed him into a waiting car and sped away. They taped up the CCTV camera and took away the camera footage. The security guards were manhandled and locked up.
 
Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Detective Branch), Abdul Baten, told UNB (United News of Bangladesh) that Dr. Shahidul Alam has been detained for interrogation over his Facebook posts on the ongoing student protests in Bangladesh. Later news reports confirm that Dr. Alam has been arrested under the draconian ICT Act (Information and Communication Technology Act), routinely used to suppress freedom of speech, and to harass writers, activists and journalists for their comments on social media. When Dr. Alam was produced before a Dhaka court on Monday, 6 August, he had to be supported as he could not walk on his own. He had been made to wash his own bloodied clothes to wear again. The Dhaka police were granted a 7-day remand after producing him before the court.
 
There have been further developments. On Tuesday, 7 August, the court ordered that Dr. Alam should be taken to a government hospital for a medical check-up in response to a petition filed by his lawyers; however, the written orders were not produced in time and so he spent another night in police custody. He was finally taken to the hospital at 9.30 am today, 8 August, but it appears that once the medical checkup takes place he will be back in police custody. The next hearing at the court is on Thursday, 9 August 2018, when the State lawyers will attempt to oppose the High Court order and argue against it.
 
The detention and murderous attack on Dr. Shahidul Alam is symptomatic. Writers, journalists and social media activists in Bangladesh have over the last several years suffered similar repression. Dr. Alam is determined to hold on to the ideal of social justice and to engage in cultural action that strengthens democratic and egalitarian values. He has disseminated these ideas through his critical writings, a sustained pedagogical programme around photography and numerous curatorial projects that engage the public.  He is admired and respected all across the world and especially in South Asia for his exemplary work as a photographer-activist and for his courageous stand on the fraught relationship between the State and the people.
 
Consider how Dr Alam’s position resonates with that in India; how it adds to the urgencies needing to be addressed by the citizenry here.
 
We condemn, in the strongest possible way, the arrest, brutality and dishonour done to Dr. Shahidul Alam. The message is simple. Dr. Alam exercised his right as a citizen. No charges must be bought under section 57 of the draconian ICT Act.
 
We demand his immediate and unconditional release.