Mob harasses prominent Bangladeshi woman journalist Munni Saha in Dhaka amid rising atrocities against Hindus, calls her 'Indian agent'
Bangladeshi woman TV journalist Munni Saha was mobbed and briefly detained by a mob in country's capital city Dhaka on Saturday and accused her of spreading misinformation and doing everything to 'make the nation a part of India'.
Saha faced the harassment amid rising atrocities faced by minority Hindu community in the country.
A police team later reached the spot and took her into custody.
কারওয়ানবাজার থেকে সাংবাদিক মুন্নী সাহা গ্রেপ্তার |
— Md. Sohel Rana (@mdsohelrana7707) December 1, 2024
Munni Saha Arrest | Channel 24 pic.twitter.com/xq7x0HHkzd
According to Bangladeshi media reports, Saha is an accused in a July mass uprising case.
The mass protest over a job quota row in the country led to the toppling of former PM Sheikh Hasina's regime on August 5.
Hasina fled to India amid protests.
Hours after her detention, Saha was released conditionally in the wee hours on Sunday after being taken to Tejgaon Police Station last night for security reasons.
The police, however, claimed its forces did not detain her.
"Police did not detain her. People detained her and then handed her over to the police," Rezaul Karim Mallick, additional commissioner (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star.
"The Tejgaon police first took her to the police station. She was moved to the DB police compound for security reasons," he said.
"Munni Saha had a panic attack and fell ill. Considering her condition and that she is a female journalist, we released her under section 497 of the Criminal Procedure Code," Mallick said.
She was handed over to her family on bond and she must appear in court to seek bail and comply with future police summons, he said.
The Section 497 of the CrPC of the South Asian country allows the release on bail of any person under the age of 16 years or any woman or any sick or infirm person accused of an offence punishable with death.
Saha mainly worked at ATN News.
She was the news head of ATN News, a news broadcasting tv channel in Bangladesh.
Saha faced heckling amid rising atrocities against Hindu community in the country specially after the fall of Sheikh Hasina-led government.
It is suspected that foreign hands were at play in orchestrating the unrest and planning her ouster.
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus-led government took charge of the country just three days after Hasina exited the country. Yunus, known for his closeness to the US Democrats, also accepted later in an event in America that there was “design and conspiracy" involved in the ouster of Sheikh Hasina.
Bangladesh has been witnessing protests by minority community members after Hindu priest Chinmoy Krishna Das.
He is allegedly facing sedition charges.