December 24, 2001	Monday	Shawwal 8, 1422

DHAKA, Dec 23: Some 1,000 people took to the streets of Dhaka on Sunday to demand the release of a Bangladeshi journalist held for suspected treason.

The demonstrators, who included teachers, lawyers, students and activists, staged the first major protest since journalist Shahriar Kabir was arrested a month ago following his investigations of alleged attacks on Bangladesh’s Hindu minority.

Two children held placards reading “Free freedom fighter Shahriar Kabir,” referring to his participation in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

“We want this false case against him withdrawn and he must be given his due respect as a freedom fighter,” said film and television star Shomi Kaiser, the daughter of a celebrated writer Shahidullah Kaiser, who was killed in the war.

Kabir’s 16-year-old daughter, Arpita Shahriar, said she wanted the “immediate and unconditional release of my father.”

“It is a tragedy that he is in jail, while those razakars (militias) who collaborated with the Pakistani army are in power positions,” she said.

Kabir, whose treason charge is potentially a capital offence, was arrested at Dhaka’s airport in November on his return from India, where he spoke to Bangladeshi Hindus who fled the country because of alleged attacks by the Muslim majority.

The Islamist-allied government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, which swept to power as Kabir was filming and writing about the attacks, has acknowledged that some Hindus have been abused, but says the incidents are isolated.—AFP