Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy yesterday blasted Ganajagaran Mancha spokesperson Imran H Sarker for denouncing the arrest of journalist Shafiq Rehman. Joy, also the ICT adviser to the prime minister, expressed his surprise at Imran’s demand for the release of Shafik Rehman and said Imran has finally exposed his true face. “I expected the BNP to try to lie about this. I am surprised at Imran Sarkar. Perhaps, it looks like he has become like most of our civil society members, another opportunist and a liar,” he said. Joy said this in a status on his Facebook page posted yesterday evening. Joy also called upon all his fans and friends to unfollow and unfriend Imran on Facebook.
“May be the BNP paid him off. Who knows. Either way, I have lost all respect for him. He needs to retract his statement and apologise to our government,” Joy said. He also insisted that the US Department of Justice “discovered Shafik Rehman’s direct involvement in the plot to kidnap and kill" him. “They provided this evidence to our government. He was arrested based on this evidence.” said Sajeeb Wazed, also a US citizen. In a Facebook status on Saturday, Imran H Sarker condemned the arrest and remand of Shafik Rehman, also in view of his age. He said it was disappointing that a veteran journalist was arrested on imaginary charges while murderers of bloggers, publisher, foreigners, and people of different religious views got to scot free. “I want an end to this dirty political tactics of suppressing dissent,” Imran wrote in his Facebook status.