The High Court has granted bail to former textiles and jute minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui in a case filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act with Shahbagh Police Station.
The bail was approved by a bench of Justice ASM Abdul Mobin and Justice Sagir Hossain on Thursday (6 November), said Assistant Attorney General Ibrahim Khalil.
Following the order, Siddiqui’s lawyer, ZI Khan Panna, said there were now no legal barriers to Siddiqui’s release from jail.
The state, represented by Assistant Attorneys General Ibrahim Khalil and Al Amin Hossain, announced it would challenge the decision before the Appellate Division.
Siddiqui, 87, along with journalist Manjurul Alam Panna, 49, Dhaka University law professor Sheikh Hafizur Rahman Karzon, 55, and 13 others, were sent to jail on 29 August over allegations of conspiring to push the country toward armed struggle. A Dhaka court had earlier denied bail to Siddiqui and Panna on 4 September.
Case documents show that the accused had launched a platform called “Manch 71” on 5 August last year, reportedly to counter attempts to distort the history of Bangladesh’s Liberation War. As part of its activities, the group organised a roundtable at Dhaka Reporters Unity on 28 August titled “Our Great Liberation War and the Constitution of Bangladesh.”
During the programme, a group allegedly stormed the venue, chanted slogans, tore banners, harassed participants, and confined Siddiqui, Professor Karzon, and others. Police intervened and detained 16 people. The case was subsequently filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act by Shahbagh Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Amirul Islam.
FP/MI
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