Health Minister makes counter allegations against Rozina
PBC News: Health Minister Zahid Maleque has denied the allegation of torture on Prothom Alo’s senior reporter at Secretariat.
“Journalist Rozina Islam was not tortured physically. It was an undesirable incident. What she had done was totally wrong. She had done the wrong thing,” he said.
The Health Minister said: “We didn’t confine Rozina nine or five hours. She was handed over to police after confining for half an hour. The Home Minister himself also knows about the matter. I don’t have any idea whether she was tortured confining her at the health ministry,” he said.
Zahid Maleque said the Prothom Alo’s senior reporter entered the personal secretary’s room without permission. She had removed some documents from files which were related to the import of vaccine. Even, she was leaving with government files. If the documents were published, it could harm the country’s interest. “Those were the state’s secrets. She had done the wrong thing.”
The Health Minister made the remarks amidst criticism by different quarters over the arrest of Rozina Islam on charge of ‘stealing government documents’ and file of a case against her under the Official Secrecy Act.
The Health Minister made the remarks amidst criticism by different quarters over the arrest of Rozina Islam on charge of ‘stealing government documents’ and file of a case against her under the Official Secrecy Act.
The Health Ministry convened a press conference on Tuesday morning to explain its position over the arrest of Rozina. But, the Bangladesh Secretariat Reporters Forum (BSRF), an organisation of journalists working at the secretariat, boycotted the press conference. Later in the early afternoon, the health minister replied to the queries of journalists after attending a meeting of ECNEC at Agargaon in the capital.
Quoting the health ministry officials, Zahid Maleque said Rozina had entered the room of the personal secretary to the Health Secretary on early Monday afternoon. “A staff who was there at that time saw a person was taking photographs of a file and then put some documents in her bag removing from the file. She also put some documents inside her dress. Just at that moment, the staff started shouting. Then our female officers came and asked her why she was doing so. Then they took the files and documents from her. In the meantime, police were informed. Then the police officials went there and took over the matter. They also took away her mobile phone and found a lot of photos in the phone.”
Rozina Islam was confined for about five and a half hours at the room of Md Saiful Islam Bhuiyan, PS to the Health Services Division Secretary. Later, she was taken to Shahbagh Police Station at about 8:30pm. A deputy secretary of the Health Services Division filed a case against her.
