Controversy over two leaked calls

A day after the leak of two phone conversations of Nagorik Oikya convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna, the organisation abruptly postponed its planned mass procession yesterday afternoon.

Demanding “peace and dialogue”, the procession was scheduled for 4:00pm. Its members started gathering in front of the Jatiya Press Club after 3:00pm to join the march.  

Around 3:30pm, Nazmul Hasan, convener of Nagorik Chhatra Oikya, the student front of Nagorik Oikya, announced that the programme has been postponed due to “unavoidable circumstances.”

Some 15 minutes earlier, he told the gathering that Manna would join the mass procession.

However, over a hundred people, mostly youths, marched towards the Nagorik Oikya headquarters on Topkhana Road. Reaching the office, Nazmul announced that Manna could not show up as he “suddenly fell ill.” 

Contacted, Manna's Press Secretary Shuva Muntasir declined to comment on Manna's skipping the mass procession. He said Nagorik Oikya would hold a press conference about the leaks at the Jatiya Press Club this morning.

Of the two conversations, one was with BNP leader and former Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, now in the US for treatment.

They talked on issues, including the current political situation, ongoing blockades, civil society initiatives and Nagorik Oikya's plans and activities.

Manna, a two-time VP of Dhaka University Central Students Union (Ducsu) in his youth, advised Khoka to capture some DU dormitories to put pressure on the government.

The other call was to an unnamed person purportedly staying in Australia. Manna was asked by the man whether he would like to talk with army officials for a “changeover in the country”.

For both the calls, he used Viber, an application for free calls and messages. It could not be known how and by whom the conversations got leaked.

This correspondent could not contact Manna or Khoka as neither of them picked up the phone. 

However, on his Facebook page around 3:30pm yesterday, Manna claimed “there was no hint of conspiracy or provocation” in his conversations.

“In my political life, I have never harboured violence and conspiracy,” he said requesting people to carefully study the conversations.

According to the Facebook post, Manna, while talking to Khoka, had said, “Student movement has to be forged and spread at universities. And there is nothing to do if a few people get killed in attacks by police or criminals. People are already being killed anyway.”

“But,” the status read, “My statements have been explained in a distorted manner as if I want bodies.”

“As I am in politics, I need to talk with different people,” he said, posing a question, “How a conspiracy of army coup or incident like 1/11 can be smelled as no such meeting was held?”

The leak created quite a stir after some TV channels, newspapers and online news portals picked the story.

It was also discussed at yesterday's cabinet meeting as some ministers demanded immediate arrest of Manna for “hatching conspiracy” against the government.

After the formal meeting, a minister raised the issue and thanked Environment and Forests Minister Anwar Hossain Manju for publishing the news at his newspaper the Daily Ittefaq, sources said. 

Some other ministers then joined the discussion and branded Manna as a “paid agent of BNP”, added the sources.

However, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who presided over the meeting, didn't participate in the discussion but asked her colleagues to think what action could be taken.

In another development, several general diaries were filed against the Nagorik Oikya chief with some police stations in the capital yesterday.

Then an organising secretary of the Awami League, Manna drew criticism from the party for his controversial role following the 1/11 political changeover in 2007. However, neither AL expelled him nor he left the party formally.

After floating Nagorik Oikya in June 2012, he has been maintaining close contacts with ASM Abdur Rob-led Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Dr Kamal Hossain-led Gonoforum and some other small parties to form a political alliance.

On February 7, Manna and Rob, among others, organised a roundtable in the city under the banner of “Jatiya Oikya Prokria [National Unity Process]” and stressed the need for a dialogue between the AL and the BNP.

Two days later, former chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda under the banner of “Nagorik Samaj”, sent letters to the president, the PM and the BNP chief, requesting talks to resolve the political crisis.

On February 13, Huda and several top professionals in a press conference announced the formation of a 13-member committee to push for the talks and made it clear that no political leader was involved in their initiative.