As the Parliament on Tuesday passed the Anti-Terror (amendment) Bill-2013, opposition lawmakers led by BNP leader Moudud Ahmed walked out of the House in protest against its passage.
The bill moved by Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir and passed by voice vote allows the courts to accept videos, still photographs and audio clips used on social media for the purpose of evidence collection. In response to Moudud’s allegation, Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir quickly to assured the House that the bill would not provide any scope for misuse against ladies and gentlemen of the country.
Moments before the passage of the bill senior BNP lawmaker Barrister Moudud Ahmed took the floor and told the House that the Anti-Terror (amendment) Bill – 2013 was designed to control opposition parties, not terrorism in the country.
“This bill will be regarded as a black law of the nation,” the BNP legislator said adding that the Awami Leauge government passed similar law back in 1974, an apparent reference to the much-controversial Special Powers Act.
He said Police have been given too much power under this bill which, according to him, will be heavily abused and wrongly applied for oppressing and repressing the leaders and workers of the opposition political parties of the country.
The Anti-Terror (amendment) Bill – 2013 provides for death penalty as the maximum punishment for terrorism and other subversive activities against the state depending upon the nature as well as the extent of the offense.
The home minister said that the Anti-Terror (amendment) Bill — 2013 was introduced in the House for making Bangladesh’s Anti-Terror Act –2009 consistent with the United Nations resolutions on terrorism.
Earlier, BNP lawmaker from Chittagong, Jafrul Islam Chowdhury said it was not clear at all as to why the government came up with such stringent anti-terror law despite so many existing similar laws for control of terrorism.
“The law will facilitate turning the country into a police state,” said another BNP lawmaker Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon from Noakhali.
Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Anee, Harunur Rashid, Nazim Uddin Ahmed, Syeda Asifa Ashrafi Papia, Lutfor Rahman, Nilufar Chowdhury Moni, AKM Hafizur Rahman, Rasheda Begum Hira, Rehana Akter Ranu and ZIM Mostfa Ali of BNP echoed similar contentions as that of Chowdhury and Khokon.
Later, addressing an impromptu press briefing at the media centre of the Jatiya Sangsad, Barrister Moudud Ahmed once again termed the passage of the anti-terror bill as a “black legislation” and said it would strike a severe blow to the fundamental rights of the people of Bangladesh.
-With The Independent input
