Bangladesh on Monday ordered police to investigate charges against a leading pro-Opposition rights activist accused of "treason" by the military for his "motivated and completely untrue" comments regarding the country's army chief.
"Dr Jafarullah Chowdhury has been accused of treason....the Detective Branch (of police) has been entrusted with the task of investigating the case," Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) additional commissioner Abdul Baten said.
The treason charge against 75-year-old Chowdhury, a doctor and founder of non-government Ganashasthya hospital and medical college, was brought after the army overnight filed a general diary case against him, days after his comments on a TV talk show.
"The general diary was converted into a treason case on Sunday following approval of the Home Ministry," Baten said.
Chowdhury in his comments on October 9 had alleged Army Chief General Aziz Ahmed had earlier faced a court martial as a huge quantum of military weapons went missing, or were "lost or stolen", from the army arsenal under his command in the northeastern Chattagram area.
The military charged that Chowdhury had made "sudden and irrelevant" remarks about the army chief which were "targeted, motivated and plotted to spread stir among the armed forces were and tantamount to treason".
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The army on October 13 sharply reacted to the comments, prompting Chowdhury to call a press conference when he expressed regret for his "unintentional" mistake through "choice of wrong words".
He said that he wrongly chose the word "court martial" to mean "court of enquiry", which the army in a fresh statement today called "untrue" adding that "General Aziz in his long career did not face any court of enquiry either".
It said Chowdhury actually did not try to correct his earlier untrue remarks in his press conference and "it is clear from his remarks that he made evil attempts to misguide all serving army personnel of all ranks".
The army alleged that Chowdhury had tried to blame the army for grenades used in the August 21, 2004 terror attack, on the talk show on October 9 which was just a day ahead of the verdict in the attack case.
A special court on October 10 sentenced to death 19 people and another 19 to life imprisonment, including ex-premier Khaleda Zia's fugitive son Tarique Rahman, for the 2004 attack on an opposition rally that killed 24 people and injured 500 others.
Those who were handed down death penalty also included some senior army officers who were serving in intelligence agencies at that time alongside the then home minister Lutfuzzaman Babar.