TDS Desk:
Former State Minister for Posts, Telecommunication, and Information Technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak has been crying most of the time since his arrest. Even during the interrogation, he does not stop crying. He is the most broken among the accused former MPs-ministers.
A source related to the investigation told the media that the State Minister for Posts, Telecommunication, and Information Technology (ICT) “could not have imagined” that the government could collapse “so quickly”. Although he admitted to sending his wife and children abroad a day ago.
In his words, Palak could have fled the country if he wanted to. However, he did not go, saying that “betrayal will be done” with Sheikh Hasina.
Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to leave the country under the pressure of the student and general people’s movement. She resigned from the post of Prime Minister on August 5 and left the country.
It was learned that Zunaid Ahmed Palak was “hiding” in a room in the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) Bhaban area for almost 24 hours after Sheikh Hasina left the country.
After the fall of the Awami League government, Palak stayed in that area till noon. He then took a special route to the airport to escape abroad. However, the Army took him into their custody from there.
A source related to the investigation says that “Zunaid Ahmed Palak has been crying most of the time since his arrest”. He also “denied” responsibility for the internet shutdown. During interrogation, Palak said that “even though he was the state minister, he had no single decision to shut down the internet”.
During the interrogation, Palak said that he decided to shut down the internet by “following the instructions” of former army officer Ziaul Ahsan, head of the intelligence agency and director general of NTMC. Besides, Sheikh Hasina was in favor of internet shutdown.
Mentioned that during the Quota Reform Movement on July 19, rickshaw puller Kamal Mia was shot dead in the Paltan police station area in the capital. Fatema Khatun, the victim’s wife, filed a murder case on July 20 accusing the unidentified perpetrators with the Paltan police station. Shamsul Haque Tuku, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, and Chhatra League’s Dhaka University Branch general secretary Tanvir Hasan Saikat were arrested in that case on August 14.