Dhaka: When former Bangladesh minister and lawmaker Asaduzzaman Noor was arrested last Sunday (September 15) night, a well-known social media analyst with a penchant for dry humour remarked, “Asaduzzaman Noor has been arrested, and from Bailey Road no less. It’s like a drama within a drama. It seems the scriptwriter must have once frequented the theater district.”
This brief comment captures, albeit abstractly, the essence of Noor’s arrest and the detainment of several former prominent figures of the Awami League – the oldest political party in Bangladesh. This upheaval occurred in the wake of a student uprising against party leader and former Premier Sheikh Hasina’s authoritarian regime on August 5.
While Hasina had fled to India for refuge, many of her top ministers and officials were unable to escape. In the past month, several have been arrested – or at least reported as such – under dubious circumstances that some independent observers label as “staged” or a “setup,” a tactic frequently employed by the Awami League government itself in the past.
Noor, who was the Awami League’s cultural minister from 2014 to 2019, was already a highly respected and beloved figure in Bangladesh well before his cabinet position or political career. He was one of the top three actors in Bangladesh’s theater scene – colloquially known as Bailey Road – and earned acclaim for his numerous outstanding stage performances.
Although Noor later earned recognition in Bangladeshi films, he is best known for his extensive work in TV dramas, especially for his role as “Baker Bhai,” a kind-hearted small-time gangster-like figure from a Dhaka neighborhood, in the TV drama Kothao Keu Nai (No One Is There).
His outstanding performance and the captivating storyline crafted by Bangladesh’s most celebrated writer, the late Humayun Ahmed, deeply resonated with audiences.
Before the series finale aired in 1995, huge rallies across Bangladesh protested the fictional character’s imminent execution, with crowds chanting, “We don’t want Baker Bhai to be hanged.” Despite these protests, Baker Bhai was ultimately executed, and the writer Humayun Ahmed faced severe backlash, forcing him to leave his home due to the overwhelming response to Baker Bhai’s fate – such was the character’s popularity.
Noor’s entrance into politics
A year later, at the peak of his popularity, Noor was invited by Hasina to run for election in his hometown of Nilphamari in the northern district. He politely declined, stating that he was not ready to enter politics. However, in the 2001 general election, Noor officially ventured into politics and won his hometown constituency, despite the overall victory and government formation by the BNP and Jamaat opposition alliance.
Since then, Noor has become one of the prominent faces of the Awami League’s more moderate political image. He has reportedly played a significant role in securing steadfast support from notable celebrities in the drama and cinema industries for Sheikh Hasina’s increasingly authoritarian regime, especially while he was the Minister of Culture for five years.
For many, particularly those who grew up before the advent of Netflix or even cable TV, and who only had access to state-run television channels in the early ’90s and 2000s, Noor has consistently represented the epitome of the impeccable, sophisticated middle-class man. He is known for his eloquence and skill in poetry recitation, often speaking in a soft yet determined tone, punctuated by well-chosen phrases.
In contrast to the more outspoken and aggressive political rhetoric of the Awami League, Noor’s demeanour might have seemed like an anomaly. In Bangladesh’s historically two-party political landscape, the Awami League’s main rival, the BNP, has often been perceived as the more genteel and refined of the two major parties, with its leaders avoiding the crude language often associated with their Awami League counterparts.
The dark sides of Noor
However, beneath Noor’s gentle and sophisticated exterior, critics say there may have been a darker side. Renowned Bangladeshi journalist Faruk Wasif’s Facebook post recounts his visit to Nilphamari following the 2013 attack on Asaduzzaman Noor’s convoy by BNP-Jamaat opposition activists.
The attack resulted in casualties on both sides. Not long after, at least three bodies of BNP-Jamaat activists were discovered, some killed in crossfire and others tortured. Wasif expressed significant doubts that these “extra-judicial” killings occurred without Noor’s indirect approval.
Even if Noor did not directly sanction these actions, Wasif argued that as a sitting lawmaker, he could not escape responsibility for such extrajudicial killings occurring in his own constituency.
Eleven years after the murders, a case has been filed against Noor for the alleged killing of Golam Rabbani, one of the three opposition activists who died. According to the case documents, a group of Awami League supporters initially attacked Rabbani’s home. When they were unable to find him, they assaulted his family and set fire to his house.
Rabbani was subsequently abducted from his home by individuals in plain clothes who identified themselves as Detective Branch personnel on January 15, 2014. His body was discovered three days later.
Having entered politics, Noor also began to exhibit authoritarian tendencies, aligning with the broader pattern seen among Awami League politicians under Hasina’s leadership. Prior to the 2018 national election, during a period of significant uncertainty about whether the election would proceed as the BNP had demanded a neutral caretaker government, Noor declared that only parties committed to the Liberation War and the country’s independence should be permitted to participate in the elections.
He was promoting the convoluted narrative advanced by the Awami League which sought to position the party as the exclusive custodian of the nation’s liberation war legacy. This narrative framed any political opposition or dissent as anti-liberation, justifying the suppression of their democratic and civil rights. This dichotomy has been repeatedly employed by Awami League leaders, including Noor, to advance their own political agendas.
The problem with Noor’s arrest
Noor was not initially arrested from Bailey Road for his involvement, or lack thereof, in addressing the extra-judicial killings connected to the Nilphamari murders. Instead, he was detained and sent to the central jail in Keraniganj at the outskirts of Dhaka due to an August case filed by the father of a son killed during the student-led movement that ousted Hasina.
Noor likely had no direct involvement in this case as he was not a sitting minister at the time and the murder did not occur in his constituency.
However, his arrest is part of a broader trend. A disturbing outcome of the August 5 regime change has been a notable rise in legal actions targeting individuals associated with the Awami League government. While some lawsuits related to alleged crimes during the transition period were expected, many subsequent cases appear dubious, lacking substantial evidence and potentially serving as instruments of harassment.
Kajalie Shehreen Islam, an associate professor in the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism and Noor’s daughter-in-law, criticised the manner of his arrest in a Facebook post, calling for a fair trial rather than blanket vilification.
Islam was one of the few university teachers who, under the “University Teachers Network” banner, openly supported student protesters and students in general when they faced attacks and repression from the Awami League’s student wing and the police.
She was also very vocal on social media about the brutal repression of students by the Hasina administration during the July uprising and had participated in various university-based rights movements over the past few years. Following her father-in-law’s arrest on September 15, she wrote:
“Can we criticise Asaduzzaman Noor for his political choices, his involvement with the Awami League government since 2014, his failure to publicly question or condemn his party and government, and his tacit endorsement of their actions? Yes.”
“Can we have misinformation, misunderstandings, suspicions, or personal and political vendettas fueling a hate campaign against him on social media and elsewhere? While not ideal, that is also a possibility.”
“Can he be charged with crimes he has committed, based on evidence and a fair legal process in an impartial judicial system? Yes. Should his status as a talented and popular cultural figure excuse him? No. Should his past contributions to society excuse him? Sadly, no.”
“Can he (or anyone else) be charged with crimes to which he has no connection and for which there is no evidence? No.”
“It’s really as simple as that.”
Faisal Mahmud is an award-winning journalist based in Dhaka, He is the recipient of Jefferson fellowship and Konrad Adeneur Stiftung Fellowship.
