Journalist Shaukat Mahmud freed from anti-terror case after 5.5 months

Shaukat Mahmud, former president of the National Press Club and secretary general of Janta Party Bangladesh, has been released on bail after spending five and a half months in jail. He was released from Keraniganj Central Jail on Monday evening, May 25.

Senior Jail Superintendent Faruk Ahmed of Dhaka Central Jail confirmed the matter on Tuesday, May 26.

According to case documents, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin named Enayet Karim Chowdhury was arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act on September 20 last year. Later, on December 7, Shaukat Mahmud was detained from the capital's Malibagh area and shown arrested in the same case. He was again shown arrested on March 30 this year.

According to sources, his name was linked to a case filed over a roundtable discussion organised by an organisation named 'Moncho 71'.

The case also named expelled Awami League member and former minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui, Dhaka University law professor Sheikh Hafizur Rahman (Curzon), journalist Manjurul Alam and 13 others as accused. Shaukat Mahmud was mentioned as an 'accused as per investigation' in the case.