Bangladesh security authorities have arrested a senior Bangladeshi journalist on Saturday, just before boarding a flight bound for Singapore for alleged espionage in favor of Israel against Bangladesh and other Muslim countries, according to the Bangladesh Observer.
In its Sunday edition, the newspaper said Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of Blitz magazine and a former high official of Inqilab Television was detained by security forces at Zia International Airport (ZIA) on Saturday.
The paper added, citing reliable sources, that he was arrested on charges of espionage against the country in favor of Israel.
According to intelligence officials, Shoaib Chowdhury was arrested just before boarding a flight bound for Singapore. His next destination was Tel Aviv to take part in a "symposium".
The officer-in-charge of the ZIA police station confirmed his arrest.
According to intelligence sources, Shoaib Chowdhury had been interrogated by various security agencies at the airport. He admitted that his destination was Israel via Singapore, where he would need to collect valid travel documents from the Israel Embassy in Singapore, the report added.
He was scheduled to address the Hebrew Writers' Association in Tel Aviv on December 1. His participation would have marked the first ever of its kind by a Bangladeshi journalist in Israel.
According to the International Forum For Literature and Culture of Peace (IFLAC) site, "Director and Chief of its Bangladesh Branch, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, has been invited" by Israeli Professor Ada Aharoni, Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee of the "Hebrew Writers Association in Israel," to attend the Writers' Symposium on "Bridges Through Culture," and to deliver a speech on "The Role of the Media in Establishing Peace".
The site added that IFLAC will formally announce the opening of its Branch Office in Bangladesh on December 2 and that Choudhury had been appointed as the International Director of IFLAC in Bangladesh.
It added that the Bangladesh office of the organization was already working to promote "positive news" on Israel and the world Jewish community, in “The Weekly Blitz” and major English dailies in the world.
Moreover, it said that one of the main goals of the branch would be to work in "establishing bridges of culture and people to people relations between Bangladesh and Israel, and to promote the global culture of peace".
Besides attending the symposium, the site reported Salah was scheduled to meet local journalists and exchange views on various issues including the issue of establishing peace in Israel, in the Middle East and in the world.
IFLAC's declared goal is to "help build a Middle East and a world beyond war..., by means of literature, culture, art, that will create bridges among nations, and harmonious human relations".
Israel and Bangladesh have no formal relations. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
