Police visit Zillur Rahman's village home to ‘gather information’

Zillur Rahman, planner, director and presenter of the popular talk show ‘Tritiyo Matra’ aired on privately-run television ‘Channel I’, asserted that the police visited his ancestral home in Shariatpur to acquire information about him. 

He also alleged that the police did such an act to prevent him from performing his duties and to intimidate his family and neighbours.

Last Thursday night, he disclosed this information in a social media post made from his own Facebook account.

In his Facebook post, Zillur Rahman wrote, “I am astonished to know that a contingent of police visited my ancestral home in Shariatpur today ostensibly to ‘gather information’ about me. I live in Dhaka, everyday anchor a talk show (Tritiyo Matra) at a widely available and popular television channel, and have an office in Dhaka.”

He also went on saying in the post, “If any information was necessary police could have visited me or contact me via telephone, yet they visited my ancestral home. It caused enormous inconvenience to the people of the locality, and to my extended family.” 

“Evidently, the visit was intended to scare me, my family and neighbors and hinder my work as an anchor and works related to the think tank (Centre for Governance Studies  #CGS) I am involved with. It’s not only a deplorable act but also deeply disconcerting to see that the police is being used to silence my voice,” he claimed in his post.

Zillur continued, “I call upon the government to investigate these kinds of actions, and stop any future occurrences. These actions will only strengthen my resolve to remain a conscientious citizen and speak out.”

Zillur Rahman's house is in Jusirgaon village of Gosairhat upazila in the district.

When asked in this regard, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Gosairhat Police Station Aslam Sikder told The Daily Samakal, "For the purpose of bit policing activities, we are preparing a list of respectable individuals of all areas and local tenants, thieves, drug traffickers. To compile this list, we are visiting every residence in the neighborhood.”

Additionally, he said that as part of our listing work, SI Motiyar, the beat police officer for that area, visited Zillur Rahman's home in the Jusirgaon area of Idulpur Union yesterday.