Dhaka: The High Court on Monday granted a six-week anticipatory bail to former planning minister AK Khandaker in a defamation case.

The case was filed for his ‘disparaging remarks’ about some ‘Mujib Bahini’ members in his book ‘1971: Bhetore Baire’.

An HC bench comprising Justice Nizamul Haque and Justice Farid Ahmed Shibli passed the order in presence of AK Khandaker after hearing a bail petition.

Lawyer Subroto Chowdhury, Zahedul Bari and Ramjan Ali Sikdar stood for Khandaker while deputy attorney general Sheikh AKM Moniruzzaman represented the state.  

On 10 September last year, a case was filed against AK Khandaker on charge of ‘distorting’ the Liberation War history in his book ‘1971: Bhetore Baire’.

MA Ishaque Bhuiyan, the then commanding officer of ‘Mujib Bahini’ of Brahmanbaria region during the Liberation War, filed the case with the court of Senior Judicial Magistrate Sanjida Afrin Diba.

In his memoir ‘1971: Bhetore Baire’, AK Khandaker, who was the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Bangladesh Armed Forces during the War of Liberation in 1971, wrote that Mujib Bahini members had not been seen in the field in 1971. The activities of the Mujib Bahini desecrated the Liberation War instead of brining any glory. Some Mujib Bahini members led the looting after the war, he wrote.

Referring to the publication of the book in instalments by a vernacular daily, the complainant alleged that AK Khandaker’s claim has tarnished the image of thousands of freedom fighters across the country.