Mushtaq Ahmed: Our 'Crocodile Bhai'

"The kind of torture Mushtaq bhai was subjected to!" Kishore cannot finish his sentence, sobbing heavily. Even when trying to talk about other topics, Kishore keeps coming back to Mushtaq. "Mushtaq bhai said, 'Don't tell anyone that I was given electric shocks, that I was tortured.'" Kishore starts sobbing again. "'Make sure your bhabi doesn't know, make sure my father and mother don't know. Mushtaq bhai told me this repeatedly,'" Kishore continues.----

While farming crocodiles, he met Masiha Akhter Lipa in 2005. Lipa is a zoologist who graduated from the zoology department of Dhaka University. Mushtaq Ahmed had a colorful life as a crocodile farmer. Mushtaq Ahmed's father was the general manager of Carew and Company. Mushtaq was a student at Faujdarhat Cadet College. Later, he went to the UK for studies on a scholarship. He worked in a tea garden and was a tour guide. By chance, he even acted in the role of a tour guide in a drama by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki.

Mushtaq and Lipa got married in 2005. Lipa became deeply intertwined with crocodile farming and Mushtaq's life. Writer Mushtaq Ahmed did not want to let his beloved wife Lipa know about his humiliation. He did not want to tell his 89-year-old father and 81-year-old mother! Kishore was saying, "Mushtaq bhai had collapsed like this in prison three times before dying." Tears were rolling down Kishore's eyes. "Such a good man like Mushtaq bhai was given electric shocks... What agony he suffered... He ruined his clothes...

Mushtaq bhai was physically very fit. Electric shocks were..." Kishore's sentence trails off. "Mushtaq bhai and I were made to walk and lifted into a microbus. Mushtaq bhai could not walk properly. Neither could I. We were taken from an unknown torture cell to the Khilgaon RAB office. We were pushed down from the microbus. Both of us could not walk properly. Once they pushed us down, once they shoved us up. We were lifted and dropped like this several times. So that we could walk properly and enter the RAB office, like a rehearsal for a shooting.

Even then blood was dripping from my ear. My shirt was soaked in blood. Someone said, 'His blood hasn't stopped yet.' Someone said, 'Here, drink some water.' They forced water into my ear and body as if feeding me water, to wash away the blood. From the Khilgaon RAB office, we were brought to the Tikatuli RAB office. There, a video was made like a shooting. Then we were handed over to Ramana Police Station. If those videos are published, it will be understood what our condition was at that time," Kishore stares silently.

While talking about anything, writer Mushtaq's name comes to Kishore's lips. He breaks down in a stifling cry. Throughout the entire time, though physical Mushtaq is absent, the presence of ghostly Mushtaq is overwhelming. In front is a helpless journalist. Who has questions, and has answers too. Nothing to do, absolutely nothing. "A person shared a cartoon. For that, he stayed 9 months in jail, bail petitions were rejected 6 times. Whose judgment will you seek from whom? Who will judge?" These words were said by Dr. Nafisur Rahman, cousin of Mushtaq Ahmed.

Regarding the family of Mushtaq bhai seeking justice, he said, "They no longer want to demand justice for Mushtaq's death from anyone either." Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Mushtaq, 53, was arrested by police on May 6, 2020, from his Lalmatia residence in Dhaka. While imprisoned, Mushtaq bhai died on February 25 last year at Kashimpur High Security Prison in Gazipur. Cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore was also arrested at that time.

They were accused of "anti-government propaganda and spreading rumors" under the Digital Security Act, the black law of Sheikh Hasina. In the nine months before his death, Mushtaq's bail petitions were rejected six times by the court. His death in prison sparked outrage, and international human rights organizations also spoke out over the incident. Thirty-nine days after the death of writer Mushtaq Ahmed, his father Abdur Razzaq (89) passed away. He could not bear the grief of his son's death.

Dr. Nafisur said, "Mushtaq's father often used to say, my son is in jail, but I feel proud that my son went to jail for protesting, for speaking the truth." "But after his son's death, not finding any hope for justice, he was deeply hurt. He could not bear this." Nafisur said, "After his son's death, Mushtaq's father spent all his time on Facebook seeing who was protesting, what was being protested, Shayan singing songs, someone writing poetry... spending his time on these.

He did not discuss these with anyone. His younger daughter came from abroad, he did not even speak a single word to her about this. Actually, he had completely lost faith in this system.... Mushtaq's father also used to say, his mother is saying the same thing... There will be no justice in this country. There is no use asking for justice, there is no use protesting either. Nothing will happen.... However, if you ask me whether I want justice for my brother's death or not, whether his mother wants it or not, whether his wife wants it or not?... Of course they want it.

But everyone is so frustrated that everyone has given up." On May 6, 2020, RAB arrested cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore and writer Mushtaq Ahmed. The next day, RAB-3 DAD Abu Bakar Siddique filed a case against those two and 11 others under the Digital Security Act at Ramana Police Station.

In the case, the accused were charged with using Facebook to spread rumors about the Father of the Nation, the Liberation War, the coronavirus pandemic, propaganda or confusion with the intent to tarnish the image of the state/government, and plotting to create instability and chaos. Kishore and Mushtaq were arrested for being involved with the Facebook page 'I am Bangladeshi', from which RAB alleged various posts were being made to tarnish the reputation and image of the state.

Following Mushtaq bhai's death, cartoonist Kishore got bail. Later he filed a case alleging torture in custody. The case application stated that Kishore was shown arrested on May 5 in a Digital Security Act case at Ramana Police Station. But three days prior to that, on May 2 around 5:45 pm, 16-17 people in plainclothes forcefully took him from his Kakrail residence 'with handcuffs and a mask on his face to an unknown secluded place'. He was kept in a room of an old and damp house.

From there he could hear the sound of car horns outside. In that room, various cartoons drawn by Kishore himself were shown one after another through a projector and their meanings were asked. Showing some cartoons drawn about the coronavirus, he was asked why he drew them and who the characters in the cartoons were. Kishore bhai said that at one point 'a very hard slap was hit' on his ear. For some time, he became unconscious. But he could realize that blood was trickling from his ear.

Later, he was 'beaten' with a 'stick fitted with a steel plate'. He lost consciousness from pain and agony. Upon receiving Kishore's case application, a Dhaka court asked the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to investigate the complaint. In November, PBI submitted a report to the court stating that they 'found' no evidence of torturing Kishore!

Mushtaq Ahmed was a student of Chattogram Faujdarhat Cadet College, and later Chattogram University. He also went to England for higher education. Interested in agricultural farms, he traveled to many countries. He roamed everywhere in the country starting from the Sundarbans. He was crazy about crocodiles. Not only in Bangladesh, but he was the first to start crocodile farming in the entire South Asia. He became known in the media as 'Crocodile Bhai'. Before that, acquaintances called him crazy.

This very Mushtaq exported the first crocodiles from the country. He had said, "It took eight years just to prove that I was not crazy." Staying within the country's prevailing laws, by exporting 67 crocodiles, he later forced people to believe that he was not crazy. Yet, to get permission for crocodile farming, he had to go through 32 tables in two years. He had to hear that these were plots to launder money out of the country. Understand now how strict 'they' are in preventing money laundering!

Before embarking on crocodile farming, while wandering in the Sundarbans area, he met Masiha Akhter Lipa, whom he married. Lipa was a zoology student at Dhaka University, researching pearl cultivation and hilsa. She was practically an 'encyclopaedia of crocodile farming'. Perhaps that is why she fell in love with another crocodile-crazy Mushtaq. After her husband went to jail, the shock she had to endure drove her mentally ill due to trauma.

The cartoon for sharing which cartoonist Kishore bhai had to lose his life was drawn mocking bank robber Chowdhury Nafiz Sarafat. Notably, the properties held in the names of Chowdhury Nafiz Sarafat—who called Sheikh Hasina 'fufu' (paternal aunt)—his wife Anjuman Ara Shahid, and son Chowdhury Rahib Safwan Sarafat include 22 flats in various areas including Gulshan in the capital, a 20-storey building in Gulshan-2, a four-storey building on 7.5 katha land in Bashundhara, a 7.5 katha plot in Purbachal, a total of 25 katha land in Gazipur and Badda, and an additional 13 katha land.

According to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) allegations, Chowdhury Nafiz Sarafat embezzled Tk 887 crore by fraud and abuse of power, based on which the court ordered the attachment of all their immovable properties. Source: Kishore-Mushtaqer Samne Asahoy Ek Sangbadik, Golam Mortoza [Sunday, March 7, 2021], Daily Star. "Ekti Cartoon Sher Korlo, Seson Mara Gelo Jele": Mushtaqer Bhai, [February 25, 2022], bdnews24. Prothom Alo, The Business Standard.