The daughter of veteran Bangladeshi journalist Shyamal Dutta has made a direct appeal to the United Nations, demanding action over her father’s arbitrary detention, which has now entered its second year.
In a detailed letter, Sushama Shashi Dutta recounted how her father was targeted in the aftermath of the fall of the previous government on August 5, 2024.
“A climate of fear and vengeance had consumed the nation. Those perceived to be supporters of the regime—whether or not they were—became targets. Journalists, including my father, were not spared. A mob violently attacked his office, his role at the National Press Club was wrongfully expelled, he was humiliated by unfounded accusations, and finally, he was arrested on September 16, 2024, in connection with a murder he did not commit,” she wrote.
Shyamal Dutta, 63, has spent over 37 years reporting in Bangladesh, serving as editor of The Daily Bhorer Kagoj, Vice President of the Commonwealth Journalists’ Association, and Secretary of the Bangladesh National Press Club.
Sushama emphasised that his long record of defending press freedom and human rights has made him a target. “He used his profession as a platform to speak on various human rights abuses, and defend press freedom. And yet, tragically, he has become the victim of the very injustices he has consistently stood against.”
Sushama’s letter, sent from Melbourne, comes on the first anniversary of her father’s detention.
The murder case against him, Sushama wrote, is “verging on the absurd.” “A man named Fazlu, 31 years old, was tragically killed in Dhaka on August 5—a day my father was not even present in the city. No link whatsoever to the victim or the crime was presented, yet my father’s name was nonetheless inserted among 400 accused individuals, many of them journalists.”
She described brutal conditions during his detention. “My father, who suffers from sleep apnea, was denied access to his breathing device for three months in detention. He endured a stroke while in custody, and our family was not informed. He was forced to sleep on the floor through the winter."
"His medical and dietary needs have been systematically ignored. And in October 2024, the bank accounts of my father and all his immediate family were frozen—without explanation, process, and without end. Even if journalism is wrongfully criminalized, why are my innocent family members being punished?” she asked.
Sushama highlighted the violation of fundamental human rights, invoking multiple articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
She also noted that even Muhammad Yunus, Chief Advisor of the Interim Government, acknowledged in November 2024 that the cases against journalists were arbitrary and promised they would be removed. Yet, nearly a year later, her father remains behind bars.
“The United Nations Human Rights Office itself, in its February 2025 report, recognised this persecution. It recommended that charges against journalists be dropped and that they be spared from arbitrary arrests and harassment. But those words remain unheeded, and my father’s imprisonment continues,” Sushama wrote.
She appealed to the international community: “I urge you, with all the respect I can give, to raise your voice where ours is silenced, to hold Bangladesh to its commitments under international law, and to stand with those who have no power left but truth.”