‘On-screen Hasina' Nusraat Faria gets bail in attempted murder case linked to 2024 anti-govt stir
Authorities detained the 31-year-old actor at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport over the weekend in connection with the deadly anti-government stir, which culminated in the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government on 5 August 2024.
New Delhi: Nusraat Faria Mazhar, a prominent Bangladeshi actor who portrayed former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in a Shyam Benegal biopic, was released on bail Tuesday, a day after her arrest in an attempted murder case, arising from the July uprising in Bangladesh last year.
According to reports, Nusraat Faria is among 266 individuals accused in an attempted murder case from the time of the 2024 student protests demanding quota reforms. The complainant sustained gunshot wounds on 19 July 2024. Besides attempted murder, the charges against Faria, among other accused, include providing financial support to the Awami League during the July 2024 protests.
Hearing her bail plea Tuesday, a court granted her conditional release, pending further legal proceedings. A day earlier, Nusraat Faria was remanded to judicial custody after appearing in court under tight security.
The attempted murder case against Nusraat Faria and hundreds of others, including 17 actors, has drawn significant scrutiny from civil society, rights advocates, and the media. Many of the accused, allegedly, have financial or symbolic ties to the former Awami League government, ousted late in 2024 and replaced by the Muhammad Yunus-led interim administration.
According to critics, the charges lack substantive evidence and reflect a broader campaign of political retribution.
If any accused had made underhanded deals with the AL (Awami League) regime for financial benefits, they should face corruption cases, wrote Aasha Mehreen Amin, joint editor of The Daily Star, in her column.
'But to file cases against hundreds of individuals whose links to the killings of protesters are downright flimsy leads to only one conclusion—that these individuals are being harassed due to some link or the other with the AL regime or because of someone's personal grudge,' she added.
Who is Nusraat Faria
Nusraat Faria rose to prominence with her role in the 2023 movie 'Mujib: The Making of a Nation', a joint India-Bangladesh production. Faria played Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the nation's founding father.
The Shyam Benegal-directed biopic, starring Arifin Shuvoo in the titular role, received acclaim for its political gravitas and historical scope.
Amin, in her column on the arrests of personalities such as Nusraat Faria, poses a rhetorical question: '…does this mean that anyone associated with the AL regime can be held responsible for the violent crackdown?'
'It seems absurd, if not dangerous,' she wrote.
In response to growing international and domestic criticism over such arrests, senior members of the government insisted that the legal process must take its course.
'Now, if there's a case against her (Nusraat Faria), what should we do?' Bangladesh interim home adviser Asif Nazrul said, drawing further ire.
'If we let her go, then you would say, 'Sir, you spared her'.'
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also Read: Bangladeshi nationals are joining terrorist ranks. Bigger problem is the culture of denial
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