Police raided Barrister Arman’s family after UK journalists questioned Tulip
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Mir Ahmad bin Quasem Arman, also known as Mir Arman, has said Dhaka police raided his family home after British journalists asked UK City Minister Tulip Siddiq, about his plight.
Mir Arman told the Financial Times that security personnel told his wife to “remain low” and put a stop to media coverage hours before Channel 4 News broadcast footage of its journalists questioning Siddiq.
On November 25, 2017, journalists from Channel 4 News approached Siddiq in London, suggesting that “with one phone call you could make a huge difference” to Quasem, who has Bangladeshi nationality.
Tulip Siddiq warned the journalists against implying she was a Bangladeshi politician, saying “be very careful what you’re saying, I’m a British MP.”
On November 28, 2017, the footage of the confrontation was broadcast, according to the FT report.
Hours before it aired, security personnel, including members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), surrounded the family’s home, Quasem said.
He told the FT that almost a dozen armed men entered the house demanding the details of his wife’s overseas contacts. “It was as if they were hunting a terrorist,” he added.
In 2016, Mir Arman, son of the late Mir Quasem Ali who was a former central executive council member of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, was first detained while serving on the legal team of his father.
On August 6, 2024, he was released, less than 24 hours after Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League government were ousted from power on August 5.
However, Siddiq apologised after the transmission of the Channel 4 News report about her conduct towards one of the programme’s journalists.
The FT contacted Siddiq and the Labour Party for comment. Siddiq did not respond to the request, and Labour declined to comment.
An ally of Siddiq said Quasem was neither a constituent of hers nor a British citizen but that she had written to the Foreign Office in December 2017 to raise his case after she was asked to do so by constituents, in line with the “correct protocol” for a constituency MP.