Disgraced State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murad Hassan has resigned from the cabinet following the instruction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for his offensive and indecent remarks on women.
The under-fire junior minister submitted his resignation letter to the Prime Minister on Tuesday showing personal reasons for quitting his job.
“Yes, State Minister Murad Hassan’s resignation letter, addressing the Honorable Prime Minister, reached the Information Ministry. It’ll be forwarded to the Cabinet Division for taking necessary steps,” a senior official said, requesting anonymity.
Murad Hassan had been under increasing criticism by various quarters for his disrespectful remarks on women in an interview on social media. A number of audios and videos containing indecent remarks by Murad Hassan also went viral on social media during the last few days.
A two-year-old phone conversation of the junior minister with actor Mamnun Hasan Emon and actress Mahiya Mahi recently went viral on social media. In that audio clip, Murad made “derogatory comments” on the actress, threatened her and gave her an alleged indecent proposal.
On Monday, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked State Minister for Information Murad Hassan to resign from the cabinet by Tuesday for his recent derogatory remarks on social media.
“I had talks with the Prime Minister in this regard in the evening, and the message has been passed to the state minister around 8pm,” said Obaidul Quader, also the Awami League General Secretary.
Demanding his immediate resignation, women and rights bodies and political parties slammed Murad for the indecent remarks he made against women.
BNP on Monday demanded State Minister for Information Dr Murad Hassan apologise publicly and withdraw his “politically motivated, racial and derogatory” remarks against women and the Zia family.
In a statement, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also urged Murad to step down immediately. Otherwise, he threatened that a befitting reply would be given to Murad at an appropriate time.
Fakhrul expressed strong hatred and anger against “perverted, indecorous, racist and anti-women” remarks by the state minister that went viral on social media.
He demanded immediate attention and solution to such disgusting and indecent behaviour of a person performing important duty of the state.
The BNP leader said the entire nation was stunned that the derogatory comments came from an “insane” person carrying the national flag.
During an interview on social media recently, the junior minister described BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman as a ‘whoreson’ and alleged that Zaima Rahman, Tarique’s daughter, cannot sleep without the company of a black man every night.
HC orders removal of objectionable audios, videos
Meanwhile, the High Court on Tuesday directed Bangladesh’s telecom regulator to take necessary steps to remove all objectionable audios and videos of State Minister for Information Murad Hassan from social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube.
A division bench of Justices M Enayetur Rahim and Md Mostafizur Rahman gave the order to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and also asked Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar to submit an action-taken report by Wednesday morning, in the wake of a plea by a leading Supreme Court lawyer.
In his petition, barrister Syed Sayedul Haque Suman claimed that such “indecent, obscene audios and videos can have adverse effects on society”.
“The responsible agencies of the government should have removed these contents but as they did not, I’ve sought the High Court’s direction in public interest,” he said in his plea.
