Court sentences bus driver to life in case over deaths of Tareque Masud, Mishuk MunierA Manikganj court has ordered life in prison for the man who was driving the bus involved in a road crash that left filmmaker Tareque Masud, ATN News CEO Mishuk Munier and three others killed.On Wednesday, the court of additional district and sessions judge delivered the verdict over the 2011 road crash.The accident occurred when a bus hit a car on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway at the district's Ghior Upazila on Aug 13 that year.The court found the bus driver Jamir Hossain guilty and ordered life imprisonment.The three others killed in the crash are the car's driver 'Mustafiz', Tareque's production manager 'Wasim' and staffer 'Jamal'.Tareque's wife Catherine, painter Dhali Al-Mamun and his wife Dilara Begum Jolly, and Tareque's production assistant Saidul Islam sustained injuries, reports bdnews24.com.They were on their way back to Dhaka from Manikganj after visiting a shooting location for a new film.The local police started a case against the driver of the 'Deluxe Paribahan' bus and two days later, Jamir Hossain was arrested from Meherpur.He had then claimed the other vehicle's driver was responsible for the accident.A probe by the communication ministry found that both drivers have been negligent.Born in 1956 in Faridpur, Tareque directed a number of critically acclaimed films such as 'Muktir Gaan' (The Song of Freedom) in 1995, 'Muktir Kotha' (The Story of Freedom) in 1996 and 'Matir Moina' (The Clay Bird), which won the International Critics' Prize and a FIPRESCI Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.He made his directorial debut with the documentary 'Adam Surat' (The Inner Strength) on the Bangladeshi painter SM Sultan in 1989.Tareque also ran a film production house named Audiovision along with his US-born wife Catherine.Banned by the government in May 2002, Matir Moina was the first film from Bangladesh to be put on general release in the UK.It was also the first Bangladeshi film to compete for the Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category.The latest films of the couple were 'Ontarjatra' (The Homeland) released in 2006 and 'Runway' in 2010.Tareque was killed on his way back to Dhaka from Manikganj after visiting a shooting location for his new film 'Kagojer Phool' (the Paper Flower).A reputed cinematographer, Mishuk was born in Noakhali district in 1959. The son of martyred intellectual Munier Chowdhury, Mishuk did his master's in mass communication and journalism from Dhaka University.He was associated with film making for the last 20 years. He was also an internationally reputed news and documentary cameraman.Mishuk also taught broadcast journalism at the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of Dhaka University.He took charge of ATN News station in Nov 2010, having previously worked with The Real News, a Canada-US based television news and documentary network, and the BBC.Since 2004 till 2010, he held the post of director, news operations in Real News Network at Toronto in Canada.He was the key shooting person for BBC world service, WTN, ARD1, Channel 4, CBC and Discovery Health in Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, Singapore, Malaysia and Canada.Mishuk Munier worked as the head of news operations for Ekushey Television (ETV), the first private terrestrial television in Bangladesh.Mishuk was the chief cinematographer of Tareque Masud's film 'Runway'. He worked as the director of photography for 'Return to Kandahar' (2003) and also as the cinematographer of 'Words of Freedom' (1999).

Source: bd News24 February 22, 2017 07:41 UTC