The interim government has formed a committee to investigate the purchase of surveillance equipment during the regime of the fallen Sheikh Hasina government, amid allegations of mass monitoring of citizens.
The Advisory Council, chaired by Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, decided at its Thursday meeting in Tejgaon to form an inquiry committee, Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters later at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital.
Faiz Ahmed Taiyeb, Special Assistant to the Chief Advisor on Posts, Telecommunications and ICT, has been made the head of the committee.
The committee will investigate how, from where and at what price the spy devices were purchased and how those were used.
Alam said it was told that the surveillance equipment were purchased during the previous government spending about US$300 million, while many said those was brought at cost of US$200 million.
"What we read in the entire report is completely clear - the previous authoritarian government used surveillance equipment and spyware to deprive the civil rights of the Bangladesh's people,” he said.
"To carry out this illegal surveillance, your and my minimum freedom of speech was snatched away. They violated the right to privacy given in the constitution," he added.
The press secretary said the committee was formed in the meeting of the Council of Advisers today to probe the issue.
How much money was spent in purchasing those and from where those were purchased will be investigated, although the report says - many things were purchased from Israel, he said.
Alam said the probe body will investigate the entire issue.
MSH
