Syed Shahed Reza's vicious gambits to devastate country's sports prospects

The tyrannical Awami League government that repressed and despoiled Bangladesh from 2009 to 2024 was ousted on 5 August this year. Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina escaped to India. An interim government led by Nobel Laureate Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus took oath on 8 August 2024. A long-awaited anti-corruption drive has been going on and a great deal of reshuffles and shakeups have meanwhile taken place which radiate a light of hope that the new Bangladesh born on 5 August 2024 will be reconstructed on the foundations of socio-economic justice, equal rights, integrity, good governance and rule of law.

However, worries and trepidations over the country's sports arena have not yet evaporated because some insidious agents of the immediate past fascist Sheikh Hasina's regime are still active on the sports turf. The ringleader of this vested quarter is Syed Shahed Reza. A lot of allegations and reports about his unethical and filthy activities have hit news headlines over and over again but Syed Shahed Reza has till now managed to retain his position in Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) for longer than 11 years in quite a good shape without apprehensions. Syed Shahed Reza reportedly is running a vicious and fabricated campaign to plunge BOA into controversies and thus to devastate the country's sports prospects. Even Syed Shahed Reza has posited some honest and devoted sports organizers with the colours of contestants against Chief of Staff of Bangladesh Army General Waker Uz Zaman. General Waker Uz Zaman is one of the most competent, visionary and smartest military officers in Bangladesh Army's history but Syed Shahed Reza, according to reports from relevant sources, is misusing General Waker Uz Zaman's name to intimidate people who know everything in details about Syed Shahed Reza's graft, nepotism, drug addiction, politicization, womanizing etcetera.

Syed Shahed Reza turned BOA into a hunting ground for Sheikh Hasina's cohorts. He imposed totally unauthorized interventions on the election process of BOA and obstructed honest and efficient councilors and sports organizers from contesting in BOA polls. Bangladesh Women Sports Federation, Bangladesh Fencing Federation, Bangladesh Archery Federation and some other sports assemblages have complained to the authorities concerned about Syed Shahed Reza's outlawed activities but unfortunately nothing happened. Syed Shahed Reza is still moving around scot-free with his bogus and absolutely concocted propagations to malign the people who want good governance and equal rights to be restored in BOA.

Even higher officials of National Sports Council are also explicitly annoyed with Syed Shahed Reza. Syed Shahed Reza intentionally delayed the process of authorizing Bangladeshi sports associations and federations to international bodies like the International Olympic Council (IOC). He often took up to 3 years to complete official procedures which could have been done inside less than 2 months. Thus Syed Shahed Reza generated contrived barriers for transparent sports podiums. Some of Syed Shahed Reza's accomplices have been meanwhile nabbed and jailed like Salman F Rahman, ex DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam and former Industries Minister Nurul Mazid Mahmud Humayun but it sounds very much astonishing by which invisible hands Syed Shahed Reza is still not even touched by the law and order forces!

Syed Shahed Reza made scary allusions to all former Army Chiefs and top officials of a particular influential intelligence force to silence his critics. Leaders of the Anti-Discriminatory Students' Movement have reportedly expressed dissatisfaction over the fact that no stern action on Syed Shahed Reza has been yet taken. Protests and agitations against Syed Shahed Reza broke out a number of times but nobody made any move to check out the allegations about him. Syed Shahed Reza was very intimate with another two spoilers-Nazmul Hasan Papon and Kazi Salahuddin. Former Army Chief General Aziz Ahmed was also intimately allied with Syed Shahed Reza. International organizations imposed embargoes on General (Retd) Aziz Ahmed and recently travel ban has been slapped on Aziz Ahmed too but what about Syed Shahed Reza? Is he more powerful than the interim government or is he above the law? Why is the interim government's Ministry of Youth and Sports still quiet over this narcotics freak womanizer? Many renowned people associated with sports have challenged that Syed Shahed Reza will be reported positive if a proper dope test is done on him.

Syed Shahed Reza also introduced dynastical prizes like Sheikh Kamal Award as part of his gambit to criminalize and politicize sports events. Syed Shahed Reza received Sheikh Kamal Award himself instead of anyone from Sheikh Hasina's family. It shows Syed Shahed Reza's abnormally high loyalty to Sheikh Hasina and the ghosts of fascism she has left behind. Moreover, Syed Shahed Reza received prizes from national award selectors being a jury board member which is a blatant violation of sports ethics. This award was conferred some years ago in the handball category which is an obscure and unpopular game in Bangladesh. There are many more bizarre things that Syed Shahed Reza introduced which still prevail. Esteemed badminton player Kamrun Nahar Dana has also told journalists that the dishonest people holding top posts in BOA for longer than a decade should be dismissed immediately.

If the interim government is truly serious about liberating Bangladesh from corruption, irregularities, administrative defilement and anarchy, detrimental infectious entities like Syed Shahed Reza need to be terminated from their posts without delay.