A popular satirical writer has been arrested in Bangladesh for posting articles poking fun at the government, an official said on Friday, hours after a three-week ban on Facebook for security reasons
A popular satirical writer has been arrested in Bangladesh for posting articles poking fun at the government, an official said on Friday, hours after a three-week ban on Facebook for security reasons was lifted.
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officers detained Refayet Ahmed on Thursday night under the country’s controversial Internet law for posting pieces on Facebook, the elite force’s spokesman Major Rumman Mahmud said.
“He was arrested for his provocative Facebook posts against the government and the state,” Major Mahmud told AFP.
The RAB accuses Mr Ahmed of writing under a pen name for a page called “Moja Losss ” (“Are You Making Fun ”) which has won popularity for taking a satirical look at Bangladesh’s conservative society as well as rampant corruption and law and order problems.
But the page, with nearly 7,00,000 fans, also mocked the government’s decision in November to ban Facebook and mobile messaging services WhatsApp and Viber for security reasons.
The bans were originally ordered after two Opposition leaders lost an appeal and were hanged last month for war crimes committed during Bangl-adesh’s 1971 independence conflict against Pakistan.
Mr Ahmed was due to appear in a court in Dhaka on Friday after the police filed an initial case against him of abuse of the Internet. Under the Internet Act, any person who deliberately publishes material deemed to hurt religious beliefs, offend the state or damage law and order can be jailed for 14 years.
