Uwazi

A trans activist’s scheduled speech at a Bangladeshi university’s career conference was cancelled last month after anti-trans Muslim fundamentalist students threatened to boycott classes if she appeared as planned.

The France-based human rights organization, JusticeMakers Bangladesh in France (JMBF), protested the cancellation of the appearance by Bangladeshi transgender woman Ho Chi Minh Islam at the Women’s Career Carnival.

The cancellation came under pressure from conservative student groups at North South University. JMBF believes that the discriminatory treatment of Ho Chi Minh Islam, solely because she is a transgender woman, is a blatant violation of Bangladesh’s Supreme Law Constitution and the universal human rights declared by the United Nations.

On Nov. 24-25, two organizations, Heroes for All and ISOSHAL, organized the Women’s Career Carnival at the North South University campus. The event aimed to empower women through networking, learning, and professional development. Trans woman and rights activist Ho Chi Minh Islam was scheduled to participate as a speaker in a session on Nov. 24. Her speech was intended to address the inclusion of marginalized communities in the workforce and the creation of an inclusive environment for their work. After Ho Chi Minh Islam was invited as a speaker, Muslim fundamentalist groups initiated propaganda against her through various media, including the Facebook page “Islamic for Practitioner NSU.” This misinformation campaign aimed to incite North South University students against her, spreading a misinterpretation of religion, JMBF said.

Students emailed university authorities, demanding the cancellation of her speech, claiming it promoted homosexuality. They threatened to boycott all university classes if their demands were not met. On Nov. 24, as students began protesting on the North South University campus with banners, the event’s organizers cancelled Ho Chi Minh Islam’s scheduled session, citing concerns for her safety.

Advocate Shahanur Islam, founder president of JusticeMakers Bangladesh in France (JMBF) and human rights lawyer, condemned the cancellation, saying that it was motivated solely because she is a transgender woman. The cancellation showed the escalating influence of reactionary fundamentalist forces in the country, he said, even though universities should be spaces for the free exchange of knowledge across diverse ideologies. JMBF asserts that the cancellation was part of the broader trend of violence, torture, and discrimination against sexual minorities in Bangladesh. Since June of this year, reactionary fundamentalist groups have been spreading misinformation to discredit Shahanur Islam and JMBF in Bangladesh through various media, including Facebook, he said.

Shahanur Islam demanded swift legal action against those spreading propaganda against sexual minorities and called for exemplary punishment. Simultaneously, the organization urged the enactment and enforcement of the Sexual Minorities Protection and Rights Act by repealing Section 377 of the Penal Code to eliminate all forms of discrimination and establish rights for sexual minorities.

Ho Chi Minh Islam is a young trans woman activist who has worked for the Bangladeshi human rights organization No Passport Voice. She founded the community-based organization Krishnachura, which focuses on providing spaces for safe dialogue to gender minorities in rural Bangladesh. She worked as a frontline health worker during the pandemic, when she was employed as the first transgender nurse at Square Hospital.

As a young leader working for social change in Bangladesh, she was recognized and trained as a fellow of Acumen Academy in 2022.

Hochemin Islam, a prominent transgender rights activist and a nurse by profession, was set to speak at a career fest on November 24 at the capital's North South University (NSU). The event, titled "Women's Career Carnival," was organised by Heroes for All and iSocial Limited, and hosted by NSU and its Career and Placement Center (CPC). As part of a panel with the International Labour Organization, Hochemin was planning to speak on how a workplace could be made inclusive for members of marginalised communities and how such disadvantaged individuals can be assimilated into the labour force equitably.

However, since the evening before the event was set to take place, calls began being exchanged between the organisers and NSU authority regarding protests from a certain section of the university's student body. The students were opposed to Hochemin coming to their university and speaking. In a formal letter to the university's vice chancellor—headed "Letter of objection and notification about Criminal activity as per Bangladesh penal code chapter 16 article 377 inside our NSU campus and the Promotion of Homosexuality (Transgenderism & LGBTQIA+) on November 24, 2023"—they attempted to "highlight that a significant majority of NSU students practice various religions, and according to Bangladesh penal code chapter-15, article-295A, it is illegal to incite outrage of religious feelings…" and urged the VC "to intervene and advise the CPC against allowing this misunderstanding to escalate, potentially causing distress among the majority religious community." The night before the event, NSU authorities went back and forth regarding whether Hochemin could be allowed to speak at the event or not. But as tensions escalated, they decided against bringing Hochemin in for the event, citing concerns regarding her safety. But the hate campaign against this inspiring person—who has struggled against hatred and hurdles all her life—still continues, with even death threats being hurled her way. Institutes of higher education are meant to be havens of free speech and thinking. In a way, it is commendable that this particular university has created an environment wherein students can confidently approach the authorities with any complaints they may have. That said, the protesting group's actions and words so far suggest a lack of knowledge of and familiarity with people from marginalised communities, and specifically individuals from the transgender community. Most concerningly, the theme of the protest betrays a kind of restrictive mentality which hinders human rights. And here, the university and the University Grants Commission (by extension) have a central role to play.

Given that the university in question is indeed a practitioner of citizens' rights as enshrined in our constitution, it must educate its students in line with the values promoted by the state. Seeing as all citizens—including Hochemin Islam—are equal before the law of the country, it is disgraceful for a university to bow to pressure from a likely misinformed/miseducated section of its vast student body. NSU boasts the privilege and responsibility of educating more than 22,000 students. Hence, it is quite incredulous that they were not confident they could have ensured the safety of just one person on their premises. In a similar vein, one cannot help but feel disturbed by what kind of discipline the students are being taught if a guest speaker could need protection from them. A better way of dealing with this situation would have been for the university higher-ups to sit down with the protesting students and hold a civil discussion with them. The NSU authorities should also have done everything in their power to ensure that Hochemin could safely speak at the event. Instead, in the eyes of many young people, this leading private university has validated an act of blatant discrimination.

In its press release regarding the situation, dated November 26, NSU failed to acknowledge the deeply concerning nature of the protesting students' agenda. The statement instead focused on clarifying that, at the time of the event, the VC was abroad and that there is currently no pro-VC instated to represent the VC in his absence. But how does that matter? Again, NSU is a university of massive scale. Whether or not Hochemin's safety could have been ensured should not be dependent on the VC's presence alone.

As an alumna of the university in question, I must voice that I feel disheartened. My four years at NSU represent a time when I was able to flourish intellectually. The pursuit of my degree itself encouraged me to think freely and critically; question everything but hinder no one. I believe now that either the institution and its values have changed drastically over the past couple of years, or that it is doing a shabbier job of becoming a world-class university. A tragedy, indeed. I hope the higher education institutions of the country—and especially the ones working intently to claim a place in the global rankings of universities every year—will perform their duty of educating students to be tolerant free thinkers. What has been done in Hochemin Islam's case is nothing but discrimination and a clear disregard of her human rights. The NSU authorities must assume responsibility for this by carrying out an investigation and taking due actions regarding those who have fuelled this hate campaign. As for long-term measures to prevent such shameful incidents from taking place at any other university, the UGC must be more involved in ensuring human rights and the practice of basic tolerance at Bangladesh's higher education institutes.

Three journalists were allegedly attacked, threatened, and had their equipment damaged by former Member of Parliament (MP) Mostafizur Rahman and staff members of the ruling Awami League in Chittagong on November 30. The IFJ condemns the attack, and calls on Bangladesh’s senior political leadership to ensure that press freedom is upheld during the country’s upcoming elections.

On November 30, Chittagong Bureau of Independent Television journalist Rakib Uddin and two other journalists were allegedly attacked, with their equipment damaged. The attack occurred in front of the Chittagong deputy commissioner's office after Rakib asked Rahman if he had broken Bangladesh’s electoral code of conduct while the former politician was submitting candidacy papers.

The Dhaka Times reported the leader and his supporters allegedly threatened the journalist before assaulting him and damaging his and his colleagues’ equipment. Rakib Uddin said, “During the initial briefing when I questioned him in this regard, he became angry and attacked me abruptly. He physically assaulted me, throwing me to the ground. Furthermore, his supporters joined in and started to assault me. They broke cameras and confiscated microphones of both Independent Television and Maasranga Television.”

According to Rakib, the violence commenced after he pointed out that the leader had violated the electoral code of conduct as he was accompanied by more than five when he came to submit his nomination. On December 1, the election inquiry committee issued a show cause notice against the former politician regarding the alleged mispractice, with his alleged actions to be subject to an inquiry.

Mostafizur Rahman is a former member of parliament and Awami League candidate for Chattogram-16 (Banshkhali) constituency. In the past, Mostafizur Rahman has been in the news for ‘controversial activities, including leading processions with openly raised firearms and making disparaging remarks about senior central leaders of the party’.

Bangladesh authorities must immediately and impartially investigate the recent attack on journalist Md Nahid Hasan while reporting on a clash allegedly involving the student wing of the ruling Awami League and hold the perpetrators accountable, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

On Monday evening, about 20 to 25 men attacked Hasan, a reporter for the news website Jagonews24.com, in the capital Dhaka, according to the local press freedom group Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media, news reports, and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ.

“The beating of Bangladeshi journalist Md Nahid Hasan appears to be the latest attack on the press by supporters of the ruling Awami League,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Bangladesh authorities must swiftly and transparently investigate this incident and take immediate action to end reprisals against the media by ruling party affiliates. Violence against journalists must end.”

Hasan told CPJ that at around 10:30 p.m., he received information about a clash allegedly involving the Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League. The journalist called Md Rakibul Islam, a local leader of the Chhatra League, to ask about the reported attack and told him of his location in the Dhanmondi area to meet for an interview.

Around five minutes later, Tamzeed Rahman, a local leader of the Jubo League, the Awami League’s youth wing, arrived at the reporter’s location with about 20 to 25 men, and asked Hasan if he was a journalist. When Hasan confirmed this, the men grabbed him by the collar and slapped and beat him with their hands and fists until he fell to the ground, where they continued to kick and stomp on him, the journalist said.

Hasan said he attempted to show his attackers his press identification card, to which they responded, “You are a fake journalist.” The men also took his phone to check if he had filmed the clash and deleted some of his videos, including one of an arson attack on a bus, Hasan told CPJ. After about 20 minutes, the men returned his phone and left, he said.

Hasan said that bystanders told him that the Chhatra League’s Islam and the Jubo League’s Rahman attacked him.

Islam and Rahman told CPJ that they did not beat Hasan but rescued him from an attack. Hasan rejected that characterization of the attack and said that the police should be able to determine who was involved by analyzing security footage from the scene.

On Wednesday, the Chhatra League issued a statement, reviewed by CPJ, that dismissed Islam from his post for unspecified reasons.

Hasan said he sustained significant bruising all over his body and received painkillers at a local hospital. He said that he had filed a complaint at the Dhanmondi Police Station, but authorities had not opened a formal investigation as of November 22.

Habibur Rahman, Dhaka Metropolitan police commissioner, and Parvez Islam, officer-in-charge of Dhanmondi Police Station, did not respond to CPJ’s messages requesting comment.

The Chhatra League has been suspected in a number of assaults against journalists in recent months. Its members allegedly beat student journalists Abdul Alim and Abu Sayed Rony on western Bangladesh’s Rajshahi College campus on November 9, as well as student journalist Mosharrof Shah on the University of Chittagong campus on September 24.

On the afternoon of November 9, Rony, a Rajshahi correspondent for the online newspaper Bangladesh Journal, and Alim, a reporter for the online news portal Rajshahi Post, were attacked by a group of individuals associated with the BCL, the student wing of ruling Awami League, at the Rajshahi College in western Bangladesh.

A BCL member, Masud Rana, requested an exception as he was not allowed to attend the take-in-course examinations after regularly missing class, but the professor refused. Following the denial, Masud and other BCL activists engaged in an argument in front of the mathematics department. The situation escalated as the activists vandalised flower tubs, and when journalists Rony and Alim attempted to document the incident, the BCL activistssnatched the mobile phones and beat them in front of the college principal. The journalists were pushed repeatedly into a wall until they lost consciousness.

Alim was treated for a blood clot in his back and extensive bruising, while Rony received medical attention for a severe head injury, with both journalists still recovering in hospital. On November 11 campus BCL leadership suspended eight members for their alleged involvement in the attack and university officials formed a committee to investigate the incident.

The IFJ has documented several similar incidents of harassment and violence against journalists by members of the BCL on other campuses in Bangladesh. On September 24, student journalist Mosharrof Shah was attacked and threatened by a group of individuals while on campus at the University of Chittagong, after reporting on a factional clash of the BCL. In August, the IFJ recorded several unprosecuted assaults on journalists involving individuals connected to the BCL.

On 15 November 2023, labour and human rights defender Babul Hossain was arrested on charges of inciting violence and vandalising vehicles during protests which called for minimum wage hikes.

Babul Hossain is the General Secretary of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Solidarity (BGWS), a workers’ rights organisation that advocates for the rights of garment workers across Bangladesh. As the General Secretary of BGWS, Babul Hossain - who is also a garment worker by profession - mobilises workers to demand improvements in labour laws, including an increase in the minimum wage, and runs programmes to support workers and their children. The human rights defender was active in organising the recent protests for the minimun wage hike for workers in Bangladesh.

On 14 November 2023, at around 7.30pm in the evening, the human rights defender Babul Hossain went missing while he was travelling form Ashulia to Gazipur to meet with the families of those who had suffered violence at the hands of the police during the “ready made garment” (RMG) workers protests. These protests took place over the course of several days beginning in early November 2023 and occured in the context of an ongoing country-wide movement protesting human rights violations faced by RMG workers. The human rights defender told his wife at around 7.30 pm that he had boarded a bus to go to Gazipur. Since that time, the human rights defender’s phone appears to have been switched off.

On 15 November 2023, a day after Babul Hossain went missing, the labour and human rights defender was remanded into police custody by the Gazipur metropolitian magistrate court. Babul Hossain is facing false charges of inciting violence and vandalising vehicles while exercising his right to protest against the violations and harsh conditions of RMG workers in Bangladesh.

The disappearance and subsequent arrest of Babul Hossain is the latest in a series of severe violatons and reprisals faced by human rights defenders who are participating in the labour rights movement, and who seek to raise awareness about the human rights situation of RMG workers in Bangladesh.

Front Line Defenders believes that the disappearance and subsequent arrest of Babul Hossain is directly related to his work in defence of the human rights of people in Bangladesh. Front Line Defenders is seriously concerned for the physical and psychological wellbeing of the human rights defender.

Bangladesh police fired rubber bullets and tear gas Thursday, officials and witnesses said, as violence broke out at a protest by garment workers who rejected a government-offered pay raise.

A government-appointed panel raised wages on Tuesday by 56.25 percent for the South Asian nation's 4 million garment factory workers, who are seeking a near-tripling of their monthly wage.

Bangladesh's 3,500 garment factories account for around 85 percent of its $55 billion in annual exports, supplying many of the world's top brands including Levi's, Zara and H&M.

But conditions are dire for many of the sector's four million workers, the vast majority of whom are women whose monthly pay starts at 8,300 taka ($75).

Police said violence broke out in the industrial city of Gazipur, outside the capital Dhaka, after more than 1,000 workers staged a protest on a highway to reject the panel's offer.

"The workers tried to block the road... and we had to fire tear (gas) shells and rubber bullets to disperse them," Ashok Kumar Pal Gazipur deputy police chief told an AFP reporter at the scene who witnessed the incident.

Police said workers also threw bricks and stones at officers and lit fires on roads. The workers are seeking an increase to 23,000 taka ($208) and unions representing them have rejected the panel's increase as "farcical."

Several thousand workers also left factories in Ashulia, a northern Dhaka suburb, police said.

Police have said at least three workers have been killed since the wage protests broke out in key industrial towns last week, including a 23-year-old woman shot dead on Wednesday.

At least five police officers have also been injured in the protests in which thousands have taken to the streets.

Unions say the panel's wage increase fails to match soaring prices of food, house rents and schooling and healthcare costs.

They have also accused the government and police of arresting and intimidating organizers.

"Police arrested Mohammad Jewel Miya, one of the organizers of our unions. A grass-roots leader... was also arrested," Rashedul Alam Raju, the general secretary of the Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers Federation, told AFP.

Another union leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said unions were being threatened by police to call off the protests and accept the wage offer.

"At least six grass-roots unionists have been arrested," the union leader said. There was no immediate comment from police about the arrests.

The United States has condemned violence against protesting Bangladeshi garment workers and "the criminalization of legitimate worker and trade union activities."

In a statement, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller urged the panel "to revisit the minimum wage decision to ensure that it addresses the growing economic pressures faced by workers and their families."

The Netherlands-based Clean Clothes Campaign, a textile workers' rights group, has also dismissed the new pay level as a "poverty wage."

The minimum wage is fixed by a state-appointed board that includes representatives from the manufacturers, unions and wage experts.

At least 30 journalists came under attack, while the vehicles and equipment of some of them were vandalised during a clash between the supporters of the main opposition Bangladeshi Nationalist Party and the police in the capital’s Naya Paltan area on Saturday.

The clash between the protesters and police began about 11:30am before the BNP started its scheduled grand rally in front of its party office at Naya Paltan, during which journalists were also injured.

Different journalist organisations and platforms condemned the attacks on their fellows.

The Dhaka Reporters Unity in their statement condemned the attacks on and torture of 30 journalists and also snatching of their mobile phones and valuables and damaging of their cameras and other equipment.

The DRU leadership said that such attacks are never acceptable and against the press freedom.

Protesters at Rajmoni crossing intercepted Mohammad Ali Mazed, AFP video journalist and an executive committee member of the Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media, beating him up with sticks, while he was heading towards Kakrail intersection during the clash.

The protestors also broke his camera.

Later, the BJIM in a statement said that it strongly condemns the brutal attacks on at least 19 on-duty journalists, including two of its cofounders, as major political parties staged rallies in the capital within very risky proximities on Saturday.

Brick chips were hurled at Sazzad Hossain, a freelance photographer for international media and a BJIM member. He was also stampeded allegedly by BNP activists.

New Age journalist Ahammad Foyez, Bangla Tribune’s Salman Tarek Shakil, Daily Kalbela’s Rafsan Jani, and Share Biz’s Hamidur Rahman, among others, sustained injuries.

Rafsan Jani was badly beaten and taken to hospital.

Daily Inqilab’s FA Masum told New Age that he was taking photos when two processions of BNP and ruling Awami League were about to face off in a confrontation at the time of which someone dragged him from back and started beating near the AL procession.

Masum said he could not recognise any of the attackers. A car of Jamuna Television was vandalised in Kakrail, while a

microbus of Maasranga Television carrying Noor Un Nahar Weely was attacked at Shahjahanpur in the evening.

Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists in their statement also alleged that journalists were targeted when they were filming or photographing acts of vandalism and arson during the programmes of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami.

The Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media (BJIM) strongly condemns the brutal attacks on at least 19 on-duty journalists including two of its co-founders on October 28, 2023, as three major political parties staged rallies in the capital within very risky proximities on Saturday.

​

Mohammad Ali Mazed, AFP Video Journalist and a BJIM Executive Committee Member, was ambushed and beaten on the head and back with sticks by several activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). His safety gear saved him from severe injuries though the miscreants broke his newsgathering kit.

Sazzad Hossain, a Freelance photographer for The Guardian, DW, and SOPA Images and a BJIM member, was also targeted with brick chips and later stampeded by some BNP activists.

New Age journalist Ahamed Fayez, Bangla Tribune’s Salman Tarek Shakil, Jobaer Ahmed, Daily Kalbela’s Rafsan Jani, Abu Saleh Musa, Rabiul Islam Rubel, Touhidul Islam Tarek, Dhaka Times’ Salekin Tarin, Kazi Ihsan Didar, Inqilab’s F A Masum, Ittefaq’s Tanvir Ahammed, Sheikh Naser, Ekushey TV’s Touhidur Rahman, Arifur Rahman, Desh Rupantor’s Arifur Rahman Rabbi, The Report’s Tahir Zaman, Share Biz’s Hamidur Rahman and Freelance journalist Maruf were also injured by attacks of miscreants within the rallies.

Rallies and demonstrations are part of democratic movements and we respect the political parties’ attempt to uphold the essence of democracy.

​

Similarly, it is necessary to remember that journalism is the fourth estate of democracy. Any blow towards the free press will be counted as a lesion on democracy. Such attacks on journalists are not acceptable and we demand free, fair, and swift justice for our injured colleagues.

We also officially reprimand policemen’s attacks on journalists covering the unlawful checking at Dhaka entrances in the past few evenings ahead of the rallies.

Additionally, we promise to further enhance our monitoring of journalists’ safety in Bangladesh.

We assure our colleagues, from local and international media, that we will always stand with you.

Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) men have assaulted Prothom Alo Chittagong University correspondent Mosharraf Shah.

Mosharraf said the BCL men have threatened him not to write reports on BCL, the student wing of the ruling Awami League, while he was being beaten up.

He was assaulted at 11:30am on Sunday in front of the faculty of arts and humanities in the campus.

Mosharraf said followers of university unit BCL president Rezaul Haque assaulted him.

Mosharraf Shah told Prothom Alo that he was going towards the vice-chancellor's office around 11:30am to collect news and comments regarding Chattra League’s clash, vandalism and beating of the chief engineer in the university on Saturday.

When he reached in front of the second arts and humanities faculty, at that time, 15 to 20 Chhatra League activists first pushed him from behind. Then they asked him if he has written any report on Chattra League or not. Some of them punched his forehead and face, kicked him in the chest and hit him on the hands.

While beating him up, Mosharraf said, those leaders and activists warned him of not writing anymore reports on Chhatra League in future. They said, “Write up anymore reports and we’ll see who comes to save you. There should be no news about Chhatra League.”

Mosharraf received first aid for his injuries at the university medical center. He was then sent to Chattogram Medical College Hospital since he had sustained injuries in the chest and hands.

Chief Medical Officer of the University Medical Center, Abu Taiyab told Prothom Alo that four stitches had to be given on Musharraf's forehead. He also has an injury on his hand. X-ray should be done. Apart from this, he has been sent to Chittagong Medical College Hospital for better treatment.

Superintendent of police in Chattogram SM Shafi Ullah told Prothom Alo that they have been informed about the attack and have discussed the matter with the university administration including the proctor. Efforts are on to arrest those involved.

Police attacked and detained several students as a group of students took to the streets again on Tuesday demanding deferment of Higher Secondary Certificate examinations and protesting at police attacks and detention of several protesters on Monday.

Meanwhile, about the students’ demand, education minister Dipu Moni on Tuesday said there was no scope of deferring the HSC exams scheduled to start on August 17.

While briefing media at the International Mother Language Institute, the minister made the announcement amid the protests in the Dhaka city and in some other places.

She urged the protesting students to return to home and focus on their studies.

The education minister, however, said that the ICT examination will be held on 75 marks instead of 100 marks and questionnaire would be easy.

Earlier on Monday, the protesting students put blockades at Shahbagh, Nilkhet and Science Lab crossings to press their demand home.

The students claimed that they did not get sufficient time for taking exam preparations, many students are also infected by dengue.

They also demanded scrapping exam on Information, Communication and Technology subject.

Thy demanded that the HSC examinations should be postponed for two months or there should be 50 marks’ examinations instead of 100 marks per subject.

Police on Monday removed students from the Shahbgah crossing by charging batons and detaining several students.

The agitating students on Tuesday gathered TSC area of Dhaka University and later marched towards Shahbagh crossing by covering the face with black cloth.

Police stopped the students in front of Shahbagh police station and later charged batons and assaulted them.

Abdullah Al Sajib, an HSC examinee from Government Shaheed Suhrawardy College, said that they had only 16 months, while students got two years for preparation in the previous years.

He said that many students were dengue infected and could not take preparation properly.

The protesters alleged that at least seven students were detained by police.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner for Ramna division Ashraf Hossain said that the most of the protesters are not students, rather they have different motive.

He said that they have detained several protesters to scrutinise their identities.

He said that several lakh students are taking preparations for HSC exams while only a few are taking to the streets to create anarchy.

‘We have interrogated some detrained and they are giving contradictory information and cannot show their academic identity,’ said the police officer.

At least 20 readymade garment workers were injured in a clash with Industrial Police yesterday.

The clash broke out after the workers blocked a road in Savar, demanding their arrears.

The workers of Pride Group's HR Textile Mills Ltd and Fashion Knit Ltd found a notice when they went to work around 9:00am, which read, "Factory authorities declared yesterday as a general holiday."

Other workers joined the crowd and tried to know the reason behind such a declaration, but to no avail. This prompted them to take to the streets.

Witnesses said they saw workers and police arguing on the Dhaka-Aricha highway in front of the factory.

At one stage, a clash broke out, they added. Police charged truncheons, lobbed teargas shells and fired rubber bullets to disperse the workers, who threw brickbats at the law enforcers.

Several types of raw materials -- including yarn -- were being removed from the factory for a few days. The workers are fearing that the factories might get closed.

Around 20 workers were injured in the clash, said a worker wishing anonymity.

The protesting workers also said their salaries for July are pending.

Referring to the police attack, Rafiqul Islam Sujon, president of Bangladesh Garments and Shilpa Shramik Federation, said several types of raw materials -- including yarn -- were being removed from the factory for a few days.

"The workers are fearing that the factories might get closed," he said.

Contacted, Afzal Hossain, assistant superintendent of police of Ashulia Industrial Police-1, said they did not charge batons or fire rubber bullets on the workers. They only lobbed tear gas canisters when the protesters threw brickbats at them.

This correspondent found the phone of factory general manager (administration) Monirul Islam switched off. When he went to the factory to talk to the authorities, the security guard told him that no officials were available there.

Shafiqul Islam, the factory's security officer, said, "No officers came to the factory [today]. Besides, I can't reach any of them over the phone. The factory will reopen tomorrow [Sunday] and the workers will be paid." Asked about the removal of raw materials from there, he said it was a rumour.

On 9 August 2023, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), an intelligence agency operating under the Bangladesh Bank, requested all banks of Bangladesh to provide account details of human rights defender Zillur Rahman and the Centre for Governance Studies.

Zillur Rahman is a journalist, human rights defender, and the host of the popular late-night talk show “Tritiyo Matra”. He is also the executive director of a Bangladesh-based civil society organisation, the Centre for Governance Studies (CGS). CGS strives to promote collaborations across academia, government, private sector, civil society, and development partners to enhance governance quality, address security imperatives, optimise resource utilisation, and support political stability and socio-economic growth through democratisation and sustainable development. CGS is a leading civil society organisation in documenting cases of human rights, especially focusing on the Digital Security Act. Before CGS, Zillur Rahman was working at leading newspapers in Bangladesh such as the Weekly Bichinta, Weekly Khaborer Kagoj, Ajker Kagoj, Weekly Kagoj, Weekly Shomoy, Weekly Laboni, Weekly Bichitra and the Daily Ittefaq. Additionally, the human rights defender also worked at the World Bank (External Affairs Department) in 2000 and for UNICEF (Water & Sanitation Department) in 2001.

The BFIU indicated that the request on 9 August 2023 was made at the request of a state agency, without disclosing which agency. This lack of transparency has led to speculation regarding the motives behind these inquiries, creating a chilling effect on CGS and other civil society organisations in Bangladesh. This is the latest in a series of incidents of harassment faced by Zillur Rahman and CGS while carrying out their legitimate human rights work.

On 27 July 2023, CGS organised an event to launch a report on the challenges faced by human rights defenders in Bangladesh. The event was attended by human rights defenders, scholars, journalists, foreign mission representatives, academics, civil society members, and others. The study exclusively focused on human rights defenders in Bangladesh to better understand the challenges they encounter in their work. The report’s findings expressed concerns about the human rights situation in Bangladesh, documenting the unsafety and obstacles faced by human rights defenders in their field.

Following the event, the keynote presenter of the report faced questions attacking their merit and credibility to research and comment on the country’s human rights situation. Some of these reports also targeted other work done by CGS as part of an ongoing smear campaign against the organisation. This smear campaign against CGS was started in response to the organisation’s legitimate human rights work, including an earlier study they published on the media landscape in Bangladesh which revealed that most media houses in Bangladesh are owned by ruling party-affiliated politicians or business people.

On 23 December 2022, police visited Zillur Rahman’s ancestral home in Shariatpur district, which drew significant criticism from journalists in the country. The police talked to the human rights defender’s relatives and neighbours, asking about his work and alleged political affiliations. The human rights defender expressed the impact of such intimidation on his social media, stating that “the visit intended to scare me, my family and neighbours, and hinder my work as a journalist and works related to the think tank CGS.”

On 23 November 2022, the National Board of Revenue initiated an investigation into Zillur Rahman and CGS through its Central Intelligence Cell regarding the organisation’s transactions and financial matters. State intelligence agencies visited the locations where CGS events were held, such as the Bay of Bengal Conversation. Intelligence agents questioned hotel employees and event partners about their activities. Meanwhile, the government organised a media boycott of coverage during the international conference. Additionally, Zillur Rahman was placed under surveillance and followed by intelligence agents.

Several CGS employees have also been repeatedly questioned by the Criminal Investigation Department of the Bangladesh Police. Meanwhile, unknown parties have repeatedly attempted to hack Zillur Rahman’s, Tritiyo Matra’s and CGS’s Facebook and Twitter pages. All these events have placed the employees of CGS under constant dread, disrupting their capacity to work.

Front Line Defenders believes that the harassment against Zillur Rahman is directly related to his legitimate human rights work. Front Line Defenders is seriously concerned for the psychological wellbeing of the human rights defender.

A Dhaka tribunal today sentenced two officials of rights body Odhikar to two years imprisonment each in an ICT Act case.

The two are Odhikar Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and Director ASM Nasiruddin Elan.

Judge AM Julfiker Hayet of Dhaka Cyber Tribunal announced the verdict in presence of the duo, said our court correspondent from the court.

The court also fined each of them Tk 10,000, in default of which, Adilur and Elan have to serve one month in jail.

After the verdict was pronounced, Public Prosecutor Md Nazrul Islam Shamim told The Daily Star that they were not satisfied with the judgement.

They would challenge the judgement with the High Court after receiving the certified copy of the verdict, he said.

The case was filed for running "a distorted report and doctored images" about the May 5-6, 2013 police action on a Hefajat-e-Islam rally in the capital's Motijheel.

On June 10, 2013, Detective Branch (DB) of police filed a general diary with the Gulshan Police Station in this connection, which was later converted into a case.

Detectives arrested Adilur at Gulshan on August 10, 2013 shortly after filing the GD complaining that the rights body on its website ran a false report titled "Assembly of Hefajat-e Islam Bangladesh and Human Rights Violation".

The report tarnished the image of the country, its government and the law enforcement agencies, read the GD.

Odhikar's report claimed that 61 people died in the wee hours of May 6 when the law enforcers flushed several thousand Hefajat activists out of the Shapla Chattar in the capital's Motijheel. The government, however, put the number of deaths at 13.

Briefing the press at the media centre of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) on August 10, 2013, Monirul Islam, the then joint commissioner of DMP, said no lethal weapons were used to drive the Hefajat men out of the Shapla Chattar.

Law enforcers only used tear gas shells, sound grenades and water cannons to disperse the Hefajat men, he added.

Referring to the violent incidents at Paltan and Motijheel areas between May 5 morning and early hours of May 6, he said a total of 13 people, including police officials, transport workers and pedestrians, died in those incidents.

On the pictures used in the Odhikar report, Monirul said though the report was based on the incidents of that night, some pictures were of those who had died earlier in the day (May 5), and some were of people who are still alive.

After probing the case, the DB on September 4 the same year pressed charges against Adilur and Elan.

Detectives on August 11, 2013 raided the Odhikar's Gulshan office and seized three laptops and two desktop computers, which were used to prepare the fake list of 61 dead victims.

On 23 August 2023, academic activist and human rights defender Maidul Islam received a show cause letter from the Chittagong University concerning his Facebook posts on the civil and political situation in Bangladesh in light of the upcoming elections. The show cause letter was based on a request sent to the Vice Chancellor by the Chittagong University Teachers' Association (CUTA) in Bangladesh urging the Vice Chancellor to take legal action against the human rights defender.

Maidul Islam is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Chittagong (CU), Bangladesh. Currently, the human rights defender is on study leave and pursuing his PhD degree at the Department of Sociology in the University of Pittsburgh, USA. He is also an advocate for academic freedom and civil and political rights on social media and the issues of discrimination, social justice and human rights violations.

Maidul Islam is facing harassment due to his recent social media posts using the hashtag #StepDownHasina as a criticism against the authorities in Bangladesh and concerns over transparency in the upcoming elections in the country. Chittagong University is one of the fully autonomous public universities in Bangladesh and its 1973 ordinance, alongside the country’s constitution, guarantees freedom of expression. Hence, the show cause letter is of severe concern as it infringes upon the freedom of expression of academics.

On 1 August 2023, a member of the student wing of the ruling party, the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), triggered an online smear campaign against the human rights defender where 41 members of the BCL and Awami politicians across the country, including Chittagong University teachers supportive of the ruling party, were tagged in the post. On 20 August 2023, the CUTA held an emergency meeting and urged the Vice Chancellor in a letter to take legal action against Maidul Islam for criticising the government on social media.

In July 2019, Maidul Islam received a fellowship offer from Leiden University, but the Chittagong University administration never granted him education leave to go to the Netherlands and study even though the human rights defender had no legal barrier or travel restriction. 275 university teachers across the country and abroad issued a statement to the authorities in support of Maidul Islam, urging the university to support him for joining the fellowship but there was no response.

The current incident is the latest of many in the chain of harassment Maidul Islam has faced due to his human rights work and academic activism. Maidul Islam was targeted by the student wing of the ruling party and the university administration because of his social media posts in support of the 2018 quota reform movement and against the physical attack by the police and BCL on quota reform movement participants. Additionally, he also raised concerns over the university students’ poor food facilities and living conditions in university dormitories. On 23 July 2018, a leader of the student wing of the ruling party lodged a complaint against him. According to the First Information Report, the case was filed at Hathhazari police station under section 57 of the ICT Act, 2006 (the act was amended in 2013 and section 57 was repealed in 2018) referring to two of his Facebook posts as “defamatory against the Prime Minister.”

On 24 September 2018, Maidul Islam was imprisoned for 37 days on orders of a Chittagong judicial magistrate. On 7 October 2018, Chattogram court granted three-day remand against Maidul. On 9 October 2018, the High Court granted him bail for six months. However, he was not released until 30 October 2018 after some procedural delays. The university administration did not provide any support to him, rather he was temporarily dismissed from his job on 24 September 2018 immediately after the court sent him to jail. Since returning to his university residence after his job was restored, the human rights defender has received continuous threats from members of the BCL.

Maidul Islam’s family, especially his wife Rozyna Begum, has also faced severe consequences and harassment. After the ICT Act case was filed against her husband, Rozyna Begum facilitated the process of dealing with the police and the court. She was a teacher at the Chittagong College, but had to leave her job. BCL cadres flooded social media with smear campaigns against Rozyna Begum, including sexist comments against her which severely impacted her mental health. While Maidul Islam is in the US, Rozyna Begum and family are still in Bangladesh at risk of facing harassment.

Responding to the completion of one year of university student Khadijatul Kubra’s pre-trial detention under the draconian Digital Security Act (DSA) in Bangladesh, Nadia Rahman, Amnesty International’s Interim Deputy Regional Director for South Asia said:

“The year-long incarceration and repeated denial of bail to Khadija is a travesty and flagrant violation of the right to freedom of expression in Bangladesh. She should be in university, studying for her degree and not in jail waiting for her fate to be decided under a draconian law. Her continued arbitrary detention comes against the backdrop of a rapidly shrinking space for critical voices and sets a chilling precedent for anyone whose views the authorities disagree with.

"The year-long incarceration and repeated denial of bail to Khadija is a travesty and flagrant violation of the right to freedom of expression in Bangladesh," stated Nadia Rahman, Amnesty International’s Interim Deputy Regional Director for South Asia.

“Despite the government’s decision to repeal the draconian DSA, authorities continue to use the legislation to undermine human rights and persecute critics and activists. Amnesty International calls on the Bangladeshi authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Khadija and all those who are arbitrarily detained in Bangladesh solely for peacefully exercising their human rights including to freedom of expression.

“Moreover pending her release, Khadija should be provided with regular access to adequate healthcare and be held in conditions that meet international standards.”

Background: Khadijatul Kubra was a 17-year-old student of political science at Jagannath University in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She had hosted a webinar on campus politics for the social media page called “Humanity for Bangladesh” in November 2020. Almost two years later, on 27 August 2022, Khadijatul Kubra was arrested under DSA and the next day was sent to Kashimpur Jail in Dhaka. Police officers had seen a recording of the webinar on YouTube uploaded by one of the guest speakers – formerly a Bangladeshi army official now based in Canada who had made comments perceived to be critical of the Bangladeshi authorities. A case under DSA was filed for attempting to ‘deteriorate law and order’ and for ‘defaming’ the prime minister, among other charges.

Since then, Khadija’s bail applications have been rejected several times and despite having allegedly developed medical problems including kidney issues, as per the family and media reports Khadija was transferred to a ‘condemned cell’ earlier this year which is reserved for death-row convicts. On 10 July 2023, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court adjourned her bail hearing for four months, stating she should be able to take responsibility for the views expressed on her talk show.

On August 21, several Jahangirnagar University (JU) BCL activists arrived at a campus guest hall, allegedly chasing a student. United News of Bangladesh JU correspondent and media studies student Asif Al Amin, then sitting outside the guest hall, went to investigate the incident upon hearing screams. The activists, reportedly suspecting the journalist had been recording them, proceeded to assault Al Amin, despite him identifying himself. The attackers are allegedly affiliated with JU BCL.

The attack occurred following the broadcast of a programme commemorating the 19th anniversary of a grenade attack following a speech by current Prime Minster and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina. University leadership have denied knowledge of the event.

In a separate incident, Daily Ajker Darpan and bartabazar.com Patuakhali district correspondent Md Nayan Mridha was attacked and injured on the evening of August 21 while returning to his Press Club. At around 7:30 p.m., a group of men, allegedly members of a local BCL chapter, began to verbally abuse and then assault the journalist. The attack came over a month after the publication of an article detailing the Patuakhali BCL President's "committee business”.

Reportedly, Nayan’s attackers included Patuakhali district BCL President Md Saiful Islam's cousins, Sabbir Hossain and Al-Amin. Nayan has since lodged a complaint with the Patuakhali Sadar Police Station, with officials vowing to investigate the incident and file legal charges accordingly. Islam has denied involvement, claiming he was not present at the scene. According to the Daily Star, Mridha is undergoing medical treatment at Patuakhali Medical College Hospital.

The incident has been condemned by press freedom advocates, including South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN) member, the Bangladesh Manobadhikar Sangbadik Forum (BMSF), who demanded authorities take immediate action against all responsible for the attacks.

University-based journalists in Bangladesh have been subject to an increasing number of attacks and threats while on campus. Earlier this year, Jashora University of Science and Technology BCL activists attacked Bangladesh Post correspondent Jahirul Islam on May 22 and Sajubar Rahman on May 20. In April, student journalist Rifat Haque and correspondent for an online news portal was assaulted after failing to make a positive report about a campus BCL leader.

The BCL is a students' political organisation in Bangladesh. It operates as the student wing of the Bangladesh Awami League, Bangladesh’s ruling party.

Members of the hardline political group carried out the attack on the media workers after a news broadcast in front of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in Dhaka's Shahbagh area. Reporter Sheikh Farid and RTV camera operator Ayatullah Manik were among those injured, as was Jamuna TV reporter Shawkat Manju Shanto, Mahfuzur Rahman Mithu and cinematographer Bishonath Sarker.

At approximately 11pm on August 14, Shokat Manju Shanto, a reporter with Jamuna TV, conducted a live broadcast outside the hospital where he referred to Sayeedee as a convicted war criminal. Subsequently, a group of protestors surrounded Shanto and physically abused him. Mahfuzur Rahman Mithu, a photographer who was wearing protective gear consisting of a helmet and a vest with the inscription of Jamuna TV, also encountered a hostile situation inside the hospital.

When RTV reporters arrived at the scene and exited their vehicle at approximately 11.30pm, a group of individuals surrounded them and allegedly yelled, "How dare you label our leader a war criminal? Sayedee is our leader and Islam's protector”. During the assault, the attackers stole assorted items, including a camera, a knapsack, and a wallet. According to the media outlets, all those who were hurt received medical care at hospitals, some of them experiencing severe injuries.

Sayedee, 83, died earlier that day after suffering a heart attack in a prison outside the capital Dhaka. The religious leader’s death prompted protests across the city that turned violent when police moved in to disperse demonstrators. Originally sentenced to death in 2013 for rape, murder and the persecution of Hindu Bangladeshis during the country’s war for independence in 1971, Sayadee later had his sentence reduced to “imprisonment till death”.

Sayedee was a former vice president of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami political party representing Pirojpur. The International Crimes Tribunal 1 in February 2013 determined that he had participated in acts of violence resulting in fatalities in Pirojpur during the War of Liberation. The hardline political group still has a large following despite being banned for much of its history. The party remains controversial for supporting Bangladesh’s continued union with Pakistan during the brutal civil war.

The Bangladeshi authorities must urgently end the use of excessive force against protesters, Amnesty International said today, after verifying evidence of reports of violent attacks against protesters and opposition party leaders during a sit-in protest organized by the country’s main opposition party, on 28 and 29 July. The eyewitnesses Amnesty International spoke to said that the protests were largely peaceful prior to the police attacking them.

The Bangladesh National Party (BNP) protest, which called for a caretaker government to be appointed before the elections in January 2024, was held at various entry points to Dhaka, the capital. The protests ended with violent clashes with the police.

“The videos and images that Amnesty International has verified shed light on the human rights violations by the Bangladeshi authorities. We call on the Government of Bangladesh to guarantee strict adherence to the law by the law enforcement agencies, as well as full respect for the people’s right to exercise their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, in order to avoid further harm to people’s physical integrity and possible escalation of this crisis,” said Smriti Singh, interim Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International.

We call on the Government of Bangladesh to guarantee strict adherence to the law by the law enforcement agencies, as well as full respect for the people’s right to exercise their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, in order to avoid further harm to people’s physical integrity and possible escalation of this crisis.

Smriti Singh, interim Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International Amnesty International’s researchers and Crisis Evidence Lab reviewed 56 photos and 18 videos from the protests, and the organization also collected nine eyewitness testimonies to corroborate the findings.

Use of less lethal weapons A journalist at the Matuail protest site, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Amnesty International that the police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the protesters, even though they were only chanting slogans and sitting on the floor.

Another eyewitness, who was with the families protesting against enforced disappearances at the BNS Center market, told Amnesty International: “The police fired tear gas at protesters… As far as I could see, the protesters didn’t have any weapons with them.”

A video posted on Twitter, and geo-located by Amnesty’s Crisis Evidence Lab, shows a crowd of people running from tear gas at the Institute of Child and Mother Health Hospital in Mutuail, Dhaka. At least five of them appear to be women. The video was filmed within the ground of the hospital, right at the entrance of one of its buildings.

Tear gas should not be deployed near or around a hospital. According to the United Nations guidelines on the use of less lethal weapons, police should minimize the incidental impact of the use of force on susceptible people, including older people, children, pregnant women and people suffering from illnesses, who may have difficulty escaping affected areas.

“Police should not use tear gas, rubber bullets on peaceful protesters. The fact that the Bangladeshi police is resorting to using tear gas inside a hospital reveals their alarming disregard for international law. The police should always bear in mind the diversity of those participating in a public assembly and their varying means of escaping or avoiding exposure to tear gas,” said Smriti Singh.

Police should not use tear gas, rubber bullets on peaceful protesters.

Unlawful use of force A videoposted to Twitter, and geolocated to Dholaikhal Road by Crisis Evidence Lab, shows police officers beating protesters with long, baton-like sticks. In the video, protesters are clearly running away from the police. The protesters have no visible weapons and do not pose any apparent threat to the police officers. The use of weapons against unarmed protestors is disproportionate and excessive.

In another portion of the same video, protesters can be seen lying on the ground while police officers continue to beat them. In another video posted on Twitter, geolocated to Dholaikhal by the Crisis Evidence Lab, at least four police officers can be seen beating senior BNP politician Gayeshwar Chandra Roy with long batons as he lays on the ground while posing no apparent threat to the police. These incidents may amount to a violation of the absolute prohibition of torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

“Amnesty International has repeatedly called for restraint from law enforcement authorities in Bangladesh. The government must ensure that the police respect international human rights law and follow the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, which clearly states that police should only resort to the use of force exceptionally when strictly necessary and proportionate in pursuit of a legitimate law enforcement purpose,” said Smriti Singh.

Groups in civil clothes attack protesters alongside police Niloufar Yasmin, a female BNP political activist who suffered injuries during the police crackdown on the protest at the BNS Center market, told Amnesty International: “When (the police) fired tear gas, we scattered. (But) then groups in civil clothes caught me and assaulted me. The police did nothing to stop them.”

According to another eyewitness, the police barricades were manned not only by law enforcement officials but also by people in civilian clothes purportedly to be the supporters of the ruling party.

Amnesty International also verified at least seven photos and two videos, including evidence shared by an eyewitness journalist, of people in civilian clothing, brandishing weapons like hammers, sticks, and clubs at the protests. The evidence includes footage of these individuals beating up protesters ‘side by side’ of police personnel or branding batons and sticks at protesters.

In media statements, the police said that law enforcement officers in plainclothes were deployed as well, though according to United Nations General Comment 37 on the right of peaceful assembly, deployment of officers in plainclothes must be strictly necessary in the circumstances and officers must never incite violence.

“It is just unacceptable for civilians to join in with the police as they attack protesters. Amnesty International also condemns the unlawful use of force on protesters. The government must ensure that all those suspected of criminal responsibility are held to account, and impartial, independent, and swift investigation is conducted against the police officers that failed to prevent such breaches of the law. It is the duty of the authorities to facilitate and protect the right to peaceful assembly,” said Smriti Singh.

In Bangladesh, a conservative Islamic Facebook group called Caravan and a Facebook user named “Mon Dey” have called for Bangladeshi society to ban human rights activist and lawyer Shahanur Islam, alleging that he is implementing a Western agenda to legitimize homosexuality in the country.

The proposed ban would also apply to JusticeMakers Bangladesh, an organization founded by Shahanur Islam.

Caravan, established under the slogan “Look at the world through the eyes of Islam,” called for the ban on June 21.

In a write-up titled “Homosexuality on the way to legalization in Bangladesh?”, the Facebook user operating as “Mon Dey” called on imams, khatibs (preachers), speakers, online activists, Islamic organizations, writers, and ordinary Muslims for measures to ban Shahanur Islam in Bangladesh.

The online appeal (now taken offline) also called for legislation to prevent promotion of homosexuality in Bangladesh.

Shahanur Islam maintains that the campaign is much more than merely irritating online trolling.

In the past, such posts have incited riots in Bangladesh by exploiting religious sentiments, often through fake Facebook accounts, he said. Such attacks have included physical assaults and property destruction, including burning down homes.

“As of today, the call to ban me has already received 155 likes, with 49 aggressive comments, including threats to shoot me in the head. Additionally, the post has been shared 135 times across various groups and profiles,” Shahanur said. “Every day, they continue to update their campaign with hate speech and threatening messages. I am deeply concerned that they may carry out an attack on my home, endangering the lives of my family, including my wife and child. It is crucial to urge the government to ensure the security and protection of my family.”

Homophobic and transphobic violence is a familiar problem in Bangladesh. In 2016, gay rights activists Xulhaz Mannan and Tonoy Mojumdar were murdered by Islamic extremists. Shahanur Islam himself has been repeatedly threatened with violence for his activism.

Last October, the president of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) wrote to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Oct. 19, seeking protection for him.

In the letter, the CCBE “respectfully urges Your Excellency to do everything in your power to urgently provide adequate protection to lawyer Shahanur Islam and his family, since it is believed that this continuous acts of threats and harassment are based on his legitimate activities as a human rights lawyer.”

He said about the Caravan post: “This is not an isolated incident.”

Islam said he has contacted several officials for help, including the France ambassador to Bangladesh, the human rights ambassador of France, and the LGBT right ambassador of France. Additionally, CCBE is in the process of drafting another letter to the Prime Minister, he said.

The Facebook appeal came after JusticeMakers Bangladesh launched an online petition in April calling on the president, prime minister and other officials of Bangladesh to decriminalize homosexuality by repealing Article 377 of the Bangladesh Penal Code. Under the Bangladesh constitution, the president has power to make such changes when Parliament is not in session, but the changes would need approval from Parliament when it meets again. So far, 277 people have signed the petition. Mary Lawlor, the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders, has expressed support for Shahanur Islam: “Hearing disturbing news that HRD Shahanur Islam has been facing online harassment in retaliation for his work on the rights of LGBTQI+ persons in #Bangladesh & that police have attempted to collect info about him & his family. The State should protect & support HRDs.”

On May 13, the Chittagong Cyber Tribunal, which adjudicates alleged cybercrime offenses in southeast Bangladesh, registered a complaint under the Digital Security Act against Yeasmean and her source in relation to the RTV broadcast reporter’s April 30 video investigation exposing alleged crimes by the conversative Islamic organization Rajarbagh Darbar Sharif and one of its leaders, Shakerul Kabir, according to news reports and a person familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal.

Kabir filed the complaint accusing her of violating three sections of the Digital Security Act, according to CPJ’s review of the document. In her investigation, Yeasmean reported that Kabir has been accused of extortion, land grabbing, and violence against women.

The Digital Security Act, which criminalizes several forms of speech online, has frequently been used to target critical journalists in Bangladesh since its enactment in 2018. In March 2023, Bangladesh authorities arrested a Prothom Alo reporter and opened multiple investigations under the act into the leading newspaper’s leadership and staff, prompting United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk to reiterate his call on authorities to impose an immediate moratorium on the law.

CPJ and other rights groups also have called for the suspension of the law.

“It is appalling that Bangladeshi journalist Adhora Yeasmean has been targeted under the draconian Digital Security Act for her investigative reporting,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director. “Authorities must immediately drop their investigation, stop using the act against journalists, and ensure Yeasmean is not subjected to further retaliation for her work.”

Yeasmean found out about the complaint on July 8, in a call from a local police station. The next day, she learned she had been summoned for questioning on July 14 at the police Criminal Investigation Department in Chittagong’s Noakhali sub-district, about 173 kilometers (107 miles) from her home in the capital city Dhaka, according to the person who spoke to CPJ.

Yeasmean’s source, who appeared in her video investigation, is named as an accused in the complaint. Rajarbagh Darbar Sharif, led by Pir Dillur Rahman, has previously been accused of filing fabricated criminal complaints to facilitate land grabbing.

CPJ called and messaged Kabir and Muhammad Rafiqul Islam, the investigating officer in the case, but did not receive any replies.

On 25 June 2023, human rights defender and union leader Shahidul Islam was attacked by a group of men at the Prince Jacquard Sweaters factory in Gazipur while resolving a worker payment dispute. He died the same day from the fatal inuries sustained during the attack. Shahidul Islam was the president of the Gazipur unit of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers’ Federation (BGIWF). He advocated for workers’ rights throughout his 25-year-long career as an organiser. As a former garment worker, Shahidul Islam noticed the lack of transparency regarding workers’ rights and began working as an organiser and later a union leader. From 1999 to 2002, he worked with the Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers’ Union Federation (BIGUF). From 2003 to 2006, the human rights defender worked for the civil society organisations Nari Uddog Kendro and Bangladesh Krishi Federation. In 2006, he joined the Bangladesh Centre for Workers’ Solidarity (BCWS) as a senior organiser and worked there until 2012. In the same year, he became a senior organiser at the BGIWF, and later became president of the Gazipur district committee. Throughout his career, Shahidul Islam successfully mobilised thousands of workers and factory-level leaders to join trade unions. He also supported thousands of workers to receive arrears and severance pay that they had been wrongfully denied by their employers. Shahidul Islam’s work and contributions to the labour movement were significant in raising awareness about the human rights situation of factory workers in Bangladesh. Shahidul Islam died after sustaining fatal injuries in an attack that took place outside the Prince Jacquard Sweaters factory in Gazipur on 25 June 2023. The human rights defender and his colleagues were resolving a dispute over salaries and the Eid bonus owed to the factory workers, when a group of men arrived and began violently beating them. Three other union leaders were severely injured in the attack which left Shahidul Islam unconsious. He was later taken to Tairunnessa Memorial Medical College Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The human rigths defender is survived by his wife and two sons. He was the sole breadwinner of his family. His wife is a former organiser battling cancer and her husband’s killing has added to their already challenging circumstances. On 26 June 2023, Kalpona Akter, president of the BGIWF, filed a case with the Tongi West Police Station, alleging that the attack was carried out on the orders of the factory owner. According to sources, the officer in charge stated that the police had already arrested the key suspect in the case, adding that the killing stemmed from a feud with another labour organisation. The killing of Shahidul Islam is indicative of the violations and unjust treatment faced by garment workers in Bangladesh. His death also reflects on the vulnerability and dangers faced by human rights defenders who raise their voices on the lack of transparency regarding workers’ rights and work to safeguard labour rights in Bangladesh. Front Line Defenders condemns the killing of human rights defender and union leader Shahidul Islam as it believes it is directly related to his work in defence of human rights, especially labour rights of people in Bangladesh. Front Line Defenders is gravely concerned about the mistreatment and threats facing human rights defenders working to improve the labour conditions of garment workers in Bangladesh. Front Line Defenders is also seriously concerned about the physical and psychological wellbeing of the human rights defender’s family and colleagues.

Bangladesh authorities must investigate the killing of journalist Golam Rabbani Nadim and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

At around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, June 14, a group of men ambushed Nadim, a correspondent for privately owned website Banglanews24 and broadcaster Ekattor TV, while he was traveling home on his motorcycle in the Bakshiganj area in the Jamalpur district of northern Mymensingh division, according to news reports, security footage of the incident published by Ekattor TV, and a witness account by Al Mujahid Babu, a journalist present at the scene.

A group of 15 to 20 men dragged Nadim to a dark alley, where they severely beat him and left him unconscious before he was taken to the hospital by bystanders. The journalist died the next day from excessive blood loss caused by a severe head injury.

Nadim’s family believes he was targeted in retaliation for his May 2023 series of reports for Banglanews24 about Mahmudul Alam Babu, chair of a local government unit and member of the ruling Awami League party, according to those reports. Mahmudul Alam Babu denied any involvement in the attack.

Sohel Rana, officer-in-charge of the Bakshiganj police station, said six people had been arrested in connection with the attack, Prothom Alo reported Friday.

“We condemn the killing of Bangladeshi journalist Golam Rabbani Nadim in apparent retaliation for his reporting on a local politician,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Bangladesh authorities must ensure that all those involved in this attack are brought to justice and end the country’s appalling record of impunity pertaining to violence against journalists.”

Al Mujahid Babu said in his witness account that Mahmudul Alam Babu was at the scene and directing the attackers from a distance. CPJ’s calls to Mahmudul Alam Babu, who was reported to be in hiding as of Friday evening, did not connect. CPJ’s text message to Mahmudul Alam Babu did not immediately receive a response.

Nadim’s May articles concerned issues in Mahmudul Alam Babu’s marriage, including a press conference by a woman who alleged the politician secretly married her, then abused and divorced her. Nadim also posted about the allegations on Facebook.

In mid-May, Mahmudul Alam Babu filed a complaint against Nadim under the Digital Security Act for that reporting. Hours before the attack, Nadim posted on Facebook that a court had dismissed the case.

The Rapid Action Battalion, a paramilitary unit of the Bangladesh police, has joined the probe into Nadim’s death. CPJ’s calls and messages to Rana and Khandaker Al Moyeen, director of the legal and media wing of the Rapid Action Battalion, did not immediately receive a reply.

Local press groups, the Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media and the Bakshiganj Press Club, both condemned the killing, saying Nadim, who was also vice president of the Jamalpur District Online Journalists Association, was targeted due to his reporting.

Al Mujaheed Babu told CPJ via messaging app, and Raju, Nadim’s brother-in-law, told CPJ by phone separately that they were unable to immediately comment.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the release of a national daily’s correspondent in a remote part of southeastern Bangladesh because of the irregularities surrounding his arrest by soldiers and subsequent detention, and the failure to produce any evidence of the grounds given for holding him – his alleged links with an armed separatist group.

Longa Khumi, the Bengali-language daily Manab Zamin’s local correspondent, has been held incommunicado ever since his arrest in a remote rural area in the southeastern district of Bandarban on 19 May by members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite army unit, who handed him over to the police in the locality of Ruma on the evening of the same day.

Various allegations have been made against Khumi, including serving as an informant for the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF), an armed separatist group active in the area. The police say he is being held on the basis of “confidential documents” obtained by the army in the course of a “special operation” against the KNF. Khumi has so far been unable to speak to a lawyer or anyone else.

RSF has learned that, according to several of his colleagues, Khumi was just covering the medium-intensity conflict between the KNF and the Bangladeshi army. Everything indicates that he was scapegoated after two soldiers were killed by an explosion in Ruma two days before his arrest.

According to RSF’s barometer of press freedom violations, six other journalists are currently detained arbitrarily in Bangladesh.

A journalist was attacked in Sunamganj today for publishing a report allegedly on the irregularities at the Ashrayan Project in the district.

The journalist, Aminul Islam, is the Sunamganj District Correpsondent of Jamuna Television. The incident took place at the Lalpur area in Sunamganj town, reports our Sylhet correspondent.

He was given primary treatment at Sunamganj District Hospital, and later brought to Sylhet city for better treatment.

According to Jamuna Television's Sylhet Bureau Chief Mahbubur Rahman Ripon, Jamuna TV broadcasted a report by Aminul on the irregularities in the Ashrayan Project at Sunamganj Sadar upazila a week ago.

"Following the report, a probe body reached Sunamganj today and Aminul was summoned to the spot by the body. There, he got engaged in an altercation with Sunamganj Sadar Upazila Chairman Khairul Huda Chapol, as Chapol's men were the contractors of the project," he said.

Quoting Aminul, Ripon said, "While returning from the spot, he was attacked by Chapol's men at Lalpur area, near the upazila parishad. We will be filing a case in this regard soon."

Contacted, Khairul Huda Chapol, also the president of Sunamganj district unit of Jubo League, said, "I have no affiliation with the project but I was there as the upazila chairman. There was no altercation between us."

"He rode my car to the upazila parishad and when he was attacked, I rushed to the spot. I have also visited him at the hospital."

Mohammad Ehsan Shah, Sunamganj superintendent of Police, said, "We have been informed of the attack and police have already inspected the spot. Once we receive a formal complaint, we will take necessary legal steps."

On March 15, police assaulted at least nine journalists on the court’s premises in the capital city of Dhaka after clashes broke out between lawyers supporting the ruling Awami League party and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and police charged into the crowd swinging their batons, according to multiple news reports and five of those journalists, who spoke with CPJ.

The deputy commissioner of the Dhaka police’s Ramna division told news website Bdnews24.com later on March 15 that “journalists got caught up in the turmoil” when officers attempted to break up the unrest, and police were investigating the attacks.

On March 16, Dhaka police officials expressed regret over the incident in a meeting with local journalists but, as of March 29, have not held any of the officers involved in the attacks to account, the journalists told CPJ.

“The recent apology by the Dhaka police over officers’ attacks on at least nine Bangladeshi journalists is a welcome but insufficient response,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director. “Bangladeshi authorities must hold the officers who attacked journalists to account, return any equipment confiscated from reporters, and ensure that police are thoroughly trained so they can help, rather than imperil, members of the press covering newsworthy events.”

Two officers with the police Public Order Management Division slapped Zabed Akhter, a senior reporter for the privately owned broadcaster ATN News, shoved him to the ground, and kicked him as he repeatedly identified himself as a journalist and told them he suffered from a nerve condition, Akhter told CPJ by phone.

Police also pushed Jannatul Ferdous Tanvi, a senior reporter for the privately owned broadcaster Independent Television, as she tried to help him, Akhter said.

Later that day, Akhter received medical treatment for internal injuries to his waist and back at a hospital, where the two officers apologized to the journalist, Akhter said, adding that those officers had not been held to account for the incident as of March 29.

A group of 10 to 15 officers kicked and used a bamboo stick to beat Md. Humaun Kabir, a senior camera operator for the privately owned broadcaster ATN Bangla who was filming the unrest, knocking him to the ground, Kabir told CPJ by phone. Officers continued to slap him as he ran away, according to a video of the incident reviewed by CPJ. Kabir sustained a head injury for which he took painkillers.

Five or six officers beat Maruf Hasan, a reporter for the privately owned newspaper Manab Zamin, in the head and back while he identified himself as a journalist, he told CPJ via messaging app. Officers also insulted him with vulgar language and confiscated his microphone, which they had not returned as of March 29, Hasan said.

He told CPJ that he sustained painful injuries to the areas that were beaten.

About five police officers also beat Mohammad Fazlul Haque, a senior reporter for the privately owned news website Jago News, according to Haque, who told CPJ via messaging app that he had been beaten but then did not respond to additional questions seeking details.

According to those news reports and the journalists who spoke with CPJ, police also attacked Nur Mohammad, a reporter for the privately owned newspaper Ajker Patrika; Ibrahim Hossain, a camera operator for the privately owned broadcaster Boishakhi Television; Kabir Hossain, a reporter for the privately owned newspaper Kalbela; and Mehedi Hassan Dalim, a reporter for the privately owned news website The Dhaka Post.

CPJ contacted those journalists via messaging app seeking additional details but did not receive any replies.

Suvra Kanti Das, a senior photojournalist for the privately owned newspaper Prothom Alo, told CPJ by phone that he was also covering the elections when an officer grabbed him by the shirt, demanded to see his media identification card, insulted him with vulgar language, and ordered him to leave the premises, which he did.

CPJ’s calls and messages to Roy Niyati, a spokesperson for the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, did not receive any replies.

On 29 March, Bangladeshi journalist Shamsuzzaman Shams was picked up from his residence by a group in civil clothes that identified as the Criminal Investigations Department for an online article he wrote for newspaper Prothom Alo on 26 March, Bangladesh’s Independence Day, covering the rising cost of living. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison. His whereabouts were unknown for about 10 hours, after which the police stated that he was in custody and is being charged under Bangladesh’s draconian Digital Security Act. This is a blatant violation of the right to freedom of expression, and Shamsuzzaman Shams must be immediately released.

Update: Shamsuzzaman Shams was granted bail on 3 April 2023.

Bangladeshi journalist Ayub Meahzi has suffered grave injuries after a group of unidentified armed assailants attacked and threw him from a two-story building in Chittagong on April 4. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the brutal attack and calls on authorities to conduct an immediate and transparent inquiry into the incident.

On April 4, a group of approximately ten men armed with machetes, iron rods, and sticks stormed the second floor of a building to attack Meahzi, a Chandanaish based correspondent for Janobani and The Daily Shangu. The men then threw the journalist from the building onto the street, where he sustained significant injuries.

The Daily Starreported that Meahzi broke three ribs and suffered injuries to his head from the fall. He was admitted to Chattogram Medical College Hospital in a critical state and is now recovering.

According to the journalist’s family, Meahzi was attacked for reporting on illegal land clearances in the East Dohazari area, informing local authorities of the issue in the process. Chandnaish police claim to have arrested one person identified from video footage of the attack, while two of the accused have absconded.

A protest condemning Meahzi’s assault was held on April 5 at Dohajari Sadar, where members of Patia Press Club and Chandanaish Press Club addressed the crowd. Journalists, press clubs, and journalist representative organisations condemned the violence, called for an investigation into the incident, and promised further action if arrests failed to materialise.

Journalists and media workers inBangladesh continue to face significant threats of torture, harassment, and intimidation while in the field. On April 18, two journalists were assaulted in Narayanganj while gathering information at a local hospital, after recording a fight that broke out between patients. According to Amnesty International, 56 journalists in Bangladesh have been tortured, harassed, sued, intimidated, and prevented from doing their jobs in the first three months of this year.

The IFJ said: “The attack against Ayub Meahzi represents the significant danger posed to journalists working in Bangladesh. This incident is nothing short of an attempted murder and should be investigated as such. The IFJ condemns the attack and urges the Bangladeshi authorities to conduct an immediate and transparent investigation.”

A lawyer who had been missing for a week was brought to a Dhaka court by police, shown arrested, and sent to jail yesterday.

Abu Hossain Rajon was picked up on the morning of January 22, and taken to Hatirjheel Police Station, said his family members.

When the family members met Rajon on the court premises yesterday, he told them that he had been beaten up and tortured in police custody.

"He was battered from the feet up. They beat him everywhere, all over his legs and back. He said that he was taken from the Hatirjheel Police Station to the DB headquarters every day to be tortured," said Rajon's younger brother Mohiuddin Khan,.

Rajon was not taken in front of a magistrate at the court, his family alleged. He was brought to the premises, kept in the court's prison cell and taken directly to jail.

"One of our relatives had stood watch over the Hatirjheel police station the whole day [on Saturday]. He saw Rajon being taken out around 5:00pm and being brought back around 11:00pm," said Mohiuddin.

"Rajon told us that every day he was taken out for interrogation, they would go through the contact list on his phone and question him about them," said Mohiuddin.

"My family had gone [to the police station] with food and clothes, hoping to give those to him. The duty officer kept insisting that he was not there, but Rajon heard our voices and called out," the brother told this correspondent. Rajon had reportedly said, "Sir, I am here, tell them I am here!"

The family also managed to collect a photo of Rajon inside the cell at the police station. "My father is a retired police officer, and so he has connections," said Mohiuddin.

The officer-in-charge of Hatirjheel police station could not be reached for comments in spite of repeated attempts over the phone. Sub-inspector Sharmin told this newspaper that nobody named Abu Hossain Rajon was arrested.

"My brother is accused of causing violence and being involved in anti-state activities. But he is into none of that. He is a lawyer and worked as a human rights activist in our village home in Chatkhil of Noakhali," said Mohiuddin.

Mohiuddin said Rajon was picked up from in front of Ad-Deen Hospital in Moghbazar. "I spoke to the people in the area and learned this from witnesses," he said. "When we saw him at the court, he was wearing the same clothes as the day he was picked up."

On 23 January 2023, a Dhaka court directed Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to further investigate the cases that are being taken against woman human rights defender and journalist Rozina Islam. Rozina Islam was arrested on 17 May 2021 under sections 379 and 411 of the Penal Code and sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act for allegedly collecting sensitive government documents and taking photos of them. She was released from jail on 23 May 2021 after she was granted bail by the Dhaka Magistrate Court on the condition that she pays a fine of Tk 5000 (50 euros) and surrenders her passport to the authorities.

On 26 January 2023, woman environmental human rights defender Syeda Rizwana Hasan and her team were attacked when their vehicles were pelted with stones. The events took place on their visit to the Lake City residential area of Chattogram, a site where the hills have been razed for a housing project, impacting the local environment. Syeda Rizwana Hasan is a lawyer of the Bangladesh Supreme Court and the chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA). She is a member of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, and the Environmental Law Commission of International Unions for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Additionally, she is a member of the board of the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE). Over the past 20 years, Syeda Rizwana Hasan has been advocating for environment protection on issues such as deforestation, pollution, unregulated ship breaking, illegal appropriation of wetlands, cutting of hills, unregulated mining, unplanned urbanization, commercial shrimp cultivation, and illegal land development in Bangladesh. In 2022, she was awarded the International Women of Courage Award by the US Department of State. On 26 January 2023 at around 12.30pm, members of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyer’s Association (BELA), along with several journalists, visited the aforementioned housing project in the Lake City residential area. Following this, they visited Kalirichara Khal, a body of water which has been filled in as part of the construction. This development has been headed by Jahirul Alam Jashim. Jashim is a local leader of the national ruling party, as well as a local Councillor of Chottogram City Corporation. While the woman environmental human rights defender was conducting this visit, a group of people started to follow the team and made attempts to intimidate them by questioning them about their reasons for being there. As Syeda Rizwana Hasan and her team proceeded towards the site, Jahurul Alam Jashim and his men appeared, brandishing sharp weapons, and obstructed them from entering the site. The woman environmental human rights defender escaped to the nearby bypass road and called the police to come to the scene. By the time they arrived, she had reached her car. However, when she subsequently made an attempt to leave the vicinity, Jahirul Alam Jashim and his men pelted the car with stones, also aiming for Sayeda Rizwana Hasan herself. The woman human rights defender has filed a complaint against Jahurul Alam Jashim, along with other individuals, at the Akbar Shah police station. However, as of yet, no action has been taken against the main accused, Jahurul Alam Jashim. This is not the first time that the woman human rights defender has been targeted for her human rights work. Those close to her have also been the subject of harassment as a result of her activism. Her husband, Abu Bakar Siddique, was abducted by unidentified men on 16 April 2014. After being held hostage for more than 20 hours, he was left blindfolded on the road miles from where he had originally been abducted.

Bangladesh authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Raghunath Kha and investigate allegations that he was electrocuted and beaten in police custody, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

At around 11 a.m. on Monday, January 23, plainclothes police officers detained Kha, a correspondent for the privately owned broadcaster Deepto TV and privately owned newspaper Dainik Projonmo Ekattor, according to multiple news reports and a person familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns. Kha was detained after reporting on a land dispute in the Khalishakhali area of the southwestern Satkhira district.

Police arrested Kha and two others, alleging they were involved in an attempted bomb blast in coordination with landless people in the area, and authorities initially denied that Kha was in custody, according to those sources.

When the journalist appeared in court the following day, he was unable to stand properly and said that police severely beat him, electrocuted him, and threatened to kill him if he continued reporting on landless people, the anonymous source told CPJ.

During that hearing, the court ordered Kha to be held in the Satkhira jail while his case is investigated. Police have not provided copies of the first information reports in Kha’s case, which would show the specific allegations against him, according to that source.

“Bangladeshi authorities’ arrest and alleged maltreatment of journalist Raghunath Kha constitute only the latest attack on press freedom in the country, where law enforcement continues to retaliate against journalists with raging impunity,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Kha, drop all cases against him, and conduct a swift investigation into claims that police physically abused him.”

Authorities did not produce Kha in court until about 5 p.m. on Tuesday, that source said, in apparent violation of Bangladesh’s code of criminal procedure, which provides that police must present an arrested person before a magistrate within 24 hours.

That source told CPJ that they believe authorities targeted the journalist in retaliation for his reporting highlighting the struggles of landless people in their conflict with land grabbers allegedly supported by police.

In recent months, Satkhira Police Superintendent Kazi Moniruzzaman repeatedly threatened Kha with arrest and legal retaliation in retaliation for his reporting, that source said, adding that the journalist submitted a written complaint sometime about those threats to Moinul Haque, the deputy inspector-general of the Khulna division police, which oversees the Satkhira branch of the force.

No action was taken against Moniruzzaman, that source told CPJ. CPJ emailed Moniruzzaman and Haque and sent them requests for comment via messaging app, but did not receive any replies.

CPJ has previously documented similar allegations of alleged police abuse of detained journalists in Bangladesh. Journalist Shahidul Alam, who was awarded CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 2020, told CPJ that police officers beat him in custody. Cartoonist Kabir Kishore told CPJ that authorities beat him and electrocuted his colleague Mushtaq Ahmed, who died in jail.

Bangladesh’s Armed Police Battalion (APBn) is committing extortion, arbitrary arrests, and harassment of Rohingya refugees already facing violence from criminal gangs and armed groups, Human Rights Watch said today. Donor governments should press the Bangladesh authorities to investigate alleged abuses against Rohingya living in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, ensure that victims have effective remedies, and develop measures to better protect refugees.

The Armed Police Battalion took over security in the Rohingya camps in July 2020. Refugees and humanitarian workers report that safety has deteriorated under the APBn’s oversight due to increased police abuses as well as criminal activity. Some refugees allege collusion between APBn officers and armed groups and gangs operating in the camps.

“Abuses by police in the Cox’s Bazar camps have left Rohingya refugees suffering at the hands of the very forces who are supposed to protect them,” said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Bangladesh authorities should immediately investigate allegations of widespread extortion and wrongful detention by Armed Police Battalion officers and hold all those responsible to account.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 40 Rohingya refugees in October and November 2022 and reviewed police reports, documenting more than 16 cases of serious abuse by APBn officers. These included abuses against 10 refugees who were detained on apparently fabricated grounds for trafficking yaba, a methamphetamine drug, or for violence-related offenses. Human Rights Watch and others have long documented the common practice by Bangladesh security forces of framing suspects with drugs or weapons.

Almost every case Human Rights Watch investigated involved extortion either directly by APBn officers or communicated through majhis, the camp community leaders. Police generally demanded 10,000-40,000 taka (US$100-400) to avoid arrest, and 50,000-100,000 taka ($500-1,000) for the release of a detained family member. Families often had to sell gold jewelry or borrow money for bribes or legal costs. Many worried about the harm to their reputation.

Several refugees were seemingly targeted for information they had shared online regarding APBn harassment of Rohingya. Sayed Hossein, 27, who works as a health volunteer with an international organization and as a citizen journalist, said that on July 25, 2022, at about 10 p.m., around 30 APBn officers arrived at his house, handcuffed him, and confiscated his laptop and flash drive. (Pseudonyms are used to protect the security of interviewees.) He said they told him he was being arrested for posting on social media about an APBn officer harassing innocent Rohingya. They took him to the police camp and demanded a bribe. When his family could not pay 50,000 taka ($500), the APBn officers forcibly photographed him with yaba tablets and sent him to the nearby Ukhiya police station.

“I asked them not to take any photos since it would impact my job and future,” Sayed Hossein said. “They said that because I’m Rohingya, I don’t have any future.” APBn posted the photos on their social media accounts. He was detained on drug trafficking charges and spent 41 days in jail before making bail. He said most of his fellow inmates were Rohingya.

On December 25, in the Rangunia region of the southeastern Chittagong division, a group of six to seven men confronted Azad, a reporter covering the environment and politics for the privately owned newspaper The Business Standard, while he was photographing brick kilns that were allegedly operating illegally, according to multiple news reports and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ by phone.

Azad identified himself as a journalist, and the men then forced him into a vehicle at gunpoint, and they threatened to kill him; they then beat him and brought him to a local government official’s office, where they assaulted him further and robbed him, he told CPJ, saying he was released after about 90 minutes.

Azad suffered a neck fracture and pain in his chest, abdomen, and hands, according to the journalist and medical documents that CPJ reviewed.

“The abduction and gruesome beating of Abu Azad demonstrate the grave dangers facing journalists who cover environmental issues in Bangladesh,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must swiftly and thoroughly investigate this incident and hold the perpetrators accountable. Bangladesh must put an end to its dreadful record of impunity involving attacks on journalists.”

Azad told CPJ that one of the attackers was Mohiuddin Talukder Mohan, a member of the Islampur Union Parishad government unit, and said he was brought to Mohan’s office, where three additional men joined the others. The men deactivated the office’s security cameras, beat him with their hands and pistols, kicked him repeatedly, and confiscated his mobile phone, wallet, and identification card, Azad told CPJ.

At the office, Mohan called Sirajul Islam Chowdhury, chair of the Islampur Union Parishad, who threatened the journalist, saying, “nothing will happen if a journalist like you was killed,” and then ordered the men to beat Azad further and destroy his phone, Azad told CPJ.

The men withdrew all the money from Azad’s mobile banking app, bKash, and stole 10,000 taka (US$97) in cash that he carried with him, the journalist told CPJ, adding that they demanded an additional 50,000 taka (US$486) as ransom, which he did not provide.

While releasing him, one of the men hit Azad on the neck with a steel rod, the journalist told CPJ. As of Wednesday, January 4, Azad had not received his phone, wallet, money, or identification card, he said.

CPJ contacted Mohan via messaging app for comment but did not receive any reply. CPJ texted Chowdhury for comment but did not receive any response.

On December 26, Azad filed a police complaint against 10 people, including Mohan and Chowdhury, for assault, extortion, kidnapping, and attempted murder, according to the journalist and The Business Standard.

Police arrested one suspect that day, identified as the manager of a brick kiln, who appeared in court on Wednesday, January 4, and was ordered to be transferred to jail, the journalist and The Business Standard said. On Tuesday, January 3, the Bangladesh High Court granted anticipatory bail to Mohan and Chowdhury, protecting them from arrest for four weeks, Azad said, adding that the other suspects have not been apprehended.

CPJ sent a request for comment via messaging app to Md Mahbub Milky, officer-in-charge at the Rangunia Model Police Station, where Azad filed his complaint, but did not receive any response.

Mohan and Chowdhury are both members of the ruling Awami League party and both have business and political interests in the kilns, Azad told CPJ.

CPJ emailed the Awami League for comment but did not receive any reply.

Pritam Das, a leader of the tea workers movement and the organizer of the Rashtra Shongskar Andolon was involved in a protest demanding a daily wage of Tk 300 for the tea workers in Srimangal, Sylhet. On 27 August 2022, Pritam Das was attacked during a solidarity rally of tea workers at Chaumohana in Srimangal. On 4 September 2022, Chhatra League activist Mahbubul Alam Bhuiyan filed a case under the Digital Security Act with Srimangal Police Station against Pritam Das for allegedly „hurting religious sentiments‟. He was arrested by the police on 9 September.

At midnight on 18 August 2022, Meftahul Maruf, a student of Dhaka University, was apprehended and questioned by Chhatra League General Secretary Hasibul Hossain Shanto, who accused him of „anti-state activities and association with militant organisations‟, and for criticizing the current government in a messenger group on Facebook. Later the Provost of Freedom Fighter Ziaur Rahman Hall, Mohammad Billal Hossain, handed Maruf over to Shahbag Police Station. After detaining Maruf at the police station for 12 hours, police released him on bail in the presence of Chhatra Odhikar Parishad leaders and Dhaka University professor Ainul Islam. On the way back to the campus with Maruf, Chhatra League leaders and activists attacked the leaders and activists of Chhatra Odhikar Parishad, leaving three people injured.

Some local journalists along with Dhaka-based senior journalist Rajib Noor came under attack by an alleged land grabber Waheed Mia while collecting news in Habiganj on Sunday.

The attack took place in front of the house of Ramnath Biswas in union 2 of Baniachong upazila on Sunday afternoon, the victims complained.

Reporters were attacked while collecting news about the occupation of the house of Ramnath Biswas, a world traveler and travelogue writer, in Baniachong upazila of Habiganj.

Among the victims of the attack are special assignment editor of bdnews24.com Rajib Noor, president of Baniachong Press Club and Baniachong correspondent of Kaler Kantha Moshahed Mia, Baniachong correspondent of Habiganj Samachar Patrika Touhid Mia and Baniachong correspondent of Deshseba newspaper Alamgir Reza.

The injured in the attack were treated at Baniachong Upazila Health Complex.

Describing the incident, Rajib Noor told journalists that, ‘The house of Ramanath Biswas had been occupied by Waheed Mia and his family for a long time. We went there to make a hands-on report on the matter.’

‘Waheed, his family members and associates snatched my cellphone and started attacking the group of journalists,’ he said.

General Secretary of Habiganj Press Club Rashed Khan said, ‘We have spoken to police super SM Murad Ali about this. The SP said that legal action would be taken against those who attacked the journalists.’

Local Union Parishad chairman Haidaruzzaman Khan told reporters Waheed Miah had been occupying the house for a long time.

Denying the allegation, Waheed Mia said, ‘There was an argument over coming to my house and taking pictures without permission. We did not attack anyone.’

A case will be filed with the Baniachong police over the attack, the victim journalists said.

Habiganj SP SM Murad Ali said, ‘We are taking legal action against the attack on journalists.’

Meanwhile, Dhaka Reports Unity (DRU) condemned the attack on journalist Rajiv Noor.

In a statement, DRU President Nazrul Islam Mithu and General Secretary Nurul Islam Hasib demanded immediate arrest of the culprits

Ajay Chandra Deb, officer-in-charge of Baniachong police station, said that he heard the incident.

‘However, no complaint has been received in this regard yet. Action will be taken if complaints are received,’ he added. Ramnath Biswas was born on January 13, 1894 in Bidyabhushanpara of Baniachang upazila of Habiganj. He spent his old age in Kolkata. He died there on November 1, 1955.

Shahanur Islam, a prominent human rights lawyer and gay rights campaigner in Bangladesh received repeated death threats SMS over his mobile phone.

Shahanur told to Soja Kotha that recently on 25th August and 6th September 2022, he received separate two death threats messages along with his wife and kid over his mobile phone.

He added, on 25th October 2022 around at 10:17 pm BST, Mr. Islam received threats message in English language over his phone from an unidentified number. The message states that if you don’t stop fighting aims to establishment of homo sexual rights in BD, immediately you will be killed along with your family members brutally.

Later on 8th September 2022, he added that around at 1:07 pm BST that, he received another death threats SMS in Bengali over his mobile phone from an unidentified number. The threatening message states that do you have no fear of death? This county is only for Islam. There is no space

for homosexual people in this country. If you don’t stop to support homosexual people and continue your activities to establish rights of them, we ‘ii not take time to send you in to the hell along with your wife and kid. Still there is time, be well!”

It was known from Mr Shahanur that this is not the first time intimidation he faces. He has previously received threats, death threats, physically assaults as well as been repeatedly implicated in false and fabricated cases due to his strong advocacy against social injustice and religious extremism as well as ensuring rights of ethnic, religious and sexual (LGBT) minority people in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) and JusticeMakers Bangladesh gravely concern over the recent death threats of Mr. Islam and his family members. BIHR and JusticeMakers Bangladesh urge ensuring the protection of Mr. Shahanur Islam including his all family members as well as ensure the exemplary punishment of against the culprit after a quick and impartial investigation.

Two journalists were assaulted by staffers of Barind Multipurpose Development Authority yesterday for reporting on how some government employees were coming to work later than stipulated in the new office timings -- 8:00am to 3:00pm.

Outraged by the assault, journalists under the banner of Rajshahi Union of Journalists and Television Reporters Association surrounded the BMDA office around 10:30am. Hours later, two BMDA employees were suspended.

Md Rubel Islam, cameraperson of ATN News, and Bulbul Habib, a reporter for ATN News and The Business Standard, came under attack when they went to the BMDA premises and started broadcasting live around 8:30am.

It all began when BMDA Executive Director Abdur Rashid entered the office half an hour late. As the journalists went to talk to him, an infuriated Rashid began rebuking them and asked why they entered the premises without permission.

At one point, Rashid hit Bulbul, pushed him aside and asked him to leave the compound.

Minutes after Rashid went inside his office, at least 20 staffers, led by Jiban Ahmed, general secretary of the BMDA Employees Union, swooped on the reporters.

They beat Rubel with a blunt weapon, tried to strangle Bulbul and drove him out of the compound, and damaged the television camera.

Rubel was admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital with a cut lip and bleeding ear, hospital sources said.

Around 3:30pm, BMDA Chairman Akter Jahan, who was also late for work, announced the suspension of two -- storekeeper Jiban Ahmed and driver Abdus Sobur -- for taking part in the attack. He said a probe team was asked to identify the other attackers and submit a report in three days.

The protest was withdrawn after the announcement.

Meanwhile, Bulbul filed a case with Rajpara Police Station against 17 BMDA staffers, including Executive Director Abdur Rashid, in this regard.

The decision by the Prime Minister’s Office of Bangladesh to uphold the de-registration of prominent human rights organisation Odhikar is appalling and demonstrates the government’s ongoing efforts to crush the organisation and stifle human rights work in the country, CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance said today.

Our organisation stands in solidarity with Odhikar and its staff and urges the government of Bangladesh to rescind this decision and uphold the right to freedom of association in accordance with international human rights law and standards.

Odhikar was founded in 1994 by a group of human rights activists and the organisation’s work includes documentation of human rights violations and enforced disappearances as well as engagement with international human rights mechanisms.

On 1 September 2022, the Prime Minister’s office upheld the order issued on 5 June by the NGO Affairs Bureau, a body responsible for regulating non-governmental organisations(NGOs) under the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, to decline Odhikar’s registration renewal request following an appeal hearing on 3 August 2022. A request for renewal of the organisation's registration had been pending since 2015, until recently when the NGO Affairs Bureau arbitrarily revoked it. The Bureau said that Odhikar had published “misleading information” on extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in Bangladesh.

"The decision of the Prime Minister’s office to uphold the de-registration of Odhikar is another shameful stain to the already appalling human rights record of Bangladesh. It is a blow to civil society and the right to freedom of association and sends a chilling message to those who are critical of the state," said Cornelius Hanung, Asia Advocacy and Campaigns Officer at CIVICUS.

The crackdown on Odhikar is happening on multiple fronts including smear campaigns and surveillance. This has escalated following US sanctions imposed against the notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) for its abuses. Two of Odhikar’s leaders, Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and Director ASM Nasiruddin Elan are facing allegations of violating Section 57 of the 2006 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act for “publishing in electronic forms fake, obscene, prurient materials or materials defamatory to state of religion or an individual.’ The allegations stemmed from a fact-finding report issued by Odhikar in 2013 about extrajudicial killings by Bangladesh authorities, which highlighted the deaths of 61 persons under security forces’ armed operation on 5 and 6 May 2013 in Dhaka.

The actions against Odhikar exemplify the hostile environment faced by human rights defenders in Bangladesh, including incidents of vilification and attacks by state actors. Many have also been criminalised with the use of restrictive laws such as the Digital Security Act (DSA). In her recent visit in August 2022, the former High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also highlighted the use of laws and policies over-regulating NGOs which broadly restrict fundamental freedoms and hinder them from operating effectively.

As the state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the government of Bangladesh must uphold the right to freedom of association and other fundamental freedoms in the country. The harassment against Odhikar is a clear violation that must be halted.

“The Bangladeshi government must reverse this egregious decision and take steps to create an enabling environment for civil society to work without facing reprisals. Further sanctions must be imposed by the international community if it fails to comply,” Cornelius Hanung said.

Two DBC News journalists, Saiful Islam Jewel and Azad Ahmed, were assaulted on August 2 while investigating alleged irregularities in the procurement of medical equipment. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the attack and calls on the Bangladeshi authorities to bring all perpetrators to justice.

On August 2, Jewel and Ahmed were investigating allegations of corruption and irregularities made against the Victor Trading Corporation in their procurement of medical equipment. As they reported outside the Corporation’s office, the owner of Agargaon Taltola trading house, Kawsar Bhuiyan, and other employees proceeded to beat the journalist and cameraperson.

Jewel said that the assailants first attacked Ahmed, seizing and vandalising his camera and deleting all audio and video. After asking for their camera and equipment back, Ahmed and Jewel were again beaten by approximately 12 assailants, leaving both seriously injured.

The journalists’ colleagues at DBC news reported the men received immediate medical care at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Media College Hospital in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar. The current state of their injuries remains unclear.

Sher-e-Banglanagar police inspector, Shahjahan Mandal, confirmed that Jewel has since filed a police report in relation to the assault, and all eight persons identified have been placed in custody. Information surrounding other assailants or related persons has yet to be revealed.

Media associations and press freedom organisations in Bangladesh have condemned the assault and called for further action of protect journalists and media workers.

The IFJ has documented several recent incidents of violence against Bangladeshi media workers. On June 6, the body of DBC News Journalist Abdul Bari was found with multiple stab wounds. The IFJ’s South Asia Press Freedom Report 2021-22 also recorded the assault of Prothom Alo journalist Shahadat Hossain at a protest organised by the Bangladesh Chhatra League in June 2021, while Bahannor Alo correspondent Selim Shamrat was assaulted while investigating similar allegations in July 2021.

On 15 July 2022, the Bangladeshi Armed Police Battalion 16 conducted a raid at the house of Rohingya human rights defenders and journalists Saiful Arakani and Aziz Arakani in Nayapara Registered Camp. Unable to find them at the residence, the police physically assaulted and arrested the defenders’ father Sultan Ahmed and their brother-in-law Nur Bareq. While Sultan Ahmed was released by the police after four hours, Nur Bareq remains under detention for more than four days without being made to appear in court. He was also severely beaten and tortured in the custody of the police.

Saiful Arakani and Aziz Arakani are brothers and Rohingya journalists who report on the various human rights violations faced by Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and elsewhere in Asia. Saiful Arakani works as a reporter and Aziz Arakani as a camera operator for Rohingya news website The Arakan Times. The human rights defenders report on issues such as human trafficking of Rohingya refugees, killings of Rohingya human rights defenders and leaders, sale of drugs, lack of food security schemes, fires in refugee camps and so on. For their reporting on the issues faced by Rohingyas, Saiful Arakani and Aziz Arakani have faced repeated threats, harassment and violence from the police in Bangladesh and local mobs. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been following their case and issued statements in support of the human rights defenders.

On 15 July 2022, the Armed Police Battalion 16 raided the house of Saiful Arakani and Aziz Arakani in search of the human rights defenders and instead detained their father and brother-in-law as a form of reprisal. Nur Bareq, their brother-in-law remains under detention without being presented in court. He is currently being detained in Cox Bazar Prison. The police also attempted to extort money from Saiful Arakani and Aziz Arakani in order to release Nur Bareq. The police uncovered a sum of money at their house during the raid which they claim has been unlawfully obtained and have accused the human rights defenders of money laundering, even though they have written evidence to prove that the money has been donated by international organizations for their father’s cancer treatment.

This is not the first form of reprisal faced by Saiful Arakani and Aziz Arakani in retaliation for their journalistic activities. On 29 June 2022, Aziz Arakani was violently assaulted by human traffickers in the presence of Bangladesh police, for his reporting on the trafficking of 34 Rohingya refugees from their camps. The traffickers also threatened to kill him and Saiful Arakani. Aziz Arakani tried to lodge a complaint with the police but believes that the police have been bribed by the traffickers and no action was taken against them.

On 20 December 2021, the Armed Police Battalion summoned Saiful Arakani to the station in Nayapara Refugee Camp, in relation to one of his reports and severely tortured him and threatened him against reporting. He was also forced to call Aziz Arakani to the police station and when he warned him that the police were looking for him, the police beat Saiful even more. The following day, the police hunted Aziz Arakani down at his residence and threatened him against reporting for the Rohingya people. The police detained their father for over three hours and let him go after obtaining his signature on a blank sheet of paper. Both Saiful Arakani and Aziz Arakani went into hiding for several months after this incident.

On 16 October 2021, people from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, an armed insurgent group who are against the repatriation of Rohingya refugees and are believed to be behind the killing of Rohingya human rights defender Mohib Ullah, visited their residence looking for them and shot their guns in the air as a threat for reporting on the death of Mohib Ullah. When they informed the police of this incident, they refused to take any action saying that CPJ and Rohingyas will save them. On 29 September 2021, the journalists had also received threatening phone calls from members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned about the repeated threats, harassment and police brutality faced by human rights defenders Saiful Arakani and Aziz Arakani and their family. We condemn the use of force as a reprisal against legitimate human rights work and peaceful activities carried out by human rights defenders. The safety of Saiful Arakani and Aziz Arakani must be ensured by the authorities in Bangladesh as they are refugees and do not have the rights related to nationality.

Front Line Defenders urges the relevant authorities in Bangladesh to:

Immediately and unconditionally cease all forms of harassment against human rights defenders Saiful and Aziz Arakani and their family;

Immediately and unconditionally release Nur Bareq, the brother-in-law of the human rights defenders and conduct an impartial investigation into his wrongful detention and allegations of torture with a view to bring the perpetrators to justice in accordance with international human rights law;

Initiate an immediate, impartial and thorough enquiry into the threats and harassment faced by the human rights defenders and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice in accordance with international human rights law;

Initiate a thorough judicial review of the rights guaranteed to refugees in Bangladesh in genuine consultation with independent civil society organisations and human rights defenders, with a view to aligning the laws with Bangladesh’s obligations under international human rights law and standards;

Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in Bangladesh are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions.

Every time someone gets "picked up", reports are published in media. After being "picked up", whereabouts of some become known, while the unlucky ones are never found. What is never known, however, is the way someone gets "picked up" and who does the "picking up".

Mizanur Rahman, who became the latest person to be "picked up", was fortunately found and released several hours later. He spoke to The Daily Star, detailing the chronology of events that happened on that day.

Mizanur, an activist and resident of Dhaka's Jurain area, was picked up by law enforcers from Shyampur Police Station on June 9, 2022, from a market near Jurain Rail Gate.

When the incident was reported, Shyampur police and Detective Branch did not clear the air, while Mizanur's family members and friends panicked.

The day before, police lodged a case in connection with an attack on a police sergeant in Jurain, accusing 450 persons including three named individuals.

Besides talking to media in this regard, Mizanur published a post on social media after the incident, saying: "It can be said that two things will happen. One is trade involving the cases filed, and the other being bribes demanded through threatening to sue people. We are living in a country where it is not at all possible to expect an impartial and fair investigation into the incident that happened." ONE HOUR AT THE POLICE STATION

According to Mizanur, he came to know that DB was looking for him before he would be picked up from Jurain later in the day on June 9. A close junior in the area had alerted him in this regard and suggested him to go into hiding.

"I, however, thought that I did not have a reason to be on the run. Firstly, I did not commit any crime. Secondly, there are many unnamed accused in this case, the meaning of which is not unknown to us. It will be all about arresting any and all, leaving mostly common people harassed and with no one to stand by them. Considering this, I gave up the thought of going into hiding," Mizanur told The Daily Star.

On the day he was "picked up", Mizanur went to a market named Bikrampur Plaza, where he noticed a police inspector nearby calling him.

"It occurred to me that they may detain me, so I tried to get inside the market but the policemen ran to catch up with me and asked my name. 'Our DC sir will have a word with you,' they then said," Mizanur recounted.

Meanwhile, he somehow managed to inform his daughter in this regard over mobile phone. Soon afterwards, several other police personnel arrived on the spot and surrounded him before "picking him up" in a car. Mizanur told a friend at the time that he was being taken to Shyampur Police Station.

"In the car, they misbehaved with me and snatched away my mobile phone," he said.

The family members and near ones began to panic from this point on. As his family contacted Shyampur police, they denied picking up Mizanur straight away. Then who picked him up? What had happened to him? There were so many questions that his family members were imploring to find answers to while looking for information on his whereabouts.

"In Shyampur OC's room, there was a female police official, possibly the ADC. There they misbehaved with me, used abusive words. They asked why I said that [social media post] about bribery demanded by policemen. I tried to explain, but they hardly let me speak properly," Mizanur narrated.

"At one point, the female officer ordered to beat me up. A policeman was standing there with a stick. Once ordered, he beat me hard several times," he said.

"I have so far fought a lot to live with self-respect. Being beaten like this was unacceptable to me. Yes, I was beaten up before on the road while protesting some cause. But being beaten up like this just for saying something really hurt my self-respect. I could hardly speak. I never felt so helpless. I was also enraged by this," he said.

"After a while, another senior official came. He spoke casually with me, did not misbehave. 'What you said is alright, but you could have said this through a proper channel,' he told me," Mizanur said.

Mentioning that he was kept standing the whole time at the police station, Mizanur said, "One police personnel was telling an officer there, 'Sir, he is in the BNP committee.' Another said angrily, 'Sir, his whole family are protesters. Even his daughters are also involved in protests.' 'Go pick them up too,' an official said in response."

While this was going on at the police station, Mizanur's wife, daughter and friends could not even be sure whether he was in the station.

The Daily Star also tried to contact Mizanur over phone, but no one received it.

Contacted, Shyampur OC Mofizul Alam had said, "We did not pick up Mizanur Rahman. However, we came to know that he has been taken to Detective Branch (DB). He is one of the suspected instigators in the attack on police sergeant in Jurain. Higher officials are looking into the matter." ON THE WAY TO DB HEADQUARTERS, BLINDFOLDED!

Around an hour after being taken to the police station, Mizanur along with another arrestee were handcuffed, blindfolded and taken in a car for DB headquarters, where they reached half an hour later.

"They did not talk to me much on the way, rather were speaking among themselves. One, however, remarked, 'Old man, why bother doing things like this? Now you will suffer from pain for the rest of your life!'"

Mizanur also said the blindfold was removed after he was taken to a "high official's" office at the DB headquarters.

"After being quizzed by all present in the room, the senior-most person there spoke to me, asking my name first. This was not like quizzing. Around 5-6 persons were present there. While he was talking to me, the junior officers were getting angry at me and misbehaving with me. The senior person made them stop. 'These should be present in democratic practice. We also make mistakes many times. When people like them [referring to me] speak up, it gives us scope to rectify our mistakes too,' he had said," Mizanur recalled.

"The official also said, 'Let's say you were accused in a case. A case can be lodged in many ways. Suppose someone framed you with 10-20 yaba pieces and filed a case against you. Then the verdict may be delivered in the case after 20 years, proving you not guilty. Those who filed the case also knew that you were innocent. However, can you imagine the journey you'd have to make during these 20 years till that verdict?'" Mizanur recounted.

Meanwhile, three hours went by. No one, family or friends, yet knew where Mizanur was taken to. The Daily Star also tried to contact DB and police alongside other relevant sources, but nothing could be known. ASKED FOR WATER, TOLD "KEEP FASTING"

After some time, Mizanur was taken to another room and for the first time was allowed to sit after three hours.

"During this time they tried to discuss with me and tried to make me realise that learned men should not speak a lot, by giving references of Dr Zafar Iqbal and Prof Anu Muhammad. I requested for water. They told me to 'keep fasting'," Mizanur said.

"One of them sarcastically remarked that I had taken water from the drain to get Wasa MD to drink it."

"Then I was taken to another room where I was asked if I had anything to eat. They gave me rice, water and coffee. After the meal, one officer came and asked for someone I wanted to be my custodian. I asked for my wife to be informed," Mizanur said.

The official during that time tried to convince Mizanur that he has a family and their future is important, so he should not be involved in any activities like this. 'NOT EVEN BIRDS WILL KNOW IF PICKED UP SECRETLY'

Mizanur's wife Shamim Hashem Khuki was contacted from DB headquarters after 3:30pm, more than four and half hours after he was picked up. Informed, his family went to the DB headquarters on Minto Road.

According to Mizanur, some time after 4:00pm his wife and daughter entered the DB headquarters. They stayed there for around 20-25 minutes.

"When my wife entered, someone told her in front of me, 'We brought him in broad daylight before everyone. If we picked him up secretly, not even birds would come to know'," Mizanur said.

Later he was released after signing an undertaking that said, "I shall not get involved in any illegal or anti-state activities." "After considering a lot of things, I decided to sign," Mizanur said.

"My daughter was also asked to try to make me understand that I should not speak up. One official said if things like this continue, my daughters will not be considered for government jobs, while warning me of risks," he also said.

"They also asked me about my political identity and views. They did not ask whether I support Awami League or BNP, though. I wanted to say I want a society free of exploitation, repression. One that upholds peoples' dignity. They did not let me speak, instead changed the topic."

On 6 June 2022, workers of several garment factories, including Zuki, Loadstar, Saras, Vision, Polka and MBM in Mirpur, Dhaka, blocked roads in protest, demanding a salary increase. At that time, police baton charged and threw tear gas shells at the workers, injuring some. The workers said that although the factory authorities had promised to increase their salaries this year, it had not been done. Workers have been fired on various pretexts for demanding a pay rise.

Eight people were injured when Chhatra League leaders and activists attacked a procession brought out by left-leaning student organisations on their way to Dhaka University from Shahbagh in Dhaka on 6 June. The students were protesting against a horrific explosion at a container depot at Sitakunda in Chittagong.

Excerpt of the Government communication:

The JUA made a couple of reference about one of its source i.e. ODHIKAR. It being registered under NGO Affairs Bureau, has been working on human rights issues in Bangladesh since 1995. ODHIKAR is widely known for its disproportionate bias and prejudice against Bangladesh, in particular the ruling party Awami league, which is evident in its various reports. Besides, one of the top members of ‘Odhikar’ was earlier appointed by the BNP-Jamaat Govt as the Deputy Attorney General, which should provide disqualification for the UN human rights mechanism to accept it as an objective and neutral organization for reasons of its inherent biasness and motivation. The JUA quoted allegations of reprisal against Odhikar. Whatsoever, should there be any incident of intimidation or reprisals, as experienced by the concerned organization, judicial intervention needs to be sought immediately, rather than trying to raise allegation supported by inadequate information. Hence, ,the Joint Urgent Appeal might ponder to have retrospective analysis on what prompted the drawing of conclusion by itself that ODHIKAR’s cooperation with the UN human rights mechanism has been considered as anti- State and anti-Government activity.

Bangladeshi authorities should immediately reverse their decision to deregister prominent human rights organization, Odhikar, 11 organizations said today. Human rights defenders should be allowed to conduct their work without fear of reprisals, intimidation, and harassment from the authorities.

On June 5, 2022, Bangladesh’s Non-Governmental Organization Affairs Bureau sent a letter to Odhikar, denying the group’s application for renewal of registration. The letter said that Odhikar had published “misleading information” on extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in Bangladesh that has “seriously tarnished the image of the state to the world.” The bureau further claimed that Odhikar’s publications on such human rights violations were propaganda that “created various issues against Bangladesh.”

This latest development appears to be part of a pattern of reprisals by the Bangladesh government against human rights groups and defenders following the United States Global Magnitsky sanctions against Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion on December 10, 2021.

Odhikar has been documenting human rights violations in Bangladesh since 1994. Odhikar’s application for renewal with the Non-Governmental Organization Affairs Bureau was pending since 2014, severely inhibiting its ability to conduct human rights monitoring and reporting. But after years of inaction, in early February 2022, soon after the United States sanctions were passed, the bureau sent Odhikar a letter requesting specific information and documents, including the names and addresses of everyone killed extrajudicially and disappeared between 2009 and 2021.

In May 2019, in response to government inaction on its application for registration renewal, Odhikar filed a writ in the High Court. The court asked the bureau to provide an explanation for its non-renewal. The bureau’s decision to deny Odhikar’s application, without providing a reply to the High Court, even as the matter is pending there, shows its disregard for following due process.

Since the announcement of the United States Sanctions, members of Odhikar and their family members have reported facing increased surveillance and harassment by law enforcement officials. Bangladeshi authorities have previously targeted Odhikar’s members in an attempt to silence their work. In 2013, Odhikar’s Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and Director ASM Nasiruddin Elan were arbitrarily detained for 62 days and 25 days, respectively, after publishing a fact-finding report on extrajudicial killings. They are currently facing ongoing delays and other forms of judicial harassment in a trial based on trumped-up charges at the Cyber Tribunal of Dhaka. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, has expressed her concerns on the court’s failure to uphold fair trial principles as well as attacks, smear campaigns, surveillance, and harassment against Odhikar.

The Non-Governmental Organization Affairs Bureau’s decision to deregister Odhikar demonstrates the government’s determination to stifle human rights work in the country. It is the authorities’ failure to ensure accountability for human rights violations rather than Odhikar’s exposure of those violations that has tarnished Bangladesh’s reputation, the organizations said.

The authorities should immediately renew Odhikar’s registration, allow them to conduct their human rights work without reprisals, and welcome their findings as an opportunity to improve the country’s human rights record. More broadly, the government of Bangladesh should end politically motivated persecution of human rights defenders and critics, allow human rights groups to do their work without fear, and ensure accountability for human rights violations.

Human rights defenders (HRD) associated with Odhikar have been under surveillance and subjected to various forms of intimidation and harassment due to them speaking out about human rights violations and their contact with family members of the victims. An HRD associated with Odhikar was approached by members of RAB near his home on 26 February 2022, who wanted to talk to him, but the HRD did not want to talk to them as it was late at night. The RAB members left. On 6 March at around 12 o'clock in the night, his frightened wife called him when he was working in the newspaper office, and told him that some RAB members had come to their house to look for him. When he called the RAB members on cell phone asking them to meet him at day time, they left. At around 9:00 pm on 7 March, that same HRD was called from his office to a dark place by a RAB member. There, another man claiming to be a member of RAB’s Intelligence Unit (name and designation was not disclosed) wanted to know about his contacts with the victim-families and the meetings organised by Mayer Daak, a network of the families and relatives of the disappeared.

On 11 March 2022, the Khalishpur-Daulatpur Jute Mill Joint Factory Committee announced a protest rally in Khulna City demanding the launching of state-owned jute mills, payment of arrears and withdrawal of cases filed against Khalishpur Jute Mill workers. On the day before the programme, at around 2:30 pm on 10 March, the police came on an easy bike to the road adjacent to Khulna Circuit House, in plainclothes, and picked up Monir Hossain, President of Khalishpur-Daulatpur Jute Mill Joint Factory Committee and Organizing Secretary of Khalishpur Jute Mill Workers Union. Monir Hossain informed Odhikar that when he asked them for the reason behind his arrest, the police abused him. He was first taken to the Khulna Metropolitan Police (KMP) office and later detained at the Boyra Police Outpost. He wanted to drink water but he was not given water till half past two at midnight. Alamgir Kabir, General Secretary of the Committee, was also arrested from the Khalishpur Jute Mill gate at around 8:00 pm on 10 March. Both were taken to Khalishpur Police Station on 11 March at noon. After 29 hours of detention, they were released on 11 March at around 7:00 pm. Monir Hossain also informed Odhikar that they had called a meeting in front of the Khalishpur Jute Mill gate on 15 March with the same demand but the police did not allow them to assemble.

A Dhaka tribunal yesterday framed charges against cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore and six others in a case filed under the Digital Security Act for anti-government activities and spreading rumours.

The six others are Hungary-based entrepreneur Zulkarnain Saer Khan alias Sami; Swedish-Bangladeshi journalist Tasneem Khalil, editor-in-chief of Netra News; Minhaj Mannan Emon, former director of Dhaka Stock Exchange; Didarul Islam, an activist; Ashik Imran; and Shapan Wahed.

Emon and Islam, now on bail, pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after Judge Mohammad Ash Sams Joglul Hossain of Dhaka Cyber Tribunal read out the charges.

Earlier in the day, the tribunal cancelled the bail of Kishore and issued an arrest warrant as he was absent at the court for two consecutive dates.

The tribunal also dismissed two petitions submitted for dropping the names of Minhaj and Didarul from the case.

The tribunal set April 7 to launch the trial in the case.

Among the accused, Sami, Tasneem, Ashik and Shapan are absconding.

On June 13 last year, Sub-inspector Afchhar Ahmed of the Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of police submitted the supplementary charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka.

Names of the late writer Mushtaq Ahmed, US-based journalist Shahed Alam; Germany-based bloggers Asif Mohiuddin and Philip Schuhmacher were dropped from the charge sheet.

Mushtaq died at Kashimpur High Security Jail on February 25 last year.

On May 6 of 2020, Rab Assistant Director Abu Bakar Siddique filed the case against 11 people with Ramna Police Station under the DSA.

The Bangladesh authorities should immediately conduct an independent and transparent investigation into the death in custody of an Indigenous political activist, Human Rights Watch said today. Any officers found responsible for Nabayan Chakma Milon’s torture and death should be held accountable.

The Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission, an independent rights group in the region, said that soldiers detained Milon in Dighinala sub-district on March 15, 2022, at 3:30 a.m. while he was recovering from a medical procedure. Witnesses saw the soldiers beating and kicking Milon for over an hour until he was “half dead,” barely conscious, and appearing to have broken limbs. The soldiers then took him away in a military vehicle. Nearly four hours later, soldiers brought Milon to Dighinala Upazila Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

“Nabayan Chakma Milon’s tragic death is just the most recent case in a pattern of abuses by the Bangladesh military in the Chittagong Hill Tracts,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should immediately open an independent and transparent investigation into Milon’s death as well as other cases of military abuse in the CHT that the government has persistently ignored.”

Milon was a member of the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF), an ethnic political party with some armed factions in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The party was formed in 1998 by Indigenous groups that were dissatisfied with the terms of the 1997 Peace Accords signed between the Bangladesh government and the armed insurgent group Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS), ending a twenty-year conflict in the Chittagong Hill Tracts over Indigenous autonomy and land rights. Under the 1997 Peace Accords, the Bangladesh government committed to military withdrawals and transfer of authority to representative Hill District Councils, including over local police, land management, and environmental protection.

The 1997 peace agreement has never been fully carried out. Nearly 25 years later, much of the region remains under military occupation, and most of the commitments laid out in the accord have yet to be realized. Instead, Indigenous rights groups in the Hill Tracts say that the military presence has increased in recent years.

A witness whose name is withheld for his protection told activists that the soldiers took turns beating Milon in an effort to get the password to his computer. The witness told activists that the soldiers repeatedly kicked Milon on his thighs and testicles and beat him with a wooden baton. “When he couldn’t stand up, they threw water on him,” he said. Eventually Milon lost consciousness, at which point the soldiers carried his body out on their shoulders. “He was almost dead at that time,” he said.

Another witness said that the soldiers had tied up Milon’s arms and legs and were beating him with sticks and guns: “They were kicking him like a football with their boots, beating him up with sticks. His arms and legs were broken; he was half-dead.”

Thorough investigations into abuses against Indigenous activists in the Hill Tracts are rare, and those responsible are almost never held to account. Three years after the disappearance of Michael Chakma, an Indigenous rights activist, the government has ignored appeals from his family, as well as inquiries from the High Court, the National Human Rights Commission, and the United Nations Committee against Torture. In January 2020, the police finally responded to an order from the High Court by simply stating that they “could not find anybody named Michael Chakma in any prisons in Bangladesh.”

The Bangladesh military and other branches of law enforcement commit widespread abuses against Indigenous people living in the Hill Tracts, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, sexual violence, and land-grabbing, with little redress.

“Nearly 25 years after the signing of the Peace Accords, the Bangladesh government has so far been correct in assuming the international community will ignore abuses in the Chittagong Hill Tracts,” Adams said. “The Bangladesh military should not be allowed to continue to rape, torture, and kill Indigenous people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts with impunity.”

“Over 100 people on motorcycles stormed into our office at around 12:15 p.m.,” journalist Arif Hossain Kanak told media outlets, describing the start of the raid on Dainik Somoyer Narayanganj, a local daily newspaper based in the Dhaka suburb of Narayanganj, on 12 February.

The entire staff were the victims of the carefully planned operation. After smashing surveillance cameras and destroying the recordings they contained, they threatened to kill the editor and said they would return if an apology was not published in the next day’s issue.

“We will set fire to this office and shoot your editor dead," they warned.

This punitive raid was prompted by an article in the previous day’s issue about a police investigation involving Ajmeri Osman, a person famous in Narayanganj for being the nephew of a local parliamentarian who is a member of Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League.

Videos that members of the newspaper’s staff recorded on their smartphones show that the raid was led by Awami League activists. “It’s clear that Ajmeri’s supporters were hired to launch the attack,” Dainik Somoyer Narayanganj editor Zabed Ahmed Juel told RSF.

Impunity

RSF has confirmed that the police arrested eight suspects on 13 February but released them the next day. No one has been charged and no other arrest has been made in the five days since the raid.

“We call on Anisul Huq, the minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs, to do what is necessary to ensure that the perpetrators and instigators of this unacceptable operation, which was designed to threaten and intimidate, do not go unpunished,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “We also call on Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader to firmly condemn these acts by members of his party, which – as an organisation that claims to be committed to democracy – cannot tolerate such press freedom violations.”

Ever since Awami League president Sheikh Hasina began her second stint as prime minister in 2009, there has been a steady increase in the number, frequency, violence and intensity of attacks by Awami League activists on journalists who criticise the party’s leaders.

Even journalists based abroad are the targets of reprisals and, as RSF reported last October, pressure is put on them via close relatives still in Bangladesh, who are subjected to judicial harassment and even physical attacks.

Bangladesh is ranked 152nd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

On 10 February 2022, a press conference was organised by leaders of the Subornogram Foundation, a civil society organization in Bangladesh. The press conference was aimed at demanding the security and well-being of woman human rights defender Mariyam Akhtar Pakhi and her family, who were physically assaulted in their home in Narayanganj district by local leaders of Awami League, the ruling party of Bangladesh. Since then, Mariyam Akhter Pakhi and her family have been forced to live in a rented house and have been unable to return to their residence due to persistent threats by the assailants. Mariyam Akhtar Pakhi is a woman human rights defender and headmistress of Mayadwip Shishu Patshala, a school for children belonging to low-income households, in particular those coming from the fishingcommunities in Mayaswip island in Nunertek village. The school was founded by the local social organization Subornogram Foundation in 2007 with the intention of providing free education to vulnerable children. On 22 January 2022, woman human rights defender Mariyam Akhter Pakhi, was attacked by a local leader of the ruling party of Bangladesh Awami League. The local leader, Mohammad Hashem, along with at least 20 men armed with knives, hockey sticks and other weapons, forcefully entered Mariyam Akhter Pakhi’s residence around 8:45 pm, and physically assaulted her and her family members. She and her elderly mother, two brothers and her infant daughter were severely injured in the attack. The men also looted the household and took away gold ornaments and 50,000 Bangladeshi Taka in cash, and set fire to the house. The woman human rights defender filed a complaint regarding the incident at Sonargoan Police Station and it was registered under Case no. 32, dated 23 January 2022. A charge-sheet filed by the police was also sent to the Narayanganj Court on 31 January 2022. Following the attack, due to the persistent threats by local leaders of Awami League, the woman human rights defender is living in a rented house in Sonargaon since 28 January 2022. Her relatives and neighbours from Mayadwip Shishu Patshala have informed her that the attackers have threatened to kill the family if they return to their residence. Witnesses have also observed some men standing guard outside the woman human rights defender’s original residence. The woman human rights defender said that the school had been receiving various threats from the local leaders to shut it down. She believes that the attack on her and her family is a result of continuing the school’s operations despite the threats. This is not the first time that human rights members associated with Mayadwip Shishu Patshala have come under attack. The school building faces the threat of collapsing due to erosion by the River Meghna, in Sonargaon, Narayanganj, which is directly linked to the sand mining. It has been reported that Mohammad Hashem is involved in illegal sand mining on Mayadwip island, putting the school building at further risk of destruction. Due to the school’s continues operations, it has become very difficult for Mohammad Hashem and his accomplices to carry out illegal mining in the area. From 2010 to 2013, residents of Mayadwip had participated in a movement to save their island against illegal sand mining, led by Shahed Kayes, founder of the school, poet and human rights defender. The movement was successful in obtaining a Supreme Court order against sand mining in the area that threatens the lives of the inhabitants of Mayadwip. Since then, Shahed Kayes has faced multiple threats and attacks by Mohammad Hashem and other local leaders of Awami League who have been engaged in illegal sand mining in the area. In 2013, Front Line Defenders also issued an urgent appeal against the attacks faced by human rights defender Shahed Kayes. Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the attack on woman human rights defender Mariyam Akhter Pakhi and her family, as it believes it to be in response to her legitimate human rights work to provide education to children from low-income households, as well as her work challenging illegal mining. Front Line Defenders is also deeply concerned about the ongoing threats against Mariyam Akhter Pakhi and her family, which have made it extremely difficult for the woman human rights defender to return to her original residence and endangered her, and her familiies, security and well-being.

Bangladesh authorities must conduct a swift and impartial investigation into the abduction and beating of Hossain Baksh and take steps to protect the safety of journalists covering union council elections, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

At approximately 6:45 a.m. on January 5, Hossain Baksh, a camera operator for the privately owned news channel ATN News, was abducted and severely beaten, allegedly upon the order of Asad Ali, the then-ruling Awami League-nominated chairperson candidate for a local union council election, in the Madhabpur upazila, or sub-district, of the Kamalganj upazila in the northeastern Sylhet Division, according to the Dhaka Tribune and Baksh, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. (A union council is a local government unit in Bangladesh.) Ali did not respond to CPJ’s text message requesting comment.

Ali was subsequently elected chairperson of the Madhabpur upazila in the election held on January 5, according to Daily Jugantor. The next phase of local union council elections across the country will be held on January 31, and the final phase will be held on February 7, according to news reports.

“The abduction and beating of Hossain Baksh demonstrate the significant dangers that Bangladeshi journalists can face while covering elections,” said Steven Butler, CPJ Asia’s program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Authorities must conduct an immediate and impartial investigation into the incident, hold the perpetrators accountable, and ensure that journalists can safely and freely report during the upcoming phases of the local union council elections.”

Baksh, who received a pass from the Election Commission to report on the polls, was filming an armed procession led by Ali that was allegedly threatening voters next to a primary school in Madhabpur, when the then-candidate ordered six or seven men to attack Baksh with machetes, sticks, and knives, abduct him, and take him to Ali’s house so “he would be scared of them in the future,” Baksh said, adding that men also stole his camera, smartphones, cash, credit cards, motorcycle key, and national identity card at that time, which they have yet to return.

Baksh told CPJ that the men forced him into a black car and took him to Ali’s house in the Madhabpur upazila. Once at Ali’s house, a group of men, including the then-candidate’s son and nephews, repeatedly and severely beat him with ropes and held him for approximately one and a half hours until around 8:00 a.m., when the Kamalganj police, which were informed by bystanders of Baksh’s abduction, retrieved him, according to Baksh.

Baksh sustained wounds to his head, face, eyes, and legs, and received first aid treatment at the Kamalganj Upazila Health Complex, where he vomited repeatedly and was referred to the Moulvibazar Sadar Hospital for further treatment, according to the Dhaka Tribune and Baksh, who said that he will require further medical treatment for injuries to his eyes.

Baksh told CPJ that he filed a complaint against the perpetrators at the Kamalganj police station today, but an investigating officer did not register a first information report, the first step of a police investigation, against the perpetrators, saying that further investigation would be necessary due to the association of the accused with the Awami League. Baksh added that the officer-in-charge of the station said that he would follow up with Baksh later.

The officer-in-charge of the Kamalganj police station did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app.

Mohammad Zakaria, superintendent of the Moulvibazar district police, which encompasses the Madhabpur and Kamalganj upazilas, responded to CPJ’s request for comment via messaging app with a police document recording the incident, which said that Baksh is a supporter of the oppositional Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and was traveling to campaign for an independent candidate running in the Madhabpur union council election when Ali’s supporters stopped his car and slapped him before a police officer rescued him from the area and took him to the Kamalganj Upazila Health Complex for treatment.

Baksh and another local reporter with ATN News, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal, denied the police’s claim, saying that Baksh was on assignment for ATN News at the time of the attack. The area of the assault identified in the police document is the same as where Ali’s house is located, according to a person familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal.

Munni Saha, news head of ATN News, did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app.

The Observatory has been informed about the ongoing judicial harassment against Messrs. Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin Elan, respectively Secretary and Director of the human rights non-governmental organisation Odhikar, in a further attempt to sanction and silence their human rights activities [1].

On November 9, 2021, the Cyber Tribunal of Dhaka resumed its examination of prosecution witnesses in the case brought against Adilur Rahman Khan, who is also a member of OMCT General Assembly and FIDH Secretary-General, and ASM Nasiruddin Elan in Case No. 1 of 2013. The case was filed against the two in relation to a fact-finding report issued by Odhikar documenting extrajudicial killings by security forces and law enforcement agencies during a protest in May 2013.

The Observatory recalls that following the publication of Odhikar’s fact-finding report, Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin Elan were arbitrarily detained for 62 and 25 days respectively, before they were both released on bail on October 11 and December 1, 2013. However, instead of dropping the case, the police brought new charges under the notorious Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act, 2006 (amended in 2009). If found guilty, Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin Elan could each face up to seven years of imprisonment.

On February 14, 2021, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh rejected Odhikar’s appeal to quash the cybercrime case on its legal merits. On September 12, 2021, the Cyber Tribunal of Dhaka resumed the trial in the case against the two defenders and on October 5, 2021, it started to examine prosecution witnesses in the case. The next hearing is now set to take place on November 24, 2021.

The Observatory expresses its deepest concern over the ongoing harassment of Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin Elan, which manifestly aims at punishing them for their legitimate human rights activities.

The Observatory is all the more concerned that since the case was transferred to the Cyber Tribunal of Dhaka in January 2017, the latter has failed to uphold fair trial principles in this case. There has been notably a lack of transparency regarding the publicity of its decisions. It is also concerning that when Mr. Khan and Mr. Elan’s lawyers sought permission from the court to examine separately the prosecution witness who testified against the two defendants on October 5, namely Detective Branch Police Officer Mr. Mohammad Ashraful Islam (who lodged the General Diary Entry and the First Information Report at Dhaka’s Gulshan police station in August 2013 and was also the investigating officer of the case), the court only replied that the witness could be called at a later date to be cross-examined.

The Observatory further recalls that since 2013, attacks, surveillance, smear campaigns and harassment against Odhikar and its staff and management have been incessant. Odhikar is also facing serious difficulties to implement its activities, since its registration has not been renewed by the NGO Affairs Bureau of the Government of Bangladesh and is still pending since 2015. All of its bank accounts have been frozen and it has been forbidden from receiving foreign funding, impacting considerably its operations.

The Observatory strongly condemns the ongoing judicial harassment of Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin Elan and reiterates its deepest concern about the authorities of Bangladesh’s systematic crackdown on human rights defenders and journalists who speak out against rampant human rights violations taking place in the country, including through the use of the Digital Security Act - 2018, the Special Powers Act - 1974, and other draconian laws.

The Observatory urges the authorities to immediately and unconditionally drop all charges against Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin Elan and to put an end to all acts of harassment, including at the judicial level, against all human rights defenders in Bangladesh.

The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) and Odhikar strongly condemn the police raid on the house of Hajera Khatun, the founder of Mayer Daak, a network of families and relatives of disappeared persons; and the arrest of people gathered at a prayer session on 31 October 2021. Sanjida Islam, sister of isappeared BNP leader Sajedul Islam Sumon and an organizer of Mayer Daak, said her mother Hajera Khatun had been hospitalised for a long time. Upon her return from the hospital, her family members organised a prayer session at home in gratitude for her recovery and for the welfare and return of the disappeared. Family members of other victims of enforced disappearances and Sumon's political colleagues from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), joined the prayer meet. During this, Tejgaon police raided the house at around 1:30 pm and arrested about 15 leaders and activists of BNP. Sanjida Islam alleged that during the raid, the police forcibly entered the house and broke open the doors of different rooms and beat family members of the victims of enforced disappearances. Families of the disappeared ought to be treated with much respect. Enforced disappearance is a crime against humanity. The fact is acts of enforced disappearance continue all over Asia, including Bangladesh. According to Odhikar, 605 people have been subjected to enforced disappearances between January 2009 and September 2021. Among them, the whereabouts of 154 people still remain unknown and the bodies of 81 people have been recovered. These are just the reported figures. AFAD and Odhikar observe that apart from commissions of enforced disappearances, the incumbent Awami League government has also taken away the right to freedom of assembly and expression. Police are detaining opposition leaders and activists and filing cases against them even if they gather in indoor meetings or go to attend any meeting. AFAD and Odhikar strongly demand the return of the disappeared and an end to the persecution and harassment of their relatives.

The closing of garment factories without informing the workers, retrenchment of workers and non-payment of wages on time are often causes of dissatisfaction among the workers in the readymade garment industry. In many factories, workers are still deprived of the right to form trade unions.

Workers and employees of Style Craft Garment Factory in Laxmipur area under Gazipur City have been on strike and protest since 6 July 2021, demanding payment of arrears of three years’ salary and allowances. The factory authority announced multiple dates for the payment of workers and employees, but did not pay. Due to this, workers and employees gathered at the factory gate on 18 July and went on strike and protested. As a result, the road in front of the factory was blocked. The protesting workers were outraged as the factory authorities did not take any initiative to resolve the issue and when they marched towards Chandina intersection to block the Dhaka-Mymensingh and Dhaka-Tangail highways, the police baton charged them and fired tear gas shells and sound grenades. Six people were injured in the incident.

The closing of garment factories without informing the workers, retrenchment of workers and non-payment of wages on time are often causes of dissatisfaction among the workers in the readymade garment industry. In many factories, workers are still deprived of the right to form trade unions. On 14 July 2021, workers of Lakhsma Innerwear Ltd. in Shreepur Municipal area under Gazipur District blocked the road demanding arrears of wages. At that time, some unidentified miscreants attacked the women workers with sticks and chased the workers, trying to make them lift the blockade. Eight workers, including women, were injured in the attack. The injured workers received treatment at different hospitals.

Akhtaruzzaman, Bogura District correspondent of the daily Banijya Protidin, was picked up from his home by members of the Detective Branch (DB) of Police late at night on 17 July 2021, for publishing news about corruption in the distribution of allowances to employees working on a project in the family planning department in Bogura. At that time the family planning officer Dr. Samir Hossain Mishu and his Office Assistant Shamima Akhter were with the DB Police. Twenty hours after Akhtaruzzaman’s arrest, Shamima Akhter filed a case against him under the Digital Security Act, 2018 with Bogura Sadar Police Station.

On 8 February 2021, Dr. Tasneem Siddiqui, a Professor of Dhaka University and Chairperson of the Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit (RMMRU), an organisation working with migrant workers and expatriates, gave an interview in the daily Prothom Alo entitled “Remittance flow and expatriates do not match reality”. She was summoned before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Finance on 23 September to explain her comments in the interview. In addition, due to the pressure on the media, various incidents and occurrences are not published there, but they have been published on social media. Thus, the government and ruling party leaders and activists have now brought the social media under extensive surveillance.

Bangladesh authorities and United Nations officials should take urgent measures to protect Rohingya refugees facing threats and violence in the Cox’s Bazar camps, Human Rights Watch said today. Rohingya community leaders and volunteer workers told Human Rights Watch that alleged members of armed Islamist groups were increasingly targeting them for extortion and other crimes.

On September 29, 2021, unidentified gunmen shot and killed Mohib Ullah, 46, chair of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), in Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar. His associates said that Mohib Ullah had repeatedly reported threats from armed groups operating in the camps to Bangladesh officials but received insufficient support from the authorities.

“Mohib Ullah’s flight from mass atrocities in Myanmar to then be killed in his place of refuge speaks volumes about the risks that Rohingya activists face every day,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Bangladesh authorities should take urgent measures, with international assistance, to protect Rohingya activists who are defending the rights of refugees.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed nine people, including Rohingya activists and Mohib Ullah’s family members, who said that the authorities did not adequately investigate Mohib Ullah’s concerns or provide protection for him and other vulnerable activists. “The Bangladesh government deployed many security forces in the camps, but they were busy subduing and controlling refugees instead of protecting them,” said one activist.

At least a dozen activists have come forward to seek protection from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and Bangladesh officials since Mohib Ullah’s killing because of renewed threats from armed groups and other risks of violence. Humanitarian workers said that the environment inside the camps has become increasingly dangerous for Rohingya activists.

Mohib Ullah had served as a leader among the nearly one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. He began receiving death threats in 2019 as his prominence grew, representing the Rohingya at the UN Human Rights Council and with the United States government. His organization said that the threats were from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and other armed groups that contested his leadership role.

In the months before his death, Mohib Ullah had expressed concern about the growing threats, activists and his family members said. In August, he sent a letter to the Bangladesh government Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, with copies to the camp-in-charge official and Special Branch in Cox’s Bazar, outlining the death threats that he and his colleagues had been receiving and requesting the office take action against the assailants, which the letter identifies as ARSA members.

One member of Mohib Ullah’s group was told in July that he would be killed if he returned to the group’s office, and that “very soon we will kill your leader.” Mohib Ullah’s colleagues said the letter received no reply.

A Bangladesh police official told Reuters they had received no reports from Mohib Ullah about any threats or requests for protection.

ARSA condemned the killing in written and audio statements and demanded authorities bring those responsible to account.

In a statement, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said that Mohib Ullah’s death “is a clear example of the insecurity in the camp, and the apparent attempts to silence moderate civil society voices.”

UNHCR said that, in response to the killing, it “has enhanced its staff presence in the camps to ensure that the Rohingya refugees have direct access to support services and can report their concerns.” However, activists close to Mohib Ullah said that they have not been provided with adequate protection.

On October 3, police reported that they had arrested five men in connection with the killing. Mohib Ullah’s associates, however, have said that those allegedly responsible for the killing are still openly operating in the camp.

An activist with his group said, “Even this morning [October 3] some people visited my shelter and threatened my family saying, ‘Ask your son to be ready because the same fate is awaiting him, like Mohib Ullah. He is on the hit list of 10 people.’ I informed camp-in-charge, who assured me of safety, but I am worried because the police are not there all the time. If they really want to kill me, I’m an easy target for them.” Mohib Ullah’s wife said that she was worried for her daughters since her husband’s killing because of recent threats demanding that they marry members of the armed group.

Some refugees alleged that Bangladesh security forces and camp authorities seemed to underplay threats from armed Islamist groups. “When we complain to the authorities about ARSA’s crimes, they don’t pay any attention,” an activist said.

Another activist alleged collusion between some officers of the Armed Police Battalion deployed in the camps and members of the armed group. He said he went into hiding after receiving threats from ARSA but returned to his shelter when police promised protection, only for them to hand him over to the militants. “I was always being threatened by ARSA members since I started working as an activist, and I finally went into hiding. A few months later, two police officers lured me to come back to the camp and then handed me over to ARSA. I had to go through inhuman torture, until I paid ARSA a heavy ransom.”

ARSA members have attacked Christians and Hindus living in the camps alongside the predominantly Muslim Rohingya. Armed groups have also targeted women working as volunteers with humanitarian agencies. Hasina, a 26-year-old activist who works on women’s empowerment, said she was a victim of extortion by ARSA members.

Bangladesh authorities should fully investigate all those who might be responsible for Mohib Ullah’s killing and work with UNHCR to respond promptly when refugees are reporting imminent threats and provide immediate and effective protection, Human Rights Watch said. Concerned governments should ensure that activists and other refugees at heightened risk are priorities in planning around refugee assistance, protection, and resettlement.

“The Bangladesh government needs to address safety in the Rohingya camps both by developing better security and taking necessary action against groups engaged in illegal activity,” Ganguly said. “These refugees fled horrific abuses and are entitled to support from Bangladesh and other governments to live in the camps without fearing for their lives.”

Very early yesterday morning, officers with the police Rapid Action Battalion raided Raka’s home in Uttara, a suburb of Dhaka, and took her and her three sons to the battalion’s headquarters in Dhaka, according to news reports and Kanak Sarwar, a journalist and Raka’s brother, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

Sarwar, who lives in exile in the United States, told CPJ that he believed that the arrest was in retaliation for his journalism and that Raka, who is a homemaker, had not committed any crime.

Police repeatedly questioned Raka about Sarwar, asking why he opposed the Bangladesh government and calling him “a freedom fighter,” Sarwar told CPJ, saying that he was able to briefly speak on the phone with his sister in detention. He said that authorities released Raka’s sons after about 30 hours, but she remains detained in a cell with no bed.

The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka ordered Raka to be detained for five days, Sarwar said, adding that she suffers from asthma and has experienced difficulty breathing in custody as she is recovering from COVID-19. He also said that police broke several items inside the house during the raid, including closets and jewelry boxes.

Sarwar told CPJ that he believes all authorities’ accusations against his sister are false.

“Punishing exiled journalist Kanak Sarwar by arresting his sister, Nusrat Shahrin Raka, is a crude and barbaric form of retaliation that should shame the government of Bangladesh,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must immediately release Raka, cease targeting critical journalists or their family members, and allow the media to operate without interference.”

In a press release issued yesterday, which CPJ reviewed, the Rapid Action Battalion alleged that Raka was involved in “destroying peace and order in the country by spreading false, defamatory, and provocative information about the government and important personalities of the state on social media” and accused her of involvement with an unnamed group engaging in “conspiratorial propaganda activities” with Sarwar.

The press release also claimed that authorities seized a mobile phone, passport, methamphetamine, and anti-state content from Raka’s home, and that she revealed during interrogation that she was an active member of an anti-state propaganda and conspiracy ring.

The Rapid Action Battalion filed two complaints at the Uttara West police station under the Digital Security Act and Narcotics Control Act, which CPJ reviewed.

The Digital Security Act complaint alleges that Raka violated three sections of the act: the publication of offensive, false, or threatening information; defamation; and the transmission or publication of content that deteriorates law and order. Each of those offenses can carry a prison sentence of three to seven years and a fine of 300,000 to 500,000 taka (US $3,497 to $5,827), according to that law.

The other complaint alleges that Raka possessed narcotics; under the Narcotics Control Act, Raka could face up to three years in prison if charged and convicted, according to Sarwar, citing her lawyer.

Sarwar told CPJ that a fake Facebook page had been created in recent weeks using Raka’s name, email address, and phone number, and that account published posts criticizing the government. Sarwar said that Raka filed a complaint to the Uttara West police station about that account on October 1, which CPJ reviewed.

The police complaint under the Digital Security Act cited posts made on that Facebook page, and attributed them to Raka.

Sarwar is the former senior correspondent for the privately owned broadcaster Ekushey TV; authorities held him from March 3 to November 16, 2015, on accusations of sedition after Ekushey TV broadcasted a speech by Tarique Rahman, the son of an opposition leader, according to CPJ research and Sarwar. He now operates the YouTube channel Kanak Sarwar News, which covers Bangladesh politics and has been critical of the ruling Awami League.

On December 8, 2020, the Bangladesh High Court directed authorities to block Sarwar’s social media pages after he interviewed a politician in Bangladesh on YouTube, as CPJ documented at the time.

CPJ emailed the Uttara West police station for comment, but did not receive any reply. CPJ called and messaged Ashique Billah, spokesperson of the Rapid Action Battalion, but did not receive any response.

Gunmen shot and killed a prominent Rohingya Muslim leader in a refugee camp in southern Bangladesh on Wednesday, a United Nations spokesperson and a local police official said, following months of worsening violence in the world's largest refugee settlement. Mohib Ullah, who was in his late 40s, led one of the largest of several community groups to emerge since more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar after a military crackdown in August 2017. Invited to the White House and to speak to the UN Human Rights Council, he was one of the most high-profile advocates for the Rohingya, a Muslim minority that has faced persecution for generations.

Rafiqul Islam, a deputy police superintendent in the nearby town of Cox's Bazar, told Reuters by phone that Mohib Ullah had been shot dead but had no additional details.

A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the agency was "deeply saddened" by the killing of Mohib Ullah. "We are in continuous contact with law enforcement authorities in charge of maintaining peace and security in the camps," the spokesperson said. Mohib Ullah's group, the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, made its name documenting atrocities the Rohingya suffered during the Myanmar crackdown, which the UN has said was carried out with genocidal intent. At the Bangladesh refugee camps, Mohib Ullah went from hut to hut to build a tally of killings, rape and arson that was shared with international investigators. His organization worked to give refugees more of a voice inside the camps and internationally. Speaking to the UN Human Rights Council, he said the Rohingya wanted more of a say over their own future. But his high profile made him a target of hardliners and he received death threats, he told Reuters in 2019. "If I die, I'm fine. I will give my life," he said at the time. The sprawling camps in Bangladesh have become increasingly violent, residents say, with armed men vying for power, kidnapping critics, and warning women against breaking conservative Islamic norms.

Aung Kyaw Moe, a Rohingya civil society activist and an adviser to Myanmar's National Unity Government, the parallel civilian government established after February's coup, said Mohib Ullah's death was a "big loss for the Rohingya community." "He was always aware there is a threat, but he thinks that despite the threat if he is not doing the work he is doing, no one else would," he said.

Bangladesh authorities must immediately drop their investigations into the bank accounts of 12 members of the press and commit to allowing the media to operate freely and independently, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On August 11, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, a government agency responsible for investigating money laundering and terrorist financing, ordered all scheduled banks to provide details of any accounts associated with Rozina Islam, a senior correspondent for the daily newspaper Prothom Alo, according to news reports and a person familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal. Islam is under investigation for allegedly photographing documents at the country’s Health Ministry without permission.

“Scheduled banks” refer to the 61 banks that are controlled and supervised by the government-owned Central Bank of Bangladesh.

Separately, on September 16, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit ordered banks to provide such information for an additional 11 journalists, according to various news reports and Muhammad Abdullah, city editor of The Daily Amardesh and president of a group within the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app. The 11 journalists named in the September 16 order are also all executive members of several different journalist trade organizations, according to those news reports.

Authorities have not disclosed any reason for the order targeting those journalists, according to Abdullah, who said the reason behind the probe remains unclear.

“The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit’s investigation of the bank accounts belonging to a dozen prominent journalists looks suspiciously like selective law enforcement aimed at intimidating the independent press,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities should immediately drop these investigations, cease harassing journalists, and commit to allowing the media to operate openly and freely.”

According to the news reports and Abdullah, the 11 journalists are:

Farida Yasmin, senior subeditor of the privately owned Bengali-language newspaper The Daily Ittefaq and president of the National Press Club of Bangladesh
Elias Khan, special correspondent with the privately owned news outlet The Daily Amardesh—which has been prevented from publishing a print edition since 2013 and whose website was blocked domestically in 2020—and general secretary of the National Press Club of Bangladesh
Kader Gani Chowdhury, senior reporter with The Daily Amardesh and president of a group within the Dhaka Union of Journalists
Muhammad Abdullah, city editor of The Daily Amardesh and president of a group within the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists
Mohammad Shahidul Islam, subeditor of the privately owned Bengali-language daily newspaper The Daily Sangram and general secretary of a group within the Dhaka Union of Journalists
Sajjad Alam Khan Tapu, business editor of the privately owned news channel Jamuna TV and president of a group within the Dhaka Union of Journalists
Nurul Amin Rokon, news editor of the privately owned Bengali-language daily newspaper Daily Asia Bani and secretary general of a group within the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists
Molla Jalal, editor of the privately owned Bengali-language news website NNB and president of a group within the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists
Abdul Majid, special correspondent of the privately owned Bengali-language daily newspaper The Daily Samakal and secretary general of a group within the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists
Mursalin Nomani, senior reporter with the state-owned news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha and president of Dhaka Reporters Unity, a local journalist training and press freedom group
Mosiur Rahman Khan, senior reporter with The Daily Samakal and general secretary of Dhaka Reporters Unity

Hasan Mahmud, the minister of information and broadcasting, told reporters at his office that the government can ask anyone for their bank details, and “if someone is transparent, there’s no reason to be worried about it,” according to The Dhaka Tribune.

The person familiar with Islam’s case said the August 11 order stemmed from an ongoing investigation by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police into a complaint filed by the country’s Health Ministry. On May 17, authorities arrested Islam for allegedly taking pictures of official documents at its Dhaka office, as CPJ documented at the time. She was released on bail on May 23, according to reports.

Islam has frequently reported on alleged corruption and mismanagement of the health sector’s COVID-19 response.

The ministry accused Islam of violating Sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act and Sections 379 and 411 of the penal code; if charged and convicted, she could face up to 14 years in prison or the death penalty, according to those laws.

On September 19, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka rejected Islam’s request for the return of her two mobile phones and press identification card, which were seized during her arrest, and her passport, which was seized as a condition of her release on bail, according to news reports and the person familiar with the case.

Health Minister Zahid Malek did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment regarding Islam’s case sent via email.

CPJ emailed Md. Masud Biswas, executive director of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit; Md. Shafiqul Islam, commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police; and Ferdousi Shahriar, the deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Bangladesh in Washington, D.C., for comment on the 12 investigations, but did not receive any replies.

Bangladesh authorities must immediately drop all charges against journalists Kabir Kishore, Tasneem Khalil, and Shafiqul Islam Kajol, and cease harassing members of the press under the draconian Digital Security Act, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On September 8 and 12, the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal accepted Digital Security Act charges against Kishore, a cartoonist; Khalil, editor of the Sweden-based news website Netra News; and Kajol, a photographer and editor with the Daily Pakkhakal magazine, according to multiple news reports and a person familiar with the cases, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal by Bangladesh authorities.

Kishore and Kajol are currently free on bail, according to those sources. Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Khalil, who lives in Sweden, the journalist told CPJ in a phone interview.

Khalil said that the Bangladesh government did not inform him of the warrant, and he heard about it in the news. Bangladesh authorities have blocked domestic connections to Netra News since December 2019, according to Khalil and CPJ’s documentation from the time.

“The Bangladesh government must immediately cease its legal harassment of journalists Kabir Kishore, Tasneem Khalil, and Shafiqul Islam Kajol, who are being persecuted for their political commentary,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must drop all charges against them, stop harassing journalists in retaliation for their work, and repeal the draconian Digital Security Act, which enables these legal abuses.”

The Dhaka Cyber Tribunal accepted a charge sheet against Kajol on September 8, stemming from a criminal defamation complaint filed against him and dozens of others in March 2020 by Saifuzzaman Shikhor, a member of parliament with the ruling Awami League political party, according to various news reports, the person familiar with the case, and CPJ research, which said that two other people affiliated with the Awami League also filed two additional complaints against Kajol at that time.

The complaints cited Kajol’s critical writing on Facebook about local political leaders, and accused him of “publishing false news and circulating it on social media,” according to those sources. CPJ was unable to review Kajol’s Facebook posts, which have been taken down or set to private.

Kajol was charged under sections of the Digital Security Act pertaining to transmission or publication of offensive, false, or threatening information; unauthorized collection of identity information without lawful authority; publication or transmission of defamatory information; and publication or transmission of information that creates enmity, hatred, or hostility between different classes or communities of society, according to person familiar with the case and the charge sheet, which CPJ reviewed.

If convicted, each of those charges can carry a prison sentence between three and seven years, and a fine from 300,000 to 500,000 taka (US $3,517 to $5,861), according to the law. The next hearing in his case is scheduled for October 20, according to news reports and the person familiar with the case.

CPJ emailed and texted Shikhor at the address and phone number listed on his website, but received error messages in response. CPJ emailed the office of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who also serves as president of the Awami League, for comment, but did not immediately receive any reply.

Separately, on September 12, the cyber tribunal accepted charges submitted by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of the detective branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police against Kishore, Khalil, and five others, according to various news reports and the person familiar with the cases.

The charges stem from a police report alleging that Kishore and five others ran a Facebook page that criticized the government; that Khalil made derogatory comments about government officials on his Facebook page; and that Khalil also “instigated” Kishore to “make anti-state rumours go viral on social media,” according to CPJ research and a report by Netra News.

In March, Kishore told CPJ that, during his previous detention as part of this case, unidentified men beat, abused, and tortured him while asking about his cartoons. CPJ has called on the Bangladesh government to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations of torture.

Kishore and Khalil were charged under sections of the Digital Security Act pertaining to the publication of propaganda against the liberation war of Bangladesh or national symbols; transmission or publication of offensive, false, or threatening information; publication of content that creates enmity, hatred, or hostility among different classes or communities; and abetment of an offense, according to the person familiar with their cases, who reviewed the charge sheet.

Those charges can carry prison sentences between three and ten years and fines of 300,000 to 10,000,000 taka (US $3,517 to $117,207), according to the law.

The next hearing in Kishore and Khalil’s cases is scheduled for September 30, according to the person familiar with the case.

CPJ contacted Khandaker Al Moyeen, the director of the legal and media wing of the Rapid Action Battalion, which opened the investigation into Kishore and Khalil in May 2020, via messaging app for comment, but did not receive any response. CPJ also contacted Mohammad Rassell Mollah, the investigating officer who submitted the charge sheet against Kajol, via messaging app for comment, but did not receive any response.

CPJ also emailed Md. Shafiqul Islam, commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, for comment on all three cases, but did not receive any reply.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is appalled to learn that the Bangladeshi government agency that combats money-laundering and the financing of terrorism has ordered an investigation into a well-known newspaper reporter. In the absence of relevant legislation, RSF calls for an immediate end to this probe and all other attempts to intimidate this journalist.

The investigation ordered by the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) is the latest form of governmental harassment of Rozina Islam, an investigative reporter for the country’s leading daily Prothom Alo.

RSF has learned that, on 11 August, the BFIU asked Bangladeshi banks to provide detailed statements of all transactions in any accounts held by Islam. The order is astonishing, to say the least, given that the BRIU’s own website says that the agency’s main objective is to “establish an effective system for prevention of money laundering, combating financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

“In the light of all the circumstances, the requests from the BFIU concerning Rozina Islam go far beyond the scope of the agency's competence and it is therefore, clear that they are part of a new attempt to harass this journalist,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “We call for the immediate withdrawal of the requests made by the BFIU and, more broadly, for an end to the growing harassment of this journalist by various government agencies.”

Islam was arbitrarily arrested and tortured by the police on 17 May as a result of an espionage accusation by the health ministry. As RSF reported at the time, everything indicates that the accusation was a reprisal for a series of investigative reports she had written about corruption within the Bangladeshi health system.

Since then, Islam has been subjected to repeated harassment – including the confiscation of her press card and passport – that prevents her from working freely as a journalist.

Bangladesh is ranked 152nd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

Bangladesh authorities should immediately cease harassing brothers and colleagues Sayful Arkane, a reporter, and Mohammad Aziz Arkane, a camera operator, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On August 2, the brothers, who cover Rohingya refugees for the YouTube channel of Rohingya news website The Arakan Times, participated in a meeting between Rohingya refugees, U.N. officials, and officials with the office of Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner in Nayapara refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar in southeast Bangladesh, to discuss changes to food ration cards following protests over the issue, according to Mohammad Aziz Arkane and video of the meeting, which CPJ reviewed.

Immediately following the meeting, an officer with the office of Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner ordered police to arrest Mohammad Aziz Arkane, the journalist told CPJ via phone. He said that a police officer grabbed him, put a hand over his mouth to prevent him from screaming, and pulled him backward but that he was able to struggle free.

Since then, he said that he and his brother have fled to separate hiding places to avoid police detection. He told CPJ that police have repeatedly called him since August 2 and demanded his location.

At approximately 2:00 p.m. on August 2, officers with the Armed Police Battalion raided the brothers’ family home in Nayapara refugee camp, interrogated their parents as to their whereabouts, and said that they were searching for them due to their journalistic activities, according to Mohammad Aziz Arkane. He told CPJ that officers referenced videos the brothers produce for The Arakan Times, though did not name specific reports.

Since August 2, officers with the same unit have visited the brothers’ home multiple times a day searching for the two journalists, Mohammad Aziz Arkane said. When they visited today, they demanded from the brothers’ parents a bribe of 100,000 taka (US$1,179) in order not to file a criminal case against the brothers in retaliation for their journalistic activities, according to a person familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal by authorities.

“Sayful Arkane and Mohammad Aziz Arkane’s reporting on the living conditions of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh is critical work that must be allowed to continue unhindered,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Bangladesh authorities should immediately cease harassing the brothers and their family, and make clear that they will not be subject to arbitrary arrest.”

Shaifur Rahman, a U.K.-based freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker, who is familiar with the journalists’ case, confirmed the entirety of Mohammad Aziz Arkane’s account with CPJ via phone.

The Arakan Times covers human rights and the Rohingya community in Myanmar and across Asia, including news and videos about the impact of coronavirus, floods, and fire incidents in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, according to CPJ’s review.

Shah Rezwan Hayat, Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, did not respond to CPJ’s calls or text requesting comment via messaging app.

Tariqul Islam Tariq, commander of the Armed Police Battalion in Cox’s Bazaar, told CPJ via messaging app that his team in Nayapara refugee camp did not know Sayful Arkane and Mohammad Aziz Arkane, but that he was investigating the claim of the bribe offer.

A journalist was arrested in Bogura early yesterday in a case filed under the Digital Security Act over a Facebook post on corruption allegations against a health official and his office assistant.

The arrestee, Md Akhtaruzzaman, is Bogura district correspondent for daily Banijjo Pratidin. He has also been working as a multipurpose health volunteer at a community clinic in Bogura Sadar Upazila since last year.

On Saturday, a Facebook post was uploaded from an ID named Aftab Ahmed, bringing allegations of financial corruption against Bogura Sadar Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer Md Samir Hossain Mishu, and his office's Head Assistant and Accountant Shamima Akter.

It alleged that Mishu and Shamima embezzled money without paying due honorarium to multipurpose health volunteers.

Shamima filed a complaint with Bogura Sadar Police Station on Saturday night over the post. Police carried out an investigation and found that the Facebook ID was operated by Akhtaruzzaman, said Emran Mahmud Tuhin, inspector of Detective Branch (DB) of Police in Bogura.

Asked, Md Selim Raza, officer-in-charge of Bogura Sadar Police Station, said, "A team of DB police arrested Akhtaruzzaman from his house around 3:00am today. Hours later, a case was filed against him under the Digital Security Act.

"In primary interrogation, he [Akhtaruzzaman] admitted that he uploaded the post from a fake ID on provocation from some multipurpose health volunteers."

Contacted, both Mishu and Shamima refuted the corruption allegations and claimed that the volunteers were given proper honorarium as per rules.

Talking to this correspondent, Akhtaruzzaman's father Md Rafiqul Islam said, "A team of police along with Samir Hossain Mishu came to our Sabgram house around 3:00am and took away my son and his electronic devices."

On July 10, police in the northeast district of Thakurgaon opened Digital Security Act investigations into the three journalists, according to news reports and a police report, which CPJ reviewed.

Authorities are investigating Tanu, the Thakurgaon district correspondent for the news websites Jago News and Daily Ittefaq and the privately owned broadcaster Independent Television; Shuvo, a correspondent for the news website NewsBangla24.com; and Litu, a correspondent for the news websites Jugantor and Bangladesh Pratidin and the privately owned broadcaster News 24, according to those sources.

On the night of July 10, police arrested Tanu when he went to the local Sadar police station to inquire about the investigation; they then transferred him to the Sadar Hospital yesterday morning for treatment for respiratory issues, and released him on bail later that day, those reports said. Police handcuffed Tanu to a hospital bed while he received treatment, according to those reports.

Shuvo told CPJ via messaging app that he and Litu have not been arrested as of today.

“Bangladesh authorities should drop their Digital Security Act investigations into journalists Tanvir Hasan Tanu, Rahim Shuvo, and Abdul Latif Litu immediately,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “The Bangladesh government must repeal the act, cease harassing journalists, and allow them to do their jobs, which are a public service, not a crime.”

The investigations stem from a complaint filed by Nadirul Aziz Chapal, the superintendent of the Thakurgaon Sadar Hospital, who alleged that the journalists published reports about the hospital intended to defame and spread enmity and hatred, according to a copy of his complaint, which CPJ reviewed. CPJ called and texted Chapal for comment, but he did not reply.

The complaint referenced a July 5 article by Tanu in Jago News; a July 8 article by Shuvo in NewsBangla24.com; and a July 7 article in Jugantor, published anonymously, which Chapal alleges Litu authored. All three articles detailed allegations that Thakurgaon Sadar Hospital provided sub-standard food to COVID-19 patients.

Police are investigating the three journalists under sections of the Digital Security Act pertaining to the publication of offensive, false, or threatening information; propaganda; defamatory information; information that creates enmity, hatred, or hostility among different classes or communities; and abetment of an offense, according to the police report.

Each of those counts can carry maximum prison sentences ranging from three years to five years and maximum fines ranging from 300,000 taka ($3,540) to 500,000 taka ($5,900).

Shahadat Hossain, a journalist for the Bengali language daily newspaper, Prothom Alo, was attacked on June 1 while reporting on a protest in Brahmanbaria railway station demanding the reopening of the railway. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the attack against Hossain.

According to news reports, Hossain was attacked at the railway station protest organized by the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL). The railway was closed following the nationwide anti-Modi protest against the killing and attack of Hefazat-e-Islam's activists by police and members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the youth wing of the ruling Awami League political party.

Hossain told dainiksarod.com, “Bangaldesh Chhatra League (BCL) leader named Roman Mia (26), and his brother attacked me after knowing that I informed a Juba League leader about BCL’s attack on Muradul Islam, the gate keeper of the station.” Other journalists at the protest assisted Hossain and took him to Brahmanbaria General Hospital for treatment.

The incident was condemned by Brahmanbaria Press Club. District political leaders including BCL president, Rabiul Hossain Rubel, also expressed grief over the incident.

Hossain filed a case against Roman Mia at Sadar Model Police Station on the same day. In response to the complaint, Mia was arrested and appeared at court on June 2. According to Sadar Model Police Station officer-in-charge (OC) Emranul Islam, police arrested, Zahirul Islam Jumman, another person accused of attacking Hossain

On March 25 and 26, more than 17 journalists covering anti-Modi demonstrations were assaulted by Bangladesh police as well as members of the Chhatra League.

Bangladesh authorities should drop all oppressive charges against the renowned Bangladeshi journalist Rozina Islam, Human Rights Watch said today. Islam’s colleagues believe she was detained over her reporting on corruption and mismanagement in the public health sector, including the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Islam is accused under sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act and sections 379 and 411 of the Penal Code, for allegedly attempting to “collect sensitive government documents and taking photos of them” at the Health Ministry. If convicted, she faces up to 14 years in prison and the possibility of the death penalty. Journalists across Bangladesh are protesting to seek her release.

“Bangladesh authorities should produce evidence of wrongdoing or immediately release Rozina Islam and stop arresting journalists for doing their job, which is also to highlight governance flaws,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “Instead of locking up critics, encouraging a free press should be central to the government’s strategy to strengthen health services in combatting the pandemic.”

Media reported that Islam went to the Health Ministry at around 3:30 p.m. on May 17, 2021, for a meeting with the health services secretary. She was confined to a room there for nearly six hours, during which she fell ill and fainted, then was taken to the police. According to the complaint filed by the Health Ministry, she had taken government documents related to the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines. She denies these allegations.

In a video recording by another journalist after her hearing on May 18, Islam said that, “because of my reporting on the Health Ministry, I am being wronged.” Her recent work includes reporting on bribery in recruitment at the health directorate, irregularities in the purchasing of emergency medical supplies to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, and for holding much-needed donated emergency medical supplies at the airport for ten months.

On May 18, a magistrate court turned down the police department’s request for 5-day remand and instead sent her to jail until her bail hearing on May 20. The court ordered the police to submit a report on their investigation into the allegations by July 15 and for the jail authorities to ensure that Islam has access to necessary medical care according to national law.

The Bangladesh Editor’s Council said that Islam’s arrest under a colonial-era law is “the manifestation of the negative attitude and the evil mentality of the authorities concerned to gag newspapers.” The Committee to Protect Journalists called for her release, while a spokesperson for the UN secretary-general expressed concern.

Bangladesh authorities have frequently gone after journalists and the media for reporting critically on the government’s response to the pandemic. For instance, in May 2020, the authorities arrested four people and charged seven others for “spreading rumors and misinformation on Facebook” because they criticized the government’s response to the pandemic.

Mushtaq Ahmed, a writer who was among the four, died in custody on February 25 after being held in pre-trial detention for nine months during which it has been credibly alleged that he was tortured. After a public outcry over Ahmed’s death, Ahmed Kabir Kishore, a cartoonist arrested at the same time, was granted bail. He described being tortured after he was taken into custody and also said that Ahmed had been brutally beaten.

The authorities have also increased surveillance of anyone who might spread “rumors” about the Covid-19 pandemic and ramped up media censorship.

Human Rights Watch and eight other organizations wrote to Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on World Press Freedom Day, on May 3, raising concerns over continuing attacks on the media including arbitrary arrests, torture, and extrajudicial killings.

“The arrest of Rozina Islam sends a terrifying message to journalists uncovering corruption in Bangladesh,” Adams said. “By speaking out for Islam, concerned governments will be standing with Bangladeshi journalists across the country.”

Abu Tayyab, a senior television journalist, was arrested by police on April 20 under the controversial Digital Security Act (DSA) for writing social media posts about alleged corruption by Khulna City Corporation (KCC) mayor, Talukder Abdul Khaleque. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) urges the KCC mayor to drop all charges against the journalist.

Tayab, Khulna bureau chief of NTV, a private television channel, was arrested on April 20 following the filing of a case against the journalist under the DSA on April 19. Tayab is accused of spreading ‘negative propaganda’ on his Facebook account and of defaming the KCC mayor, who is also the president of Awami League's city unit, by publishing false news stories regarding the mayor’s alleged corruption.

Following his arrest, Tayab faced Khulna Metropolitan Magistrate’s court on April 21. The court Magistrate, Tariqul Islam, rejected the bail petition filed by the journalist’s lawyer.

Bangladesh’s DSA, adopted in October 2018, puts dangerous restrictions on freedom of expression and is regularly used by authorities to silence criticism. During 2020, arrests under the DSA increased significantly to crackdown on Covid-19 ‘rumours’. Bangladeshi writer, Mushtaq Ahmed, was detained under the DSA in May 2020 for posting criticism of the government’s response to Covid-19 on Facebook; he died in police custody on February 25, 2021.

At least five people working at a under construction coal-power plant in Chittagong were killed in a clash with the police following a protest by the workers over wage and allowances, media reports said on Saturday.

The incident happened when the protesting workers of the plant, which is being constructed by a Chinese firm, allegedly clashed with the police, “prompting the personnel to open fire in which five workers were killed,” the Dhaka Tribune reported.

“The violence broke out around 10:30 am at the coal-fired power plant. Five have died while at least 20 others were injured in the clash, including police and local residents,” a senior police officer was quoted as saying in the report.

The dead have been identified as Ahmed Reza, 18, Rony Hossain, 22, Shuvo, 24, Mohammad Rahat, 22, and Raihan, 18.

According to local residents, there was growing tension between the power plant administration and the workers at the power plant in the last few days over various issues.

The situation escalated on Saturday morning, leading to the clash between police and workers.

Speaking on the matter, Chattogram Range Deputy Inspector General Anwar Hossain said the workers were protesting over the matter since Friday.

A meeting had been held over the issue but the agitating workers allegedly attacked the power plant during one point of their demonstration, he was quoted as saying by the Daily star.

Azizul Islam, inspector (investigation) of Banshkhali police station said the four bodies were sent to Banshkhali upazila health complex, the report said.

A worker, who sustained bullet injuries to his abdomen during the clash at a power plant in Banshkhali upazila on Saturday, died at Chittagong Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday night, raising the death toll to 6.

The deceased was identified as 23-year-old Shimul Ahmed, son of Abdul Malek of Srimangal in Moulvibazar district.

Zahirul Haque Bhuiya, in-charge of Chittagong Medical College and Hospital police outpost, said Shimul sustained bullet injuries to his abdomen and was undergoing treatment at the ICU of the hospital since Saturday. "He succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday evening," he said.

His body has been kept at the mortuary of the hospital, said Zahirul.

Two cases have been filed against over 2,500 people in connection with Saturday's clash between workers and police at the coal-based power plant of the S Alam Group in Banshkhali over payment of dues, which left five people dead and 25 others injured on that day.

On 9 January 2021, members of the police and Ansar124chased and dispersed workers of a garment factory called Kuntang Apparels Limited in Adamji EPZ area under Narayanganj District when they staged a protest in front of 36the factory demanding payment of arrears of allowance and to reopen the factory. Later, workers got together and blocked the Dhaka-Demra road. At that time a clash took place between workers and the police.At least 10 workers were injured when police baton charged and threw tear gas at the workers.

Ruhul Amin, Coordinator of the Shramik-Krishak-Chhatra-Janata Oikya Parishad(Workers-Peasants-Students-People’s Unity Council), was picked up from his home in Khulna on26 February 2021 by some members of a law enforcement agency in plainclothes, for posting on Facebook, criticising the government over the death of Mushtaq Ahmed. Later, a case was filed against him under the Digital Security Act, 2018 with Khalishpur Police Station in Khulna. The case alleged that he was spreading propaganda on Facebook in order to cause confusion and tarnish the image of the state and the government’s reputation;to try to create animosity, instability and chaos among the people and to disrupt law and order.The court granted him two-day remand in police custody for interrogation.59It is to be noted that there are widespread allegations of torture by members of law enforcement agencies in the name of interrogation during remand.

Witnesses said at least 20 people, including journalists, were injured in the clashes at Soparjito Swadhinata Chattar near the TSC on Tuesday afternoon.

Members of BCL, the ruling Awami League’s student wing, gathered in front of Raju Memorial Sculpture on the campus in the morning to resist a programme announced by Chhatra Federation that had plans to burn Modi’s effigy.

The leftist students have been demonstrating against Modi ahead of his visit, demanding he be barred from entering Bangladesh due to his government’s policy towards minority groups.

Having failed to demonstrate in front of Raju Memorial Sculpture, the Chhatra Federation followers gathered at Sanjeeb Chattar of the TSC. Some BCL activists on motorcycle snatched the effigy away later.

BCL activists then tried to take away Modi’s effigy again when members of Pragatishil Chhatra Jote, an alliance of the leftist student groups, gathered at the TSC after marching in procession.

When the leftist students started burning Modi’s photo, the BCL activists tried to chase them away, triggering a running battle.

Jibon Ahmed, photojournalist of the daily Manabzamin, Rubel Rashid of the Desh Rupantor, Kazi Salauddin Raju of Zuma Press, Jabed Hasnain Chowdhury of the United News of Bangladesh, and freelance journalist ‘Himu’ were injured during the clashes.

Jibon said a person tried to hit his camera with a helmet. Jibon’s left hand was injured when he tried to protect his camera.

Pragati Tapan Barma, general secretary of Samajtantrik Chhatra Front’s Dhaka University unit, was “severely” injured in “brutal attack by Chhatra League workers”, said Salman Siddiqui, president of the unit.

More than 20 leaders and activists of the leftist student groups were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment of their injuries, according to him.

BCL President Al-Nahian Khan Joy and Lekhak Bhattacharya could not be reached immediately for comments.

Hundreds of people in Bangladesh took part Saturday in a second day of demonstrations sparked by the death of a writer at a high-security prison in a case that has drawn international concern.

Protesters marched at the University of Dhaka chanting slogans condemning the government's treatment of Mushtaq Ahmed as well as other dissident writers, journalists and activists.

Another protest was staged at the National Press Club.

Demonstrators demanded the scrapping of Bangladesh's hardline Digital Security Act (DSA) under which Ahmed was imprisoned. The law has been used to crack down on dissent since it was enacted in 2018.

Security forces clashed with students in Dhaka on Friday night. Police said six people were arrested while activists said at least 30 were injured.

Ahmed collapsed and died at Kashimpur High Security Prison late Thursday. He was first detained in May after criticizing on Facebook the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 53-year-old, a crocodile farmer and a writer known for his satirical style, was charged with spreading rumors and conducting "anti-state activities."

Protesters have called his death a "custodial murder" after he was denied bail six times in 10 months.

"Mushtaq Ahmed's death was not a normal death. We'll say it was a murder," said Manisha Chakraborty, a protester with a left-wing group.

Demonstrators said they would march to the office of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina carrying a coffin later Saturday.

Facing international questions on the case, authorities have ordered a probe into Ahmed's death, senior government official S.M. Tarikul Islam told AFP.

"We formed a committee to probe whether there was negligence by jail officials or procedures in his treatment," Islam said.

Thirteen ambassadors from countries including the United States, France, Britain, Canada and Germany have expressed "grave concern."

"We call on the government of Bangladesh to conduct a swift, transparent and independent inquiry into the full circumstances of Mr. Mushtaq Ahmed's death," the ambassadors said in a statement released late Friday.

They said their countries would be following up over "wider concerns about the provisions and implementation of the DSA, as well as questions about its compatibility with Bangladesh's obligations under international human rights laws and standards."

Rights groups have also raised concerns about the case.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for "a swift, transparent and independent investigation", while PEN America said authorities should drop charges against Kabir Kishore, a cartoonist who was detained along with Ahmed.

The CPJ said Kishore passed a note to his brother during a hearing this week stating that he had been subjected to severe physical abuse in police custody.

Detectives have pressed charges against photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol in a case filed with Hazaribagh Police Station under the Digital Security Act.

Sub-inspector Mohammad Rassel Mollah of detective branch of police, and also investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka on Sunday.

In the charge sheet, the IO said the charges brought against Kajol were primarily proved and he should be brought under trial.

Usmin Ara Beli, a member of Bangladesh Jubo Mahila League's Central Committee, filed the case against Kajol on March 10 last year.

Later, Kajol was shown arrested in the case on May 14 last year and he was placed on a three-day remand in the case on June 28 the same year.

On June 23, Kajol was also shown arrested in a case filed against him by ruling party lawmaker Saifuzzaman Shikhor (from Magura-1) with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station under the same act.

He was later shown arrested in another case filed with Kamrangir Char Police Station under the Digital Security Act.

However, investigators are yet to submit any probe report on the two cases filed with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar and Kamrangir Char police stations.

Kajol was found by Border Guard Bangladesh in Benapole on May 3, 2020 -- 53 days into his disappearance. He was then arrested initially on charges of trespassing but was granted bail by a Jashore court.

However, on the same day, Kajol was shown arrested under section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure after police informed the court that three more cases against Kajol were pending with different police stations in Dhaka.

The court then sent him to Jashore jail. Later, he was shifted to the jail in Keraniganj.

On December 25, last year, Kajol was released after the High Court granted him bail in all three cases on different dates.

Police have pressed charges against cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore, writer Mushtaq Ahmed and Rashtrochinta activist Didarul Islam Bhuiyan in a cased filed under Digital Security Act last year.

A total of 11 people were prosecuted in the case filed by Abu Bakar Siddique, assistant director of Rab-3, with Ramna Police Station on May 6 last year.

Court sources confirmed that the police submitted the charge sheet at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court of Dhaka on Thursday.

Charges were framed against three of the accused, while eight others were let off, due to lack of evidence against them, the court sources confirmed.

The eight others include Swedish-Bangladeshi journalist Tasneem Khalil who runs Netra News; US-based journalist Shahed Alam; Germany-based blogger Asif Mohiuddin; Minhaj Mannan Emon, managing director of BLE securities and shareholder-director of Dhaka Stock Exchange; expatriate Zulkarnain Saer Khan; Ashik Imran; Shapan Wahed; and Philip Schuhmacher.

The 11 accused were prosecuted under section 21, Section 25(1) (b), Section 31 and Section 35 of the law, which prosecutes anyone running propaganda or campaign, "against the Liberation War of Bangladesh, the cognition of the Liberation War, Father of the Nation, National Anthem or National Flag", anyone "tarnishing the image of the nation or spread confusions" or attempting to "create hostility, hatred or adversity among people or destroy any communal harmony or create unrest or disorder or deteriorates or threatens to deteriorate law and order."

Kishore and Mushtaq have been in prison for the last 9 months, while Minhaj and Didar were granted bail by the court last September.

Kishore and Mushtaq's bail petitions have been rejected as many as six times, their legal team informs.

Jamshedul Alam, sub-inspector of Ramna Police Station, is investigating the case.

Environmental activist Sheikh Saifullah of Keshabpur upazila in Jashore on Saturday filed a general diary (GD) with Keshabpur police station seeking security after a phone conversation between the officer-in-charge of the police station Md Jasim Uddin and local member of parliament Shaheen Chaklader was leaked.

Sheikh Saifullah is from Satbaria village in the upazila. He works with the non-government Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA). He filed a writ petition with the High Court against an illegal brick factory, Messer’s Super Bricks, in the locality. The court issued directives to shut down the factory. This move made Shaheen Chaklader, lawmaker of Keshabpur upazila (Jashore-6) and general secretary of Awami League’s Jashore unit, furious.

Around two weeks ago, the MP talked to OC Jasim Uddin over phone. He asked the OC to explode bombs at the police station and file a case against Saifullah accusing him of the explosion aimed at committing robbery. The MP further told the OC that if he can’t do that, he could ask plainclothesmen to explode bombs at the brick factory and make Sheikh Saifullah accused in the case.

Saifullah’s GD statement said, on 29 January he came to know through an online news portal that the local MP Shaheen Chaklader is putting pressure over mobile phone on the OC of Keshabpur police station to file a fabricated lawsuit against him. He was among the local people who submitted evidences against the illegal brick factory in Satbaria village. He is feeling insecure because of the phone conversation between the OC and the MP.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, Keshabpur police station OC Jasim Uddin said Saifullah has filed a GD with the police station. All necessary measures will be taken to ensure his safety.

Local businessperson Faruqul Islam is the owner of the brick factory. He set up the factory on agricultural land by the Satbaria market in the upazila in 2017. Local people said there is a government health complex and a girls’ school are near the brick factory. There are many houses in the area too.

Farmers and local people have been staging demonstrations against setting up the factory from the very first as the black smoke destroys the environment and people have been suffering from breathing complications and other diseases. The factory had no NOC of the environment directorate and deputy commissioner. Faruqul allegedly beat up farmers for demonstrating.

On 21 December last year, executive magistrate of the environment directorate Rozina Akhter ordered to demolish the chimney of the kiln and unbaked bricks. Earlier, the factory was closed thrice in May 2017, 15 November 2018 and 21 May 2020 as per the directives of the High Court.

Faruqul allegedly kept the brick factory open by ‘managing’ the local politicians and administration for four years. Few businessmen close to Faruqul said he is a supporter of ruling Awami League but he does not hold any post. He used money to ‘manage’ things. Faruqul allegedly got the favour of previous MP of the constituency as well.

However, in an interview with Prothom Alo on Friday, Shaheen Chaklader claimed that the leaked audio is tampered. He did not talk like that to the OC.

Speaking to Prothom Alo on Saturday, brick factory owner Faruqul Islam said, “I don’t know what the MP told the OC.”

He claimed, “Saifullah in known as a terrorist in the area. He files lawsuits with the High Court if anything happens at all. He has shut down my brick factory by filing a case. I have incurred loss. I had requested MP Shaheen bhai to settle the matter. Maybe that’s why he said something.”

Shaheen Chaklader, general secretary of Awami League’s Jashore district unit, was elected an MP in a by-election held at the Jashore-6 constituency on 14 July last year following the death of former lawmaker and state minister for public administration Ismat Ara Sadique.

Shaheen Chaklader also served as the chairman of Jashore sadar upazila.

A local journalist in Sunamganj, Kamal Hossain, was beaten up and tied to a tree for taking pictures of illegal sand extraction from the bank of a river in Tahirpur upazila of Sunamganj. His face, head, forehead and other parts of his body were severely wounded. The incident took place at noon, Monday, in Ghagtia of ​​Jadukata river in Badaghat union of Tahirpur upazila.

Kamal Hossain is currently undergoing treatment at Tahirpur upazila health complex. He is the Tahirpur upazila correspondent of Daily Sangbad and Daily Shubho Pratidin published from Sylhet.

This Prothom Alo correspondent received a copy of the video of Kamal Hossain being tortured. The video shows him crying out while tied to a tree. He was surrounded by several people and blood was dripping from his forehead. He was begging in the name of Allah to loosen the knot around his wrists, but the people around him were laughing.

Sunamganj district correspondent of Sangbad, Latifur Rahman, said Kamal Hossain worked for several local dailies including Sangbad. Latifur Rahman was looking into the reasons behind the incident.

Talking to the police, family members and the locals, it was revealed that Kamal Hossain went to the area to collect information regarding the illegal sand extraction from the banks of the Jadukata river. he took photographs of the river banks being excavated. Some people reportedly grabbed him and started to beat him up. Kamal was severely injured. Later, the people took him to the nearby Chawkbazar area where they tied him to a tree with a rope. At around 2:30pm, on hearing the news, another local journalist and the family members of Kamal Hossain went to the place with the police from Badaghat police outpost. He was rescued and admitted to Tahirpur upazila health complex.

While undergoing treatment at the health complex, the victim told Prothom Alo over the phone that he took some pictures of extracting sand from the river. Later, he was talking to the locals at a nearby shop. Then Mahmudul Islam, Deen Islam and Rais Uddin of Ghagtia village came and started to beat him up indiscriminately. They struck him with a cleaver ('da') on his forehead. Later, he was tied to a tree.

Kamal Hossain said that while beating him up, the people said the sand extraction was always stopped whenever journalists reported about this and so they would kill him. They will manage the consequences later, they said. They also took away his camera and mobile phone.

Mahmud Ali Shah of Ghagtia village said, the sand extraction from the river is officially closed. However the poor people and day labourers of the area make a living by collecting sand with baskets. He claimed that Kamal went there and demanded Tk 30,000 from the people involved in sand extraction. He said he will manage the police and the administration. Kamal even said the people that they will not be able to do this works without giving him the money. At one stage of the argument, the workers beat him up.

Mahmudul Islam, the officer-in-charge (OC) of Badaghat police outpost in Tahirpur upazila, said that on hearing the news police rushed to the spot and rescued Kamal Hossain. Later he was handed over to his family. Police will investigate the incident and try to find the reason behind this.

Fifty-one academics, human rights activists and lawyers have issued a statement demanding the release of Rohingya photographer Abul Kalam, who they claim landed in jail on Thursday for taking photos of buses departing Kutupalong for Bhasan Char.

Photographer Abul Kalam was brought to the Senior Judicial Magistrate Court in Ukhiya on Thursday with charges of impeding officers from discharging their duties during an incident that happened over seven months ago, according to court documents obtained by The Daily Star.

Organisers said Kalam was sent to Cox's Bazar Jail by a magistrate on Thursday.

However, Public Prosecutor Faridul Alam of Cox's Bazar said he was not aware of any such development.

The Daily Star has not been able to independently verify whether Kalam was sent to jail.

The case in which Kalam has been accused was filed by Kutupalong Camp-in-charge Khalilur Rahman on June 1 last year, according to the first information report.

It said the accused assaulted officials and obstructed public servants from discharging their duties.

Khalilur Rahman's phone was found switched off last night.

The statement issued yesterday read, "On the morning of December 28, 2020, Abul Kalam, an award-winning photographer and Rohingya refugee, set out to take photographs of buses departing the Kutupalong camps for Bhasan Char. He was apprehended and then taken to the camp-in-charge in Camp 2W, Block D5 of Kutupalong, and subsequently, to the camp-in-charge of Kutupalong Registered Camp."

The signatories to the statement include Dr C R Abrar, eminent rights activist; renowned photographer Shahidul Alam; Sara Hossain, honorary executive director, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust; Dr Ambia Perveen, chair, European Rohingya Council; Professor Dina M Siddiqi, Faculty of Liberal Studies, New York University; Shireen Huq, coordinator, Standing with Rohingya Women, and founding member of Naripokkho; Ai Weiwei, Chinese contemporary artist and activist; and Bianca Jagger, a Council of Europe goodwill ambassador.

"Photography is not a crime. Abul Kalam was taking photographs of buses on their way to Bhasan Char. He was doing so in a public place, albeit in a refugee camp. The relocation to Bhasan Char is a widely publicised programme of the Bangladesh government. It is by no means a secret and has been extensively covered in the media," said the statement.

The statement said Abul Kalam has been a refugee in Bangladesh for 28 years.

"Abul Kalam is 35 years old. He originally came from Borgozbil, Maungdaw, Myanmar. He is a prolific photographer and has documented refugee life in recent years. His images have appeared in many publications, and he recently won two prizes in the Rohingya Photography Competition," said the statement.

"We call upon the authorities to release Abul Kalam unconditionally and without further delay," the statement said.

The case in which he was accused was filed against 10 named and 30-40 unnamed Rohingya refugees.

The forwarding letter presented to the court shows Kalam is one of those unnamed accused.

Pinaki Bhattacharya is an online human rights and political activist who writes critically about the current Bangladesh Awami League government. He was forced to leave Bangladesh in 2018 fearing detention by the military intelligence agency Directorate General Forces Intelligence and he now lives in France where he is a refugee. He has written an article for Netra News about the censorship of a book he wrote critical of the country’s independence leader.

Earlier today he wrote a Facebook status concerning harassment which his family is facing in Bangladesh

With Pinaki's permission, we are publishing his Facebook

Yesterday, a group of policemen went to my father's residence in Bogura and interrogated my old mother and uncle. In Dhaka, another group of police, who said that they were from Mirpur Model Police Station, landed in our residence. After they failed to find my wife at home, one police officer called her up on her mobile yesterday and interrogated her.

During the interrogation in Bogura, the policemen sought to know if I own any property there, what I do in France, how I earn my living, or support my life, among other queries. They also took the contact details of many of my relatives.

The police officer, who called up my wife, asked her in which clinics or hospitals she worked as a doctor and if and how she maintained communication with me. The officer also said to my wife that he wanted to get some more info about me from her. However, because of poor connectivity the mobile conversation was disconnected halfway. I am sure, police will get back in touch with my wife again very soon and attempt to harass her.

I understand that the Bangladesh Police is trying to catch hold of me. But, why would they interrogate or harass the members of my family for that? I would like to tell the authorities, including the police, that if they want to get info about me they indeed have ways to reach me while I am in France. You may send a message to my Facebook inbox. Your embassy in France can reach me if you want. You may even contact the French government.

If you feel troubled with my activism, you may act against me, if you want. But my family members are in no way connected to my activism? Why are you harassing them? Are the family members of any activist harassed anywhere in the world the way as you are doing in Bangladesh? During the armed struggle, just before Bangladesh was born, the barbaric Pakistani forces kept the family members of the main leader of the Liberation War Sheikh Mujib safe.

I am a political refugee in France. I felt unsafe in Bangladesh and I left my country being scared of my life. I indeed have the right to raise my voice against enforced disappearances, cross-fire killings and other human rights violations perpetrated by the Awami League-led government. I have the political right to speak against the authoritarian rule of Sheikh Hasina. My voting rights have been robbed in Bangladesh- I have the right to be vocal against this. You have no right to stifle my voice. All my activities are in the interest of human rights. You are putting pressure on my family members in a mischievous manner to force me away from activism. This is persecution. This is unethical.

I hope the international community, including the human rights groups, will intervene to help my family stay safe in Bangladesh.

Elias Mia, a correspondent of Daily Bijoy, was hacked to death on October 12 by miscreants in the Narayanganj district for allegedly exposing a criminal nexus in gas line distribution. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the brutal murder and urges the Bangladesh government to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Mia, a 52 year old journalist, was stabbed with a sharp weapon in the Geodhara area of Bandar whilst returning home. Despite the best efforts of passers-by, who took the journalist to Narayanganj General Hospital immediately after the incident, Mia died of his injuries around 9:00pm on October 12.

Bandar Police Station stated that three suspects have been arrested —Tusher, Minnat Ali and Mishir Ali — for their involvement in the killing. Police have presented them before a local court following the incident. The Daily Bijoy editor Sabbir Ahmed argues that there is a strong connection between the murder of Mia and his past reporting. Investigators said one suspect’s family had previously accused Mia of providing information that lead to Tusher’s earlier arrest and detainment for drug possession. Tusher was also allegedly involved in managing illegal gas connections.

The journalist had formerly voiced feelings of insecurity relating to his past news reports. Local media details that Mia had filed a general diary with Bandar Police Station seeking security arrangements.

Mia is the second journalist to be killed in Bangladesh during 2020. Julhas Uddin, a correspondent of Bijoy TV, was murdered on September 3, 2020 after being stabbed.

A church official has joined a global rights watchdog to call on Bangladeshi authorities to stop harassing the parents of a prominent blogger who has been charged with breaching the controversial Digital Security Act.

Asad Noor was charged after supporting a Buddhist monk and a temple against alleged propaganda spread by a politician and Islamic radicals.

Noor, a Muslim turned atheist blogger, claimed that plainclothes policemen picked up six family members from his hometown of Amtoly in Barguna district on July 18.

�Police raided the house and picked up six family members including my parents. They were taken to Amtoly police station and were released on July 20,� BBC Bangla Service quoted Noor as saying on July 21.

"Police called me through my father and asked me to delete all video posts from my Facebook," said Noor, now based in India.Father Mintu Samuel Boiragi, coordinator of the Justice and Peace Commission in Barishal Diocese, which covers Amtoly, criticized the harassment of Noor�s family.

�This is unlawful, illogical and inhuman to harass people who committed no offense. If Noor is an offender, police should arrest him, not his family members. This culture of intimidation and harassment should be stopped," Father Boiragi told UCA News.

The South Asia wing of Amnesty International also condemned the treatment of Noor�s family.

�The Bangladeshi authorities must stop the harassment and intimidation of the patents of blogger Asad Noor, who have been targeted because of their son's human rights activism. Human rights defenders must be able to carry out their important work freely and without fear," the group said in a July 21 statement.

The news about the detention of Noor�s family members enraged Bangladeshi bloggers and online activists at home and abroad. They heavily criticized authorities for what they called �unfair and unlawful� police actions.

On July 14, a student leader linked to the ruling Awami League filed a complaint against Noor at Rangunia police station in Chittagong district for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of local Muslims by video posts on Facebook.

In a recent video, Noor said that a fake Facebook ID for a Buddhist monk was created and used for anti-Islam posts recently as a part of a conspiracy to target him and the temple, with an aim to grab the temple property.

Noor also alleged that Ershad Mahmud, the younger brother of Information Minister Hasan Mahmud, was involved in a plot to enrage local Islamists to stage daily protests.

Shah Alam, head of Amtoli police station, denied allegations of harassment of Noor�s family members.

�Police did not harass Noor's family. In order to cooperate with Rangunia police, we went to his house with an arrest warrant for Noor, but he was not there. Nobody was arrested or picked up,� Alam told UCA News.

A prominent blogger faces a possible jail term for allegedly defaming Islam after he opposed political and Islamist propaganda against a Buddhist monk and temple in Chittagong, a south-eastern district of Bangladesh.

Asad Noor, a Muslim who turned self-declared atheist, was charged under the Digital Security Act (DSA), a controversial cyber law, for allegedly spreading rumors against Muslims amid an ongoing dispute between Buddhists and Muslims in the Rangunia area of Chittagong.

A leader of a local branch of the Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League, filed the complaint against Noor on July 14, said Mahbub Milkey, the head of Rangunia police station.

�Asad Noor is accused of spreading rumors and defaming Islam via Facebook and other digital platforms,� he said on July 17.

Several hardline Islamist groups have been staging protests over the past few days, demanding a Buddhist monk called Sharnankar be punished for allegedly defaming Islam on Facebook. �The monk has fled the area, and we don�t know where he is now. We have deployed additional police in the area and will seek to avert any possible breakdown in law and order,� the police station chief said.

Noor, however, defended the monk in a video blog, saying that a fake Facebook ID for the monk was created recently as a part of a conspiracy to target him and the temple.

The aim was to grab the temple and the property. Noor also alleged that Ershad Mahmud, younger brother of information minister, Hasan Mahmud, was also involved in the plot.

�I have been accused of defaming Islam by hurting religious sentiments of Muslims because I have protested against a conspiracy against the Buddhist community here,� Noor said in a Facebook post on July 16.

�The fabricated charge against me shows there is no freedom of expression in this country, and the legal system is being exploited to cover up crimes and misdeeds of the ruling class and their cohorts,� he added.

Jyotirmoy Barua, a human rights lawyer, also alleged that there was a plot to target Buddhists in Rangunia similar to one in 2012 that sparked anti-Buddhist violence in the Ramu area of Cox�s Bazar.

�Rangunia is now the �Wild, Wild West� of Bangladesh. An unusual calm prevails in the area, and tensions are running high among local Buddhists and Muslims over the Buddhist monk and the temple,� he said.

�The monk is a man of meditation and prayer, and never uses Facebook. Those who protest against the conspiracy are being forced to leave the area, including local Muslims,� Barua said on July 16.

Holy Cross Father Liton H. Gomes, secretary of Catholic Bishops� Justice and Peace Commission, criticized the alleged attempts to target Buddhists as well as the blogger Noor.

�We have always feared the DSA was repressive and slated for abuse, and it continues to threaten free speech. What Noor said in his video could be countered in a similar manner without filing a lawsuit.

Also, the motives of Muslims protesting against the monk and the temple should be properly investigated,� Father Gomes said.

Bangladesh has experienced several bouts of communal violence against minority Buddhists and Hindus under the pretext of hurting religious sentiments of Muslims in recent years. In all cases, doctored Facebook pages were used to stoke tensions and violence.

In 2012, Muslim mobs destroyed 19 Buddhist temples and 100 Buddhist houses in the Ramu area of Cox�s Bazar and in Patiya, in Chittagong, after a Buddhist man was accused of defaming Islam on Facebook.

In 2013, local Muslims vandalized 26 Hindu houses in the Santhiya area of Pabna district, for Facebook posts defaming Islam, allegedly circulated by a 10th grader Hindu boy.

More recently, in 2017, Hindus in Thakur Para area of Rangpur district came under attack over Facebook posts allegedly made by a local Hindu man that allegedly defamed Islam.

A Cumilla Court today granted bail to a Union Parishad chairman in a case filed against him, among others, for allegedly attacking a journalist and his family members.

"Judge Golam Mahbub of Cumilla Cognisance Court-8 granted bail to UP chairman Shahjahan Mia today after he was produced before it following his arrest on allegation of attacking a journalist," Md Salauddin, court inspector of Cumilla, told our correspondent.

Police arrested Shahjahan Mia, chairman of Darera Union Parishad in Muradnagar upazila, hours after he allegedly attacked Shariful Alam Chowdhury, reporter of a local daily newspaper and general secretary of Muradnagar Press Club, at noon yesterday.

Chairman Shahjahan and his men attacked Shariful at his home in Kajiatol village under the union and hacked him with machetes, and also beat up his parents as they tried to save him, family members alleged.

Shariful is now undergoing treatment at Cumilla Medical College Hospital in critical condition.

"The patient sustained several critical injuries. Both his hands and legs are broken. There are at least seven fractures in his limbs. His condition is also deteriorating," said Dr Abdul Awal Sohel, resident surgeon of the hospital.

"After the incident, Shariful's father filed a case with the police station against UP Chairman Shahjahan among seven persons. We arrested him immediately afterwards and he was produced before the court today," said Monjur Alam, officer-in-charge of Muradnagar Police Station.

"Police also sent Shariful to Cumilla Medical College Hospital for treatment," the OC added.

"The UP chairman was angry as my son had published report on his corruption and nepotism, and in this connection he launched the attack on Saturday noon and left him injured. They also attacked us and our daughter as we tried to save him," said Shariful's father Abdul Matin, a freedom fighter.

"Shariful has been staying away from home for a while fearing attack by the UP chairman. He had returned home last week," Abdul Matin said.

"The attackers left our son severely injured," he also said, demanding justice over the matter.

Bangladesh�s military intelligence agency, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), has established a sophisticated operation which secretly hacks the Facebook pages and profiles of opposition groups, political dissidents, student activists and journalists in apparent contravention of the country�s cybersecurity law.

Whistleblowers, who work as civilian contractors for the DGFI, provided Netra News with testimony and documentary evidence on how two special units within the agency � the Signal Intelligence Bureau (SIB) and the Public Relations Monitoring Cell (PRMC) � are engaged in hacking and other cybercrimes. Both these units rely on civilian contractors for �offensive cyber action� and are overseen by ranking military officers.

�We hack Facebook and [engage in other cybercrimes]. [DGFI handlers] set the target, we take action,� one of the whistleblowers told a Netra News editor. �Tough jobs are assigned to a team with access to sophisticated technology.�

The whistleblowers� claims are backed by recent comments from the Bangladeshi telecom and ICT minister himself, who boasted during a live interview with a TV reporter that hackers working for the government are monitoring and hacking political dissidents� Facebook profiles.

�This girl will be in trouble�

The DGFI�s involvement in hacking and other cyber crimes has long been suspected but detailed evidence of this activity came to Netra News recently when the student organisation Swatantra Jote invited Tasneem Khalil, the editor-in-chief of Netra News, to join its leader Auroni Semonti Khan in a discussion focusing on the Covid-19 epidemic and censorship in Bangladesh.

The discussion was slated to be broadcast live from the organisation�s official Facebook page on May 13th. A few hours before the Facebook Live, Khalil was alerted by an insider about a plan by the military intelligence agency�s Public Relations Monitoring Cell (PRMC) to disrupt the discussion.

�This girl will be in trouble,� the insider wrote to Khalil, and attached a screenshot of a Facebook post in which Semonti Khan was publicising her planned discussion with the journalist. The insider also told the editor-in-chief of Netra News that the DGFI considers him a �persona non grata� and anyone in Bangladesh who wants to host a Facebook Live with him will be subjected to coercive measures (major steps taken by the agency in escalating situations).

As part of the PRMC plan, online trolls were instructed by their handlers to swarm to Swatantra Jote�s official Facebook page and �take it down� with fake abuse reports. In an audio clip provided to Netra News by one of the whistleblowers, an individual can be heard saying, �Everyone must file abuse reports [to Facebook] under whatever categories � fake, violence � there are, apply everything.�

Following such mass-reporting by PRMC trolls, Facebook imposed restrictions on Swatantra Jote�s page. As administrators of the page were informed through a service notice, �Limits have been placed on [the page]. Stories from your page are not being shown in news feed.�

The trolls also flooded the page with abusive comments from hundreds of bot accounts (fake social media accounts used for automated comments and messaging).

The whistleblowers told Netra News that this is routine work for the PRMC�s online troll army. Civilian contractors, who maintain thousands of fake pages and accounts on Facebook, receive daily instructions on spreadsheets containing URLs of specific posts, pages and profiles to target. Most of these targets are critical journalists, political dissidents, and opposition figures.

�There is clear [division of labour] between teams,� one of the whistleblowers, who works as a PRMC troll, told Netra News. �This team does copyright, this team does violence, this team does comments, this team does accounts disabling.�

However, sophisticated hacking of a high-value target�s Facebook account or page is outside the remit of the PRMC and its troll army. Such tasks are handled by a special team of hackers who work for the Signal Intelligence Bureau (SIB) as civilian contractors. These hackers operate out of the DGFI headquarters inside the Dhaka Cantonment.

Netra News was provided with evidence indicating that the SIB was behind the hacking of the writer Pinaki Bhattacharya�s Facebook account in September 2018 (while he was in Bangladesh) and the hijacking of Swatantra Jote�s Facebook page in May 2020.

�Get all the Bhattacharyas�

The writer Pinaki Bhattacharya, according to the whistleblowers, has long been considered a high-value target by the DGFI, for his caustic criticism of the Awami League government. He is one of the select individuals whose Facebook profile is closely monitored by the PRMC on a �24/7 365 days� basis. The agency has also tried to muzzle his Facebook account by employing all the tools at its disposal including putting him under physical surveillance for months and asking him to appear at its headquarters for questioning. Bhattacharya left Bangladesh for exile in France in 2019.

Netra News was given a clip in which an individual boasts about the kind of access their team at the SIB has: �Take Pinaki Bhattacharya. Sirs [DGFI officers] tried everything, RAB tried. They even contacted Facebook citing a national security ground, but Facebook said there is no national security ground. [Facebook] would not give any personal information. [�] Then they [DGFI officers] said if needed get all the Bhattacharyas from the national ID card database [�] If we need [personal details of a target], we can [tap into that kind of source of] information.�

SIB hackers were finally able to hack Bhattacharya�s Facebook account in September 2018 by intercepting a two-factor verification code sent to his phone number. The whistleblowers told Netra News that only the �elite team� at the SIB has access to sophisticated technology which enables the hackers to intercept SMS messages containing verification codes for services like Facebook and WhatsApp. One of the whistleblowers said �it is very likely but not sure� that the SIB has direct access to the interception infrastructure at the National Telecommunication Monitoring Center (NTMC).

Coercive measure

According to details provided by the whistleblowers, and research by an independent forensic investigator who helped Netra News investigate the case, Swatantra Jote�s Facebook page was hijacked on May 13th after SIB hackers were able to hack into one of its administrator�s personal accounts by intercepting their two-factor verification SMS. This coercive measure was taken because the PRMC troll army could not deter the organisation from hosting the planned Facebook Live discussion between Auroni Semoti Khan and Tasneem Khalil.

One of the whistleblowers told a Netra News editor that SIB hackers maintain a �collection of hacked accounts� that they use for high-value hacking operations. These Facebook accounts belong to �regular people� who use easy-to-guess passwords. Once hacked, names on these accounts are often changed to well-known opposition figures, though the whistleblowers could not explain the exact reason for the name changes. One of the benefits of using such a hacked account, instead of registering a new account, is that these �regular people� accounts already have a large friends� list and a history � which also beats Facebook�s automated system of weeding out fake accounts.

Based on some technical details provided by a member of Swatantra Jote, an independent forensic investigator reconstructed the hacking and hijacking of the organisation�s page. According to this reconstruction, the hackers first took control of the personal account of one of the administrators of the Facebook page. They then relegated all the other administrators and editors of the page to the role of �advertiser� and added a new administrator and a new editor to the page. At least one of these two accounts � which is now named after a controversial BNP activist � belonged to a regular Facebook user who lost his account a few weeks back.

With the help of the forensic investigator, Netra News was able to track down this Facebook user in Comilla. The user, who is a businessman, told a Netra News reporter that his Facebook account was suddenly taken over by someone in early or mid April. As he could not access his account anymore, he registered a new account and moved on. He also does not know anything about Swatantra Jote, the organisation or its leaders.

On May 14th, Swatantra Jote held an online press conference and issued a press release condemning the �cyber attack� it was subjected to. A general diary (GD) has also been filed with the Boalkhali Police Station in Chittagong by a leader of the organisation in connection to this hacking incident.

After Swatantra Jote lost control of its page, Auroni Semonti Khan hosted the Facebook Live with Tasneem Khalil from her own Facebook profile in the evening of May 13th.

�Our boys and girls�

The government�s involvement in hacking is confirmed in a recent TV interview given by the Bangladeshi telecom and ICT minister, Mustafa Jabbar. The interview, broadcast live by Somoy News on April 3rd 2020, centered on actions taken by the Bangladeshi government against journalists and political dissidents (described as �conspirators� and �rumour mongers�) who criticise the government on Facebook.

�[Facebook] gives excuses in the name of so-called freedom of expression and other [rights], for which we face some inconveniences. However, we can also say that while Facebook acts as the authority, our boys and girls can identify who is doing what and take action against them without [any help from] this authority � we have been able to hack or terminate their [Facebook] IDs. It is a matter of pleasure,� the minister told a Somoy News reporter. �The people can rest assured that our team that is working, including the law enforcement agency, is extremely cautious, efficient, and technologically resourceful.�

During the interview, Somoy News showed screenshots of the Facebook profiles of two dissidents in exile and a journalist: Pinaki Bhattacharya (writer, in exile in France), Meer Zahan (former DGFI officer, in exile in France), and the Swedish-Bangladeshi journalist Tasneem Khalil (editor-in-chief of Netra News).

Pinaki Bhattacharya told Netra News that his Facebook account has been hacked thrice: on September 13th 2018, March 30th 2020, and April 2nd 2020 (the day before the interview was broadcast). Meer Zahan said his Facebook account has not been hacked in recent times. There is no indication that Tasneem Khalil�s verified Facebook profile was compromised in any way in recent years.

�Hacking related offence and punishment�

While Bangladesh�s telecom and ICT minister himself boasts about state-sponsored hacking during a live TV interview and the military intelligence agency targets dissidents, journalists and student groups for cyber attacks, hacking remains a punishable offence according to the country�s controversial cybersecurity law: the Digital Security Act of 2018.

Article 34 of the act, which is often touted by its proponents as an �anti-hacking law�, reads: �if a person commits hacking then it will be considered an offence and for this he will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 14 (fourteen) years or with fine not exceeding Taka 1 (one) crore or with both.�

The act also sets out specific punishments for other cyber crimes including �collecting, using identity information without permission�; �identity fraud or being in disguise�; �publishing, sending offensive, false or fear inducing data-information etc.�

According to a Bangladeshi jurist consulted by Netra News, the law does not make any exception nor does it indemnify government officials, military officers and civilian contractors who engage in hacking and other cyber crimes.

�I did not talk to any such reporter�

When Netra News contacted Mustafa Jabbar for his comment, he initially agreed to talk to Tasneem Khalil, the editor-in-chief of Netra News. In a recorded telephone conversation, Khalil asked him about the Somoy News interview and the claims about state-sponsored hackers hacking people�s Facebook accounts. Jabbar, the minister, immediately denied making any such statements.

Mustafa Jabbar: What? People working for the government are hacking IDs?

Tasneem Khalil: Yes, let me read the exact quote to you. You were telling the reporter Shuvo Khan�

Mustafa Jabbar: I did not talk to any such reporter.

Tasneem Khalil: Did you not talk to a Somoy News reporter? At your home, [broadcast] live?

Mustafa Jabbar: Did not talk.

Tasneem Khalil: I see. We actually have a video clip of the interview they broadcasted, where you are saying, �our boys and girls can identify who is doing what and take action against them without any help from this authority, we have been able to hack or terminate their IDs.� This�

Mustafa Jabbar: These things [inaudible] Somoy News interviews will be available with Somoy News. I do not wish to talk to you.

After a brief cross-talk, Mustafa Jabbar disconnected the call.

Response by Facebook

Netra News asked Facebook for its comment and received this response from a spokesperson: �We are committed to safeguarding the integrity of our services and take action on any attempt to gain unauthorized access to user accounts. We are working to secure [the Swatantra Jote page], and we encourage people to strengthen their security by turning on app-based two-factor authentication and alerts for unrecognized logins.�

�Not in my knowledge�

Netra News tried but could not reach the DGFI officers � both brigadier generals � in charge of the SIB and the PRMC. A DGFI staffer who received a call to its headquarters said �it was not in [his] knowledge� who could we talk to for an official comment about this story.

Auroni Semonti Khan of Swatantra Jote declined to comment.

Rapid Action Battalion arrested cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore, writer Mushtaq Ahmed, and two others -- Didarul Islam Bhuiyan, an activist of a platform called 'Rashtrachinta', and Minhaz Mannan Emon, a businessman -- under the Digital Security Act, allegedly for making anti-government posts on Facebook, from the capital yesterday.

A team of Rab-3 handed Kishore and Mushtaq over to Ramna Police Station, Monirul Islam, officer-in-charge of the police station told The Daily Star this morning. Rab-3 also confirmed the matter.

Jamshedul Islam, investigation officer of the case, said the four were arrested from the capital's Kakrail and Lalmatia areas on charge of posting anti-government content on Facebook.

Later today, Rapid Action Battalion handed over Didarul Islam Bhuiyan and Minhaz Mannan Emon to Ramna Police Station in the evening, Jamshedul Alam, also a sub-inspector of the station, confirmed to The Daily Star.

"RAB handed over Didarul and Minhaz to police before Iftar this evening," he said.

A total 11 persons were accused in the case filed under the Digital Security Act.

Besides the four arrested, the seven others made accused in the case are: journalists Tasnim Khalil and Shahed Alam, Saer Zulkarnain, Ashiq Imran, Phillipp Schuhmacher, Shapan Wahid, and Asif Mohiuddin.

According to the case statement, a Facebook page named "I am Bangladeshi" is "trying to circulate propaganda and create confusion".

They were disseminating various misinformation, including rumours, through social media, Rab said, mentioning that the page is "creating confusion, instability and chaos among people".

According to Rab, Saer Zulkarnain, Kishore, Ashiq Imran, Phillipp Schuhmacher, Shapan Wahid and Mushtaq are the five admins who have been running the page.

Kishore was picked up from Kakrail area, while Mushtaq was picked up from his Lalmatia home yesterday, the police officer said adding that they will be produced before court today.

Kishore, a political cartoonist, posted several cartoons and posters on his Facebook account "Ami Kishore", criticising the government over the coronavirus situation. Mushtaq shared some of Kishore's cartoons on his Facebook profile.

Lipa Akhter, Mushtaq's wife, told The Daily Star, "Around five large vehicles with Rab personnel showed up at our residence in Lalmatia in the early hours of Monday, around 1:44 am. They said that they are from Rab-3. They took away Mushtaq around 3:00am and since then we had no idea where he was, or where he was being taken.

"Around 3:30am last night, two days after he was picked up, I received a call from Ramna Police Station saying that my husband is with them and that I was to come over to the police station and give him food," she added.

Mushtaq, who writes under the pen name "Michel Kumir Thakur", was critical of the "poor management in tackling the Covid-19 situation and the government" on social media.

A crocodile farmer and businessman, Mushtaq wrote a book titled "Kumir Chasher Diary" which was published in November 2018 and was working on another book.

Earlier, Didarul Bhuiyan was supposedly picked up from his house in Dhaka's North Badda yesterday evening.

A family source said some people came in two black microbuses before iftar. They were in plainclothes, but introduced themselves as Rab-3 members and said Didarul was being taken for interrogation.

Didarul is an IT specialist and owner of "ABAC Technologies", an outsourcing IT firm, located on the fifth floor of the same building. He wrote some critical posts on the state's decision to deal with coronavirus, controversy over masks and the distribution of funds and relief.

Contacted last night, Lt Col Md Sarwar-Bin-Quasem, director (Legal and Media) of Rab, told The Daily Star that an operation was underway and they would inform media after its completion.

He, however, did not disclose details.

At a press conference held live from Rashtrochinta office premises this morning, the organisation's member and a lawyer at the Supreme Court, Hasnat Qaiyyum, said, "We are requesting that Didarul be handed over to the police if there is any allegation against him. If there are no allegations, he should be released."

Didarul's family was present at the press conference.

Kishore claimed he was beaten and severely slapped by more than a dozen strangers who kidnapped him on May 2 and held him for nearly three days.

Kishore said the men questioned him about cartoons he drew mocking a powerful businessman close to the government, and a series of cartoons criticizing the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic. According to him, the strangers then handed him over to an elite police unit.

A Bangladeshi journalist reported missing in March as cases were being filed against him under the Digital Security Act is now in jail after officials said they found him near the border with India.

Border guards on Sunday arrested Shafiqul Islam Kajol, 51, as he walked into Bangladesh from India with no passport. Police brought him to a court in southwestern Jessore district, on the West Bengal border, and he was sent to jail, according to multiple accounts.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who oversees both police and the border guards, said Monday that he was flummoxed by the case.

�Actually, I do not know where he had been for 54 days. But he was arrested from the Benapole border while coming to Bangladesh from India. We have to investigate,� Khan told BenarNews.

�I spoke with my father. I do not know where he had been for 54 days. Now, our main target is to get him out of jail,� Kajol�s son, Monorom Polok, told BenarNews.

According to his lawyer, Kajol was initially granted bail on a charge of illegal entry, but was then rearrested under Section 54 of the Bangladeshi criminal code, which allows detention of a person based on �reasonable suspicion.�

�The court granted him bail for the intrusion case. Later, police told the court they had again arrested Kajol ... as he faced three cases under the Digital Security Act in Dhaka,� lawyer Debashish Das told BenarNews.

�The judge asked police to submit an updated report on existing cases against Shafiqul by May 19, and then he will rule about it,� Das said.

Missing since early March

Kajol, a photojournalist and editor of the fortnightly magazine Pokkhokal, had been missing since March 10, a day after a lawmaker with the ruling Awami League lawmaker Saifuzzaman Shikhor filed a criminal defamation suit against him and 31 others.

Awami League activists filed two more cases against Kajol on March 10 and 11. One of them accused Kajol of committing extortion by �obtaining information illegally� and publishing �false, intimidating and defamatory� material on Facebook and Messenger, according to Amnesty International.

The Digital Security Act, which went into effect in September 2018, includes harsh prison sentences for online defamation, insulting a person�s religion and other offenses. Critics have complained that it impedes free speech.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a press freedom advocacy group, on Sunday urged police to release Kajol and drop all charges against him.

�Bangladesh police must immediately put an end to the long ordeal of journalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol, missing for 53 days, and release him from custody,� said Steven Butler, CPJ�s Asia program coordinator.

�Kajol is a victim, not a criminal. It�s an abuse of authority to subject Kajol to detention and interrogation.�

Kajol resurfaced on World Press Freedom Day, Amnesty International noted in a separate statement. It said that while many governments were justified in combatting misinformation about COVID-19, some were using the moment �as a pretext to crack down on critical voices.�

In Bangladesh, �at least 20 journalists have been recently intimidated, assaulted or harassed by members of the ruling party, and in some cases detained and accused of criminal offenses by the police for reporting pilferage, corruption and lack of accountability in the relief distribution meant for the poor during the lockdown,� it said, citing the Forum for Freedom of Expression, Bangladesh.

Amnesty noted that BenarNews itself had been blocked since it reported on an internal U.N. memo leaked in late March estimating that Bangladesh could see as many as two million deaths as a result of the pandemic without interventions.

A correspondent of a private television channel came under attack and two of his colleagues were intimidated when they were collecting information about misappropriation of rice intended for distribution among the poor at Raipura in Narsingdi on Thursday evening.

After being severely beaten up, journalist AH Bhuiyan Sajal, district correspondent of SA Television, was taken to Narsingdi District Hospital and he was undergoing treatment there until Friday evening.

He had severe wounds in his head, said Asian TV reporter in Dhaka Abdul Baten, who was accompanying Sajal during the incident at about 7:30pm.

Baten went there also to look into the allegations concerning misappropriation of public rice, meant for the poor people, against Amirganj union parishad chairman Nasir Uddin Khan.

Raipur police station officer-in-charge Mohsin Kadir said that although the injured journalist did not file any case, the police had started drives to catch the union council chairman.

Abdul Baten, who witnessed the scene but escaped the attack, said that they were working on an allegation that the chairman was swindling public rice instead of distributing among the poor people during the severe food crisis triggered by public holiday declared by the government to contain virus outbreak.

�After interviewing many poor people, we phoned the chairman for his comment and asked us to go to his office,� he said.

�A soon as we reached there, his men started beating my colleague. As I wanted to stop them, they took away our camera, mobiles and money. They threatened us with dire consequences,� said Baten.

�We apologised to them for our investigation and managed to save our camera and left the place with Sajal,� he added.

Nasir Uddin Khan was called many times on Friday on his official number for his reported involvement in assaulting journalists, but he did not respond.