Pro-oppn daily editor held in Bangladesh on sedition charges

Bangladesh police Thursday arrested the editor of the Bengali daily Amar Desh,a pro-opposition newspaper,on charges of sedition and inciting religious tension in the country

Bangladesh police Thursday arrested the editor of the Bengali daily Amar Desh,a pro-opposition newspaper,on charges of sedition and inciting religious tension in the country.

Mahmudur Rahman was arrested Thursday morning from his office at Karwan Bazar area in the capital,police said.

Witnesses said plainclothesmen picked up Rahman in a raid on the newspaper office,where he had been staying for the last three months. He was taken to the headquarters of Detective Branch DB of police for initial interrogation.

He has been arrested on basis of evidence obtained after investigation on charges including cyber crimes intervening in privacy of a judge, a police spokesman said.

The 59-year-old Rahmans arrest amid growing demands by non-partisan youngsters,waging a campaign for toughest punishment for 1971 war criminals under the banner of Ganajagaran Mancha,for carrying out a misleading propaganda calling them atheists.

The ruling Awami league leaders accused the daily of inciting violence during recent political unrest,prompting the government to launch a virtual crackdown on BNP and arrest of nearly a dozen of its top leaders including the partys acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

Mahmudur Rahman has hurt the Muslims religious sentiment,which is totally unacceptable8230; he has been arrested to establish the rule of law, state minister for home Shamsul Haque Tuku said.

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Rahman,however,angered the secular Ganajagaran Mancha for carrying out a protracted campaign to portray them as anti-Islamic while he continued to stay at the newspaper office to evade arrest since December last year when he was sued for sneaking and publishing a Skype conversation between a judge and an expatriate Bangla-born jurist.

Three killed in clashes: police

DHAKA: At least three people were killed and scores injured Thursday,said police,as clashes erupted in parts of Bangladesh on the fourth day of a nationwide strike called by an Islamist opposition. Police said two men were beaten to death in southeastern Chittagong district in violence between supporters of the ruling Awami League party and Bangladeshs largest Islamic party,Jamaat-e-Islami. In another wave of clashes in the southern district of Khulna,a protester from Jamaat was shot dead after police opened fire at 500 of its supporters during the strike. PTI