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Cartoonist, writer arrested under digital security act for making anti-government posts on Facebook

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12:13 PM, May 06, 2020 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:57 PM, May 06, 2020
Cartoonist, writer arrested under digital security act

11 accused in the case

Mushtaq Ahmed (left) and Ahmed Kabir Kishore. Photo: Collected
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Mushtaq Ahmed (left) and Ahmed Kabir Kishore. Photo: Collected

Star Online Report

Rapid Action Battalion arrested cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore and writer Mushtaq Ahmed under Digital Security Act, allegedly for making anti-government posts on Facebook, from the capital's Kakrail and Lalmatia area yesterday.

A team of Rab-3 handed them 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 duo were arrested on charge of posting anti-government content on Facebook.

Cartoonist 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, who introduced himself as a political cartoonist, posted several cartoons and posters on his Facebook account "Ami Kishore", criticising the government over the coronavirus situation. Mushtaq also shared some of Kishore's cartoons on his Facebook profile.

Lipa Akhter, Mushtaq's wife, told The Daily Star, "Around 5 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 3am 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.

He wrote a book titled "Kumir Chasher Diary" which was published in November 2018 and was working on another book.

Meanwhile Didarul Bhuiyan, an activist of a platform called 'Rashtrachinta', was supposedly picked up from his house in Dhaka's North Badda yesterday evening.

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.

An official of Rab-3, said "We got information that Didarul might be associated with them [Kishore and Mushtaq]. But as per my knowledge, he has not been arrested yet."

A family source said, some people came in two black microbuses before iftar. They were in plainclothes, but introduced themselves as Rab-3 members. He further added that "Didarul was being taken for interrogation".

Didarul has his office of 'ABAC Technologies', an outsourcing IT farm, 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.

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.

Meanwhile, OC (investigation) Zahirul Islam of Ramna Police Station said, "This is a case under the Digital Security Act against 11 people in total. We only have Kishore and Mushtaq at our police station. Neither Didarul nor anyone else has been arrested yet."

https://www.thedailystar.net/countr...r-arrested-under-digital-security-act-1899973
 
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Businessman, cartoonist sent to jail following series of arrests
Muktadir Rashid | Published: 14:00, May 06,2020 | Updated: 00:22, May 07,2020




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Didarul Islam Bhuiyan, left, Kishore Kabir, centre, and Mushtaq Ahmed, right. -- Facebook photo

Businessman Mushtaq Ahmed and cartoonist Ahammed Kabir Kishore were sent to jail on Wednesday and Dhaka Stock Exchange director Minhaz Mannan Emon and Rastra Chinta organiser Didarul Islam Bhuiyan showed arrested a day after they had reportedly been picked up in a case filed under the Digital Security Act allegedly for spreading ‘rumours’.

In the case filed with Ramna police station Tuesday night, Rapid Action Battalion deputy assistant director Abu Bakar Siddique also named Sweden-based Netra News editor Tasneem Khalil, US-based journalist Shahed Alam, I am Bangladesh’s Facebook page admin Saer Zulkarnain, Germany-based blogger Asif Mohiuddin, Shapan Wahid, Ashiq Imran and Phillipp Schuhmacher, and six unnamed people, for ‘sullying’ the image of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mojibur Rahman, ‘hurting’ the spirit of the liberation war, and spreading rumours about COVID-19, army and other security forces among others, on social media.

Metropolitan magistrate Mahmuda Akhter sent Facebook-based critic Mushtaq and cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishor to Dhaka Central Jail Wednesday afternoon.

‘We did not seek time to interrogate them now considering the situation,’ said Ramna police station officer-in-charge Monirul Islam.

Cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishor, also known as Kishor Kabir, runs a Facebook page called Ami Khishor, where he began profiling ‘life in the time of corona’ while Mushtaq started spreading anti-state propaganda, said the complaint.

The battalion claimed that Mushtaq named Minhaz and Didarul.

It claimed that it found ‘anti-state chatting’ in their WhatsApp and messengers of Mushtaq, Minhaz and Didarul.

Later in the evening, Ramna zone assistant commissioner SM Shamim said that Minhaz and Didarul were handed over to them by RAB-3 following their arrest at Ramna at about 6:00pm on Wednesday.

They would be produced before the court today.

In the complaint, the battalion official included 60 pages of screenshots as evidence against the suspects and one compact disc and a 2-page list of articles seized and details of the Facebook profiles, including the URLs.

‘I am Bangladeshi’ posted a good number of cartoons in the recent weeks mocking politicians belonging to different parties and a top businessperson.

In the early hours on Monday, some people introducing themselves as RAB-3 members first picked up Mushtaq from Lalmatia and Didarul from his house in Uttar Badda on Tuesday.

The cartoonist was also picked up by Tuesday night form Ramna area, according to the police.

Mushtaq, who goes by his penname Michel Kumir Thakur, was critical on social media over the government’s poor management in tackling COVID-19. The FIR alleged that he was one of the administrators of I am Bangladeshi.

Minhaz is also managing director of BLI Securities Limited in Dhaka and Platinum Securities Ltd in Chattogram Stock Exchange.

When approached Tuesday evening, his cousin and education minister Dipu Moni denied commenting.

His wife Ivy Anwar said that her husband went out of his house Tuesday noon after receiving a call and his whereabouts were unknown until Wednesday afternoon.

On Tuesday night, battalion personnel arrived at their house and took away a laptop used by the family members, the family said.

On Wednesday, Rastra Chinta, a civil rights platform campaigning for good governance, called the government to immediately return unhurt their member Didarul who was picked up from his Badda house Tuesday evening.

The Rastra Chinta’s Dhaka unit member Hasnat Quaiyum on Wednesday morning, in an online press conference, also called on the people to mobilise protests for the release of their activist who was coordinating relief distribution and training volunteers.

He also called on the government to ‘return’ Didarul unhurt.

Didarul’s family, in a press conference, said that Didarul was picked by a dozen of plainclothes people introducing themselves as RAB-3 members just before iftar in the capital’s Badda area.

https://www.newagebd.net/article/105803/businessmen-cartoonist-picked-up-in-48-hours
 
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Do you have few samples of those cartoons which led to the arrest of this cartoonist ?
 
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Brown version of north korea?? Hasina the Supreme leader? Lol.
 
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Some people are telling here that BD is swimming in democracy and freedom of press. How come RAB arrest people because they criticized the govt policy. By what definition a govt and a state are the same?

I have to re-learn the Political Science book written by Awami brats some of whom we can see also in this forum who keep on uttering Hasina herself is BD, Hasina is democracy or Hasina is progress and development.
 
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