16 February 2016

Bangladesh arrests publisher for books said to hurt Muslims

A Bangladeshi court placed a publishing house owner and two other people on remand Tuesday for publishing books alleged to hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims.

Metropolitan Magistrate Amirul Islam Chowdhury made the order after police produced publisher Shamsuzzoha Manik, his office executive Shamsul Alam and printing press owner Taslim Uddin. Police will be questioning Manik for five days, Alam for one day and Uddin for two days.

The arrests followed the shutdown Monday of a stall of the "Badwip Prokshan," the publishing house owned by Manik, at a major monthlong book fair in Dhaka.

Six books were seized from the stall, police official Abdul Baten told a news conference.

The arrests were made after some readers complained that the books discussed sex and perversion of Muslims.

They would face up to 14 years in jail if convicted of violating the country's information technology law. [Associated Press] Read more