Four bloggers arrested and blogs are being closed.

4 bloggers were arrested for “writing derogatory content about Islam”.

Bangladesh government challenges its secular character of its own by arresting four bloggers and blocking a blog name Amar Blog. They were held for 'derogatory write-ups'. 

Subrata Adhikary Shuvo, 24, Russell Parvez, 36, and Mashiur Rahman Biplob, 42, were picked up on Monday night. They were taken  in to remands for 7 days.  And later yesterday afternoon Asif Mohiuddin was arrested.

Before arresting them Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) blocked a blog site named Amar Blog. 

Like other bloggers around the world, they have criticized both politicians and the press, in this case for being biased toward Islamist views and ideologies in a country that is constitutionally supposed to be secular. All four wrote regularly for Amar Blog, a popular site that was also shut down after the arrests.

Strong criticism keeps pouring in on different social networking website since the news of arrest broke out.

Eight other blogging platform like Sachalayton, Muktamona, Cadet College blog, Muktangan, Amar blog, Nagorik blog, Amra Bondhu, Coturmatrik, Extra Judicial Killing, and My Open Voice will be in blackout state from 12.00 PM (Bangladesh time) today.

How they were arrested:

Three separate teams of additional deputy commissioners led by Moshiur Rahman, Md Shahidullah and Manas Kumar Poddar conducted separate raids from 10:00pm Monday to 4:00am Tuesday and arrested the three, Islam said at a press conference at the media centre of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

The team of detectives also recovered the laptops and desktops of the arrestees, he added. Write-ups demeaning Islam have been found searching the hard disks of the seized laptops and computers, according to police.

Subho, who is a master degree student of Bengali Department at the DU, was arrested at Palashi. He hails from Lakshmipur.

According to the detectives, he used to write on several blogs, including ‘somewhere in…’, ‘Amar Blog’ and ‘Nagarik’ using the pseudonyms ‘Sada Mukhosh’, ‘Subrata Subho’ and ‘Lalu Kasai’.

Biplob, who hails from Comilla, was arrested at Pallabi. Besides writing  under the pseudonym ‘Allama Satan’ on Facebook, he also writes posts on ‘somewhere in…’, ‘Nagarik’ and ‘Amar Blog’ using ‘Satan’ and ‘Nemesis’.

Meanwhile, Parvez, who teaches at a private school, was arrested at Monipuripara. He writes in Amar blog using the name ‘Russel Parvez’ and ‘somewhere in…’ as ‘Apobagh’.

Asif Mohiuddin, was arrested today by the Detective Branch of the Dhaka police and is currently being interrogated about his recent posts. The police say he could be taken before a judge tomorrow.

In a statement Reporters Without Borders wrote “We call for Mohiuddin’s immediate and unconditional release,” Reporters Without Borders said. “After being the victim of knife attack in January, he is in very poor health and needs constant medical attention. The Detective Branch told us he is being ‘treated well’ but the opposite is happening – he continues to be held in deplorable conditions of hygiene and lack of access to medical treatment."

Asif Mohiuddin

The statement also said, -“The persecution of atheist bloggers is the result of a political desire to restrict freedom of expression and reinforce censorship in the name of combating blasphemy. The home ministry’s announcement that seven other bloggers are to be arrested is meant to discourage news providers. This is unacceptable and contrary to all the fundamental freedoms we defend.”

The four blogger were arrested ahead of a long march towards Dhaka on April 6 by radical Islamist organisation Hefazat-e-Islam demanding punishment to those who are writing items that demean Islam and Prophet Mohammad.

On March 31, a group of Muslim clerics submitted to the government a list of bloggers who they think are involved in writing such derogatory contents.

Earlier, the government asked Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to set up a monitoring cell for blocking instantly the blogs which carry derogatory contents about Islam and Prophet.