Sangram editor put on remand

A Dhaka metropolitan magistrate court on Saturday placed the Daily Sangram's Editor Abul Asad on 3-day remand in a case filed under the Digital Security Act. 

Metropolitan Magistrate Mamunur Rashid also rejected a bail plea filed by the editor the same day.

On Friday night, Freedom fighter Mohammad Afzal filed the case against the Daily Sangram's Editor Abul Asad and two others - Chief Reporter Ruhul Amin Gazi and Deputy Editor Sadat Hossain - after the newspaper published a report describing Jamaat-e-Islami leader and executed war criminal Abdul Quader Molla a 'martyr.'

Molla, infamously known as 'the butcher of Mirpur,' was hanged on December 12, 2013 after being convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal. On Thursday, the newspaper ran a report under the headline "Today is the sixth martyrdom anniversary of Shaheed Abdul Quader Molla."

Inspector (Operation) Golam Azam of the Hatirjheel Police Station and also the investigation officer of the case, said, "Police are looking for other suspects. The court placed Editor Abul Asad on 3-day remand. We will question him for more details about the intention of that report."

Md Al Mamun, a leader of the pro-liberation platform Muktijoddha Mancha, said, "We cannot compromise over independence and sovereignty. We will resist whoever speaks against independence or the Liberation War."

Citing documents found at the newspaper office, Mamun further alleged that the Daily Sangram office was being used as a temporary facility by the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir.

Meanwhile, a group of activists from the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student front of the ruling Awami League, gathered at the Dhaka University campus to protest the news article on Saturday. They also burned copies of the newspaper.

The Hatirjheel police took Editor Abul Asad into custody on Friday after a mob vandalised the Daily Sangram office in the capital's Boro Maghbazar area.