Editor of Bangla daily placed on 3-day remand after reporting executed leader as 'martyr'

A court here has placed Abul Asad, the editor of a Bangladesh daily 'Sangram,' on a three-day remand under police custody after he described an executed opposition leader convicted for war crimes as a "martyr".

Metropolitan Magistrate Dhiman Chandra Mandal passed the order after Hatirjheel police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) (Operation) Inspector Golam Azam, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, produced the editor before the court on Saturday, The Dhaka Tribune reported.

The development came after Md. Afzal Hossain, a member of Bangladesh Awami League and parliamentarian from Kishoreganj, on Friday night, filed a case against Asad alleging that the editor had described an executed opposition leader convicted for war crimes as a "martyr" in an article published in the paper last week.

Known as the "Butcher of Mirpur," Abdul Quader Molla, a senior official of the Jamaat-e-Islami opposition party, was hanged on December 12, 2013, over crimes committed during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence. The execution was carried out three days before Bangladesh celebrated the 42nd anniversary of Victory Day.

A mouthpiece of Jamaat, the Daily Sangram had published the report on its front page with the headline: "Today is the sixth martyrdom anniversary of Shaheed Abdul Quader Molla."

Meanwhile, the case, filed under the Digital Security Act, was registered with Hatirjheel police station in Dhaka on Friday.

The arrest came after activists of Muktijuddho Mancha, the student wing of the ruling Awami League party, vandalized the office of the daily in Dhaka, launched protests and burned copies of the newspaper.