A 73-year-old Bangladeshi publisher has been arrested for "hurting" religious sentiments of people by launching a book that was deemed offensive by Islamists who warned of violent backlash.
Shamsuzzoha Manik was arrested last night, hours after Bangla Academy shut his makeshift book stall at an ongoing book fair in the capital, fearing an assault by Islamists.
Police kept strict vigil on the closed stall of Manik's 'Ba Dwip Prakashan' that was set up at the month-long Ekushey Book Fairinside the state-run Bangla Academy compound.
"We have filed a case accusing him (Manik) of hurting people's religious sentiments by publishing the book titled -- Islam Bitorko (Debate on Islam) -- that carried derogatory remarks on Islam...We have also confiscated the book ," a police officer told PTI.
He said Manik and two of his associates were arrested after police received complaints from many people over the book launched by him.
Police feared the book could trigger a law and order situation after a hardline Islamist group called Khelafat Andolon warned that it would storm the book fair unless Manik was arrested within 24 hours.
A Bangla Academy official said the book contained a chapter which appeared to be "offensive to us as well".
"We had asked publishers not to showcase any such controversial books in the fair stalls which could trigger religious controversy or hurt people's sentiments," academy's director general Shamsuzzaman Khan told reporters.
The arrest of Manik comes at a time when several atheist bloggers, writers and publishers have been facing violence in Bangladesh.
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Such attacks started in 2013 when Machete-wielding assailants hacked to death 35-year-old Rajib Haider, an architect by profession and an activist of Shahbagh movement, near his house in Mirpur area here in February, 2013.
Since Rajib's assassination, Bangladesh witnessed five more murders of secular writers including of a progressive publisher, all in the past one year.
On February 26 last year, Bangladesh-born US blogger and science writer Avijit Roy, 42, was attacked just yards away from a book fair in Dhaka.
A month later, fellow blogger Washiqur Rahman, 27, was hacked to death in broad daylight near his home in Dhaka's Tejgaon area.
The subsequent victims were Ananta Bijoy Das, 33, a banker and a founder of a group called the Science and Rationalist Council; Niloy Chakrabarti, 40, who wrote online under the pen name Niloy Neel and publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan, 43, who published a bestselling book by Roy.
Bloggers have said several writers have fled the country in recent months fearing attacks over their work.
