Bangladesh arrests 3 bloggers for blasphemy
Dhaka: Three atheist bloggers in Bangladesh were on Tuesday arrested on charges of defaming Islam, as the government set up the country’s first cyber crime tribunal to prevent exploitation of religion on the internet.
The crackdown as well as the announcement came two days after PM Sheikh Hasina pledged stern action against people found guilty of defaming Islam.
“We are amending both the Right to Information Act and the Penal Code toughening punitive measures for hurting the people’s religious sentiments,” law minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed told a press meet also joined by home minister Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir and two state ministers.
Ahmed said that the government constituted the tribunal appointing a judge in the capital while a process was underway to set up identical special courts at divisional cities including Chittagong. He said a government committee comprising two Islamic scholars was constituted to identify websites which were either exploiting or defaming the religion. The committee had recommended the arrests of the three, who have been sent to seven days remand. The trio could face 10 years in jail. PTI
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