Sayed Khan, organising secretary of Dhaka Journalist Union and the Dhaka correspondent of The Mirror Asia, was put on five-day remand on Friday after he was picked up by a team of Detective Branch from his house in the capital鈥檚 Moghbazar area.
He was picked up by 15 to 16 people identifying themselves as detectives at about 1:00am on the day and was finally shown arrested at Mirpur police station in a case filed over setting the metro rail on fire.
Sayed along with main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party student affairs secretary Rafiqul Islam and three others have been arrested in the same case and put on five-day remand.
In a joint statement on Friday, factions of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists and Dhaka Journalists Union strongly condemned the arrest and demanded immediate release of Sayed.
BFUJ president Ruhul Amin Gazi and general secretary Quader Gani Chowdhury and DJU president Md Shahidul Islam and general secretary Khurshid Alam said in the statement that through this arrest, the government set yet another awful example to stifle free journalism and freedom of expression.
He had been covering the government鈥檚 use of force and indiscriminate killings of those who took part in the anti-quota student protests that killed at least four journalists.
鈥楽ixty-six journalists were killed during the tenure of this government, and hundreds of journalists have been tortured, while many others had to migrate to save their lives,鈥� the statement said.
An atmosphere of fear has been created by filing cases against editors and journalists in the country.
In another statement, Dhaka Reporters Unity condemned Sayed鈥檚 arrest and urged the law enforcers to not harass the journalists on duty.
At least 211 people, including journalists, students and children, were killed during the protests demanding reform of the quota system in government jobs that started on July 1.