Unconditional release, safety demanded 聽
A team of Dhaka Metropolitan Police鈥檚 detective branch arrested poet and essayist Sohel Hasan Galib at Sanarpar under Fatullah in Narayanganj Thursday evening on allegation of making derogatory remarks on Prophet Muhammad (SM).
Galib was arrested at about 9:00pm on Thursday and was taken to the DB office on Minto Road in Dhaka.
Without detailing the case for which he was arrested, DB chief Rezaul Karim Mallick told 抖阴精品 on Saturday that Galib was on Friday produced before a Dhaka metropolitan magistrate court that sent him to jail.
Metropolitan magistrate Sefat Ullah sent Galib to jail, rejecting his bail prayer and the DB sought the court鈥檚 permission to take him in custody for 10 days for interrogation in the case, the court鈥檚 general recording officer, inspector Asaduzzaman, said.
A senior DB official said that the court asked the police to submit a report within seven days to the court over the allegation.
On Saturday, 105 writers, academics, rights activists, artistes, and journalists in a joint statement urged the interim government to release Galib unconditionally and to ensure his security.
The statement, signed by veteran writer-translator Professor Khaliquzzaman Elias, said that such a move by the authorities concerned was contrary to the writers鈥� freedom and democratic environment.
They said that the arrest of the writer went against the spirit of the student-mass movement that ousted the Sheikh Hasina regime.
Besides Professor Khaliquzzaman Elias, the signatories to the statement include former Jahangirnagar University economics professor Anu Muhammad, writer and professor Salimullah Khan, poet and essayist Kumar Chakraborty, singer Farzana Wahid Shayan, translator GH Habib and fiction writer Afsana Begum.
On Friday, a senior DB official, seeking anonymity, told 抖阴精品 that Galib was shown arrested under section 54 for hurting religious sentiment.
He said that Sohel Hasan Galib made the alleged derogatory comments on Prophet Muhammad (SM) in a poem of his collection of poems titled 鈥楢mar Khutbaguli鈥�.
Galib鈥檚 new literary work titled Amar Khutbaguli, published by publishing house Ujan, was made available at the Amar Ekushey Book Fair in Dhaka.
Ujan鈥檚 stall at the Suhrwardy Udyan ground of the fair remained closed on Friday and Saturday.
The poet鈥檚 literary works include Dwaipayan Bedanar Theke, Raktamemorandum, Ananga Rooper Deshe, Timire Tarana, Foon, Baad-Magrib and Choushotti Pakhuri.