DHAKA, 29 September 2007 — Around 2,000 protesters took to the streets of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka yesterday, angered by the publication of a cartoon they say offended their religion.
Witnesses said police wielding batons broke up the protest, which started outside the city’s Baitul Mokarram mosque after Friday prayers.
Bangladesh is under the emergency rule, and all protests are banned.
Outrage erupted two weeks ago when Prothom Alo’s satire magazine Alpin printed a cartoon deemed blasphemous.
“We do not have any political motive. We are here only to protest against those who offended our religion,” said a leader of Hizbut Tahrir, an Islamist group, that led the protest.
The government has already banned the publication of the magazine and arrested the cartoonist Arifur Rahman. The newspaper has also apologized and appealed for forgiveness.
The protesters said it was a deliberate attempt by the cartoonist to ridicule Islam and thus the editor and the publisher of the newspaper should be arrested. They also demanded the closure of the newspaper.
Bangladesh has been under a state of emergency since January when an army-backed interim government took charge following months of political violence.
Political Leaders Among Suspects
Top Awami League leaders Tofail Ahmed and Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, both members of the party’s presidium, are on the new list of 80 people suspected of corruption.
Also on the list prepared by the government are five former ministers of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), The Daily Star said yesterday.
Meanwhile, BNP chief and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and her sons Tareque Rahman and Arafat Rahman Koko — all three in detention — have filed separate writ petitions with the high court challenging the legality of the continuing process of filing cases against them by the investigating authorities.
Two detained former BNP ministers — Moudud Ahmed and Nazmul Huda — also filed writ petitions in the high court challenging the cases that the Anti-Corruption Commission filed against them for allegedly amassing wealth beyond their known sources of income.
Khaleda and Arafat in their petitions questioned the validity of the government move in bringing the graft case against them under the emergency power rules under which an accused has no right to bail.
