DHAKA: A popular satirical writer has been arrested in Bangladesh for posting articles poking fun at the government, an official said Friday, hours after a three-week ban on Facebook for security reasons was lifted.

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officers detained Refayet Ahmed on Thursday night under the country’s controversial Internet law for posting pieces on Facebook, the elite force’s spokesman Major Rumman Mahmud said.

“He was arrested for his provocative Facebook posts against the government and the state,” Mahmud told AFP.

The RAB accuses Ahmed of writing under a penname for a page called “Moja Losss?” (“Are You Making Fun?“) which has won popularity for taking a satirical look at Bangladesh’s conservative society as well as rampant corruption and law and order problems.

But the page, with nearly 700,000 fans, also mocked the government’s decision last month to ban Facebook and mobile messaging services WhatsApp and Viber for security reasons.

The government lifted the Facebook ban on Thursday, although many users had already managed to circumvent the blockade, but continues to bar WhatsApp and Viber.

The government fears the apps will be used to mobilize large numbers of opposition protesters, triggering unrest in a country already reeling from deadly attacks by suspected militants.

The bans were originally ordered after two opposition leaders lost an appeal and were hanged last month for war crimes committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence conflict against Pakistan.