Journalist Detained

(I AM A WITNESS TO DAILY HAPPENINGS, DRAMAS, CHAOS...and a few POSITIVE CHANGES in Bangladesh)

Saturday May 12, 2007

Bangladeshi journalist released after daylong interrogation, family says

By JULHAS ALAM
Associated Press Writer

Photo: RSF

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ Bangladeshi authorities have released a journalist, detained hours earlier, who had written about alleged human rights abuses by the country's security forces, his wife said Saturday.

Tasneem Khalil, a journalist at Dhaka's Daily Star newspaper, was picked up early Friday from his residence in the capital by four men in plain clothes.

Khalil was released later Friday after being interrogated by intelligence officials, his wife Sharmin Afsana Suchi told The Associated Press.

"Yes, he has returned," Suchi said.

She declined to say whether he was tortured while he was detained.

A government spokesman could not be reached Saturday to comment on Khalil's detention or subsequent release.

Journalists in Bangladesh are often threatened, assaulted or even killed for writing about political violence, corruption or organized crime.

At least 11 journalists have been killed and dozens maimed in the South Asian nation since 1997, media rights groups say.

On Friday, Suchi said the men who took away her husband told her they were from the Joint Task Force, an army-led security force used by the military-backed government to fight corruption.

"The men said they were placing Khalil under arrest and taking him to an army camp in Dhaka," she said.

Zafar Sobhan, an assistant editor at the Daily Star, said Friday that Khalil was held without charge or warrant.

Khalil, 26, also works for New York-based Human Rights Watch and runs his own Web site. His colleagues said he recently posted articles on the site criticizing the army and the security forces for alleged human rights abuses.

The detention sparked off widespread concerns among international media and human rights watchdogs.

Human Rights Watch voiced its concern about Khalil while the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, in a statement on Friday said the detention is an indication of the fragile state of press freedom in Bangladesh.

"We're alarmed by the circumstances of his detention," Joel Simon, Executive Director of the CPJ, said in the statement.

Bangladesh has been under a state of emergency since Jan. 11 when street violence over delayed national elections left more than 30 people dead.

According to Bangladeshi human rights groups, the military-backed government has used the emergency powers to arrest thousands of people. They say many of the detainees were picked up at night.

On the Net: www.tasneemkhalil.com.