Bangladesh police have raided the office of a news website and detained three journalists over a report on rumours the prime minister’s son had died, an official said on Monday. Also, the country blocked dozens of news sites. Police conducted a five-hour search of the popular news portal banglamail24.com’s Dhaka office on Sunday evening, hours after the story appeared, and detained the executive editor and two other journalists.
The portal had published a false report announcing the death of Sajeeb Wazed Joy.
Mufti Mahmud Khan, spokesman for the elite Rapid Action Battalion stated that they had detained them to question about the news they published.
Since the incident, the banglamail24’s office has been quiet. No phone calls being answered also the website has not been updated in a while.
The raid came days after the government sparked accusations of censorship when it shut down 32 online news services, citing ‘objectionable contents’.
