A popular satirical writer was arrested for posting articles poking fun at the government, an official said Friday, hours after Bangladesh’s 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 pseudonym on a page called “Moja Losss?” (Are You Making Fun?). The page had gained popularity for its satirical take on Bangladesh’s conservative society, as well as the country’s 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 like WhatsApp and Viber for security reasons.
The government lifted the Facebook ban on Thursday, although many users had already managed to circumvent the blockade. WhatsApp and Viber remain blocked.
