A Bangladeshi court on Tuesday placed three people, including the owner of a book publishing house, in police remand after they were accused of printing books with contents that hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims.
Metropolitan magistrate Amirul Islam Chowdhury issued the order after police produced publisher Shamsuzzoha Manik, his office executive Shamsul Alam and Taslim Uddin, the owner of the printing press where the books were printed.
Manik will be grilled by police for five days, Uddin for two days and Alam for one day. On Monday, police shut down a stall of “Badwip Prokshan”, owned by Manik, at a month-long book fair in Dhaka. Six books were seized from the stall and the men were subsequently arrested in separate raids, police said.
The arrests were made after some people complained the books focussed on sex, Muslims and perversion in different chapters, Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Abdul Baten told a news conference on Tuesday.
He said a book published by Manik included a controversial chapter that translates into “sexual perversion of Muslim minds”.
{{/usCountry}}He said a book published by Manik included a controversial chapter that translates into “sexual perversion of Muslim minds”.
{{/usCountry}}The three men are facing charges under the country’s information technology act, and would face up to 14 years in jail if they are convicted.
The arrests came after a turbulent year in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Five people, including a publisher and four secular bloggers, were killed, allegedly by Islamist radical groups in 2015. Another publisher was critically injured in an attack in his office last year.