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Besides rejecting the Digital Security Act, citizens demand justice for the death of Mushtaq Ahmed.
Protests over the death in prison of Bangladeshi writer Mushtaq Ahmed continued for the fourth consecutive day amid criticism of the Digital Security Law (DSL) used for his arrest.
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Mushtaq, who was accused of spreading rumors on social media about COVID-19 in May 2020, died Friday in a hospital after falling unconscious in a maximum security jail.
On Monday, hundreds of social activists marched from the Dhaka University campus to protest his death and demand the release of all prisoners detained under the DSL, a rule that citizens are demanding to be repealed immediately.
Earlier, police injured about 50 people on Sunday while attempting to break up a student march led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. At least 300 people received criminal charges.
Bangladeshi students clash with police. 300 activists rallied in Dhaka to denounce death in prison of writer Mushtaq Ahmed, arrested last year on charges of violating a sweeping digital security law that critics say chokes freedom of expression - Photograph: Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP pic.twitter.com/yOytZf5omK
— Munazza Siddiqui (@munazza193) March 1, 2021
Mushtaq's death has revived criticism of the DSL, which was passed to criminalize "negative propaganda" against the country's symbols such as the late President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman or the father of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
That law came into force before the 2018 general elections in which the ruling Awami League party won its third consecutive term.
Heavily criticized by journalists, the law has also been used to punish citizens who were accused of blasphemy and for denouncing forced disappearances. Since its promulgation, however, 200 citizens have been released for lack of evidence.
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