The National Citizen Party (NCP) has strongly condemned the arrest and harassment of an activist on charges of publishing a satirical cartoon of the chief whip of the National Parliament.
Police arrested activist AM Hasan Nasim at 8pm on Friday without a warrant on charges of anti-government activity, the NCP said in a statement.
He was produced in court on Saturday, and a case was filed against him under sections 25 and 27 of the Cyber Security Ordinance for allegedly publishing a satirical cartoon and blackmailing the chief whip. The court sent the victim to jail instead of granting bail, the party alleged.
According to the NCP, the statement made by the chief whip, for which the victim was arrested, was said by the Chief Whip himself jokingly during a parliamentary session. A Facebook page run by the victim had published a political cartoon quoting the Chief Whip’s words.
“The victim was arrested simply for creating and publishing a political cartoon,” the party said.
Under section 25 of the Cyber Security Act, ‘blackmailing’ means threatening or intimidating a person to force them to provide an illegal benefit or perform a desired act. However, the FIR contains no description of what illegal benefit or desired act the chief whip was allegedly forced to provide or perform, the NCP noted.
The party recalled that on 11 August 2024, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman shared a satirical cartoon of himself and said, “I am deeply delighted that the freedom to draw political cartoons has been restored in Bangladesh.”
“But just as his government completes two months, an activist has lost the freedom to publish cartoons and has been sent to jail in a bailable case,” the NCP said.
The party demanded the government’s response on the matter and called for the victim’s immediate release.
