Bangladesh editor barred from leaving for London

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

DHAKA, Oct 29 (Reuters) Immigration officials at Dhaka airport have prevented a Bangladesh newspaper editor from leaving for London after journalists at the paper complained that he was fleeing without paying them.

Shafiq Rehman, editor of the Bangla-language daily Jai Jai Din, was taken off an Emirates Airlines flight last night, airport officials said. Rehman holds a British passport and was carrying five airline tickets, they told reporters.

The journalists said Rehman had suspended publication of the paper indefinitely on Friday and sacked 104 journalists and other employees without notice.

Police later took Rehman away as the sacked journalists demonstrated at the gates of Zia International Airport.

''He was trying to flee the country without paying our dues. We can't allow him to do so,'' said Jai Jai Din journalist Amit Habib.

The staff had filed a complaint against him with police.

The daily hit the news stands only last June.

Rehman was unavailable for comment, but relatives said he had been going to Britain for medical treatment.

Journalism tends to be a fraught profession in Bangladesh.

Political militants, criminal gangs and religious extremists routinely target journalists in Bangladesh for brutal attack, according to Paris-based watchdog Reporters Without borders.

REUTERS SP VV1300

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