B'desh jail scraps wall mag for political views

Dhaka, Apr 10: Postings of articles by prisoners in Dhaka central jail, which holds dozens of prominent political figures, have been removed from the jail gate because of too many controversial comments, a jail official said today.

The security forces in Bangladesh have detained some 160 political figures since a state of emergency was imposed on January.

11, and many are in the Dhaka jail.

''We introduced the magazine for the prisoners to write stories and articles on (special) occasions'', said Shamsul Haider Siddique, deputy inspector general of Bangladesh prisons.

''But we discovered that hi-fi (top) prisoners loaded it with political comments, trying to mould opinion against their being held,'' Siddique told Reuters.

''We pulled the magazine board back... and decided not to go ahead with this after we found the March 26 (independence anniversary) issue loaded with political slogans and propaganda, instead of soft articles and stories, poems etc,'' he said.

Siddique said the writers included former lawmakers.

They wrote about the pangs of being in prison and of being held without being formally charged, allegedly because of political vendettas.

The Dhaka central jail holds several former ministers and lawmakers, and a son of the most recent prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia on allegations of extortion, graft and abuse of power.

Bangladesh's army-backed interim government said they all would likely be tried by ''quick-trial'' courts, which are mandated to complete trials within 60 days. If convicted, one consequence would be that they would be barred from contesting elections.

''Sending someone to jail before (formal) charges is illegal and a violation of human rights,'' wrote Abdullah Mohammad Taher, a former lawmaker of the Jamat-e-Islami party.

Nasiruddin Pintu, a former lawmaker of Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) wrote that he was in jail four times previously.

''But this time I have no idea about why I have been here.''

REUTERS