Peers decry Kurigram journalist’s arrest

A mobile court -- under a taskforce of Kurigram district administration -- sentenced a journalist to one-year imprisonment earlier today for "possessing drugs", after he was arrested from his house.

A drive was conducted at the house of Ariful Islam (36), Kurigram district correspondent of Bangla Tribune, at the Vocational intersection area of the district town around 12:10am, said Sultana Parveen, deputy commissioner of Kurigram.

During the drive, the team found a bottle of alcohol and 150 grams of hemp at his home and arrested him, the DC claimed.

Later, the mobile court sentenced Ariful to one-year jail, the DC said.

After the news spread, his colleagues and peers took to social media to protest the arrest. Many claimed that he was jailed due to his personal conflict with the DC and demanded his unconditional release.

The journalist's wife Mansarina Mitu told reporters that a group of people, including three executive magistrates and eight Ansar members, stormed into their house around 11:45pm and started beating up her husband Ariful.

Later, they arrested her husband and took him to the DC office, where he was beaten up again, she claimed.

"As my husband has done some reports on the irregularities in the district -- which went against DC Sultana Parveen, he was jailed with allegations of taking drugs," she added.

DC Sultana denied the allegations and said she was not aware of the raid at Ariful's house but found out later.