Tulip calls for release of Shahidul

British MP Tulip Siddiq, a niece of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has called upon her aunt to release arrested photojournalist Shahidul Alam, according to the British newspaper The Times.

Tulip, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, said the detention was “deeply distressing and should end immediately”, writes the paper.

Bangladesh “must uphold international standards of justice in treating its own citizens”, she was quoted as saying in a report published yesterday.

“I would hope our Foreign Office will convey that message in stark terms to a country that is seen as a close ally,” she added.

With this, Tulip joins a growing chorus of international condemnation of Shahidul's detention. Nobel laureates, film directors, actresses, artists, authors and billionaire businessmen have all called for him to be released.

Shahidul, 63, was detained on August 5 after reporting on schoolchildren's protests about poor road safety in Bangladesh and he has since claimed that he has been tortured, writes The Times.

He was arrested on charges of making “provocative comments” under section 57 of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act and placed on a seven-day remand.

He was sent to jail on August 12.

The photographer has UK residency and his work has been displayed at Tate Modern, the Whitechapel Gallery, MoMA in New York and the Pompidou in Paris, added the report.