Peers demand unconditional release of Kurigram journalist

Colleagues and peers of the Kurigram journalist who was arrested and sentenced to one-year imprisonment earlier today strongly protested the incident.

Ataur Rahman Biplob, general secretary of Kurigram Press Club, said it is not believable that drugs were recovered from Ariful's house, considering he doesn't even smoke cigarettes.

"We demand his unconditional release. We will protest unless the authorities release him within 24 hours," he told our local correspondent.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists and Dhaka Union of Journalists today protested the arrest of Ariful from his house at midnight and his one-year jail sentence.

In a joint statement, both journalists' bodies denounced recent events -- the case against Manabzamin Editor-in-Chief Matiur Rahman Chowdhury and reporter Al Amin under the Digital Security Act, journalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol going missing and finally Ariful's arrest -- and termed those as attacks on the journalist community.

They also said a vested quarter is trying to create conflict between journalists and the government.

They demanded security of journalists and threatened to wage tougher movements if the demand was not met.

Many claimed Ariful was jailed due to his personal conflict with the deputy commissioner.

A mobile court under a taskforce of Kurigram district administration sentenced Ariful 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), the 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.

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 written some reports on the irregularities in the district -- which went against DC Sultana Parveen -- he was jailed over the 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.