RAB detains acting editor of online news portal ‘banglamail24.com’, two others

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has picked up the editor of a Dhaka-based online newspaper and two other staffers on charges of spreading rumours.

The elite police unit raided the offices of ‘banglamail24.com’ late on Sunday and picked up its acting Editor Shahadat Ulla Khan, Executive Editor Maksudul Alam and Staff Reporter Pranta Palash, a reporter of the online newspaper told bdnews24.com.

RAB says there are allegations of spreading rumours against them.

“They have been brought in on allegations of spreading rumours. Whether we let them go or show them arrested will depend on information found from them,” RAB-3 chief Khandaker Golam Sarwar told bdnews24.com.

A banglamail reporter told bdnews24.com that the online media had ran a story on a report published by a portal styled ‘Todaynews71’, which said the prime minister’s son had died in a plane crash.

The banglamail report criticised the baseless story and also ran an Awami League leader’s comment, he said on condition of anonymity.

He said that they were requested by an official of the PM’s Press Wing to retract the story, but banglamail authorities decided not to do so. “Around 11pm, RAB came in the office and took the three away. They also seized a computer.”