Tag: Shahidul Alam

A group of plainclothes police forcibly removed photographer Shahidul Alam from his home in Dhaka on Sunday night. An official with the Dhaka Metropolitan Police detective branch later said that Alam, founder of the Pathshala Media Institute school and the photo agencies Drik and Majority World, was detained for interrogation over his social media posts and an interview concerning the protests by students in Bangladesh’s capital. Dhaka Tribune reported that he appeared court Monday August 6. The judge denied his lawyer’s request for bail and ordered him to police custody for seven days.

Shahidul Alam walked out of the Dhakha jail on Tuesday evening, 108 days after he was dragged from his home by police and five days after a high court granted him bail. A group of students and well-wishers greeted Alam, who was accompanied by his wife, Rahnuma Ahmed. “Every citizen in a free country should have the freedom of speech,” Alam told BenarNews.

A court in Bangladesh has granted bail to Shahidul Alam, the photographer, educator and mentor arrested 102 days ago after he criticized the Bangladesh government.

After numerous delays, a high court in Bangladesh refused to hear the bail petition for photographer Shahidul Alam, who has been held in jail without charge since August 5. The two-judge panel told Alam’s lawyers to seek bail from another court. This was the fifth time Alam’s lawyers had sought his release on bail, according to numerous news reports.

Shahidul Alam, the award-winning photographer, teacher, and founder of the photo agencies Drik Photo and Majority World, was denied bail at a hearing on September 11, 36 days after plainclothes police dragged him from his home. Alam has been charged under Section 57 of Bangladesh’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act, which criminalizes the sharing of information that “prejudices the image of the state or a person.” He had posted Facebook videos and given an interview to Al Jazeera in which he criticized the government for attacks on journalists and student protesters. Police filed a case claiming Alam had “spread false propaganda.” Human Rights Watch says Alam’s detention is “politically motivated,” and is being used by the government to demonstrate that “no one who dares criticize or challenge its actions will be spared.”

More than a week after police jailed Bangladeshi photographer, educator and activist Shahidul in order to silence him, his supporters continue to call on others in the photo community to join the #freeshahidulalam campaign.