Writer Mushtaq Ahmed, who was arrested in a case filed under the Digital Security Act, died in Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur on Thursday night. He was 53.
He was declared dead by the duty doctor at Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College around 8:30pm, jail sources said.
The writer was taken to the hospital after he fell unconscious at the jail.
Mushtaq was arrested on May 6, 2020.
He and cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore were sent to jail in the case in May 2020, a day after they had reportedly been picked up from their residences.
Rapid Action Battalion filed three cases in May last year against Mushtaq, Kishore and nine others on charge of tarnishing the image of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, hurting the spirit of the Liberation War and spreading rumours about Covid-19 and the army and other security forces on social media.
On January 11 last, police submitted a charge-sheet to a Dhaka court against Kishore, Mushtaq and Rashtrachinta Dhaka coordinator Didarul Bhuiyan in the case.❐
