Journalist Rozina Islam is being taken to jail

Journalist Rozina Islam is being taken to jail after a Dhaka court turned down a plea to take her on remand.

Magistrate Mohammad Jasim of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court earlier turned down the remand prayer for Rozina. Police sought a five-day remand of Rozina.

Prothom Alo’s lawyers Ehsanul Haque Somaji, Ashraf Ul Alam and Prashanta Kumar Karmakar stood for Rozina in the court. Ain O Salish Kendra’s lawyer Abdur Rashid, BLAST’s lawyer Moshiur Rahman and lawyer Suman Kumar Roy also took part in the hearing.

Metropolitan public prosecutor Abdullah Abu represented the state in the hearing.

Journalist Rozina Islam was taken from the Shahbagh police station to the CMM court in Old Dhaka at around 8:00am today. Rozina Islam’s husband Munirul Islam said she had been kept in court custody.

Prothom Alo’s senior reporter Rozina Islam went to the health ministry on Monday to carry out her profession duties. She was detained there for over five hours and harassed. At one point she fell ill. At around 8:30pm the police took her to the Shahbagh police station. At 11:45pm they said that a case had been filed against her under the Official Secrets Act.

Large numbers of journalists gathered first in front of the secretariat in the afternoon and then in front of Shahbagh at night, protesting against the incident.

National and international organisations, including Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Amnesty International, have issued statements condemning the incident. Social media has also been flooded with protests from journalists and people from all walks of life.