Arrested in Digital Security case, writer Mushtaq Ahmed dies in jail

Writer Mushtaq Ahmed, who was arrested in a Digital Security Act case, has died at the Kashimpur High Security Prison on Thursday.

He was taken to Gazipur’s Shaheed Tajuddin Medical College Hospital, where the doctors declared him dead, Senior Jail Superintendent Md Gias Uddin told Dhaka Tribune.

“Mushtaq was taken to the prison hospital after he suddenly fell ill inside his cell. He was then transported to the Shaheed Tajuddin Medical College Hospital, where he was pronounced dead,” said the prison official.

Md Sharif, a doctor at the hospital’s emergency department, said Mushtaq was brought dead around 9.30pm.

Fifty-three-year-old Mushtaq was behind the bars since May last year following his arrest in a case started by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and was denied bail six times.

He was shifted to the Kashimpur prison in August last year, according to Senior Jail Superintendent Gias Uddin.

The RAB arrested him along with cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore on charges of propagating disinformation against the government on social media.

On February 23, Mushtaq and Kishore were brought to the cyber-crimes tribunal for hearing.

Mushtaq was again denied bail that day. The judge directed the investigators to launch a "further probe" into the case and submit a report by March 23.

Kishore's brother Ahsan Kabir had last seen the duo then.

Mushtaq lived with his wife Lipa Akhter and elderly parents in Lalmatia.

He used to write under the pen name Michael Kumir Thakur. His book "Kumir Chasher Diary" was published in November 2018, and he was working on another book.