Home Minister: Mushtaq’s death will be investigated if necessary

An investigation committee will be formed to look into the death of writer Mushtaq Ahmed in Kashimpur jail, if necessary, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said, according to media reports. 

Speaking to reporters at an event in Chittagong on Friday, the home minister said: “After the autopsy results come in, we will form a committee to look into this death, if need be.”

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About the writer’s death in jail, he said: “I learnt from the inspector general of prison that he [Mushtaq] suddenly fell sick and was treated at the jail hospital. As his condition worsened, they took him to Tajuddin Medical College Hospital in Gazipur, where he died.” 

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Mushtaq, 53, had been arrested by Rapid Action Battalion, along with cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore, on charges of propagating disinformation against the government on social media, in May last year. 

He had been in jail since then, and was moved to the Kashimpur high security prison in August last year, according to Senior Jail Superintendent Gias Uddin.