Dhaka South City Corporation mayor Sayeed Khokon today said all the temporary election camps set up during the 11th national polls will be removed within the quickest possible time.

The Mayor said this while inaugurating removal work of makeshift election camps at Segunbagicha in the city on Saturday.

Sayeed Khokon said that earlier instruction was given to remove all election-related posters, banners, and other campaign materials within next 48 hours. Most of them were removed by this time while some are still visible in differed areas of the city, he said.

"If you see any poster, banner or festoon on flyover or in any other place then you will inform us to keep the city clean," Khokon said.

"We want to remove all the temporary election camps so that people can walk freely on pavements and we can keep our city clean," he added.

A journalist has been arrested in Khulna in a case filed under the Digital Security Act for publishing “false” information on the number of votes cast in a constituency during Sunday's polls.

Hedayet Hossain Mollah, local correspondent of the Dhaka Tribune, was arrested yesterday, a day after the case was filed against two reporters, including him, with Batiaghata Police Station in the district.

The other accused is Rashidul Islam, staff reporter of the daily Manab Zamin, reports our correspondent in Khulna.

According to the initial announcement of the election results, the number of votes cast in Khulna-1 was higher than the total number of voters in the constituency. As the matter was brought to the returning officer's attention, he said it was a mistake and later came up with a correction, said local journalists.

By the time the correction could be made, the two media outlets ran reports saying the number of votes cast was around 22,000 higher than the actual number of voters, they said.

Documents provided by the returning officer's office showed 45,000 of the 2,59,420 voters did not cast their ballots.

Batiaghata Upazila Nirbahi Officer Debashish Chowdhury, also the assistant returning officer, filed the case against the two journalists.

The case statement said the accused published false, fabricated and provocative information on the voting with the use of electronic devices, including laptops, which might confuse people and create a chaotic situation.

Such activities made the “fair election” questionable, the statement said.

Mahabubur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Batiaghata Police Station, told The Daily Star that they arrested Hedayet near Gallamary Bridge in connection with the case.

However, several witnesses said the journalist was picked up near Picture Palace intersection in the city when he was returning home from the Khulna Press Club.

Hedayet's wife Sayida Laila Akhter told this newspaper that she called her husband over the phone but another man picked it up and introduced himself as the OC of the police station.

“Last night, the returning officer had requested my husband to apologise for the news. Otherwise, he said my husband would face action,” she said.

Despite repeated attempts, the RO could not be reached over the phone for comments.

Handcuffed, Hedayet was produced before a district court which sent him to jail.

Meanwhile, a former deputy secretary of the Election Commission has been picked up by detectives in the city's Agargaon area for “leaking information on the election”.

Shamsul Alam was allegedly collecting election results submitted to the commission from across the country and sending those to “others”, said police and EC sources.

He was picked up near the Nirbachan Commission office on Monday night, they said.

GG Biswas, officer-in-charge of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station, said the official was kept at the DB office on Mintoo Road.

Abdul Baten, additional commissioner (detectives) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said they picked up Shamsul for interrogation. 

Four university students remain missing since they were allegedly picked up by plainclothes men in the capital's Farmgate area on Saturday, the day before national election.

Their families yesterday held a press conference at Crime Reporters' Association Bangladesh, demanding safe return of the youths.

The missing are: Abu Khaled Mohammad Jabed, 25, a third year student of Bangla at Asian University; Borhan Uddin, 26, English student at Stamford University; Rezaul Khalek, 24, final year student of Pharmacy at Manarat University; and Syed Maminul Hasan, 27, former student of a Unani Ayurvedic Medical College.

“We are very anxious about their fate, as we have been out of contact with them for two days,” said Jabed's brother-in-law Yeasin Karim at the press conference.

He urged law enforcers to rescue the youths or to produce them before the court if they were detained for any crime.

Some plainclothes men identifying themselves as law enforcers dragged them out of a bus in Farmgate on their way home in Mirpur-1 after shopping at Aziz Super Market, Yeasin said quoting a friend of theirs who was also in the bus but escaped detention.

“We contacted local police stations and other wings of law enforcement agencies but all denied picking Jabed up,” he said.

The families drew attention of national and international human rights organisations to be vocal for their release.

Contacted, Abdul Baten, additional commissioner (detectives) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said they did not detain the youths.

Mufti Mahmud Khan, Rab's Legal and Media wing director also said they did not carry out any drive in Farmgate on that day.

Faster internet service has been switched back on 37 hours into its suspension.

The 3G and 4G service have been resumed at 10:00am, a spokesperson with the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) told The Daily Star this morning.

Most of the private telecommunications operators also confirmed about it.  

The services were switched off at 9:00pm on December 30 (election day) three hours after restoring the mobile internet.

During the period, people were not able to use the internet on their phones, stream or upload pictures or videos.

This the third time the telecom regulator shut down the 3G and 4G services in last two days.

According to the BTRC, there were 8.78 crore active internet connections in the country as of June this year and mobile phone connections accounted for 93.43 per cent.

As of November of 2018, over 6 crore people are currently using the 3G and 4G mobile internet.

According to BTRC data, there were 57.35 lakh broadband connections in November.

On December 26, the BTRC in a meeting with the International Internet Gateway representatives said social media sites, especially Facebook, would be blocked if needed.

BTRC in the night of the following day slowed down mobile internet by shutting down 3G and 4G services. However, the service was restored on Friday morning 10 hours into its suspension.