Digital Security Act: DU students demand release of Kishore, Mushtaq

Dhaka University students yesterday stood in solidarity with incarcerated writer Mushtaq Ahmed and cartoonist Ahmed Kishore at the Central Shaheed Minar, demanding the release of the two.

Heralding poster printouts of the cartoons that got Kishore prosecuted, the students pressed home a clear message – nobody should be imprisoned for drawing cartoons.

By obstructing the voices of journalists, the state mechanism is being hostile to the exercise of intellect, said the protesters.

"We want freedom. The kind of freedom that would allow one to write and draw as they wish, and where the state or law enforcers will not intervene," said Kazi Rakib Hossain, a student of law at Dhaka University, and the organiser of the protest.

They called the Digital Security Act, a gagging law.

"Is Bangladesh at such a place where humour has no place? Cartoons are very effective at relaying important information. Cartoonist Kishore showed the kind of courage that is non-existent in the pens and paintbrushes of many. But this courage is not allowed in Bangladesh," said Jahid Jamil, a student cartoonist and organising secretary of Bangladesh Student Union's DU unit.

Writer Mushtaq Ahmed and cartoonist Ahmed Kishore were arrested on May 6 after being prosecuted under Digital Security Act for their writings and their art. They have been denied bail multiple times.