Dainik Dinkal stops publication

The Dainik Dinkal, a broadsheet Bangla-language newspaper, halted printing today after a government suspension order was upheld.

The newspaper said the Dhaka district authorities ordered the shutdown on December 26, but it continued to publish after making an appeal at the Press Council headed by a top High Court judge, reports AFP.

"The council rejected our appeal yesterday [Sunday], upholding the district magistrate's order to stop our publication," Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas, managing editor of the newspaper, told the news agency.

The order, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, said the printing permit of the newspaper was cancelled after the newspaper violated the country's printing and publication laws.

The council said the paper's publisher, Tarique Rahman, the acting chief of BNP, was a convicted criminal and was living abroad without handing over his job to another person.

Biswas said Rahman, now based in London, submitted his resignation and appointed a new publisher, but the authorities did not accept the changes.

The government today did not comment on the shutdown.