Rasel placed on 10-day remand

A Tangail court yesterday placed Rasel Bin Sattar Khan, arrested on Tuesday for spreading online the audiovisual message allegedly from al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, on a 10-day remand.
The remand was granted in a case filed under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act.
Deputy Assistant Director of Rab-12 Kamal Hossain filed the case, accusing Rasel of publishing “false and defamatory information and pictures” against the government and its head.
A sedition case was also filed against Rasel. But the court did not hear the case and asked the investigating officer to first obtain the home ministry's permission to bring sedition charges.
Sub-inspector of Tangail Model Police Station Abdullah Al Taibir, also IO in both the cases, produced Rasel before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court in the afternoon and sought 15 days' remand in each case.
There was no lawyer for Rasel to move a bail prayer, court sources said.
“Rasel is a high profile criminal. He might be taken to the TFI (Taskforce for Interrogation) cell in Dhaka for interrogation,” a senior police officer in Tangail told The Daily Star.
Rab arrested Rasel, 21, a seventh semester student of Tangail Textile Institute, from a student mess in Majhipara area of the district early Tuesday on the charge of spreading the “al-Qaeda message calling upon the Muslims in Bangladesh to wage intifada (popular uprising)”.
Speaking to media at Rab headquarters on Tuesday, Rasel admitted that he had disseminated the clip through his Facebook page and blogs.
The law enforcers also recovered three mobile phone sets and jihadi books from Rasel's mess room where he had been living for the last three years.
They also raided his village home at Sarishachala in Gazipur's Kaliganj upazila on the same night and seized two laptops and many jihadi books.
He was then taken to the Rab headquarters in the capital and produced before the media.
Rasel was again brought to Tangail at about 11:30pm on Tuesday.