Writers muzzled by Bangladesh's censorship

Muslims visit a stall at Amor Ekushey Book Fair in Dhaka on Feb. 19. The Supreme Court has banned two books and ordered their removal from the fair on grounds of hurting religious feelings. (Photo: Stephan Uttom/UCA News

Bangladesh's top court has banned two books by an atheist blogger for allegedly hurting religious sentiments in the Muslim-majority country that has seen a deadly rise of radicalism and brutal murders of bloggers and free thinkers in recent times.

The Supreme Court banned two books — Dia Arefin and Grandmother's Dictum — written by Darais Arag, an atheist blogger, on Feb. 26 and ordered them to be removed from Amor Ekushey Boilmela, the country's largest annual book fair.

The court also ordered Bangla Academy, the organizer of the book fair, to cancel the stall of Sristhighar, the publisher of the books.

The order was in response to a petition filed by lawyer Azharullah Bhuiyan. "The contents of both the books hurt religious beliefs and an individual's choice of clothing. The contents could incite communal riots in the country," Bhuiyan told journalists.

Officials of Bangla Academy, the state-run autonomous body for promotion of Bangla language, literature and culture, said the books had already been removed after they found "objectionable materials." They added that Sristhighar was not allocated a stall and they stopped the illegal selling of the books from other stalls.

The court decision has not gone down well with supporters of free speech.

Dark clouds hang over Bangladesh judiciary and democracy

Surendra Kumar Sinha, former Chief Justice of Bangladesh Supreme Court (Photo: Dhaka Tribune)

A Bangladeshi photographer in late July took a shot of a crow flying into a dark storm cloud over the nation’s Supreme Court building.

The photograph, beautiful in itself, came to be seen as both prophetic and highly symbolic.

This was because Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, 66, was subsequently forced to resign, two months before his due retirement, after a government campaign of character assassination.