The Ministry of Home Affairs on Saturday formed a five-member committee to probe into the custodial death of writer Mushtaq Ahmed.
The committee was asked to submit probe report within four working days, the ministry today said in a notification issued in this regard.
The writer, arrested in May last year in a case filed under Digital Security Act, passed away at Kashimpur High Security Prison, Gazipur on Thursday.
Headed by Tarun Kanti Shikder, additional secretary of the security services division at Home Ministry, the other committee members are Abul Kalam, additional magistrate of Gazipur district, Md Zahangir Kabir, the deputy inspector general (DIG) of prisons, and Dr Kamrun Nahar, assistant surgeon of Gazipur district jail. Besides, the home ministry's security services division deputy secretary Arif Ahmed will perform duty as member secretary at the committee.
The notification said inmate of Kashimpur High Security Prison, Gazipur Mushtaq Ahmed, 53, was sent to hospital for better treatment on February 25 after he had suddenly fell unconscious. The on-duty doctors at the emergency department there declared him dead at night after examination.
News agency UNB adds: The 53-year-old writer, a businessman, was behind bars since May last year following his arrest in a case started by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on charges of spreading disinformation against the government on social media.
Calls for Mushtaq's release were widespread and sustained throughout his time in prison. Soon after his arrest, more than 300 dignitaries in Bangladesh issued a joint statement demanding his release, alongside cartoonist Ahmed Kishore.
Amnesty International reiterated the demand in a statement as recently as January, saying the duo (Kishore and Mushtaq) had been arrested "solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression."