DHAKA: A 15-year-old boy has become the latest person to fall foul of Bangladesh’s contentious internet laws after being arrested for criticising Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on social media.

Rights groups say the laws are used to silence dissent, with hundreds of people charged since 2018 for crimes including smearing the image of Hasina and other senior political figures.

Police in Bhaluka said on Wednesday they arrested Mohammad Emon at the weekend after a local official from the ruling party claimed the teen had “badmouthed ... our mother-like leader”. On Facebook, the teen had allegedly written that out of 100 taka ($1.20) paid in a new mobile phone tax, “35 to 25 taka has to be given to Sheikh Hasina as widow allowance because her husband is no more”.

Tofayel Ahammed, the local councillor who filed the case, said the teenager’s aggressive remark had agitated locals and that his parents supported the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2020