DHAKA, Nov 26: A magistrate’s court in Dhaka on Tuesday sent two foreign journalists and two of their Bangladeshi associates on a five-day police remand for interrogation.

The two journalists are Zaiba Naz Malik, a British national of Pakistan origin, and Leopondo Bruno Sorentino, an Italian, both said to be working for the British Channel 4 television network.

The two Bangladeshi nationals with them were Prisila Raj, an interpreter, and Mujib, her driver. They had accompanied the journalists to a border crossing some 150 kilometres west of Dhaka.

The immigration police arrested them on Monday while they were crossing into India at the western Benapole border checkpoint.

The police claimed they had seized a video camera, some videocassettes and some other documents, which they alleged were “intended to tarnish the image of Bangladesh” abroad.

The magistrate gave police five days to question the four to ascertain the purpose of their visit to Bangladesh.

The judge said he had “no choice but to agree to the police request for a remand as the case involved subversion”.

British and Italian diplomats in Dhaka were present at the court.

According to a Bangladeshi contact of the two journalists, they had already spent two weeks interviewing a number of politicians, people’s representatives, human rights activists and some common people.

The Paris-based press watchdog, Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders, RSF), on Tuesday called for the “immediate release” of the two journalists, calling the arrests “a serious attack on press freedom”.

Channel 4 said in London on Monday night that the two journalists were working for an independent production house, Mentorn Midlands, and were on commission for its “Unreported World” programme.

The channel expressed concern over the situation.