ROUNDUP: Cartoonist arrested in Bangladesh for blaspheming Islam

BangladeshI police have arrested a newspaper cartoonist over a cation to a cartoon considered blasphemous by Islamic clerics. officials said Wednesday.

The interim government was also considering banning the daily Prothom Alo (The First Ray) and putting on trial cartoonist Arifur Rahman, who was arrested overnight from his home in north Dhaka under emergency laws.

Sources in the Ministry of Religious Affairs said the cartoon tried to ridicule the Prophet Mohammed and his disciples.

Charges of blaspheming Islam, religion of an overwhelming majority in Bangladesh, were being brought, a judicial officer said.

The controversial cartoon was printed on the inside pages of the daily, known for its anti-fundamentalist stance. The publishers said all copies of the newspaper that hit the stands on Tuesday were seized by police.

Chief of the national mosque Maulana Obaidullah called on the government to arrest Rahman for conspiring to smear the image of Islam, and also demanded the publisher and editor be put on trial.

"The blasphemous daily must be banned for humiliating Islam," said Mufti Fazlul Huq Amini, chief of the Islami Oikkyo Jote (Islamic Unity Alliance) which was a member of the outgoing ruling coalition.

Amini gave the authorities until Friday to close down the daily, according to a statement in the media.

Tendering an unconditional public apology, the publishing company said it had withdrawn the cartoon and taken official action against those in charge of the feature pages.

Another Islamic cleric, Maulana Mohiuddin who publishes a right wing religious Monthly Mohammadi, also asked the government to put the cartoonist on trial according to Islamic laws. dpa af sc