Mushtaq Ahmed (writer)

In an interview with The Daily Star, cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore, Ahmed's co-accused, revealed that Ahmed was tortured in custody. Ahmed died on 25 February 2021, after collapsing in Kashimpur High Security Jail with low blood pressure. He was first taken to Jail hospital and later to Shaheed Tajuddin Medical College Hospital where the doctor pronounced him dead on arrival. According to the postmortem report, Mushtaq died naturally even though Mushtaq's lawyer and Mushtaq's co-accused Kishore claimed that Mushtaq was tortured. According to Mushtaq's lawyer Mushtaq was held in prison for nine months and denied bail despite being in poor health. He was buried at Azimpur graveyard.

Mushtaq Ahmed was an activist and used to write Facebook posts about contemporary socio-political issues. In one of his Facebook posts before his arrest in May 2020, Ahmed expressed his frustration about covid-19 pandemic management by Bangladesh Government and wrote, "When a society laments the loss of an economy more than the loss of human life, it doesn't need a virus, it's already sick."

On 6 May 2020, around 1:00am, Rapid Action Battalion-3 arrested Ahmed from his home in Dhaka for criticising Bangladesh government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in 10 Facebook posts and links. After 8 months, he was charged under the notorious 2018 Digital Security Act, though the act allows a maximum 105 days for completing investigation and submitting charges. Digital Security Act is alleged to be used in Bangladesh to crack down on political dissent. Around 2000 cases have been filed from 2018 to the beginning of 2021 under Digital Security Act.

Mushtaq Ahmed (Bengali: মুশতাক আহমেদ; 5 December 1967 - 25 February 2021), popularly known as Kumir Bhai, was a Bangladeshi dissident, writer, and entrepreneur. His pen name was Michael Kumir Thakur. He founded the first ever commercial Crocodile breeding farm in Bangladesh. His book Kumir Chashir Diary was published in 2018. He was working on another book. He was accused with 10 others of sharing cartoons in social media posts criticizing the Bangladeshi government's corrupt and mismanaged response to covid-19 pandemic and was detained in pre-trial for almost a year. On 25 February 2021 he died in jail, after being denied bail 6 times.