Bangladeshi journalist detained, family and colleague say

A Bangladeshi journalist who has written about alleged human rights abuses by the country's security forces was detained early Friday, his wife and a colleague said.

Tasneem Khalil, a journalist at Dhaka's Daily Star newspaper, was picked up from his residence in the capital by four men in plain clothes, his wife Suchi, who uses one name, told The Associated Press.

Khalil's wife said the men told her that they were from the Joint Task Force, an army-led security force used by the military-backed government to fight corruption.

"The men said they were placing Khalil under arrest and taking him to an army camp in Dhaka," she said.

Zafar Sobhan, an assistant editor at the Daily Star, said Khalil was being held without any charge or warrant.

"We are trying to find why he is being held and who are actually holding him," Sobhan said.

Khalil, 26, also works for New York-based Human Rights Watch and runs his own Web site. His colleagues said he recently posted articles on the site criticizing the army and the security forces for alleged human rights abuses.

Officials from the security forces and the government were not immediately available for comment.

Human Rights Watch voiced its concern about Khalil and demanded his immediate release.

"We are extremely concerned about Tasneem Khalil's safety," Brad Adams, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "He has been a prominent voice in Bangladesh for human rights and rule of law, and has been threatened because of that."

Bangladesh has been under a state of emergency since Jan. 11 when street violence over delayed national elections left more than 30 people dead.

According to Bangladeshi human rights groups, the military-backed government has used the emergency powers to arrest thousands of people. They said many of the detainees were picked up at night and then tortured.

Journalists in Bangladesh are often threatened, assaulted or even killed for writing about political violence, corruption or organized crime.

At least 11 journalists have been killed and dozens maimed in the South Asian nation since 1997, media rights groups say.