Bangladesh detains journalists linked to toppled regime

Bangladesh remanded in custody on Tuesday two journalists and a writer accused of involvement in violence against the protests that ousted autocratic premier Sheikh Hasina last month, police said.

The accusations are the latest to be levelled against hundreds of former loyalists of Hasina's toppled regime and her Awami League party, which has seen former ministers and other ex-lawmakers accused of murder.

Press watchdog Reporters without Borders said last month that at least 25 journalists had been detained in connection with alleged violence towards protesters, condemning the arrests as "systematic judicial harassment".

Cases of alleged murder against all three were brought by relatives of protesters killed in the demonstrations.

Shyamal Dutta, editor of the Bhorer Kagoj daily, was remanded in custody for a week, in a murder case filed in Bhashantek police station in the capital Dhaka, station chief Foysal Ahmed said.

Mozammel Babu, editor-in-chief of private Bangladeshi broadcaster Ekattor TV, was remanded in custody in Ramna police station in Dhaka, officer-in-charge Golam Faruk told AFP.

Both outlets were seen as having been supportive of Hasina.

Writer Shahriar Kabir was also arrested and held in Ramna station, Faruk said.

Kabir was a leading voice calling for the trial of political leaders opposed to Hasina in a war crimes tribunal widely seen as a means to eliminate her opponents.

Hasina's government was accused of widespread abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of political rivals.

Bangladesh endured weeks of student-led protests that resulted in Hasina fleeing to India by helicopter on August 5, ending 15 years of autocratic rule.

More than 600 people were killed in the weeks leading up to Hasina's ouster in early August, according to a preliminary United Nations report that said the toll was "likely an underestimate".

A UN fact-finding team on Monday began gathering evidence in connection to the violence during protests, appealing for submissions for its report aimed to "identify responsibilities (and) analyse root causes".

Hasina, 76, was replaced by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is leading the country's interim government towards expected elections.