The acting editor of Dainik Dinkal, a mouthpiece of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, suspended its publication on Tuesday, a day after the daily had received an order from the Dhaka district administration cancelling its declaration.
Dhaka district magistrate Mohammad Mominur Rahman, also Dhaka’s deputy commissioner, in an order stated on Monday that the authority scrapped the declaration of Daily Dinkal Limited as its publisher Tarique Rahman, also acting chairman of the BNP, had been staying abroad being convicted in criminal offence and without handing over his power to designated person for a long time.
The district magistrate cancelled the declaration under sections 10, 11, 16 and 20(1) of The Printing Presses and Publications (Declaration and Registration) Act, 1973.
The vernacular daily got the declaration on April 16, 2002.
On October 1, 2019, the films and publications department requested the district administration for cancelling its declaration.
The district office a week later asked the daily to explain why the publisher was not handing over his power to a designated person, and why the daily moved from its original place. But no explanation was submitted as of now.
The acting editor, Rizwan Siddique, told New Age that Tarique Rahman formally handed over his ownership to a designated person and submitted the letter to the Bangladesh High Commission in the United Kingdom in 2016.
He said that they showed a copy of the letter to the district magistrate earlier but still the declaration had been cancelled.
‘We received a verbal consent to continue our daily until we move for a legal battle but we stopped publishing from Tuesday as violating law may cause further trouble for us,’ said Rizwan.
According to the DFP, 247 dailies mostly little known are published from Dhaka, while Daily Dinkal, according to the government, used to publish 15,580 copies.