On June 1, 2026, the Bangladeshi daily newspaper Amar Desh marked the sixteenth anniversary of its first forced closure in 2010. That night, armed police raided the Tejgaon printing press, halted production, seized printed copies, and sealed the premises after showing an order canceling the paper’s declaration. Simultaneously, hundreds of police surrounded the newspaper’s Karwan Bazar office, where editor Mahmudur Rahman and journalists resisted for hours before he was arrested at dawn. Several journalists were injured during the confrontation.

The 2010 shutdown followed Amar Desh’s investigative reports on alleged corruption involving senior government figures, which led to multiple lawsuits and attacks on its staff. The paper, founded in 2004, had gained popularity for its critical reporting under Rahman’s editorship. After ten days, a court order allowed it to resume publication, but Rahman remained imprisoned for months and faced repeated arrests and torture allegations.

Amar Desh was again closed in 2013 and resumed publication in December 2024 after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government. The anniversary article recalls the events as a symbol of press repression and resilience in Bangladesh’s media history.