Bangladeshi police arrests editor of weekly which reported Hina-Bilawal 'love' scandal

Islamabad, Nov. 13 (ANI): Bangladeshi police have arrested the editor of an English weekly which had created a stir by reporting the 'love affair' between Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

The Pakistani Foreign Office had lodged a strong protest with the Bangladeshi Foreign Office over the publication of a series of false and frivolous reports by Weekly Blitz, involving Khar and Bhutto, reports The News.

The editor, Salahuddin Shoaib Choudhury, was arrested two days before Khar's November 10 visit to Dhaka.

According to sources, Choudhury is believed to have had a murky past.

Choudhury was reportedly arrested in 2003 and charged with spying for the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad. He is facing charges of sedition, treason, blasphemy and espionage for attempting to travel to Israel in violation of Bangladeshi Passport Act, which forbids citizens from visiting countries with which Bangladesh does not maintain diplomatic relations.

A British newspaper, the Telegraph, had later claimed that the rumour was all part of a plot by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to damage Khar's reputation because of her role in facilitating a UN investigation into thousands of missing people detained by the Pakistani security forces, especially in Balochistan.

However, an ISPR spokesman strongly refuted the contents of the Telegraph report the same day, saying the allegations were absurd and baseless.

He termed the effort involving the agencies rubbish and part of a propaganda campaign. (ANI)