Bangladesh journalist arrested over ‘fake news’

DHAKA— ABangladeshi journalist was arrested and another was on the run Wednesday for publishing “false information” about voting irregularities in an election won by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, police said. Hedayet Hossain Mollah, who works for the Dhaka Tribune newspaper, was detained Tuesday under a controversial digital security law. Mollah was arrested in the southern Khulna region after he reported that in one constituency 22,419 more ballots than the number of registered voters were cast, local police chief Mahbubur Rahman said. “The actual votes cast were only 80 percent of the total votes,” Rahman told AFP, adding that Mollah was accused of “providing false information in an effort to make the election look questionable.” Mollah could face up to 14 years in jail.