Bangladesh shutters main opposition newspaper amid fears of free speech crackdown

Journalists in Dhaka stage protest against the press council’s decision

The only newspaper run by Bangladesh's opposition party ceased publishing after the government suspended its licence, raising concerns about diminishing freedom of the press in the country.

The Dainik Dinkal, a broadsheet Bengali-language newspaper, which has been the mouthpiece of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for over three decades, did not print the daily on Monday.

The newspaper is said to employ hundreds of journalists and press workers, some of whom took to the streets in Dhaka in protest against the government's order.