Twenty-eight men have been arrested on suspicion of homosexuality in Bangladesh as gay sex is an offence in the Muslim-majority country, police said on Friday.
The Rapid Action Battalion unit of the police force picked up the men, aged between 20 and 25, from a community centre in Dhaka’s Keraniganj neighbourhood, said battalion commander Jahangir Hossain Matubbor.
“We have arrested them after locals complained that they (young men) use the community centre as a hang-out,” he said.
Officers found drugs, condoms and lubricants when they raided the place, Matubbor said, adding that most of the detainees were students.
They will initially face drug charges, he said.
Homosexuality was criminalized in Bangladesh under a British colonial era law and can be punished with life in prison.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community has long faced discrimination and rights abuses in the country. Two LGBT activists were hacked to death last year by suspected Islamist militants in Dhaka.
