<p>The private channel, Banglavision, ran the first episode in its three-part series on hangman Babul Miah last week but said it now would not show the remaining two programmes.<br /><br />"We were summoned to the Information Ministry and told to stop," a Banglavision official told AFP on condition of anonymity.<br /><br />Miah, who has hanged nine people since he started working as an executioner seven years ago, was trained for the job when he himself was in prison for murder.<br /><br />After being convicted when aged only 16, he was released in August having served 21 years of a 30-year jail term -- including 18 months time-off for working as a hangman.<br /><br />In January, he became famous nationwide when he hanged five men convicted of killing the country's founding leader Sheikh Mujib in 1975.<br /><br />Bangladesh has executed 411 people since the country gained independence in 1971. All hangmen are prisoners or former convicts who are trained in jail for the job.<br /><br />Miah, speaking from his village in Netrokona district in northern Bangladesh, told AFP today he was delighted to have been on television and was not aware that the series had been halted.<br /><br />"I was honoured they made a television show about me and let me tell my story. I did not know it had been cancelled," Miah, 37, said.<br /><br />"I was overwhelmed with joy that I hanged the killers of Bangabandhu (Sheikh Mujib). My father liked Mujib very much."<br /><br />Miah said he felt no remorse except when one prisoner cried and pleaded with him to spare his life.<br /><br />"That was the only occasion I felt terrible," he said.<br /><br />An announcement on the bottom of Banglavision's broadcasts today announced that the show would not be aired as scheduled that evening for "unavoidable reasons".<br /><br />"We have said that this kind of programme is detrimental to children's well-being," national prison chief Ashraful Islam Khan told AFP. "It can create bad impression."</p>
<p>The private channel, Banglavision, ran the first episode in its three-part series on hangman Babul Miah last week but said it now would not show the remaining two programmes.<br /><br />"We were summoned to the Information Ministry and told to stop," a Banglavision official told AFP on condition of anonymity.<br /><br />Miah, who has hanged nine people since he started working as an executioner seven years ago, was trained for the job when he himself was in prison for murder.<br /><br />After being convicted when aged only 16, he was released in August having served 21 years of a 30-year jail term -- including 18 months time-off for working as a hangman.<br /><br />In January, he became famous nationwide when he hanged five men convicted of killing the country's founding leader Sheikh Mujib in 1975.<br /><br />Bangladesh has executed 411 people since the country gained independence in 1971. All hangmen are prisoners or former convicts who are trained in jail for the job.<br /><br />Miah, speaking from his village in Netrokona district in northern Bangladesh, told AFP today he was delighted to have been on television and was not aware that the series had been halted.<br /><br />"I was honoured they made a television show about me and let me tell my story. I did not know it had been cancelled," Miah, 37, said.<br /><br />"I was overwhelmed with joy that I hanged the killers of Bangabandhu (Sheikh Mujib). My father liked Mujib very much."<br /><br />Miah said he felt no remorse except when one prisoner cried and pleaded with him to spare his life.<br /><br />"That was the only occasion I felt terrible," he said.<br /><br />An announcement on the bottom of Banglavision's broadcasts today announced that the show would not be aired as scheduled that evening for "unavoidable reasons".<br /><br />"We have said that this kind of programme is detrimental to children's well-being," national prison chief Ashraful Islam Khan told AFP. "It can create bad impression."</p>