DHAKA, Bangladesh - Bangladesh has lifted a weeklong ban on the social networking website Facebook imposed in response to a page urging people to draw images of the Prophet Muhammad, an official said Sunday.
The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission ordered access to Facebook restored around midnight Saturday, and the site was available Sunday, said the commission's chairman, Zia Ahmed.
Facebook had removed the objectionable page, he said.
The ban was imposed because Facebook was carrying caricatures that might hurt the religious sentiments of people in Bangladesh, where about 85 per cent of the 150 million people are Muslim, Ahmed said earlier.
The commission said the U.S. company also agreed to remove "obnoxious" images of some of the country's political leaders, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader Khaleda Zia. It did not elaborate.
Nearly one million people in Bangladesh use Facebook, according to an estimate by the Bangladesh ISP Association.
Bangladesh was the second South Asian country after Pakistan to ban the site over religious concerns.
Pakistan lifted a court-imposed ban last Monday after an official said Facebook had apologized for the page deemed offensive to Muslims and removed its contents.
Many Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favourable ones, as blasphemous.
