DB arrests key man behind 'Basherkella'

Detectives have arrested KM Ziauddin Fahad, the alleged editorial administrator of Basherkella, a Facebook page that staunchly supports war criminals, propagates religious extremism and often attacks the state machineries through its posts.

Fahad has been described by the Detective Branch of police as the chief coordinator of the publicity wing of Islami Chhatra Shibir, student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami that vehemently opposed the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. A number of Jamaat top-notches are currently on death row or facing different terms of imprisonment for their crimes during the Liberation War.

Joint Commissioner (DB) Monirul Islam of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said Fahad had been arrested from his sister's house at Comilla Cadet College at 4:30pm on Thursday. A laptop and two cell phones were seized from his possession.

Fahad had been using different social media platforms to spread propaganda against the country's VIPs and renowned personalities, and also against the police, the Border Guard Bangladesh, the Rapid Action Battalion and the international war crimes tribunals, says a media statement of the DB.

According to the statement, Fahad using fake names used to run more than 50 Facebook pages, including Basherkella, Titumirer Basherkella, Basherkella USA, Awami Tribunal, BAKSAL Nipat Jak, I am Bangladeshi, Digital Rupe BAKSAL, BAN Bashkhali News-24, Islami online activist, Tarun Projonmo and Vision 2021.

Two of his most commonly used fake names were Biplob Darshan and Truth Fighter, the DB said.

Fahad led a group of 50 tech-savvy people, trained to run online propaganda by publishing doctored photographs, caricatures, misquoted or confusing statements of renowned personalities, and distorted facts, said Monirul Islam at a briefing at the DB headquarters yesterday.

"Through different posts, they tried to incite the armed forces and instigate mutiny in police," he added.

Fahad has been shown arrested in a case filed under the ICT act with Pallabi Police Station in the capital, DB sources said.

A Dhaka court yesterday placed him on an eight-day remand.

However, the Basherkella page, which has nearly 9 lakh followers, in a post termed the police claim a rumour, and said all its administrators including the chief admin were safe.

Meanwhile, Fahad's father Khondker Mohammad Samiuddin, who had been roaming around the DB headquarters for the past few days telling journalists that his son had been made to disappear, could not be reached on his mobile phone yesterday.

On Wednesday, he claimed to journalists that Fahad had come to his sister's place on March 3, and on Monday, some people posing as DB men picked him up from there.

A DUBIOUS PAST

The Daily Star talked to some journalists in Banshkhali and Chittagong to learn about Fahad's past.

They told this paper that Fahad was introduced to the Chhatra Shibir politics by his maternal uncle Shahidul Hoque, the Nayeb-E-Amir of Sadhanpur union Jamaat.

They said Fahad's cousins are accused in a number of cases filed over arson attacks in Banshkhali following a post on the Basherkella page, showing a doctored image of Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee's face appearing on the moon after a war crimes tribunal sentenced Sayedee in February 2013.

Fahad's father Samiuddin is the incumbent chairman of Banshkhali's Sadhanpur union parishad, where law enforcers busted a militant training camp and recovered a large cache of arms and ammunitions, including three AK-22 rifles, on February 22.

Neighbours and the journalists said rumour has it that Fahad was involved in running the training camp.

Samiuddin fought against the AL-backed candidate to become the Sadhanpur UP chairman. Three years ago, Samiuddin joined the Awami League, immediately causing a rift in the local unit of the ruling party, according to them.

During the last upazila election in Banshkhali, Fahad ran a large-scale propaganda campaigns against the AL-backed candidate and for the Jamaat-favoured candidate through his news site -- banshkhalinews24. com, they said.

"He would rarely visit his village and when he did, he wouldn't be available to talk to," said a local journalist, seeking anonymity.