NEWSPAPERS reported that one month into the attacks on law enforcers, a dozen houses of Hindus and a temple in Bhola’s Borhanuddin upazila, police are yet to identify the masterminds behind those or the “hackers” who broke into the Facebook page of Biplob Chandra Baidya. Four people were killed and over 100 received injuries when a group of religious bigots attacked police on October 20. According to information available, local police with the help of the Police Headquarters in Dhaka were carrying out an investigation to identify the “hackers”, but still couldn’t trace the culprits. Earlier, police filed a case under the Digital Security Act on the night of October 20 naming Biplob as the prime accused. The case was lodged two days after Biplob filed a general diary with the same police station, complaining that his Facebook ID had been hacked and hate conversations were spread through it.
Spreading hate speech targeting minorities through different social media including Facebook has become very common nowadays in many countries around the globe. Specially, in the countries of Indian subcontinent — where communal harmony is in fragile state – this technique is often used by the vested quarters to gain their personal interest. In Bangladesh, several incidents have been occurred in the recent years, including Ramu and Brahmanbaria, where Facebook was used as the main tool to spread hate speeches. And each time it was done by activating fake Facebook ID. We observed that the law enforcement agencies every time seemed helpless to nab the real culprits due to lack of expertise in handling modern technology. Another significant matter — unnecessary time was wasted in taking legal action against the perpetrators.
We do believe the police authorities would able to understand the panic and anxiety of the minority community members who have to face the brutality when religious bigots try to spread hate speech in different ways with an ill intention to harm religious harmony. So, early capture of the culprits is very much essential for the sake of maintaining rule of law in the country. We hope, the actual perpetrators of Bhola would be caught soon.
