Urgent Announcement: Don’t get scared

Mohammad Zainal Abedin: One terrifying ‘Urgent Announcement’ (written in Bengali) circulated in Facebook on behalf of RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) seems to be entirely fake and bogus if anyone analyzes it. Its contents, in brief, are as follows:

New system/process of communication is going to be introduced from tomorrow (no mention of day, date, month or year). The terms ‘from tomorrow’ are confusing and ambiguous. The synopsis of this urgent announcement said, ‘all calls will be recorded, which will be preserved, WhatsApps will remain under surveillance. Twitter will be scrutinized. Facebook will remain under observation. All social media and forums will remain under watching. All devices will be connected to the cabinet ministries. It suggested all to inform these warnings to their children, friends and relatives. …. Don’t forward any post or video. Refrain from posting anything about the government, Prime Minister, or regarding the current political situation. Police also circulated one press release (we did get it) under the caption … Cyber Crime … and told to take action. —– no picture on political and religious debate can be written or forwarded; etc. (This controversial circulation was written in Bengali in raw language. The clandestine writer/writers seem to be very poor even in Bengali.)

If anyone analyzes it, he may get the following or more loopholes:

1. RAB is not authorized to release such an announcement without prior permission from the higher authority. RAB is neither an independent nor even an autonomous body. It works under the ministry of Home Affairs.

2. There is no name of the concerned person (official) along with his designation, signature and date who released such a sensitive announcement. The person who first posted this circular did not mention its source of origin.

3. No electronic or print media carried this announcement. No journalists, intellectuals, even politicians hailing or condemning remarked on it, as if, none ever released or read such horrific news. It is an arranged fake story of some notorious gang aiming to befool and terrify the common people who are already scared of RAB for its infamous notoriety of human rights violation.

4. RAB must have read this announcement. But this organization, during its press briefing, did not comment on it. No journalists, during the press briefing, asked any question to RAB officials on the validity of the ‘announcement’. The Ministry of Home Affairs or ISPR are also silent.

5. RAB currently is under serious pressure. It is condemned all over the world for its human rights violation. Some highly placed officials are facing embargo by the US. The Sheikh Hasina government itself suffers from tension and uncertainty centering the issue. Under such a horrible situation when the government is anxious of its existence, it cannot further shrink the freedom of speech and communication in such a barbarous manner. So, RAB, even the government cannot take such a harsh and risky step at this moment.

But, sometimes, truth becomes stranger than fiction. The mysterious and questionable silence of the government centering the issue dismayed a cross section of people. Whenever any story condemning the atrocities and corruption of Sheikh Hasina Government and its beneficiaries is revealed in any print or electronic media, including social media, government agencies use so-called digital technology and move heaven and earth to nab and punish the perpetrators. Garrulous minister party cadres, pro-government intellectuals simultaneously gargle and prattle round the clock, but in this case all of them are mummed.

Independent observers believe such quietude role indicates that some hidden group nursed by the government or ruling party did this job to warn, terrify and scare the people of Bangladesh.

Government must either accept its responsibility or reject it outright and bring the perpetrators before the people. It has no other way to avert or avoid this blame that it is the architect of this drama. *

(Mohammad Zainal Abedin is a Bangladesh-origin journalist & researcher, who edits New York-based ‘Runner News’.)