BTRC asked to remove controversial videos
A police investigation has revealed that sermons of at least three local Islamic preachers encouraged some youths to get involved in militancy.
Following analysis of the confessional statements of detained militants, Director General of Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) Banaj Kumar Mazumder in a letter recommended last month that the police headquarters take steps to remove all their sermon videos from YouTube, said sources.
The home ministry has already asked the BTRC to remove the videos. The BTRC chief would hold a meeting with technicians and experts at his office today on how to block these contents.
The preachers in question are Mufti Jashimuddin Rahmani, chief of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team, Abdur Razzak Bin Yusuf, a former teacher of Al Markajul Islami As-Salafi Madrasa of Nawdapara in Rajshahi, and also linked with Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh (Ahab), and Maulana Tariq Munawwar, of Islami Kalyan Parishad, added the sources.
Of the three, Rahmani is now in jail. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment last December for his involvement in the killing of blogger Rajib Haider in February 2013, the first in a series of blogger killings.
The other two are supposedly in the country.
DG PIB Banaj told The Daily Star yesterday that they found that youths get radicalised listening to sermons of the orators.
"The youths who were detained by law enforcers admitted during interrogation that they got influenced by their sermons," he said.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) received the request in June, said its Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood.
Talking to The Daily Star, he said they requested Facebook to remove their sermons since those are available on the popular social media platform as well.
The BTRC was also asked to remove the new “IS” video threatening fresh attacks in Bangladesh.
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