A curious case of FB post

Three days after the hate attack on the Hindus over an alleged Facebook post, Brahmanbaria still reels from shock as police have yet to identify the masterminds behind the incident.

Many Hindus fled their homes fearing further attack.

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Law enforcers have so far detained 15 suspects, but their role is not yet clear in the incident that took place in Nasirnagar upazila.

“We are scrutinising some video footage to identify the culprits,” said Mizanur Rahman, superintendent of the district police.

Also, the local administration is yet to make a complete list of the victims.

However, Choudhury Moazzem Ahmad, Nasirnagar Upazila Nirbahi Officer, said they identified 14 community and family temples that were damaged in attack that lasted two hours.

The mayhem followed a Facebook post from the account of Rasraj Das, “hurting the religious sentiment” of the Muslims.

He is now in jail in a case filed over the post. However, before the attack and his arrest, he denied uploading the post and yet apologised for it.

Some locals said even if Rasraj had posted it, there were laws to try him.

"Police could have handled the issue carefully without letting the zealots fanning out the issue and attacking the people," said a Hindu man, asking not to be named.

Nur Khan, acting executive director of Ain o Salish Kendra, said, "There are laws against insulting religion. Legal actions could have been taken if anyone had actually insulted religion. But there is no scope of barbarity that just took place in Brahmanbaria."

Meanwhile, the Facebook page of Rasraj shows that the 27-year-old fisherman was not regular on the social networking site.

His Facebook wall shows only five public posts, the first of which appeared on June 27, which said Rasraj updated his profile picture.

Since then, only four photos were uploaded, the last one being on October 29.

One post shows a photo of a group of people on boats, apparently near a ghat.

Two posts, uploaded within minutes on October 22, have a photo of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy.

In another post, a young Hasina is seen crushing something on a stone grinder.

Rasraj, who quit studies at primary level, has 366 Facebook friends.

Friends and relatives suspect the post, which shows the idol of the Hindu God Shiva on the photo of Kaba, considered the holiest place in Islam, was uploaded by someone else.

According to them, it is unlikely that Rasraj has the skill to photoshop the picture.

They said his account might have been hacked.

His father and elder brother are also fishermen. His mother is a housewife and his only sister, aged around seven, stays home.

Jailer of Brahmanbaria Jail Abdul Bareq said Rasraj told them that he did not even know the password of his Facebook account and that some of his friends created the account for him after he bought a smartphone for Tk 5,000 four to five months ago.

"I just see photos of interesting and funny things as I only know how to scroll," the jailer quoted Rasraj as saying.

Armed with sticks and sharp weapons, religious zealots went on the rampage on the community on Sunday, vandalising their households and temples over the Facebook post.

In the attack, around 100 homes were vandalised and scores of people injured.

Victims alleged that the local administration did little to prevent the attack, though tensions had been high in the area since Friday.

The National Human Rights Commission yesterday formed a three-member fact-finding committee, which will visit Nasirnagar today, said Kazi Arfan Ashik, deputy director (admin and finance) of the NHRC.

A team of Hindu-Buddha-Christian Oikya Parishad will also visit the area today.

Led by Awami League Organising Secretary Enamul Haq Shamim, a four-member team visited the area yesterday and assured the affected people that the culprits will face the music.

Meanwhile, the police headquarters yesterday formed a four-member body to investigate the attack and report within seven days.