Rapid Action Battalion arrested eight youths from the city's Mogbazar and Mouchak areas on Friday night, on charges of spreading rumours on social media centring the national election.

A team of Rab-2 conducted drives and arrested them with video editing software, laptop and mobile phones, said Mufti Mahmud Khan, Rab's legal and media wing director, at a press briefing in the city yesterday.

The arrestees were Jamaat-Shibir men and were involved in making provocative videos in an attempt to make the election questionable and controversial, he claimed.

They arrestees are: Mahmudul Hasan, 27; Abdullah Al Noman, 26; Abdul Kader, 28; Morshul Islam, 22; Saiful Islam Mithu, 29; Didarul Islam, 35; Arifur Rahman, 34; and Motahar Hossain, 21.

They used to make documentaries and parody songs and uploaded those on Facebook, YouTube and others websites, he said, adding they had undertaken a project worth Tk 47 lakh to spread propaganda.

A total 35 people have been arrested in connection with spreading election-related rumours, Rab said.