Prankster fools media

A prankster caught major private television stations off guard yesterday and made them air false news about the expansion of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's cabinet.
All major private TV stations around 11:30am had their news tickers saying something similar to "cabinet expansion today [yesterday]. Oath taking of new cabinet ministers and state ministers at Bangabhaban to be held at 5:30pm." One channel even used this information in its news bulletin.
The tickers stopped displaying the news around 1:00pm.
According to a senior journalist of a TV channel, their newsroom received a phone call from one "Emdad" claiming to be an official at Bangabhaban Secretariat. He asked the station to send journalists and camera crew to Bangabhaban at 5:30pm to cover the oath taking ceremony of new cabinet members in presence of Hasina.
As speculation on cabinet expansion has been going on for some time, the channel apparently did not bother to crosscheck the information and aired the news through its news ticker. Other TV channels and online edition of some newspapers picked this up and joined the league.
The news soon sparked public interest and by 12:30pm Bangabhaban officials started calling TV stations asking where they got the news from. They also said they were not aware of any oath taking ceremony.
Prime Minister's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad told The Daily Star that Hasina went to Bangabhaban to call on President Zillur Rahman to brief him on the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt.
Meanwhile, a large number of people started calling and rushing to the homes of some prospective political leaders, who could become ministers and state ministers, to know whether they received any official word yet. Many also called newspaper offices to know who got which portfolio.
Awami League Joint General Secretary Obaidul Quader told The Daily Star that he had to leave his home and virtually hide in his parliament office to avoid hundreds of people who thronged his house.
A few other leaders also had to make similar evasive moves.
Sources close to the prime minister told The Daily Star that the cabinet would be expanded and reshuffled soon.