Published on 12:00 AM, March 07, 2013

Banglastan!

"In this subcontinent, if we [Bangladesh] and Pakistan unite, we won't have to care about Malaun [Hindu], atheist and Nasara [Christian]," says a Facebook post of Basher Kella posted on Sunday.
"We will name this Islamic country as Islamic Republic of Banglastan or join with Pakistan where only Muslims will live," it adds.
The administration of Basher Kella, which is run by Jamaat-Shibir activists, also asks the followers of the page to hit the like button should they like the idea.
Through various posts, the page has been instigating communal violence in the wake of continued attacks on the minority communities over the past one week.
Homes and temples of Hindus and Buddhists were vandalised, burned and looted by Muslim fanatics in parts of the country since February 28, the day Jamaat leader Sayedee was given the death sentence for war crimes.
The Facebook page is also continuing a smear campaign, blaming Chhatra League and Jubo League activists for the attacks on the minorities, claiming Jamaat-Shibir men innocent.
Moreover, Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir yesterday published advertisements in some newspapers, including Amar Desh, Sangram and Naya Diganta, asking the government to find those behind the attacks.
Observers say Jamaat-Shibir bloggers are now coming up with stories of dginn (a type of spirit) and feresta (angel), thinking it would work like the propaganda of Sayedee's face being seen on the moon did.
In some posts the Basher Kella administration is trying to build confidence, saying many dginns and Ffrestas are taking part in Jamaat-Shibir processions. "So nobody can defeat us."
Last night, one Facebook user named Bangladesh Islami Chhatri Sangstha of Jamirtoli, Laxmipur, claimed to have seen a Jamaat-Shibir rally where many such spiritual creatures participated.
“In the Shibir procession, I saw faces of some participants were glowing and they were not walking, they were flying. I immediately realised that they were not human beings, they were dginns and ferestas,” the post says.
Currently, as the page shows, over 100,000 users are following and visiting Basher Kella, which the Jamaat-Shibir describes as its alternative media to give directions to activists.
On February 28, for example, the page instructed the Jamaat-Shibir men as to how they can go about the next day's countrywide violence.
Among the 10-point suggestion were uprooting rail lines, snapping road communications between Dhaka and other district by barricading, setting fore to homes of all lawmakers and ministers, spreading smear campaign against police and attacking law enforcers and journalists.
The page also praises BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia for not meeting Indian President Pranab Mukherjee during his visit.
Khaleda's not meeting Pranab has boosted Jamaat-Shibir's confidence a 100 times, it added.
“If she [Khaleda] continues this way, the government will fall by this month," says a letter, addressing Khaleda, uploaded on the page early Tuesday.
In another letter, the BNP chief was asked to send her party leaders to go underground to avoid arrests.
Some posts ask followers to boycott Prothom Alo, the largest circulated Bangla daily, and private television channel Ekattor as they are "agents of Malaun" (Hindu).