Photo: Collected
A new CCTV footage has emerged showing two youths disseminating what appeared leaflets on BUET campus containing messages of banned militant outfit Hizbut Taharir reportedly asking students to abandon all western values and join crusade against westerners, according to campus sources.
The footage came to light within weeks after a group of students held a press conference following repeated death threats online and over the phone because they became vocal over clandestine activities of these "extremist groups" focused on the campus.
These students held the press conference following an email campaign sent on behalf of Hizbut in several phases, throughout March, where they asked students to take part in the fight to run the country in light of Khilafat and described BCL as the biggest enemy.
Dated February 19, 2024, the nearly 3- minute footage shows both youths with one carrying a bag walked through a narrow alley between rows of classrooms housed in civil engineering building.
Moments later, the duo turned around, with one stayed ahead to keep a tight vigil and the other brought out leaflets from his bag and passed those beneath the classroom doors locked back then, leaving for students to read messages once they appear in classrooms.
These students also asked the respective authorities to investigate how such outfits got hold of email accounts of students.
In addition to email campaign and leaflet distribution video, several students acknowledged that in past they found posters of Hizbut plastered on walls surrounding BUET.
Several students confirmed receiving the email and presence of posters that featured a QR code with messages from Hizbut.
Facebook pages affiliated with lobbyists and lawyers hired by family of Jamaat-e-Islami backed notorious war criminals were found spreading disinformation against those vocal against student front of Jamaat: Islami Chhatra Shibir, according campus sources who wished anonymity.
Actively took part in carrying out genocide in 1971, Shibir, renamed from Chhatara Sangha and reborn in 1977, began acting with a long-term main objective to establish Islamic society countering secular spirit of the country.
Self-style killing mission and cutting tendons of students who they deem rival are reported trademark of Shibir.
The outfit ranked as the third most active no state armed group in the work according to a U.S. based defence think tank IHS Jane’s global Terrorism and Insurgency index.
Earlier, in last June, as many as 24 students of BUET, activists and leaders of shibir were caught while plotting conspiracy against state in a remote haor area.
Local Jamaat leaders back then reportedly confirmed media over allegiance of detainees with Shibir. Even a former central president of Shibir in an interview boasted of having a large network of students on BUET campus.
The active presence of Shibir and other extremists on BUET came to the fore during war crimes trial back in 2013 when two students in a span of five months were brutally attacked reportedly for their stance for war crimes trial and extremist politics.
One student Arif Raihan Dip, hacked on the dormitory by a fellow student who ascribed that vicious ideologue in broad daylight, died of his wounds and another Tonmoy Ahmed, left to die after stabbed brutally by Shibir activists but survived the battle for life, now living with scars of horrific machete attack.
However, on social media an orchestrated attempt was underway to undermine the gravity of the crime by raising some unnecessary questions like why channels that on air the entire video did not add voice over.
A reality check reveals all the six channels that posted the video clearly attributed to the simple fact: cctv footage captures moments of distribution of leaflets in a covert manner.
A senior journalist who worked with a foreign outlet said “attempt to raise question over why so many channels telecast the same footage by multiple channels clearly runs out of fact and a deliberate act that can only help the cause of these extremist groups and the building is located on BUET. Running the same cctv footage is not problematic”.
On a recent post, Tonmoy pointed out “discussion on the activities of these outfits on BUET campus long remained a taboo coupled with a denial mood from respective segments added as advantage to these outfits.
DMP Deputy Commissioner (media and public relations) Faruk Hossain told media “ it is important to get full cooperation from students and teachers over activities of such extremist groups on the campus to ensure no student fall prey to these vicious group’s brainwashing. Unless there is cooperation from all quarters, it is difficult to check such activities”.
Messenger/Mumu
