While the entire world knew Bangladesh was witnessing protests by students demanding reform in quota-system in government jobs, in reality, thousands of members of Al Qaeda connected Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), ultra-Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) alongside their armed cadres and Pakistani ISI-trained terrorists were continuing total mayhem targeting public-private properties, key-point installations, police stations, prisons, members of law enforcement agencies and unarmed civilians.
At the very first hour of this unimaginable cruelty, BNP-Jamaat cadres, along with their Islamist-jihadist cohorts set fire to Bangladesh Television (BTV) – state-owned television station, vandalised and looted valuable equipment, and obstructed fire service from extinguishing fire. They also physically assaulted staff members of this key-point installation.
Almost simultaneously, hundreds of BNP-Jamaat cadres ransacked and vandalized the national data center, destroyed fiber optic connections and set fire to the entire building resulting in the collapse of Internet services throughout the country. Later it was revealed, that BNP-Jamaat wanted first to cut off Bangladesh from the rest of the world and then by capturing BTV – proclaim the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government and announce the establishment of Sharia rule in the country.
During interrogation, several cadres of BNP and Jamaat told law enforcement agencies that the entire mayhem was directly controlled and coordinated by BNP’s acting chairman and convicted terrorist Tarique Rahman, who has been living in London since 2007. Preparations for implementing the blueprint of unseating the government, assassinating Sheikh Hasina and turning Bangladesh into a Sharia nation began immediately after the January 7, 2024 general elections, which was boycotted by BNP.
It was also revealed, BNP entered into an agreement with Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus for making him president by turning Bangladesh into “Islamic Republic of Bangladesh”. In return, Yunus pledged to get support of the Biden administration towards the “Islamic Republic of Bangladesh”, by using the influence of Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as several influential figures in the Democratic Party.
Meanwhile, Tarique Rahman sought Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) in “unseating India’s puppet regime” in Bangladesh. He also promised Islamabad to cancel the recently signed agreement between Dhaka and New Delhi through which India shall use Bangladesh land for rail and road transit to connect the rest of the country with its northeastern regions.
During the mayhem of the Islamist-terrorist nexus, which began on July 18 public and private properties worth billions of dollars have been rampaged and set on fire, BNP-Jamaat nexus as well as its Islamist and jihadist cohorts brutally murdered several members of Bangladesh Police as well as Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). Their cruelty was so intense that dead bodies of the members of law enforcement agencies were hung on flyovers in Dhaka as well as other parts of the country.
It was such a horrific situation that cannot be described in words.
Meanwhile, Islamists and militants attacked Narsingdi Jail – at the eastern part of the country, killed prison guards, looted weapons and ammunition and released 834 convicted prisoners, including 6 members of Ansar Al Islam – a local franchise of Al Qaeda. According to media reports, attackers looted 56 Chinese rifles, 19 shotguns and over 8,500 rounds of ammunition. Until now, over 770 convicted prisoners, including 7 members of Ansar Al Islam and 2 members of Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) are at large.
It is anticipated, these jihadists may try to enter India by crossing the border as Ansar Al Islam has several secret camps and bases in West Bengal. It may be mentioned here that these militancy outfits are connected to Al Qaeda and Islamic State respectively.
In other prisons in Bangladesh, various militancy outfits including Ansar Al Islam, Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) and Harkat-ul-Jihad (HuJI) were preparing for this gruesome terrorist act for months, while despite the publication of reports in the media, prison authorities did not take any measures against such dangerous activities.
Taking advantage of internet outage, members and activists of Al Qaeda-connected Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), Hizbut Tahrir and jihadist forces in several countries, including the United States, Britain, EU nations, Malaysia, and Middle East began spreading disinformation on social media with the ulterior motive of misleading Bangladesh expatriates as well as international communities.
To give credibility to such gruesome propaganda and disinformation drive, culprits also circulated photoshopped or doctored photographs of front-pages of local dailies with concocted information, thus generating confusion and fear within Bangladesh expatriates and others.
Meanwhile, according to several credible sources, at least 350 well-trained terrorists entered Bangladesh during the holiday of Eid Ul Adha with the target of joining subversive and terrorist acts throughout Bangladesh, which they codenamed ‘Bangla Spring’. These terrorists were secretly trained by Pakistani spy agency Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) within various training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). A significant portion of these trained terrorists belong to Stranded Pakistani Biharis in Bangladesh, who were sent to Pakistan for training under the supervision of BNP and Jamaat.
The source further said, some of these terrorists are given special commando training while there also are experts on making explosives. It said, at least one dozen Stranded Pakistani Biharis in Bangladesh are suicide attackers.
Another source said, from the first week of June, under the direct instructions of convicted terrorist and acting chairman of Al Qaeda-connected Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), leaders of this party, including members of it executive and advisory committee donated BDT 1.5 million to 50 million each in the “special fund” for “implementing anti-government movement” and “unseating Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina”. Party’s jailed chairperson Khaleda Zia’s former press secretary has been working as coordinator of this fund collection while collected funds were handed over to a BNP leader, who owns a private television channel. While receiving donations from party leaders through Khaleda Zia’s press secretary, the owner of the private television alone has donated over BDT 150 million. He also arranged temporary shelter for the ISI-trained terrorists in different parts of the country.
According to the source, alongside BNP and Jamaat, members, trained armed cadres of outlawed militancy outfit Hizbut Tahrir took part in destructive and terrorist activities throughout the country since July 17, while hundreds of its activists began massive propaganda through social media platforms, especially Meta (formerly known as Facebook) and ‘X’.
It said, in London and New York City, dozens of BNP members also joined online propaganda by spreading disinformation and instigative contents. A very large number of the members of Dhaka’s entertainment industry, including those who have received numerous types of benefits from the Awami League government during the past fifteen years also joined online propaganda against ruling Awami League and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and circulated extremely offensive posts as well as images and video contents of social media.
Meanwhile sitting in prison, a death-row prisoner and senior officer of Bangladesh Army started communicating with several officers by using encrypted communication apps and circulated provocative materials with the call for “sepoy-officer revolt” against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Awami League government.
As Bangladesh successfully fought and foiled this Islamist blueprint of turning the country into a neo-Taliban state, with active participation of the members of law enforcement agencies alongside Bangladesh Army, the defeated Islamist nexus has now mobilized a large number of cyberterrorists, including David Bergman, Shahidul Alam, Tasneem Khalil, Lt Col (sacked) Shahid Uddin Khan, Pinaki Bhattacharya, Zulkarnain Saer Khan Sami and others in spreading vile propaganda alongside doctored images and deepfake videos on social media with the ulterior agenda of mislead international community, including media outlets.
For journalists in particular, those four days without the Internet were terrible, as we were cut-off from the rest of the world. Even after the resumption of the internet on July 24, the speed is extremely slow – much-slower than 2G, while using communications apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram etcetera are almost non-functional. Government has imposed a temporary suspension of Facebook and TikTok, as vested interest groups mainly use these platforms in spreading disinformation, fake news as well as disturbing propaganda stuff.
For the Bangladesh government, one of the biggest challenges is fighting disinformation and fake news alongside rumours on social media as well as a section of Western media outlets. Such propaganda campaigns on social media and Western media are clearly aimed at tarnishing the image of Bangladesh as well as putting the ruling Awami League government and the country’s law enforcement agencies and Armed Forces into trouble. Although the Awami League government has succeeded in foiling the recent attempts of the BNP-Jamaat nexus to capture power by unseating Sheikh Hasina, the coming days may bear much harder challenges as BNP-Jamaat is adamantly looking to return to power.
