'Rasraj did not upload the image on FB'

Rasraj Das, the Brahmanbaria fisherman now in jail, did not upload the anti-Islam image over which Hindu houses and temples were attacked in the district's Nasirnagar on October 30, Fisheries and Livestock Minister Sayedul Hoque said yesterday. 

The photo was posted from Dhaka, he said attributing the info to an “intelligence report”.

“Rasraj Das didn't upload that image demeaning religion in Facebook. According to an intelligence report, it was posted from Dhaka. The image is now in a forensic lab,” the minister told a press conference at a Nasirnagar school. 

Rasraj is a fisherman and an illiterate person and he dosn't  know how to upload an image, Sayedul also said, adding investigation is on to identify who had posted it.

He claimed that nobody else but a few people from Nasirnagar were involved in the conspiracy. Asked for names, Sayedul only said, “I have all along been facing them.”

This was the first time Sayedul, also the lawmaker from Nasirnagar, talked to the media since he went to the upazila from Dhaka three days after the October 30 attacks.

He drew a lot of flak for playing it down by saying the hate attacks were “not that serious” and that “only one or two incidents of looting took place”.

Besides, there was allegation that he used abusive words against Hindus. 

Mobs, including religious zealots and local goons, vandalised and looted over a hundred houses of Hindus and temples in Nasirnagar upazila headquarters and Haripur union during the three-hour mayhem.

It was over a Facebook image, purportedly in the account of Rasraj, “hurting the religious sentiment” of the Muslims.

Before his arrest, the 27-year-old claimed that he had nothing to do with the upload. He apologised for it anyway while relatives said the account might have been hacked.

The minister at the press conference trashed reports that the local administration and police had failed to tackle the Nasirnagar incidents. He claimed that they had taken necessary measures and brought the situation under control quickly.

He even said only two to three houses were torched.

But the administration itself in a survey found at least 58 families were affected and 17 temples were either damaged or looted when the mobs went berserk in at least eight Hindu-dominated areas that day.

Hours after the minister's statement defending the local adminstration and police, the public administration ministry issued a circular transferring Nasirnagar Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Choudhury Muazzam Ahmed and attaching him to the ministry before further appointment.

Later, UNO Muazzam told this correspondent that the transfer actually came as a blessing for him. He, however, did not say why.

On Thursday, the Police Headquarters withdrew the officer-in-charge of Nasirnagar Police Station, Abdul Kadir, following widespread criticism for failing to ensure security of the Hindus.

Local Hindu leaders have been demanding resignation of the UNO and the OC, alleging that both assisted in the organising of two protest rallies from where zealots and local goons carried out the attackts. Besides, the two didn't take proper precautionary measures to save Hindus.

Asked about the officials giving the two Islamist groups permission to hold the rallies, Sayedul said, “They [local administration and police] had tackled the incident very well at the beginning. The OC even suffered injuries.”

Protesting the Facebook post, one rally was staged by Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat at Nasirnagar College intersection, while the other by Towhidi Janata at Ashutosh Pilot High School.

Both the rallies began around 10:00am and continued till 2:00pm.  Many participants left midway through the rallies and took part in the three-hour attack starting from 11:00am, according to locals, police and sources in the administration.

Sayedul also denied the allegation that he made “derogatory remarks” on Hindus while meeting local minority leaders at the Zila Parishad Dak Bungalow after the attacks.

“I'll quit right now if any Hindu in the upazila can prove that I uttered abusive words against the community. I'm shocked over the allegation brought against me by the Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikkyo Parishad and Puja Udjapon Parishad,” he said.

“Even a child wouldn't believe that I will instigate communal violence by hurling abuse at Hindus in my own constituency instead of tackling the situation.”

The allegation, however, trigered a firestorme of protests in social media.

Cotroversy centring him reached such a level that top leaders of the ruling Awami League formally said the party will take organisational measures against the minister if anybody comes up with proof supporting the allegation.

Asked whether the attacks were the result of internal conflict of the local AL, Sayedul replied in the negative. “There's no conflict within the Awami League. A vested quarter carried out the attacks to demean me.”

The BNP-Jamaat men are involved in these incidents to create obstructions to the country's development, he added.

On Health Minister Mohammad Nasim's comment at a media breifing in the capital yesterday that local administration failed to tackle the incident, Sayedul said, “Mr Nasim has been wrongly briefed about the incident.

“Not Mr Nasim, I am at the spot.”

Syedul lambasted AL's Brahmanbaria district leaders for expelling three local AL men, known as his close aides, from the party for alleged involvement in the attacks.

He also claimed that journalists from Dhaka after the violence stayed at the name-only press club of Nasirnagar which used to remain closed for 24 hours.

“Who had provided the journalists with food and shelter?”

When journalists protested his statement, the minister said he was talking about “just some newsmen”. 

NINE MORE ARRESTED

Police after overnight drives arrested nine more people for suspcted involvement in the Nasirnagar attacks. With this, the number of arrestees in that connction stood at 53 yesterday.

The arrests were made based on several video clips of the incidents, Abu Zafar, newly appointed OC of Nasirnagar Police Station told The Daily Star.

The identities of the arrestees could not be known immediately.

Nasirnagar police also filed two cases over another attack -- torching of five Hindu houses in the wee hours of Saturday.

Also yesterday, Minister Nasim at a press briefing after a meeting of the AL-led 14-party alliance at the AL president's Dhanmondi office urged the local administration to take steps to ensure security of minorities.

The meeting decided to send a delegation of the alliance to visit Nasirnagar on November 9, he said.