BNP-Jamaat Rumour Mill Working Overtime to Enact Violent Regime Change Using Students

The Quota Movement has lost steam following the main demand being met. Normalcy is returning to Bangladesh. But BNP-Jamaat’s infiltration has already resulted in a lot of deaths and destruction. The Students Against Discrimination (SAD), the main coordinating body of the Quota Movement, has already made their intentions clear, their’s is a non-political platform. Due to third parties taking advantage, they have already withdrawn all their programmes. But the third-party, i.e. BNP-Jamaat, is trying desperately to instigate the students further through rumours and fake news. Even the BNP’s official social media pages are instigating students through manufactured content.

An analysis of social media posts from 29 July, 2024 show that BNP-Jamaat have been active in social media regarding the programme announced by a second-tier segment of SAD. For instance, while violence did not take place anywhere, they publicised that:

1. Clashes at ECB Chattar:
2. Road blocked at Mirpur:
3. Mohammadpur roads blocked by students:
4. Using old videos to show crowds at roads:

They also played old videos as from Monday in their pages etc. But the general students did not come out on to the streets. Hence, the few BNP-Jamaat activists who did come on the streets could not mount an effective challenge. Their calls were not heeded. There was heavy security on the streets, despite relaxed curfew hours.

BNP’s page published a ”list” of 266 victims of recent violence, although the name ‘Rudra Sen’ itself appears multiple times on such list:
Additionally, large number of victims have been listed as ‘unidentified’:

During the difficult times the country faced, BNP-Jamaat used their social media pages to fuel rumours about the death-toll, used pictures from elsewhere as being dead bodies of protesters, and used police videos from other incidents as being from the student protests. Deep-fake videos of police officials were also used to incite hatred against law enforcement agencies. Even India was not spared. They even spread the rumours that Indian soldiers had entered Bangladesh and that dead bodies from Bangladesh were being disposed off in India:

While the majority of the general people of Bangladesh, already acquainted with BNP-Jamaat’s lies, did not believe these rumours for the most part, but it is still concerning that fake news is being used so blatantly to incite the students further and resist the restoration of peace and normalcy in Bangladesh. This includes sharing doctored statements from junior officers of Bangladesh Army:

Additionally, army training videos have been used as being army action against students protesters. More rumours were spread about “revolts” inside the army:

These led to the Inter Services Press Services-ISPR (the communications arm of the armed forces) issued a press release saying that the army is deployed to ensure the security of people and properties. It also warned people against fake news manufactured to tarnish the image of the armed forces:

Analysts are of the opinion that three coordinators of SAD are being used by BNP-Jamaat to muddle the improving situation using the Quota Movement as a cover. These three coordinators were basically assistant-coordinators, not policymakers. They have issued nine demands, including resignation of some ministers, and pledged to continue their movement notwithstanding the withdrawal of programmes by the top six coordinators. However, it seems that general students are not interested to follow these self-styled spokespersons in allowing BNP-Jamaat to wreak further havoc, as evident from their non-participation in the Monday programme.

In an online press conference over Google Meet on Saturday, tougher programmes in future was pledged by a certain Mr. Md. Abdul Hannan Masud, who claimed to be a coordinator of SAD. Among others, assistant coordinators Mahin Sarkar and Rifat Rashid were present. Known saboteur and manufacturer of fake news to destabilise Bangladesh, Tasneem Khalil, was also present during the meet. He fled Bangladesh in 2007 due to his misdeeds, long before Awami League came to power at the end of 2008. He took political asylum in Sweden. From his Swedish, Khalil has been continuously trying to destabilise Bangladesh, in conjunction with foreign agencies, in the name of activism-journalism. His NED-funded “Netra News” has published a lot of confusing materials on Bangladesh, including spreading panic with unsupported evidence during the Covid-19 pandemic.

But no other foreign journalists were present at the press meet, although there are Bangladeshi correspondents of BBC, AFP, AP etc. Their absence and Khalil’s presence give further credence to the suspicion that these self-styled spokespersons are simply helping BNP-Jamaat enact violent regime change using the students’ movement as a cover. On the other hand, the main coordinators who have withdrawn their programmes, have stated once they realised that the quota protests were being used by a certain political force for their own agenda, they were no longer on the streets.

This is why these three self-styled spokespersons appear fishy: One of the three, Rifat Rashid went live directly from the official page of Chhatra Dal (student wing of BNP). Md. Abdul Hannan Masud is the joint-secretary of the Dhaka University unit of Nurul Hoque Nur (opposition leader)-linked ‘Gono Odhikar Porishod’. Additionally, none of those who are currently trying to take leadership of SAD are general students. They are all linked with various opposition-party linked organisations.

Students were protesting against quotas in government job since the beginning of this month. Subsequently, the Prime Minister was misquoted to create a political tension between the ruling party and government and the protesting students, who until then were all on the same page regarding quota reforms. Using the students as a cover, widespread destruction was carried out throughout the country. Chhatra Dal, which was until 15/16 July active only in the protests at Dhaka University, started infiltrating all units/locations of the protests from 18 July following the declaration of BNP acting-chief Tarique Rahman on 17 July. As part of their designs, they mobilised their activists in private universities, and facilitated the infiltration of outsiders/non-students all across the protest locations/points.