Rangunia police on Tuesday night took a youth in custody, as an image offensive to Islam had been found on his facebook page.
The law enforcers, however, found the youth innocent as he had not uploaded the image; rather it was a series of technical issues involved in the incident.
Meanwhile, in connection with the Ramu violence, the High Court yesterday asked the government to explain in 12 hours as to why the detention of Uttam Barua's family members should not be declared illegal and why the detainees should not be released.
The youth taken in custody on Tuesday was identified as Nirjan Barua, 20, son of Mithu Barua of Sayedbari village at Rangunia upazila in Chittagong. He is an eighth-semester student of automobile department at Bangladesh Sweden Polytechnic Institute in Kaptai.
ASM Nizam Uddin, additional superintendent of police (ASP) of Hathazari circle, told The Daily Star that Nirjan had subscribed to a facebook page Uchcha Shikkhai Bidesh Jatra [Going abroad for higher education], where somebody had shared the anti-Islam image from another page named “I hate Islam”.
The ASP said Nirjan had found the image two to three days ago. Below the photo, he had written a comment to the page administrator to delete it because this kind of images would get the members of the page into trouble.
What Nirjan did not know that writing a comment on any other facebook page would show the whole content on his facebook page, the ASP added.
He said when some facebook friends of Nirjan had seen the image, they informed him of it. He immediately deleted the image from his page, but in the meantime, the news had spread in his locality.
On Tuesday morning, some locals went to his house to enquire about the image. He told them the whole story but could not convince them. In the evening, police came to know about the matter and called Nirjan to Rangunia Police Station around 10:00pm.
Police had checked the “activity log” of Nirjan's facebook account and found the comment with the image, said ASP Nizam, adding that police also found that he had deleted the image from his account.
The law enforcers were convinced that the youth was innocent but the locals could not understand the technical matters involved with the incident.
On Tuesday night, police called four of the locals, who had visited Nirjan's house, to brief them about what had actually happened. Of the four, one person has an account in the facebook.
“I explained to them how the image came to Nirjan's page by performing the same actions in my facebook account and convinced them,” said the ASP.
Since the issue is quite sensitive, police kept Nirjan in safe custody. They would free him once law enforcers became sure that nothing untoward would take place, said Monjurul Morshed, officer-in-charge of Rangunia Police Station.
HC ON UTTAM'S FAMILY MEMBERS
The High Court (HC) in a suo moto rule yesterday expressed anxiety over the detention of Uttam's mother and his aunt, if they had been arrested illegally and were not released by 10:30am today.
The High Court (HC) in a suo moto rule yesterday expressed anxiety over the detention of Uttam's mother and his aunt, if they had been arrested illegally and were not released by 10:30am today.
The bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik and Justice Farid Ahmed also asked the deputy attorney general (DAG) to inform it about the legal status of the detained members of Uttam's family by the stipulated time.
Madhu Barua, 40, mother of Uttam whose fabricated facebook page was used to stir up the September 29 attacks on the Buddhists in Ramu, and his aunt Adi Barua, 26, were arrested on the next day of the violence in connection with a case that was actually filed on October 1, a day after the arrest.
Anisha, two-year-old daughter of Adi Barua, is now in custody with her mother.
The HC bench passed the order verbally following the reports published yesterday in a few national dailies including The Daily Star over the detention of Madhu, Adi and Anisha.
It also said the rule would not be executed if the detainees were released by 10:30am today [Thursday].
Meanwhile, a Cox's Bazar court yesterday sent Madhu and Adi to jail after a day's remand cancelling their bail, reports our Chittagong correspondent.
DAG Amit Talukder told The Daily Star that he had informed the superintendent of police in Cox's Bazar of the HC order over the phone.
The inspector general of police (IGP) yesterday submitted a report to another HC bench saying that additional forces of police, Rapid Action Battalion and Border Guard Bangladesh had been deployed in Ramu to avoid further untoward incidents and so that the non-Muslim minority could perform their religious activities smoothly.
According to the IGP, a total of 211 people had been arrested in 16 cases filed in connection with the incidents and many of them had been placed on remand.
The bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo ordered the government to submit the investigation report on Ramu violence in two weeks.
A correspondent from Cox's Bazar reports that three more cases had been filed with Ukhia Police Station last night on charges of torching, vandalising and looting Buddhist and Hindu temples on September 30.
