Bangabhaban programmer in DB custody, no decision after 19hrs

Nineteen hours after being taken into custody, the Detective Branch (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) is yet to reach any decision regarding Mohammad Sarwar-e Alam, an assistant programmer at Bangabhaban.

Sarwar-e Alam was detained in connection with the hacking of Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Shafiqur Rahman’s X account (formerly Twitter).

Speaking to Prothom Alo at around 7:00 pm on Wednesday, DMP detective branch additional commissioner Shafiqul Islam said, “No decision has been taken regarding him so far. If any decision is made, it will be communicated. He remains in our custody.”

Sarwar-e Alam was picked up shortly after 12:30 am on Wednesday from government quarters on the eastern side of the Rajarbagh Police Lines auditorium and taken to the DB office. His mobile phone and laptop were seized at the time.

Jamaat-e-Islami has alleged that the hacking was carried out using Sarwar-e Alam’s official email account, through which a file was sent to the party’s email address, leading to the compromise of the ameer’s X account.

The party has filed a general diary (GD) with Hatirjheel police station regarding the incident.

DB sources said the issue of the Jamaat ameer’s hacked X account was discussed at a core committee meeting on law and order at the Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday. Law enforcement agencies were instructed to look into the matter.

According to the source, Jamaat-e-Islami also exerted pressure for Sarwar-e Alam to be brought under legal action. Against this backdrop, the DB detained him for questioning. However, DB officials are not yet confirmed about his involvement.

A senior DB officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Prothom Alo that the digital footprint collected so far indicates that the government email account used by Sarwar-e Alam had itself been hacked earlier. As a result, no decision had been taken by Wednesday evening on whether legal action would be initiated against him.

The controversy began on Saturday afternoon, when a post appeared on the Jamaat ameer’s X account. Part of the post read, “We believe that when women are pushed out of the home in the name of modernity, they are exposed to exploitation, moral decay and insecurity. It’s nothing but another form of prostitution.”

The post triggered widespread criticism on social media, which later spilled onto the streets in the form of protests. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and several other political parties and organisations accused the Jamaat ameer of making deeply offensive remarks about working women.

In this context, at 12:40 am early Sunday, Jamaat-e-Islami issued a statement on its official Facebook page, claiming that false statements had been circulated in the ameer’s name through a cyberattack.

The party also said that the social media accounts of several senior Jamaat leaders had been targeted.

Later, on Sunday morning, Jamaat held an emergency press conference at its central office in Moghbazar.

At the briefing, two members of the party’s Information Technology (IT) Cell, engineer Sirajul Islam and engineer Mahmudur Rahman, gave a presentation outlining how the ameer’s X account had allegedly been hacked.

Engineer Mahmudur Rahman demonstrated the alleged method of the cyber attack, claiming that it had been carried out using a government email address.

According to him, a file, purportedly containing election-related information, was sent to Jamaat’s email from the official address assistantprogrammar@bangabhaban.gov.bd. The sender was identified as Sarwar-e Alam, an employee at the President’s Office.

However, the BNP has expressed scepticism about Jamaat’s hacking claim.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, BNP election steering committee spokesperson Mahdi Amin said that legitimate questions arise over the sequence of events.

He noted that Jamaat claimed the account had been hacked nearly nine hours after the controversial post was published, and only after facing intense criticism, raising doubts about the credibility of the hacking claim.