Rasraj remanded, his phone to be tested

Senior Judicial Magistrate Sultan Sohag Uddin gave the order after Nasirnagar police produced Rasraj, 30, before the court seeking his seven-day remand in a case filed under the ICT Act. SI Mohiuddin Ahmed Sumon filed the case Saturday night, hours after the youth was caught by local radical Muslims and beaten up for the Facebook post shared on his timeline on Friday. The post was, however, removed after his friends informed him about it. Meanwhile, Brahmanbaria police said that they would send the mobile phone, seized from Rasraj, to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for forensic test. “We have received the court order today [yesterday]. We will send the mobile phone to the CID in Dhaka on Saturday or Sunday,” Brahmanbaria Superintendent of Police Mizanur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday. Locals close to Rasraj have said that the youth who owns a fish farm in the area is an illiterate person and does not know how to operate Facebook. His friends opened the account and used to post contents on his behalf. Those persons have not been identified yet. Following his arrest, local Islamist groups campaigned in the area using loudspeakers of the mosques asking all to attend a protest rally at Nasirnagar playground Sunday morning. From the rally, some 3,000 people later attacked and destroyed at least 12 temples and vandalised hundreds of houses in the nearby area leaving over 100 Hindus injured. They also looted valuables from the temples and houses. The mob was reportedly instigated by the local leaders of radical Islamist groups Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat and Hefazat-e-Islam, and several Awami League leaders. Dhaka Tribune has learnt that Rasraj’s Facebook profile was used by someone else, who shared the photo of Lord Shiva sitting atop the Kaaba, originally posted by a profile named Washim Bd. Over the same issue, radical Muslims of Madhabpur in nearby Habiganj district attacked two temples following a protest rally on Sunday. SP Mizanur said: “It is very difficult to say that Rasraj was not involved. The matter is still under investigation.” Meanwhile, the OC of Nasirnagar police, Md Abdul Kader, withdrawn by the Police Headquarters on Wednesday for negligence in duties, has been reinstated upon recommendation of local lawmaker Md Sayedul Haque.