Dhaka Papers hit by fresh death threats

Death threats have been posted in the comment sections of two explainers published by Dhaka Papers, a digital news outlet. Two days later, the outlet’s junior producer, Md. Rajekuj Zaman Juel, received another death threat in a voice message on Facebook Messenger. Dhaka Papers has filed a general diary (GD) with the police over the first incident.

On Wednesday (30 September), an account named Md. Babu Khan (facebook.com/Facebookmdbabukhan) posted death threats in identical wording in the comment sections of two explainers published on Dhaka Papers’ Facebook page. Dhaka Papers filed a GD at Gulshan police station on Friday (2 October) over the incident.

One of the two explainers that came under threat was titled “Osama bin Laden is now halal, and Sheikh Mujib is banned.” The other was titled “The story of a madrasa head becoming Jalaluddin Rumi, the wandering Sufi mystic.”

The threat, posted in flawed English on Wednesday, reads:

“Why are you hiding in a rat hole? If you have courage, walk around with your chest puffed out like ordinary people. And how would you even have courage—you are all India’s stooges! And how long have you been here? We have all your information. We know everything about what you are doing and not doing. But there is good news for you. Just a few more days, and then you will fall into our hands. After that, you cannot even imagine what we will do to you.”

On Friday, a voice message sent to Rajekuj Zaman Juel’s inbox contained a threat in connection with an explainer titled “Why extremism is created, how it is created, and what they actually want.” In the voice message sent from a Facebook account named “Aiyyub Ahmad,” producer Juel was abused in obscene language and threatened with death.

Juel, a third-year student at Dhaka University, and Dhaka Papers are preparing to take joint legal action.