A Bangabhaban official has been detained in connection with the hacking of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Dr Shafiqur Rahman’s verified X (formerly Twitter) account.
The individual has been identified as Mohammad Sarwar-e-Alam, an assistant programmer at the president’s office. He was detained by the Detective Branch (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) around midnight on Tuesday.
Confirming the development, DMP Additional Police Commissioner (DB) Shafiqul Islam said Mohammad Sarwar-e-Alam has been taken to the DB office for questioning. “Further legal action will be decided after interrogation,” he added.
Earlier, Jamaat-e-Islami demanded that the authorities submit an investigation report and update within 24 hours regarding the hacking incident.
On Tuesday afternoon, a delegation led by Sirajul Islam, a member of Jamaat’s central election management committee, went to Bangabhaban and submitted a written complaint.
According to Jamaat, Dr Shafiqur Rahman’s X account was hacked after 4pm on January 31, and an objectionable post was published at 4:37pm. The party’s central IT team regained full control of the account by changing the password at 5:09pm, followed by an emergency statement at 5:22pm informing the public of the breach.
A general diary (GD) was filed with the police that night, and details of the incident were shared with the media at a press conference the following morning, along with a presentation on the suspected source and method of hacking.
Jamaat alleged that its investigation found phishing emails were sent to multiple official email addresses, including a central official account, allowing control of the device to be compromised. The phishing email was reportedly sent from a government email address linked to Bangabhaban.
The party said it approached Bangabhaban directly to lodge a complaint after receiving no response from the authorities following the incident.
