The law enforcement agencies’ personnel claimed that they are trying to figure out the sender of these messages that have been sent out since October, 13.
They, however, admitted that they need more time to solve the mystery and do not suspect anyone as of now.
Only the high profile citizens who had received death threats filed a general diary (GD) with the police while the others sadly refrain because they allege the law enforcement agencies do not take them seriously.
An activist in exile lamented on the law enforcement agencies’ apathy, saying: “We know very well that police will not take such complains seriously. Neither ours nor those of the high profile individuals who received death threats for speaking their minds.”
Dhaka Tribune found that at least 114 people – many of them intellectuals – have received death threats starting from May 2015 to April 2016. These threats were made mainly under the name of banned the militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team and Alkaida-A-Bangladesh Team 13.
Chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit Monirul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune that eminent citizens getting death threats is not a new development, these things have happened in the past as well.
“We are checking whether there is any militant link behind the threats. If any militant link is found we will take steps against it. We will also act if anything else is found in this regard,” Monirul added.
Since October 12, seven persons received deaths threats via text messages. All of these messages were sent from the same number (01629967551). The number is under the Airtel Bangladesh Ltd. network operator. The company declined to make any comments.
The number belongs to one Fayzur Rahman, the central publicity secretary of Bangladesh Awami Olama League.
An Islami outfit which recently gained publicity for making radical demands in April demanding the government cut down funding for Pahela Baishakh celebrations and divert the money to festivals like Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi instead.
They also demanded Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha be stripped of his position for being Hindu.
The incident cause the ruling party Awami league to face huge criticism for its involvement with the outfit.
On April 12, the ruling party general secretary Mahbub-Ul-Alam Hanif, said: “Awami League has no ties with the Olama League. Orders have already been given to take legal action against such organisations. ”
Although the statement was made to outline the party’s stance on the outfit, many leading figures of AL were seen attending the outfit’s programmes since then.
When asked is there any involvement of Awami Olama League, Monirul answered:“We suspect the original SIM card user is not linked with making these threats. Somebody else cloned his number and sent out those messages. However, we are still investigating and checking his activities too.”
Meanwhile, Fayzur claims that he had been falsely implicated in such threat accusation. In a statement he alleged that one Abdul Haque was sending out those messages.
Abdul Haque, however, is in custody and facing trial over using Fayzur’s number to threaten several ministers and MPs in 2013.
The recent death threats via cell phone were sent to Prof Anu Muhammad, Prof Morshed Shafiul Hasan, Prof Muhammad Zafar Iqbal and Prof Yasmeen Haque, secular writer and publisher Moinul Ahsan Saber, Imtiaz Mahmud and Director General of Bangla Academy Shamsuzzaman Khan.
Most noticeably Prof Anu is the only one to receive this kind of threat, twice.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
