It’s believed that a Pakistani YouTube user, Sham Idrees, instigated students’ safe road campaign in Bangladesh with a 1 minute 51 second video message.
He was accompanied by a girl who said that the government in Bangladesh was not allowing the students to protest the death of two students due to a road accident.
Excerpt from the video message:
Man: I am shocked that nobody wants to talk about it, nobody is talking about it; this is insane.
Woman: The road accident happened in Bangladesh and few students were killed. Other students from universities and campuses went to protest to let the government know that they need to make their roads safe and, instead of making their roads safe, people started going and killing these students, these innocent students from schools.
The woman also went on to say: they are ‘doing bad’ things to girl students and murdering them on the streets.
I saw a picture of a kid whose eyes were literally taken out.
Man: They completely shut down internet, telephone and any media outlet to get this news out. They are basically trying to hide this from the rest of the world. Innocent people are dying and nobody is doing anything about it.
At the end of the message, the girl appealed to all to disseminate the message. Meanwhile, Sham asked viewers to stand by innocent students.
Already 2.5 lakh people have seen the video, giving 5167 comments. At Sham’s Facebook page it was uploaded and seen 5 lakh 82 thousand times.
Sham is a Pakistani model, musician, blogger and You Tuber; he was contacted from Dhaka but did not respond.
Talking on the matter, IT expert, Tanvir Zoha, said: “the state can take measures in this regard, lodge a case by mentioning the IP address of the rumour monger.”
The police can also take help from Interpol; in addition, if YouTube is informed then they can also take steps.
DMP’s cyber-crime unit’s additional deputy commissioner, Nazmul Islam, told Bangla Tribune: “a person spreading false information can be brought to justice irrespective of his/her location.”
We are monitoring social media sites, he added.
After two students died in a road accident on Jul 29, nationwide protests began for safe roads and the movement was subverted by false news, fabricated incidents.
So far, five cases have been lodged at DMP under cyber security act and several persons arrested.