The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) says it has detained a man over the cloning of major news sites, including Bangla Tribune.
The elite police unit said on Saturday (Nov 24) that they have arrested Enamul Haque, a Bangladesh Agriculture University graduate who is doing his PhD at a Korean university, for his alleged involvement.
Enamul’s family, however, reported to police on Friday (Nov 23) that he went missing from Dhaka’s Ashkona late on Wednesday (Nov 21), when left for the airport to a catch a flight to Korea.
“Enamul Haque cloned at least 22 news sites, including Bangla Tribune, Prothom Alo and BBC Bangla,” RAB-2 Company Commander Mahiuddin Faruqi told Bangla Tribune on Saturday (Nov 24).
According to the RAB officer, he used his Master Card to buy the domains from Bangladesh and uploaded the cloned sites from Korea.
“Enamul Haque graduated from the Bangladesh Agriculture University in Mymensingh, where he was involved with the (Islami Chhatra) Shibir. He later went to Korea for his PhD,” Faruqi said before adding that a large group of people based in Bangladesh, Korea and Italy are involved in cloning news sites.
A major portion of the revenue earned from the websites goes to the Jamaat-e-Islami’s student affiliate, Islami Chhatra Shibir, said the RAB officer. “Charges under the Digital Security Act will be brought against him with the Kamalapur Railway Police.”
Enamul’s family claimed that he was missing since 10pm on Wednesday when he left his Ashkona home for the Shahjalal International Airport to catch a flight to Korea, scheduled to take off three hours later.
His friends and relatives took to the social media on Thursday (Nov 22). In Facebook posts, they claimed that he was last seen around 10pm the previous day when the brother of one of his friend’s helped him to get a rickshaw for the airport.
Enamul’s relatives claimed of receiving a phone call on Thursday demanding a Tk 150,000 ransom for his release when the ‘abductors’ provided with a mobile phone number to send the money.
Tk 100,000 was transferred against the number, but when Enamul was not released the next day, a general diary was lodged with the Dakhsin Khan Police Station, they say.
Enamul, who hails from the northern district of Pabna, is doing his PhD at Kyungpook National University in Korea after graduating from the Bangladesh Agriculture University.
On Nov 14, Bangla Tribune received a rejoinder on a news report which was never published, when it was found that the content was uploaded on a clone website, “banglatriibune.com” (note the additional “i” in the URL).
The clone site used several contents published by Bangla Tribune with a fake news report on BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami’s election negotiations as the lead news.
On the night of Nov 16, Prothom Alo decried its own clone “prothomaalo.com.”
On Facebook, screenshots of a BBC Bangla clone from the URL “bbc-bangla.com” soon started making the rounds.
All three were registered to the same entity — Privacy Protect LLC, 10 Corporate Drive, Burlington, MA (Massachusetts), US. The phone number used to register the domain was “+1. 802 227 4003” and the e-mail “[email protected].”