‘Extremists’ threaten six Barisal Ganajagaran Mancha activists on Facebook

Six Ganajagaran Mancha activists in Barisal have been allegedly threatened by Islamist militants on Facebook, three days after suspected extremists hacked blogger Niladri Chatterjee Niloy to death.

The Facebook account ‘Ansar BD’, issued the treat on Monday with pictures of six men.

They are poet Henry Swapan, sculptor Charu Tuhin, poet Syed Mehedi Hasan, organiser Nazrul Biswas, poet Tuhin Das and Chhatra Union’s Barisal unit General Secretary Pritom Chowdhury.

“Masallah, we are successfully start work in division. There are three anti Islamic poet & three organizer of blogger. They are the enemy of Islam. We should do what will our aim (sic),” the Ansar BD post read.

Saibal Kanti Chowdhury, Barisal’s Superintendent of Police, said he heard about the Facebook post but no-one lodged any complaint until Tuesday afternoon.

“I’ve spoken to several of them and advised them to lodge police complaints,” he said.

“They’ve been told to inform police immediately if they suspect anyone or feel they are being followed.”

Purported militant group Ansar Al Islam, claiming to be al-Qaeda’s ‘Bangladesh branch’, claimed credit for Niloy’s killing last week.

Niloy was hacked to death in his home in Dhaka.

He is the fourth blogger to have been killed this year in the same manner.

All four were involved with the Ganajagaran Mancha, a popular movement that originated at Shahbagh in 2013 demanding maximum penalty for war criminals and outlawing religion-based politics.

People from across Bangladesh expressed solidarity with the movement and replicated the ‘Mancha’.

All six threatened on Facebook said they received ‘friend’ requests from the ‘Ansar BD’ account on Monday night.

They said they visited the profile and found their pictures in its post.

Chhatra Union leader Pritom Chowdhury told bdnews24.com he saw the post after poet Das had informed him about it.

Das said, “We’re progressive thinkers. We’re taking the matter seriously.”

Poet Hasan said they would file a written compliant with police after discussing the matter between themselves.

“No-one will be able to stop the spirit of the Liberation War being implemented with threats,” Mancha organiser Biswas said.

“Our fight is not against religion,” he said. “It is against extremism and fundamentalism.”