Amar Desh, Sangram retract Ka’aba news

Storms of protests on Facebook and in blogs have forced two Bangladeshi dailies to remove reports claiming that Imams at the Ka’aba in Saudi Arabia staged a human-chain demonstration against the war crimes trial.

Pro-BNP Daily Amar Desh published the news on the seventh page of its Sunday edition under the caption, ‘Imams form human chain against oppression of Alems’. The report was also put on the daily’s online version.

Dainik Sangram, the mouthpiece of Jamaat-e-Islami, also ran the news.

The newspapers withdrew the report after a blogger, Nasim Rupok, protested it in his blog and Facebook page claiming the news was false. His status on Facebook read: ‘Shameless falsehood of Dainik Amar Desh and Sangram for saving the war criminals’. He posted the same piece in his blog.

The status spread quickly on Facebook and until Tuesday noon it was shared by 589 people. Nearly 200 comments were posted in his blog.

Amid the protests, Dainik Sangram posted an apology and removed its report. Amar Desh’s online version also removed the news, but offered no apology.

Rupok told bdnews24.com: “Amar Desh removed the news from its website but did not post an apology. It published no ‘correction’ over the news in the print version.”

The Amar Desh news said: “The council of Imams headed by renowned Qari Sheikh Abdur Rahman of the Ka’aba formed a human chain after the Friday prayers protesting the oppression of Alems in Bangladesh in the name of an internationally controversial tribunal.”
A photo of the so-called human chain with a banner in Arabic was also published with the report.

Rupok wrote on Facebook: “I took the help of Google to verify the news. After a search I found several news items with that photograph. All of them were on Arabic sites. I used Google to translate the Arabic writing. I was astonished to find that none of the news reports had any relation to what Amar Desh had published. If you don’t believe this, please go to the websites to find it for yourself.”

The blogger provided evidence that the photograph was uploaded on Oct 18 last year.

Sangram’s apology

Facing protests, Dainik Sangram wrote an apology. It said: “The news titled ‘Imams form human chain against oppression on Alems’ was not published in our printed version, but was posted in our online version due to negligence. We are withdrawing the news and apologise for the unintended error.”