Netra News Editor-in-Chief Tasneem Khalil has backtracked and deleted the comment against CRI Coordinator Tonmoy Ahmed.
In a facebook comment, he slapped a Shibir tag on Tonmoy whose body still bears the marks from the indiscriminate stabbing carried out by a masked gang of Islami Chhatra Shibir in 2013, has backtracked and deleted the comment.
When a newspaper sought his comment on the allegation he had made on his verified Facebook account on Tonomy, he admitted to having made the remark based on hearsay, saying, “I heard it from a former Shibir activist in his area.”
Tonmoy was a former general secretary of Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology (BUET) unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League.
CRI - Centre for Research & Information - is the research-wing of ruling Awami League.
Tasneem Khalil left Bangladesh for Sweden during the military-backed caretaker government in 2008. In February, a sedition complaint was filed in the court in Dhaka against him and three other people over the Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera's report against Bangladesh’s military chief.
On July 15, Tasneem, replying to a comment by one A K Azad inquiring about the identity of Tonmoy Ahmed, wrote, “Tonmoy is a former member of Chhatra Shibir and now a CRI Coordinator.”
His remark angered Tonmoy’s friends since he had been one of the worst victims of organised attacks in 2013 by Shibir activists.
Apart from this comment, Tasneem has been pouring a thicket of memes and trolls against the government on social media including the one where he mocked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as a Laureate of the Nobel Prize named after the controversial singer Nobel instead of the official Nobel Prize.
Tasneem also questioned the official number of martyrs during the 1971 liberation war in his portal.
Referring to Tasneem’s remark on Tonmoy, Gaibandha Palashbari Upazila President Abu Bakkar said, “On August 8, 2013, Tonmoy, a youth hailing from our Upazila, was severely injured as Shibir activists stabbed him indiscriminately. He was the general secretary of Buet Chhatra League. His uncle was the secretary of the Bangladesh Awami Shecchashebak League (BASL). His uncle and I joined the anti-Ershad movement together. Then his uncle was shot in his hand. He and his family have a long track record of involvement in the politics of the ruling Awami League. He dedicated his prime to anti-Shibir movements that angered them to the extent that he was hacked by Shibir activists and had to be whisked off to hospital in critical condition. Now someone is making a baseless claim, terming him a former Shibir activist. This is shocking!”
When he survived the ganged attack and was receiving treatment at a hospital, a Shibir activist came to his ward and was caught by police. While the incident is widely published in national newspapers, Tasneem dubbed the attack as a scuffle between Tonmoy and local youths.
Earlier, in 2013, the youths of Gonojagoron Mancha (mass-upsurge stage) roared in the demand for capital punishment to the war criminals of the 1971-Liberation War of Bangladesh. They incurred the wrath of Islami Chhatra Shibir whose ideological gurus were under the war crimes trial.
Gonojagoron Mancha activists at BUET - Tonmoy Ahmed and Arif Raihan Dwip - were stabbed by Shibir activists who ran riot across the country to stop the war crimes trial. Dwip succumbed to his injuries while Tonmoy managed to dodge death. Tonmoy is also coordinating the web team of Awami League.
