Assistant Programmer Detained Over Hack of Jamaat Ameer’s X Account

Detectives of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) have detained Md. Sarwar Alam, an assistant programmer at the President’s Office, in connection with the hacking of the X (formerly Twitter) account of Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Dr. Shafiqur Rahman, from which an objectionable post targeting women was published. The Detective Branch (DB) has also recovered the device allegedly used in the hacking incident.

Sarwar Alam was detained during a raid conducted shortly after midnight on Tuesday, 3 February, at government quarters located on the eastern side of the Rajarbagh Police Lines auditorium in the capital.

Confirming the development, DMP DB Chief and Additional Police Commissioner Shafiqul Islam said Sarwar Alam, an assistant programmer at Bangabhaban, had been taken to the DB office for interrogation. He added that further action would be taken following the completion of questioning.

Earlier, at around 4:30 pm on 31 January, Dr. Shafiqur Rahman’s X account was hacked and an objectionable post concerning working women was published. It later emerged that the account had allegedly been compromised using an email address associated with Bangabhaban.

However, the BNP and its student wing, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, claimed that the Jamaat Ameer himself had posted the content and staged the hacking incident. The episode also triggered widespread criticism from various quarters.

In response, Jamaat-e-Islami filed a General Diary (GD) at Hatirjheel Police Station in the early hours of 1 February. Subsequently, on the afternoon of 3 February, a four-member Jamaat delegation visited Bangabhaban to inquire about the progress of the investigation. The delegation held discussions for nearly 45 minutes and demanded that the investigation report be made public within 24 hours.

Meanwhile, following the incident involving the Jamaat Ameer, the X account of the party’s Secretary General and former Member of Parliament, Mia Golam Parwar, was also subjected to a cyberattack. Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General and Head of the Central Media and Publicity Department, Advocate Ehsanul Mahbub Zubair, strongly condemned and protested the incident.

In a statement, Zubair described the attacks as part of a planned conspiracy, noting that a similar cyberattack had earlier targeted the party Ameer’s X account. According to the statement, at approximately 8:31 pm on Tuesday night, a post was published from Mia Golam Parwar’s X account through device hacking. Once detected by the party’s central social media team, the post was immediately removed.

Zubair said legal action would be taken promptly and asserted that, regardless of the extent of the conspiracy, those responsible would soon be exposed before the nation. He also urged the authorities to take firm action against those involved in the incidents.

DBTech/DMN/EK/OR