Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mostafa Jabbar said that, the government is committed to preventing misuse of the Digital Security Act.
The minister made the remarks while addressing a conference on ‘Victims of Digital Security Act and Real Criminals’ at the Poet Sufia Kamal Auditorium of the National Museum in Dhaka on Saturday.
Human Rights Leader Arma Dutta MP, a granddaughter of martyred language warrior Dhirendranath Dutta; President of the South Asian People’s Conference against Radicalism and Communalism, Justice (Retd.) Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik; Hindu-Bouddho- Christian Oikyo Parishad President Kajal Debnath, Nirmul Committee Brahmanbaria District Law Secretary Advocate Nasir Miah and others spoke in the program while the meet was presided over by Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee Chairman Shahriar Kabir.
The conference was conducted by Asif Munir, president of IT cell of Nirmul Committee. The key-note article was presented by Maruf Rasool, an online activist and author.
The Minister of Telecommunications emphasized the need for awareness of every person in the use of digital technology and said that the more digital the country will be, the more digital crimes are likely to increase. Highlighting the need for legislation to prevent any crime, the Minister said that digital security law is essential in controlling digital crime. He said there was no alternative to preventing digital crime through proper enforcement of the law, adding that the government was committed to preventing misuse of the Digital Security Act. He said that by spreading propaganda through social media, a vested quarter have been creating communal riots in some cases and trying to take advantage. Many such incidents have happened in this country in the past. We became independent in 1971 but we are still fighting against the fundamentalists.
Minister, In order to ensure that no one else is victimized under the Digital Security Act, eight cyber tribunals in the country have recommended the formation of a panel of eight cyber tribunals headed by the Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee. “We have already acquired the ability to take swift action against, any illegal anti-social activity and if we receive a report through social media,” he said.
He said, “We will not allow our country’s independence-sovereignty, history-tradition, language-literature and culture to fall into the hands of miscreants.” We have to start this struggle on social basis. We have to build resistance against them all at once so that we can achieve the ultimate victory.
Aroma Dutt MP said, “It is a matter of great concern that people of a certain community are suffering day after day due to misapplication of Digital Security Act. Even, those who are enforcing the law may not know it. The law was made for the benefit of the state but now it is harming many people. It is my humble request to the government that the victims be released from these false cases and that the law be reviewed again.
‘Shahriar Kabir said, “Victims of the Digital Security Act, victims of communal conspiracies from different parts of the country, are participating in our conference. For the protection of those for whom the law was enacted, month after month, year after year, mainly the minority traditionalists have been tortured. Some of them are teachers, some are students, some are shop workers, some are fishermen or some are barbers. A boy from a marginalized group who has not learned to write his name even has posted a huge post on Facebook insulting Islam. “I am an innocent fisherman,” said Rasraj Das of Brahmanbaria, a victim of the Digital Security Act. From the proceeds from the sale of fish from the pond, I somehow managed to make a living with my family members, including my old mother. I am now destitute of being the victim of communal violence on false charges and being the accused in a false case under the Information and Communication Act. Consumers including Hridoy Mandal, Jhuman Das, Ruma Sarkar shared their experiences on the occasion.