Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (BJI) has alleged that the X (formerly Twitter) account of its Ameer, Dr Shafiqur Rahman, was hacked as part of a "deep and premeditated conspiracy" against the leadership and the party before the national election. The allegation was made by Jamaat's Central Publicity and Media Department chief, Ehsanul Mahbub Zubair, at an emergency press conference held on Sunday afternoon at the party's central office in Mogbazar, Dhaka.
Zubair said unknown individuals had "highly conspiratorially" hacked the official X account of Jamaat Ameer Dr Shafiqur Rahman. He said the party's information technology team was investigating the incident to identify those responsible, adding that preparations for the hacking had been underway for several days.
"There is a deep conspiracy behind this," Zubair said. "After hacking the Ameer's X account, some objectionable and offensive posts were made. It is evident that certain quarters immediately announced programmes based on those posts. Jamaat suspects that a particular group or elements of their cyber team are involved in this conspiracy." However, he did not name any specific group.
He said a general diary (GD) was filed with the police on Saturday night over the incident and that Jamaat would take all necessary legal steps.
Describing the hacking as an "extreme and provocative act", Zubair said it was a deliberate attempt to tarnish the image of Jamaat-e-Islami and humiliate the party before the public. He stressed that Jamaat's position on women's dignity was "absolutely clear", noting that the party Ameer has repeatedly spoken about respecting women at election rallies.
"For this reason, a section is trying to discredit Jamaat through a deep conspiracy," he said, adding that the Election Commission and law enforcement agencies would be informed so that appropriate action could be taken.
At the press conference, engineer Sirajul Islam said the last legitimate post from the Jamaat Ameer's official X account was made at 400pm on Saturday. An objectionable post was then made at around 437pm after the account was hacked. Jamaat became aware of the issue at around 455pm and contacted those managing the account, who confirmed it had been hacked.
He said the account was recovered at 509pm, and at 522pm a rejoinder was posted informing the public that the account had been hacked. A GD was filed later at around 330am. He also claimed that several Jamaat social media pages had been facing cyber attack attempts in recent days.
Engineer Mahmudur Rahman presented a briefing explaining how the Ameer's X account was hacked. He said the objectionable post appeared at 437pm and the password was changed at 509pm after it was detected. He also alleged that at around 453pm, a related post was made from the X account of Dhaka Metropolitan South Jamaat Secretary Shafiqul Islam Masud, and subsequent checks revealed that both accounts had been hacked simultaneously.
Mahmudur Rahman also alleged that screenshots of the hacked post were taken within one to two minutes of being published and were circulated five to six hours later, which he said indicated an intentional effort. He added that Jamaat issued a statement within half an hour of the post, clarifying that the account had been hacked.
He also claimed that the hacking involved the use of a government email address, alleging that a file was sent to Jamaat's email using "assistantprogrammar@bangabhaban.gov.bd", purportedly containing election-related information. He said the email was sent in the name of Mohammad Sarwar Alam, who works at the President's Office. Jamaat plans to apply to the Cyber Security Council seeking an investigation into alleged phishing attempts using government emails targeting Jamaat's official and metropolitan unit email accounts, he added.
Members of Jamaat's central election management committee, including member secretary Abdul Halim, were also present at the press conference.
