Be focused, stay focused (Chronicle of Rajib's killing foretold)

Translated from লাইনে থাকুন, লাইনে রাখুন by নীড় সন্ধানী http://www.sachalayatan.com/hrrh69/48052

I did not know Rajib, I was not even familiar with his writings. So far as I know, in his lifetime, Rajib was not a well known or a popular blogger. But after his death, a frenzy had been created around him. I don’t know what was the motif behind targeting him. There were bloggers who are much more popular than him who could have been targeted. Rather Rajib was targeted. An advance news on Rajib’s death was there in the Sonar Bangla blog. What’s the reason behind that?

I have no affliction towards Rajib nor any affinity. I deeply sympathized at his death just like all other people did. Just after the grievance, I started thinking who could have killed him. None of us are Shrelock Holmes, but graced by Facebook, loads of information started coming from different sources. For the last two days, my Facebook was filled with stories on Rajib-the stories of Twitter and Facebook accounts and the “Nurani chapa (holy lies)” wordpress page under Rajib’s blog screen name Thaba Baba. I was flabbergasted to see that both these Twitter and Facebook accounts were created on the 16th, which was the day after he was killed. The “Nurani chapa (holy lies)” wordpress page was also identified to have modifications after the 16th. All after Rajib was already dead!

Again almost right after Rajib’s death, an online newspaper ukbdnews.com posted an article on Rajib’s atheistic ethos. A hit list of 17 more bloggers was posted. I was stunned-how did they manage to get so much information about Rajib at 9.45pm on the 15th. It seemed like I came across, for the first time, the depth of Rajib’s atheistic viewpoints and how he wrote the anti-islamic blogs. There were even some samples of his writings. Rajib was killed at around 9pm. The news of Rajib’s death made it to Shahbag at around 11pm. But ukbdnews.com received Rajib’s obituary note long before Shahbag. I presume they knew about his death before it happened. The stage was all set for them, the wheels of their propanganda machine started spinning right after Rajib was executed. The news was also posted in the Pak Defence Forum (online) on the same day. How did the information reach so far so quick? Who created the packaged information on Rajib in the first place? Didn’t Jamaat propaganda machines including Inquilab, Amardesh, Naya Diganta create all these websites and information bulletins beforehand to justify the killing of Rajib? Wasn’t it a plot to divide and conquer the Shahbag movement by tainting the activists with an atheistic tag?

At an early stage of the Shahbag movement, the following note sprang up inconspicuously in some of my Facebook pages on the 8th of February. I discredited it as a rumor.

As per confidential sources, Shibir members have decided to pretend as Shahbag activists under the veil of fake IDs and spread bad words and provocative messages on our beloved prophet Muhammad (pbh) and Islam, so that they can mislead people against the Shahbag movement So if you see someone bad mouthing about Islam and talking in favor of Shahbag, understand that he is a Shibir activist. This is the strategy adopted by Shibir to tag the Shahbag movement as a gathering of people of the atheistic mindsets.

We are now clearly seeing the truth in this message.
Lets review the timeline again.

February 8: Shibir’s plans leaked in Facebook.
February 11: A post on Sonar Bangla on Rajib.
February 15 (~9pm) : Rajib slaughtered.
February 15 (~9.45pm): ukbdnews.com posts on Rajib’s atheistic views.
February 15: Pak Defence Forum posts Rajib’s death news.
Febrary 16-18 and present: Jamaat media circulating news on Rajib’s atheistic viewpoints.

Therefore, there are enough reasons to believe that this timeline of the events is connected to Rajib’s killing.
It is the responsibility of the government to apprehend Rajib’s killers. Only the government knows how they need to do that. But I am afraid of the future (and security) of the Shahbag movement. The government won’t take this responsibility. It is a responsibility that falls upon ourselves-upon you, me, all the people and all the bloggers. Be sure that this is a not a difficult task. We need to resist the on-going rumor and propaganda against Rajib. We cannot let this rumor to get rooted. We cannot afford to have anything get rooted that can derail the movement. We must stay vigilant so that no rumor gets circulated that can hurt people’s trust in the Shahbag movement.

Since the Facebook, Twitter and the blogs under the Rajib’s screen name Thaba Baba came into being after his death, this is very clear that these fake IDs have been created to taint the Shahbag movement with smelly controversies. Make sure that the smelly controversies cannot diffuse far beyond the barns of the Chhagus. This is the call of duty now, a responsibility of all vigilant citizens.