Staff Reporter:
The daily Prothom Alo is one of the most controversial newspapers in Bangladesh’s history.
Despite the word “light” at the end of the newspaper name, it always tries to divert readers from the light or truth.
By staging militancy dramas, the Prothom Alo has victimised innocent people several times. Demeaning Islam and Muslims or the prophet Muhammad is the core intention of the newspaper.
Even, the newspaper has been accused of acting as the villain of the Pilkhana tragedy. Along with this, most news published by the newspaper about militancy was fabricated.
A university student who does not smoke, take drugs, ask for money from parents for any reason, returns home on time, strictly adheres to religious discipline and whose results in the university are also good, is naturally accepted in society. However, the Prothom Alo says something different. It presented such a young man as a militant to millions of readers.
Not only that, many innocent people were brutally hanged by staging militant dramas during Hasina’s government. And, these dramas were staged under the direct supervision of law enforcement agencies. Many pious ordinary people died. The Prothom Alo used to promote all these dramas intentionally.
An Alem told the media, “The Prothom Alo used to make headlines like ‘Militants arrested from Chattogram for planning to attack American Embassy and Indian Embassy’.
Along with the news, the newspaper contained scathing commentary, reports and expert columns. The Prothom Alo used to publish those false dramas even though there were many questions among people about the anti-militant operations of law and order forces.
It was 17 September 2007, the beginning of a terrible dark chapter for the Muslims of Bangladesh. On that day, a satirical cartoon of Prophet Muhammad was published in the Prothom Alo’s magazine “Alpin”.
Immediately, devout Muslims across the country erupted in protests against the newspaper. In the face of strong protests, Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman had to publicly apologise by holding the hand of the then Khatib of Baitul Mukarram, Maulana Obaidul Haque.
Even then, the Prothom Alo did not stop its conspiracy. It tried to create controversy about the country’s Alem-Ullama by presenting different news at different times.
Terrible allegations of involvement in the Pilkhana tragedy have been raised against the newspaper.
The time was 25 February 2009. No one could say anything clearly about the BDR tragedy, but the Prothom Alo dated 26 February made headlines about the mutiny of BDR jawans. Its front page on that day tried to establish BDR jawans as rebels.
After the political change in the country on 5 August this year, many people have been raising their fingers towards the Prothom Alo on the issue of militancy. The victims of the “militant drama” have also started to open their mouths. At the same time, all the terrible information of the Prothom Alo about militancy drama is coming out through the investigation of the media.
As a result, the intention of Prothom Alo’s article published under the title “Is your child getting involved with militancy?” is gradually becoming clear to the common people of the country.
A common believer told the media, “I have personally seen many times that the Prothom Alo has created many controversies about Islam at different times.”
At the same time, another Muslim said, “The Prothom Alo always writes against Islam. They always poke Islam. They like to write against Muslims.”
A contemporary example can be brought to uncover Prothom Alo’s intention. The Prothom Alo published about ten reports about the relief collection activities conducted by the students at TSC of Dhaka University to help flood victims.
The Prothom Alo did not publish a single report on the initiative of Alem-Ullamas, especially the As-Sunnah Foundation, which collected at least 20 times more relief than the students of Dhaka University.
In Bangladesh, hundreds of people under different banners regularly gather and demonstrate in front of the Prothom Alo, demanding the editor’s resignation and trial.
How did the Prothom Alo survive uninterruptedly during the present interim government despite so many controversial activities and insulting Islam during the three-term rule of the previous Hasina government? That is the question from the people now.
