Jamaat demands speedy probe into ‘hacking’ of Ameer’s X handle

The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has demanded authorities accelerate their investigation efforts and publish within 24 hours the findings regarding the “hacking” of the party chief’s X handle using a presidential email address.

Sirajul Islam, a member of the party’s election steering committee, expressed the party’s demand in this regard during a meeting with officials at Bangabhaban, the official residence of President Mohammed Shahabuddin, on Tuesday afternoon.

He revealed the outcome of the meeting at a briefing held on Bangabhaban premises in the evening.

During the visit to Bangababhaban, a Jamaat delegation, led by Sirajul Islam, held talks for around 45 minutes with Major General Mohammad Adil Chowdhury, military secretary to the president, Sirajul told reporters.

The army official informed the Jamaat delegation that upon learning of the hacking allegation, authorities engaged all the relevant security agencies in a probe. The findings of the probe will be revealed soon, Mohammad Adil Chowdhury told the Jamaat leaders.

However, due to the ongoing intensity of election campaigns and politicisation of the “hacking incident” by a particular political group, the Jamaat delegation demanded the findings be published within 24 hours, Sirajul Islam said.

Previously, Jamaat claimed that the X handle of Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Shafiqur Rahman was hacked by unidentified cyber criminals around 4pm on 31 January. An email of Bangabhaban’s assistant programmer – [email protected] – was used in the hacking incident. From this address, an email containing a phishing tool and marked “urgent” was sent to senior Jamaat leaders.

Upon clicking the attached file, the phishing toll, the X account of Shafiqur became compromised. About 37 minutes later, hackers posted a misogynistic message on the account, but the content was starkly against the personal and political policies of Shafiqur Rahman, Jamaat leaders previously said.

Around 4:55pm, Jamaat-aligned cyber team managed to recover the X account, party sources said.