The Facebook profile of Shafiur Rahman Farabi has become a centre of motivation for the supporters of radical Islamist parties and groups because of his harsh stance against secular forces, especially the progressive bloggers.
Until February 25, a day before blogger Avijit Roy was killed on Dhaka University campus, he had been posting statuses and comments on Facebook, condemning and defaming Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the 1971 Liberation War.
He also criticised the law enforcers’ action during the BNP-Jamaat-led 20-party’s blockade and hartal programmes aimed at toppling the government. He has over 26,500 followers on the social network.
As per his posts, Farabi supports extremist Ansarullah Bangla Team chief Jasim Uddin Rahmani and Hefazat-e-Islam’s 13-point movement and respects daily Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman. Both Jasim and Mahmudur are now in jail and facing charges of inciting violence in the name of religion.
Farabi also operates a blog after his name where he writes about other bloggers terming them atheists.
He also claims that the Gita and the Vedas – Hindu sacred texts – were written by the British rulers during the 18th century.
Despite doing these activities while also on bail in a case filed over issuing death threat to an imam, Farabi was instigating extremism actively through his Facebook profile and blog site.
Earlier, he threatened to kill Avijit several times through Facebook which inspired his followers. He also threatened blogger and architect Ahmed Rajeeb Haider with dire consequences, before the latter had been killed on February 15, 2013.
Farabi labelled both Rajeeb and Avijit as atheists. He threatened the imam as he had administered the funeral prayers of Rajeeb. Seven Ansarullah activists, who were also students of North South University, and their guru Jasim have been charged with Rajeeb murder.
The Rapid Action Battalion, which arrested Farabi yesterday, said he had been involved with banned outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir since 2010.
Hailing from Brahmanbaria, Farabi completed SSC from Kendua Joyhori High School, Netrakona and passed HSC from the Notre Dame College in Dhaka.
He got admitted to the Chittagong University to study physics in the 2005-06 session.
Police first arrested him in 2010, RAB said.
During his stint as an extremist, Farabi also threatened Editor Naeem Nizam of the daily Bangladesh Protidin for publishing columns of exiled writer Taslima Nasreen and Rokomari.com chief Mahmudul Hasan Sohagh for selling books of Avijit.
After his arrest on February 23, 2013 for threatening the imam, Farabi was sent to Kashimpur High Security Jail. He stayed there until August 21 the same year before coming out on bail.
According to sources, Farabi was kept in the same building where Ansarullah chief Jasim and five of the other Rajeeb murder accused had been staying. They used to meet regularly.
While serving in jail, Farabi also used his Facebook account and posted updates on the social media site.
Until yesterday, supporters of Farabi were posting harsh comments on his statuses condemning the arrest while his blogsite and the Facebook pages of Ansarullah Bangla Team remained active.
Some of Farabi’s followers also opened a new page demanding his unconditional release.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
