In the wake of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s recent visit to India for the G20 Summit, a surprising event occurred when US President Joe Biden took a selfie with the Bangladeshi Prime Minister and her daughter, renowned autism expert Saima Wazed. This gesture left leaders of the ultra-Islamist Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), previously labeled a Tier-III terrorist organization by various US courts, in shock. Acting upon the direct orders of BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman, an individual with multiple convictions related to terrorism and cross-border terrorist activities in Bangladesh, a group of cyberterrorists from the party initiated the spread of fake news and manipulated photographs with the aim of deceiving the public.
On September 9, 2023, a fugitive cyberterrorist named M Rahman Masum, currently residing in the United States and involved in various criminal activities, including disseminating false information, uploaded a video on his YouTube channel, “Channel US Bangla”. In this video, he showcased a doctored photograph of Kolkata’s leading Bengali daily, Anandabazar Patrika, with the caption, “জোর করে বাইডেনের সাথে ছবি তুলেছেন শেখ হাসিনা (Sheikh Hasina forcefully photographed with Biden)”. He presented this doctored page as evidence to support his false claim, although fact-checkers from Blitz had already identified the genuine page from Anandabazar Patrika and the manipulated page disseminated by BNP propagandists.
According to Blitz‘s report, M Rahman Masum is also directly associated with a Facebook page and YouTube channel called “Nagorik TV”, operating from Canada and the United States.
After a series of reports exposed the crimes committed by an illicit group known as “Nagorik TV,” including blackmail, extortion, criminal activities, and sexual misconduct, this notorious gang came under the scrutiny of key policymakers in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The mastermind behind this criminal operation, Tito Rahman, also known as Mustafizur Rahman Tito, publicly confessed to their crimes on “Nagorik TV”.
In a separate YouTube appearance, a member of the “Nagorik TV” criminal network, M Rahman Masum, had previously confessed that Tito Rahman and Nazmus Saquib jointly extorted 100 million Bangladeshi takas from a major business conglomerate in Bangladesh. Masum further revealed that the Tito-Saquib duo had been extracting substantial sums of cash from various individuals through blackmail, and within the Bangladeshi community in Canada, Tito Rahman was known as a fraud.
Other members of the “Nagorik TV” criminal gang include Abdur Rashid, Rupu Alam, Najneen Nisha, M Rahman Masum, S. M. Humayun Kabir, Ashfak Reza, Johirol Islam Munna, Waki Abdullah, Nazmun Aquib, Advocate Abdur Rashid, and Tyler Taseen. The illegal broadcasting entity is situated at 950 Ogilvy Avenue, #08, Montréal, Québec – H3N 1P4, Canada.
It should be noted that Nazmus Saquib and Tito Rahman of the “Nagorik TV” criminal network demanded US$600,000 from a prominent business conglomerate in Bangladesh through blackmail. It has been learned that the owners of Nagorik TV provided names and details of several individuals and an entity to the employee of the local business conglomerate to facilitate the payment of the extortion amount. The extortionists demanded 4 million Bangladeshi taka for an individual named Mizan (mobile number 0171-4045224); 2 million Bangladeshi taka for ASM Shafiul Haque, Account number 1101008272001, Routing 225275357, City Bank Limited, Principal branch, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 2 million Bangladeshi taka for ASM Shafiqul Haque, Account number 0012100211294, Routing 250272325, Uttara Bank Limited, Foreign Exchange Branch, Dilkusha, Dhaka; and 2 million Bangladeshi taka for Common Hardware & Interior Solution, Account number 20506030100006204, Routing 125300522, Islami Bank BD Limited, Hospital Moor Branch, Feni, Bangladesh.
In the Bangladesh mass-media sphere, Tito Rahman, also known as Mustafizur Rahman Tito, hails from the Itgaon residential area in Dinajpur district, Bangladesh. He is a prime accused in the August 17, 2005, serial bomb blast case, which was orchestrated by the notorious jihadist outfit Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB). The JMB later rebranded itself as Ansar Al Islam, aligning with Al Qaeda. Tito Rahman is a member of Ansar Al Islam and a key accomplice of BNP’s fugitive leader Tarique Rahman, as well as the mastermind behind Harkatul Jihad, Maulana Abdus Salam. It’s worth noting that Tarique Rahman assigned Harkatul Jihad to carry out a grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2005, with the sinister agenda of assassinating Sheikh Hasina.
