Hate-monger and a fake guest: ex-Major embarrasses Hasina Govt

<strong>An exiled former officer of the Bangladeshi Army is turning out to be a huge embarrassment for the Sheikh Hasina government. Ex-Major Delwar Hossain, a communal hate-monger, has not only been criticized severely for threatening the Hindu population living in Bangladesh but also accused by Deutsche Welle or DW, the German public international broadcaster, for creating a fake interview situation and manipulating video of a popular programme.</strong>

Hossain's anti-Hindu rant on social media recently triggered a furor online. In the video he gave a call to "uproot" the 15-20 lakhs Hindus from Bangladeshi soil in a bid to offer more job opportunities to Islamic youth.

"The 15 to 20 lakhs job vacancies created after the targeted people are evicted from the country will be occupied by patriotic Bangladeshis," he said, swearing in the name of Allah.

According to reports, Hossain stays abroad and has links with the opposition BNP-JeI (Jamaat-e-Islami) alliance. There is not much information available about the ex-major in the public domain but IANS reported it is evident that he is trying to cash in on anti-Hindu sentiments to enter the political scene of Bangladesh.

"I urge all of you to prepare a list of such 'Indians in Bangladesh' or 'India-loving Bangladeshis'. I shall soon develop a website where you all will be able to send those names secretly. I will hand over the list of names to the police and Bangladesh Army. Soon time will come when these Hindus will be kicked and sent back to India," Hossain said in his more than 33-minute video that went viral attracting thousands of comments and over 1,700 shares on Facebook alone.

He also spoke about Bangladeshi industrialists who are courteous and respect Indians and offer jobs to Indian nationals, calling them the real enemies of Bangladesh.

Encouraging radical Islamic sentiments, talking about Indians who invest in Bangladesh or are partnering with Bangladeshi nationals in various business ventures and the Bangladesh nationals who are fond of India and its people, the ex-Major said: "These industrialists believe that without Indians they won't be able to do business in Bangladesh. I want to ask: did the Indians develop their business? They developed their own business. Then why this soft attitude towards Indians?" he questioned.

Hossain said if these businessmen didn't change their attitude they would have to wind up their operations. "Enough is enough. Poor people of Bangladesh are infuriated. They do not have food to consume. So, send these Indians back and employ educated Bangladeshis in those positions," he added.

Hossain also labelled a section of the media organizations as 'anti-national' and termed them 'dangerous'.

Hossain said many 'patriotic' journalists had left the country owing to their Islamist leanings. He also named a few Bangladeshi journalists in the video who are now in exile. He targeted the segment of Bangladesh media that projects a positive image of the neighboring nation. He demanded that all journalists who are in exile be brought back to Bangladesh and given responsibility of running the media in the country.

Hossain further urged the people of Bangladesh to boycott the liberal media organizations and declared that these liberal media houses would be set afire in the times to come. In the video, he also slammed the leading political families of Bangladesh for failing to perform as responsible political leaders of the country.

That Hossain is a fraudster has, however, also been proven when a fake video of extremely popular "Khaled Muhiuddin Asks" talk show on DW surfaced showing him as a part of the guest panel.

In a statement issued by the broadcaster last week, it was revealed that while the host says nothing, the alleged "guests" seen in the videos, including Major Delwar Hossain, are speaking all the time. DW-host Muhiuddin was edited into the videos in an effort to make it look like the DW show.

"Both videos show a fake interview situation concerning the recent killing of a retired military officer by police in the Bangladeshi coastal city of Cox’s Bazar. Police claimed that the officer was mistaken as a bandit. The military leadership reacted strongly after the killing and nine police officers who were involved in the incident are under investigation. One of the fake guests is Elias Hossain, a Bangladeshi journalist living in the USA, known to be very critical of the government. The other one claims to be a retired ‘Major Delwar Hossain.’ Both are using their faked appearances to voice harsh opinions against the Bangladeshi government," the statement said.

DW said that neither of them has ever been invited to the DW Bengali programme and that appropriate action has been taken to have the videos taken down from the social media platforms.

<em>(With agency inputs)</em>.