DHAKA: Bangladesh announced plans yesterday to monitor social media networks such as Facebook in a bid to identify bloggers who have been accused of insulting Islam and the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).
A special panel is being set up, including leaders of the main intelligence agencies and the telecoms regulator, to exchange information and track down the people behind recent posts that have caused outrage among Islamic groups.
“We will try our best to dig out what’s actually happening and find out the people who’re making blasphemous comments against Islam and the Prophet,” said Main Uddin Khandaker, a senior home ministry official who will head the panel.
“There might be differences in opinion, but that does not mean anyone in the country has the rights to mock others’ beliefs,” Khandaker said, adding that the panel would submit its report to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Islamic groups and clerics have staged a series of protests against blasphemous bloggers in recent weeks and threatened to march to Dhaka next month if they are not prosecuted. The debate between militant atheists and fundamentalists has been a popular subject in Bangladesh’s blogs and social media for years. AFP
