Former army officer Major General Ziaul Ahsan was behind the shutdown of internet services during the student movement. He was arrested from Khilkhet area of the capital on Thursday (August 15) night.
It is known that during the anti-discrimination student movement, internet services were shut down on the orders of Ziaul Ahsan. During the movement of the students, the mobile internet and broadband internet were stopped from the night of July 17 and broadband internet was stopped at 9 pm on July 18 on the orders of Ziaul Ahsan. All types of internet were off for five consecutive days. Mobile internet was off for 10 days. Services like social media Facebook and internet based communication media WhatsApp were closed for 13 days.
According to law enforcement sources, this former army officer was serving as Director General of National Telecommunication Monitoring Center (NTMC) since 2022. He leaked call records one after another while in charge of NTMC. Touchy call records of people from politicians to threats to the Awami League government were circulated on various social media platforms on his orders. While he was in charge of MTMC, the operational capacity of this government organization was increased. Using this ability, the mobile phones of various important people were hacked on his instructions. Then the call records of those important people were collected and circulated on social media. Based on these call records, from political figures to many civil society people, pressure was created through intelligence agencies in various ways.
According to intelligence sources, NTMC can intercept mobile phone voice and SMS, landline voice and social media. Among the social media, NTMC can also interfere with Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Viber, IMO, Skype apps. The company has 100% coverage in online communication media such as website blog, e-mail. Using these capabilities, people’s call records have been illegally leaked day after day.
Ziaul Ahsan has been accused of missing, murdering and extrajudicial killings of numerous people. Basically, the disappearances on a large scale started at his hands. It started after 1/11 when the Awami League government came to power. At that time, numerous persons including anti-Awami League government, opposition political parties, individuals, anti-government critics were victims of disappearance. At that time, the media of the country often published news that various people had gone missing. The families of the victims did not find their missing relatives by protesting at the police station, DB and RAB offices. It is alleged that Ziaul Ahsan was behind all this.
Sources say that Ziaul Ahsan is somehow involved in each of the missing murders that have occurred in the country from 2009 to 2015. From BNP leader Ilyas Ali to Chowdhury Alam, Sajedul Islam Sumon, Adnan Chowdhury, Kawsar Ahmed, Iftekhar Ahmed Dinar, Junayed and many more BNP supporters and anti-government discussions and critics have gone missing. Their whereabouts are yet to be found. However, Ziaul Ahsan was in good health despite so many complaints over the years. Being blessed by the Awami League government, no one would have dared to open their mouths against him. Just as the Awami League government took advantage from him, he was also working hard. He was so much a confidant of the government that he gave government posts from his personal Facebook ID during the anti-discrimination movement. In his post, he was also talking about students leaving the movement and returning home. He gave many such posts. However, he deleted them after the fall of the government.