Five individuals have been arrested for allegedly demanding extortion of Tk 5 million after entering the residence of former Awami League reserved seat MP Shammi Ahmed in the Gulshan area of the capital. Among the arrestees is Abdur Razzak Riyad, a leader of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement and the Bangladesh Democratic Student Union. Following news of his arrest, claims circulated on Facebook and in the media stating that Razzak was a member of the Police Reform Commission. However, a FactWatch investigation found the claim to be false. Abdur Razzak Riyad is not a member of the Police Reform Commission. The student representative in the commission was Jarif Rahman.

How the misinformation spread: Media reports cited a Facebook status by Mahin Sarker, Joint Member Secretary of the National Citizen Party (NCP), as the source of the claim. However, no such post was found on his verified Facebook account. A different post was found, published at around 2:45 p.m. today. In that post, Mahin Sarker wrote: “Apologies for spreading misleading information in my earlier post. The arrested individual named Abdur Razzak is not a member of the Police Reform Commission. The student representative in the commission is Jarif. Upon realizing the issue, the post was deleted. I again apologize to anyone who may have been offended by the misinformation.”

This indicates that Mahin Sarker initially posted that Abdur Razzak Riyad was a member of the Police Reform Commission, and this was the sole source cited in subsequent media reports. Later, he removed the status and issued a correction.

Abdur Razzak Riyad is not a member of the Police Reform Commission. To build a people-oriented, accountable, efficient, and impartial police force, the current interim government formed the Police Reform Commission. The Cabinet Division issued a related gazette on October 3 of last year. According to the gazette, the commission includes a student representative among other members.

A full list of commission members is available on the official website of the Police Reform Commission. It confirms that the student representative among the 11 members was Jarif Rahman, a student of the University of Dhaka.

Additionally, today, Sunday (July 27), Jarif Rahman directly addressed Mahin Sarker in a Facebook post. He wrote: “MD Mahin Sarker made a misleading Facebook status today. He claimed that Abdur Razzak, arrested yesterday on extortion charges, is a member of the Police Reform Commission—which is entirely false. Since this morning, I’ve been receiving calls from journalists asking whether I am that person, as I was the student representative of the commission. This has placed me in an extremely uncomfortable situation. Several news portals have published reports based entirely on his status. It is unfortunate that such misleading information has been spread from a position of responsibility, as it causes various negative repercussions in different areas. It also harms the reputation of the commission.”

He added that despite multiple attempts, he was unable to contact Mahin Sarker since morning. His calls were not answered, and his messages were not seen. “I hope he will remove the false information and issue an apology,” he wrote.

In conclusion, it has been verified that Abdur Razzak Riyad, a leader of the anti-discrimination movement arrested on allegations of demanding Tk 5 million in extortion, was not a member of the Police Reform Commission. Therefore, FactWatch has identified the claim as false.

Original News Source: https://www.fact-watch.org/abdur-razzak-riyad-is-a-member-of-the-police-reform-commission/