Bangladesh’s streets burned not from local agitators, but from the keyboards of expatriates wielding social media like a weapon. A bombshell report exposes Elias Hussain in New York and Pinaki Bhattacharya in Paris as the architects behind assaults on Prothom Alo, The Daily Star, and cultural hubs like Chhayanaut.
It started with a single incendiary post. Late on December 18, 2025, Hussain’s Facebook rant against Prothom Alo—’Not a single brick should survive’—raced through his 2.2 million-strong network, turbocharged by platform algorithms and shares on WhatsApp and Instagram.
Mobs formed swiftly. Prothom Alo’s offices were trashed that very night. The pattern repeated: coordinated calls to action led to sieges on newsrooms and landmarks. Observers call it a new frontier in unrest—transnational influencers evading authorities via borderless digital tools.
Northeast News details their year-long crusade, built on claims that these outlets peddled Indian spy agency lies, stoking distrust and rage. By February 2025, they’d escalated to toppling Sheikh Hasina’s family home, syncing with her online speech to maximize fury.
The violence wasn’t abstract. Arsonists at Prothom Alo cheered for Hussain and Bhattacharya’s vision of regime change. Their public official connections bridged the online-offline divide, amplifying impact.
Post-August 2024, under Yunus’s interim rule, press attacks and vigilante justice have skyrocketed. This exposé reveals how global platforms supercharge hate, challenging nations to adapt before the next firestorm erupts remotely.