Prime Minister’s Political Assistant Rashed Khan has explained his decision to tear a newspaper during a Facebook Live session, claiming that he did so in protest against what he described as a false narrative published about him.

In a statement posted on his verified Facebook account on Saturday (October 31) night, Rashed Khan said he had torn apart a false narrative. He alleged that the newspaper Amar Desh had published misleading claims suggesting that he had joined forces with Hasina’s son.

He said he had previously served jail time in a case involving alleged derogatory remarks about Sheikh Hasina. He added that political opponents were free to criticise his statements in political terms if they disagreed with his views, and that he would welcome such criticism.

Rashed further said that Amar Desh could not label him as a ‘new BNP member’. He questioned the authority of the newspaper’s editor, Mahmudur Rahman, to claim that he had aligned himself with Sheikh Hasina’s son.

He alleged that after he brought forward information about a meeting between Jamaat leader Mia Golam Parwar and an Indian intelligence official, Amar Desh published a counter-narrative claiming that he had joined forces with Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy.

Rashed said that if Jamaat or its leader Golam Parwar had made such allegations, he would have responded through political arguments. However, since he believed the newspaper was being used to spread a false narrative against him on behalf of Jamaat, he chose to respond politically as an aggrieved individual.

He also argued that Amar Desh was not functioning as a proper newspaper but rather as a tool for promoting Jamaat’s narrative. He said such a platform should not be used to damage anyone’s reputation.

Concluding his statement, Rashed said a publication must follow editorial standards and journalistic ethics to qualify as a newspaper. He alleged that Amar Desh did not follow these principles.