Samakami Protirodh Andolon, Gopalganj (Homosexual Resistance Movement, Gopalganj): An Organised Extremist Islamist Mob Group

Timeline

1. The group’s emergence

On 8 October 2026, a Facebook page named “Samakami Protirodh Andolon, Gopalganj” was launched. On the page, the name is written as “স.ম.কামী প্রতিরোধ আন্দোলন,গোপালগঞ্জ।”, that is, with the Bengali word for “homosexual” (সমকামী) broken up with full stops. The page has a circular logo.

Page: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61595445471258

The next day, 9 October, the page announced that “Sarzil Tibro is not alone” and that many others were involved in the group. With this announcement, the group presented itself not as one individual’s initiative but as an organised collective.

2. Head and founder: Sarzil Tibro

According to Monitoring BD’s investigation, the group’s head and founder is the user of the Facebook profile “Sarzil Tibro”. He also has an Instagram account under the same username (“sarziltibro”).

• Facebook: facebook.com/sarziltibro
• Instagram: instagram.com/sarziltibro

Allegiance to Mufti Harun Izhar

In terms of political ideology, Sarzil Tibro is a follower of Mufti Harun Izhar. He has promoted Harun Izhar’s book on Facebook.

In one of his Facebook posts, he addresses Harun Izhar as “Shaykhuna” (our Shaykh) and describes seeing him in person and serving at his side. Harun Izhar’s Facebook page is tagged in the post. Notable excerpts (translated from Bengali):

Seeing Shaykhuna Harun Izhar in person was a priceless moment of my life. I am not worshipping a person; I love him for the sake of Allah. … I did not merely see him; Alhamdulillah, I was blessed to serve him by his side. … Seeing him, I understood what a true soldier of Allah’s true religion looks like: humble, firm, calm, yet full of a burning spirit.
মূল: শাইখুনা Harun Izhar কে সামনে থেকে দেখা এটা ছিল আমার জীবনের এক অমূল্য মুহূর্ত। ব্যক্তি পুজা করতেছিনা তাকে আল্লাহর জন্য ভালোবাসি। … তাকে শুধু দেখিই নাই তার পাশে থেকে খেদমত করার সৌভাগ্য হয়েছে আলহামদুলিল্লাহ। … তাকে দেখে মনে হলো, আল্লাহর সত্যদীনের একজন প্রকৃত সৈনিক কেমন হয়, বিনয়ী, দৃঢ়, শান্ত অথচ জ্বলন্ত এক চেতনায় ভরপুর।

Who is Mufti Harun Izhar?

According to media reports, Mufti Harun Izhar was the education and cultural affairs secretary of the now-dissolved central committee of Hefazat-e-Islam. On 29 April 2021, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested him at the Lalkhan Bazar madrasa in Chattogram. He was held in jail in 28 cases and was later released on bail; police stated that he would be kept under surveillance because of his past role [1]. According to law enforcement officials, he has links with leaders and activists of the banned militant organisations Harkat-ul-Jihad (HuJI) and Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) [2]. He was also accused of involvement in plans to attack the Indian and US embassies in Dhaka, and was named as an accused in cases under the Explosives and Acid laws [3]. After the political changeover of 5 August 2024, right-wing Islamist groups grew powerful. During this period, numerous people accused in various militancy cases were released on bail; according to prison authorities the number exceeds three hundred, including people serving life sentences [7]. Against this backdrop, in September 2024 a court also discharged Harun Izhar from a case filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act [4].

Photograph holding the IS flag

Sarzil Tibro has posted a photograph on his Facebook of himself holding the flag of the Islamic State (IS) and wearing a badge on his head.

3. Others involved with the group

In Monitoring BD’s analysis, the group has a two-tier structure. At the top is a militancy-linked founder who provides ideological leadership and incites others. Most of those who have joined around him are active on Facebook as content creators; they broadcast video messages, announcements and footage of abuse on their own profiles. These associates are profiled below.

Advocate Sheikh Al-Amin

On 8 October, after the page was announced, a video message was published from the Facebook profile “Advocate Sheikh Al Amin”. In it, he threatens LGBTIQ+ people, announces that they will be eliminated, and declares his support for Sarzil Tibro. According to his professional nameplate, he holds LLB (Honours) and LLM degrees and is an advocate at the Gopalganj Judge Court.

Facebook: facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005973709294

Usman Kazi

In a video post, Usman Kazi labelled homosexuals a “Western agenda”, announced that they would be driven out of Gopalganj, and joined Sarzil Tibro. According to Monitoring BD’s investigation, he plays the most active role in beating, threatening and abusing homosexual people.

Evidence of direct involvement with the group: On 24 October, the day after the attack on Rajat Suvra’s home, Usman Kazi himself delivered a video message on the “Samakami Protirodh Andolon, Gopalganj” Facebook page. In it, he threatens to drive LGBTIQ+ people out of Gopalganj and calls on others to join. He later shared the same video on his own profile. He was also involved in the beating of Palash Shah on 29 October and posted about the beating on his own Facebook profile (see Section 5).

Facebook: facebook.com/usman.kazi.joy.2024

AL-Amin Hossain

AL-Amin Hossain (Sheikh) is a different person from Advocate Sheikh Al-Amin. On 9 October, the same day the page announced that “Sarzil Tibro is not alone”, he posted a video on his own Facebook profile declaring his involvement with the group.

On 26 October, after police released Rajat Suvra, he posted a video on the group’s Facebook page expressing anger at the police. This makes clear that the group regards the attack on Rajat as its own operation, and that it is putting pressure on the police over the victim’s release.

Facebook: facebook.com/alaminhossaintitubd

Md. Abdullah Molla

Md. Abdullah Molla is known as the muezzin of the Gopalganj District Model Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre; this professional identity is also stated on his Facebook profile. He led the attack on Rajat Suvra’s home on 23 October and published a video of the abuse of Palash Shah on his Facebook on 29 October (see Section 5).

On 25 October, two days after the attack on Rajat Suvra, he posted on his profile announcing that he had reached 10,000 followers. He gained these followers by spreading hateful posts against the LGBTIQ+ community (see Section 6).

Facebook: facebook.com/abdullah.molla.50702

4. Online incitement: the page’s posts

10 October: Targeting a political opponent, a local BNP leader

Just two days after its launch, the group ran its first smear campaign, against a local leader of the BNP. At 12:48 pm on 10 October, it published a post headed “Allegations of threats and harassment using the BNP’s name. Who is this Rubel?” The post alleged that Rubel of Bedgram had used the BNP’s name and his political identity to threaten, harass and verbally abuse “people who have taken a stand against those involved in LGBTQ+ homosexual activities”. The post included two photographs of Rubel, one of them marking him with a red circle.

Although the post was dressed up in phrases such as “impartial investigation” and “rule of law”, it publicly targeted a person who opposed the group, by name, locality and photograph.

11 October: Call for neighbourhood-level information

Providing information about your area is your responsibility.
Purifying it is the responsibility of us all.
Help by providing information; make everyone aware.
Down with homosexuality; may your and my Gopalganj be purified.
মূল: আপনার এলাকার তথ্য, দেওয়ার দায়িত্ব আপনার। / পবিত্র করার দায়িত্ব আমাদের সবার । / তথ্য দিয়ে সহায়তা করেন, সবাইকে সচেতন করুন। / সমক।মীতা নিপাত যাক, আপনার আমার গোপালগঞ্জ পবিত্র হোক।

The post calls on people to report homosexual people in their own localities to the page. The group recruits area-based members from different localities. Taken together, this call and the recruitment show the group building a neighbourhood-level surveillance structure targeting homosexual people. The phrase “may Gopalganj be purified” is a call to expel a community from the area.

12 October: Promoting burning to death as a precedent

Hazrat Ali (RA), in his time, burned two homo-sexuals to death.
Can we not even resist?
মূল: হযরত আলী (রা.) তার সময়ে দুই জন সম-কামিকে পুড়িয়ে হত্যা করেন । / আমরা কী প্রতিরোধ ও করতে পারবো না?

This post, published at 7:07 am on 12 October, presents an account of people being burned to death as a precedent and calls for “resistance”. It uses a religious narrative to legitimise lethal violence against homosexual people. The post drew 58 reactions, 9 comments and 7 shares, more than the page’s other posts.

20 October: Renewed call for information, using an image made with Meta AI

Help by providing information about your own area to Samakami Protirodh Andolon, Gopalganj.
মূল: নিজের এলাকার তথ্য দিয়ে সাহায্য করুন। সমকামী প্রতিরোধ আন্দোলন,গোপালগঞ্জ। এর নিকট

The 11 October call for information was repeated nine days later, showing that information-gathering is an ongoing operation. The image carries a “Meta AI” watermark in its corner; in other words, this hate-campaign image was created with the in-house AI tool of Meta, the company that owns Facebook. The post received 27 reactions and 2 comments.

Call to “round up” homosexuals

The group has also posted calls to “round up” homosexual people.

Tactics to evade moderation

The group consistently breaks up the Bengali word for “homosexual/homosexuality”: “স.ম.কামী” in the page name, “সমক।মীতা” in the 11 October post, and “সম-কামি” in the 12 October post. Yet inside the 20 October image, the word is written in full, because text within images is generally not caught by text detection. This shows that the group is deliberately using these tactics to evade Facebook’s automated moderation.

5. From online to offline: organised attacks

23 October: Attack on the home of transgender woman Rajat Suvra

The group’s “first successful mob” took place on 23 October. A group of people entered the home of transgender woman Rajat Suvra in Gopalganj, confined her and a transgender friend, and beat them. In the name of a search, they ransacked and looted the home. They found condoms and used them to humiliate the two, and interrogated them about their private lives and gender identity. The two were held inside the house, prevented from leaving, and beaten during the interrogation.

According to Monitoring BD’s investigation, the attackers planted four yaba tablets in the home, claimed to have “recovered” them, and extracted confessions of drug use from the two through beatings and intimidation. The attackers then handed the two over to the police. Instead of detaining the attackers for trespass, assault and looting, the police took the two victims into custody; however, they were released the same day.

The attack was led by Md. Abdullah Molla. Members of “Samakami Protirodh Andolon, Gopalganj” entered Rajat’s home and took part in the search and interrogation. The incident was covered in a television channel’s video report and a Facebook video [5].

The following day, 24 October, an online news outlet published a video headlined “Client rate Tk 1,000! Yaba and secret diary found in transgender people’s den in Gopalganj” [6].

29 October: Palash Shah branded “homosexual” and beaten

On 29 October in Gopalganj town, the group branded a man named Palash Shah “homosexual” and beat him severely. Both Usman Kazi and Md. Abdullah Molla were involved, and both posted about the incident on their own Facebook profiles.

Md. Abdullah Molla posted the video of the abuse on Facebook with the caption:

Another homosexual caught in Gopalganj town. So, folks, how did I do?
মূল: গোপালগঞ্জ শহরে আরেকজন সমকামী কট, কি চান্দরা কেমন দিলাম?

In a comment on the same post, he wrote:

The series will keep going.
মূল: ধারাবাহিক সিরিজ চলতেই থাকবে

The word “another” indicates that this was not the first incident, and “the series will keep going” is a public announcement of further attacks.

6. Analysis: why “an organised extremist Islamist mob group”

Organised: The group has a name, a logo and a Facebook page; it has a declared founder; and it has publicly announced that “many others are involved”. A structure is being built through area-based recruitment and repeated requests for local information. Several members posted about the same incident on their own profiles, which is evidence of coordinated activity.

Extremist Islamist: The founder regards a religious leader accused in militancy and sabotage cases as “Shaykhuna”, promotes his book, and has posted a photograph of himself holding the IS flag. The page used a religious narrative to promote burning to death as a precedent. The person who led the attacks is known as the muezzin of a government model mosque.

Mob: The group has called for people to be “rounded up”, “eliminated” and “driven out”, and within two weeks was involved in at least two group physical attacks. The attackers themselves published videos of the abuse, effectively admitting responsibility, and announced more attacks.

Escalating violence: The timeline shows clear stages: page launch and threats (8–9 October), targeting of an opponent (10 October), information-gathering (11 and 20 October), promotion of a killing precedent (12 October), an attack on a home (23 October), and a public beating with the video broadcast (29 October).

Targets are not only homosexual people: A transgender woman, anyone branded “homosexual”, and a political leader who opposed the group have all been attacked.

Leadership and incitement

The group’s driving force is its founder’s ideology. His public allegiance to a religious leader accused in militancy cases, and his photograph holding the IS flag, show that an extremist political ideology lies behind this initiative. Through the page, he calls for “resistance” against homosexual people, uses religious narratives to legitimise violence, and incites others to answer that call. On the very day the page was launched, a lawyer publicly declared his support, and in the following days one associate after another joined.

The economy of hate: content creators and monetisation

Most of the founder’s associates are Facebook content creators. Monitoring BD has observed that in Bangladesh, threatening or posting against the LGBTIQ+ community is a fast way to gain followers. The more followers and engagement grow, the faster the path to income through Facebook monetisation opens up. Hate here is therefore not only an ideology but also a profitable content strategy. Publishing videos of abuse on one’s own profile, captions such as “how did I do?”, and declarations that “the series will keep going” are all part of this trend: violence itself becomes content for promotion.

Proof in their own words: On 25 October, just two days after leading the attack on Rajat Suvra’s home, Md. Abdullah Molla announced on his profile that he had reached 10,000 followers. One commenter on the post wrote:

Looks like it happened because of Rajat Suvra.
মূল: রজত শুভ্রের জন্য হইলো মনে হয়

In other words, even his own followers can see that these followers came from publicising an attack on a transgender woman. Four days later, on 29 October, he published the video of Palash Shah’s abuse and declared: “The series will keep going.” Violence brings followers, and followers bring more violence: this cycle is proven by an accused person’s own posts.

In this way, the two tiers reinforce each other. The founder supplies ideological legitimacy and sets the targets; the content creators spread the message and carry it out on the ground, and in return gain followers, influence and income.

7. The role of the state and the platform

Police: In the 23 October incident, the police took the victims into custody instead of detaining the attackers. This effectively lent credibility to the attackers’ fabricated drug allegation, and within six days another attack took place under the same person’s leadership. On 26 October, after Rajat Suvra was released, group member AL-Amin Hossain posted a video on the page expressing anger at the police, an attempt to put public pressure on law enforcement.

Meta: a platform for hate, and indirect financing

As of this writing, the group’s page and its members’ profiles still publicly display the killing precedent, calls to “round up” and “eliminate”, and videos of abuse. Incitement to violence is prohibited even under Meta’s own Community Standards; yet this content has not been removed. By failing to remove this hateful content, Meta has further harmed Bangladesh’s LGBTIQ+ community and pushed it into greater danger.

Indirect financing: On a platform where spreading hate increases followers and engagement, and that engagement turns into income through monetisation, failing to remove hateful content amounts to indirectly financing anti-LGBTIQ+ extremists. Meta has taken no visible step to break this cycle of profiting from hate.

Use of Meta AI: The group used Meta’s own AI tool to create campaign images. In other words, Meta is not only the platform on which hate spreads, but is also supplying the tools used to produce hateful content.

From evading moderation to open hate: At first, the group adopted the tactic of breaking up words to evade Facebook’s moderation. Now, however, members are spreading hate openly, under their own names, even with videos of abuse. Even so, Meta has taken no meaningful visible action. This shows that Meta’s inaction is a bigger problem than the evasion tactics.

A culture of evading responsibility: In January 2025, Meta loosened its hateful conduct policy; the new policy permits allegations that people are “mentally ill” or “abnormal” based on their gender or sexual orientation [8]. In a country like Bangladesh, where same-sex relations are still criminalised and LGBTIQ+ people are regularly subjected to mob violence, this loosening, together with the failure to act even on open incitement to violence, makes Meta’s culture of evading responsibility plain.

8. Recommendations

Ministry of Home Affairs and Gopalganj District Police

• Ensure that cases are registered, investigated and arrests made against the perpetrators of the attacks on Rajat Suvra and Palash Shah.
• Investigate the decision on 23 October to take the victims into custody and let the attackers go.
• Taking the declaration that “the series will keep going” seriously, provide urgent protection for LGBTIQ+ and transgender people in Gopalganj.
• Take legal action on the incitement to murder and calls for violence in the posts of the page and its members.

Bangladesh Bar Council and Gopalganj District Bar Association

• Investigate the professional conduct of Advocate Sheikh Al-Amin for announcing the “elimination” of a community.

Ministry of Religious Affairs and Islamic Foundation

• Investigate and take action regarding Md. Abdullah Molla, known as the muezzin of the Gopalganj District Model Mosque, for leading attacks and publicising videos of abuse.

Meta

• Promptly remove the content inciting violence and the videos of abuse from the “Samakami Protirodh Andolon, Gopalganj” page and the associated profiles, and stop the victims’ videos from spreading further.
• Strengthen Bengali-language content moderation to detect broken-up words (“স.ম.কামী”, “সমক।মীতা”, “সম-কামি”) and text embedded in images.
• Put safeguards in place to prevent Meta AI from being used to create hate-campaign images.
• Immediately end the monetisation of accounts spreading anti-LGBTIQ+ hate and incitement to violence, and close off routes to income from hateful content.
• Ensure accountability by publishing data on complaints about hateful content in Bangladesh and the action taken.
• Reverse the 2025 policy change that permits hate based on gender and sexual orientation.

National Human Rights Commission and civil society

• Conduct a suo motu investigation and fact-finding into the incidents in Gopalganj.
• Ensure medical care, legal aid and safe shelter for the victims.

Methodology

This report is based on monitoring of the group’s Facebook page and the public Facebook profiles and posts of the individuals concerned, preservation of screenshots, published news reports, and Monitoring BD’s field investigation. As of this writing, no media reports about the group or its founder have been found. Quotations from posts have been translated from Bengali; the originals are reproduced with their spelling unchanged. Phone numbers and private addresses of the individuals concerned have not been published.

References

1. The Daily Star Bangla — “Hefazat’s top leader Mufti Harun released from jail” (in Bengali)
2. Bangla Tribune — “Mufti Harun Izhar led the extremists within Hefazat” (29 April 2021, in Bengali)
3. bdnews24.com — Chattogram report, 23 May 2023 (in Bengali)
4. Desh Rupantor — “Six including Islamic speaker Amir Hamza discharged from case” (2 September 2024, in Bengali)
5. Nagorik TV — video report; Facebook video
6. Daily Bangla Post — “Client rate Tk 1,000! Yaba and secret diary found in transgender people’s den in Gopalganj” (24 October 2026, in Bengali)
7. Jugantor — Report on the bail release of people accused in militancy cases after 5 August (April 2025, in Bengali)
8. PolitiFact — “New Meta content rules let users call LGBTQ+ people ‘mentally ill'” (10 January 2025)