The Facebook Live Broadcasts
The three broadcast with English transcripts
Below are the three Facebook Live broadcasts made by Shahidul Alam on August 4, 2018, the evening before his arrest. Above them are transcripts of what he said during the live reports. Note: You will have to turn on the sound by hovering over the embedded videos and then clicking on the small cross to the right of the speaker icon.
Transcript and video of the Facebook Live broadcast at 6.46pm
[background noise of the crowd]Shahidul Alam: I am down on the ground, I will be leaving now, it’s not really sure what’s going on but there are people standing in the center, holding ground, watching out. So it is a little bit dangerous to be photographing here. And there’s an odd ambulance going in, a rickshaw or two going past but Yellow [clothing shop] over here is closed, the light, the large Eid collection electronic banner is what’s giving us light. I am going to turn this camera around, not that you'll see very much [voice grows faint] coming around, let’s see if you get a glimpse of what's happening in the street there and this place has been completely [unclear] all today. I’m not going to take any more risks now. Over and out.
Transcript and video of the Facebook Live broadcast at 8.49pm
Shahidul Alam: This is my next update from Jhigatola. We are outside the police station where the Awami Leage office also is. This is teeming with Awami Leaguers, difficult to know exactly who’s what here. But there are lots of rumours floating around. I came [unclear] some women who were distraught because they said one of their teammates had been forcibly taken away. We know that a Pathshala student has been taken into the police station. As you can see these are all these motorbikes leaving from the police station. It’s Awami Leaguers under protection of the police. The police has armoured trucks on stand by. There’s several big vehicles there. The police is in reasonable force. But of course none of this is official. So, there are people mingling around, people trying to get home, people stranded. There’s a big police vehicle just going past which has just come out from that office.Passer By: Ki korchen murubbi (What are you doing respected elder?)
Shahidul Alam: I.....
Transcript and video of the Facebook Live broadcast at 9.52pm
Shahidul Alam: Hello, this is just a short update from home. I have returned from Jhigatola and downloaded some of the pictures. Not much else to report except that I discovered that sixty seven students with injuries, some with serious injuries were admitted to the Japan [Bangladesh] Friendship Hospital.Earlier I was also told that, this last information came from medical staff and sounds fairly reliable, the earlier information I received was from a witness, an eye witness who on Road No-2, who mentioned that about ten students with injuries have been taken to the Popular Medical Lab on Road No-2. He did mention that they had numerous types of injuries, some with welts because of beating but one student apparently had severe injuries and will probably have lost an eye. That was an eye witness from Road No-2. The sixty three injured in Japan [Bangladesh] Friendship Hospital is something that a doctor who did not want to be named has specifically mentioned.
The Awami League was in full force around there, heavily guarded by police. I saw flag bearing cars coming in and out of the place. One, a Pathshala student has been taken to the police station, the Thana there. But they did eventually allow his father in, I’m not sure what the latest situation is.
I’m just going to turn the camera around to show you my monitor screen which will show an image of, that’s my monitor. Let me just do this, so it’s brighter, these are some of the images on my monitor. They are raw files, it takes a little bit of time to upload but I will take you to the last one of the series. I’m showing [unclear] the same picture. Apologies. Let me close this, let me select all of that and then you will be able to see the pictures in a sequence. I’m still stuck, seem to be, apologies for this. That’s meant to move from one to the other. Don’t seem to have done so. Let’s see if it works now. No.
Okay, I’m gonna close that and take you to the picture I did want to show specifically, that's this one and that is the armoured vehicle which is parked outside. It's very interesting in the sense that this is exactly where we were on the night when the rebellion at, what was then the BDR camp, took place, it was at night and there were heavy artillery pointed towards the BDR gate at that time but they did not have permission or authorisation to attack. So, they later retreated to the side streets, but were there all night.
That was the beginning of the Awami League period and I have no idea of knowing if this is the end of the Awami League period but certainly this is the Awami League clinging on to power despite popular opinion.
This is Shahidul Alam reporting on the 4th of August, 2018. Goodnight for now.
