Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed described content creator and influencer Salman Muqtadir’s remark calling the BNP an “extortionist party” as a “sweeping allegation”. He made the comment while responding to questions from journalists at the Secretariat on Sunday.

An attack and looting took place at Salman Muqtadir’s BrownFish Studio in the capital’s ECB Square around midnight yesterday. He later went live on Facebook, blaming BNP activists for the incident and accusing them of extortion.

Responding to Salman’s allegation, the home minister said, “The gentleman (Salman Muqtadir) who is making the allegation on Facebook Live — has he filed any case? He hasn’t.”

He said Salman himself had stated that nobody had demanded money from him. Had anyone asked for money, he would have paid it. So it hasn’t yet been possible to identify anyone specifically against whom an allegation of demanding extortion money has been made. If Salman files a case with a specific allegation, it will be investigated.

The home minister said, “We’ve seen that he was a victim in this incident. We conducted a preliminary investigation. It was very brief. A more detailed investigation will have to be carried out.”

He said the legal process for filing a case and a general diary (GD) was under way and a case could be filed soon.

Salahuddin Ahmed further said police went to the scene after receiving a call through the national emergency service 999. Several people were detained from the scene, and bullet casings and locally made weapons were recovered. As the matter is under investigation, further developments will be disclosed later.