The wrecking of Salman Muqtadir’s BrownFish

By early Sunday, BrownFish Studio in northern Dhaka looked less like a production space than a place abandoned midway through its destruction.

Inside the makeup room, a large mirror had been punched through, leaving an irregular hole at its centre. Cracks ran across what remained of the glass. Another mirror beside it was fractured. Bulbs that once bordered the mirrors lay broken across the wooden counter, mixed with shards of glass.

On another wall, an air-conditioner had been torn from its mounting and left hanging at an angle.

Elsewhere, a framed Vogue-style print of red lips lay face-up on the floor amid broken bulbs, artificial flowers and debris. Furniture had been overturned. Cabinet doors hung open. Sections of the studio had been stripped or smashed.

In the larger production area, pieces of sets and partitions lay across a black-and-white tiled floor. A long counter had been toppled onto its side. Containers, cables, panels and production materials were scattered around it.

A section of the studio that had been carefully designed for filming had been reduced to debris.

On a table elsewhere in the compound sat several damaged CCTV cameras, some apparently pulled from their fittings, their wires still attached.

Outside, there was another kind of evidence.

Daily Waadaa found spent bullet cartridges on the premises of the New Gini Properties housing complex in Dhaka's ECB Chattar area. Waadaa could not independently determine what type of firearms had been used or who had fired them.

The destruction followed an attack late Saturday night that has since produced competing accounts involving allegations of extortion, a longstanding land dispute, an attempted takeover of property and claims of political involvement.

The premise in question belongs to Salman Muqtadir, one of Bangladesh's earliest generation of Youtube personalities, whose career has expanded across digital content, acting, music, advertising and commercial production. 

His Youtube channel, SalmoN TheBrownFish, has about 1.7 million subscribers, and BrownFish Studio represented an expansion of his years of work in video and commercial production.

Shortly after the attack, Salman went live on Facebook. “This is very normal in Bangladesh,” he said as he walked through the wreckage, wearing a wry, weary smile.

Then he made an allegation that quickly transformed a night of vandalism into a national political argument. He blamed “BNP people” and linked what had happened to an apparent extortion dispute involving the owner of the land where his studio was located.

“Whoever broke this, these BNP people who did this — with your extortion, you can’t take away my dream,” Salman said.

But what happened at BrownFish Studio on Saturday night is more complicated than Salman's first account suggested.

What happened that night?

Police say the studio itself was not the intended target. They have described the violence as the fallout of a longstanding property dispute between New Gini Properties Limited and the owner of an adjoining plot.

Salman himself later acknowledged that nobody had directly demanded money from him and said the building owner might have been the primary target.

The scale of the destruction however is not disputed.

The attack began after 10pm, according to Ratan, a BrownFish Studio employee who was working the night shift.

Ratan told Waadaa that he and another employee hid as the assailants entered the premises. He said valuables were taken first. “Then they started damading all the other things,” he said.

Pollob Ali, an official of New Gini Properties, gave Waadaa a similar account of the group's arrival.

He said the attackers came in five pickup trucks and entered the housing complex while firing guns.

According to Pollob, they first entered a residential flat near the entrance. A motorcycle and other valuables were taken. The group then moved deeper into the complex.

“They then moved towards Salman’s studio, where they vandalised and looted the premises,” Pollob said. “The office of New Gini Properties was also attacked, while construction workers were assaulted and had their belongings taken.”

Police later confirmed recovering bullet casings and locally made weapons from the scene.

No BrownFish Studio employee was reported injured.

The studio manager, Efaj, told Waadaa that he knew of no extortion demand directed at the studio. He stressed that BrownFish was not the only property damaged: the adjoining New Gini Properties project was also attacked.

The physical evidence inside BrownFish, however, showed how thoroughly the violence had reached the studio.

CCTV cameras had been damaged or removed. Furniture and production equipment were destroyed or left scattered. Cameras and recording equipment were damaged, according to accounts from the scene, and Salman's Youtube Silver and Gold Play Buttons were also reportedly damaged.

Police made arrests after the attack. Cantonment Police Station Officer-in-Charge Muhammad Gias Uddin told Waadaa on Sunday that a case had been filed. 

Those arrested included Shahariar, 32, Mohammad Mamun, Aslam and Munna. Police accounts identified Mamun as 35, Munna as 29 and Aslam as 30.

Two accounts of one night

By Sunday morning, the question was no longer whether BrownFish had been attacked. It was why.

At a press conference at New Gini Housing, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Joint Commissioner Mahidul Islam said the violence resulted from a land dispute, not an attempt to extort Salman.

“There was no incident of extortion. Salman Muqtadir’s studio was not the target,” Mahidul told reporters.

Police said two sides had been contesting ownership or control of land inside or adjoining the New Gini Properties development.

According to their preliminary account, one side had previously been unable to gain access to the disputed property. People acting for that side later returned in a group and attempted to enter through a gate. The confrontation and vandalism followed, with BrownFish Studio caught in the violence.

Gias Uddin, the Cantonment police chief, told Waadaa that the dispute involved New Gini Properties Limited and retired Major General Golam Mohiuddin. He described the attack on the building as a direct consequence of that dispute.

Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed told a similar account at a press briefing on Sunday, he said the disputed property measured about 35 kathas and was located at Manikdi Namapara under Cantonment Police Station.

“One party is a builder — from the report I received, it's New Gini Properties. The other party is a senior retired military officer,” Salahuddin said, describing the dispute as longstanding.

According to the preliminary report cited by the minister, people acting on behalf of the retired officer arrived at night seeking to take possession of the property and extensive vandalism followed.

New Gini Properties Chairman Nazim Uddin Bhuiyan has disputed that characterisation, describing the incident as a planned attempt to grab the land. He alleged that assets worth around 50 crore taka were looted from the housing project.

Neither the competing ownership claims nor the alleged value of the losses has been independently established.

Special Political Assistant to the Prime Minister Rashed Khan also described the episode as arising from a dispute over ownership inside the New Gini Properties complex.

According to Rashed, former government officials own 23 kathas adjoining the property, of which eight kathas are disputed. He said those officials allege that Nazim had previously used his influence to occupy the eight-katha plot illegally.

Rashed also said Nazim had previously been jailed in cases connected with the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.

Extortion or what?

Salman meanwhile told the media that nobody had personally demanded money from him. He suggested the attackers might have been pursuing a dispute with his landlord and might not even have known that BrownFish Studio was there.

“They might have demanded extortion or something similar,” he said of the possible dispute involving the property owner.

He acknowledged that he did not know precisely what had occurred between the two sides. But the disagreement soon widened.

Salahuddin questioned Salman's allegation against the BNP and, at a Sunday briefing, asked whether Salman had filed a case.

“My question is, has the person who is making this allegation live on Facebook filed any case? No,” the home minister said.

Salahuddin said police could investigate an extortion allegation if Salman identified a specific demand and those allegedly responsible.

He also took issue with Salman's broader accusation against the BNP, saying there was “no meaning to this sweeping allegation.”

The minister nevertheless acknowledged that Salman had been victimised and said a fuller investigation was needed.

Salman responded hours later with another video.

He said he had remained at Cantonment Police Station until 4am trying to file a case and claimed he was unable to complete the process until the incident had gone viral and the home minister had spoken publicly.

“You don’t even know, though you are the Home Minister under whom all of the police stations are, that I have filed a case application,” Salman said.

He then challenged Salahuddin over what Salman saw as the minister's defence of the BNP.

“Have you taken on the duty of the PR management of BNP or the role of the Home Minister? I am confused,” Salman said.

He told the minister that the safety of citizens fell under his responsibility and urged him to remain above political bias.

Salman also objected to the characterisation of what happened at BrownFish as relatively minor vandalism, arguing that the destruction of a production space had consequences beyond the monetary value of the equipment.

“Just show me some action,” he said. “I don’t need money and I don’t want it to be a political issue.”

Widespread anger 

The attack also prompted a wave of reaction from actors, creators and other public figures.

Physician, entrepreneur and politician Tasnim Jara focused on the apparent brazenness of the attack. Salman, she wrote, possessed “a bigger microphone than almost anyone in this country,” yet whoever carried out the destruction appeared willing to leave the evidence for the country to see.

She also raised a broader question: if someone with Salman's public reach could experience such an attack, what happened to shopkeepers and small business owners whose cases attracted no national attention?

Actress Sadia Ayman called the attack unacceptable. Content creator Aawdrita wrote about watching a space built over years being destroyed. Rakin Absar said the episode raised questions about whether people should invest their money in Bangladesh. Another content creator, Faraby, wrote simply: “This Bangladesh is not for everyone.”

Those reactions assumed extortion was behind the destruction, something police dispute and investigators have yet to establish.

That distinction remains central to the case.

There is evidence of an organised and violent entry into the compound. There are damaged rooms, accounts of looting, recovered bullet casings, weapons and arrests. There are witnesses who describe men arriving in pickup trucks and gunfire accompanying their entry.

But the motive remains contested.

Police say the target was disputed land and that BrownFish happened to occupy space within the property where the confrontation unfolded. Salman says the attack involved men linked to the BNP and believes an extortion dispute involving his landlord may have been behind it, while acknowledging that no one demanded money directly from him.

The investigation will have to establish who organised the group, who the men were acting for, who fired the weapons, what was taken and whether extortion played any role in the underlying dispute.

For now, what remains at BrownFish is the aftermath.

A makeup mirror has a hole through its centre. An air-conditioner hangs from the wall. Broken bulbs and glass cover a counter. CCTV cameras sit detached from their mounts. A framed fashion print lies among debris on the floor.

And in the larger studio, where constructed rooms once existed to create images, the sets themselves have been pulled apart.

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