On August 19, 2025, the Bangladeshi daily Manabzamin ran a report headlined: “A Pakistani Newspaper Dreams of Regaining East Pakistan.”

Manabzamin wrote in its report, “A Pakistani newspaper, The Catchline, is dreaming of regaining ‘East Pakistan.’ The paper says the time for reckoning has come after 54 years. ‘East Pakistan’ must return. The Catchline, a leading English-language daily published from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, expressed this view in an article. The piece by senior journalist Tabassum Moazzam Khan was published in The Catchline.”

The original article of The Catchline titled, "East Pakistan Must Return: Pakistan’s Hour of Reckoning After 54 Years” published on August 16, 2025, carried overtly pro-Pakistan narratives and speculated about ways to expand Islamabad’s influence in Bangladesh after the July uprising.

It also cast retired Bangladeshi army officer Brigadier General Abdullahil Amaan Azmi— son of former Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ghulam Azam—as a central figure through whom such influence could take shape.

The Manabzamin report spread rapidly on social media, amplified by pro–Awami League accounts and pages.

On August 24, Brig. Gen. Azmi issued a statement through the daily Jugantor, denouncing The Catchline piece as “the ravings of a lunatic” and describing the supposed author as “an Indian agent posing as a Pakistani woman.”

Two weeks later, on September 4, Ajker Patrika ran a post-editorial linking the article’s rhetoric to the Pakistani foreign minister’s visit to Dhaka. Titled “Will Bangladesh Remain Silent?” it asked why the Bangladesh government had not issued a formal protest in response to such “arrogant” opinions published in Pakistani 'newspaper'.

Meanwhile, journalist Navnita Chowdhury devoted a YouTube segment on August 20 to the controversy, headlined: “Is Ghulam Azam’s Son About to Become Army Chief?” citing the Catchline piece.

Together, the reactions made clear that the article had stirred debate in Bangladesh’s political and media circles.

The Manabzamin and social media commentators described The Catchline as a “leading Pakistani newspaper” and referred to its author as a “senior journalist” or “Pakistani citizen”—although the article itself offered no such details about the writer.

The Descent has sought to examine what kind of news outlet The Catchline is, and who its writer, Tabassum Moazzam Khan, actually is.

Is The Catchline a reliable media outlet?

The Catchline (thecatchline.com) presents itself as an English-language newspaper based in Islamabad, launched in June 2023. Domain registration records, however, show the site was created in December that year. The outlet also runs two Facebook pages—opened in 2014 and 2020—and claims to publish a weekly print edition, with photographs posted online.

The editor is listed as Faisal Azfar Alvi, with Tayyaba Jabeen as executive editor and Wahab Raza Alvi as managing editor. Beyond these names, little information is available. 

The website carries no staff directory, but its Facebook pages identify two “special correspondents”: Raja Saqib Ali Rathore in Barcelona, Spain and Rusaid Ahmed in Rangpur, Bangladesh. The latter, according to LinkedIn, is still an undergraduate student at Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur.

To assess its prominence, three Pakistani journalists were asked about the outlet. A reporter for Deutsche Welle (DW) said he did not recognize it as mainstream.

Another, with Times of Karachi, said the name was unfamiliar. A senior AFP journalist based in Karachi, with 20 years’ experience, responded: “This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

This casts doubt on Bangladeshi media's portrayals of The Catchline as a “leading” newspaper.

Its domain network records show Faisal Azfar Alvi has registered at least ten English and Urdu-language 'news sites'-- some those are now defunct.

One of them-- thepublictribune.com-- bears the design and structure similar to The Catchline’s website. But nowhere on the site is an editor or owner identified.

Taken together, the evidence suggests The Catchline is an obscure and unreliable website that poses as 'media outlet'.

Who Is Tabassum Moazzam Khan?

The controversy deepens with the author herself. The August article carried only a name and photo—no biography. Reverse image searches and name queries in both English and Bangla turned up nothing: no prior writings, no social media profiles, no professional footprint online.

Yet Manabzamin introduced Khan as a “senior journalist,” while Brig. Gen. Azmi described her as a “Pakistani journalist.” The sources for these claims remain unclear.

Subsequently, The Catchline quietly appended a line describing her as a “Bangladeshi researcher.” But no evidence of such a researcher exists. No publications, academic affiliations, or digital trace could be found—consistent with the hallmarks of fabricated authorship.

Bangladesh has seen similar cases before: political and geopolitical articles published under false names, both in mainstream outlets and propaganda sites.

In 2023, an AFP investigation documented hundreds of such pieces across South Asia, attributed to experts with fabricated identities. More recently, a DismisLab inquiry exposed articles under fake bylines spreading disinformation against the current governor of Bangladesh Bank.

Who write for The Catchline from Bangladesh?

A review of the site shows five writers contributing articles on Bangladesh: Rusaid Ahmed, Tajul Islam, M.A. Hossain, Kazi Mamunur Rashid, and Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury.

Notably, four of them—Islam, Hossain, Rashid, and Choudhury—are also regular contributors or editors at The Weekly Blitz, a Dhaka-based site widely known for pro-India and pro–Awami League disinformation.

Choudhury is the editor of the Weekly Blitz, while Islam identifies himself as a special correspondent. Rashid is linked to the Jatiya Party faction led by Raushan Ershad, and Hossain presents himself as a geopolitical analyst.

Since early 2023, both Choudhury and Islam have written frequently for The Catchline, alongside their work at Blitz.

The irony here to note is that while The Catchline published a piece fantasizing about Bangladesh’s return to “East Pakistan,” most of its regular Bangladesh commentators are themselves associated with an opposing pro-India propaganda platform.