In
1971, the U.S. abetted a genocide in Bangladesh—and it’s now siding
with the radical Islamist culprits, who are fomenting the country’s
latest political crisis.
In 1971, the United States abetted a genocide
in what is today Bangladesh. President Richard Nixon and his Secretary
of State, Henry Kissinger, provided diplomatic and military succour to
the Pakistan army and its Islamist allies as they slaughtered three
million people, displaced ten million, and forced half a million Bengali
women into sexual servitude. There has never been an apology from
Washington. But 42 years after it got into bed with Islamist
genocidaires in Bangladesh, the U.S. appears once again to be espousing
their cause.
On Sunday, Bangladesh held the 10th general election
since it became an independent state. The principal opposition—made up
of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its chief ally, the Bangladesh
Jamat-e-Islami, a clerical ensemble of alleged war criminals and
aspiring theocrats—boycotted the vote. Their walkout was prompted by
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s refusal to transfer power to a caretaker
administration. Yet in spite of their withdrawal the polls, being
constitutionally mandatory, went ahead. The ruling Awami League party,
without a formidable opposition, won in a landslide. But, far from being
a perfunctory show, this election was the most violent in the country’s
history. Eighteen people were slain as the opposition, having sworn to
keep out, showed up on election day to deter people from exercising
their franchise. Polling stations were torched, voters threatened not to
step out of their homes, and volunteers of the Awami League were
assaulted by mobs. The warriors of the Jamat expressed their
“disaffection” by raiding the villages of feeble religious minorities.
As one Bangladeshi commentator put it:
“In its 42 years of existence, Bangladesh has never seen such violence.
It seems like someone has just opened the gates of hell.”
Hasina’s
decision not to vacate her office, in defiance of a recent convention,
was a grievous mistake. Attempting to remedy it by pushing her to
concede to the opposition as it stands now—which is what Washington and its allies are doing—would
be suicidal for Bangladesh. The violence that has devoured parts of
Bangladesh over the last week was not a spontaneous outburst by
disgruntled democrats. It was a campaign of terror calibrated to
delegitimize the election and generate chaos, invite a crackdown, depict
Hasina as a tyrant to Western governments while weakening her at home,
and ultimately halt Bangladesh’s arduous effort—initiated by Hasina—to
achieve a sincere reconciliation with its past.
At
a time when Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto was aiding the Taliban’s rise in
Afghanistan, Hasina was taking on Islamists cut from the same
ideological cloth as the Taliban.
The
opposition is afraid of the past because its revered members are
culpable for some of the most agonizing memories it evokes. Thirteen
battalions of mostly Bengali Islamists assisted the Pakistan army in
carrying out the single largest massacre of Muslims since the birth of
Islam—“a jihad against Hindu-corrupted Bengalis,” as one American
witness to the events in 1971 in what was then East Pakistan called
them. Kissinger and Nixon, having recruited Pakistan as a conduit in
their effort to broker relations with Mao’s China, condoned the
massacres. They told each other jokes about the killings. After
independence, when East Pakistan established itself as Bangladesh, the
new state gave itself a secular constitution. Sheikh Mujib, the father
of the new nation, was fierce in the beginning. An act of parliament was
passed in 1973 to set up a tribunal with jurisdiction to punish the
perpetrators of the genocide. Two years later Mujib, along with almost
every member of his family, was assassinated in a coup. Hasina, who was
then living in Germany, survived. She was barred from entering the
country. Gen. Ziaur Rahman, who took over the country in 1977, scrapped
secularism and made “absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah” a
fundamental feature of the constitution. When Rahman was assassinated in
1981, his wife, Khaleda Zia, took charge of his Bangladesh Nationalist
Party. Islamists who a decade ago had slaughtered their compatriots in
service of the Pakistan army became active once again in Bangladeshi
politics.
There are no innocents in Bangladeshi politics and every
politician is tainted by accusations of corruption. Yet Hasina, for the
sheer resolve with which she combated the religious right, must rank
among the most formidable women in recent history. At a time when
Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto was aiding the Taliban’s rise in Afghanistan,
Hasina was taking on Islamists cut from the same ideological cloth as
the Taliban. She overcame exile, survived assassination attempts, and
rebuilt the Awami League. Her party, the secular alternative in
Bangladesh, has provided a modicum of protection to religious
minorities. In 2010, she revived the war crimes tribunal: nearly four
decades after the crimes, a whiff of justice. Oddly, instead of
welcoming the trials, some of the world’s leading Islamic leaders urged
Hasina to drop them. Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, the
world’s leading authority on genocide denial,
wrote to Hasina asking her to spare some of the convicts. But this was
Bangladesh’s moment. Hundreds of thousands of young men and women poured
into the streets of Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, demanding harsher
punishments than the tribunal awarded.
Zia, in bed with the Islamists who were being dispatched to the
gallows by the tribunal, found her appeal ebbing. Women are key drivers
of growth in Bangladesh. The $12 billion garment industry is virtually
dependent on their labour. But if Zia’s allies had their way, women
would be forced out of the workforce and into the veil. At home, Zia’s
“nationalist” outfit has supported men who are enemies of the Bengali
nation. Abroad, Zia has vigorously projected herself as a victim. She
has accused Hasina of suppressing democracy. But she’s hardly innocent:
it’s her party which pulled out of the elections and forcibly stopped
people from voting.
Now that elections are over, violence is the
only instrument at Zia’s disposal. She and her allies will attempt to
disrupt normal life to the point where the government will either have
to assume authoritarian powers or negotiate with her. The status quo is
untenable. Hasina will almost certainly dissolve the government and call
fresh elections. But it’s important to grasp that democracy is not in
peril in Bangladesh. Secularism is. Sanctions, now being contemplated in
some capitals, will hurt ordinary Bengalis and assist the far right.
They may reverse the gains of the previous half-decade. To get a sense
of Hasina’s accomplishment during this time, consider these words
by the author Salim Mansur: “a democratically elected government in a
Muslim majority country for the first time in fourteen centuries of
Arab-Muslim history arranged for, and brought to trial, Muslims charged
with crimes against humanity.” Is there a leader in the contemporary
Muslim world with a profile quarter as courageous as that?
Any
attempt to interfere in Bangladesh’s affairs must begin with the
realisation that Zia is not the victim. She is the force behind the
unrest. Washington, given its awful history in Bangladesh, has a special
obligation to ensure that it doesn’t, in the name of upholding
democracy, end up once again giving succour to mass murderers and their
political allies.
Dhaka, Jan 10 (UNB) – Rights activists and civil society members at a rally here on Friday urged the government to constitute a tribunal to bring those involved in communal attacks on minority communities to justice.
They said the victims always seek justice but a vested quarter is carrying out attacks on minorities because of impunity, and the situation is getting worse day by day.
Nagorik Sanghati, a civil society platform, oragnised the rally in front of the National Museum at Shahbagh in the morning protesting the attacks on minorities after the January 5 parliamentary polls.
Chaired by Nagarik Sanghati president ASM Atiqur Rahman, the rally was addressed, among others by former general secretary of Dhaka University Teachers Association (Duta) Dr Akhteruzzaman, filmmaker Moshiuddin Shaker, Engr Sardar Amin, farmers’ leader Anwarul Islam Babu and Nagarik Sanghati general secretary Sharifuzzaman Sharif.
They said the communal force had carried out attacks on members of the Hindu community during the Liberation War in 1971 and they are still active and making attacks on the Hindus and their worship places.
They said the anti-liberation force, Jamaat-Shibir, and its allies are involved in the recent communal attacks taking advantage of the existing political instability.
They demanded that the attackers be brought under trial immediately apart from providing compensations among the victims as they have been living a miserable life after the attacks.
The January 5 election reminded the vulnerable minority community of the brutal treatment it received 43 years ago at the hands of marauding Pakistani forces and their local cohorts.
The Hindus in particular have become the easy target of anti-election activists as they attacked their houses and other property, assuming that they have voted for the ruling Awami League ignoring their directive to refrain from doing so.
Most of the attacks took place in the minority-dominated villages of Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Bogra, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Jessore districts after the 10thgeneral election.
Rape, extortion targeted at the community; he enjoys 'blessings of BNP-Jamaat'
Krishna Haldar and his family standing before their home burnt to the ground at Gabtola Shikdermallik union in Pirojpur. Robbers, allegedly blessed by 18-party alliance men, torched their home during a blockade on December 5. Photo: TAWFIQUE ALI
Some Hindu families at Shikdermallik union of Pirojpur Sadar upazila have fled their homes in the face of rape, extortion and arson by an infamous band of robbers. Villagers are tight-lipped in fear of further torture by robber Ashraf Ali Sheikh and his gang, who with blessings of Jamaat-BNP men are committing the crimes as police take no action over the incidents, said victims. Robbers broke into the houses of Nimai Mistri and Girish Mistri in Gabtola village in mid-September last year. “Actually, the perpetrators stormed the poor households of Nimai and Girish to rape women,” said an arson victim of South Gabtola village.
Invariably, it is the Hindus who fall victims to such heinous crimes as they are believed to be in a weak social position and do not protest, he rued. Nimai Mistri said a gang of masked criminals broke open the door of his house on September 14 midnight and two of the gang held him on the bed. “Please forgive me. I can't tell you more. The criminals are publicly known and they will just kill me if I name them. I've to survive with my wife and daughter,” he mentioned. Judhishthir Roy of Jujkhola village left for India along with his young daughter soon after she was raped and did not return yet, said other villagers. The daughter was to take the SSC exams this year. “In fact, at least 100 incidents of rape have occurred in the area over the past couple of months, but the victims suppressed the incidents fearing social disgrace,” said a witness, who testified in a rape case. After being violated, some of the victims left the village to stay in Pirojpur town. Judhishthir's family member Porimol Roy and two brothers from Gabtola village, Bhabotosh Mistri and Shailen Mistri, left for India to avoid the extortion racket of Ashraf, complained villagers. Krishna Haldar, whose house in Gabtola was plundered and set afire on December 5 midnight, said, “Criminals ruined me as I have sent my wife to my in-laws' house for security.” His nine-year-old daughter Ripa Haldar said, “Four masked men broke into our house, beat up my father and looked for my mother.” Shikdermallik union has a population of around 16,000 people. Among them, 6,000 are Hindu voters and 5,000 Muslims. Gazi Nuruzzaman Babul, president of Pirojpur district BNP, said his party did not use Ashraf Ali for political end. “But he [Ashraf] might have worked for Jamaat-Shibir, who have been committing crimes protesting the war crimes trial,” he mentioned, adding that police are well aware of the repression of religious minorities. Sayedee Foundation, named after convicted war criminal Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee, operates a technical madrasa at the union. Many believe that it is the den of local Jamaat-Shibir thugs, said Babul. Criminals on December 13 last year burnt down the house of Bidhan Chandra Mistri at South Gabtola village. Bidhan is a union-level Awami League leader and retired founder headmaster of South Gabtola High School. “We've never before seen such incidents of robbery, rape, extortion and arson that we are facing recently during hartals and blockades,” said Bidhan. Majority of the Hindus lived here with the Muslims in traditional harmony. Criminals twice robbed the house of Kiran Chandra Mirbar, a Hindu priest in Jujkhola, he mentioned. Abdur Razzaq, officer-in-charge of Pirojpur Sadar Police Station, said the “crimes arose out of the internal feuds of the local Hindus” and the incidents have no connection with politics. He, however, later admitted that Ashraf Ali Sheikh was accused in half a dozen criminal cases with the police station. SM Akhtaruzzaman, superintendent of police (SP) in Pirojpur, said, “Ashraf is a criminal listed with the police. We've heard of rape and arson allegations against him.” “Despite all our attempts, police and Rapid Action Battalion have not yet been able to arrest Ashraf as he doesn't stay in the area,” he added. It's very difficult for police to raid the villages in Shikdermallik union as those are surrounded by wetlands and paddy fields, with the main road to the union tattered, mentioned the SP. Police deployed at a local camp have been patrolling the area, said the official.
Ganajagaran Mancha observed a rally yesterday protesting the attacks on minorities and urged people to resist such attacks
Activists of Ganajagaran Mancha bring out a procession at Shahbagh yesterday before starting for the road march to Malopara of Jessore. The Mancha called out for the march to protest communal violence by the oppositions Photo- Dhaka Tribune
Various human rights, cultural and civil society organisations yesterday raised their voices against the attacks on minority people across the country and demanded an immediate trial of the perpetrators.
Ganajagaran Mancha observed a rally yesterday protesting the attacks on minorities and urged people to resist such attacks.
“For the last 43 years, it had only been limited to protest programmes, but it is high time we actually took steps to resist such heinous acts, not just being content with mere protests,” Imran H Sarker, spokesperson of Ganajagaran Mancha, said while reacting to the attacks on minorities.
Imran was addressing a rally in front of the main gate of Jahangirnagar University as part of their two-day “Road March” to Jessore.
Human Right’s Forum Bangladesh also condemned the attacks on the Hindus in a statement yesterday.
Meanwhile, civil society platform Nagarik Sanghati yesterday urged the government to constitute a tribunal for bringing perpetrators involved in communal attack on minorities to justice.
The victims of such attacks always seek justice, but a vested quarter is carrying out attacks on minorities because of impunity, and the situation is worsening gradually, the speakers said, addressing the rally in front of the National Museum in the capital.
They also urged the government to bring the attackers under trial immediately apart from providing compensation to the victims living a miserable life after the attacks.
Meanwhile, 10 civil society organisations observed a human chain and silent procession in Habiganj city, protesting the violence against minority people. They called upon the government for immediate arrest of perpetrators and take measures to secure every people of the country.
Civil society leaders of Khagrachari organised a discussion that criticised the role of law enforcement agencies during the attack and urged the government to enact a tougher law to ensure rights of minority community in the country.
They also demanded proper compensation and rehabilitation for the victims, apart from taking steps to secure their life and properties.
Communist Party Bangladesh observed a human chain and demonstration at Narayanganj.
It said BNP and Awami League were blaming one another for the attack on minorities. Such blame game helped the perpetrators to hide out, added the party.
The speakers of the party laid blame on Police, RAB and local Awami League leaders, saying these people were at the places where such attacks took place, but they did not take any action against the attackers.
Human chain and rally were observed at Feni, Kurigram Madaripur, Gopalganj, and Sirajganj districts protesting the attacks.
Meanwhile, a team of police arrested Akkas Ali, a local leader of Jamaat-e-Islami from Kochubunia village in Morelganj upazila, suspecting his involvement in arson attack on two temples on Wednesday night.
Earlier, law enforcers arrested three BNP activists – Mintu, Isahaq and Halim on the same charges.
Just after the 10th parliamentary poll, attacks on the minority people have taken place in the villages of Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Bogra, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Jessore districts.
Condemning the attacks, the spokesperson of the party demanded exemplary punishment for the 'real' criminals
The BNP yesterday alleged Awami League activists of attacking the minorities and trying to put the blame on the opposition party, and added that it was a “usual part of Awami League’s falsehood.”
“People of Bangladesh are very much conscious. Also, people from the Hindu community blamed the Awami League for attacking the Hindus and demanded punishment of the culprits after identifying them,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP acting secretary general, alleged in a press release.
Fakhrul, on behalf of party Chairperson Khaleda Zia, also called upon the party leaders and activists of all tiers to stand beside the Hindu community and to extend support as per their capacity.
Condemning the attacks, the spokesperson of the party demanded exemplary punishment for the “real” criminals.
Minority communities came under attack in different places across the country following the January 5 election, forcing many to flee their houses and seek shelter elsewhere.
In most of the incidents, Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir were blamed for attacking the Hindus with the help of local BNP men.
Fakhrul alleged that the incumbent “illegal government” has pushed the country into extreme chaos and uncertainty as it was implementing a plan to eradicate the opposition from the country using law enforcers.
Fakhrul claimed that the government’s conspiracy, propaganda and ill-strategy would not be able to stop the ongoing movement.
“If Awami League does not stop misusing power and repressing the opposition leaders and activists, it has to face the same consequences faced by previous autocratic governments,” he said.
Cases filed as masked men swooped on the community in a Monirampur village late Tuesday
People of all ages in Monirampur unite, demanding life of dignity, in front of the media yesterday. They expressed the urge after two housewives were violated on Tuesday Photo- Dhaka Tribune
Two rape victims from Jamaat-dominated Hazrail area in Jessore’s Monirampur filed cases with local police yesterday, two days after they had been tortured in front of family members by some masked men, allegedly activists of Jamaat-Shibir, at their Hrishipara houses.
Jessore ASP Reshma Sharmin told the Dhaka Tribune that they had received two complaints lodged by the victims themselves, who are also relatives, against unnamed people.
The incident remained beyond anyone’s knowledge until the victims filed the cases with Monirampur police station yesterday, reports our correspondent in Jessore. It took place at a time when attacks on Hindus and Awami League supporters in the area continued since the 10th parliamentary election on January 5.
On the election day, an entire Hindu locality of Malopara village in Obhoynagar upazila of the same district was driven away from their homes by the activists of Jamaat-Shibir.
Panicked as well as enraged, locals are now guarding the village at night together to resist any further attack.
Police suspect that the Jamaat-Shibir men had been behind the rapes.
Hazrail is known as one of the strongholds of opposition ally Jamaat-e-Islami in the district. During an election campaign last month, the activists of Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir torched the private car of former MP from the area Khan Tipu Sultan’s son. They even prevented Tipu Sultan from putting up posters in the area ahead of the election.
Election officials had to postpone voting in 60 polling centres in Monirampur upazila alone as the Jamaat-Shibir activists wreaked havoc in the area to foil the poll. The number is highest in a single upazila where polling was postponed across the country.
Family members of the rape victims said 10-12 masked men equipped with firearms had gone to one of the houses at Rishipara around 10pm on Tuesday and asked for drinking water. Seeing firearms with them, the dwellers thought they might be law enforcers.
Then the criminals entered the house, tied the family members and raped a woman at gunpoint until midnight.
The family members said the rapists then went to an adjacent house – both situated at a corner of the Hrishipara village – and raped another woman until 3am on Wednesday, holding the family members hostages at gunpoint.
The victims were taken to Jessore General Hospital yesterday morning for medical tests, said police.
UNB quotes Officer-in-Charge of Monirampur police station Mir Rezaul Hossain: “Those who are on the run following the ongoing drives of the joint forces are behind the incident.”
- See more at: http://www.dhakatribune.com/crime/2014/jan/11/two-hindu-women-raped-jessore#sthash.DMUfLGMz.dpuf
Bangladesh's Hindu community once again is under grievous assault.
In the aftermath of the recent general elections, hundreds of Hindus
have fled their homes in such regions as Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Rangpur,
Bogra, Lalmonirhat, Rajshahi, Jessore and Chittagong.
Once again, there is an eerie reminder of the trauma the Bangalee
nation, especially its Hindu segment, faced in the course of the War of
Liberation when the occupation Pakistan army and its local collaborators
went after the proponents of Bangalee nationalism.
A very large-scale exodus of Hindus took place at the time of the
partition of India in August 1947, when for understandable reasons it
became a question of the survival of the community in a country
fashioned out of a so-called two-nation theory.
Three years later, in 1950, communal riots led to a newer group of
Hindus leaving what was then East Pakistan and making their way to
neighbouring West Bengal in India.
In 1964, through the instigation of the Ayub-Monem clique in Pakistan,
more Hindus left East Pakistan. The crisis was contained only when a
secular Bangalee political leadership, among whom was the future
Bangabandhu, put up a determined resistance against communalism and
succeeded in containing what might have become a conflagration.
In 1971, the Pakistan army went with a vengeance after Bangladesh's
Hindus, an outrage that was to go on for nine long months. In the
process, the soldiers not only killed such revered Hindu figures as
Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta, Govinda Chandra Dev, Dhirendranath Dutta and
others but also mowed down hundreds of Hindu students who resided at
Jagannath Hall of Dhaka University.
Things ought to have been different in independent Bangladesh. And yet,
in post-1975 circumstances, the country's Hindu community once again
became a target of assault, in many instances through the subtle and
not-so-subtle encouragement of the ruling classes. Over these past four
decades, many more Hindus have left Bangladesh, with most trekking off
to India. The more fortunate ones, in terms of academic excellence or
economic strength, have made their homes in the developed world.
Today, the country's Hindu population, which in 1971 numbered as high as
25 per cent of the total population, has declined appallingly to below
10 per cent. Hindu homes have been vandalised for close to four decades;
Hindu temples have been destroyed; Hindu-owned property has been looted
systematically; Hindus have been looked upon as Indian agents.
Today, it is with a huge degree of shame that one must recount the havoc
wreaked on Hindus following the electoral triumph of the BNP-Jamaat
alliance in October 2001. Supporters of the alliance went on a rampage,
beating and raping and killing Hindus in no fewer than 2,500 villages in
the country. No action was taken against the marauders.
Our grievance is that even today, with the conclusion of the general
election of January 5, Hindus all over the country cower in fear of
elements which have been threatening them since before the voting. As
our news reports over the past few days have made it clear, there were
patent threats held out against the community in various regions of the
country.
Why were these threats not taken seriously by the administration? Where
were the measures that should have ensured their security as citizens of
Bangladesh? In the aftermath of the elections, once they came under
attack from the BNP-Jamaat-Shibir cadres, frantic appeals went out to
the police for help.
No response came. Neither was there any move on the part of the Awami
League or its alliance partners to go to the rescue of the endangered
Hindus.
We bow our heads in deep shame at what has systematically been done to
our fellow citizens only because they pursue a faith different from that
of the majority religious denomination. Our sense of shame sinks deeper
in the knowledge that hardly any individual of repute or any
organisation professing its belief in secular democracy, has come
forward to condemn this brutalisation of the Hindu community and to
resist the menace of communalism in the country.
It is now for the state of Bangladesh to reassure its Hindus,
Christians, Buddhists and its indigenous people that this country is a
secular geographical entity, that it is home to all its people, that an
attack on one community is an attack on every community, that those who
from now on attempt to humiliate any community will be dealt with
summarily and with an iron hand.
The state must not fail again. If it does, this country will stand guilty of indulging in ethnic cleansing.
HRCBM is a human rights and humanitarian organization working to uphold human rights for minorities in Bangladesh. Please visit us at http://www.hrcbm.org
