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How long this bloodletting could continue?
A carnage has taken place in Habiganj on January 26, 2005, in which five people had died including Bangladesh’s former finance minister, Shah AMS Kibria, who happened to be a parliamentarian at the time of his death. According to eyewitness report, grenade was lobbed at Mr. Kibria as he was stepping down from the dais after finishing his address before an enthusiastic crowd who have attended an outdoor political rally. The news of this carnage were carried by all major wire services including AP, Reuters, CNN, AFP, BBC, etc. One could go to Yahoo news site and read all about it. The “pristine” image of Bangladesh was marred by the news of this gruesome killing in Habiganj while the PM, Khaleda Zia, pontificates her party men in Muktarpur (Munshiganj) on the same day telling that her government had removed terrorism from the land. What a chutzpah she has! I read the account of her address in Bangladesh Observer on January 28, 2005. The newspaper wrote: “The Prime Minister said her government had removed terrorism as per the commitment made to the people before the general election. “Legal action will be taken against those engaged in terrorism. None will be allowed to resort to terrorism,” she cautioned amid applause from the audience.”” What does it say about Khaleda Zia’s acumen? The day she made this preposterous announcement, five of her countrymen had sustained brutal attack in Habiganj. I suppose in her eyes the lawbreakers who lobbed the grenade are not terrorists and the vile act cannot be labeled as terrorism. Such is her “insightful” observation. This act of terrorism comes on the hill of a very damaging write-up on January 23, 2005, in the magazine section of New York Times, a widely respected newspaper. Ms. Eliza Griswold, the reporter, painted a very grim picture of Bangladesh in which Taliban-style militia may began their reigns of terror. Yesterday’s brutal killing in Habiganj is no doubt a prelude to what is to come in Bangladesh, which once was an idyllic place to live not too long ago. In three decades time, Bangladesh was transformed from a docile to a violent place. Thanks to the action of two military despots who veered the nation from a secular democracy to a hodge-podge of theo-democracy that created enough confusion to give birth to self-styled Islamic vigilante force of Bangla Bhai (read: Bangladeshi Mullah Omar). The culture of blasting homemade bomb, lobbing military-grade grenades, etc., is on the rise since 1999 when powerful bombs were detonated in a musical soiree in Town Hall ground in Jessore in which Udichi, the cultural wing of Bangladesh Communist party, was hosting the program. Ten people were killed and over 200 injured in that blast. The spate of bombing and grenade attack continued until this day. The nation had received a wake-up call on August 21, 2004, when dozens of grenades were tossed into throngs of meeting attendees in central city Dhaka while the secular political party, Awami League, organized an outdoor meeting. Hundreds of policemen stood there like silent spectators as the terrorists lobbed grenades from nearby buildings. Luckily, Mrs. Hasina Wazed, the leader of Awami League survived the attack but many of her party men and women including one female leader died in the bloody carnage. The assassins doggedly pursued to kill Hasina Wazed as they pumped bullets into her car. Again, the police standing nearby stood silently and could not catch one of the assailants. Barely six weeks after the carnage, a commission consisting of a lone Judge gave the report on October 2, 2004. His conclusion did not make any sense. According to the Judge, the intelligence department of a neighboring nation had perpetrated the attack on Hasina Wazed and her party workers in collaboration with the local hoodlums to create enough anarchy to topple the government. The full report of the commission was hermetically sealed in an envelope never to see light of the day. Since that dreadful attack on August 21, 2004, which is widely known as 8/21 tragedy, more attacks were launched but the government of Khaleda Zia focused its attention to nab garden-variety miscreants with the help of a new police force, RAB. Her government had proved to be very inept vis-à-vis the terrorism engendered by grenade lobbers who have targeted secular political force as their mortal enemy. It should be mentioned here that not once did the terrorists target Mrs. Zia’s political rally nor did it target Jamaat or IOJ (Islamic United Party)’s rally. What does it tell you? It is widely believed by Bangladesh’s intelligentsia that Islamic fundamentalism is at play here. The nation is treading the slippery slope jihadism and fundamentalism and the government party is in cahoots with the fringe parties. That is precisely why the ruling BNP has not sustained one single bomb or grenade attack thus far. It is also worth mentioning here that when the newly appointed British High Commissioner, Mr. Anwar Chowdhury, visited his boyhood town of Sylhet on May 21, 2004 he became an easy target for assassination. The terrorists lobbed a grenade at him; miraculously he came out unscathed. The reason he was attacked is as follows: The government of Tony Blair had supported George Bush to wage a war against Iraq. Since Mr. Chowdhury represented the British Government, he became an easy target for assassination. The latest carnage at Habiganj in which Shah ASM Kibria died from grenade attack along with 4 more meeting-goers has shaken the faith of all decent people in Bangladesh who believe in democracy, fair play, right to dissent, etc. The government only provides lip service to citizens when tragedy strikes Bangladesh’s civil society. The police and intelligence department had miserably failed to catch one terrorist let alone identify who are behind all these attacks. How long this bloodletting will continue? Who will be the next target amongst secularist politicians? These are the provocative questions in my mind. Ms. Eliza Griswold of New York Times was right on the money when she boldly proclaimed that Bangladesh is becoming a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism (read: terrorism). Sadly, bomb blasting and grenade lobbing have become an everyday event in Bangladesh as more fatwas emanate from the foaming mouth of Mufti Amini and the likes of him. Soon the entire nation will be radicalized. The telltale signs are already there. No doubt that a stealth group is working round the clock to push the nation of 145 million impoverished folks into utter chaos with the hope that the nation will be under the grip of a violent parochial group. And in my view, something should be done right away to stop this retrogressive journey. It is hard to imagine that the nation that had sacrificed three million people thirty-four years ago to achieve independence will watch silently this morbid transformation. As I pen this essay, the nation is at peril. All that was achieved in the last three decades will vanish into thin air unless this cancer of grenade lobbing and bomb blasting is checked. A mega-surgery is what the doctor will be asking for. --------------------------------
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