Criminals and vandals have taken over control of the student movement in Bangladesh. While attacking and dismantling, earlier this week, the structures that were once the residences of the father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his daughter former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, criminals carried away metal structures like steel rods and pipes and valuable books in rickshaws to sell them as scrap and buy chicken and beef with the proceeds to eat.
All this happened under the direct patronage of the Interim Government in Bangladesh whose Foreign Affairs Advisor Touhid Hossain, under the lame excuse of a speech by Sheikh Hasina, justified the vandalism and looting.
A reporter of Bangladesh newspaper Prothom Alo has given a graphic description in his report of the scene at the residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Dhanmondi in Dhaka last week.
“A visit to the area showed hundreds of people entering the six-storey building and coming out with whatever they could lay their hands on. Most of the objects were books. Some were carrying cartons of books. Many people were seen carrying metal objects that could be sold as scrap. Some were also seen throwing down steel and iron frames in pieces. While others, waiting downstairs, were taking them by rickshaws, most of them were low-income people,” says the report.
The Prothom Alo reporter talked to a person named Al Amin. He was carrying iron frames. “Bhai, I will sell these and buy something good, either beef or chicken. Nothing else,” he told the reporter.
This scene does not gel with the claim of Touhid Hossain that the “highly aggressive” statements of Sheikh Hasina had offended the sentiments of the younger generation in Bangladesh.
The younger generation did not betray any sign of offended emotion and went on merrily looting and vandalising. Rather, it seems the statement of Touhid Hossain was a well-calculated attempt to stifle the voice of Sheikh Hasina.
In her speech, Sheikh Hasina had only asked the people of Bangladesh to organise resistance against the current regime. The scene at Dhanmondi justified the assertion of Sheikh Hasina that: “They can demolish a building, but not history. They must also remember that history takes its revenge. They are yet to have the strength to destroy with a bulldozer the national flag, the constitution and the independence that we earned at the cost of the lives of millions of martyrs.”
A statement issued by 26 noted citizens of Bangladesh, condemning the demolition of the house of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Dhanmondi and expressing their grievances, makes it abundantly clear that the looting and vandalism was carried out with the blessings of the Interim Government.
They said that the house was destroyed with the complete knowledge of the law-enforcement agencies. “There is no scope for the government to avoid responsibilities by issuing a statement after the incident had taken place.”
Holding the Home Adviser and the Interim Government responsible for the incidents on February 5 and 6, the noted citizens demanded a trial for the incidents.
Underscoring that the demolition of historic buildings was the hallmark of a barbaric society, the statement said: “We, the citizens of a civilised country, are extremely distressed, shocked and ashamed on seeing how the historic house of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Dhanmondi 32 and other establishments were set on fire and brutally demolished with the complete knowledge of the police and other law-enforcement agencies. The state is responsible for providing security to any historic artefact, place or establishment. This is part and parcel of civilised culture.”
Among the signatories to the statement were Bangladeshi lawyer and human rights activist Sultana Kamal, academic Rasheda K. Chowdhury, economist Anu Mohammed, social activist Khusi Kabir, prominent Hindu citizen Manindra Kumar Nath and others.
It seems the Interim Government authorities have taken note of one warning issued by the prominent citizens of Bangladesh, that such acts would strengthen the campaign abroad that there was no rule of law in the country.
To deflect international criticism of the happenings in Bangladesh, the Press Office of the Head of the Interim Government Mohammed Yunus issued a “warning of stern action” to contain vandalism and arson taking place across the country three days after the damage had been done.
Yunus also made a statement, calling upon all citizens “to immediately restore complete law and order and to ensure that there will be no further attacks on” properties associated with the family of Sheikh Hasina and her supporters.
Following the Dhanmondi attack, there were some 70 attacks targeting supports of Sheikh Hasina spread across at least 20 districts in Bangladesh.
The trend of violence in Bangladesh since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government shows that not only has the leadership of the student movement passed into the hands of criminals and vandals, but also a resurgence of radical Islamist groups at the cost of the more moderate branches of Islam in Bangladesh.
There have been more than 80 attacks on Sufi shrines in Bangladesh since last July. Islamic hardliners had given the call for the cancellation of the annual Urs festival, a Sufi tradition, in Mymensingh in January.
For weeks, hardliners held demonstrations, calling upon the police and the local authorities to ban the festival.
“This is happening for the first time in four decades. The safety of thousands of people who come to the Urs every year is now endangered because of Islamist hardliners,” Enamul Haque, caretaker of the Mymensingh shrine, has been quoted in UCA News.
Most interestingly, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, the main political rival of Sheikh Hasina, has called upon the Mohammed Yunus – led Interim Government to “bring the situation under control.”
A BNP statement has warned that “otherwise, anarchy will spread across the country.”
Describing the Dhanmondi House of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as a symbol of “heroic resistance,” the BNP has also highlighted the role of Sheikh Mujib’s residence in the formation of the national identity of Bangladesh.
The BNP said: “All those who value the freedom struggle of Bangladesh are aware of the importance of this residence.”
Being the main contender to form the next regular government in Bangladesh, such a stand of the BNP, the senior partner in the previous BNP – Jamaat-e-Islami government in Bangladesh, is a clear indication that the political initiative in the country is now in danger of passing into the hands of radical Islamists, and regular political parties like the BNP may soon be marginalised.
While the movement to dislodge the Awami League government, led by Sheikh Hasina, was launched last year by an organization called the ‘Students Against Discrimination Movement’, the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami had backed the student movement.
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The BNP as the main opposition political party was also with this group, hoping to ride to power on the strength of this anti-Sheikh Hasina alliance.
Now, however, with criminals in control of the student movement, it will be easy for Islamic fundamentalist groups to marginalise a regular political party like the BNP and use the student movement to seize the political initiative.
