SOME VERY DISTURBING SIGNS ALL OVER IN BANGLADESH SOCIETY

["Sam Garg" <gargsam@hotmail.com>]

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I am reproducing this in full since I don't have a URL for
this.........Sanjay



News from Bangladesh

SOME VERY DISTURBING SIGNS ALL OVER IN BANGLADESH SOCIETY

By Shiraj Uddin Shopon

New York City

The recent atrocities against the minorities have invalidated once
again the futile claims of the pro-Islamic forces that there exists
religious tolerance in Bangladesh. The political goons of the
fundamentalist alliance have tarnished the image of the entire
country. The majority of the common people are not hate-preachers,
hate-mongers and communal minded criminals.

Nevertheless, the politicians belonging to fundamentalist Jamaat and
semi-Islamic BNP think that they got the mandate with 2/3rd seats in
the parliament. What picture does this portray? Either the people
favor communal Islamic politics or the election results do not
reflect electorates' aspirations. The latter is true because the
people would not elect an alliance government whose cadres terrorize
them, capture their businesses and collect tolls from their shops and
establishments ad infinitum.

Did the people want to elect the four-party fundamentalist alliances
to annihilate minorities and their opponents? Especially, the people
of the country did not want to tarnish the image of the country and
see the torture on the minority population by the cadres of the
ruling fundamentalist parties.

This time however, the torture on Hindus was so intense, wide spread,
and long lasting [still continuing, which one will find in both
English and Bengali Newspapers] that many of the minorities are
requesting out of sheer desperation to take away their voting rights
in Bangladesh because they are targeted for torture and harassment
every time the voting season approaches. They are labeled as Awami
Leaguers. Many of the pro-Islamic forces justify their harassment on
this ground alone.

What is so wrong if they support the Awami League? It is not a crime
for them to support the Awami League, the party of their choice.
However, the Awami League opponents (ex Muslim Leaguers, Jamaatis,
and their likes in the BNP platform) consider this their prime crime.
Therefore, every time during the election the minority people are
subject to a wide-spread harassment and intimidation by the
communal-political hooligans of the anti-Awami League parties who
have no respect for human rights of the religious minorities.

If anyone analyzes the situation very carefully, they will see that
the present repression on minorities started immediately after the
takeover of governance by the Caretaker Administration headed by
Justice Latifur Rahman who had a strong penchant for partisanship.
Initially, the attacks by the cadres of the anti-Awami League forces
were characterized as a "Natural Phenomenon" by the Home Minister of
the Caretaker Administration. This was really a "Go Ahead" signal for
the hooligans. The same trend of characterization of the atrocities
such as "balancing acts against Awami hooligans," "Post-Election
Skirmishes," "Awami Fabrication," etc., continued for quite some time
to undermine the extent and severity of the atrocities carried out
against none but the non-Muslim citizens of our country.

After a long period of denial, the new government realized the
necessity to bring the situation under control. But, already, the
situation has gone beyond the limit. The Amnesty International (AI)
and other human rights organizations expressed their deep concerns
several times over the unfortunate incidents of minority repression.
There are citizens' protests in the neighboring India although their
government is more eager to get Gas, Transit, and Power deals done
than anything else at this time with the government of the
fundamentalist alliances of BNP (a reincarnation of old Muslim League
- a Bangladeshi version of Pakistan Muslim League), Jamaat-i-Islami,
and Islami Oyikko Jote.

Have the readers noticed that the liberal political parties are truly
in disarray after the debacle of Awami League in the last
conspiratorial parliament election? The terror has gripped the
nation. The liberal intellectuals and the members of different
cultural groups are under constant threats. Killing is the answer to
any protest against the fundamentalist cadres of the ruling parties.

They can come and kill anyone in the living room. That's how they
killed a respected Principal Gopal Muhuri. The Shibir cadres are
found to be responsible for such heinous crimes. Under the
fundamentalist alliance, Shibir and BNP cadres have merged and are
inseparable -- jointly working to annihilate the non-Muslims and
their opponents. The people of Bangladesh are lucky that the Mullah
Omar of Afghanistan is gone from the power. Otherwise, the ex Muslim
League BNP and the Jamaat would make Bangladesh a Talibani Utopia by
now.

The world is not free of all the Omars yet; at least not yet. There
are many Omars still aspiring for Islamic Utopia in Bangladesh.
Surely, they have brought Bangladesh into the hands of the
semi-Islamic and fundamentalist terrorists through their devious
propaganda. The people are now paying a severe price for the
propaganda of the Omars on Islamic Utopia. None is safe in Bangladesh
anymore under the semi-Islamic Utopian system under the tutelage of
Jamaat and BNP envisioned by the Omars.

Indeed a bad time has befallen on Bangladesh. The nation has already
become a police state. The government unjustly is using the
repressive PSA clause of the constitution to harass one of the
freedom fighters cum newspaperman Mr. Shahriar Kabir.

The Amnesty International has already released two reports on
incarceration of Mr. Kabir who is in poor health. His only crime
being he went to Calcutta to interview some of the victims of
post-election violence against the minorities. The present government
of BNP (reincarnation of Muslim League of bygone days) is hell bent
on making Bangladesh a police state. All this talk about
democratization of Bangladesh only exists for electing the parliament.

Once that process takes place and a new government is formed, the
democracy exits through the backdoor. And then come undemocratic
police state. This writer is aghast hearing the news of Shahriar
Kabir. The police are now conducting an intense interview in the jail
to extract an admission from Mr. Kabir, which dwarfs Hitler's Gestapo
tactics. We never thought that Bangladesh would become a fascistic
nation in the beginning of this new century.

I am of the view that through our combined writings we can create a
public opinion to tell the world that Bangladesh has suddenly become
a Fascist Nation. A very irregular election, repression on religious
minorities, and then torturing a journalist, etc., have all the
underpinnings of making the government a totalitarian regime, which
it has become. The world should take a note of it.






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