Bangladesh: What we are and what we are not

০৮ ই ফেব্রুয়ারি, ২০১৩ সকাল ৭:৩৬

বাংলাদেশে ঘটমান সাম্প্রতিক আন্দোলন এবং তার ঐতিহাসিক প্রেক্ষাপট নিয়ে লেখা। মূল লক্ষ্য হলো বাংলাদেশের চলমান গণজাগরণ নিয়ে আন্তর্জাতিক মহলে যে ভুলভ্রান্তির অবকাশ সৃষ্টি হয়েছে- তার অবসানে সহায়তা করা। অনুগ্রহ করে লেখাটি আপনার বিদেশী বন্ধুদের সাথে শেয়ার করতে ভুলবেন না।



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History at a glance:

Bangladesh was a part of greater Bengal in the Indian subcontinent. In 1947, in the process of liberating the then British colony, this part of Bengal was included in the newly formed Islamic state called Pakistan, as demanded by the right-wing Islamists of the region. However, the two parts of this state, namely East Pakistan (now People’s Republic of Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (now Islamic Republic of Pakistan) were geographically over a thousand miles apart and culturally incompatible- a fact that became evident soon.



The first rift in relations of these two provinces surfaced when the general public of East Bengal rejected the proposition that Urdu (a language that is written in Arabic script and considered sacred by many Pakistani Muslims) be used as the official language of this new state. Protests escalated when the authority under Quaede Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah pressed on with the move. In 1952, government issued curfew and opened fire on protesting mob that killed unknown number of civilians. It may be noted that 21st February is celebrated as International Mother Language Day all over the world as remembrance of this incident. Although later the government shifted to a softer stance of using both Urdu and Bengali as the official languages, the seed of distrust and discontent between these two peoples had already been sown.



Two years later, In April 1954, general elections were held for the ‘East Pakistan Legislative Assembly’, which Bengali nationalists won, defeating Muslim League. However, the charge of the province was never handed over to them. Soon Pakistan moved into a military dictatorship under command of Field Marshal Ayub Khan and screams of Bangladeshi people for their democratic rights were muffled. History of East Bengal since then had only been that of oppression and deprivation. In 1970, the first open and direct parliamentary election was held and Bengali political party Awami League won the election by huge margin (AL-160, ML-81 out of 300 seats). Bengali people were overjoyed; they believe their fate was going to change. With their leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ruling Pakistan, they will not have a thing to worry about. However, the military dictators of Pakistan had other plans in mind.



In 25th March, 1971 the most heinous chapter of the state’s history unfolded when the so-called Operation Searchlight was initiated by army dictator General Yahya Khan. The sole goal of this operation was murdering every single supporter of Awami League that lived. At the first night, leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested and thrown behind bars. Thousands of people including police officers in the barracks, students inside dorms, professors and government officials in colonies and general people at home were killed in that night alone. Millions of Bangladeshis crossed border and took shelter in neighboring India as refugees. The young and able took arms and fought back. After nine months of war Bangladesh finally gained independence; but not before the butchering of 3 million civilians and rape of 0.2 million women.



However, not all the Bangladeshis supported our struggle for independence; not everyone wanted to see a new free, sovereign and secular state being formed. There was a right wing political party called Jamaat-e-Islami, who believed in building an Islamic republic state and enforcing what they called ‘the rule of Allah’. They saw the popular Awami League, a secular party by construction as their rival and its supporters the enemy of the state. Therefore, they supported the dictator in the genocide. They formed organizations in every major city with the mission of finding out freedom fighter and all their aids. The leaders and activists of this party worked as the insiders for Pakistan Army during the war. They interrogated, tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and guerilla fighters during this period. Sometimes they would just burn villages after villages into ashes; kill hundreds, even thousands of people at one go. Another duty they performed during the war was raiding villages, capturing young women and supplying them to the army. Every single army camp was converted into temporary brothels. As stated above, some 200,000 women were raped in nine months. Many of them died during this period, many died later. Many became pregnant and later aborted the babies. Many of these women were mere girls, as young as 12 and 13.





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Now:

Now the present government of Bangladesh has finally started the long awaited trial of the war criminals. Many might ask- why so late? We have asked ourselves this same question over and over again. Why did we have to wait for over four decades to punish the war criminals? There is no simple answer to the question. The only thing I can say is- our path after 1971 was not an easy one. We have faced assassinations of presidents, military dictatorships, mass revolutions and other forms of political turmoil along the way. It has not been long that we started to walk on the path of democracy. We, the younger generation of Bangladesh see ourselves living in a secular and democratic Bangladesh where no extremist group will single out a group of people as minorities and condemn them as second-class citizens. We dream of a Bangladesh where every single citizen irrespective of their racial and religious background will have equal right to learn, educate and train themselves, prosper and take part in rebuilding the nation. And the first step toward it would be the trial of those extremists who directed the genocide from inside of the nation. It is never too late to say no to extremism.



Very recently a leader of Jamaat-e-Islami named Kader Molla has been sentenced to life in prison (which amounts to some 20 years). This person was responsible for mass murder, rape and arson. Particularly, in one incident he supervised a murder of 344 civilians in one night. In another incident he beheaded a journalist and hung her from the roof to serve as example for those fighting against oppression. There are thousands of families who still bear the brunt of his atrocities. We believe 20 years in prison is a mere tap on the back for such a criminal. We believe he does not deserve to live. We believe he should hang and so should all the war criminals who supervised mass murder.



We, the youth of Bangladesh have taken streets for last three days with hope and demand that these trials be conducted transparently and efficiently. We demand that these people are not let loose again and the right wing extremists be banned from the soil of this country forever. We demand secularism, we demand human rights. We demand democracy, we demand justice.

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