The Real Terrorists in Bangladesh

In a blitzkrieg of a remark, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan defended the security forces on Saturday, at a dialogue organised by the BBC Bengali Service in Dhaka nonetheless.

In response to BNP Vice Chairman Hafizuddin Ahmed’s question: “Isn’t the basic right of a man to live is denied by the crossfire?”, the minister replied: “Of course, every human being has the right to live. But, I think a bit of crossfire is needed to uproot terrorism from the country.”

He further added, “The people of the country have accepted crossfire. Crossfire do take place in other countries too, which is legal”

The comments have drawn national and international criticism from concerned individuals, online activists and advocacy groups.

This comes at an increasingly important time where corruption, extrajudicial killing and an utter disregard for the rule of the law by the rulers themselves is rife in Bangladesh, which was placed 92nd among 99 world nations in terms of the rule of the law in the past year by the World Justice Project (WJP). Add to that the news that allegations of murder, torture and forced disappearances are being levelled at Bangladesh's government in a case under review by the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and you get an idea of the picture at hand here.

Still looking for more evidence of the real terrorists in Bangladesh? This is a picture taken just yesterday from the online version of the popular newspaper Amar Desh (print version closed down by the government) of public armed clashes between two groups of Awami league factions fighting each other at Sreepur, Gazipur, over elections on the 9th of March, 2013.

And you still ask as to who are the real terrorists in Bangladesh?