Azan and Prayers halted in Bangladesh district for fear of security forces crackdown

Nilphamari: After 5 people were killed and around 50 injured in a clash between Awami Leage coupled with Police against supporters of the 18 Party Alliance in Ramganj Bazar of the district, the unions of Tupamari and Lokkhichap have become deserted.

The police have filed a case in this connection against 14 named and 1500 unnamed suspects, and as a result widespread terror is prevailing among the residents of Tupamari and Lokkhichap unions.

On the other hand, terror is prevalent among supporters of Jamat and BNP residing in the old Ramganj Bazar, Tupamari and Lokkhichpa unions due to them having received threats of having their houses and businesses set on fire, vandalized and looted. In Ramganj Bazar, businessmen have evacuated all of their wares throughout yesterday. A state of fear is prevailing in the area.

The "Joint Forces" raided the area in the name of arrests in the Ramganj Bazar area. They arrested an old man named Hasan Ali Miya from Sukhdon area and arrested 2 other youths from Syedpur area. After this incident the residents are in a state of fear of being arrested, and have fled their houses in fear.

After this incident the mosques are no longer broadcasting the Azan, nor are prayers being held in them.

Even though the Azan is being given from the "Baitul Falah" Mosque whose Imam Kasem Ali is a member of the "Olama League", the Awami League units for "imams" and "scholars" of the party, there are no worshippers. Azan is absent from the Jama Mosque attached to the Dubachori Dakhil Madrasa. A source from the area confirmed that no prayers were being held either.

Translated from below,

News Link: 
1. http://www.timenewsbd.com/holbengal/2013/12/17/19634
2. Newsevent
3. http://www.dailyinqilab.com/2013/12/17/149184.php

Murdered by the state, Jamaat leader Aminul Islam's dead body found: The implications

State forces under the guidance of the government of Sheikh Hasina killed labour leader Aminul Islam, aged 40, on the 4th of April 2012. The world saw the brutality with which he was killed. His body was recovered a day later and identified by his family from photographs on the 6th of April. His only fault was that he stood up for the rights of his fellow workers, against the might of the state, against the injustice. See this exhaustive chronological report on the murder of the well known labor rights activists Aminul Islam, a case which remains ‘unsolved’ by the security forces which killed him. 

Today, about 1.5 years later, the dead body of another Aminul Islam has been found, this time at Sitakunda in Chittagong. Police ‘recovered’ the bullet-hit body of Aminul Islam Amin, aged 40, secretary of Barabkunda union unit of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, from Kasaipara in the upazila around 1:30 pm. Local Jamaat leader Anwar Siddiqui Chowdhury confirmed that members of Detective Branch of police arrested Aminul from a restaurant in Chouddagram upazila of Comilla on November 17 during a stopover while he along with his wife was returning to Chittagong from Dhaka by a bus. He was not seen since. The body was found next to a slaughter house next to the Dhaka Chittagong highway at Panthotila area. The body of the previously abducted leader was found gagged and bullet ridden.

Picture: Aminul Islam Amin

Aminul Islam Amin is the not the first, nor definitely an isolated case. Police and BGB at Sitakunda, along with security forces at all places in the country have not hesitated in using live ammunition in the dispersal of crowds of protesters who tried to exercise their democratic right to protest peacefully. The hypocrisy this government has shown in keeping its mouth shut on the barrage of deaths that have occurred over the past few weeks show the inherent autocratic tendency of this government when it ordered security forces to use live fire upon public demonstrations, granting impunity to the killers at will. Helpful in this regard has been the role of the government compliant media (which have been kept open by the Government) in covering up these deaths under the cloak of reactionary action to public unrest.    

Picture: Body of Jamaat leader Aminul Islam lying beside Dhaka-Chittagong highway, gagged and bullet ridden

Picture: Close view of body of Jamaat leader Aminul Islam lying beside Dhaka-Chittagong highway, gagged and bullet ridden. Notice that he is blind folded too. Will human rights organisations take notice? This is outrageous!!! 

Will the world not condemn this extrajudicial killing? Will the family of this leader who stood up to the injustice and rampant corruption of the police and administration not get justice? It is with a heavy heart that we shall conclude that there is little hope in this regard, as long as the world powers, led by India and the United States continue to adamantly support this autocratic government that has defied every tenet of democracy in the book, and under whose rule countless activists, businessmen, academics, rights workers et al have been subject to unwarranted detainment, torture and oppression. We demand justice. And to that end we demand the removal of this regime. We urge the foreign powers to look beyond their own selfish interests, the victims of which have been the common people of Bangladesh, whose voices ever remain gagged. 

Jamaat leader subject to disappearance by police state in Bangladesh

Mesbah Uddin Ahmad Nayeem (33), a council member of Jamaat-e-Islami’s Turag thana and managing director of Matrichaya Housing Limited, has was reportedly abducted by men claiming to be police from the Detective Branch. He is still missing.

Mesbah Uddin’s family was carried off from his house located at sector no.13 of Uttara in the capital Dhaka on Sunday at around 2 am late at night.

His family and relatives informed the press that despite the fact that he was taken away by DB branch men, they didn’t recieve any information on his whereabouts even after inquiring into the disappearance at both the local Police station and DB office.

Deeply worried over the abduction, Mesbah Uddin’s family informed that they believed that the abduction of Mesbah Uddin, a popular local youth leader, was part of the ongoing countrywide government drive to suppress and eliminate the opposition at all levels.

In light of any available information about his abductors and his whereabouts, the family members of the abducted leader have requested the administration to find and rescue him.

It was further known that the same DB men, who abducted Nayeem, went to the house of his business partner Mojammel Haque and took him away too. He has also been missing since.

Source: http://www.timenewsbd.com/city/2013/11/17/16669

Shahbag spearheads cheap politics with dead BCL cadre Dip

A third-year student of mechanical engineering and BUET unit Chhatra League convening committee member, Arif Raihan Dip, died at about 4:00am in Square Hospitals in the capital on the 3rd of July 2013. He had been unconscious since he had been stabbed him in his room at the Kabi Nazrul Islam Hall on April 9. He was sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in a critical condition and was later was moved to Square Hospitals.

Arif Raihan Dip Source: Daily Star

The media spin:

This is how the media described Dip’s attack-

1. Newage says, “An unnamed man had stabbed him in his room at the Kabi Nazrul Islam Hall on April 9.”

2. Daily Star says, “An unidentified man dragged Dwip down the hall’s stairs and stabbed him indiscriminately on April 9.”

3. Bdnews, in a more dramatic tone, claims, “Finally the miscreants attacked Dip in his dormitory on Apr 9 and left him severely wounded in his head and back.”

4. In the most dramatic tone, mixing unverifiable witness accounts into the factual description, the Dhaka Tribune claims, “According to witnesses, four youths hacked Dwip in his room, located in the Kobi Nazrul Islam Hall, using sharp weapons at around 11am on April 9.”

All media were unanimous in planning the seed of doubt, when they quoted Chatra League leaders pinning the blame on usual suspects. The Dhaka Tribune deserves credit for being the most (mis)informative when it says, “Although the assailants could not be recognised, Arif’s friends said they suspect members of Islami Chhatra Shibir or Hefazat-e-Islam of being responsible.”

The motive:

New Age reports that Raihan is said to have been attacked as he along with some other students stopped an imam of a hall mosque providing Hefazat-e-Islam activists with food during their long march to Dhaka on April 5. The imam, Abdul Alim, was suspended immediately as the students informed the university’s student welfare director Delwar Hossain of the matter.

Bdnews starts playing around with the motive when it states, “ The assault followed hearsay that he along with some other students had barred an imam of one of the hall mosques from supplying food to Hifazat-e Islam activists during their long march to Dhaka on Apr 6. Later, the Imam, Abdul Alim was suspended.”

Other media did not care to report on the matter.

A past history of violence:

Although ‘progressive’ news media did not hesitate to identify Dip as being some sort of a hero, his documented past is not so rosy. This was the same Dip who was suspended for being involved in attacks on general students just about a year ago. As reported by bdnews, following a dispute on Dec 28 2011, between the senior and junior batches over entering a concert organised for the rag day of the outgoing batch, 2008 batch students Saifullah Sikder Mithun and Sujit Saha of the Material and Metallurgical Department and 2009 batch student Arif Raihan Dip of the Mechanical Engineering Department.  on Dec 31 2011, beat Tousif Ahmed Ishan, a final-year student of the Computer Science and Engineering Department with hockey sticks and iron rods in his room in the Kazi Nazrul Islam Hall, leaving him with severe injuries in his both hands and legs. BUET unit Chhatra League general secretary Tonmoy Ahmed had said though the three accused were his fellow party activists, his party was not involved in the attack. They would be expelled from the party, he had added.  BUET students organised protests on the campus to demand that authorities permanently expel the three students who are accused of beating Ishan.

Not only was Dip reinstated into the university within a short period of time, he was also reinstated into the Chatra League itself and was a Chhatra League convening committee member on the eve of his attack on the imam.

A victim?

The Detective Branch arrested fourth-year civil engineering student Md Mezbah Uddin on April 18 at the campus in this connection. The police said that Mezbah had confessed to attacking Raihan in the hall. Mezbah is reported to have told investigators that Raihan had beaten the BUET mosque imam for providing Hefazat activists with food on April 5. However, NO connections to Hefazat OR Bangladesh Islami Chatra shibir have been even remotely suggested by police or proved by anyone.

The supposed ‘confession’ of Mezbah is also subject to controversy in the current climate of fear stemming from a plethora of well documented police excesses in Bangladesh. Add to this the fact that the Lalbagh police seized a bag containing a machete, a pair of pajamas, a panjabi and a cap from the Kobi Nazrul Hall and you get the idea as to where we are all headed to.

Shahbag plays cheap politics:

Shahbagh protesters bring out a procession in Dhaka on Tuesday protesting at the death of BUET student Arif Raihan Dwip three months after he was hacked by a fellow. — New age photo

Dhaka Tribune and New Age reported that Shahbagh protesters, meanwhile, held protests in the Shahbagh crossing on Tuesday evening demanding an immediate arrest of the attackers, blaming Shibir and Hefazat activists for the attack. They were led by Convener of the Ganajagaran Mancha, Imran H Sarkar and coordinator Maruf Rasul. The protesters from the programme accused Hefazat-e-Islam of making the attack on Dwip that took his life. This of course seriously raises concerns as to whether Shahbag really has turned into a haven for anti-Islamic hatred and partisan politics (the Chatra League is and a driving force at Shahbag and it is the student.body of the ruling Awami League)

So the question remains, is the death of a well known miscreant going to be just another manufactured scenario to further fuel the Islamophobic narrative actively sponsored by the government of Bangladesh?

Chatra League: Embodying terrorism en masse

UNB reported that two people, including an 8 year old boy, were killed and another person was injured during a gunfight between armed cadres of the Jubo League and Bangladesh Chhatra League over dropping a tender for three development projects of Bangladesh Railway East Zone headquarters, CRB Bhaban, under Kotwali Police Station at around 11:45am.

  

8 year old Arman. What was his fault?

Kotwali Police Station Inspector (Investigation) Nezamuddin said the armed clashes erupted following a dispute and running battles between the groups of Chhatra League and Juba League over a tender for a Tk 4.8 million renovation project of Feni Railway Station.

Police said that around 20 rounds of gunshots were fired at the time.

After the horrible incident, police conducted drives in different parts of Chittagong and detained around 40 people, including Chhatra League Central Assistant Secretary Saiful Alam Limon.

The deceased persons were identified as passersby Arman Hossain, 8, son of Siddique Ahmed and Saju Palit, 24. Both were residents of a nearby slum. While playing out in the open, Arman was shot in the head and died on the spot. Saju was sitting on a roadside tea stall near the clash site when a bullet hit him in the head. Doctors declared him dead after he was rushed to Chittagong Medical College and Hospital.

What did he do to deserve this end? Was innocence his fault?

How the Chatra League (re)acted,

In a media statement, the President of the Chatra League, HM Badiuzzaman Shohagh and the General Secretary Siddique Nazmul Alam said there was no active committee of Chhatra League in the port city. "None have been ordered to work for the organisation at any level there," the statement said.

However, police have said that apart from Limon, the arrestees include Chhatra League's Chittagong University unit Organising Secretary Alamgir Tipu, Cultural Affairs Secretary Jamir Uddin and Chittagong Commerce College Vice-President Hasmat Ali Russell.

In a sham of a bid to appear tough, in a press release in the afternoon, the front said it was permanently expelling its Central Assistant Secretary Limon for his involvement with anti-organisational activities

Meanwhile, in this month….

In case you do not know, the above incident is no way an isolated one. Let us refresh our memories from a few examples from June 2013 (this month) itself.

On the 22^nd of June, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-11 arrested president of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) of Burichang chapter with 250 tablets of Yaba (methamphetamine) tablets from Shankushil bazar under Burichang upazila early hours Saturday.

On the 14^th of June, local cadres of the Juba League and Bangladesh Chhatra League, carried out an attack on Kazipur municipality office on Wednesday. They vandalised various furniture of three rooms of the office worth around 5 lakh taka.

On the 11^th of June, president of Savar College unit Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) was sued on the charge of rape. Police said that the victim’s mother Doly Begum filed a case against BCL leader Ahmed Rubel and ten others, including his two brothers, with Savar police station in the morning.

A walk down the memory lane….

8 year old Arman Hossain, a victim of today’s clashes, did not deserve to die the way he died. Nor did Bishwajit Das. Neither did 10 year old Rabbi at Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. But the fact is that convicted criminals have been granted immunity and have enjoyed widespread impunity, just because of the obnoxious fact that they are affiliated with that sorry excuse of an organization called the Bangladesh Chatra League (BCL). 

A recent report of Centre for Media Research and Training shows that around 60 higher education institutes of the country were declared shut for indefinite period because of the BCL’s factional clashes and those with their political rivals. They also locked in 200 clashes in different educational institutes over the last four years that left around 4,145 people injured. Around 20 teachers of Dhaka University have been assaulted by Chhatra League activists during this time. They assaulted around 20 teachers of Bangladesh Agriculture University on August 20, 2011. On May 10, 2010, BCL activists assaulted a female teacher and 10 female students of JnU. More than 150 journalists were assaulted by BCL in the last four years by activists of BCL, the report said. 

It was found that in most of the incidents, no cases had been filed. Moreover, cases which were filed were done so against unidentified people even though the attackers had been exposed through media and witnesses. 

In conclusion,

Once the pride of a beleaguered nation, Bangladesh Chatra League of late has turned into a terrorist outfit; one even Sheikh Hasina herself has failed to bring under check. Progenitor of a generation that gave Bangladesh great political leaders, the BCL has now turned into a haven for miscreants and anti-social hypocrites who use it as a breeding ground to create mindless replicas of themselves. It is high time that this terrorist outfit be either banned or brought to justice in order to set the records straight. There is no other alternative.