Zafar Iqbal, the ChetoNazi amongst Us

We know of the fact that intellectuals can shape a destiny of a nation, if they stand by their conscience and what is right. History has given us enough examples of intellectuals who lost the respect of the masses due to sale of their allegiances to the tyrants and oppressors of their people in return for short lived fame and glory.  History has side by side also given us examples of numerous intellectuals whose stand by their conscience has made them immortal. Great intellectuals such as Socrates are proof of that. Let us examine one such case.

Eminent Bangladeshi writer and national literary and cultural icon Muhammed Zafar Iqbal on Friday blamed the government for the leak of question papers of the ongoing Higher Secondary Certificate examinations and demanded a public hearing to reach a solution to the problem. Zafar Iqbal, also Shahjalal University of Science and Technology professor, made the demand as he led a sit in at the Central Shaheed Minar in protest at the leak of the question papers. 

Despite having evidence of question papers being leaked, the government had rejected the allegations, said Zafar Iqbal, also a member of the committee to frame the Education Policy 2010. He urged the government to arrange public hearing where prominent academics, teachers, students and guardians would exchange their views to reach a solution to the leak of question papers of public examinations. He, however, urged the young generation for launching a tough movement against the leaking of question papers. 

Saying this he left the programme and went to another program in the afternoon, where Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid presented him with the Chandrabarti Children’s Literature Award. Zafar Iqbal was seen sitting along with Nahid, the two friends happily chatting away throughout the programme. 

Now this was right after the program where Zafar spoke out against Nahid..........yes, right after when he spoke out AGAINST him!!! 

What does this tell us about Zafar Iqbal, eminent professor, well known atheist and apparently a shameless blatant supporter of the government?

That his words were just that, words. That he started actually protesting right at the end of the saga of the question leaks in order to save his image and skin simultaneously so as to keep up the camouflage. That he had always remained subservient to the government, as subservient as he was on the January 5 elections at the beginning of this year, where the writer came down heavily on a section of the media for their stand against holding the 10th parliamentary elections in Bangladesh on the 5th of January, 2013, amid a boycott by the main opposition party, alleging that those who had been calling for halting the electoral process were actually trying to ensure the participation of Jamaat-e-Islami in the election. 

Such actions and views of this eminent writer showcase a dark side of the personality behind the man that many are not aware of, and fail to see or comprehend. Zafar Iqbal may be a remarkably talented man, but the atheist cum self professed hater of Islamic education and politics has always had a clear stand regarding Islam, Islamic education, Islamic way of life and the role of Islam based politics in a secular state. Few are ignorant of the videos of Zafar Iqbal dancing recklessly with girls his daughter’s age or of pictures of his daughter drinking alcohol. A life long professor of secular values and a westernized way of life in favour of negating cultural and religious values of the society from which he emanates, Zafar Iqbal through his writings and actions led a generation astray, forcing down their throats a biased narrative of history that helped successive chetoNazis exploit the sentiments of millions, pitting them against their own culture and more importantly against Islam, weaning them away from moral values and social and cultural norms, and throughout the process denied any responsibility for the monster of ignorance residing with a cluesless generation he helped to create. 

Lets not shirk from the truth. Zafar Iqbal, with that silent secretive smile behind the trademark moustache, has destroyed a generation and probably more.      

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.

Slandering the Sheikh Dynasty: The Greater Crime

In Bangladesh, it’s a greater crime to speak out against the family of the ruling party Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina than to blaspheme against Prophet Mohammad (SAW). Shocking as it sounds, events throughout the past few years bear witness to that. The most recent event is as follows,

Judging an obscure remark Vs a seasoned Islamophobic icon,

On the 23rd of April 2012, a general diary was filed with Shabagh police station, against a teacher of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology alleging that he was a threat to security of prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Jananetri Parishad president AB Siddique had filed the diary alleging that BUET mechanical engineering department lecturer Hafizur Rahman Rana had posted libelous remarks on the facebook against Hasina. While filing GD number 1403, AB Siddique enclosed the remarks posted on the facebook post and a report on it published by Bangla daily ‘Bhorer Alo’ on April 19 with his allegations.

The facebook remarks state ‘Tui Hayena, Tui BUET ke khabi? Parbi na. Prothome desh ke, akhon BUET ke……..Matha kete BUET gate a Jhulia rakhbo jate ar kono hayne akraman na kore.’  (You hyena, you will consume BUET? You shall not be able to. First the country, then BUET........ I shall cut off your head and hang it on the gate of BUET so that NO more hyenas can attack us anymore)

These were the comments that got him 7 years rigorous imprisonment in jail. AB Siddique said that he felt that the comment was aimed at PM Sheikh Hasina, while BUET lecturer Rana had explained that the ‘hyena’ he had alluded to was ‘corruption and irregularities’. Despite the flimsy basis for a case, Dhaka Senior Special Judge Md. Jahrul Haque delivered the verdict Thursday, 27th of June, in absence of Hafizur Rahman who went into hiding after being granted a bail from the High Court on August 14. Later he also got bail from CMM court on September 18. The court sentenced him five-year jail term under section 57 of Information and Communication Technology Act and two year under section 506 of penal code.

The same court and the same Judge, Md. Jahrul Haque, on the very same day, granted bail to widely known  Islamophobic atheist blogger Asif Mohiuddin who was detained in April this year in connection with a case filed against him for violating information, communication and technology laws on charges of producing blasphemous write-ups on blogs and social media. Earlier on June 2, the same court granted bail to three other bloggers Mashiur Rahman Biplob, Russel Pervez and Subrata Adhikari Shuvo in a non-First Information Report (FIR) case filed under the Section 57(2) of Information Communication Technology Act 2006.

Such contrasting judgements by the same judge based on the same law ( 7 years for a libelous remark that could mean anything; bail for a widely known blasphemous Islamophobic blogger) allude to a politicized judicial system that caters to the whims of a particular political segment. Shockingly, it seems to be a greater crime to speak out against the family of the ruling party Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina than to blaspheme against Prophet Mohammad (SAW).

Imams in jail for ‘slandering’ PM’s family,

The police on Saturday, the 8^th of July, arrested two Imams at Boalmari upazila in Faridpur for distributing leaflets containing ‘offensive’ remarks against the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s family. Officer-in-charge of the Boalmari police station Ruhul Amin said that the two imams were Maulana Abul Hasan, 52 , an Imam of Boalmari Central Jame Mosque, and Rabiul Islam, 32, an Imam of Gunbaha-Taltala Jame Mosque. He said that they distributed leaflets, containing ‘derogatory’ comments against the prime minister and Mujib’s family, among the devotees after the Jumma prayers on Friday. Police Superintendent Hashemuzzaman filed a case against them under the Special Powers Act. On Sunday, the imams were sent to court, where the police asked for 5 days in remand for their ‘crime’. They were subsequently sent to jail. On Thursday the 20^th of July, hartal/general strike was observed at Boalmari by the local branch of opposition BNP asking for their unconditional release.

Not an isolated incident,

This is not isolated. Criticism against Hasina and her family in the past has been met with uncharacteristic swift action, both by the law and the administration. On January 4^th 2012, a university lecturer, who posted a Facebook status wishing for the death of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was sentenced to six-month in jail by a Bangladeshi court. In 2009, Information Secretary ATM Fazlul Karim alias Abu Karim was forced to resign and was arrested after a plethora of cases were filed against him for allegedly undermining Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members in one of his poems. Some more cases are given here. These are high profile cases which gleaned international media attention and are the tip of a phenomenon that is sparsely documented in Bangladesh. It is mentionable that youtube and facebook have been blocked for various periods in Bangladesh just to suppress such phenomena, especially after public outrage against the ruling party following major events like the BDR mutiny and the spread of video and audio detailing recent atrocities of the government.

Meanwhile……

The government of Sheikh Hasina has never backtracked from any opportunity to declare its love for protection of Islam and Islamic ideals. To this effect, the use of the law has been exemplary. But it was all for the wrong reasons. The actions of her government have proven to be exactly the opposite of her words.

Some examples,

Take the example of the dismissal of a defamation case hours after a lawyer filed it against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Adviser HT Imam and three others for hurting religious sentiment of the Muslims. In his complaint, the lawyer mentioned that HT Imam, while addressing a conference titled 'Islamer Dristitey Juddhaparadhider Bichar' organised by Awami Ulema League as the chief guest at Diploma Engineers' Institution auditorium in the city on April 2, said Islam had been protected in Bangladesh by Awami League and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was its initiator. Metropolitan Magistrate Mustafa Shahriar Khan dismissed the case saying, "The case was dismissed as there were no elements of defamation or hurting religious sentiment of the Muslims."

All seems well and good in line unless one considers the fact that the same judicial system facilitated the arrest of three leaders of the country's largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, on charges of "offending religious sentiments" in 2010. The three were accused of making comments comparing the party's chief to the prophet Muhammad. The charges stemmed from claims that Nizami's alleged persecution at the hands of the ruling Awami League was akin to the suffering of the Prophet Mohammed, which was a ridiculously frivolous charge to excuse their arrest. The main reason was, as the world saw later, to arrest them in preparation for a controversial war crimes trial that was to drag on for years.

Some of the case dismissals on the grounds of selective ‘frivolous’ charges of hurting religious sentiment include some Islamophobic bloggers from Shahbag. After a court dismissed a case against 8 bloggers for hurting religious sentiment and Islam defamation at Chittagong on the 6th of March, another court at Barisal did the same on the 27th of March.

In an effort to appease angry crowds who had reacted negatively to the above dismissals, the government arrested 4 bloggers by the 4th of April ahead of the long march programme of Hefazat-e-Islam on the 6th of April. The catch was that the government subsequently arrested the editor of opposition supportive news daily Daily Amardesh, Mahmudur Rahman, who had helped expose the above bloggers, on similar charges. A result was that Amardesh was subsequently banned from publishing amid much drama. Three of the four bloggers have been released on bail till date, while Mahmudur Rahman still is in custody, with no end to his ordeal in sight and Amardesh hasn’t been able to publish till date. In retrospect, it seemed that graver were the crimes of the one to expose, not the exposed.

In conclusion,

Such are the high handed practices of the current government led by Sheikh Hasina. With such selective judicial norms in place supplementing the heavy handedness of the government in suppressing the opposition, it is no wonder that a tsunami of disapproval and unpopularity has been unleashed, which most recently manifested itself in the form a crushing defeat for the Awami League in the four city corporations polls held past week.

Time will eventually tell. However, for now, it seems after all, that blatant oppression in the name of justice won’t pay, be it the daughter of the Father of the Nation herself.