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November 28, 2005
Bangladesh: Prime Minister Condemns Islamic Terrorism, Condones Political Terrorism
The Prime minister of Bangladesh, Khaleda Zia, addressed a massive crowd at the grounds of Hafiz Ibrahim College last week (pictured). According to ittefaq.com, it was the hardest-hitting attack against terrorism that she had yet made. She denounced Islamic extremists and said that Islam and terrorism were incompatible with each other, and called for citizens to condemn anyone who supported Islamic terror.
"Don't cooperate with and give shelter to them...One can't become martyr and cannot go to heaven by murdering people," she said. She said that extremists were "not real Musims" but "enemies of Islam. Islamic laws cannot be established by killing people - Islam does not sanction terrorism and killing."
She may be right, but there is a dark side to her own party, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), which she has not condemned so openly. We mentioned earlier how, on October 12, a BNP Member of Parliament, Zahiruddin Swapan publicly called for journalists to be beaten up, while addressing a public meeting. Swapan is information and research secretary for the BNP. Khaleda Zia did not publicly condemn her minister. Swapan's statements have resonance, as there is a large faction in Bangladesh's National Party which has a reputation for such behaviour.
In December 2003, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the youth wing of the Bangladesh National Party, called the Jubo Dal, disagreed with the writing of one journalist in the southern Jhalakathi district. Humayun Kabir was beaten and stabbed by this junior wing of Zia's party. This event occurred on Dec 4, 2003. When journalists wrote of this incident and condemned, many received attacks and death threats, forcing 10 to go into hiding. A fuller account of this case can be found here.
The main opposition party, the Awami League, reports from November 8 this year, rival members of the Jessore chapter of the Jubo Dal were involved in a battle over drug dealership, causing six people to be injured, three critically. Knives and hockey sticks were used in the fight. 17 were arrested, but no-one was charged.
On the same day, the Daily Star reported that the security force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Chuadanga arrested four leaders of the BNP, including two Jubo Dal leaders, on charges of extortion and manipulation.
These are but a few examples of the fellow travellers who ride along in the Khaled Zia's retinue. The most shocking example of Jubo Dal activity finally came to a head earlier today, at the close of a case described by the Special Public Prosecutor in the case as "the most gruesome and heinous killing in the history of Bangladesh."
The Daily Star reports that Jubo Dal leader Rafiqul Islam Kajal and eight accomplices have been given double death sentences for their part in a brutal killing. Unfortunately for justice, only one individual, Mohammad Abdur Rahim, was at the court in Dhaka to hear the verdict.
The seven others, including the Jubo Dal leader, were tried in absentia, as they had all become fugitives. The murder was unpleasant by any standards. 52-year old Mohammad Shamsul Haq, who owned a hosiery market in old Dhaka, his 29-year old son Russel Sheikh and 37-year old chauffeur Moazzem Hossain had been abducted by the Jubo Dal leader on March 26, 2004.
The men were killed for control of the hosiery business, and access to a horde of money. The victims bodies had been chopped into a total of 149 pieces, which had then been dumped at various locations. Despite today's guilty verdict, Shamsul's wife said: "We are satisfied with the verdict but we fear for our lives as the fugitives had threatened us over telephone to withdraw the case. They (fugitives) also told us to be ready for the 'dire consequences' as we did not withdraw the case."
The Jubo Dal are still continuing as members of Khaled Zia's party. She is right to criticise those who use religion as a pretext to commit acts of violence and terror. Unfortunately, with 707 extrajudicial killings having taken place during her tenure as leader of the government, she does not seem to disapprove so strongly of acts of violence and terror carried out by those with whom she has allied herself.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 28, 2005 11:35 PM
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