Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Historic Shahbag Square!!!!
Kader Molla is given Death sentence
Today approximately at 9.40 am The Supreme Court appellate division has given their verdict. They changed the life sentence given by High court to death sentence by hanging. What a justice? No direct evidence, no eye witness, yet they gave death sentence. How ridiculous. This is what called Awami Justice. Where Truth is no defense.
Behold Murgi Kabir!!!!!
Monday, September 9, 2013
Sunday, September 8, 2013
AL's busy doing this!!!!
We want Revenge not justice.
Our state minister said, the verdict about felani Murder is grieving and he will be needed papers of the verdict to give official comment. How ridiculous? Should i ask them on what ground the murderer declarer released? What kind of threat a teenage girl posed to the BSF? After she's been shot she was on the barbed wire for about 4 hours before death. A deadly injured young girl was a great criminal to the BSF? Otherwise why they didn't give her medical treatment. If she was trespassing then why not arrest her? Why shoot her and let there to die slowly?
So it's clear that the Indian Government don't favor justice. After declared the killer innocent we cannot trust in any kind of judgement. It's time we want revenge, simple fast revenge, only revenge.
So it's clear that the Indian Government don't favor justice. After declared the killer innocent we cannot trust in any kind of judgement. It's time we want revenge, simple fast revenge, only revenge.
Hanging Bangladesh
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Police Attack on Garments Workers
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Awami Student League!!!!
Chhatralig.............
Monday, September 2, 2013
police Action
Bangladesh under Occupation of Brutal Tyrants
The government sponsored insurgency against judiciary has started in the heart of the capital Dhaka. Recently Bangladesh government’s International Crime Tribunal (ICT) has declared life-term imprisonment for one of the Jamaat –e-Islami’s (JI) central leader Mr. Abdul Qader Molla for alleged serial killings and rapes. Mr. Molla flatly refused any such crime. He also claimed that he was in the rural district of Faridpur in 1971 - far away from the alleged crime spot at Mirpur in Dhaka. The defence team also put the argument that Mr. Abdul Qader joined Dhaka University in 1972 as a residential student and after graduation joined Bangladesh Rifle School as a teacher. Later on, joined a daily newspaper as journalist and become vice president of Dhaka Journalist Union for 2 years. How could it happen that no case was filed against him during the last 40 years’ long period?
Abdul Qader Molla’s lawyers claim that their client did not receive any fair trial. It has been a travesty of judgement. Even the human rights organisations in Bangladesh have expressed their serious concerns about the whole judicial procedures. The Bangladesh Awami League (BAL) has put their own people as judge, prosecution lawyer and investigating police officers – which itself kills the neutrality of judicial procedure. But after all this stage-managed drama, the ruling BAL and its left leaning partners are not happy with the judgement. Their demand was nothing less than the plain judicial murder. Since the judges could not fulfil their demand, they have instigated their cadres to launch the current insurgency.
Elimination of razakars and neo-razakars
Now the judicial issue is no more confined within the premise of the court, the ruling party has brought it to the street. The workers of BAL and its ruling alliance have launched a non-stop protest rally nearly a week ago and still continuing day and night in one of the Dhaka’s busiest round-abouts called ‘Shahbag’. Their slogans are very ridiculous and unprecedented even in Bangladesh standard. They are not demanding a fair trial, rather quick execution of not only Abdul Qader Molla and but also all other razakars (volunteers) who were against the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. The leaders of the rally have given ICT an ultimatum and a much specified job: that’s not a fair trial of razakars, but hanging every one of them.
The exact number of razakars is not known. Bangladesh has 4,451 rural unions and 66 districts and 500 subdistricts (upazilla) (according to the current data). If 20 people were from each union working for a united Pakistan than their number will be more than 100, 000 only from the country’s rural unions. But the razakars were also in cities. In 1971, like every union, each urban district and sub-district town had their own peace committee and razakars. The NATO force couldn’t have control even over 30% area of Afghanistan; they could seldom go beyond the heavily guarded cities. In the eighties, the Soviet Russia’s huge army couldn’t have a better control over Afghanistan either. Even now, more than 60 % of the territory is controlled by the anti-occupation Taleban forces. But the case of the muktibahini was different; they could not take under control even a single sub-district (thana) prior to Indian occupation. The Pakistan Army had a force of only 45,000 (source: Gen. Niazi's book). The razakars put a fierce and effective defence against the India-trained muktibahini till the arrival of India’s huge army in last weeks of Novembner and December. So BAL have real anger against these razakars, probably they cannot have a good sleep when they rememver them. But the question is: do they want to kill all these razakars? Is the country is ready for such a huge genocide?
Now the issue has been made much more complicated by BAL and its political partners. They have redefined razakar. According to the new definition, even those who are born after the creation of Bangladesh are also called razakar -if they do not show allegiance to Hasina’s de-Islamising pro-Indian politics, especially if take 1971’s razakars as their political ally. On that ground, they call former President Gen. Ziaur Rahman and his widow and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia as razakar too. Because, they formed political alliance with the razakars. They have threatened to put these neo-razakars on trial. This way, the list of razakars is becoming unending. Even the columnists who write in anti-government newspapers, the academics who criticise the government on TV talk-shows, the students who show allegiance to sharia and other fundamentals of Islam, and the politicians who take anti-Indian stance are also labelled as razakars.
Hasina’s Interference in Judiciary
In any civilised country, the judiciary is an independent body. Neither the government nor any people on the street possess any right to dictate the judgement for the court, nor can deny any pronounced judgement. Such demand jeopardise independent functioning of the judiciary. But that norm does not function in Bangladesh. Few weeks ago, the ICT announced in its judgement that Moulana Abul Kalam Azad –an ex JI leader, and now out of Bangladesh, to be hanged for his alleged crime of killing and rape. AL people celebrated that ruling by distributing sweets in the street. But when the court gave life sentence in another case against JI leader Abdul Qader Molla, they burst into rebellion. Now the judiciary faces insurgency – organised by the cadres of the ruling coalition.
The judiciary does not possess any policing manpower; hence it cannot protect its own judges and the premises. Such responsibility lies on the government’s shoulder. It must protect the unarmed judges from insurgents on the street. Otherwise, how can they survive and function freely? That too is failing in Bangladesh. They are no superhuman or saint, hence susceptible to bullying and life threats – especially if such pressure comes from the government. Now the judges are facing two-prong bullying: one from the street and other from the government. On 10th of February, in her speech in the parliament, the Prime Minister Hasina not only highly appreciated these rebels, but also advised the ICT judges to listen to their demands. But if the judges incorporate the demands of the insurgents in their verdict, then why do they need such a costly and lengthy judicial proceeding? The protestors and a few hangmen are not enough to do the job? Is it different from the racist lynch courts of the USA that hanged thousands of black Africans on trivial issues? The MPs of the ruling coalition demanded that a delegation should be sent to the rally at Shahbag roundabout to announce their full support and solidarity.
Tahrir Square and Shahbag Roundabout
The BAL dominated media is labelling Shahbag roundabout as Dhaka's Tahrir square. It is a huge joke. They failed to find any distinctiveness of Tahrir square. In Tahrir square, the anti-regime students assemled to dismantle President Mubarak's autocratic rule. To crash these protesting youths, President Mubarak sent his army, tanks, and also armed thugs on the back of horse and camels to kill them. Hundreds of students were killed by the regime. But what is happening in Dhaka's Shahbag is totally opposite. The Hasina government is sending not only verbal blessing but also mobile toilets, food and drinks, and moreover full police protection from any attack from the opponents.
The youth in Tahrir squre, brought the down fall of about more than 3 decades old Mubarak regime. But in Dhaka's Shabag square, the youths are demanding the prolongation of the fascist rule of the pro-Indian BAL. Few days ago Inida's foreign seceretary Ranjan Mathai was in Dhaka. On 10/02/12 he announced that the Indian government appreciate the Bangladesh government’s trial of the war criminals. The Kolkata's music composers are now composing new songs for their cultural foot soldiers at the rally. So the India connection is quite strong as was in 1971. But the youths in Tahrir square did not have such foreign connection.
Brutal Fascism
In fascism, the ruling party claims the exclusive ownership of the whole country: including its whole state infrastructure, police, media and judiciary. In Bangladesh, fascism is ruling with its ugliest form. The BAL is not ready to give any political space for peaceful protest to the opponents. While fully patronising the gathering of their own youths in Shahbag squre, it is denying such rights to others. They are not allowing the opponents to hold any meeting in any part of Dhaka. Only few weeks ago, thousands of teachers from the non-government primary schools were holding a huge rally in Dhaka for better salary and job security. To disperse them, the police sprayed hot chilli powder and poisonous gases in the crowd. Several teachers died of the toxic effects.
Eliminating JI and Shibir (Jamaat’s student wing) activists have become their much proclaimed policy. Whenever and wherever the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing initiate any rally, the police and its ally the RAB (Rapid Action Battilion) start charging them with bullets, batons and tear gas. They not only put them behind the bar, but also do brutal torture. Hasina has made her own Abu Garebs. More than 150 of JI’s women workers are in police custody for many months. Recently, Mohammad Nasim -BAL’s central leader and ex-cabinet minister, has asked the government to launch a combing operation to eliminate JI and Shibir members.
Hasina is exactly following the footsteps of her dead father Shaikh Mujibur Rahman. To establish a soviet-type one-party autocracy of BAKSAL (Bangladesh Krishok Sramik Awami League), Mujib not only killed democracy, but also killed more than thirty thousand people to sustain his rule. Mujib dismantled all opposition newspapers. Hasina is following the same path. On 13/02/13, Hasins’s militant followers burnt the printing press of the opposition daily Naya Diganta. They have also threatened to burn their TV installation. Ironically, whenever an opposition newspaper or office get burnt by its hooligans, BAL plays a different game. Instead of arresting the miscreants, they lay the blame on the opposition. They go on telling that the opposition has invited the wrath of people by going ant-people.
Recently the daily Jugantar, Dhaka’s vernacular newspaper, published a horrendous report. The sub-urban peripheral part of Dhaka city has turned into a free killing ground. The unknown killers dump the dead bodies of the unknown by the riversides of the surrounding rivers like Buriganga, Turag, Meghna and Dhaleswari, People are also being killed in the midst of forest in the nearby Ghazipur district. These killers are not Hasina's political enemy; hence Hasina, her police and the prosecution team have little interest or time to spend on such issue. Their time and energy are almost exclusively spent on hunting down the opposition leaders and their activists. Apart from enforcing their brute ownership over the country and its institutions, it now seems that the ruling BAL has no other priority.
Bangladesh: A New Battleground
The ruling Bangladesh Awami Leage (BAL) made another record of shameful failure. On only one day of 28th February, its police forces have killed more than 60 civilians (source: Daily Amar Desh, Dhaka 1/3/13). Four people killed on 01.03.2013; and 3 more killed on 02. 03.13. Most of the deaths took place in the rural districts. As soon as the death sentence against the country’s most famous Islamic preacher Moulana Delwar Hussain Sayeedi was announced, thousands of protestors poured into the streets. To disperse these unarmed protestors, the police opened fire arms indiscriminately. Unlike the previous mass up-rise, this time the movement is no more confined within the big cities’ urban populations, rather has quickly grabbed the whole country.
Although Moulana Sayeedi is a Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader, his popularity goes beyond the party boundary. Thousands of non-partisan religious people used to flock to his religious sermons -delivered almost every nook and corner of the country. Shaikh Hasina’s government has now hammered on the very sensitive fibres of these religious people. During the whole Pakistani period of 24 years -till 25th March 1971, even 24 people were not killed by the police. Hence, even many supporters of 1971’s cessation from Pakistan are now questioning the wisdom of creating such a blood-letting Bangladesh.”
Moulana Sayeedi’s death sentence was announced by Dhaka’s International Crime Tribunal (ICT). However, the court is neither international, nor does it adjudicate the country’s bursting crimes. All of its judges, the prosecutors, the investigating officers are the political appointees of BAL. Its mandate has been pre-fixed by the BAL government; and that too, is to expedite the judicial murder of its political opponents. They have started the trial of only 10, but their much declared target is to try every Razakar –the Bengali Muslims who took part against the break-up of Pakistan in 1971. The minimum punishment demanded by BAL and its ally is the death sentence. Such political mandate of ICT is no more hidden; rather evident from the recent Skype conversation of ICT’s chairman Mr. Nizamul Haq with his Brussels based personal friend Dr. Ahmed Ziauddin. Mr. Nizamul Haq has revealed that the government has turned mad to have quick death sentence against the arrested leaders. After such revelation, Mr. Haq had to resign from the ICT.
The Pakistan Experience
It is impossible to understand Bangladesh’s present crisis without understanding her Pakistan experience. The Bangladesh Awami League (BAL) and its ally too, are also drawing its legitimacy of ICT and the pretext of hanging the razakars from Pakistan experience. In the early part of the twentieth century, the Bengali Muslims -the largest Muslim population in the South Asia, realised that they have an important role to play for the Muslim ummah –especially for those who live in South Asia. For such a role, they thought it indispensable to remain in the central stage of Indian Muslims’ politics. The Khilafat movement of Ali brothers gave a heavy boost to such feeling. With such a pan-Islamic vision, the Bengali Muslims played a crucial role in the making of Pakistan. The originator of Pakistan movement was the All India Muslim League (ML); it was formed in Dhaka in 1906. And the pioneering role was played by the Nawab of Dhaka –Sir Salimullah. Even in 1940, the famous Pakistan proposal was raised by Bengal’s Prime Minister Moulavi Fazlul Haque in ML’s Lahore conference.
The creation of Pakistan –the largest Muslim country in the world, gave a golden opportunity to her majority Bengali Muslim citizens to influence not only the politics of Pakistan, but also the politics of the whole Islamic world. But such objective was foiled by Pakistan’s huge internal enemies. The imperialist occupiers left the subcontinent in 1947, but left behind many hard-core secular institutions. The British were very optimistic of their role to protect their economic interest and the cultural legacy in the Muslim land. The members of these institutions were the most obedient servants, as well as the most faithful ally of the British rule in India. Raising such obedient class in Islamic country was a key strategy of the British occupation. And it was made clear by Lord Cromer –the representative of British Empire in Egypt. His famous saying that the British well never allow any Muslim land to have independence until a secular class grow up to take over their place, indeed illustrates the British objectives in its occupied lands. And Pakistan had those people in enough numbers. They are heavily embedded in the army, judiciary and bureaucracy. Indeed these institutions are the cultural and political islands of the colonialists in big Pakistani cities. They never reconciled with the ideological objective of Pakistan –as was visualised by Allama Iqbal. Rather they tried in every possible way to undo the all Indian Muslims’ joint Pakistan project. Drinking wine in the army of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was banned only after the demise of 1947’s united Pakistan.
The first shot against Pakistan’s body polity did not come from her external enemies, but from the country’s own secular institutions. The country’s first constitution making body –the constituent assembly was dismantled by her own bureaucratic Governor-General Mr. Ghulam Muhammad, while it had nearly finished its job. While the Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Bogra left the country for an official tour to Washington, Mr. Ghulam Muhammad dissolved not only his government, but also the assembly and its final product – the constitution. Muhammad Ali Bogra never lost the confidence of the parliament, but still had to go. Such a dictatorial act was ratified by another secularist institution -the judiciary. The politician of both the wings made another constitution in 1956, but that too, was dismantled by another faithful British product, and he was General Ayub Khan. His 11 years’ autocratic rule effectively blocked the Bengali Muslims’ political participation in Pakistan, hence instigated enormous frustration among the country’s majority East Pakistani people. He gave Shaikh Mujib the best opportunity to capitalise as well as politicise such frustration. The settled issue was unsettled again and again; and ultimately led the united Pakistan to die a death of its constitutional failure –which could have been easily avoided –like India, in the early fifties. Indeed in 1971, the West Pakistan’s secularist generals, media and the politicians again lined up behind another secularist brainchild of the west -Mr Bhutto, to put the final nail into the coffin. 1947’s Pakistan has died; but these secularist devils are still actively alive to dismantle the remaining half.
Mujib’s Crime
In 1971’s election, the key issue to be addressed was to make a new constitution. Shaikh Mujib, too, fought the election on constitutional provision of more provincial autonomy; he never raised the issue of division of Pakistan. But after his election victory he changed his position. He took a posture that whatever he says is mandated by the people in the 1970’s election. He used the election as a tool of dismembering Pakistan, and raised the flag of independent Bangladesh. It was a clear betrayal of Mujib’s own election promise. He signed Gen. Yahia Khan’s 8 point LFO to protect the integrity of Pakistan. No doubt, Pakistan has her worst enemies, great failures, and even grave political crisis. But it is the duty of the political leaders to contribute positively to face such enemies and to solve the crisis peacefully. But Shaikh Mujib and his party BAL did the opposite. He made coalition with Pakistan’s arch enemy India and manipulated the crisis to manufacture a full scale war. Every war brings deaths and devastation. 1971’s war not an exception either. After the 1971 war, Shaikh Mujib and the propaganda machine raised the accusation that Pakistan Army wanted to annihilate the Bengali people by genocide and rape. But they did not tell the truth that Pakistan Army’s non-Bengali soldiers and officers stayed in Dhaka, Chittagong, Comilla, Jessore, Bogra and other cantonments for 23 years till 25th of March 1971, but did not kill or rape a single East Pakistani. Therefore, how such heinous intention can be attributed to them?
As a ML worker in his early life, Shaikh Mujib was not unaware of the fact that India did not want the creation and continuation of Pakistan from day one. But he conveniently forgot the fact, and made an alliance with India. Mujib withdrew himself from united Pakistan’s national politics, and led the country back to the provincial politics. When he became the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, he has no foreign policy. He delegated it to India. Shaikh Hasina, too, does not have any foreign policy either. Hence, Hasina’s government does not have any say on Muslims’ plight in Kashmir, Myanmar, Palestine and India. Shaikh Mujib and his party thus foiled the Bengali Muslims’ participation in the south Asian politics. Mujib, thus betrayed not only against the people of Pakistan, but also against the people of Bangladesh.
The enemy strategy
Bengal has been the target of the anti-Islamic forces for centuries. The reason lies in its large Muslim population. Bangladesh has the highest concentration of Muslims in the world: 92% of its 160 million populations are Muslim. Moreover, unlike Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and many other Muslim countries, the country is not infested with ethnic divisions. Hence, even today, Bangladesh has huge potential to cause an Islamic resurgence, -that may influence the whole eastern part of the south Asia. During the Muslim rule in India, especially in Moghul period, Sube Bangla played a great role in the expansion and continuation of the Muslim rule by paying the largest amount of revenue to the coffers. The cessation of Bengal from Delhi not only weakened the empire, rather led to its extinction. The rulers of Delhi did not have even enough money to sustain an effective army. However, Bengal’s cessation also brought its own curse: the country became the first prey in the hand of occupying British colonialists.
Considering the Bengal’s potentials, India wants to keep a tight grip. The attacks against the Islamists and the de-Islamisation project have been intensified in this fertile land after the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. India withdrew its armed forced in 1972 but did not withdrew its un-armed huge enforcements. Now the country’s media, army, academic institutions, bureaucracy and the political parties are embedded with large number of Indian RAW agents. Shaikh Mujib –India’s trusted ally, banned all Islamic political parties. Shaikh Hasina –the current Prime Minister is following her father’s footstep more aggressively. Pronab Mukharjee –the India’s Bengali president is visiting Bangladesh on 3/03/2013. The purpose of the visit is not known, but surely he will not miss the opportunity to reconfirm his country’s full support for Hasina’s policy.
Why JI is the target?
Muslim League (ML) established a deep rooted base in Bangladesh. Before the creation of Pakistan, ML had government only in two provinces: in Bengal and Sindh. In 1970’s election, ML and other pro-Pakistani parties were badly divided, hence got defeated. But that does not mean that its support base and the workers disappeared after the election. Millions of them supported and worked for united Pakistan in 1971’s war. The numbers of ML workers were much more than that of JI. But 8 of 10 people picked up by the government for prosecution belong to JI. Only 2 of them are from the Muslim League, now integrated with Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The reason is clear. Since Muslim League no longer survives as the political rivals of BAL, they are not the potential target of elimination.
Like any brutal dictator, the current dictator of Bangladesh PM Shaikh Hasina, too, wants to use the judiciary as a tool of annihilating the political opponents. In the nineties, while Shaikh Hasina was in the opposition, instigated her followers to form lynch court in Dhaka’s Suhrowardi uddayan to try JI leaders. In that open court, death sentences were announced against the top JI and ML leaders and many others, but could not execute such verdict. Now they have the state power. The same motive, the same politics, and the same prosecution of the lynch court are now functioning under the judicial cover in Dhaka high court premise. They named it Bangladesh’ International Crime Tribunal (ICT). On 28th February, 2013, the ICT has announced its judgement against Moulana Delwar Hussain Sayeedi -one of the country’s most famous religious preachers and the central leader of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). The verdict has been for his execution by hanging. Moulana Sayeedi is yet to face the execution, but already more than 70 people have been executed in the street only on the same day. The police opened fire on unarmed protesters in different parts of the country. To show its anger, Jamaat has called for two days’ hartal in the whole country - which will lead to dawn to dusk closure of all shops and academic institutions. This will put all vehicles and other means of communication out of the roads.
Entering into a civil war
Bangladesh is speedily entering into a civil war. The BAL is bent upon taking revenge from its political opponents in a brutal way. Its cadres are holding protest rally in Dhaka’s Shahbag roundabout for more than 20 days. The government has had deployed thousands of its police force to give all possible protection, even started screenings all entrants to Shahbag by metal detectors. They are openly raising slogan and instigating people to kill razakars - people who took part for united Pakistan in 1971. They demanded that ICT should announce death sentence for every razakar. The court has succumbed to their demand. What they have pronounced in the street has got full expression in the verdict. So there was a huge celebration among Shahbag youths for their victory. JI is left with no option, either to announce its own death by keeping full silence or fight back. It seems, JI has taken the second option. The presence of its huge number of militant supporters on the streets in every nook and corners of the country proves such assumption.
On the other hand, the fear of Shibir’s attack –the JI’s student outfit is profound among the Shahabag’s pro-BAL youths. Dhaka’s daily the Manab Jamin reported in its 3/3/2013 issue, that a rumour of Shibir attack spread among the Shahbag’ youths on 2/3/13. In response, a huge rush erupted in the venue to flee, and many people were injured. JI has been successful to observe hartal (strike) on 28/02013 all over the country and has called for 2 days’ hartal on 4th and 5th of March. BNP leader Khaleda Zia has asked for an additional day of hartal on 6th of March. Each hartal has the potential to cause deaths and destruction and may lead to further hartals. It seems that the country is now moving fast to a turning point.
The two nations
Bangladesh is already deeply divided into two nations: the nation of Islam and the nation of anti-Islam. They follow two conflicting visions and roadmaps for the country. Their mind-set, culture, heroes and political objectives are also different. Day by day, they are becoming mutually incompatible, hence moving towards confrontation. In Bangladesh constitution, there was a proclamation of trust on Allah -the Almighty. But such a constitutional announcement was not acceptable to Bangladesh Awami League (BAL) leaders. Since BAL has the majority in the parliament, hence didn’t hesitate to remove such an articulation of faith of the Muslim majority. They quickly deleted it. The USA prints “We Trust in God” on their currency notes. But BAL is not ready to write it in the constitution. BAL thus showed its own colour: its alienation from Islam is huge. Its political agenda is not limited to deletion of trust in Allah from the constitution, rather the Islamic influence from the country.
The country’s anti-Islamic forces are the coalition of the extremist fascists, secularists and the Bengali racists. Their hatred is not merely against JI, their blasphemous and abusive comments against Allah -the Almighty and His great prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) have come to the public notice through their writings in the blogs. Several popular newspapers have published catalogues of their blasphemous wright-ups. The staffs written by Salman Rushdi or Tasleema Nasreen are peanuts in comparison to those written by these Bangladesh atheists. The common people are angered up to the explosion level. Now the non-JI religious leaders and their followers have come to the streets in millions. The government has deployed its police, RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) and armed border guards forces of former BDR to control the situation.
India’s Islam-Phobia and interference
The proof of India’s firm support and assistance for the Shahbag’s anti-Islamic elements comes from its own media. The Time of India, New Delhi on 26.02.13 reported that India’s National Security Adviser (NSA) Shivshankar Menon has said, “The protests were a sign of “the open-mindedness of the Bangladeshi youth, who were battling extremism and upholding values of democracy.” He also told, “The on-going spontaneous gathering against elements and war criminals by thousands of youth at Shahbag intersection at Dhaka shows the strengths of feeling, capacity of political mobilisation and open-mindedness of Bangladeshi youths.” The Time of India also reported that during his recent visit in Bangladesh, Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid told at Dhaka, “It is always wonderful to see young people engaged in any democratic process. They show their concern, their involvement, and their aspiration. I applaud and admire. It revives your strongest feelings and faith in democracy” he said. Now the question arises, is it a democratic norm to dictate the verdict for the judges? The Shahbag’s youths are doing the same. There, the pro-BAL youths have gathered to pass a mob judgement. Can a civilised society accept that? How Mr. Shivshankar Menon and Salman Khurshid can appreciate that? What about democratic aspirations of Kashmiri youths’? Does Indian government allow them to demonstrate in any of Srinagar’s roundabout? Why did they deploy more than 6,00,000 army in Kashir? Is it to promote democratic aspiration of Kashmiri people?
The Islamic resurgence all over the Muslim world has intensified India’s Islam-phobia. The ruling elite in New Delhi clearly understand that if the wave of resurgence hits Bangladesh, the country’s 160 million people with her about 10 million overseas residents will cause earthquake in South Asia’s politics. It may change even the current political map. Bengali Muslims have already shown their power by pioneering such change in 1947. The tide of Bengal will not be confined within Bangladesh’s own boundary. So India’s investment in stopping such Islamic tide is enormous. So the country has turned into a fierce battle ground of Islam and anti-Islam.
India has seen the strength of Bengali nationalism in 1971. So the Indians and their agents in Bangladesh want to play the same card now. So they have returned back to “Joy Bangla”. So the pro-BAL protestors who raise “Joy Bangla” slogans in Shahbag roundabout get free packet lunch, free packet dinner and cold drinks. Along with full police protection and the toilet facility, they also get continuous entertainment by free dance show, songs show and other amusements day and night. But they forget the fact that Joy Bangla cards might play well against the non-Bengali West Pakistanis, but not against the Bengali compatriots
The Massacre in Bangladesh
The ruling Bangladesh Awami League (BAL) and its political cronies have launched a genocidal war against its own people. The aim is to annihilate the resurgent Islamists. The country’s constitution provides basic human rights to all of its citizens –irrespective of their race, religion and political belief. That entails full freedom in politics. So, everyone should have the equal rights in rallying on streets, venting views in meetings, and expressing opinions in TV, newspapers and other media outlets. But the BAL-led ruling ultra-secular clique is not ready to give such rights to the Islamists. They think the country belongs only to them, no to the Islamists. They also claim that in 1971 Bangladesh was created out of Pakistan only for practicing secularist plus nationalist politics, not for political Islam. So after coming to power in 2008, the BAL government gives unfettered rights to the anti-Islamic radical activists to hold rally for any number of days or months on any streets of Dhaka. They are so hardcore anti-Islamist that a constitutional announcement like “we trust in Allah” was not acceptable to them. So such sentence inserted in non-BAL era was deleted. For more than 2 months, the secularist cronies of BAL were instigated to occupy Shahbag – Dhaka’s one of the busiest traffic hubs to demand death sentence for all arrested Islamists and to ban all Islamic political parties. But such right was not given to the Islamists to hold any rally in Dhaka’s any street corner for even a single hour.
Such politics of exclusion was firstly incorporated in the country’s constitution in 1972 by Shaikh Mujibur Rahman -the father of the current Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina. Mujib gave full political rights to the secularists, socialists and communists, but not to the Islamists. He made all the Islamic parties constitutionally illegal and their leaders were put behind the bar. Such extreme fascism and radical anti-Islamism was indeed the BAL’s model of democracy. In his final days, Shaikh Mujib went further to make Bangladesh a perfect police state: he introduced one-party dictatorial rule and snatched all basic human rights from people of all denominations. Except four government owned dailies, he closed publication of all newspapers. During his one-party rule, Bangladesh became a killing field of all democratic values. He killed more than 30 thirty thousand opposition activists. And he never investigated a single death, therefore none was ever punished. However, he couldn’t continue for long, he met his own fate. After his forceful eviction from power and death in 1975, Bangladesh again entered into political plurality. Along with others, the Islamist too, gained the equal human rights, and entered into politics.
Conspiracy of Judicial Murder
But the current Prime Minister Mrs. Hasina Wajed –daughter of Shaikh Mujib is not happy to see the resurgent Islamists enjoying any political rights. She wants to take the country back to her father’s autocratic rule. Like Mujib, she too, wants to abrogate all democratic rights of the Islamists. She has already put most of the Islamist leaders behind the bars. But there is a difference. She is not happy to see the Islamists survive even in prisons; she is desperate to take their lives. Her party workers are let loose on the street to demand death sentence for these arrested Islamist leaders. The BAL cadres, the police and the RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) armed members have already killed hundreds of Islamists on the streets in last several months, but they are not happy with that. They are now demanding that the country’s tamed judiciary must involve in committing quick judicial murder of these Islamists. A court named International Crime Tribunal (ICT) was formed with hand-picked pro-BAL judges to do the job. Offices are set up to manufacture cases against the Islamists, especially for their support for a united Pakistan in 1971. One of the Islamist leaders Mr. Abdul Qader Mollah was given a life-term jail, but the Shahbag mob was not happy with the judgment. They wanted his death sentence, and nothing less than that. They wanted death sentence for every one of the arrested Islamic leaders.
To generate a supportive political environment for such political cum judicial execution, the government sponsored ultra-secularists and radical atheists started holding extremely provocative political show in Shahbag -a roundabout in the capital Dhaka. To add fuel to such provocation, and to support BAL’s politics of annihilation, the whole government propaganda machineries were deployed to live cast day and night the war cry of the Shahbag show. Thus, the judicial right of writing an independent verdict was taken away from the jurists by the BAL backed political mob; the judges were made subservient to the mob ruling at Shahbag. So, the ugly days of lynch court returned back to Bangladesh. Even the Prime Minister Hasina gave preference to mob’s verdict to ICT judgment. In her speech in the parliament, she told that the judiciary must honour the demands that are raised in the streets.
The Politics of Massacre
Mrs. Hasina wants to go far beyond her father’s legacy. She does not wish to see even the survival rights for the Islamists. So, she has already started a bloody war against them. In Bangladesh, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and its student wing Islami Chatra Shibir (BCS) constitute the strongest Islamic force: hence become the prime targets of BAL’s killing machine. Hasina’s Home Minister Mr. Mohiuddin Alamgir did not hide such motive either. In front of the press, he ordered the country’s police force and the BAL party hooligans to kill JI and BCS men wherever and whenever they find them. And the same order was given by Dhaka’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mr Benzir Ahmed. These were published in Dhaka’s newspapers. And one can easily see the impact of such official directives on the streets. Since such announcement of the official directive from the top, hundreds of JI and ICS activists have already been killed by the police and BAL cadres, and many thousands are languishing in the jails and being brutally tortured. Very recently, Hefajat-e-Islam (HI)-– a non-political outfit of the teachers and the students of the country’s thousands of religious institutions, emerged as a very strong political force. In fact, they brought an earth quake in Bangladesh politics. Their influence in the countryside is immense. On April 6, they held about 3 million strong protest rally in Dhaka: hence overnight became the prime target of the ruling BAL and its coalition. Hence invited the fiercest wrath from the government: on May 5, Hefajat-e-Islam people met with most horrendous genocide in Bangladesh history.
In its war against people, the government has now heavy recruits. In the rank of extrajudicial official killers, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) cadres are not alone. The police, the Border Guards of Bangladesh (BGB) and the armed thugs of the ruling party are also drawn into the battle. Like RAB, they are also given the same rights and the same immunity. Now in Bangladesh, the biggest gang of murderers is not any terrorist outfit or organization of robbers, but these government security agencies.
Whatever happened on May 5, 2013 has clearly revealed that how helplessly hostages are the common people. It also exposed the government’s extreme barbarism and fascism. The government has abrogated not only the basic human rights, rather denied rights of physical survival. On May 5, hundreds of thousands of people came from all over the country to Dhaka to hold a peaceful sit-in protest to show their anger against the government’s extreme anti-Islamic policy. The protest rally was organized by Hefazat-e-Islam to press on their 13 points demands. Only a month ago on April 6, Hefazat-e-Islam had a long march rally; the government did everything to make it a failure. The BAL affiliated transport owners’ associations and the labour unions called for a two nights and two days strike to bring a total halt to the country’s land and water transport network -so that the people cannot join the march. But still it was great success. About 3 million people marched from all over the country to Dhaka. Such a mammoth gathering never happened in Bangladesh politics. And it was remarkably peaceful. Such an unprecedented success on April 6 transfused a new level of confidence and vigor to the country’s Islamists: but that heavily enraged the ruling BAL and its cronies.
On May 5, they government had a massive plan to crush the newly built confidence of the Islamists. So, this time they decided not to give any space and opportunity for any display of their strength. They feared thant any massive display of Islamists' force could only lead to an overwhelming mass up-rise, which might overthrow even the BAL government. The people’s hatred against the government never appeared so high, and the participation in protest rally was so immense that even the opposition leader Khaleda Zia was inspired to declare 48 hours’ ultimatum against the government for a care-taker government. The BAL felt it an existential threat, hence went down a bloody war path.
The Blood Bath
At night on May 5, more than a hundred thousand people were in sit-in protest in the streets of Motijheel commercial care in Dhaka. Some of these people were very exhausted after a day-long street battle with the BAL’s armed hooligans, and many of them were sleeping on streets. Some were praying or reciting praises for Allah SWT. It was about 2:30 AM in the night of May 6, suddenly the street lights were switched off and a deep darkness engulfed the whole area. In such darkness, thousands of heavily armed men launched a brutal attack on these unarmed civilians. The whole area was engulfed with bullets, shells and smokes. According to Daily Jugantar –a Bengali daily of Dhaka (12/05/13), 7, 588 armed personnel took part in the assault. The attacking forces were picked up from 3 armed organizations: 1,300 from RAB, 5,712 from Police and 576 from BGB. These are the people who are duty-bound to save citizen’s life, but turned their guns to shoot the same taxpayers who pay money to keep them in jobs.
The attacking troops were commanded by a group of army officers. The Daily Jugantar also published their names. They were the intelligence chief of RAB Lt. Colonel Ziaul Hasan, the RAB-10 commander Lt.Colonel Imran, the RAB-3 commander Major Shabbir, the RAB director Lt. Colonel Kismat Hayat, the RAB-4 director Kamrul Ahsan and the BGG officer Colonel Yahiha Azam. Five commando officers also took part in the assault. The Daily Jugantar also reported that 155, 000 shells of live bullets and other ammunition have been fired on that night. Since midday of 5th May, the police used 80,000 tear gas shells, 60,000 rubber bullets, 15,000 shotguns and 12, 000 sound grenades. The attacking troops launched their attack from three directions. Like a formal war, this war too has its own battle cry and names. The RAB named it “Operation Flash-out” and the BGB called it “Capture Shapla”. It is also reported that this war on the unarmed protestors went on for three long hours, and ended at 5:30 am on May 6. So the government’s myth that Motijheel area was cleared off the HI Islamists in 10 minutes appears to be a flagrant lie. The amount of lethal arms used in this war was massive. Such an amount of ammunitions were not used by Pakistan’s law enforcing agencies to suppress mass protests in the entire 24 years of Pakistani period.
The Culprits Exposed
The number of deaths is still not known. But those who survived are revealing horrendous experience. They saw numerous dead bodies scattered on streets. They also saw bodies being dumped in the Dhaka Municipality’s huge garbage collecting vans. One of the private TV channel reporters reported that he has himself seen 5 truckloads of dead bodies taken away from only one site. Despite all the precautions, the killers cannot hide all the evidences of their crimes. They always leave behind some clues in the killing fields. The government could stop the TV live casts, but could not shut people’s eyes and stop private live videos. Hence true pictures are now appearing in media and the internet. These depict a huge massacre with genocidal dimensions. Asian Human Right Commission told that more than 2500 people are killed. Hefajat-e-Islam claimed that about 2000 are killed. The opposition party BNP told more than a thousand have been slaughtered in that black night. Al-Jazera TV showed pictures of numerous dead bodies lying on the street, and also showed many graves in one of Dhaka’s graveyards where bullet-shot dead people were secretly buried by the police in late night of May 6. Although the real number of deaths will never be known, but there exists no doubt about the intensity and brutality of the huge crime. And it has exposed the criminal motive of the BAL government. Indeed, as the real culprit, the Government has made its point clearly known to the public, and that will survive in the coming history.
The Official Killers
The ruling BAL has lost its political capital and skills to fight its enemies politically. For its wrong policies and dismal corruption, BAL’s support has already touched its lowest ebb. BAL knows, by a fair election it has no chance to return to the power. But BAL and its mentor India need power to pursue their long cherished policy. Otherwise, India’s whole political investment will go with the wind forever, and Bangladesh will emerge as the hot bed of Islamic resurgence in the South Asia. India can seldom swallow such a reality. So they have no option but to stay in power by any means -whatever bloody it may be. It appears that they have undertaken two prongs strategy: The strategy of electoral manipulation, and the strategy of physical extermination of the political opponents. For electoral manipulation, BAL has abolished the care-taker government system. Now, Hasina herself has taken the charge of the game-fixer. In election in Bangladesh, he who masterminds the election game is the sure winner. It gives him or her an immense manipulative power. No amount of votes can defeat him. So in 1991, in order to eliminate such foul play of a sitting government, all political parties came to a consensus formula of installing a non-partisan caretaker government under a retired Supreme Court chief justice for arranging the parliamentary election. But BAL has abolished that system and made a constitutional change to return back to the same old days of foul play, although it fought a fierce battle for a caretaker government in 1991. BAL has used its cronies in the judiciary to justify the new move. So now, all the opposition parties together, have little chance to defeat BAL in the coming election. In the past, they could not unseat even the unpopular dictators like president Gen. Ayub Khan and Gen. Ershad in the presidential election.
For its strategy of physical extermination of the political opponents, BAL has its own game plan. It has installed enough cronies in police, RAB, BGB and in the civil and military institutions. On 5th and 6th May they have shown their commitment to work as the BAL government’s most obedient official killers. In fact, Bangladesh is one of the few countries in the world where the right of extrajudicial murder is given to the country’s paramilitary forces. Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) was formed to do that job. In Bangladesh, a district judge cannot hang even a serial murderer without ratification of his judgment by the country’s high court. But a RAB foot soldier can kill scores of innocent man or women without fear of any accountability. Indeed, RAB is very rapid in doing such job. After such killing, these government murderers only need to put a tag on the unarmed deceased that he died in an armed encounter or a suicidal death under the custody. Such deaths with such description also get published on the front page of the tamed media. Only the deceased are blamed each time, therefore he or she has to die with an official tag of disgrace. The RAB cadres always claim innocence. And, the excuse is always the same: that they opened fire only in self-defense. The family members of the deceased are not allowed to raise any voice against the alleged allegation, nor can demand any postmortem or judicial enquiry. The official killers always enjoy full immunity against any prosecution; but the common man hasn’t any. As a part of the annihilation strategy, not only the political murders are getting rampant, political disappearance has also dramatically increased. The official killers appear in plain clothes, at any place and at any time. They kidnap the political targets from their home, business or from their way, and they never returns. This way, many opposition leaders from BNP and JI have already disappeared.
The De-humanizing Industry
Those who can beat and kill innocent people, their problems are much deeper. On May 6, such a massacre did not happen out of the blue. Something has been fatally wrong for a long time in the moral fabric of the people involved. The killing at night exposed that the country’s social and moral pathology is awful. In the making of a civilization, institutions must work hard to add higher values to the people. Higher culture and higher civilizations were never made by adding values only to agricultural, mineral or industrial goods, rather by adding higher values to humans. Only then, the people with higher morality can grow and flourish. Here is the importance of the book of Divine guidance and educational institutions. But in Bangladesh, things are happening otherwise: the dehumanization has become the dominant norm. Instead of adding higher values, huge number of people and institutions are working day and night -both in private and public sectors, to degrade humans’ inherent moral attributes. The morality has touched such a low level that one of the BAL’s student leaders could dare openly celebrate century of rape in Dhaka’s Jahangir Nagar University campus. It happened while Mrs. Hasina was ruling for her first term as the Prime Minister. The event made big news in the media, but Hasina's government did nothing against this dehumanized criminal. Thousands of such criminals are roaming in the streets in broad day lights. But the government is busy in raising its swords only against the Islamists.
Bangladesh was labelled in recent history as the most corrupt country in the world for 5 consecutive years. Such disgrace on the world stage cannot be earned by chance; rather requires an actively acquired moral decline. In Bangladesh, it is indeed the works of the country’s huge dehumanization industries. The government organizations like police, RAB, BGB, judiciary, bureaucracy, political parties, even the universities are such high performing dehumanization industries. When a corrupt political gang grabs state power, then whole the government institutions and the education system become the subservient tools in their hands to spread corruption and misrule. For that, Bangladesh is a perfect example. Even torturing and killing people have become institutionalized. The level of dehumanization is so grave that they do not generate even an iota of respect for the political or ideological opponents: the recent videos on May 5 and 6 atrocities provide ample testimony to that. To them, the dead bodies of these innocent Islamists were disposable garbage. They damped their bodies in garbage collecting vans only to hide them in some unknown place. Such a display of institutional inhumanity is not new in Bangladesh. Bangladesh people saw similar cruelty on February 25, 2009 in Dhaka’s Pilkhana barrack. On that day, the same brand of the BGB killers of May 6 -known as the BDR cadets in 2009, displayed the same level of savagery. That time, it was against their own officers. They killed 57 army officers and dumped their dead bodies in sewer gutters.
The State Terrorism
It is has been reported in the press that the government was warned about the possible huge human costs of any armed crackdown on the mammoth gathering of May 5 and 6. But the bloodthirsty government of Mrs. Hasina ignored it, and allowed the operation to go ahead. It appears from the video that the government’s aim was not to disperse these protesters peacefully, rather to kill and terrorize them. The government does not have any proof that there was any armed protestor in the whole area of Motijheel. So the question arises, was it so difficult to disperse these unarmed people? Tear gas and water cannons were enough to perfectly do the job –as has been seen in other parts of the world. But BAL government wanted otherwise. They wanted to show their own military might and political extremism. In any definition, it was bare state terrorism. Asian Human Rights Commission claims that more than 2,500 people were killed on that night. Hefazat-e-Islam claims that about 2 thousands are killed. However, to hide the massacre from public eyes, the government’s preparations were huge. Before the formal assault, the government evacuated all media reporters from the area. Diganta TV and the Islamic TV were still continuing their live cast from the mass gathering, but it was abruptly stopped before the assault. Many garbage vans were stationed nearby to quickly collect and hide the dead bodies. Many water supply tanks were used to wash the blood-bathed streets.
The Transparent Lies
While the Prime Minister Mrs. Hasina and her cabinet colleagues are tongue-tied on number of deaths, some of her party leaders are telling transparent lies. Their motive is clear: they want to keep the people in total darkness. The BAL’s joint secretary Mr. Hanif told the reporters that none was killed in the operation. To reduce the magnitude of the massacre and to hide their own crimes, they have concocted a different story. They are claiming that the whole operation lasted only for 10 minutes. They are using this 10 minutes' plea as a pretext to frame new arguments that the deaths of hundreds or thousands of people in such a short time are unthinkable. But they are not telling that how a troop of 7,588 armed fighters could be deployed in Motijheel and later on withdrawn in 10 minutes? They are not telling either, how a crowd of more than hundred thousand people could be dispersed within such a short period of time? Even the Government’s embedded crony journalists could not produce even a single picture of peaceful dispersion of the protestors. Rather many photographs and video have already appeared in youtube depicting that brutal massacre.
The RAB and the BGB chiefs too, have concocted the story. They appeared in the TV to tell lies that they used means only to peacefully disperse the people from the protest site. But they did not explain how those means of dispersing crowd could kill and lacerate people in huge numbers. Rubber bullets and tear gas shells do not lacerate bodies, nor do they kill people. The numerous pictures of the dead bodies and the live videos tell otherwise. Hundreds of dead bodies were found lying in blood bath. The life videos show thunderous firing of shells and live bullets. These pictures are circulating through the internet worldwide. If the operation was meant to be so benign and bloodless, why it was not done in front of the fully present media and in broad day light? The Daily Jugantar reported that the troops carried AK-7 rifles, light machine guns, grenades and other modern ammunitions. These lethal weapons are not used to disperse people but to kill people. Indeed, deaths of hundreds proved that these deadly weapons were not taken there for a show, but were deliberately used to kill people
India’s War in Bangladesh
The War in New Phase
Enemy’s war never ends: only changes its strategies and frontiers. India’s war against the subcontinents’ Muslims did not end in 1947, 1965 or 1971. It still continues. And Bangladesh is the perpetual battleground. The Muslims of Bangladesh are given no time to relax. They can only survive such on-going onslaught if they can identify and defeat the enemy strategies, and purge their foot-soldiers out of the midst. A body cannot live a long life with killer bugs inside. And Bangladesh has enough of them. The political border between Bangladesh and India still exist -even after the break-up of Pakistan in 1971. But Bangladesh Awami League (BAL) and their ally have been very successful to remove the country’s cultural boundary –especially between the BAL followers and the Indians. And culture has a dominant and defining role on politics. Hence, the vision of BAL leaders is seldom different from that of a Bengali Hindu. Bangladesh’s international border has been made irrelevant to bring into prominence such mutual cultural and political bondage between these two sets people living in two sides of the border. Recent 3 days’ official visit of Mr. Pranab Mukharjee –the Indian President, to Dhaka amidst 3 days’ dawn to dusk wheel-jam strike was primarily arranged to demonstrate India’s commitment to such bondage. Mr. Mukharjee directly delivered the promise of India’s unrelenting support to the troubled Prime Minister Mrs. Hasina Wajed.
Like an Indian Hindu, the BAL people too, attribute Bangladesh’s independent entity on the world map as a legacy of Pakistan and its Muslim heritage. This map itself reminds them the unwanted division of 1947. Such Pakistani legacy is hindering BAL and it ally to fully fall into Indian lap. However the political map of 1947 is so much deeply rooted in the Bengali Muslims’ psyche that India could not change it in 1971 –even after a full military occupation. They realised, they can undo such legacy only through deleting it from Muslims’ mind-set –deemed only possible through a complete de-Islamisation of the population. And that needs a full cultural conversion. Hence, they brought a full-fledged cultural war in Bangladesh. They consider it a key strategy, and the sure way of isolating its 150 million Bengali Muslims from the whole Muslim Ummah; and thereby to bring their total subjugation to Indian hegemony. Their worry, if Islam survives in Bangladesh, not only the border will survive, rather will get strengthened to build a citadel of Islam on her eastern flank. One on her western flank is already giving her a lot of troubles; hence can hardly afford another one on her eastern border. Therefore, dismantling such a possibility in Bangladesh is India’s most important priority. As a part of the same coalition, India’s crony government in Bangladesh has already launched on her behalf an all-inclusive war against the Islamists. Recent events in Bangladesh must be studied with such holistic perspectives.
Hence, Pakistan's division in 1971 was not the endgame. Rather starting point of the next phase of Nehru doctrine – the Indianisation of the separated East Pakistan. India’s vision is clear. Pakistan has disappeared from its eastern border. But Bangladesh didn’t, and still survives with emerging Islamic identity. Here lies their real worry. They believe, if Bangladesh with its 160 million populations sustains as an independent Islamic state, it will work as India’s security threat for ever. The country’s rapidly resurging Islamists can take over at any point of time. That will pose against India not only a strategic threat, rather a civilizational challenge. Threat to mighty Roman and Persian empires did not come from any of the mighty kingdoms, rather came from the poor people of Arabia. Hence they argue, if USA and the Western Europe could consider an emerging Islamic Afghanistan -with less than 30 million people in another part of the glove, a security threat, why Islamic Bangladesh on her border cannot be the same for India? If USA and her European ally can massively bomb and occupy Afghanistan, why can’t India do the same in Bangladesh? India is selling this view to the anti-Islamic coalition of the west and getting a full support -as evidenced by their support for India’s extremely brutal occupation of Kashmir. India has deployed more than 600,000 forces to suppress the Kashmiri up-rise. India is speculating the same scenario in Bangladesh. Hence, India is getting more aggressive towards her anti-Indian Bangladeshi neighbours. Its Border Security Force (BSF) has killed more than 400 Bangladeshis only in last 4 years. They did not kill even a quarter of that on its Pakistan border in last 60 years. Bangladesh’s weaker military power might have contributed to make her people more vulnerable. Moreover, the crony government of Hasina paid blind eye to that.
The Cultural War
India’s current war is not for physical occupation of Bangladesh; rather occupation of the people’s conceptual and cultural territory. India wants to mould Bengali Muslims’ mind and mentality prior to any all invasive war. That is through cultural conversion. India is working day and night on such scheme. It has deployed thousands of foot-soldiers on Bangladeshi soil to launch a huge cultural war. Thousands of them are working as music teachers, dance teachers, art teachers and in many other forms in almost all over the country. Highly paid Indian agents are working as university teachers, newspaper editors, TV presenters, columnists, reporters in almost all government and non-government TV channels and newspapers. Most of the country’s media organisations are indeed the Indian occupied territories. They are the real Trojan horses inside Bangladesh. Recently they launched an aggressive media and internet warfare against Islam and the Islamists. Their real picture came to the forefront while the Shahbag drama unfolded against the Islamists. When the huge number of the cultural war foot-soldiers demonstrated the strength in Dhaka’s Shahbag roundabout, these Indian agents cum professionals could not remain hidden in their holes. They came out with their real colour as warrior activists –especially while playing their role as reporters, news casters, talk-show presenters and newspaper columnists. Their colleagues in the internet blogs became so much emboldened by the government support that they did not hesitate to cross the red line. They not only raised slogans for total annihilation of Islamic parties and their leaders, but also started huge abusive campaign against the Almighty Allah Subhana Wa Taala, His great prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the prophet’s wives and his great companions. To their surprise, this caused a huge Islamic resurgence in the silent majority. Millions of people came to the street. As a consequence, their bubbles quickly fizzled out. They retreated back to their workplaces under the government’s security shield.
The Bengali people are indeed divided into two nations since day one of Muslim advent in this land. Hence, after the end of British rule, both the Hindus and the Muslims are pursuing two incompatible political visions. In 1947, Bengal’s Muslim leaders tried to create an undivided greater Bengal -separated from greater India. But the Hindu Bengali watered down such a nationalist project with a fear that it would bring dominance of the majority Bengali Muslims. In 1947, in Bengal’s parliament in Calcutta, the Hindu members opted for joining greater Hindu India with a pan-Hindu vision. The Bengali Muslims had two options: either to form independent East Bengal or to join Pakistan. In those days, the East Bengal Muslims were known for its non-existent military power and socio-economic underdevelopment. If separated as an independent state in 1947, its army would have been much weaker than that of Nizam of Hyderabad. The Bengali Muslims’ presence in civil administration and other areas was also very scanty. Hence the wise Bengali Muslim leaders of 1947 could clearly anticipate Kashmir or Hyderabad-like Indian invasion of an independent East Bengal, thereby quick accession to India. That invasion and accession of East Bengal too, like invasion and accession of Kashmir and Hyderabad could go unnoticed by the world powers. India could have found hundreds of reasons to justify that. Even to catch a thief, one needs to invest huge energy, even endanger his life. Therefore, who would have come to invest their lives and money to save independent Bengal from such Indian invasion? Did anyone come to save Hyderabad or Kashmir? In those days, the zeal of pan-Islamism in Muslim youths in Bengal was very high, hence inspired to work for Pakistan. This was indeed the background that led the Bengali Muslims to join Pakistan. Indeed, in the making of the greatest Muslim country in the world, the Bengali Muslims’ contribution was the greatest. Even All India Muslim League –the organisation which led Indian Muslims to make Pakistan was born in Dhaka. In 1946 election on Pakistan issue, Muslim League got the strongest support from Bengal –not from any other province of India. But BAL’s thoughtless jingoists have little strategic depth in their thought or intellectual calibre to understand such crucial survival interests of Islam and the Muslims in Bengal. Hence they detest the Bengali Muslims’ decision of 1947. With such a distance from Islamic belief and non-commitment for the Muslim interests, these BAL’s cultural and intellectual converts now sing the same song with the Indian Hindus.
The Hindu Vision & The Big Lie
The Hindu Bengalis had a vision. They wanted a united Bengal only if merged with India. That way, the Bengali Muslims were offered the slavery of Hindu majority rule in undivided India. The British left in 1947. But since then, the slavery under the Hindu rule has proved to be much worse than the slavery under the British. The brutality has already been much revealing in systematic anti-Muslim genocide in Kashmir, Gujarat, Assam, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Meerat, Aligarh, Allahabad and many other Indian states and cities. So the anticipation of Allama Iqbal and the Muslim League leaders about the danger of Hindu rule against Muslims proved to be 100% true. So with such anticipation, in 1947, the Hindu project of united Bengal under Indian Hindu majority rule was out-rightly rejected by the Muslims.
But still the Hindu protagonists of undivided India did not move a single inch from their pre-1947 idea, rather they working day and night on the same project. The whole paradigm of India’s current cold war in Bangladesh –even in the remaining part of Pakistan, is based on that pre-1947 Hindu concept. The Indian Hindu accepted the division of Bengal and creation of Pakistan in 1947 for the time being; their next move was to divide Pakistan and then engulf the weaker half –the East Pakistan. This is India's much proclaimed Nehru doctrine. So far, India has taken every calculated move to pursue that strategy. Since 1947, they were waiting for a right opportunity, and even Nehru himself made a move to annex East Pakistan in his life time. But that failed. The real opportunity came in 1971. India skilfully manipulated Pakistan’s internal political crisis to manufacture a full-fledged war to invade and occupy East Pakistan. But in 1972, India had to withdraw its occupying troops under tremendous international pressure. Moreover in 1972, the cultural and political situation of Bangladesh was not ripe enough for India to go further for a full annexation. India needed to do much home works to make the ground quite ripe for a full harvest.
Since the political map of Bangladesh draws its legitimacy from 1947’s division of India, the Indian agents are doing concerted propaganda against the sanity of such division. Even Dr. Zakir Naik –the famous Muslim preacher of India argues openly in his speech that the division of India in 1947 was wrong. It indeed owes to his tunnel vision and gross inadequacy in his political understanding. With such personal constraints, people cannot see a bigger picture. In his public speech, he boasts India as the fastest growing superpower and rejoices that India will go far superior to the USA. As if, the Indian Muslims are going to gain much from India’s super-power status. Like an average Hindu Indian, here he turns to a nationalist chauvinist. Such speeches are getting huge audience all over the subcontinent. This way he is doing a great job as an India’s cold war warrior against Bangladesh and Pakistan. In fact, India’s such relentless cold war has made millions of such converts not only in India, but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Blessings of a Muslim State
But the truth is different. The creation of Pakistan in 1947 brought enormous blessing –both material and spiritual, not only to Pakistan, but also to the people of Bangladesh. India’s Muslim Population is larger than that of Bangladesh. But the number of Muslim doctors, engineers, scientists, academics, lawyers, army and police men, religious scholars, industrialists and big businessman living in only one city of Bangladesh like Dhaka is much larger than the total number of such value-added people in India’s whole Muslim population. Indian Muslims are almost invisible amidst the overwhelming Hindus in the overseas, whereas the overseas Bangladeshi are almost ten million. The successes of the Pakistani Muslims are much higher, because the creation of this largest Muslim country with a pan-Islamic vision worked with much better image among the world’s Muslim population. The middle-eastern rulers, the developers and the business establishments helped Pakistan in many ways. After 1971’s debacle, they not only opened gates for millions of Pakistani workers to their countries and built hospitals and mosques in Pakistani cities, but also financed Pakistan’s costly nuclear projects. Whereas Bangladesh had to carry the status tag of India-midwifed vassal state for many years.
These are only few material gifts of an independent Muslim majority state. More blessings come in other ways. The Muslims build states not for mere raising homes and businesses, nor for growing cattle and crops. They can do such things even in non-Muslim countries. In life time, Muslims must play the most important role to fulfil the Divine obligation as Allah’s viceroy on earth. That is to bring ultimate supremacy of His law in His land, and contribute his own share to raise an Islamic civilisation. If the land is grabbed by the enemies, a Muslim must do something to end such occupation. The early Muslims made most of their sacrifices not in raising homes or businesses, rather to establish and defend such Islamic state. Indeed, this is the greatest teaching of the prophet (peace be upon him). The Muslims of other times and other lands have a duty to follow such an indispensable prophetic tradition. Living in a non-Muslim state, a Muslim does not enjoy any space to practise such tradition. This is why migration to a non-Muslim state never got appreciation from a true believer. It has been only justified for security reasons; like the migration of early Muslims to Ethiopia. Hence, all the Muslims are faith-bound to establish Muslim majority states; then move on to convert those into true Islamic state. Indeed, in 1947, the creation of Pakistan was deemed as an obligation to address the Muslims’ such a basic political as well as a spiritual need.
The Muslim majority Bangladesh and Pakistan are not still Islamic; but the opportunities for such change are still profound. The Muslims in these two countries can still dream about that. But such dream is unthinkable in Hindu majority India, - even in coming thousand years. At best, the Indian Muslims can practise Islam as devout follower of Tabligh jamaat. But Tabligh jamaat does not replicate Prophet’s complete Islam. They cannot practise Islam as a full Muslim with all the dimensions of prophetic teachings. For that, a Muslim needs to enter into full sharia rule, into Islamic culture, into full Islamic education, into Islamic administration, into jihad, into Muslim brotherhood, so on and so forth. Hence, for such a full Islamic practice, Muslims need an Islamic state. The prophet of Islam and his great companions needed that. Hence today, how a Muslim can be full Muslim without that?
The Indian Hindus may enough reasons to tell a lot of lies against 1947’s division of India. They blame it a British ploy in conjugation with Muslim communalists! But how a Muslim can replicate the same lie? Muslims can commit to such lie only with intense ignorance. This owes to their ignorance of Islamic vision of a true believer. The enemies have a motive. They want to take the Muslims out of the Divine mission; hence they relentlessly tell lies against Islam and the Muslim history. Bangladesh is the home of more than 150 Million Muslims. So the enemies cannot be oblivious of such huge Muslim populations. For them, indeed, they have an agenda. So the country has turned not only to homes of thousands of anti-Islamic NGOs, but also breeding ground for thousands of anti-Islamic bloggers and cultural warriors. They have gained so much strength under the current BAL government that they are now demanding the prohibition of all Islamic parties and their activities. For the Islamists, the life was not so difficult even in British rule. It was unthinkable even 60 years ago in Pakistani era.
The Indian Objectives
India’s political investment in Bangladesh has always been massive. In 2008 election, it went to a diabolic proportion. London’s weekly “the Economist” gave a testimony to that. So far, India’s key strategy has been to replicate its successfully executed Sikkim strategy: that entails buying the political leaders as well as the players in the key positions in the army, media, police and civil administration. In 2006, after the end of Khalida Zia’s BNP rule, India worked with other anti-Islamic foreign stakeholders to install a pro-Indian proxy-military government to manipulate the forthcoming election results in 2008. Their plan worked very well and their stooges won a landslide victory. After the election victory and quick installation of a coalition government, the BAL and its 14 party-alliance were entrusted with the second phase of the work. This time, India and her cronies in Bangladesh did not want to miss this hard-earned opportunity in any way. After analysing the past 4 years’ BAL administration, it is now clear that the government has worked with two-pronged main objectives. These are: a). Rapid de-Islamisation of the people –especially Muslim youths and the school-going children, and b). Breaking down the backbones of the Islamic organisations and their Islamist leaders.
The Strategies
To fulfil the stipulated objectives, BAL and its ally are working on some planned strategies. These can be easily understood from the last four years’ activities. These are as follows:
Strategy 1: Re-framing a secular education policy at all level and re-writing all text books with a special emphasis on curtailing the amount of Islamic knowledge and infusing sentiments against country’s Islamic values and personalities. Raising acceptability and compatibility with India’s Hindu worldviews has been other strategic goal. The Hindu political, intellectual and literary figures like Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore and others were placed in limelight as the figure of highness to be followed by the students. Whereas Islam’s great prophet like Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him) and other prophets, the great companions of the prophet, the great Muslim rulers, the thinkers and the reformers who contributed decisively to Islamise Bengal’s landscape were given very little or no importance in the education policy. For eyewash, they added some Islamic flavour by incorporating some stories of folklore fakirs and sufi saints in the textbooks.
Strategy 2: Reducing and restricting the learning of the Holy Qur’an, the prophetic tradition and Islam’s history in both the state run secular schools and in the religious madrasas. With such an objective against Islam, the government reduced the emphasis of learning Arabic language in religious madrasas: made it optional from its previous compulsory status. Moreover, the amount of dis-information on fundamentals of Islam that are passed on to the students through the text books is also huge. Recently it came to the press that it is written in year 9’s text book that meats of animals sacrificed in the name of other deities are also halal.
Strategy 3: Projecting Shaikh Mujib as the greatest personality in thousands of years’ Bengal history. “Bangla academy” and other government bodies run by the tax-payers money were entrusted to publish hundreds of books on Mujib and his family –both for adults and for the youths. Millions of Taka was granted to public libraries to purchase those books. TV, radio and other mass media were used to publicise Mujib’s life and his speeches. Whereas, publishing books on Qur’anic teachings, the prophet’s life, great Muslim personalities and Islamic history were much restricted.
Strategy 4: Keeping constant vigilance on religious sermons in mosques, prohibiting and restricting Quranic tafsirs classes in open-field mass gatherings by the scholars, and prohibiting publication and circulation of books on jihad and sharia. The police and the Rapid Action Battalions (RAB) were the key tools for suppression of any Islamic propagation. They raided houses, offices and bookshops to confiscate Islamic books –especially on jihad and Islamic movement. The books written by Moulana Syed Maudoodi and Syed Qutb are the special target. In Bangladesh, it is a common practice that the people form committees to organise Quranic tafseer sessions in open fields. These happen in almost every nook and corner of the country around the year. In such gatherings, the eminent religious scholars are invited to deliver long speeches on Islamic teaching. Indeed, the Qur’anic knowledge and prophetic tradition survived among people through such public speeches for ages; and thus Islam reached to the doorsteps of the common people in Bengal. But Hasina’s regime has turned its government machinery against such popular tradition. She and her political ally rebuke it as a tool of spreading fundamentalism. Moulana Dilawar Hussain Sayeedi is widely known as the most famous religious speaker that Bangladesh has ever produced. His speech inspired scores of non-Muslims to accept Islam. But such extraordinary skill and Islamic knowledge of Moulana Sayeedi did not impress the government. He was put him behind the bar for more than two years. The government alleged him as murderer, arsonist, rapist and above all anti-liberationist in the war of independence in 1971. Recently the subservient judiciary of the government has passed a verdict to hang him. After such pronouncement, the country has entered into a virtual civil war like state. Already more than 100 people are killed by the police; several thousands are wounded and tens of thousands of people are imprisoned.
Strategy 5: Annihilation of Islamic parties by banning their organisation, killing their leaders, imprisoning their workers, closing their offices and confiscating financial resources. The BAL government has already banned Hezbut Tahrir as a part of the strategy. In Bangladesh, people are dying every day by terrorist attacks. BAL’s student cadres openly carry firearms; they kill people in front of the police. But the police do not touch them; let alone arresting them and putting them behind the bar. Although there is no proof that Hezbut Tahrir has taken part in any terrorist activities, the Government has disbanded them. At Shahbag roundabout of Dhaka, the BAL cadres are openly raising slogan to kill every razakar without any trail, instigating people to destroy the Islamists’ banks and other financial institutions. They have clogged the busy roads for more than a month. In a civilized country, all these are punishable criminal crimes. But in Bangladesh, they are getting government’s blessing. The government not only asked the local schools to supply children to continuously feed Shahbag’s gathering, but also deployed hundred police constables to protect these hooligans day and night from public anger. The government and non-government TV channels have been asked to show day-long live casts to spread their venomous speech. One the other hand, if Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) or Shibir (JI’s student force) or any other Islamic party bring out any peaceful procession, police would apply every possible means to dismantle them. In several occasions, they even opened fire arms to kill the protesters. The Home Minister has ordered the police to resist JI and Shibir where ever found - even if found in peaceful rally or procession. Dhaka’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner has been reported to ask his police to shoot JI and Shibir worker instantly if found anywhere. In a civilised country, a police constable is never given the authority to kill any man or woman on the street. Even Bangladesh’s own law does not allow even a district judge to hang a worst criminal; his judgement needs to be ratified by the high court. But the current government has given such power to political foot soldiers on the street. So the war like situation had returned to Bangladesh’s street. So JI is not allowed to hold any rally in any part of the country. Already police has killed more than 100 people, and tens of thousands of JI and Shibir workers are arrested. The government is not still happy with such brutal suppression; they now want to ban JI.
Strategy 6: Using cultural activities like open air concerts, dance show, drama show, film festivals, village theatres, TV shows to deflect people away from Islamic belief and practices. To make this cultural war a big success, India’s investment is huge. It has extensively deployed its cultural foot-soldiers in every nook and corner of the country. India’s film stars, singers, dancers are making continuous visits to Bangladeshi cities. Thousands of people attend those shows. Bangladesh is a country of foreign-funded NGOs. Thousands of these NGOs are working exclusively to train boys and girls in dancing and singing. Along with hundreds of Bangladeshi Hindu girls, thousands of Muslim girls from secular families have joined this huge army of cultural warriors against Islamic faith and practices. All these are happening in the name of cultural activities.
The Imminent Danger
The enemy of Islam understand that the full conversion of Bengali Muslims to non-Islam is difficult. But they also understand that it is very easy make them cultural converts. For the Muslims, such cultural conversion is no less harmful either. Indeed, this way they are pulling the Muslims away from Islam’s fundamental belief and practice, and making easy inroads into Muslims’ inner circles of politics and other activities. Since culture itself is the expression of Muslim faith; and many Bengali Muslims are indeed mere cultural Muslim with little Islamic knowledge and aqeeda, such cultural conversion will be highly detrimental to Islam in Bangladesh. Ultimately, that will lead to massive de-Islamisation. And such de-Islamisation would adequately serve the enemy’s political and strategic purpose.
In the past, the Muslims have experienced the calamities caused by this de-Islamised brand of the Muslims. They worked as the most obedient collaborators of the enemies. They fought with the British colonial army to extend their rule in most of the Muslim lands. Like any non-Muslim army, they did not hesitate to slaughter the fellow Muslims. The same brand of people joined British army in World War-I to snatch the Muslim Iraq and Palestine from Muslim Khelafa and placed them in the alter of the British Empire. In 1971, the same de-Islamised brand went to India to get training and arms to dismember Pakistan and slaughter both Bengali and non-Bengali Muslims in Bangladesh. Now they want to hang the remaining Islamists. India still wants the same lot of collaborators with same anti-Islamic zeal. They are working very hard to get them in enough number. The gathering in Shahbag, indeed gave a vivid display of these products. This is the core point of India’s current cold war in Bangladesh. If India continues to win the war with the current pace, she will not need any conventional war to colonise this Muslim land. The time will come when these Bangladesh converts, like Bengali Hindu, will ask for the quick merger. India is cunningly waiting for such a moment
Enemy’s war never ends: only changes its strategies and frontiers. India’s war against the subcontinents’ Muslims did not end in 1947, 1965 or 1971. It still continues. And Bangladesh is the perpetual battleground. The Muslims of Bangladesh are given no time to relax. They can only survive such on-going onslaught if they can identify and defeat the enemy strategies, and purge their foot-soldiers out of the midst. A body cannot live a long life with killer bugs inside. And Bangladesh has enough of them. The political border between Bangladesh and India still exist -even after the break-up of Pakistan in 1971. But Bangladesh Awami League (BAL) and their ally have been very successful to remove the country’s cultural boundary –especially between the BAL followers and the Indians. And culture has a dominant and defining role on politics. Hence, the vision of BAL leaders is seldom different from that of a Bengali Hindu. Bangladesh’s international border has been made irrelevant to bring into prominence such mutual cultural and political bondage between these two sets people living in two sides of the border. Recent 3 days’ official visit of Mr. Pranab Mukharjee –the Indian President, to Dhaka amidst 3 days’ dawn to dusk wheel-jam strike was primarily arranged to demonstrate India’s commitment to such bondage. Mr. Mukharjee directly delivered the promise of India’s unrelenting support to the troubled Prime Minister Mrs. Hasina Wajed.
Like an Indian Hindu, the BAL people too, attribute Bangladesh’s independent entity on the world map as a legacy of Pakistan and its Muslim heritage. This map itself reminds them the unwanted division of 1947. Such Pakistani legacy is hindering BAL and it ally to fully fall into Indian lap. However the political map of 1947 is so much deeply rooted in the Bengali Muslims’ psyche that India could not change it in 1971 –even after a full military occupation. They realised, they can undo such legacy only through deleting it from Muslims’ mind-set –deemed only possible through a complete de-Islamisation of the population. And that needs a full cultural conversion. Hence, they brought a full-fledged cultural war in Bangladesh. They consider it a key strategy, and the sure way of isolating its 150 million Bengali Muslims from the whole Muslim Ummah; and thereby to bring their total subjugation to Indian hegemony. Their worry, if Islam survives in Bangladesh, not only the border will survive, rather will get strengthened to build a citadel of Islam on her eastern flank. One on her western flank is already giving her a lot of troubles; hence can hardly afford another one on her eastern border. Therefore, dismantling such a possibility in Bangladesh is India’s most important priority. As a part of the same coalition, India’s crony government in Bangladesh has already launched on her behalf an all-inclusive war against the Islamists. Recent events in Bangladesh must be studied with such holistic perspectives.
Hence, Pakistan's division in 1971 was not the endgame. Rather starting point of the next phase of Nehru doctrine – the Indianisation of the separated East Pakistan. India’s vision is clear. Pakistan has disappeared from its eastern border. But Bangladesh didn’t, and still survives with emerging Islamic identity. Here lies their real worry. They believe, if Bangladesh with its 160 million populations sustains as an independent Islamic state, it will work as India’s security threat for ever. The country’s rapidly resurging Islamists can take over at any point of time. That will pose against India not only a strategic threat, rather a civilizational challenge. Threat to mighty Roman and Persian empires did not come from any of the mighty kingdoms, rather came from the poor people of Arabia. Hence they argue, if USA and the Western Europe could consider an emerging Islamic Afghanistan -with less than 30 million people in another part of the glove, a security threat, why Islamic Bangladesh on her border cannot be the same for India? If USA and her European ally can massively bomb and occupy Afghanistan, why can’t India do the same in Bangladesh? India is selling this view to the anti-Islamic coalition of the west and getting a full support -as evidenced by their support for India’s extremely brutal occupation of Kashmir. India has deployed more than 600,000 forces to suppress the Kashmiri up-rise. India is speculating the same scenario in Bangladesh. Hence, India is getting more aggressive towards her anti-Indian Bangladeshi neighbours. Its Border Security Force (BSF) has killed more than 400 Bangladeshis only in last 4 years. They did not kill even a quarter of that on its Pakistan border in last 60 years. Bangladesh’s weaker military power might have contributed to make her people more vulnerable. Moreover, the crony government of Hasina paid blind eye to that.
The Cultural War
India’s current war is not for physical occupation of Bangladesh; rather occupation of the people’s conceptual and cultural territory. India wants to mould Bengali Muslims’ mind and mentality prior to any all invasive war. That is through cultural conversion. India is working day and night on such scheme. It has deployed thousands of foot-soldiers on Bangladeshi soil to launch a huge cultural war. Thousands of them are working as music teachers, dance teachers, art teachers and in many other forms in almost all over the country. Highly paid Indian agents are working as university teachers, newspaper editors, TV presenters, columnists, reporters in almost all government and non-government TV channels and newspapers. Most of the country’s media organisations are indeed the Indian occupied territories. They are the real Trojan horses inside Bangladesh. Recently they launched an aggressive media and internet warfare against Islam and the Islamists. Their real picture came to the forefront while the Shahbag drama unfolded against the Islamists. When the huge number of the cultural war foot-soldiers demonstrated the strength in Dhaka’s Shahbag roundabout, these Indian agents cum professionals could not remain hidden in their holes. They came out with their real colour as warrior activists –especially while playing their role as reporters, news casters, talk-show presenters and newspaper columnists. Their colleagues in the internet blogs became so much emboldened by the government support that they did not hesitate to cross the red line. They not only raised slogans for total annihilation of Islamic parties and their leaders, but also started huge abusive campaign against the Almighty Allah Subhana Wa Taala, His great prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the prophet’s wives and his great companions. To their surprise, this caused a huge Islamic resurgence in the silent majority. Millions of people came to the street. As a consequence, their bubbles quickly fizzled out. They retreated back to their workplaces under the government’s security shield.
The Bengali people are indeed divided into two nations since day one of Muslim advent in this land. Hence, after the end of British rule, both the Hindus and the Muslims are pursuing two incompatible political visions. In 1947, Bengal’s Muslim leaders tried to create an undivided greater Bengal -separated from greater India. But the Hindu Bengali watered down such a nationalist project with a fear that it would bring dominance of the majority Bengali Muslims. In 1947, in Bengal’s parliament in Calcutta, the Hindu members opted for joining greater Hindu India with a pan-Hindu vision. The Bengali Muslims had two options: either to form independent East Bengal or to join Pakistan. In those days, the East Bengal Muslims were known for its non-existent military power and socio-economic underdevelopment. If separated as an independent state in 1947, its army would have been much weaker than that of Nizam of Hyderabad. The Bengali Muslims’ presence in civil administration and other areas was also very scanty. Hence the wise Bengali Muslim leaders of 1947 could clearly anticipate Kashmir or Hyderabad-like Indian invasion of an independent East Bengal, thereby quick accession to India. That invasion and accession of East Bengal too, like invasion and accession of Kashmir and Hyderabad could go unnoticed by the world powers. India could have found hundreds of reasons to justify that. Even to catch a thief, one needs to invest huge energy, even endanger his life. Therefore, who would have come to invest their lives and money to save independent Bengal from such Indian invasion? Did anyone come to save Hyderabad or Kashmir? In those days, the zeal of pan-Islamism in Muslim youths in Bengal was very high, hence inspired to work for Pakistan. This was indeed the background that led the Bengali Muslims to join Pakistan. Indeed, in the making of the greatest Muslim country in the world, the Bengali Muslims’ contribution was the greatest. Even All India Muslim League –the organisation which led Indian Muslims to make Pakistan was born in Dhaka. In 1946 election on Pakistan issue, Muslim League got the strongest support from Bengal –not from any other province of India. But BAL’s thoughtless jingoists have little strategic depth in their thought or intellectual calibre to understand such crucial survival interests of Islam and the Muslims in Bengal. Hence they detest the Bengali Muslims’ decision of 1947. With such a distance from Islamic belief and non-commitment for the Muslim interests, these BAL’s cultural and intellectual converts now sing the same song with the Indian Hindus.
The Hindu Vision & The Big Lie
The Hindu Bengalis had a vision. They wanted a united Bengal only if merged with India. That way, the Bengali Muslims were offered the slavery of Hindu majority rule in undivided India. The British left in 1947. But since then, the slavery under the Hindu rule has proved to be much worse than the slavery under the British. The brutality has already been much revealing in systematic anti-Muslim genocide in Kashmir, Gujarat, Assam, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Meerat, Aligarh, Allahabad and many other Indian states and cities. So the anticipation of Allama Iqbal and the Muslim League leaders about the danger of Hindu rule against Muslims proved to be 100% true. So with such anticipation, in 1947, the Hindu project of united Bengal under Indian Hindu majority rule was out-rightly rejected by the Muslims.
But still the Hindu protagonists of undivided India did not move a single inch from their pre-1947 idea, rather they working day and night on the same project. The whole paradigm of India’s current cold war in Bangladesh –even in the remaining part of Pakistan, is based on that pre-1947 Hindu concept. The Indian Hindu accepted the division of Bengal and creation of Pakistan in 1947 for the time being; their next move was to divide Pakistan and then engulf the weaker half –the East Pakistan. This is India's much proclaimed Nehru doctrine. So far, India has taken every calculated move to pursue that strategy. Since 1947, they were waiting for a right opportunity, and even Nehru himself made a move to annex East Pakistan in his life time. But that failed. The real opportunity came in 1971. India skilfully manipulated Pakistan’s internal political crisis to manufacture a full-fledged war to invade and occupy East Pakistan. But in 1972, India had to withdraw its occupying troops under tremendous international pressure. Moreover in 1972, the cultural and political situation of Bangladesh was not ripe enough for India to go further for a full annexation. India needed to do much home works to make the ground quite ripe for a full harvest.
Since the political map of Bangladesh draws its legitimacy from 1947’s division of India, the Indian agents are doing concerted propaganda against the sanity of such division. Even Dr. Zakir Naik –the famous Muslim preacher of India argues openly in his speech that the division of India in 1947 was wrong. It indeed owes to his tunnel vision and gross inadequacy in his political understanding. With such personal constraints, people cannot see a bigger picture. In his public speech, he boasts India as the fastest growing superpower and rejoices that India will go far superior to the USA. As if, the Indian Muslims are going to gain much from India’s super-power status. Like an average Hindu Indian, here he turns to a nationalist chauvinist. Such speeches are getting huge audience all over the subcontinent. This way he is doing a great job as an India’s cold war warrior against Bangladesh and Pakistan. In fact, India’s such relentless cold war has made millions of such converts not only in India, but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Blessings of a Muslim State
But the truth is different. The creation of Pakistan in 1947 brought enormous blessing –both material and spiritual, not only to Pakistan, but also to the people of Bangladesh. India’s Muslim Population is larger than that of Bangladesh. But the number of Muslim doctors, engineers, scientists, academics, lawyers, army and police men, religious scholars, industrialists and big businessman living in only one city of Bangladesh like Dhaka is much larger than the total number of such value-added people in India’s whole Muslim population. Indian Muslims are almost invisible amidst the overwhelming Hindus in the overseas, whereas the overseas Bangladeshi are almost ten million. The successes of the Pakistani Muslims are much higher, because the creation of this largest Muslim country with a pan-Islamic vision worked with much better image among the world’s Muslim population. The middle-eastern rulers, the developers and the business establishments helped Pakistan in many ways. After 1971’s debacle, they not only opened gates for millions of Pakistani workers to their countries and built hospitals and mosques in Pakistani cities, but also financed Pakistan’s costly nuclear projects. Whereas Bangladesh had to carry the status tag of India-midwifed vassal state for many years.
These are only few material gifts of an independent Muslim majority state. More blessings come in other ways. The Muslims build states not for mere raising homes and businesses, nor for growing cattle and crops. They can do such things even in non-Muslim countries. In life time, Muslims must play the most important role to fulfil the Divine obligation as Allah’s viceroy on earth. That is to bring ultimate supremacy of His law in His land, and contribute his own share to raise an Islamic civilisation. If the land is grabbed by the enemies, a Muslim must do something to end such occupation. The early Muslims made most of their sacrifices not in raising homes or businesses, rather to establish and defend such Islamic state. Indeed, this is the greatest teaching of the prophet (peace be upon him). The Muslims of other times and other lands have a duty to follow such an indispensable prophetic tradition. Living in a non-Muslim state, a Muslim does not enjoy any space to practise such tradition. This is why migration to a non-Muslim state never got appreciation from a true believer. It has been only justified for security reasons; like the migration of early Muslims to Ethiopia. Hence, all the Muslims are faith-bound to establish Muslim majority states; then move on to convert those into true Islamic state. Indeed, in 1947, the creation of Pakistan was deemed as an obligation to address the Muslims’ such a basic political as well as a spiritual need.
The Muslim majority Bangladesh and Pakistan are not still Islamic; but the opportunities for such change are still profound. The Muslims in these two countries can still dream about that. But such dream is unthinkable in Hindu majority India, - even in coming thousand years. At best, the Indian Muslims can practise Islam as devout follower of Tabligh jamaat. But Tabligh jamaat does not replicate Prophet’s complete Islam. They cannot practise Islam as a full Muslim with all the dimensions of prophetic teachings. For that, a Muslim needs to enter into full sharia rule, into Islamic culture, into full Islamic education, into Islamic administration, into jihad, into Muslim brotherhood, so on and so forth. Hence, for such a full Islamic practice, Muslims need an Islamic state. The prophet of Islam and his great companions needed that. Hence today, how a Muslim can be full Muslim without that?
The Indian Hindus may enough reasons to tell a lot of lies against 1947’s division of India. They blame it a British ploy in conjugation with Muslim communalists! But how a Muslim can replicate the same lie? Muslims can commit to such lie only with intense ignorance. This owes to their ignorance of Islamic vision of a true believer. The enemies have a motive. They want to take the Muslims out of the Divine mission; hence they relentlessly tell lies against Islam and the Muslim history. Bangladesh is the home of more than 150 Million Muslims. So the enemies cannot be oblivious of such huge Muslim populations. For them, indeed, they have an agenda. So the country has turned not only to homes of thousands of anti-Islamic NGOs, but also breeding ground for thousands of anti-Islamic bloggers and cultural warriors. They have gained so much strength under the current BAL government that they are now demanding the prohibition of all Islamic parties and their activities. For the Islamists, the life was not so difficult even in British rule. It was unthinkable even 60 years ago in Pakistani era.
The Indian Objectives
India’s political investment in Bangladesh has always been massive. In 2008 election, it went to a diabolic proportion. London’s weekly “the Economist” gave a testimony to that. So far, India’s key strategy has been to replicate its successfully executed Sikkim strategy: that entails buying the political leaders as well as the players in the key positions in the army, media, police and civil administration. In 2006, after the end of Khalida Zia’s BNP rule, India worked with other anti-Islamic foreign stakeholders to install a pro-Indian proxy-military government to manipulate the forthcoming election results in 2008. Their plan worked very well and their stooges won a landslide victory. After the election victory and quick installation of a coalition government, the BAL and its 14 party-alliance were entrusted with the second phase of the work. This time, India and her cronies in Bangladesh did not want to miss this hard-earned opportunity in any way. After analysing the past 4 years’ BAL administration, it is now clear that the government has worked with two-pronged main objectives. These are: a). Rapid de-Islamisation of the people –especially Muslim youths and the school-going children, and b). Breaking down the backbones of the Islamic organisations and their Islamist leaders.
The Strategies
To fulfil the stipulated objectives, BAL and its ally are working on some planned strategies. These can be easily understood from the last four years’ activities. These are as follows:
Strategy 1: Re-framing a secular education policy at all level and re-writing all text books with a special emphasis on curtailing the amount of Islamic knowledge and infusing sentiments against country’s Islamic values and personalities. Raising acceptability and compatibility with India’s Hindu worldviews has been other strategic goal. The Hindu political, intellectual and literary figures like Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore and others were placed in limelight as the figure of highness to be followed by the students. Whereas Islam’s great prophet like Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him) and other prophets, the great companions of the prophet, the great Muslim rulers, the thinkers and the reformers who contributed decisively to Islamise Bengal’s landscape were given very little or no importance in the education policy. For eyewash, they added some Islamic flavour by incorporating some stories of folklore fakirs and sufi saints in the textbooks.
Strategy 2: Reducing and restricting the learning of the Holy Qur’an, the prophetic tradition and Islam’s history in both the state run secular schools and in the religious madrasas. With such an objective against Islam, the government reduced the emphasis of learning Arabic language in religious madrasas: made it optional from its previous compulsory status. Moreover, the amount of dis-information on fundamentals of Islam that are passed on to the students through the text books is also huge. Recently it came to the press that it is written in year 9’s text book that meats of animals sacrificed in the name of other deities are also halal.
Strategy 3: Projecting Shaikh Mujib as the greatest personality in thousands of years’ Bengal history. “Bangla academy” and other government bodies run by the tax-payers money were entrusted to publish hundreds of books on Mujib and his family –both for adults and for the youths. Millions of Taka was granted to public libraries to purchase those books. TV, radio and other mass media were used to publicise Mujib’s life and his speeches. Whereas, publishing books on Qur’anic teachings, the prophet’s life, great Muslim personalities and Islamic history were much restricted.
Strategy 4: Keeping constant vigilance on religious sermons in mosques, prohibiting and restricting Quranic tafsirs classes in open-field mass gatherings by the scholars, and prohibiting publication and circulation of books on jihad and sharia. The police and the Rapid Action Battalions (RAB) were the key tools for suppression of any Islamic propagation. They raided houses, offices and bookshops to confiscate Islamic books –especially on jihad and Islamic movement. The books written by Moulana Syed Maudoodi and Syed Qutb are the special target. In Bangladesh, it is a common practice that the people form committees to organise Quranic tafseer sessions in open fields. These happen in almost every nook and corner of the country around the year. In such gatherings, the eminent religious scholars are invited to deliver long speeches on Islamic teaching. Indeed, the Qur’anic knowledge and prophetic tradition survived among people through such public speeches for ages; and thus Islam reached to the doorsteps of the common people in Bengal. But Hasina’s regime has turned its government machinery against such popular tradition. She and her political ally rebuke it as a tool of spreading fundamentalism. Moulana Dilawar Hussain Sayeedi is widely known as the most famous religious speaker that Bangladesh has ever produced. His speech inspired scores of non-Muslims to accept Islam. But such extraordinary skill and Islamic knowledge of Moulana Sayeedi did not impress the government. He was put him behind the bar for more than two years. The government alleged him as murderer, arsonist, rapist and above all anti-liberationist in the war of independence in 1971. Recently the subservient judiciary of the government has passed a verdict to hang him. After such pronouncement, the country has entered into a virtual civil war like state. Already more than 100 people are killed by the police; several thousands are wounded and tens of thousands of people are imprisoned.
Strategy 5: Annihilation of Islamic parties by banning their organisation, killing their leaders, imprisoning their workers, closing their offices and confiscating financial resources. The BAL government has already banned Hezbut Tahrir as a part of the strategy. In Bangladesh, people are dying every day by terrorist attacks. BAL’s student cadres openly carry firearms; they kill people in front of the police. But the police do not touch them; let alone arresting them and putting them behind the bar. Although there is no proof that Hezbut Tahrir has taken part in any terrorist activities, the Government has disbanded them. At Shahbag roundabout of Dhaka, the BAL cadres are openly raising slogan to kill every razakar without any trail, instigating people to destroy the Islamists’ banks and other financial institutions. They have clogged the busy roads for more than a month. In a civilized country, all these are punishable criminal crimes. But in Bangladesh, they are getting government’s blessing. The government not only asked the local schools to supply children to continuously feed Shahbag’s gathering, but also deployed hundred police constables to protect these hooligans day and night from public anger. The government and non-government TV channels have been asked to show day-long live casts to spread their venomous speech. One the other hand, if Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) or Shibir (JI’s student force) or any other Islamic party bring out any peaceful procession, police would apply every possible means to dismantle them. In several occasions, they even opened fire arms to kill the protesters. The Home Minister has ordered the police to resist JI and Shibir where ever found - even if found in peaceful rally or procession. Dhaka’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner has been reported to ask his police to shoot JI and Shibir worker instantly if found anywhere. In a civilised country, a police constable is never given the authority to kill any man or woman on the street. Even Bangladesh’s own law does not allow even a district judge to hang a worst criminal; his judgement needs to be ratified by the high court. But the current government has given such power to political foot soldiers on the street. So the war like situation had returned to Bangladesh’s street. So JI is not allowed to hold any rally in any part of the country. Already police has killed more than 100 people, and tens of thousands of JI and Shibir workers are arrested. The government is not still happy with such brutal suppression; they now want to ban JI.
Strategy 6: Using cultural activities like open air concerts, dance show, drama show, film festivals, village theatres, TV shows to deflect people away from Islamic belief and practices. To make this cultural war a big success, India’s investment is huge. It has extensively deployed its cultural foot-soldiers in every nook and corner of the country. India’s film stars, singers, dancers are making continuous visits to Bangladeshi cities. Thousands of people attend those shows. Bangladesh is a country of foreign-funded NGOs. Thousands of these NGOs are working exclusively to train boys and girls in dancing and singing. Along with hundreds of Bangladeshi Hindu girls, thousands of Muslim girls from secular families have joined this huge army of cultural warriors against Islamic faith and practices. All these are happening in the name of cultural activities.
The Imminent Danger
The enemy of Islam understand that the full conversion of Bengali Muslims to non-Islam is difficult. But they also understand that it is very easy make them cultural converts. For the Muslims, such cultural conversion is no less harmful either. Indeed, this way they are pulling the Muslims away from Islam’s fundamental belief and practice, and making easy inroads into Muslims’ inner circles of politics and other activities. Since culture itself is the expression of Muslim faith; and many Bengali Muslims are indeed mere cultural Muslim with little Islamic knowledge and aqeeda, such cultural conversion will be highly detrimental to Islam in Bangladesh. Ultimately, that will lead to massive de-Islamisation. And such de-Islamisation would adequately serve the enemy’s political and strategic purpose.
In the past, the Muslims have experienced the calamities caused by this de-Islamised brand of the Muslims. They worked as the most obedient collaborators of the enemies. They fought with the British colonial army to extend their rule in most of the Muslim lands. Like any non-Muslim army, they did not hesitate to slaughter the fellow Muslims. The same brand of people joined British army in World War-I to snatch the Muslim Iraq and Palestine from Muslim Khelafa and placed them in the alter of the British Empire. In 1971, the same de-Islamised brand went to India to get training and arms to dismember Pakistan and slaughter both Bengali and non-Bengali Muslims in Bangladesh. Now they want to hang the remaining Islamists. India still wants the same lot of collaborators with same anti-Islamic zeal. They are working very hard to get them in enough number. The gathering in Shahbag, indeed gave a vivid display of these products. This is the core point of India’s current cold war in Bangladesh. If India continues to win the war with the current pace, she will not need any conventional war to colonise this Muslim land. The time will come when these Bangladesh converts, like Bengali Hindu, will ask for the quick merger. India is cunningly waiting for such a moment
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