Bangladesh: Interim Govt Pushing Country Toward Civil War, Says Workers Party

Scores of journalists, political and human rights activists attended a protest jointly organized by Bangladesh’s Editor’s Council and Newspaper Owners Association (NOAM) in Dhaka on Monday, December 22 to denounce last week’s attacks on leading newspapers and journalists in the country.

Claiming such attacks are attempts to silence critical voices, speakers appealed to the social forces in the country to raise their voices in protest in order to protect the (remaining) social and political freedoms in the country.

Bangladesh has seen repeated attacks on opposition parties such as the Awami League and Workers Party of Bangladesh (WPB), religious minorities, and symbols of Bangladesh’s national liberation struggle, since the formation of the interim administration last year.

However, a fresh round of violence erupted in the country last week following the news of the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, a lead organizer of the anti-quota protests against Sheikh Hasina’s government in July-August last year and a candidate for the upcoming national elections in the from one of the constituencies in Dhaka.

Hadi was shot on December 12 in Dhaka and was getting treatment in a hospital in Singapore where he passed on December 18.

The night of his death, Mostakur Rahman, a student leader and member of Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir, the male student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, gave a speech calling for two leading daily newspapers, the Daily Star and Prothom Alo, in the country to be shut down.

As reported by Prothom Alo, Rahman told a large crowd in Rajshahi, “We declare from today’s program that these so-called ‘civil’ newspapers, including Prothom Alo and The Daily Star, must be shut down. We believe that if any journalists from Prothom Alo or The Daily Star are attending this programme, they should leave immediately.”

His calls were echoed by others across social media and soon, mobs of people acted on it.

That very night and into the next morning, the offices of the Daily Star and Prothom Alo, were attacked and vandalized by large violent mobs while hundreds of journalists and other staff inside. The editor of another newspaper New Age was also harassed by a mob on the same day.

Both the Daily Star and Prothom Alo could not publish their editions on December 19 due to the damages caused by the attack. Prothom Alo claimed it missed publishing an edition for the first time since their founding 27 years ago.

The attackers, as reported in the local media, had accused the Daily Star and Prothom Alo of pushing the ideology of Hasina’s Awami League which has been banned from contesting the national election next year.

The attacks on the newspaper was part of a series of violent attacks on various opposition parties including the offices of the left-wing WPB and its student and youth organizations, the country’s leading cultural organizations Chayyanaut and Udichi, members of the minority religious communities and monument of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of Bangladesh’s liberation war and its first prime minister.

Known as Bangbandhu Bhavan, the monument is located at Dhanmondi in Dhaka. It was targeted and vandalized in February this year as well.

February’s attack on Dhanmandi was led by the leaders of the anti-quota protest who are part of the interim government led by Mohammad Yunus. These political sectors have now formed the National Citizens Party (NCP) and are contesting in the upcoming national elections.

Push towards a civil war

The Awami League called the attacks on Dhanmondi an attempt to destroy the history of the country expressing hope that such attempts will be resisted by the people.

In dialogue with Peoples Dispatch, Sharif Shamsir, a left activist, claimed that the attacks last week were part of the concerned effort to silence the secular and nationalist opposition in the country. He claimed that the newspapers were targeted despite their pro-Yunus stance as they continue to write against the rising religious extremism in the country and are in favor of secular polity.

Shamsir also claimed that the attackers were supported by the political formations such as Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and others had expressed their discontent that these newspapers had published a series of articles celebrating the country’s national liberation movement on the occasion of this years’ National Liberation Day on December 16.

Offices of the WPB and its youth and student fronts have been attacked repeatedly by right-wing mobs as it is seen as a part of the secular nationalist alliance opposed to the religious groups in politics. WPB has also called the interim government an instrument of imperialist intervention in the country.

“These repeated incidents of attacks, vandalism, arson and occupation constitute serious obstacles to the ongoing struggle to build a democratic Bangladesh and severely hinder the practice of free thought and expression,” said Jubo Maitree (youth wing of the WPB) in a statement on Monday.

Condemning last week’s violence WPB reiterated that the interim government has failed to protect the political and media freedom in the country and has surrendered in front of the extremist forces.

Though Yunus personally condemned the attacks as barbaric, his government has been criticized for failing to take strong action against the attackers.

“Imperialist and fundamentalist forces, in a highly premeditated manner, have destabilized Bangladesh and established a reign of mob rule with the cooperation of the ruling regime,” WPB’s statement said.

WPB denounced that under Yunus regime incidents of murder, terrorism, rape and human rights violations have now become commonplace.

The government’s failure to protect the religious and political plurality of the country by letting the extremist forces take the law of the land in their hands without any repercussions, WPB said, will push the country towards a civil war.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch