by R Chowdhury 1 November 2023
RAB in action
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh has been at war against her political opponents since she was installed in authority in 2009 through an external conspiracy aided by local accomplices. A fresh round of confrontation commenced on October 28, 2023 on more than a million unarmed people gathered in support of pre-announced rallies by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and 36 other opposition parties in Dhaka. The opposition has been demanding that the ruling autocratic and oppressive regime must step down immediately and the next election, likely to be held in January 2024, be held under a non-partisan, neutral caretaker government (CTG). It remains determined that it would not participate in any election under the Hasina administration.
After ruthlessly crushing the peaceful rallies on October 28, the draconian forces of the regime that included police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Border Guards, went on a chasing rampage in rounding up thousands of opposition leaders and activists, — top leaders of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islam (JeI) included. Most of the opposition offices were sealed after ransacking them. The one-sided battlefronts kept expanding with losses in men, material, national values and aspirations, even concern for existence.
Sheikh Hasina’s first war victims were 57 top military officers of the Bangladesh Rifles, the national border guards, in February 2009. Next were the thousands of followers of the JeI and Hefazat-e-Islam in February and May respectively of 2013. People still shudder at the thought of those dreadful massacres. It committed dozens of more such brutalities on the opposition in the past 15 years. In other words, it is Hasina’s war against the people of the country who detest her for her plunder of national resources, mischievous and anti-national acts in collaboration with her sponsor India.
Before the present round of confrontation, the Secretary General of the ruling Awami League warned the opposition that they would face a worse fate than what the Hefazat-e-Islam did at Shapla Chottor, in a reference to the ruling forces’ brutality on the peaceful rally of the innocent Islamic students and teachers in 2013, killing thousands. Another top leader of the ruling party warned that their cadres would be ready with Logi-Boitha (poles/sticks-oars) on October 28, another reference to the Awami League’s beating to death savagery of their adversaries in 2006. The world has seen the fulfillment of their promises on October 28.
The United States condemned the political violence of October 28 and said that it was “unacceptable,” and deserved to be penalized with “possible visa restrictions.”
In Sheikh Hasina’s Bangladesh, few things happen without her specific directives. As such, for the US and other international punitive measures to be truly effective, the chain of command of political wars and repression must be included. Piecemeal action carries little impact on the perpetrators of crimes or the regime, as is evident from the US limited sanctions against the RAB and some of its top officials. The RAB and the regime remain as defiant as before; in some cases, they became increasingly vengeful.
The US and other democratic entities around the world must understand that the 15 yearlong illegal and authoritarian regime of Sheikh Hasina is neither capable nor willing to hold a free, fair and participatory election in Bangladesh, the core issue demanded by all. The regime’s violent oppressive action on and after October 28, as well as many others before, should leave no doubt that the Hasina regime must relinquish its authority to a nonpartisan, neutral CTG urgently. The CTG should hold the next election within the shortest possible time, after restructuring the Election Commission, Judiciary and key administrative positions.
Bangladesh cannot afford any more human loss, miseries and destruction of its national and cherished values under the vicious Hasina regime.
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Writer is a freedom fighter of Bangladesh in 1971. An author of five books and co-author of another half a dozen. Prolific writer and commentator.