Is Sheikh Hasina’s next destination Russia?

SALEEM SAMAD

Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus met with International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan QC at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week.

Taking to Twitter (X), Karim Khan QC said, “Common visions to strengthen ICC cooperation ensure accountability for crimes committed against the Rohingya.”

ICC in The Hague (Den Haag) is hearing the war crimes and ethnic cleansing committed by Myanmar troops against the Rohingya Muslims after they were declared illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and dubbed as Bengali (meaning they are not Myanmar nationals).

It is not known whether Yunus has discussed ICC’s support for strengthening the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal. The ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been implicated in ‘crimes against humanity’ for the deaths of more than a thousand students and protesters during the Monsoon Revolution in July and early August.

The Interim Government, led by micro-credit inventor Dr Yunus, told audiences in New York that he would like to see former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina be extradited and brought to justice “if she” has committed crimes.

“Why shouldn’t be? If she committed crimes, she should be extradited and brought to justice…She should be facing justice too,” he said while responding to a question at “The New York Times Climate Forward Event”.

Earlier, he reiterated to an Indian media that Delhi should deport Hasina to face the music of justice for the deaths of thousands of protesters in less than 35 days of the Monsoon Revolution.

The number of times Yunus mentions “extradition” of Hasina, South Block in New Delhi is having hiccups. The worrisome seasoned officials and politicians in Delhi have kept their lamps burning regarding the future status of Hasina living in exile at a Safe House at Ghaziabad Hindon Air Base near Delhi.

A high-profile defence correspondent in Delhi said she is in a safe house for security reasons. Indian Intel believes that she has external threats and is forced to live in seclusion.

She is living incommunicado at the air base and unable to meet her daughter Saima Wazed, who has been the South East Asian regional director for the World Health Organisation since 1 November 2023 and is based in New Delhi.

Saima, in her tweet, admitted that she wanted to hug her beloved mother but was unable to do so due to preoccupation and hectic conferences in the South East Asian region. Does anybody believe her excuse?

Similarly, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, despite his best intention to meet his beleaguered mother in Delhi, has not been given diplomatic clearance to arrive in Delhi.

None of the ruling BJP politicians or officials of the Indian government has paid courtesy calls to Hasina, except for Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor of India. He was at the air base when she arrived in Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to meet her. External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, while briefing the all-party meeting, said, “We received a request for a short stay.”

Ousted Hasina has always given the impression that China, Russia and of course India are ‘all-weather friends’ of Bangladesh.

The three countries have always lent their shoulders to Hasina, despite appalling human rights records, fraudulent elections in 2014, 2018 and 2024, money laundering, bank loot, poor accountability of elected rogue politicians and politicisation of democratic institutions.

The time-tested friends unfortunately did not react to the autocratic regime. Delhi, Beijing and Moscow’s silence encouraged Hasina to become an iron lady – a Frankenstein. She has brutally cracked down on opposition, dissidents, critics, journalists and even netizens.

Now that her long stay in India is likely to dent its bilateral, regional and global relationship, Delhi has to find a reasonable argument for not extraditing Hasina to Bangladesh authorities for her trial.

Delhi knows very well that if Hasina faces a politically motivated trial for the deaths of students, the court will hand down the death penalty. The Interim Government will not take any risk in keeping her alive.

However, the trial is not expected soon. The Yunus administration will wait until United Nations Human Rights Commission Chief Volker Türk, who took responsibility for deploying an UN team of experts to probe into the killing of the protesters during the “student revolution”, gets the report from the team.

Bangladesh will have to wait for the UN fact-finding mission to submit its report to begin the much-talked-about trial.

It is very rare for China to give shelter to exiled leaders from other countries. Then it leaves with two other “all-weather friends” – India and Russia.

With Dr Yunus’s hectic parleys with world leaders at UNGA, India read the pulse that it would be difficult to provide a credible excuse not to extradite Hasina.

Thus the best alternative would be to send her to Russia, where she will be safe and secure, several officials of the Indian National Security Council (NSC), who are privy to the issue, have confided with this journalist.

Russia has a history of ignoring international calls for extradition. For India, it will be difficult to absorb diplomatic and international pressure. So the only country for Hasina to live happily ever after would be Russia.

Well, when did Hasina live in Russia? It would be extremely difficult to determine the time. However, the NSC officials guess that the balls will begin to roll when Bangladesh will officially seek her extradition.

A top official in the Chief Advisor’s Office, who declined to be quoted, said it would be too early to comment on what Bangladesh should do if Hasina is shifted to Russia.

First published in the Northeast News, Guwahati, India on 30 September 2024

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Bangladesh parliamentary elections is likely next year

General Waker-uz-Zaman Photo: REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

SALEEM SAMAD

Bangladesh will not have to wait for years, as it happens in countries where popular people’s revolutions have ousted autocratic regimes and military dictators.

The election in Bangladesh is expected sometime in the winter of 2025. In a rare press interview, General Waker-uz-Zaman, the chief of the Bangladesh Army, told world-reputed British news agency, Reuters that a transition to democracy should be made between a year and a year-and-a-half, but urges to hold patience.

The military chief was candid in speaking out that the transition to democracy should be within a year and a half.

Why will it take time to transition? Bangladesh is presently under repair and in maintenance mode as described by the students on the city wall graffiti.

The country is being overhauled, which has crumbled during the 15 years of autocratic rule. All the democratic institutions like the judiciary, law enforcement, bureaucracy, education, election and media have been riddled with corruption, nepotism and favouritism.

Awami League, lifelong president of the party Sheikh Hasina, had deployed his henchmen and loyalists to govern the state institutions, which are supposed to uphold the pillars of democracy.

The inventor of micro-credit Dr Yunus, chief adviser of the Interim Government, has launched to overhaul the institutions through reforms on the principles of democracy.

In line with sweeping government, reforms proposed since Hasina was shunted from power, the army, too, is looking into allegations of wrongdoing by its personnel and has already punished some soldiers, Zaman said, without providing further details.

Come what may, General Zaman pledges support to Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus-led Interim Government, he told the Reuters correspondent Devjyot Ghoshal and Ruma Paul on 23 September.

Yunus, the interim administration’s chief adviser, and the army chief meet every week and have “very good relations”, with the military supporting the government’s efforts to stabilise the country after a period of turmoil, said Zaman.

Regarding the enforced disappearance of opposition, critics and dissidents, the interim government has formed a five-member commission, headed by a former high court judge, to investigate reports of up to 600 people who may have been forcibly “disappeared” by Bangladesh’s security forces since 2009.

The army chief admitted that some military officials may have acted out of line while working at agencies directly controlled by the former prime minister or home affairs minister. “If there is any serving member who is found guilty, of course, I will take action,” he said.

Regarding politico-military relations, he said that he wanted to distance from the political establishment from the army, which has more than 1,30,000 personnel and is a major contributor to United Nations peacekeeping missions.

“It can only happen if there is some balance of power between president and prime minister, where the armed forces can be placed directly under the president,” he said.

“I will not do anything detrimental to my organisation,” he said. “I am a professional soldier. I would like to keep my army professional,” he further added.

“The military as a whole must not be used for political purposes ever,” he said. “A soldier must not indulge in politics.”

First published in Northeast News, Guwahati, India on 24 September 2024

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Indeed a diplomatic blunder for PM Modi, if he ignores Yunus in New York

SALEEM SAMAD

Bangladesh diplomatic channels have requested India for a sideline meeting between Dr Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of Bangladesh Interim Government, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the upcoming United National General Assembly (UNGA) next week in New York.

Prestigious Indian newspaper Hindustan Times reported that PM Modi is not expected to meet Yunus on the UNGA sidelines, which both leaders are set to attend.

There may be more than one reason why Modi would shrug his shoulder in despise Yunus for his comments on Bangladesh-India relations in a recent interview have not gone down well in New Delhi.

Political observers state that Yunus should find an opportunity to meet Modi on the margins of UNGA to update on the bilateral relationship between the two neighbouring countries.

The two leaders had a telephone dialogue on 16 August, a week after the Nobel laureate Dr Yunus took oath as head of the Interim Government. Modi reiterated India’s support for a democratic, stable, peaceful and progressive Bangladesh.

Modi also urged Yunus for the safety and security of the “Hindus and all other minority communities” in Bangladesh.

The two leaders spoke for the first time in the backdrop of the fast-moving developments in the neighbouring country, which earlier this month witnessed the dramatic removal of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the subsequent internal political turbulence.

Several journalists based in Delhi quoting insiders in South Block that Modi will have a packed schedule for his three-day visit to the United States, as he is set to attend the Quad Leaders’ Summit in Wilmington, Delaware, on 21 September and address the Summit of the Future at the UN General Assembly on 23 September.

However, sources in the South Block said such a meeting is not part of the Indian side’s agenda. A meeting with the head of Bangladesh’s interim government isn’t on the schedule,” one source told Hindustan Times.

In a press interview, Yunus, the inventor of micro-credit and women’s empowerment, which helped several million women to escape from the cycle of poverty in rural Bangladesh, criticized former premier Sheikh Hasina for commenting on developments in Bangladesh while in exile in India.

He did not hesitate to suggest that Bangladesh could seek her extradition and said India should move beyond the “narrative” that every political party other than Hasina’s Awami League is “Islamist”.

Meanwhile, Touhid Hossain, the de facto foreign minister and other advisers of the Interim Government, have repeatedly raked up the possibility of seeking the extradition of Hasina, who fled to India after her autocratic regime collapsed on 5 August.

Hossain went a step forward and said that if Delhi is stubborn on the issue of deportation, it would create an “embarrassing situation for the Indian government”.

The External Affairs Ministry has refused to be drawn out on any possible Bangladeshi request for her extradition, describing it as a hypothetical matter.

The Iron Lady of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina landed at an air force base in Delhi and is living in a safe house, literally in seclusion. She was unable to meet her daughter Saima Wazed, Regional Director of the World Health Organisation South-East Asia Region based in New Delhi. Her brother Sajeeb Wazed failed to get clearance from the Delhi administration to fly from Washington DC to meet her mother living incommunicado with her sister Sheikh Rehana.

India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the Indian parliament that “At very short notice, Sheikh Hasina requested approval to come, for a short term to India, following an unprecedented political upheaval in Bangladesh.”

Some academicians said it would be another diplomatic blunder of Delhi’s South Block if a dialogue is not held at the soonest between the two leaders.

Modi does not know the immediate plan of Hasina’s stay for a number of days in India. Most importantly he does not know what to tell Yunus, who will press him for the extradition of Hasina to face the music of justice for the deaths of hundreds of students and protesters and their bloods spilt in the streets.

She is also blamed for enforced disappearances, extra-judicial deaths and confinement of her opposition and critics in secret prisons.

There is no doubt that she knew very well of the horizontal and vertical corruption, bank loot, money laundering, and second home of most lawmakers, Awami League senior leaders, bureaucrats, and law enforcement officers. She deliberately did not crack down on rogue elements.

It is feared that if Bangladesh officially demands her extradition, she may be moved to Russia, an anti-west where she can live happily ever after.

First published in the Northeast News portal, Guwahati, India on 21 September 2024

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Hasina Is Toast, But Will There Be An Election in Bangladesh?

SALEEM SAMAD

Chief Adviser to the Interim Government Dr Muhammad Yunus parried a question by the German news organization Deutsche Welle (DW) recently to mention specific timeframe for holding elections.

In a much-awaited address to the nation in the second week of September, coinciding with 30 days of the interim government (Sheikh Hasina fled the country on August 5, Yunus, delivered a timely, thoughtful, and comprehensive message to the people of Bangladesh.

Political observers believe that the fresh elections would only be held after the planned series of reforms are carried out. It means forget about the elections for a year or two.

The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate said the interim government advisers would hold dialogue with political parties to determine how to make decisions regarding holding elections.

“We are committed to formulating an outline of a democratic Bangladesh for our children so that we don’t fall into the hands of any dictatorship and we can say we live in a democratic country…so that we all can claim that this country is ours – we’re working towards this goal,” he remarked.

He emphasized the need to implement various reforms to institutionalize democracy in the country, attending to the most pressing demands of our people.

All the constitutional and democratic institutions have collapsed during the 16 years of autocratic regime. The judiciary, bureaucracy, law enforcement agencies, Election Commission, parliament, education, media, local governments, decentralization, good governance, capacity building and other institutions – the pillars of democracy – crumbled in this period.

“However, we would like to remind the interim government that it has not one but two urgent tasks at hand. The first is to administer the country in these turbulent times and, simultaneously, to pursue reforms — both of which form a mammoth task,” says the editorial of The Daily Star, an independent newspaper.

Yunus said holding elections was a political decision and that he would leave it up to the people. “Here, we would like to commend him for reminding the nation where the power truly lies – with the people,” says the paper.

Yunus assured that a free, fair and participatory election would be held after necessary reforms were completed in the administration, judiciary, Election Commission, law and order, and information systems to ensure the success of the student uprising.

Yunus, who took oath on August 8, said the timing of the elections was a political decision that must be determined through political discussions.

Moreover, the chief adviser added that the Election Commission would be reformed as part of the government’s broader reforms.

He also expressed a desire to involve all stakeholders in discussions about the interim government’s tenure. But he did not make it clear how that could be achieved.

“Here, we believe the interim government needs to form a comprehensive framework for communicating with all stakeholders in society,” says the editorial of an influential newspaper the Daily Star.

Given the present state of the nation, the number of reforms needed may seem endless. However, pursuing all of them sounds neither realistic nor achievable in the short to medium term.

The interim government has decided to form six commissions to reform the judiciary, election system, administration, police, Anti-Corruption Commission, and the constitution.

The reforms aim to have a state system based on public ownership, accountability, and welfare, observed Yunus.

It has become essential to carry out some national reforms to prevent the re-emergence of fascistic or authoritarian rule in Bangladesh. At the core of these reforms is the establishment of a fair electoral system and good governance, said the Nobel laureate.

Nevertheless, the chief adviser mentioned that his administration has planned wide-ranging reforms that resonate with the demands of the student-led mass upsurge – the Monsoon Revolution that brought down the autocratic government of Sheikh Hasina on August 5.

The inventor of microcredit and empowering millions of disadvantaged rural women, Yunus has also called for comprehensive reforms in education, the empowerment of local government bodies, and many other initiatives including taking action to ensure press freedom and freedom of expression.

The Bangladesh constitution was authored by reputed jurist Dr Kamal Hossain, who was also the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs. He is regarded as an icon of secular democracy in South Asia.

After 52 years, the interim government announced to amend the constitution, while civil society, academicians and concerned of the citizenry are demanding to rewrite the constitution to break free from the cycle of centralized power and its misuse.

Distinguished professor of politics and government at Illinois State University, Ali Riaz, has said the constitution needs to be rewritten even through a constituent assembly if the democratic institutions are to be fixed.

He recently remarked, “We are talking about the rewriting of the constitution as there is no scope for amending the constitution. The possibility of amendment of the constitution is limited as one-third of the constitution is written in such a way that there is no room to change that. There are such matters here, you can do nothing if those are removed. As a result, the word ‘rewriting’ is being discussed. I am talking about the constituent assembly as a way of rewriting.”

A rewritten or new constitution will not allow the same person to become the party chief, leader in the parliament and prime minister. This was the case of the two Begums – Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia.

The reforms are essential to prevent a return to a police state and a one-party rule, which would be a devastating outcome given the terrible suppression that people have endured for 15 years and the sacrifices made by so many to end fascistic rule.

Reforms are necessary to stop centralized power constitutionally, which will prevent creation of a Frankenstein or another elected dictator.

The people of Bangladesh eagerly await to see how institutional reforms can be safeguarded and how civil rights for the citizens can be protected from such egregious crimes in the future.

First published in Stratheia, a news portal. Islamabad, Pakistan on 19 September 2024

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Sectarian violence in Bangladesh: Who will bell the cat?

SALEEM SAMAD

Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of the Hindu Christian Buddhist Unity Council lamented that for 50 years of Bangladesh‘s independence “when there is change of political scenarios, when an anti-government movement is held, and in other circumstances, the minority community is targeted. The aim is to rid Bangladesh of the minorities.”

He feels this is a political target too, when an independent newspaper Prothom Alo sought his reaction to the 1068 houses and business establishments attacked during the Monsoon Revolution, he said that it is not just a matter of numbers. If one house is attacked, people from 10 other houses are in panic.

Prothom Alo in a damning investigation report on a private survey during the period from 5 to 20 August, regarding the number of Hindu homes vandalised, business establishments looted and temples desecrated all over Bangladesh.

The recent attacks on Hindu communities allegedly by radicalised Sunni Muslims who have political colours have irked the secularist, human rights and civil society groups and seriously embarrassed the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus’s nascent Interim Government.

The vandalism, arson and plundering occurred hours after the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina was ousted on 5 August. There was the absence of policing as the law enforcement officers fled their posts in fear of retaliation from the angry protesters.

Well, the social media and the Indian mainstream media ran rife with misinformation, and fake news around the heart-rendering occurrences. The social media warriors and Indian media continued trumping up death figures and fake footage was shown of bloody persecution, which was trashed by several fact-checkers in both India and Bangladesh.

Well, Prothom Alo is one of the few daily newspapers which have systematically reported on the carnage of religious minorities, since Sheikh Hasina swung into power in 2009.

During the 15 years of Sheikh Hasina’s regime, every week, every month, each year, hundreds of incidents occurred which tarnished the social fabric of secularism and religious tolerance.

Previously the minority community came under a major attack during the rule of the Awami League government in 2021 during Durga Puja. The Council had protested and said that from 13 October to 1 November, 117 temples and puja pavilions in 27 districts had been damaged. Also, 301 business establishments and houses had been damaged and looted. Nine persons were killed.

Unfortunately, for not a single occurrence of sectarian violence, Hasina’s government did not punish the perpetrators. This has raised doubts about the colour of the perpetrators, who are hooligans from the Awami League, according to human rights, civil society and some newspaper reports. Therefore the perpetrators enjoyed impunity for a crime they have committed.

Why that is so, the Awami League regime has always blamed the attacks, persecution, vandalism and desecration of places of worship of not only Hindus but also Christians, Buddhists, Adivasis (ethnic communities) and even the Muslim sect Ahmadiyya were not spared.

Well, Ahmadiyya Muslims are deemed heretics by the Sunni Muslims and even liberal Muslims. Past regimes have remained silent to officially declare Ahmadiyya are not Muslims. In Pakistan, the Muslim sect is banned by the Islamic Republic nation.

On 9 August, a large number of Hindu community held banners and chanted slogans condemning the violence targeting the country’s minorities during a protest at Shahbag Square, Dhaka,

Prothom Alo correspondents meticulously conducted investigations from 5 to 20 August and found evidence of at least 1,068 houses and business establishments of the minority community being damaged and other temples being desecrated.

Most of the attacks took place in the country’s south-western region of Khulna. At least 295 homes and business establishments of the minority community were destroyed in the division. Also, 219 houses and business establishments were destroyed in Rangpur, 183 in Mymensingh, 155 in Rajshahi, 79 in Dhaka, 68 in Barishal, 45 in Chattogram and 25 in Sylhet.

Most attacks in Khulna region, followed by Jashore, Satkhira and Magura. The second largest attack was in the Rangpur division. The minorities in Thakurgaon, Lalmonirhat and Panchagarh districts of this division came under the most attack.

The third highest amount of damage was done to houses, business establishments and houses of worship in the Mymensingh division. Most of these attacks were carried out in Netrakona and Mymensingh districts.

In the Rajshahi division, there were attacks on houses and business establishments, this being the fourth-highest number of attacks. The most attacks in this division were in Rajshahi, Bogura and Naogaon districts.

The attacks in Dhaka, Chattogram, Barishal and Sylhet were comparatively less. The attacks took place in Narsingdi, Faridpur, Rajbari and Tangail of Dhaka division; Barguna and Pirojpur of Barishal division; Chattogram, Noakhali and Khagrachhari of Chattogram division; and Maulvibazar and Sylhet of Sylhet division.

Several local community leaders stated that even in the areas where there were no attacks, the people were in fear.

After the fall of the government, there has been news of two members of the minority community being killed in these attacks. One of the deceased persons was Mrinal Kanti Chatterjee. He was a retired schoolteacher. He was beaten and hacked to death on the night of 5 August in the village Chhoto Paikpara of Rakhalgachhi Union in Bagerhat Sadar. His wife and daughter were injured in the attack. The other person was Swapan Kumar Biswas of Paikgachha, Khulna. On 8 August, while on his way home, he was beaten up, tortured and killed.

According to the preliminary compilation of the Bangladesh Hindu Christian Buddhist Unity Council report on 20 August, over 200 attacks took place in over 50 districts. The attacks, vandalism and loot are much higher than understood.

However, among the 1,068 houses and business establishments attacked, at least half of those occurrences, an estimated 506 had an affiliation with the Awami League.

The findings of investigations by Prothom Alo‘s correspondents, that violence in the Hindu community occurred in 49 districts, out of 64 districts.

Prothom Alo reports that the Christian and Ahmadiyya Muslim communities and ethnic minorities were also attacked. According to the Bangladesh Christian Association, there were attacks on the Church of Bangladesh in Naogaon, the Evangelica Holiness Church in Dinajpur, an office of the Christian Cooperative Credit Union in Madanpur of Narayanganj, and homes of three Christians in Gournadi of Barishal, one in Khulna city, one on Haluaghat of Mymensingh, and one in Parbatipur. A statue of Mother Mary was vandalised in the Nijpara Mission in Thakurgaon.

Archbishop Bijoy Nicephorus D’Cruze of the Roman Catholic Church in Dhaka, told Prothom Alo, “That is unfortunate. We want to live in this country peacefully regardless of caste and creed. However, the attackers are not identified and they are not punished.” He said that those involved in the attacks must be identified. The perpetrators must be tried, which will stop sectarian violence.

According to the Kapaeeng Foundation, a human rights organisation for the ethnic minority community, there have been at least 10 attacks on the ethnic minority communities in Dinajpur, Rajshahi, Naogaon, Chapainawabganj and Thakurgaon.

Kapaeeng Foundation also said that the statues of Sidhu Murmu and Kanhu Murmu, two historical characters of the Santal rebellion against the British, were damaged.

The Ahmadiyya community has said 137 houses and six Ahmadiyya mosques were damaged in attacks in Panchagarh, Rangpur, Rajshahi, Nilphamari, Madartek in Dhaka, Sherpur and Mymensingh.

Public relations office of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Congregation Ahmad Tabsir Chowdhury told Prothom Alo, “We are an apolitical community and are not partisan. The hooligans had targeted Ahmadiyyas, taking advantage of the fact that the law enforcement was not active.” He said that they had come under attack during the rules of previous regimes of BNP and Awami League too.”

From 6 August, the violence significantly subsided after initiatives were taken by BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, as well as students and social organisations began to guard the houses, business establishments and places of worship of the minority community. Several political parties, rights groups and civil society issued statements condemning the attacks.

On 13 August, Dr Muhammad Yunus held a meeting with representatives of Hindu organisations including the Hindu Christian Buddhist Unity Council.

Dr Yunus visited the historic Dhakeswari Temple and said, “We want to build up a Bangladesh that is just one family. That is the basic premise. There will be no differences within this family, and the question of divisions will not arise. We are the people of Bangladesh, Bangladeshis.”

Dhaka University’s Emeritus Professor Serajul Islam Choudhury told Prothom Alo that given the chance, in Bangladesh the strong tend to persecute the weak and try to grab their property. But this time there has been a positive trend. Many have come forward to protect the minorities. This positive trend must be encouraged.

“If a new Bangladesh is to be built, equal rights must be ensured for all, where there will be no differentiation based on religious or ethnic identity,” he remarked.

First published in the Northeast News, Guwahati, India on 13 September 2024

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Is deposed Sheikh Hasina held incommunicado in India?

SALEEM SAMAD

News from Delhi is trickling down that Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been held incommunicado at a safe house in an airforce based near Delhi.

The sources cannot confirm whether she was under house arrest at Hindon Air Base, soon after she fled Bangladesh on 5 August.

However, the sources confirmed that she is confined at the safe house after Bangladesh Chief Advisor Dr Muhammad Yunus of the Interim Government spoke over the phone days a week after the Nobel laureate took oath of office in the first week of August.

Hours of the Yunus-Modi phone conversation all her incommunicado and communication devices were disrupted and she cannot speak to anybody.

Yunus told Indian news agency PTI that Sheikh Hasina, who was toppled after the Monsoon Revolution in August, warned her to shut her mouth and request Delhi bigwigs not to allow her to speak.

Sources said she is not allowed to stroll outside the safe house compound and not permitted to go to a military supershop to buy essentials which is within walking distance.

Her daughter Saima Wazed, who is the Regional Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) South-East Asia office in New Delhi has not been able to reunite with her mother to embrace her even after she was in exile for a month in the Indian capital.

Saima in posts on Twitter (X) has given several excuses for her tight schedule of a series of regional planning meetings, which was the reason not to hug her mother. Her elder brother Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who lives in Washington DC, soon after her arrival at the Air Force base announced that he would visit Delhi to meet her mother. He also said the meeting would be crucial to understand her future course plan.

Unconfirmed news said that he was asked not to arrive in Delhi, as he was likely not to meet her.

Phones in the safe house are disconnected and she is unable to contact her loved ones. Both her son and daughter are conspicuously silent over Hasina’s incommunicado in India.

Hasina is accompanied by her younger sister Sheikh Rehana, who is a British citizen. She is also stranded with her at the safe house.

Incidentally, her daughter Tulip Rizwana Siddiq is a British Labour Party politician who is presently Britain’s city minister, responsible for overseeing the financial services sector.

Tulip seems to have avoided influencing the British government to intervene in her aunt Hasina’s case and rescue her mother (Rehana) from unofficial confinement. It is unclear whether Rehana has sought counsellor service from the British High Commission in New Delhi.

Meanwhile, Yunus in an indirect threat to Delhi in an interview with PTI categorically said that the Iron Lady (Hasina) should be extradited to Bangladesh and face the music of justice for the deaths of nearly a thousand students and youths during the July massacre.

If deportation is requested to South Block, it would be a slap on Narendra Modi. It is too early to understand how South Block will reverse to damage control mode if they are adamant about keeping the Iron Lady for her safety and security.

First published in the Northeast News, Guwahati, India on 7 August 2024

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Muhammad Yunus Has Read The Writing On The Wall

SALEEM SAMAD

Commemorating the Monsoon Revolution by the students who deposed Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina, the Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus made a scornful remark. He told Delhi to shut Hasina’s mouth while living in exile in India.

In an interview with the Indian news agency PTI, Dr Yunus also gave a message that the Iron Lady would be extradited to Bangladesh to face the music of justice for the deaths of more than nearly a thousand students and youths during the July massacre, the enforced disappearance, extrajudicial deaths of opponents and critics.

“She [Hasina] has to be brought back, or the people of Bangladesh won’t be at peace. The atrocities she has committed must be addressed through a trial here,” said the inventor of microcredit, the founder of Grameen Bank.

This was a slap on Delhi’s ‘Sarkar’, which India did not expect from the interim government – a big embarrassment for India.

Hasina hastily fled, when the students and protesters on August 5 marched to Gonobhaban, the official residence of the Bangladesh Prime Minister. Tens of thousands from east, west, north and south joined the rally, the Bangladesh Army responsible for her security, forcibly whisked her away to a military airfield, a kilometer away and air dashed her to an air force base, adjacent to Dhaka International Airport. She boarded a transport plane and flew to Delhi, sinking her party’s boat (election symbol). She also abandoned thousands of leaders and millions of members of her party, the Awami League.

In the absence of a backup plan, the dumbstruck leaders and members of the Awami League either went into hiding and many tried to leave the country. Few managed to fly away. Some paid a hefty price to human traffickers and crossed the porous international border to India.

At Hindon Air Base near Delhi, where the Bangladesh Air Force transport plane landed, there she is still living in a safe house for a month. After hectic negotiations with several “friendly” Western countries, one after another her requests were turned down.

A top Indian diplomat stationed in Dhaka said what India would do when all countries have refused her applications for refugee status (political asylum).

The United States promptly revoked her 10-year multiple visa. Bangladesh’s new regime invalidated her Red and Green passports. Hasina is a stateless person. Delhi is now in a fix!

It is understood that Hasina is apparently under house arrest. She is not allowed to venture out of the safe house to take a stroll around the place, nor allowed to buy essentials from a military super shop nearby.

Her daughter Saima Wazed, who is employed as Regional Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) South-East Asia office in New Delhi, has not been able to meet her.

Saima in posts on Twitter (X) has given several excuses for her tight schedule and unable to hug her mother. Her elder brother in Washington DC had announced to visit Delhi and meet her mother. Unconfirmed news claims that Sajeeb Wazed Joy was asked not to arrive in Delhi, as he may not be able to meet her.

Many political observers say after Dr Yunus had a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian authorities decided to sever all communications with the outside world and stay away from her.

Phones in the safe house are disconnected and she is unable to contact her loved ones as well as her party central leaders, who have fled the country. Both her son and daughter are conspicuously silent over Hasina’s incommunicado in India.

Except for Indian national security advisor Ajit Doval, none of the Indian officials and opposition leaders has paid a courtesy call to their loyal guests. This gives a clear message that India is uncomfortable with the status of their guest.

Dr Yunus will have an opportunity to meet with Modi at the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Summit in Bangkok this weekend. He will once again raise the issue of Hasina with Modi.

BIMSTEC links five countries from South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka) and two from South-East Asia (Myanmar and Thailand).

Earlier, he cautioned Indian media not to play the Hindu card and invited journalists from India to visit Bangladesh. Indian media was agog on the persecution of Hindus, vandalism of Hindu business establishments and desecration of Hindu temples in expressing anger after the downfall of Hasina.

In a clever decision, Dr Yunus urged foreign journalists, especially Indian journalists to visit Bangladesh. Indian media has stopped beating in the bush.

In several interviews, Dr Yunus has told the international media, that the elections will be held only after a series of reforms are made to block autocratic government from taking control of the state institutions, which has been politicized and exploited by the ruling parties.

The politicization of state institutions – especially the judiciary, bureaucracy, law enforcement agencies and state media – was nothing new. Both the Begums – Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina – kept the institutions on their lap to dominate and dictate terms with loyalists.

The interim government has entrusted a think tank and several pundits to the White Paper Committee, which is responsible for identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

The White Paper Committee on the economy has sought public opinion through social media. They sought feedback on the accuracy and reliability of government statistics; current challenges in macroeconomics; review of GDP growth; inflation trends and their impacts; poverty, inequality and vulnerability; internal resource extraction; assessment of priorities in allocation of government expenditure; foreign exchange balance and credit capacity, evaluation of mega-projects, actual condition of the banking sector; energy and power sector situation; business environment and private investment; illegal money and money laundering; labor market dynamics and youth employment; foreign labor markets and migrant workers’ rights.

Plans are afoot to make the election commission an independent institution and reforms of the electioneering system would allow inclusivity and transparency.

Hasina during her tenure failed to hold free, fair, credible and inclusive elections in 2014, 2018 and 2024, which were all flawed.

She deliberately kept the opposition out of the electioneering and jailed 10,000 leaders and members of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami – an Islamist party – accused of terrorism and attacks on government properties, which enabled the government to keep the opposition languish in prison for a long time.

The Yunus administration has repealed the ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir, stressing that the organisations are not involved in terrorist activities. This decision has invited backlash from Mukti Bahini, the 1971 war veterans and secularists.

Dr Yunus, who is chief adviser of the interim government, in an address to the nation on September 5 in commemoration of a month of minus Hasina’s autocratic regime, said the biggest challenge now is to heal the wounds created by misrule and autocracy.

He appealed for unity and coordination. “We all pledge that, as a nation, we will not allow the blood of the martyrs and the sacrifices of our injured brothers and sisters to be in vain.”

He pledged, “I want to assure them that we will never betray the dreams of the martyrs.”

First published in the Stratheia news portal, Islamabad, Pakistan on 6 September 2024

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad