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

Islamists Challenges Secularism in Bangladesh

People have no jurisdiction to judge others on their religious views

Is this tolerance? Photo Credit: SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

SALEEM SAMAD
A series of low-intensity violence on the issue of blasphemy was recently raised by radicalized Muslims against Hindus, Buddhists, and others, which is nothing new in Bangladesh.

If the violent behavior by the “lords of hate” is analyzed, it could be determined that these occurrences have an identical pattern of violence, as if those are woven in one string of hate against humanity.

In the fairly recent incident in Bhola in the coastal district, the acts of violence were instigated by rumormongers citing fake Facebook exchanges, which were deemed blasphemous only by the Islamic zealots.

Despite the distances from one occurrence to another, the typical pattern of violence has been observed in Barisal, Brahmanbaria, Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Gaibandha, Gopalganj, Ramu, Rangpur, Santhia (Pabna), Satkhira, Sunamganj -- and the list appears to keep growing.

All the incidents falsely accused person(s) insulting Islam, the Qur’an, or Prophet Muhammad -- soon after, Hindu and Buddhist households were looted, vandalized, and set ablaze, while temples were desecrated.

Hate speech by zealots is widely available on YouTube and Facebook, with tens of thousands of views on social media. The videos do not hesitate to despise the defenders of human rights and advocates of secularism, especially the mainstream media.

The hate speech by the clergies indoctrinate madrasa students, and millions of disciples of Islamic evangelists paradoxically have a similar message of hate against secular Muslims and Muslim sects.

Of late, their demands to the authorities are coincidentally the same, as if the storyboard is prepared under one roof, by one person, and written with one pen.

Closely analyzing their statements, the Islamists are no more a religious group -- they have a clear political agenda. The bigots with a political agenda, means they are bidding for the return of political Islam. This will severely dent our almost five-decade-long traditional culture of tolerance, democracy, and secularism.

The zealots demand that the government should enact a blasphemy law, with a provision of a maximum penalty for criticizing the Prophet and the Qur’an.

In fact, the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami in 1993 had proposed in the parliament a draft blasphemy law, which was strikingly very similar to what Pakistan enacted in 1986. The draft was shredded by both the ruling and opposition lawmakers of that time.

Islamic scholars passionately debate that the Holy Qur’an has not sanctioned blasphemy. Nor is there any mentionable edict in the Hadith to punish a blasphemer in this living world.

The non-believers and blasphemers will be condemned to hell on the Day of Judgment.

They also do not hesitate to demand that the Qur’an and Sunnah replace the state constitution, which was earned from the Liberation War by millions of martyrs.

Unfortunately, the zealots were never accused of sedition or provoking a law and order situation.

Their interpretation of Wahhabi Islam has gradually penetrated into the minds of majoritarian Muslims in the country. The Wahhabi doctrine advocates strict Sharia laws that have been implemented in many conservative Muslim countries.

The bigots also harbor inner contradictions regarding the war crimes trial. The Islamists tacitly agree that henchmen of the marauding Pakistan army were responsible for crimes against humanity and should be brought to justice. Equally, they hate to see Islamists being punished for crimes perpetrated in 1971.

In a naive statement, the mullahs believe that the International Crimes Tribunal deliberately targeted Islamists because of pro-India secularists, the country which has immensely contributed to the birth of Bangladesh.

Intimidation by the Islamists is pushing a pluralistic society into a tight corner. Understanding that the state religion Islam will never be deleted from the constitution, their hate speech has multiplied.

The Islamists have dared to destabilize a secular fabric of the society and challenge the spirit of the Liberation War.

First published in the Dhaka Tribune newspaper on 26 November 2019
Saleem Samad, is an independent journalist, media rights defender, also recipient of Ashoka Fellow (USA) and Hellman-Hammett Award. Twitter @saleemsamad; He can be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com

Black Friday: A year ago ISIS militants deadly seize

Photo: Smiling five militants posted in ISIS online

The country's past as a recruitment hotbed for global Islamist jihad returns to haunt its future as it grapples with a new wave of terror

SALEEM SAMAD

Bangladesh is still coming to grips with the exceptional brutality of its worst terrorist outrage, the horrific Black Friday attack at Dhaka's Holey Artisan cafe on July 1. Twenty hostages, including 18 foreign nationals and two policemen, were killed when the six terrorists, said to be an IS-affiliated group, took them hostage. Indian teenager, Tarishi Jain, was among those who were shot, had their throats slit and bodies mutilated.

Five of the six terrorists were shot dead after security forces stormed the cafe following a 10-hour standoff. The sixth survived and is being interrogated by security forces.

What has shocked Bangladeshis is the profile of the terrorists. Mostly in their early 20s, they were products of the country's upper middle class elite (one was the son of a senior member of the ruling Awami League party. Some are even believed to have been regulars at the two-storeyed cafe located in Dhaka's upscale Gulshan area.

The attack marked the debut of what has been the prototype home-grown terrorist in recent times, well-educated and well-versed in using social media tools, fitting the cosmopolitan profile terrorist outfits like Al Qaeda and IS have used in recent terror attacks from Paris to Istanbul. "Gone are the madrasa recruits from the impoverished rural countryside," says Humayun Kabir, senior research director at the Dhaka-based think-tank, Bangladesh Enterprise Institute.

The attack was the culmination of a wave of atrocities by unidentified machete-wielding assailants against the country's religious minorities. Hindus, Buddhists and Christians priests, bloggers, writers, publishers and moderate Muslims. Islamic extremists have killed over 40 people in such attacks since 2013. Over 16,000 people were arrested in a crackdown in June this year but clearly it was a little too late.

Typically, the government's response has been one of disbelief. "Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such an act," Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina said on July 2. "They do not have any religion. Their only religion is terrorism."

A day after the attack, IS posted photographs showing five of the youth posing in front of the group's black flags, claiming credit for the attack. Bangladesh officials, however, are still calling it the work of local militants.

If Black Friday exposed the chinks in the country's security system, it also exposed the government's refusal to recognise the Muslim radicals in their midst. "Hasina used to scoff at claims of homegrown Islamist terrorists linked to the global terror network," says columnist Syed Badrul Ahsan. "She blamed opposition leader Khaleda Zia for harbouring terrorists."

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal had termed the spate of killings over the past year as isolated incidents. He clearly had no inkling of what was coming. "It was a time bomb waiting to explode," says liberation war veteran Sachin Karmaker.

Bangladesh's history of state-backed radicalisation dates back to the late 1970s and can be traced specifically to the close ties between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami whose leaders had participated in the genocide of 1971.

In the 1980s, 8,000 Bangladeshi youth, many of them left and socialist-leaning, volunteered to fight for the Palestine Liberation Organisation, a year after Yasser Arafat visited Dhaka to a warm welcome from media and political circles. Most of them returned home after the defeat and expulsion from Lebanon in 1982. Soon after 9/11, over a thousand Bangladeshi nationals who had joined the Taliban, fled to Pakistan when the American coalition invaded Afghanistan. Since then, Bangladesh has been convulsed with the attempts of the Afghan veterans to launch a jihad in their native country.

Counter-terrorism security agencies have had some success in the past, which the present Hasina regime, in power since 2008, has had too, dismantling some terror cells. The Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) spilled over into the neighbouring Indian states of West Bengal and Assam. Since then, possibly with the full knowledge of domestic security agencies, hundreds of Bangladeshi fighters, most of them poor rural youth, have joined secret wars in 36 countries, from Chechnya in Russia to Aceh in Indonesia.

The new phase of Bangladesh's war with itself began in the wave of the recent machete attacks. In most cases, the purpose of the attacks and the identities of the perpetrators remain a mystery. An international outcry forced the government to respond by banning a dozen Islamist outfits, including the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), believed to be behind the blogger attacks. However, the fact is that both the Hasina and earlier Khaleda Zia governments have harboured Islamist groups at some point and refrained from antagonising the clerics. Both have also backed off from implementing policies like women's empowerment and a national education policy (religious parties call it anti-Islamic).

Counter-terrorism specialists say Bangladesh is unprepared for this new form of terrorism. Online recruiters use social media to recruit their targets. Sleeper cells in the heart of the cities and towns run on small budgets, secret safehouses hide would-be jihadists while the familiarisation and adaptation jigs are on. Recruiters spend cash to procure weapons and bombs from gun-runners. It's during the internship that the future jihadists carry out the hit-and-run machete attacks. The reward for a good performance is a promotion to the sleeper cells, explains Kabir.

An unknown number of militants have escaped police dragnets to join IS in Syria and Iraq. The Bangladesh Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence Bureau, a CIA-trained outfit, does not know the exact number as yet. It does not know how many may have travelled to the terror hotspots to join IS . It does not know how many have returned either. Just as it doesn't know how many attackers like the Black Friday six are waiting to strike.

First published in India Today magazine, July 7, 2016

Saleem Samad, an Ashoka Fellow (USA), is an award winning investigative journalists and Special Correspondent of The Asian Age, published from Dhaka, Bangladesh

Why Bangladesh Should Not Be Audited By International Bodies

SALEEM SAMAD

Bangladesh for obvious reasons is under renewed scrutiny by global watchdogs, think tanks, and the international press. This is not just because of more than a year of emergency rule, but also due to recent dramatic political developments toward democratic transitions in several countries, including Thailand, Nepal, and Pakistan. Expectations have risen for Bangladesh.

Around Bangladesh, political observers see optimistic developments, perhaps light at the end of the tunnel. The Nepalese are preparing to change their century-old kingdom into a republic. Thai military generals have vowed to not interfere in the polity and have returned to the barracks, though they’ve left behind institutions for influencing internal security. In Pakistan, after decades of military subjugation, there is a change of heart—forced in no small part by a change of heart in the US administration—among the Generals, who have conceded their failure to manage the country.

An overall estimate

Global watchdogs are keenly observing the reforms agenda in Bangladesh toward a transition to democracy. And none of them seems happy. Despite a year of anti-corruption and anti-crime drives by the interim government, Bangladesh is still placed toward the bottom on the list of world’s most corrupt nations. The Global Integrity Report 2007 stated that Bangladesh’s caretaker government had failed to deliver the wishful target it had set about reducing corruption and increasing accountability. Accountability at all levels—executive, legislative, judicial—was rated as very weak, even though laws were strong. The Global Integrity Report pointed out that the military is routinely involved in government affairs.

Similarly, Washington based Freedom House in its Freedom In The World 2008 report says that Bangladesh experienced a reversal due to the introduction of emergency rule in January, the suspension of scheduled elections, and the curtailment of civil liberties and press freedom were identified as a severe blow on good governance and democracy.

Religious freedom has never improved since previous military rulers declared Islam the state religion two decades ago. Persecution of religious minorities like the Hindus, Ahmadiyya Muslim, Buddhists, Christians and cultural minorities (animists) in Modhupur, Sylhet and Chittagong Hill Tracts have continued unabated. It was expected that after the military returned to power in early 2007, the status of religious freedom may improve. But the predators remain loose, and even in 2008, Bangladesh remains in the watch list of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

So far, no notable initiative has been taken by the quasi-military government to ensure transparency in governance. With no real improvement in weak institutions, the Failed States Index, published by Foreign Policy / Fund for Peace, placed Bangladesh among the 20 most unstable and highest risk countries, next to Burma, Uganda, Nigeria, and Ethiopia.

The slide in human rights

More troubling are the problems regarding human rights and democracy. In its “Human Rights Report 2007,” local watchdog Odhikar has written flatly: “Human rights situation deteriorated sharply in Bangladesh in 2007.” This not just because fundamental rights remain suspended, but also because the anti-corruption and anti-crime drives are being used “as nothing more than a tool to reform the political parties to its [i.e., the government’s] liking.”

Amnesty International made a high profile visit to Bangladesh in January. The delegation, headed by Amnesty’s Secretary General, made similar observations about “new patterns of manipulating due process.” It also noted with concern the “creeping role of the armed forces in a range of functions, with no clear rules of accountability.”

In February, a group of British and European parliamentarians visited Bangladesh in order to encourage the return to democracy through holding free and fair elections. They also expressed “deep concern over the human rights abuses.”

The same month, Human Rights Watch published a scathing criticism of severe abuses by “Bangladesh’s notorious military intelligence agency.” It pointed out that “the government has routinely used torture to extract confessions,” and that it has protected abusers. Its Asia director asked, “Are they reformers, or do they just say they are reformers?”

In March, the US Department of State submitted to Congress its annual report on human rights in different countries. It gave similar conclusions about Bangladesh’s record in 2007: “The government's human rights record worsened, in part due to the state of emergency and postponement of elections.” It noted how the government has restricted freedom of press, freedom of association, the right to bail, and due process, with political discrimination and “serious abuses, including custodial deaths, arbitrary arrest and detention, and harassment of journalists.”

Law, order, justice

It will be incorrect to think that all of these are new. DGFI, the dreaded security service at the center of many waves of abuse, operated unhindered during the elected governments of Khaleda Zia (1991-1996, 2001-2007) and Shiekh Hasina (1996-2001). Like in Pakistan, interference by state security agency jeopardised the transition of democracy, even after last military dictator General Ershad quit power in 1990 in the face of violent street protests.

The last elected government headed by BNP gave unprecedented powers to elite law-and-order agencies, using them politically and frequently. The current government also uses the same techniques. “Joint Forces,” a combination of uniformed military officers, the anti-crime squads and elite police are given the responsibility in implement the government’s anti-crime campaign, in which hundreds of suspects have been tortured and killed in custody. The differences between then and now are twofold: whatever rights people had before have all been extinguished, and there is no accountability whatsoever for the government’s actions.

The judiciary is yet to demonstrate that it is independent of government influence, or that the security agencies are not intimidating the magistrates and judges. Most of the District Magistracy and Speedy Trial Court judgements are glaring examples of government interference. The judgements are arbitrary, illogical and mysterious, based often on forced confessions and fictitious estimates—and each and every one of the 61 verdicts given in the high profile cases so far has gone in favour of the government. As a dismayed newspaper editorial observed recently: “the prosecution, i.e. the present regime, has been able to ensure a near-perfect conviction success rate … Even the best prosecution lawyers around the world cannot boast such a conviction success rate" (New Age, 25 February 2008).

To conclude, Bangladesh’s present military-driven government has made many promises and taken many initiatives but failed to perform neutrally and satisfactorily, with good governance, transparency, and accountability.

Supporters of the government usually respond to this allegation in two ways. First, they accuse all critics of “tarnishing the image of the country,” as if performance is nothing and image is everything. Second, they say that it is too early to judge them: they have not been given a fair chance or enough time to clean up all the mess that Bangladesh was in. The first accusation has no substance. To the second accusation we say, the job of the caretaker government, by Constitution, is to hold elections toward a return to democracy. Their job is not to fix everything in the country, and claiming to fix everything an ominous excuse to hold on to power.

First Published in CounterCurrents.org 10 July 2008

Saleem Samad, an Ashoka Fellow is a Bangladesh born journalist presently living in exile in Canada. He edits www.DurDesh.net streaming from Toronto and specialises in conflict, terrorism, security and intelligence issues in South Asia. He could be reached by email saleemsamad@hotmail.com