Bangladesh Slowly Slips to Cycle of Violence and Chaos
By
Nava Thakuria, New Age Islam
1 November
2023
As
apprehended our immediate neighbour has slowly slipped to the endless cycles of
detention, arrest and deaths among the opposition party workers as well as
common Bangladeshi nationals, while the south Asian country is approaching its
national election in January 2024. The prime opposition Bangladesh Nationalist
Party (BNP) has maintained its demand that the ruling Awami League government
led by Sheikh Hasina must resign before the polls paving the way for a neutral
caretaker government in Dhaka.
But Prime
Minister Hasina, who is seeking the mandate from nearly 160 million Bangladeshi
people for her consecutive fourth term in office, has already refused to accept
the demand. The irritated BNP and its allies organised a massive rally in Dhaka
on 28 October and showcased their power with the ultimatum to destabilize the
government. The authorities cracked down on the agitators across the populous
city and continued arresting thousands of them from various parts of
Bangladesh.
The
Saturday demonstration remains one of the major public outbursts where the
protesters clashed with the police personnel in various locations. On some
occasions, the clashes turned violent and hundreds of agitators sustained
injuries. At least one policer and two BNP leaders fell prey to violence.
Several journalists also faced attacks while covering the clashes. It was
followed by the arrest of many BNP leaders including its general secretary
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir by the law enforcement agencies.
Responding
to the widespread arrest of opposition leaders and reports of violent clashes
with the protesters, Amnesty International stated that the intensified
crackdown on opposition party leaders and protesters over the weekend signal an
attempt at a complete clampdown of dissent in Bangladesh ahead of the general
elections. The repeated cycle of killings, arrests and repression in Bangladesh
has deeply chilling implications on human rights in the country before, during
and after the elections, said Yasasmin Kaviratne, AI’s south Asia regional
campaigner in a statement issued from London on Tuesday.
Asking the
Bangladeshi authorities to stop the crackdown on protesters and fulfil their
duty to facilitate peaceful assemblies, she added, some individuals in the
protests reportedly used violence and here the police must ensure that the
peaceful protesters can continue their protests. The Bangladesh government
should take all appropriate measures to deescalate the situation and ensure
that all law enforcement agencies strictly adhere to international standards on
the use of force when strictly necessary, in order to avoid further harm to
people’s physical integrity.
Hasina’s
party won in over 250 Parliamentary seats in December 2018 general elections
and thus enjoys an absolute majority in the 350-member Jatiya Sangsad, the
highest legislative body of Bangladesh (it does not have provincial legislative
assemblies like India). The daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,
enjoys the reputation as an influential leader and lately gained more political
mileage after the special invitation from New Delhi to attend the G20 summit.
Hasina was
the only south Asian government head to be invited to attend and she also
enjoyed a bilateral discussion with her host Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.
But Khaleda Zia led BNP along with its allies particularly Jamaat-e-Islami will
not allow Hasina to go without troubles. One can predict more street protests
with violence across the country in the coming days. The turmoil may continue
in the post-poll scenario, if the opposition alliance does not participate in
the elections and subsequently Hasina wins again. The uninterrupted political
chaos may invite the Bangladesh military to intervene and thus another dictator
can surface in Dhaka. Otherwise, the radical Islamist groups may overpower
everything in the Muslim majority nation.
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Nava Thakuria is a northeast India-based
professional journalist who is an engineering graduate.
URL: https://newageislam.com/current-affairs/bangladesh-cycle-violence-chaos/d/131028
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