August, the cruelest month for Bangladesh

Kolkata: For Bangladesh, August is a sad month, a month when the ghastly massacre of the Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with much of his family on Aug 15, 1975 happened.

It would have been much worse if the grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina’s rally on Aug 21, 2004 had suceeded.

The attack, planned and plotted by BNP Crown Prince Tareque Rahman with the help of some of the top intelligence officials of the country, is straight out of the Pakistani playbook — use of jihadi terrorists for actual attack, meticulous planning by military intelligence, full operational authorisation by the political bosses.

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Hasina, often likened to a cat with nine lives, survived the attack with a battered eardrum, but more than 20 party leaders and workers , like Mohila League chairperson Ivy Rahman (wife of later president Zillur Rahman) died . Some of them actually threw the physical cordon around Hasina to save her.

A prime minister before in 1996-2001, Hasina and her sister Rehana had survived the 1975 massacre that killed all else in the family.

Having played chess with death ( to use a Bergman film dialogue) as an Opposition leader, Hasina returned to power in 2009 and have ruled the country ever since, presiding over Bangladesh ‘s Golden Decade of Development that saw its amazing economic turnaround from a basket case to an emerging Asian Tiger.

For Hasina, upholding her family legacy has meant close encounters with death and so much more. It has also meant standing up to fight the Pakistani culture of violent elimination which was inherited by Bangladesh’s Islamist groups and parties .

Immediately after it returned to power in 2001, the BNP and its alliance partner Jamaat e Islami launched a systematic violent campaign to eliminate the Awami League leadership at the top and in the grassroots.

Much like the post 1975 days when Zia ur Rehman assumed charge as the country’s first military ruler . He founded the BNP and legitimised the pro-Pakistan Jaamat which had opposed the country’s independence.

Below a timeline of major acts of violence against Awami League during the 2001-2006 BNP-Jamaat regime :

2001

On 20 January 2001, a communist party of Bangladesh rally was bombed, which resulted in the death of five people and the wounding of 70 others.

On 14 April 2001, 10 people were killed in a series of bombings perpetrated by Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami.

On 1 June 2001, 10 people were killed in Gopalganj Roman Catholic church bombing.

On 16 June 2001, a rally of Bangladesh Awami League in bombed in Narayanganj.

On 23 September 2001, a rally of Bangladesh Awami League in Bagerhat was bombed.

On 26 September 2001, a rally of Bangladesh Awami League was bombed in Sunamganj, kills 4.

On 16 November 2001, the death of Gopal Krishna Muhuri took place in Chittagong.

2002

On 6 December 2002, 27 people were killed in coordinated bombing of cinema halls in Mymensingh.

On 28 September 2002, 3 people were killed and 100 injured in bombing of a cinema hall and circus in Satkhira.

2003

On 17 January 2003, bomb blast at a shrine fair in Tangail.
On 1 March 2003, a police sergeant was killed in a bomb attack in Khulna.

On 11 March 2003, two police constables were killed in a bomb attack.

On 12 March 2003, a police subedar was killed in a bomb attack in Khulna city.
On 6 September 2003, Bangladesh Awami League leader killed in bomb attack.

2004

On 12 January 2004, bombing of Shajalal Shrine kills 12.

On 13 January 2004, a bomb attack on Fazlur Rahman, joint secretary of Sharsha upazila unit of the Awami League, in Benapol kills him and injures six.

On 13 January 2004,, three people were killed in a bomb attack on Shah Jalal Dargah. British High Comissioner
Anwar Chaudhury injured

On 13 January 2004, a bomb was thrown on an on duty traffic sergeant which failed to explode in Moilapota intersection, Khulna.

On 15 January 2004, Manik Chandra Saha, journalist, killed in terror attack in Khulna

On 24 January 2004, a police camp was bombed in Bagerhat injuring three police officers.

On 20 February 2004, movie house at Rupsha Upazila was bombed injuring 4.

On 4 March 2004, a Bangladesh Awami League leader was killed in a bomb attack in Bagerhat and one Awami League leader was assassinated in Narayanganj.

On May 7, Assailants killed Ahsanullah Master, a freedom fighter, and Omar Faruq Ratan, a student, and wounded 17 others by firing on an Awami League rally

On 4 August 2004, a bomb attack on Rangmahal Cinema and at Monika Cinema in Sylhet killed one and injured ten.

On 21 August 2004, HUJI militants perpetrated a grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka, resulting in 24 deaths and over 300 injuries.

On 24 December 2004, Rajshahi University Professor Mohammad Yunus was killed in an attack by JMB.

2005

On January 27, 2005, Shah AMS Kibria, his nephew Shah Manzurul Huda, and local Awami League leaders Abdur Rahim, Abul Hossain and Siddiq Ali were killed and more than 100 others injured in a grenade attack on a rally held at Baidyer Bazar in Sadar upazila of Habiganj.

On 17 August 2005, a total of 500 bombs exploded in 300 locations covering most of the territory of Bangladesh, 2 people were killed and 50 wounded in the incident. Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh later claimed responsibility for the bombings.

On 3 October 2005, Chittagong court, Chandpur Court and Laxmipur court were attacked with bombs.

On 14 November 2005, JMB kills two judges in bomb attack in Jhalaikathi.

On 29 November 2005 suicide attack on Gazipur Courthouse.

On 29 November 2005 Chittagong court house bombed.

On 8 December 2005 suicide bomb attack on Netrokona Udichi festival.

If the frequent killings of Awami League leaders like its trade union chief Ansarullah Master or former finance minister Shah Kibria or other lesser leaders marked an attempt to finish the party at the grassroots, the August 21 grenade attack was an attempt to wipe out the entire top leadership. A repeat of 1975.

Because at least 14 top leaders including some of the veterans of the 1971 Liberation War were present on the dias with Sheikh Hasina on that day.

But Hasina’s miraculous escape and her subsequent bravado in leading the party from the front, amidst multiple conspiracies, helped her party return to power and script a new chapter in the country’s history.

August 15 was bad, August 21 could have been worse but the month keeps reminding Bangladeshis of the culture of brazen violence whenever it suffered a radical Islamist takeover.

Like in Pakistan, so in Bangladesh , radical Islam constitutes an eco-system based on a dangerous nexus of political parties like BNP and Jamaat E Islami, a radical theological group like Hifazat e Islam and terror groups like HUJI or JMB.

Strangely, when out of power, these very forces make the most noise about human rights. And the West, whose parachute democracy model has failed in Iraq and Afghanistan and which unabashedly backs oppressive monarchies like the House of Saud, go all out to the corner the Hasina regime, one of the few successful homegrown secular democracies in the Islamic world.

—INDIA NEWS STREAM