Thursday 25 / April / 2024
The series of seemingly random, yet targeted, killings over the last four years in Bangladesh has exposed a deep sociological fault line which, if left untreated, could have serious consequences for the country and the region.
The terms random and targeted may come across as contradictory but the fact remains that the killings are just that. Random in the sense that there does not seem to be a reason for a particular individual to be the victim, at least in some of the cases. Targeted, meaning the victims are either secular or from among religious minorities.
Since February 2013, at least 39 people have been killed using guns, bombs and machetes. These killings have almost always occurred in broad daylight, amidst large crowds and the killers have invariably got away. While this clearly shows the brazenness of the killings, what is significant is the absence of popular anger. Yes, there have been sporadic protests and mid-sized rallies -- but not enough to stop the killings.
The pyrrhic response is in contrast to the mammoth pro-secular Shahbag street rallies in February 2013. In fact, these rallies triggered off the spate of killings by extremists that show no sign of abating.
The 2013 rallies were in support of the death sentences handed out by the courts to those who had worked against the independence of Bangladesh in the events leading up to the war of liberation against what was then West Pakistan in 1971. The extremists in Bangladesh had protested against the spate of judicial orders against the accused. Retaliating, the secular groups had organised what was called the Shahbag movement, supporting the government’s move to punish the collaborators, who belonged to the Jamaat and other extremist groups.
Bangladesh adopted secularism in its constitution and has a small number of Hindus and Christians. Until 2013 the schism between the secular groups and extremists was more often than not under the surface. But 2013 seemed to have caused a rupture in relations between the two opposing mindsets. That the targets have expanded beyond the initial victims, secular bloggers, religious minorities and foreigners, is an indication that the killers have grown in impunity and are able to strike at will.
In fact, since April, there has been an upsurge in the killings. Five were killed in April, four in May and three so far in June. These have included an activist, an academic, a Christian grocer, a Hindu priest, the wife of a police superintendent and an elderly Japanese man.
Some commentators, however, counter the widespread perception of a break between the extremists and secularists by saying Bangladesh has always had a history of killings, violence and attacks on minorities and the current crop of murders are part of the same narrative. Talha Ahmad, in Aljazeera, characterises the perception of a clash between extremist puritanists and liberal secularists as a false dichotomy. He goes on to argue that it is a western perception of the situation in Bangladesh.
Contradicting this, top Bangladesh police official Monirul Islam, quoted in the New York Times, says after investigations they have found that two groups – Ansar-al-Islam and Jama’atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh – may be involved in the killings.
The sequence of events involving these two groups cannot but be traced to 2013, after the court-ordered life imprisonment and deaths to top leaders like Dilawar Hussein Sayeed and Motiur Rahman Nizami. A month after the February 2013 rally, the first killing occurred -- that of Ahmed Rajib Haidar, one of the organisers of the protest rally. The police traced the killing to the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
By all accounts, it is undeniable that the spate of killings since then has engendered a climate of insecurity with the potential to destabilise intra and inter-community relations that threaten to worsen. The leader of the ruling Awami League and the country’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has promised to nab the culprits and end the climate of insecurity. Reports quoting her say that the government view is that the killings paint Bangladesh in poor light and affect its progress.
Beyond the rhetoric, the police have made arrests in some cases. The job, however, requires a far more intense introspection than merely treating the killings as any run-of–the-mill crime. Sheikh Hasina and her government would do well to work out a strategy that effectively deals with the situation before it reaches a point of no return. - Exclusive to Times of Oman
(K. S. Dakshina Murthy is an Independent journalist based in Bangalore, India)
