May the justice of Mother Nature prevail

Opinion

On the night of November 15, 2024, at 9:15 PM, I was watching a live broadcast with Mufassil Islam, listening to the sister of a man who had spoken with her on the night of August 3, 2024, and gone to sleep. I began imagining how that man’s day on August 4, 2024, had started.

The event may not seem significant to many, and some may even justify it with various excuses.

On July 4, 2024, in the ongoing unrest, a group of local Jamaat, Shibir, BNP, and Hizb ut-Tahrir activists attacked the Enayetpur Police Station in Sirajganj. They set the station on fire, vandalized everything, looted weapons, and brutally murdered 17 officers out of the 36 present. The officers were hacked, beaten, burned, hanged, and drowned in a pond.

The name of the officer in charge of that police station was Abdur Razzaq. His younger sister was Maunzera Alif. I was listening to Alif’s live stream with Mufassil. Mufassil asked Alif if she was completely sure that Abdur Razzaq was an honest police officer. I assumed that neither Abdur Razzaq nor his colleagues were honest, as corruption is rampant in Bangladesh, and it’s nearly impossible to survive here without being part of it. Whether one has the right to kill someone over accusations of dishonesty, perhaps only God in the heavens knows.

Abdur Razzaq had spoken with his sister on the night of August 3. But by the morning of August 4, his family had lost contact with him. His death was so brutal that his body was burned around the neck, his waist was severed, his arms were broken, and after being submerged in the pond for a long time, his body was swollen and disfigured.

Abdur Razzaq’s mother had been bedridden for four years, paralyzed, while his father passed away five years ago. As the sole breadwinner of the family, Razzaq had been supporting them all.

Many people died as part of Yunus’ delicate plans. But those responsible never present any data or concrete evidence. Instead, they are busy with graffiti, cartoons, writing books about the July unrest, and handing over those books to Trudeau and Biden. With all their resources, they refuse to provide a proper list of names and numbers because, if the injured or the families of the dead come forward, the role of the police under the past government and the involvement of Yunus, Asif Nazrul, so-called students, foreign powers, Jamaat-Shibir-Hizbut groups, and extremists in these killings would be exposed.

With much struggle, our mute and deaf union’s president has managed to get media houses to acknowledge the list of 44 dead police officers. The police headquarters has records of other victims too.

Like Alif, many sisters are in shock, watching anarchists destroy the country’s resources and assets, while those who died by sniper fire are called martyrs and worshipped daily. On the other hand, officers like Abdur Razzaq, who had spent 24 years serving the country, are murdered while on duty, and yet they are met with hatred and provocation by people like Farhad Majhar and Mahmudur Rahman. These officers receive no compensation or justice, let alone a martyr’s title.

The army has never been able to maintain law and order in the country, and it still cannot. Canceling the appointments of police recruits, considering their sympathies for Jamaat-Shibir-Hizbut, and bringing them into the force without proper training will result in nothing but chaos. Anyone thinking this will lead to effective service is only fooling themselves.

Those who continue to talk about “reconciliation,” “redemption,” and use fancy terms like “revolution” and “insurrection” need to remember that thousands of lives were taken deliberately in the name of a police excuse. These people think that the killing of 200 people in Gazipur Tire League or the burning of our police brothers is justified. They think that when they speak of these revolutions, they will be spared. Nature does not spare anyone.

– Afsana Kishwar
Writer, Banker & Online Activist