Khagrachhari violence: Anu Muhammad sees Awami League’s “mould” in home adviser’s remarks

Professor Anu Muhammad has sharply criticised the remarks of the Adviser on Home Affairs, Lieutenant General (retd.) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, who alleged that a vested quarter was attempting to destabilise Khagrachhari, instigated by India or “fascists”.

According to Anu Muhammad, the statement mirrors those made by the then Awami League home minister following the Ramu violence in 2012.

Speaking at a discussion organised at the Shafiqul Kabir Auditorium of the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity (DRU) on Monday afternoon, he said the incident in Khagrachhari was “embarrassing” and part of a wider pattern of communal attacks in Bangladesh since 2012.

The event, titled “Chronicle of Communal Violence: 13 Years Since the Ramu Attacks on Buddhist Monasteries and Communal Violence in Post-Uprising Bangladesh”, was presided over by Anu Muhammad.

Opening the session, he noted that from 2012 to 2024, none of the communal attacks had seen justice. Attacks on temples and shrines, as well as activities by discriminatory and populist groups, continue unabated under the current interim government as well.

In his closing remarks, he observed, “Even as we are speaking about Ramu, Khagrachhari is burning.”

Condemning the adviser’s statement, he said, “Despite repeated failures, calls for resignation, and his shameless laughter still being seen, the adviser remains in place. Without any investigation, he sees an Indian conspiracy behind the Khagrachhari incident.”

“This is the same mould and model as in 2012, when the Awami League minister claimed that the Ramu attacks were part of a BNP and Jamaat plot to derail the war crimes trials. Yet it was later revealed that Awami League leaders and activists themselves were involved. Today, the same mould is being repeated,” he stated.

Speaking on the question of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, he stressed that the people there do not seek secession but democratic rights. “The adviser, the government, and all concerned must publish a list of who controls land in the hills. Only then will it be clear whose interests are served by perpetuating unrest. There is no account of how much land has been leased in the hills over the decades, nor of how development allocations have been spent.”

Turning to online propaganda and mob violence, Anu Muhammad pointed out that accusations against a single adolescent on Facebook can lead to entire villages being torched.

Misogynistic propaganda is spreading across social media, silencing many women from speaking out, he added.

“This is not spontaneous,” he argued. “Mob violence is orchestrated. There are powerful groups behind it, who systematically incite people, inflame passions, and convert them into mobs.”

He lamented that while political groups may unite for land grabbing, illegal stone extraction, and communal violence, no such unity is seen in resisting these practices.

“Following the July uprising, such changes should have occurred, but they have not. Ideologies of discrimination are now emboldened in Bangladesh. They refuse to listen to anything. This situation is not surprising, nor should it be cause for despair if viewed objectively. The fall of a tyrannical and corrupt ruler alone does not bring harmony or equality. For that, the necessary ideological and social strength was not prepared. Gathering that strength is now the only condition for change,” he argued.

The discussion was moderated by Meghmallar Bosu, president of the Dhaka University unit of the Chhatra Union.

Speakers included Dhaka University professor Samina Luthfa, Supreme Court lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua, economist and writer Sujit Chowdhury, CPB general secretary Abdullah Kafi Ratan, BASAD (Marxist) central committee member Joydeep Bhattacharya, writer Tahmidul Zami, artiste and researcher Arup Rahee, and Democratic Rights Committee member Ferdous Ara Rumi.