Cases are fictitious, not the people
I do not know who Aziz Munshi of Tangail’s Ghatail upazila is, nor do many of you. He did not even want to be known, but his name was published in the newspaper. We are not sure if he is aware of this publicity. I even doubt whether he ever came to the capital city in his life before. But, he had to come recently, and thus we came to know his name.
We happened to know about a certain Milon Miah, a farmer from Brahminbaria. Also about Shamsul Haque of Ghatail, who is deaf due to a brain stroke.
Like any of you, I too am relieved that a physically challenged person named Tara Mia from Sunamganj was granted bail from the High Court, a six-week bail. I do not know the fate of vendor Yousuf, who lost his hand in a train accident when he was a 10-year old boy. Perhaps none other than his family members are concerned about him.
All these people are criminals in the eyes of the state. They are enemies of the ruling party who assumed power through the 30 December ‘election’.
In legal terms, they are nothing but enemies of the government. The cases filed against them are not something to ignore. They have been accused of obstructing citizens from casting their ballots, of attacking law enforcers and engaging in criminal offences.
The newspapers claim the cases filed by the police are fictitious. According to home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, “there are no such things as fictitious cases in our dictionary. We take legal measures against the criminals based on specific allegations.”
If his remark is true, we should believe that Tara Miah, who is barely able to move his deformed right arm and partially dysfunctional left arm, is a deadly felon. We have to believe that Tara Miah attacked the police with a machete, a hockey stick and an iron rod.
The cases are ‘fictitious’, but not the people. Some of them are so old that they are unable to move, some of them spend their days farming. They do not know what their fault is. Yet, they had to come to the High Court to secure ‘bail’.
How many of such people are there? It is said that there has been 4,182 ‘fictitious’ cases filed as of November accusing some 275,000 people including 88,000 named. And the election was held on the penultimate day of December, presumably adding more such cases.
The government, ruling party, police and election commission all are bragging that the election was of ‘international standard’. They are content that the election was peaceful. Given the few number deaths in electoral violence, one may claim that. But, if that is so, then what about the thousands of those people who are implicated and now crying for justice? Who are they? What is their crime?
Not only the High Court premises, but the gates of the jails too teem with the relatives of the inmates. Many of them were arrested for ‘political’ reasons.
We learnt about one such mother named Hena, whose son Habib was arrested and staying in Keraniganj jail for three months. “Habib came to Dhaka on November to visit his sister. The police picked him up when he went to a shop.” said Hena.
Habib was shown arrested over the incident of BNP-police clash in Naya Paltan ahead of the election. Hena said Habib lives in Jamalpur and claimed his innocence. (Daily Manab Zamin, 30 January 2019)
We came to know about one person named Abid Ullah, whose younger brother, a teenager, is now in jail.
“My brother is just an eighth grader now. He was detained, shown arrested and sent to the jail. Every day I go here and there for his bail. I even go to political leaders every day to get recourse, with no avail. He is just a minor boy, what does he understand of the case? I have hired a lawyer, but no clue whatsoever when he would secure bail.”
The jails of the country are already overcrowded. The number of inmates rose dramatically in preceding months of the general election. We have almost forgotten the leaders and activists of the opposition parties who have been arrested in previous years. People have been disappeared for years now. And we have been familiarised with the coinage of ‘fictitious cases’ in 2018.
Many of the accused of those ‘fictitious cases’ are losing everything in pursuance of getting bail. But the cases are not dismissed. They will need to appear before the court in future. For how long, no one knows.
Those who joined or lead the quota reform movement last year are also appearing before the court regularly.
Not only that, many readymade garments workers who recently demonstrated for a wage hike were also detained. Is there any way we can just express our concern over it? We would be served the story of ‘conspiracy’ if we do so.
Also, as many as five thousand RMG workers were terminated from their job. Everything seems ‘fictitious’ after seeing all that.
The reason of entangling thousands of people in legal cobwebs is very lucid —giving them a clear message, reminding them of consequence if they get involved with politics, keeping them in fear.
There is also a class division of the situation. Urban middleclass, upper-middleclass are not being concerned about the situation as they do not see any in their acquaintance getting mired in all those. Issues of salary hike or job status of RMG workers or situation of Aziz Munshi should not perturb our new middleclass! As they know they will be beneficiaries of the development and growth. Those news items are mere numbers!
The impoverished masses know that the state, government and the ruling party do not bother about them. They came, come and will continue to come in the future to the court to secure bail. But they barely hope to get justice form there. Aziz Munshi, that is why, said, “I seek your prayer. I didn’t commit any wrong. The Almighty is seeing everything.”
*Ali Riaz is a professor of politics and government at the Illinois State University, US. This column, originally published in Prothom Alo Bangla print edition, has been rewritten in English by Galib Ashraf.