A few days ago, a private university student Zahidul Islam was killed. He had got into an altercation with members of a gang who accused him of smiling suggestively at two female students and then they stabbed him. He was taken to hospital where he died. Zahidul was an activist of Chhatra Dal. This killing is a stark reflection of the intolerance and flaunting of power in our society, particularly among the youth.
There are allegations that some of those involved in the killing were attached to the Students Against Discrimination movement. BNP and Chhatra Dal launched a programme in protest, issuing a statement terming this a political killing. The Students against Discrimination issued a counter statement. The question is, while this exchange of statements takes place, who will make up of the loss of this 22-year-old youth's life, who will console his grieving parents?
Immediately after the uprising we saw political parties in a flurry to claim ownership of the movement, drawing up lists of how many of their party leaders and activists were martyred and so on
Zahidul Islam's mother Parveen Akhter said, "Bring them (the killers) before me. I want to ask them, what was my son's fault? Why did they kill my son?" Can anyone answer this plea of this mother who has lost her son?
During the protest rally BNP staged for this death, the party leaders and activists were calling out slogans, "Catch the ... and slaughter them all." The slogans of a political party speak volumes about their character. In Bangladesh's politics, ascending to power or departing to power is not a democratic process. The party that goes to power, depends on state power, they amend laws, intending to settle down permanently at the helm. That is why Bangladesh's politics is so contentious. It is the politics on the streets that determine victory or defeat.
Those in the opposition try to unseat the government from power. And those in power use all state institutions in order to silence the opposition. In the politics of cronyism which we have been witnesses, slogans like "slaughter them all" may seem quite normal to many of us. But does not such a slogan validate the killings carried out by the opponents? What impact do such slogans have on the mind of the young ones? How will foreign quarters perceive such slogans?
And yet the July uprising, among many other things, was a chance to sever ties with the political practices over the past 54 years. This chance did not appear magically overnight. The UN Commission on Human Rights' report concerning the July-August events said this opportunity has arisen at the cost of 1,400 lives many of whom were children and persons under 30 years of age.
Immediately after the uprising we saw political parties in a flurry to claim ownership of the movement, drawing up lists of how many of their party leaders and activists were martyred and so on. But how far have they internalise the spirit of the uprising, how far do they feel the urge to change their ways?
It is the responsibility of the law enforcement agencies to determine whether Zahidul Islam's killing was a political one. The police have arrested a number of persons involved in the incident. But in the eight and a half months that have passed since 5 August, the political killings have not abated. The numbers are alarming, by any consideration. And it is the BNP leaders and activist who are the main victims of such aggression. This killings have been carried out by other political parties, but more so by internal feuds.
According to a report of the Human Rights Support Society (HRSS) on 25 April, in the three months of January to March this year, at least 47 persons have been killed in the country in political violence. These include 27 BNP men killed in internal feuds, 5 Awami League men killed in inner feuds, and eight killed in clashes between Awami League and BNP.
Also, 2 died in clashes between BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, and one in clashes between Awami League and National Citizen Party (NCP). A local newspaper of Chattogram reported that 10 activists of BNP and its affiliated organisations were killed and at least 350 injured over the past eight months in Chattogram's Raozan, Mirsharai and Anwara.
The daily Samakal reported on 12 April that 51 leaders and activists of BNP were killed as a result of inner fights over the past eight months.
What is the political price of so many deaths? These deaths were a result of fights among the party men, conflict between the leaders, differences between the party and its affiliated organisations, clash of interests, power tussles, fight for dominance, contracts, sand and soil businesses and so on. But what measures has BNP leadership adopted to bring a halt to such violence, such meaningless bloodshed? What has their reaction been? What measures have the other parties taken?
When the political activists of their party are killed by men of their own party, they do not murmur a word. But no matter which party the activist belongs to, no matter what his political ideology may be, he is a citizen of Bangladesh. Why can the death of a fellow citizen not create any feeling of empathy?
BNP alleges that over the past 15 years of Awami League's rule, thousands of their party leaders and activists have been killed. Over 600 of the party men were subject to enforced disappearance. But they have no clear statement about the hundreds of leaders killed in their internal feuds over the past right and a half months.
Such political killings indicate that BNP has not been able to move very far away from the practice of cronyism in politics. In the past, when a new sand bar would arise in the river, spears and rods would be used by opposing groups in a bid to lay claim to the emerging land. We still see the same practice in Brahmanbaria, Munshiganj and a few other districts. And this mentality is being reflected in politics too.
After the independence of Bangladesh, we saw seven killings at Dhaka University. These killings took place to wipe out the opposition during the DUCSU elections. Those convicted in those killings were released after the political changeover in 1975 and they were rehabilitated in politics. There was no trial for these sensational killings. There was no justice for the sensational killings at that time of 4 communist leaders and freedom fighters in Gopalganj.
So it was from the very outset of Bangladesh that political killings were given a sort of validity. An account of the political killings that took place from 1990 to 2013 can be found in a report published by Prothom Alo on 5 November 2013, headed 'Politics of murder, processions of death.'
Other than a military-controlled caretaker government in 2007-08, parliamentary politics had been in place in that span of time. In those 22 years, 2,519 persons were killed in political violence. And around 150,000 were injured in political clashes during that time.
In the two years of the caretaker government, 11 were killed. In BNP's first term (1991-96), 174 were killed. In Awami League's first term (1996-2001) 767 were killed. IN BNP's second term (2001-2006), 872 were killed. In Awai League's third term (2009-2013), 564 were killed.
Political violence and political killings run parallel with the history of Bangladesh. Political violence and killing have become a norm in our political arena. Given the practice of the political parties, the killing of party men in their own party or other parties is simply a political agenda. There is no humanitarian aspect of a citizen being killed. Will we not be able to break away from this cronyism and move ahead? Slogans like 'slaughter them all' must come to a permanent end in our politics.
* Monoj Dey is editorial assistant at Prothom Alo.
* This column appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir