Mostafa Kamal MajumderAs leaders of the Hefazat-e-Islam and government ministers are giving contradictory accounts on casualties in combined operation of police and paramilitary forces by which the May 5 night sit-in of the former was dismantled and the media, both national and international, are publishing different accounts of the same; the people are in great despair as they are yet to figure out what actually happened in the darkness of that fateful night and how many people lost their lives.Only thing they noticed was a huge crowd of an estimated two lakh people staging a sit-in in the evening to be completely cleared in the morning with municipal sweepers washing the roads with water supplied by water tankers of the Dhaka City corporation, the Dhaka WASA and the Fire Service under heavy armed police guard.
Wild speculations about the casualties caused in the operation and eyewitness accounts from those people who saw the same from different buildings in the Motijheel Commercial Area the members of the combined force in action, join to piece together a picture that can only continue to create greater horror in the minds of the people. Hefazat leaders chaim the death of more than 1000 of their workers, those who escaped death and saw the gustly killings claim the death figure would be several times higher.
But there would have been no scope for either the speculations about casualties or the retaliatory actions if the operation was not carried out in the darkness of night. Easy going, simply, less demanding, polite and honest, the workers and supporters of Hefazat-e-Islam represent that stream of madrasah (religioous) education which is maintained privately, as opposed to government-maintained madrasah education, to impart in their opinion complete education, instead of just offering certificates.
Religious leaders educated under this Quami Madrasah system are highly regarded for their depth of religious knowledge, and are preferred as imams of mosques and preachers in religious rallies. Their superiority of knowledge as not challenged by those educated in the Alia Madrash system maintained by the government since the time of British colonial rule.
If the aim of the operation was to uphold law and order, it has definitely not been met. Disturbances that have followed appear to be more fierce and have continued in different parts of the country during the past two days. Hefazat has called countrywide hartal for Sunday and extended support to BNP’s hartal for today and tomorrow.
It seems the people appear not ready to buy stories that the Hefazat-e-Islami workers, who came from different Quami Madrasahs all over the country, some of them carrying sticks, others empty handed to voice their demands – restoration of faith in Almighty Allah in the Constitution and capital punishment of the blasphemous bloggers members – created so much loss and havoc in Dhaka. Obviously there was infiltration of dangerous elements with dangerous equipment. If the intelligence agencies were sure, adequate tough action could have been taken earlier.
Despite claims to the contrary the Quami Madrasah teachers and students who made the huge audience of an estimated two million heads during the Dhaka Siege earlier that day, are not affiliated to any political party. They are strongly critical of the Jamaat, nor are their supporters of the BNP. They repeatedly said in their agitation programmes during the little over a month that they were not for capturing power but want the government to meet their demands.
These people fighting for what they believe to be a sacred cause also cannot set fire to the holy Qur’an and other books. This might have been the acts of sabotage of their cause by infiltrators. Pictures that that been published in the print and the electronic media show that some of the ill-fated Hefazat supporters were fatally hit in sleep in their make-shift beds. Foreign newspapers and print media are publishing even more gustly pictures which are bound to undermine the image of the country already affected by the Rana Plaza Building collapse og April 24.
Observers believe that the government had not been properly advised on how to deal with a defiant but unarmed group of religious people who vowed to continue their sit-in till their demands were met. Neither television footages nor still photographs have shown them carrying anything other than sticks. Their actions remained restricted to throwing of brickbats or hitting with sticks when they came under attack.
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