Political Killings
Instability provides opening for settling of scores
Political activists appear to be taking advantage of the country’s current political instability to settle scores, as the incidents of political killing increases throughout the country reaching its highest level since 2006. Since October 25, at least 16 political leaders and activists have been killed by rivals or by their own party men – eight were the activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, seven from the Awami League and one from the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Data from human rights organisations also suggests that the total number of deaths from political violence in 2013 is substantially higher than recent years.
Human rights watchdog Ain O Salish Kendra reported that political violence had claimed the lives of 289 people in the nine months of the current year while the figure for the whole of 2012 was 84.
Statistics from rights watchdog Odhikar were a little higher than those of ASK, finding that 300 people were killed in political violence across the country between January and August 2013 – the highest casualty level in a six-month period since 2006.
According to its monthly report, Odhikar found that at least 27 people were killed and 3,433 injured in political violence in October.
Former inspector general of police ASM Shahjahan told New Age that the politics in the country had become ‘sick’ due to excessive use of ‘muscle and arms power.’
He said there were many opportunists in political parties who always tried to use political instability to gain an upper hand.
Md Ashraful Alam, chairman of Criminology and Police Science at Maulana Bhashani Science and Technology University, blamed the absence of ideology and democracy in the parties for the situation.
‘Since our political parties do not practice internal democracy, how can we expect democratic attitude from them. They always tend to achieve things by force and arms, which obviously results in violence and killings,’ said Ashraful Alam.
He feared that the turmoil might continue with levels of deaths increasing much further, ‘similar to the situation in 2006’.
In the latest killing on the night of October 31 a local leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Babul Bepari, was stabbed to death allegedly by the activists of local Awami League in Kalkini upazila of Madaripur.
A few days earlier, on October 27, the first day of 60-hour hartal enforced by the BNP-led alliance, Juba League activist Alamgir Hossain Shimul was stabbed to death by pro-hartal pickets in Abhainagar upazila of Jessore.
On the same day another Juba League activist Swapan Shil died after Jamaat-Shibir men cut his tendons in Zia Nagar upazila of Pirojpur.
Also on that day, a Jamaat activist Zulfikar Ali Julhash was killed when Awami League activists allegedly opened fire on an opposition procession in Ishwardi upazila of Pabna.
In several incidents, activists were murdered by
their own party men in disputes over establishing supremacy.
On the night of October 30, a Juba League leader was shot dead in Rajshahi by his own party men. The deceased, Mahfuzur Rahman, 30, was an accused in the murder case of Sarwar Hossain Dablu, who was the acting president of ward 7 Juba League unit in Rajshahi city.
Police suspected that Mahfuzur was killed in revenge for that murder, said Paba police officer-in-charge Akbar Ali.
A BNP activist was beaten and stabbed to death and nine others injured in a factional fighting in Bogra on October 27. The victim was identified as Md Shahjahan, 40, a supporter of Gabtali upazila chairman Jahidul Islam Helal.
Locals said the supporters of Helal, who was also the district BNP joint secretary, and Morshed Milton, also the secretary of the unit, had locked horns earlier over establishing supremacy in the area.
On October 28, a local leader of Juba Dal was killed and 20 others injured in violent clashes between rival factions of the BNP in Mirzapur of Tangail district.
The slain activist, Abdul Alim, was joint secretary of Juba Dal’s Mirzapur upazila unit.
Asked about the recent increase in levels of political killing, inspector general of police Hassan Mahmood Khandker told New Age that the police did not think that incidents of killing in political violence had increased.
He said that they had increased their vigilance to prevent any kind of offences by miscreants and assailants, no matter which political parties they belonged to.
Courtesy of New Age
