Terming the incident of the pre-dawn drive of the law enforcers at Shapla Square in the capital ‘ a genocide’ BNP on Tuesday demanded a neutral and international probe into the incident. The Standing Committee of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party(BNP) in a statement on Tuesday said, we are stunned and deeply shocked like the people and the world conscience over the most dangerous and ‘deadliest massacre unleashed by the government on lakhs of unarmed people’, participating in the peaceful gathering of the Hefazat-e-Islam (HIB) after midnight of Sunday at Shapla Square at Motijheel.
‘It is beyond our imagination that a civilised government could unleash such heinous and barbaric massacre on its own people, leaving us without words to protest and condole it. We have been stunned to know that the para-military forces were used alongside the law enforcing agencies, equipped with deadly weapons and Armoured Personnel Carrier(APC) used in battle fields to disperse an unarmed peaceful gathering of the
people”.
The people knows despite manifold pleas to rescue the army officers and their families, who were held hostage in Pilkhana during the BDR mutiny , the government did not allow such operation, the BNP policy makers statement pointed out.
“The countrymen had seen, the HIB had been holding different peaceful programmes with the participation of the people in the country with lakhs of religious people. On May 5, they came to join in the permitted rally at Shapla Chattar after peacefully observing the Dhaka Siege programme.
The ruling Awami League had asked its different associated bodies to take position in different parts of the city a day before the Hefazat rally” the statement said.
“The armed cadres of the ruling party as part of that direction had taken positions at Awami League central office, Zero point, National Press Club and in and around the Baitul Mukarram National mosque” it claimed adding that these elements carried out armed attacks on the unarmed activists and supporters coming to join the Hefazat rally. The pictures of their attacks with guns in hand had already been published in different national dailies, the BNP statement pointed out.
“The law enforcing agencies under government order provided security to the attackers but pounced on the Hefazat activists and supporters. They rained fires leaving at least six people killed and thousand others injured”.
“After the Hefazat supporters left their rally, the armed goons of the ruling party took over the Paltan crossing and Baaitul Mukarram areas and unleashed indiscriminate attacks on different establishments, shops and commercial centres as well as shops on the pavements and torched vehicles parked there.
They even set on fire different holy scriptures, including the holy Quran. Footage available from different private TV channels, shows that different associated bodies of the Awami League led such acts of terror, the BNP statement alleged”.
Later in the evening Awami League General Secretary and minister for LGRD Syed Ashraful Islam in a press conference held the HIB responsible all the acts of terror. Describing them as the new generation of Razakars and Al-Badrs, he asked them to quit Dhaka immediately. Otherwise he threatened the HIB to push them into pits. Syed Ashraf asserted also that Awami League alone was enough to suppress them.
The BNP standing committee further pointed out the threat by the ruling party leader in the language of arms to exterminate them as per their plan.
“Since early evening as per this plan they started to gather their armed goons to take positions in the surrounding areas and switched off the power supplies there.
After midnight when the HIB leaders and workers were asleep or in meditation chanting prayers, they came under the diabolical carnage”
“We want to state with a heavy heart that most of the HIB supporters hailed from poor rural families and students of madrasas (seminaries). Of them a big segment were orphans and adolescents and old people, the BNP statement alleged”.
“ Most of the participants in that rally were Madrasa students from poor families from remote areas of the country. They were tired and hungry and that is why BNP chairperson urged the city dwellers to provide them with food considering them as guests but due to the cordon of the law enforcers people could not supply food to them. Most of them were either sleeping or were engaged in prayers when the killing operations were conducted on them. The Armed cadres of the ruling party also took part in this genocide and this genocide is only comparable to the brutal genocide that was conducted on March 25, 1971 on sleeping, unarmed people which led to the creation of Bangladesh. This genocide on May 5, overshadowed the ‘Galianwalabagh Massacre’ that took place in India during the British regime,” the BNP statement said.
“We think this massacre was carried out in a planned manner. It became clear from deploying AL cadres beforehand and their planned mayhem, blaming Hefazat, disconnecting electricity and driving away journalists of print and electronic media from the spot,” said the statement.
It said that no formal statement was issued on behalf of the government about the ‘heinous incident’ and people of the country were not informed about the correct number of casualties.
“It is being heard from different sources including foreign media that from two to three thousand people were killed and over 10 thousand were injured. Along with people of the country, we have also shuddered after watching the photographs and video footage of indiscriminate firing, lying of numerous bodies, driving vehicles over the bodies and removal of bodies by trucks,” it added.
The statement went on to say, “Immediately after the massacre, the law enforcing forces and unidentified armed personnel were sent to Diganta Television and Islamic Television without notice who vandalized the TV stations and instantly stopped their transmission forcibly. They created such an environment of panic that no media is getting the courage to disclose any detail of the massacre.”
On the same night, it said, “Armed attack was carried out on the residence of eminent columnist Shafiq Rehman. Currently, only government version and publicity materials are being publicized in the local media that is controlled by terror. We believe that the most horrible genocide of the century cannot be concealed through this.”
-With The Independent input
