Now It Is Bangladesh

| by Ali Sukhanver

( March 6, 2013, Islamabad, Sri Lanka Guardian) ‘The death toll rose to at least 37 in violence sparked by a controversial death sentence handed down against the head of an Islamic party for war crimes committed during the country's 1971 war of independence’, reported The Los Angeles Times on the first day of this March. The paper further says, ‘Tensions have been running high in recent weeks as verdicts were announced in the trials linked to the 1971 war. About 53 people have died since the first verdict on Jan. 21.’ The blazing flames of artificially created abhorrence and hatred have started engulfing the musically magical and enchantingly peaceful fairyland of Bangladesh. Whatever there is happening in Bangladesh is nothing unexpected. After pushing Pakistan and Afghanistan into an inferno of terrorism and destruction, it was already expected that the international conspirators would turn their guns to Bangladesh simply because Bangladesh is one of the few promising Muslim countries of the world and it no doubt has an ability of becoming a grave challenge to the anti-Islamic forces in the next few years. According to the media reports, somewhere in 2010, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina initiated the process of trying those accused of committing crimes against humanity during the war, under an amended 1973 law. Since then, almost eight Jamaat-e-Islami leaders have come before the inquiry-tribunals. The Jamaat-e-Islami has very strong reservations with reference to the partial and prejudiced investigations of these tribunals. As the result of these prejudiced investigations, the whole of Bangladeshi society is suffering from inexpressible losses. It has been in the media that Sheikh Hasina is willingly or unwillingly playing in the hands of the Indian conspirators against the will of the people of Bangladesh and whatever she is doing under the cover of inquiry-tribunals, would prove a shocking setback to the peacefully developing society of Bangladesh.

Recently one of these inquiry-tribunals issued a verdict against a highly esteemed Islamic scholar and preacher Allama Delaware Hussain Sayedee. Protesting and rejecting the verdict, the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami declared a complete shut down through the country. According to a spokesman of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Allama Delaware Hussain Sayedee he has been preaching Islam across the world for last 50 years. More than one thousand people have embraced Islam as a result of his preaching. The tribunal made him accused in the crimes against humanity carried during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971but it is on record that Allama Delaware Hussain Sayedee had never been engaged in any political activities until 1979. Far away from scenes of the alleged crimes during the liberation war of Bangladesh, most of the time he stayed in Jessore. The tribunal leveled eight allegations against Allama Sayedee which are totally perverse, baseless and politically motivated. A statement released by the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh in response to the verdict says, “None of the allegations against Allama Sayedee could be considered on any ground as not a single direct witness was produced before the tribunal. The placed matters and documents at the tribunal could no way accuse Allama Sayedee in the charges of crimes against humanity.”

If we look analytically at some of the charges leveled against Allama Sayedee, we would find the whole case a pack of lies and a pile of incongruities and contradictions. For instance, in the charge number 14 Allama Sayedee has been accused of handing over three younger sisters of Gouranga Shaha to the soldiers of Pakistani army for amusement. The National Identity Card of Gouranga Shaha says he was born in 1963. How a person born in 1963 could have three grown up younger sisters in 1971; so mature that they could be a source of amusement for the soldiers. In another charge, Madhusudan Gharami has accused that Allama Sayedee was present during the rape of her wife Shefali Gharami but Sayedee didn’t protest. Madhusudan also claimed that his wife gave birth to a child after 4 months of the rape. How is it possible that a woman got pregnant and gave birth to a child only in four months? Moreover according to the details of the incident Madhusudan Gharami himself was present at the scene when his wife was being allegedly raped but he couldn’t do anything, why he was expecting from a stranger to react and protest. Most of the readers would be astonished to know that one of the accusations against Allama Sayedee is that he has been trying to convert many Hindus to Muslim through his preaching and the government of a very true Islamic country Bangladesh has included his effort in the list of the ‘war crimes’. In spite of the absence of any authentic evidence and genuine witness, the tribunal has handed the capital punishment to Allama Sayedee. “The judgment is the official declaration of killing Allama Sayedee in official way to put down the advancement of Islamic movement. The government has made the conspiracy and they are continuing it on with a longer plan of uprooting Islam from the soil of Bangladesh,” says M. Ibrahim of the Publicity Section of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. Certainly it is very much difficult to decide whether it is Sheikh Hasina’s hatred against Pakistan, her love for India or her unconscious liking for secularism but one thing is very much clear that all benefit of the situation would go to India. Bangladesh is a land of Islam loving people who have joined hands together to counter and resist every conspiracy of uprooting Islam and of promoting secularism in Bangladesh. Islam gives complete protection, honour and respect to the people belonging to other religions but it is something very different from secularism.