Violence has taken place in the name of shutdown

| by Swadesh Roy

( November 10, 2013, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Bangladesh has passed one hundred and twenty hours shutdown in last two weeks. Last one year, the people of Bangladesh have seen that violence has been taking in the place of democratic weapon shutdown gradually. But the last one hundred twenty hours strike in Bangladesh has proved that, it is not a democratic weapon now, it is totally violence. Even it has crossed the limit absolutely .The character of the violence in Bangladesh now has reached in an unbelievable brutality stage. One teenage boy of Tangy, the suburb of Dhaka city, the capital of Bangladesh, named Munir Hoshien. He is only twelve years old. Before the morning of the first day of the `second phase’ sixty hours shutdown he wanted to go with his father. His father is a driver. Before starting the Auto Riksha , his father told him that, “boy, you sit in it, I will go to see the condition of the road.” The boy stayed there. In the mean time, some young supporters of the shutdown came there and they threw gunpowder and set fire. Within a minute, the boy started burning. He was burning and crying for helping by calling his father. Hearing his crying his father rushed to him. When his father reached, most ninety five percent of the body of the boy was burnt. The boy was taken to admit in the burn unit of Dhaka medical college hospital. Another more than ten fire victims by the supporter of the strike were there. Three of them were women along with a four years girl. The girl came to visit Dhaka city from a distinct district town. Her body has fifteen percent burnt. They were in a bus before the strike night. The supporter, mostly the Jammat- E – Islami supporters they set fire in that bus. The girl came with her grandmother, her grandmother tried her best to get out her from the bus but both were burnt.

After bringing the boy Munir and the four years old girl Sumi, the expert of the Dhaka medical burn unit Mr. Samantalal Sen said that the condition of twelve years old Munir and four years old sumi is not good rather they were in very much danger. Because according to medical science they are child. So it is very much danger for a child if he or she burns ten percent of their body whereas Munir has burnt ninety five percent and Sumi has burnt fifteen percent of their body. Journalists not only talked with the doctors but also talked with the victims. Munir said with the journalist that, when he was burning then the supporters of the shutdown burst out laughing at him. This single line statement is enough that, how brutal the supporters of the shutdown and which type of brutality is getting shelter by the so called politician who are calling shutdown in Bangladesh.

In one hundred twenty days strike, twenty eight persons have killed, most of them were killed by the supporter of the shutdown, besides that they have set fire more than eighty motor vehicle except these they tried to set fire in the train in several places. Only in the capital, they have vandalized more than sixty vehicles and in the whole country, they have chopped more than five hundred trees. In the first phase of their one hundred twenty hours strike they chopped a tree of a Hindu person he is also a freedom fighter, he went to protest them. They chopped to death the Hindu person who was also a freedom fighter. Besides that in many places in the country, they attacked the Hindu people’s house, vandalized the temple, and looted their wealth. However, all the violence have shocked the country but what they did regarding Munir that was a heart broken violence of the country. Ultimately, Munir died on 7th November. One of the major newspapers wrote that Munir has respite from pain. Though munir has got relief from pain but Sumi is still in death pain, doctors are trying their best but they are hopeless and they said death tall in the burn unit would upraise and ultimately, Sumi may take the way of Munir.

However, the cautious people and the common people of the country are now very much of against violence. Only the 18 party workers are doing this. A source of the government’s one of the intelligences ensured that, a few thousand worker of Islamic Chatra Shibir, the student organization of Jammat Islami got trained by Inter Service intelligence of Pakistan (ISI); they are taking the leadership of all kinds of violence including the attack on police. They are trying to push the country in anarchy. So they are doing violence in everyday, now they are not waiting for any strike day. Seventh November was a normal day, they did not call the shutdown but they set fire in a bus in the capital and killed a government party leader in broad day light in the commercial area of the capital by chopping.

While writing this article, they have called another seventy-two hours shutdown all over the country. So in the mean time being a journalist I got several telephone calls from abroad, they want to visit Bangladesh, but they wanted to know, it was a wise decision to cancel the visit. My opinion is that, Bangladesh would not be a heaven of the terrorist because the people and the present government are very much against it. In the leadership of Khaleda Zia, the opposition leader, some Islamic fundamentalist are doing this. They have made the democratic weapon shutdown as a violence weapon; but it will be blunt very soon.

Swadesh Roy, Executive Editor, The Daily Janakantha, Dhaka, Bangladesh, he can be reach at swadeshroy@gmail.com