Monday | 7 October 2024 | Reg No- 06
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Monday | 7 October 2024 | Epaper
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Upon whom the responsibility lies!

Published : Wednesday, 24 July, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 355
Professor Dr Mizanur Rahman
Quota reform movement started on the 1st day of July 2024. At first it was termed as quota reform movement but gradually it became anti-quota as well as anti-government movement fueled by some opportunistic political powers like BNP and Jamaat. Thus, it started as a non-violent movement, but became one of the most violent movements in the history of Bangladesh and the students didn even realize it till date! From 16 July the quota reform movement became violent which led to the death of 124 people including law enforcers until Sunday (21 July). I deeply abhor the way the dead bodies of four police officials were displayed in Jatrabari. I want to offer my sincere condolences to the family members of the deceased. Every life matter, and the real perpetrators behind all these deapths need to be identified as well as punished. I can recall the similarity in atrocities committed by Jamat and BNP miscreants in 2013 (after the ICTBD judgment of Sayeedi), 2014-15 (pre and post-election) and finally in 2018 (during anti-quota movement). 

The real targets of these perpetrators were to demolish the infrastructural developments of the past 10 years for which the people of the country are proud of. Such as the Metro Rail, Mayor Hanif flyover, Padma Bridge etc.  The perpetrators attacked important government and non-government infrastructures like the BTV (Bangladesh Television) building, Bridges authoritys main building, Express highway, BGMEA building and many more. Numerous important places of the capital experienced the horrors of vandalism and arson attacks for the past few days. Capitals Jatrabari, Shonir Akhra, Narayanganj, Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi, Farmgate, Gulistan, Mirpur, Rampura, Mohakhali and Uttara are one of the mostly affected ones. Metrorail stations of Mirpur 10, Kazipara and Sheorapara are now completely unusable due to horrible arson attacks.The responsible authority informed that it will take almost a year to completely start these stations again.

The coarse attacks continued throughout the whole country in the past few days. But outside the capital the most horrific incident was the Narsinghdi Jail Break. The miscreants of Jamaat and BNP attacked the district jail of Narsinghdi and broke free almost 850 prisoners, 7 of which belongs to the banned militancy group Ansarullah Bangla Team and 2 of which are female members of the JMB. They also looted 85 weapons from the jails armory. I strongly believe as a university teacher that the general students cannot be behind these heinous attacks. The miscreants blended with the general students from 16 July and carried out these vile onslaughts throughout the country to create pressure on the government as well as to infringe the image of the country to the international media. The miscreants also operated arson attacks on 4 bogies of a train at Narsinghdi. 

The perpetrators also carried out the vandalism in almost all the public and private universities of the country. They smashed different infrastructures of the universities like the halls, residence of the vice chancellors etc. It is hard to tell how much time it will take to fully restore the varsity environment to be education friendly after such incidents! The attacks not only hampered the university level education system! Rather it affected the education system. Board exams like Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) and secondary school examsnamely Half Yearly Summative Exams were suspended due to this.


But even in this time of complete internet shut down, the fake news is still spreading. Various newspapers are still publishing fake and misleading news to trigger the general people against the government. One of the major newspapers of the country published an article that the 62 coordinators of the quota reform movement gave a press release about continuing the Total Shut Down movement even after the government agreed to the 8 points submitted by the students. Who are these 62 co-ordinators? Why didn we hear about them before?

The government was forced to deploy the armed forces in aid to the civil administration and declare Curfew from 19 July because of the ongoing events. These past few days took a huge toll on the overall economic condition of the country.  According to BGMEA information, the garments industry is facing a huge economic loss of Tk 1900 crores every day (Ajker Patrika, 22 July). The prices of daily life stocks are getting higher and higher due to disruption in the food product supply.The prices have increased from 30 to 50 taka per products andthe dairy farms are facing a loss of 150 crores every day.  Lower-Middle income families are in great hardship due to this increase in prices of food products and I can only guess the condit ion of the day laborers! Ministry of Relief and Disaster Management informed that the amount of financial loss they endured due to the arson in their Mohakhali office is almost 700 crores taka. A committee is formed to measure the financial loss due to the arson attack in the main office of the Bridges Authority.  It is needed to be mentioned that a total of 55 cars were lighted which were parked in this building. The power and energy minister informed the media that they are currently facing almost 1000 crores of financial loss. 

Numerous buses, cars, motor-cycle, and rickshaw were lighted up in the past few days. The trains and train lines also faced attacks from the miscreants. As a result, the communication by land with the whole country is cut off! The rickshaw pullers informed that they are facing a loss of 700 to 800 taka per day due to the violent unrest. The communication by the digital platform is also facing a severe disruption as the Internet is down due to arson attacks on various important infrastructures providing the internet services. The online banking, online based businesses and freelancers are facing a huge financial loss. The immigrants are unable to send money to their families living in the country which is resulting the family members taking loans from the local financial associations. The people of Digital Bangladesh had almost forgotten how to pay the bills offline, thanks to the Prime Minister, but because of the internet being down for the last 3 days the people are facing difficulties to pay the electricity and gas bills. 

But even in this time of complete internet shut down, the fake news is still spreading. Various newspapers are still publishing fake and misleading news to trigger the general people against the government. One of the major newspapers of the country published an article that the 62 coordinators of the quota reform movement gave a press release about continuing the Total Shut Down movement even after the government agreed to the 8 points submitted by the students. Who are these 62 co-ordinators? Why didn we hear about them before?

The miscreants also attacked the reporters. A local female reporter of Narayanganj was a victim of a rape attempt while collecting news and information. A portion of her face was burnt by these miscreants (the Daily Samakal, 22 July). Another two female reporters were beaten up at the same place. I demand that the local law enforcers should look into these allegations and bring these culprits to justice. 

On one hand, the members of the quota reform informed the media that they will not take any liability of the arson and vandalisms done by the miscreants under their banner. On the other hand, they are demanding that the government should revoke the Curfew as soon as possible. So, who will take responsibility if the further attacks that will come as soon as the government revoke the curfew! I strongly believe that the protesters will sit with the government to find a peaceful solution by which good governance and democratic values will prevail.  

The writer is former Chairman, National Human Rights Commission



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