Survivors recount terror of BNP-Jamaat firebombings, name on Bangladesh PM to take motion

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: Some misplaced their bread-winners. Others by no means noticed their family members once more. The survivors stay a painful life, nursing burn wounds. They are the widespread folks who suffered acutely when the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami firebombed passenger automobiles in a bid to oust the Sheikh Hasina authorities.

Between 2013-15, within the run-up to the parliament polls, numerous folks together with law-enforcement personnel had been on the receiving finish of the senseless firebomb and arson assaults unleashed to deliver down the Sheikh Hasina authorities. This marked a very violent spell of road terror to drive house to those who the elected authorities wouldn’t be capable of perform as a result of the Islamist Opposition, which had boycotted the parliament polls, was decided to not permit it to rule.

The Sheikh Hasina authorities was driving the crest on widespread public help for having instituted the War Crimes Trials to deliver to justice the perpetrators of 1971 genocide of Bengalis throughout the Liberation War.

But the Islamist Opposition, particularly the Jamaat-e-Islami, was decided to cease the trials as a result of a lot of their senior leaders had been up within the dock whereas some had already been hanged for confirmed warfare crimes like mass homicide and rape. The Jamaat had opposed the emergence of Bangladesh as an impartial nation and offered wholehearted help to the brutal Pakistan military in its genocidal marketing campaign.

On the opposite hand, the BNP — born within the barracks below patronage of the nation’s first navy dictator Gen Ziaur Rahman — labored because the overt entrance for a fundamentalist celebration like Jamaat.

In 2013-14, the Islamist alliance boycotted the polls and desperately tried legalese and lobbying to cease the warfare crimes tribunal. When it failed in doing each, it unleashed the road terror, combining firebombings and focused assassinations of secular bloggers and publishers to create mass hysteria and break the motion supporting the War Crimes Trials.

This terror marketing campaign rekindled recollections of the Pakistani-led massacres and choose killings (like homicide of secular intellectuals) throughout the 1971 Liberation War.

Now, seven years after the horrific firebombings, a lot of survivors and members of the family of these deceased recounted their horrifying expertise in a dialogue. Attended by Sheikh Hasina, the occasion included an exhibition and dialogue on the 2013-2015 nationwide violence when BNP and Jamaat waged a violent anti-government marketing campaign imposing a national blockade.

FAMILIES SEEK JUSTICE FOR LOST LOVED ONES

On 28 November 2013, Naheed, then 17, boarded a bus like many different passengers in Dhaka to succeed in house. Little did he know that this might be the final journey of his life and he wouldn’t be capable of meet his mother and father once more.

As the bus reached the busy Shahbagh intersection, it was hit by petrol bombs hurled by BNP-Jamaat cadres and caught hearth. While many passengers had been lucky sufficient to get off the burning bus, Naheed failed and was burned alive.

“BNP-Jamaat hooligans burnt my son alive. Nine years have handed and people culprits are but to be delivered to justice. My solely want is to hunt justice for my lifeless son,” said Rumi Begum, Naheed’s mother, sobbing inconsolably.

Still weighed down by the trauma of losing her husband, Joshna Begum recounts her daily ordeals to bring up three children. Her police officer husband Bablu Miah was beaten to death while on duty by BNP-Jamaat goons on February 28, 2013.

Bablu was mercilessly beaten up and his body left in pieces after he rushed out of a police station in northern Bangladesh when it was firebombed by BNP-Jamaat’s supporters.

Mother of three children, Joshna expressed anguish at the culture of impunity enjoyed by the assailants and made an emotional appeal to the PM, describing Sheikh Hasina as her mother and saying she was her “only hope” to bring her husband’s killers to justice. At one stage, Joshna touched her feet when Sheikh Hasina embraced her, tears rolling down their cheeks.

LINGERING TRAUMA FOR SURVIVORS

Truck driver Rafiqul Islam, who was injured in a similar petrol bomb attack in Dinajpur, said the burns had made it difficult for him to find work.

“The BNP-Jamaat’s petrol bomb assault made my life depressing,” he stated.

Rafiqul noticed the 2013-15 petrol bombings as much like the 1971 warfare crimes. “I want stern punishment for those who attacked me and seek blessings of the prime minister for my children,” he stated.

Schoolgirl Anup Barua suffered lack of sight in her proper eye after a Molotov cocktail assault perpetrated by BNP-Jamaat supporters whereas she was on her method to attend teaching courses on March 28, 2013.

Anup fondly recalled Sheikh Hasina’s help to rearrange for her higher remedy and wished the nation by no means once more plunged into road terror unleashed by the BNP-Jamaat supporters.

“I wish in future no one in my country would have to undergo such a tragic tale only to satisfy BNP Jamaat’s lust for grabbing power,” she stated.

‘VIOLENCE IN NAME OF POLITICS NOT ACCEPTABLE’

Advocate Khodeja Nasreen Akhter was on the identical bus as Naheed. But she managed to leap off the bus together with her left hand burning. Rushed to the hospital and placed on intensive remedy, she survived. Later nominated as a member of parliament from reserved seats for ladies because of PM Hasina, Khodeja additionally urged the prime minister to stop a recurrence of an analogous cycle of dreadful violence.

Even journalists weren’t spared.

Abu Sayeed Tamanna, a photo-journalist from Chittagong, survived a knife assault by BNP supporters whereas taking photos of them distributing petrol bombs within the port metropolis.

“I was taking photos from a distance. They [BNP men] were distributing petrol bombs among themselves. I got chased and then attacked with knives. My head was smashed with bricks. I may look normal, but I am still recovering from that attack. Hurting people in the name of politics is not acceptable. We all fear for our lives,” Tamanna added.

Like Tamanna, there are not less than 3,000 survivors nonetheless affected by the scars of dreadful terror acts unleashed by BNP-Jamaat supporters. 500 folks had been burnt alive and property price billions destroyed in that unprecedented wave of road terror.

PM VOWS STRINGENT SAFETY MEASURES

Deeply moved by the survivors’ accounts, Sheikh Hasina met virtually all households current there.

In a strongly worded speech, the PM warned towards road violence within the title of the guise of holding political rallies.

“We would always welcome peaceful opposition activities,” she stated, however in terms of violent assaults, she vowed to go powerful to make sure security of her residents.

Edited By:

Devika Bhattacharya

Published On:

Nov 7, 2022