Why December 10 belies hopes for Bangladesh’s Islamist Opposition

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: Plans for turning a proposed central rally in Dhaka on December 10 have failed to supply anticipated dividends to the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and their Islamist allies. The BNP leaders had stated they’d use the rally to announce a “government from the streets” to oust the Awami League authorities with a file turnout.

But the turnout on the rally was poor — as drone footage by tv channels uncovered empty areas with the venue of the rally pouring chilly water into the BNP high brass’s tall boast of drawing 1,000,000 folks to the rally.

ALSO READ | In Dhaka, Opposition’s large protest rally to current 10-point demand earlier than nationwide elections

“When compared with PM Sheikh Hasina’s recent rallies in the port city of Chittagong or the seaside resort town of Cox’s Bazar, this BNP rally in Dhaka was a very poor one,” stated a high police official.

While the BNP had stated it might launch a nationwide agitation from the Dhaka rally, they ended up simply saying the resignation of their lawmakers in Parliament.

All seven of the BNP’s representatives in parliament are quitting their roles as lawmakers. The MPs, Md Zahidur Rahman, Md Mosharof Hosen, Gulam Mohammad Siraj, Md Aminul Islam, Md Harunur Rashid, Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan and Rumeen Farhana, have despatched their resignation letters on performing celebration chief Tarique Rahman’s orders.

Just like its earlier claims, the celebration’s high brass introduced plans to go forward with their motion to unseat their rival Sheikh Hasina authorities in Bangladesh.

ALSO READ | 160 sea-borne Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh feared adrift in Andaman Sea

BNP has introduced 10-point calls for, together with the resignation of the ruling authorities and the dissolution of the present nationwide parliament.

BNP Standing Committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain introduced the factors from the BNP’s Dhaka divisional mass assembly at Golapbag Ground in Dhaka.

Hossain stated all of the factors has been determined after discussing with BNP’s ally events and all affiliated organisation of the celebration.

BNP’s 10-POINT DEMANDS

1. Resignation of the ruling authorities by dissolving the present nationwide parliament.

2. Formation of a impartial caretaker authorities/interim caretaker authorities consistent with sections Kha, Ga and Gha of article 58 of the structure that was in place in 1996.

3. The caretaker authorities should kind a impartial Election Commission that may guarantee a level-playing discipline for all events, using EVMs and celebration symbols in native authorities elections can be annulled.

4. Convictions of all of the opposition leaders and activists, together with Khaleda Zia, journalists and non secular students must be scrapped and all “false cases” filed in opposition to them ought to be withdrawn, freedom of speech ought to be ensured, autocratically arresting opposition celebration chief and activists ought to be abolished.

5. All the black legal guidelines, together with the Digital Security Act, 2018, Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009 and the Special Powers Act, 1974 should be revoked.

6. The anti-people choices to extend the value of public providers, together with electrical energy, vitality, fuel and water should be cancelled.

7. Bringing the value of important commodities throughout the affordability of common folks and de-syndicate the market of important commodities.

8. All the victims of enforced disappearances within the final 15 years ought to be rescued and people liable for extrajudicial killings should be recognized and punished.

9. A fee should be fashioned to determine the corruption in banking and vitality sectors and share market within the final 15 years.

10. Law enforcement, administration and judiciary’s operate to be unbiased with out authorities interference.

On December 7, one individual was killed as round 50 have been injured as BNP activists and police clashed within the capital’s Nayapaltan. Amid a barrage of cocktail explosions hurled by celebration carders, concentrating on regulation enforcers. In retaliation, tear shells and rubber bullets have been fired by police.

Moreover, the a lot anticipated look of its ailing chief Begum Zia, convicted of cash embezzlement from orphanage fund and digital participation of its performing chairman Tarique Rahma within the rally additionally didn’t occur.

“From an aggressive pitch to bring down the government, it ended up in a whimper of protest,” stated girls activist Shahnaz Parvin.

The alternative of the date was to hyperlink the agitation for regime change in Dhaka to World Human Rights Day. The BNP has drawn a lot sustenance from the weaponisation of human rights. Even the stories by UN teams on enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings had gone a protracted solution to promote a story that the Awami League was destroying democracy in Bangladesh and thus all means, honest and foul, was professional to carry it down.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul had admitted in media interviews that the US sanctions in opposition to some senior officers of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), together with former police chief Benazir Ahmed, had vastly energised BNP’s phased agitation that started with district rallies and was to culminate in Dhaka on Dec 10.

ALSO READ | How BJP’s triumph and Congress’s rout in rural seats led to historic Gujarat verdict

The BNP lobbyists had anticipated the US could difficulty sanctions in opposition to few extra Bangladesh police and safety officers to discourage the highest echelons of Hasina authorities from resorting to powerful policing to neutralise the Opposition agitation.

Now the BNP made the primary mistake over the venue of the Dhaka rally. They refused to organise it at Suhrawardy Udyan, the pure alternative for any celebration to carry a large rally in Dhaka, and sought to organise it in entrance of celebration headquarters at Naya Paltan.

“No administration will allow a rally in a central business district,” stated a police official.

When the police appeared decided to not permit the rally at Naya Paltan, the BNP management in Dhaka backed off and eventually agreed to carry it at Golap Bagh, amidst hypothesis that it was pushing from a venue with a smaller holding capability as a result of it was unsure of filling up the Suhrawardy Udyan.

Failure to take action would undermine BNP’s tall claims of main a preferred agitation, specifically after Sheikh Hasina’s large rallies in Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar.

The second massive setback for the BNP was the US State Department’s announcement on the evening earlier than the December 10 rally.

It stated, “Today the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in recognition of International Anti-Corruption Day and Human Rights Day, is sanctioning a diverse array of over 40 individuals and entities that are connected to corruption or human rights abuse across nine countries.

“Over the course of 2022, Treasury took quite a few actions to advertise accountability for human rights abusers and corrupt actors internationally, together with sanctions on dozens of people and entities together with within the Western Balkans, Belarus, Liberia, Guatemala, the Russian Federation, Burma, and Iran. Treasury utilized varied instruments and authorities — together with Executive Order (E.O.) 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act — to display the U.S. authorities’s give attention to selling respect for human rights and countering corruption.

“Corrupt actors and human rights abusers both rely on deficiencies in the international financial system to perpetrate their activities,” stated Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “Over the past year, Treasury has made combatting corruption and serious human rights abuse a top priority, including through the use of financial sanctions and addressing vulnerabilities in the U.S. and international financial systems. By exposing the egregious behavior of these actors, we can help disrupt their activities, dismantle their networks, and starve them of resources.”

The State Department press notice stated the “United States is committed to taking actions consistent with its values and recognizes that respect for human rights is a prerequisite for global peace, security, and prosperity.”

It additionally stated that “today’s actions are also a key component of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to implement the first-ever U.S. Strategy for Countering Corruption, released in December 2021. The treasury is working diligently to implement other elements of the strategy, including efforts to curb illicit finance related to corruption.

For example, as part of the Treasury’s ongoing work implementing the Corporate Transparency Act, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued in September 2022 a final rule on beneficial ownership information reporting requirements, which will help stop corrupt actors and other criminals from using anonymous shell companies to hide their ill-gotten gains. “

The setback for the BNP and its Islamist allies is that although scores of entities internationally have suffered US sanctions, there was not a single one from Bangladesh. For weeks, BNP lobbyists have been quietly circulating lists in social media or shops near them of a number of police and para-military officers in Bangladesh who can be slapped with sanctions.

Topping the checklist was the police intelligence chief Monirul Islam, a really environment friendly officer whose function in counterterrorism had been lauded even by FBI officers prior to now.

A former BNP press wing officer-turned-party activist, Mushfiq Fazal Ansari, who now attends press briefings frequently in UN and the White House, posted on his Facebook days again about an upcoming sanction, an occasion amongst a litany of how the celebration activists have been attempting to look upon international energy to spice up morale of its grassroos

ALSO READ | Cyclone Mandous uproots bushes, brings heavy rain in Tamil Nadu | Top factors

The entire function of this train was to scare and demoralize the highest brass, in order that BNP and its Islamist allies might resume their firebombing and assassination marketing campaign with none counter motion.

Now that no single Bangladesh entity has been slapped with sanctions, not solely can the federal government breathe simple and combat road violence with acceptable measures but in addition the BNP stands out and not using a power multiplier.

December is Bangladesh’s month of victory, the month in 1971 when Bangladesh freedom fighters and their Indian allies crushed the oppressive Pakistani navy and liberated Bengalis to create South Asia’s youngest nation.

This December, the BNP was attempting to script a brand new narrative for the nation by declaring it because the month to start out a combat to revive democracy. That narrative has now fallen flat on its face.

“Such a depressing turnout coupled with outright public rejection of the celebration’s grisly road terror marketing campaign years again clearly put the celebration in a bind and it appears the celebration’s largest mistake is to unleash the decision for violence in December, as an alternative of celebrating the month of victory with folks,” Sufi Farque, an data tech expert-turned-politician stated.

Published On:

Dec 10, 2022