The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council has strongly condemned the support for Adilur Rahman from various global bodies following his and his associate’s two-year conviction in a disinformation case.
“We are deeply shocked and appalled by the outpouring of support from different global bodies, including a resolution by the European Parliament, regarding the two-year conviction of Adilur Rahman and one of his associates. Both of them were found guilty of manufacturing and packaging an alarming scale of disinformation and outright lies through a report ostensibly to serve the agenda of radical religious forces, Hefazat-e-Islam,” says the statement issued on Tuesday.
On May 5, 2013, Hefazat, in collaboration with Jamaat-e-Islami, organized a rally in Dhaka, assembling thousands of madrasa students, where communal and radical demands were raised, including the enactment of a Taliban-style Shariah Law. The mob attacked public properties and business institutions, vandalized a political party office, and created havoc among the general populace. Law enforcement agencies took necessary steps to disperse the mob.
On May 10, 2013, Odhikar, the platform led by Adilur and his associate, published a report that the court found had ignored the actual facts. The report likened radical elements to “any other social, non-political, and cultural organization that aims to take into account socio-economic, cultural, and political matters that affect the values and practices of Islam.” The report also downplayed the gruesome killing spree unleashed by radical forces on bloggers who had called for an end to the impunity of war criminals, while packaging the demand for bringing “blasphemy charges” against the bloggers as justified.
The gross anomalies in the report include altering identities. At least four people, namely Md Al Amin, Jahidul Islam Sourov, Sohel, and Jasim Uddin, who Odhikar declared as dead, were found to be alive. Names of five deceased individuals were used twice in the report, while one person who died from cardiac arrest was listed in the report as a victim of police action. Moreover, six names were listed in the report as having died in the Hefazat rally, when they actually died in a separate incident. No detailed identity information was given for seven people. On top of that, the identities of 11 people could not be confirmed. It is worth noting that even Odhikar officials, including Adilur Rahman and his associates, were asked by the government to disclose the names of the so-called 61 activists who they claimed had died, but Adilur failed to justify their claims.
Furthermore, during Adilur Rahman's tenure as a deputy attorney general, under the last rule of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, there was a widespread pogrom against minorities, including the burning down of worship places, looting valuables from houses, the abduction of people, and rape, resulting in the forced migration of a large number of minority populations. Local independent rights bodies found at least 28,000 cases that were incorporated in the Shahbuddin Commission report, reflecting the wide-scale attacks on communities across the country.
In 2002, as rights activists appeared before the High Court Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court to bring the perpetrators to justice, Adilur Rahman, the then Deputy Attorney General of Bangladesh, opposed the move.
Now that the European Parliament, the US local embassy, State Department officials, and a number of global rights bodies have stood up in praise of Adilur and his associate following a verdict passed by the court after ten years of legal battle, and Adilur was allowed to deploy the best lawyers of his choice, we would request these bodies to consider the context of human rights on the ground as a whole, rather than relying on motivated assessments grounded in biased views peddled by defenders of radical groups like Adilur, as stated in the statement.
“Moreover, we did not see these bodies raise voices equally when ultra-radical groups, those who joined the May 5 rally and were defended by Adilur in the Odhikar report as typical social organizations, went on a rampage against minorities to stop war crimes trials. Minorities came under attack in at least 32 districts between 2013 and 2015.”
The statement added that it is also important to reiterate that a barrage of smear campaigns, in line with radical outfits, has targeted overseas audiences. False statistics against minorities were peddled in separate letters issued by US congressmen and EU parliamentarians, reportedly crafted by lobbyists and defenders of radical groups like Adilur. These actions have already sparked condemnation from rights activists and minorities alike.
“In the end, we urge foreign actors to refrain from inciting proven advocates of radicals, emboldening radical forces, and putting minorities at risk by defending biased bodies like Odhikar and echoing radical views. Instead, we request such bodies to verify information from multiple sources instead of relying on biased ones. The recurrence of these actions would only undermine the credibility of these bodies and expose double standards on their part,” it concluded.