The murder of innocent Bishwajit Das will remain etched in public memory as an abhorrent political crime during the Awami League-led government mainly for two reasons: repetition of politics of killing and then trying own party followers for crime, which is very rare in the country’s political history.
After the shocking killing of Bishwajit, a 24-year-old tailor at his brother’s shop in Shakhari Bazar of Old Dhaka who had never been a political activist, media exposed the killers who were influential leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the unofficial student wing of Awami League.
Private television channels broadcast the most shocking footage of the killing that took place in broad daylight on a road near Jagannath University on December 9 last year.
Newspapers also published photographs of the killers and the incident with supporting evidences making it clear that most of the killers were from the Chhatra League.
But after the murder, the Prime Minster’s Office, the home minister, some AL leaders and the Chhatra League repeatedly denied the political identity of the killers saying that none of them was from the Chhatra League. They rather claimed that the killers were linked with Jamaat-e-Islami, and its student’s body Islami Chhatra Shibir and the BNP’s youth wing Juba Dal.
The then home minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir on December 12 told reporters: “It is clear that Chhatra League was not involved in the killing.” It was the home minister’s denial for the second time after the murder.
Abul Kalam Azad, press secretary to the prime minister, at a press briefing at the PMO on December 13 last year denied the killers’ link to the Chhatra League. Besides denial, he gave names of six killers claiming that their families had been involved with the BNP or Jamaat politics.
But hours before the killing, the killers were seen in the front of row of a Chhatra League procession brought out against the opposition’s blockade programme.
The media reported quoting some Chhatra League leaders, teachers, students many other witnesses in and around Jagannath University that those killers used to participate in the programmes of the Chhatra League’s campus unit. But surprisingly, the Chhatra League central leaders in a statement on December 11 denied the killers’ involvement with the organisation.
The businessmen of Shakhari Bazar also had said the identified killers of Bishwajit had been involved in extortion, mugging and other criminal activities around the campus.
The killers were so influential because of their link with the Chhatra League, as its parent organisation AL was in power, that none dared to protest them before the Bishwajit murder, which finally prompted others to raise voice against them.
Soon after the Awami League-led alliance’s massive victory in the ninth parliamentary election in 2008, Chhatra League earned huge criticism for repeated criminal activities and orchestrating muscle by their men on many campuses and places of the country.
Though the organisation officially is no more the student wing of the Awami League since 2008, in fact, it functions as its unofficial student organisation. For this, the Awami League also came under huge criticism for failing to control the Chhatra League leaders and activists.
The trend of denial, which is a longstanding culture in the country’s politics, had also seen in other regimes. During the BNP-Jamaat-led four party alliance government in 2001-06, the then ruling leaders had repeatedly denied the brutal acts of Islamist militants, and the administration’s and party leaders’ patronisation of those terrors.
After a blast of crude bombs near the Chhatra League procession held against the opposition blockade on December 9 morning, the killers who were in the procession had started to chase pedestrians around there. Bishwajit who ran for life and got into a nearby building was also chased by them.
The killers beat and hacked Bishwajit, suspecting him to be an opposition activist, by sharp weapons like machetes and iron rods.
The 24-year-old youth was never involved in politics; he was working at the tailoring shop and used to live with his brother in Old Dhaka, according to his family.
But after the murder, main opposition BNP’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir claimed Bishwajit to be their party activist.
In the middle of the blame and claim games, there was apprehension that Bishwajit killers might evade arrest and trial as they belonged to Chhatra League and its parent organisation was in power.
As part of the political culture, no ruling party usually arrest and try its own followers even though there is clear allegation of their involvement with the criminal activities. In the Bishwajit murder incident, police failed to arrest 13 accused in the charge sheet.
Despite these, it was hard to find any other example, other than the trial of Bishwajit killers, verdict in which has been delivered at least in the trial court, though only eight accused among 21 are in jail. The rest could evade arrest and still long way to go to ensure justice of this chilling murder as the case has to be disposed of at the High Court and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.