A renewed spate of violence, arson, and vandalism has shaken Bangladesh right after a successful students-led revolution. Some most unexpected and tragic incidents have taken place at a time when the public mood was rather jubilant at the prospect of a new dawn in the aftermath of the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government.
The August 5 development -- resignation of the immediate past premier and her subsequent escape from the country -- happened at a time when people were rejoicing the successful culmination of a bloody revolution while still mourning the loss of too many young lives in the bloodletting of preceding weeks.
While it took three days for an interim government to be installed, there was some vacuum in the affairs of running a government in the country. Morale of the law enforcers have hit a new low after all those incidents of unwarranted force applications on the protestors and subsequent retaliations. Some mischievous gangs took that opportunity in resorting to vandalisms and arson. Allegations of some people settling personal scores in the melee were also there.
In some of the cases, leaders and adherents of the immediate past government and that of the party that ruled the country for 16 years were also at the receiving end of public wrath -- in certain cases their manifestations were violent too. And, there is no denial, in few of the cases there were incidents of vandalisms at properties and interests of some members of the country’s minority communities too -- very unfortunate to say the least.
But one must appreciate the way Bangladesh's social capital -- our shared values of working together to fight any evil forces in the time of need -- comes into play. We have seen with a deep sense of pride and respect how majority Muslims in the country, in general, and college and madrasah students took a shift in the protection of Hindu places of worship and other establishments all over the country.
And soon the interim government of Prof Yunus and his team joined the force, in full throttle, to thwart any further flare up of attacks and vandalism. Police members have been called in to rejoin their jobs immediately, armed forces opened emergency help-lines, and the government also welcomed volunteers working at community levels -- both in urban and rural Bangladesh -- in protection of public’s lives and properties, irrespective of their religious identities. That, by default, must have had a big confidence booster for members of all our minority communities.
Now that those acts of vandalism, arson, and attacks on people’s lives and assets have subsided and there is a sense of peace with the new government taking a full grip on the situation, there is the rumour-mongering by a section of vested quarters at home and abroad who are claiming Hindus in Bangladesh are in danger. This is most disappointing and there appears to be a ploy being hatched to project Bangladesh before the world as a country that can’t protect its minorities under a transition government.
But we all who live here know very well that this narrative is not right. Some vested interest groups became very active in projecting all the incidents of vandalism as being directed towards the minority community. However, reputed national and international media outlets have, by now, debunked and busted many of these claims. And thanks to Bangladesh’s politically-conscious citizens and the rising force of young student activists, such maligning propaganda and rumour-mongering aren’t getting any currency.
There are ill-conceived efforts both at home and abroad to amplify some of the incidents and create chaos in the society. The main intention must be destabilizing the current interim government, which has just been installed with a clear vision and mandate.
We need to say one thing unequivocally -- that every act of vandalism is one too many and people of Bangladesh, non-communal and tolerant by nature, would never want to see any recurrence of such heinous acts. It’s not a numbers game that one would try to amplify and project this country as intolerant towards religious minorities. It’s a country of all faiths and it doesn’t tolerate any aberration.
Here, any single incident of vandalism is one too many. One life lost is one too many. Every life lost represents someone’s son, someone’s brother, sister, friend, or a neighbour. Damage to every house, establishment is a tragedy. We must acknowledge the grief for and of the people who have lost someone, lost something.
Reaz Ahmad is Executive Editor, Dhaka Tribune.