Human Rights Watch, the US-based international rights body, in its 656-page world report, spilled the beans about the rise of ISIS. While discussing the recent developments of Iraq, it remarked: “In Iraq, ISIS owes much of its emergence to the abusive sectarian rule of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the resulting radicalisation of the Sunni community.”
The human rights group pointed out that the rise of violent groups such as the ISIS is the product of governments’ tendencies to ignore rights abuses in their country. “Human rights violations played a major role in spawning or aggravating many of today’s crises,” Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said in the introduction to the World Report 2015.
It is too early to compare the situation of Iraq with Bangladesh. But the analysis of recent deaths and the rights abuses by all the groups do not rule out the possibilities of an extremist uprising in Bangladesh.
To analyse the recent turmoil in Bangladesh, one should go to the third week of November, 2013. When the then premier, Sheikh Hasina, decided to form a poll-time government to oversee the January 5 poll, one of the prominent Bangladesh dailies in their November 18 edition wrote: “BNP left with agitation only.” BNP, who decided to boycott the January 5 election, was left with no option but to take to the streets and resist the election that day.
From that day, the spate of deaths escalated in Bangladesh. Rampant deaths, either in the hand of law enforcement agencies, or by the lethal bomb attacks by miscreants backed by the opposition party, became an everyday matter in Bangladesh for three months.
But after the election took place on January 5, which was termed as a farce by The Economist, the opposition men apparently went to ground. The largest opposition alliance refrained from further agitation and pleaded for a fresh election as soon as possible.
The opposition alliance’s decision of not disturbing the government was largely appreciated, and it was expected that a fresh midterm election would take place within a year as the Awami League publicly termed the last election a constitutional requirement.
But the situation worsened in 2014, especially for the opposition men amid their pulling themselves out from violent protests. From December 25 to January 27, in almost one month, 65 opposition activists were either killed or had disappeared.
At the year end, according to Ain O Salish Kendra, 128 crossfires took place in Bangladesh, which was 80% higher than in the last year. Along with a total of 88 incidents of disappearances and 147 deaths due to 664 incidents of political violence, more than 200 opposition activists lost their lives in 2014.
The root of the recent turmoil is not merely the banned protest and the confinement of the former prime minister of the country. The frequent rights abuses and the tendencies to ignore them by the government in Bangladesh played its role and paved the way for violence.
Apart from the incidents of last year, on the anniversary of the January 5 election, four were killed across the country. Another two died on the second day of the blockade in Noakhali. All of them were opposition activists who tried to rally in their area and were gunned down either by law enforcers or by the ruling party men. The government held no one responsible for these killings and totally overlooked the deaths.
The deaths in the initial days of the blockade were like a message given by the government to the opposition camp which was clear as bell. They decoded it as a signal that they are left with no option but to stage ambush attacks to make their blockade a “success.”
As we see, the first death caused from petrol bomb attacks was reported on January 11, five days after the blockade began. The attacks on the vehicles turned extensive from the second week of the blockade, after a good number of futile attempts from opposition men to hold rallies on the streets.
In addition, after the deadly petrol bomb attack on a bus in Rangpur, the joint forces cracked down on the opposition men. In most of the cases, it was reported that houses of opposition activists were ransacked and many of them were picked up.
The government and the law enforcement agencies’ bosses gave a “shoot on sight” order, compelling the opposition activists to choose a “gypsy life” that escalated the violence further. Scores of people have been killed so far in the petrol bomb attacks and another many more in “gunfights” with law enforcers.
Jasmin Lorch, a research fellow at the Germany-based GIGA Institute of Asian Studies, opined that the AL has politicised the security apparatus of the country.
The fact that should be understood is, the 20-party alliance cannot be crushed right now. Rather, any attempt to put their existence in danger will escalate the violence and deaths. There are at least 70 constituencies where BNP had never lost, except in the 2008 national election. At least 20 districts of the country are known as their bastions.
The formidable public support they have in those areas will never let the government put an end to the ongoing violence by killing BNP men extra-judicially. Moreover, such rights abuses will create a wider support base for them.
Therefore, the problem will have to be resolved politically, because, as HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth said: “The short-term gains of undermining those core values (of human rights) and the fundamental wisdom that they reflect are rarely worth the long-term price that must inevitably be paid.”