No, no, no! I am not supposed to have any sympathy for the Hefazat folks. They are backward looking, superstitious and always undermining women: our mothers, sisters, daughters and wives. Their 13-point demands are a reflection of yesteryears where most Bangladeshis do not want to go back to.
Yet many teachers and students of madrasas and orphanages represented by Hefazat are now being branded as terrorists and face the threat of being strangulated financially. A large number of otherwise ordinary people, often stereotyped by the metropolitan types as our “distant rural cousins,” would face loss of support if their madrasas and orphanages were closed down.
What did they do? They marched to the call of the Hefazat leaders and sieged Dhaka to press forward their 13-point demands which conflict with democratic values and seek to suppress women’s rights.
At one stage, police and government high-ups including a left-leaning minister thanked Hefazat for being very peace-loving in comparison to other Islamist organisations. Even the prime minister said she would consider their demands.
As politics is in countries like ours, the ruling regime and its supporters also supported and organised citizen forums to rise up and counter this religious group.
This did not silence Hefazat, and it decided to gather its supporters to march towards Dhaka, reportedly with the tacit support of the opposition, on May 5.
On the day, they were supposed to leave by noon but wanted to have a meeting at Motijheel during late afternoon. Police allowed them to hold that meeting, but asked them to leave by early evening. They reportedly overstayed, and many had to face the subsequent police-paramilitary crackdown.
The crackdown that took place very late at night through early next morning left a few Hefazat supporters killed and scattered the rest who were not able to find any exit route out of Dhaka. I am told that many policemen, out of class affinity and sympathy, helped them escape.
Many of the Hefazat marchers from May, who can’t normally manage a meal on their own, had come to Dhaka for the first time in their lives at the invitation of their Boro Hujur (main religious leader), Allama Shafi. Many were baffled and confused by all the lights, nicely decorated buildings and posh cars of Dhaka. Some were seen throwing stones at a few buildings and cars.
A few were also reported to have damaged some religious bookshops and even set fire to copies of the Quran. Government and investigation agencies, at that time, said they wanted to release video footages of these events as proof of Hefazat’s vandalism. However, they have not released much evidence yet.
Where were these thousands of Hefazat supporters (mainly young, male, madrasa students) all these years?
They were ignored because of their marginal status, but their numbers and buildings have grown over time with the sponsorship of local communities: God-fearing businessmen, non-resident Bangladeshis, and international Islamic charities. They were largely inactive in the political arena and identify as anti-Moududi (a religious leader who Jamaat-e-Islami follows).
Hence, some ruling party stalwarts reportedly tried harnessing Hefazat as a means to neutralise or disarm Jamaat using Hefazat’s traditionally shallow interest in politics.
Unlike them, Jamaat, historically, is very active in politics. The reasons why many people don’t like Jamaat is that its predecessors not only campaigned against the independence of this country, but many of their senior leaders were also accused of torture, rape, and killing.
While political scientists can explain that Jamaat opposed our liberation war out for philosophical reasons, nobody, I repeat nobody supported or excessed their atrocities and killings in 1971. If the war crimes process continues, some of the accused will face death sentences sooner or later. They have earned this.
Are Hefazat and Jamaat terrorist groups like Bangla Bhai’s outfit or other armed militants? The evidence suggests no. Western diplomats agree, and their notes say there is less political tension or anti-United States sentiment if Jamaat is part of the government.
Though Hefazat is being treated by some people as a replica of the Taliban because of their fundamentalist beliefs, most concerned seniors see them as the outcome of the failed education system, and inadequate poverty alleviation programmes.
Less educated, deprived, poor rural people rely on groups like Hefazat or send children to their madrassas, because they have no other choice.
Massive urbanisation has left many rural young men marginalised and not able to earn two square meals a day. Often, the state and female-focused NGOs have not been able to reach or help them and this issue needs to be addressed.
All this tells us one thing: though misguided or misled, most members of these groups are not militants or terrorists. While the ones with definitive allegations of killing or abuse against them must be taken to task, the majority of them need better education and social programmes.
They may be our distant rural cousins, but Bangladesh’s future needs to include and benefit them. They are travel mates in our journey towards inclusive growth.
Bangladesh wants to be identified as a tolerant democratic Muslim country. This is very good. But we don’t want to get there at the cost of branding increasing numbers of alienated, deprived and misguided groups of people as terrorists. We need to fight poverty, improve education and take them along with us.
