New Delhi: Fifty-four years ago, Pakistan’s President General Yahya Khan came to Dhaka and held a series of meetings with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman between March 16-24, none of which brought about any resolution. However, this was probably a time-buying decoy, a deception manoeuvre when a dangerous plan was being hatched by the armed forces in order to crush aspirations of the Bengali people forever.
On the midnight of March 25, the Pakistan army along with its collaborators launched a campaign of genocide and rape against the civilian masses of East Pakistan codenamed ‘Operation Searchlight’. Thousands were butchered in the first few days and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the early hours of March 26 proclaimed complete independence of Bangladesh. He was swiftly arrested by the Pakistani army and taken to Karachi in West Pakistan where he was held in captivity during the entire war of liberation.
As conceived by the West Pakistani Generals, the operation aimed at eliminating the Awami League top brass, influential civilians and personnel of the armed forces supporting the Awami League. Guile, surprise, trickiness and speed were emphasised, as the critical ingredients for annihilation. Use of free and whatever force necessary was authorised by the army and its collaborators to achieve this heinous intention. Search, assault, arson and rape in all civilian areas also were abundantly deployed. After a gruesome nine-month-old war of liberation, the people of Bangladesh snatched freedom from the jaws of death and destruction. It was a phenomenal achievement in the history of the sub-continent, where hundreds of thousands of martyrs, including women, children, paid the penultimate price in blood.
However, as the irony of fate, the situation has completely overturned, and the country is at a critical juncture. The very fact of liberation from Pakistan, including its collaborators, is being deliberately erased. The interim government has failed to provide bare minimum security to the citizens, especially the minorities. The law and order situation is constantly deteriorating.
The situation in the capital Dhaka has also worsened. Theft and robbery incidents are increasing. Jail-escaped terrorists have now started using sophisticated firearms in broad daylight. Fear has completely evaporated from criminals. The situation is so grave that in public transport buses, women passengers are being violated unchallenged on the motorways. Almost every day we hear testimonials of women and young children who are the victims of sexual assault and are being exterminated to erase all traces of evidence including family members like husbands and fathers.
A significant proportion of the rape victims are from minority communities unfortunately, which is a disturbing trend. Forced religious conversions are also taking place across the country unabated. Extortion and extra judicial property seizure have also escalated. Anarchy has surged across the country phenomenally.
Woman organisations have marched on the streets of Dhaka demanding justice for the barbaric rape of a minor child, which resulted in her death, and the situation remains extremely volatile. Women’s safety and freedom is a critical keystone in the Bengali society and culture, which is non-negotiable, it was not in 1971 and it will not be in the future as well.
Therefore, criminals are getting the courage to attack key security infrastructure like Air Force base like the one in Cox’s Bazar recently. In one word, the law and order situation has deteriorated exponentially during the rule of Muhammad Yunus and is on the verge of collapse.
Therefore, the common people have been forced to take to the streets to vent out their frustration. Instead of increasing trust and cooperation between the government and the people, the gap in distrust is deepening and the division between the state and its citizens is rapidly plummeting. Many convicted criminals and members of proscribed terror organisations are roaming freely, forcing ordinary citizens not to venture out of their homes. They do not have security even at home as calls to form a new ‘Caliphate’ are echoing in Bangladesh. A state of panic has been created in Bangladesh during the current interim government’s tenure.
The security situation on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, known as the economic lifeline, has deteriorated drastically. This road has now become a nightmare for commuters. This road has become one of the most dangerous routes in the country. Expatriates, businesspersons, drivers and even garment workers are being robbed at gunpoint. The degeneration of the law and order situation across the country is a symptom of a much deeper problem.
The caretaker government must immediately take measures to restore law and order by reforming the police force, ensuring proper accountability for state violence and cracking down on terrorist networks. There are multiple traps that lie ahead for Bangladesh. The defeated forces of 1971 want to avenge their loss. They want to transform Bangladesh to a monolithic state, completely undermining the pluralistic principles and negating the diverse composition of the social fabric.
Bangladesh was once labelled as the real Asian tiger when the country was transformed economically and in most of the globally recognised social indicators, to have made tremendous progress over the last decade. The threat of Bangladesh slipping into chaos, retrogression will not only influence her citizens but will have ramifications not only in the neighbourhood but also globally as the risk is too high for the country to fail.
(The writer, who recently published a book on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is based in London. Views expressed are personal)
