Scenario Bangladesh -Crack down upon free-thinkers; A back way Journey towards medieval Age
Bangladesh Government has cracked down upon the free-thought young bloggers & already arrested some of them, exposed them publicly before media with their horrible weapons (?) like laptops & PC & sent them to police remand as common criminals. It is quite an awful, unexpected, disappointing, heartbreaking and finally disgusting phenomenon to the enlightened people, as well as the pro-liberation forces of the country to see that the government of Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh begins to arrest the free-thought bloggers and putting them behind the bar without any proof of any specific allegation of so-called blashfamy against them, simply in compliance with the demand of the religious bigots, like so-called Hefazat-e-Islam, backed by the Jammat-e-Islam, a war criminal organisation.
Secularists are at loggerheads with Islamists in Bangladesh
Many of the observers of Bangladesh knew that sooner or later, the secularists would be in a collision course with the ever growing Islamists. I think we are just seeing the initial confrontation between the two opposing forces. Bangladesh has so many fundamentalist political groups that one would be lost to correctly list them. One such group took the name "Hefazat-e-Islam." The southeastern part of Bangladesh where Chittagong is located is the stronghold of this tiny Islamist group. This group was relatively obscure in Bangladesh, but lately, the members of this group have drawn attention from various media inside Bangladesh for their incendiary remarks against bloggers and cyber writers. Many other Islamist forces now are joining the Hefazat group because their movement is gaining momentum.
Shahbag movement and Awami League
Almost all political parties in Bangladesh are talking in the same language. The present Awami League government, the opposition led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jatiyo party, a coalition partner of the Awami League government have branded the present youth movement activists as atheists. The government has arrested four online activists with allegations against them of defaming Islam. This is political dishonesty. This is government acting against its own people. This is betrayal of freedom of speech and expression. This is abusing power to undermine human rights.
A Statement from Mukto-Mona - Bangladesh government squishing freedom of speech by arresting and harassing young bloggers inside the country
Bangladesh government squishing freedom of speech by arresting and harassing young bloggers inside the country
Appeasing the Islamists – a Distressing Sign for Bangladesh
In a poor country called Bangladesh, recently there has been a surge in heated talk and violent lawlessness. The principal driving forces behind these are the Islamist political parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami, Hifazat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
The Spirits of 1971 and 2013 (Part III)
This is the third and concluding part of the titled article. For the first and second parts, please see https://enblog.muktomona.com/?p=1802 and https://enblog.muktomona.com/?p=1809.
The Spirits of 1971 and 2013 (Part II)
This article attempts to relate the events of 1971 and 2013 in Bangladesh, and to see how they compare and what we could learn from them. For the first part of the article, please see https://enblog.muktomona.com/?p=1802.
The Spirits of 1971 and 2013
The movement that was started by a group of Bangladeshi youth at the Shahbag intersection in Dhaka on February 5, 2013, has grown tremendously. Initially there was just one podium in Shahbag. Now the youth all over the country have erected "Gonojagoran Manchas" (people's awakening podiums) in almost every sub-district of the country. The youth, led by internet savvy bloggers, have been joined by millions of ordinary people. The movement has been praised by noted intellectuals. It has also been supported by the government, even when the youth did not allow leaders of the governing political party to speak from their "Gonojagoran Manchas." The youth movement has now turned into a people's movement, and it has been coined as 'Spirit of 1971' by a section of the Bangladeshi intelligentsia/media.
Is Shahbag the Solution?
The rally that was started on February 5, 2013, at the Shahbag intersection in Dhaka was against the sentences that were handed down to Abdul Quader Mollah by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT). The organizers and the participants of the rally felt that the sentences were too light for the crimes for which he was convicted.