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By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: Some misplaced their bread-winners. Others by no means noticed their family members once more. The survivors reside a painful life, nursing burn wounds. They’re the frequent people who suffered acutely when the Bangladesh Nationalist Celebration (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami firebombed passenger autos in a bid to oust the Sheikh Hasina authorities.
Between 2013-15, within the run-up to the parliament polls, numerous individuals together with law-enforcement personnel have been on the receiving finish of the senseless firebomb and arson assaults unleashed to deliver down the Sheikh Hasina authorities. This marked a very violent spell of avenue terror to drive dwelling to folks that the elected authorities wouldn’t be capable to operate as a result of the Islamist Opposition, which had boycotted the parliament polls, was decided to not permit it to rule.
The Sheikh Hasina authorities was using the crest on widespread public assist for having instituted the Warfare Crimes Trials to deliver to justice the perpetrators of 1971 genocide of Bengalis in the course of the Liberation Warfare.
However the Islamist Opposition, particularly the Jamaat-e-Islami, was decided to cease the trials as a result of a lot of their senior leaders have been up within the dock whereas some had already been hanged for confirmed battle crimes like mass homicide and rape. The Jamaat had opposed the emergence of Bangladesh as an unbiased nation and offered wholehearted assist to the brutal Pakistan military in its genocidal marketing campaign.
Then again, the BNP — born within the barracks underneath patronage of the nation’s first army dictator Gen Ziaur Rahman — labored because the overt entrance for a fundamentalist occasion like Jamaat.
In 2013-14, the Islamist alliance boycotted the polls and desperately tried legalese and lobbying to cease the battle crimes tribunal. When it failed in doing each, it unleashed the road terror, combining firebombings and focused assassinations of secular bloggers and publishers to create mass hysteria and break the motion supporting the Warfare Crimes Trials.
This terror marketing campaign rekindled reminiscences of the Pakistani-led massacres and choose killings (like homicide of secular intellectuals) in the course of the 1971 Liberation Warfare.
Now, seven years after the horrific firebombings, numerous survivors and members of the family of these deceased recounted their horrifying expertise in a dialogue. Attended by Sheikh Hasina, the occasion included an exhibition and dialogue on the 2013-2015 nationwide violence when BNP and Jamaat waged a violent anti-government marketing campaign implementing a national blockade.
FAMILIES SEEK JUSTICE FOR LOST LOVED ONES
On 28 November 2013, Naheed, then 17, boarded a bus like many different passengers in Dhaka to succeed in dwelling. Little did he know that this might be the final journey of his life and he wouldn’t be capable to meet his dad and mom once more.
Because the bus reached the busy Shahbagh intersection, it was hit by petrol bombs hurled by BNP-Jamaat cadres and caught fireplace. Whereas many passengers have been lucky sufficient to get off the burning bus, Naheed failed and was burned alive.
“BNP-Jamaat hooligans burnt my son alive. 9 years have handed and people culprits are but to be dropped at justice. My solely want is to hunt justice for my lifeless son,” stated Rumi Begum, Naheed’s mom, sobbing inconsolably.
Nonetheless weighed down by the trauma of dropping her husband, Joshna Begum recounts her every day ordeals to deliver up three youngsters. Her police officer husband Bablu Miah was crushed to dying whereas on obligation by BNP-Jamaat goons on February 28, 2013.
Bablu was mercilessly crushed up and his physique left in items after he rushed out of a police station in northern Bangladesh when it was firebombed by BNP-Jamaat’s supporters.
Mom of three youngsters, Joshna expressed anguish on the tradition of impunity loved by the assailants and made an emotional enchantment to the PM, describing Sheikh Hasina as her mom and saying she was her “solely hope” to deliver her husband’s killers to justice. At one stage, Joshna touched her toes when Sheikh Hasina embraced her, tears rolling down their cheeks.
LINGERING TRAUMA FOR SURVIVORS
Truck driver Rafiqul Islam, who was injured in an analogous petrol bomb assault in Dinajpur, stated the burns had made it tough for him to search out work.
“The BNP-Jamaat’s petrol bomb assault made my life depressing,” he stated.
Rafiqul noticed the 2013-15 petrol bombings as much like the 1971 battle crimes. “I need stern punishment for individuals who attacked me and search blessings of the prime minister for my youngsters,” he stated.
Schoolgirl Anup Barua suffered lack of sight in her proper eye after a Molotov cocktail assault perpetrated by BNP-Jamaat supporters whereas she was on her solution to attend teaching courses on March 28, 2013.
Anup fondly recalled Sheikh Hasina’s help to rearrange for her higher therapy and wished the nation by no means once more plunged into avenue terror unleashed by the BNP-Jamaat supporters.
“I want in future nobody in my nation must endure such a tragic story solely to fulfill BNP Jamaat’s lust for grabbing energy,” she stated.
‘VIOLENCE IN NAME OF POLITICS NOT ACCEPTABLE’
Advocate Khodeja Nasreen Akhter was on the identical bus as Naheed. However she managed to leap off the bus together with her left hand burning. Rushed to the hospital and placed on intensive therapy, she survived. Later nominated as a member of parliament from reserved seats for girls because of PM Hasina, Khodeja additionally urged the prime minister to stop a recurrence of an analogous cycle of dreadful violence.
Even journalists weren’t spared.
Abu Sayeed Tamanna, a photo-journalist from Chittagong, survived a knife assault by BNP supporters whereas taking footage of them distributing petrol bombs within the port metropolis.
“I used to be taking photographs from a distance. They [BNP men] have been distributing petrol bombs amongst themselves. I bought chased after which attacked with knives. My head was smashed with bricks. I could look regular, however I’m nonetheless recovering from that assault. Hurting individuals within the title of politics isn’t acceptable. All of us worry for our lives,” Tamanna added.
Like Tamanna, there are at the very least 3,000 survivors nonetheless affected by the scars of dreadful terror acts unleashed by BNP-Jamaat supporters. 500 individuals have been burnt alive and property price billions destroyed in that unprecedented wave of avenue terror.
PM VOWS STRINGENT SAFETY MEASURES
Deeply moved by the survivors’ accounts, Sheikh Hasina met nearly all households current there.
In a strongly worded speech, the PM warned towards avenue violence within the title of the guise of holding political rallies.
“We’d at all times welcome peaceable opposition actions,” she stated, however in the case of violent assaults, she vowed to go robust to make sure security of her residents.
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