Bangladesh to enhance security amid violence

Dhaka: Administrative chiefs of Bangladesh’s 40 out of 64 districts have sought deployment of security forces as nationwide violence over 1971 war crimes trial claimed 67 lives while Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) is visibly trying to fight back to save their stalwarts from exposure to justice.

Officials and reports said deputy commissioners or administrative chiefs and local police administrations of the 40 districts asked for deployment of paramilitary and army troops in aide of police to the higher government authorities since JI waged a violent campaign to thwart trial of their top leaders for Liberation War time “crimes against humanity”.

Bangladesh Bank also sought more security for banks and financial institutions in a letter sent to Home ministry with its officials saying incidents of attacks on branch offices of some banks and ATM booths in various places took place recently.

In the past one week JI activists attacked security people, torched trains, uprooted tracks, vandalised Hindu temples and even mosques and ransacked government offices when police and paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) troops used gunshots in areas or pockets which appeared strongholds of the fundamentalist party.

The top bureaucrat or secretary of the public administration ministry Abdus Sobhan Shikdar told newsmen required steps would be taken in view of the requests by the local administrations but they were asked to take precautions themselves to avert clandestine attacks.

“The violence could spread from one area to another and therefore the UNOs (administrative chiefs of sub districts) have been asked to enforce vigils in their respective areas,” Shikdar said.

Home minister Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir last night confirmed that 67 people were killed in the countrywide violence while unofficial estimates put the figure as high as 75 during the violence since Thursday when a special tribunal handed down death penalty to JI vice president Delwar Hossain Sayedee for 1971 war crimes.

The judgement came amid an intensified demand for the capital punishment for war criminals while previous verdict last month against another JI stalwart sentencing him to life imprisonment sparked wide protests when thousands of “non-partisan” youths rallied on the capital organising the demonstration in internet blogs and facebooks to protest the lenient punishment.

Throughout the past one month they staged a round the clock non-violent sit-in vigil at Dhaka’s Shahbagh square demanding capital punishment of the war criminals and ban on JI and its affiliates and confiscating the businesses run by the extreme rightwing party while youths in other major cities continued to stage identical street protests.

But JI activists waged a violent campaign since the verdict against Sayedee with analysts saying faced with political isolation over the war crimes trials and a possible ban demanded by youngsters and pro-Liberation forces across the socio-political divide, the Jamaat-e-Islami was trying to fight back.

The JI enforced a 48-hour nationwide general strike ending Tuesday morning to mount pressures on the government to halt the war crimes trial while their crucial ally main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) enforced another daylong strike on Tuesday protesting the “police atrocities” on JI activists.

The deadly clashes left 67 people dead, with JI claiming most of them to be their activists while the dead included at least six policemen who were hacked to death or gunned down as law enforcement agencies said the extreme rightwing activists launched well planned attacks using “military strategy”.