Security forces with the help of Awami League stand accused of carrying out crackdowns upon residents of three villages in Mithapukur upazila in Rangpur. Sources have confirmed that many places of residence have been looted by the attackers, including that of recently elected upazila vice Chairman Abdul Baset Marjan, who had stood as a Jamaat supported candidate in the sub-district polls held in the previous year. People have been reported fleeing the security crackdown in anticipation of mass arrests in wake of an arson attack on a night coach in which four people were burnt to death at Mithapukur upazila in Rangpur early Wednesday, the 9th day of the blockade. Witnesses have described security forces as ransacking homes of the general people and carrying out mass arrests, even resorting to arresting the women where men could not be found. Families have reported their loved ones being arrested and taken to unknown locations by security forces and paramilitary force RAB. One witness reiterated tearfully that, “ Security forces arrested a man from our village in the afternoon and took him away without any charges. Now we hear that Awami League cadre Limon shot him in front of police. His wife has also been arrested and taken into custody by RAB.” Witnesses have informed that armed Awami League cadres continue to look for opposition activists. Many families have been forced to abandon their own homes as well for fear of being arrested, or worse, being subject to heinous attacks by the government forces aided by the Awami League cadres. Once of the affected women, while describing their difficult situation, informed that, “It is the height of the cold season here, and temperatures in Rangpur fall to very low limits. I have escaped with my family for fear of being arrested or harmed by the Awami League. We left everything behind. I have my old parent with me, and we have no warm clothes, food or any shelter. I don’t know how we will survive in this desolate condition.” Opposition activists have maintained that the arson attack being used to justify the present crackdown was a deliberate instance of sabotage aimed at shifting focus away from the widespread crackdown presently prevalent in Bangladesh in which hundreds have already been arrested , along with many senior leaders of the opposition BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami. In a synchronised move that seemed to signal the start of an even more hardline stance by the government in light of the Mithapukur arson incident, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy posted on his facebook page,” Last night BNP-Jamaat terrorists burnt four people to death on a bus in Rangpur. They have injured and killed several more in the past few days with their cowardly arson attacks. This is terrorism and murder. This will not stop until the leaders who order these terror attacks are brought to justice. The top leadership of the BNP should be charged with terrorism and murder.” International human rights organizations such as the HRW have called for restraint on part of the government in an alarming rise in human rights abuses in crackdown upon opposition activists in wake of an indefinite blockade called by the opposition parties after January 5, 2014, a call reiterated by several key international players such as the United States as well.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 18:07:08 +0000
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