Rally held in Dhaka protesting decades of human rights abuses by the BNP-Jamaat coalition
Bringing together three generations of victims of human rights violations by BNP and Jamaat coalition in Bangladesh, a rally in the capital exposed their ordeals calling out at international allies of the nexus, for remaining silent over such trampling record of blatant violations.
The focus of the rally is to provide a wholesome perspective on phases of human rights violations in Bangladesh to address the one-sided and fabricated narrative that lends the impression that the present government is responsible for all human rights violations in Bangladesh and those has never happened before.
Freedom fighters and Biranganas( women victims) joined the rally along with family members of assassinated leaders like Khairuzzaman Liton (now Mayor of Rajshahi) whose father Qamruzzaman was murdered inside a jail along with three of his cabinet colleagues.
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The second generation of victims who suffered unspeakable atrocities at the hands of BNP-Jamaat cadres during the last Islamist government (2001-2006) will come from a broad spectrum – minorities, women, opposition activists et al.
The third generation of victims of BNP-Jamaat violence belong to families who suffered in the last decade.
"Bnp-jamaat and their international allies make much of the few cases human rights violation during the present government. Conveniently they attempt to overlook the long history of massive human rights violation durning the regime of bnp-jamaat. They're unwilling to even listen to the other side of the story --what about the 1971 Liberation War where three million Bengalis were killed and quarter million women was dishonored. Un has not yet organised 1971 atrocities as genocide", said Tarana Halim, president of Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote.
"In 1975 Ziaur Rahman enacted indemnity law and given indemnity to the killers of our architect of independence. We will make you people unheard voices heard. We will make you people the international human organisations, international alliance and bnp-jamaat to listen to unheard voices of this atrocities of bnp-jamaat heard loud and clear. Here them out, listen to them this is the entire decimation of human rights," questioned Tarana who is also a member of AL central executive committee member.
In less than a month after the attack that left Mujib with his family members killed, my father alongside three other top AL leaders were ruthlessly shot to death inside the prison on November 3, said Rajshahi Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton.
"At the behest of Gen Zia, these killers broke into the prison and killed my father. From attempts to annihilate the father of the nation and then eliminate then top AL leaders who were close associate to Mujib speak of a typical mindset that clearly stood against the spirit of the liberation war and rather plunge the country into a pit of communalism, the very menace that led us to fight for our freedom, but what about the rights of all of us, trampled blatantly by Gen Zia to solidify his grip on power", added Liton, a presidium member of AL.
Kamruzzaman Lenin, who also lost his father in the so-called purge, said, "These extrajudicial killings were executed from a political viewpoint - the ideology that opposed the country's independence and in independent land, the force made all-out efforts to wipe out the ideals our relatives fought for. I still don't know the remains of my father."
"You can't be selective in picking up rights issues and claim your organization is free of bias… the whole definition of human rights encompass abuse of rights issues as a whole but being selective clearly unravels a hypocrisy and double standard on part of such bodies," he added.
"What about my human rights", under the banner the families turned out at the event in Sahabagh.
In addition to family members of such victims who were executed under Gen Zia, several victims of BNP Jamaat's violence, during 2001 and 2006 also turned up at the event in demand of trial of the perpetrators, citing out scores of victims as the country witnessed communal attacks, killing of AL activists and leaders, systematic elimination of progressive writers and liberal thinkers when the country was led by BNP.
Another survivor of the 21st August grenade attack that had been aimed to eliminate then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina that she escaped narrowly but over 20 AL leaders and activists were killed on that tragic event, cited subsequent cover up dramas staged by then party led by Begum Zia and law enforcers' reluctance to try the perpetrators expose the nexus between militants and govt machinery.
Advocate Kazi Saharana Yasmin, a survivor of the grenade attack narrated her ordeals and recounted how BNP Jamaat led government backed the killers, making a mockery with their rights to justice.
