'She made us fly higher but we chose to go by boat'
How would we close this case that is Bangladesh, just days after history was made when a student-led mass uprising led to the fall of a dictator? Will Hasina get to have the last laugh?
A frame-worthy photo, which up until 9pm on Tuesday (13 August) had only popped up in personal meme groups, showed something of a field day for, say, someone who likes to roll out classist jokes.
Two men – who looked like, well, some said fishermen while others said vegetable sellers – sprawling with their hands tied by ropes as three Coast Guard men stood above them in their uniform while one of them held a rifle.
Like fins caught in a fishing net, who we saw were none other than former law minister Anisul Huq and Salman F Rahman, former adviser to the recently ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
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'This just in': At around 7pm, we reported that the duo had been arrested from the Sadarghat area of the capital.
The irony, however, was not lost on any of the spectators. They attempted to flee by boat!
For the uninitiated, the boat is symbol to the former ruling party Awami League, especially since 1970 when Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman-led AL contested the general elections. The AL chose the boat symbol as Bangladesh is a riverine country and boats are the one dependable transportation.
My dear colleague Nayem Ali took to his Facebook and wrote, "How did Salman F Rahman and Anisul Huq get busted at Sadarghat – did they think the *boat* was their ticket to escape?"
A flurry of 'haha' reacts followed.
This fellow journalist friend of mine didn't stop there. In another post, Nayem recounted, "In 2022, I had to cover this fancy corporate event at Le Meridian. The star guest? Our very own 'Dorbesh Shaheb', who apparently thinks time waits for him—he was three hours late! I politely asked the organisers if he was ever going to show up or if I could just go home.
"With a straight face, they said, 'Oh, Sir's in a helicopter, he'll be here any minute now. Just wait a bit longer.' So there I was, humming 'Helicopter, Helicopter' in my head, waiting for this grand entrance.
"It's hard for me to imagine him clean-shaven and in a lungi, stuck at Sadarghat! So much for the helicopter!"
The meme culture did not fall behind either. A collage then started appearing on Facebook feed where Salman F Rahman was seen standing tall and proud in his neat and tidy white Panjabi, white tupi and signature white beard next to another image of a beardless man with dyed brown hair sporting a worn-out T-shirt and lungi, sitting down crossed legged. And it was titled "Project proposed vs final project".
The authenticity of the aforementioned photo, however undeniable after running through various tools, was not confirmed by DMP Commissioner Mainul Hasan. Responding to TBS, he said, "Won't be able to say anything about the photo but they will both be produced before the court, you can see then."
Asked under what circumstances they were arrested, Mainul Hasan further said, "We've arrested them. That's all we can say."
But under the extra ordinary circumstances, one can only imagine what the two might have talked about when they decided upon a constructive plan in choosing the waterways as a safe exit.
AH: That platinum beard, bro, anyone can spot it even in the middle of the ocean from a planet away.
SFR: Fine, I'll shave it then…What about my hair?
AH: Dye it.
SFR: Okay, what about fit-check?
AH: Let's twin. Blue lungis. We'll blend right into the deep blue sea, they won't even spot us.
SFR: So, helicopter ride?
AH: No, bro. Boat forever. Let's row!
Enter Coast Guard.
SFR: What gave us away? Was it the glasses?
AH: Nah, man, your nose.
If this were a movie, you can imagine what the opening scene would be, by popular demand.
Cut to the next scene: By midnight, another ghost from beneath the surface made rounds. Rumours flooded social media platforms about the arrest of Obaidul Quader, former minister of Road, Transport and Bridges, and 17 other ministers and MPs in Jashore.
Another photo, however unauthenticated, popped up on socials. Obaidul Quader collaged with a blurry image of a man in a blue sweater and pants, grabbed by the elbow by a uniformed officer, behind him a police official and a few others plain-clothed.
For those munching on popcorns on this eventful last 24 hours, the man in the photo wearing glasses would play as a motif, seeing as how Anisul and Salman were also wearing glasses at the time of their arrest as they do in general.
The anti-climactic turn for the night was when debunking the claims, Jashore Superintendent of Police (SP) Masud Alam said he had no information about Quader or any minister being arrested last night in the district.
The SP told TBS, "There is no truth to the reports of Obaidul Quader and others being detained in Jashore…After thoroughly checking the matter, I found no information to support the rumours."
An earlier image, circulated on 5 August showed Quader, sitting on a plane with a jaded expression, as though from relief. But we couldn't confirm whether or not he had left the country.
So, more posts were making comebacks on socials memorialising Quader's speeches, largely unrelated to politics, and people captioned those with, "We will miss you." It wasn't from sympathy, don't get me wrong.
A snippet of one such speech was when Obaidul Quader, at an event, dedicated a poem to his party leader Sheikh Hasina.
"She has made us stand taller, She has made us feel brighter, She has made us look smarter, She has shown us out of darkness, She has shown us out of poverty…She has made us fly higher."
In this context, to that first photo of Salman and Anisul, somewhere on Facebook, people even commented, "She has made us [go on] a journey by boat…She has made us clean shaved."
While the whereabouts of former minister Quader, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, among others, remain a mystery to the public, the call for bringing them to book remains ever blaring.
This absurdist satire that is now the current unfolding of events also includes the notorious former DB chief Harun or Rashid.
He last garnered public attention following the detention of six coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement at his "Bhater Hotel" within the DB office.
A High Court ruling characterised the practice of bringing individuals to the DB office and seating them at a dining table as a "mockery of the nation".
Like several senior police officials closely affiliated with the Hasina government, he has been absent from the public eye since the fall of the government due to the mass uprising on 5 August.
According to his family members, colleagues, he is neither at his own home nor at any of his relatives' homes. He has been in hiding.
Although the ex-city mayors and other government officials haven't really been making headlines, such as former Dhaka North mayor Atiqul Islam, former Dhaka South mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh was spotted by the TBS boarding a flight to Singapore on 3 August. He was travelling alone wearing a black suit and carrying a small handbag.
"Though the country was burning, there was no sign of this on his face. He looked very fresh with well done hair. He sat in the first row of the cabin. Though, I could not see him as I was sitting in the last row on the same side but I could sense that he had a long sleep as he was served food just 30 minutes before landing on a four-hour long flight," a TBS article reads.
The one antagonist in the story that trumps nearly all safe exit plans so far seeming to go haywire would be Sheikh Hasina; moved to a safe but undisclosed location in India, PTI reported on 5 August, quoting unnamed sources.
As this detective saga continues – witch-hunts, major reshuffles, barrage of murder cases being filed, the new interim government working to take prompt and swift action, the common people are occupied with reviewing the bread crumbs to such an unprecented series of events.
The seemingly perfect crime; the red-herrings; the bungling of dim-witted police; the greater powers of observation and superior mind of the detective, or in this case netizens and general public; and the startling and unexpected denouement.
Ingrained within us all now is a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and an Agatha Christie.
So, if we were to put on our detective hats and go into our 'Mind Palace' pulling a Sherlock Holmes, where would we begin, whom would we hunt next, and how would we close this case that is Bangladesh, just days after history was made when a student-led mass uprising led to the ousting of the Hasina-led government, commonly regarded as the fall of a dictator? Will Hasina get to have the last laugh?
