for the past few days i have been following the recent crisis in bangladesh. since i am so far away, i depend on the internet and blog updates. i didn’t want to write about this until i got a proper understanding of what exactly was going on. the last few days were a blur of confusion. on the day of the shootings (it was night in virginia) i was surfing the web when i saw that one by one, facebook statuses were changing, blogs were being updated by the minute and news headlines were iffy and confused. this was followed by broken tidbits of information, in which (still) nothing was completely clear. the truth is i still don’t understand what the hell happened or what exactly triggered this bloody and barbaric act of violence. the media is claiming that it is due to grievances that the bdr jawans had with their superiors. in addition to this there was the accusation of corrupt bdr senior officers and army officials swindling crores of taka from the chain of fair-price stores known as operation daal-bhaat. while we understand that these issues and the repression of these bdr mutineers for years and years may be ample cause for protest, is this kind of action acceptable? is it okay now for us to take up arms whenever someone rips us off or our bosses reap the benefits of our hard work while we suffer? is this the justification for an act of such cold blooded mass murder? can this really be another case of ruffled feathers caused by oppression? or is this entire incident tied to something more sinister? some people claim that this is all a plot to make the current government look bad by its opposition. in an ideal world it would be unfathomable for a party to sacrifice so many lives for the sake of political gain but we all know that in this case, bangladesh is definitely not an exception and that all over the world there are similar situations in which the powerful continuously exploit their might and the people on the bottom suffer as a result.
dhaka was not prepared for the shootout at the bdr headquarters. in fact in the beginning most people assumed that the damage, since it did not extend to civilians, was minimal and that the situation was under control by nightfall. within a matter of days it seemed like hasina had successfully quelled the situation, seemingly passing her first test as a democratically elected leader of our nation with flying colours.
but she was not prepared for the discoveries of the days that followed. i guess no one was.
mass graves. that’s what the newspapers all over the world are calling them. as the days pass more and more bodies are being found in these shallow mass graves just outside the bdr headquarters. what a nice euphemism for the careless discarding of human remains, in a sewer no less — a strong indication of how little life is valued in our nation. and do we blame them? haven’t we become immune to the suffering of others? don’t we see little and minor wrongdoings every day when we look outside our ac’d car windows. it is such a shame that it takes something of this volume to open our eyes and make us realise just how far we have fallen, and how deeply we are ingrained in the web of injustice.
violence is something that has never really made sense to me. it is something that sidelines real and effective conflict resolution and only further aggravates the situation, and ruins lives for no particular reason. it may seem like i am oversimplifying matters but it really is that black and white. you are either alive or you are dead. your life is either content or it is tinged with destruction. everything in between makes no difference and if you think otherwise try explaining it to the bereaved families of those army officials. people like soniya, for example, who is 8 months pregnant, and is due in mid march just as i am. like me her life was bursting at the seems with happiness and hope, with new opportunities and adventures right around the corner. and in one moment, the light in her life blew out. her husband has been missing since wednesday and her child will, in all likelihood, be born without a father. but her story is not the only one which should be told. they are all alike, women like soniya who have lost their husbands. families who have lost their sons or fathers, husbands and brothers. each has a separate story to tell, each has a different bone-chillingly haunting memory of the gruesome events of that fatal day, but each one is united in his or her pain. it is now being ‘unearthed’ along with the bulleted and bayonetted bodies, that bdr senior officers and army officials were not the only victims in this bloodbath. no, these mutineers, decided to take it a step further, looting the houses of the officers, raping their wives and killing their children — people who had nothing to do whatsoever with operation daal-bhaat and the chain of command at the bdr. what excuse do these murderers have for slaying innocent people, for humiliating and degrading women by violating them, in addition to taking away their loved ones? what can they possibly hope to gain by such inhumane acts of barbarism? and how on earth did they ever think that they could get away with this? has our country, our government given them some kind of indication in the past or present that they are infallible?
will we never catch a break? we had such high hopes in december, because for the first time we felt like we could take our future, our lives into our own hands. for the first time in my lifetime at least, there was a light ahead of the tunnel for bangladesh, albeit small and almost indecipherable. i felt like we were headed in the right direction. because i felt like the masses finally had the power to make a difference. it is a sad, sad reality that only two months later we are stuck in an abyss of darkness and bangladesh has fallen yet again.
my prayers are with all the families who have lost their loved ones, and also for my burning city. what will become of us now? this is only the beginning.
hope you enjoy my random thoughts.
