On December 15, 2009 at 2:30 am, several armed robbers intruded into my house compound and at gunpoint, demanded the key to the entrance gates to my apartment from the housekeeper. When the courageous housekeeper refused to handover the key, they assaulted him severely with a sharp knife. My entire family was completely terrified. We informed the Uttara Police Station and after almost 45 long minutes, police arrived on the scene. During the long wait, at the hue and cries of my family members, people in the neighborhood started coming in front of my house and because of this, the intruders cut and run.
After police arrived, they inspected the entire place of this attempted home invasion and assured us of an investigation. They also suggested for us to possible to lodge a formal complaint in the day time. Accordingly, my younger brother and executive editor of Weekly Blitz, Sohail Choudhury went to the Uttara Police Station with a complaint detailing the entire incident. But, police at this stage refused to register the complaint. They suggested Sohail Choudhury to write that three thieves entered the house and even did not let him mention about the assault on the housekeeper. When Sohail Choudhury wrote it as per their suggestion, police refused to officially receive this complaint. It may be mentioned here that, Uttara area is a part of the electoral constituency of the Bangladeshi Home Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun. This is an example of the worrisome state of lawlessness and inefficiency of the police in her own area. In this case, police in reality are actively trying to protect the culprits.
To understand the degree of complete lawlessness in the country, which ultimately turns Bangladesh into a nation in terror, we have to see several recent incidents below, where police officers were actually caught during robbery as well few cases of minority persecution, where police were giving shelter to the criminals, instead of according protection to the members of Bangladeshi Hindus.
On December 15, 2009, in the afternoon Assistant Sub the Inspector of Bangladesh Police, Mainul Huq [who was on duty at the Adabor police station in Dhaka] was nabbed by locals while he stopped two businessmen after they withdrew TK. 1.7 million [US$ 22,000] and snatched the entire amount from them. Other policemen involved in the crime managed to flee the scene. They were the sub-inspector of Kotwali police station Rowshan and a constable with the Dhaka Detective Branch named Saju.
When the culprit policeman was caught with the snatched amount, police from Paltan police station arrived on the scene and tried to rescue their colleague, refusing and to arrest him for the crime. Local people violently reacted at such an extremely illegal attitude of their police and continued to protest until senior officials from the department came onto the scene to arrest assistant sub inspector Mainul Huq for the crime. When Mainul Huq was being taken away in the police van, he was smiling and shouting at the businessman reminding them of the dire consequence they would face. The smiling face of this of this policeman appeared in a picture on Dhaka’s leading vernacular daily Manabzamin on December 16, 2009 on the back page. It is well understood by most that the Paltan police station will make all out efforts to save this culprit along with his thug members.
It may be mentioned here that, on February 22, 2009, armed men stormed into the office of Weekly Blitz, looted valuables and assaulted its members in the full presence of the police from Paltan police station. Most of the police stations in Bangladesh, during the present government, have turned into the safe haven of the criminals and members of Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies are continuing to do everything to save the criminals instead of taking legal actions against them. This has spiralled into the severe deterioration of law and order in the country. Even the Home Minister confessed on several occasions that the law and order situation was deteriorating in Bangladesh.
At Naranyanganj district [which is just 20 kilometers from the capital city], a minor Hindu girl named Swarna Biswas was abducted by groups of Muslims for forceful conversion recently. Family members of the victim went to Bandar police station and lodged a formal complaint. But police displayed total reluctance in taking any action against the perpetrators. They even are not taking any initiatives in rescuing the abducted girl. When contacted, many of the senior officials of Bangladesh police tried to term this notorious incident as a ‘mere romantic affair’. Even the officer-in-charge of Bandar police station told local human rights activist Advocate Robindra Ghosh that the case was not abduction but a ‘love affair’. Possibly Swarna Biswas will never be rescued and her abductors will be able to manufacture some marriage document, though she still is minor in age and according to Bangladeshi law, marrying a minor is a serious offense.
In fact, Bangladeshi law and law enforcement agencies are completely reluctant in according proper assistance to the members of religious minorities in all such cases of abduction and forceful conversion. When Awami League government came in power in January 2010, particularly the members of religious minority groups were happy as the party officially claims to be following secularist ideology and always were claiming to be the champion defenders of rights of religious minorities. But, the track record of past several months is extremely worrisome and it clearly leaves an alarming signal to the Bangladeshi Hindus as well as other members of the religious minorities that they are not safe in Muslim dominated Bangladesh and they may not even expect justice in the case of such abduction of any of the members of their families.
Swarna Biswas is just one case and surely there are hundreds which even fail to draw the media’s attention. Advocate Robindra Ghosh has already brought a few cases of abduction and forceful conversion of Hindus to the attention of the local and international media. But, in all cases, the ultimate result was tragic as none of the abducted members as returned to their families--not one!
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is the editor & publisher of The Weekly Blitz. He is a journalist, columnist, author and Peace activist. He is the recipient of PEN USA Freedom to Write Award 2005, Recipient of American Jewish Committee Moral Courage Award 2006.
Salah can be reached at: salahuddinshoaibchoudhury@yahoo.com
