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HUJI tried to kill Sheikh Hasina: Conspiracy Theory Or Truth?

File photo from BanglarChokh

It was 5.23 pm on 21st august 2004 when Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina was wrapping up a rally protesting Sylhet blasts. A wave of grenade attacks on her left at least 16 people killed and left around 200 persons critically injured including top Awami League leaders Abdur Razzak, Amir Hossain Amu, Suranjit Sengupta, Ivy Rahman and Kazi Zafarullah.

The party secretary on Women affairs Ivy Rahman died in the Hospital later in the day. The unknown assailants fired seven bullets at the bulletproof SUV that Hasina boarded immediately after the blast.

The unusually poor deployment of police at the rally and the absence of forces on nearby building rooftops are a remarkable deviation from the usual practice.

Motaher Hossain, general secretary of AL Krishak League said some people on the roof of Ramna hotel and adjacent building were throwing bombs. At least 13 grenades exploded one after another, and also who were present on the spot told a white Microbus carried of some injured person who were among the assailant and were wounded by their own bomb.

Blame game started at the very moment Hasina spoke out loud about government’s conspiracy to kill the remaining member of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujiber Rahman’s remaining family members, BNP leaders hold back and Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan commented that they have blamed the government out of emotion. But soon BNP leaders changed their tone and started to blame AL for attacking their own rally, they argued AL had done it to destabilize the country and discredit the government only to grab the power.

Fiction and conspiracy theories were put forward by various columnists in the media. Pro Awami columnists blamed the fundamentalist forces and the right wing coalition government for this attack while pro BNP columnists blamed AL and pointed finger towards the country’s biggest neighbor India.

However most columnists inclined towards Awami league and left parties and leaders and activists of these parties discovered a pattern in the bomb blasts. In most cases secular forces and those who believe in culture, tradition and democratic values had been the target. The same group was behind the attack on Hasina’s rally.

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Served and protected by the trigger happy gang

For me, the most alarming news of this week was the report published in bdnews24.com on 8th August, about the death of militant leader, Tapan Malitha. He was killed on 18th June this year. According to RAB officials the leader of a banned militant party died in an exchange of gunfire with Rapid Action Battalion in Kushtia early Wednesday, Tapan and his associates were staying at Rikta’s house- a woman that died alike. As the joint forces closed in, Tapan and his men began firing. RAB returned fire. Tapan died in the exchange of gunfire, though others managed to flee the scene.

But according to the human rights watch organization Odhikar’s report, it was not a mere incident of shoot out but a cold blooded murder. Tapan’s brother Akash, who was also killed in a similar fashion later, told Odhikar that “RAB personnel raided Tapan’s house at dawn and shot him dead at close range,They shot Rikta in the head and feet who was also in the house, leaving her dead at the scene.

Rikta’s mother said her daughter was involved in the business of ready made garments and sarees, and there was no case filed against her at any police station. But why did the RAB kill Rikta? May be to ensure that no traces were left behind of their brutality, insensitiveness and their audacity,

According to Ansar Ali, a village policeman, Rikta’s dead body also bore evidence of struggles with her persecutors. It seems that the poor girl did not gave up easily, she fought for her life and alas, she had no God, no Goddess or any sensible law abiding personal in this elite force who never for a moment had thought, what they were doing was illegal, who would feel for that poor girl, would do something to help her. What the trained state authorized killers did was to kill her in a cold blooded fashion.

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