Most of my Dispatch readers may know that I am originally from Bangladesh, however I have been in the USA since 2001. Recently there was a mass uprising in Bangladesh against the apparently stable government of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
I remember the Jan. 6 “insurrection” in 2021. The losing party head, in fact encouraged his supporters to go to the U.S. Capitol building to overturn the results of the 2020 election. We were all horrified seeing that insurrection on live telecast. I commented at that time to my friends, if this happened in the most developed country then what would happen in third world countries?
In fact, that’s what happened in Bangladesh recently. It was a bloody mass uprising. More than 500 people died.
What happened in Bangladesh is also an insurrection to overthrow the Hasina government, who ruled 15 years as an authoritarian regime. It started with an ordinary student’s movement to change the civil service employment quotas. It is being solved within two days, but behind the scenes there was a planned conspiracy to overthrow the government, and it was rumored that the U.S. government using Pakistan intelligence played a role because the prime minister didn’t have good relationship with the USA. After three weeks the student movement transformed to a people’s movement that forced the prime minister to step down on Aug. 5.
The opposition political parties including Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) and the most fundamentalist party, Jamat-e-Islam – comparable with Afghanistan’s Taliban – have joined with the student’s protests. The law enforcement forces used tear gas, acoustic weapons, rubber bullets and bullets to disperse the protesters. As a result, more than 200 people including students died. The agitated students group then demanded the prime minister step down. Finally, the Bangladesh military had to intervene. Ultimately, the government couldn’t survive and prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled and took shelter in India.
Most tragically, after the fall of the government, the people – mainly cadres of fundamentalists – started vandalizing and torching houses and buildings, even hospitals and museums. As they don’t believe in sculptures, statues, national symbols and cultural heritage and dislike minority Hindus, they destroyed everything around Bangladesh and ransacked and torched minorities’ homes. More than 300 additional people died. It was total anarchy in the absence of the law enforcement forces over four days with no government.
On Aug. 8 an interim government was formed with Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus as the head. However, the plight of being a minority in any third world country, especially in Bangladesh, is they always become a victim, no matter what. Bangladesh is a country where 90% are Muslim and the remaining 10% are Hindus, Christian, Buddhist, and tribal people.
For all history, minorities have been harassed, oppressed in some forms, even killed. During World War II, Anne Frank was one of 6 million innocent Jews exterminated by the Nazis. About three decades ago, the Bosnian Serbs killed almost 100,000 minority Muslims and Croats in the name of ethnic cleansing. Similar examples can be found in Rwanda, Cambodia. Ironically it is also true in Bangladesh. Since the neighboring country is India, the Hindus always become refugees in that country. It’s interesting to note that after the recent incidents in Bangladesh, the U.S., U.K. and European Union made statements to stop the violence against minorities. Currently, statements do not work. President Biden has been making statement after statement to stop the killing of innocent people of Gaza but it continues.
Jiben Roy, a native of Bangladesh, teaches chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences at Mississippi University for Women. He writes occasional column in the Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Jiben Roy, a native of Bangladesh, teaches chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences at Mississippi University for Women. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
