Untold Facts

Witch Hunting Style for Joan of Arc!

Law and Order
That the law and order situation have gone down to worse if not to the worst, is nothing secret or one can hide. How much was that on usual course or engineered cannot be said with certainty. But the way things have surfaced it looks like more engineered than got the shape business as usual.

Coincidence
Things made curious coincidence. MP Taposh’s news, the HT (Hizbut Tahrir) Chief Mohiuddin’s house arrest and remand of Mehnaz Rashid with her 4 month old baby and others like him the two sons Sohel and Imran of convict Mohiuddin connected to the 15th August 1975 ‘murder’ trial can hardly be thought of in isolation from one another. All these propped up at the home return after one-week absence from the country of the P.M. on the 27th October made it more amazing and still of bigger curiosity.

Taposh
The episode began on the 22nd October night. A bomb like sound was heard in front of the office compound of honorable M.P. Taposh, P.M.’s nephew. The DB police initially stated (Weekly Holiday, 23 October) that the sound came of a bursting A.C. air compressor. But later on the matter was made a bomb attack on the M.P. by ‘terrorists’ as the M.P. stated formally later on to the police (FIR) that the terrorists had attacked him for killing by a bomb. He went on further that the attackers were all relations of the convicts of the 15th August 1975 ‘murder’ trial hearing now going on in the Supreme Court since the 5th October. So the police started to arrest and put on remand relations like sons, daughter and even four months old grand- daughter of some death convicts in the case made in the lower courts. Khondoker Rashid’s daughter and baby granddaughter now on remand first for five days and then renewed for another four days on the 30th October. His wife Zobaeda Rashid was put on such long remand in 1996 but released due to pressure of lobbyist from international human rights organizations.

Blame Game
It is a pity that the propaganda has got on that the bombing was made for delaying, diverting and even forcing the trial to be abandoned in the Supreme Court!

Hizbut Tahrir
The propaganda episode against ‘terrorists’ accompanied another incident. The HT, one of many Islamic intellectual organizations, was ordered banned by the Government on the same day for alleged ‘anti-state’ and ‘terrorist’ activities. The following day its offices sealed, documents taken away by police, the Chief had been put on house arrest and forcibly retired from his job, Associate Professor at the Dhaka University. The propagandist have not clearly said anything of the connection of the ‘terrorists’ of the 15th August related matter but it seems fairly clear that the coincidence made something fishy about so far as the police swoop on the imagined terrorists were concerned.

Alleged Threat to AG
The alleged letter of life threat the Attorney General claimed to have received almost at the same time but the letter written on the 3rd October having his name rightly spelled when many do mistakes in spelling, possibly in Bengali language, and received after 22 days or three weeks whereas the letter should not have taken more than two days in postal mail from the date of posting, and the main threat to take lives of the family members in ‘15 days’ as the civilian General told media men though expired on the 18th October and nothing happened as yet made things still fishier.

CHITRKUT
The propaganda has gone on to fabricating CHIRKUT business by some media of seriously partisan attitudes. The story this media made was that the death convicts now in the Dhaka Central Prison have resorted to pass on information for the attack on Taposh by using the CHIRKUT (tiny piece of paper written thereon instructions for operation) and the CHIRKUTs being delivered to intended addressees through hiding in books! However, the jailor has categorically denied any such possibilities for the convicts are kept behind iron bars additionally protected along with by iron screen from any possible contact with visitors permitted once in a month.

Terrorist/ Patriot
‘Terrorist’ is a word misused and abused in many countries playing roles like lackeys of the big masters. It fetches easy money from the West. Unfortunately in almost all Muslim countries, the advanced intellectual Muslims are the main targets who believe and strive for Islamic egalitarianism in their own societies against comprador lackeys of the bourgeoisie West. Both Mohiuddin and the 15th August heroes, as far as I could assess, believed in the same ideology and goals. That is why the Islamic/Muslim nationalist groups have been made targets of the ongoing swoops by the police, and some 31more to face the penalty according a list of the DB published in a Dhaka English language daily on the 28th October.

Miscarriage of Justice
The 15th August 1975 episode was in no way a ‘terrorist’ act but a successful coup d’ ‘etat that enjoyed legal indemnity for 21 years from the day of occurrence to the day Sheikh Hasina Government swooped on the heroes and deeply patriots as ‘terrorists and killers’ in late 1996. Her abuse and gross misuse of State power of Bangladesh ditched 15 heroes to death sentence and into the condemned cell of the Dhaka prison for over 13 years now in what in legal terms rightly called the miscarriage of justice. That the trial had only been miscarriage of justice was further evidenced by at least three Justices of the High Court and Supreme Court. On 2001 March 26 one retired Chief Justice giving an interview with the London based BBC Bengali Service Radio did not hide about the miscarriage of Justice in the matter by commenting on the issue that the 15th August 1975 case could not be of any simple murder case but was a political matter too. On the 26th March 2002, one seating judge of the High Court talking to the Dhaka English daily, The Independent, that after one hundred years everybody would say that the judgment was nothing of a real judgment In the same issue he further harshly commented that was published as that the then Army Chief General Safiullah should have been made an accused and not a witness. On the 16th August 2008 many Dhaka dailies had a first page news that quoted a retired Supreme Court Justice that should there be any demand for hanging of Faruq (number one accused in the case), Safiullah should be hanged to death before hanging Faruq. That was a brief on the speech the Justice made in a discussion meeting held in Dhaka on and about the 15th August incident of the successful coup d’ ’etat. Anything short of the coup the notorious lone party BAKSAL dictatorship would not end, much less multi-party parliamentary democracy restored as the country has been enjoying with pride, particularly, since after adopting the 5th Amendment of the Constitution.

Possibility of Interference
Provided that the Appeal now under hearing at the Supreme Court Five Member Bench is not unduly interfered with, they would receive fair justice that would not be liked by the party in power and their top boss. That is why, it is easy to presume that they have engaged themselves to foil the fair trial in most likely ending the previous miscarriage of justice done through creating side issues and putting all blames to the relations of the convicts, five in custody and six in hiding. The presumption has firm basis in the previous facts that they had created vicious scenes during 1996 to 2001 when they remained in the State power in intimidating the judges of the Session Judge Court and then of the two High Court benches. Whether they had then acted as ‘terrorists’ or not may be judged by sane souls.

Propaganda
The likely propaganda by Barrister Taposh and by the Civilian General has to be seen in the overall context and not as isolated issues that would certainly bare open their evil intension to do not only for witch hunting afresh but also for getting the verdict as they would love to have through intimidating the judges and the also victims seeking fair justice from the miscarriage went on so far. For the propaganda they advanced reason for killing a child as highly offensive. None should forget the fact that in revolutionary coups such bloodletting is not uncommon. In the Russian Revolution of 1917 the revolutionaries killed on the 16th July 1918 at deep midnight the notoriously oppressive Russian Czar but also their family members including servants and even a disabled child.

Cr. P. C. Enough
If they meant real containment of real terrorists, they could well neutrally and without any undue interference take up individual cases and put them to police and to the due process of law under the existing Cr.P.C. But they are most unlikely to go for the due process of law, because, then the party cadres in thousands now in real terrorist businesses in rent seeking, tender snatching, illegal property grabbing using all muscle power are all the Awami cadres, leaders, etc. most likely to be netted.

Intimating in Old Style
They are all not only for intimidating the judges, the convicts, their family members, their moral sympathizers but also for creating a hype for resorting to terrorist actions in case the Supreme Court Appeal verdict would not be liked by them just as they did near anarchy earlier following the Split High Court Verdict in December 2000.

Joan of Arc
Should the miscarriage of justice remains unresolved and the due process in reality becomes judicial murder, it could be of like some other unfortunate historical fact of the fifteenth century France wherein the deeply patriotic fighter for the country against England, the 19 year old Joan of Arc was convicted as a witch by an English church and so burnt to death in 1431 A.D. On expiry of 489 years another French church in 1920 A.D. elected and declared Joan of Arc as the Saint or of one of the Catholic priest of the highest spiritual order.

Author: Dr.M.T. Hussain