Good evening everyone!
I would like to express my heartiest gratitude to Deutsche Welle for giving me the opportunity to speak on this
auspicious event.
I would like to pay my deepest tribute to those who
have lost their lives for freedom of speech and freedom of expression. I
remember Avijit Roy, I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to
publish a few of his significant works. I was also lucky enough to be friends
with him. I remember with great respect all those people who have fallen victims
to brutal murder one after another only due to their practice of free thinking and
freedom of speech. And how can we forget those who have survived by chance but
continue to live in pain and distress due to their physical and emotional
injuries?
Dear friends, I myself suffer from short term memory loss or blurry
vision as a result of the violent physical attack on me. I apologize in advance
if my speech seems affected by these flaws.
I would like to express solidarity with
and
love for those who we are here for today, the people who are living in exile in
their own countries forced to live a miserable life in their
own homeland.
Ladies and gentleman, this is the state of
Bangladesh right now, an extremely heart-rending picture.
Political Islam is very powerful in Bangladesh
right now. All political parties, those who are in power and those who are not,
are dependent on political Islam for their own empowerment. The powerful
political parties are expressly very loyal to Islam. The influence of political
Islam has brought about significant social and cultural change in Bangladesh in
the last 20-30 years.
The usually simple religious ceremonies have turned into
splendid and pompous celebrations against the all-embracing cultural events of
the Bengali life. There’s been a huge increase in
religious television programs which the extremist Islamic groups are hugely
benefiting from.
Islam and one’s Bengali identity have been very
cleverly placed in a controversial position after 1975 while Islam and the concept of Pakistani nationalism, which was denounced and defeated in
1971 through a bloody liberation war, have somehow been placed
together in a parallel line. And the deadly result is today’s Bangladesh.
Due to these destructive political Islamic activities
and their effort in encroaching the educational institutes of Bangladesh, the progressive student politics has almost disappeared. The fundamentalist
Islamic groups have twice had the opportunity to form coalition government.
According to them this is close t an Islamic revolution.
At the beginning of this century
the use of internet became very rife and Bangladeshi youth get used to using
group mail and practicing blogging which created an opportunity for people to
express themselves. It became a platform for the young generation to break the
taboo of conventional politics and newspaper culture which helped to spread the
spirit of the liberation war. These online activists performed the difficult
task of recording the true history of our liberation war.
On the other hand , political Islam didn’t remain inactive either. They
engage in online debates about the liberation of Bangladesh, the issue of
bringing war criminals to justice and also about the laws and history of
Bangladesh. But the Islamists are easily
angered by logic, and have no faith in science and they display a fascist
attitude by not accepting any criticism to their belief. They plan and attempt
taking control over the social and government institutes considering it a part
of their ‘Jihad’ in the process of bringing about their desired revolution.
On the other hand, the young generation started becoming more alert
against these violent fascists through their online and blog activism. More
writings, more activities start taking place about these issues which becomes a
threat to political Islam, and they start planning a new war in the fashion of
the one that took place in 1971. They make a blueprint to kill activists,
bloggers, and intellectuals. As a part of this huge plan, they start creating
chaos in the country by triggering the religious feelings of the ordinary
people of the country in the name of Hefazat e Islam. They label the activists and bloggers as atheists claiming their execution
while declaring their killing to be a virtuous act.
This is how 2013 starts in Bangladesh. Before then poet Shamsur Rahman
was threatened to be killed. Poet
Humayun Azad, a brave voice against extremism and communalism, was hacked to
death in the bookfair field. Gonojagoronmoncho, a platform for online activist
came into existence in the process of the demand for bringing war criminals to
justice. This platform became a new hope for the ordinary people, a new
liberation war against fundamentalism and communalism which became a threat to
the upholders of political Islam. Therefore they hacked to death blogger Ahmed
Rajib, one of the activists of Gonojagoron Moncho, and attacked a few other
activists of Gonojagoron Moncho one of whom was Asif Mohiuddin. Later these
evil forces coupled with the media supported by them kept publishing lists of
names of bloggers and online activists threatening to kill them. At one point
the Bangladesh Government become a part of this process and following demands
of Hefazat e Islam an official list of atheist bloggers was made and published
and circulated in national and international media. This created a huge unrest
across the country and the activists whose names were published attempted
leaving the country as they started feeling insecure. At this time a few
bloggers were arrested and their laptops were confiscated. They were subjected
to physical and emotional torture. As a result even those bloggers who were not
listed panicked which affected their day to day living.
As a continuation of these events, Avijit Roy, a writer and the founder
of Muktomona blog was hacked to death on 26th February, 2015. He was
not just a writer, but an organizer who worked towards creating writers.
On the night when Avijit was murdered, I was also threatened to be
killed and my office to be bombed. Avijit’s wife and Muktomona writer Bonna
Ahmed was also attacked and seriously injured on 26th February but
luckily she survived. Then three other
bloggers were killed in the following months, Washikur Babu and in April,
Anonoto Bijoy in May, and Niloy Neel in August.
Even after these serial killings Bangladesh government kept claiming
these were scattered occurrences. Shammi Haque who is here now was also chased
with chapatis, but she was lucky enough leave behind the life of Lalmatia. I have
also succeeded in leaving my life of Lalmatia. And the price is my blood, my
dreams, a household that had taken 20 years to put together, and an established
business. My friends Ranadipam Basu and Tareq Rahim can’t move their hands
properly yet, and are in living in extreme fear at the moment.
On the very day when I was attacked they also attacked and killed Faysal
Arefin Deepan of Jagriti Prokashoni. When I heard about his death the next day
from my wife, I felt extremely guilty for being lucky enough to survive because
luck didn’t favour Deepan like it did me. It’s difficult to find a meaning of
life when you can see someone else die in front of you or count their last
few moments; you watch them but there’s nothing
you can do. I wrote a little poem for Deepan lying in my hospital bed.
On a night of the late autumn
Only a stone’s throw way
Dipon lies in the morgue
And the three of us still breathe
In the heaven of emergency ward.
Bangladesh is truly passing through a difficult
time now. With naked eye you can see a democratic government ruling with no
political unrest or excitement. There’s no civil war, no troubles among groups.
There’s not even a food crisis.
And yet in this apparently peaceful country one
after another bloggers, writers, publishers, free thinking teachers, members of
the minority communities, baul singers, honest police officers are being
attacked or killed. And yet some people are still living in exile in their own
homes. They can’t sleep peacefully in their own beds. They’ve had to give up
their jobs or businesses and are living like wanderers. Some of them are trying
to obtain tourist visas to escape into neighbouring countries. They do have the
right to live like humans. And the government is obliged to provide them with
the security needed to live a safe life.
But the strange thing is if one goes to the police
after being threatened to be killed the police advise them to leave the country
and go somewhere else as Bangladesh is not a place for free thinking. After the
31st of October the prime minister had said in tea party arranged for journalists that if
someone speaks against religion her feelings get hurt too. This statement of
hers must have encouraged groups like Ansar al Islam who had accepted the
responsibility for the attacks on us. On 14th April the prime
minister said in the Bangla New Year celebration that the government can’t take
responsibility for the murder of bloggers and atheists. This kind of comments
only incites the extremist Islamists. To this day none of the killers has been
brought to justice, and the killings continue.
How can you accept this situation in the twenty first century? I know
still writers bloggers and journalists are being tortured in Bangladesh, and I
don’t know if the same think is happening anywhere else in the world.
A few days ago the prime minister said she is well aware of the secret
killings and attacks. And the next day an
intense search/expedition by the combined forces started. We do welcome the
government’s steps to fight extremism and terrorism but I have seen in the past
that this kind of expeditions end up being a way of repressing anti-government
activities. Therefor this expedition
brings no peace to the hearts of those who are living in fear of losing their
lives.
Dear panelists, in agreement with your views and opinions, I would like to
request you to write your report and make your plans in a manner which will
speed up the process of relocating A,B,C,D because their
lives are in danger; there is no doubt that the extremists Islamists will kill
them at the earliest opportunity. I hope other European countries will come
forward to help in this case.
Moreover there should be a
continuous diplomatic effort in trying to make the Bangladeshi government see
the need of safety and security of those free thinking bloggers and writers
still living in Bangladesh.
I still have a dream of non-communal, democratic, and progressive
Bangladesh. I dream of a peaceful humanist world.
