THE wholesale arrest of dozens of students and hundreds of leaders, activists and supporters of opposition parties in cases filed in connection with violence and vandalism during the student protests for reforms in government job quota is another misstep of the government, the like of which forced a peaceful protest into a violent one. This also reflects a remorseless and repressive attitude of the government and the Awami League that presides over the government.
More than 8,000 people, mostly opposition leaders, activists and supporters, have so far been detained by the police in their ongoing countrywide drives while many of them have been remanded in custody. More than 500 cases have, meanwhile, been filed, mostly by the police and ruling party people, in connection with violence and vandalism that took place during the student protests against thousands of people, mostly unnamed. Families of many of the arrested have alleged that they are denied contact with the arrested. The wholesale arrest blatantly ignores the 10-point guidelines issued by the Appellate Division in 2016.
Such cases, against named and unnamed people, and the wholesale arrest of opposition activists and dissenting people, in fact, appear to have become a common practice to suppress and harass political opposition and dissent and create an atmosphere of fear.
Law enforcement personnel have raided houses in areas where clashes erupted in July 18鈥�19. They are reported to have arrested many students and seized their mobiles. The attempt appears to be aimed at erasing the evidence of the mayhem that the law enforcers brought on protesting students and people. Dozens of cases have also been filed against students across the country.
Law enforcement agencies have also detained a number of protest leaders 鈥� at least three of them were picked up from a hospital where they were undergoing treatment for injuries that they had suffered when they were earlier picked up allegedly by law enforcers.
The duty doctors, who were forced to discharge on risks, said that two of the detained were in a critical condition. About a dozen people, identifying themselves as members of several intelligence agencies, including the Detective Branch, picked up the coordinators and took their mobiles and those of their families and attendants. They also detained a ward boy of the hospital. Initially, no law enforcement agencies admitted to the detention. Later, the home minister and the Detective Branch admitted that the three coordinators had been taken in custody to provide them with 鈥榩rotection鈥� and to interrogate them in connection with violence and vandalism.
When all these appear to be a continuation of the irrational path that the government took that turned the peaceful student protest into a violent one, the government high-ups and the law enforcement agencies are now apparently busy weaving a narrative with an aim to justify its actions. But, in a time like this when people have seen and experienced what has happened and have all the reasons to doubt every single statement that authorities make to create a partisan narrative, these statements and attempts are unpalatable and an insult.
The government is zooming in on vandalism while keeping quiet about the dead and the wounded at the hands of the police and ruling party activists. Some ministers, including the prime minister, have visited the sites that were vandalised during the protests and blamed 鈥榤iscreants鈥� for the vandalism and all that happened. The government even took a number of foreign diplomats along. The prime minister, in the wake of criticism and scorn, visited two hospitals, where dozens are still being treated and many are at risks of amputation and losing their eyesight.
Some ministers have, meanwhile, gone so far as to state that 鈥榤iscreants鈥� attacked and killed students wearing police uniforms. Similarly unbelievable is the police first information report that claims that the death of Begum Rokeya University student Abu Sayeed was caused by the gunfire by protesters when widely circulated and clear video footage shows that he was shot at close range by the police. In fact, many hard-to-believe footages and pictures of law enforcers shooting at close range at protesting students have already made the rounds on various websites, social media accounts and newspapers.
The government has, however, put in its maximum effort to stop the free flow of information by shutting down the internet and then partially restoring it. Access to social media is still denied, while the government continues its campaign of disinformation and publicises elements of its partisan narrative as forcefully as it can.
This is shocking and outrageous that the government still propagates a partisan narrative that it believes can justify its actions now when its unexplainably brutal response to the student protests has already left at least 211 people, mostly students, dead and thousands more injured.
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Monwarul Islam is an assistant editor at 抖阴精品.