BNP or JEI Alliance’s plot to capture state power

 The Islamist nationalist forces in the country, represented by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI), have embarked upon meticulously worked out plans to create large scale lawlessness and anarchy with the objective of subverting the ongoing trial of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Pak collaborators of 1971. Series of hartals and  shut-downs are being enforced regularly to create anarchy under various pretexts.  The main objective is to raise the bogey of Islam as a tool to capture state power by overthrowing the democratically elected Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League (AL) government.

Junaid Babunagari, Secretary General of Hefazat-e-Islam, a Qaumi Madrassa based Islamist hardliner group, has revealed in his confessional statement to a Metropolitan Magistrate that the Hefazat-organized rally at Motijheel’s Shapla Chattar on May 5 was patronized by BNP/JEI Alliance with a view to ousting the Sheikh Hasina government. He admitted that some members of his organization, in collusion with JEI and its student front Islami Chhatra Shibir, BNP and its student and youth fronts Chhatra Dal and Jubo Dal respectively created mayhem in and around Shapla Chattar and Baitul Mukarram Mosque on the day. Arrested on May 6, the Islamist leader also named Hefazat’s 14 leaders who had financial dealings with the BNP/ JEI Alliance leaders. He further disclosed that Hefazat workers in collusion with the BNP and JEI activists went on rampage torching shops and Quran Sharif in Motijhil, Paltan and Baitu Mukarram areas. Destabilizing forces were let loose to indulge in vandalism, looting, arson, exploding bombs and attacking police.

Babunagari further disclosed that when he informed the Hefazat chief about the violence unleashed by his party workers along with BNP and JEI workers, he was told to keep his mouth shut. “Our movement was not merely to press for the 13- point demand. Now this will be a movement to oust the government. The BNP led Alliance will provide all sorts of assistance – money, food and water. We have reached an understanding on this issue. We will stay here until the fall of the government”, Babunagari was told.

 This attempt to overthrow the duly elected government does not stand in isolation, but it is integral to a larger plot to destabilize the AL government with an ulterior motive. The AL government is viewed as an enemy of the Two Nation theory propounded by Pakistan and therefore to the Islamist nationalist forces, it is an anathema.  

Recently, Bangladesh army disclosed that it had foiled a plot by more than a dozen “religiously fanatic” officers to overthrow the democratically elected government of Sheikh Hasina. “We have unearthed a heinous conspiracy to overthrow the democratic government through the army”, Army spokesman Brig Gen Masud Razzaq said in a statement on January 19, 2012. “The attempt has been thwarted with the wholehearted efforts of army soldiers,” the statement said, adding that the plot had been fomented by Bangladeshi expatriates in touch with ‘religiously fanatic’ army officers. Giving details about the failed coup, which was unearthed in December, 2011, Gen Razzaq said an officer of the rank of Major who was now on the run circulated emails to different serving officers detailing a plan to overthrow the Government on January 9-10, 2012. The Islamist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT), banned in Bangladesh in 2009 was directly involved in this attempt to overthrow the Government, the statement added. 

The banned radical outfit HuT enjoys covert patronage of BNP/JEI clique. It recently published and circulated a huge number of pamphlets in Dhaka, throwing an open challenge to the AL Government by announcing its decision to hold rallies and processions in Dhaka and across the country in support of its demand for introduction of ‘khelafat’ (caliphate) in the country. Posters visible at different strategic points and locations in Dhaka and its outskirts contained various calls including call for establishment of ‘khelafat’ by overthrowing the democratically elected AL led Government. Saving the country’s independence and sovereignty, its natural gas and oil and creating powerful defence forces, free of the influence of the United States, the UK and India were among other demands on these pamphlets and posters. These also termed Sheikh Hasina as an agent of anti – Islamic forces including India and the US. 

Earlier, the Government headed by Sheikh Hasina had to encounter a violent challenge in the form of mutiny by the country’s border guarding troops BDR on February 25, 2009, within two months from the time the government was formed in January 2009. The Government acted swiftly and managed to persuade the rebel BDR troops to surrender and lay down arms. But in the process, it could not avoid anger of a section of Army officers who even sought to bring pressure on the then Army chief Gen Moeen U Ahmed to take a strong position vis-à-vis Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as she had initially announced amnesty to mutinying troops who had killed many senior Army officers. 

 The BNP-JEI Alliance  sought to exploit the situation fully to its advantage and left no stone unturned to instigate the Army officers for a violent show-down with the Government. Thanks to the astuteness displayed by Gen Moeen and his highly professional and disciplined band of soldiers who remained strongly supportive of the democratically elected Government, failing which there would have been another upheaval in the country on the pattern of August 15, 1975 when the country’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was brutally assassinated and that could have swept Sheikh Hasina away. The BDR mutiny was the first of a series of attempts initiated to overthrow the democratically elected Sheikh Hasina Government.  

 On the occasion of first anniversary of BDR mutiny, the HuT circulated leaflets in cantonment areas appealing to the army personnel to take up arms and rise in revolt to overthrow the Sheikh Hasina led Government and establish Allah’s rule. These leaflets accused   Hasina of having staged the BDR mutiny to kill Army officers. The objective was to arouse camaraderie among army personnel and whip up their passion for revenge. HuT militants are being secretly organized to join hands with JEI and its student organ Islami Chhatra Shibir to destabilize the country. 

Ever since its formation in 1949, the AL has remained the most  credible vanguard of secular politics in Bangladesh. The party, despite all its inadequacies and shortcomings, has contributed to making Bangladesh a relatively liberal Muslim majority State with reasonably acceptable democratic credentials. The party still commands the widest popular support base in the country, even though in the major power structures of the State, like the armed forces, media and business, its penetration has remained limited. Legacy of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman  confers a unique symbolic identity to the party, which is credited with the very creation of Bangladesh and laying of foundation for the Bengali nationalism that inspired millions to rally round him and plunge headlong in the liberation war in 1971 

However, for the most part of independent history of Bangladesh, the party has faced violent challenges from the so-called Islamist nationalist and pro-Pak forces who do not believe in the concept of democracy and who wish to capture state power in the name of religion. Certain sections of the armed forces, some mercenary elements and sections of pro-Pak political entities have often come together to subvert institutions of democracy and hijack the State power to use it for their selfish ends. These groups have always found religion as a convenient tool and  hence they advocate a strong Islamist nationalist identity for the country and paint India in a negative light to generate a sense of psychological insecurity among the masses.  

Return  of AL-led secular forces to power with unprecedented majority (AL led alliance won 262 of the 300 seats, with AL itself winning 230) through the parliamentary elections held on December 29, 2008, sounded the death knell for Islamist politics in Bangladesh and this has been countenanced as a severe blow by the BNP / JEI duo that has since then been making relentless efforts to overthrow the AL-led government by any means to capture state power.