Professor Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen
Former Foreign Minister of Bangladesh
In order to wipeout Hamas, Israeli PM Netanyahu destroyed Gaza and following Netanyahu, Dr. Yunus, in order to wipeout Awami League (AL) Party and its sympathizers, let loose a genocide in Gopalgonj district, the stronghold of AL party and the birthplace of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and also the birthplace of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The newly formed NCP party, known as king’s party formed at the behest of Chief Adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus (nowadays people call him Mulla Yunus following Afghan tradition) declared their “march to Gopalgonj” in order to destroy and bulldoze the mosoleum of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the birth place of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Gopalgonj is known as a stronghold of the Awami League Party (AL), the largest and the oldest political party of Bangladesh that spearheaded the independence of Bangladesh in 1971 and also achieved its right to speak in its native language Bangla as a state language. No candidate ever won any election defeating an AL candidate in this district.
Dr. Yunus’s jihadi mobs earlier destroyed and bulldozed the nation’s independence museum, the historic house of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at 32 Dhanmondi, a national pride from where Bangabandhu directed his movements against Pakistan’s economic disparity and oppression for years, and after independence, he lived in his private house even as the Prime Minister (or President) of independent and sovereign Bangladesh. He used to have a simple living in his private residence, and he and his entire family members numbering 16 relatives were killed in this house in 1975 including his 10-year old son. His two daughters; Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana escaped death as they were abroad at the time. Once Sheikh Hasina was elected as the Prime Minister in 1996. they donated this house to the Bangladesh government and it has been a national treasure for all and especially for researchers of Bangladesh independence movement. Foreign dignitaries and general public frequently used to visit it to pay their deep respect to the founder of the country.
Last year, with the support of the current Yunus government the jihadi mobs destroyed it, burned it down and later bulldozed it into the ground while nation’s security forces including its military were simply onlookers. They did not stop the jihadis from destroying this national treasure and heritage of immense historic importance.
When the NCP leaders decided to hold a public meeting in Gopalgonj and mobilize its jihadis for the desecration of the Bangabandhu’s mausoleum, the local community approached the government for its protection. As they did not get any response, they erected roadblocks but cutting trees.
On 16 July a contingent of 30 vehicles entered Gopalgonj district being escorted by the government security forces including military. When the jihadis started campaigning to destroy Bangabandhu’s principles and image, the local people protested them and started throwing stones at them. At this, NCP leaders numbering a handful were rescued by army’s APC vehicles that they normally use in UN peacekeeping.
Once NCP leaders left, the Bangladesh military under the command of (1) Maj. Gen. Emdadul Mamun, GOC, assisted by (2) Brig.Gen. Md. Mizanur Rahman and (3) Lt. Col. J M Emdadul Islam started firing directly on the unarmed civilians and as per social media, killed 51 people and wounded hundreds. The local leaders claimed 21 deaths and nearly 391 still missing. A Human Rights activist said that this operation was “a deliberate, state-sanctioned act violance’” to kill dissidents. The UN should thoroughly investigate and it must not allow anyone involved in Human Rights violations to serve the UN Peacekeeping missions.
However, the government claimed only 4 people were killed, however, none of them were AL activists. In fact, as the government started its “Operation Devil Hunt” to detain AL supporters, (they have arrested over 420,000 in last 6 months) most of the AL activists left their homes out of fear of being arrested and tortured.
A Video footage that became viral shows that one young man was detained and after being arrested, he was being dragged by 5 army soldiers and afterwards, one soldier put his boot on his face and mouth till he died. Another video footage shows that dead bodies are being thrown into rivers at night from a helicopter.
The government hurriedly buried all those 4 dead bodies without post mortem or proper burial. So that no one can escape, the police, the army, the air force including the naval force were engaged in the Gopalgonj massacre and genocide. In the capital city, this Gopalgonj operation was monitored by two top Advisers, the Home Adviser Lt. Gen. (Retd) Jahangir Alam and LGRD & Sports Adviser, Sarjis Alam Shobuj, student adviser.
After the mayhem, the government imposed 24-hours curfew and they searched house-to-house and arrested most of the young male people of the district. The curfew and 144 are still there, however relaxed. The military refused to disclose either the numbers of dead or injured or arrested. ASK, a credible human rights group reported 5 dead, few hundred arrested amongst which 18 are children and the government filed a few cases against 4,500 residents mostly in order to extort money. However, one academic from Gopalgonj now lives in Washington DC whose parents and relatives live there stated that the government filed cases against 1.4 million residents of Gopalgonj. In fact, since the massacre of 16 July no male person in greater Gopalgonj and Faridpur districts dare to stay in their homes out of fear of being detained, extortion and tortured by military.
Question is, why so much force? Gopalgonj is the stronghold of AL party and the NCL jihadis would like to show that they can humiliate the AL strongholds so that AL activists in other districts get a message to behave. In fact, AL candidates never lost any popular election in Gopalgonj district in any election for last 54 years and Sheikh Hasina and her close relatives always get elected from Gopalgonj. In order to wipeout AL party, therefore, Molla Yunus decided to go after Gopalgonj and its people. He engaged his military and young jihadis who are both judge and executioner.
As of writing this episode, Gopalgonj is a dead city as the joint security forces are continuing their house-to-house operations violating all national and international norms and regulations. Once they catch anyone, men or women, young boys or girls, they humiliate them, torture them and warn them not to follow and listen to the AL leadership.
Who was in-charge of the Gopalgonj genocide? Molla Yunus trusted his Chief Election Commissioner Nasiruddin’s son Maj. Gen. Emdad was in-charge of the Gopalgonj massacre. The election commission found out that unless they destroy the spirit of Gopalgonj, the AL cannot be defeated although the government has already banned its political activities sine die. Therefore, they recommended to start their campaign of elimination of AL party supporters and their morale and spirit from Gopalgonj. More so, in a recent survey, they found out that 83% Bangladeshis support Sheilkh Hasina’s return and in a US-VOA survey after the fall of Hasina government last year, they found that only 51% has support for Hasina. In fact, because of poor governance of Dr. Molla Yunus based on vengeance and enmity, and the rise of his radical jihadis, people of all rank and file are upset with him and the support for Sheikh Hasina increased. Those who welcomed Yunus a year ago, now wish his quick departure. In fact, the students who appointed him as their Chief Adviser are now demanding his immediate resignation as his 11-months governance failed to stabilize law and order situation, rather created anarchy and radicals, and completely collapsed the flourishing economy of Bangladesh. They termed his government as ‘totally incompetent to discharge responsibilities”.
Corruption, money laundering, vandalism, unemployment, joblessness, rape, extrajudicial killing, theft, drug, and murders plus poverty have sharply increased during his 11-months tenure. During last 6 months alone, 1,930 people were murdered by Jehadis. Hundreds of factories have shutdown, thousands of murder cases were filed against AL party supporters and sympathizers in order to extort money, and his judiciary has become a joke. People have lost their trust on him. It is unfortunate that neither his Advisors nor his NCP leaders could move around without police and military protection. No wonder, his government is shaky and incapable of delivering any meaningful reforms or services.
