Parveen Hossain
The titled statement of doyen lawyer Mr. Z I Khan Panna became oft-quoted in social media since Sunday while an attempted murder case of a young man who was shot during the Anti-discrimination Student Movement was filed against 180 people, including him. Though Md Bakar, the plaintiff, has petitioned to withdraw the allegations against Z I Khan Panna, the disturbing reflection of a trend of legal harassment by the interim Government is crystal clear. Even the complainant does not know Mr Panna. Such all-pervading, abject judicial misery is now a common scenario in Bangladesh. Eminent writer and journalist Mr Shahriar Kabir was arrested on 17 September and placed on a 7-day remand. An arrest warrant for a murder case has been issued against another discerning educationist and writer, Professor Dr Zafar Iqbal.
Delving into the relevant papers of these cases, anyone takes themselves aback by finding these effulgent names and realises the concoctions beneath. So the question is, why is Dr Yunus-lead-interim government allowing such cases as wet behind the ears? Thousands of cases have been filed against the responsible parts of the erstwhile Government, and most of them can be entitled to ‘weaponisation of judiciary system’ because of the futility. Even the Home advisor, Lt Gen (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury himself, stated to the press on 19 September, “Cases are being handled by someone other than the police.” So, there is ‘someone’ else to implement their meticulously designed plan even for filing a case.
Now, suppose we decode the deceitful group of this ‘someone’. In that case, we can quickly identify the reasons behind the cases filed against Shahria Kabir, Dr Zafar Iqbal, Z I Khan Panna, or other pro-liberation forces from the intelligentsia. I can delineate that all the difficulties we face now ensued from the July colour revolution as its primary outcome is the ascendency of bigotry over secularism, extremism over liberalism and anti-liberation forces over the pros. But from my first-hand experiences, there are still many groups, though they are dwindling every day, to deny me with belligerence.
So, let us make a back-calculation. During the July Colour Revolution, Shahriar Kabir took his firm standpoint against the quota system and the atrocious student killings. Z I Khan Panna played a pivotal role for the students as a lawyer in the court and an activist on the road. Dr Zafar Iqbal was on the qui vive from the beginning of this movement, and nothing daunted; his farsighted epoch-making comment became the best litmus paper we can always use to identify the delta between movement and machination. His apt remark in the teeth of the slogan “Tumi ke ami ke, rajakar, rajakar” (Who are you, who I am, Traitor! Traitor!) at Dhaka University campus unmasked the Janus-faced characteristics of so-called Anti-discrimination Students Movement. Pig-headed activists started monstrosities against him, and since then, Dr Iqbal has been silent.
On the 5 August evening, a mean streak spilt over, hare-brained outcomes of July conspiracies came to light, and Bangladesh became gruesomeness. An unconstitutional interim government formed in the wink of an eye, and in the name of reformation, they are canvassing the idea of a ‘reset button’, i.e. to wipe out the bedrock of Bangladesh. Under this awkward squad, for their barbs about the liberation war and the father of the nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the advisors’ balderdash regarding the crucial daily-life problems of the citizens, and by circumscribing press and people’s freedom of expression—Bangladesh is running amok. In the last two and half months, many active participants of the July movement started to repent for backing the wrong horse. Like many others, Z I Khan Panna has curled his upper lip in disdain, and as a freedom fighter, he firmly expressed—what’s past is prologue. Now, he has become the target.
In Bangladesh, Shahriar Kabir, Dr Zafar Iqbal, and Z I Khan Panna always uphold the torch of the pro-71 spirit. Their writing, activism, and cast-iron idealistic voice are more impactful than the farrago delivered by the running Government and its pseudo-intellectuals. They are the iron curtain of the country’s philosophical baseline. This is the main reason, probably the only one, that opens them to the anti-liberation devils aided and abetted by the Yunus-led interim Government.
Let us go back to the statement of the Home advisor. His ‘someone’ other than the police is now clearly identified. All the fundamentalist circuits are now alive and kicking, and the war crime organization Jamaat-Shibir are enjoying unconditional leeway under this armchair critic government. So, no doubt—they are going ape against the patina of such personalities to bestride their communal, misogynistic and anti-Bangladesh theories. It is just the beginning— they will spare no effort to secure their History-distortion and pride-elimination project under the Yunus tyranny.
Beyond all grief-stricken possibilities, the voice of Z I Khan Panna, “Mind it, I am a freedom fighter,” inspires me to hold on to the forlorn hope that the spirit of liberation war will be genuinely portrayed.
Parveen Hossain, Freelance Journalist
