Shamima Choudhury
The Interim government of Dr. Muhammad Yunus in order to wipe out the supporters of the past government, the Awami League party leadership launched the “Operation Devil Hunt” 8 days ago and so far 15,601 citizens have been arrested, mostly the Awami League (AL) party activists. This nationwide joint operation of the army, navy, air force, DGFI, NSI, NTC, BGP, Police, DP police and other security forces of the country started when a group of Islamic jehadis under the cover of the Anti-discrimation students group” entered the private residence of the former AL Minister Muzammel Haque in late night in Gazipur district, an industrial town in order to loot his valuables and to vandalize his house, the neighborhood people believing that these were dacoits and hijackers attacked them and beaten them, afterwards, handed a few of them to the police who were reluctant to intervene. It is believed that local police were advised not to intervene when the students would vandalize it. Nearly 135 private houses and business establishments of former lawmakers have recently been looted and vandalized including the historic Bangabandhu National Museum at 32 Dhanmondi, Dhaka. The police , the firefighters and the military did to protect it when government owned bulldozers were destroying this historic house, a national symbol of Bangladesh independence.
In Gazipur like in orther cities including the capital city Dhaka the local neighborhood residents, since the last uprising have been protecting their neighbours from dacoits and hijackers at night as police are ineffective. To protect their properties, the residents of each neighborhood have created a “neighborhood protection group” in their locality.
However, to protect the jehadis and the hijackers, the government spread a false narrative stating that the Awami League party activists, not the neighborhood residents, attacked the intruders and wounded them. One died in the hospital due to random beating.
Afterwards, the Yunus government in order to protect his goons and to wipe out the AL activists launched this deadly “Operation Devil Hunt” campaign. So far 15,601 detained. Dr. Yunus government also detained 117 former Ministers, State Ministers, Members of Parliament, Senior police and civilian officers of the Bangladesh government including two former IGPs, Inspector General of Police Forces and a couple former Army generals. It also detained a few journalists. It terminated a few hundred senior government officials, army generals and police offices. Most important, all elected officials and representatives in the country at every level have also been dismissed by an executive order by Dr. Yunus. However, the government replaced them with their own supporters and students. These new recruits are afraid that they would lose their jobs once an elected government would be established as their recruitment did not follow any government regulations, they are basically busy in corruption and extortion of money as long as they are in the government jobs.
The Bangladesh government followed the Japanese and the South Korean development model and the past governments encouraged a few business conglomerates to flourish. They are now the main engine of economic development, it’s exports and job creation. However, Dr. Yunus believes in his theory of ” social business”, which means, entrepreneur should engage in business not to make money but to serve people. And his Chief Economic jar, Dr. Deboprio Bhattacherjee a Russian trained economist, is trying to destroy the Bangladesh business houses. Nearly 268 business establishments have been shut down, over 100,000 workers laid off and the GDP growth went down for the last quarter to 1.8% and Annual Development Program recorded 18% achievement, lowest in last two decades. The future of Bangladesh economy is uncertain and no new FDI is coming. Rather, tha entrepreneurs are moving out their investments abroad.
The students started the anti-discrimation movement to have more jobs but unfortunately, now they are heading to a jobless Bangladesh. No wonder, the dacoity and hijacking and criminal activities are on the rise in Bangladesh now. A few foreign governments cautioned their nationals to avoid coming to Bangladesh and if they are here, not to go out alone. A few Bangladeshi expatriates that came to visit their relatives in Bangladesh have been robbed and a couple of them even killed by extortionists. Very sad indeed.