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Home  Worldwide  Bangladesh  April, 2005  Is Harry too a …
Is Harry too a tarnisher of our image?

Dainik Janakantha, Bangladesh
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Editorial in Bangla

Editorial

Is Harry too a tarnisher of our image?

For more than a year there have been continual attacks on the tiny religious community of Ahmadiyyas in Bangladesh. The attacks are sometimes in the capital Dhaka, sometimes in Chittagong, sometimes in Khulna or Bogra. The attack is orchestrated under the leadership of a very extreme militant organization called Khatme Nabuwwat. The aim of the attacks is to snatch away the religious freedom and rights to religious practice of the Ahmadiyyas. Programmes are being announced to capture and evict them from Ahmadiyya mosques in the capital and in different parts of the country. Last year attempts were made to forcibly capture the central mosque of the Ahmadiyya Jamat in Bakshibazar. Militant programmes were announced to capture the Ahmadiyya mosque in Tejgaon in a similar manner by the Jihadis of Khatme Nabuwwat. But in both cases the mosques were saved primarily due to international pressure and the presence of European ambassadors at the spot. The administration and police had to stop the Khatme Nabuwwat militants. But that militant organization has not … its aim of capturing the Ahmadiyya mosques in Dhaka. Khatme Nabuwwat leaders have declared a programme to forcibly capture the Ahmadiyya mosque in Nakhalpara, Tejgaon on September 30 and the Central Missionary Complex in Bakshibazar on December 23.

In the second week of the last month of March during the incident of the planned attack on the Ahmadiyya mosque in Bogra, a very shameful scene was set of the indulgence of police and administration of the extemist militants. But what happened during the siege programme of the Ahmadiyya mosque in Jatindranagar of Shyamnagar upazilla in Satkhira has made all previous records of the Khatme Nabuwwatis look pale. Police-BDR-armed police all were there. Also present were 4 first class magistrates. But, nevertheless the Khatme Nabuwwatis attacked Ahmadiyya households, vandalised and looted them, manhandled the female members and injured 30. Police did not want or failed to resist around thirty thousand Khatme Nabuwwatis. It is said that police itself put up the the Khatme Nabuwwat signboard, to pacify the militants. As they have done elsewhere as well.

These incidents prove how indulgent and condoning the present government and administration are towards extreme militant organizations. The government raises no eyebrows worrying that this tarnishes the image of the government and the country. It is the responsibility of the government to uphold the rights of religious practice for followers of all faiths. That the government is strongly determined to ensure this constitutional right of every citizen - is also claimed unequivocally by the government. But what is happening with the Ahmadiyyas proves such claims to be hollow.

Attempts are being made to hide under the carpet the incidents of Khatme Nabuwwat attacks and violence on the Ahmadiyya mosque and their people in Jatindranagar of Shyamnagar upazila in Satkhira. It has been reported that the DC of Satkhira forced Ahmadiyya leaders by confining them (in his office) to sign a statement “we are well, and in peace”. That is there is a hurried attempt to create a situation where one can say “everything is okay, and normal; and nothing serious has happened”. But, a thorn in the way is the US Ambassador to Dhaka Harry Thomas. After visiting the Ahmadiyya headquarters in Dhaka he has told the journalists that there are some fundamentalists in Khulna. These are the people who are orchestrating the attacks and persecution of the Ahmadiyyas in Satkhira. He will soon return home and will inform the US State Department of the communal activities of the militants in Bangladesh.

Now how will our image be saved? So far the people of the country were being told that some newspapers, journalists and the opposition party is tarnishing the image of the country abroad. And the ruling party and their like-minded people and organizations are fighting to uphold the image of our country abroad. Will now Ambassador Harry Thomas too be dubbed a tarnisher of our image?

(Translation: ASBT)

Source: http://www.dailyjanakantha.com/260405
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