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Home  Worldwide  Bangladesh  2003  The immunity of the white tupi
The immunity of the white tupi

Weekly Holiday Friday
December 5, 2003
front page
The immunity of the white tupi
Zayd Almer Khan

As we sip our cups of tea this morning, the Kadianis of Tejgaon are bracing themselves in fear. They are supposed to come under another attack today, this first Friday of December.
   Two Fridays ago, the last one falling in the month of Ramadan on November 21, Dhaka saw its worst wave of sectarian attacks for some time. About ten thousand (by the police’s estimate) hoodlums under the banner of overzealous Sunni Muslims attempted to attack a small family-run Ahmadiya mosque on Haji Maran Ali Road in East Nakhalpara. Their contention — Kadianis are non-Muslims (kafirs) and hence have no place in the mosque.

The imam, documented as the ringleader who not only incited the violence but also spewed defiance of the state’s law enforcing agencies, has not been taken to task in the two weeks that have passed since — not even a questioning, let alone arrest. And while the police filed a case against 10,000 people over the previous attacks, none has been sought out or arrested.

   The police, forewarned by the mob’s announcement the day before that they would take over the mosque, did well to prepare for the attacks, cordoning off the mosque area with barricades. The attacks, however, did take place and with much damage, both material and to the police personnel.
   The most enduring images of the attacks, broadcast on television and printed in newspapers, were those of the police being beaten up, mercilessly; of police vehicles being damaged, unhindered; of the nearby police camp being pelted, unanswered. What a predicament for our trigger-happy police force — the same force that doesn’t think twice about swooping on protesters all and sundry, be they students, garment workers, teachers or nurses, having to endure the humiliation of a free-for-all police-bashing session, and without resistance as well.
   All because the attackers had their white tupis on. So is that all it takes for bloodthirsty hoodlums to get away with the most blatant physical assault of the state apparatus and its authority?
   The attacks may come again today. And again with the mob adorned in white kurtas and white tupis. And again, the police will probably desist from using force. Unfortunate, isn’t it, that the very force that is supposed to deter unrest, it seems, has become a source of encouragement for unruliness in this case.
   But the police’s passive attitude is not all that has been an encouragement for today’s possible attack. As the waves of attacks were made last time around, the imam of the nearby Rahim Metal Mosque took on the role of the ringleader, shouting commands from a megaphone from atop a pick-up truck. ATN Bangla showed him proclaiming, “We will take over the [Ahmadiya] mosque. No police, no BDR can deter us from our goal. We will crush all barriers.”
   The imam, documented as the ringleader who not only incited the violence but also spewed defiance of the state’s law enforcing agencies, has not been taken to task in the two weeks that have passed since — not even a questioning, let alone arrest. And while the police filed a case against 10,000 people over the previous attacks, none has been sought out or arrested.
   Again, is it only imams that the government is ready to let off scot-free when they actively incite violence? So next time if the garment workers denied wages, the teachers denied status, and the students denied rights congregate behind an imam, will they also be provided reprieve from the state?
   With not even a rap on their knuckles following their earlier lawlessness, what deters the mob from repeating, even multiplying, their acts of violence? The Tejgaon police told New Age that they have increased the number of constables deployed and will cordon off the area again today. But they did that last time as well. How many more Fridays will it take for the much-too-passive barricades to be cracked, for the mob to rush through?
   The issue, of course, was further muddied when Moulana Azizul Huq, chairman of a faction of the Islamic Oikya Jote (IOJ), called on Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on November 29 along with other ruling alliance partners and requested her to declare Kadianis non-Muslims. He told the press after the meeting that the prime minister assured him of ‘looking into the matter.’
   Not going into a debate on whether at all the prime minister has the jurisdiction, ordained either by the Book or by the Constitution, to ‘look into the matter’ of one’s faith, if she did make any such assurances instead of berating the IOJ for instigating sectarian violence, is her attitude not as much abetment as the police’s passivity?

Source: http://www.weeklyholiday.net/front.html#2
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