Bangladesh has launched Operation Devil Hunt, apparently targeted at Awami League supporters and their allies. The operation follows an attack in Gazipur on Friday on students leading to injuries to many of them.
Leaders of the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement have named Awami League leader AKM Mozammel Haque and the former Gazipur mayor Jahangir Alam as behind the attack. They have demanded de-registration of the Awami League, arrest and trial of Sheikh Hasina and the arrest of those involved in the Gazipur attacks.
Arif Sohel, member of the movement, said “Even though the fascist Hasina has fled, her cohorts are still around us. We must handle the situation with restraint Under no circumstances can disorder be created.”
The last hinted at the involvement of Awami League cadres entrenched in the local administration. He alleged that despite calls for help when the students were being attacked, there was nothing forthcoming either from the police or the civil administration.
But reports suggest there was more to the incident than what the student leaders claimed. It appears many had gathered at Mozammel Haque’s home, entered it and began vandalising it. In response, others nearby, probably his supporters, attacked the students leading to many getting injured.
Newspapers in editorials cautioned against the growing tendency among people to take the law into their own hands.The Dhaka Tribune cautioned that “When mobs run amok … we are all the poorer. If we are indeed serious about being one, about becoming a better Bangladesh then the rule of law must be ensured, eise we risk undoing all the good that was wrought after the uprisings of last year.”
Dhaka Tribune Editor Zafar Sobhan in an opinion piece, wondered whether the current administration was in control.
“When a baying mob razes and demolishes a house with no pushback from law enforcement, it doesn’t do a great deal to inspire in the state of the rule of law in the country. It leads to uncomfortable questions about who is running the show and just how far the writ of the interim government operates.”
