Three years after the heinous assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, military ruler General Ziaur Rahman floated the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in 1978 to solidify his state-power base as well as to gain legitimacy. That brought to everyone a realization of his shrewd powermonger policy to grip Bangladesh as a military dictator.
From the beginning, the party’s charter gave Gen Zia absolute power to run it at will, without keeping any room for the practice of intra-party democracy. The trend further continues spanning from the era of Begum Khaleda Zia and now her son Tarique Rahman. This proves vividly that the BNP not only spoiled the democratic norms inside the party but also poisoned Bangladesh’s healthy and liberal democracy by harboring religious extremists. On the same scale, they have injected deep-rooted corruption inside the state bodies and ushered the never-ending violent politics.
You can also read: What Keeps Bangladesh Watching India’s Elections?
The process of forming BNP that General Zia began through a controversial referendum known as “Yes”/”No” vote in 1977 and floated different kings’ parties including the Jatiya Ganatantrik Dal, Jatiyatabadi Front, enticing leaders from different political parties. Soon after consolidating the state power in 1978, Zia began to gain absolute power and started destroying other democratic options and voices subsequently leading to another suspicious victory at the 1979 parliamentary elections. The then newly formed parliament controlled by the BNP passed the “Indemnity Bill” protecting killers of Bangabandhu from trial, legalizing the illegal takeover of state power by Zia and his predecessors Moshtaque and Sayem and all activities of the trio during the period of the martial law regime.
After Gen Zia’s assassination in 1981, the BNP led by Khaleda Zia chose the same way and continuously used the party as a means of violent politics and boycotted the 1986, 1988, 2014, and 2023 elections. In the 1991 parliamentary elections, no party could secure a majority of the popular vote share and BNP formed the government aligning with the Jamaat-e-Islami. Khaleda Zia was sworn in for her first term as Prime Minister but she was forced to resign in 1996 following a mass uprising protesting Khaleda’s mishandling of the country and corrupting the democracy and the election system. Again in 2001, BNP managed to secure the state by promising a natural gas deal to an American company following the US President Bill Clinton’s Bangladesh visit on March 20, 2000.
This second tenure of BNP was marred by widespread corruption, misuse of state power, the rise of militancy, terror attacks on opposition parties including Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina, and so on. We will here describe some of the most dark issues that almost killed Bangladesh’s democracy but now survived under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Hawa Bhaban: Where Bangladesh Was Locked-Up
Hawa Bhaban, despite Khaleda’s well-set political office in Gulshan, was the alternative powerhouse during BNP’s rule from 2001-2005. Khaleda Zia, along with her son Tarique Rahman held significant authority over both the government and the party from “Hawa Bhaban.” There have been several allegations from ruling Awami League leaders, concerning Hawa Bhaban, like planning the 21st August 2004 grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina to murder her, imposing illegal tolls on businesses, money laundering, patronizing terrorism, human rights violations, and many more.
The military-backed caretaker government of 2007-2008 and the ruling Awami League charged Tarique and his associates with multiple cases of extortion, graft, bribery, tax evasion, money laundering, grenade attacks, etc. Tarique Rahman’s close associate Giasuddin Al Mamun also confessed in court to such extortion.
After signing a bond with the military-backed caretaker government that he would never engage in politics, Tarique Zia went to London on September 11, 2008, and has since been running the party together with his mother. He has also been sentenced in several cases including one for masterminding the horrific August 21 grenade attack which was launched targeting AL chief Sheikh Hasina at Bangabandhu Avenue in 2004.
Khaleda Zia was also arrested and faced several charges of corruption, graft, arson attacks, and many more, consequently, in 2018, Khaleda Zia was jailed but later allowed to stay at home in 2020 over the COVID-19 outbreak.
On December 20, 2005, US Charge d’ Affaires in Dhaka Judith A Chammas termed Tarique the “Dark Prince” to describe that the BNP leader “has the political cunning, and mountains of cash generated by his Hawa Bhaban’s collection of tolls from businesses and BNP political aspirants. “He inspires fear in many people, including BNP backbenchers, self-censoring journalists, business rivals, and parts of the Prime Ministre’s Office (PMO), who see him as ruthless, inexperienced, and unworldly.” “By selling state minister portfolios to a suddenly ballooning cabinet in 2002 onwards, Tarique produced a coterie of senior figures who owed him their positions while padding his already ample bank accounts,” said then-US Ambassador to Bangladesh Patricia Butenis.
Another cable said Tarique accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit wealth. Multiple extortion cases pending against him were founded on the testimony of numerous prominent business owners whom he victimized and exploited. Tarique has helped create and maintain bribery, embezzlement, and a culture of corruption, while “his theft of millions of dollars in public money has undermined political stability.”
During the BNP tenure in 2005, for the fifth consecutive year, the non-governmental organization Transparency International named Bangladesh the world’s most corrupt country. The World Bank canceled funding for three development projects, blaming government corruption for its decision.
Attempt to Kill Sheikh Hasina and Patronizing the Terrorists
After the August 21, 2004 grenade attack, Sheikh Hasina said that Khaleda Zia, Tarique, the then state minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, other top leaders of the party line-up Mir Nassiruddin, and SQ Chowdhury were behind the attack aiming to kill AL top leadership. Luckily, Sheikh Hasina had escaped death but 24 AL leaders lost their lives.
Relating to the incident, Sheikh Hasina said that four persons offloaded a consignment of arms from a tinted jeep in Tarique’s in-law’s residence at Dhanmondi on the night before the operation.
Mufti Abdul Hannan, chief of banned militant outfit Harkatul Jihad al Islami Bangladesh (HujiB), later stated in court that he was present at the meeting in Hawa Bhaban, during which Tarique instructed Babar and Abdus Salam Pintu to provide complete support for the execution of the attack. On December 15, 2005, Khaleda Zia’s Principal Secretary Kamal Uddin exposed Tarique’s connection to militant groups Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) while talking to the US ambassador. He said the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) had been forced to release a key associate of Bangla Bhai after a phone call from Tarique Rahman, acting at the behest of his close aide State Minister for Land Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu.
Another telegram cited former Inspector General of Police Nur Mohammad telling the media in April 2007 that the then BNP government patronized terrorist outfits including the JMB to conduct armed operations against the BNP’s political opponents — Awami League and leftist party activists in Rajshahi and Natore areas. The Police Chief testified to Outlook India that the then government supported JMB in its activities.
Before the formation of RAB, the government executed “Operation Clean Heart”, a joint drive from October 17, 2002, to January 9, 2003, when at least 31 men died, reportedly as a result of torture, after being detained by soldiers. Later, immunity from prosecution was granted to officials and army personnel associated with human rights violations through the Joint Drive Indemnity Act, of 2003 over which human rights experts showed concern.
Tarique Rahman is also responsible for sending weapons and explosives to the Indian insurgents United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) – an insurgency outfit inside India.
Major General Gaganjit Singh, former Deputy Director General of India’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), said Tarique Rahman was the mastermind of 10 truck arms haul in Chattogram in 2004. Talking to India Today, he said the arms were being supplied under the direct patronization of the then BNP-Jamaat alliance to use Bangladesh as a sanctuary.
In 2015, Interpol took action by issuing a Red Notice for Tarique Rahman prior to his conviction on terrorism-related charges in Bangladesh.
The then BNP-Jamaat coalition government also awarded impunity to the perpetrators involved in violence against Awami League supporters, Hindu and Ahmadiyya communities, women, journalists, and the marginalized ethnic communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the plains, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
The Washington Times on 10 December 2001 reported that the vast majority of the fundamentalist Muslims who attacked Hindus were supported by the newly elected BNP of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia conducting murder, rape, and looting. Most of the Hindus living in Barishal and Gopalganj fled to the Indian states of Tripura and West Bengal.
Extra-Judicial Killings
According to the U.S. State Dept, The police killing people was expected in the five years of the BNP-led four-party alliance government’s rule. In 2002, 83 individuals were killed using legal force by law enforcers and an additional 117 individuals died while in custody. These figures exclude the deaths that occurred during the infamous Operation Clean Heart. By the same token, in 2003, 81 persons died as a result of the use of lethal force by the police and other security forces, and another 113 persons died in prison and police custody. The trend continued in 2004, with the deaths of 526 individuals. 2005 was the bloodiest year for killings by law enforcers with a total of 396 confirmed kills, including 340 killings by crossfire (with 107 carried out by RAB, 212 by the police, and 21 by other security forces). According to the ASK, In 2006, a total of 258 people were killed in ‘crossfire’ by RAB and other law enforcers (both before and after arrest).
The fact that the BNP considered the entire issue of such killings as a stated policy was exposed when the Parliamentary Affairs Advisor to Prime MInister Khaleda Zia, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, publicly ‘warned’ Awami League leaders to follow the “right path” as they were on the RAB’s “crossfire list” (Prothom Alo, May 1, 2006).
BNP’s political opponents were deliberately targeted, for instance, Jamaluddin Fakir, an Awami League (AL) student activist, died in April 2002 after being severely tortured in police custody. In July 2004, Sumon Ahmed Majumder, an activist of Awami League’s youth wing- Awami Jubo League and a witness to the May 7th assassination of AL legislator Ahsanullah Master, was arrested by RAB. Sumon was severely tortured and subsequently died at the hospital succumbing to his injuries. In some instances, RAB would intentionally abandon the dead bodies of its victims on the streets for the public and the media to see in order to instill fear and terror among the general populace. For instance, in May 2005, the dead body of Abdul Kalam Azad Sumon, affiliated with the Awami League’s youth wing – Awami Jubo League, was discovered by citizens on the street – the day after he was apprehended by RAB.
Policy of Torture
It was expected that anyone arrested on suspicion of serious crimes, and political arrestees, would be tortured. Custodial torture was applied on top opposition leader A.F.M. Bahauddin Nasim (the then private secretary to the leader of the opposition Sheikh Hasina). According to OMCT, he was held by military intelligence and “blind-folded for the six days of his stay at the Dhaka Cantonment. He was detained in very poor conditions, in a dirty cell with no bed, and was allegedly hanged by a rope tied to his wrists from a rotating ceiling fan and beaten on the knees with an iron hammer during this time. He was also subjected to electric shocks, cold water was poured through his nostrils, and he was severely beaten. He was reportedly not allowed to eat or sleep during this time”.
Another high-profile case of torture was that of AL’s top leader Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir. The OMCT reported that Mr. Alamgir was ‘…taken to an unknown detention facility, where he was brutally tortured. He was allegedly beaten with bamboo sticks by three masked men, and a bottle was pushed into his rectum. Furthermore, during the two-day extension period of detention he was reportedly subjected to electric shocks on his genitals. Although Dr. Alamgir suffers from diabetes, he was not allowed to take his medicine, which was reportedly kept in a briefcase in police custody. While in detention, he was deprived of food, water and sleep, and was not given a mosquito net”.
The above two examples were only the tip of the iceberg. The widespreadness of torture as a policy is clear from the annual figures. For instance, in 2006, there were 33 reported cases of serious torture which made the headlines. The actual number is likely to be much higher given that most incidents went without being reported. This position receives credence from the data from a different source. For instance, in 2005, the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Center for Trauma Victims (BRCTV) recorded 2,297 victims of torture by security forces.
The long gloomy pictures portrays that the BNP as a party tried to kill Bangladesh’s democracy by initiating human rights violation through the “Indemnity Bill” to protect killers of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, extra judicial killing, torturing political opponent, institutionalize corruption, politicized judiciary and the security forces and irregularities in the elections. Since the party lost state power in 2009, BNP initiated a tragic trend of street violence that killed hundreds and damaged enormous state properties.
But ironically, BNP now resorts to hypothetical moral talks after receiving huge set back in 12th elections in January. People rejected BNP’s destructive calls and voted Awami League in power with bigger mandate to move on the path of making Smart Bangladesh.