Dangerous insinuation, distortion of facts

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has made a very dangerous insinuation that "unknown faces" were seen in the joint forces during the recent operation against Jamaat men in Satkhira, without bothering to give any proof in her speech.
She made a similar allusion to the operation in last May against Hefajat activists in Dhaka, saying Bangladeshi forces could never have carried out such "inhuman torture" on Alems and madrasa students.
In view of her past stance on security issues, one can interpret that she actually meant foreign security personnel were involved in the operation. This is a dangerous game. Such unsubstantiated statements will further complicate the already dangerously fractured politics of Bangladesh.
Also, her repeated statements that sovereignty had come under question have a direct implication on our bilateral relations with India, a country which she has continually claimed Sheikh Hasina's government is subservient to.
Her speech of over an hour contains distortion of some other facts as well.
Again and again, she has claimed the attacks on Hindus were acts of the government. Her claim is totally contradicted by reports in all mainstream media, which found out that immediately after the election Jamaat activists had swung into the mayhem, burning up Hindus' houses and looting their properties. This was also verified by the testimony of the victims.  
Khaleda's indication that foreign forces were involved was only backed by two newspapers, whose reports have failed to produce any proof whatsoever to support their claims. No other mainstream media reported such presence of "unknown faces".
Had foreign forces been involved, it would have come under national and international focus.
The police action on Hefajat rally was covered live by a few hundred journalists. None of them reported involvement of any foreign forces. Even Hefajat, whose men came face to face with the law enforcers during the drive, did not make such claims.
The BNP chief's yet another statement that the rise of militants happened during the Awami League rule and the past BNP government never patronised militancy and that it rather curbed militancy is also not true.
Khaleda's denial is noting new. This is her decade-old strategy of denying facts. Under the patronage of her past government, JMB and JMJB, two militant outfits, had spread their tentacles in many parts of the country. But she and some of her government ministers kept denying the existence of dreaded killer Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, who was the operations commander of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB).
At a time when Bangla Bhai and his cadres were spreading militancy in some northern districts and later across the country, Khaleda, then prime minister, in August 2004 while exchanging views with editors said there was no Bangla Bhai.
"It's propaganda against the government and the country. And it [the propaganda] is aimed at causing a rift within the four-party alliance," Khaleda told parliament on March 15, 2005, pointing the finger at the then main opposition Awami League.
Matiur Rahman Nizami, chief of Jamaat-e-Islami and then industries minister, on July 22, 2004, said: "Bangla Bhai was created by some newspapers."
On June 22 the same year, while speaking to reporters in the parliament building, Nizami said, "Police have nothing to do when there is no existence of a so-called Bangla Bhai. Who should they arrest?"
The Jamaat ameer on March 13, 2005, said: "They [the AL] want to split the four-party alliance through peddling propaganda on the existence of so called militancy. Because they [AL] know it well that if the alliance exists, it won't be possible for them to win the next election."
The then state minister for home, Lutfozzaman Babar, on January 26, 2005, also said the JMJB did not exist officially.
The JMB even unleashed a simultaneous bomb attacks across the country on August 17, 2005. The unprecedented blasts compelled the BNP-Jamaat government to take some measures, including banning JMB, JMJB and Huji, and arresting some leaders of those militant outfits.
And finally, the capture of Bangla Bhai on March 6, 2006, proved the media were right about the militants' reign of terror and the statements of Khaleda, Nizami and others were false.
The story does not end here. Many other violent incidents took place during the four-party alliance rule, indicating a sharp rise of extremism and militancy.
The militants launched a grenade attack on AL chief Sheikh Hasina's rally on August 21, 2004, which was aimed at assassinating Hasina. The AL president narrowly escaped, but 24 of her party leaders were killed in the attack. The killing of AL MPs Shah AMS Kibria and Ahsanullah Master were also part of the violent activities carried out by the militants.
Militant outfit Huji, which emerged in 1992 when Khaleda was prime minister of her first government, is found to have carried out the August 21 attack and it was her government that did not allow a fair investigation into the incident.
Her administration then cooked up a story, framing one unknown Joj Mia, saying he had admitted to have carried out the grenade attack. This was done to save Huji men.
And the sensational recovery of 10 truckloads of arms and ammunition on April 2, 2004, in Chittagong has appeared as a glaring example of how the country was made a route of arms smuggling during the BNP-Jamaat rule.
Khaleda in her yesterday's speech cited some militant attacks that took place during the past AL-led government (1996-2001). But the truth is it was Huji that planted a bomb in Gopalganj in 2000 to assassinate the then PM Hasina.
This extremist outfit also carried out several attacks during Hasina's past rule. They include the bomb attacks on left-leaning cultural organisation Udichi's programme in Jessore, Chhayanaut's age-old Bangla New Year celebrations at Ramna Batamul in the capital and the Communist Party's public meeting in the capital's Paltan Maidan.
So, again, facts do not support Khaleda's claim that her government did not patronise militancy.