The ever bleeding campus
Rajshahi University (RU) was one of the finest universities in the country. It produced some of the illustrious scholars who brought laurels for the nation. Then some thugs began dictating what should be taught, who will teach and who will not. They were called Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, an organisation that has been termed as a 'criminal organisation' by the International Crimes Tribunal in most of their judgments delivered against those who committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in 1971.
Since 1969, the campus has seen the death of 36 people of which three were teachers, the last one being Dr. Shafiul Islam of the Department of Social Sciences killed on November 15. On December 24, 2004, Professor Yunus of the Department of Economics was hacked to death. Later, the police arrested a few members of JMB, a radical militant group operating inside Bangladesh. They confessed in the court that they were responsible for the killing as they thought Professor Yunus was an atheist, which he was not. Attempts were made on his life in 1988 and 1998 by the Islami Chhatra Shibir because he preached secularism amongst his students and colleagues. On February 2, 2006, Dr. S. Taher of the Department of Geology and Mining was hacked to death by one of his colleagues, Professor Mian Mohiuddin, with the help of Shibir's RU President Mahbubul Alam Salehi and his gang of killers. His body was put in a manhole. Though Salehi was set scot free by the court because of weak charge sheet by the police, Professor Mohiuddin and three others were sentenced to death.
In no other university in Bangladesh had any faculty member lost his life at the hands of his or her students after the birth of Bangladesh. However, on the ill-fated night of December 14, 1971, just before Bangladesh was liberated, some students of Dhaka University belonging to the killing squad al-Badar, formed by the student wing of Jamaat's Islami Chhatra Sangha (forerunner of Shibir), picked up a number of teachers of Dhaka University from their residences along with other intellectuals in the city. These hapless teachers and intellectuals were bayoneted to death and their dead bodies dumped in the Rayerbazar killing fields.
It was on the RU campus that, on February 18, 1969, University Proctor Dr. Shamsuzzoha stood between the demonstrating students and trigger-happy Pakistani army and gave his life to save his students. The students defying the curfew were demonstrating against the killing of Sgt. Jahurul Hoque at the Dhaka Cantonment. Sgt. Hoque was one of the accused in the infamous Agartala Conspiracy case. Dr. Zoha shouted out at the military: “If you want to shoot, shoot me first.” One trigger happy soldier obliged. The country at the time was amidst a mass upsurge led by the students protesting against the ten-year autocratic rule of Ayub Khan. General Ayub, the Iron Man of Pakistan, resigned on February 25, 1969 and handed over power to General Yahya, who presided over the disintegration of Pakistan.
Dr. Shafiul Islam was a humanist, loved mystic Sufism and practiced the philosophy of the bauls (mystic singers and philosophers), notably of Lalon Shah the 18th century Bengali baul saint. He would often organise gathering of baul music lovers in his quiet residence and sing baul songs. Religious bigots had been after the local bauls for quite some time, branding them as non-believers. It is known from family sources that Dr. Islam had received a number of threats from Chhatra Shibir, warning him that if he did not stop all these he would have to face dire consequence.
He was brutally killed in broad daylight near his off-campus residence by a group of about six assassins. It took just a few minutes and the task was executed very professionally. A few hours later, a group claiming to be members of 'Ansar-al Islam-2' claimed that they had killed this “enemy of Islam” as ordered by Allah. They accused Dr. Islam of forbidding girl students from coming to class with their full face covered by a veil (pardha).
The killers even posted pictures of bloggers Rajib Haider and Ashraful Alam along with Dr. Islam's and claimed it was their Mujahids who killed them. They even audaciously disclosed that they had tried to kill bloggers Asif Mohiuddin and Rakib Mamun. The three who were killed were marked as 'file closed.' So far there is no evidence that there is any militant outfit in Bangladesh called 'Ansar-al Islam,' but there are such organisations in Iraq and Syria working with Islamic State (IS).
The advantage for such militants working in Bangladesh, especially in the north western part of the country, is that they can easily melt away across the border into India. After the recent explosion in Burdwan in Paschimbanga it was found that the bomb makers had a strong JMB connection inside Bangladesh and big consignments of bombs were transported across the border into Bangladesh. Jamaat is quite strong in this belt and the militants of JMB, HuJi etc. can always find sanctuary in this area. JMB and HuJi were born in Rajshahi and adjoining areas. During the Four-Party alliance rule they were even allegedly helped by the local law enforcing agencies, but ministers of the then government denied that such militant organisations ever existed in Bangladesh. It is the media that created such nonsense they said.
More than thirty people were arrested following the death of Dr. Islam but so far no clue has been unearthed. If the law enforcing agencies fail to bring the perpetrators to justice Dr. Shafiul Islam will not be the last victim at the hand of these bigots. Many more could fall prey to their crimes in future.
The writer is a former vice-chancellor, University of Chittagong.
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