Rising slowly against fear
Rising slowly against fear
As the night thickened and numbing cold began to set in, 29-year-old Liton Kanta Roy took his blanket and a small torch to join a voluntary patrol team at Telipara, home to 150 Hindu families.
The three-member team, two of them carrying bows and arrows, passed through narrow passages beside mud-and-bamboo-cane-built houses that sit in close proximity on both sides of the village road.
Occasionally, one of the team members blew whistle to alert other teams that were guarding the borders of the locality with sticks, bows and arrows. The aim was to resist any sudden attack by outsiders on the poor villagers at dead of the night.
“It has become our regular duty since we were attacked on the January 5 election day. Every night we guard our locality in groups so that others can sleep without fear,” said a half-masked Liton, pausing for warmth at a campfire set by another team to keep an eye on the road.
On January 5, Hindus of Telipara, a locality under Kornai village in Dinajpur, came under attacks led by BNP-Jamaat men for allegedly casting their votes, ignoring the polls boycott call of the 18-party alliance.
The attackers, local activists of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, swopped on men and women on the way to and from the poll centre, vandalised several houses and more than three dozens of shops at the village, around 430 kilometres northwest from the capital.
Not only at Kornai of Dinajpur, Hindus also came under attacks in several other districts in the country on the polls day and afterwards.
The local administration installed a temporary police camp at Kornai Bazar after the attacks in the area to ensure security of the villagers.
However, feeling of insecurity runs high among the Hindus of Telipara despite the fact that the alleged attackers have been on the run.
“Some attackers have threatened us that they would come at night again to vent their anger. That is why we guard our locality at night since January 5,” said 22-year-old Sudesh Roy, a member of the voluntary security providers, who was accompanying Liton.
However, Liton, Sudesh and others know although their services will give respite to others for the time being, it cannot dispel the feeling of deep insecurity that grows over the years owing to past attacks and repression of the Hindus by a section that promotes religious fundamentalism and hatred through politics.
“We faced the brutality of Khans [Pakistani military] and Razakars during the Liberation War and repression after independence. Now, our children face the same tyranny,” said 50-year-old woman Vatibala Roy, who also volunteers with Liton and others at night.
Some 43 years has passed since the country fought the Liberation War with the spirit of secularism, but religious and political hostility still haunts the nation.
“I cannot sleep for fear of further attacks. The government should give us security so that we can live in peace,” said a frustrated Vatibala.
Amid fears of insecurity and threats of further attacks, Bhushan Chandra Roy left home with his family by the end of last month, said Chandan Roy, nephew of Bhushan.
Some locals claim Bhushan, who was injured in his attempts to resist the attackers, left for India amid frustration. But Bhushan's 60-year-old mother Ajobala believes her son would come back.
“We were also about to leave after the attacks,” said Kamona Roy, spouse of Liton, showing clothes and other essentials ready in luggage.
Liton's neighbour 25-year-old Ganesh Roy thinks many of the villagers might leave Kornai if the temporary police camp is withdrawn.
“Once lost, the peace of mind does not return too easily when security of life is concerned. We, the Hindus, are attacked every time after elections. We do not understand what is out fault. Are not we Bangalees?” said elderly Prem Charan Roy, another neighbour of Liton.
Apart from the feeling of insecurity, poverty also increases vulnerability of most of the residents of Kornai and its locality Telipara.
Most of the Hindus of Kornai do not have farmland and earn their living by working as farm labourers on cropland of well-off Muslims in nearby villages. A section of Hindu women also work as domestic help at the Muslims' houses.
Their income has dropped sharply since the election as most of the Muslims, including attackers and supporters of BNP-Jamaat alliance, are either least interested to hire the Hindus or are on the run.
Liton's neighbour Anukul Chandra Roy, who used to work as a construction worker under his Muslim neighbour, has found himself jobless after the polls.
Anukul believes his employer, a supporter of BNP-Jamaat-led 18-party alliance, is reluctant to hire him at the construction sites in the town. He lived on little savings he had and after it was fast consumed had to depend on donation from an NGO. Now he is working four days a week to help Border Guard Bangladesh repair the vandalised shops at Kornai Bazar with no idea how he will survive once the repair is complete.
For Liton, the sole breadwinner of a four-member family, the story is a bit different. His small medicine store, which was vandalised on the election day, still remains shut due to shortage of capital.
Liton also runs a business of potato seeds, which he buys on credit and sells to neighbouring farmers, mostly Muslims, on credit on condition they would make the payment after harvest and give him priority as a buyer of their produce.
But he has yet to get payment from the farmers, who have suffered loss due to low prices of potato amid harvesting glut. A section of farmers, whom Liton provided potato seeds on credit, belongs to the BNP-Jamaat alliance. They have been on the run to escape arrest, making the situation harder for Liton as he is under pressure from seed suppliers to make their payment.
In addition, pressure of depositing instalments of microcredit and sharecropper loans rises. Every week Liton has to pay Tk 1,700 in instalments for micro loans and Tk 2,600 a month to clear his dues as sharecropper.
“It is a very tough situation. I cannot bear it anymore,” said a frustrated Liton after a phone conversation with the potato seed supplier, who was not willing to consider his situation.
“How can I face all these problems at a time? Security of my parents and family is at stake. My income has fallen, but the pressure to clear dues has risen. I cannot see any hope,” he lamented.
Liton, preoccupied with the burden of these thoughts, proceeded towards home to take some rest one and a half hours past midnight. Other volunteers Sudhesh, Anukul and Naresh sat together by the campfire to prepare for the rest of the night to ensure security of a people, whose future is as dark as the winter night.