GUNMEN stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Dhaka late on Friday before troops entered to rescue them almost 12 hours later when 20 hostages were already killed.
One of the Bangladeshi victims was identified as Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain, 20. Early in the morning, the gunmen released a group of women wearing hijabs and offered Faraz Hossain, the opportunity to leave, too.
Hossain, a student at Emory University, was accompanied by two women wearing Western clothes. When the gunmen asked the women where they were from, they said India and the United States. The gunmen refused to release them, and Faraaz refused to leave them saying they were his friends. He was also among those found dead on Saturday morning.
We do not know the truth or falsehood of the whole tragedy but if true then the young Hossain, possessed the integrity and courage needed to be a responsible citizen had he been alive. He did not run for personal safety, unconcerned of the cruel fate awaiting his friends. Both the assailants and Faraaz came from financially well off backgrounds, studied in English Medium schools, and went abroad for further education. But there, unfortunately, the parallels end.
The young educated assailants forced their misguided impressions about the world on the restaurant visitors in the most brutal manner, killing and torturing without mercy – on a month which is supposed to be the month where true Muslims show the most rectitude and try the most to control the darkness within themselves. Alas, it was easier for them to do a false jihad than the true jihad of controlling their passions saving the innocent visitors to the restaurant. They represented the behaviour of human beings at their worst, and as such was representative of no religion.
The nation thus lost some of its bright young ones in a crime of terrorism in the name of false defence of Islam. Those who were killed were not only our foreign guests, but also our own citizens.
Bangladesh was not to be a country for terrorism of any kind religious or otherwise. Our people as moderate Muslims do not support any kind religious extremism and any deviation from it is still unthinkable.
It is now clear that the government was moving against militancy with preconceived notion that opposition party men demanding were to be blamed and punished.
Our government seems not to understand that Islamic terrorism is an ideology and must be faced and encountered by an alternative ideology. That has to be democracy. Autocracy feeds terrorisms, so the need of democracy is urgent. Surely, the young educated ones with rich family background were too eager to go to heaven.
We need international help and cooperation to help us save our young ones.
One of the Bangladeshi victims was identified as Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain, 20. Early in the morning, the gunmen released a group of women wearing hijabs and offered Faraz Hossain, the opportunity to leave, too.
Hossain, a student at Emory University, was accompanied by two women wearing Western clothes. When the gunmen asked the women where they were from, they said India and the United States. The gunmen refused to release them, and Faraaz refused to leave them saying they were his friends. He was also among those found dead on Saturday morning.
We do not know the truth or falsehood of the whole tragedy but if true then the young Hossain, possessed the integrity and courage needed to be a responsible citizen had he been alive. He did not run for personal safety, unconcerned of the cruel fate awaiting his friends. Both the assailants and Faraaz came from financially well off backgrounds, studied in English Medium schools, and went abroad for further education. But there, unfortunately, the parallels end.
The young educated assailants forced their misguided impressions about the world on the restaurant visitors in the most brutal manner, killing and torturing without mercy – on a month which is supposed to be the month where true Muslims show the most rectitude and try the most to control the darkness within themselves. Alas, it was easier for them to do a false jihad than the true jihad of controlling their passions saving the innocent visitors to the restaurant. They represented the behaviour of human beings at their worst, and as such was representative of no religion.
The nation thus lost some of its bright young ones in a crime of terrorism in the name of false defence of Islam. Those who were killed were not only our foreign guests, but also our own citizens.
Bangladesh was not to be a country for terrorism of any kind religious or otherwise. Our people as moderate Muslims do not support any kind religious extremism and any deviation from it is still unthinkable.
It is now clear that the government was moving against militancy with preconceived notion that opposition party men demanding were to be blamed and punished.
Our government seems not to understand that Islamic terrorism is an ideology and must be faced and encountered by an alternative ideology. That has to be democracy. Autocracy feeds terrorisms, so the need of democracy is urgent. Surely, the young educated ones with rich family background were too eager to go to heaven.
We need international help and cooperation to help us save our young ones.
