The government used to feel complacent claiming the acts of terrorism were isolated incidents and the need was for the police to be tough. Now the situation has grown too serious and too threatening for the government and the country. Yet the government will not re-examine its own politics and see how their politics has isolated it from the people. How the helpless people are being subjected to abuse of power everyday. In its arrogance not to tolerate opposition, the government has created a political atmosphere antagonistic to peaceful politics. The killing of the innocent wife of a senior police officer in Chittagong by militants on Sunday is a disturbingly shocking matter. The police came under attack before also. Some got killed. But the present action suggests that the terrorists may have opened a new front this time as a desperate response to excessive police operations. This police officer has earned medals for his brave police operations for suppression of terrorism. Operations against terrorism more often than not make more innocent persons to lose their lives than real terrorists. There has been too much pressure on police to contain terrorism without pausing to think about political aspect of terrorism. Those who argue that anti-Bangladesh elements, namely Jamaat followers are engaged in killings are unable to see the overall political crisis created by the direct reapers of illegal benefits from the government. They have criminalised politics. Still they proudly call them freedom fighters. There was peace after the Liberation War. There was no trouble in maintaining peace and order. Peaceful existence was made difficult later by intolerant politics of the few in the name of pro-Liberation force. The justification is simple: they are freedom fighters so they have earned the right to determine what politics the country will have. The purpose is to serve the narrow interest of a class. The country was placed in a hateful confrontational situation dividing the unity among us in the pattern of socialist class struggle. It is forgotten that the whole world supported the democratic cause of the Liberation War. The world sympathised and came to our help for inhuman sufferings of the people who remained in Bangladesh. Terrorism is the creation of wrong politics came in the trail of creation of free Bangladesh. Now the question remains who are real freedom fighters? The bravest freedom fighters are our people. The world recognised them so.Such acts of terrorism are also a challenge to the government for its utter failure to see the problem in the right perspective. The number of victims is no less than 21 from January this year. Such killings are now an everyday affair. The government is proving wholly wrong in assessing the crisis and miserably incompetent in providing safety and security essential for good governance. Any serious political leader knows that in the absence of peaceful politics for change militants emerge as a force. Our problem lies in the reality that the government is in the grip of power conscious and not people conscious bureaucrats. Now the killing of a high ranking police family member, may lead to greater mistake of using more fire power, more indiscriminate killings and more disappearances. This will be playing more into the hands of the militants. The weakness with the government is that it listens only to its selfish supporters. It cannot objectively see how insecure the whole country has become or how the government is ceasing to be effective to keep the country safe and going. Those in power do not try to understand that all terrorisms are political and grow out of an aggrieved political situation. The government committing an unforgivable error in not understanding the political make-up of our people. The great leaders including Bangabandhu inspired them with ideals of democracy and freedom. They were told to reject authoritarianism. This rising tide of militancy cannot be suppressed with the anti-terrorism assistance of some Western powers. Ours homegrown extremism is in no small part a challenge against the discarded politics of the past. It will be a terrible mistake to internationalise our kind of terrorism, knowing what has happened in Syria. We know the reason, we also know the solution. The government must not fight the people if it cannot earn the confidence of the people. We are not sure if American establishment is eager to end terrorism or keep it alive outside. There is global politics involved. It is a big disappointment that America no longer highlights the importance of democracy to fight terrorism. It is not unknown to the US government if democracy fails, terrorism succeeds. One has to look around to see the truth. We cannot destroy ourselves by becoming part of global terrorism for the benefit of others. The government is solely depending on police to fight the militants. They are depending on police cases for dealing with non-militant political leaders and workers. In short, the politicians in government have abandoned their political role in dealing with the national crisis. What we have is a senseless power struggle and no politics for political solution. But the horror of killing and counter-killing cannot go on and must be stopped. Let all sensible men and women everywhere rise to save the lives of our people.
