A forgotten leader
The three condemned killers of Kazi Arif Ahmed, founding President of the undivided Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), were hanged on Thursday night in Jessore Central Jail. Aif was killed in Kushtia in 1999 in a broad daylight. Of all the crimes, the Prophet Muhammad (SM) said, the case of murder would be tried first and no murderer would go unpunished.
Kazi Arif was the founding member of he Swadhin Bangla Nucleus Cell. The two others were Sirajul Alam Khan and late Abdur Razzaq. The cell was formed in 1962 to work secretly for the independence of Bangladesh through armed revolution, which ultimately took place in 1971.
After the independence, Kazi Arif played a vital role in forming a new political party, as a challenge with three popular slogans of the Marxist movement. These were: Our aim is scientific socialism, struggle, struggle class struggle, and revolution, revolution social revolution. The Bangladesh Chhatra League was split; the majority gave full support to the JSD, while the minority remained with the Awami League.
Kazi Arif was first nationalist and then Marxist, as was the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse Tung. The western critics nowadays brand Mao as more a nationalist leader after analyzing his political theories and applied policies.
The leftist movement in this part of the world could not be successful because of the leadership crisis and due to distance between the party leaders and the manifesto. Kazi Arif dreamt of a classless society. We do not know whether it is at all possible.
Rabbani
Dhaka
