Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed :
A recent newspaper headline ‘Services of 2,400 Ansars: SC disposes appeals with observations’ has drawn my attention with hope of justice. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on August 2, 2022 disposed of the appeals against the High Court verdicts that directed the government to reinstate the service of some 2,400 Ansar members who were dismissed following the Ansar mutiny in 1994. The SC delivered the verdict after hearing three appeals and three leave to appeal petitions filed by the state and the director general of Ansar and VDP challenging the HC verdicts.
The Ansar Rebellion of 1994 was an expression of the long-standing resentment, pain, suffering and discontent of the Ansar forces. The day was Thursday, November 30. It was not an Ansar revolt in the real sense. It is appropriate to call it a mere protest or sit down strike in favor of their demand. This is because the then government did not take any steps to eliminate the inequalities in the salaries, rations and welfare of the Ansar forces. By the Departmental process, about 2500 Ansar members were sacked. At that time 100-150 members barricaded the Tangail highway but 2500 innocent members had to take responsibility. Their families have broken up, some of them have sacrificed their lives by abandoning their families, and some of them have started inhuman lives as day laborers and rickshaw pullers. Some people say this is inhumanity, this is injustice. There was no justification for a joint operation against the innocent peace-loving Ansar. Defamation, disgrace, obscenity and many other things could happen in rebellion but nothing like that happened in Ansar rebellion. However, it was an exaggeration through various quarters. Such an incident would not have happened if the policy makers of that time had been so informed of the facts and sympathetic to the Ansar fellows.
At one-point Battalion Ansar members blockaded the Dhaka-Tangail highway but this was limited to a road blockade only. No vandalism took place. Battalion Ansar members were unarmed in a peaceful siege program. Suddenly, in the light of various rumors and baseless news on December 4, 1994 joint forces attacked the unarmed Ansar forces. In operation, several Ansar members were killed and wounded as soon as the situation was brought under control, 2.5 lakh Ansar-VDP members, including 17 officers living in offices and houses inside the Ansar Academy, were identified as accused and charged with various charges under the Sedition Act. Officials were also not spared from that accusation. They have to suffer various types of legal harassment such as detention in jail, lawsuits etc. All battalion Ansar members were dismissed despite being found innocent in the judicial process.
Previously, The High Court in 2017 directed the Home Ministry and director-general of the Ansar and VDP to reinstate 1,445 members of the Ansar Battalion who were removed from service as accused of taking part in countrywide Ansar mutiny in December 1994. The court in a verdict directed the authorities to reinstate in four months the Ansar men found physically fit and have not reached the retirement age. The court directed the authorities to pay pension to the Ansars who already crossed the retirement age. The verdict says that Ansars who were convicted for taking part in the munity as well as those whose appeals against convictions are pending would not get their jobs back now. Ansars had challenged the legality of removing them from service and sought reinstatement and payment of arrear pay and benefits. On April 13, the same bench in another verdict asked the authorities to reinstate 289 other members of Ansar Battalion. A total of 2,496 Ansar Battalion members were removed from service and were later prosecuted for their involvement in the mutiny.
As stated in the published report and summary of the judgment, it appears the dismissal Battalion Ansar members will be reinstated. Perhaps no mischief or bad precedence will be set to increase the pain or suffering of the deprived and dismissal Battalion Ansars if the judicial verdict is not challenged. The reinstatement of sacked Battalion Ansars followed by necessary benefits, gratuity and pension should be implemented by the administrative or executive order of the government. Otherwise, the judicial verdict of the highest court of the state will be dishonored – which will raise doubts, suspicions and various questions in the public mind about good governance and rule of law.
It was ‘no rebellion, no fire, yet the name was Ansar rebellion.’ Actually it was the demand for government privileges. Indeed, the Ansar rebellion arose out of protests and discontent. The deprived Ansar members in 1994 only raised their voice against discrimination in regards to pay, salary and other welfare allowances. We rather treat it as a just demand of the Ansar members. It turns to rebellion for negligence towards the members both from inside and outside. The authorities concerned were not caring to the Ansar fellows. Today it has become a less talked issue and is becoming a hidden subject. It can be rightly said that the Ansar rebellion finally got justice through the judgement of the appellate divison in the Supreme Court. It is only a matter of time for the implementation of the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Ansar Rebellion.
(The writer is former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh
Ansar and VDP).
