Police sat pretty as Satkhira burned

Fatepur High School assistant teacher Mita Rani's house vandalised and set afire on Mar 31 2012

Emran Hossain, back from Satkhira

Dhaka, Apr 22 (bdnews24.com) – Atrocities at Fatepur and Chakdah in Satkhira could have been prevented if the police had detained the Jamaat-e-Islami activist for filing a fabricated news report.

Instead, the police ended up accepting a case based on the newspaper report, in a way acknowledging the report's authenticity.

This only provided the local Jamaat-e-Islami further ground to justify the violence and vandalism as 'protest against insult of Islam and the prophet'.

"The officer in-charge checked the script minutely and found that it matched exactly with the original script of the play," said Abdul Hakim Sarder, a member of the Fatepur High School managing committee. The play 'Huzur Kebla', by Abul Mansur Ahmed, is part of the undergraduate curriculum for Bengali.

He was recounting his Mar 29 meeting with Kaliganj OC Syed Fariduddin who was later withdrawn from there.

Police called Hakim and several others from Fatepur as discontent brewed among people after a local daily, Drishtypat, reported that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was insulted in the drama Fatepur High School students had staged two days prior to that.

"The OC thanked us as we helped him examine the truth and castigated Mizanur Rahman, the reporter who is also a Jamaat-e-Islami cadre, for the fabricated report on such a sensitive issue," Hakim added.

Police, however, did not take action against the reporter though there was strong discontent among the Muslim community as Jamaat-e-Islami continued an extensive campaign to mobilise people citing the report.

Throughout Mar 29 and the next day, Jamaat campaigners distributed leaflets, made announcements on loudspeakers urging people to demonstrate against the 'enemies of Islam' and held rallies all over Satkhira including the district town.

Police took no initiative to contain the situation, apparently paving the way for situation to worsen.

Things took a bad turn on Mar 30, a Friday, when people across Satkhira took to the streets after inflaming speeches by the Imams during the Juma prayer at every mosque including those located on police station premises.

At Kaliganj, a mob attacked the local police station at one stage of their demonstration when they chased a local journalist and he took shelter there. The mob demanded that he be handed back to them.

The journalist had questioned the justification of a demonstration three days after an incident had supposedly taken place.

The mob laid siege to the police station for hours and kept pelting stones and brickbats until late in the afternoon.

Kaliganj police assured the mob of looking into the matter but did not take any action, let alone filing a case.

At Fatepur the same day, the police, contrary to its findings, assured the mob over taking action against the persons who insulted the last prophet of Islam and arrested the school's headmaster Rezwan Harun and assistant teacher Mita Rani Bala immediately. This only gave further impetus to the agitation.

"Nobody knows better than the police how cases against unnamed people help control such situations. It is a mystery why they did not do it before the situation went completely beyond their control," said Satkhira Workers Party president Fahimul Haque Kislu.

The situation went beyond hand the next morning, Mar 31, when thousands stormed the compound where Shahinur Rahman Shahin's family lives in Fatepur.

Shahin was the one who had adapted the play Huzur Kebla from Abul Mansur Ahmed's original version. The mob vandalised five houses on the compound, looted valuables, and set the houses on fire.

"There were two police vans full of cops. But they just watched like bystanders," said Habibur Rahman, Shahin's brother-in-law.

The crowd ran amok for hours vandalising other houses. Those included those of Mita Rani, the arrested assistant teacher. They also attacked Fatepur High School managing committee member Abdul Hakim Sarder and that of one Laxmipada Mandal's houses and finally the Satkhira Sangskritik Parishad premises, where the play had been rehearsed, one after the other.

They even prevented fire fighters from dousing the fire which raged through the houses turning them into mere piles of ashes.

Hours went by, but the police took no action even after the atrocities. No case was filed.

"As my house was being set ablaze, policemen puffed on their cigarettes, walked around and kept sending messages saying 'out of control' over their walkie-talkies," said Laxhmipada Mandal.

Even the next 24 hours failed to draw any action from police and district administration, inspiring the Jamaat to incite another round of violence, this time closer to the Indian border, at Chakdah, over rumours that a Hindu woman of the village had made an indecent remark on the prophet in reference to the school play.

Seven Hindu houses were set ablaze at Chakdah at 8pm on Apr 1 after being looted.

The top government official of the sub-district, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Taufique Elahi Chowdhury, then police superintendent Habibur Rahman Khan, district commissioner Anwar Hossain Howlader and additional DIG Rafiqul Islam rushed to the place only to watch the deplorable law and order situation.

Instead of taking action, they requested the mob to calm down through loudspeakers, local reporters said.

The mob demanded punishment to an assistant sub-inspector, Bachhir Ahmed, who tried to prevent a part of the crowd from blocking fire fighters reaching the burning houses.

The additional DIG promised the crowd that the police officer would be suspended before the daybreak. The ASI was closed accordingly.

"Even teargas shells could have been lobbed to disperse the crowd," said Krishnapada Sarder, whose house was also burnt in the Chakdah atrocities.

"Earlier, we used to read in newspapers that the police or administration does not work. But I have seen it myself this time. I won't stay in this country anymore. I will leave," said the 63-year old.

His neighbour Shyamapada Sarder's house was also burnt. Shyamapada was not at home and his wife Lolita Sarder could not talk for a long time when asked how all this had happened.

"Police instigated the crowd the most. They could have fired blank shots at least," she added.

According to the witnesses and victims, policemen were also beaten during the atrocities.

Neither the local journalists nor the district's political leaders could explain the police role and only said that they did not understand for whom the police worked.

Both OC Farid and SP Habibur were closed following the Chakdah incident.

Before being closed, the SP surprised everyone by speaking his mind at a law and order meeting in the district town.

Quoting the SP, an attendee of the meeting said that he had told the meeting that he would have given them a hand in what they were doing to 'save Islam' if he were not wearing the police uniform.

Police finally filed two cases on Apr 5 and 6 and arrested over 50. Reporter Mizanur was also arrested.

Though there is video footage and photographs of about two dozen people who led the processions to torch the houses, the police did not give all of their names in its cases, which simply mentions '500 unnamed people'.

Current Satkhira police superintendent Asaduzzaman did not want to comment on the police role saying that he had been transferred there after the incident.

Elite force Rapid Action Battalion personnel were also present during the atrocities that continued for two days, but they allegedly did not even get out of their vehicles, local reporters said.

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