When Words Get You Killed

It is exactly four years ago when our fellow fighter Ahmed Rajib Haider was atrociously killed by Ansarullah Bangla Team, an offshoot organization of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islam. In 2013 Shahbag movement was sparked and later forged ahead under its specific six point demands including the capital punishment of the notorious war criminals, ban of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party from politics along with election and a boycott of institutions supporting or affiliated with them. Through this non-violent movement the whole nation unified again to indemnify the history. The dearth of spine in political practice definitely paved the way for the anti-liberation forces to sharpen their stings during post liberation era of Bangladesh. After the killing of our national father the whole political system was in a breach of ideology and the military forces allowed the war criminals in politics. As a result, these criminals became political and economic monsters. Shahbag movement is probably the first uprising of people that has decisively pointed out the economic power house of these war criminals and strived to stop it. Hence, for obvious reasons, this movement is an existential threat to the anti-liberation forces. If we go through the history of our liberation war, it will be evident that during such existential crisis, pro-Pakistani forces always use religion to destroy the communal harmony. There was no exceptional in 2013. A hit list of 84 bloggers was published in the media; subsequently many of them were killed by the Islamic militant groups. The bedrock of Shahbag movement is the spirit from our liberation war. A secular and egalitarian concept of society has been its philosophical study. Shahbag is continuing its dauntless fight against the fundamentalists’ futile philosophy and religious bigotry imported with the Pakistani ‘Jihad’ and petrodollar confined ‘Islam’. On February 15, 2013 Ahmed Rajib Haider, one of those who wrote to express their thoughts on the lethal consequences of this indoctrination, was brutally killed. Not like he was the first; in 1999 prominent poet Shamsur Rahman was attacked by Harkatul Jihad, in 2004 noted linguist and eminent litterateur Humayun Azad was under murderous attack in the book fair and on 24 December of the same year, Mohammad Yunus, a teacher of economics, was hacked to death by JMB. These clandestine Islamic groups are changing their name from time to time but their headquarter, Jamaat-e-Islami, remains unchanged.

Ahmed Rajib Haider was an architect by profession and famous in Bangla blogging communities under his pseudonym ‘Thaba Baba’. He was from Kapasia upazila of Gazipur district. As an architect, he designed a monument of liberation war of Bangladesh in his own area. On 19 August, 2010 he submitted the design and it was sent to the connecting ministry for approval in 2011. According to the design its height is almost the same as an eight storied building. 21 stairs symbolizing the spirit of the language movement connected the eight feet high dais with the base. The theme of our liberation war was designed to portray three different narratives. Rajib Haider wished to do it without any remuneration.