In an apparent reference to the 1971 Liberation War when nearly 300,000 women were raped by the Pakistani occupation force during the nine-month long war, Dhaka University Professor Emeritus Serajul Islam Choudhury has said no citizen of Bangladesh is safe.
“Nowhere in the state people are safe now. We have witnessed such a terrifying situation in 1971. Rape is the best example [of today’s lack of security] and the state fails to control the crimes,” he said on Friday (May 10).
The academic was speaking at a discussion titled ‘the past and present of workers movement’ organised by Bangladesh Garments Workers Solidarity at the university’s Serajul Islam Lecture Hall.
Referring to the murder of Fen student Nusrat Jahan Rafi, Prof Choudhury said, “Police and Awami League leaders altogether tried to prove the incident as a suicide whereas a nurse has been killed recently after she was raped inside a moving bus.
“The government claims development is happening but people scream behind the scene of the development” he added.
Expressing concern over the country’s political situation, the political-activist said, “To my knowledge, such worst [political] condition never occurred in the past.
“We have seen that lots of people died in famine. Though there is no famine visible in Bangladesh today but silent famine still appears,” the essayist added.
Speaking of corruption in law enforcement agencies, Prof Choudhury said, “If law enforcers are involved in corruption so the state of law and order situation can easily be understood. We become salve of capitalism.
“To be free from such system, relation between owners and workers needs to break.”
“A revolution is necessary to break the old sate and build a new one based on humanity where no women will be raped and no one will be cheated in the name of independence,” he added.