The beginning of a new year should bring us hope and promise for a better future; but for Bangladeshis, the coming year already looks bleak. 2013 suffered from the highest levels of violence the country has experienced since its bloody Liberation War in 1971 – and it is only getting worse. Forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and deaths in police custody continued along with communal violence, harassment and killing of journalists, gender-based violence and violation of workers’ rights became normalized trends in the last year. The end of 2013 witnessed the abysmal decline of democracy, and the country’s transformation into an autocracy under the regime of Sheikh Hasina. Her monopoly of force and her full control of the Bangladesh police ensure that we live every day in fear under her rule. We are kept silent, immobile and essentially, powerless, under the threat of her recklessly violent and illegal measures.
We live in fear of being arrested for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, under the charge of ‘engaging in disruptive activities’, a claim utilized by the police force to justify their illegal arrest of ordinary citizens from areas populated by Opposition supporters. We live in fear of being connected to the wrong person, as we continuously witness the police illegally detaining and arresting relatives of BNP ministers. We live in fear of publicly speaking our mind, or posting our opinions online, after watching the police arrest a Dhaka University professor for his environmental critique of the Awami League sponsored Rampal power plant. We live in constant fear of our houses being raided by the police, who under Sheikh Hasina’s dictum, have illegally raided a number of Opposition member residences. We live in fear because the very people that are supposed to serve us and protect us are the ones that perpetrate these crimes, enjoying their abilities to do wreak whatever havoc they want.
2014 holds no future for us if we have to live every day with these kinds of fears.
