Wednesday, May 08, 2013
News AnalysisShapla Chattar & act of Houdini
Sharier Khan
Since the Sunday violence centring around the demonstration of Islamist group Hefajat-e-Islam which was followed by law enforcers' late night action to drive away some 35000 activists, the country has been abuzz with rumours that the cops killed around 2500 people and buried them somewhere.
Contrary to such rumours which are being spread through social media, blogs and word of mouth, The Daily Star reporters who were present throughout Hefajat's demonstration till the law enforcers completely drove away the activists at 5 am Monday found 13 persons to have died during or after Sunday's violence. Of them, one died of heart attack.
The 13 persons did not all die at Shapla Chattar, but in different adjacent places where violence erupted from Sunday afternoon. Following the late night police-Rab action the journalists saw five bodies kept by Hefajat activists earlier at one place and several seriously injured people lying in different places.
But conspiracy theorists do not believe in what the media is reporting. After all, hours before the police, Rab and the BGB started their late Sunday night (or early Monday) operation, the authorities had shut down electricity in that area. And then, early on Monday morning, the government shut down Diganta TV, which had been strongly supporting the Hefajat demands.
Rumours have it that the bodies were taken by trucks and many of them were dumped in manholes in Motijheel by the cops and thrown into the Buriganga and Turag rivers.
Hefajat-e-Islam in its press statement claimed that 2500 of its activists were killed or went missing. The main opposition party BNP also said hundreds of people were killed and that the killing was more heinous than the killing of innocent people by the Pakistani forces on March 25, 1971—which is basically trivialising the war of liberation. Even the Bangkok based Asian Human Rights Commission did not hesitate to put up its concern at its website at the reported massacre of 2500 people!
Such serious claims need to be scrutinized. Are these claims based on real information? Why did any print or TV journalist present at the site did not even see a dozen dead bodies lying on the streets—let alone 2500? Either the journalists are blind, immoral and corrupt to hide such basic information or the BNP, Hefajat and their supporters are lying or are too confused to believe in anything.
Firstly, Sunday night's actions did not take place secretly. There were dozens of print and electronic journalists watching the whole police action up close. The television journalists followed the police as they marched towards the Shapla Chattar firing rubber bullets and throwing sound grenades, etc. Television showed it all till early morning. If there were 2500 dead bodies, they could not have disappeared from the television cameras right away.
If anyone considers dumping bodies of 2500 bodies in manholes and the adjacent rivers, there are two problems with the theories.
Firstly, how many bodies can one throw inside a manhole? Maybe five? Then what happens after the bodies are thrown inside—let's say a few hundred manholes in the busy business area of Motijheel? Could anyone cover up the odour of dead bodies after a couple of days?
Secondly, if the bulk of the bodies were carried by trucks to be dumped in rivers, how many trucks are required and how many bodies can each truck take? Maybe one truck can carry 150 dead bodies—although that would look like a little hill. Then around 17 trucks will be needed to carry all of these dead bodies.
Then consider how much time is needed to load these bodies, cover them up with something and drive through the city to dump them in the rivers? What are the possibilities that the people will get to see a dozen to 17 trucks, one after another suspiciously running through the city roads to the rivers? Who saw one such truck dump even a few dozen bodies in any of the rivers?
Then what about dead bodies floating up in the rivers? Who would cover that up and how?
The Kawmi Online Activities –a Facebook page of Hefajat supporters –yesterday posted two video clips under the headline "Brutal killing of Hefajat activists". But none of the clips showed any killing. They rather showed law enforcers asking the cornered activists to flee, otherwise they would be beaten.
The only way the cops could have accomplished dumping so many dead bodies was implementing one heck of a big disappearing act of the great magician Houdini.
Another lie is widely being circulated over burning of the holy Quran by Hefajat activists during the Sunday evening violence in and around the Baitul Mukarram area. While the book shop owners went on record on television saying that the Hefajat activists had set fire to their book shops, conspiracy theorists are insisting that it was the work of Awami League activists. After all, Hefajat activists went there demanding the death of those who had insulted Islam. They couldn't possibly have burnt the holy Quran, could they? The shopkeepers who lost everything say they did.
Contrary to such rumours which are being spread through social media, blogs and word of mouth, The Daily Star reporters who were present throughout Hefajat's demonstration till the law enforcers completely drove away the activists at 5 am Monday found 13 persons to have died during or after Sunday's violence. Of them, one died of heart attack.
The 13 persons did not all die at Shapla Chattar, but in different adjacent places where violence erupted from Sunday afternoon. Following the late night police-Rab action the journalists saw five bodies kept by Hefajat activists earlier at one place and several seriously injured people lying in different places.
But conspiracy theorists do not believe in what the media is reporting. After all, hours before the police, Rab and the BGB started their late Sunday night (or early Monday) operation, the authorities had shut down electricity in that area. And then, early on Monday morning, the government shut down Diganta TV, which had been strongly supporting the Hefajat demands.
Rumours have it that the bodies were taken by trucks and many of them were dumped in manholes in Motijheel by the cops and thrown into the Buriganga and Turag rivers.
Hefajat-e-Islam in its press statement claimed that 2500 of its activists were killed or went missing. The main opposition party BNP also said hundreds of people were killed and that the killing was more heinous than the killing of innocent people by the Pakistani forces on March 25, 1971—which is basically trivialising the war of liberation. Even the Bangkok based Asian Human Rights Commission did not hesitate to put up its concern at its website at the reported massacre of 2500 people!
Such serious claims need to be scrutinized. Are these claims based on real information? Why did any print or TV journalist present at the site did not even see a dozen dead bodies lying on the streets—let alone 2500? Either the journalists are blind, immoral and corrupt to hide such basic information or the BNP, Hefajat and their supporters are lying or are too confused to believe in anything.
Firstly, Sunday night's actions did not take place secretly. There were dozens of print and electronic journalists watching the whole police action up close. The television journalists followed the police as they marched towards the Shapla Chattar firing rubber bullets and throwing sound grenades, etc. Television showed it all till early morning. If there were 2500 dead bodies, they could not have disappeared from the television cameras right away.
If anyone considers dumping bodies of 2500 bodies in manholes and the adjacent rivers, there are two problems with the theories.
Firstly, how many bodies can one throw inside a manhole? Maybe five? Then what happens after the bodies are thrown inside—let's say a few hundred manholes in the busy business area of Motijheel? Could anyone cover up the odour of dead bodies after a couple of days?
Secondly, if the bulk of the bodies were carried by trucks to be dumped in rivers, how many trucks are required and how many bodies can each truck take? Maybe one truck can carry 150 dead bodies—although that would look like a little hill. Then around 17 trucks will be needed to carry all of these dead bodies.
Then consider how much time is needed to load these bodies, cover them up with something and drive through the city to dump them in the rivers? What are the possibilities that the people will get to see a dozen to 17 trucks, one after another suspiciously running through the city roads to the rivers? Who saw one such truck dump even a few dozen bodies in any of the rivers?
Then what about dead bodies floating up in the rivers? Who would cover that up and how?
The Kawmi Online Activities –a Facebook page of Hefajat supporters –yesterday posted two video clips under the headline "Brutal killing of Hefajat activists". But none of the clips showed any killing. They rather showed law enforcers asking the cornered activists to flee, otherwise they would be beaten.
The only way the cops could have accomplished dumping so many dead bodies was implementing one heck of a big disappearing act of the great magician Houdini.
Another lie is widely being circulated over burning of the holy Quran by Hefajat activists during the Sunday evening violence in and around the Baitul Mukarram area. While the book shop owners went on record on television saying that the Hefajat activists had set fire to their book shops, conspiracy theorists are insisting that it was the work of Awami League activists. After all, Hefajat activists went there demanding the death of those who had insulted Islam. They couldn't possibly have burnt the holy Quran, could they? The shopkeepers who lost everything say they did.
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