Shahriar blasts Odhikar for being politically biased
Staff Reporter :
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam has raised questions regarding the Odhikar report, which, what he says, has not only spread lies about the death-toll but also clearly exposed the organisation’s political biases.
Citing part of the Odhikar’s 2013 report, the state minister in a tweet on Sunday wrote : “Odhikar’s 2013 report on security forces’ drive at Shapla Chattar, Dhaka not only lied about the death-toll, but clearly exposed the organisation’s political biases in favour of Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam under Adilur and Elan’s leadership.”
To justify his comment, Shariar Alam quoted: The report said nothing about the destructive activities by Hefazat, the involvement of Jamaat-Shibir activists and their instigation of acts of violence, although it went into details to describe the role
of law enforcers and pro-ruling party activists.
The report termed Hefazat ‘a people’s platform, a non-political and socio-cultural organisation’, and mentioned its objectives were to promote “social dialogue to dispel prejudices that affect community harmony and relations”, all of which are factually inaccurate (clear from a cursory glance of their extremist 13 point-demands, incl.
demands for a new Islamic blasphemy law with Death Penalty, cancellation of women’s development policy, declaring Ahmadiyyas, law against conversion etc.), the tweet said.
The report said nothing about Hefazat’s killing of a police officer while being flushed out of Shapla Chattar near the Alico Building in Motijheel (witnessed by a Daily Star journo), he wrote.
The report acted as an apologia for Hefazat who, they wrote, were “instigated by some bloggers and activists that mobilised at the Shahbagh Movement”, and who were making “vulgar, humiliating, insulting and provocative remarks in the social media sites and blogs against Islam, Allah and Prophet Mohammad! Now, this was a narrative of Jamaat.
By endorsing it, the two men sounded less like HRDs and more like right-wing apologists (which they were).
Their friends should know that their hands have the blood of multiple secularist bloggers who were killed subsequently as a result of such high level endorsement of hate speech.
The report shamelessly justified the use of Madrassa students (mostly underage) in the unsafe and risky programmes by Hefazat.
Despite knowing that most of these children are actually orphans completely dependent on Madrassas for sustenance, have no agency, and were coerced or lured to attend, he mentioned.
Lambasting the critics supporting Adilur and Elan, the State Minister said, “Friends and supporters of Adilur Rahman Khan and Elan may cry foul, want his conviction to be reversed, etc.
But they cannot justify, under any means, the level of misinformation pushed by them during one of Bangladesh’s most violent political eras.”
Recently, a Dhaka court sentenced Adilur and Elan to two years imprisonment each in an ICT Act case.
Following this verdict, both local and international community, diplomatic missions and international organisations expressed their concerns for handing down such punishment of the human rights workers.
