Haripada paused, grimfaced. Then he said, "Have you decided on doing something? Will you stay here? I don't think it'll be the right thing to do. I was thinking of moving to my father-in-law's place at Manikgunj. But my elder brother-in-law arrived here this evening with alarming news: about a hundred houses in Manikgunj and Gheor police station areas have been looted and then set aflame. Twenty-five temples have received the same treatment. In Bakjhuri village, the Hindu houses were set on fire. Eight or ten youths forcibly abducted a girl, Saraswati, the daughter of Deben Shor, at midnight, and gang raped her."
"What are you saying?" said Sudhamay in panic.
"Where is your daughter?"
"Maya has gone to a girlfriend's."
"Is that a Muslim house?"
"Yes."
"Then it's all right." Haripada heaved a sigh of relief.
Kiranmayee also felt some comfort. Cleaning his glasses, Sudhamay said, "In fact, most of the riots occur in this area. I have witnessed nothing like this in Mymen singh. Well, have you heard any news from Mymensingh, Haripada?"
"I've heard two temples, one prayer hall in Bathuadi village in Phulpur police station area and the Kali temple at Trishal were destroyed last night."
"But the town must have been spared. Nothing like this happens in the northern part of the country. What do you say, Kiranmayee? Have you ever heard of such templeburning incidents in our area?"
Before Kiranmayee could reply, Haripada said: "The community puja office on Northbrook Hall Road, the Kali image and temple at Jamidarbari have all been destroyed. Today, a sweetmeat shop called 'Jalkhabar' and Shatarupa Stores at Shantinaghar were smashed and set on fire. The fanatic Jamat Shibir gang members destroyed six temples at Kusthia last night. The news coming from Chittagong, Sylhet, Bhola, Sherpur, Coxbazar, Noakhali are harrowing enough. I'm indeed feeling very scared."
"Scared of what?"
"A mass exodus."
"No, no, the riots in this country will never reach that level to cause such an exodus."
"Have you forgotten what happened in 1990, Dada? Or didn't you consider those incidents that serious?"
"Those were cooked up by General Ershad's government."
"What are you saying, Dada? Why don't you have a look at the report of the Statistical Bureau of Bangladesh Government? The exodus will be of tremendous magnitude this time. No one leaves his home and hearth at the outbreak of cooked-up incidents. After all, the soil of one's own country is not like the soil in a flower pot, which can be watered every day and changed occasionally. Dada, I'm really frightened. My son studies in Calcutta, but I've two grown-up girls. It's their safety and well-being that keeps me awake during the night. I'm thinking of quitting this land."
Sudhamay shuddered. With a jerk he took out his spectacles and said, "Have you gone mad, Haripada? Don't ever utter such words of bad omen."
"I know what you are going to say. I've a good practice here. I'm earning well, have my own house, isn't that it?
"No, Haripada, not for that reason. The question is not that you cannot because you have facilities here. Isn't this your country as well? I'm just a retired person earning hardly anything save for what trickles in from the fees paid by the few patients that I attend to and their number, too, is going down. My son doesn't do anything gainful. Shall I, therefore, leave my country? Do you consider them to be human beings who can leave their own country? Whatever might happen, however many riots there may be, Bengalis are, after all, not uncivilized. There has been some trouble which will end ultimately. There are two countries side by side. The fire burning in one cannot but set pieces of cinders burning in another. Mind you, Haripada, Bengali Muslims did not participate in the 1964 riots. It was Biharis who instigated it."
Haripada covered his nose and mouth with his shawl and said: "That I come out with my mouth covered by my shawl is out of fear not of Biharis, but of your Bengali brothers."
Haripada opened the door with a slight touch of his fingers, and with measured steps entered the lane on the left side and disappeared. Kiranmayee kept the door slightly ajar, restlessly waiting for Suranjan. Processions were passing by intermittently shouting slogans: "Naraye Takbir Allah-hoo Akbar"-The Government of India must re construct the Babri mosque, or else they won't spare anyone-they threatened.
Suranjan returned quite late at night. He was unsteady on his feet. He informed Kiranmayee that he had no appetite. He wouldn't take any food.
Suranjan switched off the light and went to sleep. But sleep eluded him. He passed the night restlessly tossing from one side of the bed to the other. Failing to get a wink of sleep, Suranjan returned to the past, step by step. There were four fundamental principles of the state: nationalism, secularism, democracy and socialism. Communalist and religious fanatic forces were defeated through the language movement of 1952 and the long-drawn democratic movement, culminating in the liberation war of 1971. But the reactionary forces opposed to the consciousness of the liberation struggle captured power and completely altered the character of the constitution to facilitate the rehabilitation of the rejected and defeated communalist and fundamentalist forces. The activities of the communalist and fundamentalist forces gained momentum after Islam was made the state religion in an illegal and unconstitutional manner through the use of religion as a political weapon.
On February 8, 1979, in the early morning, about four hundred people suddenly attacked the Hindu Rishi community in Sabahal village, the Daudkandi subdistrict of Comilla. They loudly proclaimed: "The government has declared Islam as the state religion. So in order to reside in an Islamic state, everyone must become a Muslim. If you do not adopt Islam, you will have to leave this country." These rowdies plundered every house of those belonging to the Rishi community and set them on fire, demolished temples, and abducted many people who are still missing. The women were brutally raped and many of those injured in the attack never recovered completely.
Nripendra Sengupta and his wife Anima Sengupta of Abirdigha village in Sibpur of Narsingdi were forcibly kept in the house of an advocate and a document was registered under compulsion for eight and a quarter bighas of land. On March 27,1979, Anima complained to the superintendent of police of Narsingdi in a written statement that the accused had threatened her and that the people of the locality were silent out of fear. After this Anima was kept in police lockup and tortured.
On May 27 that year ten or twelve armed men raided the house of the Haldars in Baulakanda village of Firozpur. They plundered whatever they found in the house and, after demolishing the temple, raised the slogan "Kill malauns, construct mosque after demolishing temple." They also asked the Hindus to leave this country without any delay.
On May 9 in broad daylight about 100 or 150 Muslims raided the house of the Baidyas of Paschimgram in Raujan of Chittagong and bombed it, setting the house on fire and firing at the people with their guns.
On June 16, ten or twelve policemen captured about fifteen or sixteen Hindus, including Gauranga Mondal, Na- gendra Mandal, Amulya Mandal, Sobodh Mandal, Sudhir Mandal, Hirendra Nath Mandal and Jahar Deuri, and beat them after bringing them to the courtyard of Gauranga Mandal. When Gauranga Mandal's wife tried to stop them, they took her to a room and raped her continuously. Other women who tried to protest were also molested. Sanatan Mandal's daughter Rina was also forcibly cap tured and raped. She was later kidnapped. There is no trace of Rina as yet.
On June 18 at about eleven o'clock at night, three policemen along with the village Chowkidar and some armed persons raided Chandkathi village in Nazirpur subdistrict of Perozpur and launched a search operation. During the search they asked the Hindus to leave this country. They arrested four or five Hindus, including Dulal Krishna Mandal, and took them to the police station where they were mercilessly tortured. Later, they were released on payment of eight hundred or a thousand takas. Many Hindus of this locality have left the country.
Minority Hindus of twelve villages in Gazir Hat Union of Dighalia subdistrict of Khulna hav
e been subjected to unimaginable atrocities. Molla Jamluddin, a candidate for the chairman's post, following his defeat in the elections, prevented the Hindus from tilling their land, took away their paddy from the field, snatched their cattle and plundered their shops.
On December 10, 1988, Abdus Subhan Bhuyan and Union Council member Golam Hussain and their armed henchmen raided the house of Rajendranath Das who had filed a case against them for taking illegal lease and forcible occupation of the bestowed property in Durgapur village in Barishal. They threatened to kill Rajendranath, looted golden ornaments and other valuables and set fire to the house. They took away an idol of Radhakrishna made of an alloy of eight types of metal and those who tried to resist them were mercilessly beaten. Before their departure they told Rajendranath Das to leave the country.
At the instigation of some fundamentalists, police stormed the house of eighty-year-old Lakshman Chandra Pal in Talbunia village in Rampal subdistrict of Bagerhat district on the morning of August 26, 1988, severely assaulting the grandson of the old man, Bikash Chandra Pal, besides meting out identical treatment to the eldest son, Pulin Behari Pal, and the second son, Rabindranath Pal. The policemen also gave a thrashing to Pulin's wife when she tried to resist them. The police then dragged Pulin, Rabindranath and Bikash to the police station lockup on false charges. They were yet to be released on bail. The incident had its root in the longterm imprisonment of Hakim Molla, a resident of Sholakura village, for raping a niece of Lakshman Chandra Pal and assaulting other members of the family some time before the partition. After his release from the jail following the creation of Pakistan, this convict, aided by Siraj Mullick, Haroon Mullick and Abdul Jabbar of Talbunia village, decided to settle the score with Lakshman Chandra and punished his family members in this manner with police assistance. After this incident the Hindus began feeling insecure and prepared to leave.
The Hindu residents of Gopalganj, Kotalipara, Kak- sudpur, that is, the entire Gopalganj district, were being subjected to thefts in their houses, looting and armed holdups, illegal occupation of their properties through forgery, rape of their women and destruction of their religious places coupled with persecution and torture by the police. The members of the goon squad of Mantu Kaji, chairman of Kotalipara subdistrict, mounted an attack on the Mandra Lakhirpara village in Kushala union in broad daylight and tortured the Hindu women. They were now extorting money and forcibly taking away all valuable movable properties, forcing the Hindus to put their signa tures to stamped papers to legalize this plunder. Most of the Hindus of the area had left the country out of terror. Mantu Kaji abducted a woman official of Sonali Bank, Mrs. Bhowmick, and subjected her to beastly torture. Luring the girls like Mamata, Madhu and others from Kandi village, under the pretext of giving them jobs, he trapped them in the subdistrict office and raped all of them.
During the night of July 3, 1988, the police entered the house of Anil Chandra in Pilmari village in Chilmari subdistrict of Bagerhat during his absence and severely assaulted his wife and young children. The police also looted the house of the schoolteacher Amulya Babu. They also raided the house of Khstish Mandal in Suriguri village on the night of the 4th and, finding the menfolk away, raped the wife and daughter of the house's owner. Next day, their target of attack in the same village was Shyamal Biswas's house where, finding him absent, they raped his daughter and looted all the valuables. A few days after these incidents, a vandal forced his way into the house of Nirode Behari Roy in Chitalmari village and took up residence there. The local administration remained silent. Forcibly ejecting a Hindu from his house in Kalshira village, a Union Council member, Mansur Mullick, illegally occupied the property and started residing there. The homeless Hindu family was now on the road.
Jahur Ahmed, an official of the district education department, raped some Hindu girls on the pretext of giving them jobs. Two women of the Biswas family in Demakair village had been ravished in this way. The man was now engaged in a flourishing business of extorting money from the Hindu teachers and lady teachers solely under the threat of transferring them.
The police and the local rowdies led a combined raid on the house of Jagadish Halder of Alti village in Gopalganj. The entire house was ransacked, residents were beaten up and the valuables looted. Before leaving the place the raiders threatened to kill everyone. On August 12 the same year the rowdies and police together again launched an attack on several other Hindu houses in the same village and demolished several temples. Both Hindu men and women like Ashutosh Ray, Manoranjan Ray, Anjali Ray, Suniti Ray, and Bela Biswas were molested by them. They threatened, before their departure, that they wouldn't allow any temple to remain standing in this country.
The fundamentalists combined with the police attacking the Hindus after the death of Khayer Khan, chairman of Ujani Union in the Maqgdpur subdistrict of Gopalganj district, torturing all the members of the community in the area. The police raped the wife of one Shibu in Ba- sudebpur village and Miss Anjali Biswas in Mahatali village. Twelve people were arrested by the police from Shim- ulpur village for being members of the Proletariat party. They were subjected to severe torture and released only after large amounts of money were extorted from them.
The police suddenly attacked Bashtukathi village in Swarupkathi subdistrict in Pirozepur district on June 20 for launching an attack, indiscriminately destroying the standing crop of the Hindus on either side of the river. The peasants working in their fields were arrested and released later after coming up with ransom money. Minati Rani, subdistrict health center worker, was proceeding to a friend's house in the company of her sister-in-law and brother. They were forcibly detained in the temporary police camp in the same village and secured their release after paying one thousand takas. A man called Rustam All raped a fourteen-year-old girl, Shiuli, daughter of Sudhangsu Kumar Haider, in Purbajala Bari village of Swarupkathi on her way to her maternal uncle's house. When Sudhangsu Haider sought to take the matter to the village leaders, he was bluntly told that they were unable to bear with such incidents, and that he had better leave the country.
The men of a mosque committee keen on building a new mosque in Buriganj bazar in Shibganj subdistrict of Bagura district attacked the house of Dr. Sachindra Kumar Saha near the site of the proposed mosque. They broke all the doors and windows of Saha's house, looted all that they could lay their hands on and set fire to the house. They also demolished a nearby temple. After continuing this plunder for more than two hours, they returned with a booty of more than one million takas. During the raid, Dr. Saha's son managed to slip out unnoticed and informed the police. But when for once the police decided to act, they were attacked by criminals like Altaf Hussain Mandal and members of his gang with clubs, iron rods and brickbats. Eight of the policemen were injured. Later the police official at Shibganj himself lodged a complaint and arrested Altaf Hussain and sixty-five others. But under pressure from the people at the top, all the accused had now been released and they were openly threatening the members of Dr. Saha's family with death. The incident led to a deep sense among the local Hindus who were thinking of leaving the country.
The Hindus of Tikrapara village in Alfadanga subdistrict in Faridpur district, following an attack on them on May 3 and 4, 1979, left their homes to take shelter elsewhere.
An influential man, Nazir Mirdha of Rahatpur village in Raipur Union of Mohammedpur subdistrict in Magura district, raped the wife, minor daughter and daughter-in-law of Haren Biswas. When a case was filed against the accused, Nazir and his henchmen tortured the complainant so much that he, along with his family, was forced to leave the country.
On the 19th and 20th, the police of Debagram in Kotalipara subdistrict of Gopalganj arrested Anil Kumar Bagchi, Sushil Kumar Pande and Makhanlal Ganguly on the charge of being involved with the Bangabhummi movement and later set them free after extorting money from them. Ramesh Chandra Ojha, a mentally unsound person of Mirakathi village in Jhalakathi subdistrict of Gopulguy district, was forcibly converted to Islam. His wi
fe, Minati Rani, and his elder brother, Nirode Ojha, were pressured to convert. She faced the threat of being raped when she tried to take up the matter with the senior people in the area. Minati Rani was now on the run, fearing for her life.
Sultan, a dismissed police constable, raped the wife of Sudhir Baidya, a resident of Jobai village in Kachua subdistrict of Gopalganj. She now hid herself from the public in sheer shame. Sudhit Baidya himself was facing a threat against his life. A cow belonging to Upendra Malo, of the same village, was killed and a feast was made of its meat by some people in that village. Upendra was humiliated for the crime of seeking justice from the administration.
In his bid to save the paddy of his own land, Kartik Ray of Beltali village in Boultali union in Gopalganj had to pay with his own life. His wife was forced to declare the brutal murder of her husband as a natural death.
One Abdul Rahim, through his henchmen, kidnapped Manju Rani Seal, a student of Class IX and daughter of Pre- mananda Seal of Dekshin Chandpur in Luksum subdistrict of Comilla district, at about eight in the evening on December 4,1988. Next day a complaint was lodged with the Luksum police station. But the girl was not found. The abductors threatened her father and other members of the family, but the police took no action. The Hindus were frightened to send their daughters to school in this area.
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