Arif is free

Drishtipat and E-Bangladesh are reporting that cartoonist Arif has been released from his six month incarceration. This blog promised to highlight his plight until justice was done. We now thank all those who helped Arif in his struggle: other bloggers, letter writers, petitioners, and most of all, Barrister Sara Hossain and her team. When the issue moved off the headlines, Sara and her team kept on fighting the lonely legal battles. This blog also notes the cowardice of our major editors, who disowned Arif in his hour of need, and who refused to publish any op-ed on the issue. And finally, we wish Arif well for his life ahead.

Give Me Strength

A certain barrister-cum-magician-cum-conspiracy theorist has claimed that no private citizen can file a sedition case against another in the wake of sedition cases being filed against WAR CRIMINALS. Apparently this "belittles Bangladesh". Source: BDNEWS24, too sleepy to link right now.

In the annals of our history, only one other barrister has been as slimy, evasive, partisan and so firmly in the pockets of pure evil as this man. His name was Moudud and the current barrister's name is only three letters away from that.

The outrage will hit tomorrow. On the papers, on the blogs, on the mouths of ordinary citizens. Only the utterly deluded cannot decide what "belittles Bangladesh" more: that its freedom fighters' motives were openly questioned or that a case has been filed against the questioner. I humbly mention once again: without those freedom fighters, Bangladeshi jamaatis would be licking the boots of their Pakistani brethren and the Ittefaq would have been printing in Urdu by now with a Pakistani in charge.

Before I go to sleep, I will pray to the Almighty to give me strength to bear this sort of "black is white" logic. I will pray long and hard.

As the Dust Settles - Ditiyo Khondo

(I deliberately held back on this post because I could not get my thoughts in order. I publish it as I wrote it then - raw, incomplete and ill-thought-out - because otherwise it will outlive its usefulness if any to myself and the reader. This was my attempt at summarising the consequences of the madness we saw during those ten fateful days of August. Madness both from the students and from the government. Where those tragic events leave us in terms of civil-government relations and more importantly civil-military relations, only time will tell.)

Let there be no doubt: Evil Forces and political hot money by themselves cannot explain the magnitude of these riots nor the speed at which they spread. Discounting inflation, the bulldoing of slums and the eviction of informal businessmen/women from the pavements is not only an insult to people's intelligence, but promises to trap our national discourse forever in "juju-ism": where we cannot take responsibility for our own actions but must forever find someone else (some omnipotent juju if necessary) to blame. A state is not built on paranoia.

Let there be no doubt in anyone's minds either about the fact that there was definitely fishing in troubled waters. This is the kind of opportunity that our political parties - especially when they're not in the government - wait for. And if they decided to mobilise their agenda through DU professors, who aren't exactly non-partisan angels, then so be it: arrest them and investigate. What I don't understand are the following:

1) How does this justify the indiscriminate beating of any and all DU students as a meaningful policy to keep the peace? Shouldn't there be at least a debate here about collective responsibility/punishment? And more importantly, some considerations about the effect on an already strained relation between civilians and the military/government?

2) How does this justify the harrassment of media personnel and censorship of the media as meaningful policy to keep the peace? I don't think I need to elaborate on this any more than I have previously. I will just say that the free flow of information reduces uncertainty. Uncertainty breeds discontent. Also, as noted previously, the BBC was not censored.

3) The BBC was not censored. If Bangladeshi governments were really worried about their "bhaabmurti" - instead of using it as a tool to de-legitimise its critics - then it would let Bangladeshi news outlets to control the story, not some foreign media outlet.

Oh yeah, I know what you're thinking... it's because our media constantly bitches about the government....well look at what the BBC does to their government.

Has anyone ever heard of a government fall because of too great a flow of information? No seriously, ONE example from media censorship advocates will do. Just ONE!

Reality vs. Fiction

Last week, we had a former brigadier urging the government to look at the underlying causes of the student riots.

Yesterday, we had a university professor talking confidently about "the evil forces" who had tried to dislodge this government. He takes the professors to task for not doing enough to stop the rioting. He applauds the government for having done "a smashing job keeping the rioting at bay". He even says that allegations of torture are there "simply to tarnish the image of the joint forces". I could go on, but it's about to make me nauseous. Last word from the investigation: "no evidence of instigation on the first day."

Now I request all those who like over-arching categories like "students" and "army" to take a step back and think about which writer here is making more sense and who has more sympathy for the ordinary man in the street and who doesn't. Clearly the former army man wins out over the current professor. The former army man has more sympathy for the students than the professor. So where does that leave people who like to construct grand categories of "student/academics" vs. "army/armed forces"?

What you say is more important than who you are. No one person or profession has a hold on the truth.

"Apologising" to the Wrong Group

Let's face it. This apology has come straight from the powers that be.

How do I know that?

Well overlook for one minute the idiocy of holding one person responsible for the works of many in a non-hierarchical setting, and think about WHO he's apologised to: because if the professor was really taking responsibility and meaning the words he said, he should have apologised to THE PUBLIC for the property damage that ensued and not to the army for one lonely picture of one isolated incident involving a man in uniform.

Are professors really more concerned about our hard-working (and I mean that) armed forces than the long-suffering (and I mean that too) people of Bangladesh? Should anyone be?

Ziaur Rahman Walked Away

Responses from military men after being humiliated by students and their teachers. Ziaur Rahman walked away. Charles de Gaulle intervened to ensure that Jean-Paul Sartre was not arrested for joining the students in 1968, saying "You don't arrest Voltaire." Professor Anwar is no Sartre. Neither were any members of the current CTG the mastermind behind a government-in-exile.

Chief Advisor Fakhruddin and General Moeen, we know you love Bangladesh deeply and have her best interests at heart. Which is why we say: this is not the right way.

Black Quotes for Black Times (where "black" refers to deteriorating civil-military relations)

"We expect that every army man will accept the apologies, and forget the grievances they had suffered." - Professor Anwar Hossain being forced into apologising to the army.

That includes - one hopes - the NCOs and chauffeurs as well. You know, the ones that are not allowed - under the army's own rules - to dine in the same room as the Professor if/when he attends weddings and other functions at the RAOWA club or Shenakunjo.

Events since the publishing of that fateful picture have reminded me of a particularly infamous utterance attributed to Genghis Khan: "The greatest happiness is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see those dear to them bathed in tears, to clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters."

The need of the hour is for reconciliation, but all I see is the attempt to utterly humiliate one's enemies. The people doing the humiliation seem to recognise "enemies" only among their own countrymen, while Bangladesh's power in the world dwindles as our Bay remains undefended, our borders remain porous, our policemen remain severely ill-paid and under-trained and the best and brightest of her sons and daughters seek refuge elsewhere - anywhere! - to get away from this arbitrary use of power. But remember, its only those people who see enemies among themselves who are the TRUE patriots. The rest of us, well we just apologise for even thinking of contradicting them on any aspect of national policy whatsoever.

Remember, it all started on a day when the powers-that-be were talking about how to improve civil-military relations. Excellent aim, and as I've said, the need of the hour. True love is what we want between our countrymen (and maybe women, but let's not get the mullahs too worked up by including anything to do with the female race). And here I was thinking that "Love means never having to say you're sorry".

Guess not a lot of Erich Segal fans in the army eh?

Thank You Brigadier Hafiz!

Thank you! Divisive - "if you're not with us, you're against us" - people, take heed.

Pity the Nation

Having seen and heard some of the most pretentious, pompous asses I know read and quote Kahlil Gibran, I developed a distaste for his works, made worse by the fact that his writing was supremely outsized for reality.

But then we come across these moments when the situation in our motherland is similarly outsized. What Marquez said of Latin America is equally applicable for us: "our crucial problem has been a lack of conventional means to render our lives believable".

I give you a Gibran excerpt. At times like this, poetry is the best analysis.

"Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.

Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows not from its own wine-press.

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.

Pity the nation that despises a passion in its dream, yet submits in its awakening.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trupetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpetings again.

Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle.

Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation."

Quote of the Day - Sliver of Light

"Sir, you are a patriot and so are we. We are not the Pakistani army. We are Bangladeshi." - an unknown JF officer quoted by Mrs. Ayesha Akhter, wife of arrested Professor Anwar Hossain. Source

Ami Haal Cherey Dilaam

It's too much work convincing people that narratives of power are wrong. Much easier to keep going with the flow. From hereonin, I believe the following:

1) Someone paid these "students", "street vendors", "slum dwellers" to protest. Inflation has nothing to do with it. Even suggesting "inflation" as a cause should be tantamount to treason. Policy prescription: get rid of Bangladesh Bank. Useless organization.

2) These Evil Forces want "us" to be destroyed so that they can do whatever they want to do afer our destruction. Probably enslave our women and ride our cars at 100 mph through the airport road. I'm glad that this government is taking steps so that doesn't happen.

3) Beating and harrassing journalists and DU students indiscriminately was not only the necessary move for national security, but a just one. Kudos to whoever thought that one up. Policy prescription: keep doing it.

4) The indiscriminate property destruction shows the absolute moral bankruptcy of DU students. There is no way this can be condoned. The indiscriminate response to that was the emotional over-reaction of a handful of government employees. This can be overlooked.

5) Don't argue against any government, be it BNP, AL, JIB or whatever this current one is. They're right and you're wrong.

I resign myself humbly to trusting my government without question. I urge all my fellow citizens to do the same. From now on, if things go wrong at least they won't blame it on the rest of us.

Or will they?

That Muffled Noise

As a Non-Resident Bangladeshi with the media gagged and almost everyone living in fear, it's difficult to know what's going on. It's like living below a chronically fighting couple, an illegal gambling racket and a drug lord all rolled into one, except they use another entrance into the premises and I've never been upstairs. The only way I know what's going on is by trying to decipher the muffled noises that make their way down to your place.

So it's with great dread and sadness that I read blog posts that are desperately warning Dhaka University students to stay out of sight for fears of indiscriminate punishment. With fear reigning supreme among everyone including journalists and bloggers, a select few are giving us glimpses into what might be going on, out of courage or more likely, desperation.

I'd like to think that all this represents the sporadic fears of the few, and not representative of what is going on. But in the absence of a free media, how can I be sure? I'd like to think I'm misreading the muffled noises: that noise from upstairs isn't the casino owners chopping someone's fingers off for cheating, but a winner knocking over the chips in his excitement.... but until I'm allowed to actually go up and see, I'll always harbour suspicions that it's the former and not the latter.

Cry the Beloved Country

(Small update below)

Omi Rahmand Piyal on how journalists were treated. The conclusion is superb in its laying bare the absolute IDIOCY of media censorship, simply superb and I translate liberally:

"Nothing can be said. I don't know if this particular piece is "provocaive or not". When the journalists were taken to the station, they were asked, "Tell us, have we treated you badly (in custody)?"

"No! No! You've behaved impeccably with us!" we had answered.

I say the same in this piece. We are extremely well in Bangladesh. Everything is alright. There's nothing wrong. There are no riots. The people are spending their days in utter peace."

There is nothing more I need to say against media censorship. Nothing at all! Were journalists busy rioting? Did their reporting on the riots (as opposed to editorialising the rioters to be heroes, which I'm yet to see!) spread these riots? The answer to both questions is a big, fat "NO"! Yet journalists are being arrested, the media is being gagged.

Ei shob ki amader aantorjaatic bhaabmurti noshto korey na? Ei shob ki India, China, America'r haathey amader tuley dey na? Koi BBC to thiki report maartesey ektar por ekta, oder ke to keu censor kortesey na. Ora amader itihash bikrito kortey paartesey, amader shorkar ke ninda kortey paartesey.

Shudhu ki nijer desher maanushi shorkarer ninda korley sheita deshodrohi kaajkaarbar hoye jay?

Ajkey abar shuntey hoilo DPte je Eengreji te jara lekhey tara naki goto ponero bochorer durniti'r upobhogkari. Tara naki shadharon manusher koshto bujey na. Tai ei post ta shesh korlaam Banglay. Eengreji te lekhi maaney ei na je ami Bangladeshi na, Bangladeshi manushke chini na, taader koshto bujhi na! Amiyo raastar side e boisha cha khaisi, bonnar shomoy haathoo-panir modhdhey haathsi, police'r haathey naajehaal hoisi ebong onek, onek manushke deskhsi durniti'r taka poysha diye furti kortey. Ekta shima thaka uchit manush koto bhaabey amader bhaag bibhaag korar cheshta korey! Shala...

Oh yeah, just to retain some "balance" (because if you're not with "us", you're against "us"... thank YOU, Mr. President!), here are two videos of some of the mindless destruction by rioters, in the name of God knows what. Find me some journalists going and whispering in their ears.





Update: From the 3rd World View, Update 5:

"A Blogger requests frantically:
The students of Dhaka University, wherever you are, please go to a safe place...you are being looked for. Please don't ask me anything."

Cry, the beloved country, cry.

Dateline Dhaka: Breaking News and Analysis Gut Reactions

List of blogs monitoring the situation in Dhaka with (more or less) regular updates:

UV
The 3rd World View
Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying
Shocholayoton (Bangla)
Shadakalo
bdfact
E-bangladesh (audio)

Last Update: (really tired and sleepy, so no hyperlinks) Apparently the government has declared today a holiday. Awaiting confirmation on that. BTTB submarine cable is down according to a DP commenter. Ties in with loss of internet access in some areas, and even more ironically with jokes cracked on Shadakalo's blog.

If one thing is clear, these last three days have highly polarised us. Commenters on UV are a good sample to glean that from. Talking in support of the students instantly make one anti-army and showing even the slightest sympathy for any military/police personnel can be treated as being anti-students. This no doubts suits someone's interest or the other, but hardly the national interest.

Does anyone realise that those students and the soldiers are the same age? The same colour? The same nationality? What divides them so much then?

Not to sound too gloom-and-doom, but I leave you all with one of my favourite Ginsberg quotes: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness".

Update 8: New Age has not updated its newspaper to the new edition. Anyone has any idea why? BDnews24 is still showing stale news. Is there really a news blackout out of Dhaka?

More importantly, has anyone in the CTG or the military taken a history course? I ask because news blackouts in Dhaka do NOT send the right message to Bangladeshis.

Update 7: BBC news on television shows footage of people going home with their hands raised up above their heads to show security forces that they were not involved. It's hard to believe one's eyes. Even harder to hear John Sudworth describing it, without telling us how widespread this phenomenon was. Is this really what we've been reduced to? (h/t Mash for the link to the video. The rest of it isn't a pretty picture either.)

Update 6: Deshi bloggers have recently become something of an up and coming force in the distribution of the most politically volatile commodity in the world: information. Somewhereinblog and Shocholayoton are good examples. Keep your eyes on them for alternative news (whose anti-military bloggers I don't always agree with), and keep your eyes on any attempts to censor them and/or intimidate their workers during the curfew. More than expatriate bloggers on blogspot and elsewhere, these guys are taking some risks. (h/t RA)

I'm going to go tend to my bhaat and daal on the stove. That is how much I'm worried about home: I'm cooking daal. I think you need to be me to understand that.

Update 5: I don't have any independent confirmation of this, and would appreciate anyone corroborating this: E-bangladesh's latest audio update (linked below) says that GoB is thinking of internet censorship. Among the list of websites to be blocked include E-Bangladesh itself, Drishtipat (of course! We all know how this "human rightists" damage your international bhaabmurti... whether you are AL/BNP/CTG it really doesn't matter.) and all blogspot addresses. That last means this webpage as well.

Oh well, at least I'll have something to tell the grandkids....

Update 4: Have it from good sources that DS front page news people are staying overnight at the offices, too scared to go venture out. That would explain why they haven't been arrested yet. Although by tomorrow, I'm sure someone or other will insinuate as to how this means that DS/Mahfuz/Mahfuz-Debopriyo Chokro (I love chokros!) is in cahoots with the CTG.

Random thought continued from update 1: I don't know what's going on this night in Dhaka. I'm afraid that students who remained behind are being subjected to all sorts of things ranging from inconvenience to harrassment to violence. I'm afraid that people are being randomly arrested.

But what is the purpose? Is this the moment when the military steps in from behind the curtain? Frankly I don't think so, mainly because if the rumours are true, their main backers are the US and UK and we all know how allergic their media elites and certain groups within their states are to the words "military dictatorship". So again, what is the purpose of all this?

My hunch, and I might be completely wrong, is that this is the army's show of strength after what it and the students perceive as the "humiliation" of the DU eviction and "picture no.5". This is their way of showing their junior/mid-ranking officers and the populace alike who's in charge. That at least is the original intent with which this curfew and tonight's "raids" (or whatever they'll be come to be called) have been undertaken.

A good friend of mine worries that in doing so, they might over-reach. Once the army is deployed, there is a logic to itself and command and control might get difficult in the field. I'm with him. Isn't that what led to this situation in the first place?

Update 3: Shocholayoton reports that among the journalists arrested was a blogger called Biplob Rahman, who is also a journalist for bdnews24.com and writes for Baadh Bhangar Awaaj. Towards the end, one of the commenters say that he has been freed.

BDnews24.com seems to have come under enormous strain, as have new media pioneers such as bloggers. Why is a good question, and one I hope to answer in more detail in another post. Part of it has to do with the fear of everything new, so prevalent among people who prefer hierarchical order over anarchic creative destruction.

Enough rambling! I present The 3rd World View with far better updates than I can possibly provide.

Update 2: So my fears are subsiding just a bit. Not a lot, just a small amount. The journos picked up have been freed according to BDnews24.com front page:

The police have released up to 12 journalists, two hours after their arrest during the curfew Wednesday night, police and reporters said. Asif Ahmed Rommo, senior sub-editor of bdnews24.com, who was arrested along with two colleagues, phoned the office from home after his release. "I walked home. We were kept at Mohammadpur Police Station for two hours," Rommo said. Mohammadpur police sub-inspector Muktar Hossain told bdnews24.com that all the journalists were freed. Scores of journalists were arrested or beaten by the army during the first few hours of the curfew. Army officers arrested three journalists—Liton Haider, Biplob Rahman and Rommo—as they were heading home after work.

This sounds more like frustrated/humiliated army men blowing off steam at these civilian types than a concerted move planned from HQ. Of course, these journos could have been picked up to brief them about those lines in the sand I was talking about, but my gut feeling is that that talk would have taken more than 2 hours.

Reports of army moving through the city abound.

Update: E-Bangladesh is reporting that army patrols are back on campus, with certain student leaders and teachers being "sought after". A friend of a friend confirms that they had their apartment on DU campus searched by the army.

So the move is: withdraw the camp, call a curfew and then put the army back in? This should go down well..... yes, that's sarcasm, my only defense at times like this.

Journos are definitely getting arrested, in what I see as a move to intimidate the press. Mobile networks are off. TV channels are not allowed to do talk shows. People who talk about how the internet and global communications has revolutionised politics should take heed: the government is the government because it is the most powerful entity within the state. Which is why good politics is important and a focus on the quality of governance and human rights issues are more important than economic development (or what goes in its name anyways!).

I slept five hours last night. Probably dreamt of a riot-ridden city, dhawa-palta dhawa, don't remember. Woke up to find a curfew imposed, and people on UV crowing on about "how right they were all along" that these students were goons.

Yes, whenever things go wrong, a certain section will always blame the masses, whoever the masses happen to be. Things are going wrong for the masses, but its the masses themselves at fault. If only they had a Mahatir (sorry we don't use that name anymore) a LEADER to lead them into the light which they themselves have forsaken.

It's as if we have not had strong leaders in the past. It's like the masses are allowed to determine their own destiny under emergency law, so they are to blame for inflation, for jute mill closures, for harrassment of businessmen, for harrassment of a teacher, that most noble profession which we have thoroughly degraded from all sides - AL, BNP, Jamaat, military, all of them.

Leaders do not outlive their people. Lesson number one of history. Sadly, no one seems to learn it and calls for these "leaders" to teach the masses a lesson.

Enough with the emotional blubbering, onto the news. If you like me just woke up a few hours back and are flabbergasted at the speed of developments, check out this post on DP, shadakalo's take here, The 3rd World View here and bdfact here to bring yourself up to speed.

Latest from Dhaka is that the army has arrested and beat up journalists during curfew hours. The journalists belong to bdnews24, CSB, Boishakhi and Samokal. Only the last I believe is a newspaper, so basically they're concentrating on new media thus far. Setting up new lines in the sand that should not be crossed. The old print media is well aware of those lines. Bdnews is reporting on the arrest during curfew on their front page (I don't have access), while commenter bdfact on UV tells us who the reporters used to work for.

When all else fails, blame the media. Chopping off the messengers' head for bringing the message is a time old move. I don't recall it having improved any situation.

One last honourable mention in all this must go to the Honourable Advisor, Barrister Mainul Hosein. I once labelled the guy Dhakar Dhokabaaj (DD). Today he has once again lived up to his title by giving out this quote that you can find on the BBC's website:

We request channels to stop televising footage of violence until further notice because this might instigate further violence

Ahhh yes! It's these TV channels that are the cause of all this trouble, that is the cause of the contagion through which the protest spread! If these TV channels weren't there, then people frustrated by food inflation, by floods, by unemployment, by government harrassment and eviction, by government demolishing of their homes and by ARBITRARY USES OF POWER would have remained safely on their couches (sold to buy food)... their khaat palongs (sold to buy food)... their paatis and not rioted.

At this point, I honestly don't know if Mainul Hosein is a dhokabaaj or a dhokafied scapegoat in the making.

Visit the blogs linked for regular updates. I will update this space as regularly as I can. Like most NRBs, I was worried about my family before talking to them. I hope and pray that all your loved ones in Bangladesh are alright too.

On the Brink?

Update: Two of my friends in Dhaka are telling me that the TV news mentioned explicitly that small shop owners/ footpath peddlers/ hawkers joined in the riots. For me, that’s a direct response to CTG policies. Once again, not condoning violence, just trying to understand the line of cause and effect here.

If the rumours filtering through the thick cloud of smoke from Dhaka to the blogosphere are any indication, big changes might be in the offing. Martial Law?

1975 redux? Or do we truly live in unique times?

Lesson of the story: students are the scariest interest group in the country!

Everyone Is a Citizen First on Campus!

Update 2: Shadakalo has some chilling interesting news from Dhaka. Feeling as let down as I was in June.

Update: DS is reporting that violence continues on campus, and has spread to Jagannath University as well. Also reporting that students have vandalised 100 vehicles near Shah Bagh. Fast losing my sympathy there. More importantly, reports that students have set fire to an army Jeep and beat up the personnel inside. The polarisation continues.

It was inevitable. Friction happens. As anyone any man who has had the good fortune to sit in the Western Gallery of Bangabandhu National Stadium knows, sporting events with their rush of adrenaline are fertile grounds for friction.

As any reader stumbling on my blog at this late hour knows, there have been protests against the army camp set up at the Dhaka University gym. If this last piece of news comes as a surprise to those of you who have been relying solely on the mainstream media for your news, that is completely understandable. I haven't seen this reported on at any great length. Thankfully most of us have some contact with the City of Rumours where this was universal knowledge.

Blog round up as a service to my readers who should not rely on the media to get their news about such matters: Drishtipat group blog which broke the news to me, Shadakalo, 3rd World View, In the Middle of Nowhere and straight from Dhaka, Raha.

But back to inevitable friction. The Daily Star has this to say:

The initial cause of the demonstrations was an incident around 3.30pm yesterday when army personnel mercilessly beat three DU students and humiliated a teacher over a petty dispute concerning comments passed by spectators watching a soccer match on the university gymnasium ground where an army camp is situated.

The soccer match was between the departments of public administration and journalism. During a penalty shoot Mehedi Mohammad, a student of the public administration department stood up in front of a group of army personnel, obscuring their view.

Army members allegedly abused him verbally and asked him to move before beginning to beat Mehedi and his friends.

Mehedi along with Shafiq and Lucas all MSS students of public administration, and Dipu, a third year student of the same department, were taken to DMCH for treatment.

As Mubashsher Munayem, a teacher of public administration tried to stop the incident, the army personnel humiliated him too

New Age adds this telling detail (links tomorrow once they are archived):

Witnesses said army personnel in plain clothes beat up a number of students in the gallery of the DU playground during a football match between the departments of Public Administration and Mass Communication and Journalism sparking the protests.

The students alleged that the soldiers from the camp in plain clothes watching the football match hurled abuse at a master's student who returned the insults

Plain clothes. When army personnel are in plain clothes they have the same rights and responsibilities as citizens. That means that you do not use violence or coercion in dealing with your fellow citizens. Clearly, these people failed at being responsible citizens.

Next, the students managed to identify them as army personnel despite the plain clothes, which most likely means that they identified themselves as such. This places this incident smack in the middle of the (as yet unarticulated) greater political debate in the country: exactly how much special privileges do armed personnel enjoy at civilian institutions such as the DU campus, the market place and cabinet meetings. In my humble opinion, they have as many privileges as civilians are willing to give them, not more nor less. This does not include over-riding the right to dignity that every citizen of Bangladesh - civil or military - enjoys. Clearly these students and the teacher did not cede this right to anyone, civilian or military.

Lastly, even had they been in uniform, that would simply increase the degree of their offence. We respect (and fund, but lets not get into that!) our military precisely because it takes upon itself hardships and sacrifices that we do not. If that includes not being able to see clearly at a soccer match, then so be it! The uniform should be a sign of greater restraint and responsibility than those of an ordinary citizen. Instead, and all too frequently, the uniform is seen to give impunity to the wearer.

What followed was the usual pandemonium. The students have called for the army camp inside their campus to be removed. Though by no means agreeing with the methods through which they expressed themselves, I have to say that their demands have shown a lot more far-sightedness than those who placed our military personnel there in the first place. It's easy to interpret this move as a self-interested one, but ask yourself: how does this make ANY difference to DU students? Is the presence of the army camp making any difference in their lives, in their ability to protest? The answer is one big "NO"!

Rather that camp is harming the goal of social harmony more than anything else. It is causing friction between Bangladeshi citizens - same age, same colour, different background. Today's incident was simply the tip of the iceberg of the polarisation of our society, a polarisation that is tangible when travelling down that long stretch of road from Shohid Jahangir Gate to TSC Chottor. I'm too tired and emotionally involved in this at the moment to look into the historical perspective of that polarisation, but Mujib and Zia feature prominently in it, as does the cleavage between Mukti Bahini people and the repatriated Bangladeshis in 1971.

In conclusion, one simple request: try these goons now. Do not show them any special favour at all. They were in civilian dress, and let them be tried as civilians, in a civil court and get their just desserts as everyone else.

Of course that will not happen. The brass will kick in. Some sort of false dichotomy between civilians and military will be drawn in their minds, any sign of punishment for one of their own will be seen as a sign of weakness, a concession rather than justice. And the impunity will continue. Already New Age concludes ominously:

When asked about the incident, the director of Inter-Service Public Relations said they would come up with their version today.

As a commenter on DP says, "This time round it will be managed".

I once heard someone say, "You cannot demand respect, you have to earn it". Our armed forces annoy us by constantly demanding respect, which makes their (frequent? infrequent? really besides the point) failures at earning it all that much more galling. Yesterday, hours before the incident was reported, I wrote: "let us treat our soldiers as citizens first, soldiers second. And may they live up to such treatment". Today they did not.