HR violations

THE alarming rise in human rights (HR) violations that the year 2013 saw was to a large extent traceable to violence of political nature. The worst aspect of it all was that not only activists of ruling and opposition parties, but women, children and even minority communities also fell victims to political violence. According to an estimate, the death figure from such violence was 507. The other statistics are appalling. Instances of political violence alone stood at 848. Secret killings numbered 53, while extra-judicial killing took 72 lives. Three journalists died and 280 got hurt. In attacks on minority community 278 houses were damaged, while 475 temples, other places of worship and idols were ransacked.
The sad irony is that it was the nation's first ever attempt to try the perpetrators of gross HR violations in 1971 that triggered the spate of political violence last year and its attendant incidents of fresh HR violation. Especially, the International Crimes Tribunal's verdict on Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee in February, was followed by unprecedented violence by activists of Jamaat and its student wing Shibir. Worse still, Jamaat took advantage of the ongoing BNP-led alliance's agitation programme to restore caretaker system of government and used this platform to meet their own agenda. Its toxic fallout was that violence took the most pernicious rurn with scores including men, women, children becoming victims of arson attacks, bomb blasts and police firing.
During the last two months 19 people died from burning, while 100 others are being treated for burn injuries. Two children also became victim of this violence.