Political killing
Zafar Sobhan's "Straight Talk" on 12 December points out the role of violence and its impact on voting. Our political process has examples of killing prospective candidates; with the "bullet" being more effective than the "ballot" to keep away the better candidate, permanently! This has happened in our political arena and may well happen again.
Sobhan's most telling statement, which I quote is: "Not coincidentally, perhaps, it seems as though it is only politicians from one side of the political aisle that get killed, these days." I would rather say it is not these days only. Over the decades, killing of Sheikh Mujib, the jail killings, the killing of AL leaders in processions, bombing in the main street of Dhaka were clear indicators of what really was happening.
They even managed to get a volunteer to confess to the bombing ! It could not have been any more ridiculous.
The fundamentalists and their allies; the various branches of "Jehadis" and "Lashkars" were all incubated in Pakistan, with CIA blessings for driving the Russians from Afghanistan. They had important links here and are now under the umbrella of Jamaat-e-Islami-- the BNP's bosom pals! For these people, killing is the simple way to permanently eliminate any serious contender. For them "bullets" are a realistic option against the uncertainty of "ballots"!
No wonder, all these killings, including the bombing of the AL procession on a main street, remain unsolved, buried under mountains of papers and reports-- never to see the light of the day! Violence and killing in this election have just started.
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