The stakeholders of the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government have been at odds over the last few weeks as they started taking credit for their role in the anti-Awami League movement in July-August last year, which was launched as an anti-quota resistance of the students and job seekers.
The key players of the brawl are the National Citizen Party (NCP), the BNP, and Jamaat-Shibir.
Yunusโ brainchild, NCP, and its affiliated organisations have abused power to establish a mobocracy in a show of strength to downplay other key players of the meticulously designed movement, plunder the state exchequer, and extort the people.
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The NCPโs outfits are the Jatiya Jubo Shakti, the Bangladesh Democratic Student Union (BDSU) and the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (ADSM). All of them are aligned with the Jamaat-Shibir, a banned militant group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, and controversial platforms like the Hefazat-e-Islam, Inqilab Moncho, and Touhidi Janata.
The July conspirators heavily relied on false flag operations, camouflaged identities, and a jihadist-like cut-out system to make their anarchic movement a success.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said several times that Jamaat-Shibir and jihadists were behind the students, who had been demanding the abolishment of the quota system, which was revived due to a court verdict on June 5, six years after it was cancelled in an executive order.
Shibir infiltrating in Chhatra League
While the NCP does not want to share credit with Chhatra Shibir, leaders of the central and Dhaka University units of Jamaatโs student wing are claiming that they had advised the NCP leadership, who were the key leaders of the ADSM, since June 5 on setting the demands, preparing the press statements, and negotiating with the local and international journalists and diplomats.
Shibir has also exposed its disguised members among the NCP leaders and patrons, including Mahfuj Alam and Nahid Islam.
On the other hand, some Shibir leaders, who infiltrated the Chhatra League during the Awami League regime, revealed their political identities after the August 5 changeover.
Student leader Akram Hossain on Facebook said that some of the Chhatra League activists who used helmets while beating up the protesters on July 15 were actually linked to Shibir.
โThere were some aggressive Shibir activists in Chhatra League at the university who wanted to prove themselves loyal to Sheikh Hasina,โ he added.
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A top coordinator, Abdul Qader, said that the most destructive Chhatra League activists came from Shibir. โThey acted like Catholics more than the Pope. They used to act aggressively in the hall guest rooms.
โThere were many examples of camouflaged Shibir in the Chhatra Leagueโs front line who used to torture students by tagging them as Shibir supporters.โ
Another Arman Hossain said that there were many Shibir activists among the Chhatra League members accused of attacking the students on July 15 last year.
In September last year, student leaders of Dhaka University said that Chhatra Shibir could not avoid the responsibility for the repressive acts of Chhatra League. The responsibility of Chhatra Leagueโs misdeeds would fall on the individual leader of Chhatra Shibir.
They made the remarks in the backdrop of the exposure of Chhatra Shibirโs Dhaka University unit secretary SM Farhadโs identity. According to a list of the Social Welfare and Research Institute unit of Chhatra League, published in November 2022, Farhadโs name was mentioned as a joint general secretary.
Although Shibir had no visible activities on DU campus for over a decade, their presence came to light on September 21, when the university authorities held a meeting with the leaders of different student organisations.
Abu Shadik Kayem, a student coordinator, attended the meeting as the president of the DU unit of Chhatra Shibir.
More admissions of crimes
The BNP and its student wing, Chhatra Dal, have been vocal about taking credit as the largest party to have supported the student movement in disguise, with many teams actively fighting the police at various hotspots of Dhaka, including Jatrabari.
Chhatra Dal activist Nafiz Mohammed Alam said he had shot the police using a pistol from a rooftop in Uttara, while Arafat Rahman Shoishob said 138 teams of teenage gangs were active during the arson attacks and fought against the police with firearms. The organisers also included Arif Sohel and Molla Mohammad Faruque Ahsan, who were close to Mahfuj Alam.
Jamaat-Shibir and Hizb ut-Tahrir also gave the same excuse: their top leaders said they had hidden their political identities to attract the mass people, especially the leftists and the civil society, who do not support radical Islamists and militants.
Earlier, NCP leader Arif Sohel, ADSM leader Hasib Al Islam, BNP leader Saidur Rahman Bachchu, and leaders of Jamaat and Khelafat Majlish admitted in public that they had planned and implemented the killing of police members in Sirajganj and other places. Some other BNP leaders and activists said they had attacked the BTV station at Rampura, while some radical Islamists said they had torched the Setu Bhaban, metro rail and other key installations in Dhaka and elsewhere.
On the other hand, some retired and dismissed army officers, including Syed Ziaul Haque and Shuvo Afridi, said they had taken to the streets with sniper rifles, arms, and bombs to kill the police and carry out arson attacks.
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