Political Violence in Bangladesh: Nature and Causes

Abstract

Violence includes mental torture, physical attack and destruction of property. Since independence, political violence in Bangladesh has resulted in a spate of occurrences and scores of casualties. Ruling party along with law-enforcement agencies and oppositions along with their allies took strong stances against each other. This study deals with this major crisis. The professed objectives were to identify nature, causes and consequences of violence in Bangladesh. To attain these objectives, this work limitedly used primary data, while extensively incorporated secondary data. The study period included six regimes from 1972 to 2006. Used methods were Historical, Case Study and Induction. Analysis reveals that abuse, assault, arrest-detention-imprisonment, vandalism, bombing, abduction and killing are common in this land. The main cause of violence was influence of imperialist great powers upon internal politics. These powers sometimes backed governments to suppress oppositions and sometimes backed oppositions to wage movement allegedly through supplies of money and arms. Godfathers, mostly ministers, MPs and local government heads, reared the armed youths and hired poor pickets, who perpetrated most crimes such as atrocious killing and terrifying bomb-blasting during strikes and elections. Because of political influence upon law-enforcement agencies and judiciary, criminals roved at large. Pakistan has allegedly backed Islamic fundamentalists and militants of Bangladesh since independence. International Islamist terrorist groups - Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul- Jihad-al-Islami Pakistan, Rohingya rebel groups of Myanmar, Indian insurgent groups of Tripura and Assam had links with our rightwing and leftwing extremists. Socioeconomic factors such as poverty, little literacy or improper education, family background and change in values also begot political terrorists. Violence had impacts on person, family, society and state. Bomb-blasts and assaults took lives of those, who were only family earning members. These incidents increased disabled persons in society and caused economic downgrade in state. However, violence may be abated through taking some measures. These measures are free and fair elections, independent judiciary, economic development, unique, systematic and scientific educational system, ban on politics in educational institutes and alerts in boarder, hilly and forest areas.