After getting into a controversy over publishing the alleged Skype conversation of ICT judge Nizamul Huq, London’s ‘The Economist’ may be in for another over its claims on the number of dead during police action against Hifazat-e Islam supporters.
In its latest Aug 10-16 issue, ‘The Economist’ says: Yet growing numbers now doubt whether the (Awami) League can win a second consecutive term, and not only because no elected government has ever done so in Bangladesh. In early 2013, judgments by a flawed but popular court, investigating crimes committed by current Jamaat members during Bangladesh’s war of independence from Pakistan in 1971, seemed to boost the nominally secular (Awami) League.”
Then the report titled “The battling Begums” goes on to say:
“Nearly all the leaders of Jamaat are likely to be sentenced, probably to death, by election day. In response, the Opposition framed the trials as a struggle between anti-Islamists and the pious. That paved the way for marches on Dhaka, the capital, by Hefazat-e-Islam, a splinter group with fundamentalist demands. The second time they marched, security forces killed up to 50 of them. The message young men took back to their villages was that thousands had been slaughtered. Across the country, the effect on the government’s popularity was devastating.”
The government has prosecuted human rights activist Adilur Rahman Khan, blaming him for a controversial report that claimed 61 deaths in the police action against Hifazat supporters. Information Minister Hasanul Huq Inu said Khan has failed to provide the list of the 61 he claimed killed to the government or the court.
Can a similar question not be asked of the Western guru of magazine journalism? Can ‘The Economist’ not be asked to furnish the details of the 50 Hifazat supporters it claims were killed in police action? And what does it mean when it describes Awami League as ‘nominally secular’!
That calls for an explanation as well, is not it? More so because it figures in a news report not an editorial.
The International Crimes Tribunal is described as ‘flawed but popular court’ begging an answer to explain its popularity – and its flaws.
‘The Economist’ is already predicting an electoral defeat for the Awami League, saying foreign diplomats are sending cables back home predicting it without naming any of them. An interesting way of passing off comment as news!
Source: Bd news24
