The country will slide into lawlessness unless democratic freedoms are protected, cautions the US-based The New York Times newspaper.
India’s The Hindu says premier Sheikh Hasina’s government “will be jeopardising Bangladesh’s future as a democratic nation if her government does not rally on the side of the rights activists against the Islamists”.
In their editorials, the two newspapers have expressed certain amount of concern, referring to the issue of the recent attacks and killing of secularist forces, reportedly by Islamist militants.
Since 2013, more than 20 people in Bangladesh have been murdered by Islamist extremists, many hacked to death, The New York Times pointed out, and largely blamed the ruling Awami League’s bitter rivalry with opposition BNP for creating breeding ground for the rise of militancy.
The newspaper blamed use of war crimes trial as “political tool”, extra-judicial killings, torture and disappearances, for erosion in the rule of law. “Ms. Hasina’s government has cracked down on freedom of expression and the press,” it observed in an editorial on Sunday.
Dwelling on the attacks on bloggers and others, The New York Times emphasised the need for bringing the attackers to justice, protect the targetted people and restore democratic freedoms and faith in the rule of law. “Failing to do so will accelerate the slide into lawlessness,” added the newspaper.
The Hindu, in its editorial on Monday, expressed views that the recent attacks are “but indications of a battle being waged between two sets of ideas on the country’s past, present and future’.
The newspaper defined the first one as “commitment to liberal, secular and civic values” and said the other side images the country as “outpost of political Islam”.
On the recent attacks, The Hindu said the government has failed to bring the assassins of bloggers, rights activists and others to justice — “it perhaps fears a greater blowback from the Islamists if it does so.”
Thus, it pointed out, ordinary citizens have been exposed to extremism. “The longer the government remains on the sidelines in this fight for secularism, the stronger the forces of extremism will become,” said the newspaper.
Source: Prothom Alo
