We have always been fascinated by aliens. We love to believe that we are not alone in this vast universe. Surely there must be life on other planets? There are endless movies about aliens, whether it’s the 1951 sci-fi film ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’, or, more recently, ‘The Arrival’. There’s the fun-loving ET and then there’s the scary ‘Aliens’ series. In real life, though, we haven’t discovered any other sort of alien so far.
However, I am sure that there are alien beings in our country. There are space ships and mysterious strangers. They suddenly appear on the scene, snatch up a few Bangladeshis, whisk them off in their vehicles and disappear almost as fast as they appear. The police, intelligence agencies, the public, no one can trace them. They are, after all, aliens.
We have been engrossed with the chief justice, the elections and the Rohingyas, but the mysterious strangers continue in their activities. Only a few days ago they abducted several people from the city streets. They cannot be ignored.
These alien beings probably landed in Bangladesh a long time ago, but only stepped up their activities in recent times. Over the past eight years, they have made off with a few hundred people. In the first six months of this year alone, they’ve abducted over a 50. Initially they would pick people up from their houses, not they’ve grown more adventurous and pick people up from the streets, mafia-style. They come up in their space vehicle, grab their victims in the midst of busy streets and off they go!
The families of the abducted are left helpless, waiting in distress for years on end. But their dear ones never return. A few do return, some alive and some dead. Some end up in a neighbouring country. The ones who do return alive, have a memory lapse. They remember everything except the period between their abduction and release.
These aliens spread a degree of delusion so that they appear in human form and their spaceships seem to be common microbuses. Like humans, these strange beings issue threats, handcuff their victims, beat them and shove them into their vehicles. Like any other vehicle, their vehicle too speeds down the city streets. But then suddenly they disappear. Because they are aliens, somehow their operation is never caught on CCTV and the traffic police and other agencies just can’t spot them. They leave no trace behind.
The accounts given by eyewitnesses are unbelievable and unacceptable and so the police pay no heed. At the most, if the people make too much fuss, they file a general diary (GD). But they never find the missing ones. After all, this is the work of alien beings.
The police do not have the technology, the courage or gumption to find the victims. They, of course, no don’t admit this. They say these are all tall tales fabricated by the families of the missing people. They blame loan sharks, wives and rivals for concealing them. Or perhaps they hide themselves and concoct the disappearance stories themselves.
The police have no time for such concocted tales. They are too busy with providing protocol, improving their standard of living, preventing sabotages and other such tasks. The mysterious mavericks remain out of reach.
These strange beings are pro-government. They never touch anyone of the government camp. They only go after those of the opposition ilk. Perhaps they are impressed with the government’s development, new style of elections and its IT charisma. They are irritated with the people who do not appreciate or who try to obstruct all this. So their target is mostly the opposition party or people of different views. They are determined to knock down any member of the opposition who dares to raise his head.
Sometimes for no apparent reason they step up their activities. In September this year they suddenly abducted two businessmen and a banker. And to confuse people, these aliens introduce themselves as members of intelligence agencies.
They seem to have a bias against males. They have a propensity to pick up healthy young men. They have even returned a few men, when the women wail in distress. But when returned, the men are no longer the men they use to be. They become silent cowards for the rest of their lives.
These mysterious strangers have no footprints, they leave no trace and the country has no law to deal with them. There is no force that can catch them. The court can’t or won’t touch them. They do have, though, a strong rivalry with a section of the police. At times that the aliens take away persons whom the police have arrested. In Satkhira, a new young mother visited the police station three days, to take meals to her husband who was in custody there. Then on the fourth day she found her husband missing. The police didn’t even admit he had been there. The police have to do this so as not to alarm the people with reports of alien existence.
Then sometimes quite the contrary occurs. People who have been missing, suddenly pop up in police custody. The wise people of the country prefer not to question such occurrences. They have heard the mysterious beings keep an eye on anyone who raises questions.
The mysterious strangers have a problem. There are some local and foreign organisations that work with a stupid topic called human rights. They cannot discern the difference between human and aliens. They claim that the people are being abducted by humans, in normal vehicles and by normal forces. They demand that the abductors be tried in court. The aliens are kind enough to tolerate such ignorance. But if their patience is tried too far, they even pick up these human rights activists.
The people of Bangladesh are gripped with fear of the aliens. They do not know how to protect themselves from these strange beings. Only the opposition knows the answer. They know that the only way to save themselves is to ascend to the helm of power. That is the only way for them to survive. After all, the mysterious aliens are pro-government.
We are the common people. We want to know when these mysterious strangers will become pro-people.
Source: Prothom Alo