DT e-Paper 27 February 2017

News 3
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
Jamaat nayeb-e-ameer removed
over party ‘reform’
DT
• Tribune Desk
ATAUR RAHMAN
Claims to be a freedom fighter
Former president of Islami Chhatra
Shibir’s Rajshahi University unit
Former ameer of Rajshahi city unit
Jamaat
Elected nayeb-e-ameer in
December 2016
Discharged on February 5, 2017
Jamaat-e-Islami central committee
leader Ataur Rahman has been
discharged from the position of
nayeb-e-ameer reportedly for his
proposal to reform the party that
courted immense controversies
over its anti-liberation role in 1971.
This was the latest among several
other attempts to reform the
party, which too went in vein.
Sources of the Majlis-e-Shura,
the highest policymaking body of
Jamaat, confirmed this to our sister
concern the Bangla Tribune.
Ataur, who was elected nayebe-ameer
in December last year, was
discharged from the position on February
5, only a few months after the
party had elected Maqbul Ahmed
new ameer (chief) of it and released
its recently-amended constitution.
Maqbul is now being probed by
the International Crimes Tribunal
as allegations surfaced in the media
that he was involved in wartime
atrocities as a collaborator of
Pakistani occupation forces during
the 1971 Liberation War.
Ataur, former president of the
Rajshahi University (RU) unit of
pro-Jamaat student organisation
Islami Chhatra Shibir, proposed
handing Jamaat’s leadership over
to the post-Liberation War generation
with a view to purging the party
of its wartime controversies, the
sources added.
Several other leaders – mostly
former leaders of RU unit Chhatra
Shibir – raised the same demand.
They had Ataur introduce the proposal
as is known to be a vibrant
and dedicated leader among his
party fellows.
Also, they wanted to see Ataur
as the party’s new ameer, according
to party insiders.
As the reform proposal did not
mention the other leaders’ names,
only Ataur had to step down from
the post.
What was he thinking?
NEWS ANALYSIS
Randomly parked vehicles are a
nuisance that plague Dhaka’s streets.
So much so, that sometimes only
about a third of the street is available
to traffic while the rest serve as parking
lot. Some such unofficial pockets have
been cleaned out by Dhaka North mayor
Annisul Huq to his credit. The Shatrasta
intersection and Gabtoli are two
such places that used to be perennially
clogged with vehicles. Today vehicles
pass through them like a breeze.
The city corporation’s endeavours
to free up the streets filing cases
against illegally parked by the side of
main roads and streets have also been
visible in recent times, all in a bid to
make life on the streets easier. But the
mayor’s latest pronouncement against
those errant drivers sounds disturbing.
The Dhaka North mayor said errant
drivers should be tied to the trees
and handed over to the police. While
there is no doubt illegal parking is a
scourge on the streets and adds to
the seemingly endless hours of traffic
congestion, the mayor’s suggestion
of brings up images of brutal vigilante
justice which too is a scourge.
Anyone stuck on the streets for
hours would perhaps want to mete out
even worse punishments for errant
drivers and it is all too evident with
frequent road rage on display. But the
BIO
Born at Dagonbhuiyan
upazila of Feni in August
1939
Started career as
teacher at Feni Model
High School in 1971
Joined Jamaat-e-Islami
in 1962
Ameer of Feni town unit
Jamaat from 1967-68
Ameer of greater
Noakhali district in 1970
Jamaat’s central
organising secretary
from 1979-89
Assistant secretary
general from 1989-2001
Contested in the
1986 polls from Feni 2
constituency
Contested in the
1991 polls from Feni 2
constituency
Nayeb-e-ameer in 2003
Ameer in October 2016
mayor is not just anyone. A leading garment
exporter, Annisul Huq has been a
public figure for a long time as BGMEA
president and then as FBCCI president.
People of course know him from even
before that as a popular TV show host.
And now, he is mayor of Dhaka North.
When a mayor even hints at something
that encourages people to take
up the law in their hands, the results
could very well be disastrous and not
just for wrong parking. It also appears
that the mayor’s rage is directed more
towards the drivers than the owners of
the cars who are essentially responsible
for such behaviour on the part of
the drivers.
Given the proven penchant for
mob justice in Dhaka, such pronouncements
have the potential to nudge
people in the wrong direction which
is, more often than not, a dangerous
downhill race. •
MAQBUL AHMED
WAR CRIMES ALLEGATIONS
Razakar commander in Feni
Killing of freedom fighter Maulana
Waz Uddin
Planning killing of 10 Hindus of
Joylaskar union in Dagonbhuiyan
Killing of freedom fighter Ahsan Ullah
Allegations being probed by International
Crimes Tribunal
On Saturday, senior nayeb-eameer
Mujibur Rahman said Ataur
had only been removed from his
post, not expelled from the party.
When asked about different
media reports on his expulsion,
Mujibur brushed aside the reports,
terming them “baseless”.
Echoing Mujibur, Majlis-e-Shura
member Moulana Habibur Rahman
said: “What is being spread in
the media about his ‘expulsion’ is
nothing but a conspiracy.”
However, a Dhaka city unit
leader preferring to be anonymous
said: “Ataur has immense contributions
to the party. None will speak
out against his ‘gaffes’.”
The former ameer of Rajshahi
city unit Jamaat, Ataur, who claims
to be a freedom fighter, was integrated
into the central committee
as many of its central committee
leaders were hanged or sentenced
to different terms in prison on
charges their wartime crimes.
Jamaat too termed Ataur a “freedom
fighter” in an October 2016
press release protesting his arrest
by detectives.
However, Rajshahi district unit
Muktijoddha commander Farhad
Ali said: “I did not see Ataur fight
for the country. Also, his name is
not on the list of the district’s freedom
fighters who participated in
the war against Pakistan.”
Earlier attempts
In 2010, Jamaat’s former assistant
secretary general Muhammad
Kamaruzzaman, who was executed
in April 2015 for his crimes committed
during the war, wrote from prison
to his fellow party men, urging them
to reform the party and reshuffle it
with new faces. But the policymaking
body took no heed of his proposal.
Kamaruzzaman’s son Hassan
Iqbal said: “Jamaat’s history could
have changed had the proposal
been accepted.”
Former secretary general of Islami
Chhatra Shibir Shishir Mohammad
Manir and some other leaders
were expelled from the organisation
after he had proposed reforming
Jamaat in 2010.
In 1982, the then Chhatra Shibir
president Ahmed Abdul Qauder
and secretary general Farid Ahmed
were too pushed out of the organisation
for the same reason. •
Saat Tola slum residents
protest water crisis
• Abu Hayat Mahmud
Inhabitants of the Saat Tola slum in
Mohakhali have staged a demo in front
of the Dhaka Wasa Mods Zone-5 office,
demanding an immediate solution to
the ongoing water crisis in the area.
Led by the Saat Tola slum Central
Community Based Organisation (CBO)
President Selina Begum, they held the
protest around 11am, yesterday.
A 10-member delegate of the slum
people submitted a memorandum to
the officials concerned of Wasa Mods
Zone 5, said Israfil Hossain Akondo, chief
engineer of Dhaka Wasa Mods Zone 5.
Speaking to Wasa officials, Selina
Begum said: “There are about 10,700
families at the Saat Tola slum and only
5,000 have access to the water lines.”
“Letters sent to the Wasa managing
director were ineffective. When we
complained, the local Wasa pump operator
merely asked us to open a water
line in the slum area,” Selina added.
“Each family pays a water bill of
Tk300 per month. But water only
runs from 12am till 6am. Not only is
the supply of water low, it is also dirty
because a major pipe has corroded,”
Selina said.
“The discontented people are
threatening to reconnect the illegal
lines if Wasa does not confirm legal
lines immediately,” she explained.
The Wasa officials have assured
the protesters the problem will be
resolved by next Sunday.
Central CBO General Secretary
Kohinur Begum and local leaders
of the ruling Awami League were in
attendance, among others.•