Islamic radicals want to make Bangladesh another Afghanistan, it’s scary and alarming: Taslima Nasreen

PTI, Sep 5, 2024, 2:39 PM IST

New Delhi: Expressing concern that Bangladesh might go the Afghanistan way, writer-activist Taslima Nasreen has said that Islamic radicals are brainwashing and indoctrinating youths to make them “anti-India, anti-Hindu and pro-Pakistan”.

Nasreen said she and others had initially supported the students’ movement in Bangladesh against an “autocratic government”.

However, the recent actions like violence against Hindus, targeting of journalists and the release of “terrorists” from jails showed it was not a students’ movement but was “planned and funded by Islamic jihadis”, she said.

“When students protested against the quota system in July, we supported them… people who believe in women’s rights, human rights and freedom of expression.

“Sheikh Hasina was an autocrat who always encouraged fundamentalists and curbed freedom of expression. People were angry with her,” she told PTI in an exclusive interview.

She said they had hoped that a fair election would be conducted to democratically form a new government.

“But afterwards we realised that it was not a students’ movement. It was planned and funded by Islamist jihadis and banned terrorist organisation,” said the author, who had to flee Bangladesh in 1994 following death threats from Islamic fundamentalists and faced a ban on her books.

“We realised that after they started demolishing everything, all the statues, sculptures, museums. The way Hindus were attacked and killed; it was a nightmare.

“Now these people are filing cases against journalists and people who were close to Hasina. They are gradually showing their real faces and motives. All the terrorists, who were in jail, are released. It was not at all a students’ movement,” said the author.

The Lajja author has not returned to Bangladesh since her exile and has been living in India since 2005 (except from 2008 to 2010).

She also expressed apprehensions that Bangladesh could become another Afghanistan or Iran, going by the way the current interim government was operating under the guidance of Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus.

“Yunus says that they are celebrating their victory. People are burning houses of Hindus. What kind of celebration is this? They are destroying everything. All the statues of freedom fighters have been demolished including that of the father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

“But the Pakistan Army’s statues are intact – (the army) which killed 30 million people during the war and raped millions of women,” said the 62-year-old writer, who is known for being an outspoken critic of radical Islamic elements.

She said that Yunus knew “very well that the country would be ruled by jihadis, and he has no problem with it”.

“While we thought that he would conduct an election. It didn’t happen. They are not talking about secularism, and they want to make Bangladesh like Afghanistan or Iran which is very scary,” she said.

Yunus had called for halting attacks on Hindus after he was named the head of the interim government, but Nasreen alleged that he didn’t take any action against the violence.

“We are not hopeful but at the same time we are wishing that Bangladesh does not become the next Afghanistan,” she said.

She also blamed Hasina for the current situation and said that the rise of Islamic radicals was not sudden.

“I blame Hasina for that because she chose religion to stay in power forever. She built 560 model mosques and madrasas instead of secular schools to appease the Islamists.

“She also destroyed the education system by making madrasa degrees equivalent to university degrees so the people who only studied Quran and Hadis went to universities and even became teachers,” she alleged.

“They made it compulsory for women to wear hijabs and burkas. It was all created by Hasina,” she said.

Nasreen said that anti-India sentiment “is high” in Bangladesh at present.

“I was thrown out of Bangladesh in 1994 by Khalida Zia and when Hasina came in power, she did not allow me to enter the country.

“In 1998 I entered Bangladesh to meet my mother who was in the last stage of cancer. My mother died and in the next few days Hasina threw me out of the country and never allowed me to enter,” the author said, recalling her ordeal.

“I am not against Hasina because she harassed me, but because she was an autocrat who did not believe in freedom of speech.

“Many free thinkers were killed during her regime by jihadis. The rise of Islamic radicals is not sudden. Hindus were attacked more in her regime than any other regime,” Nasreen alleged.

She said that youths are brainwashed against India and Hindus in Bangladesh.

“Hindus are leaving now, and they are left with less than seven per cent. Islamic radicals attack Hindus during elections, puja or to grab their properties. Hasina allowed them to give religious sermons everywhere that were always anti-women and anti-Hindus.

“When you brainwash youths like this, they would become a generation who are against Hindus, against India, against women and are pro-Pakistan, pro-jihad, pro fanatics,” she said.

Nasreen said she cannot hope to go back to Bangladesh under the current regime and her resident permit in India has also not been renewed.

“I cannot go back to my country. Khalida and Hasina never allowed me and now it is impossible to imagine in this jihadi rule,” she said.

“I feel India is like home and I have been living here since 2005. Very surprisingly my resident permit has not been renewed and there is no information. It expired on July 27. I don’t know anyone in the government and feel clueless. Normally it gets renewed before the expiry date,” said the veteran author.

“Some of my relatives are still in Bangladesh but most of them died whom I loved very much. My grandmother, my father, my uncles, my aunts. I have the right to enter my country. I ask this question to everyone but sadly there is no answer,” she said.