Murder of the Saudi diplomat and the saga of a failed government
by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
March 6, 2012
Authorities in Riyadh now are surely in deepest mood of shock as well as anger, when a Saudi diplomat in Dhaka was brutally murdered during the late hours of March 5, 2012, putting all the members of other diplomatic missions in Bangladesh into real horror. Following the murder of the Saudi diplomat in Dhaka, members of other diplomatic mission have already issued warning notice to its members to remain "extra alert" while on move or at their residences, as the law and order situation in the country is extremely volatile.
Khalaf Al Ali [45] was found dead following gun shoots in his chest in Dhaka's upmarket diplomatic district of Gulshan. The murder took place at a time, when the Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia have had a strained relationship recently, though Saudi Arabia is a major donor in Bangladesh. At the same time, Saudi Arabia currently employs more than two million Bangladeshis in that country.
It may be mentioned here that, the tragic murder of Khalaf Al Ali took place just on the next day of an officer of the intelligence wing of India's Border Security Forces [BSF] were arrested by Bangladeshi border forces with arms. It was immediately learnt that the captured BSF secret agent confessed to the Bangladeshi interrogators that a number of his colleagues have earlier entered Bangladesh, most of whom possess weapons. Though the government did not utter any further information on the captured BSF secret agent, it is learnt from various sources that he might be silently handed over to Indian authorities within a couple of days, while the government is reluctant in investigating the case of those BSF men, who already entered Bangladeshi territory.
Only days before the murder of Saudi diplomat Khalaf Al Ali, Engineer Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, MP the minister in charge of Labor and Employment affairs, who also is the father-in-law of the lone daughter of the Bangladeshi Prime Minister came back home from his Saudi trip empty handed, having no specific commitment from Riyadh on fresh recruitment of any workers from Bangladesh. India has been making numerous efforts in increasing the scope of sending their workers in Saudi Arabia; while there have been nefarious attempts by some anti-Bangladesh quarters from other countries, in influencing the Saudi authorities in sending back two million Bangladeshi workers abroad.
It is clearly understood that the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is greatly shocked at the tragic murder of the member of Saudi Embassy in Dhaka and if Bangladesh authorities will play any dilly-dally with this issue, there is risk for Bangladesh is seeing their two million workers deported from Saudi Arabia over night, which will surely be a huge diplomatic catastrophe for the current government. It may be mentioned here that, law and order situation in Bangladesh has gone into the worst ever form since Bangladesh Awami League came in power in 2009. In recent weeks there was a tragic murder of a journo couple in the city, while the members of the law enforcing agencies failed in nabbing the culprits, though many weeks have already passed. Members of the cabinet as well as the Prime Minister continued to make senseless comments centering the murder of the journalist couple, and it was even rumored that high-profile murdered were behind this incident.
Since independence of Bangladesh in 1971, Khalaf Al Ali is the first diplomat who has been murdered in the capital city's posh diplomatic enclave, which was already believed to be the most protected areas in the country. This murder will not only tarnish the image of the nation, but will also leave wrong signal with the foreign nations, especially the Arab world. It may be mentioned here that, Saudi Arabia is considered to be one of the nations in the Arab world, where terrorism and Jihadism never got any minimum chance to grow. Saudi authorities are always extremely vigilant in combating any type of religious extremism and wrong interpretation of Islam. At the same time, Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of the Muslim nations, which has always been extremely generous towards the developing and under-developed Muslim nations in the world.
Khalaf Al Ali's murder on the street took place weeks after the Bangladeshi Prime Minister told in a public meeting that her government cannot give security and protection to its citizen at their homes. This murder has surely put the home minister and her junior minister as well as members of Bangladeshi police administration at stake. This clearly and very unfortunately shows the failure of the ministry and the police administration. Observers feel that the police administration in Bangladesh, which enjoyed high esteem for its skill and efficiency has been made some how crippled, as the ruling party has been continuously trying to use them as mere political cadres. Especially for past few days, members of Bangladeshi police and other law enforcing agencies are kept fully occupied in doing everything possible in sabotaging the March 12 public meeting of the main opposition, Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Regular road patrols as well as other security and safety measure for the citizen had to be greatly compromised as most of the members of the law enforcing agencies were kept busy in confronting the March 12 program of the opposition party.
The ruling party has not only failed in ensuring safety and security to the citizen of the country, it also has totally failed in talking actions against the stock market manipulators [mostly belonging to the ruling party], who visibly looted millions of dollars from the small investors. There is also allegation of similar lootings by some group of frauds, who are continuing to cheat the people with high-profit traps through fraudulent multilevel marketing companies. Since the current government came in power, a number of MLM companies including Unipay2U, GGN etc have already disappeared by looting huge amount of money from the people. Similar catastrophe is also anticipated by the people concerned as the largest MLM Company in Bangladesh, Destiny 2000 Limited and its affiliate concerns have already looted a few billion dollars from the small investors with fake profit hopes. It is also alleged that influential figures in the ruling party are directly and indirectly connected with this fraud racket. One of the ex-chiefs of Bangladesh Army, General Harun Ur Rashid heads this fictitious and fraudulent enterprise along with a bunch of criminals. It was also learnt from dependable sources that most of the money collected by this fraudulent MLM Company was already smuggled out to various countries. Though the government has already been made aware of such illegal activities and smuggling of billions of dollars, there is no sign of any action against these fraudsters.
While country's and order situation is already at the worst-ever state, some people are reportedly abusing the names of the Prime Minister and other important figures in the ruling party as their "associates" and continuing various types of illegal activities, including forcefully grabbing public and private properties by using members of the law enforcing agencies. In one such case, an ex army officer named Colonel [Retired] Shahid Uddin Khan and his wife were found to have already grabbed a foreign-invested power plant in Bangladesh and also have smuggled out huge amount of money abroad without any lawful process. Though such activities are serious offenses as per the existing law of the land, it is learnt from sources that, these people are enjoying "favor and blessings" from influential quarters in the country.
The saga of failures of the current ruling party in Bangladesh has already reached into a huge size and the latest incident of the tragic murder of the Saudi diplomat Khalaf Al Ali has surely now rang the bell of high-alert internationally. If the government will not act now, it may ultimately put the entire country into huge consequences. We cannot allow any murder of any individual. And of course, when a diplomat of one of the major donors of Bangladesh takes place right at the diplomatic enclave in the capital city, it will never make the international community to consider this country as a safe place any more. The murder of Khalaf Al Ali is strongly condemned and it is last hope that the current government in Bangladesh will act in real sense without going into witch hunting centering this serious incident. At the same time, the government must remember, any negligence or failure in investigating this incident and arresting the miscreants will surely leave negative signals amongst the Saudi government and the people.
Murder of the Saudi diplomat and the saga of a failed government :: Weekly Blitz