The state sometimes goes crazy. The establishment sometimes loses its nerves. The people in power sometimes become unbearably intolerable to dissents... In Bangladesh, given the recent developments of our politics, many point their fingers towards that end. Some bigwigs (top Jamaat leaders), many say they are key politicians (if you mean it), are detained by the cops for allegations not go with their heights. Right now, we do not have a reign of blasphemes where uttering obnoxious words against religion would amount to detention or some other serious prosecutions. Therefore, detaining ones who enjoyed privileged standing in the society for long for such trivial accusation is well enough to be unjustified and could dangerously back fire sometimes in future. To me, there are certainly some other reasons for capturing those bigwigs and we all sense what that could be. We all are long waiting for the legendary war crime trial...

In very recent times, police are breathtakingly busy with a special duty to disperse rallies and human chains, impose restriction on assemblies, and even on indoor meetings. All of a sudden, many of us became suspicious of whether we are being derailed from our democratic path, depriving of our constitutional rights, and so on so forth. Ideally and technically speaking, these sorts of actions are not healthy and could produce some reactionary measures from many quarters, especially when you are dealing with such a dangerously idealistic force, the followers of which sometimes ready to sacrifice their lives for their causes. And they could even go to underground politics which could endanger the greater stability of a nation and harm the harmony of the society.

Now, for the sake of an argument, if we have been told that their arrest was made only due to finding a direct link with the war time crimes, what should be the proposition? I was finding it really interesting that whether the trial of misdeeds of a politician should only be restricted to his/her constituents' rejection. The question arises when many argue that those bigwigs accused of war crimes should not be hold accountable, because even with this allegation people elected them MPs for several occasions. Now the question is whether electing a person in office charged with a criminal offence can wash up his hands. If not, can we wage a movement for a person held for criminal charges and demand his release? If the answer is `no', can we call it unconstitutional when police barred the fellows of that person charged with criminal offence from holding any rallies or human chains, calling assemblies or indoor meeting for eventually freeing them? In this case too, if the answer is `no', the government is in no way to blame for what is happening right now around us. But if we consider `yes' for all those answers, the proposition will be vice versa.

However, our society has witnessed a deep division here and the question of `right' or `wrong' has been blurred somehow. Also we have little faith on our system no matter whoever runs it. Therefore, the tension remains. The ultimate danger is everybody would find reasons for their actions in this situation. Though the muscle will triumph at the end of the day but we are really suspicious whether that triumph would mean anything to anybody when the risk remains typically high than that of gain... whether it will implant a long lasting hatred, whether it will narrow down the division or widen it, whether it will defuse the tension or intensify it... many questions, queries... few answers...

We demand war crime trials, but can we leave our society deeply fractioned, divided, devastated, and shattered as a trade off with that trial? Or can we really afford to do so?! A mammoth challenge for everybody involved in this process. The only way, to me, to redress the anger, the tension, the confusion is to ensure the justice, to maintain the transparent process, to safeguard the right to defend, to wide open the arguments and let people know who stands where, and stop delaying the process as well as stop rushing to the end...

Good luck Bangladesh!