Ridge Runner, Per H & John Wasmuth... Thank you so much for your immense concern towards me.
What happened from Thursday to Tuesday, was possibly the biggest bloodbath in Bangladesh history since the War of Independence in 1971.
The main issue was this: The current government introduced a quota which would give preference to the descendants of War Veterans (from the 1971 war) when selecting candidates for government jobs. 56% preference would be given to the descendants over other job applicants (regardless of how well qualified the other applicants are).
University students started protesting this and began rioting. Their grounds were that job eligibility should be based purely upon merit and not who your ancestors are. I myself am a gazetted freedom fighter & a veteran of the war in 1971, but even I must admit that their grounds for discontent aren't exactly unreasonable.
During the riot, many students went too far and started killing, raping & looting at random. They burnt down several buildings and also our Metro Rail Way and 4 bridges.
Police officers & Border Guards called to the scene also went too far. They started executing students at random. And then, all pandemonium broke loose on Thursday night. Somebody set the National Internet server building on fire and the internet went down all over the nation.
The government claims that it was the protestors. The protestors claim that it was the government trying to stop news of their atrocities getting leaked out to the rest of the world. But whoever did this, made the situation a whole lot worse. By Friday, it was abundantly clear that there were thousands of people out on the streets who weren't even remotely interested in the protest. They were taking advantage of the civil unrest in order to loot, rape and murder others.
Groups of miscreants started breaking into all of the city jails in all of Bangladesh's 64 districts. And they started releasing prisoners and looting service rifles & ammunition. At this moment, there are still over 2000 escaped convicts running around the country... Armed. Death toll so far has risen to 217 confirmed dead and over a thousand people missing for days. This is not counting the burnt bodies still in the wrecks of the buildings which they set on fire.
My daughter, Kaniz (senior lecturer at Bangladesh University of Professionals) suffered severe injuries during the riots on Thursday. Her right arm was broken and she was trapped at the University (along with a few of her colleagues) for two straight days until I was finally able to reach the city where her University is and get her out. By then, I was fortunate enough to receive the assistance of the Bangladesh army who had gotten deployed on Friday night. Now, my entire family is safe with me at our family manor in Rangpur.
Well, that's basically what happened. I'm personally quite ashamed of what my country has become, in recent years. That's partly the reason why I stepped down from politics after serving two terms as an M.P (Member Of Parliament) in 2005.
The last few days have shown what Bengalis can become like in the dark, once law & order collapses. It truly is terrifying. A peaceful protest quickly escalated into mass looting, arson, rape & murder from all parties. There was no heroic party in this whole fiasco.
The only reason why I have chosen to remain behind in Bangladesh, is because I have managed to carve out a comfortable & peaceful life for myself (and my family) here over the course of the last 73 years. And I'm a whimsical soul, who's hopelessly unable to give up on his country.
