Silent Cry of Baisakh Muhammad Zafar Iqbal

Silent Cry of Baisakh:
Dont Forget Choles Ritchil

Muhammad Zafar Iqbal

Let me narrate a tale. It’s not make-belief. It’s a true story. The person whose story I am about to describe is a very handsome man. He is in his forties, has a vibrant family of five children, and a wife he loves very much. He has a keen sense of responsibility for the country he was born in; he would protect the people of this country with his life. The person is liberal in his ideology, incredibly charismatic, and people around him seek help from him in times of difficulty.

One day, this person was returning home from a wedding ceremony, accompanied by three other people. In broad daylight of mid-day, six plain-clothed policemen stopped them. Before they could realize what was going on, the police arrested all four of them. Then they made some phone calls. Within a short while, two trucks full of uniformed men arrived, armed with weapons. Not one or two: there were about forty armed men who took the brave man and his three companions to their camp.

Our handsome and powerful hero was tied to the grills on a window. Then an officer entered the room. He glanced at the captive and instructed his men to teach him a lesson.

As soon as the order was given, nine men jumped ferociously on the man tied to the grill. Everybody started to beat him up together. It’s unbelievable how one human being can be so brutal to another! The man tossed and struggled in pain, but no one bothered to stop. They kept beating him up, and they beat him until he vomited blood and lost his senses. When he got back to his senses, they started to beat him again. When the man was nearly dead, he was untied from the grill, hung upside down, and boiling water was poured down his nostrils. His fingernails were pulled out, his hands were smashed broken, and nails were hammered through his hands and feet. His eyes were gouged out, different parts of his body were damaged in a devilish spree. (I am aware that many children start reading my articles when they see my name. I know more details of this torture, but I would rather not go into those.)

God must have had a hard time enduring the torture that one man was unleashing unto another. So He intervened and lovingly took away the man’s soul by relieving him of all the monstrosities of earth. His lifeless body fell at the feet of all those officers and all those cruel men. No one knows if these men laughed out in joy seeing the dead body.

Tortured body of Choles Ritchil

To complete the cycle of cruelty, his dead body was delivered to his near and dear ones. The sound of lamentation must have filled the air that day in the area where his wife and children live. Wonder what God was doing at that time!

People who have read thus far must be wondering that we usually talk about those inhuman tortures of Pakistani military during the month of March, but why are we still talking about it two months later, when we want to forget all that and move on? The reason is that this incident I just narrated happened in March, but not in March of 1971, it all happened in March of 2007. The people who committed this dreadful murder are not members of the Pakistani army, they are members of our very own Joint Forces backed by our very own military. The charismatic man who they murdered is a tribal leader of Modhupur; his name is Choles Ritchil. I know that none of us would want to believe this, but unfortunately it is true.

Although we don’t know exactly how this entire incident took place, one can get an idea from the testimony of the people who were there with Choles Ritchil at that time. One can also imagine the process of killing from the marks of torture on his dead body. The Asian Center for Human Rights sent a description of this horrendous murder to all Heads of States at the fourteenth SAARC Summit. Those who read the description can testify to the extent of barbarism demonstrated in this killing.

Now the question is, why did an officer of the Joint Forces backed by the army murder Choles Ritchil in such an atrocious manner? Isn’t that another incredible story!

It all started in the year 2003, when the [BNP-Jamaat] coalition government announced that they want to build an eco-park in Modhupur. Choles Ritchil lived in Modhupur. Many other members of the Garo tribe, like Choles, also live in that area. Without consulting anyone who lived there, a plan was in place to build a wall enclosing three thousand acres of Modhupur forest. Twenty-five thousand tribal natives would be made homeless if this eco-park were constructed. They have been living in the land, owned by their ancestors for thousands of years. They organized a huge demonstration against this eco-park on the third of January, 2004. Police fired bullets into this peaceful demonstration; many were injured, Piren Mlan lost his life.

In the face of serious protest, the forest department had to put the construction of the eco-park on hold. But they didn’t stop at that. They started filing false cases against the tribal people; not one, not two, but hundreds of such cases were filed. In almost all these cases, Choles Ritchil’s name was noted as the common offender. His crime – he helped build the protest against construction of the eco-park. As absurd as it sounds, it’s a sad fact that there are five thousand cases that were filed against the simple and peace-loving tribal people of Modhupur.

People who talk about “eco-park” in our country hardly know what “ecology” means. In the name of eco-park, they would actually set up some picnic spots and destroy nature. People from the cities will arrive there, playing Hindi music on loud speakers, eat “biriyani” out of packets, fill the place with litter, and leave. If it weren’t for this lack of understanding of ecology, why would someone want to create ten picnic spots and six barracks in the name of an eco-park?

Although the forest department postponed their work on the eco-park in the face of stern protest organized by Choles Ritchil, they didn’t give up on the work and kept waiting for an opportune moment. The time arrived when a state of emergency was declared on January 11, 2007. The forest department went ahead with the construction of the despicable eco-park, shielding themselves behind the laws of emergency. The tribal folks came down with a protest once again, led by none other than Choles Ritchil. And yes, the construction of eco-park was put on hold again, but Choles didn’t even realize that, with this movement, he had only guaranteed his death sentence.

On February 10, a Warrant Officer of the Joint Forces headed out for Choles Ritchil’s village, accompanied by a few other men. Failing to find him, they captured his school-going sons, along with others, and took them to their camp. An incredible bout of torture was let loose on these young boys! How can one man be so cruel to another? Finally they found the location for Choles Ritchil, on 18th of March, 2007, when he was returning from a wedding ceremony. They caught him on the way. Everyone knows what happened next. He lost his life in the hands of the Joint Forces of his own country, the very country that he loved, and for people of that country that he cared for. Yes, it was the members of the Joint Forces backed by the army.

Shandhya Rani Simsang is Choles Ritchil’s wife, she is only 28. She went to the police to file a case seeking justice for the barbaric killing of her husband. The police did not record the case. The police also never took murder cases when Bangla Bhai’s men used to kill people and hang the dead bodies upside down from the trees. Police in our country are infamous for many inefficiencies, but no one has ever blamed them for being morons, because they always know only too well which case to take and which to not take. The police know who really has the power, and who is only shown to have power on paper. Therefore they will simply not take a case even if it is for a murder committed in broad daylight.

I don’t know about anyone else, but this came as a real shock to me. Almost everyday someone from the government is making a statement against crimes, corruption, and injustice. Isn’t this murder a crime? Isn’t this injustice? Then why is Choles Ritchil’s wife denied justice for this? If Tareq Rahman is jailed for extortion, why shouldn’t some officers of the Joint Forces put in jail for murder? Isn’t homicide a greater crime than extortion?

There was a time during the regime of the [BNP-Jamaat] coalition government when no one could ask for justice for any crime. Those who committed the crimes were the ones who ran the country. From whom would you ask for justice? At that time, our only hopes were the newspapers – they were our lower court, High Court, and Supreme Court. When Joynal Hajari’s men attacked journalist Tipu Siltan and broke his arms and legs, it was the newspapers that brought justice for him! Day after day, they published details of the brutal torture that this journalist went through – and the whole country came and stood by him. People of the country expressed their anger and concern regarding this inhuman act.

When Bangla Bhai’s men were indiscriminately torturing people in the most primitive way, no one in the coalition government, whether it was the war criminal minister Matiur Rahman Nizami or Prime Minister Khaleda Zia wanted to believe what was going on. They said that these were all lies, these were only stories made up by the journalists. The journalists did not stop for a moment, they have kept writing about these terrorists day after day. How else could the people of this country come to despise the acts of the terrorists so much! Did anyone notice how the common people breathed a sigh of relief when the terrorist leaders were executed?

However, there was not a word written after the brutal killing of Choles Ritchil. I saw a troubled poem written by Nirmalendu Goon. There were some articles by expatriate youths in The Daily Star. But why aren’t the mainstream journalists and intellectuals of Bangladesh writing anything about it? Will people of this country keep quiet about an injustice like this?

I don’t know if this government realizes that they were very popular towards the beginning of their tenure. They were popular because they did exactly what people expected from them – they caught corrupt people and started the process of bringing them to justice. I don’t quite know whether this government really cared about what people think of them, since they did not come to power through an election. If they do care, there is something that they really should take into consideration, that is, whether they are willing to destroy all their goodwill due to some outrageous activities of a handful of officers of the Joint Forces. The newspapers in the country may keep quiet about this for some mysterious reason, but people outside the country are not silent. The picture of Choles Ritchil’s bloodstained dead body has reached everywhere in the world. Without knowing, this government is being portrayed as an oppressive and autocratic government outside the country. The Head of the Caretaker Government Dr. Fakruddin Ahmed and Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed have talked about wonderful things that they want to do for the country and for the people. I don’t know either of them personally. If I did, I would have requested them to go and ask this question to Choles Ritchil’s wife, “We have great dreams about this country – do you believe in those dreams?”

I know that Choles Ritchil’s wife would not say a word in response, but would rather turn away from them with sheer hatred. Whether anyone else knows or not, Choles Ritchil’s wife Shandhya Rani Simsang knows too well that she certainly has no dreams in the Bangladesh of 2007. There is no place for her to seek justice in this country where the father of her children is murdered with unmatched brutality.

I don’t know if this article will be published in “Prothom Alo.” Although it’s being said that there are no such restrictions for newspapers, but, after all, there is a state of emergency. Who knows if there really is any restriction on what can be published and what cannot be! Everyone knows the names of the people who have committed this murder, but no one dares to utter them. I also know that I wrote the names, but they were taken out. I wrote this article for Pohela Boishakh issue (Bengali New Year, April 14), “Prothom Alo” did not publish it then. The names of the forces have been censored, and I still don’t know if they will publish this.

If this is not published, then I’ll have to take these papers with my handwritten article to that village in Modhupur and find Choles Ritchil’s wife, Shandhya Rani Simsang. I won’t be able to look in the eye of this mother of five children, I have to keep my head bent as I tell her, “Please forgive me, and believe me, I tried!” I don’t know if she will believe me.

Choles Ritchil’s eldest son is 15 years old, and the youngest is only five. On my way back, I would really feel like to whisper to the youngest boy, “Don’t be upset, son! You’ll see that when you grow up, Bangladesh will become like the way your father had dreamed about.”

A new year began with the month of Boishakh. People from all over the country – Bengalis, tribal natives and residents of the hill tracts, started the year with lots of dreams and merriment! Does everyone know how some people, in the midst of all this, have a grave emptiness, a void right in the middle of all these dreams? If we don’t stand by them in this time of crisis and helplessness, then who will?

I read in the newspaper that a one-person committee has been formed for investigation of this murder. Can we relieve ourselves of this humiliation by ensuring justice to the offenders through a proper investigation? Can we ensure that there will never be another such brutal incident on the soil of Bangladesh?

This article was originally published in Prothom Alo, a Bengali newspaper, later in Mukto-Mona. Tranlsated by Mahrukh Mohiuddin and published in progressivebangladesh.org. It was sent in Mukto-Mona by Robin Khundkar, one of our regular contributors.

Dr. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal is a popular writer of fiction and nonfiction, and professor and Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh.

MM moderation and Publication Board have recently contributed to help the family of Mr. Choles Ritchil