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AMS Kibria Killed by Grenade throw: A Tribute A brilliant product of Dacca University of early fifties, a renowned economist of the country, a knowledgeable person in socio-politico-cultural field, a successful career diplomat, a fairly successful erstwhile finance minister and a devoted member of parliament (MP) became the latest victim of fundamentalists. One of the finest and culturally polished gentlemen, I have ever come across, is no more. He breathed his last, perhaps while he was being rushed to Dhaka from Habiganj following a grenade thrown directly at him in a public meeting at Habignaj his home district on Thursday evening (~ 7-15 p.m.) on 27th January. No, I would not ask the silly question �who killed him�, because I know the answer- though I don�t know the killer�s name. Does it matter? Surely not. I know their cultural and political identities, their association. Yes, the killers are fundamentalists belonging to extremist Islamic group being nourished and protected by Khaleda Begum led 4-party Islamic alliance government. According to news reaching Dhaka, Late Kibria hardly completed his speech in a public meeting held at Baidyer Bazar Primary School field, organized by local AL, a powerful grenade was thrown at him while he was coming down of the dais. The pattern bears a striking similarity with the incident of 21 August and killing of Ahsanullah Master of Gazipur, another prominent and popular AL leader. On all three occasions the terrorists, agents of 4-party alliance attacked the victims in public meetings as they were descending from the dais. At the Habiganj incident, apart from Kibria other four local AL workers including a nephew (Shah Manju) of the erstwhile finance minister died instantaneously. Not less than 200 hundreds were severely injured. The devastating incident is indicative of the power of the grenade thrown. It is not just home made bomb or explosive device. As the grenade was thrown it exploded with cracking sound, and Mr. Kibria was found to fell down on the ground. His two legs were thrown out of his abdomen receiving splinters injury on head and chest. Needless to say a situation of panic, confusion and melee followed. The victims were taken to local hospitals and clinics. In an injured condition Kibria and several others were brought to Dhaka BARDEM hospital at about 11 p.m. Although he was taken to operation theatre immediately, but he was declared dead by the doctors. The doctors opined that he probably died on the way because of profuse bleeding. A bureaucrat turned to politician late Sha A M S Kibria hailed from greater Sylhet and was born in 1st May 1931. He graduated with honors in economics and obtained M.A degree in the same subject in 1952 and 1953 respectively from Dacca University. On both occasions he stood first among the first classes. According to the prevailing tradition then obtaining among the bright boys of the university, Kibria sat for central superior service (CSP) examination of Pakistan and stood first. He opted for Foreign Service and continued there in various capacities from 1757-70. During our liberation war, there was a Bengali elite group in Washington Embassy of Pakistan which included Enayet Karim, Shah A M S Kibria, AMM Muhit, Professor Abu Rushd Matinuddin (educational attach�), Moazzem Ali (third secretary) and number of PFS officers like Rustam Ali, Razzak Khan, and Shariful Alam etc. Mr. Kibria defected from Pakistan Embassy for free Government of Bangladesh led by Tazuddin Ahmed on 4th August 1971. Under his editorship a news bulletin was published during the period of liberation war. He whole-heartedly engaged himself for the cause of Bangladesh till independent Bangladesh emerged on 16th December 1971. After the independence Kibria was appointed Director General of the political wing of the newly created foreign ministry. Later (1972), was promoted to post of Foreign Secretary and was given the charge of establishing embassies of Bangladesh at different countries. He became Ambassador of Bangladesh at UNO as well as permanent representative to UNO in 1976. In 1978 he once again was made foreign secretary till 1981 when he retired from the service. At different times he worked as ambassadors of USA, India, Egypt, and Indonesia. In 1992 he joined AL as a member of the advisory council, then became political advisor of AL chief Sheikh Hasina. He was made finance minister when AL came to power. He got elected from Habiganj-3 constituency to become member of the parliament (MP) in 2001 election. During his student life he took part in �52 language movement and suffered one month imprisonment. Entire Country enraged: Following the death of Kibria and other 4 AL workers the country expressed its anguish and anger through spontaneous demonstrations, which continued throughout the day today (28. 01. 05). Following Namaje Janaja at Baitul Mokarram the procession with the dead body proceeded towards central shahid minar. The procession soon turned into a stormy and angry mass, which demolished and burnt many auto vehicles as it finally arrived at Shahid Minar where thousands of mourners of all walks of life paid tribute to the tragically departed soul. The police all on a sudden resorted to lathi charge and tear gassing on the otherwise peaceful gathering. This followed a police-mob clash for a long time. The peace returned when the procession left the minar premise to BARDEM where his dead body would be preserved for a day or so. Ambassadors of the European countries led by British High Commissioner Anowar Choudhury today saw Mrs. Artist Asma Kibria, wife of Late Kibria to pay their respect and condolence. On behalf of the ambassadors British HC to BD expressed their concern over repeated killing of important personalities so openly, and deplored government�s failure to stop it. He further opined that failure of the government to identify and punish the criminals involved in similar other incidents has encouraged the criminals and terrorists to continue the crimes of such nature. The High commissioner called upon the government to do something more effective, otherwise the democracy of the country would face challenge from the terrorists. Awami league and other 14 parties called a 3-day Hartal from 29-31 January. AL chief Sheikh Hasina categorically held the ruling government for killing of erstwhile finance minister. She further charged that government with its 4-party alliance according its blue print is engaged to eliminate AL from political field. As a part of it the 4-party alliance are eliminating the brilliant and popular AL leaders. Reaction of Government spokesmen: The PM Begum Khaleda, I hate to utter this name, as usual with a mischievous voice and tone, in a routine type reaction said, �This kind of incident is being done to defame the country and aimed at to destroy the good name the government. This is a result of deep conspiracy.� Another government mouthpiece, the secretary general and LGDR minister Mr. Mannan Bhuiyan said that, �the law and order situation is much better now, why the government would do such things to defame ourselves. We are an elected government. Yes, we have yet to find the culprits responsible for earlier terrorist activities- this is an administrative failure. That is why we are calling every body, meaning the oppositions, come forward, let us work together to trace out those culprits.� He further informed that an enquiry committee consisting of different organizations of intelligence branch including DFI, SB, Police and RAB under a DIG officer. This officer in a press interview said, �we have formed a committee which is investigating the incident. We the officers will supervise their work.' How foolish is this gentlemen. The DIG Sylhet in an interview commented that the grenade thrown at the AL meeting said that the device is a grenade named �Arches 75 or 84�. The public however has very little interest of the investigating team or have any confidence in it, and rightly so. From the reaction of government it is quite clear that Kibria killing is nor a significant event so far they are concerned. They are more concerned over SAARC conference rather than making full proof security to public leaders. Look at the comment of our great three piece suited speaker, �if any MP asks for his security I inform the matter to home ministry.� Let me finish this small write-up by paying deep respect to this soft-spoken learned man who was academically 4 years senior to me. Off late we came very close to each other on many a seminars and discussion meetings. He has a literary mind too. He was the editor of a weakly magazine �Mridubhasan�. Apart from his political activities as a top AL leader, he was also associated with many other academic activities including column writings in many popular dailies. He was the chairman of the �Bangladesh Foundation for Development Research�, an organization devoted to academic studies and analyses of political, cultural and social problems of our country. He was supposed to present a paper entitled, �Tatwabadhayak Sarkar : Sanskar Prasanga� (Caretaker Government: proposed modification)on 31st January in which I was also supposed to take part as a discussant. But this was not to be. Kibria breathed his last ! Who is responsible for these terrifying killings? Neither the LGDR minister nor our half-educated of low IQ great lady assuming PM�s office, who is more a fit in fashion a parade took the responsibility or admitted their government�s utter failure to combat terrorist activities or to unearth the miseries of these killings in public meetings. Just within a span of few months in Sylhet alone three major terrorist activities took place: Bomb blasting in Suranjit Sengupra�s public meeting, (2) Bomb blast aiming at local AL leader Kamran, and (3) attempt to kill British HC at Shahjalal Majar. The government has utterly failed to protect the life of common as well as elites of our society with its powerful various branches of law enforcing agencies like police, Ansar, BDR, army and many special bahinis like RAB. The Khaleda led government must answer to it. Otherwise public will held responsible Begum Khaleda and she must quite the office admitting her failure. Democracy demands it because, this is what is democracy. And to uphold the spirit of democracy Shah A M S Kibria gave his life, because the fundamentalists and communalists in him found the real challenge against them. Let me pay my heartiest tribute to this fighter of liberal democracy and secularism against communalism and fundamentalism. Published at Mukto-Mona and The New Nation, Bangladesh: Jan 30, 2005
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