‘Hasina’s gains from hangings short-lived’

The execution of two Bangladeshi Opposition leaders for war crimes appears to have cowed rivals of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, but critics said her success comes at the cost of free discourse and the calm is likely to be short-lived.

Political analysts and Opposition leaders warned that the executions sent a signal that violence is the only political tool that works. The shock felt by an Opposition which has already suffered mass arrests may be replaced by further bloodshed.

Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury were hanged on Sunday for crimes against humanity during the 1971 war to break away from Pakistan.

Protests against the hangings were muted. A general strike was called on Monday by Mujahid’s Jamaat-e-Islami party, but there were no processions in Dhaka to back the strike and the day was largely peaceful in a country when strikes often turn violent. Chowdhury was a legislator in former Premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

“Hasina’s popularity has soared because of the overwhelming support of the people in favour of trials and execution of war criminals,” said H.T. Imam, Ms Hasina’s political adviser. “The policy of the government is zero tolerance against terrorism or violence, be it Islamist or any other kind.”

Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of rights group Citizens for Good Governance, said Ms Hasina had been getting stronger because she did not have any visible opposition.

“The absence of democracy only creates room for extremism,” he said.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh has seen a rise in Islamist violence in recent months, with two foreigners and four secular writers and a publisher killed in 2015.

Just a few hours before the Supreme Court rejections of the Opposition leaders’ appeals on Wednesday last week, an Italian priest and medic was shot and wounded in the latest attack on foreigners in Bangladesh.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks on foreigners.