'New generation can salvage Bangladesh'

moments after he stepped off a flight at dhaka airport on thursday, shahriar kabir was arrested. he was on his way back from kolkata where he has been working on a documentary. kabir is a filmmaker, a journalist and a writer. but above all, he is an uncompromising activist against fundamentalism and communalism. the acting president of ekattarer ghatak dalal nirmul committee (an organisation campaigning for the trial of 1971 war criminals), kabir has been earlier stabbed and injured by fundamentalists while returning home after a meeting at dhaka university.sanjay mandal spoke to kabir, during his stay in kolkata, on the situation in bangladesh and his current projects. will you share your experiences in the 1971 war? i was only 20 and a university student when the liberation war started. like other young men, i also joined the war. initially, i was in sector 7 in murshidabad-baharampur area. my cousin zahir raihan was considered the best filmmaker of pakistan in those days and satyajit ray used to know him personally. when he planned to make documentaries on the liberation war, he called me. in kolkata, there was an organisation called the bangladesh shilpi shahittik sahayak samitee. they used to host cultural shows to inspire freedom fighters and also to raise funds. i joined the group as a scriptwriter. we hosted shows in kolkata and delhi. by the end of the war, my two cousins, zahir and shahidullah kaisar, a famous journalist and a pioneer of the communist movement, were killed by the razakars. kaisar was killed just two days before the liberation. later, i started my career as a journalist in dainik bangla and then became the editor of its group publication bichitra. when the bangladesh nationalist party came into power in 1991, i was thrown out. since then i have been writing and making films. what are your current film projects? i am making a film on communal atrocities but it's part of a trilogy. my first film, cry for justice, was based on our movement to bring the war criminals to justice. the second is on kashmir and called cry for peace. i have completed 80 per cent of the shooting. the third is cry for amity and i have already started shooting in bangladesh by taking testimonies of some of the victims. are you facing any threat from fundamentalist forces? all secular forces are under a threat. since we launched this movement, the jamaat-e-islami and other fundamentalist forces have been threatening to kill us and throw us in the bay of bengal. after the new government assumed power some of our local level activists have been tortured. but as far as the central leaders are concerned, till now we have not received such threats. the home minister has reportedly said that he was seriously thinking of banning egdnc. how do you look at the recent attacks on minorities in bangladesh? the attacks on minorities did not begin after the bangladesh nationalist party assumed power. they started when the caretaker government took charge in mid-july and since then the religious minorities, particularly the hindus, were threatened not to go to the polling stations during the election day. we had seen such a situation even during the 1996 elections too. but this time it was in a larger scale. there are 8.2 million hindu voters and nearly 90 per cent could not vote. we have witnessed communal violence, arson, rape and killing during the last couple of months and it is still going on. the bnp has an alliance with jamaat-e-islami and islami oikya jote, who are known as pro-pakistan political parties. jamaat-e-islami helped the pakistani army during the 1971 war and took part in the genocide. they want bangladesh to become a monolithic islamic country like pakistan and afghanistan and that's why the hindus are being driven out of bangladesh. what will be the state of the minorities in bangladesh in the next five years? the minorities are already being marginalised. not only hindus, but the secular forces in bangladesh are being marginalised. those who fought the liberation war, are being marginalised. after the killing of sheikh mujibur rahman, the history of our liberation war has been distorted. how has history of the liberation war been distorted? in 1995, when bnp was in power, one day i was watching a quiz programme where a young boy was asked: against whom did bangladesh fight the liberation war in 1971? the boy replied, 'india'. they are taught in schools that pakistan is our friend and india our enemy. did the awami league fail when it was in power? the awami league was in power for five years and it's unfortunate that it did not take enough measures to educate voters. of course it took some measures like changing the syllabi of the educational institutions but that was not enough. are the black days of 1971 coming back? we have recorded a number of testimonies of hindus who have been tortured and most of them have not faced such atrocities even in 1971. then the pakistani soldiers were responsible for the killings and torture. but now the hindus are being looted, tortured and raped by their neighbours, the supporters of bnp or jamaat. how can fundamentalist forces be defeated? it depends on the political parties. in 1971, the liberation war was led by the awami league, the left and other democratic parties. but there are also a number of filmmakers, writers, journalists and professionals who fought the liberation war. so if civil society in bangladesh can motivate and organise the new generation it won't be difficult to defeat these forces.