Trial? I don't want it either

Both of them were left shell-shocked by the brutal murders of their loved ones. But that sense of shock gave way to anger and frustration. This was clear in their statements circulated in the mass and social media.

Barely a day after the father of slain publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan said he wouldn't seek trial of his son's killers, Rafida Ahmed Bonya, wife of murdered blogger Avijit Roy, echoed his words yesterday.

Hours after the brutal killing of Dipan on Saturday, his father Abul Quasem Fazlul Huq told reporters, "I don't want any trial. I want good sense to prevail. Both sides -- the one that's doing politics using secularism and the other that's doing politics using state religion -- are pushing the country towards destruction. Let good sense prevail on both sides."

Venting out her anger, Bonya yesterday wrote on her Facebook page that she too didn't seek trial of her husband's murderers.

Unidentified assailants hacked to death her husband Avijit and injured her seriously on the Dhaka University campus after the couple came out of the Ekushey Boi Mela on February 26. Even eight months after the brutal killing, investigators are yet to submit charge sheet in the Avijit murder case.

The following is a translation of her yesterday's Facebook post:

"Like Dipan's father, I also don't want trial [of Avijit's killers]. I am certain that the wives of Tutul and Dipan, sister of Ananta, and the friends of Rajib, Babu and Niloy also don't want trial. When I call father [Dr Ajoy Roy], he speaks of hope; he tells me that life goes on; inspires me so that I don't give up; tells me to start afresh.

I get stunned by the words of the 80-year-old father who lost his son. I tell myself that they could start a fight in 1971 because there were people like him. But we could not, our generation could not, they [fundamentalists] are growing in number the way weeds grow in empty fields. Our failure allows them to grow like weeds.

"We don't even expect anything from the government; the only request to them is -- please don't waste your energy by propagating day and night 'we are secular'.

Please remain silent until your objective is achieved. Avijit, Ananta, Rajib, Niloy, Babu and Dipan -- each of them is a scorecard for you. You keep on saying that everything is a 'political game', everything is a 'perception'.

"Keep on oiling the machetes of fundamentalists silently, otherwise you might lose votes. You know very well that your silence is helping them sharpen their weapons. May be, during the day we mistakenly think it as your silence. Who knows, you probably become articulate at night and join them in the game of vote sharing. Please remain silent until your vote box is filled; we will never approach you to seek trial.

Those who died are gone forever. We will never get them back. They will never return no matter what we do.

"I studied at Dhaka Medical [College] for two years towards the end of the 80s. I remember we used to say that Jamaat-Shibir would never dare to enter the Dhaka University campus. We couldn't even think of terrorist groups like Ansarullah at that time.

Today, they have not only entered the campus, but have carried out savage killings one after another. And we feel helpless and shocked to see this 'dance of destruction'. Dipan's father and Avijit's father had to see their children being hacked by machete-wielding militants at the very university where they had once taught.

Today they [militants] are very bold.

Now, they don't even need to carry out attacks secretly in the dead of night. They hack people with machetes on streets in front of thousands of people and police.

"I stood on a street with four stab wounds in my head and a severed finger, begging for help from hundreds of people. Did any of them come forward? They played the role of spectators standing in a circle. Even some policemen were in the crowd. It was Jibon who came forward to help. People like him are now hard to find.

Our grief doesn't turn into outrage any more. We can no longer create what we did in '52, '69 or '71. This state mechanism of torture has been so successful in silencing us that we have become numb in fear.

We look at this country stained with blood the way a herd of deer stare at light. I have heard from many that nowadays those who come forward to help are harassed by police. So, nobody comes forward to help any more. That is why Niloy was killed inside his room; Ananta was hunted down on the street in broad daylight; Tutul, Ranada [Ranadipan Basu] and Tareq were hacked in office in front of many people, and Dipan was killed in a busy place like Aziz Super Market.

The killers know they have nothing to fear any more. They know that their haven is far-stretched. They know they will be received with 'garlands of silence'. And we could be 'implicated under Section 54'.