We all have seen the demonstration of “Occupy Wall Street” protest that took place on 17th September, 2011 in Zuccotti Park against social and economic inequality, corruption and unethical influence of financial corporations on government. The rise of Arab Spring followed by Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Oman, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Syria and many other Arab countries is the trending topic all over the world from the year of 2011 till now. The protest of a former Indian soldier named Anna Hazare and his followers against government policy on rural development and corruption of the government officials cannot go unnoticed. Most of these protests took place against the government. In all those cases the government was in an embarrassing position because of the protest as it all took place against government and tried their best resolve the protest. In some places the government was able to pacify the protest peacefully while in other places like Egypt and Syria it was violent and thousands of people were killed as a result. The case study that will be done in this project was not noticed by the international community as much the abovementioned cases. It was also against government while it is debated that the whole demonstration was supported by various agencies of the government. The reason will be described during the entire course of the case study.
In 1971 Bangladesh gained Independence from Pakistan with the hope of building a new nation that will provide social justice, equality, democracy and security to its citizen. During the reign of Pakistan government the citizens of former East Pakistan (Bangladesh) was deprived of all fundamental rights of a citizen. After a nine month of bloodshed the country gained its independence from West Pakistan. Irony is that few people of the country went against the liberation war and collaborated with the Pakistani Army. They formed numerous groups named “Razakar”, “Al-Badar”, “As-Shams” and killed the freedom fighters, raped women and vandalized properties. After the liberation war, the founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his government decided to bring these war criminals under trial and give them capital punishment. As the leader of the nation found that many of those war criminals were his relatives and were politically strong he decided to give amnesty to the war criminals to rebuild the nation. In 1975 president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed through a Military coup and the country went under autocratic military government till 1990. By this time no one took initiative to bring war criminals under trial. In 2008 one of the most important term of the election manifesto of Bangladesh Awami League (founder by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) was to bring the War Criminals under trial. After winning the election with huge majority the government established the “War Crime Tribunal” to bring war criminals under trial. In 2011 the government arrested several leaders of “Jamaat-e-Islam Bangladesh” accusing them for the war crime and crime against humanity. Except one of the leaders most of these leaders were known as “Razakar” which means traitor. The supporter of the party started protesting on the street to free their leader. There was rumor that the government was trying to make negotiation with the war criminals to make alliance with them and make the opposition alliance of Bangladesh Nationalist Party weak. A Skype conversation between a Judge of the War Crime Tribunal and his friend was hacked and it revealed that the tribunal was undergoing undue process to punish the war criminals. The judge later resigned from the tribunal. On February 4, 2013 the tribunal sentenced life-long imprisonment to one of the war criminals named Abdul Kader Mollah. The whole nation expected that he will be sentenced death penalty and their doubt on government for making behind the curtain negotiation with Jamaat-e-Islam Bangladesh got stronger. On February 5th, 2013 “Bloggers and Online Activists Network” (BOAN) called for a protest at Shahbag near the Dhaka University. Few students of the Dhaka University and bloggers gathered there for the first day. Several TV Medias broadcasted their protest on air. The next day they again called for a protest by creating events on Facebook. Number of people from rose from hundred to million within next few days. It drew the attention of the Satellite TV channels of the country and started live broadcasting of the protest. They compared Shahbag as to be Tahrir Square of Egypt. The agenda of the demonstration was to ensure capital punishment for war criminals and to ban Islamic Politics in Bangladesh. Government ensured a three layer security for the protestors. Because of the demand to ban Islamic Politics in Bangladesh, the Islamic parties of the country got agitated and they brought a campaign against the protestors of Shahbag Square. It was revealed that few atheist bloggers of the protest wrote abusive blogs against the Prophet (PBUH) of the Muslims. It agitated the whole Muslim community of the country. As a result many people who were previously supporting the protest of Shahbag Square changed their mind and started protesting against it. A blogger named Ahmed Rajib was killed and two others were stabbed by a group of students. Meanwhile the supporters of the “Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh took this opportunity and spread their agenda against government and the Shahbag Square protestors using social media platforms specially Facebook and You Tube. On May 5th, 2013, an Islamic group named “Hefajote-e-Islam Bangladesh”, formed by mostly Madrasa Students declared a long march toward the capital to force the government for withdrawing its support on the Shahbag Protestors and rule the country according to Islamic Shariah Law. They were engaged in violent protest with the law enforcement agencies on their way to the capital and the government tried its best to stop them to occupy the capital. The group occupied one of the busiest business district of the capital and decide to protest there. At night when everyone was tired and decided to take rest the government decided to take action on them which known as “operation searchlight” fearing that if they continue to stay there they might overthrow the government. They banned Facebook and You Tube, a TV channel named “Diganta TV” and a newspaper named “Naya Diganta”. On the night the government shut down electricity in the area where the protestors were resting and enforced an armed battalion of 10,000 Police, RAB and Military. The rest of the story is full of debate. Neither the government, nor the opposition brought the statistics of the number of people that were killed. Both parties exaggerated the numbers. Opposition party said more than 2000 people were killed in operation searchlight while ruling party said none was killed. As the government didn’t allow journalists to stay at the scene according to the estimate of the witness and numerous human rights organization the number will vary from 60-100 people. From then till now there is an ongoing online war between these two groups. People are still posting fake or real pictures on Facebook, uploading videos on You Tube regarding the demonstration of 2013. No one still knows whether the truth will come or not. The plan of the government was to try their best to negotiate with “Jaamat-e-Islami” Bangladesh to make sure that the opposition alliance of Bangladesh Nationalist Party cannot get to the power as it had alliance with “jaamat-e-Islami”. If the plan did not worked for them then as Plan B they decided to stage the drama of the protest of Shahbag Square so that they can put opponent under pressure and gain political benefit. So far the scenario that we have is good enough to examine and clarify the effect and influence of the Social media on recent social movements.