Shahidul Alam | 22 July 2024 | The Wire

A bruised face would not have worked for the government-staged press conference. Mohammad Nahid Islam was lucky he had passed out. There were no marks on his face, and at first sight one wouldn’t have known the extent of the torture. It was only in hospital that the full extent of the damage could be gauged. It was no random beating, or people venting anger. It was very professionally done. Intense, localised, repeated and of course incredibly painful. No outwardly visible signs in normal situations. No broken bones. No long term scar tissue or tell tale signs. Their mistake had been in not stopping before he became unconscious. A miscalculation on their part.

Nahid was one of the coordinators of the quota protest  movement who had not agreed to the deal. Three others, who had been coerced into doing so, had repeatedly asked him to change his stance. The government had provided the script. “They are going to give us what we had asked for (the removal of quota). The violence was by outsiders. We need to distance ourselves from it.” The government had arranged for the ‘independent’ court to give an appropriate judgement. The students would be happy. The opposition would get the blame for the killings. Nahid’s rejection of this grand narrative had become a problem.

Nahid and scores of the other coordinators knew full well who the outsiders were. The Bangladesh Chhatra League (pro-government student wing, which provides muscle power to control campuses) had the full backing of the security forces when they attacked the protesters. Goons had also been bussed in. Things had been carefully planned. Bangladeshis could see through the spin, but it worked with the international community. Or at least they were content with the version….

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