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OPINION

Who is a Terrorist ?
WHO is a terrorist? is the question which has been hagging my mind since when some student activists used the Dhaka University Teachers' Club in their latest -round of infighting about a month age. One night they held their batch-mates as hostages in the Teachers' Club and none of them would leave the premise before mid-night. A day or two after they came around evening, took position In the Teachers' Club and quietly asked the teachers to go out. The teachers had no alternative but to comply as the student activists had arms.
After these incidents the. ' new coinage of the word 'terrorist' has been In circulation in connection, with the campus. But. what -about, the trainers of these terrorists?
The other morning I was reading a novel on Abraham Lincoln written by Gore Vidal. Therein 1 came across the American slang "plugnglies" who were all the time planning to waylay and assassinate the president-elect Abraham Lincoln.
We all know that Abraham Lincoln was the torch-bearer of democracy. But the young American nation which declared its independence from England had a problem similar to ours — as it had a lot of gun-toting citizens those days. And Washington during Abraham Lincoln's time was very similar to our present day Dhaka with a lot of gun-toting young plugnglies roaming round with all kinds of queer notions and aberrations of heroism.
1 have been watching the DU brand of heroics with great interest. In their latest round which I remember was on Sunday, October 27. the death toll, according to some reports, was rhore than five.
Two days earlier to October 27th, the Inspector-General of Police had'openly admitted to a group of peace activists at ^the United Nation*
Information Centre at Dhanmondi that the police force of Bangladesh can do nothing to curb campus violence and requested his audience. mostly housewives and young boys, to inform the police tn secret about any Illegal arms. This is ridiculous. Then why have a police force at all? To pay tax to maintain uniformed 'silent spectators'? On that fearsome Sunday while the battle was raging I saw a whole platoon of blue-uniformed "silent . spectators" standing in front of the VC's house while Mirza Ghalib was bleeding to death, not to speak of that unfortunate tea selling boy who was also gunned down. 1 am damned sick of our brand of 'plugnglies' and 'old fossils' of the DU who allow these terrible situations tn which the young Bangladesh nation Is held at ransom by a few.
On the historic Bfplob Dibosh, Nov 7, when the whole nation remains confused as to who were the revolutionaries — as an Inquisitive peace activist I ventured into the famous Madhu's Canteen and heard perhaps the most sensible approach to the campus situation In context of Bangladesh and its movement* towards achieving democracy.
Analysing the situation Mr A K M Badruddin Milon, convenor, DU branch of Chhatra Oikkya Forum staled : "In the nation’s critical moments it Is the students who always play a leading role like that in the Language Movement of 1952, Mass -Upsurge of 1969, Liberation Struggle of 1971 and the Maas Upsurge of October 1990. From these it has been proved that the *tu-dents arc the vanguards of the people's struggle to achieve a truly democratic society. It is the student* who always *hcd their blood for the right* of the people. That Is why foreign powers work out blue-prints to alienate student* from the people and in cases become
successful for the time being. Only one out of 1000 students is a muscleman' carrying arms.
These foreign power* cleverly manipulate some students to create anarchy and violence to malign the student community as a whole and make them unpopular with the masses. The main Intention ia to ban student politics, the result of which will be that the .foreign powers will be able to dominate the national politics of Bangladesh. Recently the AL chief Sheikh Hasina announced suspension of Chhatra League students politics on DU campus. This appears to be a strategic retreat.
"During Sunday's fighting it was the activists of the BNP's student wing who were critically injured and some even died. In the next stage of ip-fighting between the student activists the probability is that the student wing of AL will have to pay dearly for Sunday's adventurism and may be that is why the AL chief has decided to withdraw Chhatra League activists from the DU campus for the time being.
To really free the campus from violence .there Is a positive need of the bourgeois political parties of Bangladesh to re-shuffle and become democratic and people-oriented."
From Madhu's Canteen I walked back to my residence with a feeling of elation. The young blood of Bangladesh can think out better solutions to the crisis in our educational institutions than the "old fossils' who go for cheap press conference* and publicity stunt*, without solving any problem In reality.
And 1 am reminded of 'Fools rush in where angles fear to tread.' Sarcastically: If no study and examination of real worth, then why don't the “old fossils" close down the DU and cultivate rice? Our people need rice and fish, not guns and bullets.
Bilquis Afzal Fuller Road. DhakaJ