“Tui ke, Ami ke, Razakars.. Razakars..” This slogan became the biggest weapon against PM Hasina; What is the connection with 1971

Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina said in an interview during this protest, “If the sons and grandsons of freedom fighters will not get reservation, will Razakars get it?” While saying this, PM Hasina would have no idea that this would become the biggest weapon against her. The use of the word Razakars turned the protests violent across Bangladesh and students started demonstrating vigorously by using it as a slogan.

The word Razakar, which was used by PM Hasina to insult the protesters, proved to be an elixir for the students’ movement. The students were successful in making the public understand that they were being called traitors by the government for demanding their rights.

Who were the Razakars, whose name is considered a symbol of treason in Bangladesh?

Before 1971, the Pakistani army had adopted different tactics to spread terror in Bangladesh. Pakistan’s General Tikka Khan had formed a violent organization called Razakars to deal with the Mukti Bahini in East Pakistan and now Bangladesh. Urdu-speaking Muslims who had gone to Bangladesh from Bihar at the time of independence were recruited in this organization, who were against the creation of a new country in the name of religion and were staunch supporters of Pakistan.

At the time of Bangladesh independence, these people spread such terror in Bangladesh that thousands of Bengalis were killed in a painful manner. To drive the Indian Army out of Bangladesh, they held hundreds of Bengalis captive and when the Pakistan Army killed all these people and themselves hid in factories outside Dhaka, later the Indian Army wiped them out.

The Razakars who were caught alive confessed to raping thousands of innocent Bengali women and killing many innocent people. After independence, when things related to Razakars came to light, this word started being seen as an abuse in Bangladesh.

In 2019, Pakistan’s newspaper The Tribune published a report in which a list of names of about 11 thousand Razakars who were helping the Pakistani Army in Bangladesh was presented.

The report said that AKM Yusuf, one of the top leaders of the radical Jamaat-e-Islami, had founded the Razakar organisation along with Tikka Khan. Yusuf was arrested in May 2013 and charges of human rights violations were framed against him. However, he died of a heart attack while in custody in 2014.