Svalornas egen personal på lokalkontoret i Dhaka är tack och lov oskadda, så även personalen hos våra samarbetsorganisationer. Dock känner flera av våra kollegor och vänner många av offren i den våldsamma upplösning som gisslandramat fick. Vi skickar våra tankar och medkänsla till offrens familjer och vänner. Den politiska utvecklingen i Bangladesh är oroande och vi ser flera tendenser på ökade våldsamheter och oro i landet, där också utrymmet för civilsamhället minskar. Svalornas partners arbete påverkas givetvis – om ej direkt av våldet – så på längre sikt undermineras möjligheterna att organisera sig och det skapas en rädsla i samhället. Idag är det än viktigare med internationell solidaritet och att samarbeta bortom nationsgränser och att stärka civilsamhället.

Monica Erwér
Verksamhetsledare Svalorna Indien Bangladesh

Nedan kan du läsa ett inlägg om helgens händelser skrivet av Khushi Kabir, ledare för Nijera Kori, en av Svalornas partnerorganisationer i Bangladesh:

“Today was a hard day. After last night watching on TV, catching up on Facebook, trying to find what happened, this morning after the ‘operation’ to rescue the hostages from the cafe in Gulshan, we were busy trying to cope with this disaster that has hit our nation. Bangladesh has learned to cope with many disasters, of many kinds, cyclones, floods, river erosion, wars, and we as a national have been able to turn around, show our resilience and build our lives, more strong, more focused, with humour, love, and a spirit of collectively. Now we have a worse diseased form of disaster, new and alien disasters that have made us get into a kind of stupor, of not knowing how to deal with these new actions against us, these horrifying and senseless killings. These killings, machete attacks being targeted only for being progressive, for being gay, for being a liberated person, for being open, a rationalist, an agnostic, an atheist, a Baul, a follower of Sufism, of being a Pir, of being a Shia, of being an Ahmedia, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Christian, anything that is not following the totally alien to our land cult and I use the word cult deliberately of Wahabism as it is seen in the present context or popular perception. It could be in the name of IS or AQIS or any other name given to it.

The recent night long siege and operation carried out at the every lovely, peaceful, warm Cafe O and Holey Artisan Bakery, in what used to be Late Dr. Suraiya Jabeen’s house, opposite her Lake View Clinic is something that Bangladesh had not ever witnessed. Being a high priced restaurant, with the perfect ambience, it was a popular place for young people, small dinners, official or family. The mornings and early afternoons saw children running around the lawns. This kind of a senseless attack was never ever imagined could happen here.

This post is to honour all those who lost their lives in that night of horror, a horror I can only feel through imagination, and to those I knew or whose families I knew. My condolences to the families of all the others who I did not have the privilege of knowing and who had to die in this manner by the menace that is threatening to engulf our nation in a manner worse than any method that science fiction could imagine. Our call is to all across the globe, that we have to fight back this menace before it engulfs us.”