The Noble Charge to Protect the Heart of Our Homeland

These are not merely slogans.

They are battle cries etched into the very soul of our Republic. They reverberate through the bloodstained fields of 1971, echo in the hearts of our martyrs, and resound in every corner of this land we call Bangladesh. These words are a summons — a call to conscience, to memory, and to vigilance.

For too long, the enemies of our hard-won freedom have cloaked themselves in the garb of legitimacy, manipulating the very democracy they sought to destroy. These are not mere political adversaries; they are historical saboteurs. Their ideology is not dissent — it is distortion. Their ambition is not reform — it is regression. And their goal is not coexistence — it is conquest of our collective memory and the erasure of our foundational truth.

Let us be unflinching in our declaration: there can be no reconciliation with those who seek to dismantle the very edifice of our nationhood.

Bangladesh was born not out of compromise, but out of crucible. Our Liberation War was not a polite negotiation; it was a titanic upheaval, forged in fire, tears, and the will of a people who refused to be silenced. We rose against tyranny. We resisted the brutality of an oppressive Pakistani colonial regime. And we emerged — bruised, bloodied, but unbowed — with a vision of a secular, democratic, and just society in 1971 and that glorified Bangladesh has been bleeding ceaselessly since 5-8 August 2024 because of CIA, ISI, Yunus, Waker, Jamaati-Shibir butchers, BNP like an illegitimate political squad born in the Dhaka military Cantonment, other right-winger Islamist Jihadists, et-al.

And yet, five decades hence, the shadows of treachery still linger. The ghosts of collaborators walk among us, some in the corridors of influence, some emboldened by silence and amnesia. They dare to speak in the name of freedom while mocking its very essence. They dare to invoke the Constitution while working to subvert the principles it enshrines.

Let us be clear: they do not seek justice. They seek revenge against history.

This is no ordinary moment in our national journey. It is an inflection point — a time when complacency becomes complicity. We cannot afford the luxury of forgetfulness. Nor can we permit the erosion of our historical clarity in the name of false unity. Reconciliation without truth is surrender. Peace without justice is appeasement. And democracy without memory is a house built on sand.

The time has come to speak plainly and act decisively.

The notorious architects of national discord — and their ideological heirs — must be decisively and permanently discredited. They have already been judged by the arc of history; now they must be held to account in the court of the living. Their propaganda must be exposed, their revisionism confronted, and their platforms dismantled.

We must, as a nation, rise above partisanship and recognize the existential threat they pose not only to governance, but to our national soul.

This is not about vendetta; it is about vigilance.

To those who argue for tolerance toward the intolerant — who preach civility in the face of subversion — we say: learn from history. It was silence and hesitation that allowed the forces of 1971 to metastasize in the years that followed. It was amnesia that paved the way for August 15, 1975 — that blackest of nights when the founding father of our Republic, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was assassinated by cowards of CIA and their local collaborators who masqueraded as patriots.

It was betrayal — both overt and covert — that plunged our nation into years of darkness, during which the ideals of 1971 were mocked, buried, and replaced by a culture of impunity and revisionism.

But we have risen from that darkness.

Under the leadership of those who carry forward Bangabandhu’s vision, we have made strides — in infrastructure, in economy, in digital transformation, in diplomacy. But these gains, monumental as they are, rest on fragile ground if the ideological foundations of our Republic are not safeguarded. No amount of development can substitute for the decay of national consciousness. No economic miracle can offset a moral vacuum.

Let us be reminded: we are not merely a market or a map. We are a memory, a mission, and a movement.

The battle of 1971 did not end in December. It continues in our institutions, in our curricula, in our public discourse, and in the soul of every Bangladeshi who still believes in the promise of Ekattor — the promise of dignity, democracy, and justice. The battle continues against those who wish to distort our textbooks, dilute our history, and desecrate our heroes.

Let history record that we did not remain silent.

Let our generation be remembered not for its convenience, but for its courage. Let us be the generation that stood firm when it was easier to look away. Let us be the citizens who understood that freedom, once won, must be guarded with eternal vigilance.

Justice delayed is not only justice denied — it is justice betrayed. The enemies of our Republic have evaded accountability for too long. Let them now face the reckoning they have earned. Let the rule of law, impartial and unyielding, pierce through their evasions.

This is not persecution — it is preservation. Not politics — but principle.

Let us, as a united people, reject the toxic ideologies that seek to divide us — ideologies rooted in bigotry, sectarianism, and a naked hunger for power. Let us repudiate those who once stood with the oppressors of West Pakistan, who justified genocide, and who now wrap themselves in the language of democracy to achieve undemocratic ends.

Let us reclaim the narrative.

We are the inheritors of an unbroken legacy — a legacy written in the blood of martyrs, the sweat of freedom fighters, and the vision of Bangabandhu. It is a legacy that demands not only remembrance but action. A legacy that demands that we confront, not coddle, those who defile it.

Bangladesh is not a haven for traitors. It is not a playground for ideologues who view democracy as a means to dismantle it. It is not a museum of unresolved grief — it is a living, breathing republic that must be defended with intellect, integrity, and indignation.

Let the world see that we are not afraid to name our enemies.

Let the next generation know that we rose, once more, to protect their future from the ruinous errors of the past.

And let us say, with one voice: enough is enough.

Enough distortion. Enough deflection. Enough denial since 5-8 August 2024.

The time for reckoning is now.

So, let us rise — not in hatred, but in honor. Not in vengeance, but in vigilance. Let us rise to affirm our national identity, rooted in truth and tempered by sacrifice. Let us rise to build a Bangladesh where no child grows up learning a falsified version of their own history. Let us rise so that never again will treachery be mistaken for courage.

Joy Bangla. Joy Bangabandhu.

May these words not simply end our speeches but animate our spirits.

May they remind us that ours is a nation forged in resistance — and that resistance must never fade.

The future of Bangladesh demands no less.

Source: Anwar A. Khan

Anwar A. Khan, was a freedom fighter to establish Bangladesh in 1971, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, who writes on politics, current and international issues.

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