Very good looking and suave, he made a favourable impression on all who watched him speaking softly, never betraying impatience and anger. The high positions he graced and the personality he cultivated seemed to be made for each other. He was, moreover, an alumnus of the Department of English, Dhaka University. Notwithstanding all these attributes, his name and profession were somewhat anachronistic to his gender and the background of English literature respectively.
Yes, Benazir, a Persian-Arabic name reserved for girls means 'without like', matchless, peerless, unique etc; fits neither the top position of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) nor the chief of the police in Bangladesh. The former Inspector General of Police (IGP) was not the only person from the Dhaka University's English Department to grace the highest position of the law enforcement agencies---the police and RAB to be precise. Before him Hassan Mahmood Khandker from the same department had the distinction of serving as the police chief for the longest tenure in Bangladesh's history and the force under him was awarded the Independence Day Award. Moreover, it was during his time, the rank badge of IGP was elevated to the 3-star general. He was even made ambassador to Spain following his retirement.
Compared with Mahmood, Benazir has hardly made the force under him proud. His accumulation of filthy amount of wealth for which the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) has brought charges against him and the court ordered freezing of his 33 bank accounts and attachment of all the property acquired under as many as 83 deeds.
Appearances could not be more deceptive. The peerless Benazir has amassed ill-gotten fortunes of matchless proportion. How many bank accounts a person in government service, whatever may be his rank, is supposed to have? The ACC came to know of 33 but who knows if there are more of those! So far, 114 acres of land, of which 466 bighas he acquired in the last three years of his service, could be traced. There are allegations galore including owning a second home in Malaysia and suspecting of possessing, but not confirmed, another in Canada.
How tragic and disgraceful it is that the man who in his capacity as the police chief used to exhort newly recruits saying that in the life of a man, there is no need of too much of land property nor many a roof on one's head. One should do as much as is required for living with members of one's family in peace and happiness. It is this same preacher-like innocent-looking man conducting himself so endearingly has possessed how many flats and resorts only God knows. Double-faced, he could not perhaps be more duplicitous.
This country has become witness to life-threatening medical malpractices by impostors like Shahed Karim, multi-level marketing scandals, online business fraudulence, outsize banking and financial scams and many more. But Benazir's is a case incomparable with all those simply because the nation vested in him the power and responsibility to enforce laws of the land and watch over crime and corruption. Beyond this sacred duty, the moral obligation and the people's trust he was made a custodian of have been devastated by his betrayal.
Instead of upholding the moral principles and the oath in his position one takes, he became obsessed with amassing wealth. Indeed, a man does not need basket-full of dirty money to live a decent and happy life. His honest income as an IGP would have been enough for him, his wife and three daughters. What made a student of English literature intoxicated with wealth accumulation can give an insight into the country's moral degeneration. When the principal custodian of the nation's sacred trust violates it, this has profound impacts --- negative on the force he heads and honest civilians, and more worryingly as a green signal for the criminally bent. There is no reason to think what he did, he did alone without accomplices higher up and down the rank.
If the cases filed against him have their logical consequences, those should be a lesson for others making money left and right caring little whether in the process they sell their soul to the devil Mephistopheles like Dr Faustus.
nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com