No government can guarantee zero violence: Press secretary

Chief Adviser's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam today (8 February) said that no government can guarantee there will be no attempts at violence, particularly when influential actors are actively calling for disruption.

"But the conditions today are not the same as before. Security forces are under close scrutiny, political parties and civil society are cooperating, and international observers are on the ground," he said in response to TIB's report on election related killings.

Together, Alam said, these conditions give real reason to believe that this election can finally end the cycle of fear and violence that defined previous elections.

Transparency International Bangladesh says that 15 political leaders and activists were killed in the 36 days following the announcement of the election schedule. "That number has quickly taken on a life of its own. But it deserves scrutiny, not blind repetition," Alam said.

Police records show that only five killings during this period can be directly linked to political profile or activity, he said.

One of them was the cold-blooded murder of Osman Hadi, shot dead by gunmen on a motorcycle, Alam said.

"Every killing is condemnable. Osman Hadi's murder was particularly brutal, aimed not only at silencing a young political leader but at provoking fear and instability at a sensitive political moment. That objective failed," the Press Secretary said.

The country did not spiral into retaliatory violence, and the election process has not been derailed, he said. "What is missing from TIB's presentation is context. Political violence around elections is not new in Bangladesh. In the sham elections of 2024, six people were killed," Alam said.

He went on to say, "In the night-time elections of 2018, 22 people lost their lives. In the officially rigged 2014 polls, political violence claimed at least 115 lives."

Measured against this history, the suggestion that the current pre-election period reflects an alarming breakdown in security is difficult to sustain, Alam said.

He said the difference between TIB's figures and the official data is not a cover-up. "It is a disagreement over how deaths are classified. TIB appears to count every killing of a person affiliated with a political party as election-related, regardless of whether there is evidence that the killing was politically motivated."

Alam said the government, by contrast, counts only deaths with direct and provable links to electoral activity. "Treating these approaches as equivalent distorts public understanding and inflates perceptions of insecurity."

"Let's be clear: public security is not in perfect shape. Years of politicised policing and abuse under the Hasina government destroyed public trust, which is why people from all walks of life demanded an interim, non-partisan government," Alam said.

Since taking office, he said, the interim government has removed or suspended officials credibly accused of abuses, reviewed the role of specialised units, initiated criminal proceedings in cases of enforced disappearance and torture, and issued clear rules governing the policing of assemblies and the electoral period.

The peaceful handling of three highly emotional and unprecedented mass events, the funerals of Osman Hadi and former Prime Minister Khalida Zia, and the return of BNP chairman Tarique Rahman, demonstrates that restraint and professionalism are now possible where they were previously absent, Alam said.