Sufian Siddique Independent researcher and freelance columnist, Dhaka

The incident took place on Sunday morning local time in the Casagrande area near the city of Phoenix in the state of Arizona, USA.

Earlier on July 18, Bangladeshi youth Yazuddin Ahmed was shot dead at a gas station on Hampton Avenue in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Bangladesh State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam tweeted this information. He wrote, ‘We are horrified by the news of the second Bangladeshi being killed in the United States in the last five days. The last victim is Abul Hashim.

He also wrote that Yazuddin Ahmed, who was killed earlier, went to the United States for higher education. This freedom fighter’s son used to work in a grocery store to pay for his education.

We are appalled to know the killing of a second Bangladeshi in the last 5 days in the USA. Abul Hashim is the latest victim. Eazuddin Ahmed who was killed earlier went to USA for higher studies. Son of Freedom Fighter was working in a grocery store to meet his educational expenses.

     — Md. Shahriar Alam (@MdShahriarAlam) July 25, 2023

Mahabub Reza Rahim, the leader of the Bangladeshi community in Arizona and the former chairman of Fobana, said that Abul Hashim of Comilla died on the spot at Sunlight Market located on Sunland Jean Road and West Concordia Drive in Casagrande City at 7:30 am on Sunday morning.

Hashim has a 6-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter. His other siblings also live in the same city.

A Bangladeshi youth has been killed in a terrorist attack in the United States. According to media reports, the incident took place at the BP gas station in the 1100 block of Hampton Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri. Before this, on January 4, another young Bangladeshi, Saeed Faisal, was shot dead by the Massachusetts police on Chestnut Street in Cambridge.

The incident of Bangladeshis being killed by police or terrorists in the United States is not new. Such killings are often reported in newspapers in Bangladesh or the United States; But there is no news about their investigation or trial later. According to a report published in the media of Bangladesh in 2015, six Bangladeshis were killed in various attacks in the United States in these three years from 2012 to 2015. In October 2015, the brave freedom fighter Mushtaq Ahmed was killed by terrorists in the state of Florida.

In August of the same year, businessman Shahidul Islam was killed in another tragic attack. In 2013, the leader of Bangladesh Awami League’s United States branch, Nazmul Islam, was killed in a terrorist attack in New York’s weight park. In 2012, another leader of Awami League, Belal Tarafdar, was killed in an attack by miscreants in Connecticut. Bangladeshi film director AB Manik was also killed in August 2014. At the same time, a cab driver named Kamal Uddin was killed by terrorists. His body was lying on the road.

In 2015, when Bangladeshis were being killed one after another in the United States, two foreign nationals were also killed in Bangladesh. The US Embassy was very active about the murders of Italian citizen Cesare Tavella in Dhaka and Japanese citizen Kunio Hoshi in Rangpur. The then US Ambassador Bernicutt almost gave up on the issue in the name of expressing concern.

Our media also promoted it quite strongly. But on the contrary, we have not seen any strong protest or diplomatic activity regarding the killing of Bangladeshi citizens in the United States. Even Barnicutt was not asked any strong questions about this in various press conferences.

Extrajudicial killings have become an almost daily occurrence in the United States. Every now and then we read in the newspapers about gunmen attacking the United States wearing the cheeky moniker of ‘Champion of Democracy and Human Rights’. In the first six months of 2023, there were 28 gun attacks in the United States and 140 people were victims of extrajudicial killings, according to data from a joint research-archive by the news agency AP, USA Today and Boston’s Northeastern University.

Based on the data obtained from January 1 to June 30, it is known that almost every week there has been a gun attack somewhere in the country. According to the news published in the US media, in 2017 there were 224 extrajudicial killings in the country, 211 in 2019, 610 in 2020, 692 in 2021 and 648 in 2022.

But there is no news of any initiative or activity of the administration regarding these murders, there is no news of any case or trial. The situation of the country is so dire that they go to different countries of the world including Bangladesh and interfere in the internal affairs of those countries in the name of protecting human rights.

As much as the Biden administration has spent the last few months on the election, governance and human rights situation in Bangladesh, it has not spent much on the law-and-order situation and extrajudicial killings in its own country. Otherwise, three Bangladeshis would not have been victims of extrajudicial killings at least six months apart.

It has been already mentioned the various protests surrounding the killing of Syed Faisal in January 2023. As the protest came from the Foreign Office of Bangladesh, Bangladeshis living in Bangladesh and the United States also joined the protest. Writing and discussion about it has just started in the media. Then suddenly on May 24, the United States Minister of Foreign Affairs Anthony J. Blinken announced the new visa policy. The number should not be too complicated if you match two two by four. For various reasons, Bangladeshis who are interested in immigration put the United States in their list of preferences. The hassle of getting a visa to the country is also high.

Although the democratic elections were held, we think the main objective of the US administration was to suppress the protests that started on the streets and social media about the Bangladeshi people who were killed at various times, including Saeed Faisal. Earlier, on International Human Rights Day on December 10, 2021, the United States Treasury Department (Revenue Department) and the State Department sanctioned seven former and current officers of Bangladesh’s law enforcement agency RAB. They were charged with human rights violations. Such unilateral definition of human rights violations is rare indeed.

The question is, has the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh been able to take a strong position on these issues? Our Ministry of External Affairs could not take a strong diplomatic stand despite taking mild initiatives like expressing ‘dissatisfaction’, ‘anger’ or ‘protest’. There are plenty of reasons not to. The United States is one of the world’s superpowers. A country like Bangladesh cannot enter into an open diplomatic fight with such a superpower even if it wants to.

Apart from that, Bangladesh’s foreign policy also follows a balanced approach. As a result, what else can be effective for Bangladesh except adopting a ‘go slow policy’ in the face of US hegemonic diplomacy? But the way Bangladeshi citizens are being killed in the United States and after each killing the US ambassador to Bangladesh is giving empty words of sympathy to the families of the victims, it has become a big question as to how long Bangladesh will be sufferer of US vested interest. Where is Anthony Blinken, Uzra Zeya, Donald Lu, Victoria Nuland, Peter Hass?