<b>India amassing troops on border with Bangladesh</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Kolkata, December 17, 2005|22:29 IST
 Â
<b>India is deploying thousands of new troops on its frontier with Bangladesh and setting up hundreds of more border posts to check illegal migration and movement of armed militants, a top official said.</b>
New Delhi decided to bolster its eastern border defences in September to crackdown on militants moving in from Bangladesh, although Dhaka denies anti-India elements are using its soil.
In recent weeks, Bangladesh has been rocked by a series of bomb blasts believed to be carried out by radicals seeking to make the Muslim-majority democracy an Islamic state.
This is a worry for India as well, officials said.
<b>
"We are seriously concerned about the situation in Bangladesh as it is potentially dangerous for us,"</b> Damodar Sarangi, additional-director general of the Border Security Force (BSF), told the agency in an interview this week.
<b>"Along with illegal trespassers come radical ideologies ... It does not help to have a troubled neighbour. We are alive to the problem."</b>
.................
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WHats going on? Suddenly govt. woke up from deep sleep???
12-18-2005, 02:22 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-18-2005, 02:25 AM by ravish.)
The report is totally misleading. It has quoted the BSF DG, yet it talks of troop deployment along the India BD border.It gives the totally misleading impression that Indian Army Units have been deployed by India .In fact, what i can make out is that the number of border guards have been increased obviously to stop illegal immigation along the border.
For readers not familiar with the Indian set up, the Border Security Force is the frontier guard police force under the Minstry of Home Affairs( Interior Ministry).This is the Force that guard the borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh during normal times. In India, troop deployment means calling out the Units of the Indian Army to take up position along the border. If that happens , it means the security of the nation is under threat and matter is extremely serious, in other words, War may break out any time.The Press report has been made more sensational with a view to improve the sale prospect ot the publication.
No such situation is existing between India and BD at present.So nothing to get alarmed.
a brife documantry about why india had to intervine in partition of Bangaldesh
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RW7CFGQ1
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->If that happens , it means the security of the nation is under threat and matter is extremely serious, in other words, War may break out any time.The Press report has been made more sensational with a view to improve the sale prospect ot the publication.
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Ravish
You are absolutely correct. The HT is trying to sensationalise this issue and score some brownie points with the militarily uninformed readers. The danger of such antics is that it creates a false sense of security and lulls one's alertness, although the situation in the border remains as grim.
However, the BSF is installing Heavy Machineguns and Morters in the Assam and Tripura borders. That's the heaviest hardware it has got. Any heavier and you need the army.
jayshastri
I cannot thank you enough for the short film. It will be utilised in my own work as doubtless it would also help many other members of this forum. If you have any more of these film links, please post them.
12-19-2005, 12:50 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-19-2005, 12:53 AM by ravish.)
<b>The MMG and Mortar are the standard items for stopping the initial phase of any attack on the ground. In fact, in India BD border in the last few border incidents it is the Indians who have been killed in larger numbers rather than the opponents. This has been played up by the BD Media to show to the public that the BDR is a far more effective force than the BSF. In the process, the BD authorities have given a false sense of security and arrogance to its people.
The truth of the matter is that a 30 minute heavy aerial bombardment of BD towns by the IAF from all the three sides is sufficient to finish it off as a nation. The only safety and security it has is that no sensible Indian leadership will undertake such an exercise to add 100 million beggars into its population.</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>India virtually allows terrorists in from B'desh' </b>
Reuters
Mumbai, January 9: Lax vigilance by Indian immigration officials is allowing Islamist militants to smuggle in weapons and explosives from Bangladesh, a top official with India's border force said on Monday.
New Delhi says Kashmiri militant groups and separatists from the country's northeast use Bangladeshi territory to train their cadres and carry out hit-and-run attacks against India. Dhaka denies the charge.
Indian intelligence officials say Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant groups began using Bangladesh as a conduit for moving weapons after finding it difficult to cross into India through heavily guarded northern borders.
"The border guards have no power to check men and material coming in (to India) through customs and immigration," a top Border Security Force (BSF) official told Reuters.
<b>"Anything -- weapons, explosives and terrorists -- comes in," he said on condition of anonymity. "We can do nothing because they (customs and immigration) tell us we can't check the goods."
The BSF is the main agency protecting India's borders. India and Bangladesh share a 4,000-km (2,500-mile) frontier, guarded by about 45,000 BSF troops</b>.
Indian security agencies say radical Islamist groups in Muslim-majority Bangladesh are working hand in glove with Kashmiri militants, aiding terror attacks such as the December strike on an elite science university in southern India that killed a professor and wounded four others.
"We watch all of the vast border, but there are goods trains coming in from Bangladesh and thousands of people walk across ... with headloads that aren't checked," the official said.
"There are loopholes that terrorists take advantage of."
<b>HUGE BORDER </b>
<b>For instance, he said, hundreds of villagers in India's eastern state of West Bengal made a living by cutting away at the undercarriages of goods trains to make compartments for contraband. Many others ran people-smuggling rackets</b>.
"What goes and comes through on these trains is anybody's guess. No one investigates the people who travel on rooftops of the trains," the BSF official said. Large quantities of arms could be crossing undetected, he added.
Indian customs officials posted along the Bangladesh border had no comment on the charges.
New Delhi is trying to crack down on Bangladeshis it says are living and working illegally in India, believing a stream of economic migrants provides cover for Islamic militants. Dhaka denies both charges.
More than two years ago, New Delhi estimated that there were 20 million Bangladeshis living illegally in the country.
In an effort to check unauthorised movement across its eastern borders, New Delhi is building a barbed wire fence expected to be completed next year.
<b>Dhaka does not oppose the fencing, but objects when it is built too close to the "zero line" which divides the countries along a land and riverine border</b>.
India's normally friendly relations with Bangladesh have been marred by border skirmishes, the bloodiest of them the killing of 16 Indian and three Bangladeshi troops in 2001.
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=61097
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Madarsas, C++ & Secularism for Indian Elite
well ...
look at what the would be ' Ex-Migrants of Bangladesh have done to Communal Hindu '
http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/5205/pic067299la.jpg
<b>Villagers left in limbo by border fence</b>
<b>India is constructing a fence along its entire border with Bangladesh in an attempt to keep out tens of thousands of illegal immigrants. But the fence project has been bad news for many living along the border.</b>
Lt Col Lutfur Rahman was worried about my safety.
For the Bangladesh Rifles, guarding the border between two ostensibly friendly neighbours is no ceremonial duty.
Around 25,000 men are fanned out along the frontier on the Bangladeshi side, and they speak of the Indian Border Security Force as if it were an enemy.
<b>'Brutal'</b>
"Don't stray off this road, that is where India starts," said Lt Col Rahman, pointing with his silver-tipped swagger stick at the ground a yard from our feet. "They may shoot, they are so brutal."
The fence being built by India around Bangladesh is creating tension in places, and occasionally there have been exchanges of fire.
The patrol had begun at dawn, when the fog from another chilly night still clung to the trees of the mango orchards.
The Bangladeshi sepoys walked in single file 10 yards apart, their rifles at the ready.
They moved stealthily, the silence broken only by the squeak of boots and the soft clanking of equipment.
They were alert despite the early hour.
Sometimes when there was a gap in the mist the shadow of the fence could be seen over in India.
It was made of wire, 12 feet (3.6m) high, and stretched out in a straight line across the fields to the horizon.
Bicycle rickshaws drifted along a raised road behind it, and every so often the silhouette of an Indian border guard stood out in the fog.
Bangladesh has no objection to the concept of a fence.
The issue is where exactly it should be.
Bangladesh says a 30-year-old accord, drawn up shortly after the country became independent, means no barrier should be built within one 150 yards of the actual frontier, which is marked by triangular concrete pillars.
Along much of the route India is keeping the fence well back inside its territory.
But it must run through wetlands, jungle and hills, as well as heavily populated areas.
And in some places the accord is being violated, complains Bangladesh.
India is well on the way to finishing this massive project.
The border is 2,500 miles (4,000km) long.
India's parliament has been told work to seal it will be completed by the end of this year.
There will be floating observation posts in the region's many rivers.
<b><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>The aim is to stop illegal migration - Delhi has claimed there are 20 million Bangladeshis in India illegally.</span>
Security at a price</b>
And there have long been allegations too that Indian rebel groups fighting separatist insurgencies in the north east find sanctuary in Bangladesh, something Dhaka denies.
But India's extra security is coming at a price - and its being paid by the Indians whose fields and houses butt right on to the border.
As the work continues they are finding themselves on the wrong side of the fence, in a narrow strip of land between Bangladesh and the barrier.
The difficulty for me was getting to talk to them.
I was on the Bangladeshi side and could not cross legally.
Everyone knows exactly where the frontier lies in such a place.
Sometimes it is a matter of life and death - we had met several Bangladeshis with scars from bullet wounds.
They claimed they had innocently strayed into Indian territory and been shot at.
"The trunk of this big banyan tree is in India. But if you stand here, under the branches, you are in Bangladesh," said a helpful bystander.
The first huts of the Indian village of Shosani were on the other side of the tree.
I managed to call out to headman Dinea Singha.
We met on the frontier, at the spot where the buildings and the mist meant we were out of sight of the guards on the fence, 150 yards further into India on the other side of the village.
It was all a bit furtive.
Dinea Singha's name means Lion of the Day but he was nervous as a kitten.
He told me the fence was making the lives of the villagers much more difficult.
There were gates but they were not open all the time.
They had begged for the barrier to be put on the actual border line, he said.
But now they felt as if they had been fenced out of their own country, he added.
As we were talking I noticed the Indian villagers sitting nearby watching us were beginning to get up quietly and sidle away.
Someone said the Border Security Force was coming.
<b>Frightened</b>
Dinea seemed to be genuinely frightened of his own country's border guards.
Within the lifetimes of the oldest villagers India and Bangladesh were part of one country.
The border was drawn on the map by a British bureaucrat, but now it is being fortified with steel.
Dinea quickly fumbled to take off the microphone I had clipped to his shirt, dropped it on the ground and scurried away.
When he was a short distance from me he put his hands in his pockets and sauntered off in the manner of a schoolboy leaving the scene of a misdemeanour trying to pretend he had never been there at all.
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>Dhakaâs Hostile Attitude towards India Keeps it out of Asian Highway Road Network</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Conclusion
Besides, Bangladesh no other country is interested in changing the present route of the Asian Highway. Myanmar is not even interested to renew the existing border trade deals with Bangladesh anymore. Thus at least trade is not the reason behind this suggestion of change of route. On the other hand, <b>the route that goes through Northeastern India can be used to transport goods to and from East Asia. But for that Bangladesh has to first accept the idea of regional cooperation</b>. Not giving transit to India was one of the major commitments to the voters during the campaign of the last election that brought the present ruling alliance in Bangladesh to power and joining the highway and giving transit to India may have a negative effect in the upcoming general elections. For this reason, Bangladesh government took a decision which was completely against its own economic interests.
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does this asian highway link the same road that the brit indian Raj army built through the forests of north east india on to burma, to fight netaji's INA ??
if thats the one, then i know for a fact that india is not showing any interest in reviving it, for fear that a direct link with china would mean that india would be flooded with cheap chinese goods that could hamper certain sectors of our economy, and also increase problems of drug smuggling and arms traffiking that'd help ulfa and naga separatists.
It was constructed to supply the Nationalist Government of China with supplies when they a were in the retreat against advancing Japanese forces.This happened much before the birth of INA
Threat of Bangladesh
By Chris Blackburn
FrontPageMagazine.com
March 13, 2006
Recent developments in Bangladesh have been of increasing concern to India -- and for good reason. The meteoric rise of militant Islamism in Bangladesh has been gradually biting into the secular identity of the worldâs second largest Muslim democracy and has been spilling into neighbouring countries. It is understandable, therefore, why India is looking closely into Bangladeshi connections to the recent bombings in Varanasi.
The rise in militancy and the decline of law and order in Bangladesh have been mainly attributed to the Islamist parties which form part of Prime Minister Khaleda Ziaâs coalition government. Khaleda Zia is the chairperson of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), which is the largest party in the coalition. During the general elections in 2001, BNP was unable to get a parliamentary majority; this led to a pact with the main Islamist party Jamaat-i-Islami, which belongs to a radical movement with parties operating in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Jamaat is widely known for its violent and subversive past. Jamaat was firmly against the establishment of Bangladesh in 1971 and wanted Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) to remain part of Pakistan.
During the War of Independence in 1971, Jamaat set up the notorious al-Badr, a paramilitary group that has been implicated in war crimes. The al-Badr cadre worked closely with Pakistani forces to fight the Mukti Bahini (liberation fighters) and helped round up and murder leading intelligentsia. These actions helped to ostracise the Jamaat from Bangladesh politics. Many of its leaders had to go into exile, but over the years it has slowly managed to claw its way back into positions of power.
BNP members are becoming increasingly unhappy with their arrangement with the Islamist parties; some MPâs are even revolting against the alliance. Abu Hena, a former Bangladesh National Party MP, was expelled from the BNP because he could no longer tolerate the subversion and tactics of his own ruling party. He believed that his colleagues had made a Faustian bargain with the patrons of the militants, saying, âThe leaders who worked to have me expelled from the party are in favour of the militantsâ¦Militancy started to spread through the country soon after Jamaat-i-Islami had come to power, riding on the BNP." The courageous MP also went on to say, âJamaat leaders know it well that the militants are forwarding their agenda. So they do not object to the militant activities.â
Abu Hena was not the only BNP MP to speak out. Ashraf Hossain, a BNP whip, and Oli Ahmed, BNP's standing committee member and former minister, made public statements naming Jamaat-i-Islami as being involved in the militancy in Bangladesh. Syed Najibul Bashar Maizbhandari, BNP International Affairs Secretary, resigned from the BNP in protest of the government's failure to act against Jamaat for its involvement with terrorists. In October, Alamgir Kabir, State Minister for Housing and Public Works told BNP members, "I have no link with militancy, but Post and Telecommunications Minister Aminul Haque has maintained relationship with the militants." These stories of dissent by leading BNP figures show how corrosive Bangladeshi politics have become.
The sad factor is that the diplomatic community has turned a blind eye to these facts and still maintains that Jamaat-i-Islami is a reformist democratic party. Students and academics need to learn the truth about Islamist groups if future leaders are to be able to make well-informed policy decisions. They must be taught about their subversive nature and their ties to militancy.
Bangladeshâs counter-terrorism units backed up by intelligence agencies have recently arrested two of the countries leading Islamist terrorists in their hideouts. Sheikh Abdur Rahman, the chief of Jamaâatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), and the notorious Bangla Bhai, the chief of the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), were captured in spectacular fashion. These two militant leaders have been blamed for causing the August 17th bombings, in which 500 bombs were exploded almost simultaneously throughout the country, causing widespread panic and fear. They are also blamed for a series of suicide bombings in November. The horrific bomb attacks on journalists, opposition leaders, universities, law courts and other civic institutions will hopefully cease as a result of the arrests.
The infiltration of terrorists into India from groups based in Bangladesh will also hopefully cease as a result of these key arrests. Indian intelligence and police authorities have been arresting militants from Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba, two terror groups that have been entering India from Bangladesh. They also believe that elements of the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) are behind these activities. US government analysts have recently said that Bangladesh has no links to international terrorists; however, theyâre categorically wrong in their assessments. The fact that Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HUJI), a member of Bin Ladenâs International Islamic Front (IIF), has a Bangladesh branch is also alarming as it shows that western intelligence agencies have shown relatively no interest in developments within Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has made a step which has dumbfounded many external analysts as the recent efficiency of the Bangladeshi government in dealing with Islamist terrorists has raised certain questions and probably helped answer a few. Why have two militant leaders, which the government always stressed were âmade-upâ products of the media and the opposition, been arrested within days of each other? The recent South Asia tour of President Bush to India and Pakistan has probably spurred the BNP government into action. The increasing number of links between militants and the Jamaat has also played a part. The question is can the government stop and arrest the foreign backers of these terror groups and will it act against high-profile leaders?
The Islamist parties in Bangladesh are driven by a radical ideology which is inspired by the late Maulana Al-Mawdudi, a leader of contemporary Islamism. Mawdudi has called for a world Islamic revolution by the use of Jihad and his Jamaat-i-Islami âIslamic Partyâ is to be the vanguard of this movement. It should not come as a surprise to political and counter-terrorism analysts that Islamist parties that want to abolish democracy, through the sword if needs be, are being linked to militancy and on throughout South Asia.
The Jamaat has research institutes in the United Kingdom and the United States. Details of some of these organizations can be found in my article Bangladesh: The New Al-Qaeda Haven, which documents the major institutions involved in the spread of radical Islamism in Bangladesh.
It must be noted that Al-Qaeda leaders such as Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, Yasir al-Jazeeri, Ahsan Aziz, and Mustafa Ahmed Hawsawi were all captured in the homes of Jamaat leaders in Pakistan. Dr Alexis Debat, a former advisor to the French Ministry of Defence and senior terrorism consultant for ABC News, has stated that he was taken to a safe house in Peshawar, Pakistan which was used by in Ladenâs deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and was operated by the Jamaat.
The literature of Jamaat calls for the subversion of democracies with the intent of their eventual overthrow. The Jamaatâs use of the democratic process is seen to be a means to an end. They use it to gain legitimacy and control over important civic institutions. During the recent raid which captured Sheikh Abdur Rahman, the chief of JMB, books and literature containing the works of Golam Azam, the former leader of Jamaat in Bangladesh, and Mawdudi where found in his possession. The raid also unearthed blank checkbooks of Saidur Rahman, a former Jamaat-i-Islami leader. The checkbooks were issued by the Islami Bank Bangladesh (IBBL), which is affiliated with the Jamaat and is believed to be involved in financing the militants. Delwar Hossain Saidee, a prominent Jamaat MP, is on the Shariah board of the bank; he is also believed to have been in regular phone contact with Dr. Asadullah Galib, the leader of the militant group Ahle Hadith Andolan, Bangladesh (AHAB)
This is not the first time Jamaat has been linked to intimidation and murder. In August 2003, JMB militants were seized in the home of Montezar Rahman, a Jamaat leader in Joypurhat. This was the first indication that Jamaat was once again becoming involved in militancy and subversion in Bangladesh. Their historical distain of Bangladeshi culture and customs has shown that they are unfit to be part of the political process.
The Jamaatâs student wing Islami Chatra Shibir (ICS) is currently involved in the militancy, with many of its cadre being linked to the JMB and bomb attacks. It has also been implicated in the murders of faculty members within Bangladeshi universities. Rajshahi University (RU) is currently under intense pressure from ICS. Jamaatâs student wing is trying to stop the arrest of their President Mahbubul Alam Salehi, who is believed to have helped plan the murder of Prof. Taher Ahmed. Selim Uddin, a former ICS president, made note of the political importance of any revelation of ICS involvement in intimidation and the murder: âThe implication of Salehi will undermine Jamaat-Shibir and the ruling alliance. He is part of the alliance and this issue may accelerate the fall of the ruling coalition.â Last month, the feared Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Shohag Khan, the ICS President of Patharghata Upazila unit, and Marfat Ullah, his general secretary, for their links to the JMB terrorist organisation.
The Jamaat have also been intimidating journalists who try to report on Jamaatâs activities. Shumi Khan, Shamaresh Boiddya and Jubayer Siddiqui have all received death threats for their brave reporting on the Jamaat.
The Jamaatâs links to militancy and subversion are numerous and it is up to the Bangladesh government to show that it is sincerely committed to routing out and arresting the financiers and planners behind the militancy. The BNP Government and Bangladeshi authorities must now show that they are willing to confront the radical anti-democratic ideology of Mawdudi that drives the militancy. They must confront it even if it means they will probably have to forfeit power in the next elections in 2007, because how could the BNP form an alliance with a party which seeks to undermine democracy, the rule of law and the spirit of liberation?
March 09, 2006
Analysts say Bangladesh arrests are only the beginning. A report by a South Asia expert warns the country's porous borders and the growing role of the main port city of Chittagong in the arms trade makes radical Islam a regional if not global security issue that requires more attention from the United States By Paul Eckert
Analysts say that although President Bush did not mention Bangladesh during his South Asia trip, terrorism in the country hovers below the US radar
Bangladesh's capture of two top Islamic militants in one week brought relief at home and praise from the United States, but experts say the South Asian country needs to do more to guard against radical Islam.
Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai, leader of the outlawed Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh was caught on Monday, four days after the head of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen head, Shayek Abdur Rahman, surrendered to authorities.
The two men were the most wanted fugitives in Bangladesh, the world's third most-populous Muslim country, and their groups are blamed for hundreds of bombings since last year.
"It was a significant and important capture," said a US official of the first arrest, speaking anonymously as required by the official's government agency.
"The capabilities of (Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen) appear to be more lower level, although they have demonstrated their willingness to use violence," the official added.
A second US official involved in counter-terrorism said "Bangladeshi extremists don't appear to have joined the global jihad, but the possibility remains a cause for concern."
Terrorism in Bangladesh hovers below the US radar, analysts say, noting that President George W Bush did not mention the country during his trip to India and Pakistan.
But experts on South Asia warn against playing down the problem or viewing the two high-profile arrests as sufficient to win Bangladesh's struggle to maintain secular politics.
Shadowy groups: South Asia expert Hussain Haqqani of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said: "The real problem in Bangladesh is that the government has never fully acknowledged the extent of the Islamic militant problem in the country."
"Because of this, we do not know whether the arrests are just the tip of the iceberg or they are really a fatal blow to the movement," he said.
In Dhaka, the main opposition Awami league has often accused the government of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia of allowing militants to operate in the shadow of its parliamentary partners in the Jamaat-e-Islami party.
The government's need for a coalition partner dampened debate on links between mainstream Islamic groups and shadowy offshoots such as the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, said Haqqani.
"We do not know how many others there are and how many religious political groups in the country have militant wings who just use other names," he said.
Some of these groups reject accommodation with a democratic system and have adopted radical Islam under the influence of oil-rich Middle Eastern states which fund them, wrote expatriate Bangladeshi lawyer Maneeza Hossain in a study published by the conservative Hudson Institute last month.
Hossain's report, "The Rising Tide of Islamism in Bangladesh," says the country's porous borders and the growing role of the main port city of Chittagong in the arms trade makes radical Islam a regional if not global security issue that requires more attention from the United States.
"Without a steady eye in Washington on Bangladesh it makes it the perfect incubator because nobody is there to see it," said Hossain in a telephone interview. reuters
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=
06\03\09\story_9-3-2006_pg4_20
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Religious Extremism and Nationalism in Bangladesh
http://www.asiapacificms.com/papers/pdf/re..._bangladesh.pdf
Religion & Security in South Asia An International Workshop
Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu, Hawaii<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/mar/22spe...&file=.htm
<b>The truth about Bangladesh's Hindus</b>
March 22, 2006
via email:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->SYNOPSIS OF THE FILM: 'THE BANGLA CRESCENT' (Produced and
Directed by Mayank Jain)
Report of the 'Task Force on Border Management', IB Chief TV
Rajeshwar's report and General S.K. Sinha's 42-page report to
the President of India have been picturized into an exceedingly
powerful documentary, The Bangla Crescent, by dynamic film
producer Mayank Jain, who is privately screening it in concerned
circles. The film captures the connection between mushrooming
madrasas and jihadi fundamentalism; the radicalization of
Kashmir was preceded by the creation of a network of madrasas
across the state.
The film covers:
1. As for the illegal aliens, estimated at 1.5 crores by former
Home Secretary Madhav Godbole, the entire north eastern sector
is bursting with Bangladeshi migrants, mosques, and madrasas.
These are festering cancer wards of an amnesiac nation, hurtling
towards another potential Partition.
2. Bangladesh census chief Sharifa Begum has detected a âmissing
â population of 1.4 crores, closely matching Indian estimates of
persons who have intruded with the connivance of Bangladesh and
Pakistanâs ISI, to destabilize India. <b>Bangladesh is even
training infiltrators to speak Assamese before pushing them into
Assam.</b>
3. Concerns over Bangladeshi infiltration are not new. Mr.
Godboleâs unpublished Task Force on Border Management and Assam
Governor Gen. S.K. Sinhaâs 42-page report to the President in
November 1998 warned of a conspiracy to carve out a Greater
Bangladesh. <b>Gen. Sinha cautioned against an ISI plot (Operation
Pin Code) to cut off the north east by grabbing the narrow
âchicken neckâ Siliguri corridor</b>. Former Intelligence Bureau
chief T.V. Rajeshwar reported plans to create another
Bengali-speaking Islamic country on Indiaâs eastern border.
4. Standing on the Indian side of Jessore Road, Mayank Jain
interviewed 6 â 8 year old boys at Madrasa Zulfikar Ali
Siddiqiya, where all teaching is in Arabic, not Bengali. Asked
to define a kafir, young Mohammad Sheikh Shahin parroted: <b>âjo
Allah ki baat nahin sunta, Nabi ke adesh ke mutabik nahin
chaltaâ¦shaitan ki baat suntan haiâ (One who does not listen to
Allah, does not live according to the dictates of the Prophet,
listens to Satan). Asked if he knew the meaning of jihad, the
young talib (student) said, âit means warâ(yudh), it is âKafir
ke saath Nabi ji ke Musalmanon ki ladai.â Quite explicit</b>.
5. If there are any doubts about the uniformity of madrasa
teaching, one has only to walk into the Madrasa Faizul Ulum
Hathishala in Laxmi Nagar, near Delhi Police headquarters. Here
Maulana Rehan Ahmad explains: âKhuda himself has determined the
punishment (sazaa) of the Kafir. It is to reside forever in hell
(jahannum), burn in fire⦠there are all kinds of horrors there.â
He explains that jihad is waged on non-Muslims after âhe is
invited to join the faith (din ki dawat), asked to place his
faith on Allah, when he does not do so, then at that moment the
hukm for jihad is given.â
6. The Bangla Crescent documents the political corruption which
helps infiltrators get ration and voter identity cards, an issue
Ms. Mamata Banerjee was not allowed to expose in Parliament
recently. A young woman in the film admits her family came from
Bangladesh, but her father managed to get a ration card from
Kolkata. They vote for a certain political party. That money
changes hands is obvious: Chief Vigilance Commissioner N. Vittal
recorded that RDX for the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts sailed through
customs after an officer received Rs. Twenty lakhs.
7. Political support has made the aliens quite aggressive. A
young man in the capitalâs Jamia area asserted that even if
those who came from Bangladesh are called outsiders (is there a
doubt?), the children born in India are not! Conceding this
anomaly, Mr. Baljit Rai, ex-DGP, Tripura, said there is urgent
need for a law to deny citizenship to the offspring of
infiltrators.
 8. Alex Perry of Time magazine gave the startling information
that 150 persons entered Bangladesh from Afghanistan or Pakistan
under escort, and simply disappeared, probably in Chittagong
where there are well established insurgent bases. The whole
point of Bangladesh, Perry said, is that âif you are on the run,
itâs a safehouse. You go there to disappear.â American
authorities have listed the Bangladeshi and Bosnian branches of
a Saudi charity called Al Harmain as having gone âcompletely
rouge;â they use their money essentially to fund al Qaeda.
9. The cameo interviews are forceful and neatly woven into the
script, maintaining momentum. Pioneer editor Dr. Chandan Mitra
points out that as madrasas are not functioning covertly, but
openly, we need to know what the Government, the citizenry and
the security forces are doing. He said he had personally seen
border madrasas being used for ISI activity and Maoists are also
using them.
10. Mr. R.K. Ohri, ex-IGP, Arunachal Pradesh, cautioned that an
Islamic Caliphate is rising on Indiaâs flanks, from Bangladesh
to West Asia, and that the shadow of the Mughlistan corridor is
now visibly manifesting in various districts along the
Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bangladesh border. The demand for a âMuslim
Banghboomiâ has already been raised, warns ex-MP B.L. Sharma
(Prem). Travelling in West Bengal to check out certain
atrocities against Hindus some years ago, his convoy was
attacked by Bangladeshis.
11. When demographer J.K. Bajaj and his colleagues prepared a
mathematical model of the demographic challenge facing India,
they found it exactly matched the map prepared by Bangladeshâs
Mughalstan Research Institute. Experts feel the latter has been
prepared by the ISI because the âMughalstanâ spelling indicates
a Punjabi mind!
12. Bangladeshâs reputed human rights activist Salam Azad
laments that Bangladesh is the best place in the world for the
return of the Taliban. Madrasas, he said, are teaching that
âMuslims are the best in the world; non-Muslims will be
converted, beaten, killed, married, raped, because non-Muslim
women are regarded as maal-i-ganimat (free war booty)â¦
Minorities will be oppressed, indigenous people will be
attacked, in my country there is oppression everywhere⦠and this
is being done by the so-called educated people of the madrasas.â
13. West Bengal BJP leader Tathagatha Roy said the extent of
atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh can be seen from the
fact that in several districts there was not a single woman
between the ages of seven to seventy years who had not been
raped in that country. <b>He apologized for the indifference of the
BJP Government which did not grant refugee status to Hindus
fleeing oppression in Bangladesh. <!--emo&:thumbdown--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' /><!--endemo--> North Eastern Students
Organisation chairman Samujjal Bhattacharya said all 49 tribal
belts and blocks in Assam have been occupied by Bangladeshis.</b>The shadows have spread to Arunachal, Nagaland, Manipur,
Meghalaya.
14. Today, Hindus residing within a 50-km radius of the border
are feeling the heat. They are being harassed on Indian soil and
forced to move as the infiltrators establish themselves along
this corridor, thus de facto extending the Bangladesh border
into India â another PoK in the making. Yet the political
attitude was best summed up by <span style='color:red'>CPI leader A.B. Bardan: âwhy are you raising the issue of Bangladesh? Because it borders Tripura and West Bengal and Left gets elected from there</span>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Ethnic Cleansing & Rise of Islamic Militancy in Bangladesh
Bertil Lintner
IMAGINE how it would be like when 25 million people vanish from a projected population of 39 million. Imagine how it would be like when two and a half million acres of prime land is grabbed from a country smaller in size than the State of Wisconsin.
Imagine how it would be like when one is subjected to rape, unending torture, forced conversion, discrimination in education and employment, intimidation to practice one's own religious faith, loot, arson and other savageries of worst kind.
This is the story of the Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and the ethnic minorities of Bangladesh -- a story of slow genocide, a story of violence and betrayal by their own government, a testament of hard-line Islamic politicking designed to minority cleansing, a continuing saga that has played out since 1947 to the present day Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has been a fertile ground for bigoted Islamic idealism for a long time. Especially, since 1975 with the assassination of the country's founding father and altering of the constitution, the Islamic Radicalism has been thrust into the political landscape of the country. With enormous financial help from branded terrorists, outlawed regimes, and proponents of Wahabism such as Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iraq, Iran and other renegade terrorist networks.
Bangladesh has built hundreds of thousands of Mosques and madrassahs that constantly foment violence against non-Muslims and country's progressive groups and cultural institutions. There are 64,000 madrassahs or so called religious schools where the unsuspecting Muslim youths are recruited and trained to be the foot soldiers for a Taliban style Bangladesh. They espouse hate and bigotry against anyone that does not conform to their brand of militant Islam. The infamous American Taliban, John Walker Lindh, was a graduate from one such Madrassah in Pakistan.
Persecution of minorities in Bangladesh has been a lingering issue for past sixty years with some intermittent reprieves that came along with the changing hands of power. But the aura of minority cleansing never fully subsided. October 2001, when the coalition of Islamic hard-liners swept into power trumpeting their goal to make Bangladesh a pure Islamic Country as their election themes-- brought a new momentum to their hostility towards minorities. They marked their victory with unprecedented and unprovoked attacks on innocent men, women and children belonging to the minority communities.
The government not only shamelessly failed to provide the country's 15 million ethno-religious minorities any protection against these attacks, but also showed its utter indifference to human life by cowardly aiding in the history's worst savagery. Since then, hundreds of thousands of young girls and women have been abducted and raped, tens of thousands of minority owned homes and businesses have been looted and razed, hundreds of places of worship have been burnt down all across Bangladesh. Women as old as seventy and girls as young seven have not even been spared of their brunt of rape and terror. Abduction of young girls from homes at gunpoint, gang rape, and forced conversions to Islam have been endemic in Bangladesh.
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is responsible for this latest cycle of crimes against humanity. She has personally orchestrated each and every recent dreadful terror against the minorities with a clear and unambiguous purpose of cleansing the country's minorities to transform it into a Pure Muslim Country. She has used every resource of the government at her disposal to intimidate, terrorize and torture people into either leaving the country or submitting to convert to Islamic extremism. Today, forced conversion to Islam has become a corrosive fodder to the fundamentalists, courtesy of Begum Khaleda Zia.
It may recall the massacre that took place back in April 1992. The then Prime Minister of the country, Begum Khaleda Zia used her army to systematically murder 600 tribal residents of Logang in Chittagong Hill Tracts, and burned the entire village to the ground. Seven months later, she orchestrated another wave of minority persecution in which 15 minorities were killed, 2,600 women raped, 10,000 injured, 40,000 dwelling houses destroyed, 3, 600 temples damaged/razed and 200,000 rendered homeless. Begum Zia, like her Islamic fundamentalist predecessors has been a mortal danger to pluralistic democracy and the rule of law.
Recently, while she has deployed armies on the streets to curtail the rights of citizens, to take prisoner of political rivals and human rights activists, to stifle the voices of progressive thinkers and journalists on vital national issues such as human rights, freedom of religion. she has allowed Bangladesh to become a cocoon of terror, a hub for international terrorism.It is an established fact that Bangladesh now harbors and supports international terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and Harkat-ul-Jihad. Fighters trained and given new identities in Bangladesh routinely find their ways to conflicts throughout the world and are wrecking havoc everywhere.
These are worrisome developments for Bangladesh, the world and for the entire humanity.
With the government's active encouragement the fundamentalists have often revealed their ugly fangs by perpetrating terrors on Bangladesh's most vulnerable citizens, the minorities. We believe the initiative to correct the great miscarriage of justice, to right the decades of wrongs committed by the Islamic Zealots must come, first and foremost, from the citizens of Bangladesh who believe in peace, freedom and justice by forming a united resistance against militant Islam in the country.
In the same vein I remind the International Community that Bangladesh has willfully violated all International Laws and Conventions that specifically address the Human Rights and Freedom of Religion Issues. Today, throughout the world terror has cast its ugly spells on life and liberty- the very things the civilized world pride itself upon. And persecution of minorities in Bangladesh is certainly an inseparable phenomenon of global terror because the terrorist networks responsible for this are also global.
They are linked together with a common purpose to exterminate anyone not subscribing to their brand of religion. History has taught us, time and again, that cowering into inaction when terror manifest itself is at civilization's own great peril. It challenge the civilized nations to heed the history's call to actions against the plague of Islamic Jihad.
All along it has demanded retribution and justice for all sufferings, to repatriate and compensate victims of forced exodus. In 2001, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, promised the nation to investigate the carnage and to rehabilitate the victims. Two years elapsed since she has predictably failed to deliver on her promise, for she is a player in that "axis of terror". It has demanded the government to restore the original constitution of Bangladesh by repealing the 5th (Introducing Islam to the Constitution) and 8th (Declaring Islam as the State Religion) Amendments the two very divisive issues that took away 'Equal Rights' and destroyed the moral fabric of the nation.
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has shown no indication of changing course, let alone acting on this. Rather she has partnered with the Islamic hard-liners and the proponents of these discriminatory laws and publicly professed her desire to make Bangladesh a pure Islamic Country. Her newfound majority in the parliament is only an added incentive for her and her partners in Islamic Jihad to make their bigoted dream come true. It has also demanded the repeal of "Enemy Property Act" or "Vested Property Law" of 1965 from the constitution, under which the country's minorities have been dispossessed of more than 2.5 million acres of prime land. Legislation was passed in the parliament by the Awami-League Government, providing a ray of hope, to end this dreaded episode of grabbing of our lands. But the new government of Khaleda Zia, scuttled the entire legislation through various administrative maneuvers even before the law took effect. She failed this time too. Trusting her again would further jeopardize the minorities of Bangladesh.
It is time to place BD minority demand to the world community. It is no longer can accept this continuing saga of being treated as aliens, hounded and hunted by Islamic radicals, in our own land. It has endured enough pain and sufferings, sustained huge loss of lives to warrant the world's attention toward a just, equitable and permanent solution to the tone of what was worked out in Bosnia and East Timor for its' minorities.
Today, It is confronted with a grave challenge, a challenge to BD minority own existence, a challenge to the world community as to what kind of civilization it will usher in for the generations that will follow us. We are confident about our resolve to meet this challenge and any challenge head on. We remain hopeful that the world community will take up the issue and adequately respond to this human rights crisis.
Finally, the rise of militant Islam in Bangladesh is a 'menace' to our lives and an 'overcast' on our civilization. We must defeat this menacing face of terror and fundamentalism and defeat we will. So long there is violation of human rights, anyone's rights.We will continue to inform and challenge the world community. To that end, as a Nobel Laureate, the bravest of all, our pride, Rabindra Nath Tagore proclaimed more than a hundred years ago, we say: "Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake".
The writer is a seasoned journalist specializing in South East Asian Affairs. He reports for Far Eastern Economic Review and has written 5 books on Burma. This paper was presented by him at a conference in New York on February 9, 2003
http://www.satribune.com/archives/feb17_23...nion_bertil.htm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Bangladeshi outfit behind blast on Shramjivi Express
Press Trust of India
Jaunpur, May 17, 2006
The blast on the Patna-Delhi Shramjivi Express train last year was carried out by the banned Bangladeshi group Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islamia, police said in Jaunpur on Wednesday.
The main accused in the case -- Obaid-ur-Rehman who has been remanded to police custody till May 22 -- has told the police that the bomb was planted at the Patna station by terrorists, Superintendent of Police Sanjiv Gupta said.
Gupta said Obaid-ur-Rehman was a resident of the area under Kaliyani police station of Sherupur district in Bangladesh and was associated with the outlawed group.
Before his arrest, Obaid-ur-Rehman had never been to Uttar Pradesh, he said.
On July 27 last year, 12 people were killed instantly by the blast on the Delhi-bound train. Several others were wounded in the attack, and five of them later succumbed to their injuries.
http://www.sulekha.com/news/nhc.aspx?cid=450734<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Art of rigging in Bangladesh</b>
The ruling alliance in Bangladesh, spearheaded by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (JeIB), is all set to rig the forthcoming elections to the country's National Parliament early next year. Nothing is seemingly being left to chance. The draft electoral rolls released by the country's Election Commission (EC) on May 3, 2006, clearly indicates this. It contains the names of 9.13 crore voters. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), which bases its calculations on the 2001 census figures, the number of people aged 18 years, the minimum age for a voter, and above, should at most be 8.02 crore if no deaths has occurred since the census of 2001, and if every eligible person has been listed.
A report in The Daily Star (May 4, 2006), by Shakhawat Liton, which states this, adds that the 2001 census report was completed soon after the last voters' list was made in 2000 ahead of the elections of 2001. In fact, the number of people above 18 years of age should be less than 8.02 crore as at least 10 lakh people in the age group died in the past five years. Liton further adds that the rolls would be sans another 40 lakh names if the standard calculation, that at least 5 per cent voters do not get listed for various reasons, is factored in. Hence, the actual number of voters should be around 7.52 crore.
Besides, the figure of 9.13 crore marks an unusually high increase of 1.65 crore (22 per cent) over the total of 7.48 crore voters listed in the rolls prepared in 2000. If this is prima facie suspicious, the fact that the rolls did not have the figures of male and female voters and were not on display at many of the designated places on the first day, indicates shoddy work. A report by a Staff Correspondent in The Daily Star (May 4, 2006), identifies some of these as the EC's secretariat in Dhaka and election offices in Chittagong, Moulavibazar, Jessore and other districts - and this when the display of electoral rolls is mandatory at the offices of registration officers (RO) and assistant registration officers (ARO), public places like Upazila Parishad, municipalities, city corporations, ward commissioners' offices and polling centres.
The combined result of skullduggery and incompetence is that Bangladesh has been burdened with 1.11 crore ghost voters in the draft electoral rolls if the BBS calculation is accepted, and 1.71 crore if another 60 lakh voters (10 lakh plus 40 lakh) are taken into account. As things stand, there is virtually no chance of deleting the names of ghost voters. The Election Commission has no mechanism for doing that.
All this is hardly surprising. That the BNP and the JeIB - the latter really calls the shots in the coalition government that the former leads - is clear from the manner in which the electoral rolls have been compiled and events earlier. To begin at the very beginning, the first signs were discernible on May 16, 2004, when Bangladesh's National Parliament passed the Constitution (Fourteenth Amendment) Bill. The raising of the retirement age of Supreme Court judges from 65 years to 67 years, which was the main thing it provided for, was widely believed to have been done to ensure that a pro-government person headed the caretaker government holding the next parliamentary elections.
The next step was the appointment, on May 23, 2005, of Mr MA Aziz as Chief Election Commissioner, in total disregard of the demand by the opposition parties and Bangladesh's civil society for the appointment of a consensus candidate enjoying the confidence of all. The Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, immediately alleged that the government had unilaterally appointed the new CEC to clear the way for rigging the coming general elections. On his part, Mr Aziz seemed eager to confirm the allegation by systematically ignoring the two Election Commissioners, Mr AK Mohammad Ali and Mr M Munsef Ali, and running the EC in close cooperation with its Secretary, Mr SM Zakaria, who had been accused of rigging elections on behalf of the ruling BNP-JeIB alliance.
The CEC's unilateral decision on December 6, 2005, to prepare new electoral rolls, announced with a timetable for voters' enumeration and publication of draft and final lists, led to serious protests and litigation. According to a Staff Correspondent's report in The Daily Star (January 2, 2006), there was widespread criticism of the fact that many of the 216,722 enumerators, 55,684 supervisors, 6,270 Assistant Registration Officers and 83 Registration Officers, were supporters of the BNP and JeIB and included many madarsa teachers. While many of them were thoroughly incompetent, competent persons were left out on the allegation of their being sympathizers of opposition parties.
In response to petitions, the Dhaka High Court ruled on January 4, 2006, that the rolls prepared in 2000 should not be set aside but revised and updated. It also observed that the Election Commission members, including the CEC, would take decisions through meetings and discussions, not by exchanging notes. While the EC filed an appeal to the Supreme Court and proceeded with the preparation of fresh rolls, the Government appointed two new ECs, Justice Mahfuzur Rahman and the controversial Mr SM Zakaria, to give the CEC a majority in the EC.
The allegation that many supporters of opposition parties, mainly the Awami League, as well as Hindus, were being left out, heard on the very first day of the enumeration on January 1, 2006, became increasingly frequent as the process continued. Neither the EC nor the Government paid any attention to it. Even after the Government had at last agreed to discuss poll reforms with the 14-party opposition alliance, its insistence of including in its team representatives of the JeIB, the fountainhead of terrorism in Bangladesh, and the fundamentalist Islami Oikya Jote, which has strong terrorist links, has stalled progress. The opposition parties have made clear that they would not participate in talks with war criminals and communalists who had sided with Pakistan during the 1971 Liberation War, and would not contest the elections without poll reforms and a reconstituted EC. India must begin considering its response if the present ruling alliance, pathologically hostile to it, returns to power on the basis of a thoroughly rigged election.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp...writer=karlekar<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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