Dailypioneer.com
And now a film that speaks of Assam's woes
Sanjib Sabhapandit makes no bones about his intentions in his film The Self Triumphs (Juye Poora Xoon): His work has a purpose, and the audience should know it. Assam and its inflammatory problems are his concern but how to gather all of these in one fold? That's where his plot line comes in. Sabhapandit brings them together unabashedly - large-scale illegal immigration from Bangladesh, unemployment and the crisis of Assamese identity. "Ethnic Assamese are in a minority in their own land," he says. "Bangladeshis are everywhere, their labour is cheap. And this illegal immigration has changed Assam's demography; yet no one has dared to deal with this subject. I took it up as a challenge."
Then there are the other twin realities of nature's annual wrath and man's perennial greed. Heavy rains and flooding erode the land with clockwork regularity ("I once returned to a place where I knew a village was located. But there wasn't a trace of it; it was gone," Sabhapandit told me), and man despoils the rest (in the film the young protagonist comes to Assam from Rajasthan where he works only to find that an entire forest has been wiped off the face of the earth.)
It is against a background of land-grabbing, cattle-lifting, girl-stealing, lay-offs and the river's fury that Sabhapandit sets his story. Protagonist Manab returns to his village upon a request from his older, somewhat sickly brother who is facing problems. Even as he crosses the paddy fields on his way home, he is bewildered by the hundreds of non-indigenous style thatched huts that have mushroomed along the way. These hadn't been there before, he thinks.
The young man's return to Assam is the start of a nightmare. On the night of his arrival, his brother's house is attacked and torched by suspected land-grabbers/ illegal immigrants, forcing Manab, his brother Koseswar and the brother's family to flee. Terrorised, they arrive at the house of Koseswar's father-in-law who gives them, as a temporary measure, a plot of land he owns on the riverbank to build a shelter. Koseswar begins the construction of a shack. But the rains crash down, the waters rise, and one day the raging river smashes the house and swallows Koseswar.
Manab finds a job in a factory run by one Mr Jain. Jain wants him to handle - and keep at bay - a hostile local crowd demanding jobs for local people.
This, then is the actuality in a scenically gentle Assam. The film leads you through green fields and angry waters. There are breathtaking shots of a river in spate slicing an embankment with the ease of a knife moving through soft butter. There are sad shots of inundations and marshes laid waste, and there are surprising shots of flood relief camps where men behave as though floods and camps are an everyday occurrence.
Presenting his film to a largely Assamese audience - many of who appeared to be hit hard by it - at the India International Centre last week, Sabhapandit stated that issues such as those he had treated in the film have stoked passions and provoked "multi-dimensional anger". The expression of this anger was sometimes logical (such as workers striking or making demands), sometimes not. In a scene both pitiable and moving in the film, Manab, furious at the turn of events, lashes out at the river, beating it again and again with a stick, stoning it. The film seems to be bathed in a sense of helplessness that is at once political, economic, social and environmental: no jobs, despoiled land, dilution of an identity and of the Assamese way as others take over, and a destructive overdose of water. "The riverbanks are occupied, every other bit of land is occupied (by illegal immigrants)," exclaims the director. "Natural catastrophes are taken as givens. What we get is social tension. In our six-year student agitation against infiltration, students, young people, the media, raised these issues, made demands. In vain. There were no results."
Sabhapandit spoke about the Illegal Migrants Detection Tribunal Act in force in Assam whereby it becomes incumbent - not on the illegal migrant to furnish papers (which they do not have in any case) - but on he who accuses to prove that the foreigner is in the country illegally. "Detection and deportation are next to impossible," says Sabhapandit.
What then is the solution to what the director feels is the Central Government's total neglect of this problem? The film suggests a turning inwards, - hence the title. You have to live in your own world, the world of your roots (the trunk of a tree, roots and all, is repeatedly used in the film). Only these roots will give you the strength to hang on. But in Assam, whose problems have gone to scale, such an attitude can be taken as simple abdication. Conversely, it could be regarded - as Sabhapandit would like us to see it - as spiritual maturity. Either way, the problems multiply.
The Self Triumphs will premiere at Osian's-Cinefan, the Festival of Asian Cinema which begins in New Delhi on July 16.
There are 1.2 million Bangladeshi illegals in Pakistan :-
http://www.himalmag.com/2003/july/report.htm
There are also 300,000 bangladeshi illegals in Malaysia.
India should try try to shove the bangladeshis in India into pakistan or malaysia.
Here is a quote from the article posted above - http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/in...on_in_assam.htm
<i>
Hindu illegal migrants who have infiltrated after 24 March 1971 should not be given refugee status. They should be treated as illegal migrants.
</i>
What kind of joke is this? and this fool was appointed governor by the BJP.
Since when did Hindus become "illegals" in India?
Human Rights Congress on Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM): An Enemy of the State
http://bangladeshunited.alochona.org/bangl...yOfTheState.pdf
©1998-2002 Alochona. All rights reserved. 5
Executive Summary
The shared history of the subcontinent allows one community to have concern
for the welfare of another community. It is natural and proper that citizens of
India should be concerned about injustices inside Bangladesh - and vice versa.
No one can deny that both Bangladesh and India face many problems.
However, Bangladesh enjoys far better relations between Hindus and Muslims
than India.
The Human Rights Congress on Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM) claims to be a
human rights organisation. However HRCBM aims to dictate the future of
Bangladeshi Hindus and to direct their loyalties and interests towards India.
Its
ultimate aim is to carve out of Bangladesh a huge region of Hindus and add it
to India. Its tactics include damaging the reputation of Bangladesh, crippling
its
economy and destroying its social harmony.
This report presents the evidence and demonstrates the case that HRCBM is an
enemy of the State of Bangladesh. It is based on email messages exchanged
between the leaders and supporters of HRCBM. It is irrelevant whether a
defence of HRCBM can be attempted; the evidence presented is sufficient.
Amnesty International (Amnesty) has been fooled into lending HRCBM
credibility by association. Amnesty should open a fully resourced office in
Bangladesh to conduct its own investigation(s). It would be warmly welcomed
and supported by the citizens of Bangladesh.
HRCBM is actively seeking the reduction of exports from the garments sector in
Bangladesh to damage its economy. It already operates subversively within
Bangladesh. HRCBM is therefore an immediate threat to the independence and
sovereignty of Bangladesh.
©1998-2002 Alochona. All rights reserved. 6
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...881011087210494
DHAKA, June 12 (OneWorld) - A discriminatory law enacted decades ago in Muslim majority Bangladesh continues to deprive hundreds of thousands of minority Hindus of land rights, despite being repealed in 2001.
As expected in Assam, since muslims have crossed critical mass,
Jihadism has started
Assamtribune.com
Barak valley faces ultra threat
By A Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, July 4 - It is not only the districts in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam that are threatened by extremist violence. The relatively peaceful Barak valley districts of the State are also equally threatened. The only difference, if you may call it that, is that the ideological hue of the possible perpetrators of violence there is different from the likes of the ULFA and NDFB. Security sources here say that the districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi are facing a serious threat of militant violence. The Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA) is all set to unleash the terror tactics there that they have learned in camps in Bangladesh. Their mission is to prepare the ground for the Islamisation of the State, especially the parts that are dominated by the minority community. MULTA, with Nurul Hussain as chairman and Motibur Rehman as commander-in-chief, has over 300 trained cadres, more than half of them in Bangladesh.
According to sources, the Islamic militants, indoctrinated in extremism and trained in the use of firearms and explosives, are finding the ill-guarded international border, particularly in Karimganj district, the easiest route to infiltrate into India. The preferred modes of transportation by these men are the country boats that are hard to spot, especially in the dark. With more and more militant cadres gathering in the area, there is a major possibility that the three districts may witness turbulence in the coming months. Scores of Islamic militants are said to be ready for their Indian adventure. Many more are being groomed in military-style camps run by the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in collusion with the Bangladesh military's Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI). These camps, numbering half-a-dozen, have the unofficial blessings of a section of the government machinery.
Indoctrination in Islamic fundamentalism is being provided in the madrassas that are never very far from the training camps. In fact, some of the madrassas are used to house the trainees, the sources say. It is not that the militants are foreigners. They are very much from Assam itself, drawn from remote villages from all over the State. Rural areas of Dhubri, Barpeta, Nagaon and Morigaon are the usual recruiting grounds in the Brahmaputra valley. The Barak valley districts also supply men, but not as many as the first four. The men are lured into militancy through cash incentives. Others are drafted in to provide logistical support, like smuggling arms and ammunition. Handsome rewards are given to all those helping the outfit.
"More and more people are coming forward to help the members of the outfit because of the money on offer," the sources say, adding that it is gradually leading to a groundswell of support for Islamic fundamentalism among people. The militants, therefore, face little logistical problem in their movements. The Barak valley districts that have a large minority population are the preferred points of entry exactly because of that, they say.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040802/asp/...ory_3572074.asp
Faceoff across Bangla border
Balurghat, Aug. 1: Villagers along the border at Samjia in the Kumarganj area of South Dinajpur have begun fleeing homes following a standoff between the BSF and Bangladesh Rifles.
BSF sources said the BDR, which had been inching into Indian territory over the past few nights, had been challenged. Their âadvanceâ has been temporarily halted.
But the Bangladesh force has apparently raised the number of troops in its camps heightening the tension. The deputy inspector-general of the BSFâs Malda range, .K. Biswas, said âtension has been brewingâ over a 4-km stretch on the border.
BD going down the tubes... <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Assassination bid on Hasina; 14 killed
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed on Saturday escaped an assassination bid when a string of explosions rocked an opposition rally addressed by her here, killing at least 14 people and injuring about 300 others.
The explosions took place as Sheikh Hasina finished addressing the rally organised by her party Awami League to protest recent bombings in northeastern shrine city of Sylhet, witnesses said.
A private television Channel I put the death toll at 14, while the official BSS newsagency said 13 people were killed of which eight have so far been identified.
Awami League General Secretary Abdul Jalil said Sheikh Hasina was the target of the blasts but she was safe, thanks to Allah.
Among the dead were three women, private ATN Bangla television channel reported, adding the injured included the party's members of parliament.
Some of the senior Awami League leaders, MPs, including Suranjit Sen Gupta and Abdur Rassak, were among those injured and officials at local hospital said the toll could go up as some of the wounded persons were in serious condition.
The channel showed the footage of three dead men at the Dhaka Medical College hospital where total chaos prevailed and two unexpoloded grenades near the venue of the rally in front of the main Awami League office in downtown Dhaka.
Sheikh Hasina later told BBC television that she was protected by her supporters, some of whom were killed.
"When the attackers started hurling grenades towards the makeshift podium in a lorry, my workers saved me by sacrificing their lives," she said.
She called for the government to resign for failing to protect innocent people.
No one has yet admitted to carrying out the attack.
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia condemned the 'dastardly attack on a political rally', and said her government will try to find those responsible.
"Let us all work together to prevent repeat of such cowardly attacks," she said in a statement
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-rajesh_g+Aug 22 2004, 01:30 AM-->QUOTE(rajesh_g @ Aug 22 2004, 01:30 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--> BD going down the tubes... <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Our English media is so spectacularly and stunningly silent on this "Islamist" involvement... <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Would this too qualify as 'state sponsored pogrom' ?
http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/08/25/d40825011111.htm
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->22 Hindu houses torched, robbed
20 hurt in raid by 'BNP' men
Rafique Sarker, Rangpur
Armed mobsters with alleged links to ruling BNP in a raid on a remote village under Pirgachha upazila in the district on Monday torched 22 houses of minority Hindus, injured 20 villagers and looted cash, crops and cattle.
Eyewitnesses said a group of 35 to 40 BNP activists armed with machetes, swords and daggers cordoned the Hindu-majority Adam Sarkerpara village in the afternoon and set fire to the houses of eight Hindu families after spraying gasoline and kerosene on them.
Suresh Chandra Borman, one of the victims whose homes were burnt to ashes, told The Daily Star that Abdul Mannan and two of his nephews -- BNP activists Raju and Saju, one accused of rape attempt and the other of land-grabbing -- led the band.
Raju was caught red-handed while trying to rape a Hindu girl of the village two years ago, Borman said.
Fearing social stigma, the girl's parents avoided pressing any charge under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act but lodged a case with Pirgachha Police Station under Section 7 of Criminal Procedure Code accusing Raju of threatening them, Borman added.
Saju, on the other hand, is accused of occupying by force eight bighas of land of a Hindu widow, Indu Mai, of the village. The hapless widow was compelled later to flee the country to India. A case was also filed with the police station in this connection.
Locals said Raju and Saju have been threatening the Hindu families with death if they do not withdraw the cases. The villagers refused to concede, prompting the brothers to stage the raid, arson and robbery that started in Monday afternoon and continued until 9 in the night, they added.
The thugs also attacked any neighbour and local who rushed in to help put off the fire, leaving Abdur Rahman, 50, critically injured in his head. Rahman was sent to Rangpur Medical College Hospital.
After the houses of the targeted families had been completely burnt down, the bandits left the scene with the booty of 18 cows and about Tk 60,000 in cash looted from them.
Locals of nearby Powtana caught three of the robbers with seven cows while they were passing through the village and handed them over to police.
Rangpur Superintendent of Police Abdus Salam visited the village Monday night and promised the Hindu villagers to take proper action.
The victims are now living under the open sky.
Choula Union Parishad Chairman Nazir Hossain said four maunds of rice was given to the affected families as food assistance.
Awami League district unit President Shah Abdur Razzak and General Secretary Ilias Ahmed visited the village and consoled the victims.
BNP district unit President Rahim Uddin Vhorsa said the raiders must be punished. He however denied the attackers to have any connection with his party.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/08/25/d...501110.htm
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Letter from America
Attack on Sheikh Hasina is unacceptable
Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed writes from Princeton, usa
This is serious, folks! When the leader of the opposition and the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, is targeted for assassination <span style='color:red'>five times this year alone, it is clear that the terrorists are determined to kill her. </span> If the government's response is simply to "condemn" those responsible and not scour every inch of Bangladesh with the army's assistance to apprehend and punish the criminals, sooner or later, Allah forbid, the terrorists will succeed. Then what? Once the former Prime Minister is assassinated, the terrorists will then target the current Prime Minister, because the terrorists would like to put an end to democracy in Bangladesh and usher in anarchy in which terrorism thrives. Mere condemnation of the attempt on Sheikh Hasina's life is not enough; it is unacceptable. It should not have happened.
Expatriate Bangladeshis are appalled at the carnage at the Awami League rally last Saturday in which the leader of the opposition and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was almost killed, and many of her top lieutenants maimed. The scene resembled a battlefield with blood, severed limbs, and several human beings either dead or severely injured and crying for medical aid. The only difference was that the victims were not battlefield combatants but unarmed civilians attending a peaceful political rally on whom descended grenades and bullets. The terrorists are such cowards! They lobbed grenades at the unsuspecting civilians whose backs were turned, and took potshots at them as they were fleeing the scene of mayhem. Terrorists never have the moral courage to confront their victims face to face.
Law and order is primarily the responsibility of the government. People elect governments so that they can live in peace and security as they pursue their livelihood. If the government cannot provide security, they fail in one fundamental responsibility they are entrusted with. And the government has to crush terrorists of every stripe with equal vigor. The government cannot be partial to its own terrorists, in which case the mission is doomed. For the sake of the country and for the sake of their own political parties, it is time every political party in Bangladesh agreed to disown their own party hacks and treat them for what they are -- criminals. Pursuing of the terrorists of other parties alone will only exacerbate the political turmoil.
There are speculations in the press that Sheikh Hasina's attackers were Islamic fundamentalists, religious fanatics, or terrorists of similar persuasions. Speculation is not enough; we must find out. America broke the backbone of the racist Ku Klux Klan and the Italian mafia by infiltrating these groups with government agents. Bangladesh intelligence, too, must infiltrate these fringe elements and find out who they are and what they are up to. Without inside knowledge, it will be impossible to fight and eliminate these hate groups.
During the writer's recent visit to Bangladesh he was dismayed at the unrelenting political and religious violence in Bangladesh. <b>The target of political violence was mostly the opposition parties, and that of religious violence the minorities. I cannot speak for anyone else, but the Islam that I know and practice teaches that ALL houses of worship are sacred, because the worshippers in those houses of worship attempt to reach God in their own way. In Islam it is forbidden to destroy or desecrate any house of worship whether it is a mosque, a church, a synagogue, a Hindu temple, or a Buddhist temple.</b>Â <!--emo&:blink:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /><!--endemo-->Â <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rolleyes.gif' /><!--endemo-->Â It will be hypocritical of Muslims to be incensed at those non-Muslims who demolish mosques, and at the same time condone the acts of Muslims who dishonour and ravage places of worship belonging to people of other religions.
<b>The writer was surprised, during his trip to Bangladesh, to see the government treating the Islamic terrorist, the so-called Bangla Bhai with kid gloves. </b>Justice is supposed to be blind and laws are supposed to apply to everyone equally. If Bangla Bhai has committed crimes or has defied the government, which he has, he should be arrested and punished for it. If the government is afraid of the likes of Bangla Bhai and fearful of arresting him, the government itself will slide down the slippery slope where its loss of credibility will be quickly followed by loss of the political power, thus betraying the people's trust.
To regain the people's trust, the government must ensure that anytime the leader of the opposition speaks at a location, the location is properly secured. If the government cannot guarantee her security, they must not let her hold a rally there. Of course, this must not degenerate into a farce, where the leader of the opposition is continually prevented from holding public meetings because the government cannot guarantee her security. The leader of the opposition must be allowed to hold as many rallies as the Prime Minister herself, in secure locations. What really worries me is, unless these terrorist acts are taken seriously as a challenge to the authority of the nation's elected government and the terrorists apprehended and punished, the Prime Minister herself may be a target one of these days.
Those of us who love Bangladesh are worried. Bangladesh is at a watershed moment. If we can curb political violence, treat our minorities with fairness and respect and restore law and order, Bangladesh is on the threshold of taking off and becoming a prosperous and one of the most important small nations in the world. Anyone visiting Bangladesh cannot fail to feel the entrepreneurial energy average Bangladeshis are bursting with. Channeled properly, such creative energies will endow Bangladesh with limitless possibilities. On the other hand, currently as far as law and order is concerned, Bangladesh is at the lowest rung of tolerability. If Bangladesh's culture of violence is to deteriorate one notch downward, Bangladesh will descend into utter chaos and anarchy, where democracy will perish and only terrorism will thrive. The two choices for Bangladesh are as stark as heaven and hell.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Who is this "Bangla bhai " ? BD version of Dawood ? Ek iske naam pe bhee <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Hate-India movement in Bangladesh
- By Seema Mustafa
http://www.asianage.com/
Dhaka, Aug. 25: "You have come from India, perhaps that is why all
these things are happening here now," said Bangladesh's law minister,
barrister Maudud Ahmad, to The Asian Age. He was referring to the
assassination attempt on former Prime Minister Hasina Wajed, and
there was not a trace of a smile on his lips when he made what
appeared to be an accusation. "Yes, we have carried the bombs with
us," was a flippant reply that evoked only a grim stare as the
minister moved away to speak to others not from India.
<b>There is a strong anti-India sentiment running through Bangladesh
that is apparent even to a casual visitor. </b>Bangladeshis admit to
this, with a senior journalist pointing out that India-Bangladesh
relations "are today very bad, there is a lot of suspicion and no
warmth at all." A non-functional government and a hyper Opposition
might not see eye to eye on any issue, but are united in putting the
blame on India for everything that goes wrong. A journalist told this
correspondent almost within an hour of landing in Dhaka that the
devastating floods that had covered two-thirds of Bangladesh took
place because India had opened the Farakka reservoir gates and
deliberately allowed the flooding.
New Delhi has allowed matters to slide to a point where Bangladesh is
virtually ignored in its South Asian strategy. Indian officials point
out that matters are sliding to a point of no return, with extremism
taking on an active anti-India dimension â <b>with the northeastern
states being the direct target.</b> One of the more serious charges
levelled by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and Awami League chief Sheikh
Hasina against each other is of being pro-India. In a kind of
schizophrenic response, both women leaders are also keen to
demonstrate that they are close to New Delhi and at the same time use
this to attack the other for "selling out" to India. For instance,
the Bangladesh Prime Minister was among the first to send a special
emissary to mend fences with the new UPA government within days of
its assuming power. Sheikh Hasina followed later, and met Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh before going on to Ajmer Sharif for
pilgrimage. Both then attacked the other for currying favour with New
Delhi.
Journalists pointed out that it was this kind of politics that
had "unnecessarily politicised relations with India to a point where
neither the BNP or the Awami League is leaving the other with the
locus standi to mend fences with India." He said that in her last
three years in power Sheikh Hasina had distanced herself from New
Delhi because of the propaganda that "she is pro-India." When asked
about this "pro-India" label, the former Prime Minister immediately
pointed out that it was Begum Khaleda Zia who had sent an emissary to
greet the new government first.
A senior editor known to have independent views said the anti-India
sentiment arose out of acute poverty, frustration and growing anger.
The government, he said, lost no time in diverting the anger towards
India with the issues of illegal migrants, economic policies, river
waters all melting into one anti-Indian pot. He said that New
Delhi's "arrogance" also added to the sentiment. Indian high
commissioners to Bangladesh in the past have pointed out the urgency
for New Delhi to recognise the problem and evolve a strategy to deal
with the issue. "The assassination attempt on Sheikh Hasina is a
defining moment," sources said, pointing out that it was time India
woke up to the growing security threats within Bangladesh.
At a cultural evening organised by a Bangladeshi businessman for the
visiting South Asian journalists, tempers suddenly flared over a
Pakistani colleague's ill-timed reference to Rabindranath Tagore. The
duo on stage had just announced that they would be singing Nazrul
Islam songs, to which the Pakistani journalist said: "Why don't you
also sing Tagore songs?" Senior Bangladeshi intellectuals present at
the gathering voiced their resentment. "This is not right at all,
this is not any way to behave," they told the Indian journalists, who
were quick to point out that the intervention had come from a
Pakistani and not from them. It was clear at the very onset that the
bonhomie was just surface deep, <b>and that relations between India and
Bangladesh need to be worked on, with the larger country taking the
initiative.</b> <!--emo&:grenade--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/grenade.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grenade.gif' /><!--endemo--> <i>[usual recipe for India from DDM]</i>
<b>NAMIBIA EXPELS BHOOKHANANGADESHI WORKERS</b> <!--emo&:thumbsup--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbup.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbup.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>Namibia has ordered the repatriation of about 400 Bangladeshi textile workers after a protest about their employment conditions at a factory.
The workers assaulted two managers who had come to inspect conditions at a plant near the capital, Windhoek.
The workers claimed their employers were withholding more than one third of their monthly salary to pay for food.</b>
The factory is owned by Ramatex, a Malaysian supplier to major sportswear brands such as Nike and Puma.
<b>Single toilet </b>
The workers arrived in Namibia from Bangladesh last month after being promised a salary of $120 per month.
One of the labourers told AFP news agency they had to pay $3,500 dollars<b>*</b> to be recruited.
"To raise that money, most of us had to sell our houses, land and livestock and take out loans. As a result many are indebted today", Hossein Zakkir said.
An AFP journalist who was shown their living conditions at the plant said the Bangladeshis were forced to share a single toilet and to use outside taps to wash.
The Namibian government has said it will investigate the situation, reports say.
The National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) has threatened national action unless the conditions of the Bangladeshis is improved, AFP reports.
<b>*</b>Pay over nearly Four Years Salary (Actal Salary would be USD 120 - USD 40 for for Food i.e. USD 8- p.m.) as recruiting charges? Who sould believe it?
I hope that the Indian Government takes a leaf out of the Nimibian Government's Book and orders the repatriation of the 30-50 Million Bhookhanangadeshi Illegal Immigrants in India.
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
From Sify
<b>Bangladesh turning out as worse enemy</b>
BY M.V.Kamath
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It is bad enough to have a problem with Pakistan over Jammu & Kashmir, or with Nepal over Maoist rebels. Pakistan has been worrying India since 1947 and is apparently in no mood to relax. General Musharraf is sounding harsher by the day. Perhaps he should be told that if he continues on these lines India may given up further talks with Islamabad and reserve the right to bomb terrorist training camps in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir territory. Such a warning needs to be given considering that terrorist activities have been increasing since May and civilians are getting killed. There is need to tell Pakistan that it cannot get away literally with murder. But Bangladesh is turning out as a worse enemy.
One would have thought that after all that India had done to help Bangladeshis liberate themselves from Pakistani tyranny they would show signs of gratitude. Of that there are none. There never were. After the murder of Sheikh Mujib and some members of his family, Bangladehis have become increasingly fundamentalist. General Zia-ur-Rehman lifted the ban on the communal and fundamentalist parties and desecularised the Constitution in 1977; since then the liberal elements have been given no respite. To make matters worse, General H. M. Ershad declared Islam as the state religion of Bangladesh in 1988 after which Islamic fundamentalism received an additional boost. It is creating havoc in Bangladesh and problems for India.
To say that Pakistan's ISI has been very active in its former eastern province is to say the obvious. It has been supported by Saudi Arabia and some other Islamic countries resulting in the ascension of the Jamaat-e- Islami and some other outfits like the Jammatul- Mujahideen, Sahadat al Hikma and the JMJB, which are being liberally financed by petro-dollars.
India should long ago have raised the matter with the rulers in Riyadh; that it has apparently failed to do. The net result is the setting up in Bangladesh some 6,500 quomi madrassahs which have become breeding ground for terrorists. According to Bibhuti Bhushan Nandy, former Additional Secretary of Research and Analysis wing (RAW), beginning in 1984 the Jammat-e-Islami recruited no fewer than 5,000 madrassah alumni (from a total of about 1,462,500) to participate in the jehad against Soviet presence in Afghanistan.
Some of these jehadists are apparently active along the Pakistan-India border as well. What is disturbing is the active anti-Hindu sentiments that have been encouraged in Bangladesh. The backlash to the demolition of the Babri masjid in Bangladesh is well known. The demolition triggered the worst ever pogrom on the minority Hindu community.
Loot, arson, rape and destruction and desecration of Hindu temples and shrines became common with the tacit encouragement, of the government. And everyone knows what happened to the Bengali writer Taslima Nasrin who depicted the post-Babri atrocities in her seminal work Lajja. Fatwas pronouncing death sentence on her were issued by mullahs in their anger and poor Taslima had to leave her country for her safety. The persistence of anti-Hindu sentiments continues.
New Delhi had to lodge a strong protest with Dhaka over certain vicious anti-India remarks made by Bangladesh Foreign Minister Morshed Khan. Delhi was upset to hear that Bangladeshi government circles linked India with a murderous attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka on 21 August. In Delhi, Foreign Secretary Shayam Saran had to call Bangladesh High Commissioner on 10 September to issue him a verbal `demarche' expressing India's displeasure.
It is common knowledge especially in Assam that the leaders of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) have been given shelter in Dhaka and Bangladesh is also giving support to training camps of north east insurgents along its borders with India. Bangladesh is also giving support to training camps of north east insurgents along its borders with India.
Bangladesh refuses to accept this charge and early in September Foreign Minister Morshed Khan rubbished New Delhi's concerns in this regard saying that they could have a "negative impact" on bilateral ties.
Norshed Khan went further to say that Dhaka could end India's three billion dollar trade with Bangladesh if India persisted with its charges. It is not that Bangladesh is unaware of what is going on.
Almost six months ago ten truck loads of arms intended for insurgent groups in the North east had been seized by Bangladeshi authorities but all that Dhaka did was to order the arrest of the truck drivers ad cleaners. According to intelligence sources the captured arms were worth more than $ 7.5 millions, enough to arm half a brigade. The arms had been seized in Chittagong on the night of 2 April.
The matter is being hushed up even though Bangladesh authorities had promised India that it will share whatever "substantive information" has been gathered as to the source of the arms and the international nexus between insurgents and alien governments. According to one source, the payment for the arms had been arranged by a "foreign country" which has interests in destabilising India.
Indeed, on August 19, addressing a press conference in Guwahati, Assam Chief Minister Tarum Gogoi said that the recent upsurge of violent attacks by the ULFA clearly indicated that the outfit is working at the behest of certain foreign agencies to subvert India from within. As he put it: "The governments of these countries may not be directly involved, but the fact that these neighboring countries are used as safe havens by the ULFA is tantamount to abetting terrorism in the region". Since then India has given Bangladesh a fresh list of insurgent training camps being operated there.
India wants Bangladesh also to hand over ULFA chief Parish Barua. During talks with Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) last month, India's Border Security Force had submitted a list of 195 camps run from Bangladeshi territory. That list has since been updated. It should not be difficult for India to invade Bangladesh and smash these camps but Delhi is unwilling to take this extreme steps for fear of international repercussions.
And so just as Pakistan in the west is using India's recalcitrance to take firm action, so is Bangladesh in the East and the net sufferer is India. It is not that western nations are unaware of what is going on in Bangladesh.
In a recent interview to Outlook (13 September) the CIA's Directorate of Operations J. Cofer Black said that Bangladesh's situation was of great interest to the United States. He told his interviewer: "The United States is opposed to all terrorists. We approach terrorism as a global issue. On my last trip (to Delhi) I got some good insights from the Indian team on what is going on in Bangladesh.
We're very mindful ... We are looking at Bangladesh more closely. I'm personally interested in having an accurate picture. We plan to look into and if correct confirm the Indian view. We need to determine exactly the threat of terrorists not only to Bangladesh but also the potential utilisation of Bangladesh as a platform toproject terrorism internationally". But these are so many words. The United States has done practically nothing to warn Dhaka.
Only recently The Statesman (8 September) published an article by Bibhuti Bhushan Nandy, a former RAW official which said: "The countrywide post-election Hindu cleansing operations in 2001 jointly conducted by the BNP and Jamaat workers subjected the minority Hindu community to a wave of centrally planned and directed murder, loot, extortion, arson and gang rape that triggered a massive exodus of Hindus to India. Later, operating at the micro level, the fundamentalists, notably guerillas of the Jammat-e-Islami affiliate Islamic Chhatra Shibir, selectively killed a number of leading Hindus like college principal, school teachers, priests and Buddhist monks to sustain and exacerbate the sense of insecurity among the minorities".
In March this year, 11 members of a Hindu family at Sadhanpur Village in Chittagong district were burnt to death by hired criminals. None of these stories get reported in the Indian media.
According to B. B. Nandy, "thanks to the inability and unwillingness of the police, none of the cases of terrorist attacks have been resolved. Instead of seriously investigating the horrendous crimes, the government has used them with cynical persistence to harras and persecute opposition leaders and secular intellectuals who had raised their voice against he atrocities on the minorities".
India has to act and act sharply and decisively. Dhaka must come to known that India will not tolerate persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh. At the same time India must identity Bangladehi Muslims now working in their thousands and millions and pack them off to where they came from.
According to Nandy "as a result of unrestrained illegal immigration, 20 million aliens (15 per cent of the Bangladesh population) have settled down in the border districts of West Bengal and other north eastern states, radically changing the demographic structure and communal complexion of the whole area". This is totally impermissible.
These people have to be returned to their homeland lest they create problems in northeast in the years to come. For every threat that the Bangladesh Foreign Minister makes, India must respond with concrete action. India, especially the country's northeastern states, cannot afford to give shelter to Muslim Bangladeshis.
The situation is such that Bangladeshi Muslims have spread all over the country and are especially to be found in Kolkata, Bihar, Delhi ad even Mumbai. Quick and swift action has to be taken against them, not only for protecting local labour interests but on a larger plane, protecting India's national security. There has been enough complacency so far and the time for action has come.
Send in your comments on this article to samachareditor@sify.com<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Another example of ethnic cleansing Of Hindus in BD <b>Bogra local daily editor beheaded</b>
Assailants killed Dipankar Chakrabarty, a senior journalist and vice-president of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), at Sanyalpara in Sherpur in the early hours yesterday.
Executive editor of local daily Durjoy Bangla, Dipankar, 59,was on his way home after work when the attackers swooped on him near his house and cut off his head with an axe at about 12:30am.
Neighbours heard him screaming and motorbikes speeding away. Shortly afterwards, Shamal Basak, a next-door neighbour, found Dipankar's decapitated body lying on the road. He immediately informed Dipankar's family of it.
Dipankar's eldest son Partha Sarthi Chakrabarty filed a case with the Sherpur Police Station yesterday.
Police said they had recovered a sack and a new towel used by the assailants from the scene.
<b>Delhi to finish fencing along Bangla border by March â06</b>
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 22: India today said it would go ahead with fencing the border with Bangladesh and complete it by March 2006. Talks between the two countries did not move ahead on other contentious issues either, including the presence of insurgent camps in Bangladesh.
However, Home Secretary Dhirendra Singh, who had gone for the three-day talks with his counterpart Omar Faruque in Dhaka last week, said there was a ââbreakthroughââ since both sides had agreed to ââwork closelyââ to resolve outstanding issues.
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Admitting there were differences on exchange of Indian and Bangladesh enclaves surrounded by opposite sides, adverse possession of land and demarcation of 6.1 km of the border, Singh said New Delhi made its position clear on border fencing. ââWe have informed them that we intend to fence the region. We have not got a response so far,ââ he said. Of the 4,000-km border, nearly 1,500 km has been fenced.
The joint statement did not mention contentious issues including joint patrolling by the two border forces.
<b>Sunday 10/10/2004
Bangladesh: A cradle for terrorism?</b> (With feeds from Prothom Alo)
To what extent the Jamaat is involved with Hujai has been revealed in an investigative report prepared by Bangladeshi newspaper âProthom Aloâ. The report was published in five instalments. The newspaper quotes the confession of an extremist Salim Ullahar as saying that the Jamaat was totally behind the HUJAI since its inception in 1998 as if it was its own brainchild. .A large number of HUJAI consists of activists who have returned to Bangladesh after the fall of the Taliban
administration in Afghanistan. They camp in the inaccessible hilly areas of Cox Bazar and Bandarban and in the no-man land along the Bangladesh-Mynmar border. This organisation provides military training to Islamic militants belonging to the Rohingiya Muslims of Arakan mountains in Myanmar and to members of some Indian outfits. The returnees from Afghanistan were sent to that country by HUJAI for training and for fighting along Al-Qaeda and Taliban against the United States-led war against global terrorism. To execute its domestic agenda (i.e. Islamisation of Bangladesh) HUJAI has been using madrasas for providing indoctrination and arms training. According to the information gathered by âProthom Aloâ, new madrasas have been mushrooming in the inaccessible hilly areas with funds pouring in from NGOs in Middle East countries. Chittagong has become the center from where the Islamic movement for the whole country is conducted. Madrasas in Cox Bazar and Bandarban areas serve as recruiting agents for various jehadi groups
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/bang...orism-with.html
Global Jihad: Defensive Jihad - Retribution and Deterrence
In state of war, the right to attack the military exists anyway, even when they are not actively engaging in combat. Hence, targeting the army would not constitute retaliation. The enemy army is targeted for complete annihilation or subjugation and no principle of proportionality is applied here. In defensive Jihad the same ruling applies however, if our non-combatants are targeted, we reserve the right to target theirs in a similar manner, provided it is not excessive like the bombing of Dresden. Therefore, if 9/11 was undertaken by those brave 19 Mujahideen they are clearly justified as the US has been bombing and killing our citizens en masse since 1991, some may argue since 1948 by its constant military and economic support to the illegitimate state of Israel (occupied Palestine)
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/glob...sive-jihad.html
Pakistan: The "Global" Idiot Box
The advent of Pakistani television in America is in many ways a disaster for those from our country who have made the United States their home. Its deleterious effects are already evident and with time they will only multiply. It is now possible and hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis are proof of that to live in America in a physical sense, but for all other purposes remain in Pakistan. After 9/11, most Pakistanis have gone into a cocoon. The soap operas that flow from the three Pakistani channels marriage being the one and only theme provide them with the escape that they think they need. The fact that it makes them non-functional in an emotional and psychological sense in this society, matters very little. They donât see this slide into the never-never land of a never-never Pakistan as anything but normal. Only rarely, if at all, have I seen a Pakistani at a museum, an art gallery or a theatre. Also uncommon, in fact, most uncommon, is the sight of a Pakistani
family eating at a non-Pakistani restaurant. The unreality of the lives that our people live here is hard to believe but that is the way it is.
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/paki...-idiot-box.html
Pakistan: Taliban, Al-Qaeda, US and South Asia
One must, however, admit that Pakistan's support of Al-Qaeda and Taliban were guided by several factors. Firstly, ever since its inception Pakistan has consistently aligned itself with the US and the West through SEATO, CENTO and other military alliances. This was caused by Pakistan's obsessive fear of Indian military threat that was espousing non-aligned movement to the utter disapproval of cold war warriors like John Foster Dulles and many others. Though Jack Kennedy tried to mend fences with India Nixon-Kissinger tilt in favour of Pakistan during the Bangladesh war of liberation demonstrated fully that Pakistan's absolute dedication to the American cold war cause had paid off. It, therefore, seemed eminently logical to President Ziaul Huq to support the Taliban putsch to unseat the Soviet backed regimes and compliment the CIA proxy war in Afghanistan.
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/paki...south.htm\
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Assessment: Demography phobia - A Third "Islamic Republic" in the Sub Continent? - Part 2
ââThe long-cherished design of Greater East Pakistan/Bangladesh, making inroads into the strategic land-link of Assam with the rest of the country,ââ he warned, ââcan lead to severing the entire land mass of the North-East...from the rest of the country. This will have disastrous strategic and economic consequences.ââ After tracing in detail the way the demographic balance has been overturned in district after district adjacent to Bangladesh, General Sinha concluded: ââThis silent and invidious demographic invasion of Assam may result in the loss of geostrategically vital districts of Lower Assam. The influx of these illegal migrants is turning these
districts into a Muslim-majority region. It will then only be a matter of time when a demand for their merger with Bangladesh may be made. The rapid growth of Islamic fundamentalism may provide the driving force for this demand. In this context, it is pertinent that Bangladesh has long discarded secularism and has chosen to become an Islamic State. Loss of Lower Assam will severe the entire land mass of the North-East from the rest of India....ââ
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/asse...a-third_10.html
India: North East - Asia's longest running insurgency
Each of the seven states in the region today has some insurgency or the other keeping the state busy, often dominating and setting the agenda in the respective
geographical area. At last count there are at least 15 major groups in the region that have been banned by the Centre. If you take the smaller groups, the number
is closer to 40. A majority of these outfits were formed in the 1980s or early 1990s but each of them is an off-shoot of earlier such attempts to rebel against the Indian nation state. Except the Naga insurgency, most of the outfits in the north-east have been born out of neglect heaped upon by New Delhi on these
distant states since Independence.
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/indi...nning.htm\
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Bangladesh: Women soccer tourney on despite Mullah Oppositions
Bangladesh's first women's soccer tournament has faced protests from Islamic groups since it began Monday in Dhaka. But organizers promised to continue the games, which have attracted moderate crowds at a new downtown stadium in the capital."We had two games today," Kamrun Nahar, secretary the Bangladesh Football Federation's women's soccer committee, told The Associated Press. Yesterday, dozens of Islamic protesters rallied outside the National Sports Council, a state authority that oversees sports, asking the government to suspend the event. Riot police stood watch to prevent the protesters from raiding the council building or marching toward the venue.
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/bang...tourney-on.html
Bangladesh: Post Mortem - 3 years on - what ails the BNP
Some top-ranking leaders of BNP admitted that discords between ministers and ministry high officials have made the administration sluggish. Top bureaucrats were
transferred from one ministry to another several times in the wake of such conflicts, but to no avail. A senior minister on condition of anonymity said ministers are not usually allowed to speak on any issue beyond the agenda at the cabinet meetings. That is why they could not raise vital issues related to public concern, he added.
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/bang...-what.htm\
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Bangladesh: 8/21 Report - Donât add fuel to the fire
The cross-border dimension of mercenary and political crimes afflicting Bangladesh has of late been detected in greater detail by our government agencies. A list of 353 dangerous criminals, freely residing in and conducting their criminal activities from India, were handed over by Bangladesh to the Indian side at the recently concluded BDR-BSF conference held at the Director-General level in India. Separate lists of tribal separatists of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and locations of their thirty camps in the Tripura state of India, as well as names of trainers and locations of some nine insurgency training and motivation camps in the state of West Bengal in India, were also provided.
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/bang...el-to.htm\
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Saturday 09/10/2004
Diaspora: Being anti-Bush without being anti-American
When Masud was 7, his parents moved from Bangladesh to America to provide a better life for him and his older sister. His mother, who is deeply religious, taught him to not be ashamed of his faith. She has also taught him not to force his beliefs or ideas on others. Masud thinks a lot of terrorism arises from anti-American attitudes. "I absolutely cannot understand why people move to the United States and then criticize the United States," he said. Although he doesn't agree with President George W. Bush's foreign policies, he isn't anti-American.
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/dias...being.htm\
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Global Jihad: War Sans Reason
Back to Bush's comments on the South Lawn about why Saddam's knowledge of WMD was a threat worth going to war for: "And he could have passed that knowledge on to our terrorist enemies." True, he could have. So could have the leaders of North Korea, Iran, Libya, Pakistan, and a few other countries all much closer to building a bomb than Iraq ever was, some of them already nuclear powers. The question is: Did Saddam Hussein have relations with our terrorist enemies or an inclination or motive to give them nuclear secrets? All evidence indicates he did not. The newly leaked CIA report which had been requested by Cheney concluded that Saddam enjoyed no such relations, not even with Abu Musab Zarqawi, the al-Qaida lieutenant who had a training camp before the war in the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Northern Iraq
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/glob...ans-reason.html
India: Insurgency and Democracy
The Mughals had little time for an area that a Muslim cleric described as comprising "another world, another people, and other customs". The British were
"inclined, on the whole, to leave the tribesmen alone", said Verrier Elwin, the celebrated anthropologist, "partly because the task of administration was difficult and unrewarding". After India's independence, the government reached out to the region "in a spirit of comradeship", as India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru said, "and not like someone aloof" who regarded the people and their customs as "museum pieces". But still the relationship has not been free of tension.At this juncture, however, two events led to fresh complications. One was the effect of internal politics in Bangladesh, which made the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) adopt an openly anti-Indian posture to counter its rival, the Awami League, which had close relations with India from the time of Dhaka's liberation with India's help in 1971. As a result, BNP's assumption of power in Bangladesh has been followed by the renewal of the old East Pakistani policy of providing succour to the insurgent groups.
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/indi...-democracy.html
Nepal: Six Indian Queries to Premier Deuba
What has gone unnoticed is the pledge given by the PRC also (Peopleâs Republic of China) of unspecified military assistance during the meeting of Nepalâs Chief of Army Staff with his Chinese counterpart Gen.Cao Gangchuan in June 2004. While the Chinese offer is more symbolic to counter Indiaâs preponderant influence, the Indian assistance by way of supply of weapons, training and the arrest of Maoists ( two Politburo members and many central committee members are in their custody with many more arrests taking place in Bihar), must have upset the Maoists and India therefore figures prominently in the six queries (not China)
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/nepa...to-premier.html
Assessment: Demography phobia - A Third "Islamic Republic" in the Sub Continent? Part-1
There is a distinct danger of another Muslim country, speaking predominantly Bengali, emerging in the eastern part of India in the future, at a time when India might find itself weakened politically and militarily. And second that the danger is as grave even if that third Islamic State does not get carved out as a full-fledged country. You may quarrel over the answer, but you can be certain of one thing: secularists will dump the figures themselves! India: the State of Denial.
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/asse...obia-third.html
Bangladesh: RAB - No space in Prison - shoot 'em dead!
The arbitrarily assigned first front that the government has to compete with is the image of the RAB that has emerged as a result of the deaths of suspects in its custody. There hasn't been a lot of hue and cry emanating from the public about the operations of the RAB. But the newspapers and human rights organizations have taken quite an exception to the frequent operations of the battalion which almost invariably end in the death of one or many accused, inevitably dying in 'cross-fire'. This 'unavoidable' death by crossfire will convince the gullible, the village idiot or his like. But if one tries to unearth the implication of 'cross-fire', one would seriously doubt the argument of RAB that it uses in its own defence.
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/bang...-in-prison.html
Analysis: NorthEast situation and the dilemma for Congress
At the heart of the recent mess in eastern India is a problem of pusillanimity and denial. For over 18 months, Indian intelligence agencies have been warning of a dual threat to national security in the region. The first is an extension of the thousand cuts assault on India initiated by Pakistan in the Eighties, and which shows no sign of waning, despite the Islamabad declaration of January and Singhâs historic meeting with the president, Pervez Musharraf, in New York last month. The second is the Maoist insurgency whose epicentre is in Nepal, but whose tentacles extend into Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.The importance of Bangladesh as a springboard for insurgent groups operating in Assam and the North-eastern states has now been openly and categorically acknowledged. It is not merely that terrorist groups like the United Liberation Front of Asom, United National Liberation Front, National Democratic Front of Bodoland and others use Bangladesh as a sanctuary. But Indian intelligence also believes that following the election of the Khaleda Zia government in July 2001, these groups became dependant on Dhaka for funds, hardware, training and business opportunities such as facilitating arms supplies to other extremist groups in India and Nepal.
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/anal...uation-and.html
Friday: 08/10/2004
Bangladesh: Massive Troops mobilzation on Indian sideof border
On whether India will be giving any strong message to Bangladesh, which has been denying presence of training camps for militants, Patil said "we donât think by using strong words" it could be solved rather there were diplomatic methods which could be used "very firmly and very correctly" without worsening the relationship to convey Indiaâs concern.
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/bang...obilzation.html
Assam: The East Is Red
The rebels appear to have simply relocated their camps." Gogoi is pushing New Delhi to focus on Bangladesh and Myanmar, where he insists ULFA and NDFB have bases and safe houses. "As we see now, the root of the problem lies in these two countries. Unless the rebels are uprooted from there, violent attacks are bound to go on," he says. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too has now voiced his concern over 'some insurgent groups' taking 'shelter' in Bangladesh. Dhaka has been consistently denying charges of its territory being used by rebels from northeast India. This despite New Delhi furnishing detailed lists of rebel camps inside Bangladesh to authorities there at regular intervals. The last such list of 195 handed over to visiting Bangladesh Rifles chief Maj Gen Jehangir Alam Choudhuri by his BSF counterpart Ajai Raj Sharma in New Delhi last month in fact invited a derisive rejection from Dhaka. On checking the provided coordinates, they said one training camp on the list would have to be within a BDR cantonment and another at sea
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/as...s-red.html
Thursday: 07/10/2004
Global Jihad: Chechnya - an Indian RAW Assessment
There is no room for liberalism in the Wahhabi version of Islam. Although a large number of Muslims across the world are opposed to this violent interpretation of Islam, the financial muscle of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates have turned Wahhabism into the main current of Islam today. President Putin has declared that the massacre of the children in Beslan is a war against Russia. In this case, Russia should try to cut the roots of the Chechen terrorists and take the war to its financial sources: the western oil companies and Saudi Arabia-UAE-Pakistan. Russia should nationalise the oil and natural gas companies and ask Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to do the same. That will drive out the Western oil companies. Russia still is a formidable nuclear power. If it would attack Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Pakistan, there is nothing the USA can do without risking its own annihilation. Russia must understand that withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 has not made Russia safer, as Gorbachov had wished. Instead, it has encouraged the possibility of eventual destruction of Russia by the terrorists
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/glob...indian-raw.html
Assam: The American Hubris
What has come as an intriguing affair is the keenness of the Assam government to accept the American offer.The offer is coming in the first place from a country( the lone superpower) which has failed to curb terrorism in the lands it has invaded or occupied with the express aim of fighting terrorism. In spite of presence of super sleuths of FBI and CIA in Iraq, the Bush administration has not succeeded in smashing the terrorist cells there. The US ambassador to India, Mr David C Mulford claimed in his offer to the Assam Chief Minister, Mr Tarun Gogoi that America possessed 'considerable experience in investigative techniques', while the fact remains that the key information about the activities and whereabouts of the Taliban terrorists and their leader Osama bin Laden was supplied by Indian intelligence sleuths
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/assa...can-hubris.html
India: PM Says Bangladesh is Shelter for Insurgents
"It is not true to say that we do not have credible policy for northeast. We had anticipated that terrorists will do something on October 2 and 3. But terrorists have the advantage." "I have made personal representation to the highest leadership of Bangladesh," Singh told a news conference in Mumbai when his attention was drawn to some insurgent groups operating from the neighbouring country. Singh refused to comment on the relationship with neighbouring nations, but said India will expect that a territory of a friendly nation should not (not) be used by terrorists to destablise the country.
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/indi...is-shelter.html
India: Maoist Insurgency - Bad Medicine for a Red Epidemic
While the Governments of other Naxalite affected States are now working to 'establish conditions conducive to talks', Naxalite groups in these States, including PWG State units, have escalated violence in many of these areas, and have rejected offers of talks as 'deceptive and meaningless'. Security and Intelligence organizations - as well as observers who have long watched the trajectory of the Naxalite movement - believe that the 'peace process' in Andhra Pradesh - and in any other State where it may be initiated in the proximate future - would inevitably collapse within six-odd months, after which a reinvigorated PWG can be expected to resume violent activities.
http://dakbangla.blogspot.com/2004/10/indi...d-medicine.html
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[About Dak Bangla ]
Based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, DakBangla is a twice weekly special interest Intelligence Scan Magazine. It studies and shares offbeat Open Source Intelligence and academic materials available on the Internet with its readers and subscribers with emphasis to the regions surrounding Bangladesh. Insurgency, political movements, armed struggles, drugs and human trafficking in NorthEast India and events in the border region which directly affects Bangladesh are featured. Events from Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan also fall within the range of our monitoring and dissemination. News on Intelligence agencies in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are circulated whenever available. Human Rights Violations in the region are also monitored.
To view website the URL is www.dakbangla.blogspot.com
For inquiries please email dak_monitor@y...
<b>Hindu Teacher gang raped in Bangladesh </b>
A teacher of an adult education centre run by Bagerhat Hindu Welfare Trust and daughter of a businessman, was gangraped by a group of miscreants at the residence of her father at Nagerbazar under Bagerhat Sadar thana on Friday.
Fariduddin, officer-in-Charge (OC) of Bagerhat Sadar thana, said the rapists were led by Kakon Molla, a <b>listed criminal belonging to Bagerhat unit of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).</b>
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