Bangladesh - News And Discussion

10-30-2004, 02:32 AM

BDR put on full alert
By Haroon Habib
DHAKA,OCT.28. The Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) has been put on full alert along over 2,250-km of border with West Bengal to foil what they call "any attempt" by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) to push in "Bangla-speaking Indian Muslims" into Bangladeesh.

Patrolling by the BDR has also been intensified after the heavy exchange of fire between the border guards of the two countires along Panchagarh over the reported "push-in" and "push-back" on Monday night.

BDR officials said the "push-in" attempts were being madee largely at the northwest ans western borders and no flag meetings between the BDR and the BSF were held on the issue.

One official was quoted as saying that "the situation is now calm" since the BSF had "stopped their attempts to push-in."

The Hindu, Friday, October 29, 2004.

12-15-2004, 07:36 AM

Bangla migrant hit at rivals

QUOTEâWe will definitely send back illegal Bangladeshis to their country. But we will make a distinction between those who have come here for a living and those who are armed insurgents,â said the home minister in his reply to a debate on internal security. He stressed that the government will see to it that genuine citizens are not harassed.

Patil in his lengthy response took on the main Opposition party, the BJP, which has accused the Centre of turning âsoftâ and even of encouraging insurgency groups like the Naxalites. The home minister for his part made it clear that the BJPâs preoccupation with Bangladeshi immigrants is motivated by âcommunalâ considerations.

12-15-2004, 02:05 PM

Martyred intellectuals - Edit

QUOTEThirty three years ago this day a great tragedy befell this nation. We suffered a bereavement that was the most intense a nation can endure for in a single event some of the finest sons and daughters of this soil were inhumanly slaughtered. It was simply not part of a scorched earth policy adopted by the local collaborators of the occupation forces. It was much more than that. It was a cool and calculated policy of annihilation, of a policy carefully orchestrated to rob the nation of its thinking individual. It was not without significance that the occupation forces began its well-coordinated genocidal campaign with the assault on Dhaka University on the dark night of March 26, and which ended with the massacre of intellectuals at Rayerbazar on December 14. Academicians, doctors, journalists, artistes and others were picked up from their homes in the darkness of the night, blindfolded and brutally killed. To deny a nation access to its intellectuals is the surest way of incapacitating that nation for a long time to come. What is heart-rending is that this organised mayhem was carried out on the very eve of a victory, of earning a freedom which had required tremendous sacrifice and every step was drenched in the blood of martyrs - men, women and children from all walks of life.

Unlike many of their compatriots, these intellectuals were not killed in a battle but were taken away from their home and brought to the slaughter ground. It was revealed later that the martyred intellectuals were tortured to death in the most barbaric manner, which reminds us of Nazi concentration camps. Even after being killed their bodies were dishonoured and lay dumped in a pit for days. They were the most distinguished members of society and most were the leading lights of their respective professions. But it is not only for their intellectual attainment and professional elements that we honour these illustrious sons of the soil each year. They are the lasting fount of patriotic impulses. The principles and idealism, which they defended at the cost of their life, remain an abiding inspiration for the country.

Today on the thirtythird anniversary of their martyrdom we pay our deepest homage to these heroes. It is an irony that a country which has produced the heroes of December 14 should be conspicuously listed as corrupt and criminalised. It all shows that we have today an even stronger reason not only to pay homage to but also emulate as closely as possible these fallen warriors.

12-16-2004, 06:36 AM

Sentinelassam
As a Writer Sees the Truth

The presence of the Bangladeshi writer Salam Azad as a visitor to the Sixth North East Book Fair at Guwahati is indeed serendipitous for the people of Assam. This is because the Bangladesh Government is too full of lies when it comes to the issues of large-scale illegal migration of Bangladeshis to the North-east and of the presence of a large number of camps for the training of insurgent groups from the North-east in Bangladesh. The more sinister of the lies, of course, relates to the training camps for our insurgents.

The Government of India has done much more than just pointing out the fact to Dhaka (though rather late in the day). It has submitted a list of the 195 camps showing their locations and produced satellite photographs as well. However, the Bangladesh Government continues to insist that there are no such camps. The Government of India has managed to do very little to nail the steady barrage of high-level lies.

According to Salam Azad, however, the pro-Pakistan stand of the present Bangladesh Government has been providing the insurgent groups of the north-eastern States of India a safe haven in that country. He said that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan was one of the main sources of strength for the insurgent outfits. "The Government of India's claim regarding the existence of camps of North-east insurgent groups on Bangladesh soil is very much genuine," Azad said when talking to The Sentinel on Monday. The writer, who has been in the city for a week, said that he had even met some of the cadres of Indian insurgent outfits in the Chittagong Hill Tracts when he was writing a book on missing tribal woman leader, Kalpana Chakma, who remains untraced till today after her arrest by the Bangladesh Army from her house on June 12, 1996.

(Incidentally, Azad's book on Kalpana Chakma is due to be published shortly in India in both English and Bengali. It touches also on the !alleged atrocities on tribals in the name of Islam.) Salam Azad is of the view that infiltration from Bangladesh is triggered both by "ethnic cleansing" and economic factors. He revealed that several people belonging to the Hindu and other religious minority communities have been forced to cross the international border due to lack of security to their life and property under the present regime in Bangladesh. What Azad implies is that the forced exodus of the minorities from Bangladesh has been escalated by the present regime, since this is a process that has gone on since the partition of India. That is what explains the sharp reduction in the Hindu population of that country. At the time of Partition, the Hindus of Bangladesh constituted about 34 per cent of the population. Today, they constitute just nine per cent of the population.

However, this is not in the least surprising for any Islamic country. The situation in Pakistan is no different. Nor does it differ materiall!y in any of the other Islamic countries, several of which have attained the desired objective of having a 100 per cent Muslim population.

Salam Azad has helped us to arrive at the truth on three aspects of the Bangladesh Government's policy vis-Ã -vis India - particularly the North-east. He has confirmed that there are training camps in Bangladesh for insurgents from the North-east, and that they being assisted by the ISI of Pakistan. He has confirmed that there is large-scale illegal infiltration to India from that country. And he has also confirmed that Bangladesh does not tolerate religious minorities. This is amply evident from the treatment of Hindus and Buddhist Chakmas there. On all three points, the Bangladesh Government is ever ready with unconvincing lies. It is good to have a writer from Bangladesh itself nailing the official lies from Dhaka. After all, people know who to believe. To them, the writer ranks well above the government in terms of credibility.

It is only the Government here that insists on believing what is convenient to believe. And so it will also go on believing that despite all the lies and treachery, Bangladesh is a friendly country, even when it has the most inimical intentions about India. After all, Dhaka has signed so many friendship treaties.

01-12-2005, 09:01 AM

http://www.indiareacts.com/nati2.asp?recno=3117
Bangladesh ministers on terror watchlist

6 January 2005: As many as six Bangladeshi cabinet ministers are on a Western watchlist for succouring Islamic terrorists and arms smuggling, and they have established safe houses in the Chittagong Hill Tracts area.

Two of these ministers are reportedly close to Bangladesh prime-minister Khalida Zia, and all of them operate in the Middle East avoiding either Western or South East Asian markets for their transactions.

Western intelligence agencies have reported that Bangladesh is fast turning from
a liberal modern Islamic society to one which is hardcore fundamentalistic.

01-16-2005, 09:40 AM

Bangladeshi settlers to get 'Quit India' noticesQUOTEJanuary 15, 2005 14:11 IST
Last Updated: January 15, 2005 14:18 IST
Security arrangements have been tightened ahead of a drive to serve 'Quit India' notices to 1,551 identified Bangladeshi infiltrators living in ten villages in Orissa's Kendrapara district, official sources said.

The serving of notices will start from Ramnagar village, District Collector Hemant Sharma said.

Additional police forces have been deployed to thwart possible resistance from the settlers, he said.

Sharma said special teams comprising revenue officials and school headmasters have been constituted to assist the police in the exercise.

The teams would serve the notices on the identified settlers. Once these notices are signed by the person, he/she would be required to leave the country within 30 days, official sources said.

But commies will try to settle them in WB.

02-01-2005, 12:13 AM

QUOTECall to halt Bangla Talibanisation

Pioneer News Service/ New Delhi

The Campaign Against Atrocities on Minorities in Bangladesh (CAAMB), in association with the Bangladesh Hindu, Buddhist & Christian Unity Council (International Chapter), organised a day-long conference on atrocities against Bangladesh minorities in New Delhi on Saturday.

The conference was attended by a galaxy of human rights activists, social workers and intellectuals from around the world. The speakers included caamb president Prof Mohit Roy, caamb secretary Achintya Gupta, BHBCUC president (international chapter) Sitangshu Guha from New York, senior bhbcuc functionary Thomas Dulu Roy, Dhaka University professor of physics Nim Chandra Bhowmick, Father Joseph Jeevan Gomes from the Chittagong hill tracts, Bhikku Prajnalankar, also from the Chittagong hill tracts, and Professor Saradindu Mukherjee of Hansraj College, Delhi

Mr Guha said Bangladesh was indebted to India for helping it wrest independence from Pakistan in 1971 but regretted that minorities were endangered in Bangladesh, which was rapidly deteriorating into a Taliban state. He pointed out that minorities, who formed around 20 per cent of the country's population in 1971, have today been reduced to around 10 per cent. In an indirect reference to the Indian Government and establishment's apathy to wards the persecution of minorities in Bangladesh, he asked whether India wanted the remaining 2 million minorities in Bangladesh to come over to this side of the border.

Father Gomes remarked that India was surrounded not by one but by two Pakistans on two sides and urged New Delhi to save Dhaka from becoming a clone of Islamabad.

Bhikku Prajnalankar, who is popularly known as Reverend among his followers in the Chittagong hill tracts, narrated how Muslims from the plains of Bangladesh had been sent to the hills in a calculated move to "grab our land". He said the Bangladesh Government had violated the peace accord with the hill tribals right from its signing.

Caamb also organised a conference in Kolkata on January 22 and 23, which received an overwhelming response from the city.

02-01-2005, 04:42 AM

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Bangladeshi intelligence agents search for The New York Times sources

New York, January 28, 2005-Intelligence agents have been assigned to look for anyone who might have provided interviews or information for the January 23 New York Times article on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh, according to a Bangladeshi intelligence source quoted in the Dhaka-based newspaper The Daily Star.

The search has been extended to include journalist Saleem Samad, who did not work on the Times article but who has contributed to foreign news reports in the past, The Daily Star reported.

Two agents visited Samad's family home in Dhaka yesterday evening and asked his father about the whereabouts of Samad, his wife, and his son, according to his brother. Samad, currently a reporter for Time Asia, has been living in Canada since mid-fall 2004. Samad told CPJ that he now fears for the security of his wife and son, who remain in Dhaka.

Samad was previously arrested in November 2002 and imprisoned for two months for working with a documentary crew preparing a report on Bangladesh for Britain's Channel 4. Samad has said that he was tortured in prison.

Eliza Griswold's Times article, titled "The Next Islamist Revolution?," reported on militant Islam taking hold in Bangladesh. The topic is a particularly controversial one, and Bangladesh's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Iftekar Ahmed Chowdhury, condemned The New York Times article as "baseless, partial and misleading."

Griswold and photographer Meredith Davenport, who were followed by intelligence agents while they were conducting their reporting for the story in November, told CPJ that they were concerned for the safety of their sources.

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information about press conditions in Bangladesh,
visit www.cpj.org.
Committee to Protect Journalists
330 Seventh Avenue, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10001
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02-15-2005, 04:22 PM

www.sentinelassam.com

B'deshis posing as Christians to evade detection: NCM 
NE Christian population up

KOCHI, Feb 14 (UNI): Illegal migrants from Bangladesh reporting as Christians and conversions had led to a high growth rate among the Christian population in the North-east in the last decade, according to the expert committee of the National Commission for Minorities.

However, an analysis showed that the overall proportion of Christians in the country was static during the last two decades.

Against the national growth rate of 22.6 per cent by Christians, Nagaland reported 69.2 per cent growth, while it was 56.3 per cent in Gujarat,34.8 per cent in Orissa, 42.1 per cent in Meghalaya, 32.5 per cent in Chatttisgarh, 34.3 per cent in West Bengal, 30 in Punjab and 30.7 in Mizoram, the panel said.

However, Kerala, which accounted for the largest share of Christians in the country, registered only 7.8 per cent growth while Andhra Pradesh reported minus growth (-2..

According to the report, presented by panel chief Prof Ashish Bose here today before Christian leaders, there was a possibility that Muslims who had illegally migrated from Bangladesh had reported their religion as Christianity, 'guided by survival strategy and adverse economic conditions.' Also, tribals listed under other religions in the past census had this time opted to register as Christians.

"Our analysis data on religion in the North-east leads to some intriguing questions about the role of illegal migration and also the role of conversion to Christianity. In Tripura, for example, during 1991-2001, the Hindu population grew by 15 per cent while the Christian population grew by 121 per cent. There is no evidence that there is large-scale migration of Christians from Bangladesh. This will make conversion a dominant factor explaining the high growth rate figures of Christians," the report said.

While analysing the data on Assam, the report said: "The possibility of some forced conversion to Christianity by militant groups cannot be ruled out." 

In Gujarat too the growth could not be explained by a 'natural increase', the report said. "Are Christians from other States of India migrating in large numbers to Gujarat? If not, conversion seems to be the dominant factor," Prof Bose said in his presentation. 

However, the increase in these States was minimal and "not alarming at all," he said.

The total population of Christians in Gujarat was 2.84 lakh, forming just 0.6 per cent of the total population, though the growth rate was 56.3 per cent. Likewise, in Nagaland, only 7.32 lakh Christians were added in the last decade, though Christians formed 90 per cent of the population.

The report also noted that the overall proportion of Christians in India was the same for the last two decades at 2.3 per cent of the population, rising to 24.1 million in 2001 from 19.6 million in 1991.

Though Christians were spread mainly in eight States, 50 per cent of them lived in four States - Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Despite the high growth rate, the North-east accounted for just 25 per cent of the country's total Christian population.

Besides Prof Bose, the expert committee members were Prof P M Kulkarni of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, Prof Mari Bhat of the Institute of Economic Growth and Prof T K Roy, former director of the International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai.

03-03-2005, 07:11 AM

QUOTEhttp://pakobserver.net/200503/02/Articles03.asp
Resistance against India in BD
Sultan M Hali

During a recent visit to Dhaka, I had the opportunity to meet Major General ALM
Fazlur Rahman, a retired officer of the East Bengal Rifles. The officer sought
me out when he learnt that I was a columnist. We had a long chat for more than
two hours despite the fact that I was short on time and my friends, who had
invited me for a reunion of the old boys of our school, were constantly tugging
at my sleeves to join them in the revelry and fun. I found the Bengali General
so earnest and serious in describing his efforts and endeavour to resist Indian
influence in Bangladesh that I gave him a patient hearing. I obtained his
permission to include what we discussed in this article so that I could share it
with our readers.

The General, who was very articulate in expressing his sentiments and share his
plans, explained that India had helped Bangladesh gain its independence only to break up Pakistan and destabilize it. It was never sincere to Bangladesh and
wanted it to be acquiescent to India. Soon after the birth of Bangladesh, it
tried to get its pound of flesh by removing heavy machines and tools from the
factories from erstwhile East Pakistan as retribution for its expenses on the
"Bangladesh Liberation War." With the advent of General Zia-ur-Rahman's
Government, Indian influence started waning and possibly the Indians machinated
his assassination. Khaleda Zia is also possibly a thorn in India's side and
efforts are at hand to destabilize her Government so that pro-Indian Shaikh
Mujib's daughter Hasina Wajid may become the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and
tow the Indian line and ensure the accomplishment of Indian designs in the
region.

Fazlur Rahman took pains to state that unless Pakistan had achieved its
independence, Bangladesh would not have been created. It was thus the
culmination of Quaid's 'Two-Nation Theory' and not its negation as India claims. <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' />
He was visibly pained when he described that "India was endeavouring to destroy
our motherland (Bangladesh) since her existence. They have not only constructed
53 Dams out of 54 common international rivers flowing through Indian Territory
to Bangladesh. More so, India is planning to deprive Bangladesh from her
rightful share of waters of common international rivers by implementing
water-diverting river linking mega project. Through this river linking mega
project India would divert all the waters of those 54 international rivers
during lean period to augment flow of Indian rivers in far-flung areas. If this
inhuman project is implemented, Bangladesh would turn into a desert within 30/40
years and her 14 crore people will die of hunger and arsenic infection!
." To foil Indian designs including preparing the nation for war against India
if so needed and to bring about a positive and peoples' welfare oriented
political change, General Fazlur Rahman launched a peoples' oriented Islamic
values based political platform namely "Nirdolio Jono Andolon" (Non-Party
Peoples' Movement) in April 2004. He claims that people at grass-roots level are
showing all-out support to this extraordinary organization and have started
forming committees at various levels on their own initiative. The party is
planning to field candidates in all 300 constituencies of the National Assembly
in the elections of 2006. The Party Manifesto aims at eliminating corruption and
focusing on the creation of a National Army to defeat India. It also aspires to
sever/detach northeast India from Indian mainland to foil river linking mega
project as well as restore the sovereignty of Sikkim and support Nepal, Bhutan
and Sikkim in wresting effective control of their water resources. A major endeavour of the group is restore "Nawabi Bangla" comprising West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Orissa from the clutches of India. The General
claims that these areas were lost to the East India Company as a result of the
Battle of Plassey. He believes that all these can be achieved with the use of
people's power since there are 12 crores of homogeneous Muslims having common
religion, language, culture and race, which is a unique feature. If required, as
a complement to the National Army, an army of millions of Muslim freedom
fighters could be raised.

He quoted Mona Sangheeta's concept which implies that "Any country with
adjoining borders with India will be inimical to it so India can never enjoy
good relations with it." The General was very confident and sanguine that a
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) could be organized to contain India
comprising the States mentioned above. The CIS would pledge solidarity with the
Muslim world and have special relations with Pakistan. The aspirations of Major
General Fazlur Rahman are not unique. A majority of the Bengalis I met,
expressed their helplessness over the harassment and bullying being inflicted by
India over Bangladesh. They appeared to regret the break-off from Pakistan as
they quoted Indian Occupation Forces, when they entered Dhaka in 1971, after
seeing the development established infrastructure and prosperity, who remarked,
"What were you grievances against Pakistan? Even India is not as developed as
you are!" It is a crying shame and height of Chanakyan guile
and duplicity that having "aided" the Bengalis in the formation of Bangladesh,
they are now out to destabilize them and keep them acquiescent to India. Most of
the Indian Embassies/Consulates around the world are dens for hatching RAW
plots. These set-ups are grouped together on regional basis under one head,
known as the RAW centre. This includes the espionage efforts as well as the
subversion, sabotage and terrorism oriented operations. RAW centres at London,
Dubai, Iran, and South Africa operate against Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Indian hegemony and State terrorism even under the garb of diplomatic niceties
is a cause for concern.

India continues with its intransigence to bully and terrorize its neighbours by
employing various means among others implementing the river-diversion plans and
extending support to rebels or the oppositions of member countries with a view
to realizing its objectives. India is pressurising Nepal and Bangladesh to make
them realize that if they do not 'fall in line' they will face insurgency and/or
water shortages. Arun Rajnath of the South Asia Tribune July 12, 2004, discloses
the shenanigans of Indian secret agency RAW's operatives in his revealing
article, aptly titled: 'As Diplomats Hug and Talk, Secret India, Pakistan
Intelligence Wars Go On'. His exposÃ© of the RAW's offensive is really an
eye-opener. He states, "Such an intelligence practice is not new. Israeli secret
agency Mossad has infiltrated several Jewish agents into the occupied territory
of Palestine as Muslims. These agents practice Islam like any ordinary Muslim.
They say prayers in mosques, observe fast during Ramadan, and mingle into local Muslim population just to wait for the appropriate time to strike. During the armed struggle in former East Pakistan, Indian Army regulars, after they were physically made to look like Muslims and taught Bangla, were pushed into East Pakistan to fight as Mukti Bahini against the Pakistan Army."

The cross-border terrorism offensive plan of RAW includes working on ethnic,
regional, parochial and secular themes. RAW is extremely active in Bangladesh to
topple Khaleda Zia and ensure the Bengalis remain under pressure. After India
sabotaged the recent SAARC Summit scheduled to be hosted by Dhaka, Seema
Mustafa, writing for the Deccan Chronicle, in a hard hitting article titled:
India's foreign policy is now fuelled by 'wannabe' arrogance, commented, "Indian
foreign policy continues to steer an uncertain course with each morning being a
new day for policy makers basking under the artificial glow of India's bigness,
her power, and her stability. These strengths are converted into the single
weakness seen as arrogance by a neighbourhood that has for long been at the
receiving end of Indian shifts in policy as knee jerk responses, reactive
gestures, high-handedness, and even internal top level rivalries at home are
becoming the ingredients of policy that does not withstand
either scrutiny or the test of time. The Singh government is delusional if it
believes that its pulling out of the SAARC Summit will pressure Dhaka to wind up
the supposed training camps and embrace New Delhi as its great neighbour.

Rather, the move is likely to send the Bangladesh Government into a spin, make
it more resistant to overtures of any kind from India, and strengthen the
fundamentalist forces that are trying to control the functioning of the
Government." Under the prevailing scenario, General Fazlur Rahman's initiative
appears justified. How far he will succeed and what are his chances of success,
only time can tell. 

The past cannot be undone now, neither can the pages of history turned back but
with the cooperation of Bangladesh and all other weaker neighbours of India,
pressure can be mounted on India to renounce its hegemonic and authoritarian
ways and live and let live peacefully so that the region can exploit its full
potential of growth and development.

03-03-2005, 09:11 AM

Resistance against India in BD
Sultan M Hali

03-03-2005, 08:58 PM

From Mayer Dak = Mata Ki Pukar = Call of the Mother
March 3, 2005
The Bengali Motherland:
by Pabitra Kumar Ghosh
QUOTE[Translated from the Bengali newspaper 'Bartaman']
The National Puja Association of Bangladesh ('Puja Udjapan Parishad') protested against the extreme level of torture and persecution faced by the Hindu minority in that country. The persecution reached another climax in 1993. The organization took the decision that there would be no Durga Pratima or deity in any of the Durga Puja Mandaps in Bangladesh. There would be puja but only 'Ghat Puja'. There would be no Dhak (puja drums). There would be no festive lighting.

This conclusion was not reached haphazardly. Since 1947, the Dhaka government and the ruling elite did not hesitate to convey that the nation belongs only to the Muslims and the Hindus are not welcome. This attitude forced millions of Hindus to flee East Bengal (now Bangladesh). This vicious display and continuous propagation of this attitude have caused the Hindus to suffer from severe inferiority complex and fear. But, the majority of Hindu East Bengali refugees and their descendants on this side of the Padma (i.e. in West Bengal, Assam, etc) have not forgotten that the nation with the Rupsha, Meghna, Dhaleshwari rivers (i.e. East Bengal, now Bangladesh) is their Homeland. Even after 50 years of continuous societal and mental persecution. Their feelings for their motherland remain inextinguishable.

Therein lies the tragedy. The Bangladesh Government estimates its present Hindu population as 15 million. NGOs place the figure at above 20 million. Comparatively, Palestine has only a few hundred thousand residents, mostly Muslims. But there have been major international movements in support of the Palestinians' human rights. There has been conferences, wars, treaties, terrorist activities, etc. to restore their lost rights and liberties. But not even a tear has fallen for the 20 million Hindus in Bangladesh. 

It is known with certainty that Islam is a newcomer to East Bengal. The Muslim community there is only a few hundred years old. Hindus are there since ancient times. In Bengal Hinduism has been respected as the Eternal Religion since time immemorial.

The rulers of West Bengal are very well aware of this harsh cruel reality, but they don't let anyone know about the gory events in Bangladesh. The grievances and persecutions of the Bangladeshi Hindu community do not have a place in the West Bengal media.

Therefore, today the Bengali Mother is weeping all by herself. Whenever even a minor persecution occurs in any far-flung nation in the world, the 'brave' intellectuals of West Bengal generate mass protests. But if a Hindu from Dhaka or Bhola suffers severe persecution, the 'Progressive Patrons' of Calcutta stay silent on the subject. This heartless cruel hypocrisy is unmatched anywhere.

03-10-2005, 01:16 AM

Was posted in another thread..

QUOTEDefiant Bangladesh
Our neighbour is crying for military punishment.

9 March 2005: On Monday, Bangladesh told the Indian foreign office that it would not deport ULFAâs founding general secretary, fundraiser, money-launderer and much-wanted terrorist, Anup Chetia. On the other hand, Indian investigators could question Chetia, provided they produced specific changes (Intelligence, âBangladesh refuses to deport ULFA leader,â 8 March 2005). The suggestion here is that Bangladesh is a liberal democracy, which protects human rights, while India is a monster state, where rule of law is nonexistent.

The Bangladeshi rejection has not been taken up by the Union cabinet, preoccupied with the self-inflicted wounds in Goa, Jharkhand and Bihar, but the foreign office is expected to take the lead soon. The conditional access granted to Indian investigators wonât be accepted, and pressure will be mounted to deport Chetia. The foreign ministry believes it can do the job of pressuring Bangladesh adequately, but for that, foreign minister Natwar Singh has to show more steel towards anti-India SAARC countries than he has shown so far.

Chetia ended a seven-year-three-month jail sentence for illegally entering Bangladesh on 25 February (Intelligence, âBangladesh extends Anup Chetiaâs custodyâ). Since Indiaâs deportation request was pending, Chetia should have been given up promptly, there being no other case against him. But Bangladeshâs home ministry intervened to cancel a prison release order, and almost simultaneously, a Dhaka-based human-rights group moved a petition in the high court saying Chetia was personally threatened and ought not to be deported to India.

To the Indian foreign office, Bangladesh has taken the plea that Chetia faces fresh trials in cases of kidnapping in the country and money laundering, and therefore cannot be given up. India has protested that Bangladesh never mentioned these cases before. âIt is a transparent attempt to hold Chetia indefinitely in Bangladesh,â said an official. âBut this time, we are going to call Bangladeshâs bluff.â

Since Khalida Zia came to power in October 2001, rollercoaster relations with India have steadily plunged, starting with government-backed pogroms against the Hindu minority. Since the Jamaat-e-Islami is part of Ziaâs coalition government, Islamists have taken growing control of the country. Al-Qaeda leaders and leaders of allied terrorist groups like the Jamah Islamiyah have found sanctuary in Bangladesh from Pakistan. Saudi Arabia is pumping in huge funds to advance Wahabism through mosques, madrasas, and terrorists training camps, some of which have come up near the border with India.

The ISI, for its part, is using this entire established terrorist infrastructure to destabilise Indiaâs North East. Last yearâs violence in the North East originated from Bangladesh. More recently, General Pervez Musharraf ordered Pakistanâs terrorist leadership to relocate its cadres in Bangladesh, and use that country as a base for terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir (Commentary, âCompromising season,â 3 March 2005).

Add to this growing Bangladeshi links with the druglords of South-East Asia. Bangladesh has become a major world centre for refining heroin, and heroin is among its major exports to Singapore and Thailand, whence they are taken by couriers to the European mainland and America. As a failed state, Bangladesh needs terrorist and Saudi funds to keep afloat, and large sections of the population are being sucked into the drug trade or to provide hospitality to visiting terrorist leaders and groups.

Indiaâs concern which generally flows from this rapid Islamisation, Wahabisation and terrorisation of Bangladesh also has a specific root in the alarming spread of North East militant camps in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Sylhet, Jessore, Cox Bazaar, Mymensingh, and other places. The camps have grown from about sixty-five five years ago to over three hundred of them. The most dominant of the North East groups in Bangladesh is the ULFA, and such is its hold on the Bangladesh government, financial and otherwise, Zia is willing to go out on a limb to protect Anup Chetia. The measure of ULFAâs importance for Bangladesh can be judged by the fact that it is willing to confront India, although Indiaâs easy-going attitude to Bangladeshi terrorism so far, infiltrations into India, and illegal migrations, have also contributed.

So, what to do?

When the UPA came to power, it believed the NDA had exaggerated the threat from Bangladesh, and it was in this light that defence minister Pranab Mukherjee overruled offensive action against the holed up North East terror groups there. He hoped that exerted pressure on Bangladesh would force terrorist leaders to flee to distant countries in the West, from where it would be difficult to control terrorist actions. What Mukherjee did not count on was Bangladeshi resistance to Indian pressure, Khalida Zia believing that the UPA would be softer towards her than the NDA.

But UPA attitudes changed after the attempted assassination of the Bangladesh opposition leader, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, and the agencies reflected anger for being kept out of the April-2004 Chittagong arms haul investigations. The government wanted to adopt a carrot-and-stick approach, agree to buy anything that Bangladesh exported, provided it shut the terror camps and acted against the operating North East groups like Bhutan and Myanmar. Typically, the stick was never hinted at much less displayed. The refusal to deport Anup Chetia establishes a new high point of Bangladeshi defiance of India, and now India has to show it is willing and able to wield the stick as well.

Being a pipsqueak, ragtag state, even a token offensive mounted by the Indian military, particularly the IAF, is sufficient to get Bangladesh on its knees. For some months now, the Indian Army has been pressing for air raids against the established North East terror camps in Bangladesh. âIf we destroy about fifty camps either in the CHT area or Sylhet with precision bombing,â said a general staff officer, âchildâs play really for the IAF, Bangladesh should come to its senses pronto. We donât necessarily hide the raids. We do it and tell Bangladesh we did it, and to be prepared for worse unless it heeds Indiaâs security concerns. Bangladesh will come crawling, and then we can provide salves in the form of opening our markets to them, buying whatever they produce, etc. But you have to wield the stick first.â

The military understands more than any institution the necessity of bilateral friendships, but its patience is worn thin with Bangladesh. There is general disbelief about the foreign officeâs capacity or inclination to coerce Bangladesh, but for the moment, the military is willing to go along. But pressure is mounting on the government to show Bangladesh its place. âEveryone accepts,â said an official, âthat Bangladesh needs solution, otherwise it could turn a worse problem than Pakistan.â

03-17-2005, 10:03 PM

QUOTEBSF agrees to stop fencing at disputed places 
Agencies/ Agartala
Border Security Force today agreed to stop construction of barbed wire fencing at disputed places along the border with Bangladesh.

The BSF's decision came on the final day of the three-day meeting with Bangadesh rifles, which is opposing the construction of barbed wire fencing which falls within 150 yard of the border, here, BDR officer Brig Gen Golam Rabbani told reporters at Akhaura border check post.

Rabbani said BSF has agreed to stop construction of fencing at disputed places and both sides also agreed in the meeting to honour the border guidelines of 1975 agreement between the two countries.

BSF IG S K Dutta, who led the Indian delegation at the meeting, said "the Indian agencies would carry out the fencing along the Indo-Bangla border but we would halt the fencing at a couple of places where the BDR is adamant".

"The decision to halt fencing at some places was taken to de-escalate tension in some areas" Dutta said.

04-17-2005, 11:42 AM

Indo-Bangladesh talks end amid border clashQUOTEFour people were killed in an exchange of fire between Indian and Bangladeshi border troops while their top officials were wrapping up a meeting in Dhaka, security officials said on Sunday.

The casualties from Saturday's gunbattle along Bangladesh's eastern Akhaura border involved "people from both sides of the frontier", one official said without giving details.

Late on Saturday, the chiefs of India's Border Security Force (BSF) and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) concluded a five-day meeting in Dhaka without any agreement on ending disputes over India fencing the border.
.....

Bangladesh does not oppose the Indian fencing project, but objects when the fence is erected too close to the zero line.

"We cannot accept fencing within 150 yards (metres) from the zero line," said BDR chief Major-General Jahangir Alam Chowdhury.
....................
Sixteen Indian and three Bangladeshi soldiers were killed in 2001 in the bloodiest border clash


This is serious.

04-18-2005, 10:10 AM

BSF sounds alert for troops in Assam, Meghalaya sectors

04-18-2005, 10:20 AM

BDR tortures, kills BSF officerQUOTETwo BSF jawans, Venukumar and K K Surendran, were also injured in the incident. The villager, Ramdhan Pal, is still missing and believed to be held captive at Fakiramura BOP in Brahmanbaria district.

However, BDR's 7-battalion Fakiramura camp commander Lt Col Syed Quamruzzaman accused the BSF of entering into Bangladesh territory and resorting to looting in Hirapur village.

"For the first time in world history that a border guard officer was treacherously kidnapped and killed by his counterparts during a flag meeting. It is just unbelievable and against international norms and ethics," thundered A Jaya Paul, BSF sector commander.

It was murder in cold blood, the officer... 
Islamist don't have ethics and another example of short memory of Indians who have forgotten 1000 years of atrocites and ugly partiton.

Sunder · 04-19-2005, 08:48 PM

From Rediff: India mute on Jeevan Kumar's slaughter

Late in the evening on Saturday, April 16, an assistant commandant and a constable of the Border Security Force, on duty at Lankamura outpost on the India-Bangladesh border a mere 8 km from Tripura's capital, Agartala, were dragged into Bangladeshi territory.

By the time the BSF got them back, Assistant Commandant Jeevan Kumar was dead. He had been shot at point blank range. Injuries on his body indicate he was brutally knifed before being killed. Constable K K Surendran, seriously injured, is battling for his life.

Reports suggest that the two were rushed by a group of Bangladeshis in civilian clothes, dragged across the border and then set upon by Bangladesh Rifles personnel. All the while, the BDR kept firing on the Lankamura outpost. The firing stopped around midnight, followed by a hastily arranged flag meeting during which Kumar's lifeless body and a barely alive Surendran were handed over to the BSF.

The incident revives memories of the slaughter of 16 jawans of the BSF by the BDR on April 18, 2001. On that occasion, Bangladeshi civilians had trapped the BSF jawans into crossing the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya. BDR personnel then killed the jawans in cold blood.

04-19-2005, 09:36 PM

Muslim votes are more important than to a life of Indian soldiers. I hope next posting of this BSF battalion should be in Delhi to provide security to politicians. That will make my day.

India don't have strategy against Bhukadesh.

04-19-2005, 10:57 PM

QUOTEIndia protests killing of BSF officerÂ
Agencies/ New Delhi
Strongly protesting the "premediated and preplanned" killing of a senior BSF officer by men of Bangladesh Rifles, India has warned Dhaka that its "repercussions" cannot be ignored.

Bangladesh Acting High Commissioner in Delhi Masud bin Momen was summoned to the South Block yesterday and was conveyed India's "deep disappointment and regret" over the killing of BSF Assistant Commandant Jeewan Kumar on Saturday.

According to reports, Kumar who while trying to secure the release of a villager on Tripura's border with Bangladesh was dragged across the zero line by men of the BDR, tourtured and killed.

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