BANGLADESH POLITICS

It is up to India to try to stop Sheikh Hasina ruining Bangladesh
May 26th 2012 | The Economist
THE Punch-and-Judy show of Bangladeshi politics, in which the ruling party—run by the daughter of a former president—bashes the opposition—run by the widow of a former president—before swapping places with it, has been running for decades. The outside world rarely pays attention because nothing seems to change.
Recently, though, the squabbling has turned into a crisis  which threatens to make life still worse for the 170m poor Muslims who suffer under one of the world’s worst governments. Since Bangladesh’s political leaders show no interest in their fate, outsiders need to do so. [+++]

The prime minister sets the country on a dangerous path

May 26th 2012 | DHAKA | The Economist

Inching through the crowded streets of Bangladesh’s capital brings both exhilaration and frustration. Dhaka’s garishly painted tricycle rickshaws, battered buses, occasional goats and luxury cars somehow all manage to creep onward. Drivers skilled at furious honking are also masters of compromise and smiles.[+++]

 

Rogue regime smashing democracy in Bangladesh

| by Jessica Fox

( April 24, 2012, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Something is wrong in a small South Asian nation, where a authoritarian regime is gradually enforcing series of anti-people policies, making direct threat to country’s democracy, which had been repeatedly disrupted by bloody and bloodless military coups since it got liberated from Pakistan in 1971. Bangladesh, though a small nation with a total 160 million homogenous population is heading towards another playground of Marxists and Stalinists, who grabbed power through an engineered election in 2008 with the help of military junta. Many of the political experts on South Asian affairs fear...[+++]

Enforced Disappearance & Fascists in Bangladesh

| by Jessica Fox

( April 23, 2012, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Democracy in one of the South Asian nations visibly is at the most vulnerable state now, when the ruling party, Bangladesh Awami League is applying nefarious tactics of secret killings, abduction, forced disappearance and massive corruption at the blessings and patronization of the ruling elites. The case of enforced disappearance though started in Bangladesh for past three and half years since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formed the government, the issue has now drawn attention of the global community, when recently a former MP and prominent leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, M Ilias Ali disappeared.. [+++ ]

Ghulam Azam......A Victim of Conscience
Tuesday, 17 Jan 2012
M Ayub Munir
Bangladesh government established the ‘International Crimes Tribunal’ claiming to put behind bars all those who were supposed to be involved in loot, plunder and arson rape and killings during war of independence in 1971.

In a country which has a list of unresolved problems, this issue has provided electronic and print media with a topic of interest. After nabbing NP and JIBD central leaders, Hasina government has arrested Professor Ghulam Azam under same false pretext. If the human rights violations remain unchecked by international body, BD government may create many more problems for itself. It is a known reality that, outside India, Hasina wajed is a trustworthy ally to New Delhi, no matter in power or in opposition... [++]




Misusing the past
Aug 1st 2011, 17:16 by A.R. | DHAKA
The Economist
"It all smells of emerging autocracy."
WHY isn’t there more cheering in Bangladesh as the country gets ready to mark 40 years of independence? So far there have been few efforts to rouse the masses, though the government did confer a posthumous prize last week on Indira Gandhi, as a way of crediting India for helping create Bangladesh in 1971... [++]




Rohingya Muslims, a photo essay
Without a homeland, without a hope
By Tony Cliff
Southeast Asia, Apr 9, 2011
COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh - Mahamuda Khatur remembers the fateful day three years ago. At dawn her husband had left their Kutupalong refugee camp in southern Bangladesh for the forest to fetch firewood he would sell to other refugees or local people. He never returned.

....a constant victim of a chauvinist Buddhist regime animated by anti-Muslim and anti-Indian sentiment dating back to the British colonial occupation ...[++]





"the Pakistan army, were let loose. Operation Searchlight had been unleashed. The murder of a nation was underway."
Even sleeping children were not spared on the horrific night of March 25, 1971, when the Pakistani army attacked the Bangalees.
Dr Kamal Hossain spent the whole of March 25, 1971 waiting for the call which General Peerzada had promised he would make. He as well as the other leading figures of the Awami League knew that time was running out, that unless a proclamation came from President Yahya Khan chaos would descend on East Bengal...[++]

The India doctrine and the elimination of political opposition in Bangladesh
By Sohail Taj , UK [Posted on News From Bangladesh]
The repression of the political opposition and the increasing intolerance of the ruling alliance headed by the Awami League should not be considered as politics as usual in Bangladesh. We are witnessing the final acts of a play that had been suspended in 1975 but has now been renewed under improved...[++]




They just disappear
It has been a month since Shamsher Mollah went missing during the clashes between villagers and law enforcers in Rupganj over purchase of land for an army housing project. Most of Shamsher's family members now seem certain that he will never return.
Yet, Sumi Akhter, his mother, sits under a mango tree for hours every day, gazing at the country road...[++]

Torture in Police Custody

HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT BY ODHIKAR

Mohammad. Idris Ali of Chittagong metropolitan, killed allegedly as a result of torture inflicted upon him at Baizid Bostami police station lockup and in the central jail. Idris Ali (35) of Burma Colony, Baizid Bostami , Chittagong metropolitan, died at 6:10 am on the morning of 26h September, 2010, while receiving treatment...[++]

 

The State of Democracy and Political Freedom in Bangladesh

The Bangladesh Awami League (BAL) currently in power in the country has a murky, mixed past. Though the party is generally given the credit of leading the liberation war of 1971, its democratic credentials are quite unimpressive and dubious to say the least. While BAL leaders, intellectuals and activists revel in the political credit scoring on 1971 upheavals,..[++]

Digital Bangladesh: A Dream?

As we have slowly forged towards becoming a better-nation, we have failed to ensure that all parts of our society benefits. Can the unbound surge made by technology in recent years help us make amends. Can technology really change our lives forever?..[++]

Bangladesh: Regime's Cruel Exercise of Power
Bangladesh Government's onslaught of fascist actions against opposition parties and media that grossly violate justice, human rights and democratic norms, which unless intervened and abetted may lead this poor nation to a civil war. As part of this digital BAKSALi fascist government's political repression, the Ameer, Secretary General and Nayeb e Ameer of Bangladesh Jamaat Islami (BJI), the largest democratic Islamic party, were arrested Tuesday 29th of June for a frivolously fabricated alleged charge...[++]