Committees to suppress opponents: BNP Opposition Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque

BANGLADESH NEWS

“The Prime Minister has announced formation of committees to oppress the opposition. Police are indiscriminately opening fire on the opposition activists across Bangladesh,” Opposition Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque told a discussion programme in the city on Saturday.

Sheikh Hasina has ordered formation of anti-terror committees in the wake of countrywide violence ‘unleashed by the Jamaat-e-Islami’ after one of its leaders Delwar Hossain Sayedee was sentenced to death by the first war crimes tribunal of Bangladesh.

The Jamaat top notch was given death sentence for crimes against humanity during the nation’s struggle for freedom in 1971.

Farroque also questioned the intentions of the government as the former offered to hold talks with the opposition to end the political impasse.

Ruling Awami League’s General Secretary and LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam on Thursday said the government was ready to hold talks with the opposition to pull the country out of the turmoil.

“On the one hand the government was asking for talks and on the other it was announcing to form committees to thwart the opposition,” Farroque alleged.

“This proves the government is not cordial about holding talks,” he added.

The BNP leader held the government responsible for the recent violent spree and reiterated his party’s demand for restoring the caretaker government provision to oversee the national elections. He called for a bill to be tabled in Parliament to this effect immediately.

He warned the government not to mistake the BNP as a small party. “It is not a party of Kolkata’s Theatre Road, it is the party of freedom fighters.”

Pro-BNP doctors’ panel DAB organised the discussion to mark the day of imprisonment of party’s senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman.

Tarique was detained on Mar 7, 2007 during the military-backed caretaker 

'Ganajagaran' going beyond Dhaka-Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

The organisers of the youth uprising are drumming up support for their demand of execution of all war criminals and a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami for war crimes.

Shahbagh came under spotlight on Feb 5 when a few youths, convened by Blogger and Online Activist Network, took to the streets at the intersection protesting against what they said ‘lenient sentence’ against war crime convict Abdul Quader Molla.

The protest drew support from people of all walks of life spreading across the country, with Ganajagaran Mancha replicated in different districts and divisions.

The decision to hold rally at Laldighi Maidan in Chittagong came following over a month-long protest in the capital.

During the period the protesters held six rallies in different parts of the capital with the last one taking place at the Suhrawardi Uddyan on Mar 7.

Ganajagaran Mancha spokesperson Imran H Sarker announced the new protest programmes after the Narijagaran Rally that ended successfully even after two bomb explosions near the stage at around 5pm on Friday.

He urged all education institutions across the country to organise rallies on Mar 16 in support of the Mancha.

It was announced that the next rally of the Mancha would be organised on Mar 10 at the intersection at Uttara 11 number sector, followed by rallies in Chittagong and Ashulia on Mar 13 and 15 respectively.

The Chittagong rally will be followed by another rally at Chittagong University in the morning the same day.

Friday’s Nari Jagaran rally started with rendering of the national anthem at around 4:30pm. It was organised to commemorate those women who were tortured and killed during the Liberation War in 1971.

The explosions took place about 15 minutes later. Organisers chanted slogan “Joy Bangla” to allay fear and requested participants not to leave their position. The rally continued uninterrupted.

Transparency International, Bangladesh Chairperson Sultana Kamal was on the stage at the time the explosion occurred.

“It is not unexpected that bombs will be hurled at us. Those who were against the country’s Independence carried out such acts earlier, and will continue performing their acts. It will not be able to stop our movement,” Kamal said immediately after the explosions.

People irrespective of their professional identities and class began thronging the venue since 1pm in processions.

Children came in large numbers with their mothers or sisters.

Women of different ages carried banners, festoons, and placards to join the rally. Many of them used headbands to demand death to all war criminals.

The venue was full to the brim by 3pm.

A photography exhibition themed woman in protest and struggles was also organised near the venue.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and Sculptor Ferdousi Priyobhasini were present during the rally.

Moni stayed there for 40 minutes. While leaving she told journalists the spirit of the Independence War was to build a society free of any discrimination.

“The spirit has been resurrected by the young generation. The spirit of Ganajagaran is the spirit of ’71.”

“The Ganajagaran of the young generation has brought back our valour. Hanging war criminals may give women some solace for the assault they underwent during 1971,” said Priyobhasini, a freedom fighter.

The rally concluded by all making an oath that they would not return home until all war criminals were hanged. Imran administered the oath from the stage erected for the programme.

Several thousands participants promised that they would boycott all financial, social and cultural organisations tied to the war criminals. They also pledged to boycott the media owned by people patronising the war criminals and their activities.

Imran reminded all that women repressors of the 1971 were yet to be brought to book.

“We announce our firm commitment that we will fight for ensuring the highest punishment to the war criminals who had handed our mother-sister to the Pakistan army. Our movement will continue until our six demands are met. At the same time we will take care of all types of discrimination against women.”

Thousands of the participants stood in silence for a minute to honour Tanvir Mohammad Twaki. Son of Narayanganj Ganajagaran Mancha unit organiser Rafiur Rabbi, Twaki was gagged to death before his body being dumped in Shitalakkhya river in Narayanganj. His body was found on Friday, two days after he had gone missing.

Lukcy Akter, who rose to prominence for her fiery voice chanting anti-war criminal slogan, urged BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to come and join their movement.

“This movement does not belong to any political party. This stage has been built to demand that all war criminals be hanged.”

Dhaka University’s Chhatra Federation unit’s President Samiya Rahman said reactionary forces always pushed women backwards the moment they took to the streets demanding equal rights.

JSD Chhatra League Member Shrabanti Akter wondered how the opposition leader, being the wife of a freedom fighter, could side with war criminals when people were out on the street for justice against war crimes.

“Leave Razakar’s company and stand by the side of Ganajagaran. Stand with the people.”

Samajtantrik Chhatra Front's Eden College unit General Secretary Mukta Baroi remembered those women who sacrificed their lives for an independent Bangladesh.

Wasfia Nazreen, who scaled Everest as the second Bangladeshi woman, welcomed the women for participating in the rally overcoming all obstacles and fearsome propaganda.

Chhatra Moitry’s Vice President Anima Sultana Shaon demanded that those who tore the national flag and demolished Shaheed Minar recently be identified, and their citizenship be revoked.

Former DUCSU VP Sharmin Sultana Lipi and prominent actor Ferdousi Majumder also spoke among others.

near the ‘Ganajagaran Mancha’ ‘Bombs hurled from 5th floor’

BANGLADESH NEWS

A Rapid Action Battalion official was injured in the explosions that rocked the rally venue at around 4:45pm. bdnews24.com correspondent Suliman Niloy saw the RAB member bleeding as the shrapnels hit him.

RAB intelligence branch chief Ziaul Ahsan told that injured Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) Jalal Uddin was admitted to a city hospital right away.

The bombs exploded 100 yards from the Ganajagaran Mancha, the platform of the youth uprising that has captured the imagination of the nation with demands of death sentence for all war crimes convicts and a ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami that committed war crimes to thwart independence in 1971.

One of the witnesses, theatre group Natyadhara member ‘Beauty’ said: “I saw a man wearing a black T-shirt hurling two bombs from the fifth floor [of BSMMU]. Then I heard the explosions.”

“I went up immediately to that floor with some more people. We found a pair of sandals in that exact place. There were some people on that floor and the situation was normal. I have also told the police about the sandals,” she said.

“The bombs were hurled from inside of the Block-A of the BSMMU. Both bombs exploded within one-foot radius,” another witness, Sheikh Jahel, 30, added.

Friday’s explosions at Shahbagh were the first of any kind of attack as no such incident took place in the past month since the peaceful and spontaneous movement began at the intersection.

Hundreds of people wielding sticks and metal rods tried to storm BSMMU’s Block-A right after the explosions. But the Ganajagaran Mancha activists, police and hospital security staff stopped them as police and RAB swept the whole building and the area.

Later, around 5:55pm Shahbagh Police’s Officer-in-Charge Sirajul Islam said, “We searched the whole block. We have also detained and are quizzing several people including the fifth floor canteen staff upon suspicion.”

They detained 15 people during the raid and drove them away in a police van at around 6:15pm.

Shahbagh police Inspector MA Jalil said that the detainees were brought to the Detective Branch headquarters of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police at Minto Road and being interrogated.

Security measures have been ramped up at the hospital gate since the detonations of the bombs.

bdnews24.com correspondent Shahidul Islam was near the main stage of the Nari Jagaran rally, organised to mark the International Women’s Day on Friday.

He said the blasts panicked the crowd sitting on the street between BSMMU and BIRDEM.

The organisers asked the people to keep calm as they shouted 'Joy Bangla' to allay fears following the explosions, urging all to not budge a bit.

A group of people brandishing sticks had entered the BSMMU right away as the bombs were thrown from there. The rally continued uninterrupted 15 minutes after the explosions.

The demonstrators, mainly young men and women, have been carrying out the movement at Shahbagh since Feb 5 demanding death penalty to all war criminals. The movement stepped into its 32nd day on Friday.

They also want nationalisation of Jamaat‘s considerable assets.

On Feb 15, one of the frontline Shahbagh activists and blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was killed near his Pallabi residence. Another online activist Saniur Rahman was stabbed on Thursday night.

‘No security lack’

Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hassan Mahmood Khandaker said the bomb explosions were ‘unexpected’.

He said the blasts did not take place because of a lack of security at the area.

Khandaker visited the scene around 7:30pm, two and a half hours after the explosions.

Bangladesh Awami League showdown Mar 18

BANGLADESH NEWS

The rally is perhaps also aimed at taking the wind away from the sails of the BNP which is trying to revive the movement for the restoration of the caretaker arrangement to conduct national parliament elections.

The momentum for the rally will be worked up during the celebration of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's birthday on March 17.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to attend Bangabandhu's birthday celebrations at Tungipara on Mar 17. That is why the rally marking the occasion of birthday of Bangabandhu is scheduled for Mar 18, Awami League leaders said.

On the other hand, the party has said it was now ready for talks with BNP over any issue on Mar 7. In an attempt to isolate the Jamaat from the Opposition alliance, Awami League leaders have said Jamaat was bad news for BNP.

For the past few months, Awami League on its own did not hold a mass rally in the capital after the grand rally on March 14 last year, though some sponsored by the 14-Party Alliance did take place.

Awami League’s Deputy-Publicity Secretary Ashim Kumar Ukil told bdnews24.com that the party’s General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam will be meeting other party leaders to make arrangements for the March 18 rally.

Another press release signed by Awami League Deputy-Office Secretary Mrinal Kanti Das said Syed Ashraful Islam will meet leaders of Dhaka, Narsinghdi, Gazipur, Manikganj, Narayanganj and Munshiganj at 11:00am.

Party leaders will also discuss future strategies with other pro-liberation groups to take forward the spirit of ’71 in the Dhanmondi office on Monday.

Meanwhile 14-party Alliance is expected to host a rally at 3:00pm on Saturday in Mirpur-12 BRTC bus depot demanding quick trials and execution of verdicts for war criminals.

Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s finest hour

BANGLADESH NEWS

It was his finest hour. It was the afternoon of 7 March 1971. It was but the beginning of what would turn out to be a twilight struggle for national self-expression, for eventual liberation from colonial rule. It was the weight of the world Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, undisputed leader of the Bangalee nation, chief of the Awami League and majority leader in the newly elected Pakistan national assembly, carried on his shoulders as he stepped up to the dais at the Race Course (today’s Suhrawardy Udyan), ready to sketch his guidelines for his people to follow in the developing confrontation with the civil-military-political combine of West Pakistan.

There were many who expected Bangabandhu to go for a unilateral declaration of independence for Bangladesh. There were others who waited to see what his political wisdom, garnered over years of experience, would bring forth for the seventy five million people of what was yet a province of the state of Pakistan. In the event, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman demonstrated his mettle in no uncertain terms. He would not go for UDI, for that would leave him open to charges of political adventurism. And he would not, under any circumstances, give Pakistan’s ruling classes any reason to think that he was about to come round to their expectations of a compromise he would agree to. Most significantly, he would let his people know that sovereignty was the goal, but it would be sovereignty arrived at on strong constitutional foundations. If constitutionalism did not work, the nation would find other, necessarily radical means to wage its war for freedom.

The oratory was superb. His opening words were a sign of the burden of responsibility he carried:

“My brothers, I come before you today with a heavy heart.

All of you know hard we have tried. But it is a matter of sadness that the streets of Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rangpur and Rajshahi are today being spattered with the blood of my brothers . . .

… With great sadness in my heart, I look back on the past twenty three years of our history and see nothing but a history of the shedding of the blood of the Bangalee people. Ours has been a history of continual sadness, repeated bloodshed and innocent tears.”

It was a tale of exploitation Bangabandhu related to that million-strong crowd on the day. And yet there was the conciliatory in his approach to the state of Pakistan:

“I even went to the extent of saying that we, despite our majority, would still listen to any sound ideas from the minority, even if it were a lone voice. I committed myself to supporting any measure that would lead to the restoration of a constitutional government.”

Mujib listed the meetings he had thus far had with politicians from West Pakistan and then moved to matter of the sudden postponement of the national assembly session on 1 March and Yahya Khan’s invitation to him to join a round table conference in Rawalpindi on March 10:

“Now Yahya Khan says that I had agreed to a round table conference on the 10th. I had said, ‘Mr. Yahya Khan, you are the president of this country. Come to Dhaka, come and see how our poor Bangalee people have been mown down by your bullets, how the laps of our mothers and sisters have been robbed and left empty and bereft of children, how my helpless people have been slaughtered’.

Earlier, I had told him there could be no round table conference. What round table conference? Whose round table conference?  Mujibur Rahman cannot step on the blood of the martyrs and join a round table conference.”

The oratory reaches a crescendo. He tells the junta in no ambiguous terms:

“You have called the national assembly into session, but you must first agree to meet my demands. Martial law must be withdrawn; all soldiers must go back to the barracks; an inquiry into the killings must be initiated; and, power must be transferred to the elected representatives of the people.

Only then can we consider if we can or cannot join the round table conference.”

Bangabandhu then proceeded to outline a series of steps as part of his non-violent non-cooperation movement, warning the Bangalees that they needed to be on alert against the enemy:

“I call upon you to turn every home into a fortress against their onslaught. Use whatever means you have to confront the enemy . . . Even if I am not around to give you directives, I ask you to continue your movement in a ceaseless manner.”

And then came the decisive moment, the words that defined the road to the future:

“Since we have given blood, we will give more of it. Insha’Allah, we will free the people of this land.

The struggle this time is for emancipation. The struggle this time is for independence.

Joy Bangla!”

Abdul Jalil Politician to the core,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

Abdul Jalil (1939-2013)

The death of Abdul Jalil at the age of seventy four brings to an end a political career that could have scaled the peaks of high ambition and yet did not quite find fulfillment. It was the final stages of his career, beginning with the advent of the Fakhruddin-led caretaker government in January 2007, that will perhaps remain a point of reference in Bangladesh’s political calendar. His arrest by the authorities under rather draconian emergency laws and the humiliation he was subjected to in detention were happenings that upset the national psyche. Making matters worse was the release of the details of his interrogation by the regime, evidently with a view to adding to his predicament. It was action that blackened the image of a government which had originally started off on a mission of reform.

And yet, for all the miseries he went through in the final phase of his life, Jalil was an important, sometimes intriguing figure in national politics. His negotiations with the BNP’s Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan in a bid to have the two major national parties reach a point of agreement on the future yielded no results, but they did point to his prominence on the national arena. His prediction in the early years of the last decade that the government, then led by the BNP, would fall, left citizens bewildered. To add to the consternation, Jalil even set a date, 30 April, by which the government would collapse. The day came, and went. The government did not fall. What went into a clear slide was Jalil’s reputation as a politician. It was sheer pain watching a man who had entered politics under the tutelage of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman become a target of ridicule. He was supposed to have been a politician with a different image.

That politics was Abdul Jalil’s first and last, as also lasting, love came through his coming away from London, where he had gone to study for the bar, in the late 1960s and joining the Awami League. The times were exciting; Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had revived the party and the momentous Six Points had burst upon the country. The Bangalee nation was coming into its own. Jalil wished to be part of the change that was to be. And indeed he became part of the change as the Bangalee nation went through the many phases of its long revolution, all the way up to the liberation of East Pakistan as the independent state of Bangladesh in 1971.

His moment of triumph came in 1996 when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave him charge of the ministry of commerce in her government. His record as a minister was unblemished and perhaps he could have had the experience of presiding over other ministries had the Awami League not lost the general elections of October 2001. Jalil would then perhaps have taken a back seat in the party had Sheikh Hasina, unwilling to choose between such men as Tofail Ahmed and Abdur Razzaq in her quest for a general secretary for the party, not made the shrewd move to have Jalil take over as the new general secretary. He did quite a good job, if that inexplicable talk of 30 April is not taken into account.

Abdul Jalil’s fortunes took a nosedive when his party returned to power at the elections of December 2008. He was still general secretary but was kept at arm’s length, probably because of what was seen as his abject submission before the caretaker authorities when his wife appealed for his release from incarceration and treatment. He was not quite the same man after that ordeal; and his party was not quite the same organization he had been privileged to be part of. He was eased out of his position. He did come back to parliament, though, from his Naogaon constituency, at the 2008 elections and was inducted into the largely toothless advisory council of the Awami League. But his focus by then had become his own Mercantile Bank, to which he devoted his waking hours.

In Abdul Jalil throbbed the soul of a patriot, a freedom fighter. He was a truly political animal, despite the intense hurt politics eventually inflicted on him. In his last years, despite his disillusionment, he remained loyal to his party and its leader. His belief in a democratic, secular Bangladesh was never in question. It endured.

Body arrives today

The body of Abdul Jalil MP will arrive in Dhaka from Singapore tonight. Tomorrow, 8 March, his first namaz-e-janaza will be held at 9.30 a.m. at the Mercantile Bank office in Dilkusha Commercial Area, Dhaka. It will be followed a second janaza before the Awami League central office in Dhaka at 10 a.m. A third janaza will be held at 11 a.m. at the south plaza of the Jatiyo Sangsad.

Salutation Shahbagh Shining,Dhaka-Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

In the past month, Shahbagh has been transformed, literally and metaphorically, into a polyphonic “glorious garden”. It is fitting that we have seen the birth of our “Bangla Spring” here, within the large radius of the University of Dhaka campus, in front of the vibrant flower stalls opposite the National Museum. This Falgun will become part of our national consciousness – the memory of this event will be carried forward into history in inspiring song and hopeful revolutionary declamations for change and renewal. New leaders are emerging. New voices are leading this generation.

We, who belong to the earlier generation, proud graduates of Dhaka University born in the forties and fifties, have a vision of national identity, driven by passion for our land, for our people and the Bangla language. We continually struggle to uphold the pride and defend the integrity of our nation. Now, as teachers and public servants who are near the end of term of service, it is heartening to see the light of our vision held aloft by the invigorated youth of today. Change is constant in the nature of all things upon this earth, especially in a world defined by boundaries and mortality. The old order yields to the new, time after time, generation after generation. I salute and welcome the new voices, harbingers of good fortune and dedicated service in the harsh journey forward.

The new generation, however, must rekindle its own torch to light the path forward to richer, more just and equitable society. We are proud of our secular tradition, of tolerance of all races and religions, caste and communities. Our fertile Gangetic delta, with its lush paddy fields, its meandering plain of graceful talented brown and fair people, is a dynamic, throbbing nexus of many cultures, inviting cohesion and acculturation. Like the cyclical ebb and flow of tidal waves on the shores of the mighty Bay of Bengal, the blood of East Bengal has been enriched by the succeeding centuries of civilising codes: the laws and beliefs, the literature and language and music, of the Pals, the Sens, the Arabs, the Persians, the Greeks, the Portuguese, the Turks, the Chinese, and the English. We are a tough resilient people, with passion and poetry in our hearts. By nature and the genetic code seeded into the clay of this fertile green confluence of invaders and traders, we have not become warriors of battle and blood and gore. We are makers of art and artifacts, with shining eyes, elastic minds, and plastic hands. We are artists and artisans; we are growers of jute and silk and sustaining crops; we are fisher-folk; we are skilled weavers and potters and goldsmiths; we are singers and dancers and musicians and wordsmiths all. Versatile and free-spirited – this is our native tradition and glorious heritage.

I call upon the new leaders to lead us with this heritage and honour in the next forty years. I call upon them to take the helm of this nation in their fist and navigate a course into clearer waters. Young men and women, pilots and navigators equally, we have shared our knowledge and our love of this land with you, in the intimacy of the classrooms and among the tall trees in the wide green spaces of Dhaka University. Many of our own gurus and guides are still with us, bestowing still upon us the light of their wisdom and idealism. Youngblood Bangalee men and women, I call upon you to look brightly upon the rising sun and chart a course towards the shining light of the awakening day. I call upon you to find a clear direction, uniting good faith and good counsel with the ethical values of democracy and liberal humanism. Culturally, communally, nationally, we have always cultivated the fine arts. Now, prove to us and to the whole world that you will cohere and perform better than the previous generation in global diplomacy and nation-building.

Cultivate, now, for your people and for your society, the even finer policies of stability and progress. Cultivate the harmony and health of our nation. Lead, by example, step upon step, with struggle for good governance: of civic goals of universal adult literacy, affordable public health benefits for all, and decent minimum wage without disparity between genders. Above all, for the lifeblood of our nation, seek collective connection: build bridges and protect the ecological balance, not only of the capital city, but of the whole country. Deforestation and denudation must stop now. Let the fresh water of the clogged rivers flow clean and swift to the Bay of Bengal once more. Let new rainfall drench this land to usher rebirth.

Let us grow strong, and let our people carry their heads high in pride as they toil hard days and nights all over this earth. Let the wandering tribe of the Bangladeshi people – children of the Diaspora— sing joyfully of their distant homeland. Let the children salute you in future gain and glory.

Executive order enough for banning Jamaat:National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chief,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

If any political party tries to damage public properties resorting to militancy, it can be banned with an executive order, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chief said on Saturday.

“This type of parties had not been banned earlier. But if any party continues such destructive activities, it can be banned constitutionally,” Mizanur Rahman said after visiting victims of recent vandalism and arson by Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir men in Banshkhali upazila.

“What they have done here can be termed as fight against the state,” the NHRC chief said, adding that the state should not tolerate such activities.

Mizanur visited Banshkhali Upazila Parishad, which became the target of Jamaat-Shibir arson attack, and Upazila Krishi Office, office of Upazila fisheries officer and some other places where vandalisms were carried out since February 28.