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Thursday, August 20, 2009

[ALOCHONA] REMEMBRANCE: FALLEN VICTIMS OF AUGUST 21 2004



REMEMBRANCE: FALLEN VICTIMS OF AUGUST 21 2004

 

 

REMEMBRANCE: FALLEN VICTIMS OF AUGUST 21 2004

 
 
21 August Grenade Attack: A brutal Bloodshed for the nation
     
21_august_grenade_attack____000000011111.jpg21 August is a black day in the political history of Bangladesh. The grenade attack on Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue on 21 August 2004 was undoubtedly aimed at assassination of Sheikh Hasina. Before she could leave the place of occurrence there were at least nine grenade blasts and many rounds of shooting. A very determined and well-planned attack was launched and it was carried out in about a couple of minutes. Despite heavy, although less than normal, deployment of police personnel and strict security arrangements in the area, the criminals fled the spot safely. By the race of Allah Sheikh Hasina escaped this dastardly attack as a number of Awami League leaders and workers laid down their lives, some in attempting to save her and others as innocent victims of the barbarous arrack. We bemoan the loss of Ivy Rahman, Secretary of women's affairs of Awami League, and 21 other dead souls. Hundreds of leaders and workers are still fighting for life and many have been permanently maimed. Bloody 21 August till haunts many victims.
 
AL leaders, activists and supporters who were brutally killed by 21 august 2004 Grenade attack:
Begum Ivy Rahman Former Woman Affairs Secretary, Bangladesh Awami League; Moshtak Ahmed Sentu Assistant secretary, Bangladesh Awami League; Lance Corporal (retd.) Mahbubur Rashid, Personal Security staff; Rafiqul Islam (68) who was known as Ada Chacha ,Advisor, Dhaka City Awami League; Sufia Begum (40),Woman Awami League, Dhaka City Unit Leader; Hasina Momtaz Rina (45),President. Dhaka City Woman Awami League ward no. 15 ; Liton Munshi alias litu, President, Union Jubo League(AL youth front); Ratan Sikder(40), AL supporter & Businessman; Md. Hanif (50) Dhaka city Labour League Leader of ward no. 30; Mamun Mridha(21), Second year student of Govt. Poet Nazrul College, Dhaka & AL supporter; Belal Hossain, Asst. Organizing Secretary, Jubo League, 69 no. ward unit of Dhaka city; Aminul Islam alias Moazzem(25) ,Awami League activist; Abdul Kuddus patwari (40), Member, National Committee, Bangladesh Awami Shechchashebok League; Atik Sarker(21), Jubo League leader of 84 no. ward unit of Dhaka city; Nasiruddin Sarder (40),Activist of Labour League, Dhaka Chapter; Rezia Begum(45),Awami Shechchashebok League Leader; Abul Kashem(50) ;Zahed Ali(35); Momin Ali(35); Shamsuddin(55); Abul Kalam Azad(38) President, Jubo League, Balughat unit, Dhaka and Ishak Mia
 
More than 500 AL leaders, activists, supporters and meeting listeners were injured during the barbaric grenade attack.
 
 
Picture
A man who has just witnessed the carnage wails in angst. PHOTO: STAR
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Assassination attempt on Hasina
Picture

The dead and the injured litter beside the truck on which Sheikh Hasina was standing during the grenade attack in front of the AL headquarters on Bangabandhu Avenue yesterday. PHOTO: STAR
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Horror descends on trauma wards
Picture

Blood-smeared Suranjit Sengupta is being taken to hospital. PHOTO: STAR
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This file photo of August 21, 2004 shows an unexploded grenade next to abandoned sandals and a body on Bangabandhu Avenue. Photo: File
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Perpetrators and masterminds of a massacre of this magnitude on August 21, 2004 still remain out of police dragnet. This photo was taken immediately after the grenade attack on Bangabandhu Avenue in the city. PHOTO: File Photo from 2006
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[ALOCHONA] Bangla JehaDi convicted



Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, the Bengali USA-raised young Muslim man from Atlanta, Georgia, USA, who in March 2005 took a week-long trip to Toronto, Canada to meet with members of an alleged Toronto terror cell has been convicted of plotting to support "violent jihad".


Off the 18 men arrested in the Toronto terror case, 7 had their charges dropped, one man pleaded guilty, while another has been convicted. Others await their trial.


Here is the AP report of yesterday's conviction in Atlanta, Georgia state, USA.


Tarek Fateh, Canada.

------------------

Georgia man convicted of aiding terror groups


By GREG BLUESTEIN

Associated Press Writer

The Houston Chronicle


ATLANTA — A 23-year-old Georgia man was convicted Wednesday of aiding terrorist groups by sending videotapes of U.S. landmarks overseas and plotting to support "violent jihad" after a federal jury rejected his arguments that it was empty talk.


The jury found Ehsanul Islam Sadequee guilty of all four charges he faced after about five hours of deliberations. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 60 years in prison and his sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 15.


Authorities say Sadequee never posed an imminent threat to the U.S but he took concrete steps to bolster terrorists, when he sent the videos overseas and tried to aid a Pakistani-based terror group, while on a trip to Bangladesh.


Sadequee, who stared silently as the verdict was read, is the second Georgia terror suspect to be convicted in the last two months. A judge convicted Sadequee's friend, Syed Haris Ahmed in June on one count of conspiring to support terrorism in the U.S. and abroad.


Sadequee's relatives, who regularly packed the courtroom during the weeklong trial, said "the conviction was an example of overzealous prosecution in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks". Sadequee's sister Sonali said she was "absolutely disappointed" by the jury's decision.


"What's most frustrating to see that the post-Sept. 11 climate, even though Obama has communicated there's going to be a shift, it hasn't really gone down to the general understanding of the community and social attitudes," she said.


But federal authorities say it was a reminder that those, who actively seek to aid terror groups may be lurking within the U.S. They said they had little choice but to snuff out a potential plot before it came to fruition.


"We can wait until something happens or gets close to happening", U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said. "But I think we all learned on Sept. 11, 2001, not to do that."


Sadequee, who represented himself at trial, dismissed his online discussions about jihad as boastful chatter from a group of young men "who type faster than they think." He said he never considered following through on it.


"We were immature young guys, who had imaginations running wild", Sadequee told jurors in his closing arguments Tuesday. "But I was not then and am not now, a terrorist."


Prosecutors, however, depicted Sadequee as a dangerous terrorist wannabe, who needed to be stopped before he took action. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McBurney said authorities had "overwhelming" evidence that Sadequee took concrete steps to aid terror organizations.


"The goal is to catch a terrorist before he flies a plane into the building to stop a terrorist before he gets too far," McBurney said. "No government is obligated to wait until the fuse is lit."


Authorities said Sadequee first sought to join the Taliban in December 2001 (at age 15) and that he spent the next few years meeting other supporters as he delved deeper into "radical" online forums devoted to violent jihad.


One was Ahmed, a former Georgia Tech student, who faces a 15-year-prison sentence. Authorities say the two took a bus to Toronto in March 2005 (at age 19) and met with at least 3 other subjects of a federal investigation to discuss possible attack targets.


A month later, the pair drove Ahmed's pickup truck to Washington and shot 62 choppy clips of U.S. landmarks such as the U.S. Capitol and lesser-known sites, including a fuel depot and a Masonic Temple in northern Virginia, authorities said.


One of the videos, which was played for jurors last week, showed the two driving by the Pentagon as Sadequee said: "This is where our brothers attacked the Pentagon."


Sadequee sent at least two of the clips to an overseas contact days after he returned, authorities said, disguising them as "jimmy's 13th birthday party" and "volleyball contest."


McBurney told jurors the videos were designed to send a chilling message: "We are in your backyard". But Sadequee countered: "Any real terrorist would probably go to Google Earth to see live images".


Sadequee, who is originally from Virginia (USA) and has family in the Atlanta area then traveled to Bangladesh in August 2005, where he soon got married. Authorities said he made the trip with a more fiendish mission in mind: To try to link up with terror groups.


They say he communicated with Ahmed and other suspected terrorists including Mirsad Bektasevic, a Balkan-born Swede, who was convicted in 2007 of planning to blow up a European target to force the pullout of foreign troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.


Attorney Don Samuel, who was first appointed to represent Sadequee and offered him advice throughout the trial, said the likely turning point for jurors was seeing videos of bomb belts and explosives found, when Bektasevic was arrested.


"Jurors probably thought seeing that it was more than just talk, even though for Shifa it was," he said, using Sadequee's nickname. "It changed the whole atmosphere of the trial."


The verdict marked the end of an often bewildering six days of testimony as Sadequee discovered the perils of representing himself in federal court.

"It's not as easy as you see in 'Law & Order,'" he told jurors on Tuesday.


He asked witnesses about the relationship between Superman and the antichrist and probed them on the role of Freemasons. He also urged FBI agents to interpret his e-mail statements and they gladly obliged.


The members of the jury — a panel of nine men and three women — seemed relieved the trial was over. One female juror, who would not give her name said, she was ready to get back to her life.


"We're thankful justice has been served", she said.



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[ALOCHONA] Terrorism without borders



Terrorism without borders

The capture of two Indian terrorists belonging to the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba in the country last month drives Saad Hammadi to investigate how terrorists are using the territory to effect terrorism inside the country
 

photo by Abu Taher Khokon
The message was to prepare for future attacks. The Indian terrorists arrested last month were engaged in motivating members to join militant outfits, say intelligence agencies.

    The two Indian militants, Mufti Sheikh Obaidullah and Maulana Mohammad Mansur Ali alias Habibullah, belonging to the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were teaching in different madrassahs in the country and in the process are believed to have been strengthening militant outfits, says a high official with the Detective Branch (DB)of police.

   One of their objectives was to organise a local chapter of LeT. The LeT is reportedly a terrorist outfit backed by the Inter-Service Intelligence, Pakistan's external intelligence agency.

   The capture of Abdul Rouf Daud Merchant in May and the subsequent arrest of at least four other wanted Indian fugitives reveal how terrorists from India are using the neighbouring territories to plot terrorist activities within and outside the country.

   Obaidullah and Mansur have also claimed their association with the Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF) – that claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack on American Centre in Kolkata on January 22, 2002.

   Obaidullah has admitted to the interrogators about organising a local outfit of the LeT under the leadership of Amir Reza, who is believed to be in Pakistan. Amir is also a leader of the ARCF, a group allied to Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (HuJI).

   Their refuge in the country with active support of the Bangladesh chapter of HuJI since 1995 indicates to their involvement in most Islamist militant movements that began in the country shortly afterwards.

   Following the arrest of Obaidullah and Mansur, the Rapid Action Battalion arrested six other convicted members of HuJI on August 1, from different areas in Dhaka, Chittagong and Feni.

   They were among the 41 HuJI members arrested from a training camp at Cox's Bazar on February 19, 1996. The arrested members were sentenced to life imprisonment by the court. After the four party alliance assumed power in October 2001, all 41 members were released on bail by the High Court. An appeal to the court by the accused further reduced their jail term to 12 years. However, except for five, the 36 others have gone into hiding since then.

   Cross-border links

   The arrests and subsequent confessions by the militants in the past few months make the functions of terrorists evident and deeply connected to their roots.

   Both Obaidullah and Mansur have been working as conduits between their operatives in Pakistan and India, they revealed to the intelligence agencies last month. A Detective Branch source says, the two have confessed to being involved in most terrorist attacks that were plotted in India since 2005.

   The two captured Indian militants disclosed the names of Amir Reza, Khurram Khaiyam and Amzad Hossain, with whom they were in regular contact over the telephone. Khurram is believed to be a financer of the LeT members in Bangladesh. Obaidullah and Amir had previously exchanged several calls and text messages everyday, says a DB official upon scrutinising phone records.

   They have also named a few other Let operatives hiding in the country, he says. 'We are still in the process of verifying their confessions,' says Monirul Islam, deputy police commissioner of the Detective Branch.

   HuJI's operations commander Mufti Abdul Hannan (the prime accused in the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in July 2000 and August 21, 2004) and Obaidullah's friendship dates back to their academic years at the Gangua Madrassah in Uttar Pradesh, India which carried on during their higher education at the Deoband Madrassah in the late-eighties. Obaidullah acquired a degree on fatwa from the madrassah.

   The two once again met at Peshawar, Pakistan in 1992 when Hannan was returning from the war in Afghanistan and Obaidullah was going there to join it.

   Most incarcerated senior militants, admit to having close ties with each other since their participation in jihad during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Although the whole picture is yet to be visible, some of the members captured here may have participated in the Afghan war, observes Imtiaz Ahmed, professor of international relations at the University of Dhaka.

   On his return from the Afghan war, Obaidullah started forming Jihadist outfits in different areas of India against radical Hindu organisations such as the Shiv Sena and RSS. He was facilitating Jihadists in Kashmir to organise anti-military operations and also aided members to go to Pakistan. After drawing the attention of Indian intelligence agencies, Obaidullah sought shelter at a madrassah in Murali junction, in Jessore, in 1995. Hannan was campaigning for HuJI at the district during the same time which paved the way for their reunion.

   Tracing the rise of militancy

   Obaidullah and Mansur have been residing in Bangladesh since 1995. The rise of militancy in the country can be traced back to the year 1992, with the Bangladesh chapter of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami demanding the country be converted into an Islamic state at a press conference on April 30 that year.

   The organisation, reportedly with the assistance of Osama Bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF), intensified its subversive activities in 1996 after the Awami League formed the government.

   They also brought out their first publication, Jago Mujahid, which served as the outfit's mouthpiece until 2005 when the HuJI was officially proscribed by the government. The publication, however, continued under a new name of Rahmat.

   HuJI's motive in the country is to establish Islamic Hukumat (rule) by waging war against progressive intellectuals, the higher-up or the influential people in the progressive culture. The terrorist organisation went into full swing of operation with the 1999 blast at the Udichi cultural programme in Jessore. Ever since then, they have orchestrated successive attacks at the Ramna Batamul in 2001, the Awami League rally in August 21, 2004, grenade attack on British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury the same year on October 15 and the August 17, 2005 blast in 63 districts nationwide.

   Obaidullah and Hannan have visited several sites in the country to establish training camps during early 2000. Obaidullah was looking to establish camps for the LeT, one of which was formed in 2002 at Purashanda, an area between Srimangal and Habiganj.

   The two had extensively discussed some of the attacks, including the one on August 21, at Hannan's residence in Badda. Abdul Baki, an Afghan Mujaheed and also a HuJI member in West Bengal provided the explosives to Hannan for the August 21 blast, said Obaidullah in a Task Force Interrogation (TFI) cell.

   Madrassahs: victims to militancy

   Obaidullah and Mansur have affiliation with several madrassahs in Jessore, Habiganj and Dhaka.. Five of the six HuJI activists captured on August 1 by the RAB were also teachers and principals at different madrassahs in the country. The other person was a broker of plots.

   On March 24, this year, the Rapid Action Battalion unearthed a madrassah-cum-orphanage in Bhola that the outlawed Ja'matul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) used as one of its training camps. The madrassah was funded by a British-Bangladeshi chemist Faisal Mostafa (45), under a UK-based charity organisation, Green Crescent.

   A raid into the madrassah unveiled a mini-ordnance factory with huge quantities of small firearms, gunpowder and remote controls.

   Offshoots and ammunitions

   They are the buttoners of terrorism. Loading weapons are like buttoning shirts or so they call it in their coded language, say officials of the Special Branch (SB).

   The Counterterrorism Unit with the Special Branch of police arrested the operations commander of the breakaway faction of the Jama'tul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Abdur Rahim alias Shahadat earlier in June.

   Rahim and his associates believed that the leadership of JMB had deviated from the ideologies of Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai. The present leadership of JMB has deviated from its Jihadi ideologies by involving itself into extortion and the killing of innocent people, Rahim told interrogators.

   Rahim along with Selim, another operations commander of JMB, formed the offshoot outfit, proposing its name Islam o Muslim. The new offshoot was formed to retain the principles JMB sought from the Ahle Hadith.

   The outfit has strong moral and financial support from the Ahle Hadith madrassah at Murshidabad in West Bengal. It is against the democratic principles of the government and believes in an armed struggle to establish the rule of Islam in the country.

   At least eight members of the new faction under the title, Islam o Muslim were arrested between June and July, from different areas in the Rajshahi division.

   'What was surprising to find out was their ability to make ammunitions within the country,' says senior assistant police super, Zannatul Hassan, who heads the counterterrorism unit of SB. The group had training camps in the char (shoal) areas of Dholahat and Nachal upazillas of Chapainawabganj where they trained locals on making ammunitions, says Zannat.

   The members funded the organisation from their personal incomes earned from alternate professions, mostly as rickshaw-pullers, taxicab drivers and garment workers.

   The deadly, still alive and thriving

   Jamaat-e-Muslimeen may well be the next Islamist militant outfit buying into the stakes of the Ja'matul Mujahideen Bangladesh to uphold its spirit as the latter struggles to make its way out amidst a tight watch by the law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

   The JMB's highest decision making body, Majlish-e-Shura and its current IT expert, Sayem, are believed to be maintaining contact with the Ja'maat-e-Muslimeen, Zahidul Islam Sumon alias Boma Mizan arrested on May 14, said to the TFI recently.

   Although fractured, the JMB has never been inactive and under the leadership of Maulana Saidur Rahman, the proscribed militant organisation is believed to be strengthening itself.

   Five days before the national elections, the counterterrorism unit of the Special Branch captured three regional commanders of the JMB with explosive materials capable of making 450 hand grenades from Gobindaganj, Gaibandha on December 24, 2008.

   'They wanted to detonate the grenades in different districts of Rajshahi on the day of election,' says Zannat.

   The outfit's current concentration has been observed mostly in the North Bengal regions, says a high official of RAB intelligence wing. 'The Naikhangchhari belt is still a safe house for them,' he says.

   The RAB has arrested at least 48 members of the JMB this year alone, which include members belonging to different tiers of the organisation. The special branch in January arrested Mamun, one of the financiers of JMB who dealt with counterfeit Indian currencies from Banasree. The present funds of JMB are managed by expatriates in Saudi Arabia, says a Special Branch source.

   The JMB is also reported to be procuring its arms and explosives from militant groups in Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, India and China, which is brought into the country through the land and sea routes.

   Mizan was arrested in May with large quantities of explosives, grenade making materials and chemical substances along with Jihadi leaflets.

   The capture of Emranul Haq alias Mainul alias Rajib alias Abu Toba alias Iqbal, on June 21 from Mirpur in the Dhaka city revealed JMB's recruitments stretching up to the educated quarters of society. Emran, a civil engineer from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) was apparently heading the information technology wing of the JMB.

   Four months after the capture of British-Bangladeshi chemist Faisal Mostafa in connection with the Bhola explosives recovered from an orphanage-cum-madrassah, there is no information about the case – considered high profile because of its international links – with the RAB. However, Faisal met the executed JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman several times and also had contact with the current chief Saidur Rahman. He was twice acquitted of charges for conspiring to cause explosion in Britain. The RAB claimed to have arrested Faisal on April 6. The case has been handed over to the police, say RAB officials.

   Early warnings

   The government has officially banned four Islamist militant organisations in the country. However, it has identified at least 29 other outfits operating in the country but is unable to impose bans on them without solid evidence, say police sources. The four banned outfits are Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, Ja'matul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami and Shahdat-al-Hikma.

   Former police chief ASM Shahjahan regrets that even in the event of an international security crisis, terrorist attacks and subsequent investigations are often used for political advantage. The investigations are diverted for political purposes. One must understand that this only gives opportunities for militants to thrive, he says. Terrorism should not be used for political advantages. A united effort is required.

   There are four 'I's to countering terrorism, says Professor Imtiaz. Incarceration with effective policing and trial, intelligence of the civil and military, intellectual intervention in the Islamic radicalism and investment on education, employment and health can together contain terror.

   The strengths of the militants are still substantial. 'We don't know how many people they have brainwashed into following their ideologies. Attempting a countrywide blast is not possible without the involvement of a substantial number of people. I don't think the finance and supply ranks have been entirely explored. Have we been able to spot the training areas and the trainers of these militant outfits?' Shahjahan asks. 'There is no scope to look down on the issue.'

   The hidden threat
   * LeT operatives hiding in Bangladesh - Detective Branch
   * DB unveils ties between LeT, ARCF and HuJI Bangladesh
   * Possibilities of Indian agencies in the country nurturing terrorism: Prof Imtiaz
   * Indian and Pakistani terrorist organisations have aided attacks in the country since 1999
   * Madrassahs exploited to harbour militancy
   * Militants' finance and supply ranks not entirely explored
   * JMB allies with new outfit Jamaat-e-Muslimeen
   * Investigations distorted for political purposes - ex IGP Shahjahan
 
 
'Madrassahs have been made
an easy scapegoat'

Imtiaz Ahmed, professor of International Relations at the Dhaka University talks to Saad Hammadi

The recent arrests of Indian militants in the country allude to the existence of foreign terrorists with active international ties. How far is this, a threat to national security?

   Any terrorist in the 21st century cannot do without external links. It's difficult for any group to survive at the national level. Funding, logistics and equipments may not be available in one location.

   It's not surprising that some links have been found between the militants of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Since we are referring to them as non-state elements, it is necessary to bring the issue to the notice of the respective governments.

   This also tells you that we need to coordinate much more intensively than before. Unfortunately, the agencies that work on these issues have always been reserved within their territory. There has been some informal intelligence sharing but not necessarily the kind that we need to have.

   Since there's so much suspicion, we need to invest in measures such as confidence building and discuss the unresolved issues to overcome the suspicion.

   Indian terrorists were found to have been staying in the country, long before the country suffered from the first blow of terrorism. Do you believe that India is responsible for the spread of militancy in the country?

   I don't think the Indian government is directly responsible. But since they are non-state elements, the complicity of a section of Indian state machinery can certainly be there, outside the knowledge of the Indian government. It has happened where elements within CIA, FBI and ISI or Scotland Yard got involved in dubious activities within and beyond their respective countries. So there is every possibility that a section within RAW and other Indian security missionaries may be behind terrorism in the country.

   The Indian fugitive terrorists have also confessed to staying in the country since the mid-nineties. They also confessed to a number of their operatives crossing the border and organising militancy in Bangladesh. Is there a way to prevent the trespassing of criminals, amidst weak border security?

   No, it is almost impossible to police the border between India and Bangladesh. It's one of the largest borders between two countries in the world. It's larger than the Indo-China border.

   Given the population concentration in the border areas without much of an obstacle, it's not territorially constructed. It's not possible to stop the terrorists from crossing the borders in such a scenario.

   That does not say you shouldn't keep vigilance in the border.

   Do you think the absence of an extradition treaty between SAARC countries allows for the countries to harbour criminals and terrorists alike?

   If we know there are people who have been convicted in our courts and are hiding in India, there has to be some ways to deal with it. They have to be sent back. We should have an extradition treaty particularly for criminals. Most of our criminals are known to reside in hotels in India. That is not acceptable.

   Whether Bangladesh would benefit from a one-to-one treaty or regional, the government has to look into it. The extradition has to be bilateral anyways.

   I understand there is a political content to it, (the issue of people seeking political asylum) but they don't equate to criminals. You have to come to definition between political asylum and criminals, just like the common definition about terrorism that the SAARC members agreed on in Islamabad after 9/11.

   Most militants nabbed now, admit to having close ties with each other since their participation in jihad during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. How far do you believe their ties during the Afghan war have impacted on the present Islamist terrorism?

   We don't have the whole picture but some of these members have participated in the Soviet war. The understanding of Islam we had in South Asia was of the Sufi/Hanafi school of thought. It has changed to a more rigid version with the influence of petrodollars and the Middle East. Since the Middle East gives oil at a favourable rate to all Muslim countries including Bangladesh, it also expects something in return, which is the adoption of Wahabi/Hanbali form of Islam around the world. I call it the Saudi Islam. That Saudi version has some rigid Islamic rules and regulations which has created intolerance. Those who have fought in the Afghan war have been very much infected by the Saudis.

   The issues of diaspora, petrodollars, the global bashing of Islam have made a lot of members more rigid and intolerant.

   In every country, the ulterior motives for the terrorists are believed to be different than what they preach (establishing Islam). What exactly then, are their objectives and how similar are they to the global context?

   The objective here has very much been the adoption of the rigid version of Islam that is there in the Middle East. That includes the downplaying of Hanafi rituals, dress codes, going to shrines of Sufis, treatment of Shias.

   It's very difficult to know whether agencies of other countries are infected by it and are funding terrorists. The members within the militant outfits themselves may not be aware. Daud Ibrahim is not a religious fellow but he has been known to fund the militant groups. It's a very complex issue that draws serious intellectual investment.

   Most militant operatives are found maintaining their cover in different madrassahs of the country as teachers and principals.

   This is something I don't agree with. I think the madrassahs have been made easy scapegoat. The children of the policymakers don't go to the madrassahs.

   The people getting education in madrassahs don't absorb the qualifications required in the job market. So this is a big unemployment sector. They probably get into mosques or end up teaching religion..

   Secondly, the religious knowledge here in the madrassahs is very fragmented. They don't teach the mystic, Sufi, civilisation or tolerant part of Islam. They mainly deal with the rules and regulations.

   The student is not into poetry or painting, music or architecture. It's unfriendly and creates members who become very intolerant. But to equate that with militancy is something I have my reservations about. Militants could also emerge from secular groups. I don't think madrassahs alone are responsible.

   Militants in the country have been found earlier with ties to political parties. To what extent do you believe that state politics is behind the existence of militancy in the country?

   Well, very much, in fact. The political parties hardly have democracy inside them. They have invited the maastans and brown shirts into their ranks and they are now the kingmakers. Now they themselves are ruling members of political parties. The gap between militants and maastans is not very much.

   A maastan with a knife remains a maastan but a maastan with an AK47 becomes a militant. The trajectory is the same. They may only differ ideologically.

   Fundamentalists exist in every political party in people who have a singular way of understanding. The whole political party may not be involved but members within the party maybe involved because of external benefits or his or her faith to a cause.
 



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[mukto-mona] Remembering that Humayun's assailants are still roaming free

http://mukto-mona.com/wordpress/?p=499

thanks.


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[ALOCHONA] Remembering that Humayun's assailants are still roaming free



[Posted here from the Mailing list 'uttorshuri'

URL: groups.yahoo.com/group/uttorshuri/ ]


o o o

Selectivity  of "Freedom" Chokes People's Free Voice

Farida Majid

2004, New York

 

A friend of mine, a British man working in EU-Bangladesh Govt.'s

joint program, Adorsho Gram, recently went to Modhupur on a tour.

He was taken to the forest area, which was a joke, since the

hillsides are denuded of trees. On top of one of the scraggly

hills he noticed some unusual sheds that did not look like local

people's dwellings. He asked his guide about them, and the guide

told him, "They are the Al-Qaeda training camps. The local madrassah

boys are sent there for extra-curricular activities." The casualness

of the answer reveals that today's Bangladesh must be the only

country after Taliban-run Afghanistan where Al-Qaeda training camps

can run freely and openly, and apparently, with the approval of the

authorities concerned.

 

After the gruesome attack on Dr. Humayun Azad, when the whole horrified

nation, and the Bangalees in the diaspora, knew exactly who would want to

choke the voice of this writer, the news reports flashed about "unknown

assailant". At press briefings the Home Minister hinted at possible

"personal enmity" as if Humayun Azad was a drug dealer or a Mafia

godfather, not a popular professor of Bangla at Dhaka University who also

happens to be a prolific scholar and a creative writer, and the author of

over 70 books.  It is quite clear that there is protection by the government for the

freedom of "unknown assailants" attempting to shut up the freedom of speech of a

writer who dared write a fictional account of their criminal campaigns of

terror in the name of religion.

 

Starting from Sheikh Mujib, there has not been a single Muslim Bangladeshi

politician who did not pander to or court religion in order to appeal to

the "religious sentiments" of the majority of the population. The Military

Dictatorship of Ziaur Rahman illegally doctored the 1972 Constitution,

scrapped the clauses that prohibited political parties based on religion,

and legitimized the Jamaati party without so much a thought that

Moududibadi ideology of the Jamaati Islami party does not represent the

tenets, principles and practices of the Muslim majority of Bangladesh.

Sheikh Hasina would court Golam Azam, and would go on several Haj and Umrah

to please the Jamaati leaders thinking she is pleasing the voters or as the

slogan goes: the "religious sentiment" of the majority. Not a single

politician in Bangladesh today has either the guts or the necessary

religious knowledge that neither Jamaat, nor the other Islamist parties

represent the "religious sentiment" of the Muslim majority of the country.

 

I had no idea of Humayun's new novel, Pak Shar Jamin Shaad Baad, not having

read it while it was being serialized in the literary section of the

Ittefaq last year. I saw Humayun at the Boi Mela in early February in

Dhaka, signing books at the stall of Agami Prokashoni. He was genuinely

happy to see me since he was not aware that I was in Dhaka. As soon as I

heard of the title of his novel, I said, "Forget Pakistan. That was more

than fifty years ago. Those days are over. Today's fundamentalists are more

vicious, violent and dangerous than ever before."

 

Humayun flashed a smile, the rows of his teeth glowing bright in the dim

lit stall of the Boi Mela. "Read all about it, It is all

there!"  he said, with a twinkle in his eyes, handing me a copy, signed "Priyo Farida

bondhu."

 

Yes, indeed, it is all there. Humayun has vividly described this venal

group, who call themselves Jihadists in his novel, and who combine Islam

with the vilest of profanities imaginable. He has also described their

affinity with the ruling parties in the administration that is perfectly

credible, if not proven. No doubt, even after the outpourings of people's

protest against the dastardly attack on Humayun, the Bangladshi politicians

will go on supporting the Islamist extremists by way of catering to the

"religious sentiment" of the people. Will they never know that protesting

against criminal activities in the name of religion is the most profound

"religious sentiment" any community can possibly express?

 

In one sense, Humayun's novel has done all good Muslims of Bangladesh a

favor. Unlike the politicians of Bangladesh, and unlike Taslima Nasrin, it

shows a difference between ordinary, law-abiding, believing and practicing

Muslims, and the growing foreign-ideology-based Islamist menace fattened by

the ignorant religious politics of the ruling party (whichever of the two

major parties it may be). It is not very likely that Humayun's assailants

would be arrested, arraigned, tried and given due punishment any time soon.

THEY have the freedom, the freedom of impunity. Al-Qaeda can freely recruit

students from local Madrssas as expressions of "religious sentiments."

Ahmadiya's publications can be seized by the Govt., and banned, because it

believes in respecting a small group's false claim of "religious

sentiments" on behalf of an entire population. Hindu women are raped, and

Muslim women are coerced into wearing a foreign-looking hijab in the name

of religion. But, when people's voice, express anger against injustice -

carrying their true religious sentiments - it is completely ignored.



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[ALOCHONA] C. Raja Mohan: Jaswant, Jinnah and the South Asian Zero Sum Game



Jaswant, Jinnah and the South Asian Monroe Doctrine

C. Raja Mohan

Sunday, Aug 16, 2009

Indian Express

http://www.indianexpress.com/

 

C. Raja Mohan is a Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of South Asian Studies at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

 

Bhartiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh's bold reinterpretation of Mohammed Ali Jinnah--his book on the founder of Pakistan is being launched on Monday--is bound to create controversy in both India and Pakistan.

 

On the face of it, it would seem futile to reapportion the political blame for the Great Partition of 1947. Yet, the renewed controversy over Jinnah could help us rethink the future of Indo-Pak relations.

 

No amount of blood-letting and political quibbling will alter our past. But we owe it to ourselves to overcome the many bitter consequences of the Partition. It is in this context that Jinnah's frequent invocation of the 'Monroe Doctrine' is of some interest.

 

The 'Monroe Doctrine', of course, is about the US foreign policy aspirations in the 19th century, when it sought to minimize the influence of European powers in the Western hemisphere. Jinnah visualized that after Partition, India and Pakistan could declare some kind of a Monroe Doctrine that would prevent the great powers from intervening in post-colonial Subcontinent.

 

In an interview to a European newspaper in early 1948, Jinnah discussed broadly his idea of how he wanted India and Pakistan to relate to each other and the world. "Our own paramount interests demand that the Dominion of Pakistan and the Dominion of India should co-ordinate for the purpose of playing their part in international affairs. It is of vital importance to Pakistan and India as independent sovereign states to collaborate in a friendly way to jointly defend their frontiers both on land and sea against any aggression. But this depends entirely on whether Pakistan and India can resolve their own differences," Jinnah said.

 

That India and Pakistan have not been able to resolve their differences or cooperate during the last six decades does not, in any way, detract from the essence of Jinnah's logic. If India and Pakistan reflect on their relationship with each other and the world purely in terms of power, they will confront two broad political conclusions.

 

One is that--hard as it may try--India can't shake off Pakistan. Put it another way, India will rise in the international system only if it takes Pakistan along with it. The other is that Islamabad can trip up Delhi at will but it can't force India to pay up what Pakistan considers are its dues from the Partition and then some.

 

Pakistan's determination to balance India with the help of other great powers turned Jinnah's logic of a South Asian Monroe Doctrine on its head. While Pakistan's foreign policy has certainly helped other powers, it has produced few enduring strategic gains for itself.

 

One does not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that global weight of India and Pakistan would be a lot heavier if they stopped fighting with each other. If the two countries can embark on political cooperation, Delhi and Islamabad could easily become arbiters of the regional security order in the Indian Ocean and the Southern Asia.

 

It should not be impossible for Delhi and Islamabad to see that the absolute gains they could harvest from mutual cooperation are much larger than the compromises they need to make to resolve their differences. The reaction in India and Pakistan to Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah might tell us whether the Sub-continent is ready to redo the Partition sums with a power calculus that is not cluttered with anger and tears.

 


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