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Friday, March 26, 2010

[ALOCHONA] Shahid Zia “Shadhinatar Ghoshak” _ BAL Ministers, MPs



Dear Brothers & Sisters,

 

The BAL leaders, ministers & MP like A K Khondoker (Minister, Planning), Major Rafik (Ex-Home minister & MP), Gen Shafiullah, MP, Subid Ali Bhuiya, MP and also Sk. Hasina's Husband has declared that Major Zia was the "Shadhinotar Ghoshok".

 

Please Follow the link below :

 

http://amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2010/03/25/24326

 

http://amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2010/03/26/24351

 

http://amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2010/03/26/24352

 

http://amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2010/03/26/24361

 

Thanks & regards,

 

Engr M H Khan



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[ALOCHONA] Battling the Maoists in Jharkhand



Battling the Maoists in Jharkhand

By Salman Ravi
BBC Hindi service, Jharkhand

Indian troops in Jharkhand
The government has launched a major offensive against the rebels

It is a difficult terrain enveloped in dense forest cover and spread over several square kilometres.

East Singbhum district in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand has been considered the heartland of the Maoist insurgency for more than two decades now.

"Either walk or ride a motorbike," I am advised by Faiyaz who is heading a group of paramilitary troops from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

We are in the forests of Derabasa in Ghatsila sub-district and Faiyaz tells me that the road is littered with landmines.

"Venturing in this terrain on a four-wheeler can be risky," he says.

Recently, a massive anti-Maoist operation was launched in the area by the federal home ministry and the Jharkhand state government.

Battle lines

Thousands of paramilitary troops, including the Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (Cobra) - the special force raised to tackle the Maoist insurgency in India - have been deployed in the operation.

Battle lines are drawn as the security forces take position to "liberate the forests" from the armed Maoist guerrillas.

The region has seen several violent incidents, including the killing of a member of parliament, Sunil Mahato of the state's governing Jharkhand Mukti Morcha party.

Last August, the insurgents killed 11 security personnel in the Burudih area in a powerful landmine explosion.

The rebels also blew up railway tracks derailing the prestigious Rajdhani Express train.

Tribal villagers in Jharkhand
Villagers say they are caught in the crossfire

"This is a crucial operation," says senior police official Anup Birtharay.

The operation is focused on the northern side of the district which shares its borders with Lalgarh forests in neighbouring West Bengal state.

In the south, the district borders the state of Orissa, another hotbed of Maoist insurgency.

"The geographical outlay of this region is such that it has always been an easy haven for the Maoist guerrillas. Carrying out a major offensive against the police or the civilians, the guerrillas move easily to the bordering states. This make the task before security forces much more difficult," Mr Birtharay says.

'Unnerving journey'

It is 7.30pm and the task before the security forces is to "dominate" the ravines of Derabasa, some 20km (12 miles) north of Ghatsila.

I am told this is the first time the police have ventured into the thick forest cover here.

Combat forces gear up to march.

It is an unnerving journey along the muddy tracts that lead to Derabasa village. The hills surrounding Derabasa are said to provide a safe shelter to the Maoists who not only take refuge here but also hold their training camps.

The Maoist guerrillas often seek food in the nearby villages and locals say they are caught in the middle.

"The Maoists come asking for food. They ask us to cook for them and feed them. The police ask us not to give them even a grain. Police are here today. But what will happen tomorrow? We will be at the mercy of the Maoist armed squads. Who is going to protect us then?" asks a villager who doesn't want to be named.

I hear the same complaint in several villages.

The police have picked up about 50 villagers from the area accusing them of being Maoist sympathisers.

From Derabasa, police say they have recovered household material looted by the rebels from a nearby village.

Troops hunting for Maoist rebels in Jharkhand
Combat forces have to cope with dense forest Photo: Mahadeo Sen

Mr Birtharay says they did not take any action against the villagers because they were compelled by the Maoists to work as porters to carry the stolen goods back to the village and help organise a feast.

The security forces have dominated the area for the first time in many years, setting up camps in the forests.

For the first time, the forces have established control in as many as eight hills in remote areas like Kesarpur, Pulgoda, Hedelbera, Charinda Jhatijharna and Badajudi.

Troops have now been deployed along the streams and ponds in the forest while guards are keeping an eye on the local grocery stores in the remote villages which rebels rely on.

"Once the supply line is cut, it would force the Maoists to come out of the forests and surrender," said a trooper involved in the operations.

But what is worrying the locals is that the security forces have also told the tribals not to venture into the forests.

"For tribals forests are home. They depend on the forest produce for livelihood. They collect leaves to make small plates that they sell in the market as well as twigs that are used to brush teeth in rural India," says my local guide, Dharishchandra Singh.

However, almost a fortnight into the biggest operation against the Maoists so far, the security forces have not made any significant breakthrough.

No weapons have been recovered, nor any big Maoist leader been caught. And no one knows how long this will go on.

"We are keeping our fingers crossed, waiting for the day when this all ends. We have not been to the forests and there is no other source of income for us. We pray that normal life returns soon," says a villager in Jhatijharna.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8580004.stm

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[ALOCHONA] Can AL finish what BNP started?



Can AL finish what BNP started?

If one asks BNP activists to say a few things about Ziaur Rahman, it will be difficult to find many who know more than two words, "Swadhinotar Ghoshok". Since Zia's death, his own political platform has been in power longer than any other political party. Yet there has been a miserable failure in projecting the late president and his contributions to the post-Zia generations.

Since his death, Zia has been among the most divisive figures in Bangladesh. Until very recently, one's opinion about Zia could be used reliably as the indicator of one's political orientation. Those with largely positive views about Zia's contribution voted consistently against Awami League candidates, while it used to be rare to find an Awami League voter who would have a positive perception of Zia. Hence in electoral politics, BNP used to get easy votes riding on the late president's high personal popularity.

However, the 2008 election was a rude awakening for BNP as it found that the easy free lunch of votes on Zia image has either disappeared or emotion for Zia is no longer strong enough to ensure automatic vote for BNP.

And it is BNP itself that is to be blamed for this. By continuously harping on the sole issue of independence declaration, BNP totally failed in explaining to the nation what Ziaur Rahman meant to post independent Bangladesh and Bangladesh politics.

Even in the declaration of independence issue, BNP could never explain the real import of Zia's declaration. In a narrow-minded and shortsighted politics, when BNP tried to equate Zia's role with that of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, they found themselves bogged down in a debate on minute issues like who went first on the air. While the misguided intention was to eclipse Sheikh Mujib, BNP forced Zia competing with a local Awami League leader MA Hannan as the first one to go on air. In the process, BNP failed to highlight a vital role played by Zia's declaration.

It is clear from different Pakistani defence literature that when Operation Searchlight was designed with an intention to totally uproot the Bangladeshi nationalist movement in the then East Pakistan, the plan was a 'shock and awe' attack with specific focus on targeted groups like center-left, pro-Bangladesh politicians, students, minority communities and progressive journalists-intellectuals. Also included in their attack list were police forces and paramilitary forces like the East Pakistan Rifles. As for the Bengalis in the military, the Pakistanis thought they could be controlled by putting them under Non-Bengali officers, in non-essential duties, and posting a significant number of them in then West Pakistan. So when battalion after battalion of conventional regulation forces started revolting and joining the Liberation War through conventional battles against Pakistani forces in border areas, Pakistani policy makers did not have a clear counter strategy and they failed to adapt quickly. And in this regard, the event that holds paramount value is a declaration of independence read by an 'unknown major' noted for his bravery, belonging to mighty military of Pakistan. This announcement not only gave the people of the occupied country great hope that our liberation war has started, it spread the fire of resistance to other Bengali majority military and law enforcement installations across the country. What Pakistani authorities wanted to portray as domestic law enforcement problem against separatist miscreants or foreign agents instantly turned into a full scale war in the eyes of foreign media as more and more people heard the rebroadcasts of Major Zia's announcement.

And yet, BNP could never explain this historic importance to the people. It would have been both the right thing and the smarter political act for BNP to acknowledge Sheikh Mujib's role as the philosophical-political founder of independent Bangladesh, while emphasising Zia's declaration as the required military supplement to Bangabandhu's political call for independence. Instead, since 1983, BNP has tried the impossible act of replacing Mujib with Zia. There is a failure in establishing the fact that after the genocide of 25th March, no other announcement, even that by Bangabandhu himself would carry as much weight as the declaration by any Major of regular Pakistan army.

An even more glaring failure has been BNP's complete ignoring of any intellectual discussion on Zia's role in building modern Bangladesh, particularly his role in shaping a democratic political geography in Bangladesh. The healthy political system of two party dominance where one leans center left and the other center right is a contribution of Ziaur Rahman—the politician. Although in current day reality, our constitutional identity of Bangladeshi is a foregone conclusion, as the visionary of this identity, Zia's place as one of the architects of Bangladesh is far from a foregone conclusion.

During its two terms in office after Zia's death, BNP never made any significant effort to bring back Zia from archives. BTV or any other TV or a filmmaker never bothered doing an in depth documentary on Ziaur Rahman, although there should have been hundreds of hours of news footage of Zia stored in BTV archives. There has been little research, analysis, and dissertation about Zia's policies. Zia's janaza saw the largest crowd in living memory, but even for research and documentation purposes one will be hard pressed to find any TV footage/still photo of that unprecedented outpouring of public grief.

In paying respect to Zia, other than naming some sites, only thing BNP did over the years was to go to Zia's grave on every possible occasion, do a public display of elbow fight of its leaders to be in the front row and let BNP activists ruin the sanctity of the mausoleum by climbing/sitting on the wall, trampling the flower beds, throwing cigarette packets, nut shells on the ground and fighting with each other. While in Awami League gatherings, Bangabandhu images kept on getting larger and larger, BNP kept on downsizing Zia's images from small to smaller to make space for bigger pictures of Tarique Rahman. It is not clear why BNP leadership thinks that 'brand Tarique' Rahman can help BNP better than 'brand Zia'!

Not only failing in publicising Zia's contributions, Mrs Zia made major deviations from some of Zia's basic policies. One policy that made Zia popular and guaranteed votes for BNP even 25 years after his death was Zia's stubborn refusal to allow family members in politics, thus shunning nepotism. Mrs Zia threw that policy out the first chance she got.

To be fair, BNP leadership can't blame anyone but themselves for starting the process of erasing Zia.

Now, coming to power for the second time after Zia's death, it looks like Awami League is hell bent is erasing Zia from our history. In an unprecedented collaboration between a powerful political government, the high judiciary, the media mainstream, the dominant intellectuals and the civil society, currently there is a strong movement to shun Zia from our horizon.

This trend again shows that we don't learn from history. This war between all-powerful establishment and a dead president will only empower the dead president more than before.

Although it is true that Zia's image took a nosedive due to the neglect by last two BNP governments, any attempt by Awami League to remove Zia from peoples' mind will be counter productive. Additionally, a new non-partisan generation of young political junkies and researchers will someday dig out the truth about Zia.

One of the major complaints of Awami League and AL leaning intellectuals against BNP was distortion of history. But when these same intellectuals are doing the same crime by revising the history in a partisan way to discredit a dead president, their moral bankruptcy is becoming more evident in public perception. They should have known better. As similar efforts from mid seventies through mid nineties could not erase Mujib from history, a High Court verdict or a PM's executive order or a senior parliamentarian's verbal diarrhoea will also not be able to erase Zia from history.

http://opinion.bdnews24.com/2010/03/26/can-al-finish-what-bnp-started/


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[ALOCHONA] Picture of killing



 
Pakistanis killing Bengalies or Qader Bahini killing Biharies just after independence of Bangladesh in 1971. If Pakistanis were killing how so many civilians were surrounded by.
 
Pulitzer Prize winning picture of unrest in Dhaka in 1971


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[ALOCHONA] Sino-Bangladesh road link: Ignore India's undesirable reaction



Sino-Bangladesh road link: Ignore India's undesirable reaction
 
By Mohammad Zainal Abedin, USA

A report of The Assam Tribune(March 23, 2010), regarding India's discontent over the outcome of the recent visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to China drew my attention. The daily virtually uncovered India's undesirable reaction on Bangladesh Prime Minister̢۪s visit to China. Media made several speculative reports in advance saying that India did not desire that Sheikh Hasina should visit China. The assumption of the media becomes true if one looks into a report of The Assam Tribune. The Assam Tribune̢۪ uncovered the real sentiment/or reaction of Indian government.

Here's the Link to the news item :
http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=mar2310/at07


The daily said (quote):

(1)Bangladesh's bid to forge closer ties with China by offering transit rights and seeking to establish road and rail links between Chittagong and Kunming has irked India. (2) According to sources, what had upset India was Dhaka's offer of the same trade and transit facilities like access to Chittagong Port to China. (3) Dhaka has agreed to allow Beijing to use its Chittagong Port facility, as it was offered to India. The Government of Bangladesh has offered to upgrade the facility, enhancing its efficiency and capacity. Further, Bangladesh has sought China's assistance for its proposed deep sea port in the Bay of Bengal, as part of the Look East Policy initiated by the previous BNP regime, sources said. (4) During the last visit of Prime Minister of Bangladesh to India, it was agreed that India, Bhutan and Nepal would be allowed to use Chittagong and Mongla Ports and now with China joining the race, New Delhi is faced with a whole new scenario, sources added. (5) Sources said the proposed Chittagong-Kunming railway and road links via Myanmar is crucial to India's interest. China proposed to up link through Myanmar, which has been accepted by Bangladesh, sources said.

All the above sentences incidentally manifest the idea and policy of Indian government. And these also unearth India's hegemonic designs against Bangladesh. This sentiment indicates to one truth that India does not believe that Bangladesh reserves the right to act according its own will ignoring India's roadmap and dictation.

India has no real cause or right to express its concern regarding the understanding of Bangladesh and China to link both the countries through road and railway. Bangladesh is a sovereign country to enter in any deal with any country suiting its interest. India also claims that Bangladesh is its friendly country. But our friendship with India does not mean that we will not be able to develop or maintain the same relation with any country, including China. More interesting matter is this India also maintains cordial relation with China. The trade transaction between the two countries justifies this reality.

In 2004, India's total trade to China crossed US $13.6 billion, with Indian exports to China touching $ 7677.43 million and imports from china at US $ 5926.67 million. Bilateral trade touched about $20 billion (Rs 9,000 crore) during this financial year in 2006-78, rising from $18.7 billion in 2005-06. The People̢۪s Daily (Online) on January 19, 2009 said, China's trade with India, its 10th trade partner, reached 51.78 billion US dollars in 2008, up 34 percent year-on-year. In 2010 the volume of trade will certainly increase. Gradual increase of trade transactions proves that both the countries have cordial relation. India even signed some military deals with China. If India can develop and maintain such relation with China how India becomes angry when we try to develop our relation with China. The reality is this India cannot tolerate that Bangladesh should the same relation with China.

India frequently spoke in favour of connectivity and Sheikh Hasina responded to the India theory of connectivity. Neither India, nor its northeastern States, is landlocked. Still Sheikh Hasina despite huge opposition and condemnation in the country agreed to provide corridor and port facilities to India. Both the gestures are contrary to the geo-economic interest and traditional policy of Bangladesh right from Sheikh Mujib to Khaleda Zia. Sheikh Hasina when endeavours to connect Bangladesh to China through Myanmar, India stood against such connectivity. India's contradictory policy only uncovers its ugly face before the international community and distances India from the Bangladeshi people.

India's reaction nakedly uncovered one truth that India does not really recognize Bangladesh as sovereign country. It is ready to allow us so much power that will suit only its (India's) strategic and global interest, not beyond that. Those who including Sheikh Hasina, treat India as trusted friend of Bangladesh got a chance to comprehend what type of Bangladesh actually India wants. India desires that Bangladesh is to act in line with India's dictation and its global and strategic plan, policy and interest.

New Delhi's displeasure with the turn of events in distant Beijing found reflection in 37th India-Bangladesh Joint River Commission meet that concluded late on Friday (19 March) evening, without signing of the joint declaration. An understanding was reached to sign an agreement later this year.

A statement was issued at the end of the two-day conference, which touched on the broad issues discussed at the meeting. To soothe India Dhaka immediately sent its Foreign Secretary, Mijarul Quayes to New Delhi to re-assure that its interest would not hurt in anyway.

I dont find any logic why India was upset. It is astonishing India seems to consider Bangladesh as its satellite State? Does Bangladesh have no sovereignty? Our relation with India must not act as bar to develop same warmly relation with China, America or any other mighty nation of the world. India should not forget that Bangladesh is a sovereign independent country and enjoys the right to develop friendly relation with any country of its choice suiting its own strategic and economic interest.

Does India want to say that it will develop and maintain warm relation with all the countries, but Bangladesh will maintain it only with India or according to the prescription of India and not beyond that? For this reason it flared up in anger and reacted violently. Assam Tribune ventilated India's anger in the following way, New Delhi's displeasure with the turn of events in distant Beijing found reflection in 37th India-Bangladesh Joint River Commission meet that concluded late on Friday evening, without signing of the joint declaration.This statement of the Assam Tribune uncovers the extent of India's anger and the hollowness of Indian friendship with Bangladesh.

As regards to India's opposition to Chinese entrance to our seaport I should say Bangladesh Prime Minister certainly did not commit to India that no other country, including China, will be allowed to use Chittagong Port. Chittagong Port is exclusively ours. It is we to decide how to use its facilities in the best maximum way to develop and safeguard our strategic and economic interest. Should we construct a deep seaport only for India, or its northeast region? If we ever agree to such idea, it will simply mean Bangladesh is not a sovereign country, rather an Indian territory having a government and a flag.

India̢۪s reluctance to the outcome of Sheikh Hasina's visit undermines our interest and sovereign status. India, in fact, poses to send us one message that whatever India says overtly, it covertly nurses an intention of treating Bangladesh as its subservient or client State. Under the cover of friendship India virtually dares to treat us as it slave.

What India cannot tell us in public is that if there is a road or railway connection between China and Bangladesh, our dependence on India will diminish to the minimum level. And India will not be able to control our market and policies according to its will. Through such link Bangladesh will develop its trade transactions also with Thailand and other Southeast Asian nations. Now India does its monopoly business in Bangladesh. It fixes the rate of its commidities and imposes it on Bangladesh. On the other hand India using this monopoly business let loose its stooges to propagate to create such a belief among the Bangladeshis: asking how we will exist if India seals its border and stops exporting its commodities to Bangladesh. On several occasions India shamelessly put covert and overt embargo on exporting its commodities to Bangladesh. Anytime India can stops its export to collapse the country and its government and compel our government to swallow undue and suicidal agreements undermining our interest and sovereignty. We have no other alternative but to use our border with Myanmar. Once we will be able to open our border to eastward it will end India's monopoly business and its master-like attitude. More importantly such link will jeopardize India̢۪s dream to put Bangladesh into its pound. These are the main reasons of India's furious reaction.

India wants to behave with Bangladesh in the same way as it does with Bhutan. India must set aside such dangerous policy. The Ganges will be blooded if India goes ahead with such design. Bangladeshis will surely frustrate such dream of India at any cost. All patriots in Bangladesh possess the same idea. India should comprehend this reality that our policy must not be of that type what India wants at the cost of our national interest, sovereignty and independence. It is not our duty to protect India's strategic interest at the cost of our country. India must not forget this reality that we did not liberate our country from Muslim Pakistan to become the slaves of the Hindu India. I do not make such comment out of communalism, rather out of patriotism.

India's reaction indicates it will leave no stone unturned to undo the outcome of Prime Minister's visit to China. The success of Hasina̢۪s visit will entirely depend on how speedily and aptly the Sino-Bangladesh road link is established. It will depend on Hasina government's sincerity and ability of removing all the hazards and ignoring Indian pressure by constructing the road link as soon as possible much before the expiration of her present term as Prime Minister. This will create an honorable position for her in our history. This will also delete the blame that Sheikh Hasina and her party are the tools of India. This will also decide her fate in the next election. She will be branded as pro-India if she fails or lingers the construction of the road. There is no room of procrastination over the implementation of the understanding that Chinese government and she reached during her visit to China. The entire nation with keen interest observes whether she avails the chance or derails it.

 
http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=310743


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[ALOCHONA] Poor defense of Sk dynasty's corruption



Poor defense of Sk dynasty's corruption

By Nazrul Islam

It is intersting to see an article of Mr Shamim Chy about the corruption of Tarek Zia and Koko and the most hilarious comment as below

'' BNP decided to target Sajeeb Wazed Joy the only son of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina a highly educated Harvard graduate who stayed away from mudslinging Bangladesh politics and led a respectful life in USA . Being the only son of two times Prime Minister and grandson of the founding father of Bangladesh his presence in Bangladesh was rare and extremely private. Instead of converting Shudha Shodon into Hawa Bhobon style alternative power brokerage house, Sajeeb Wajed Joy offered his talent help his nation to achieve their dream of Digital Bangladesh.''

Let me just try to mention few things about his loyalty to Sk dynasty which is expressed in a very low grade flattery. Nothing compare to Shah Moazzem a meritorious student heard stood first in both SSC and HSC exam , his masterpiece of flattery to Ershad can never be beaten by anyone.

1.Joy is the only son .

2.Highly educated Harvard=A0 graduate

3.Lives a respectable life in USA.

4.Son of two times PM=20

5.Grandson of founder father .

So if you are only son you are above any allegation but if you are one of two son like Tarek then obviously you are always a suspect,

Highly respected Harvard Graduate??? Mr Chy do you know what is meant by " Harvard graduate" ? if you knew you would not add highly educated.

Surprise I never heard that Sajib Joy was a Harvard graduate that is he did

four years undergraduate in highly respectable Harvard Undergraduate program??! but I may have missed it could you give us some documents to prove that? I have seen many of reference from unreliable bios sources when you mention about the atrocities of Tarek Zia like U tube etc

Lived a respectable life in USA! Do you know Mr Chy what kind of prof he is involved in and how he became CIP( Commercially Important Person), there are allegations that Mr Joy was arrested several times on driving under alcohol influence, His marital life is also not normal as the jew wife is alleged to live separately and divorce proceeding is on hold or done secretly.

Son of two times PM ! Well do you mean if you are son of three times PM, you are no longer immune? poor rating for this.

Grandson of founding father ! wow ! that is the key.No disrespect for any relative of founding father and his fourteenth generation although at least 50% of Bangladesh people don;t agree that achievement of dictator Mujib.The reason why for twenty years no grief for the killing of Mujib was seen by general people after his sad departure as a permanent president of BD and creator of infamous BKSAL

We are not fools or uneducated Mr Chy ,that we don't know how My Joy become rich without working or winning a billion dollar lottery all those were from looted money of his mother.

He had a big time investment in Florida , graduate in computer Eng but never worked as a Engineer, just like Dipu moni being a doctor never worked as one.

Hasina policy is to keep the extended family out of the country so if any revolution like 15th Aug happens again the dynasty can be rejuvenated.

If Tarek Zia has done so many corruption why don't we see some evidence of that by Hasina Govt yet ? or the interim Govt of Mirjafor Moin?

Joy is alleged to be involved in BDR carnage for making the payment to the commandos who murdered Army officers and raping their wives.

The criminal nature of Sk dynasty is not unknown to BD people neither is BALs popular lies that they live on.

People of BD didn't bring BAL to power it was the Mirjafor Moins adminstration who caste 87-94% of vote by digital rigging , the corruption allegation was a conspiracy of RAW salaried media and intellectuals like what is happening in Nepal run by a puppet Govt of India.

The wrath of people will fall on the wrong doers soon its only a matter of time.

Nazrul Islam
E Mail :
nazrul7@yahoo.com
 


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[ALOCHONA] People stage protests as power, water crisis deepens




 

People at different places in the country, including the capital Dhaka, on Thursday staged demonstrations asking the government to ease the power and water supply situation immediately.
   The agitated people across the country also threatened movement if the government failed to ease the crisis of water, electricity and gas.
   

In the capital's Badda and Adabar areas, several hundred people staged demonstration and blocked traffic to vent their anger at the frequent power outages and severe water crisis. In Badda, people took to the streets and put barricades on the Kuril-Biswa Road halting traffic for about 30 minutes, causing tailback in the area. The situation eased after the protesters dispersed.
   Assistant police commissioner of Gulshan zone Nurul Alam told New Age, 'Several hundred people of Madhya-Badda area blocked the road for power and water, causing disruption of traffic.'
   Locals in Adabar area staged demonstrations and laid a siege to the water pump house demanding uninterrupted water, power and gas supply.
   

The local unit of the Communist Party of Bangladesh organised the protest.
   Speakers at the protest rally said that when law and order was deteriorating day by day, the government was failing to supply water, power and gas causing enormous sufferings to the city dwellers.
   They warned government of a tougher movement if it could not ensure water, power and gas supply immediately.
   In Chapainawabganj town, Bangladesh Krishak League brought out a procession demanding uninterrupted power supply.
   The protester also held a rally and submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner demanding uninterrupted power supply for irrigation.
   Farmers of the area are getting electricity only for 3-4 hours a day although the prime minister pledged uninterrupted power supply from 11:00pm to 6:00am. They also criticised the state minister for power for his failure to ease the situation.
   District unit of Krishak League joint convener Musfiqur Rahman Tito, president of its sadar upazila unit Maraful Islam Azizi, secretary Nurul Islam and others spoke at the rally. They warned the government of a tougher movement if the water and power crisis was not resolved.

http://www.newagebd.com/2010/mar/26/front.html

Power, gas, water crises cause public anger
 
The public outcry against the severe crises of power, gas and water supply appears to have sensitised the ruling party. In the wake of people?s anger Awami League presidium meeting on Wednesday night discussed the issue but could not find any immediate solution.
   Meanwhile, city dwellers and people in different districts took to streets and staged demonstrations giving an indication of bigger unrest.
   The party in power is concerned as public dissatisfaction might take a political turn if the opposition fans agitation. The Government having many of its political agenda, including the war crime tribunal and restriction on religious parties, needs to give more attention to public sufferings.
   Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has been going for load shedding in every alternative hour during the last couple of days resulting in a power outage for about 12 to16 hours daily.
   
   Production hampered
   The major concern is in the industrial sector where production is being critically hampered due to shortage of power and gas. The crisis is posing a threat to the very existence of the export-oriented industries and to the overall economy. Stakeholders say, frequent power cut is hampering productions. The machines are also going out of order frequently putting additional financial burden on the enterprises.
   In this power crisis situation, many of the factory owners are forced to run their enterprises by furnace oil and diesel-run generators which further increased the production cost making the business nonviable. The export earnings from RMG sector would be severely affected, fear entrepreneurs.
   
President of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) Abdul Hai Sarker earlier said textile production has nearly halved due to severe interruption in gas supply. Textile sector consumes 70 per cent of the total gas used by the private sector and if the gas crisis continues for long, then the sector may not be able to sustain, he explained.
   He said textile industries need 2,000 MW power per day but now it is getting only 1,200 to 1,400 MW power which is 40 per cent less than the demand.
   
President of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) Fazlul Huq told a press conference on Wednesday that the knitwear sector incurred 10 per cent loss due to power crisis. They meet the power crisis through generating electricity by diesel generator which cost them Tk 14.16 per unit against BPDB price of Tk 4.72 per unit.
   Meanwhile, the Energy Division of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources on Wednesday directed the Petrobangla to allocate more gas to the power sector to help reduce the frequent power outage and keep the load-shedding within a tolerable level.
   It also asked the Petrobangla officials to work on gas crisis issue or explore ways to stop misuse of gas to further accelerate power generation in the country.
   
A decision to this effect came at an emergency meeting on the ongoing energy crisis at the ministry, presided over by State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Brig Gen (retd) Enamul Haq.
   Admitting persisting electricity crisis across the country, State Minister for Power and Energy Brig Gen (Retd) Mohammed Enamul Huq said that the government is planning to supply additional gas to power plants through rationing system. Rationing of gas supply, on a priority basis, is the only option to meet the demand of electricity across the country.
   ?We have huge gas shortage against the demand. For this, gas-fired power plants are not getting required gas,? he told reporters after a meeting on gas supply in power plants.
   
   Gas-run powerhouses
   Referring to the nagging power crisis across the country, PDB Chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir told the meeting that due to gas shortage they could not produce another 600 MW to 700 MW of additional electricity. Besides, a number of power plants cannot come into operation due to gas shortage, he said.
   Due to huge demand in irrigation, PDB needs to produce an additional 2,100 MW electricity, while the country?s 80 per cent power plants are run by gas, officials said.
   
The meeting said, due to the summer weather, demand for electricity has increased in urban areas for running air conditioners. PDB said they are producing 3,900 to 4,100 MW electricity on an average against the demand for around 6,000 MW.
   Energy Adviser to the PM Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, secretaries of both power and energy divisions, and Pertobangla officials, among others, attended the meeting.


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[ALOCHONA] BANGLADESH: CYBER CORRIDOR TO INDIA?



BANGLADESH: CYBER CORRIDOR TO INDIA?

Cyber attack traced to Indian hackers

M. Shahidul Islam

To destroy a nation, destroy its intelligentsia first, was the axiom until the humanity?s venture into the cyber world (Recall the gruesome killings of Bangladeshi intellectuals just before the end of Liberation War). These days, one must cripple the cyber infrastructure of an adversary to render it impotent.
  
 Last week, this poor nation of ours has experienced one of such deadly cyber attacks, or at least a dry run of it. The backdrop and the sequence of the attack on March 21 could not be more puzzling, dubious and alarming. The fact that it had originated from India while the PM was on an official visit to China makes it doubly worrying and amply meaningful. Could it be the first fall out of PM?s recent China visit? One never knows.
   
   Attacker identified
   The attack paralyzed 20 of the 64 district web portals, shattering the incipient cyber security around a hastily-built- system which the PM had launched recently as part of her drive to leap toward what she euphemistically calls ?digital Bangladesh?.
   
One of the messages on the hacked site read: ?Mission is now complete .Who will be next?? Revealing their identities as Indians, the hackers threatened Bangladesh with a cyber war ?if any Pakistani terrorist enters India via Bangladesh.? One of the hacked sites in Pathuakhali found some Hindi inscriptions on the site and a chauvinistic slogan, ?Jai Hind? (victory to Hind or India).
   Alarmed, the government launched an immediate investigation and traced an Indian IP (Internet Protocol) address used for hacking the newly-launched portals. The attack constituted an assault on the Prime Minister?s office (PMO) which operates the portals.
   
The PMO did acknowledge the magnitude of the danger but it is not known if it did try to seek redress or compensation. ?We have initially detected an Indian IP address that belongs to Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), one of the largest Internet service providers in India,? said S M Akash, a media manager of the PMO?s Access to Information (A2i) outlet.
   However, the palpable silence of the government did not stop experts from saying that the cyber defence of the nation has been impregnated in a number of ways since the coming to office of the last caretaker regime. Foremost among their concerns is the sole dependence on the submarine cable system that links South East Asia with Europe, via India. Although this dependence has caused occasional snarl-ups in the system in the past, a cyber attack occurred for the first time. That is seriously troubling.
   
Then, there are other concerns. Since early 2009, two Indian companies lobbied diligently to link with one of our fibre optic operators to provide telecom services to the landlocked Indian states of Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. These private Indian corporations are in essence trying to do what their government has so far failed to.
   With that aim, two of India?s telecom giants?Bharti and RCom?sought permission from the caretaker regime to build a fibre optic link with Assam from Meherpur on the Kolkata-Meherpur-Dhaka-Haflong route, and, an alternative route through Kolkata-Meherpur-Dhaka-Comilla-Agartala.
   
   Bharati Airtel?s entry
   Having failed to secure that deal until the coming to power of the AL-led coalition government, Bharti Airtel invested $300 million to buy 70% stake in Warid Telecom in January last. An expert in telecommunication tinges, Bharti Airtel offers broadband land-based services to 95 Indian cities via its affiliate Airtel telemedia.
   Some experts say the access to the national telecom system of a tech-savvy foreign company?that may have security interest and may act in concert with the government of India?has made our system further vulnerable.
   
But the government appears unconcerned. Curiously enough within days of a deadly cyber attack from India, on 23 March the cabinet has okayed a decision to install fifty-five km fibre optic cables from Panchgarh to Banglabandha to connect with the regional Indian network. This decision has enabled India to use Bangladesh as a cyber corridor for access to the North East and completed a cycle of corridors that the giant neighbour sought in all fronts- land, air, sea and cyber.
   
   Internal political dynamics
   While that may be one of the ways to look at the cyber and other vulnerabilities of our nation, internal political dynamics also seemed to have offered a curious prelude to this latest score settling game. The incident occurred within 48 hours of an accusation having been made by Opposition Chief Whip, Zoinul Abedin Faroque MP, against PM?s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, of his involvement in illegal VoIP operations.
   Claiming to be in possession of documentary evidence relating to Joy?s involvement in illegal VoIP business, Farroque said he would provide the parliament all information and documents to prove his allegations against Joy. Farroque complained: ?Speaker switched off my microphone in parliament when I tried to raise the issue.?
   
Following that, all hell broke loose. Within hours, at least half a dozen cases were initiated across the country against Farroque, and, some of the courts went ahead with issuing warrants of arrest against him. It?s not over yet. Warrants are still being issued.
   Simultaneously, the government tried to divert nation?s attention by clamping down on a number of alleged illegal VoIP operators to diffuse the swirling allegations against Joy. The exercise got nastier when, in a series of ensuing raids at the behest of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), operations of three high-profile private phone operators were suspended, their offices closed and a number of arrests made.
   
The axed companies involve luminaries like Ranks Telecom Ltd, or RanksTel, a private firm licensed in 2004 as a public switched telephone network (PSTN); WorldTel Bangladesh Ltd, which has been running PSTN operations since 2000; and, the Dhaka phone, another PSTN operator, from where five top officials were arrested.
   
   Biased allegations
   As the proscribed operators claimed to have conducted their businesses legitimately, the onslaught against them turned our cyber world ballistic, and for obvious reason. There are nine private operators running PSTN services among about 1.6 million subscribers (other than the state-run Bangladesh Telecom Ltd (BTCL), but no other service providers faced the wrath of the government in this latest swoop, excepting those three, prompting doubts whether the proscribed companies are at all illegal, or the exercise aims at something else, perhaps a smoke screen to destroy evidence against the alleged complicity of the PM?s son.
  
 For, the BTRC had awarded in early 2009 licenses to six private companies to handle international voice and data traffic. Among them, three international gateways (IGW) and the BTCL are the main purveyors of international voice calls. The hackle of suspicion got raised due to the latest action against the alleged ?illegal? VoIP service providers having included many foreign owned companies too, of which there are about 50 registered with the BTCL.
   One of them is Zamir Tel, a UK-based company owned by the son of former speaker and BNP leader, Barrister Zamiruddin Sirker. Handler of over 1 million minutes call, the Zamir Tel pays, on average, $1.2 million revenue to the government per month, for services originating mainly from clients in Canada and the UK.
   
As callers from those destinations faced service disruptions after what the company says its submarine cables were snapped, a Zamir Tel affiliate, insisting on anonymity, accused the government of political bias. ?Drive against illegal has become a drive against legal,? said the associate. The cyber battle has thus degenerated into a war from within and without.
   The complexity of the matter has meanwhile forced the government to beat a hasty retreat, promising on March 23 that proscribed operators would be restored back to services. This proved the degree of naivety and the haste with which a sensitive matter like this was handled. It also vindicated the doubters that the axed companies might not at all have been operating illegally, per se. So what the entire exercise was about?
   
Disruption of international or national digital services costing the nation and the users hugely, the government must soon craft out a comprehensive cyber security mechanism and move stridently against the Indian hackers to forestall the recurrence of the same. The matter is related to indispensable national security concerns and any laxity is simply inexcusable.
 



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[ALOCHONA] LAND AND PEOPLE



LAND AND PEOPLE
De-colonising the national imagination
by Rahnuma Ahmed

The settlement policy whipped up populist sentiments in the rest of Bangladesh: 'If someone from the CHT can settle in Rangpur, if he can buy land there, why can't someone from Rangpur go and live and work in the CHT? It's one country, after all.' The settlement policy seeped into public discourse, it helped re-define Bengali nationalism on territorial lines—as all nationalism is, is bound to be—but the new sense of territory/nationalism was not of the resisting kind, of the kind that grows out of an urge for self-defence (like 1971), but one which encroached.



I SEE no reason not to be worried.
   For we have, over the years, begun mimicking our erstwhile Pakistani rulers when it comes to explaining what went wrong in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
   The 'tribals' want to secede. They want to break up the nation. The loyalty of the 'tribals' has always been suspect, in 1947, they didn't want to join Pakistan, they had wanted to be part of India. The Shanti Bahini was aided and abetted by anti-Bangladesh forces outside. It is an Indian conspiracy to destabilise the country. Agreeing to the 'tribal' demand for autonomy diminishes the sovereignty of the Bangladesh state.
   And what had our Pakistani rulers said both before and during 1971?
   
The Bengalis want to secede. It's an Indian conspiracy. Our mortal enemy India wants to break up Pakistan. These Bengalis began agitating from the word go, first they wanted their own language, 1949, 1952, and then, from 60s onwards, they began demanding regional autonomy. Those in the Mukti Bahini are India's paid agents. The Bengali Muslims are Hindus, anyway. They listen to Rabindra sangeet, the women wear saris, they put teep on their forehead. Agreeing to the Bengali demand for autonomy will be a threat to the sovereignty of the state of Pakistan.
   There are other reasons to be worried, too.
   
There are some similarities in the responses of both sets of rulers: a militaristic response. In the case of ekattur (our liberation war), this was accompanied by Lieutenant General Tikka Khan's declaration, 'I want the land, not its people.' Tikka was the architect of Operation Searchlight, launched on the night of 25th March 1971. We will always remember him as the Butcher of Bengal. A military commander, deluded into thinking that his efforts would save the nation.
   
The Awami League government had initiated and eventually signed a peace treaty with the PCJSS (Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti) in 1997. A few weeks after the signing of the treaty, Khaleda Zia, as leader of the opposition, had declared: it will lead to the setting up of a parallel government. Others said, it was signed to please the Indian government. Writ petitions have been filed since, challenging the validity of the peace treaty. During a recent court hearing, the petitioners listed some of the reasons: the former chief whip of the parliament had no authority to sign the treaty. He was not authorised by the president. A treaty can only be signed between two governments, the CHT people are not only not a government(!), they are 'controlled by an Indian intelligence agency.' They are not indigenous to the land, 'they' are settlers, etc, etc (New Age, March 17).
   
As things stand, some may think that the Awami League, by virtue of having initiated and signed the peace treaty, wants peace in the hills, while the BNP (and its bed-fellow, Jamaat), doesn't want peace in the hills. There may be some truth in it.
   But there's more truth in what Bhumitra Chakma, a Jumma academic who teaches politics at the University of Hull, says: the recent attacks, on February 19 and 20, carried out by Bengali settlers in Baghaichari, backed by the armed forces, prove yet again that unless the Bangladesh state addresses the structural roots of violence, the 'cycle of violence' will continue (Economic and Political Weekly, March 20).
   'At the core of the problem,' writes Chakma, is the Bangladesh government's 'politically-motivated Bengali settlement policy' aimed at changing the 'demographic character of the CHT, which inevitably leads to clashes over land.'
   
The Bengali settlement policy, in my mind, was diabolical. By selecting 'landless' Bengalis, it seemed that the military government was concerned about the futures of those who are poor, it helped hide the fact that their landlessness and abject poverty made them more amenable to military direction and control; that, as far as the military leadership was concerned, they were civilian subalterns/canon fodder. The settlement policy whipped up populist sentiments in the rest of Bangladesh: 'If someone from the CHT can settle in Rangpur, if he can buy land there, why can't someone from Rangpur go and live and work in the CHT? It's one country, after all.'
   
The settlement policy seeped into public discourse, it helped re-define Bengali nationalism on territorial lines—as all nationalism is, is bound to be—but the new sense of territory/nationalism was not of the resisting kind, of the kind that grows out of an urge for self-defence (like 1971), but one which encroached.
   I am persuaded that this newly developing form of nationalism was distinct to the nationalism of the Mujib era (1972-1975). When Sheikh Mujib had exhorted the indigenous peoples 'to forget their ethnic identities', to merge with 'Bengali nationalism', what lay behind his words was a heady cultural arrogance, deeply entwined with feelings of racial superiority.
  
 Bengali nationalism as encroaching, in a territorial sense, one which could be implemented through the planned deployment of coercive power, came later. After 1975.
   I am inclined to think that it was at this historical moment that we, i.e. the Bengalis as a nation, began to sound like our erstwhile rulers.
   The latter, according to us, were colonisers.
   
   Colonial orientation to land, and its people
   ONE of the greatest liberal philosophers, John Locke, analysed English colonialism in America in terms of his theory of man and society. I present Locke's arguments below, based on a discussion by Bhikhu Parekh (The Decolonization of Imagination, 1995).
   
Locke had argued that since the American Indians roamed freely over the land and did not enclose it, since they used it as one would use a common land, but without any property in it, it was not 'their' land. That the land was free, empty, vacant, wild. It could be taken over without their consent. The Indians of course knew which land was theirs and which was their neighbours, but this was not acceptable to Locke who only recognised the European sense of enclosure.
   
However, there were native Indians living by the coastline, who did enclose their land. English settlers were covetous of these lands; they wanted these lands for themselves as it would help them avoid the hard labour of clearing the land. They argued that the native Indian practice of letting the soil regenerate its fertility, to let the compost rot for three years, meant that the natives did not make 'rational use' of it. Locke agreed with them. Even enclosed land, he said, if it lay without being gathered, was to be 'looked on as Waste, and might be the Possession of any other.'
   
Some Indians, however, not only enclosed the land, they also cultivated it. But they were still considered guilty of wasting the land because they produced not even one-hundredth of what the English could produce. The trouble with Indians was, according to Locke, they had 'very few desires', they were 'easily contented'. Since the English could exploit the land better, 'they had a much better claim to the land.' It was the duty and the right of the English to replace the natives, and, as long as the principle of equality was adhered to, no native should starve, nor should she or he be denied their share of the earth's proceeds, English colonisation was infinitely more preferable. It increased the inconveniences of life. It lowered prices. It created employment.
   
The culture of indigenous peoples the world over, as has been noted by many political theorists, is inextricable from their culture. Take away their land, and you take away their culture.
   Land in the Chittagong Hill Tracts belongs to the paharis. It is their land. A refusal to understand this means opening us to the allegation of whether our nationalism is their colonisation.
   Bhumitra Chakma speaks of the 'cycle of violence'. It is a cycle that is embedded in larger cycles. Nationalism. Colonialism.
   My Bengali sense of freedom surely cannot be paid for by the blood of others?
   
   A genuine leap of the national imagination
   GEORGE Manuel, Secwepemc chief from the interior of British Columbia (Canada), indigenous activist and political visionary whose work on behalf of indigenous peoples spans the globe, writes:
   
When we come to a new fork in an old road we continue to follow the route with which we are familiar, even though wholly different, even better avenues might open up before us. The failure to heed (the) plea for a new approach to…[Bengali-pahari] relations is a failure of imagination. The greatest barrier to recognition of aboriginal rights does not lie with the courts, the law, or even the present administration. Such recognition necessitates the re-evaluation of assumptions, both about [Bangladesh] and its history and about [Jumma] people and our culture-…Real recognition of our presence and humanity would require a genuine reconsideration of so many people's role in [Bangladeshi] society that it would amount to a genuine leap of imagination. (Cited by Paulette Regan, Canada, January 20, 2005, by making the replacements in square brackets I have taken a liberty for which I hope I'll be forgiven).
   
Are Bengalis capable of making a genuine leap of imagination? However hard, however difficult, we must. For the sake of the nation. For the sake of ekattur.
 


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