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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

[ALOCHONA] Fwd: FW: [bd_journalists] India Checkmates Chinese Moves



------ Forwarded message ----------
From: Zoglul Husain
To: Isha Khan bdmailer@gmail.com
 
Forwarding to you my reply to the article of former Naval Officer of India, circulated by MBI Munshi. 
 

To: bd_journalists@yahoogroups.com; kmamalik@aol.com
From: zoglul@hotmail.co.uk
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:33:37 +0100
Subject: RE: [bd_journalists] India Checkmates Chinese Moves

 
Thank you. The writer, Ranjit B Rai, a former DNI (Director Naval Intelligence) and DNO (Director Naval Operations) in the Indian Navy, would think so, as it is his job to think so.
 
In the Indian Ocean, a lot depends on the US Seventh Fleet, which is as follows:
(7th Fleet section from: http://www.navysite.de/navy/fleet.htm)

The 7th Fleet of the US Navy

Seventh Fleet, established 19 February 1943 from Southwest Pacific Force, is the largest of the forward-deployed U.S. fleets, with 50-60 ships, 350 aircraft and 60,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel. Operating in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Arabian Gulf -- up to 11,000 miles from the west coast of the United States, Seventh Fleet, with the support of its Task Force Commanders, performs three jobs. First, C7F can be assigned as a Joint Task Force commander in the event of natural disaster or joint military operation. Second, C7F is the operational commander for all naval forces in the region. Finally, C7F is designated as the Combined Naval Component Commander for the defense of the Korean peninsula; in the event of hostilities, all friendly naval forces in the theater would fall under C7F control. Of the 50-60 ships typically assigned to Seventh Fleet, 18 operate from U.S. facilities in Japan and Guam. These forward-deployed units represent the heart of Seventh Fleet. The 18 permanently forward-deployed ships of the US 7th Fleet are the centerpieces of American forward presence in Asia. They are 17 steaming days closer to locations in Asia than their counterparts based in the continental United States. It would take three to five times the number of rotationally based ships in the United States to equal the same presence and crisis response capability as these 18 forward deployed ships. On any given day, about 50 percent of Seventh Fleet forces are deployed at sea throughout the area of responsibility.
The Seventh Fleet Command Ship is the USS BLUE RIDGE (LCC 19), forward deployed to Yokosuka, Japan.
Area of Operations:

Western Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Headquarters:

Yokosuka, Japan. 
 

From: MBIMunshi@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 07:53:58 +0600
Subject: [bd_journalists] India Checkmates Chinese Moves

India Checkmates Chinese Moves

Ranjit B Rai
Vice President Indian Maritime Foundation
Former DNI and DNO in the Indian Navy

Small contentious issues in history are harbingers that tend to shape the larger power plays between nations. The naked truth in international affairs as articulated by strategist Paul Kennedy, is that India and China are two rising military and economic powers who will cooperate with each other for trade, and in competition for the same markets and influence, in the coming decades. Such countries are dubbed 'competitive friendly enemies'. China is India's largest trading partner, and has entered the Indian Ocean region with its PLA Navy via anti piracy patrols. It has also planted its footprint in India's neighbourhood and Africa, with its chequebook diplomacy. Pakistan and China are proclaimed all weather friends, and China has built the deep-water port at Gwadar, and plans to transfer military supplies and nuclear plants to Pakistan.

Recent incidents at the naval encirclement of India, at Hambantota and Gwadar, and possibly Bangladesh, dubbed as China's 'string of pearls,' put an end to the rapidly improving relations with India. China dismissed the theory, arguing that India built ports with ADB and World Bank loans, which some developing countries find difficult to obtain. China's naval analyst, Zhang Ming, contends that India's Andaman and Nicobar islands could be used as a 'metal chain' to block Chinese access to the Straits of Malacca, known as China's 'Malacca Dilemma' and argues India is building an 'Iron Curtain' with its influence in the Indian Ocean islands, and ganging up with US on a defense framework. During the Second World War the Japanese built airfields in the Andaman Islands, and China worries that India could emulate this strategy, as well. 

Ray Cline, a former Deputy Director of the CIA, had predicted that nations with geography and population would gain ascendancy in the 21st century. He juxtaposed it with maritime strategist Mahan's prediction that the future may well be decided on the waters of the Indian Ocean. The first signals came when India and China clashed in Bahrain on 2 June 2010, at the monthly SHADE (Shared Awareness and De confliction) anti-piracy conference jointly chaired by the EU and US-led Combined Maritime Force. India stalled China's bid for co-chairmanship.  All 18 naval delegates, Interpol, and shipping reps around the table which have ships deployed and interests for anti piracy patrols in the Horn of Aden, supported China's long standing bid, but the Indian delegate, Deepak Bisht, was the lone objector. He stated that before China takes the chair, the terms of the reference of chairmanship of SHADE needed to be laid down. Senior Col, Zhou Bo PLA(N), was taken aback.

A visibly surprised Chairman, Cmde Adrain Vander Linde, the EU Task Force Commodore from the Netherlands, asked if India wished to bid for a rotating chair. Only then, would a subcommittee attempt the terms of reference. India's delegate contented, India would consider the option to chair only if India knew the terms, and this upturned China's bid, which was accepted at the last meeting. Murmurs round the table were heard, as this writer was present with Foreign Service reps in the audience. India had successfully blocked China on this minor issue. 

Currently the IMO has marked a 400-mile International Recognised Transit Corridor (IRTC) off Aden for the safe transit of ships to and from the Red Sea. Indian Navy's single ship deployment on patrol since 2008 (presently INS Bhahmaputra) has successfully escorted 1,000 Indian and other flagged ships, and INS Brahmaputra is on station. The Navy promulgates the convoy schedule through India's DG Shipping, as on 2 June, 17 ships were in captivity in Somali waters. Russia plans to replace the  Udaloy-class guided-missile destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov that stormed and rescued MV Moscow University by Admiral Levchenko Neustrashimy and Yaroslav Mudry. Dutch Defence Minister, Eimert van Middelkoop, announced its Navy will deploy a submarine in the area and Singapore has increased its patrol strength with two Puma helicopters.

Unwritten in China's bid is an attempt to break up the 400-mile IRTC into patches, and allocate it to national navies amounting to parcelling the Indian Ocean. China could stipulate Chairmanship criteria to make number of ships multiplied by hours on patrol to count and India may not qualify with one ship on patrol.

The Chinese and Indian swords are sheathed for the time being, but India has to be prepared for the Pearls versus the Iron Curtain competition. India has banned Chinese firms from partaking in projects and placed restrictions on Huawei, which has supplied communications gear to India's mobile operators. India has geography and a large young population on its side and will have to cope with the meteoric rise of China. It has been said, 'India is like boiling water, steam and froth on top but rather calm below'.  'China is like boiling oil, calm above but violent and seething below.'  If an eruption does take place in one nation, it could be violent.  The jury is out whether the Chinese top down approach will prevail over India's rather slower and democratic bottom-up approach. But the competition for influence in the Indian Ocean region has begun. 

http://www.ipcs.org/article/india/india-checkmates-chinese-moves-3173.html



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RE: [ALOCHONA] Farhad Mazhar and Adilur Rahman Khan on human rights violation



        It is touching to read how Farhad Mazhar is bleeding his heart out for the blatant human rights violation by the present Govt. of Bangladesh for banning a political organization called Hijb-ut-Tahrir.  He assumes that most of us have never heard of Hijb-ut-Tahrir. But being the intellectual that he is ( 'aekjon buddhijibi hishabe') he reads the HT stuff and finds them perfectly compatible to his own level of sanity.
 
           Banning Hijb-ut-Tahrir has also pained the feelings of tender-hearted S. A. Hannan of Jamaati intellectual fame. They should all find consolation in the fact that bannong a party does not stop the criminal activities of the individuals belonging to the party.
 
           Below is an example of the kind of "intellectual" activities Hijb-ut-Tahrir is accredited for in Pakistan, Bangladesh and UK (where they get intellectual fodder and training with orange bandannas tied over their mouths -- like the image of the killing men we saw during the Peelkhana massacre in February, 2009 in Dhaka).
 
                 -- Farida Majid
 
 
Lahore, Pakistan | Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images
 
Pakistani demonstrators with Hizbul Tahreer shout anti-U.S. slogans during a protest in Lahore. The car bomb in Peshawar underscored the gravity of the extremist threat destabilizing nuclear-armed Pakistan. The explosion, which brought down buildings in Peshawar, coincided with Clinton's arrival in Pakistan to bolster the troubled U.S.-Pakistan alliance against the Taliban and al Qaeda. It killed more than 100 ordinary citizens of Peshawar.
 

Photos, top to bottom: STR/AFP/Getty Images, AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images, AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images, Arif Ali
 


To: dhakamails@yahoogroups.com
From: bd_mailer@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:08:53 -0700
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Farhad Mazhar and Adilur Rahman Khan on human rights violation

 
Two articles of Farhad Mazhar and Adilur Rahman Khan on human rights violation
 
Farhad Mazhar :
 
 
 
Adilur Rahman Khan:
 
Getting away with torture
 
A culture of impunity protects the perpetrators and since most of the investigations are carried out by the same agencies it is almost impossible to get redress for torture victims. There is no independent authority to complain against the law enforcement authorities, writes Adilur Rahman Khan
 
BANGLADESH'S record has never been good in respect of the international standards for human rights. Incidents of human rights violations have been commonplace during different regimes. In the 23 months of the state of emergency imposed by the military-backed caretaker government, many political activists, human rights defenders, journalists, teachers and professionals were subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment by security and intelligence agencies, and law enforcement forces.
  
   Torture and impunity
   TORTURE and ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty usually takes place in detention centres that are inaccessible to any form of public scrutiny. This is the ideal context for torturers to operate with complete impunity. Torture constitutes a gross violation of the fundamental rights of human beings. It destroys the dignity of humans by causing injuries, sometimes irreparable, to their bodies, minds and spirits. The horrific consequences of such human rights violations affect the family of the victims and also their social surroundings. Through these acts, the values and principles upon which democracy stands lose their significance.
  
In Bangladesh torture is not considered a crime. It is widely criticised; however, it is still not criminalised. Bangladesh is yet to meet its legal obligation to stop torture although it is a party to the Convention against Torture. According to international laws, torture and ill-treatment are totally forbidden and are recognised as international crimes. To uphold human rights, international conventions should be followed, torture considered a crime, criminals punished and victims adequately compensated.

   The constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh explicitly states that 'no person shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment or treatment' [article 35 (5)]. However, the trend of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment by law enforcement agencies continues.
 
 The trend of torture and killing by law enforcement agencies is not an unfamiliar phenomenon, as we are familiar with the Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini, which came into force from the February 1, 1972 and became infamous for its extrajudicial killings of about 30,000 leftist operatives (as claimed by the victim organisations) till its absorption into the army by a gazette notification dated October 4, 1975. During Operation Clean Heart in 2003, many people died while in custody of the joint forces.
 
 In March 2004 the Rapid Action Battalion, was created by amending the Armed Police Battalions Ordinance 1979 and enacting the Armed Police Battalions (Amendment) Act 2003. It can investigate and work for all security purposes, especially as an elite law and order enforcement agency, which is to have a special focus on curbing organised crime and eliminating 'top criminals'. Since its formation, a trend of 'death in crossfire' has been created. However, there are also an alarming number of deaths in RAB custody and a few of these can be interpreted as being political. People also got killed in the hands of police in the name of 'crossfire'. According to Odhikar, in 2004, 169 people were killed in 'crossfire'. In 2005, 396 people were killed in 'crossfire' by both RAB and the police.
 
 After the formation of RAB and other auxiliary forces like Cheetah and Cobra of the police, according to some, the law and order situation has improved and the general population are apparently happy with it. However, from a humanitarian and legal point of view, one cannot justify this type of killing. Every person has the right to fair trial.

   In 2006, 355 people were killed extra-judicially by law enforcement agencies while in 2007 184 people have allegedly been extra-judicially killed by law enforcement agencies. From January 1 to December 31, 2008, 149 people have allegedly been extra-judicially killed by law enforcement agencies.
  
The government uses the term 'crossfire' to mean gunfights between any criminal group or 'hardened' criminals and RAB or the police. The term 'death in encounter' is used in other countries to mean the same thing, but the term 'crossfire' is preferred by law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh. The sinister connotation associated with the word demonstrates utter powerlessness in the face of extrajudicial killing that is taking place in Bangladesh.
  
Though there is no legal definition of 'extrajudicial killing', if death occurs by the hand of a member of the law enforcement agency, without following legal rules or due judicial process, it can be termed as 'extrajudicial'. 'Crossfire' is extrajudicial execution that is in flagrant violation of the constitution of the country and the international human rights conventions of which Bangladesh is a party.
   Article 32 of the constitution ensures protection of right to life and personal liberty in accordance with law. Because of the consequences of such deprivation, the framers of the constitution made this specific provision even though it was already covered by article 31.
 
 According to the constitution, the fundamental state policy, although not enforceable by court, are democracy, human rights, freedom and respect for human dignity (article 11). Constitutional rights are available to enjoy equality before the law (article 27), protection of law and trial 'in accordance with law' and safeguards from arbitrary arrests and detention. However, ambiguity in constitution repeatedly surfaced with regard to the Code of Criminal Procedure, particularly section 54, although High Court came up with a positive interpretation in respect of information obtained through torture and its legal validity as evidence within the scope of law.
  
Constitutional ambiguity and absence of law on the absolute right of a person – that no one can be tortured or treated inhumanly in any forms under any circumstances – despite the availability of international covenants is the major challenge of the human rights defenders.

   Many justify torture as a tool of extracting information for greater interest of reducing crime and thus improving law and order. But it has been proven time and again that torture is a useless tool. Information extracted through torture loses value when the victim says he was insisted by the authorities to make confession before the court. Specialists casually note that torture is nowhere regarded today, officially at least, as a legitimate judicial procedure for eliciting truth. Those who are supposed to know why write: 'Constitutions outlaw the practice. The criminal law generally punishes it. The courts are almost everywhere required to exclude evidence collected by means of pressure generally considered to render the evidence unsafe. Torture is so excoriated that allegations that it has been used are generally denied in the most vigorous terms.'
  
   Recommendations
   As per article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 'Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.' Bangladesh is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and as a signatory, it is under obligations to respect the covenant, including articles 6, 7 and 14, which talk about the right to life, inhuman and degrading punishment and equality before the law respectively.
  
The Convention against Torture, adopted by the United Nations, signified an enormous progress by categorising the practice of torture as an international crime and by creating the mechanisms to denounce it. However, despite efforts on the issue of prevention, progress has been limited at the national and international level.

   The convention was ratified by Bangladesh's government on October 5, 1998. All states that have ratified and signed the convention have agreed to count torture as a punishable crime in their national laws. Bangladesh has also been elected for a second term to the UN Human Rights Council.

   What can be done by Bangladesh to curb this trend of torture and impunity? The following recommendations have been suggested:
   There is the urgency to form an independent investigation department to take complaints against the members of law enforcement agencies, including the security agencies, equipped with their own investigators
 
 Torture has to be rejected and disowned by the authorities, who have to make it clear that acts of torture would not be tolerated and the perpetrator would also not be protected in any way
   Impunity is seen everywhere, but nowhere more pronounced than in the extrajudicial killings carried out by law enforcement agencies. Not a single individual has ever been made to account. Impunity of law enforcement agencies must end

   Law enforcement agencies need to be accountable and the government has to make sure the perpetrators of human rights abuses are brought to justice
   Proper implementation of existing laws of the country with regard to international laws is needed
   There is a need to provide victims with effective remedies and to ensure that they receive reparation for the injuries suffered
  
   Conclusion
   Torture and extrajudicial killings prevail in Bangladesh due to lack of accountability and impunity of law enforcement agencies. A major reason for this is that torture is still not considered a crime. It has not been criminalised yet. Since we have no national law against torture, no practical step can be taken against this. As a result, incidents of torture and violations of human rights are being perpetrated, in different forms, by law enforcement agencies.
  
Torture has become so endemic that once a person is arrested the assumption is that he will be tortured. It is so because of the impunity accompanying torture. It is used as a tool by law enforcers to extract 'confession' and considered as routine work.

   In Bangladesh, successive governments have consistently failed to meet its obligations to investigate violations; to take appropriate measures in respect of perpetrators, particularly in the area of justice, by ensuring that those suspected of criminal responsibility are prosecuted, tried and duly punished; to provide victims with effective remedies and to ensure that they receive reparation for the injuries suffered; to ensure the inalienable right to know the truth about violations; and to take other necessary steps to prevent a recurrence of violations. This has enabled the culture of impunity to take deep root.
  
A culture of impunity protects the perpetrators and since most of the investigations are carried out by the same agencies it is almost impossible to get redress for torture victims. There is no independent authority to complain against the law enforcement authorities.

   As such, torture and extrajudicial killings remain and continue to be a source of major concern and a glaring example of human rights violations in Bangladesh. The government has many promises, including 'zero tolerance' regarding extrajudicial killings, those pledges made during election to the UN Human Rights Council in 2009 for the second term but has not followed through these promises.
   Adilur Rahman Khan, a former deputy attorney general, is secretary of the human rights group Odhikar




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Re: [ALOCHONA] Uptrend in rice price worries people



This can hardly be a priority compared to tackling the nation wide shortage of marigolds for the PM's motorcade and the lack of infrastructure projects to name after her, her sister, her father, her servants etc.

We need to achieve self-sufficiency in marigolds and launch new infrastructure projects to name before we tackle such minor issues as these.

Price of essentials indeed! The only essential in Bangladesh is that we are independent and able to enjoy it through songs, dance, monuments, speeches and of course through the very existence of the Mujib blood line.

If you are not content with this, you are clearly anti-Liberation and should leave the country immediately. If you cannot leave, learn to be grateful.

Joy Bangla!

Emanur Rahman | m. +447734567561 | e. emanur@rahman.com


From: Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com>
Sender: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:29:04 +0600
ReplyTo: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Uptrend in rice price worries people

Uptrend in rice price worries people


Even after satisfactory harvest of Boro this year and stable supply chain, the prices of different varieties of rice remained high in the city's kitchen markets yesterday, said traders. The present stock of rice is satisfactory compared with the previous years, they said. But, the uptrend in rice price has caused concern to the commoners, as they strongly expected that the price of rice would have been decreased to a tolerable level.

The prices of different categories of rice shot up between Tk 2 and Tk 4 per kg for the last one-month in the city's markets, according to traders.

In the city's retail markets, per kg of coarse rice was sold between Tk 27 and Tk 28 in the previous months. But, it was now selling between Tk 30 and Tk 32 per kg.

Minicate was sold between Tk 42 and Tk 44. Nazirshail depending on quality was sold between Tk 42 and Tk 46. Paizam was sold between Tk 35 and Tk 36 yesterday.

During the first quarter part of the current year, the coarse variety of rice was sold between Tk 20 and Tk 24 per kg in the city's kitchen markets.The limited income people especially labourer class were benefited by the price. They are now hard hit by the coarse rice price.Earlier, the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management had introduced Open Market Sale (OMS) of rice to bring stability in the retail level price.

The shut down of OMS might have added price hike of rice especially coarse variety, according to market experts. They suggested Government to reintroduce OMS before the upcoming month of Ramzan.

Trades at Badamtali rice markets told The New Nation that a section of rice mill owners in the northern districts have stocked huge quantity of rice by taking bank loans. They alleged that the unscrupulous mill owners drastically reduced per day quantity of their rice sale to the retailers in recent days, trying to create an artificial price hike.

In the 2008-09 fiscal, the total demand of food in the country was 2 crore 67 lakh metric tonnes against the total production of 2 crore 83 metric tonnes.

The target food production during the current fiscal was earmarked 2 crore 90 lakh metric tonnes against the production of 3 crore 44 lakh metric tonnes, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

Presently, there are about 7 lakh metric tonnes of food stock in the government silo, said a source in the Directorate of Food yesterday. The government will take measures to ensure 'price stability' in the rice market by curbing 'machination of profit monger traders', said a highly placed source of the Ministry of Food.
 


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Re: [ALOCHONA] Ashraful's comments belie public perception



These newspaper editors are ridiculous.

BCL are an integral and critical part of the peoples defence against the anti-Liberation forces. Without patriots like the BCL our glorious, prosperous and just society would be overrun by the Taleban.

In return for all their sacrifice in defending our freedom I do not understand why these editors are objecting to their raping, murdering, stealing, blackmailing and generally abusing ordinary students and the public. The latter are simply ordinary while BCL are doing the divine work of Mujib on earth.

It seems to me that an immediate movement to remove these editors who are clearly anti-Liberation and Pakistani spies must be started.

As for the ordinary students and public - this would not be such an issue if you simply paid the BCL money and offered up your daughters. Then they wouldn't have to ask.

That's the problem with Bangladeshis - they're not grateful.

Joy Bangla!

Emanur Rahman | m. +447734567561 | e. emanur@rahman.com


From: Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com>
Sender: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:31:56 +0600
ReplyTo: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Ashraful's comments belie public perception

Editorial
The AL-BCL link disowning
 
Ashraful's comments belie public perception
 

 
WE find rather strange and unacceptable the comments of Syed Ashraful Islam, minister for local government and general secretary of the AL, that since there is 'no link' between his party and the Bangladesh Chattra League, the AL has no responsibility for the BCL's activities on the hartal day.

What occasioned the remarks was the question raised by journalists regarding the anti-hartal activities of the BCL that led to clashes with Chattra Dal, in and around the campus and the Shahbag crossing, on the day of BNP-called hartal. We are not only surprised by his observations, we find these irresponsible and expedient too which neither behooves his position as a minister and particularly as general secretary of Awami League.

We are afraid we cannot accept such comment, it being, to our mind, an attempt to shirk the responsibility by the party for what the BCL did on the 27th. As the Chattra League elements were seen engaged in clashes with the pro-hartal elements, the police were in very close proximity to the scene appearing as mute bystanders at the very least. One wonders what the source of the strength of the BCL is. And even for the sake of argument if one were to accept that the government adopted a hands-off policy on the BCL, was it not tantamount to abetment. Was it not an issue of law and order which the administration, the law enforcing agencies in particular, were duty-bound to address effectively and even handedly?

We cannot believe that when all kinds of processions and picketing on the day of the hartal was banned by the administration in certain areas, an anti-hartal procession could have been brought out by the BCL without the back-up of sorts.

Therefore, any attempt to disown the link between the BCL and the AL whenever things go wrong evoking adverse publicity, it appears not only convenient but also irresponsible on the part of high government and ruling party functionary such as Syed Ashraful Islam. It is patently disingenuous too. We wonder whether that is the position of the governmen. If that be so, government's credibility will be called into further question.

We are all for maintenance of peace at all costs as well as for people's right to register their protests peacefully. But what people won't stand for is even any smack of duplicity and double standards and playing politics with law and order issues.
 


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[ALOCHONA] EPW: Book Review: The Decline of the Muslim League in Pre-Independence Bangladesh, 1947-1954



 

Post-Colonial Bureaucracy and the Subalterns

Iftekhar Iqbal

Economic & Political Weekly

Vol XLV No. 25

June 19, 2010

http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/14884.pdf

 

Iftekhar Iqbal (iftekhar.iqbal@gmail.com) is with the Department of History, University of Dhaka.

 

State against the Nation: The Decline of the Muslim League in Pre-Independence

Bangladesh, 1947-1954

by Ahmed Kamal (Dhaka:University Press), 2009;

pp i-xviii + 257, price not known.

 

Historians have studied the interregnum between the birth of Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh as that of a clear-and-simple exploitation of the Bengalis in East Pakistan by the West Pakistani ruling elite. This discourse of exploitation is built along a number of convenient and visible state-centric arguments: economic, political, cultural and sometimes racial. In this archaic, almost abstract form of nationalist debates, one misses the pictures of everyday, localised and spatially contingent politics of exploitation and resistance – a phenomenon common in both colonial and post-colonial south Asia. Ahmed Kamal's State against the Nation is an attempt to capture a slice of this historical continuum and the author does this with style.

 

High Politics and the Bureaucracy

Kamal looks at aspects of governance and resistance through the example of the rise and fall of the Muslim League in East Pakistan, covering the eventful seven years between 1947 and 1954. The book has nine chapters including an introduction and epilogue. The first chapter documents the euphoria about independence and the Muslim League that played a key role in its achievement. The second and third chapters focus on the dynamics of politics of "food" and "dearth", respectively. (The reader could have benefited if the author had clarified the rationale behind the two different chapters on food and dearth – topics that crossed each other in terms of the extent of food insecurity, food governance and sporadic resistance by the hungry.) The fourth and fifth chapters engage with the questions of agrarian politics and aspects of water related bureaucracy and the resultant popular response. The last chapter is on the police – a topic that has generally evaded the historian's gaze. A particular strength of the book is its dense empirical data, a majority of which is drawn from the National Archives of Bangladesh in Dhaka. This data allows the author to present his argument with clarity and conviction.

 

A central theme that runs through the chapters is the way the state continued to adhere to the colonial style of governance – centralised bureaucracy, crude indifference to democratic aspirations, and the suppression of local knowledge of environmental resources. For these seven years, Kamal does not dismiss the Muslim League as a monolithic power player, but sees sporadic signs of high politics of nation-building and desire for participation in the wider political process among the rank and file of the party. Kamal argues that it was the bureaucracy, still loaded with a colonial mindset and practices, which stood between the high politics and grass roots political participation. Eventually the party's political elite gave in to the bureaucratic order and in concert with the bureaucracy, appeared to be the most mindless force against the nation. Kamal meticulously narrates the way in which the alliance of bureaucracy and high politics of the Muslim League used the state apparatus against popular aspirations and activism in East Bengal.

 

Persisting Colonial Structures

It was no wonder that within two years of the Muslim League rule, the Awami League (initially the Awami Muslim League) was born as a resisting political platform, which later led Bangladesh to win its freedom. But Kamal does not see that the emergence of a new political force put an end to the bureaucratic nature of the state even in independent Bangladesh (pp 234-35). So the configuration of the discourse of inflexible bureaucracy and state's mechanical treatment of its citizens specifically within the seven-year rule of the Muslim League raises the interesting question of what led to the persistence of colonial structures and practices in all forms of the nation state? Obviously no historian would argue that the two century- long colonial legacy would be wiped out only within seven years, but the question is why did it persist in the years after the downfall of the Muslim League and well into the present time? Kamal's narrative is brilliant in the sense that it goes beyond the binary of the elite and the subaltern by pointing to the fact that the anti-Muslim League coalition contained a creative mix of both elite and subaltern political elements that foreshadowed the birth of Bangladesh. Yet the question of the state's constant violations of national political and economic well-being in its Pakistan and Bangladesh phases, particularly when the elite and the subaltern shared the same political space, is not so much explained as it is narrated in State against the Nation. Kamal does not explain the forces that kept informing the dominance of bureaucracy.

 

The birth of the Awami League in 1949 and the formation of the United Front Alliance in 1954 represented the highest point of convergence between the liberal and the radical. The lowest point of fracture between the two political streams took place in 1957 when Maulana Bhasani quit the Awami League to mobilise the mainstream Left. This divergence took place on the question of foreign policy of Pakistan. Suhrawardi opted for western power blocks and Bhasani for the opposite direction. How do we locate the persistence of a rigid bureaucracy in post-colonial Pakistan when the liberal polity had the upper hand? If the colonial state's centralization of governance mechanism was informed by the threat it perceived from the popular nationalist resistance of which the Left was a strong element, then what informed such bureaucratic authoritarianism in Pakistan and in independent Bangladesh?

 

The Left had a hard time in the later Colonial years, during the Pakistan as well as early Bangladesh period – and that occurred in a "cold war" condition in which the western power block seems to have influenced the ruling elite across the developing world. These external dynamics greatly informed the persistence of a centralised bureaucracy even during the time of "liberal" governments.

 

This macroview of history needs to be linked to the more local and national dynamics of governance and resistance. Post-colonial power politics in the new nation states were not left merely to the internal agencies. Kamal's narration of the national and micro-politics of suppression and resistance could have been far more engaging if the impact of the global developments during the period were put in perspective. Considering the lack of focus on the asymmetric relations between the internal political dynamics of the nation state and the international politics, Kamal's book may prove to be one of the last lamp posts in subaltern studies, but perhaps the first of its kind in the historiography of Bangladesh.



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[ALOCHONA] As Jamat Leaders Bailed in the Initial Frivolous Case, Shown Arrested in 8 Other Cases and Demanded 40 days Remand

Democracy & Human Rights Menaced by the BAKSALi Fascist Regime in Bangladesh

Dear Democracy-Loving Colleagues,

I would like to draw your kind attention to the current Bangladesh Government's onslaught of fascist actions against opposition parties and media that grossly violate justice, human rights and democratic norms, which unless intervened and abetted may lead this poor nation to a civil war. As part of this digital BAKSALi fascist government's political repression, the Ameer, Secretary General and Nayeb e Ameer of Bangladesh Jamaat Islami (BJI), the largest democratic Islamic party and the second largest opposition of Bangladesh, were arrested yesterday for a frivolously fabricated alleged charge of hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims. This is nothing more than merely crocodile tears of an ultra-secularist government who does not have slightest sympathy to religious sentiment but takes all advantage thereof for political profiteering. Although the alleged statement for which they have been arrested were made by another party-man, they have been more
than equally implicated on the basis of the government's might is right policy. The alleged statement in the form of a comparison that the challenges and suppressions faced by the Prophet's movement and those that the party (which is a democratic Islamic movement) is currently facing are no different should not by any means construed to agitate religious sentiment. Nevertheless the ultra-secularist government, which is utterly hostile to Islamic political activities, created a big issue out of this for its mean political gain. Following these leaders' arrest the police have started a massive arrest of the Party activists in every corner of the country. There are evidences of massive random attack by the pro-government activists on the activists and establishments of the BJI throughout the country. Since the government apprehended that these opposition leaders might be granted bail on this frivolous case, it pressurized the judiciary to declare them as
"shown arrested" under other serious unfounded false cases including murder of a Rajshahi University student (who was in fact killed due to the pro-government student organization Bangladesh Chhatra League or BCL's in-fight) and sedition and war crimes committed during 1971 so that they cannot escape remand and physical torture for which is regime is known notorious. As such, while the court has granted them bail for the frivolous case for which they were initially arrested, they are by now shown arrested under 8 cases and the government has demanded 40 days remand for each of the leaders. The court has today initially granted 16 days remand for each which will be extended on further demand after conclusion the initial duration as customarily practiced between the Bangladesh government and its judiciary.

Please see the pro-government daily "The Star" report, although the report is biased against the BJI:
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=24507.

Police wants to book top Jamaat brass in 2 cases

Separate appeals were filed with two courts in Dhaka and Rajshahi for showing the chief, secretary general and vice president of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami arrested in two cases – one for murder and another for sedition. Detective police appealed to a Dhaka court for showing Jamaat Chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, vice president Delwar Hossain Saydee arrested in the sedition case. The case was filed with Biman Bandar Police Station for holding a secrete meeting at former energy adviser Mahamudur Rahman's Artisan ceramic Lt Company office at Uattara in 2006. In that case, Mahmudur Rahman, the acting editor of the recently closed daily Amar Desh, is the main accused. The court will hear the appeal later in the day. Nizami, Mojaheed and Saydee were arrested from the capital and Savar on Tuesday, hours after a Dhaka court issued arrest warrant against them in connection with a case filed against them for hurting
religious sentiments of Muslims. In Rajshahi, police appealed to Rajshahi Metropolitan Magistrate (RMM) Court to show the three Jamaat-e-Islami leaders arrested in BCL worker Faruk Hossain killing case. Matihar police filed the appeal to Magistrate Amirul Islam, reports our staff correspondent in Rajshahi. Three Jamaat and Shibir leaders arrested in the case earlier told to the police that Faruk was killed as per the instruction of Jamaat top leaders including Nijami, Mojaheed and Saydee. Faruk Hossain, a final year student of the Department of Mathematics of RU, was hacked to death by Islami Chhatra Shibir activists at Rajshahi University on February 8 this year.

See also another online news media BDNews24.com report:
Move to implicate Jamaat leaders in murders
Wed, Jun 30th, 2010 3:48 pm BdSTDial 2000 from your GP mobile for latest news

Dhaka, June 30 (bdnews24.com)--The police have appealed to the court to implicate the top Jamaat-e-Islami leaders in cases related to the murders of freedom fighters in 1971. The Detective Branch's crime and investigation department additional deputy commissioner Ruhul Amin told bdnews24.com that the appeals were lodged at Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court on Wednesday noon. Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and central executive committee member Delwar Hossain Sayedee will be presented before court later in the day. The police want to show them arrested in two cases for the murder of freedom fighters in 1971 at the capital's Pallabi and Keraniganj. He also said that a petition was made to show Sayedee arrested in a separate case for the killing of freedom fighters in 1971, which was filed with Pirojpur police. The police also appealed to show the trio arrested in the murder case of Rajshahi
University student Faruk Hossain and a case for attack on the law-enforcers at Paltan in last February. Earlier on Tuesday, the Jamaat leaders were detained in a case filed for hurting religious sentiments after a Dhaka court ordered their arrest for defying its orders. Magistrate Mehdi Hasan Talukder of Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court issued the order against the three and Dhaka Metropolitan Jamaat chief Rafiqul Islam Khan as they did not appear before the judge. The court granted bail to another suspect in the case, Mohammad Yahia, Islami Chhatra Shibir president of Dhaka metropolitan (south), after he had surrendered to the court and sought bail. The case cited Rafiqul Islam Khan's comparison of Nizami to Prophet Muhammad at a March 17 meeting of the pro-Jamaat student front Islami Chhatra Shibir in the city. Various newspapers on Mar 18 reported Khan as saying that the prophet in his lifetime was "tortured, falsified and conspired
against" and "the same is happening in the case of Nizami". Bangladesh Tariqat Federation secretary general Syed Rezaul Haque Chandpuri filed the case on Mar 21.

I do not ask for your favor or sympathy to a political party including Jamaat, but any help that you can possibly extend in favor of upholding justice, human rights and democracy in Bangladesh would be greatly remembered by the suffering people of Bangladesh who deserve a prosperous and peaceful life.

Below are some additional links for your kind visit to know the atrocities of the current BAL government:

Odhikar Report Link
http://odhikar.org/Statements/English/Mahmudur_Rahman_8_June.pdf
http://odhikar.org/Statements/English/Mahmudur_Rahman_6_June,pdf.pdf
http://odhikar.org/Statements/English/Mahmudur_Rahman_6_June,pdf.pdf
http://odhikar.org/Statements/English/Mahmudur_Rahman_June_3.pdf
http://odhikar.org/Statements/English/Amar_Desh_and_arrest_of_%20Mahmudur_Rahman_June_2.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/documents/2010/English_Reports/Odhikar_Report_3%20months_%20Jan-%20Mar_%20Eng.pdf
http://odhikar.org/documents/2010/English_Reports/Odhikar_Monthly_report,%20May%202010%20_English_.pdf (HR report 1-31 may 2010)
http://www.odhikar.org/documents/2010/English_Reports/Odhikar_Report_English_April_2010.pdf (1-31 April 2010)
http://www.odhikar.org/documents/2010/English_Reports/Odhikar_Report_English_February_2010.pdf (1-28 Feb 2010)
http://www.odhikar.org/documents/2010/English_Reports/January_2010_English.pdf (1-31 Jan 2010)
http://odhikar.org/Odhikar_operational_crisis/OPCAT.cancellation/Bangladesh_180210.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Touhid_Kushtia_Police_04.01.09_Eng.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff2010/Police2010/English/Eng_Zakir_Hossain_Dhaka_DB_Police_March_09_2010.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Nawab_Police_Brahmanbaria_Eng.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Habib_torture_Police_Chittagong_Eng.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Robin_Jhenaidaha_03.02.2009_Eng.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Mozam_Police_Bogra_16.06.09_Eng.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Morshed_Habib_Netrokona_Police_24.08.09_Eng.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Nurujjaman_Pirgacha_Rangpur_November52009_Police_English.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Shahinur_Rahman_Dablu-Kushtia_25August2009.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Orbindo_Mondol_Bulu_Rupsha_Khulna_Police_18September2009.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Nippon_Garments_industries_31_Oct_09_Police_English.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/English_Mamun_Doulatpur_Kushtia_November_15_2009_Police.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Ziaul_Huq_Sreenagar_Munshiganj_Police.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Ziaul_Huq_Sreenagar_Munshiganj_Police.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Abul_Bashar_Tuhin_Police_%20Sylhet.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Eng_Md_Saifulla_Police_Satkhira.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/Police09/English/Parvaz_Zakaria_Joydabpur_Gazipur_Police_Torture.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/RAB09/English/Babul_Dhaka.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/RAB09/English/English_Bappi_Rampurai_Dhaka_September_10_2009_RAB.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/RAB09/English/FM_Masum_Jatrabari_Dhaka_RAB.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/RAB-Police09/Siddik_Jhenaidaha_RAB-Police_27.04.09_Eng.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/RAB-Police09/Sayeed_RAB-Police_Chuadanga_Eng.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/RAB-Police09/Death_of_Monir_BRD.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/RAB-Police09/Saidur_Rahman_BDR.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/FF/ff09/RAB-Police09/Mobarak_BDR.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/documents/2009/English_report/January09.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/documents/2009/English_report/Jan-Mar09.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/documents/2009/English_report/may09.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/documents/2009/English_report/Jan-Jun09.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/documents/2009/English_report/July09.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/documents/2009/English_report/August09.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/documents/2009/English_report/Jan-Sept09.pdf
http://www.odhikar.org/documents/2009/English_report/November09.pdf

News Paper
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=24507
http://www.theindependent-bd.com/details.php?nid=179971
http://www.newagebd.com/2010/jun/30/front.html#1
http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2010/06/30/news0551.htm
http://www.thebangladeshtoday.com/leading%20news.htm#lead news-01
http://www.thebangladeshtoday.com/leading%20news.htm#lead news-01
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=24505
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=141680
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=141097
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=141150
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=141911
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=143903
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=141312
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=24055
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=141097
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=24109
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=143509
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=142598
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=24408
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=142101
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=125814
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=124804
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=22037
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=125868

Bangla news link
http://www.prothom-alo.com/detail/date/2010-06-30/news/74843
http://bdnews24.com/bangla/details.php?id=130187&cid=3
http://rtnn.net/details.php?id=25652&p=1&s=
http://www.samakal.com.bd/details.php?news=13&action=main&option=single&news_id=75793&pub_no=382
http://www.dailysangram.com/news_details.php?news_id=33738
http://www.dailyjanakantha.com/news_view.php?nc=15&dd=2010-06-30&ni=23993
http://www.jugantor.info/enews/issue/2010/06/30/news0905.php
http://www.amadershomoy.com/content/2010/06/30/news0076.htm
http://bdnews24.com/bangla/details.php?cid=3&id=130259&hb=top
http://bdnews24.com/bangla/details.php?id=130204&cid=2
http://awamibrutality.blogspot.com/2010/06/blog-post_28.html
http://awamibrutality.blogspot.com/2010/06/blog-post_2906.html
http://awamibrutality.blogspot.com/2010/06/blog-post_27.html
http://awamibrutalityda.blogspot.com/2010/06/blog-post_9731.html
http://awamibrutalityda.blogspot.com/2010/06/blog-post_07.html
http://awamibrutalityda.blogspot.com/2010/06/blog-post_2167.html
http://awamibrutalityda.blogspot.com/2010/06/blog-post_04.html
http://www.amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2010/04/28/29513
http://awamibrutalityhr.blogspot.com/
http://www.prothom-alo.com/detail/date/2010-06-24/news/73371
http://www.prothom-alo.com/detail/date/2010-06-17/news/71570
http://www.prothom-alo.com/detail/date/2010-06-14/news/70815
http://www.prothom-alo.com/detail/date/2010-06-01/news/67721
http://awamibrutalityphoto.blogspot.com/



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Re: [ALOCHONA] Fw: You must have come across this already but if not...



This news has been around a while, although I have no proof of authencity. 
 
Saudi women are apparently using this fatwa in their driving bid....
 
Saudi women use fatwa in driving bid
 
The women threatened to follow through the fatwa which allows them to breastfeed their drivers and turn them into their sons
 
Riyadh: Saudi women plan to turn a controversial fatwa (religious ruling) to their advantage and launch a campaign to achieve their long-standing demand to drive in this conservative kingdom.
If the demand is not met, the women threatened to follow through the fatwa which allows them to breastfeed their drivers and turn them into their sons.
The campaign will be launched under the slogan: "We either be allowed to drive or breastfeed foreigners," a journalist told Gulf News.
Amal Zahid said that their decision follows a fatwa issued by a renowned scholar which said that Saudi women can breastfeed their foreign drivers for them to become their sons.
"As every Saudi family needs a driver, our campaign will focus on women's right to drive," she said.
The controversial fatwa, which was regarded as both funny and weird, issued recently by Shaikh Abdul Mohsin Bin Nasser Al Obaikan, member of Saudi Council of Senior Scholars and adviser to the king, has sparked a debate in society.
The renowned scholar said Saudi women can breastfeed their foreign drivers for them to be become their sons and brothers to their daughters.
Under this relationship, foreign drivers can mix freely with all members of the family without breaking the Islamic rule which does not allow mixing of genders.
Breast milk kinship is considered to be as good as a blood relationship in Islam.
"A woman can breastfeed a mature man so that he becomes her son. In this way, he can mix with her and her daughters without violating the teachings of Islam," the scholar said.
'Ridiculous and weird'
Al Obaikan based his fatwa on a Hadith (saying) of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) which was narrated by Salim, the servant of Abu Huzaifa.
Later, Al Obaikan clarified that his fatwa was being distorted by the local media which ignored the condition that the milk should be drawn out of the woman and given to the man in a cup to drink.
Speaking to Gulf News, a number of Saudi women condemned the fatwa. Fatima Al Shammary was quoted by the local Arabic daily Al Watan as saying the fatwa was "ridiculous and weird".
"This fatwa has become a hot topic of debate among women. Is this is all that is left to us to do: to give our breasts to the foreign drivers?" she said.
Another Saudi woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, questioned: "Does Islam allow me to breastfeed a foreign man and prevent me from driving my own car?
"I have not breastfed my own children. How do you expect me to do this with a foreign man? What is this nonsense?" she said.
Another woman said the fatwa should also apply to the husbands who should be breastfed by housemaids. By doing so, all will be brothers and sisters," she said.
Hamid Al Ali, a journalist for an electronic newspaper, recalled that an Egyptian driver who had a crush on a female teacher he drives to school asked her to breastfeed him. When she retorted angrily, he said: "I want to be your son."
Saudi writer Suzan Al Mashhadi sarcastically asked Al Obaikan: "Do the women have to breastfeed the driver in the presence of their husbands or can they do this alone?"
"Who will protect the wife if the husband entered the house unexpectedly and found his wife breastfeeding the driver?" she asked.


 


-----Original Message-----
From: qrahman@netscape.net
To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, Jun 29, 2010 3:31 am
Subject: Re: [ALOCHONA] Fw: You must have come across this already but if not...

 


Robin,
 
Have you bothered to check if this news was "Fact" or fiction? This is beyond absurd.
 
I have had "Good fortune" to see such absurd news from born again [This is a new "Evolved" sect of Christians] nut cases before. Where people highlight obscure/mentally retarded people as "Example" of average Muslims. Just seeing the tag line of the given web page tells anyone with "Common sense" what was this blog about. [I can give you many more such moronic news sources, if you want to spread them around.]
 
From your recent postings in Alochona forum, it seems like you are very focused on making fun of anything Islamic. However I should thank you. It seems like we are still in high school where we used to waste time such idiotic topics.
 
Shalom.
 
--QR


-----Original Message-----
From: Robin Khundkar <rkhundkar@earthlink.net>
Sent: Tue, Jun 8, 2010 11:14 pm
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Fw: You must have come across this already but if not...

 
Enjoy the Craziness!


-----Forwarded Message-----
>From:
>Sent: Jun 8, 2010 9:30 AM
>To: Robin Khundkar
>Subject: You must have come across this already but if not...
>
http://saudiwoman.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/whats-front-page-news-in-saudi-arabia/
 
 

 


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