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Saturday, April 2, 2011

[ALOCHONA] Pakistan :A great deal of ruin in a nation



Pakistan : A great deal of ruin in a nation

"TYPICAL Blackwater operative," says a senior military officer, gesturing towards a muscular Westerner with a shaven head and tattoos, striding through the lobby of Islamabad's Marriott Hotel. Pakistanis believe their country is thick with Americans working for private security companies contracted to the Central Intelligence Agency; and indeed, the physique of some of the guests at the Marriott hardly suggests desk-bound jobs.

Pakistan is not a country for those of a nervous disposition. Even the Marriott lacks the comforting familiarity of the standard international hotel, for the place was blown up in 2008 by a lorry loaded with explosives. The main entrance is no longer accessible from the road; guards check under the bonnets of approaching cars, and guests are dropped off at a screening centre a long walk away.

Some 30,000 people have been killed in the past four years in terrorism, sectarianism and army attacks on the terrorists. The number of attacks in Pakistan's heartland is on the rise, and Pakistani terrorists have gone global in their ambitions. This year there have been unprecedented displays of fundamentalist religious and anti-Western feeling. All this might be expected in Somalia or Yemen, but not in a country of great sophistication which boasts an elite educated at Oxbridge and the Ivy League, which produces brilliant novelists, artists and scientists, and is armed with nuclear weapons.

Demonstrations in support of the murderer of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, in January, startled and horrified Pakistan's liberals. Mr Taseer was killed by his guard, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, who objected to his boss's campaign to reform the country's strict blasphemy law. Some suggest that the demonstrations were whipped up by the opposition to frighten the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) government, since Mr Taseer was a member of the party. Others say the army encouraged them, because it likes to remind the Americans of the seriousness of the fundamentalist threat. But conversations with Lahoris playing Sunday cricket in the park beside the Badshahi mosque suggest that the demonstrations expressed the feelings of many. "We are all angry about these things," says Gul Sher, a goldsmith, of Mr Taseer's campaign to reform the law on blasphemy. "God gave Qadri the courage to do something about it."

Pakistani liberals have always taken comfort from the fundamentalists' poor showing in elections and the tolerant, Sufi version of Islam traditionally prevalent in rural Pakistan. But polling by the Pew Research Centre suggests that Pakistanis take a hard line on religious matters these days (see chart 1). It may be that they always did, and that the elite failed to notice. It may be that urbanisation and the growing influence of hard-line Wahhabi-style Islam have widened the gap between the liberal elite and the rest. "The Pakistani elites have lived in a kind of cocoon," says Salman Raja, a Lahore lawyer. "They go to Aitchison College [in Lahore]. They go abroad to university…A lot of us are asking ourselves whether this country has changed while our backs were turned."

The response to another death suggests that the hostility towards Mr Taseer may not have been only about religion. Two months later Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for minorities, was murdered for the same reason. Yet his killing did not trigger jubilation. Mr Taseer's offence may have been compounded by the widespread perception that he, like most of the elite, was Westernised. His mother was British, he held parties at his house, and he posted photos on the internet of his children doing normal Western teenage things—swimming and laughing with the opposite sex—that caused a scandal in Pakistan.

The West in general, and America in particular, are unpopular. It was not always thus. Before the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, around a third of Pakistanis regarded Americans as untrustworthy. Since then, a fairly stable two-thirds have done so. The latest poll on the matter (see chart 1) suggests that Pakistanis see America as more of a threat to their country than India or the Pakistani Taliban. It was carried out in 2009, but anecdotal evidence confirms that the views have not changed. "America is behind all of our troubles," says Mohammed Shafiq, a street-hawker. That may be because America is thought to have embroiled Pakistan in a war which has caused the surge in terrorism; or because many Pakistanis, including senior army officers, genuinely believe that the bombings are being carried out by America in order to destabilise Pakistan, after which it will grab its nuclear weapons.

Four horsemen

From the complex web of factors that have fostered intolerance and violence in Pakistan, it is possible to disentangle four main strands. The first is Pakistan's strategic position. Big powers have long competed for control of the area between Russia and the Arabian Gulf, and the unresolved tensions with India have dogged the country since its birth in 1947. Nor has Pakistan tried to keep out of its neighbours' affairs. It was America's enthusiastic ally in the war to eject the Soviet Union from Afghanistan in the 1980s, which it sold to its people as a jihad. "We used religion as an instrument of change and we are still paying the price," says General Mahmud Ali Durrani, former national security adviser and ambassador to Washington. Pakistan helped create the Taliban in the 1990s to try to exert some control over Afghanistan. And with much trepidation on the part of its leaders, and reluctance on the part of its people, it has supported America in its war against the Taliban over the past decade.

By trying to destabilise India, Pakistan has undermined its own stability. "When the Soviets went away," says a senior military officer, "we had a very large number of battle-hardened people with nothing to do. They were redirected towards India. The ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence, the main military-intelligence agency] was controlling them…20:20 hindsight is very good, but this decision was perhaps wrong." According to the officer, after al-Qaeda's attacks against America on September 11th 2001 the army decided to wind down the policy. "We started taking them out. But many of them said, 'Nothing doing.' They had contact with people in the Afghan jihad, and they joined those people again." Because the Pakistanis were helping the Americans in their fight against the Afghan Taliban, the Pakistani jihadis turned their fury on the government.

The second strand is the unresolved question of Islam's role in the nation. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's founder, made it clear that he thought Pakistan should be a country for Muslims, not an Islamic country. But since then, according to General Durrani, "Every government that has failed to deliver has used Islam as a crutch." Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, for example, though fond of a drink himself, banned alcohol. Zia ul Haq, his successor, tried to legitimise his military coup by pledging to Islamise the country.

The relationship between religion and the state is not an abstruse question of political philosophy. A treatise on the Pakistani constitution published in 2009 by Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's number two (who is believed to be in North Waziristan), argues that the Pakistani state is illegitimate and must be destroyed. This tract is widely read in the madrassas from which the terrorist groups draw their recruits. Its popularity exercises Qazi Hussein Ahmed, the grand old man of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the most fundamentalist of the political parties, for the Jamaat works within the state, not against it. He argues that Pakistan's failure to adopt an Islamist constitution "has given the Taliban and such extremist elements a pretext: they say the government will not bow to demands made by democratic means, so they are resorting to violent means."

The third strand is the uselessness of the government. Democracy in Pakistan has been subverted by patronage. Parliament is dominated by the big landowning families, who think their job is to provide for the tribes and clans who vote for them. Except for the Jamaat-e-Islami, parties have nothing to do with ideology. The two main ones are family assets—the Bhuttos own the PPP, and the Sharifs (Nawaz Sharif, the former and probably future prime minister, and his brother Shahbaz, chief minister of Punjab) own the Pakistan Muslim League (N). The consequence is dire political leadership of the sort shown by Asif Ali Zardari, who is president only because he married into the Bhutto dynasty. When Pakistan desperately needed a courageous political gesture in response to the murders of the governor and minister, the president failed even to attend their funerals.

Pakistan's rotten governance shows up in its growth rates (see chart 2). In a decade during which most of Asia has leapt ahead, Pakistan has lagged behind. Female literacy, crucial as both an indicator of development and a determinant of future prosperity, is stuck at 40%. In India, which was at a similar level 20 years ago, the figure is now over half. In East Asia it is more like nine out of ten.

Given the government's failings, it is hardly surprising if Pakistanis take a dim view of democracy. In a recent Pew poll of seven Muslim countries they were the least enthusiastic, with 42% regarding it as the best form of government—though, since the country has spent longer under military than under democratic rule, the army is at least as culpable.

The armed forces' dominance is the fourth strand. Tensions with India mean that the army has always absorbed a disproportionate share of the government's budget. Being so well-resourced, the army is one of the few institutions in the country that works well. So when civilian politicians get them into a hole, Pakistanis look to the military men to dig them out again. They usually oblige.

Terrorism is strengthening the army further. In 2009 it drove terrorists out of Swat and South Waziristan, and it is now running those areas. Last year its budget allocation leapt by 17%. Nor are the demands on the armed forces likely to shrink. Although overall numbers of attacks are down from a peak in 2009, they have spread from the tribal areas and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), along the border with Afghanistan, to the heartland. Last year saw an uptick in attacks on government, military and economic targets in Punjab and Karachi, the capital of Sindh province. Since then, security has been stepped up; and with the usual targets—international hotels, government buildings and military installations—surrounded by armed men and concrete barriers, terrorists are increasingly attacking soft targets where civilians congregate, such as mosques and markets.

Exporting terror

Pakistani terrorism has also gone global. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, or Pakistani Taliban), announced when it was formed in 2007 that it aimed to attack the Pakistani state, impose sharia law on the country and resist NATO forces in Afghanistan. But last year Qari Mehsud, now dead but thought to be a cousin of the leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, who was in charge of the group's suicide squad, announced that American cities would be targeted in revenge for drone attacks in tribal areas. That policy was apparently taken up by Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born naturalised American who tried to blow up New York's Times Square last year.

Pakistan's new face?

That prompted an increase in American pressure on the army to attack terrorists in North Waziristan. The army is resisting. The Americans suspect that it wants to protect Afghan Taliban there. The Pakistani army says it is just overstretched.

"We are still in South Waziristan," insists a senior security officer. "We are holding the area. We are starting a resettlement process, building roads and dams. We need to keep the settled areas free of terrorists. It is not a matter of intent that we are not going into North Waziristan. It is a matter of capacity."

The growth in terrorism in Punjab poses another problem for the army. "What we see in the border areas is an insurgency," says the officer. "The military is there to do counter-insurgency. What you see in the cities is terrorism. This is the job of the law-enforcement agencies." But the police and the courts are not doing their job. One suspected terrorist, for instance, a founder member of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was charged with 70 murders, almost all of them Shias. He was found not guilty of any of them for lack of evidence. In 2009 the ISI kidnapped 11 suspected terrorists from a jail in Punjab, because it feared that the courts were about to set them free.

So where does this lead? Not to a terrorist march on the capital. Excitable Western headlines a couple of years ago saying that the Taliban were "60 miles from Islamabad" were misleading: first because the terrorists are not an army on the march, and second because they are not going to take control of densely populated, industrialised, urban Punjab the way they took control of parts of the wild, mountainous frontier areas and KPK.

Yet even though they will not overthrow the Pakistani state, the combination of a small number of terrorists and a great deal of intolerance is changing it. Liberals, Christians, Ahmadis and Shias are nervous. People are beginning to watch their words in public. The rich among those target groups are talking about going abroad. The country is already very different from the one Jinnah aspired to build.

The future would look brighter if there were much resistance to the extremists from political leaders. But, because of either fear or opportunism, there isn't. The failure of virtually the entire political establishment to stand up for Mr Taseer suggests fear; the electioneering tour that the law minister of Punjab took with a leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba last year suggests opportunism. "The Punjab government is hobnobbing with the terrorists," says the security officer. "This is part of the problem." A state increasingly under the influence of extremists is not a pleasant idea.

It may come out all right. After all, Pakistan has been in decline for many years, and has not tumbled into the abyss. But countries tend to crumble slowly. As Adam Smith said, "There is a great deal of ruin in a nation." The process could be reversed; but for that to happen, somebody in power would have to try.

http://www.economist.com/node/18488344



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[ALOCHONA] Exposed: The US-Saudi Libya deal



Exposed: The US-Saudi Libya deal

By Pepe Escobar

To follow Pepe's articles on the Great Arab Revolt, please click here.

You invade Bahrain. We take out Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. This, in short, is the essence of a deal struck between the Barack Obama administration and the House of Saud. Two diplomatic sources at the United Nations independently confirmed that Washington, via Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gave the go-ahead for Saudi Arabia to invade Bahrain and crush the pro-democracy movement in their neighbor in exchange for a "yes".

vote by the Arab League for a no-fly zone over Libya - the main rationale that led to United Nations Security Council resolution 1973.

The revelation came from two different diplomats, a European and a member of the BRIC group, and was made separately to a US scholar and Asia Times Online. According to diplomatic protocol, their names cannot be disclosed. One of the diplomats said, "This is the reason why we could not support resolution 1973. We were arguing that Libya, Bahrain and Yemen were similar cases, and calling for a fact-finding mission. We maintain our official position that the resolution is not clear, and may be interpreted in a belligerent manner."

As Asia Times Online has reported, a full Arab League endorsement of a no-fly zone is a myth. Of the 22 full members, only 11 were present at the voting. Six of them were Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members, the US-supported club of Gulf kingdoms/sheikhdoms, of which Saudi Arabia is the top dog. Syria and Algeria were against it. Saudi Arabia only had to "seduce" three other members to get the vote.

Translation: only nine out of 22 members of the Arab League voted for the no-fly zone. The vote was essentially a House of Saud-led operation, with Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa keen to polish his CV with Washington with an eye to become the next Egyptian President.

Thus, in the beginning, there was the great 2011 Arab revolt. Then, inexorably, came the US-Saudi counter-revolution.

Profiteers rejoice
Humanitarian imperialists will spin en masse this is a "conspiracy", as they have been spinning the bombing of Libya prevented a hypothetical massacre in Benghazi. They will be defending the House of Saud - saying it acted to squash Iranian subversion in the Gulf; obviously R2P - "responsibility to protect" does not apply to people in Bahrain. They will be heavily promoting post-Gaddafi Libya as a new - oily - human rights Mecca, complete with US intelligence assets, black ops, special forces and dodgy contractors.

Whatever they say won't alter the facts on the ground - the graphic results of the US-Saudi dirty dancing. Asia Times Online has already reported on who profits from the foreign intervention in Libya (see There's no business like war business, March 30). Players include the Pentagon (via Africom), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Saudi Arabia, the Arab League's Moussa, and Qatar. Add to the list the al-Khalifa dynasty in Bahrain, assorted weapons contractors, and the usual neo-liberal suspects eager to privatize everything in sight in the new Libya - even the water. And we're not even talking about the Western vultures hovering over the Libyan oil and gas industry.

Exposed, above all, is the astonishing hypocrisy of the Obama administration, selling a crass geopolitical coup involving northern Africa and the Persian Gulf as a humanitarian operation. As for the fact of another US war on a Muslim nation, that's just a "kinetic military action".

There's been wide speculation in both the US and across the Middle East that considering the military stalemate - and short of the "coalition of the willing" bombing the Gaddafi family to oblivion - Washington, London and Paris might settle for the control of eastern Libya; a northern African version of an oil-rich Gulf Emirate. Gaddafi would be left with a starving North Korea-style Tripolitania.

But considering the latest high-value defections from the regime, plus the desired endgame ("Gaddafi must go", in President Obama's own words), Washington, London, Paris and Riyadh won't settle for nothing but the whole kebab. Including a strategic base for both Africom and NATO.

Round up the unusual suspects
One of the side effects of the dirty US-Saudi deal is that the White House is doing all it can to make sure the Bahrain drama is buried by US media. BBC America news anchor Katty Kay at least had the decency to stress, "they would like that one [Bahrain] to go away because there's no real upside for them in supporting the rebellion by the Shi'ites."

For his part the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, showed up on al-Jazeera and said that action was needed because the Libyan people were attacked by Gaddafi. The otherwise excellent al-Jazeera journalists could have politely asked the emir whether he would send his Mirages to protect the people of Palestine from Israel, or his neighbors in Bahrain from Saudi Arabia.

The al-Khalifa dynasty in Bahrain is essentially a bunch of Sunni settlers who took over 230 years ago. For a great deal of the 20th century they were obliging slaves of the British empire. Modern Bahrain does not live under the specter of a push from Iran; that's an al-Khalifa (and House of Saud) myth.

Bahrainis, historically, have always rejected being part of a sort of Shi'ite nation led by Iran. The protests come a long way, and are part of a true national movement - way beyond sectarianism. No wonder the slogan in the iconic Pearl roundabout - smashed by the fearful al-Khalifa police state - was "neither Sunni nor Shi'ite; Bahraini".

What the protesters wanted was essentially a constitutional monarchy; a legitimate parliament; free and fair elections; and no more corruption. What they got instead was "bullet-friendly Bahrain" replacing "business-friendly Bahrain", and an invasion sponsored by the House of Saud.

And the repression goes on - invisible to US corporate media. Tweeters scream that everybody and his neighbor are being arrested. According to Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, over 400 people are either missing or in custody, some of them "arrested at checkpoints controlled by thugs brought in from other Arab and Asian countries - they wear black masks in the streets." Even blogger Mahmood Al Yousif was arrested at 3 am, leading to fears that the same will happen to any Bahraini who has blogged, tweeted, or posted Facebook messages in favor of reform.

Globocop is on a roll
Odyssey Dawn is now over. Enter Unified Protector - led by Canadian Charles Bouchard. Translation: the Pentagon (as in Africom) transfers the "kinetic military action " to itself (as in NATO, which is nothing but the Pentagon ruling over Europe). Africom and NATO are now one.

The NATO show will include air and cruise missile strikes; a naval blockade of Libyia; and shady, unspecified ground operations to help the "rebels". Hardcore helicopter gunship raids a la AfPak - with attached "collateral damage" - should be expected.

A curious development is already visible. NATO is deliberately allowing Gaddafi forces to advance along the Mediterranean coast and repel the "rebels". There have been no surgical air strikes for quite a while.

The objective is possibly to extract political and economic concessions from the defector and Libyan exile-infested Interim National Council (INC) - a dodgy cast of characters including former Justice minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil, US-educated former secretary of planning Mahmoud Jibril, and former Virginia resident, new "military commander" and CIA asset Khalifa Hifter. The laudable, indigenous February 17 Youth movement - which was in the forefront of the Benghazi uprising - has been completely sidelined.

This is NATO's first African war, as Afghanistan is NATO's first Central/South Asian war. Now firmly configured as the UN's weaponized arm, Globocop NATO is on a roll implementing its "strategic concept" approved at the Lisbon summit last November (see Welcome to NATOstan, Asia Times Online, November 20, 2010).

Gaddafi's Libya must be taken out so the Mediterranean - the mare nostrum of ancient Rome - becomes a NATO lake. Libya is the only nation in northern Africa not subordinated to Africom or Centcom or any one of the myriad NATO "partnerships". The other non-NATO-related African nations are Eritrea, Sawahiri Arab Democratic Republic, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

Moreover, two members of NATO's "Istanbul Cooperation Initiative" - Qatar and the United Arab Emirates - are now fighting alongside Africom/NATO for the fist time. Translation: NATO and Persian Gulf partners are fighting a war in Africa. Europe? That's too provincial. Globocop is the way to go.

According to the Obama administration's own official doublespeak, dictators who are eligible for "US outreach" - such as in Bahrain and Yemen - may relax, and get away with virtually anything. As for those eligible for "regime alteration", from Africa to the Middle East and Asia, watch out. Globocop NATO is coming to get you. With or without dirty deals.

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His new book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).

He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD02Ak01.html


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[ALOCHONA] Re: Kader Siddiqui on H T Imam



Adviser Imam should be tried: Kader Siddiqui

The Krishak Sramik Janata League president, Abdul Kader Siddiqui, has said PM's adviser HT Imam should be tried for his involvement in conducting oath to Khondakar Mushtaq Ahmed as president after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

'Mushtaq was one of the conspirators of Bangabandhu killing in 1975. As those involved with the killing have been punished, then cabinet secretary  HT Imam should also be tried,' Siddiqui told a discussion at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity on Saturday.

Kader Siddiqui, popularly known as Bangabir, is the only man who had protested at the killing of Sheikh Mujib along with his family members on the fateful night of August 15, 1975. He had also marched towards Dhaka along with his armed 'guerrillas' who fought valiantly during the liberation war under his command.Later, Siddiqui took asylum in India and returned home in 1991 after 15 years of self-exile in India.

He said HT Imam had committed crime by involving with the swearing-in ceremony.Siddiqui said, 'Some people say 'Mujib coat' doesn't suit me … does it suit war criminals like Ghulam Azam, killers of Bangabandhu or HT Imam who had been in the process of administering oath to Mujib murder conspirator Khondakar Mustaq?'

The freedom fighter, who was honoured with the gallantry award 'Bir Uttam' for the courageous role in the liberation war, also questioned the bail granted to 'war criminal' Abdul Alim.'It's very usual that Alim's bail will raise question about the trial of war criminals. It has also become under question whether people will have confidence in the trial,' he maintained.He said the failed leadership in the present government was ruining the country.

'Although the law and order situation continues to deteriorate, the home minister is repeatedly saying the 'situation is under control'. So, isn't it justified to call it 'nonsense',' Siddiqui said.Organised by 'Mukto Chinta', the discussion was addressed, among others, by Shahidullah Fareyzi and Nazir Ahmed Hossain.

http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/frontpage/14016.html


On Sat, Apr 2, 2011 at 1:38 PM, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
Kader Siddiqui on H T Imam



http://www.amadershomoy1.com/content/2011/04/02/news0834.htm



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[ALOCHONA] RE: [Alapon] Col.Taher (Retd)



                 I too object to the blanket opinion expressed by Mr. Abu Zafar Mahmood that ALL professors at institutions of higher education in the then East Pakistan were comfortably enjoying the patronage of the occupying Pakistani Army. Even those who were picked up by the Al Badr- Al Shams for the purpose of mass murder on the 14th Dec. 1971 had stayed on their jobs till that time.  Should we be passing negative judgments on them for not actively joining the Mukti Juddho before December? How many among them were for or against the Liberation of Bangladesh is a moot point in the matter of bringing their murderers to trial. 
 
                 The purpose for which they were hunted down by the Razakars, taken to the killing fields, and were massacred in a hurry before the surrender of Pak Army on the 16th Dec is what we will be discussing in detail at the War Crimes Tribunal. A genocide is conducted with those aims which, at the Nuremberg Trial, was called "the conspiracy."
 
                  We have to deconstruct the conspiracy which, as it has transpired in the short history of Bangladesh, seems to be still alive, ever evolving and morphing. 
 
                                           Farida Majid


To: alapon@yahoogroups.com
From: abman1971@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 2 Apr 2011 09:30:12 -0700
Subject: Re: [Alapon] Col.Taher (Retd)

 
Thanks  Mr. Mahmood. Obaidul Quader is a good friend of mine. We stayed in the adjacent rooms of Mohshin Hall, DU. S M Fazlul Haque is like my younger brother and we have worked closely at CU. Roushini and I spent the same table at the Bijoy Mela, the previous evening he expired. I even wrote an epitaph for him in the Bijoy Mela magazine. I appreciate your views. However many CU teachers joined Liberation War. Amongst them Prof. A R. Mallick, Prof. Anisuzzaman, Professor Anupam Sen, Prof. Fazlee Hossain, Prof. Sekandar Khan (in UK), and quite few others were there.

Warm wishes.

Mannan


On Sat, Apr 2, 2011 at 4:29 AM, Abu Zafar Mahmood <rivercrossinternational@yahoo.com> wrote:
 


Ref: Coln Taher.             Written by: Abu Zafar Mahmood
The comment of Dr.Jamir Chowdhury has come to my attention.Mr.Jamir is a professor of an university now,I have all my respect to the professor.I am sure if he would born earlier he could join in liberation war of Bangladesh and we would be more stronger.He has scope to contribute now and future.
After the liberation war we found professors were save and sound in Chittagong University under the friendly administration of Pakistani occupied Army.Our educated collaborators and pro-Pakistani collaborators entertained that Army jointly.
 
The students of CU went in liberation war but the professors stayed with Pakistan Army and collaborated them.Student Leaders;Shawkat Hafeez Khan Rushnee and S M Fazlul Haq of CU were been trained in Dehradun Military Academy in the same guerrlla leaders training batch together with me.Ex-Minister Obaidul Qader also availed training in that batch and was very close to me.He was a mere student league activist in Dhaka University.He knew my disguised name "Kiron Chakrabartee" at that time in India.
 
We are unfortunate having some academicians that are political party biased and mistreats the patriots or could not find any lesson in academy to keep honor the heroes of our great liberation war of Bangladesh.Though we know academicians are not warriors.They have not to face life-challenge.Their brain and researches are the assests to guide the warriors and the political leaders.Does it mean they have the licenses to be coward and supportes of muscles in power?Opportunists have so many faces to change.Bangladesh is a good market to buy this opportunities.
Coln Abu Taher Bir Uttam was the braviest commando soldier of our Army in his time.He believed to find Bangladesh Army as the peoples Army to contribute in guarding and at the same time Industrial and Agricultural production of the newly Independent Bangladesh.
Where as we politicians and the Military structure were in believe the traditional Colonial systems.Knew nothing out of that.We did not have any academic thesis or direction to set up the country in addressing the crisis of the security of the newly born small state that threatened from outside the border and also in internal chaos.
 
Entire leadership was confused like the general public.Everybody needed the change but nobody knew the solution as we were unprepared to run the Independent nation.Who saw a nation in this region where the general poor peoples were the major forces of the liberation war? Upper class were pro-establishment and pro-Pakistani.
 
Coln Mohammad Abu Taher Biruttam commanded number 11 sector of the liberation War(Mymenshing,Tangail and part of Shatkhira).Most women guerrilla were trained under his command.Special commando groups were trained by him.Bongobir Kader Siddiqee Bir uttam found sapport from him training and operations.
 
Dhaka sector was commanded by Major Shafiullah`s "S" force.It was Abu Taher only one among the sector commanders who attacked Pakistan Army Headquarter in Dhaka Cantonment on 14 November and damaged them.Indian Army did not like Muktibahinees Attack and capture the Cantonment.Taher was injured by granade attack from his very near and Indian doctors cut off his one leg in Hospital.
 
A Top most awarded commando officer(Captain) in then Pakistan Army and promoted in Major rank within 4 months in Pakistan military history and moreover being a Bangali, deserve criticize for his action based on information and perspective of the time also.However,He was hanged and punished ruthlessly.Nation did not agree with his military strategy to build Bangladesh Arm forces.Is Bangladesh save from external and internal threat with the traditional politics and security idea?Even we accept Taher was wrong on his strategy at that time.
Engineer Siraj Sikder commanded liberation war with different ideological beliefand did not go under Indian command.We confronted him.He blamed us Indian agents and treated us enemy of the pro-liberation forces.We admire his patriotism and differed with his explanation in some points.In the long run there was scopes to make him belief that we don`t serve Indian purpose though India has interest to break Pakistan and form a weak state under their guidence.
 
But the liberation war was interupted and Pakistan Army had to surreneder to the Indians and Mukti Bahini and Bangladesh Government were not allowed to sign in the surrendering docs winner hero.The road was build to walk that is our land but Indians made a deed of docs that Pakistan Army surrendered to their Eastern Command.
 
We have been loosing our Military commanders and loosing the security pillars since the Independence.We lost our state leaders and lost our leadership to lead.No politicians are compared with Bongo Bondhu Mujib as he was known for his personality.Ziaur Rahman Biruttam started Journey and built a security net in more than 1oo Muslim Country and US-Eorope.He was also murdered more rithlessly than the way he murdered Taher.No parts of his body was found.Taher`s another friend Military Historian Abul Monzoor Bir Uttam was assassinated in Chittagong in the same plot who could contribute the Army. However,the entire Military killing was controlled from one command that targets to distabilize the Security of Bangladesh as I noticed with proofs.
Bangladesh has jumped again to regain strength with Noble Laureate Professor Mohammed Yunus.One regional and local alliance jointly has been trying best to eliminate his image from the global leadership.Bangladesh will win in this part of battle as Yunus is already the part and parcel of the global leadership that is far stronger than the regional player.He is the light house for Bangladesh.
 
The purpose of writing Mr.Jamir Chowdhury is very clear.It is not to involve cross arguement for the past.Past provides us experience.
But to let know that Bangladesh is under Alternative battle,a different technique of battle which is not compared with traditional battle to look at but dangerous than that.It appears as friendship and damages many fields at a time or step by step. I may send you my thesis on it in near future.
Best wishes to Professor Jamir Chowdhury.
Abu Zafar Mahmood,NewYork
Free-lancer and political analyst.
 

Sent: Sat, April 2, 2011 3:34:44 AM

Subject: Re: [Alapon] Col.Taher (Retd)

 

Dear Sir, I appreciate and thank you for your article. You clearly stated that Siraj Sikder was a Maoist and Noxalities. I would like to add that he fought against the liberation war and killed many freedom fighters. He was no different than a Pakistani soldier who killed, tortured and raped my people during the liberation war. Siraj Shikder should have been brought to justice. I believe, document will show that a number of army officers including late Gen. Shawkat, Sisu and others supported Zia for killing Col. Taher. However, it was Zia who killed Taher. What was the role of Gen. Ershad at that time? It would be very interesting to know. Though Col. Taher's killing was unfolded, I would like to hear more about Gen. Manjoor's death and the reason behind it. Was Manjoor thep planner/ killer of Zia? I think, all the evidences would show that Majoor was not a planner or killer. He was removed by Gen. Ershad to paved his way to power. It is the right time to unfold real reasons behind the killing of one of the most brilliant officers in the Army, Gen. Manjoor. Thanks.
 
Regards,
 
Jamir Chowdhury
Professor and Director
------------------------------------------------------


 
On Sat, Apr 2, 2011 at 6:32 AM, Abdul Mannan <abman1971@gmail.com> wrote:
 








My fortnightly column appears in today's Daily Sun. It is on Col (retd) Taher. It s copied below.
Thanks.
















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The �judicial� murder of Col (Retd) Taher
Abdul Mannan
The day (March 22) when the High Court Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court declared that the Trial of Col (Retd) Abu Taher, Bir Uttam held in 1976 was illegal I posted just the news without any personal comments on an internet blog. By late evening my inbox was flooded... more ›
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The 'judicial' murder of Col (Retd) Taher
Abdul Mannan
  The day (March 22) when the High Court Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court declared that the Trial of Col (Retd) Abu Taher, Bir Uttam held in 1976 was illegal I posted just the news without any personal comments on an internet blog. By late evening my inbox was flooded with mails from blog participants. Many hailed the verdict, some condemned the government and court for bringing out the issue after so many years and some thought I was always bent on promoting all the dirty jobs of the ruling party. The people who hailed the verdict said they waited for last 35 years for this day. Those who condemned the verdict fell back on the conspiracy theory and said it was nothing but a dirty trick to demean the name and fame of 'Shahid' Zia the 'Swadinotar Ghoshok' and the saviour of Bangladesh. One of my former students, who currently resides in Canada in his own very humble way wanted to know my opinion as to what will happen to the trial of the killing of Shiraj Shikder in police custody in 1975 ? Will I support such a trial? I normally do not get involved in the unnecessary blog debates. But I told my student, time permitting I will try to answer his question.

To the present generation the name Shiraj Shikder may be unknown. Late Shiraj Shikder was a believer of extreme ultra leftist political ideology in the mid sixties and propagated the philosophy that revolution is only possible through the uprising of the proletariats and physical annihilation of bourgeoisie (class enemy). Only proletariats have the right to rule. China's Chairman Mao Tze Tung was their friend philosopher and guide and they declared Chairman Mao as their Chairman. The violent politics of Shiraj Sikder and his party Purbo Banglar Shorbohara (Proletariat) Party was heavily influenced by Communist Part of India (Marxist-Leninist) founded in the Naxalbari of Darjeeling district in North Bengal, India by Charu Majumder, Kanu Sanyal and others. Killing of land owners, money lenders, government and police officials became rampant in the mid sixties and early seventies in Midnapur, West Dinajpur, Bihar, Darjeeling and adjoining areas. The wave of brutal violence crossed the border and entered the then East Pakistan with the active patronage and participation of Shiraj Shikder and his party (later the party split into many factions). Even to this day some of the activist of the party still operates in and around Kushtia, Jessore, Pabna and Khulna in many different names (Maobadi, Jonojuddho, Lalpotaka, etc). In India they exist in the name of Naxalites, Maobadi, Peoples War Group and their activities have gone beyond North or West Bengal to Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jamshedpur, MP. They are all into killing, extortion, arson, kidnapping for ransom all over.

Immediately after the Liberation of Bangladesh it was expected that the anti people activities of Shiraj Shikder will cease, which did not. His comrade in arms, Abdul Matin and Alauddin even waged armed war against the Bangladesh army in Atrai of Pabna district of 1973. Abdul Hoque, another cohort of Shiraj Shikder on December 16, 1974 wrote a letter to the President of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, addressing him as 'My President' requesting him to give him arms and money to topple the government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Finally Shiraj Shikder was arrested by the police from Halishahar in Chittagong in December 1974, and when he was being taken from Dhaka to Savar he was killed by police while he was escaping according to the police press note. Whatever were the circumstances, the fact was this was an act of extrajudicial killing as he died in police custody, and as in the case of any other extrajudicial killing, it is a condemnable offence and any one can go to the court of law asking for justice.

The background of the cold blooded murder of our valiant Freedom Fighter Col Taher was totally different. The entire family of Col. Taher participated in our War of Liberation. During the war one of his legs was blown off by the enemy shell. After the war was over he remained in the army and was posted in Comilla. He had his own dream of replacing the conventional army of Bangladesh with a more productive 'People's Army.' He dreamt of changing the structure of the army. May be his philosophy had merit but the process was not proper as it was neither practical nor feasible to change the fundamental nature of the army of a country by one person's singular idea and philosophy. He soon realized this would perhaps not be possible and took an early retirement towards the end of 1972 and joined as a Director of Dredging Corporation of Bangladesh, a government undertaking. Soon he got inducted into JSD politics.

JSD was the first opposition party formed in Bangladesh with the slogan of establishing 'Scientific Socialism' in Bangladesh. Rightly or wrongly they thought the emancipation of the people will only be possible through establishing the rule of 'Scientific Socialism.' To begin with, first Chatra League split in 1972 on the eve of DUCSU election into two. One faction was called 'Mujibadi' SL and the other faction labeled themselves as 'Boigganik Shamajtontri.' Later JSD was formed by Sirajul Alam Khan and others. Whether it was the students' front or the main party, all front ranking party leaders came from Awami League. Later some retired military personnel joined the party and its rank and file swelled. It was able to attract many promising youths. This was a time when the world was witnessing a sudden rise and success of socialism in many countries. America lost the Vietnam War. Marxist Salvador Allende was elected the President of Chile. India became closer to former Soviet Union and the Non Aligned Movement became stronger. Bangladesh adopted 'socialism' as one of its state principles. The slain Marxist Revolutionary Che Guevara became a hero of the young generation. It was 'Marxism and Socialism' all the way. But unfortunately JSD politics could not make much headway because of short sighted leadership and other reasons. AL was too big and strong a party to challenge. In hindsight the young people who joined this brand of politics were at best 'Romantic Revolutionaries.' But with all fairness the initial years of JSD was quite promising.

Though personally not a believer of JSD politics I always thought the hanging of Taher in 1976 was pure and simple pre-meditated cold blooded murder. In 1980 I had the chance of reading the American journalist Lawrence Lifschultz's book 'Bangladesh: The Unfinished Revolution.' The book published in London the previous year was immediately proscribed in Bangladesh by Zia Government. After reading the book, my personal respect for Col Taher increased manifold. To me he became an ultimate example of a true patriot. In 2008, while attending an International Conference on Bangladesh at Harvard University I happened to meet Mr. Lifschultz personally. He attended a session which I presided, came and introduced himself. We spent about an hour taking about different aspects of Bangladesh politics and the coming general election. Soon we started calling each other by our first names and he informed that he planned to write the sequel of his original book and for that he might come to Bangladesh. However he came to Bangladesh to give testimony to the events prevailing at the time of trial of Col Taher. During 1976 he came to Dhaka from Delhi to cover the trial for now defunct weekly 'Far Eastern Economic Review.' Mr. Lifschultz is a real professional, courageous and extremely responsible journalist.

After the brutal assassination of Bangabandu on 15 August 1975, and the four national leaders in the Dhaka Central Jail on November 3 1975, the country virtually did not have a functioning government from 3 to 7 November and there existed no chain of command in the Army. The country was heading towards a total chaos. Brig. Khaled Musharraf tried to restore the chain of command along with some officers loyal to him but failed due to inept handling of the events and lack of farsightedness. Eventually they were also killed. Unfortunately all killed were valiant Freedom Fighters of 1971. In a total confusion prevailing in the country and the Dhaka Cantonment Zia was taken hostage by soldiers, some of them believed to be indoctrinated by JSD politics. Whatever was the situation, it was very confusing. Zia called his friend Col Taher to save his life. Taher responded, came and convinced the soldiers and freed Zia, who in turn thanked Taher for saving his life. But Zia was very clever, shrewd and to some extent a futurist. He could feel that Col. Taher though no longer in the army was still quite popular among the troops. Zia had Taher arrested on November 24 from his residence in Dhaka. On June 14, 1976 he had the Chief Martial Law Administrator and President Justice ASM Sayem promulgate an Ordinance to constitute a Special Tribunal to try Col Taher for mutiny and treason in the army. Along with Taher 32 others were also charged of whom 18 were serving army personnel and the rest were civilians. Though the trial was named as State vs Major (Retd) Jalil and others, from the very beginning it was clear that the main target was Col. Taher. The trial was in camera, the accused were not allowed to talk to their defense lawyers, except on the day of hearing and everyone had to take an oath of secrecy. Only Daily Ittefaq ran news of the commencing of the trial on June 21. The Editor Mr. Anwar Hossain was summoned by Army HQ and warned. The trial ended on July 12 covering 12 working days. This was a summary trial by all definition. On 17 July Col Yousuf Haider, the Chief of the Tribunal announced the judgment sentencing Col. Taher to death and others to different terms of imprisonment. Col. Haider was one of those Bengali officers in the Pakistan Army who in spite of being in Bangladesh in March 1971 did not think it necessary to fight in the War of Liberation. Col. Taher' death sentence came as a surprise even to the State Prosecutors as they never appealed for death sentence as the law under which Col Taher and other's were being tried did not have provision for death sentence. However this anomaly was amended ten days after Col Taher was hanged on the morning of 21. July only after nine days of the pronouncement of the judgment. Usually there is a gap of 21 days between verdict and execution. Even this was not followed in the case of Col Taher. During Zia's regime many such rules were flouted. He ran the Presidential election while being in service, and promoted himself after his retirement. Many BNP leaders say that Taher was responsible for killing of sixty army officers. However he was never tried for this alleged involvement in these killings, but tried for mutiny and treason.

The recent trial of Col. Taher's leading to 'judicial' murder was a landmark in our history. Taher will not return but his memory will live forever and hopefully it will haunt those who were responsible for such a cowardly act. Long live the memory of Col Taher, Bir Uttam.

The writer is a former Vice-Chancellor of Chittagong University.


--








--
_________________________________
Abdul Mannan
Professor
School of Business
University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh
House # 56, Road # 4/A
Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka-1209
Bangladesh.
BDT=GMT +6
Working Days Sunday-Thursday
E-mail: abman1971@gmail.com
 http://www.ulab.edu.bd




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[mukto-mona] An article from Nazmul, Toronto



Dear friends, brothers, editors,

Last time I could not send my link properly.....

Please follow the link now for a controversial article many time denied by editors to publish...

www.notundesh.com/motmotantor_news2.html

Thank you so much for spending a little valuable time of your precious life....


Love,

Chaitanya Nazmul
Toronto




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[ALOCHONA] Kader Siddiqui on H T Imam



Kader Siddiqui on H T Imam



http://www.amadershomoy1.com/content/2011/04/02/news0834.htm


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[ALOCHONA] Cause and effect between Fukushima and Libya



Is there a cause and effect between Fukushima and attacking Libya?

Rob Prince

In 1989, Japanese director Shohei Imamura made 'Black Rain' (note: not the film with Michael Douglas), a film about life in the Hiroshima region of Japan in the aftermath of the U.S. nuclear bombing near the end of World War II. The protagonists were not in Hiroshima at the time of the nuclear blast, but in a boat not far away where 'black rain'-radioactively contaminated moisture-fell on them.

The film explores how Hiroshima survivors tried to deal with radiation sickness. 44 years, tens of thousands of nuclear weapons and several thousand nuclear power plants after the fact, we know little more now than we did then how to treat the condition.

As it did in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945, once again black rain is falling on Japan, this time from continuing collapse of the nuclear power complex in Fukushima in the aftermath of the worse earthquake in Japanese recorded history. Japanese have been warned to stay indoors to avoid radiation, especially during rain storms.

For the past half a century, the world has been living with a lie-one dangerous to all life on earth-that while nuclear weapons are 'dangerous', nuclear power is 'controlled' and 'safe'.

As if Three Mile Island and Chernobyl weren't enough, the nuclear accident unfolding at the Fukushima Daiichu nuclear power complex in Japan has pretty much destroyed the myth of safe nuclear power.

Nuclear power provides some one third of all Japan's energy needs. As the radiation from the tsunami-triggered accident spreads across the island nation and, soon far beyond, the dangers of the stuff, long pooh-poohed as little more than pacifist hysteria by those in the industry itself, become chillingly clear. Turns out those anti-nuclear activists whose influence has waned since the end of the Cold War know what they are talking about.

Nuclear energy has been developed in large measure to limit exposure to Middle East oil and to counter the effects of global warming, its obvious extraordinary dangers downplayed. Modern humanity dates from about 150,00 years ago. Depending on the element, radioactive isotopes can last up to 250,000 years. To date, no human technological fix has been devised to neutralize their profoundly poisonous effects. Disposing of radioactive wastes remains largely unresolved.

The danger of accidents like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and now Fukushima, caused by nature or human error (or both) are not 'supposed to' happen, despite industry assurances that new nuclear plants with their enhanced safety precautions are so well designed and improved as to minimize nuclear disaster to nil.

Still, in the aftermath of Fukushima, already, several countries have put the brakes on nuclear power development:

-The Chinese government has placed its nuclear power construction program on freeze. The 27 Chinese nuclear power projects under construction are only about a quarter of Chinese plans to build a whopping 110 nuclear power plants in the foreseeable future.

-Likewise Venezuela, constructing a nuclear power plant in cooperation with Russia, has also frozen production.

-Germany and Switzerland have announced they will scale back their nuclear power programs. Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, described the Japanese nuclear disaster as 'a decisive moment' for the world, vowing that nuclear safety was her highest priority.

-Sweden and Turkey will do likewise.

-Britain, Bulgaria and Finland are calling for nuclear safety review.
Others will undoubtedly follow.

On the other hand, despite Fukushima, Chile intends to proceed to construct its first nuclear power plant as a part of a 'nuclear cooperation deal' with the United States. India has insisted it will continue with its nuclear program. Doing his best to argue the impossible, French nuclear industry spokesman Eric Besson downplayed Fukushima. 'It is a serious accident, not a nuclear disaster' he is quoted as saying. (Tell that to the people of Sendai Province in Japan.)

As with the recent BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill where deep water drilling was temporarily lifted, only to be restarted again despite the consequences on humanity and nature, at this point there is little to indicate that nuclear power will suffer more than a temporary reverse. The discussion focuses mostly on temporary freezes, 'insuring safety' but not on dismantling one of the world's most dangerous industries. Both tight oil markets and concern about global warming combine to suggest a nuclear industry recovery.

At one time during the Nixon years, there was a plan afoot to build 1,000 nuclear reactors in the USA to counter U.S. growing dependence on Middle East oil. Didn't happen but the results were serious enough. According to the European Nuclear Society there are currently 441 nuclear energy plants worldwide, another 65 currently under construction and some 324 others on the drawing board. Nearly a quarter of those operating worldwide are in the United States (104), almost double the number of the two countries with the next most numerous facilities (France-58, Japan-54). The Russian Federation comes in a distant fourth with 32 nuclear power plants. South Korea (21), India (20), United Kingdom (19), China (13 on the mainland and 6 on Taiwan) and Canada (18) all also make extensive use of nuclear energy.

Although mainland China trails 'the leaders', it has, until a few days ago anyway, the most extensive plans to 'catch up' with 27 under construction. Russia has 11 more under way, India five and South Korea the same.

Much global nuclear power construction accelerated after two Middle East events-the October 1973 Middle East War (between Israel, Egypt and Syria) that included an oil embargo of the U.S. and the Netherlands for their support of Israel and the 1979 Iranian Revolution which resulted in the formation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. That double whammy resulted in dramatic increases in global oil prices and concern among oil consuming nations (i.e. most of the world) about their reliance on Middle East oil.

Japan and South Korea-both 100% dependent on foreign oil-considered nuclear energy as a viable alternative and developed their nuclear energy industries accordingly as did France and the U.S. With the memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still seared in its collective memory, despite widespread domestic opposition, Japan's conservative government plowed ahead all the same. China's attempt to stay oil independent essentially flopped as early as the 1970s. More and more dependent upon foreign oil sources, it sought, like the others, to soften its imported oil requirements with crash nuclear power plant development.

Middle East oil will be more strategic, undoubtedly more expensive, the region unstable and explosive.Without serious consideration of alternative energy sources, world energy bounces back and forth between oil, natural gas and nuclear energy. As trust in nuclear energy diminishes, reliance on oil and natural gas increases accordingly. Without any serious initiatives to develop alternative energy sources, overnight, Middle East oil has become even more strategic than it has been. Controlling both the production and transport of Middle East oil more central to U.S. global plans.

This is already playing out in the U.S. led NATO attack on Libya. While not particularly strategic for the United States, Libyan oil is vital for Europe, especially Italy, France and UK. As the Fukushima accident spiraled out of control, Khadaffi let it be known that in the near future he'd be cancelling contracts with European partners and seeking oil development relationships with BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). The next day, the positions of France and the UK towards Khadaffi hardened and a week later, France-a country whose human rights record in the Third World, especially Africa, would be laughable if it weren't so deplorable- became the champions of 'humanitarian interventionism' in Libya.

Are there other factors involved in the attack on Libya besides oil? Maybe. Maybe not.

The writer is the publisher of the Colorado Progressive Jewish News. Source: Foreign Policy in Focus.  

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=180062


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