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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

[ALOCHONA] How the Bin Ladens lived



How the Bin Ladens lived

What was life in Abbottabad like for the world's most wanted man?

A secretive household where women were never seen, run by two tall and aloof brothers who showed rare and unexpected moments of kindness to local children, is part of a picture that is slowly building up about life in the Bin Laden compound.

As media access to the site has widened, more neighbours have divulged details about their interactions with the mysterious inhabitants of the fortified "mansion" in their midst.

Although the walled compound edged with barbed wire was set back in relative isolation, it was surrounded by three neighbourhoods: Thanda Choha, Bilal Town and Hashmi Colony. The residents of these areas provide sometimes contradictory accounts of their now infamous neighbours.

But one notable absence from all accounts is any mention of a tall, bearded foreigner resident in the compound.

People appear to have had absolutely no inkling that Osama Bin Laden, the world's most wanted man, was living just yards from them.

Mysterious brothers

The inhabitants of the compound certainly lived an isolated existence and had very little contact with their neighbours, residents in the area told the BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Abbottabad.

The two brothers have been identified in numerous media reports as Arshad and Tariq Khan - although Associated Press reporter Nahal Toosi points out that there are conflicting local reports about their identity.

Some reports, such as the Guardian account, identifies one of them as the Bin Laden courier who the CIA was tracking, but BBC Urdu analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai says this information cannot be verified.

Abbottabad

  • Abbottabad - known as "city of pines"- is a small town nestled in the beautiful lush, green hills of north-west Pakistan
  • It is an agricultural community, but with a population of about 120,000; it provides a centre for many of the neighbouring villages
  • The military garrison town has one of Pakistan's most prestigious military academies
  • It takes its name from British Major James Abbott, who founded it in 1853 after he annexed the Punjab area

Other neighbours in the Hashmi Colony area told BBC Urdu's Aijaz Mahar that the brothers posed as landlords from the fertile Charsadda area of north-western Pakistan who had moved to Abbottabad because of its pleasant climate.

One thing is clear: their desire for privacy was so marked that most people left them well alone. They did not mix with others and were rarely if ever seen at local wedding celebrations or other community occasions.

A reporter from the Indian channel ETV Uttar Pradesh even reported that one neighbour said that when local children hit a cricket ball into the compound, they were not allowed to retrieve it.

Rumours circulated about the men. Local driver Qazi Faisal told BBC Urdu's Aijaz Mahar that people thought these brothers were smugglers. Another witness told him that after the raid he could see soldiers removing what he thought were weapons, gold and cash from the house.

"They just said 'hello' and 'good evening.' If I said Salaam Alaikum, [traditional Muslim greeting meaning peace to you], they would reply properly," their closest neighbour, 20-year-old Qasim, told BBC Urdu's Nukhbat Malik.

He said they were always courteous but all seven members of his family agreed that they never once initiated conversation. Although reports concur that they behaved appropriately and were polite, they also exuded a sense of menace, other neighbours say.

"He used to come and buy household things... I never felt like asking him anything," shopkeeper Faisal told BBC Urdu about Arshad Khan.

"They absolutely did not interact. We saw them roaming around but they were not approachable," he said.

Rabbits as gifts

US officials said their long-term observation of the compound revealed that the inhabitants burned their rubbish inside the walls, rather than leaving it outside to be collected. They also revealed that there were no phone or internet lines into the house.

Every now and then what looked like bullet-proof vehicles would go in and out of the compound, but security gates would slide shut immediately afterwards, locals told the BBC.

Part of the compound - half burnt out - after the raid Media were not allowed inside the compound but parts of it were visible to observers

But there was also testimony describing moments of unexpected generosity.

One boy, 12-year-old Zarar Ahmed, told the BBC he used to visit the compound a lot, saying the family had three children - a girl and two boys.

"They gave us two rabbits. They had cameras outside, so that they could watch who was coming," he said.

He also said that the owner had two wives - one who spoke Urdu and one who spoke Arabic. Staff at the hospital where the injured were taken also told local journalists that the wounded from the compound spoke Pashto and Arabic.

A different account comes from al-Arabiya, which quotes Qari Mastana Khan of Bilal Town who says of the compound's inhabitants: "They were kind-hearted and would provide clean drinking water and food to poor neighbours. During the holy month of Ramadan, they invited us for Iftar dinner at their house and served us delicious food."

It is not clear if the children attended school. Some neighbours told the BBC they thought they were schooled at home. The women in the home were never seen: most people assumed that this is because they were Pashtun, and they tend to observe strict purdah.

Goat delivery

A newspaper hawker told the BBC that he had delivered newspapers to the compound every day, and at the end of each month his bill was promptly paid, always by the same man.

Footage from inside Bin Laden's compound

He never stepped inside the compound but said he had seen a red pick-up vehicle, with a goat inside, being driven inside.

Shopkeeper Mohammed Rashid told BBC Urdu's Aijaz Mahar that two goats were delivered every week, presumably for slaughter and consumption. He also said that 10 litres of milk a day was left for the compound, adding that there were lots of children there.

"They used to come to the shops and buy sweets and toffees, but not the female children. We have never seen the women from the house."

The residents of the compound clearly employed a number of domestic helpers. Abbottabad hospital staff have told the BBC Urdu service that among those being treated in the wake of the raid are two women believed to be maids employed by the family.

After the compound was opened up to the media on Tuesday, Associated Press correspondent Nahal Toosi was tweeting her observations.

"I am in a bldg across from cpd. Looks like servants quarters. Piles of clothes, pillows on floor. Broken clock on ground. Stopped at 2:20," she reported. She also notes a mouldy lentil stew in a pot, half-eaten bread and an old television set.

Other observations abound:

  • BBC Urdu's Aijaz Mahar saw an area where there were a lot of medical supplies, such as antibiotics, digestive remedies and children's medicines such as Calpol
  • BBC Urdu's Nukhbat Malik also noticed men measuring the compound - they said they were from the "Cantt board", the military cantonment authority, and initially told her they had not known of the existence of the compound but then said they had known it was there but not who was in it
  • Local police told al-Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab that there was a kitchen garden and some chickens were kept too, indicating, they say, that it was a self-sufficient compound where the inhabitants could grow their own food
  • Nick Robertson of CNN observed on Twitter that neighbours say the "Osama entourage" passed themselves off as gold merchants
Compound images from 2004,5 and 2101
'Waziristan mansion'

The spacious and prosperous homes in these areas are known as "havelis" and, according to local journalists speaking to the BBC, the Bin Laden home was known as "Waziristan Haveli" or "mansion" - named after the semi-autonomous tribal area where many until now assumed Bin Laden was sheltering.

Satellite images between 2005 and 2011 reflect the change in the area and also show how the compound itself has expanded as more outbuildings, walls and privacy features have been built.

Notices on Pakistani property websites advise that land in the Hashmi Colony area, very close to the Bin Laden compound, is available. The area is seen as secure and stable.

About a kilometre north is Pakistan's prestigious Kakul Military Academy. And property is available here too. According to the seller, "it's a very secuir [sic] place near army farm house army jeeps takes 100 rounds in a day so very safe place to live".

There are few images of the interior. US officials released one picture of a bedroom on the second floor, showing a double bed strewn with pillows and cushions. The floors are blood-stained: this is said to be the room in which Bin Laden was killed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13266944


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[ALOCHONA] Death of bin Laden and a Strategic Shift in Washington



The Death of bin Laden and a Strategic Shift in Washington


Two apparently distinct facts have drawn our attention. The first and most obvious is U.S. President Barack Obama's announcement late May 1 that Osama bin Laden had been killed. The second is Obama's April 28 announcement that Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, will replace Leon Panetta as CIA director. Together, the events create the conditions for the U.S. president to expand his room to maneuver in the war in Afghanistan and ultimately reorient U.S. foreign-policy priorities.

 

The U.S. mission in Afghanistan, as stated by Obama, is the destruction of al Qaeda—in particular, of the apex leadership that once proved capable of carrying out transnational, high-casualty attacks. Although al Qaeda had already been severely weakened in Afghanistan and has recently focused more on surviving inside Pakistan than executing meaningful operations, the inability to capture or kill bin Laden meant that the U.S. mission itself had not been completed. With the death of bin Laden, a plausible, if not altogether accurate, political narrative in the United States can develop, claiming that the mission in Afghanistan has been accomplished. During a White House press conference on Monday, U.S. Homeland Security Adviser John Brennan commented on bin Laden's death, saying "We are going to try to take advantage of this to demonstrate to people in the area that al Qaeda is a thing of the past, and we are hoping to bury the rest of al Qaeda along with Osama bin Laden."

 

Petraeus was the architect of the American counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan. He symbolized American will in the region. The new appointment effectively sidelines the general. By appointing Petraeus as CIA director (he is expected to assume the position in July), Obama has put the popular general in charge of a complex intelligence bureaucracy. From Langley, Petraeus can no longer be the authoritative military voice on the war effort in Afghanistan. Obama has retained Petraeus as a senior member of the administration while simultaneously isolating him.

 

Together, the two steps open the door for serious consideration of an accelerated withdrawal of most U.S. forces from Afghanistan. The U.S. political leadership faced difficulty in shaping an exit strategy from Afghanistan with Petraeus in command because the general continued to insist that the war was going reasonably well. Whether or not this accurately represented the military campaign (and we tend to think that the war had more troubles than Petraeus was admitting), Petraeus' prestige made it difficult to withdraw over his objections.

 

Petraeus is now being removed from the Afghanistan picture. Bin Laden has already been removed. With his death, an argument in the United States can be made that the U.S. mission has been accomplished and that, while there may be room for some manner of special-operations counterterrorism forces, the need for additional U.S. troops in Afghanistan no longer exists. It is difficult to ignore the fact that bin Laden was killed, not in Afghanistan, but deep within Pakistani borders. With the counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan dissipating, the nation-building mission in Afghanistan becomes unnecessary and nonessential. In addition, with tensions in the Persian Gulf building in the lead-up to the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, ending the war in Afghanistan critically releases U.S. forces for operations elsewhere. It is therefore possible for the United States to consider an accelerated withdrawal in a way that wasn't possible before.

 

We are not saying that bin Laden's death and Petraeus' new appointment are anything beyond coincidental. We are saying that the confluence of the two events creates politically strategic opportunities for the U.S. administration that did not exist before, the most important of which is the possibility for a dramatic shift in U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.


http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20110503-death-bin-laden-and-strategic-shift-washington



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Re: [ALOCHONA] BDNews 24



So far I read in a foreign media BDnews24.com is belongs to economic adviser of Shaikh Hasina

M.A.Mannan AZAD
Editor:www.parisvisionnews.com

--- On Wed, 5/4/11, Robin Khundkar <rkhundkar@earthlink.net> wrote:

From: Robin Khundkar <rkhundkar@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [ALOCHONA] BDNews 24
To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, May 4, 2011, 3:31 PM

 
Yes it is owned by Salman F Rahman colloqially known as the "Darbesh" these days after his not so recent epiphany (in line with traditional Desi practice of becoming pious as twilight years approach and fear of past misdemeanors catch up). As in typical desi practice it may be owned by front men or indirectly.
 
R

-----Original Message-----
From: ezajur
Sent: May 3, 2011 2:38 AM
To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ALOCHONA] BDNews 24

 
Hi

Does anyone know who owns BDNews24? I have heard that it is Salman F Rahman but it would be good to know for sure. Does anyone know where I can find this information?

Thanks

Ezajur



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Re: [ALOCHONA] One death, many questions

Well in keeping with Farida and especially Mohsin Ali's most recent defences of their nethri, this "regret" is simply for public consumption. In private, all such killings have the blessings of the current administration. Joy Bangla!
------Original Message------
From: Shafqat Anwar
Sender: alochona@yahoogroups.com
To: Alochona Management
ReplyTo: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [ALOCHONA] One death, many questions
Sent: 4 May 2011 09:57

I wonder what Farida Majid has to say about this report !!!   To: From: bdmailer@gmail.com Date: Mon, 2 May 2011 12:40:51 +0600 Subject: [ALOCHONA] One death, many questions   One death, many questions In this recent photo of Felani's family, only the 13-year-old girl is missing. She was shot dead on the Bangladesh-India border on January A guarded regret from India followed the brutal killing of Bangladeshi girl Felani on January 7 by its border force. A "promise" of no more deaths on the border came from Delhi in March. A meeting of the two border forces also agreed on use of non-lethal weapons. But the Indian force remains trigger-happy and border killings go on.During a visit to Nageshwari in Kurigram, Special Correspondent Morshed Ali Khan looks at life on the border after the killing of Felani. Six days after 13-year-old Felani was killed with a single shot on the Bangladesh-India border on January 7, her mother Jahanara, living and working in Bongaigaon in Assam, received the news over phone from her husband Nurul Islam. Felani was killed by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) as the father and daughter tried to sneak into Bangladesh over the barbed-wire fence in the early hours of January 7. Mother of six children, Jahanara was horrified to hear the news. Only a week ago Felani, her eldest child, had left Bongaigaon with her father for their native village of South Ramkhana in Kurigram across the border. The heartbreaking news destroyed Jahanara's dream. Felani's marriage was scheduled for the following day of her arrival in the native village with Jahanara's sister's son, who works in a garment factory in Dhaka. Jahanara and Nurul were living in India for over 25 years without any valid documents whatsoever. It was going to be Felani's first visit to her parental land. "With our savings I made two gold bangles, a pair of gold earrings and a gold nose pin for her marriage. When they [BSF] returned the body of my little girl, I was told the ornaments were not on her," said Jahanara. "My husband made the
Emanur Rahman | m. +447734567561 | e. emanur@rahman.com

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Re: [ALOCHONA] HALAL ROMANTIC/PICKUP LINES:




nice......


-----Original Message-----
From: Robin Khundkar <rkhundkar@earthlink.net>
To: alochona <alochona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wed, May 4, 2011 11:52 am
Subject: [ALOCHONA] HALAL ROMANTIC/PICKUP LINES:

 
HALAL ROMANTIC LINES:

1. I love the way your hijaab flows when you walk.

2. Marry me so I don't have to lower my gaze every time you walk into the room.

3. Would you like to help wake me up at Fajr?

4. Are your feet tired? Because you've been performing tawaaf in my mind all day long.

5. How would you like to help me fulfill half of my deen?

6. You are the reason hijaab was mandated.

7. Allah created everything in pairs. What are you doing single?

8. I would like to be more than your brother in Islam.

9. Let me take you for Hajj.

Possibility:

10. Girl: When I saw you I said Mashallah, then I said Inshallah!


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Re: [ALOCHONA] BDNews 24



I wondered about the ownership of bdnews24.

Now it makes all the sense.

On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 8:31 AM, Robin Khundkar <rkhundkar@earthlink.net> wrote:
 

Yes it is owned by Salman F Rahman colloqially known as the "Darbesh" these days after his not so recent epiphany (in line with traditional Desi practice of becoming pious as twilight years approach and fear of past misdemeanors catch up). As in typical desi practice it may be owned by front men or indirectly.

 

R


-----Original Message-----
From: ezajur
Sent: May 3, 2011 2:38 AM
To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ALOCHONA] BDNews 24

 

Hi

Does anyone know who owns BDNews24? I have heard that it is Salman F Rahman but it would be good to know for sure. Does anyone know where I can find this information?

Thanks

Ezajur




__._,_.___


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Re: [ALOCHONA] BDNews 24



Yes it is owned by Salman F Rahman colloqially known as the "Darbesh" these days after his not so recent epiphany (in line with traditional Desi practice of becoming pious as twilight years approach and fear of past misdemeanors catch up). As in typical desi practice it may be owned by front men or indirectly.

 

R


-----Original Message-----
From: ezajur
Sent: May 3, 2011 2:38 AM
To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ALOCHONA] BDNews 24

 

Hi

Does anyone know who owns BDNews24? I have heard that it is Salman F Rahman but it would be good to know for sure. Does anyone know where I can find this information?

Thanks

Ezajur



__._,_.___


[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
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RE: [ALOCHONA] One death, many questions



I wonder what Farida Majid has to say about this report !!!
 


To:
From: bdmailer@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 2 May 2011 12:40:51 +0600
Subject: [ALOCHONA] One death, many questions

 
One death, many questions


In this recent photo of Felani's family, only the 13-year-old girl is missing. She was shot dead on the Bangladesh-India border on January


A guarded regret from India followed the brutal killing of Bangladeshi girl Felani on January 7 by its border force. A "promise" of no more deaths on the border came from Delhi in March. A meeting of the two border forces also agreed on use of non-lethal weapons. But the Indian force remains trigger-happy and border killings go on.During a visit to Nageshwari in Kurigram, Special Correspondent Morshed Ali Khan looks at life on the border after the killing of Felani.

Six days after 13-year-old Felani was killed with a single shot on the Bangladesh-India border on January 7, her mother Jahanara, living and working in Bongaigaon in Assam, received the news over phone from her husband Nurul Islam.

Felani was killed by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) as the father and daughter tried to sneak into Bangladesh over the barbed-wire fence in the early hours of January 7.

Mother of six children, Jahanara was horrified to hear the news. Only a week ago Felani, her eldest child, had left Bongaigaon with her father for their native village of South Ramkhana in Kurigram across the border.

The heartbreaking news destroyed Jahanara's dream. Felani's marriage was scheduled for the following day of her arrival in the native village with Jahanara's sister's son, who works in a garment factory in Dhaka. Jahanara and Nurul were living in India for over 25 years without any valid documents whatsoever. It was going to be Felani's first visit to her parental land.

"With our savings I made two gold bangles, a pair of gold earrings and a gold nose pin for her marriage. When they [BSF] returned the body of my little girl, I was told the ornaments were not on her," said Jahanara.

"My husband made the second call a few days later and told me to sell everything we possessed and return home," Jahanara said sitting inside her tin-shed rickety house at South Ramkhana where a stack of hay was spread on the floor making room for the family sleeping area. There was no furniture in the room.

On February 14, Jahanara along with her five children arrived on the Chadrirhat border in India, boldly walked into the BSF office and told them firmly she wanted to return home.

"They never uttered a word and asked me to wait till they opened the barbed-wire gate. I soon crossed into my country and rushed towards the grave of my Felani," Jahanara said.

The story of the ill-fated Bangladeshi family goes back 25 years when the India-Bangladesh border hardly bore any visible demarcation line.

For the people living along this 4,023-kilometre-long border of these two countries there was no barrier. Their cattle grazed on each other's fields, their children married to families across the border, they traded and shopped at each other's haats (weekly bazaar) and found employment at each other's fields.

Informal trade between these two neighbouring countries, according to an estimate, ran into billions.

Yet the border between these two countries remains extremely hostile. Ain o Salish Kendra's documentation unit reveals that as per newspaper reports between 2008 and 2010 Indian BSF shot dead 188 Bangladeshis. During the same period 64 Bangladeshis were tortured to death by BSF, 166 were injured while 116 were abducted along the border.

The age-old traditional approach of the people living along the border came to an abrupt end with India building a 4,000-kilometre-long, ten-foot-high barbed-wired and concrete fence at a cost of $1.2 billion to stop what they said mass-scale migration, smuggling and infiltration.

Felani's father Nurul and his brother, both under twelve, walked into India 25 years ago after both their parents died within a month. The bothers started working at farmers' houses looking after cattle before settling down in Bongaigaon owning a roadside tea stall.

Jahanara's story is also similarly striking. Impoverished and helpless, after her father from the same village of South Ramkhana died, her mother walked into India in search of a job. At the age of eight Jahanara was married to Nurul Islam, hardly 13 years of age at that time. The couple had their first child, Felani, five years later.

A day before the fateful January 7, Nurul Islam and Felani arrived at Khitaber Kuthi under Dinhata police station of West Bengal. It was not the first time Nurul returned to his village. Six months ago he had made the same journey to rebuild his house on the occasion of Felani's upcoming wedding.

"Felani was very excited all the way," said Nurul recollecting the day. "She was wearing the gold ornaments and looked so beautiful," He said. "She told me how she looked forward to meeting her grandparents in Bangladesh for the first time."

"As usual, on arrival at Chadrirhat border point I contacted the dalals [brokers] and paid them Tk 3,000 for a passage across the fence," said Nurul.

He recalled the horror that followed. The dalals tried to smuggle the father and daughter throughout the night but border patrol by the BSF was so intense that day that they had to retreat. Just after the muezzin called for the early morning prayers, the dalals carrying three bamboo-made ladders led the two towards the fence.

"Daylight had broken by then and I was very scared. I told them we would prefer to wait till night but they were insistent," Nurul said.

He held Felani tightly as they climbed the rungs of the first ladder. The second ladder was placed horizontally to connect the two fences and the third one was placed on the Bangladesh side for descending.

"I held Felani with my right hand and climbed the first flights," he said. As the two tried to cross the second ladder, Nurul heard a single gunshot.

"The bullet hit Felani from the right side and she immediately fell silent and heavy after a brisk cry. I let her go and I myself fell on the Bangladesh side sustaining injuries all over my body. I looked back to see ten to eleven BSF members twenty feet away," Nurul continued.

He tried to climb back to rescue Felani but the guards shouted and aimed their rifles at him. From 6:10am till 11:30am that day, the body of Felani lay there hanging by the ten-foot-high fence before the BSF took her away.

In front of thousands of villagers and officials of the Border Guard Bangladesh, the BSF handed over her body the next day after a post-mortem. In turn, Bangladesh police conducted another post-mortem at the Kurigram General Hospital.

Felani was buried the following day.

The story of Felani touched the hearts of millions both in Bangladesh and India. For the family of Nurul and Jahanara, the 25-year-long Indian chapter has been closed, probably forever. With Tk 3 lakh that the family received from the Bangladeshi authorities they now dream of a new future by the grave of their beloved daughter, Felani.

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=183929



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Re: [ALOCHONA] Chatra League violence



The ferocity and sophistication of the violence does a great honour to the House of Mujib. Its true to Mujib's dream of sonar Bangla. Its wonderful to behold.

Well done!

Joy Bangla!

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


From: Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com>
Sender: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2011 10:45:14 +0600
ReplyTo: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Chatra League violence

60 hurt as BCL groups clash in DU hall

image Left, a room at the Muhsin Hall in Dhaka University is vandalised during a clash of rival Chhatra League groups; right, a Chhatra League activist, who was wounded in the clash, tries to cover his face at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Tuesday.

Staff Correspondent

At least 60 students were injured in a factional clash of the Chhatra League, the ruling Awami League's associate body of students, over stronghold in the Haji Muhammad Muhsin Hall in Dhaka University early Tuesday.The feuding parties traded more than 25 rounds, exploded more than 20 handmade crude bombs and used other lethal weapons such as machetes and iron rods, in the clash that continued for about an hour and a half beginning about 4:30am.

At least 45 Chhatra League leaders who were injured were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.Four of them were admitted to the DMCH, two were admitted to the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation hospital.Others were given first aid treatment in the Dhaka Medical College Hospital and in the university medical centre.

'There was no one wounded with bullet,' DMCH casualty consultant ABM Abul Matin told New Age.The university proctor, KM Saiful Islam Khan, said that the university authorities had filed a case against 10 students involved in the clash. 'At least 10 students could be expelled from the university.'

The proctor said a three-member committee, headed by the hall's house tutor Abu Taleb, had been instituted to investigate the matter and was asked to submit report within a week.

Nobody was arrested after the filing of the case with the Shahbagh police station about 11:00pm, the Shahbagh police chief said.

The 10 students are Shafiqul Islam, the hall unit Chhatra League president Mohammad Ali, secretary general Mohammad Mohiuddin, Mainul Islam, Aminul Islam Sohag, Abu Bakr Siddique Rahat, Minhazuddin Sohag, Hannan Talukder, Mehedi and Mizanur Rahman, the Shahbagh police said.

Witnesses said groups loyal to the Muhsin Hall unit BCL president Sheikh Mohammad Ali, general secretary Mohammad Mohiuddin, assistant secretary Abu Bakr Siddique Rahat, university unit BCL joint secretary Aminul Islam Sohag, and activist Mainul Islam together attacked the leaders and activists loyal to the hall unit BCL organising secretary Mohiuddin Mahi with firearms and weapons about 4:30am.

The groups began the clash suddenly after the proctor, hall provost Ali Akkas and the Shahbagh police officer-in-charge, who were trying a negotiation between the groups, had left the hall about 3:00am on the assurance of Chhatra League leaders that they would maintain order, the witnesses said.The witnesses said that supporters of Mohiuddin Mahi were forced to leave the hall after the sudden attack.

'We were not prepared at the time. Some of us were asleep as seniors assured us that there would be no clash,' said a student of peace and conflict studies, Mehedi.The combined group of the BCL activists also damaged the windowpanes of the TV room and dining hall, and ransacked at least 20 rooms of the hall.

An injured activist, Mainul Hossain, alleged that they had requested the proctor, house tutors and the police to rescue them but they did not heed them.The police, who had left at 3:00am, rushed back to the hall about 6:00am but entered the building half an hour later, the witnesses said.

The law enforcers during the raid seized a local-made pistol loaded with two bullets and some lethal weapons from the hall premises.The BCL hall unit general secretary, Mohammad Mohiuddin, told New Age they did not have any option but to attack the Mahi group as the people loyal to Mahi were overdoing things. 'We cannot allow any anarchy in the hall.'

The university unit Chhatra League has suspended all the activities of the organisation's Muhsin Hall unit on Tuesday after the clash, said a release in the afternoon.

The hall unit president, Sheikh Mohammad Ali, was expelled from the organisation. The university unit committee suspended the organisation's membership of 10 others — Aminul Islam Sohag, Mohiuddin Mahi, Shafekuzzaman, Minhaj Uddin Sohag, Abu Bakr Siddique Rahat, Mainul Islam, Mizanur Rahman, Hannan Talukder, Mehedi and Akramul Haq Nitol, said the release, signed by the university unit BCL president, Sheikh Sohel Rana Tipu, and the general secretary, Sazzad Sakib Badsha.Deployment of law enforcers was reinforced as the campus remained tense.Classes were held and other activities continued as usual on the day.

http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/frontpage/16801.html



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Re: [ALOCHONA] DUET student expelled for objectionable remark on PM infacebook



What exactly did the student write that was objectionable? In the absence of this info, this is just the House of Mujib abusing power as usual.

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


From: qar <qrahman@netscape.net>
Sender: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Date: Mon, 2 May 2011 02:45:10 -0400 (EDT)
To: <alochona@yahoogroups.com>
ReplyTo: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [ALOCHONA] DUET student expelled for objectionable remark on PM in facebook

Not sure if this student should have been removed or not. However this student had to be punished. We are yet to learn how far we are going to go with "Freedom of Speech". Like it or not she is our elected PM and deserves minimal respect from all Bangladeshi. If you do not like her, don't vote for her next time but let her run the country and judge her after that!!

We see another set of crazy actions from our own government against Dr. Yunus and now some are doing to same against a sitting PM. We just don't respect ourselves at all. We are probably our worst enemies.....





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From: anis.ahmed@netzero.com <anis.ahmed@netzero.net>
To: ovimot <ovimot@yahoogroups.com>; alapon <alapon@yahoogroups.com>; Diagnose <Diagnose@yahoogroups.com>; notun_bangladesh <notun_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com>; bangla-vision <bangla-vision@yahoogroups.com>; bangla-vision <bangla-vision@yahoogroups.com>; WideMinds <WideMinds@yahoogroups.com>; chottala <chottala@yahoogroups.com>; odhora <odhora@yahoogroups.com>; alochona <alochona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sun, May 1, 2011 2:04 pm
Subject: [ALOCHONA] DUET student expelled for objectionable remark on PM in facebook

To All:  "A student of Dhaka University of Engineering & Technology was today expelled  for one year for making objectionable remark in the website face-book on the  family of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina."  Please go the following weblink for detail news: http://bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidDate=2011-04-23&hidType=TOP&hidRecord=0000000000000000353463  Thanks,    ------------------------------------  [Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this  message. The author takes full responsibility.] To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.comYahoo!  Groups Links  <*> To visit your group on the web, go to:     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alochona/  <*> Your email settings:     Individual Email | Traditional  <*> To change settings online go to:     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alochona/join     (Yahoo! ID required)  <*> To change settings via email:     alochona-digest@yahoogroups.com      alochona-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com  <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:     alochona-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com  <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/  


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[ALOCHONA] A close encounter with the man who shook the world



A close encounter with the man who shook the world
 
Robert Fisk
Osama bin Laden fighting in the Afghan-Russian war in the 1980s

One hot evening in late June 1996, the telephone on my desk in Beirut rang with one of the more extraordinary messages I was to receive as a foreign correspondent. "Mr Robert, a friend you met in Sudan wants to see you," said a voice in English but with an Arabic accent. At first I thought he meant another man, whose name I suggested. "No, no, Mr Robert, I mean the man you interviewed. Do you understand?" Yes, I understood. And where could I meet this man? "The place where he is now," came the reply. I knew that Bin Laden was rumoured to have returned to Afghanistan but there was no confirmation of this. So how do I reach him? I asked. "Go to Jalalabad – you will be contacted."

A month later. "CLACK-CLACK-CLACK." It was as if someone was attacking my head with an ice-pick. "CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK." I sat up. Someone was banging a set of car keys against the window of my room in the Spinghar Hotel. "Misssster Robert," a voice whispered urgently. "Misssster Robert." He hissed the word "Mister." Yes, yes, I'm here. "Please come downstairs, there is someone to see you." It registered only slowly that the man must have climbed the ancient fire escape to reach the window of my room. I dressed, grabbed a coat – I had a feeling we might travel in the night – and almost forgot my old Nikon. I walked as calmly as I could past the reception desk and out into the early afternoon heat.

The man wore a grubby, grey Afghan robe and a small round cotton hat but he was an Arab and he greeted me formally, holding my right hand in both of his. He smiled. He said his name was Mohamed, he was my guide. "To see the Sheikh?" I asked. He smiled but said nothing.

I followed Mohamed all the way through the dust of Jalalabad's main street until we arrived next to a group of gunmen in a pick-up truck in the ruins of an old Soviet army base, a place of broken armoured vehicles with a rusting red star on a shattered gateway. There were three men in Afghan hats in the back of the pick-up. One held a Kalashnikov rifle, another clutched a grenade-launcher along with six rockets tied together with Scotch tape. The third nursed a machine gun on his lap, complete with tripod and a belt of ammunition. "Mr Robert, these are our guards," the driver said quietly, as if it was the most normal thing in the world to set off across the wilds of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province under a white-hot afternoon sun with three bearded guerrillas. A two-way radio hissed and crackled on the shoulder of the driver's companion as another truckload of Afghan gunmen drove up behind us.

We were about to set off when Mohamed climbed back down from the pick-up along with the driver, walked to a shaded patch of grass and began to pray. For five minutes, the two men lay half-prostrate, facing the distant Kabul Gorge and, beyond that, a far more distant Mecca. We drove off along a broken highway and then turned on to a dirt track by an irrigation canal, the guns in the back of the truck bouncing on the floor, the guards' eyes peering from behind their chequered scarves. We travelled like that for hours, past half-demolished mud villages and valleys and towering black rocks, a journey across the face of the moon.

By dusk, we had reached a series of cramped earthen villages, old men burning charcoal fires by the track, the shadow of women cowled in the Afghan burka standing in the alleyways. There were more guerrillas, all bearded, grinning at Mohamed and the driver. It was night before we stopped, in an orchard where wooden sofas had been covered in army blankets piled with belts and webbing and where armed men emerged out of the darkness, some holding rifles, others machine guns. They were the Arab mujahedin, the Arab "Afghans" denounced by the presidents and kings of half the Arab world and by the United States of America. Very soon, the world would know them as al-Qa'ida.

Mohamed beckoned me to follow him and we skirted a small river and jumped across a stream until, in the insect-filled darkness ahead, we could see a sputtering paraffin lamp. Beside it sat a tall, bearded man in Saudi robes. Osama bin Laden stood up, his two teenage sons, Omar and Saad, beside him. "Welcome to Afghanistan," he said.

He was now 40 but looked much older than at our last meeting in the Sudanese desert late in 1993. Walking towards me, he towered over his companions, tall, slim, with new wrinkles around those narrow eyes. Leaner, his beard longer but slightly flecked with grey, he had a black waistcoat over his white robe and a red-chequered kuffiah on his head, and he seemed tired. When he asked after my health, I told him I had come a long way for this meeting. "So have I," he muttered. There was also an isolation about him, a detachment I had not noticed before, as if he had been inspecting his anger, examining the nature of his resentment; when he smiled, his gaze would move towards his 16-year-old son Omar – round eyes with dark brows and his own kuffiah – and then off into the hot darkness where his armed men were patrolling the fields.

Just 10 days before, a truck bomb had torn down part of the US Air Force housing complex at al-Khobar in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and we were speaking in the shadow of the deaths of the 19 US soldiers killed there. And Bin Laden knew what he wanted to say. "Not long ago, I gave advice to the Americans to withdraw their troops from Saudi Arabia. Now let us give some advice to the governments of Britain and France to take their troops out – because what happened in Riyadh and al-Khobar showed that the people who did this have a deep understanding in choosing their targets. They hit their main enemy, which is the Americans. They killed no secondary enemies, nor their brothers in the army or the police in Saudi Arabia... I give this advice to the government of Britain." He said the Americans must leave Saudi Arabia, must leave the Gulf. The "evils" of the Middle East arose from America's attempt to take over the region and from its support for Israel. Saudi Arabia had been turned into "an American colony".

Bin Laden was speaking slowly and with precision, an Egyptian taking notes in a large exercise book by the lamplight like a Middle Ages scribe. "This doesn't mean declaring war against the West and Western people – but against the American regime which is against every American." I interrupted Bin Laden. Unlike Arab regimes, I said, the people of the United States elected their government. They would say that their government represents them. He disregarded my comment. I hope he did. For in the years to come, his war would embrace the deaths of thousands of American civilians. "The explosion in al-Khobar did not come as a direct reaction to the American occupation," he said, "but as a result of American behaviour against Muslims, its support of Jews in Palestine and of the massacres of Muslims in Palestine and Lebanon – of Sabra and Chatila and Qana – and of the Sharm el-Sheikh conference."

But what Bin Laden really wanted to talk about was Saudi Arabia. Since our last meeting in Sudan, he said, the situation in the kingdom had grown worse. The ulema, the religious leaders, had declared in the mosques that the presence of American troops was not acceptable and the government took action against these ulema "on the advice of the Americans". For Bin Laden, the betrayal of the Saudi people began 24 years before his birth, when Abdul Aziz al-Saud proclaimed his kingdom in 1932. "The regime started under the flag of applying Islamic law and under this banner all the people of Saudi Arabia came to help the Saud family take power. But Abdul Aziz did not apply Islamic law; the country was set up for his family. Then after the discovery of petroleum, the Saudi regime found another support – the money to make people rich and to give them the services and life they wanted and to make them satisfied." Bin Laden was picking away at his teeth with that familiar twig of mishwak wood, but history – or his version of it – was the basis of almost all his remarks. The Saudi royal family had promised sharia laws while at the same time allowing the United States "to Westernise Saudi Arabia and drain the economy". He blamed the Saudi regime for spending $25bn in support of Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war and a further $60bn in support of the Western armies in the 1991 war against Iraq, "buying military equipment which is not needed or useful for the country, buying aircraft by credit" while at the same time creating unemployment, high taxes and a bankrupt economy. But for Bin Laden, the pivotal date was 1990, the year Saddam invaded Kuwait. "When the American troops entered Saudi Arabia, the land of the two Holy places, there was a strong protest from the ulema and from students of sharia law all over the country against the interference of American troops. This big mistake by the Saudi regime of inviting the American troops revealed their deception. They were giving their support to nations which were fighting against Muslims."

Bin Laden paused to see if I had listened to his careful, if frighteningly exclusive history lesson. "The Saudi people have remembered now what the ulema told them and they realise America is the main reason for their problems... the ordinary man knows that his country is the largest oil producer in the world yet at the same time he is suffering from taxes and bad services. Now the people understand the speeches of the ulemas in the mosques – that our country has become an American colony. What happened in Riyadh and al-Khobar is clear evidence of the huge anger of Saudi people against America. The Saudis now know their real enemy is America." The overthrow of the Saudi regime and the eviction of US forces from the kingdom were one and the same for Bin Laden. He was claiming that the real religious leadership of Saudi Arabia – among whom he clearly saw himself – was an inspiration to Saudis, that Saudis themselves would drive out the Americans, that Saudis – hitherto regarded as a rich and complacent people – might strike at the United States. Could this be true?

Bin Laden sometimes stopped speaking for all of 60 seconds in order to reflect on his words. Most Arabs, faced with a reporter's question, would say the first thing that came into their heads for fear that they would appear ignorant if they did not. Bin Laden was different. He was alarming because he was possessed of that quality which leads men to war: total self-conviction.

Bin Laden had asked me – a routine of every Palestinian under occupation – if Europeans did not resist occupation during the Second World War. I told him no Europeans would accept this argument over Saudi Arabia – because the Nazis killed millions of Europeans yet the Americans had never murdered a single Saudi. Such a parallel was historically and morally wrong. Bin Laden did not agree. "We as Muslims have a strong feeling that binds us together... We feel for our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon... When 60 Jews are killed inside Palestine" – he was talking about Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel – "all the world gathers within seven days to criticise this action, while the deaths of 600,000 Iraqi children did not receive the same reaction." It was Bin Laden's first reference to Iraq and to the United Nations sanctions that were to result, according to UN officials themselves, in the death of more than half a million children. "Killing those Iraqi children is a crusade against Islam," Bin Laden said. "We, as Muslims, do not like the Iraqi regime but we think that the Iraqi people and their children are our brothers and we care about their future." It was the first time I heard him use the word "crusade".

For some time, there had been a steadily growing thunderstorm to the east of Bin Laden's camp and we could see the bright orange flash of lightning over the mountains on the Pakistan border. But Bin Laden thought this might be artillery fire, the continuation of the inter-mujahedin battles that had damaged his spirit after the anti-Soviet war. He was growing uneasy. He broke off his conversation to pray. Then, on the straw mat, several young and armed men served dinner – plates of yoghurt and cheese and Afghan naan bread and more tea. Bin Laden sat between his sons, silent, eyes on his food.

I said to Bin Laden that Afghanistan was the only country left to him after his exile in Sudan. He agreed. "The safest place in the world for me is Afghanistan." It was the only place, I repeated, in which he could campaign against the Saudi government. Bin Laden and several of his Arab fighters burst into laughter. "There are other places," he replied. Did he mean Tajikistan? I asked. Or Uzbekistan? Kazakhstan? "There are several places where we have friends and close brothers – we can find refuge and safety in them." I told Bin Laden he was already a hunted man. "Danger is a part of our life," he snapped back.

He began talking to his men about amniya, security, and repeatedly looked towards those flashes in the sky. Now the thunder did sound like gunfire. I tried to ask one more question. What kind of Islamic state would Bin Laden wish to see? Would thieves and murderers still have their hands or heads cut off in his Islamic sharia state, just as they do in Saudi Arabia today? There came an unsatisfactory reply. "Islam is a complete religion for every detail of life. If a man is a real Muslim and commits a crime, he can only be happy if he is justly punished. This is not cruelty. The origin of these punishments comes from God through the Prophet Mohamed, peace be upon him." Dissident Osama bin Laden may be, but moderate never. I asked permission to take his photograph, and while he debated this with his companions I scribbled into my notebook the words I would use in the last paragraph of my report on our meeting: "Osama bin Laden believes he now represents the most formidable enemy of the Saudi regime and of the American presence in the Gulf. Both are probably right to regard him as such." I was underestimating the man.

Yes, he said, I could take his picture. I opened my camera and allowed his armed guards to watch me as I threaded a film into the spool. Without warning, Bin Laden moved his head back and the faintest smile moved over his face, along with that self-conviction and that ghost of vanity which I found so disturbing. He called his sons Omar and Saad and they sat beside him as I took more pictures and Bin Laden turned into the proud father, the family man, the Arab at home.

Then his anxiety returned. The thunder was continuous now and it was mixed with the patter of rifle fire. I should go, he urged, and I realised that what he meant was that he must go, that it was time for him to return to the fastness of Afghanistan. When we shook hands, he was already looking for the guards who would take him away.

This is an edited extract from 'The Great War For Civilisation', by Robert Fisk, published by Harper Perennial

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-a-close-encounter-with-the-man-who-shook-the-world-2278035.html



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