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Thursday, August 25, 2011

[ALOCHONA] Indo-Bangla border a new Berlin Wall

Indo-Bangla border a new Berlin Wall

Sadeq Khan

The Holiday wishes its valued readers, patrons and well-wishers a
happy Eid Mubarak. Due to the Eid festival and vacation , the next
issue of The Holiday will be published on September 9.

In an unscheduled debate on August 18 in the National Assembly sitting
without the presence of the Opposition, the Treasury Bench members
themselves raised a big hue and cry about the failures of the
government, particularly of four senior ministers and a state
minister. The finance minister was targeted for share market scam,
banking liquidity crisis, for frequent faux pas, and for interfering
in road repair contracts. The communications minister was targeted for
dismal conditions of highways leading to disruption of road
communication with the capital from western and northern parts for
weeks together, and for tragic road accidents claiming many precious
lives.

The commerce minister was targeted for his failure to rein in
spiralling food and commodity prices in Ramzan and his own share of
habitual faux pas embarrassing other ruling party leaders in the eyes
of the suffering citizenry. The state minister for power was likewise
targeted, in the absence of the Prime Minister and the powerful
Adviser for Power, was targeted for frequent power failures. In
addition, the shipping minister was criticised, not for his
ministerial duties, but his exertion of undue influence as a transport
union leader for liberal issuance of driving licenses to ill-trained
helpers of drivers. He has been blatantly advocating that as long as
illiterate drivers could read road signs, identify a cow or a goat and
follow traffic directions, they should be issued licenses as there was
a shortage of licensed drivers of motor vehicles in this country. Such
liberal (illegal?) issuance of licenses to trainee drivers has been
cited by the media and civil society activists as a major factor
causing fatal road accidents.

In his defence in parliament, the Communications Minister spoke at
length under Rule 300 of parliamentary procedure. He said that in
1996, total length of roads maintained in the country was 15,600
kilometres. In 2010, the roads and highways increased to 21040 km. For
repair and maintenance, a world standard of budgetary requirement has
been worked out and approved by the World Bank. By that standard, the
requirement in 2008-09 budget was Taka 4205 crore. But the finance
ministry allocated only Taka 651 crore. Likewise, the demand for 2009
- 10 fiscal year was Taka 4,404 crore, but the allocation was Taka 610
crore only. In 2010 - 11 fiscal year, the demand for repair and
maintenance of roads and highways was Taka 4,745 crore. The
allocation was only Taka 668 crore. In the current fiscal the demand
is Taka 5,100 crore. The allocation is only Taka 690 crore, and that
also has been released only the previous day (August 17) with
sub-divided work allocations and other conditions attached.

In other words, the Communications Minister squarely blamed the
Finance Minister for the collapse of the roads and highways network
under heavy rains (highest in the last 15 years) on account of gross
under-financing of the road repair budget for years together. Suranjit
Sengupta lent qualified support to the Communications Minister's
demand that the conditions attached to this year's release letter of
funds for road repairs be withdrawn. He said the Finance Minister has
no jurisdiction over work allocations.

Repercussions
The debate had its repercussions in the media orchestration and in the
civil society. As such, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 24
scolded his party leaders and parliamentarians on the floor of the
House that they should not lend ammunition to "enemy" hands (the
Opposition) by harping on a few failures of her government. Side by
side, there are instances of immense successes too.

Some India-friendly members of the "civil society", mostly teachers,
students, newspaper columnists and cultural activists, including,
strangely, the government-appointed Chairman of the National Human
Rights Commission and the Secretary of the Communist Party of
Bangladesh, gathered at the Shaheed Minar on the same day (August 24)
as the Prime Minister was answering questions in the parliament, to
single out the Communications Minister and demand his dismissal from
the cabinet by August 31. Otherwise they resolved that they would
undertake a sit-down strike at the Shaheed Minar on the Eid-day.

Some say the real reason for their singling out the Communications
Minister, who is also known to be China-friendly, not the finance
minister or any other minister, is not the traffic road accidents they
talked about, but because his revelations about the "standard" costs
of road maintenance, not to speak of extra costs from soft soil and
active delta conditions in our country, has demolished the myth being
spun by the India-friendly lobby in the government and the civil
society about the huge benefits the country could gain from road
connectivity with India under Indian transit plan. At least a
memorandum of understanding was expected to be signed during Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's return official visit in Dhaka
scheduled September 6.

Now the Finance Minister, an old advocate of the Indian transit plan,
has admitted in a meeting with the FBCCI on August 24 that it is not
possible for Bangladesh to grant transit facility to India under the
present conditions of infrastructural handicap. The government's own
inter-ministerial core committee on transit has in the meantime
recommended that under no circumstance road transit can be given to
India at our current stage of infrastructure.

'India's new Berlin Wall'
A framework agreement on the transit issue, projected to be the main
purpose of the Indian Prime Minister's visit, appears to have been
relegated essentially to a statement of intent and mutual interest in
the Indian transit plan. Another issue, that of "fortress India's
fatal stranglehold around Bangladesh borders" has come into focus, not
because Bangladesh government pressed for it, but as result of the
international media's attention to child-bride Felani's killing in
Indian BSF fire on the barbed wire fences at the border. The
prestigious Foreign Policy journal of the USA is the latest addition
of outcry over Felani's death in the global media under a general
coverage of the "World's Most Dangerous Borders", the journal has
separately covered "an account of India's new Berlin Wall with
Bangladesh. After Felani's that account entitled Fortress India it
goes on to comment:

"In India, the 25-year-old border fence — finally expected to be
completed next year at a cost of $1.2 billion — is celebrated as a
panacea for a whole range of national neuroses: Islamist terrorism,
illegal immigrants stealing Indian jobs, the refugee crisis that could
ensue should a climate catastrophe ravage South Asia. But for
Bangladeshis, the fence has come to embody the irrational fears of a
neighbour that is jealously guarding its newfound wealth even as their
own country remains mired in poverty. The barrier is a physical
reminder of just how much has come between two once-friendly countries
with a common history and culture — and how much blood one side is
willing to shed to keep them apart.

"Situated on a delta and crisscrossed by 54 rivers, Bangladesh factors
prominently in nearly every worst-case climate-change scenario. The
1-meter sea-level rise predicted by some widely used scientific models
would submerge almost 20 per cent of the country. The slow creep of
seawater into Bangladesh's rivers caused by global-warming-induced
flooding, upriver dams in India, and reduced glacial melt from the
Himalayas is already turning much of the country's fertile land into
saline desert, upending its precarious agricultural economy. Studies
commissioned by the U.S. Defence Department and almost a dozen other
security agencies warn that if Bangladesh is hit by the kind of
Hurricane Katrina-grade storm that climate change is likely to make
more frequent, it would be a "threat multiplier," sending ripples of
instability across the globe: new opportunities for terrorist
networks, conflicts over basic human essentials like access to food
and water, and of course millions of refugees. And it's no secret
where the uprooted Bangladeshis would go first. Bangladesh shares a
border with only two countries: the democratic republic of India and
the military dictatorship of Burma. Which would you choose?

"India began erecting a fence, complete with well-armed guards, in
1986. After the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won
national elections in 1998, the programme was ramped up to placate
anti-Muslim sentiment among the party faithful. The fence grew longer
and the killings more frequent. After years of complaints from
Bangladeshi politicians, India made promises on several occasions to
switch to non-lethal weaponry, but has rarely followed through on
them.

By next year, every available crossing point between India and
Bangladesh will have been blocked off by the fence. But while
tightened security has made the border more dangerous, it hasn't
actually made it much more secure. More than 100 border villages
operate as illicit transit points through which thousands of migrants
pass daily. Each of these villages has a "lineman" — what would be
called a coyote on the U.S.-Mexican border — who facilitates the
smuggling, paying border guards from both notoriously corrupt
countries to look the other way when people pass through.

"The rise of global Islamist militancy in recent years has worsened
the xenophobic streak in India's already dicey relations with its
Muslim neighbours, and Indian politicians have been quick to
capitalize on it. By 2009, Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram was
declaring that Bangladeshis have "no business to come to India." The
opposition BJP isn't rolling out the welcome mat either: Tathagata
Roy, the party's leader in the Bangladesh-bordering state of West
Bengal, has called for lining the border with anti-personnel mines.

Felani's death
"Felani's death, however, galvanised Bangladesh. Graphic photos of her
dead body made the front pages of newspapers across the country, and
political parties posted her picture with the caption "Stop Border
Killing!"

"The shooting seemed to have given India pause as well. In March, New
Delhi once again agreed to strip its border guards of live ammunition,
and for once actually did it. For the first month in almost a decade,
Indian troops didn't kill anyone on the border. But by April the
Indian soldiers had reloaded, shooting a Bangladeshi cattle trader and
three others in separate incidents. It was a bleak reminder that while
the fence itself may be a flimsy thing, the tensions that make it into
a killing zone are remarkably durable."

Can Bangladesh hope that this time around the Hasina-Manmohan summit
in Dhaka will do something at least to put on end to killing at the
border by bullets or by beatings?

http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx


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[ALOCHONA] WikiLeaks - Politically most sensitive leaked cables from US Embassy in Dhaka



I have compiled the latest and most politically sensitive diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in the latest tranche -  




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[mukto-mona] nice lesson of love & sorrow.............






dear friends 
let us try to  find feelings in the pics below


Swallows
Here his wife is injured and the condition is fatal.
She was hit by a car as she swooped low across the road.






Here he brought her food and attended to her with love
 and compassion.
 

He brought her food again but was shocked to find her dead.
 
He tried to move her....a rarely-seen effort for swallows!
 
 

Aware that his sweetheart is dead and will never come back to him again,
he cries with adoring love.
 




He stood beside her, saddened of her death.

   

Finally aware that she would never return to him, he
stood beside her body with sadness and sorrow.

 
 

Millions of people cried after watching this picture in
 
America and Europe and even in India .
 It is said that the 
photographer sold these pictures for a nominal fee to the
 
most famous newspaper in France .  All copies of that  
newspaper were sold out on the day these pictures were published.
 
 
And many people think animals don't have a brain or feelings?????
 



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dear sir(s)
1 pl ignore or spam me if feel unwanted
2 pl wait for detail mail/reply
3 pl click the link below to see my personal updates
   
http://sites.google.com/site/akhtarudduza
   

thanks and best regards
Engr Akhtarudduza



--
dear sir(s)
1 pl ignore or spam me if feel unwanted
2 pl wait for detail mail/reply
3 pl click the link below to see my personal updates
   
http://sites.google.com/site/akhtarudduza
   

thanks and best regards
Engr Akhtarudduza


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****************************************************
Mukto Mona plans for a Grand Darwin Day Celebration: 
Call For Articles:

http://mukto-mona.com/wordpress/?p=68

http://mukto-mona.com/banga_blog/?p=585

****************************************************

VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/

****************************************************

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
               -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190




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[ALOCHONA] Saudi beheading fuels backlash in Indonesia




Saudi beheading accomplishments

"The beheading of Ruyati binti Satubi —executed in June for the killing of an allegedly abusive Saudi employer — stirred such revulsion here that even the most strictly observant Indonesian Muslims now ask how the guardians of Islam's most sacred sites can be so heedless of their faith's call for compassion." (thanks Kanwal)

Posted by As'ad AbuKhalil at 7:52 AM

 

Saudi beheading fuels backlash in Indonesia

By Andrew Higgins, Published: August 8

Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/saudi-beheading-fuels-backlash-in-indonesia/2011/07/17/gIQAc7OU3I_print.html

 

JAKARTA, Indonesia — As leader of Indonesia's — and the world's — largest Muslim organization, Said Aqil Siraj used to get pelted with angry e-mails and text messages whenever he questioned Saudi Arabia's rigid, ultra-puritanical take on Islam.

 

But the often menacing messages recently stopped — cut off by a single stroke from a Saudi executioner's sword to the neck of an Indonesian maid in Mecca.

 

"Now I don't get sent anything," Siraj said. He is glad to be out of the firing line, at least for the moment, but is appalled that it took the beheading of a 54-year-old Indonesian grandmother to quiet abuse by supporters of Saudi-style Islam.

 

The beheading of Ruyati binti Satubi — executed in June for the killing of an allegedly abusive Saudi employer — stirred such revulsion here that even the most strictly observant Indonesian Muslims now ask how the guardians of Islam's most sacred sites can be so heedless of their faith's call for compassion.

 

At least 20 Indonesians, nearly all women, are on death row in the Persian Gulf kingdom.

 

While few doubt that Satubi stabbed her boss, the mother of three is widely viewed as a martyr — the victim of a harsh and often xenophobic justice and social system rooted in Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi creed, a highly dogmatic and intolerant strand of Islam that, in its most extreme forms, helped provide the theological underpinnings for jihadi militants.

 

"Some Indonesians began to think that Wahhabism is the true teaching of Islam, but thanks to God, there has been a change of thinking," said Siraj, who heads Nahdlatul Ulama, an organization with about 50 million members and 28,000 Islamic boarding schools.

 

The beheading, which triggered protests outside the Saudi Embassy and elsewhere, "has had a good influence" by accelerating a backlash against harsh imported strains of Islam, Siraj said.

 

"Mecca is a holy place, but the people who live there are very uncivilized," said the executed maid's daughter, Een Nuraeni, who prays regularly and wears a veil pulled tightly over her hair. "There is nothing in Islamic law that says you can torture or rape your housemaid."

 

Her mother, desperate for money, had worked for three families in Saudi Arabia since taking her first job there in 1998. On trips home, Nuraeni said, she complained of being spat at in the face, beaten, deprived of food and other mistreatment, but kept going back "for the sake of her children."

 

Migrant Care, an Indonesian group that lobbies on behalf of workers abroad, said it has this year already received 6,500 reports of violence, sexual harassment, rape and other abuses against Indonesians in Saudi Arabia. Eighty percent of the more than 1.2 million Indonesians working there are women, mostly maids.

 

Indonesia's government, complaining that it received no advance notice of Satubi's execution, recalled its ambassador from Riyadh and announced a moratorium from Aug. 1 on labor exports to the Gulf kingdom. Police set up a special unit at Jakarta's main airport to enforce the order.

 

The acrimonious rift between the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad and Indonesia, home to the largest community of his followers, even led to calls for a boycott of Mecca by hajj pilgrims.

 

The mood became so testy that when Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa announced that he had received an apology over the beheading from the Saudi ambassador in Jakarta, the kingdom's usually mute embassy promptly issued a statement that accused the minister of lying.

 

Indonesia has traditionally embraced mostly relaxed forms of Islam. But starting in the 1970s under then-dictator Suharto, a flood of money from Saudi Arabia to fund mosques and other ventures helped boost a Wahhabi-tinged form of Islam known as Salafism, which sometimes veered into violent extremism.

 

The Bali bombings in 2002 and subsequent attacks in Jakarta were carried out by militants inspired by Salafi extremists such as Osama bin Laden. Nonviolent Salafis, meanwhile, emerged as a political force, helping to found the Islamist Justice and Prosperity Party, or PKS, which won nearly 8 percent of the vote in 2009 .

 

Both strands are now in trouble. A wave of arrests and killings by security forces has largely uprooted the organizational foundations of Salafi jihad ideology, although it lives on thanks to the Internet. Abubakar Baasyir, the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, was sentenced in June to five years in prison for terrorism.

 

Meanwhile, the PKS, part of the governing coalition, has been tainted by allegations of corruption and has been torn by internal strife between purists and moderates. Some of its more hard-line members have been purged. "We threw them out" because they "always wanted 100 percent pure values of Islam" and couldn't compromise, said Fahri Hamzah, a PKS member of parliament.

 

Siraj, the leader of the Nahdlatul Ulama organization, studied in Saudi Arabia for 13 years and came to despise the kingdom's religious and political order, which he describes as "jahiliyyah" — the period of ignorance and hypocrisy that, according to the Koran, prevailed there before the arrival of the prophet Muhammad.

 

Salafis, he said, are by no means all violent and many eschew politics, but they "are very hard in the way they think." He recently wrote the foreword to a new book, "The Bloody History of the Salafi-Wahhabi Sect."

 

Hizb ut-Tahir, a nonviolent organization that wants an Islamic state or caliphate, defended the beheading as legal under Islamic law but called for an investigation into whether Satubi committed murder in self-defense. Ismail Yusanto, the group's spokesman, said the problem is not strict Islamic justice but the poverty that drives women to work abroad when "their main place is the home."

 

Saudi Arabia, worried by the spread of extremist thinking at home and damage to its reputation abroad since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has tried in recent years to check the export of militant Salafi ideas.

 

But what the Saudi government now condemns as mutant strains have nonetheless put down thin but tenacious roots on the margins in Indonesia, shielded in the past by a reluctance by many to criticize views supposedly rooted in the land of Muhammad's birth.

"Saudi Arabia is the holy land, so people always used to make excuses for it," said Wahyu Susilo, a policy analyst for Migrant Care. "They now realize that Saudi Islam is not the right image of Islam." To protest the June beheading, his group printed thousands of posters saying: "Saudi Arabia — the killing fields for Indonesian women migrant workers."

 

The Indonesian government, under fire for not doing enough to protect its citizens, last month secured the release of an Indonesian maid on death row in Saudi Arabia. It did this by paying compensation of $538,000 to the family of her employer, whom she killed after he allegedly tried to rape her.

 

Arab News, a newspaper based in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, reported last week that Saudi authorities have agreed to spare two more Indonesian maids from beheading, including one convicted of using black magic to hurt her employer.

 

At her family's village near Bekasi, east of Jakarta, Nuraeni, the daughter of the beheaded maid, has received a procession of visitors offering condolences and angry views on Saudi Arabia. Scores of women in the village have spent time working in the kingdom and shared stories of their travails there.

 

Even Nuraeni's elderly grandfather, a sternly devout Muslim who has memorized the Koran and made a hajj trip to Mecca, wants nothing to do with the kingdom. "He now hates Saudi Arabia," Nuraeni said.

 

For our complete coverage of foreign news, visit the world page.

 



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[ALOCHONA] Dr. Dipu Moni's NY visit !!!!!!!!!!



Dear All,
 
FM Dr. Dipu Moni was in NY for a short visit. Her visit was a slap to the relentless fradulent propaganda by Abu Jafar and gang for last few months regarding denial of her visa to enter US. Now we demand Abu Jafar, Mohiuddin Anwar and others to come up with good explanation
about this visit.
 
Dr. Manik


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[ALOCHONA] Re: Indian strategy

Bangladeshi killed by Indian BSF in Thakurgaon border

Being hit by stone, Babul sustained injuries in his head and drowned
while others managed to escape leaving behind their fishing nets.

Thakurgaon, Aug 25 (UNB) - A Bangladeshi youth was stoned to death
allegedly by Indian Border Security Force (BSF) along Dabri border in
Haripur upazila on Wednesday.The deceased was identified as Babul
Hossain, 28, son of Shukur Uddin of Geruadangi village of the upazila.

Quoting witnesses, Haripur thana Officer-in-Charge (OC) Humayun Kabir
said several people, including Babul, went to frontier Nagor River for
catching fish on Wednesday.

As they unknowingly entered into the Indian part of the river, BSF
members of Indian Phulbari camp tried to catch them and at one stage
threw stones at them.

Being hit by stone, Babul sustained injuries in his head and drowned
while others managed to escape leaving behind their fishing
nets.Babul's father alleged that BSF killed his son by throwing
stones.

Commander of local BGB Lt Col Abdur Rahman, however, expressed his
ignorance on how Babul was killed.BGB members of Dabri camp and local
people recovered the body from the river at 3pm on Wednesday after the
body floated near the Dabri border.

The body was sent to Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy this (Thursday)
morning. Deceased's father filed an ezahar with local thana, but
police recorded it as a UD case.
http://www.unbconnect.com/component/news/task-show/id-56955

On 8/22/11, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
> *Indian strategy*
>
> by Firoz Mahbub Kamal
>


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[ALOCHONA] It's law that must rule



News Analysis: It's law that must rule

Farid Hossain

If this is not anarchy what else is?

They gave a straight message: the law breakers must remain beyond the reach of the long hand of law. And only the law breakers will decide if they have really violated law and, if so, how they should be punished.

On Sunday, thousands of transport workers took to the streets and used buses to block roads at Gabtoli in the capital after a magistrate punished seven errant drivers. The drivers -- three holding fake licence and four having no licence at all -- were arrested, handcuffed and handed over to police. The action enraged the transport workers and owners who blocked roads halting traffic in the area for over three hours and confined the magistrate to a bus company's office before being forced to reduce the punishment to a token fine of Tk 5 each and allowed to go under police escort.

The outburst, the latest wave of transport-related lawlessness to hit the country, underlined the difficulties even the well-meaning officials face to discipline the mostly lawless transport sector. Nothing but anarchy rules when law enforcers are forced to flee the wrath of the lawbreakers. What is even more distressing is that those who defy laws get a pat on the back by none other than a government leader like Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, who happens to be the top leader of road transport workers.

Shajahan Khan, president of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation, has found himself at the centre of public criticism for his insistence that Bangladesh Road Transport Authority waive the requirement of skill tests for a driver before he gets a licence. He has reportedly requested BRTA to issue about 28,000 driving licence without any skill tests to people listed by his federation. Even though he subsequently modified his statement slightly, the shipping minister is firm on his stand that drivers don't need education to get licence. Any one who can differentiate between a cow and a goat is good enough to get a driving licence, the minister says. It is as good as saying that we need butchers --not trained and registered surgeons -- to conduct surgeries in hospitals.

Bangladesh needs up to 20 lakh drivers -- double the present number -- to operate over 15 lakh vehicles now on he roads. The high demand does not mean that BRTA should issue driving licence without any skill tests as suggested by the shipping minister.

True, getting a genuine driving license is a lengthy process and one has to go through lots of tests starting from the stage of a learner to qualify to operate heavy vehicles like buses and trucks. But no one should be allowed to skip the tests.

Many license-holders have skipped the tests thanks to support from leaders like Shajahan Khan and the BRTA itself. Many are holding fake licenses and many others are simply driving without bothering to get any sort of license.

No wonder over 60 percent of 10 lakh drivers in the country hold fake licenses. No wonder roads in Bangladesh are the world's deadliest with road accidents accounting for nearly 4,000 deaths annually according to official estimate and more than 15,000 by unofficial but reliable count. No wonder Bangladesh is losing celebrities and talented people like Mishuk Munier and Tareque Masud in road crashes, blamed on reckless and unskilled driving, faulty vehicles and defiance of traffic rules.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=200086


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[ALOCHONA] CID taught Joj Miah grenade lessons



CID taught Joj Miah grenade lessons


Joj Miah

An interview with The Daily Star discloses how law enforcers made a major culprit in Aug 21 attack out of a vendor

A top official of the CID taught Joj Miah how to handle a grenade during his detention.

The CID official gave him a crash course on the use of Arges grenades with detailed photographs and schematics to make him appear a credible culprit of the August 21, 2004, attack on an Awami League rally.

The CID had arrested Joj Miah and branded him a key player of the attack but investigation later on proved he was nothing but a petty criminal whom rouge policemen used to divert the probe.

Joj Miah, who the BNP still claims is the real culprit behind the attack, narrated to The Daily Star yesterday how the Criminal Investigation Department persuaded him to pose as a key player of the attack.

Recalling his experience in detention, Joj said the CID officials made him memorise a fabricated plot of the attack and went to great lengths to make sure he sticks to that story until the trials end.

Top CID officials promised to keep him live and make him the approver [royal witness] instead of an accused in the case. They also promised to "take care of him" and his poor family. He was promised that he would be released and sent abroad, after the end of the trial.

Joj was arrested in Noakhali on June 10, 2005 and confessed on June 26 that he was "involved" in the attack. He was cleared of the charges during the caretaker regime in 2008 and released in March 2009.

Two days before he was arrested in his Birkat village, Jamal Member of his village warned him about a smuggling complaint lodged against him with the local police.

"Jamal told me that Kabir Daroga [sub-inspector] asked him to take me to the Shyambagh Police Station," said Joj, adding that Jamal advised him to bribe the police Tk 2,000 to bypass arrest.

Joj claimed that he was not involved in any criminal activity but he agreed to pay the money, believing it was the best he could do. Jamal took the money to the police station.

Later in the day, Moksed, a chowkidar or village watchman, told Joj that Sub-Inspector Kabir had asked him to take him to the police station.

Kabir handcuffed Joj after he went to his uncle's shop in the village with Moksed. The policeman drove Joj to the police station on his motorcycle.

When Joj asked Kabir why he was being arrested, he said: "You'll get to know everything at the police station."

Later Jamal and Joj's family members went to the police station and they were informed that there was a case against him in Dhaka.

"They said there was a complaint filed against me in Dhaka and people from Dhaka were coming to take me," Joj continued. "But they could not say anything else."

After he was locked up in the police station, a plainclothes policeman showed up a few hours later. He heard him say, "I'm SP Rashid. Where is Joj?"

Rashid (Assistant Superintendent of Police Abdur Rashid) then asked Kabir to bring Joj out and asked all local police officers to leave the station.

Joj saw one of the companions of Rashid get two new gamchha [towels] out of a pack. He was blindfolded with one and his hands -- already in cuffs -- were tied with the other.

"I was sitting on the floor. Rashid uttered some names: Ledu Miah, Subrata, Mollah Masud, Jisan, Swapan and Mukul. He asked me whether I recognised any of them."

Joj said no.

"SP Rashid told me that 'you know them, you know their names, and now you are denying it. Police know everything and can do everything'," Joj said.

"If you know everything why are you asking me then?" Joj asked the police officer.

Somebody in the room replied with a kick on his back, making him roll over on the floor. "They hit me with a stick on the soles of my feet and on my bottom."

After Joj screamed out in pain when the stick hit his right hand, Rashid asked his companions to stop beating. Rashid told them that they would beat Joj up later.

"Sir I think a bone in my right hand is broken," Joj had said.

"It doesn't matter if your bone is broken. We are going to kill you after some time anyway," Joj quoted Rashid as saying.

Joj claimed that Rashid told him that they were going to take him away in a car and kill him.

"What is my crime?" Joj asked. "SP Rashid said they would let me know before they kill me."

Joj told Rashid that there was no police case against him. And if there was any case, they should send Joj to court. Rashid said: "There are no cases against you. Then again, there is no lack of cases against you. If we wish, we can change good to bad, and bad to good."

"You'll be alive if you do as we say. And you'll die if you don't," Rashid said.

Joj gave in to the CID official's pressure.

"You have to admit that you belong to the group of people whose names we mentioned earlier. And you were involved in the attack with them on Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004," Joj quoted Rashid as saying.

Joj tried to convince the officials that he was in his village on the day of the attack and there were plenty of alibis.

"But SP Rashid told me that they don't need to crosscheck my alibis, and asked me whether I was ready to follow their instructions," Joj said.

At the time, the CID official told Joj that he would not be accused in the case, but would have to give a confessional statement and become an approver of the case.

Joj said he was left with no other option, but to accept the offer. Blindfolded for the entire ride, he was driven to Dhaka.

When the blindfold was taken off, Joj found himself sitting on the floor of what appeared to be the office of Rashid. Later, Rashid took Joj to the office of a "high official".

"Sir, I've brought Joj Miah. He'll do as you say," Joj heard Rashid saying to the "high official".

The official asked Rashid to leave.

The high official introduced himself as Ruhul Amin (Special Superintendent of Police Ruhul Amin) and asked Joj about his family and sources of income. "He told me not to worry about my family and that they'll run my family," Joj said.

Ruhul went on to assure Joj that he would not be accused in the case, but will be presented only as an approver.

When he was arrested, Joj was working as a street vendor of fruits in Dhaka. He also traded postcards and movie posters. Joj used to earn around Tk 5,000 a month, most of which was sent to his village home for his mother and younger siblings. Joj, now 30, is trying to make ends meet as a driver in Dhaka.

A STORY TO BE TOLD AND RETOLD
Joj was shown a video of the grenade attack and photographs of around 15 terrorists and criminals.

"Remember these well so that you can identify them when senior officers ask you about them," Ruhul told Joj, adding: "Tell them that there were many others who carried out the attack and you'd recognise them if you saw them."

Ruhul then briefed Joj on a story about the planning of the attack and how it was implemented. Joj was asked to tell the story in his confessional statement.

"He asked me to say I held a meeting with Masud, Mukul and others on August 20 at the home of Mokhles, who was an Awami League ward commission of Moghbazar," said Joj.

"And that we carried 10 grenades to Bangabandhu Avenue in sweetmeat packs. A few among us hurled the grenades. And that I was supposed to hurl one myself, but I didn't do it; I left the grenade on the spot and ran away."

Ruhul showed a detailed schematic of an Arges grenade. He familiarised Joj with the pin, the handle and other parts of the grenade and showed him how the grenade can be detonated with the pin taken off.

Joj was then asked to narrate the story as instructed, and Ruhul recorded it on video.

The CID official told Joj that he would lose his life if he denied in court the statement he just gave.

"We would implicate you in other cases, and we will clear you from those cases later," Ruhul told Joj.

The CID later took Joj on remand. He was kept in the offices of Ruhul Amin and Rashid throughout the two-week remand period. Other CID officials on duty were not allowed to interact with him.

Joj spent the time trying to memorise the story he was supposed to tell senior officials.

"After completion of the remand period, CID officials including Rashid and Munshi Atiqur [Assistant Superintendent of Police Munshi Atiqur Rahman] took me before the magistrate for recording my confessional statement. Rashid gave my written statement to the magistrate," said Joj.

Although the magistrate wrote the statement from another copy, he asked Joj to tell his story and recorded it on tape.

After the recording was done, Joj, the magistrate and the CID officials ate chicken biriyani at the magistrate's office.

The magistrate then asked Joj to file a petition with the court to become an approver. But if he denied the statement he just made, he would ultimately be executed. The magistrate also instructed Joj not to sign any paper for power of attorney.

Joj was sent to Dhaka Central Jail straight from the magistrate's office. Rashid, the CID official, provided Joj with clothes, bread, bananas, oil and soaps. Rashid assured him that the CID officials would stay in touch with him.

The next day, Joj was sent to Kashimpur prison, where he served the remainder of his time in detention.

CID officials gave his family a monthly allowance of Tk 2,500 and provided Joj with cash, clothes and other necessities in prison, but there were no official records, he said.

During his four years' stay in jail, the prison authorities sent a number of documents to Joj regarding power of attorney. Even when the prison superintendent advised him to sign the document, he refused to do so because he promised to the CID officials.

His mother came to visit him once with two CID officials. She visited Dhaka every month to collect the monthly allowance of Tk 2,500 from Ruhul Amin.

After the caretaker government came to power in 2007, the then CID investigator Munshi Atiqur Rahman came to visit Joj along with the then additional director general of Rapid Action Battalion Gulzar Uddin Ahmed.

Gulzar asked for a direct answer from Joj about his reported involvement in the August 21 attack. This was the first time since he was arrested when Joj admitted that he was not involved in the attack and he was forced to give the confessional statement.

He told Gulzar that Munshi Atiqur Rahman knew about it.

In response, Atiqur told Gulzar that he was not involved in this but he knew about the matter. He said this was why he came along with Gulzar to see Joj.

After Gulzar's visit, another CID official Fazlul Kabir visited Joj in Kashimpur. Joj also told Kabir that he was forced to become a part of the case.

Joj was finally cleared off the charges in 2008 and released from prison in March 2009.

The CID stopped giving the monthly allowance to Joj's family about a month before Gulzar's visit in 2007.

As a result, his family was forced to borrow and lost their only piece of land in Noakhali. The family is now in Narayanganj.

Joj yesterday demanded rehabilitation and justice from the government. "As a citizen of the country, I had a permanent address … a home."

"Now I'm left with nothing."

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=200084


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[ALOCHONA] Accusation by top AL leaders



Accusation by top AL leaders

by Nishat Sultana Brishti


Something wrong is definitely going on in Bangladesh! Senior minister and general secretary of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League, Syed Ashraful Islam said a section of media in Bangladesh are "trying to create ground for quarters, who are hatching conspiracy to assassin Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He said that the conspiracy to kill Sheikh Hasina had not stopped and the plotters were looking for chances to destabilize the situation with that motive.

"A new plot is under way to kill Sheikh Hasina and the quarters who attempted to kill her on August 21, 2004, are again out to destabilize the situation," Syed Ashraf said.

He said, "Some newspapers are looking for an Anna Hazare in Bangladesh and some television channels are depicting exaggerated pictures of a few events and thereby helping the conspirators who are looking for a ground to destabilize the situation and kill her."

The minister was critical on local media as it is continuing to publish commentaries saying, Bangladesh also needs an "Anna Hazare" to begin crusade against corruption. He said, "Why the media were looking for an Anna Hazare in Bangladesh? Has corruption gobbled up the whole country?"

Accusing Bangladeshi intelligence agencies:

Another senior leader of the ruling party, Suranjit Sen Gupta said, "Bangladesh's military intelligence [DGFI] and non-military intelligence agency [NSI] jointly conspired to assassin Sheikh Hasina."

It may be mentioned here that, Suranjit Sen Gupta joined the military controlled caretaker government's attempt in ousting Sheikh Hasina and BNP leader Khaleda Zia from politics. Later the matter was disclosed in public and Suranjit was termed as one of the members of anti-democracy gang named RATS [Razzak, Amu, Tofael and Suranjit].

Statements of both the ministers are surely worrisome. Suranjit Sen Gupta has, for the first time, publicly accused the defense intelligence agency and national security intelligence agency in Bangladesh as, conspirators of assassinating the present Prime Minister. Through this statement he in other words has clearly labeled both the agencies as enemies of democracy. When a senior politician and a lawmaker of the ruling party make such comments, people may raise questions about the hidden intention or agenda of this politician. By pronouncing these words, Suranjit Sen Gupta clearly left the signal of total distrust of Bangladesh Awami League on country's armed forces and intelligence agencies. No where in the world, a politician or ruling party law maker could ever make such seditious comment against country's own armed forces and intelligence agencies. But, Suranjit Sen Gupta did. And people are aware of his "international connections". Does this statement of Mr. Gupta signal that, government of Bangladesh Awami League is now going to down-size army's power significantly, or even may wrap up these intelligence agencies? Through this comment, Mr. Suranjit Sen Gupta has surely labeled Bangladesh army and the intelligence agencies as "conspirators and betrayers".

The mysterious Syed Hassan Imam:

During this meeting, where Syed Ashraful Islam and Suranjit Sen Gupta passed these remarks, an interesting character was also present. His name is Syed Hassan Imam, who fled to India right after the Udichi bomb blast, which killed large number of people. It may be mentioned here that, Syed Hassan Imam, who also was present at the function of Udichi, where the bomb exploded, left the spot hurriedly minutes before the blast, after he received a phone call. It was suspected by intelligence agencies that, Syed Hassan Imam was one of the conspirators behind this crime. When his name started appearing in Bangladeshi media, as abettor of Udichi bomb blast as well as Ramna batamul bomb blast, Syed Hassan Imam fled to India even though at that time, Bangladesh Awami League was in power. He was on exile in India for consecutive few years, as in 2001 Bangladesh Nationalist Party formed the government. This man came back to Bangladesh for two weeks in 2006, when Bangladesh Nationalist Party handed over power to caretaker government, and disappeared [went back to India possibly] from the scene again, when military controlled caretaker government grabbed power. The very presence of Syed Hassan Imam in the meeting, where two of the senior members of the ruling party made extremely questionable comments is a mystery.

Allegation of the Prime Minister:

On numerous occasions, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has alleged that military controlled caretaker government tried to poison her number of times, when she was in custody on corruption charges. It may be mentioned here that, the caretaker government was indirectly under the command of General Moeen U Ahmed, who was using Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed as a mere con to run the show of the caretaker government. Everyone in Bangladesh and abroad were aware, General Moeen U Ahmed was actually controlling the caretaker government of Dr. Fakhruddin.

As the Prime Minister of Bangladesh has categorically brought the allegation of attempts by the caretaker government of poisoning her, it is still a huge mystery as to why the ruling party or state machinery has not taken any legal measures against General Moeen U Ahmed and others in the caretaker government for alleged "assassination attempt of Sheikh Hasina."

It was rumored that, Bangladesh Awami League was set in power by General Moeen U Ahmed and his team, through an "engineered election". Though such claims were seriously lacking any solid base [except few examples of irregularities during the election, where ballot papers with pre-stamping on the symbol of Awami League were found in a number of places in the country], Awami League or Sheikh Hasina's reluctance in lodging formal complaint against General Moeen U Ahmed and others in the caretaker government, for their heinous attempt of poisoning Sheikh Hasina [who now is the prime minister] is a big mystery. Such reluctance of Awami League and Sheikh Hasina, may wrongly interpret as their underhand understanding with General Moeen and his gang.

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1682/assassinating-sheikh-hasina-and-accusing-army




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