Bangladesh News and Discussion

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brihaspati
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by brihaspati »

svenkat ji,
although perhaps OT - studying KL and BD comparatively is necessary. Both have certain common tendencies that should be studied together and comparatively. Mistakes made in one and consequences - will follow closely that in the other.
ramana
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

There was a report on NPR on garment bsuiness in Bangla Desh and how it affects the world garment industry; mfg and consumers.

Apparently BD's cost for labor and profit are $0.50 per $2.00 Tee shirt.
The raw material costs are $1.50.
The non-material costs are lowest in the world.

LINK
Philip
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by Philip »

BD is the next Afghanistan if pro-India Hasina loses.The US asininely,is pouring vast sums to oust her and bring back the BNP. The BNP has a pathological hatred for India,steeped in a pro-Paki mindset and we will find on our eastern borders the same terror activities that we face in the west,only this time in the highly sensitive N-East,where the PRC is doing everything to undermine its stability and cut it off from India in a future spat. Here BD is its planned future partner in crime in the east as Pak is in the west.
devesh
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by devesh »

http://post.jagran.com/bjp-asks-banglad ... 1386314731

BJP asks Bangladesh to stop atrocities on minority Hindus
A seven-member delegation of the BJP from West Bengal, including its president Rahul Sinha, met Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner Abida Islam and submitted a memorandum.

"The information we are getting from Bangladesh speak of attacks on the minority Hindus there. Along with the Hindus we are also receiving information about attacks on Christians and Buddhists," the memorandum said.

Alleging that the ‘atrocities on minorities in Bangladesh have taken an alarming proportion since last month’, it said, "We respect Bangladesh's sovereignty but we are failing to understand why your country is not stopping them? We have nothing to do with the political violence in that country, but that should not take a communal turn", Sinha said.

"We are also pressuring the India government so that the matter is taken up at a diplomatic level," it said.

Party leaders, including Tathagata Roy, a former state BJP chief, also staged a sit-in demonstration on College Street in the central part of the city over the issue.

Sinha later said, "We will wait for one month and if there is no improvement, we will take up a 'Bangladesh Chalo' movement."
kish
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by kish »

Riots in Singapore. Seems like Bangladeshi laborers are showing their riot culture in little India, singapore. What these migrant bangladeshi laborers don't know is, singapore is no India/bangladesh. They cannot get away easily. 'Strikes' in general is a punishable crime. Even an unintentional destruction of public property will attract heavy fines, if not reported to police immediately.

Earlier this year, SMRT Bus drivers (immigrants from china & Philippines) where just holding placards to resolve their Pay issues. some of them served jail sentence for inciting strikes. Rest of the immigrant drivers contracts were cancelled and deported to their respective countries.

Busloads of riot police respond to rioting mob in the heart of Little India
The Straits Times understands that a Bangladeshi worker was hit by a bus earlier and first responders were believed to be attending to the victim when the riot started.

At least two vehicles were set on fire. According to preliminary reports from the ground, one of the vehicles that was on fire is an ambulance. A few police cars were overturned and one was set on fire.

There were at least two explosions at the scene involving these vehicles. Police have cordoned Race Course Road, as they try to contain the situation. A section of the shops along Buffalo Road have been ordered to shutter.
kish
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by kish »

I see an Indian name in the arbitral tribunal members, can it have a positive impact for India. :D

Bangladesh-India maritime dispute in Hague court


India is presenting its arguments before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague, Netherlands, in a case of maritime dispute with Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal.

Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati is leading the Indian delegation. The oral hearings are being held Dec 9-18 on the issue of delimitation of maritime boundary between India and Bangladesh.

On Oct 8, 2009, Bangladesh instituted arbitral proceedings concerning the delimitation of the maritime boundary between it and India under the United Nations Convention on Law of Sea (UNCLOS).

Bangladesh had filed an arbitration case with Myanmar over their maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal at International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg, which issued an award in March 2012 favouring Bangladesh.

The arbitral tribunal members are Prof Rüdiger Wolfrum (president), Judge Thomas A Mensah, Pemmaraju Sreenivasa Rao, Prof Ivan Shearer, and Judge Jean-Pierre Cot.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmud Ali, former foreign minister Dipu Moni and Foreign Secretary M. Shahidul Haque are part of the Bangladesh team.

The arbitration court is expected to deliver its judgment next year.
brihaspati
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by brihaspati »

^^^Unlikely. Under the current system - whether in desh or out - the person would not be allowed to hold significant decionsmaking positions, unless he or she can be ensured to be "secular", which translates to leaning over in positive discrimination towards the onlee two victim minorities of the world. Since BD is a majority of one of the two minorities, there will be immense pressures to be affirmatively active in BD's favour. As an Indian, it will be a national shame not to bend over backwards to prove secular credentials in such a way. That is my expectation, and not any model or actual aspersion on the person concerned. He may or may not do so.
devesh
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by devesh »

http://kafila.org/2013/03/13/the-jamaat ... ti-rehman/

The Jamaat factor in Bangladesh politics: Jyoti Rehman
This is a guest post by Bangladeshi commentator JYOTI REHMAN: Delwar Hossain Sayedee, an Islamic preacher and a senior leader of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, the country’s largest Islam-pasand party, was sentenced to death on 28 February for war crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation War. Within hours, Jamaat cadres and activists clashed violently with police and law enforcement agencies. Scores have been killed in some of the worst political violence the country has experienced in recent years.

Five other senior Jamaat leaders, including its current and former chiefs, are being prosecuted for war crimes committed in 1971. Another leader was sentenced to life imprisonment on 5 February. That sentence triggered what has come to be called the Shahbag Awakening—a month of largely peaceful gathering of tens of thousands of people in the middle of Dhaka. A key demand of the largely government-supported Awakening is to ban Jamaat.

Will the Jamaat be banned? The ruling Awami League has a three-fourths majority in parliament, while the Jamaat is a key ally of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party. A general election is expected before the year is over. So there are complex political calculations involved. Meanwhile, even if the party survives, how will it perform if its top leaders are convicted (and possibly executed) for war crimes?

A history of violence

Maulana Abul Ala Maududi, an Islamic scholar from Hyderabad, founded the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind in 1941. The Islamic revivalist organisation opposed the Partition of India as it would leave Indian Muslims divided. Further, Maududi considered MA Jinnah and other Muslim League leaders to be insufficiently Islamic in their personal lives. Nonetheless, when Pakistan came into existence, Maududi moved his party to Lahore to help create an Islamic state, where the party would be the sole arbiter of what counts as Islamic.

Eschewing mass politics, and rejecting western-style electoral, representative democracy as anything more than a means to an end, the Jamaat’s strategy — in both Pakistan and Bangladesh — has been one of ‘infiltration’: putting party faithfuls in key positions in state institutions, gain a foothold in key non-state sectors, and then use the ‘infiltrated’ to attain state power through a successful putsch when the time is right.

Like many other revolutionary parties of both left and right, the Jamaat is not shy about deploying violence to upset existing political order and advance its agenda. For example, Maududi instigated anti-Ahmadiyya violence in 1953, which led to the imposition of martial law in Lahore. Martial law authorities sentenced him to death, but the sentence was commuted because of public pressure.

The Jamaat’s student wing, Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) / Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS) played an active role in the popular uprisings that toppled Field Marshal Ayub Khan‘s regime in 1969. Pakistan held its first democratic election 1970. The story of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s victory on the issue of maximum autonomy for East Pakistan, to the liberation of Dhaka from Pakistani occupation on 16 December 1971, is relatively well known. The role of the Jamaat in 1970 and 1971 is perhaps less so.

The Jamaat emerged as the second largest party in East Pakistan, winning 4-6% of votes, and one seat in the 300-member provincial assembly (against AL’s sweeping over 70% votes tally and 288 seats). After the bloodbath of March-April 1971, the Jamaat’s expectation was that the army would militarily defeat the Mukti Bahini resistance quite comfortably, but would find it hard to fill the political vacuum created by the elimination of the Awami League. It expected to fill that vacuum. Ghulam Azam, its East Pakistan chief, emerged as a key pro-Pakistan politician during the war. Members of IJT/ICS formed the nucleus of pro-Pakistan militias set up by the army. Matiur Rahman Nizami, head of the East Pakistan IJT/ICS, led a particularly fierce group called the Al Badr whose death squads are alleged to have killed several prominent progressive intellectuals and activists during the war.

Of course, Pakistan lost the war.

The Jamaat faced considerable difficulty in the new country. Even before the war was over, the provisional government of Bangladesh banned religion-based political parties. The prohibition was retained in the constitution that came into effect in December 1972. After the liberation of Dhaka, some of its leaders, including Azam, escaped to Pakistan, the Gulf and the United Kingdom. Others went into hiding. Azam tried to lead a movement to “recover East Pakistan”, which fizzled out when Pakistani prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto received Mujib in Lahore for the 1974 Organization of Islamic Countries summit.

At the local level, party members abstained from direct political activities, concentrating on social work instead. These efforts were co-ordinated by Maolana Abdur Rahim, a senior leader of the provincial party before 1971, who returned to Dhaka in 1974.

Jamaat reloaded

Bangladesh politics was jolted in 1975. Responding to economic dislocation and political instability caused by the war and natural disasters, Mujib imposed a draconian one-party rule, and then was killed in a military coup in August of the same year. This was followed by several counter-coups and mutinies, until Major General Ziaur Rahman emerged as the country’s de facto ruler.

Zia gradually reintroduced electoral politics, and lifted bans on all parties, including the religion-based ones. However, the Jamaat remained prohibited because the Election Commission was not convinced of the party’s commitment to Bangladesh’s sovereignty. Nonetheless, six of its members were elected to the 300-member assembly under the banner of the Islamic Democratic League. Azam returned to Bangladesh on a Pakistan passport around this time (his citizenship was revoked by the Bangladesh government in 1973). The IJT/ICS was also re-launched under the name of Islami Chhatra Shibir. The Jamaat formally started operating under its own name in 1982 after Lt. Gen HM Ershad assumed power in a coup.

From then on, the Jamaat has sought to regain the legitimacy it lost because of its violent opposition to the country’s creation.

After several round of internal debates, the party entered electoral politics in the 1980s. It had made tactical alliance with each major political actor in the country in the decades since. It participated in the parliamentary election of 1986, held under martial law, with the Awami League, even though all opposition parties had previously promised to boycott it. In 1990, the Jamaat joined the AL, BNP and the leftists in an urban uprising that toppled the Ershad regime. In 1991, BNP formed a government with the Jamaat’s support. By the mid-1990s, the Jamaat had once again allied with the AL in street protests against the BNP government. It reconciled with BNP ahead of the parliamentary election of 2001. The electoral alliance formed then has survived the intervening years.

Parliamentary activities notwithstanding, the party retains its infiltration strategy. This was pursued most vigorously between 2001 and 2006. When the BNP led alliance (of which the Jamaat was a key partner) won the 2001 election, the Jamaat demanded two things. First, they wanted a suitable official post for the former Al Badr chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, who had been the party’s parliamentary head in the early 1990s, and had replaced Azam as the party chief by the end of the decade. (The Jamaat is the only major party in Bangladesh where leaders retire for fresh faces.) Second, the party’s number two, Ali Ahsan Mujahid (who was not an MP), had to be made the minister of social welfare. The social welfare ministry was chosen because it was responsible for the country’s massive NGO sector and sociocultural organizations throughout the country. In 1971, the Jamaat had targeted progressive voices with violence. Between 2001-2006, it made things difficult for progressive activities, while generously supporting Islamic institutions that adhered to its interpretation of the religion.

In the quarter century since the party’s relaunch, the Jamaat has made considerable inroads in several non-state sectors as well. Islami Bank, whose management is affiliated with the Jamaat, has become the third largest bank in the country. Jamaat-supported hospitals and coaching centres provide affordable health care and education to urban, working and the lower middle classes. The party has particularly strong financial ties with countries in the Gulf, which helps with these enterprises. Funding and ideological support also comes from the radical Islamic discourse among the diaspora Bangladeshi community in the UK.

The above do not, however, imply that the Jamaat abandoned violence. Quite the contrary. Instead of aiming to become a nationwide mass party, it remained focused on 50 or so seats bordering India. In the Jamaat’s assessment of 1971, Indian intervention was about stopping the Jamaat from coming to power. Thus, according to party literature, the logic behind its geographic concentration is that in the event of another Indian intervention to thwart a Jamaat-led government, these areas will become centers of resistance. Consistent with that strategy, the Islami Chhatra Shibir sought to gain control of two large universities in Chittagong and Rajshahi. They were largely successful in the effort during the 1980s, by using brutality usually not matched by student wings of other parties.

Calculus of consent

By the beginning of the 1990s, the Jamaat appeared to have been successful in its quest for legitimacy. When President Ershad was forced to resign in December 1990 after several weeks of protests by university students, the then party chief Abbas Ali Khan appeared on national TV with the leaders of AL, BNP and a leftist alliance to appeal for public calm and national unity. In the election held two months later, the Jamaat achieved its best showing ever:

Election
%age of votes

No. of seats (of 300)

1970*
6

1

1979**
4

6

1986
5

10

1991
12

18

1996
8

3

2001***
4

17

2008***
4

2


(Note: *Provincial assembly, Jamaat failed to win any of 162 East Pakistan seats in the national assembly. **As Islamic Democratic League. ***In alliance with BNP.)

Why did the other parties consent to Jamaat’s legitimacy?

For Ershad, the answer was his own legitimacy, or lack thereof. Sheikh

Mujib was heralded as the country’s founding father. The post-1975 strongman Zia derived his legitimacy at least partly from being a war hero (as a major in Pakistan army, he made an iconic radio speech from Chittagong at the beginning of the Liberation War). In contrast, Ershad was seen as an ambitious general who usurped power illegally. The Jamaat helped him by participating in the election that gave his coup a constitutional cover.

Neither of the two larger parties — AL, led by Mujib’s daughter Hasina Wajed since 1981, and BNP, led by Zia’s widow Khaleda Zia since 1983 — faced a legitimacy problem. Their deficit was elsewhere: they have never trusted each other (the reasons for which are a subject of another essay). Coming out of the 1991 election, where both parties got less than a third of votes (but because of the vagaries of first-past-the-post electoral system, BNP got 140 seats against AL’s 92), the Jamaat emerged as a potential kingmaker.

In a groundbreaking 2000 analysis of previous election results, the political strategist Nazim Kamran Choudhury showed that if BNP, the Jamaat and other right-wing parties were to enter into an electoral alliance, AL would suffer a massive defeat. That analysis was the basis of the BNP-Jamaat alliance, which won 45% of votes and 217 seats against AL’s 40% vote and 62 seats in the 2001 election.

There was, however, more than just electoral calculations to Jamaat’s appeal. In fact, voting arithmetic by itself might have hampered a BNP-Jamaat alliance. In 12 of the 18 seats won by the party in 1991, the BNP came in second. Meanwhile, in the urban seats around Dhaka that usually swings in every election, the Jamaat’s support is virtually non-existent. What it lacked in terms of voting power, however, the party more than made up for through street prowess. By the late 1990s, the Jamaat boasted of the largest and most ideologically motivated cadre base of any party in Bangladesh. Election campaigns in Bangladesh, as elsewhere in South Asia, are feisty affairs, and the utility of its cadre force is self-evident.

By the mid-2000s, the Jamaat appeared to outshine its larger alliance partner. While the BNP was mired in corruption scandals, the Jamaat was seen as relatively clean, and consistent with its mantra: Allah’s law and honest men’s rule. After the quasi-coup of January 2007, the BNP seemed to be in disarray, and many expected Jamaat to emerge as the main alternative to the AL. But, its role in 1971 continued to shackle the party.

While Azam played down 1971 — evading answers or shifting the discussion whenever the war and the party’s role in it was raised — the newer leaders made a series of confrontational statements in October 2007 that tried to rewrite the history of 1971, erasing any allegation of war crimes, or even denying the very fact of the war or any atrocity.

This provoked a backlash, and the demand for trials of its leaders (and a few individuals in other parties) on war crimes charges gathered momentum.

Crime and punishment

This was not the first time that a citizens’ movement demanded that alleged war criminals of 1971 are brought to justice. While the immediate post-war years might have been the best time to hold to account those who committed war crimes, the 1970s was a decade of death and deluge for Bangladesh, and successive governments were overpowered with existential crises to hold any trial. And yet, there has always been strong social antipathy towards alleged war criminals. Ghulam Azam, for example, faced shoes and sandals at the national mosque in 1981.

When President Ershad appointed two alleged war criminals — Maolana Abdul Mannan, now deceased, and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, now being prosecuted — to his cabinet in the 1980s, a series of brave investigative journalism by Shahadat Chowdhury and Lt Col Quazi Nuruzzaman, both Mukti Bahini veterans, brought the horrendous crimes to light.

A citizens’ movement for war crimes trial started in the early 1990s, when the Jamaat emerged as a key force in politics and both major parties started courting Ghulam Azam’s blessings. The movement was led by Jahanara Imam, whose memoir about 1971, when she lost her son and husband, is considered to be one of the most vivid descriptions of life in occupied Dhaka.

In each of the above cases, the citizenry tried to hit back after the Jamaat had pushed the envelop just that much further. In each case, the citizens’ outburst fizzled out as major parties stayed put. Each case until 2008, that is.

In the lead up to the 2008 election, war crimes trial emerged as a key demand among urban, educated youth — an increasingly influential demographics. It’s hard to say exactly how crucial the war crimes trial issue was for the AL’s landslide victory in the election. Several opinion polls suggested that voters cared about the prices of essentials or law and order more than any other issue. However, these same polls also suggested that some form of trial had wide public support. Whereas BNP was in a formal electoral alliance with the Jamaat, the AL made war crimes trial a key election promise.

The AL government initiated war crimes trial proceedings in 2010. Several Jamaat leaders were arrested and charged, as were two BNP politicians, and most recently an AL member. Three men have been convicted so far. It was the sentencing of one of them that triggered the Shahbag Awakening.

Abdul Quader Mollah was found guilty of involvement in a massacre of several hundred villagers north of Dhaka. A death sentence was expected to follow the verdict. But this did not happen. Given the history of Jamaat striking backdoor deals and tacit alliances with other parties, Mollah’s sentence was greeted with much cynicism and anger. There was speculation of an AL-Jamaat détente whereby the Jamaat’s leaders’ lives were to be spared in return for Jamaat breaking its alliance with BNP.

It’s against that backdrop that the Shahbag Awakening began.

Whither Jamaat?

Unlike most other recent social media-driven urban protests around the world, the Shahbag Awakening has enjoyed full government backing. And yet, the Awami Leauge has shown little interest in banning the Jamaat-e-Islami. Electoral calculations are obviously at play. The feasibility of enforcing a ban is another key consideration. Experiences elsewhere — Turkey’s Islamist parties, Thaksin Sinawatra’s supporters in Turkey — suggest that following any ban, the Jamaat will simply resurface in another name.

Regardless of whether the party is formally banned, it has experienced severe restrictions on its ability to function as a political party under the current government. Its top tier leaders are in jail for alleged war crimes, and the second tier are in jail for opposing the war crimes trial process. Much of the third and fourth tier has gone underground to avoid arrest. Its grass-root meetings have been frequently disrupted by local administration.

Meanwhile, independent of the demand for trying alleged war criminals, the Jamaat has been affected by developments in Islam-pasand politics both locally and globally.

Maududi was not the only Islamic scholar calling for an Islamic renaissance in post-British India, nor was the Jamaat the only Islamic revivalist movement. In the Bangladeshi context, the Jamaat has been the largest and most organised political movement inspired by Islam. But the Deoband-inspired Tabligh Jamaat, a socio-religious and strictly apolitical organisation, has far more adherents. Then there are the qaumi madrassahs and various local pirs who consider Maududi’s interpretation of Islam as heresy.

The Jamaat has always faced competition from other Islamist parties and movements. Whereas it has successfully fended off such competition in the past, its ability to continue to do so is not assured.

Making things more complicated for the Jamaat are global developments. Unlike Islamist organisations in the Middle East, the Jamaat has no ‘resistance myth’ to rely on. There is no foreign military presence in Bangladesh, and the Jamaat has neither the need nor the inclination (recall, it has sought to regain legitimacy through the parliamentary path) for anti-western politics. This has, however, meant that more radical elements of the diaspora (and globalised Islamists at home) have found organisations like Hizbut Tahrir more attractive.

Faced with war crimes charges on the one hand and stiffer competition from newer Islamists on the other, the Jamaat has had significant internal debates recently.

One faction, led by what is understood as the business wing of the party (with significant financial connections in the Gulf), wants to reboot the party along the lines of the Turkish AKP. Mir Quasim Ali, a business tycoon, and Barrister Abdur Razzaq are often touted as potential leaders of such a revamped party. Crucially, Razzaq faces no war crimes allegation, and many younger members prefer not to be burdened with the legacy of 1971. Some speculate that the ruling AL condones, if not blesses, such a scenario. A revamped Jamaat would draw votes away from the BNP and benefit the AL. The idea has takers in the western (and Indian and Chinese) diplomatic missions too — they would much rather see a ‘mildly Islamist’ party engaged in parliamentary politics than a clandestine militant group.

However, the Shahbag Awakening has made any discernible AL overture to ‘moderate’ Jamaat leaders less likely. In addition to banning the Jamaat, the Awakening calls for social boycott and government actions against banks, businesses and social service providers linked with Jamaat. Since neither Ali nor Razzaq have any significant hold over the party machinery, without access to funds and patronage these businesses and NGOs provide, this faction will have little chance to win over their more hardline party colleagues. It is, in fact, quite possible that these ‘moderates’ will eventually gravitate towards, and strengthen, the BNP.

The hardline faction is led by former Chhatra Shibir men who saw the triumph of violence in university campuses in Chittagong and Rajshahi. They are inspired by various Arab uprisings, and dream of emulating them in Bangladesh. Since November, they have taken to coordinated violence across Dhaka and other cities.

It is unlikely that Bangladesh will experience anything remotely resembling developments in the Arab world. For one thing, Bangladesh has regular elections, where the incumbent is usually booted out. This provides a major outlet for anti-incumbent frustrations, and rule out a Syria-style civil war. Further, the Jamaat is simply not as popular as the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood or the Tunisian An-Nahda. A recent opinion poll in January pegged the Jamaat’s support at 1%.

Violent clashes between the Jamaat and law enforcement agencies may yet have unfortunate consequences for Bangladesh. After he was sentenced to death, a rumour circulated around the country that the convicted war criminal Delawar Hossain Sayedee’s face was visible, only to the faithful, on the moon. Failure to see it was indicative of either personal impiety or the Godless nature of the state and its ruling elite. Angered by the latter possibility, thousands attacked police stations and government buildings in the northern district of Bogra. The Army had to be deployed to pacify the crowd.

And therein lies the risk. Bangladesh has an unfortunate history of military interventions. Any political instability raises the risk of yet another coup. Indeed, Jamaat supporters have been openly calling for military intervention, with images like this being circulated through Facebook and other social media:

That said, one must not overstate the possibility of an army intervention, which has demonstrated utmost professionalism in recent years.

Further, the Jamaat does not have an unlimited capacity to instigate violence, which points to another potential source of instability. There are former Jamaat members who found the party too moderate when it was in government in the 2000s and too pusillanimous in opposition since. Some of them joined the Harkatul Jihad and the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh to pursue violent jihad in the mid-2000s. Both groups were effectively suppressed in 2006-2007. If the Jamaat disintegrates under pressure, some of its more radical elements may well return to the ways of the bomb.

The people who lead the Jamaat are all old men. Most of them are being tried for war crimes. Regardless of the way these trials end, these old men will not be with us for much longer. Their successors will have to make some major choices for the party, with major consequences for Bangladesh.
wig
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by wig »

Bangladesh 'hangs Islamist leader'
Bangladesh has executed the Islamist leader Abdul Kader Mullah, convicted of atrocities in the 1971 war of independence, according to reports.

Mullah had been scheduled to be hanged on Tuesday, before gaining a reprieve pending a last-minute appeal.

The Bangladeshi Supreme Court dismissed the appeal earlier on Thursday.

Mullah was a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, and his trial earlier in the year sparked protests from Jamaat supporters
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25356034
member_22872
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by member_22872 »

Ah, you beat me to it.

but, one more source:
Jamaat leader executed in Bangladesh for 1971 war crimes
Mollah sided with Pakistani troops during the war and gained notoriety for leading the infamous Al-Badr militia in the Dhaka suburb of Mirpur, where he had a role in slaughtering a large number of people, including women and children.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by Peregrine »

venug wrote:Ah, you beat me to it.

but, one more source:
Jamaat leader executed in Bangladesh for 1971 war crimes
Mollah sided with Pakistani troops during the war and gained notoriety for leading the infamous Al-Badr militia in the Dhaka suburb of Mirpur, where he had a role in slaughtering a large number of people, including women and children.
venug Ji :

I hope the Indian Government take a "Cue" from this Action by the Government of Bangladesh and treat the Indian Mujaheedin in the same way.

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member_22872
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by member_22872 »

Peregrine ji, I hope so too. Recent article about Akilesh Yadav is very troublesome. If this is our attitude towards IM, who can rescue us?
Peregrine
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by Peregrine »

venug wrote:Peregrine ji, I hope so too. Recent article about Akilesh Yadav is very troublesome. If this is our attitude towards IM, who can rescue us?
venug Ji :

What was the reaction of the UP or other Hindus when Mulla Mulayum started a Salary Scheme for the Masjid Maulvis? Did Mulla Mulayam also give such benefits to the Hindu Temple Pujaris?

As such only WE and OUR LEADERS can rescue us-ourselves!

How come A VAST NUMBER OF Hindu Leaders - Opinion Makers Demonized Modi for the Hindus of Gujarat reacting to the 60 or so Yaatris being burnt in the Railway Compartment?

All of them Demonize Modi for the Effect - None of them ever refer to the CAUSE!

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member_22872
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by member_22872 »

Peregrine ji, completely agree with you. The paradigm of governance must shift. I hope Modi is indeed the saviour we have been waiting for. Collective Indian intellectual slumber/indifference surprises me. Seems like they have their own personal agendas to fight for. When the whole nation is able to feel the decadence, I am surprised MSM too is not raising up to the occasion. There is a systemic paralysis, national interests don't seem to be any one's concern. If B'desh goes Pak way, we have a problem. Too many porous borders, Pak to the west, China to the north and now Pak pasand B'desh with Islamist take over of B'desh, Not to forget termites eating from within. we are making ourselves vulnerable.
brihaspati
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by brihaspati »

That guy's illustrious acts included raping a 11 year old girl and then overseeing her gangrape before her parents and then killing the parents in rather indescribable ways [typically consistent in imaginations in mullah led raids anywhere in the world.]

However, islamism at the society level always pulls "more weight" than their numbers - a la Cameron's similar claim about the British. I do find it ironic and a pity that the author of that article thinks Jamaast's strength is proportional to its numbers, that there is no wider islamist base than the vanguard, that other Islamic countries - especially the India-friendly ones will stop their own mullahcracy and dawa networks constant expansive reach to stop the spread and resourcing of the Jamaat in BD.

In a way, I welcome more of Jamaat's antics. It helps remove the mask from BD society. Any degree of Talibanization of BD is good for us. This taqyia using "Rabindrasangeet" and oh-so-secular seduction needs to be left at the roadside of the future trajectory.

I disagree that the army is neutral. There are other paramilitary state forces which would have even higher proportion of sympathizers.

Again, the Talibanization of BD will be de-facto helped by India, whether the state wishes or otherwise - since, the supply of material, resources, and "strategic depth" for BD islamists is provided by the Indian islamist networks. The latter in turn are untouchable, especially in the GV. So any pressure increasing in BD on them means they will escape in larger numbers to India, get their UP-Bihar [and well the southern states too now] birather's mullahs biryani support, obtain arms and money and training through the various international and national channels that exist in India to promote islam [especially now the Terai and nepal sector] and basically take GV in it entirety - extending into BD as target expansion zone.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by vishvak »

While Bangla Hindus were targeted for genocides, world leaders were fiddling thumbs, giving excuses to avoid any action.

In UNSC, there was no activity to stop the genocide. On contrary, there was diplomatic offensive against India when, after months of ongoing genocide, the Indian army stepped in to stop that.

Russia was the only country vetoing such totally unacceptable resolutions against India when all Indians did was to stop genocide.

USA also indulged in nuclear blackmail!

Now the leaders of genocide are being punished, the supporters of the paki genocide in UNSC who did nothing to stop it, and launched resolution against India, are performing miracle of radio silence.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by Philip »

Was talking recently to a veteran war correspondent who was embedded with Indian troops in '71.The atrocities he saw first hand against women by the Paki troops and cruelty and torture that they indulged in,were far worse he said than even the Nazi treatment of the Jews,etc. in WW2. Torturing 2 yr. old babies in front of their mothers,gang raping women in front of their husbands,sexual torture of women,etc,were commonplace.Over 400,000 women were raped by Paki troops.He personally saw at Jessore and Khulna camps the evidence of such acts of human dpravity.Hundreds of naked "comfort women" were rescude from these camps.Piles of naked corpses of sexually tortured wiomen were kept at crossroads as warnings to the locals.There is an industry/infrastructure still at work today trying to whitewash the Paki Bangladesh '71 war "holocaust" .Even that description is inadequate.

What is even more shameful is the attempt of the US who are actively involved in trying to bring back to power in BDesh,those very people who supported the Pakis ,assassinated Mujib,etc.with the BNP.As the veteran jwar correspondent commented,when the Pakis attacked India in '65,the British PM Harold Wilson kept mum about it,but when India retaliated miliatrily against Pak,it was described as naked aggression! The destabilisation of the nation is still going on,with the alleged fundigngof the AAP by the Ford Foundation to the tune of at least 4 crores.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by paramu »

vishvak wrote:
Now the leaders of genocide are being punished, the supporters of the paki genocide in UNSC who did nothing to stop it, and launched resolution against India, are performing miracle of radio silence.
They are promoting international human rights organization and other related NGOs in the world.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by nvishal »

Looking at the events of the past week in bangladesh, I have to say, the islamists hold on that country is very strong.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by svenkat »


The arbitral tribunal members are Prof Rüdiger Wolfrum (president), Judge Thomas A Mensah, Pemmaraju Sreenivasa Rao, Prof Ivan Shearer, and Judge Jean-Pierre Cot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemmaraju_Sreenivasa_Rao
Pemmaraju Sreenivasa Rao (born in 1942 in Andhra Pradesh, India) also known as Sreenivasa Rao Pemmaraju or Dr. P.S Rao , is a distinguished Indian international lawyer that headed the Legal and Treaties Division, Ministry of External Affairs, India, and was the chief legal advisor of India on international law matters from 1985 to 2002.

He is also a Member of Bangladesh-India Maritime Arbitration Tribunal since 2010
http://www.ndc.gov.bd/elibrary/webroot/earticle/943/Our_next_step_to_claim_the_bay_of_Bengal.pdf
On 8th October 2009, Bangladesh initiated arbitration proceedings against India. In
February, 2010, the President of the Tribunal appointed three arbitrators—- Prof.Tullio
Treves of Italy, Prof. I.A. Shearer of Australia and Prof. Rudigar Wolfrum of Germany.
The President of the Arbitration is Professor Wolfrum.
Besides the three arbitrators, Bangladesh nominated former ITLOS Judge Thomas
Mensah from Ghana and India’s nominee is Dr. Pemmaraju Sreenivasa Rao, former Legal
Adviser to the Ministry of External affairs.
Thomas Mensah has some connections with Britain.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by brihaspati »

^^^I hope you realize, that even if he is India's nominee - he might be under pressures from India itself, not to be too "harsh" with BD over this.

There are two arguments that are typically used : both vehemently denied publicly -

(a) any perceived "harshness" on BD demands from India will be seen and propagandized by BD islamists as proof of Indian==Hindu aggression, and this in turn will be seen by Indian islamists as anti-Islam and in turn may affect electoral outcomes. Do note that GOI quickly buckled - with the then Cabinet member and now Honbl President being the key face of ensuring expulsion of Tasleema Nasreen after rioting [which again was allowed to proceed without much retaliation by the state] in India against her supposed anti-Islamic activities in BD.

(b) any concessions not given to AL gov, will "weaken" the supposed onlee India-friendly and "secular" force in BD.

The INC was not at all happy with MB of WB for stalling the Teesta giveaway.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by SRoy »

^^
Bji,

Perception matters if gratitude is reciprocated.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by svenkat »

Bji,
My post had NO motive than making a correction about citizenship of P.Sreenivasa Rao and posting some information about the judge from Ghana.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by brihaspati »

SRoy ji,

Yes, thats true. But when has ever BD reciprocated? Its one way street.

The INC reactions have been possibly driven by a combination of factors :
(1) continued British influence in restraining action on subcontinental Islam
(2) INC perception of their power being dependent on eliminating non-dynastic alternative mobilization centres - in this case the majority identity affiliation. Hence the importance of preserving islamism both within and on the two neighbours.
(3) Preserving BD-East Pak as a separate entity not potentially merging with India - since this much loved, much contributing community is after all not to be allowed with uncomfortable proximity. Partition of politically competing Punjabi and Bengali's were as necessary to INC centre as it was for Jinnah.

Its islamic institutional and network influence based on the upper GV framework - and the roots of the INC Allahabad grouping's alliances with the old Lucknow and wider western UP mullah network. Indian perceptions with INC leadership has always been guided by the extremely narrow Sultanate-Mughal period politics of that particular zone as mediated by the brits.

Its going to continue for some time even regime changes overtly. At least as far as BD is concerned. BD is always going to play a secondary and supportive role onlee in these policymakers eyes - to their primary obsession about Pak and Kashmir Valley. So they will concede as much as feasible without thinking of long-term consequences even for the eastern extent of India - since these are regions which are far from Delhi and potentially tradeable for advantages closer to "home" - that is central power symbolically represented by Delhi.

Then of course the large shadow of islamism in GV - soooo electorally crucial.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by brihaspati »

svenkat wrote:Bji,
My post had NO motive than making a correction about citizenship of P.Sreenivasa Rao and posting some information about the judge from Ghana.
I did not imply anything about his citizenship. As far as I remembered - he was an Indian by citizenship in the past, and hence I wrote in my post "as an Indian". I did not say anything explicitly about this aspect, because he could have changed his citizenship meanwhile [in the last 5 years since I came across his name and role].

The judge from Ghana would be a more interesting case study had you pursued. If you care to fish out more about him you will see more than mere connections with the UK. :P
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by SRoy »

brihaspati wrote:SRoy ji,

Yes, thats true. But when has ever BD reciprocated? Its one way street.
Exactly. This is why it does not matter if the verdict is not favor of BD. If they feel cheated, so it be.
brihaspati wrote: The INC reactions have been possibly driven by a combination of factors :
(1) continued British influence in restraining action on subcontinental Islam
(2) INC perception of their power being dependent on eliminating non-dynastic alternative mobilization centres - in this case the majority identity affiliation. Hence the importance of preserving islamism both within and on the two neighbours.
(3) Preserving BD-East Pak as a separate entity not potentially merging with India - since this much loved, much contributing community is after all not to be allowed with uncomfortable proximity. Partition of politically competing Punjabi and Bengali's were as necessary to INC centre as it was for Jinnah.

Its islamic institutional and network influence based on the upper GV framework - and the roots of the INC Allahabad grouping's alliances with the old Lucknow and wider western UP mullah network. Indian perceptions with INC leadership has always been guided by the extremely narrow Sultanate-Mughal period politics of that particular zone as mediated by the brits.

Its going to continue for some time even regime changes overtly. At least as far as BD is concerned. BD is always going to play a secondary and supportive role onlee in these policymakers eyes - to their primary obsession about Pak and Kashmir Valley. So they will concede as much as feasible without thinking of long-term consequences even for the eastern extent of India - since these are regions which are far from Delhi and potentially tradeable for advantages closer to "home" - that is central power symbolically represented by Delhi.

Then of course the large shadow of islamism in GV - soooo electorally crucial.
Not a shadow anymore. It has manifested in physical form.

However, I'm not inclined to be so pessimistic as you. I wanted to write a long post (and do so later).
Please ponder over the following factors.

1. Changing national boundaries by sheer demography. Those days are gone. Its better Islamists and INC realize this. Kashmir is a test case.

2. External Jihadi funding - this will remain a problem. But a nationalistic government can tackle this (more on this later).

3. Native consolidation. Its a matter of time. In fact, in many places it has started, initially as support groups/defensive posture against Islamists. Have to see how it takes to translate into political consolidations. I see this happening in WB, never imagined this even 5 years ago.
Your prediction that WB will turn right after collapse of communism, may not be far off the mark. But I think you were betting on wrong people. The consolidation is happening in countryside, instead of the class of people that we were hoping would take the lead.
Similar to USSR, WB is going through the Gorbachev -> Yeltsin -> Putin stages. While we cannot bet on future, there are two variables. One is how long the Yeltsin phase will last. Second, a final Putin phase will require a rightist government at the center (they have to occur at the same time).

UP and Bihar already have means to mobilization in place.

4. We have to consider demography. We have come out of an important decade. Fertility rates have fallen. Everywhere. Including Islamic block. Major MEA nations, Iran, Turkey, Indonesia, BD have registered declining fertility rates. I'm not sure of BD, whether this is a genuine decline or due to push towards India, but some like Iran, Turkey and UAE have registered figures below the replacement rate of 2.1%.
India too have registered similar trends as per 2011 census. However, the catch in case of India is that differential fertility is in favor of Muslims.

Additionally urbanization (very rapid in last 10 years) impacts flow of information, makes it difficult to carry out large scale intimidation tactics, impacts family sizes. This impacts every community.

15-20 years from now Islamic world (except Indian parts and Pak) will be running short of military age male population. What will be the political impact? Financial impact? Will these countries still be able to fund Jihadis with the same scale or will be forced to spend on an aging population and costly foreign work force (direct impact on purse strings of Mullahs)? What is then impact on Mullahs in sub-continents that depends on these handouts to spread terror?

I believe we are going to see regular rioting in GV belt, which will result in even more consolidation spiral. Every Mullah fears this.

One should not be so surprised that Islamist's have shown their hands in places wherever they have 20%-30% mark. Not willing to wait till they get majority figures.

Islamist are aware of the numbers, despite all bluff and bluster this their last demographic surge.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by brihaspati »

SRoy ji,

no, I don't think I was wrong in as to who will take the crucial leadership focus transition. If you have noted, its the border-frontier villages/countryside where the turnaround is taking place. My ears and eyes report that its still far far from that in the interior. They are merrily bashing and surviving within the false flag criminal exchanges ["swingers/switchers"] between commies, trina and cong. Islamics are playing on all three sides in the interior, so a large portion of the rural folks are sort of paralyzed to do anything about it.

Cities- especially the smaller town centres connected to the arterial routes to major cities are the bridges and nerve centres where the foundational lower level of leadership forms. Then it is a matter if the clever strategists in the upcoming generations in the cities who have the arrogance and confidence to think hey can change time - will take a sniff and give the ruthless touch needed to convert popular resentment into effective action.

Its the same old story. Just let us not draw too much attention to it.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by cdbatra »

It would be interesting to have post directly from BD Hindus as to what the situation is there at the ground.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by Lilo »

^ Refer South Bengal Herald about the state of Hindus in South West Bengal swamped with BD illegals. Then extrapolate their state in BD itself.

southbengalherald.blogspot.com
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by brihaspati »

The BD Hindu leadership is split along typical survival mode politics. In fact a larger number of hindus are prominent in the BNP at upper levels compared to that in AL. Ershad's closest aide is a Hindu.

So while the lower level Hindu is usually half or quarter prepared always to seek sanctuary in India, the upper level might indulge in lots of formal denial of the state of affairs. This would be the level whose voices get represented in the media or articles or opinion pieces.

The mullahs and the feudal land-grabbing tendencies encouraged by the theology's obsession with agricultural and more primitive forms of economy that allows preventing the populace getting too "modernized" ideologically - between themselves have managed to keep BD society in its grip, in spite of urban glitter and pretensions of science and modernization. Within that society, its a systematic framework to corner, poach on, marginalize, and absorb - the non-Muslim into the mullah domination framework. The state, the army, the admin, the media, the ideological framework - all is geared towards this state form of jihad.

BD mullahcracy is more insidious because the state, through its literature and language has been forced to acknowledge continuity with its pre-Muslim Hindu roots. This Hindu foundation is a double edged sword, since it can be used to pretend secular and Hindu-tolerant image to neutralize any internal pressure within India to come to the rescue of BD Hindus. That in turn suits the upper GV Hindu-Muslim alliance that sees demoting the Hindu as an identity beyond narrow dynastic control in wider India as a crucial factor to dominate Indian politics.

The persecution of the Hindu in BD is a result of a tacit collaboration between the Congress style of regional alliance with islamism to dominate India, closer identification with Punjab-UP than Bengal, and the mullahcracy dominated societal foundations of BD together with the Islamic teaching about all non-Muslim land, property and women as fair game for muslims.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by Supratik »

We know what the problems are. We need to think of solutions.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by Shanmukh »

I am not an expert on this matter, but what are the chances of an Israel style right of return for Bangladeshi Indics, while expelling illegal Bangladeshi Islamist infiltrators?
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by Supratik »

I can see three solutions

1) status quo with improvements on both sides,

failing which

2) homeland/enclaves within Bdesh forcibly
3) exchange of population forcibly
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by brihaspati »

Solution primarily lies with India. India will need state attitudes and agenda change - and not mere regime changes - NDA will not be that far off from UPA even if it wants to where BD is concerned relative to the western frontier.

India as a state will have to make destruction of mullahcracy and its institutional foundations all over the subcontinent as a long term state agenda. This goes hand in hand with not just economic muscle but projection of military power, and they have to go simultaneously and not by the warm and woozy theory of economics first and forever and military coming up in the vague and distant future after gazillions of prosperity.

Thirdly, leaving the neighbours run amok has not paid off as a policy, and hence these territories need unification under a common sovereignty. Only then can all the outside help and shenanigans that mullahcracy or their instantaneous allies from liberals/left/imperialists manage to throw at us - be dealt withe effectively and properly.

For a start we can do with Pindi upto Swat borders, and a corridor to the sea from NE.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by RoyG »

The problem is how to slowly bring the jihadi population under dharmic influence and how to stop them from subscribing to Sufism, Christianity, etc.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by Supratik »

I think the NDA will be better than UPA as the INC has deep connections with sections of the Bd establishment and will not take action. Besides they will worry about the domestic Muslim vote bank. A third possibility is that frustrated non-state actors take matters into their own hands as is happening in Bodo areas.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by Prem »

brihaspati wrote:BD mullahcracy is more insidious because the state, through its literature and language has been forced to acknowledge continuity with its pre-Muslim Hindu roots. This Hindu foundation is a double edged sword, since it can be used to pretend secular and Hindu-tolerant image to neutralize any internal pressure within India to come to the rescue of BD Hindus. That in turn suits the upper GV Hindu-Muslim alliance that sees demoting the Hindu as an identity beyond narrow dynastic control in wider India as a crucial factor to dominate Indian politics.
Last ten years under UPA Mouse have undermined any capability to do this. The set back has taken us back at least least 15 years.Damage is already done, Indians should prepare for half civil war now and if remain on course full civil war in 20 years.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by Lalmohan »

apologies if posted before
Bangladesh war crimes trial: Key accused

catalogue of war criminals

but the real criminals wearing khaki have got away with it scott free
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by brihaspati »

Jhujar ji,

MB from WB has hit back at the raising of the border agreement bill again at the Parliament. She has correctly pointed out the impact will be not onlee on WB, but also the other border states of Assam, Tripura and the entire NE states belt.

All the points of argument that I raised before, will now be bandied about.

Lalmohan ji,

the fact that most of the uniformed ones got away, is blamed on India having agreed to smoothly handover the Paki POW's to Pakiland without any provision for trials etc. Even if some agreement on war-crimes trials had been included in the treaty, it would have been unimplementable once the Paki pows had been allowed to go back to pakiland. They would be flaunting around with full Paki judiciary and state support like Hafeez.

The tactical short term brilliance paid for the strategic loss in the long run. Along with not - bargaining for NA and Chittagong, creating a new state on which Islamists will have an alternate home, not keeping the pows on BD soil for war-crimes trials, and insisting on getting Indian pows back entirely - meant infinite troubles now for the future.
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Re: Bangladesh News and Discussion

Post by Lalmohan »

i dont think IG had any other option - the nixon/kissinger combo had pretty much limited what she could and could not do after the victory in terms of global opinion and room for political manouevre. globally she was boxed in to a purely liberation war for e-pak/bdesh. nothing else would be allowed - the soviets also would not have stood by our side much longer, since bigger issues were at stake - and the US and USSR did not particularly want to go to war with each other for the sake of a 'few billion goddamn dirty brownies'

we need to understand these constraints better
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