Bharat Rakshak

DHAKA: Bangladesh's parliament on Sunday amended a law to allow the prosecution of the country's largest Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami for war crimes, in a move that could pave the way to it being banned.

News of the move was greeted by loud cheers from thousands of protesters in central Dhaka who have been demanding a ban on Jamaat, whose leaders are on trial for war crimes allegedly committed in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

Law minister Shafique Ahmed told AFP that under the new law "any organization including Jamaat can be prosecuted" by a special court for war crimes and if found guilty "it can be banned" from politics.

Previously only individuals could be prosecuted for war crimes.

"It's one step towards banning Jamaat," deputy law minister Qamrul Islam told AFP.

The move comes after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday indicated that she would back a ban on Jamaat, whose members are suspected in the murder of an anti-Islamist blogger, as it had "no right to be in politics in free Bangladesh".

Jamaat was briefly outlawed by Hasina's father, the country's founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the 1970s for supporting Pakistan during the war. However, a military government scrapped the ban after Sheikh Mujib's assassination in 1975.

Demonstrations championed by online activists have seen thousands take to the streets for the last two weeks demanding the execution of Jamaat leaders accused of genocide, murder and rape during the 1971 war and a ban on the party.

"It's a partial victory for us. We won't stop protests unless Jamaat and Shibir (Jamaat's student wing) are banned," said Mahbub Rashid, a blogger and an organizer of the anti-Islamist demonstration.

Rival protests by Islamists demanding a halt to the trials of Jamaat leaders have turned violent across the country, leaving 13 people dead. Clashes between police and Islamists have intensified since last week after a senior Jamaat leader was sentenced to life imprisonment for mass murder.

Jamaat and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) have said the trials are based on bogus charges and are part of a wider political vendetta.

The government rejects the accusations and says the trials are needed to heal wounds from the nine-month war in which it says three million people were killed, many by pro-Pakistani militias whose members allegedly included Jamaat officials.

Both Jamaat and BNP boycotted the parliament, which passed the amended law less than a week after it was approved by the cabinet.

Parliament also amended war crime laws to ensure the Jamaat leaders can be swiftly executed if convicted and the verdict challenged if the sentence is less than death.

It set a 60-day limit for the supreme court to dispose of appeals.

New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch this week criticized the law ahead of its passing, saying it "makes a mockery of the trial process".

Late on Friday Ahmed Rajib Haider, a blogger who helped organize the anti-Islamist protests, was hacked to death with a machete near his Dhaka home. Police have yet to comment on a possible motive, but his brother said the blogger was targeted by Jamaat's student wing for his online activities.

Fellow blogger Shakil Ahmed said a veiled threat was issued against him on a pro-Jamaat blog.

The site has since been banned by the country's telecoms regulator for "spreading hate speech and causing communal tension".

Pakistan has never accepted responsibility for what happened. Moreover, historians and journalists have come perilously close to genocide denial, or have seemed motivated by a desire to minimise the numbers involved. The official Pakistani estimates were originally only 26,000 dead and 2 million refugees. A recent Oxford historian whose methodology was savagely criticised declared that there were no more than 50,000 to 100,000 dead from all sides in the war.

If this were true, the Pakistani forces would have fallen short of their ambitions. At a meeting on 22 February 1971, the Pakistani President General Yahya Khan is recorded as saying in fury: “Kill three million of them, and the rest will eat out of our hands.” Ten million fled to India; 30 million left the cities and went to the villages.

In the first phase of the war, young men and Hindus, Awami League members, intellectuals, students and academics were targeted for murder. In the second phase of the war, women were singled out. It is thought that at least 200,000 women were raped by the Pakistani forces and their collaborators – 25,000 victims found themselves pregnant, so that is not implausible. There are eyewitness accounts of “rape camps” set up by the Pakistani forces.
...
In the last week of the war, when Pakistani defeat was inevitable and a new nation was clearly about to be born, a concerted effort was made to kill as many intellectual leaders as possible, many between 12 and 14 December.

Carl wrote:Sarmila Bose's Ox-farts need more censure: ]The war Bangladesh can never forget[
OARN, the Brits love to create conflict and then perpetuate the memory of mutual inflicted pain between us subcontinentals. "Can never forget," says the Independent.

A recent Oxford historian whose methodology was savagely criticised declared that there were no more than 50,000 to 100,000 dead from all sides in the war.

Acharya wrote:

Carl wrote:Sarmila Bose's Ox-farts need more censure: ]The war Bangladesh can never forget[
OARN, the Brits love to create conflict and then perpetuate the memory of mutual inflicted pain between us subcontinentals. "Can never forget," says the Independent.

This is kind of democracy British forced on the sub continent after 200 years. In its history of the region the people have never experience this kind of events.

Amid growing public unrest, Bangladesh has blocked some internet sites and blogs for ‘hurting religious feelings’ in the majority Muslim nation, as rival protests resumed between Jamaat-e-Islami supporters and young protesters supporting bloggers.

“We've taken the actions in line with the country's ICT (Information Communication Technology) Act,” Giasuddin Ahmed, vice chairman of the country's telecommunications regulator, told Agence France Presse (AFP).

Ahmed added that least two websites had been blocked as well as removing 10 blog posts for “spreading hatred, provoking social disorder and hurting religious feelings of the people”.

Authorities have also asked blog operators to "moderate" their posts to try to filter out anti-religious writings, another official said....

Jamaatis wreak havoc in Bangladesh, kill 19 after top leader sentenced to death

By NitiCentral Staff on February 28, 2013

At least 19 people were killed by activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir as they ran riot across the country following the verdict of war criminal Delawar Hossain Sayedeee on Thursday, a Daily Star report said.

Victims included policemen, Jamaat-Shibir activists and civilians.

Hours after Sayedee was sentenced to death, Jamaat-Shibir activists set fire to a Hindu temple and houses of the minority community in Noakhali, the report said.

Jamaat-Shibir activists attacked police and vandalised at least 60 vehicles in Rajshahi and Chittagong districts on Thursday in retaliation to Sayedee’s sentencing, the report said.

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 awarded the death penalty to Sayedee, vice president of the Jamaat, for committing crimes against humanity during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, according to the report.

Soon after the verdict was pronounced, around 500 Jamaat-Shibir men attacked law enforcers at Binodpur bazaar in Rajshahi, injuring two policemen, the report said.

At least 50 cocktails were exploded during the attack.

Meanwhile, another group of Jamaat-Shibir men blocked the Dhaka-Rajshahi highway. Police fired many rounds of rubber bullets and lobbed teargas shells to free the highway, according to the report.

Similar events took place in Chittagong, where at least 60 vehicles were vandalised by Jamaat-Shibir activists on the Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar highway in the afternoon, the report said.

The Jamaat has called a 48-hour nationwide hartal from Sunday morning in protest of the death penalty for Sayedee.

The Government hastily decided to deploy the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) across the country from 8:00 pm on Thursday to assist the police in maintaining law and order, the report said.

According to BGB officials, additional members of the paramilitary force will be deployed in the capital, Dhaka, while BGB men would be deployed at different districts as per the requirements of respective district administrations, according to the report.

(Source: Daily Star)

http://www.niticentral.com/2013/02/28/j ... 51022.html

brihaspati wrote:Elections are a different issue. Overall the state machinery is almost completely infiltrated by Islamists, and the army's sentiments are at best dubious. The overt and covert Islamists are almost equally balanced. A 10% swing roughly sweeps the elections - but this is the relatively undecided and wavering urban vote.

What is most likely to happen this time around is a split in the urban vote evenly and hence a more even proportion of actual elected from each of the two fronts.

Hours after Sayedee was sentenced to death, Jamaat-Shibir activists set fire to a Hindu temple and houses of the minority community in Noakhali, the report said.

RoyG wrote:

brihaspati wrote:Elections are a different issue. Overall the state machinery is almost completely infiltrated by Islamists, and the army's sentiments are at best dubious. The overt and covert Islamists are almost equally balanced. A 10% swing roughly sweeps the elections - but this is the relatively undecided and wavering urban vote.

What is most likely to happen this time around is a split in the urban vote evenly and hence a more even proportion of actual elected from each of the two fronts.

Slowly it seems Bengali nationalism is on the rise. Clashes with jihadis is inevitable.

Gus wrote:riots and protests in BD, dozens dead.

Wonder what changed in BD, for Hasina to take this now. Things were trending paki in last decade.

The administration is keeping a close eye on the developments across the border. In Kolkata, security around the Bangladesh High Commission in Park Circus has been stepped up following several Muslim organisations in the city showing solidarity with the Jamaat.

" The Bangladesh government is hanging innocent people. The country is becoming another Egypt and innocents are being killed by the police," Maulana Shafique Quasmi, Imam of Nakhoda Masjid, said.

On February 21, pro-Jamaat outfits wanted to organise a rally in Kolkata to show their solidarity with their leaders across the border. But the police refused them permission fearing violence.

Supratik wrote:Nothing strange. JEI is the main Islamist org in WB and Northern India. If Hasina Govt. comes back to power and bans the JEI it will be a big blow to Islamists in Bd.

Exodus to India as Bangladesh burns
By Subhro Maitra, TNN | Mar 2, 2013, 06.01 AM IST

MAHADIPUR (Bangladesh border): Hundreds of Bangladeshis have poured into the border district of Malda, fleeing the violence that has broken out after Jamaat-e-Islami vice-president Delwar Hossain Sayedee was sentenced to death on Thursday for his role in the '71 atrocities.

BSF officials at the Mahadipur checkpost say they have never seen such an exodus in years. Even Awami League members are among those seeking refuge in India, say sources.

Hundreds of loaded trucks are stranded on this side of the border as export has come to a complete stop. Some 300 drivers and helpers returned on Friday, leaving their trucks behind in Bangladeshi ports. Hundreds more from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Punjab are stranded there. "We are more concerned for their safety now than our losses," said exporter Samir Ghosh.

Awami League leader Md Alauddin, a member of the Natore municipality board, and his wife were seen walking through Mahadipur border checkpost on Friday. "The entire nation is in flames. Roads have been cut at many places, and houses torched. Awami supporters are under attack," he said.

Risha, a second-year BBA student, followed Alauddin a while later, on her way to a relative's house in Murshidabad . "The library at Shibgunj in Nawabgunj district was set on fire on Thursday. The flames were yet to die down when I left. We are very scared," she said. Like Risha, many begin by claiming that they have crossed over for medical treatment.

"I don't know when I shall be able to return home," said the student.

Sixty-year-old Abdus Salam of Chapai Nawabgunj admits he is terrified. "An undeclared strike is on. Jamat has called an official strike on Sunday and Monday. We fear more violence," he said, as Bajlur Haque and wife Latika Akhtar added. The couple has fled from Bagha in Rajsahi . "We had to sneak through fields and forests as the roads have been cut at many places. Houses and cars are being set on fire," said Bajlur.

Although Bangladeshis do come in through Mahadipur , the number has suddenly doubled, say BSF officlas. Infiltration also has shot up. On Wednesday night, 29 infiltrators - including children and women - were intercepted at the Hili border.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 759460.cms

Samudragupta wrote:

"The country is becoming another Egypt" Maulana Shafique Quasmi, Imam of Nakhoda Masjid, said.

Singha wrote:looks like exec summary is we have a 200 million strong time bomb glued under our butts with no clear means to exercise control inside the pressure vessel.

and unlike other miscreants we cant even shift our chair out of the zone.

Daily Star reports that on Saturday alone, members of the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir have attacked and destroyed six temples and set fire to several Hindu houses and business in Noakhali, Gaibandha, Chittagong, Rangpur, Sylhet, Chapainawabganj and Rajganj. These attacks of course, are in addition to the violence unleashed by Islamists in the last three days in which more than a dozen people have lost their lives.
...
The persecution of Bangladeshi Hindus in the wake of a setback to the Islamist cause is happening exactly as it did back in 1971. Back then, the reason was the Bangladeshi freedom movement. This time, the reason is justice catching up with the war criminals.

>> In Chittagong, Jamaati Islamists attacked Hindu majority localities at Jaldi union of Banshkhali upazila and set fire to a Buddhist temple.

>> Jamaat members also burned houses at Dhopapara and Mohajonpara and attacked people with sticks, iron rods and sharp weapons.

>> The rioters also burned three shops belonging to Hindus at Kaliash union of Satkania upazila.

>> Members of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir attacked a temple and business establishments belonging to Hindus at Bhelkobazar in Sundarganj upazila of Gaibandha district.

>> Rioters also vandalised some houses in Shovaganj union.

>> Vandalism, arson and looting took place in temples, houses and business establishments of Hindus in Sylhet, Rangpur, Thakurgaon, Laxmipur and Chapainawabganj.

>> Attackers had vandalised the central Kali temple at Mithapukur upazila in Rangpur and another at Kansat in Chapainawabganj.

Anindya wrote:Hindus under attack in Bangladesh

Daily Star reports that on Saturday alone, members of the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir have attacked and destroyed six temples and set fire to several Hindu houses and business in Noakhali, Gaibandha, Chittagong, Rangpur, Sylhet, Chapainawabganj and Rajganj. These attacks of course, are in addition to the violence unleashed by Islamists in the last three days in which more than a dozen people have lost their lives.
...
The persecution of Bangladeshi Hindus in the wake of a setback to the Islamist cause is happening exactly as it did back in 1971. Back then, the reason was the Bangladeshi freedom movement. This time, the reason is justice catching up with the war criminals.

>> In Chittagong, Jamaati Islamists attacked Hindu majority localities at Jaldi union of Banshkhali upazila and set fire to a Buddhist temple.

>> Jamaat members also burned houses at Dhopapara and Mohajonpara and attacked people with sticks, iron rods and sharp weapons.

>> The rioters also burned three shops belonging to Hindus at Kaliash union of Satkania upazila.

>> Members of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir attacked a temple and business establishments belonging to Hindus at Bhelkobazar in Sundarganj upazila of Gaibandha district.

>> Rioters also vandalised some houses in Shovaganj union.

>> Vandalism, arson and looting took place in temples, houses and business establishments of Hindus in Sylhet, Rangpur, Thakurgaon, Laxmipur and Chapainawabganj.

>> Attackers had vandalised the central Kali temple at Mithapukur upazila in Rangpur and another at Kansat in Chapainawabganj.