Total Silence on Organised Anti-Hindu Violence in Bangladesh !!!

A terrifying existence

Richard L Benkin

Why this silence on organised anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh?

Reports began trickling out of Bangladesh this spring about an anti-Hindu violence in the heart of its capital carried out in three stages: March 30, April 17, and April 29. A community of approximately 400 Hindus was reportedly going about its business when “hundreds of Muslims” suddenly descended on them and demanded they quit the homes where they and their families had lived for the past 150 years. Witnesses also report that police watched passively while attackers beat residents and destroyed a Hindu temple.

And although every Hindu, as well as the international community, should have reacted with horror and outrage, neither did.

The Bangladeshi Government denied that any such thing happened, and local police captain Tofazzal Hossain declared, “No demolition of temple occurred. There was no temple there, only a few idols.” Yet, sources for the charge — Global Human Rights Defence at The Hague and the Bangladesh Hindu, Buddhist, Christian Unity Council, as well as several local human rights groups and newspapers — are highly credible, prompting our two-month investigation that confirms something terrible did occur, even if not exactly as described by initial reports.

For while not all 400 Hindus were made homeless, a significant number were, which is tragic enough, especially since many remain so months later. Nor has the Bangladeshi Government even bothered to deny that Hindus were beaten, some religious desecration occurred, or that police were present during the attacks. We also confirmed that the area attacked was located directly behind the Sutrapur Police Station in Dhaka and the Shiv Mandir only about 18 m from it; yet, the police did nothing to stop its destruction.

This is not about one terrible event, but about a system of legalised ethnic cleansing that has proceeded non-stop for decades and which places every one of Bangladesh’s 13,000,000-15,000,000 Hindus at risk. For despite Government protestations to the contrary, normal legal protections are suspended for Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh who are often subject to arbitrary actions by the Muslim majority.

Two Hindus, Jogesh Chandra and Taraknath Das, originally owned the land in Sutrapur. They migrated to India in 1947 but before doing so, gifted it to the remaining Hindus; most of them their former servants. A local Muslim, Mahbubur Rahman, tried for years to seize it but could not produce the necessary legal fiction. But after Rahman’s death, his brother and nephews determined to do what he could not because they were politically well-connected.

They used their position to prevail upon police to demand written proof of ownership from the Hindus, which all parties knew they could not provide given their impoverished state and the nature of partition-era transactions. Nevertheless, that was all the Government needed to secretly void the Hindus’ title using Bangladesh’s Vested Property Act. This empowers the Government to declare any ‘non-Muslim’ land vested once its ownership is questioned, no mater how flimsy the pretext, and award it to any Muslim who then can seize it, as was done in Sutrapur.

Next, the police refused to pursue any prosecution in the matter, even though at least three separate crimes were committed: Land seizure, beatings, and religious destruction. The GHRD and other groups have lodged formal protests and brought the matter to Dhaka’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner, but he also “refused to take any action against the perpetrators of crime,” according to GHRD’s Jenny Lundstrom.

Nor did the cover-up stop there. Mr Zakir Hossain, chief executive of local human rights group, Nagorik Uddyog, told me that his organisation appealed to the Bangladeshi Parliament and Awami League MP Shuranjit Sengupta, but neither he nor his party has taken any action. All of the Bangladeshi officials I contacted refused to comment on the incident.

It would appear that these enforcers of the law have become enforcers of lawlessness, abetting crimes against minorities and sending a message that Bangladesh is a country where the law gives Muslims preferential treatment even if it means ignoring elementary standards of justice.

This explains how Muslims have been able to seize 75 per cent of all Hindu-owned land in Bangladesh. It also means that the reduction of Hindus from almost 30 per cent of the population to nine per cent has been no accident but a deliberate process of ethnic cleansing, which if unchecked, will rid Bangladesh of its remaining Hindu population in our lifetime. And nobody seems to care; the world’s self-appointed human rights arbiters remain shamefully silent.

Meanwhile, dozens of Hindu victims from Sutrapur, including mothers and their children, remain homeless. The lucky ones are flopping in different slums each night, but for others, as one victim put it, “We are now passing a miserable life with no home and very little to eat.”

Perhaps Americans and Europeans will think of her the next time they purchase a garment labelled, “Made in Bangladesh.”

-- The writer campaigns for minority rights in Bangladesh.

SOURCE: http://www.freechoudhury.com/images/Pogrom.html

Whither Minority Rights in Bangladesh?

By Rabindranath Trivedi

The exodus of Hindus from East Bengal to India continued throughout the existence of Pakistan. Many Hindu Bengalis left for Calcutta after partition. Up to 1971 before the war of liberation begun over 5.3 million Hindus had sought refuge in India, mostly in West Bengal and Bangladesh surrounding states between the periods of August 1947 and 24 March 1971.

But the exodus of Hindus from East Bengal to India in 1971 was of different, the Hindus, in order to crush the Bengali nationalist movement, were targets of the Pakistan army. The Hindus as a class were to be eliminated. After 25 March till December 1971, Ten million Bengali refugees were stranded in inhuman, pitiable conditions in 825 Indian camps across the border in West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh .

It appeared that Yahya Khan hoped to kill two birds with one stone by creating the refugee issue. By getting rid of the Awami Leaguers and Hindus whom Yahya termed 'secessionists' and who voted massively for Sheikh Mujib, he was aiming to consolidate Pakistan as an Islamic State.

At the same time Yahya was hoping to ruin the social and economic fabric of the eastern part of India, which was in bad shape, by inflicting staggering numbers of refugees on it. The population of Hindu minority has declined from 15% (1974) to 10% (2001). Our former Hindu leaders and generation in East Bengal began their life in the peculiar political environment of communal hatred, distrust and disgrace.

The Hindu leadership in the Constitutional Assembly in Feb.1948 conceived the historic State-Language issue. It was the Hindu Leadership (1947-54) as the Leader and member of the opposition led the nation in the definitive direction to the constitution, parliament and democracy. Hindu Leadership had abandoned the separate electorate system and their advocacy for the joint electoral system was a milestone in our national history. If there were no joint electoral system in 1970, Bangladesh would not have her genesis as a Republic in 1971.

In Bangladesh, the Hindu minority becomes the coveted enemy under Vested Property Act. Many believed that the agony of the Hindus would be over and they would regain their lost honour with the liberation of Bangladesh in December 1971.

It was entirely a mistaken notion. By and large, the successive Governments in liberated Bangladesh have followed the same policy as was pursued and practiced by Pakistan towards her Hindu and other minorities. So, we are to think over the issue meticulously and should sort out rationally for ameliorating the grievances of the minorities in Bangladesh.

After August 1975, the process of Islamisation during General Zia and Ershad regimes in Bangladesh renewed the flow of minorities due to unequal application of Law, humiliation, discrimination in service and violation of human rights. The fate of the minorities remains under the same wheels even in 2010. The crux of the problem is the Eighth Amendment, whereby Gen. H.M. Ershad converted the country into an Islamic Republic and made Islam the State Religion. Another Black Law is the Enemy (now Vested) Property Act of 1965, which remains on the statute book and is being miss-used to confiscate the property of Hindus.

This is a key reason for the continuous migration of Hindus from the country. Therefore, what we are sincerely demanding is the restoration of the Constitution of 1972, a Minority Rights Commission, and freedom of religion with the removal of Islam as State Religion, and a crackdown on the incidents of human trafficking.

Dr Akbar Ali Khan opined: “If Islam is considered as an essential component of Bangladeshi Nationalism, the role of the minority community in the political life of Bangladesh needs to be delineated. Total Hindu population in Bangladesh exceeds the population of Muslim majority countries like Yemen Republic, Jordan, Tajikistan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Oman etc. Politicians in Bangladesh must, therefore, come to grips with this inescapable reality.”(Dr Akbar Ali Khan, Discovery of Bangladesh: Explorations into Dynamics of a Hidden Nation, U P L, P151-52).

Bangladesh is second largest Hindu populated country in the world. They need reservation through Constitutional proviso. They want empowerment and social justice as equal citizens of the Republic. For this, representation of the minority communities in the registration of parties and voters must be ensured. The justice and electoral system must work equally for those in the mainstream as well as for those say for example, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. A failure to do so would result in making the same mistakes that we have been making since the birth of this nation i.e. failing to place justice at the core of our nation-building efforts. Abdul Gaffer Chowdhury , a senior columnist, rightly said that " Bangladeshi " means the Muslim citizens of the land others like Hindu, Buddhists ,Christians and tribal origins are align citizens, they would be absorbed in the majority community by conversion or make them compelled to leave

So the Awami League government’s planning to restore 'secularism', one of the four original principles of state policy, in its constitution and will also retain the Quranic expression ‘bismillah’ without recognizing other religions would be a great bluff and theocratic design in the name of democracy and rule of law and human rights. M J Akbar opined:’ Islam did not make Pakistan a natural democracy; nor did Hinduism turn Nepal into one. Buddhism has not ensured democracy in Burma; its generals bow their head while greeting and still remain autocrats in uniform. Indian Muslims are the only Muslims in the world to have enjoyed more than five decades of uninterrupted, unconditional, adult franchise democracy. They, a section of Muslims, remain marginalised economically, but the polity has empowered them vigorously.

India is unique because of the ideology that won it freedom from the British: a commitment to multi-cultural equality and a celebration of the unequivocal rights of individual and collective. (The New Nation, 18 Dec. 2007) The Hindus in Bangladesh participated in the Liberation War and sacrificed a lot for Bangladesh with the expectation that in the newly liberated country, nation-state Bangladesh, they would enjoy equal status and rights along with the majority Muslim community. The sacrifices of the Hindu leadership were never acknowledged either officially or publicly. Moreover, In Bangladesh, Bengali, Hindu and India are equated with a typical psyche by the ruling cliché.

We have witnessed various periods of military and democratic rule in Bangladesh’s history and yet we have not learnt from history. The future of Bangladesh depends on how we can strengthen and give institutional shape to democracy, rule of law and human rights .That is of essence. Prof. Abdur Razzaque said,“What compounds the situation arises from the fact that no nation today is an island.

Bangladesh and its nation is of course not. It is link in a chain which is worldwide. Economically, politically, in the world of technology and of ideas, Bangladesh is an insignificant but vitally connected link in a chain.

Because it is so small and insignificant, ideas, impulses and practices which dominate or shape the world merely affect us, are acts of God over which we have no control. Whether we like it or not what happens in India is of vital importance to Bangladesh and not the other way about. What happens in Bangladesh is only of marginal importance and interest to India. It is concerting but a hard fact of life. " ( Abdur Razzaq,1980,p-17)The existing literature on the history of Bangladesh underplays not only the inner contradictions of the Muslims of Bengal, but also other significant features of her past. It's a 'crisis of confidence'. But in practice, the persecution of the minorities continued even after independence.The forms of oppression upon the minorities both physically and psychologically is manifold:

Constitutionally: by adopting 5th and 8th amendment to the Constitution, minorities have been downgraded and made them second class citizens in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh;

Economically, they have been crippled through discriminatory laws and practices; they have been made non-entity in different civil services including, administration, Foreign, army and police (below 2%) and other services including education;

Politically, they have been segregated and alienated from the mainstream and become a ‘vote-bank’ and become a subject of humiliation; They are totally deprived of the privileges of participation in the top positions of government as well the state; and Culturally and socially, they along with place of warship and women are insecure; Their ancestral properties lying vested with the government including Devuttur properties, though the supreme court (Appellate Division) and the High Court of Bangladesh declare those laws illegal.

A number of eminent personalities including 13 parliament members of minority community signed the memorandum with a 7-point demand and submitted to the prime minister’s office one seeking changes to ''Vested Property Return (amendment) Act'' in light of the Supreme Court verdict, reports the Daily Star.

It may be mentioned here that the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in a judgment in 2006 said :“ Since the law of enemy property itself died with the repeal of Ordinance No.1 of 1969 on 23 -3-1974 no further vested property case can be started thereafter on the basis of the law which is already dead.

Accordingly, there is no basis at all to treat the case land as vested property upon started VP Case (58 DLR 2006 pp 177-185) .The Awami League Hindu lawmakers placed their other demands include a clear definition of vested property on the basis of Supreme Court's orders, return of all properties grabbed after 1974 and formation of tribunals at districts to dispose of the cases.

Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh minorities (HRCBM) was constituted on December 10,2004 to campaign for the rights of the minorities who have been denied their fundamental rights and are placed in a disadvantageous position economically, administratively, socially and politically; our mission is to blend human rights advocacy with humanitarian services and sustainable development; so that minorities may prosper in free and fair atmosphere and may make full contribution towards national development, international peace and cooperation in keeping with the progressive aspirations of the mankind.

HRCBM will oppose unlawful, fraudulent and intentional lease of Debottor Properties, Cremation Sites, Religious Institutions of minorities, grabbing of minority properties and lands with special reference to lands of indigenous people and settlement of non-locals in Chittagong Hill Tracks that directly violates the judgment in the Higher Court of Bangladesh; We will continue to support for materialization of CHT Peace Accord, and uphold principles of equity, natural justice and fundamental human rights. We have investigated more than 40 incidents of repression, torture, persecution, land-grabbing, forceful conversion, gang-rape, and demolition of temples of Minorities in various parts of Bangladesh since Sheikh Hasina came to power.Again, in the absence of reservation in the services, will not communal jealousy keep out by steady pressure or unfair exercise of patronage members of minorities who have no great political importance? We are not afraid of open persecution.

In recent years, the world community has woken up to the problems of the minorities, resulting in the adoption of several measures at the international level.

Although the sub-commission on prevention of discrimination and protection of minorities was formed as a subsidiary body of the United Nations commission on human rights as early as in 1947, new approaches towards the implementation of policies for an effective international protection of the ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities was becoming necessary.The rise of domestic conflicts around the world, resulting in suffering, displacement of people and social disruption during late Eighties and early Nineties brought minority rights into focus. The Daily Star in its an editorial opined :" Member of the minority community have reasons to be concerned over some recent incidents in which quite a few of their families came under attack Such a gross violation of rights of any segment of the society will have to be dealt with an iron hand, because that is where the real test of a democratic and pluralistic society lies. (The Daily Star editorial, 3 Sept 09) .

The most comprehensive UN human rights document devoted solely to minority rights is the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, adopted consensually by the UN general assembly in 1992. The declaration’s preamble states that the promotion and realization of the right of the minorities is integral to the development of society.

It asks all signatories to take necessary legislative measures to uphold the principles of the declaration. It is our sincere desire that Bangladesh, member of the United Nations, upholds the rule of law and endows upon its citizens the human rights and justice guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Meghna Guhathakurta opined on the Occasion of 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10, December 2008: “The future of the rights movement in Bangladesh rests on equal participation of all sections of the people. This particularly refers to minorities; religious, ethnic, caste-based, and linguistic who in times of trouble, find themselves in a position to defend respectively their physical, economic and cultural rights to life, land and traditions, rights that has been promised to them by the Constitution of this country. Many may say that these rights pertain to the whole of humanity, why only address them in the context of minorities. True, but it is only through identifying social discrimination and ethno-racialism as social indicators of poverty and lack of justice that we can identify those very factors, which are equally responsible for the underdevelopment of minority communities as well as the hampered growth of a secular and democratic polity.”

Rabindranath Trivedi, is a Freedom Fighter, retired Additional Secretary, GoB, and presently Secretary General , Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM), an NGO in special consultative status with ECOSOC of the United Nations.

- Asian Tribune -

http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2010/12/09/whither-minority-rights-bangladesh

From Independence to Holocaust

From Independence to Holocaust

Maloy Krishna Dhar

August 12, 2010

========

I was born in an affluent family in riverine East Bengal, respected and feared by the local peasantry, business community and political leaders. My father was a poet, singer, part-time politician and an ayurvedic medic. He was more of a Bedouin, a people’s man rather than the highbrow son of a zamindar.

Ours was a divided but composite Bengali society. We were divided as Hindus and Muslims and, within the Hindus, we were divided into higher and lower castes. Maybe inspired by my father, I flouted the family rules and befriended Muslim and low caste children of my age, which was frowned upon.

I cared little. My favourite was Rani didi, daughter of Mukund, a fisherman. My other close friends were Lutfa and Jasim, the children of our family retainer Rahman.

Life was as free as the rivers Meghna and Brahmaputra and as green as the lush fields around. We were happy to be Bengali - culturally, linguistically and traditionally bonded together for eons.

Father, in pursuit of his political activity, moved around with his friends, tried to keep the people together and maintain peace in the community, despite war cries for separation and creation of Pakistan by the Muslim League. This call was opposed by Hindu Mahasabha and the followers of Subhas Bose. Father oscillated between Bose’s Bengal Volunteer Force and his erstwhile revolutionary friends. They opposed partition.

We were not worried about partition till July-August 1946. At the age of seven, I was told that Jinnah had given call for Direct Action and there could be large-scale communal violence.

That was the first time I heard about the communal divide. I could not make any sense of it, till the extended family boarded trains to Tripura, the nearest princely state, for safety. Agartala, the capital town, provided physical safety and new tribal friends brought in some soul relief.

Seven was not the age for understanding realpolitik, communal divide and sudden rupture in the community.

After a boring month in hiding, Agartala frustrated me. Father’s politically active friends beseeched him to return to our hometown and resume activities against disruptive programmes of the Muslim League.

He was an earnest believer in united Bengal. He and his band of friends frenetically moved around to arouse opinion of different political leaders. To their dismay, they found that Congress, the major opponent of Muslim League, had accepted Jinnah’s demand for partition.

Father decided to stay put and not leave Pakistan for the uncertain safety of a new India. I was also attuned to the India which I knew to be India, and not the India where I was often advised by the cousins to escape - a big city called Calcutta. Most of the extended family members started migrating to Agartala.

I could gradually feel the difference. The Muslim royats either failed to pay their land rents in grain or cash; they declined to provide begar (voluntary) service to our family lands and orchards. Some low caste Hindus also started avoiding us. The village barber living on our land started charging two annas for a haircut. The carpenter, our retainer, showed reluctance to attend to repair works.

However, Mukund Majhi and his daughter Rani continued to be loyal and my friendship with Rani grew through several, mostly funny, incidents. In Bhairab market, the Marwari business community paid respect to father and uncles. But they started winding up their business.

The first five-storeyed building in the market was constructed by a Muslim - Madhu Mian. He did not invite my father and uncle for the inaugural ceremony. It was an open act of defiance against the authority of the zamindars.

Most Hindus stopped visiting Muslim homes during religious kawali and murshedi song ceremonies. The Muslims stopped participating in the worship of village deities like Manasa (Goddess of Snakes) and Shitala (Goddess of Small Pox), which were held in Hindu homes. New Imams dictated that all Muslims must learn Urdu and must attend namaj five times a day. Our school curricula also included a course in Urdu - Pakistan’s national language.

Amidst such revolutionary changes, some relief came in the form of the Wilson family, who came to stay with us in our almost deserted homestead. Hubert Wilson was the new stationmaster at Bhairab. His wife Preeti, daughter Manorama and son Jackson lodged in the northern court building. Manorama was a delightful Anglo-Indian girl. She introduced me to the world of English, books, newspapers, radio and storytelling. The sprightly girl brought in revolution in my life - a life different from the one I experienced with Lutfa, Rani and Jasim.

On August 15, 1947, Manorama unfurled an Indian Tri-colour on the porch of the eastern court building, and lined us up and taught us to sing Bande Mataram. That night Dhala Mian, a former serf of the family, followed by fifty odd people attacked our house, pulled down the tri-colour and mounted a Pakistani flag. Manorama protested. Dhala and his gang physically dishonoured her, and in the process, I received a stunning thrashing too. After the incident Manorama tried to commit suicide. It was averted. The Wilsons left our place for the safety of Calcutta and I was plunged again in the realm of darkness.

Came 1950. Father was still adamant. He had sent my older brother to Calcutta for further studies. But he was determined to stay put at Kamalpur and be with ‘his people.’ But February 1950 broke out as another Holocaust, with Hindus being killed in East Pakistan like chicken and rabbits. Father was out somewhere near Dhaka for a meeting. Uncle urged us to accompany him to the safety of Brahmanbaria for a short period as there were reports of our house being a target of Bihari marauders.

The train we boarded was attacked by hoards of Bihari Muslims; they robbed and killed the Hindus and pushed them out of the train. Uncle Birendra was also a victim, but he was not stabbed. I managed to get out of the train with my mother and take shelter in the house of a relative. Uncle was rescued by some local people. Father returned and took us back home.

He finally decided to leave the village for the safety of India - a new India we were not prepared to encounter. That India was a vague uncertain name and held out no promise of a healthy new beginning. We envisioned chaos.

In September 1950, we took the train to India via Agartala, now a part of India. The journey was horrific, and we were under constant attack from Muslim mobs. We were robbed by our own Hindu servant.

Through a bloodied path, we reached Agartala and finally took a flight to Calcutta only to earn the honorific of “refugee” – destitute. Millions were on streets, railway platforms, and wherever they could pitch a plastic cover.

We were fortunate to have a relative to give us temporary shelter. However, my eldest sibling did not live up to his parents’ expectations. His evolution probably stood somewhere between animal instinct and human sublimation.

Father was maltreated by his oldest son. He was not equipped to restart his

life. The partition had crippled him. He missed poetry, songs and social service. He suddenly suffered from penury. I could not get a berth in any school, as my brother was more interested in pushing me to a job at the age of eleven.

Suffering from neglect, my father expired in 1952 January, but bequeathed me a gift of Rs. 50 and asked me to get admitted in a school. Three days after his death, I forced a cousin to take me to a small school, with no reputation.

But it was a school. That was a new beginning. As I look back, the partition was very painful for the Bengali people. It was more painful to me; I lost my father who understood me, and whom I appreciated most. I still miss the East Bengal countryside and the Bengali identity. But I am happy I inherited the Bedouin blood of my father.

I wish the political leaders of the day had not committed the blunder of partitioning the country on the basis of religion. It is hurting us even today and will likely hurt in future as well.

==

Maloy Krishna Dhar started life off as a junior reporter for Amrita Bazaar Patrika in Calcutta and a part-time lecturer. He joined the Indian Police Service in 1964 and was permanently seconded to the Intelligence Bureau.

During his long stint in the Bureau, Dhar saw action in almost all Northeastern states, Sikkim, Punjab and Kashmir. He also handled delicate internal political and several counterintelligence assignments. After retiring in 1996 as joint director, he took to freelance journalism and writing books. Titles credited to him are Open Secrets-India's Intelligence Unveiled, Fulcrum of Evil — ISI, CIA, al-Qaeda Nexus, and Mission to Pakistan. Maloy is considered a top security analyst and a social scientist who tries to portray Indian society through his writings.

49 Million Hindus Missing From Bangladesh Census

Explosive Book by SUNY Professor Gives New Light to the Indian Partition Story !!!

Empire's Last Casualty : Indian Subcontinent's Vanishing Hindu and Other Minorities

A study of effects of religious communalism on a pluralistic, tolerant, multi-religious society. It focuses on the loss of indigenous, Hindu population from die land of their ancestors; and on changes brought about since a multi-religious progressive region of Colonial British India was partitioned in 1947, and its effects on Hindu and nun-Muslim (Buddhist and Christian) minorities, on pluralism and on indigenous cultures.

After Britain's Muslim-Hindu partition of Bengal Province Past Bengal became Muslim-majority East Pakistan, a part of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, unleashing regular, merciless anti-Hindu pogroms by intolerant Islamists. West Bengal remained in India, with Muslim minority and ever-growing massive Bengali Hindu refugee who turned towards left extremism.

Following a 1971 war of independence against West Pakistan, Bangladesh gained independence, creating the second largest Muslim-majority nation. That war was concurrently anti-Hindu anti-Bengali genocide by Islamic Republic's army and its Bengali and Urdu speaking Islamist allies.

The book documents the decade-wise "missing" Hindus from Bangladesh Census: over 49 million; larger than 163 of 189 nations listed in World Bank's April 2003 World Development indicators database-and over 3.1 million (larger than 75 of 189 nations) Hindus lost their lives through the process of Islamization.

Documenting three million-plus lost lives have been painful and difficult; especially when Hindus cremate their dead. Additionally rivers of the world's largest delta washed away signs of mass murder leaving no clue. All attempts have been made to justify the data presented in the book, hardly-known to the world and rarely discussed in Bengal itself.

-----------About the Author

Dr. Sachi (Sabyasachi) Ghosh Dastidar is a Distinguished Service Professor of the State University of New York at Old Westbury. He has taught in the U.S., Kazakhstan and India. He has also worked in Florida, Tennessee and West Bengal. Dastidar was an elected Board Member of a New York City School district making him the first Bengali-American to hold a popularly elected position in the U.S.

Sachi Dastidar has authored seven books, A Aamaar Desh, (1998), Regional Disparities and Regional Development Planning of West Bengal with Shefali S. Dastidar (1990), Central Asian Journal of Management, Economics and Social Research (2000) and Living Among the Believers (2006). He has written over 100 articles, short stories and travelogues.

His awards include Senior Fulbright Award, Distinguished Service Professor of the State University of New York, and honors from New York City Comptroller, NYC Council Speaker, Residents of Mahilara, Madaripur and Uzirpur, all of Bangladesh, Assam Buddhist Vihar, and from Kazakhstan Institute. He has traveled to over 63 countries in all seven continents including Antarctica.

Probini Foundation (www.prohini.urg) that his wife and he founded helps educated the orphaned and the poor in 18 institutions in Bangladesh, West Bengal and Assam.

Price:

$ 29 (U.S.)

ISBN: 81-7102-151-4

Islam-o-Muslim and the Resilience of Terrorism in Bangladesh

Animesh Roul

After a relatively long period of calm, Islamist militancy in Bangladesh is showing new signs of life, even in the face of continuous crackdowns on terrorist infrastructure and activity by counterterrorism forces in the country.

Security officials have long established that many of the outlawed terrorist groups have been trying to regroup and reorganize after lying low (mostly in northwestern and southwestern Bangladesh) after a state of emergency was declared in January 2007. In June 2008, reports came quickly of the reemergence of terrorist groups such as Jama'at ul-Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB), Allahr Dal, Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami (HuJI) and Hizb-ut Towhid (HuT). The revival was especially strong in the southwestern districts of Kushtia, Meherpur, Jhenidah, Magura, Chuadanga, Jessore, and Satkhira. Intelligence sources revealed that all these groups have maintained close operational ties and carried out terrorist operations on Bangladeshi soil. One estimate suggested there were about 12,000 cadres actively operating in the country, mostly madrassa (Islamic seminary) teachers, students and clerics of mosques (Daily Star [Dhaka], June 12, 2008). In April of this year, Bangladesh intelligence agencies declared that the Islamist terrorist groups are reorganizing with the aim of making a deadly comeback (Daily Star, April 29).

A mid-June report based on the confessional statement of a JMB terrorist shed some light on this resilient outfit. According to the report, JMB operatives are still using different border routes in Chapai Nawabganj and Jessore to smuggle in bomb-making materials and small arms from neighboring India despite being weakened by the government crackdown (Daily Star, June 22). The militant also confessed that members of the JMB central committee are trying to keep the organization afloat in Dhaka and other divisional capitals.

The Emergence of Islam-o-Muslim

In the midst of this evolving terrorist scenario in Bangladesh, a new jihadi outfit has emerged under the name of Islam-o-Muslim (IoM). The existence of IoM, a hitherto unknown group that security forces believe is a dissident breakaway faction of JMB, came to light when the Detective Branch (DB) of the Bangladesh police apprehended JMB terrorist Mustafizur Rahman (a.k.a Montu) in Dhaka’s Fakirerpol district on June 28, followed by the June 30 arrest of another JMB terrorist from the Gazipur district, Abdur Rahim (a.k.a Shahadat Hossain), who claimed to be the chief of IoM. Security forces also apprehended a pair of IoM area commanders identified as Sajedur Rahman (a.k.a Hanif) and Jalal Uddin (BDNews24.com, July 3; New Nation [Dhaka], July 3). On July 6, a joint team of police and paramilitary personnel from the Bangladesh Rifles arrested senior IoM operative Selim (a.k.a Saifullah), the IoM second-in-command and military affairs commander in Chapai Nawabganj (BDNews24.com, July 8; Daily Star, July 8).

After this string of arrests, the elite counterterrorist Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) claimed they had foiled IoM’s attempt to expand its activities by arresting many of its top leaders in a stepped-up crackdown on the terrorist infrastructure in Bangladesh. After extensive investigation, Bangladesh police have now confirmed that at least four JMB suspects arrested on earlier occasions in various parts of Chapai Nawabganj were actually IoM members. These suspects were identified as Abdul Mumin, Abdur Raqib, Rabiul Islam and Abdul Munib.

The interrogations of Abdur Rahim and other suspects revealed that IoM was formed in April 2009 to dominate the northwestern part of Bangladesh. With around 10 to 15 Ehsar (full-time) members and many Gayeri Ehsar (part-time) activists, IoM reportedly tried to expand in Rajshai division (bordering India’s West Bengal State) to establish a free zone consisting of the Gomastapur, Shibganj and Bholahat portions of the Chapai Nawabganj frontier district, Bagmara of the Rajshahi district and Raninagar and Atrai of the Naogaon district.

The arrest of Abdur Rahim and Sajedur Rahman, both former members of the JMB’s Majlis-e-Shura (Council of Advisors), brought this new outfit to the fore of the ever-expanding Islamist landscape in Bangladesh. Abdur Rahim, an alumnus of Islami Chhatra Shibir (the student wing of Jamaat-i-Islami Bangladesh), joined JMB in 2002. He was appointed chief of the Bagmara sub-district initially and was actively involved in JMB’s violent activities targeting left-wing Sarbahara activists in Rajshahi district. However Rahim, a close associate of Siddiqul Islam (a.k.a Bangla Bhai, leader of the radical Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh - JMJB), fled to India after the countrywide crackdowns on JMB’s top leadership following the serial bomb blasts in August 2005 (Daily Star, July 7). Rahim reportedly worked for JMB’s cause in India by raising funds and new recruits in and around the Murshidabad, Nadia and Malda districts of India’s West Bengal state. After his return to Bangladesh early this year, Rahim formed IoM due to the internal feud growing within the ranks of the JMB, primarily over financial and ideological matters.

Unlike JMB, which used various terror tactics in the country ranging from suicide attacks to planting bombs and explosives, the IoM aims to wage jihad with small arms, focusing on weapons and ammunition manufacturing in their hideouts. Police seized shotguns, bullet-making materials, and books on jihad from all the IoM cadres they have arrested so far. Both Abdur Rahim and Selim vehemently opposed many of the JMB’s activities, especially bomb blasts. Instead they have chosen assassination-style killings with small arms as their main tactic (Daily Star, July 19).

IoM has conducted several meetings of their top leaders at Raghunathpur and Ranihati villages in Shibganj sub-district. Abdur Rahim was in charge of recruiting new IoM members from active as well as inactive members of JMB in Chapai Nawabganj, Rajshahi and Naogaon districts. Significantly, the JMB is reported to have planned a meeting in the village of Kansat in April. Three years ago, hundreds of JMB cadres took part in the Kansat Movement, a peasant revolt sparked by alleged irregularities in the Rural Electricity Board and irregular power supplies. [1] JMB members decided to take part in the movement primarily because of its anti-Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) agenda, which gave them the opportunity to target government infrastructure and property (Daily Star, June 22).

The Jama'at ul-Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB)

When JMB’s top leadership was put on trial in March 2007, a new six-member central committee took shape with Maulana Sayedur Rahman Jaffar as the acting chief of the group. The other five members were identified by intelligence agencies as Assaduallah Arif, Tasleem, Faruq, Syed and Mahfuz (Jaijaidin [Dhaka], March 3, 2007; see also Terrorism Focus, March 27, 2007). Since that time Maulana Sayedur Rahman is believed to be heading the JMB in Bangladesh while operating from his home in the Mirpur locality of Dhaka.

Most of the second-rung JMB leaders went into hiding after the Bangladesh government’s proclamation of emergency and withdrew further following the executions of senior JMB leadership in March 2007. A similar case is that of Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI), whose cadres also went into hibernation soon after the countrywide crackdown on the HuJI leadership.

The JMB along with other terrorist groups wants to establish a shari’a-based Islamic state in Bangladesh. The outfit perpetrated a series of deadly bombings in market places and court premises in 2005. The counterterrorist RAB claims to have arrested nearly 44 JMB operatives during the last six months (Daily Star, July 19).

Transnational Terror Ties

Most of the Bangladesh-based terrorist outfits have well-nourished transnational linkages that reach as far as Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Myanmar. Bangladesh police recently arrested a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative, Mufti Obaidullah (a.k.a Abu Zafa), who has been working under LeT leader Amir Reza and LeT operative Khurram Khoiyam in Pakistan and Daowd Ibrahim in Dubai.

Obaidullah, originally from India’s West Bengal, reportedly told his interrogators that his task was to organize jihad in Bangladesh in cooperation with HuJi and JMB operatives. Obaidullah has close ties with Mufti Abdur Rauf of the HuJI and JMB’s Hasanuzzaman Hasan, who was arrested by police on July 17 (Independent, July 20; New Nation [Dhaka], July 20).

Within the last couple of months, counterterrorist forces have managed to arrest JMB’s IT chief Emranul Haque Rajib and top explosives expert Jahedul Islam Sumon (a.k.a Bomb Mizan), both from the Dhaka area. The explosives expert reportedly revealed during interrogation that JMB has close operational ties with the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), a militant movement drawn from Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Islam Sumon told his interrogators that the RSO had been giving terrorist training to various Islamic militants in Bangladesh since the 1980s and that he and other JMB operatives had been trained by RSO weapons experts at a camp near the Myanmar border. JMB reciprocated by teaching the Rohingyas how to make and detonate improvised explosive devices (IEDs)(Bangladesh2Day.com, May 19). Islam Sumon also revealed that many JMB members had fled to Pakistan either to undertake military training there or to fight for one of the militant groups operating in Pakistan (Daily Star June 23).

Conclusion

The Home Ministry of Bangladesh has recently made public a list of 12 terrorist organizations that are currently active in the country. [2] Earlier, they claimed that 33 terror outfits were active in the country. With the recent developments in view, the Bangladesh government is now planning to set up a highly-trained National Police Bureau of Counter Terrorism to combat militancy and terrorism. IoM appears to present a serious threat as the JMB dissidents look to revive their insurgency with new members and new tactics. Looking at the emergence of IoM and the surge of other terror groups, it would not be farfetched to conclude that this South Asian country could face the fate of Pakistan or Afghanistan if it fails to tackle the reemergence of Islamist terrorism.

Notes

1. See the article by A.H. Jaffor Ullah, “Kansat Uprising: The first peasant revolution in Bangladesh in a long time,” Mukto-Mona.com, April 15, 2006.

2. Bangladesh Home Ministry compiled a report that includes 12 militant groups. They are; Jama'atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB), Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI), Hizbut Towhid, Ulama Anjuman al Bainat, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Islami Democratic Party, Islami Samaj, Touhid Trust, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, Shahadat-e al-Hikma Party Bangladesh, Tamira Ar-Din Bangladesh (Hizb-e Abu Omar) and Allahr Dal (Times of India, March 17).

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=35326&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=7&cHash=0690e739a4

1971 Holocaust - WILL THERE BE EVER A TRIAL OF WAR CRIMINALS IN BANGLADESH?

By, S. Karmakar

The biggest massacre of civilian population after World War II was committed in former East Pakistan, now called Bangladesh, by the Pakistani Army during the 1971 war of liberation. In a period of nine months, the barbaric Pakistani Army, with the help of local fanatic mullahs, killed millions of innocents and sexually abused four hundred thousand women. Ninety (90%) of the murder victims were Hindus, and 95% or more rape victims were non Muslims, in other words, Hindus. In the past 37 years no minority organization, including Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity council, has ever demanded the trial of 1971 war criminals, like the Jewish people have demanded and received justice for the victim of holocaust.

The demand for justice against the perpetrators of 1971 is more important than the movement against the Vested Property Act, or the movement for the restoration of Ramna Kali Temple. Rape is considered as the most heinous crime of all. We may some time in future get back our properties, but not the dignity that we lost. We the victims never demanded justice for 1971 holocaust, and have thus helped the perpetrators to get away with their crime. If we could succeed in serving justice to the victim of 1971, then all other issues would become that much easier to solve. Because we could not serve justice to the perpetrators of 1971, the massacre of Hindus in 2001 was possible. And undoubtedly more will come in future. Due to financial, moral & diplomatic support from Muslim countries the perpetrators of 1971 war crimes are still unaccounted for by any court of justice. No Bangladesh government has yet requested the UN nor the International War Crime Tribunal for assistance, because they believe the majority Muslim population of Bangladesh will not support such trial.

The mindset of Bangladesh government and people are very clear about the perpetrators of 1971 war crimes. Many believe rape and forced conversion of non Muslims are legal under Muslim Sharia law during war. After being ruled for centuries by foreign Muslim rulers, converted Muslims of India consider the Arabs and Persians a higher race and dream of an Islamic khilafat (caliphate) in India. You will find many ruthless Murderers like Sultan Mahmud and Timur Lang (Tamer Lane) held up as heroes of Islamic history and many parents proudly name their child in those killers’ names. The war criminals of 1971 merely tried to repeat the history of their barbaric ancestors.

Buddhist, Jain, Sikh and other religions that were born in the Indian subcontinent, never denied their debt to Indian culture. But in contrast, Muslim elites not only refused to acknowledge their link to Indian culture, they tried to impose an essentially foreign culture on their population, by holding up the norms of Arab culture as worthy of emulation. We will see the same pattern of cultural attitude in the Muslim population of Europe & America.

The partition of India brought an end to centuries of Arab, Dutch, French and British domination of India, but culturally split the society into many groups. Many different religions can live side by side in harmony but not different culture. During 900 years of Muslim rule, the rulers planted Arab culture within Indian society through newly converted Muslims, which ultimately led to the partition in 1947. An Islamic political party, the All India Muslim League was founded in 1905 at Dhaka with Bengali Muslims in the forefront. Referendum for partition was held on 1946. In that historical referendum, a majority of Bengali Muslims voted for Pakistan. Without mass Bengali Muslim participation, partition of India would have not been possible. This is the mindset of Bangladeshi people today. Although there are so many myths about the independence war, the fact is that Bangladeshis overwhelmingly voted for Awami League in 1970 for economical parity, not for separation from Pakistan. Purely on sectarian basis, the two nation theory was put forward by All India Muslim League leaders like Mohammad Ali Jinnah. After a series of communal riots between Hindus and Muslims in 1946, Pakistan became a sovereign state for the Muslims and India remained committed to all religious sects. Just one year after partition, the first governor general Mohammad Ali Jinnah declared “Urdu” as the only state language of Pakistan. People of East Pakistan started agitating against the decision of Mr. Jinnah and that led to bloodshed of 1952. This language movement in 1952 planted the seed for Bangladeshi independence struggle in 1971.

Bangladesh is the only country in the world that still practices apartheid: minority Hindus are officially enemy of the state by a law called “Enemy Property Act” (which was conveniently renamed as the Vested property Act after independence). Under this unfair and draconian law, the government can confiscate Hindu properties and redistribute them to Muslims. So far more than a quarter million acres of Hindu owned land has been grabbed by the government and given over to Muslims. Ottoman and fascist Germany used similar law to confiscate non Muslim and Jewish owned properties. During Muslim occupation of India, the majority Hindus were forced to pay infidel tax (Jaziya). Bangladesh was created with spilling of Hindu blood and Indian military support in 1971. Ironically, India and Hindus are officially enemies of the state in Bangladesh today.

The first farcical war crime trial ended with the restoration of citizenship to Golam Azam (one of the top war criminals of 1971) and the present movement will likely end with a historic judgment from the Supreme Court that will effectively establish that there are no war criminals in Bangladesh. Thus, a dark chapter of human history will be closed for ever like the Turkish massacre of Armenians during the First World War.

A country that officially practices apartheid can never serve justice to another apartheid victim. If all minority organizations strongly campaign world-wide for justice for the victims of 1971 Holocaust, we may succeed one day. But by remaining quiet and diverting attention otherwise, we are helping the perpetrators.

Repeal Bangladesh's Racist Vested Property Act

Dr. Richard L. Benkin

Bangladesh’s Vested Property Act (VPA) is a racist law. It provides the government—which really means the corrupt politicians in the ruling party—with the power to seize the homes and farms of innocent citizens and distribute them as graft to their cronies. The VPA has its roots in Pakistan’s Enemy Property Act. After another embarrassing defeat at Indian hands in 1965, the Pakistani government passed a retaliatory law that allowed it to declare citizens (read Hindu citizens) enemies and confiscate their property. The Pakistani law was openly anti-Hindu, which matched the national rhetoric at the time and national sentiment most of the time.

When Bangladesh passed the VPA three years after its independence, it had to be more circumspect in its description, even though the law was worded to make it clear that the VPA’s substance was no different from its Pakistani forebear. After all, the Awami League politicians who passed the VPA then and now tries to maintain a fiction that they care about Bangladesh’s non-Muslim minorities. Good politics, you know. Moreover, most people still appreciated the fact that Bangladeshi independence was possible about only with the help of Indian arms. But the effect was the same. While the act has been used against other religious and ethnic minorities, Hindus have been the real targets. Professor Abul Barkat of Dhaka University undertook the most authoritative study of the VPA and concluded that by 1997, 40 percent of Hindu families in Bangladesh had been affected by it and more than half of all Hindu-owned land already had been confiscated under the act. Much more land and many more Hindus have been affected in the eleven years since then. So, there is no doubt that the VPA is a critical ingredient in ethnic cleansing. The fact that the percent of Hindus in Bangladesh has been cut in half concurrent with the act is evidence of those even more sinister, ethnic cleansing, motives behind the law.

The VPA is so clearly racist and immoral that the question of its being an outrage to every decent human being should not even a legitimate topic for discussion among civilized individuals. There is no justification for it, and every Bangladeshi should be embarrassed by it. Trying to make a case for it is like trying to justify Holocaust denial. Holocaust denial is the racist attempt by people, including Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmedinejad—to say that the Nazi slaughter of Europe’s Jews never happened. Some appeasers in universities and elsewhere are now trying to say it is merely another point of view that is a legitimate topic for study. Nonsense! It is a racist lie; members of my family who survived the Holocaust can testify to that. Other members of my family who did not survive it would do the same if they could! Trying to justify the VPA is a racist lie, too.

According to Barkat, only about 0.4 percent of the Bangladeshi population shares in the spoils of the VPA, all of them connected to one political party or another. During the period of his original study, the time of Awami League control, Barkat found the following breakdown of who got the seized property:

Awami League 44%
BNP 32%
Jatiya Party 6%
Jamaat-e-Islami 5%
Others 13%

Barkat’s breakdown during BNP control was:
BNP 45%
Awami League 31%
Jamaat-e-Islami 8%
Jatiya Party 6%
Others 10%

Bangladesh has long been known for its massive corruption. These figures make it clear that this is not even a principled bigotry but nothing more than legalized plunder for dishonest politicians. The blood money seems the real reason why Bangladeshis refuse to repeal this racist law. For what other countries besides Bangladesh and Pakistan have such a law? Imagine the reaction if any nation where Muslims are a minority had a similar law directed at them! Various Bangladeshi officials like to call Israel “apartheid” and take a political position in which the government tries to pretend it is morally superior to the Jewish state. It even deprives its citizens of the chance to travel to Israel through its bigoted passport regulations. But Bangladesh’s politically connected few grow fat by stealing ancestral Hindu lands and expelling their Hindu citizens; yet, if the nation they so cynically and unjustly condemn ever tried to pass a similar law aimed at Arabs, the Israeli Supreme Court would strike it down before it ever had a chance to be implemented.

Defending an indefensible law like the VPA also makes Bangladeshi representatives look very foolish. Recently, one Bangladeshi official actually tried to convince me that the VPA was in force “to protect Hindus and other minorities.” I very genuinely advised him not to try that on others as it is an insult to the listener’s intelligence and only makes the Bangladeshi government appear tragically ridiculous. Another Bangladeshi leader told me not long ago that “the current government has no intention of addressing the Vested Property Act during its tenure,” as, he said, the matter was too complex. Complex? The Vested Property Act is undisguised racism and brings nothing but international disrepute on Bangladesh. Oh, and by the way, Awami League, no one—not even your toadies in the press—were taken in by your disingenuous Vested Properties Return Act, which was nothing more than a cheap stunt to win votes in an election year.

The VPA is so beyond the pale of what decent nations subscribe to that its continuation has other, serious consequences for the people of Bangladesh—almost none of whom derive even a single Taka from the VPA. For instance, Bangladesh has been struggling for years, and with no success, to obtain tariff relief and other trade benefits from the United States, its principle garment customer. To be sure, its failure has been due more than anything else to Bangladesh’s continued false persecution of journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, which the entire US Congress has condemned on the record. Yet, it is also quite possible that Bangladesh’s continued enforcement of the VPA could be at odds with US law regarding such treaties and agreements. The VPA could be a similar obstacle to agreements with Canada, the European Union, and other countries, as well as the World Trade Organization.

For over forty years, first as East Pakistan then as Bangladesh, the racist and Nazi-like nature of the VPA has not moved politicians to act in defense of human rights. One would think that if human decency cannot move Bangladeshi leaders to do the right thing, perhaps self-interest will. We do know that the current government has more flexibility to act than the previous, corrupt regimes ever did and a clearer perception of the realities facing Bangladesh. Whether they do act, however, remains a matter of speculation. What is not speculative, however, is that if they do not and the VPA remains, the losers will be all Bangladeshis—Muslims as well as Hindus and other minorities. And the world will remain silent no longer.