Dipankar Chakrabarty-the executive editor of Bogra based Durjoy Banglsa assassinated

Assailants killed Dipankar Chakrabarty, a senior journalist and vice-president of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), at Sanyalpara in Sherpur in the early hours yesterday. Executive editor of local daily Durjoy Bangla, Dipankar, 59,was on his way home after work when the attackers swooped on him near his house and cut off his head with an axe at about 12:30am.
Neighbours heard him screaming and motorbikes speeding away. Shortly afterwards, Shamal Basak, a next-door neighbor, found Dipankar's decapitated body lying on the road. He immediately informed Dipankar's family of it. Dipankar's eldest son Partha Sarthi Chakrabarty filed a case with the Sherpur Police Station yesterday. Police said they had recovered a sack and a new towel used by the assailants from the scene.
Dipankar's body was taken to the Bogra Press Club after autopsy. Local journalist community held a rally there to protest the killing. They issued an ultimatum to the administration to nab the killers within 72 hours. They also brought out a silent procession with Dipankar's body and blockaded the Dhaka-Bogra highway for five minutes. They decided to keep blank space on the front page of newspapers for the next three days as a gesture of protest at the killing.
Dipankar started his career in journalism in mid 70s as a Sherpur correspondent of Daily Kartoa. He worked as an
assistant editor of the daily for a long time. Besides, he worked for Daily Bangladesh and Daily Chandni Bazar before joining Durjoy Bangla.
He was the former president of Bogra Union of Journalists (BUJ) and Sherpur Press Club and convenor of  Sherpur Reporters' Unity. BFUJ in a statement condemned the killing of Dipankar.They decided to hoist black flags at all the
union offices and put on black badges till October 7.

Source: The Daily Star Web Edition Vol. 5 Num 131

Assassination attempt on opposition leader Sheikh Hasina

We strongly condemn the recent assassination attempt on Sheikh Hasina on 21 August 2004 in a public rally called Protest against state backed terrorism. The people and groups most likely to be behind this attack are: 1. Freedom party armed cadres, 2. Al-Quaida trained Jihadists 3. Jamat-e-Islami 4. Pakistan military intelligence (ISI) 5. Motiur Rahman Nizami 6. Hard core BNP clique headed by Tarek Zia 7. Salauddin Kader Chowdhury. 8. Abdur Rahman Shayakh.

List of casualties: Mahbub (Hasina's body guard), Rafiqul Islam, Mostak Hissain Sentu, Rahiman Moazzem, Kuddus Patwari, Sufia Begum, Hasina Momtaz, Ayub Munshi, Parvin Begum, Kashem Miyan, Rafiq Mollah (ginger uncle), Zahid Miyan, , Rina (42), Liton Ahmed Litu, Ivy Rahman and Injured 300 people including the key leaders and supporters of Awami League

Weapons used: Australian made grenades, standard Pakistan army issue and shots from SMGs.

Update: Govt is trying to confuse Interpol reps making ordinary criminals responsible for the attack in order to hide the Jihadists who are backed by their partners in the power (Jamat-e-Islami, Islami Oikya Jote, Islamic Constitution Movement Mujahedin Al Islam, Freedom Party). Police has arrested a Hindu internet cafe owner, Partha Saha, and brutal orture in the police custody has crippled him. Govt and its partner Jamat-e-Islam are blaming Awami League and India for the blast.

Stop the Paki Military Dictator’s visit to Bangladesh

Dear Bengalis around the world,

On behalf of Muktadhara net, a Bengali website, our sincere appeal to you is to join us in this e-campaign to protest against the forthcoming state visit of the Paki military dictator, General Parvez Musharraf, to Bangladesh.

The historical facts that occasion this protest campaign are:

1. During our liberation war of 1971 the Pakistani occupation army killed 3 millions Bengalis.

2.  In the same instance they raped, molested and trafficked nearly 450,000 Bengali women.

3. As an officer of Pakistan Army, General Musharaf, cannot avoid the responsibility for the ravage his organization has inflicted on the unarmed people of Bangladesh in 1971.

4. As the head of Pakistan army General Musharaf has never officially condemned the Pakistani War Criminals of our liberation war (notorious generals such as Rao Forman Ali, Niazi and other comrades at arms. Please visit www.muktadhara.net/warcriminal for details) who the Pakistani military establishment have never tried for their crimes but rather rewarded them with elitist life-style. 

5. To accord the vile dictator a state visit to a democratic country is to dishonor the people of the host country who lost millions of their countrymen in 1971 for democracy and civil governance.  

We strongly demand that a Pakistani Head of the State can officially be invited in Bangladesh only after:

1. S/he apologizes, on behalf of the Pakistani people, for the crime committed against the Bengalis in our liberation war of 1971.

2. S/he agrees, on principle, to compensate (as Japan did to Korea) for the Bengali massacre in 1971 and the damage done to our economic infrastructure.

We have also identified the following hidden political agendas of the present government underlying their initiative to host the Paki military dictator’s visit:

 a.     To reinforce the already invalidated Two Nations Theory of Jinnah which resulted in the bloody partition of India in 1947 and caused an irremediable dichotomy in our national identity in 1975.

b.    To reinforce the hegemony of the Mohajirs (the Ghatis or the Muslim settlers from India since 1947) in Bangladeshi politics. The Mohajirs have always been instrumental in destroying political institutions and democratic systems of Bangladesh. The notorious military dictators of Bangladesh are all Mohajirs (Colonel Faruq/Rashid in 1975, General Zia in 1977 and General Ershad in 1985). The highest echelon of the present government of Bangladesh comprised only of the Mohajirs. Their military and bureaucratic counterparts are also Mohajirs.

c.     To encourage communal politics as a means to subvert secular and democratic traditions- a legacy of the anti colonial movement of the Bengalis.

d.    To enhance the subversive activities of the military intelligence (a subsidiary of the Inter Services Intelligence, ISI, of Pakistan army) of Bangladesh army especially against democratic movement and civil governance.

We condemn all the hidden political agendas of the present government making for this current political fiasco and urge you to join us in this e-campaign to foil the anti-national policies of the present government.

Thank you.

Muktadhara editor

Bangladeshi Muslim cleric provokes threat on US campaign against terrorism and Bengali heritage.

So-called Maulana Ubaidul Huq, the Khatib (cleric) of the Bangladeshi national mosque, Baitul Mukarram, has condemned  the US campaign against terrorism and urged, in his speech at the official Eid prayer, the Bangladeshi Muslims to wage jihad (holy war) against the US.

 “President Bush and America is the most heinous terrorist of the world. Both America and Bush be destroyed” -said the Mullah in his formal Eid prayer which addresses a massive gathering of hundreds and thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims including the top state officials, i.e. the president, chief justice, diplomats, business magnets and the influential ministers of the government. Mullah Ubaidul’s speech did not end up with condemnation of US anti terrorist campaign, he literally urged the Bangladeshi Muslims to wage a jihad (holy war) against USA--" America will be washed away if 120 millions of Bangladeshi Muslims spit on them.”

Not only that this vile Mullah provoked the Islamic hatred against  rich Bengali heritage. The ignorant brute, like the Taliban mullahs in Afghanistan, urged the Muslims not to celebrate pre-Islamic cultural events such as Bengali new year. “The Muslims have only two festivals”, says Mullah from the pulpit, “: Eid-ul-fitr and Azha, and apart from these two Muslims are not allowed to celebrate any other cultural festivals. Not even Bengali new year which is Hindu in origin”

While both the threats of the Mullah are alarming, in Bangladeshi context Mullah Ubaidul’s anti American threat is less relevant (unlike the militant Afghans, timid & dwarfish Bangladeshis pose no real  threat to America) and far-reaching than his provocation to obliterate the Bengali heritage from the collective memories of the ignorant and illiterate Bangladeshi Muslims.

The most alarming aspect of this incident is that it seems to have had the government’s approval as the president and a number of high state officials were in the first row of the audience and there was no protest against Mullah’s deliberate provocations. Silence of the audience seemed to underscore their consent.   

The liberal intellectuals of Bangladesh see this incident posing a terrible threat to the roots of mainstream Bengali culture. Before the liberation the Pakistani military rulers took all measures to obliterate Bengali heritage. They imposed bans on Tagore’s music that hails humanism and celebrates all Bengali festivals and cultural events. The liberation war was the Bengali response against the Pakistani attempt for cultural obliteration. But since the counter revolution in 1975, the exponents of Muslim Bangla (the four party alliance) have been trying to superimpose a distorted cultural identity on the Bengalis of Bangladesh. The elements of Bengali culture serve as effective antidotes against Islamic culture that spawns Islamic fundamentalism-- a precondition for Taliban style Islamic theocratic states. The proponents of Muslim Bangla are aware of the innate strengths of Bengali culture and hence they have been using all institutions and media to obliterate the elements of Bengali heritage from the collective memories of the people of Bangladesh.

     Anti Liberation Alliance Axes Freedom Fighters

Since the victory in recent election the anti liberation political alliance of Bangladesh, the so-called four party alliance, have resumed the notorious political scheme devised by Zia to systemically eliminate the freedom fighters from all government jobs. In ten weeks since their victory in election they have axed/ reshuffled the following positions:

1. 31 high officials in the police department have been made OSD 

2. Appointments of 65 Assistant Directors of National Security Intelligence (NSI) have so far been cancelled as they are from the Hindu or freedom fighter families. Daily Janakantha 27.11. 2001

3. 68 cadres from ministry of planning, sent overseas on government scholarship for higher studies, are recalled home. 

4. 700 transfers in six weeks. Bhorer Kagaj. 

5. All freedom fighter officers of 73 BCS (Bangladesh Civil Service) batch will be fired. 19 officers have already been fired. Daily Sangbad 22. 11.2001

Statistics: Terrorism against Bangalee Hindus

Affected districts:

Region 01: Bhola, Bagherhat and Barisal districts

Region 02: Chittagong, Sirajganj, Pabna, Rajshahi and Patuakhali. 

Region 03: Natore, Gazipur, Keshoreganj, Feni, Jenidah, Lalmonirhat, Gopalganj and Meherpur.

HOMELESS HINDU BANGALEES

Besides the above mentioned figures an estimated number of 100 (Bogra-77, magura-7) families, due to the government baked terrorism, have reportedly deserted their homes.

Statistics on the 5th Exodus of the Bangalee Hindus

So bolstered by the administrative power of the the caretaker government and political power of the four (Pro Islamic) party alliance, the terrorists have forced 30,000 Bangalee Hindus to leave Bangladesh.

Source: The Daily Janakantha

Appeal for the release of Shahriar Kabir

Shahriar Kabir, a prominent freedom fighter, columnist, film director and writer was arrested last week by the special security forces at the airport on his way back home from Kolkata. Daily Star reports on his arrest:

“….........After about 20 hours of confinement, police yesterday officially confirmed that Shahriar Kabir, a writer, columnist and acting president of Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee (Committee for Elimination of the Killers and Collaborators of 71), was arrested under Section 54 of the CrPC on charges of involvement in anti-state activities and he was sent to Dhaka Central Jail. Shahriar Kabir was detained by the Special Branch (SB) of police at the Immigration Desk of Zia International Airport on his return from Kolkata and confined at the airport police station without any specific charge on Thursday night. He was sent to the jail yesterday afternoon after being produced before the CMM's Court.

Airport police sought one-month's detention. But the Magistrate M M Mamunur Rashid, sent him to jail pending decision by the District Magistrate.  In his order, the CMM said that the District Magistrate's Court was the proper authority to pass detention order. "As the District Magistrate's Court is closed today, the decision regarding the issue would be finalised on a working day," he said. When contacted, airport police said that Kabir was arrested under Section 54 of the CrPC. They said that SB confined him on his arrival from Kolkata and was kept in their custody. The duty officer of the thana added that they were yet to bring any specific charges against him.

Police also seized Kabir's passport, five video cassettes, some audio CDs and cassette, his camera and film and are examining those. Despite repeated calls, officials at the Immigration Department at the airport declined to make any comment on this issue. Neither the Home Minister nor any SB high official could also be contacted for their comments on Kabir's confinement till late Thursday night.

Additional Inspector General SB Masudual Haq confirmed to The Daily Star last night that Kabir was arrested at midnight Thursday on charges of his involvement in anti-state activities. He however did not offer any details about this. When asked under what law Shahriar Kabir was arrested, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Barrister Moudud Ahmed who was attending a workshop at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity yesterday told the journalists that he did not know the details about the case.

Shahriar Kabir went to Kolkata on November 11. While there, he gave an interview to the BBC radio on the minority issue in which he claimed that many Hindus have crossed over into India after the recent incidents of attack on the minorities. This has irked the government, sources speculated.

On Thursday night, after interrogation at the airport thana, Kabir was taken to the SB headquarters at Malibagh at about 11:45 pm where he was interrogated for another couple of hours, sources said. Kabir was kept at SB office overnight and was produced before the CMM's court yesterday afternoon.

Sources said he was questioned on different political issues, particularly the reasons of his Kolkata trip and the comments he made on the issue of atrocities on the minority in the country. A number of people, including friends, relatives and family members of Kabir desperately tried to contact or meet him since confinement at the airport, but nobody, including family members, were allowed to see him. The police officials failed to give any official version of his arrest till Friday afternoon. In a hurriedly called press conference at the National Press Club yesterday afternoon, the leaders of Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee strongly condemned the detention of Kabir and demanded his immediate release......"

Protest Against Shahriar's Arrest

".....Blasting the government for the way Kabir was harassed without any specific charge, they expressed grave concern over the incident. Terming the detention as undemocratic, they threatened public protest if Kabir was not released soon. "We will also go for legal action against his detention," Prof. Kabir Chowdhury said. He wanted the government to let the people know on what ground Kabir was arrested. "We also want to know why people tried to conceal the incident."

 "This is an autocratic action by the government and is not expected in a democratic country," he said and added that the democratic right of Kabir has been seriously violated through this incident.

Prof. Muntasir Mamun, Tagore exponent Wahidul Haq and Prof Anisuzzaman spoke on the occasion, among others. They all condemned the incident and demanded Kabir's immediate release.

Awami League General Secretary Zillur Rahman in a statement yesterday strongly condemned the arrest and harassment of Kabir without any specific charges and demanded his immediate release.

Bangladesh Association for Hindu, Buddhist and Christian Unity has decided to observe countrywide 'protest day' on November 29 to demand the release of writer-columnist Shahriar Kabir and protest the attacks on the minorities.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the executive body of the Parisad held at Dhakeswari Mandir yesterday. The meeting expressed deep concern over, what it termed, the post-election attacks on minorities. Bangladesh Udichi Shilpi Gosthi also condemned the arrest and demanded immediate release of Kabir........" (Daily Star)

 Update: Shahriar Kabir detained for a month

 "...The District Magistrate's Court, Dhaka, has given one month's detention to …. Shahriar Kabir under the Special Powers Act, 1974. The court gave the order on Sunday night, it was learnt yesterday. Metropolitan Public Prosecutor (PP) Mahmud Hasan yesterday filed a Criminal Revision with the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court seeking cancellation of stay of the order for remand of Shahriar Kabir, passed by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court on Sunday.

Legal experts however pointed out that the PP has no right to file any case on behalf of the state, but he did so by filing the Criminal Revision. During the hearing on the issue at 2:30 p.m, Judge Ahmed Jamil Mostafa reminded the PP of his limitations and gave him a decision of the High Court for reading it out.

The HC said PP does not have the right to file any case on behalf of the state. PP Hassan read out the HC decision and then withdrew the Criminal Revision filed by him. More than 100 lawyers were present in the court during the hearing. On Sunday, the CMM's Court stayed for two weeks an order passed by it earlier in the day to put Shahriar Kabir on a two-day remand.

Magistrate Kazi Meraj Hossain gave the order following a petition by the defence lawyers for a stay of the remand order, saying that they planned       to file a criminal appeal with the High Court against the impugned order.       The court also rejected Shahriar's bail prayer and ordered sending him to      Dhaka Central Jail...... (Daily Star)

Comments

The charges against Shahriar, as far as revealed from the official representatives of the recently formed theocratic government born of the union between Jamat (Bangladeshi Talibans) and the neo-Muslim leaguers, BNP, are that Shahriar was intent on ruining the image of the so-called Islamic government by making some documentary films about the Bangalee Hindu minorities who the hooligans of those Islamic parties have bashed, stabbed , burnt, shot and raped their daughters, sisters, wives aunts and even mums so much that they fled to India as refugees.

According to a spokesman of the present Islamic government of Bangladesh, this vile heretic (SK), and God deserted separatist (freedom fighter) did not content himself by making documentary films about the mass killings, arson and rapes of the top war criminals (who are the key ministers of this government), he is presently making another documentary film about the recent attack on the Banglaee Hindus causing the fifth major Hindu exodus (1947,1971,1975, 1986) since the creation of damn Pakistan.  The reason Shahriar was arrested in the airport was that an Indian secret agency (primarily concerned to conserve the interest of the non-Bangalee cow worshipers, at the expense of the West Bangalee Hindus as they are atheists, because they make big bucks selling cows, saris, eggs, and pirate copies of Bollywood movies to the Islamic government of Bangladesh) informed that Shahriar has interviewed the Bangladeshi Hindu refugees in Kolkata to make a documentary film about them for international audience. The Islamic government of Bangladesh believes that the release of those videos overseas may convince the international communities that the present Bangladeshi government is but another version of Talibanism in this region besides its prime minister being a porky lady with questionable reputation and thus convinced the rich western states may stop foreign aids to Bangladesh which would be fatal for the big shots of this government as it is one of their main sources of income (besides smuggling, drug and arms trafficking and confiscation of Hindu properties).

 Moreover, implied not stated, the elimination of Shahriar Kabir has been a top priority for the high command of Jamaat-e-Islam. Shahriar has survived the systematic elimination of the freedom fighters, secular humanists, by the agents of anti liberation establishment started with the killing of BB Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. Since the counter revolution, they are running a program to kill all the leading freedom fighters of liberation war. After Sk Mujib, his main associates (Taj, Nazrul, Kzaman, Mansur) were killed in the Dhaka central Jail. Zia and Ershad have killed the remaining freedom fighter  officers and soldiers of the defense forces. The civilian freedom fighters were either bought over (pro BNP Freedom Fighters Association), forced to leave the country or turned devout Muslims (Kader Siddiki). But few hardcore freedom fighters like Shahriar Kabir have defense forces ofsurvived. He proved himself invincibly committed to the principles of liberation war: nationalism, secularism, democracy and socialism. The key figures of Jamat and, by extension, BNP have killed his cousins: secular intellectuals, Zahir Ryhan and Sahidullah Kaiser. His enemies are well aware that Shahriar’r recent projects pose great threats to their survival and their political hegemony. His extraordinary short and documentary films, Jesus of 71 and Cry for Justice have created, both home and abroad, a remarkable public awareness among the post war Bangalee generations. This is why it was imperative for the Jamati high command to stop Shahriar. Before the election they tried to kill Hasan Imam, the president of the Comittee for Elimination of Killers and Collaborators of 71 in an explosion at a cultural program of the Udichi artists group. Alarmed by the repeated deadly threats Hasan Imam has to go underground. After Hasan’s disappearance from the scene Shahriar has been working as the acting vice president of the committee.

 So the Jamati high command used this opportunity to stop him forever. Shariar suffers from heart disease. Police remands (Bangladeshi police is famous for its notoriety in killing prisoners in remand, a punitive method very popular among the people in the authorities to eliminate its political opponents) are more likely to inflict a fatal blow to him. Despite appeals from his solicitors the magistrate is not canceling orders for police remands. Besides, he is put in the prison among the deadly criminals and murderers and treatment for his heart disease is not sanctioned. In Bangladeshi prisons the instances of giving natural death certificates to prisoners died due to police torture are not rare. The prison authority cannot guarantee the security of the prisoners as government deployed assassins can easily enter and kill the prisoners in the central jail as it happened in the past where top nationalist leaders of the liberation war were killed in the jail.

Bangladeshi Talibans hit a leading secular humanist

  Mr. Gopal Krishna Muhuri, the principal of Nazirhat Degree college at Hathajari in Chittagong district, a committed educationist, secular humanist and a leading organizer of the liberation war, was killed in his residence on 16 November 2001 by a group of armed cadres believed to be the members of the death squad, a gang of trained assassins patronized by the Islamic fundamentalist party of Bangladesh, Jamat-e-Islam and assigned to eliminate the leading secular humanists of Bangladesh.

At around 6 o’clock on Friday morning, reports a leading local newspaper, four terrorists, all attired in loose Islamic cloak (Taliban style), alight from an  auto-rickshaw in front of the principal's residence and wait out side the gate of his residence. When the main gate opens at 7 o’clock, the terrorists walk up into his flat. The principal was sleeping and his wife, Mrs. Uma Muhuri, was reading newspaper in the living room. All on a sudden four terrorists storm into the living room, introduce themselves as officers of the Detective Branch, and accuse Mrs. Muhuri of providing hideout to a Awami League leader, Tayab Ali,  in her residence. Taken by surprise Mrs. Muhuri says why should Tayab be in her place. They demand her residence to be searched and detain her in a room.

Then they enter the principal’s bedroom, wake him up and question him for Tayub’s whereabouts. The principal states as a principal he is not lying. While interrogating they force him out of his bedroom and lead him to the living room. Bewildered and exhausted by the storming marauders, the old principal  collapses on his lounge. As soon as the principal reclines on the lounge one of the terrorists put the rifle on his head and fires two successive rounds. Blood, bones and brain, splash out covering the lounge, the wall and the roof while his dead body reposes on the lounge.

  As all of deceased principal’s family members rush into the living room at the terrible gunshots, the terrorists blank-fires several times to terrorize the neighborhood and then jump into the waiting auto-rickshaw and disappear.

  Elimination of secular humanists is a priority program carried out by the Islamic fundamentalists in Bangladesh and Pakistan. The same deadly group, then (1971) called Al-Badr or Death Squad, killed 450 top intellectuals and professionals jointly blueprinted by Pakistani military intelligence and the leaders of Jamat-e-Islam and Muslim league. Ever since their victory in the  recent election as the ally of the neo-Muslim Leaguers BNP, the militant Jamati leaders have been publicly threatening to resume their so-called cleansing program again. To all secular intellectuals around the country, they conveyed their deadly message  in various forms: threat over the phone, by anonymous letters, symbolic death message by sending shrouds. They used the similar tactics in 1971: 450 dead bodies embody the fatality of their death threats. Government backing guarantees the success of their elimination process. In the predominantly theocratic society of Bangladesh the secular intellectuals do not have strong allies to confront such evil forces. So we see many of the leading secular intellectuals have either resigned from their (anti fundamentalist organizational) posts (Poet Shamsur Rahman), or gone underground (Hasan Imam, president Nirmul Committee). Failing to kill Hasan Imam (actor, TV artist) in the Udichi (a cultural organization) explosion, they used the government machinery (Special Branch) to arrest his successor, Shahriar Kabir, a prominent journalist and the president of Nirmul Committee, on false charges. The Hindu Bangalee intellectuals, being minority and lacking administrative representation, are more vulnerable to the onslaught of the Muslim fundamentalists. Moreover, because of their property and asset, the Hindu intellectuals are in the forefront of the Muslim fundamentalists' hit list. The other reason Hindus are more victims of Taliban style onslaught is their moral strength, and indestructible spirit to challenge forces of evil, face to face a trait not so conspicuous among their Muslim counterpart. Educationists and professionals, like Gopal Muhuri, could leave their place of birth long time ago. But they did not desert their beloved motherland even though their lives were at stake. They paid their lives, their blood for our redemption.

The political mission, structure and strategies of the  Jamat based Islamic fundamentalists resemble that of the Afghani Talibans. Both of them were developed by the SIS (Pakistani Military Intelligence) and funded by the Arabian countries and western organizations  rewarded by the social instability caused by these monsters.

Our deepest condolences to the family members and friends of late Principal Gopal Muhuri. We appeal to all the conscientious people of the world to demand trial of the killers of such an accomplished educationist.

22 October 2001

We strongly protest against the Islamic fundamentalists' threat of persecution of  the secular intellectuals of Bangladesh and appeal to international communities to act against the alarming  rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh under the aegis of the present government.

17 October 2001

7 October 2001

23 September 2001

12 September 2001

Election: 2001

Stop the Islamic Fundamentalists, save Bangladesh become another Taliban State