Bangladesh PM Hasina narrowly escapes bomb blast

DHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina today had a narrow escape when several bombs exploded in a busy commercial area here minutes after her convoy passed through it.

Several crude bombs exploded in Dhaka's Karwan Bazar only 10 minutes after Hasina's convoy passed the area. Hasina was on her way to address a rally organised by the ruling Awami League in the capital's Suhrawardy Udyan, to mark the anniversary of the historic public address by the Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1971.

One police official received minor injuries in the blasts.

"But the official, ASI Mahbub, is fine and is still on duty," bdnews24 online quoted a police official as saying.

The blasts occurred amid an ongoing transport blockade and a shutdown across Bangladesh, enforced by the Opposition BNP and its allies.

Bomb blasts and arson attacks have become frequent in Bangladesh during the blockade that started on January 5 and shutdowns that the 20-Party alliance led by BNP has been enforcing since the beginning of February.

More than 100 people have died in the past two months, mostly in fire-bombings. Many more have been injured.

The BNP-led strike aims to force the Hasina-government to hold fresh elections a year after the controversial elections last year which the BNP had boycotted demanding a neutral caretaker government to oversee the polls. AR ABH

The moment American blogger's wife was left covered in blood next to her husband's mutilated body after he was hacked to death by Muslim militants for insulting Islam and 'in retaliation for U.S. strikes on ISIS'

Dr Avijit Roy dead on the floor in Dhaka, Left, his wounded wife, Rafida Ahmed, stands over his body

• Dr Avijit Roy was attacked on Thursday night by cleaver-wielding extremists by university mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Militants, Ansar Bangla 7, claimed responsibility, saying Dr Roy's writings were a 'crime against Islam'
• Obscure militant group said that Roy's U.S. citizenship made the killing a '2 in 1' - doubling as revenge for airstrikes in Syria
• Doctors said Roy's wounds - three deep, deliberate gashes to the head - were made by 'professional killers'
• Roy's wife, Rafida Ahmed, was slashed after trying to protect him - and is in hospital with a deep gash to her head
• Police believe that the attack is linked to Dhaka university - but have yet to arrest anybody
• The couple, both of whom are bloggers, were living in Atlanta, Georgia, and were visiting Dhaka for a book fair
• Roy was well-known for his writings against religious extremism, both online and in published books
• U.S. condemned 'horrific' murder on Friday - but said it could not give a motive
• WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

By Kieran Corcoran and Sam Matthew for MailOnline

This is the moment a prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger was hacked to death in the street by militant Muslims after denouncing religious extremism.

Dr Avijit Roy, 42, from Atlanta, Georgia, was jumped by the gang of machete-wielding assailants last night in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh - leaving his injured wife standing over his bleeding body. He is well-known in Bangladesh for for his outspoken atheism.

An obscure militant group, Ansar Bangla 7, claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said was in retaliation for his 'crime against Islam'.

The extremists also said he was singled out because he is a U.S. citizen - and characterized the vicious killing as 'revenge' for attacks on ISIS in Syria.

Police said at least two men, who are believed to have links to Dhaka University, attacked Roy around 8.45pm and landed three strong, deliberate blows to the right side of his head.

They turned on his wife, Rafida Ahmed, when she tried to save him, then fled into the crowd, dumping their weapons as they ran. Police have expressed shock that extremists struck at a university book fair, which was heavily guarded.

Witnesses have even said officers and bystanders were there during the murder - but did nothing. Several onlookers told Al-Jazeera nobody intervened in the brazen attack, while even police chiefs had said they were baffled that a man could be murdered so close to the heavily-guarded area.

The United States today said the murder was 'horrific in its brutality and cowardice' and represents an attack on the 'principles' of Bangladesh.

Roy's body was found in a pool of blood on Thursday night after the brutal attack. Ahmed, 45, is also a blogger. She is reportedly now in hospital with a deep cut to her head.

Rafida Ahmed is pictured above being stretchered to hospital after the attack on Thursday night. Police say she was attacked after trying to defend her husband

Roy, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen and also a bio-engineer, had been receiving death threats online for years.

One Muslim fanatic, Farabi Shafiur Rahman, had reportedly posted threats on Facebook last year that Roy would be killed as soon as he returned to the country.

Roy and his wife were visiting the city of Dhaka for a book fair when they were set upon opposite the Dhaka University Central Mosque. Police have said the attackers likely have links to the university.

Jubilant extremists writing on social media were quick to praise the attackers. The account for Ansar Bangla 7 made a post which linked the killing to Roy's nationality - and American airstrikes on ISIS.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2971508/American-blogger-spoke-against-religious-extremism-hacked-death-Muslim-militant-group-Bangladeshi-street-walked-wife.html

Bangladesh sentences Islamist leader to death

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Azharul Islam found guilty of war crimes committed during 1971 independence war against Pakistan.

Bangladesh's war crimes court has sentenced a leading Islamist leader to death for rape, mass murder and genocide during the country's 1971 liberation war.

ATM Azharul Islam, 62, assistant secretary general of the nation's largest Islamist party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, became the 16th person and the 11th Islamist to be convicted of atrocities by the International Crimes Tribunal.

The tribunal found him guilty on Tuesday of being a key member of a notorious pro-Pakistan militia.

He was ordered "hanged by the neck" for the genocide of more than 1,200 people in the northern district of Rangpur.

"No doubt, it was mass murder," presiding judge Enayetur Rahimjudge Rahim told a packed court.

Those killed included hundreds of minority Hindus in one of the worst episodes of the nine-month war, which saw what was then east Pakistan break away from the regime in Islamabad.

Defence lawyer Tajul Islam rejected the charges against Azharul Islam and said his team planned to appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court.

"Azharul Islam was a 19-year-old student during the war and in no way was involved in war crime. The charges against him are false and fabricated," the lawyer said.

Nationwide shutdown

Jamaat-e-Islami has called dawn-to-dusk countrywide shutdown for Wednesday and Thursday in protest against the verdict.

Previous death sentences handed down against Jamaat leaders, including its supreme and spiritual leaders, plunged Bangladesh into its deadliest unrest last year.

Thousands of Islamists clashed with police in nationwide protests over the verdicts and other issues that left some 500 people dead.

The BNP and Jamaat have called the trials politically motivated, aimed at eliminating opposition leaders rather than rendering justice.

Rights groups have said the trials fall short of international standards. The government maintains they are needed to heal the wounds of the war, which it says left three million people dead.

Independent researchers put the toll much lower.

Bangladesh 'Hajj critic' AL Siddique is arrested

By BBC

A senior Bangladeshi politician who criticised the annual Hajj pilgrimage made by Muslims to Mecca has been arrested in Dhaka.

Abdul Latif Siddique was denied bail and sent to jail on charges of insulting Islam.

Mr Siddique returned from India on Sunday after a long trip abroad.

Calls for his arrest came after he told a gathering in New York in September that he was "dead against the Hajj". He was subsequently sacked as a minister.

His comments triggered an angry reaction among hard line Islamist parties, who staged protests.

They and other opposition political parties demanded the former telecommunication minister's immediate arrest.
'An apostate'

Television footage from the US showed Mr Siddique telling a Bangladeshi expatriate audience in New York that he opposed the Hajj, and that the Prophet Mohammed had established it partly for commercial reasons.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30195714

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami chief found guilty of rape, genocide; to be hanged to death

Dhaka: In what a special Bangladeshi war crimes tribunal called a 'historic' verdict, the head of Jamaat-e-Islmai, Motiur Rahman Nizami, was handed death sentence for 1971 war crimes, sparking fears of fresh violence.

71-year-old Nizami was tried on over a dozen charges and found guilty of genocide, torture, murder, rape etc.

Announcing the verdict, the three-member court ruled that the former cabinet minister must be “hanged by neck to death” as despite being a scholar he “misinterpreted Quran” and was involved in killing of professors, doctors and writers during the nine-month conflict, the AFP quoted prosecutor Haider Ali.

During the conflict, Nizami ran a brutal militia named Al-Badr, which was notorious for having committed heinous war crimes.

Security has been beefed up in Dhaka and across the country as the verdict has triggered fresh fears of the country's largest religious party fomenting marches and violence in protest of Nizami's death sentence.

Some two lakh women were reportedly raped, three million people were killed and millions more were forced to escape to India in the 1971 war of independence after Bangladesh split from Pakistan.

About a dozen Islamist leaders have been convicted of war crimes by the tribunal which is opposed by the Islamists as a tool by the Sheikh Hasin government to settle scores against the opposition.

While PM Sheikh Hasina considers it as a way to bring to task the perpetrators of atrocities in 1971 war that left scores dead.

Bangladesh minister sacked after criticism of Haj

• Telecom minister Abdul Latif Siddique declared an apostate

DHAKA: Bangladesh has sacked a top minister after his criticism of the Muslim pilgrimage of Haj triggered protests by Islamists who declared him an apostate and set a 24-hour deadline to replace him.

Abdul Latif Siddique, the country’s telecommunications minister, who is in New York accompanying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, made the comments which were aired by local television stations.

Siddique said: “I am dead against Haj and Tablig Jamaat. Two million people have gone to Saudi Arabia to perform Haj. Haj is a waste of manpower. Those who perform Haj do not have any productivity. They deduct from the economy, spend a lot of money abroad.”

The comments drew immediate protests from the group Hefajat-e-Islam whose leaders called him “an apostate” and set a 24-hour deadline to the government to sack him from the Cabinet.

A senior official told AFP Siddique would be removed but he did not comment whether it was linked to demand by the Islamists.

“The decision has been taken to remove him from the Cabinet,” the official from the Prime Minister’s Office said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He added the decision would be effective after Hasina returns home.

At a New York rally where Siddique was the lone speaker on Sunday, he was also heard making critical comments about Hasina’s influential son and technology adviser, Sajeeb Wazed Joy. “Who is Joy? Joy is not part of the government.”

He also slammed the non-political Islamic group, Tablig Jamaat, millions of whose followers congregate outside the Bangladeshi capital each year in what authorities called the second largest Muslim gathering after the Haj.

He said the around two million people who gathered “don’t do any work except halting traffic movement throughout the country,” Siddiqui said.

There was no comment from the Tablig Jamaat.

Bangladesh bans marriages for Rohingya refugees

DHAKA, Bangladesh has barred official marriages between its nationals and Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya refugees, whom it claims are attempting to wed to gain citizenship.

Law minister Syed Anisul Haque said he has ordered marriage registrars not to officiate any unions between Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingyas and also between Rohingyas themselves, thousands of whom have fled to Bangladesh.

He said Rohingyas try to use the resulting wedding certificate to gain Bangladeshi passports and other documents, while Rohingyas who marry Bangladeshis could automatically qualify for citizenship.

“By registering their marriage in Bangladesh they try to prove that they’re Bangladeshi citizens,” he said.

“We’ve told the marriage registers not to list any marriage of Rohingyas and also between a Rohingya and a Bangladeshi citizen in Bangladesh. “Law ministry spokesman Abdullah Al Shahin said marriage registrars have been warned of punitive action if they officiate any such marriages.

There are around 300,000 Rohingyas living in Bangladesh’s southern coastal districts bordering Myanmar who have fled alleged persecution in the Buddhist-majority nation since the 1990s.

Sectarian clashes flared up two years ago in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, with fighting that has displaced about 140,000 people, mainly stateless Rohingya Muslims.

Bangladesh recognises only around 28,000 of the refugees in its country, who are entitled to food, basic housing and other aid provided by the United Nations.

The rest of the Rohingyas in Bangladesh live in slums set up in cleared forests and on beaches.

Hindus again attacked in Bangladesh on false rumours of defaming Muhammad in facebook.

Attack on Hindus out of false FB defamation of Muhammad. Representational Pic. HE Archive.

Hindu households, temple attacked in Bangladesh

PTI | Dhaka | May 5, 2014:: A mob of nearly 3,000 attacked Hindu households and a temple in eastern Bangladesh after two youths from the community allegedly insulted the Prophet Muhammad on Facebook. 

Police on Monday arrested 17 people, including the principal of Bagmara Madrasa, for the attack on the temple and over two dozen households at Homna in Comilla district, about 100km south east of Dhaka, last week. 

“We so far arrested 17 people and some of them made confessional statements regarding the attack. A manhunt is under way to arrest the rest of the culprits,” police chief of Homna, Aslam Shikdar said. 

He said suspected mastermind of the attack Nazrul Islam is still on the run. 

Minority Hindus are attacked again and again in Bangladesh on false rumors on defaming Muhammad in facebook. In most of the cases it is established that some Muslim perpetrators like to use the social media like facebook to upload objectionable comments and pictures against Islam and Muhammad in a very  motivated way. After spreading the rumours of blasphemy  or the defamation of Muhammad, the Islamic goons attack Hindus, Hindu-house holds, temples and specially the women folk. This nefarious design of Muslims must be condemned everywhere. In this continuity of attack on Hindu-Buddhist minority in Bangladesh, the retaliation on Muslim by Hindus and Buddhinst can be emerged as a big challenge to the Muslims, where they are minority. Muslims must stop persecution on Hindus in Bangladesh or otherwise…… Editor, Hindu Existence.

Attack on Hindus out of false FB defamation of Muhammad. Representational Pic. HE Archive.

The local police chief said steps were under way to put the accused on trial on charges of attacking the Hindu households and the temple under a planned manner.

A makeshift police camp was setup at the village where the incident took place on April 26 following rumours that two Hindu youths had allegedly insulted the prophet in a Facebook post.

Earlier reports said culprits mobilized attackers mostly belonging to fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami and several other ultra-right groups who ransacked the temple and the nearby households and looted some valuables. 

“The attack continued for some 20 minutes but during the time, the culprits preferred not to injure anyone … our initial investigation found it was a pre-planned attack as they used loudspeakers and distributed leaflets to mobilize the attack,” Shikdar said. 

People at the neighbourhood said nearly 3,000 attackers, mostly from outside the locality, staged the attack as the village elders were set to hold a meeting to resolve the issue of the alleged defamation of the prophet. 

Shikdar said police immediately rushed to the scene but reached the remote village only when the attackers had fled. (via TOI).

 

• An easy prey to attack on Hindus for a facebook defamation of Muhammad or anything.

Recent attacks on BD Hindus on fake facebook rumours that a Facebook post allegedly has defamed Prophet Muhammad. (Comilla, April, 2014)

Rumour triggers attack on Hindus’Jamaat-BNP men’ use false Facebook post for rampage: Hindus attacked in Pabna (Pabna. Nov 2013).

Courtesy: PTI | The Star | 24BD News | TOI.

Hindu households, temple attacked in Bangladesh

A mob of nearly 3,000 attacked Hindu households and a temple in eastern Bangladesh after two youths from the community allegedly insulted Prophet Muhammad on Facebook.

Police today arrested 17 people, including the principal of Bagmara Madrasa, for the attack on the temple and over two dozen households at Homna in Comilla district, about 100 km south east of Dhaka, last week.

"We so far arrested 17 people and some of them made confessional statements regarding the attack. A manhunt is underway to arrest the rest of the culprits," police chief of Homna Aslam Shikdar told PTI on phone.

He said suspected mastermind of the attack Nazrul Islam is still on the run. The local police chief said steps were underway to put the accused on trial on charges of attacking the Hindu households and the temple under a planned manner.

A makeshift police camp was setup at the village where the incident took place on April 26 following rumours that two Hindu youths had allegedly insulted the prophet in a Facebook post.

Earlier reports said culprits mobilised attackers mostly belonging to fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami and several other ultra right groups who ransacked the temple and the nearby households and looted some valuables.

"The attack continued for some 20 minutes but during the time, the culprits preferred not to injure anyone...our initial investigation found it was a pre-planned attack as they used loudspeakers and distributed leaflets to mobiles the attack," Shikdar said.

People at the neighbourhood said nearly 3,000 attackers, mostly from outside the locality, staged the attack as the village elders were set to hold a meeting to resolve the issue of the alleged defamation of the prophet.

Shikdar said police immediately rushed to the scene but reached the remote village only when the attackers had fled.

Bangladesh, tribal Catholic gang raped: Christians and Muslims demand justice

by Sumon Corraya

The rapists were four Muslim youths. The victim , 21, survived and reported her rapists , "I want them to go on trial". Student activist denounces : "When it comes to tribal women police do not want to deal with the case ."

Dhaka (AsiaNews) - More than 100 Christians and Muslims demonstrated yesterday in Dhaka against the gang rape suffered by a young Catholic woman. The violence took place on April 14 in Mohammadour , a district of the capital, during the celebration of the Bengali New Year. She was attacked by four Muslim boys . The victim, a 21-year old ethnic Garo , survived and reported them.

The young woman called Mary Thigidi Purnima and is native of the parish of Mariamnagar , in the diocese of Mymensingh . She works in Dhaka as a beautician in the "Person" beauty center.

On the day of the attack the victim was going to celebrate with a cousin when four Muslim boys accosted her, dragged her away and raped her. After the violence Purnima was able to call her brother in law, who was looking for her . After finding her, the girl filed a complaint against her attackers and one of them - Alif Ahmed - has already been arrested . The police is on the trail of the others.

The girl and her family do not feel protected: the relatives of the rapists continue to threaten them, warning them to drop the charges. But Purnima explains: "Many girls do not report rapes out of fear, but that's why so many perpetrators remain free. Instead I want them to be brought before the courts".

Among those present at yesterday's event were many Christian students, and even some Muslims. The protest was organized by the Bangladesh Garo Chatra Sangathan (BGCS), a Garo tribal student organization. The President Sabuj Nokrek told AsiaNews : " If the tribal women are raped , the police do not want to deal with the case. The don't investigate properly or provide security to the families of the victims. This worries us".

According to data released during the protest , since the beginning of 2014 at least nine tribal women have suffered sexual violence , and two of them were killed after the attack . In 2013, a total of 67 tribal women and girls were raped .

Leave Bangladesh, Satkhira Hindus told

Satkhira Correspondent | bdnews24.com | January 29, 2014:: Thirty Hindu families in Satkhira district have been threatened with dire consequences if they do not leave Bangladesh. Each family living opposite the Judges’ Court at Palashpole received a letter each on Tuesday, asking them to leave.

They, however, did not file any complaint with the police until late on Tuesday night.

Satkhira Sadar Police Station OC Enamul Haq said they were investigating.

The Jamaat-e-Islami had unleashed massive violence in the district after their leaders were awarded death or life sentences by the war crimes tribunals.

That continued until the Jan 5 polls.

Security forces started raiding such locations in Satkhira district where violence had taken place, specially areas where minorities had been targetted.

Several Jamaat and some BNP activists have been killed during purported encounters with the security forces.

Lawyers and government officials belonging to Hindu community have received these threat letters.

Manabadhikar Sangha Satkhira has been mentioned as senders on the envelopes.

The language on all the letters was same and they were all hand-written.

The seal on the envelopes indicate they were posted from Khulna.

Several of those who received the letters told bdnews24.com that they would go to the police, seeking security.

OC Enamul told bdnews24.com: “Nobody has yet complained to the police station about this. We are investigating it.”

Who will save Bangladesh Hindus? Awami League and BCL are involved in Biswajit killing. Court sentenced 8 to death, 13 for life.

Biswajit Killing, Dhaka Court sentenced 8 to death, 13 for life imprisonment. Awami League and BCL are involved in the brutal killing.

HE Media | New Delhi | Dec 19, 2013:: Hindu minorities in Bangladesh are not safe in the ruling Awami League. Now it has been proved that the Awami league is the other side of the same BNP-Jamaat coin. On road murder of Biswajit in the broad daylight in last year was a brutal act of Ruling Party – Awami League’s Student Union – Bangladesh Chatra League members.

On Dec 18, a fast track court in Dhaka being Speedy Trial Tribunal-4, sentenced eight BCL activists to death and thirteen others to life imprisonment for killing tailor Biswajit Das (24 yrs) in Old Dhaka’s Bahadur Shah Park area, a year ago during the opposition’s blockade on December 9, 2012 .

Sentencing the activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student union of ruling Awami League, the judge observed that the Biswajit murder case was quite sensitive and different from other lawsuits.

The cold blooded crime against a minority Hindu youth was committed in broad daylight by the ruling side, as an usual attack upon the minority people in Bangladesh, especially upon Hindu minorities by fundamental elements in any political party. It was a heinous and deplorable killing, said the court about the incident that happened during the opposition’s blockade on black day of December 9 last year.

From this verdict of the Court, it is crystal clear that Minority Hindus are not even safe in the Awami Rule in Bangladesh alike the Jamaat-BNP regimen.

Out of the 8 condemned killers for ‘hang to death’, 2 are absconding, while 11 of the 13 convicts, who got life term, are also on the run.

The court observed that footage of the murder that had been broadcast on national and international media shocked all. The brutality of the offence had tarnished the country’s image before the entire world.

Delivering the verdict in a jam-packed courtroom around 12.25 pm, the judge observed that Biswajit’s murder was different from other such cases, given the gruesomeness and brutality of the crime. “Considering the gravity of the offences, the tribunal thinks justice would be served by awarding death penalty to the accused,” the judge said.

Most of those convicted were former students of Jagannath University and obviously involved in Awami League politics.

The judge said it would be unjust for the victim’s family, if the convicts were freed, because of their political affiliations. “If the convicts are released without justice, such kind of gruesome killings will take place across the country from time to time,” he added.

Those (8) awarded the death sentence are Rafiqul Islam Shakil, Mahfuzur Rahman alias Nahid,


Emdadul Haque alias Emdad, GM Rasheduzzaman alias Shaon, Md Shaiful Islam and Kayyum Mia alias Tipu. Rajan Talukdar and Mir Mohammad Noor-e-Alam alias Limon. Of them, Talukdar and Limon are absconding. Those given life sentences were also fined Tk 20,000 each.

Those (13) sentenced to life in prison are Golam Mostafa, AHM Kibria, Yunus Ali, Tarik Bin Johor Tomal, Alauddin, Obaidur Qader Tahsin, Imran Hossain, Azizur Rahman, Al-Amin, Rafiqul Islam, Kamrul Hasan, Monirul Haque Pavel, and Mosharraf Hossain. Execept Mostofa and Kibria, the rest have been absconding since the killing. The 13 have been also proven guilty in another case of illegal assembling and awarded six months in jail and Tk 500 fine for each.

Biswajit was killed within an extreme Islamic exaltation of killing a Kaffir (Hindu). The brutality seen in the video footage amounts all the Islamic brutality so far. But, the media both in Bangladesh and India are silent about the extinction of minority Hindus through killing, raping, looting, terrorizing, evacuating and all other Islamic norms applicable for the kaffirs as per Islamic belief.

The hands of all political parties in Bangladesh are soaked with the blood of Hindu minorities. It is more than true and hard rock Islamic reality that the minority Muslim people are always blood thirsty of minority non-Muslim people.

Talking to media, Biswajit’s elder brother Uttam Kumar Das expressed satisfaction at the judgment in the sensational murder case. “I am satisfied…we got justice. We want immediate execution of the verdict. We urge the government to arrest the remaining convicts, who are on the run”, he added.

During a world-wide condemnation of Biswajit killing, on December 13, 2012, Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad made a startling statement, claiming that no BCL or Awami activists were involved in Bishwajit’s murder.

Speaking to reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office, he gave particulars of six alleged murderers, including two ex-members of Islami Chhatra Shibir, a pro-Jamaat-e-Islami student body.

But, the truth has been revealed through the Court verdict for Biswajit murder in daylight that fake assurance of Bangladesh Prime Minister Seikh Hasina of Awami League has no substance for the protection of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh while the Hindus are brutally killed by the same Awami student outfit Bangladesh Chatra League.

Hindu Existence condemned the killing of Biswajit instantly with a global protest and from the beginning Hindu Existence categorically pointed out the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and Awami League connection with Biswajit murder.

But, it is now a prime question whether the ruling Awami League will guard their party cadres or to redeem its sin of Biswajit killing. According to Bangladesh law, the High Court must review death penalties even if the convicts do not appeal against the lower court’s verdicts.

Hindu minorities are being brutally attacked in Bangladesh after Quader Molla’s hanging.

War Criminal - Butcher of Mirpur, Abdul Quader Molla hanged to death. Gross violence in Bangladesh leading to a civil war. Helpless Hindu minorities are being attacked in many places.  

Upananda Brahmachari | Kolkata | Dec 13, 2013:: Jamaat-Shibir men and its Islamist allies resorted to vandalism, arson and attacks on cops and the opponent groups including Hindu minorities in different places of the country leaving at least seven dead soon after the Supreme Court cleared the way for executing war criminal Abdul Quader Molla who was executed finally on Thursday at dot 10-01 pm BST at Dhaka Central jail.

Abdul Quader Molla was know as Mirpurer Kasai (Butcher of Mirpur). As per source he killed 3 times much Muslim than Hindus at the time of BD Struggle for Independence as reported. Kader was a dangerous Jamatee and Rajakar as well. These people supported Pakistan and opposed BD liberation.

On May 28, last year, the tribunal framed six charges that include: the killing of Mirpur Bangla College student Pallab; the killing of the poet Meherunesa, her mother and two brothers; the killing of journalist Khandker Abu Taleb; a mass killing in Ghatarchar of Keraniganj; the killing of 344 people in Alubdi village in Mirpur; and the killing of Hazrat Ali Laskar, his wife, three daughters and two-year-old son.

The International Crimes Tribunal-2 found Molla guilty on five charges and acquitted him on one charge related to the Ghatarchar killing, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. But the Supreme Court found him guilty on all charges and awarded him death for killing Hazrat Laskar and his family members.

Reuters reported that the authority of “Bangladesh executed Islamist opposition leader Abdul Quader Molla on Thursday for war crimes he committed in 1971, in a move likely to spark more violent protests less than a month before elections are due to be held.

Molla was hanged at Dhaka Central Jail after a dramatic week. He won a reprieve on Tuesday hours before he was sent to the gallows.

After two days of  legal argument, the Supreme Court rejected his application for a review of the death penalty.”

War criminal Quader didn’t wince once, neither did his heart skip a beat when he led his men to thrash a two-year-old child to death and slit the throats of a pregnant woman and two minor girls in the whirlwind in 1971.

Around 42 years later, Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla finally had to pay for these acts of cold-blooded savagery, as he walked the gallows at 10:01pm in the first-ever execution in a war crimes case.

The bad news coming from Bangladesh. The execution of Quader Molla triggered the deadly violence in Bangladesh in a very wide range. Dhaka, Satkhira, Coxbazar, Khulna, Comilla, Chittagong, Noakhali are the most affected areas where the peaceful and apolitical minority Hindus are being attacked under the repercussion of hanging of Quader Molla.

As reported in Kalaer Kantha (a Bengali daily newspaper), the Hindu minorities in Khuruskul Hindu village in Coxbazar were attacked after the news of Quader’s execution spread in the air. After 10-30 pm of Thursday, the Jammat activist  attacked the house of some relatives of  Swapan Pal in Palpara. The armed Jammati perpetrators ransacked at 10 houses and shops in Palpara and Timebazar. The attackers looted the shops and set fire in households. Dadul Das, the president of Coxbazar Hindu Festival Committee (Hindu Puja Udjaapan Samity) conveyed the insecurity of the resident minority Hindus under an Islamic threat perception increasing day by day.

In a separate reporting the a reporter of Kalaer Kantha  reported the attack on minority Hindus in Jugipara in Satkhira as an aftermath of Quader Molla’s hanging on Thrusday. The Jamaat activists attacked the Hindu minority citizen and put fire in four Hindu houses. The perpetrators blocked the roads by putting huge trunks of road-side trees to put hurdles to rescue operation by police and RAB (rapid action battalion).

The situations in Bangladesh is rapidly changing in the face of an apprehended civil war in Bangladesh. The Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh announced that it would hold a gayebana janaza for its assistant secretary general, war criminal Abdul Quader Mollah, today and enforce a countrywide shutdown on Sunday.

The turmoil in Bangladesh sparks tension in neighbouring West Bengal too.

The Kolkata police have sounded a high alert after the hanging of Jamaat-e-Islami leaser Abdul Quader Molla in Dhaka Central Jail.

The city has witnessed many protest demonstrations in the past few months against the Bangladesh war crimes trials.

Organisations like the West Bengal Minority Youth Federation have spearheaded these protests, even submitting memorandum to the Bangladesh deputy High Commission in city’s Bangabandhu Sarani (previously Circus Avenue) to stop the trials.

Kolkata has a strong population of Urdu-speaking Muslims, many of whom fled Bangladesh after it was born during the 1971 Liberation War against Pakistani forces.

Jamaat enjoys considerable support among them.

Kolkata police commissioner Surojit Kar Purkayastha is said to have asked for heightened security at the Bangladesh deputy high commission.

The deputy high commission in Kolkata  is housed in a historic building where Bengali diplomats revolted against Pakistan and set up the first diplomatic outpost of the provisional government of Bangladesh in exile.

Other areas with high concentration of Urdu-speaking Muslims like Park Circus, Metizbruz, Gardenrich, Tiljala, Taltola and Rajabazar have been identified for intense security, police officials said.

The intensifying political crisis in Bangladesh  with the ensuing elections there is producing  sectarian violence  and the attacks on minorities. Meanwhile, the court cancels the registration of Jamaat-e-Islami which is no more eligible to participate in the vote . Many a Jamaat leaders are awaiting in the  death-row for their conviction in war crimes. The situations will go grim further with the head counts.

The Union Home Ministry  in India apprehends a  sabotage in India  as a retaliation of Jammat for their set back in Bangladesh.  In a very revealing report from Intelligence source, it  is told that the exiled Jammatis are trying a ‘Hindu killing field mission’ by making juvenile suicide squad. Out of  a workable plan,  Bangladesh Jamaat operators will make  inroads in West Bengal using this region as a transit zone.

To prevent the cross border terrorism,  militant infiltration and Muslim influx in  India from Bangladesh, BSF has to tighten surveillance in West Bengal-Bangladesh border. As per report,  Jamaat-e-Islam has a networking among 108 Islamic outfits covering Afghan Council, Council of the Islamic Revolution , the Islamic Jihad Group , Awakening of Muslim People, Indian Mujaheddin, Rohingya Islamic Front. Some of these organizations have their secret organization to make an Islamic state in India.

Some Muslim organisations like Popular Front of India, All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen, All India United Democratic Front, Jammat-e-Islami-Hind expressed their softness to the War criminals of Bangladesh as they were all the Sahaba (Lieutenant)  of Islam. Many of these organisations are covertly connected with their Bangladeshi counterparts to accomplish a Jihad in India en route west Bengal.

In this critical juncture of post Quader hanging in Bangladesh, the pro-Hindu organisations in India and the International Hindu Community must raise their voice to stop attack on minority Hindus in Bangladesh and the total restrain of Jehadi activities in India, especially in the  porous International border areas of West Bengal and Bangladesh.

The hanging of Quader Molla is the easiest prey for the supporters of Jamat-BNP fundamentals for attacking minority Hindus in Bangladesh. As per reports of Bangladesh media, Hindus are being attacked ruthlessly in many places. If Bangladesh may enter into a havoc civil war again, the  minority  Hindus will be the gross victim. But, Indian media, particularly Bengali media of Kolkata will be busy with the minority rights in India.

Indeed, it is a hard time for the minority Hindu-Buddhist-Christians in Bangladesh. We have to share their persecution to protect them.

Courtesy: BBC | Reuters | Kaler Kantha.

Hindu minorities are being brutally attacked in Bangladesh after Quader Molla’s hanging.

War Criminal - Butcher of Mirpur, Abdul Quader Molla hanged to death. Gross violence in Bangladesh leading to a civil war. Helpless Hindu minorities are being attacked in many places.  

Upananda Brahmachari | Kolkata | Dec 13, 2013:: Jamaat-Shibir men and its Islamist allies resorted to vandalism, arson and attacks on cops and the opponent groups including Hindu minorities in different places of the country leaving at least seven dead soon after the Supreme Court cleared the way for executing war criminal Abdul Quader Molla who was executed finally on Thursday at dot 10-01 pm BST at Dhaka Central jail.

Abdul Quader Molla was know as Mirpurer Kasai (Butcher of Mirpur). As per source he killed 3 times much Muslim than Hindus at the time of BD Struggle for Independence as reported. Kader was a dangerous Jamatee and Rajakar as well. These people supported Pakistan and opposed BD liberation.

On May 28, last year, the tribunal framed six charges that include: the killing of Mirpur Bangla College student Pallab; the killing of the poet Meherunesa, her mother and two brothers; the killing of journalist Khandker Abu Taleb; a mass killing in Ghatarchar of Keraniganj; the killing of 344 people in Alubdi village in Mirpur; and the killing of Hazrat Ali Laskar, his wife, three daughters and two-year-old son.

The International Crimes Tribunal-2 found Molla guilty on five charges and acquitted him on one charge related to the Ghatarchar killing, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. But the Supreme Court found him guilty on all charges and awarded him death for killing Hazrat Laskar and his family members.

Reuters reported that the authority of “Bangladesh executed Islamist opposition leader Abdul Quader Molla on Thursday for war crimes he committed in 1971, in a move likely to spark more violent protests less than a month before elections are due to be held.

Molla was hanged at Dhaka Central Jail after a dramatic week. He won a reprieve on Tuesday hours before he was sent to the gallows.

After two days of  legal argument, the Supreme Court rejected his application for a review of the death penalty.”

War criminal Quader didn’t wince once, neither did his heart skip a beat when he led his men to thrash a two-year-old child to death and slit the throats of a pregnant woman and two minor girls in the whirlwind in 1971.

Around 42 years later, Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla finally had to pay for these acts of cold-blooded savagery, as he walked the gallows at 10:01pm in the first-ever execution in a war crimes case.

The bad news coming from Bangladesh. The execution of Quader Molla triggered the deadly violence in Bangladesh in a very wide range. Dhaka, Satkhira, Coxbazar, Khulna, Comilla, Chittagong, Noakhali are the most affected areas where the peaceful and apolitical minority Hindus are being attacked under the repercussion of hanging of Quader Molla.

As reported in Kalaer Kantha (a Bengali daily newspaper), the Hindu minorities in Khuruskul Hindu village in Coxbazar were attacked after the news of Quader’s execution spread in the air. After 10-30 pm of Thursday, the Jammat activist  attacked the house of some relatives of  Swapan Pal in Palpara. The armed Jammati perpetrators ransacked at 10 houses and shops in Palpara and Timebazar. The attackers looted the shops and set fire in households. Dadul Das, the president of Coxbazar Hindu Festival Committee (Hindu Puja Udjaapan Samity) conveyed the insecurity of the resident minority Hindus under an Islamic threat perception increasing day by day.

In a separate reporting the a reporter of Kalaer Kantha  reported the attack on minority Hindus in Jugipara in Satkhira as an aftermath of Quader Molla’s hanging on Thrusday. The Jamaat activists attacked the Hindu minority citizen and put fire in four Hindu houses. The perpetrators blocked the roads by putting huge trunks of road-side trees to put hurdles to rescue operation by police and RAB (rapid action battalion).

The situations in Bangladesh is rapidly changing in the face of an apprehended civil war in Bangladesh. The Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh announced that it would hold a gayebana janaza for its assistant secretary general, war criminal Abdul Quader Mollah, today and enforce a countrywide shutdown on Sunday.

The turmoil in Bangladesh sparks tension in neighbouring West Bengal too.

The Kolkata police have sounded a high alert after the hanging of Jamaat-e-Islami leaser Abdul Quader Molla in Dhaka Central Jail.

The city has witnessed many protest demonstrations in the past few months against the Bangladesh war crimes trials.

Organisations like the West Bengal Minority Youth Federation have spearheaded these protests, even submitting memorandum to the Bangladesh deputy High Commission in city’s Bangabandhu Sarani (previously Circus Avenue) to stop the trials.

Kolkata has a strong population of Urdu-speaking Muslims, many of whom fled Bangladesh after it was born during the 1971 Liberation War against Pakistani forces.

Jamaat enjoys considerable support among them.

Kolkata police commissioner Surojit Kar Purkayastha is said to have asked for heightened security at the Bangladesh deputy high commission.

The deputy high commission in Kolkata  is housed in a historic building where Bengali diplomats revolted against Pakistan and set up the first diplomatic outpost of the provisional government of Bangladesh in exile.

Other areas with high concentration of Urdu-speaking Muslims like Park Circus, Metizbruz, Gardenrich, Tiljala, Taltola and Rajabazar have been identified for intense security, police officials said.

The intensifying political crisis in Bangladesh  with the ensuing elections there is producing  sectarian violence  and the attacks on minorities. Meanwhile, the court cancels the registration of Jamaat-e-Islami which is no more eligible to participate in the vote . Many a Jamaat leaders are awaiting in the  death-row for their conviction in war crimes. The situations will go grim further with the head counts.

The Union Home Ministry  in India apprehends a  sabotage in India  as a retaliation of Jammat for their set back in Bangladesh.  In a very revealing report from Intelligence source, it  is told that the exiled Jammatis are trying a ‘Hindu killing field mission’ by making juvenile suicide squad. Out of  a workable plan,  Bangladesh Jamaat operators will make  inroads in West Bengal using this region as a transit zone.

To prevent the cross border terrorism,  militant infiltration and Muslim influx in  India from Bangladesh, BSF has to tighten surveillance in West Bengal-Bangladesh border. As per report,  Jamaat-e-Islam has a networking among 108 Islamic outfits covering Afghan Council, Council of the Islamic Revolution , the Islamic Jihad Group , Awakening of Muslim People, Indian Mujaheddin, Rohingya Islamic Front. Some of these organizations have their secret organization to make an Islamic state in India.

Some Muslim organisations like Popular Front of India, All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen, All India United Democratic Front, Jammat-e-Islami-Hind expressed their softness to the War criminals of Bangladesh as they were all the Sahaba (Lieutenant)  of Islam. Many of these organisations are covertly connected with their Bangladeshi counterparts to accomplish a Jihad in India en route west Bengal.

In this critical juncture of post Quader hanging in Bangladesh, the pro-Hindu organisations in India and the International Hindu Community must raise their voice to stop attack on minority Hindus in Bangladesh and the total restrain of Jehadi activities in India, especially in the  porous International border areas of West Bengal and Bangladesh.

The hanging of Quader Molla is the easiest prey for the supporters of Jamat-BNP fundamentals for attacking minority Hindus in Bangladesh. As per reports of Bangladesh media, Hindus are being attacked ruthlessly in many places. If Bangladesh may enter into a havoc civil war again, the  minority  Hindus will be the gross victim. But, Indian media, particularly Bengali media of Kolkata will be busy with the minority rights in India.

Indeed, it is a hard time for the minority Hindu-Buddhist-Christians in Bangladesh. We have to share their persecution to protect them.

Courtesy: BBC | Reuters | Kaler Kantha.

(Special article - Global Human Rights day)

HINDUS, FACING EXISTENTIAL ATTACKS IN BANGLADESH

By Dr. Richard L. Benkin

Pakistan’s 1951 census counted Hindus to be a third of the East Pakistan population. Today, in that same territory now known as Bangladesh, Hindus are about one in fifteen. That is a tragic fact—that Hindus are disappearing in another ancestral land of theirs. Two things make it even worse:

- That their disappearance is the result of atrocities including murder, gang rape, land seizures, child abduction, forced conversion, religious desecration, and more; which continue to occur at an average rate of at least one per week.

- Every Bangladeshi government—from the first government under Sheikh Mujibar Rahman through the current one under his daughter Sheikh Hasina Wajed—has been complicit in these atrocities and in the deliberate attempt to eliminate Hinduism from their nation.

One nine-day period in May 2012 saw a Hindu community leader murdered in broad daylight, the abduction of a child walking to a Hindufestival, and gang rapes of two Hindu women. Four horrific actions in nine days andthe government took it as nine normal days in Bangladesh. In July 2013 alone: Hindu human rights advocate Rabindra Ghosh was attacked multiple times and harassed by an Awami League MP; a Hindu college student was abducted and murdered so his girlfriend could be forced to marry Muslims, and after she refused, police arrested her and let the perpetrators go; Hindu land seizures by a Member of Parliament were exposed, and the government protected the MP allowing him to continue committing crimes while remaining in office; police covered up massive attacks on Hindu communities that involved, rape, looting, arson, and assault, and they also tried to extort “protection money” from the Hindu communities. And these are only the atrocities we confirmed with our limited resources and at least two independent witnesses.

More disturbing news: Evidence keeps coming to me about a disturbing trend that indicates how ingrained anti-Hindu atrocities are in Bangladesh. For several years, Bangladesh has seen an influx of Rohingya Muslims fleeing inter-religious conflict in neighboring Myanmar. According to several credible and independent sources, an unknown number of these refugees have joined with the radical groups and engaged in anti-Hindu activities. If Bangladesh is not actively supporting anti-Hindu ethnic cleansing, it is at the very least enabling it by looking the other way when it happens ad sending even its newest residents a message that such actions will go unpunished in Bangladesh. Stay tuned for more information.

Imagine the horror of living under constant threat, having friends and family members brutalized or worse. Now imagine how much more horrifying it is to live like that knowing that the rest of the world simply does not care, which it is like for Hindus in Bangladesh.

Bangladeshi officials are so confident that their crimes will go unnoticed that they do not even try to be credible in their denials. Akaramul Qadar, the Bangladeshi ambassador to the United States for instance, tried to tell me that the reason why Hindus are disappearing from Bangladesh is voluntary: “They cannot find suitable matches for their children [in Bangladesh] so they go to India where there are more Hindus.” Bangladeshi Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir would not even acknowledge that Hindus are disappearing instead implying to me that, as an American, I should mind my own business because “33 people were killed in Connecticut,” reference to a criminal act that the US government did prosecute.

That might be changing, however, and the change is coming from half way around the world.

The United States is one of the top importers of Bangladeshi garments. In 2012, the US had a $4.4 billion trade deficit with Bangladesh; through October of this year, the deficit is on track to be even worse. Companies like Wal-Mart and all major jeans makers buy heavily from Bangladesh. Several other countries from Asia and Latin America export garments to the US and would love to grab a bigger piece of the large US market; countries that would move in quickly if the Bangladeshis were no longer competitive and not be ready to cede their new market share if the Bangladeshis decide to do the right thing. If discussions going on in Washington now bear fruit, Bangladeshi garments will be harder to get and more expensive when purchased unless that country stops it ethnic cleansing of Hindus. That would be a serious blow to the current Bangladesh government that is just clinging to power as next year’s election looms. That severe economic blow could spell the end of its reign—and the Awami League knows it.

Are the Bangladeshis reacting already?

For the past year, I have been following the case of one young Hindu woman who was abducted when her family refused demands by local Muslim thugs and a few government officials to abandon their family land. When I was in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka earlier this year, I met with her family, who told me about the incident and the government’s complicity. They asked for my help and by this time were not even interested in getting justice so long as their daughter was returned to them unharmed. Thus far, the government had turned a deaf ear to their pleas; and even after I submitted the evidence they provided to the Home Minister—as he asked me to do—he ignored it and the girl remained missing.

Recently, however, I received word from associates inside Bangladesh who spoke with the young woman’s sister. After we raised the issue, the case evidently came to the attention of Sheikh Hasina. The family met with her, and she said she would direct the local government to take action to retrieve the young woman. That is particularly interesting because it suggests that even the Prime Minister understood that the problem was complicity by the government; that it would take nothing more than appropriate action to save the woman. As is the modus operandi of the Bangladeshi government, words never translated into action and the woman is still missing. While Sheikh Hasina’s action is better than the inaction of the Home Minister and the ridiculous prattling of the Ambassador; it is far from enough and far too little for us to stop pressing at full speed with our efforts. The government’s wish to appear civilized, however, could be the beginning of a turning point in our struggle.

More initiatives are underway in the United States, including a move to have individual localities recognize the ethnic cleansing of Hindus and how the media and others have been ignoring it. The first success came on October 1, 2013, when the Chicago suburb of Mount Prospect did so, noting, “scant attention is being paid to the plight of Bangladeshi Hindus who live each day in fear of atrocities being committed against them for their religious beliefs.”

Ultimately, it is up to the Bangladeshi government to choose between injustice and the radicals they fear or justice for all citizens and the ideals that Bangladeshi voters want them to have the courage to maintain.

[An Appeal- Anyone wishing to help by contacting Members of the US Congress, letting Bangladesh’s large customers like Wal-Mart and Levis that their purchases support ethnic cleansing, or convincing their local government to do as Mount Prospect did should feel free to contact me at drrbenkin@comcast.net.]

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(Author is an American human rights activist fighting to defend Hindus in Bangladesh. His book, A Quiet Case of Ethnic Cleansing: the Murder of Bangladesh’s Hindus, is about to enter its second printing.)

 

Islamic violation of Human Rights and attack upon minority Hindus in Bangladesh severely opposed in HR Day.

Human Rights day:  Discrimination and persecution upon Minority Hindus in Bangladesh condemned in Dhaka, Bangaon and Kolkata. 

Upananda Brahmachari | HE Media Bureau | New Delhi | 11 Dec 2013:: On the Human Rights Day on 10th December, various Rights Groups and Hindu organisations opposed the discrimination and persecution upon Minority Hindus and other religious minorities and conducted various programmes  in Dhaka, Bangaon and Kolkata.

Demonstration and awareness programme in Dhaka

Bangladesh Minority Watch (BDMW) – Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD) and Bangladesh Center for Human Rights Development (BCHRD) jointly organized -Discussion Meeting – peaceful demonstration and awareness programme on International Human Rights Day-2013 in front of National Press Club-Dhaka-Bangladesh with a centralized theme to alleviate the tantamount attack and humiliation of Bangladesh minority people, mainly Hindus-Buddhist and the Christian people there.

…

The program was marked successful as  more than 100 participants including minorities from various parts of Dhaka and Narayongonj District attended the meeting with festoon and placards to mark the day despite Hartals (strikes) called by Jamat-E-Islam at Dhaka denouncing the death sentence of Abdul Kader Mollah passed by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.

…

Hindu minorities are presently  at a stake and fleeing from Bangladesh to seek refuge in neighbouring India through the present turmoil in Bangladesh between Awami League and BNP after the pronouncement of some death sentence for the War Criminals in BD.

…

In the demonstration the speakers said that Bangladesh must stop all the violation of Human Rights towards the minorities and must ensure to bring back the 1971 Constitution for the healing of the fractured Human Rights in BD so far.

…

Monoranjan Ghoshal – the Freedom fighter & renowned singer of Bangladesh Radio, Advocate Rabindra  Ghosh-President of Bangladesh Minority Watch (BDMW) , Advocate Rana Das Gupta-Prosecutor-International Criminal Tribunal and Secretary-General of Hindu Bouddha Christian Unity Council, Mohammad Abdul Khaleque- President- Biswa Bangalee Convention, Dr. Gopal Debnath- Professor of University, Advocate Prodiwp Saha, Ms. Anita Paul-Social Organizer, Manik Chandra Sarkar-Secretary of BDMW-Narayangonj, Ganesh Rajbongshi,  Mahabul Hoque –BCHRD , Shamsul Alam Chowdhury  and many others were present and delivered their speeches on the importance of Human Rights Day concerning religious minorities.

…

Most of the speakers stressed upon the urgent need of establishing good governance and democracy. Some specific demands were raised and highlighted for ensuring voting rights of vulnerable groups. Protection Rights of HR defenders and minorities were discussed.

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Leaflets concerning human rights issues ensuring equal participation of minorities in the ensuing national election in Bangladesh, were also distributed and exhibited.

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Hindu Samhati rally in Bangaon

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Hindu Samhati, a  Hindu organisation  working mainly in West Bengal,  took  out a big protest rally against Persecution of Hindus by Fundamentalist  Muslims in Bangladesh. Bangaon is a sensitive border town on the India-Bangladesh border in N 24 Parganas District of WB.

Though police refused to give permission to Hindu Samhati’s rally, the protesters thronged in good number. Some criticized that the WB police and their direct controller Chief Minister, Mamtaz Banu Arjee, are supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami & BNP of Bangladesh and behaving like Islamist.

As a matter of fact, the Rally set to be nullified to avoid any displeasure the fundamentalist Muslims here in West Bengal. Hence, the ruling party, Trinamool Congress (TMC) put all hurdles to obtain the permission from police. Therefore, under a culpable instruction from the TMC leaders, Bangaon police refused to give the necessary permission to hold our rally.

However, Hindu Samhati activists were ready to face any consequences only to show  solidarity with victimized minority brothers and sisters of Bangladesh.

The speakers highlighted the plight of minority Hindus living in Bangladesh and the Hindu refugees came in India under a bare religious atrocities and persecution.  ”We will not turn a blind eye to the worsening plight of our Hindu Brothers and sisters of Banglades”, said Ajit Adhikari, the chief organiser of the rally

Advocate Brojendra Nath Roy, Bikarna Naskar, Nisith Ghosh, Abhijit Mishra and other key persons of the organisation attended the rally.

CAAMB put up a stall at Human Rights Fair at Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata

The Campaign Against Atrocities on Minorities in Bangladesh (CAAMB), a Kolkata based human rights organization that campaigns against human rights violations on minorities and liberal thinkers in Bangladesh put a small book stall in front of Acadeny of Fine Arts, Kolkata at Human Rights Fair, 2013.

The books mainly on Human Rights and the Works on the matter of Rights Violation of Minorities in Bangladesh were displayed in the stall for both sit-on-reading and sale. Some books from Bangladesh by eminent authors like Salam Azad, M A Khan, Humayun Azad, Shariar Kabir were the main attractions of the stall.

The books,  written by Rabindranath Dutta (born in Bangladesh -settled in West Bengal) on Bangladesh Hindu Genocide and Plight of BD Hindus, were also sold in good numbers.

As before, CAAMB activists distributed leaflets highlighting the plight of Bangladeshi Hindu and other religious minorities with a request to the present Govt of BD to stop attack on them in various parts of Bangladesh by the fundamental Islamist belonging to some political parties.

In a discussion forum, Mohit Roy, Rabindranath Dutta and other dignitaries of CAAMB interacted with the interested people to do something for the cause of dying religious minorities in Bangladesh.

Courtesy: BDMW |  SDF | CAAMB.

Rich Hindu? So extort

His refusal led to attack on Hindus by Jamaat-BNP men in Pabna
M Abul Kalam Azad and Ahmed Humayun Kabi Topu, Pabna

Idols lay in ruins after a mob attacked Hindu temples and homes in Bonogram of Pabna on Saturday. The pack also stormed houses and vandalized them, inset. Photo: Star

Extortionists, mostly belonging to the BNP and Jamaat, had planned to frame Hindu schoolboy Rajib Saha in Pabna for maligning Islam after his businessman father refused to pay them.Rajib’s father Babul Saha, a leading trader in Bonogram bazaar, has two grocery shops with warehouses. He had been paying the youths regularly until June when they demanded Tk 2 lakh.

On Saturday morning, the youths went to his house looking for Rajib but found only his mother. They then went to Babul’s shop.“Around 9:00am, Manik, Khokon and a few others came to my shop. One of them showed me something on his cellphone and said my son had maligned the Prophet. They asked me to bring my son or face dire consequences,” Babul told The Daily Star yesterday.Babul, who is now under Ataikula police custody for safety, said he did not understand what his son had actually done.

According to locals, Khokon is a supporter of BNP and Manik belongs to Jamaat. Selim Khan, leaderof Ataikula union BNP and defeated chairman candidate of union parishad election in 2011, was backing the extortionists.

Sources also said a few Awami League men had links with the youths.

The group chose Saturday as it was the weekly market day at Bonogram in Santhia upazila. It was also the occasion of Kali Puja.
Around 10:00am, some unidentified people started distributing photocopies of what they said was a “Facebook page”, claiming Rajib had defamed Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) in a post.

Jamaat-Shibir supporters began agitating around 11:00am. An announcement from the loudspeaker of the bazaar mosque did the rest. Hundreds of people came out clamouring for Rajib’s “execution”.

The youths were waiting for this. They and their men attacked Sahapara and Ghoshpara simultaneously, vandalising and looting around 100 houses from around 12:30pm to 3:00pm.

Locals alleged when a mob started to wreck the houses in the two Hindu villages, law enforcers were busy trying to confront agitating mobs blockading the Dhaka-Pabna highway.

Anil Kumar Sarker of Sahapara said a gang of 10 to 12 youths, armed with sticks, stormed his house around 12:30pm. They left hurriedly after vandalism.
“As soon as they left, I phoned Pabna Superintendent of Police Sirajuddin Ahmed and told him what was happening,” he said. The SP told him, “Police have been mobilised to tackle the situation.”

Anil then rang Deputy Commissioner Ashraf Uddin.

“The DC asked me if I have contacted the SP and when I said yes, he assured me that the SP would take care of the problem.”
Around 1:30pm, over 50 unruly people attacked Anil’s house again.

“At that time I took refuge in the attic with my family and watched through a crack the men ravaging my already-damaged house. Then they set ablaze the idols inside the family temple,” he added.

“It was the day of our Kali Puja and the village was in a festive mood. Suddenly all hell broke loose leaving us shaken to the core.”
There was no trace of police until 2:30pm when a team of four cops arrived leisurely at Sahapara. “The policemen went around the village and left in about 10 minutes, since then none of the law enforcers have come to see us,” said Anil.

Sukumar Biswas of Ghoshpara said ten to twelve marauding groups, mostly youths, created panic by screaming as they rampaged through the village. “They stole gold ornaments and cash and destroyed our refrigerator, TV, computer, beds, tables, utensils and what not.”
A trail of destruction can be seen throughout the villages.

The areas have maintained communal harmony since the independence despite being dominated by Jamaat-e-Islami, a party historically known for practising communal politics.

Eighty-year-old Bishnu Priya Saha said she was born at Sahapara and lived all her life there but never imagined she would see this day. “Here we, the Hindus and Muslims, are living like brothers and sisters for generations.”

Meanwhile, local administration organised a solidarity meeting on the bazaar mosque premises to quell tension and distributed cash, rice and corrugated tin sheets to the victims.

Asked why police failed to protect the Hindu houses, DC Ashraf Uddin claimed forces reached the scene when mob blockaded the road and tried to quell the situation.

OC Rezaul Karim of Ataikula Police Station said they were not informed of the attacks and looting immediately. “My limited force was busy controlling the mob on the highway.”

Police arrested Rezaul Karim of Gaurigram after filing a case in the evening against twenty named and more than a hundred unnamed people.
Contacted, BNP leader Selim said his political rivals were bringing false allegation against him.

Hindu Human Rights Defender Adv. Rabindra Ghosh of BDMW poisoned in murder attempt by suspected Muslim Goons.

Air Poisoned Sri Ghosh is being found senseless and treated in a Natore Hospital.

Rabindra Ghosh – Human Rights Defender & his colleague poisoned for attempting murder on 27th July, 2013 at Natore District, Bangladesh.

Agencies | Natore (Bangladesh) | 29 July 2013:: Adv. Rabindra Ghosh – Founder President of BANGLADESH MINORITY WATCH and Observer of Global Human Rights Defense and his colleague Ganesh Rajbongshi was air poisoned and became senseless for 28 hours on 27th night near Natore Bus Stand while they were returning from Khulna by Train (Shimanta Express) to Natore for monitoring another case of land grabbing from by Muslim land sharks.

Some Islamic groups in Bangladesh have been rampantly disowning the Hindus from their landed properties. Hindus in Bangladesh are facing a dire consequences under the overall threats from the Talibanic forces very much active in Bangladesh.

Soon after the incident of poising Mr. Ghosh and Ganesh was admitted to Natore Sadar Hospital. Fire service people traced those two victims from the place of occurrence to Natore Sadar Hospital unconscious position. But Ganesh Rajbongshi was transferred to Rajshahi Medical College from Natore Sadar Hospital as his physical condition was precarious.

Now both the victims have got their senses and medical treatment is going on. Advocate Rabindra Ghosh lodged Firist information report (FIR) being Natore Sadar P.S. case No.42 dated 28.07.2013 under section 341/328/307/379/109 of Penal code against unknown perpetrators.

Mr. Ghosh and Ganesh Rajbonshi met with the Superintendent of Police, Natore who interrogated them and directed Md. Abdus Sattar, O.C. in charge –Natore Sadar for necessary action.

The news has been published in the national dailies as The Protom Alo, dated 28.07.2013, bdnews24.com dated 28.07.2013 and other ETV channels breaking news dated 27.07.13 and Bhorer Kagoj dated 28.07.2013

Bangladesh Minority Watch, Global Human Rights Defense and Bangladesh Centre for Human Rights and Development (BCHRD) are very much concerned about repeated attack on Adv. Rabindra Ghosh and his associates. We also demand immediate arrest of the perpetrators and demand justice in the eye of law.

As per latest report, the culprits are still away from any proper identification under the blatant reluctance of the investigative and police authorities of Bangladesh under the influence of majority Muslim perpetrators.

Sri Rabindranath Ghosh joined the Hindu Rashtra Adhiveshan organised by Hindu Janajagruti Samiti on 6th to 10th June in Goa, in which Sri Ghosh highlighted the matter of persecution and atrocities upon Bangladesh Hindu Minorities every effectively. Returing to Bangladesh, he had been facing various threats from Muslim fanatics to stop his normal activities to restore the rights of Bangladesh minorities including marginalized Hindus.

Hindu Existence Forum vehemently protests such Islamic attack upon Rights activities in the cause of the freedom of minority people under the onslaught of Islamic fundamentalism.

In a press statement, Rev. Upananda Brahmachari, Chairman of Hindu Existence Forum strongly protested the attack upon Sri Rabindranath Ghosh and wish his speedy recovery with his aides.

At least 32 killed in Bangladesh uproar over 'blasphemous blogging' (PHOTOS)

Thirty two people were killed and hundreds injured as a rally in the capital of Bangladesh turned violent. Police used tear gas to disperse thousands of Islamist protesters in the streets of Dhaka who demanded execution for “blasphemous” blogging.
The protesters are reportedly the activists from the Hefajat-e-Islam group, which blames some Internet users for blasphemy; accusing people of using their blogs to spread atheism and apparent lies about Islam.

"One point, One demand: Atheists must be hanged", chanted the demonstrators as they marched along at least six highways, blocking transport between Dhaka and other cities and towns.
The demonstrators gathered in the capital’s Motijheel commercial district, amounting to between 150,000 to 200,000 people according to AFP. On their way, they set shops and vehicles on fire, according to police accounts.

Islamist protestors run as Bangladeshi police fire rubber bullets towards demonstrators during clashes with Islamists in Dhaka on May 5, 2013. (AFP Photo/Munir uz Zaman)

Police used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters after they reportedly set off homemade explosives and threw stones at security. Local authorities had to deploy more than 15,000 security forces to the area.
The members of the radical Islamist group demanded the death penalty for those who they think defame Islam. The 13-point list of demands also included a ban on the right of women to work outside the household and the prohibition for women to mix with men. The Islamists also demanded the release of those accused of war crimes during country’s liberation war in 1971, which established the sovereign nation of Bangladesh.

Civilian people carry an injured Islamist protestor during clashes with police in Dhaka on May 5, 2013. (AFP Photo/Munir uz Zaman)

The government of Bangladesh has declined the group’s demands to enact an anti-blasphemy law saying that the country lives by secular liberal laws. The leaders of Hefajat-e-Islam promised to launch a campaign to dethrone the government unless their demands are met.
The radical Islamist group was formed in 2010 to protest the government's secular policies in education and politics. Last month it organized a general strike as well as a gathering attended by hundreds of thousands of activists, during three people died and more than 50 were injured.

Bangladeshi police baton charge Islamists during clashes in Dhaka on May 5, 2013. (AFP Photo/Munir uz Zaman)

Islamists march in the street in Dhaka during a protest in Dhaka on May 5, 2013. (AFP Photo/Munir uz Zaman)

Bangladeshi police fire rubber bullets towards demonstrators during clashes with Islamists in Dhaka on May 5, 2013. (AFP Photo/Munir uz Zaman)

Civilian people carry an injured Islamist protestor during clashes with police in Dhaka on May 5, 2013. (AFP Photo/Munir uz Zaman)

Bangladeshi police fire rubber bullets towards demonstrators during clashes with Islamists in Dhaka on May 5, 2013. (AFP Photo/Munir uz Zaman)