Bangladeshi Hindus under siege once more

Source: Niti Central
The just concluded national election in Bangladesh is most unconvincing. The decision by principal Opposition viz. Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to boycott the polls reduced it to a one-sided affair. It could be likened to February 15, 1996 election boycotted by Awami League and swept by the ruling party viz BNP. But the victorious party was compelled to dissolve the National Assembly soon under negative public opinion. In a fresh election conducted on June 12, 1996 the BNP was routed. The Awami League emerged as the single largest party forming Government with support of HM Ershad’s Jatiya Party’s 32 members. History might repeat itself in Bangladesh in the coming months.
For 300 seats in the National Assembly, there were only 540 candidates, out of which 153 were elected unopposed. Thus only 139 seats went for polls, out of which elections were countermanded in eight seats. Awami League has won 232 seats out of 292. The Jatiya Party’s final tally was 33, others won five, whereas 13 seats went to independent candidates.

A hapless victim of Chapatola assault rues her fate.

The percentage of polling being low at 39.81 percent, this was far from a popular election. Nineteen people reportedly died on polling day across 11 districts mostly BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami cadres in police firing. This was in sharp contrast to the last elections on December 29, 2008 that were bloodless. A total of 123 lives had been lost since the announcement of election schedule on November 25, 2013.
This is indeed a disappointing denouement to Bangladesh’s ‘Cultural Revolution’. The Shahbagh Movement sought to reclaim the spirit of liberal and secular Bangladesh. The Awami League Government showed guts to prosecute accomplices in 1971 genocide. There should have either been a resounding verdict in favour of the Awami League or its total rejection. The former would have showed that Bangladesh still abides by its foundational principles. In the latter case it would have been confirmed that Bangladesh has become ‘Banglastan’ (as an Awami League Minister put it) – a Bengali version of Pakistan.

---

Hindu temples and shops destroyed in Bangladesh by Islamic Muslim extremists

---

Post-poll violence against Hindus: Now post-poll violence has begun in Bangladesh and Hindus are its soft targets. Some 150 Hindu homes were vandalised in Chapatola Village of Abhoynagar Upazila (sub-district) in Jessore district. The attack was apparently carried out by the BNP cadres after polling had closed in the evening. The Hindus were allegedly chastised for casting their vote. Several houses were set on fire and valuables were looted.
At least 112 families who came under attack were from the weaker section of the society. They were fishermen. Kalidasi Sarkar told that she jumped into the river with her 15-year-old son to swim to the other bank. It being winter and the dusk setting in, they feared on being drowned due to benumbed limbs. Fortunately, she lived to fight another day. Most of those who fled their houses due to the attacks returned home on the morrow only to find their habitations destroyed.
In a similar attack, more than 150 Hindu homes were set to fire in Karnahi village of Dinajpur District in northern Bangladesh.  The attack was undertaken by almost 2500 men armed with sharp weapons. Hindu voters returning after casting their votes were attacked. The victims alleged that the attackers led by those who were members of local Union Council. They were all associated with the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami.
The current round of violence has cast a grave shadow on the future of the Hindus in Bangladesh. Is Awami League returning to power in a controversial election a guarantee of the security of the Hindus? The tenure of Awami League has not been a happy situation for the Hindus. While Awami League is viewed as the secular face of Bangladeshi politics, the truth is quite grainy. The League’s members are associated with the maximum number of land-grabbing cases affecting Hindus. It might be remembered that it was an Awami League member viz Mujibar Rehman Chisti who filed a complaint to the Metropolitan Magistrate against the organisers of Gono Shradhya’ 71. The Hindus were thus prevented from the very innocent act of performing the obsequies to unnamed victims of the 1971 genocide. While we may still avoid mourning the dead Hindus of 1971, the fate of the millions of living Hindus in Bangladesh is of greater consequence. An exodus of the Hindus – though preferable to their extermination or conversion to Islam – might lead to great disturbance in eastern India. This is not the Bangladesh its founding fathers had dreamt of.

Hindus of Bangladesh – Crisis of Existence

Source: Asian Tribune

By Rabindranath Trivedi

The party of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the nation,, now led by his daughter Sheikh Hasina, and its allies won close to 80 per cent of the seats in December 2008.
“If one is looking for a single sentence to sum up the significance of the 9th parliamentary elections in Bangladesh, it should read: this is a second liberation. The first one, on December 16, 1971, rid it of Pakistan’s colonial rule and the nightmare of genocide and mass rape unleashed by the Pakistani Army since the night of March 25 that year.
The results of the December 2008 elections have liberated Bangladesh from an inexorable descent into Talibanesque social medievalism and a reign of terror unleashed by Islamist fundamentalists. A new journey of democracy in Bangladesh starts stepping in January 2009.
The 5th January 2014, the tenth parliamentary election is a recorded day in the anal of Bangladesh history. Why it would be recorded in the history of Bangladesh?
“Now many political observers in Dhaka feel that the opposition failed to halt the election and Awami League will succeed in forming a new government after 24th January after the dissolution of the present parliament.
The observers anticipate that the real acid test for Hasina will begin then. She knows that the present election is not a normal one. It is being held in an abnormal political situation of the country. In future its legality might be questioned, though at the present moment many people realize that Hasina had to take this course which so many people called undemocratic for the greater interest of the country and democracy. Now she will have to prove this beyond all suspicion. If she wants to provide this election with a moral base she will have to form a cabinet with honest, efficient members who are acceptable to the people. She will have to purge all the ministers and MPs who were accused and known to the people for their corruption and moral deprivation”. (A G Chowdhury, The Independent 6 Jan 14)
On the other hand, in Bangladesh, over the years Fanatics vandalised idols and torched temples in Comilla, Netrokona and Bhola, Noakhali , Nilphamari, Barisal, Khulna, Perojpur and more or less all over Bangladesh creating widespread panic among the Hindu community since February 28,2013.On that day, the International Crimes Tribunal-1 awarded death penalty to Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee for his crimes against humanity during the country’s Liberation War. Lashing a déjà vu of 1971, Jamaat-Shibir fanatics wrecked havoc on the Hindu community across the country.They damaged temples, including one of Buddhists, and torched houses and business establishments of Hindu people in Noakhali, Gaibandha, Chittagong, Rangpur, Sylhet, Chapainawabganj and elsewhere in the country. In Rajganj of Noakhali, Jamaat-Shibir men set ablaze a temple and eight houses of the Hindu community.
In the last week of December 2013, Joint drives of law enforcers have stopped widespread Jamaat-Shibir violence in Satkhira for the time being and people fear the top Jamaat leaders of the district would instigate violence again as they remain at large .Even high officials who led the joint drives admit that they could not make any significant arrests as the people who allegedly instigated the violence had fled the district. Several hundred Hindus and ruling Awami League leaders of Satkhira have been fleeing their homes over the last few days in the wake of massive violence unleashed by Jamaat-Shibir men in the district. Some had even moved to India through legal or illegal means., Hindu minority in Bangladesh have lost property worth Taka 2000 million during the tenure of Awami League Government (2009-2013) , says a vernacular economic news paper “ Arthonity Protidin (18 Dec 13) Bangladesh, According to the published items in the local dailies, in Bangladesh 459 temples have been ransacked, 700 women were violated and thousands Hindus left Bangladesh particularly in the border areas. It is also reported that India Government will initiate Refugee Camps in the border zone, ( Arthonity protidin, 19 Dec 13)
Unfortunately, in the post-August 1975, The military regimes of Genl Zia and Genl. Ershad, reversed all the state principles of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh ;State principle Secularism has been replaced with “full trust in almighty Allah” and “Islam the State religion”, presumably, to highlight the Islamic identity of the nation. Bangladesh under martial law regimes could not break away from the past and remained steeped in the legacy of her history of the 23-year existence as part of Pakistan. Bangladeshi Hindus become second-class citizens as they were in the 1956 constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
In the last sixty-six years (1947-2013), more than ten million of the country's Hindu's have fled to India in the face of sustained persecution and periodic riots with its poverty and frequent cyclones, Bangladesh are major news each year. But the unfolding fate of Hindus in the country rarely makes headlines. Today Hindu population in Bangladesh has dropped to 10%. Conceivably, by 2050 Bangladesh will have achieved the status of Pakistan: no significant Hindu population. It may be recalled that the Agreement between India and Pakistan commonly known as Nehru-Liaquat Pact concerning Minorities in April 1950 gave no tangible result.
The agreement is alive till today, but what happens to minority Hindus can be assessed by declination of Hindu citizens in Bangladesh. The Indira-Mujib agreement making 1971 the cut off year for accommodating the migrats of Bangladesh as Indian citizens and also the loose border situation during the Mujib years had become the marker of security and legality… Any kind of meaningful dialogue between the two nations on migrations, consequently, ruled out. These monstrous incidents are well-calculated sequel of the great Calcutta mayhem and the horrendous carnage of Hindus in Noakhali in 1946,the horrible massacre of Hindus by the atrocious rioters in 1950, 1964, 1965 and the mindless holocaust of Hindus by the Pakistani plunderers in 1971. In October 2001 election, the incidence of violence was the highest. Minorities were violated in 2,685 villages in the country. Minorities were debarred from casting votes in the election -- a fundamental right of any citizen of Bangladesh. We all know that Bangladesh is a product of double secessions. She has changed her identity twice in less than a quarter of a century.
In January 2014, following the tenth parliamentary election what happens?Jamaat-Shibir cadres launched despicable attacks on Hindu communities in four districts the day after the 10th parliamentary elections. Hundreds of houses of the minority community were torched and looted since January 5, 2014 night in Dinjapur, Jessore, Satkhira and Thakurgaon. A large number of Hindus took shelter in the temples, while others have fled to other villages. They are too scared to return even after assurances from local administration.
Over the years, the people’s roles or needs in politics have been changed by the emergence of various schools of political thought, their needs, and their assessments. If you take a closer look, people and religion are now being used with so much expediency, that one has lost track of the conventional or methodical classification, and the role of both. The lust for power and privilege, the politics of vengeance, and fear of defeat have virtually destroyed the democratic prospects of this land.
We have been happily forgetting people’s interests and their wishes. Their demands are so miniscule and limited that they escape our powered spectacles. Millions of Hindus have been engulfed by the orgy of violence. Neither the politicians, kleptocrat and opportunist, nor the administration, stooges of the Machiavellian coterie, come to their rescue. The Hindus have sacrificed every think at the alter of War of Liberation in 1971. In return, they received nothing beside humiliation. It is known, any one speaking on behalf of Hindu community is likely to be dubbed as agent of a foreign country or communal. Bangladesh has given us honour and identity as her freedom fighter. We fought for secular-democracy in 1971 and continuing to fight for its achievement till his last days. We deserve’ His’ grace and solace’.
In conclusion of my article, concerning Hindus Of Bangladesh – Crisis of Existence, We desire to place 6-point demands before the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, elected members of parliament and people of Bangladesh, our demands as well as recommendations in this regards for consideration.
Moreover, we are ready to submit a draft Bill to the Government in this regard as titled “Bangladesh Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2014” aims to protect and fulfill the right to equality before law and equal protection of law by imposing duties on the government, to exercise their power in an impartial and non-discriminatory manner that need to be placed before the 10th parliament.
6- point demands is as follows :-
1. The Government of Bangladesh should reestablish constitution of Bangladesh as framed in 1972 by Scraping “Islam as State Religion” and “Bismill-hirRahamanir Rahim” from the Constitution of Bangladesh to ensure equal rights of Hindus of Bangladesh to make it secular Constitution as depicted in spirit of War of Liberation in 1971. Judicial Commission for investigation is recommended for atrocities on minority Hindus in Bangladesh including continuous repression, conversions, abductions, rape, and vandalising, looting and setting fire on temples, business firms and houses of Hindu communities
2. The Government of Bangladesh should have to rehabilitate the displacement of houses, temples, on state responsibility. Protection to these vulnerable groups is proposed through effective provisions for investigation, prosecution and trial of offences and to provide for relief, rehabilitation and compensation to all persons affected.
3.The Government of Bangladesh should take necessary steps relating to the vandalised and burnt houses, temples of Hindus have to be rebuilt and adequate compensation must be provided to them.
4. Bangladesh is second largest Hindu populated country in the World. Hindus would be ensured in Bangladesh if due representation of the community in the field of all decision –making institutions of the Republic. i.e. representation of minority in the Administration ,Army, Police, Judicial and Foreign services as well as public offices at all level is effectively ensured. They need 60 reservation seats in Parliament through Constitutional provision. They want empowerment in political and public offices and constitutional social justice as equal citizens of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh..
5. The Government of Bangladesh should constitute a separate ministry concerning minority’s affairs and reconstitute National Human Rights Commission for Bangladesh with more minority members to ensure justice to the Minorities to uphold religious rights of Devuttur Property by promulgating a new Act and help secure fair and equal access to justice by allowing Hindu Human Rights NGOs to work in Bangladesh.
6. The Government of Bangladesh, should show respect to those obligations uphold the ideas in the constitution of Bangladesh as ratified so far the “Universal Declaration on Human Rights” to protect and fulfill the right to equality before law and equal protection of law by imposing duties on the government, to exercise their power in an impartial and non-discriminatory manner to prevent and control targeted violence .
The Government of Bangladesh should enact law –
- aims to protect and fulfill the right to equality before law and equal protection of law by imposing duties on the government, to exercise their power in an impartial and non-discriminatory manner ;- to prevent and control targeted violence, including mass violence, against religious minorities and linguistic ethnic minorities in any part of Bangladesh ; - to uphold secular democracy and help secure fair and equal access to justice; - Protection to these vulnerable groups is proposed through effective provisions for investigation, prosecution and trial of offences under the Act to provide for relief, rehabilitation and compensation to all persons affected.
Rabindranath Trivedi is a retired civil servant, author and columnist.
- Asian Tribune -

Hundreds of Hindus attacked in post-poll violence in Bangladesh take shelter in temples

Source: India Today


Hundreds of Hindu families had to flee their homes following post-poll violence in different districts in neighbouring Bangladesh and are too scared to return as the administration could not ensure their security.

According to The Daily Star and several other newspapers, activists of main Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its key-ally fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami attacked Hindu households in western Jessore and northwestern Dinajpur as soon as the voting ended on Sunday afternoon.

Media report said that BNP and Jamaat men looted, vandalised and burned Hindu houses in Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Bogra, Lalmonirhat, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Jessore.

Bangladeshi police officers kick a suspect after an attack on a polling station in Bogra, north of Dhaka. Sunday's general elections were marred by violence and a boycott by the opposition, which dismissed the polls as a farce. Police fired at protesters, and more than 100 polling stations were torched. AP photo

The Daily Star quoted villagers as saying that the attacks came following their decision to cast votes despite a warning from Jamaat men.

The villagers told reporters that 400-500 Jamaat activists exploded about 250 bombs, vandalised a hundred houses and torched 10 to 12 others.

Of around 1,200 to 1,500 people in the village, inhabited mostly by fishermen, 700 fled their houses soon after the attack. They took shelter in nearby villages while some of them hid in orchards.

Hundreds of others took refuge at a temple in Goreya upazila since Sunday night in fear of attacks by Jamaat-BNP men.

According to The Daily Star, locals said they had called police, ruling Awami league leaders and the administration over the mobile phones but nobody came to help. Police were seen after 9:00pm, when it was all over.

The newspaper's correspondent, during a visit to Tahukrgaon on Monday afternoon found about twelve hundred people from five hundred Hindu families of Gopalpur village sheltered at an Iscon (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) temple.

In Dinajpur, at least 350 houses and 50 shops were damaged, set ablaze and looted. According to locals, around 2,000 Jamaat men armed with sharp weapons and sticks launched the attack at Kornai village on Sunday evening.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/hindus-attacked-in-post-poll-violence-in-bangladesh/1/334899.html

Bangladesh Hindu leaders demand more protection for minorities

Source: The Z News

B'desh Hindu leaders demand more protection for minorities Dhaka: Human rights groups and Hindu leaders in Bangladesh today demanded more security for religious minorities amid reports that members of the community were attacked in several parts of the country during elections.

Activists of main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its key-ally fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami attacked Hindu households in western Jessore and northwestern Dinajpur, local media reports said.

The Daily Star and several other newspapers said the activists vandalised 130 Hindu houses and torched another 10 in Malopara village as they went to cast votes defying the opposition call for the boycott. Police, however, said 70 to 80 men attacked the village but joint forces comprising police and paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh chased them away.

The activists threatened the Hindus of dire consequence for voting, sparking panic and prompting the army "striking forces" intervention. "We were on election duty. In spite of that we rushed here to protect the villagers," Maj Rahman last night said, adding that a temporary police camp was installed at the area.

"Some 400 Hindus were forced to flee their homes and take refuge on the other side of the local Bhairab river fearing fresh attacks," Bangladesh Hindu-Bouddho-Cristian Oikya Parishad vice president Kajal Debnath told PTI.


Other reports said Hindus came under attack also at Pornia area in northwestern Dinajpur overnight where the opposition activists severely assaulted 10 elderly people of the community and vandalised over 10 houses for defying their calls for election boycott.

But army intervened, forcing the activists to flee.

"We demand intensified protection...We don't want to be traded off politically or used for anybody's political purpose," Debnath told PTI in an apparent reference to a perception that the Hindus were traditionally supporters of Awami League, which pursue a policy of secularism. He added: "Keep me (Hindus) beyond (political) focus, I don't want to be a victim."

According to media reports, only a small number of Hindus cast their votes in north-western Lalmonirhat and southwestern Satkhira either fearing attacks by opposition activists.

They said most of the Hindu villagers were annoyed with the government for not taking adequate steps for their protection during earlier such attacks in recent months when the opposition spearheaded anti-government campaigns.

Terror on Hindus: BNP-Jamaat men vandalise 130 houses, burn another 10 in Abhaynagar

Source: The Daily Star News
A couple of hours after yesterday's voting ended, BNP-Jamaat men unleashed terror on a Hindu village in Abhaynagar upazila of Jessore.
They vandalised 130 houses of the minority community and torched 10 more in Malopara village because the villagers had cast their votes.
About 600 Hindus of the village swam across the Bhairab River and took shelter in Diyapara village under Sridhar union to save their lives.
Villagers and police said wielding sharp weapons and sticks some 250 Jamaat-Shibir and BNP men led by Ariful Aksu and Kashem Ali had attacked the village around 6:00pm. During the 30-minute havoc, the attackers also looted valuables from the Hindu houses.
Officer-in-Charge Emdad Hossain of Abhaynagar Police Station said the attack was made after 70 to 80 men had beat up two Hindu men, Biswanath and Shyamol, for casting vote.
To save the two and disperse the attackers, members of the joint force fired six blank shots. While leaving the scene Jamaat-Shibir men threatened the Hindus of dire consequence for casting votes defying their directives.
About an hour after the attack had been launched on Malopara, a contingent of the joint force led by Maj Anisur Rahman of Border Guard Bangladesh reached the scene.
"We were on election duty. In spite of that we rushed here to protect the villagers," Maj Rahman told The Daily Star last night.
According to Maj Anis of the joint force, several houses were ransacked and only one house was torched in the attack.
"Most of the villagers returned home," he said, adding that a temporary police camp had been set up in Malopara on villagers' request.
The villagers last night filed a case naming 100 Jamaat-Shibir and BNP men in connection with the attack.
The joint force has launched drives in the area to arrest the culprits.
Meanwhile, a handful of Hindus cast their votes in Lalmonirhat and Satkhira yesterday as the majority of the community there either feared attacks by Jamaat-Shibir or were unhappy with the ruling party for not protecting them.
The two constituencies of Lalmonirhat, where the voting took place, spread over the sadar, Hatibandha and Patgram upazilas. Minorities in these areas have recently come under attack by activists of Jamaat-e Islami, a major component of the BNP-led opposition, and its student body Islami Chhatra Shibir.
At Ghoshpara village in Patgram, only 10-12 out of 280 voters exercised their franchise in the 10th national polls.
"The remaining voters did not turn up as they were under threat from Jamaat-Shibir men of the village," said Rajani Kanto Ghosh, a voter aged 48.
He added he had stayed at home all day in fear of attacks.
Besides, Rajani said, he had no interest in the election because the ruling Awami League had not extended its support to the Hindus even after the November 28 and December 15 attacks.
Alleged Jamaat-Shibir activists beat up women and children and looted and torched shops and houses in Ghoshpara village on November 28 during an opposition-enforced countrywide blockade. At least 55 Hindu families fled the area on December 15 following threats and attacks. 
Sindurmoti village in Lalmonirhat has 4,000 voters, 90 percent of whom are Hindus. But not a single vote was cast at Sindurmoti Government Primary School polling centre, reported our correspondent.
At Bawra village of Patgram upazila, some 25 Hindus cast their votes whereas the total number of minority voters is 300.
Local community leader Niharanjan Das, 56, told The Daily Star that they had not gone out to vote fearing attacks by opposition men, especially those of Jamaat-Shibir.
Gopal Chandra Barman, general secretary of Lalmonirhat Puja Udjapan Parishad, claimed that only 4 to 5 percent of the Hindu voters had exercised their franchise.
Similar cases were reported from Satkhira.
Not a single voter was seen at 4:00pm at Godaghata Government Primary School in Satkhira's Shibpur union, reported our correspondent.
The presiding officer of the polling station said opposition men had blasted cocktails there at dawn. The centre had been partially burnt the day before.
A farmer passing by, Aftab Hossain said,"They [Jamaat-Shibir] threatened us with dire consequences if we vote. Why get into all the hassle?"
Presiding officer Azizur Rahman of Agordari Kamil Madrassa in Godaghata said not a single vote had been cast though he had a list of 1,876 voters.
"How will voters of these areas cast their votes? The Hindus fled because they had been targeted by Jamaat-Shibir men. And those who belong to Jamaat-Shibir are on the run from the joint forces," said Lavlu Rahman of the area.
Meanwhile, two houses of Hindu families in Bagha upazila of Rajshahi were burnt down Saturday night.
An attack on a larger scale was made in Dinajpur on the minority community around 6:00pm yesterday, in which 30 shops, 65 houses, and paddies were torched.

Bipartisan Letter sent to Bangladesh Prime Minister and Chairperson, Bangladesh Nationalist Party Urging Free and Fair Elections

Source: House Foreign Affairs
Washington, D.C. – Today, a bipartisan letter was sent to both Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Bangladesh Nationalist Party Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, urging a free, fair, and credible election process.

The texts of the letters follows:

December 12, 2013
The Honorable Sheikh Hasina
Prime Minister of Bangladesh
Old Sangsad Bhaban
Tejgaon, Dhaka-1215
Bangladesh

Dear Prime Minister Hasina:

As an important partner in South Asia, the United States is committed to its relationship with Bangladesh. The very foundation of our partnership is built upon a strong bond of friendship.

It is in this spirit that we strongly urge you to engage in direct negotiations immediately with leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party to ensure that the upcoming elections are free, fair and viewed as credible by the Bangladeshi people.

We are concerned that continued political deadlock and related violence, including violence aimed at Hindus and other minorities, will have a negative impact on the real progress that is being made Bangladesh. The country’s economic achievements, including a 6 percent annual growth rate, the decline in the poverty rate, and the tremendous growth in our bilateral trade is progress that we do not want to see stop.

At the same time, we fear the potential impact that politically motivated violence and a flawed electoral process will have on this progress.

We do not see how credible elections can take place unless the parties move quickly to engage in direct negotiations and all sides agree to move ahead. This includes the establishment of a mutually acceptable mechanism to carry out the elections in a credible manner. Furthermore, we don’t believe election related violence is acceptable or a legitimate part of the democratic process. We urge you to do everything within your power to prevent any and all forms of violence.

The United States will work with the future, credibly elected, Government of Bangladesh, and we urge that future government to exact no retribution on whichever party loses the election.

We will continue to closely follow this matter and appreciate your attention to ensuring that democracy is allowed to flourish in Bangladesh.

Sincerely,

Eliot L. Engel Edward R. Royce
Member of Congress Member of Congress

Steve Chabot Joseph Crowley
Member of Congress Member of Congress

George Holding Grace Meng
Member of Congress Member of Congress




December 12, 2013
Begum Khaleda Zia
Chairperson, Bangladesh Nationalist Party
H#06, R#86,
Gulshan-2, Dhaka-1212
Bangladesh

Dear Madam Zia:

As an important partner in South Asia, the United States is committed to its relationship with Bangladesh. The very foundation of our partnership is built upon a strong bond of friendship.

It is in this spirit that we strongly urge you to engage in direct negotiations immediately with leaders of the Awami League to ensure that the upcoming elections are free, fair and viewed as credible by the Bangladeshi people.

We are concerned that continued political deadlock and related violence, including violence aimed at Hindus and other minorities, will have a negative impact on the real progress that is being made Bangladesh. The country’s economic achievements, including a 6 percent annual growth rate, the decline in the poverty rate, and the tremendous growth in our bilateral trade is progress that we do not want to see stop.

At the same time, we fear the potential impact that politically motivated violence and a flawed electoral process will have on this progress.

We do not see how credible elections can take place unless the parties move quickly to engage in direct negotiations and all sides agree to move ahead. This includes the establishment of a mutually acceptable mechanism to carry out the elections in a credible manner. Furthermore, we don’t believe election related violence is acceptable or a legitimate part of the democratic process. We urge you to do everything within your power to prevent any and all forms of violence.

The United States will work with the future, credibly elected, Government of Bangladesh, and we urge that future government to exact no retribution on whichever party loses the election.

We will continue to closely follow this matter and appreciate your attention to ensuring that democracy is allowed to flourish in Bangladesh.

Sincerely,

Eliot L. Engel Edward R. Royce
Member of Congress Member of Congress

Steve Chabot Joseph Crowley
Member of Congress Member of Congress

George Holding Grace Meng
Member of Congress Member of Congress

Jamaat Threat in Lalmonirhat: Panicked, Hindus flee

Source: Daily Star News.

9 killed as Jamaat clashes with cops in 4 districts

Many Hindu families and Awami League men in Patgram upazila of Lalmonirhat fled their homes yesterday following repeated threats from Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir.

 

 As violence continued to escalate, four people were killed in the upazila and five others in Joypurhat, Laxmipur and Sylhet districts throughout the day. At least 57 were injured across the country.
Minorities came under attack also in Satkhira. In different parts of the district, alleged Jamaat-Shibir men have burned and vandalised at least 36 houses and shops belonging to Hindus since the execution of convicted war criminal Quader Mollah Thursday night.
In the northern district of Lalmonirhat, at least 55 Hindu families of Ghoshpara had fled away, said a villager, 54-year-old Subhash Chandra Ghosh. “We have taken shelter at our relatives’ houses about 50 to 60 kilometres off the village.”
In the same village, Hindus came under attack on November 28 during the opposition’s 71-hour blockade. Alleged Jamaat-Shibir activists beat up at least 12 women and children and torched and looted at least five shops and two houses.
Dharani Kanta Sen, 60, of Shafinagar said, “Many Hindus left the village as the Jamaat-Shibir men threatened to torch their houses at night.”
In this village too, Jamaat-Shibir men along with BNP activists unleashed a terror on a Hindu neighbourhood on October 28.
Sunil Chandra Sen, 48, a Hindu community leader of the village, said, “Local Hindus called me to know what to do, but I myself have gone into hiding.”
Rabiul Islam, an AL activist of Kafir Bazar village, said many of his party colleagues fled away with their family members fearing Jamaat-Shibir mayhem, though law enforcers assured them of tight security.
Sultan Miah, another AL activist who was still home, said “I don’t know what will happen at night.”
Other villages which were deserted include Awliar Hat, Bawra Bazar and Beltoli.
Upazila Chairman Ruhul Amin Babul said many identified ruling party men have abandoned their houses. Around a hundred local AL activists and members of the Hindu community received threats from Jamaat-Shibir men that their houses will be torched at night.
“I’m also not safe,” Ruhul Amin said, adding that law enforcement agencies had increased patrolling in these areas.
Officer-in-Charge Sohrab Hossain of Patgram Police Station said he has information that Jamaat-Shibir men planned to commit atrocities against AL men and Hindu homes in these villages.
Also yesterday, a clash ensued when police tried to disperse Jamaat-Shibir men blockading the Lalmonirhat-Burimari highway in Patgram around 7:30am.
The blockaders threw four crude bombs at police, triggering an exchange of fire that left one Shibir man dead on the spot. Two injured Shibir activists died in hospital. The dead were Manirul Islam, 28, Abdur Rahim, 30, and Saju Islam, 24.
In retaliation, Shibir activists hacked AL activist Mintu Islam to death in broad daylight, dragging him out of his Kafir Bazar house around 12:20pm.
The highway clash also left at least 30 injured. They include seven policemen and 10 ordinary citizens.
At least 11 houses of AL men in Kafir Bazar and two belonging to Jatiya Party men were torched and looted.
Also in the upazila, 180-feet rail track was uprooted and a hundred fish plates were removed near Bawra Railway Station.
With 252 feet of railway tracks at Pirgachha upazila in Rangpur uprooted, train services on Dinajpur-Dhaka and Lalmonirhat-Dinajpur remained suspended till around 9:00pm. A train also derailed in the district.
In Sirajganj, pickets damaged two bridges in Konagati and Bawoitara in the early hours of yesterday. They also vandalised a private car.
At least two cops were injured when Jamaat men hurled bombs at a police van.
In Joypurhat, Mohammad Firoz Hossain, 30, a rickshaw van puller, was killed being caught in a gunfight between Jamaat and law enforcers. Jamaat men Shamim Hossain, 24 and Insan Ali, 22, were also left dead.
After around a thousand Jamaat-Shibir men encircled patrol police team, BGB and Rab members rushed to spot and the gunbattle began.
Mirajul Islam, 22, a Chhatra League activist, was killed in Laxmipur. A group of Jamaat-Shibir activists attacked him on his way to a relative’s house and slit his throat, our correspondent quoted the district Chhatra League president as saying.
In Sylhet, an AL man named Nazrul Islam, 35, was hacked to death early yesterday, while returning home from a procession.
A freedom fighter named Hazrat Ali, 55, suffered serious injuries in a Jamaat-Shibir assault in Shajahanpur upazila of Bogra yesterday morning, his family said.
In Pirojpur, alleged Jamaat-Shibir men torched the house of a union-level AL leader Bidhan Chandra Mistri.
They also dug up the roads leading to the closest fire stations in Pirojpur and Nazirpur, thereby preventing fire fighters from reaching the spot.
At least 25 were hurt in Rajshahi and Pabna during clashes between Jamaat-Shibir and AL and law enforcers.
In Khulna, police arrested district Jamaat Assistant Secretary Zahangir Hossain Helal.
Several bombs were exploded in front of the daily Sangram in Dhaka around 11:30pm yesterday, police say.