A rally for war criminals: Why are TMC, Left silent?

A belligerent rally in Kolkata by 16 Islamic organisations in support of Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, one of the prime accused in the 1971 genocide in Bangladesh, is indicative of West Bengal’s liberal space shrinking, says Dr Anirban Ganguly.

Something unprecedented happened on March 30 in Kolkata. Sixteen Islamic organisations came together at the Maidan, the second largest public ground in the city, in protest against the ongoing war crimes trial in Bangladesh, against the Shahbag sit-in and in support of the vice-president of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, one of the prime accused in the 1971 genocide in Bangladesh.

It was astounding to see a huge and belligerent crowd gather from all over the state to support one of the best known razakars and collaborators with the Pakistan Army in its genocide against Muslims and Hindus in East Pakistan.

Speakers addressing the gathering attempted to whip up hysterical support for the Jamaat and its leaders and pledged that just as West Bengal’s Muslims prevented Salman Rushdie from the entering the state and hounded out Taslima Nasreen  in 2007 they would generate a movement against the pro-war crime trial bloggers in Bangladesh and would take on their supporters with the same zeal. They even threatened to block any future visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina  to India.

But most shocking was their brazen support for Sayeedi, a known vocal anti-India preacher, a rabid anti-Hindu who has been active in organising pogroms against minorities in Bangladesh over the years and one of the most avid collaborators in Pakistan’s genocide against fellow Muslims.

They openly declared their support for Sayeedi saying that a death sentence for Sayeedi in effect meant a death sentence for the Koran and Islam. These speakers chose to ignore the fact that Sayeedi was being tried for killing in cold blood their fellow religionists. It was for the first time that such a mobilisation took place in Kolkata and it simply reinforced an emerging mindset which has begun trying to consolidate a pan-Bengal Islamic identity.

Incidentally, it was from the Maidan in August 1946 that the call for ‘direct action’ was given by the Muslim League. The result of that call on the history of both parts of Bengal is too well known to even require a passing reiteration. But our politicians have deliberately chosen to ignore that past.

Not a single political party, and in them especially those who at the first opportunity, jump to dissect delusional dimensions of Hindu fascism and habitually get into describing various conjured Hindutva theatres of genocidal experiments or pontificate on the need to maintain the secular and syncretic texture of our nationhood, came forward to condemn the positions taken in the meeting.

Not one political party even recalled that Sayeedi and his ilk were part of those criminal groups which selectively hunted out and massacred Hindus, fellow Bengali Muslims and helped to sustain Pakistani resistance to Indian soldiers. The Shahbag protesters have been calling for the establishment of a truly secular and constitutional Bangladesh where religious bigots would be reined in and their anti-national tendencies curbed and yet they find no support from our political secularists.

Both the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress have maintained a studied silence having mortgaged over the years their politics to Islamic fundamentalist elements in the state. Comrades who jump at every opportunity to display their secular credentials in order to keep communal forces at bay through organising rallies, sit-ins, and seminars have not issued even as much as a statement.

In fact Sayeedi himself had a very clear benchmark for Communists, “Leftists are not Muslims. They don’t believe in prayers,” he had declared. It has always been an axiomatic truth for him that no non-Muslim could be allowed to live in Bangladesh. He assiduously worked for it ever since the War of Liberation in 1971. No wonder comrades in Bangladesh find it difficult to survive on their own and have prudently sided with Sheikh Hasina.

The Congress believing that it shall gain space with the electorates’ gradual disillusionment with the TMC has obviously kept quiet. Its studied silence is part of its larger grand design of mobilising country wide minority support. Nor has the Indian media come forward to debate the phenomenon; it is still incapable of visualizing its status once congregations such as these begin  spawning Sayeedi clones all over India.

For the media and journalists Sayeedi had a simple equation, “Journalists write lies. They are the enemies of Islam”. It is well documented as to what Sayeedi did to those whom he considered as enemies of Islam. It is this stoic silence in face of a rising vocal Islamic fundamentalism which is worrisome and condemnable. The liberal space in Bengal is fast shrinking and we have paid a heavy price for such a constriction in the past.  

Those in whose support the Maidan congregation was organised were at their vicious best when it came to treating minorities in their own country. Sayeedi himself, as head of the local Al Badr and Al Shams, has been convicted of killing Hindus, burning their homes and businesses and of forceful conversion. He assisted the Pakistan army in its operation of decimating Hindus.

Sydney Schanberg, then correspondent of the New York Times, noted this selective approach, ‘the [Pakistani] army is now concentrating on Hindus, the killing is more selective, [and] has not stopped.’ Schanberg further recorded how the Pakistan army had ‘painted big yellow H’s on the Hindu shops to identify the property of the minority, eighth of the population that it has made it special targets.’

Archer Blood, the ‘dissenting diplomat’, then American Consul General in Dhaka cabled on March 29, 1971 on how the ‘Hindus [were] particular focus of [the] campaign and how the army was ‘going after Hindus with a vengeance.’

Veteran Pakistani journalist Anthony Mascarenhas, who fled to London in order to tell the truth about the Pakistan army wrote in exasperation in his columns in the Sunday Times that the Pakistani military operation had two distinctive features: ‘ One, the cleansing process’, the other ‘rehabilitation effort’ -- ‘turning East Bengal into a ‘docile colony of West Pakistan.’ Sayeedi and his political colleagues had wholeheartedly facilitated all of these; the Maidan congregators were silent on that.

It was Sayeedi who had once said of the Hindus of Bangladesh, ‘Why should we feel sad when the Hindu brothers choose to leave our country? Do we mourn when we have indigestion and materials leave our bodies?’

Do we then assume that those in West Bengal who have organised the Maidan rally in Sayeedi’s support and those who have, through their silence given consent to their demands, really support that line?

Source: http://www.rediff.com/news/column/a-rally-for-war-criminals-why-are-tmc-left-silent/20130403.htm

A Dangerous Connivance

It is worrying that West Bengal’s political class remained tactical spectatorss to the Kolkata rally organised by Muslim groups in support of Bangladeshi war criminals

West Bengal looked to the Shahbag protests in Dhaka with hope. In 1971, a massive relief and solidarity effort was undertaken in West Bengal for the millions trying to escape a veritable genocide. The then leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami in East Bengal and its students wing organised murder and rape squads in collaboration with the Pakistani forces. Their crimes included mass murder, rape as a weapon of war, arson and forced conversions. Post-1975, generals used them to cast an Islamic veneer of legitimacy over their illegal capture of power. Their immunity lasted until the present Bangladesh government restarted the legal proceedings in the War Crimes tribunal. The Shahbag protests demanded maximum punishment for the guilty.

Shocking

In West Bengal, a few meetings have happened around Shahbag, mostly expressing support. But, shockingly, the largest was a massive rally held in Kolkata on March 30, explicitly against the Shahbag protests and in support of the war criminals already convicted. Various Muslim groups, including the All Bengal Minority Council, the All Bengal Minority Youth Federation, the Madrassa Students Union, the Muslim Think Tank and the All Bengal Imam Muazzin Association, organised the rally. People arrived in buses from distant districts of Murshidabad and Nadia, as well as from neighbouring districts. Students of madrassas and the new Aliah Madrassa University were conspicuous at the gathering.

The old rallying cry, “Islam is in danger in Bangladesh,” was heard. We heard a similar cry in 1952 during the mother-language movement, in 1954 when Fazlul Haq and Maulana Bhashani challenged the Muslim League, in 1969 when the Awami League made its six demands and during the 1971 liberation struggle — basically during every secular movement for rights and justice. The rally thundered that West Bengal would be “cleansed” of supporters of war crimes trial and the present Prime Minister of Bangladesh. They promised that political forces supporting Shahbag would be “beaten with broom-sticks” if they came asking for Muslim votes. Like Taslima Nasreen and Salman Rushdie, Sheikh Hasina would not be allowed inside Kolkata. They expressed solidarity with the anti-Shahbag “movement” in Bangladesh. This assertion is worrisome, as the anti-Shahbag forces in Bangladesh have initiated a wave of violent attacks on Hindus, Buddhists and secular individuals, and the destruction of Hindu and Buddhist homes, businesses and places of worship. Amnesty International documented attacks on over 40 Hindu temples as of March 6. That number has increased.

This large gathering and its pronouncements have been in the making. A collapse in the Muslim vote was important in the Left Front’s demise. Muslim divines regularly remind the present government of this. The Trinamool Congress wants to ensure a continued slice of this vote. In an unprecedented move, the government handed out monthly stipends to imams and muezzins to build a class of Muslim “community leaders” who eat out of its hand. The debt-ridden, vision-deficient government is unable to solve the problems that are common to the poor. It has wooed a section of the marginalised on the basis of religion by selective handouts. These are excellent as speech-making points masquerading as empathy. This also gives fillip to forces whose trajectories are not under usual political control.

The Left Front’s political fortune stagnated after 2011. It has cynically chosen not to strongly oppose this communal turn. Waiting for the incumbent to falter is its roadmap to power. The damage this is doing to the West Bengal’s political culture is possibly irreparable. The incumbent’s connivance and the opposition’s silence are due to the long-eroded tradition of democratic political contestation through grassroots mobilisation. Both deal with West Bengal’s sizeable minority population primarily via intermediaries, doing away with any pretence of ideology in the transactions.

Politics of blackmail

Organisations inspired by political Islam have used this disconnect to the hilt to blackmail the government. An emerging bloc of divines, and former and present student leaders have used students and youths as storm troopers at short notice. Sadly, they are unconcerned about life and livelihood issues of Muslims. With assistance from the Left Front regime, they drove out the persecuted humanist writer, Taslima Nasreen. The extent of their clout as blackmailers was evident from the government’s pro-activeness in keeping Salman Rushdie out of Kolkata, after his visit to Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai. This pushing of the envelope fits into a sequence of events that is increasingly stifling the freedom of expression. The double-standards are clear.

On March 21, a group of small magazine publishers, human rights workers, theatre artists and peace activists were disallowed from marching to the Deputy High Commission of Bangladesh to express their support to the war-crimes trial efforts. The police had “orders;” some marchers were detained. A month earlier, the same police provided security cover to an anti-Shahbag march and later to the marchers when they submitted a memorandum to the Deputy High Commission demanding the acquittal of convicted war criminals. Last year, public libraries were directed to stock a sectarian daily even before its first issue was published! The State thinks that it can play this brinksmanship game with finesse. When the political class acts as tactical facilitators or tactical spectators to apologists of one the largest mass-murders ever, the demise of Kolkata as a centre of culture is a natural corollary. A combination of circumstances can cause an uncontrollable unravelling. Bengal’s experience with sectarian politics is distinctly bitter.

The bye-election to Jangipur, a Muslim-majority Lok Sabha constituency, saw the combined vote of the two main parties fall from 95 per cent in 2009 to 78 per cent in 2012. The beneficiaries were the Welfare Party of India, a thinly-veiled front organisation of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, and the Social Democratic Party of India, a similar group. “Tactical pluralism” is their game, a concept quite akin to the tactical defence of Taslima’s freedom of speech by Hindu communal political forces. The rally in support of war criminals has exposed this faux pluralism.

There was another significant beneficiary in the same election — the Bharatiya Janata Party. Communal tension has been rising, with serious disturbances in Deganga and Canning. Sensing a subterranean polarisation, the majoritarian forces see an opportunity. Mouthing banalities about Bengal’s “intrinsically” plural culture is useless. Culture is a living entity, recreated every moment. It is being recreated by the victimisation discourse by fringe groups like Hindu Samhati and in certain religious congregations where unalloyed poison produced by divines like Tarek Monawar Hossain from Bangladesh is played on loud-speakers. Thanks to technology, vitriol produced in a milieu of free-style majoritarian muscle-flexing in Bangladesh reaches West Bengal easily. Hence the popularity of one of the convicted war criminals, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, who in his post-1971 avatar had become a superstar in the Bengali waz-mahfil circuit.

What are the effects of cultural exchange of this kind? The rally is a clue. A defence of Sayedee and the claim that he is innocent, made repeatedly in the rally, are like perpetrating Holocaust-denial.

A day after the anti-Shahbag rally in Kolkata, almost as a divine reminder of starker realities beyond the defence of Islam, nearly 45 lakh unemployed youth, Hindus and Muslims, sat for the primary school teachers’ recruitment examination for 35,000 posts. Clearly, the ‘minority’ employment exchange set up by the incumbents has failed. West Bengal has petitioned the Centre for a relaxation of the minimum qualifications for primary school teachers. The promotion of religious education is hardly the way to empowerment and livelihood generation for the minorities in a State where they have been grossly under-represented in all white-collar services. There are no short-cut solutions.

(Garga Chatterjee is a researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

LINK : http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/a-dangerous-connivance/article4585420.ece

Bengal on verge of collapse due to Muslim Appeasement: Tapan Ghosh

IBTL team talked to Social Activist & Hindu Samhati Chief Tapan Ghosh to know his version of the recent violence and atrocities happened on Hindus in West Bengal and the role of the left parties and Trinamool Congress in it.

Mr. Gosh at present there are religious riots going on in West Bengal, and in this regard almost the entire nation is uninformed, What do you feel about this?

First of all I would like to inform you that the riots were spread across four villages on 19^th of February, in which about 200 houses of Hindus were burnt. This is just one incident, such incidents take place atleast four to five times a year. Last year on the 14th of May, there was similar situation in Taarnagar and Rupnagar of 24 south pargana districts when Muslim rioters burnt down houses of several houses. I visited those villages in person, and arranged trauma relief programmes for the victims. Two years ago in Chaopur village of Murshidabad also there was a very violent situation.  Hindus were beaten blue and black, at first two houses belonging to Hindus were set on fire and later a Hindu youngster was put to death. Commotion of similar intensity was also spread in Taarnagar. Several women were sexually assaulted. About two and half years before this incident in 2010 September Hindu women were assaulted largely in Muslim majority areas of the North 24 pargana district.  Those days CPM was ruling Bengal but now it is Mamtaji’s government. The current governments and the previous ones have subjugated these incidents from coming to lime light because these were favourable to them. The governments have exploited these situations for their political interests. Even the Bengali is also is acting as a buffer from exposing the riots taking place in different regions of West Bengal. It is evidently failure of the Government and Media, that they could not prevent such incidents. Some to feel ashamed about is that in four villages under the Canning police circle which is hardly 60 km away from Kolkata on the 19th of February all the Hindu houses were looted and then set on fire. The natives of those villages and the victims informed me that a large numbers of Muslim have come to their villages, and that there about 150 trucks by which they had traveled from Kolkata. The rioters have looted all that that was portable. The other heavy things like grains which they couldn’t carry with them; they just splashed petrol and set them on fire. During this entire incident Police acted as silent spectators.

Do you feel that this is not just a temporary phenomenon but a long term strategy? Is that seeds of separatism are being sowed similar to that in Kashmir, there was also information that Badruddin Ajmal the mastermind behind the Assam riots was also in Bengal three days ago?

I feel this is not just a Temporary phenomenon but it seems like a strategy. These happenings may be a part of long term plans. Through these actions they are showing off to the government their muscle power and are also inducing fear into the Hindu community which will compel them to flee from these villages and to migrate to other regions. I do not have any clue about Badruddin Ajmal, including that you have mentioned. Yes he did visit Kolkata to launch his party. Apart from him there is another Muslim leader P.D.Choudary who has merged his party into Badruddin’s party. I feel that this is a conspiracy by top Muslim leaders of CPM and TMC. And they are involved in accomplishing the same.

What about Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who claims that religious riots take place only in Gujarat and not in West Bengal?

There cannot be a lie bigger than this. There are atleast a thousand riots in Bengal each year. These are just subjugated and pushed under the carpet. The politicians are making policies to please Muslim voters as a part of their vote bank politics.

Do you feel that following the UPA in centre and CPM in the state, now even TMC is also playing the Muslim minority card and indulging in minority politics?

Even a blind would get to see that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who claims to be secular, but still goes to mosques to offer prayers. She is also providing special stipend to the Muslin students, distributing cycles among them and also paying remunerations to Imams and facilitating the minorities with many things which the others do not get to enjoy. In the vicious drama of the Alcohol issue there was an anti-social element behind the screen that is referred to as the White Emperor. He runs many illegal and unethical businesses. After the riots the government of Bengal gave such people an amount of Rs. Two lakh as ex-gratia, despite the fact that they were into ill-legal activities. In the state of Bengal the Mamata run government resorted to all sorts of things to please Muslims. And she is walking in the footsteps on the communist parties.

The Indian Media stills discusses the Gujarat riots, but pays no attention to this repeated attack on Hindus in Bengal, do you feel Media is biased?

The justification Media gives for not having covered the riots is that the news may instigate riots in rest of the country. And they claim that regulations do are stooping them from covering the riots. The question to be raised with Media in first place is that who made this regulation? Is the Press council of India working under the central government or under the government of West Bengal? The Media is lying, there is no such regulation. To report whatever has happened is the first and foremost duty of the Media and Media has failed to do so. Media is under the pressure of Muslim forces and the current government. Even the leading newspaper of West Bengal Anand bazaar patrika has always been biased and anit-hindu. They are least bothered about the Hindus (Majority)

Sentiments and publish articles criticizing Hindu gods and goddesses, none of the media ever dare to comment on Muslim believes. Bengal media has always ignored their wrong deeds. If at all in future Bengal turns to be an Islamic state, the credit would go to Media houses like the Anand bazaar patrika.

What is your opinion on the way Media is reporting about the Gujarat Riots? Wherein without any sort of judgments by any court they are projecting him as a villain with respect to the issue?

The fund Media generates through Ads and in other ways most of it comes from the Islamic (Arabic) nations or Christian missionaries. The instructions they have got is to project that Hindus are rioters everywhere and also project Modi as a fundamentalist belonging to RSS. This is their strategy. They feel that Muslims can never indulge in wrong practices. Whereas on the other hand Muslim rioters have brutally killed Vinod Mehta the deputy commissioner of Kolkata port area. They have chopped his body into pieces, cauterize him with cigarette and even cut his private parts and tortured him. Though Muslims have done all this, this have never been shown on news because Muslims are like their brothers, and when your brother does something wrong you leave it unnoticed after all he is your brother so he can do. He can even break the country or terrorize but still he is not innocent since he is your brother.

Most of the Media institutes and Higher Education Platforms seem to be in the clutches of the communists. Where the students are brain washed and convinced of communism. Can we expect them to be unbiased?

It is matter of fact that though the communist are no longer in power, they still have full control over the media and Education in state. Not just there but even in the fates of the Bengalis of West Bengal the communists exercise their power. Communism was born in the Soviet. The communist have failed from giving the Nation a vision. They have always been anti-nationals. It would not be wrong even if I say that it is the ill-fate of the Bengalis as communists exist in West Bengal. They haven’t done any good to the state and in fact turned it into a sick state. Nationalists need to work in this direction. Even after the entire world faulted Stalin as Evil, the communists still worship him. That looks more like actions of a brain dead. Until they exist there nothing can be done.

There is another question similar to the previous one. Do feel that the Education system nurtured by the communists as isolated an entire generation from the rest of the nation?

Communists are the second convicts in this regard. The primary damage has been done by Macaulay through the reforms he has got. Sad part is that the English (British) and communists were friends as they were allies in the Second World War where the British and the Soviet fought together. Even in India the communists turned puppets in the hands of the British. For the reason that Nehru had good relation with the Soviet Union he allotted the education planning to the communists. For instance Nooral Hasan was holding office in the communist party, but still he was made the Education minister. In pre Independence there was an understanding between the British and the communists, which after the independence turned into an illicit relation between congress and the communists. The Indian Education system was made deficient of nationalistic vision and had small sphere of inclusion as a part of their revenge. The interference of Communists in the Education and syllabus planning is spoiling the future of our country. The revisions made in the CBSE syllabus are fine examples of this.

What do you think is the role of communists in raising Muslim acculturation and separatism tendencies in India?

Yes I feel that they intentionally ignore the Muslim fundamentalism and separatist ideas. I feel that in any corner of their heart the communist do not have anything that is in favour of India. The partition of India in 1947 is an example of the separatist ideology of Muslims. Based on the teachings of their religion people following Islam would not like to stay with people of other religions. They aim at Islamisation of the entire world as per Dar-ul-Islam and the same ambition has caused the partition of India too. The partition has also caused the death of many Hindu brethren. Several Hindu women have been raped, and still such a situation is prevailing. Is this all not a part of History? But the communists have buffered all this from the records of history and wrote up some stories as history. The massacre of Hindus and forceful conversion of people to Islam by the Mughals have been replaced stories praising the Mughals for many fake reasons. Bengal has always been under the rule of insane rulers. During Independence Justice Suhravardhi was the chief minister; in the name of Direct Action he had caused riots in the city of Kolkata. On 16^th of Aug 1946 there were several communist leaders present there who were shouting aloud slogans “We want Independence only after portioning India into India and Pakistan.” After which the Muslim population has raised to 26 percent whereas the Hindu population fell down to 54 percent. The Communists have ruled Bengal for about 34 years. The riots are an illustration of the growth of fundamentalism in the Muslims in all these years.

Do see any sought of Hindu Movement rising in Bengal in the coming years?

There would not be just some sought of movement but I feel there would be outburst of a Hindu revolution. All the political parties and Media houses are trying to some how suppress this. Following the same fashion in pleasing the minorities already our country had been divided once in the past. Lakhs of Hindu men were killed, Women were raped, temples destroyed but now Hindus will no longer tolerate this again. The current political parties in Bengal are dedicated in pleasing the Muslims. The need of the hour is to alienate such evil forces from coming to power. And soon the world is going to witness a mass Hindu revolution in West Bengal.

Do you think in coming days we are going to see a Pro-Hindu party forming government in West Bengal?

I don’t think any pro-Hindu party can form government or even think of it, because there are about 30 percent Muslims who generally vote in bulk for the same party. Like in the last elections they have voted for TMS or Congress as they have moved away from Communists. That why the parties always try to please Muslims leaders so that they can have the support of the bulk Muslim voters who constitute to 30 percent of the voters. Even BJP which is labeled a Hindu party is also unable to raise its voice against this partiality of the government. There are many other parties which are secular. Hindu votes get divided among several parties. If a party wants to work for the interest of the Hindus, some Nationalist party needs to come forward and unite the Hindus voters.

Many different Hindu organizations are working on various issues across the country. Do you think all of them should meet on a single platform to work together?

I have interacted with several Hindu organizations from different parts of the country working on different issues; one thing I have observed about them is that they do not have a National vision.  They are sincerely working to improve things in spheres they have selected, but they are not willing to work in national level as there are different problems and difficulties associated with each cause. But if a National level organisation is ready to take the lead they are willing to extend their support. That body, should co-ordinate with all of them and unite them. Small and regional organizations are also not able to raise their voice; even if they raise their voice it is not given importance in National scenario. If all the Hindu organizations are able to meet on one platform nationally then the state of Hindus in this country will develop.

Many times it seems that the Hindu groups themselves are not aware of the basic teachings of their religion. Some organizations do protests on issues of no importance, but ignore those issues which pertain to interest of Hindus. What do you feel about this?

I totally agree with you on this. I think you are talking in regard to the Bangalore pub issue. The incident is over and the anti-Hindu media has exploited the situation fully against the Hindu organisation involved in that incident. To do moral policing Valentine’s Day is not the primary objective of Sri Ram Sena but it is just a part of their cause. The need of the hour is to form a Platform to accommodate all the Hindu organizations so that they work together for a National cause.

Source: http://www.ibtl.in/news/exclusive/2081/bengal-on-verge-of-collpase-due-to-muslim-appeasement-tapan-ghosh

Armed Buddhists, including monks, clash with Muslims in Myanmar

Buddhist monks and others armed with swords and machetes Friday stalked the streets of a city in central Myanmar, where sectarian violence that has left about 20 people dead has begun to spread to other areas, according to local officials.

Members of the Buddhist and Muslim communities in Meiktila township have clashed this week after a dispute between a Muslim gold shop owner and two Buddhist sellers Wednesday ignited simmering communal tensions.

Rioters have set fire to houses, schools and mosques, prompting thousands of residents to flee their homes amid unrest that had echoes of sectarian troubles that killed scores of people in western Myanmar last year.

Late Friday night, President Thein Sein announced on state television that four townships in the affected region are under a state of emergency.

The United Nations and the United States have expressed concern about the violence in the lakeside city about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Mandalay.

Win Htein, an opposition member of parliament for Meiktila, said the number of dead in the city has risen to about 20 by his estimate -- most of them Muslims -- after charred bodies were found in the streets.

"I have not seen this scale of violence before in my life," he said. "I am very sad. The community used to live in peace."

Myanmar is emerging from decades of military repression and has taken a number of significant steps toward democracy in recent years under President Thein Sein. But it has been plagued by bouts of ethnic violence that some analysts say are a byproduct of the changing political climate.

Burning mosques

A group of about 100 Buddhists, including some monks, went around Meiktila on Thursday night torching mosques, said Police Lt. Col. Aung Min, and while most of them have returned home, some are still wandering the streets, carrying weapons.

Although Aung Min declined to provide an official death toll, he said the violence had spread to a nearby town, Win Twin, where a mosque was burned down overnight.

He said about 1,000 Muslims had taken temporary shelter in a soccer stadium in Meiktila, where about 30% of the 100,000 residents are estimated to be Muslims.

Win Htein said he believed that more than 5,000 Buddhists had fled to monasteries around the city to escape the violence.

Many members of both communities had lost their homes, he said.

Journalists in the city who tried to take photos of the clashes said they were threatened by Buddhists, some of them monks, who were holding sticks and knives.

Violence in Rakhine

In the western state of Rakhine, tensions between the majority Buddhist community and the Rohingya, a stateless ethnic Muslim group, boiled over into clashes that killed scores of people and left tens of thousands of others living in makeshift camps last year.

Most of the victims were Rohingya.

"The ongoing intercommunal strife in Rakhine State is of grave concern," the International Crisis Group said in a November report. "And there is the potential for similar violence elsewhere, as nationalism and ethno-nationalism rise and old prejudices resurface."

A failure by authorities to address deepening divisions between the communities could result in a resumption of violence in the future, the report said, "which would be to the detriment of both communities, and of the country as a whole."

Vijay Nambiar, special adviser to the U.N. secretary-general on Myanmar, on Thursday expressed "deep sorrow at the tragic loss of lives and destruction" in Meiktila this week.

He called for "firm action" from Myanmar authorities, combined with "the continued fostering of communal harmony and preservation of peace and tranquility among the people."

Win Htein, the local lawmaker, said that he believed there were now about 1,000 police officers in the area.

He said he had spoken to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate and leader of the opposition National League for Democracy, who had said local authorities should use police to control the situation according to the law.

The U.S. ambassador to Myanmar, Derek Mitchell, said Thursday that he was "deeply concerned" about the reports of violence.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/22/world/asia/myanmar-clashes/index.html   

Two dead, mosques destroyed in Myanmar unrest: Police

Two people including a Buddhist monk were killed and at least three mosques were destroyed after riots broke out in a town in central Myanmar, police said on Thursday.

Around 200 people fought in the streets after an argument in a Muslim-owned gold shop turned violent in Meiktila on Wednesday, according to a post on Myanmar Police Force's Facebook page. 

"One injured monk and Than Myint Naing, 26, who were being treated for their injuries died from their burns at hospital," it said. 

Police imposed a curfew from evening to early morning to control the situation. 

"People tried to burn down the mosques," one local police officer said. 

The unrest comes amid heightened concerns over Muslim-Buddhist relations in Myanmar, where communal conflict in the western state of Rakhine has left at least 180 people dead and more than 110,000 displaced since June 2012. 

An initial report on the police Facebook page late on Wednesday said anger spread after one man was injured during the row in the gold shop. 

The report said a mob then descended on the area and destroyed some buildings. 

It said six people were hospitalised, and that the Buddhist monk and a Muslim man later died from their injuries. A subsequent police report omitted the religion of the second man.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Two-dead-mosques-destroyed-in-Myanmar-unrest-Police/articleshow/19102223.cms   

Broken Goddess and the War Crime Verdict of Bangladesh

by Swadesh Roy

(March 13, 2013, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Broken Goddess picture is published every day in the progressive newspaper in Bangladesh now. From 28 February, attack on the temple is an everyday feature now in Bangladesh. Not only the sculpture of the Goddess are broken by the Jammat- Shibir , the terrorist and the war criminal party of Bangladesh but also arson, looting and killing are continuing on the Hindu community.

In Bangladesh, this terrorist and war criminal party members have attacked at least in twenty-two districts on the minority community. They are not only attacking on the minority community but also setting fire to many government office even the electricity plant. They have set fire to rail, bus, bank, business organization and the house of the government officer. They are continuously attacking on many innocent intellectual people also. They have killed more than three intellectuals. They have declared a kind of war against Bangladesh. But it has to mention here that, they never recognized Bangladesh. They fought against Bangladesh in 1971 with the collaboration of Pakistan army. Then they killed millions of people and raped thousands of girls besides they helped for killing and raping to Pakistan army. Jammat –E- Islami men also looted and arson in 1971.

After the liberation of Bangladesh, the government of Bangladesh did ban their politics through the constitution and more than 50 thousand of their workers who were accused on war criminal were arrested. At last, 11 thousand of them were on trial. The military ruler freed them all after the counter-revolution in 15 August 1975. In addition, very soon the military government gave them political right in Bangladesh. From then they are enjoying political rights. Though they are enjoying democratic political rights, they are participating in the parliament election but they never do democratic political activates.

After getting the political rights in Bangladesh, they have enjoyed the government help for their terrorist activities for a long time. In that time, they have setup huge number of business institute including financial institute like Islamic Bank of Bangladesh. On the other hand, they have established a number of terrorist groups including their student organization. In this work, they are getting huge money from the Islamic countries of Middle East in the name of Islam; besides Pakistani military intelligence (ISI) also helps them to give money and training. So now, they are well funded and well trained terrorist organization not only in Bangladesh but also in the world.

However, these Jammate-E- Islamic main leaders are now facing trial-accusing war crime in tribunal; that tribunal is called international war crime tribunal (ICT). By this time, ICT has given verdict three of them. Two of them have awarded sentence to death and one has lifetime Jail.

The war criminal who has given lifetime jail by the tribunal his name is kader Mollaha. In 1971, he was known as a butcher Kader. He did rape, killing and looting. He is the murderer of many intellectuals including a famous women poet of the then time. ICT has proved that he committed more than 355 murders. One killing is enough to get the capital punishment but the butcher Kader has given lifetime by the court. After declared this verdict, Kader shown victory symbol to the press. To see this picture the scenario of Bangladesh turned in to a face of volcano. Because, the butcher Kader strocked on the pride of the nation.

Young generation of Bangladesh cannot take it rather their out blast was historical which never happened in Bangladesh. Some young online activist gave an apple to the people to come on a road in Dhaka named shabag, which is nearby Dhaka University. But by the evening a huge crowd made there. From then it is continuing. For the first time this type of uprising is happened in Bangladesh. It is very non-partisan. They only uphold the spirit of freedom struggle of Bangladesh and they want to respect to the 3 million martyrs and a half million women who were raped by the Pakistani army and the Jammat people in 1971.

Within three days, this uprising became a human sea. From this human sea, they demanded that they want capital punishment for the butcher Kader and all the war criminal that are now facing trial. Besides, they want that, government have to ban Jammat-E-Islamic Bangladesh, as a war criminal party they cannot enjoy political right in Bangladesh. People of Bangladesh have supported their demand because all over the world the war criminal party cannot enjoy the political right. In the mean time a group of Shibir( student wing of Jammat) men killed one of the online activists who was an architect. To share condolence to the family members Prime Minister of Bangladesh went his home, at that time she told to the journalist that Jammat has no right to do politics in Bangladesh.

The online activist Rajib Hyder Shovo was a blogger. Most of the time he would write to uphold the principle or sprit and the history of freedom struggle of Bangladesh that has been destroyed by the military ruler of Bangladesh. But, one of the editors of a newspaper in Bangladesh named Amardesh who was awarded as a chance editor by the Supreme Court, Mr. Mahamudur Rahaman published a baseless story that, Rajib wrote story against the great Prophet of Islam. His newspaper never maintains any ethics. With his newspaper, he is trying to establish that, this uprising is against religion. This` religion game’ is an old weapon in Bangladesh. When the people of Bangladesh start any progressive movement like the historical language movement, Freedom struggle in Bangladesh then the reactionary group uses that weapon. However, the people of Bangladesh never accept it. In spite of that, they succeed to do many unethical works in the name of religion; like looting, killing and raping. This time they also are doing this.

However, on 28 February the ICT gave the verdict of an war criminal. His name was Delwar hossien Syedee. In 1971, he was known as Della Razakar. ICT gave him sentence to death. Court has found that, in 1971, he committed murder, raping ,arson and looting. After giving his verdict, the people of Bangladesh and the youth up risers started to celebrate. Nevertheless, the Jammat and Shibir people started to arson government office in different place. With the modern and homemade weapons, they killed police officer, arson government office, business house and they attacked on minority Hindu, Buddhist people, and their temples in twenty-two district of Bangladesh. They have killed more than six Hindu people including temple Guru and two years baby.

The law enforcing men of Bangladesh took measures. For taking measure, a number of causalities were happened. Because, they have started war against the state. However, the people of Bangladesh basically the youth are trying to stop it through the non violent movement; and the terrorist going to isolated from the society but after three days of this terrorism, the main opposition supported the terrorist activates of the Jammat- Shibir. After that, they are calling shutdown one after another, killing the innocent people, and attacking on the minorities. The renowned human right activist of Bangladesh, Shariar Kabir has visited many places, where they attacked the minorities. He said in a press conference that, main opposition party, Bangladesh nationalist party (BNP) men are involved on the attack of minorities.

It is a big setback for Bangladesh politics that BNP has supported the terrorist group of Bangladesh. Therefore, government of Bangladesh has to face now more terrorism and now the more than one-core minorities of Bangladesh are in danger. Despite, it is true ultimately, the progressive force of Bangladesh will win, but it is very much needed that, world progressive forces have to support them. World human right workers and all kind of progressive force have to be concerned regarding the security of the minorities of Bangladesh.

Swadesh Roy, Executive Editor, The Daily Janakantha, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Source: http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2013/03/broken-goddess-and-war-crime-verdict-of.html

Karma catches up with Jamaat

The Shabagh sit-in has robustly survived for a month and its strength and resolve seem to be growing. Veteran Mukti Joddhas, enthused by the response of youth, see in this a second struggle for liberation from shackles of fundamentalist Rezakars and their Pakistani mentors who have always worked to throttle the full emergence and consolidation of a Bengali identity. The protestors have resolved to continue with the signature campaign for another month till the April 7.

Among the major demands of the campaign is the completion of the war crimes trial, the hanging of the Jamaat leaders who collaborated with the Pakistani Army in its pogrom against the people of East Pakistan during 1971 and the banning of the party altogether. It is the first time since 1971 that the Bangladeshis have witnessed such a massive and sustained outpouring in support of the ideals of the Liberation War. The Jamaat’s countrywide mayhem, its targetted attacks and killings of law enforcers, its destructions of Hindus’ home and hearth, their temples and business establishments have not been able to cow down the protestors at Shabag.

But Bangladesh is in the grips of a death fight between progressive forces of democracy and stability and those who wish to push it to the brink and Wahabise it. They are working overtime at the behest of their external mentors. ‘Basher Kella’, the Facebook page run by Jamaat-Shibir activists, for example, called for a ‘Bangladesh-Pakistan-Islamic Republic of Banglastan’ where only Muslims will live after exterminating Hindus and other minorities. The Jamaat has never fully severed its umbilical ties with the Pakistani military establishment and the Pakistanis have never abandoned them. How can they dump those who have been their comrades in arms in perpetrating one of largest genocides in human history. The US establishment too has never raised the Jamaat issue publicly nor called for their trials. It is easier for it to deal with banana dictators and warlords than with those who are under the protection of their so-called principal collaborator in the ‘war on terror’ in South Asia. The main opposition BNP is fully in tune with the Jamaat’s objectives and is also orchestrating the countrywide shutdowns and unrests. Khaleda’s cancellation of her meeting with the Indian President through an email communication and then calling a separate spate of hartals is actually the carrying out of the Jamaat and the Islamic Oikya Jote agenda. Each one is riding on the other in order to strengthen its fundamentalist credentials.

The Indian Prime Minister, gullible as he is in handling foreign affairs, had feted Khaleda on her visit last November. He met her for an hour and even hosted a lunch, perhaps the first ever in honour of a leader of Opposition. The naïve Salman Khurshid was ecstatic when Khaleda assured him then” ‘this marks a new beginning. Let’s look forward and not look back in the rear-view mirror.’ Little did they know that the lady was a past master at changing colours and was an inveterate foe when it came to India and Hindus. During Khaleda’s visit, the Indian establishment had even prematurely indicated that it was ready to do business with Khaleda, implying that it was already considering a BNP dispensation in the next elections. The blinkered Indian PM and his even more isolated five star advisors must have failed to see that it is in the character of the BNP to go the extra mile to accommodate the Jamaat, and the extra mile has always seen an increase in anti-India rhetoric, providing sanctuaries to insurgents and militants from the North-East and the ethnic cleansing of the Bangladeshi Hindus. Let us not forget that Khaleda’s coming to power in 2001 saw one of the largest anti-Hindu pogroms in Bangladesh in recent times and the Awami League-appointed Shahabuddin Commission report which investigated the attacks has indicated at organised violence with BNP-Jamaat imprints. What compels UPA to look the other way when it knows that AL and Hasina remain the best bet for India, for the region, and for the Bangladeshi Hindus, is hard to comprehend. Mortgaging India’s foreign interests has become a habit with it.

The recent spate of anti-Hindu violence, especially in the last one week since the ardent and fawning Pakistani collaborator and Jamaat vice president Delawar Hossein Sayeedi was sentenced by the International Crimes Tribunal to be ‘hanged by the neck till he is dead’, has been particularly unsettling. Within a day of the announcement the old pattern fell into place and the Jamaat’s ire was directed at the Hindus. It has demonstrated that the Jamaat’s core agenda – obliterating Hindus from Bangladesh – remains undiluted and its organisational capacity to wreak havoc remains intact. Incidents of violence against Hindus were reported from all over the country including Noakhali, Bogra, Chapainawabganj, Chittagong, Barisal, Dinajpur, by March 4 more than 100 temples were vandalised and 1000 homes, at conservative estimates, attacked and burnt. The Hindus’ business establishments were ransacked and their women terrorised. Leading Bangladeshi dailies calling for a halt had termed the pogroms a fallback to 1971. But we did not even hear muted protests from the international community. The US State Department merely said that it has taken note of ‘reports of attacks on a Hindu temple’ and our own homegrown secularists have not let out as much as a grunt in protest. I had hoped to hear at least a whimper from the faithful Mani Shankar Aiyar, that perpetual honorary Pakistani Consul-at-Large in India!

The Jamaat leaders facing the war crimes trial is the worst of the lot – in fact with the Pakistani army in 1971 it was they who formed the real ‘axis of evil’ aiding and abetting the murder and rape of thousands of their fellow citizens. Sayeedi, then a lowly Urdu- knowing ‘grocery shopkeeper’ in his thirties had earned distinction from the Pakistani establishment for his atrocities on Hindus. As the local commander of the Al Badr and Al Shams in his area Sayeedi had particularly targeted Hindus, arranging for their women to be raped by Pakistani Army personnel, himself confining and molesting them, forcibly converting them to Islam and of killing some of them in cold blood. Politically, in later years, his anti-India stance and his anti-Hindu rhetoric had earned him a special place in the Jamaat pantheon. Till a few years back, CDs of his anti-India discourses were publicly distributed along the Assam-Bangladesh border with the aim of inciting communal passion. Hasina has indeed shown mettle in hauling the entire top Jamaat leadership in prison and by putting them on trial.

The majority of Bangladeshis have supported the war crimes trial and there is a growing demand for banning the Jamaat, it is in the interest of Bangladesh and the growth of the region that both the trial and the ban attain their logical conclusion, only then will Bangladesh truly liberate itself.

As for the Hindus in Bangladesh, they ought to recall what Sayeedi once said in one of his vitriolic public discourses at the Chittagong Parade Ground, “Why should we feel sad when the Hindu brothers choose to leave our country? Do we mourn when we have indigestion and materials leave our bodies?” The Hindus thus should not mourn Sayeedi’s conviction and his impending departure. Let them rejoice the final purgation from their body-politic of this highly inedible fundamentalist chunk.

Source: http://www.niticentral.com/2013/03/12/history-catches-up-with-jamaat-54336.html