Archive - Apr 2013

Bangladesh, a small, beautiful country, is located in South Asia. An area of 147,570 sq. km. is home of 160 million people. It has very little natural resources. However, the hard working people are the biggest resource of the country. Women’s participation and contribution to the economy in Bangladesh is outstanding in the region.

It was how it usually looked like, all quiet from the outside. Although the windows and doors of the Doulatpur Brajalal College were all shut tight, there was a peacefulness in that silence. Looking at the tall grass that had grown into a waist-high jungle, and the cattle sitting in the shades of the trees under the winter sun, one could hardly realize that the country was flooding in a blood-bath. If you listened carefully in all this silence, you could even hear the echo of the warmth of life going on from the nearby bazaar. It wasn't impossible to hear the strangely grave sounds of the rising tide inside the people, like that of the long dried up river, The Bhairab.

I used to live in the ‘Maneesha’ building of the Science Laboratories back then, with Mirpur Road on one side and Elephant Road on the other. I could hear slogans from the streets till 11PM on 25th March. At midnight I opened my doors and went outside.

Following is a list of translations from Bangla news articles on Jamaat and Shibir violence against police over the month of March. A list of English news articles is given after the translations. The Bangla news articles generally have more details in them, while the English ones are more like summaries.
 

Translation of article by: Golam Mujtaba Dhrubo, BDNews24.com published here

According to teacher and students, injured BUETian Arif Rayhan Dwip was against the programs of Hefajat-e-Islam

According to the eminent British oncologist Willis, "A neoplasm is an abnormal mass of tissue, the growth of which exceeds and is uncoordinated with that of normal tissue and persists in the same excessive manner after cessation of the stimuli that evoked the change". Neoplasms may be of two types : 1)Benign 2)Malignant.

Let us face the fact- there was a huge turnout at the long march/procession/meeting held by the Hefajat-E-Islami. However, the question is- should we be surprised or frightened? Not really. I think that the path the political parties chose since the independence of Bangladesh has made the emergence and growth of this counter-force inevitable.

-Special Correspondent

(Translated from The Daily Ittefaq. Original: http://goo.gl/dIFc5).

In Bangladesh, A plan is in process to modify the five penal codes of punishment for irreverence towards religious beliefs to

Religious extremism is not a new phenomenon in Bangladesh. Harkat ul Jihad, Bangla Bhai's Jamaatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB), Hijbut Tahrir are names which we very clearly remember not from the distant past. It is also not new for Jamaat E Islami’s name to appear whenever one is discussing religious extremism in Bangladesh.

This document is a rebuttal of propaganda being spread through Canadian media. This particular article was published in the newspaper The Toronto Star on March 31, 2013. The article can be read here.