Genocide of Hindus and Islamic Fanaticm in Bangladesh

[Leon Uris]

Between Pakistan, Bangladesh and muslims in India, an islamic force of nearly 500 million muslims is being created that has already exterminated its minority populations in Pakistan and Bangladesh. As they get more virulent and powerful, funded by the anti-semitic (and anti-hindu) hatred of their wahhabbi patrons in Saudia and Pakistan, the danger that Israel Imagine how it would be like when one is subjected to rape, unending torture, forced conversion, discrimination in education and employment, intimidation to practice one's own religious faith, loot, arson and other savageries of worst kind. may one day have to face them (even from 3000 miles away) is not that farfetched.


http://www.satribune.com/archives/feb17_23_03/opinion_bertil.htm


Ethnic Cleansing & Rise of Islamic Militancy in Bangladesh

Bertil Lintner

IMAGINE how it would be like when 25 million people vanish from a projected population of 39 million. Imagine how it would be like when two and a half million acres of prime land is grabbed from a country smaller in size than the State of Wisconsin.

Imagine how it would be like when one is subjected to rape, unending torture, forced conversion, discrimination in education and employment, intimidation to practice one's own religious faith, loot, arson and other savageries of worst kind.

This is the story of the Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and the ethnic minorities of Bangladesh -- a story of slow genocide , a story of violence and betrayal by their own government, a testament of hard-line Islamic politicking designed to minority cleansing, a continuing saga that has played out since 1947 to the present day Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has been a fertile ground for bigoted Islamic idealism for a long time. Especially, since 1975 with the assassination of the country's founding father and altering of the constitution, the Islamic Radicalism has been thrust into the political landscape of the country. With enormous financial help from branded terrorists, outlawed regimes, and proponents of Wahabism such as Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iraq, Iran and other renegade terrorist networks.

Bangladesh has built hundreds of thousands of Mosques and madrassahs that constantly foment violence against non-Muslims and country's progressive groups and cultural institutions. There are 64,000 madrassahs or so called religious schools where the unsuspecting Muslim youths are recruited and trained to be the foot soldiers for a Taliban style Bangladesh. They espouse hate and bigotry against anyone that does not conform to their brand of militant Islam. The infamous American Taliban, John Walker Lindh, was a graduate from one such Madrassah in Pakistan.

Persecution of minorities in Bangladesh has been a lingering issue for past sixty years with some intermittent reprieves that came along with the changing hands of power. But the aura of minority cleansing never fully subsided. October 2001, when the coalition of Islamic hard-liners swept into power trumpeting their goal to make Bangladesh a pure Islamic Country as their election themes-- brought a new momentum to their hostility towards minorities. They marked their victory with unprecedented and unprovoked attacks on innocent men, women and children belonging to the minority communities.

The government not only shamelessly failed to provide the country's 15 million ethno-religious minorities any protection against these attacks, but also showed its utter indifference to human life by cowardly aiding in the history's worst savagery. Since then, hundreds of thousands of young girls and women have been abducted and raped, tens of thousands of minority owned homes and businesses have been looted and razed, hundreds of places of worship have been burnt down all across Bangladesh. Women as old as seventy and girls as young seven have not even been spared of their brunt of rape and terror. Abduction of young girls from homes at gunpoint, gang rape, and forced conversions to Islam have been endemic in Bangladesh. (Leon Uris: I will refrain from adding a comment here)

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is responsible for this latest cycle of crimes against humanity.
She has personally orchestrated each and every recent dreadful terror against the minorities with a clear and unambiguous purpose of cleansing the country's minorities to transform it into a Pure Muslim Country. She has used every resource of the government at her disposal to intimidate, terrorize and torture people into either leaving the country or submitting to convert to Islamic extremism. Today, forced conversion to Islam has become a corrosive fodder to the fundamentalists, courtesy of Begum Khaleda Zia.

It may recall the massacre that took place back in April 1992. The then Prime Minister of the country, Begum Khaleda Zia used her army to systematically murder 600 tribal residents of Logang in Chittagong Hill Tracts, and burned the entire village to the ground. Seven months later, she orchestrated another wave of minority persecution in which 15 minorities were killed, 2,600 women raped, 10,000 injured, 40,000 dwelling houses destroyed, 3, 600 temples damaged/razed and 200,000 rendered homeless. Begum Zia, like her Islamic fundamentalist predecessors has been a mortal danger to pluralistic democracy and the rule of law.

Recently, while she has deployed armies on the streets to curtail the rights of citizens, to take prisoner of political rivals and human rights activists, to stifle the voices of progressive thinkers and journalists on vital national issues such as human rights, freedom of religion. she has allowed Bangladesh to become a cocoon of terror, a hub for international terrorism.It is an established fact that Bangladesh now harbors and supports international terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and Harkat-ul-Jihad. Fighters trained and given new identities in Bangladesh routinely find their ways to conflicts throughout the world and are wrecking havoc everywhere.

These are worrisome developments for Bangladesh, the world and for the entire humanity.

With the government's active encouragement the fundamentalists have often revealed their ugly fangs by perpetrating terrors on Bangladesh's most vulnerable citizens, the minorities. We believe the initiative to correct the great miscarriage of justice, to right the decades of wrongs committed by the Islamic Zealots must come, first and foremost, from the citizens of Bangladesh who believe in peace, freedom and justice by forming a united resistance against militant Islam in the country.

In the same vein I remind the International Community that Bangladesh has willfully violated all International Laws and Conventions that specifically address the Human Rights and Freedom of Religion Issues. Today, throughout the world terror has cast its ugly spells on life and liberty- the very things the civilized world pride itself upon. And persecution of minorities in Bangladesh is certainly an inseparable phenomenon of global terror because the terrorist networks responsible for this are also global.

They are linked together with a common purpose to exterminate anyone not subscribing to their brand of religion. History has taught us, time and again, that cowering into inaction when terror manifest itself is at civilization's own great peril. It challenge the civilized nations to heed the history's call to actions against the plague of Islamic Jihad.

All along it has demanded retribution and justice for all sufferings, to repatriate and compensate victims of forced exodus. In 2001, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, promised the nation to investigate the carnage and to rehabilitate the victims. Two years elapsed since she has predictably failed to deliver on her promise, for she is a player in that "axis of terror". It has demanded the government to restore the original constitution of Bangladesh by repealing the 5th (Introducing Islam to the Constitution) and 8th (Declaring Islam as the State Religion) Amendments the two very divisive issues that took away 'Equal Rights' and destroyed the moral fabric of the nation.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has shown no indication of changing course, let alone acting on this. Rather she has partnered with the Islamic hard-liners and the proponents of these discriminatory laws and publicly professed her desire to make Bangladesh a pure Islamic Country. Her newfound majority in the parliament is only an added incentive for her and her partners in Islamic Jihad to make their bigoted dream come true. It has also demanded the repeal of "Enemy Property Act" or "Vested Property Law" of 1965 from the constitution, under which the country's minorities have been dispossessed of more than 2.5 million acres of prime land. Legislation was passed in the parliament by the Awami-League Government, providing a ray of hope, to end this dreaded episode of grabbing of our lands. But the new government of Khaleda Zia, scuttled the entire legislation through various administrative maneuvers even before the law took effect. She failed this time too. Trusting her again would further jeopardize the minorities of Bangladesh.

[Leon Uris]

Continued from previous post


It is time to place BD minority demand to the world community. It is no longer can accept this continuing saga of being treated as aliens, hounded and hunted by Islamic radicals, in our own land. It has endured enough pain and sufferings, sustained huge loss of lives to warrant the world's attention toward a just, equitable and permanent solution to the tone of what was worked out in Bosnia and East Timor for its' minorities.

Today, It is confronted with a grave challenge, a challenge to BD minority own existence, a challenge to the world community as to what kind of civilization it will usher in for the generations that will follow us. We are confident about our resolve to meet this challenge and any challenge head on. We remain hopeful that the world community will take up the issue and adequately respond to this human rights crisis.

Finally, the rise of militant Islam in Bangladesh is a 'menace' to our lives and an 'overcast' on our civilization. We must defeat this menacing face of terror and fundamentalism and defeat we will. So long there is violation of human rights, anyone's rights.We will continue to inform and challenge the world community. To that end, as a Nobel Laureate, the bravest of all, our pride, Rabindra Nath Tagore proclaimed more than a hundred years ago, we say: "Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake".

[andak01]

Originally posted by Leon Uris
Imagine how it would be like when one is subjected to rape, unending torture, forced conversion, discrimination in education and employment, intimidation to practice one's own religious faith, loot, arson and other savageries of worst kind.[/B] may one day have to face them (even from 3000 miles away) is not that farfetched.

It would take imagination, because in truth, although there are examples of oppression among the 100s of millions of Muslims, they are NOT the norm. None of my Indian friends (Yes, some of them are Hindi) tells me of growing up in constant fear. In fact, I had a Hindi in my home over the weekend who said the Arabic coffee I gave him reminded him of his home in South India where there is a large Muslim population. What you are saying is a gross exaggeration of the facts, a gross exaggeration that you insist on repeating over and over.

I tell you quite simply there can be no Muslim nation where rape is part of the national policy. Rape is a crime punishable by death in Islam. It is not in any way excused. Christians, Muslims and Jews commit rape. It is a crime generally punishable by death in all societies. Your implication that a government is involved in systematic rape is vile and you had better come up with some very specific statistics to prove it.

[Leon Uris]

What you are saying is a gross exaggeration of the facts, a gross exaggeration that you insist on repeating over and over.

I tell you quite simply there can be no Muslim nation where rape is part of the national policy. Rape is a crime punishable by death in Islam. It is not in any way excused. Christians, Muslims and Jews commit rape. It is a crime generally punishable by death in all societies. Your implication that a government is involved in systematic rape is vile and you had better come up with some very specific statistics to prove it.


The comment below is made by Bertil Lintner, the author of the article. Kindly direct your comments to him. As for rape not being a state policy in a muslim country, I am going to dig up whatever articles I can. As far as your knowledge of "hindi" goes, it shows your ignorance.

Hindi - is a language
Hindu - is a religion

And, in defence of your statement that Rape is not a government policy is islamic states (in this case, Bangladesh), YOU QUOTE YOUR "ALLEGED" HINDI FRIENDS. AND THAT CONSITUTES SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE OF YOUR VERSION.

BUT, ME THE HINDU, I HAVE TO PROVIDE STATISTICS.





http://www.satribune.com/archives/f...nion_bertil.htm


Ethnic Cleansing & Rise of Islamic Militancy in Bangladesh

Bertil Lintner

IMAGINE how it would be like when 25 million people vanish from a projected population of 39 million. Imagine how it would be like when two and a half million acres of prime land is grabbed from a country smaller in size than the State of Wisconsin.

Imagine how it would be like when one is subjected to rape, unending torture, forced conversion, discrimination in education and employment, intimidation to practice one's own religious faith, loot, arson and other savageries of worst kind.



Again, the original article was posted by Bertil Lintner. If you believe it is a lie, kindly take your comments to him.

[Leon Uris]

More from Bertil Lintner:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/bertil/religious_extremism1.htm


Religious Extremism and Nationalism in Bangladesh

Part One

By Bertil Lintner



Other books by Bertil Lintner:

http://www.addall.com/Browse/Author/2396591-1



http://bangladeshhumanity.freeservers.com/religiou.html
Amnesty International reported in December 2001 that Hindus - who now make up less than 10% of Bangladesh's population of 130 million – in particular have come under attack. Hindu places of worship have been ransacked, villages destroyed and scores of Hindu women are reported to have been raped.


http://www.albd.org/humanright/ai/01122001attacks.htm

[andak01]

Let's look at the facts. Here is the Amnesty International report on Human Rights in Bangladesh. In fact we do find rape mentioned. Millions of rapes? Thousands? Hundreds?

http://web.amnesty.org/web/ar2002.nsf/bed8009ca83e16c780256a4f00344f2f/57279be9674b5f9f80256bc0003b38b3!OpenDocument
Following the elections, hundreds of Hindu families were reportedly subjected to violent attacks, including rape, beatings and the burning of their property.

I.E. among the hundreds, there were violent attacks including rape in SOME cases. We are not told how many, one would be too much.

Farther down in the article, we find.

Three women from the Jumma minority were allegedly raped in May by army personnel; no one was known to have been brought to justice.

Three more.

And later.

Women continued to be subjected to violent attacks, including rape.

Women are subject to violent attacks including rape in every society. What Amnesty International is decrying is that the perpetrators go free. Given that rape is a capital offense in Shari'a, even the strictest of Muslims would decry a laxness of the law as well.

http://www.rainn.org/stats.html
Between 1995 and 1996, more than 670,000 women were the victim of rape,attempted rape or sexual assault. [National Crime Victimization Survey.Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, 1997.

http://www.multied.com/nationbynation/Bangladesh/Population.html
The estimated population of Bangladesh, as of July 2001, is 131,269,860.

So, according to Amnesty International, some hundreds of women have been raped in a population of over 131 million over a short period. It becomes evident that the issue is lack of response by the government of Bangladesh, not a sub-human Muslim propensity towards rape.

[andak01]

IMAGINE how it would be like when 25 million people vanish from a projected population of 39 million.

I am trying to imagine how a pogram larger than the stalinist purges and the Holocaust put together could go unnoticed by the world. How could we have missed such a thing? Is is realistic to think that we did? That we would put the mere million killed in Rwanda above the 25 million of Bangladesh?

I can accurately state that scores of women are subjected to violent attacks and rape every year in America. Nobody would think of attributing such rape to the predominant religion. Why does that somehow change when we are talking about Muslims?The answer is, logically, it doesn't.

[Leon Uris]

andak: Rape occurs everywhere. Whereever there is man, there is going to be this bestialilty against women.


What is happening in Bangladesh is not an isolated incident such as the Gujarat riots, where muslim women were raped by hindu rioters in retaliation for the train burning of 59 hindu men, women and children.

What is happening in Bangladesh is the systematic use of rape and murder as an instrument of state policy for a SUSTAINED period of time.


It is very clear to me that no matter the evidence, you will never acknowledge atrocities committed by muslims, simply because the perpetrators share the same faith as you.

Neither is that my intent. I come to this forum not to address the likes of you and reason, who will never admit to such gross crimes by muslims. I come here to talk and interact with the Jews of Israel. Your comments are relevant only to the extent that I will refute your lies.

But your continued denial of what is happening in Bangladesh, which is a slow genocide against its hindus, tells me exactly how much my life and dignity mean to you muslims. ZERO.

[Leon Uris]

I am trying to imagine how a pogram larger than the stalinist purges and the Holocaust put together could go unnoticed by the world. How could we have missed such a thing? Is is realistic to think that we did? That we would put the mere million killed in Rwanda above the 25 million of Bangladesh ?


Very typical islamic denials. Very reminiscent of muslims who in the same sentence deny the Holocaust and then turn around and accuse the Israelis of being Nazis.


You first deny any genocide of hindus in Bangladesh and then turn around and try to obfuscate the issue by bringing Rwanda while ACKNOWLEDGING the 25 million dead and raped hindus of Bangladesh.

[Mediocrates]

Originally posted by Leon Uris
[BIt is very clear to me that no matter the evidence, you will never acknowledge atrocities committed by muslims, simply because the perpetrators share the same faith as you.[/B]


It's not their job to do that.

PS - I read the article and it's not clear to me what that number refers to.

PPS - the SA times is an equal opportunity critic. they appear to have as much to say about the "Indian occupation" of various places as well.

[andak01]

I was quoting Lintner, with absolute incredulity! Is anyone else here aware of something over 4 times bigger than the Holocaust happening in Bangladesh???

[andak01]

Originally posted by Mediocrates
It's not their job to do that.

It's not my job to allow HUMONGOUS exaggerations to go unchallenged. For example, Saddam Hussein killed thousands of Iraqis during his reign. He was not Hitler, and those thousands were not millions, or in this case 25 millions.

[Leon Uris]

PS - I read the article and it's not clear to me what that number refers to.

PPS - the SA times is an equal opportunity critic. they appear to have as much to say about the "Indian occupation" of various places as well.


Mediocrates. The numbers are probably since 1947. Ethnic cleansing of hindus did not start yesterday or even a decade ago. It started in 1947 in what was then East Pakistan.

Muslims are being incredulous. Why? Sheer numbers. How is it possible to murder four times the number of jews in the Holocaust without notice? Why not? Unlike the Jews of Israel, we idiot hindus have been a fragmented lot. Even today, we do not highlight even the recent atrocities committed against hindus in Bangladesh.

The number very credibly can be in the tens of millions. In 1971 alone, the Pakistani army slaughtered approximately 3,000,000 in the span of a few short months. Mostly hindus.


In terms of being an equal opportunity critic ("Indian Occupation"), I have no problems with that. Does that not give SATribune even more credence??

[andak01]

Originally posted by Leon Uris
In terms of being an equal opportunity critic ("Indian Occupation"), I have no problems with that. Does that not give SATribune even more credence?? [/B]

Actually, it points out that the conflict has two sides. Suppose the German newspapers started running stories about an American led massacre of Germans in the 1940s and failed to mention that there was a war at the time. I've watched this same thing being done with the situation in the Sudan and with accounts of the founding of Saudi Arabia. Both of those are massive civil wars with large casualties on both sides. The Turks in the case of the Saudi conflict and the Christians in the case of the Sudan conflict have the ear of the Western media and so get their own stories accepted more readily. However, neither side can give us an earnest account by themselves. The truth almost certainly falls somewhere in the middle. As I have pointed out, in the case of Sudan, three of the four armies involved in the conflict stand accused of flagrant human rights violations. The fourth is the exiled Muslim army, fighting against the National Army.

I am not as familiar with the situation in Bangladesh, but will attempt to get up to speed as much as my schedule allows.

[Leon Uris]

Yet, no such two sides are considered when the non-muslim world reacts to islamic atrocities.

Why do you think that the followers of virtually every religion hold islam in contempt and fear and hatred?

Is such hatred solely based on ignorance or the acts of muslims?

What have muslims done to understand the aspirations of its non-muslims citizenry?

The world over, islamic countries have ruthlessly eliminated their non-muslim citizenry.

Exception such as the hindus of bali (in Indonesia) come to mind. And the only reason that they are exceptions is because they do not take atrocities lying down. They vigorously defend themselves, and two eyes for one eye is what they believe in.

[andak01]

Originally posted by Leon Uris
Why do you think that the followers of virtually every religion hold islam in contempt and fear and hatred?


I guess I'm running with a different crowd. When I attend interfaith dialogues or even have get togethers with my Christian family and my many Christian friends, they still treat me the way that they always did, and I them. I never gave them any reason to fear or hate me. I still love them and they still love me. One of my best friends, a Christian who married a Jewish woman travelled with me to Morocco and stayed with my family there. The only people who hate me for my religion are those who already had closed their hearts. I feel a bit sorry for them. They don't know what they are missing.

[andak01]

Originally posted by Leon Uris
How is it possible to murder four times the number of jews in the Holocaust without notice? Why not?

Er. It was rather noticeable with less than 1/4 the number. 50 years of news headlines and documentaries, movies and such. You should have scads of evidence to back this claim up. I think someone besides Lintner would have heard of it. Such a killing operation would have kept tens or hundreds of thousands of killers busy doing nothing else. And of course, for us not to know, none of the victims got a chance to write about it. Wait, there's more. If they did write about it, there must have been a well orchestrated conspiracy to selence them. Wait, there's more, none of the killers were bothered by their conciences, they were uniformly evil and none of them wrote about it either. Or they were killed before they could talk and those killers were silent and so on.

[Leon Uris]

Note that the genocide of hindus has been on-going in Bangladesh for quite a while. Numbers ranging from 1-3 million are being reported for 1971 ALONE.


http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/bd_hol12.html
Bangladesh Genocide Memorial



http://www.gendercide.org/case_bangladesh.html
The mass killings in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) in 1971 vie with the annihilation of the Soviet POWs, the holocaust against the Jews, and the genocide in Rwanda as the most concentrated act of genocide in the twentieth century.



http://www.shobak.org/bangla_nuremberg/
http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/history/holocaust.html


http://kothon.org/frame4.htm
...... we were told to kill the hindus and Kafirs
( non-believer in God). One day in June, we cordoned a village and were ordered to kill the Kafirs in that area. We found all the village women reciting from the Holy Quran, and the men holding special congregational prayers seeking God’s mercy. But they were unlucky. Our commanding officer ordered us not to waste any time.

Confession of a Pakistani Soldier



http://www.globalwebpost.com/genocide1971/


http://www.secularislam.org/bangladesh/hasan2.htm
From the night of 25th March there was a selective massacre in Hindu populated areas where even the little children were not spared. The critics of Islam would find a pattern of intolerance to non-believer from the dawn of Islamic civilization that goes contrary to humanistic ideals. According to their view, the concept of Jihad and killing of infidels mercilessly was nothing new in the history of Islamic civilization. And their view was reinforced as the great majority of the Muslim nations nakedly sided with the marauding Pakistani junta of 1971.

[Leon Uris]

http://www.angelfire.com/ab/jumma/
Harrowing Genocide in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT is predominantly tribal communities with hindu customs)



There have been massive and systematic human rights violations in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), committed by the Bangladeshi security forces and the Bangladeshi settlers. The Jumma people have been murdered, crippled, raped, tortured, imprisoned and deprived of their homes and means of livelihood. They have been denied civil and political rights.




http://www.angelfire.com/ab/jumma/rape.html
This 13 years old Chakma girl was gang raped by the members of the Bangladesh Army on 19 December 1986. About 20 personnel of the Bangladesh Army from the army camp at Viswa Ram Karbari Para of Dighinala, raided the Jumma village of Nuaram Karbari Para, at such a time in the morning when all the male inhabitants of the village were taken by force to cut the jungle surrounding the army camp. The soldiers of the Bangladesh Army encircled the village at 11:00 a.m. and on the pretext of making searches entered the houses. All the women and the girls who were in their houses, were stripped by the soldiers and were subjected to gang rape. Even the minors were not spared.



The Bangladeshi security personnel have been inflicting rape upon the Jumma women since the conflict started in the mid 1970s. The Bangladesh military systematically use rape as a deliberate tactic to destroy or damage the Jumma nation. Women are targeted by the military for two objectives: as a member of the 'enemy' and as a female individual. By raping a woman the oppressor does not just aim at hurting her personally, he takes what's a woman's private possession and at the same time tramples and humiliates the identity of the Jumma people as a whole. Jumma women are made pregnant by the Bangladesh military and thus are forced to give birth to children of the enemy. According to the Hill Women's Federation (HWF), there have been 47 reported cases of rapes between January 1991 and June 1992, five in 1993, four in 1994 and twelve in 1995. The HWF maintains that there have been many more such instances, but due to social taboos and fear of reprisals, the victims or their families do not come forward with this kind of information. The Jumma women are especially attractive and exotic to the Bangladeshis. They move around more freely and are not bound by the same cultural and religious impositions that restrict the freedom of movement of Muslim women. These cultural differences combined with the military presence and the increasing domination of Bengali Muslim culture in the CHT have made the Jumma women more exposed to sexual attacks and harassment. The CHT Commission interviewed some rape victims in the refugee camps of Tripura, India. A woman told the CHT Commission:

"About 50 army personnel came in the night and rounded up the whole village and gathered us in one place. In the morning all the men were arrested. I was tied up hands and legs, naked. They raped me. There were three women there. They raped me in front of my father-in-law. After that we were tied up together, naked, facing each other. Then they left. Three other girls were raped in front of me. This happened in the month of Ashar (June/July) of 1985."
Another refugee woman from Dighinala told in Tripura:
"In the early morning 5 to 6 groups of soldiers encircled the village and some entered the huts. They caught all men and brought them to the fields and tied them with rope. My husband had his teeth beaten out of him, all blood. My son ran to his father and he was thrown to one side. The army ordered me to go into my hut and pointed guns at me. One grabbed me by the neck. My husband was near. My husband was almost beaten to death. I was raped by three soldiers in the room. After this I didn't want to live anymore, but what am I to do? I am still suffering from it. My husband is still injured in the lungs and can't work. I want to go back if there is peace, otherwise not. I want medical treatment as I am still suffering from the rape. I am still afraid of Muslims. My ribs were broken and my skin burns there. This happened in June 1986. I am still like mad, disturbed."
A woman from Matiranga told what happened to her in April 1986:
"They (the army) surrounded the village early in the morning, we had not yet got up. Then they shouted to come out of the houses and concentrated all the people in one place. Then they started asking whether we had helped the SB (Shanti Bahini). All of us kept silent. ...Then they started beating the men and the women. One girl was taken by three soldiers. I don't know where she was taken. Then it was my turn. Two soldiers took me and subjected me to abuse. I was fully naked, they harassed me, they even poked me with a bayonet. I was left alone. I didn't know what to do. Somehow I managed to cover my body with some cloth and went to the jungle and kept walking till I reached India."
Life in the cluster villages is not safe, especially for women. Women in cluster villages are more vulnerable to rape by Bangladesh Army personnel and are often forced to spend the night with their rapist. A man in one of the refugee camps explained:
"I was forced to live in a cluster village. We had to come here because we have a teenage daughter and we were afraid that she would be raped by the army. ...A woman neighbor was raped in 1989 after the cluster village was established. She then fled to India, together with 22 other families."
Sometimes educated women are specifically targeted by the military. Recounting an army attack on her village, one woman who worked in a rubber plantation told the CHT Commission:
"The army raped some of the women, especially college students and women working in offices. Many girls were taken to the army camp. After this incident (1989), intellectuals of the village were arrested by the army so as to prevent them from taking shelter in India. ...The girls who were taken away to the army camps were released after one week. In the camp the army raped them repeatedly."
Forced itermarriage is one way in which women are used as an instrument to integrate the Jumma people into Islamic Bangladeshi society and to alter the demographic profile in the area. Many Jumma women had been kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam and married. Jumma women were murdered who refused to be converted and married. A woman who came to Tripura in July 1990 told the Commission:
"I was walking along the road to go to the fields with my six-year old niece to plant some seeds. A man appeared before us, bound my mouth with a piece of cloth and took me away on his scooter. . .I was kept for three months. I was forcibly converted to Islam and married."
Rape is used systematically as a weapon against Jumma women in the CHT. Rape is a recurring characteristics of attacks by the Bangladesh military and by the BD settlers on Jumma villages. Many women were gang raped by the soldiers of the Bangladesh Army, often in front of their children. Women live in continuous fear of rape. Women who have been raped may be rejected by their husbands or their families, or may not be able to get married. If they become pregnant they have to conceal this fact and must try to have an abortion. If a child is born it is impossible for the woman to stay in her community as the situation is not accepted and she is ostracized. For these reasons women who have been raped hesitate to talk about it at all because they are scared or worried about the social stigma. This makes it difficult to collect information on such sensitive issue. The trauma of rape remains with these women form years, and many of them are still suffering from its repercussions years later.

[Leon Uris]

http://www.angelfire.com/ab/jumma/refugee.html


The Jumma Refugees fetch water in the relief camp of Tripura. These refugees fled the Bangladesh military induced terror in their homeland. An exodus to India was not a new event. But for the first time, the refugees went in very large numbers and refused to be returned. The exodus in 1986 led to the establishment of six relief camps in Tripura state of India.
The Bangladesh armed forces and the Bangladeshi settlers had committed numerous massacres and atrocities against the indigenous Jumma people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) as part of the Bangladesh Government's policy to wipe out the Jumma people from their traditional homeland in order to populate it with the Bangladeshi settlers. The state terrorism forces the Jumma people to leave their ancestral villages and farmlands and to join the tens of thousands of homeless refugees. Thousands of them fled across the border to India and Burma to escape the racial and genocidal atrocities of the fundamentally hostile Bangladeshi regime. Since the CHT conflict started in 1975 the Jumma refugees cross the border three times, in 1981 to Tripura, in 1984 to Mizoram and in 1986 to Tripura. The waves of refugees are directly related to the waves of violence against the Jumma people in the CHT. However, the origins of the refugees depend on the accessibility of their villages to the borders. Most of the refugees in Tripura come from the Khagrachari and Dighinala areas. On the other hand, the majority of those fleeing from Langadu after the attacks on 4 May 1989, were not allowed into Mizoram and so remained in the forest areas and did not attempt to make the dangerous trek across the CHT to Tripura

[Leon Uris]

So kindly go on denying that rape is being used as an instrument of state policy in an islamic country and has been so consistently since its inception.

[andak01]

Great sources. Do you have anything from the BBC, New York Times, London Times, Figaro, Der Speigel, Oggi, the Washington Post, MSNBC, FOX, CNN? Any major news source, or just hate blogs?

[andak01]

Here, let me be of assistance.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1160896.stm
Here's a timeline.

1971 - Sheikh Mujib arrested and taken to West Pakistan. In exile, Awami League leaders proclaim the independence of the province of East Pakistan on 26th March. The new country is called Bangladesh. Just under 10 million Bangladeshis flee to India as troops from West Pakistan are defeated with Indian assistance.

10 million fled is a bit different from 3 million dead. 500,000 were killed by a cyclone the previous year. Do they count as victims of Islam as well?

http://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/BANGLA.htm
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/landmines/LMWeb-18.htm#P9246_1323484
Here's the 1996 Human Rights Watch report

I must say that there are a huge number of Hinduunity hits I came across.

[andak01]

OK, here is a more authentic source, and it gives much detail to some of the claims you make. The 3 million number is from a quote, not from an actual count.

How many died?

The number of dead in Bangladesh in 1971 was almost certainly well into seven figures. It was one of the worst genocides of the World War II era, outstripping Rwanda (800,000 killed) and probably surpassing even Indonesia (1 million to 1.5 million killed in 1965-66). As R.J. Rummel writes,

That's a genocide in my book. But it is not 25 million people, or even 3. And it is clearly the worst moment of genocide in that area.

From the same article:

Who was responsible?

"For month after month in all the regions of East Pakistan the massacres went on," writes Robert Payne. "They were not the small casual killings of young officers who wanted to demonstrate their efficiency, but organized massacres conducted by sophisticated staff officers, who knew exactly what they were doing. Muslim soldiers, sent out to kill Muslim peasants, went about their work mechanically and efficiently, until killing defenseless people became a habit like smoking cigarettes or drinking wine. ... Not since Hitler invaded Russia had there been so vast a massacre." (Payne, Massacre, p. 29.)

There is no doubt that the mass killing in Bangladesh was among the most carefully and centrally planned of modern genocides. A cabal of five Pakistani generals orchestrated the events: President Yahya Khan, General Tikka Khan, chief of staff General Pirzada, security chief General Umar Khan, and intelligence chief General Akbar Khan. The U.S. government, long supportive of military rule in Pakistan, supplied some \\$3.8 million in military equipment to the dictatorship after the onset of the genocide, "and after a government spokesman told Congress that all shipments to Yahya Khan's regime had ceased." (Payne, Massacre, p. 102.)

The genocide and gendercidal atrocities were also perpetrated by lower-ranking officers and ordinary soldiers. These "willing executioners" were fuelled by an abiding anti-Bengali racism, especially against the Hindu minority. "Bengalis were often compared with monkeys and chickens. Said Pakistan General Niazi, 'It was a low lying land of low lying people.' The Hindus among the Bengalis were as Jews to the Nazis: scum and vermin that [should] best be exterminated. As to the Moslem Bengalis, they were to live only on the sufferance of the soldiers: any infraction, any suspicion cast on them, any need for reprisal, could mean their death. And the soldiers were free to kill at will. The journalist Dan Coggin quoted one Punjabi captain as telling him, 'We can kill anyone for anything. We are accountable to no one.' This is the arrogance of Power." (Rummel, Death By Government, p. 335.)

It appears that rampant anti-Bengali racism was as bad as the anti-Hindi bigotry.

[Simon]

http://www.bbsgov.org/ana_vol1/religiou.htm

Table 7.2: Percentage Distribution of Population by Religious
Communities (1901-1991).

----------- |------|-------|-----|--------|---------|-------
|CensusYear|Total |Muslim |Hindu|Buddhist|Christian|Others|
|---------- |------|-------|-----|--------|---------|------|
| 1901 |100.0 | 66.1 |33.0 | .. | .. | 0.9 |
| 1911 |100.0 | 67.2 |31.5 | .. | . . | 1.3 |
| 1921 |100.0 | 68.1 |30.6 | .. | .. | 1.3 |
| 1931 |100.0 | 69.5 |29.4 | .. | 0.2 | 1.0 |
| 1941 |100.0 | 70.3 |28.0 | .. | 0.1 | 1.6 |
| 1951 |100.0 | 76.9 |22.0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
| 1961 |100.0 | 80.4 |18.5 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
| 1974 |100.0 | 85.4 |13.5 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 |
| 1981 |100.0 | 86.7 |12.1 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| 1991 |100.0 | 88.3 |10.5 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
-----------------------------------------------------------

The population of hindus fell by 66% in 90 years. Those that were not murdered/raped were driven out.

Contrast this to the muslim population of india that grew from about 8-10% (independence) to about 12-14% now.

So anyone asking me to be tolerant should FIRST take steps to restore to hindus what was theirs in Pakistan and Bangladesh. And THEN ask me to be tolerant of the muslims of india.

[abu afak]

Originally posted by andak01
Rape is a crime punishable by death in Islam. It is not in any way excused.

But in practice..... Death of the Victim (for honor) is more likely than that of the Perpetrator.

[andak01]

Originally posted by Simon

I am sure that you intended for us to know that your chart refers to Bangladesh. I am interested to know how border tensions are there. All we hear about in America is Kashmir.

[Ray]

What "Indian Occupation" are we talking of?

India never occupied Bangladesh.

It assisted the Liberation and then returned on it own!

So, where is the Occupation?

[Ray]

Originally posted by andak01
Rape is a crime punishable by death in Islam. It is not in any way excused.

And what does Mukhtar Mai and Sonia Naz of Pakistan have to say?

The first person was ganged raped by Islamic law as a retribution since some relation of hers was friendly (not sex) with a girl of a higher class tribe and the other was raped by a Paksitani Major in Balcohistan.

The perpetuators of the rapes are happy and kicking as free men. Neither death or being excused has visited them.

Further, it takes four pious male Moslems to prove that there is a rape.

What is the quantitative required for being pious?

Is rape committed in public that four pious Moslems observe the same?

How hypocritical Islamic law can be is evident and requires no elaboration.

So much for Islamic laws!

[Ray]

Might be of some interest to understand what's up in Bangladesh.


[QUOTE]
Taslima Nasreen and the fight against fundamentalism

Journal no.6 1995. pp53-56.

Angela Cummins

The disease of religious fundamentalism is not restricted to Bangladesh alone and it must be fought at every turn... I am convinced that the only way the fundamentalist forces can be stopped is if all of us who are secular and humanistic join together and fight their malignant influence. I, for one, will not be silenced. "
Excerpt from the preface of Lajja (Shame) by Taslima Nasreen

0N 4 June 1994, Taslima Nasreen, the popular Bangladeshi columnist and writer, was charged under section 295 (a) of the Bangladeshi Penal code for "hurting religious senti-ments" and a warrant was issued for her arrest. immediately, Islamic fundamentalists renewed their demand for her death and threatened to release 10,000 snakes to symbolise her infamy.(1)

Through her writing, Nasreen has instigated lively debate in Bangladesh and, while most political organisations are Uncomfortable to show support for her, mass public Support from both women and men has ensured that she continues to expose controversial issues. Nasreen, although not part of the literary establishment, has for a long time been an advocate of women's and minority rights and she receives hundreds of letters a day from women who claim that she has written their story. Educated and illiterate women alike suffer in Bangladesh under the wrath of funda-mentalism and Nasreen's 'crime' was to relentlessly challenge religiously sanctioned agendas that aim to subjugate women.

Nasreen is one of numerous women fearless to speak out against intolerance and oppression justi-fied in the name of religion. Jahanara Imarn, whose recent death passed unnoticed in Western media, headed a popular struggle between secularists and religious fundamentalists. She sought to lay charges against those who collaborated with the Pakistani army during the Bangladeshi war of liberation in 1971, for abetting genocide. The most prominent of the accused is Ghulam Azam, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest and most vocal of the fundamen-talist parties in Bangladesh. Azam has recently regained Bangladeshi citizenship despite strong evi-dence implicating him in the persecution of anti- Pakistani dissidents.

Sufia Kamal, a poet and powerful representative of secularism in Bangladesh in the 1980s, continues despite repeated death threats, to be active in organ-isations against oppression. Karnal currently heads Mahila Parishad (Women's Council for Women), an organisation protesting against the resurgence of salish (village arbitration council) indictments against women.

Most of the victims of salish proceedings are rural women accused of adultery. Amnesty international describes salishes as "invariably constituted by con-servative members of rural Sociely,'(2) who seek to legislate on what women can and cannot do and punish those that do not conform. Two reported deaths from salish verdicts during 1993, in which one woman was publicly stoned and later committed suicide and another woman burned to death, are examples of the often fatal and extralegal verdicts that salish leaders impose. Ain 0 Salish Kendra (ASK), a human rights and legal aid care centre in Dhaka, views salish indictments against women as not only a threat to civil and secular norms of society but a violation of Bangladeshi law.

Nasreen has been critical of traditional society and defiant in challenging the authority of religion. This has outraged Islamic fundamentalists who link their persecution of Nasreen with a demand for the exclusion of Western aid agencies, which they say create 'decadence' and 'anti-Islamic practices.'(3) Hope now lies in this fiercely contested debate on the meanings of Islamic law, and the effectiveness of continued pressure on the Bangladeshi Government to uphold and enforce basic human rights despite fundamentalist opposition.

Salish indictments against women are thought by some feminist observers to be a backlash against women's development organisations which provide health and education services and income generating programmes for women. Fundamentalists are demanding restrictions on non-government organisa-tions (NGO's), particularly those that promote gender equality and empower women. Fundamentalist groups have set fire to education centres, sabotaged women's health clinics, destroyed mulberry bushes for silk co-operatives and intimidated people who work for targeted development organisations. Human Rights Watch believes that particular NG0s are targets of fundamentalist attacks because they receive funds from Western aid agencies and provide a direct challenge to the power and income of local religious leaders.(4)

Many activist women understand Bangladesh as a country that should encourage women's equality and promote harmony between people of different faiths. Tragically, they face tremendous opposition from religious figureheads along with the threats and fatwas- was that fundamentalist insanity is gaining notoriety for. Fatwas are proving quite effective in gaining results for ambitious fundamentalist leaders world- wide, who deem explorative thought as anathema to religious principles.

On 10 July 1993, the Bangladeshi Government, following increasing pressure from islamic funda-mentalists, banned Lajja (Shame) on the grounds that it created 'misunderstanding between communities' and fundamentalist leaders intensified their demand for Nasreen's death. Nasreen, one of Bangladesh's best selling authors, wrote Lajja in response to anti- Hindu riots in Bangladesh. It describes the persecu-tion of a Hindu family in Bangladesh after the destruction of the Ayodhya Mosque by Hindu funda-mentalists in India in December 1992. Islamic funda-mentalism in Bangladesh is fuelling a religious nationalism, which excludes and encroaches upon the political space of minority communities such as Hindus, indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Ahmadis (a group which regards itself as Muslim, but is regarded by orthodox Muslims as heretical). Lajja, inspired by Nasreen's long time commitment to fight injustice and discrimination based on race, religion and gender, highlights two major issues of immediate concern. Firstly, it raises the issue of Hindu minority rights in Bangladesh at a time when Hindus are regarded as the oppressive majority in India and secondly, it raises the issue of rape as an act of war. Women on both sides suffer rape; a familiar and shocking truth the world over.

Islamic fundamentalists were further angered the following year when Nasreen gave an interview to the Calcutta Statesman. On 9 May 1994, Nasreen denied statements attributed to her in the Statesman in which she is said to have stated that the Koran should be revised thoroughly. Her comments actual-ly referred to the reform of shariat law, a concept reflected in the Constitution of Bangladesh. Women's movements and other Bangladeshi organisations have, likewise, called for reforms of personal law and such demands, until a short time ago, have been regarded as part of the normal democratic process in Bangladesh. It is disturbing that this discourse should now become outlawed in a country with a tradition of open political debate. The renewed demands for her death demonstrate the increasing political role and power of religious extremists in Bangladesh.

On 9 June 1994, five days after the arrest warrant issued against Nasreen, two editors and two journal-ists also received arrest warrants under the same offence. Nasreen went into hiding for fear of her life as violent demonstrations continued.

[Ray]

Contd

CAMPAIGN
In defence of the secular tradition inherent in Bangladeshi nationhood, WAF formed an alliance with other groups in Britain such as Amnesty International, Article 19, Index on Censorship and International PEN and the Defend Taslima Nasreen Campaign was created to challenge the fundamental-ists' blatant infringement of basic human rights. Members of WAF have been active in briefing the press, passing an early day motion in parliament and lobbying MPs to sign petitions and write letters of protest to the Bangladeshi government. WAF and many other supporters circulated a petition in London's East end for the Bangladeshi community to sign. Nine pages of signatures were gathered to express dismay that the government of Bangladesh has not taken adequate measures to safeguard the rights of women who have clearly been targeted by fundamentalists.

The Defend Taslima Nasreen Campaign also protests against the Bangladeshi government's failure to prosecute these fundamentalist groups for issuing death threats. Nasreen's case demonstrates the "immense power of intimidation"(5) that fundamental-ists wield and many people live in fear of speaking out and not receiving the protection and support of the state. The Bangladeshi government must guaran-tee freedom of expression for all its citizens.

WAF comprehends the vital battle that must be fought against fundamentalist forces who invoke reli-gion to exert a singular, binding and hegemonic ide-ology. We reaffirm our support for Taslima Nasreen and vow to defend basic human rights. We abhor the stifling dogmas of religious fundamentalists and remain committed in our fight to thwart their oppres-sive ambitions, at home and abroad. We stand solid-ly behind Taslima Nasreen, and others like her, in their battle to end destruction and discrimination in the name of religion.

The Nasreen case has already provoked intermit-tent clashes between fundamentalists and defenders of secularism but the vilification and accusations against Nasreen are thought to be part of a broader attempt to denigrate the credibility of women public figures, which will seriously effect the position of all women and serve to undermine the future of pro-gressive ideas in Bangladesh generally. Millions died for this progress and their sacrifice will be betrayed if Bangladesh continues to be dictated to by religious extremists.

The plight of Taslima Nasreen still remains unre-solved, her court case is pending and scheduled for hearing in January 1995. It is likely to be a long and embattled process. If convicted, she could be sen-tenced up to two years in prison; yet another step closer to a repressive Islamic state which will further curb individual and minority rights and result in the demise of women's freedom in Bangladesh. From her imposed exile in Sweden, Nasreen is yearning for her homeland and she touchingly expressed how rice has become for her a cherished symbol of Bangladesh.

Isit at a table and eat rice. I don't eat it so much as play with it, move it around in my band. I keep my fingers next to the plate, near tbe pickles, near the vegetables and then I put them in the rice and play with it. With my left band I swat away flies. Except this is an airconditioned room in Sweden and there are no flies. What am I swatting away, then, sadness?' (6)

LINDSEY COLLEN
Nasreen is not alone in receiving death threats for her explicit writing. The Prime Minister of Mauritius, hostage to the threat of fundamentalist pressure, banned The Rape of Sita, Lindsey Collen's book about sexual violence against women, after Hindu fundamentalists objected to the title. While Sita is a very common woman's name in Mauritius, it is also the name of the revered wife of the god-king Rama in the Hindu epic Ramayana, who symbolises the ideal Hindu wife, pure, chaste and virtuous. The Prime Minister declared that the book was "blasphemous" and an "outrage against public and religious morality". He also called on the Commissioner of Police to take action against the author. On a brief visit to London from 9 to 11 November 1994, Lindsey Collen explained that the book was immediately withdrawn from circulation by the author and publisher to create time and space for an open debate. The future of the book, however, remains uncertain. Collen continues to demand her full rights as a citizen and has made use of police services both to paint out slanderous graffiti and to investigate threats she receives. (7)

Lindsey Collen, unlike Taslima Nasreen, is very active in political organisations and has wide support in Mauritius from within the left wing party, Lalit, from Muvman Liberasyon Fam (Women's Liberation Movement) and from Mauritian women generally. Muvman Liberasyon Fam who is actively campaign-ing for the ban to be lifted has urged concerned peo-ple to write letters of protest to the Prime Minister of Mauritius.(8) WAF has joined the international cam-paign to defend Lindsey Collen to oppose this kind of censorship and repression and prevent it becoming a further precedent for giving in to fundamentalist pressure. Lindsey Collen's The Rape of Sita has been awarded the 1994 Commonwealth Writer's Prize (Africa Region).

Other writers experiencing harsh censorship, threats to life and accusations of blasphemy are Wole Soyinka (Nigeria), Alla Hamed (Egypt), Maghib Mahfouz (Nobel Prize for Literature Egypt), Bei Dao (fugitive poet from China), Paul William Robert (Canada) and Salman Rushdie (Great Britain). Editors, journalists and publishers are also targets of attacks by religious fundamentalist groups.(9)

Persecution and harassment of Lindsey Collen and Taslima Nasreen by fundamentalists is an obvious attempt to suppress the individual's right to criticise religious belief and practice. These cases high-light the use of religion by secular authorities against dissenting voices, and accusations of blasphemy are invoked to censor and silence women in opposition to Government. The charges brought against both women are inappropriate and misleading in countries with no blasphemy laws. Secular authorities, as evidenced in these cases, are willingly sacrificing basic human rights to pander to fundamentalist forces.

[Ray]

BLASPHEMY
On her fleeting and cautious trip to London, 10 to 13 December 1994, Nasreen explained that her'case has provoked demands by fundamentalists for the intro-duction of a blasphemy law in Bangladesh similar to that which operates in Pakistan, and which frequent-ly carries a death penalty. This is inspired by the example set by Britain and most other European countries (with the exception of France and Belgium) who all have blasphemy laws.

In Britain the blasphemy law can still be invoked at any time and was last used successfully to prose-cute Gay News in 1979. The case concerned the work of a distinguished writer James Kirkup. His poem, 'The Love That Dares To Speak Its Name' was accord-ing to Kirkup "an attempt to see Christ anew in terms of modern sexual liberation".10 In 1976 Mary Whitehouse began a private prosecution for blasphe-mous libel against Gay News and its editor Denis Lemon. Three years later they were both found guilty and fined significant amounts.

Nasreen urges that a campaign is mounted to abolish the blasphemy law in Britain because when invoked it is used negatively and promotes intoler-ance. She believes that the Bangladeshi government will attempt to introduce a blasphemy law to satisfy fundamentalists whose support they depend upon to stay in power.

The 'Salman Rushdie affair' and the mass demon-strations of Muslims in protest - not only against The Satanic Verses and its author but also to demand that the law of blasphemy contain a provision to protect Islam - inspired WAF to strongly contest the blasphe-my law in the UK. The existing law protects Christianity alone and this discrimination in the law is unacceptable in a democratic society. To extend the law to accommodate other religions is equally unac-ceptable, however, as any blasphemy law is an infringement of freedom of expression. Equal treat-ment of religious beliefs as well as freedom of expression can best be achieved through dialogue and not by criminal prosecution and punishment. Article 19 state that "freedom of expression is in the end a precondition for freedom of religion and there- fore for respect for religious convictions or beliefs" (11)

Fundamentalist movements throughout the world feel threatened by pluralist systems of thought. Nasreen, while being victim of threats to her life and liberty, has maintained an identity, freedom and voice beyond ideology and her writings are a bedrock of humanitarian ideals.

Letters of support to Taslima Nasreen or of protest to the Bangladeshi authorities can be forwarded through Women Against Fundamentalism. Taslima Nasreen's book Lajja (Shame) is available in Britain, published by Penguin, India and distributed by Soma (ISBN 0 14 024 0519).

NOTES
1 The Guardian, 14 December 1994
2 AI Index.. ASA 13 December 1993
3 The Freethinker, Vol 115, No 1, January 1995, p2
4 Human Rights Watcb/Asia, 29 July 1994, p3
5 The Times, 4 August 1994
6 In conversation in London, 11 December 1994
7 The Independent, 17 December 1994
8 Write letters of protest to:

Prime Minister,
Sir Aneerood Jugnauth,
Government House,
Port Louis Republic of Mauritius
Fax: (230) 208 8619

And letters of support to the publishers:
Ledikasycon pu Travayer (LPT),
153 Main Road,
Grand River North West,
Port Louis
Mauritius

9 Nasreen is one of 900 writers and journalists cur-rently on PEN's records who are persecuted because of their writings or for practising their profession. The Evening Standard, 23 August 1994
10 Nicholas Walter, Blasphemy Ancient and Modern, Rationalist Press Association, London 1990, p7l
11 "The Crime of Blasphemy - Why it should be Abolished", Article 19, 23 May 1989, p13

REFERENCES
Begum, H "Giving voice to the silent revolution" in The Guardian 1 August 1994, p 10
Collen, L "The rape of fiction" in Index on Censorship 4/5 1994, p210-212
Drucker, C "Unwillingly paired: Nasrin and Rushdie" in Rushdie Alert The International Rushdie Defence Committee No 2, August 1994, p6
New Humanist, Vol 109, No 3, p2

CHRONOLOGY: TASLIMA NASREEN AND THE GROWTH OF ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM

10 Ju1Y 1993 Government of Bangladesh bans Taslima Nasreen's book "Llaia"- an account of anti- Hindu riots in Bangladesh in 1992.
23 Sept 1993 Fundamentalist leader offers 50,000 tk 4750) for Taslima's fiead.
4 Oct 1993 16 Imams demand trial and banning of Taslima's books.
8 Oct 1993 Islamic leader demands hanging of Taslima Nasreen.
27 Oct 1993 At Dhaka press confer- ence Islamic leader denounces Taslima Nasreen as "apostate" for denigrating Islam, and criticises freedom of speech guarantees as cover for provacative acts against one particular religion
9 May 1994 Publication of inter-view with Taslima Nasreen in Indian newspaper in which she is said to have stated that "the Koran should be revised thoroughly".
11 May 1994 Publication of Taslima Nasreen's rejoinder in Indian news- paper denying that she made such comments.
18 May 1994 After publication of interview in Bangladeshi newspa-pers, Taslima Nasreen again issues rejoinder.
21 May 1994 Procession of Islamic fundamentalist group demanding execution of Taslima Nasreen. Newspaper offices attacked.
4 June 1994 Warrant of arrest issued against Taslima Nasreen fol-lowing sanction of Home Ministry. Alleged to have committed an offence, Linder section 295 (a) of the Penal code, of "hurting religious sentiments".
8 June 1994 Demands for public hanging of Taslima Nasreen.
9 June 1994 Arrest warrants issued against two editors and two journal-ists of national newspapers under same offence alleged against Taslima Nasreen. Taslima Nasreen goes into hiding for fear for her life as violent demonstrations continue.
3 August 1994 Taslima Nasreen appears in Dhaka High Court to face charges of insulting Islam. She is granted bail of 5,000 tk (183).
10 August 1994 Taslima Nasreen flees Bangladesh to Sweden with acceptance of the Bangladesh Government and at the invitation of the Swedish Pen Club, an interna-tional writer's guild.
11 Dec 1994 Brief visit to London under the auspices of International Pen. Nasreen urges groups and indi-viduals to continue to campaign to remove charges against her and defend human rights. Her lawyers are dealing with her case which will begin in January 1995 and she will only return to Bangladesh if the Government provides a clear guar-antees for her safety.

WAF Articles
http://waf.gn.apc.org/journal6p53.htm

[Ray]

and what happens when the Government of Bangladesh encourages terrorists in the name of Islam?


Islam BITES Islam.

There was an earlier serial blasts right across Bangladesh.


From the horses mouth - The Bangladesh Observer.

And Islam is a Reigion of Peace!



Two killed, 40 including judge, magistrate & cop hurt: 9 held

Another serial bomb blasts rock Ctg, Chandpur,
Laxmipur, Chuadanga

Staff Correspondent

A tense situation has been prevailing throughout the country following simultaneous bomb attacks at the court houses in four districts of the country leaving two persons killed and at least 40 others including a Judge, a magistrate and police personnel injured on Monday noon.

The Government asked the concerned authority to take necessary security steps immediately to protect the general people at any cost after the Monday's bomb blasts that rocked Chittagong, Chandpur, Laxmipur and Chuadanga. Police recovered live bombs from in front of a school in Mymensing district.

The government's directive has come after getting an intelligence report apprehending more bomb attacks in the Key Point Installations (KPIs) including the courthouses in some other districts, which might cause more human casualties and damaging of properties. Security measures have been beefed up by imposing 'red-alert' across the country.

According to the sources, one person received severe injuries when a powerful bomb went-off at the Courthouse (Adalat Bhaban) in the port city Chittagong on Monday. The panic-stricken authority suspended all the proceedings of all courts in the entire Chittagong City to avoid any further casualties.

One person was killed and 15 others including joint judge Majibul Hoque and a policeman were injured as two bombs exploded with big bang at the District Judge’s Court building in Laxmipur district at about 11:45 am.

An elderly witness of a case was killed on the spot and about five persons, mostly lawyers received injuries when two powerful bombs exploded at District Judge Court building in Chandpur district at about 12:05 pm.

In another incident, an employee of a ice depot was injured when two bombs exploded at a fish market in Chuadnaga district on Sunday night.

Our Chittagong Correspondent adds: a clerk of an advocate named Abdul Wadud sustained serious wounds when a bomb exploded at the court of Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate Akram Hossain at about 11:55 am.

The security forces later conducted a massive search at the entire courthouse premises and also recovered two unexploded bombs from there. Security personnel with the help of local people caught three persons red-handed after a brief chase when they were trying to flee away hurling the bombs.

Of the arrested persons, two were identified as Laltu Meah of Thakurgaon and Dulal Mia of Patia. Another one is yet to be identified.

The authority were suspended all the proceedings of all the 49 courts in the Court house (Adalot Bhaban) just after the blast, police reinforcement was sent to the scene.

Admitting the facts, Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) Commissioner Majedul Huq said that one person was injured when a bomb went-off at the courthouse.

Our Laxmipur Correspondent adds: one person was killed and 15 others including Joint District Judge Majibul Hoque and a policeman were injured as two bombs exploded with big bang at the District Judge’s Court building in Laxmipur district in the morning.

The victim was identified as Mojibul Haq (80) of Char Ababil in Roypur upazila in Laxmipur district.

Of the injured, seven of them identified as Constable Abdul Alim (50), Delwar Hossain (50), Shahana Akhter (40), Idris Ali (60), Hazi Ali Ahmed (75), Toka Miah (80) and Shahida Begum (50). They were admitted to Sadar hospital where conditions of Constable Abdul Alim, Delwar Hossain and Shahana were stated to be critical. The rest were set free after given first aid.

Police and witnesses said, panicky situation created among the people in the area as one bomb exploded inside the courtroom of Joint District Judge Abu Sufian while another on the nearby terrace of the district court building.

Judge Abu Sufian luckily escaped death though received minor injuries in one ear in the bomb blast. Physicians advised the judge to have his ear examined at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in Dhaka.

Police arrested one suspected bomer named Mamun (23), son of Abdul Karim of Bisnabi at Puranbazar of Chandpur district, from the court premises while fleeing the scene amid a scramble after the blasts. Mamun, reportedly confessed during the interrogation that he was hired for Taka 1 lakh for exploding the bomb and received Taka 1500 in advance.

He also disclosed the names of those who hired him. Police did not disclose the names “for the sake of investigation”.

Laxmipur was one of the 63 districts also hit by serial bombings on August 17, sparking nationwide security alert and concerns.

Our Chandpur Correspondent adds: one person was killed and five others, mostly lawyers, were wounded when two powerful bombs exploded at District Judge Court building in the Monday noon.

Police said Hashem Bakaul (60), a witness in a case was killed on the spot and Advocate Kazi Mozammel Hossain received serious injuries during the bomb attack. Mozammel was admitted to the Sadar Hospital. Two other lawyers Advocate Fazlul Sarkar and Advocate Kamal Ahmed were given first aid.

The bombs were exploded inside the ‘ejlash” (court room) of Joint District Judge Dipen Dewan who was hearing a case at the time of blast. Victim Hashem Bakaul was a witness in the case.

Local people along with the lawyers caught red-handed two young suspects from the spot. They were identified as Belal Hossain (20) of Rahimanagar village of Kachua Upazila and Abdus Salam (19) of Barura upazila of Comilla.

Police cordoned the court compound just after the blasts. Chandpur was one of the 63 districts hit by serial bombings on August 17 sparking nationwide security alert and concerns. On that day six bombs were exploded at the Chandpur district judge court.

Our Chuadanga Correspondent adds: an elderly employee of ice depot was injured when two bombs exploded at a fish market in Chuadnaga district on Sunday night.

Shuk Chand (60) received serious injuries when two bombs went-off with big bangs in the fish depot of Motahar Hossain Tota in the city at about 9:00 pm.

Police faileed to nab anybody in connection with the blast though Purbo Banglar Communist Party (Jano Juddha) claimed responsibility of the bomb attack.

Police increased vigilance at all strategic points to prevent any further untoward situation.

Reliable sources said that the authorities tightened security at the Supreme Court compound in Dhaka with the deployment of additional police forces following the bomb blasts in Chittagong, Chandpur, Chuadanga and Laxmipur.

Expressing deep concern over the blasts State Minister for Home Affairs Luthfuzzaman Babor said that several suspects were caught red-handed from three sites of bomb blasts in Chandpur, Laxmipur and Chittagong.

The security personnel including the members of para-military BDR, Rapid Saction Battalion (RAB), Armed Police Battalion (APBn), DB, SB, Armed Ansar have been patrolling in and around the key Point Installations (KPIs) including the Supreme Court, High Court and lower courts, bus, rail and launch stations, shopping complexes, commercial buildings, banks, foreign missions in the capital city Dhaka to prevent any further untoward situation.

The authority also beefed up security measures at all airports of the country including the Zia International Airport (ZIA), sources added.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Mizanur Rahman has urged the people to remain alert about any suspicious person or object and help the law-enforcing agencies by dialing 999 for preventing any subversive activities.

http://www.bangladeshobserveronline.com/new/2005/10/04/front.htm