#BNP leader

[banglakhobor]

Hero Alom: ‘অর্ধপাগল, অর্ধশিক্ষিত’ বলে অশালীন আক্রমণ! ৫০ কোটির মানহানি মামলা দায়ের হিরো আলমের

জি ২৪ ঘণ্টা ডিজিটাল ব্যুরো: বিতর্ক যেন পিছু ছাড়ে না হিরো আলমের(Hero Alom)। সম্প্রতি ঢাকা-১৭ আসনের উপনির্বাচনে নির্দল প্রার্থী হিসাবে নির্বাচনে দাঁড়ান বাংলাদেশের(Bangladesh) জনপ্রিয় ও বিতর্কিত অভিনেতা-গায়ক হিরো আলম। ১৭ জুলাই, নির্বাচনের দিন রাস্তায় ফেলে মারা হয় তাঁকে। অভিযোগের তীর ওঠে বাংলাদেশের শাসক দল আওয়ামী লীগের(Awami League) বিরুদ্ধে। এবার বিএনপির সিনিয়র যুগ্ম মহাসচিব রুহুল কবির রিজভীর…

[infocrazebyrepwoop]

Chief Adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus Meets with BNP Leaders for the First Time

The Chief Adviser of the interim government, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, held a meeting with senior BNP leaders on Monday afternoon. The meeting, which began at 4 PM at the chief adviser’s residence, was attended by BNP standing committee members led by Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. According to Sayrul Kabir Khan, a member of BNP’s media cell, Dr. Yunus had invited the BNP leaders to the…

[warningsine]

Bangladeshi student protesters stormed a prison and freed hundreds of inmates Friday as police struggled to quell unrest, with huge rallies in the capital Dhaka despite a police ban on public gatherings.

This week's clashes have killed at least 105 people, according to an AFP count of victims reported by hospitals, and emerged as a momentous challenge to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's autocratic government after 15 years in office.

Student protesters stormed a jail in the central Bangladeshi district of Narsingdi and freed the inmates before setting the facility on fire, a police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"I don't know the number of inmates, but it would be in the hundreds," he added.

Dhaka's police force took the drastic step of banning all public gatherings for the day -- a first since protests began -- in an effort to forestall another day of violence.

"We've banned all rallies, processions and public gatherings in Dhaka today," police chief Habibur Rahman told AFP, adding the move was necessary to ensure "public safety".

That did not stop another round of confrontations between police and protesters around the sprawling megacity of 20 million people, despite an internet shutdown aimed at frustrating the organisation of rallies.

"Our protest will continue," Sarwar Tushar, who joined a march in the capital and sustained minor injuries when it was violently dispersed by police, told AFP.

"We want the immediate resignation of Sheikh Hasina. The government is responsible for the killings."

'Shocking and unacceptable'

At least 52 people were killed in the capital on Friday, according to a list drawn up by the Dhaka Medical College Hospital and seen by AFP.

Police fire was the cause of more than half of the deaths reported so far this week, based on descriptions given to AFP by hospital staff.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said the attacks on student protesters were "shocking and unacceptable".

"There must be impartial, prompt and exhaustive investigations into these attacks, and those responsible held to account," he said in a statement.

The capital's police force earlier said protesters had on Thursday torched, vandalised and carried out "destructive activities" on numerous police and government offices.

Among them was the Dhaka headquarters of state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which remains offline after hundreds of incensed students stormed the premises and set fire to a building.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP that officers had arrested Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, one of the top leaders of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

"He faces hundreds of cases," Hossain said, without giving further details on the reasons for Ahmed's detention.

'Symbol of a system'

Near-daily marches this month have called for an end to a quota system that reserves more than half of civil service posts for specific groups, including children of veterans from the country's 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

Critics say the scheme benefits children of pro-government groups that back Hasina, 76, who has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Hasina's government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including by the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Her administration this week ordered schools and universities to close indefinitely as police stepped up efforts to bring the deteriorating law and order situation under control.

"This is an eruption of the simmering discontent of a youth population built over years due to economic and political disenfranchisement," Ali Riaz, a politics professor at Illinois State University, told AFP.

"The job quotas became the symbol of a system which is rigged and stacked against them by the regime."

'Nation-scale' internet shutdown

Students say they are determined to press on with protests despite Hasina giving a national address earlier this week on the now-offline state broadcaster seeking to calm the unrest.

Nearly half of Bangladesh's 64 districts reported clashes on Thursday, broadcaster Independent Television reported.

The network said more than 700 people had been wounded throughout Thursday including 104 police officers and 30 journalists.

London-based watchdog NetBlocks said Friday that a "nation-scale" internet shutdown remained in effect a day after it was imposed.

"Metrics show connectivity flatlining at 10% of ordinary levels, raising concerns over public safety as little news flows in or out of the country," it wrote on social media platform X.

(AFP)

[girlactionfigure]

Yasser Arafat allegedly stole over $3 billion from the ‘Palestinian Fund’, which he stashed in over 200 overseas bank accounts under false names. He gave his wife Suha over $200,000 a month in ‘housekeeping money.’ Between July 2002 and July 2003 alone, over $10 million was transferred from a Swiss account into 2 Paris-based accounts in her name (Arab Bank & BNP). Ismail Haniyah bought vast tracts of land on the Gazan coast and spent many millions building homes for his 13 children. Khaled Mashal and his cohort Mousa Abu Marzuk are said to have ‘misappropriated’ around $2.6 billion each of money intended for Gazan homes, schools and hospitals. Mashal now lives an opulent life in Qatar. Mahmoud Abbas spent $17 million building a mansion in Ramallah, $50 million on a private jet and is said to have paid many millions in ‘salaries’ to family, friends and those loyal to him ( in addition to the hundreds of millions paid to convicted terrorists and their families). ‘Palestinian’ business is big business for these so-called leaders. The last thing they want is peace, for as long as there is conflict, as long as the media can be fed pictures of ‘disillusioned’ Gazans ‘living in poverty’ and as long as Israel can be blamed, the money will keep rolling in.

Likud Herut UK

[curtwilde]

I agree that Hasina has lost all moral legitimacy to stay in power but this time I am not feeling good about what is going on. Dark times lay ahead, especially for Bangladeshi Hindus.

The leaders of the movement have been very staunch in their secularism so far. I hope that it stays that way and it does't fall prey to religious lines. I can see that it is already happening in some sections of the movement.

People of Bangladesh, please, please do not let BNP and other fundamentalist parties hijack everything you have achieved so far.

[eretzyisrael]

by Jane Prinsley

A Jewish charity event to help disaffected young boys has been mobbed by anti-Israel protestors after the address was leaked by a provocative social media activist.

Disturbing footage shows a number of masked men abusing Jewish passers-by in Hendon while being blocked by police.

Dilly Hussain, the editor of Muslim blog, 5 Pillars, shared information about the event on social media, including the charity’s address and charity number. Hussain appeared to call on his followers to attend the event, claiming that Simon: “Posted a video of himself rummaging through a Palestinian woman’s nightwear after her house was evacuated in Gaza.”

Hussain provoked criticism late last year after interviewing former BNP leader Nick Griffin about the war in Gaza. 

The event was also mentioned on the hard-left website Novara Media.

The Boys Clubhouse is a Jewish charity that provides a safe environment for disadvantaged teenage boys in crisis. 

The charity’s founder and Chief Executive, Ari Leaman MBE, told the JC that Levi Simon had been invited “to inspire the boys to do well in life, it had nothing to do with the army.” Simon was due to speak to four disaffected boys who had been excluded from school, “it was a talk about overcoming adversity and not doing drugs.”

Simon posted about the event on his Facebook, a screenshot of which was widely shared on anti-Israel social media groups. Leaman said it “somehow went out to almost every Palestinian group that there is an IDF guy hosting a charity event.”

The lunchtime talk went ahead at a different address. Leaman said that the boys “know this is part of being Jewish in England today.”

A passerby told the JC, “A lot of guys with balaclavas started targeting the office.” According to the witness, the gang was trying to break into The Boys Clubhouse office. The CST and police had to guard both the front and back entrances to stop the men getting into the building.

The witness said, “it is terrifying. Really awful.”

The braying mob were filmed shouting “you’re a baby killer” to the Jewish men standing on Hendon Way. They called the men “Israeli scum.”

As the incident unfolded, a witness told the JC, “they are harassing the surrounding offices. No one can work because of their loudspeakers.”The Boys Clubhouse does not have identification on their building for security reasons. There is nothing on the office to suggests it is a Jewish charity, but the address was widely shared on anti-Israel channels.

The witness told the JC that he had not seen any arrests.

The JC has approached Dilly Hussain and the Metropolitan police for comment.

[mariacallous]

Bangladeshis made history in July when a mass uprising, led by student protesters, toppled Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League’s government, which had become increasingly dictatorial over the course of 15 years in power. Before she fled to India on Aug. 5, Hasina oversaw the killing of thousands—at least 90 people were killed by the police on the day before her departure alone. Children were not spared.

The end of Hasina’s dictatorship has turned a new chapter in Bangladesh’s history. The country’s lone Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, now heading an interim government, called it Bangladesh’s second liberation. But Bangladesh has to step carefully over the mess Hasina has left behind—both in domestic and foreign affairs.

And the mess is huge. Historically, Bangladesh’s politics has been a game of pass the parcel played between Hasina’s center-left Awami League and Khaleda Zia’s center-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), with the two regularly exchanging power for years—until Hasina broke the norms of democracy in 2011. That was the year she abolished the caretaker government system, where neutral civil society leaders headed an interim government to conduct the elections in a free and fair manner. Since then, the country has witnessed one rigged election after another. The BNP said about half of its 5 million members faced legal charges.

The democratic institutions that have been destroyed over the years can’t be rebuilt overnight. In his first speech to the nation, Yunus talked about bringing back the “lost glory of these [government] institutions.” The country effectively has no police force left. Hasina used members of the Border Guard Bangladesh, who were supposed to be posted at the border, against the protesters. Now they are facing widespread public anger too.

The damage is everywhere from administration to law enforcement to the military. Nothing has been spared. Hasina destroyed the country’s judiciary by handpicking judges. In 2017, the chief justice of Bangladesh’s Supreme Court, Surendra Kumar Sinha—a Hindu in a Muslim-majority country—was forced to resign and seek asylum in Canada after being threatened by the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, the country’s military intelligence service.

The economy is in tatters, and corruption is rampant. Hasina herself has said that her manservant is worth $34 million and commutes via helicopter. According to Transparency International, around $3.1 billion is laundered from Bangladesh every year, which is more than 10 percent of the country’s total national reserves.

With the Awami League now hated by most of the public, the only political force left this political vacuum is the BNP. Zia, the party chairperson, is 79—and she is now gravely ill and was hospitalized multiple times since this summer. Tarique Rahman, her firstborn child and deputy, is 56. Rahman, often seen as his mother’s successor and the future head of state, has been living in a self-imposed exile in the U.K. for the last 16 years and the extent he is in touch with the country’s new reality is a question up for debate. He faces a slew of corruption charges—although these may not stand up in a fair trial as they were trumped up by Hasina.

After 15 years of autocracy, most of the remaining politicians are greying, while the median age in Bangladesh is a little over 25. The uprising that saw Hasina’s rule crumble was spearheaded by mostly by members of Generation Z. Their leadership of these supposedly apolitical groups in the July revolution has caught the politicians off guard, proof that Bangladeshi politicians are not capable of reading the pulse of the young.

Amid this chaos, the West needs to start playing a far more positive role. One of the reasons Hasina’s rule lasted so long was because the U.S. turned a blind eye to her misrule. Months before the one-sided elections in January, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken threatened to “restrict the issuance of visas for any Bangladeshi individual, believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh.” But after the polls, no punitive measures materialized. On the contrary, U.S. President Joe Biden wrote a letter to Hasina, expressing his government’s wish to “work together on regional and global security” and “commitment to supporting Bangladesh’s ambitious economic goals.”

U.S. complicity depends in part on its desire for India, a close ally to Bangladesh, to contain China in the Indo-Pacific. According to the Washington Post, last month Indian officials told their U.S. counterparts, “This is a core concern for us, and you can’t take us as a strategic partner unless we have the same kind of strategic consensus.”

India supported successive Awami League regimes due to its own security and strategic concerns. India’s landlocked northeastern states, also known as the Seven Sisters, are linked to the rest of the country through the narrow 60-kilometre-long Siliguri Corridor. This tiny passage, known as the Chicken Neck, separates Bangladesh from Nepal and Bhutan. The strategically important Tibetan Chumba Valley controlled by China is only 130 kilometers away.

The Seven Sisters are inhibited by 220 ethnic minorities and are home to active insurgent groups, especially in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland. India also has the world’s fifth-longest land border with Bangladesh. All this gives India a potent stake in Bangladesh—but instead of making new friends or giving Bangladesh’s democracy a chance, India placed its chips entirely on Hasina and the Awami League. Anti-Indian sentiment now runs high in Bangladesh—the Indian Cultural Center in the capital was torched within three hours of Hasina’s fall.

India has a long way to go to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Bangladeshis, and blaming Pakistan and its intelligence agency, the ISI, for every problem won’t help. India’s old narrative is dead, and New Delhi must realize this.

The U.S. must stop seeing Bangladesh through India’s eyes. Time and again U.S. policymakers have misread Bangladesh’s importance, looking at it as an extension of India instead of a state in itself. Bangladesh is potentially crucial to containing China in the Indo-Pacific. It has a young population who hold their ethno-religious identities close to their hearts but are pro-Western, too, with more than 13 million Bangladeshis living abroad.

Hasina herself was playing both sides, turning herself into China’s closest ally in South Asia. In July, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning described the relationship between Bangladesh and China as “good neighbors, good friends, and good partners.”

China dislodged India as Bangladesh’s top trading partner nine years ago. Bangladesh imports more goods from China than from any other country, and is in debt to China to the tune of $17.5 billion, which was mainly invested in white elephant infrastructure projects. After Hasina’s fall, China’s reaction, however, has been muted—hoping to build a relationship with whoever emerges afterwards.

The U.S. and the European Union have welcomed Yunus and his interim government. Mathew Miller, a State Department spokesperson, said last month the U.S. wants the interim government to “chart a democratic future for the people of Bangladesh.” The best way to do this is for the U.S. to offer support to U.N.-led efforts to support order and democracy in the country.

The interim government immediately needs to establish law and order. It can start by bringing the perpetrators of the July carnage to the book. A national office of missing persons should be established to look into all the incidents of enforced disappearances. It can seek technical support from the United Nations, which should lead an independent U.N.-led fact-finding program into the revolution and fall of the Hasina regime. Western nations should support the establishment of a new, fairer constitution that takes the range of Bangladeshi identities into account.

The presence of torture cells inside Dhaka cantonment and the alleged involvement of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence tells us that a section of the armed forces were involved in crimes against humanity. Bangladesh has been a major contributor to U.N. peacekeeping—but that needs to stop until responsibility for these crimes has been established.

The ongoing civil war in Myanmar is also an existential threat to Bangladesh’s national security. With Bangladesh’s security forces in disarray, the U.S. should support Bangladesh by setting up a temporary base that will provide the Bangladesh Armed Forces and intelligence agencies with arms, training and other logistical support, while maintaining a firm emphasis on the political neutrality of the army and its support of human rights.

Bangladesh has survived a dire time to potentially chart a brighter future. Washington should see it not as an extension of Indian interests, but as an independent country that is capable of making its own decisions, an important ally, and a partner in the Indo-Pacific.

[beardedmrbean]

Bangladesh's parliament has been dissolved, a day after prime minister Sheikh Hasina was forced from power.

Ms Hasina resigned and fled the country after weeks of student-led protests spiralled into deadly unrest.

The dissolution of parliament, a key demand of protesters, paves the way for establishing an interim government.

Bangladeshis are waiting to see what comes next, as the country's military chief is holding talks with political leaders and protest organisers.

According to local media, more than 100 people died in violent clashes across Bangladesh on Monday, the single deadliest day since mass demonstrations began.

Hundreds of police stations were also torched, with the Bangladesh Police Service Association (BPSA) declaring a strike "until the security of every member of the police is secure".

The group also sought to place the blame at the door of authorities, saying they were "forced to fire".

Overall, more than 400 people are believed to have died, as protests were met with harsh repression by government forces.

The protests began in early July with peaceful demands from university students to abolish quotas in civil service jobs, but snowballed into a broader anti-government movement.

Weeks of unrest culminated in the storming of the prime minister's official residence, not long after Ms Hasina had fled to neighbouring India, ending nearly 15 years of rule.

Bangladeshi leaders are under pressure to establish an interim government to avoid a power vacuum that could lead to further clashes.

Within hours of her resignation, Bangladesh's army chief Gen Waker-uz-Zaman pledged that an interim administration would be formed, adding on state television that "it is time to stop the violence".

Student leaders have been clear they will not accept a military-led government, pushing for Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to become the interim government's chief adviser.

Mr Yunus, who agreed to take up the role, said: “When the students who sacrificed so much are requesting me to step in at this difficult juncture, how can I refuse?”

He is returning to Dhaka from Paris, where he is undergoing a minor medical procedure, according to his spokesperson.

Meanwhile, ex-prime minister and key opposition leader Khaleda Zia was released from years of house arrest, a presidential statement said.

She chairs the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which boycotted elections in 2014 and again in 2024, saying free and fair elections were not possible under Ms Hasina.

The BNP wanted the polls to be held under a neutral caretaker administration. This has now become a possibility after the departure of Ms Hasina, who had always rejected this demand.

Ms Zia, 78, served as prime minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996, but was imprisoned in 2018 for corruption, although she said the charges were politically motivated.

She was not the only opposition figure to be released after years of detention.

Activist Ahmad Bin Quasem was also released from detention, according to his lawyer Michael Polak.

Rights groups say Mr Quasem was taken away by security forces in 2016, just one of hundreds of forced disappearances in the country under Ms Hasina's rule.

"There were many points during his detention that he was feared dead, and the uncertainty was one of the many tools of repression utilised by the regime," Mr Polak explained, adding they hoped the decision to release political prisoners "is a positive sign of their intentions".

"Unfortunately, the good news won’t be shared by all," he told the BBC, stating that a number of political prisoners had died in custody.

At least 20 other families of political prisoners gathered outside a military intelligence force building in the capital Dhaka earlier in the day, still desperately waiting for news about their loved ones, AFP news agency reports.

"We need answers," Sanjida Islam Tulee, a co-ordinator of Mayer Daak (The Call of the Mothers) campaign group, told the news agency.

Across the border in India, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said he was "deeply concerned till law and order is visibly restored" in Bangladesh, with which India shares a 4,096-km (2,545-mile) border and has close economic and cultural ties.

He gave the first official confirmation that Ms Hasina made a request to travel to India at "very short notice" and "arrived yesterday evening in Delhi".

India also deployed additional troops along its border with Bangladesh.

"Our border guarding forces have also been instructed to be exceptionally alert in view of this complex situation," Mr Jaishankar said.

[meganelixabethh]

In light of Biden stepping down and Kamala Harris potentially being the presidential candidate, I have seen Americans begin to have the debate online about why they should vote for Kamala when they don’t agree with her actions. As an English person I want to talk to you about this because we’ve just done this like a month ago.

Let me briefly introduce you to the British voting system- each country is split into sections that- at one time- had roughly equal populations and each one is called a constituency. Each constituency has an elected leader called a Member of Parliament (we call them MPs so I will be using that term moving forwards) and each of them has a seat in parliament and is able to cast the vote for their constituency on behalf of the people who voted them in. Most MPs are affiliated with either the Conservative Party (colloquially referred to as the ‘tories’ and most similar to the Republican Party) or the Labour Party (no nickname, like the Democrats). There are other parties such as The Liberal Democrats, The Green Party, Reform UK, The DUP, UKIP, BNP and there are even a few MPs who are independent and therefore not affiliated with any party. The general idea is that all the MPs who are in the same party will vote the same way, so if you have over half of the seats in parliament affiliated with your party, you are prime minister and you can usually expect your party to vote the things in that you endorse. This is a TLDR of the British system so it’s way more complicated than this but all this to say, if a party gets 326 seats they have the power.

In 2010 the Tories gained a majority over the Labour Party for the first time in 13 years, and immediately began stripping money out of public services and funnelling this to Tory donors (again I just want to take a moment to say all this is very complicated and I’m glossing over a lot so missing a lot of nuance) so essentially we were paying tax and that money was just not going towards sustaining our national infrastructure. In 2016 Brexit happened and this worsened the problem. In 2019 there was a concerted effort from the left to get the tories out, and while the tories needed to be propped up by The DUP, they maintained their majority. Enter COVID. Our already crumbling public services were put under a level of pressure they simply could not sustain. People were going bankrupt trying to heat their homes during winter, food prices spiralled, schools crumbled both physically and metaphorically. You can’t get a GP appointment to save your life. People are dying in corridors at A&E after waiting 9 hours to be seen. You can’t buy a house nor can you rent one and homelessness soared. The future is bleak here. Children are starving. But it’s fine- life goes on- you come to understand how the people you read about in history books carried on like they did. You come to grow used to living in unprecedented times as everyone else in the world seems to be. You complain to your colleagues about how long it will take to get through to the doctors to try and get a repeat prescription, you turn the heating off in another room and eventually just take to getting in bed as soon as you get home in winter. You know someone who has a wood burning stove so you consider how often is too often to invite yourself over. As you sew up the rip in the seam of your jeans again, you wonder if the world was actually better before 2010 or if everything just seemed better because you were a kid. You know whatever the answer to that question is, you never struggled to get a doctors appointment back then.

Our elections don’t function quite like yours- they don’t happen at a set time. The ruling party have to dissolve parliament to call an election, and they have to do it within 5 years of their last win. The normal convention is 4 years, but 5 is what’s actually in the law. We knew the tories would try to cling on to power as long as they could- so we knew it would be 2024 before we got an election. We had a local election when we would usually have a general election, but finally, FINALLY, on a rainy day, the prime minister told an angry people that we would have an election in six short weeks and we immediately had exactly the same argument you’re currently having. The left argued back and forth about whether tactical voting is moral and if moral voting was actually enough to dig us out of the nightmare. We considered the party leaders actions, we agreed that we didn’t like them, that he was basically in the centre, that he supported the genocide in Palestine and that he didn’t do enough to protect trans people, that he wasn’t what we WANTED. And then we looked at the burned out husk of our lives and we voted for him anyway. He is now Prime Minister and Labour have a very significant majority.

He’s scrapped the Rwanda Scheme (very expensive scheme to ship asylum seekers who reach Britain to Rwanda for some reason?), he’s lifted an onshore wind ban that’s prevented the country expanding its green energy infrastructure for the last decade to try and reduce energy prices, he’s made more progress with striking doctors in about 3 days than the tories did in years, announced plans to nationalise major infrastructure back from private industry, held water companies to account for dumping raw sewage in our waters and ordered an immediate assessment of public funds to try and stop so much public money pouring out of infrastructure after 14 years of Tory restructuring (to make themselves richer if you remember from above). He’s only been in about a month. I was 13 when the tories took power, and for the first time almost since I can remember, there’s a very small stirring of… hope I think? The nightmare might be over soon.

He’s not perfect and neither are Labour, but if I have a choice between being shot in the face and drinking cyanide, I’d drink the cyanide because I might live to drink another glass of water that’s got less cyanide in it. There is no best, there is only better; and if we keep voting for better we might end up at the best we wanted in the beginning. Sometimes, you just have to vote for better and hope. She might not be what you want, but she’s probably not going to set the world on fire and play the fiddle while it burns, and that might have to do for now unfortunately.

[thoughtlessarse]

More than 500 people, including some opposition leaders, have been arrested in Dhaka over violence that has wracked Bangladesh and killed 163 people since students started protesting against civil service hiring rules, police said Monday. What began as demonstrations against politicised admission quotas for sought-after government jobs has snowballed into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure. A curfew has been imposed and soldiers are patrolling cities across the South Asian country, while a nationwide internet blackout since Thursday has drastically restricted the flow of information to the outside world. "At least 532 people have been arrested over the violence" since the unrest began, Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP. "They include some BNP leaders," he added, referring to the opposition Bangladesh National Party. Bangladesh's top court on Sunday pared back the hiring quotas for specific groups for government jobs, which are seen as secure and sought-after.

continue reading

[northern-punk-lad]

White leftists on Twitter are surporting nick griffin former leader of the BNP and was a member of the national front like don’t fucking do that what the fuck is wrong with you

[darkmaga-retard]

The forced ouster of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from power by street agitators earlier this week has many dimensions, internal and external, all of which will be problematic in the near to medium term for Bangladesh itself, for India, and the entire region.

Bangladesh politics has been tumultuous, with Sheikh Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, considered the Father of the Nation, killed in 1975 in a military coup, along with all the members of his family – except Sheikh Hasina and her sister, who happened to be abroad at that time. 

Since then, Bangladesh has had a series of military coups until the restoration of civilian rule in 1991. This, however, failed to stabilize the country’s politics because of the unending rivalry between Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League (AL) and Begum Khaled Zia, the widow of former coup leader General Ziaur Rahman, who heads the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

[metamatar]

[From 15 Dec 2023]

me when im against fascism:

Its predecessor, the party (Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan), strongly opposed the independence of Bangladesh and break-up of Pakistan. In 1971, paramilitary forces associated with the party collaborated with the Pakistan Army in mass killings of Bangladeshi nationalists and pro-intellectuals.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20]

Upon the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the new government banned Jamaat-e-Islami from political participation since the government was secular and some of its leaders went into exile in Pakistan. Following the assassination of the first president and the military coup in 1975, the ban on the Jamaat was lifted and the new party Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh was formed. Exiled leaders were allowed to return. Abbas Ali Khan was the acting Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. The Jamaat agenda is the creation of an "Islamic state" with the Sha'ria legal system, and outlawing "un-Islamic" practices and laws. For this reason, it interpretes their central political concept "Iqamat-e-Deen" as establishing Islamic state by possession of state power

Upon the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the new government banned Jamaat-e-Islami from political participation since the government was secular and some of its leaders went into exile in Pakistan. Following the assassination of the first president and the military coup in 1975, the ban on the Jamaat was lifted and the new party Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh was formed.

[...] In 2010 the government, led by the Awami League, began prosecution of war crimes committed during the 1971 war under the International Crimes Tribunal. By 2012, two leaders of the BNP, one leader from Jatiyo Party and eight of Jamaat had been charged with war crimes, and by March 2013, three Jamaat leaders had been convicted of crimes. In response, the Jamaat held major strikes and protests across the country, which led to more than 60 deaths (mostly by security forces.)

The former leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh's largest Islamist party, was sentenced to 90 years in jail for crimes against humanity on 15 July 2013. [...]

In 1973, the government cancelled his citizenship for allegedly co-operating with Pakistani forces during the independence war.

Azam lived as an exile in Pakistan and the UK but returned to Bangladesh in 1978 when the country was led by Gen Ziaur Rahman - the assassinated husband of the country's current opposition leader [of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party] Khaleda Zia.

Minority community leaders, rights activists and liberal personalities have raised concerns over the call by acting chief of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Tarique Rahman, who stands convicted in a number of cases, for party men to mobilise on the streets for "regime change" on 28 October [2023].

[...] Rana Dasgupta said, considering the violent attacks orchestrated by BNP in the past, "this latest threat by Tarique is deeply concerning for the minorities in Bangladesh".

"Any political party that complies with the basic tenets of democracy should refrain from issuing such threats publicly," Dasgupta, general secretary of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad, added.

In the run-up to the 2014 national election, violence on the streets coupled with targeted attacks on minorities across the country still traumatise the victims, he observed

[warningsine]

“Inni, we are independent!” my 26-year-old cousin chanted from Shahbagh, a neighbourhood in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, as millions joined a major protest march on Monday to the country’s Parliament House.

Soon after, social media was flooded with news of “a new independence” – a free Bangladesh reborn after the autocratic leader of over 15 years, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, fled the country in the face of defiant public demand for her resignation.

It was the startling culmination of weeks of unrest that resulted in some 300 deaths and thousands of arrests.

Now, the young protesters who instigated the protests have a real opportunity to contribute to the political discourse in a previously discriminatory system of government. Will the interim government listen – and bring real change to the country?

What’s been happening in recent weeks?

The student protests erupted last month over a quota system that reserved 30% of government jobs for Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war veterans and their relatives. The students demanded a merit-based system, deeming the current one unfair and biased.

As the protests grew, Bangladesh’s faux democratic regime totally broke down. The government cut mobile internet, imposed a nationwide shoot-on-sight curfew, and deployed the army and police to the streets.

The government’s violent response quickly transformed the demonstrations into a full-fledged “people’s uprising” aimed at toppling Hasina and her Awami League party.

After days of intense clashes between student protesters, police and ruling party activists, the Supreme Court reduced the quota to just 5% of jobs for veterans and their relatives. Despite this concession, protesters continued to demand accountability for those killed in the weeks of unrest.

The government tried to deflect blame, claiming the demand for Hasina’s resignation had been orchestrated by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the now-banned Jamaat-e-Islami party.

The prime minister labelled the protesters as criminals to be dealt with harshly, leading to a severe erosion of political trust. When Hasina offered to meet with student leaders on Saturday, a coordinator fervently refused.

Sunday marked one of the deadliest days in Bangladesh’s history of civil unrest, with at least 98 people killed and hundreds injured.

Anti-government sentiment spread rapidly, fuelled by accusations the government was intimidating protesters, denying medical care to the injured and arresting thousands for exercising their democratic rights.

As the unrest grew, Hasina’s grip on power weakened until she was finally forced to flee.

Deep-seated inequality and anger

While the student protests initially targeted the quota system, broader public discontent quickly emerged. Bangladeshis were angry over the repressive political climate, the weakening economy and the government’s inability to tackle pressing issues, such as inequality, youth unemployment and high inflation.

This discontent has come despite the fact Bangladesh has achieved significant economic success since Hasina came back into office in 2009, largely fuelled by the garment industry.

Bangladesh has become one of the fastest-growing economies in the region. Per capita income has tripled in the last decade and over 25 million people have been lifted out of poverty in the past 20 years.

However, the economic fruits have been unevenly distributed, favouring the rich, who tend to support the Awami League. The wealthiest 10% of the population control 41% of the nation’s income, while the bottom 10% receive just 1.3%.

The country’s economic success failed to meet the aspirations of the younger generation, in particular. By 2023, 40% of those aged 15–29 were classified as “NEET” – which means “not in employment, education or training”. University graduates have faced higher unemployment rates than their less-educated peers.

Rising inflation, reaching nearly 10%, and increased living expenses have compounded these hardships. Utility costs soared as the government raised electricity and gas prices three times in a single year.

The root causes of the quota protests, therefore, ran deep. And this anger was especially pronounced for the disenchanted and politically marginalised youth. Their demands were clear: they wanted fair elections, government accountability and the restoration of democratic norms.

Bottom-up transition to democracy

In all senses, Bangladesh has not been a democracy since its 1971 independence war against Pakistan. The country has been plagued by corruption, the suppression of free speech and the press, and flagrant repression of the opposition. This has included politically motivated arrests, disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

Elections have also not been free and fair. The highly controversial election in January that returned Hasina to power for a fourth consecutive term, for instance, was boycotted by her main opponents. Many of their leaders were jailed.

But the recent protests have offered hope of a bottom-up transition to democracy.

Young people have played a pivotal role in bringing down Hasina’s government through their sheer numbers, as well as their spirit, resilience, defiance and solidarity. They were tech-savvy, too, ingeniously navigating the internet and mobile data crackdowns to mobilise protesters, both at home and abroad.

However, a true democratic transition in Bangladesh now requires competitive elections and a new form of governance. While the army has promised an all-party inclusive interim government, it remains unclear if and how youth leaders will be invited to the decision-making table.

Despite being highly educated and committed to democracy, young Bangladeshis – especially young women – have been marginalised by traditional, hierarchical and patriarchal political structures. In 2022, for example, only 0.29% of parliamentarians were under 30, and 5.71% were under 40.

The current power vacuum presents a significant opportunity to politically empower the country’s youth. The underlying economic and social ills that led to the protests are largely youth issues. Without adequate political representation and participation, there is a risk of further marginalisation, increased distrust in the political process and potential democratic collapse.

While the road ahead is fraught with challenges, Bangladesh’s youth have demonstrated their readiness to fight for their rights and their future.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Fakhrul, the top Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader in the absence of convicted chief Khaleda Zia and her exiled son Tarique Rahman, led the sit-in protest in front of the party office in Dhaka.[...]

Several other opposition parties raised similar demands in separate demonstrations across the capital. Ruling Awami League held some counter demonstrations in Dhaka in support of the Hasina government.[...]

The political showdown came at a time when two foreign delegations, from the European Union and the United States, respectively, were in Bangladesh to hold talks with different stakeholders over various issues, including a free and fair general election, democracy, and human rights. The Asian country is scheduled to hold general elections later this year or in early 2024.

Wednesday’s rally is the biggest opposition rally since December when the BNP defied police obstacles, attacks, and arrests to hold a public rally in the capital.[...] The BNP has been holding protests since August against rising commodity prices and demanding the unconditional release of Zia and the formation of an interim government for polls.[...]

The Awami League and the BNP have ruled Bangladesh since 1991, except for a brief quasi-military rule in 2007-08.

12 Jul 23

[redthreadfilms]

Just watched this documentary on the youth leader of the British National Party Mark Collett. The BNP are/were a neofascist party with roots in the National Front, which became prominent in the late 2000s in the UK. They made a conscious turn to mainstream politics to try and rebrand themselves, particularly through work on pit villages and council estates, but Collett's behaviour when he thinks the camera's off reveals a lot about his unreconstructed world view. Mark Collet would go on to be a founder of Patriotic Alternative, which has been staging protests outside hotels for asylum seekers and drag queen story time events in 2023