#bangladeshi pol

[thoughtlessarse]

Bangladesh's interim government revoked the diplomatic passport of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina on Thursday, after she fled a student-led uprising by helicopter to India earlier this month. The move to cancel Hasina's documents leaves the former autocratic leader in potential limbo, and comes on the same day that a United Nations team arrived in Dhaka to assess whether to investigate alleged human rights violations. More than 450 people were killed -- many by police fire -- during the weeks leading up to Hasina's ouster, as crowds stormed her official residence in Dhaka and ended her iron-fisted 15-year rule. The interior ministry said in a statement that Hasina's passport and those belonging to former government ministers and ex-lawmakers no longer in their posts "have to be revoked". It also poses a diplomatic dilemma for Hasina's current host, regional powerhouse India. […] Hasina's government was accused of widespread abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of political opponents. The UN rights office assessing the protest response had said in a preliminary report last week that there were "strong indications, warranting further independent investigation, that the security forces used unnecessary and disproportionate force".

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[imperialistpast]

Indian governments cover up of Genocide of Hindus in 1971 Bangladesh

In 1971, the Pakistani government murdered 2.4 million Hindus during the 1971 Bangladeshi genocide:

“I saw Hindus, hunted from village to village and door to door, shot off-hand after a cursory ‘short-arm inspection’ showed they were uncircumcised. I have heard the screams of men bludgeoned to death in the compound of the Circuit House (civil administrative headquarters) in Comilla.

-  West Pakistani journalist Anthony Mascarenhas

The Hindus among the Bengalis were as Jews to the Nazis: scum and vermin that [should] best be exterminated.

- R. J. Rummel, professor of political science at the University of Hawaii

The Pakistani military persecuted the Hindus to such an extent that 10 million refugees crossed the border to India in a panicked hurry. 

The Indian government, from Indira Gandhi on down, worked hard to hide an ugly reality from its own people: by an official reckoning, as many as 90 percent of the refugees were Hindus.¹ “We should avoid making this into an Indo-Pakistan or Hindu-Muslim conflict. We should point out that there are Buddhists and Christians besides the Muslims among the refugees, who had felt the brunt of repression.”²  In a major speech, Gandhi misleadingly described refugees of “every religious persuasion—Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian.” The Indian government feared that the plain truth would splinter its own country between Hindus and Muslims. India had almost seventy million Muslim citizens, and as Singh told his diplomats, the government’s worst fear was vengeful sectarian confrontations. ³ 

To ignore the genocide of an entire religious group of people in the name of secularism is an injustice to these victims. 

¹  NMML, Haksar Papers, Subject File 169, Haksar minutes of Kissinger meeting, 6 July 1971.

² POL 23-9 PAK, Box 2531, Keating to Rogers, 4 May 1971, New Delhi 6741; and PMS, 7/371/71, vol. II, Afzalpurkar to Gandhi, 12 August 1971. NMML, Kaul Papers, Subject File 19, part II, Singh briefing in London, n.d. June 1971.

³ Bass, Gary J.. The Blood Telegram (p. 346). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Bass, Gary J.. The Blood Telegram (pp. 121-122). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

[thoughtlessarse]

Bangladesh's Nobel-winning microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus will lead an interim government after mass protests forced longtime prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee, the presidency announced Wednesday. The appointment came quickly after student leaders called on the 84-year-old Yunus -- credited with lifting millions out of poverty in the South Asian country -- to lead. The decision was made in a meeting with President Mohammed Shahabuddin, the heads of the army, navy and air force, and student leaders. "(They) decided to form an interim government with Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus as its chief," Shahabuddin's office said in a statement. "The president has asked the people to help ride out the crisis. Quick formation of an interim government is necessary to overcome the crisis." Yunus will have the title of chief advisor, according to Haid Islam, one of the leaders of Students Against Discrimination who participated in the meeting.

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[thoughtlessarse]

Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and left the country amid widening unrest, a military official has said. The move ends her 15 years in power, and follows weeks of violent protests and clashes with security forces. Protesters have stormed Ms Hasina’s official residence after demonstrators defied a military curfew to march in the capital, Dhaka. The protests began peacefully in late June, as students sought an end to a quota system for government jobs, but turned violent after clashes between protesters and police and pro-government activists at Dhaka University. The government’s attempts to quell the demonstrations with force, curfews and internet shutdowns backfired, prompting further outrage as nearly 300 people were killed and leading to demands for Ms Hasina’s resignation. On Sunday, nearly 100 people were killed as the protesters clashed with security officials and the ruling party activists across the country. Local media showed the embattled leader boarding a military helicopter with her sister. Bangladesh’s military chief Gen Waker-uz-Zaman announced plans to seek the president’s guidance on forming an interim government. He promised that the military would stand down, and to launch an investigation into the deadly crackdowns that fuelled outrage against the government. He also asked citizens for time to restore peace.

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