রামপাল আন্দোলন কি ভারত বিরোধিতায় মোড় নিচ্ছে?

আকবর হোসেন, বিবিসি বাংলা, ঢাকা

বাংলাদেশে সুন্দরবনের কাছে রামপালে ভারত এবং বাংলাদেশের যৌথ উদ্যোগে যে বিদ্যুৎ কেন্দ্র নির্মিত হতে যাচ্ছে সেটি বিরুদ্ধে আন্দোলন অনেক দিন ধরেই চলছে। কিন্তু সম্প্রতি এই প্রকল্পের বিরোধিতা করতে গিয়ে ভারত বিরোধিতার মাত্রা জোরালো হচ্ছে। এই প্রকল্পের বিরুদ্ধে রাস্তার আন্দোলন জোরালো না হলেও ফেসবুকে অনেকে নানাভাবে ভারতের সমালোচনায় মুখর।

রামপাল বিদ্যুৎ কেন্দ্রের বিরুদ্ধে প্রথমে আন্দোলন শুরু করে তেল-গ্যাস-বিদ্যুৎ-বন্দর রক্ষা জাতীয় কমিটি নামের একটি বাম ঘরানার সংগঠন। এ সংগঠনটি ঢাকার রাস্তায় বিক্ষোভ এবং রামপাল অভিমুখে ‘রোড মার্চ কর্মসূচী’ করেছে। কিন্তু এসব আয়োজনে মানুষের অংশগ্রহণ ছিল হাতে গোনা। প্রথম দিকে তাদের এই আন্দোলনকে অনেকে তেমন একটা গুরুত্ব দেয়নি।
রাস্তার আন্দোলনে অংশ না নিলেও সাম্প্রতিক মাসগুলোতে অনেকেই ফেসবুকে রামপাল প্রকল্পের বিরুদ্ধে সোচ্চার হয়েছেন। কিন্তু এসব লেখালেখিতে অনেকেই স্পষ্টত ভারত বিরোধিতায় সোচ্চার।

কেন এমন হচ্ছে? রামপাল বিদ্যুৎ প্রকল্প কি বাংলাদেশে ভারত বিরোধিতার প্লাটফর্ম হয়ে উঠছে?
রামপাল প্রকল্প বিরোধী আন্দোলনের অন্যতম পুরোধা ব্যক্তি অধ্যাপক আনু মুহাম্মদ। তাকে জিজ্ঞেস করেছিলাম, তাদের শুরু করা আন্দোলন কি ভারত-বিরোধী প্লাটফর্ম হয়ে উঠছে?

অধ্যাপক আনু মুহাম্মদ মনে করেন, সেরকম যদি কিছু হয়ে থাকে তাহলে বিষয়টির জন্য বাংলাদেশ ও ভারত সরকার দায়ী। তিনি মনে করেন রামপাল প্রকল্প দু’দেশের জন্য একটি ‘চিরস্থায়ী শত্রুতা’ সৃষ্টির মাধ্যম হয়ে দাঁড়াবে। এ বিষয়টিতে অনেকে সুযোগ নিতে পারে বলে তিনি উল্লেখ করেন।

অধ্যাপক আনু মুহাম্মদ বলেন, “ সে কারণেই আমরা বলেছি যে, ভারত-বাংলাদেশের বন্ধুত্ব খুবই গুরুত্বপূর্ণ। সে কারণে এমন প্রকল্প নিয়ে ভারতের অগ্রসর হওয়া উচিত না এবং বাংলাদেশেরও সেটা গ্রহণ করা উচিত না – যেটা দু’দেশের মধ্যে স্বাভাবিক সম্পর্ককে ব্যাহত করবে।”

যারা রামপাল প্রকল্প বিরোধী আন্দোলন শুরু করেছিলেন, তাদের যুক্তি ছিল এ প্রকল্প সুন্দরবন ধ্বংস করবে। কিন্তু ধীরে –ধীরে এর সাথে ভারত বিরোধিতার শ্লোগানও যুক্ত করেন অনেকে।

সম্প্রতি ঢাকাস্থ ভারতীয় হাই কমিশনার হর্ষবর্ধন শ্রিংলা ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে গেলে সেখানে কিছু ছাত্র-ছাত্রী তার গাড়ির সামনে নজিরবিহীন বিক্ষোভ করেছে। সেখানে ‘Go back India বা ভারত ফিরে যাও’ এবং সীমান্তে বাংলাদেশীদের হত্যাকাণ্ডের বিরুদ্ধে পোস্টার বহন করা হয়।

ভারত বিরোধিতার এসব শ্লোগান সরকারের প্রতিপক্ষ কিছু রাজনৈতিক দলের মাঠ পর্যায়ের সমর্থকরা সমর্থন করছেন। যদিও মূল রাজনৈতিক দলগুলো এ বিষয়ে একবারেই নীরব।

শনিবার দেশের বিভিন্ন শহীদ মিনারে রামপাল প্রকল্পের বিরুদ্ধে অবস্থান কর্মসূচীর ডাক দিয়েছে ‘তেল-গ্যাস-বিদ্যুৎ-বন্দর রক্ষা জাতীয় কমিটি।’ কিন্তু সেসব সমাবেশে যোগ দেবার জন্য সরকারের প্রতিপক্ষ রাজনৈতিক দলের মাঠ পর্যায়ের সমর্থকরা ফেসবুকে প্রচারণা চালাচ্ছে।

তাহলে বিষয়টি কিসের ইঙ্গিত দিচ্ছে? জিজ্ঞেস করেছিলাম ফারহান শাহরিয়ার পুলককে। যিনি কয়েকদিন আগে ভারতীয় হাই কমিশনারের গাড়ির সামনে বিক্ষোভ করেছেন।

মি: পুলক বলেন, তাদের আন্দোলনের সাথে ভারত বিরোধিতার কোন সম্পর্ক নেই। তারা শুধু সুন্দরবন রক্ষার জন্যই রাস্তায় নেমেছেন।

“হয়তো কিছু-কিছু মানুষ বা কিছু-কিছু রাজনৈতিক দল তাদের স্বার্থের জন্য এসব কিছু ইঙ্গিত দিচ্ছে। কিন্তু আমরা সেটা সমর্থন করিনা,” বলছিলেন মি: পুলক।

রামপাল প্রকল্প নিয়ে বিরোধিতা যেমন আছে, তেমনি এর পক্ষেও মানুষ আছে। এর পক্ষে অনেকেই মনে করেন, এ প্রকল্প বন্ধ করার জন্য অনেকেই উদ্দেশ্যপ্রণোদিত ভাবে ভারত বিরোধিতাকে উসকে দিচ্ছে।

বাংলাদেশের জ্বালানী এবং বিদ্যুৎ খাতের একটি ম্যাগাজিন ‘এনার্জি ও পাওয়ার’ । এর সম্পাদক মোল্লা আমজাদ হোসেন বলেন রামপাল প্রকল্পের বিরুদ্ধে শুরু থেকেই একটি প্রচারণা আছে যে , ভারতীয় অংশে সুন্দরবনের কাছে প্রকল্পটি করতে না পেরে বাংলাদেশে বাস্তবায়ন করা হচ্ছে।

মি: হোসেন বলেন, “ অনেকে মনে করছেন ইন্ডিয়ান গর্ভমেন্ট চাইলেই এটি বন্ধ হয়ে যাবে।যেহেতু বাংলাদেশের সরকারের কাছ থেকে কোন সাড়া পাওয়া যাচ্ছেনা, সেজন্য প্রকল্পের বিরোধিতা কারীরা এটাকে এন্টি ইন্ডিয়ান সেন্টিমেন্ট (ভারত বিরোধী মনোভাব) হিসেবে কাজে লাগানোর চেষ্টা করছে।”

বাংলাদেশের রাজনীতিতে ভারত সবসময় একটি স্পর্শকাতর বিষয়। বর্তমান আওয়ামী লীগ সরকারের প্রতি ভারতের অকুণ্ঠ সমর্থন প্রকাশ্য।

ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের অধ্যাপক এবং রাজনৈতিক বিশ্লেষক আসিফ নজরুল মনে করেন রামপাল প্রকল্পকে কেন্দ্র করে ভারতের যে সমালোচনা করা হচ্ছে, তার সাথে ভারত-বিরোধিতার কোন সম্পর্ক নেই।

তিনি বলেন যারা এ প্রকল্পের বিরোধিতায় নেতৃত্ব দিচ্ছেন, তাদের অনেকেই ভারত ও সরকারের ঘনিষ্ঠ হিসেবে পরিচিত।
অধ্যাপক নজরুল বলেন, “ বর্তমান সরকারের সাথে ভারতে এমন একটি সম্পর্ক, বহু মানুষ বিশ্বাস করে, ভারতের পক্ষে বর্তমান সরকারকে কনভিন্স কের এমন কিছু করা সম্ভব যেটা অন্য কোন দেশের পক্ষে সম্ভব নয়।”

অধ্যাপক নজরুলের বর্ণনায়, অনেকে মনে করেন এ প্রকল্পটি বাংলাদেশের ইচ্ছায় হচ্ছে না। কেউ-কেউ এমনও ভাবেন, এটা হয়তো ভারতের চাপে বা ভারত কর্তৃক প্রভাবিত হয়ে এ প্রকল্প নেয়া হয়েছে।

এ প্রকল্পের সাথে পৃথিবীর অন্য যে কোন দেশ জড়িত থাকলে সে দেশ বিরোধী একটি সেন্টিমেন্টও বাংলাদেশে গড়ে উঠতো বলে অধ্যাপক নজরুল উল্লেখ করেন।

British journalist 'could die within months'

By Harriet Agerholm / The Independent, UK

An 81-year-old British journalist may die in a Bangladeshi jail before he has even been sentenced, his family have said.

Shafik Rehman's son Shumit told The Independent he did not expect his father to live to "see the year out".

The British-Bangladeshi journalist is accused of plotting to murder the son of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a crime that carries the death penalty.

Despite not yet being charged with any offence, he has now been detained for four months.
A well-known former BBC journalist and talk-show host, Mr Rehman is the third pro-opposition editor to be arrested in Bangladesh since 2013.

Both Mr Rehman and his wife were becoming physically ill because of the stress of his detention, Shumit said.

“Quite honestly, I’m not sure if either of them will see the year out," he said.

Mr Rehman has been receiving hospital treatment for chest pains since entering jail and is diabetic.
When Mr Rehman was first detained he was “sprightly”, according to his son, but after a month of interrogation he needed a wheelchair. After four months of jail, Mr Rehman could only walk while holding onto someone, his son said. He feared his father may suffer a "natural death" in prison if he was not released soon.

Mr Rehman’s 82-year-old wife is the only person allowed to see him, according to Shumit, and he is not allowed any telephone contact.

Appointments for Mr Rehman's bail hearing have previously been cancelled. The family say they have now been told there will be a hearing at the end of the month but have not been given a date.
“Sentencing is a long way off," Shumit said, before likening his father's situation to that of people held without charge at the infamous US-run detention centre in Cuba.

"The whole thing is a bit Guantanamo Bay," he said.

“It’s much easier never to charge him and just hold him in jail.” 

Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at Reprieve, a charity that has been working to free Mr Rehman, told The Independent: “Shafik Rehman has been put through a litany of injustices as ‘punishment’ for his journalism and his criticism of the government.

"First arrested by plainclothes officers posing as a TV crew, he’s since been held in such terrible conditions that he needs hospital treatment.

"Now the authorities seem intent on dragging out his detention for as long as possible, while they threaten him with charges that carry a potential death sentence.

"Given that Shafik is 81 and in poor health, this ongoing ordeal puts him in grave danger. The UK Government must urgently demand that Bangladesh release this British grandfather on bail – before it’s too late.”

Reprieve wrote to the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, urging him to support Mr Rehman's application for bail, but has yet to receive a reply.

In response to Mr Rehman's sustained imprisonment, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: “Our staff are continuing to provide consular assistance in this case, and will remain in contact with the family and local authorities.”

Indian coal dream a nightmare for Bangladesh

Greig Aitken, BankTrack

Last month's signing of the contract to build the Rampal coal plant in Bangladesh, just a few miles from the edge of the world's largest mangrove forest, has re-triggered concerns both domestically and internationally about the controversial 1320 megawatt power project.

Late July saw clashes in the streets of Dhakabetween demonstrators intent on taking their demands to scrap the Rampal project direct to the office of Bangladesh's prime minister andpolice deploying batons and tear gas canisters. Local media reported the arrest of six protestors and the hospitalisation of 16 other participants as a result of the police operation, which prevented the ‘Save Sundarbans' demonstration from reaching its planned destination. Eyewitness accounts put the number of injured participants as high as 50.

Indian groups who also reject the project (see a new video presenting joint Bangladeshi-Indian civil society resistance to Rampal) condemned what they described as the use of "brute force" by the police against a "peaceful protest march", and issued a statement of solidarity which further called on the Bangladesh government to "stop using all undemocratic means to deal with legitimate people's protests."

Just two weeks prior, however, the official ‘mood music' emanating from a Dhaka hotel about the project might as well have come from another planet. At a ceremony to mark the signing of the engineering, procurement and construction contract awarded to Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), India's largest engineering and manufacturing company, Ujjwal Kanti Bhattacharya, managing director of Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited (BIFPCL), the joint venture company undertaking the Rampal plant,commented to journalists that "We respect the concern of the people of Bangladesh, we are set to maintain the maximum environmental standards for the plant".

As tends to be the hallmark of such moments in the laboured development of controversial fossil fuel projects such as Rampal, the assembled officials had come to gush. With co-operation between Bangladesh and India being flagged relentlessly, the principal secretary to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina let it be known that Rampal has been ‘a dream project' of the two countries' leaders, and promised "all sorts of cooperation will be provided to [BHEL] except time extension." BHEL now has until July 2019 to have the power plant installed and ready for operations.

Scrutiny of the construction contract does indeed suggest that the Indian giant BHEL is on the receiving end of an awful lot of  ‘co-operation'. Yet when viewed alongside other emerging project details that are now raining down as part of the official PR monsoon, it's becoming ever more apparent that if Rampal is a ‘dream project' for India, then as currently conceived it stands to become a nightmare for Bangladesh.

‘Sweeteners'

BHEL won the tender for the $1.49 billion construction contract at the beginning of this year but the official signing of the deal dragged on to July due to, as local media sources have pointed out, the company holding out for "extra sweeteners" from the Bangladesh government including exemptions from taxes and duties as well as from the mandatory insurance process. In what could be a worrying precedent for Bangladesh's state coffers when the involvement of Indian companies is sought for major infrastructure projects, it's also been reported that it took a personal intervention from Prime Minister Sheikk Hasina in April to settle the tax waiver in BHEL's favour.

Meanwhile, in another clear sign that Delhi is running the Rampal show and putting Indian interests first, negotiations are reportedly under way between the project promoters and Coal India on the supply of 4 million tonnes of Indian coal per year to fuel the plant.

If this materialises, then it would undermine some of the baseline calculations - on emissions and pollution - included in the project's already highly questionableenvironmental impact assessment (EIA), in which scenarios have been based on coal supplies originating from Australia, Indonesia or South Africa.

Indian coal is generally reckoned to be of a lower grade than coal from the other countries referred to in the EIA, but the potential impacts remain vague since precise details on sulphur and ash content are unknown. The mounting coal glut in India may, however, have an even bigger long-term outlet near the Sundarbans - as the controversy over the currently proposed plant rages, an often overlooked detail in the EIA is the alarming proposal to build a second 1320 megawatt coal plant adjacent to the first "in the future".

Some state (of the art)

Yet, insist Rampal proponents, the coal plant will involve the world's most efficient and environment-friendly technology. ‘Modern ultra-Super Thermal Technology' is touted by BIFPCL, but the company's construction tender document does not require state of the art pollution control technologies.

For example, the technology required at Rampal will emit nearly 30% more sulphur dioxide than truly state of the art technology. Similarly, the outdated technology required at the proposed coal plant can remove roughly 96% of fine particulate matter, but state of the art technology can remove 99%. Three percent might not seem like a lot, but when it comes to extremely toxic, long-lasting and widely dispersing heavy metals such as mercury emitted over the 60 year life of a coal plant, it matters.

Shockingly too there are no technologies required at Rampal to specifically eliminate harmful emissions of mercury, nitrogen oxides, nickel, chromium, arsenic, antimony, cadmium or cobalt, though widely available technologies exist to do so. Finally, toxic unburned coal particles from the massive coal piles and transfer points will enter the Passur River and Sundarbans ecosystem on a daily basis, as the tender documents require only ineffective water sprays on coal piles, and optional enclosure of stockpiles and transfer points.

And of the many question marks still hanging over the project's EIA considerations - including air pollution, direct impacts on water resources including heavy coal transportation traffic through the network of sensitive Sundarbans waterways and cumulative ecosystem impacts - poor planning for the disposal of 0.94 million tons of toxic coal ash per year is just one aspect of the project design attracting increased expert scepticism and concern.

 The proposed disposal of ash by lagooning and uncontained ‘land development' poses huge environmental risks in an area minimally above sea level, prone to seasonal flooding, typhoon-driven storm surges, tsunamis, and subject to - as the EIA does at least acknowledge - large seismic events up to 7.0 on the Richter scale. 

Escalating PR offensive

While many of the EIA's assumptions have been heavily criticised, it does at least admit to the possibility of project impacts arising: "dredging activities," it concedes for example, "may have impacts on river water quality." Any such precautionary language about the Rampal project, however, seems to have gone out the window as part of the promoters' escalating PR offensive.

On July 19, the day after a major splash in the Washington Post ("A new power plant could devastate the world's largest mangrove forest") increased international awareness of the long list of problems that Rampal is stacking up for the Sundarbans and its inhabitants, BIFPCL's Public Relations Manager Anwarul Azim hit back with a stunning run-through of positive bullet points about the project, leading him to the flourishing conclusion that the "Rampal Power Plant will not damage rather it will preserve the Sunderbans (sic)".

Before getting stuck into his version of project details, Azim points to energy generation from coal statistics from around the world (including USA 40%, Germany 41%, China 79%) and contrasts with Bangladesh's current 2.05% figure. No mention is made of international agreements to curb emissions, of efforts now materialising in these countries to drastically cut coal power emissions due to public health and climate crises, or of the rapid scaling up of renewable energy around the world. Yet Azim writes, "In order to accelerate the economic development of the country, it is the demand of time to increase the production of coal-based electricity at the present moment."

This narrow ‘demand of time' narrative also fails to mention the rapidly encroaching effects of climate change which Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable countries on earth, is staring in the face, nor does it acknowledge Bangladesh's burgeoning solar power industry, with over 65,000 solar home systems being installed every month, making it the largest and fastest growing off-grid program in the world.

Nor is Azim detained by perhaps the easiest to grasp time calculation when it comes to clean versus dirty power generation: solar plants can be set up in slightly over a year, as opposed to the four to five years that coal plants take, thereby providing electricity very quickly to people who desperately need it, as in Bangladesh.

Just one example bullet point from the article illustrates the kind of glossing of project impacts that is now going on as the project promoters seek to navigate what could be their final, crucial administrative hurdle - clearance from Bangladesh's Ministry of Environment and Forest.

"A negligible amount of water (0.05% of the lean period flow) of [the Passur] River will be used," Azim writes. Yet the project's EIA acknowledges that water use at the plant will reduce the downstream flow of the Passur River by 4 million litres an hour, or 35 billion litres each year, which Bangladeshi NGOs point out is considerable in an ecosystem already stressed by increasing salinity and reduced freshwater flow from upstream diversions. The same river, one of the Sundarbans' key waterways, suffered the latest sinking of a large coal cargo vessel in March this year.

Project finance will involve reputational risk

Waiting in the wings too is India's Exim Bank, currently considering a $1.6 billion loan for the Rampal plant construction even if this will involve taking a ‘reputation risk', as the bank's head recently admitted. Over 135,000 people and 100 civil society groups have so far petitioned the head of India's Exim Bank not to finance the Rampal project.

Informed speculation suggests that Exim will only bankroll the project if agreement on the supply of Indian coal is reached. There are many reasons why, following global pressure from civil society, none of the other major international banks - which are still not averse to financing coal projects especially in the developing world - are prepared to touch Rampal.

Civil society groups in Bangladesh are also taking their concerns to the international stage. Last month 53 Bangladeshi groups, under the umbrella group National Committee to Save the Sundarbans, reiterated their concerns about Rampal to the United Nations's World Heritage Committee and IUCN. Over 50,000 people from around the world supported their petition.

Reputations, facts and one of the world's most prized natural assets are at the mercy of Indian coal dreams, and the Bangladesh government's capitulation is set to unleash a nightmare on its people and environment. The international community needs to stand with the resistance movement in Bangladesh and demand that India's Exim Bank abandons its financing plans for the construction of the reckless Rampal coal plant.

Action: Ask India's Exim to drop its financing plans for the Rampal construction.

Greig Aitken is a coal campaigner with BankTrack, a Netherlands-based campaign group tracking the operations and investments of private sector banks and their effect on people and the planet.

International Religious Freedom Report for 2015

US Department of State; Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor

BANGLADESH:

Government Practices

There were media reports that the government instructed imams to limit their sermons to religious topics. The large majority of mosques, however, were independent of the state and, according to media and religious leaders, the government generally did not dictate sermon content or select or pay clergy. In state-approved mosques, including the national mosque, the government could appoint and remove imams, and therefore had indirect influence over sermon content. Religious community leaders said that imams at both types of mosques usually avoided sermons that contradicted government policy. There were government-run training academies for imams.

There were reports local authorities and communities, and sometimes the central government, restricted groups they perceived were trying to convert persons to other religions from Islam. In February the government froze the funds of the international NGO Compassion International after locals stated the NGO’s child-sponsorship centers were converting Muslim children to Christianity. In September a Supreme Court panel ordered the release of the NGO’s funds.

Religious minorities said de facto discrimination existed in the form of matriculation exam questions that drew from the majority religion. They also said, because of a lack of minority teachers for mandatory religious education classes, minority students sometimes could not enroll in religion classes of their faith. In these cases, school officials generally allowed for arrangements with local religious institutions, parents, or others to hold religious studies classes for such students outside of school hours and sometimes exempted the students from the religious education requirement.

Religious minority communities (who were often also ethnic minorities), especially Hindus, reported land ownership disputes that disproportionately displaced them. Religious associations said such disputes often occurred in areas near new roads or industrial development zones, where land prices had recently increased. They also stated local police, civil authorities, and political leaders sometimes enabled property appropriation for financial gain or shielded politically influential property appropriators from prosecution. Some human rights groups attributed the lack of resolution of these disputes to the ineffectiveness of the judicial and land registry systems and to the lack of political and financial clout of the targeted communities, rather than to government policy disfavoring religious or ethnic minorities. In August local authorities returned 14 Hindu families to their land in Barguna. Media reported a local politician and his accomplices had driven the families from their land over the preceding three years using attacks and intimidation.

The government again did not adjudicate any of the more than one million pending cases involving land seized from Hindus before the nation’s independence on grounds that the owners were enemies of the state. The cases have remained pending since a 2011 law allowed the prior owners of the land to appeal the seizures.

The government continued to provide law enforcement personnel at religious sites, festivals, and events considered targets for violence. The government also provided additional security at the Hindu festival of Durga Puja, Christmas, Easter, the Buddhist festival of Buddha Purnima, and the Bengali New Year or Pohela Boishakh.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs continued to administer the Islamic Foundation, which carried out activities in support of Islamic principles and values. The Islamic Foundation received 3.5 billion taka ($44.3 million) during the year from a line item in the government budget. The government also supported three trusts intended to benefit minority religious groups: the Hindu Welfare Trust (with assets of 205 million taka, $2.6 million), the Christian Religious Welfare Trust (assets of 50 million taka, $633,000), and the Buddhist Welfare Trust (assets of 70 million taka, $886,000). The three trusts are managed by trustees who are members of their respective religious communities and used interest from their assets to fund temple, church, and monastery development and repairs. In addition, the Hindu Welfare Trust received 50,000 taka ($633) from the government for payment of staff salaries. It also received 15 million taka ($191,000) from parliament from the revenue budget for temple development and a 10 million taka ($127,000) donation from the prime minister to celebrate puja. The Buddhist Welfare Trust received 50,000 taka ($633) from the government to celebrate puja. The Christian Religious Welfare Trust did not receive additional funds from the government. Minority religious leaders continued to state the government did not fund the trusts on an equal basis with the Islamic Foundation. They reported the foundation received yearly allocations of funds from the state budget, while the trusts had to rely on income generated from government contributions to their capital funds.

In January the government appointed the Supreme Court’s first Hindu chief justice.
In June the state news agency marked the anniversary of the 2001 bomb attack at the Catholic church of Baniarchar, which killed 10 people and injured more than 20, with an article decrying the lack of resolution in the criminal cases against the bombers.

In August former Information Technology and Communications Minister Latif Siddique resigned his seat in parliament. He was arrested and his party expelled him in 2014 for public remarks he made in New York criticizing the Hajj and the Bishwa Ijtema (an annual national Muslim event). Siddique was released on bail in June; he faced charges of insulting the religious sentiment of Muslims.
The president hosted receptions to commemorate each of the principal Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian holidays.

Section III. Status of Societal Respect for Religious Freedom

There were attacks against Muslims and members of minority religious groups resulting in deaths, injuries, and damage to property. Land disputes at times disproportionately affected religious minorities. Members of religious minorities reported continued discrimination in employment and housing. Because religion and ethnicity are often closely linked, it was difficult to categorize many incidents as being solely based on religious identity.

In six separate incidents occurring between February 26 and October 31, attackers killed five secularist or purportedly anti-Islamic writers and publishers and injured three others. The dead included four bloggers – Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman, Ananta Bijoy Das, and Niladri Chatterjee Niloy – and Faisal Arefin Dipan, a publisher of Roy’s nonblog work. Various groups purporting affiliation with AQIS claimed responsibility for the attacks and published lists of other bloggers and intellectuals as future targets. In October the government-banned group Ansarullah Bangla Team sent a letter to media outlets warning them against publishing “antijihadi” reports, employing women, depicting women who were not covered, or committing other acts the letter’s authors considered contrary to sharia. The government made several arrests related to the attacks. Government officials, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed and Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, made public comments expressing a commitment to the safety of all citizens. The prime minister was quoted in the press as saying, “We’ll not allow any bloodshed in secular Bangladesh in the name of religion.” The home minister and and Inspector General of Police A.K.M. Shahidul Haq were also quoted in the press, however, calling on bloggers and others to refrain from writings that could hurt the religious sentiment of others and adding that violators would be subject to prosecution. Opposition parties – including the main Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami – issued statements condemning the attacks. Bloggers and activists said many stopped writing at all or publicly criticizing religious beliefs due to the attacks.

On October 24, a bomb attack on a Shia Ashura celebration killed two and injured scores more. Media and civil society widely condemned the attack. A for-profit terrorist-tracking group, SITE Intelligence, reported Da’esh claimed responsibility for the attack. Through affiliated media, Da’esh also claimed responsibility for the November 8 shooting of a Bahai community leader in Rangpur and the November 18 shooting of an Italian priest in Dinajpur – neither fatal – and the November 11 killing of Rahmat Ali at a Sufi shrine in Rangpur. The same group claimed responsibility for a November 26 attack on a Shia Mosque in Bogra that killed one and injured three and a December 25 attack on an Ahmadiyya mosque in Rajshahi that injured 12 and left one attacker dead. Da’esh said all attacks were motivated by the victims’ religion.

There were violent attacks on local religious figures, although motives were not always clear. In September assailants killed three men at two Sufi shrines in Chittagong. In October three men tried to slit the throat of a pastor in Pabna, and attackers shot and killed the leader of an Islamic shrine near Dhaka. In November men armed with knives killed one caretaker and critically injured another in separate attacks on two Rangpur shrines to Islamic saints.

According to the human rights NGO Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), attacks targeting Hindus or their property during the year injured 60 persons, compared to 255 in 2014; destroyed 213 statues, monasteries, or temples, compared to 247 in 2014; and destroyed 104 homes and 6 businesses, compared to 761 homes and 193 businesses in 2014. ASK did not provide examples of specific attacks. The motivation for these incidents was often unclear.

In December the Associated Press reported 10 people were injured after attackers threw three bombs at a Hindu temple during a drama performance.

In the CHT, NGOs said tensions over issues not originally religious in nature, particularly land ownership, sometimes continued to acquire religious overtones due to strains between members of the majority Muslim community and Buddhist, Hindu, or Christian members of tribal groups. According to rights groups, tensions along both religious and ethnic lines continued to run high in the CHT. Some stated Bengali Muslim settlers continued to spread false rumors that communities wanted to form an autonomous Christian state, resulting in police and military monitoring of Christian workers’ activities.

Muslim religious leaders in villages sometimes made declarations they described as fatwas. The media reported instances where such declarations resulted in extrajudicial punishments such as floggings or ostracism for perceived moral transgressions.

Some members of religious minorities continued to report discrimination in employment and housing; for example, Christians reported some Muslim landlords refused to rent apartments to them.
When a national cricket team member posted greetings on his Facebook page in October on the occasion of the Hindu festival of Durga Puja, some users posted abusive comments criticizing his Hindu religious beliefs. Other commenters defended the cricketer’s right to freedom of religion and speech.

Section IV. U.S. Government Policy

The U.S. Ambassador and embassy staff met with officials from the Office of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Home Affairs as well as local government representatives to address specific religious freedom cases, express concern about respecting the rights and viewpoints of members of religious minorities, and stress the importance of protecting religious minorities. The Ambassador and other embassy officials publicly condemned attacks on members of religious minorities and called on the government to bring those responsible to justice. The embassy made similar points, particularly stressing, through social media, U.S. support for those targeted by religiously motivated violence and raising specific cases in discussions with the media, civil society members, NGOs, and local religious leaders. For example, embassy officials met with representatives from the Saadi Foundation (a nonpolitical Islamic organization), the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, the Bangladesh Christian Association, Hindu Mohajote, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness – Bangladesh, the Christian Religious Welfare Trust, the apostolic nuncio, the Asian Conference of Religion and Peace Central Committee, and Ahmdiya Muslim Jamaat (Bangladesh). As part of community policing training, the embassy encouraged law enforcement officials to protect the rights of members of minority religious groups.

Press freedom groups send letter

Anisul Huq

Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs

Government of Bangladesh

Bangladesh Secretariat, Building No. 4 (7th Floor) Dhaka-100

4 August 2016

Dear Mr Huq,

We are writing to you as international press freedom, freedom of expression and media advocacy groups about the ongoing detention of Shafik Rehman, an elderly journalist in custody in Dhaka, to set out several serious concerns about his treatment.

We were pleased to note that on Sunday 17 July 2016 the Supreme Court granted Mr Rehman’s request for leave to appeal his detention.

Detention without charge

Mr Rehman was arrested on 16 April 2016 and denied bail by the High Court on 7 June 2016. After more than three months in detention, he has still not been charged with any crime.

He is being investigated by the Bangladesh Detective Branch, who entered his house without a warrant, inexplicably posing as a camera crew, on the day of his arrest.

The detectives missed a deadline on 16 June 2016 to submit a report to Metropolitan Magistrate SM Masud Zaman in Dhaka outlining the alleged case against Mr Rehman. The court extended the deadline until 26 July 2016, despite the fact that the First Information Report in this case was initially filed in August 2015 and the investigation period in the case has expired. On 26 July 2016, the police once again missed the deadline to submit their investigation report and a further deadline has now been set for 30 August 2016 – more than 100 days after his arrest.

Under international law, the Bangladesh authorities have a duty to promptly inform Mr Rehman of the nature of the case against him and either charge or release him. The delays in this case suggest that there is no evidence against Mr Rehman, and that he should be released.

Journalistic career

Mr Rehman is a professional journalist who has spent a lifetime working for freedom of expression. We are concerned that his arrest represents an attack on press freedoms and forms part of a worrying trend in Bangladesh. At the time of his arrest, Mr Rehman was editor of the popular monthly magazine Mouchake Dhil, with experience as a TV host and producer. Previously, he has worked for the BBC and edited Jai Jai Din, a mass- circulation Bengali daily.

The arrest of journalists like Mr Rehman raises concerns about the state of press freedoms in Bangladesh, where several prominent editors have been arrested in recent years.

Denied bail

Mr Rehman is an elderly man in poor health. He spent the first weeks of detention in solitary confinement, without a bed. His health deteriorated and he was rushed to hospital. 

His family are seriously concerned about his health failing in prison, and he has missed important medical appointments while on remand.

There are therefore strong compassionate grounds for releasing Mr Rehman on bail, while any evidence (if there is any at all) can be gathered without jeopardising his health.

We hope that Mr Rehman’s appeal will be an opportunity for the Court to take stock of the serious concerns about the case against Mr Rehman and about his health and well-being while he remains in custody.

We appreciate you hearing our concerns and are grateful for swift action to guarantee Mr Rehman’s prompt release.

Yours sincerely,

Reprieve | Index on Censorship | International Federation of Journalists | Reporters Without Borders | Adil Soz – International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech | Afghanistan Journalists Center | Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain | Bahrain Center for Human Rights | Canadian Journalists for Free Expression | Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility | Foro de Periodismo Argentino | Free Media Movement | Independent Journalism Center – Moldova | Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information | International Press Institute | Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance | Media Foundation for West Africa | National Union of Somali Journalists | Norwegian PEN | Pacific Freedom Forum | Pacific Islands News Association | Pakistan Press Foundation | Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms – MADA | PEN American Center | Public Association “Journalists” | Vigilance pour la Démocratie et l’État Civique

Via post to:

High Commission for the People’s Republic of Bangladesh

28 Queen’s Gate

London

SW7 5JA

The missing militant link

DHAKA/NEW DELHI | BY SERAJUL QUADIR AND TOM LASSETER | REUTERS

When Bangladeshi authorities last month released the names of 261 men who have gone missing from their families, in an attempt to find militants hidden in this country of 160 million people, at the very end of the list was "Jilani alias Abu Zidal".

He was not in Bangladesh. The young man, an engineering school dropout, traveled to Syria last year to fight for Islamic State. In April, IS announced he was blown to bits during battle by a 23-millimeter gun, the sort used to shoot down aircraft.

Asked why Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion, a domestic anti-terrorism agency, listed Jilani among the 261 names, its spokesman Mufti Mohammad Khan said neither the man's family nor the police had notified the battalion of the death. "So we included him in the list." A Google search for Jilani, whose real name was Ashequr Rahman, would have brought up an Islamic State notification of his death.

Distributing the alias of a dead jihadi in an all-points bulletin is just one illustration of how Bangladesh authorities have failed to confront the international links of radical Islamist groups in the country. Police and government officials here continue to insist they are facing a home-grown threat -- a "grave error," according to regional experts on militant groups.

Banking officials admit being lost when it comes to interdicting foreign funding for attacks. Law enforcement officers have been slow to complete basic steps of intelligence-gathering, weeks after a July 1 assault in which five young men killed 20 people they'd taken hostage at a cafe in the capital.

The government says the July 1 attack -- and another on July 26 in which police killed nine militants believed to be plotting a similar assault-- were the work of domestic militants and it has dismissed claims of responsibility from the Islamic State.

That fits with a pattern of the nation's rulers reflexively blaming their rivals in Islamist opposition political parties for fomenting unrest.

Dhaka has recently doubled down on its position that IS does not exist in Bangladesh. Authorities on Tuesday named a prime suspect in the café attack, Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury. Analysts say he is the same person IS identified in April as its commander in Bangladesh, who goes by the alias of Sheik Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif.

Asked whether by naming Chowdhury officials had implicitly acknowledged Islamic State is in Bangladesh, Monirul Islam, head of a counter-terrorism cell for the Dhaka police, disagreed. "Our stand is very clear," Islam told Reuters, "that there is no IS inside the country."

Many "lone wolf" and self-styled jihadist groups have pledged support to IS around the world, in addition to a reported 22,000 foreigners who have left their countries of origin to fight on behalf of the group. However, the line between self-declared adherents and actual IS command-and-control is often unclear.

Bangladesh has for years denied that global jihadi networks like al Qaeda and Islamic State operate on its soil. But the recent spate of attacks by scattered and hard-to-detect groups of gunmen claiming loyalty to both shows such distinctions are losing relevance.

That has left authorities struggling to contain an escalating offensive by militants in a nation with a $28 billion-a-year garment industry and which, crucially, sits between south and southeast Asia, regions that contain the largest Muslim populations in the world.

Officials in Dhaka have ordered crackdowns on long-standing Bangladeshi domestic Islamist political and militant groups, arresting more than 11,000 people in June alone in an effort to stop a wave of killings, including by machete hacking, that have targeted liberal bloggers, academics and religious minorities.

The attention to old foes is diverting attention from an emerging international problem, said Animesh Roul, executive director of a New Delhi-based think tank, the Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict.

They are still focusing too much on the existing militant networks and have failed to realize that the IS or AQIS (Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent) monsters are fishing in the troubled waters and succeeding to a large extent by enticing the youths or grassroots extremists," Roul said.

Roul, who penned a study of the militant threat in Bangladesh published in May by the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy, called it "a grave error."

Regional terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna of the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore said his research, including interviews in Dhaka with fighters in custody, shows that militants in Bangladesh "received financing, instruction and assistance from the Islamic State".

With an unrelenting focus on domestic Islamic militants, authorities have admitted to being challenged in tracking the movements of money and people from abroad.

Three of the Dhaka cafe attackers went missing for months before the attacks. Asked if authorities had combed through passenger manifests to check whether they had left the country -– a possible clue to who might have helped organized the slaughter -- a police official speaking three weeks after the assault said no one had done so.

"We did not check yet, but that will be done," said Mohammad Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

In interviews with one former senior central banking official and a current senior government official with direct knowledge of banking operations, neither could point to an instance in which Bangladeshi agencies had successfully identified and disrupted external funding for militant groups.

It's a daunting task. Millions of overseas workers sent home about $15 billion in the fiscal year that ended in June 2016, the second-largest source of foreign exchange after garment exports.

Among that diaspora were eight Bangladeshi men, detained between March and April in Singapore, who had formed a group they called the Islamic State in Bangladesh.

Mostly construction workers, they'd failed to reach Syria and were saving cash to return home and launch attacks, according to Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs. The group's leader, a 31-year-old draftsman at a construction firm, was inspired by Islamic State propaganda he found online.

He had a list of 13 categories of people under a title of "need to kill", including security forces, politicians, media and "disbelievers", such as Hindus and Christians.

Another clutch of men, 26 in all, were arrested in Singapore between last November and December after forming a "study group" that supported the ideology of Al Qaeda and Islamic State, according to Singapore's home affairs ministry.

Members "were encouraged to return to Bangladesh and wage armed jihad against the Bangladeshi government", the ministry said.

গুলশানের মত ঘটনা আবার ঘটতে পারে: ই-ইউ দূত

আকবর হোসেন, বিবিসি বাংলা, ঢাকা

বাংলাদেশে নিযুক্ত ইউরোপীয় ইউনিয়নের রাষ্ট্রদূত পিয়ের মায়াদু বলেছেন, গুলশান হামলার পরে বাংলাদেশের নিরাপত্তা পরিস্থিতি নিয়ে তাদের উদ্বেগ এখনো কাটেনি।

তিনি বলেন, গুলশান হামলার মতো ঘটনা বাংলাদেশে আরও ঘটতে পারে।

বিবিসি বাংলার সাথে এক সাক্ষাৎকারে রাষ্ট্রদূত মায়াদু বলেন নিরাপত্তা নিয়ে এই উদ্বেগের কারণে ঢাকায় তাদের মিশনে যেসব বিদেশী কর্মকর্তারা কাজ করেন তাদের পরিবারের সদস্যদের ইউরোপে ফেরত পাঠিয়ে দেবার বিষয়টি সক্রিয়ভাবে চিন্তা ভাবনা করা হচ্ছে ।

ইউরোপীয় ইউনিয়নের সদর দপ্তর থেকে এরই মধ্যে একজন নিরাপত্তা বিশেষজ্ঞ ঢাকায় এসেছেন। আগামী সপ্তাহের মধ্যে তিনি নিরাপত্তা নিয়ে মূল্যায়ন কার্যক্রম শেষ করবেন।

মি: মায়াদু বলেন, “আমাদের কিছু সহকর্মী এরই মধ্যে তাদের পরিবারের সদস্যদের নিজ নিজ দেশে পাঠিয়ে দিয়েছে। বাকিরা এখনো অপেক্ষা করছে কি সিদ্ধান্ত আসে সেটি দেখার জন্য। আমি জানি অনেক বিদেশী মিশন তাদের কর্মীদের পরিবারের সদস্যদের দেশ ফেরত পাঠিয়ে দিতে বলেছে। আমরা কয়েকদিনের মধ্যেই সিদ্ধান্ত নিতে যাচ্ছি। অগাস্টের মাঝামাঝি ঢাকায় ইন্টারন্যাশনাল স্কুলগুলো খুলতে যাচ্ছে। সুতরাং এখন আমাদের সিদ্ধান্ত নিতেই হবে।”

পৃথিবীর বিভিন্ন দেশে এমনকি ইউরোপেও সন্ত্রাসী হামলার ঘটনা ঘটেছে। এমন প্রেক্ষাপটে বাংলাদেশের নিরাপত্তা পরিস্থিতি নিয়ে তারা কি অতিরিক্ত প্রতিক্রিয়া দেখাচ্ছেন?

এই প্রশ্নে মি: মায়াদু বলেন, “অবশ্যই আমরা বেশি প্রতিক্রিয়া দেখাচ্ছি না। জুলাই মাসের এক তারিখে ১৭জন বিদেশীকে চোখের সামনে জবাই করে হত্যা করা হয়েছে। এরপরে কেউ যদি বলে নিরাপত্তা নিয়ে আমরা অতিরিক্ত প্রতিক্রিয়া দেখাচ্ছি, তাহলে সেটি নিহত এবং তাদের পরিবারকে অপমান করার মতো।”

রাষ্ট্রদূতের বর্ণনায় বাংলাদেশের পরিস্থিতি ‘খুবই মারাত্মক’।

তিনি বলেন, “আমার ধারনা এখানে সব স্টেক হোল্ডারদের একই ধারনা। পরিস্থিতি ভয়ঙ্কর। একই ধরনের ঘটনা ভিন্নভাবে আবারো ঘটতে পারে। সুতরাং এটা অতিরিক্ত প্রতিক্রিয়া দেখানো নয়।”

রাষ্ট্রদূত মায়াদু মনে করেন বিদেশীদের নিরাপত্তা নিয়ে উদ্বেগের ইস্যুটি জুলাই মাসের ১ তারিখে তৈরি হয়নি। এর আগে গত বছরের সেপ্টেম্বর মাসে গুলশানে ইটালিয় নাগরিক চেজারে তাভেলার হত্যাকাণ্ডের মধ্য দিয়ে প্রথম উদ্বেগ তৈরি হয়। এরপর রংপুরে জাপানি উন্নয়ন কর্মী কোনিও হোশিকেও একইভাবে হত্যা করা হয়।

তিনি বলেন, তখন যে ধরনের পদক্ষেপ নেয়া হয়েছিল , সেটি যথেষ্ট মনে হয়েছিল। কিন্তু সময়ের সাথে সাথে সম্ভাব্য বিপদের দিকে কোন মনোযোগ দেয়া হয়নি বলে তিনি উল্লেখ করেন।

রাষ্ট্রদূত বলেন সরকারের কাছে তাদের উদ্বেগগুলো তুলে ধরা হয়েছে। তারা কী ধরনের নিরাপত্তা চান সেটিও সরকারের কাছে বর্ণনা করা হয়েছে। মি: মায়াদুর বর্ণনায় এখন ঢাকার তথাকথিত কূটনৈতিক এলাকা অনেক সুরক্ষিত এবং অতিরিক্ত পুলিশ মোতায়েন করা হয়েছে।

তাহলে কেন তারা সন্তুষ্ট হতে পারছেন না? মি: মায়াদু বলেন অতিদ্রুত অনেক পদক্ষেপ নেয়া হলেও নিরাপত্তা নিয়ে তাদের পুরোপুরি আস্থা ফিরে আসছে না।

মি: মায়াদু বলেন, “আমরা শুধু কূটনৈতিক পাড়ার কথা বলছিনা। আমরা পুরো বাংলাদেশের নিরাপত্তার কথা বলছি। আমরা প্রতিটি বাংলাদেশীর নিরাপত্তা নিয়ে উদ্বিগ্ন। কারণ গত দেড় বছরে সন্ত্রাসী হামলায় দেশের বিভিন্ন জায়গায় অন্তত পঞ্চাশ জন নিহত হয়েছে।”

তিনি মন্তব্য করেন সরকারকে পরিস্থিতি অনুধাবন করতে হবে এবং ঘটনার ভয়াবহতা স্বীকার করতে হবে। এটাকে জাতীয় এবং আন্তর্জাতিকভাবে মোকাবেলা করতে হবে।

সরকারের সমালোচনা মানেই কি ‘স্বাধীনতার বিরোধিতা' করা?

আরাফাতুল ইসলাম / ডয়চে ভেলে

সাম্প্রতিক তিনটি ঘটনার দিকে নজর দেয়া যাক৷ রামপালে প্রস্তাবিত বিদ্যুৎকেন্দ্রের বিরোধিতা করছেন অনেকে৷ তাদের মধ্যে কোনো রাজনৈতিক দলের সাথে সম্পৃক্ত নন এমন সাধারণ মানুষ যেমন আছেন, তেমনি আছেন পরিবেশবিদ, অ্যাক্টিভিস্ট, এমনকি বামদলের সমর্থকসহ অনেকে৷ আবার রামপালে বিদ্যুৎকেন্দ্রের পক্ষে সোচ্চারদের মধ্যে আছেন ক্ষমতাসীন দলের সক্রিয় সমর্থকসহ রাজনৈতিক দলের সাথে সম্পৃক্ত নন এমন মানুষও৷ এই দুই পক্ষের মধ্যে বিতর্কটা কি গঠনমূলক হচ্ছে?

ক্ষমতাসীনদলের সমর্থকরা রামপালে বিদ্যুৎকেন্দ্রের বিরোধিতাকারীদের ফেলছেন ‘ভারত বিরোধীদের' তালিকায়৷ তাদের যুক্তি হচ্ছে ভারতের বিরোধীতা করা উদ্দেশ্যে রামপালে কয়লাভিত্তিক বিদ্যুৎকেন্দ্রের বিরোধিতা করছেন অনেকে৷ অথচ যারা বিরোধিতা করছেন, তারা সুনির্দিষ্ট বিভিন্ন কারণ দেখাচ্ছেন , সুনির্দিষ্ট প্রশ্ন করছেন, যেগুলোর সঠিক উত্তর সরকার আনুষ্ঠানিকভাবে দিচ্ছে না৷ উল্টো সরকারের সমর্থকরা নানাভাবে বিরোধিতাকারীদের দেশের উন্নয়নবিরোধী আখ্যা দিয়ে ‘জঙ্গিবাদ ইস্যু' থেকে মানুষের নজর ঘোরাতে উদ্দেশ্যপ্রণোদিতভাবে সুন্দরবনের কাছে কয়লাভিত্তিক বিদ্যুৎকেন্দ্রের বিরোধিতা করা হচ্ছে বলেও দাবি করছেন৷ আর এ সব দাবি, বিতর্ককে নিয়ে যাচ্ছে অসুস্থ পর্যায়ে৷ কেননা ‘ভারত বিরোধিতা' বাংলাদেশের রাজনীতিতে এক বড় ইস্যু৷ ফলে সুন্দরবন বাঁচানোর আন্দোলনটাকে পুরোপুরি সরকারবিরোধী রাজনৈতিক আন্দোলনের চেষ্টা হিসেবে প্রমাণ করতেই বলা হচ্ছে ভারত বিরোধীরা এটা করছেন৷

কল্যাণপুরে পুলিশের রেইডে নয় সন্দেহভাজন জঙ্গি নিহতের ঘটনার পরও একইরকম অবস্থা দেখা গেছে৷ যারা এই রেইডের বিভিন্ন দিক নিয়ে প্রশ্ন করেছেন, তাদের সেসব প্রশ্নের সরাসরি উত্তর দেয়ার বদলে পুরো ব্যাপারটি নিয়ে যাওয়া হয়েছে দেশপ্রেম, আবেগের দিকে৷ বলা হয়েছে, ‘কোনো পুলিশ মারা যায়নি' বলে রেইড নিয়ে প্রশ্ন তোলা হচ্ছে, যারা প্রশ্ন তুলছেন তারা স্বাধীনতার বিপক্ষের শক্তি, এমনকি জঙ্গিদের সমর্থক! অথচ গণতান্ত্রিক রাষ্ট্রে পুলিশের দায়বদ্ধতা এবং জবাবদিহিতার ব্যাপার রয়েছে৷ সুতরাং সেখানে কোনো কিছু নিয়ে প্রশ্ন উঠলে সেটার উত্তর দেয়াটা তাদের দায়িত্বের মধ্যেই পড়ে৷ সেটা না করে, যারা প্রশ্ন তুলছেন, তাদের দেশপ্রেম নিয়ে প্রশ্ন তোলাটা বিতর্ককে অসুস্থ পর্যায়ে নিয়ে যায়৷

গত পহেলা জুলাই গুলশান হামলার পর দু'জন জিম্মিকে নিয়ে ফেসবুকে প্রশ্ন তোলা হয়৷ বাকি জিম্মিরা মুক্ত জীবনযাপন করলেও সেই দু'জন কোথায় আছে, তা এখনো তাদের পরিবার জানে না৷ পুলিশ ঘটনার সপ্তাহখানেক পরে জানিয়েছিল, জিম্মি দু'জনকে জিজ্ঞাসাবাদ করা হচ্ছে৷ তারপর জানিয়েছে, তাদের ছেড়ে দেয়া হয়েছে৷ সর্বশেষ সোমবার জানিয়েছে, তারা কোথায় আছে পুলিশ তা জানে এবং যে কোনো সময় চাইলে তাদের আবারো জিজ্ঞাসাবাদ করা যাবে৷ এখন কেউ যদি প্রশ্ন তোলে, এই দু'জনকে নিয়ে এত নাটক না করে পুলিশ তাদের অপরাধী মনে করলে গ্রেপ্তার করে আদালতে তুলছে না কেন? আর নিরাপরাধ মনে করলে মুক্ত ঘোষণা করছে না কেন? সমস্যা হচ্ছে, এই প্রশ্ন যিনি করবেন, তিনি হয় ‘দেশবিরোধী' অথবা ‘জঙ্গিদের সমর্থকদের' তালিকায় পড়বেন৷ অথচ সচেতন পাঠকমাত্রই বুঝবেন প্রশ্নটা মোটেই অবান্তর নয়৷ কেননা অপরাধীর বিচার করার দায়িত্ব আদালতের, পুলিশের নয়৷

আসলে স্বাধীনতার ‘সপক্ষের' বা ‘বিপক্ষের' শক্তি আখ্যা দিয়ে সব মানুষকে বিচার করা যেমন যায় না, তেমনি ‘আওয়ামী লীগ' বা ‘বিএনপি-জামায়াত' দিয়েও সবাইকে বিবেচনা করা সম্ভব নয়৷ বাংলাদেশের অনেক মানুষ কোন রাজনৈতিক পরিচয় বহন করেন না৷ তারা যে কোনো ইস্যুতে স্বাধীনভাবে তাদের মত প্রকাশ করার চেষ্টা করেন৷ আর সরকারের কোনো কর্মকাণ্ডের সমালোচনা করলেই কেউ ‘স্বাধীনতার বিপক্ষের শক্তি' বা ‘বিরোধী দলের প্রতিনিধি' হয়ে যান না৷ বরং সাধারণ মানুষকে রাজনৈতিক পরিচয়ে পরিচিত করার চেয়ে তাদের মতামতকে গুরুত্ব দিলেই মঙ্গল, অন্তত আমি সেটাই মনে করি

Terror fears threaten exports, remittances

YUJI KURONUMA, Nikkei staff writer [Nikkei Asian Review]

DHAKA -- Security concerns linger in Bangladesh a month after the deadly terror attack on a Dhaka eatery, casting shadows over an economy dependent on garment exports and remittances.

Miran Ali, director of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, worries that export growth may slow. Ali runs a factory that makes clothing for global giants such as H&M Hennes & Mauritz and the Benetton Group. Though no orders have been canceled, he said it has become tougher to find new clients.

Nine of the 20 hostages slain in the July 1 attack were Italian, most of whom were involved in the garment industry. H&M and many other Western companies now restrict unnecessary travel to Bangladesh, making factory visits and other typical steps taken by prospective clients difficult. The U.S. and British governments also issued warnings against visiting the country's more dangerous areas, which likely discouraged travel even further.

This presents a worrying prospect for an economy growing at a pace of more than 6%.

The garment industry accounts for 80% of Bangladesh's exports and about 15% of gross domestic product. In contrast, official development assistance and direct foreign investment amount to slightly more than 1% of GDP. The garment association aims to boost the country's clothing exports to $50 billion by 2021, nearly double the total from 2015, but the group's campaign to gain new clients is facing headwinds.

The repercussions of the Dhaka attack also could squeeze remittances, which make up 9% of GDP. Wages sent home by the 10 million Bangladeshis working abroad fuel consumer spending, which drives about half of the country's economic growth. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's repeated assertions that the attack was the work of homegrown terrorists give other countries the impression that Bangladesh has become a hotbed for extremism.

The attack will have limited effect on the 85% of overseas Bangladeshi workers employed in the Middle East, the head of a staffing industry group said. But Bangladeshis could have a harder time finding jobs in Europe and other regions if the string of terror attacks in those areas raises fear of Muslims, this person said.

Fewer Foreigners on Streets of Dhaka

Latin American Herald Tribune

DHAKA – Concrete blocks, barbed wire, armored cars, checkpoints and plainclothes officers are widespread across Dhaka’s diplomatic heart Gulshan, whose streets and public spaces have emptied of foreigners following the nearly month-old terrorist massacre at an upscale restaurant in the area. 

Since 2013, Bangladesh has seen a spate of targeted attacks against minority groups which intensified in 2015, but it was the early July restaurant attack by a terrorist cell loyal to the Islamic State group that is proving to be decisive.

The July 1-2 hostage crisis claimed 22 lives, mostly foreigners, who were also tortured before being killed.

Marking a watershed moment in the security of the Bangladeshi capital, the attack is leading to a transformation of the city, reminiscent of Pakistan’s Islamabad after the 2008 truck-bomb suicide attack on the upscale Marriott hotel.

Holey Artisan Bakery and O’ Kitchen Restaurant, the cafe that came under militant siege in Dhaka, used to be a hotspot for expats and the Bangladeshi elite: it was a welcome respite for foreigners living a life of relative isolation in Bangladesh.

Growing numbers of Westerners in the country – usually aid workers or businessmen from the thriving textile industry – are now seen leaving the country each day, while few incoming faces from that part of the world are seen at the city airport’s arrivals terminal.

“I decided I couldn’t stay at home as if in prison, with the curtains drawn at such and such hour, and feeling paranoid at any sound on the staircase or the street,” Estela Botello, a designer from Madrid who was working for a textile company here, told EFE about her decision to return to Spain this week.

Others have either been repatriated by their firms, are speeding up projects, or have been temporarily moved to safer places in the region.

Meanwhile the embassies of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada monitoring the situation following the Islamist surge have declared the country a “non-family duty station.”

Westerners who remain face several restrictions on a daily basis.

“We have been advised not to go walking or cycling in the streets, or hire three-wheeler rickshaws (a local mode of transport); also to vary our travel routes by car. We can go to the main hotels and supermarkets but preferably before 3 p.m.,” said a British national working at an educational center, who did not wish to be named.

Beefed up security measures are conspicuous across the affluent Gulshan neighborhood, which in addition to embassies houses several multinational firms, but now looks akin to a labyrinth with streets closed to traffic and police personnel everywhere.

“Life is now about going from work to home, and from home to work. They tell you: ‘stay away a few months, and this will stabilize.’ But many have left already, and others are planning to go too,” another Spanish textile employee remarked.

However, as an omnipresent topic of discussion, the prevailing tension is helping strengthen bonds within the expat community; their once-active social life, no longer feasible in the city’s public spaces at night, has turned to parties at home.