The onion hits upon a century and counting!

Farid Ahmed 

The onion has hit a surprising century and running uncontrollably upward. The heat is really on. It is Tk120 for a kg. It is a rare phenomenon in Bangladesh market, though. The bumpy onion market may last for a while thanks to the Indian supply side, they say. Our business community is apt to blame India for anything if the supplies are from India and quickly pass the blame on to them at the drop of a hat.

Incidentally, this is the peak of the season for onion. And the market caught on ‘fire’ just a fortnight before when India raised the export price of onion to US$ 352 per ton. The price was just within the range of Tk25 to Tk35 in the peak of the season last year. The price has gone up for both indigenous and Indian varieties by about 210 percent. And the onion market is on the hop, skip and jump practices since in a run up to this peak season with no relief in sight.

A news report reveals, the producers of onion in Faridpur have been deprived of a fair share of the bargain  and even they failed to have their cost of production. 

Most surprising side of this price spiral is that both production and import of onion have gone up and the market supply of the onion was 7 lakh metric tons in excess of the total market demand while much to the chagrin of the consumers it’s prices are rocketing to heaven.

Philippino bank accuses Bangladesh of scandal 'cover-up'

The Philippines bank through which $81 million stolen from Bangladesh's central bank was channeled in February 2016 has accused Dhaka's monetary authority of covering up its

negligence and demanded that it stop making the bank a ‘scapegoat.’

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) was responding to comments on Saturday by Bangladesh finance minister Abul Maal A Muhith who said he wanted to ‘wipe-out’ the Manila-based bank.

The comments follow a Reuters story that Bangladesh Bank had asked the New York Federal Reserve to join a lawsuit it was considering filing against RCBC seeking damages, according to several sources.

‘RCBC has revealed everything it legally it could to the (Philippine) Senate and its regulator, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. BB, however, has concealed everything it could. The

contrast is telling,’ George dela Cuesta, head of legal affairs at RCBC, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Unidentified hackers stole $81 million from Bangladesh Bank's account at the New York Fed in February last year, using fraudulent orders on the SWIFT payments system. The money was sent

to accounts at Manila-based Rizal Commercial Banking Corp and then disappeared into the casino industry in the Philippines.

Nearly two years later, there is no word on who was responsible and Bangladesh Bank has been able to retrieve only about $15 million, mostly from a Manila junket operator.

‘BB is definitely partly to blame for the heist. Its refusal to be transparent is a continuing cover-up and a disservice to global efforts to combat cybercrime,’ dela Cuesta said. ‘RCBC

is clearly a victim of BB's negligence.’

RCBC has blamed rogue employees and Philippine prosecutors have filed money laundering charges against a former RCBC bank manager and four people who owned the bank accounts where the funds were sent, but are not identifiable since the accounts were in fake names. They are the only people to be formally cited anywhere in the world in association with the crime.

RCBC was fined a record one billion pesos ($20 million) by the country's central bank last year for its failure to prevent the movement of the stolen money through it.

‘BB must be sanctioned until it owns up and shares what it knows to prevent a repeat. Up to now, not one Bangladeshi has been identified in the inside job, much more hauled to the

court,’ dela Cuesta said. 

Govt. to allow two more private banks

(Editor’s Note: Well known economists, including two former finance ministers, have recently warned the government against allowing any new commercial bank in the private sector. They argued that instead it should try to keep the banking sector under strict watch as a large number of banks were grossly mismanaged, and if necessary, merge some of these banks with the stronger ones. But it is clear now that the government on political consideration has again decided to allow two more banks disregarding the dismal track records of some of the banks allowed on political consideration. Any government ought to be more careful in taking such decision as the banks deal with the peoples’ money and it can’t shirk its responsibility.)    

Shakhawat Hossain/New Age 

The Prime Ministers’ Office has given consent to the establishment of two more banks by private entrepreneurs amid warning by the experts that entry of new banks would be disastrous for the already scam-hit and overcrowded banking sector.

The consent came in the past week following a proposal made by Financial Institutions Division to award licences for establishing the proposed Bengal Bank and People’s Bank, division officials said.

They said that consents to the establishment of Bengal Bank by Bengal Group of Industries and People’s Bank by MA Quasem of Swandip, backed by Awami League leaders, had already been forwarded to the Bangladesh Bank which was likely to review the proposals in the next board meeting.

The central is also likely to consider the proposal for the establishment of another bank owned by the police, the officials said.

Financial Institutions Division secretary Eunusur Rahman, also a member of the central bank board of directors, however, told New Age on Monday that he was not sure whether the proposals would be reviewed in the next board meeting.

The agenda and the date of the next board of directors’ meeting were yet to be fixed, he said. 

On November 27, finance minister AMA Muhith said that the government was going to give licences for setting up three more new banks.

He, however, did not name the banks.

Despite severe criticism, the incumbent government in 2012-13 awarded licences for the establishment of nine banks reportedly on political consideration. 

Two of them — NRB Commercial Bank and Farmers Bank — are already identified as risky by the parliamentary standing committee on finance at a meeting on October 29 because of scams and growing non-performing loans.

Other new banks — Meghna Bank, Midland Bank, Modhumoti Bank, NRB Bank, NRB Global Bank, South Bangla Agriculture and Commerce Bank and Union Bank — are also struggling because of their inexperience in the banking business, experts said.

Bad loans given by the nine fourth-generation banks increased by 86.18 per cent to Tk 509.10 crore in the first quarter of 2017-18. 

Economic Research Group research director Sajjad Zohir said the overall banking sector was passing through a crisis due to scams in both private and public banks.

He said that the crisis was getting acute because of awarding new banking licences to inexperienced groups.

He compared the situation with drivers on the highway without proper driving knowledge.

Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman said that the establishment of new banks to embezzle depositors fund became a ‘fashion’ nowadays.

The loan scams in the new banks in addition to growing defaulted loans of over Tk 80,000 crore in the banking sector would discourage depositors  to save money in the banks, he said.

Bengal Group of Industries vice-chairman Jashim Uddin, however, said that all of the 57 banks were not bad and some of them were doing good business with the expansion of the country’s economy.

He said that they would run their proposed bank with professionals so that it could flourish like other companies of the group. 

Citizens for consensus on poll-time government

Moloy Saha and Sadiqur Rahman

Civil society members, including academics, professionals and freedom fighters, on Saturday said that the issue of the election-time government should be resolved for holding a free, fair and inclusive general election.

The country would face a dire and confrontational situation if the issue was not resolved through consensus between the government and opposition political parties and it is the government that should take initiatives to resolve it first, they told New Age on Saturday.

They made the observations in reactions to comments made by prime minister Sheikh Hasina at a press conference on December 7, ruling out any possibility of holding talks for bringing all political parties in the next general election.

She said that political parties in a multiparty democracy had the responsibility to participate in the polls.

‘The parties, who believe in democracy, will participate in the polls. It is the decision of a particular party whether to participate in the polls or not,’ Hasina said at the briefing at her official residence Ganabhaban after her three-day Cambodia visit.

Dhaka University professor Abul Quasem Fazlul Huq expressed hope that the political parties would be able to reach a consensus to avoid confrontations before the next general election.

The ruling and opposition political parties should be sincerer in saving the country and its people, he said.

The political parties who want election-time neutral government other than the constitutional provisions should give their written proposals, h said, adding that those parties had not presented any such proposal so far to enable people to consider the justifications of the demands.

Freedom fighter Zafrullah Chowdhury, also Gonoshasthaya Kendra founding trustee, expressed hope that the issue of the election-time government would be resolved and the next general election would be free, fair, credible and inclusive.

‘We want a free, fair and participatory general election so that the voters can apply their voting rights,’ Zafrullah said.

He believed that the comment of the prime minister was a political rhetoric and she would take steps to resolve the issue of the election-time government. 

Architect Mobasher Alam said that in a democracy the ruling party had a responsibility to create a strong opposition party in parliament.

‘We want a free, fair, credible and inclusive election in the country, where the voters would cast their vote for electing the next government,’ he said.

As a ruling party, the Awami League should take initiatives for holding a credible election, he added.

Cultural activist and actor Ramendu Majumder, said that the next general election would be held according to the constitutional provision under the incumbent government.

If the Election Commission is empowered, it can hold a free, fair and credible general election, he added.

Dramatist and actor Mamunur Rashid said that the issue of the election-time government should be resolved through consensus between the government and the opposition parties.

In a democracy, negotiation, discussion and interaction are the essential components, he said.

He believed that the issue would be resolved and country would get a free, fair, credible and inclusive general election. 

Newagebd.net

Increased number of disappearances worries rights campaigners

Rights campaigners on Sunday expressed concern about the increasing number of enforced disappearances, with people from various professional groups now going missing, which intensified the sense of insecurity in society. 

They also spotted a change in the way people were facing enforced disappearance — earlier the victims used to be picked up from their house or their workplace or any place they family were aware about, but now the victims were going missing on their way to any direction.

‘Families are in dilemma as to who is to blame for it. We have noticed the trend, especially since August,’ rights group Odhikar director ASM Nasiruddin Elan told an indoor discussion at National Press Conference in the capital.

Over two dozen families of enforced disappearance victims organised the programme to observe Human Rights Day on December 10.

Many other rights groups and socio-political organisations organised programmes on the occasion, where they expressed concern about deteriorating human rights situation. 

At the press club programme, the campaigners were highly critical of the continued incidents of enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killings in the name of ‘crossfire’ and ‘gunfight’ and secret detention and custodial torture.

Referring to the United Nations’ definition of enforced disappearance, Elan said it was now difficult for the victim family in many cases to blame a particular agency while the perpetrators were enjoying impunity.

On December 4, former diplomat Muhammed Maroof Zaman, who served as ambassador to Qatar and Vietnam, went missing while going to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to pick up his daughter. 

Anti-extremism analyst Mubashar Hasan Caesar, also a North South University political science teacher, also went missing after emerging from a meeting at the United Nations country office at Agargaon in Dhaka on November 7.

According to rights organisation Odhikar, at least 408 individuals were subjected to enforced disappearance between January 2009 and November 2017.

Addressing the function, Zafrullah Chowdhury, founder and trustee of Gonoshasthaya Kendra, accused the government of the enforced disappearance and other extrajudicial activities saying ‘none of the incidents takes place without the government’s nod.’ 

He observed that one of the reasons behind the continued rights abuse was the ineffectiveness of the judiciary. 

Rights campaigner Nur Khan Liton said they planned to hold a mass-hearing by March next year on rights situation and to record the reported cases of rights abuses over the years across the country.

He said they would record cases of reported incidents of rights abuses in order to get a promise from the government to identify the perpetrators and to bring them back.

Nagarik Oikya convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna said all the victim families present at the programme alleged that security agencies had taken away their family members.

Dhaka University teacher CR Abrar urged the government to return the victims of enforced disappearances to their families if they were alive.

‘If they are not alive, please tell us what has happened to them. Book them who are involved with the incidents,’ he urged.

Enforced disappearance victim and Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Sajedul Islam Sumon’s sister Marufa Islam read out a written statement, urging the government to ensure the return of all victims.

In the statement, she detailed how his brother Sumon and 18 others were picked in two weeks just before the national election held in January 2014 boycotted by major political parties including the BNP.

In the programme, Adiba Islam Hridi, the seven-year-old daughter of Chhatra Dal leader Parvez Hossain, who remains missing since 2013, sought prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s intervention in finding her father.

‘Please bring my papa back or send me to my papa. I want to go to school with my papa. Sheikh Hasina aunty, please return my papa,’ Hridi cried.

In a separate rally, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged that whoever raised voice against the present government became victims of killing or enforced disappearance.

He claimed that so far 78,340 false cases were filed implicating 7,83,236 leaders and activists of BNP across the country during the rule of the present government.

He said that a total of 520 party activists were killed by law enforcers, 647 others abducted, 157 went missing.

Marking Human Rights Day, National Human Rights Commission organised a two-day programme at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka. 

As part of the programme, a two-day international conference titled ‘Promoting Equality, Justice and Human Dignity’ began at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre. 

• Resource - .newagebd.net 

‘Confession’ was what DB made me to write: Farhad Mazhar

Writer, columnist and poet Farhad Mazhar on Saturday said that the Detective Branch of police sent him to court handing him a written copy for making a statement which he handed over to the magistrate and then collapsed on a sofa a day after he was ‘abducted’ by unknown people and rescued by police on July 3.

He made the explanation at a news conference at his Shyamali house in Dhaka two days after a Dhaka metropolitan magistrate allowed police to prosecute Farhad and his wife Farida Akhter, a rights activist, accusing them of staging a drama of abduction and lodging a ‘false’ case.

‘You should be sure that it was not a drama,’ said Farhad, demanding justice and stop of abduction and enforced disappearance in the country.

On December 7, the same court in the morning allowed Farida time to file a petition against the Detective Branch’s report that it found no proof of abduction of Farhad. In the afternoon, the same court rejected the time petition and allowed police to prosecute Farhad and Farida.

Farida, complainant of the abduction case filed with Adabor police station, said that they would now seek justice at the higher court. 

‘After rescue, I was taken to Adabor police station in Dhaka while I was physically and mentally collapsed. I was barred from going to my home in spite of assurance [by police]. [I] was taken to DB office after keeping me waiting at [Adabor] police station,’ Farhad recalled.

‘At the DB office, I was interrogated and cross-examined while I was stunned, tired and collapsed and was sent to a magistrate with a written copy for giving a statement under Section 164 [of the CrPC]. With a confusing state of mind, I could only tell the honourable court that my physical and mental condition was very vulnerable and I am still frightened and traumatised. What the DB office made me to write, I am submitting only that to you,’ he recalled.

‘Then I lay down on the sofa in the magistrate’s room taking his kind permission,’ Farhad recalled. 

Their lawyer Syed Zaynul Abedin Mesbah said that neither he nor Farhad was aware about the contents of the ‘statement.’

Both Farhad and Farida said that they kept mum after the abduction and rescue for proper investigation but, instead of proper investigation, police continued to threaten prosecute and harass them socially.

Farhad claimed that he was blind folded after abduction and did everything asked by the abductors to save his life.

As per the abductors’ direction, he claimed, he got on a Hanif Paribahan bus and became frightened and broken in fear of death.

He said that he woke up hearing shouting and found that some plainclothes men were forcing him to get down.

Farhad said that members of Rapid Action Battalion, after altercation with men in plainclothes, took him to Abhaynagar police station where police misbehaved with him and compelled him to say that he had come out for ‘recreation.’

He said that later he was presented before journalists and was hurled abusive words and forced to say the same statement.

‘Later police left for Dhaka with me by a police car and they sang song loudly throughout the way and I had to experience mental torture.’

He said that he later came to know and now could understand that the abductors had tried to take him across the border through Khulna-Jessore bordering area.

Farhad said that he, enduring all disrespect, had been speaking to end the culture of enforced disappearance and hoping that all the victims of enforced disappearance might come back to their family.

‘The government should take the responsibility.’

A government critic, Farhad was found on a bus in Jessore while travelling from Khulna to Dhaka, 18 hours after he went missing at Dhaka, on July 3, according to police statement.

On November 14, Detective Branch inspector Mahbubul Islam, also investigation officer of the Farhad abduction case, submitted the final report to Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate’s court mentioning that they did not find any proof of abduction. 

আমাকে অপহরণ করে সীমান্তের ওপারে নিয়ে যেতে চেয়েছিলো - ফরহাদ মজহার

কলামিস্ট ফরহাদ মজহার

বাংলাদেশে সরকারের কঠোর সমালোচক ও কলামিস্ট ফরহাদ মজহার বলেছেন, তাকে অপহরণ করে সীমান্তের ওপারে নিয়ে যাবার চেষ্টা হয়েছিল এবং পুলিশ তাকে উদ্ধারের পর তার ভাষায়, তার ওপর চাপ প্রয়োগ করে মিথ্যা স্বীকারোক্তি নেবার চেষ্টা করেছে।

গত জুলাই মাসে নিখোঁজ হওয়ার পর মি. মজহার এই প্রথম সেই ঘটনা নিয়ে মুখ খুললেন।

তিনি বলেন, "গুমের হাত থেকে আমার উদ্ধার পাওয়ার ক্ষেত্রে আইনশৃঙ্খলা বাহিনীর যারা অসামান্য ভূমিকা রেখেছেন, ঘটনাকে অন্যদিকে প্রবাহিত করার চেষ্টা তাদের সাফল্য ও গৌরবকে মারাত্মকভাবে ম্লান করে দিয়েছে।"

ফরহাদ মজহারের এসব অভিযোগের ব্যাপারে বিবিসি বাংলার পক্ষ থেকে পুলিশের সঙ্গে যোগাযোগ করা হলে কোন বক্তব্য পাওয়া যায় নি।

আজ শনিবার ঢাকায় আয়োজিত এক সংবাদ সম্মেলনে ফরহাদ মজহার এসব কথা তুলে ধরেন। এসময় তার স্ত্রী ফরিদা আক্তার এবং তার আইনজীবীও সেখানে উপস্থিত ছিলেন।

ফরিদা আক্তার বলেন, সুষ্ঠু তদন্ত এবং আইনি প্রক্রিয়ার স্বার্থে তারা এবিষয়ে এতোদিন কোনো কথা বলেন নি।

ফরহাদ মজহারের নিখোঁজ হওয়ার ঘটনায় স্ত্রী ফরিদা আক্তারের করা মামলার তদন্ত শেষে পুলিশ বলেছে, ফরহাদ মজহারকে অপহরণের প্রমাণ পাননি তারা। পাশাপাশি মিথ্যা মামলা দায়েরের অভিযোগে মি মজহার ও তার স্ত্রীর বিরুদ্ধে পাল্টা মামলা করার অনুমতি চাওয়া হয় আদালতের কাছে। গত বৃহস্পতিবার তাদের ওই প্রতিবেদন গ্রহণ করে মামলা করার অনুমতি দিয়েছে আদালত।

এর পরেই ফরহাদ মজহার সস্ত্রীক সাংবাদিকদের সামনে হাজির হলেন।

উদ্ধারের পর পরিবারের সদস্যদের সঙ্গে মিলিত হওয়ার পর ফরহাদ মজহার

ফরহাদ মজহারের স্ত্রী বলেন, "দেশের কোন সংবাদ মাধ্যমের সাথেও আমরা কথা বলিনি। এজন্যে আমরা দুঃখ প্রকাশ করছি যে আমরা কথা বলে উঠতে পারিনি। বর্তমান পরিস্থিতির চরম নিরাপত্তাহীনতা ও ঝুঁকি সত্বেও আমাদের অবশ্যই কথা বলতে হবে।"

গত ৩রা জুলাই সকালে ঢাকার একটি বাড়ি থেকে বেরিয়ে যান ফরহাদ মজহার। তারপর তার স্ত্রী ফরিদা আক্তারকে ফোন করে তিনি জানান যে তাকে অপহরণ করে নিয়ে যাওয়া হচ্ছে। এর শ্বাসরুদ্ধকর ১৮ ঘণ্টা পর গভীর রাতে নিরাপত্তা বাহিনীর সদস্যরা নাটকীয়ভাবে তাকে যশোর থেকে উদ্ধার করেন।

সেদিনের ঘটনা সম্পর্কে ফরহাদ মজহার বলেন, "ভোরে কম্পিউটারে লিখতে গিয়ে দেখি আমি চোখ খুলতে পারছি না। এই অবস্থা হলে ২৪ ঘণ্টা খোলা থাকে এমন একটা ফার্মেসি থেকে ওষুধ কেনার জন্যে বের হই। এসময় তিনজন লোক আমাকে জোর করে একটি শাদা মাইক্রোবাসে তুলে আমার চোখ বন্ধ করে ফেলে।"

পরে তিনি তার স্ত্রী ফরিদা আক্তারকে ফোন করে ঘটনাটি জানান। "বাঁচার জন্যে টেলিফোন করা, টাকা পাঠানোসহ অপহরণকারীরা যা কিছু করতে বলে আমি তা করি।"

তিনি জানান, যেখানে তাকে ছেড়ে দেওয়া হয়েছিলো সে জায়গাটি তিনি চেনেন না। কিন্তু তারা তার ওপর নজরদারি করতে থাকে এবং সন্ধ্যায় তার নির্দেশ মতো হানিফ পরিবহনের গাড়িতে উঠলে তারা তাকে বাসের পেছনে বসিয়ে দেয়।

"আমি মৃত্যু ভয়ে ভীত, বিধ্বস্ত শারীরিক অসুস্থতায় নির্জীব হয়ে পড়ি। শোরগোল শুনে আমি জেগে উঠি। কিছু শাদা পোশাকের লোক জোর করে আমাকে আবার নামিয়ে আনার চেষ্টা করে। শাদা পোশাকের কিছু লোক বন্দুক তুলে শাসিয়ে আমাকে ছিনিয়ে নিয়ে যাবার চেষ্টা করলে উভয়ের মধ্যে প্রচণ্ড তর্কাতর্কি হয়। কিন্তু র‍্যাব ছোটখাটো যুদ্ধক্ষেত্রের মধ্যে আমাকে তাদের গাড়িতে উঠায়। এবং আমার স্ত্রী ফরিদা আক্তারের সঙ্গে ফোনে কথা বলিয়ে আমাকে আশ্বস্ত করে।"

উদ্ধারের পর আদাবর থানায় নিয়ে আসা হয় ফরহাদ মজহারকে 

তিনি বলেন, অপহরণকারীরা ওই এলাকায় থাকতে পারে ভেবে র‍্যাব আমাকে নিয়ে খুলনায় ঘটনাটি তদন্ত করতে চাইলেও কে বা কারা র‍্যাবের গাড়ির দুদিকে রাস্তায় রাতের ট্রাক থামিয়ে দু'দিকের পথরোধ করে। এবং র‍্যাবের গাড়িসহ আমাকে একটি জায়গায় নিয়ে আসে। আমাকে তখন র‍্যাবের গাড়ি থেকে নামানো হয়। আমার সঙ্গে তারা প্রচণ্ড দুর্ব্যবহার করে। এবং জিজ্ঞাসাবাদের নামে আমাকে বলতে বাধ্য করা হয় যে আমি বিনোদনের জন্যে বেরিয়েছি।"

তিনি জানান, এর পর তাকে ক্যামেরাসহ কিছু লোকের সামনে দাঁড় করানো হয়। "সাংবাদিকদের সামনে আমি বিনোদনের জন্যে স্বেচ্ছায় বেরিয়েছি এটা স্বীকার করার জন্যে প্রচণ্ড চাপ দেওয়া হয়। অনেকে অকথ্য ভাষায় গালিগালাজ করে। পরে আমাকে পুলিশের একটি গাড়িতে নিয়ে উচ্চস্বরে গান গাইতে গাইতে ঢাকার পথে রওনা হয়। সারা পথে নানা ভাবে আমাকে মানসিক নির্যাতন করা হয়।"

তিনি বলেন, ঢাকায় নিয়ে আসার পরেও বারবার প্রতিশ্রুতি দিয়েও তাকে তার পরিবারের কাছে যেতে দেওয়া হয়নি। পরে তাকে গোয়েন্দাদের অফিসে নিয়ে যাওয়া হয়। ক্লান্ত ও বিধ্বস্ত অবস্থায় তাকে জেরা করা হয়।

ফরহাদ মজহার বলেন, আদালতকে তিনি জানান তার শারীরিক ও মানসিক অবস্থা অত্যন্ত নাজুক। ডিবি অফিস তাকে দিয়ে যা লিখিয়ে নিয়েছে সেটাই তিনি আদালতে দিয়েছেন।

তিনি বলেন, "পরে জানতে পারি এবং এখন বুঝতে পারি অপহরণকারীরা খুলনা যশোর সীমান্তের দিক দিয়ে আমাকে সীমান্তের ওপাশে নিতে চেষ্টা করেছিলো।"

তিনি অভিযোগ করেন পুলিশ ঘটনাটিকে অন্যদিকে নিয়ে যাবার চেষ্টা করছে।

ফরহাদ মজহারের স্ত্রী ফরিদা আক্তার

"তদন্ত শেষ হওয়ার আগেই পুলিশের ঊর্ধ্বতন কর্মকর্তারা প্রেস কনফারেন্স করে আমাকে সামাজিকভাবে অপদস্থ করার চেষ্টা করেন। পুলিশের প্রতিবেদন চ্যালেঞ্জ করলে আমার ও আমার পরিবারের বিরুদ্ধে মামলার হুমকি দেন," বলেন মি. মজহার।

তিনি জানান, গোয়েন্দা পুলিশ পরেও তাদেরকে ডিবি অফিসে ডেকে নিয়ে পুলিশের প্রতিবেদনে সায় না দিলে তাদেরকে সামাজিকভাবে লাঞ্ছিত এবং তাদের বিরুদ্ধে মামলা করা হবে বলেও হুমকি দিয়েছেন।

মি মজহারের স্ত্রী ফরিদা আক্তার সংবাদ সম্মেলনে জানান, তারা এখন এর সুবিচার চেয়ে উচ্চ আদালতে যাবেন।

- Source - bbc.com/bengali

4,440 HR violation in 6 months in Bangladesh

Special Correspondent

The number of human rights violations rose to 4,440 in the last 6 months from January to June this year as there are more than 23 human rights violation incidents every day on an average in Bangladesh.

After monitoring the overall situation, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has recently come up with such an alarming observation on human rights violation across the country.

According to the officials of the state human rights organisation, though incidents of human rights violations in the country are not new, recently it is increasing at alarming rates. People are becoming the victims of killings. Innocent children are also not being spared from such brutal incidents.

People are missing or disappeared. Many people are suddenly being fall to the prey of enforced disappearance from the house, office and roads suddenly. Events happening around the clock. Many people are being victimized by extrajudicial killings in the hands of the law enforcement agencies. Tortures are taking place in the case of women d and children.

National Human Rights Commission, which observes the overall human rights situation in the country regularly on the basis of the news reports published in the media, prepare a monthly statistics on human right violation in the country.

According to the data of ‘Human Rights Violence Statistics 2017’, there were more than four thousand human rights violations in the 6 months from January to June. This includes 855 killings. 52 people have been missing or disappeared. 83 people were killed in extra judicially in gun battle. Children are also not being spared. A total of 129 children have been killed while 123 children were tortured during the period.

Besides, a total of 127 students faced inhuman punishment in their respective educational institutions. As violence against women increased, 306 rape cases occurred in the first 6 months of the year.  More than 299 women have been victims of sexual violence, family violence, acid attacks, and others. At the same time, 193 people were abducted while 93 workers were also killed in various inhuman incidents, said the NHRC.

The monitoring report of NHRC also alleged that human rights violations were carried out by the police who are in charge of protecting the law and order in the country. A total of 127 complaints of human rights violations in different parts of the country were lodged against police. Terming the road accidents a human rights violation, the NHRC in its observation said that a total of 1,853 passengers and pedestrians have died in road accidents in the last 6 months.

NHRC monthly statistics show that the highest number of human rights violations occurred in April – 857 and in January, 361 human rights violations took place, the lowest. However, there are over 7 hundred human rights violations on an average per month during this six-month period.

In the latest development, former Bangladesh ambassador to Qatar and Vietnam Maroof Zaman remains missing since Monday (4 December) night after he left his Dhanmondi home in his private car to pick up his daughter from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka. The 61-year-old’s youngest daughter Samiha Zaman was scheduled to land at the airport at 7:30pm, said Rifat Zaman, the ex-diplomat’s brother.

The family of the ambassador, in a press release, said police, however, recovered his car from Khilkhet in the evening. It also mentioned that around 7:45 the ambassador contacted with his family over phone to tell that some people would come to take his computer and instructed them to cooperate. Shortly after that, three tall, well-dressed men came to the house around 8:05pm, took his laptop, home phone’s CPU, his camera and smart phone and searched his room thoroughly, it said.

Earlier on November 26, a Dhaka University unit leader of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal Mujahidur Rahman disappeared after leaving his Sher-e-Bangla Nagar home in the capital. He is a master’s student of Political Science and senior joint secretary of Salimullah Muslim Hall unit of the pro-BNP student body.  His wife Kamrunnahar Lucky filed a GD with Sher-e-Bangla police on November 29.

With Maroof and Mujahidur, 14 people including the NSU teacher, a journalist and a number of businessmen, went missing, in recent months. Four of them returned while there is no trace of others.

•  The piece first appeared on http://weeklyholiday.net

Early election: Why? Why not?

Shahid Islam

Sound bites are sweeter when they denote something in substance.  Recent utterances of some of the ruling party leaders, and the BNP’s reactive response relating to an early election, are brewing sweeter sound bites. The reality may be that these are empty talks to keep the otherwise vacuous political horizon splattered with some colours and coatings.

Then again, it may not just be a floating detraction to keep the public psyche engaged in an illusion. Let’s examine the pros and cons of this dangling dilemma.

Constitutional exigency

Elusive or not, the government is not constitutionally beholden to have an early election which can occur as late as the penultimate days of 2018. But, based on a rampart of tactical calculus, it may be wiser to have the electoral show staged earlier due to reasons that have turned somewhat imposing and unavoidable in recent days.

Foremost, the performance index of the ruling AL in governance within, diplomacy abroad, and in reining in intra-party bloodletting is showing an inexorable downward trend. Macro and micro economic indices are flip-flopping too. Ordinary people find it extremely harder to cope with the rising prices of electricity, food, house rents, and other indispensable chores of life.

Add to this the lingering stigma of the nation’s parliament not being a representational one, and, the ‘image crisis’ it sprouts almost daily when the nation’s diplomats wage their battle to pull the world to our side on a human carnage occurring across the border in Myanmar; resulting in huge influx of refugees into a land that is the most populated one on earth, based on the number of inhabitants sprawled per sq. km.

What an early election can do to ameliorate the above is an unknown of quantum perplexity. Yet, it can shift the agenda from the existential deadlock characterized by the domestic and global perceptions that the incumbent AL will keep ruling the nation by force; with backing of an external power that even does not vote in Bangladesh’s favour in the global podiums, on crucial matters like the Rohingya crisis.

BNP’s betting

The BNP and its electoral-political allies have been expecting an election within a year or so of the botched 2014 electoral fiasco; hoping that the government had—as pronounced and reiterated repeatedly—held the poll without participation of the other major political parties only to preserve the constitutional sanctity, as the BNP itself did in 1996, and a new election would put democracy to its deserved locomotive to pull the nation ahead.

Since that didn’t happen, and, the government managed to tighten its stranglehold on the labyrinth of the state apparatuses to cling onto power without a fresh mandate of the people, it should happen sooner, so believed, and do believe, the nation’s well-wishers at home and abroad.

Since the 2014 election, the EU, the USA, and almost all other external partners had advised and vouched time and again for an early election that the government managed to wriggle off and defer until now. This stands at the crux of Bangladesh’s stumbled political crisis; deterring domestic and international investments on pretexts that the political climate of the nation lacks signs of profound stability.

It may be time, given the way the geopolitics of the Bay of Bengal region is transforming to suck in global powers to the festering Rohingya crisis (see last issue of the weekly Holiday), that the government should seek a fresh mandate from the people to shore up the dearth of legitimacy that is bottlenecking the diplomatic efforts to cull the support of some UNSC members like China and Russia to compel Myanmar to take back its driven-out people, numbering almost a million, from the soil of our over-populated nation.

Indo-US complexity

The crisis is climaxing toward dreadful danger, and reasons are laced with external complexities. There’re many who believe India can impress upon this reality on the government to arrange a fresh election in Bangladesh sooner, to fix the domestic drags.

Another school of thought thinks India is unlikely to do that due to fear that the BNP and its Islamist allies will overwhelm in the electoral race. They think the USA, as the strategic pivot in the Indo-China power imbalance, can convince India to allow true democracy to flourish in Bangladesh so as to blunt the sharpness and the sanguinity of the Islamists who’re deemed as a common threat to liberal democracy.

The Bangladesh factor, based on such rationales and realities, has become an irritation to the USA and its NATO allies who are finding it hard to pull Delhi to their side to implement two things simultaneously: ensure representational democracy in Bangladesh, and, resolving the Rohingya crisis peacefully to stave off the ducked-in danger of an Islamic revival and armed militancy that poses potent danger to peace and security of the entire region.

Paving the way

Being mindful of such dangers, the regime of Sheikh Hasina may serve itself and the nation better by realizing the reality of its dwindling popularity, and the compulsiveness imposed by the external factors, to opt for an early election. For that to happen, dialogue must kick off sooner with the BNP to reset the so called rules of the electoral games, as well as to pave the ways, to ensure participation of all stakeholders in the upcoming electoral fray.

Failing to do so will compel external powers to set the agenda, change the goalpost, and score as many goals as they wish; without much deference to the will of what they think a ‘deficit regime’ in power.  This will also compromise the nation’s sovereignty in a manner that may engrave irreversibly into the minds of the posterity, while undoing everything our predecessors and we achieved together through diligence and inexplicable dedications.

Panic spreads over disappearances, abductions

Shakhawat Hossain

Mothers of some people were allegedly picked up by the Bangladesh law enforcement agencies in 2013 and never returned hold a press conference in Dhaka' Reporters Unity conference hall on December 4 last year to tell the stories of their miseries Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

Incidence of missing and abduction has reportedly increased in the capital and other parts of the country in recent times, spreading panic among people. Despite strong criticism from rights groups who have been demanding the government to initiate judicial commission to find perpetrators behind the crimes, incidents of enforced disappearance still continued with a gusto across the country.

There is a strong allegation against the law enforcement members to be engaged in such crimes, as some officials were found involved, various media reports and victims of the family members alleged. In recent times, army officers have arrested some Detective Branch (DB) officials when they were taking bribes from a business man in Chittagong.

Victims remain untraceable

Highest number of enforced disappearances was reported in the past two years while maximum number of victims still remained traceless in 2017. Politicians, students and business people were the worst victims of disappearance with whereabouts of 152 still unknown since the Awami League government assumed power in 2009 with election pledge promise stating ‘Rule of law will be established. Human rights will be strictly enforced.’

According to the rights organisation Odhikar, 402 people disappeared between January 2009 and October 2017 and the incidents were clearly of the category of ‘enforced disappearance’ as defined by the international human rights laws, particularly the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

In recent times, at least 10 people, including a journalist, a university teacher, a publisher and political leader, have gone missing or fallen victim to abduction since August 22, 2017. North South University teacher Mobashwer Hossain, Bangladesh Kalyan Party leader M Aminur Rahman and journalist Utpal Das are among those who remained missing. Utpal Das, a senior reporter of news portal Purboposhcim News, has remained traceless since October 10. Almost 30 days have elapsed but the law enforcers are yet to locate him. Mithun Chowdhury, president of newly-formed Bangladesh Janata Party, and his associate Ashit Ghosh were picked up allegedly by law enforcers in the city’s Sutrapur area on October 27. Those who went missing in recent times include Mcgill University student Ishrak Ahmed Fahim. The latest victim of the fresh incidents of disappearance is Tanvir Yasin Karim, owner of Karim International and Darus Salam Publications. He was picked up by plainclothes men on November 8, 2017.

According to rights body Ain o Salish Kendra, 334 of the 524 people, who allegedly became victims of enforced disappearance between 2010 and October 2017 across the country, are still missing. Many of those who returned to their families never disclosed anything to the media about their abductors.

Govt. urged to intervene

Another rights group Odhikar reported that over 400 people became victims of enforced disappearance since Awami League assumed in power in 2009 and, said highest number of such incident took place in 2016.

According to Odhikar, at least 67 persons were allegedly disappeared from January to September. Among them, seven were found dead and 29 were later produced before various courts or surfaced alive. The whereabouts of 31 persons are still unknown.

In October, seven persons allegedly disappeared. Among them, two were later produced before the court and surfaced alive. The whereabouts of five others are still unknown.

On November 7, Abu Muhammad Jamal Rahman, a pharmacist of Sanofi Aventis, was also disappeared and his family filed a missing complaint with the Khilgaon police station. On November 8, a publisher, Tanvir Hasan Karim, was taken in from his house by the plainclothes and a missing complaint was filed with the Gulshan police station.

Against such a backdrop, various social and rights groups in separate statements called on the government to find out the persons went missing or disappeared, and also to find the persons behind such activities, expressing their grave concern over the recent increased incidents of enforced disappearances.

Eminent rights activist Ms. Sultana Kamal said, “Whenever any citizen goes missing this way, it has to be understood that there is no security at all. People are going missing and the issue is not being resolved. Such a crime is an extreme violation of human rights.”

Sultana said allegations have surfaced those members of security forces were involved in the mysterious disappearance of many people.  “In many cases, it is seen that many are shown arrested after their families come up with statements [about the incidents],” she added.

National Human Rights Commission Chairman Kazi Reazul Hoque said free movement is one of the constitutional rights of the citizens and it is the duty of the state to ensure that. “It is responsibility of the state to find the victims of abduction and enforced disappearance and return them to their families,” he said, demanding exemplary punishment to those responsible for such incidents.

Besides, teachers, students and alumni of Dhaka University on Sunday sought the prime minister’s intervention in tracing North South University teacher Mubashar Hasan who went missing on Nov 7 evening.  They formed a human chain on Aparajeyo Bangla premises and said if Mubashar was guilty of any crime he could be brought to book and tried. His disappearance only proves the state’s failure to protect its citizen, they observed.

- The piece was first published on weeklyholiday.net