Soumitra
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Our Country our rules.
We will not waste time verifying whether the person crossing the border is a dangerous criminal or some villager.
Why neighbours dislike or suspect India
- Thread starter Banglar Bir
- Start date
We will not waste time verifying whether the person crossing the border is a dangerous criminal or some villager.
Banglar Bir
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BJP worker spills beans on plans to spread communal terror in WB; says arms, bombs being stored
SOIBAL DASGUPTA
Updated: Sep 28th 2017, 05.20
Photo courtesy: Facebook
Santosh Kumar seen brandishing a weapon.
Names taken by him include those of state BJP bigwigs and also ‘Kailashji’ & ‘Rajnathji’; he says he presented state BJP chief plans to start arms factories & to throw beef into temples
Tracing the person addressed in the internal messages leaked by members of Hindu Samhati on which National Herald had carried a story earlier , the NH investigative team contacted Santosh Kumar whose Facebook profile describes him as Convenor, BJP Trade Cell, South 24 Paraganas (W) and Observer at BJP, West Bengal, through the help of a right wing source.
He confessed to his involvement in planning and executing terror activities in written correspondence with this source and accepted that there were indeed plans to create communal disturbances after Shastra Puja on Vijayadashami. This year, a team consisting of some senior leaders has been formed which will be carrying out violent activities in different parts of Bengal, he said. Earlier, members of this group were responsible for attacking Tiljala mosque after which the Muslims were forced to stop their daily prayers for two days, he added. Though a shadowy group, he claimed it has the support of many members of the party.
Most of the people named in the list hold prominent positions in the party. From general secretary of district BJP units to leader of its Mahila Morcha, leaders from almost every wing of the BJP found a place on this list disclosed by Santosh Kumar. The pictures of some of these people named by Santosh reveal a strange relationship between them and the BJP leadership in the state and the Centre. One or more of them are seen in photographs with BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, Union Minister Smriti Irani and Roopa Ganguly, BJP MP from West Bengal. Why are these prominent national faces of the BJP clicking pictures with people who are named by their fellow party colleague of trying to foment communal trouble in the state?
Photo courtesy: Facebook
Rajarshi Lahiri, named by Santosh Kumar, as a key member of his team is seen with Union Minister Smriti Irani.
Photo courtesy: Facebook
Rajarshi Lahiri and Suraj Kumar Singh with BJP MP Roopa Ganguly.
Photo courtesy: Facebook
Rajesh Jain Surana, also named by Santosh as a key member of his team, with Kailash Vijayvargia.
In the conversation, Santosh claimed Dilip Ghosh, West Bengal state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is well aware of these attacks on the mosques. He also claimed that he had personally handed over proposals to Dilip Ghosh to start arms factories in the state and on his plans to foment communal trouble by throwing beef into Hindu temples. Santosh seemed agitated that Dilip Ghosh, “in spite of having so much to capitalise on,” was not doing enough and instead just asked him to be in touch with the district president of the party.
He also said that when he approached district president Abhijit Das with his plans, he dissuaded him by saying, “Why do you do these things? These are the tasks of the RSS people.”
A dejected Santosh then wrote to one “Rajnathji” as can be seen from the screenshot of the conversation. One wonders if he was referring to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. It is up to the Union Minister to clarify whether he had ever been approached by Santosh Kumar and what that correspondence, if any, was about.
The team has recruited members from different parts of the state. Logistic support is provided by BJP’s allied organisations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bajrang Dal. According to Santosh, eight to 10 members of the present group have been trained by these groups to use weapons and carry out action during Durga Puja. The team consists of nearly 400 members from the South 24 Paraganas, including some prominent members of BJP’s Bengal unit. The names of the prominent members of this team as disclosed by Santosh are:
Arnav Mitra, Suraj Kumar Singh, Rajesh Jain Surana, Rashmi Gandhi, Sabita Chowdhary, Raja Bose, Rajarshi Lahiri, Gaurab Biswas, Sushil Shingham, Bhagwan Jha, Pradeep Sharma, Tapas Pal, Shivshankar Bhatt, Nimai Saha, Sunil Dwivedi, Manohar Pathak, Subhash Shaw, Monty, Prabir.
Photo courtesy: Facebook
Sabita Chowdhary, also named by Santosh as a key member of his team, with President of India Ram Nath Kovind.
What is perhaps more astounding is even President of India Ram Nath Kovind and West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi can be seen in pictures with some of these names revealed by Santosh.
Photo courtesy: Facebook
Rashmi Gandhi, also named by Santosh as a key member of his team, with West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi.
Right now, according to Santosh’s own admission, the group possesses two illegal country-made guns, smuggled from Bihar, and bombs. However, Santosh Kumar says getting more bombs as and when required is no problem. In his words, Nimai, Raja, Monty, Subhash, and Sushil will be arranging for the explosives while nearly all members have swords and lathis. He even poses with a gun in a few pictures.
On being asked the whereabouts of the bombs, he just said, “we haven't kept them in our homes.” The location remains undisclosed till now but Santosh claimed that all these facts are also known to one Kailashji. Now was he referring to Kailash Vijayvargiya, BJP’s state in-charge of West Bengal? He said he approached Kailashji and apprised him of everything. However, in a different context, Santosh obliged our source with the screenshot of an e-mail complaint that he wrote against a party functionary. The e-mail is addressed to Kailash Vijayvargiya and BJP’s national joint secretary Shiv Prakash and has Amit Shah copied on the same along with Arnav Mitra, Suraj Kumar Singh and Rajesh Surana who were all mentioned by Santosh as members of his core team built to foment communal trouble in Bengal.
With BJP having gained a foothold in Bengal, it is now working to extend its footprint by raising the false alarm of Hindus being attacked by Muslims, thus instigating young Hindus to take up arms. While the evidence of the same can be found from various parts of Bengal since early 2016, the agenda is to create widespread trouble.
The confessions made by Santosh Kumar is startling as they reveal that a terror module is at work where members of the party ruling at the Centre are involved in spreading terror and communal trouble in a state ruled by an Opposition party.
https://www.nationalheraldindia.com...nal-terror-in-wb-says-arms-bombs-being-stored
Banglar Bir
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Weapons used in Dhaka cafe attack were modified in India: report
PTI
Published Oct 5, 2016, 9:00 am IST
Updated Oct 5, 2016, 9:00 am IST
Investigators are now saying they have finally been able to trace the route of the smuggled arms.
Police blocking access to streets near the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan. (Photo: AP)n. (Photo: AP)
Dhaka: A consignment of weapons used during the Dhaka cafe attack that killed 20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, was modified in India before it was transported to Bangladesh in mango baskets, a media report claimed today.
"We have come to know that the modification of these arms was done in Munger city in Bihar state of India and then they came to Chapainwabganj border," Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime chief Monirul Islam said.
"A seal from a factory in Bihar was found on the three AK22 rifles recovered after the Gulshan terror attack," Islam was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune.
A month before the terror attack in Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, the consignment of AK 22 rifles and some small arms reached the militants in the Bangladesh capital.
Of these arms, three AK22 rifles were used in the attack while another rifle was used for the security of Neo Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh chief Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, the paper said.
Investigators are now saying they have finally been able to trace the route of the smuggled arms.
"We have finally learned the source of the AK 22s supply and have been also able to identify the group primarily," Islam was quoted as saying by the paper.
"Now, drive is underway to arrest this group's members," he said.
Missing New JMB leader Nurul Islam Marjan, who was the field-level coordinator of the July 1 cafe attack, received the consignment in Dhaka and delivered it to the militant den in Bashundhara Residential Area.
"A large amount of mangoes came to Dhaka from Chapainawabganj in baskets at the time and the militants took advantage of that to elude law enforcers," Islam added.
ISIS had claimed responsibility for the cafe attack. But police believe that Neo-Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, which is close to the ISIS, was involved in organising the attack.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/worl...afe-attack-were-modified-in-india-report.html
PTI
Published Oct 5, 2016, 9:00 am IST
Updated Oct 5, 2016, 9:00 am IST
Investigators are now saying they have finally been able to trace the route of the smuggled arms.
Police blocking access to streets near the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan. (Photo: AP)n. (Photo: AP)
Dhaka: A consignment of weapons used during the Dhaka cafe attack that killed 20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, was modified in India before it was transported to Bangladesh in mango baskets, a media report claimed today.
"We have come to know that the modification of these arms was done in Munger city in Bihar state of India and then they came to Chapainwabganj border," Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime chief Monirul Islam said.
"A seal from a factory in Bihar was found on the three AK22 rifles recovered after the Gulshan terror attack," Islam was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune.
A month before the terror attack in Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, the consignment of AK 22 rifles and some small arms reached the militants in the Bangladesh capital.
Of these arms, three AK22 rifles were used in the attack while another rifle was used for the security of Neo Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh chief Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, the paper said.
Investigators are now saying they have finally been able to trace the route of the smuggled arms.
"We have finally learned the source of the AK 22s supply and have been also able to identify the group primarily," Islam was quoted as saying by the paper.
"Now, drive is underway to arrest this group's members," he said.
Missing New JMB leader Nurul Islam Marjan, who was the field-level coordinator of the July 1 cafe attack, received the consignment in Dhaka and delivered it to the militant den in Bashundhara Residential Area.
"A large amount of mangoes came to Dhaka from Chapainawabganj in baskets at the time and the militants took advantage of that to elude law enforcers," Islam added.
ISIS had claimed responsibility for the cafe attack. But police believe that Neo-Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, which is close to the ISIS, was involved in organising the attack.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/worl...afe-attack-were-modified-in-india-report.html
Banglar Bir
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মাহমুদুর রহমানের বুকের পাটা দেখুন ! সত্য বলতে কারো ছাড়েন না ?
মাহমুদুর রহমানের মত বুকের পাটা যাদের আছে মনে করেন তারাই শুধু শেয়ার করবেন ।
মাহমুদুর রহমানের মত বুকের পাটা যাদের আছে মনে করেন তারাই শুধু শেয়ার করবেন ।
Banglar Bir
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Sheikh Hasina likely to the Prime Minister for the third consecutive term:"The Hindu"
তৃতীয়বারের মতো প্রধানমন্ত্রী হতে পারেন শেখ হাসিনা : দ্য হিন্দু
তৃতীয়বারের মতো প্রধানমন্ত্রী হতে পারেন শেখ হাসিনা : দ্য হিন্দু
সংসদ নির্বাচনে লড়বেন নায়ক ফারুক
ইয়াজিদের বংশধররা বঙ্গবন্ধুকে হত্যা করেছে: ইনু
বিএনপির ভূমিকায় ক্ষুব্ধ গয়েশ্বর চন্দ্র রায়
Indian infiluntial newspaper The Hinduin its article titled "Watch out for Tubulence in Bangladesh"has stated that ..... ভারতের প্রভাবশালী ‘দ্য হিন্দু’ পত্রিকায় আগস্ট মাসের মাঝামাঝি সময়ে’ ওয়াচ আউট ফর টারবুলেন্স ইন বাংলাদেশ’ শিরোনামে একটি নিবন্ধ প্রকাশিত হয়। তাতে বলা হয়েছে টানা তৃতীয়বার মতো প্রধানমন্ত্রী হতে পারেন শেখ হাসিনা।
এতে আরও বলা হয়, নির্বাচনের আগে বিএনপি নেত্রী খালেদা জিয়া যদি জেলে যান, কিংবা গ্রেফতার এড়াতে ছেলের মতো দেশ ছাড়েন সেক্ষেত্রে বিএনপি কীভাবে অগ্রসর হবে? তাছাড়া মৌলবাদী শক্তির পৃষ্ঠপোষক হিসেবে খালেদার ভাবমূর্তি নিয়ে আন্তর্জাতিক মহলে ব্যাপক উদ্বেগ রয়েছে।
বিডি প্রতিদিন/২ অক্টোবর, ২০১৭/ফারজানা
http://rtn24.net/politics/473
Blatant interference and trying to manipulate our Internal Domestic political affairs
তৃতীয়বারের মতো প্রধানমন্ত্রী হতে পারেন শেখ হাসিনা : দ্য হিন্দু
তৃতীয়বারের মতো প্রধানমন্ত্রী হতে পারেন শেখ হাসিনা : দ্য হিন্দু
সংসদ নির্বাচনে লড়বেন নায়ক ফারুক
ইয়াজিদের বংশধররা বঙ্গবন্ধুকে হত্যা করেছে: ইনু
বিএনপির ভূমিকায় ক্ষুব্ধ গয়েশ্বর চন্দ্র রায়
Indian infiluntial newspaper The Hinduin its article titled "Watch out for Tubulence in Bangladesh"has stated that ..... ভারতের প্রভাবশালী ‘দ্য হিন্দু’ পত্রিকায় আগস্ট মাসের মাঝামাঝি সময়ে’ ওয়াচ আউট ফর টারবুলেন্স ইন বাংলাদেশ’ শিরোনামে একটি নিবন্ধ প্রকাশিত হয়। তাতে বলা হয়েছে টানা তৃতীয়বার মতো প্রধানমন্ত্রী হতে পারেন শেখ হাসিনা।
এতে আরও বলা হয়, নির্বাচনের আগে বিএনপি নেত্রী খালেদা জিয়া যদি জেলে যান, কিংবা গ্রেফতার এড়াতে ছেলের মতো দেশ ছাড়েন সেক্ষেত্রে বিএনপি কীভাবে অগ্রসর হবে? তাছাড়া মৌলবাদী শক্তির পৃষ্ঠপোষক হিসেবে খালেদার ভাবমূর্তি নিয়ে আন্তর্জাতিক মহলে ব্যাপক উদ্বেগ রয়েছে।
বিডি প্রতিদিন/২ অক্টোবর, ২০১৭/ফারজানা
http://rtn24.net/politics/473
Blatant interference and trying to manipulate our Internal Domestic political affairs
Banglar Bir
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Wake up Bangladesh, it’s time for a foreign policy!
by Taj Hashmi | Published: 00:05, Oct 03,2017 | Updated: 01:14, Oct 03,2017
TO SOME, the title of my column today might be utterly ridiculous, as it suggests it’s time for Bangladesh to have a foreign policy. They might raise eyebrows at my suggestion that, Bangladesh is going without any foreign policy, since 2009. To them, Bangladesh has a sound foreign policy under a seasoned career diplomat as foreign minister, and an internationally renowned scholar as the prime minister’s adviser in international affairs. So far so good! However, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
The subservience of Bangladesh to India, and its unconditional surrender to Myanmar, which has forced about a million Rohingyas as refugees into Bangladesh since 2012, don’t make the pudding any edible! Bangladesh is almost totally friendless.Most of its trading partners, China, Japan, Russia, and even India have been openly siding with Myanmar, the main adversary of Bangladesh. Whatever the Bangladesh government sells as its foreign policy is something phony, does not appear indigenous or made in Bangladesh.
The laundry list of failures in Bangladeshi diplomacy is long. I’m going to mention some unresolved issues between Bangladesh and two of its immediate neighbours, India and Myanmar, in this regard. It’s strange but true, not only its powerful immediate neighbour India frequently coerces Bangladesh into submission, but of late, it’s not-so-powerful neighbour Myanmar has also started browbeating Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has nothing to be proud of its relationship with India, which is both a bully, and an undesirable hegemon for it. However, sections of Bangladeshis consider India as the bandhu rashtro(the friendly state). The rationale for their unconditional support for India is possibly also because of the latter’s support for the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971. Nevertheless, the Indian support was never unconditional or altruistic, as it also benefitted from the disintegration of Pakistan.
The avowedly pro-Indian elements never mention India’s hegemonic and intrusive behaviour, and its ulterior motives against Bangladesh. The pro-Indian elements in Bangladesh enjoy the best of times when people and parties of their liking are in power. These parties and individuals at times suspend the constitution, and depend on the South Block of New Delhi to run the ‘foreign policy’ of Bangladesh. Whenever such people are in power, the country of 160 million people behaves like tiny, land-locked Bhutan vis-à-vis India. This happened during General Ershad’s illegitimate rule, and is happening again since 2009.
Despite many blunders and hiccups during the formative phase of Bangladesh in the early 1970s, the founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was brave and wise enough not to allow India a freehand in running the foreign and domestic policies of Bangladesh. Soon after his freedom from Pakistani incarceration in January 1972, he made it clear to the Indian PM Indira Gandhi that Indian troops must leave his country, as soon as possible. Although Henry Kissinger used obnoxious expressions against Bangladesh and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — he called the country a ‘basket case’, and its leader ‘an inordinate fool’— but for Mujib’s assertive and bold foreign policy, Bangladesh earned some respectability in the arena of international politics.
One admires Mujib’s mottoes with regard to Bangladesh’s foreign policy: a) ‘Friendship to all, and malice to none’; and b) ‘Bangladesh will be the Switzerland of Asia’, in regards to maintaining a positive neutrality in the arena of international politics. However, thanks to the exigencies of the Cold War, and Bangladesh’s over-reliance on the geo-politically inept and economically bankrupt Indo-Soviet block to formulate its foreign and domestic policies during the tenure of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country was not in the good books of the west, the Muslim world, and China. China and Saudi Arabia did not recognise Bangladesh up to August 1975.
After August 1975, it was time for Bangladesh to face the hostility of the behemoth India, which not only sheltered and armed hundreds of Mujib loyalists, who regularly attacked Bangladeshi border outposts from across the border, but it also started depriving Bangladesh of its due share of the Ganges waters. Until Morarji Desai became the prime minister in March 1977, at times it appeared that India would turn Bangladesh into another Kashmir or Sikkim. Meanwhile, through adept diplomacy under the leadership of president Ziaur Rahman, Bangladesh defied Indian hegemonic design and became friends with the west, China, and the Muslim world.
However, the rot in the realm of Bangladeshi diplomacy set in with the illegitimate military takeover of General Ershad in 1982, which was definitely a handiwork of the hegemonic Indira Gandhi regime.
The end of pro-Indian Ershad regime in 1990 didn’t signal the end of Indian quest for establishing its hegemony in Bangladesh. Up to the election of Sheikh Hasina as the prime minister in 1996, India ceaselessly tried to destabilise Bangladesh by stirring up a section of ethnic minority communities in Chittagong Hill Tracts. It armed, trained, and infiltrated members of the Shanti Bahini into Bangladesh to ‘liberate’ Chittagong Hill Tracts in the name of creating a homeland for the Mongoloid Chakma, Marma, and Larma people, touted as the subjugated aborigines of Bangladesh. The ‘Hill Tribes’ of Bangladesh are the descendants of Myanmar refugees who came to Bangladesh after 16th century.
As if Farakka wasn’t bad enough for Bangladesh, India erected another barrage across the Teesta! And yet another (Tipaimukh) is under construction across the Barak. Nothing could be more abysmally erratic than Bangladesh’s disastrous ‘foreign policy’ since 2009. The government since 2009 is unwilling even to protest India’s taking undue advantages from Bangladesh. India’s successful arm-twisting of Bangladesh — which seems to be the most willing victim — is worse than America’s gunboat diplomacy in the Third World. Thanks to Bangladesh’s ‘foreign policy’, India unilaterally enjoys transit rights through Bangladesh territory; denies Bangladesh similar rights to trade with Nepal and Bhutan; its BSF kills Bangladeshi nationals at the border with impunity; and last but not the least, India denies Bangladesh its due share of the Teesta waters.
Both Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi not only duped Bangladesh by lying in defence of New Delhi’s bona fides, but they also coerced the latter into submission. In late 2011, PM Hasina’s international affairs adviser told me about the ‘impending’ signing of the Teesta waters sharing agreement between India and Bangladesh. In hindsight, it appears that Oxford-educated Manmohan Singh simply duped Oxford-educated Gowher Rizvi! Manmohan Singh conveniently singled out Paschim Banga’s chief minister Mamata Bannerjee as the main obstacle to the free flow of Teesta waters into Bangladesh. Same theatrics happened again under Narendra Modi, who also used Ms Bannerjee as the scapegoat.
So much so that PM Hasina, who Modi outwitted totally, out of sheer frustration, said something publicly in New Delhi — which was grossly unbecoming for a head of government: ‘Didi se pani manga, pani nahi mila, bijli mila. Chalo achcha hi hua, kuchh to mila’ (‘We asked for water to sister [Mamata Bannerjee], but only got electricity. Anyway, it’s not that bad, we at least got something’)! Despite Bangladesh PM’s stooping down to the level of an Indian chief minister, her ‘foreign policy’ or ‘hilsa diplomacy’ (she carried Bangladeshi hilsa fish as gift for Ms Bannerjee) didn’t work at all.
Last but not least, not only an Indian chief minister became an imaginary adversary of Bangladesh or an important factor in Indo-Bangladesh relationship, but in the recent past, India’s foreign secretary, Sujata Singh — who was a government servant, not a politician — also played a decisive role in legitimising the farcical parliamentary elections of January 2014 in Bangladesh. She came to Dhaka, met Ershad (who had earlier said he wouldn’t take part in the elections) and soon afterwards, like a subservient subject the latter changed his mind, took part in the so-called election, and legitimised the Hasina government.
Bangladesh Government’s latest ambivalent statements, gimmicks, and self-congratulatory delusional assertions can make people laugh and cry at the same time. Soon after the Myanmar government’s crackdown on Rohingya minorities in Arakan on 25th August, which soon turned genocidal, forcing more than half a million Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh, the Hasina government behaved in the most unbelievable manner.
Sheikh Hasina offered Aung San Suu Kyi, her Myanmar counterpart, joint Bangladesh-Myanmar military operation against Rohingya ‘terrorists’, and instructed the BGB not to let any Rohingya enter Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, various ministers in charge of foreign affairs, finance, roads and bridge, industries, and even the DIG Police of Chittagong division have come up with some weird suggestions/opinions about the Rohingya crisis. While foreign minister Mahmud Ali has considered the Rohingya refugees a terrorist threat to Bangladesh, the finance minister has blamed Myanmar for waging an ‘undeclared war’ against Bangladesh. The DIG beat them all. In his speech at a public gathering in Chittagong he singled out Pakistan’s military intelligence ISI for stirring up Rohingyas against the Myanmar government. His version isn’t that different from the Myanmar government’s wild allegations against outside forces for the ongoing carnage in Arakan. It might be unthinkable elsewhere, but police officers in Bangladesh also give speeches in public rallies, and give their opinion on various domestic and external issues, well-beyond their expertise and jurisdictions!
Surprisingly, there are no signs of Bangladesh government’s taking any concerted and cohesive policy yet to address the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh. Soon after PM Hasina had abruptly ‘met’ president Trump on the floors of the UN General Assembly on September 18th and talked with him for less than 20 seconds, Bangladesh’s foreign secretary told the press: ‘Trump told prime minister Sheikh Hasina, on Myanmar issue (Rohingya issue) we’re with you’. And we know he didn’t tell the truth, because soon the PM told the press in the most undiplomatic language: ‘Trump is not going to help Bangladesh to resolve the Rohingya problem’.
Now, Bangladesh seems to have no Myanmar/Rohingya Policy, which would have been there had the country formulated a foreign policy of its own, in accordance with its own needs and priorities.
Bangladesh was never in such a dire situation diplomatically — totally friendless in its immediate neighbourhood and abroad — not even during the turbulent days of early 1970s, when not only Kissinger but others also considered the country a ‘basket case’.
Bangladesh government’s over-reliance on India at the cost of not maintaining a balanced relationship with the US, Western Europe, China, Pakistan, Japan, and the Middle East since 2009 is mainly responsible for this awkward situation. It’s time to have a foreign policy for Bangladesh, run by professionals keeping in view the best interests of the country, not for the benefit of others.
Dr Taj Hashmi teaches security studies at Austin Peay State University in the US. He is the author of several books, including his latest, Global Jihad and America: The Hundred-Year War Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan (Sage, 2014).
http://www.newagebd.net/article/25304/wake-up-bangladesh-its-time-for-a-foreign-policy
by Taj Hashmi | Published: 00:05, Oct 03,2017 | Updated: 01:14, Oct 03,2017
TO SOME, the title of my column today might be utterly ridiculous, as it suggests it’s time for Bangladesh to have a foreign policy. They might raise eyebrows at my suggestion that, Bangladesh is going without any foreign policy, since 2009. To them, Bangladesh has a sound foreign policy under a seasoned career diplomat as foreign minister, and an internationally renowned scholar as the prime minister’s adviser in international affairs. So far so good! However, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
The subservience of Bangladesh to India, and its unconditional surrender to Myanmar, which has forced about a million Rohingyas as refugees into Bangladesh since 2012, don’t make the pudding any edible! Bangladesh is almost totally friendless.Most of its trading partners, China, Japan, Russia, and even India have been openly siding with Myanmar, the main adversary of Bangladesh. Whatever the Bangladesh government sells as its foreign policy is something phony, does not appear indigenous or made in Bangladesh.
The laundry list of failures in Bangladeshi diplomacy is long. I’m going to mention some unresolved issues between Bangladesh and two of its immediate neighbours, India and Myanmar, in this regard. It’s strange but true, not only its powerful immediate neighbour India frequently coerces Bangladesh into submission, but of late, it’s not-so-powerful neighbour Myanmar has also started browbeating Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has nothing to be proud of its relationship with India, which is both a bully, and an undesirable hegemon for it. However, sections of Bangladeshis consider India as the bandhu rashtro(the friendly state). The rationale for their unconditional support for India is possibly also because of the latter’s support for the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971. Nevertheless, the Indian support was never unconditional or altruistic, as it also benefitted from the disintegration of Pakistan.
The avowedly pro-Indian elements never mention India’s hegemonic and intrusive behaviour, and its ulterior motives against Bangladesh. The pro-Indian elements in Bangladesh enjoy the best of times when people and parties of their liking are in power. These parties and individuals at times suspend the constitution, and depend on the South Block of New Delhi to run the ‘foreign policy’ of Bangladesh. Whenever such people are in power, the country of 160 million people behaves like tiny, land-locked Bhutan vis-à-vis India. This happened during General Ershad’s illegitimate rule, and is happening again since 2009.
Despite many blunders and hiccups during the formative phase of Bangladesh in the early 1970s, the founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was brave and wise enough not to allow India a freehand in running the foreign and domestic policies of Bangladesh. Soon after his freedom from Pakistani incarceration in January 1972, he made it clear to the Indian PM Indira Gandhi that Indian troops must leave his country, as soon as possible. Although Henry Kissinger used obnoxious expressions against Bangladesh and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — he called the country a ‘basket case’, and its leader ‘an inordinate fool’— but for Mujib’s assertive and bold foreign policy, Bangladesh earned some respectability in the arena of international politics.
One admires Mujib’s mottoes with regard to Bangladesh’s foreign policy: a) ‘Friendship to all, and malice to none’; and b) ‘Bangladesh will be the Switzerland of Asia’, in regards to maintaining a positive neutrality in the arena of international politics. However, thanks to the exigencies of the Cold War, and Bangladesh’s over-reliance on the geo-politically inept and economically bankrupt Indo-Soviet block to formulate its foreign and domestic policies during the tenure of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country was not in the good books of the west, the Muslim world, and China. China and Saudi Arabia did not recognise Bangladesh up to August 1975.
After August 1975, it was time for Bangladesh to face the hostility of the behemoth India, which not only sheltered and armed hundreds of Mujib loyalists, who regularly attacked Bangladeshi border outposts from across the border, but it also started depriving Bangladesh of its due share of the Ganges waters. Until Morarji Desai became the prime minister in March 1977, at times it appeared that India would turn Bangladesh into another Kashmir or Sikkim. Meanwhile, through adept diplomacy under the leadership of president Ziaur Rahman, Bangladesh defied Indian hegemonic design and became friends with the west, China, and the Muslim world.
However, the rot in the realm of Bangladeshi diplomacy set in with the illegitimate military takeover of General Ershad in 1982, which was definitely a handiwork of the hegemonic Indira Gandhi regime.
The end of pro-Indian Ershad regime in 1990 didn’t signal the end of Indian quest for establishing its hegemony in Bangladesh. Up to the election of Sheikh Hasina as the prime minister in 1996, India ceaselessly tried to destabilise Bangladesh by stirring up a section of ethnic minority communities in Chittagong Hill Tracts. It armed, trained, and infiltrated members of the Shanti Bahini into Bangladesh to ‘liberate’ Chittagong Hill Tracts in the name of creating a homeland for the Mongoloid Chakma, Marma, and Larma people, touted as the subjugated aborigines of Bangladesh. The ‘Hill Tribes’ of Bangladesh are the descendants of Myanmar refugees who came to Bangladesh after 16th century.
As if Farakka wasn’t bad enough for Bangladesh, India erected another barrage across the Teesta! And yet another (Tipaimukh) is under construction across the Barak. Nothing could be more abysmally erratic than Bangladesh’s disastrous ‘foreign policy’ since 2009. The government since 2009 is unwilling even to protest India’s taking undue advantages from Bangladesh. India’s successful arm-twisting of Bangladesh — which seems to be the most willing victim — is worse than America’s gunboat diplomacy in the Third World. Thanks to Bangladesh’s ‘foreign policy’, India unilaterally enjoys transit rights through Bangladesh territory; denies Bangladesh similar rights to trade with Nepal and Bhutan; its BSF kills Bangladeshi nationals at the border with impunity; and last but not the least, India denies Bangladesh its due share of the Teesta waters.
Both Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi not only duped Bangladesh by lying in defence of New Delhi’s bona fides, but they also coerced the latter into submission. In late 2011, PM Hasina’s international affairs adviser told me about the ‘impending’ signing of the Teesta waters sharing agreement between India and Bangladesh. In hindsight, it appears that Oxford-educated Manmohan Singh simply duped Oxford-educated Gowher Rizvi! Manmohan Singh conveniently singled out Paschim Banga’s chief minister Mamata Bannerjee as the main obstacle to the free flow of Teesta waters into Bangladesh. Same theatrics happened again under Narendra Modi, who also used Ms Bannerjee as the scapegoat.
So much so that PM Hasina, who Modi outwitted totally, out of sheer frustration, said something publicly in New Delhi — which was grossly unbecoming for a head of government: ‘Didi se pani manga, pani nahi mila, bijli mila. Chalo achcha hi hua, kuchh to mila’ (‘We asked for water to sister [Mamata Bannerjee], but only got electricity. Anyway, it’s not that bad, we at least got something’)! Despite Bangladesh PM’s stooping down to the level of an Indian chief minister, her ‘foreign policy’ or ‘hilsa diplomacy’ (she carried Bangladeshi hilsa fish as gift for Ms Bannerjee) didn’t work at all.
Last but not least, not only an Indian chief minister became an imaginary adversary of Bangladesh or an important factor in Indo-Bangladesh relationship, but in the recent past, India’s foreign secretary, Sujata Singh — who was a government servant, not a politician — also played a decisive role in legitimising the farcical parliamentary elections of January 2014 in Bangladesh. She came to Dhaka, met Ershad (who had earlier said he wouldn’t take part in the elections) and soon afterwards, like a subservient subject the latter changed his mind, took part in the so-called election, and legitimised the Hasina government.
Bangladesh Government’s latest ambivalent statements, gimmicks, and self-congratulatory delusional assertions can make people laugh and cry at the same time. Soon after the Myanmar government’s crackdown on Rohingya minorities in Arakan on 25th August, which soon turned genocidal, forcing more than half a million Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh, the Hasina government behaved in the most unbelievable manner.
Sheikh Hasina offered Aung San Suu Kyi, her Myanmar counterpart, joint Bangladesh-Myanmar military operation against Rohingya ‘terrorists’, and instructed the BGB not to let any Rohingya enter Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, various ministers in charge of foreign affairs, finance, roads and bridge, industries, and even the DIG Police of Chittagong division have come up with some weird suggestions/opinions about the Rohingya crisis. While foreign minister Mahmud Ali has considered the Rohingya refugees a terrorist threat to Bangladesh, the finance minister has blamed Myanmar for waging an ‘undeclared war’ against Bangladesh. The DIG beat them all. In his speech at a public gathering in Chittagong he singled out Pakistan’s military intelligence ISI for stirring up Rohingyas against the Myanmar government. His version isn’t that different from the Myanmar government’s wild allegations against outside forces for the ongoing carnage in Arakan. It might be unthinkable elsewhere, but police officers in Bangladesh also give speeches in public rallies, and give their opinion on various domestic and external issues, well-beyond their expertise and jurisdictions!
Surprisingly, there are no signs of Bangladesh government’s taking any concerted and cohesive policy yet to address the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh. Soon after PM Hasina had abruptly ‘met’ president Trump on the floors of the UN General Assembly on September 18th and talked with him for less than 20 seconds, Bangladesh’s foreign secretary told the press: ‘Trump told prime minister Sheikh Hasina, on Myanmar issue (Rohingya issue) we’re with you’. And we know he didn’t tell the truth, because soon the PM told the press in the most undiplomatic language: ‘Trump is not going to help Bangladesh to resolve the Rohingya problem’.
Now, Bangladesh seems to have no Myanmar/Rohingya Policy, which would have been there had the country formulated a foreign policy of its own, in accordance with its own needs and priorities.
Bangladesh was never in such a dire situation diplomatically — totally friendless in its immediate neighbourhood and abroad — not even during the turbulent days of early 1970s, when not only Kissinger but others also considered the country a ‘basket case’.
Bangladesh government’s over-reliance on India at the cost of not maintaining a balanced relationship with the US, Western Europe, China, Pakistan, Japan, and the Middle East since 2009 is mainly responsible for this awkward situation. It’s time to have a foreign policy for Bangladesh, run by professionals keeping in view the best interests of the country, not for the benefit of others.
Dr Taj Hashmi teaches security studies at Austin Peay State University in the US. He is the author of several books, including his latest, Global Jihad and America: The Hundred-Year War Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan (Sage, 2014).
http://www.newagebd.net/article/25304/wake-up-bangladesh-its-time-for-a-foreign-policy
Banglar Bir
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Indian ex-armyman Azmal, sample of 'illegal Bangladeshis'!
Prothom Alo English | Update: 11:21, Oct 02, 2017
After serving Indian army for 30 years, a retired soldier has been accused of being an illegal migrant from Bangladesh and a case has been registered against him by the Assam police. The foreigners' tribunal will hear the matter on 13 October, reports NDTV.
Mohd Azmal Haque - who lives in Chayyagaon, 70 km from state capital Guwahati -- retired as a junior commissioned officer last year. "I am very sad, I cried a lot. My soul is broken... After 30 years of service I have to face such insult," Haque told NDTV. "If I were an illegal Bangladeshi, how could I serve the Indian army?"
Haque, who was appointed as a junior commissioned officer in 2003, says he has pension, school and other documents that show even his mother was listed as an Indian in 1951. Mandatory police verification was conducted when he had joined the army, he added.
BDTV, the Indian television media adds that infiltration from Bangladesh is a sensitive issue in Assam. The state, which had six Muslim-majority districts in 2001, had nine within a decade. Last year, the BJP came to power in the state with a key promise of ending illegal immigration by sealing the 262-km-long porous border. But locals allege there have been several cases in which Indian nationals have been harassed.
Aman Wadud, Haque's lawyer said, "Most the people targeted by investigating agencies are beggars, daily wage earners, rickshawalas."
Haque said in 2012, his wife Mumtaz Begum also faced similar allegations. At the time, the couple had to present documents to prove their citizenship. "We produced all documents at the tribunal court that time... they declared her a proper Indian citizen," he said.
This incident has triggered sharp reaction in social media, NDTV also says.
"I tear in Assam police. Very very shameful act, how they are insulting a patriot soldier and a retd junior commissioned officer of the Indian army. Anybody can imagine how the common people of the state suffering!!!!" read a tweet.
After widespread outrage, Assam police chief Mukesh Sahay said he has ordered an internal inquiry. "I have already asked the SP to look into the matter... if there's a slip-up there will be action," he added.
http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/161599/Retired-Indian-soldier-accused-of-being-an-illegal
Prothom Alo English | Update: 11:21, Oct 02, 2017
After serving Indian army for 30 years, a retired soldier has been accused of being an illegal migrant from Bangladesh and a case has been registered against him by the Assam police. The foreigners' tribunal will hear the matter on 13 October, reports NDTV.
Mohd Azmal Haque - who lives in Chayyagaon, 70 km from state capital Guwahati -- retired as a junior commissioned officer last year. "I am very sad, I cried a lot. My soul is broken... After 30 years of service I have to face such insult," Haque told NDTV. "If I were an illegal Bangladeshi, how could I serve the Indian army?"
Haque, who was appointed as a junior commissioned officer in 2003, says he has pension, school and other documents that show even his mother was listed as an Indian in 1951. Mandatory police verification was conducted when he had joined the army, he added.
BDTV, the Indian television media adds that infiltration from Bangladesh is a sensitive issue in Assam. The state, which had six Muslim-majority districts in 2001, had nine within a decade. Last year, the BJP came to power in the state with a key promise of ending illegal immigration by sealing the 262-km-long porous border. But locals allege there have been several cases in which Indian nationals have been harassed.
Aman Wadud, Haque's lawyer said, "Most the people targeted by investigating agencies are beggars, daily wage earners, rickshawalas."
Haque said in 2012, his wife Mumtaz Begum also faced similar allegations. At the time, the couple had to present documents to prove their citizenship. "We produced all documents at the tribunal court that time... they declared her a proper Indian citizen," he said.
This incident has triggered sharp reaction in social media, NDTV also says.
"I tear in Assam police. Very very shameful act, how they are insulting a patriot soldier and a retd junior commissioned officer of the Indian army. Anybody can imagine how the common people of the state suffering!!!!" read a tweet.
After widespread outrage, Assam police chief Mukesh Sahay said he has ordered an internal inquiry. "I have already asked the SP to look into the matter... if there's a slip-up there will be action," he added.
http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/161599/Retired-Indian-soldier-accused-of-being-an-illegal
Saradiel
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This is one huge lie Indians bring out to justify cross border terrorism in SL. Even after 71, India headed by Indira Gandhi came to an amicable agreement with SL when it comes to Kachchatheevu and we had everything going pretty well.
HeinzG
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If Sri Lanka was doing something wrong for India, then India should have declared war against Sri Lanka rather than bickering about it years later. We should not also forget that India had stationed several armed troops in Sri Lanka during that for help support Sirima government crush the communist insurgency.
If you don't want garbage near your house, first deal with Pakistan and Bangladesh or China. Then come to Sri Lanka. The fact that India only picks Sri Lanka shows that how impotent India is.
Banglar Bir
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Bangladesh-India relations at their best today: Arun Jaitley
Staff Correspondent | Published: 00:05, Oct 05,2017 | Updated: 23:44, Oct 04,2017
Dhaka on Wednesday signed an agreement with New Delhi for $4.5 billion loan with the provision of procuring 65 to 75 per cent goods and services from India for implementation of 17 development projects in Bangladesh.
Besides, the local implementing agencies would have to take prior approvals from the Indian authorities to complete the procurement which they feared would delay execution of projects further.
Due to these conditions, Bangladesh which earlier struck deals with India for one billion dollar credit in 2010 and two billion dollar in 2016 could release only half a billion dollar in last seven years.
Speaking at the loan signing ceremony at the secretariat, finance minister AMA Muhith expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of projects due to slow disbursement of loan with the first and second Indian Line of Credit.
He expected that loan disbursement process would be improved with the third LoC.
His counterpart Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley, who was also present during the loan signing ceremony, blamed ‘land acquisition,local management and selection process of the projects’ for the delay in loan disbursement.
He, however, hoped that that the loan disbursement would be ‘expedited’ in coming days.
Claiming that the ‘India-Bangladesh relations are at their best today and stand out as a model for other countries to emulate’, Jaitley said India continued to attach the highest importance to its relations with Bangladesh, which saw steady growth during recent times.
‘A strong, stable and prosperous Bangladesh is in India’s interest and we are committed to working with Bangladesh to deepen our mutual engagement,’ he said.
He said the fresh loan would enable the implementation of 17 projects in infrastructure such as power, railway, roads, shipping and development of ports.
Economic Relations Division secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam and managing director of the Export-Import Bank of India David Rasquinha signed the deal on behalf of their respective sides.
The interest rate of the loan is one per cent annual and repayment period is 20 years with five years as grace period, but Bangladesh would have to depend solely on the Indian suppliers for the goods and service because the ‘limited tendering method’ tagged by India instead of the open tendering system.
The loan also bears 0.5 per cent commitment fee.
A former caretaker government adviser, Mirza Azizul Islam, said the fresh credit deal with India was similar to that of the suppliers’ credit, a worst form of loan.
The loan recipients have no choice but to procure goods from the loan providing the country with such deals, he noted.
According to a press release of ERD, 12 out of 15 projects taken with the first LoC were implemented.
Only nine projects at the estimated cost of $1.5billion were so far identified with the second LoC.
Major projects to be implemented with the third LoC include infrastructure development of the Rooppur Nuclear Plant, development the Payra Sea Port, construction of a new dual-gauge rail line between Bogra and Sirajganj, establishment of an economic zone at Mirsarai and special economic zone in Payra or Moheshkhali, a cross border electricity transmission line in Bogra, a 450 megawatt power plant in Gazipur, upgrading a highway between Comilla and Brahmanbaria, restoration of the River Buriganga, dredging in the Ashuganj-Zakiganj route and development of an inland container depot at Iswardhi.
In addition to the loan deal both the countries signed ‘The Joint Interpretative Notes on the Agreement between India and Bangladesh for the Promotion and Protection of Investments’ aiming at imparting clarity to the interpretation of the existing agreement between two countries on investments.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/25424/45b-loan-deal-inked-with-india
Banglar Bir
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Banglar Bir
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BSF Pushing Rohingyas into Bangladesh from India.
সাতক্ষীরায় ভারত থেকে আসা ১৯ রোহিঙ্গা আটক, কঠোর অবস্থানে দিল্লি........২০১৭-১০-১১
বাংলাদেশের সাতক্ষীরা সীমান্ত দিয়ে ভারত থেকে অবৈধভাবে আসা ১৯ রোহিঙ্গাকে আটক করেছে বিজিবি। আটকদের মধ্যে ১০ শিশু, ছয় নারী ও তিন পুরুষ রয়েছে।
আজ (বুধবার) ভোরে সাতক্ষীরা সদর উপজেলার পদ্মশাকরা সীমান্তে পৌঁছামাত্র ওই তাদেরকে আটক করা হয়।বিজিবির পদ্মশাকরা তল্লাশিচৌকির (বিওপি) কমান্ডার সুবেদার মোশাররফ হোসেন জানান, ওই রোহিঙ্গারা ভারত থেকে দেশটির সীমান্তরক্ষাকারী বাহিনী বিএসএফের সহায়তায় বাংলাদেশে আসে।
এর আগে ২০১২ ও ২০১৪ সালে দুই দফায় তারা মিয়ানমার থেকে ভারতের দিল্লিতে গিয়েছিল। এর পর থেকে সেখানেই বসবাস করে আসছিল। কিন্তু সম্প্রতি বাংলাদেশ সরকার রোহিঙ্গাদের আশ্রয় এবং খাদ্য, বস্ত্র ও চিকিৎসা দিচ্ছে বলে খবর পেয়ে তারা দিল্লি থেকে বাংলাদেশে চলে এসেছেন। তাদেরকে সাতক্ষীরা সদর থানায় সোপার্দ করাহয় বলে জানান বিজিবির ওই কর্মকর্তা। সাতক্ষীরা সদর থানার উপপরিদর্শক (এসআই) শরিফ এনামুল হক জানান, আটকরা বেশ ক্লান্ত। তাঁদের খাদ্য ও চিকিৎসা সহায়তা দেওয়া হচ্ছে।এর আগে গত ২২ সেপ্টেম্বর সাতক্ষীরার কলারোয়া বাসস্ট্যান্ড থেকে ১৩ জন এবং ৩ অক্টোবর কলারোয়ার হিজলদী সীমান্ত থেকে আরো সাত রোহিঙ্গাকে আটক করেন আইনশৃঙ্খলা বাহিনীর সদস্যরা।
বাংলাদেশের সাতক্ষীরা সীমান্ত দিয়ে ভারত থেকে অবৈধভাবে আসা ১৯ রোহিঙ্গাকে আটক করেছে বিজিবি। আটকদের মধ্যে ১০ শিশু, ছয় নারী ও তিন পুরুষ রয়েছে।
আজ (বুধবার) ভোরে সাতক্ষীরা সদর উপজেলার পদ্মশাকরা সীমান্তে পৌঁছামাত্র ওই তাদেরকে আটক করা হয়।বিজিবির পদ্মশাকরা তল্লাশিচৌকির (বিওপি) কমান্ডার সুবেদার মোশাররফ হোসেন জানান, ওই রোহিঙ্গারা ভারত থেকে দেশটির সীমান্তরক্ষাকারী বাহিনী বিএসএফের সহায়তায় বাংলাদেশে আসে।
এর আগে ২০১২ ও ২০১৪ সালে দুই দফায় তারা মিয়ানমার থেকে ভারতের দিল্লিতে গিয়েছিল। এর পর থেকে সেখানেই বসবাস করে আসছিল। কিন্তু সম্প্রতি বাংলাদেশ সরকার রোহিঙ্গাদের আশ্রয় এবং খাদ্য, বস্ত্র ও চিকিৎসা দিচ্ছে বলে খবর পেয়ে তারা দিল্লি থেকে বাংলাদেশে চলে এসেছেন। তাদেরকে সাতক্ষীরা সদর থানায় সোপার্দ করাহয় বলে জানান বিজিবির ওই কর্মকর্তা। সাতক্ষীরা সদর থানার উপপরিদর্শক (এসআই) শরিফ এনামুল হক জানান, আটকরা বেশ ক্লান্ত। তাঁদের খাদ্য ও চিকিৎসা সহায়তা দেওয়া হচ্ছে।এর আগে গত ২২ সেপ্টেম্বর সাতক্ষীরার কলারোয়া বাসস্ট্যান্ড থেকে ১৩ জন এবং ৩ অক্টোবর কলারোয়ার হিজলদী সীমান্ত থেকে আরো সাত রোহিঙ্গাকে আটক করেন আইনশৃঙ্খলা বাহিনীর সদস্যরা।
Banglar Bir
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বাংলাদেশে ১৫ লাখ অবৈধ ভারতীয় থাকছে এমনকি চাকুরি করছে পুলিশেও
Banglar Bir
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2006
- Messages
- 7,805
- Reaction score
- -3
- Country
- Location
TOXIC WASTE IN HAOR: TK 5,081 CRORE DAMAGE
Dhaka experts conceal truth, Indians confirm hazardous pollution
Karar M Hasan, Iqbal Siddiquee, H R Chowdhury and MM Ali
IRONICALLY the so-called Bangladeshi experts/scientists – who are prone at times to dancing to their master’s tune – have seemingly concealed the facts about toxic waste from Indian coal mines in trans-boundary rivers that severely damaged agriculture of this country this year in the north-eastern districts; on the contrary Indian scientists revealed the truth two years ago.
In 2015, the report of the Indian Central Pollution Control Board identified water of 38 rivers of Meghalaya and Assam hazardous.
The formation of ammonia gas from ‘rotten green paddy’ was identified as the reason for ‘depletion of oxygen level in the water’ and subsequent deaths of fishes, livestock and cattle in the ‘haor’ (wetland ecosystem) regions of Bangladesh, that started on March 27, at least two weeks ahead of its expected time.
Hundreds of tons of fishes died and thousands of tons of paddy were destroyed and cattle and livestock were lost in the haor region as ‘oxygen level in water fell due to formation of ammonia gas’, created by ‘rotten green paddy’, the government said. Since the paddy was not ripe and had remained submerged under water so it started rotting, the officials justified.
A careful examination of the government statement reveals that the green paddy remained under water for a longer period so it started rotting on its own and led to ‘formation of ammonia’ and ‘depletion of oxygen’, and caused the havoc, i.e., loss of crop, death of livestock, cattle and fish. Livestock and cattle die in floods, but the death of fish in such huge volume was never heard of earlier. According to a survey the damage caused to Bangladesh agriculture is to the tune of Taka 5,081 crore (US $620 million).
The theory negated
The theory of ‘formation of ammonia’ from ‘rotten green paddy’ and ‘depletion of oxygen’, as the reason for the devastation, however, does not fit in all the haor districts since no death of fishes was reported from the two haor districts—-Kishorganj and Habiganj.
Is the flash flood this year different from those in the past? Before we probe into it further let us first take a general view of people who live on the banks of haors for generations. Suffering loss of crop from flash flood almost every year is not new for them, but loss of crop this year does not match their past experiences.
Loss of fish in flood was never heard of, even to those who are now octogenarian.
A bad smell began floating in the air within a few days of the onrush of flood water and the stink persisted for a few weeks, which added a different dimension to it. The flood came earlier this year and the colour of its water this year was also different from those in the past, some victims living around the haors observed.
Considering the views of haor dwellers on one side and official theory that propounds - ‘formation of ammonia’ from ‘rotten green paddy’ and ‘depletion of oxygen’ as the reason for loss of crop, death of livestock, cattle and fish - on the other, one may ask the following questions.
Did the government receive any early flood warning forecast from India? Assuming that ‘formation of ammonia’ from ‘rotten green paddy’ and ‘depletion of oxygen’ caused huge loss of crop and fish in the haor region, one may ask why did not a single fish die in Kishorganj and Habiganj the two other haor districts that also lost ‘green paddy’?
When scientists dance to their master’s tune
The highest losses of 119 MT of fish were reported in Netrokona, while fish losses in Sunamganj, Moulvi Bazar and Sylhet were respectively 49.75 MT, 25 MT and 21 MT.
Netrokona’s loss of fish was more than the losses suffered in all other districts put together.
Question arises why officials and scientists flocked to Sunamganj and Sylhet instead of Netrokona, which suffered the highest fish casualties?
Was the government unnerved following a report in an English language newspaper that linked the death of fishes in Sunamganj to those from across the border allegedly caused by uranium poisoning?Whether the government was unnerved or panic stricken may be assessed from the visits of officials and coverage on flash floods prior to the daily’s report and in its aftermath.
The way scientists and academics were posing before camera lenses and talking about the test results of water samples of the affected haors gives rise to another question whether the government at all has any mechanism to assess the water quality of trans-boundary rivers to identify potential problems before it poses serious adverse health effects.
The parameters for water quality assessment and monitoring include:
pH, temperature, conductivity, salinity and dissolved oxygen. Further tests may also be done for nitrates, iron, hardness, bacteria and benthic organism.
Had there been any facility for water quality test of trans-boundary rivers at entry points then the government could have released its findings when the English language daily published its report.
Academics and scientists who flocked to Sylhet and Sunamganj also could have asked for water quality reports of trans-boundary rivers at their entry points.
Water quality reports of trans-boundary rivers at entry points and those of water bodies inside Bangladesh prior to the death of fishes and after the deaths should be compared and made public. Otherwise the theory of ‘formation of ammonia’ from ‘rotten green paddy’ and ‘depletion of oxygen’ – causing huge loss of crop and fish in the haor region will be challenged not on grounds of its authenticity only but also regarding the intention of those who propounded it.
AMD carried by trans-boundary rivers
Earlier it was pointed out that the above mentioned theory does not fit in in case of Habiganj and Kishorganj —-the two haor districts that lost crops but reported no fish casualty.
In case of Habiganj, its three trans-boundary rivers —- Khowai, Sonai and Sutang—-neither originate nor flow through any coal mining region. There is no report of direct discharge of mine effluent AMD (Acid Mine Drainage) in any of those rivers. Besides, Kishorganj does not receive water directly from any trans-boundary river.
Volumes of researches conducted in Europe, America, Australia, Africa and in parts of Asia reveal that acidity of AMD contaminated water weakens, when acidic water starts mixing with fresh water and crosses longer distance from its source.
This again depends on a number of factors like – the level of AMD contamination at the source, the speed at which it crosses a certain distance, the volume of fresh water it mixes with and so on.
In case of Kishorganj and Habiganj, the AMD contaminated water of trans-boundary rivers crossed a longer distance before entering the districts. Acidity in the water reduced as it moved further downstream. Devastating other districts, the AMD water when entered Kishorganj and Habiganj it could destroy crop only but lost its strength to harm the fish population.
Were the facts concealed?
Handling of the AMD issue and its direct discharge into the trans-boundary rivers that resulted in the devastation of the haor basin brings into light two questions :–
(i) Was not the government at all aware of the matter?
(ii) Was it an attempt from any quarter to conceal facts related to direct discharge of AMD into trans-boundary rivers from people of Bangladesh who have been bearing its brunt for almost a decade?
Loss of homestead and cultivable land in Sunamganj under the effluent of ‘mine drainage’ and filling up of haors with ‘voluminous amount of granules and sediments from across the border’ were reported in the newspapers during the past several years.
Reports also claim ‘government is aware’ of the ‘environmental threats’ the country faces due to ‘unplanned mining activities across the border’. ‘Filling of cultivable land by the mine discharge’ was raised between the two countries reports reveal quoting official documents. According to these reports Bangladesh also urged its neighbour ‘to stop such activity detrimental to the interest of its people, environment and ecology’.
Indians confirm AMD pollution
What was more surprising in the event of flash floods in the haor region was the approach of the Bangladeshi scientists and scholars who were shying away from admitting facts which their Indian counterparts had conceded to long ago. In their articles and scientific papers published in journals and discussed in seminars, the Indian scientists and scholars admitted the fact that most of the ‘rivers and streams’ from Meghalaya that flow towards ‘‘south-east into the floodplains of Bangladesh is badly affected by contamination of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)’’.
Even the 2015 report of central pollution control board of the Indian government under the ministry of environment, forest and climate change identified ‘water quality criteria limit’ for 10 out of 19 rivers of Meghalaya and 28 rivers of Assam ‘exceeds’ the permissible limit.
We feel, direct discharge of AMD into the trans-boundary rivers of whole coal mining’ in the north eastern state of Meghalaya for over Northeast India and Bangladesh as pointed out by Indian researchers and academics contributed to the huge losses of fish and crops in some haor districts during the flash floods of 2017. Indian scientists identified ‘certain stretches’ of some trans -boundary rivers had been ‘devoid of fish’ due to ‘high toxicity’ of its water, resulting from direct discharge of AMD into water bodies in coal mining areas.
Studying the ‘unscientific’ and ‘illegal’ mining, particularly ‘at least three decades, they also documented its fall out on environment and ecology. As a result media personnel, environmentalist groups and student organizations also have been raising their concern over these issues for the past several years.
AMD dumping: No fish in Meghalay
Netrokona river Someshwari is known as Simsang River in Meghalaya. Simsang, a major river in the coal mining areas of Garo Hills, poses ‘severe threats to the aquatic biota’ owing to ‘discharge of AMD directly into the river’ and ‘dumping of coal for auction on its bank’, according to a study conducted over a period of six years period.
Due to ‘excessive accumulation of AMD’, the Simsang that divides the Garo Hills into two parts – East Garo Hills district and South Garo Hills district before entering Bangladesh – ‘is devoid of any aquatic organism in some areas of the river,’ the report said.
The Simsang, an important tourist mark, ‘‘is under severe pollution threat’’, said the study titled Impact of Open Cast Coal Mining on Fish and Fisheries of the Simsang River, Meghalaya, India. The study conducted over a period of six years prepared by Bandita Talukdar, Jugabrat Das et al pointed out that there has neither been any ‘‘systematic study on the coal mine pollution load’’ on the river nor has there been any impact analysis on its ‘‘aquatic species’’.
The study conducted during 2009 and 2015 along the ‘entire stretch’ of Simsang River covered ‘an area of about 290 km2’. Six study sites selected along its banks were: ‘Nokrek Biosphere Reserve’ and ‘Romagre’, away from coal mining activities; Williamnagar, a regular coal dumping site; Nangalbibra, having most of the coal mining activity in the vicinity of its hills; Siju, has coal mining around it too; and Baghmara, transports coal by boats regularly.
Another study entitled “Acid Mine Drainage, a potential threat to fish fauna of the Simsang River, Meghalaya, reveals more than 100km stretch’’ of the Simsang is ‘severely affected due to coal mining’.
‘While passing through Nongal Bibra, a small town in the East Garo Hill’, the river, according to the study ‘receives a large amount of AMD’. Pointing out the ‘fish faunal diversity; the river was ‘once well known for’ has now ‘declined over the years due to indiscriminate coal mining’.
The study jointly conducted by Sumanta Kumar Mallik, Debajit Sarma, Dandadhar Sarma and Neetu Shahi was published in the Current Science, Vol. 109, No. 6884, 25 August 2015.
Of the four sampling sites of the study ‘William Nagar’, in the upstream of river simsang, ‘is away from the coal-mining areas’ while the other sites - ‘Bagmora’, “Nongla Bibra and Sijue’ - were used as ‘AMD receiving points’ the study said noting, ‘coal excavation’ was also carried out in the last two river banks in the downstream.
Samples of the study were collected during august 2013 to December 2014, the research said adding ‘at Nongal Bibra the fish fauna was completely absent’. At this site the ‘pH was very low (<3.0)’, the study said adding that at ‘Nongal Bibra, the metal concentrations were equal to or greater than the levels usually considered toxic to most of the fish species’.
Findings of the study reveal ‘low species diversity’ in Simsang River that provides evidence of its conditions to be ‘stressful and toxic’.
Karar M Hasan, a former secretary to the government, Iqbal Siddiquee, HR Chowdhury are Sylhet-based and MM Ali is a freelance journalist
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx
Dhaka experts conceal truth, Indians confirm hazardous pollution
Karar M Hasan, Iqbal Siddiquee, H R Chowdhury and MM Ali
IRONICALLY the so-called Bangladeshi experts/scientists – who are prone at times to dancing to their master’s tune – have seemingly concealed the facts about toxic waste from Indian coal mines in trans-boundary rivers that severely damaged agriculture of this country this year in the north-eastern districts; on the contrary Indian scientists revealed the truth two years ago.
In 2015, the report of the Indian Central Pollution Control Board identified water of 38 rivers of Meghalaya and Assam hazardous.
The formation of ammonia gas from ‘rotten green paddy’ was identified as the reason for ‘depletion of oxygen level in the water’ and subsequent deaths of fishes, livestock and cattle in the ‘haor’ (wetland ecosystem) regions of Bangladesh, that started on March 27, at least two weeks ahead of its expected time.
Hundreds of tons of fishes died and thousands of tons of paddy were destroyed and cattle and livestock were lost in the haor region as ‘oxygen level in water fell due to formation of ammonia gas’, created by ‘rotten green paddy’, the government said. Since the paddy was not ripe and had remained submerged under water so it started rotting, the officials justified.
A careful examination of the government statement reveals that the green paddy remained under water for a longer period so it started rotting on its own and led to ‘formation of ammonia’ and ‘depletion of oxygen’, and caused the havoc, i.e., loss of crop, death of livestock, cattle and fish. Livestock and cattle die in floods, but the death of fish in such huge volume was never heard of earlier. According to a survey the damage caused to Bangladesh agriculture is to the tune of Taka 5,081 crore (US $620 million).
The theory negated
The theory of ‘formation of ammonia’ from ‘rotten green paddy’ and ‘depletion of oxygen’, as the reason for the devastation, however, does not fit in all the haor districts since no death of fishes was reported from the two haor districts—-Kishorganj and Habiganj.
Is the flash flood this year different from those in the past? Before we probe into it further let us first take a general view of people who live on the banks of haors for generations. Suffering loss of crop from flash flood almost every year is not new for them, but loss of crop this year does not match their past experiences.
Loss of fish in flood was never heard of, even to those who are now octogenarian.
A bad smell began floating in the air within a few days of the onrush of flood water and the stink persisted for a few weeks, which added a different dimension to it. The flood came earlier this year and the colour of its water this year was also different from those in the past, some victims living around the haors observed.
Considering the views of haor dwellers on one side and official theory that propounds - ‘formation of ammonia’ from ‘rotten green paddy’ and ‘depletion of oxygen’ as the reason for loss of crop, death of livestock, cattle and fish - on the other, one may ask the following questions.
Did the government receive any early flood warning forecast from India? Assuming that ‘formation of ammonia’ from ‘rotten green paddy’ and ‘depletion of oxygen’ caused huge loss of crop and fish in the haor region, one may ask why did not a single fish die in Kishorganj and Habiganj the two other haor districts that also lost ‘green paddy’?
When scientists dance to their master’s tune
The highest losses of 119 MT of fish were reported in Netrokona, while fish losses in Sunamganj, Moulvi Bazar and Sylhet were respectively 49.75 MT, 25 MT and 21 MT.
Netrokona’s loss of fish was more than the losses suffered in all other districts put together.
Question arises why officials and scientists flocked to Sunamganj and Sylhet instead of Netrokona, which suffered the highest fish casualties?
Was the government unnerved following a report in an English language newspaper that linked the death of fishes in Sunamganj to those from across the border allegedly caused by uranium poisoning?Whether the government was unnerved or panic stricken may be assessed from the visits of officials and coverage on flash floods prior to the daily’s report and in its aftermath.
The way scientists and academics were posing before camera lenses and talking about the test results of water samples of the affected haors gives rise to another question whether the government at all has any mechanism to assess the water quality of trans-boundary rivers to identify potential problems before it poses serious adverse health effects.
The parameters for water quality assessment and monitoring include:
pH, temperature, conductivity, salinity and dissolved oxygen. Further tests may also be done for nitrates, iron, hardness, bacteria and benthic organism.
Had there been any facility for water quality test of trans-boundary rivers at entry points then the government could have released its findings when the English language daily published its report.
Academics and scientists who flocked to Sylhet and Sunamganj also could have asked for water quality reports of trans-boundary rivers at their entry points.
Water quality reports of trans-boundary rivers at entry points and those of water bodies inside Bangladesh prior to the death of fishes and after the deaths should be compared and made public. Otherwise the theory of ‘formation of ammonia’ from ‘rotten green paddy’ and ‘depletion of oxygen’ – causing huge loss of crop and fish in the haor region will be challenged not on grounds of its authenticity only but also regarding the intention of those who propounded it.
AMD carried by trans-boundary rivers
Earlier it was pointed out that the above mentioned theory does not fit in in case of Habiganj and Kishorganj —-the two haor districts that lost crops but reported no fish casualty.
In case of Habiganj, its three trans-boundary rivers —- Khowai, Sonai and Sutang—-neither originate nor flow through any coal mining region. There is no report of direct discharge of mine effluent AMD (Acid Mine Drainage) in any of those rivers. Besides, Kishorganj does not receive water directly from any trans-boundary river.
Volumes of researches conducted in Europe, America, Australia, Africa and in parts of Asia reveal that acidity of AMD contaminated water weakens, when acidic water starts mixing with fresh water and crosses longer distance from its source.
This again depends on a number of factors like – the level of AMD contamination at the source, the speed at which it crosses a certain distance, the volume of fresh water it mixes with and so on.
In case of Kishorganj and Habiganj, the AMD contaminated water of trans-boundary rivers crossed a longer distance before entering the districts. Acidity in the water reduced as it moved further downstream. Devastating other districts, the AMD water when entered Kishorganj and Habiganj it could destroy crop only but lost its strength to harm the fish population.
Were the facts concealed?
Handling of the AMD issue and its direct discharge into the trans-boundary rivers that resulted in the devastation of the haor basin brings into light two questions :–
(i) Was not the government at all aware of the matter?
(ii) Was it an attempt from any quarter to conceal facts related to direct discharge of AMD into trans-boundary rivers from people of Bangladesh who have been bearing its brunt for almost a decade?
Loss of homestead and cultivable land in Sunamganj under the effluent of ‘mine drainage’ and filling up of haors with ‘voluminous amount of granules and sediments from across the border’ were reported in the newspapers during the past several years.
Reports also claim ‘government is aware’ of the ‘environmental threats’ the country faces due to ‘unplanned mining activities across the border’. ‘Filling of cultivable land by the mine discharge’ was raised between the two countries reports reveal quoting official documents. According to these reports Bangladesh also urged its neighbour ‘to stop such activity detrimental to the interest of its people, environment and ecology’.
Indians confirm AMD pollution
What was more surprising in the event of flash floods in the haor region was the approach of the Bangladeshi scientists and scholars who were shying away from admitting facts which their Indian counterparts had conceded to long ago. In their articles and scientific papers published in journals and discussed in seminars, the Indian scientists and scholars admitted the fact that most of the ‘rivers and streams’ from Meghalaya that flow towards ‘‘south-east into the floodplains of Bangladesh is badly affected by contamination of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)’’.
Even the 2015 report of central pollution control board of the Indian government under the ministry of environment, forest and climate change identified ‘water quality criteria limit’ for 10 out of 19 rivers of Meghalaya and 28 rivers of Assam ‘exceeds’ the permissible limit.
We feel, direct discharge of AMD into the trans-boundary rivers of whole coal mining’ in the north eastern state of Meghalaya for over Northeast India and Bangladesh as pointed out by Indian researchers and academics contributed to the huge losses of fish and crops in some haor districts during the flash floods of 2017. Indian scientists identified ‘certain stretches’ of some trans -boundary rivers had been ‘devoid of fish’ due to ‘high toxicity’ of its water, resulting from direct discharge of AMD into water bodies in coal mining areas.
Studying the ‘unscientific’ and ‘illegal’ mining, particularly ‘at least three decades, they also documented its fall out on environment and ecology. As a result media personnel, environmentalist groups and student organizations also have been raising their concern over these issues for the past several years.
AMD dumping: No fish in Meghalay
Netrokona river Someshwari is known as Simsang River in Meghalaya. Simsang, a major river in the coal mining areas of Garo Hills, poses ‘severe threats to the aquatic biota’ owing to ‘discharge of AMD directly into the river’ and ‘dumping of coal for auction on its bank’, according to a study conducted over a period of six years period.
Due to ‘excessive accumulation of AMD’, the Simsang that divides the Garo Hills into two parts – East Garo Hills district and South Garo Hills district before entering Bangladesh – ‘is devoid of any aquatic organism in some areas of the river,’ the report said.
The Simsang, an important tourist mark, ‘‘is under severe pollution threat’’, said the study titled Impact of Open Cast Coal Mining on Fish and Fisheries of the Simsang River, Meghalaya, India. The study conducted over a period of six years prepared by Bandita Talukdar, Jugabrat Das et al pointed out that there has neither been any ‘‘systematic study on the coal mine pollution load’’ on the river nor has there been any impact analysis on its ‘‘aquatic species’’.
The study conducted during 2009 and 2015 along the ‘entire stretch’ of Simsang River covered ‘an area of about 290 km2’. Six study sites selected along its banks were: ‘Nokrek Biosphere Reserve’ and ‘Romagre’, away from coal mining activities; Williamnagar, a regular coal dumping site; Nangalbibra, having most of the coal mining activity in the vicinity of its hills; Siju, has coal mining around it too; and Baghmara, transports coal by boats regularly.
Another study entitled “Acid Mine Drainage, a potential threat to fish fauna of the Simsang River, Meghalaya, reveals more than 100km stretch’’ of the Simsang is ‘severely affected due to coal mining’.
‘While passing through Nongal Bibra, a small town in the East Garo Hill’, the river, according to the study ‘receives a large amount of AMD’. Pointing out the ‘fish faunal diversity; the river was ‘once well known for’ has now ‘declined over the years due to indiscriminate coal mining’.
The study jointly conducted by Sumanta Kumar Mallik, Debajit Sarma, Dandadhar Sarma and Neetu Shahi was published in the Current Science, Vol. 109, No. 6884, 25 August 2015.
Of the four sampling sites of the study ‘William Nagar’, in the upstream of river simsang, ‘is away from the coal-mining areas’ while the other sites - ‘Bagmora’, “Nongla Bibra and Sijue’ - were used as ‘AMD receiving points’ the study said noting, ‘coal excavation’ was also carried out in the last two river banks in the downstream.
Samples of the study were collected during august 2013 to December 2014, the research said adding ‘at Nongal Bibra the fish fauna was completely absent’. At this site the ‘pH was very low (<3.0)’, the study said adding that at ‘Nongal Bibra, the metal concentrations were equal to or greater than the levels usually considered toxic to most of the fish species’.
Findings of the study reveal ‘low species diversity’ in Simsang River that provides evidence of its conditions to be ‘stressful and toxic’.
Karar M Hasan, a former secretary to the government, Iqbal Siddiquee, HR Chowdhury are Sylhet-based and MM Ali is a freelance journalist
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx
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