The New Nation - Internet Edition

From the Foreign Press: India and Islam: Fresh blood from an old wound

Pankaj Mishra

Midway through the murderous rampage in Mumbai, one of the suspected gunmen at the besieged Jewish centre called a popular Indian TV channel. Speaking in Urdu (the primary language of Pakistan and many Indian Muslims), he ranted against the recent visit of an Israeli general to the Indian-ruled section of the Kashmir Valley. Referring to the Pakistan-backed insurgency in the valley, and the Indian military response to it, he asked, "Are you aware how many people have been killed in Kashmir?"

In a separate phone call, another gunman invoked the oppression of Muslims by Hindu nationalists and the destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in 1992. Such calls were the only occasions on which the militants, whom initial reports have tied to the Pakistani jihadist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, offered a likely motive for their indiscriminate slaughter. Their rhetoric seems all too familiar. Nevertheless, it shows how older political conflicts in South Asia have been rendered more noxious by the fallout from the "war on terror" and the rise of international jihadism.

Pakistan, a nation-state founded on Islam, has long claimed Muslim-majority Kashmir, and has fought three wars with India over it since 1947. In the early 1990s, as an anti-India insurgency in Kashmir intensified, groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba became the Pakistani government's proxies in its war of attrition with India.

American pressure after 9/11 forced Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, to ban Lashkar-e-Taiba, which had developed links with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. With Musharraf's departure from office in September, it would be no surprise if this turned out to be the Muslim group's first major atrocity since 2001. Pakistan's new civilian government is too weak to control either the extremist groups within the country or the various rogue elements within its military and intelligence. The American military was reported to have started bombing supposed terrorist hideouts inside Pakistan's borders even as Musharraf stumbled to the exit. As its increasingly desperate pleas to the Bush administration to stop the attacks go unheeded, Pakistan's government appears pathetically helpless to its own citizens.

The sense of humiliation and impotence that this loss of sovereignty creates in Pakistan, a country with a strong tradition of populist nationalism, cannot be underestimated.

Meanwhile, India's influence in Afghanistan has grown as it pours reconstruction money into the country, as have its military ties with Israel. Add to this the Bush administration's decision to reward India with a generous nuclear deal and to more or less ignore Kashmir, where in August Indian security forces brutally suppressed the biggest nonviolent demonstrations in the valley's history, and recent attacks against the Indian Embassy in Kabul, the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, and now in Mumbai begin to appear to be connected by more than chronology.

Meanwhile, Indian intelligence experts suspect that jihadists and disaffected members of Pakistan's armed forces and intelligence agencies have forged closer links and, as the string of recent bomb attacks on Indian cities reveals, are rapidly making new allies among the 13 percent of Indians who are Muslim.

It is very likely that Barack Obama will take a different tack from the Bush administration in antiterrorism efforts in South Asia. In an interview with MSNBC last month, he said that his administration would encourage India to solve the Kashmir dispute with Pakistan, so that Islamabad can cooperate with the United States in Afghanistan.

The idea that the road to stability in South Asia goes through Kashmir is as persuasive as the notion that the path to peace in the Middle East goes through Jerusalem. It is also equally hard to realise. Obama could act quickly to stem growing extremism in Pakistan and strengthen civilian authority by ending American missile attacks within its borders and shifting the allied strategy in Afghanistan away from military force and toward political nation-building and economic reconstruction.

At the same time, he will have to find a solution in Kashmir that endows its Muslims with a measure of autonomy while pacifying extremists in both India and Pakistan.

The new president's moral and intellectual authority will be vital in negotiations with India, which, like China regarding Tibet, adamantly rejects third-party mediation in Kashmir. Obama could point out the obvious to Indian leaders: They have paid a huge price for their intransigence over Kashmir, with an estimated 80,000 dead in the valley in the last two decades and a resultant rise in terrorist attacks across India.

Indeed, the outrage in Mumbai is the latest and clearest sign that the price of India's uncompromising stance on Kashmir has become too high, imperiling its economy as well as its security. Indian anger over the fumbling response to the brazen attacks disguises the panicky realisation that there can be no effective defence against terrorists in a country with a long coastline and densely populated cities. The best India can hope for is to improve what Ratan Tata - the country's leading industrialist and the owner of last week's main terrorist target, Mumbai's Taj Hotel - calls "crisis management."

As the economy falters (Mumbai's stock market has lost nearly 60 percent of its value this year), India can barely cope with homegrown violent movements like the Maoist insurgency in its central states, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as the biggest internal security threat to India since independence.

Pointing to the Bush administration's vigorous response to 9/11, Indian commentators lament that India is a "soft state," unable to defend itself from internal and external enemies. But India cannot turn into a "hard" state without swiftly undermining its secular, multicultural democracy.

The government has already experimented with draconian laws like the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act of 2002 which, among other measures, allowed the police to hold suspects without charge for six months. It was repealed in 2004 after many abuses against Muslims were revealed. While these attacks may lead to calls for more tough measures, Indians cannot lose sight of the peril that 150 million Muslims would lose their faith in India's political and legal system. And it is obviously dangerous to threaten Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state, with war.

As president, Obama could conceivably persuade India and Pakistan to see the virtue of a political solution to Kashmir. But he would first, have to set an example by rejecting the false assumptions of a global war on terrorism based primarily on military force - assumptions that the elites of powerful countries with restive minorities like India, China and Russia have eagerly embraced since 9/11.

"The people of India deeply love you," Prime Minister Singh said to President Bush in September while thanking him for the nuclear deal.

Yet it is Obama who has the opportunity to create deeper and more enduring alliances for the United States in South Asia - and he should start with Kashmir.

(Pankaj Mishra is the author of "Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond.")

Rebels out to undo AL in JS polls

Pankaj Karmakar

The accumulated anger among the Awami League (AL) leaders and activists is intensifying day by day for being discriminated for nomination in the parliamentary polls scheduled for December 29.

A huge number of nomination deprived AL leaders submitted nomination forms as independent candidates and continued to stage demonstrations demanding justice as party's dedicated leaders.

A number of senior AL leaders claimed that the central parliamentary board of the party was awarding nomination to the Jatiya Party (JP) leaders keeping the AL strong candidates aside, where the possibilities of victory are near to nil.

There is another allegation against the JP president HM Ershad that having assured of 50 seats from the AL chief Sheikh Hasina, now he is engaged in nomination business and selling nominations in exchange of huge amount of money.

The AL has to relinquish about 60 seats for its allies for the sake of maintaining the alliance although AL has more than one popular and efficient candidate for each constituency.

According to party sources, the position of the JP in 22 seats of Rangpur region, which is called the Vote Bank of JP, is good. But in other constituencies, there is a slim possibility of achieving good results. That is why the more than 35 disgruntled AL leaders have registered themselves as independent candidates.

Efforts of the policymaking body of the party are on to keep the rebel candidates cool.

According to the recently announced Representation of People Order (RPO), all the political parties have to select candidates on the basis of proposal of the grassroots level leaders. But there are a large number of AL candidates who came out first in different constituencies in the selection of the grassroots level leaders, had not been awarded nominations for unknown reason.

The grassroots level activists and voters have fallen in confusion, as the AL is frequently changing candidates and a number of AL rebel candidates have filed nomination papers as independent candidates.

In Netrokona-1 Jalaluddin Talukdar got the party ticket. Later his candidature was cancelled and Jubo League leader Mustak Ahmed Rony was selected there. In Netrokona-2, Left. Col (Retd) Nur Khan was selected. But he was shorn off and Ashraf Ali Khan got the party ticket. Lastly, AL relinquished the seat for JP leader Fakir Ashraf. In Netrokona-3, AL leader Iftekhar Uddin Pintu has filed nomination as independent candidate where Manjur Kader Qurashi got the party ticket. In Netrokona-4, Shafi Ahmed got the ticket after Rebeka Momin was dropped. None of them have withdrawn their nomination papers.

In Mymensing-7 Ali Reza got the party ticket where another AL leader Ruhul Amin Madani and Abdul Matin filed nomination papers as independent candidates.

In Mymensing-10, Capt (Retd) Giyashuddin Ahmed got the party ticket where AL leader Obidullah Anwar Bulbul and AKM Shabuddin Ahmed filed nominations as independent candidates.

AL central Deputy Office Secretary BM Mozammel Haque got the party ticket for Shariatpur-1. But another AL leader Mobarak Ali Mollah filed nomination.

In Dinajpur-1, Monoranjan Shil Gopal got the party ticket. But AL leader Syed Reza Hossain filed nomination paper as independent candidate. In Dinajpur-4, former diplomat AH Mahmud Ali got the party ticket where another AL leader Mizanur Rahman Manu filed nomination as independent candidate.

The AL leaders and activists in Pirojpur-1 become angry as soon as they heard the name of JP presidium member Mostafa Jalal Haider as the candidate of the grand alliance. AKM Awal, General Secretary of District AL unit filed nomination there.

Hundreds of AL leaders and activists of Bogra-3 on Tuesday staged demonstrations protesting the candidature of Maj Gen (Retd) Golam Mawla. The angry activists also barricaded the Shantahar-Bogra Highway demanding the cancellation of his candidature.

On the same day the followers of SA Akram, nomination aspirants of Narayanganj-5, vandalised the district party office, as Akram did not get nomination of the grand alliance.

There are a number of allegations against the JP leaders who got nominations under the banner of the alliance.

In Nilphamari-1, Hamida Banu Shova got the party ticket. But later JP leader Zafal Iqbal Siddique, reportedly a non-Bengali and not very well known figure in the locality, got the nomination of the grand alliance.

In Rangpur-5, JP leader SM Fakruzzaman got the nomination from the alliance who is allegedly involved in bomb explosion in Mithapukur. AL central treasurer and former state minister HN Ashikur Rahman was left out.

In Jessore-6, JP leader Mawlana Shakhawat Hossain, who contested the parliamentary polls in 1991 with Jamaat-e-Islami ticket, got the nomination from the alliance. According to the local correspondent, he played controversial role during the Liberation War in 1971.

In Nilphamari-3, JP leader Kazi Faruk Kader, son of Muslim League leader Kazi Kader, got the nomination. According to the Sectors Commanders Forum, Kazi Kader was actively opposed freedom of Bangladesh.

In Rangpur-4, an amateur in politics, Asif Sharier, nephew of HM Ershad, got the nomination.

In Kishoreganj-3, JP leader and former deputy minister Mujibul Haque Chunnu, who joined in BNP in 2000, got the nomination.

In Munshiganj-3, JP candidate Advocate Mujibur Rahman, well known as a BNP leader and elected municipality mayor in BNP ticket, got the nomination from the AL-led alliance.

In Manikganj-2, JP leader Abdul Mannan got the nomination but he was a BNP candidate in the postponed January 22 elections.

In Dhaka-7, the aspiring candidate of the alliance JP leader Harun-Or-Rashid on November 27 sat in interview in front of BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia to get nomination from the 4 party alliance. Having failed to succeed there he got nomination as the JP candidate of the alliance.

Talking to the New Nation, AL presidium member Begum Matia Chowdhury said, " It is not unusual to have some dispute in the nomination awarding process, as AL is the largest party of the country. All the disputes regarding nomination will be resolved after December 11, the last date of withdrawal of nominations."

Asked about awarding nomination to some inefficient leaders of JP instead of popular and experienced AL leaders she said, " We have to do many things to maintain the alliance."

Bangladesh to achieve MDGs in health sector

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh will achieve some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to health and education sectors by 2015.

The optimism was expressed at a four-day international conference on 'Scaling Up: An Essential Strategy to Attaining Good for All' at Gazipur.

Addressing the conference, Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and Chairperson of BRAC, said health and education sectors have been making substantial progress towards achieving MDGs.

He said life expectancy in Bangladesh has now gone up to 65 years which previously was 45 years while infant mortality rate has reduced from 150 to 52, maternal mortality rate from 30 to 3 and the total fertility rate reduced from above 6 to below 3.

EU to raise ODA of their GNI by 2015

UNB, Dhaka

The European Union (EU) has assured an international conference in Doha, Qatar to increase their ODA to 0.7 percent of GNI by the year 2015 for fulfil ling their commitment as per the Monterrey Consensus.

Finance Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam disclosed the EU reaffirmation at a press briefing at the Planning Ministry on Wednesday, after returning home from the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development.

Book on Constitution unveiled in city

Staff reporter

Speakers at a meeting yesterday said the amendments to the Constitution were made not for public interest but by self-seeking rulers after the War of Liberation.

This was disclosed at a programme of unveiling the cover of a book titled Songbidhan Sohoj Paat, by Justice Golam Rabbani and published by Samunnaya.

Manusher Jonno, an organisation working for good governance, arranged the programme in association with Samunnaya at the National Press Club in the city.

They said Bangladeshis paid in blood in the War of Liberation to get the Constitution. They said the spirit of the Liberation was reflected in the Constitution of 1972.

JMB leader held with arms

UNB, Dinajpur

RAB troops arrested a JMB leader along with a revolver, explosives and explosive-making materials at Kashigari village in Ghoraghat upazila Tuesday night.

Tipped off, a RAB team from Dhaka conducted a drive at Debipur village and arrested Shahin, 30, son of Sekander Ali earlier in the afternoon.

Acting on his confessional statement, the RAB team raided the house of Maulana Abdullah Hil Kafi at Kashigari village at night and arrested his son-in-law and JMB leader Shahidul, 55, also a teacher of local Narayanpur Qoumi Madrasah.

Primary school at each village demanded

Staff Reporter

Amar Odhikar Campaign, a coalition of non-government organisations works with citizen rights, yesterday demanded of the government to ensure establishing at least one primary school in each village across the country aiming at reaching primary education to all.

The organisation at an opinion exchange meeting at Dhaka Reporters' Unity (DRU) also demanded providing midday meals to primary students, ensuring one teacher for each 40 students and incorporating the educational rights entrusted in the Constitution as fundamental rights.

Presided over by convenor of the organisation Rokeya Kabir, the meeting was also addressed, among others, by joint convenor Shamsunnahar Aziz Lina, executive members Shishir Sheel, AK Hero, Abdul Awal and Rafiqul Hasan.

The speakers at the meeting emphasised the need for introducing uniform education for all at a certain level of education to remove indiscrimination in the sector.

The meeting was informed that there are 38 villages in the country, particularly in the remote areas, where no primary school was still built up.

According to a statistic there are 1,98,97 thousands children (aged 6-10) across the country who are eligible to got to schools. Of them, about 37,00,000 children are still deprived from going to schools.

The organisers said they would coordinate activities of member organisations and take programmes to create awareness among the people to pressure to the government for taking necessary action in this regard.

Dacoits loot valuables worth Tk 3.5 lakh

Staff Reporter

Armed dacoits stormed a businessman's house in city's Malibagh area and looted valuables worth Tk 3.5 lakh Wednesday evening, the victim said.

Police said the suspected bandits, numbering 5-6, entered the house of Mohammad Zakaria Nisan after pressing the door calling bell at about 7:15pm and took away the valuables. They held the inmates hostage at gunpoint.

During the incident, Zakaria was hit on the head and received minor injuries Police registered a robbery case but no one was arrested until submission of this report.

Shishu Hospital Ordinance soon

Staff Reporter

"Dhaka Shishu (Children) Hospital Ordinance" is going to be promulgated soon to maintain activities of the hospital under a legal procedure, said AMM Shwakat Ali, Adviser of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

He said this as chief guest at the inauguration ceremony of a cabin block containing 20 beds and a 40-beds ward at the hospital in the city on Monday last.

Presided over by Prof Mahmudur Rahman, president of the Hospital Management Board, AMM Nasir Uddin, Secretary to the ministry was present as special guest while Director of the hospital Prof AR Khan, Prof Nayla Zaman Khan, among others, spoke.

BB Governor says: WB, GDP growth projection casts negative impact

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed yesterday said the World Bank projection on Bangladesh's GDP growth has cast a negative impact on the country's people.

"The way they forecast has not been really good, particularly under the circumstance of current global financial turmoil," he said while addressing the inaugural session of a workshop at Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Centre.

International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh (ICC,B) organized an IFC 'FIT Initiative' certificate awarding ceremony followed by the workshop titled 'International Trade Payments: Management and Operation'.

The Governor made the remarks apparently in response to ICC,B president Mahbubur Rahman's concern over making public such sensitive observations on the economy.

He said the World Bank and IMF could have shared their forecast with policymakers, economists and businessmen to give an idea about the possible impact of global financial crisis on the economy. "But they cannot make public the specific numbers."

ICC,B president Mahbubur Rahman said the international financial institutions should be careful in making such projections public without having consultation with our policymakers, the business community and other stakeholders. He urged the Governor to arrange a formal meeting with the World Bank together with government policymakers, business leaders and others concerned to have threadbare discussions on the World Bank and local projections on the economic growth.

"We must strongly oppose such kind of negative public statement without providing relevant facts and figures," he said.

Asked about the World Bank projection of 4.8 percent GDP growth during the current fiscal year at a press briefing at the Planning Ministry on Wednesday, Finance Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam said he does not see any reason that the GDP growth would go down below 6 percent.

Transition to elected govt vital for Bangladesh: UK envoy

UNB, Dhaka

British High Commissioner Stephen Evans said smooth transition to elected government through free and credible elections in December is vital for Bangladesh as the country cannot afford to go on with the politics of confrontation and divisions.

Speaking at DCAB Talks at the National Press Club yesterday, he favoured full lifting of the state of emergency to have greater legitimacy of the election at home and abroad but reminded that public safety is crucial and the voters must be able to cast ballots without facing violence and intimidation.

"All, including the parties, have a role to play in creating the consensus to make this possible," Evans said, adding, "If the provisions of the state of emergency can be visibly rendered unnecessary, then it becomes easier for them to be lifted."

He urged all parties to take part in the election and meet the expectation of the people as he said British interests in this country are best served by a stable and democratic Bangladesh.

The envoy said business and trade cannot thrive on uncertainty and instability and investors would not sow seeds in shifting soils. "This is particularly true at a time of global economic turmoil. It is now hard to attract capital."

He said Bangladesh needs a firm political foundation, with transparency and good governance, and parliament must provide the primary forum for political debate. "There can be no place for political violence or politically-inspired hartals," the envoy noted, in an implicit reference to the country's recent political past.

HC injunction on EC: Don’t disqualify Mahbub for poll as loan defaulter

UNB, Dhaka

The High Court yesterday issued injunction on the Election Commission asking it to refrain from disqualifying Khondker Mahbubuddin Ahmed for the ensuing parliamentary elections as a loan defaulter.

Passing the order of injunction, a division bench comprising Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui issued a rule asking Bangladesh Bank to explain why the petitioner's name published on the loan defaulters' list "should not be declared illegal".

Babar’s detention declared illegal

UNB, Dhaka

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld High Court order having declared illegal the detention of former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, turning down a government plea for holding him behind bars.

Chamber Judge M A Matin gave the ruling upon a petition moved by the government seeking stay on operation of the November 27 High Court judgment.

On October 26, a 30-day detention order was issued against Babar as he was about to get out on bail from Dhaka Central Jail. The Home Ministry issued the detention order following a general diary (GD) filed with Gulshan police station stating that it would be a 'violation of the Emergency Power Rules if he is set free'.

Bangladesh likely to meet UN-MDG in healthcare: FH Abed

Staff Reporter

BRAC Founder and Chairperson Fazle Hasan Abed has shown his optimism that Bangladesh is likely to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in basic healthcare sector.

“Bangladesh, as a country, has shown significant achievements in reducing mother mortality as well as infant mortality in last decades. It is likely to meet the level of MDG in this sector,” said F H Abed.

He made this forecast while inaugurating BRAC’s 4-Day International Conference on “Scaling Up: An Essential Strategy to Attaining Good Health for All,” started yesterday at the BRAC Centre for Development Management (BCDM) in Rajendrapur.

According to him, development programs are initiated in many countries, but separately and in small scale. This conference will bring field experts from different countries, under same roof, to share their difficulties, success stories and future plans.

“We will be able to learn their working experiences in ensuring basic healthcare facilities, and will also present our project details and all related aspects to worldwide,” added Abed.

Mentioning BRAC’s success during last couple of decades, he named the Oral Dehydration Prevention Project and Lady Health Workers Project, which has been highly successful in Bangladesh and they are being followed in different countries in Asia and Africa.

The four day long international health conference is organised by BRAC that aims to boost global community’s effort to assist low-income countries to reach the Millennium Development Goal.

More than 120 international experts from 21 different countries on health and development sectors are participating at the conference.

The opening session was chaired by Dr. Richard Cash from the Harvard University, while Dr Stefan Nachuk of the Rockefeller Foundation, Dr Mary Taylor of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr Tim Evans of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Director of Primary Health Service, Bangladesh Dr Kazi Shahadat Hussain addressed the inaugural session as guest of honour.