Enforced Disappearance & Fascists in Bangladesh

( April 23, 2012, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Democracy in one of the South Asian nations visibly is at the most vulnerable state now, when the ruling party, Bangladesh Awami League is applying nefarious tactics of secret killings, abduction, forced disappearance and massive corruption at the blessings and patronization of the ruling elites. The case of enforced disappearance though started in Bangladesh for past three and half years since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formed the government, the issue has now drawn attention of the global community, when recently a former MP and prominent leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, M Ilias Ali disappeared along with his chauffer, while the Prime Minister were seen making jokes centering this issue of grave concern. Sheikh Hasina and her government has some how become comfortably confident of being assured by New Delhi on remaining in power at least up to 2019, which is again a substantial period for the ruling party and its elites in establishing much stronger grip over countrys civil and military administration, as well as the judiciary, thus bringing Bangladesh under one-party rule, which was the brain-child of Hasinas father Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, who is the founding-father of Bangladesh, introduced the oneparty rule system named BKSAL, which he conceived from former Soviet Union. A lot of Mujib followers and sycophants were seen worshipping the new-god in Bangladeshi political sky, thus attempting of portray an image of Mujibur Rehman as the political prophet of Bengal. Right after the independence of the country, Mujib though made numerous pledges of ensuring rights of the citizen and freedom of press and expression, on formation of his one-party rule, the first offensive came on countrys media, thus banning all the newspapers but two thus introducing repressive laws such as Special Powers Act, pushing opposition activists inside prison while encouraging forced disappearance and secret killings. At least ten to twelve thousand opposition activists were brutally murdered by the private militia of Mujib, just within two years. Countrys image was greatly tarnished internationally, while fellow-members of the Mujib cabinet as well as his family and friends got completely indulged into huge corruption, which made Bangladesh as bottomless basket case, with acute famine in 1974 and series of agonies and sufferings of the masses. The era of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman came to a tragic end, when he was assassinated along with members of his family on 15th August 1975 in a military coup. At such tragic end of the founding father of the nation, no one not even the members and activists of ruling Awami League felt sorry or left tears, while majority of the people were expressing joyful remarks. Such fates to Awami League were the result of its experiment of imposing Stalinist prototype dictatorial administration on the people, thus snatching their minimum rights. Following the assassination of Mujibur Rehman, the very existence of Awami League became totally uncertain, while many of the Mujib colleagues happily joined the successive government thus branding Mujib as the Pharaoh of Bengal. One of Mujibur Rehmans closest aides and cabinet colleagues, Abdul Malek Ukil, when asked in London to comment on the assassination of the founding father of the country said, The nation has got rid of the pharaoh! Mujib wanted to establish dynastic rule in Bangladesh to let him and his ancestors remain in power for ever. But such wrongdoings have been rightly punished by

the divine forces. After 20 years of the tragic assassination of the founding father, the people of Bangladesh voted Mujibs eldest daughter Sheikh Hasina into power in 1996 and her government had to finally face a huge defeat just after five years, simply because of its massive corruption, nepotism, state-patronized crime and bad governance. Prior to this election, Sheikh Hasina sought apology to the people for all wrong-doings of her father and promised good governance if voted into power. During the election campaign, she even put on Islamic hijab (veil) surely with the idea of getting sympathy from the majority of the Muslim voters in the country. Anyway her strategy clicked and her party won the election, though it faced a huge defeat just in five years, simply because of extreme misrule and bad governance. In 2008 again, Sheikh Hasina made fresh pledges to the people with renewed apology for the mistakesduring her during of 1996-2001, and promised a better Bangladesh with the implementation of her Vision 2021 and establishment of Digital Bangladesh. It was already known in the political and media circles in India that, the pre-election propaganda strategy and the election manifesto of Awami League were drafted by a team of seasoned politicians and media personnel from India, while Dr. Manmohan Singh and Mr. Pranab Mukherjee contributed in the election manifesto of Bangladesh Awami League by incorporating their important inputs. The economic plans of the manifesto were consulted with famous economists, which include Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and Dr. Mohammed Yunus, while defense policies were drafted by New Delhis South-Block. The initial concept of Indian policymakers extreme involvement behind Awami League election manifesto as well as campaign strategy were aimed at getting series of issues and treaties signed and decided by the Bangladeshi government under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina in order to ensure Indias un-protested supremacy over Bangladesh forever. When New Delhi policymakers sensed the voters in Bangladesh were still in confusion in putting their mandate in favor of Awami League, Dr. Manmohan Singh and some key figures in Indian politics sought help from the Western governments in influencing the caretaker government in Bangladesh in extending total support towards Awami League and ensure its victory. Though the general election took place in December-2008, Sheikh Hasinas special envoys secretly visited India in November-2008 to finalize the list of the next cabinet. New Delhi was already given assurance by the Bangladeshi caretaker government of letting Awami League win the election under any circumstance. On 17thNovember 2008, RAWs deputy assistant director Manoj Pillai in a Top Secret message (Ref No: Makr.sabd.poll08.4716) addressed to the its Chief wrote, A senior officer of DGFI-Bangladesh has informed over phone at 02:40pm that Bangladesh Nationalist Party is still undecided on joining in the election run, though some of the mid-level policymakers of that party are pursuing Mrs. Khaleda Zia in getting her consent in joining the poll. The officer also informed that it has successfully convinced the top-policymakers of Jamat-eIslami in putting pressure on Bangladesh Nationalist Party in joining the election run. He emphasized on putting our contacts within Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamat-e-Islami fully activated in continuing strong persuasion and pressure on Mrs. Zia, as it is feared that she might have been adversely influenced by the Chinese block and Saudi block from in refraining from joining the election. Without participation of BNP, the election will not get

international acceptance. For the sake of our national interest, necessary steps should be initiated urgently on this matter. From the content of the above letter, it is clear that Indian government and its agencies were desperately working in favor of holding the election in 2009, as it was confident about Awami Leagues victory. As expected, Awami League got a huge victory in the election and since it formed government in January-2009, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her cabinet are seen totally committed in implementing all of its commitments and pledges, made to India, without arguing or questioning its impacts on Bangladesh or its people. This is for the first time; New Delhi has been very successful in putting a party in power, which never betrayed with Indian policymakers, even after facing substantial protests domestically for its expressive and exposed inclination towards New Delhi. On the other hand, for the people of Bangladesh, this is possibly one of their worst-ever period of national catastrophe of letting Awami League still being in power for another one plus year. No doubt the ruling party and its elites are fully aware of peoples grievance and anger at it due to its pro-India policy, which directly goes against the interest of Bangladesh. Sensing this as well the possible revolt of the people either before the election or during the election, thus throwing Awami League once again into trash, the ruling party is carrying out its well-planned agenda of political secret killings as well as forced disappearances, with the goal of eliminating most of the potential political opponents as well as leaders of the opposition parties, especially BNP and Jamaat. The case of forced disappearance became prominent when BNP leader and ex Member of Parliament M Ilias Ali went into missing along with his chauffer few days back. As he hails from Bangladeshs eastern province named Sylhet, hundreds and thousands of Sylhetis in London have started protesting this particular incident, while they also are putting pressure on the British government in asking Bangladesh in releasing M Ilias Ali, while the British media may also start writing on this issue soon. This particular case of forced disappearance of M Ilias Ali will surely cause maximum damage to the remaining image of the ruling party in Bangladesh and it may even erect the road to mass revolt or even freezing of the democracy. While Bangladeshi Sylheti community in London are very active and protesting the forced disappearance of M Ilias Ali, few pro-Awami League palls such as write Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury or some of the business associates of Sheikh Rehana, including retired Maj. Gen. Tarique Ahmed Siddique, Lt. Gen. Harun Ar Rashid and Mohd. Rafiqul Amin is trying to organize people to counter the protests of angered Sylhetis in London and the United Kingdom. Lt. Gen. Harun Ar Rashid and Mohd. Rafiqul Amin run multi-million GBP businesses in United Kingdom while he also has forcefully occupied a number of businesses in Bangladesh, with the direct assistance of Maj. Gen. Tarique Ahmed Siddique and his sister-in-law Sheikh Rehana (the younger sister of Bangladeshi PM). According to Times of Assam, this racket has smuggled millions of GBP to United Kingdom and turned into multimillionaires from being a small fries in Bangladeshi society, just within months of Awami Leagues forming the government. Sheikh Rehana and Maj. Gen. Tarique Ahmed Siddique are having direct hands behind Lt. Gen. Harun Ar Rashid and Mohd. Rafiqul Amin in series of illegal activities including land grabbing, extortion, blackmailing and looting of public wealth.

It is rumored in Dhaka that Maj. Gen. Tarique Ahmed Siddique is controlling the forces intelligence as well as National Security Intelligence, while he also uses Rapid Action Battalion for the sake of his personal interests. It said the man behind secret killings and forced disappearances is Maj. Gen. Tarique Ahmed Siddique, who is directly commanding DGFI and RAB in executing the murder and abduction plans of Awami League. Many term Maj. Gen. Tarique Ahmed Siddique as the General of the fascists in Bangladesh

http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2012/04/bengal-tigers-in-r-cage.html
by Jessica Fox ( April 23, 2012, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Strictly scrutinized 100 armed cadres of the ruling Awami League in Bangladesh, who received 6-month long extensive commando training at Dehradun in India under the direct supervision of Indian espionage agency the Research and Analysis Wing are continuing various types of activities, including secret killing, abduction etcetera since June of 2010 with the mission of clearing a large number of politicians, media personnel and members of the civil society in Bangladesh. The team codenamed Crusader-100 went to India during end September 2009 and stayed there till mid June 2010, where brilliant commando trainers of Indian Army gave extensive training to these people under the disguise of training few young commandos of Bangladesh Army. The entire project of Crusader-100 was originally conceived by Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the project was coordinated directly by the Bangladeshi Prime Minister and her defense advisor Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui.

Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui maintains special connection with Indian RAW and British MI6 for decades, since he was in army service. Such relations of RAW and MI6 with him was because of his family relations with Sheikh Hasina. When Bangladesh Awami League formed government in January 2009, Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui became extremely important in the government due to his official position as the defense advisor to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister as well as his personal identity of being the brother-in-law of Prime Ministers younger sister Sheikh Rehana. The selection of the entire batch of ruling party cadres, who were sent to India for commando training were directly done by Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui and a few of his loyal colleagues and retired army officers, while on return of the members of the Crusader-100 team from India, they were provided a hit list comprising names of opposition politicians, members of Bangladeshi media and some members of the civil society. According to information, the list contains names of more than 83 people, who are planned to be cleared by the members of the Crusader-100 gang. The members of these specially trained hitters are housed inside several buildings at Dhakas Gulshan and Baridhara areas. The Baridhara bases of the hitters is maintained directly by Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui and each of such places are equipped with sophisticated surveillance equipments as well as entry of civilians are restricted within these premises. Leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, M Ilias Ali, who became victim of enforced disappearance recently, was also named in the list of Crusader-100 force. My New Delhi contacts disclosed few of the names of the hit list, which include, political leaders Amanullah Aman, Mirza Abbas, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, M Ilias Ali, Habibun Nabi Sohel, Abdullah Al Noman, Barrister Abdur Razzaque, Shafiul Alam Pradhan, ASM Abdur Rob, Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini and

Moulana Fazlul Karim. Awami League and RAW have decided clearing the listed names latest by December 2013, which they consider to be vital for the ruling party in Bangladesh in returning into power. The gang of Crusader-100 is equipped with sophisticated small and medium range weapons, mostly with silencers as well as bullet-proof jackets, gas bombs and vehicles for their operations. Some of the members of this gang use satellite phones to skip interception of any of the Bangladeshi intelligence agencies. Each of the members of this gang received healthy financial package alongside various types of extra benefits, including apartments in Dhaka city for the members of their families and small businesses. They are not allowed to show faces during the day-time and mostly required to stay inside their bases in Dhaka city. In case of emergency, when the members of the team are required to go on street during the day time, they are compulsorily required to wear black-tinted helmets, to hide their faces from the public. By rotation, members of the team are secretly taken to India for a break of 7-10 days for amusement purposes. In such cases, they are allowed to cross Bangladesh-India borders without any travel documents.

http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2012/04/rogue-regime-smashing-democracy-in.html

Rogue regime smashing democracy in Bangladesh

| by Jessica Fox ( April 24, 2012, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Something is wrong in a small South Asian nation, where a authoritarian regime is gradually enforcing series of anti-people policies, making direct threat to countrys democracy, which had been repeatedly disrupted by bloody and bloodless military coups since it got liberated from Pakistan in 1971. Bangladesh, though a small nation with a total 160 million homogenous population is heading towards another playground of Marxists and Stalinists, who grabbed power through an engineered election in 2008 with the help of military junta. Many of the political experts on South Asian affairs fear, Bangladesh could become the second Communist ruled nation after Nepal within the span of next two years. The current regime of Bangladesh Awami League led leftist coalitions have already exhibited tendencies of totally ignoring the West, including the United States, thus aligning with neighboring India as its political guru.

The long-cherished dream of India turned true with the victory of Bangladesh Awami League. It is authentically proved by various sources that India aspires to see the current government in Dhaka to continue in power at least up to 2021, when a submissive Bangladesh can be totally ensured.
After a bloody war of nine months, the country named Bangladesh was created with 75 million populations. The first political party, Bangladesh Awami League, which formed the government under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman continued committing series of political and diplomatic blunders while Mujib opted for establishing one-party rule thus banning freedom of expression, rights of citizen as

well as encouraging secret killings of the political opponents. He also attempted for making stronger ties with anti-West nations such as Cuba or Palestine for example, with the ambition of becoming another Fidel Castro in South Asia . During his rule, on an average, more than ten thousand people were subjected to secret killings, while grabbing properties of religious minorities as well as various forms of state-patronized intimidation of different opinions were already at the worst-ever alarming level. It was further added by acute food crisis and famine, as well as corruption and lawlessness at every level, which at some point even risked the independence and sovereignty of the country. In 1974, Bangladesh experienced the deadliest famine ever, which killed around 1.5 million Bangladeshi people from hunger. The Bangladesh famine of 1974 is a major source of discontent against Mujib's government. Bangladeshi people feel ashamed, insulted and demoralized as a nation for this famine that was not due to a food crisis but, according to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen -- due instead to the lack of governance and democratic practices. Intense criticism of Mujib arose over lack of political leadership, a flawed pricing policy, and rising inflation amidst heavy losses suffered by the nationalized industries. Mujib's ambitious social programs performed poorly, owing to scarcity of resources, funds and personnel, and caused unrest amongst the masses. BAKSAL (the one-party rule established by the government) was protested by different groups but they were punished by Mujibur Rahman. It was known that Mujibur Rahman never accepted any criticism against him. Mujib was widely accused for the responsible of 40000 killings by his Rakkhi Bahini (the para-militia force created for cleansing political opponents of the ruling class). On January 25, 1975 Mujib declared a state of emergency and his political supporters approved a constitutional amendment banning all opposition political parties. Mujib assumed the presidency and was given extraordinary powers. His political supporters amalgamated to form the only legalized political party, the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League, commonly known by its initials - BAKSAL. The party identified itself with the rural masses, farmers and labourers and took control of government machinery. It also launched major socialist programs. Using government forces and a militia of supporters called the Jatiyo Rakkhi Bahini, Mujib oversaw the arrest of opposition activists and strict control of political activities across the country. Members of Jatiyo Rakkhi Bahini were granted immunity from prosecution and other legal proceedings. The militia known as Rakhi Bahini and police were accused of torturing suspects and political killings. While retaining support from many segments of the population, Mujib evoked anger amongst veterans of the liberation war for what was seen as a betrayal of the causes of democracy and civil rights. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is possibly the only leader of his contemporaries, who turned into a dangerous dictator from being a most-popular leader of the people. Though Mujib still is considered as a towering personality in South Asia for his courageous role in leading the nation towards attaining independence, the subsequent actions of his government, which mostly went against the people, had certainly labeled him as a good leader but worst administrator or even a ruthless dictator. The era of Mujibur Rahman came to an end following a military coup in 1975, wherefrom the country went through decade-long suspension of democracy, thus entering number of dictatorial military regimes. Things once again started changing in 1990, when military dictator and Islamist pal General Hussain Mohammed Ershad was ousted from power through a mass revolt. Since then democracy continued to crawl again. But once again, the high ambitious military men in Bangladesh put democracy into dictatorial clutches in 2007 by seizing power from a constitutional government thus continuing numerous forms of anti-democracy actions, including attempts of eliminating the mainstream political parties and leadership. It also got involved in criminal actions like extorting industrialists, entrepreneurs and businessmen, including social elites thus establishing a total reign of terror. International community became extremely critical of such actions of the military junta and started putting pressure for restoring democracy. Sensing severe consequences, the military junta attempted to bargain with the political parties about getting indemnity to all of their misdeeds during the dictatorial rule of two years. Few meetings took place overseas between the representatives of the military controlled junta and Bangladesh Awami League, while Bangladesh Nationalist Party rejected any such secret compromise formula. Moreover, international patrons of the

military controlled junta, particularly India were putting emphasis in seeing Bangladesh Awami League installed into power for implementation of a number of Indian agendas, which include, letting New Delhi get the corridor facilities from Bangladesh for transporting its commercial and military cargoes to the North-Eastern region. It is rightly predicted by the political forecasters that such facilities were extremely necessary for India to maintain its tight grip over the North-Eastern region, thus eliminating the existing struggles of independence. Should India did not get the corridor facilities from Bangladesh for another 2-3 years, few Christian dominated independent nations would already emerge within the map of Indian subcontinent. Secondly a pro-Indian mere puppet government in Bangladesh was essential for letting Indian security forces and intelligence agencies enter the territory of Bangladesh in discreet manner to hunt for antiIndian elements within the country and gradually eliminate them thus continuing offensives on the antiIndian notions and sentiments. Thirdly, such government in Bangladesh was required by New Delhi to somehow dampen Bangladesh Army as well as paramilitary forces, which is once again important for New Delhi to establish Indian dominance within South Asia. The long-cherished dream of India turned true with the victory of Bangladesh Awami League. It is authentically proved by various sources that India aspires to see the current government in Dhaka to continue in power at least up to 2021, when a submissive Bangladesh can be totally ensured. Though India proclaims to be the largest democracy in the world, it has agenda of establishing one-party authoritarian rule in Bangladesh with a brute administration, thus greatly and blindly compromising the interest of Bangladesh in every level. This is now a win-win situation for India while a real agony forthe people of Bangladesh seeing a government in Dhaka, which puts more emphasis on implementing Indian agendas, instead of paying minimal attention to the interest of Bangladesh. When Bangladesh completed its fourth decade of independence recently, it is justly feared by many that the nation of 160 million people are now destined towards losing its own dignity and pride, thus letting the rogue regime in scraping democracy and establishing the one-party dictatorship with fullest and dedicated agendas of serving the purpose of India.