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Introduction

Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. Total area of this country is 147,570 km2 56,977 sq miles. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma (Myanmar) to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south. The capital (and largest city) is Dhaka; also it is the hub of all cultural, political and religious affairs. Together with the Indian state of West Bengal, it makes up the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. The name Bangladesh means "Country of Bengal" in the official Bengali language.

Population:

1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Total population 37 895 43 444 50 102 57 792 66 881 70 582 80 624 92 284 105 256 117 487 129 592 140 588 148 692

Population aged 0-14 (%) 41.2 42.4 43.6 44.7 44.7 45.8 45.0 43.9 42.5 40.3 37.3 34.3 31.3

Population aged 15-64 (%) 54.8 54.1 53.1 52.0 51.8 50.7 51.4 52.5 53.8 55.9 58.7 61.4 64.1

Population aged 65+ (%) 3.9 3.5 3.3 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.6 3.7 3.8 4.0 4.3 4.6

Naturally there is some uncertainty about the population, especially in a developing country such as Bangladesh with high illiteracy and a large rural population. For instance, in 2005 there was not a consensus whether Bangladesh or Russia had a larger population. The UN's ESA ranked Russia 7th in the world and Bangladesh 8th. However, the CIA World Fact book ranked Bangladesh 7th and Russia 8th in the same year. The point is now moot as the population of Russia is in decline while that of Bangladesh is growing. The baseline for population studies on Bangladesh is the official census which is conducted every 10 years, the last being in 2011. Bangladesh had high rates of population growth in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then however it has seen a marked reduction in its total fertility rate. Over a period of three decades it dropped from almost 7 to 2.4 in 2005-2010

Per Capita Income:


Bangladesh gradually decreased its dependency on foreign grant and loan from 85% (In 1988) to 2% (In 2010) for its annual development budget. Its per capita income in 2010 was US$641 compared to the world average of $8,985. But, if purchasing power parity (PPP) is taken into account, Bangladesh's economy is the 44th largest in the world at US$257 billion according to the IMF. Although two-thirds of Bangladeshis are farmers, more than three quarters of Bangladeshs export earnings come from the garment industry, which began attracting foreign investors in the 1980s due to cheap labor and low conversion cost. In 200910 fiscal years the industry exported US$ 12.6 billion worth of products where in 2002 the exported amount was US$ 5 billion. Recently Bangladesh has been ranked as the 4th largest clothing exporter by the WTO (The World Trade Organization).

Bangladesh Inflation Rate The inflation rate in Bangladesh was last reported at 11.3 percent in August of 2011. This page includes a chart with historical data for Bangladesh's Inflation Rate. Inflation rate refers to a general rise in prices measured against a standard level of purchasing power. The most well-known measures of Inflation are the CPI which measures consumer prices, and the GDP deflator, which measures inflation in the whole of the domestic economy.

GDP, GDP Growth:


The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Bangladesh expanded 5.83 percent in the second quarter of 2010 over the previous quarter. Historically, from 1994 until 2010, Bangladesh's average quarterly GDP Growth was 5.47 percent reaching an historical high of 6.63 percent in June of 2006 and a record low of 4.08 percent in June of 1994. Bangladesh is considered as a developing economy which has recorded GDP growth above 5% during the last few years. Microcredit has been a major driver of economic development in Bangladesh and although three fifths of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, three quarters of exports revenues come from garment industry. The biggest obstacles to sustainable development in Bangladesh are overpopulation, poor infrastructure, corruption, political instability and a slow implementation of economic reforms.

Corruption:
It is defined as the actions of making someone or something morally depraved with dishonesty or fraudulent conduct. There are in all seven factors that should be considered when analyzing the risks that could be encountered related to the corruption of a country like Bangladesh, these are: 1. Location: The foreign countries which want to invest their money in Bangladesh need to remember that, Bangladesh is a bribe seeking country. They assume Bangladesh as a risky country, because if they want to do business here, bribing is mandatory, so this extra money will get attached to the investors production cost which will reduce their competitiveness. 2. Accounting Standards: In refer to accounting standard, Bangladesh is very risky country. Corruption in Bangladesh is so severe that, the auditing firms it selves are corrupted to perform accurate audit of the both public and private organization. In Bangladesh, the audit firm takes monetary benefits from the top management of particular organization, and makes audits to support those corrupted management employees. 3. Anti-corruption policy credibility and enforceability: In Bangladesh, there is an anti-corruption commission (ACC) which is not working as it should have. The Bangladeshi government is using it as puppet and they are forced to harass and embarrass the opposition parties only. The ACC is filing cases only to people who are against the Government, however, they are releasing the criminals who get support from Awami League government

4. Cultural Differences: Bangladesh does have cultural differences with foreign countries. When foreign investors want to invest their money in Bangladesh, they have to make sure that the investors get accustomed with the differences between countries. For example, the Citi NY is a multinational bank, which has branches all over the world. In most of the countries, their employees work from 8 a.m. to 5p.m, however, in Bangladesh, the Citi NY employees work from 9a.m to 8p.m. Thus, due to cultural differences, the process of operations sometimes needs to get changed. 5. Political leadership: Bangladesh is a risky country in referring about political leadership. Many politicians, bureaucrats and government officials are involved in corruption which reduces the efficiency of Bangladesh. Example: Ten Trucks Arms Cases The accused criminals include Jamaat e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, who is former industries minister, and former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar. These indicate that Bangladeshi political leadership is in deep trouble. Instead of solving problems, Bangladeshi politicians are creating trouble.

6. Political Change: In Bangladesh, the government officials are scared to take any decisions as

the government changes. They think, if they approve a big project of the country, they can suffer lawsuit from anti-corruption bureau. Therefore, Bangladesh is a risky country as their bureaucrats are not strong enough to take any major decisions unlike China and EU countries. 7. At Home: In papers, Bangladesh is against corruption, but in reality, it is one leading corrupted country of the world. There are no such laws that the Bangladeshi companies cannot give bribe to other domestic and international companies. Therefore, it is a risky country.

Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of nonelected officials of a government or organizations who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officials and red tape. Before entering into a country for business, it is very important to analyze the structure as well as the nature of the bureaucracy in that particular country.

Accountability of Public Officials


It is very important to consider the accountability of the public officials, means whether they are accountable or not. If we consider Bangladesh in this perspective, the public officials are highly accountable to their respective supervisor. Bangladesh has a parliamentary form of government with the prime minister as its chief executive and the president as the head of state. The prime minister heads the cabinet that is collectively responsible to the national parliament. The ministries fulfill policymaking and oversight functions at the national level, and have staff at the district level that provide law and order, land administration, service delivery and program implementation. Loosely coordinated by the District Commissioner. There are also local governments: municipal corporations in cities; district councils; and Thana (police station) committees. They have some elected representatives and perform limited but diverse administrative and development

functions. The district still remains the most commonly used unit of administration. For administrative convenience, some contiguous districts are considered to comprise a division, while a district is subdivided into several police stations (Thanas). Thus, division, district, and Thana comprise the administrative sub-units of the country; several Thanas constitute a district, and some ten to twelve districts constitute a division. So, this procedure explains the accountability of public officials to their respective supervisor.

Caliber of Officialdom:
It is very important to investigate the calibers of the public officials and the kind of training they receive before joining to the job of a particular country before entering into the market, because at the time of doing the business you have to communicate with them. In Bangladesh the Public Service Commission of Bangladesh provides high quality of training to their officials. Having good educational background, intelligence, strong training and most importantly very good communication skill is must for the public officials of the country. It helps them to communicate with officials of the country and taking the advantage from them. For example: Recently Bangladesh government totally failed to take the advantage about the deed of Tista River as well as the transit only because of not having the enough caliber comparing with the Indian officials. As a result, Indian government is taking the advantage at continuous basis from the Bangladesh.

Politicization of Bureaucratic Department:


Sometime we see that some of the high officials of the department engaged with the politics which is not good at all. So, before entering into the country for doing the

business it should be considered by the investor. In Bangladesh we see this kind of unethical practice by some of the public officials in department of different office. For example: In Bangladesh we see government officer in Sonali Bank are involved with different political party like CBA ( ). These people dont do any work for the country but destroy the money of the country by doing unethical activities. So this country is not a very good country to invest.

Transparency of Decision Making:


Government officials should explain everything to the public about their decision making, because this is the right of the public to what is happening in the country and what the government is going to do. In Bangladesh we dont see this kind of practice by the government officials. People of this country dont have any idea about the activity of the government. For example: at recent time what was the actual deed made with the Indian government about the Tista river and Transit. They (government) are not ensuring the transparency to the people. It is very dangerous not maintaining the transparency. So investing in this country is riskier.

FDI (foreign Direct Investment)


Bangladesh has seen a dramatic increase in foreign direct investment. A number of multinational corporations and local big business houses such as Beximco, Square, Akij, Ispahani, Navana Group, Transcom Group, Habib Group, KDS Group, T.K Group Of Industries, Dragon Group and multinationals such as Unocal Corporation and Chevron, have made major investments, with the natural gas sector being a priority. In December 2005, the Central Bank of Bangladesh projected GDP growth around 6.5%. In order to enhance economic growth, the government set up several export processing zones to attract foreign investment. These are managed by the Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority. One significant contributor to the development of the economy has been the widespread propagation of microcredit by Muhammad Yunus (awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2006) through the Grameen Bank. By the late 1990s, Grameen Bank had 2.3 million members, along with 2.5 million members of other similar organizations.

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Legal safeguard:
Elite Interest
The term Elite is originally from the Latin, ligers, which means "to elect". The elites are a relatively small dominant group within a large society, which enjoys a privileged status in comparison to other individuals' status in the society. The word elite were used in seventeenth century to describe commodities of particular excellence; and the usage was later extended to refer to superior social group. In case of Bangladesh, It has a small urban elite and rudimentary political culture. Compared with other developing countries, Bangladesh is religiously, linguistically, and socially homogeneous of a population of 127,567,000 (1998 estimate). During the British colonial period, Zamindars were elite group. Business elites are the major influential group with immense economic contribution to the national economy in a developing country like Bangladesh, and in a way having the power of manipulating the socio-political agendas of the nation. As example: we can mention about Salman F Rahman. He has powerful influence on government. He was the culprit for destruction of share market in 1996. But no action was taken against him. So in this case Bangladesh is in risky position. The group or individual who has influence on government and is related with the politics or political party is called political elite. There are many in Bangladesh like Sahara khatun, Col. Faruk etc. They have influence on the government decision though they do many wrong or illegal deeds for which no action was taken. As a result the foreigner investor might get it difficult to continue their normal business in Bangladesh. So Bangladesh is in riskier position. The media refers to channels of mass communications such as the radio, newspapers, television and the internet. The media has power over all of us to a greater or lesser extent. In Bangladesh the high profile intellectuals and business elites are mainly dominating this sector as being either the entrepreneur or the Chief

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Executive Like Kaniz Almas, Mahabubul Haque in Prothom Alo, Mosaddek Ali Falu, etc

Judicial Independence & Effectiveness:


Serves as a safeguard for the rights and privileges provided by the Constitution and prevents executive and legislative encroachment upon those rights. It serves as a foundation for the rule of law and democracy. The rule of law means that all authority and power must come from an ultimate source of law. Under an independent judicial system, the courts and its officers are free from inappropriate intervention in the judiciary's affairs. With this independence, the judiciary can safeguard people's rights and freedoms which ensure equal protection for all. The effectiveness of the law and the respect that people have for the law and the government which enacts it is dependent upon the judiciary's independence to mete out fair decisions. In case of Bangladesh situation is moderate. Sometimes government influence the judiciary sector and sometimes not. Government interferes when the issue is about the opposition party. Like present government influence the judiciary regarding the suit or case about the leader of the BNP like Tareq Zia, Salauddin Quader Chowdhary. In this case Bangladesh is little less risky than other country like Myanmar where government has complete influence on judiciary sector.

Legal Culture:
Legal Culture indicates the process and length of judiciary process that whether it is slow or fast process. In case of Bangladesh the culture is slow. Bureaucracy of Bangladesh is so much complicated that any dispute or complain takes too much time to dismiss. In case of judiciary suit or case takes lot of time to have the verdict. Specially, the murder case and dispute regarding land and property in Bangladesh.

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It took 10 to 15 years to have the result. In Some cases the criminal of murder case is lost for forever.

Legislative Sophistication:
It indicates the understanding level of the people who deal with the legislative issue in a country. It explains the importance of understanding what are the rules and regulations need to perform in international business including different terms related with the international business. For example in joint venture business the conflict might arise between two parties and to solve this problem the legislative body must have to have the clear understanding regarding the joint venture and its international rules and regulation. Another example might be hedging which is one of the most important financial terms in international business. Hedging ensures the right amount of money is paid in future date which was set up in the past date. No matter the value of the money goes up or down. So these are the important rules, regulation and laws related with the international business must be clear to the legislative body and have to be up to date about the those regulations. If we consider Bangladesh, in perspective of legislative sophistication, it is not a riskier country in respect of other country because there are some knowledgeable legislative bodies available like Mahabubul Alam (Attorney General), Barister Moudud Ahmed etc.

Potential for Counteraction:


Right to take action against the illegal decision and action of competitor in same industry considered as potential for counter action. Like in the telecommunication market in Bangladesh, the competition becomes so tough that new entrants become impossible and price cutting become too tight. But government is not taking any steps against the counter competition and any company does not have any rights to take legal action to prevent those steps. Another example can be Bangladeshi garments Factory. Owners sell the product at the price which is below the cost. But other companies cant take action. On the other hand RFL Company suit against

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TFL Company for copying their trade name. But TFL Company could take legal action against it also. So Bangladesh is in Moderate risky in this sector.

Criminal Activities:
This is defined as activities which are against the rules and regulation of the country. Criminal activities are crimes against humanities, society and the well-being of the country. Drugs business, killing, robbery, kidnapping, extortions are prime examples of criminal works. In Bangladesh, we face a large amount of unlawful acts which are influenced and supported by our political parties that is Awami League and BNP. These parties use the criminals for their sake and destroying or polluting the nation.

Political criminal activities:


Murder of Mayor Lokman Hossain: On first November, 2011, Narsinghdi municipality mayor Mr. Lokman Hossain was shot by masked men in front of the local Awami League office. He died later in Dhaka Medical College Hospital and within hours, the police arrested BNP's Narsinghdi unit chief Khairul Kabir Khokon. After that accident, Jatuoy Chatra League of Narsinghdi, vandalized Narsinghdi circuit house and its rail station. Also, in the following day, an intercity train was also torched by demonstrators. The investigation is going on, and it was observed that, AL people were solely responsible for his murder. Mr. Lokman Hossain was very popular in his city, so his friends and other AL leaders were jealous of his popularity. Moreover, they were

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unhappy with some of his decisions about improving his city. Mr. Mayor believed that, to develop Narsinghdi, he needed help and support from both Awami League as well as BNP. That was a prime reason of his death. Murder of a personnel who is also a Mayor and vandalizing government structures, torching and destroying are also examples of political criminal activities. (Narsingdi Mayor Killing: Suranjit won't talk about Lokman murder, 2011)

Political protection to criminals:


The law enforcement agencies of Bangladesh are trying and able to arrest the most wanted criminals of the country. However, they capture those criminals; still they cannot legally punish them for their misdeed. The reason, those criminals get good support from political parties especially Awami League, the present government. The criminals who are detained in jails are getting bails from courts identifying themselves as Awami League supporters and activists. (Dhaka Become Vulnerable To Criminal Activities, 2009) Organized criminal activities: This is defined as performing illegal activities in a planned way. Organized crime is very common in Argentina, Brazil and European countries; moreover, the size of the economy controlled by organized crime worldwide is around 500 billion. Fortunately, the organized crime in Bangladesh is insignificant. However, there are some incidents where Bangladesh criminals especially the robbers used their intellectuals in negative purpose. Example: Robbers tunnel through Brac Bank lockers In the year 2008, robbers broke down 75 safe deposit lockers in the Dhanmondi branch of BRAC

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Bank Ltd and stole gold ornaments and other valuables which worth approximately several Crores of Taka. The branch of Brac Bank is situated on the first floor of a building which houses Hotel Nidmahal Residential right above the bank. According to Police, the robbers entered the locker room cutting through its ceiling, as they found a large hole cut through the floor of a hotel room right above the locker room. Police assumed that the robbers rented six rooms of the hotel and entered the bank's locker room through the hole on the floor of the room right above it. They also suspect the robbers stayed in the hotel for more than a month to plan the robbery. Police detained four Nidmahal staffs for interrogation, suspecting their involvement in the heist. Police also revealed, they are intensively interrogating the detainees Shah Alam, Supon Barua, Sujan, and Monir, who were actively involved in robbery. The incident suggested that it was a planned crime and the criminals knew about the location of the bolts as well as the valuables, I believe, the criminals were helped by some Brac officials who informed them about the bolts position which encouraged those thieves to perform such a notorious crime. (Robbers tunnel to bank locker, 2008)

Fraud
It is defined as deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain. (Houghton Mifflin Company, n.d) In Bangladesh, fraud is very common; people tend to fraud people to order to have financial gain. Banks and Educational institutions are primarily involved in fraud which is really sad for our country and its people. Examples: Massive fraud by Brac Bank in Bangladesh One of the leading financial institutions in Bangladesh, named Brack Bank, which is

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owned by one of the largest NGOs in the world, Brac, is into massive fraud that is looting millions of Taka. Brac Bank is drawing millions of Taka from the Customers accounts by creating secret lien facilities. Such case of massive fraud was discovered when a customer received a statement of his account, where he was surprised to see that the bank has created lien worth TK. 10 million and drew the amount in the name of the customer, even without notifying him. When the matter was brought to the attention of authorities of Brac Bank, they tried to justify such fraudulent actions saying, "It was done for the sake of customer's safety". Moreover, Brac Bank not only creates and withdraws money from the customer's account secretly through clean fraud, it also levies all interests accrued from the amount of lien on the customer, which is not only unethical and illegal but goes beyond the minimum level of banker-customer trust. Furthermore, such huge amounts of money drawn from the customer's accounts secretly are passed by Brac Bank to a number of hidden businesses, which are operated by the mid-level management of the Brac NGO. (Massive fraud by Brac Bank in Bangladesh, 2009) Fraud 'educational institution' continuing in Bangladesh Pearl Fashion Institute [PFI] is an Indianowned company operating in Bangladesh for past few years, thus selling degrees to innocent students by appealing them with false hopes and promises. PFI pretends to be a legitimate institution in Bangladesh, with 'affiliation' agreement with Nottingham Trent University in UK. It also receives millions of Taka from Bangladeshi students for its various graduation courses in textile technology. But, in reality, PFI has no license from Bangladesh government. However, Pearl Fashion Institute only holds a Trade License issue by

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Dhaka City Corporation to operate as a Vocational Training Center in the country. None of the foreign teachers of PFI, including Ms. Garima Srivastava, who runs the PFI show in Bangladesh, possess any work permit. All of the foreign teachers at PFI are working illegally. (How fraud 'institution' continuing in Bangladesh, 2011)

Unique cultural issues


Culture is what we have been taught by the society through our ancestors. Culture is differentiated regionally. Bangladeshi culture is the same as the Asian culture with some exceptions. There are some unique cultural activities which are done by the Bangladeshi are:

Mother language day


This is a unique part of Bengali culture. On 21th of February all the Bangladeshi pay tribute to those people who have given their life to set Bangla as their mother tongue. On this day to pay tribute to the lost, everyone walk to Saheed minar and leave a flower. A beautiful song Amar Bhaier Rokte Rangano Ekushay February has been written by Abdul Gaffar Choudhury. To give respect to those who have fight for language UNESCO has declared 21st February as International Mother Language day. This day is considered as a prideful as well as a sad day for the country, thus it would not be a good idea to engage in conversation about other language than bangle.

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Pohela Boishakh
Pohela Boishak is the first day of Bangla calendar, which is usually the 14th April. Bangladeshi people starts their celebration with the dawn, they go to the Ramna Park where the celebration starts with Rabindranath Tagore's song. Then they go to their relatives place to meet. Bangladeshi people likes to celebrate this day as well as they would like to do business on the day, because they believe that if they can do business on the first day then they would also be able to do a good business throughout the year.

Religious festivals

There are many religious festivals such as Eid and puja which are celebrated by all religion people. On these festivals day Bangladeshi people like to spend the day with their family and friends. Which means they take break from work on these days, thus it is a risky country as they would not work on these days.

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Personal Threats
Bangladesh is a third world country thus it cannot ensure safety measure that are in other countries. Bangladesh is a poor country thus it have a lot of lack ages, so before investing in to the country you should think about the following factors:

Pollution
Bangladesh is one of the most polluted country of the world, thus there is higher chance to fall sick. For foreigner it would be a highly risky country to live, because if they fall sick then they would not be able to work.

Theft and Robbery


Theft and Robbery is common scenario of Bangladesh. Thus it is a risky country for foreigner to do business, because when people go to any country for doing business they bring a lot of business documents and good amount of money with them. So they become an easy target for robbers. For example Eszter a foreigner was robbed within six of her arrival. After settling into a hotel in Gulshan 1, Eszter and her travel companion decided to have dinner at eight. As it was nearby, the hotels receptionist recommended them to travel by rickshaw rather than CNG. Once outside, a local told the rickshaw driver where to go but, unbeknown to Eszter and Andrew, the driver proceeded in the direction of Banani. As the rickshaw approached Kamal Attaturk Avenue along Bananis Road 11, a hand stretched out from a passing car and grabbed Eszters bag, which was strapped diagonally across her waist. She hit the road like a brick, but for a few

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seconds desperately tried to resist losing the contents of her bag. In this accident Eszter lost her bag, passport, credit cards and 20 percent of her skin.

Street awareness
In Bangladesh people do not follow any traffic signals for which road accidents are common in Bangladesh. Thus in Bangladesh people cross the street at their own risk, because they are reluctant of using foot over. While driving or walking in Bangladeshi roads you have to be careful and always keep distance from others or else you might die due to others fault.

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Extremist Groups of Bangladesh:


Bangladesh, the world's third largest Muslim-majority nation, is facing challenges from violent Islamist groups. The Awami League (AL) government in Bangladesh on April 2009 blacklisted 12 militant organizations. The organizations are Harkat-ul Jihad Islami (HuJI) Bangladesh, Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), Shahadat-e-al Haqima (SAH), Hizbut Touhid, Islami Samaj, Ulema Anjuman al Baiyinaat, Hizb-ut Tahrir, Islamic Democratic Party, Touhid Trust, Tamir ud-Deen, Allar Dal. Of these 12 groups, four including HUJI, SAH, JMJB and JMB were banned during the regime of BNP-Jamaat coalition. To build trust in the political process, Bangladesh needs to strengthen its democratic institutions and develop a culture of transparency in the government that fosters accountability and restrains corruption.

Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)


Origin The Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) is reported to have been formed in 1998 in the Jamalpur district. Its existence came to notice on May 20, 2002 with the arrest of eight Islamist militants at Parbatipur in the Dinajpur district along with 25 petrol bombs and documents detailing the outfit's activities. Subsequently, on February 13, 2003, the JMB is

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reported to have carried out seven bomb explosions in the Chhoto Gurgola area of Dinajpur town in which three persons were wounded. Activities This extremist group blasts their Bombs with the help of suicide bomber and leaves threatening leaflet. On August 17, 2005, the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh staged a spectacular series of coordinated bombings across the nation, detonating approximately 400 devices within the space of 45 minutes in 63 of the country's 64 districts, but killing only three people. One of the objectives of JMB is to free Muslims of the influence of 'anti-Islam forces' and practices that brought women out of their houses. Espousing a radical variant of Islam, the outfit is opposed to cultural functions, cinema halls, shrines and NGOs. Leader: Maulana Saidur Rahman is known to be currently heading the JMB after the March 30, 2007 execution of the top six militant leaders. Although there is no authenticity about the size of the strength of SAH, the groups leader Kawsar claimed that the outfit has 10 thousand commandos and 25 thousand fighters working in the country to bring Islamic revolution.

Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B)


Formation The Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) was established in 1992, reportedly with assistance from Osama bin Ladens International Islamic Front (IIF). On April 30, 1992, several of the HuJI-B leaders addressed a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club in capital Dhaka and demanded that Bangladesh be converted into an Islamic State. The outfits activities, however, were noticed in June

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1996 after the Awami League (AL) came to power. The HuJI-B was proscribed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led coalition Government on October 17, 2005. Leadership The HuJI-B is led by Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid. Imtiaz Quddus is the general secretary of the outfit. The outfit's operations commander, Mufti Abdul Hannan was arrested in Dhaka on October 1, 2005. Cadres Although there is no authoritative information on the actual cadre strength, most reports mention it to be around 15,000. Several of these recruits were trained in the Kormi and Kasia areas of Bangladesh. Further, many hundred recruits were reportedly trained at various training camps in Afghanistan, primarily during the reign of the Taliban.

Hizbut Touhid:
Hizbut Touhid was established in 1994 at Korotia village in Tangail district of Bangladesh. The organization is led by Bayezid Khan Panni of Tangail alies Selim Panni who claimed himself to be the Imam-Uz-Zaman,meaning someone just after the prophet of Islam. Hizbut Touhid aspires to establish a world under the leadership of Imam Uz Zaman. It is against democracy and democratic institutions as it considers them to be the rules of evil. Also, the organization opposes leadership of women in politics and also working of women. It also feels that the Muslims who are not following the ideology of Hizbut Touhid are not real Muslim. The organization believes that every men and women in Islam are armies of Allah and they should behave like armies in every walk of their lives. Hizbut Chief Panni has written many books like Dazzal and This Islam is not at all Islam. In the book Dazzal Panni argues that Jews and Christian should be eliminated by the Muslims. The groups promotes armed struggle

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for establishment of Islamic rule in the world. Books and leaflets written by its Imam Panni are the main guiding force for the group. CDs, books and leaflets are widely distributed among people to attract cadres. Through these leaflets the group urges people to join them to establish Islamic rule, rejecting all manmade laws.

Hizb-ut Tehrir:
Hizbut Tehrir Bangladesh is part of the global Sunni political party that aspires to establish Khilafat by uniting all Islamic countries. Like its counter parts worldwide it wants to establish Shariah in Bangladesh. Hizb-ut Tehrir has three clear goals: to establish a community of like-minded Hizb-ut Tehrir members in host states, to sway public opinion in one or more host states to facilitate change of government, and, finally, to establishment a new government that will implement Islamic laws. Recently, Hizb-ut Tehrir has published Islamic Manifesto for Bangladesh demanding a Khilafat, implementation of Shariah law,no foreign ownership of any of the countrys resources and most important- no agreement can be signed with India other than ceasefire agreement. Tehrir is also against participating in elections as it views elections are contrary to Shariah law. The Chief of Tehrir in Bangladesh is Mohiuddin Ahmed. Its cadres are mostly university students

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Precautionary Measures
International Travel:
1. Before coming to Bangladesh the foreigners should request for a security risk briefing. It is the companys duty to inform their delegates for a foreign risk briefing. If s/he dont have proper idea regarding Bangladesh then it will be difficult for them to work properly. Example: In risk briefing for Bangladesh the foreigners are asked to wear Salwar Kameez because it is the traditional dress of Bangladesh. And if the foreigners wear western clothes in Bangladesh the uneducated lower class people will keep staring at them which can be a little uneasy for them. Then the instructor guides them where to deal with people and where not, in what vehicles to ride and in what not to ride etc. 2. While travelling the foreigners should not display their companys logo. If the foreigners carry such companys Logo which is very famous and big then s/he might get kidnapped. If s/he is being kidnapped then it will the companys responsibility to give the money to the kidnapper and make the foreigner free. But this is not common in Bangladesh. 3. Foreigners should not discuss about their business identity or purpose with fellow passengers. Bangladeshi people like to interfere in other peoples personal matter so the keep asking questions and questions. But the foreigners should not reply them. 4. Foreigners should arrange to have someone familiar to pick them up at the airport because the CNG and Taxi drivers of Bangladesh are involved in kidnapping gang.

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They will take away all the money and belongings of them and sometimes they can kill you as well. 5. Before coming to Bangladesh the foreigners should leave a copy of their detailed itinerary with a friend, family or secretary so that if their passports get lost they can have the photocopy to give that to the police.

Document and Currency:


Foreigners should not carry confidential company documents self during travel because if by any chance the documents get lost then s/he will be accused wrongly. The foreigners should memorize their passports details so that they dont need to take out their passports again and again to fill up forms.

Medical Safety:
Foreigners should carry common medicines as per doctors advice. They should at least have some anti-allergic medicines because there is lots of dust in the roads of Dhaka city. Foreigners might get allergy / cold because of this.

Hotel Safety:
The foreigners should stay in reputed hotels like The Shonargaon Hotel, Ruposhi Bangla hotel, Raddison Hotel; The Westin etc. the cheap hotels at Bangladesh are not safe at all. In those hotels the staffs may be involved with robbery gangs. They will take all their money and then kill him/her. In Bangladesh the foreigners should stay in between third to eight floor. Because if hotel is in fire then the fire brigade service wont be able to blow off fire above 8th floor as Bangladesh doesnt have that technology yet.

Street Awareness;
The foreigners should know the uniform of law enforcement agencies like police, RAB because if they fall in any danger then they can go to the nearest police station or the nearest police for help. Foreigners should not travel in high crime rate areas.

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Those areas are very much risky and the police are also involved in kidnapping, drug dealing business. So foreigners should not travel to Gulistan, Mirpur Pir Majar etc.

Transportation:
The foreigners should hire rent-a-car or companys car, or car from tours and travel. The foreigners should not ride the yellow cab or CNGs. The drivers of those transports are sometimes involved in criminal activities.

PLANT SECURITY:
Safe-Houses:
Safe houses are especially building secured houses which are built to keep people safe during any disaster or any war or uprising when the foreigners cant get out of the country. Safe houses are kept safe and the people wont know that where the safe house is. But the foreigners can stay there for 3 months as all the daily necessary things are being kept there. Safe houses are commonly used by multinational companies. Nowadays all the big multinational companies and embassies have safe houses.

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Bibliography
Culture of Bangladesh. (October 2011). Retrieved December 10, 2011, from 2011Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Bangladesh Dhaka Become Vulnerable To Criminal Activities. (2009, August 20). Retrieved December 1, 2011, from 2011 - Zimbio, Inc: http://www.zimbio.com/Bangladesh/articles/hgpkE2lNRNF/Dhaka+Become+Vulnera ble+Criminal+Activities Houghton Mifflin Company. (n.d). The free dictionary by Farlex. Retrieved Decemeber 01, 2011, from 2011 Farlex, Inc.: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fraud How fraud 'institution' continuing in Bangladesh. ( 2011, May 25). Retrieved December 01, 2011, from 2011 Weekly Blitz: http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1457/howfraud-institution-continuing-in-bangladesh Massive fraud by Brac Bank in Bangladesh. ( 2009, March 18). Retrieved December 1, 2011, from 2011 Weekly Blitz: http://www.weeklyblitz.net/215/massive-fraud-bybrac-bank-in-bangladesh Mugged, Dragged and Scarred: harrowing tale from foreigner in Dhaka. (23, August 2011). Retrieved December 10, 2011, from: http://jessicamudditt.wordpress.com/tag/crime-against-foreigners-in-dhaka/ Narsingdi Mayor Killing: Suranjit won't talk about Lokman murder. (2011, November 12). Retrieved December 1, 2011, from 2011 Priyo: http://news.priyo.com/politics/2011/11/12/narsingdi-mayor-killing-suranj-42286.html Robbers tunnel to bank locker. ( 2008, January 8). Retrieved December 1, 2011, from thedailystar.net, 1991-2008: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/newsdetails.php?nid=18322

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