The Last Slaughter

By ziryab | Published: February 19, 2013

Tarek Fatah writes on facebook:

A Day before the Pakistan Army surrendered to the Bangladesh Mukti Bahini and the Indian Armed Forces, they and their Jamaat-e-Islami collaborators carried out a slaughter of the most prominent Bangladeshi academics and intellectuals. Today’s protests in Dhaka are the cries for justice by the sons and daughters of those who were killed in the name of Islam and Pakistan that day and the three million who died in the genocide carried out by the Pakistan Army and its jihadi militiamen in the previous nine months.

Here is the New York Times report from the war zone, dated December 19, 1971. Every Pakistani must read this and hang their head in shame.

NY Times Report, December 19 1971

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Nick Cohen on Shahbag

By ziryab | Published: February 17, 2013

Nick Cohen with an excellent piece on how the Shahbag demonstrations formed the space for a battle between secular Bangladeshis and Jamaat-e-Islami supporters in a park in Whitechapel. And the ongoing story of how the establishment and Britain’s liberal Left continues to enable fascist streams in political Islam, in particular, Jamaat-e-Islam.

Do I hear you say that Bangladesh is far away and the genocide was long ago?

Not so far away. Not so long ago. And the agonies of Bangladeshi liberals are nothing in comparison to the contradictions of their British counterparts.

The conflict between the Shahbag and Jamaat has already reachedLondon. On 9 February, local supporters of the uprising demonstrated in Altab Ali Park, a rare patch of green space off the Whitechapel Road in London’s East End. They were met by Jamaatis. “They attacked our men with stones,” one of the protest’s organisers told me. “There were old people and women and children there, but they still attacked us.”

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Posted in 1971 War, Islamism, Jamaat-e-Islam, The Left, Tower Hamlets, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Hoodbhoy: Shahbag Square – why we Pakistanis don’t know and don’t care

By ziryab | Published: February 17, 2013

Pervez Hoodbhoy is one of the most thoughtful of dissenting voices speaking in Pakistan today. His latest piece is a comment on the reasons behind Pakistan’s wilful disinterest of the events of the Shahbag Uprising.

On February 5, the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) found Mullah guilty in five out of the six charges against him. Known as Mirpurer Koshai (Butcher of Mirpur) because of his atrocities against citizens in the Mirpur area of Dhaka, he was charged with beheading a poet, raping an 11-year-old girl and murdering 344 people. The ICT sentenced Mullah, presently assistant secretary general of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, to life in prison. For the protesters in Shahbag Square, this isn’t enough — they want Mullah hanged. On the other side, the Jamaat-e-Islami protested violently and also took out demonstrations. But its efforts to influence global opinion foundered in spite of a well-funded effort.

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Posted in 1971 War, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Blogger and Shahbag Movement Activist Slaughtered in Dhaka

By ziryab | Published: February 16, 2013

Murdered: Rajib Haider (26)

Rajib Haider who blogged under the name of ‘Thaba Baba’ was one of the blogger activists of the Shahbag youth  uprising in Bangladesh. Yesterday came news that Rajib was slaughtered in Dhaka close to his home. His throat and wrists were slit, in signature Chaatra Shibir (Jamaat-e-Islam’s student wing) style, and he was left to die.

Ahmed Rajib Haider, 26, was an active participant of the ongoing nonstop demonstrations at Shahbagh demanding death sentences for all ‘war criminals’.

Officer-in-Charge of Pallabi Police Station Abdul Latif Sheikh told bdnews24.com that they recovered Shuvo’s body from Laalmatia’s Palashnagar around 9pm.

He said the face bore signs of slashes. A scarf was wrapped around the blogger’s throat, Sheikh added.

This was not a simple mugging case as police said the deceased’s laptop was found near the body of the architect.

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Posted in Crime, Islamism, Jamaat-e-Islam, War Crimes | 11 Responses

Shahbag: Return of the silent majority

By ziryab | Published: February 15, 2013

Saad Z Hossain writes a piece which perfectly encapsulates the public sentiments regarding the fascist culture of Jamaat encroaching into public life and what the Youth Uprising at Shahbag think about it:

What do you expect the government to do? Shoot at unarmed women and children? Slaughter college kids and shopkeepers? The demands of Shahbagh and the AL overlap to some extent. That is not surprising given the universal hatred for Razakars this country once felt in ‘71. The fact that politicians have since seen fit to worm these men back into power does not mean they were ever rehabilitated in the eyes of the common people. The fact that most people in the country hate Razakars, including the sitting government, should not really detract from the legitimacy of the cause.

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Posted in 1971 War, Jamaat-e-Islam, Religious Right Wing | Leave a comment

Candlelight Vigil at Shahbag

By ziryab | Published: February 15, 2013

Hundreds of thousands of people participated in a candle light vigil at Shahbag, Dhaka, at 7pm. To remember the dead and demand justice for those who fell in the genocide of 1971.

candle light vigil

Posted in War Crimes | 2 Responses

Mass Anti Jamaat Rally In Dhaka

By ziryab | Published: February 9, 2013

The anti-Jamaat Mass Rally in Shahbag Square

We are now in day 5 of the ongoing anti-Jamaat rallies that have swept Bangladesh, with the largest one attracting more than 200,000 protesters in Dhaka.

Hundreds of thousands of people rallied Friday in Bangladesh’s capital to demand executions for people convicted of war crimes involving the nation’s independence war in 1971.

The protesters in Dhaka urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to review a verdict sentencing a senior leader of Jamaat-e-Islami to life in prison for killings and other crimes.

The protesters said the life term was not enough as Abdul Quader Mollah was found by a tribunal guilty of five charges, including playing a role in the killing of 381 unarmed civilians.

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Posted in 1971 War, Islamism, War Crimes | 7 Responses

Gita Sahgal vs Islamist Hecklers

By ziryab | Published: February 9, 2013

On the BBC Radio 4 show ‘Hecklers’, Gita Sahgal takes on the combined force of the Islamists Tahmina Saleem (Islamic Society Britain), Tariq Ramadan (freelance Islamist), Nazir Ahmed (House of Lords), Moazzam Begg (Cage Prisoners) and Daud Abdullah (Muslim Council of Britain)

Posted in Democracy, Hindu Fundamentalism, Islamism, Jamaat-e-Islam, Nutters, Religious Right Wing, Secularism, UK Politics, War Crimes | 1 Response

Obituary: Adil Fakieh (Minister of Saudisation and Slavery)

By Guest | Published: January 23, 2013

This is a guest post from Saudi Arabia by Mullah Anonymous

Minister of Saudisation and Slavery

It is with regret to announce the sudden death of the Yemeni origin Saudi Minister of Labour Mr. Adel Fakieh. His death was a result a Road Traffic Accident. He was being driven by a Bangali chauffeur whose work permit profession was documented as baker. The car was of German origin while the colliding vehicle was Japanese whose driver is of Sudani origin . Mr. Adel was dressed in the finest robes at the time made of silk from Iran and stitched by the tailors from Pakistan. Emergency services move his obese body from the accident site to the Indian owned Saudi German Hospital. Attempts by professional Filpino and Egyptian medical staff (who were very busy training certain idiotic Saudi graduates of Bedouin origins on the importance of oxygen to the human brain), were unsuccessful. All the work permits of the medical staff were in order, except the radiologist from India was discovered to have a fake degree.

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Posted in Drollery | Leave a comment

The scars of war, victory and justice

By Cross Post | Published: December 23, 2012

This is a cross post by Bina D’Costa first published in BDNews24

Ever since the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) began its work, opponents of the mechanism have emphasised that the first government of the state pardoned the alleged war criminals, that this was a project of political witch-hunt against Jamaat and BNP senior leaders and that there was no demand for justice from the majority of Bangladeshis who were more interested to move forward and have economic security rather than revisit the past. This write-up explores the political history until the ICT started its proceedings to respond to some of these claims.

We know how it began. That the Pakistani forces were perceived by the overwhelming majority of Bangladeshis who supported liberation as occupation forces; and that India’s armed intervention to end the conflict was welcomed. Pakistan also attracted global condemnation due to its brutal military crackdown in 1971, which resulted in mass atrocities and genocide. But what happened after the war was over?

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Posted in 1971 War, War Crimes | 2 Responses

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