October  2003 
Year 10    No.92

Campaign

For Bangla minorities, terror Raj

October 24, 2003
Vandals raid temple, set Shiva’s image on fire

Unidentified vandals attacked a temple and set fire to the image of Shiva in Manikganj town in the early hours of yesterday. Sources said the gang entered the temple in Dassara Kalikhola area of the town at about 3.30 a.m., set the image afire and left the spot. The image was partially damaged before the neighbours rushed to the temple and extinguished the blaze.

Protesting the sacrilege, Manikganj District Puja Udjapan (celebration) Committee took out a procession in town at about 11. 00 a.m. and held a rally in front of Manikganj Press Club. The rally was addressed by Dolan Goswami, secretary of the committee, Rajat Shubhra Gosh, Gopal Shaha, Shushanta Mitra and Mohan. The speakers condemned the attack on the temple and demanded punishment to the guilty.

The puja udjapan committee will hoist a black flag atop the temple and take out a procession wearing black badges in town today. It will also hold a protest rally and form a human chain in front of the local press club tomorrow.

(http://www.thedailystar.net/2003/10/24/d31024011515.htm)

September 29, 2003
Forced occupation of Durga temple

On the eve of Durga Puja, the properties of the Sonargaon Durga temple in the district of Narayanganj were forcefully occupied by Suruj Mia, an influential ex-commissioner of Sonargaon municipality, and his associate, Asad Ullah, with the help of a gang of local miscreants. The 300-year old Durga temple was demolished and the adjoining pond with cemented bank steps damaged. The Hindu community is not only unable to celebrate the Durga festival; their life and security are under constant threat.

(The Sangbad and Ittefaq, September 29, 2003)

September 22, 2003
Top cops threaten minority rights activist

From: Rabindra Ghosh
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003, 9.05 P.M.
To: [email protected]
Subject: Threat from govt. officials

To,

Dhiman Deb Chowdhury
President, HRCBM
Hi Dhiman babu,

While I was continuing my humanitarian job in different parts of the country, I usually seek co-operation from the administration, particularly from the police. But day before yesterday I solicited the kind co-operation of Mr. Khoda Baksh Chowdhury, DIG of Police, Dhaka, for assisting the victims at Nowabganj and also for directions to the O.C. Nowabganj to arrest the accused in a case filed by the minority victims. Mr. Khoda Chowdhury became angry with me and warned me not to disturb him any more in future.

Yesterday, I went to the office of Mr. Matiar Rahman, Superintendent of Police, Dhaka, to assist imparting justice to the victims at Dhamrai who have been tortured by union parishad members and chairman of the locality. I visited the place of occurrence and took the statements of victims on video- tape, with the statements of the Dhamrai police. As a result, Mr. Matiar Rahman became annoyed with me and he cautioned me to be more careful as high level intelligence is monitoring my activities. He also brought a false allegation that I am instigating the Hindus to come out with the procession in Nowabganj police station.

I also brought the victims to the office of Mr. Matiar Rahman and the victims of Nowabganj told him that they have been persecuted and tortured by some criminals belonging to the ruling party. I also made a complaint to SP Dhaka that the O.C. wanted to bribe me during my investigation at Nowabganj. As I refused to take any illegal bribe, the O.C. Nowabganj is trying to fish in troubled water.

I also went to see the victims of Dhamrai, now in Dhaka central jail, who have been falsely arrested by the Dhamrai police with the active support of union parishad (UP) members and local chairman. Initially, the senior jail superintendent denied that the victims were injured by UP members. But while I contacted the inspector-general of prisons, then I could identify the wounds upon the victim Amar Mani Das. Subsequently, Amar Mani Das has been admitted to Dhaka central jail hospital.

I am trying to get bail for the victims from the court today.

Thanks,

Advocate Rabindra Ghosh
HRCBM-Dhaka

September 19, 2003
Tribal housewife lynched after gang rape

Even as painful memories of the triple murder at Ranishankail of Takurgaon are still fresh, yet another tribal woman belonging to the indigenous Santhal community, 18-years-old and newly married, was killed after her brutal gang rape on September 19 in village Sindurpur. In the last nine months, more than 12 women and men have been brutally done to death at this sub-district.
The murder cases were registered in the local police station as homicide but due to political bias and laxity of the police, criminals are yet to be apprehended. There are also complaints that the police is concealing or altering the evidence to save the killers. Local journalists have been threatened not to report incidents of atrocities against the tribals in the newspapers.

The isolated village of Sindurpur lies half a kilometre west of Husaingaon under Ranishankail of Takurgaon. At least seven indigenous Santhal families live here alongside other communities. On the afternoon of September 19, the husband of the deceased had left home to catch fish while the young wife was alone at home. Just then, a gang of local goons burst into the house and leapt on the hapless women. The brutes lynched her by slashing her throat after gang-raping her. The villagers brought the blood-bathed body to the local hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The father-in-law of the victim named two persons, Abu Taleb (46) and Golam Rabbani (25), in his FIR but is doubtful of receiving justice. Criminals of the locality had earlier gang-raped and then lynched his 11-year-old daughter. The aggrieved father, who has lodged a complaint, is yet to receive justice.

(The Daily Jugantor, September 27, 2003).

September 18, 2003
Respected community leader killed

The report of the gruesome murder of Dr. Sudhir Kumar Mukherjee on September 18 in Prothom Alo, a Bengali daily and the Daily Star, an English daily, cast a pall of gloom on Jhenaidah, a district town in Bangladesh.

Dr. Mukherjee, an octogenarian physician, was founding president of the Khulna division of the Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA), president of the Bangobandhu Parishad of Jhenaidah, president of the district puja observance committee, ex-president of the Jhenaidah Hindu, Buddhist and Christian Unity Council, ex-general secretary of the Chuadanga district Awami League, and an inspiring leader of the minority community.

According to the newspapers, a gang of four miscreants killed Dr. Mukherjee in broad daylight. On September 18, while Dr. Mukherjee was supervising the renovation of his house, the doorbell rang. The widely regarded physician went down to his chambers on the ground floor. Curious at not hearing any sound, Anna Karmakar, housemaid of Dr. Mukherjee, went down and found the door locked from inside. She then peered in through the window and found to her awe that the octogenarian physician was lying in a pool of blood near the door.

Hearing Anna’s screams, neighbours rushed to the house and took Dr. Mukherjee to Jhenaidah General Hospital where the doctors on duty pronounced him dead. At least six stab wounds were found on Dr. Mukherjee’s body.

At the time when this heinous killing took place, the leader of the Opposition, Sheikh Hasina, was addressing a meeting at a local school (Wazir Ali School). On hearing the news, she went to the hospital to see Dr. Mukherjee. Speaking to journalists, she said, "None of us are safe now."

Two of the doctor’s neighbours told reporters that Dr. Mukherjee had told them that about a week earlier a group of young people had demanded a large sum of money from him. The murder may be linked to this demand. However, the district SP, Abdullah Al Mahmood, told the media that the motives behind the killing have still not been clearly established.

A sense of deep loss, sadness, anguish and fear for life and security prevails in Jhenaidah, especially within the minority community.

September 4, 2003
Hindus forced to pay jizia tax

Rabindra Ghosh, president, HRCBM-Dhaka reports:

I have just come from Nowbabganj upazilla, about 150 km from Dhaka town. Over 100 hundred Hindu families living there had to approach the officer-in-charge and the executive officer of Nowbabganj to complain that they had been tortured and oppressed by some terrorists from the ruling BNP.

The Hindu families, they alleged, had already been forced to pay more than Tk 3,00,000 in jizia tax and more was being demanded. Instead of giving them a sympathetic hearing, the officer-in-charge, Nowbabganj, snatched away their banner and refused to return it. He also threatened to file cases against the complaining families.

I met the police officer and other law enforcing agencies and talked with the victims. The Hindu families said that they want to leave the country due to torture and repression. I have managed to file a case against the terrorists in the police station. Sensational news items have been published in different newspapers on this issue.

(Visit http://www.hrtribune.com/News/nowabganj_0904.html) for further details).

August 31, 2003
Gang-rape of 9 ethnic women

Nine indigenous women, three of a family, were gang raped and some others assaulted during nearly eight-hour mob attacks on at least 10 villages in Mohalchhari upazilla of Khagrachhari district on Wednesday, Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS) leader Polash Khisha alleged yesterday.

More than 400 houses in those villages, two Buddhist temples and three shops were set ablaze and an elderly indigenous man was killed during the attacks, said Polash, PCJSS Rangamati district unit secretary. Polash made the allegations at a protest rally in front of the deputy commissioner’s office here. The rape victims included the wife and two teenage daughters of a Chakma man of Pahartoli village and six others of Dupoizza Neel village, he said.

Quoting a detailed report from indigenous villagers, the PCJSS leader alleged involvement of some security personnel in instigating the mob into attacking the villages. Polash also said an eight-month-old baby named Chikko Chakma, son of Shamiron Chakma, died in his arms as he pressed the child’s mouth to prevent him from crying to avert attacks by the mob while fleeing his house in Karengalal village. The PCJSS leader alleged a vested quarter is making fresh bids to worsen the situation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region and the Mohalchhari incident is the latest one.

The rally was chaired by PCJSS’ student wing Pahari Chhatra Parishad (PCP) Rangamati district unit president Ashin Chakma and addressed by, among others, PCP central leader Binotamoy Tripura and Tulu Marma. Earlier, the district unit PCP also brought out a procession that paraded thoroughfares of the town.

Meanwhile, the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) has called a 72-hour road blockade programme in the hill district from 6.00 a.m. today to realise its six-point demand, reports UNB. UPDF leaders announced the programme at a press conference here yesterday to press for their demands, including formation of a judicial inquiry committee, to probe the recent incidents of killing and arson in Mohalchhari Upazilla.

(The Daily Star, August 31, 2003).

August 26, 2003
Hill people’s villages reduced to ash

Padma Shova Chakma stared vacantly at her burnt-out house, holding a charcoal of a betel nut tree. Piles of coal of what constituted her property a few days ago were strewn all over. "I don’t know why they ruined my life. I’ve lost everything. I don’t know where to go and what to do with my five daughters," Shova said, tears welling up in her eyes. The 40-year-old woman and her family lost everything at their Lemuchhari village on the afternoon of August 26 when a mob of Bangalee settlers from neighbouring Chanrachhari village torched their village at will.

Lemuchhari was not the lone village of indigenous people that was reduced to ashes; seven other villages of Babupara, Pahartali, Keranganal, Durpajjanal, Ramesshu Karbaripara, Sawmill Para and Basanta Para also stood in ruins. Burnt-out houses, piles of charcoal and blackened trees marked the villages of ethnic people. Only a few worn-out dishevelled villagers were milling around the ruins of their house in the hope of salvaging the petty things for rebuilding life. Most of them lost all their clothes, except for those they were wearing.

"Many of us have been starving since the nightmare," said Paingcraio Marma, a villager of Babupara. "Only a few lucky families have got rice handouts from the government." A few animals, mostly pariah dogs, pet pigs and poultry birds, roamed the battered homesteads seemingly in a daze.

The indigenous people claim that Bangalees, both Hindu and Muslim, torched and looted about 350 houses in the villages under Mahalchhari police station, killing two and raping at least 10 women. The marauders also ransacked three Buddhist temples and razed one and took away four Buddha statues, they alleged. The abduction of a Bangalee youth, Rupan Mahajan, allegedly by a gang of indigenous people on August 24 triggered the violence.

Rupan’s family said the hostage-takers demanded Tk 5 lakh in ransom. "I was working at my yard, unaware of the disturbance brewing elsewhere. Suddenly a group of 60 to 70 Bangalee settlers came shouting towards our village. They were armed with machetes, sticks and spears and jerry-canfuls of kerosene," said Shova.

"Before I could make out the situation, they stormed houses, looting and burning everything. I saw some people of the neighbouring village with whom our villagers had good relations, in an unbelievably marauding mood."

"Our villagers ran helter-skelter for cover. They were crying, calling out relatives and running towards the Kalabanya jungle. I asked my daughters to follow me and run to save life. We had no time to think of property or anything else." She said the gang in their two-hour frenzied attack on the village torched all the 63 houses one after another. "They looted valuables, farm animals and burnt everything including rice, wheat and maize in their scorched earth policy," Shova said. "I came out of the jungle the next day to find the village of lost hope. Nothing was standing, ashes of burnt thatched houses were scattered all over."

Proggajyoti Chakma of Lemuchhara village said some hills people rushed to the police camp, just 100 metres off the village, to inform them of the raids, but the law-enforcers never responded to their cries for help. "We had no other way but to flee to the jungles," he said. "Our people say the situation in all the eight villages is the same. Even seven days into the arson, we’ve got only a handful handout of rice from the government," Shova said. She and other villagers like Joyotibikash Chakma, a schoolteacher, Sonaratan, headman of the village, Amal Kumar Chakma, union parishad member — all live in the Kalabanya jungle.

They have no shelter and no way to save them from monsoon rains. Those who had flimsy shelters in the jungles were drenched in the cloudburst yesterday. Living a precarious life in the jungles is better than living in damaged houses under the spectre of unceasing fear of mindless acts of bestiality, say the indigenous people. Avinas Chakma, a student of Dhaka State College and a resident of Babupara village, had read about the incident when he was in Dhaka. He went to his home village five days after the incident to see the scars of the plunder. "What remains of my house are only ashes. If I tell the barbaric story to my friends in Dhaka, they won’t believe it. It’s totally unbelievable in a society that claims itself to be democratic," he said.

The indigenous people allege that the administration is soft-pedalling on bringing the criminals to justice and trying to shift the blame onto rival political groupings of indigenous people. The administration has no definite information on how many houses were burnt and how many indigenous people became homeless.

According to the indigenous people, 63 houses were burnt in Lemuchhari village alone and the loss ranged between Tk 30,000 and Tk 12,00,000 a house.

The Bangalee settlers say the violence was the act of ethnic people. Some of them set fire to a house in their simmering conflict raging in the area and the fire soon leapt to neighbouring houses and villages, they claim.

Local legislator Wadud Bhuiyan said it was not the Bangalees, but the indigenous people were their own enemies.

(http://www.thedailystar.net/2003/09/08/d30908011111.htm)

August 26, 2003
Terror in Bangladesh

Bangladesh promotes itself as a "moderate, progressive and democratic Muslim country," but a leading human rights activist from the South Asian nation says it is a land of terror for many of its Hindu, Buddhist and Christian citizens. Rosaline Costa, director of Hotline Bangladesh, yesterday told correspondent Julia Duin that in the Bhola islands on the southern coast of the country, 98 percent of Hindu women interviewed had been raped by Muslim thugs.

A former nun, Miss Costa has won awards for her campaign a decade ago to abolish sweatshops that employed Bangladeshi children to make garments for US clothing outlets. She has turned down offers to emigrate for her own safety, saying she prefers to stay in the land of her birth and monitor what she says is a rising tide of killings, maimings, beatings, land grabs, destruction of homes, vandalism, extortion and destruction of temples and churches.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the abuses in Bangladesh. The State Department’s latest human rights report criticised the government’s "poor human rights" record, but noted that the government "generally respected" religious freedom.

The State Department cited "reports of harassment of Hindus, including killings, rape, looting and torture" blamed on local gang leaders.

Miss Costa, however, said local police do little or nothing to investigate the attacks. Once she approached a moderate Muslim friend for help, who responded with incredulity.

"‘Are you mad?’" she said he asked her. "‘Do you think my head will stay on my body?’"

Bangladesh is a breeding ground for militant Islam, said Sitangshu Guha, a Hindu-American accompanying Miss Costa in her tour of the United States.

A spokesman for the Bangladesh Embassy could not be reached for comment yesterday, but the government has repeatedly denied news reports about Muslim terrorists organising in Bangladesh.

Non-Muslims made up 33 percent of the country’s inhabitants in 1971, when Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan, Miss Costa said. They are now 9.9 percent of the population. Thousands of people have fled to India, Japan and other countries, especially Britain, which had colonised the subcontinent for 200 years.

Religious attacks have increased since October 2001, when the Bangladesh National Party came to power in a coalition with hard-line Islamic parties, Miss Costa said.

Friday afternoons are the worst, she said. Miss Costa, who lives near one of the largest mosques in the capital, Dhaka, said angry Muslims, inflamed by mullahs at Friday services, pour out of the mosque, looking for any available Christian, Hindu or Buddhist on which to vent their fury. The situation is worse in rural areas, she said, where Muslim mobs have "ethnically cleansed" many areas of their inhabitants. Hindus are the most affected, she said, because they traditionally have owned the most land.

"Rape is a most useful tool to evict a family. Rape makes it impossible for a family to stay in the area," she said, explaining that the female victims are frequently blamed for disgracing their families.

(James Morrison, The Washington Times, August 26, 2003).

August 21, 2003
Women raped as robbers loot houses

Armed robbers raped three women as they robbed houses of Hindus at Piljanga and Shyambagat villages under Fakirhat police station early Tuesday morning of money, gold ornaments and other valuables worth over Tk 3 lakh.

The three young women were undergoing treatment at the Fakirhat Upazilla Health Complex along with Gopal Kumar Dey, 25, and Chand Kumar Das, 24, who were injured in the attack, said Officer-in-Charge (OC) Nikhil Chandra Mondol of Fakirhat police station.

Police said a gang of 15 looted the houses of Monoranjon Dey, Nimai Dey, Bishnupada Dey, Niranjan Dey and Nirmal Kumar Dey of Piljanga village at about 3.30 a.m. and of Ashok Das and Ashim Das of Shyambagat village at 5.00 a.m. The victims are affluent men, said the OC. Police recovered two used gun cartridges from the scenes.

(The Daily Star).

July 21, 2003
Rape and torture empties the villages

Purnima Rani, a 12-year-old Hindu girl, is terrified and breaks down frequently as she describes what happened 18 months ago in the village of Perba Delua in Bangladesh.

"Nearly 30 people came to our house. I recognised many of them as my neighbours. They beat my mother almost senseless. I begged them to stop. They dragged me outside. I resisted but they hit me with sticks. I shouted to my sister to save me but they beat her too. I cannot tell you what happened next."

Purnima was gang-raped and her family found her unconscious three hours later in a field a mile from the village. Four young men, all supporters of the government and its coalition partner, the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party, were arrested but have not been charged.

But the ordeal did not stop there. The family’s hairdressing business was twice looted, her elder brother was beaten and is expected to lose his sight, and they have now all fled the village after threats that they would be killed.

Her father has been offered bribes to drop the case and Purnima, one of the few victims of Bangladeshi sectarian violence who is prepared to talk openly, is now in hiding. "I want justice, not money," she says.

Serious attacks on and persecution of religious minorities by Islamic fundamentalists are increasing, and despite a detailed dossier on 18 months of persecution of religious minorities, and women in particular, the British government calls Bangladesh a "generally safe" country. Amnesty International says this makes "no sense".

Thousands of Bangladeshis are fleeing, a few wealthy ones applying to go to Britain and continental Europe. Those who arrive in Britain will almost certainly be sent back. But The Guardian has uncovered compelling evidence that in declaring Bangladesh in effect free of internal problems Britain is turning a blind eye to atrocities committed by fundamentalists.

Evidence is emerging that the oppression of minorities is becoming systematic. Bangladesh, which is 85% Muslim but has a long tradition of tolerance to religious minorities, is, say local organisations, being pushed towards fundamentalism by the Jamaat-e-Islami, which is growing rapidly in rural areas with the deepest poverty and runs two key ministries.

"This is like a silent revolution. We are returning to the dark ages," a leading lawyer said, asking not to be named.

"I think the backdrop is being created for the introduction of strict sharia laws. You see extremist rightwing fundamentalists infiltrating every professional area, in the appointment of the judiciary, the law, medicine and in education. They are capturing key positions in government, the universities and institutions."

Britain has seen the dossier of human rights abuses, which is backed by evidence from local and international development groups.

In the village of Fhainjana, a mob of 200 fundamentalists recently looted 10 Christian houses, allegedly assaulting many women and children. Christians were seriously beaten and others molested after refusing to give money to thugs in the village of Kamalapur, near Dhaka. In Deuatala Bazaar, gangs of young men with knives told Hindus to leave. Hundreds fled. Many villages are said to be now empty of minorities. Elsewhere, Hindus have been burned alive and gangs have desecrated temples.

Rosaline Costa, director of the human rights group Hotline Bangladesh, says that the British government is well aware of the situation. "They must think we are stupid. It says there is communal harmony, but this is a lie. Documents showing the scale of the atrocities on minorities have been sent to all governments. There are many genuine asylum seekers."

Thousands of Bangladeshis are thought to have crossed the border to India in the past two years. It is impossible to verify numbers because New Delhi will not release records, but Dhaka’s statistics show the Muslim majority increasing dramatically and the Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and other minorities declining.

In western Bangladesh, where the Jamaat-e-Islami is particularly strong, many villages have been deserted by minorities. "In my village of Sri Rumpur, near Khulna, there are no Hindus left," said a man who asked not to be named. "They have all been driven out by people threatening to torture them or demanding money. People who raise their voices are threatened. It’s a kind of systematic ethnic cleansing."

Toab Khan, editor of the independent newspaper the Daily Janakantha, said: "Repression of people who publicise human rights violations is growing. We have reported communal violence from the beginning. Our head office has been bombed, our agents have been threatened and beaten up. The government has withdrawn all its advertising and is pressurising and harassing reporters and the owner."

Last month three newspaper editors were arrested after publishing a letter critical of the government’s human rights record. BBC and Channel 4 film-makers have been detained. Shariar Kabir, a film-maker and human rights activist, was charged with treason and jailed for 59 days for writing about torture and interviewing Hindu families who told him they were fleeing the country.

The Bangladeshi government, which has admitted that some atrocities have taken place, argues that the violence is not religiously motivated. But it has directly attacked western-funded NGOs working to increase women’s rights and strengthen the voice of the poor in minority communities.

In the past 18 months British and European aid to five main NGOs has been frozen, ostensibly pending an investigation but almost certainly because they have worked with the poor to strengthen women’s rights. The UK Department for International Development’s office in Bangladesh has protested.

"Up to £40m in grants directed at relieving poverty for 2.8m families is affected. Millions of the poor are being denied help for ulterior motives," Kabir Choudhury, president of the South-East Asia Union against Fundamentalism, said.

Leading Islamic scholars are appalled by the repression and the rise of fundamentalism. "What we are seeing is the Talibanisation of Bangladesh," Maolana Abdul Awal, former director of the Bangladesh Islamic Foundation, said. "If we allow them to continue ... (minorities) will be eliminated. Bangladesh will become a fascist country."

An NGO director said: "I am being called a terrorist. They telephone me personally demanding money, saying they will push me out of the country and that my children will be killed ... They intend to wipe us out. I do not understand why the British government is turning a blind eye to what is happening." 

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/3604,1002184,00.html)