Ruin of 200-year-old Hindu Mandir

On 10th February a midnight a heavy loaded truck suddenly heat the boundary of the 200 years old Barthi Tara Kali Mondir in Gouranadi, in this accident a notable portion of this historic Hindu temple was demolished said the secretary of the temple, Babu Datta

He added that the Dhaka metor Da-11-1896 suddenly heat the boundary of the holy temple and demolished the historic temple, the local highly police came and took the truck after four hours

The local Hindu devote expressed their great shock on this accident, some people shared this may be a planned attack on the temple

William Nicholas Gomes is a human rights activist and freelance journalist. He can be reached at E-mail:cda.exe@gmail.com.

An eminent patriot and internationally renowned celebrated scientist Dr. Arun Kumar Basak is being subjected to harassment and mental torture, perpetrated by a government establishment. This makes it difficult for him to devote himself to study and research. He and the other members of his family are passing their days in a state of deep insecurity. Dr. Basak was honored with the highly prestigious Bangladesh Academy of Sciences Gold medal in 2006 for his outstanding contributions in the field of Physical Sciences.

Rubi Villa is a name of an old house. Professor Amiretus of Rajshahi University Arun Basak is the owner of this house. It’s situated of the middle of Rajshahi city near Boalia police station. Read the rest of this entry »

IANS | Dhaka

An ancient Hindu temple in a village near the Bangladesh capital has been vandalised, the miscreants breaking six idols, police were quoted as saying on Saturday.

Some 30-35 people attacked the Sri Sri Rahshakali temple in Ashrafdi village in Naranaganj district on Friday night, the bdnews24 web site quoted a police official as saying.

They also damaged four adjacent houses and injured five people, it said.

Police officer Mohammed Yunus Ali said the temple was attacked following an altercation between a Hindu and three youths in the village. A case has been registered, the official said.

BNP and Awami League were united for their self-interest of Hindu minority persecution. Though, in the political field both of this two big political parties have been quarrel and fight each and other. Nuruzzaman Piter is an influential businessman who is to close with a central leader of BNP and former Mayor of Rajshahi city Mizanur Rahman Minu. On the other side, Jahangir Alam Haran is another great businessman, who is to close with a central leader of Awami League and present Mayor of same city A H M Khairuzzaman Liton.

Both of two businessmen have a land of the middle of Rajshahi city. In front of their land have a small piece of land (one and half Katha) which of owner Hindu minority Gopal Ram and Noresh Ram (both of are brother). One side of the land has a small wheat broken factory. Other side they have been living in a small room. But, the influentials businessmen were wanted to buy this land of piece for increasing their multistoried building. Owner of that land was denied to sell it. After then the influentials were making conspiracy to evict from hereditary homestead of them and to grab this land. For this they wanted to use Army men.

On 1st January, 2010 Gopal Ram told, this was a house. My older mother was living here. But, the influentials was destroyed it. When they were doing vandalizing my mother and a daughter of my brother were inside of this house. They would be killed, fortunately they were safe. By brutally they were attacked in the night (at around 3.00am). We were afraid and anxious. Even our lives were hard to safe. In that time nobody was helped us. Read the rest of this entry »

Surviving Members of Laili Costa's Family

Laili Costa, a young Catholic woman, living in the Catholic parish of the Holy Rosary church under the Archdiocese of Dhaka, became destitute when her husband Joacem Costa was shot dead by unidentified thugs in the Sadhon Para area of Dhaka.

Laili Costa said, “My husband left me and my two daughters. What he earned hardly supported our family, and he did not leave any savings. The owner of our previous home had already kicked us out from there, and we had just found a second home. The owner there is going to kick us out within days. I will not be able to have Christmas with my children.”

She went on, “I am striving daily for my small children. My elder daughter was kicked out of school, since I cannot pay the tuition fees, and my younger daughter is suffering from serious malnutrition; she could die at any time.”

With extreme fear and tears in her eyes, Laili Costa said, “On July 14, 2009, around 9:35, I got a call from one of my neighbors that my husband was shot by thugs in the Sadhon Para area. I immediately called my husband’s younger brother, Leo Costa, and rushed to the place. As I reached the place, I did not find my husband. He had been taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.” Read the rest of this entry »

Bangladesh has been dropped out from United States’ HR list of the Human Rights list meaning that the US government is happy with the situation of human rights in Bangladesh over minorities, women and any that follow. It was said that because of the current Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, this was archived. The ambassador said, “The United States excluded the name of Bangladesh from its watch list on November 3 following the improvement of situation in various human rights fields.” They also mentioned that during the BNP-Jamaat government, this was not possible, and empowerment and development of women was another achievement for the Bangladeshis.

Source: The Daily Star

A Hindu family was attacked by allegedly government party workers. They abducted 9 people from the family and left them with chaos. The father is living a very fearful life concerning the safety of his two daughters.

Although the police initially rejected to assist the Hindu family later they caved in due to media pressure. They arrested four people behind this attack. While asked the police commissioner he declined to comment on this issue.

Our human rights worker in Bangladesh, William Gomes was on the scene taking a series of footage of this developing story. We were able to get a word from the State Minister, police commissioner and the family.

State Minister of Bangladesh on Minority persecution

The Hindu minority in Bangladesh describing the forceful abduction story

Police commissioner Dhaka

Twenty minority Hindu families of Kajir Hat and Keramotia village of Chordorbesh union of Sonagaji sub district in southern Bangladesh by local Muslim extortionist.

Local Muslim extortionist Jafar ,Yunus ,Saiful ,Ripon and others demand regular extortion from local minority hindhu families of Kajir Hat and Keramotia village,when the minorities refused to give extortion money the extortionists start persecuting the minorities Said Nitia Das of Kalibari village

The extortionists sized 45 thousand taka from Nitia Das of Kalibari village, when the other hindhu minorities of the village refused to give extortion money the extortionists abducted a minority Hindu girl and later paying Fifteen thousand taka extortion money said Nitia Das of Kalibari village

Boloram Das a local minority Hindu said the extortionists forcefully abducted a young girl of our family, later we have paid twenty five thousand taka extortion money and they released the girl.

Boloram Das said the extortionist Yunus is now threatening to marry a minor Hindu girl forcefully.

Boloram Das said we have consulted with the local people to help us and to police but no one is helping us.

Boloram Das added that at least twenty minority Hindu families of our locality can not go back home for these extortionists.

Human rights activist Dipal Barua said the attacks on minorities are growing notably. We highly condemn these attacks on minorities and we demand to the government to take proper actions against extortionists as soon as possible.

The minority Hindus of Bangladesh are looking back at the Awami League again to seek for their freedom that they had once lost when the BNP government came up. But still, we have not seen what we thought would watch when after the long term of the interim government and their dominance. We thought that we would watch all the Hindus free from the grip that had held them so sceard for all these time but still it doesn’t seem to come out of it.

In Ittefaq, a report came up with an incident on the first of August, 2009 (click here to read it from Ittefaq’s site). Bangladeshi newspaper called Shomokal, Sangbad, Daily Nayadiganta, Daily Jugantar, Daily Janakantha are still publishing stories with incidents that are happening till this day in the lives of those Hindus. But AL till now has not shown any improvement among the citizens of Bangladesh. In PresecutionBD.com, a site fully dedicated to those Hindus and minorities that are suffering the pain, it bought up a news that we see in the Hindus of Narshindi. The Hindus of Narshindi are still looking for justice on the July 25th incident that happened this year after the Awami League government was selected. After reading about it in PresecutionBD, I went to a site that preserves these reports that happened against the Hindus.

Translated from the report: “Just to get control of Hindu’s cemetry area in Narshindi Palash, 4 minority houses were treated savagely. They broke down the houses, robbed from them that they saw were valuable. In their attack, including woman 5 were injured. The villagers have said that Jainal was the leader of this gang and they broke down the cemetry area then threw them down to the river where the current picked it all up.”

Now here comes the government at this and how this crime is investigated: “The police have arrested a girl names Swathi (I just want to say, how can a girl do this?) Now the loot that happened at the scene was nothing small but it was big with the amount of money that they stole, gold that they found and they also looted cellphones that were making the price go up to one lakh takas.

Yes, I can agree that it is not the Awami League government that is doing all these but they could at least investigate upon this. This is the minorities that always give them the vote and no one else but still why are these minorities getting so much less notice? Aren’t these minorities humans? It might sould as if it is only us that are yelling, well in Bangladesh what other minorities are going on? For example will the poor are being treated badly but they are not being treated badly because of who they are but what they have. If we treat human beings because of their beliefs, then I just want to ask to those that are being racist “Where is the World standing at this stage today?”

Posted From Chotto Mind’s Blog

Oppression of Minorities in Bangladesh

Minority repression and extra judicial killings has not stop in Bangladesh. Minority repression is a common feature in Bangladesh. Almost every day here happening minority torture. Ms.Radha Rani Halder (28) in Shoriotpur was gang raped recently. We knew our great patriotic journalist Manik Saha was killed by bomb attacked in 2004. Another honest journalist Diponker Chakraborty from Bogura was killed by terrorists. From Faridpur promising journalist Goutam Saha was killed. Principle Gopal Krishna Muhury was killed by gun shoot. As a Bangalee peoples everybody knows Purnima gang raped of in Sirajgonj. And it was the preplanned incidents. No actual investigation has happed and still not give punish to perpetrators of at least 15 indigenous community leader including Alfred Soren, Choles Richil murderer. (See:http://www.humanrightstoday.info/?p=865).

We know in Bangladesh has no actual democracy, rule of law, education. Most of the peoples are living very poor situation. Gross problem is that, constitutionally Islam is the only one religion. But, in Bangladesh have living Muslim, Hindus, Christians and Buddhist. Though, we had got secular constitution after independence led by father of the nation Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. After the killings of Bongobondhu, General Zia and General Ershad were broken the main constitution.

Read the rest of this entry »

Local police vandalize the minority houses of Bonikpara at Rangunia in Chittagong on July 18th . Police broke the gate enter the houses of minority families at around 3:30 in the early morning, said Asa Lota Ghosh

On Saturday police only broke into the houses of minorities and vandalize the houses and roughly beaten the woman and children said locals

As a Hindu minority Prodip Ghosh went to the police station to file a complain against police, police denied to take any complain, said Prodip Ghosh

Local UP chairman Abdul Kaium said as I went to the place of incident , I saw the house was vandalized and the door was broken

Local police chief said police went there to search criminals but as they did not co operate the police broke into the house .

Bangladesh intelligence has arrested Mufti Obaidullah, the most wanted militant of India and an operative of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Bangladesh intelligence arrested him earlier on Thursday near the Babubazaar Bridge in capital and presented before the media on Friday. For last 14 years Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba had been carrying out its activities in Bangladesh, said intelligence officials

Mufti Obaidullah was working to organize terrorist networks with the help of Kashmir based Lashkar-e-Taiba, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner AKM Shahidul Hoque. Mufti Obaidullah has been living in Bangladesh with his wife, three sons and two daughters since 1995, to avoid Indian intelligence after the Indian government declared him the most wanted, said Police Commissioner

In last six years he lived in different regions of Bangladesh and taught in different madrasas of Madaripur, Jessore, Satkhira and Srimangal. I had planned to eliminate the Hindus and the enemies of the Muslims by forming a group said Mufti Obaidullah. In last 14 years in Bangladesh, he would train up people to be militants. Said Police Commissioner

Lashkar-e-Taiba is one of the largest and most active militant organizations in South Asia.

Group Photo with Dr. Neem Chandra Bhowmik

Dhaka – Prof Neem Chandra Bhowmik, chairman of Applied Physics Department of Dhaka University (DU) has named as the new Bangladesh ambassador to Nepal, said government source

Government took a sharp decision. Prof Neem is an intellectual and people like him should represent the country. His representation in Europe or American countries can bring a positive change in diplomatic relations, said Arnab Tagore a human rights activist

He is also the president of Bangladesh Muktijodha Foundation, president of Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad and general secretary of Bangladesh Hindu Bouddha Christian Oikya Parishad. During last decade he has played a vital role in protecting the rights of the minorities in Bangladesh as an active part of of Bangladesh Hindu Bouddha Christian Oikya Parishad.

During the military backed interim government Prof Neem Chandra Bhowmik was falsely accused in two cases filed in connection with the August violence on Dhaka University (DU) campus, was sent to jail yesterday after he surrendered before a Dhaka court.

William Gomes: Bangladeshi Human Rights Activist

I am William Gomes a Human rights activist and a freelance journalist from Bangladesh. I do used to run a small human rights organization called “Christian Development Alternative (CDA). I am also a converted Christian. I was harassed by police many times.  we do work with our small effort to protect the rights of the minorities specially.

Today 8th July 2009 ,two police official form special Branch of police under the City SB came to my house around 6 o clock in the evening. One police official said, who is William Nicholas Gomes. They said we are looking for you. We are from city SB of police. Our senior official wants to talk to you. He ringed from his cell and gave me the
mobile phone, from other side a man, asked me what you was doing in India in February. Come to my office tomorrow, my high officials wants to know more.

I said to him that I will go to prime minister’s office tomorrow early in the morning and then I will go to UNDP local office for pre fixed meeting. Than the man from the other side to go to his office in Bialy road in Saturday.The man was the Additional Sp of city SB. I will go to his office on Saturday. I will give you update. What is going on.
For last two years, I have been harassed by police only for my religious identity and works for minorities.

The name and the celll number of the police officials came to my house:

1. Mohammed Abul Kaher
Sub Inspector

2. SM saha Alam
Sub Inspector of City SB

I am drawing your urgent attention on the issue of bias manner of a police officer SI Mr. Shariful on case of investigation of a case (case number 33) filed in Sutrapur police station dated on  11-05-09 under the crpc section  380.

On this case the petitioner Adv.Rabindra Ghosh claimed that some unknown people have stole a video camera from ISCKON temple Swamibag . And the petitioner allegedly involved me on the incident; the fact is I am not aware of said camera at all. More than that the petitioner provoked the Sebait and Executor of Swamibag Ashram Shri Jasada Nandan Acharjee to witness against me that “He saw that I took the camera”. Mr. Acharjee has told the fact to Investigative officer SI Shariful. The IO is not pointing the statement in note.

I am shocked at this false case. I am felling really helpless. As you are human rights
defender I need your help, I have protested the false attempt to tie me with the case to the DC wari. The Dc Wari seems very helpful.

I am always committed to fight the Terrorism for my position with the allies of  in different countries and recently, I had sit with Mr. Ahmad Karim Nawabi, the Afghan ambassador to Bangladesh and share my concern about fighting the growing the

Islamic Terrorism and on regular basis I am sharing all the available information in fighting the Islamic terrorism in the south Asia to the international community. I have penned different articles in different international media in focusing the problem and possibilities in Bangladesh.

As PRP is on the way to transform police force to Police Service, I hope that you will take it note that the Investigative should take proper note that I am being harassed by the ill motive of Adv.Rabindra Ghosh. I myself protested on some case where the Advocate showed a normal eloped case to a forced conversion to Islam. The case was also submitted to UN.  Through my mail I had also request PRP to investigate on the aggressive attitude towards the police officials.

I also want to request to make it sure the police should make it sure, why Adv.Rabindra had provoked Shri Jasad Nandan Acharjee to witness against me strongly. The irresponsible attitude of police officer like SI Shariful is hampering my attention in fighting the growing Islamic terrorism.

As journalist and human rights activist I just went to find out the issues of forced conversion .But I am in problem for the irresponsible attitude of the police officer of Bangladesh police. I also request to the international community to write to the government to insure a   free and fare investigation.

Dutch Minister Bert Koenders

A two member group of Dutch ministers will arrive in Dhaka on July 5, a press statement said

The group will include Bert Koenders, the Dutch minister for development cooperation and Dutch vice minister of transport, public works and water management Tineke Huizinga.

During tow days short visit they will meet with prime minister Sheikh Hasina, finance minister AMA Muhit, foreign minister Dipu Moni and the water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen, the statement said.

The ministers will also visit education and water sector projects, funded by the Netherlands and will also meet with members of parliament, academics, development experts and the representatives of NGOs and the business community, the statement said.

Mr Koenders was appointed Minister for Development Cooperation in the fourth Balkenende government On 22 February 2007. He has held numerous positions, including member of the Governing Council of the Society for International Development and chair of the board of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank.

In 2009, he had criticized Pope Benedict XVI over his assertion that handing out condoms is not the solution to combatting AIDS and actually makes the problem worse.

Since the liberation of Bangladesh, the country  has received over 1 billion dollars from the Dutch, mostly in grants through government and non-government channels for the improvement of water management, land reclamation, combating climate change, good governance and others, the statement said

2009 Failed State Index

Fund for peace has decided to rank Bangladesh 19 out of 177 states putting it into “alert” state. The higher the ranking, more vulnerability exists in that nation and more likely that nation to spiral into a state-wide crisis. The bad ranking for Bangladesh has to do with corrupted government, social unrest and bad human rights record.  Although new government was able to gain some momentum initially, BDR mutiny and rising cost of living while sliding quality of life has contributed to a high vulnerability within the state.

Pakistan has been ranked 10th putting it into a highly critical category. Somalia ranks 1 in the index.

Among the top 10 ranked states, 7 of them are Muslim majority states.

Somalia (1)
Sudan (3)
Chad (4)
Iraq (6)
Afghanistan (7)
Guinea (9)
Pakistan (10)

This shows the high uncertainty that exists on most of the Muslim states. Corrupted government, rise of Islamic fascism and fundamentalism are tearing these countries apart.

Other than the Muslim states, the South-Asian states have also performed very poorly except India. Among other South-Asian states Sri Lanka has ranked 22 and Nepal 25. Unfortunately Bangladesh has ranked worse than both of these nations even though these countries are recovering from the civil war and unrest.

Click here to look at the original list.

Here is an interactive map.

Child Prostitution in Bangladesh

Various organizations and individuals have been fighting for decades to ensure justice for women and children in Bangladesh. While progress has been nominal, violence continues to be notable.

Innocent souls are crying for justice. From January to March 2009, 73 women and children were the victims of rape or attempted rape; among those, 29 were gang raped and 13 were between ages 7 and 12. In May alone, 33 women and girls were the victims of rape. Among those, 16 were women and 17 were children under the age of 16. Out of the 16 women, five were victims of gang rape and three were killed after being raped. Out of the 17 girls, five were victims of gang rape and two were killed after being raped.

Between January and March 2009, six serious acts of violence against women were instigated by fatwas. When I discussed this issue with the law minister, he denied the necessity of introducing a specific law to ban fatwas. I repeatedly insisted on the necessity of a specific law to fight fatwa, as well as a law to identify the paternity of a child in cases where it is disputed.

Dowry is another social disease in Bangladesh. From January to March 2009, 44 women faced dowry-related violence; among these women, 23 died.

Bangladesh has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world: 440 per 100,000 live births, according to UNICEF, and more than 20,000 women in Bangladesh die annually from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.

In Bangladesh, women do their best to fulfill their duties and take care of all their men’s needs; yet, from January to March 2009 alone, 45 women were abused by their husbands or their husbands’ relatives. Very recently, a woman, Parul Akter, who was seven months pregnant, was killed and her body thrown in a river; her two other children are still missing. This is the reality that many women in Bangladesh face.

We can name thousands of ways that women and children are facing oppression and repression in Bangladesh. Confucius said, “We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression.” I do agree with that. For almost two decades, Bangladesh’s prime ministers have been women. The number of people who oppose and oppress woman and children are larger than the number of people who are oppressed or suppressed.

Women’s empowerment alone will not solve the problem; we need to treat women as human beings first, rather than simply as women. We need to break the silence and stand up against religious and cultural traditions that encourage the repression of women and children. I dream of a day when a woman will be treated as a human being first, when women will really be empowered and lead the nation toward a more humane way, as they are the source of the human race.

The whole system in Bangladesh is male-dominated, inspired by common prophet religions that have a culture of suppressing woman historically. We need to deal with these oppressors first. Many aw and wonderful steps had taken to bring an end to the suppression to woman and children but hopefully none of them succeed.

A Woman is Harassed by Police in Bangladesh

Sometimes, a police officer who oppresses his wife in the home is used to investigate a case of oppression against a woman. In this case, the police officer should be brought to trial before anything else. Bangladesh even has cases where, after being raped, the woman gets raped again in the police station by police officers.

More than anything, the religion of Islam encourages the majority of people in Bangladesh in the historical cultural traditions of oppressing women. Laws can change, while religion inspires adherents through heaven and hell; in this light, how will jail or capital punishment be able to make any significant change?

The Prophet Mohammed said, “I was standing at the edge of the fire (hell) and the majority of the people going in were women.” When the Quran and the Prophet Mohammed guide the majority of people in Bangladesh, and the Quran (4:34) orders a man to beat his wife if she doesn’t obey him, how will the law prevent the beating of women? Laws and conventions contradict the holy sayings of the Prophet and Allah and will surely fail to ensure the rights of women.

I silently cry for justice for women like Parul, Rahima, Rebeka, Shima, who was raped in front of her father, and Mili Rani, a minority girl who was raped and later committed suicide. All this happened inside of the society before you and me.

We need to break the silence and step up a revival for humanity and justice.

William Gomes is an independent human rights activist ,Freelance Journalist and a political analyst. He can be reached at cda.exe@gmail.com .

Shiekh Hasina: PM of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a flourishing country with a large Muslim population. Recently, Bangladesh has been called different things, due to its growing Islamic extremism. Different governments have played a mixed role in fighting Islamic extremism. Presently, the Awami League government, which won the parliamentary elections with a large majority, has given the highest priority to fighting Islamic extremism.

Local and international media is covering the activities of the government against Islamic extremist groups. The government is trying to prove that Islamic extremism is going to be uprooted soon.

But the reality is very different. The Islamic extremists are growing and gathering more strength as the government initiates operations to uproot extremism. The reality is that the Islamic extremists are better equipped and strategically stronger than ever.

There are 786 high profile people in important positions of power that are closely linked with different Islamic extremist groups. Among these 786, there are 200 high-ranking government officials, including 76 individuals from the different intelligence agencies of the Bangladesh government, 20 powerful parliamentarians, and 7 high profile media personalities in different news media to fight the intellectual battle and propagate news and views in favor of the Islamic extremist groups.

The government failed to trace these 786 people and their national and international links. These 786 are working to create a scenario like what happened in Bangladesh in 1975, with the assassination of the “father of the nation” Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. As Rahman was assassinated, so will Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina if the government fails to fight these 786. Through the masses, the liberation in 1971 came about, and through the assignation of Sheikh Hasina will we be able to triumph over the tragedy of 1975.

William Gomes is an independent human rights activist ,Freelance Journalist and a political analyst. He can be reached at cda.exe@gmail.com