The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Bangladesh

  • Another Bangladesh blogger killed

    Another Bangladesh blogger killed

    Just approximately 9days after the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) celebrated World Press Freedom Day in Riga, the capital city of Latvia, an attack has been made against the profession.

    There is no denial that an attack on a professional is an attack on the profession he or she practices. Sadly, a secular blogger was on Tuesday hacked to death in north-eastern Bangladesh.

    According to local police, the death of Ananta Bijoy Das marks the third of such deadly attacks since the start of the year, saying that Das was attacked by a masked gang wielding machetes in the city of Sylhet.

    Mr Das wrote blogs for Mukto-Mona, a website once moderated by Avijit Roy, who was also hacked to death in February for criticism on religious intolerance.

    The publisher lost his life in a machete attack while he was visiting the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, as he returned from a book fair in the city with his wife (now a widow) who also suffered head injuries and lost a finger in the attack.

    Lawyer and human rights activist, Sara Hossain, revealed to BBC that Mr. Das and Mr. Roy were on a list of targets for a while before they were attacked.

    She noted: “They’ve always believed and written very vocally in support of free expression and they’ve very explicitly written about not following any religion themselves,” she told the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme.

    “These last two have been part of a blog called Mukto-Mona (Free Mind), which is about free thinking and is about explicitly taking on religious fundamentalism and particularly Islamic religious fundamentalism. Their names have been on lists of identified targets.”

    Last month’s attack on Mr Roy prompted massive protests from students and social activists, who accused the authorities of failing to protect critics of religious bigotry.

    Sometimes in March, another blogger, Washiqur Rahman, was hacked to death in Dhaka for which an Islamist and two madrassa students were arrested over his murder.

  • Another blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh

    Another blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh

    There is no denial that an attack on a professional is an attack on the profession he or she practices. Sadly, a secular blogger was on Tuesday hacked to death in north-eastern Bangladesh.

    Just approximately 9days after the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) celebrated World Press Freedom Day in Riga, the capital city of Latvia, an attack has been made against the profession.

    According to local police, the death of Ananta Bijoy Das marks the third of such deadly attacks since the start of the year, saying that Das was attacked by a masked gang wielding machetes in the city of Sylhet.

    Mr Das wrote blogs for Mukto-Mona, a website once moderated by Avijit Roy, who was also hacked to death in February for criticism on religious intolerance.

    The publisher lost his life in a machete attack while he was visiting the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, as he returned from a book fair in the city with his wife (now a widow) who also suffered head injuries and lost a finger in the attack.

    Lawyer and human rights activist, Sara Hossain, revealed to BBC that Mr. Das and Mr. Roy were on a list of targets for a while before they were attacked.

    She noted: “They’ve always believed and written very vocally in support of free expression and they’ve very explicitly written about not following any religion themselves,” she told the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme.

    “These last two have been part of a blog called Mukto-Mona (Free Mind), which is about free thinking and is about explicitly taking on religious fundamentalism and particularly Islamic religious fundamentalism. Their names have been on lists of identified targets.”

    Last month’s attack on Mr Roy prompted massive protests from students and social activists, who accused the authorities of failing to protect critics of religious bigotry.

    Sometimes in March, another blogger, Washiqur Rahman, was hacked to death in Dhaka for which an Islamist and two madrassa students were arrested over his murder.

  • JAIZ Bank appoints MD from Bangladesh

    Jaiz Bank Plc has appointed Muhammad Nurul Islam from the Islamic Bank Bangladesh Limited as its new Managing Director/CEO.

    He is to steer the affairs of the bank and position it to realize its vision of being the “dominant non-interest financial services provider in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

    In a statement from Abuja yesterday, the bank said Mohammed Nurul Islam, who was a Deputy Managing Director at the Islamic Bank Bangladesh Limited, is to succeed Nigeria’s Hassan Usman, who has been the acting Managing Director of the bank since April.

    It said Mohammed Nurul Islam “is coming with vast knowledge of Non-Interest Islamic Banking experience having worked for over three decades.” He joined the Islamic Bank Bangladesh Limited in March, 1983 as an Officer and within a decade, rose to the position of Assistant Vice President in 1993, Vice President 1996, Senior Vice President, 2000, Executive Vice President 2003, and then Deputy Managing Director, on February 10, 2010, a position he held until his appointment as MD/CEO by Jaiz Bank PLC.

    Prior to joining IBBL, he served at Agrani Bank Limited. from 1976 to 1983, as a Computer Professional recruited through IBM worldwide Corporation, USA.

    He is a member of many professional associations, including Life Member, Association of the Bankers’ Bangladesh.

    He has attended several professional training and seminars in many parts of the world, including “Lending Risk Analysis” Seminar at Citi Bank School of Banking, New York, USA under the Financial Sector Reforms Project of the Central Bank of Bangladesh which was funded by the World Bank and USAID.

    Mr. Islam was described as “an exceptional personality with vast experience in banking and Non-Interest Islamic Finance.” He is expected to add value to Jaiz Bank and thus position the Bank to realise its Vision of being the Dominant Non-Interest Financial Service provider in Sub- Saharan Africa.

  • Bangladesh Takes Aim at Grameen Bank

    Bangladesh Takes Aim at Grameen Bank

    The government of Bangladesh is considering nationalizing and breaking up the widely admired Grameen Bank, which pioneered the business of lending small amounts of money to poor women who want to start and grow businesses. Lawmakers should reject these destructive ideas and stop meddling in the affairs of this important financial institution, which serves 8.4 million rural women.

    In the last two years, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has waged a destructive campaign against Grameen and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Her actions appear to be retaliation for Mr. Yunus’s announcement in 2007 that he would seek public office, even though he never went through with his plans.

    In 2011, her aides forced Mr. Yunus out of his job as managing director of the bank by arguing that he was older than a mandatory retirement age of 60, even though bank regulators had previously allowed him to stay in the job after he crossed that threshold. Since then, the government has started an investigation into the bank and is now planning to take over Grameen — a majority of whose shares are owned by its borrowers — and break it up into 19 regional lenders.

    Although the microcredit model created by Mr. Yunus in the 1970s has lost some of its luster in recent years because of controversial practices by some lenders other than Grameen, the approach remains a vital tool for reducing poverty. It has helped millions of poor women start and sustain small businesses around the world and especially in Bangladesh, according to the World Bank.

    Turning Grameen into an arm of the state would jeopardize the bank’s core mission by subjecting it to destabilizing political interference. And breaking it up would make its operations less efficient while eliminating it as an influential national organization that might challenge government policies.

    A government-appointed commission studying Grameen Bank is expected to produce a report next week that recommends three different proposals, one of which would nationalize and break up the bank, according to local news reports. Some political analysts say that Prime Minister Hasina might not act on those recommendations until after the country votes for a new government at the end of the year to avoid giving the bank’s many borrowers and employees a reason to campaign and vote against her.

    Regardless of when the prime minister makes her decision, she has provided no compelling reason to dismantle one of the most promising credit movements to have benefited millions of women in her country.

    – New York Times

  • Bangladesh Islamist sentenced to death

    The deputy head of Bangladesh’s opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party has been sentenced to death by the country’s war crimes tribunal, BBC reports.

    Muhammad Kamaruzzaman was found guilty on five out of seven counts of torture and mass murder committed during the 1971 war of independence.

    The nine-month war of secession from Pakistan killed as many as three million people.

    The tribunal was set up in 2010 to try people accused of collaboration.

    Jamaat-e-Islami accused the government of using the proceedings to curb the opposition’s activities ahead of elections scheduled for next year.

    International rights groups, meanwhile, say the tribunal falls short of international standards.

    The conviction comes at a testing time for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has made prosecution of 1971 war crimes one of her government’s key goals.

    Analysts say the death sentence will only exacerbate an already febrile situation in a country where police and Islamist protesters have this week been fighting deadly battles on the streets of the capital Dhaka.

    The umbrella organisation behind the protests – of which Jamaat is a part – is calling for the introduction of more Islamic laws, and has shown it can easily mobilise vast numbers onto the streets.

     

  • At least 22 killed in Bangladesh protests

    At least 22 people have been killed after police clashed with Islamists demanding a new blasphemy law in the Bangladeshi capital.

    The bodies of 11 victims, including a policeman, were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Mozammel Haq, a police inspector based at the hospital, told AFP.

    Sky News reports that officials at three private clinics in Dhaka confirmed that they had received the bodies of 11 other victims.

    Police officials said that about 200,000 people had marched to central Dhaka on Sunday, where fierce clashes erupted between thousands of rock-throwing protesters and security officials.

    Witnesses said rioting broke out after police tried to intercept stick-wielding protesters, most travelling from remote villages, in front of the country’s largest mosque. Trouble then spread to central districts of Dhaka.

    “This government does not have faith in Allah. This is an atheist government, we will not allow them to live in Bangladesh. Muslims are brothers, we must protect Islam,” one protester was seen chanting.

     

     

  • ‘More than 140m girls to become child brides in 2020’

    ‘More than 140m girls to become child brides in 2020’

    The United Nations on Friday said that by 2020 more than 140 million girls would have become child brides globally if the current marriage rates continue.

    It warned that little progress has been made towards ending the harmful practise.

    The Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, said of the 140 million girls, 50 million will be under the age of 15.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Osotimehin spoke at a special session on child marriage at the ongoing UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York.

    Some of the issues focused on during the session include supporting and enforcing legislation to increase the minimum age of marriage for girls to 18 years.

    Others are providing equal access to quality primary and secondary education for girls and boys; mobilising girls, boys, parents and leaders to change practises that discriminate against girls among others.

    He said that while 158 countries have set the legal age for marriage at 18 years, laws are rarely enforced since the practice of marrying young children was upheld by tradition and social norms.

    He stated that the practise was most common in rural sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

    The UNFPA Executive Director said that currently, 10 countries with the highest rates of child marriage are Niger, Chad, the Central African Republic, Bangladesh, Guinea, Mozambique, Mali, Burkina Faso, South Sudan and Malawi.

     

  • Bangladesh Islamist sentenced to death

    A tribunal in Bangladesh has sentenced Islamist leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi to death for crimes committed during the country’s 1971 war of independence, BBC reports.

    The Jamaat-e-Islami chief was found guilty of charges including mass murder, torture and rape. He is the most senior figure convicted so far.

    His opponents erupted in cheers on hearing the verdict.

    Critics of the tribunal have said that the charges against Sayeedi and others are politically motivated.

    The Jamaat-e-Islami party rejects the court and has been staging a strike in protest.

    Official estimates say more than three million people were killed in the war.

    Security was tight around the capital, Dhaka, as the judgment was being read out. On hearing the verdict, protesters gathered at a busy intersection in the city erupted into cheers.

    “We’ve been waiting for this day for the last four decades,” one man told local television, the Agence France-Presse news agency reports.

    Thousands had staged a protest in the capital on Wednesday, demanding the death sentence be handed down to him.

     

  • Factory fire kills more than 100 in Bangladesh

    More than 100 people are now known to have died in a fire that swept through a clothes factory in Bangladesh, local officials said.

    BBC says the blaze broke out late on Saturday in the multi-floor Tazreen Fashion factory in the Ashulia district on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka.

    Some people died after jumping from the building to escape the flames.

    It is unclear what caused the fire, which started on the ground floor trapping many victims in the factory.

    Officials suspect that an electrical short circuit might have started the blaze.

    Initial reports said eight people had been killed, but the scale of the disaster became clear when rescue workers entered the building on Sunday.

    “We resumed our search this morning and found the bodies lying on different floors of the factory building,” Brigadier General Abu Nayeem Mohammad Shahidullah of the Dhaka fire brigade told AFP news agency.

    Later reports said that 120 people had died, but the number of fatalities was then lowered to at least 112. A number of people are believed to be missing.

    The fire started on the ground floor – which was reportedly used as a warehouse – and quickly spread through the building.