Drishtipat started a small fundraiser for Garo activist Chalesh Richil and Protam Jambil’s family in April ‘07. It first started by email, and then moved to our blog.

[Richil was killed in custody. He left behind a family of 5 children. Jambil was facing serious long term illness. Recognizing the seriousness of the crime, GOB has recently formed a one-person committee to investigate the incident.]

After Taka 25,000 was raised, we wanted to send the money to Bangladesh. Because DAILY STAR journalist Tasneem Khalil had written about Modhupur Eco Park, and was in touch w/ the Richil family, we approached him to send the money to them. I emailed Tasneem to find out how the money should be sent to him, and he replied saying that it was “not safe” for him to take the money because he thought he was “under surveillance”. After a week or so, I emailed him again, and this time he emailed back suggesting sending it via Naeem, who was in Dhaka at that time. That was the end of that conversation. Soon after that Khalil was picked up, held for a day, and released. We never sent the money.

While in custody, Khalil’s computer was checked. Last Friday, Janatar Chokh weekly came out with a detailed article on the contents of some emails on his computer. The article was headlined “Shorkar Hotathe Laptop Shorojonthro”.

The article alleges that Khalil was involved in anti-state activities, for which he allegedly received significant funds from abroad. The article reprints Khalil’s email exchanges with Sajeeb Wajed (Sheikh Hasina’s son) and others. There are references to an anti-Yunus documentary that Khalil was working on in secret (we did not know about this), for which his allies were raising funds. There are references to a large sum of money which was allegedly being raised.

Unfortunately, among the various e-mails referred was also my e-mail exchange with Khalil. The article does not clarify that it was a fundraiser for Richil’s family, nor does not mention the amount (TK 25,000), nor does it print any of the preceding emails in the exchange– all of which would have clarified the matter. Finally, the words “Modhupur” in Khalil’s email was transcribed as “Mohammedpur” in the Bangla version.

We have not had any contact with Khalil since he was released from custody, and cannot comment on the veracity of any of these charges. The only thing we can comment on is the part that involves Drishtipat.

To set the record straight, we wish to state clearly:

1. The fund raiser for Chalesh isa matter of public record and is archived on our blog.

2. The amount raised was Taka 25,000, as reflected in the earlier e-mails. If necessary, any journalist can contact us at info@drishtipat.org and we can send him the original email transcripts (with related internet header, so they can verify that these are the original emails).

3. Our email discussion with Tasneem Khalil was strictly limited to the issue of sending the funds to the Richil/Jambil family via Tasneem Khalil.

4. None of us ever had ANY conversation with Tasneem Khalil or any other party mentioned in the article about any other fund transfer. Nor are we involved in any sort of anti-state conspiracy.

5. Our focus is human rights, and we have been doing this work for 6 years. We have criticized human rights violations during both AL and BNP government, during the Iajuddin caretaker government as well as the Fakhruddin caretaker government. We try to be constructive in our criticism, as we always hope that all governments will act to stem such abuses.

6. All of Drishtipat’s work in archived on the internet, and you can find detailed description of all our projects. We are a registered 501(c) non-profit in the US. Transparency & accountability are crucial for us. If you have any suggestions on how we can improve this, we welcome such suggestions.

On a personal note: We do this work on our limited free time as we are all working professionals with full time jobs. I am an Executive Director of an Investment Bank on Wall Street, and I do Drishtipat and my personal write ups purely out of passion about my homeland and for my urge to something about the unheard voices of our country. It’s no fun going day after day on 4/5 hours of sleep as I do most of my DP related work at night as that is the only time I can find after a grueling day’s work and spending a bit of time with my family. There is no hidden agenda, and no anti-state conspiracy behind our work. This very same urge is the motivating force behind hundreds of other young DP workers worldwide.

Our rejoinder in Amader Shomoy came out today and below are related links. If there are any further questions, please contact us at info at drishtipat dot org. If you want to check out our past projects that started by raising funds for journalist Tipu Sultan and that spanned across last 6 year, please do check out our projects page.. I hope you would agree that we have been able to contribute a little to the causes of the unheard voices in Bangladesh and also towards building a bridge between the RB and NRB community. Also you can check our press coverage here.

1. Jonotar chokh is not available online now. But amadershomoy, a 4 page daily, published a summary:
http://www.amadershomoy.com/news.php?id=166276&sys=3

2. Our rejoinder with clarification:
http://amadershomoy.com/news.php?id=166650&sys=1
. If you can’t read the online browser, you can click on the pdf here.

3. Latest update on the petition and fundraising drive:
ttp://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/05/25/chalesh-richil-fund-and-case-update/

This post is simply a refutation of allegations against DP, it is not intended to be a discussion of the rest of the article. As such we have closed the comments field of this post.