Unheard Voices

On March 25th, Ain Salish Kendra (ASK) released the 2007 Annual Human Rights Report. In the Chapter on CHT Paharis and Flatland Adivasis, following 7 topics were covered. On March 27th, the CTG announced a removal of the ban on mobile phones (item # 4).

1.Death in Custody: Eco-Park activist Cholesh Richil
2.Racial Profiling: Army Operations, Ranglai Mro, DANIDA kidnapping
3.Right to Property: Bengali settlers and land grabbing
4.Right to Information: Continuing ban on mobile phones, limited reporting on CHT
5.1997 Peace Accord: Continuing Non-implementation
6.Legal Challenge to Peace Accord
7.Voter List implementation in violation of Peace Accord (more…)

Nicholas Schmidle in Boston Review

“The Islamist Challenge to Secular Bangladesh”
http://bostonreview.net/BR32.3/schmidle.html

The usual refried text, but is there any substance to any of these scenarios? The challenge for us is to see past the overheated rhetoric and uncover the reality. (more…)

Retired Major General C R Dutta, who commanded sector 4 which comprised most part of greater Sylhet in 1971 independence war, has demanded the government revoke the constitutional recognition of Islam as the state religion.

The administration of the then military dictator HM Ershad in 1988 approved a constitutional amendment, making Islam the state religion amid howls of vehement protests from political and social platforms including other ethnic groups.

“I demand that the status of Islam as the state religion be annulled. We didn’t fight for independence to make Islam the state religion,” Dutta told a commemorative meeting of the 89th birth anniversary of General MAG Osmani, the commander-in-chief during independence war. He said the country’s original constitution, passed in 1972, must be reinstated to resolve political problems. “The four principles of the 1972 constitution like democracy, secularism, Bengalee nationalism and socialism should be reinstated,” he said. [bdnews24.com]

Recent story on DS.

BNP cadres grab land of Hindu families in Munshiganj, Allege victims

Local BNP cadres grabbed the lands and other properties of 50 Hindu families at Louhajang in Munshiganj and forced them out of their houses about two months ago, the victims alleged yesterday.

Same story has been going on for ages with state protection with a state stipulated law called Vested Property Act. Its about time we kill this darkest of all laws. To see the actual law, go here.

From Shahrier Khan

Minority Hindus deprived of land rights in Bangladesh
Sharier Khan OneWorld South Asia , June, 2004

A discriminatory law enacted decades ago in Muslim majority Bangladesh continues to deprive hundreds of thousands of minority Hindus of land rights, despite being repealed in 2001.

Before Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in 1971, West Pakistani military rulers had enacted the Enemy Property Act, 1965, to drive Hindus out to neighboring India after grabbing their lands.

Since then, encroachers have misused the law with the help of corrupt state authorities to grab property by identifying Hindus as “enemies of the state.”
(more…)

The deafening silence of Amnesty International’s Annual Report on Chittagong Hill Tracts is an ominous sign. It will definitely send a wrong signal to the government of Bangladesh. (more…)

Even though we hear about sporadic incidents these days involving tensions among religious groups in Bangladesh, that is certainly not the norm. Despite having differences in political ideology, people of what is know as Bangladesh now have been enjoying religious harmony for hundred of years. We often hear opinions from progressive countries on exercising religious rights and religious freedom. Each nation has room for improvements and so does Bangladesh to leap forward to the next millennium in a positive way. Even though some would like to undermine religious freedom in Bangladesh, one does not need to look through scholarly publications to see clear signs of religious freedom there. It is evident in daily lives as illustrated in the following pictures of Hindus celebrating Durga Puja along with the Muslims fasting in the holy month of Ramadan in Muslim majority Bangladesh where the state religion is Islam. I am not aware of any other nation where each citizen, regardless of their religious affiliation, enjoys national holidays for major religious events of Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism etc.

This year, Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Hindu Durga Puja fell around the same time in Bangladesh. In the above picture, Muslims are buying food for Iftar in the market to break their fast at dusk with other family members.

In the above picture, Durga Puja is being celebrated by Hindus in Ramkrishna Mission and other parts of the country with great passion.

From OneWorld South Asia

Abul Barakat also conducted research which revealed that apart from Hindus, land encroachment victims also included 31 other ethnic minority groups that comprise 12 percent of the country’s 140 million population.

According to him, the share of landless households increased from 19 percent in 1960 to 56 percent in 1996.

But Barakat maintains that, “Hindus are the worst affected as they are the biggest minority group who owned plenty of land before the discrimination began. More than one-third Hindus have turned landless or marginal landowners.”

Agrees Hindu lawyer Arun Pal. “All the Hindus of two villages in our region in Gopalganj (140 kilometers southwest of Dhaka) have become landless from 1965. Over the years, many of my neighbors have gone to India and many others are living destitute on other peoples’ lands although they are land owners themselves,” he discloses.

Pal is lucky his ancestral home was not seized, unlike 50-year old Debashish of Tangail, 120 kilometers north of Dhaka. Debashish’s life changed in the early 1980s when encroachers in connivance with land officials took away his lands.

Recalls Debashish, “I discovered I was no longer the owner of my land one morning when I went to the land office to pay my taxes.” Encroachers promptly descended on his property and drove him away.

But Debashish has not yet abandoned hope. “I am waiting for the government to implement the repeal of the Vested Property Act,” he says optimistically.

Complete Article from Oneworld