Probe Magazine Vol 13 Issue 2 (1-15 Nov 2014)

The November e 7 uprising of soidiers that 

changed the fabric of the nation 

The Politics of death and demise e in Bangladesh 

- Afsan Chowdhury 

DIVORCES ON THE RISE 

2 November 1-15 

Interview 

Issue 

Exclusive 

The spirit of the 

liberation war has 

been made into 

a commodity 

-Major (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed 

What Piyash 

Karim said 

Alliance Française 

violates laws for 

a multi-storeyed 

building

Editorial 

Editor in Chief 

Irtiza Nasim Ali 

Editor 

Ayesha Kabir 

Executive Editor 

Ahmed Hasan 

Special Correspondent 

Anwar Parvez Halim 

Senior Correspondent 

Shafiq Rahman 

Staff Correspondents 

Md. Belayet Hossain 

Aritra Ankan Mitra 

Contributors 

Badiul Alam, Kamrul Hasan 

Altaf Parvez, Taib Ahmed 

Harunur Rashid 

Overseas Correspondents 

Prof Moonish Ahmar (Pakistan) 

Paritosh Paul (India) 

Frances Bulathasinghala (Sri Lanka) 

R Shresta(Nepal) 

Sandra Kabir(UK) 

Shehabuddin Kisslu(USA) 

Chief Photographer 

Bablu Chowdhury 

Cover and Graphic Design 

Adventure Communications 

Manager 

Debashish Sarkar 

Address 

House: 10/B, Road: 9 

Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka: 1205, 

Bangladesh 

Tel: 8119897 

Email: 

probenewsmagazine@yahoo.com 

www.probeweekly.com 

Price: TK 20 

When crime crosses all limits 

The dailies read like cheap crime and horror fiction 

nowadays, but the fault lies not in the media or 

journalists. The fault lies in the fact that we are living in 

a world akin to that of cheap crime and horror fiction. 

Every single day we hear of the most gruesome murders, 

highway robberies, gory street accidents, muggings, rape 

and crimes most heinous. The more crimes that take 

place, the thicker the skin we grow. Where has humanity 

gone? 

What has brought this social degeneration upon us? Is it 

the lack of good governance where the institutions of 

state have failed to perform? When the law enforcers 

become perpetrators of crime, to whom will the common 

people turn? When the judiciary loses that judicious 

blindfold, how can one expect justice? 

Surely there is even more to the breakdown of basic 

social ethics than just bad governance. It is high time that 

the drivers of society -- the politicians, civil society 

leaders, crime experts, the media, psychologists, 

sociologists and all relevant actors -- put their heads 

together and get to the root of the problem. The nation 

cannot continue like this where human life is rapidly 

becoming a disposable commodity. 

If this is a gloomy deliberation, it is meant to be so. 

Facades of good cheer cannot salvage the nation. Let us 

work in unison to clear our skies of the dark cloud of 

moral degeneration that has set upon us so we can once 

again rise and hold our heads high in a safe and secure 

Bangladesh. 

PROBE-Link Times 

We are happy to announce that PROBE News Magazine 

of Bangladesh and Link Times of China have come to an 

understanding of cooperation. Thus from now on our 

valued subscribers will receive a free issue of Link Times 

with every two issue of PROBE. 

Link Times is China's first monthly English news 

magazine on current politico-cultural issues for Asian 

readers. 

Issue: 2 I Nevember 01 - 15, 2014 I Vol: 13 I Page: 1

Contents 

Issue: 2 I November 01 - 15, 2014 I Vol: 13 I Page: 02

Newsbeat 

Bangabandhu on 

JP MP’s billboard 

White paper on the 'unwanted'! 

Jatiyo Party members of parliament 

are serving Awami League, 

apparently. They are placing more 

importance on the government’s 

interests rather than their party’s 

interests. Ershad has been peeved 

about this for long. The opposition is 

often jokingly referred to as Awami- 

Jatiyo Party. And the activities of 

certain leaders justify this name. Ershad 

certainly has reason to be irate with this 

trend in the party and Liaqat Hossain 

Khoka MP of the Narayanganj-3 

constituency is a glaring example of 

propensity to please the government. 

He is a close friend of Narayanganj’s 

ruling party MP Shamim Osman. 

Jatiyo Party Joint Secretary General 

Liaqat Hossain Khoka recently erected 

huge billboards and posters in his 

constituency. On these billboards and 

posters were pictures of Ershad, 

Raushan Ershad, Khoka himself and 

Bangabandhu. Interestingly, though he 

purportedly upholds Ershad's ideals, 

Khoka made sure the picture of 

Bangabandhu was huge and placed 

right up front. The pictures of Ershad, 

Raushan and Khoka were much 

smaller, blatantly overshadowed. 

Khoka MP tells PROBE that he has 

put up billboards and posters with 

Bangabandhu’s portrait in all 108 

wards of his constituency. 

Local Jatiyo Party leaders and 

activists are angry with Khoka for 

featuring Bangabandhu on the 

billboards and posters and giving less 

importance to Ershad. 

Liaqat Hossain Khoka doesn’t think 

he’s done anything wrong. He says, 

“Our party chairman himself 

acknowledges Bangabandhu as the 

father of the nation. Bangabandhu does 

not belong to one party, he belongs to 

the entire country. So there is nothing 

wrong in putting his pictures up on the 

billboards and posters.” n 

Those who had resisted the move to take the body of Dr. Piyash Karim to 

the Shaheed Minar have not just ended the matter there. After declaring 

the persons who wanted to take Dr. Piyash Karim's body to Shaheed 

Minar as persona non gratae, they have now announced that they will publish a 

white paper in these 'unwanted' persons. 

They have also decided to add two more names to the 'unwanted' list. They 

are founder of Gono Shasthya Kendra Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury and Secretary 

of SUJON Dr. Badiul Alam Majumdar. This was stated by Mehdi Hasan, 

President of Muktijoddha Sangsad Shontan Command. 

Brac University Professor Dr. Piyash Karim passed away on 13 October this 

year. His family and well-wishers expressed their wish to take his body to 

Shaheed Minar where people could come to pay their last respects. This 

enraged the student activists of the mahajote alliance parties. They announced 

that they would resist the move. 

Chhatra Sangram Parishad and a number of other organisations took up 

position on 17 October, with police guard, at Shaheed Minar. From this 

platform, Mehdi Hasan, President of the unknown organisation Muktijoddha 

Sangsad Shontan Command, announced nine eminent citizens as persona non 

gratae at the Shaheed Minar. There are Manabjamin Editor Matiur Rahman 

Chowdhury, senior journalist Mahfuz Ullah, News Today Editor Nurul Kabir, 

poet Farhad Mazhar, Dr. Asif Nazrul, Prof. Dilara Chowdhury, Amena 

Mohsin, journalist Golam Mortuza and lawyer Dr. Tuhin Malik. 

These persons are all well-known TV talk-show personalities. The general 

apolitical TV viewers were shocked at this announcement. 

It was learnt that this Mehdi Hasan, leader of the Muktijoddha Sangsad 

Shontan Command is from Gopalganj. His father Abdul Kuddus took part in 

the liberation war at Gopalganj, claims Mehdi Hasan. n 

Bangladesh 

elected to UN's Top 

Human Rights Body 

Bangladesh has been elected to 

UN's top human rights body, the 

47-member UN Human Rights 

Council based in Geneva for the term 

2015-2017, at an election held at New 

York recently at the 69th UN General 

Assembly, 

This is the third time Bangladesh was 

elected securing 149 votes to this 

council created in 2006 that oversees 

global human rights standards, 

mechanisms and normative 

deliberations on promotion and 

protection of human rights. 

Bangladesh served on the Human 

Rights Council during 2007-2009 and 

2010-2012 for two consecutive terms. n 


South Asia Desk 

Islamabad airport voted 

the worst in the world 

The Benazir Bhutto International 

airport in Islamabad has been 

voted as the worst in the world, 

knocking Manila off the top of the 

unenviable list. 

According to a poll by the Guide to 

Sleeping at Airports website, the 

Islamabad airport was voted as the 

worst based on comfort, facilities, 

cleanliness and customer service. 

The Worst Airports of 2014 report 

included a quote from a traveller who 

compared the airport to a “central 

prison” because of “aggressive security 

checks”, crowds and dirt. 

“Travellers have also complained 

about the airport’s inability to handle 

passengers for over a decade – and 

thankfully, it seems the end of ISB is 

near,” the site said. 

“A new airport is slated to be 

completed for mid-2016, which should 

dramatically improve air travel to the 

city.” 

Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz 

International Airport, in Saudi Arabia 

follows Islamabad in the list at second 

place, while Kathmandu Tribhuvan 

International Airport, in Nepal clocks 

in at third. Manila, which was knocked 

off the top slot, now occupies fourth 

place on the list. 

While the appearance of airports 

from developing countries can be 

expected, the list also features a number 

of airports with countries from the 

European Union and the USA. 

From the European 

contingent, Paris’s Beauvais-Tille 

International Airport is listed at 

number six owing primarily to its 

location, nearly 88 kilometer from the 

city centre and access restricted to 

private transport or the airport shuttle. 

The Beauvais-Tille shares the slot 

with Germany’s Frankfurt Hahn 

International Airport. It one-ups its 

Parisian counterpart, located 120 km 

away from Frankfurt city centre. 

Bergamo Orio al Serio International 

Airport in Italy and the Berlin Tegel 

International Airport in Germany come 

in at eight and nine on the list 

respectively. 

New York’s LaGuardia International 

Airport completes the list at 10 for 

its security lines, drab décor, poor 

restaurant selection, lackluster 

cleanliness, counter intuitive layout 

and the notoriously unhelpful staff. n 

India to pump billions into building 

new colleges in Kashmir 

The plan is to make postsecondary 

schooling more 

accessible to residents of Jammu 

and Kashmir. 

Students in Jammu and Kashmir are 

welcoming a state government 

decision to invest Rs. 10.4 billion 

($170m) in building new higher 

educational facilities and programmes 

in the state. 

"Students who come from far-flung 

areas of Kashmir had to opt for 

colleges in Srinagar to study various 

programmes," Burhan Khan, a finalyear 

student at the Government 

Degree College in Srinagar said. "If the 

new universities and colleges are 

established in the state, they would get 

to study in their own districts." 

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister 

Omar Abdullah approved the plan to 

establish new universities, technical 

colleges, degree colleges and 

polytechnics throughout the state in 

February. 

The Union government will 

disburse money for the project under 

the National Higher Education 

Mission (RUSA), officials said. 

The federal government will cover 

most of the costs, initially providing 

Rs. 9.35 billion ($155m), while the state 

will cover the remaining Rs. 1.03 

billion ($17m), according to media 

reports. The programme will move 

forward with no time delays or 

financial adjustments due to recent 

monsoon-related flood damage in the 

state. 

"Implementation of this scheme in 

Kashmir is likely to be started between 

2014 and 2015," Manohar Lal Sharma, 

Minister of State for Higher Education 

in Kashmir , said. n 

Sri Lankan military to 

return Tamil gold 

The military announced 

October 14th it would 

return unspecified 

quantities of gold jewellery 

recovered from a battle site near 

the end of the country's civil war. 

Security forces have identified 

2,377 "legitimate claimants", 25 of 

whom were given back their gold 

ornaments by President Mahinda 

Rajapaksa, a military statement 

said. 

The military asked northern 

residents to lodge claims and said 

pawning receipts issued by the 

Tamil Tigers would also be 

accepted as proof of ownership. 

Unclaimed valuables will be 

handed over to the Central Bank 

of Sri Lanka, the military said. n 


South Asia Desk 

PM Nawaz to attend 

APEC meeting in China 

next month 

PM Nawaz Sharif has been invited 

by President Xi Jinping to attend 

the Asia-Pacific Economic 

Cooperation (APEC) Informal Leaders’ 

meeting in Beijing this month. 

Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong 

called on PM Nawaz Sharif and 

conveyed Xi’s invitation to him, said an 

official handout. 

The PM expressed his gratitude on 

receiving President Xi’s invitation, 

saying he looked forward to his visit to 

Pakistan, which he believed would take 

Pak-China relations to a higher level. 

Weidong said the Chinese president 

welcomed the prime minister to attend 

the host-partners dialogue to be held in 

APEC meeting in Beijing this month, 

Chinese investors in Pakistan 

AChinese delegation led by Bank of China International CEO Li Tong 

called on Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan 

Abbasi. The Chinese delegation is on a four-day visit to Pakistan to look 

into investment opportunities available in the country. Abbasi briefed the 

delegation on the energy sector and ongoing projects. The minister informed 

that the present government was committed to cope with the energy crisis 

being faced by the country. The government has initiated a number of new 

projects in the energy sector, like LNG import, installation of re-gasification 

terminals and laying down new pipelines for transportation of the fuel from the 

southern ports to northern parts of the country, he added. n 

Rs. 10 billion as deficit in BOP: NRB 

and will visit Pakistan at an early and 

mutually convenient date. 

Matters of mutual interest were 

discussed, while PM Nawaz also 

appreciated Chinese efforts in 

rehabilitation of flood victims and the 

IDPs. 

According to officials, PM will visit 

China in the first week of November to 

sign various projects including energy 

related projects worth $34 billion. 

The Chinese president was supposed 

to visit Pakistan in September but could 

not get a security clearance owing to 

the anti-government protests in the 

federal capital. 

An annual APEC Economic Leaders’ 

Meeting is attended by the heads of 

government of all APEC members. The 

location of the meeting rotates annually 

among members, and this time it’s 

going to be held in Beijing. n 

Nepal recorded a Rs. 10.5 billion 

deficit in the balance of 

payment in the first two 

months of the current fiscal year in the 

context it had Rs. 33 billion surplus in 

the last fiscal year. 

According to the report unveiled by 

the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), in the 

reviewed period, the current account 

has a deficit of Rs. 9.98 billion. In the 

previous year, it had a surplus of Rs. 

18.35 billion. 

There was deficit in 

government account in the 

period due to high increase 

of import of goods and 

services, and decrease of 

remittances and grant 

inflow, the NRB said. 

The monthly remittance 

inflow has increased by 0.2 

percent 

in 

August/September, as 

compared to the 

July/August of the current 

fiscal year. In the period, 

Rs. 341.5 million has been brought in as 

foreign investment under financial 

account. 

The total foreign exchange reserve by 

mid September was Rs. 660.8 billion 

with a decline of 0.7 percent from Rs. 

665.41 billion. 

In this period, total export had come 

down to 14.43 billion with a decline of 

4.8 percent. The annual inflation in the 

period is 7.6 percent, which, in the same 

period in previous fiscal year was 8.0 

percent. n 


Reports 

Chhatra Dal: Student 

front of non-students 

BNP’s new student front is riddled with controversy 

Hooked, booked 

and cooked 

by AH NAyEEM 

Rajib Ahsan 

After a gap of four years, a 201- 

member full-fledged committee 

of Chhatra Dal has finally been 

formed but the general students are 

questioning the age, qualifications, 

student status, past performance and 

other criteria of the committee’s top 

leaders. This has created conflict within 

Chhatra Dal. Again, the activities of the 

protesting Chhatra Dal group has also 

being eyed with suspicion. Over the 

last two years police haven’t been 

allowing any gathering near the BNP 

office in Naya Paltan, yet they sat back 

in silence while this protesting faction 

went on a rampage there. Analysts see 

the government’s hand behind the 

protestors. 

NON-STuDENTS iN 

CHHATrA DAl 

The names of 155 members of the 201- 

member new committee of Chhatra Dal 

have been announced. Interestingly, 

many of them are non-students and 

married. (See box: Hooked, Booked and 

Cooked) Many of them are facing 

political cases. Some are even allegedly 

involved in Chhatra League politics. 

Rajib Ahmed, President of the new 

Akramul Hasan 

committee, was admitted to the public 

administration department of Dhaka 

University in the 1994-95 academic 

year. He is now around 37-38 years old. 

The Senior Vice President Mamun 

passed the SSC exam in 1994. General 

Secretary Akramul Hasan Akram 

passed SSC in 1995. He too is around 

35-36 years old. Organising Secretary 

Ishaq Sarkar passed his SSC in 1993. 

Among the vice-presidents of the 

committee, 14 of the 33 are married. Of 

the 35 joint secretaries, 10 are married. 

Of the 28 deputy secretaries, eight are 

married. Of the 155 members of the 

committee, 35 are married. 

President Rajib Ahsan is the son of an 

Awami League family. He himself had 

been involved in Awami League’s 

Aconsiderable number of the 

leaders appointed to the 

new Chhatra Dal committee 

are married. [See list below] 

Vice President Abul Mansur 

Khan Deepak, Alamgir Hasan 

Sohan, Feisal Ahmed Sajal, Monirul 

Islam Monir, Mamun Billah, Niaz 

Makdum Masum Billah, Zahirul 

Islam Biplob, Joint Secretary 

Shafiqul Islam Shafiq, Golam 

Mustafa, Habibur Rahman Dalim, 

Milton Badya, Assistant General 

Secretary Jahangir Alam, 

Ehteshamul Huq, Mahbubur 

Rahman Palash, Ismail Hossain 

Khan Shaheen, Arifa Sultana 

Ruma, Ratan Bala, Shafiqul Islam 

Mithu, Anisur Rahman Sujan, 

Organising Secretary Suman 

Dewan, Mizanur Rahman Suman, 

Golam Azam Shaikat, Assistant 

Organising Secretary Shahinoor 

Begum Sagar, Joint Secretary Miah 

Mohammed Russel, Abdul Karim 

Sarkar 

Mizanur Rahman Sohag, Nurul 

Huda Babu and Publicity Secretary 

Mahmudul Islam. 

Among the vice-presidents of 

the committee, 14 of the 33 are 

married. Of the 35 joint secretaries, 10 are 

married. Of the 28 deputy secretaries, 

eight are married. Of the 155 members 

of the committee, 35 are married. 


Reports 

Leaders with a hold 

on Chhatra Dal have 

a stronger influence 

in BNP’s politics. 

That is why many 

BNP leaders are 

active where 

Chhatra Dal is 

concerned. So the 

interests of those 

leaders have now 

clashed with the 

protesting persons 

who have not found 

place in the 

new committee. 

Profile 

Shahiduddin Chowdhury anny 

Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anny was born on 2 February 

1968 in the village Banchanagar under Lakshmipur 

pourashava. His father is Haji Basirullah Chowdhury and 

mother Hosne Ara Chowdhury. He is the ninth among 6 

brothers and 5 sisters and fifth among brothers. 

His primary education was at Lakshmipur P T I School. 

He then passed his SSC in 1983 from Lakshmipur Adarsha 

Samad High School and HSC in 1985 from Dhaka Science 

College. He passed BSc (Hons) in Applied Chemistry and 

Chemical Technology in 1989 and MSc in 1990 from Dhaka University. 

Shahiduddin Chowdhury’s political life started after his admission to Dhaka 

University. He was Executive Committee Member of Chhatra Dal at 

Shahidullah Hall of Dhaka University in 1986 and Joint Convener of 

Muktijoddah Ziaur Rahman Hall Chhatra Dal in 1987. He was elected General 

Secretary of the same hall union in 1989. 

He represented DUCSU in the DU Senate from 1991 to 1995. After that, he 

was elected Convener of Chhatra Dal of Dhaka University. In 1996 he was 

elected President of Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal. After that, he was 

elected member of the Executive Committee of BNP. In the 2001 Parliament 

election, he was elected MP from Lakshmipur-3 with a wide margin. 

Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anny married Parvin Akhter in 1999. They have a 

son, Sharukshi Shahid Chowdhury, and a daughter, Sharian Shahid 

Chowdhury. n 

student front Chhatra League in the 

past. He played no role in BNP’s 

struggle and movement for elections 

under a non-partisan neutral 

government. Even so, he was made 

President of Chhatra Dal, much to the 

annoyance of many. 

Meanwhile, General Secretary 

Akramul Hasan sold his position in the 

last committee in exchange of money. It 

is alleged that being close to the 

previous president Abdur Quader 

Bhuiyan Jewel, he sold his post. He has 

had little contribution to nationalist 

politics in the field, yet he has been 

brought into the central leadership of 

Chhatra Dal. 

Senior Vice President Mamunur 

Rashid hasn’t been a student for 8-10 

years now. He has even married 

clandestinely a couple of years ago, 

though he claims to have been married 

for only a couple of months. 

Former president of Dhaka 

University Chhatra League and the 

Vice President of the president central 

committee Mahidul Islam Hiru has 

been accused of misappropriating 

funds. He was given funds for the 

movement to resist the 5 January 

election, but he reportedly deprived the 

other activists and kept the funds for 

himself. Yet he is in the top seven of the 

present committee. 

Vice President Sadiul Kabir Nirob, 

Joint Secretaries Mohammed Russel, 

Abul Hasan and Golam Mustafa have 

all married secretly, but are keeping 

their marriages under covers so as not 

to lose their posts. 

Another joint secretary Mofizur 

Rahman Ashique had collected money 

from many persons promising them a 

position in the last committee. He was 

also tried for financial interactions with 

SA Paribahan. Vice President Monira 

Akhter Rikta is married and has a child. 

She had been dropped from the 

previous committee as she had 

exceeded the age limit. Yet despite 

being away from active politics, she has 

been given this post due to her 

proximity to Sultan Salahuddin Tuku. 

Joint secretary Mahfuzur Rahman is 

accused of actually being a part of 

Chhatra League. He is known to be the 

right hand of Shafiq, a Chhatra League 

cadre at Dhaka University’s Mohsin 

Hall. 

Organising Secretary Ishaq Sarkar is 

accused in 170 cases in addition to 

being married. His child studies in 

Class Nine. Fahmida Majid Usha is 

Student Affairs Secretary. She lives in 

the UK, according to certain Chhatra 

Dal leaders. Despite living abroad, she 

has been giving this important post in 

the committee. 

BEHiND THE SCENES Of 

CHHATrA DAl’S iNNEr rifT 

Over a hundred students deprived of 

posts in the committee formed several 

groups and protested against the new 

committee in front of the BNP office. 

The day after the new committee was 

announced, the president, general 

secretary and others went to the BNP 

central office, except Senior Vice 

President Mamunur Rashid Mamun, 

Joint Secretary Asaduzzaman Asad and 

Organising Secretary Ishaq Sarkar. The 

protesting rebels declared that the 

members of the new committee were 

not qualified and were never in any 

movement of Chhatra Dal. They were 

just included in the committee by 

lobbying at a high level in the party. 

Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie, 

BNP’s Student Affairs Secretary, 

denied this. He tells PROBE, “The 

committee was fixed after several 

meetings at the BNP Chairperson’s 

office. Madam has formed the 

committee with those who played a 

role in the movement.” The rebels do 

not agree. 

Leaders with a hold on Chhatra Dal 

have a stronger influence in BNP’s 

politics. That is why many BNP leaders 

are active where Chhatra Dal is 

concerned. So the interests of those 

leaders have now clashed with the 


Reports 

protesting persons who have not found 

place in the new committee. The impact 

of this has spread to BNP’s centre as 

well as its city unit. Jubo Dal’s leadersin-waiting 

are not immune to this rift 

either. 

There are at least five groups in BNP 

active about Chhatra Dal politics. But it 

is the supporters of Shahid Uddin 

Annie and Sultan Salahuddin have 

found the most places in the new 

committee. Eighteen posts including 

that of the president and vice 

presidents, six joint secretaries, 10 

assistant secretaries, seven assistant 

organising secretaries and four 

secretaries are persons of the BNP 

Assistant Student Affairs Secretary 

Sultan Salahuddin Tuku’s camp. 

Leaders known to be of the missing 

leader Ilyas Ali’s group have also found 

place in the new committee. Dhaka city 

BNP’s Member Secretary Habib-un- 

Nabi Khan Sohel is backing them. Two 

groups, supporters of BNP’s Joint 

Secretary General Aman Ullah and 

Chhatra Dal’s former president, 

presently incarcerated Nasir Uddin 

Ahmed (Pintu), are active in Chhatra 

Dal. A few of these groups have found 

way into the new committee, but not in 

choice positions. That is why they have 

joined hand in protest with the 

deprived leaders. 

Members of a large faction of those 

opposed to the new committee are 

followers of jailed leader Pintu. They 

are being led by the present 

committee’s organising secretary Ishaq 

Sarkar. 

Profile 

Profile 

rEGiONAliSM iN CHHATrA DAl 

This time too regionalism is noted 

within the new committee of Chhatra 

dal. General Secretary Akramul Hasan 

is close to former committee president 

Abdul Kader Bhuiyan and both are of 

Sultan Salahuddin tuku 

Sultan Salahuddin Tuku was born in Gopalpur 

upazila of Tangail district. After completing his 

primary and secondary education at a local 

school, he got admitted into Dhaka City College 

in 1986. He passed his HSC in 1988 and was 

admitted into the Marketing Department of 

Dhaka University in 1988-89. He did his Masters 

from the same department in 1994. 

When he had been elected as central president 

of Chhatra Dal, certain controversies arose about 

Tuku's student status. He had married in 2007 and has a daughter. However, 

in order to retain his student status, in 2005 he got admitted into Dhaka 

University again, this time in the Department of Health Economics. He is 

presently doing his MPhil in this subject. 

There is also confusion about his age. It is said that his age is even higher 

than mentioned in his educational certificates. Some say he is close to 45. 

Sultan Salahuddin Tuku was made central Chhatra Dal's President on 1 

June 2008. Earlier he had been President of Dhaka University Chhatra Dal. 

He had also been in an important post of Mohsin Hall Chhatra Dal. 

Sultan Salahuddin Tuku is now BNP's Assistant Student Affairs Secretary 

and candidate for the post of Jubo Dal President. 

He contested in the 2008 election from the Gopalpur seat of Tangail-2, but 

lost. 

One of Tuku's brothers is Maulana Taj Uddin, leader of the banned militant 

group Harkat-ul-Jihad. Maulana Taj Uddin has been accused in the 21 

August grenade attack case. He is presently absconding abroad. Tuku's elder 

brother, former BNP state minister Abdus Salam Pintu, is presently in jail, 

sentenced in the same case. n 

General SeCretary akramul haSan 

Chhara Dal General Secretary 

Akramul Hasan was born in Joshor 

union of Shibpur upazila, Narsingdi 

on 21 August 1979. 

He studied at the local primary 

school and then passed his SSC from 

Brahmondi KKM Government High 

School in 1995. He passed his HSC 

from Dhaka Commerce College in 

1997 and was admitted to the Accounting and Business System Department 

of Dhaka University. He did his Masters from the same department too. 

Akramul Hasan comes from a political family and so involvement in 

politics came naturally to him. His father Sultan Uddin Molla is Narsingdi 

BNP Vice President and Vice President of the Jatiyatabadi Tanti Dal. His 

mother Hasna Sultana is a housewife. Akram is the younger of two brothers. 

His elder brother is an MBBS doctor at Mahanagar Hospital. n 

Narsingdi district. They have political 

and business ties. 

Chhatra Dal’s president Rajib Ahsan 

is seen to be Sultan Salahuddin Tuku’s 

man. Rajib Ahsan is from Barisal. The 

previous joint secretary was Obaidul 

Huq Nasir, but was not inducted into 

the committee despite his strong 

candidature, simply because he did not 

see eye to eye with Tuku, though both 

are from Tangail. 

THE DEPrivED 

Chhatra Dal’s former organising 

secretary Anisur Rahman Talukdar 

Khokan was a candidate for the post of 

president but neither he nor any of his 

followers were given any post in the 

new committee. Similarly former joined 

secretary Obaidul Huq Nasir has been 

cold shouldered. A host of others have 

similarly been left out in the cold. 

Senior leaders, however, say that other 

than a few of them, they were not active 

in BNP’s movement. n 


Special Report 

Three decades of 

student politics 

Where 

are the 

Chhatra Dal 

leaders 

now? 

In the past it had been the norm for student leaders to join the parent 

political party once their student lives were over. They would build up 

their political careers as leaders on a national level. And in times of 

crisis, they were the ones to take over the helm of affairs. Most of those 

in political leadership at a national level today were student leaders of 

the sixties. They are the true blue, tried and tested politicians. 

In the eighties too, students played a pivotal role on politics. They 

were key to the anti-autocracy movement against Ershad. But the 

eighties and nineties were also a turning point in the character and 

nature of student politics. The main reason behind this was that 

elections to the student councils didn’t take place. More importantly, the 

student leaders who entered national level politics over the past three 

decades have failed to have a positive impact. Many of them find 

themselves pushed to the sidelines and many have simply left politics 

completely. In this series, PROBE investigates where the student leaders 

of the last three decades are now and how they are faring. This issue 

presents an update of former Chhatra Dal leaders and their whereabouts. 

by MD. BElAyET HOSSAiN 

Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal was 

founded on 1 January 1979 as an 

affiliated organisation of BNP. 

From then till date, this student 

front has had 16 presidents and 

convenors and eight general secretaries 

and joint convenors. Six of these former 

student leaders have left politics 

completely, 14 are still active in politics, 

two have passed away, one is missing 

and one remains without any post. 

THE ACTivE 14 

Kazi Asaduzzaman was the founder 

Convenor of Chhatra Dal in 1979. He is 

presently BNP’s Training Affairs 

Secretary. This post basically has no 

actual function. He is a businessman by 

profession. 

Shamsuzzaman Dudu was the 

central President of Chhatra Dal in 

1985-86. He is presently General 

Secretary of Jatiyatabadi Krishak Dal 

and Advisor to the BNP Chairperson. 

He is a contractor by profession. 

Asaduzzaman Ripon was Chhatra 

Dal’s central President from 1987 to 

1990. He is presently BNP’s 

International Affairs Secretary. 

Unhappy over certain actions within 

BNP, he had stayed away from the 

party for some time. As a result, those 

who had been junior to him in Chhatra 

Dal, have now more important 

positions in the party. Asaduzzaman 

Ripon is the owner and Editor of the 

English magazine Diplomat. 

From 1990 to 1992 Chhatra Dal’s 

central Convenor was Aman Ullah 

Aman. He had been the organisation’s 

General Secretary from 1987 to 1990 

and also DUCSU VP. He was elected 

Member of Parliament in eight national 

parliamentary elections and was 

appointed State Minister for Health. 

This former student leader has amassed 

massive amount of wealth. 

Chhatra Dal’s central committee’s 

first election was held on 16 May 1992. 

Ruhul Kabir Ahmed Rizvi was elected 

President. However, the committee 

lasted for only four months due to 

internal disputes and he was removed 

from the post. He had been a fiery 

student leader and the VP of Rajshahi 

University’s Student Union RUCSU. 

During the 2001-2006 Four Party 

Alliance government, Rizvi had been 

Chairman of Rajshahi Agricultural 

Development Bank. He is presently 

BNP’s Joint Secretary General with 

special responsibilities at the party’s 

office. Towards the end of the last term 

of the Awami League government, he 

had been detained for a few months in 

the central office. 

Fazlul Huq Milon was President of 

Chhatra Dal from 1993 till 1996. He is a 

contractor. He was elected MP from 

Kaliganj, Gazipur in the eighth 

parliamentary election and is presently 

BNP’s Organising Secretary. 

While Fazlul Huq Milon was 

President, the General Secretary of 

Chhatra Dal was Nazimuddin Alam. 

He is also a contractor. He was elected 

MP from Bhola in the 2001 election. 

Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Anni was 

Chhatra Dal President from 1996 till 

1998. He was elected MP from the 

Lakkhipur-3 seat thrice successively in 

the seventh, eighth and ninth 

parliamentary elections. He is BNP’s 

Student Affairs Secretary at 

present.(See Box: Page-07) 

Habib-un-Nabi Sohel was the 

Chhatra Dal General Secretary when 

Anni was President. Then up till 2000 

he was Chhatra Dal President. He is 

presently President of Jatiyatabadi 


Special Report 

Mahbubul Huq Babul was 

known to be the best 

organiser of Chhatra Dal. 

He was General 

Secretary of Chhatra Dal 

from 21 February 1986 to 

1987. This popular 

student leader was killed 

in a bomb blast in Dhaka 

University’s Mohsin Hall 

during Ershad’s rule. 

Swechhashebok Dal. Recently he has 

also been made Dhaka City BNP’s 

Member Secretary. 

While Habib-un-Nabi Sohel was 

Chhatra Dal’s President, the 

organisation’s General Secretary was 

Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu. From 2000 to 

2002 Pintu was Chhatra Dal President. 

Sentenced to life term imprisonment in 

the BDR massacre case, Pintu is 

presently in jail. He has recently been 

made BNP’s Joint Convenor. 

ABM Mosharraf Hossain was 

Chhatra Dal’s Joint Convenor for just 

four months towards the end of 2002. 

He is presently Deputy Secretary of 

Jatiyatabadi Swechhashebok Dal. He 

lost in the eighth parliamentary election 

from the Patuakhali Kolapara seat. 

Shafiul Bari Babu was Chhatra Dal 

General Secretary from 2005 till 2009. 

He is presently Organising Secretary of 

Jatiyatabadi Swechhashebok Dal. 

Towards the end of 2009 Sultan 

Salahuddin Tuku was made Chhatra 

Dal President. On 3 September 2012 he 

stepped down from the post. He is 

presently Deputy Student Affairs 

Secretary of BNP. He is actively 

lobbying to be General Secretary of 

Jubo Dal.(Also see box: Page- 08) 

Amirul Islam Khan Alim was 

General Secretary when Tuku was 

President. He is presently BNP’s central 

executive committee member. 

Six lEADErS iNACTivE 

iN POliTiCS 

Enamul Karim Shahid was first 

President of Chhatra Dal. Towards the 

end of 1979 he had been given this 

office. He is a teacher now and no 

longer involved in politics. 

After Enamul Karim Shahid, Golam 

Sarwar Milon was Chhatra Dal 

Convenor. During Ershad’s rule he left 

Chhatra Dal to join Jatiya Party. He 

then left politics a little while after that. 

He now is not affiliated with any party. 

Abul Kasem Chowdhury’s political 

career graph was like that of Golam 

Sarwar Milon. From 1983 to 1986 he 

was President of Chhatra Dal. He too 

left Chhatra Dal and joined Jatiya Party. 

He then left politics. He is out of touch 

with politics too. 

Jalal Ahmed was Chhatra Dal 

President from 1986 to 1987. When the 

anti-Ershad movement was at its 

height, Jalal Ahmed left politics and 

went away to Australia. 

When Aman Ullah Aman was 

Chhatra Dal Convenor from 1990 to 

1992, Sanaul Huq Niru was Joint 

Convenor. He is a businessman. 

Shahbuddin Laltu was President of 

Chhatra Dal from 2003 to 2004. He fell 

out with BNP leaders and left the party. 

He presently lives in Canada. 

TwO HAvE PASSED AwAy 

The first General Secretary of Chhatra 

Dal in 1979 was AKM Golam Hossain. 

Upon completion of his education, he 

joined Jahangirnagar University as 

teacher. He was killed in a road 

accident a few years ago. 

Mahbubul Huq Babul was known to 

be the best organiser of Chhatra Dal. He 

was General Secretary of Chhatra Dal 

from 21 February 1986 to 1987. This 

popular student leader was killed in a 

bomb blast in Dhaka University’s 

Mohsin Hall during Ershad’s rule. 

ilyAS Ali STill MiSSiNG 

BNP leader Ilyas Ali went missing on 

17 April 2012 from Mohakhali in 

Dhaka, on the way home. He is still 

missing. He was a well-known student 

leader of Dhaka University. Towards 

the end of 1992 he was President of 

Chhatra Dal. He later became a 

powerful leader of BNP and was 

elected Member of Parliament from, 

Sylhet. Even though he is missing, he 

remains Organising Secretary of BNP. 

HElAl AwAiTS GOOD POST 

Azizul Bari Helal was Chhatra Dal 

General Secretary 2003 to 2004 and then 

was made its President. On 31 June 

2009 he stepped down from the post of 

President. This former student leader 

holds no post of BNP at present. He is 

awaiting a good post in the party. n 

(Next Issue: Where are the Chhatra Shibir Leaders? ) 


Exclusive 

Alliance Française 

violates rules to construct 

multi-storey building 

by SHAfiq rAHMAN 

The Alliance Francaise 

building in Dhanmondi may 

not be a heritage site, but it is 

unofficially considered to be 

one. The house with its 

curves verandahs is a familiar and 

loved sight by the people of Dhaka city. 

In a city where planning has been 

pitched into a bin and multi-storeys 

sprout up faster than mushrooms, this 

building had a calming affect of 

aesthetic sense. But that is all to end 

now. 

Alliance Francaise, the French 

cultural institute in Dhaka, has decided 

to bring down this building and 

construct a multi-storeyed complex in 

its stead. It published a notice to this 

effect in a number of national dailies 

recently. The Public Works department, 

however, says this is a violation of the 

lease they have with the institution. 

Alliance Francaise de Dhaka opened 

way back in 1959 under the Societies 

Act. Its main objective was to teach the 

French language to the Bengali 

speaking people and the locals. It also 

runs several other programme 

pertaining to culture, such as film, 

photography and art exhibitions and 

courses of such interest. 

In 1973 Alliance Francaise rented the 

plot and the beautiful house at No. 26, 

Road No, 3, Dhanmondi. The building 

is iconic of the architecture of those 

What’s on the lease deed 

times. In 1999 the government gave the 

building to Alliance Francaise on a 

rent-based lease. 

The lease deed maintains that no 

changes or extensions can be made to 

the plot or the building without the 

permission of the lessor (See box: 

What’s on the lease deed). Yet the 

Alliance Francaise authorities have 

taken initiative to build a 14-storeyed 

building on the plot. On 15 October it 

published a notice in this regard in a 

number of national dailies. The notice 

reads: 

"Expression of Interest (EOI) is 

invited from experienced, innovative 

and resourceful private sector 

developers for development and 

management (short-term basis) of the 

proposed multi-storey building on 

build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis on 1 

The lease signed on 30 September 1999 between the two parties states: 

"That the Tenant shall in no way diminish the value of the demised property 

without the previous written consent of the Lessor, is entitled to alter the 

demised property provided in so doing the residential character of the colony 

is not hindered herewith, and shall not sell or dispose of any earth gravel, sand 

or stone from the demised property nor excavate the same except so far as may 

use for the purpose of the said works or sell or dispose of any material 

excavated in the proper execution thereof provided always that where 

unauthorized alteration is made to or material is excavated from the demised 

property the Lessor may by notice require the tenant to restore the property to 

its original state at his own cost within a specified time, and in the event of 

default on the part of the tenant to comply with this direction, the Lessor may 

cause such restoration to be made and realize the cost thereof from the Tenant 

by certificate procedure." 

It also states, "That the Tenant shall preserve intact the boundaries of the 

demised property and shall keep the same well demarcated and shall point 

them out whom required by the Lessor to do so to any officer dully authorized 

by him in writing to inspect them. Should any boundary mark be missing, the 

Tenant shall report the fact to the Lessor. If it is found that any boundary pillars 

are demolished or lost due to any action of the Tenant the cost of replacement 

of such boundary pillars may be realized from the Tenant by the Lessor," 


Exclusive 

Executive Committee 

President: 

M. Abdul Majid Chowdhury 

Vice President: 

Prof. Dr Nazmul Ahsan 

Kalimullah 

Treasurer: 

Jowad Hamid Kazi 

Members: 

Nadia Samdani, Raana 

Haider and 

Dr Rifat Rashid 

Hissam Khandker 

Imroz Hasan Chowdhury 

Md. Liaquat Ali Khan 

Mofidul Hoque and 

Dr Shishir Bhattacharja 

bigha (approx.) plot of land bearing 

"plot 26, Corner of Road 3, Mirpur 

Road, Dhanmondi, Dhaka". 

It continues, "The project will consist 

of an institutional-cum-office block 

with an overall built-up area of 1.35 

lakhs sq.ft including 2 basement floors 

plus ground floor plus 13 floors to be 

shared with the Alliance Francaise de 

Dhaka. The property will remain solely 

with Alliance Francaise de Dhaka. The 

The advertisement as appeared in the news paper 

BOT operator is expected to benefit 

from rental revenues only." 

Shaila Farzana, Deputy Secretary of 

the Public Works Department, say that 

no one has been given permission in 

this regard. 

Prof. Dr. Najmul Ahsan Kalimullah, 

Vice President of the Alliance Francaise 

executive committee, says, "I am not 

aware of the matter and if you need to 

know anything talk to the President." 

Abdul Majid Chowdhury, President 

of the committee, also evades the issue. 

He says, "What the use of flashing this 

in the media?" 

While Bruno Plasse, Director of 

Alliance Francaise said, “We don’t 

want to demolished the building 

immediately, we put the advertisement 

just to see the interest of the builders”. 

However , it seemed the Director is 

not aware of the fact that even to put an 

advertisement on news papers 

regarding the building needs 

permission from relevant authorities. It 

was violation of the deed. 

In the meantime, PROBE 

investigations reveal a lack of 

transparency in the allotment of the 

building to Alliance Francaise. Public 

Works Ministry sources say that in 1986 

the building had been declared 

abandoned. The jurisdiction of the 

building thus lay with the abandoned 

property department of the ministry. 

However, in 1999 this was transformed 

to a different department of the 

ministry which was a direct violation of 

the rules, according to officials of the 

concerned department. 

In the meantime, in 2013 the Public 

Works Department sent a list to the 

High Court pertaining to the 

allocations of bungalows in the capital 

city where the warrant of precedence 

was not followed. The name of the 

building leased out to Alliance 

Francaise was included in this list.n 

Issue: 2 I November 01 - 15, 2014 I Vol: 13 Page: 12


What Piash Karim said 

A PrOBE report 

The focus of social scientist Dr. 

Piash Karim’s thoughts and 

deliberations was always the 

establishment of democratic 

practice, a welfare state and 

society. He would speak about these 

aspirations in various TV talk-shows. 

He was a harsh critic of the 

government. He was not a member of 

BNP, though a lot of his statements 

would go in favour of BNP. 

He would speak fearlessly on TV 

talk-shows on various controversial 

contemporary issues such as the trial of 

war criminals, Jamaat’s movement, 

Hefazat Islam’s movement and 

gathering, human rights, citizens’ 

rights and so on. In a short time he 

became a popular personality to many, 

but also unpopular with many too. He 

was misunderstood by Gonojagaron 

Mancha due to his criticism of them. 

Gonojagaron Mancha and a number 

of other organisations identified him as 

an enemy. They declared a virtual jihad 

against him. They were insulting and 

disrespectful. They did not even allow 

his body to be taken to the Shaheed 

Minar. 

They equated Piash Karim with 

Jamaat and the war criminals because 

he critics Gonojagaron Mancha and the 

International Crimes Tribunal. They 

accused him of supporting Hefazat 

Islam and instigating religious anger. 

They say his father and grandfather 

were razakars. 

There are questions as to the 

substance behind these accusations. 

The government’s Law Minister Anisul 

Huq has openly told the media that 

Piash Karim’s family were not razakars, 

not collaborators during the 

independence war. 

So what did he actually say on the TV 

talk-shows? He took part in over a 

hundred talk shows between January 

2012 and September 2014. A study of 

these talk-shows reveal that there is no 

basis for the allegations brought against 

him. He has the same stand in all the 

channels. 

For the sake of the readers, PROBE 

below quotes Piash Karim verbatim 

from various talk-shows. 

Context: War crimes trial 

Channel/Programme: MY TV/ 

Fifty minutes 

Date: 17 November 2012 

Anchor: Selim Umrao Khan 

Discussants: Prof. Piash Karim, 

Misbahur Rahman (Chairman, 

Bangladesh Islami Oikya Jote) 

Topic: Jamaat-Shibir violence on 

the streets and US Ambassador’s 

call to hold dialogue with them 

Piash Karim: I personally want the war 

criminals to be tried. This is the 

demand of history, this is what history 

expects. But from the very beginning I 

have always maintained that whatever 

is to be done, the law must be followed. 

The ministers of our government 

declare that the trial will be completed 

within a certain date. In any country of 

the world, can the officials of the 

executive make such comments? Can 

they give a timeframe in which the trial 

will be finished? This is the prerogative 

of the judiciary. The law will proceed at 

its own pace. When slogans are called 

out at a meeting, in presence of a 

minister, that the war criminals must be 

hanged, this is interfering with the 

proceedings of the court. It is for the 

court to decide whether a life-term 

sentence will be given or a death 

sentence. You can say that you want 

justice. The laws are thus being 

violated.Witnesses are even being 

kidnapped. 

Just as I have the right to demand 

that the war criminals be tried, if 

Jamaat remains within the constitution 

then it also has the right to demand that 

they are not tried. This debate can be 

carried out through a constitutional 

process. I want them to be tried for their 

role in 1971. If they don’t want the trial, 

I can’t silence them. I do not have the 

legal right to silence them. They have to 

come through a process. 

Piash Karim: Militants and Jamaat – 

this is not the topic of our discussion. I 

said that Jamaat must be brought to a 

liberal democratic space. It is being said 

that Jamaat’s words do not match their 

deeds. Do Awami League’s words 

match their deeds? Awami League’s 

election manifesto declared it would 

take a stand against corruption. Yet 

Rajshahi University Chhatra League 

activists are openly brandishing guns 

in front of the police. So you can’t talk 

about words and deeds. Jamaat’s 

words do not match its deeds. None of 

the mainstream political forces in the 

country match their words with their 

deeds. 

I do not know if Harkatul Jihad and 

militants are Jamaat people. I do not 

know anyone in Jamaat personally. But 

I believe a certain analogy which may 

or may not be correct. I was very closely 

associated with leftist politics. I was of 

the Bhasani lefist political camp. I 

would work under NAP (Bhashani). 

Now Bhasani can’t be held responsible 

for the misdeeds of any worker of 

Samyabadi Dal. 

If Jamaat says that they will not allow 

the trial to be held, then that is 

Issue: 2 I November 01 - 15, 2014 I Vol: 13 I Page: 13


unlawful. It is not unlawful for them to 

say that the trial is unjust. A person has 

the right to say that the trial should not 

be held. It is not illegal to say so, as long 

as they don’t disrupt the judicial 

proceedings. 

Jamaat is hampering the judicial 

process. I do not disagree with this. I 

am not defending Jamaat in my 

discussion. I am looking for a way for 

us to come out of this crisis. I want to 

clearly state that I believe in noncommunal 

politics. But I say this from a 

liberal democratic space. I am not 

defending Jamaat, I am defending 

democracy. 

About Jamaat’s words not matching 

their deeds, it is true. Their words and 

their actions do not tally. But that 

applies to BNP and Awami League too. 

Their words and their actions do not 

match. If that is to be the prerequisite to 

dialogue, then no one can sit for 

dialogue with anyone in Bangladesh. 

Everyone will have to close the doors 

and sit tight. This is the ground reality. 

Context: Gonojagaron Mancha 

Channel/Programme: 

Channel i/ Grameen Phone 

Ajker Sangbad 

Date: 2 September 2014 

Anchor: Matiur Rahman 

Chowdhury 

Discussants: Prof. Piash Karim 

and Saleh Uddin (senior reporter, 

Ittefaq) 

Piash Karim: I declare my support for 

Shahbagh’s Gonojagaron Mancha. I 

express my solidarity with them. I feel 

this is a strong positive outburst of our 

democratic consciousness, our spirit of 

independence. We would say that the 

youth do not bother about the country, 

about the society. The youth have 

proven that they do think about the 

country. They have proven that they 

have a commitment towards 

independence. 

Having said that, I will return to the 

discussion as a social scientist. I 

couldn’t predict the emergence of 

Gonojagaron Mancha. I find this a very 

positive aspect. I express my solidarity. 

That is my first point. 

Then I come to the second point. I 

certainly want the war criminals to be 

tried. This Gonojagaron Mancha raised 

the demand for Quader Mollah to be 

hanged. But then there is the matter of 

the rule of law. It is being said all over 

that we must proceed according to the 

rule of law. 

The country that sacrifices its 

democracy for the sake of 

independence, gains neither 

independence nor democracy. In the 

same manner, the country that 

sacrifices the rule of law for justice, 

gains neither justice nor the rule of law. 

I appeal to our agitating youth to keep 

this in mind. While Gonojagaron was 

vehemently for Quader Mollah to be 

hanged, was for the maximum 

punishment of the war criminals, I feel 

there was a feeling in a section of the 

society that felt the trial was not fair. 

They felt that there was a behind-thescenes 

understanding. The court did 

not perform as it should have 

performed. This was due to political 

influence. I am very happy about this 

perception. In this mass uprising, this 

perception may seem negligible but it is 

very important. This is not just for the 

trial of the war criminals, it is for the 

I declare my support for 

Shah bagh’s Gonojagaron 

Mancha. I express my 

solidarity with them. I feel 

this is a strong positive 

outburst of our 

democratic 

consciousness, our spirit 

of independence. We 

would say that the youth 

do not bother about the 

country, about the 

society. The youth have 

proven that they do think 

about the country. 

rule of law. We must hold on to this. 

The third point is something I have 

been saying for the last few months. I 

have been criticised for this too. But I 

still stubbornly go ahead and repeat 

myself. There can be a different of 

opinion among us who want the trial of 

the war criminals. We should not lose 

this democratic space otherwise the 

movement’s aspirations for 

independence and democracy will be 

destroyed. We must be able to contain 

differences of opinion or we will lose 

something very valuable. 

The fourth point is that the young 

people who have joined this wave of 

mass protest, are of not any political 

party. They are general people of 

Bangladesh, the common youth. They 

want justice. They uphold the 

commitment of 1971. They should not 

be used politically. I was very 

encouraged to see that the young 

people have said that they were not 

political. 

Only Marx could predict fascism. He 

said that every popular movement has 

the risk of giving way to fascism. Our 

duty is to ensure that we do not repress 

difference of opinion. We should not be 

used for political purposes. 

We should not forget we have issues 

like Padma Bridge before us. We must 

not forget that there are questions 

about handing over of power in the 

next election. We must not forget there 

are questions about our national 

resources and our rights. If all such 

issues are covered up, the face of our 

democratic movement will change, will 

be harmed. 

As a social scientist I will ponder 

over this movement for may years to 

come. I was out of the country and so 

did not have the opportunity to observe 

the anti-autocracy movement. This 

Gonojagaron is the strongest uprising 

since then. 

I feel that the young people have 

been caught up in a sort of 

powerlessness. Many decisions are 

being taken behind their back. So many 

things are happening outside of their 

knowledge – the Sagar-Runi murder is 

not being brought to trial, Biswajit 

murder is not being tried, a criminal 

like Bikash is being released. The young 

people are not demanding an 

explanation for this. Why was the death 

sentence not given to Quader Mollah? 

Was there any understanding behind 

the scenes? Was yet another decision 

taken keeping us in the dark? 



I want to tell the youth, I am with 

you. But we must not forget Biswajit. 

We must not forget Sagar-Runi. We 

must not forget Padma Bridge. We 

must not forget the dark manipulations 

of power. We must not forget the 

games being played with our national 

resources. 

Anchor: Where is this movement 

(Gonojagaron) going? 

Piash Karim: We do not know in which 

direction this movement is going. I just 

want to say that they shouldn’t be used 

for narrow political interests. They 

must stand up against this. The ruling 

party shouldn’t use these young people 

to consolidate its own power. The 

youth should not turn away from the 

fundamental issues. 

These thousands of young people 

haven’t been gathered together to bring 

Awami League back into power once 

again. They haven’t been created to act 

as pawns in the Awami League-BNP 

game. They have a genuine authentic 

demand. Over the past 41 years the 

youth have been used in the narrow 

interests of power. No more. 

Bangladesh’s youth will no longer be 

used for the narrow political interests 

of political parties. The young people 

have risen up. Victory to their uprising. 

Context: Quader Mollah’s life-term 

sentence and outburst of rage at 

Shahbagh 

Channel: Ekattor TV 

Date: 5february 2013 

Anchor: Nobonita Chowdhury 

Discussants: Prof. Piash Karim 

and Prof. A Arafat 

Piash Karim: I convey my respect to 

those who have expressed dismay and 

anger. There is an emotional outburst at 

Shahbagh as their expectations haven’t 

been fulfilled. With full respect towards 

those emotions, ultimately the process 

of law must be followed. The Law 

Minister has said that there is scope for 

appeal. The Attorney General has said 

that they will take the matter into 

consideration after receiving the full 

verdict. 

I condemn the violence on the streets 

and say, those who are opposing the 

matter must also go through the 

process of law. If they feel that the court 

is not legal, they have to prove that too 

with logic and argument. 

We do not know in which 

direction this movement is 

going. I just want to say that 

they shouldn’t be used for 

narrow political interests. 

They must stand up against 

this. The ruling party 

shouldn’t use these young 

people to consolidate its 

own power. The youth 

should not turn away from 

the fundamental issues. 

There is a fear that a ‘sub-text’ may 

be working behind those who are not 

satisfied with the verdict of the court, 

that the court is working under political 

influence. If that is so, then the accused 

and the protestors are merging in one 

place. This does not bode well for the 

rule of law in Bangladesh. 

I will repeat that I am in solidarity 

and support with the anger and dismay 

of the people. I express my unity with 

them. I repeat again and again that I 

want the war criminals to be tried. I 

repeat this so as to clear up any 

misconceptions. But if I was the judge 

in court and each and every person of 

Bangladesh told me to give a certain 

punishment, I still would have said no. 

This is the evidence I have. I will give 

the verdict on the basis of my 

understanding of the law and my 

conscience. That is the rule of law. That 

is why, expressing full solidarity,I want 

to say our anger should not have an 

impact on the court. 

If we speak about the actual rule of 

law, the court will give its verdict in its 

own consideration. Even if his wife or 

child tells him not to, the judge has to 

give his verdict in keeping with his 

knowledge of the law, his 

understanding of the law and in 

keeping with his conscience. That is 

what the rule of law is all about. 

Jamaat and Awami League have 

gone to such a point that I do not see 

any possibility of reconciliation. Of 

course, many things happen behind the 

scene of which we know nothing. I 

have no proof. I may even be proven 

wrong. 

I clearly take a stand against Awami 

League. There are three scenarios. One 

is that the government will completely 

suppress Jamaat. Jamaat won’t be able 

to even observe hartal. It won’t be able 

to do anything. This is an unlikely 

scenario. There are many reasons 

behind this. Another scenario is that 

Jamaat will win. That is even more 

unlikely. The third scenario is one 

which about which I am extremely 

apprehensive and I feel is very 

dangerous. That is if things continue as 

they are now, in this manner. The 

government is trying to suppress 

Jamaat. Jamaat will continue its 

violence. This stalemate will seriously 

hamper our political stability and our 

economy. 

Issue: 2 I November 01 - 15, 2014 I Vol: 13 I Page: 15


Context: Hefazat Islam 

Channel/Programme: Independent 

Television/Dateline Dhaka 

Date: 4 May 2013 

Discussants: Suranjit Sengupta, 

Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Prof. 

Piash Karim 

Piash Karim: I have not come here to 

support Hefazat Islam. The way I see it 

is that there is a sharp political 

polarisation taking place in the country 

and Hefazat Islam’s long march has 

added a new dimension to this. 

Our crisis has increased, it hasn’t 

lessened. How will we emerge from 

this crisis? There are two options in 

front of us. Firstly, to allow Hefazat 

carry out its long march as long as it is 

peaceful and as long as there is no 

violence. Option two is to resist it, to 

stop their buses and trucks from 

arriving. To set up blockades at various 

places, call for a hartal. 

I think the first option will be more 

effective. There is no guarantee that the 

first option will resolve the crisis. But if 

we compare the two options, the first 

one seems much more logical to me. 

Counter hartals and blockades will 

only increase the crisis. This will harm 

Awami League and BNP. Shahriar 

Kabir, Muntasir Mamun and their ilk 

will not be harmed. They have nothing 

to lose. 

Channel: Bangla Vision 

Anchor: Golam Murtaza 

Date: 7April 2013 

Discussants: Prof. Piash Karim, 

Manzurul Ahsan Khan (CPB 

Advisor) 

Piash Karim: Hefazat’s gathering has 

added a new dimension to 

Bangladesh’s politics. They held their 

gathering despite the blockade. It is not 

as if they came here unhindered. If you 

ask me if I support Hefazat’s 

programme, I would say no, I do not. 

Do I support there 13 points? No, I do 

not. 

Those of us who want to practice 

politics of democratic ideology in the 

country will have to determine why 

people get angry, why they get excited, 

why they get agitated, why they get 

organised. Unless I observe this closely, 

I will not be able to deal with it. 

Anchor: How justified is it to call the 

youth atheists? 

Piash Karim: I do not agree with such 

an analysis. I will go a step further and 

say this, people have the right to be 

atheists. I would never generalise and 

say all those demonstrating at 

Shahbagh are atheists. 

If those who are politically 

controlling Shahbagh, participating in 

it and observing it would pay a little 

attention, they would see that there are 

other forces in society that go against 

this. These will flourish. For the first 

two weeks it seemed as if there was no 

Bangladesh outside of Shahbagh. There 

was bound to be a reaction to it. This 

was nothing difficult to predict. 

Channel: Diganta TV 

Date: 5 May2013 

Programme: News of the Day 

Anchor: Police are obstructing 

Hefazat’s march towards Dhaka. They 

are stopping buses. Why will the police 

stop their buses? 

Piash Karim: This should not happen 

in a stable democratic society. Our 

police are not politically neutral. They 

have become a political force. They are 

fulfilling the political agenda of the 

state. I am dismayed that the police has 

obstructed the buses. I would be 

equally dismayed of the police stopped 

Awami League’s processions too. n 



The Politics of death and 

demise in Bangladesh 

Two deaths in recent times 

have shaken us all with the 

drama enacted around it. 

Deaths had become symbolic 

and reflect the national 

conflicts and forms of protest. Both 

Piyash Karim and Gholam Azam 

represented views that were 

unacceptable to many who supported 

the AL or party in power. While Piyash Karim 

was not a national figure like Gholam Azam, 

both became embroiled in what would constitute 

their last rites. It was deep rooted and became 

points of concern for both political and cultural 

semiotics. However, the burial issues also 

expressed the fissures in the identity crisis of 

Bangladesh. 

Both deaths show that death, martyrdom, 

demonizing are all part of a political discourse 

now that has as much to do with understanding 

of the issue as religious and not just sociopolitical. 

The border line between the two has 

become very thin indeed. 

Death, burial, funeral ceremonies have 

profound significance in the Bengali mind, 

Hindu or Muslim. The symbolic value is high 

and the national psyche is always touched or 

disturbed by such events. By making death 

important we may also try to make the life that 

has been led important too, whether at the public 

or the private level. This is particularly true when 

it comes to unnatural deaths, to deaths that can 

be linked to other deaths and deaths that are 

by AfSAN CHOwDHury 

PIYASH KARIM 

politically symbolic. In the case of 

many such deaths, they become more 

part of politics and in some ways are 

no longer ‘deaths’ in the conventional 

sense. They become a political event in 

which conventional sacred-profane 

framework don’t apply. Dealing with 

it becomes a challenge to both the 

mourners and their haters. 

Nationalist symbols are particularly potent 

and nationalist causes tend to be become 

dogmatic rituals and ultimately religious ones. So 

the protection of such symbols can be done best 

by nationalism and contra-nationalism both 

becoming a new form of religious expressions. 

Exclusion-inclusion, faith, dogma, foundational 

myths all play a role in constructing the new 

“faith” including the notion of political apostasy, 

the nationalist murtad. That is those who are 

outside the faith. This liberates people from 

making political analysis in decision making and 

allows them to navigate nationalist politics as one 

would through religious framework and without 

much thinking. 

Was Piyash Karim a traitor? There is no 

evidence that he opposed Bangladesh liberation 

war no matter what his father did and under 

what circumstances. Was he against the trial of 

war criminals? (Read:What Piyash said/page:13) 

There is no evidence of this either. But Piyash 

Karim opposed almost everything the AL did 

including the AL sponsored war crimes tribunal. 

So his approach to AL related matters were also 

Was he against the trial of war 

criminals? (Read:What Piyash 

said/page: 13 ) There is no 

evidence of this either. But Piyash 

Karim opposed almost everything 

the AL did including the AL 

sponsored war crimes tribunal. So 

his approach to AL related matters 

were also dogmatic and by 

excluding everything related to the 

AL, he was behaving in the same 

religious vein. 



Piyash opposed war 

crimes trial by the AL 

and not war crimes 

trial per se. But to 

the AL, all its 

opponents effectively 

became excluded 

by dogma, 

hence murtad. 

dogmatic and by excluding everything related to 

the AL, he was behaving in the same religious 

vein. 

This attitude has been a problem with the 

Leftists of Bangladesh and India for long. 

Lacking their own organizational strength they 

tend to work from behind a major party which is 

closer to their views. Just as the pro-Soviet Left 

hid behind the AL, the pro-Peking Left gathered 

behind the BNP. Pyash Karim’s opposition was 

based on the idea, “the enemy’s enemy is my 

friend” . So the BNP as the enemy of the AL 

which he opposed became his friend by default. 

The reaction of Pyash’s enemies was also 

similarly predictable as they thought that any 

opposition to AL’s position on the more sensitive 

issues like war crimes tribunal, Hefazet – e-Islam 

etc were not negotiable. Since they were also 

being supported by the BNP and Piyash also took 

a common position, he became the enemy and 

any enemy of the AL on these issues became an 

enemy of the state. Piyash opposed war crimes 

trial by the AL and not war crimes trial per se. 

But to the AL, all its opponents effectively 

became excluded by dogma, hence murtad. It 

was not tolerance or pluralism that shrank; it was 

the religious –political space that expanded. Both 

he and his enemies had acted rather 

mechanically. 

It was in trying to prevent Piyash’s 

journey to the Shaheed Minar that 

the language of politics becomes 

known. The designation of the “holy 

and the sacred” space which could 

not be defiled by a murtad’s corpse 

was unusually medieval. The 

number of people who came forward 

to form opposition to Piyash at 

Shaheed Minar considered it a holy 

duty complete with religious 

paintings. It was this inking of 

GOLAM AZAM 

ritualistic paintings near the Minar which served 

as a warning to defilers that the circle of 

protection could not be violated that the scenario 

becomes obvious. Whether intended or not, 

politics had become a holy war. 

But despite all the verbal opposition to the 

Golam Azam funeral and he was a convicted war 

criminal - Piyash who was not convicted of 

anything- and refusal to allow his burial, it went 

off remarkably well without too much hassle. 

Does it mean that in the end the people had 

accepted his religious identity and didn’t cause 

too much bother or the Government didn’t think 

it was worth it or interference with his burial 

carried a cost which the government was not 

willing to pay ? 

But what about activists ? Perhaps, they were 

heeding the argument that one should forgive the 

dead but in the end nobody came out to protest 

not even the groups which were born in the wake 

of the war crimes trial. It’s obvious that it’s the 

party/government/ establishment that also hold 

the key to religious arguments and their 

resolution. 

That way one can use the dogma where it 

wants to in case of Piyash Karim and also not use 

it in case of Golam Azam. It didn’t matter that 

Piyash Karim never betrayed 

Bangladesh while Golam Azam 

never even believed in Bangladesh 

not to speak of betraying 

Bangladesh too. 

If slogans are the pious calls to 

political prayers, the iconic 

architectures are places of worship, 

the political followers then are 

pilgrims to a holy land. The logic of 

faith is fundamentally different from 

that of politics and we have made 

this transition now. n 


Interview 

The spirit of the 

liberation war has 

been made into a 

commodity 

-Major (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed 

“Many of our leaders have amassed huge amounts of money. 

There isn’t that ‘militancy’ anymore. If a person has 10 houses in 

Dhaka city and 100 crore taka in the bank, why will he take to 

the streets?” 

interviewed by ANwAr PArvEZ HAliM 

The spirit of the liberation war 

has been reduced to a 

business commodity. There 

is a spree of forceful 

occupation all around. 

Offices are being occupied, courts, 

educational institutions, offices, banks, 

insurance companies, the parliament, 

the opposition, the ruling party, 

everything is being occupied. 

Even a sacred memorial like Shaheed 

Minar is being taken over. It has 

become an open dais for persons of the 

government and their supporters to 

deliver their speeches. 

Dr. Piash Karim was a teacher, an 

intellectual who left his high-paying job 

in America to come back home to 

Bangladesh, to serve the country. He 

fearlessly spoke the truth at all times. 

Piash Karim was not a member of BNP. 

He would speak against what he felt 

was wrong within BNP. He would 

criticise Awami League too. 

Because he would criticise Awami 

League’s wrongdoings, quarters within 

the ruling party were up in arms 

against him. They prevented his body 

from being taken to the Shaheed Minar. 

This was most unfortunate, says BNP’s 

Vice Chairman and freedom fighter 

Maj. (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed Bir 

Bikram. 

Maj. Hafiz, former member of 

parliament who had been elected six 

times, says that the present government 

has established a rule of terror in the 

country. There is no justice in the 

country. There is no rule of law. 

“They are saying Piash Karim’s 

father was a razakar. It is shameful that 

they are subjecting a free-thinking man 

of his calibre to such controversy after 

his death, dragging his father and 

relatives into the picture. This is setting 

a bad precedent for the future. When a 

different party comes to power in the 

future, they too will take up such 

forceful domination. Then if a pro- 

Awami League intellectual dies, maybe 

they won’t allow his janaza to be held at 

Shaheed Minar.” 

Why is BNP not actively standing up 

against this misrule and politicisation? 

Maj. Hafiz admits his party’s failure in 

this regard, saying, “We are not being 

able to play the role of the main 

opposition party.” 

“Also, the younger generation in the 

country are going through a 

degeneration. Our students and youth 

have always played a vital role in the 

past, in our independence movement, 

in the nineties movement against 

Ershad and in every major movement. 

That fighting spirit is absent in today’s 

students and young generation.” 

After 5 January, BNP has repeatedly 

been talking about a movement, but 

nothing is really being done. Why? This 

former minister of Khaleda Zia’s 

government says, “There are many 

reasons behind this. Khaleda Zia called 

for a movement on 29 December. The 

government laid siege to her house, 

surrounding it with trucks filled of 

sand.” 

“There should have been an all-out 

movement then, but we failed to do 

that. There was a lack of the fighting 

spirit among our leaders, activists and 

supporters, which is absent even today. 

That is why this misrule is gradually 

gaining strength. Even so, very soon a 

strong movement will be launched 

against this government. The Bengali 

nation never tolerated autocratic rule 

and will never do so.” 

MAJOR (RETD) HAFIZUDDIN AHMED 

“We are not being able 

to play the role of the 

main opposition party.” 


Interview 

Major Hafiz went on to say, “The 

results of the elections in five city 

corporations prove BNP’s public 

support. Awami League knew full well 

that they would be defeated in the tenth 

national election and so ensured that 

BNP would not be able to participate. 

They took all measures to obstruct BNP 

from the election, by amending the 

constitution, by establishing a police 

state, ensuring the the people’s 

mandate was not reflected in the 

election.” 

Many feel that the decision not to join 

the election was a mistake, that maybe 

BNP would have actually won. Hafiz 

replies, “Yes, BNP may have won, but 

the Election Commission would show a 

different result. They would have 

shown Awami League to be the 

winners.” 

“However, I do feel that if the 

election had been conducted by the 

UN, BNP could have participated. BNP 

should have placed more pressure on 

the UN when Taranko came. We had 

put a lot of emphasis on Sheikh Hasina 

not being prime minister during the 

election – we should have instead 

insisted on elections under the UN. 

BNP did not do that. Our attention was 

focussed on the government and 

Sheikh Hasina.” 

Major Hafiz continues, “It would 

have been good if we went to the 

election, but that would have had to 

have been neutral, under the UN.” 

Why are BNP’s first and second tier 

leaders not visible in the movement at 

present? In the past they had always 

been on the streets. Major Hafiz says, 

“Many of our leaders have amassed 

huge amounts of money. There is no 

`militancy’ like before. If a person has 

10 houses in Dhaka city and 100 crore 

taka in the bank, why will take to the 

streets?” 

The convening committee formed to 

set up BNP’s Dhaka city committee is 

inert. How will it carry out a 

movement? This senior BNP leader 

says, “We have many generals but no 

soldiers. We have to increase our 

fighting soldiers. The activities of the 

students and youth have to be stepped 

up. Then again, soldiers don’t even 

respond to orders from the generals 

nowadays. Having said that, I feel this 

situation will clear up. It won’t remain 

like this much longer. There is no 

reason to give up hope.” 

“The present government 

has made the country too 

subservient to foreign 

powers. The people want 

to get out of this situation.” 

He says, “The present government 

has made the country too subservient 

to foreign powers. The people want to 

get out of this situation.” 

There are speculations that Khaleda 

Zia may be arrested in the cases against 

“India isn’t such a 

super power that the 

present government 

can extend their 

misrule for a long 

term with their 

support. And 

anyway, the US, UK, 

UN and other foreign 

powers still have not 

really given their 

support to the 

government.” 

her and sent to jail. What will BNP do 

then? Will Tarique Rahman return? 

Maj. Hafiz says, “There are two 

possibilities. One is that BNP may just 

go silent. The other is that it will leap 

up in a mass movement against the 

government. It still cannot be said 

whether Tarique Rahman will return or 

not. But one must keep in mind, 

Khaleda Zia is still the most popular 

leader in the country. If she is arrested, 

there may be a mass uprising. One 

cannot say anything in advance.” 

He says, “Sheikh Hasina tactfully 

took a quick decision regarding Latif 

Siddique. She brought the situation 

quickly under control. If there was any 

gap, the situation could have turned 

ugly. The people didn’t get time to take 

to the streets.” 

Does that mean your party cannot 

put pertinent issues to use? 

“This is our weakness. Sheikh Hasina 

didn’t have to do anything. Unless we 

build our strength and take to the 

streets, unless we have a fighting spirit, 

there is no use blaming others. Our 

leader is trying her utmost. But as I 

said, we have generals, no soldiers.” 

Foreign powers are too involved in 

our local politics. Is it possible to launch 

a successful movement against the 

government without taking the 

neighbouring country into 

consideration? Hafiz responds, “India 

isn’t such a super power that the 

present government can extend their 

misrule for a long term with their 

support. And anyway, the US, UK, UN 

and other foreign powers still have not 

really given their support to the 

government.” 

“The powerful countries of the world 

do not consider the 5 January election 

to be lawful. They have moral support 

for the opposition. But it is for us to 

take to the streets in a movement. They 

are not going to put us in power.” 

Major Hafiz says, “What is required 

now is a powerful movement. BNP is 

making preparations. Efforts are being 

made to organise Chhatra Dal and Jubo 

Dal. Once these two organisations are 

consolidated, we will take to the streets 

in December.” 

In reply to another question Hafiz 

says, “Our alliance with Jamaat is as 

strong as before. I do not think Jamaat 

will ever go into Awami League’s 

pocket. If BNP takes to the streets, 

Jamaat will be with us.” n 


Cover Story 

The November 

The November 7 uprising of soidiers 

that changed the fabric of the nation 

by MAjOr GENErAl (rETD) SyED MuHAMMAD iBrAHiM Bir Protik 

The date 7 November 1975 

goes back 39 years from 

today when we are recalling 

the event, its background and 

its effect. Many of the actors, 

or pro-actors, or re-actors involved 

with the events of 7 November 1975 are 

no more in the world. Most of them 

were valiant freedom fighters of 1971. 

The events of 7 November were bound 

to take place but the date 7 November 

was thrust upon the organizers or 

'event-managers' by chain of events 

preceding. 

When Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur 

Rahman came back from Pakistan, he 

had to take a decision about the form of 

government for the new country. A 

part of his own party, the Bangladesh 

Awami League (AL), wanted that only 

Awami League forms the government 

while another part of his own party 

wanted that a national government, 

inclusive of all pro liberation war 

parties, be formed. Some people in his 

party wanted the active freedom 

fighters be involved in the running of 

the government, while some others 

wanted that only political freedom 

fighters be involved. 

Bangabandhu was the principal 

architect of the new country called 

Bangladesh till 26 March 1971. The war 

of liberation 1971 was guided in his 

name. But, be it pleasant or unpleasant, 

it must be said that, at that very historic 

moment of decision making in early 

1972, Bangabandhu had a major 

limitation in his political experience. 

The limitation was that he did not see 

the liberation war for himself, nor 

directed the war himself, nor headed 

the war-cabinet. Thus he could not 

witness the eagerness of the youth to 

fight and die for the country, the 

patriotism of the patriots, the intrigue 

of the political conspirators, the 

machinations for and against 

Bangladesh as well as the closest friend 

of Bangladesh in 1971—India, by 

politicians and others alike. 

Bangabandhu decided to form the 

government comprising of his party 

only. He began his political life in 

independent Bangladesh as President 

of the country in a presidential form of 

government. Therefore, a chunk of his 

own party decided to go separate and 

parallel. A new political party called 

Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal or in short JSD 

was formed. While Bangabandhu’s 

Awami League propagated socialism 

as one of the four pillars of state-policy 

of Bangladesh, the new party JSD 

preached something called ‘scientific 

socialism’. JSD began branding Awami 

League as a bourgeois party. JSD began 

propagating that Awami League had 

surrendered the interests of the 

freedom fighters and the working class 

of the country in favor of its capitalistic 

policy. 

To explain the political spirit of the 

new party, let us know about the 

President and General Secretary of the 

new party. Major MA Jalil was an 

officer of Pakistan Army’s Armoured 

Corps who was on leave in his home 

village in Bangladesh in March 1971 

and decided not to go back to Pakistan 

after 26 March 1971. He organized 

Sector Number 9 in the south western 

part of Bangladesh. It was a tough job, 

but Major Jalil did it very well. Once the 

Pakistan military had surrendered on 

16 December 1971, Jalil discovered new 

masters for the country. He saw loaded 

large vehicles leaving Bangladesh for 

India. The cargo was arms and 

ammunition which Pakistan had 

surrendered. The cargo also included 

heavy machinery from various 

industrial plants. Sector Commander 

Major Jalil opposed and obstructed 

transfer of such cargo. Jalil was taken 

into official custody. He was tried by a 

tribunal. In late October 1972, when JSD 

was born, retired Major MA Jalil 

became the President of the party. 

The General Secretary of the new 

party was a certain MA Rab. Rab was a 

very successful pro-Awami League 

student leader in the days preceding 26 

March 1971, not only in the University 

of Dhaka but also for the whole of 

Bangladesh. On 2 March 1971 he was 

instrumental in raising the newly 

designed national flag for the would-be 

independent country of Bangladesh. 

During the 9 months of the war, he was 

an active political freedom fighter. He 

happened to be one of those who 

demanded from Bangabandhu, a 

national government. The new political 

party had many more active freedom 

fighters, former soldiers and youth 

leaders. JSD could be complimented by 

saying: JSD was a party for the youth 

and by the youth. 

JSD waged strong and bloody 

political agitation against the 

government for months without end, 

with a view to unseat the government 

of Bangabandhu. However, in mid 

1973, they carried out an introspection. 

They realized, without institutional 

support from the military, or at least 

un-institutional support from soldiers, 

it may be well-nigh impossible to 

change the government. They decided 

to look for friends in the rank and file of 

the Bangladesh military. 

On the other side of the hill, at the 

same time, there were disgruntled 

politically left-oriented persons still 

serving in the military, after the war 

was over. They decided to group 


Cover Story 

themselves. It was a clandestine work. 

The organization was called “Gopon 

Sainik Sangstha” meaning 'secret 

soldiers organization'. The members of 

this secret organization thought that 

the government of Bangladesh of the 

day was doing a very bad job and 

needed to be changed. They thought 

that without active support of a 

political party, it could not be done. 

They looked for political friends. 

Meanwhile a very brave war-injured 

freedom fighter namely sector 

commander Lt Colonel M A Taher Bir 

Uttam had been retired from the army 

for his non traditional and socialistic 

views. Colonel Taher thought, the new 

country was running on the wrong 

track. He found JSD friendly. JSD found 

a cooperative veteran. Taher joined JSD 

but without publicity. 

Secretly JSD organized a force called 

Gono Bahini meaning 'Peoples Force', 

who should take the leading part in a 

people’s revolution. The secret soldiers' 

organizations and the JSD of 1975 

advocated a structure of Bangladesh 

army thoroughly different from the 

known patterns, an army without 

officers. They believed that committee 

of soldiers can manage and run the 

military better. So officers had to be 

eliminated. 

The government of Bangabandhu 

was considered to be a failure, corrupt 

and unproductive. Bangabandhu was 

given the credit of sincerity but 

discredited by his unworthy 

colleagues. The military of the day was 

alienated. Thus a change in the 

government in one manner or the other 

was the silent prayer of the day. A few 

majors and their juniors with undercommand 

soldiers took advantage of 

the situation and environment. They 

seemed to have patrons at home and 

abroad. Bangabandhu was killed on 15 

August 1975, Mushtaque became 

President and the majors became de 

facto dictators of the country. JSD was 

not prepared for this event. 

The Bangladesh Army had a new 

Chief of Staff namely Major General 

Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam. Zia had 

charisma of his own brand. He was 

liked by soldiers. Colonel Taher was a 

close colleague of Zia in 1971. Now, 

Taher deepened friendship with Zia 

hoping to use the good offices of Zia in 

ushering in new thoughts in running 

the country. Meanwhile, the senior 

officers of Bangladesh military became 

impatient with the new politicoadministrative 

situation of Bangladesh. 

They wanted a change. Zia was taking 

time to say yes or no to what other 

seniors were proposing. The other 

seniors, possibly wanted re-direction of 

the country towards India. They 

wanted discipline to be invoked in the 

army, fresh, by recalling the majors 

who were the principal actors of 15 

August. 

The senior officers did not know of 

the secret soldiers' organization, nor 

know of the collusion between JSD and 

the secret soldiers. Some of the senior 

officers of the Bangladesh military 

under the leadership of the-then Chief 

of General Staff of the Bangladesh 

Army Headquarter the-then Brigadier 

Khaled Mosharraf Bir Uttam, decided 

to act. They carried out a coup-de-tat on 

the 3 of November 1975. Major General 

Ziaur Rahman was taken into house 

arrest in Dhaka cantonment and 

removed from the post of the Chief of 

the Bangladesh Army. The events of 3 

to 6 November were clumsy and 

cloudy. People in general had a 

perception, for whatever reasons, that 

the coup of 3 November was a pro 

Indian coup. Soldiers across the board 

did not like Zia being insulted. JSD had 

a very difficult question to answer. The 

question was, while neither 15 of 

August nor 3 of November were their 

day of choice, when was their day of 

choice then? 

Colonel Taher and his secret soldiers 

decided to act. They fixed 7 November 

as the day. As a very unpredictable 

coincidence, common soldiers of Dhaka 

cantonment, who did not have any 

political inclination were also agitated 

to such a height, on the issue of Zia, in 

favor of Zia, that they also decided to 

jump into the events when it surfaced. 

Throughout the day of 6 November, 

members of the secret soldiers 

organization spread leaflets in Dhaka 

cantonment, urging soldiers to rise 

against the officers-class. They called 

upon everybody to join in a revolution 

by disobeying the officers, physically 

eliminating the officers and by taking 

control of the military establishments. 

They declared through leaflets and by 

words of mouth, that the soldiers' 

revolution would begin at 0001 hours 

of 7 November in the calendar. In 

reality also, the event began at that very 

minute. Members of the secret soldiers' 

organization took control of armory 

and ammunition stocks, wherever they 

could. They began firing their weapons 

in the sky, to create a frightening 

environment. They raided houses of 

selected officers and killed them. They 

physically manhandled wives of 

officers. They physically locked up 

many officers in their houses or offices. 

There was no electricity in the whole of 

Dhaka cantonment after 12 o’clock mid 

night. 

A large group from the secret 

soldiers' organization proceeded to the 

residence of Major General Ziaur 

Rahman. Soldiers guarding the 

residence cooperated with the 

newcomer (apparently mutinous) 

soldiers. They freed the General from 

house arrest. Simultaneously, hundreds 

of common soldiers, who did not 

belong to the secret soldiers' 

organization, also flocked to the 

residence of the popular and 

charismatic General. The freed General 

was now the target of two different 

groups of soldiers. The secret soldiers 

who were allies of JSD wanted to take 

the General to a house in Elephant 

Road in the city of Dhaka. Common 

soldiers who only loved the General, 

wanted to take him to a safe location 

inside Dhaka cantonment. General 

Ziaur Rahman decided to stay inside 

the cantonment. The rift between 

Colonel Taher and General Ziaur 

Rahman surfaced at that very moment. 

JSD till that day had never publicized 

the summary or salient features of 

agreement if any between Colonel 

Taher and General Ziaur Rahman. JSD 

has not done so, till this day ever when 

you read this column. 

Elsewhere, things were moving in 

stray directions. Brigadier Khaled 


Cover Story 

Mosharraf Bir Uttam had promoted 

himself a Major General and appointed 

himself as the new Chief of Bangladesh 

Army. He had called loyal infantry 

battalions to Dhaka from cantonments 

elsewhere in the country, to strengthen 

his foothold. One such battalion was 10 

East Bengal Regiment which found its 

new accommodation in Sher-e-Bangla 

Nagar in the city of Dhaka. Khandkar 

Mustaque was removed as President of 

the country and the-then Chief Justice 

of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh Mr 

ASM Sayem was appointed the new 

President. Khaled Mosharraf Bir Uttam 

and his team arranged a safe exit out of 

Bangladesh for the Majors who were 

the major actors of the 15 August. But, 

before loosening the grip on power, the 

Majors, most heinously arranged 

assassination of four very senior and 

legendary political leaders who were 

inside the Dhaka central jail. Events 

which began at the first minute of the 

first hour of 7 of November inside the 

Dhaka Cantonment, quickly spilled 

over to rest of the city. Newly promoted 

Major General Khaled Mosharraf Bir 

Uttam and his team were forced out of 

the President house. Soldiers loyal to 

General Ziaur Rahman took control of 

the President house. 

General Khaled Mosharraf and his 

team made an effort to escape from the 

city of Dhaka but could not. They took 

shelter in the 10 th East Bengal 

Regiment in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, 

hoping the loyal soldiers will be 

hospitable. Within an hour Khaled 

Mosharraf and his team were 

assassinated. The assassinated officers 

were valiant and decorated freedom 

fighters of the war of liberation war 

1971. It was too tragic. Thousand of 

soldiers in hundreds of different 

transport spread into the city of Dhaka. 

Thousands and thousands of citizens of 

Dhaka joined the soldiers from the 

early hours. As soon as day light broke, 

the city of Dhaka was in the control of 

hundreds of different groups of 

soldiers and citizens together. They 

hunted out anyone and everyone who 

smelled of India. Most officers of 

Bangladesh army, in Dhaka 

cantonment were on the run. The chain 

of command of the Bangladesh army 

and the chain of command of the 

government of Bangladesh had broken 

down. It was feared that, the country 

was heading towards a civil war. 

Khaled Mosharraf Bir Uttam 

and his team arranged a safe 

exit out of Bangladesh for the 

Majors who were the major 

actors of the 15 August. But, 

before loosening the grip on 

power, the Majors, most 

heinously arranged 

assassination of four very 

senior and legendary political 

leaders who were inside the 

Dhaka central jail. 

By mid day of the 7 of November, 

Major General Ziaur Raman Bir Uttam 

was reinstated as the Chief of Army 

Staff of Bangladesh Army. Thousands 

of soldiers chanted slogans. Some 

slogans were for more rights of 

common soldiers. Some slogans were 

for purification of the rank and file in 

the military from leftist influence. Some 

slogans were in favor of Ziaur Rahman, 

asking him to run the country. Ziaur 

Rahman along with his available senior 

colleagues decided to act patriotically, 

act courageously, and act for love of the 

soldiers. Ziaur Rahman very quickly 

invoked the chain of command and 

commanded the soldiers to go back to 

barracks. The two-day-old President of 

Bangladesh Mr. Justice ASM Sayem 

urged upon Ziaur Rahman to steer the 

government as a close colleague. 

The events of 7 November 1975 have 

been described as Sainik Janatar Biplob, 

that is, a combined revolution by 

soldiers and people. It has also been 

described as National Revolution and 

Solidarity Day. A minor section in the 

political arena of Bangladesh calls the 

day as Freedom Fighter Murder Day. 

Call it by any name, the events of 7 

November 1975 have lasting 

impression on the politics of 

Bangladesh. The most unwelcome 

precedence is that the soldiers can 

mutiny against their officers and kill 

them. In 1977, on a very crucial day, 

soldiers of the Bangladesh Air Force in 

the Dhaka Air Force Base mutinied. The 

airmen killed many officers. Around 

the same time in 1977, some soldiers 

mutinied in Bogra cantonment in the 

North West of Bangladesh and killed 

many officers. Decades later, in 

February 2009, Soldiers of Bangladesh 

Rifles —a para-military force — 

mutinied in the city of Dhaka and killed 

57 officers. The martyrs of February 

2009 are all officers of Bangladesh 

Army. 

There are two major political parties 

and camps following them in 

Bangladesh. The senior most member 

of the Gono Bahini of JSD who 

masterminded the soldiers mutiny 

under the umbrella of the secret 

soldiers' organization was Colonel 

Taher Bir Uttam. He was tried by a 

special tribunal which sentenced him to 

death in 1976 on charges of sedition 

and inciting mutiny in the army. Some 

colleagues of Colonel Taher in JSD for 

long have been very close allies of 

Awami League and are active members 

of the government as of today in 2014. 

Taking cue from the cooperation 

between soldiers and people on 7 

November 1975, Bangladesh 

Nationalist Party, in short called (BNP) 

which was founded by Ziaur Rahman 

Bir Uttam, and hundreds of millions of 

followers of BNP, believe that 

friendship between soldiers and 

common people is the ultimate safeguard 

for the sovereignty and integrity 

of the country. 

The events of 7 November have been 

pivotal in steering Bangladesh towards 

a new path of nationalist politics. This 

trend in politics lasts down till this day, 

whether at the helm or in opposition. 

And so for many reasons 7 November 

1975 remains an important chapter in 

the history of Bangladesh. n 

Major General Syed Muhammad 

Ibrahim Bir Protik retired since 1996, was a 

Major in November 1975. He joined the 

2 nd battalion of the East Bengal Regiment 

in Dhaka cantonment command them only 

for the night and only for the distressful 

period and finally led them to join the 

stream of thousand of soldiers in the 

revolution in favor of General Ziaur 

Rahman. Ibrahim had fought the war of 

liberation as a Lieutenant in this battalion. 


Probe Special 

DIvORCES ON THE RISE 

Marriages are breaking up faster than ever before 

in Dhaka and divorce is no longer a taboo 

The wife says they are not 

getting along. The husband 

says her behaviour is 

immoral and unacceptable. 

These are the common 

reasons, among many, that appear on 

the forms in the city's kazi offices, that 

is, the offices of Muslim marriage 

registration. The forms mentioned 

above, of course, deal with divorce, not 

marriage. 

Divorce, once a taboo in this country, 

is now becoming a mor e common 

phenomenon. Whether spouses are 

becoming more intolerant, or whether 

economic emancipation doesn't force a 

woman to stay in an unhappy 

marriage, or whether social values are 

changing, whatever the causes may be, 

the fact is that divorces are no longer 

few and far between. In fact, over the 

recent past, broken marriages have 

become more common than ever 

before. 

Divorce rates in Bangladesh are 

shooting up. According to the Dhaka 

City Corporation, over the past seven 

years the divorce rate has gone up by 

nearly 12%. 

The records show that in 2013 a total 

of 7262 divorce notices were submitted 

to Dhaka South City Corporation. After 

the routine counseling and mediation, 

5,942 of the divorces went through and 

were finalised. That means an average 

by SHAfiq rAHMAN 

of 20 divorce notices were submitted 

every day to Dhaka South City 

Corporation and an average of 17 

divorces went into affect every day. 

In Dhaka North City Corporation, 

records show that 2,800 divorce notices 

were submitted in 2013. After the 

routine mediation, a total of 2,500 were 

finalised and went into effect. That 

means an average of eight notices were 

submitted every day and nearly seven 

divorces per day were effectuated. 

The records show that in 

2013 a total of 7262 

divorce notices were 

submitted to Dhaka South 

City Corporation. After the 

routine counseling and 

mediation, 5,942 of the 

divorces went through and 

were finalised. That 

means an average of 20 

divorce notices were 

submitted every day to 

Dhaka South City 

Corporation and an 

average of 17 divorces 

went into affect every day. 

If a comparison is drawn with the 

Dhaka City Corporation records of 

2007, the rate of divorce has increased 

by nearly 12% over the past seven 

years. The records show that in 2007, 

the number of divorces in Dhaka City 

Corporation's areas Dhanmondi, Old 

Dhaka and Saidabad amounted to 1266. 

In 2013 this has increased to 1417. 

In the Muslim Family Ordinance of 

1961, divorces are categorised into 

three divisions. Category B is when the 

husband divorces the wife, category C 

is when the divorce is mutual, and 

category D is when the wife divorces 

the husband. In recent years, the city 

corporation records indicate a higher 

incidence of the wife filing for divorce. 

According to Dhaka South City 

Corporation, till 10 July 2014, a total of 

2351 divorce notices have been filed. 

On average, 100 out of every 151 of the 

notices have been filed by the wife. 

This trend of the wife taking 

initiative in divorce has been noted for 

the past few years. in 2013, in 703 

cases the husband filed for divorce 

and in 1528 cases, the wife filed for 

divorce. 

In the three areas of Dhaka South 

City Corporation mentioned above, 

from 2006 till June 2014, a total of 11,493 

divorce notices were submitted. Of 

these, the wife filed for divorce in 7701 

cases. The husband filed for divorce in 

3792 cases. 

The kazis of the kazi marriage 

registration offices tend to blame the 

women in the cases where the wives 

file for divorce. Assistant kazi of the 

Dhanmondi kazi office Hafez Maulana 

Mohammed Shahidul Islam says that as 

the law of the land is in favour of the 

women, the men are helpless. They are 

getting divorced on flimsy grounds. 

The city authorities, however, have a 

different view. They place the 

responsibility equally on men. 

Administration officer of Dhaka South 

City Corporation Zone-1 Mohammed 

Reazul Hossain points out that social 

realities have changed. Women are 

more conscious. In the past they would 

suffer their husband's oppression in 

silence. They would just carry on like 

that throughout their lives. Now they 

will not tolerate such abuse. If things 

are not working out, they decide to get 

a divorce. 

Social scientist Dr. Fatima Rezina 

Parvin has a similar view. She says the 


Probe Special 

social scene has changed. People's 

attitudes have changed. In the past 

women would give up good 

government jobs at the behest of their 

husbands, simply so their family would 

remain intact. Things are no longer like 

that anymore. The husband's views 

are not the only views that count. 

Women have their opinions too. 

Dr. Fatima Rezina Parvin also says 

that nowadays women are unwilling to 

keep up a pretence of relationship in a 

bad marriage. 

She also points to the negative 

aspects of divorce. She says, divorce is 

never a desirable thing. It is even worse 

when a child is involved. Divorce has 

an impact on the child. 

There is need for both sides to 

compromise in a marriage. She says 

that this calls for serious consideration 

before anyone enters the bond of 

marriage. 

While divorce can have negative 

impact on children, an unhappy 

marriage of bickering and abuse can 

have an even worse effect on the 

offspring, point out marriage 

counselors. 

With the number of divorces on the 

rise, the length of marriages is 

shortening too. Marriages of 20 years to 

30 years are breaking up. Marriages of 

just two to three years are breaking up. 

Both kazi office and city corporation 

records show that the newer marriages 

are breaking up more. 

According to the Dhanmondi kazi 

office, Mahfuzur Rahman married 

Fatema Akhter in July 2012. Within 

four months Fatema Akhter divorced 

Mahfuzur Rahman. The reason shown 

was that they were not getting along, 

that is, they were incompatible. 

Similarly, in the same area, Abir 

Hossain Jahangir married Maisha 

Mariam in May 2012. Abir divorced 

Maisha within seven months of their 

marriage. Farzana Tanzil and Syed 

Maimur Sultan married in February 

2013 and divorced in February 2014, 

exactly within one year. 

Most of the divorces taking place 

nowadays are happening within two to 

four years of marriage. The highest 

number of divorces on an average, 

however, are taking place after 18 years 

of marriage. Nurunnahar Akhter Neela 

of Bashabo married Mohammed Faruk 

Hossain in May 1997. They divorced 

exactly 18 years later in June 2014. 

Incompatibility was the reason given 

on the form. 

Mohammed Billal Hossain of 

Tikatuli married Moushumi of Bashabo 

in 2010. He divorced her this year on 26 

June, accusing of disobedience and 

improper behaviour. 

The general idea that the incidence of 

divorce is higher among the wealthier 

class of society is a myth. The incidence 

of divorce is increasing in all levels of 

Most of the divorces 

taking place nowadays 

are happening within two 

to four years of marriage. 

The highest number of 

divorces on an average, 

however, are taking place 

after 18 years of marriage. 

society. 

Dhaka South City Corporation Zone- 

1 comprises Dhanmondi, Segun 

Bagicha, Siddeswari, Dhaka University 

area, Mouchak and Maghbazar. In 2013 

in this zone, 452 divorce notices were 

filed. Of these, 318 came into effect. 

Zone-4 comprising Old Dhaka saw 312 

divorce notices in 2013. Of these, 274 

were effectuated. Zone-5 of Saidabad in 

the same year had 857 divorces of 

which 825 came through. 

In the Gulshan, Baridhara, 

Mohakhali, Badda and Rampura areas 

of Dhaka North City Corporation, in 

2013 there were 269 notices for divorce 

and 200 were implemented. 

The highest number of divorces 

in Dhaka has taken place in 

Mirpur. in 2013 the number of 

divorce notices in Mirpur stood at 

5019 of which 4921 took place. 

Dhaka City Corporation has an 

Arbitration Council in keeping with 

Article 7 (1) of the Muslim Marriage 

Ordinance 1961. The local ward 

commissioner has the responsibility to 

arbitrate between the two parties, but 

as there has been no elected ward 

commissioner for long, the executive 

officer of the respective zones is in 

charge of this task. When the divorce 

notice is sent from the local kazi office to 

the city corporation, the city authorities 

send three letters to the wife and the 

husband in a span of three months, 

giving them time to come to 

reconciliation. In reality this normally 

does not yield results. 

Mohammed Nuruzzaman Sharif, 

executive officer of Gulshan zone, says 

that reconciliation generally does not 

take place because the husband or the 

wife, whoever has submitted the notice, 

has already made up their mind. So the 

notices for reconciliation do not really 

make them change their decision. Some 

people even give false addresses so that 

they do not receive the notice from the 

city corporation. After a passage of 90 

days if the reconciliation is not agreed 

upon, the divorce takes place. 

It is ironical indeed that nowadays 

wedding ceremonies are more 

elaborate and lengthy than ever before, 

with days or celebrations and festivities 

with all the pomp and grandeur of 

Bollywood. But all too soon the bubble 

bursts. "Nowadays a wedding 

ceremony often lasts longer than the 

marriage itself," observes Dhaka 

socialite. n 


Revelations and Recollections 

Flip sides of the 

November uprising 

by SyED ABul MAKSuD 

This is the second installment of Revelations and Recollections 

where we present excerpts of books which reflect the events and 

essence of the nation's contemporary history. These records of the 

past help us comprehend the present and contemplate the future. 

This week's excerpt is from a column by Syed Abul Maksud, 

renowned writer, researcher and columnist of Prothom Alo. It was 

published on 9 November 2010, in Prothom Alo. 

We have no reason 

to have an iota of 

gratitude towards the 

military rulers Ziaur 

Rahman or Ershad; 

but Shafiullah should 

be grateful to them. 

Mushtaque and Zia 

gave him 

appointments and 

Zia never dismissed 

him from his 

diplomatic service. 

Surely that was 

generous on 

Zia's part. 

Itook up my pen to write on a certain topic, 

but then had to change my mind. After 

reading 70 issues of 10 dailies in the first 

seven days of November, I realised I 

needed to change the context. If a nation's 

media can do a volte face after 35 years, if 

political leaders can change their colours, what's 

wrong if an op-ed writer changes his topic in a 

matter of five minutes? 

In a large military regiment, history is erased 

or twisted and truth is covered up. But only in 

Bangladesh will one see history being pitched 

into the dustbin without any instigation and in 

a peaceful democratic environment. In a 

military and politically controlled state, 

journalists have to suppress the truth. But it is a 

very reprehensible act to go out of one's way to 

hide the truth. The performance of the political 

players in Bangladesh today makes one want to 

cry out like the crazed Meher Ali of Khudito 

Pashan: "Tofat jau! Tofat jau! Sab jhoot hai! Sab 

ZIAUR RAHMAN 

jhoot hai!" [Stay away! Stay! It's all lies! It's all 

lies!] Most of those above the age of 60 in 

Bangladesh today are all in the same state as the 

crazed Meher Ali. 

In the first week of November, the absurd 

theatre was enacted in front of the people who 

today are above 60. They have seen all, know 

all. Nothing new can be added now. 

Bengalis always look for a scapegoat to attain 

their self interests. They put the blame to the 

scapegoat and happily go about their business. 

In the mahajote (grand alliance) government 

established by Awami League, they have made 

Ziaur Rahman the scapegoat. Of course, during 

Ziaur Rahman's rule and Ershad's rule, there 

were other scapegoats in place. 

Down the 31 years since 1975, our national 

dailies have published innumerable editorials, 

post editorials, articles, columns and more 

about the events of November that year. 

Numerous reports and interviews have been 

published. Unless written in the face of a rifle 

barrel, these writings cannot be ignored. 

The main quality of a democratic society is 

pure logical reasoning. If a state lacks that, then 

the nation is gripped in blindness. There is an 

absence of social responsibility. There is no 

scope for scientific thought. The integral values 

of education and culture are smashed. Under 

such circumstances all sorts of tales are conjured 

up in the name of history to serve the purpose of 

vested quarters and their collaborators. 

The events of 1975 are an indispensable part 

of Bangladesh's history. It will not bode well for 

the country to dispense with a scientific analysis 

of the events and spread fabricated stories. 

What is written on paper or in books is not 

history; what people know is history. The report 

Mizanur Rahman Khan has published in 

Prothom Alo based on US documents is a basis to 

write factual history. But the cables sent by US 

diplomats are not history, these are reports 

based on information from various sources and 

taken from various papers. And this includes 

the observations of the persons sending the 

cables. If one is to write history, one must 

consult the original leaflets and pamphlets of 

the political parties at the time. 

Bangladesh's post-'75 politics is a joint 

political project -- not the work of one or more 

individuals. Most of the people were silent 

observers of the political transformations or 

extended their open support and cooperation. 

Had that not been so, not even the most 

powerful person on Earth would have been able 

to survive. Had it not been a joint project, that 

brand of politics would not have lasted for over 

21 years. 

Prothom Alo published interviews of two 

generals regarding the November uprising. Maj. 

Gen. (retd) KM Shafiullah said that Ziaur 



By using Awami 

League to 

consolidate his 

own power, Khaled 

paved the way for 

keeping Awami 

League out of 

power for 21 

years. 

Rahman used the army to fulfill his political 

ambitions and consolidate his power. From his 

words a young reader would conclude that any 

general could easily use the army for his own 

ends. A popular general can certainly use his 

army, while the weak and failed ones work with 

servitude. It is natural for a military ruler to 

utilise the army. If a military rules doesn't use 

the army, then who will? Surely it won't be a 

street vendor, a post-editorial writer, a poet, 

actors and actresses, or a taxi driver! 

On 17 August I accompanied Bangladesh 

Sangbad Sangstha's General Manager and 

Editor Jawadul Karim to Bangabhaban. The 

scene which I observed from the window there 

seems unbelievable today. To me, the words 

'traitor' and 'ungrateful' seemed so inadequate 

for the Bengalis. 

Certain retired army officers are giving 

interviews to the media day after day. There 

really was no need for General Shafiullah's 

recollections of 7 November or his observations. 

After all, he is the only army chief in world 

history who worked faithfully under three or 

four majors for 10 days, and it was those majors 

who, in his words, "dismissed" him. He says 

"dismissed", but we know he was sent into 

retirement. That is why he writes his name as 

Major General (retd), not Major General 

(dismissed). 

He is the only army chief who served for long 

as an ambassador under two presidents -- both 

of whom served under him at some point of 

time. Many of us have the statement which he 

issued before he fell unconscious, as a witness in 

the Bangabandhu killing case. We have no 

reason to have an iota of gratitude towards the 

military rulers Ziaur Rahman or Ershad; but 

Shafiullah should be grateful to them. 

Mushtaque and Zia gave him appointments and 

Zia never dismissed him from his diplomatic 

service. Surely that was generous on Zia's part. 

If our next generation had no sense of 

gratitude, nor goodwill or do not acknowledge 

the debt of gratitude towards a helpful friend, 

we cannot blame them. Middle-class people like 

us have to make compromises to live in peace. 

We have to bow our heads before the rich and 

powerful. We cannot keep our spines straight. 

That's not a serious fault. Shafiullah's constant 

tirade against Zia is not acceptable. 

The US documents about November 1975 are 

important. More important are the pamphlets 

and leaflets of the political parties at that time. 

For some years now there have been efforts to 

absolve Khaled Musharraf of all faults and to 

establish him as a leader par excellence. In '1975 

November US Documents 5', Mizanur Rahman 

Khan writes, "In a joint statement Rab-Jalil 

described Khaled Musharraf was a 'traitor' and 

said that he conspired to 'destroy Bangladesh's 

existence at the instigation of India, Russia and 

America'. " 

Hasanul Huq Inu says, "We never said any 

such thing about Khaled Musharraf in any of 

our JSD documents.... But he was overambitious, 

taking over power illegally and was 

the official founder of military rule." There is no 

denying Mr. Inu's last sentence. But the first 

sentence is not correct. Numerous pamphlets of 

JSD indicate that Mizanur Rahman Khan's 

words are correct. In one of their pamphlets of 1 

February 1976, it was stated, "Betraying the 1971 

Liberation War, the Awami League leadership 

took over state power with the help of the 

expansionist India army. The fate of the people 

did not change. The neo-bourgeoisie rulers and 

their followers began building their pleasure 

dome in exchange of the blood shed by 

innumerable persons killed in the independence 

war. On 15 August 1975 Mujib's one-time 

collaborator Khandkar Mushtaque took over 

power with the help of few majors. On 3 

November another military coup took place in 

which the notorious Brigadier Khaled 

Musharraf, instigated by India and Russia, led 

the reactionary forces in a conspiracy to finish 

our existence as a country and a nation. Then on 

7 November, with active support of JSD and the 

revolutionary Gono Bahini, the revolutionary 

soldiers broke out in a sepoy uprising. But 

national and international exploiters conspired 

against the people and the goal was not 

achieved." 

Khaled had just stepped on the stage for his 

moment of glory, but then the door slammed in 

his face and he had to bid farewell. 

During Mushtaque's rule, the spirit of Islam 

strengthened, but it was not anti-Indian. It was 

Khaled who ensured that the anti-Indian 

sentiments would go a long way. Zia used this 



There really was 

no need for 

General 

Shafiullah's 

recollections of 7 

November or his 

observations. 

After all, he is the 

only army chief in 

world history who 

worked faithfully 

under three or 

four majors for 10 

days, and it was 

those majors 

who, in his 

words, 

"dismissed" him. 

He says 

"dismissed", but 

we know he was 

sent into 

retirement. That 

is why he writes 

his name as 

Major General 

(retd), not Major 

General 

(dismissed). 

sentiment for five years, Ershad for nine and 

Khaleda for 10, in order to stay in power. 

By using Awami League to consolidate his 

own power, Khaled paved the way for keeping 

Awami League out of power for 21 years. 

No one harmed Awami League as Khaled 

Musharraf did. He himself spread the word that 

he was pro-Indian, in the hope that the India 

would come forward to help him with military 

assistance. But Indians were not so stupid. 

Whatever was to take place, did take place. The 

people of Bangladesh became anti-India for a 

long span of time. Relations between the two 

friendly neighbours were destroyed. In the three 

days between 3 November and 6 November and 

new political psychology emerged. The nation is 

still not free of that psychology. 

The incidents of 15 August and 3-7 November 

didn't just fall from the sky. There is a 

background behind all incidents. This string of 

events too had a background. 

On 13 October 1974 JSD called for a mass 

movement and called for a nationwide hartal 

(general strike) on 26 November. Their leaflet 

stated that the mass movement and the hartal 

was to "free the country from the grips of India's 

expansionist, Russia's reformist and America's 

imperialist conspiracies and evil designs and for 

the full-fledged independence and sovereignty 

of the country; to establish a national 

government free of imperialism and fascism." 

In 1973-74 the main opposition parties were 

National Awami Party (Bhasani) and JSD. Any 

discussion of August-November 1975 would 

not be complete without discussing the 

relationship between the government and these 

two parties as well as the other left-wing parties. 

In 1973-75, thousands of activists of NAP, JSD 

and other left-wing parties were in jail. Many of 

those who had advised the government to put 

them behind bars, are still going around quite 

freely and happily. But Bangabandhu had to 

leave. 

It is foolish to deny reality. Boster was not a 

fool. That is why he watched from his roof and 

wrote -- General Zia got an opportunity on 7 

November to completely grab power. He could 

have taken over power. From what we saw on 

the streets on 7 November, if it carries any 

meaning, it proves that Zia has immense 

popularity. 

Whether what Mr. Boster saw on the streets 

that day carried meaning to anyone else or not, 

it certainly was extremely meaningful for the US 

government. They were looking for a popular 

man in the army. They got him on 7 November. 

It was not only Boster who got him, leaders of 

the extreme left-wing groups and the extreme 

right-wing groups of Bangladesh got him too. 

Zia didn't have power of his own. The source 

of his power was the entire capitalist world 

outside of the Soviet sphere of influence, the 

Middle East and small powers within the 

country. China stood by him. 

On 16 November, five leftist parties, Purbo 

Banglar Samyabadi Dal (ML), Purbo Banglar 

Gono Biplobi Party and Communist Karmi 

Shabha, came forward in support of Zia. In their 

pamphlet 'Foil the new conspiracy of India- 

Russia', they wrote, "Though the main 

leadership of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) are 

betrayers and traitors, working as Indian agents, 

many patriotic people are duped by their 

socialist and anti-Indian slogans and remain 

with the organisation. We appeal to them, stand 

up against the agents of India-Russia and other 

countries within your party. Drive them out... 

We call upon our Hindu brothers and sisters, do 

not turn to the Indira government of India for a 

resolution to your sufferings, your grief and, in 

some cases, the hateful behaviour of some." 

Zia had no party that day, leaders of others 

parties did the work for him. Purbo Banglar 

Gono Biplobi Party, United People's Party, 

various student, youth and labour 

organisations, and teachers of Dhaka University 

Teachers Association, all stood shoulder to 

shoulder with Zia. The language used in some 

of the leaflets was alarming or instigating 

hatred. 

When Shafiullah says, "Zia was nothing, he 

just used the army to hang on to power," that 

sounds very pitiful. If he didn't have such 

popularity within the country and international 

acceptability, he wouldn't have been selected as 

a leader for the OIC Middle East peace talks 

sponsored by America. 

There are certain norms, certain language for 

criticising the enemy. Anything outside of that 

benefits the enemy instead. The things people 

are doing in their attempts to please Sheikh 

Hasina, are going in favour of Zia. 

One more thing before I end. Bengal has a rich 

history of struggle. This state was founded on 

the boundless sacrifices of political leaders and 

activists. If one reads the newspapers of nine 

months out of twelve, it would seem that the 

leaders of this country were power-hungry 

army officers. There is no coverage of 

progressive and nationalist politicians. 

Sheikh Mohammed Shahidullah, leader of the 

National Committee for the Protection of Oil, 

Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, does 

not get even one hundredth of the media 

coverage given to Jamaat leader Golam Azam 

and the various pirs. I just want to remind the 

media of Nazrul's words, "Diney diney bohu 

bariyechhi dena, shudhitey hoibey rin," in other 

words, "Our liabilities have increased over the 

days, we'll have to repay our debts." n 


Religion 

MESSAgE FROM ASHURA 

Imam Hussain has become the epitome of resistance to oppression, 

epitome of love for the oppressed citizen 

by MAjOr GENErAl (rETD) SyED MuHAMMAD iBrAHiM Bir Protik 

The second issue (volume 13) of the PROBE comes 

out on the first day of the month of November 

2014. One of the days in the first week of November 

2014, is the 10 th day of the month of Moharram of 

1436 Hijri. Moharram is the first of the 12 months in 

Hijri calendar, commonly also called Muslim calendar or 

Islamic calendar. 10 th of Moharram in the year 61 Hijri was 

10 th of October of the year 680AD. According to history, 

believed by the Muslims, the 10 th day of Moharram has been 

famous for many events. But the latest event in history that 

makes Muslims remember 10 th Moharram, dates back to 61 

Hijri. In Bangladesh, the 10 th Moharram is designated as 

‘Ashura’ (from the Arabic numerical Ashra for 10) and is 

declared as a government holiday. Therefore, a very short 

recalling of history may be appropriate. 

Hazrat Osman (or Uthman) bin Affan was the third khalifa 

(or Caliph) of Islam after Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Hazrat 

Osman was assassinated in the year 656 AD when he was 82 

years old. The council of elders invited Hazrat Ali bin Abu 

Talib to become the next khalifa. Hazrat Ali regretted. But the 

majority of the pious sahabiis or companions of the holy 

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) insisted upon Ali taking over the 

responsibility. Few of the elders in positions of responsibility, 

did not accept Hazrat Ali, namely the-then governor of Egypt 

Abdullah bin Saad bin Sabur, the governor of Syria Muabia 

bin Abu Sufian and one of the secretaries to Khalifa Osman 

named Marwan bin Hakam. Nonetheless, Hazrat Ali started 

his tenure on 24 June of the year 656AD or 25 th day of Jilhajj 

of the Hijri year 35. To begin with Hazrat Ali had to pass busy 

time, fighting battles or quelling rebellions. As a strategic 

move, Hazrat Ali relocated the capital of the Islamic State 

from Medina to the city of Kufa located in central Iraq. In the 

month of Jilhajj of the year 36 Hijri and the following two 

months falling in the 37 Hijri, Hazrat Ali had to fight battles 

against Muabia. At one stage, a treaty or a accord of 

compromise was concluded between Hazrat Ali and Hazrat 

Muabia. On the 17 th day of the month of Ramadan of the year 

40 Hijri, Hazrat Ali was assassinated, in the mosque, in Kufa. 

He was laid to rest next to the town of Kufa. Soon the place 

became known as Najaf and a township developed. Najaf is a 

revered city now. 

Two sons of Hazrat Ali, Hazrat Hassan and Hazrat 

Hussain, respectfully known to the Islamic world as Imam 

Hassan Ibn Ali and Imam Hussain Ibn ali, followed one after 

the other, with interruption, became khalifa of the Islamic 

world. Hasan was 36 year old when he became the khalifa. 

His rule was opposed by Muabia. In the year 680AD Muabia 

died. According to the accord of compromise between 

Muabia on the one side and Ali and Hasan successively on 

the other side, the next khalifa would be Hussain. But Yazid, 

son of Muabia refused to abide by the accord of compromise. 

Yazid declared himself as the khalifa. On the other hand, the 

people of Kufa (which was the capital during the days of 

Hazrat Ali) invited Hazrat Hussain to come forward and 

takeover the responsibility of khalifa. For sometime till then, 

Hazrat Hussain was staying in the city of Makkah. Hazrat 

Hussain was characteristically aloof from worldly pomp and 

grandeur. He was more inclined to peaceful habitation and 

spreading of knowledge. But the insistence of the people of 

Kufa, in a way compelled him to decide in favor of taking 

over the responsibility as khalifa, capital being in the city of 

Kufa. The people of Kufa repeatedly narrated harrowing tales 

of oppression and misrule being perpetrated on them by the 

administration of Yazid who had declared himself the 

khalifa. The people of Kufa, implored upon Hazrat Hussain 

to come and stand beside them and resist the oppression and 

misrule. The people of Kufa reminded Hazrat Hussain of the 

egalitarian responsibility of saving unarmed peace loving 

citizens from the onslaught of the oppressor, usurper-khalifa 

Yazid. Therefore, with a very noble cause and objective in 

mind, Hazrat Hussain left Makkah for Kufa, on the 3 rd day 

of the month of Jilhajj of the year 60 Hijri with a very small 


Religion 

The stand-off between the two 

highly unequal parties lasted more 

than three days. Imam Hussain 

was offered lucrative options in lieu 

of accepting Yazid as the khalifa. 

Hussain was offered safe passage 

in lieu of public obeisance to Yazid. 

entourage comprising of women children and family 

members. After few days, the team reached Karbala on the 

bank of the river Euphrates (locally known as Forat). The 

team was obstructed by a contingent of about four thousand 

soldiers under the leadership of one Umar Ibn Saad Ibn Abi 

Wakkas. The stand-off between the two highly unequal 

parties lasted more than three days. Imam Hussain was 

offered lucrative options in lieu of accepting Yazid as the 

khalifa. Hussain was offered safe passage in lieu of public 

obeisance to Yazid. Imam Hussain refused on simple ground. 

He said, it is the duty of every righteous Muslim to stand 

courageously and oppose an oppressive ruler. The inevitable, 

therefore, happened. The team with Hazrat Hussain were 

denied access to the waters of the river Forat flowing near by. 

Team of helpers from the city of Kufa never came because 

they were conspiratorially compromised by the henchmen of 

Yazid. On the 10 th day of Moharram of the year 61 Hijri, the 

highly unequal battle ended in historic tragedy. Members of 

the team of Imam Hussain laid down their lives fighting 

almost bare-handed. The women were just killed. Children 

were killed. The Imam himself offered a fight but was 

defeated and killed. 

The Muslim community all over the world, remember the 

10 th day of Moharram from different viewpoints. The Shia 

community among the Muslims take a very serious view of 

the events of 10 th Moharram. The other communities like the 

Sunnis take a softer view. In my view, the events at Karbala 

of the 10 th day of Moharram of the year 61 Hijri are wrongly 

described as a battle. It was a massacre. It was a minigenocide. 

Imam Hussain has become the epitome of 

resistance to oppression, epitome of love for the oppressed 

citizen. 

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was very affectionate and 

loveable towards the two grandsons namely the two brothers 

Hazrat Hassan and Hazrat Hussain, the sons of Hazrat Ali 

Ibn Abu Talib and Hazrat Fatima the daughter of the holy 

Prophet (pbuh) himself. The manner in which the team of 

Imam Hussain was decimated in Karbala, is nearly 

unprecedented in history. The injury to the emotions and 

feelings in the minds of Muslims all over the world, rendered 

by the perpetrators in Karbala in the year 61 Hijri, has never 

been healed. I count myself among the millions who live with 

a tormented soul. 

The lesson we may take on every 10 th of Moharram, is to 

love people and stand beside people in their days of misery 

and anguish. I was lucky to be able to visit the state of Iraq 

two times about 12 years ago. Therefore, I could visit Karbala 

also. Karbala is about two to three hours driving distance 

away from Bagdad. A visit to Karbala is bound to reinforce 

love for the Prophet of Islam (pbuh), the two ‘Imams’ and 

their families and of course for the Muslim ummah in 

general. A visit to the shrines in Karbala develops tranquility 

in the mind of the visitor. n 

Since retirement from Bangladesh Army in 1996, Major General 

Syed Muhammad Ibrahim Bir Protik has engaged himself in 

writing and research. Since December 2007, he is actively in 

politics. He is the Chairman of ‘Bangladesh Kallyan Party’. 


Guest Column 

The first day of a recent 

meeting of the 

“Partnership Against 

Corruption Initiative” 

(PACI) of the Genevabased 

World Economic Forum 

IKRAM SEHGAL (WEF) discussed among other 

subjects, “Communicating the Anticorruption 

Message,” “High Priority Compliance 

Challenges” and “Collective Action”, and on the next day, 

“Global Threats and Trends” and “National and Regional 

Perspectives on Anti-Corruption” (my contribution as one of 

the speakers). 

A clear distinction must be made between the vast majority 

of corrupt (about 95%) who comprise the “needy” and the 

relatively small percentage who make up the “greedy” (less 

than 5%). Unfortunately it was duly noted that the greedy 

siphon off more than 95% of the illegal money. Forced by 

economic circumstances into corruption, the needy struggle 

to put food on the table for their families, pay their rent, 

electric, water and children’s school fees, medical bills, 

rickshaw and bus fares, etc, the only silver lining is that 

almost 100% of their illegally acquired money goes back into 

the country’s economy. There is no limit to the appetite of the 

greedy for robbing the country, most of their money is 

stashed abroad, shoring up the economy of a first world 

economy. Where would real estate prices in London around 

Hyde Park be without massive Pakistani “investment” in 

luxury apartments? Within the country, other than the 

THE NEEDY AND 

THE gREEDY 

essentials, the amount the greedy spend on luxury items (e.g. 

“Berkin” ladies handbags range from US$15000 to US$ 50000 

each) are mostly imported. Any lady without a Berkin in 

Pakistan’s elite society is a “nobody”, that has spawned a 

thriving fake “Berkin’s” market! 

Notwithstanding the necessity for controlling corruption in 

the third world, the actual problem lies in the first world 

failing to implement the laws of their land. Most illegal 

money travels to US and EU countries, considerable sums 

flow to newly emerging countries in Asia, quite sizeable 

amounts go to China. Despite a definite commitment to put 

in measures to eliminate corruption and their capacity to 

eliminate money-laundering, the west seems to waiver more 

frequently than not, fairly to practice what they preach. 

Criminals require official documentation to legitimize their 

illegal money, drug dealers use all sorts of mechanisms to 

make their illegal money look like emanating from legal 

means. Money-laundering is intended to create that 

impression about dirty money. Small scale schemes are 

impractical when illicit earnings run into billions of US 

dollars, generating a paper trail of receipts, legitimate 

businesses make an excellent camouflage as a conduit for 

such money. Their ability of faking transactions make them 

the targets of acquisition by the corrupt. 

In the forefront in the fight to eliminate money-laundering, 

UK’s commitment is undercut by lax corporate rules making 

it an attractive destination for global organised crime, as 

many as 19 UK-based front companies are currently under 

suspicion of money-laundering. The entitlement of company 

directors to secrecy under UK law hinders attempts to 

identify the really big criminals. To quote Jim Armitage, 

Deputy Business Editor “Independent”, “front companies in 

the UK are at the heart of an investigation into one of 

Europe’s biggest money-laundering operations, allegedly 

forming part of a conspiracy to make $20bn (£12.5bn) of dirty 

money look legitimate. These funds come from major 

criminals and corrupt officials around the world wanting to 

make their ill-gotten cash appear “clean”, so they can spend 

it without suspicion.” 

With political parties surfing the anti-elite anger sweeping 

the developing world. Imran Khan and Maulana Tahirul 

Qadri’s prime accountability message has set off a populist 

surge in Pakistan. Given freedom of action for some time, 

Gen Musharraf’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) gave 

the country substantial anti-corruption dividend. Germany’s 

Commando Extraordinary Col Otto Von Skorzeny correctly 

opined “politics is the soldier’s curse”, within 2 years the 

trappings and “percs” of office got to our “commando”, 

getting the urge for “democratic legitimacy” Musharraf 

compromised on accountability (21 members of PM 

Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s “democratic Cabinet” in 2002 were 

under NAB indictment for corruption) and his own 

credibility. The stated objective of every military regime is to 

eradicate corruption, they soon become 

part of the system they came to 

eliminate. Thailand’s recent coup leader 

Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha has run into 

problems in the military’s planned 

campaign against corruption, cronyism 

and money politics. Backed by many of 

the very people such measures would 

target, could alienate some of the core support of the Thai 

military junta. 

A weekly review by NAB of possible anti-corruption cases 

must give maximum weightage to targetting the “greedy” 

ones on priority basis with no holds barred. The needy ones 

should be dealt with by the Provincial Anti-Corruption 

Depts, etc (within a similar mechanism for the Federal 

employees), a NAB Committee must regularly monitor the 

progress of the cases. NAB will thus get time to pursue the 

“greedy” ones. 

Interacting with acknowledged professionals in the anticorruption 

and compliance field, the well organised and wellcrafted 

PACI event in Geneva was very educative. “Chatham 

House” Rules restrict me from naming or quoting the experts. 

Confident about the blueprint in the first world about how to 

tackle corruption, they are on less sure ground on how to 

tackle corruption at its origin in the third world. Continuing 

inter-action with experienced capacity on the ground is 

required. 

The manner and method of the accountability 

notwithstanding, corruption is corruption, whether by the 

“needy” or “greedy”. The masses of the developing world 

desperately require accountability to be an ongoing process. n 


Region I Pakistan 

External security has been a 

principal concern for 

Pakistan. Two recent security 

issues have acquired salience 

and require a new approach 

in the current regional context: the 

ongoing armed conflict between India 

and Pakistan on the Line of Control 

(LoC) in Kashmir and the Working 

Boundary between Kashmir and 

Pakistani territory in the Sialkot area; 

and the withdrawal of American and 

Nato troops from Afghanistan by the 

end of 2014. 

Indian Prime Minister 

Narendra Modi’s new government has 

adopted a tough line towards Pakistan. 

It seems that India’s new national 

security and army establishment and 

the hardliners in the BJP have decided 

to apply military pressure on Pakistan. 

For this purpose, India has escalated 

violence on the LoC and on the 

Working Boundary as a punitive 

measure against Pakistan, with a firm 

belief that Pakistan would not escalate 

it to a full-fledged war. This calculation 

is based on the assumption that given 

Pakistan Army’s heavy entanglement 

in North Waziristan and security 

pressures on the Pakistan-Afghanistan 

border, Pakistan would not escalate the 

skirmishes on the LoC or the Working 

Boundary. 

The Indian Army and security 

experts, since the Mumbai terrorist 

attacks in November 2008, have 

explored the option of taking some 

punitive military action against 

Pakistan that would not cause a major 

war. They thought of carrying out a 

limited war, surgical airstrikes or 

punitive military action. They also 

toyed with the idea of what they 

described as the ‘Cold Start’ strategy, 

which called for creating a fast-moving 

joint ground and other services action 

to capture limited Pakistani territory. 

These suggestions were meant to 

punish Pakistan. However India, under 

Manmohan Singh, did not resort to 

these military actions because of the 

New dimensions of 

security 

by Dr HASAN ASKAri riZvi 

risk of escalation by Pakistan. 

Now, the Indian Army and Modi’s 

national security establishment decided 

to take a limited risk by striking on 

Pakistani territory from the Jammu 

area, which is not separated by the 

international boundary but by the LoC 

or the Working Boundary. In this way, 

India is using the cover of Kashmir to 

target Pakistani territory. This cannot 

be viewed as a violation of the 

international border. 

India’s army and its national security 

establishment is now experimenting 

with a new strategy to deal with 

Pakistan. Refusing to subscribe to the 

well-known argument that a stable 

Pakistan is in the interest of India, the 

new thinking in India’s official circles is 

that it should be more active in 

supporting dissident and separatist 

groups in Pakistan and helping militant 

groups that challenge the Pakistani 

state. For this reason, relations with, 

and presence in, Afghanistan is 

important. This provides India with 

access to Pakistan’s Baloch dissident 

elements and some Taliban groups. 

India is expected increase support to 

these groups. What these groups need 

is funding, which can be provided by 

India and other states that want to take 

advantage of Pakistan’s internal 

problems. 

Another set of security challenges is 

arising on Pakistan’s northwestern 

borders with Afghanistan. The 

withdrawal of American and Nato 

troops from Afghanistan by the end of 

2014 needs to be examined in a 

dispassionate manner in order to cope 

with the security situation in 

Afghanistan. 

AfGHANiSTAN iN 

2015 AND ONwArDS 

If the internal conflict in Afghanistan 

escalates and the Afghan Taliban 

become entrenched in Afghan areas 

adjoining Pakistan, this will have a 

negative impact on Pakistan’s tribal 

areas. It is, therefore, important that 

Pakistan helps the Afghan government 

to cope with its internal problems. This 

serves Pakistan’s interests because if 

the Afghan Taliban become strong, it 

will embolden the Pakistani Taliban 

and other militant groups. 

This calls for paying attention to the 

control of the tribal areas by Pakistan’s 

security forces.The current military 


Region I Pakistan 

India has escalated 

violence on the LoC and 

on the Working Boundary 

as a punitive measure 

against Pakistan, with a 

firm belief that Pakistan 

would not escalate it to a 

full-fledged war. This 

calculation is based on 

the assumption that 

given Pakistan Army’s 

heavy entanglement in 

North Waziristan and 

security pressures on the 

Pakistan-Afghanistan 

border, Pakistan would 

not escalate the 

skirmishes on the LoC or 

the Working Boundary. 

operation in North Waziristan holds 

the key to asserting Pakistan’s primacy 

in the tribal areas. The successes in this 

operation, so far, create the hope that 

the Pakistan Army will be able to 

establish control over the whole of 

North Waziristan. It should also assert 

its primacy in other tribal agencies so 

that the Taliban and other militant 

elements should not have any territory 

under their exclusive control. A lack of 

control of territory by militant groups 

undermines their capacity to threaten 

the Pakistani state. This will also make 

it difficult for foreign fighters to find 

sanctuary in Pakistan. 

Pakistan should also adopt effective 

measures to strengthen security 

arrangements on the Afghanistan- 

Pakistan border. This should be done 

even if Afghanistan is not willing to 

cooperate. The surveillance of the 

border by electronic and human means 

should be done. This can be reinforced 

by strengthening border security posts 

for controlling the unauthorised 

movement of people, especially that of 

militants. If the tribal areas and the 

Pakistan-Afghanistan border are 

secured, it will be possible to control 

the negative fallout of the increased 

internal strife in Afghanistan. 

Further, Pakistan must take the 

initiative to cultivate the new Afghan 

government so that it discards Hamid 

Karzai’s anti-Pakistan posture. 

President Ashraf Ghani and the Chief 

Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah 

should be invited to Islamabad or 

Lahore. 

Pakistan should project its new 

counter-terrorism policy in the tribal 

areas and on the Afghanistan-Pakistan 

borders at the international level. This 

will help build a positive image for 

Pakistan at the global level. Pakistan’s 

diplomacy must also expose India’s 

new aggressive agenda towards it, to 

all friendly countries, especially the 

states that have good relations with 

India. 

Pakistan should let the international 

community know that the armed 

conflicts on the LoC are not local or 

accidental incidents. Rather, these are 

well-planned actions by India against 

Pakistan. India’s aggressive policy 

towards Pakistan is not going to fade 

away. It will continue to build military 

pressure on Pakistan from time to time. 

Therefore, while responding to India’s 

military action in military terms, 

Pakistan must also resort to preventive 

diplomacy so that it does not have to 

shift its troops to the LoC or to the 

international border with India from 

the tribal areas and the Pakistan- 

Afghanistan border. n 


Region I India 

Wall Of Mourning 

The Congress can lament there. The BJP needs a triumphal arch. 

by SABA NAqvi 

ACongressman quotes the 

Bhagwad Gita: “To Karma 

(action) alone hast thou a right 

and never at all to its fruits; let 

not the fruits of action be thy 

motive; neither let there be in thee any 

attachment to inaction.” Long-standing 

members of the grand old party are in a 

philosophical mood: when things get this 

bad, they can only get better, says one. There 

is no future, so we must laugh at our 

predicament and seek detachment, says 

another. There is talk of Rahul Gandhi going 

to cyclone-affected Andhra Pradesh. “He 

has to face both natural calamities and 

electoral disasters,” quips a veteran. 

There is a difference in magnitude 

between being broke and going bust. There 

is quite a new dimension to the party’s 

predicament following the projected defeats 

in Maharashtra and Haryana. Politically, the 

party has never in its history been so 

diminished, now reduced to power in five 

relatively small states—Kerala, Karnataka, 

Assam, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. 

Earlier this year it lost ano ther big bastion, 

the former Andhra Pradesh, now divided 

into two states. Its national vote has shrunk; 

its bases are receding. Most ominously, there 

is no potential for growth anywhere. 

In this scenario, just months after the Lok 

Sabha defeat, the significance of losing 

Haryana and Maharashtra cannot be 

overstated. The latter is both the nation’s 

third largest state and the home of big 

industry. Haryana is tiny in comparison, but 

beginning on the peri phery of the national 

capital, it is one of the most valuable real 

estate stretches in the country. Bhupinder 

Singh Hooda, who led the Congress there, 

was a master player in the game of quid pro 

quo and influence-peddling (something that 

his counterpart in Maharashtra, Prithviraj 

Chavan, was not). Hooda apparently knew 

exactly how to keep important citizens of 

Delhi happy: by giving them real estate in 

Haryana at throwaway prices. He did so 

with the Gandhi damaad Robert Vadra, who 

so famously (and quickly) acquired land in 

Hooda’s Haryana. Vadra may never be 

criminally liable, but the shadow of that getrich-quick 

deal will never quite go away 

from the larger questions about the 

Congress’s first family. The best thing Vadra 

has going for him is the fact that the ruling 

class, which includes the BJP, is uneasy with 

any punishment for spurious land deals in 

the age of crony capitalism that expose the 

nexus between politicians and builders. 

What is clear is that the Congress high 

command will be suing for bankruptcy 

following the defeat in Haryana and 

Mahrashtra. Losing incumbent chief 

ministers in both states will add to the 

pervading sense of gloom around the party. 

As it is, party leaders complain that midway 

through the general elections, the high 

command decided to save its resources after 

a decade in power. As long as the 

government was picking up the tab for the 

Bharat Nirman advertisements, it appeared 

that the Congress was going for the jugular. 

But when it came to the party opening its 

own coffers, it backed out. At some point, 

they say, the Congress top brass took the 

decision not to invest resources in states 

where the going looked tough. Promised 

funds did not reach Congressmen fighting 

with their backs to the wall. Even in this 

round of elections, no finances came from 

the headquarters. Candidates were expe cted 

to raise their own funds. 

Logically, a political party that has ruled 

India for most of its history should have 

deep coffers. But economic acc ountability in 

Indian politics has always been suspect and 

there is, frankly, no transparency in money 

matters. Since one of the common models is 

for a party to be a crowd around a family (as 

the Congress is), presumably the first family 

and its retainers would have their hands on 

the purse too. Also, in the states where the 

Congress is still in power, it is unlikely that 

the local leaderships will be too inc lined to 

donate generously to a discredited national 

dynasty and structure. Fundamentally, it 

will be each man and woman for him/herself 

in the wilderness that is now the Congress. 

The BJP, meanwhile, would have struck 

gold if the results go on the lines predicted 

by the exit polls. Traditionally, Maharashtra 

was a big revenue source for the BJP in the 

years 1995 to 2000 when a Shiv Sena-BJP 

regime ruled the state. The late Pramod 

Mahajan was the principal fund-raiser 

during those years of growth for the party. 

Based in Mum bai, Mahajan’s connections 

with big industry ran deep. Besides that, he 

und erstood well the old RSS model of 

collecting from a committed base of 

shopkeepers. 

Eventually, Narendra Modi would 

capture Gujarat in 2001 and then gradually 

emerge as the biggest source of BJP’s 

funding, particularly after the NDA lost 

power in 2004 (Mahajan himself would pass 

away tragically in May 2006). None of the 

other BJP regimes was in areas of such 

economic growth as Gujarat was in the past 

two decades. Presuming that Maharashtra 

falls into their kitty, the Delhi-Mumbai 

economic corridor should certainly take off. 

The potential for growth of the BJP lies in 

every future state election, from Jha rkhand 

and Jammu and Kashmir late this year or 

early next year, to Bihar later in 2015. 

Though assembly elections to Uttar Pradesh 

and West Bengal are some distance away, 

the challenge to the BJP there comes from 

entrenched regional players. 

And the Congress? The organisational 

and leadership paralysis has eaten away at 

its vitals. As such, it does not seem relevant 

when the ele ctoral arithmetic for the 

immediate future is added up. n 


International 

Face the Fear 

li jiA 

What can China do to prove her bona fides 

to small but crucial ASEAN partners? 

As any international 

relations scholar or 

marriage counselor will 

tell you, mutual trust and 

common interests are the 

bedrock of any relationship - but 

neither comes easily. The general lack 

of the former and the difficulty in 

realizing the latter in the South China 

Sea have aroused international 

concerns over the prospect of 

cooperation and the danger of military 

confrontation in the region, a critical 

shipping route for world trade, its rich 

natural resources coveted by a number 

of dynamic economies. For China, the 

region has always represented the 

challenges inherent in dealing with 

small, developing neighbors, maritime 

sovereignty disputes, other emerging 

powers and the US. Each of these is 

sensitive to changes in the power 

structure, and movement on any issue 

affects them all. 

Few would call it a coincidence that 

tension in the region began to rise 

drastically the year that China became 

the world’s second largest economy, a 

landmark moment. While the effects of 

the country’s rise have been manifold, 

fear is a prominent one, fueling 

mistrust and undermining common 

interests. However, neither fear nor 

China’s rise can be stopped at anyone’s 

discretion. It is just as unreasonable to 

ask China to stop growing as it is to 

expect smaller, weaker countries with 

old scars to sleep well next to this 

recently awakened lion, or indeed to 

tell the world’s current superpower, 

with a long-established and powerful 

regional presence, not to worry about 

an imminent challenge from a 

formidable contender. 

China has realized, though not 

welcomed, the fact that she has to deal 

with US engagement in her own 

backyard. The growing rivalry in the 

relationship between the two is 

gradually disproving China’s old belief 

that no trouble with the US means no 

trouble with the rest of the world. 

Peripheral diplomacy weighs heavier 

than ever - while adopting a more 

assertive strategy on sovereignty 

claims, China is also trying to reassure 

her smaller neighbors of benign 

intentions. However, China has found 

herself in a situation often described by 

Chinese analysts as a dilemma that 

requires China to “defend her own 

rights while maintaining regional 

stability at the same time.” 

In 2013, China proposed a friendship 

treaty with ASEAN to institutionalize 

China’s commitment to peace and 

cooperation, as a complement to the 

existing Treaty of Amity and 

Cooperation in Southeast Asia, of 

which China became the first non- 

ASEAN contracting party in 2003. At a 

forum co-sponsored by Tsinghua 

University and Anbound, a private 

Chinese think tank, held in June in 

Beijing, Tan Qingsheng, a Chinese 

Foreign Ministry official focusing on 

Asian affairs, said that some ASEAN 

members remained wary of the 

suggestion of a new friendship treaty, 

and were treating China with caution 

on security issues. He also 

acknowledged their concerns over the 

US’ possible displeasure about closer 

China-ASEAN ties. 

China’s and ASEAN’s interests 

converge most intensively in business, 

where the most promising prospects for 

progress appear to lie. China is 

ASEAN’s largest trading partner, while 

ASEAN is China’s third largest trading 

partner, after the EU and the US. Tan 

revealed that China and ASEAN had 

already agreed to launch negotiations 

in the near future to upgrade their 

trade-centered Free Trade Area, in 

order to boost bilateral investment and 

trade in services. There are high 

expectations among Chinese and 

international diplomats, as well as 

observers, that the shared desire for 

prosperity and strong existing bonds 

could make China and ASEAN a better 

partnership in this comparatively less 

political sphere, potentially having a 

positive influence on the political and 

security dimensions of their 

relationship. 

To make this happen, the fear needs 

to be addressed. Though ASEAN has 

for the most part enjoyed a trade 

surplus with China since 2003, it 

complains that China has benefited 

more. This is probably because China’s 

exports to ASEAN countries grew 

much faster than imports from them in 

the past decade, and as a result, China 

has maintained and expanded its 

surplus since the second half of 2012. 

ASEAN increasingly felt the pressure of 

competition from China on mechanical 

and electronic production, an area 

where ASEAN has long held a 

comparative advantage over China. Oil 

producing countries like Indonesia feel 

less than comfortable selling this 

strategic resource to big traders. 

China is trying to clear this fog. 

During their overseas trips, Chinese 

leaders have continued to tell the rest of 

the world that they have nothing to fear 

from the “peaceful, pleasant and 

civilized” lion. China has proposed a 

special dialog between Chinese and 

ASEAN defense ministers, an 

arrangement which currently only 

exists between ASEAN and the US, 

according to Tan. China is also 

vigorously promoting several other 

initiatives for economic integration 


International 

with ASEAN, mainly an intra-regional 

transport network, joint economic and 

scientific maritime projects, an Asian 

infrastructure development bank and a 

new version of the FTA. 

There is something that China may 

need to be careful about in order to get 

her message across properly. The first is 

to whom China’s message of peace and 

cooperation is directed. In his speech at 

the forum in June Professor Fan Zuojun 

with the China-ASEAN Research 

Institute of Guangxi University said in 

his field research he found worries in 

some ASEAN countries about the 

prospect of “too much” China presence 

in their communities that could be 

brought about by an enhanced 

transport network and increased 

Chinese business. He suggested that 

greater efforts be made to communicate 

with the public in ASEAN countries, 

not just their governments or elites. 

ASEAN’s pro-US attitude at a 

delicate time is partly based on the 

integration of their industries into the 

global value chain of US investment, 

noted Xu Ningning, executive secretary 

general of the China-ASEAN Business 

Council at the Tsinghua-Anbound 

forum. China hopes to equal this level 

of integration with ASEAN. Xu stressed 

that communication between Chinese 

and ASEAN trade organizations eyeing 

visible returns had already proved far 

more effective than that between their 

industrial policymakers, who have to 

consider political implications in their 

talks, particularly in the context of the 

current tension. 

Third parties can also facilitate 

communication. The EU, for example, 

is watching the tension in Asia carefully 

and nervously. Its position as an 

influential global force and a major 

business partner of both China and 

ASEAN, but not a direct security player 

in the region, gives it a certain 

motivation and credibility. Indeed, 

both China and the EU hope to see 

substantial growth in the strategic 

dimension of their business-centered 

partnership. It could be beneficial for 

China to explain clearly her policy in 

the South China Sea to the EU, so that 

the EU could understand better China’s 

intentions at least, or reinforce China’s 

message to other direct regional 

stakeholders at best. If China does so, it 

is important for China to realize that it 

is not a good idea to compel the EU, nor 

any other third party, to back China up 

on sovereignty disputes, as taking sides 

would conflict with their own interests. 

The second question is the timing of 

these messages. Complaints over 

China’s actions, particularly the Air 

Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) 

over the East China Sea and the 

deployment of an oil rig in the South 

China Sea, seem to have been less about 

the actions themselves, and more about 

the suddenness with which they were 

taken. In an exclusive interview 

with NewsChina during the World 

Peace Forum in Beijing at the end of 

May, Javier Solana, former EU high 

representative for foreign and security 

policy and former secretary-general of 

NATO, stressed the importance of 

constant explanation of one’s actions, 

both “ex-ante and ex-post.” As China, 

for whatever reason, has recently 

chosen to skip the “ex-ante,” increased 

efforts have become necessary “expost.” 

This leads to another issue: the 

manner in which China sends 

messages. China repeatedly justifies its 

actions with the claim that such 

decisions are its “sovereign right,” and 

that “others have done the same in the 

past” - an explanation that has not been 

particularly effective. Of course, any 

state is entitled to refuse any form of 

third party involvement in sovereignty 

issues - a most sensitive issue, even in a 

globalized world - but arguments 

based more on international rules help 

galvanize international understanding 

and support, which may mean more 

bargaining chips on negotiation tables. 

Recently, China has made discernible 

progress in this regard, by openly 

presenting to the UN her stance and 

evidence on sovereignty claims in the 

waters where clashes with Vietnam 

have occurred. But there is a lot more 

still to be done. For example, China 

could respond to international doubts 

over her sovereignty claims and refusal 

of international arbitration by 

specifying her claims and reasons on 

legal grounds to the rest of the world, if 

not to any arbitrator. China’s resistance 

to international arbitration, according 

to some Chinese legal experts, is partly 

rooted in China’s mistrust of the 

international judicial system which 

China believes is dominated by the 

West. However, if smaller and weaker 

countries are confident in using 

Western-made international laws to 

defend themselves, China should be 

even more confident in doing so. China 

was confused by complaints against her 

exports filed to the WTO by trading 

partners. Now, China does not hesitate 

to use those same Western rules to fight 

for her own interests. n 

(The author is lead writer and 

senior editor with NewsChina) 

Courtesy: Link Times 


Health 

Surprise, surprise! 

Your brain has its own gPS 

Do you know why you 

never miss the road that 

leads to your girlfriend's 

house? Give credit to your 

brain's mental compass. 

The brain has a complex system for 

keeping track of which direction you 

are facing as you move about, say 

University of Pennsylvania's school of 

arts and sciences. 

One way would be a "global" system 

in which the brain tracks the absolute 

direction one is facing regardless of 

visual cues in the environment. 

An "idiosyncratic" system, in which 

the brain keeps tracks of direction for 

To test how the brain 

makes these inferences, 

the researchers 

designed an experiment 

in which they introduced 

participants to a virtual 

environment- a set of 

four museums in a park. 

researchers, adding that people use 

geometrical relationships to orient 

themselves. 

To test how the brain makes these 

inferences, the researchers designed an 

experiment in which they introduced 

participants to a virtual environment- a 

set of four museums in a park. 

They asked the participants to 

memorise the location of the everyday 

objects on display in those museums. 

They then scanned their brains while 

asking them to recall the spatial 

relationships between those objects. 

In the scans, the team focused on a 

brain region known as the retrosplenial 

complex. 

"The retrosplenial complex is very 

much underexplored. There are three 

ways the retrosplenial complex could 

conceivably encode this type of 

information and serve as part of a 

mental compass," explained Russell 

Epstein, professor of psychology in 

each environment independently, was 

another possibility. 

Finally, researchers considered a 

"geometric" system that is based on 

more generalised relationships 

between features in an environment. 

"There, remembering that your desk 

is on the north wall of your office 

would involve recalling the 

relationship between the desk and the 

door- say, the desk is on the left when I 

enter the room- without having to 

specifically recall the room itself," 

Epstein pointed out. 

The research, which is related to the 

work that won this year's Nobel Prize 

in Physiology or Medicine, adds new 

dimensions to our understanding of 

spatial memory and how it helps us to 

build memories of events, the study 

concluded. 

The paper appeared in the journal 

Nature Neuroscience.n 


Book Review 

A general's 

Memoirs 

After the autocrat Ershad 

was toppled on 6 

December 1990, Justice 

Shahabuddin Ahmed 

became the interim 

president. His military secretary at the 

time was Maj. Gen. Manzur Rashid 

Khan. Prior to that, Maj. Gen. Manzur 

Rashid Khan has been General Ershad's 

military secretary. 

Democracy was seeing a resurrection 

after a long spell of military rule and 

Manzur Rashid Khan was not just a 

witness to the change of power in 

Bangabhaban, but also played a pivotal 

role in the affairs of the time. Based on 

these experiences he had written his 

book Ershader Poton O Shahabuddiner 

Osthayi Shashon: Kachhe Theke Dekha 

[Ershad's Fall and Shahabuddin's 

Interim Government: Seen from Up 

Close]. The book was a page-turner. It 

was filled with the events of the time 

and details from behind the scenes. 

After reading that book, it was only 

inevitable that his book Amar Sainik 

Jibon: Pakistan Theke Bangladesh [My Life 

as a Soldier: From Pakistan to 

Bangladesh] would be on the reading 

list. This is a biography and so much of 

the first book has found place in the 

pages of this one too. 

Manzur Rashid Khan's life is eventful 

and interesting. Being in the sphere of 

power, he has been eye-witness of 

various vital moments in the country's 

social and political movements. He has 

even been directly involved in much of 

the events. So this book is not just 

limited to his personal life, it is a 

reflection of the times. 

The book is in four parts. 1. In Pakistan 

Army; 2. In Bangladesh Army; 3. 

Ershad's fall; and 4. The Interim 

government of Shahabuddin Ahmed. 

Basically the biography traverses his 

life from when he joined the Pakistan 

Army as a cadet to when he retired 

from Bangladesh Army as a major 

general. 

reviewed by ANwAr PArvEZ HAliM 

Manzur Rashid Khan's military career 

began when he joined the Kakul 

Military Academy in West Pakistan. 

During the 1971 liberation war he was 

detained in West Pakistan along with 

his family. He returned home after 

independence and rejoined the 

Bangladesh Army. 

He writes of how he passed the 

selection test for the army, participation 

in the 1965 Pakistan-India war and his 

bitter experience, and after the war how 

the Bengali soldiers were treated in the 

Pakistan Army. 

Manzur writes about the adverse 

reaction among the West Pakistanis to 

the results of the 1970 election: "After 

the general election, the political scene 

underwent a rapid change. The 

Amar Sainik Jibon: Pakistan 

Theke Bangladesh 

[My Life as a Soldier: From 

Pakistan to Bangladesh] 

Maj. Gen. Manzur Rashid Khan 

(retd) 

Published by Prothoma Prokashon 

First edition: February 2012 

Cover: Qayyum Chowdhury 

Price: 500 taka 

stunned and alarmed reaction of the 

Pakistani rulers to Awami League's 

victory, particularly of senior army 

officers who were mostly Punjabi, was 

something to behold. It spread to 

officers of our rank too.... When Yahya 

Khan hinted that Sheikh Mujibur 

Rahman was Pakistan's future prime 

minister, their adverse reaction was all 

the more evident. Some of the officers 

would jokingly greet us, saying 'your 

days are ahead.' It was clearly they felt 

a mixture of anger mixed with fear." 

The readers will find intense interest in 

the description of how things changed 

after the Pakistan army crackdown 

through Operation Searchlight on the 

night of 25 March 1971. The Bengalis in 

West Pakistan were gripped with a 

sense of insecurity, and a feeling of 

mistrust cropped up between the 

Bengali and non-Bengali officers and 

troops. Once the liberation was 

officially begun, the Bengali members 

of the army lived lives in virtual 

detention. 

The writer describes their mental state 

during the nine months of the 

independence struggle, "In the 1965 

war I had learnt what a hard time the 

officers and their families face during 

war. I was a bachelor at the time so only 

had a glimpse of the sufferings of the 

Bengali families. The relatives of the 

West Pakistani officers would come 

and take their officers' wives and 

children to stay with them in their 

homes or would come and stay with 

them. But Bengalis couldn't do that. 

The independence war was being 

waged in their own country. An 

unspoken distance grew between our 

Pakistani colleagues and us. It was clear 

that this rift would widen in the days to 

come." 

They were tormented by the 

uncertainty of the future and the 

inability to fight for the independence 

of their own country. He writes of the 

dawn of independence: "In the morning 

we received exciting news -- the allied 

forces had occupied Dhaka. The next 

day the Pakistan Army would 

surrender. That meant the war was 

ending. No more worries. We were so 

happy. Our country was now 

independent Bangladesh." 

Then comes the chapter on the return to 

Bangladesh, enrolling in Bangladesh 

Army anew, an active three and a half 

years with Bangladesh Rifles, coming 


Book Review 

down hard on smuggling at the border 

and so on. 

Manzur Rashid Khan writes about 

enrolling in the Bangladesh Army: "We 

had heard all sorts of speculations 

while in West Pakistan. It was said that 

we wouldn't be taken back into the 

Bangladesh Army and so on. I later 

learnt that there was truth in these 

rumours. A large number of freedom 

fighter officers did not want the 

repatriated officers and troops to be 

inducted into the army, navy and air 

force. Their logic was they had fought 

in the war and liberated the country, so 

the army would comprise of freedom 

fighters.... Needless to say, this logic 

was driver my extremely narrow 

interests. 

The 20 thousand officers and members 

of others ranks who have been stranded 

in Pakistan could not join the 

independence struggle due to obvious 

reasons. They were all people of 

Bangladesh, Bangladeshis in mind and 

soul. They may not have been able to 

join the liberation war, but their 

support for the independence struggle 

was deep and sincere.... It was a relief 

that upon Bangabandhu's instructions 

the repatriated officers were inducted 

into the various armed forces.... 

Unfortunately, due to vested interests, 

rifts and divisions grew within the 

armed forces, particularly in the army. 

The bias of the inexperienced 

government took up certain policies 

that had disastrous consequences." 

About the resettlement of Bengalis in 

the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the writer 

says, "The motive behind the project 

supported by the security forces and 

the administration to resettle Bengalis 

in Chittagong Hill Tracts and create a 

community there, was to quell the 

insurgency brewing in the vast tribal 

populated area.... The government 

didn't place any importance on a 

political solution to the problem. Such 

neglect began from after independence. 

The insurgency was sparked off by 

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur 

Rahman's refusal to recognise their 

separate ethnic identity." 

In this book Manzur Rashid Khan 

writes about the tragic events of 

August-November 1975, the killing of 

Ziaur Rahman in 1981, Ershad's rule 

and his personal life. The book also 

relates a few incidents about Ershad's 

girlfriends. 

JUSTICE SAHABUDDIN AHMED 

When Ershad would travel abroad, his 

military secretary (the writer) would 

have to go with him as part of the 

official protocol. On 30 January 1990 

Ershad travelled to the US. He was 

staying at the Madison Hotel in 

Washington. Manzur Rashid Khan 

writes: "Zeenat Mosharraf and her 

husband reached Washington too and 

checked into a different hotel. On the 

way back we stopped off at Paris. I 

noticed that Zeenat Mosharraf and her 

husband came there too, on a different 

flight and checked into a hotel. With no 

official agenda, the president spent 

time with them freely. Bangladesh 

Ambassador in Paris Tojammel 

Hossain came to the hotel at night to 

meet with Ershad. Not finding him, he 

came to my suite. When I told him I 

didn't know anything, he looked very 

worried." Things get awkward in such 

situations. They spent two days in Paris 

sightseeing, while Ershad met up with 

his girlfriend Zeenat. 

Yet on another foreign trips: "Maulana 

Mannan (former minister of Ershad) 

would often put on an attitude to prove 

that he was close to the president. He 

fixed a trip to Baghdad, now trying to 

prove how close he was to President 

Saddam Hossain too.... he finalised 

many things for the trip. It was difficult 

H M ERSHAD 

A significant section of this book is about Justice 

Shahabuddin Ahmed taking over as interim 

president and his days at the helm. There is 

historical significance to the writer's role in 

resolving political problems that 

cropped up at the time. 

to know in advance when and where 

our president would meet Saddam. 

Maulana Mannan was always present 

at their meetings. When we reached 

Baghdad he told me very seriously, 'we 

won't need Bangladesh Biman to return 

home.' He said he had made 

arrangements for a special flight. On 

the day before our return he said that 

the Iraqi president has arranged a 

special aircraft for us to return. The next 

day we returned by Bangladesh 

Biman." 

His deliberations also reveal that before 

Ershad's military rule, Advocate 

Mahbubur Rahman (later BNP leader 

and MP) would regularly visit the army 

headquarters and meet with the 

generals. In other words, Mahbubur 

Rahman also had a role to play in 

Ershad's unlawful takeover of power. 

A significant section of this book is 

about Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed 

taking over as interim president and his 

days at the helm. There is historical 

significance to the writer's role in 

resolving political problems that 

cropped up at the time. 

This book is actually much more than 

the biography of General Manzur 

Rashid Khan. It is an important political 

and social document of the country. 

The reader will discover many untold 

tales of that significant decade. n 


Flim 

Sonali Cable: 

It could have 

been a modern 

day fable 

by SHuBHrA GuPTA 

The evil corporate’s job is to gobble, grunch and 

munch. The feisty underdog’s is to stand up and be 

counted, and refuse to become easy meal. ‘Sonali 

Cable’ has a nice premise, especially relevant in 

this age of the permanently wired universe, 

soulless corporations, and the scams that come out of 

acquiring spectrum. But its execution is much less so. 

Star Cast: Rhea Chakraborty, Ali Fazal, Raghav Juyal, 

Anupam Kher, Smita Jaykar, Swanand Kirkire , 

Director: Charudutt Acharya 

Spirited Mumbai girl Sonali (Rhea Chakraborty) is the Girl 

With The Cable in her locality. Her love interest Raghu (Ali 

Fazal) is the son of an ambitious local corporator (Smita 

Jaykar), and her (Sonali’s) aim is to keep doing what she does 

because she connects hearts, not just wires. A spanner in the 

works arrives in the shape of a greedy old tycoon (Anupam 

Kher), who likes crunching ‘khakras’ and who wants to grab 

‘akkhi Mumbai’ in the manner of old- style dons. 

There are some vivid patches in this David-Goliath war, 

but overall consistency and credibility is a problem. The 

leading lady tries for perkiness but comes off as a weak link, 

her foul-mouthedness more forced than natural. Kher is overthe-top. 

Fazal is a good addition to the team, even if he is in 

the same mode as he was in ‘Bobby Jasoos’. And I like 

Swanand Kirkire in his acting gigs : he makes things 

believable even when he is patently on a set. 

This could have been a modern day fable, but ‘Sonali 

Cable’ is not that film. n

Probe Magazine Vol 13 Issue 2 (1-15 Nov 2014)

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