Untold Facts

War Crimes Investigative Agency: Let them Investigate into all Crimes of the two main sides of 1971

It was nice to know that an Investigative Agency is being set up by the Government of Bangladesh to investigate into details of the ‘War Crimes” of 1971.
The agency, it is known, shall have definite terms of reference or defined specific area for their work to do in detail and to report to the government for next steps in the matter of trial. As the matter is serious and involves not only one- eyed view of legal issues but important moral questions, as well, of both eyes, the agency must have all round looking into all elements of human rights abuses.
The 1971 period of Bangladesh was not only a period of sad political events but also a history of cruelties and shame. Beginning from the first day of March to the end of the year, older people like me are living witnesses of many of all kinds of cruel acts perpetrated in the country.
There had been looting, arson, violation of women and above all killings and counter killings throughout the period.
Soon after the general election was over by December 1970 in East Pakistan that gave overwhelming victory to the Awami league and in West Pakistan similar victory to the Pakistan People’s Party, the people in East Pakistan/Bangladesh got distinctly divided into two major groups, one for independent Bangladesh and the other for united one Pakistan. Unfortunately the top leaders failed to provide the people with clear direction and let the people go, as they liked in their divided pursuance.
On the 25th March there had been total breakdown of political conciliation and the crack down of the federal army in Dhaka that caused heavy casualties in terms of properties and lives of many innocent people. Outside Dhaka, things moved in the same fashion but in most places the pro-Bangladeshis did to the federalists including looting arson, rape and killings.
As is known that the hype of war crime trial is directed to one side of the whole story, not two distinct sides as the reality had been. It did not remain limited to in language divide of the citizens of the same State or in specific of East Pakistan/ Bangladesh but also of hostility among the same Bengali language speaking ones, as well.
It is also known that the Investigating Agency so formed would examine published documents at all levels, etc. This is a good proposition. The pro-trial groups and the government agency proposed, I would expect, examine documents for authenticity and reliability. I may mention here some I came across. These are:
Sisson and Rose, War and Secession, Harvard, USA (1990)
Small and Singer, Coeds of War, New York (1982)
A.M. Chowdhury, Behind the Myth of Three Million, Kent, UK (1996)
M.T. Hussain, Bangladesh: Victim of Black Propaganda, Bromley, UK (1996)
Sharmila Bose, Political and Economic Weekly, 08 October, 2005, India
To my knowledge, these five documents have listed enough facts of both sides and not of one side alone as are commonly presented to serve the vicious purpose of black propaganda of the concerned groups.

Author:M.T. Hussain

Yet Another Education Committee

The 2009 Awami League Government of Sheikh Hasina has formed a 16-member committee on the 9th April, not a commission though, for formulating specific recommendations for education curricula changes for the new progeny of Bangladesh. The same party governments of the past in independent Bangladesh did establish similar other commissions /committees once in 1972, then in 1996 followed by another committee in 2000 and now the 2009 one. That means that the three governments did attempt to do their bit four times. If one would go back further more, one must discover that they had other credits for initiating similar jobs in 1950s, once before sharing full government power and then again when they shared the government in East Bengal with their own genre in 1954. They are as such seen to be serious about doing something good for educational development. One must appreciate their goodness of intention in the matter.

Education in Bangladesh is in a mess to all honest and sincere educators. The problems of mess are in everything from educational philosophy, contents of curriculum, school management, administration, evaluation and funding to quality concern at all levels. There is little disagreement on all these issues. The commissions and committees formed so far in independent Bangladesh exceeded now over half a dozen by the governments of different persuasions. The critical one among the issues that remained unsettled for irreconcilability had been the philosophical differences. Is there any scope to get it rightly set this time?

It is true that the current 16-member committee headed by Professor Kabir Chowdhury, who happened to be the Secretary of the 1972-74 Education Commission, though an old and experienced educator, had information about the 1974 commission report and its failure then and afterwards. He is very much an affable person so far as particular left persuasion is concerned but hardly anything so far as people’s popular and spiritual expectations are concerned. There lied the fundamental complicacies that the 1974 Commission had had critical lapses. Neither those lapses could not have been effectively rectified by the 1996 Commission nor is any light in the direction Professor Chowdhury possibly could show of any responsiveness.

Well, Dr Chowdhury is not only a person of left Marxist belief that he is well known to be, to me, there is nothing wrong so far as his personal belief is concerned. But should he insist on the new progeny anything outside the purview of belief of the religious masses, it is certain not only to be unacceptable but also certain to be repulsive in society. That was how the 1974 Commission report had been kept in shelf under lock and key by the same charismatic person and leader who initiated that in mid 1972 in founding the Education Commission, the first of that kind in independent Bangladesh under the chairmanship of the renowned scientist Dr Qudrat E Khuda.

So far as was known, the leader had kept the report in abeyance not for fancy but for its overtly secular character so much so that it remained curiously silent about Madarasa education that the Muslims maintained and sustained for more than a millennium in this country. The Commission made development recommendations for general school-college education that the English foreign rulers introduced in this country in the early nineteenth century. In a sense that also looked like following the lines and mode the English bureaucrat T.B. Macaulay had suggested to train some, in his term, as ’interpreter’ and nothing more of real creative learning or for critical use of intellect, much less anything in attitudinal value formation based on spiritual aspiration of every soul. The Muslims from the very beginning had despised the limitation of the Macaulay’s curriculum so perceived and so they distanced away from that mode and stuck to their own Madarasa syllabus for learning and education for children. Bengal Muslims, in addition, in the early twentieth century struggled and framed a system called New Scheme Madarasa for it integrated secular learning with revealed knowledge as was there in the holy Quaran and the reliable sayings and deeds of the Prophet. That system started functioning in 1915 had been popular among the Muslim parents for modern education alternative for their children that produced many renowned scholars, a few of them still alive in their eighties. Unfortunately the system was abandoned in mid 1950s without any good reason.

One may mark the point that when the present government have started bashing the Madarasa education as a whole in a blanket fashion, on the one hand, they have, on the other, started to pursue reframing the secular bases of modern education based on the 1974 Commission report. Why?

Secularization of education or complete isolation of secular learning from religious and spiritual learning has nowhere been possible except in regimented one party state of the communist mode. In western modern democracies they say that they have isolated religion from the state and education. That is only a theoretical construct, not in actual practice. In Britain, for example, religious learning is compulsory in schools, but there is also provision for opting out of children in religious instruction by parents’ choice of particular religious studies. In the USA, religious learning in schools is not compulsory as in the UK, but children are socialized in Christian values through community churches almost without exception. At the third or university levels there are studies in divinity for higher degrees. These graduates fill up positions in the church hierarchies in the West. There are few atheists in the West as we have few in Bangladesh. On the contrary, almost all people are believers in Lone Absolute God as was found in a recent survey in the USA, 95% of people believers in that God (See, Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope, 2006, p.198).

The Muslims consider themselves very fortunate that they are the only believing religious group among the human race having had the divine revelation in the original pure form that the Prophet had set example as an all time living model for both spiritual and temporal matters. And so the Muslims on top of everything consider life as a whole of secular aspect and spiritual elements integrated into every soul of man and woman that education curriculum in schools must provide for. That is why the Muslims throughout the period of one and a half millennium pursued the process of the Madarasa system, and distanced away from anything and everything that appeared to them purely secular or divorced from elements of essential spiritual knowledge.

We hear about single-track system of school curriculum. This is not a bad proposition provided it could be done keeping up with the aspirations of the people, majority in particular, keeping at the same time scope and freedom to chose and opt in or out for religious instructions by parents of children of all religions. If the committee recommends otherwise, that would have the fate of the Macaulay system as we experienced among the Muslims for centuries that possibly will further make proliferation of Madarasa as a much bigger independent system of education in the immediate future. It will not thus be a unified single system but a disintegrated one, secular one turning out one set of citizens and the Madarasa system training on something else irreconcilable between the two and yet citizens of the same country. The historic experience shows that though the Alia Madarasas yielded to control by the government for two centuries now, the Qaomi Madarasa did not yield to any outside government control but maintained everything from within themselves and by the communities concerned.

Government no doubt, controls education in all modern countries, but parental choice for education of children is also a matter of fundamental right in plural democracy. Bangladesh is neither a lone party regimented society nor a country run by dictator of the atheist variety. From the people’s side, there is no mandate whatsoever for secularization of education of the Muslim children as it goes against their belief in absolute monotheism meaning physical aspects and spiritual issues integrated into every single human Muslim personality. Should the committee pursue redesigning school curriculum, as it appears, divorced from the Islamic spiritualism, they will do more harm than good. In such a case, the government that appointed the committee would also be considered unfair in the matter for breaching the trust of the believing people.

Author: M.T. Hussain

Intimidation from Inside

The cry of the lackey

That Pronob, Shankar and all Indian media had the chorus since the most tragic 25-26 February mayhem of the BDR Head Quarter in Dhaka, it was nothing to wonder that their lackeys from inside Bangladesh have started to sing the same chorus. One of the Sheikh Hasina’s NOTUN MUKH has opened mouth from inside in intimating the 150 million people of Bangladesh that they would call in ‘Friends’ to save and made them stay put in the State power (Daily Ittefaq, Dhaka, 8 April 09). That the statement in open was nothing patriotic should not be a matter of any debate whatsoever.

Friend of Sheikh Hasina

That ‘friend’ would be America, and if Hasina would turn into another Hamid Karzai in the region is somewhat unlikely. The unlikely venture is because the US President Obama is somewhat on the run away from expanding military adventurism in the Muslim countries. Be that as the case may be, America would prefer to have India to venture in Bangladesh in aid of their friends in Dhaka.

Good boys from within

India or their own good boys in Dhaka need not have to openly say so, because, the matter is easily comprehended for Bangladesh is a much smaller country in each and every respect in comparison with much bigger India. It is not only the matter of bigness and smaller, Bangladesh has further disability for being encircled geographically by Indian mighty muscle. These facts are well known both to the Indians and to the Bangladeshis. Whether the insiders would call in the friends for the venture or if the Indians would as well indulge in romanticism in the matter of armed aggression against smaller Bangladesh is a matter for future. But the fact remains that the insiders by their intension to fall back upon the friend for survival is certainly seeking for some moral strength on the one hand and intimidation for psychologically weakening the 150 million patriotic people of Bangladesh, on the other. Two way gain for the insiders.

Sikimization!

People however must wonder if the venture Hasina’s government is up to would lead to Sikimization of Bangladesh that Sikim’s elected leader in 1974 Lendup Darji did venture for liquidation of the until then independent country in the Himalayan region, and now almost a forgotten matter.

Investment of RAW

Older people like me have not forgotten so soon that it matters little if the Pronabs intimidate Bangladesh openly or not. India has the biggest investment for their continuing accruing of gains of vested interests in the person of Hasina. For about six years Delhi not only sustained her and her other family members, husband and children in the best of care, but also provided her the best of grooming for their own utility. That was magnanimity on the part of Indian rulers. But what was not magnanimous but some thing fishy was that they maintained and brainwashed the low IQ person Hasina in their best of all capabilities in the R&AW head quarter in the South Block of Delhi for nearly six years. Could Hasina forget the debt she owes to Delhi? That sort of forgetfulness would not be befitting for that was her most emotionally disturbed times following her father’s tragic end in Dhaka from State power that she has to pay in all possible way the debt burden to the Indian rulers.

Great Game (GG)

Pranob as a Bengali politician and India’s Foreign Affairs Minister had been little careful in use of words for intimidating Bangladesh, but the Bengali retired Indian Army General and the Chief Shankar Roy Chowdhury viewed sustaining Hasina in power as a part of the continuing Great Game (GG) since historical past. This is much more worrying than simple psychological intimidation. Though he meant that the GG started in 1971, it is hardly so but goes beyond.

Victims of GG

It went beyond, and for the Bengal Muslims, at least, back to one century. Bengal; Muslims since the beginning of the British rule in 1757 in the aftermath of the Battle of Pallasey went down and down and the other among the Caste Hindu community despite being minority thrived up and up not solely for their own effort and hard work but mainly for being loyal lackeys in their master-servant joint efforts to cow down the Muslims as a whole throughout not only in Bengal but in the whole of British Indian subcontinent.

East Bengal and the Muslim League

The Bengal Muslims en bloc put some own effort to break the vicious cycle of backwardness first in the beginning of the twentieth century that led to the organization of the Muslim League in 1906 under the philanthropic Nawab of Dhaka Khawja Salimullah. The concrete step taken by the British Government for their own ease of administration of the Bengal Presidency not for any perceived benefit of the Muslims that the Muslim League took as a positive outcome for the Muslims to rise in education, business, jobs etc. But the poorly organized Muslim League based at Dhaka (then spelled Dacca) despite their attempts failed to face up to the machinations of the Calcutta (now spelled Kolkata) based Caste Hindu powerful elite and the better organized Congress Party founded twenty one years earlier than the Muslim League. Thus the new province of East Bengal and Assam disbanded, and so Dhaka lost the status of capital of the new province in 1911 through a royal decree in jubilation of the Congress and Hindu elites and total frustration of the Muslims of whole India.

1947 in GG

1947 turned the leaf of another history that restored the East Bengal province though in some reduced form in area having Dhaka as the capital city once again. The partition of British India in the framework of one Pakistan, despite distance in geographical term and inequality between regions and men and men of various regions continuing, development long left off for the people of East Bengal found some scopes and opportunities for advancement for about a short period of two decades until 1970. The people expected further rapid development that led to 1971 crisis that the people could themselves sort out among themselves but the players of the GG came to do something else. They installed a helpless puppet in Dhaka with no freedom for himself much less the freedom for the then 75 million people of Bangladesh.

Puppet Toppled

Obviously the patriots rose up and toppled the puppet in mid August 1975. The proponents of the GG took 1975 August victorious coup d’etat as the defeat in the GG for India and so they waited for the next of their turn for victory. They had a victory in June 1996 and the puppet continued to run Bangladesh for five years only to prove that they served well the masters across the border. However, the people rose again and defeated the lackeys in the 2001 general election. Since then Indian central intelligence planned and worked with more resoluteness to bring to power the R&AW trained Hasina that they succeeded in 2008 December election, the greatest victory in their GG. Can they afford to loose it soon again? That is what General Shankar as a straight forward highly experienced and retired army man has clearly noted, ‘Delhi can’t afford to let Dhaka slip off its Radar.’

Patriots and the New Faces

The patriotic people of Bangladesh cannot be oblivious of what Delhi intends to do with the entity, identity and sovereignty of Bangladesh. Whether Hasina would have any lesson from India’s gamble for their GG remains to be seen. The end February BDR mayhem must be seen in the same light of India’s GG, and so the NEW MUKH’s intimidation of the patriotic 150 million people of Bangladesh.

Author: M. T. Hussain

Col. Gulzar made 16 rescue calls from Peelkhana

Colonel Gulzar Uddin Ahmed, lauded for his role as a RAB official in the drive against militants, waited a long time for his colleagues to arrive and save his life from the brutal hands of the BDR rebels at Peelkhana.
On February 25, in his first call at 9:38 am to RAB intelligence director Lieutenant Col Majid, he sought help for himself and the other officers under attack. After that he dialed the T&T number of RAB Director General, Hasan Mahmud Khandaker. He also made telephone calls to ADG of RAB and Commanding officer of RAB-2 and discussed plans for a storm operation.
Colonel Gulzar also made four more telephone calls to Army headquarters seeking urgent help. The duration of the calls was for 31 seconds, 55 seconds, 48 seconds and 101 seconds respectively. And finally he called some of his trusted RAB officials and waited for the troops till he was gunned down.
It was learnt that two troops from the RAB headquarter and RAB-2 headed for Pilkhana after receiving calls from Gulzar at 10:38 am. He informed them that he was lying on the Darbar Hall floor at BDR headquarters and the mutineers must have to flee away the scene, if only two platoons of armed soldiers reach the area for the Army’s support, as mutineers were not equipped with too much modern weapons at that time.
At about 11:20 am Col Gulzar had received a message in his cell phone. From 9:38 am to 11:20 am he had made a total of sixteen phone calls to different numbers and urged all to save the lives of the army officials including him.
Meanwhile, two RAB troops of 300 members reached BDR gate number 4 by 10:00 am and waited for government order to start operation against the BDR rebellious team.
Finally the government handled the 33-hours long mutiny ’successfully’, but was failed to save the talented army officers like Col Gulzar, who had served the nation courageously till death.
Col Gulzar, embraced the death with a believe that the rescue teams will arrive soon and save his life from the inhuman killing. But in stead of a an alive Gulzar, an unidentifiable body of Gulzar was recovered by digging a ditch 10 days after the mutiny and was identified by a DNA test on March 10. He was laid to rest on March 11 at the Banani graveyard in Dhaka with his other colleagues, as same as they had fought together to maintain peace across the world.
Colonel Gulzar was posted to BDR in Sylhet in early February. Before being promoted as additional DG of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), he was in the intelligence wing of the elite crime-busting force, and conducted some major investigations. He led the operation that netted JMB operations commander Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai.

Source: Weekly Holiday

How to make BDR massacre probe transparent

Author:Sunita Paul

The people of Bangladesh in general and in particular the bereaved members of the families and relatives of the massacred army officers in BDR mutiny at Peelkhana intently want transparent and fair trial of the accused who perpetrated the mass killings of army officers.
CID investigator of the BDR mutiny case Abdul Kahar Akhand is known in Bangladesh as he was the investigation officer of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case and Jail killing case. He has no reputation of being an able investigator; and in 1998 Abdul Kahar Akhand was warned by the highest judiciary in the country for his lack of experience in investigating the cases, it is learnt.
Kahar, basically a loyalist of the ruling Awami League, was brought back to service on contract basis from retirement. He has a reputation of twisting various investigations to meet the taste of his patrons. He is one of the very few officers in Bangladesh Police, who has direct access via cell phone to the Home Minister and a few very important persons.
The present rulers in Dhaka especially assigned Abdul Kahar Akhand as the chief investigator of the BDR massacre case, as they believe he will do everything that would be necessary. Since his appointment as the chief investigator of the case, Kahar Akhand is in constant contact with the Home Minister and several influential leaders in the ruling party.
Investigation
When Awami League leader Torab Ali Akhand was arrested in connection with this case and was interrogated by several intelligence agencies, including CID, it was crystal clear to the investigators that the ruling party and some opposition leaders played a role in giving instigation and patronage to the bloody massacre. Such message was communicated to the high-ups in the government.
CID officer Abdul Kahar Akhand already knows the case of Muhidul Islam Muhit, who is the plaintiff of Mujib murder case. Muhit was the Assistant Personal Secretary to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and was on duty at the residence of the founding father of Bangladesh during the black night of brutal assassination of him and other members of his family.
Muhit was found in a poor economic condition in Jessore after Awami League formed government in 1996. He was picked up by the government and was encouraged to lodge the case. Abdul Kahar Akhand was introduced to Muhit from the very first hour, for preparing the First Information Report (FIR) as well as statement for the investigation into this case.
Muhit received more than 3 residential plots and substantial amount of money from Awami League for agreeing to become the plaintiff of the case. This case changed the life of this poor man, who ultimately sold out all the plots, which were reportedly allocated in his name to the owners of Akij Group of Companies in Bangladesh.
Abdul Kahar Akhand knows that if he is able to serve the purpose of the ruling party, his next few years in the contract job in police service will be extremely bright. He will be compensated in different ways.
According to sources, the investigators have so far identified a number of points and questions in identifying culprits behind the massacre. These are:
l What was the intelligence report sent to the Prime Minister on February 25 in the early morning as acknowledged by the PM in the parliament?
l What was the last conversation between Major General Shakil Ahmed and the Prime Minister on February 25?
l Why did the PM regret her attendance to the dinner on February 26?
l Who instructed announcement from the nearby mosques on February 25 and 26 asking local residents near BDR headquarters to move to a safe distance?
l Why Lt. Col. Mukit sent fax messages from the BDR headquarters on February 25 evening against Army and the BDR�s director general Maj. Gen. Shakeel Ahmed?
l Why were not the members of police and RAB deployed within gate number 5, through which the mutineers fled?
l Why did the PM assign Nanak and Azam at 1:00 pm., after long four hours she had heard about the BDR mutiny?
l Why names and identities of the delegation of mutineers, who met the PM were not registered at the entrance of the PM�s residence?
l Mutiny leader DAD Towhid told the PM about the murder of director general of BDR and some other officers when he met her with his team. But, why was this matter kept secret by the Government till February 26 evening?
l Why was not the Government-owned BTV showing anything about the mutiny or even news scroll, although the issue was being covered by all the private satellite TV channels?
l Why were the mutineers terming the PM as “amader netri” (our leader)?
l Why were some mutineers chanting Awami League’s party slogan ‘Joy Bangla’ while they were talking to the press?
l Why the ruling party is echoing the voice of Indian media and especially the editorial commentary in The Statesman?
l Why Sajib Wajed Joy made critical remarks on Bangladesh Army and made army liable for the mutiny during interview with various international media?
l Why Joy has been instructed by her mother not to come to Bangladesh before the investigation issue is over?
l Why influential members of the government phoned certain foreign government asking help in case Bangladesh Army revolts against the ruling party?
l Why did Awami League leader Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir try to flee the country on February 27?
l Why minister Faruk Khan said, militants have penetrated in law enforcing and disciplined forces in Bangladesh?
l Why did the newly appointed commissioner of police warn the English medium and missionary schools and educational institutions of possible militant attack without any reason?
l Why is the Government trying to keep the Inspector General of Police –whose son-in-law was murdered during the mutiny and daughter held hostage - is kept aloof from the investigation process?
l Why were the Home Minister and other members of the ruling party visiting the BDR headquarters during the dark hours of February 26, long after the surrender?
l Why is Awami League student wing leader Liakat Sikder hiding since the massacre?
l Why are Awami League and its activists continuing to demand trial of killers and their collaborators in civil courts instead of Court Martial?
l Why are a section of pro-Awami League journalists demanding trial in civil court?
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Exploding pejorative term against Madarasa education

Everybody’s job
Talking about education is everybody’s job. Teachers, parents, educators, and all in any profession may take interest in education. But using pejorative term like say in Bengali ‘Mandhata’ or in English meaning outdated or ‘Jongi Projonon Kendra’ that stand in English breeding ground for terrorists are possibly more for irrational hatred and ignorance than for usefully critical anything for development for better.

Irreconcilable ideas
Educators of standing can certainly appreciate that educational problems in developing country like Bangladesh owe much more to irreconcilable philosophical points than anything else in other relevant issues in curricula set up, school learning process, measurement of learning attainments, organization, funding, management and administration of institutions at various levels.

Looking into depth of quality issue
Talking is essentially needed to sort out issues in regard to quality and efficiency of learning outcomes compatible with needs for life and living. But only talking wildly without probing into depth of problems is not enough to mend all crucial problems involved much less improve on comprehensive learning quality in real classroom situation.

Bangladesh education in shambles
To be more specific, Bangladesh education is undoubtedly in shambles. But what went wrong is though not very difficult to ascertain, fixing up issues for something better remained very difficult for all concerned not only for the past few decades but also for centuries. Why, we must dispassionately probe into, if one would be serious to get and implement any acceptable solution of the so-called ‘outdated mode’ and from the negative attitude in looking down upon tendency, particularly, to the Madarasa system institutions.

Philosophical issues
The first problem to me that surfaced in first priority is the irreconcilable philosophical points of education for Bangladesh. The difference in thoughts and ideas remained for decades even after independence that obviously produced not less than four systems having their own philosophical pursuit, and also despite the fact that about half a dozen Commissions Bangladesh had since 1972. If one would look at the advanced countries of the West, they have more or less settled to one philosophical system for the State not in any regimented way but through consensus having had as well incorporated provisions for diversity of religious options at the secondary school level. For example, in Britain, Religious Education is compulsory in secondary schools having had dropped it for some time but even so, opting out from religious course instruction remained an option based on parental choice. In the USA there is no religious education in school syllabus. But the society is fully filled up with organized churches at the private level that hardly give scope for any progeny to miss socialization through the church system. That continued as the past legacy from the British colonial period. The modern education hardly made any dent. In addition, most of the colleges and universities, in particular, maintain department /faculties of divinity or religious studies. Graduates from these higher learning areas fill up positions of church hierarchy throughout the country. British church system (Anglican not Catholic) is not only equally organized but having also sanctioned authority from the sovereign Crown-Queen or King. These are the ways the church or religion socialize the progeny and maintain control in the society through implanting and, you can say, brainwashing all in the Christian value system, no matter whether in their maturity some would care for the Christian values is a different matter. But overwhelming majority remained thus conditioned in their attitudes to beliefs, for example, to Christianity.

Past to present
Bangladesh as part of India in the past had education systems based on individual religion. The Muslim rulers in the middle ages introduced a modern system based on Arabic and Persian traditions as the Muslim rulers of Arabic and Persian origin used to rule India and they devoutly followed, except few, Islamic beliefs. The British as foreign ruler took to change the system into a model neither of the English kind nor anything caring for the local people’s religious belief systems. The Muslims, in general, took the British system of early 19th century as secular one and so distanced away from it. In the set up of British foreign rule, Muslims not only distanced away from the system but also went to devise and make their own system. The Deoband model of the mid nineteenth century and the Aligarh model of the late nineteenth century stood then as proofs of the Muslims distancing away from the English system of secular education in the Indian subcontinent. In the early twentieth century the Deoband and the Aligarh systems had another innovation in East Bengal and Assam following the passion of the creation of the new province of Bengal and Assam with capital at the Muslim historic city of Dhaka. Though the province did not sustain after 1911 having a very short life span of only about six years, the model in somewhat revised form of both the Deoband and the Aligarh got started in 1915 styled as the New Scheme Madarasa. The system had been expanding for it became popular among the enlightened Muslim parents and produced many brilliant Muslim scholars, a few of them still alive in Bangladesh. Unfortunately soon after in mid 1950 the system was abolished without good reason but for their secularization hype by the then East Bengal Government.

Post 1971 Bangladesh educational scenario
The immediate 1971 post independence period of Bangladesh had a period of still bigger hype for secularization of the State and the education system. Both had been difficult propositions. Education experienced much more difficulties to get secularized. The Kudrat E Khuda Commission though went to make recommendations for secularization in the final report made in mid 1974, it faced a fate of being under lock and key by the same charismatic person and leader who had appointed the first Education Commission in independent Bangladesh in mid 1972. The clue for the lock and key though was a bit mysterious, but there were other hunches that the leader did not like that for it’s over secularization even surpassing British bureaucrat T.B. Macaulay of 1830s. In other words, the report recommendations not only kept silent about traditional Madarasa education of the Muslims that had a history of continuity for over 1000 years but also wished to ring the death knell for Madarasa education in Bangladesh.

Revived initiative in mid 1970s
The change of the government in mid August-November 1975 picked up the report that remained almost abandoned for 3 years by the next government hinting at disliking the wholesale secularization process in education with little bit of Islamic tint. The Madarasa education of the British Kolkata variety of late eighteenth century received some attention, but not the Qaomi system (Nesab) at all. In the backdrop, the government of Awami League and Sheikh Hasina is now known to have declared a new crusade not only against Qaomi system but also blaming them as ‘outdated mode’ and for ‘breeding ground of terrorists’. Dr. Faisal Mustafa’s Green Crescent Madarasa located in a rural area in the district of Bhola raided late in the March 2009 and ‘found’ there by the special police RAB some arms and ammunitions have given the Awami League government to summarily blame the Qaomi Madrasas as the terrorist training camps. But they would not use such pejorative term for other secular higher education institutions wherein arms use and killings are almost an everyday matter, now beginning in 2009 by the students’ wing cadres of the Awami League! Now there was interesting news that the P.M. Hasina who bred all those terrorists all throughout since early 1980s and murdered many in cold blood on her instance has decided to distance away from the student organization in a sort of caricature of hide and seek. These are the sorts of politics she is used to, and let her do so at free will. But should she venture crusade like the past US President Bush did against the Muslims and Hasina wishes to do in a slightly slanted way against the Qaomi Madrasasa making ploy not only in that these are breeding ground for terrorists but also of outdated nature? Or else she has to think over very seriously along with sound and patriotic educators to do something rationally acceptable to the people of Islamic belief, and not going to trade in romanticism as some of her ministers have lately been venturing only in diverting people’s huge wrath from the liabilities she owes directly to the BDR massacre of 2009 end February.

Education is also matter of parental choice
Education is no doubt an affair of the State and the Government. It is at the same time individual parental matter for young children. Parent’s decision even comes first in priority over the Government so far as democratic norms and polities are concerned. It thus is not that the choices and priorities of the huge number of parents and guardians who kept going the Qaomi Madarasa‘s existence for centuries without any support, much less financial one, from the government sources that kept these institutions running and so providing social and religious services based on continuing demand in society for centuries. Government has little business to go in any way disturbing the system except possibly through mutual understanding and accommodation. Such mutual understanding and accommodation may extend not only to control and management but also in matters of curricula change and innovation to fit into social and economic needs not totally ignoring religious and spiritual needs of the people of immense values to common people. There is little rationale to ignore the spiritual needs and craving of the people. Spiritual demand is not always without economic utility but of economic utilities as well that many secularists fail to appreciate. Spiritually sound and elevated worker can be more productive in their professions and vocations.

Qaomi Madarasa has to be looked into with broader outlook
What I, as a life long educator and a retired person with one leg in the grave, wish to maintain is that the government has to stop looking into the affairs of the Qaomi Madarasa in pejorative way but to approach the matter both as of necessity and to give due respect for the issues people are emotionally attached to the system. Otherwise, it would be a sort of romanticism of the government that is certain to end in failure in the plural democratic society Bangladesh had set up goals and yet meeting the need for an integrated curricula to turn out ‘good and righteous’ men and women or a humane society based on higher human ideals for the country in perpetuity.

Education means not only secular learning but also outlook of life integrated with spiritualism
Training for vocation through secular learning is certainly a need for life and living. But each and every averagely intelligent human being craves for spiritual attachment as well. Additionally, being the only rational animal distinct from all other living animals, human mind naturally seeks for spiritual end of life. Some exceptions only prove the rule. It is as such only logical and reasonable that education and learning must provide integrally both learning, as some educators call them, secular learning meaning ‘acquired knowledge’ and those relevant to spiritual as the ‘revealed knowledge’ or knowledge that is divine in origin. People of almost all countries since the days in the past have had their education and learning so integrated of the two. It is only recently that some societies went for all secular learning and nothing of spiritual. They could do that somewhat at ease for they had no revealed knowledge in original form. The devastating result was obvious in disintegration of family, society broken of bondage of love and fellow feelings, drug addiction, promiscuity, free sex and the spread of all the killer diseases costing huge to individuals and society. Can Bangladesh afford to set goal for that sort of secular learning in the government institutions? The stand and position of the Qaomi Madarasa must be comprehended with these issues in view.
The Muslims are the only people who are very fortunate to have their revealed knowledge in exactly the same original form as they came to the last and the great prophet of Islam. The Qaomi Madarsasa genuinely claims the learning of the same revealed and stored knowledge. That is why there is no practical possibility to finish up the system by any government that in the one and a half millennium year period no state power could do. In Bangladesh as well, the overtly secular government of Hasina cannot do it. Playing with the system for romanticism is a different matter.

Author: Dr.M.T. Hussain

Sycophant dropped in from 6000 miles away for salvaging Hasina

Sycophancy is nothing new in our society. It has a long past. It will remain in future as well. But the important aspect of modern time sycophancy is that it is not only of local genre but drops in from outside even thousands of miles away. There would have been nothing wrong in such sycophancy, because, the gullible among the rulers enjoy them deeply, and so make huge payments to the sycophants and thus both gain in their own way. That is appreciable but not taken at ease when such sycophants tend to mislead or misguide the top boss concerned go for big stake or risky gambling for the particular State or the country concerned. A well-known sycophant has been on extensive tour and contacts that, I am afraid, is out to save the P.M. and his government of Bangladesh through diversionary tactics of the most critical issue in run of the BDR February massacre of unprecedented nature. In a meeting the dignitary, as I just got on the 6 April his version published in a local Dhaka daily from his speech made in Chittagong that the P.M. Hasina boldly faced rightly the massacre having courage of the kind her late father had. That her courage was befitting enough to the brutal murders of the five dozens or so of the senior and brilliant army officers in full knowledge of her that she experimented with those lives as against her courage in the matter. She received SOS call from the BDR DG Shakil several times until his getting brutally murdered and she did nothing to save his life and many others like the BDR chief until 33 hours when by the time all murdered, their dead bodies buried in mass graves, dumped into sewerage manholes, some burnt down. Many family members tortured to death in frenzy including even the home maids, guests and women defiled and then killed inside their own official residences, looting valuables from inside residences, all closed and guarded area of the BDR Head Quarter campus.

I thought it is useless to argue against the noted sycophant. Instead I thought that he should better be given the 30 pertinent questions devised in the matter by one US based scholar and Indian born researcher Sunita Paul had raised and listed on the 29th March that I got through email a few days ago. Sunita started stating in verbatim like mentioned below.

‘Bangladesh: Manipulation of BDR massacre probe

Sunita Paul

March 29, 2009

Barrister Abdur Razzak, a leader of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami received written notice from Investigation Officer with Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Abdul Kahar Akhand asking Razzak to appear before the investigation officer for interrogation in connection to Bangladesh Riffles (BDR) massacre case.

It may be mentioned here that, Kahar Akhand is known in Bangladesh as he was the investigation officer of Bangabandhu murder case and Jail killing case. He was warned by the highest judiciary in the country for his lack of experience in investigating the cases.

Kahar, basically a loyalist of the ruling party was brought back to service on contract basis from retirement. He has ´high reputation´ of twisting various investigations to meet the taste of the ruling party. He is one of the very few officers in Bangladesh Police, who has direct access via cell phone to both the Prime Minister and the Home Minister. For such ´high connection´, Kahar shows damn-care attitude towards his senior officers while continues to misbehave with all the junior officers in the police department as well in CID.

The present rulers in Dhaka especially assigned their own man like Kahar Akhand as the chief investigator of the BDR massacre case, as they knew, this officer will do everything in finally setting out all the names of Awami League men behind this notorious crime, thus putting several opposition leaders and figures as the accused. Since his appointment as the chief investigator of the case, Kahar Akhand is in constant contact with the Home Minister and several influential leaders in the ruling party.

Top level in the government has reportedly given repeated instructions to Kahar Akhand in entangling some leaders from Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Jamaat and some Islamist forces like Hizb Ut Tahrir etc. He also has been suggested to ´discover´ militant connection to this sensitive case.

When Awami League leader Torab Ali Akhand was arrested in connection to this case and was interrogated by several intelligence agencies, including CID, it was crystal clear to the investigators that the ruling party and some opposition leaders played dirty role in giving instigation and patronization to the bloody massacre. Such message was secretly communicated to the high-ups in the government. Hearing such information from Abdul Kahar Akhand, high-command in the ruling Grand Alliance has strongly instructed him to ´do something in turning the matter to another direction or face severe consequence´.

CID officer Abdul Kahar Akhand already knows the case of Muhidul Islam Muhit, who is the plaintiff of Bangabandhu murder case. Muhit was the Assistant Personal Secretary to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and was on duly at the residence of the founding father of Bangladesh during the black night of brutal assassination of him and other members of Bangabandhu´s family.

Muhit was found in a poor economic condition in Jessore after Awami League formed government in 1996. He was picked up by the government and was encouraged to lodge the case. Abdul Kahar Akhand was introduced to Muhit from the very first hour, for preparing the First Information Report (FIR) as well as statement for the investigation into this case.

Muhit received more than 3 residential plots and substantial amount of money from Awami League for agreeing to become the plaintiff of the case. This case changed the life of this poor man, who ultimately sold out all the plots, which were secretly allocated in his name to the owners of Akij Group of Companies in Bangladesh.

Abdul Kahar Akhand knows that, if he will be able to serve the purpose of the ruling party, his next few years in the contract-based job in police service will be extremely bright. He will be compensated in diversified ways. But, if he will ignore instructions from the high-command of the ruling party, he not only will lose the job, but his life will also be in extreme danger.

With such tendency in mind, Akhand has successfully saved Torab Ali from making confessional statement to the Metropolitan Magistrate under section 164. It is even claimed that, Torab Ali, instead of being interrogated, is enjoying comfortable time inside the CID headquarters in Dhaka. At the instruction of influential figures in the government, Abdul Kahar Akhand in ensuring all possible comfort to this confirmed collaborator of the BDR massacre.

And, according to latest news, the ´Walkie-Talkie´ minister in the present government in Dhaka, Lt. Col. (Retired) Faruk Khan told reporters that the probe report shall be made public “within a week”. This is the fifth extension of the time limit set for the report.

According to various scoops, the investigators have so far identified a number of points and questions in identifying culprits behind the massacre.. These points or questions are:

1. What was the intelligence report sent to the Prime Minister on February 25 in the early morning as acknowledged by the PM in the parliament,

2. What was the last conversation between Major General Shakil Ahmed and the Prime Minister on February 25,

3. Why the PM regretted her attendance to the dinner on February 26,

4. Who instructed announcement from the nearby mosques on February 25 and 26 asking local residents near BDR headquarters to move to a safe distance,

5. Why Lt. Col. Mukit sent fax messages from the BDR headquarters on February 25 evening against army and the BDR´s director general,

6. Why members of police and RAB were not deployed within gate number 5, through which the mutineers fled,

7. Why the PM assigned Nanak and Azam at 1:00 pm., after 4 hours of she heard about the mutiny,

8. Why names and identities of the delegation of mutineers, who met the PM were not registered at the entrance of the PM´s residence,

9. Mutiny leader DAD Towhid told the PM about the murder of director general of BDR and some other officers when he met her with his team. But, why this matter was kept secret by the government till February 26 evening,

10. Why Bangladesh TV was not showing anything about the mutiny or even news scroll, although the issue was being covered by all private channels,

11. Why the mutineers were terming the PM as “amader netri” (our leader),

12. Why some mutineers were chanting Awami League´s party slogan ´Joy Bangla´ while they were talking to the press,

13. There had been several overseas incoming calls inside the BDR headquarters during the massacre. Investigators are trying to find the callers,

14. Why Prime Minister´s son Sajib Wajed Joy came to Dubai on February 27 to meet some of the fleeing mutineers,

15. Why Joy handed over thick envelops to each of the fleeing mutineers at the Dubai airport,

16. Why Joy made critical remarks on Bangladesh Army and made army liable for the mutiny during interview with various international media,

17. Why Sajib Wajed Joy has been instructed by her mother not to come to Bangladesh before the investigation issue is over,

18. Why influential members of the government phoned certain foreign government asking help in case Bangladesh Army revolts against the ruling party,

19. Why Awami League leader Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir tried to flee the country on February 27,

20. Why minister Faruk Khan said, militants have penetrated in law enforcing and disciplined forces in Bangladesh,

21. Why the government is trying to keep the Inspector General of Police, whose son-in-law was murdered during the mutiny and daughter held hostage, is kept aloof from the investigation process,

22. Why the newly appointed commissioner of police warned the English medium and missionary schools and educational institutions of possible militant attack without any reason,

23. Why the PM did not allow the army to storm in to the BDR headquarters to rescue the officers and their family members,

24. What the CID team were removing from the BDR headquarters in the name of collecting ´evidence´,

25. What type of evidences were removed by the members of police when they were assigned to guard the BDR headquarters almost for more than 30 hours,

26. Why the Home Minister and other members of the ruling Alliance were visiting the BDR headquarters during dark hours of February 26, much after the surrender,

27. Why Awami League student wing leader Liakat Sikder is hiding since the massacre,

28. Why Awami League and its activists are continuing to demand trial of killers and their collaborators in civil courts instead of Court Martial,

29. Why a section of pro-Awami League journalists are continuing indirect campaign against army as well demanding trial in civil court,

30. Why the ruling party is echoing the voice of Indian media and especially the editorial commentary in The Statesman.

Reply to all these questions will surely help investigators in finding the truth and identifying the culprits. But, it is a big question as to whether the ruling party is willing to let a neutral investigation continue, which may go ultimately against many of the heavy-weights within their home.

Bangladeshi people are getting united with the demand of proper investigation and exemplary punishment to the perpetrators and collaborators of this extreme heinous crime. Anger within the armed forces is boiling like eruptive volcano. Members of the armed forces and those bereaved families can never forgive the killers and the collaborators.

People in power in Dhaka should understand this clearly!

Sunita Paul

Sunita Paul was born in 1952 in an affluent family in Kochin, India.

Born as a deaf and dumb, Sunita Paul decided to use pen in expressing herself. She was unwilling to surrender to the fate due to her being a deaf and dumb. This has inspired her in winning over adversities thus finally attaining higher education as well dedicating in the profession of a writer and analyst.

She obtained her twice Masters in Political Science and journalism. Later she worked with a number of research institutions and started writing for numerous newspapers and periodicals in India and overseas.

Her works have appeared in Sunday Ledger, African Times, Global Politician, Jerusalem Post, Women's World, Insight Magazine, Europe Post, The Asian Tribune, Countercurrents, American Thinker, Intelligence Reporteur, Daily Post, Daily Sun, Times Herald, Daily News, New York Sun, Newsday, New Yorker, Washington Times, Israel Insider, CFP, New York Post, The Leader, Evening Star, Daily Observer, The Nation, Bangkok Post, Jakarta Post, Asiaweek, Dawn, The Citizen, Herald Tribune, Dimension, Outlook, Day After Day, The Pioneer, Lokmanch, Morning Leader, Frontline, Blitz, Malaysia Sun, Assam Tribune, Chandigarh Times, Morning News, The Age, Telegraph, The Week, The Standard, Women Voice, Asian Tribune, Global Politician, American Thinker, Slate, Reporter, Response, Straight Times, Intellect, Advocate, Asia Today, The Mirror, The Mail, The People´s Review, Panorama etc. She is a regular columnist for American Chronicle reaching over 11 million readers every year.

Sunita Paul is considered as an expert of South Asian affairs, counter-terrorism and international relation’.

I am not sure if the sycophant in question, now a full fledged British citizen, well known to Hasina since her childhood, would make positive response to the 30 odd points raised in the article and mentioned here above.

Author: M.T. Hussain

Anti-Bangladesh propaganda by William Gomes

[Author note: William Gomes is an anti-Bangladesh, anti-Muslim, and anti-Islamic propagandist who is active in many internet sites including some vicious anti-Muslim sites like faithfreedom and islam-watch, which are run by pro-Zionist right-wing Christians who are trying their best to eradicate Islam and Muslims from the face of the earth.]

William Gomes, a Catholic missionary activist, has been trying to make an impression in the Internet lately with whole bunch of silly, and yet explosive, arguments and accusations about Islamic terrorism. In that loaded and half-baked statements, he did not have problem in accusing all Islamic NGOs as being fascist organizations that support terrorism. Lately, he claims that ARNO and RSO - two Rohingya organizations - got trained alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan. Such accusations by pro-Myanmar regime supporters and activists are not new. It is interesting to find the Catholic zealot - Gomes - tying his knots with the hated SPDC regime. What next is under the sleeves of this Jesuit preacher, a self-styled human rights activist? His accusations on Rohingyas are totally false and ludicrous.

Unfortunately, in the post-9/11 era that we live in, stupid accusations like his go a long way and create an environment of anger, suspicion and violence. In places where Muslims are minority, such anger can easily turn into violence directed against them by chauvinist Christians, and others. And that is why it is important that Gomes’s fabricated accusations be condemned severely by all concerned human beings, irrespective of their faith and creed.

As to the rest of the story in his piece below, let me just point out that Bush’s invasion of Afghanistan has not been popular around the world, not just inside Bangladesh but even in India, Europe and the Americas. Just read the statements by celebrities like Arundhati Roy to see how they felt. Even after all these years, America is unpopular in many places around the world. Just look at the protests against Obama’s recent trip to Europe, in spite of his personal charm and popularity. The chants heard inside Bangladesh truly are not too far from those chanted outside Bangladesh - which may not sound that kosher today - but were reflective of the anti-USA anger and sentiment throughout the world. Now to connect those slogans with a sweeping remark that Bangladesh has become a terrorist den is not analysis but lack of common sense, resembling crass stupidity.

As to the matter of HuJi or JMB, suffice it to say that these are marginal groups that have already been dealt a fatal blow by the government. These extremes never had any grass root support inside the country, and as such, Bangladesh’s polity has all along rejected those messengers of violence - as is quite clear from the latest national election. In that election, even an otherwise important party (JI) that one time had been a partner in a coalition government was solidly rejected by the electorates. While to a biased chauvinist who is willing to blame Bangladesh and her people, no matter what, such voting records still may not be too convincing, but to an unbiased observer, including the USA Ambassador to Bangladesh - Mr. Moriarty - those results spoke louder than empty words or silly accusations made by pen-pushing pundits and hate-mongering parrots like Gomes. I wish I could say the same thing about India. Alas, there hate mongering groups (responsible for pogroms against Muslims and Christians) like the BJP not only ran the country before, they may still capture the seat of government in the future. Just also look at Israel where a racist, fascist party - Likud - has come to power again. So much so for our democracy! But who is taking notice of such developments, when the messengers of hatred are working towards bringing about the Armageddon in our lifetime by dividing our world into hateful camps, in which, obviously, Islam and Muslims are all dumped together in one corner? With the defeat of Bush and his protege Sarah-McCain in the USA election, we have been spared of that madness. But that does not deter Bible-thumping pedophile Catholics to either blow the whistle of Armageddon or work as Devil’s advocate. They know that intelligent people can read through their lines and know their true agenda too well. Thus, they try to hide their evil self behind epithets like human rights activist and so on and so forth, while they are not. Truly, they fool no one but themselves. The plan of the devil is ever weak. They are right-wing Christian fanatics, the robots of Huntington’s clash of civilizations that would lie and distort so that the second coming of their lord can be accelerated on this earth…

Shame on them and shame on their politics.

Author: Dr. Habib Siddiqui