E-Bangladesh

[Dhaka Correspondent, E-Bangladesh.]

Dhaka University students, united under the banner of “Students against Repression,” have announced fresh protest programs Friday demanding immediate withdrawal of all cases filed against imprisoned students and teachers of the university. Earlier, their ultimatum to the military-led government seeking immediate release of all detained students and teachers expired.

– January 21
Siege [10:00 AM] on the VC office and daylong sit-in at Aparajeya Bangla.

– January 22
Human chains in all educational institutions across the country.

– January 23
Token class boycott in all educational institutions across the country.

Meanwhile, students of Rajshahi University Friday sent an open letter to the education adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, demanding immediate and unconditional release of ten students and an employee of the university convicted in cases filed by the university registrar in connection to the August 2007 campus protests. The open letter by “Students against Authoritarianism,” was sent through the DC of Rajshahi.

[Update 2.]

[Photo/PID via Banglar Chokh.]

– Five new advisers sworn-in Wednesday at the presidential palace: Former secretary AMM Shawkat Ali, former Attorney General AF Hassan Ariff, former Director General of National Security Intelligence (NSI) Major General (Retired) Ghulam Quader, Director of CAMPE Rasheda K Chowdhury and economist Hossain Zillur Rahman.

[Update 1.]

– Five advisers out: Mainul Hosein, Geeteara Safiya Choudhury, Tapan Chowdury, Major General (Retired) ASM Matiur Rahman and Ayub Quadri.

– Sources in Dhaka hint that two more advisers will resign sometime soon.

– New advisers are likely to be sworn-in Wednesday.

– Incoming list:

–

[Photo/Banglar Chokh.]

[An E-Bangladesh report.]

Four advisers of the military-led caretaker government in Bangladesh have resigned Tuesday, as part of a a major shakeup in the interim setup. Advisers Mainul Hosein, Geeteara Safiya Choudhury, Tapan Chowdury and Major General (Retired) ASM Matiur Rahman tendered their resignation letters to the president. Among them, Mainul Hosein and Tapan Chowdhury have confirmed to newsmen in Dhaka that they “resigned as desired by the government.” Earlier, adviser Ayub Quadri resigned on December 26.

Highly placed sources in Dhaka have confirmed to E-Bangladesh that a batch of new advisers will be sworn-in Wednesday at the presidential palace. From intelligence sources in Dhaka, E-Bangladesh has obtained a list of individuals whose name may appear as new appointees of the caretaker government. This list, however, is not confirmed by any other independent source.

– Professor M Shamsher Ali, ex-vice chancellor of Bangladesh Open University.
– Professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury, vice chancellor of BRAC University.
– Major General (Retired) Golam Quader, ex-chief of DGFI.
– Nurul Huda, ex-IGP (Inspector General of Police).
– Rasheda K Choudhury, director of CAMPE.
– Fazle Hasan Abed, chairman of BRAC.
– M Showkat Ali, ex-secretary.

[Developing story.]

[An E-Bangladesh report.]

Teachers of Dhaka University will attend classes wearing black badges Sunday to demand immediate release of 12 imprisoned professors of Dhaka and Rajshahi University. They also demand immediate release of currently imprisoned university students. DU teachers will go forward with their protest plan Sunday and stage a sit-in in front of Aprajeyo Bangla Monday ignoring requests and threats from the military intelligence agency DGFI and the education adviser.

Earlier Saturday afternoon a three-member DGFI team — Brigadier General ATM Amin, Colonel Abu Saleh and Colonel Almas Raisul Ghani — met Dhaka University VC SMA Faiz, DUTA (Dhaka University Teachers Association) acting president Tazmeri SA Islam, acting general secretary Mamun Ahmed, Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique and Professor Muhammad Akhtaruzzaman. The meeting took place in DU Senate building. During the meeting the DGFI team tried persuading DUTA leaders to call off their protest programs. “They even issued veiled threats and warned of consequences,” a senior DUTA member, himself not present at the meeting, told an E-Bangladesh correspondent in Dhaka.

Later in the evening, education adviser, Aiyub Quadri, had a dialog with VC SMA Faiz, Professor Tazmeri Islam and Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique. He urged DUTA leaders to withdraw their protest program saying that the government will consider demands put forward by the teachers association. “His [Aiyub Quadri] approach was positive but noting concrete… we will go forward with our program as we have issued the government an ultimatum to release all the teachers and students by December 12,” a DUTA member told E-Bangladesh.

“Our program was chalked out at a general meeting Friday. We can not cancel it without the consent of another general meeting. Executive committee has decided to go forward with Sunday’s program,” DUTA acting president, Tazmeri Islam, told newsmen Saturday evening, emerging from an urgent one and half hour long DUTA executive committee meeting. “After today’s talks with the education adviser and army officials, we think government has taken a positive attitude towards the release of those detained. DUTA will hold another urgent general meeting Sunday evening to review the situation. That meeting will decide whether to continue the silent sit-in scheduled for Monday.”

Meanwhile, according to reports from DU campus, teachers are being threatened through anonymous phone calls and SMS, “Certain quarter is pressuring DU teachers not to wear black badges Sunday and not to state any sit-in Monday. Many senior DUTA members have received phone calls and SMS,” a DU professor told E-Bangladesh. He said he himself received two such calls asking him to refrain from wearing a black badge Sunday or participate in Monday’s sit-in. Another senior DU professor showed an E-Bangladesh correspondent a text message from an unknown number in his mobile that read: “Stop campus politics. Shut down your DUTA program.”

[Photo/Banglar Chokh: Sheikh Hasina, Sheikh Rehana, Sheikh Selim.]

[A quick review by E-Bangladesh.]

An attempt by the military-led interim government in Bangladesh to try former prime minister and president of Awami League, Sheikh Hasina, in an extortion case stumbled Monday as the trial commenced in a Dhaka court. In a clear setback for the prosecution side, Sheikh Selim, former minister and co-accused in the extortion case filed by businessman Azam J Chowdhury, retracted a confessional statement he issued earlier. Selim, through a written application filed and read out before the court by his lawyer, disowned the statement that implicated Hasina and himself in the case. On a graver note, Selim alleged “intolerable physical and mental torture” by members of the security forces in an “undisclosed location” and threat of extra-judicial execution that coerced him to issue the statement under section 164 of CrPc.

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… government and French Embassy officials have, without informing either the committee or the media, taken the items out of the museum in what resembled a police protected museum robbery…

– Shahidul Alam, Photojournalist, Activist.

[Photo/Banglar Chokh.]

[Dhaka Correspondent, E-Bangladesh.]

Ignoring a writ petition pending, Bangladesh government officials and representatives of the French embassy in Dhaka Friday sent 10 out of 23 boxes of museum pieces to the Guimet Museum in Paris for display. People, holding protests against the move, gathered near the National Museum, attacked the vehicles carrying the artifacts and attacked government officials as they fear the pieces will never be returned. Bangladeshi and French authorities in Dhaka began the process at the National Museum Thursday, a museum holiday, in presence of French embassy and Bangladesh cultural ministry officials.

“The process for sending the artifacts was not transparent and it created mistrust among the people,” architect Shamsul Wares said. The exact number of the artifacts in the 10 boxes could not be gathered, as Bangladeshi or French officials did not answer any questions regarding the matter. Several museum sources reported that there are about 200 artifacts in the 23 boxes.

Protesters present in front of the National Museum attacked the cargo trucks headed for the airport with the artifacts. They also assaulted government officials sitting inside the car at around 3 PM. Police picked up an artist in connection with the attack, but he was released at the intervention of journalists present.

An Air France cargo plane, scheduled to take off at 12.05 AM Saturday, is carrying the artifacts. Homebound trucks and forklifts reached the museum early on the day. The Homebound trucks and forklifts sported banners reading “Save the Children cyclone Sidr emergency relief.”

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[Urgent donation links.]

[International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.]

With Cyclone Sidr’s reported death toll now climbing above 500 [read 1700+], the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is appealing for 4 million Swiss francs ($3.6 million US/

[Photos: Nazim Kamran Choudhury, Geeteara Safiya Choudhury, Mahbubul Islam and Farhana Islam.]

[An E-Bangladesh report.]

Veteran politician and businessman, husband of industries adviser Geeteara Safiya Choudhury, Nazim Kamran Choudhury has been charged with allegations of physical assault and illegal occupation of a multi-storied building in Dhaka. Farhana Islam, a landlady, filed the criminal case Wednesday with a Dhaka court since police refused to register her complaint. Others accused in the case include close relatives of Geeteara: brother Abu Rushd Tarek, sister-in-law Shamsun Nahar Tarek, son-in-law Adit Bhagat, brother-in-law Mukim Choudhury.

Dhaka correspondent, E-Bangladesh: An E-Bangladesh correspondent in Dhaka has filed a report on the case. However, despite repeated attempts by our correspondent, we do not have any comment from the accused Nazim Kamran Choudhury. E-Bangladesh is trying to get a comment from industries adviser Geeteara Safiya Choudhury.

A landlady in Dhaka Wednesday lodged a criminal case against Nazim Kamran Choudhury, husband of industries adviser Geeteara Safiya Choudhury, and eight others for physically assaulting her and her husband. Metropolitan magistrate Hemayet Uddin heard the case and asked OC, Gulshan police station to register the complaint as a FIR if the allegations are found credible upon investigation.

Farhana Islam, owner of a multi-storied building in Gulshan, alleged Nazim Kamran Choudhury rented her building in Gulshan-2 on condition that he would vacate it by September 30, 2007. The petitioner in a notice asked Nazim, who used the house for business, to vacate the building after the rental agreement expired. However, Nazim continued occupying the building, illegally, without paying rents and other utility bills. At one stage, DESA (Dhaka Electric Supply Authority) disconnected the electric connection to the building acting on a complaint by the landlady.

“Nazim and his cohorts tried to install a generator in my house without my permission, I protested his attempt. On October 23, Nazim and his men physically attacked me and my husband, Mahbubul Islam, with iron rods and Nazim himself tore my sari,

[Update.]

New Age runs a notice:

We apologise

When New Age was going to press on Wednesday evening, we had in our possession photographs of top-brass BNP leaders, including standing committee member Mahbubur Rahman, being assaulted by activists of their own party.

While we at New Age strongly believe that — in the spirit of freedom of the press and our readers’ right to information — we are committed to bring those photographs to our readers, a number of our journalists were repeatedly ‘reminded’, however courteously, that Mahbub after all is a former army chief and publishing photographs of him being assaulted may not go down well with his former charges.

Living in these times of ‘reminders’ and their untold consequences as they are, we, therefore, sincerely apologise to our readers for our inability to publish those photographs, and hence absconding, even if momentarily, in our responsibility to bring to you the whole truth in its full, graphic manifestation.

[The photo newspapers in Bangladesh could not publish today.]

[Photo: E-Bangladesh.]

[TV Grab: Channel 1. Courtesy: Bohurupi via Rumi Ahmed.]

Former chief of Bangladesh army, BNP standing committee member, Lieutenant General (retired) Mahbubur Rahman came under attack Wednesday from angry BNP activists for his collaboration with the DGFI engineered coup in the party. Pro-Khaleda Zia activists got hold of Mahbub near the mausoleum of party founder General Ziaur Rahman. Mahbub was severely beaten with shoes, slapped and kicked as police stood by watching. BNP activists also chased BNP leaders Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka and ex-army officer ZA Khan. However, they managed to escape public wrath by jumping into their cars that drove away fast as activists threw brickbats and shoes. Leaders of Saifur-Hafiz faction in BNP were returning after placing wreaths at Ziaur Rahman’s grave, marking the “National Revolution and Solidarity” day. According to an E-Bangladesh correspondent present at the scene, JCD and Juba Dal activists “dragged out Mahbubur Rahman from his car, tore down his shirt and began indiscriminately beating him with their slippers on his face calling him ‘a traitor.’”

“DGFI [military intelligence] collaborators inside BNP must take a lesson from this. It is easy to engage in conspiracy seating in Saifur’s [Rahman] Gulshan residence, but they will have to come out in front of the public at some point,” one BNP activist told an E-Bangladesh correspondent.

[Our Correspondent, Dhaka.]

Anti-army riots in Dhaka University continued Tuesday as thousands of students clashed with police and army demanding immediate army pull-out from their campus. Riots started Monday protesting assault of students by army personnel in Dhaka University. Street-battles spread out of the university campus to different parts of Dhaka and campuses across the country on Tuesday leaving at least 250 injured.

The students, demanding withdrawal of army camp from the university gymnasium, brought out processions and clashed with police on the campus intermittently while police fired rubber bullets, blank shots and lobbed teargas canisters to disperse the demonstrators.

Demonstrators burnt an effigy of Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed and two effigies of the army chief, General Moeen Uddin Ahmed, in front of the Aparajeyo Bangla. Agitating students damaged more than a hundred private vehicles and public buses and set fire to an army vehicle in Shahbag.

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Anti-army riots in Dhaka University continues as thousands of students clash with police and army demanding immediate army pull-out from their campus. An E-Bangladesh news team is now on the ground. We expect to update our coverage with exclusive photos and videos from Dhaka later in the evening. Meanwhile, incoming reports [via news text] from our correspondents in Dhaka update:

[Exclusive] Different sources in Dhaka identify the senior army official who was assaulted by the students in DU campus Monday night. Brigadier General Chowdhury Fazlul Bari — Director, Home Intelligence Bureau, DGFI — was shouted at, kicked, punched and pushed as he went to the campus.

Video: TV grab from ATN.

Earlier, BDNEW24 reported:

Angry students of Dhaka University late Monday chased a senior army official on the campus when he had gone to talk to them introducing himself as a teacher of the university, witnesses said. The official, a brigadier general, took two teachers of the university with him at 11:45pm to pacify the protesting students who rampaged through the campus for hours on end. The students however recognised and swore at him before they started kicking and pushing him. The official finally fled by a motorcycle, according to two bdnews24.com correspondents who witnessed the incident. DU assistant proctor Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah was at the scene along with another teacher. The incident occurred on the street between the vice-chancellor’s house and the Teachers’ Club when the angry students elsewhere on the campus were fighting with the security officials. The students swooped on another security official, who tried to save the troubled army officer. The second man left the scene with a bleeding head, the witnesses said.

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