In the pantheon of Islamic states, Bangladesh seems an unlikely place for a secular revolution. It is a dry country with no bars, casinos or horse races. Bangladesh is not liberal in its social mores, compared to Muslim-majority countries like Turkey or Indonesia. And secular principles are far from being consistently upheld: Madrassas receive state funding, while citizens are often hounded for perceived slights to Islam.

Yet since its landslide election in 2008, the ruling Awami League party has rolled back the Islamization trend of recent decades. In July, the government banned the extremist scholar Syed Abul Ala Maududi’s books. A historic Supreme Court ruling last month struck down a constitutional amendment that had paved the way for Islamist politics. And a special tribunal to try war crimes of the 1971 Liberation War began its work last month.

These trials are garnering a significant amount of public attention, as the accused are mostly leaders of Islamist political parties. The Awami League is emboldened no doubt by its resounding majority?its alliance controls 264 out of the 300-seat parliament. Its leaders sense a historic opportunity to redress the past. In the late ’90s, the Awami League adopted an arguably more moderate course, but this leniency was violently repaid when an alliance of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami won power, when repeated terroristic attacks killed top Awami League leaders. This, combined with the desire to see justice done, has shaped the party’s determined mood.

Activists demand war-crimes trials, March 2010.
.Cynics argue that the trials are politically motivated. The principal target, Jamaat-e-Islami, is a crucial ally of the main opposition BNP. Yet, any perceived benefits to the Awami League are not as straightforward as they may seem. Driving Jamaat underground might make it more dangerous, and any votes lost by Jamaat due to the trials will accrue to BNP, not to the Awami League. Indeed, it might have been safer for the Awami League to ignore the historical injustices. With the advent of the trials, many are now anxious of violent extremist reprisals. Yet repeated opinion polls indicate overwhelming public support for the trials.

Aside from the political jousting, the widespread public support for all the secularizing measures is worth closer scrutiny. Bangladesh’s Sufi Islamic roots clearly play a big role. Religious practice in this delta consisted of practices woven gently into the existing cultural fabric, not harshly imposed from outside. While the Islamism that has swept the region in recent decades has left a mark?from greater numbers of madrassas to the prevalence of burqas worn by women?it did not uproot a deeper cultural antipathy to extremism.

Yet this is also a society where the high court dared to declare fatwas illegal and ruled last week that no woman can be forced to wear burqas at work or school; a society where the secular holidays like Bengali New Year and Valentine’s Day?both irritating to the fundamentalists?are celebrated by millions of youth. Even in its heyday, Jamaat never garnered more than 10% of the popular vote.

Why? Credit women’s empowerment, which provide not only a sign of societal progress, but also remain its most salient cause. The prime minister and the opposition leader are both women. The foreign affairs, home and agricultural ministries are all run by women. Women hold top jobs in government, banks and business, and are especially prominent in legal, medical and social industries. They excel in art, culture and sport. They serve in the armed forces and fly planes for the national airlines. In the lower socio-economic spheres, women work in agriculture, microfinance and the garment industry. Tens of millions of women are economic decision-makers.

Of course the struggle for gender rights and equity still has a long way to go. But the attempt to achieve these worthy goals, led mainly by nongovernmental organizations, has also increased social resiliency against religious fanaticism. In fact, it’s not a stretch to argue that the government’s actions to stem Islamism could never have been imagined without society’s secular backdrop.

The foreign community could reinforce these positive trends by supporting the war crimes tribunal. Important in its own right, the success of the trials is crucial to the secularization process as well. Trade and development partners also need to review their economic policies. The United States, for example, could reduce its punitive tariffs on Bangladeshi garments, providing an immediate boost to the economy.

Just as importantly, it’s key to recognize that Bangladesh has come further on its own in the struggle to stay secular than many Muslim countries?even those with greater foreign aid or intervention. Which just goes to show that Bangladeshis can do much to build themselves a better future. Is there a more positive example for the Islamic world?

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend

Leading business conglomerate Beximco has set up a joint venture with a Saudi firm to invest nearly $1 billion to upgrade Bangladesh’s sole oil refinery.
“Beximco and Marasel Company Ltd of Saudi Arabia will jointly submit interest for funding an upgradation project of the Eastern Refinery Limited,” a statement from Beximco said.
State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) invited offers in July from international firms and financial institutions to finance the $900 million project near Chittagong port.

“The fund from Beximco and Marasel are likely to be accepted if the terms and conditions are found favourable,” a senior official of BPC told Reuters.

Beximco’s businesses range from textiles to pharmaceuticals. Its subsidiary Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd (BXPq.L: Quote) BXPH.DH is listed in London.

The Marasel Company Ltd is owned by Saudi Prince Salman Bin Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud and has large investments in different sectors, mainly in energy.

“In line with its business diversification objectives, Beximco Ltd is now poised to enter into the oil and energy sector, and has mobilised necessary resources for this purpose,” the statement said.

Beximco owns the single largest stake in a Bangladesh private bank and a local private airline, a senior executive of Beximco said. But he could not give the size of the conglomerate in terms of equity.

The refinery upgrade will increase ERL’s production capacity by 200 percent to 4.5 million tonnes per year from 2013.

It presently produces 1.5 million tonnes of petroleum products from imported crude to meet 30 percent of the country’s requirement of 3.8 million tonnes a year.

About Eastern Refinery
Corporate Profile

Eastern Refinery Limited, a subsidiary of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation was incorporated under Companies?? Act 1913(amended in 1994) as a Public Limited Company in 1963 with 35% EPIDC??s( East Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation) shares, 30% shares held by Burmah Oil Company (BOC) and the rest 35% by private entrepreneurs. From November, 1985, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) became the 100% share holder of the company.

ERL plays a vital role in supplying around 40% of the country??s current petroleum products?? demand and thus maintains stability in the POL Products?? market of the country. ERL sometimes becomes the only fall back system available, to avoid products crisis in the face of disruption of products?? import.

A Board of Directors appointed by the Government, (of which Managing Director of ERL is one of the Directors) manages the company. The Managing Director is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ERL.

ERL as a profitable company in the Public Sector contributes substantially to the national exchequer in the form of dividend, taxes, VAT etc.

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend

DHAKA ? Bangladesh has launched a vaccination drive in its northern dairy farming region to contain an outbreak of anthrax that has affected more than 100 people this week, an official said Tuesday.

Another 62 infections have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking this week’s toll to 114, Mahmudur Rahman, a health ministry director, told . No-one has died.

“We have sent medical teams to all anthrax-affected areas. The livestock department has also launched a major vaccination drive in the region,” he said.

Anthrax is a potentially lethal bacterium that exists naturally in the soil and commonly infects livestock which ingest or inhale its spores while grazing. It can be transmitted to humans who handle or eat infected animals.

Anthrax does not spread directly from one infected human or animal to another but is spread through spores.

Anthrax spores can be produced in vitro and have been used in biological warfare. Weaponised anthrax has not been part of Western countries’ military stockpiles for decades but has been used in bioterrorist attacks.

Bangladesh’s current outbreak — one of nine this year — has spread in the dairy farming districts of Sirajganj and Pabna due to diseased cows being slaughtered and then sold on, Rahman said.

All of the current cases in Bangladesh are cutaneous — or skin — anthrax, which can cause wound-like lesions, he said.

“The farmers were not aware of anthrax. They slaughtered sick cows without knowing that it could transmit the disease to humans,” he said.

Along with the vaccination drive, local authorities have launched an awareness-raising campaign in the region, urging farmers not to kill infected animals and sell the meat.
Sources

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend

Bangladeshi labour leaders said Wednesday they were in hiding after a police crackdown on protesters in the textile industry that has seen trade unionists and thousands of workers targeted.

“Most of us are now on the run, living in fear as we are getting threats from the police,” said Mosherefa Mishu, head of a leading union which rejected a recent pay rise offered to workers in the sector.

Another union leader, Mahbubur Rahman Ismail, said that the police were making nightly raids on slums where garment workers live. The labourers are the worst paid clothes-makers in the world.

“At least 5,000 workers have been sacked for involvement in the protests. Hundreds are just leaving their jobs and going back to their villages,” he said.

More than a dozen union leaders have criminal cases filed against them and three have gone into hiding, Ismail told AFP, as part of a crackdown that has been condemned by a leading international rights group.

Police have confirmed that 20 people, including four union leaders and seven female garment workers, have been arrested in the past two weeks following a string of violent protests over a new pay offer on July 27.

The government raised the minimum monthly wage from 1,662 taka (25 dollars) to 3,000 taka, but the deal fell short of the 5,000 taka that some unions had demanded, and a delay in implementation, until November 1, provoked mass worker unrest.

Thousands of garment workers, who stitch clothes for top Western brands like Tesco, H & M and Wal-Mart, took to the streets on July 30 in the capital Dhaka, with unrest quickly spreading to key manufacturing zones across the country.

“Protesters are wanted on charges of committing violence, vandalism, arson and looting — union leaders are wanted for instigating the unrest,” police deputy commissioner Molla Nazrul Islam told AFP on Wednesday.

He added that police were using television footage and newspaper photographs to identify anyone involved, and said police had filed cases — the first stage of filing criminal charges — against “several thousand” workers.

Union leaders claim that at least 100 workers have been arrested and say cases have been filed against 12,000 workers.

New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch has condemned the crackdown on union leaders, saying arrests, intimidation and a “harsh rhetorical campaign against the protesters” have been used to prevent further unrest.

The government must “publicly guarantee the safety and security of labour rights activists (and workers) who lawfully protested against their conditions of employment,” the statement said.

Garments account for 80 percent of Bangladesh’s annual exports. The country’s 4,500 garment factories employ some three million workers, around 40 percent of its industrial workforce

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend

It,s a day of sorrow !It,s The 15th August, a grief-stricken day for the Bangalee nation, is our National Mourning Day. On this day in 1975, the greatest Bangalee of all time, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, along with his 18 family members, was assassinated in one of the most barbaric carnages in the human history.

Bangabandhu’s wife Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, sons Captain Sheikh Kamal, Lt. sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Russel, daughters-in-law Sultana Kamal and Rosy Jamal, brother Sheikh Naser, farmers’ leader Abdur Rab Serniabat, youth leader Sheikh Fazlul Haq Moni and his wife Arzu Moni, Baby Serniabat, Sukanta Babu, Arif and Abdul Nayeem Khan Rintu were also killed on the fateful night. Bangabandhu’s Military Secretary Col. Jamil was also killed. Some members of a family at Mohammadpur were also killed by canon-ball fired by the killers. On the day of National Mourning, I pray to the Almighty Allah for the salvation of the souls of the
martyrs of the 15th August.

The people of this territory snatched the glowing sun of the independence, breaking the shackles of subjugation of thousands of years, under the dynamic, courageous and charismatic leadership of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. We got our own nation-state and the pride of self-identity. But Bangabandhu was killed when he had devoted himself to the arduous task of building a Golden Bangla reconstructing the war-ravaged independent country and unifying the whole nation. The defeated forces of the Liberation War made an abortive effort to ruin the tradition, culture and advancement of the Bangalee nation. Their target was to destroy the non-communal democratic fabric of Bangladesh.

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend

The Bangladeshi government has ordered the partial shut-down of natural gas stations in and around the capital to counter a growing power crisis.
The Bangladesh government Friday (Aug 13) suspended gas supply to Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company (KAFCO) in Chittagong, the last fertilizer-manufacturing factory to lie down under a gas-rationing plan prepared to gear up power plants to tackle electricity shortages in the country.

With this, officials said, Petrobangla implemented cent-percent decision of the government by shutting down all fertilizer factories in a bid to boost power generation for catering high demand during Ramadan.

Filling stations in and around Dhaka will be closed for six hours a day from 16 August for about a month. Bangladesh has been experiencing a power crisis that has affected households and businesses for the last few years.
Recently, authorities have announced various measures to tackle the crisis.

Earlier this year they ordered air conditioners to be switched off for five hours a day.

The gas filling stations supply to vehicles driven by compressed natural gas, and the government hopes that the gas saved will be used to increase electricity production in gas-fired power plants.

Protests

But it is not clear whether the move will help to address the country’s worsening energy crisis, since it faces a daily shortfall of around 2,000 megawatts of electricity – or about one-third of its total requirement.

In recent days, people angry at the power cuts have blocked roads and ransacked local electricity offices.

The authorities are keen to maintain uninterrupted electricity supplies during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to avoid any further protests.

The government has also decided to shut all schools, madrassas and colleges for a month to ease traffic congestion during Ramadan.

Officials insist that they have taken steps to ease the power crisis in the long-term, but for now, their options seem to be limited.

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend

Garment workers in Bangladesh have returned to work after protests and street battles which followed a proposed pay rise.

The European Union and the United states are the biggest markets for the country’s garments, with exports worth about $12bn in 2009.

Companies such as Walmart, Tesco, Marks & Spencer and H&M have been attracted by the low cost base.

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend

Politics with the back of Islamic emotions was alleged by various platfrom against Jamaat-e-Islami.Bangladeshi police Tuesday arrested three of the top leaders of Bangladesh’s largest Islamic party on the rarely-used charge of “offending religious sentiment” in the Muslim-majority nation.

Motiur Rahman Nizami, the head of Jamaat-e-Islami party, his deputy Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and top preacher Delwar Hossain Saydee were arrested in the capital Dhaka, city police chief A.K.M. Shahidul Haque said.

“They were detained after the court issued arrest warrants against them for hurting the religious sentiment of the people,” Haque told Media.

The Jamaat leaders have been charged after they claimed Nizami’s alleged persecution at the hands of the ruling Awami League was akin to the suffering of the Prophet Mohammed, Bangladesh, an Islamic Republic, has an overwhelming Muslim majority population.

Syed Rejaul Haque Chandpuri, secretary general of the Bangladesh Tarikat Federation, filed the case on March 21 with a metropolitan magistrate’s court in Dhaka against five Jamaat leaders.

The case stated that Dhaka City Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Rafiqul Islam Khan at a discussion in Dhaka on March 17 compared Nizami to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), which hurt the Muslims

The three leaders had been summoned to appear at a Dhaka court on Tuesday but ignored the order, which lead to an arrest warrant being issued, he said.

Jamaat-e-Islami has been the country’s largest Islamic party since it was allowed to operate and contest in elections in late 1970s. It was a part of the Islamist-allied government led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in 2001-6.

Since winning a landslide in December 2008, the government has cracked down on Islamist groups, with the head of banned Islamic outfit Hizb-ut Tahrir being arrested April on charges of instigating militancy and running a banned group.

Police say Hizb-ut Tahrir is still actively trying to destabilise the government and plot attacks.

Jamaat’s top leaders have also been accused of war crimes by private groups investigating Bangladesh’s liberation war of 1971, including the killing of dozens of intellectuals during the nine-month war against Pakistan.

Jamaat leaders deny the allegations.

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend

A Bangladesh parliament committee has told the government to declare ‘a time befitting minimum wage structure’ by July 29 for the country’s readymade garments industry that is facing recurring industrial violence.

The parliamentary standing committee on labour and employment also recommended taking measures to resolve all the other problems in the garments sector.

The labour minister Mosharraf Hossain informed the committee Thursday that a tripartite meeting involving the ministry, garments unit-owners and workers’ representatives is likely to be held Sunday or Monday.

The meet will discuss the ongoing unrest in the sector, Israfil Alam, chief of the parliamentary body, told The Daily Star newspaper.

As many as 50,000 to 60,000 garment industry workers have been booked for violence over the last weekend in Ashulia, a suburban industrial township on the outskirts of the national capital.

Four cases were lodged at the Ashulia police station by Wednesday evening — one was against 50,000 to 60,000 unnamed people while two were against 180 people on the charge of attacking factories and one against 200 unnamed people.

About the case filed against such a large number of people, New Age quoted the Ashulia police officer-in-charge, Sirajul Islam, as saying: ‘We have taken the decision to avert further unrest in the area.’

The area’s 250 garments units resumed work Wednesday following assurance of protection from the government.

The private garments sector is Bangladesh’s top foreign exchange earner. It netted $12 billion in 2009.

The latest round of violent protests was triggered over wage dispute. The workers want Taka 5,000 ($86) as minimum wage, while the employers are not willing to pay beyond Taka 1,600.

The garments sector has witnessed recurring violence in Bangladesh where wages are low and working conditions are poor for an estimated three million workers, mostly women.

A global survey by the Vienna-based International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), released here last week, has said that the Bangladeshi workers in this sector are ‘world’s most poorly paid’ and that their exploitation was ‘on the rise’

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend

Hartal : Strike !!!Virus of politics: Many discussions held?by the?political parties of Bangladesh. On white meeting they never support Strike, they even not get the new way rather than such a destructive and harmful event like Hartal (strike)?. To establish political demand if that is really the demand of maximum public, must can roar against Government. I am sorry to say that i never support such a political event which directly makes harm to public, what gain? I never clear. Hope many like me are not clear.

Time changed. we were under different political culture ,so at the beginning of independence -?we also needed Hartal as political demand.?Now?from my core observation. AFTER39 years THE NATION LOOKING FOR THE ALTERNATIVE AND EFFECTIVE WAY TO DIFFER WITH GOVERMENT. NO MORE HARTAL IS EXPECTED.

HARTAL IS A STRAIGHT VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS !!!!

HARTAL : STRIKE REVIEWS .

26/06/2010DHAKA: Security has been beefed up in the Bangladeshi capital today ahead of the anti government general strike called by the main opposition BNP, amid fears of violence as the supporters of the ruling Awami League plan to thwart the day-long shutdown tomorrow.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party has announced a nationwide anti-government general strike tomorrow to oppose the ruling coalition’s policies, including “compromising national interests” by inking deals with India earlier this year.
Former prime minister Khaleda Zia, the chief of the BNP, announced the anti-government campaign on May 19 for “compromising national interests?? by signing deals with India during prime minister Sheikh Hasina??s New Delhi tour in January, oppose “tender-grabbing and extortions by government cronies?? and deteriorating utility services in the country.
The authorities and the supporters of the Awami League have said they were determined to crackdown on those creating “anarchy and disorder” in the country.
Dhaka metropolitan police has banned processions on the main roads in the capital and stepped up security to prevent any violence.
Dhaka police chief AKM Shahidul Haque told mediapersons that an additional 10,000 force will be deployed in the capital to maintain order.
He said police would not prevent the BNP from its planned strike, but actions would be taken if they try to create anarchy by vandalising vehicles or setting those on fire.
Pro-government Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) today announced that it would thwart the dawn-to-dusk general strike of BNP, triggering fears of violent clashes.
“So BCL will be on the field to prevent the strike by any means,” Mahmud Hasan Ripon, the BCL president, was quoted as saying by the bdnews24 online.
He expressed fears that the radical Islamist groups, including ‘Jamaat-Shibir’ could take advantage of the strike to create chaos in a bid to halt the trial of the war criminals accused of genocide during the 1971 ‘Liberation War’.
He asked the leaders and activists of BCL to stay on the alert tomorrow.
Law minister Qamrul Islam told reporters yesterday that the government had no plans to confront the protesters, but warned: “We will not tolerate anarchy or disorder during the hartal”.
BNP chief Zia has warned the government against creating any obstruction during the countrywide shutdown.
“The government will have to bear the responsibility of the consequences if it tries to obstruct our peaceful programme,” she warned.
BNP secretary general Delwar Hossain alleged today that the government had been arresting and harassing BNP leaders and activists across the country to disrupt the strike.
BNP-led four party alliance, including the Islamist Jammat have already declared their support to the strike.
During Hasina’s New Delhi visit, Bangladesh and India signed three agreements to jointly combat the terror menace while New Delhi announced a one-billion dollar line of credit to Dhaka.
India decided to give 250MW of power to Bangladesh from the central grid while they signed a power-sharing agreement. Bangladesh also promised not to allow its territory to be used for terror against India.
Political parties have frequently resorted to shutdowns and general strikes in Bangladesh to pressure the government, often leading to violence, political deadlock and seriously crippling its economy.
An earlier UNDP report calculated that the net loss in one day’s shutdown to around Taka 500 crore while it cost the country 3 to 4% of its GDP on an average every year between 1991 and 2000.

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend