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VIRTUAL CORRIDOR TO INDIA
Deadly game with nation’s fate
M. Shahidul Islam
It’s like watching a movie already seen twice. Or, it could be the recurrence of a hellish nightmare? The reasons that had compelled the last BNP-led Government not to approve the proposed Asian Highway in December 2005 remain alive, but the AL-led regime has agreed in principle to approve the three different routes, only to turn the entire country into a virtual corridor of India...[ FULL STORY ]
China fear prompts India to boost
military power
Abdur Rahman Khan
India is facing the China threat again. It may be a real threat this time or a threat perception to develop its military capabilities and strengthen its strategic partnership with the US.
In an exclusive interview with The Hindustan Times, Indian Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major told last week “India faces a greater threat from China than Pakistan because New Delhi knows little about Beijing’s combat capabilities”...[ FULL STORY ]
Tripartite Teheran Summit gives
mixed signals
Fazle Rashid in New York
A nuclear power Iran is acceptable to the United States and the West more than Pakistan and Afghanistan slipping under the dominance of the Islamic militants. Islamic insurgency along the porous Afghanistan -Pakistan border is on the rise sending shivers through the world capitals. Viewed against such a murky political scenario the recent tripartite summit level meeting between Iran’s President Ahmedinejad, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai in Teheran on Sunday last was received in the western world with mixed feelings.
The meeting was seen as Iran’s assurance to its neighbours that working together the three could solve their problems without having to rely on the West. The meeting served as a sign that Iran is increasingly seen as a less threat to the West and the region than the prospect of the Taliban and al-Qaeda controlling Pak-Afghan border...[ FULL STORY ]
AILA LEAVES TRAILS OF DEVASTATION
Disaster management unsatisfactory
Sadeq Khan
Cyclone Aila was supposed to have brushed Bangladesh coastal belt with its tentacles, as it passed by Calcutta in the Indian state of West Bengal. Its side-effects throughout riverine Bangladesh have nevertheless been severe, and in terms of human casualties, perhaps more than in West Bengal. News is pouring in about more than one hundred and fifty people dead and over a thousand missing. The cyclone that triggered a build-up from 1 to 3 meter tidal surge in the coastal region caused damage of thousands of households, washed away scores of embankments, uprooted huge number of trees and made an extensive damage of standing crops...[ FULL STORY ]
Govt. creating jobs for AL activists only
Faisal Rahim
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in a letter sent to local Awami League (AL) functionaries recently has asked them to supply names of educated party workers to the PMO for job processing.
The PMO’s move is to prepare a list of educated party workers and find them government jobs. The letter has been issued to the presidents and general secretaries of Upazila Awami League and the MPs of respective constituencies asking them to send a list of such young people belonging to the party to the PM office by May 30. ..[ FULL STORY ]
Politicising the budget
Special Correspondent
The Government has announced the size of the annual development programme (ADP) for 2009-10 at Taka 30,500 crore which is 33 per cent bigger than the revised ADP of the current fiscal 2009.
The National Economic Council (NEC) approved the ADP at a meeting last week with its chairperson Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Out of the total ADP cost, Taka 17,655 crore will come in the form of local currency while the remaining Taka 12,800 crore will be project aid and will be provided by the donors...[ FULL STORY ]
MI5 accused of torturing in custody
Holiday Report
Jamilur Rahman, a British citizen and a former civil servant, has alleged that he was tortured while being held on suspicion of terrorism in Bangladesh with the complicity of UK security force MI5.
Former civil servant Jamil Rahman, who grew up in south Wales, claims he was interrogated by MI5 officers in between beatings by Bangladesh security forces, the British media reported on Wednesday.
Rahman said he was forced to give false confessions, including that he masterminded the 2005 terror attacks in London...[ FULL STORY ]
National convention against fascism in Dhaka on June 5
Holiday Report
With the aim of mobilising the downtrodden and exploited class of people against fascism and imperialism, a left alliance of politicians, intellectuals and cultural activists with Badruddin Umar as its convener is organizing a national convention in Dhaka this week..
The day-long convention will begin at the Institution of Engineers at 10 am on Friday, said Dr Fayjul Hakim Lala, a member of the organising committee. The organizers hope to formulate an action programme towards achieving overall emancipation for the people of the country.
The organizers expect that the convention would help bring together the like-minded political forces, the social groups and the progressive citizens on a common platform of actions against imperialist forces and their fascist collaborators...[ FULL STORY ]
ANISUZZAMAN KHAN PROBE REPORT
Motive of rebellion not found
Special Correspondent
The home ministry’s probe committee on the February 25-26 rebellion and killings at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters has now made its report partially public at a press briefing on May 27. Earlier on May 10, the military probe committee gave its report to army chief and defence ministry. Its contents remain confidential, but from leaks obtained and published by investigative journalists, the military enquiry said to have pointed its finger at outside plotters behind the mutiny, who could not be probed by the military for limits set by the enquiry’s terms of reference.
The home ministry’s enquiry committee report admittedly could not ascertain the real cause and motive for the carnage and suggested further investigations to identify the plotters. The military probe committee reportedly recommended that a high-powered investigation is necessary to identify the masterminds and their foreign connections behind the plot...[ FULL STORY ]
TIPAIMUKH DAM
Parliamentary team must ascertain
its adverse effects
Shamsuddin Ahmed
Much has been spoken and written about the adverse impacts of 1,500 feet high Tipaimukh Dam on the Barak River in India across the Sylhet border. The dam now under construction by the Indian government will block the natural flow of the Barak River that falls into Bangladesh at Zokiganj and runs separately by the name of Surma and Khowai. Obstruction in the flow of the Barak River will no doubt dry up the Surma and the Khowai rivers resulting in perilous affects on agriculture and ecology of the entire north-eastern region of Bangladesh...[ FULL STORY ]
GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
Aung San Suu Kyi
K. Z. Islam
Roughly translated her name means “a bright collection of difficult victories”. Indeed Aung San Suu Kyi is not just Myanmar’s but also the world’s most famous prisoner who continues to defy the dictatorial regime of her country despite the fact that she has spent most of the past two decades in restrictive forms of detention...[ FULL STORY ]
S. Asian states should consolidate democracy, resolve bilateral issues:
Dr Cheema
Abdur Rahman Khan
Pakistan feels sandwiched between the two fronts, which generates multiple security problems, threatening peace in the South Asia, observes Dr Zafar Iqbal Cheema, a specialist in comparative politics of South Asia, security, arms control and non-proliferation.
The founder Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Dr Zafar Iqbal was in Dhaka recently to attend a regional conference on peace and development on South Asia...[ FULL STORY ]
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