Bangladesh under the Mullahs

Friends of Bangladesh,
Friends of secular democracy,
Friends of humanity,

Hello People,

Not too long ago, there was a squabble over an umbrella with an army officer and a student at Dhaka University. That incident took the shape of an anti-Army-backed CTG movement across the country that sought to address a growing list of grievances of the students and the nation as a whole, but was effectively squashed by the army. Teachers and students were beaten, arrested, and made to bow down and seek unconditional apologies. Universities were shut down... and the biggest of all the universities in Bangladesh, Dhaka U, is still closed. Scores of students and teachers are rotting in jail without trials. Street protests and rallies are illegal under the STATE of EMERGENCY. Newspapers and TV channels have been directed not to publish any dissident views - none at all. All the channels appear to be BTV.

In a striking contrast, religious rights are marching the streets of Dhaka and other cities without fear of retribution whatsoever, save a few token lathi charge from the police!!!

Benign cartoons are made to be issues of these rallies.

BRAVE Matiur Rahman is bowing down to the Khatib and BEGGING apology - that too AFTER sacking his magazine's editor for no fault of his own. Thus far, Matiur Rahman has made no attempt to get the 20-year old cartoonist out of custody. None of the other dailies are publishing any news to protest any of these human rights violations.

Just yesterday, thousands of Hijb ut Tahrir workers, mostly recruited at the private universities in Dhaka and elsewhere, brought out rallies (yes, while the Emergency is still on) with anti-Semite, anti-democratic slogans, with apparently little or no resistance from the government.

Please - raise you voices, write to wherever you can - may be directing efforts toward the UN would be best, since they are having a meeting as we speak. Of course, all this is only if you agree with the plea... otherwise, disregard this email.

And yes... I have attached a few photographs from the rallies yesterday. They were published in e-bangladesh photoblog... judge 'em yourself.

Peace (something we are losing faster than one would imagine)
Iconus Clustus