Who pays for what...

(I AM A WITNESS TO DAILY HAPPENINGS, DRAMAS, CHAOS...and a few POSITIVE CHANGES in Bangladesh)
Sat Jan5, 2008

Human rights group demands release of Bangladeshi cartoonist

By JULHAS ALAM
Associated Press Writer

Photo: E-Bangladesh.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has demanded the immediate release of a Bangladeshi cartoonist whom the military-backed interim government arrested for allegedly insulting Islam.

Mohammed Arifur Rahman, a former cartoonist for the Bengali-language daily Prothom Alo, is "a prisoner of conscience" who was detained for exercising his legitimate right to freedom of expression, Amnesty International said in a statement Friday.

Security officials arrested Rahman on Sept. 18 after hard-line Islamic groups protested against one of his cartoons that they said mocked the Prophet Muhammad.

The Interior Ministry charged Rahman with "hurting the religious sentiments of the people" and detained him for 30 days. His detention was later extended by three months.

Rahman's cousin questioned whether the cartoonist’s arrest was legal, and said it had caused the family immeasurable hardship.

"We have decided to file a writ petition with the High Court challenging the legality of his detention," Jewel Ahmed said. "He is the main breadwinner of the four-member family."

Amnesty International said Rahman faces a maximum two years in prison if he is convicted.

Abdul Karim, a secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, said Saturday that he had not heard about the watchdog's statement and that Rahman's case was a sensitive issue.

"The whole thing is under legal process," Karim told The Associated Press by phone, without elaborating.

The government confiscated all copies of Alpin, the Prothom Alo supplement in which the cartoon was printed. The popular daily apologized for publishing the cartoon and fired the cartoonist.

Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 150 million people, has in the past banned publications for insulting Islam or the Prophet Muhammad.

Journalists in Bangladesh are routinely threatened, assaulted or killed for writing about political violence, corruption or organized crime, according to media rights groups. At least 11 journalists have been killed and dozens maimed in the South Asian nation since 1997, media rights groups say.

On the Net:
Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org/

Politics-Unfortunate but Obvious

(I AM A WITNESS TO DAILY HAPPENINGS, DRAMAS, CHAOS...and a few POSITIVE CHANGES in Bangladesh)

Date: Sun Jan 14, 2007

New Bangladeshi leader takes control of security agencies as mass arrests continue
Photo:AP

By JULHAS ALAM
Associated Press Writer

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ Bangladesh's new interim leader took charge of security agencies and the election commission Sunday, as mass arrests continued days after the president declared a state of emergency following weeks of deadly unrest ahead of disputed elections.

New leader Fakhruddin Ahmed also met with acting Chief Election Commissioner Mahfuzur Rahman to make fresh voting plans, as the impoverished country's two feuding political camps demanded that the ballot postponed from Jan. 22 be held as soon as possible.

"We have planned to sit with leaders of all political parties to discuss ways on how we can proceed further," the commission's secretary, Abdur Rashid Sarker, told reporters after the meeting.

Ahmed was appointed Friday after the president stepped down as leader of the caretaker government and declared a state of emergency to quell boycott threats, paralyzing strikes, and violent protests alleging the election was rigged.

More than 4,000 people were detained after the announcement, including 1,518 arrested overnight and Sunday, the Interior Ministry said, giving no further additional information.

The government said last week that disruptive elements would continue to be arrested until a new election was held.

Local news reports say people from both sides of the dispute over the elections have been detained.

The two feuding political camps on Sunday demanded the new caretaker government takes steps to announce a new election. It was their first clear response since President Iajuddin Ahmed ordered the state of emergency and appointed the new administration.

The major political alliance that organized the election protests, led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on Sunday demanded new elections as soon as possible.

"We want the elections in a specific timeframe," alliance spokesman Abdul Jalil told reporters, without naming the timeframe.

He also demanded the new caretaker administration revamp the election commission, update and correct the voters' list and remove disputed election officials.

Separately, Hasina's rival former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's four-party coalition also made a similar demand.

"We hope the new administration will take initiatives of holding a new election soon," Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Zia's close aide, told reporters late Sunday.

Ahmed, a respected economist and former central bank governor, took control of the Interior Ministry and Election Commission Secretariat on Sunday, a statement from the government's Cabinet Division said.

The new leader distributed portfolios to five newly appointed advisers Sunday at the new government's first meeting.

"We have discussed a range of issues including law and order, and the new elections," M.A. Matin, one of the five advisers, told reporters after the meeting. He did not elaborate.

One of the main challenges facing the new interim government was to ensure a credible election with the participation of all parties, the United News of Bangladesh news agency quoted another newly appointed adviser to the caretaker government as saying.

"We've two challenges before us right now _ collectively holding a free and fair election, and proper running of the ministries concerned," the agency quoted Mirza Azizul Islam as saying.

At least 34 people have been killed in the protests that began in late October, when Zia ended her five-year term and handed over power to an interim government led by the president.

The alliance led by Hasina had threatened to boycott and disrupt the polls unless their demands for election reforms were met.

The president declared a state of emergency on Thursday, deferred the elections, and stepped aside as head of the caretaker government. A day later, he swore in Fakhruddin Ahmed, but retained the mostly ceremonial post of president .

Under the constitution, the president is in normally in charge of the Ministry of Defense, but the current troops' movement is being regulated under the Election Commission, now controlled by the interim leader Ahmed.

Police and other security agencies including a paramilitary force operate under the Interior Ministry, now also controlled by the interim leader.

The new interim government was welcomed by the business community, which had been fed up with disrupted commerce and transportation during the recent political protests.

"We hope that under the leadership of the new caretaker administration, dynamism will return to the export business and the country's image will be restored," Fazlul Huq, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said in a news release.

In a separate statement, Bangladesh Textile Mills Association leader Abdul Hai Sarker said he hoped that "the steps taken by the president were timely and bold enough to ease the volatile political situation and improve the overall trade and commercial situation."

Journalist Detained

(I AM A WITNESS TO DAILY HAPPENINGS, DRAMAS, CHAOS...and a few POSITIVE CHANGES in Bangladesh)

Saturday May 12, 2007

Bangladeshi journalist released after daylong interrogation, family says

By JULHAS ALAM
Associated Press Writer

Photo: RSF

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ Bangladeshi authorities have released a journalist, detained hours earlier, who had written about alleged human rights abuses by the country's security forces, his wife said Saturday.

Tasneem Khalil, a journalist at Dhaka's Daily Star newspaper, was picked up early Friday from his residence in the capital by four men in plain clothes.

Khalil was released later Friday after being interrogated by intelligence officials, his wife Sharmin Afsana Suchi told The Associated Press.

"Yes, he has returned," Suchi said.

She declined to say whether he was tortured while he was detained.

A government spokesman could not be reached Saturday to comment on Khalil's detention or subsequent release.

Journalists in Bangladesh are often threatened, assaulted or even killed for writing about political violence, corruption or organized crime.

At least 11 journalists have been killed and dozens maimed in the South Asian nation since 1997, media rights groups say.

On Friday, Suchi said the men who took away her husband told her they were from the Joint Task Force, an army-led security force used by the military-backed government to fight corruption.

"The men said they were placing Khalil under arrest and taking him to an army camp in Dhaka," she said.

Zafar Sobhan, an assistant editor at the Daily Star, said Friday that Khalil was held without charge or warrant.

Khalil, 26, also works for New York-based Human Rights Watch and runs his own Web site. His colleagues said he recently posted articles on the site criticizing the army and the security forces for alleged human rights abuses.

The detention sparked off widespread concerns among international media and human rights watchdogs.

Human Rights Watch voiced its concern about Khalil while the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, in a statement on Friday said the detention is an indication of the fragile state of press freedom in Bangladesh.

"We're alarmed by the circumstances of his detention," Joel Simon, Executive Director of the CPJ, said in the statement.

Bangladesh has been under a state of emergency since Jan. 11 when street violence over delayed national elections left more than 30 people dead.

According to Bangladeshi human rights groups, the military-backed government has used the emergency powers to arrest thousands of people. They say many of the detainees were picked up at night.

On the Net: www.tasneemkhalil.com.

Press Freedom

(I AM A WITNESS TO DAILY HAPPENINGS , DRAMAS, CHAOS....and a few positive CHANGES in Bangladesh).

Friday Jan 12 ,

Rights, media groups ask Bangladesh government to uphold press freedoms

By JULHAS ALAM

Associated Press Writer

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ International human rights and media freedom groups expressed concerns over Bangladesh's order to private broadcasters to suspend their news programs and to refrain from criticizing the government after it imposed a state of emergency.

Bangladesh's President Iajuddin Ahmed on Thursday declared the emergency and postponed elections scheduled for this month following violent protests led by a key political alliance that had also threatened to boycott the vote.

Also Thursday, the government imposed an indefinite overnight curfew on Dhaka, the capital, and 60 other towns and cities. Soldiers had already been deployed across the country for election duties and were in place to enforce the curfew.

Elections were originally scheduled for Jan. 22, and Ahmed, in a televised address to the nation late Thursday, did not say when the elections would be held.

Under the country's constitution, the state of emergency suspends the fundamental rights of citizens, including those to hold rallies and protests.

The Ministry of Information on Thursday ordered eight private television stations to suspend their own news programs and to instead relay news bulletins of the state-run Bangladesh Television while the state of emergency was in place.

But the order said members of the media with appropriate credentials would be allowed to move freely.

"The restriction will be effective until further order from the ministry," Khairul Alam Mukul, a news editor at the private NTV television center told The Associated Press.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch appealed to the government to uphold the country's press freedoms.

"We consider freedom of the press an essential part of any democracy, especially in times of crisis," it said in a statement received by The Associated Press on Friday.

Separately the New York-based press freedom watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists, emphasized the need for access to information.

"It's essential that at this very sensitive moment Bangladeshi citizens have unfettered access to information," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement. "We call on authorities to withdraw their restrictions on the media, to respect the right of journalists to report fully and freely, and to ensure citizens' rights to independent information."

Bangladeshi journalists opposed the censorship order.

"We want to categorically state that gagging the media is not the answer to solving the present political crisis," said Mahfuz Anam, editor of Dhaka's Daily Star newspaper.

The imposition of the state of emergency was the latest twist in a tumultuous few months marked by increasing strife between rival political camps that has left at least 34 people dead since October and repeatedly paralyzed the South Asian country.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia stepped down after completing her five-year term and handed over power to a caretaker government headed by Ahmed.

But Sheikh Hasina, the leader of a 19-party alliance, has been accusing the Election Commission and Ahmed of bias toward Zia, and has threatened to boycott and disrupt the election.

Bangladesh has a history of political violence and military rule.

Climate Change-Adaptation

Nov 27, 2007
Poor need to adapt to climate change, experts say

By JULHAS ALAM Associated Press Writer

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ The poor must adapt to climate change using local knowledge, according to experts from around the world gathered at a conference in Bangladesh.

The experts exchanged information on how local people are coping with heat waves in the mountains of India, floods in Bangladesh and Nepal, droughts in Kenya, and soil poisoned by salt in Sri Lanka. Poor people are already being hurt by the earth's rising temperatures, the experts said, maintaining that adapting to climate change deserves just as much focus as reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Global warming is a reality now," Ian Burton, a Toronto-based expert in climate change, told The Associated Press in an interview on the sidelines of the climate change conference in Dhaka. The conference started Saturday and ends Wednesday in Dhaka.

"Rich countries are responsible but poorer nations are bearing the brunt," he said, adding that adaptation at the community level is the answer to the problem.

The London-based International Institute for Environment and Development and the Dhaka-based Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies organized the conference to share experiences on local climate adaptation programs across the world.

The conference was being held more than three weeks after the United Nations-backed International Panel on Climate Change, a scientific body charged with assessing the evidence for and risk of global warming, declared it "very likely" that the globe's increasing temperature is a result of human activity.

Many poor countries where a large number of people live on less than US$1 a day are most vulnerable to the impact of global warming. Bangladesh, with a population of 144 million, is a good example how global warming impacts the very poor.

The country is a vast delta that is barely above the sea level, making it prone to flooding from waterways swollen by rain and melting snow from the Himalayas.

Bangladeshi climate change expert Atiq Rahman said if the sea rises by 30 centimeters (a foot), which some researchers say could happen over next few decades, up to 12 percent of the population living across the vast coast would be flooded out of their homes.

"Our poor people will suffer more, their future poverty will be much more severe," Rahman said.

Melting glaciers on the Himalayas are already causing floods along rivers in Bangladesh, he said.

The melting glacier water carries mud and sand, which is spread during the flooding, filling in some river beds and leading to drought in the north, he said.

Rising sea levels are one factor causing salty sea water to encroach on fresh water in the southwest, he said.

Saleemul Huq, head of the climate change group at the International Institute for Environment and Development, told the AP that international policy-makers need to focus as much on adaptation to climate change as on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Vulnerable communities can't sit idle," Huq said.

He said poorer nations lack money, resources and technology to stand against the dangerous impacts of climate change. "It's important to rethink the whole thing and focus on adaptation," he said.

Bangladesh-Economy

Nov 14, 2007

Experts say Bangladesh can almost double per income to US$870 by 2016

By JULHAS ALAM=
Associated Press Writer

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ Impoverished Bangladesh can almost double its per capita income by 2016 if the South Asian nation continues to improve its infrastructure and conduct policy reforms, an expert of the World Bank and a top businessman said Wednesday.

Bangladesh, a nation of 145 million people, has maintained annual growth of over 5 percent since 1990 and has potential to achieve a 7.5 percent growth in coming years, they said at a discussion in the nation's capital, Dhaka, quoting a report of the World Bank.

If the GDP growth increases to 7.5 percent a year the country can reach per capita income of $870 from the current $470 by 2016, they said.

"Achieving that target is not an easy job but this is very much possible for Bangladesh," said World Bank economist Sandeep Mahajan.

Mahajan said the country's manufacturing sector has a huge potential to grow and for that "there are some choices to be made."

He said further improvement of the country's physical infrastructure is one of the preconditions to achieve that target.

Continuous transition from the agriculture-based economy to manufacture-based economy could help the country achieve the goal, he said.

Also, he said, the government needs to pursue liberal tax policy so that private sector could implement more projects easily and the country could attract more foreign direct investment.

Mir Nasir Hossain, President of the trade apex body Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the private sector would be the prime force in achieving that target if they get better infrastructure.

"We mainly need an improved port facility," Hossain said.

"Uninterrupted power supply is another need of the time."

He said the country needs more export-oriented manufacturing sector other than the textile industry, which accounts for more than 75 percent of the total export earnings a year.

Bangladesh annually earns about $10 billion from textile exports, mainly to the United Sates and Europe.

Suicide-Blast

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/12/09/suicide_bomber_on_bike

Suicide bomber on bike kills six

Civilians targeted in Bangladesh

By Julhas Alam, Associated Press | December 9, 2005

NETROKONA, Bangladesh -- A suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up on a crowded street yesterday, killing six people and wounding dozens in the latest attack authorities blame on extremists who want to create an Islamic state in Bangladesh.

Among the wounded was another bomber who police said did not detonate his explosives.

The suicide blast occurred when hundreds of people had gathered on a narrow street in the northern town of Netrokona after police safely detonated another bomb found in a building.

There was no claim of responsibility, but officials blamed the attack on Jumatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, a banned Islamic group believed to be behind a wave of blasts that have killed 21 people in the past two weeks.

A police officer at the scene, Ali Hossain Faquir, said a handwritten leaflet warning police to follow Islamic law and stop protecting ''man-made" laws was found near the site, about 80 miles north of the capital, Dhaka.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who was visiting Saudi Arabia, expressed shock. ''The masterminds behind the conspiracy have to be silenced with all our might," the United News of Bangladesh quoted Zia as saying.

A home ministry spokesman, Khondakar Monirul Alam, said yesterday's bombing was the work of those who committed the earlier attacks, but he didn't name any groups. The previous attacks largely targeted government offices and courts, and Alam told reporters in Dhaka the attackers have ''adopted a new tactic, and targeted innocent people."

The suspected second bomber was under guard in a hospital.

A police explosives specialist said the device that was safely detonated was ''a small, not powerful bomb."

''It was probably used as a decoy to attract people," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the investigation.

© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Quran Protest

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002291673_quran28.html

The Seattle Times

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Quran protests spread

By MAGGIE MICHAEL
The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt — Muslims spat on the American flag, threw tomatoes at a picture of President Bush and burned the U.S. Constitution in protests yesterday from Iraq to Indonesia over the alleged desecration of Islam's holy book at Guantánamo Bay prison.
Waving copies of the Quran, many of the thousands of demonstrators across the Middle East and Asia chanted anti-American slogans and demanded an apology from the United States, as well as punishment for those who treated the book with disrespect at the U.S. lockup.
U.S. investigators admitted Thursday there was mishandling of the Quran, but contend it was mostly inadvertent and deny that one had been put in a toilet. Yesterday's protests were organized before the officials' comments in Washington.
Many Muslims were outraged earlier this month when Newsweek reported interrogators at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, flushed a Quran down the toilet to get inmates to talk. The story — later retracted — sparked deadly riots in Afghanistan.
"The defilement of our holy book is outrageous because we consider it to be the word of God," said Asiya Andrabi, head of the Daughters of the Community and one of about 50 women clad in black Islamic veils who marched through Srinagar, India.
Some marchers burned symbolic copies of the U.S. Constitution and the American flag, and school and offices were closed for the demonstration in Srinagar. Later, police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse hundreds of men who gathered outside a mosque.
Police watched many of the rallies, which were mostly peaceful and organized by Islamic groups around the world shortly after the Newsweek report came out.
In the Egyptian city of Alexandria, some 12,000 Muslims and followers of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood filled a three-story building and spilled onto surrounding streets, which were sealed off by riot and street police.
Through loudspeakers, speakers called on the government and Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, grand imam of Al-Azhar Mosque, the Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious seat of learning, to demand an American apology.
"Oh arrogant America, the Quran is our constitution," read some banners. Police said 12 protest organizers were arrested.

A demonstration in downtown Cairo drew about 1,000 people, mostly lawyers, who were surrounded by twice as many riot police.
In the Lebanese capital, Beirut, about 1,000 demonstrators burned American and Israeli flags and held black banners with the inscription, "No God But God, Muhammad is God's Messenger."
One speaker shouted, "There are matters that cannot be straightened out unless heads roll!"
The crowd responded: "We will cut off the feet that desecrated the Quran!"
The protests also spread to Sudan, where thousands gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum and called for a serious investigation into all violations against Muslims held in Guantánamo.
"Oh Bush, don't touch the Quran! It is very dangerous," the protesters yelled, demanding the closure of the embassy, which was ringed by hundreds of riot police.
Nearly 1,000 people demonstrated in the predominantly Shiite southern Iraqi city of Basra to protest the alleged desecrations.
Two straw dolls — of Bush and a rabbi — were beaten with shoes and slippers, and American, British and Israeli flags were burned.
More than 15,000 people marched in Pakistan, including the cities of Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta and Lahore.
The protest in the capital of Islamabad began in a tense atmosphere just hours after a bomb at a Muslim shrine killed at least 20 people.
About 5,000 protesters marched in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and some of them spat on, kicked and burned the U.S. flag. Others shouted "Death to America!" as they held copies of the Quran above their heads.

Associated Press reporters Eric Talmadge in Islamabad, Pakistan; Patrick Quinn in Baghdad, Iraq; Mujtaba Ali Ahmad in Srinagar, India; and Julhas Alam
in Dhaka, Bangladesh, contributed to this report.

Politics-Khaleda Jailed

http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=57671


9/3/2007

Ex-Bangladeshi PM Zia Is Jailed

Police in Bangladesh Arrest, Jail Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on Corruption Charges

By JULHAS ALAM Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

DHAKA, Bangladesh - Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and one of her sons were arrested Monday on charges of corruption and misuse of power, a police official said.

Bangladesh's military-backed government canceled elections earlier this year after months of politically motivated violence, and Monday's arrests appeared to be the latest in a series of moves by authorities to undermine the country's political elite, a group widely viewed as deeply corrupt.

Another powerful former prime minister has already been jailed.The officials arrested Zia at her home in the Bangladeshi capital hours after a case was filed by an anti-corruption official against her and her son Arafat Rahman Coco, Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman told The Associated Press by phone.

Zia told a Dhaka court that she and her son are innocent.

But she was jailed pending trial and her son was ordered held by police for seven days for questioning.

"This is a conspiracy to tarnish the image of my family and my party," she said.

"We have done nothing wrong. This case against us must be lifted."

From the court, Zia, escorted by hundreds of police, was taken to a makeshift prison near the Parliament building.

Her prison is just a few blocks away from where her archrival and another ex-premier, Sheikh Hasina, has been held since July on extortion charges.

Zia, who ended her five-year term in October, is accused of misusing her power by awarding contracts to a local company, Global Agro Trade Company, when she was in office in 2003.

Coco allegedly influenced his mother to approve the deal.

The complaint said Zia's administration did not follow standard procedure in awarding the company work involving two cargo terminals, one in Dhaka's Kamlapur Railway Station and another in the country's main Chittagong seaport.Officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The country's military-backed government arrested Zia's elder son, Tarique Rahman, on charges of extortion in March. Rahman, a senior leader of Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, is now in jail awaiting trial.

A case was filed separately late Sunday against Hasina on charges of taking a bribe in return to allow a company to build a power plant when she was in power in 1997, a police official said.

Hasina, a bitter rival of Zia, is accused of taking $435,000 from the Khulna Power Company Ltd. to approve the project, Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Jane Alam told reporters.

She and her party denied the allegation.She faces three other charges of extortion and has been in jail awaiting trial since July 16.

Bangladesh has been ruled since mid-January by an interim government installed by the military after 30 people were killed in political clashes following the end of Zia's term.

National elections planned for Jan. 22 were canceled. A state of emergency is in force in the South Asian nation, barring all political gatherings.

The government, led by a former central bank governor, has vowed to fight corruption, reform electoral rules and clean up the nation's factional and often violent politics before holding the next elections.

Zia and Hasina have dominated Bangladesh's politics since their joint campaign ended years of military rule and restored democracy to their impoverished nation in 1990.

The two women head the country's two biggest parties and their supporters many of them jailed on corruption charges have frequently engaged in deadly street clashes, undermining the country's stability.

Some analysts, however, see their arrests as politically motivated.

"The arrests of the two leaders indicate that the campaign is more politically motivated than targeting corruption," said Bazlur Rahman, editor of Dhaka's Sangbad daily.

"It now seems that they (the government) want to weaken the two large political parties to prevent them from winning the next election. I think the government wants to hold the election, but a hand-picked Parliament is what it wants," he said.

According to Rahman the emergency rule may be prolonged until the polls, planned for next year, are held.

At least six former ministers from both Hasina's Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party have already been tried for corruption and misuse of power.

Bangladesh, an impoverished nation of 150 million people, has been ranked as one of the world's most corrupt countries by the Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International. --AP

Cyclone-Relief

http://www.dawn.com.pk/2007/11/22/int14.htm

Nov 22, 2007, Thursday

Bangladesh relief camps run out of foodgrain
By Julhas Alam
Associated Press Writer

PURBA SARALIA (Bangladesh): Overburdened relief centers scrambled on Wednesday to help tens of thousands of scared and hungry cyclone survivors, as worried aid groups tracked an outbreak of waterborne illness that reportedly left two children dead.Fistfights broke out in some relief camps, as ever-growing crowds of people struggled to get help after last week’s cyclone, which killed at least 3,100 people and left many times that number homeless.

In Purba Saralia, nearly 2,000 people descended on a government-run relief camp, hurriedly set up in a firehouse, where officials only had food for 1,200.

“This is a crisis. I don’t have enough food and we have no work,” said Lal Mia, a farmer waiting in line.A few kilometers away, in the village of Basal Bar, fistfights broke out among cyclone victims as thousands of people, who gathered before dawn, waited for rice at a food distribution center set up by a local aid group.

The coastal area battered by Cyclone Sidr, meanwhile, has been struck with waterborne diseases, Dhaka’s Daily Star newspaper reported, quoting local health officials.

Two children died of diarrhoea in the hard-hit district of Patuakhali, the newspaper reported.

The spread of waterborne diseases, which can spread quickly, is a major worry in the aftermath of such storms.Health officials were bracing for an outbreak of diarrhoea because the cyclone had destroyed many safe drinking water wells, said Mohammad Abdul Baset, a government health official in the town of Barisal.

Health workers were distributing water purification tablets among survivors along with safe drinking water, he said.In Dhaka, the capital, the Health Ministry said it has opened a special desk to monitor any diarrhoea outbreaks.

It could not immediately confirm the two reported deaths.“We are concerned about diarrhoea,” Renata Dessallien, the top UN official in Bangladesh said.

“There is no question this will be a problem.”

She said water usually gets contaminated by diarrhoea-causing bacteria following floods and cyclones.

“But I understand that the Health Ministry has a stock of medicines and the most important thing now is to get the supplies to the affected areas,” she said.

Meanwhile, some people started to rebuild their flimsy huts in Balkultola village using bamboo poles, coconut leaves and jute sacks.Abdul Hamid Mir, a 50-year-old farmer said that there was no clean drinking water and that he was sleeping outdoors, near to where his house used to be.

Aid agencies and UN officials were visiting the affected areas to assess the damage and the aid need, said Sakil Faizullah, a spokesman for the United Nations Development Program in Bangladesh.Food, fresh water and temporary shelter had still not reached many of the exhausted survivors six days after the cyclone slammed into the low-lying country.

“At this time we will welcome support from the international community,” said a statement from the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry.

“We are doing as best as we can do ourselves.”In a televised speech on Tuesday, the country’s interim leader, Fakhruddin Ahmed, described the cyclone as “a national calamity” and urged citizens to help the affected people.

The government said international aid worth about $120 million had so far been promised.

But relief items such as tents, rice and water have been slow to reach most survivors of the worst cyclone to hit Bangladesh in a decade.The European Commission announced aid of $9.6 million on Tuesday.

The American Red Cross said it would provide $1.2 million to help get clean water to the survivors and build emergency shelters.

“The problem is that aid workers need hours to reach these remote areas.

Poor communications are also hampering our work,” said Anwarul Huq, a spokesman for the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, the country’s largest non-profit development organisation.

In many places, aid workers had to clear fallen trees and debris to get to survivors, said Huq, adding that rescuers also were facing a shortage of boats.Nearly 4 million people have been affected by the cyclone, which also destroyed 458,804 houses.

Another 665,529 houses have been partially damaged, the ministry said.Local media reports say more than 4,000 people may have been killed. The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society has suggested the final figure could be around 10,000.—AP

Politics-Hasina Returns

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_wires/2007May07/0,4675,BangladeshLeaderapossReturn,00.html

Ex-Bangladeshi Leader Returns Home
Monday, May 07, 2007

By JULHAS ALAM, Associated Press Writer

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who had been barred from returning to Bangladesh after she was accused of speaking against its military-backed interim government, arrived in the capital Monday, and thousands of supporters cheered, beat drums and sprinkled her with rosebuds.
"It's my country; it's my home. I'm so excited to be able to return to my country," Hasina said at Dhaka's Zia International Airport after arriving from London.
The government lifted a ban on Hasina's return on April 25, seven days after it barred her homecoming amid media reports that the government wanted to exile her.
Asked if she feared arrest, Hasina said the authorities "made a mistake in imposing the ban on my return. I don't think they are going to repeat that mistake."
Senior aides of Hasina greeted her at the tightly guarded airport with flowers.
Thousands of other supporters, many of them beating drums, lined the streets as a bulletproof jeep drive Hasina to her residence in downtown Dhaka.
Hasina waved to the cheering crowd, which sprinkled her with rosebuds along the 10-mile journey.
A bitter feud between two major political camps, one led by Hasina and another by immediate past Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, led to deadly street protests in October, forcing the interim president to cancel January elections and declare a state of emergency. At least 34 people died in the weeks of protests.
No new election date has been announced, but interim leader Fakhruddin Ahmed recently said in an address to the nation that he hoped the elections would be held before the end of 2008.
Authorities had accused Hasina of making "inflammatory statements" about the country's interim government while abroad, and warned that her return might create further confusion and incite divisions among the public.
Hasina, who held the office from 1996-2001, was charged with murder on April 11 while she was in the United States on a personal visit. The murder case stems from the deaths of four protesters in a riot in October.
Separately, a power plant businessman filed a case, accusing her of taking bribe to allow a power plant during her rule.
Hasina and her Awami League party have called the charges "farcical." She also has vowed to face the charges in court after her return.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Yunus-Nobel

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/13/ap/business/mainD8KNQBU00.shtml

CBS NEWS

Bangladesh Banker Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Bangladeshi economist, Grameen Bank win Nobel Peace Prize

Norway, Oct. 13, 2006
By DOUG MELLGREN Associated Press Writer

---

(AP)

(AP) Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their pioneering use of tiny, seemingly insignificant loans _ microcredit _ to lift millions out of poverty.

Through Yunus's efforts and those of the bank he founded, poor people around the world, especially women, have been able to buy cows, a few chickens or the cell phone they desperately needed to get ahead.

The 65-year-old economist said he would use part of his share of the $1.4 million award money to create a company to make low-cost, high-nutrition food for the poor. The rest would go toward setting up an eye hospital for the poor in Bangladesh, he said.

The food company, to be known as Social Business Enterprise, will sell food for a nominal price, he said.

"Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty," the Nobel Committee said in its citation. "Microcredit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights."

Yunus is the first Noble Prize winner from Bangladesh, a poverty-stricken nation of about 141 million people located on the Bay on Bengal.

"I am so, so happy, it's really a great news for the whole nation," Yunus told The Associated Press shortly after the prize was announced. He was reached by telephone at his home in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

Grameen Bank was the first lender to hand out microcredit, giving very small loans to poor Bangladeshis who did not qualify for loans from conventional banks. No collateral is needed and repayment is based on an honor system.

Anyone can qualify for a loan _ the average is about $200 _ but recipients are put in groups of five. Once two members of the group have borrowed money, the other three must wait for the funds to be repaid before they get a loan.

Grameen, which means rural in the Bengali language, says the method encourages social responsibility. The results are hard to argue with _ the bank says it has a 99 percent repayment rate.

Since Yunus gave out his first loans in 1974, microcredit schemes have spread throughout the developing world and are now considered a key to alleviating poverty and spurring development.

Yunus told The Associated Press in a 2004 interview that his "eureka moment" came while chatting to a shy woman weaving bamboo stools with calloused fingers.

Sufia Begum was a 21-year-old villager and a mother of three when the economics professor met her in 1974 and asked her how much she earned. She replied that she borrowed about five taka (nine cents) from a middleman for the bamboo for each stool.

All but two cents of that went back to the lender.

"I thought to myself, my God, for five takas she has become a slave," Yunus said in the interview.

"I couldn't understand how she could be so poor when she was making such beautiful things," he said.

The following day, he and his students did a survey in the woman's village, Jobra, and discovered that 43 of the villagers owed a total of 856 taka (about $27).

"I couldn't take it anymore. I put the $27 out there and told them they could liberate themselves," he said, and pay him back whenever they could. The idea was to buy their own materials and cut out the middleman.

They all paid him back, day by day, over a year, and his spur-of-the-moment generosity grew into a full-fledged business concept that came to fruition with the founding of Grameen Bank in 1983.

In the years since, the bank says it has lent $5.72 billion to more than 6 million Bangladeshis.

Worldwide, microcredit financing is estimated to have helped some 17 million people.

"Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development," the Nobel citation said.

Today, the bank claims to have 6.6 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom are women, and provides services in more than 70,000 villages in Bangladesh. Its model of micro-financing has inspired similar efforts around the world.

The success has allowed Grameen Bank to expand its credit to include housing loans, financing for irrigation and fisheries as well as traditional savings accounts.

One of Yunus' aides, Dipal Barua, said the award was an "honor for millions of poor women who have made this possible."

Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the Nobel committee that awarded the prize, told The AP that Yunus's efforts have had visible results: "We are saying microcredit is an important contribution that cannot fix everything, but is a big help."

Mjoes said at least three previous prizes have recognized the need to alleviate poverty and hunger.

Those were the 1970 prize to American agriculturalist Norman Borlaug for his program in Mexico to feed the hungry by improving wheat yields; the 1969 award to the Geneva-based International Labor Organization for its efforts to ease poverty; and the 1949 award to Baron John Boyd Orr, as head of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization who worked to persuade nations to make it a public policy to feed the poor.

The peace prize was the sixth and last Nobel prize announced this year. The others, for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and economics, were announced in Stockholm, Sweden.

___

Associated Press writers Julhas Alam and Matt Moore contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

http://www.nobelpeaceprize.org

Blast-Aug 17

http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/aug/17bangla.htm


Over 100 injured as 400 crude bombs rock Bangladesh

Julhas Alam in Dhaka | August 17, 2005 12:47 IST
The Associated Press Writer
August 17, 2005 18:23 IST

Nearly 400 small bomb blasts rattled the capital and towns across Bangladesh on Wednesday as a series of carefully timed attacks killed at least two and injured 138 people and sowed panic across the country, police said.

Police said the bombs, which went off almost simultaneously, were homemade and apparently designed to cause only limited damage.

But the blasts caused panic and massive traffic jams in a number of cities, as people fled for safety and rushed to schools to bring their children home.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but leaflets from a banned Islamic group, the Jumatul Mujahedin, were found at the scene of a number of explosions, police said.

The group wants to establish an Islamic state in Bangladesh, which is predominantly Muslim but secular.

"It's an organized attack," Lufuzzaman Babar, a top official in the Home Ministry, told the local TV station ATN Bangla.

"It's not a simple incident."

The leaflets found near a number of blast sites called for the imposition of Islamic law.

"There should not be any other laws except Allah's in a Muslim country. But it's a pity that in Bangladesh, where about 90 percent are Muslims, Allah's rules are not implemented," said the leaflets, which were written in Bengali and Arabic.

Earlier this year, the government outlawed Jumatul Mujahedin and another Islamic group, Jagrata Muslim Janata, for their alleged involvement in a spate killings, robberies and bomb attacks in Bangladesh in recent years.

The groups have denied involvement in the violence, but have vowed to work to establish Islamic rule in this nation of 140 million people.

In Dhaka, police were deployed to major intersections after the explosions, and were checking vehicles and pedestrians for bombs.

Police who examined a number of unexploded bombs said they contained explosives packed in small containers and wrapped in tape, paper or sawdust-- instead of the nails or shrapnel that more deadly bombs contain. They were rigged with small battery-powered timers, police said.

"They were meant to create sound and panic rather than serious injury," a police official told ATN Bangla. The police officer was not identified in the report.

The blasts took place mainly at government offices, press clubs and courts across the country, police and Bangladeshi media reported.

In Dhaka, about a dozen bombs exploded near the airport, at court buildings and in markets, said a city official, Kalpana Rani Dutta.

At least 10 people were injured in nine explosions in Mymensingh, a district in northern Bangladesh, said police official Shahidul Huq Bhuiyna.

At least a dozen bombs went off in Chittagong, Bangladesh's second-largest city, injuring at least two people, said police official Mahmudur Rahman.

Another 10 bombs were detonated in the northern town of Sylhet, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, said the area's chief government administrator, S M Faisal Alam. Leaflets from Jumatul Mujahedin were found at the blast sites, he said.

In the southern district of Khagrachhari, at least seven people were injured in four blasts, said a police official, Mohammed Faruq.

Leaflets from Jumatul Mujahedin were also found at the blast sites, he said.

In the southern town of Barisal, at least three people were injured when 18 bombs went off in places including the district administrator's office, police station and bus terminal.

At least three people were injured in bombings in Khulna, the country's third largest city, said the area's chief government administrator, Akbar Ali Khan.

In the southern city of Cox's Bazar, at least 10 people were injured in seven blasts, said police official Rezaul Karim.

At least seven bombs exploded, injuring four people, in eastern Brahmanbaria, said police official A.T.M. Tareq.

Nine bombs exploded injuring three people in the central town of Comilla, said police official Aurang Mahbub.

Climate-Cyclone

http://climate.weather.com/articles/cyclone112807.html

ForecastEarth

US helps cyclone survivors in Bangladesh

By JULHAS ALAM Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — U.S. helicopters airlifted clean water, food and medical supplies Wednesday to thousands of survivors of Cyclone Sidr left hungry and homeless in Bangladesh.

"We will continue to provide more support," said Geeta Pasi, charge d' affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka.

The United States, which has already provided more than US$14.4 million (euro9.7 million) in emergency funds, handed out water purification treatment units, four 10,000-liter water storage units, 2,400 jerry cans and 10,000 blankets in battered southwestern Bangladesh.

Helicopters from the USS Kearsarge, anchored off the Bangladesh coast, airlifted the goods from Dhaka's airport to Barisal for distribution among survivors in Patuakhali, Bagerhat and other badly affected areas, Pasi said.

Denise Rollins, mission director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said they were working with the Bangladesh government to tackle any possible food crisis.

"Food is a major issue. We and other donors are thinking about how we can respond to the government's appeal," Rollins said at the airport, where officials were gathered to distribute the goods.

The Bangladesh government asked foreign donors on Tuesday for 500,000 tons of rice to prevent possible food shortages after Cyclone Sidr damaged large areas of rice fields.

The official death toll from the cyclone, which hit Bangladesh Nov. 15, is 3,243. Another 1,180 are missing and 34,500 people were injured, according to the Food and Disaster Management Ministry.

M. Aiyub Miah, secretary to the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management, welcomed the U.S. assistance.

"We are happy that we are getting a positive response," Miah said.

The British government is airlifting 43,000 blankets and 24,000 jerry cans from Abu Dhabi, its Department for International Development said.

Separately, UNICEF is planning about 400 daycare centers for homeless children in the devastated region in coming weeks, it said.

The agency plans to supply blended food for about 338,000 children under five years and for 123,500 pregnant women, it said in a statement.

About 600,000 children under five have been affected by the cyclone, UNICEF said.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Sanitation-Rural Health

http://www.unnayannews.net/issue/marginalized/ruralhealth.html

Case Study: ruralHealthandSanitation

By Julhas Alam

Kaoraid, Gazipur -- Five-year old Sohel does not know how lucky he is to have a concrete toilet - made of three slabs and a pan - at his home in this 21st century when scientists are doing research on the details about the Mars and other heavenly bodies. Certainly he has no idea that there are many latrines with modern fittings, and even with small commode-side library. But still Sohel is happy, as he has a mud-and-straw hut and more importantly a 1200-Taka latrine at his home in a village near Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka.
"I use this everyday," said Sohel, pointing at the toilet, fenced with tin and jute sacks. "Earlier we had no lavatory at home, we used to go to the riverside or jungle".

Sohel's father, who runs a grocery shop in the village, spent only Taka 350 for the sanitary latrine. "I have got support from the Union Parishad," Mohammed Khaleque said. "My family is happy with the bathroom we have now".

Now Khaleque wants to fence the latrine with a concrete wall. "I am trying to save money so I can buy cement and bricks soon," he said, clearly showing positive attitude about how poor villagers can change their decade-old behavioural pattern so easily with a little help from the authorities.
He used to defecate in open spaces or in the jungle, but earlier nobody came to tell him that it's bad for health. "Now I am ashamed of that because our women used to go to the jungle for defecation," he said."

Like Khaleque, his fellow villagers are also getting benefit from the government's scheme of installing concrete lavatory at Bormi, located near the country's famous Bhawal reserve forest in Gazipur district, 32 kilometres north of Dhaka. The area has been declared 100 percent sanitized, which means each and every household has now concrete latrine.

Bangladesh, an impoverished nation of 144 million people, is working hard to declare the nation 100 percent sanitized by 2010.

In a country where almost half of its total population lives on less than one dollar a day and ignorance is pervasive, it is not easy to go ahead with such an ambitious plan of 100 percent sanitation. Kaoraid Union Parishad Chairman Mojibur Rahman Sultan described how difficult it was for him "to bring the villagers back from the jungle" in just two years. He said they started working in 2003 with limited funds, but with heightened inspiration and enthusiasm.

"We live near jungle, we are accustomed to open defecation for decades, so you can easily think what we had to do for that achievement," Sultan told reporters when a WWFJ-APFEJ team comprising water and environment reporters from India, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, China, South Africa, Nepal, Laos, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Vietnam. Cambodia, Argentina, Japan and Bangladesh went there.
Initially, local authorities invited villagers to a mass gathering where opinion leaders raised the issues of using sanitary latrines for better health. The local authorities sought the help of religious leaders, teachers and women representative in the Union Parishad to convince the people. "It works well, people agreed to listen to what we told them," said Sultan adding that they also used local musical and drama groups to motivate the people. "I am happy that after ceaseless efforts, people take it seriously," he said. Importantly, he said, motivation was the main driving force despite limitations of funds.
Like Kaoraid, four other unions have been declared 100 percent sanitised by the authorities while three other unions and one Pourashava are progressing fast in the right direction, said Liaquat Ali, a Bangladesh chapter official of the international development organisation Plan International.
The Spain-based Plan International's Bangladesh chapter has been working in the area since 1998 in the fields of health, micro-credit, environment and education, said Ali, adding that they had worked jointly with local government to have declared the area 100 percent sanitised.

The organisation worked out a crash plan, called Decentralised Total Sanitation Project, which has been popularised in Bengali as "Dishari" or "who shows the path" to motivate the people. "Poeple have inner strength to bring positive change for a better life, we just act like a catalogue," Ali said about the villagers' success in the area.

The World Bank is supporting "Total Sanitation by 2010" programme, and it promised to provide further support to the Union Parishads through the local government strengthening project, said Christine I. Walich, World Bank's Country Director in Bangladesh. She said Bangladesh has many backdrops, but in sectors like sanitation and providing safe water to the people the nation has commendable success.
"Like many developing countries, Bangladesh has its problems, but it also has surprising successes even in the fields of environment, and in particular water management and sanitation," Walich said recently at a discussion in Dhaka.

Dutch Ambassador to Bangladesh, Kees Beemsterboer informed the foreign journalists that his embassy has launched a 60 million euro programme on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) to provide drinking water for 8.5 million and sanitation facilities for about 17.6 million rural people in Bangladesh. A highlight of the programme will be to provide improved toilet facilities for women which is rare in Bangladesh, he said.

Secretary General of the World Water Forum of Journalists and Chairman of FEJB Quamrul Islam Chowdhury underscored the need for regular monitoring of the progress to sustain the success. He also called for monitoring the awareness campaign and providing the people with a low-cost sanitary option and putting in place technologies suitable for railway, waterway and highway passengers.
Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, said the government is committed to achieve 100 percent sanitation by 2010 in line with United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. The nation's sanitation coverage has reached about 70 percent in just two years from 33 percent in 2003. He termed the achievement "miraculous", saying that strong political commitment, tremendous mass awareness campaign and support to the hard-core poor have changed the reality for a better Bangladesh. Local government institutions are playing a very significant role, Mannan Bhuiyan told the international media representatives. He said the success rate is high but "a lot more should be done" to achieve its target of universal coverage in water and sanitation by the year 2010 .

Julhas Alam is a member of FEJB and correspondent of Associated Press.

Refugee

usatoday

http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2007-08-14-3079523328_x.htm

Bangladesh's refugees dream of Pakistan

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Enlarge by Pavel Rahman, AP Pakistani refugee women and children sit chatting at Mohammadpur Bihari camp in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2007. Crowded into impoverished shanty camps in the Bangladeshi capital they are the last refugee remnants of the massive upheaval that accompanied the partition of the Indian subcontinent along religious lines in 1947. As India and Pakistan celebrate 60 years of independence from Britain this week, Pakistan on Tuesday and India on Wednesday, many forget the third country involved in partition_ Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman)

By Julhas Alam, Associated Press Writer

DHAKA, Bangladesh — They call themselves the forgotten refugees, dreaming of a land many have never seen -- Pakistan.

Crowded into impoverished shanty camps across Bangladesh, they are remnants of the mass migration that accompanied the break-up of the Indian subcontinent along religious lines at independence from Britain in 1947.

Bangladesh is often the forgotten third country of partition. The departing British lumped what is now Bangladesh together with Pakistan because of their shared Islamic religion. But the two regions are more than 1,600 miles apart on either side of India and have a different languages, cultures and histories.

Bangladesh -- then known as East Pakistan -- revolted and won its independence with India's help in 1971. The nine-month conflict pitted East Pakistan's Bangla-speaking majority against Urdu-speaking Muslims who had fled from India at partition and wanted to remain part of Pakistan.

Calling themselves "stranded Pakistanis," about 500,000 Urdu-speakers decided to depart for Pakistan rather than join newly independent Bangladesh. But in 1993, Pakistan halted the repatriation process, saying it did not have the money or land to house them.

That left some 250,000 refugees and their descendants to languish in 70 government-run camps across Bangladesh. They are not citizens and cannot vote or apply for government jobs.

"I've been dreaming of going to Pakistan for years," said Mosammat Rahima, 50, standing outside the tiny hut she shares with seven other family members. "There they speak my language, Urdu."

Rahima's camp has become another sprawling slum in the capital of Dhaka, a city of 10 million people. Many live without electricity, water or adequate health care. Illiteracy, unemployment and malnutrition are rampant.

"Can you imagine, we have only 150 toilets for 25,000 people of the camp?" says Abdul Jabbar Khan, who has led protests and a media campaign for repatriation to Pakistan.

"Nobody thinks of us, not Bangladesh, not Pakistan," he added. "We know there's no hill of gold for us in Pakistan. But still we want to try our fate there. We aren't accepted here, we'll never be."

Barred from applying for government jobs, many in the camp eke out livings as day laborers or cleaners.

Rahima and her 60-year-old husband often sleep outside when their shack becomes too crowded on muggy nights.

"Do you think we're human beings?" she said. "Even dogs at many homes in this city live in better places."

Bangladesh and Pakistan say they are looking for a solution, though it appears remote.

"Both governments believe that we need to resolve this issue," Iftekhar A. Chowdhury, foreign affairs adviser to Bangladesh's interim government said. "On a recent visit to Pakistan, I raised the issue with my Pakistan counterpart, and he was of the same opinion."

As the years pass with no solution, however, the dream of Pakistan grows increasingly less appealing to younger generations. Many youth now speak Bangla and feel accepting Bangladeshi citizenship would give them a chance at a better life.

"Why shall we call ourselves Pakistanis? This is absurd," says Sahid Ali Babul, 25. "We should be given Bangladeshi nationality, since we were born and brought up here."

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Politics

USATODAY

Bangladesh forces patrol amid curfew

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By Julhas Alam, Associated Press Writer

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Traffic returned to the streets and residents crowded markets in Bangladesh's six largest cities Friday after the military-backed government temporarily lifted a curfew imposed to quell violent student protests.

The curfew was enacted Wednesday evening in six cities including Dhaka, the capital. It cleared streets of protesters, forced residents to stay home and temporarily shut down cell phone service.

Authorities lifted the curfew Friday at 8 a.m. and said it would be re-imposed at 10 p.m., the Information Ministry said in a statement. Authorities had also eased the curfew for three hours Thursday afternoon.

Residents welcomed the temporary curfew lift, saying it will allow them to shop for groceries and other necessities.

"This is a right move. We have now enough time to buy food and other essentials we badly need," said Habibur Rahman, a school teacher in Dhaka.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Bangladesh | DHAKA | Security forces | Streets | Sylhet | Barisal | Rajshahi

The curfew order came on the third day of unrest after students, whose protests had been largely confined to university campuses, spilled into the streets of Dhaka, burning cars and buses and battling with security forces. One person was killed and hundreds were injured, media reported.

The students are demanding an end to emergency rule, which was imposed in January when President Iajuddin Ahmed canceled scheduled elections, outlawed demonstrations, curtailed press freedoms and limited other civil liberties.

The interim government now running Bangladesh is doing so with the backing of the military, which ruled the country throughout the 1980s. Officials say elections will be held in late 2008.

Students also clashed with police Wednesday in Rajshahi and Sylhet in northern Bangladesh and Chittagong in the southeast. All three cities, along with Khulna, Barisal and Dhaka, were put under the curfew.

Bangladesh's democracy, restored in 1991, has been best known for rampant corruption and a bitter rivalry between the leaders of the two main political parties.

Much of Bangladesh welcomed the military-backed government when it came to power in January, but the protests suggested the beginning of a shift in public sentiment.

"Regrettably, the incumbents decided to take the path of repression," the English-language New Age newspaper said in an editorial. "The public discontent will simmer on and will find manifestation in different forms and style, sooner than later."

___

Associated Press Writer Farid Hossain contributed to this report.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.