India's efforts to strengthen ties with Bangladesh and strong fight against terror emerging from Pakistan is finally showing results as Bangladesh restricts visas issuance to Pakistanis!— Farah Khan (@FaraaahKhan) May 22, 2019
Pakistan terror factory on Bangladesh soil ends now!@TarekFatah https://t.co/yEFzKlMJTv
Time News Now, India
written by Mayukh Ranjan Ghosh
May 21, 2019
New Delhi: In an exclusive conversation with Times Now from Dhaka, Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina's advisor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury confirmed that Bangladesh has taken firm steps to restrict Terror 'elements' from using their soil and not to cross the border and land up in India for nefarious activities.
In a telephonic conversation, Mr. Chowdhury told Times Now's Mayukh Ranjan Ghosh that India, being a good friend, has regularly shared information regarding Terror organisations backed by Pakistan trying to use the soil of Bangladesh. He said that as Bangladesh was a good friend of India, it will firmly act against them and ensure they are quarantined.
Taking the first step to isolate Pakistan from the international community, Bangladesh has restricted visa issuance for Pakistanis. This, however, will be a precautionary measure and not a permanent blanket ban.
According to sources in Pakistan, the Bangladesh High Commission visa section in Islamabad has been closed from Monday afternoon. Strict instructions have come from Dhaka to scrutinize each and every applicant before issuing any visa. This is applicable for citizens of a few other countries as well.
Bangladesh PM Advisor also said that since India and Bangladesh share porous borders, they are extra cautious about people entering Bangladesh particularly in districts bordering India. Prime Minister Hasina's office and MOFA has already informed their Home department to ensure that no error terror elements use Bangladesh's soil.
Pakistan diplomats are already lobbying hard to exit FATF greylist and this decision from Bangladesh could add to their worries.
DW Documentary published on Apr 17, 2018: Bangladesh - Dawn of Islamism. In Bangladesh headlines are dominated by violence: Secular bloggers murdered by Islamic extremists, government opponents disappear, the Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian minority is under attack.
This is Islam, NOT EXTREMIST. There's probably like 10% out of the 2 BILLION Muslims worldwide who don't want to impose Islamic sharia caliphate on the world. (emphasis mine)
The country that wants to reconcile democracy and Islam appears to be finding it harder and harder to strike a balance between the two. Bangladesh was born in blood. The Bangladeshi government claims some three million people were killed during the 1971 war of liberation, though independent figures vary greatly. While Pakistan has remained an Islamic republic, Bangladesh made secularism a founding principle in the republic’s constitution. But conflict between Islamist and secular forces has plagued the country since its formation - and has a major impact on how it is perceived abroad. Annual economic growth has been at well over five percent for a decade; inward investment is flowing. Bangladesh is one of the world’s leading producers of garments and textiles. The government in Dhaka is keen to attract foreign cash. That fixation with inward investment also helps explain the refusal on the part of the political elite to recognize the growth of violent Islamism in the country. In 2016, Bangladesh experienced its worst terrorist attack to date. In Dhaka in the heart of the capital’s diplomatic quarter, terrorists murdered 20 people they’d taken hostage in a popular café, among them 18 foreigners. So-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in Dhaka, but the Bangladeshi government continues to deny that there are IS or Al-Qaeda cells in the country. The political landscape of the country is currently shaped by the personal animosity between the two most powerful women in Bangladesh: Sheikh Hasina, who heads the Awami League, and Khaleda Zia from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. When one of them holds the reins of power, the other regularly does all she can to bring government grinding to a halt by having the opposition dig in its heels. In a further twist to this tale Khaleda Zia was sentenced to five years in jail early February 2018, charged with misusing charitable funds. Khaleda Zia is also currently barred from taking part in parliamentary polls. The daughter of the country’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Hasina has led the Bangladeshi government since 2009. She views herself as a mediator between secular and Islamist forces. But the brutal murder of Atheist bloggers critical of religion and the continuing restriction of democratic freedoms show how this balancing act is teetering - and could soon tip into disaster.
👇That's a lot of "Some people did some thing." 👇
There are tons of similar stories like these in Bangladesh alone.
We really need to stop calling this "radical" Islam. It is Islam.
Vocativ published on Nov 29, 2017: A Mob Of Bangladeshi Muslims Burned Down 30 Homes Of Hindu Villagers. These homes were torched over a Facebook post.
A mob of Bangladeshi Muslims attacked a Hindu village after one villager allegedly took to social media to mock the Prophet Muhammad. Hundreds of people marched on the village demanding to kill the man responsible. They burned down 30 homes before being stopped by police, who used rubber bullets and live fire in the clash.
Intolerance and sectarian tensions are on the rise in Bangladesh. In 2016, 15 Hindu temples were attacked following an Islamophobic Facebook post, and several Atheist bloggers who have spoken out against Islam have been murdered (literally hacked to death) by Muslims in recent years.
Al Jazeera English published on Oct 1, 2012: Buddhist temple destroyed in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, government leaders are blaming opposition parties and what they call "Islamic radicals" for attacks on Buddhists.
Temples have been set on fire in the country, apparently after photos appeared on Facebook showing the Quran being desecrated.
But there might have been other more complex causes for the violence, and some think the attacks were premeditated.
Al Jazeera's Nicolas Haque reports from Ramu in southern Bangladesh.
AP Archive published on Jul 31, 2015: Several Buddhist temples, destroyed in Bangladesh during a wave of Muslim attacks last year, have been restored to their former glory.
The government is said to have ploughed millions of dollars into the repair work.
Buddhist chants are echoing again in Ramu, in the Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh.
Nineteen temples have been rebuilt here following the attacks in September 2012.
Bangladeshi Muslims are said to have set fire to at least 10 temples and 40 homes in the Buddhist settlements of Ramu and Ukhia in Cox's Bazar. It happened amid anger over a Facebook photo of a burned Quran.
It's ALWAYS under the PERCEIVED OFFENSE of a false accusation of insulting Islam in some way, shape or form. (emphasis mine)
The attacks left the temples, some of them centuries old, in ruins. Hundreds of Buddhists found themselves homeless overnight. The Bimukti Bibhusan Bhabana Kendra temple was among those targeted.
"The Bimukti Bibhusan Bhabana Kendra was burned on 29 September in 2012. The 100-foot Buddha idol was also vandalized at that time," says Karunasree Bhikkhu, the temple's founder and director.
"We express our deepest gratitude to the Government for renovation and beautification of the Bihar (Monastery) and the adjacent area, made possible by the earnestness of the honorable Prime Minister and the initiative of the army," he continues.
Buddhists make up less than one per cent of Muslim-majority Bangladesh's 150 million people.
Since the attacks, the Buddhist community in this district, near the border with Burma, has been in shock.
The Bangladeshi army helped the government in building the temples and the construction was completed within eight months.
"The social and religious harmony which we had been holding, we are proud of that," says Alam Khan, a Brigadier General of Bangladesh Army.
The government has reportedly spent close to 120 million taka (15 million US dollars) reconstructing the temples and has also offered assistance to rebuild over 100 Buddhist homes that were destroyed last year.
While some of the temples were repaired, most of them had to be reconstructed completely.
The restoration work has gone some way to calming the Buddhist community.
But some members say that until those behind the attacks are brought to justice, they can not live in peace.
"We are afraid that the leaders of the 29th September incident, the ones responsible for it, are moving freely. They were not arrested," says Sumon Borua, a local Buddhist.
"Those who have been arrested are people of little importance. The masterminds were not arrested.
We demand the arrest of those leaders. We demand the arrest of those who were named in the investigation, 205 names mentioned in the judicial probe must be arrested."
Last year's attacks have dented Bangladesh's secular image and which the country's constitution recognizes as one of its founding principles.
The temples may well have been repaired, but it will take a lot longer for the emotional wounds to heal here.
Bangladesh Today published on Sep 11, 2013: Activists under the banner of the 'Bangladesh Hindu, Buddhist and Christian Solidarity Association' took out a rally through the main streets of the national capital Dhaka. They were protesting against the attacks on the Hindu and Buddhist temples in Bangladesh. Scores of protesters holding banners and placards during the rally, raised slogans to press their agitation against the attacks on Buddhist monasteries and Hindu temples in different parts of the country, following the verdict on war crimes trial. The protesters denounced the Islamic fundamentalists for attacking the temples and vandalizing the idols of deities and other religious properties; and appealed for justice.
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