Bangladeshi | Producer @AJIUnit | Affiliate @OCCRP | Occasional digs @Haaretzcom @NetraNews @Bangla_Outlook | Threema:SASX9R2K | Signal: ZSK.01 (Views my own)
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আল জাজিরার ইনভেস্টিগেটিভ ইউনিট @AJIunit -এর অনুসন্ধানে উঠে এসেছে বাংলাদেশের সাবেক প্রধানমন্ত্রী শেখ হাসিনা কর্তৃক, ২০২৪ এর রক্তাক্ত ছাত্র আন্দোলন দমনের লক্ষ্যে নির্দয় গোপন নির্দেশাবলির বিস্তারিত।
#হাসিনা৩৬জুলাই
youtube.com/watch?v=UNf3_AnB…
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[Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has asked State Minister for Liberation War Affairs Ishraque Hossain to resign following widespread criticism over his public display of a pistol while chasing suspected drug users in Dhaka, two highly placed government sources told Daily Waadaa on Sunday.
Ishraque, however, dismissed the reports as rumours, while his office issued a statement denying that any resignation instruction had been given.
One highly placed source said the prime minister summoned Ishraque following a cabinet meeting at the Secretariat on Sunday afternoon and instructed him to step down.
The source claimed Ishraque subsequently drafted a resignation letter at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) but could not confirm whether he had submitted it.
Another source said Ishraque was not allowed to attend Sunday's cabinet meeting.
The reported move followed a controversy that senior government figures considered a serious embarrassment, according to the sources.
Contacted by Waadaa, Ishraque's personal secretary, Ariful Islam, neither confirmed nor denied the reports.
"Please have patience. Ishraque sir will brief tomorrow," he said].
Reports @DailyWaadaa
dailywaadaa.com/bangladesh/2…
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Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has instructed State Minister for Liberation War Affairs Ishraque Hossain to resign, a day after Ishraque was filmed leading an "anti-drug raid" in Gendaria with a pistol raised, shouting at people to be caught while someone beside him threatened to shoot.
Reports @ProthomAlo
prothomalo.com/politics/i14u…
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There is a video of Mohammad Ishraq going around, and it was posted on his own verified Facebook page.
Ishraq is a member of the parliament from ruling party and holds a state minister's post. In the video he’s seen running across an empty plot somewhere in Dhaka flanked by his security detail, chasing a few drug users out of a slum. Whoever edited the clip blurred his right hand.
People who have seen it personally say he was holding a pistol and even tried to load it once (as noticed in the video).
I have seen a lot of political theatre in this country over the years—this is unique.
If you check the video closely, you can notice a wireless lapel mic clipped to his kurta. And the camera is with him from the moment he gets out of the car, keeps him in frame across the ground and stays on him through the whole chase. You do not get footage like that from a bystander with a phone. Somebody was told to follow him and they did.
So the obvious reading is that the whole thing was put on for the cameras. Except Ishraq has said it wasn't, and I take him at his word, and that makes it worse.
A staged raid is a minister playing dress up with a prop. A real one is a minister running at some petty druggies with a gun in his hand after making sure his audio levels were right.
Does he understand what an MP is? He is not a police officer. He is not an executive magistrate. There is no law in Bangladesh under which a member of parliament can carry out a drive, a raid, a chase or an arrest. The Mobile Court Act gives that power to magistrates and to nobody else, least of all a politician who has decided he is an action hero. If he has a firearm licence, fine, the licence lets him own the weapon. It does not let him wave it about in a slum while woman and children run in panic and a crew films him doing it.
What we are left with is a minister cosplaying as a one man task force for his Facebook page, and the only part of it that embarrassed him enough is to hide was the gun (hence the blur) this is as despicable as it gets.
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This footage from October 1965 was shot by a Government of Pakistan camera crew in what was then East Pakistan and later catalogued by Hearst Metrotone News in New York. The index card describes it simply: "Durga Puja, the greatest religious festival of the members of the Hindu community, celebrated throughout East Pakistan."
Look at the faces in the crowd. Children, drummers, men in lungis and women in sarees, neighbours of every faith standing shoulder to shoulder to watch the celebration.
Sixty one years on, that is still who we are. Puja pandals lit up all across Bangladesh with Muslim neighbours sharing the prasad and the joy.
This harmony was not imported and it was not imposed. It grew out of our soil, our music, our rivers and our shared memory, long before 1971 and long before any of us were born.
There will always be a few who want to tell a different story, who pick and choose for themselves and manufacture new ones for their own ends, from inside the country and from outside it. They have tried throughout and have failed, and will fail.
Bangladesh is not built on their narrative, and it never will be.
To my Hindu friends, and to everyone who finds joy in these days: may this Puja bring you peace and courage.
Note: The archived footage from October 1965 carries no sound. The music has been added to this video.
Source: Hearst Metrotone News Collection, UCLA Film & Television Archive, unreleased material.
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নৌবাহিনীর প্রতিষ্ঠান ডকইয়ার্ড অ্যান্ড ইঞ্জিনিয়ারিং ওয়ার্কস লিমিটেড, সেলেক্সট্রা লিমিটেড ও বুরাক ব্রেক লিমিটেডের মধ্যে সম্পাদিত ত্রিপক্ষীয় চুক্তিটি দেখুন।
চুক্তিটি স্পষ্টভাবে দেখায়, কীভাবে আর্মড ফোর্সেস ডিভিশনের (প্রধানমন্ত্রীর কার্যালয়) নির্দেশ উপেক্ষা করে, কোনো টেন্ডার প্রতিদ্বন্দ্বিতা ছাড়াই, সমাজকল্যাণ মন্ত্রণালয়কে সরাসরি ৩২০ কোটি টাকার অ্যান্ড্রয়েড ট্যাবলেট সরবরাহের প্রকল্পে যুক্ত হয় ডকইয়ার্ড অ্যান্ড ইঞ্জিনিয়ারিং ওয়ার্কস লিমিটেড।
চুক্তিটি ভালোভাবে খতিয়ে দেখলে (প্রথম পাতার চিহ্নিত অংশ লক্ষ করুন) বেশ পরিষ্কার বোঝা যাবে, সমাজকল্যাণ মন্ত্রণালয়ের কাছে ৪৮,০০০ টাকা মূল্যে প্রায় ৬৭ হাজার ট্যাবলেট বিক্রি করে সম্মিলিতভাবে শতকোটি টাকা মুনাফার ছক এঁটেছিল বাংলাদেশ নৌবাহিনী, সেলেক্সট্রা ও বুরাক ব্রেক লিমিটেড।
এই দুটি প্রতিষ্ঠান ২৬ হাজার টাকায় কেনা ট্যাবলেট নৌবাহিনীর মাধ্যমে ৪৮ হাজার টাকায় সরকারের কাছে বিক্রি করে শতকোটি টাকা লাভের আয়োজন করে।
গতকাল @DailyWaadaa প্রকাশিত অনুসন্ধানী প্রতিবেদনে এই পরিকল্পনার বিস্তারিত তুলে ধরা হয়েছে (সংযুক্ত টুইটে দেখুন )।
উল্লেখ্য, বুরাক ব্রেক লিমিটেডের মালিকানায় রয়েছেন সরদার রাফিন এস এ হোসেন ও অনিকা রাইদা লিয়া, যাঁদের পিতা বিএনপির নরসিংদী জেলা সহ-সভাপতি সরদার তোফাজ্জল হোসেন লিয়াকত এবং চাচা বিএনপি সরকারের স্বাস্থ্যমন্ত্রী সরদার মোঃ সাখাওয়াৎ হোসেন বকুল।
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Bangladesh Navy-run shipyard sold Tk 342 crore worth of goods (wheelchairs, sewing machines, Android Tablets) to the Ministry of Social Welfare between June-August 2026, without a tender and without any sign of the Prime Minister's Office and Armed Forces Division's approval required by a March directive.
The shipyard's own deed keeps 4% of the total money for the Navy company. Everything left after costs and tax goes to a firm run by the Health Minister's nephew and niece. Their father, a district BNP leader, was photographed at the Social Welfare Ministry alongside a Navy officer during the arrangement.
dailywaadaa.com/investigatio…
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[But as growth slows and inflation rises, the new government’s reform plans are being tested before it has had much time to clean up the country’s troubled financial institutions or retool its young, abundant – but underemployed – workforce for the AI era.]
scmp.com/week-asia/economics…
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Under the present context of state affairs, India can be termed as the "mother of democracy", as you describe @narendramodi, then you, Sir are undoubtedly the "father of hypocrisy".
During an economic forum organised by Bloomberg in New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has described India as the “mother of democracy” as his government is accused of arresting thousands of peaceful protesters and restricting free speech.
At least 35 media workers covering anti-government protests were arrested in 48 hours this weekend, according to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Modi claimed that “open discussion happens” in his country, including on social media, despite multiple protests being banned in New Delhi and accusation of censorship on the Instagram pages of the Cockroach Janta Party.
On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch published a report denouncing the use of abusive methods to crack down on peaceful protesters and what it described as excessive police violence.
“The Modi government should stop throwing young protesters in jail and instead engage with them to address concerns over the right to vote and fairness of elections,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at the organisation.
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I recently collected a copy of the March 1977 issue of New Internationalist. The cover line: "Back from the brink? Bangladesh revisited." I read it twice and thought if I swapped a handful of words, it could have been filed from Dhaka earlier this year.
The correspondents who worked on this found a nervous capital. According to their findings, tanks had left the streets, but the radio station was still guarded round the clock, elections were postponed, and the jails were full of the previous government's enemies. They found a career soldier in the driving seat, Major General Ziaur Rahman, who they praised for honesty and for attacking red tape, with no time for fools and crooks. President Ziaur found a government too preoccupied with India to open up domestic politics. And he found a country that, far from being a basket case, had gas, fertile soil, jute and the quickest wits in the subcontinent, yet was more dependent on foreign aid than it had been at independence. More than half the budget came from foreign grants and credits. A hundred and twenty-six voluntary agencies were working throughout the country.
I paused at the two lines where they note that India decided to divert 40,000 cusecs of the Ganges at Farakka to flush silt out of Calcutta port, and Dhaka then became convinced Mrs Gandhi was using the river to destabilise the country. And on the diplomatic grapevine, Washington was said to be negotiating a base on St Martin's Island.
Put the magazine aside and look at October 2026. Ziaur Rahman’s son, Tarique Rahman, has been Prime Minister since February. Dhaka is once again a city where the government's foreign policy begins and ends with the question of how to handle New Delhi. His government is still waiting on India for an answer on Hasina's extradition before he will even consider a visit to Delhi.
The 1996 Ganges treaty expires on December 12 this year, and Tarique Rahman’s water minister says Bangladesh's top priority in the new version is to restore the guarantee clause from the 1977 agreement. Think about that — the son is negotiating to recover a protection the father secured in the very year this magazine was printed. Teesta is still unsigned. Delhi's "hydro-hegemonic" approach is the polite phrase experts use.
Reality is, instruments may have changed, but the intention remains the same. In 1977, the leverage was food aid: 650,000 tons of mostly American grain, sold through ration shops, propping up 18% of the budget and giving donors what the article called "enormous leverage." Today nobody needs to ship wheat. The lever swapped with the tariff schedule. Washington threatened a 37% duty on our exports, with garments, the industry that feeds the country’s economy, taking the hit, and the rate came down to around 19% only after Dhaka put something on the table. That something was Boeing.
Fourteen aircraft for $3.7 billion, signed in April, the biggest order in Biman's history, with a pledge of 25 and then, after Trump spoke to Tarique Rahman in August, a promise of billions more, announced by the American envoy on X. These days Washington no longer whispers about a base on St Martin's; instead, it sends an invoice.
Fifty years ago we were told what to eat; today we are told what to fly, and the seller's ambassador tells us in public, as a trophy. Whether an economy that struggles to pay its own import bill can afford those planes is a question our politicians can’t afford to ask loudly (considering whether their invite to American parties would stop coming).
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Back in 1977, India had one tool: the barrage. Today it has many. Water remains, but new additions include power lines, fuel releases, visa taps, border killings, a captured media narrative, and the quieter instruments my own reporting has spent the last two years documenting.
This piece (attached above) ended by saying this might be a period when events make men, when decisions in New Delhi and Washington would matter more to ordinary Bengalis than anything Zia did about red tape.
I'm not sure the author expected that sentence to hold for half a century.
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RT @zoo_bear: Vishal Singh, a contract worker involved in Metro construction, was arrested for sexually assaulting a minor girl inside a te…
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Sami retweeted
The star of the day for me was this woman, who stood with the national flag held high for over 5 hours in CP. Listen to her articulate her reasons for doing so. Just amazing.
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Sami retweeted
Thousands of people were detained across New Delhi as Indian authorities mounted a sweeping security operation to stop a protest by the “cockroach” movement demanding the resignation of the country’s election chief — in pictures.
🔗 : aje.news/5bvrzw
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Police detained hundreds of protesters in Delhi for a second day as they demanded that India's election chief quit reut.rs/4B2mZQL
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