BBC News – UN urges Bangladesh to take in people fleeing Burma violence

Friday 15 June 2012. The United Nations has urged Bangladesh to accept refugees fleeing violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma.

Tens of thousands of refugees have fled Burma’s province of Rakhine by boat. About 30,000 are already in camps in Bangladesh.

As many as 1,500 are said to have been turned back in recent days.

The UN’s refugee agency in Geneva, the UNHCR, says women and children have been left adrift on boats in the river Naf without food or care.

“There are now a number of boats drifting in the mouth of the Naf River with desperate people onboard in need of water, food and medical care,” the UNHCR said in a statement.

“It is vital that these people are allowed access to a safe haven and shelter.”

The violence flared after the murder of a Buddhist woman last month, followed by an attack on a bus carrying Muslims which killed 10 people.

Burmese officials have said the fighting has killed 29 people and thousands of homes have been burnt down.

Stateless group

Most of the refugees travel to Bangladesh by boat through the river Naf which marks the border with Burma.

The majority of the mainly-Muslim Rohingya refugees already in Bangladesh are staying in two camps in Cox’s Bazar district.

Rakhine state is named after the ethnic Rakhine Buddhist majority, but also has a sizeable Muslim population, including the Rohingyas.

The Rohingyas are a Muslim group and are stateless, as Burma considers them to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

According to reports, rioting began on Friday last week in the town of Maung Daw, spreading to the state capital Sittwe and neighbouring villages.

Two days later, President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency there.

On Thursday Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi warned that the strife would continue without “the rule of law”.

Speaking in Geneva on her first trip to Europe since 1988, she said the situation should be handled “with delicacy and sensitivity”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18460804

The Asian Age – Fake notes come via Pakistani diplomatic bag

Rajnish Sharma

New Delhi, 12 January 2012. The National Investigation Agency and other outfits have established that the network running India’s biggest fake currency racket is being operated with the aid of officials at Pakistan’s high commission in Dhaka.

Classified reports accessed by this newspaper show high commission staff in Dhaka are using diplomatic bags to transport high-quality fake Indian currency from Karachi to Bangladesh.

Using both technical and human intelligence sources, the NIA has confirmed that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence was printing fine-quality fake Indian currency notes at a highsecurity press at Karachi’s Maler Cantonment. This is then airlifted to Bangladesh via diplomatic bags to bypass any inspection.

Indian intelligence even mounted surveillance on some airlines frequently used by the mission staff. Some consignments are routed through the Pakistani embassy in Kathmandu using similar a modus operandi.

Once in Bangladesh, the fake currency is smuggled into India through the porous Indo-Bangladesh border, with Malda in West Bengal being a major hub.

In a massive operation across 12 states, the NIA has arrested 13 persons and seized a huge quantity of fake currency.

It is suspected the entire network is run by 30 people.

“The ISI is printing the fake Indian currency at four presses — in Karachi, Quetta, Lahore and Peshawar. But Maler Cantonment is the most sophisticated, where currency notes are of very good quality with a proper security thread and optically variable ink,” a senior official said.

The sources confirmed Hyderabad is a key transit point for smuggling the fake currency into South India: four arrests were from that city.

http://www.asianage.com/india/fake-notes-come-pak-diplomatic-bag-975

The Tribune – Sheikh Hasina urges India to be liberal in resolving water issues

Bijay Sankar Bora, Tribune News Service

Agartala, January 11. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed today urged the Government of “vast” India to be liberal in the efforts to resolve water issues between the two countries as well as to remove the prevailing bilateral trade imbalance.

Addressing the India-Bangladesh conclave at Pragna Bhawan here, Hasina, who arrived this afternoon to a red carpet welcome, said “Improved bilateral trade relations hold the key to remove poverty, the common problem of both the countries.

“We need peace in the region for trade to flourish across the borders and Bangladesh will not tolerate any act of terror and insurgency in the region.”

She added, “The stage has been set for the resolution of many issues between the two countries including those related to demarcation of the border in the wake of my earlier visit to India and the visit of Indian Prime Minister to Bangladesh last year. We expect our vast neighbour India to adopt a liberal approach in resolving the water issues.”

She said the trade imbalance between the countries was in favour of India. “Bangladesh imports goods worth about $4.5 billion from India every year compared to Indian import from Bangladesh worth about $521 million.

“There is, of course, need for political cooperation between the two countries for bilateral trade to flourish. Now that India and Bangladesh are enjoying close political ties, industry and business communities from both the countries need to exploit it to their advantage.”

Calling upon Indian businessmen to invest more in various sectors like power, telecommunication, textiles, health care etc, Hasina, at the same time, appealed to Bangladesh industry captains to improve their output to make inroads into the vast Indian market at this juncture when the Government of India was opening it up for them.

Earlier, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, who accompanied Hasina, lauded the recent statement by Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram about Government of India’s intention to accord most-favoured-nation status to Bangladesh in trade and commerce.

Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal, who was here to welcome Hasina, said India was keen to help Bangladesh in skill development of its youth.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120112/main5.htm

The Asian Age – Hasina visits Tripura on Wednesday to commemorate history

Agartala, 10 January 2012. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina makes a historic border crossing here on Wednesday with a 100-member delegation to commemorate the northeast Indian state’s role in her nation’s liberation.

She will be accompanied by her Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and a delegation comprising traders, prominent leaders, intellectuals and journalists during her two-day maiden visit to the state.

The Tripura Central University will confer an honorary doctorate (honoris causa) to Hasina on January 12 during the university’s ninth convocation. The Tripura government will host a huge civic reception for Hasina at the famous Assam Rifles ground.

According to historian and writer Bikach Chowdhury, Tripura had six to seven camps under four different sectors from where the ‘muktijoddhas’ (freedom fighters) fought the Pakistani forces in the nine-month-long war in 1971 that led to the creation of Bangladesh from East Pakistan.

“A large number of Tripura’s youths, politicians, leaders and other citizens had helped the muktijoddhas in numerous ways to achieve their goal. In fact, Tripura was the ‘labour room’ of the Bangladesh liberation war,” Chowdhury told the media, adding these could have influenced Hasina’s decision to visit.

Political analyst and columnist Gautam Das recalled: “During the war, to evade Pakistani forces’ barbaric atrocities, over one crore (10 million) Bangladeshi men, women and children took shelter in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya.”

“Over 1,600,000 Bangladeshis – a number larger than the state’s then total population of 1,500,000 – had taken shelter in Tripura alone,” he said.

Das, who has personal experience of the 1971 war, said veteran communist leaders Jyoti Basu and Nripen Chakraborty had played a key role in providing relief to Bangladeshi refugees and demanding Indian recognition to Bangladesh.

“Hasina’s illustrious father and architect of Bangladesh’s independence, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had become more famous following the Agartala conspiracy case. This also may be the reason behind Hasina’s visit to Agartala,” said Tripura Finance Minister Badal Chowdhury, who had done his primary education in the erstwhile east Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

The case related to charges of sedition, slapped by the then Pakistan government against Sheikh Mujib and 34 other people. Filed in January 6, 1968, it charged Sheikh Mujib and others in conspiring with India against the stability of Pakistan.

“Bangabandhu, as he was known, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was not involved in the case though he was named as the ‘first accused’. In fact, when the Agartala conspiracy case was initiated, Sheikh Mujib had already been in prison in Dhaka along with many others,” Das said.

Chowdhury said the Tripura government has been building an ambitious edifice and a park in southern Tripura in memory of Indian soldiers and Bangladeshi freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives during the 1971 war.

“The park being built at Chottakhola, a border village, 130 km from Agartala, at a cost of Rs.2.3 crore, will have a statue of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,” Chowdhury told the media.

Hasina’s visit was eagerly sought by the state, with Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, Governor D.Y. Patil and the Tripura Central University vice chancellor Arunoday Saha inviting her to visit during separate visits to Dhaka.

“Hasina at once accepted our invitations and agreed to visit Tripura,” Sarkar had said, on his return. (IANS)

http://www.asianage.com/india/hasina-visits-tripura-wednesday-commemorate-history-582