Chandrashekar Bhat – Bangladesh Weekly

London’s Camden Council holds ‘Bangladesh at 50’ event

Chandrashekar Bhat — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 14:53:56 +0000

LONDON’S Camden Council in partnership with the Bangladesh High Commission celebrated the 50th year of the south Asian country’s independence.

At the event – Bangladesh at 50 – held at the British Museum, mayor Sadiq Khan highlighted the contribution Bangladeshi Londoners have been making to the culture and economy of the city.

“Over the last half a century, Bangladeshi Londoners have made – and continue to make – a hugely positive contribution to our society, economy and culture. I can only see that beneficial impact on our city increasing over the next 50 years as the ties between our two countries strengthen further.”

Dance performances, musical recitals and artwork produced by the Bangladeshi community marked the commemoration of the country’s liberation from Pakistan on March 26, 1971.

An artiste performing at Bangladesh at 50 event in London. (Photo: Greater London Authority)

There was also an exhibition on the history and contributions of the Bangladeshi community in the UK.

The event featured speeches from cross-party elected officials, delegates, and members of the British Bangladeshi communities in London.

Councillor Abdul Hai, cabinet member for Young People, Equalities and Cohesion said: “We in Camden are honoured to mark the Bangladesh 50th Independence milestone… and we do so in solidarity with all our communities.”

The golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence was in March 2021. However, due to the pandemic, the event was rescheduled to take place this year.

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Shahidul Alam appointed National Geographic Explorer at Large

Chandrashekar Bhat — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 13:52:38 +0000

THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY has appointed veteran Bangladeshi photojournalist Shahidul Alam as a National Geographic Explorer at Large.

Along with Alam, American artist Maya Lin has also been conferred the title; both will be ambassadors for the organisation and support its work.

“Throughout their careers, Maya and Shahidul have clearly demonstrated their courage, creativity, and innovation as storytellers,” the society’s chief storytelling officer, Kaitlin Yarnall, said.

An “Explorer at Large” will receive an annual stipend and access to additional grant opportunities from the society to support its “mission to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world”, the organisation said on January 26.

Born in Dhaka in 1955 and educated at the University of Liverpool, “Alam has demonstrated the power of storytelling to drive impact,” it said.

He became a photographer by accident. He was travelling in North America in 1980 when a friend asked him to buy a camera, but couldn’t reimburse him. Alam began using it. He started as a children’s portrait photographer while he studied to become a research chemist, and eventually recognised that effective images could fuel activism.

“Through a photograph, I could transform a statistic into a person,” Alam said during the National Geographic’s Storytellers Summit in 2020.

When he returned to Bangladesh in 1984, Alam became a dedicated photojournalist, documenting the democratic struggle to remove the country’s autocratic ruler, the society said.

His photographs of life in Bangladesh, including social and political conditions and the environment, became well known in his country and around the world.

His work was featured by major western media outlets and displayed in the Tate Modern in London.

He founded the Drik Picture Library, the Chobi Mela International Photography Festival, and the Pathshala South Asian Media Institute – considered one of the world’s finest schools of photography. He also started the “Out of Focus” initiative, which teaches disadvantaged children about photography.

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Sunak, Priti Patel join Prince Charles at British Asian Trust event

Chandrashekar Bhat — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 13:09:51 +0000

CHANCELLOR Rishi Sunak and home secretary Priti Patel joined Prince Charles and his wife Camilla at an event hosted by the British Asian Trust (BAT) in London last night (9).

Leading business, political and community leaders from the subcontinent attended the trust’s annual dinner at the British Museum, where Lord Jitesh Gadhia was named as the new chair of the charity.

Guests included Adar Poonawalla who runs India’s leading vaccine maker, the Serum Institute, and his wife Natasha; the new CEO of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan; music producer Naughty Boy and chairman of Pakistan’s Nishat Group, Mian Mohammad Mansha.

Prince Charles said, “I cannot quite believe it is almost two years to the day that both my “Mehabooba” and myself were able to be with all of you to celebrate the work of the British Asian Trust. Since then, across the globe, there has been terrible loss of life from Covid-19 and we have especially seen the devastating impact throughout south Asia.

“In these most challenging times, the British Asian Trust has run four significant fundraising appeals which have so far raised almost £20 million. A truly remarkable achievement in such a difficult environment.”

During the pandemic, the trust raised £5m through its “Oxygen for India Appeal” to support the country during its devastating second wave.

(L-R) Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy, Duchess of Cornwall Camilla, Prince Charles, Natasha and Adar Poonawalla and Mian Mohammad Mansha at the British Asian Trust event in London.

It also secured £2m of matched funding from the UK government for the trust’s Women’s Economic Empowerment programme, which will help 10,000 Pakistani women to find a job or start a business.

Founded in 2007 by Charles and British Asian business leaders, the trust seeks to tackle poverty, inequality and injustice in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Outgoing chair Manoj Badale said, “The funds raised will help us continue to deliver large scale outcome-focused programmes in the fields of education, livelihoods, mental health, anti-trafficking and conservation in south Asia post-Covid-19.”

The event was hosted by trust ambassadors, BBC broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake, BBC, and Reshmin Chowdhury, sports presenter for BT Sport and the BBC.

Guests who attended to event included filmmaker Gurinder Chadha, actor Nitin Ganatra, former Liverpool and Wales footballer Ian Rush, fashion designers Shantanu and Nikhil, Vimlesh Maru of Lloyds Banking Group, Lakshman Narasimhan of Reckitt and DJ Neev.

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Ashok Leyland to supply 200 trucks to Bangladesh

Chandrashekar Bhat — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 14:46:28 +0000

COMMERCIAL vehicle maker Ashok Leyland said it will supply 200 trucks to Bangladesh as part of a $2-billion (£1.48 bn) line of credit announced by Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

As part of the order, 135 trucks have already been delivered to Bangladesh, the Hinduja Group-owned company said in a statement on Monday (7).

It said it had won the tender floated by the Bangladesh government for 135 fully-built trucks.

These trucks have already been handed over to the Roads and Highways Department of Bangladesh in the current financial year, it added.

Ashok Leyland has now been awarded an order for 65 units of truck-mounted wrecker, a specialised vehicle to be deployed by the Bangladesh government for various highway applications, it noted.

“Bangladesh is one of our key export markets, and this supply further strengthens our position in the country. We are enthused by the various export facilitation measures taken by the Indian Government. We plan to further increase our volumes and footprint in overseas markets… Exports have been a strong focus for us to de-risk from cyclicality in the Indian market,” said Amandeep Singh, head of the international operation, Ashok Leyland.

Ashok Leyland is one of the leading commercial vehicle brands in Bangladesh, with more than 50 touchpoints across the country, according to the company.

Apart from supplying many vehicles from India, the company also assembles its range of trucks, buses, and light commercial vehicles in Bangladesh, it stated.

(PTI)

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37 dead as fire breaks out in Bangladesh ferry

Chandrashekar Bhat — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 09:22:17 +0000

AT LEAST 37 people died when an overcrowded night ferry caught fire in Bangladesh on Friday (24), police said, as terrified passengers leaped overboard to escape the blaze.

The latest maritime tragedy to hit the nation happened in the early hours in a river near Jhalokathi, 250 kilometres (160 miles) south of Dhaka.

“We have recovered 37 bodies. The death toll may rise. Most died from the fire and a few by drowning after many people jumped into the river,” local police chief Moinul Islam said.

The blaze was believed to have originated in the engine room and ripped through the ferry, Islam said. Despite having an official capacity of 310, the vessel was carrying at least 500 people, many of who were returning home from the capital.

“We have sent some 100 people with burn injuries to hospitals in Barisal,” he said.

Witnesses said the fire originated around 3:00 am local time (2100 GMT on Thursday) and quickly spread.

“We were sleeping on a mat on the ground floor deck. All the passengers were sleeping. My nine-year-old grandson, Nayeem, was with me, he jumped into the river. I don’t know what happened to him,” said an elderly woman.

Other survivors said they saw a small fire in the engine room as soon as the packed ferry set off from the Sadarghat river station in Dhaka at 9:00 pm local time on Thursday (23).

“A lot of people ran for safety as the fire spread. A lot of people could not get out of their cabins where they were sleeping. Many jumped into the river,” said another survivor at Barisal Medical College Hospital.

Johar Ali, the local district administrator, said rescuers arrived at the scene within an hour after the fire broke out and rushed the injured to nearby hospitals.

“We spoke to passengers. And they said there were between 500 and 700 passengers,” he said.

“The fire went on for four or five hours before it was doused. The entire [ferry] has been gutted. But they managed to bring it to the shore,” Ali said.

Local television showed images of burnt motorcycles and gutted cabins inside the boat.

Shell-shocked survivors and their relatives crowded the shore as fire service and coast guard divers scoured the muddy waters.

The tragedy was the latest in a string of similar incidents in the delta country, crisscrossed by rivers.

Experts in the south Asian nation of 170 million people blame poor maintenance, lax safety standards at shipyards and overcrowding.

In August, at least 21 people were killed when a boat packed with passengers and a sand-laden cargo ship collided. In April and May, 54 were killed in two separate accidents.

In June last year, a ferry sank in Dhaka after it was hit from behind by another ferry, killing at least 32 people. In February 2015, at least 78 people died when an overcrowded ship collided with a cargo vessel.

Fires are also a regular source of tragedy. In July, 52 people perished in a blaze in a food and beverage factory in Rupganj, an industrial town outside Dhaka.

And at least 70 people died in February 2019 when a fire tore through Dhaka apartments where chemicals were illegally stored.

(AFP)

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UK donates 4 million vaccine doses to Bangladesh

Chandrashekar Bhat — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 13:56:22 +0000

THE UK donated more than four million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to Bangladesh through the Covax mechanism.

Bangladesh’s fight against the pandemic and its economic recovery will be reinforced by the donation, the British government said in a statement on Thursday (23).

At the G7 meeting this year, the UK committed to donating 100 million doses by June 2022 and 80 per cent of the doses would be distributed through the Covax facility.

The vaccine consignment arrived in Bangladesh last week.

Like the rest of the world, the UK and Bangladesh have experienced difficult times because of the pandemic and “we are both in it together in building back better”, British high commissioner Robert Chatterton Dickson said.

“This vaccine donation by the UK is a powerful demonstration of Brit-Bangla bondhon between two countries. The UK will do everything we can to support Bangladesh to save lives and defeat the pandemic,” he said, referring to the ties between Britain and the south Asian country.

The UK government said more than half a billion doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have been delivered at a non-profit price globally, with two-thirds going to lower and middle-income countries.

It said it has been supporting Bangladesh to develop a national response plan to tackle the pandemic.

Bangladesh’s vaccination drive was disrupted earlier this year as India, which was faced with a massive tide of infections at home, suspended the supplies to its neighbour.

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20 students get capital punishment for Bangladesh political murder

Chandrashekar Bhat — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 10:50:31 +0000

BANGLADESH sentenced 20 university students to death on Wednesday (8) for the 2019 murder of a young man who criticised the government on social media.

The battered body of Abrar Fahad, 21, was found in his dormitory hours after he wrote a Facebook post slamming prime minister Sheikh Hasina for signing a water-sharing deal with India.

He was beaten with a cricket bat and other blunt objects for six hours by 25 fellow students who were members of the ruling Awami League’s student wing, the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL).

“I am happy with the verdict,” Fahad’s father Barkat Ullah told reporters outside court after the sentencing. “I hope the punishments will be served soon.”

The remaining five perpetrators were handed life imprisonment.

Chief prosecutor Mohammad Abu Abdullah Bhuiyuan said the murder was premeditated.

All those given death sentences were aged between 20 and 22 years at the time of the murder and attended the elite Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology alongside Fahad.

Three of the defendants are still at large while the rest were in the courtroom.

Faruque Ahmed, a lawyer for the defendants, said the sentence would be appealed.

“I am very disappointed at the verdict. It is not fair,” he said.

“They are young men and some of the best students of the country. They were sentenced to death despite no proper evidence against some of them.”

‘Highest punishment’

Fahad had put up a post on Facebook that went viral hours before his death.

In it, he criticised the government for signing an accord that allowed India to take water from a river that lies on the boundary the two countries share.

Fahad had been seen – in leaked CCTV footage that went viral on social media – walking into a dormitory with some BCL activists.

About six hours later, his body was carried out by the students and laid on the ground.

Protests after Fahad’s murder called for the attackers to be harshly punished and for the BCL to be banned.

Hasina vowed soon afterwards that the killers would get the “highest punishment”.

The BCL has earned notoriety in recent years after some of its members were accused of killing, violence and extortion.

In 2018, its members allegedly used violence to suppress a major anti-government student protest.

Those rallies were sparked by anger over road safety after a student was killed by a speeding bus.

Death sentences are common in Bangladesh with hundreds of people on death row. All executions are by hanging, a legacy of the British colonial era.

In August, a court sentenced six Islamist extremists to death for the murders of two gay rights activists.

Sixteen people were handed the death penalty in 2019 for burning alive a 19-year-old student who accused her seminary’s head teacher of sexual harassment.

(AFP)

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Bangladesh allows relocated Rohingya refugees to visit families

Chandrashekar Bhat — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 10:50:06 +0000

DOZENS of Rohingya refugees sent to a remote and flood-prone Bangladesh island have been allowed to visit their relatives for the first time since their relocations began two years ago.

Nearly 20,000 members of the stateless Muslim minority, who fled neighbouring Myanmar in 2017 after a brutal military crackdown, have already been sent to Bhashan Char island.

Bangladesh has been criticised by rights groups for the relocation plan, which aims to eventually move around 100,000 refugees to ease overcrowding in cramped refugee camps near the coastal city of Cox’s Bazar.

Authorities on Tuesday (30) allowed 68 Rohingya to leave the formerly barren island to visit their family members on the mainland.

“A Navy ship took them to Chittagong and from there they were taken to the camps by two buses,” a Navy spokesman said on Wednesday (1).

“This is the first time Rohingya living on the island have gone to the camps to visit their relatives.”

A senior disaster management ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the government had decided to allow at least two trips per month from the island to the camps.

The first group leaving Bhashan Char arrived at the camps Tuesday night for an emotional reunion with relatives after months of separation.

“When I found that I was on the list of people who were allowed to visit Cox’s Bazar, I broke into tears,” said Mohammad Hossain.

“My older brother lives here… I thought I would never see him again,” he added. “Coming here I feel like I am coming back to my community.”

About 850,000 Rohingya are packed into camps along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. Most fled the Myanmar military clampdown in 2017 that the United Nations says could be genocide.

Bangladesh has been praised for taking in the refugees who poured across the border but has had little success finding them permanent homes.

Bhashan Char is 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the Bangladesh mainland and lies at the heart of the Meghna estuary, an area prone to powerful cyclones that have killed around one million people in the last 50 years.

(AFP)

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Argentina to probe claims of Myanmar war crimes against Rohingya

Chandrashekar Bhat — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 14:26:54 +0000

ARGENTINA’S justice system will investigate allegations of war crimes committed by the Myanmar military against that country’s Rohingya minority under a court ruling upholding the principles of “universal justice.”

The appeals court decision overturns a lower court ruling rejecting a request for an investigation by the British-based Burmese Rohingya Organisation (BROUK).

A 2017 army crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, which the UN says could amount to genocide, has triggered an exodus of more than 740,000 members of the community, mainly to Bangladesh.

The legal premise of “universal justice” holds that some acts – including war crimes and crimes against humanity – are so horrific they are not specific to one nation and can be tried anywhere.

Argentina’s courts have taken up other universal jurisdiction cases in the past, including in relation to ex-dictator Francisco Franco’s rule in Spain and the Falun Gong movement in China.

Proceedings against Myanmar and its leaders are already under way at the International Criminal Court and the UN’s International Court of Justice.

Six Rohingya women, refugees in Bangladesh, had given remote testimony to the court in Argentina.

One of the complainants said they “had all been sexually assaulted and that many of their family members had died as a result of the repression they had suffered” in August 2017, the court recalled.

In their decision, the appeals judges said that “the investigation and eventual judgment of this type of crime is the primary responsibility of states.”

BROUK president Tun Knin in a statement said the ruling represented hope “not just for us Rohingya but for oppressed people everywhere.”

He added: “The decision in Argentina shows that there is nowhere to hide for those who commit genocide – the world stands firmly united against these abhorrent crimes.”

(AFP)

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Protest paralyses Dhaka after student dies in road accident

Chandrashekar Bhat — Fri, 26 Nov 2021 11:22:26 +0000

HUGE crowds blockaded busy streets and harassed drivers in Dhaka on Thursday (25) to protest the death of a high school student in a road accident in the Bangladesh capital.

Thousands of uniformed students brought traffic to a standstill around Dhaka’s main commercial district and near the national parliament.

Others marched to the city mayor’s office, demanding a fast-track prosecution of the driver of a garbage truck accused of fatally running over the pupil.

“We won’t return home until we get justice,” Sabit Bin Arif, a protester, said.

“We want justice. We want the safety of our lives on the roads. How can we sit back when our friend got killed by such negligence?” the 18-year-old added.

Students were seen approaching vehicles – including police vans – and asking those behind the steering wheel to show their driving licences.

In 2018, similar street protests sparked by the deaths of two students in a bus accident grew into a nationwide movement that stopped traffic around the country for a week, prompting a government crackdown.

Authorities later introduced a road law, increasing punishments for reckless driving, but students participating in Thursday’s (25) protest said the measures did not go far enough.

“We won’t return home until our rights are ensured this time,” Israt Jahan Ivy, 17, said.

“We are not against the government. We just want safety on roads.”

(AFP)

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