Buddhists celebrate Prabarana Purnima

. BSS, Chittagong
Buddhists here yesterday celebrated their second largest festival Prabarana Purnima, in the city as elsewhere in the district with traditional enthusiasm and due solemnity.
The festival is also known as Ashvini Purnima that marks conclusion of the three months long seclusion of the monks inside their monasteries for self edification and atonement of their defilement.
The Purnima follows a month-long preaching of sermons by the Buddhist monks for the welfare of every beings and whole humankind through a month-long yellow robes offering ceremony that begins from tomorrow.
According to the legend, Buddha once clipped some strands of hair from his head and said that if he were qualified to attain supreme wisdom and enlightenment, the hairs would not fall down but go up instead, in the long run which they did. To mark this event, the Buddhists released candle lit air balloons made of coloured paper and set free to flow towards the sky in the evening which is the chief attraction of the festival.
The Purnima was celebrated in all monasteries, respective offices of the religious organizations and educational institutions through day-long programmes.
The day's programmes heralded with hoisting of the national and religious flags atop all monasteries in the dawn and chanting of the sacred verses from the Tripitaka.
Breaking of fasting of the monks, mass prayer, blood donation, sangadana, discussions, panchashila and pradip puja were other highlights of the programmes.
In the city, the main religious congregations were held at Nandankanan Buddhist temple, Katalganj Nabapandit Vihar, Shakkymuni Buddha Vihar at Agrabad. Purnachar International Buddhists Monastery at Devpahar and Sarbajanin Bouddha Vihar at Momin road. In Nandankanon Buddhist temple, its chief priest Dr Ganasree Mohathero led the mass congregation while Venerable Pragyanbongsha Mohathero, founder of Shakkymuni Buddha Vihar conducted prayer and part time meditation among the devotees.
To mark the day, local dailies brought out some articles while Chittagong centres of Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh Television also aired special programme highlighting importance of the festival.
Besides, a number of periodicals were brought out on the occasion.
Special prayers were also held in all monasteries seeking peace and prosperity of the nation as well as global peace.
Members of the law enforcing agencies have been deployed in and around all temples in the city and district.

Right now, competition for political power has started again in Myanmar by bombing at the public places

Today many Arakans find themselves caught in position at the cost of their lives when they cannot do livelihood and getting persecutions and arrest at the hands of police in their home land. They were leaving for neighbouring nations like Thai and Malaysia cos of unemployment and persecution in Arakan.

At the same time, the total disregard for the safety of Arakanese people in Arakan State ,western Myanmar,
is the worst because Army and Armed Police in so-called power lose all their balance of mind and become much brutal while dealing with Buddhist Arakanese people.

The brutalities of the police froces are becoming more and more subjects for discussion among the Arakan
because the face of police is absolutely different with what people wanna be and without proving fact, people are being arrested by them. Moreover, Arakan people are being extorted money to get free during custody period of baseless cases, created by police.

Right now, competition for political power has started again in myanmar by bombing at the public places.
This is to say that Army is creating condition to coup power while things in Myanmar become
complicated. History of Myanmar is replete with examples of such situations and
Burmese nationlists serve in Army and notorious political party backed up by Army has made up not to let devolution to other nationals in myanmar ever but they believe that they deserve power to persecute and colonize others.

The BCIM quandary

Subir Bhaumik,  bdnews24.com

Published: 2013-10-17 10:07:19.0 BdST Updated: 2013-10-17 14:44:45.0 BdST

During Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to China next week, the Chinese will push for acceptance of modalities to take forward the BCIM economic corridor plan.

BCIM stands for Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar, a regional group now considered high priority by Beijing, which sees much future in a strong regional trading bloc boosted by all-round connectivity, physical and virtual.

China has already been in discussion with Myanmar and Bangladesh to take this plan forward.

During Premier Li Keqiang's Delhi visit in May this year, India and China agreed to 'explore' the possibility of a BCIM economic corridor.

During Singh's Beijing visit, China will also offer to declare Kunming and Kolkata as 'sister cities' to carry forward the K2K (Kunming to Kolkata) process that complements efforts to create a BCIM land corridor that can then be converted into an economic corridor.

Because Kunming and Kolkata are two defining end-points of the land corridor that would hold together the BCIM grouping.

Six Arakanese detained in Thandwe

( Thandwe, 3 October 2013):  Day after the latest sectarian clashes broke out in Arakan State between the Buddhists and Muslim residents killing at least 5 people, the police have detained six Arakanese Buddhists last night from their residences in Thandwe town.
According to the local source, a police team rounded up them from their localities in-between 10 to 11 pm yesterday.
Maung Pru, the Thandwe township RNDP secretary, had confirmed the arrest over phone. He also added that the RNDP Thandwe township president U Maung Pu (alias U Saw Hlaing) had also been detained by the police.
Other detained leaders include  U Thein Win, U Thein Zan, Ko Myint Moe Aung, Ko Win Ko Lay and Ko Kyaw Kyaw. All the detainees are from Thandwe locality.
U Khaing Pray Soe, the secretary board member of RNDP central committee informed that he was also arrested by the police yesterday night with the suspicion of his involvement with the violence in Thandwe, but authority has not yet declared about his detention.
He also telephoned to district chairman of Thandwe and in charge of Thandwe police station to enquire about the arrest, but the authority had not replied in details about it.
On Wednesday, the sectarian violence hit  Shwe Lay (Thapyu Chai) of Thandwe township, where five people got killed and 70 houses were set on fire. In another incident, four people were injured where as one person is reportedly missing.
The local residents informed that the authority has beefed- up the security arrangement across Thandwe township with engaging additional forces. Meanwhile  the authority is also looking for the agitators to book them such that the  tension can be reduced in the locality.

US is 'determined' to hunt al-Qaida leaders around world, John Kerry says

Reuters | Oct 6, 2013, 07.00 PM IST

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"We hope this makes clear that the United States of America will never stop in its effort to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror," Kerry said.

 

TRIPOLI/MOGADISHU: US raids in Libya and Somalia that captured an Islamist wanted for bombing its Nairobi embassy 15 years ago show Washington's determination to hunt down al-Qaida leaders around the globe, secretary of state John Kerry said on Sunday.

Libyan Nazih al-Ragye, better known by the cover name Abu Anas al-Liby, was seized by US forces in Tripoli on Saturday, the Pentagon said. A seaborne raid on the Somali port of Barawe, a stronghold of the al-Shabaab movement behind last month's attack on a Kenyan mall, failed to take or kill its target.

"We hope this makes clear that the United States of America will never stop in its effort to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror," Kerry said during a visit to Bali.

"Those members of al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations literally can run but they can't hide," Kerry said. "We will continue to try to bring people to justice."

The twin raids, two years after a US Navy SEAL team killed al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, demonstrated American reach at a time when Islamist militants have been expanding their presence in Africa - not least in Libya following the Western-backed overthrow of Gaddafi.

Libya's government, wary of an Islamist backlash, demanded an explanation for the "kidnapping" of one of its citizens.

The target of the Somali operation was unclear but a US official was quoted as saying it was planned in response to the Nairobi mall attack two weeks ago in which at least 67 were killed. That highlighted the risk of Somalia's rumbling civil conflict destabilizing a resource-rich continent where Islamists have been on the rise from west to east in recent years.

Launched in the early hours of Saturday, the Somali raid appears to have featured a beach landing in hostile territory that was followed by an extended firefight. US officials said SEALs conducted the raid and had killed al-Qaida-allied al-Shabaab fighters while taking no casualties themselves. Somali police said seven people were killed during the operation.

Somalia's Western-backed government, still trying to establish its authority after two decades of civil war, holds little sway in Barawe, 110 miles south of Mogadishu.

Asked of his involvement in the US operation, Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said: "We have collaboration with the world and with neighboring countries in the battle against al-Shabaab."

LIBYA RAID

In Tripoli, the seemingly bloodless operation to snatch Liby as he returned home from dawn prayers at a mosque in the capital may have involved some cooperation with the friendly but weak Libyan administration - though the government, facing anger from Islamist militias, issued a public denial.

"The Libyan government is following the news of the kidnapping of a Libyan citizen who is wanted by US authorities," read a statement from the office of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan. "The Libyan government has contacted US authorities to ask them to provide an explanation."

Liby, who the FBI says is 49, has been under US indictment since 2000 for his alleged role in bombing the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, which killed 224 people. Of more pressing concern for Washington, however, may have been that al-Qaida appears to be establishing itself in Libya today.

With President Barack Obama wrestling with the legal and political difficulties posed by trying al-Qaida suspects held at the US base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Liby may be more likely to face trial in New York, where the indictment was filed.

Liby, who had once been granted political asylum from Gaddafi in Britain, was charged with 20 other people including bin Laden and current al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri. The US government offered a $5 million reward for helping capture Liby.

Charges relating to him personally accuse him of discussing the bombing of the Nairobi embassy in retaliation for the US intervention in the Somali civil war in 1992-93 and of helping reconnoiter and plan the attack in the years before 1998.

"As the result of a US counterterrorism operation, Abu Anas al-Liby is currently lawfully detained by the US military in a secure location outside of Libya," Pentagon spokesman George Little said without elaborating.

US naval forces in the Mediterranean, as well as bases in Italy and Germany, would provide ample facilities within a short flight time from the coastal city to mount an arrest operation.

Neighbors and Libyan Islamist militia sources said the capture of Liby appeared to go smoothly: "As I was opening my house door, I saw a group of cars coming quickly from the direction of the house where al-Ragye lives. I was shocked by this movement in the early morning," said one neighbor in the residential district in southern Tripoli.

"They kidnapped him. We do not know who they are."

Abdul Bassit Haroun, a former Islamist militia commander who works with the Libyan government on security, said the US raid would show Libya was no refuge for "international terrorists".

"But it is also very bad that no state institutions had the slightest information about this process, nor do they have a force which was able to capture him," he told Reuters.

"This means the Libyan state simply does not exist."

He warned that Islamist militants, like those blamed for the fatal attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi a year ago, would hit back violently: "This won't just pass," Haroun said.

"There will be a strong reaction in order to take revenge because this is one of the most important al-Qaida figures."

Since Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011 in an uprising backed by Washington and its allies, well armed warlords have contested control of the thinly populated desert state and its vast oil resources. Fighters - and weapons - from Libya played a part in an Islamist revolt in Mali last year and in the related al-Qaida assault on a gas plant in the Algerian desert in January.

SOMALIA RAID

The Pentagon confirmed US military personnel had been involved in an operation against what it called "a known al Shabaab terrorist," in Somalia, but gave no more details.

Local people in Barawe and Somali security officials said troops came ashore from the Indian Ocean to attack a house near the shore used by al-Shabaab fighters.

One US official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the al-Shabaab leader targeted in the operation was neither captured nor killed.

US officials said troops, to avoid civilian casualties, disengaged after inflicting casualties on al-Shabaab. They said no US personnel were wounded or killed in the operation, which one US source said was carried out by a Navy SEAL team.

A Somali intelligence official said the target of the raid at Barawe, about 110 miles south of Mogadishu, was a Chechen commander, who had been wounded and his guard killed.

Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters that foreign forces had landed on the beach and launched an assault at dawn that drew gunfire from rebel fighters in one of the militia's coastal bases.

Britain and Turkey denied his suggestion that their forces had been involved in the attack and taken casualties.

The New York Times quoted an unnamed US security official as saying that the Barawe raid was planned a week and a half ago in response to the al-Shabaab assault in neighboring Kenya: "It was prompted by the Westgate attack,: the official said.

Barawe residents said fighting erupted at about 3am on Saturday (midnight GMT).

"We were awoken by heavy gunfire last night, we thought an al Shabaab base at the beach was captured," Sumira Nur told Reuters from Barawe by telephone. "We also heard sounds of shells, but we do not know where they landed," she added.

Temples rebuilt, but trust not

A Buddha idol in the remains of a Ramu temple burned down in a communal violence last year. Photo: File

Remember the Buddhist youth Uttam Barua, the deed writer whose Facebook profile image had been doctored to make a fake post that provoked an unprecedented attack on the Buddhist community of Ramu exactly a year ago?
Islamist fanatics vandalised and torched Buddhist temples and houses in Ramu and Ukhia of Cox’s Bazar in a wave of attacks, using the fake Facebook post that demeaned the holy Quran.
Uttam, 28,  has been untraced since the day. Even his family does not know of his whereabouts.
Their crumbling thatched hut at Haitupi village in Ramu is proof that good days have come to an end for the family.
Uttam’s mother, his wife Rita Barua, four-year-old son Aditya and physically challenged sister Jinia huddle together in the dilapidated house, weary of the wait for his comeback.

Uttam Barua

His father Sudeepta Barua now works at a shop in Chittagong to sustain the family. He sends home half of his Tk 4,000 monthly salary.
He too does not visit the family in Ramu or disclose where he works in Chittagong, fearing further trouble descending on the family.
An investigation by The Daily Star exposed the forged Facebook profile that was used to instigate the hate attacks, as well as the inaction of the local administration and intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
The government has rebuilt and renovated several of the 19 temples and 65 houses vandalised and burnt down during the mayhem, but could do little to allay the fears of the Buddhist community.
“If it returns my son, the government may hang me. But please give my son back,” said a weeping Madhu Barua, the 55-year-old mother when this correspondent visited their cottage.
With a face as gloomy as it can be, Rita, 26, tried to calm her mother-in-law, but in vain.
“I have not heard his voice even once since the attack. We do not know whether he is dead or alive.” Now she breaks down in tears.
After the rampage began on the evening of September 29, the fanatics vandalised the house of Uttam and beat his wife up.
In a worse turn of events, his mother and aunt Aadi Barua were arrested the next day following a case filed by the police. The two were later released on a High Court order.
Of the 19 cases filed in connection with the attacks, the law enforcers have already submitted charge-sheets in seven cases and are going to do so in six more cases in the first week of October.
But many local politicians, who led the procession of fanatics before the vandalism, are at large, a sight that still makes the Buddhists panicky.
On August 12, Uttam’s wife wrote to the prime minister seeking her intervention in finding her husband, but to no avail.
The family has received no government assistance so far, said Rita, adding that she had tried but failed to meet the PM when the latter visited Ramu to inaugurate the renovated temples on September 3.
Many would say a few words of sympathy, but no one, including the leaders of the community, dared to speak for the family out of fear that they might come under attack again.
“We are facing various kinds of dangers. Why invite some more?” said Tarun Barua, a leader of the community.
Its abject poverty did not allow the family to send Uttam’s son to school this year.
“Haunted by the attack, Aditya, the son, becomes hysterical every day when darkness falls. He screams, asking us to close the door and window,” said Rita.
The child forgets the family can no longer afford to fix the door or the window vandalised by the fanatics.

Muhammad Ali Zinnat with Shamim Ashraf

Five Myanmar police hospitalised after clash with villagers

Deutsche Presse Agentur September 20, 2013 1:58 pm

Yangon - Five police officers were hospitalised in Naypyitaw after a night raid on a town near the capital turned into a clash with the villagers, sources said Friday.

About 60 police entered Wegyi town, 350 kilometres north ofYangon, early Thursday in an attempt to arrest four village leaders who had opposed the government’s acquisition of their land, said a Naypyitaw police officer who participated in the raid.

"One of the suspects shouted for help as if they were being robbed and nearly 100 villagers surrounded us and told us to disarm eventhough they knew we were police," said the officer who asked to remain anonymous. The villagers beat up the police and tied some up with rope.

Bin Laden doctor`s 33 years jail sentence overturned

A judicial official on Thursday overturned the 33-year jail sentence of Shakil Afridi, the doctor who helped the CIA track down former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Judicial official Commissioner Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) Sahibzada Mohammad Anees ruled that the previous judge in the case exceeded his authority when handing down last year’s sentence and ordered a new trial.

Afridi’s sentence angered the United States, which withheld $33 million in aid for Pakistan in retaliation.

Afridi remains in custody and is believed to be held at the Peshawar central jail, reports dawn.com.

Australia settles 5 Bangladeshis in PNG

 
 

Australia has settled in Papua New Guinea five Bangladeshi citizens who travelled by boat to the country without visa under its new regional arrangement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.

Its spokesperson M Shameem Ahsan told bdnews24.com they were among a group of people of different nationalities in the boat that had been spotted on Aug 23.

“Particulars (Bangladeshis) are yet to be obtained,” he added.

The ministry confirmed it on Wednesday a month after Australian High Commissioner in Dhaka Greg Wilcock said some people claiming to be Bangladeshi nationals seeking asylums were detected while entering his country by a boat without visa.

He at a press briefing on July 29 had said they had been verifying their claims.

Australia came to an agreement with the Papua New Guinea (PNG) on July 19 under which all those who arrive in Australia by ‘dangerous’ boat without visas will have the validity of their refugee status assessed according to the laws of the PNG government.

The envoy said the decision had been taken in the wake of continuous inflow of people with ‘dangerous boat journey’ and to stop human traffickers ‘exploiting’ asylum seekers.

The foreign ministry spokesperson said they were in touch with the Australian High Commission in Dhaka and the Bangladesh mission in Australia had been asked “to get in touch with the relevant authorities and take appropriate actions”.

( www.bdnews24.com )

US embassy closure linked to terror fear

US intelligence has picked up signs of al Qaeda plot against US posts
DHAKA : The US embassy’s announcement earlier today that it will remain closed on Sunday, August 4, is linked to a perceived terror threat from Al Qaeda, it’s been learned, reports UNB.
The State Department is in fact keeping several consulates and embassies around the world closed on the date, due to the security threat.
Leading American cable network CBS reported earlier this morning that U.S. intelligence has picked up signs of an al Qaeda plot against American diplomatic posts in the Middle East and other Muslim countries.
The intelligence does not mention a specific location, which is why all embassies that would normally be open on Sunday have been ordered to close. That includes embassies and consulates in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia, where Sunday is the start of the work week. In line with this, Embassy Dhaka’s announcement to that effect was communicated in the early hours of Friday. Missing key pieces of intelligence means the security net has to be cast very wide – in this case, almost all Muslim-majority countries with a Sunday start to their week. As of 5:35am on Friday, CBS reported some 14 embassies and consulates had announced closures on August 4.
CBS further reported that officials say this appears to be “a real plot in the making” and not just the “normal chatter among terrorists” talking about attacks they’d like to carry out.
Marie Harf, the deputy spokeswoman for the State Department, told reporters the decision was made “out of an abundance of caution.” She also said that it is “possible” some facilities would remain closed for more than a day, depending on the results of a security analysis.