Bangladesh, the next Afghanistan?

Bangladesh has a number of organized & lavishly funded fundamentalist militias and a government that yields to their pressure on all matters.

Understandably, there has been growing concern over the possibility of Bangladesh becoming a country like Afghanistan under Taleban rule.

Addressing a press-conference in Dhaka on 5th September 2004, Joseph Cofer Black, the US State Department's coordinator for counter-terrorism, who was visiting the country in wake of the attack on Awami League's rally on 21 August, affirmed that USA was looking at Bangladesh's role as a terrorist platform.

Many would, however, scoff at the suggestion that a shift might be under-way from Afghanistan to Bangladesh, arguing that the situation in Bangladesh today is very different from Afghanistan in 1994 when the Taleban emerged.

Bangladesh is a far more developed country than Afghanistan. It has a vocal and assertive civil society supported by an active and secular intelligentsia. More important, it is a Muslim country with a significant degree of religious tolerance, where women play important roles in the country's social and economic lives.

Related Link > Radicalism in Bangladesh

Via Bangladesh-Blogger

Taleban storm luxury-hotel in Kabul

Taleban militants stormed Kabul's leading luxury-hotel last night, killing seven people in a significant escalation of insurgent tactics against foreign civilians in Afghanistan.

UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said Norway's foreign minister, Støre, was the target of the assault, where the Norwegian embassy was holding a meeting.

A Taleban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility shortly after the attack.

Via Guardian-Unlimited/AFP

Banning the 'Daughter-in-Law'!

In an echo of the strict religious laws of the Taleban era, the Islamic Council of Scholars won the backing this week of a powerful government minister in its campaign to get dozens of wildly popular Bombay dramas of Afghanistan's television-screens.

The Minister of Information and Culture has written to television executives to threaten prosecution if they show footage that offends morality. He is particularly concerned about Indian soaps.

The dramas have won thousands of devotees in Afghanistan who enjoy the escapist world of the fictional Bombay rich. They have, however, offended the country's new moral-enforcers, who fear that the soaps will fuel a craze of "stone-worship".

Tolo TV shows three dramas, Story of Every House; Trials of Life; and Because a Mother-in-Law Was Once a Daughter-Law Too.

Saad Mohseni, the director of Tolo TV, said:"We have so many problems in this country - kidnapping, terrorism, inflation - so why is the Government making a deal about something which is pleasing to the eyes and ears of Afghans?"

Via The Times

Image Day - Rubbing Hands

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf (R) shakes hands with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai during a joint news conference in Islamabad, Dec 26.

The leaders vowed to boost intelligence-cooperation to meet the menace of terrorism that was destroying both countries, Musharraf said.

> Reuters Pictures

Who are the Taleban?

The last couple of years have seen the re-emergence of the hardline Islamic Taleban movement in Afghanistan.

There has been a huge increase in violent attacks in recent months, particularly in the south where Nato forces are helping the Afghan government.

The government blames the violence on "enemies of Afghanistan".

The events of 11 September signalled the beginning of the end for the Taleban's control of Afghanistan. Mullah Omar and his comrades have evaded capture despite one of the largest manhunts.

Information via BBC News