Pl note, this story sent earlier is modified and edited.

The Madhumati Across the Border Which Flows in Me
Palash Biswas
( Pl publish and send a copy. Contact: PalashcBiswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, gosto Kanan, sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-33-25659551-r)
She was the Madhumati for us all. She was my grandmother Shantidevi who never forgot the river left behind flowing by her village Kumordanga under Beleshwar PS, Narail sub Division under Jassore district. Narail is now a district in independent Bangladesh. The freedom struggle for Bangladesh was intense while she died in 1970 more than thousand miles away in Basantipur, a remote village near Pant Nagar university under the district of Nainital in UP undivided.. Now Basantipur is situated in Udham Singh Nagar District in Uttarakhand.
I was a schoolboy when she died aged eighty. I remember the day as me and my cusin subhash were in the school Zila Parishad Uchchtar Madhyamic Vidyalay Dineshpur. Father reached the school to get us home from our classrooms. He was crying. Though we loved our grandmother very much but I did not see any logic to mourn for an ailing old woman. I perhaps laughed at a point becuse the mourning and its pathos somewhat aesthetically amused me. Father was irritated to note that and warned me , one day I might weep. Well, in June,2001 when my younger brother informed me about the demise of my father and his last wish to be cremated beside his lifelong friends , I could not help it and broke down. It was full thirty one years late to realise the impact of losing parents for ever.
My grand mother left East Bengal just after partition and travelling refugee camps in Bengal and Orrissa, at last resettled with her family in Basantipur. Even breathing last she never forgot the river. We could feel the waves and tides of the river Madhumati as long as she survived. Though we had no great river around .The migration was a burning curse and she kept burning and I even as a small child could experience well the heat and smoke very well.

I remember the death of my grand mother as before this, I became adult suddenly as a student of class eight. I led the highschool agitation in demand of questionpaper in Bengali for Bengali language. The questionpaper in the halfyearly examinations was in devnagrai. We had nothing against Hindi as it had become the spontaneous medium for our communication in the mini India of Himalayan Terai where Bengali and Sikh refugees, Raisikhs, Punjabi and Marwaries, Deshi and Purbia, Buksha and Tharu people lived side by side in the newly established inhabitation with a siezable population of Kumauni and Garwalies. Specially we felt at home with the Hill People as their culture seemed to be very intimate to us.Politically and socially we enjoyed the strong support from the Hills without which we could not have sustained ourselves in an atmosphere dominated by the musclepower of big farmers and land mafia in Terai. Dineshpur Highschool had a history of struggle for mother tongue. Earlier in sixties there had been a strike and in our time, I got baton. Father was a part of the school management and an associate of District Board Chairman Shyam Lal Verma.He had very good relation with the principal KL Sah. Though Mr Sah had been very affectionate to me I felt it my duty to fight. Noone else was responsible for this but my father. He used to come Kolkata every year to fetch Bengali classics. I had to read and recite aloud Bengali edits written by no less than an editor,vivekanand Mukhopadhyay, his poems, Tagore and Nazrulpoetry, even Madhusudan Dutta. I had read Bishade-Sindhu of Mir Musharraf Hussain as well as classics of Bankim and Sharat in my childhood. It all worked against the liberal turned politics of a former communist father.The procession came out of the school and I was leading from the front. Father came from the opposite direction,the bazar on cycle.He stopped and slaped me asking,` Ke bolechhhe tomaya strike korte? (Who suggested you for the strike?) Grand mother supported father even while during the strike father disowned me as I was reluctant to compromise. As the strike ended, Grand Ma fell ill and died.
From that date Father learnt to treat me as an adult individual and never interfered in my activities. In my life , he never scolded me once again though we had very sharp differences in many matters and politics divided us vertically. I was involved in naxalite activities in the seventies.Father was niether scared of nor tried to restrain. Although he continued to put forward his opinion which he never missed.In turn, I used to help him in documentation and it was a great help for me to develop myself as a writer and journalist for whom Father had always a special respect. When I began my career as a journalist he always suggested to adjust with the sytem and make way for my expression. Now, I realize he was much more modern than me.

Madhumati River is atributary of the Padma (Ganges) River, flowing through southwestern Bangladesh. It leaves the Padma just north of Kushtia and flows 190 miles (306 km) southeast before turning south across the Sundarbans to empty into the Bay of Bengal. In its upper course it is called the Garai. It leaves the Madhumati River (there called the Baleswar) northeast of Khulna city and flows 110 miles (177 km) south past Chalna and Mungla through the Sundarbans to the Bay of Bengal. In its upper course it is called the Atharabanki
The river Madhumati is gradually losing navigability owing to emergence of shoals, it is learnt.
Shantidevi had three sons Anil,Pulin and Sudhir and two daughters Shreemati and sarala. Shreemati settled with her family in north 24 Parganas and her only son Nitai Pada Sarkar who is a reputed businessman in Kankinar Jagdal area. Sarala was a widow and used to live with us. She eloped with someone when I was only four or five years old. Father was liberal enough to take it easy but grandma was shocked.

We had a joint family. My father Pulin Biswas was a committed social activist and Uncle Sudhir was a medical practitioner. Hence her eldest son Anil used to look after the home and agriculture.He was a musician.Father went to riothit Assam in 1960.While he returned he sent my uncle Sudhir there as he was a doctor. The refugees in assam even in the latest generation remember them , I realised when I visited the refugee colonies in burfak in Marigaon district of assam in 2003.

My youngest aunt ( kakima) remained at home. She was like a friend to me as my eldest cusin Meera got married in 1961.Aunt Ushadevi and Eldest aunt (jethima) Hemlata looked after me as I was the eldest boy in the family. Not only in the family or in the village, I got special treatment all over Terai as I used to accompany father evrywhere.Father was elected the vice president of terai vikas nigam in sixties.Before this he defeated prominent Sikh leader Sardar Bhagat Singh.
Later, I felt the same love everywhere in the Himalayan zone , Uttarakhand to Manipur. It is an achievement I may boast. I was never close to my mother and she never had a space. Zethima belonged to the Harichand Guruchand family and she had the culture of Gopalganj on the bank of Madhumati. Thus, the river always seemed to flow within me. Whenever I fly over Bangladesh to reach a plac in the North East, I peep through the window to invent the river . I have not touched the land of my anchestors but the roots always speak. Even when I see a Taslima Nasreen, a Salam Azad or read Shamsur, Ilius, selina, Abu Bakar, Kabeer, Azad, Goon, Saha and the lot of them or read about the stance taken by the Intellegentia Bangladesh in Favour of democracy, freedom,soveriegnity and secularism , I feel a relationship. I am exicited to know that Narail happens to be a part of Tagore Zamidari and declassed, converted Tagores still inhabit the land forlorn.Later I read the great fight in Jassore sector and on the bank of river Madhumati in the freedom struggle of 1971. Now I feel what inspired my poor father to visit the forbidden land so often. I may realize why my grandma and her generation, the partition victims of 1947 could not forget the rivers, the fields, the jungles, the boats, the fruits and the harvest.

My grand mother never used to bathe with water artificial. She needed flowing water as she had in Madhumati.Anytime she would get irritated and curse the partition which threw her in a desert where no river passes by. She would spend most of her time busy with cattle on the bank of a rivulet near the village. We had so many of them around us as the intense Jungle of terai was just colonised. The jungle sustaind itself near Lalkuan and Gularbhoj. I came to know this only when my father was facing trial for Dhimri Block Peasants revolt of 1958. I heard about this when a policeman came on cycle and reached the land settlement cooperative village committee president Mandar Babu`s home, where I was playing with his son my bossom friend Krishna, to lacate and serve court summon to my father. Father was away and I learnt at that very moment about Dhimri Block, the revolt , the event and the arrest of my father with thousands others. But he was the leader and his hand was broken in the Rudrapur police station. Father and his Kisan Sabha comrades faced the trial for ten years in various courts including High Court allahabad. I was also present in a hearing in Nainital colectriate and they lost the case. They were arrested and released on bail. I felt no difference .It was in 1963 when I visited the hillsatation and was spellbound by the beauty.

We were a lot of children in our home. Me, my real and cusin brothers and sisters had to be taught by a resident teacher Abani Kaku and a music master Brajen Babu. When Abani Kaku returned home in west Bengal, we Had Jeeban Mama and Radhikada from nearby Shaktifarm Bengali Area where they had no school.
We had to cross the rivulet to go to the school in the nearby village Chittaranjan Pur. Officially, it was a girls` school where all children from the area were admitted. Madam christie used to live in a vacated quarter by Kundus who could not bear the migration and fled Bengal in 1960.We used to go to the school with Madam christie in a procession. It was alright in winter and summer but in the rainy season while the rivulet flooded, we had to cross it boarding on large pans meant for making sugercakes Gur with sugar cane juice near Arjun Pur, the Risikh Punjabi village where we used to visit for lanagar and mattha often.They used to offer full lota chai and tandoori chapati everytime and were very affectionate to me. The children were our friends and the older ones were the guardians alike.The school had to shift in arjunpur every rain seasons as they had the boatlike pans. Soon madam Chriestie was transferred.As my eldest cusin Meeradi and her friends were married meanwhile, it was no more safe for us kids to cross the rivulets. Madam had a relationship with the primary teacher a frailbody kumauni Brahmin Pitambar Pant in the primary school Haridaspur, one KM away from our village on the Jafarpur-Dineshpur Road. Madam got us transferred to Haridaspur enmasse.We had not any pucca road. It was very difficult to cross the mud and water but we had to bear till 1983-84 when at last we got a link road. Now my village has got roads from every direction and we have roads to reach our fields, too.It was so pathetic in past as after my marriage the bride refused to get down from the Zeep when it was entrapped in mud. Freedom fighter and Father`s most intimate friend Ramjee Tripathi, who got rehabiliated in Fulsinga near Rudrapur as a freedom fighter, owned this Zeep. We had another freedom fighter in Basant kumar Bannerjee from the famous Banaras Bannerjee family who was rehabiliated in Khanpur number One.Basant Babu`s brother was hanged in freedom struggle. These people survive no more, but they had a great impact on my childhood.I read Aaami Subhash Bolchhi by Shailesh De as the book was from the library of Bannerjee uncle. Ramjee Tripathi fought the Loksabha Election from Nainital against KC Pant in 1967. Pant won that election with thumping majority, though we supported Roy. I accompanied him in his election campaign and he used to take me very seriously. Even in 1977, he was with me and against my father who supported Mrs Indira Gandhi.

My granmother could not know the death of all those revulets, trees around as she died in seventy and Hripura Dam was built in Gularbhoj, some six miles upstream. We had enough fish for daily protien and enough water for our fields. Father opted for electric tubewells and Tiwari helped in the electrification. Tiwari as a finnance minister of Uttar Pradesh inaugruated electricty in our village and I refuged to write the welcome address as I was dead against Congress and its leaders including Tiwari and Pant. This prompted me to join Chipko and Uttarakhand movement in UP and Jharkhand movement in Bihar later.

Grand Ma was full of sweet memories which she shared with us. Later,Prabhabati Devi, the mother of my aunt (Jethima) joined her in the family after the riots of 1964. Jethima Hemlata was her only child. She belonged to the famous Harichan Guruchand Family. The son of Guruchand Thakur, Pramatho Nath Thakur ,who was elected MP on Congress ticket from Barasat deafting legendary dalit leader Jogendra Nath Mandal visited her sister, our didima in our village.
The two old ladies were engaged with the rustic East Bengal culture. Orakandi, the centre of Matua Dharma was the home of Didima. Orakandi is situated under Gopalganj Subdivision, the home of Banga Bandhu Mujib, in Faridpur District. Gopalganj later became an independent district.
Folk poets like Vijay sarkar, Nishikant, Rasik, Rajen were discussed often. Some of them visited us, too. Grandma told us the stories of Ramayan and Mahabharat. She was very superstitious and I was very scientific as I had been influenced my doctor uncle who had been a technical wizard. We always made jokes of superstiotions. I refused to do Pranam to the brahmins and Purohits in childhood and for this I had been thrashed often. In fact the Bengali,English and Hindi literature made me an athiest who was in no mood to compromise. But I had to accompani Grandma whenever she visited a quack OJHA, KAVIRAJ,etc. I used to dishounour them openly and criticized their profession and said them that they were btrayers. Those rustic people in return loved me much.How strange it was.

We celebrated Gasi, the cultivation festival in the winter on Sankranti.The cattle were worshipped. The old ladies organised the mela of Tennath for the health of our cattle. They also dictated to worship the evilpowers ghosts in our fields for our safety.
Basantipur always have been, in fact, a name of a great joint family of East Bengal refugees from Jassore, Khulna and Barishal. There were different caste, creed,culture and dilects. We have two Brahmin and a kayastha families among us. But we felt no discrimination. These people crossed the border and clubbed together and sustained the club in refugee camps and got the resettlement colony in Terai after the first mass movement in Terai in 1956 . The village was formed and they named it on my mother`s name. All festival were common. We had a Sarbajaneen Durga Puja only In Dineshpur Bajar, the centre place of all 36 Bengali refugee colonies. There used to be a weekly Hat on Satureday.Dineshpur got a Junior Highschool which is now a government inter College, a primary health centre, a post office and an industrial trainig institute ITI with trades like electrical, fitter, welding, sewing,etc.

We children had the previllege to eat anywhere , sleep anywhere and play anywhere in the village as every home seemed to be a common property. We never felt any scarcity of love, passion,joy and sentiments. Those were abound.
All the old people were very nostalgic. They had fresh wounds which continued to bleed life long. They wept for the lost homeland. It was very cold in winter and very hot in summer contrary to the average climate and weather in East Bengal. Food habits were different. We learnt to eat bread only in mid sixties with the import of PL 480. But the revulets were full of water and fishes used to swim in. At that time the sikhs and punjabies did not eat fish neither the local population liked it. The Bengalies were the masters of all the revulets and fishing. There was enough wood for cooking.We needed only clothing and Kerosine from the market.With emphasise on education we needed stationary and books, too.We had to study Bengali and English with mendatory Hindi. We had a Bengali school and a Jatra, folkdrama party. Basantipur is still famous in Uttarakhand for its folk activities. It celebrates the main function of Netaji jayanti in the district on every 23rd January.
Every one from the first generation believed that India would be united once again as they felt the partition was political which meant nothing to them.But we had nothing to do with as we never knew any part of Bengal while we all were born and brought up in Uttarakhand. We always had an Uttarakhandi identity and we had been proud of it. But we identified ourselves with the heritage of Bengal as the same time. The actual problem was that of alienation.

Even my father never accepted the border. He never used a passport or visa and crossed the border anytime as if it was nonexistant for him.He was arrested in Dhaka while participating a Bhasha andolan procession. He was once again arrested in 1971 when he demanded the merger of two Bengals as he felt it was the only solution of complex refugee problems.
Our village was constituted in 1956 along with two other villages Udai Nagar and panchanan pur. Other villages in dineshpur area were set upin 1952-54.
Narayan Dutta Tiwari won his first election in 1952 as a Praja Socialist Party candiadate defeating congress nominee Shyam Lal Verma from Haldwani assembly seat. Pandit Nehru campaigned for Verma in futile.

Tiwari first visited Lakhipur refugee colony in 1954 and since then he became the protagonist among Bengali refugees. He used to know everyone in this area by name. After the failure of Dhimri Block movement and because the CPI general secretary PC Joshi disowned the movement, Bengali refugees shifted their loyality to congress along with ND Tiwari who won the next assembly election fromKashipur in 1962 as a congress Nominee. Bengali population remained his mobile votebank in Kashipur and Haldwani. KC Pant won the Loksabha seat from Nainital. We had family relationship with both Tiwari and Pant. Though our village was deprived of voting rights. They voted in 1967 and it was against Tiwari. Tiwari lost the election for which he began his campaign from our home. PSP leader Ram Dutt Joshi defeated him.The brother of Shaheed-e-Ajam Sardar bhahat singh Rajendra sandhu also tried his luck fro kashipur seat in 1969 on Janasangh Ticket. As Atal bihari Vajpayee was the President of the party and he promised my father that the party would take up rfugee issue,we supported Sandhu. THe mother of the Shaheed eazam came to our village and we were thrilled to see her face to face. We felt the warmth of the struggle for freedom.

We had a Kachhari Ghar with four varandahs which was full of music, jatra, folk, social and political activities . Tea and food for everyone was ready all the time, even late in the night and in the dusk. It was my home. Kachharighar was our guest house. While the joint family disintegrated, at first this social centre degenerated. Gassi has not been celebrated after the demise of Grand Ma. We had festivals like doal, the Bengali Holi and Gajan, worshipping of Lord Shiva. All these public festivals merged in Durga and Kali puja disintegrated. Really, we are uprooted from tradition, culture and history. We the unfortuanate lot. We heard so much about Bhatiyali as SD Burman sang on Vividh Bharati stimulating the nostalgia of my people. They were excited with Baulgan, Bhab Gaan and zaaree Gaan. Bhawaiya was in their blood. Ashtak gaan was a yearly affair.

I was very irritated whenever these people used to go back in remiminicsence. I used to ask why they left.I wonder why they lost their land just to avoid conversion while they have no trace of their culture. I treated Bangla nationality movement in East Bengal as it denied religion and preferred mother tongue as unifing spirit. And We have lost our mother tongue.
Now I know all about the partition saga and continued persecution of minorities in east Bengal. I sympathise with the flow of migrant people. Now I realise how they overcome the calamity, an infinite tragedy haunting millions lifelong.

When I read about Pottery of Lohagara upazilas in Narail district is on the verge
extinction due to the popularity of plastic made home appliances, it was a reminiscent of Grandma nostalgia once again.Once, the villagers of the upazila used to make use of earthen made domestic devices for their daily necessary. The potters made pitchers, plates, pots and other household devices by their traditional hand made machines set in a particular room of their houses. The potters were locally called as Paal.
The potters were of Hindu community. Their main source of income were making household devices with soil and selling these to the village people.The villagers used to buy their necessaries from the potters in exchange of different crops produced in their fields as most of the families in those days were fully depended on agriculture.
The potters came to the villages by carrying pottery
In a bamboo made basket on head and used to attract the attention of the villagers by calling- “Rakhben Hari Patil, Thile…”
This call of the potters was familiar to the villagers.
In those days most of the potter families were well-off as the demand of soil made household devices in the villages even in the towns were very much popular. It is mentionable that the plastic made household devices were not available and was costly.
On the other hand, the household devices made by silver and other costly materials were out of the buying capacity of the village people. As a result, the villagers used it.
According to sources, a great number of pal (potter) families had been living in the different areas of the three upazila in the district for years as the water ways of the river Madhumati, Nabaganga, Chitra was convenient to bring their produces to another places. On the other hand a lot of Hindu families were living in the different areas of the district.

A good number `of pal families lived in Mohajon, Kumardanga, Doulatpur, Itna, Korfa, Laxmipasha, Lohagara villages in the district. Most of the villages are situated on the bank of the river Madhumati. In those days, it was a common sight to the local people that the boats full of earth made household devices were plying in the rivers.
But now the scenario has changed a lot. These types of boats are rarely seen in these rivers as popularity of plastic made household devices replaced the soil made devices. A large number of pal families have already left the country and who are living here have changed their professions.

Bangladesh slammed for persecution of Hindus , wrote Aziz Haniffafrom Washington, DC on November 02, 2006 and the bleeding touched me once again. She wrote:`The US Commission on International Religion Freedom slammed Bangladesh for continuing persecution of minority Hindus. It also urged the Bush administration to get Dhaka to ensure protection of religious freedom and minority rights before the next national elections in January.

In a new report titled 'Policy Focus on Bangladesh', released on Capitol Hill last week, the USCIRF, an independent, bipartisan federal agency funded by the US Congress, said that since its last election, 'Bangladesh has experienced growing violence by religious extremists, intensifying concerns expressed by the countries religious minorities'.

It noted that 'Hindus are particularly vulnerable in a period of rising violence and extremism, whether motivated by religious, political or criminal factors, or some combination'.

The commission, includes one South Asian American, former New York solicitor general Preeta Bansal, now an attorney with the New York-headquartered Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher and From.

'The position of Hindus has multiple disadvantages: perceived identification with India, an alleged preference for one of Bangladesh's two major political parties, and religious beliefs abhorred by Muslim fundamentalists', it noted.

The report said that in many instances, 'such violence appears aimed at encouraging Hindus to flee in order to seize their property in what is a desperately land-poor country'.

It recalled that during and immediately after Bangladesh's Parliamentary election in October 2001, 'there were numerous reports of illegal land seizures, arson, extortion, sexual assault, and intimidation of religious minority group members, particularly Hindus'.

The report, drawn up after commission members, including Bansal, visited Bangladesh, said that 'minority group representatives and human rights groups with whom the commission met ascribed these attacks to armed militant groups or to partisans of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is led by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.

'As Hindus and other non-Muslims are popularly perceived to favor the Awami League, intimidating Hindu voters was viewed as a way to help to the BNP and its Islamic allies in the elections', it stated.

The Commission warned the lack of accountability for crimes reported against minority groups in the previous election promoted an atmosphere of impunity and for a renewal of violence against Hindus and other non-Muslims in the upcoming election.It said that during meetings with the commission, Hindus said they feared political manipulation of voter registration process that could have them excluded from voter rolls. They said government representatives administering the process overlooked minority neighborhoods.

'Hindu leaders with whom the commission met also described problems their children faced in gaining access to religious education in their own religion, as is supposed to be the case in Bangladesh's public education system', the report said.The commission urged the Bush administration to 'face up to the seriousness of the threat facing Bangladesh and to lead the international community in monitoring the January 2007 elections'.

It also called on Washington to urge Dhaka to prevent anti-minority violence during the election and to encourage the Bangladesh government to address religious extremism and violence.

The Hindu American Foundation applauded the report and commended the commission on the recommendations it submitted to the administration. The commission had invited the HAF as a respondent at a meeting it convened on Capital Hill to coincide with the report's release.Ishani Chowdhury, HAF's executive director, told rediff.com the commission's policy brief reiterates the foundation's concern about the situation of the minority Hindus in Bangladesh.
She said the commission's report was in concert with the HAF's detailed report on human rights violations in Bangladesh against minority Hindus.’
Torture Against Press In Bangladesh Continues , and the journalists represents well the spirit
FromNew York, U.S.A,Ripan Kumar Biswas,Ripan.Biswas@yahoo.com has written:

`Torture against journalists in Bangladesh is still going in full swing during the present “Interim Government.” It is very hard to find an end to the climate of impunity and to bring to justice the perpetrators of violence and harassment directed towards journalists.

Even on November 19, 2006, the electoral commission banned access to journalists who went to a preparatory session for the next general elections. No grounds were given. A similar ban had been imposed the previous week too.The interim government’s job is to create the conditions for free elections which should obviously include guarantees of security and freedom for the press but it is hardly to see the press freedom in Bangladesh.

The European parliament has stressed out this very clearly and has requested President Iajuddin Ahmed to take active measures to protect journalists.”

Ripan Kumar Biswas was an intern at The Seoul Times and a freelance writer based in New York.

I know all about the fight of friends like Taslima Nasreen, whose return to Bangladesh is impossible and Salam Azad , the writer of Ethenic Cleansing in exile. Even in Left ruled Bengal Taslima has to face Fatwa. Not only this, the district Magistrate of Midnapore prohibited her to read her poetry there. The latest news came from siliguri Bookfair where Taslima was invited to inaugruate. But Muslim fundamentals came on steerts and organizers of the book fair cancelled the invitation. It is good that the writers in North Bengal are enough vocal against this compromise. A very eminent writer Bhagirath Mishra is leading the protest. But in Kolkata , where the ban on Dwikhandito was supported by left alligned intellectuals including the Sahitya Academy Vice President Sunil Gangopadhyay, calm prevails. No poet dared to go to Midnapur to defy the DM order. They say that no one is more progressive, more democratic, more secular and this is an example only. The myth has to be broken.
Whereas in Bangladesh the story of resistance under islamic rule is quite different.Kalayan Bannerjee, a Satkhira, Bangladesh based corresponded for Dainik Prothom Alo, has been received death threat by local BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) convenor and former lawmaker Habibul Islam Habib on November 24, 2006. There was a news item published by Mr. Bannerjee in The Prothom Alo in its November 23 issue under headlined “Three sensational murders may change election result of 4-party alliance in Satkhira-1 constituency” which goes directly against Mr. Habib as he is an aspirant for alliance ticket from the satkhira-1 constituency in the coming election.

It is reported that Couple of days before, Subrata Deb Roy Sanjay was beaten badly and his home was ransacked by Hazi Mujib, a businessman who supports the last ruling party. He is a reporter from Sylhet, Bangladesh for the dailies Dainik Khabor and Sylheter Dak.

Ripan has a detailed story to tell. On November 16, 2006, four journalists, named, Niamul Kabir Sajal of Dainik Prothom Alo, Babul Hossain of Dainik Janakantha, Mir Golam Mostafa of Dainik Shamokal and a photo reporter Nuruzzaman were attacked and beaten by local militiamen when they went to a village in the north of Dhaka. They were there to investigate a report of threats against members of the Ahmadiyah religious minority.

And the story continues on.

Tuhinul Islam Tuhin, the correspondent of the daily Ittefaq at the University of Rajshahi, near Dhaka, received a death threat on November 17, 2006 because of a report he wrote about the Bangladesh Chhatra League, a student movement that supports the Awami League. The student movement’s leader, Ibrahim Hossain Moon, had also threatened Tuhin the previous day.

Hasibur Rahman Bilu, reporter of the Daily Star, Radio Today and radio Deutsche Welle, in Bogra, north of Dhaka, was beaten recently with bamboo canes by militants belonging to a student organization linked to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Though he got serious leg injuries, he asked to be discharged for fear of fresh reprisals.

Photographer Shafiqul Islam Shafiq of the Focus Bangla photo news agency, who has reportedly been tortured since his arrest by an elite home affairs ministry unit on October 28, 2006 in Shikdari Bazar, in the northwestern Rajshahi region, on unfounded allegations of links with extremist movements.

In addition, journalists in Bangladesh can’t write freely about the Jamaat without facing death threats or assassination attempts. After getting deadly alert from London based mighty news media “The Guardian” and Tokyo based “The Japan Times,” now Seoul based “The Korean Times” has mentioned of possible attacks by a terrorist group against the people in Bangladesh.

Especially on October 28, 2006, a total of 15 media personnel were injured by police or demonstrators during protests in Dhaka, Rajshahi, and Mohonganj.

According to different news media, in 2006 three journalists were killed and at least 95 others attacked, and fifty five press correspondents were the targets of intimidation because of articles considered to be ‘non Islamic’.