BNP trying to come to power using Mossad: Bangladesh Foreign Minister

[bongbang]

The state minister for foreign affairs has said that the government has evidence that the opposition BNP is trying to come to power by using the Israeli intelligence force Mossad, which he termed a “big crime”.

Md Shahriar Alam also said if the government put together all the evidence, it would be “good enough to ban the BNP”.

The state minister made the claim on Tuesday, a day after bdnews24.com reported that Pakistan had been lobbying in favour of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s politics at the Commonwealth.

Alam said Bangladesh was not present at that Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group’s (CMAG) meeting, “but we found the authenticity (of the news) from the other participating countries”.

“It proves that the BNP is now depending on foreigners, having lost support in Bangladesh”.

The state minister was replying to questions at his office after his meeting with the visiting Swedish Minister of Justice and Migration, Morgan Johansson.

His comments on the BNP’s links with Mossad come in the wake of the recent killings in Bangladesh of secular bloggers, online activists, teachers, minorities and even LGBT rights activists.

The ISIL has reportedly been claiming responsibility for many of those murders, though the government has denied the presence of the radical group in Bangladesh.

Some ministers have also said that the ISIL issue is a ploy of the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami alliance, which boycotted the last parliamentary elections.

State minister Alam said the BNP was trying to prove that Bangladesh is “a fanatical Muslim country”, using Mossad.

“They also tried to assure them (Mossad) that if they (BNP) come to power, they will improve relations with Israel. This is such a big offense!”

Bangladesh maintains diplomatic relations with all countries except Israel. Dhaka is also vocal against Israeli atrocities in Palestine.

“We cannot think of relations with Israel,” the state minister said.

On Pakistan’s lobbying in favour of the BNP chairperson, he noted that the development was significant.

“They (BNP) are relentless in their attempts to cause embarrassment for Bangladesh. They are continuously conspiring against Bangladesh,” he said, adding that “the Jamaat’s veil had been uncovered before. As time goes on, the BNP’s mask is also being unveiled”.

Sartaj Aziz, the Pakistan prime minister’s advisor on foreign affairs, raised the Bangladesh issue at the recent CMAG meeting in London and said the last election had not been “a proper election” as it was held amid a boycott by the BNP.

He told the CMAG meeting that the Bangladesh government had filed “33 politically motivated” cases against Khaleda, and insisted that the ministerial meet include the issues in a statement. But the other member states rejected the proposal.

Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan in 1971 through a nine-month war of liberation. The Jamaat-e-Islami, which collaborated with the Pakistan army during the war, is a close political ally of the BNP.

The state minister said the time had come “to put all that evidence (of conspiracies) together to decide whether the BNP has any right to do politics in Bangladesh”.

He urged the Prime Minister to take steps in this regard.

He said the BNP had no trust in the people of the country, and that is why it had resorted to seeking help from foreigners.

“Their (the BNP leadership’s) future does not depend on the people of this country. They think their future depends on those countries with whom they were trying to harm Bangladesh”.

“I think if someone raises his voice to demand a ban on the BNP for being a party of war criminals, it would not be illogical”.

He, however, said the government was working with all friendly countries, except Israel, so that the BNP did not succeed in its conspiracy.

http://bdnews24.com/politics/2016/0...raeli-intelligence-force-mossad-shahriar-alam

 

[Winchester]

Any news about the involvement of I.I. ???

I.I. being the Klingon Imperial Intelligence

 

[hassan zohaib]

here comes another punch on opposition. first jamat islami has been sidelined now axe is going to b fallen on BNP.
all opposition dies and haseena rules forever.....
sartaj azeez had raised , if he did, his voice against partial tribunal decisions which also has been attracted similar views from international community not in favor of any party.

 

[Nilgiri]

WTH, so BAL is saying Israel/Mossad prefers BNP over BAL?

Mossad has much more important things to attend to than Bangladesh power dynamics.

 

[Bilal9]

Any news about the involvement of I.I. ???

I.I. being the Klingon Imperial Intelligence

Dude you made my day....

Now I'm convinced that local Bangladeshi weed beats the pants off of the Jamaican stuff ...

 

[BDforever]

Dude you made my day....

Now I'm convinced that local Bangladeshi weed beats the pants off of the Jamaican stuff ...

WTH, so BAL is saying Israel/Mossad prefers BNP over BAL?

Mossad has much more important things to attend to than Bangladesh power dynamics.

Latest Information, Government is considering diplomatic relation with Israel, wants to open Embassy in Tel Aviv. LOOooooooL

 

[Max]

Latest Information, Government is considering diplomatic relation with Israel, wants to open Embassy in Tel Aviv. LOOooooooL

source?

 

[TopCat]

WTH, so BAL is saying Israel/Mossad prefers BNP over BAL?

Mossad has much more important things to attend to than Bangladesh power dynamics.

Israel/Mossad prefer an unstable Islamic country over BAL

here comes another punch on opposition. first jamat islami has been sidelined now axe is going to b fallen on BNP.
all opposition dies and haseena rules forever.....
sartaj azeez had raised , if he did, his voice against partial tribunal decisions which also has been attracted similar views from international community not in favor of any party.

The story is true.. Even Palestine Embassy protested in Dhaka before govt said anything.

 

[BDforever]

source?

BBC radio Bangla

 

[bongbang]

Aborted Mission
Investigation: Did Mossad attempt to infiltrate Islamic radical outfits in south Asia?

by Subir Bhaumik
The Week
February 6, 2000
http://www.the-week.com/20feb06/events2.htm

On January 12 Indian intelligence officials in Calcutta detained 11 foreign nationals for interrogation before they were to board a Dhaka-bound Bangladesh Biman flight. They were detained on the suspicion of being hijackers. "But we realised that they were tabliqis (Islamic preachers), so we let them go," said an intelligence official. They had planned to attend an Islamic convention near Dhaka, but Bangladesh refused them visa. Later, seemingly under Israeli pressure, India allowed them to fly to Tel Aviv.

Where's the catch? The secret circular that warned of a possible hijack

"They had landing permits at Dhaka, but that's not visa," said a diplomat in the Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi. "We decided not to entertain them anymore because we cannot take chances."

The eleven had Israeli passports but were believed to be Afghan nationals who had spent a while in Iran. They had secured landing permits for Dhaka and one-way tickets on Bangladesh Biman's Calcutta-Delhi route through a Delhi-based travel agency.

"We have a right to deny travel facility to a passenger even if he has a valid ticket on security grounds," said a Bangladeshi Biman official who did not want to be named. To the Bangladesh Biman officials the eleven, who were all Muslims, appeared "too murky".

Indian intelligence officials, too, were surprised by the nationality profile of the eleven. "They are surely Muslims; they say that they have been on tabligh (preaching Islam) in India for two months. But they are Israeli nationals from the West Bank," said a Central Intelligence official.

He claimed that Tel Aviv "exerted considerable pressure" on Delhi to secure their release. "It appeared that they could be working for a sensitive organisation in Israel and were on a mission to Bangladesh," the official said. The Israeli intelligence outfit, Mossad, is known to recruit Shia Muslims to penetrate Islamic radical networks.

"It is not unlikely for Mossad to recruit 11 Afghans in Iran and grant them Israeli citizenship to penetrate a network such as Bin Laden's. They would begin by infiltrating them into an Islamic radical group in an unlikely place like Bangladesh," said intelligence analyst Ashok Debbarma. The pressure exerted on India by Israel for the release of the men, and the hurry with which they were flown back suggested an aborted operation'.

Mossad watchers say the operation was possibly blown off by "unwelcome intervention" in a friendly country, and they decided to pull out.

The Calcutta immigration authorities may have laid their hands on the wrong people. They were looking for Islamic radicals attempting hijack.

On January 11, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) issued a top secret circular (NO: ER/BCAS/PIC/CIRCULAR/99), quoting "an intelligence input" about a possible hijack attempt on a Bangladesh Biman aircraft originating out of India. Copies of the circular signed by regional deputy commissioner of security (Calcutta Airport), L. Singsit, were issued to relevant Indian agencies and Bangladesh Biman's station manager in Calcutta, Md. Shahjahan. It said that eight "Pushtu-speaking Mujahideen" had infiltrated into India for the purpose.

The circular also specified the motive behind the hijack: to secure the release of the prime accused in the Mujib-ur-Rehman assassination case including Major (later Colonel) Farooq Rehman and Major Bazlul Huda.

"Dhaka told us to take no chances," said a Bangladesh Biman official. The Sheikh Hasina government is aware of the international links of the Mujib-killers. While Libya had sheltered some of them in the 70s and early 80s, middle eastern countries helped others evade justice. Major (later Colonel) Khondakhar Abdul Rashid, one of Colonel Farooq's co-plotters, is said to be in Saudi Arabia, where he maintains close links with Pakistan's ISI.

Meanwhile, Indian intelligence officials are still on the hunt for "Pushtu-speaking hijackers". An additional director with Central Intelligence said at least four hijackers were in eastern India.

If the terrorists manage to extricate the likes of Colonel Farooq through a hijack, it will boost the Ôanti-Indian Islamic forces' in Bangladesh, particularly the agitation against the Hasina government.

With a less India-friendly government in Dhaka, Pakistan's ISI could step up its help to the insurgents in the northeast.


(The author is BBC's eastern India correspondent)
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/mossad_india.html


Palestinian envoy blames Israel for terrorist activities in Bangladesh
http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2015...israel-for-terrorist-activities-in-bangladesh


Bangladesh an unflinching proponent of Palestinian cause, President Mahmoud Abbas says
http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2016...alestinian-cause-president-mahmoud-abbas-says



Remembering the past: Bangladeshi fighters for Palestine of the 1980s

A photograph and a grave. These are two relics of a time, now mostly forgotten, of when thousands of Bangladeshis came to Lebanon in the 1980s as volunteers and fighters for the Palestinian cause. They were no less important in the struggle for Palestinian liberation than others, and their stories deserve to be remembered.

There are many books, films, and reports of international volunteers and organizations that supported and continue to support the Palestinian cause. From armed groups of yesteryear like the Japanese Red Army and the Irish Republican Army to non-violent, ever-growing contemporary organizations like the International Solidarity Movement and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign, support for Palestine has always been and continues to be part and parcel of the international scene.
a May 1976 US state department cable released by WikiLeaks showed.

The affinity with Palestine became so strong and so entrenched within the Bangladeshi society that in 1980 a postal stamp was created, but never issued, depicting a kuffiyah-draped Palestinian freedom fighter, the al-Aqsa mosque in the background shrouded by barbwire, and words that saluted Palestinian freedom fighters as “valiant” in English and Arabic.

According to a September 1988 US Library of Congress report, the Bangladeshi government reported in 1987 that “8,000 Bangladeshi youths had volunteered to fight for the Palestine Liberation Organization,” an announcement that came after Yasser Arafat visited the country that year and received a warm welcome from media and political circles.

The report also states that a few Palestinian military figures were also sent to Bangladesh to participate in training courses.

Today, there are few documented records in regards to the exact number of Bangladeshi volunteers in Lebanon, or a break-down of what groups they had joined.

Al-Akhbar contacted the Bangladeshi embassy in Beirut in regards to any information on this topic. Although officials at the embassy acknowledged the existence and history of Bangladeshi fighters for Palestine, they stated that detailed information was unavailable.

Similarly, the Palestinian embassy was a dead-end due to the fact that much of the PLO documents were burnt by the Israeli army during its ferocious invasion and occupation of Lebanon.

What lingers of these fighters are but Palestinian officials’ fleeting memories.

“There were around 1,000 to 1,500 of them. There were even some battalions that were completely Bangladeshi, but most of them were spread to different groups,” Fatah's secretary of PLO factions in Lebanon, Fathi Abu al-Aradat, told Al-Akhbar.

“I remember they were highly disciplined. They were known to have incredible will. When the Israelis invaded and captured some of the Bangladeshi fighters, they used to say to them, 'PLO, Israeli No' even when they were tortured,” he said. “They had great relations with the rest of the fighters. They really believed in the cause.”

Although Fatah was known to have a significant number of foreign fighters among their ranks, it was another Palestinian faction, the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC), that was a major recipient of fighters, including those from Bangladesh.

The PFLP-GC, a far-left militant group led by Ahmed Jibril and backed by the Syrian government, had split from the main PFLP party that was led by George Habash, after a dispute over ideological and tactical issues occurred between Habash and Jibril (Abu Jihad) in 1968.

“They were with the PFLP-GC,” Ziyad Hammo, a PFLP official and member of the governing municipality of Shatila camp, told Al-Akhbar.

“They had a lot of military talent but they were mainly supporting services such as transporting weapons or guarding certain offices,” Hammo noted. “If they wanted to fight, they went to fight.”

“I remember three or four of them. There were two who were placed as guards in the Bekaa, and another one in Baablek. People really forgot they were Bengali, they spoke perfect Arabic,” the PFLP official added.

But the question remains: why are there very few accounts of these volunteers’ aid to the cause?

“In the PLFP, we try to remember these men. For example, the Japanese Red Army is very valued and we tried to recover and maintain that history. But with the Bangladeshis, I guess, there aren't many stories and anecdotes about them because their role was limited. At least for the PFLP, I can't speak for other Palestinian factions,” Hammo opined.

“I gather most of them left after 1982, once the UN sent its forces into Lebanon. Some of them died or were captured and later released, and perhaps a few stayed in Lebanon to live the rest of their lives working. It's been 32 years, and I think most of them got old. We all got older,” he added.

Kamal Mustafa Ali: the ‘heroic martyr’

On the outskirts of the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in southern Beirut is the Palestinian Martyr Cemetery, where those who perished struggling for the Palestinian cause lay. Among the many tombstones of Palestinians who have died since the 1970s, those of a few foreigners can be spotted. A few Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese, Tunisians, a Russian, a Kurd, and also one of a Bangladeshi man named Kamal Mustafa Ali.

There is no mention of who Kamal Mustafa Ali was, not even a birth date. What is etched on the marble slab is a Quranic verse from the House of Imran chapter. It states: “And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of God as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision.”


Below the verse is his name and nationality, and when and how he died as a “heroic martyr.” Ali died on July 22, 1982 during a battle at the Castle of the High Rock, also known as the Beaufort Castle, located in the southern Lebanese governorate of Nabatiyeh.

The castle, which is said to have been established as a military fortification site prior to the Crusaders’ arrival in the early 12 century – due to its strategically located position on a high hill overlooking a large swath of territory – became a site for many heated battles, quickly exchanging hands from power to power.

The PLO controlled the castle in 1976, using it mainly as a base to conduct resistance activities along the border, deploying around 1,000 fighters within its walls and surroundings.

When the Israelis invaded on June 6,1982, the castle was the site of the first major battles prior to Israel's push north towards Beirut. Even though the PLO lost hold of the castle in the span of two days – after intense pounding by Israeli artillery and airstrikes – the Israelis control of the castle was never easy.

The occupying Israeli forces were met with constant resistance by Palestinian groups, and then Hezbollah and other Lebanese resistance groups, until they were forced to retreat in 2000.

Kamal Mustafa Ali perished, as the tombstone noted, during one of those early attempts to retake the castle.

His body was only recovered in 2004, after an exchange deal between Hezbollah and Israel was brokered by German mediation. Four Israeli soldiers corpses were exchanged for more than 400 prisoners, the remains of more than 50 fighters, and a map of deadly landmines that Israel planted in southern Lebanon and the western Bekaa region.

According to the caretakers of the Palestinian Martyr Cemetery, Ali's bones were sent back home to his family in Bangladesh, and a grave was erected in the cemetery to commemorate his sacrifice.

It rests there side-by-side with other bodies and names of Palestinians and non-Palestinians, watched and cared for by Palestinian hands who do not know much of the man. It is the only remaining, physical marker in Beirut of the sacrifices made by Bangladeshi volunteer fighters for the Palestinian cause during the 1980s.

Addendum: Al-Akhbar has recently received the following response to this report from Naeem Mohaiemen, a visual artist and Anthropology doctorate candidate at Columbia University researching post-1971 Bangladesh history. His films include "United Red Army (The Young Man Was, Part 1)," about the 1977 hijack of JAL 472 to Bangladesh by the Japanese Red Army. He has been investigating the Bangladeshi Lebanese fighters and believes the officially reported numbers are "inflated."

He argues that, "Prime Minister Sheikh Mujib's attendance of the 1974 Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) meeting was a realpolitik move for the damaged, new state– aligning with the Arab Bloc was also a question of survival, via influx of oil dollars. His successor, the military government of General Ziaur Rahman, pushed Islamization (via Arabization) even further. The inflated numbers come from this context of wanting to signal a significant contribution to the Palestinian cause, and PLO commanders then replicated those numbers as part of a logical strategy of projecting internationalist military strength. Such inflation of numbers temporarily won the PLO a media war, but it also blindsided them about the potential scale of defeat during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon"

http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/20432

 

[Nilgiri]

 

[bongbang]

MOSSAD-ASLAM MEETING: Khaleda urged to call for explanation

Nationalist Party standing committee members on Monday night observed that party chairperson Khaleda Zia should ask joint secretary general Aslam Chowdhury for an explanation for his alleged meeting with ‘an agent’ of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.
The meeting of the highest policy making body of BNP at Khaleda’s Gulshan office decided that Khaleda would deal with the matter.
‘The issue of alleged secret meeting between Aslam and Mossad published in newspapers came up in the meeting…We condemned it and said that Aslam should be asked for a explanation,’ said a standing committee member.
He said that Khaleda would deal with the issue, adding that Bangladesh had no relation with Israel and such thing would cause harm to BNP.
‘The reported matter is against the party policy and national policy,’ he said.
Aslam reportedly joined in a meeting in Agra in India where Israel’s Likud Party leader Mendi Safadi and a Mossad agent were present.
Asked about allegation that Aslam held the meeting with a Mossad agent to hatch conspiracy to overthrow the Awami League government, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at a briefing at the party’s central office on Tuesday said that people were ready to ‘overthrow’ the government
and there was no need to hatch conspiracy.
He said that BNP was a party of people and why it would hatch conspiracy against the government which was isolated from people.
He termed the allegation ‘untrue’ and ‘fabricated.’
Recent newspapers reports over alleged ‘underhand financial dealings’ with some BNP leaders over getting BNP tickets in the ongoing partisan elections to union parishads and to avail berths in the party executive committee and other committees also came up in the Monday’s meeting, a standing committee member said.
Khaleda presided over the meeting.
All the standing committee members but two raised voice against such underhand dealings arguing that it was tarnishing the image of the party and causing harm to the party in the present critical situation, meeting sources said.
A standing committee member suggested investigation into the ‘offence’ and ‘harsh’ punishment and expulsion from the party if any party leader was involved in the ‘financial scandal’.
Khaleda, however, did not nod approval to the suggestion for investigation into the allegation, the meeting sources said, adding that the party high command accused government’s agencies of spreading such propaganda and said that some newspapers were ‘overplaying.’
The meeting also discussed the recent High Court verdict that declared 16th amendment to the constitution unconstitutional.
The meeting agreed to take stand in support of the verdict, another standing committee member said.
The meeting decided that BNP would continue to contest the next phases of union elections, although the previous phases of polls were ‘farce’, the member said.
As the members wanted to know about progress in forming the party’s full-fledged national executive committee and national standing committee, Khaleda said she was working round the clock, the sources said.
Against the speculation, the meeting also decided that number of members of standing committee would not be increased from the existing 19.

http://newagebd.net/229318/mossad-aslam-meeting-khaleda-urged-to-call-for-explanation/

 

[Flynn Swagmire]

So, by banning BNP, BAL wants to make Bangladesh a single party state? Last time they failed, this time lets see...

 

[livingdead]

in muslim countries association with israel makes you look bad. I doubt the FM actually means it, just another low level politicking.

 

[bongbang]

Safadi in India: “Soon, the gates of Bangladesh will open up to Israelis”

Mendi Safadi, the head of the Safadi Center for International Diplomacy and Advocacy, is working in order to topple the Muslim Brotherhood run government within Bangladesh in favor of a new government that supports establishing full diplomatic and economic relations with Israel.

In order to bring justice to persecuted minorities and to prevent the ethnic cleansing of tens of thousands of deprived people is the essence of the intensive work being done by Mendi Safadi, the head of the Safadi Center for International Diplomacy and Advocacy. He is presently visiting India and discussing with officials there the plight of minorities in Bangladesh, who have been suffering in recent years by an ethnic cleansing attempt orchestrated by the Muslim Brotherhood that took over the country in 2014.

Safadi held meetings with various officials in order to coordinate positions regarding courses of actions to take in order to preserve the international community’s interests as the changes in the political map within Bangladesh do not only threaten ethnic minorities as the country has also become a haven for terrorists. Safadi is investing considerable efforts in order to have the present government within Bangladesh replaced with one that supports having full diplomatic and economic relations with Israel.

“Soon, the gates of Bangladesh will open up to Israelis in all aspects and this is not an impossible wish,” Safadi explained. “To work for the freedom of oppressed and persecuted people is a moral obligation, so I am here to help these people. Here, there is a real story not like Palestinian plots. Here, people are persecuted and murdered just because they are different. In this place, I am proud to be Israeli and am proud that I was able to get many people to sympathize with Israel even though it is written on their passport that they are allowed to visit any country all over the world except Israel. This I am going to change.”

http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news...-of-bangladesh-will-open-up-to-israelis-18735