South Asia Citizens Web

In March 2001, six months before September 11, the Taliban destroyed the famous Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, calling them idols and therefore unIslamic. They cared little about the heritage or culture of Afghanistan. In 2015, the soldiers of the so-called Islamic State in Syria destroyed hundreds of invaluable sculptures from Roman times in the ancient city of Palmyra, because they found them unIslamic. The world was aghast at such savagery. Is Bangladesh on the way to becoming such a country?

The relationship between the Indian Army and Indian democracy might be entering new and unchartered waters. . . . The army . . .has even more to fear in the long run from the mob behind it, egging it on.

While it is understandable that each political party has its own ideology that it would like to propagate, there must be checks and balances in the system to ensure that the facts of history are not changed in school text books with every change of government.

The Kabul Process aims to bring together regional actors to support peace, and to put the Afghan government more clearly in charge than in prior efforts. But in the marginalization of women, the Kabul Process is already a continuation of earlier, unsuccessful, efforts.

A select compilation of news reports and statements by human rights groups regarding the threat by Islamists to Sultana Kamal the prominent public intellectual and human rights activist in Bangladesh