South Asia Citizens Web

two part article on the political mobilisation of the muslim community in India

we are planning to meet in Delhi on 30th November and 1st December in a People’s assembly of about 300 to 500 people. This would be followed by a mass rally on 2nd December, in which thousands are expected to participate. The programme will bring into focus people’s issues and highlight the need for an alternative development model.

The horrifying case of the killing and burning of a young Christian couple, Shama and Sajjad, by a mob in a village in Kasur could become a test case for the government to demonstrate — for once — its commitment to the rule of law in incidents where the vulnerable are attacked.

Prior to the October 2 Burdwan blasts, the Jamaat ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) was notorious for the 459 near-simultaneous improvised explosive devices detonated all across Bangladesh in the summer of 2005. Bangladesh’s security forces subsequently arrested hundreds of its members and killed its entire top leadership, including its founder, Shaikh Abdur Rahman. But despite being seriously weakened, according to a March 2010 report of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG), the JMB is still active and dangerous.

Suspected Islamic militants have hacked to death a university professor in western Bangladesh, several years after he led a push to ban students wearing full-face veils, police said Sunday.