BANGLADESH BLOG BUZZ

(crossposted in the global voices online)

1) The liberation war of Bangladesh: The blogosphere went alive on the occasion of the Victory Day of Bangladesh (former East Pakistan).

On December 16, 1971, the Pakistani occupation forces surrendered to the joint command of Indian Army and Bangladeshi freedom fighters in Dhaka after a nine-month bloody war for independence of the country. Bangladesh boldly said no to Pakistan, which was formed on the basis of religion and still married to it. Bangladeshis gave their blood to the cause of democracy and secularism, to be free from oppression and to have a separate identity for the Bengali culture that is thousands of years old.

But the victory against the Pakistanis did come with a price. The Bangladeshis will not forget that between March 25 and December 16, 1971 estimated 3 million Bengalees were killed by Pakistani Army and their collaborators, 200000 women raped and 10 million were displaced. This was the worst genocide after the second world war.

Subhan is furious because thirty-four years later, the victims of the genocide are yet to see one single individual of the occupation forces or their associates brought to justice. Many new generation Pakistanis do not know about their forefathers crimes. Some of the collaborators in Bangladesh took advantage of a general amnesty and even become lawmakers of the present ruling qualition. The Golmal press thinks that Bangladesh is in the midst of a second war of Independence, trying to fight the Islamic extremists as they look nodifferent than the Razakars (collaborators) of the Pakistani Army.

Mezba however thinks that today there is no reason to go Pakistan bashing and ‘Forgive But Not Forget’ should be the motto of Bangladesh.

Razib discusses the misconceptions among some of the new generation Bangladeshis about India’s involvement in the 1971 liberation war and he thinks that the Bangladeshis have failed to pay the due respect to the Indians.

2) Bangladesh is the best: Adda posts an inspirational interactive sketch on why “Bangladesh is the Best” to him. It is sad that Bangladesh is portrayed in the international arena only by the headlines of flood, poverty and other such catchy stories. The bests of Bangladesh are hardly promulgated in the media.

3) Blogging in Bangla: ‘Somewhere in blog’, an affiliation of a software company ‘ Somewhere in’ launches the first ever Bangla blogging tool “Bandh Bhanger Awaj“. Probably this will help the advent of more Bangladeshi bloggers.