Students of Army Public School, members of Civil Society, Pak Army staffs and large numbers of citizens held a candle light vigil to mourn the innocent victims. Image by ppiimages. Copyright Demotix (19/12/2014)
A group of Taliban gunmen dressed in military uniforms entered an Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, on December 16 and shot students and teachers walking from classroom to classroom. At least 148 people, 132 of them children, lost their lives in the attack and scores of the students were injured.
The following day, vigils were held in Karachi, Islamabad and other major cities throughout the country, which can be seen in these pictures.
There have also been numerous vigils across the world:
People at those vigils remembered the victims, protested against the barbarism, voiced their anger at the Taliban and echoed that children should be spared from such atrocities.
Here are images of some of those vigils:
A collection of candles and votives lit as part of a vigil in Trafalgar Square, London, to remember the dead school children and teachers killed by the Pakistani Taliban in Pakistan. Image by Emma Durnford. Copyright Demotix (17/12/2014)
A Candlelight vigil for the children of Peshawar is held in Longsight, Manchester outside the Pakistani Community Centre. Image by Barbara Cook. Copyright Demotix (20/12/2014)
Two hundred people gathered in front of the CNN Center in Atlanta for a candlelight vigil to honor victims killed during a Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan. Image by Steve Eberherdt Copyright Demotix (17/12/2014)
Columbia students and other members of the community joined a campus candlelight vigil to support the victims of the Peshawar attacks. Image by Mansura Khanam. Copyright Demotix (17/12/2014)
Indian congress workers and children pay tribute to those killed in the Taliban attack in Peshawar, Pakistan at a candle vigil in Allahabad, India. Image by Ritesh Shukla. Copyright Demotix (17/12/2014)
A candle light vigil and were held at the Pakistan High Commission in Bangladesh, this evening in remembrance of the innocent victims of the massacre at the Army public School peshawar.
Indian people lit candles as they took part in a candle-light vigil in memory of victims killed in a Taliban attack on a military-run school in Peshawar, in Amritsar. Image by Sanjeev Syal. Copyright Demotix (17/12/2014)
Childrens in Sivasagar, Assam lighting candles protesting the attack of Talibans in a school of Pakistan, image by Neelam Kakoty Majumdar. Copyright Demotix (18/12/2014)
Burdwan District Press Club organised a Candlelight Rally in At Burdwan, West Bengal, India, protesting against Taliban terror attack on Army Public School in Peshawar. Image by Sanjoy Karmaker (18/12/2014)
Children holding solidarity messages at the candle light vigil in Lahore, Pakistan. Image by Fatima Arif. Copyright Demotix (18/12/2014)
Students of Army Public School, members of Civil Society, Pak Army staffs and large numbers of citizens held a candle light vigil to mourn the innocent victims. Image by PPIImages. Copyright Demotix (19/12/2014)
Two days after the horrific Taliban attack on a military-run school in Peshawar, killed more than hundred and thirty students, controversial Islamabad-based cleric Abdul Aziz refused to condemn the massacre, sparking rare protests against radicalism in the country.
Abdul Aziz also said that use of force against the Taliban is not a “wise option”. Aziz is the chief cleric at Lal Mosque, one of the biggest in the capital. The mosque and its attached seminary have a reputation for radicalism and was the scene of a massive 10-day military crackdown in 2007, which left more than a hundred dead, many of whom were radical seminary students. Aziz's brother was the chief back then, and was killed in the operation. Abdul Aziz tried to flee the mosque in a burka, but was caught. He was released on bail two years later. And has since reopened the mosque and become the chief cleric.
On December 18, a large number of activists, politicians and students arrived at the Lal Masjid chanting slogans against Abdul Aziz. They wrote names of the students killed in Peshawar on a board and started an impromptu vigil.
The protest was organised by Jibran Nasir, an independent politician, lawyer and human rights activist from Karachi. He said:
I came to Islamabad for a conference, but then the Peshawar tragedy struck and everything changed. The next day, Lal Masjid cleric issued a statement that I couldn’t stomach and I decided that rather than going back to Karachi, we should protest. We want to reclaim our mosques, our communities, our cities, indeed our entire country from the extremists. We can no longer allow anyone to stand on at a pulpit and preach hatred. We will no longer stand by and watch people like Abdul Aziz use the name of our Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and our religion to perpetuate violence. I call upon the people of Islamabad to come out of their homes and reclaim their city.
The administration of Lal mosque filed a First Information report (FIR) against the participants of the protest. Police in riot gear arrived on the scene and asked protesters to disperse.
Nasir and the protesters held their ground and said they will hold the vigil for the next week in front of the Lal Mosque, and there after every Tuesday night.
Suddenly, the spontaneous protests that began on Thursday quickly spread across the country as a wider movement against Taliban apologists and extremists everywhere. There were protests after Friday prayers in several cities to condemn Lal Mosque's cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz's statement. A petition in Change.org to put Abdul Aziz on trial for treason and terrorism has more than 4000 supporters.
On December 19, an FIR (First Information Report) was lodged against Abdul Aziz at a police station and this Facebook video caught the moment.
If in tomorrow's jummah sermon your Imam wont condemn Peshawar Attack then stand up and ask him to. #ReclaimYourMosques
The foundation is laid. Think over, either are u going to be a silent spectator or would do ur part. If 141 children didn't shook u off ur slumber then be sure u are an apologist of the likes of #AbdulAziz.
Under pressure Maulana Aziz apologised on Sunday for not condemning the killing of children. A reader replied to the article at the Tribune.com:
Sorry too little too late, shame on him that he actually had to think so hard to apologize and only after all the pressure …… He lacks total decency and morals …..innocent kids died and he had to think about it. Shame on him and shame on us for listening to him, he needs to be behind bars permanently along with all his buddies.
Victims of militants, who attacked an army public school situated on Warsak Road, are moved for treatment at a local hospital in Peshawar. Image by ppiimages. Copyright Demotix (16/12/2014)
People from all over the world have offered their support and sympathy on social media for Pakistan as the country reels from a horrific attack on a school in Peshawar that has left 141 people dead, most of whom were children.
But one particular hashtag is worth noting -- Indians are putting aside their ardent rivalry with Pakistan and expressing solidarity with their neighbors at this difficult time under #IndiawithPakistan on Twitter.
Yes, I am Indian. So what? The pain of losing a child is universal. #IndiawithPakistan
At around 11 a.m. Pakistan time on December 16, six Taliban militants entered the Army-run school in the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and took around 500 students and teachers hostage. The attackers were dressed as soldiers and opened fire at random, also detonating an unknown number of suicide bombs. A teacher was reportedly burned alive in front of pupils and children were shot in the head. One hundred and forty-one people were killed, most of whom were children, and hundreds injured in the siege. According to police, all the militants were killed.
The Taliban, in a statement to Reuters, said that they targeted the school because the army targets their families in an ongoing military offensive against Taliban strongholds near Peshawar. “We want them to feel our pain,” the statement said.
Dr. Asif Sohrab described on Facebook the horror in Peshawar:
2,3 funerals in every Street of Peshawar. In my street there are 3! Peshawar bleeds, Pakistan cries.
In response to the attack, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced three days of mourning and has called an all party parliamentary meeting at the Governor House in Peshawar on Wednesday.
Men carry the casket of a victim of the Taliban shoot-out in a military-run school in Peshawar, Pakistan. Image by ppiimages. Copyright Demotix (16/12/2014)
Pakistani Twitter users have also taken to Twitter to express their anger and grief:
This is not my religion, not my politics. I would rather have no god than a god that justifies the mass murder of children. #PeshawarAttack
Mehr Tarar, a former op-ed editor for Pakistan's Daily Times, captured the heartbreak of many Pakistanis in a column for Indian news portal NDTV:
Today, I feel as if I have been punched in my stomach. In my heart. And in my soul. With an iron rod. As I hear of children who were killed in an Army school in Peshawar, I feel my heart stopping.
Children were shot in the face. Children were shot in the head. Children were dragged out from under the chairs, under the tables, and shot. At point blank. Methodically. Coldly. Clinically. They - who go by the name of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan - say it is to avenge the Army operation against them in the FATA. To avenge the deaths of militants who were wreaking havoc on innocent Pakistanis in myriad acts of terror. It's retribution, they say.
I have nothing to say here. You call yourself a Muslim, you call your fight a jihad, you call your way that of Allah. And yet you do what Allah forbids you to do: to perpetrate a war in His name where you kill children. Where you kill people who have never harmed you. You are not just Pakistan's enemy but you are also your own worst enemy.
Writing in independent Canadian news website Ricochet, journalist Jahanjeb Hussain offered his view on what good, if any, could come of the attack:
The best hope is that this attack would finally convince the country’s leadership that meaningful, concentrated, and long-term action needs to be taken across the board.
Spotted deers forage at the Kokilmoni forest in the Sundarbans, a UNESCO world heritage site. Bagerhat, Bangladesh. Image by Muhammad Mostafijur Rahman. Copyright Demotix
An oil tanker carrying 358,000 liters (almost 100,000 gallons) of furnace oil sank in the Shela river on December 7, spilling oil over more than 60 kilometers (about 37 miles) of the Sundarbans. Located on in southwest Bangladesh, the Sundarbans is the largest single block of tidal mangrove forest in the world, covering approximately 10,000 square kilometers (3,900 square miles), of which 60 percent is in Bangladesh. The Sundarbans, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is also one of the largest reserves for the Bengal tiger, and provides sanctuary to many other species.
According to reports, the new oil spill threatens the Mrigmari-Nondabala-Andharmanik dolphin sanctuary. Mangrove trees are also highly susceptible to oil pollution—indeed, they are expected to start dying after the area's aquatic life, which is typically first to perish. Fahim Hassan has put together an infographic on Flickr explaining the details of the devastation.
According to images Mowgliz Elisabeth Rubaiyat posted on Facebook, the disaster is already killing some animals. Local authorities appear to be outside their depth, never before having confronted so large an oil spill, and lacking the necessary infrastructure to respond properly. Al Jazeera reports several local fishermen have resorted to cleaning up the spill using sponges and sacks.
Many on Twitter have questioned the authorities' response:
Talk to the org that worked after 2010 Gulf oil spill! Seriously guys ... "Authorities clueless in the Sundarbans" http://t.co/z7vZPqVSuf
To help in the relief effort, the government dispatched a ship to the area carrying oil dispersants. If such chemicals are released incorrectly, however, it can harm the local ecology still further. Four days later, the state's efforts seem to have had little effect, exacerbating fears of a lasting ecological disaster.
Bangladesh's Water Transport Minister says locals were able to stop the oil from entering the forrest, using nets, and they're also working to remove the oil from the water, to keep the situation from becoming worse. The national Forest Department is leading the operation with 100 boats and 200 fishermen.
The Forest Department has filed a lawsuit for 1 billion Bangladeshi taka (about $13 million) against the owners of the two cargo ships responsible for the spill.
Just a month ago, before the spill, the Sunderbans mangrove forest looked like this:
Blogger Ahmed Sharif criticizes the government's ill-planned disaster-management strategy, saying it misunderstands the issue:
দুর্যোগ ব্যবস্থাপনা বলতে কি শুধু বন্যা-জলোচ্ছ্বাস বোঝায়? গত দুই দশকে অর্থনৈতিক দিক থেকে দ্রুত অগ্রগতির সাথে সাথে যেসব ঝুঁকির সৃষ্টি হয়েছে, সেগুলির জন্যে আমরা নিজেদের তৈরি করতে পারিনি। নদীতে জাহাজের সংখ্যা আগের চেয়ে বহুগুণ বেড়ে গেছে, কিন্তু তার সাথে পাল্লা দিয়ে তৈরি হয়নি মনিটরিং এজেন্সিগুলি। জাহাজ তৈরি হচ্ছে যথেচ্ছভাবে, যাত্রী নেওয়া হচ্ছে অতিরিক্ত, ফিটনেসবিহীন জাহাজ চলছে, নদীর পানি দূষণ করছে জাহাজের বর্জ্য, নদীর মাঝে পার্ক করে রাখা হচ্ছে জাহাজ, সঠিক যন্ত্রপাতি ছাড়াই চলছে জাহাজ, চলাচলের সময় ঠিক করে দেয়ার পরেও কেউ মানছেনা – কেউ দেখার নেই। কাজেই দুর্ঘটনার সম্ভাবনা প্রতিদিন বেড়েই চলেছে। আর দুর্ঘটনার সম্ভাবনা বাড়লেও সেটার জন্যে প্রস্তুতি নেই আমাদের।
Is disaster-management confined to floods and cyclones? In past decades, the country has seen accelerated economic development and increased risks. But we could not keep pace to prepare ourselves for those added risks. The commercial ships in our waterways have multiplied, but our monitoring agencies couldn't keep up. Many ships are being built outside the proper guidelines, carrying passengers over their capacity. Many ships are unfit to operate, they dispose of waste improperly, they block waterways indiscriminately, they break schedules—nobody is monitors any of this. So there is an increased risk of accidents, and we are not prepared for these accidents and disasters.
YouTube user A. K. M. Wahiduzzaman uploaded a video capturing the devastation of the oil spill:
The body of the first dolphin, a rare Irrawadi dolphin, to die in this incident was discovered last Friday. According to reports, the Padma Oil Company has managed to remove about 10,000 liters (about 2,600 gallons) of oil in its cleanup efforts, so far. The company is offering to pay volunteer cleanup-workers 30 Bangladeshi taka (about 40 cents) for every liter (about 34 ounces) of oil recovered.
What is perplexing is the rudimentary cleaning operation. With offer of Taka 30/= per litre for furnace oil recovered, thousands have jumped in, not to save the Sundarbans but to eke an existence. Obviously for the poorest of the poor this is a windfall. However, have not heard anyone talk about the risk to human health from dangerous toxins in the furnace oil. Anywhere else in the world the Government would have faced public litigation suit for endangering citizens health. I see thousands of poor and ignorant people dying in the days ahead thanks to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation's myopic decision. Our focus should not only be for hunt of dead dolphins - but contaminated humans!
There have been protests demanding that the authorities ban merchant ships and cargo vessels from using the rivers and channels of the Sundarbans. Absent effective government measures, Bangladesh will have to keep relying on civil society and volunteers in this environmental crisis.
Players and officials of Bangladesh-Zimbabwe and the spectators stand up for one minute silence for Australian batsman Phillip Huges before the fourth One Day International match at Sher-e-Bangla Natioanl Cricket Stadium in Mirpur. Dhaka. Image by Reaz Sumon. Copyright Demotix. (28/11/2014)
A simple tribute from a cricket fan to Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes, who died November 27, has gone viral in Australian and around the world.
Australian star cricketer Phillip Hughes died as a result of injuries he sustained when he was struck by a bouncer on Tuesday during a domestic league game at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Hughes was wearing a helmet, but the ball made contact with an unprotected area, damaging his vertebral artery which caused bleeding in the brain. He died two days later at a Sydney hospital from his injuries, three days shy of his 26th birthday.
In a gesture of respect, IT worker Paul Taylor put his old cricket bat outside the front door of his home in Sydney with a cricket cap slung on the handle and tweeted the picture to his followers with the hashtag #putoutyourbats. The idea soon caught on among mourning fans in Australia and beyond.
Hughes was born in Macksville, a small town on the north coast of New South Wales, and was so talented that he had his grade A debut at the age of 12. To mark his passing, matches were cancelled in Australia and in other countries. Cricketers across the world have tweeted to commemorate him:
The ongoing summit of the The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was covered by international media with different perspectives. However non-official initiatives such as 18th SAARC Summit blog, Facebook account, Twitter and Google+ account are aggregating updates on the summit for easy archiving.
The champions - girls basketball team of Gangyap's Ekalavya Model Residential School, Sikkim, with their coach. Image used with permission.
They hail from one of India's many mountain villages, and chances are that their lives would have been spent in quiet anonymity had it not been for an enthusiastic and persevering coach and their own grit. But now these girls have transformed themselves into national level champions in a sport that they had not even heard of earlier -- basketball. Theirs is a truly inspiring story. They are the girls of Gangyap.
Gangyap is a remote mountainous village, located at an altitude of 6,500 feet in the Himalayan mountains of Western Sikkim. Over the last few years, the village has come out of the shadows, thanks to a group of its teenage girls who, under the guidance of their school principal-cum-coach, has become an unlikely powerhouse in the Indian under-19 CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) Basketball league.
Siddharth Yonzone, 37, was appointed the first principal of the Eklavya Eklavya Model Residential School (EMRS) for Scheduled Tribes that opened in Gangyap around 2009 and he recalls that at the time, the school wasn't connected by proper roads and there were no proper school building or playground. Yonzone introduced basketball to the small number of students (52 enrolled in the first year, and 33 passed) as an extra-curricular student activity and became their coach and mentor.
At Gangyap, few had heard of basketball before, but that did not deter Yonzone, himself a basketball fan. There were many challenges, but the fledgeling team and their coach persevered. This video by documentary filmmaker Mandira Chhetri explains how the girls had to build their own basketball court from scratch, through manual labour:
Despite the challenges, however, the girls basketball team of Gangyap started playing in the championships in 2010 and surprised everyone when they stole the headlines in 2011 by winning the under-19 CBSE Basketball national level championship, the first team from north-east India to do so. The girls team has lifted the East Zone trophy for the fifth time this year and are currently preparing to take part in the 2014 under-19 national championships, to be held in December.
The girls of Gangyap in action. Image used with permission.
Global Voices conducted an interview with Siddarth Yonzone over email to learn more about the team and how the game has had an impact on the lives of the girls and their community.
Global Voices (GV): What made you think of creating this basketball team with the girls, who are from the remote, tribal areas of Sikkim?
Siddarth Yonzone (SY): I'm a basketball fan, a basketball lover. When I was working in a government school as an English teacher, I had taught the game to a group of boys. This was around 2001-2004. In 2007 I was offered the post of a principal in a new school called 'Eklavya Model Residential School' where we had to begin with just one class, that was class VI. Seeing the very sad condition of the new school, the ignorance of the children and so much more, I wanted to catch their interest through basketball, music and some other literary stuff (of course all of which I am interested in) I brought two girls with me to the new school (who I had started coaching in the previous school) named Rinchen abd Nim Lhamu, aged 10 and 12, respectively. With them I tried to build a team. Of course there was no court to play on. So I put up basketball rings on a wooden post. Though the other girls had never heard or seen the game, I thought of instilling confidence in them of some kind and had to start from somewhere ... I felt it could be done through basketball and music.
GV: What made you choose basketball as a sport for these girls, when it is not really a very well-known or popular game even in some of India's top schools?
SY: For me, taking the road less travelled has always been my way. Moreover since I was such a fan of the game, I wanted to make it popular in places hidden from the rest of the world. I had also seen the standard of the game played by the girls in Sikkim and other places and I was not happy about it. I wanted to train a team from scratch. I also made them watch NBA and WNBA. Apart from the game, this also helped the girls learn about different places, etc.
GV: Did you have to face any challenges in creating this team and teaching them the game? Can you share one or two incidents to illustrate?
SY: Yes! There were so many challenges, but with the grace of God, (and of course, we were training very hard) the girls started winning immediately. The captain, Nima Doma, naturally learned the game and became a star player. The girls started defeating opponents who were double their age and physically bigger, stronger, older. One of the biggest challenges we faced was that by class VII, they had won their first state championship (all aged 11-14) but they were not allowed to represent the state, which they wanted to very badly. Some people tried to discourage me and the girls by saying so many things. It was only in 2010 when they were in class VIII and IX that they went out of the state to play and won so many championships . But then even today, there are many tournaments to which this team is not invited; organisers give the excuse that there is no competition when our team is called ... (basically there are many who have still not acknowledged this team despite the many championships they have won all over India, in Bhutan and in Nepal too. Another challenge is that some people started to grow very jealous of the girls ... It was so difficult (and still is). These people criticize behind the girls' backs, say this is not their game, they mock and try to put down the girls. Sometimes the girls tell me of how difficult it is to belong to the team. I really don't know the reason why but since these girls were from the remote tribal areas, they were first generation learners coming from economically weak backgrounds, they were not looked after well. Scholarships/incentives for winning the CBSE under-19 national championship twice were not offered or even talked about. The girls finally got a basketball court in their seventh and final year of their schooling after learning for six years on muddy, stony, unbalanced courts. There were even some people who wanted to go out of their way to deny them a basketball court! They are so many other challenges, but the girls were interested and I got the support from their families and the biggest thing was, we met several well wishers, friends and family who helped us ..
The EMRS girls basketball team, in their school jerseys. Image used with permission
GV: What keeps the team motivated? Has it changed their day-to-day life or even their dreams in any way? Can you give an example?
SY: I guess it's the love of the game. They have set for themselves a very high target. Nima Doma, for example, dreams of playing in the WNBA. I don’t know if that’s ever going to happen but I’m certain if lady luck does smile on her, she will not disappoint the selectors. She’ll never let that opportunity go to waste. Even the support given by friends, family and well wishers have ensured that they continue to improve in the game. I try as a coach to give them targets; we have several meetings even when there aren't any tournaments coming up. Their day-to-day life has changed tremendously. They have become athletic in nature, health conscious, more confident, they started to perform very well in their academics. They have travelled to so many places within India and also Bhutan, Nepal ... they have seen more of the country because of basketball. They have higher dreams now. They've met various kinds of people on their journeys, some kind and generous, others spiteful and envious … they've even been invited for tea by her majesty, the queen of Bhutan, who spoke to and advised the girls and gave them presents. Recently, five of the outgoing (school leaving) seniors have appeared for an entrance test for physical education in Gwalior. If it not been for basketball, their options or dreams would be very little.
GV: The girls team has performed fantastically in so many competitions now. Has their story had any impact on the local communities from where they come -- in their villages or in their families?
SY: Yes, they have been welcomed grandly on their return after winning championships by the school and local communities. They are many people in and around Sikkim who look up to the girls as role models. We hear that in many schools, certain principals, head masters and teachers narrate stories of these players, motivating other students to try and achieve what these girls have; their families and villages are proud of them. Reports of their victories in newspapers, magazines, etc., have also inspired many other people. I sometimes meet people for the first time, but they seem to know pretty well about the team and their victories. They thank me and the team … they have said that the girls have inspired them in so many ways. On the other hand, I also feel that they should have been given a little support by the people in important positions, to enable them to get into the colleges they desired, but that has not been given …It makes me want to wonder why? Is it because they are girls? Is it because they are tribals? Is it because they are first generation learners from weak economical backgrounds? I could be totally wrong here but these things do make me think. It could also be because basketball is not a very popular game … especially with too much cricket in India, and too much fuss about contact and indoor sports in Sikkim. But one very important point I want to make is no matter the number of critics and obstacles in our path, certain well wishers have made a difference to the lives of the players.
We wish the girls of Gangyap many more successes in the days to come and hope that Siddharth Yonzone's vision will bring greater empowerment to many more such girls. We look forward to seeing them win -- in basketball, and in life.
The post was written in collaboration with Aparna Ray.
Picture of Rajshahi University Campus in a misty winter morning. Image from Flickr by Kamrul Hasan. December 16, 2013 (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Professor Shafiul Islam, a professor of sociology in Rajshahi University was attacked with a machete by unknown assailants outside his home in Rajshahi city on November 15. He died from his injuries in a nearby hospital some hours later. According to news reports, the professor led a push to ban students wearing full-face veils at his university in 2012, stoking the wrath of Islamist hardliners. The professor argued that full-face veils made it difficult to identify individual students and that they could even be used to cheat on university examinations.
Rajshahi is a major urban and industrial centre of North Bengal and is located on the river Padma near Bangladesh-India border. Rajshahi University is a stronghold of the religious political party Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chatra Shibir. Pro-Jamaat newspapers in 2010 reported that Shafiul Islam had banned the burqa as the then-chair of the university’s sociology department, a policy that offended religious sentiments among many in the majority-Muslim country. At that time, Shafiul had sent rejoinders to some of those newspapers claiming that he had only expelled one female student from his class because she was cheating using her burqa.
A previously unknown Islamist group claimed responsibility for Shafiul's killing, after opening a Facebook page late on Saturday:
According to reports, the Facebook page generated more than 2,000 likes from people who appeared to support the killing. In a long status update on November 17, posts on the page hinted at who might be the next targets of the group. One status update gave an exhaustive list of potential targets including university and secondary school faculty, public representatives and local opinion leaders, heads of organisations, judges, lawyers, doctors, intellectuals, journalists, and even actors.
After the Facebook page link was published by various media outlets, netizens flagged the page using Facebook's abuse reporting system, arguing that it violates the platform's Community Standards. The first section of Facebook’s Community Standards reads:
Safety is Facebook's top priority. We remove content and may escalate to law enforcement when we perceive a genuine risk of physical harm, or a direct threat to public safety. You may not credibly threaten others, or organize acts of real-world violence.
The Community Standards also address harassment:
Facebook does not tolerate bullying or harassment. We allow users to speak freely on matters and people of public interest, but take action on all reports of abusive behavior directed at private individuals. Repeatedly targeting other users with unwanted friend requests or messages is a form of harassment.
Nevertheless, in the days following the page's publication, Facebook responded to abuse reports with generic messages such as these:
Screenshot of Facebook's reply
Screenshot of Facebook's reply.
Netizens persisted in reporting the page as an abuse of Facebook's Community Standards. On Nov. 18, 2014 Facebook removed the page.
Screenshot of Facebook reply.
Police say that they believe the killing may have been perpetrated by militants backed by the conservative religious Jamaat-e-Islami group.
Rajshahi University has seen killings of its teachers Professor Mohammad Yunus in 2004 and Professor Taher Ahmed in 2006. Pranab Kumar Panday writes in an op-ed in the Daily Star:
It is really unfortunate to see that public university teachers are being harassed and killed very often. [..] These incidents are creating a sense of insecurity among the teachers of public universities. They are also indicative of the deterioration of law and order in the country.
Meanwhile, the threats continue. The Facebook page that claimed responsibility for killing Shafiul Islam recently announced their next target. The post reads:
Next Target . . . teacher of Bogra Govt. Women`s College. Offense: Banning burka. Offense date: September 2014. Punishment: Death. Chance: Yes. All atheists who oppose Islam be careful.
The 2014 Hijra Pride festival began in Bangladesh on Sunday. The photo was taken from the Sahabgh Raju Circle in Dhaka. Image by Anwar Hossain Joy. Copyright Demotix (9/11/2014)
About a thousand Hijras took part in Bangladesh's first ever "Hijra Pride" in the capital Dhaka last week to celebrate the first anniversary of their recognition as a separate gender by the government. Hijra is a feminine gender identity that some people who are born male or intersex adopt, often labeled as transgender by the West.
Bangaldesh's about 10,000 Hijras have long suffered discrimination. At this first pride parade, participants with colourful dresses sang and danced in the streets carrying Bangladesh flags and banners, one of which read: "The days of stigma, discrimination and fear are over."
Take a look at some snapshots of the event:
People parade with the national flag in Dhaka to mark 'Hijra Pride'. Image by Sony Ramany. Copyright Demotix (10/11/2014)
The colourful rally organised by the Bandhu Social Welfare Society took place near the press club, Dhaka. Image by SK Hasan Ali. Copyright Demotix (10/11/2014)
Celebrating ' Third gender (Hijra) Pride 2014' in Bangladesh. Image by Sk. Hasan Ali. Copyright Demotix (10/11/2014)
Celebrating Hijra Pride Parade. Image by Mohammad Asad. Copyright Demotix (10/11/2014)
Bangladeshi Hijras dance in the street during a pride parade. Image by Indrajit Ghosh. Copyright Demotix (10/11/2014)
Hijra celebrate with a beauty talent show during the evening. Image by Mohammad Asad. Copyright Demotix (10/11/2014)
‘Hijra pride 2014’ ended with a talent hunt competition. Image by Mohammad Asad. Copyright Demotix (10/11/2014)
People also celebrated with them and shared support via Twitter:
Screenshot of Google Bus from the Intro Video on YouTube (click to watch the video)
A team from tech giant Google is driving across Bangladesh to teach half a million college and university students throughout Bangladesh how to make the most of the Internet. The specially retrofitted Google Bus powered with 3G mobile Internet will visit 500 campuses in 35 locations across the South Asian country.
More and more people in Bangladesh are going online, thanks to 3G mobile Internet. In last two years, Internet penetration jumped to 20 percent from just 5 percent in 2012. These new users, especially young people, do not have adequate training to harness the potential of Internet and new media.
The Google Bus initiative seeks to change that, not only allowing students to connect to the Internet but also learn about new tools that aid their education and development and attend instructor-led training sessions. Students involved in the project will also be able to use a number of Internet-connected Android devices.
The bus has already visited several colleges and universities in the capital Dhaka. In the coming months, it will start its journey towards academic institutions in and around Chittagong, Khulna, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Barisal and other major cities.
Netizens have expressed their enthusiasm for Google's initiative:
The Google bus team came to our #ACC college Campus..It's just great :) Though it's new to me but feeling excited. Hope in Bangladesh it will spread soon and gain popularity...
Hi, I'm bristy from tejgaon college. I like Google Bus. It is very essential for our daily life. So I like it very much.
On Bangladeshi blog Jhalmoori, Ahmed Rabib Towsif explained the significance of the Google Bus:
Google as we all know by their search engine is a multinational company with a mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. With the Google Bus Bangladesh initiative it would not only benefit the youth from today, but benefit the whole country tomorrow.
