The Hawa Bhaban Conspiracy

Who was behind the August 21, 2004 murder plot against Sheikh Hasina left unanswered for years. But now shocking details are emerging.

Last year we learned that the former BNP lawmaker and deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu Pintu was detained and charges were made against him and 22 persons including top Harkat-ul-Jihad (Huji) leader Mufti Abdul Hannan for the sensational August 21 grenade attack against Hasina. He confessed of his involvement in the assassination attempt during interrogation.

Now a Daily Star investigation reveals some characters behind the chilling conspiracy to kill Hasina. We hear that former home minister Babar 'supplied' grenades and the militant organization HUJI was used as mercenary group:

(Image courtesy The Daily Star)    (Click here to read the rest of this entry)

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Hizbut Tahrir Banned In Bangladesh

In 2007 I wrote why Hizbut Tahrir is the next threat for Bangladesh. They had been recruiting talented youths from Bangladeshi education institutions and brain washing them for their quest to establish Khilafat. Rawi commented in my above post:

I happened to closely follow the alarming emergence of HT in Bangladesh over the last 5 years -- alarming because they openly reject democracy as "un-Islamic", unlike the other Islamist parties that at least accept the democratic system as a pragmatic norm and act within it. Ironically, when they first started their activities at universities in Dhaka in the name of "intellectual debate", I heard some of these British-accented returned-to-Bangladesh leaders claiming that HT is a "non-violent, non-political" movement (exact words). Imagine my reaction when, less than 2 years later, I come across explicitly political leaflets being distributed outside mosques in Dhanmondi.

It's not entirely true that HT is "totally peaceful". Rather, they have taken on different colors in different countries. In places in Central Asia, HT-inspired movements have been known to engage in openly militant activities. Also important to note, though HT is currently based in the UK, they were originally founded in Palestine over 50 years ago by a cleric named Nabhani. A professor I knew at college, who once personally interviewed the late founder of Hamas, said he happened to meet an HT man in Palestine whose views were the most "extremist" he had ever seen -- even more extreme than Hamas!

Finally the Bangladesh government made the right decision in banning Hizbut Tahrir in Bangladesh.

"The organisation's activities have been banned from today [Thursday] as its activities go against public security."

Hizbut-Tahrir (the Party of Liberation) has already been banned in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Pakistan, Tunisia, Libya, Turkey, and in the former Soviet states in Central Asia.

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My Interview Published In Asia Media Forum

Lynette Lee Corporal at Asia Media Forum has published an article on Blog Action Day and quoted me from an interview which I submitted via email earlier.

Here is the article:

Battle for Climate Change Waged in Cyberpace Too

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The State Of The Blogosphere 2009

"In a year when revolutions and elections were organized by blogs, bloggers are blogging more than ever, and the State of the Blogosphere is strong."

Technorati State Of The Blogosphere for 2009 is out. Since 2004, Technorati's annual study has followed the growth and trends in the blogosphere. 2,900 bloggers were surveyed directly by market research firm Penn Schoen and Berland. Here is a summary of the report.

Day 1: Who are the Bloggers?

• Bloggers are a highly educated and affluent group. Nearly half are graduates, majority earns $75000 p.a.
• Two-thirds are male
• 60% are aged 18-44
• More than half are married
• Half are employed full time
• Half of bloggers who responded are working on at least their second blog
• Media Habits of Bloggers 

Category of Bloggers:

Hobbyists: 72% - They blog for fun. They don’t make any money from their blogging. Half of them blog to express their “personal musings”.

Part-Timers: 15% - They “blog to supplement their income, but don’t consider it a full time job.” They blog to share their expertise, while some blog to attract new clients for their business. They measure the success of their blog by the unique pageviews they attract.

Self-Employeds: 9% - They "blog full time for their own company or organization." 88% self employeds use Twitter.

Pros: 4% - They “blog full-time for a company or organization".

Twitter and other social media represent one of the most important trends affecting the Blogosphere this year. With more areas of involvement, and more ways to tell the story, the blogosphere is strong - and only getting stronger.

Coming Up:

Day 2 — The What and Why of Blogging

Day 3 — The How of Blogging

Day 4 — Monetization And Revenue Generation: Brands in the Blogosphere

Day 5 — 2009 Trends: Political Impact of Blogging, Twitter Usage

Image Credit: Technorati

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3D Animation Film From Bangladesh

A 3D Animation film made by Nishu and Mazhar of Batch 02 (Mechanical Engineering) from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

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I swear my chair moved

Earthquake in Indonesia have been so frequent these days that people don't bother. I was sitting in chair and I felt it was moving for a bit. I was deeply concentrated in work and I thought probably my head was spinning. Then the shaking was no more. I asked my family members who did not feel anything probably it was for a brief period - 5 seconds or so. No apparent damages in Jakarta.

And a while after a twitter message came up:

W7VOA: Another quake has just rattled Indonesia -- M6.4 prelim -- probably not big enough to trigger tsunami.

I searched the internet and saw in Detik news that the earthquake happened. USGS Earthquake Hazards Program confirms:

Magnitude	6.5
Date-Time	Friday, October 16, 2009 at 09:52:52 UTC Friday, October 16, 2009 at 04:52:52 PM at epicenter
Location	6.692°S, 105.153°E
Depth	55.6 km (34.5 miles)
Region	SUNDA STRAIT, INDONESIA
Distances	135 km (85 miles) S of T.-Telukbetung, Sumatra, Indonesia 185 km (115 miles) WSW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia 185 km (115 miles) W of Sukabumi, Java, Indonesia 270 km (165 miles) W of Bandung, Java, Indonesia
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 12.3 km (7.6 miles); depth +/- 17.5 km (10.9 miles)
Parameters	NST= 33, Nph= 33, Dmin=350.5 km, Rmss=1.41 sec, Gp= 76°, M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=7
Source	USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID	us2009mva4

More Twitter messages:

RT @BrettMcGuire: 5 seconds in Pondok Indah. Hanging plants are still swinging #Jakarta #earthquake

I am amazed that because of Twitter I could confirm the news within 10 minutes.

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Better Than That One!

Via Jakarta Daily Photo:

The owner of the biggest McDonalds franchise in Indonesia has converted all his McDonald’s counters into the new restaurant: Tony Jack’s. Apparently he’s pissed by McDonald’s decision to sell its majority franchise ownership of McDonalds Indonesia to the Rekso group.

Detik Finance reports that 13 McDonalds branches were converted to Tony Jack’s on the 1st of October. The new entity vows to offer different food items from the previous venture although still dominated by burgers and fried chicken.

Since the first day of opening, the packaging of food and beverages were prepared plain, without logo and name of the store.

Their tagline is "Better than that One", hope they can live up to the expectation.

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