Author: Priya Saha

File photo: A house is seen on fire in Gawduthar village, Maungdaw township, in the north of Rakhine state, Myanmar September 7, 2017Reuters According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh The incoming Biden administration will launch an interagency review to determine whether Myanmar’s persecution of its Rohingya minority can be called genocide. President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the State Department, Antony Blinken said Tuesday. Antony Blinken made the statement during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and said that if confirmed, he would oversee the process, reports Anadolu Agency.According to…

Bangladeshi authorities renew their commitment to de-radicalise extremist militants, young people recruited in universities and on the web. A life of hiding and fleeing, of armed militancy is not life. The state should punish but also rehabilitate those who err. Help from family is crucial.   Dhaka (AsiaNews) – “Once upon a time it was possible to conquer a state with a sword. Now everything has changed. It is the era of science and education. It is time to build a new world with love, not with hatred and violence,” said Shaon Muntaha Ibn Shawkat, a former Islamist militant, as…

Guwahati, Jan 22 (PTI) On the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”s visit to Assam, newly floated political parties Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and Raijor Dal on Friday alleged that the BJP has failed to fulfil its “tall promises” made before the 2016 assembly polls. At a press conference here, AJP president Lurinjyoti Gogoi posed a few questions on topics such as imposition of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which the ALP alleged was aimed at giving citizenship to Bangladeshis in the state. Raijor Dal”s working president Bhasco D Saikia said, of the 476 promises made by the saffron…

Washington D.C., Jan 21, 2021 / 02:45 pm MT (CNA).- President Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State agrees with his predecessor’s declaration that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is committing genocide against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang. “That would be my judgment as well,” said Antony Blinken, President Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State, when asked by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday if he agreed with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s genocide designation. Blinken appeared before members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday for a hearing considering his nomination to…

Odisha needs a Minority Commission to deal with the problems of minority communities while such commissions are existing in 13 States. However, unfortunately, the State Government has not taken any initiative in this regard. Though STs, SCs Development, Minority and Backward Class Welfare Department of the Odisha Government deals with the minority affairs but there has been a demand from among the minority communities for such a panel since long. Public institutions are a part of our constitutional democracy and as citizens every one deserves the right to be represented for a cause before the State. The idea of India…

DHAKA: Bangladeshi authorities are expecting the long-awaited repatriation of Rohingya refugees to begin this year following an agreement with Myanmar, officials in Dhaka said on Tuesday. Bangladesh is hosting more than 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims at cramped makeshift camps in Cox’s Bazar, which is considered the world’s largest refugee settlement. Most have fled violence and persecution following a military crackdown by the Myanmar army in Rakhine state in 2017. At a tripartite meeting facilitated by China on Tuesday, Myanmar agreed to start the repatriation process, although it did not confirm a time frame. “We can expect that it will begin in…

The January 6 storming of the US Capitol shocked millions of people outside America to the core. When watching the sickening pictures of the “insurrection,” I was thinking back to August 2018. America was bidding its final farewell to Sen. John McCain. Political leaders, Republicans and Democrats — they came together as Americans to send a message of unity around his casket in the Capitol Rotunda. To me, that sad moment was also a moral highpoint. One of many in this sacred place called the US Capitol. What a striking contrast to what the world saw on January 6, 2021.…

The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday restrained the State Government from declaring any area as “disturbed area” under Section 3(1)(ii) of the Gujarat Disturbed Areas Act, 1991, for “improper clustering of persons of one community.” A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Ashutish J Shastri sought the Government’s response on a PIL filed by Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind organization, challenging the vires of the Gujarat Disturbed Areas Act, 1991, as amended by an Act of 2020. “Issue notice returnable on February 3, 2021. Senior Advocate Manisha Lavkumar, Learned Government Pleader upon instructions has informed that as of date the…

Well, now that we’re all fired up about Britain’s moral role in the world courtesy of Theresa May, who is indignant about cuts to the overseas aid budget, how about moving on to Pakistan? This week a Pakistani court has ruled that a 12-year-old Christian girl, Farah Shaheen, consented to her marriage with an alleged abductor over twice her age and consented freely to convert to Islam. When the girl was recovered from the household of Khisar Ahmed Ali in December, she was reportedly too traumatised to speak about what happened to her over the five months since she, ah, consented…

UCA News: Catholics and Protestants have been attending prayer meetings and dialogue programs in Bangladesh to strengthen unity among members of various churches during Christian Unity Octave from Jan. 18-25. Bangladesh’s eight Catholic archdioceses and dioceses have arranged ecumenical prayers and discussions with Protestant bodies acros the country. On Jan. 18, an ecumenical prayer meeting was held in Rajshahi city with about 30 Catholic and Protestant leaders. Rev. Daniel Mondol, head pastor of the Church of Bangladesh in Rajshahi, applauded the initiative and hoped it could be a benchmark to facilitate unity among Christian denominations. “Generally, we have good relations and bonds…

Police said they will keep an eye on waz mahfils to identify those delivering indecent speeches in the name of sermons. Monirul Islam, chief of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, came up with the remarks yesterday. “We have noticed that recently some speakers in waz mahfils are giving political and indecent speeches about mothers and sisters rather than discussing the five pillars of Islam.” He was speaking as a keynote speaker at a seminar titled “The Role of Islamic Scholars in Preventing Violent Extremism” at the Islamic Foundation building in the capital’s Agargaon. Earlier on Monday, a…

Ordained on 15 January, five days earlier, he baptised 11 members of his family. Khokon came to know Christianity in 2000, at a Catholic school, “attracted by the life of PIME missionaries and local priests”. In his parish, 500 adults will be baptised this year. Naogaon (AsiaNews) – The Church of Bangladesh is growing very fast, the result of the tireless and generous work of the missionaries. New members join each year whilst vocations to the priesthood and religious life also emerge among them. Fr Khokon Christopher Baro, 37, is one of the most recent examples. His priestly ordination among…