Comments on news report

“Counter-terrorism runs out of gas,” published on January 26, 2014

A Bangladeshi
Now we see the truth. Majority of people are religious but not violent, only a small section is violent. Pathetic hypocrisy. Solution is much more difficult than you think.

Aasfisarwar
The security forces of Bangladesh have become the biggest human rights abusers. They get license to kill. The rise of violent protests is the direct consequence of state-sponsored terrorism. Today we have a government in office who did not even get 5% vote but still wants to stay in power forever.

Sara
Since the fall of JMB in 2006, there has been no militancy in the country (plenty of political violence though). The closest case was the grenade blast in a madrassa in 2013. Looks like counter-terrorism is proceeding well despite the factors described in the article.

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 “The communal mind” (January 22, 2014)

Tearful Bengali
Non-communalism and non-racism do not exist on earth. People are born free but society makes them racist or communal. In Bangladesh, communalism is impeding country's progress.

Nafee Khan
It always amazes me how Syed Badrul Ahsan dismisses General Zia as the likes of some African military dictator and hails Mujib for holding the standard of democracy in the country. Was it not Mujib who was our very first dictator? Is Mr. Ahsan going to deny that he indeed established one party rule? Is he going to deny that Mujib assassinated his political opposition Siraj Sikder and then boasted about it in parliament? Is he going to deny the existence of the Rakhsmi Bahini which Anthony Mascarenhas described as Bangladesh's very own Gestapo?
I think the writer should refer to Mujib's own memoirs to get a sense of just how secular the man was. The writer should stop dreaming of his Marxist utopian society where all the king's men hail Mujib as "Dear Leader". He should come back to reality and face the "Ground Realities" he so speaks of. If democracy and secularism are the principles we are striving to establish as a nation, Mujib or his daughter are in no way shining examples. A black and white version of history only exists on propaganda leaflets.

Dev Saha
Mujib did not seize the power from any democratically elected government but General Zia did. Please study the definition of a dictator if you care. Many countries had their unified national government right after the colonial independence. Those kinds of governments can or should not be treated as dictatorial. The man was not even allowed to rule his first five years term. Besides, a military coup that killed the founding father of a country along with his whole family did not really pave the path for a true democracy. No wonder why Zia too became a victim of the same injustice that he committed against Bangabandhu.