& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

WB concerned over attacks on NGOs

Prof Yunus terms it bad omen for country; NGOs tighten security

Staff Correspondent
The World Bank (WB) yesterday deplored and expressed deep concerns at the recent bomb attacks on Grameen Bank and Brae offices, which Grameen Bank's managing director considers a bad omen for the country.
In a press release, the WB said as a development partner of Bangladesh it is deeply concerned about the adverse effects on services to the poor, should such
attacks escalate.
"It's important that development agencies like Brae and Grameen Bank be able to continue their good work unhindered by fear or violence," the multilateral international development agency said.
"We hope the authorities will take a strong stand against these actions and take all necessary steps to bring the perpetrators to justice," the release added.
SEE PAGE 11 COL 7 FROM PAGE 1
Meanwhile, State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar yesterday told a parliament session the government has taken the attacks seriously and will take all necessary step to bring the culprits to book.
NGO LEADERS' REACTION
Grameen Bank Managing Director Prof Mohammad Yunus termed the Wednesday's attack on a branch of his bank as a bad omen for the country and said, "It's not an isolated local and religious incident but a political and planned attack."
"By carrying out such attacks one after another, the attackers demonstrate the weakness of the government and politics. The government is also acting as if it has failed to identify the attackers and to contain such crimes," he noted.
Yunus said the attacks are aimed at proving to the outside world that the politics in the country has totally failed to contain an anarchic and intolerant situation. So, the nation needs to unite to resist and contain such crimes and to nab the criminals.
Asked what security beef-up are they planning against the backdrop of the attacks, Yunus questioned whether it is possible to ensure security for all of the bank's 41 lakh members across the country.
Talking on the issue yesterday, Brac Executive Director Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury said religious fanaticism was a factor behind the attacks on Brac offices.
He said the identities of the attackers are clear from the confessional statements given by their arrested co-partisans, adding, "To stop recurrence of such attacks, the government have to bring those culprits to book."
Chowdhury said such attacks are damaging the country's image and will greatly hinder its development, so they will formally request the government to take stern action against the attackers.
He said there are 1,100 to 1,200 Brac offices across the country. So it is not possible for Brac alone to provide the necessary security for each of them, which he said have to be ensured by the police and the government.
SECURITY HIKE AT NGOS
The country's leading nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) are stepping up their security measures, even at their head offices, following the repeated bomb attacks and planting of grenades at their offices in the Northwest.
The incidents have instilled acute panic into the staffs of most of the NGOs including Brac and Grameen Bank in the eight northwestern districts, our Rangpur correspondent reported yesterday.
Sources said the Brac authorities have directed all its branches in the northern region to tighten security round the clock, including by deploying security guards. The order reached the Brac regional offices on Wednesday.
The Brac security men were found yesterday frisking visitors and their bags with metal detectors before allowing them into the Brac Centre at Mohakhali.
The Grameen Bank authorities also have asked their security personnel to mount keener watch at the entrances to the bank's Mirpur headquarters and allow visitors only after thorough checking.
"We have asked our security guards to be alert and allow any
unknown visitor to enter our head office only after checking them thoroughly," said a Grameen Bank official, adding similar directions have also been given to all its branches.
Grameen Bank has about 41 lakh members across the country, with a total of 13,000 staffs working at its 1,350 branches.
PROBE INTO ATTACKS
Our Rangpur correspondent reports: Police could not arrest any one in connection with the planting of the grenades on the Brac office premises at Darsona in Rangpur town.
A number of Brac officials alleged police seemed reluctant to investigate the incident. They said no policeman visited the spot until yesterday evening since disposal of the grenades on Wednesday.
Police Superintendent Mahbub Morshed told The Daily Star they have held no-one in this connection, saying, "We're yet to get any clue about the grenade plantation."
However he denied the allegation of police reluctance and said, "Kotwali police and Detective Branch (DB) have been tasked to probe the incident and working on it."
Meanwhile, locals have been questioning why the three powerful hand grenades planted to blow off the Brac branch office were not kept as evidence by diffusing those and why police lodged a general diary instead of a regular case.
A source at DB police on condition of anonymity disclosed that they are almost sure that an Islamist extremist group planted the grenades. He said the group targets to bomb all the Brac, Grameen Bank and Proshika branches.
Brac Rangpur Area Manager Nishanur Rahman said, "We have deployed night and day guards at all Brac branches in Rangpur area." RECAP
Eight people -- six employees of Brac and two of Grameen Bank -- were wounded in identical bomb attacks on two Brac offices in Naogaon and Joypurhat and a branch of Grameen Bank in Sirajganj in the recent attacks. Besides, three hand grenades were recovered from another Brac office in Rangpur on Wednesday morning.
The attacks are believed to be carried out by ultra-militant Islamist outfit Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB).
An arrested JMJB operative, Shafiqullah, in a confessional statement to a Bogra magistrate last Monday admitted that the JMJB bomb squad is responsible for a number of bomb attacks on NGOs.
He also confessed that JMJB plans to continue attacks on NGOs like Brac and Karitas and on cultural activities, which it considers as anti-Islamic, until an Islamic revolution takes place in the country.
Another 12 operatives of Jama'atul Muzahidin, the former name of JMJB, arrested in Natore, also gave similar statements confessing to carrying out bomb attacks on 'anti-Islamic' cultural shows and NGOs.