On 7th April 2011, the chairman of the `stock market scam probe committee' Mr. Ibrahim Khalid has formally handed over the much talked about probe report on stock market scam to the government. Mr. Khalid, who has been the ex-deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank and current chairman of Bangladesh Agriculture Bank, was given the responsibility by the Sheikh Hasina government to inquire into the biggest stock market crash in the country's history over the period from December 2010 to January 2011. The debacle of the stock market was so vast that more than 3.3 million people (small investors) were directly affected and virtually lost all of their investment and almost 12-15 million people have been indirectly affected in the process. Most unofficial estimates suggest that, a total of 120 billion BD Taka or US $1.7 billion has been the total loss during the period.

The collapse was so visible that all the small investors could see their hard earned lifelong savings getting vanished almost the way ice melts. Especially on January 9, 2011 the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) suffered the steepest ever single-day fall in the bourse's 55-year history. The DSE General Index (DGEN) plunged by 600 points, and all indices fell nearly 8 percent in the wake of panic-sales. Breaking the previous day's record, on January 10, DGEN shed 660 points or 9.25 percent between 11 am and 11:50 am. The capital market was shut; small investors turned vandalistic; and the business district of Motijheel was transformed into a battlefield between protesters and law-enforcers.

The government ministers and regulators during the most part of this economic mass destruction process through stock market has remained either silent or helped the process to further downfall of the market to ensure heavy sell pressure so that the manipulators behind the scene could make their gain out of small investor's money. During the month of October-November 2010 when the market was getting overvalued the government has tried to befool the people by portraying this bullish trend of the market as their success. The economic advisor to Prime Minister Dr. Moshiur Rahman and the Finance Minister A B M Muhith have argued that the rise in market is due to the competent economic policy undertaken by the Sheikh Hasina government and it is helping many young people in earning opportunities and thus solving unemployment problem. All of these was just bluff! As the market started to crash due to the manipulators exiting from the market by making profit, excessive sell pressure has instantly forced the market to cripple like iceberg and impoverish the masses. At that point the tone of the economic advisor, finance minister and the prime minister changed. While at the first half of the January 2011, most of the 3.3 million small investors were almost loosing everything, the economic advisor has said, "stock market is a gamble and thus it is the responsibility of those who invested there. Government has nothing to do with that." The prime minister went further in blaming pro-Islamic and nationalist opposition parties, illustrating the true nature of democratic politics, as the streets of financial capital Motijheel become battlefield on daily basis. The regulatory authorities including stock exchanges, Security and Exchange Commission, Bangladesh Bank, Ministry of Finance and Register of Joint Stock Companies all have prescribed different policies and changed those on daily basis helping in the process the behind the scenes manipulators to exit from the market with a profit of 120 billion BD Taka. All of these are hard earned savings of the middle income groups of Bangladesh who has fallen prey to the capitalist magic of changing fortune quickly i.e. stock market.

As the pressure on government has been growing during the period of February and March 2011, the government finally announced Mr. Ibrahim Khalid to head the investigation team. Even though the 300 page investigation report has been handed over to the government on 7th April 2011, the government is yet to publish this report publicly as numbers of senior ministers, members of parliament and business aides of this government including infamous tycoon Salman F Rahman, as well as politicians and business aides of the opposition have been directly indicated in the probe report. Moreover, on the day of handing over the report, Mr. Ibrahim Khalid has hinted that, "the criminal were so powerful that it is not possible to try them under ‘democracy'. So he suggested trying them by military courts!

Indeed Bangladesh, already known worldwide as the one of the poorest countries in the world has historical record of politicians looting public money while they were in power like all other democracies in the world be it UK or USA or India. During the previous government of Begum Zia, Tareq Rahman, the son of Begum Zia, has looted estimated $0.1 billion from the public and now Sheikh Hasina's son Shajib Wajed Joy and her aides have looted $1.7 billion! Indeed under this secular democratic capitalist economic model, the politicians loot public and stock market works as a perfect digital tool to help them out, by leaving the ummah in the dustbin. Therefore, the solution to employment is not stock market or this capitalist model of economy. Also the solution to bring those responsible for looting public money is neither democracy nor any other man-made systems. Indeed it is Islamic economic system under the shade of Khilafah "Caliphate", which is the only guarantee to the economic prosperity for the ummah. And the trial of the perpetrators, who plunder the ummah's fortunes, will also be ensured by the Khilafah "Caliphate".

Jafar Muhammad Abu Abdullah
Dhaka, Bangladesh

In its blind crusade against Hizb ut Tahrir, the government has lost its senses. The members of Hizb ut Tahrir who were arrested in the successful 17 April rally in Lahore, distinguished politicians and Da'i calling for Khilafah "Caliphate", have not only had their bail rejected by the traitor rulers, they have been severely tortured. Moreover, the house of an arrested member, Professor Qamar, has been raided and his wife was harassed and threatened with abduction

Titles:

• World economy 'one shock away' from crisis
• Warning of a ‘new Vietnam' in Libya as British military advisers go in
• Saudi cleric attacks Iranian "hypocrisy and deception"
• Did Donald Rumsfeld Whitewash Massacre in Uzbekistan?
• Pakistan: US won't abandon Predator campaign

News Details:

World economy 'one shock away' from crisis
The world economy is just "one shock away from a full-blown crisis", according to the head of the World Bank. Speaking at a joint meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Robert Zoellick said that sharp rises in commodity prices, particularly food, had put poorer countries in a uniquely vulnerable position. The World Bank says that wheat prices increased by 69 per cent between the first quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011, while maize prices increased by some 74 per cent. Meanwhile IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn highlighted the rising levels of youth unemployment around the world. He described the gradual upturn as "a recovery with not enough jobs."

Warning of a ‘new Vietnam' in Libya as British military advisers go in
David Cameron was accused this week of risking a Vietnam-style quagmire in Libya by sending military advisers to help the country's rebels. The first official deployment of troops on the ground marks a significant escalation in the war and immediately invited charges of ‘mission creep'. A ten-strong team of intelligence, signals and logistics experts will help set up an opposition headquarters to take on Colonel Gaddafi's forces. The Prime Minister approved the move amid frustration that Nato's no-fly zone has failed to shield civilians properly. But Libyan deputy foreign minister Khalid Kaim branded the move an ‘act of war' and senior MPs and former commanders warned of echoes of America's first steps in Vietnam. They said Britain risked getting bogged down in Libya for years and one demanded a recall of Parliament. Major General Patrick Cordingley, commander of the Desert Rats in the 1991 Gulf War, said he feared the deployment could be the ‘thin end of the wedge'. ‘The danger of putting advisers on the ground is that you are making it crystal clear that you are supporting the rebels and stoking up a civil war,' he added. ‘It is sad that we don't appear to think we can bring sufficient pressure on Gaddafi to leave him isolated without having to up the ante in terms of supporting the opposition with military advice.'

Saudi cleric attacks Iranian "hypocrisy and deception"
Saudi Arabia's top cleric accused Iran of interfering in the internal affairs of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and attacked its "hypocrisy and deception", a Saudi newspaper said on Friday. Gulf Arab countries are concerned over what they see as the ambition of non-Arab Shi'ite power Iran to extend its influence in Arab countries mostly under Sunni rule. Saudi Arabia follows a brand of Sunni Islam that views Shi'ites as heretics. "We must guard against their (Iranian) intrigues and we have to be wary of them and be careful of their deceits and not fall for their claims about Islam, which are all hypocrisy and deception," Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh was quoted as saying in the daily Okaz. The paper said he condemned "Iranian interventions" in the GCC and described Iranians as "Zoroastrians" -- followers of the pre-Islamic Persian religion -- in language Saudi clerics often use to attack Iranians and Shi'ites.

Did Donald Rumsfeld Whitewash Massacre in Uzbekistan?
In interviews and in his memoir, the former Secretary of Defense defends the Uzbek government -- and himself -- over a 2005 incident that left hundreds of unarmed protesters dead. In his door-stopper of a memoir, Known and Unknown, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld spends just three pages recounting what he calls "one of the most unfortunate, if unnoticed, foreign policy mistakes of our administration." The episode he describes took place not in Iraq or Afghanistan but, rather, in Uzbekistan. Yet Rumsfeld's account of what happened and why appears wildly out of sync with the public record. Rumsfeld's account of the tragedy at Andijon is jarringly different from what most international observers say happened. "It appeared that the goal of the assault was to release members of an Islamic extremist group accused of seeking to establish an Islamic state, a caliphate, in eastern Uzbekistan," Rumsfeld writes of the prison break. And of the massacre: "This was not a simple case of soldiers slaughtering innocents, as had been widely alleged and misreported." His version is at odds with that of seemingly everyone: human rights groups, international media, eyewitnesses, U.S. intelligence, even the State Department. Everyone, that is, except the Karimov regime. Information provided by Rumsfeld himself contradicts his own narrative. According to a memo prepared by the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, helpfully posted on Rumsfeld's website and even cited in the text of his memoir, "The popular perception was that these businessmen were upstanding community members -- not Islamic extremists." Unable to assess the regime's "evidence" allegedly connecting the businessmen to insurrection, the memo's author, DIA Director L.E. Jacoby, concluded that the thousands of protestors who had gathered to demand their release were provoked by legitimate grievances against a corrupt and abusive regime, not a desire to impose an Islamic caliphate. "Their motivation almost certainly was anger and frustration over poor socioeconomic conditions and repressive government policies rather than a unifying extremist ideology," Jacoby wrote. "There are no indications that Karimov understands that a deep sense of injustice was at the center of the unrest."

Pakistan: US won't abandon Predator campaign
The United States will not abandon its drone programme in Pakistan but how it goes forward is a matter for US and Pakistani intelligence and military officials to determine, a US official said on Wednesday. "The programme is something that we have said we go ahead on. The question is how. And that process is going to be something that's going to be one of the main tasks that our intel and our military guys have," the official said, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity. The comments came as Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Pakistan in the highest level trip by a US official since ties were badly strained over the case of CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who shot dead two Pakistanis in Lahore on Jan. 27. "I'll pause from my normal optimism and say this is a tough one. This is a real tough one," the official said. "Because that has been so inflamed in the public that the ability of our intelligence and our military guys to get together and say ‘what's our common ground here?' is limited." US officials have privately said in the past that Washington would not consider demands by some Pakistani officials for sharp cuts in drone attacks or suggestions the United States should return to a Bush-era policy limiting the strikes to "high-value" militant targets.

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