We are Bangladeshi families from Vancouver and University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada. We are deeply shocked and mourning the brutal attack on our sister Rumana Manzur. We are writing this letter out of grave concern observing the attempts made to establish a baseless extramarital story by Rumana’s husband. The Bangladeshi community in the University of British Columbia is a very small community. It is simply impossible for anyone to have an extramarital affair without being noticed by the community members.

When we met Rumana for the first time, she appeared to be an extremely nice, polite and a brilliant Bangladeshi student. We found her to be a very serious student and at the same time dedicated to her family. At numerous occasions she expressed her concern to finish her Degree as soon as possible and return to her family in Bangladesh.  As families living abroad we understood her anxiety and tried to extend our support. Rumana has been living thousands of miles away from her family. Both Bangladeshi and other international students extended their support. She always used to reciprocate with her friendly behaviour, kind words and her excellent cooking.

We were also very impressed with her regular practice of saying prayers five times a day in spite of her busy schedule. Every time we visited her place we found her opening the door with her head covered. In last Ramadan, she tried to attend masjid programs as much as possible. Muslim students here helped her especially to get halal foods. This is normal here that a Muslim is helping his/her brothers or sisters. We don’t think existence of any immoral or extra marital relationship in this generosity. We would have surely noticed that.

She never mentioned any bad things about her husband’s profession rather in many occasions she asked us what could be the possible business opportunities for her husband to run here in Canada. We always found her putting priority on her daughter’s well being. Her heart and soul effort was to bring her family here in Canada.

She had a childlike simplicity and innocence. She was extremely friendly with our children in the community. Wherever she went, she was children’s friend. She could communicate with children very easily and we are very grateful to her for the remarkable manners and courtesy she maintained which became examples to follow for our children.

All through her days for last 9 months, she never diverted from her study (which is why she was here for) and her love towards her daughter and husband. She used to miss them every single moment. The cell phone she used didn’t have signal within her building. So she always had to come outside of the building and spent long hours to talk with her daughter and husband irrespective of harsh winter condition, study load etc. Later she started using Skype for constant communication regarding the well being of her daughter and husband. She even used to teach her daughter, helping her with homework, and many other things for example how to draw flowers through Skype. We watched her regular attempts to buy expensive toys for her daughter with her very limited funding.

She was supposed to finish her thesis writing here in Canada. She could have stayed here with this perfect excuse if she had other motive or interest. But she virtually struggled to go back home and write her thesis from Bangladesh. It was too risky to be away from her supervisor at this stage and also expensive as she needs to come back to defend her thesis. Still she opted to do so just to be with her daughter and husband. We forbade her to go back for good reasons but she plainly said she can’t endure any more distance from her family. She said it’s enough for her to be away for eight months but no more. For the same reason she deferred her PhD for one more year. In normal course, she is supposed to start her PhD from next September, but she said she wants to compensate her absence from her family by being with them next year and she only would come back for her PhD if she can bring her daughter and husband and afford to stay together. As an international student, it is very hard to afford financially if she doesn’t get good funding. So she took one year to source a good funding option.

We are simply speechless, appalled, and deeply hurt in the incident of the false accusation of Rumana’s extramarital affair.

It is such a pain to observe that Rumana only went back to her family to lose the most precious gift from The Almighty, her eyesight. We feel that it is our duty to take a very strong stance against any kind of accusation that may come on our dear friend Rumana.  It is our ardent request not to put this unfortunate woman, a brilliant Bangladeshi scholar, on the guillotine of character assassination.

On behalf of the Bangladeshi families in Vancouver and at the University of British Columbia who know Rumana Manzur.

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Saif Islam [saif.vancouver@gmail.com ] is a guest writer. He is a Research Manager at University of British Columbia, studied at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In an email obtained by bdnews24.com, Sajeeb A Wazed, who also advises Sheikh Hasina, made available some facts from the government side.

The Bangladesh Bank last week ordered the removal of Yunus as Grameen Bank head, saying that his reappointment did not have its approval and that he has been managing director illegally since 1999.

Yunus has gone to court for his reinstatement.

Sajeeb Wazed sought to dispel the popular perception that Yunus founded Grameen Bank and claims that Hasina has a personal vendetta against the embroiled Nobel Peace Prize winner.

“(In fact) the Government of Bangladesh did. Initially, the government owned 65 percent of Grameen Bank, which was whittled down over the years by Yunus. The government still owns 25 percent of Grameen Bank and retains the right to veto management appointees.”

Sajeeb said last year ‘massive financial improprieties at Grameen Bank under Yunus’ came to the fore through the Norwegian state television.

It uncovered documents revealing nearly US $100 million in donor funds to Grameen Bank were transferred out of Grameen Bank to a private corporation, Grameen Kalyan, set up by Yunus.

“The government of Norway raised this as a major concern and as a compromise $30 million was returned. The remaining approximately $70 million was never returned. All correspondence in this regard was from Yunus himself.”

Sajeeb, who is based in Virginia, US, referred to a copy of the letters from the bdnews24.com website and a translation of Norwegian television NRK’s ‘response to the Norwegian government’s recent review of this incident where the Norwegian government cleared Grameen Bank of any wrongdoing.

“Just as international lobbying and media are being used in this recent incident, no doubt Yunus lobbied the Norwegian Government as well. However, their explanation left millions of dollars unaccounted for,” the advisor wrote in the email.

The government was forced to form an independent committee to investigate this major issue, he added.

“Yunus personally gave a press statement (no questions were allowed) where he announced that he undertook these transfers to avoid taxes, which constitutes tax evasion.

“However, this makes no sense since Grameen was at the time a non-profit organisation and paid no taxes. What is clear is that this transfer is completely illegal and constitutes a criminal offence of “conversion” under Bangladesh law,” Sajeeb Wazed asserted.

The email continued: “Further investigation uncovered other fraud, improprieties and illegal activity at Grameen Bank under Yunus. These include:

“Between 1998 and 2002 all microloan borrowers were forced to pay an additional amount labeled “forced savings” which they were supposed to be paid back.

“However, this money was never returned to the borrowers, who are among the poorest of society!

“This is fraud and theft.”

Secondly, the advisor said, donor funds were used to invest in a variety of private sector for profit ventures, all without approval from either the donors or the government, which owns 25 percent of Grameen Bank.

“In several cases, the equity in these private ventures was held not by Grameen Bank, but by Yunus and his family members personally. This is completely illegal and constitutes embezzlement.”

Sajeeb went on: “Loans were made by Grameen Bank to some of these corporations, which is completely illegal since Grameen Bank is not a regular bank. It is lending donor funds and is only allowed to loan to microcredit borrowers.”

“Grameen Bank charges up to 30 percent in interest rate on loans and up to an additional 10 percent in “forced savings” to the poorest sections of society.

The email read, “Their collection methods are draconian and collection officers who fail to collect payment have the uncollected amounts deducted from their pay.

“There are many documented cases which constitute abuse and the criminal offence of “molestation” under Bangladesh law.

“Since the financial improprieties surfaced in the media, some of these victims finally gained the confidence to sue Grameen Bank and Yunus.

Sajeeb pointed out that despite the hype, there is no evidence that microcredit has, in fact, reduced the rolls of the poor in Bangladesh.

“Grameen Bank has been in the microcredit business for 30 years, yet Bangladesh remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

“Furthermore, the private sector investments made using Grameen Bank money have become quite profitable.

“Grameen Phone is by far the largest telecommunications operator in Bangladesh with a subscriber base of 28 million, annual revenue of over US $1 billion and profits of several hundred million dollars per year.

“Grameen Bank owns 35 percent equity in Grameen Phone, so why do they have to charge such high interest rates to the poor?”

Sajeeb added in the email “still, given his stature as a Nobel Prize winner, the government of Bangladesh requested that Yunus to step down quietly from the post of managing director of Grameen Bank.

“He refused and has engaged in an international lobbying campaign accusing our government and in particular prime minister Sheikh Hasina of engaging in political retribution.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he maintained.

Yunus has no political stature in Bangladesh, according to Sajeeb.

“During the brief military regime from 2007-08, under a state of emergency with all political activities banned and most political leaders behind bars, even with the help of the military he was unable to put together a political party and garner any public support.

“Politically, he is a non-entity in Bangladesh and no threat to any political leader.”

Sajeeb concluded by saying that the government has not filed any cases against Yunus, ‘criminal or otherwise’.

“There is absolutely no punitive action here. Our only goal is to prevent further abuse of microcredit borrowers.”

Courtesy: bdnews24.com

In February 2011, the British Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan, Dr. Peter Tibber, visited Liaquat Baloch, the Secretary General of Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan. Baloch also acts as the Chairman of the Al-Khidmat Foundation. Tibber told Baloch that he praised Jamaat for its social work through the Al-Khidmat Foundation.

Read from here.

Muslim Aid and its sister organisations do provide vital support to people in poor countries and conflict afflicted areas. That can not be disputed. However, Muslim Aid(s) support for Al-Khidmat is designed to increase the political influence of the Jamaat-i-Islami. It is also trying to undermine the Pakistani government.

The Jamaat-i-Islami movement was founded by Maulana al-Mawdudi. He envisioned a quasi religious/political/social party which would try to emulate the spirit of fascist and communist revolutionaries. The movement would then build a core ideology around Mawdudi’s interpretation of Islam. He believed Jihad and armed struggle was essential to give energy to his revolutionary programme which looked to overthrow secular society and replace it with an Islamic theocracy.

We believe that Muslim Aid donations should not be allowed to raise money which benefits foreign political parties. We believe that the Charity Commission should investigate whether Muslim Aid UK is in breach of its guidelines on charities supporting political groups at home or abroad.

(http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/…

Jamaat has documented links to extremism in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and elsewhere. It’s leaders have praised Jihad and have also led attacks on minorities in Pakistan.

We believe the Charity Commission and others are failing to provide critical analysis and proactive due diligence of the activities and political associations of charities like Muslim Aid.

This group was founded to stop Jamaat from potentially defrauding Muslims, who generally believe their donations are going towards apolitical relief work.

Muslims are obligated to give charitable donations (zakat) as part of their religious duties within the Islamic faith.

We also state that Muslim Aid must be honest and tell donors that it gives money to the Al-Khidmat Foundation, which is part of a foreign political party.

Positions

1. Muslim Aid should tell its donors it is affiliated with the Jamaat-i-Islami
2. Muslim Aid must follow the Charity Commissions guidelines on promoting political parties at home and abroad
3. We believe the Charity Commission and others are failing to protect donors by not actively investigating charities with foreign political links.

Interview with Jamil Ahmed, Chief, JATRI

Interview with Navid Saleh, Nano Expert.

Friends…………….

civicus

Like many countries across the world, Indian Parliament has passed a law (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010) in late August that puts curbs on the activities of a vibrant civil society in India.  The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010 is now awaiting the assent of the President and it will come into operation only when the government gazettes (when the rules are formulated). The Civil Society hopes to prevail upon the Government still to delay its enactment until the ambiguities in the Act that  restrictively affect the work of thousand  of non government organisations and especially those engaged in governance and rights related work are removed.

Expressing dismay Mrs Maja Daruwala, Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative  stated that ‘this is a very unfortunate development and a retrograde step that the government has chosen to take. It reinforces licence raj where the government is dismantling it for corporates and business across the country. The kind of unfettered discretions it gives will encourage more rent seeking from those with authority who have little to answer. It interferes with the Constitutionally guaranteed freedom to associate for any legal aim that every Indian has. It discourages the work and sustainability of civil society organisations at a time when the world is lauding India for its vibrant civil society. It is a great pity that the law has passed both houses of parliament even when its effect is entirely contrary to what the the National Policy on the Voluntary Sector endorsed by the Planning Commission which has said that NGO regulation must be much less burdensome.”

In this context, CIVICUS -an international alliance of members and partners which constitute an influential network of organisations at the local, national, regional and international levels, and span the spectrum of civil society has conveyed deep disappointment at the enactment of India’s regressive Foreign Contributions Regulations Act, 2010 (FCRA) and have issued a press release.

Although there have been news items on FCRA  in India, however very little have been reported in the press about the dangers FCRA t poses to civil society organizations in India. We urge the media to take note of this concern and highlight concerns  of the NGO sector in the media.

For more information contact

• Mr. Harsh Jaitly, CEO, Voluntary Action Network India at   Email: harsh@vaniindia.org ; Phone:  91 9871198820
• Mrs Maja Daruwala, Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Email: maja.daruwala@gmail.com , Phone: 91 9810199745 .

CIVICUS WORLD ASSEMBLY DELEGATES EXPRESS DEEP DISAPPOINTMENT AT

INDIA’S NEW CURBS ON CIVIL SOCIETY

9 September 2010. Over 70 eminent civil society activists from across the globe who attended the CIVICUS World Assembly in Montreal this August expressed deep disappointment at the enactment of India’s regressive Foreign Contributions Regulations

Act, 2010 (FCRA).

Among other things, the Act allows for broad executive discretion to designate organisations as being of ‘political nature’ and thereby prevent them from accessing funding from abroad, which could affect the independence of civil society groups critical

of government policies. It also requires organisations to renew their permission to receive funding from abroad every five years which subjects them to additional bureaucratic red tape, and places an arbitrary cap of 50% on the administrative expenses of an organisation receiving foreign funding as a further sign of interference in the internal functioning of civil society organisations.

“The new law signals a deep distrust of civil society at a time when across the world, India is being lauded for its open democracy, its espousal of a rights based approach to development, the progressive right to information regime and the government’s engagement with its vibrant civil society organisations,” said Maja Daruwala, CIVICUS Board Member and Director of the New Delhi based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.

The World Assembly delegates were shocked to learn that the provisions of the law stand in complete contrast to the stated policy of the Indian Government. The National Policy on the Voluntary Sector had promised that the Government would review the FCRA and simplify the provisions that apply to voluntary organisations from time to time, in consultation with the joint consultative group to be set up by the concerned Ministry.

The original Foreign Contributions Regulations Act 1976 was the outcome of the now discredited Emergency period in India (1975-1977) when fundamental freedoms were suspended. It was passed as a security measure in order to track foreign inflows at a time when there were tight restrictions on the receipt and expenditure of foreign exchange. Laws dating back to this time that applied to the private sector have since been relaxed or simplified. Despite civil society requests to be put on par in terms of foreign financial transactions with business houses that receive investments from abroad, the Indian government has chosen to carve out a discriminatory regime against civil society groups.

The new legislation adds to additional burden on civil society despite the fact that organisations ranging from trade unions to NGOs and community based groups already need to comply with multiple laws governing their registration and operations, besides income tax and other fiscal regulations, including money laundering laws as all other

entities.

The new law adds India to the list of countries implementing or seeking to introduce restrictive legislation on international cooperation and funding that is open to abuse such as Bahrain, Ethiopia, Jordan, Israel, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is a global movement of civil society with members and partners in over a hundred countries. The Civil Society Watch (CSW) team of CIVICUS tracks threats to civil society freedoms of expression, association and assembly across the world. In 2009, CSW tracked threats to civil society in over 75 countries around the globe.

For more information contact:

• Devendra Tak (devendra.tak@civicus.org), Communications Manager, CIVICUS or
• Mandeep S.Tiwana (mandeep.tiwana@civicus.org) Policy Manager, CIVICUS Ph +27- 11-8335959
• Aditi Datta, aditi@humanrightsinitiative.org

On June 23, 2009 in the Energy related round table conference at CIRDAP Auditorium, Dhaka, we made several recommendations to confront prevailing and emerging energy crisis. The round table was attended by the Energy Advisor of Prime Minister, current State Minister of Energy, some leading Parliamentarians, current Chairman of Petrobangla, Current and Past FBCCI presidents, and many other authoritative figures of the sector. We discussed issues relevant to energy crisis, gas crunch and discussed various issues and options. It was the 7th year of launching of Energy & Power news magazine. In June 2009, Bangladesh was in the grip of serious energy crisis. People were greatly suffering but still had sympathy for newly installed Coalition government and were optimistic that pro-liberation pro-people government would do its best to redress the situation.

Almost a year is gone after that. Another irrigation season has just started and summer is about to set in. Our Dhaka friends and relatives are complaining that gas supply situation has, in fact, worsened; 3-4 hours of power load-shedding has become a current occurrence and last morning media has carried news captioned “PDB fears massive outage”.

We 8 NRBs were in Bangladesh from USA, Australia and Philippines to participate in Government sponsored brain-storming on coal mining strategy. Over a period of 4 days in Jamuna Bridge Resort, we had intensive inactions with Government policy makers and resident Bangladeshi professionals on coal mining strategy. Professional coal miners from hands on mining experience suggested what needs to be done at Barapukuria under performing mine. Mine city planner, GIS experts presented relevant aspects of resettlement and rehabilitation issues. We discussed Environmental and other aspects associated with mining. We also left behind a complete set of recommendations on coal policy. One year is almost whistling away .Coal policy continues to remain in hibernation. Leaving huge domestic coal resource underground vested quarter is conspiring to set up coal fired power plants based on imported coal.

Over the last one year no new gas field was discovered- actually there were no exploration efforts to discover any gas resource. No gas field was further developed .No action was taken to seal leakage of Titas gas field. No new gas transmission infrastructure of gas was set up. Even regular maintenance of gas pipelines to retain design capacity operation was done. Demand has grown in the meantime. Production crisis and transmission constraints of gas system has created crisis over power generation, fertilizer production, operation of industries. Can any democratic government sustain this situation so long? What are the answers of energy sector policy makers?

PM Hasina inaugurated operation of Gas fired Siddhirganj Power Plant only 8 days ago. Gas supply to hundreds of industries of Rupganj and part of other Narayanganj areas were kept suspended to allow gas supply to Siddhirganj Power plant of Indian Company BHEL. Even then due to low gas pressure the plant operation has been shut down.

Last winter Dhaka City and adjoining areas experienced the worst gas crisis of history .None told us that situation improved much.Despearte management went for gas rationing- holiday staggering, planned to shut down CNG fuelling station operation till 4PM on every week days. These may not bring much relief experts apprehends.

According to reliable sources gas deficit is about 300 MMCFD now. National Production capacity is 2000MMCFD but for transmission constraint, only about 1950MMCFD can be transported. Even that transportation is affected by low pressure over entire gas grid as in the main transmission segment N-S Corridor from Beanibazar to Ashuganj transmission system is supersaturated. No on-stream pigging to clean these pipelines has been conducted since the commissioning of these pipelines. There are no pipeline compressor stations in the system. Coalition Government has already run into controversy regarding Muchai Compressor installations. So there is no immediate respite from gas system crisis.

The ensuing irrigation and following summer saw the increase of power demand already by 5000MW per day. PDB can generate about 3800-4000MW. There was little or no addition from last year. PDB claims that about 600MW capacity is lying idle for gas supply crisis. Media reported that Petrobangla confirmed – not more than 750MMCFD gas can be allotted for power generation this season. PDB claimed that they got 800MMCFD last year.PDB fears of uncontrolled load shedding if Petrobangla can not supply more than 750MMCFD gas for power generation. PDB feels that about 4500MW power generation is possible if it gets about 900MMCFD gas supply per day. It is not only now; we can guarantee that in the next two years too, Petrobangla may not be in a position to supply 900MMMCFD gas supply to PDB for power.

It has been learned that PB is taking actions to increase gas production from Tullow operated Bhangura , Mghna and Titas field. But there is no guarantee that these will be available soon.

Citizens of Bangladesh have every right to question Coalition Government management about non-performance rather non achievement of power sector and gas sector over the last 1.25 years. Why leaving development of energy sector issues uncared for while energy think-tank was busy with useless Road Show at London, New York and Singapore? What benefit these brought to Bangladesh energy sector? Why PDB and Petrobangla Chairman could not resolve gas supply to power generation issues when they were in pleasure trips in the name of Road shows abroad?

We feel Energy Sector policy makers and managers owe explanations to the nation. Prime Minister Hasina as Energy Minister must own her failures.

We can not come out of the crisis so long we can realistically diversify fuel for power generation. We must immediately adopt appropriate coal mining strategy. Domestic coal is our best option for power generation. We must start mining of coal in our mines by economic means to extract maximum resource in proven technique and start setting up some large capacity mine power plants. Plants on imported coal will not be economic and cannot be in less than 5 years in current reality. These are all hypes and ways of trapping Bangladesh permanently on Indian dependence. LNG option is also time-consuming and very expensive.

Gas sector is also suffering from competency crisis. Key management has little capability. There is no way gas system can come out of present crisis in less than 3 years. But some contingency measures can create some comfort. We do not understand why gas saved for routine maintenance of KAFCO and forced outage of CUFL can not bring Raujan and Shikhalbaha to full capacity generation at least temporarily. Fertilizer plants unfortunately are the only ones which has can be shut down on rotations to divert gas for other use including Power plants. PDB must also try to produce maximum from Energy efficient plants. People do not want to listen to blaming games between PDB and Petrobangla.

Actions suggested.

Contingency:

• Raujan and Sikalbaha must be kept operational over the entire period of KAFCO maintenance.
• CUFL when back in operation should be operated at optimum gas load.
• During maintenance of JFCL, GPS must get the gas saved,
• On-Stream Pigging of N-S, R-A and A-B Pipeline must be carried out on Top Priority Basis. Otherwise Gas System low pressure situation can not be overcome.
• Authentic audit can be carried out by parliamentary committee about Performance of all IOCs and management of PSC by Petrobangla. Inactions in exploration of Petroleum and Mineral resource are the main reasons for the present massive energy crisis.

Mid Term
• GTCL Compressor Station Project of Ashuganj and Elenga must be expedited.
• Coal mining at Phulbari immediately by Surface mining method and Barapukuria by same method after 2011 must be planned without delay.
• At least two 500MW each Coal Fired Power plants must be set up in Min Mouth in Phulbari Area

Long Term
• Khalaspeer and Dighipara must be explored under PPP.
• Prospect of CBM from Jamalgonj must be explored.
• Cairn-Santos must be given proper incentives to successfully carry out exploration at Magnama and Hatiya.
• PSC with Conoco Philips and Tullow must be signed without delay.
• Next bidding round from remaining offshore Blocks and onshore blocks must be initiated.
• Actions for LNG import facility set up must be initiated so that by 2-15 we are in a position to switch to LNG after adjusting our energy price in several small steps.

In the ensuing irrigation season and following summer, citizens will suffer. There is nothing government can do other than rolling some heads which continuously misguided policy makers.

-

Written by Kh. A. Saleque (Saleque Sufi) is the ex-Director (Operation) GTCL and writes from Australia.

The first day of February, the beginning of the month in which the primary foundations of Bangladesh were launched in the year of 1952. It was the month and the day 21st of that month when our language was salvaged from the new-fangled regime’s foremost oppressive touches. It was the month and that devastating yet glorious day 21st of February, we can safely say, when the dream of Bangladesh began its journey : A dream at its infancy, a dream greatly fragile, but a great dream nonetheless.

To relate the parable again of sacrifices made by the martyrs on the 21st of February for our mother tongue seems quite redundant because it is embedded deep in our identity and entity. Hence, when in a festive mood, but also all the while keeping in mind the great loss we incurred, the bloggers community of Bangladesh celebrated the first day of February as the ‘Bangla blog day’ 2010, it should not come as a surprise, rather it seems it was meant to be.

Like many ever-persisting nightmares that follow our beloved country (such as the loud arrogant presence of the War Criminals), the selection of this day also could not remain unanimous. The bloggers are aware that another blog declared the day 19th December last year as the Bloggers’ day without exhibiting any sound reasons for doing so as that month is mainly about celebrating our victory, not really our language. Quite rightly, this call failed to gain the support of the rest of the bloggers who write in Bengali. The bloggers of ‘Amar Blog’ one of those that differed and that difference was justified in the sense that February is the month which we remember for our language, the struggle for language and it is undeniably true that Bengali Blogging is mostly about loving that language, to express one’s dreams, thoughts and frustrations in that language. ‘Amar Blog’, with the support from other Bengali online communities, felt 1st of February would fit the day most. With the opening of Boi Mela, Amar Blog bloggers also celebrated the honor of the first blog community with a stall in the national book fair ‘Ekushe Boimela’ which increased their reasons for celebration much more. And, the programme was not limited to Dhaka.

In the first part of the day highly esteemed Dr. Md, Jafar Iqbal declared ‘The Bangla Blog Day’ cutting a cake from Shahjalal University, Sylhet. The programme was rendered live via blog and cheered by bloggers. Later, in the afternoon, many of the bloggers met in the Dhaka University Campus close to ‘Boi Mela’ and celebrated the Bangla Blog Day as well as the opening day of the Book Fair. The celebrations continued till the fair was closed for the day. Live video streaming was arranged to showcase the programme online, and those who couldn’t attend and the bloggers living abroad joined the celebrations with posts and comments. A bloggers’ meet was also arranged in London near Whitechappel Art Gallery where several bloggers living in UK shared the fun. This was, indeed, the right way to start this great month.

Happy Bangla Blog Day to everyone!