Habib Siddiqui

  This handout picture taken and released by Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 19 December 2024 shows (L-R) Foreign Secretary of the Republic of India Vikram Misri, Foreign Affairs Minister of Bangladesh Md. Touhid Hossain, Deputy Prime Minister and Union Minister for Foreign Affairs of Myanmar Than Swe, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand Maris Sangiampongsa, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Lao PDR Thongsavanh Phomvihane and Vice Foreign Minister of China Sun Weidong posing for a group photo during a six-nation regional meeting in Bangkok AFP The Rohingya people who have taken shelter in Bangladesh want a conducive environment in Rakhine state in Myanmar so that they could return to their homeland with safety and dignity. That is why Bangladesh wants to see a sustainable peace, stability and democracy in the neighbouring country. Dhaka also has called for a roadmap to ensure repatriation of Rohingya people in Rakhine. Bangladesh foreign adviser Md Touhid Hossain hig...

  Today, CAIR’s legal team, in collaboration with two prominent attorneys, filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. government on behalf of Palestinian American families stranded in Gaza.   These families, U.S. citizens and lawful residents—have been abandoned in a warzone and denied the same evacuation efforts extended to Americans of other nationalities. This discriminatory policy violates American laws, including the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection for all U.S. citizens and lawful residents abroad. It is an injustice that cannot stand.   Can we count on you to help us win this fight? We represent people like: • Khalid Mourtaga, a U.S. citizen from Mississippi, stranded in Gaza with his family. Since the war began, Khalid has lost loved ones, endured untreated Hepatitis A, and struggled to survive on infested food and polluted water. • Sawsan Kahil, whose husband remains trapped in Gaza. Since their wedding, Sawsan has fought tirelessly to secure hi...

  The European Union has released €1 million, around Tk 125 million, in humanitarian aid to contain the spread of hepatitis C in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar. This funding will support the response plan outlined by the World Health Organisation and other partners providing healthcare in the camps. This plan includes the screening of almost 475,000 people, as well as treatment for some 135,000 patients, said the EU Embassy in Dhaka on Thursday. Prevention activities will also be carried out, for instance infection prevention and control and waste management, as well as risk communication and community engagement with the affected population. This new funding comes in addition to the more than €54 million already allocated in humanitarian assistance to Bangladesh this year. This assistance funded support to the Rohingya refugees living in camps in Cox’s Bazar, as well as for host communities impacted by other emergencies across the country, such as tropical cyclone Remal and...

December 19, 2024 Photo: Collected Publish : 18 Dec 2024, 09:00 PM Update : 18 Dec 2024, 09:00 PM After the capture of Myanmar’s Maungdaw city in Rakhine by the rebel group Arakan Army (AA), loud explosions were once again heard from the border areas, including Shapuree Dwip and Saint Martin’s Island in Teknaf upazila, Cox’s Bazar. Residents reported intermittent gunfire from Wednesday morning until 1pm, with sporadic sounds continuing afterward. Heavy shelling was concentrated in areas 3 to 4 kilometres around Myanmar’s Maungdaw township across the Naf River from Shah Porir Dwip. Teknaf’s Sabrang union parishad member Rezaul Karim confirmed the news, saying that since the Myanmar border is relatively distant from these areas, there is little risk to the local population. Khorshed Alam, a union parishad member from Saint Martin’s Island, said gunfire was heard intermittently near the Myanmar border starting Wednesday morning. He added that the junta’s ships stationed south of Saint Mar...

  It has been 440 days. 440 days of constant bombing. Nonstop. 440 days of starvation. On top of 17 years of siege and imprisonment. Tens of thousands killed. Injured. Forever disabled. Imprisoned. Starved. More than 17,000 children killed. It feels like we have watched them being killed one by one. 440 days of the people of Gaza sharing live images of their executions; burned alive. And we cannot stop it. Trump said, if the hostages are not released in January there will be hell to pay! IT IS ALREADY HELL! What is he talking about? It has been hell for 16 years before October 7. And of course, no one is talking about the Palestinian hostages. It is hard to believe that another Christmas has come upon us and the genocide has not stopped. It has expanded. We are out of words. We feel powerless to stop it. Decision makers are content to let this continue. To them, Palestinians are dispensable. And they know it. They are watching. It is not as if the horrors of this genocide will ...

  Yesterday, I was talking with a good friend of mine who (true to his last name) has been at the forefront of human rights movement for decades. In 2018, he and I spoke from the same podium on genocide of the Rohingya people of Myanmar in Cologne, Germany. In the recent past, his group’s tireless lobbying efforts within the US State Department have resulted in billion-plus dollars of funding for the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar.  He visited Bangladesh in late November. As a well-wisher of Bangladesh, he is genuinely worried about the future of Bangladesh. He is not alone. Many concerned expatriates, too, are equally worried whether our people would be able to preserve this revolution. After all, Bangladesh is surrounded by unfriendly countries that have lived by the diabolical formula: ‘what is good for Bangladesh must be bad for its neighbors.’ India, in particular, which has been a beneficiary of the ousted regime (since at least 2009), is yet to come to terms with the ...