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Appeal for Information on a Family Lost in the Shantahar Tragedy (1971)

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My classmate, Cadet Arshad Jamal , is one of the few survivors of the horrific massacre of the Bihari community in Shantahar on April 17–18, 1971 , during the War of Liberation. His father (Abdul Ahad) — shown seated at the center in the photograph — had passed away three months before the turmoil engulfed East Pakistan, spared from witnessing the unspeakable violence that would soon claim so many lives. Arshad himself — shown standing in the picture — survived only because one of our cadetmates, Ruhul Rabban (Baten) , risked everything to save him. Ruhul Rabban sheltered Arshad and his immediate younger brother Kokab (not shown in the picture below) for two months (in his village home, 80 km from Naogaon/Shantahar) , protecting them until in May when Pakistan military sheltered them. He and Kokab later lived with close relatives in Dhaka. Then after the fall of Dhaka, they took shelter in Dhaka Cantonment, managed by Indian Army and were taken as POWs — part of a group that included ...
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Complicity In Plain Sight: The West’s Scarlet Letter of Indifference by M. Reza Behnam

  The architecture of international justice was built upon a single uncompromising promise: never again.  It was forged in the ashes of 20th century atrocities, with the solemn vow that regardless of station in life, wealth or power, no one is above the law. Today, that pledge is on the verge of collapse. When global tribunals and human rights investigators document mass atrocities and expose the smoking ruins of bombed out neighborhoods across Gaza, the response of the international community acts as an ultimate crucible.  It is forced to  decide: will international law stand as an immutable universal standard or collapse into a hollow instrument for the weak and an impenetrable shield for the powerful. Granting absolute impunity to Israeli political and military leaders responsible for the agony inflicted upon the Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, has turned international jurisprudence into a grotesque farce, and has reduced the sacred concept of uni...
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Amnesty: India sent 2,596 arms shipments to Israel during genocide in Gaza

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  Indian state-owned and private companies shipped at least 2,596 consignments comprising hundreds of thousands of arms, ammunition and military components to Israel during the genocide in Gaza, a new Amnesty International report has revealed.  The shipments, sent between 7 October 2023 and 30 November 2025, included machine-gun components, 155 mm high-explosive artillery shells supplied to Elbit Systems, explosive warheads for the SkyStriker "kamikaze" drones - similar to those discovered amid the ruins in Khan Younis - and armoured vehicle components destined for major suppliers to the Israeli military. According to Amnesty, these amounted to 564,970 parts of explosive ordnance (drone warheads, artillery shell casings and others), 390,516 small arms parts for military-grade weapons, and 298 components of military vehicles to large Israeli companies that supplied the Israeli armed forces. As of 29 July 2026, at least 247,387 Palestinians have been either killed or injur...
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US prosecutor who helped ICC's Karim Khan seek Israeli arrest warrants breaks her silence

  Brenda Hollis, the US prosecutor who supervised the International Criminal Court (ICC) team that built the war crimes cases against Israeli and Hamas leaders, has defended Karim Khan's handling of the Palestine investigation, rejecting the Israeli claim that the arrest warrant applications were rushed to distract from misconduct allegations. Following Khan’s removal by the court’s Assembly of States Parties (ASP) last Friday, Hollis said that "regardless how you assess the removal of Karim, it should not be allowed to be conflated with the requests for arrest warrants for Hamas and Israeli leaders". "Let it be clear to all that he dealt with the situation in Palestine in accordance with his mandate," she wrote in a post on LinkedIn. "The requests for arrest warrants were not hurried, last-minute submissions. They were the result of ongoing investigations. They were based on law and sufficient credible evidence and finalised after thorough inter...
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In Gaza, Fathers Can’t Promise Their Children Food, Safety, or Even Survival

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  n Gaza, where I live, the Israeli occupation has stripped fathers of the most basic promises of fatherhood. A father cannot promise his children a safe place, because the place they flee to may be bombed only hours later. He cannot promise them a meal at the end of the day, because food has become uncertain. Even when they ask him whether they will stay alive, he must answer while not knowing whether he himself will survive until morning. Under genocide, and also during what is misleadingly called a “ceasefire,” a father is expected to appear calm, carry his fear in silence, and make his children feel safe in circumstances beyond any father’s ability to control or endure. Stay in the loop Never miss the news and analysis you care about. Email * Fearing the Death of a Child In early May, during a family gathering, my relatives began teasing me about marriage. “So, Hassan, when are we going to celebrate your wedding?” they asked. Since I was close to finishing university, they saw...
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