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Is it just a BDR mutiny?
By Kanchan GuptaAfter the Awami League swept last year's end-December general election, decimating the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and reducing the Jamaat-e-Islami to two seats in the Jatiya Sansad, there were celebrations across the country. Not only had democracy returned with a bang after being kept in a limbo for nearly two years by the military-backed caretaker Government, the Islamists, who had been on the rampage during Begum Khaleda Zia's hugely corrupt rule, had been defanged. As Bangladeshis danced in the streets, with women leading the celebrations, gloom descended on House No. 6, Shaheed Moinul Road, Dhaka Cantonment, the residence of Begum Zia. Meanwhile, the Jamaat-e-Islami headquarters wore a deserted look, its leaders stunned by Islamists losing their deposits in constituencies which were supposed to be Jamaati strongholds. With nearly 86 per cent turnout in an election certified by international observers and the media as absolutely free and fair, neither the BNP nor the Jamaat could claim the poll had been rigged. Posted by: john frum 2009-02-27 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=263634 |