INDIAN MEDIA SAY : Dhaka hackers win cyber war against Delhi

Indian Hackers group, Ashell announced Cyberwar against Bangladesh. All Indian hackers have joined together to launch cyberwar against Bangaldesh websites.

Earlier Indian Hackers group send friendly request to Bangladeshi Hackers to stop defacing Indian sites. It seems to be that they haven’t accept the request, they keep defacing the Indian sites. So Indian hackers retaliate by defacing the Bangladeshi websites.

Following this incident, Bangladeshi hackers group bbhh also said that they are ready for the game. They published a video on youtube and named the operation as #Op-India. It seems to be that they steal the anonymous video and modified it.

Computer hacking is broadly defined as any action that results in unauthorized interference with a computer, computer system or network. Computer hacking includes breaking into a computer with the intent to steal, damage, modify or monitor data or settings within the system.

India has so far hacked six Bangladeshi sites against 20,000 Indian websites hacked by Bangladeshi IT talents. Bangladesh has got a victory over the cyber warfare against India as hackers could inactivate most of the major Indian websites including the border security Force (BSF), reports the Deccan Chronicle of India on Tuesday.

The group based in Bangladesh posted in their community page that their action was in response to the killings by BSF personnel in the border. BSF’s website www.bsf.nic.in was completely damaged in the process.

One hacker belonging to the Black hat Hackers posted in the Facebook fan page of the group: “We don’t have any personal issues with the Indians. But the brutality of BSF as well as Indian Government has forced us to do this.”

While another posted, “India supported us in 1971, now they r killing us!!!! An open enemy is better than a false friend.

“I don’t care even if death comes... I’ll keep fighting for my motherland until we get victory...!!!’ reads another post.

The group also hacked www.paisacontrol.com website a popular Stock Tips, Stock News website of India.

The hackers after defacing many websites posted: Indian Border Security Force (BSF), Stop killing Bangladeshis at border. Bangladeshi Hackers group named 3xp1r3 Cyber Army also has hacked into more than 700 other Indian websites.

After hacking 20,000 Indian sites the Black Hat posted on internet celebrating their hacking episode. It claimed that hundreds of new cyber friends are joining them to sharpen the attack against Indian websites and many private internet users are helping them voluntarily.

Ashell India has left the Cyber World because of fear. So it can be said that India has lost in this Cyber War. The hackers also posted the videos of alleged brutality of the BSF personnel at the border, the report added.

Close on the heels, China and Pakistan persistently hacking Indian Central Government and corporate websites, Bangladeshi hackers have joined the club through cyber attacks on India — targeting the Border Security Force (BSF) in particular against which it carries a grouse for perceived atrocities on Bangla nationals, reports The Pioneer from Delhi on Thursday.

China and Pakistan have been carrying out cyber offensives in the past and the Indian hackers have also been retaliating to such attacks.

Cyber security expert Dhruv Soi said, “With Bangladeshi hackers joining the cyber offensives against India, the Government of India must adopt better mechanisms to safeguard cyber space.”

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The Pakistani Conundrum

After having fairly successfully defied the Army over the so-called Memogate affair, the elected Pakistani Executive headed by President Asif Ali Zardari has now chosen to defy the judiciary on the question of its refusal to write to the Swiss Government requesting it to re-open the investigation into some Swiss bank accounts allegedly belonging to Zardari and the late Benazir Bhutto.

2. The directive to write to the Swiss Government came from the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhury. The Executive could have easily written to the Swiss Government and avoided a confrontation with the judiciary. It was very unlikely that the Swiss Government would have re-opened the investigation. Once the Executive wrote this letter, there would have been no more grounds for the court to proceed against Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani on a charge of contempt of court.

3. Instead of choosing this easier option, the Executive has chosen the more difficult and complex option of refusing to write to the Swiss Government on the ground that Zardari as the President enjoyed immunity from investigation and prosecution.

4. Faced with a defiant Executive, a seven-member bench of the court, headed by the Chief Justice, has framed an indictment ( US expression ) or a charge-sheet ( a sub-continental expression inherited from the British) against Gilani on February 13,2012.What this means is that from being a man under investigation as he was till now, he has become an accused in a criminal prosecution, but he is not yet a convict. The question of his resignation from office and arrest would arise only if after the trial, the charge of contempt of court against him is held to have been proved and he is convicted.

5. At the pre-trial stage of framing of the charge-sheet, there was no scope for a compromise or flexibility in the judiciary’s handling of the case. The court had no other alternative but to charge-sheet and Gilani has no other alternative but to stand trial. The question of a possible Presidential pardon would arise only after conviction and not in the pre-conviction stage

6. The intriguing question is what accounts for the apparent confidence of the Executive that it can defy the Judiciary and still escape negative consequences. There are three plus points for the Executive— firstly, the solidarity between Zardari and Gilani continues; secondly, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and its coalition allies remain united behind the Zardari-Gilani combine; and thirdly, there has been no public reaction against the Executive for defying the judiciary similar to what one saw against Pervez Musharraf when he defied the judiciary and had Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhury dismissed.

7. Another important plus point is that Aitzaz  Ahsan, the celebrated lawyer belonging to the PPP, who was in the forefront of the “Back Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhury” movement formed by the public and the lawyers community, is now supporting the Executive against the judiciary and defending Gilani. He seems to have lost his influence with the Chief Justice, but it is likely that he still has a good equation with some other judges of the bench that would try Gilani.

8.If the trial goes ahead as expected, three alternative scenarios are possible:

(a). Scenario 1: A split develops in the Bench and a majority verdict convicting Gilani eludes it, thereby forcing a compromise.

(b). Scenario 2: The Bench remains united and reaches a majority, if not unanimous, verdict convicting Gilani who is then pardoned by Zardari.

(c). Scenario 3: Gilani is convicted  and chooses to resign and go to jail in order to highlight excessive judicial activism.

9. If Zardari does not exercise the right of presidential pardon and if Gilani chooses to go to jail, there will be a new phase of aggravated political uncertainty in Pakistan.

BY :  B. Raman.

ISI Network in Bangladesh

Soon after murder of the architect of Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI jumped into the fray to expand its network across Bangladesh. During more than two decades since his murder, when pro-Pak and Islamist forces ruled the country (1975 to 1996), Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka became the nerve center of ISI activities. ISI also utilized this long period to divert its anti-India operations through Bangladesh in order to ward off international outcry over its involvement in Kashmir for encouraging secessionist forces to destabilize India. Since then, with cooperation and help of the ruling pro-Pak and Islamist clique in the country, ISI opened a new anti-India terror front in Bangladesh to destabilize North East India by patronizing and providing logistic support including funds to the North East based Indian Insurgent Groups (IIGs). ISI has established a multi-pronged terror network in Bangladesh which includes Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI), BNP and IIGs.

Computer hard discs seized from the recently arrested Jamiatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) activists revealed that a JEI member Siddiqul Islam Reza who was a cashier in Islami Bank Chittagong branch was the Acting Liaison Officer of ISI in Chittagong zone. It was also revealed that a meeting was held on May 23, 2006 at a Government quarter in Pahartali, Chittagong, that was presided over by Mohammad Jamil Khan, Regional Director of ISI in Chittagong. The meeting reviewed the need to identify new safe routes to smuggle in arms, as on two previous occasions arms consignments were detected and confiscated by the police. It may be mentioned in this connection that large consignment of arms seized in Bogra in 2003 and Chittaging in 2004 were smuggled in by ISI with help from Bangladesh intelligence agencies for the IIGs.

The ISI representative in Sylhet region has been identified as JEI leader Maulana Habibur Rahman who is currently assisting IIGs including ULFA, NLFT and NSCN (IM). Habibur  Rahman is also one of the operational commanders of the banned  Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh (HUJI-BD) and had earlier paid a high profile visit to Afghanistan and met Osama bin Laden in 1998. Maulana Izzat Ali, another JEI leader as well as ISI operative, is presently reorganizing HUJI-BD, JMB and other militant Islamic groups under the umbrella of Ahle Hadis Andolan Bangladesh (AHAB) into one cohesive group.

A report in vernacular daily Protham Alo published in 2009 gives an insight into the intricacies of ISI’s modus operandi in Bangladesh. The report reveals that Dubai based ARY group involved in Chittagong arms haul in 2004, was the financier of 10 truckloads of arms, which were smuggled in for the North East India based secessionist group ULFA. ARY group is also known to be an associate of international terrorist organizations including Al Qaeda and Taliban. ARY was also an accused in the bombing of US Mission in Nairobi, Kenya in 1998 as an accomplice of Al Qaeda. The proprietor of this Dubai based ARY group is a Pakistani national Abdur Razzak Yakub. This group is engaged in gold, jewellery and housing business apart from owning eight television channels operated from the UK, Dubai and Pakistan. All these TV channels are known as Pakistani Channels.

According to a report which appeared in Washington Post, (February 17, 2002) ARY group, with collaboration of ISI, smuggled out a large quantity of gold and American dollars from Afghanistan to Dubai before fall of the Taliban regime. A Columbia District Court record reveals that Abdur Razzak Yaqub is Chairman of Dubai based World Memon Organisation (WMO), a charitable organization very close to the Pakistan Government. WMO maintains linkages with other Islamic charitable organizations, Al Qaeda and Assembly of Muslim World. All these organizations were involved in bombing the US Mission in Kenya in 1998. A report in Asia Times online reveals that Abdur Razzak Yakub is close to Iqbal Mirsi who is the right hand of international mafia don Dawood Ibrahim.

Wg Cdr (Retd) Sahabuddin Ahmed, former Director of National Security Intelligence (NSI), prime intelligence organization of Bangladesh, who was arrested in connection with the Chittagong arms haul case, has revealed that two officials of ARY visited Dhaka and held meetings with the then DG NSI Abdur Rahim prior to seizure of ten truck loads of arms in Chittagong in 2004. Sahabuddin Ahmed also revealed that after return of the two ARY officials to Dubai, the then DG NSI Abdur Rahim went to Dubai and held meetings with the ARY group.

Sahabuddin Ahmad disclosed ARY’s links with the Indian insurgent group ULFA in collaboration with ISI. He disclosed that senior ARY official Salman held a meeting with the then DG NSI in Dhaka in 2003. Those who attended the meeting also included ULFA commander Paresh Barua, the then Pakistani High Commissioner Manzar Shafiq and  Pakistani Defence Advisor Col Shaheed Mahmud, an ISI officer posted in Dhaka.

The huge quantity of arms and ammunition seized in Chittagong in 2004 was meant to be handed over  to ULFA to equip the insurgent group in its fight against the Indian government. Bangladesh’s main intelligence agencies including the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) and NSI had started supplying arms to the ULFA from 2001 when the BNP-JEI government came to power. Several ministers and MPs were also involved, as interrogations reveal. Even the ship reportedly used to carry the smuggled arms belonged to BNP leader Salauddin Qader Chowdhury who is close to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and Pak ISI.

Assam based ULFA, Nagaland based NSCN (I/M) and some other North East India based IIGs were given a free run in Bangladesh at the behest of ISI. ULFA’s chief commander Paresh Barua set up his command headquarters in Dhaka and ran a flourishing business under the protection of Bangladeshi intelligence agencies as well as ISI. Due to ISI’s insistence, Barua and NSCN leaders including Muivah have been provided with Bangladeshi passports with which they frequently travel to Pakistan and China for procurement of arms and communication equipment.

In his confessional statement, Shahabuddin Ahmed has given details of ISI operations in Bangladesh including his meeting with DG ISI in Dubai and London, various meetings with the international mafia don Dawood Ibrahim, ISI officers posted in Bangladesh and abroad and the ARY which acted on behalf of the ISI for procurement of arms for the ULFA. He also disclosed names of two ISI officers posted in Dhaka, Brig Mogisuddin and Col. Shaheed Mahmud and added that the then Pak high commissioner in Dhaka, Manzar Shafiq was closely associated with the ISI operations including meetings with Paresh Barua.

Recently the news about arrest of Abdur Rouf @ Daud Merchant, a close associate of the international mafia don Dawood Ibrahim, hit the headlines of Bangladesh media. Daud Merchant, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing the Indian music Mogul Gulshan Kumar in 1995, disappeared from jail in Aurangabad, Maharashtra and surfaced in Bangladesh. His associate, Zahid Sheikh was also arrested along with him. Both Merchant and Zahid were sent to Bangladesh by Dawood Ibrahim’s second in command Chhota Shakeel with the mission of establishing links with local underworld and integrate it with ‘D’ Company network and ISI.

‘D’Company terror network was established in Bangladesh with the help of ISI in 1995 during the first BNP regime of Khaleda Zia. This network started widening and gaining in strength during the subsequent BNP-JEI rule (2001-06) , thanks to patronage by a powerful lobby within the administration. ‘D’ Company has been noticed to make efforts for strengthening its base in Bangladesh in order to carry out its underworld activities and use Bangladesh territory to promote ISI’s as well as its own interests.

‘D’ Company has already formed bases at places such as Banani and Nawabpur Road in Dhaka. Chhota Shakeel asked his associates in Dhaka to hire more accommodation for their associates based in Bangladesh. Arrangements were also being made to legalize their stay in Bangladesh by delivering them legal documents. Media reports confirm that Khaleda Zia’s son and BNP leader Tareque Rahman held meetings with the underworld don in Dubai in 2004. Even the then State Home Minister Lutfozzaman Babar was present in those meetings. These meetings with the mafia don assume significance as D Company activists are also known as mercenary killers.

Merchant, while admitting his involvement in killing of the Mumbai music baron, said that Mumbai would soon witness repeat of ‘Nov 2008.’ He also said that many of Dawood Ibrahim’s accomplices were hiding in India and Bangladesh to strengthen the ‘D’ Company network. Merchant had regular contact with both Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel. Merchant obtained a Bangladeshi passport (No 01917000) in the name of Sk Abdur Rahman. He visited India by using this passport several times. He confessed that he was under instructions to kill a number of Indian leaders and VIPs including the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and some Mumbai based Shiv Sena leaders. He also revealed that he was sent to Bangladesh to kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Even though ISI has now shown willingness to do business with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to protect its elaborate support structures in Bangladesh, Awami League and Sheikh Hasina are viewed as an anathema and also as enemies of Two Nation theory propounded by Pakistan. Pakistan has not been able to reconcile with the break-up of Pakistan and emergence of Bangladesh in 1971 and continues to blame India for this. This was evident from the former Pak President Musharraf’s statement at the recent India Today conclave in New Delhi.

Based on Merchant’s disclosures the police arrested a notorious Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) leader Mufti Obaidullah, a LeT activist who has been hiding in Bangladesh since 1995. Obaidullah has admitted that LeT has been active in Bangladesh for 14 years and that LeT is also linked to the terror network of Dawood Ibrahim and ISI. Obaidullah took active part in Afghan war. He disclosed having collaborated with Islamist militants of Kashmir, Varanasi, Delhi and Hyderabad. He also said that he was well trained in operating a wide range of light and heavy weapons like machine gun, anti aircraft gun, rocket launcher and mortar.

Merchant’s disclosures also led to arrest of another LeT leader Maulana Mohd. Mansur Ali who was an organizer of Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF), the terrorist outfit responsible for the attack on American Center in Kolkata on Jan 22, 2002. ARCF was also responsible for kidnapping a Kolkata based businessman who was subsequently released on payment of a huge ransom a portion of which found its way to Omar Sheikh, a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) activist responsible for killing of the American journalist Daniel Pearl. Remaining portion of this fund was sent to Md Atta who carried out attacks on the Twin Towers in New York.

LeT has long been providing logistic and financial support to HUJI-BD. LeT had supplied the grenades to HUJI-BD for carrying out the attacks on Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 in which Sheikh Hasina had a narrow escape with permanent damage in one ear.. The main attacker on the Awami League rally in 2004 Mufti Hannan was enjoying protection from the BNP-JEI government. The Chittagong arms seizure, the August 21, 2004 grenade attacks on AL rally, arrest of the Dawood gang members and LeT activists – all these are not incidents that stand in isolation. These are all inter-linked and bear testimony to the intricate anti-India terror structures created by Pakistan in Bangladesh.

BY : Rajeev Sharma.

Bangladesh group claims hacking 20,000 Indian websites

Bangladeshi hacker group Tuesday claimed to have attacked 20,000 Indian websites, including that of the Border Security Force (BSF), after the alleged killing of Bangladeshis by Indian border guards.

The group calling itself 'Bangladesh Black HAT Hackers' wrote on its Facebook fan page: "India hacked our 400 sites in total, we hacked 20,000 sites in total since the war started."

According to Xinhua, the group claimed the BSF website was damaged after being hacked.

Last week, a group of hackers named " Indian Cyber Army" attacked the websites of five ministries in Bangladesh and that of a trade organisation.

The Bangladeshi hackers said their action was in response to the alleged killings by BSF along the more than 4,000-km-long Indo-Bangladesh border.

"We don't have any personal issues with Indians. But the brutality of BSF as well as Indian government has forced us to do this," the hackers wrote on Facebook.

Odhikar, a Dhaka-based human rights group, said the BSF has killed 31 Bangladeshis last year. 

LINK :  Youtube.

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Unfriendly acts of a ‘friendly’ neighbour

BANGLADESH is almost entirely encircled by India via a land border of 2,979 kilometres and a riverine boundary of 1,116 kilometres. These two neighbours share 57 trans-boundary rivers. In this regard, border securities, land occupancy, water sharing and trade promotion are the broader issues for Bangladesh and India. The paradox, however, is that despite a fairly harmonious relationship that dates to the birth of Bangladesh some 40 years ago, questions have been raised at home and abroad on the costs of disputes between two countries.

Two countries have so far agreed on many bilateral agreements, including the 25-years Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Peace of 1972, the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade of 1972, the Land Demarcation Agreement of 1974, the Bilateral Trade Agreement of 1980, the 30 years Water-sharing Agreement for the Ganges of 1996, the Lease Agreement of Teen Bigha Corridor (a corridor for movement of enclave’s people) of 1992 and the Protocol on Border Demarcation and Swap of Enclaves 2011.

 However, the question is why the negotiations and agreements done so far were not effective to end with a positive sum game between two countries.

There was a honeymoon period of friendship and neighbourly relation between the two countries during and immediately after Bangladesh’s war of independence. India helped Bangladesh with enviable political, military and humanitarian supports at initial stage. In this regard, a friendship treaty was signed in 1972 in the spirit of cooperation and peace. Much discussed issue related to Ganges water got momentum prior to completion of construction of the Farakka Barrage and accordingly a joint river commission was formed in 1972.

In addition, the border security got priority for cordial bilateral relations. In this regard, a treaty was also signed in 1974 to solve the problems with non-demarcated boundary of 6.5 kilometres and 162 enclaves. Bangladesh will be surrendering 111 enclaves being India’s inside Bangladesh and India to surrender 51 enclaves being Bangladesh’s inside India. For this exchange, Bangladesh might gain 31 square kilometres of land but it will solve a long-standing problem.

Subsequently, illegal withdrawal of Ganges water led to a water crisis in the dry season in Bangladesh in 1976. Though India was obligated to negotiate prior to operation of such a gigantic dam in the upper riparian as per the riparian doctrine, but did not. In 1976, Bangladesh lodged a formal protest with the UN General Assembly, which adopted a consensus statement. Subsequent talks between the two countries resulted in a five-year water-sharing treaty in 1977. Then, another memorandum of understanding was signed for a five-year renewal. The agreement lapsed in 1988 as the countries failed to come into a consensus. However, international law could not deter India from diversion of water because weak implementation of environmental regulations.

Meanwhile, the waterway-transit facility provided to India in 1972 has remained operational. Ratifying the 1974 agreement now might be a mistake for Bangladesh against which it handed over the South Berubari enclave of 7.4 square kilometres to India. On the other hand, India could not hand over the Tin-Bigha corridor of only 178 x 85 metres. For continuing such tensions, the political events led the negotiations to misunderstanding, mistrust and misapply. Even after major issues being unsolved, the expansion of capitalism opened a window of negotiations, which resulted in a trade agreement in 1980. In the late 1980s, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was formed to promote inter-regional trade and to strengthen mutual cooperation. Indeed, lack of enthusiasm to solve so many disputes kept countries apart from trade promotion. It might be a reason for which India opened the window of negotiations, which resulted in agreements on sharing water of Ganges River and on lease of Tin Bigha Corridor in 1992. But it was hardly materialised and contributed to fuelling the anti-India attitude.

Bilateral relations got a new dimension when the Awami League retained power. The outcome of subsequent negotiations was a 30-year water sharing agreement of the Ganges in 1996. However, India asked for transit facility in the mid-1990s, which created instant reactions in Bangladesh. On the other hand, non-implementation of the water-sharing treaty by India endorsed a death mark for the river Padma, the part of the Ganges in Bangladesh. Moreover, India steadily embarked on constructing dams or diverting water from many trans-boundary rivers such as Teesta, Gumti, Khowai, Dharla, Dudkumar, etc. All such incidents made the dispute basket larger though all agreements came through a process of negotiations that also continued even at the implementation stages.

However, following the wave of regional economic integrations in the world, the South Asian Free Trade Agreement was signed in 2004 aiming to promote trade and to provide transit facilities in all modes of transports, even though the SAARC member countries had border insecurities and other disputes. 

Subsequently, many negotiations went on trade promotion and economic cooperation under the umbrella of the SAARC. Regrettably, the ground realities in 2010 showed that over 15 per cent of Bangladeshi import was from India while India’s import was less than one per cent from Bangladesh. In addition, the illegal trade and smuggling, which are fairly old practice across the border, have become ever serious because of wide participations of local people allegedly in liaison with anti-smuggling enforcement agencies.

Recent talks on the pending issues resumed after the Awami League came to power in 2009. During the recent visit of India’s prime minister in 2011, a protocol was signed in support of executing the 1974 agreement for border security and exchange of enclaves. However, without a specific timeframe, question marks remain on the fate of the exchange. Moreover, the water-sharing deal for the Teesta was not signed. Rather, the construction of Tipaimukh dam on the Barak could not be stopped. Experts and analysts expressed their anxiety that the dam could lead to drying up of the rivers Surma and Kushiyara, and desertification of northeast Bangladesh. The subsequent anxiety is what the fate of Bangladesh will be if India builds 101 dams and barrages under the proposed river-linking mega project to generate about 30,000 megawatts of electricity.

Now the question is how much Bangladesh can hand down to the giant neighbour, whose economy is twenty times larger compared to it. Indeed, trade promotion is no more an insignificant issue for India because of mass illegal penetrations of both its legal and illegal products into Bangladesh. What is important for India is transit, about which internal political dialogues in Bangladesh says ‘no water no transit’ or ‘transit with fee’. However, what is the related standing of India’s hydro-politics? If India provides transit fee but stops water, what will be the fate of our agriculture?

Who could have imagined looking back at 1971 that India would shoot down Bangladeshi across the boarder? The situation has become so that all negotiations end with a zero-sum game favouring India where the giant neighbour seeks undue advantages from the weak bargaining capacity of the small neighbour.

BY :  Aminul Islam Akanda.