Dr Hashmi to testify in US Congress on Bangladesh Election

Muhammad Ali Bukhari from Toronto : 
The Bangladeshi born Canadian citizen Dr Taj Hashmi, who is an internationally acclaimed academic and author has written a letter on January 3 afternoon to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in connection to testify in the US Congress about 2018 Bangladesh Election, as learnt by this correspondent of the Daily Our Time. In his letter Dr Hashmi wrote that, the recent Bangladesh Election was grossly and unprecedently rigged.
Not only more than eighty percent voters could not cast their votes, as barred from entering the polling stations, but ballot boxes were also stuffed with false votes for the ruling party, the night before the polls. In fact, in most polling stations voting was over by 11 am. Moreover, the US administration’s willingness to continue doing regular business with the Hasina government, which former US Ambassador William Milam calls “fascist”, is unfortunate. Meanwhile, Russia, China, and India, the providers of military hardware to Bangladesh, have been defending the Hasina regime to the detriment of democracy and freedom in the country, which could spell disaster, including Islamist terrorism and anarchy, within and beyond its borders. Hence, he realizes, it is time the US Administration take retaliatory actions, including sanctions against the Bangladesh government for the sake of defending democracy, freedom, and human rights.
As introduced himself as a former Professor of Security Studies at the APCSS (Honolulu) where he taught contemporary South Asian and Middle East politics, and regularly briefed US Department of Defence officials and diplomats, he now retired and moved to Canada. He claimed several books and research papers of his own on the US-Muslim World relationship, Bangladesh history, politics, and human rights issues and forthcoming book “What went wrong with Bangladesh.”
He believes the US administration is aware of the persistent violations of human rights, the fundamentals of democracy and freedom in Bangladesh ever since Sheikh Hasina came to power through the doctored elections of 2008, and once again in 2014, with direct support from the Indian government. Tens of thousands of political dissidents and ordinary workers of opposition political parties are in jail. As the Voice of America TV Channel reported on December 25th, around 10,500 supporters of the opposition BNP got arrested in three weeks alone. The judiciary is compliant and absolutely corrupt. The situation is so bad for conscientious judges that recently the immediate past Chief Justice S K Sinha had to flee the country and taken refuge in the US.
In his words, until now Russia, China, and India have congratulated Hasina for her election victory. Her party won an unbelievable 96 percent votes, while more than eighty percent of voters could not vote. A Washington Post columnist has likened the “election” with a similar exercise in North Korea. Meanwhile, for voting the opposition BNP, a village woman at Subarna Char in Noakhali district was gang raped by ruling party activists in front of her husband, which become viral on social media.
In conclusion, Dr Hashmi also noted that, the international media has given wide coverage to the absence of the rule of law in Bangladesh, and the fraudulent elections. German politician Norbert Rottgen has just tweeted: “The country is effectively turned into a one single party system”, and has asked Western governments to stand firm by “Bangladesh’s remaining democratic forces”.