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Introduction

Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic

of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located

in South Asia. Total area of this country is

147,570 km2

56,977 sq miles. It is bordered by India on

all sides except for a small border with

Burma (Myanmar) to the far southeast and

by the Bay of Bengal to the south. The

capital (and largest city) is Dhaka; also it is

the hub of all cultural, political and religious

affairs. Together with the Indian state of

West Bengal, it makes up the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. The name

Bangladesh means "Country of Bengal" in the official Bengali language.

Population:

Total population

Population aged 0-14 (%)

Population aged 15-64 (%)

Population aged 65+ (%)

1950 37 895 41.2 54.8 3.9 1955 43 444 42.4 54.1 3.5 1960 50 102 43.6 53.1 3.3 1965 57 792 44.7 52.0 3.3 1970 66 881 44.7 51.8 3.4 1975 70 582 45.8 50.7 3.5 1980 80 624 45.0 51.4 3.6 1985 92 284 43.9 52.5 3.6 1990 105 256 42.5 53.8 3.7 1995 117 487 40.3 55.9 3.8 2000 129 592 37.3 58.7 4.0 2005 140 588 34.3 61.4 4.3 2010 148 692 31.3 64.1 4.6

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Naturally there is some uncertainty

about the population, especially in a

developing country such as

Bangladesh with high illiteracy and a

large rural population. For instance,

in 2005 there was not a consensus

whether Bangladesh or Russia had

a larger population. The UN's ESA

ranked Russia 7th in the world and Bangladesh 8th. However, the CIA World Fact

book ranked Bangladesh 7th and Russia 8th in the same year. The point is now

moot as the population of Russia is in decline while that of Bangladesh is growing.

The baseline for population studies on Bangladesh is the official census which is

conducted every 10 years, the last being in 2011. Bangladesh had high rates of

population growth in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then however it has seen a

marked reduction in its total fertility rate. Over a period of three decades it dropped

from almost 7 to 2.4 in 2005-2010

Per Capita Income:

Bangladesh gradually decreased its dependency on foreign grant and loan from

85% (In 1988) to 2% (In 2010) for its annual development budget. Its per capita

income in 2010 was US$641 compared to the world average of $8,985. But, if

purchasing power parity (PPP) is taken into account, Bangladesh's economy is the

44th largest in the world at US$257 billion according to the IMF.

Although two-thirds of Bangladeshis are farmers, more than three quarters of

Bangladesh‟s export earnings come from the garment industry, which began

attracting foreign investors in the 1980s due to cheap labor and low conversion cost.

In 2009–10 fiscal years the industry exported US$ 12.6 billion worth of products

where in 2002 the exported amount was US$ 5 billion. Recently Bangladesh has

been ranked as the 4th largest clothing exporter by the WTO (The World Trade

Organization).

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Bangladesh Inflation Rate

The inflation rate in Bangladesh was last reported at 11.3 percent in August of 2011.

This page includes a chart with historical data for Bangladesh's Inflation Rate.

Inflation rate refers to a general rise in prices measured against a standard level of

purchasing power. The most well-known measures of Inflation are the CPI which

measures consumer prices, and the GDP deflator, which measures inflation in the

whole of the domestic economy.

GDP, GDP Growth:

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Bangladesh expanded 5.83 percent in the

second quarter of 2010 over the previous quarter. Historically, from 1994 until 2010,

Bangladesh's average quarterly GDP Growth was 5.47 percent reaching an

historical high of 6.63 percent in June of 2006 and a record low of 4.08 percent in

June of 1994. Bangladesh is considered as a developing economy which has

recorded GDP growth above 5% during the last few years. Microcredit has been a

major driver of economic development in Bangladesh and although three fifths of

Bangladeshis are employed in the

agriculture sector, three quarters of exports

revenues come from garment industry. The

biggest obstacles to sustainable

development in Bangladesh are

overpopulation, poor infrastructure,

corruption, political instability and a slow implementation of economic reforms.

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Corruption:

It is defined as the actions of making someone or something morally depraved with

dishonesty or fraudulent conduct.

There are in all seven factors that should be considered when analyzing the risks

that could be encountered related to the corruption of a country like Bangladesh,

these are:

1. Location:

The foreign countries which want to

invest their money in Bangladesh

need to remember that, Bangladesh

is a bribe seeking country. They

assume Bangladesh as a risky country, because if they want to do business

here, bribing is mandatory, so this extra money will get attached to the investors

production cost which will reduce their competitiveness.

2. Accounting Standards:

In refer to accounting standard, Bangladesh is very risky country. Corruption in

Bangladesh is so severe that, the auditing firms it selves are corrupted to perform

accurate audit of the both public and private organization. In Bangladesh, the

audit firm takes monetary benefits from the top management of particular

organization, and makes audits to support those corrupted management

employees.

3. Anti-corruption policy credibility and enforceability:

In Bangladesh, there is an anti-corruption commission (ACC) which is not

working as it should have. The Bangladeshi government is using it as puppet and

they are forced to harass and embarrass the opposition parties only. The ACC is

filing cases only to people who are against the

Government, however, they are releasing the criminals who get support from

Awami League government

.

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4. Cultural Differences:

Bangladesh does have cultural

differences with foreign countries.

When foreign investors want to

invest their money in Bangladesh,

they have to make sure that the

investors get accustomed with the

differences between countries.

For example, the Citi NY is a

multinational bank, which has branches all over the world. In most of the

countries, their employees work from 8 a.m. to 5p.m, however, in Bangladesh,

the Citi NY employees work from 9a.m to 8p.m. Thus, due to cultural differences,

the process of operations sometimes needs to get

changed.

5. Political leadership:

Bangladesh is a risky country in referring about political

leadership. Many politicians, bureaucrats and

government officials are involved in corruption which

reduces the efficiency of Bangladesh.

Example: Ten Trucks Arms Cases

The accused criminals include Jamaat

e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman

Nizami, who is former industries

minister, and former state minister for

home Lutfozzaman Babar. These

indicate that Bangladeshi political

leadership is in deep trouble. Instead of

solving problems, Bangladeshi politicians are creating trouble.

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6. Political Change:

In Bangladesh, the government officials are scared to take any decisions as

the government changes. They think, if they approve a big project of the country,

they can suffer lawsuit from anti-corruption bureau. Therefore, Bangladesh is a

risky country as their bureaucrats are not strong enough to take any major

decisions unlike China and EU countries.

7. At Home:

In papers, Bangladesh is against corruption, but in reality, it is one leading

corrupted country of the world. There

are no such laws that the

Bangladeshi companies cannot give

bribe to other domestic and

international companies. Therefore, it

is a risky country.

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Bureaucracy

“A bureaucracy is an organization of non-

elected officials of a government or

organizations who implement the rules, laws,

and functions of their institution, and are

occasionally characterized by officials and red

tape”. Before entering into a country for

business, it is very important to analyze the

structure as well as the nature of the

bureaucracy in that particular country.

Accountability of Public Officials

It is very important to consider the

accountability of the public officials,

means whether they are

accountable or not. If we consider

Bangladesh in this perspective, the

public officials are highly

accountable to their respective

supervisor.

Bangladesh has a parliamentary

form of government with the prime

minister as its chief executive and

the president as the head of state. The prime minister heads the cabinet that is

collectively responsible to the national parliament. The ministries fulfill policy-

making and oversight functions at the national level, and have staff at the district

level that provide law and order, land administration, service delivery and

program implementation. Loosely coordinated by the District Commissioner.

There are also local governments: municipal corporations in cities; district

councils; and Thana (police station) committees. They have some elected

representatives and perform limited but diverse administrative and development

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functions. The district still remains the most commonly used unit of

administration. For administrative convenience, some contiguous districts are

considered to comprise a division, while a district is subdivided into several police

stations (Thanas). Thus, division, district, and Thana comprise the administrative

sub-units of the country; several Thanas constitute a district, and some ten to

twelve districts constitute a division. So, this procedure explains the

accountability of public officials to their respective supervisor.

Caliber of Officialdom:

It is very important to investigate the calibers of the public officials and the kind of

training they receive before joining to the job of a particular country before

entering into the market, because at the time of doing the business you have to

communicate with them. In Bangladesh the Public Service Commission of

Bangladesh provides high quality of training to their officials. Having good

educational background, intelligence, strong training and most importantly very

good communication skill is must for the public officials of the country. It helps

them to communicate with officials of the country and taking the advantage from

them. For example: Recently Bangladesh government totally failed to take the

advantage about the deed of “Tista River” as well as the transit only because of

not having the enough caliber comparing with the Indian officials. As a result,

Indian government is taking the advantage at continuous basis from the

Bangladesh.

Politicization of Bureaucratic Department:

Sometime we see that some

of the high officials of the

department engaged with the

politics which is not good at

all. So, before entering into

the country for doing the

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business it should be considered by the investor. In Bangladesh we see this kind

of unethical practice by some of the public officials in department of different

office. For example: In Bangladesh we see government officer in Sonali Bank are

involved with different political party like CBA ( ). These people don‟t do any

work for the country but destroy the money of the country by doing unethical

activities. So this country is not a very good country to invest.

Transparency of Decision Making:

Government officials

should explain

everything to the

public about their

decision making,

because this is the

right of the public to

what is happening in

the country and what

the government is

going to do. In Bangladesh we don‟t see this kind of practice by the government

officials. People of this country don‟t have any idea about the activity of the

government. For example: at recent time what was the actual deed made with

the Indian government about the “Tista river” and Transit. They (government) are

not ensuring the transparency to the people. It is very dangerous not maintaining

the transparency. So investing in this country is riskier.

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FDI (foreign Direct Investment)

Bangladesh has seen a dramatic increase in

foreign direct investment. A number of

multinational corporations and local big

business houses such as Beximco, Square,

Akij, Ispahani, Navana Group, Transcom

Group, Habib Group, KDS Group, T.K Group

Of Industries, Dragon Group and multinationals

such as Unocal Corporation and Chevron, have

made major investments, with the natural gas

sector being a priority. In December 2005, the

Central Bank of Bangladesh projected GDP

growth around 6.5%. In order to enhance economic growth, the government set up

several export processing zones to attract foreign investment. These are managed

by the Bangladesh Export

Processing Zone Authority.

One significant contributor to the

development of the economy has

been the widespread propagation

of microcredit by Muhammad

Yunus (awarded the Nobel peace

prize in 2006) through the

Grameen Bank. By the late 1990s,

Grameen Bank had 2.3 million

members, along with 2.5 million

members of other similar

organizations.

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Legal safeguard:

Elite Interest

The term Elite is originally from the Latin, ligers, which means "to elect". The elites

are a relatively small dominant group within a large society, which enjoys a

privileged status in comparison to other individuals' status in the society. The word

elite were used in seventeenth century to describe commodities of particular

excellence; and the usage was later extended to refer to superior social group. In

case of Bangladesh, It has a small urban elite and rudimentary political culture.

Compared with other developing countries, Bangladesh is religiously, linguistically,

and socially homogeneous of a population of 127,567,000 (1998 estimate). During

the British colonial period, Zamindars were elite group.

Business elites are the major influential group with immense economic contribution

to the national economy in a developing country like Bangladesh, and in a way

having the power of manipulating the socio-political agendas of the nation. As

example: we can mention about “Salman F Rahman”. He has powerful influence on

government. He was the culprit for destruction of share market in 1996. But no

action was taken against him. So in this case Bangladesh is in risky position.

The group or individual who has influence on government and is related with the

politics or political party is called political elite. There are many in Bangladesh like

“Sahara khatun”, Col. Faruk etc. They have influence on the government decision

though they do many wrong or illegal deeds for which no action was taken. As a

result the foreigner investor might get it difficult to continue their normal business in

Bangladesh. So Bangladesh is in riskier position.

The media refers to channels of mass communications such as the radio,

newspapers, television and the internet. The media has power over all of us to a

greater or lesser extent. In Bangladesh the high profile intellectuals and business

elites are mainly dominating this sector as being either the entrepreneur or the Chief

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Executive Like Kaniz Almas, Mahabubul Haque in Prothom Alo, Mosaddek Ali Falu,

etc

Judicial Independence & Effectiveness:

Serves as a safeguard for the rights and privileges

provided by the Constitution and prevents executive and

legislative encroachment upon those rights. It serves as a

foundation for the rule of law and democracy. The rule of

law means that all authority and power must come from

an ultimate source of law. Under an independent judicial

system, the courts and its officers are free from

inappropriate intervention in the judiciary's affairs. With

this independence, the judiciary can safeguard people's

rights and freedoms which ensure equal protection for all.

The effectiveness of the law and the respect that people

have for the law and the government which enacts it is dependent upon the

judiciary's independence to mete out fair decisions. In case of Bangladesh situation

is moderate. Sometimes government influence the judiciary sector and sometimes

not. Government interferes when the issue is about the opposition party. Like

present government influence the judiciary regarding the suit or case about the

leader of the BNP like Tareq Zia, Salauddin Quader Chowdhary. In this case

Bangladesh is little less risky than other country like Myanmar where government

has complete influence on judiciary sector.

Legal Culture:

Legal Culture indicates the process and length of judiciary process that whether it is

slow or fast process. In case of Bangladesh the culture is slow. Bureaucracy of

Bangladesh is so much complicated that any dispute or complain takes too much

time to dismiss. In case of judiciary suit or case takes lot of time to have the verdict.

Specially, the murder case and dispute regarding land and property in Bangladesh.

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It took 10 to 15 years to have the result. In Some cases the criminal of murder case

is lost for forever.

Legislative Sophistication:

It indicates the understanding level of the people who deal with the legislative issue

in a country. It explains the importance of understanding what are the rules and

regulations need to perform in international business including different terms

related with the international business. For example in joint venture business the

conflict might arise between two parties and to solve this problem the legislative

body must have to have the clear understanding regarding the joint venture and its

international rules and regulation. Another example might be hedging which is one

of the most important financial terms in international business. Hedging ensures the

right amount of money is paid in future date which was set up in the past date. No

matter the value of the money goes up or down. So these are the important rules,

regulation and laws related with the international business must be clear to the

legislative body and have to be up to date about the those regulations. If we

consider Bangladesh, in perspective of legislative sophistication, it is not a riskier

country in respect of other country because there are some knowledgeable

legislative bodies available like Mahabubul Alam (Attorney General), Barister

Moudud Ahmed etc.

Potential for Counteraction:

Right to take action against the illegal decision and action of competitor in same

industry considered as potential for counter action. Like in the telecommunication

market in Bangladesh, the competition becomes so tough that new entrants become

impossible and price cutting become too tight. But government is not taking any

steps against the counter competition and any company does not have any rights to

take legal action to prevent those steps. Another example can be Bangladeshi

garments Factory. Owners sell the product at the price which is below the cost. But

other companies can‟t take action. On the other hand RFL Company suit against

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TFL Company for copying their trade name. But TFL Company could take legal

action against it also. So Bangladesh is in Moderate risky in this sector.

Criminal Activities:

This is defined as activities which are against the rules and regulation of the country.

Criminal activities are crimes against humanities, society and the well-being of the

country. Drugs business, killing, robbery, kidnapping, extortions are prime examples

of criminal works.

In Bangladesh, we face a large amount of unlawful acts which are influenced and

supported by our political parties that is Awami League and BNP. These parties use

the criminals for their sake and destroying or polluting the nation.

Political criminal activities:

Murder of Mayor Lokman Hossain:

On first November, 2011, Narsinghdi

municipality mayor Mr. Lokman Hossain

was shot by masked men in front of the

local Awami League office. He died later in

Dhaka Medical College Hospital and within

hours, the police arrested BNP's

Narsinghdi unit chief Khairul Kabir Khokon.

After that accident, Jatuoy Chatra League

of Narsinghdi, vandalized Narsinghdi circuit house and its rail station. Also, in the

following day, an intercity train was also torched by demonstrators.

The investigation is going on, and it was observed that, AL people were solely

responsible for his murder. Mr. Lokman Hossain was very popular in his city, so his

friends and other AL leaders were jealous of his popularity. Moreover, they were

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unhappy with some of his decisions about improving his city. Mr. Mayor believed

that, to develop Narsinghdi, he needed help and support from both Awami League

as well as BNP. That was a prime reason of his death.

Murder of a personnel who is also a Mayor and vandalizing government structures,

torching and destroying are also examples of political criminal activities. (Narsingdi

Mayor Killing: Suranjit won't talk about Lokman murder, 2011)

Political protection to criminals:

The law enforcement agencies of Bangladesh are trying and able to arrest the most

wanted criminals of the country. However, they capture those criminals; still they

cannot legally punish them for their misdeed. The reason, those criminals get good

support from political parties especially Awami League, the present government.

The criminals who are detained in jails are getting bails from courts identifying

themselves as Awami League supporters and activists. (Dhaka Become Vulnerable

To Criminal Activities, 2009)

Organized criminal activities:

This is defined as performing illegal activities in a planned

way. Organized crime is very common in Argentina, Brazil

and European countries; moreover, the size of the economy

controlled by organized crime worldwide is around 500

billion. Fortunately, the organized crime in Bangladesh is

insignificant. However, there are some incidents where

Bangladesh criminals especially the robbers used their intellectuals in negative

purpose.

Example:

Robbers tunnel through Brac Bank lockers

In the year 2008, robbers broke down 75 safe

deposit lockers in the Dhanmondi branch of BRAC

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Bank Ltd and stole gold ornaments and other valuables which worth approximately

several Crores of Taka. The branch of Brac Bank is situated on the first floor of a

building which houses Hotel Nidmahal Residential right above the bank. According

to Police, the robbers entered the locker room cutting through its ceiling, as they

found a large hole cut through the floor of a hotel room right above the locker room.

Police assumed that the robbers rented six rooms of the hotel and entered the

bank's locker room through the hole on the floor of the room right above it. They also

suspect the robbers stayed in the hotel for more than a month to plan the robbery.

Police detained four Nidmahal staffs for interrogation, suspecting their involvement

in the heist. Police also revealed, they are intensively interrogating the detainees

Shah Alam, Supon Barua, Sujan, and Monir, who were actively involved in robbery.

The incident suggested that it was a planned crime and the criminals knew about

the location of the bolts as well as the valuables, I believe, the criminals were helped

by some Brac officials who informed them about the bolt‟s position which

encouraged those thieves to perform such a notorious crime.

(Robbers tunnel to bank locker, 2008)

Fraud

It is defined as deception deliberately practiced in order to secure

unfair or unlawful gain. (Houghton Mifflin Company, n.d)

In Bangladesh, fraud is very common; people tend to fraud people to

order to have financial gain. Banks and Educational institutions are

primarily involved in fraud which is really sad for our country and its

people.

Examples:

Massive fraud by Brac Bank in Bangladesh

One of the leading financial institutions in

Bangladesh, named Brack Bank, which is

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owned by one of the largest NGOs in the world, Brac, is into massive fraud that is

looting millions of Taka.

Brac Bank is drawing millions of Taka from the Customers‟ accounts by creating

secret lien facilities. Such case of massive fraud was discovered when a customer

received a statement of his account, where he was surprised to see that the bank

has created lien worth TK. 10 million and drew the amount in the name of the

customer, even without notifying him. When the matter was brought to the attention

of authorities of Brac Bank, they tried to justify such fraudulent actions saying, "It

was done for the sake of customer's safety".

Moreover, Brac Bank not only creates and withdraws money from the customer's

account secretly through clean fraud, it also levies all interests accrued from the

amount of lien on the customer, which is not only unethical and illegal but goes

beyond the minimum level of banker-customer trust. Furthermore, such huge

amounts of money drawn from the customer's accounts secretly are passed by Brac

Bank to a number of hidden businesses, which are operated by the mid-level

management of the Brac NGO. (Massive fraud by Brac Bank in Bangladesh, 2009)

Fraud 'educational institution' continuing in Bangladesh

Pearl Fashion Institute [PFI] is an Indian-

owned company operating in Bangladesh

for past few years, thus selling degrees

to innocent students by appealing them

with false hopes and promises. PFI

pretends to be a legitimate institution in

Bangladesh, with 'affiliation' agreement

with Nottingham Trent University in UK. It

also receives millions of Taka from Bangladeshi students for its various graduation

courses in textile technology. But, in reality, PFI has no license from Bangladesh

government. However, Pearl Fashion Institute only holds a Trade License issue by

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Dhaka City Corporation to operate as a Vocational Training Center in the country.

None of the foreign teachers of PFI, including Ms. Garima Srivastava, who runs the

PFI show in Bangladesh, possess any work permit. All of the foreign teachers at PFI

are working illegally. (How fraud 'institution' continuing in Bangladesh, 2011)

Unique cultural issues

Culture is what we have been taught by the

society through our ancestors. Culture is

differentiated regionally. Bangladeshi culture

is the same as the Asian culture with some

exceptions. There are some unique cultural

activities which are done by the Bangladeshi

are:

Mother language day

This is a unique part of Bengali culture. On

21th of February all the Bangladeshi pay

tribute to those people who have given

their life to set Bangla as their mother

tongue. On this day to pay tribute to the

lost, everyone walk to Saheed minar and

leave a flower. A beautiful song “Amar

Bhaier Rokte Rangano Ekushay

February” has been written by Abdul Gaffar Choudhury. To give respect to those

who have fight for language UNESCO has declared 21st February as International

Mother Language day. This day is considered as a prideful as well as a sad day for

the country, thus it would not be a good idea to engage in conversation about other

language than bangle.

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Pohela Boishakh

Pohela Boishak is the first day of Bangla

calendar, which is usually the 14th April.

Bangladeshi people starts their celebration

with the dawn, they go to the Ramna Park

where the celebration starts with

Rabindranath Tagore's song. Then they go to

their relatives place to meet. Bangladeshi

people likes to celebrate this day as well as

they would like to do business on the day, because

they believe that if they can do business on the first day then they would also be

able to do a good business throughout the year.

Religious festivals

There are many religious festivals such as Eid and puja which are celebrated by all

religion people. On these festivals day Bangladeshi people like to spend the day

with their family and friends. Which means they take break from work on these days,

thus it is a risky country as they would not work on these days.

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Personal Threats

Bangladesh is a third world country thus it cannot ensure safety measure that are in

other countries. Bangladesh is a poor country thus it have a lot of lack ages, so

before investing in to the country you should think about the following factors:

Pollution

Bangladesh is one of the most polluted country of the

world, thus there is higher chance to fall sick. For

foreigner it would be a highly risky country to live,

because if they fall sick then they would not be able to

work.

Theft and Robbery

Theft and Robbery is common scenario of Bangladesh.

Thus it is a risky country for foreigner to do business,

because when people go to any country for doing

business they bring a lot of business documents and

good amount of money with them. So they become an

easy target for robbers.

For example Eszter a foreigner was robbed within six of her arrival. After settling

into a hotel in Gulshan 1, Eszter and her travel companion decided to have dinner at

eight. As it was nearby, the hotel‟s receptionist recommended them to travel by

rickshaw rather than CNG. Once outside, a local told the rickshaw driver where to

go – but, unbeknown to Eszter and Andrew, the driver proceeded in the direction of

Banani. As the rickshaw approached Kamal Attaturk Avenue along Banani‟s Road

11, a hand stretched out from a passing car and grabbed Eszter‟s bag, which was

strapped diagonally across her waist. She hit the road like a brick, but for a few

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seconds desperately tried to resist losing the contents of her bag. In this accident

Eszter lost her bag, passport, credit cards – and 20 percent of her skin.

Street awareness

In Bangladesh people do not follow any traffic

signals for which road accidents are common in

Bangladesh. Thus in Bangladesh people cross

the street at their own risk, because they are

reluctant of using foot over. While driving or

walking in Bangladeshi roads you have to be

careful and always keep distance from others or

else you might die due to other‟s

fault.

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Extremist Groups of Bangladesh:

Bangladesh, the world's third largest

Muslim-majority nation, is facing

challenges from violent Islamist groups.

The Awami League (AL) government in

Bangladesh on April 2009 blacklisted

12 militant organizations. The

organizations are Harkat-ul Jihad Islami

(HuJI) Bangladesh, Jamaat-ul

Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Jagrata

Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB),

Shahadat-e-al Haqima (SAH), Hizbut Touhid, Islami Samaj, Ulema Anjuman al

Baiyinaat, Hizb-ut Tahrir, Islamic Democratic Party, Touhid Trust, Tamir ud-Deen,

Alla‟r Dal. Of these 12 groups, four including HUJI, SAH, JMJB and JMB were

banned during the regime of BNP-Jamaat coalition. To build trust in the political

process, Bangladesh needs to strengthen its democratic institutions and develop a

culture of transparency in the government that fosters accountability and restrains

corruption.

Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen

Bangladesh (JMB)

Origin

The Jama'atul Mujahideen

Bangladesh (JMB) is reported to

have been formed in 1998 in the

Jamalpur district. Its existence came

to notice on May 20, 2002 with the

arrest of eight Islamist militants at

Parbatipur in the Dinajpur district along with 25 petrol bombs and documents

detailing the outfit's activities. Subsequently, on February 13, 2003, the JMB is

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reported to have carried out seven bomb explosions in the Chhoto Gurgola area of

Dinajpur town in which three persons were wounded.

Activities

This extremist group blasts their Bombs with the help of suicide bomber and leaves

threatening leaflet. On August 17, 2005, the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh

staged a spectacular series of coordinated bombings across the nation, detonating

approximately 400 devices within the space of 45 minutes in 63 of the country's 64

districts, but killing only three people. One of the objectives of JMB is to free

Muslims of the influence of 'anti-Islam forces' and practices that brought women out

of their houses. Espousing a radical variant of Islam, the outfit is opposed to cultural

functions, cinema halls, shrines and NGOs.

Leader:

Maulana Saidur Rahman is known to be currently heading the JMB after the March

30, 2007 execution of the top six militant leaders. Although there is no authenticity

about the size of the strength of SAH, the group‟s leader Kawsar claimed that the

outfit has 10 thousand commandos and 25 thousand fighters working in the country

to bring Islamic revolution.

Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B)

Formation

The Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B)

was established in 1992, reportedly with assistance

from Osama bin Laden‟s International Islamic Front

(IIF). On April 30, 1992, several of the HuJI-B

leaders addressed a press conference at the Jatiya

Press Club in capital Dhaka and demanded that

Bangladesh be converted into an Islamic State. The

outfit‟s activities, however, were noticed in June

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1996 after the Awami League (AL) came to power. The HuJI-B was proscribed by

the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led coalition Government on October 17,

2005.

Leadership

The HuJI-B is led by Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid. Imtiaz Quddus is the

general secretary of the outfit. The outfit's operations commander, Mufti Abdul

Hannan was arrested in Dhaka on October 1, 2005.

Cadres

Although there is no authoritative information on the actual cadre strength, most

reports mention it to be around 15,000. Several of these recruits were trained in the

Kormi and Kasia areas of Bangladesh. Further, many hundred recruits were

reportedly trained at various training camps in Afghanistan, primarily during the reign

of the Taliban.

Hizbut Touhid:

Hizbut Touhid was established in 1994 at Korotia

village in Tangail district of Bangladesh. The

organization is led by Bayezid Khan Panni of

Tangail alies Selim Panni who claimed himself to

be the „Imam-Uz-Zaman,‟meaning someone just

after the prophet of Islam. Hizbut Touhid aspires to

establish a world under the leadership of Imam Uz

Zaman. It is against democracy and democratic institutions as it considers them to

be the rules of evil. Also, the organization opposes leadership of women in politics

and also working of women. It also feels that the Muslims who are not following the

ideology of Hizbut Touhid are not real Muslim. The organization believes that every

men and women in Islam are armies of Allah and they should behave like armies in

every walk of their lives. Hizbut Chief Panni has written many books like „Dazzal‟

and „This Islam is not at all Islam‟. In the book „Dazzal‟ Panni argues that Jews and

Christian should be eliminated by the Muslims. The groups promotes armed struggle

25

for establishment of Islamic rule in the world. Books and leaflets written by its Imam

Panni are the main guiding force for the group. CDs, books and leaflets are widely

distributed among people to attract cadres. Through these leaflets the group urges

people to join them to establish Islamic rule, rejecting all „manmade‟ laws.

Hizb-ut Tehrir:

Hizbut Tehrir Bangladesh is part of the

global Sunni political party that aspires to

establish Khilafat by uniting all Islamic

countries. Like its counter parts worldwide

it wants to establish Shariah in

Bangladesh. Hizb-ut Tehrir has three

clear goals: to establish a community of

like-minded Hizb-ut Tehrir members in

host states, to sway public opinion in one

or more host states to facilitate change of government, and, finally, to establishment

a new government that will implement Islamic laws. Recently, Hizb-ut Tehrir has

published “Islamic Manifesto” for Bangladesh demanding a Khilafat, implementation

of Shariah law,–no foreign ownership of any of the country‟s resources and most

important- no agreement can be signed with India other than ceasefire agreement.

Tehrir is also against participating in elections as it views elections are contrary to

Shariah law. The Chief of Tehrir in Bangladesh is Mohiuddin Ahmed. It‟s cadres are

mostly university students

26

Precautionary Measures

International Travel:

1. Before coming to Bangladesh the foreigners

should request for a security risk briefing. It is

the company‟s duty to inform their delegates

for a foreign risk briefing. If s/he don‟t have

proper idea regarding Bangladesh then it will

be difficult for them to work properly.

Example: In risk briefing for Bangladesh the

foreigners are asked to wear Salwar Kameez

because it is the traditional dress of

Bangladesh. And if the foreigners wear

western clothes in Bangladesh the uneducated

lower class people will keep staring at them which can be a little uneasy for them.

Then the instructor guides them where to deal with people and where not, in what

vehicles to ride and in what not to ride etc.

2. While travelling the foreigners should not display their company‟s logo. If the

foreigners carry such company‟s Logo which is very famous and big then s/he might

get kidnapped. If s/he is being kidnapped then it will the company‟s responsibility to

give the money to the kidnapper and make the foreigner free. But this is not

common in Bangladesh.

3. Foreigners should not discuss about their business identity or purpose with fellow

passengers. Bangladeshi people like to interfere in other people‟s personal matter

so the keep asking questions and questions. But the foreigners should not reply

them.

4. Foreigners should arrange to have someone familiar to pick them up at the airport

because the CNG and Taxi drivers of Bangladesh are involved in kidnapping gang.

27

They will take away all the money and belongings of them and sometimes they can

kill you as well.

5. Before coming to Bangladesh the foreigners should leave a copy of their detailed

itinerary with a friend, family or secretary so that if their passports get lost they can

have the photocopy to give that to the police.

Document and Currency:

Foreigners should not carry confidential company documents self during travel

because if by any chance the documents get lost then s/he will be accused wrongly.

The foreigners should memorize their passports details so that they don‟t need to

take out their passports again and again to fill up forms.

Medical Safety:

Foreigners should carry common medicines as per doctors‟ advice. They should at

least have some anti-allergic medicines because there is lots of dust in the roads of

Dhaka city. Foreigners might get allergy / cold because of this.

Hotel Safety:

The foreigners should stay in reputed hotels like The Shonargaon Hotel, Ruposhi

Bangla hotel, Raddison Hotel; The Westin etc. the cheap hotels at Bangladesh are

not safe at all. In those hotels the staffs may be involved with robbery gangs. They

will take all their money and then kill him/her. In Bangladesh the foreigners should

stay in between third to eight floor. Because if hotel is in fire then the fire brigade

service won‟t be able to blow off fire above 8th floor as Bangladesh doesn‟t have that

technology yet.

Street Awareness;

The foreigners should know the uniform of law enforcement agencies like police,

RAB because if they fall in any danger then they can go to the nearest police station

or the nearest police for help. Foreigners should not travel in high crime rate areas.

28

Those areas are very much risky and the police are also involved in kidnapping,

drug dealing business. So foreigners should not travel to Gulistan, Mirpur Pir Majar

etc.

Transportation:

The foreigners should hire rent-a-car or company‟s car, or car from tours and travel.

The foreigners should not ride the yellow cab or CNGs. The drivers of those

transports are sometimes involved in criminal activities.

PLANT SECURITY:

Safe-Houses:

Safe houses are especially building

secured houses which are built to

keep people safe during any

disaster or any war or uprising

when the foreigners can‟t get out of

the country. Safe houses are kept

safe and the people won‟t know

that where the safe house is. But

the foreigners can stay there for 3

months as all the daily necessary

things are being kept there. Safe

houses are commonly used by multinational companies. Nowadays all the big

multinational companies and embassies have safe houses.

29

Bibliography

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2011Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Bangladesh

Dhaka Become Vulnerable To Criminal Activities. (2009, August 20). Retrieved December 1, 2011, from 2011 - Zimbio, Inc: http://www.zimbio.com/Bangladesh/articles/hgpkE2lNRNF/Dhaka+Become+Vulnera ble+Criminal+Activities Houghton Mifflin Company. (n.d). The free dictionary by Farlex. Retrieved Decemeber 01, 2011, from 2011 Farlex, Inc.: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fraud How fraud 'institution' continuing in Bangladesh. ( 2011, May 25). Retrieved December 01, 2011, from 2011 Weekly Blitz: http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1457/how- fraud-institution-continuing-in-bangladesh Massive fraud by Brac Bank in Bangladesh. ( 2009, March 18). Retrieved December 1, 2011, from 2011 Weekly Blitz: http://www.weeklyblitz.net/215/massive-fraud-by- brac-bank-in-bangladesh Mugged, Dragged and Scarred: harrowing tale from foreigner in Dhaka. (23, August

2011). Retrieved December 10, 2011, from:

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Narsingdi Mayor Killing: Suranjit won't talk about Lokman murder. (2011, November 12). Retrieved December 1, 2011, from 2011 Priyo: http://news.priyo.com/politics/2011/11/12/narsingdi-mayor-killing-suranj-42286.html Robbers tunnel to bank locker. ( 2008, January 8). Retrieved December 1, 2011,

from thedailystar.net, 1991-2008: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news- details.php?nid=18322