DHAKA, 26 July 2005 — Bangladesh has condemned comments by a US congressman advocating the bombing of Islamic holy sites as a response to future terror attacks, the official BSS news agency said yesterday quoting the foreign minister.
Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo’s views were described by Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan as “most insensitive and irresponsible,” the BSS report said.
Lawmakers and others in positions of responsibility should refrain from such “callous remarks” in the interests of a unified response to global terrorism, he added.
Tancredo made the offending comments on a Florida radio station earlier this month and repeated them in a television interview last Tuesday. “If this (terror attack) happens, and if, in fact, we can prove that it was perpetrated by some fundamentalist Islamic — ‘Islamo-fascist’ is really I think what we should call them — then you might think about this as a threat, the retaliation on their holy sites,” he told television viewers.
Pirated Harry Potter Books Sell Briskly in Dhaka
Pirated copies of the latest Harry Potter novel are selling briskly on the streets of Dhaka, at about one-fifth the price of the original. Pavement vendors said hundreds of pirated copies of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” were selling every day, each for 400 taka ($6). The original price of author J.K. Rowling’s latest book is $29 (1,870 taka).
“I don’t care if it is pirated or original. I wanted to read this book and now it’s available at an affordable price. I am too happy to have one,” said Syed Mustakim Haider, a student.
