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93-831: Rapid Action Battalion ( Bengali : র‍্যাপিড অ্যাকশন ব্যাটালিয়ন , romanized :  Ra‍yāpiḍa ayākaśana byāṭāliẏana ; abbreviated as RAB ) is an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh Police . This elite force consists of members of the Bangladesh Army , Navy , Air Force , Police , Border Guard , and the Bangladesh Ansar . It was formed on 26 March 2004 as RAT ( Rapid Action Team ), and commenced operations on 14 April 2004. The Rapid Action Battalion has faced criticism from human rights groups for their use of extrajudicial killings and alleged involvement in forced disappearances . It

186-531: A 4th-year student of the Department of Al Fiqah, and Mohammad Waliullah (23), a Masters candidate of Dawah and Islamic Studies Department of Islamic University, were allegedly arrested and disappeared by some persons who identified themselves as RAB-4 and DB Police members from Savar. Both were members of the Islamic student organization Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir and were allegedly detained by members of

279-744: A [RABid] monster." RAB was provided weapons seized from 10-Truck Arms and Ammunition Haul in Chittagong on 16 April 2004. RAB has a media centre in Karwan Bazar. On 15 July 2004, RAB arrested Sumon Ahmed Majumder, a Jubo League leader and garment trader, in Tongi. He died within 10 hours of being arrested from torture at RAB headquarters in Uttara. He was a witness to the murder of Ahsanullah Master , member of parliament from Awami League. Police claimed he died while resisting arrest while RAB claimed he

372-500: A bid to lessen this burden on young learners, efforts have been made by educational institutions in the two main Bengali-speaking regions (West Bengal and Bangladesh) to address the opaque nature of many consonant clusters, and as a result, modern Bengali textbooks are beginning to contain more and more "transparent" graphical forms of consonant clusters, in which the constituent consonants of a cluster are readily apparent from

465-456: A businessman and activist of Jubo League, from Dhaka. His body was found with signs of torture and bullet wounds the next day. On 24 January 2007, journalist Jahangir Alam Akash was detained and tortured by RAB-5 in Rajshahi by Major Rashidul Hassan Rashid. On 15 July 2008, Moshiul Alam Sentu of Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Chatra Dal was detained by Rapid Action Battalion from Dhaka and his body

558-484: A crossfire by RAB. On 22 October, F. M. Masum, a reporter of the New Age , was beaten after he hesitated to open the door for plainclothes RAB officers who were assaulting his landlord's wife. The officers had said he deserved to beaten for working for Nurul Kabir , editor of the New Age . Bangladesh Air Force Officer Anisur Rahman, on deputation to RAB, was found guilty of torture by RAB's own internal investigation; he

651-528: A crossfire on 16 November. Bangladesh High Court expressed concern over the death of the two brothers. On 3 February, Mohiuddin Arif, a technician at Apollo Hospital Dhaka was detained and tortured in custody by RAB. He later died from his injuries. Azad Hussein Pappu, and Abdus Sattar were detained on 27 February and killed the next in a crossfire by RAB on 28 February 2010. On 22 March 2010, Bangladesh Police stopped

744-596: A different word from a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, the word salt is লবণ lôbôṇ in the east which corresponds to নুন nun in the west. Bengali exhibits diglossia , though some scholars have proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language. Two styles of writing have emerged, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax : Linguist Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar categorises

837-480: A diphthong. The total number of diphthongs is not established, with bounds at 17 and 31. An incomplete chart is given by Sarkar (1985) of the following: In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually all trochaic ; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as in সহযোগিতা shô -hô- jo -gi- ta "cooperation", where

930-480: A documentary called All the Prime Minister's Men in which the brother of the then Chief of Army, General Aziz Ahmed , bragged about RAB as his personal gangsters and thugs who make money for him and them through detentions. In 2021, RAB manufactured and started using OIVS device to nab criminals. In August 2022, Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Ismail Hossain, air wing director, died after being injured in

1023-475: A group of 50 activists signed a petition calling for an investigation and punishment of the alleged crime. In 2014, police attempted to search the New Age office, at the Tejgaon area in the capital, without a warrant. Over objections from staff, police entered and videotaped some of the interior. Later, a police official said it was a "misunderstanding" due to a report "that Jamaat Shibir activists" were "in

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1116-561: A helicopter crash. On 30 September, Director General of RAB, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun , was promoted and appointed Inspector General of Bangladesh Police. Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun was under sanctions of the United States for human rights abuse. In 2023, Deutsche Welle published a documentary titled " Inside the Death Squad ," which delved into the allegations of human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings committed by

1209-480: A hospital where he was examined for head injury. The incident sparked various public protests by political and cultural organizations. The correspondent promptly sued 13 officers of the Ramna police, sparking a court-ordered police investigation. New Age blogger David Bergman (journalist) has been a subject of particular controversy. Bergman is the husband of human rights lawyer and activist Sara Hossain , who

1302-692: A large scale and were communally limited. Owing to Bengal's geographic location, Bengali areas bordering non-Bengali regions have been influenced by each other. Small numbers of people in Midnapore , which borders Odisha , have used the Odia script to write in Bengali. In the border areas between West Bengal and Bihar , some Bengali communities historically wrote Bengali in Devanagari , Kaithi and Tirhuta . In Sylhet and Bankura , modified versions of

1395-623: A majority in Bangladesh speaks dialects notably different from SCB. Some dialects, particularly those of the Chittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to SCB. The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis. The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety – often, speakers are fluent in Cholitobhasha (SCB) and one or more regional dialects. Even in SCB,

1488-576: A part in the adoption of the English alphabet to write Bengali, with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali. New Age (Bangladesh) At one point, New Age –like its rival, the Daily Star –included a literature page (defunct by mid-2019), which stimulated Bangladesh's English literary scene. In 2014, the offices of New Age were searched without

1581-608: A photo exhibition on deaths by RAB at Drik Picture Library by Shahidul Alam . Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, a salesman and member of extremist Allah-r Dol, was forcible disappeared by RAB in February. RAB detained the Asian Human Rights Commission representative, William Gomes, and tortured him at their headquarters on 21 May 2011. Limon Hossain, a 16-year-old student of Jhalakati College, was shot by RAB and had to have his leg amputated on 23 March 2011. Hossain

1674-576: A rounded total of 280 million) worldwide. The Bengali language is native to the region of Bengal , which comprises the present-day nation of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal . Besides the native region it is also spoken by the Bengalis living in Tripura , southern Assam and the Bengali population in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Bengali is also spoken in

1767-408: A special diacritic, called the hôsôntô (্) , may be added below the basic consonant grapheme (as in ম্ [m] ). This diacritic, however, is not common and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation. The abugida nature of Bengali consonant graphemes is not consistent, however. Often, syllable-final consonant graphemes, though not marked by a hôsôntô , may carry no inherent vowel sound (as in

1860-581: A state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan . On 21 February 1952, five students and political activists were killed during protests near the campus of the University of Dhaka ; they were the first ever martyrs to die for their right to speak their mother tongue. In 1956, Bengali was made a state language of Pakistan. 21 February has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh and has also been commemorated as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO every year since 2000. In 2010,

1953-478: A trial or impossible to rehabilitate. He said, "If you find him – shoot and kill him, wherever he is. And then plant a weapon beside him." This officer says that people disappear this way every day, and that innocent people can disappear. On 27 October 2020, The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote a letter to the United States Secretary of State and United States Secretary of

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2046-463: A vowel in isolation from any preceding or following consonant, the independent form of the vowel is used. For example, in মই [moj] "ladder" and in ইলিশ [iliʃ] "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowel ই is used (cf. the dependent form ি) . A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realised using its independent form. In addition to the inherent-vowel-suppressing hôsôntô , three more diacritics are commonly used in Bengali. These are

2139-414: A warrant by Bangladesh Police. In 2009, a New Age reporter was tortured by the law enforcement agency Rapid Action Battalion members. In 2013, editor Nurul Kabir allegedly received a phone call from a person claiming to be a criminal nicknamed "Shahadat," who threatened him, his wife and children, demanded Tk100,000, and ordered him to "speak carefully" when appearing in talk shows. In response,

2232-500: Is Bangladesh's national march, written by The National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bengali in 1928. It was adopted as the national marching song by the Bangladeshi government in 1972. Additionally, the first two verses of Vande Mataram , a patriotic song written in Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , was adopted as the "national song" of India in both the colonial period and later in 1950 in independent India. Furthermore, it

2325-547: Is a classical Indo-Aryan language from the Indo-European language family native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With over 237 million native speakers and another 41 million as second language speakers as of 2024, Bengali is the fifth most spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world. It is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language . Bengali

2418-468: Is a cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting nine vowels and two diphthongs , and thirty-nine graphemes representing consonants and other modifiers. There are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. The letters run from left to right and spaces are used to separate orthographic words . Bengali script has a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the graphemes that links them together called মাত্রা matra . Since

2511-400: Is an abugida , a script with letters for consonants, with diacritics for vowels, and in which an inherent vowel (অ ô ) is assumed for consonants if no vowel is marked. The Bengali alphabet is used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India (Assam, West Bengal, Tripura). The Bengali alphabet is believed to have evolved from a modified Brahmic script around 1000 CE (or 10th–11th century). It

2604-707: Is believed by many that the national anthem of Sri Lanka ( Sri Lanka Matha ) was inspired by a Bengali poem written by Rabindranath Tagore , while some even believe the anthem was originally written in Bengali and then translated into Sinhala . After the contribution made by the Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force in the Sierra Leone Civil War under the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone ,

2697-721: Is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects. During the standardisation of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural centre of Bengal was in Kolkata , a city founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia and Kushtia District . There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use

2790-537: Is daughter of Bangladeshi politician & Internationally acclaimed lawyer Kamal Hossain . In 2014, the controversial International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh ordered Bergman to pay a fine of approximately US$ 65, or serve a week in prison, for questioning the controversial, allegedly exaggerated, official historical record on the actual death toll in Bangladesh's 1971 War of Independence . The court's actions, essentially declaring that its judgments could not be

2883-723: Is estimated that between 2004 and 2008 RAB had killed 1,062 people. The Rapid Action Battalion was formed on 12 July 2003 under the Armed Police Battalion (Amendment) Act, 2003. The act was passed through the amendment of the Armed Forces Battalion Ordinance 1979 which provides immunity to RAB officers for actions taken in the course of their duty. Each battalion of Rapid Action Battalion is commanded by Additional Deputy Inspector General rank officer or its equivalent in other forces. RAB cannot file cases with courts themselves but must be forward

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2976-404: Is known as Apabhraṃśa , by the end of the first millennium. The Bengali language evolved as a distinct language over the course of time. Though some archaeologists claim that some 10th-century texts were in Bengali, it is not certain whether they represent a differentiated language or whether they represent a stage when Eastern Indo-Aryan languages were differentiating. The local Apabhraṃśa of

3069-490: Is set out below in the International Phonetic Alphabet (upper grapheme in each box) and romanisation (lower grapheme). Bengali is known for its wide variety of diphthongs , combinations of vowels occurring within the same syllable . Two of these, /oi̯/ and /ou̯/ , are the only ones with representation in script, as ঐ and ঔ respectively. /e̯ i̯ o̯ u̯/ may all form the glide part of

3162-555: Is the official , national , and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh , with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language. It is the second-most widely spoken language in India . It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam . It is also the second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It

3255-508: Is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal , and is spoken by significant populations in other states including Bihar , Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi , Chhattisgarh , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland , Odisha and Uttarakhand . Bengali is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas ( Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) across Europe, North America,

3348-509: The Aesop's Fables in Bengali was printed using Roman letters based on English phonology by the Scottish linguist John Gilchrist . Consecutive attempts to establish a Roman Bengali have continued across every century since these times, and have been supported by the likes of Suniti Kumar Chatterji , Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda , and Muhammad Enamul Haq . The Digital Revolution has also played

3441-675: The Arabic , Persian , and Turkic languages . The arrival of merchants and traders from the Middle East and Turkestan into the Buddhist -ruling Pala Empire , from as early as the 7th century, gave birth to Islamic influence in the region. In the 13th century, subsequent Arab Muslim and Turco-Persian expeditions to Bengal heavily influenced the local vernacular by settling among the native population. Bengali absorbed Arabic and Persian influences in its vocabulary and dialect, including

3534-474: The Constitution of Bangladesh states Bengali to be the sole official language of Bangladesh. The Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 , made it mandatory to use Bengali in all records and correspondences, laws, proceedings of court and other legal actions in all courts, government or semi-government offices, and autonomous institutions in Bangladesh. It is also the de facto national language of

3627-579: The Kaithi script had some historical prominence, mainly among Muslim communities. The variant in Sylhet was identical to the Baitali Kaithi script of Hindustani with the exception of Sylhet Nagri possessing matra . Sylhet Nagri was standardised for printing in c.  1869 . Up until the 19th century, numerous variations of the Arabic script had been used across Bengal from Chittagong in

3720-524: The Nadia region . Bengali shows a high degree of diglossia , with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language. Modern Bengali vocabulary is based on words inherited from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, along with tatsamas and reborrowings from Sanskrit and borrowings from Persian , Arabic , Austroasiatic languages and other languages with which it has historically been in contact. In

3813-524: The U.S. Department of the Treasury added RAB to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list under GLOMAG . Six individuals associated with RAB – including its Director General, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun , former DG Benazir Ahmed , ADG Colonel KM Azad were also sanctioned. Entities on the list have their assets blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them. Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen wrote an open letter to

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3906-729: The US Secretariat of State Antony Blinken regarding RAB to reconsider those sanctions. On the others hand US Congressman and Chair of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee Gregory W Meeks has strongly supported those sanctions by the US Government and said that wholesale sanctions against Bangladesh were not necessary, but targeted sanctions were most useful. Bengali language Bengali , also known by its endonym Bangla ( বাংলা , Bāṅlā , [ˈbaŋla] ),

3999-607: The University of Karachi (established by East Pakistani politicians before Independence of Bangladesh ) also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature. The national anthems of both Bangladesh ( Amar Sonar Bangla ) and India ( Jana Gana Mana ) were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore . Notuner Gaan known as " Chol Chol Chol"

4092-499: The boldface represents primary and secondary stress. Native Bengali words do not allow initial consonant clusters ; the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e., one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bengali restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as গেরাম geram (CV.CVC) for গ্রাম gram (CCVC) "village" or ইস্কুল iskul (VC.CVC) for স্কুল skul (CCVC) "school". The Bengali-Assamese script

4185-557: The phonology of Eastern Bengali is seen through the lack of nasalised vowels and an alveolar articulation of what are categorised as the "cerebral" consonants (as opposed to the postalveolar articulation of western Bengal). Some varieties of Bengali, particularly Sylheti , Chittagonian and Chakma , have contrastive tone ; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong

4278-623: The 16th century, Portuguese missionaries began a tradition of using the Roman alphabet to transcribe the Bengali language. Though the Portuguese standard did not receive much growth, a few Roman Bengali works relating to Christianity and Bengali grammar were printed as far as Lisbon in 1743. The Portuguese were followed by the English and French respectively, whose works were mostly related to Bengali grammar and transliteration. The first version of

4371-652: The 19th and 20th centuries, there were two standard forms of written Bengali: In 1948, the government of Pakistan tried to impose Urdu as the sole state language in Pakistan, giving rise to the Bengali language movement . This was a popular ethnolinguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh ), which arose as a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengalis and their desire to promote and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as

4464-593: The 6th century, which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for some time. The ancestor of Bengali was the language of the Pala Empire and the Sena dynasty . During the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterised by the elision of the word-final অ ô and the spread of compound verbs, which originated from the Sanskrit Schwa . Slowly, the word-final ô disappeared from many words influenced by

4557-456: The Bengali equivalent of a full stop – have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar. Unlike in Western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) where the letter forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms instead hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called মাত্রা matra . The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example,

4650-426: The Bengali script is an abugida, its consonant graphemes usually do not represent phonetic segments , but carry an "inherent" vowel and thus are syllabic in nature. The inherent vowel is usually a back vowel , either [ɔ] as in মত [m ɔ t] "opinion" or [o] , as in মন [m o n] "mind", with variants like the more open [ɒ] . To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it,

4743-520: The Middle East and other regions. Bengali was accorded the status of a classical language by the government of India on 3 October 2024. It is the second most spoken and fourth fastest growing language in India , following Hindi in the first place, Kashmiri in the second place, and Meitei ( Manipuri ), along with Gujarati , in the third place, according to the 2011 census of India . Bengali has developed over more than 1,400 years. Bengali literature , with its millennium-old literary history,

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4836-626: The Narayangonj City Corporation Election. Because RAB is composed of officers and troops from Bangladesh Police and Bangladesh Armed Forces , it was necessary to attribute a common rank insignia to the RAB badges. Such insignia can be seen in the illustrations below. The following is a table containing details of major arrests by the RAB according to their official website: Although the RAB has been successful in apprehending several high-profile terrorists, including

4929-548: The RAB and the Detective Branch (DB) of the Bangladesh Police on 4 February 2012. They have not been heard from since and their whereabouts are unknown. The RAB has denied detaining the two men in a statement to a Bangladeshi newspaper. However, reports from several sources and a pattern of disappearances thought to have been conducted by RAB in recent months cast doubt on RAB's denial. On 10 December 2021,

5022-785: The RAB. RAB also has 15 battalion size field units spread all over the country. Among them, 5 are located in the capital Dhaka . The units are located as follows: Main activities and types of work done by RAB are: Counter-Terrorism : RAB apprehended numerous terrorism suspects during the course of their tenure. Anti drugs : RAB has been involved in the control of illegal substances such as ya ba , phensedyl and heroin . Emergency help : RAB provides immediate response for situations such as armed robbery and kidnappings. National common or annual needs : Many national needs are filled by RAB by providing extra duty during Eid-ul-Fitr , Puja , world Ijtema, and Akheri Munazat, among other events. They also contribute resources during elections, such as

5115-476: The Rajapur police implicating Limon in an arms case and accusing him of obstructing police duties. The government finally decided to withdraw the cases against Limon on 9 July 2013, citing his need to return to a "healthy and normal life". Rapid Action Battalion is accused of framing a Bangladeshi expatriate named Shamim Sikder on false charges of drug and forged currency and torturing him in custody. Families of

5208-540: The Treasury , urging them to impose sanctions on senior officials of the Rapid Action Battalion for human rights violations. Limon Hossain, a college student at Jamaddarhat at Rajapur Upazila in Jhalakati , was shot at by RAB personnel near his house on 23 March 2011, triggering a local and international outcry. His left leg had to be amputated as a result. The battalion filed two cases that day with

5301-472: The area." In February 2015, police allegedly beat Nazmul Huda Suman, the Dhaka University correspondent for New Age, and a companion, as they returned to the university from the newspaper's office. He alleged that he had photographed some police misconduct, and was promptly surrounded by 20-30 officers, and attacked—on site, in a police car, and at the police station. Friends later rushed him to

5394-536: The basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh ( Barisal , Chittagong , Dhaka and Sylhet Divisions of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal and western Bangladesh are pronounced as fricatives . Western alveolo-palatal affricates চ [ tɕɔ ] , ছ [ tɕʰɔ ] , জ [ dʑɔ ] correspond to eastern চ [tsɔ] , ছ [tsʰɔ~sɔ] , জ [dzɔ~zɔ] . The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on

5487-484: The battalion's activities. Sixteen RAB-11 officials (sacked afterwards) including Lt Col (sacked) Tareque Sayeed , Major (sacked) Arif Hossain, and Lt Commander (sacked) Masud Rana were given the death penalty for abduction, murder, concealing the bodies, conspiracy and destroying evidence in the Narayanganj Seven Murder case. Another nine RAB-11 officials were awarded jail terms of 7 to 17 years in

5580-525: The cases to Bangladesh Police who will file the case with the court. RAB is composed of personnel from Bangladesh military and law enforcement agencies who return to their own units after service with RAB ends. RAB replaced the short lived Rapid Action Team (RAT) which was formed in January 2003. RAB has faced criticism for alleged extrajudicial killings from its formation. In an editorial on 23 July 2004 The Daily Star wrote "reign it in before it turns into

5673-469: The consonant which comes first is put on top of or to the left of the one that immediately follows. In these ligatures, the shapes of the constituent consonant signs are often contracted and sometimes even distorted beyond recognition. In the Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Although there exist a few visual formulas to construct some of these ligatures, many of them have to be learned by rote. Recently, in

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5766-507: The country. In India, Bengali is one of the 23 official languages . It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal , Tripura and in Barak Valley of Assam . Bengali has been a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. In Pakistan , Bengali is a recognised secondary language in the city of Karachi mainly spoken by stranded Bengalis of Pakistan . The Department of Bengali in

5859-591: The detention the result of a business dispute. A cyber unit of RAB-3 identified Ahmed Kabir Kishore , Mushtaq Ahmed , Didarul Bhuiyan, activist, and Minhaz Mannan Emon as targets for publishing cartoons critical of the government and charged under the Digital Security Act in May 2020. They had been victims of enforced disappearance before being officially detained. Ahmed died in custody where Kishore alleged they were tortured. In 2021, Al Jazeera released

5952-604: The development of Dobhashi . Bengali acquired prominence, over Persian, in the court of the Sultans of Bengal with the ascent of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah . Subsequent Muslim rulers actively promoted the literary development of Bengali, allowing it to become the most spoken vernacular language in the Sultanate. Bengali adopted many words from Arabic and Persian , which was a manifestation of Islamic culture on

6045-700: The east to Meherpur in the west. The 14th-century court scholar of Bengal, Nur Qutb Alam , composed Bengali poetry using the Persian alphabet . After the Partition of India in the 20th century, the Pakistani government attempted to institute the Perso-Arabic script as the standard for Bengali in East Pakistan ; this was met with resistance and contributed to the Bengali language movement. In

6138-443: The eastern subcontinent, Purbi Apabhraṃśa or Abahatta (lit. 'meaningless sounds'), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups, the Bengali–Assamese languages , the Bihari languages , and the Odia language . The language was not static: different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects in this period. For example, Ardhamagadhi is believed to have evolved into Abahatta around

6231-466: The final ন in মন [m o n] or the medial ম in গামলা [ɡamla] ). A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than the inherent [ɔ] is orthographically realised by using a variety of vowel allographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel typographic ligatures . These allographs, called কার kar , are diacritical vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example,

6324-606: The government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Bengali as an honorary official language in December 2002. In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali to be made an official language of the United Nations . Regional varieties in spoken Bengali constitute a dialect continuum . Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji grouped the dialects of Bengali language into four large clusters: Rarhi , Vangiya , Kamrupi and Varendri ; but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed. The south-western dialects ( Rarhi or Nadia dialect) form

6417-499: The graph মি [mi] represents the consonant [m] followed by the vowel [i] , where [i] is represented as the diacritical allograph ি (called ই-কার i-kar ) and is placed before the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs মা [ma] , মী [mi] , মু [mu] , মূ [mu] , মৃ [mri] , মে [me~mɛ] , মৈ [moj] , মো [mo] and মৌ [mow] represent the same consonant ম combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. In these consonant-vowel ligatures,

6510-412: The graphical form. However, since this change is not as widespread and is not being followed as uniformly in the rest of the Bengali printed literature, today's Bengali-learning children will possibly have to learn to recognise both the new "transparent" and the old "opaque" forms, which ultimately amounts to an increase in learning burden. Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke । daṛi –

6603-400: The infamous Bangla Bhai , Human Rights Watch has accused RAB of numerous deaths, which have been attributed to crossfire. In March 2010, the battalion leader claimed 622 deaths were due to 'crossfire', while some human rights organisations claimed that more than 1,000 extrajudicial killings were the product of the battalion. Further, there have been many reports of torture in connection with

6696-494: The language as: While most writing is in Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB), spoken dialects exhibit a greater variety. People in southeastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in SCB. Other dialects, with minor variations from Standard Colloquial, are used in other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh, such as the Midnapore dialect, characterised by some unique words and constructions. However,

6789-523: The language movement. Although Sanskrit has been spoken by Hindu Brahmins in Bengal since the 3rd century BC, the local Buddhist population spoke varieties of the Prakrit . These varieties are generally referred to as "eastern Magadhi Prakrit ", as coined by linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji , as the Middle Indo-Aryan dialects were influential in the first millennium when Bengal

6882-547: The language. Major texts of Middle Bengali (1400–1800) include Yusuf-Zulekha by Shah Muhammad Sagir and Srikrishna Kirtana by the Chandidas poets. Court support for Bengali culture and language waned when the Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th century. The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the west-central dialect spoken in

6975-428: The letter ত tô and the numeral ৩ "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the matra , as is the case between the consonant cluster ত্র trô and the independent vowel এ e , also the letter হ hô and Bengali Ôbogroho ঽ (~ô) and letter ও o and consonant cluster ত্ত ttô . The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between

7068-605: The neighbouring states of Odisha , Bihar , and Jharkhand , and sizeable minorities of Bengali speakers reside in Indian cities outside Bengal, including Delhi , Mumbai , Thane , Varanasi , and Vrindavan . There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in the Middle East , the United States , Singapore , Malaysia , Australia , Canada , the United Kingdom , and Italy . The 3rd article of

7161-517: The parliament of Bangladesh and the legislative assembly of West Bengal proposed that Bengali be made an official UN language. As of January 2023, no further action has been yet taken on this matter. However, in 2022, the UN did adopt Bangla as an unofficial language, after a resolution tabled by India. In 2024, the government of India conferred Bengali with the status of classical language . Approximate distribution of native Bengali speakers (assuming

7254-662: The robbery. On 5 March 2012, RAB told Mohammad Imam Hassan's family members that they rescued him and demanded a bribe for his release. Despite a bribe being paid, he has not been seen since then. On 11 May 2013, Mohammad Fokhrul Islam, a businessman, was the victim of enforced disappearance by RAB. His family members were warned by RAB with enforced disappearance not to talk about the issue. On 27 November 2013, Saiful Islam Hiru , former Bangladesh Nationalist Party member of parliament, and Mohammad Humayun Kabir Parvez, Bangladesh Nationalist Party politician, disappeared after being detained by RAB led by Lieutenant Colonel Tareque Sayeed. RAB

7347-440: The same case. According to Human Rights Watch , members of Rapid Action Battalion have shot and killed women and children during public protests. Rights group describe it as a " death squad ." In 2017, a reporter from Swedish Radio recorded a high-ranking RAB officer explaining how the RAB selects people to kill, and how it kills people. They kill people who they suspect of serious crimes but consider too difficult to convict in

7440-427: The so-called "inherent" vowel [ɔ] is first expunged from the consonant before adding the vowel, but this intermediate expulsion of the inherent vowel is not indicated in any visual manner on the basic consonant sign ম [mɔ] . The vowel graphemes in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic inventory of the script and the dependent, abridged, allograph form (as discussed above). To represent

7533-536: The superposed chôndrôbindu (ঁ) , denoting a suprasegmental for nasalisation of vowels (as in চাঁদ [tʃãd] "moon"), the postposed ônusbar (ং) indicating the velar nasal [ŋ] (as in বাংলা [baŋla] "Bengali") and the postposed bisôrgô (ঃ) indicating the voiceless glottal fricative [h] (as in উঃ! [uh] "ouch!") or the gemination of the following consonant (as in দুঃখ [dukʰːɔ] "sorrow"). The Bengali consonant clusters ( যুক্তব্যঞ্জন juktôbênjôn ) are usually realised as ligatures, where

7626-563: The victims and witnesses blamed RAB for picking up 83 people while detective branch for 38, 'law enforcers' for 55, and plainclothes men for 20 others reported between January 2007 and August 2014, according to a report by human rights organization Ain-o-Shalish Kendro (ASK). The report also said that at least 70 leaders and activists of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami fell victim to enforced disappearance while 37 others were activists of ruling Awami League. On 5 February 2012 approximately at 1.00 a.m. Al Mukaddas (22),

7719-484: The visible matra and an invisible baseline). There is yet to be a uniform standard collating sequence (sorting order of graphemes to be used in dictionaries, indices, computer sorting programs, etc.) of Bengali graphemes. Experts in both Bangladesh and India are currently working towards a common solution for this problem. Throughout history, there have been instances of the Bengali language being written in different scripts, though these employments were never popular on

7812-435: The vocabulary may differ according to the speaker's religion: Muslims are more likely to use words of Persian and Arabic origin, along with more words naturally derived from Sanskrit ( tadbhava ), whereas Hindus are more likely to use tatsama (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit). For example: The phonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, as well as 7 nasalised vowels . The inventory

7905-568: Was a part of the Greater Magadhan realm. The local varieties had no official status during the Gupta Empire , and with Bengal increasingly becoming a hub of Sanskrit literature for Hindu priests, the vernacular of Bengal gained a lot of influence from Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was also spoken in modern-day Bihar and Assam , and this vernacular eventually evolved into Ardha Magadhi . Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what

7998-468: Was assaulted by informants of RAB on 20 August 2012. Rasal Ahmed Bhutto, was detained on 3 March and killed in a crossfire a week later. On 4 November 2011, Colonel Zulfiqar Ali Majumder led members of his unit, Rapid Action Battalion-7, to Talsara Darbar Sharif and robbed the compound keeping the pir at gunpoint. They stole 27 million BDT from the shrine. Four months later, a driver of the shrine sued 10 members of Rapid Action Battalion and two informants for

8091-616: Was extensively developed during the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding that Bengali be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of

8184-599: Was found the next day in a paddy field in Barisal. According to RAB he died in a crossfire; his body showed signs of torture. Dr. Mizanur Rahman Tutul, leader of the insurgent Purbo Banglar Communist Party , was detained on 26 July and his body was recovered the next day. Shafique Ahmed , Minister of Law, defended RAB to Human Rights Watch by saying RAB only killed criminals in 2009. On 28 May, Moshin Sheikh, and Ali Jinnah, students of Dhaka Polytechnic Institute , were killed in

8277-532: Was involved in the enforced disappearance of Adnan Chowdhury, Bangladesh Nationalist Party politician, on 5 December. The police refused to take a case from Chowdhury's father which mentioned RAB. In Narayganj, rogue RAB-11 officers led by Lieutenant Colonel Tareque Sayeed abducted and killed seven men in April 2014. On 10 March 2015, RAB vehicle was seen when Salahuddin Ahmed , Bangladesh Nationalist Party, leader

8370-523: Was lynched by the general public. Police refused to take a complaint from his father. On 30 May 2005, RAB arrested Abul Kalam Azad Sumon, a tailor and Bangladesh Chhattra League activist, from Dhaka along with two others. He was killed soon after. He had been shot six times and his body showed signs of torture. According to his mother, Sumon had switched from Bangladesh Nationalist Party to Awami League which angered his local member of parliament Mirza Abbas . On 8 March 2006, RAB detained Md. Masudur Rahman,

8463-649: Was recorded as he had called his wife and she recorded the call which disproved RAB's claims. It resulted in the United States using the Magnitsky Act against seven former and current officers of RAB; the first usage against Bangladesh. RAB detained three business partners of Major General Tarique Ahmed Siddique , defence advisor to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in January 2019. One of whom, retired Army captain Johirul Haque Khandaker, died eight months later in custody. Human Rights Watch described

8556-415: Was sent back to the air force and no further action was taken. RAB-1 led by Flight Lieutenant Raihan Asgar Khan killed Kaiser Mahmud Bappi in a crossfire. On 13 November, Lutfar Rahman Khalashi, and Khairul Huq Khalashi, two brothers and businessmen, were detained by RAB from Narayanganj District. Their family organized a press conference and protest asking they not be killed in a crossfire. They were killed in

8649-603: Was victim of enforced disappearance by law enforcement agencies. In March 2017, Intelligence Wing chief Lieutenant Colonel Abul Kalam Azad was killed in a bomb blast in Sylhet while raiding an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant hideout. In May 2018, Squadron Leader Mohammad Rezaul Haque led a RAB unit in Cox's Bazar that Killed Ekramul Haque , Tekhnaf Municipality councilor and Awami League leader in an alleged crossfire. His death

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