Consensus needed for credible polls:US Ambassador Dan W Mozena,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

US Ambassador Dan W Mozena on Wednesday urged the major political parties of Bangladesh to reach a consensus through a constructive dialogue for holding the next general election in a credible manner.

“The political parties should change their attitude,” he said while talking to journalists after visiting the Hard Point of Sirajganj Town Protection Embankment.

“Every citizen has the right to live a secure life. All sides should play a responsible role so that normal life is not hampered due to violence,” he said.

About the recent clashes between the law-enforcing agencies and the activists of a political party, Mozena said that the US never supports violence in any part of the world. “The US government keeps a strong vigil on such situations.”

Referring to erosion by the Jamuna river, Mozena said: “We’ll be with the people of this country for overcoming the crisis.”

Director General of Water Development Board Shahiduzzaman, Chief Engineer Abdur Rob, Superintendent Engineer AKM Momtaz Uddin, Deputy Commissioner Aminul Islam and Additional Superintendent of Police Mokhtar Hossain were present among others.

Jamaat-Shibir Khulna hartal ends with minor incidents,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

A dawn-to-dusk hartal enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami protesting the arrest of party Assistant Secretary General Mia Golam Parwar ended amid tight security in Khulna city on Wednesday.

Pro-hartal activists fought pitched battle with law enforcers at Goalkhali area, vandalised two buses at Gallamari, a truck at Boyra and two human haulers at Natun Bazar area in the morning.

They also burnt tyres at different places of the city in support of the shutdown,

The Detective Branch of police on Monday arrested Golam Parwar also a former legislator from Khulna-5 constituency from the capital’s Gulshan area.

Meanwhile, Khulna Metropolitan Police round up 26 Jamaat-Shibir activists from the city’s Goalkhali area on charge of attacking law enforcers, said Mossaraf Hossain, assistant commissioner of special branch.

No long-distance buses left and entered the city since 6:00am while rickshaws and battery run vehicles were seen plying the streets, and launches and trains had left and arrived at the stations.

All jute mills, factories in Daulatpur and Khalishpur industrial belt, educational institutions, banks, insurance and other businesses remained open as usual.

Though no procession of the pro-hartal activists were seen in the city, Abul Kalam Azad, ameer of the Jamaat city unit, claimed that several processions were brought out in Boyra, Gallamari, Natun Rasta, Goalkhali and Rupsha areas during the hartal.

Additional forces of police, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and Armed Police Battalion were deployed at different key points of the city to maintain law and order.

Government's firm to try war criminals:Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

BANGLADESH NEWS

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday expressed her government's firm commitment to try the war criminals despite any attempt to foil the trial.

"This is our moral duty to complete the trial. This is our nation's moral responsibility to bring the war criminals to book," said Hasina.

Reiterating her firm resolution the premier said, their trial must take place on this very soil of Bangladesh.

The prime minister was addressing teachers, students, educationists and employees of Dhaka University (DU) at the Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban of DU in the capital.

Earlier, the premier inaugurated Kobi Sufia Kamal hall, Social Science Faculty Building, Higher Arts and Social Science Research Centre building and laid foundation to Bangabandhu Tower at DU, 7th March Bhaban of Rokeya Hall and Pharmacy Bahaban at the DU.

Referring to the August 2007 violence between army personnel and Dhaka University students, Hasina said, if the teachers and students of DU had not taken firm measure on that time democracy might have not reinstated in this country.

Hasina expressed her gratitude to the teachers and students of DU for their courageous roles during that time.

"All our achievements including our right to mother tongue, independence and democracy originated from DU," said the prime minister.

The premier said her government placed highest emphasis on education sector to build the nation as a literate one.

Hasina asked for everyone's cooperation to build the country as a middle income, hunger free and literate country by 2021.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Prof AK Azad Chowdhury, Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique among others were present on the occasion.

Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir sees BNP link with Jamaat violence Security beefed up at city key points,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir on Wednesday said the government has information that opposition BNP was involved with the recent countrywide violence and attacks on police by Jamaat-Shibir activists.

"The state will resist such anarchic movement by Jamaat-Shibir activists with utmost strength," the minister told newsmen emerging from a meeting of the cabinet committee on law and order at the home ministry in the afternoon.

He claimed that the opposition BNP is instigating such violence instead of condemning it.

Such pre-planned violence and attacks have been taking place day after day to foil the ongoing war criminals trial, the minister said.

Mohiuddin informed that the law enforcers have so far arrested around 2,000 persons following the recent violence across the country.

Asked whether police are acting in self-defence only or trying to resist the Jamaat-Shibir men, the minister said as part of democratic attitude, it the first duty of police to defend him or herself.

The home minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir presided over the meeting where senior officials of different ministries, police, Rapid Action Battalion and intelligence were present.

The leaders and activists of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir went on rampage and assaulted police personnel across the country including the capital for the last few days.

On November 4, the Jamaat announced a nine-day agitation programme beginning from November 5 to press home its demand for the immediate release of the party's top leaders, including those facing war crimes trial.

Till Monday, more than 200 policemen, at least 300 people and three journalists were injured during clashes between the police and Jamaat-Shibir men across the country.

They ended their protest programme on Tuesday through a pre-planned attack on the law enforcers in an unprecedented manner, leaving about 20 policemen injured in Dhaka, Khulna and Cox's Bazar.

Libyan Chargé D'affaires denies link with detained nationals,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

Libyan Chargé D'affaires to Dhaka MS Kamel Al Mahjoub on Wednesday refuted a media report that he had connection with three Libyan nationals who were arrested for their involvement with an illegal manpower business.

Detective Branch of police on October 24 arrested the three Libyan nationals and a Bangladeshi woman from a hotel in the capital's Gulshan area and seized 684 Bangladeshi passports, $US1.81 lakh and Tk 10.66 lakh in cash from their possession.

Denmark offers Asia utilising advanced technologies for shipbuilding ,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

Bangladesh could emerge as a shipbuilding hub in Asia utilising advanced technologies, Danish Ambassador to Bangladesh Svend Olling said here on Wednesday.

The envoy expressed keenness to transfer knowledge and modern technologies here from Denmark for modernising the country’s booming shipbuilding industry.

Olling came up with the offer at a meeting with Industries Minister Dilip Barua at his Shilpa Bhaban office at noon. Senior officials at the ministry were present.

They discussed various aspects of Denmark’s support for Bangladesh’s industrial sector during the meeting.

Issues relating to establishing the second unit of Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company Limited (Kafco), modernisation of readymade garment industry and improvement of working environment at the RMG sector and the living standard of workers came up for discussion at the meeting.

A Danish delegation, led by Commerce and Investment Minister Pia Olsen Dyhr, will visit Dhaka in December to strengthen bilateral trade and investment relations between the two countries, Olling informed the Industries Minister.

He hoped the visit of the Danish delegation comprising entrepreneurs of 10 leading companies would play a significant role in boosting trade and investment between the two countries.

At the meeting, Barua appreciated Denmark’s support in Bangladesh’s hi-tech industrialisation and sought Danish support to convert Chittagong Drydock into a modern shipbuilding yard.

Barua said the Danish entrepreneurs could come up either in joint-investment or under public-private partnership

Dandy Dyeing case hearing deferred Accused include Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman Koko BNP,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

A Dhaka court on Wednesday deferred till January 7 the hearing on a case filed against 10 directors of Dandy Dyeing Ltd, including BNP Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman, for defaulting on a loan amounting to Tk 45.49 crore.

Judge Md Rabiuzzaman of Artha Rin Adalat-1 passed the order after prosecution submitted a petition seeking an adjournment of the hearing.

The prosecution sought the time as Mozaffar Ahmed, an accused in the case, died recently.

In the time petition, the lawyer also said that they will file a petition on the next date for indicting the family members of Mozaffar Ahmed in the case.

Sonali Bank on October 2 filed the case with Artha Rin Adalat-1 for defaulting on the Tk45.49 crore loan.

Nine other accused in the case are Tarique's younger brother Arafat Rahman Koko, Giasuddin Al-Mamun and his wife Shahina Yasmine, Nasrin Iskander, Shams Iskander, Shafin Iskander, Sumaiya Iskander, Mozaffar Ahmed and Kazi Galib Abdus Sattar.

According to the case statement, the company had borrowed Tk12.16 crore from the bank's principal office in Dhaka on October 16, 2001.

As the company failed to repay the loan, it now owes the bank Tk45.49 crore, comprised of the principal and the interest accrued.

Expatriate Bangladeshis remitted $1.4536 billion back home in October

BANGLADESH NEWS

Expatriate Bangladeshis remitted $1.4536 billion back home in October, a record high for a month, according to Bangladesh Bank. 

The previous high was $1.22 billion in January. 

The latest amount pushed up the total remittance in the first four months (July-October) of the current fiscal to cross the $5 billion mark, 25 percent more than that of the same period last year. 

Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman "Bangladesh didn't receive such a big amount of remittance in one month in the past 40 years." 

He hoped the uptrend would continue in the future. 

Kazi Saidur Rahman, General Manager of the central bank's Forex Reserve and Treasury Management Department, said the expatriates set the record by remitting more before the Eid-ul-Azha celebrated on Oct 27. 

They had remitted $1.0395 billion in October last year. 

The higher flow of remittance also thrusts the reserve of foreign exchange of the central bank, setting another record. 

The reserve amounted to $12.36 billion on Thursday, the highest in history. 

The Governor said fall in payment of import bill also played a role in boosting the reserve. 

On Oct 18, the reserve crossed the $12-billion mark for the first time.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines buying Boeings to fly off chaos

BANGLADESH NEWS

Biman Bangladesh Airlines is adding two new aircraft to its fleet to battle its way out of flight schedule chaos.

The aircraft, two Boeing 777-300 ERs, will be bought on Sonali Bank UK and a consortium of 21 banks led by Eastern Bank Limited.

Representatives of the banks took the decision in a meeting at Bangladesh Bank on Thursday, Eastern Bank Limited Managing Director Ali Reza Iftekhar said. Deputy Governor of the central bank S K Shur Chowdhury presided over the meeting.

Biman will have to make a $118-million pre-delivery payment within Nov 15.

Sonali Bank UK is paying $58 million while the other banks led by the Eastern Bank Limited will pay the rest of the pre-delivery payment.

"We've decided to finance the purchase of aircraft by Biman. It will be given $ 60 million within the second week of this month," Iftekhar said.

Biman had been given loans to buy aircraft and it had repaid properly earlier, he added.

A top Biman official, requesting anonymity, said, "The meeting discussed the size and type of loans from Bangladeshi and foreign banks."

Biman Managing Director Mosaddek Alam was also present at the meeting.

Biman flies on four domestic and 18 international routes

Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia prays for Bangladesh at Ajmer Sharif

BANGLADESH NEWS

Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia on Thursday visited Ajmer Sharif, the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, and prayed for Bangladesh and happiness and prosperity of the nation's people.

Her Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan said the BNP Chairperson and her entourage arrived at Ajmer Sharif around 1:15pm from Jaipur by road on Thursday, fifth day of her current visit to India.

After offering special prayer at the shrine, she wrote on the visitor's book there, "We need Rahmat of Allah and Doa of Kwaja Baba for Bangladesh and us."

She had started for Ajmer Sharif around 10am in the morning.

BNP Standing Committee Member Tariqul Islam, her Advisors Riaz Rahman and Sabih Uddin Ahmed, BNP Vice-Chairman Shamser Mobin Chowdhury, and former MPs Khaleda Rabbani and Mosaddek Ali Falu were also among those accompanying her during the visit.

The shrine's chief Khadem and others received the opposition leader as she reached there.

She left back for Jaipur from the shrine.

Khaleda reached Jaipur, capital of the Indian state of Rajasthan, on Wednesday afternoon from New Delhi. She spent the night at Hotel Rambagh Palace.

She kicked off her seven-day India tour on Sunday on invitation of the Indian government with a nine-strong delegation accompanying her.

With only a year to the parliamentary elections, the BNP considers the visit 'very significant' while India says it 'is part of their engagement with Bangladesh's democratic and multiparty polity'.

She met Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and National Security Advisor Shibshankar Menon on Tuesday. She has already met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Opposition Leader in Indian Parliament Sushma Swaraj.

Khaleda will return on Nov 3, according to Maruf Kamal Khan.

Bangladesh VoIP licence BTRC call likely by December

BANGLADESH NEWS

The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission are preparing for finalising the number of VoIP service providers by December.

The telecom regulator will complete evaluating the applications of the local entrepreneurs for licence authorisation in the beginning of December and after that the ministry will prepare the final list within days.

BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose on Thursday that they would complete evaluating the applications either at the end of November or at the beginning of December and then send those to the ministry.

The former Telecom Secretary said the licences are expected to be finalised in two weeks after sending the applications to the ministry, which will determine how many will be issued.

"The licences are likely to be issued early January," he said.

A senior official at the BTRC's Legal and Licensing Department told bdnews24.com that the applications were being evaluated on a 'grade basis' and incomplete applications were being rejected for not having necessary documents.

The telecom regulator posted the final VoIP guideline and licence application notice on its website on July 22, inviting applications for much-talked about VoIP licence to stop illegal call transmission, legalise the business and encourage the local entrepreneurs to invest more in the telecommunication sector.

The licence will be issued under the name of "VoIP service Provider (VSP)", it had said. However, the guideline did not mention how many licences would be provided for this telecom business.

The government took the initiative of issuing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) licence last year to stop illegal VoIP business, which has been causing huge revenue losses every year.

About 1,500 entrepreneurs applied for VoIP business licence by the deadline that expired on Oct 14.

In the current guideline, the application fee for VSP has been fixed at Tk 5,000, licence fee at Tk 500,000 and annual renewal licence fee at Tk 100,000.

Firms receiving the licence will have to channel 10 percent of their income to government exchequer.

According to the BTRC, the legal average daily international calls amount to nearly 30 million minutes while 10 million minutes of calls are made through illegal channel for which the government incurs Tk 50 million in revenue losses every day.

The government now gets three cents from each international incoming call.

According to the BTRC statistics, Bangladesh receives around 55-60 million minutes VoIP calls a day of which more than 10 million minutes calls are made through illegal channel.

The government receives three cents from each international call as per the country's telecommunications act, but due to illegal VoIP, it is deprived of almost Tk 8.0 billion each year.

Bangladesh 'concise statement' of jail killing case document submitted

BANGLADESH NEWS

The Attorney General's office submitted 'concise statement' of jail killing case to the Appellate Division on Thursday, a year and eight months after getting permission to appeal against a High Court verdict.

Advocate on record Sufia Khatun representing the office of Attorney General submitted the document to the relevant branch of Supreme Court.

Later she told journalists that now the case was ready for a final hearing at the Appellate Division.

The state counsel for jail killing case, Anisul Haque, submitted the summary statement of appeal on Wednesday.

On receiving the statement, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam had said that they would file an application in the Appellate Division for hearing this case on Nov 4.

A regular bench of the Appellate Division, led by then Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque, on Jan 11, 2011 had approved the leave to appeal of the state.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court had asked Dafadar Marfat Ali Shah and Abul Hashem Mridha, the two accused in the jail killing case and acquitted by the High Court, to surrender to law enforcers. The court also asked the police to arrest them if they did not surrender immediately.

But state counsel Haque on Wednesday said, "Police couldn't arrest them as they are absconding. I am not sure about their whereabouts but can assure that they are not in Bangladesh."

"If they do not surrender, they will not have the right to engage lawyer to fight for them at the Appellate Division, and there is no bar to proceed with the final hearing without their representation by a lawyer in such a situation."

The Appellate Division in its previous order termed "inactive" the appeal against the High Court verdict that acquitted Faruq Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid, Bazlul Huda and A K M Mahiuddin, as they had been executed for their conviction in the Bangabandhu murder case.

The four national leaders of the wartime national government in and post-1971—Acting President Syed Nazrul Islam, Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed and Cabinet ministers M Mansur Ali and AHM Qamruzzaman—were brutally killed inside the Dhaka Central Jail on Nov 3, 1975.

The Awami League government had revived the trial in the jail killing case after it came to power in 1996. Charge sheets were submitted against 23 people on Oct 15, 1998.

On Oct 20, 2004, Dhaka's Metropolitan Sessions Court Judge Matiur Rahman had awarded death sentences to fugitives Risaldar Moslem Uddin, Dafadar Marfat Ali Shah and Abul Hashem Mridha in the case.

It also awarded lifer to Syed Faruk Rahman, Sultan Shahrier Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda and AKM Mahiuddin Ahmed — all of whom were executed for the murder of Bangabandhu — and eight others.

But, the High Court in 2008 upon petitions acquitted Marfat Ali, Hashem Mridha, Faruk, Shahrier, Bazlul and Mahiuddin.

On Sep 14, 2009, the government filed the petition for leave to appeal against the High Court judgment. The hearing on the petition began on Nov 7, 2009.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina exhorts youth to become entrepreneurs,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday urged the youth of the nation to come forward and take the role of entrepreneurs to build a hunger- and poverty-free Bangladesh.

"The mentality of the youth nowadays is to get a job anyhow. But if they become entrepreneurs, then they can create job opportunities even for their neighbours and other people," she said.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the inauguration ceremony marking the National Youth Day 2012 at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium here in the morning.

Mentioning the young generation's contribution to the War of Independence, Hasina said, "The youth fought with arms and freed the country. Now the war is against poverty. The youth can definitely build a hunger- and poverty-free Bangladesh."

She also urged the younger generation to stay away from drugs and terrorism to become self-reliant in order to build an independent Bangladesh.

"We all must be aware so that we don't step in a wrong direction and get involved in drug addiction and anti-social activities."

Hasina said, "We have become old. Our time is nearing end. The youth are the future. They have to build the country. So they have to build themselves that way."

Mentioning various developmental activities of the Department of Youth Development, she said the Department had so far trained nearly four million youth, and of them, nearly two million had become self-reliant entrepreneurs creating employment opportunities for others.

She also handed over the National Youth Award 2012 to 15 male and female young entrepreneurs who have started their own projects after taking training at the Department of Youth Development.

State Minister for Youth and Sports Ahad Ali Sarkar and Youth and Sports Secretary Noor Muhammad also addressed the function, among others.