Road crashes kill 4 in Mymensingh,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

MYMENSINGH: At least four people including a minor were killed and 25 others injured in two separate road accidents in Bhaluka and Nagla area of the district Sunday.

One of the deceased was identified as Rakib, 23, hailed from Trishal upazila of the district.

Witnesses said that a bus collided head on with a truck on Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway in Bhaluka area, leaving one dead on the spot and 27 others injured.

The injured were rushed to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital and Bhaluka Upazila Health Complex where two of the injured succumbed to their injuries, witnesses added.

In another accident in Nagla Bazar on Mymensingh-Haluaghat road, a truck rammed over a minor, leaving him dead on the spot.

Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr M Abdur Razzak for rapid relief to victims,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

DHAKA: Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr M Abdur Razzak on Sunday has instructed the authorities concerned to accelerate the relief aids to the flood victims.

Reaching relief to the victims is the key concern as the government holds adequate relief, he added.

The minister came up with the observation while addressing a review meeting with officials at his office Sunday.

World Bank cancels funding on specific reason: Opposition BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

DHAKA: Opposition BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan claimed that the World Bank has cancelled Padma Bridge funding for specific reason.

The senior leader of the party came up with the assertion in a roundtable discussion held at the National Press Club in the city Sunday.

He said, “The country become bottomless basket during Awami League tenure placing the country in first position of corruption and we needed three years to step down from the disgraceful position.”

Criticizing JSD President Hasanul Haq Inu, he said, “Inu did not get even 20,000 votes in previous election but associating with Awami League he wants to minus opposition leader Khaleda Zia from politics, for which he should think about his position before delivering comment.”

He also alleged that fake cases area being filed everyday against opposition leaders and activists.

With chairman of Zia Cultural Foundation Shah Nurul Kabir Shahin in the chair, the discussion was also addressed, among others, by advisor to BNP chairperson Shamsuzzaman Dudu, Helen Zerin Khan MP and executive chairman of the foundation Abdul Matin Prodhan.

Govt involved in Sargar-Runi murder: Opposition BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

FENI: Opposition BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia claimed that the government is not arresting the murderers of journo-couple Sagar-Runi as they are involved in the murder.

“Sagar-Runi possessed information regarding corruption of the government. The duo was slain as they intended to broadcast the corruption information,” she said.

The former prime minister of the country came up with the allegation while addressing a wayside rally after distributing relief to flood affected people of Feni-1 constituency Sunday.

The BNP chief visited the area for the first time after electing lawmaker from the constituency in the last parliament election.

Khaleda told her audience that India wants water of Feni River but does not want to give water of the Teesta River. “If they give us, we will give them,” she said.

The former prime minister also said the government should stand beside the people in this crisis rather plundering the people’s resources.

The government is driving the country towards devastation. “Even the World Bank discarded the Padma-Bridge deal due to the corruption of the government,” she said

With the Phulgazi upazila BNP president Shahjahan Majumder in the chair, the rally was also addressed, among others, by BNP acting secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, adviser to the BNP chairperson industrialist Abdul Awal Mintu, AKM Mosharraf Hossain MP, Professor Joynal Abedin MP Rehana Akhtar Ranu MP.

Arrest warrants Against 14 officials of the Multilevel Marketing Company (MLM) Unipay2U,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

CHITTAGONG: Two district courts Sunday issued arrest warrants against 14 officials of the multilevel marketing company (MLM) Unipay2U, including its chairman.

Judge of Metropolitan Judge Court BM Nizamul Haque and Ali Mansur issued arrest warrant in two separate cases Sunday.

The accused are Unipay2U chairman Shahiduzzaman Shahin, managing director Muntasir Hossain Emon, general manager Jamshedur Rahman, DMD Abu Taher, agent Shahin Nizami Razu, Shahin, Rupeshwar Krisna Das, Ratan Kumar Biswas, Uttam Kumar Bhowmik and Humayun.

An investor named Salil Chowdhury filed two cases with the courts brining allegation of misappropriating Tk 5 crore after giving pledge of providing double profit in 10 months.

On May 05, police arrested Montasir Hossain Emon, 37, MD of Unipay2U, and Jomsedur Rahman, 52, GM of Unipay2U, a multilevel marketing company, from city’s Uttara area.

The government stopped the functions of Unipay2U in 2010 alleging cheating with its investors.

On January 28 in 2011, Bangladesh Bank seized at least 200 bank accounts of the agents of Unipay2U, for their alleged involvement in suspicious money transactions.

Myanmar government has agreed to take the Rohingyas,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

DHAKA: Foreign secretary Mijarul Kayes categorically said the Myanmar government has agreed to take the Rohingyas, residing in Bangladesh, back.

The foreign secretary came up with the disclosure while talking to journalist after emerging from the meeting with Myanmar foreign state minister at foreign ministry in the city Sunday.

Mijarul Kayes said, “Some 28,000 registered and over 4 lakh unregistered Rohingyas are residing in Bangladesh.”

Over 100 Rohingyas are in jail, he added.

A fierce violence flared in Myanmar after murder of a Buddhist woman last month, followed by an attack on a bus carrying Muslims which killed 10 people.

Tens of thousands of refugees have fled Myanmar’s province of Rakhine by boat. About 30,000 are already in camps in Bangladesh.

Most of the refugees travel to Bangladesh by boat through the river Naf which marks the border with Myanmar.

IMCAB leaders meet Foreign Minister Dipu Moni,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

DHAKA: A delegation of Indian Media Correspondent Association in Bangladesh (IMCAB) met Foreign Minister Dipu Moni at her secretariat office in the city Sunday.

The meeting discussed various issued and the minister assured IMCAB leaders for all out cooperation.

The IMCAB delegation comprises its president Farid Hossain (The Telegraph), general secretary Sukumar Sarkar (Sangbad Protidin), member Kuddus Afrad (Anandabazar), Ataur Rahman (Sokal Bela), Nirmol Chakrabartee (Uttarbanga Sangbad) and Anwarul Karim Razu (Proyag).

IMCAB was formed by Bangladeshi journalists working in different media of India on June 15.

First witness testifies against Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Ghulam Azam,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

The first war crimes tribunal of Bangladesh saw the first prosecution witness against Jamaat-e-Islami guru Ghulam Azam take the stand on Sunday.

Moontassiruddin Khan Mamun, better known as Moontassir Mamun and a Dhaka University history professor, who was a student of the same university in 1971 when the Liberation War broke out, said Jamaat and Muslim League factions were among the more notable supporters of the Pakistani Military junta of the time.

The three-judge International Crimes Tribunal – 1 of Bangladesh, set up to deal crimes against humanity during the 1971 War of Independence, indicted the former Jamaat chief on May 13 on five charges including conspiracy, incitement and planning.

The witness, a 61-year historian, noted for his work on Dhaka's history and the Liberation War, said among the political leaders backing the military junta in 1971, Ghulam Azam and Nurul Amin were considered the stalwarts.

It was at the recommendation and advice of these people that the Pakistani regime proceeded to establish the Peace Committee.

This committee was known as an anti-liberation platform that actively collaborated with the Pakistani Army.

The history professor said that even in other such organisations founded during the Liberation War, like the vigilante militia outfits of Al Badr, Al Shams and Razakar, predominantly consisted of Jamaat members and its student activists because, "Of all the parties backing the military regime, Jamaat was the largest."

Mamun said that had it not been for the heinous role of these outfits, Bangladesh would not have suffered as much. "And perhaps we would have become liberated a lot sooner."

According to the historian, Rao Farman Ali, a senior Pakistani army officer working in East Pakistan in 1971, had said during an interview that the local vigilante groups harboured more hatred toward the liberation forces than even the Pakistani soldiers.

Prosecutor Zead-Al-Malum, who deposed the witness, had to proceed through hiccups as he repeatedly asked 'leading' questions, which the defence promptly objected to. Even the tribunal became irritated at one point.

Malum had asked his witness Mamun whether he read the newspapers that came out regularly in 1971. Noting defence counsel Mizanul Islam's objection, Justice Huq said, "Is it at all necessary to ask that question?"

The tribunal chief then suggested that if needed the prosecutor could perhaps ask what the witness had read in the papers then. But he also indicated that this could not really go on and the tribunal could not go on prompting the prosecutor.

The tribunal had cautioned the prosecutor at the very outset that he should avoid asking leading questions.

There was also a brief spat between the prosecution and the defence when Mizanul Islam evidently lost his habitual cool saying that chief prosecutor Ghulam Arieff Tipoo's behaviour was unacceptable.

The tribunal chief requested him to cool down a few times and the senior defence lawyer was quick to go back to his calm self.

Jamaat Guru in ICT-1

On Dec 12, 2011, the prosecution brought a 52-point charter of charges against Azam and appealed for his arrest. Later, following the tribunal order, charges were re-arranged and presented to the tribunal on Jan 5.

He was produced before the tribunal on Jan 11 and sent to jail the same day. Since that evening, Ghulam Azam has been kept at the prison cell of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University for better treatment considering his delicate health.

The prosecution's numerous charges against him mainly consist of incitement, conspiracy, complicity and command responsibility for crimes against humanity. The former Jamaat chief was indicted on May 13 on five charges.

A former chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Azam is allegedly among the key people who pioneered anti-liberation efforts in 1971 colluding with the Pakistani military junta of that time.

He is widely perceived to have been among core group of right-wing supporters of the Pakistani Army, who came out strongly in support of a united Pakistan.

Ghulam Azam, then chief of Jamaat, was instrumental in setting up the infamous Peace Committee at the national level. The Razakars, an auxiliary force set up mainly to actively thwart the liberation forces, are said to have been mobilised through the Peace Committees across Bangladesh.

Among the most notorious vigilante militia are the Al Badr, whose membership is said to have been mainly dominated by the Jamaat's student wing called the Islami Chhatra Sangha at that time.

The Al Badr is alleged to have spearheaded execution of the intellectual elites of Bangladesh just days before the victory on Dec 16, 1971.

Azam also spoke in favour of Pakistan to the Middle Eastern countries during the war, according to the prosecution.

He stayed in London for seven years after 1971 and returned to Bangladesh in 1978 during military strongman and BNP founder Ziaur Rahman's rule. Having led Jamaat for long, Azam retired from active politics in 1999.

His party remains a key ally of the main opposition BNP. Two Jamaat leaders, also behind bars for war crimes charges, have even served as ministers during the BNP's last tenure in government between 2001 and 2006, when Azam's party was part of the ruling coalition. 

journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi case goes to Monitoring Cell,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

The Home Ministry has included three murder cases to its Monitoring Cell on sensational cases.

These are the murder cases of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi, Saudi embassy official Khalaf Al Ali and labour leader Aminul Islam.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Monitoring Cell on Sensational Cases at the ministry on Sunday. The meeting was chaired by Home Minister Shahara Khatun.

"The meeting reviewed 11 cases. Orders have been issued to submit chargesheets in three of the cases within seven days as investigations into those cases have been completed," Shahara told reporters after the meeting.

The cases are: killing of six students by mob beating at Savar, Rajshahi University student Faruque Hossain murder and Alif murder at Gulshan.

The Home Minister said the Monitoring Cell would supervise the investigations of the murder cases of Sagar-Runi, Saudi embassy official and labour leader Aminul Islam, but the investigation officers (IO) would remain the same.

Asked whether the ministry had given any specific time period to investigate the case, Shahara said, "Usually no time limit is given for the cases included in the Monitoring Cell. And this applies for these three cases as well."

She said, however, it has been ordered to complete the investigations within the shortest possible time.

Maasranga Television News Editor Sagar and ATN Bangla Senior Reporter Runi were killed in their own flat at Rajabazar on Feb 11 . The law enforcers are yet to find any clue behind the murder although four months have passes since the killing took place.

Currently, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is investigating the case.

Saudi Arabian embassy official Khalaf Al Ali, 45, died on Mar 6 after he was shot by unknown assailants near his Gulshan house in Dhaka. A Saudi government delegation later visited the spot where Khalaf was shot down.

The body of labour leader Aminul was found in front of a college in Tangail on Apr 5 after he went missing the previous evening.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton later urged Bangladesh government for a fair investigation into the killing.

Myanmar President General Thein Sein defers Dhaka-Bangladesh tour

BANGLADESH NEWS

Myanmar President General Thein Sein has postponed his three days scheduled visit to Bangladesh, foreign ministry sources said on Sunday.

Thein Sein was scheduled to come to Dhaka on July 15 on a three day visit.

The reason behind the deferment could not be known immediately.

A new date will be announced soon, the sources added.

The further information on the development will be available at a press briefing that will be held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after 4:00pm.

Padma bridge work to start in set time: Communications Minister Obaidul Quader,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

Communications Minister Obaidul Quader on Sunday said although the World Bank has cancelled its funding to the proposed Padma bridge project, the government will start construction work of the project’s main infrastructure within the stipulated time.

“We are strongly committed to start construction work of the main infrastructure of the Padma bridge project within the stipulated time,” he told reporters at his Secretariat office in the morning.

Obaidul Quader said a surprise is waiting for people who are telling before its birth that the ‘Padma baby’ will be lame and blind.

“We are looking for alternative fund for the Padma bridge project keeping in mind the public interest. If we sign agreement with alternative source (Malaysia) for funding, there will be significant reduction of cost in the project,” he said.

The minister said some three crore people have a direct stake in the Padma bridge while 16 crore people will be indirectly benefited because the country’s GDP will increase if it is implemented.

Rangpur turned City Corporation,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

Rangpur municipality turned into a city corporation on Sunday following a government declaration.

The Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) Ministry through a gazette notification announced the Rangpur divisional town as a city corporation effective from July 1, 2012, reports our Rangpur correspondent.

According to laws, an election to the newly formed city corporation has to be held within 180 days of publishing the gazette.

Rangpur Deputy Commissioner Farid Ahmed told that his office received a copy of the gazette around 10:30am.

People of Rangpur came out to the street to celebrate the declaration as soon as the news had spread.

Flood situation worsens in Sirajganj, Gaibandha,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

Flood situation in several northern districts including Sirajganj and Gaibandha deteriorated on Sunday due to flow of rainwater from upstream.

Hundreds of families took shelter on embankments and high lands, report our district correspondents.

Our Sirajganj correspondent reports: The Jamuna was flowing 48 cm above the danger level at Siraganj point Sunday morning, said Shafique Ahmed, a sub-divisional engineer of Water Development Board (WDB).

On Saturday, it was flowing 40 cm above the danger level.

Around 1,70,000 people of 35,800 families in 41 unions have been suffering from the flood.

Meanwhile, the government started distributing rice and cash aid among the flood victims since Saturday.

Aminul Islam, deputy commissioner of Sirajganj, said Tk 500 to 1,000 and 20kgs of rice were given to each family.

Abdur Rahman, deputy director of Sirajganj, said a total of 2,981 hectares of agricultural land have been washed away in the district in few days.

Our Gaibandha correspondent reports: The Jamuna was flowing 86 cm above the danger level at Gaibandha point while Ghaghot river was flowing 66 cm above the danger level, said Rejaul Mostafa Asafuddoula, an executive engineer of the WDB.

Hundreds of people of 26 unions in four upazila of the district were badly affected and have been shifted to 238 makeshift shelters made by the local administration, said Md Shahidul Islam, deputy commissioner of the district.

An amount of Tk 14 lakh and 500 metric tonnes of rice were allocated for the flood-hit families, Shahidul added.

Arafat Rahman Koko case hearing defers again,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

A Dhaka court on Sunday deferred till August 5 the hearing on charge framing against Arafat Rahman Koko, younger son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, in a tax evasion case.

Judge (in charge) Dr Md Akhtharuzzaman fixed the date after Koko's counsel Sanaullah Miah submitted a petition seeking an adjournment on the hearing.

In the petition, the lawyer said the HC on June 9, 2010, issued a rule upon the government to explain why the proceedings in the case should not be declared illegal.

The hearing on the rule is still pending with the HC, he added.

So he prayed for an adjournment of the hearing, Sanaullah said.

The National Board of Revenue on March 1, 2010 filed the case against Koko for dodging taxes on his income of Tk 52.39 lakh for fiscal years 2002-03 to 2006-07.

Zia trust graft case hearing now August 5 Defence says Khaleda distributing relief in disaster-hit Chittagong

BANGLADESH NEWS

A Dhaka court on Sunday deferred till August 5 the time for passing an order on whether to accept charges against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in a graft case.

It was the fourth time that the order was deferred.

Judge (in-charge) Dr Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman of the Senior Special Judges' Court in Dhaka will now pass the order on August 5.

The court set the new date as Khaleda's lawyer Advocate Sanaullah Mia submitted a petition before it seeking an adjournment of the hearing.

In the petition, the defence counsel told the court that Khaleda could not appear before it as she went to Chittagong to distribute relief among the disaster-stricken people of the port city.

So, he prayed for the adjournment of the hearing and the court accepted it.

The court also extended till the date the bail terms of two other accused in the case, filed for graft in raising funds for Zia Charitable Trust.

The two are Ziaul Islam Munna, assistant private secretary to Khaleda's former political secretary Harris Chowdhury, and Monirul Islam Khan, APS to former Dhaka City Corporation mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka.

Harris, the other accused in the case, has been on the run.

Khaleda on February 2 secured permanent bail in the case.

On August 8 last year, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station, accusing the four of abusing power in raising funds from unknown sources in the name of the Zia Charitable Trust.