Quader for probe into death of MU Ahmed

Awami League presidium member Obaidul Quader has expressed opine in favour of carrying out an investigation to reveal the truth behind the death of lawyer MU Ahmed.

'An investigation has to be carried out to know the truth behind the death of lawyer MU Ahmed for the sake of establishing justice in the society,' he said.

Quader, also the chairman of parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of information, expressed this view while taking part in a discussion marking  National Mourning Day on August 15 and Grenade Attack on August 21 at Dhaka Reporter's Unity.

Referring to the recently announced BNP's movement against the government after Eid-ul-Fitr, he said it (government) had to give a befitting reply to BNP's agitation through implementation of mid-term development programmes.

He said the attacks on August 15 in 1975, November 3 in 1975 and August 21, 2004 were not isolated incidents. But, we could not build resistance during the attacks as we were in a fix with the sudden assaults.

Quader said all had to be prepared to face all sorts of conspiracies by turning the grief into strength imbued with the ideology of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

'We have to strengthen our position. We would not be able to foil the conspiracies only by giving lip service,' he added.

He said politicians must understand the mind of the people, otherwise their politics would disappear within political mistakes.

Paying rich tribute to the memory of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Quader called upon all to be the actual followers of the ideal of Mujib to build a 'Sonar Bangla' (Golden Bengal) as dreamt by the founding president.

Source : New Age

NHRC chair calls for judicial probe into Ahmed’s death

The chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Mizanur Rahman, on Saturday called for a judicial inquiry into the death of former deputy attorney general Mamtaj Uddin Ahmed in police custody.

'The responsibility for any unnatural death lies on the state. If the death takes place because of torture in the state's custody, it becomes a matter of grave concern,' he said in the Supreme Court's premises where he went to attend Ahmed's funeral.

Mizan also stressed the need for another inquiry by the home affairs ministry on its own. 'If both the inquiries fail to gain acceptability, the National Human Rights Commission will itself probe the death,' he said.

He also said that exemplary punishment has to be ensured for the culprits if Ahmed's death was indeed caused by torture in police custody. 'If a lawyer of the highest court in the country is not safe, then the commoners are in real danger,' he said.

MU Ahmed, a pro-BNP lawyer, died on Friday at Square Hospitals 15 days after falling sick in police custody.

His widow, Selina Ahmed, has alleged that physical and mental torture in custody had caused the death of her husband, but the police have denied the accusation outright.

Source : New Age

MU Ahmed laid to rest

Former deputy attorney general Mamtaj Uddin Ahmed, who died in police custody on Friday, was laid to rest at his village home at Baliakandi of Sherpur in Bogra on Saturday night.

Gloom descended over the area as the ambulance carrying the coffin reached Baliakandi. A team of Supreme Court lawyers accompanied the coffin all the way from Dhaka. 

Earlier in the afternoon, mourners, including lawyers, activists of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party bade him farewell after holding a second namaz-e-janaza in front of the BNP's central office at Naya Paltan in Dhaka.

Before the namaz-e-janaza, the acting BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told a gathering that the government had killing MU Ahmed in a 'brutal manner' as it targeted 'nationalist lawyers' to foil the BNP's preparations for movement after Eid.

'We will avenge the killing of MU Ahmed by unseating this oppressor government,' vowed Fakhrul at the rally held as part of its countrywide demonstrations denouncing the death of MU Ahmed in 'police custody'.

Large contingents of police in riot gear and with water cannons were deployed around the BNP office.

Several thousand party activists marched through the main streets of the capital after the rally.

Earlier, lawyers loyal to the BNP went out on a demonstration on the Supreme Court premises at around 11:00am after they came to know that the police had taken away MU Ahmed's body from BIRDEM mortuary without informing his family or his lawyers.

The protesters chanted anti-government slogans and blocked the street in front of the Supreme Court. The lawyers led by Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum president, Rafiqul Islam Mia, also a member on BNP's standing committee, lay down on the street in protest against 'snatching away of the body.'

Rafiqul Islam Mia accused the government of snatching away the body to conceal the evidence of torture in custody. As the lawyers continued to stay on the street, a large contingent of police was deployed there.

At around noon, police in a wooden casket brought body to Supreme Court premises after post-mortem examination.

MU Ahmed's first namaz-e-janaza, held on the inner compound of Supreme Court building, was attended by chief justice Mozammel Hossain and some judges of the Appellate Division.

Senior leaders of BNP and its allies, a number of academics, BNP leaning intellectuals and cultural activists also attended the janaza.

The chairman of National Human Rights Commission, Miznur Rahman, also came to Supreme Court premises to see MU Ahmed's mortal remains.

After the janaza, the lawyers carried Ahmed's coffin to BNP's central office and stopped for a while in front of the chief justice's house and staged a brief sit-in seeking his intervention in the killing. 'We have come here to know whether the chief justice would try attorney general Mahbubey Alam, home minister Sahara Khatun, and Supreme Court judge AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury,' said lawyer and BNP joint secretary general AM Mahbubuddin Khokan. 

'If he had been granted anticipatory bail, he

would not have died this way,' said Rafiqul Islam Mia.

The police said they had taken MU Ahmed's body from the mortuary to conduct a post-mortem examination as part of a legal procedure after his widow filed a complaint suspecting that his death might have been caused by physical and mental torture by the police.

'We had no other option but to conduct the post-mortem examination,' said Krishnapada Roy, deputy commissioner (Ramna zone) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police. But he hung up the phone

after being asked why they had taken away the body without informing the

family.

Detective branch police on August 11 arrested MU Ahmed at his Segunbagicha house after being sued for attacking police and obstructing their duties during a hearing at the High Court on August 2.

He had fallen ill at the office of the detective branch police and was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Physicians at DMCH referred him to National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.

He was admitted to Square Hospital on August 16 in police custody where he died on Friday afternoon.

Source : New Age

Gazprom wants too much for drilling gas-wells: energy officials

Gazprom, the Russian state-run gas extraction company, in its financial proposal to Petrobangla has demanded much higher charges than the usual for drilling 10 gas-wells, and supplying and setting up two gas compressors.

Five of the 10 gas-wells were under the 'fast-track' gas production programme, which was scrapped when the Polish contractor refused to do the job after being awarded the contract.

Petrobangla, the state-run oil, gas and mineral resources corporation, early this year offered Gazprom the contract to drill 10 gas-wells and supply and set up two compressors, and received a financial proposal on Tuesday.

A Petrobangla official said that Gazprom demanded about $1.97 crore or Tk 145.78 crore for drilling each of the 10 wells in different gas-fields, and $14.90 crore or Tk 1,102.6 crore for setting up each of the two gas compressors at Ashuganj in Brahmanbaria and Elenga in Tangail.

But Petrobangla offered Gazprom Tk 90 crore for the drilling of a gas-well, since Bapex can do the same job for Tk 70 crore.

A Bapex official said that they would spend a maximum sum of Tk 50 crore for drilling an exploration well at Sundulpur gas-field in Noakhali.

He said that Gazprom's offer has puzzled officials of the energy sector and created doubts over the plan to increase gas supply on an emergency basis.

Petrobangla's chairman Hossain Monsur, however, refused to make any comment in this regard.

But another Petrobangla official said that they would negotiate with Gazprom after the Eid-ul-Fitr vacation is over.

Due to the severe gas shortage, the government adopted a 'fast-track' gas exploration and production programme aimed at conducting a 3,100 line kilometre two-dimensional seismic survey and drilling six wells by the end of 2012, which is now very unlikely to be completed on time, said a senior Petrobangla official.

Petrobangla approved the plan in August 2009.

Problems started in February when the Polish company, Poszukiwania Naftyi i Gazu Krakow (Oil and Gas Exploration Company Cracow), told Petrobangla that it would not drill six wells in the Titas and Rashidpur gas-fields because the fields were leaking gas.

Source : New Age

Tremor felt in Chandpur

A tremor jolted Chandpur region Saturday early morning.

Met Office sources said the earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale shook the region at 06 hours 55 minutes 59.00 seconds BST.

The distance of epicentre was 69 kms southeast of Agargaon Seismic Centre in the capital. There was no immediate report of damages and causalities.

Source : New Age

4 of a family burnt in gas line explosion

Four members of a family, including two women, sustained grievous burn injuries in a gas explosion at their rented house at Basabo in the capital's Sabujbagh area early Saturday, the family and hospital sources said.  

The injured, handicraft trader Kayes Rahman, his wife Jesmin Akhter, and their 10-year-old son Hasibur Rahman, were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital's burn and plastic surgery unit while their relative Sonia Akhter was released after treatment, the family said.

Officials of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company suspected that gas pouring out of cracks in the pipeline might have filled a room on the ground floor of a two-storey building and caused the explosion when it came into contact with fire.

'The gas explosion took place in our bedroom at about 1:15am when I was trying to light a cigarette with a match-stick,' Kayes told New Age at the burn and plastic surgery unit.

Jesmin was sleeping and three others were gossiping when the incident took place, said Yesmin, Jesmin's sister.

'Doors and windows of the room were closed and perhaps it helped gas to fill,' she said.

Kayes said that they had earlier informed the house-owner about the gas line leaks.

The house-owner, Abul Kamal Azad, told New Age over phone that private gas-line technicians had checked it twice and found no leakage.

'I, however, asked tenants to keep the windows open,' he said.

The burn and plastic surgery unit sources said the patients suffered burn injuries mostly on face, hands and legs.

A Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company team led by Mamtaz Uddin visited the spot in the morning.]

Source : New Age

Al Qaeda number two killed in Pakistan

Al Qaeda's new second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, was killed earlier this week in Pakistan, dealing a 'major blow' to the group still reeling from the death of Osama bin Laden, US officials said on Saturday.

Rahman, a Libyan national, rose to the number two spot when Ayman al-Zawahri took the reins of al Qaeda after bin Laden was killed in May in a US raid in Pakistan.

Officials did not say how Rahman was killed, but said it happened in Waziristan in northwest Pakistan where intelligence officials believe members of al Qaeda are hiding out.

'Atiyah's death is a tremendous loss for al Qaeda, because (Zawahri) was relying heavily on him to help guide and run the organisation, especially since bin Laden's death,' a US official said.

Source : New Age

Construction almost blocks DMCH entrance

Patients have been facing serious problems in entering or leaving Dhaka Medical College Hospital for about two years as its emergency gate or the main entrance remains almost blocked due to construction of Asad Memorial Museum.

Emergency patients are forced to enter the hospital through a narrow alternative passage.

The main road in front of the DMCH has also remained closed due to the construction work.

Ambulances can enter the hospital only through the emergency entrance.

Before the main entrance was blocked ambulances used to bring patients using it virtually round the clock.

Closing of the area between Chandkharpul and the emergency entrance to the premier hospital with corrugated iron sheets has turned it into a haven for muggers and drug peddlers, said DMCH officials.

'Emergency and burn patients have been facing serious problem getting into the hospital as the only entrance to the units remain blocked,' said DMCH director Shahidul Haque Mallik.

On an average, he said, every day 500 seek treatment or admission at DMCH emergency while the hospital's burn unit receive 300 patients.   He said that neither Dhaka City Corporation nor Dhaka University authorities consulted DMCH before closing its main entrance for the work.

Mallik said blocking the road in front of the hospital led to overcrowding at the DMCH emergency entrance obstructing the entry of patients and their attendants.

He said it also facilitated increased stealing, mugging, drug peddling at the blocked space.

Mallik said that a rickshaw stand had been established within the hospital boundary taking advantage of the situation.

On January 20, 2008, mayor of Dhaka Sadeque Hossain Khoka and the then Dhaka University vice chancellor SMA Fayez had laid the foundation stone of Shaheed Asad Smarani and Asad Museum in front of the emergency entrance of DMCH.

Death of Dhaka University student leader Asaduzzaman, shot by police on January 20, 1969 in front of what is now the DMCH emergency, entrance was the turning point in the mass movement that brought Ayub's rule to an end.

The site manager Anwer Hossain said that piling had been completed, but due to the rains work on pile integrity test cannot be done now.

He said the design of the Shaheed Asad Memorial and Museum had to be changed several times, requiring more time to complete the work.

Another factor which cost extra time in completing the work was, he said, shifting telephone cable underground for laying the sewer pipe.

Dhaka City Corporation, said its chief engineer Abul Hossain, was waiting for the dry season for pile integrity test.

 He, however, said that he was not in a position to say when the city corporation would be able to complete the work.

There is no billboard at the site to announce the contractors, though two companies, Mahbub and Brothers and Khan and Sons are doing it.

No design of the museum is displayed at the site either.

Source : New Age