Today is the second death anniversary of Alhaj Quazi Abdul Mannan, says a press release.
He was the headmaster of Dhaka Govt Muslim School and founder president of Govt Secondary Teachers Association. Abdul Mannan also served as an assistant secretary of Dhaka Textbook Board.
Relatives and well-wishers are requested to pray for salvation of the departed soul.
Source : The Daily Star
Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Abul Kalam Azad yesterday said the government has decided to set up Shilpakala Academy auditorium and e-library in all upazilas of the country.
The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting held at the Ministry of Cultural Affairs with Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Abul Kalam Azad in the chair.
The meeting also decided to conduct a survey to asses the feasibility for immediately setting up Shilpakala Academy auditorium and e-library in all upazila headquarters.
Source : The Daily Star
Muhammod Sohel Rana, a fourth year student of Department of English, Dhaka University, is suffering from acute renal failure and needs immediate kidney transplantation.
A sum of Tk 30 lakh is required for the surgery in India, as advised by his physicians. Rana is undergoing treatment at Mirpur Kidney Hospital. His father is a day labourer and his family is unable to bear this cost.
The affluent and generous people of society are requested to come forward with financial assistance.
The AC Payee cheque should be addressed to Prof Kajal Banerjee, Account Number 34115275, Janata Bank Limited, Dhaka University Branch.
It can also be sent to the fund raising initiator Jesmina Shanta Aksad, member of Executive Committee, Alumni Society of the Department of English, DU by contacting over cellphone # 01911382365 or e-mail at jshanta@g mail.com.
Corporate houses are requested to submit a letter of acknowledgement stating the amount to her.
Source : The Daily Star
State Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanak yesterday said the government has a plan to set up chain cooperative markets across the country to check price hike of essentials and ensure fair price of agri-inputs.
He was inaugurating five cooperative markets in different areas in the city.
Of the five markets, Department of Cooperatives will run four markets while the rest one by Rural Development, Bogra Unit.
The state minister said the government will open this kind of cooperative markets in every ward of the capital in the first phase as part of its programmes to reform the market system for ensuring fair prices to farmers, reducing influence of middle men and protecting consumer rights.
Later, the cooperatives market will be opened in district, upazila and village levels, he said.
The farmers are being deprived of getting fair price in one hand and the consumers are falling prey to price hike on the other hand, he said.
Source : The Daily Star
Three policemen including a sub-inspector were suspended on Saturday night in connection with the death of a 16-year-old boy at Char Kakra village under Companyganj upazila of the district.
The suspended policemen are Md Akram Sheikh, sub-inspector of Companyganj Police Station and his two constables, Abdur Rahim and Hema Ronjon Chakma, said Harunur Rashid Hazari, superintendent of police (SP).
On August 3, 2011, Kohinoor Begum, mother of the deceased Shamsuddin Milon, filed a case claiming that her son was beaten to death by villagers who suspected him to be a robber, in presence of police.
She filed the case with the Judicial Magistrate's Court against the police officials and two others--Jamal Uddin and Mizanur Rahman Manik--in this connection.
On July 27, six people, including Milon were beaten to death by angry villagers who suspected them to be robbers at Rahim Miar Tek area in Char Kakra.
A three-member probe committee led by Additional Superintendent of Police Md Mahbubur Rashid has also been formed to investigate Milon's death, the SP said.
The court also ordered the officer-in-charge of Companyganj Police Station to record the case as first information report (FIR) and take necessary steps in this regard.
Source : The Daily Star
BNP standing committee member Goyeshwar Chandra Roy yesterday said BNP could not win the people's confidence as the opposition party till now though the countrymen are fed up with the government for its torture and repression.
"People become afraid when they see the faces of a few of our party men. Though they are necessary for the party, it would not be possible to realise the dream of forging a tougher anti-government movement by keeping these people in the party," he said while addressing a discussion.
Projonmo Academy, a pro-opposition organisation, organised the discussion at Jatiya Press Club in the city.
Goyeshwar, known as an outspoken person in and outside the party forum, said the situation was ripe for a mass upsurge in the country but this could not be initiated as BNP could not earn sufficient trust of the people.
Dedicated leaders were not evaluated properly in the party. Even those who actively demonstrated on the streets after the 1/11 changeover did not get any space in party forums. But those who broke the lock of the party's central office during the period were rewarded later, he said.
Leaders of BNP's reformists' faction broke the lock and entered the party's central office at Naya Paltan in the city during the military-backed caretaker government.
"BNP never stands beside those who stood beside it during political disasters," he added.
Party standing committee member Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman, Moazzem Hossain Alal and Khandaker Golam Mortaza spoke at the discussion with Abu Al Yusuf Tipu, president of the academy, in the chair.
Source : The Daily Star
A Dhaka court yesterday placed Shehnaz Rashid Khan, daughter of an executed killer of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, on remand for a day in connection with a case filed for possessing banned Yaba tablets.
The court also cancelled a seven-day remand prayer sought for Tayeb Zaman, elder brother of Shehnaz's husband Fuad Zaman, Mahbub Hossain and Touhidul Islam and ordered to send them to jail.
Mosharraf Hossain, sub-inspector of Dhanmondi Police Station and investigation officer of the case, sent them to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka yesterday praying for a seven-day remand for each of them.
Police on Saturday arrested them with 12 pieces of Yaba tablets from the residence of Shehnaz Rashid in the city's Dhanmondi.
Source : The Daily Star
A gang of miscreants stabbed to death a shop employee at the city's suburb Keraniganj early yesterday.
The victim was identified as Mohammad Parvez, 25, son of Faruk Hossain of Bandha Dakpara in Keraniganj.
The victim's brother-in-law Mohammad Aslam told reporters at DMCH that Parvez was called out of his residence at around 12.30am yesterday by his acquaintances Shahin and Jabbar. They stabbed Parvez in front of his house indiscriminately, Aslam added.
Parvez was brought to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where on-duty doctors declared him dead.
Aslam said Parvez used to work at a clothes store at Islampur in Old Dhaka. He was called out of his residence after he returned from his duty around 11.30pm Saturday.
Keraniganj Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Md Asaduzzman told this correspondent that Parvez was wanted in three cases.
Source : The Daily Star
A total of 118 students of different departments of Dhaka University (DU) were recognised with Duke of Edinburgh's Award yesterday for their achievements in self-development skills and community services.
The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Foundation, Bangladesh conferred 94 students with Bronze Award and 24 students with Silver Award at Teacher Student Centre auditorium.
DU Vice-Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique handed over the awards, says a press release.
Run by the British royal family, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award was introduced in Bangladesh in 2008. DU has been conferring the award on its students since then.
Prof Arefin, speaking as the chief guest, said programmes like these are extremely important in bringing out the latent talents in youths in order to transform them into a holistically developed individual.
Congratulating the participants, he said they have the ability to lead the nation forward. This award would help encourage the students to perform in extracurricular activities and nation building work and lead a disciplined life.
Source : The Daily Star
Lakes and wetlands in Dhaka must be demarcated immediately on the ground as they have been earmarked in the urban plan to save them, said the leading urban planners and researchers at a workshop in the city yesterday.
The cities like Dhaka, Kolkata and Delhi cannot survive without conservation of urban lakes, they said.
Water bodies are vital for preventing urban flood and groundwater recharge, said Susmita Sengupta, deputy coordinator of Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) that organsied the workshop jointly with Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP).
They also serve as sources of water for agriculture and industries as well as day-to-day purposes, she said.
But urban lakes and wetlands in Dhaka and Indian cities alike have long been ruthless prey to encroachment and pollution, she said, adding that the manner of lake destruction is similar in both the countries.
The urban water bodies could not be saved as yet due to lack of enforcement of relevant laws, said Advocate Manzill Murshid.
A dedicated department should be instituted for water bodies, he said.
"We cannot afford any more loss of water bodies and agriculture land," said Dr Ishrat Islam, associate professor of urban and regional planning at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet).
Political will for conservation of lakes and other water bodies is crucial, as the lake grabbers maintain strong connection with political quarters and do not care about regulatory agencies and mass media, she said.
Lakes, ponds and canals together constitute a whole system and it has to be addressed with ecological sensitivity, said architect Iqbal Habib, member secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon.
An estimated one million people, 23 percent of Kolkata population, depend on pond water for bathing and washing, reducing load on formal water supply system, said Dr Mohit Kumar Ray, director of Vasundhara Foundation, Kolkata.
There are around 5,000 ponds, including some centuries old, in the Kolkata metropolitan area, he said.
He mentioned two decade-long successful community movements in Kolkata to conserve a pond in Jheel Road and another in Kazi Pukur that are now community-managed and provide better water for the local people.
Dr Suresh Kumar Rohilla, programme director of CSE, and Prof Sarwar Jahan, president of BIP, chaired different sessions of the workshop.
Source : The Daily Star
Ending their captivity for nearly eight months in Afghanistan, five Bangladeshi workers returned home yesterday.
Kidnapped on December 17 last year at gunpoint from a remote camp near Mazar-i-Sharif, they were freed on August 2 following long-drawn negotiations and diplomatic efforts.
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni received the workers at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 8:40am.
She thanked the Afghan government and the Korean company for their cooperation in brining back the Bangladeshi workers home safely. She assured the workers of all of all-out support.
The returnees told reporters that their captors, who they believe to be Taliban or Mujahideen militants, did not give them any food except some bread thrice a day. They were given a little water that often had insects in it. The abductors, however, did not torture them physically.
The five are Aminul Islam, Shafiul Alam Khokan and Abdur Rahman Lablu of Kalihati in Tangail, Mahbub Ali of Charghat in Rajshahi and Imam Uddin of Rangunia in Chittagong. They were employed as construction workers at Samwhan Corporation, a Korean company, in the war-ravaged Afghanistan.
As they walked out of the airport terminal, family members outside the gate broke into tears. In an emotional reunion, they, too, could not hold back their tears.
"I had lost all my hopes to see you again," Aminul Islam wailed as he embraced his elder brother.
Talking to the media, Imam Uddin said, "We could not take a bath for more than seven months. We were allowed to bathe just three days before our release."
"They did not give us enough water to wash our hands and face," added Imam, who went to Afghanistan in 2005.
The five were kept alternatively in two rooms and a cave of a hill with their legs enchained at night.
"We repeatedly told them that we were innocent. But they did not listen. They rather blamed us for working in the Korean company," said Shafiul, who also went in 2005 to seek his luck there.
The abductors picked up them as they were constructing roads which, according to the kidnapers, created problems for them to set mines to destroy vehicles of the US troops.
"The day before we were freed, they made us promise that we will return to Bangladesh straightway and will never go back to Afghanistan to work in a company brought by the USA-backed government," said Mahbub Ali, another returnee.
THE ABDUCTION AND RELEASE
At around 7:50pm on December 17 last year, the workers suddenly heard gun shots when they were in the camp. Within five minutes, around 20 men entered the camp by defeating the policeman deployed there. They captured the workers, blindfolded them and tied their hands.
They were forced to walk for nearly five kilometres. Then their blindfolds were taken off and hands were untied. They then walked for the whole night to reach a house the next morning.
After a few hours, the workers were again blindfolded and taken to another place after a three to four hours' journey on a vehicle.
They had no idea if they would ever be released.
On August 2, the kidnappers tied their eyes and put them on a vehicle. After around a 40-minute drive, the abductors asked them to walk down a road, saying they would find their company officials ahead.
After walking for a few hours, they found a local who helped them talk with the company officials over the phone. A number of company officials then came in a car to pick them up.
Source : The Daily Star
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld death sentences of three outlaws for killing Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) president Kazi Aref Ahmed and four other leaders in Kushtia 12 years ago.
A seven-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Justice Md Muzammel Hossain also upheld a portion of the High Court verdict that acquitted 10 others of the charges.
The apex court passed the orders after hearing appeals filed by the government and the accused against the HC verdict.
The HC in 2008 upheld the death sentences handed down by a trial court to nine accused and acquitted 12 others, who were given life term imprisonment by the trial court.
Earlier in 2004, Additional Sessions Judge of Kushtia Md Fazlur Rahman gave 10 accused capital punishment and jailed another 11 for life.
Kazi Aref, a Liberation War organiser, along with the four Kushtia unit JSD leaders was killed at a rally in Kalidaspur village in Daulatpur upazila on February 16, 1999.
The convicts sprayed him with bullets as he was about to leave the rostrum after delivering a speech against political violence.
The four other leaders -- Kushtia district unit JSD president Lokman Hossain, general secretary Yakub Ali and activists Israil Hossain and Shamser Mandal -- died as they tried to save the valiant freedom fighter.
Police filed a murder case with Daulatpur Police Station the same day.
The accused whose punishment was upheld by the SC are Ilias Hossain alias Elas of Talbaria, Rashedul Islam Jhantu and Anwar Hossain of Kursha in Kushtia.
The 10 accused cleared of the charges are Gares Sarder, Tasir Uddin, Asgar Jomaddar, Nazrul Islam, Waliur Rahman, Ekubbar, Tikka alias Jobbar, Lavlu, Firoz alias Foro and Laltu alias Nuruzzaman.
The SC will pass order today on the appeals of Sahir Uddin and Rafat alias Rafa, who got life term imprisonment from the HC. Sahir got death sentence and Rafa got life term imprisonment from the lower court.
Mannan, Baker, Raushan, Jahan, Jalal and Habib, who were given death sentence by the trial court, are still on the run.
Advocates Khandker Mahbub Hossain and Nawab Ali appeared for the accused, while Additional Attorney General Momtazuddin Fakir represented the government.
Source : The Daily Star
Ruling Awami League yesterday joined the Election Commission's dialogue on electoral reforms but refrained from giving opinions on the reform proposals.
It asked the commission to bring BNP to the dialogue to reach a political consensus on the proposed reforms. The EC started the dialogue on June 7.
The AL said the party would give its opinion on the proposals after consultations with the party chief and the party forum.
The EC had planned to wrap up the dialogue after holding talks with the AL, as the main opposition BNP turned down its repeated calls for talks. However, the ruling party's stance has made it more difficult for the EC to go ahead with its plan.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda and election commissioners Muhammed Sohul Hussain and Sakhawat Hossain seemed unhappy at the outcome of yesterday's talks.
"We'll wait for a few days for the ruling party's opinion. Then we'll start reviewing opinions given by other parties during the talks," the CEC told reporters at his office yesterday.
During the talks, AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam repeatedly said they came just to know the justification of the EC's proposals for electoral reforms and would give a decision later.
The EC insisted that the AL should specify a time frame for giving its opinion.
In response, the AL leaders said the party would give its opinions before the present EC's tenure expires in February next year.
Stressing the need for a consensus on electoral reforms, the AL general secretary said if the EC takes effective steps, it can ensure BNP's participation in the talks.
In response, the EC said it tried to bring BNP to the talks, but the main opposition refused to sit with it.
The CEC said the commission sent letters to BNP thrice. An election commissioner also talked to BNP leaders and requested them to join the talks.
The AL delegation led by Deputy Leader of Parliament Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury joined the talks with the EC.
The delegation was briefed on the use of electronic voting machine (EVM) that the EC plans to introduce in the next parliamentary elections.
The EC and its technical experts gave a demonstration of the EVM and answered questions from the AL leaders.
The CEC said the EC plans to use EVMs in the upcoming polls to Narayanganj and Comilla city corporations.
Huda also explained the reasons for its proposals for enacting laws on redrawing parliamentary boundaries, state funding for political parties to meet their election expenses, appointment of the CEC and election commissioners, and making some changes in the Representation of the People Order.
The EC invited 38 registered political parties to the talks. Of them, BNP and six other parties did not participate in the dialogue.
Source : The Daily Star