Source : The Daily Star
13 injured in clash
At least 13 people, including two women, were injured as two rival groups clashed over satellite dish business at Tengrakhali village in Kachua upazila on Friday. Police and locals said there was a longstanding conflict between two satellite dish traders -Mahfuz Sheikh and Shohag Sikder over establishing supremacy in the area. They said Mahfuz and Shohag locked in an altercation over a trifling matter in the evening. At one stage both the groups equipped with sharp weapons and sticks attacked each other, leaving at least 13 people injured from both sides.
Abducted girl rescued
Police rescued an eight-year-old girl from Amtala area of Manikchhari upazila on Saturday night within 15 hours of her abduction from Comilla.
Victim Kaniz Subarna is a class one student of Comilla Ispahani School and College and daughter of Jahangir Alam of Bishwa Road area of town.
The two arrestees are Md Elias, 32, son of Shamsul Haque of Debidwar area and Samir Sarkar, 30, son of Ajit Sarkar of Companiganj area of Comilla district.
Officer-in-charge of Manikchhari police station Nasim Uddin said, a team led by sub-inspector Al-Amin rescued Kaniz and arrested two abductors with cash Tk97,500.
Jahangir Alam said the arrestees contacted him over mobile phone and asked him to come to Amtala area with Tk 1 lakh as ransom.
According to Kaniz, she was abducted when her father left her near School area at about 07:00pm on Saturday.
Source : The Daily Star
Timber seized in Khagrachhari
Security forces recovered illegal timber worth over Tk 3 lakh from Thalibari area of Ramgarh upazila on Saturday night. Commanding Officer of Sindukchhari Army Zone Ashrafuzzaman Siddique said, acting on a tip-off, a patrol team raided Thalibari area and recovered the timber at about 08:00pm. The recovered timber was later handed over to Zaliapara forest ranger office. Sensing presence of army, the smugglers fled away, he added.
Source : The Daily Star
Obituary: Mashier Rahman
Mohammad Mashier Rahman, director of Power Development Board, passed away at a city hospital on Saturday at the age of 56, says a press release.
He left behind his wife and two daughters.
He was buried at Section No-10 of Mirpur graveyard after namaz-e-janaza after Maghrib prayers at Tayieba Mosque.
PDB Chairman A S M Alamgir Kabir condoled his death.
Source : The Daily Star
DU student held for proxy exam
Police arrested a Dhaka University student on Saturday night on charges of giving proxy to his friend in MBA admission test held on June 17.
Mohammad Shahid-uzzman Suman, 26, a Masters' student of Pharmacy department, was arrested from the campus following a case filed on Friday with Shabag Police Station by Dhaka University security officer SM Kamrul Ahasan.
Institute of Business Administration (IBA) admission committee came to know the incident when it found evidence of tempering on answer sheets of the accused during viva voce held on July 9, said sources.
According to the case statement, Suman not only sat for the exam illegally but he also used the mark-sheets and other documents of Mohammad Shoriful Alam Tanvir and also used forged photograph.
Suman sat for the exam for Farah Shahrin, 24, reads the case statement.
Later the committee with the help of DU proctorial body called Suman and found dissimilarities between the photos and the individual Tanvir.
DU proctor KM Saiful Islam told The Daily Star that the authority has suspended the result of both the accused--Suman and Shahrin.
Source : The Daily Star
Death anniversary
Today is the sixth death anniversary of Begum Khurshid Chowdhury, wife of former president late Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury and youngest daughter of late Abu Nasiruddin, a senior official of Bengal Civil Service, says a press release.
On the occasion, qurankhwani and milad mahfil will be held at Nagbari Jame Mosque in Tangail.
Relatives and well-wishers are requested to attend the programmes and pray for salvation of the departed soul.
Source : The Daily Star
Accused to be handed over to UK today
The government today is likely to hand over to the UK a British citizen of Bangladesh origin who has been accused in a murder case in London.
Joint Secretary (political) Kamal Uddin Ahmed of home ministry said a team of London Metropolitan Police in presence of a representative of British High Commission in Bangladesh will receive the accused, Mohiuddin Bablu, at the gate of Dhaka Central Jail.
Bangladesh police will escort Mohiuddin to the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to send him to London where he committed a murder in 1996.
He fled to his home district Sylhet in 1997.
A home ministry source said Mohiuddin was arrested in Bangladesh in an arms case. He was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment and the jail term ended in 2008.
But he was not released as the British government requested for his handover.
"We will hand him over to the UK under the extradition law of the land," Kamal Uddin said.
The deputy inspector general of Dhaka Central Jail said they have made preparation for releasing Mohiuddin.
Source : The Daily Star
Diplomats of US, UK visit Farroque
The US and UK diplomats in Dhaka visited injured Opposition Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque at a hospital in the city yesterday.
UK High Commissioner in Dhaka Stephen Evans went to see Farroque around 2:00pm and inquired about his health condition and treatment.
Political and Economic Counselor of US Embassy in Dhaka Jon Danilowicz made the visit at 2:30pm.
During the visit, he spent for some time and inquired about the health condition of Farroque.
Farroque's daughter Tamanna Farroque told the news agency that the US political counselor said the attack on the opposition chief whip has hurt them and termed it as a political issue.
Opposition Chief Whip Farroque was 'brutally' assaulted by police in the city on July 6 during the first day of 48-hour non-stop countrywide hartal.
BNP chairperson's adviser Dr AZM Zahid Hossain and wife of Farroque were present during the visit of two diplomats.
Source : The Daily Star
Obituary: Prof Dabiruddin
Prof A H Dabiruddin Ahamed, former head of the Political Science department of Thakurgaon Govt College, passed away at his residence at Sathkhamer village of Atwary upazila in Panchagarh on Saturday due to cancer at the age of 70.
He left behind his wife, two sons and three daughters.
He was buried at his family graveyard at Ulipukuri village of Boda upazila in Panchagarh.
Source : The Daily Star
Ashraful Alam
Ashraful Alam, a former upazila parishad chairman of Gangni under Meherpur district, is suffering from blood cancer and appeals to generous people for financial assistance for his treatment.
He is now undergoing treatment at a cancer hospital in India.
Doctors said Tk 50 lakh is needed for his treatment, which is not possible for his family to manage.
Contributions can be sent to Ashraful Alam, Current Account #390, Bangladesh Krishi Bank, Gangni Branch, Meherpur or on contact over cellphone #01716160258.
Source : The Daily Star
2,000 Yaba tablets seized
Around 2000 Yaba tablets were seized from a house at Maddhyapara of Kajla in the city early yesterday.
A team of the Department of Narcotics Control led by Aziz raided rented house of Anwar at Maddhyapara of Kajla under Demra Police Station at about 1:00am and arrested Anwar and his accomplice Yasin.
The team seized the Yaba tablets from his house.
Source : The Daily Star
JU test postponed
The written test for recruitment of administrative officer in the Registrar Office of Jahangirnagar University (JU) has been postponed due to unavoidable reasons.
The test was scheduled to be held today. The fresh date of the test will be announced later, says a JU press release.
Source : The Daily Star
Salinity hits 62pc coastal land Says survey
About 10.56 lakh out of 16.89 lakh hectares of coastal land are affected by soil salinity of various degrees, said a survey of the Soil Resources Development Institute (SRDI) of the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to the findings of the survey in 2010 on saline soil of Bangladesh, more than 62 percent out of the total cultivated land in the coastal areas has already been affected by salinity. About 10.53 lakh hectares are stricken by very slight, slight, moderate, strong and very strong salinity.
Some of the new lands of Satkhira, Patuakhali, Borguna, Barisal, Jhalakathi, Pirojpur, Jessore, Narail, Gopalganj and Madaripur districts are affected by different degrees of salinity, which is reducing agricultural productivity remarkably.
The survey findings say that the total salinity-hit land has increased to about 10.56 lakh hectares from 8.33 lakh hectares over the last four decades. In 2001, the size of the salinity-affected land was nearly 10.20 lakh hectares.
The worst saline-stricken districts are Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira and Patuakhali.
Withdrawal of fresh river-water from upstream, irregular rainfall, introduction of brackish water for shrimp cultivation, faulty management of sluice gates and polders, regular saline tidal water flooding in unprotected area and capillary rise of soluble salts are the main causes of increased soil salinity in the top soils of the coastal regions, said the report.
The district-wise water samples from different water sources such as sea, river, canal, pond, gher (enclosure), hand tube well, shallow tube well and deep tube well were taken for preparing the survey report, said SRDI officials.
Source : The Daily Star
World Population Day Today: '80pc contraceptive use rate by 2021 a big challenge'
Achieving goal to increase contraceptive use rate to 80 percent by 2021 from current 61.7 percent among eligible couple is a big challenge for controlling population, said Health Minister Prof AFM Ruhal Haque.
On the eve of the World Population Day to be observed today, he made this remark at a press conference at his ministry yesterday.
This year the theme of the day is "The World at 7 billion".
The health minister identified lower rate of contraceptive prevalence, early marriage, and lower rate of adopting long and permanent contraceptive methods among the eligible couple as big challenges to population control.
"23 percent of the total population are adolescents in the country and the average age of marriage is still 16.4. One third of women become mother before they reach 20 years of age," said the minister adding that only 38 percent of this age group adopts family planning method and reaching them is still a challenge for the government.
Quoting Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2007, the health minister said that though 61.7 percent couples are using contraceptives while only 5.2 percent use temporary family planning method.
Pointing out men's negligible participation in contraceptive use, he said that it is only 0.6 percent of the rate of contraceptive use.
Highlighting some achievements made in the last 36 years in population control, he said, "The success of population control cannot be seen within a year or two. Rather, we have to wait for long five or six years to see the results."
The minister said the government has taken population control issue seriously.
Among others, State Minister Mozibur Rahman Fakir and Secretary Humayun Kabir, Director General of Directorate General of Health Service MM Neazuddin also spoke at the press conference.
Source : The Daily Star
Road crashes kill 6, injure 31
Six people, including two sisters, were killed and 31 others injured in separate road accidents in Pabna, Bogra and Chapainawabganj yesterday.
Our Pabna correspondent reports: Two sisters were crushed under the wheels of a truck when they were crossing the Pabna-Kushtia highway in Ruppur Natunhat intersection area of Ishwardi upazila yesterday.
The deceased are Arifa Khatun, 18, an HSC student, and Dipa Khatun, 13, a class IX student, daughters of Rashed Ali of village Diar Shahapur of the upazila.
The two girls were returning home after attending private tuition classes.
Following the accident, agitating locals set fire to the vehicle.
Police arrested the truck driver and his helper from the spot.
Our Bogra correspondent says: Three passengers of a bus were killed and 30 others injured in a road accident in Hatibandha area of Shibganj upazila yesterday.
One of the deceased has been identified as Bulbuli, 30.
Police said the accident took place around 12:45am when a Dhaka-bound bus from Panchagarh hit a truck. Hit hard, the Rangpur-bound truck was pushed backward and hit a microbus running behind it.
The injured were rushed to Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital.
Our Chapainawabganj correspondent adds: One man was killed and another was seriously injured as a truck hit them at Koilabari village of Shibganj upazila in Chapainawabganj yesterday.
The deceased is Golam Rabbani, 35, son of Setaur Rahman of Dhobra village in Shibganj upazila.
The injured was rushed to Chapainawabganj Sadar Hospital.
Source : The Daily Star
Price race at kitchen markets
Prices of vegetables, fish and some other essentials rose steeply in the last few days in the capital, which traders said was caused by heavy rainfall and the spate of hartals.
On spot visits to a number of wholesale and retail kitchen markets in the capital it was found that prices of fish and vegetables registered rise of Tk 5 to Tk 20 per kilogram depending on the type.
Lower and middle income group buyers in the city expressed concerns and said if the trend continues it will be hard for them to keep meeting their families' living expenses.
In Mirpur-11 kitchen market, where most of the buyers are from the lower and middle income groups, were seen haggling with traders over prices.
A number of customers said none of the vegetables in the market except potato is available within Tk 30 a kg. The situation forces most of the consumers to buy less to maintain their budget.
In West Sheorapara Oli Miah kitchen market a trader said most of the buyers there are known to them, but the congenial relationships are fraying under pressure of high prices lately.
Wholesalers at Karwan Bazar and Jatrabari kitchen markets said incessant rain over the last few days destroyed vegetable plants, as rainwater inundated the fields. This caused short supply of vegetables in the markets of the capital, which in turn pushed the prices up.
Under the circumstances, the traders are being forced to charge almost double the price compared to last week's for some vegetables. They said bitter gourds are now selling for Tk 50 to Tk 55 a kg which were Tk 25 to Tk 30 a kg. Eggplants are Tk 40 to Tk 50 a kg which were sold for Tk 30 last week. Pointed gourds (Potol) are being sold for Tk 40 a kg which were Tk 20 a week ago.
Prices of other commodities including green chilli, onion, and potato also rose steeply.
Wholesalers said every year around this time vegetable prices usually remain comparatively high, but the prices are too high this year due to the recent hartals, and high transport and labour costs.
A staff at Chowdhury Banijjalaya, one of the largest vegetable wholesalers at Karwan Bazar, said they get most of their supplies from Jessore. Usually transport cost of one truck load of goods is Tk 8,000 to Tk 8,500, but around hartals the cost rose to Tk 12,000.
Visits to fish markets also showed that due to short supply prices of almost all types of fish went up.
A fish trader at West Kazipara of Mirpur said he used to sell about 30 pieces of Hilsha a day, but now he does not get more than 10 pieces to sell as the price went up almost 50 percent. A piece of Hilsha which he used to sell for Tk 300 about 15 days ago now sells for Tk 450.
Fish traders said due to the monsoon, water in the rivers and canals rose higher resulting in smaller amounts of catches, causing a short supply to the market.
The prices of commodities consumed mostly in the Ramadan also started showing an upward trend over the last one week.
Source : The Daily Star
Mild tremor jolts country
A mild tremor, measuring 4.8 on the Richter Scale, jolted some parts of the country yesterday morning.
The tremor was experienced at 6:40am, a bulletin of Metrological Department said.
The epicentre of the earthquake was in Myanmar, 460 kilometres southwest of Bangladesh Metrological Department seismic centre in Dhaka.
However, there was no report of any casualty or damage.
Source : The Daily Star
Train Derails in India: 35 killed, 100 hurt
A packed passenger train travelling at full speed derailed in northern India yesterday killing at least 35 people and leaving up to 100 injured after carriages were thrown off the tracks.
Some of the 15 derailed carriages were left stacked on top of each other, as rescue teams worked to free people trapped inside the train in Uttar Pradesh state, 150 kilometres south of Lucknow city.
"At least 35 people are dead and 100 injured are being treated at the scene and in hospital," KN Joshi, the local district chief medical officer, told AFP. "I have seen a number of people still lying inside the coaches."
The Press Trust of India news agency said the driver was among the injured and that local people had rushed to the crash site to help pull victims from the wreckage of twisted metal.
The Kalka Mail express train, carrying about 1,000 people, was moving at near its top speed of 108 kilometres an hour when it derailed, PTI quoted one regional railway manager as saying.
It was travelling from Howrah, the main station for the eastern city of Kolkata, across India to the capital New Delhi when it left the tracks near Malwa station.
"We were sitting in our seats when suddenly everything turned upside down," said a male passenger interviewed by the CNN-IBN news channel. "When the train stopped we broke the glass windows to jump out on the track."
The cause of the accident was unclear and railway officials said an investigation had been launched.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "expressed deep sorrow and shock at the loss of lives" and promised all resources in the area would be deployed for rescue and relief operations, his office said in a statement.
Anxious relatives and friends of the passengers gathered at Howrah and other stations along the line seeking information about their loved ones.
A special train was scheduled to take families of victims to the accident site, state officials said, while two military helicopters were also sent to assist.
Meanwhile, in another train accident, up to 100 people were injured, 20 of them seriously, in northeastern Indian state of Assam.
A blast derailed four coaches of the train, trapping scores of passengers, a senior police official told AFP.
The Press Trust of India news agency put the number injured in the incident at 50.
Northeast India is home to a number of separatist militant groups, but police were unable to confirm whether the explosion was a bomb. No group issued any immediate claim of responsibility.
India's state-run railway system -- still the main form of long-distance travel despite fierce competition from new private airlines -- carries 18.5 million people daily.
The worst accident in India was in 1981 when a train plunged into a river in the eastern state of Bihar, killing an estimated 800 people.
The railway is the country's largest employer with 1.4 million people on its payroll and it runs 11,000 trains a day.
Experts say the creaking system, the world's second largest under a single management, is desperately in need of new investment to improve safety and help end transportation bottlenecks that threaten the country's economic growth.
Source : The Daily Star
Industries to get gas: Govt lifts 2-year restriction
The government has finally lifted restrictions on providing gas connections to industrial units after nearly two years.
The decision came last month at a meeting of a government committee headed by the prime minister's adviser on energy and power, said a high-up of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd.
"We resumed providing gas connections two weeks ago," Titas Managing Director Abdul Aziz Khan told The Daily Star yesterday.
He said a few industries have already received gas connections and some others will get it soon.
Khan, however, did not specify how many industries will be given gas connections this time.
Seeking anonymity, a top official of the energy and mineral resources ministry, said only 40 industrial units will be given connections against several hundred applications for the service.
Dozens of industrial units have been in difficulty for unavailability of gas connections for the last two years. Entrepreneurs are frustrated at financial losses for not getting the service.
Industry insiders said nearly 500 industrial units have applied for gas connections.
A senior Titas official said they have received 157 applications for gas connections while the rest remain pending with other distribution companies.
Many of the entrepreneurs have deposited money with the government treasury in 2009 for connections according to Titas' instructions. But the government imposed restrictions on providing gas connections to industrial units as well as households soon after that.
Asking not to be named, a leading industrialist accused Titas of nepotism in giving gas connections to industrial units.
"I have heard 40 units will get gas connections this time. My industry's name is on the list of 40 industrial units but I have not got gas connection yet," said the businessman, who has already invested Tk 700 crore in his industry.
The Titas managing director said they resumed giving gas connections to industries in line with the committee's decision despite a shortage of gas.
Khan said the industries that applied for gas connections in 2008 and installed pipelines have been included in the latest list.
"We are sympathetic to those that are not getting connections now. Their applications are under consideration," said Khan.
Some entrepreneurs have filed writ petitions against Titas for breach of commitment.
"I have made payments to Titas in June 2009 for gas connection to my new factory in Gazipur. If the authority cannot provide us with gas, why it had taken money from us," said an entrepreneur, wishing anonymity.
Source : The Daily Star
PM warns bad boys: Asks BCL men to study first, opens council; age issue for new leadership not resolved
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday warned Bangladesh Chhatra League activists of stern action if anyone found involved in unlawful activities in the name of student politics and directed them to study hard and maintain ethics and principles to be future leaders.
"We will take stern action, as we did in the past, against the persons who will get involved in unlawful activities," she added.
"If there is an examination, stop organisational activities and concentrate on your studies to obtain good marks. Mind it, you are the future leaders of the country and you will have to build yourselves accordingly," she said while inaugurating the 27th national council of BCL, pro-Awami League (AL) student body.
Hasina, also president of ruling AL, inaugurated the two-day council by releasing balloons and pigeons at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital at around 11:30am. More than 10,000 leaders and workers from across the country, ministers, lawmakers, academicians and former BCL leaders joined the function amid huge enthusiasm.
However, the BCL is still in a dilemma over the age limit for electing its next leadership as the matter was not settled on the first day of its council.
This is the first time Hasina joined a formal programme of BCL, once AL's student wing, since she stepped down from the post of its organisational chief on March 31, 2009.
Addressing the function as the chief guest, Hasina said, "Work hard with ethics and principles and build the organisation."
Mentioning BCL's active role in the country's mass movements including the language movement and struggle for liberation, the AL chief said BCL would play a vital role in implementing the government's vision to build a "Digital Bangladesh" by 2021.
She also said tender bidding process is being digitalised so that student leaders cannot be involved in tender manipulation.
Hasina added, "Father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman taught us politics of sacrifice, not enjoyment. You must follow his ideology." She also urged the BCL activists to be united to save the country from the clutch of anti-liberation elements.
Welcoming the BCL workers for making the council a success by defying hartal, she said they [hartal enforcers] would not call the strike if they felt any sense of shame.
AL presidium member Obaidul Quader, who was assigned to prepare the BCL for the council, said Chhatra League would run as per its constitution and the AL doesn't need to look after it. He asked the BCL men to restore the past glory of the country's oldest student body through good work.
The prime minister's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who was a guest at the council, said, "Chhatra League is our future. Hope you [BCL leaders] will take the country forward."
Nasim Al Momen Rupok, central office secretary of the BCL, read out a condolence proposal, while AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, BCL leaders Mahfuzul Haider Chowdhury Roton, Hasanuzzaman Liton, Golam Sarwar Kabir, Awlad Hossain Titu, among others, spoke at the function chaired by BCL President Mahmud Hasan Ripon.
AGE LIMIT DILEMMA
Hasina yesterday did not make it clear that the new leadership would come within 29 years of age. She set the age limit in April 2006 with an aim to involve regular students in the student body.
Whether the new committee will follow the age limit or extend it by a couple of years remains a mystery among most BCL leaders.
"We thought we would get a clear message about the age limit from her [Hasina]," said a BCL central leader asking not to be named.
A powerful section of former BCL leaders, many of them are now in AL politics, are in favour of extension. They argue that the state of emergency during the last caretaker government rule deferred the council by two years.
"We tested and experienced leaders to be elected or selected as the next president and general secretary relaxing the age limit," said BCL organising secretary Khairul Hasan Jewel who was detained for at least six months during the caretaker rule.
However, the election commission formed to elect the new leadership has already distributed application forms for the posts of president and general secretary under the age limit of 29.
The present committee that was formed maintaining the 29 years age limit drew huge flak as several members were engaged in infighting, extortion, tender manipulation, admission manipulation and other unlawful activities after the government assumed office in January 2009.
Source : The Daily Star
N'ganj turns battle zone: 120 hurt as hostile pickets enforce 30-hour hartal
Thousands of Islamist activists, armed with stones and sticks, blocked roads with burning tyres, damaged vehicles and clashed with police yesterday, virtually turning Kanchpur, Panchabati and Fatullah in Narayanganj into battle zones on the first day of the 30-hour countrywide hartal.
An alliance of 12 Islamist parties is enforcing the shutdown to protest "restoration of secularism" in the constitution.
Police responded with tear gas shells and rubber bullets as some of the rampaging activists attacked the law enforcers and snatched from them a pistol, a shotgun and a wireless set, and smashed those.
The violence that flared in the busy industrial areas of Narayanganj district left over 120 people injured, including 17 policemen who were attacked by pro-hartal activists, police and witnesses said.
The main opposition BNP and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami are supporting the hartal protesting the recent constitutional amendment that restored secularism as a state principle and removed the phrase "Absolute Faith and Trust on the Almighty Allah."
The protest came even though the constitution has retained Islam as the state religion and Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim.
Barring these clashes, the hartal was largely ignored by people who went to work as usual. Traffic in the capital was near normal yesterday unlike the mostly empty streets seen during the 48-hour hartal enforced by BNP and Jamaat on July 6 and 7.
The violence in Narayanganj was led by Islami Andolan Bangladesh (IAB). Its activists, most of them local madrasa students, began gathering in the areas since early morning. Many of them squatted on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway stranding many vehicles on both sides of Kanchpur bridge. The marauding activists also smashed many vehicles.
Police picked up at least 228 activists mainly from IAB and Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish from Fatullah and Kanchpur in Narayanganj, Dhaka city, Chittagong, Pabna and Patuakhali, the police headquarters said.
In Fatullah, IAB activists, most of them local madrasa students, beat up 12 cops after confining them for about half an hour, snatched a shotgun, a pistol and damaged a wireless set from them. They also injured two TV cameramen. Police recovered the snatched the arms after four hours.
At 7:15am, around 2,000 IAB activists who came from different local madrasas including Madaninagar Madrasa blocked Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Kanchpur and Panchabati with large sticks. They burned tyres and vandalised at least 17 vehicles.
Police intervened when the activists went on rampage and started smashing vehicles indiscriminately. Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas shells, and used batons to disperse the activists, witnesses said.
At one stage, pro-Awami League motor vehicle workers and AL supporters also joined the law enforcers and attacked the IAB activists.
In counter attacks, the IAB activists also severely beat up several cops including Additional Superintendent of Police of Narayanganj Saidur Rahman and snatched his wireless set. He was admitted to Square Hospital in the capital.
Three other severely injured cops were later admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Traffic movement halted for about four hours on Dhaka-Chittagong highway and Dhaka-Sylhet highway. Commuters faced untold sufferings during the clash as many people were seen walking to reach the capital from Kanchpur and Fatullah.
Also yesterday, mobile courts jailed and fined over 58 "picketers" across the country for disrupting peace.
Police picked up 47 hartal supporters from the port city of Chittagong.
In the capital, police picked up at least 25 people from Paltan, Lalbagh and Mirpur areas during the shutdown.
In Narsingdi, Police detained 33 local leaders and activists of IAB during the hartal hours.
Meanwhile, the police authorities have formed a three-member committee to investigate picketers' attack on police during yesterday's hartal hours in Fatulla of Narayanganj that left 15 policemen including an additional ASP injured.
Narayanganj Superintendent of Police (SP) Sheikh Nazmul Alam told journalists the committee headed by Additional Superintendent of Special Branch of Police Giashuddin Ahmed has been asked to submit its report within three days.
The probe body has to find out if police showed negligence in their duty during the incident, and the reasons behind the attack on the law enforcers, he added.
Source : The Daily Star
Bears circle India economy
Not long ago it was the toast of investors, but India's appeal has taken a hit, with bearish sentiment building thanks to worries over stubbornly high inflation and widespread political corruption.
Investor ardour for Asia's third-largest economy has been cooled by a litany of bad news, from slowing growth, rising prices and spiralling interest rates to paralysis on economic reforms and a string of high-profile graft scandals.
Last week, global business information agency Dun and Bradstreet reported that its India business optimism index had fallen by a hefty 22 per cent quarter-on-quarter.
'There has been a confluence of bad news dragging down sentiment,' Kaushal Sampat, Dun and Bradstreet's India chief executive, told the AFP.
The bad news comes as the government battles multiple corruption scandals that forced the resignation of a second cabinet minister last week over accusations he abused his power while he held the telecom portfolio.
'There are so many political fires, it makes it hard for the government to focus on the economic challenges such as reforms needed to spur growth,' says Sampat.
Data for the January to March quarter showed annual economic growth of 7.9 per cent — the slowest in five quarters. The key manufacturing sector grew by 5.5 per cent, its weakest pace in 18 months.
Quarterly net direct tax collections have fallen 17 per cent year-on-year as economic activity decelerates.
Economists blame the downturn on stubbornly high inflation, which 10 interest rate hikes since March 2010 have failed to tame. Price pressures are now spreading from food and energy to manufacturing.
'The continual rise in credit costs and high inflation have hurt both investment and consumption,' says Deepak Lalwani, head of London-based India-focused investment consultancy Lalcap.
Factory output has slowed in both India and China, the fastest-growing major global economies, as central bankers have boosted lending rates to fight inflation.
As one sign of waning investor appetite, funds raised through initial public offerings in India slumped by more than 80 per cent year-on-year in the first half of the year to $780 million, according to global data supplier Dealogic.
That compares with a rise in worldwide IPO fundraising by 14 per cent in the same period to $114 billion, swelled by large US and Hong Kong listings.
India's benchmark Sensex index has already fallen 8.5 per cent this year, after rising 17 per cent last year, making it one of the worst-performing globally.
The forthcoming quarterly earnings season 'will not be a pretty picture,' says Apurva Shah, head of institutional equities at Mumbai brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher, blaming weakening consumer demand and higher borrowing costs.
The government is expected to officially lower its growth forecast for 2011-12 in the coming days from nine per cent to around eight to 8.5 per cent — still higher than most private economists' expectations.
This week, international ratings agency Fitch cut its 2011 growth forecast for India's economy to 7.7 per cent from 8.3 per cent, citing inflation as a key concern.
The economy is going through a 'soft patch' that 'could last a while', HDFC Bank chief economist Abheek Barua says.
While growth of seven to eight per cent would be envied by western economies, experts say India needs at least 10 per cent expansion to lift hundreds of millions of Indians out of crushing poverty.
And the slowdown is seen as unlikely to put an end to rate hikes, with economists predicting further increases in the coming months.
The central bank has made it 'crystal clear' it is 'prepared to sacrifice some growth in the short term to protect the medium-term prospects of the economy,' says Credit Suisse economist Robert Prior-Wandesforde, who projects growth of 7.5 per cent for this year and next.
Longer-term, economists say India's so-called 'growth story' driven by its vast consumer market and service-led economy is still intact.
But a lack of economic reforms is hampering the country's progress, and with the government careening from crisis to crisis, it is not expected to pass any important pro-market legislation.
Economists have long prescribed reforms such as reducing government control, liberalising the financial sector, simplifying archaic tax laws and loosening labour market rules as key to boosting growth, creating jobs and alleviating poverty.
'We are so close (to achieving double-digit growth),' says Dun and Bradstreet's Sampat.
Source : New Age
BR, PDB, BPC sign deal on fuel transport to new power plants
The Bangladesh Railway, Power Development Board and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation on Sunday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure uninterrupted supply of heavy equipment and fuel to 17 new power plants.
Under the agreement, BR will transport diesel and furnace oil to the new power plants, in both the public and private sectors, which have a total capacity of 1,575 megawatts. The contract will expire after 10 years.
The deal was finalised a week after the state-owned BR signed a $16.5 million deal with the Indian company, Texmaco, to buy 165 broad-gauge oil tank wagons and six brake vans.
BPC's chairman Muktadir Ali, PDB's chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir and BR's director general Mohammad Abu Taher signed the deal on behalf of their organisations.
Communications minister Abul Hossain, who was present at the signing ceremony, said that the railway at present has the capacity of transporting only 40,000 tonnes of fuel oil per year, which needs to be increased to 1,12,000 tonnes for ensuring adequate fuel supply to the new power plants.
Under the agreement a joint monitoring committee, comprised of the officials of BR, PDB and BPC, will oversee the whole operation.
The BR will collect the necessary number of locomotives, flat-bed carriers and tank wagons to transport heavy equipment for setting up the new power plants and supplying fuel oil to them.
The BPC will import diesel and furnace oil, and its marketing companies — Padma, Meghna and Jamuna — will use their facilities in Khulna and Chittagong to ensure storage and loading of the fuels.
An official of the BR said that the new tank wagons and brake vans would be available by early next year as Texmaco has said that it can supply them within a year.
At present, the BR transports fuel oil to power plants from its 20 depots on 10 goods trains, each of which has 24 wagons.
According to PDB, three existing power plants with a total capacity of 85MW will need to be supplied 56,000 tonnes of diesel by rail from June to December this year.
Another 77,100 tonnes of diesel and furnace oil are to be transported to four power plants with a total capacity of 122MW using river routes during the same period.
Source : New Age
Muhith stresses taxpayer-friendly revenue system
Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Sunday said the tax collection process should be simplified and taxpayer-friendly which should encourage the taxpayers not intimidate them.
Value added tax is not any coercive or repressive tool as people tend to think but it is a means through which people can participate in the development activities of the country, Muhith said while speaking as chief guest at a function held in observance of 'National VAT Day and VAT Week' organised by National Board of Revenue at the officers club in the capital.
He said Jatiya Mushok Diobsh was introduced for the first time to build trust and foster cooperation between the taxpayers and tax collectors.
The finance minister said the NBR was taking different initiatives, including holding tax fairs and tax surveys, for dissemination of information on tax details among people so that they are encouraged to pay VAT and other taxes regularly.
Once the taxes used to be collected at small rates as people's income was little. But now the government wants to collect more taxes from people as the country people's income has increased over the years, Muhith pointed out. 'But even then, the rate of tax in the country is far less than that in different neighbouring countries like Nepal and the Maldives,' he added.
The minister said that every year, there is a deficit budget that hinders development activities. 'So the government is thinking how to increase revenues to meet the deficit and strengthen development activities.'
Speaking on the occasion, economic adviser to the prime minister Mashiur Rahman said that the government should confiscate all the un-invested money from people who fail to show the source of their money.
'It is unjust that people who were earning money legally would pay more tax while people having money that has no legal source pay little or no tax,' said the adviser.
The government would not impose any illogical tax on people because that would be a burden on them, he said, adding that the small businesses should get tax rebate and big businesses should pay more.
Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry's president AK Azad, who was also present at the function, said all officers of National Board of Revenue should not be disrespected because of only a few corrupt officials who accumulated wealth through illegal ways joining in a nexus with some corrupt businessmen.
Azad said that if the government strengthens the Anti-Corruption Commission and let it operate independently, the country's gross domestic product would grow by an additional 2 per cent.
He said the government should facilitate investment in the industrial sector for generating employment for people who are unemployed.
'Please reduce the duty imposed on imports of raw materials and bring more eligible people under the tax net who are not being taxed,' he suggested.
The chamber leader said that agricultural sector and defence sector were enjoying much allocation and incentives in the national budget, but the two were yet to be bought under tax network.
NBR Chairman Nasiruddin Ahmed said the board has a target to collect revenues of more than Tk one lakh crore from the fiscal year 2012-2013.
NBR member VAT Abdul Mannan Patwary presented a key-note paper at the meeting presided over by NBR chairman Nasiruddin Ahmed. NBR commissioner Enayet Hossain, FBCCI directors Amir Hossain Chowdhury and Abdul Huq also addressed the meeting.
Source : New Age
DSE turnover hits 6-month high
The general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange on Sunday hit a three-month high, with the turnover climbing to a six-month peak, as the investors went on a buying binge driven by the hope that investment of undisclosed money in the market was around the corner.
The DGEN, the benchmark index of the bourse, gained 125.70 points, or 1.99 per cent, to close the day at 6,437.50 points, the highest level it had risen to since reaching 6,556.52 points on April 10.
The turnover of the bourse shot up to a whopping Tk 1,646.15 crore on the day from that of Tk 1,348.33 crore of the previous day. The DSE had a turnover of Tk 1,649.76 crore, slightly higher than Sunday's, on January 12, with the DGEN standing at 7,690.68 points.
In the past week, the average daily turnover of the bourse crossed the Tk 1,000-crore mark again after three months of volatile trading in a depressed market.
Market operators said investors on Sunday went for heavy buying as they had regained confidence in the market to a large extent and became active again.
They said an increased institutional participation in trading also helped boost the share market.
The DGEN started to rise steadily one week ahead of the passage of the current national budget in the parliament on June 29 as the investors anticipated that the government was going to allow investment of undisclosed money in the capital market. In the previous six months, the DSE general index had suffered a number of plunges, sliding from 8,918.51 points on December 5 to its rock bottom at 5,203.04 points on February 28.
The turnover of the bourse also had nosedived to Tk 296 crore on May 26 from around Tk 3,200 crore on December 5.
But, since the passage of the budget with a provision for allowing investment of undisclosed money in the capital market the DGEN has gained 399 points till Sunday.
Investors are also speculating that the Bangladesh Bank may announce soon a capital market-friendly monetary policy for the first half of the current fiscal year, said market operators. 'That's one of the key reasons why institutional investors have returned to active trading,' said a DSE stockbroker.
The trading on the DSE floor started on a positive note on Sunday that sustained till the closing bell rang.
Banks, insurance companies, and financial institutions were the hot items of the day as most of these issues posted a sharp gain.
Mahmood Osman Imam, director of Bureau of Business Research of Dhaka University, said, 'Institutions have been actively participating in the capital market recently as they hope the monetary policy will address the capital market positively.'
He said, 'If institutional investments are made by the mutual funds and merchant banks that would be positive for the market in the long run. On the other hand, if commercial banks increase their involvement in the equities market by making bulk investments, it will not sustain for long as their attitude is more like a trader than an investor.'
Mahmood, a finance professor, said, 'Bank issues are gaining as the investors are optimistic about their prospect following news reports of healthy quarterly earnings of a large number of banks during the depression.'
He, however, pointed out that the recent market trend showed the banks with low paid-up capital were gaining more than those with high paid-up capital.
Of the 264 issues traded on Sunday, 190 advanced, 66 declined, and eight remained unchanged.
Bextex topped the turnover leaders of the day with shares worth Tk 47.99 crore changing hands. The rest of the top-10 turnover leaders were Lafarge Surma Cement, Beximco, One Bank, BSRM Steels, United Airways, United Commercial Bank, Mercantile Bank, Titas Gas, Southeast Bank.
Source : New Age
Sylhet Metropolitan Police limps with manpower crisis
Lack of adequate manpower and necessary infrastructure has been severely hampering activities of the Sylhet Metropolitan Police.
Despite having the largest jurisdiction area compared to other five metropolitan police units in the country, the SMP has to run its activities with the smallest workforce, sources in the SMP said.
An SMP official said they had to hire workforce regularly from the other units, including the district police lines and the reserve range of police, to ensure law and order in the city and two neighbouring upazilas.
'Promotion of the staff has also remained withheld for several years as the unit is yet to be regularised. For that reason, bright officers of the police express unwillingness to joint the unit,' he added.
The Sylhet Metropolitan Police and the Barisal Metropolitan Police were established through a gazette notification in 2006.
But, the SMP is yet to be regularised while the BMP was regularised in January 2010, sources in the SMP said.
Since the inception on October 26, 2006, the SMP is running its activities at a semi-pucca building of the Water Development Board at Naiyarpul in the city.
SMP covers an area of 499 square-km inhabited by 30 lakh people with only two police stations — Kotwali and Dakkhin Surma police stations.
A 1,488-man workforce was approved for the SMP but the existing workforce is some 1,000, as par the data available with the SMP office.
The approved manpower of the Dhaka Metropoli-tan Police is 24,459 that covers 416 square-km area, a home of some 1.5 crore people. Similarly, the Chittagong Metropolitan Police covers 152 square-km area with an approved 4,996-strong force, the data said.
Sources in the SMP said promotion of staff officials and other personnel, who qualified in the departmental examinations, had remained held up as the unit was yet to be regularised.
Besides, the Sylhet Metropolitan Police is also facing an acute crisis of transport and accommodation as no step in this regard was taken so far. Its has only 17 jeeps and pick-up vans while it needs to requisite some 100 vehicles each day for discharging duties, SMP sources claimed.
Talking to New Age, SMP commissioner Amulya Bhushan Barua said a large part of the existing workforce had to remain engaged in ensuring safety for the dignified personalities and organisations that include Hazrat Shahjalal shrine and Shahjalal University of Science and Technology and Sylhet Agricultural University alongside maintaining law and order in the city and its two neighbouing upazilas.
He said a proposal for adding 1,839 more cops to the present workforce of the Sylhet Metropolitan Police had been sent to the police headquarters in Dhaka last year, but the proposal was not approved.
'Ensuring security for such a large population under the SMP jurisdiction is very tough with the present manpower,' SMP commissioner said, adding that logistic supports should be increased for SMP to strengthen peoples' security.
Source : New Age
Five BCL men beaten up for not paying restaurant bills in city
Five leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra League of Sher-e-Bangla Agriculture University unit were injured when employees of a restaurant beat them up for not paying bills for meals.
Among them, critically injured Sarwar Mamun, general secretary of the university BCL unit, was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Local people and police said five leaders of BCL had gone to the restaurant named Anurag, located on Mirpur road, at around 2:30pm.
They took meals at the hotel and denied to pay the bills for the meals, witnesses said.
As the employees demanded the bill, the BCL men started beating them. Later, employees of the restaurant beat the BCL men up with lethal weapons, leaving the five injured.
Later, about a hundred of BCL activists rushed to the restaurant and vandalized the shop and looted money from there, local people alleged.
Witnesses alleged that police did not resist the BCL men from vandalizing the restaurant though they were present there.
The university unit of BCL president Ahmadul Bashar told reporters that the restaurant staff had beaten up their leaders after a scuffle over bill payment.
No case however was filed in this connection.
Source : New Age
3 unnatural deaths in city
Two people allegedly committed suicide and a schoolboy drowned in the capital on Sunday.
At Moghbazar, 30-year-old housewife Karima Begum of Koyra slum allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself with a ceiling fan following a family feud.
The Ramna police recovered her body and sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for post-mortem at about 9:00am.
Several neighbours of Karima Begum said she was a widow and probably seething with frustration and anger over her second marriage for about a year.
Meanwhile, the Tejgaon police recovered the hanging body of Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain from his house at 52, West Tejturipara and sent to the DMCH morgue for post-mortem in the morning.
The 45-year-old Mosharraf Hossain, form Comilla, hung himself with a ceiling fan over family feud, the police said.
At Rampura, local people found a 7-year-old schoolboy floating on Hatirjheel, a water body of the area, at about 2:00pm on Sunday.
The deceased is Mohammad Rahat, son of Mohammad Nasir Uddin, of 136/6, East Ulan at Rampura.
The police recovered the body and sent to DMCH morgue for post-mortem.
Source : New Age
600 sacks of govt wheat seized
Around 600 sacks of government wheat was recovered from a launch anchored at Kanchabazar ghat on the River Bhairab in sadar upazila of Bagerhat Sunday morning.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of Coast Guard conducted a drive and recovered the wheat worth Tk 7.2 lakh from the launch MV Rani Reza at around 7:30am.
Later, Coast Guard arrested the launch master M Sayed Hawladar, 35, son of Harmuj Hawladar of Sonaota village in Jhalakati.
Coast Guard sources said smugglers brought the wheat here from Jhalakati for selling in the black market.
The seized wheat was handed over to the sadar thana police. A case was filed.
Source : New Age
19 bombs recovered
Rapid Action Battalion members recovered 19 bombs in abandoned condition from beside Makhati Edigah in sadar upazila of Munshiganj Saturday afternoon.
RAB sources said locals found the bombs in a sack and informed them. Later, a bomb expert team of RAB-11 went to the spot and defused the bombs.
None was arrested in this connection. A case was filed.
Source : New Age
Tremor jolts country
A tremor, measuring 4.8 on the Richter Scale, jolted some parts of the country Sunday morning.
The tremor was experienced at 6:40am, a bulletin of Metrological Department said.
Met Office said the epicentre of the earthquake was in Myanmar, 460 kms southwest of Bangladesh Metrological Department seismic centre in Dhaka.
Source : New Age
Moshiar Rahman dies
The Bangla-desh Power Develop-ment Board audit director, Moham-
mad Moshiar Rahman, died of stroke at a private hospital in Dhaka on Saturday at the age of fifty-six, said a press release issued by BPDB.
Mohammad Moshiar Rahman is survived by his wife and two daughters.
He was born at village Barai Para at Pirganj in Rangpur and joined the BPDB in 1990 as deputy director.
BPDB chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir expressed his shock at his death.
He was buried at Mirpur 10 graveyard after maghrib prayers.
Source : New Age
Idris Ali dies
Janata Bank deputy general manager Moham-mad Idris
Ali, also a freedom fighter during Liberation War in 1971, died of cardiac arrest in Dhaka on Saturday, a JB press release said.
Idris Ali is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.
He was the founding chairman of Janata Bank chapter of Bangabandhu Parishad.
The bank expressed its condolence at his death.
Source : New Age
BNP protests at police attack on strikers
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Sunday condemned and protested at the attack by the 'police and ruling party goons' on activists of Islamist parties which are enforcing a countrywide 30-hour general strike beginning Sunday morning.
The party's joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed at a hurriedly called press briefing at the BNP chairperson's office at Gulshan at 9:00pm alleged that the police and ruling party goons in police protection carried out attacks on leaders and activists of the Islamist parties.
'An unprecedented reign of terror was unleashed in Narayanganj [near the Kanchpur bridge] by the police and ruling party activists,' Rizvi said. 'The police and ruling party goons also attacked supporters of the strike across the country.'
'Even the imams of mosques were not spared,' he alleged.
He said that the BNP had extended support for the general strike the Islamist parties are enforcing.
He demanded immediate release of the Islamic party leaders and activists who were arrested and withdrawal cases filed against them.
Rizvi said that as the BNP extended its support for the strike, its central office had been cordoned off by the police and no leaders and activists of the party were let in.
Twelve religion-based political parties are enforcing the strike in protest against the dropping of the phrase 'Absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah' from the constitution by way of the 15th amendment.
Source : New Age
Road, train accidents kill six in capital
Road mishaps caused by reckless driving on almost empty roads at Agargaon, Banani, and Mirpur in the capital during the hartal hours on Sunday left five people including two students killed while another person died in a train accident at Kuril.
Sayed Zahir Uddin, 28, of west Sewrapara, was killed when a speeding bus knocked down his motorcycle in front of the IDB Bhaban at Agargaon at around 2:00pm.
Zahir died on the spot. The police arrested the bus driver, Shahidul Islam, and seized the bus.
Another bus crashed Shirin Akhter, a teenage garment factory worker, at Chairman Bari of Banani at about 1:00am. Shirin, who used to work at Good Day Garments at Moghbazar and was returning home from a late-night shift, was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where she succumbed to the injuries at around 2:30pm.
In the third incident, 18-year-old Mehedi Hassan, a student of UCEP Technical School, died in a road accident in front of the Mirpur Bangla College at about 6:30am.
Witnesses said a speeding truck hit the victim's bicycle, leaving him dead on the spot.
In another incident in the early hours on Sunday, two labours were killed on the spot when a truck turned turtle in Beribadh area under Shah Ali police station in Mirpur.
The deceased, – Ruhul Amin, 35, and Mohammad Salim, 30 – were both residents of the Beribadh area, the police said.
Witnesses said Ruhul and Salim got buried under the sand-laden truck when it turned over after skidding off from the road.
The police recovered the bodies at around 2:00am and sent them to the DMCH morgue for post-mortem examinations.
Separate cases were filed with the respective police stations in these connections.
Sub-inspector Mohammad Shahjahan of Sher-e-Bangla police station said, 'We found the drivers driving recklessly as the traffic control was slack during the hartal hours and roads were nearly empty.'
Meanwhile, a 40-year-old unidentified man was crashed under the wheels of a train at Kuril railway crossing on Sunday afternoon and died on the spot.
The accident happened as the victim tried to cross the rail tracks in a hurry and fell under the wheels of Balaka Express.
The police recovered the body and sent it to the DMCH morgue for autopsy.
Source : New Age
Robbers loot valuables after killing boy
A boy was killed in an attack by robbers, who also looted valuables and
cash from an ornament making factory in Keraniganj model thana early Sunday.
The deceased was Selim, 14, artisan of the factory and also nephew of the factory owner Alauddin.
Alauddin said seven to eight robbers entered the factory at Uttar Baherchar by breaking open its shutter at about 2:00am and looted 150 tolas of silver ornaments, seven tolas of gold ornaments, one cell phone set and Tk 3,500.
Selim was staying at the factory at night.
Source : New Age
British HC and US diplomat visit Farroque
British High Commissioner Stephen Evans and another diplomat of the US embassy on Sunday visited the seriously injured opposition chief whip, Zainul Abdin Farroque, now undergoing treatment the United Hospital.
Farroque, a lawmaker of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was seriously injured by the police who assaulted him brutally on July 6, the first day of the last 48-hour hartal called by the BNP and its allies.
The British high commissioner went to see Farroque at around 2:00pm and inquired about his health and treatment.
The political and economic counsellor of the US embassy, Jon Danilowicz, went to Farroque's cabin at 2:30pm, and spent some time with him.
The BNP chairperson's adviser, AZM Zahid Hossain, and Farroque's wife, and daughter Tamanna Farroque, were present during the visit of the two diplomats.
Source : New Age
BRAC launches annual report 2010
Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee released its annual report for 2010 at a views exchange programme
with journalists at the auditorium of Journalism Training and Research Initiative in the capital on Saturday.
BRAC executive director Mahabub Hossain
presented the report in the context of national and millennium development goals.
Bangladesh has made considerable progress towards the MDGs, the report said.
The BRAC's pre-primary education programme aimed at encouraging and increasing primary school enrolment had enlisted around 3,29,000 children in 2010.
The organisation is currently working to reduce the number of school
drop-outs and extend its activities to hard-to-reach areas as well as those
that have fewer government schools, the report said.
In 2010, the non-formal primary schools of the BRAC had around 6,10,000 students and a 99.5 per cent pass rate.
According to the report, the maternal mortality rate has come down to 141 per thousand in the urban areas and 157 in rural
ones covered by the
organisation's health programme.
Mahabub Hossain said the BRAC's programmes are divided into three key groups – poverty alleviation, social security and capacity building,
and community empowerment.
BRAC International deputy executive director Imran Matin, education programme director Safiqul Islam, and health programme associate director Kaosar Afsana, among others, were present at the views exchange session.
Source : New Age
Gaddafi forces shell rebels south of Libyan capital
Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi let loose a heavy artillery bombardment on Sunday to try to push back rebel fighters who had taken a village about 100 km south of Tripoli.
Al-Qawalish is a strategic battleground in the rebels' march on the capital because if the they manage to advance beyond it they will reach the main highway leading north into Tripoli, where Gaddafi has his main stronghold.
A rebel fighter in Al-Qawalish, Amignas Shagruni, said that shells had been landing repeatedly over the past 24 hours from pro-Gaddafi forces positioned a few kilometres to the east. But he said: 'No one was hurt, thank God.'
During a 20-minute period while Reuters visited the front line east of Al-Qawalish, at least five shells landed. However, they did not appear to be well targeted, striking ransom spots in the nearby hills.
Shagruni was among a group of rebels manning the last rebel checkpoint before the front line. He said NATO warplanes had been in action in the area and hit government positions.
'They bombed just once but it was very strong. They hit either a Grad missile or ammunition because it was very strong, even the ground shook,' he said.
Libya has been convulsed by a civil war since February when thousands of people, inspired by revolutions in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia, rose up against his 41-year-rule.
That rebellion has now turned into the bloodiest of the 'Arab Spring' uprisings sweeping the region.
Gaddafi has been defiantly holding on to power in the face of rebel attacks, NATO air strikes, economic sanctions and the defections of prominent members of his government.
Western powers who want to force him out are banking on rebel advances towards Tripoli — combined with a possible revolt inside the city — to break his grip on power.
But rebel progress towards the capital has been halting at best, with the mostly amateur fighters who often take to the battlefield in jeans and T-shirts frequently out-gunned by government troops.
Gaddafi himself sounded a new note of defiance on Friday. In an audio recording broadcast on state television, he threatened to export the war to Europe in revenge for the NATO-led military campaign against him.
'Hundreds of Libyans will martyr in Europe. I told you it is eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth,' he said. 'You will regret it, NATO, when the war moves to Europe.'
Hundreds of kilometres to the northeast of Al-Qawalish, another force of rebels is also trying to push towards Tripoli, though they too are facing tough resistance.
Fighters from the rebel-held city of Misrata, about 200 km east of Tripoli, have fought their way west to the outskirts of Zlitan, the first in a chain of coastal towns blocking their progress towards the capital.
A spokesman for insurgents who are behind the pro-Gaddafi lines and inside Zlitan itself, said they had mounted their second attack on government troops in a week.
'The revolutionaries inside the town of Zlitan shelled the pro-Gaddafi brigades positioned on the coastal road on Sunday at 1:00am (2300 GMT), killing at least seven people,' a rebel spokesman, who identified himself as Mabrouk, said from Zlitan.
Source : New Age
Bangladeshi American congressman takes aim at profiling
Hansen Clarke made history as the first member of the US Congress of Bangladeshi descent but when he goes to the airport, he still feels that he is singled out with suspicion.
'If I don't shave for a few days and I wear my hoodie on, or I'm in the airport and I have my jogging clothes on — oh yeah, I get subjected to the random explosive tests almost every time,' Clarke said.
Since entering Congress in January, the Detroit-based congressman has made it his mission to try to stop racial profiling in the United
States, using his position as a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security.
The 54-year-old comes to the issue from a unique dual vantage point. His mother was African American, a community that has long protested against racial profiling by law enforcement.
'After 9/11, South Asians had some experience of what African Americans have had to go through for centuries here,' Clarke, his voice animated, said in an interview in his office.
'I'm aware of, too, the threat against our country,' he said. 'When you profile somebody, that's not effective because you're devoting attention and resources toward a group of people who probably more than likely are not a threat.'
Clarke's district — Michigan's 13th — is majority African American and a stronghold of the Democratic Party, with the US president, Barack Obama, winning some 85 per cent of the vote in 2008. Clarke ousted a Democratic incumbent, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, in a primary election last year.
Clarke sees himself both as South Asian and African American; he takes his surname from his mother, who was a guard at a crossing for schoolchildren. Making his background even more diverse, Clarke's wife is of Korean ancestry.
And Clarke views his heritage more as South Asian than just Bangladeshi, noting that his father was born before the subcontinent was partitioned in 1947 and Bangladesh subsequently won independence from Pakistan in 1971.
'My dad died before there was ever a Bangladesh created. He always considered himself an Indian,' Clarke said, recalling his father hung on the wall a picture of an event in support of freedom from Britain.
His father, Mozaffar Ali Hashim, worked at a foundry of Ford Motor Company. Alarmed by Detroit's troubles, he planned to move his family to East Bengal but developed heart problems and died when the future congressman was eight years old.
'He spent all of his time with me because I think he knew he was going to die prematurely,' Clarke said. 'He had a huge impact on me.'
Clarke also has an ecumenical approach to religion. He said he would attend a mosque as a child but later came to consider himself a Roman Catholic and contemplated the priesthood when he was in his early 20s.
'My father was an extraordinary respectful, loving, kind, gentle human being, but he was that way because of his faith — because of his faith,' Clarke said, repeating his words for emphasis.
'Yes, I hold a different tradition in one respect but I also wanted to be a priest because I wanted to emulate my dad,' he said.
Clarke is an accomplished painter and studied art in university, aspiring to work in galleries before he became interested in politics. He served for eight years in the Michigan state Senate.
In Washington, Clarke said he hoped to work to give his constituents the same opportunities he has enjoyed. Besides the profiling issue, Clarke has prioritised economic development and proposed withdrawing troops from Afghanistan to redirect the money at home.
Clarke did not visit Bangladesh until several years ago but once there, he found an emotional bond. He said he was greeted by around 1,000 people in his father's hometown of Beanibazar and learned, to his surprise, that his dad once ran a local shop selling wedding gowns which remains profitable.
'As the guy who spent years living absolutely all alone — my parents dead, no brothers or sisters, no grandparents — I felt sometimes I was alone and I had to tough it out. To see this huge family there was just extraordinary,' Clarke said.
'If you think about it, I'm considered a relatively modern, urban congressman in this country, but yet my roots go back to a culture 100 years old in unified India.'
Source : New Age
At least 35 dead, 100 hurt as train derails in India
A packed passenger train travelling at full speed derailed in northern India on Sunday killing at least 35 people and leaving up to 100 injured after carriages were thrown off the tracks.
Some of the 15 derailed carriages were left stacked on top of each other, as rescue teams worked to free people trapped inside the train in Uttar Pradesh state, 150 kilometres south of Lucknow city.
'At least 35 people are dead and 100 injured are being treated at the scene and in hospital,' K N Joshi, the local district chief medical officer, said. 'I have seen a number of people still lying inside the coaches.'
The Press Trust of India news agency said the driver was among the injured and that local people had rushed to the crash site to help pull victims from the wreckage of twisted metal.
The train, carrying about 1,000 people, was moving at near its top speed of 108 kilometres an hour when it derailed, PTI quoted one regional railway manager as saying.
'We were sitting in our seats when suddenly everything turned upside down,' said a male passenger interviewed by the CNN-IBN news channel. 'When the train stopped we broke the glass windows to jump out on the track.'
The Kalka Mail express train was travelling from Howrah, the main station for the eastern city of Kolkata, across India to the capital New Delhi when it left the tracks near Malwa station.
The cause of the accident was unclear and railway officials said an investigation had been launched.
The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, 'expressed deep sorrow and shock at the loss of lives' and promised all resources in the area would be deployed for rescue and relief operations, his office said in a statement.
Anxious relatives and friends of the passengers gathered at Howrah and other stations along the line seeking information about their loved ones.
A special train was scheduled to take families of victims to the accident site, state officials said, while two military helicopters were also sent to assist.
On Thursday, 38 people were killed in Uttar Pradesh when a train slammed into a bus carrying a marriage party.
India's state-run railway system — still the main form of long-distance travel despite fierce competition from new private airlines — carries 18.5 million people daily.
The worst accident in India was in 1981 when a train plunged into a river in the eastern state of Bihar, killing an estimated 800 people.
The railway is the country's largest employer with 1.4 million people on its payroll and it runs 11,000 trains a day.
Experts say the creaking system, the world's second largest under a single management, is desperately in need of new investment to improve safety and help end transportation bottlenecks that threaten the country's economic growth.
Source : New Age
ADC Harun, AC Biplob sued
Two police officers were on Sunday sued for alleged attempt to kill the opposition chief whip Zainul Abdin Farroque during the general strike on July 6.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker ABM Ashrafuddin Nizan filed the case with a Dhaka court accusing additional deputy commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Harun-or-Rashad, assistant commissioner Biplob Sarker and some 25 to 30 unnamed policemen of attempting to kill Farroque on Manik Mia Avenue.
After hearing the case, metropolitan magistrate AKM Azad asked the Dhaka
Metropolitan Police commissioner to investigate the matter and submit the investigation report to the court by August 10.
The court also posted for August 10 the next hearing in the case.
In his complaint, Nizan, the lawmaker for the Lakshmipur 4 constituency, told the court that some 25 to 30 the policemen and members of the Armed Police Battalion led by Harun and Biplop had in a planned way cordoned off 22 opposition lawmakers, including Farroque.
Nizan also alleged that at one point, the police officers, without being instigated, started abusing Farroque, who was leading the lawmakers about 7:50 on Manik Miah Avenue on July 6, the first day of the 48-hour general strike the BNP and its allies enforced.
'As Farroque lodged a protest, Harun and other police in riot gear beat him Farroque with truncheons, tore off his polo shirt and kicked him down on the ground,' Nizan added.
As Farroque tried to escape, the police chased him to the lawmakers' apartments, captured him in the garage of a building and severely beat him again, the lawmaker said.
He said that Harun had hit Farroque in the head with truncheon to kill him. Farroque was wounded in the head and was bleeding.
Nizan said that Farroque had injuries overall the body, especially in the left leg. The leg had swollen. He felt acute pain in the head and at knee-joints.
He said that Farroque was under treatment in United Hospital in a critical condition.
Nizan also said that soon after the incident, he went to the Sher-e-Bangla police station to file case but the police refused to registrar it.
He named 13 lawmakers as witnesses in the case.
Sanaullah Mia with Mahmud Hasan Shakil acted for Nizan.
Source : New Age
World Population Day today
A highly overpopulated Bangladesh observes World Population Day today amid confusion over what really is the size of its population.
The day is being observed across the globe on the theme 'World at 7 billion' set by UNFPA to call attention of governments, communities and individuals to understand the global population issues for taking corrective action.
The day, this year, assumes greater significance as the population of the world is set to reach seven billion by the end of October 2011 from six billion 12 years ago.
For overpopulated Bangladesh it is more so as the country no more has an effective family planning service it once had.
Every year, the UN World Population Day is observed on July 11.
The day has been observed since 1989 at the initiative of the United Nations Population Fund to create awareness about the importance of family planning, maternal health, gender equality, poverty, and human rights. It is the right of every human being to decide the number and timing of their children, and this is the pervading sentiment of World Population Day.
In Bangladesh, the government as well as the NGOs took programmes in the capital city and elsewhere in the country to observe the day.
Speaking at a news briefing at his secretariat office, health and family welfare minister AFM Ruhal Haque said on Sunday that it was on the government's priority to control the country's population boom.
He, however, said that the government finds doorstep delivery of health and family planning services a difficult proposition.
'It's difficult for a poor country like Bangladesh to ensure door-step delivery of health and family planning services to the public,' he said.
He said he was 'reasonably happy' with his ministry's overall performance in family welfare programmes.
Asked whether the country's population was 15 crore as the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics states or more than16 crore as the UN report of 2008 states, the minister said they should come up with a single statistics.
He said that he spoke to the prime minister about the confusion.
He also said that he expected the census report of 2011 to remove the confusion.
Apparently embarrassed by the queries, Ruhal said that as his ministry did not know the exact size of the country's population, he would refrain from saying anything about it at the moment.
The government, he said took a number of actions to step up family planning activities in the country by filling vacancies in the family planning directorate and ensuring adequate stocks of contraceptives.
He said that the government was preparing to take a programme to motivate couples to go to service centres it runs at community clinics to get family planning services and contraceptives.
The minister said that 61.7 per cent of the couples were using family planning methods while the government wanted to raise the coverage to 80 per cent by 2021.
Health minister would inaugurate the government's programme to observe the day at Osmani Memorial Auditorium at 9 AM today.
The health ministry would award the best field level family welfare assistants and best service provider organisations.
A colourful procession would be taken from Bangladesh Shishu Academy to Osmani Memorial Auditorium at 8.30 AM under the initiative of the ministry.
The Department of Population Science of Dhaka University would organise a discussion at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban of the university at 1.30 PM. A colourful procession would be taken out from Aparajeyo Bangla
on the campus under its
initiative.
Source : New Age
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