Cold storage owners seek govt intervention

Cold storage owners and potato farmers in Rajshahi on Saturday sought intervention of the government for solving their prevailing problems.

They said at a news briefing in the city that the potato traders and growers had been facing an embarrassing situation with their 25 lakh tonnes of stored potato in cold-storages in the region.

Besides, they mentioned that the traders as well as the growers would face incurring loss at Tk 300 per bag if they sold their stored potato at present.

Due to lack of adequate preservation facilities and abundance of unpreserved potato in the local markets, the wholesale and retail price had been declined to an unexpected level making the farmers frustrated, they informed.

Most of the farmers were seen opting for high yielding potato varieties and adopting scientific methods of cultivation, resulting in bumper yield, said Abu Bakkar Ali, president of Rajshahi Cold Storage Owners Association.

But the potato growers incurred losses this year as they did not get fair price of their produce, he said. To overcome the loss, he sought government intervention for exporting potato.

There had been a bumper production of potato in Rajshahi this year due to favourable climatic condition. But the bumper production could not bring fruit for the growers for low price of potato which could not cover production cost, he added.

'The farmers are not happy over the market price. For inadequate preservation facilities in the region, they are being forced to sell their potatoes at low price incurring loss,' he also said.

This adverse situation would have impact on the cultivation of potato in the region in the next year as the growers would surely loss their interest to cultivate potato again, he said.

Muhammad Ali Sarker, owner of Raj Cold Storagte, said, 'The government is initiating many safety-net programmes including VGF, VGD, OMS, FW and so on for vulnerable group development. It will be a great solution if government includes potato in the programmes which will help the farmers to get a reasonable price,' he said.

He urged the government to add potato in government's rationing which was operational for Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Police, Border Guard of Bangladesh, Ansar-VDP.

This inclusion of potato would help farmers to get a reasonable price for their products and would encourage the farmers to boost the production, he said.

Association members of Rajshahi Cold Storage Owners Association Ful Muhammad and Ahsan Uddin also spoke at the programme.

2 muggers held with firearms in Pabna

The police arrested two persons along with firearms while they were allegedly trying to snatch money from a trader at village Kalikapur of Sujanagar in Pabna on Saturday.

The arrestees were Liton Sardar, 20, and Sheikh Shahin, 22, of the village Kalikapur.

The Sujanagar police station officer-in-charge, Ahsanul Haque, said that the accused muggers halted Ashok Kumar, a trader of the upazila, at Kalikapur at noon when he was going to Dhaka with Tk 30 thousand.

Hearing screams, locals rushed to the spot. Being informed, a mobile team of the Sujanagar police station chased the criminals and held Liton and Shahin with firearms and recovered the looted money from them.

The arrestees were kept in the police custody.

Housewife commits ‘suicide’ in Jamalpur

A housewife allegedly committed suicide under a running train at Jamalpur railway station on Saturday afternoon.

The victim was identified as Kobita Begum, 18, wife of Shahinur Islam at village Pashchim Dakpara in Jamalpur town.

The Jamalpur Railway police said that Kobita was waiting at the station platform with other passengers in the afternoon. When the Dhaka bound intercity train Teesta was leaving the station, she suddenly jumped in front of the running train. She died on the spot.

The police recovered the body and sent it to Jamalpur General Hospital morgue for autopsy.

The reason behind the suicide could not be known immediately.

A UD case was registered with Jamalpur GRP thana.

Students want supplementary examinations

Under-graduate students of the Institute of Health Technology in Rajshahi city boycotted their classes and brought out procession on Saturday, demanding provision of supplementary examinations.

More than one hundred BSc students from the departments of laboratory technology, dental and physiotherapy of the institute took part in the procession and later formed a human chain at Shaheb Bazar Zero Point.

Computer training centre burnt in Jessore

A computer training centre was burnt in a fire, which broke out on Ghop Jel Road in Jessore town on Saturday.

Jessore fire service sources said the fire originated from a switch board of the centre, Acme IT, located on the fourth floor of a building, and soon it engulfed the building at about 10:00am.

Receiving information, local fire service personnel rushed in and quelled the fire after an hour long hectic efforts.

The centre said 10 rooms, 27 computers, five ACs and other goods were burnt.

Benajir Ahmed gets OISCA award

BGMEA Institute of Fashion and Technology president Benajir Ahmed, also former chairman of the board of governors of North South University Foundation, has been given OISCA International for his contribution in removing of the poverty and environmental development, said a press release.

A Tokyo-based non-governmental organisation, the Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement International, gave him the award.

On October 7, the Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihiko Noda, handed over the award to Benajir Ahmed at OISCA's 50th anniversary.

Earlier he had been awarded Shar-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Haque Award, Micheal Modhusudhan Award, Mawlana Bashani Padak and Bangladesh Education Trust Gold Medal for his contributions in social services.

Benajir is also the managing editor of The Daily Purbabhas, the chairman of MyTV, former district governor of Lions Clubs Inter

AL councils at union, ward levels this month

The Awami League will start holding its union and ward level councils within this month.

The decision was taken when the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, held a meeting with the party's working committee members at her Dhanmondi office Saturday afternoon.

"Our party president prime minister Sheikh Hasina will soon sit with the organising secretaries to fix the dates of the councils of union and ward levels,' a working committee member told the news agency.

He said the prime minister had directed them to work more seriously for further expediting the organisational activities in the wake of the opposition party's threat to topple the government through movement.

'She (Sheikh Hasina) has directed us to inform the people about success stories of the government,' he said.

Hasina also held a separate meeting with Nilphamari district Awami League leaders ahead of her visit to the district on October 12.

On the day, Hasina would present national flag to Bangladesh Army-run Electrical Mechanical School and inspect a parade of the army members.

Before returning to the capital, the prime minister is also expected to address a public rally in Nilphamari town.

Hasina on Saturday went to her Dhanmondi office to hold informal meeting with leaders of her party and its associate organisations.

Civil aviation staff held with foreign currency

A civil aviation staff was arrested on Friday night with currencies of 11 countries worth about Tk 5.85 lakh from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, a police official said.

Acting on secret information, a civil team of the Armed Police Battalion arrested Mohammad Abdur Rahman, a staff of civil aviation from mosque area of the airport and seized the foreign currencies from his possession, assistant police super of APBN Zahed Parvez Chowdhury said.

The currencies include $100, Singapore dollar 170, Euro 720, British pound 105, Indian rupee 1,210, Bahrain Dinar 25.50, Qatar Riyal 2,248, Oman Riyal 25, Malaysian Ringgit 400, UE Dirham 2,075 and Saudi Riyal, 19,200.

During preliminary interrogation Rahman said he had long been siphoned off foreign currencies with the help of six officials and employees of Biman Bandar branch of Janata Bank — Arshad, Babar Ali, Mahbub, Ahshan Habib, Ataur Rahman, Harun.

A case was lodged against them with Biman Bandar police station in this regard.

Utilise unfavourable lands to ensure food security: Razzaque

The food minister, Abdur Razzaque, has urged the agronomists to come forward with their research works so that the country's 'unfavourable' lands can be used to boost food production and thus ensure food security.

He was speaking at the 10th daylong conference of Bangladesh Society of Agronomy at Bangladesh Research Institute in Gazipur on crop production under unfavourable ecosystem in Bangladesh on Saturday.

He said the government had taken various steps, including VGF and VGD and OMS programmes, to ensure food security of the people.

Razzaque mentioned that 52 lakh tonnes food grains were imported in the last fiscal year, of which 22 lakh tonnes were imported by the government while the rest by private sector.

The minister said the government would provide rice to 70,000 families during the Eid-ul Azha under the VGF programme.

He said the country had to import edible oil worth Tk 12,000 to Tk 13,000 crore every year. If 50 per cent of our total demand for edible oil could be fulfilled by local production in the country it would save the country's foreign exchange, he said.

He said food production could be raised through new innovations and researches by the agronomists to ensure food security for the country's booming population.

He emphasised utilising unfavourable ecosystem (Char, haor and hill areas) for raising food production.

Chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on agriculture ministry Shawkat Momen Shahjahan, MP, and committee member Abdul Mannan, MP were present at the conference as special guests.

Anarchy in name of road march won’t be tolerated: Quamrul

The state minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs, Quamrul Islam, has said none will be allowed to create anarchy in the name of opposition's road marches.

'The government will strictly control any destructive activities or disorder in the name of opposition's road marches,' said the minister.

Quamrul was speaking at a discussion on 'Necessity of Caretaker Government and Present Perspective' organised by Sammilita Tarun Peshajibi Parishad (Combined Youth

Professional Council) at Dhaka Reporters' Unity in capital's Segunbagicha

area on Saturday.

President of Sammilita Tarun Peshajibi Parishad Jakir Ahmed chaired the discussion.

Among others, Golam Mowla Roni MP, Daily Surjyadai editor Khandaker Mozammel Haque and Krishak League organising secretary MA Karim also spoke on the occasion.

The minister claimed that the war crimes trial process in Bangladesh was more transparent than any other countries of the world.

'The present government has taken all steps including self-defence and appointment of observers to ensure the trial as an international standard,' he said.

He mentioned that the trial procedure would begin on the first of next year.

The AL lawmaker accused the BNP-led opposition of initiating road march programme to save the war criminals, grenade attackers and militant

outfits.

Quamrul categorically denied the opposition demand for the restoration of caretaker government system and said, 'The caretaker system has been

cancelled constitutionally, so there is no scope to

discuss it.'

He added that no polls held during the caretaker government were free from the controversy.

Quamrul again called upon the opposition to return to parliament to form a stronger Election Commission  through discussion.

Drug addict confesses to killing father

A young drug addict who had strangled his father, a businessman, with the help of his two cohorts and buried the body in a hardware shop in the Old Town of Dhaka on the night of September 29, was brought to Dhaka on Saturday.

During interrogation in police custody, the accused, Zahid Hossain Sunny, confessed to killing his father Dulal Miah, sub-inspector Monir Hossain Molla of Sutrapur police station told New Age.

The police said Sunny had killed his father with the help of his two friends, Al-Amin and Mohammad Sharif, both of them

employees at Dulal's

hardware shop, after his father refused to give him money.

In his statement, Sunny said he used to take drugs like Yaba and Phensidyl regularly. He said the amount his father used to give him as daily pocket money was not enough to buy drugs. 'When I asked my father to increase the amount of my daily pocket money, he questioned how I spent the money,' Sunny told the police.

Sunny said he had decided to kill his father after being instigated by Al Amin. who

'Al Amin told me that I would own the property if I kill my father,' Sunny said.

SI Monir Molla said that Sunny had strangled his father under the influence of drugs.

'It was past midnight when my father along with me and the two employees was working inside the shop. As planned, I pushed my father down on the ground with the help of Al-Amin and Sharif, tied up his hands and legs and then strangled him,' Sunny said.

The three persons then buried body inside the shop.

He said that he had paid Tk 5,000 and Tk 3,000 to Al-Amin and Sharif for helping him to kill his father.

Dulal was buried at his village home in Tangail on Saturday morning. 

Dulal's widow Monwara Begum on Saturday filed a murder case against her son and his two friends.

The police said that

they had conducted drives to arrest Al-Amin and

Sharif.

The police Friday evening recovered Dulal's decomposed body from his shop on Nawabpur Road in the Old Town of Dhaka six days after the murder.

The police arrested Sunny from Nagarpur in

Tangail.

AL to decide NCC mayoral candidate support today

The ruling Awami League will today decide which of its two leaders it will support in the election to the position of the mayor of the Narayanganj City Corporation polls scheduled for October 30.

The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, also the prime minister, at a meeting with some senior leaders in her party office at Dhanmondi on Saturday afternoon instructed presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury to sit with both Shamim Osman and Selina Hayat Ivy on Sunday morning and finalise party support for one of them, sources attending the meeting said.

'The decision on party support for the candidate for the Narayanganj City Corporation elections will be made on Sunday,' the Awami League's joint general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif told reporters after the meeting.

The sources said that Sajeda, also the deputy leader of the parliament, would sit with Shamim and Ivy at the party chief's Dhandondi office at 10:00am and made

a decision through a discussion.

'The decision will be made on Sunday after meeting with the aspirant mayoral candidates,' AL presidium member Matia Chowdhury, also the agriculture minister, told New Age, adding that the both were dedicated and popular leaders and the party would make a decision through an understanding.

AL leader Faruk Khan, also the commerce minister, told New Age that the issue of selecting party-backed candidate would be settled at a meeting in presence the of both the candidates on Sunday.

Hasina on October 2 called Ivy and Osman to her residence, Ganabhaban, and tried to make them understand about the need for a single candidate in greater interest of the party and urged them to be ready for this.

Although the district unit AL convener, SM Akram Khan, had also submitted his nomination paper for the mayoral election, he was not called by the prime minister for negotiation.

Sources said that Hasina also instructed party leaders to launch campaigns among the people in favour of the government, pointing out its success in various sectors and strengthening party activities by holding all the council sessions at the grass roots to prepare the party for the next general elections.

She also suggested that the party men should point out the failure of the past BNP government.

The meeting also decided to hold a rally in Nilphamari on Wednesday which the prime minister will address.

The sources said that Hasina also warned the leaders and activists of the Juba League and the Chhatra League not to get involved in crimes, corruption and violence.

She also approved five local party committees — Chapainawabganj, Rajshahi and Sylhet district units and Sylhet and Rajshahi city units.

The prime minister instructed AL leaders not to create any obstruction to the long march of the BNP that is beginning on Monday and termed long march a peaceful political programme.

'We will not oppose any peaceful political programmes of the opposition but any subversive activities in the name of politics will not be allowed,' Hanif, also the party's spokesman, said.

AL presidium members Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Matia Chowdhury and Yousuf Hossain, among others, attended the meeting.

Families want bodies back home

Families of Bangladeshis who were executed in Saudi Arabia demanded that the bodies should be brought back home and alleged that the victims were denied defence lawyers during trial.

Eight Bangladeshi migrant workers were beheaded in public in Saudi Arabia on Friday on charges of an armed robbery and killing of an Egyptian man in April 2007.

The executed were Mamun, son of Abdul Menan of the Tangail district headquarters, Mohammed

Sumon, son of Abdul Hye, and  Masud, son of Shamsul Haque, of Kalihati in Tangail, Shafiq al-Islam, son of Khowaz Uddin of Sakhipur in Tangali, Abu Hussain, son of Ahmed Biswas, and Motair Rahman, son of Shahid Khan, of Faridpur, Faruq, son of Jamaluddin of Daudkandi in Comilla, and Sumon Miah, son of Milan Miah of Pakundia in Kishoreganj.

'I want my son back,' said Hajera Khatun, mother of Mamun, as she kept wailing in her house at Abdullah Para in the Tangail district headquarters. 'A least bring the body back home.'

Mamun's elder brother Harun Mia alleged that his brother was not involved in the incident of killing.

'In 2009, we contacted the ministry of foreign affairs after my brother had been implicated in the case of the killing and held a press conference requesting the government to arrange for defence lawyers,' said Harun on Saturday night. He alleged that trial was conducted without giving the accused defence lawyer.

Harun demanded that the body of his brother should be brought back home and the family should be given compensation.

Jyotsna Akhter, sister of Masud who was among the executed, said that the family had been deeply shocked at the news of the execution. She added that they could not believe that Mamun could be proved a killer.

'My mother could not speak after hearing the news of execution. We want the body back,' she said.

The New Age correspondent in Faridpur said that family of Motair at Krishnanagar in the Faridpur district headquarters had also wanted the body back home.

Motair's brother Akmal Khan said that he had first heard the news a news bulletin on television on Saturday afternoon.

Motair went to Saudi Arabia after his SSC examinations to work as as salesman for Al-Toyk company in 2005.

On April 28, 2007, he was accused with 10 other Bangladeshi workers of killing an Egyptian worker in Riyadh.

Motair, who went to Saudi Arabia by selling his 75 decimals of land the family owned, last contacted his family on September 5, 2011 and talked for five minutes.

Delhi blast probe spreads to Bangladesh

The investigations into the September 7 blast at the entrance to a court in Indian capital New Delhi has spread to Bangladesh, with tacit cooperation between the counterterrorism agencies of the two countries leading to the arrest of a key suspect in the case.

The arrest also once again brought under focus the terror networks of the extremist organisation Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and Hizbul Mujahideen across the sub-continent.

Indian government officials, however, did not disclose if the purported disappearance and interrogation of four Kashmiri students from a medical college in Sylhet were also linked to the probe into the Delhi High Court blast.

After a Kashmiri student of a medical college in Bangladesh was arrested by India's National Investigation Agency in connection with the blast, his father claimed that he himself had asked his son to return to India and handed the latter over to the investigators at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi soon after his arrival from Dhaka.

The NIA produced Wasim Akram Malik to a court in Delhi on Friday and he was remanded to agency's custody until October 21. Wasim is the son of a government official based in Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir and he was studying in a medical college in Bangladesh.

Wasim's parents, however, said an incarcerated Hizbul Mujahideen militant, whom they got arrested for kidnapping their other son Junaid in 2010, set the police after their family after the blast in front of Delhi High Court. Jammu and Kashmir police, however, described Junaid, who is yet to be traced, as a militant of the Hizbul Mujahideen.

The blast at the entrance to the Delhi court killed at least 15 and left many others injured.

Kishtwar came under the focus after investigations revealed that an email purportedly circulated by HuJI among media organisations to claim responsibility for the blast had in fact been sent from the town in Jammu and Kashmir.

Wasim was the third Kashmiri to be arrested in connection with blast. Earlier, two youths, Amir Abbas and Abid Hussain, were arrested in Kishtwar.

Wasim's father Riaz ul Hassan Malik, an employee of India's state-owned National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, told journalists that he had received a letter from the police in Kishtwar informing him that the NIA wanted to question his son in connection with the Delhi High Court blast.

'I made arrangements so that the NIA officials can talk to my son Wasim, who was in Bangladesh, over telephone. He readily agreed to cooperate with the investigation and I asked him to return. I received him at the airport in Delhi and then handed him over to the NIA officials,' said Riaz ul Hassan Malik, who had in November 2010 lodged a complaint with the Jammu and Kashmir police that his youngest son Junaid had been kidnapped by Hizbul Mujahideen militants.

Police action on the basis of his complaint had led to the unearthing of a recruitment module of the terrorist networks and three Hizbul Mujahideen operatives, including one Azhar Ali, had been arrested. The police, however, could not trace Junaid.

The NIA purportedly started suspecting Wasim's role in the Delhi High Court blast after they questioned incarcerated Azhar Ali in a jail in Kashmir.

Wasim's family claimed that he had been in Kishtwar on the day of the blast at Delhi High Court and had not only withdrawn money from bank ATMs but also shopped in the malls, where he might have been caught on CCTV.

'My son is innocent and he had nothing to do with the blast in Delhi,' said his mother Shamima Begum, who is a headmistress of a government school in Kishtwar.

Wasim, who had been in Kishtwar on Eid vacation, had gone back to Bangladesh on September 9, just two days after the blast.

Due to tacit cooperation between the security agencies of Bangladesh and India earlier in 2009 and 2010, a number of top leaders of insurgent organisations active in north-eastern Indian states of Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur had landed in the custody of the law-enforcing agencies of India.

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, had upheld the security cooperation between his country and Bangladesh as an example.

'In South Asia, there are encouraging signs of cooperation in the area of security, as exemplified in India's growing cooperation with Bangladesh. Such cooperation is adding to the security of both our countries,' he had said.

Moriarty cable says Hasina not above vindictiveness

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, had failed to rise above vindictiveness and petty politics that proved debilitating to Bangladesh's democracy, said former US envoy in Dhaka James F Moriarty in a diplomatic cable sent to Washington on June 3, 2009.

The cable was sent before the visit of the assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs Robert O Blake in 2009.

Moriarty also said, 'Bangladeshi political system that features two dominant parties whose leaders, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party Chairwoman Khaleda Zia, revel in petty partisanship'.

'A fight between the Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party over the seating chart for parliament prompted an opposition boycott of the legislative body's first weeks. The BNP also reacted with fury to Hasina's efforts to evict the party's leader, Khaleda Zia, from her home on the Dhaka Cantonment ground,' the cable added.

The diplomatic wire said, 'A tearful personal visit by [Khaleda] Zia to Hasina when her estranged husband died in early May raised some hopes of a detente between the two ladies, and Hasina reportedly is looking to establish a back channel of communications with Khaleda Zia.'

According to the cable, Bangladesh, a moderate Muslim-majority country of

nearly 150 million people that is friendly to the United States, is surprisingly a hopeful place despite the daunting problems it faces: recurring natural disasters; poverty; overpopulation; porous borders attractive to terrorists; and a political system that features two dominant parties whose leaders, prime minister Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia, revel in petty partisanship.

Yet that's only part of the story. Bangladesh has made huge progress in a number of areas, and is clearly no longer the 'international basket case' once described by a former US secretary of state, said the cable.

'It is now a thriving democracy that in December 2008 held its freest, fairest and most credible parliamentary elections since its independence in 1971,' it added.

Bangladesh, the seventh-most populous country in the world, returned to democracy with parliamentary elections in December 2008 after two years of an unelected caretaker government.

According to the cable, Sheikh Hasina's Awami League won at least in part due to a positive message promising an end to the hyper-partisanship of Bangladesh's traditional 'winner-take-all' politics. She filled her cabinet with many new faces, pushing from centre stage many of the Awami League politicians closely associated with the dysfunctional politics of the past. The media, which faced constant threats from military censors during the caretaker government, has blossomed in recent months, freely criticising many of the new government's policies.

 

AL won’t obstruct opposition’s peaceful programmes: PM

The Awami League president and prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has said her party will not obstruct any peaceful political programmes of the opposition and urged them (opposition) to shun destructive politics in the interests of the country's development.

'We are not against any peaceful political programmes

of the opposition . . . but we would not allow anybody to do destructive politics which causes sufferings to the people,' she said.

Hasina said this in an unscheduled meeting with party leaders and workers at her Dhanmondi office in the city on Saturday.

Her comments came as the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party is going to start its 'road march' towards Sylhet on Monday.

During her two-hour stay in Dhanmondi office, she exchanged views with party leaders on organisational programmes and called for strengthening the party at the grassroots level.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, the Awami League joint secretary, Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif, said the prime minister had called upon party workers to make people aware of the development programmes and success of the present government in various areas as well as highlighting the past records of corruption and misrule when the present opposition party was in power.

The prime minister said people would not forget the corruption records of the BNP. It's the shame for the nation that the corruption of Khaleda Zia's family has been proved in the investigation of the courts in Singapore and the United States, she said.

'Corruption charges against Begum Zia for misappropriation of the money of Zia Orphanage Trust and taking bribe from Niko by a former state minister have also been proved,' Hasina said.

Later, they have legalised their ill-gotten money by paying tax, she added.

Referring to the law and order situation during the BNP regime, the prime minister said they made Bangladesh a land of militants and terrorists.

Their unleashing of a reign of terror not only caused sufferings to the common people, it also killed popular Awami League leaders Shah AMS Kibria, Ahsanullah Master, MP, and Monjurul Imam, she said, adding that the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 was the most barbaric incident.

The prime minister said rise in the incidents of extortion, mugging and other sorts of crimes reached such a dangerous proportion during the BNP regime that it prompted the then World Bank country director to ask for shelter from finance minister Saifur Rahman.

'The World Bank country director, Christina Wallick, at that time threatened to shift her office from Bangladesh,' the prime minister recalled saying 'now they are hatching conspiracy to save the war criminals and plunderers of public money'.

During the meeting, Hanif said, the prime minister also sought suggestions from the party leaders on various issues to run the country more efficiently to reduce sufferings of the people.

The Awami League president also gave her approval to five district committees. These are Sylhet district and city committees, Chapainawabganj district committee and Rajshahi district and city committees, Hanif said.