Blind association leader killed in capital

Assailants killed organizing secretary of national association for the blinds by slitting his throat at his office in city's Chalkbazaar Bazar area on Wednesday afternoon.

The deceased Idris Ali Bepari, son of Karim Bepari, was an accused in the case related to the killing of the association's secretary general Kahlilur Rahman, police said.

The victim's wife, Parvin Akter, said that Idris was found dead at his office at Orphanage Road in Lalbagh area at around 2:30pm.

Police recovered the body and sent it to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for post-mortem examination.

Ayub Ali, one of the members of the association, accused Idris's rivals in the organization of killing Idris by slitting his throat.

He alleged that some associates of the deceased Khalilur Rahman had threatened Idris to kill him over cell phone a few days back.

'Idris had rivalry with Md Kamal, Minhaz Uddin, and Mohammad Sharif over the post of organizing secretary of the organisation. They threatened to kill him last week,' he said.

Idris Ali hailed from village Tulatola of Shahriatpur district. He lived in Hazi Ballu Road of Rahmatganj.

Sub-inspector Aminul Islam of Chalkbazaar Bazar police station told New Age that rivalry with some members of the organisation might be one of the reasons behind killing Idris Ali.

He said that filing of case was underway in this connection.

On January 2, 2011, assailants shot dead secretary general Kahlilur Rahman when he was returning home after visiting the house of a leader of the association at Mirpur-2.

Source : New Age

Collapse of guide wall caused landslide: report

The committee formed to probe the landslide at Batali Hill, which killed 17 persons on Friday, on Wednesday submitted its report in which it blamed the faulty construction of the guide wall as the major reason behind the tragedy.

'There was no weep hole in the box type guide wall to let water seep away. The outer portion of the wall collapsed due to the pressure of stagnant water when the inner portion remained unharmed,' said the report.

The committee, headed by additional deputy commissioner Ehsan-e-Elahi, also said in its report that the concerned land-grabber had excavated earth from the bottom of the wall to set up illegal structures, which also might have caused the collapse.

The committee put forwarded nine recommendations, including the assigning of a team of experts to make sure whether or not the guide wall had been constructed as per the design and good materials had been used as stipulated in the tender schedule.

'The Chittagong City Corporation, which financed the construction of the guide wall on the hill owned by the Bangladesh Railway, will be able to take punitive measures against the persons responsible if any deviation is found by the team of experts,' said the report.

The committee also recommended immediate removal of all illegal structures from all the hills, including 12 identified as especially vulnerable by the probe committee formed after the series of landslides which killed 126 people on 11 June, 2007.

It also stressed the need for ringing the hills with barbed wire fences and planting trees to prevent encroachment.

Making a list of the people dwelling on vulnerable hill slopes and taking necessary measures in association with the district administration to rehabilitate them was also recommended by the committee.

'It is also necessary to ascertain whether or not the guide walls of the other hills are in good condition,' said the report, adding that measures for the maintenance of the guide walls would have to be taken.

The committee's chief told New Age that he had submitted the report to deputy commissioner Fayez Ahmed in the afternoon, adding that they were scheduled to submit it on Thursday but were able to submit it a day ahead.

'We could submit the report a day before the stipulated time thanks to the all-out cooperation of all the committee members,' he added.

Abdul Bari, assistant estate officer of Bangladesh Railway, Manzur Morshed, assistant commissioner of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police, Rafiqul Islam, executive engineer of the Chittagong City Corporation, and Mostafa Kamal, executive engineer of Housing and Settlement Department, were the members of the committee.

Seventeen members of five families, including five of a family and four of another, were killed on Friday morning in a landslide on the southern part of Batali Hill at Ambagan in the port city.

Earlier, 126 people were killed in a series of landslides in different parts of the city on 11 June, 2007, and 11 in 2008. Seven were killed in landslides in 2002, 16 in 2000, and 19 in 1999.

Source : New Age

BNP wants Sahara to resign

Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday alleged police 'launched attack on opposition chief whip Zainul Abdin Farroque with an intention to kill him'. 

The BNP acting secretary general also demanded immediate resignation of home minister Sahara Khatun for launching the attack on the opposition chief whip and other opposition lawmakers.

Police beat up Zainul Abdin Farroque leaving him seriously injured after he locked into an altercation with police at Manik Mia Avenue in front of parliament building on Wednesday, the first day of the two-day general strike called by BNP and its allies.

'Police launched the attack on Farroque in a bid to kill him,' alleged Mirza Fakhrul while addressing a press conference at the party's central office at Naya Paltan.

'Without any provocation, police attacked Farroque and other BNP lawmakers soon after they concluded a pro-hartal procession,' Fakhrul said.

Farroque was fatally wounded in the police attack and was undergoing treatment in the city's United Hospital, said the BNP leader.

He said, 'Farroque's injury was so fatal that he had to have a total of 19 stitches including 11 on his head.'

'It is a manifestation of the atrocities the Awami League-led autocratic regime has unleashed against the opposition,' he said.

Claiming the first day of the nationwide shutdown to be a 'successful one', Fakhrul said, 'The government employed its police force and thugs to repress the opposition activists like Hitler's Gestapo force did.'

He claimed that more then 400 BNP activists were arrested and some 450 leaders and activists were injured in 'attacks by police and ruling party goons' during the hartal hours at different parts of the country.

'Of 400 arrested, some 80 were picked up from the capital,' he added.

BNP alleged that some 25 opposition activists were sentenced to different terms by mobile courts during the hartal hours.

He demanded immediate release of the arrested leaders and activists and withdrawal of the 'false' cases filed against them.

Warning the government of dire consequences, Fakhrul said, 'Stop repression on the political rivals. Its consequences will not be good at all.'

Mirza Fakhrul said that the government has set bad precedence by passing the 15th amendment to the Constitution unilaterally exploiting its brut majority in parliament.

He thanked people for observing the first day of the general strike successfully. He also expressed his regret for the inconveniences caused to the people due to the strike.

In reply to a question, Fakhrul said the main opposition would take legal steps against 'police brutality' on the opposition chief whip.

Asked whether they would announce any action programmes against the 'police attack', he said soon after the 48-hour hartal, the party would take a decision in this regard.

Source : New Age

Devashish demands replacement of CHT land commission chair

Raja Devashis Roy, the Chakma Circle Chief, on Wednesday demanded immediate  replacement of the chairman of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Land Disputes Resolution Commission  to ensure 'just and impartial' functioning of the commission. 

Devashis said that the commission needs an 'impartial' chairman.

Himself a member of CHT land disputes resolution commission, Devashish expressed concern over a recent recommendation of the commission chairman asking for surveying CHT lands before settlement of disputes.

In a statement, he demanded an amendment to the CHT Land Disputes Resolution Commission Act 2001 to remove some of the provisions which go against the interests of the people of CHT.

He particularly demanded doing away with the commission chairman's power of taking decisions unilaterally without consulting the district council representatives and the circle chiefs.   

He issued the statement reacting to a news broadcast by the electronic media on July 5, which had stated that the CHT land commission chairman Khademul Islam Chowdhury recommended for surveying CHT land before or simultaneously with settlement of the disputes.

Having the powers of a civil court, he said, the commission was authorised only to settle the disputes.

He said that the commission had no jurisdiction to rehabilitate anyone.

Devashish pointed out that the CHT Regional Council and the three district councils in CHT alone could, through coordination, ask for surveying the land.

Devasish expressed his 'concern' over the commission not taking into the consideration the customary and traditional laws while thinking about surveying the land in CHT.

'If the concerned authorities do not pay attention to the traditional and the customary laws, the hill people's land of rights could be violated,' he said.      

Devashish suggested for steps taking into the consideration the provisions of the 1997 CHT accord which emphasise on surveying the land after settlement of the disputes and rehabilitating the returnee national minority people.    

Socio-political and minority organisations including, Parbatya Chttagram Jana Sanghati Samiti and CHT Civil Society have been opposing, for long, the unilateral decisions of the Land Commission chairman, Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury.

Source : New Age

Eyes of seven pirates gouged out on Char Kukrimukri in Meghna estuary

Angry people gouged out eyes of seven alleged pirates in the remote areas of Char Kukrimukri under Charfashon police station of Bhola district in the estuary of river Meghna on Wednesday noon.

Md. Saifuddin, assistant police super of Bhola and Riazuddin, officer-in-charge of Charfashon police station confirming the incident said police rescued the pirates from the hands of the mob and sent them to upazila health complex for treatment under police custody.

Police also recovered one pipe gun, two pistols, 22 rounds ofammunition, one gun and some sharp weapons from the trawler of the arrested pirates, police said.

The arrested  pirates were identified as Sohrab Hossain, 31, Ruhul Amin, 40, Abdur Rahman, 35, Nur Nabi, 35, Abdul Mannan, 44, Shahid, 29, and Lokman, 35. They all are members of  pirate gang Rana Bahini of Hatiya.

Police and local sources said the pirates on early Wednesday abducted Babul, Ali Abbas Majhi and Harun Mridha, three fishermen with their engine-boats   from Diamonura and Dakatia ghats in remote areas of Meghna estuary.

The pirate gang claimed themselves as members of 'Rana Bahini' of Hatiya and gave their relatives a cell phone No. 01754-244841 for contacting them to negotiate about release of the abducted fishermen by paying ransom.

Police of Char Aicha police post and Charfashon police station started operation to rescue and recover the abducted fishermen and the trawlers in the area on Wednesday morning and chased the trawlers of the pirates.

One trawler of the pirates was forced to land on Char Kukrimukri mangrove forest area on Bura Gouranga river in the Meghna River estuary after its engine failed and they took shelter  at Uttar Muslimpara registered primary school amid heavy downpour.

Local people became suspicious of the strangers inside a room in the  school, locked and cordoned the room from outside and asked local Chowkidar Abdul Motaleb to call police at about 11am.

But before police   reached the scene, local people nabbed the seven suspected pirates and tried to lynch them by mass beating and gouge out their eyes, local sources said.

Source : New Age

Police, courts and judiciary fail women: UN

More than half the world's working women are trapped in insecure jobs, often without protection from labour laws. Some 600 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not a crime. And just 28 countries have parliaments where at least 30 per cent of the lawmakers are women.

These are some of the key findings in the first report issued by the new UN agency, UN Women, entitled 'Progress of the World's Women: In Pursuit of Justice,' which was released Wednesday.

While 139 countries and territories now guarantee gender equality in their constitutions, the report said millions of women in many countries are still deprived of economic resources and access to public services and all too often 'are denied control over their bodies, denied a voice in decision-making and denied protection from violence.'

'For most of the world's women the laws that exist on paper do not always translate into equality and justice,' it said. 'In many contexts, in rich and poor countries alike, the infrastructure of justice — the police, the courts and the judiciary — is failing women, which manifests itself in poor services and hostile attitudes from the very people whose duty it is to fulfil women's rights.'

In the 169-page report, UN Women called on governments to repeal laws that discriminate against women, provide more funding to support innovative services such as legal aid and specialised courts to ensure that women can access the justice system and make certain that there are female police, judges and legislators.

While women have achieved greater economic empowerment through laws that prohibit discriminatory practices, guarantee equal pay and provide for maternity and paternity leave, the report said 53 per cent of working women — 600 million in total — are in vulnerable jobs such as self-employment, domestic work, or unpaid work for family businesses which often lack the protection of labour laws.

It said women are still paid up to 30 per cent less than men in some of the 117 countries that have laws guaranteeing equal pay in the workplace.

UN Women stressed that laws must be enforced if women are to achieve equality, but pointed to many barriers.

'In the developing world, more than one third of women are married before the age of 18, missing out on education and exposed to the risks of early pregnancy,' the report said.

Domestic violence is now outlawed in 125 countries but 603 million women live in countries where it is not a crime — and even where there are laws, the report said, 'millions of women report experiencing violence in their lifetimes, usually at the hands of an intimate partner.'

UN Women urged governments to learn from countries that have taken practical steps to make justice accessible to ordinary women.

It cited South Africa's 'one-stop shops' that bring justice, legal and health care services together, women's police stations in Latin America that have led to an increase in the reporting of gender-based violence, Congo's mobile courts which are bringing justice to women in rural areas where sexual violence is high, and legal aid to women in countries from Pakistan and Mexico to Fiji and Kyrgyzstan.

The report also noted that in countries with steep increases in women's representation in parliaments — such as Rwanda, Nepal and Spain — progressive laws on women's rights have often followed.

Source : New Age

BNP MPs submit memo to speaker

The lawmakers of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to Speaker Abdul Hamid in protest against the police attack on the opposition chief whip, Zainul Abdin Farroque, during the hartal. They also demanded exemplary punishment of all the police officials, especially Harun and Biplab, who were involved in the attack.

The BNP lawmakers, led by Mahbub Uddin Khokon, entered the speaker's office in the Parliament at about 7.00pm and submitted the

memorandum to him, in which they strongly denounced the police attack on their leader.

'The police officials, led by Harun and Biplab, attacked the opposition chief whip without any provocation during a peaceful procession and wounded him seriously,' said the memorandum, adding that Farroque was now undergoing treatment in a hospital.

The BNP lawmakers also claimed that the attack was an attempt to kill Farroque who has been elected lawmaker for five times.

The speaker termed the incident as unexpected and unfortunate and assured the BNP lawmakers that he would ask the home affairs ministry to take necessary action in this regard.

The speaker also assured them that he would to write to the home ministry to look into any excesses by the police.

Earlier, the opposition lawmakers at a press briefing in the media centre of the Parliament said that the police attacked Farroque as per the directives of the government.

Source : New Age

Mobile courts jail 17 on first day

Four out of 10 mobile courts, despite widespread criticism by the human rights activists in the country, have jailed 17 persons including activists of the various political parties for reportedly disrupting public security and, according to officials on Wednesday, beating up police officers.

Ten mobile courts led by 10 executive magistrates were engaged by the Dhaka district administration.

Of them, eight were patrolling the capital on the first day of the 48-hour hartal with the direct assistance of the offices of eight deputy police commissioners of the Dhaka Metropolitan Zones, and two courts were kept on standby.

Seven were jailed by the court in Mirpur zone and four each by the courts in Lalbagh and Wari zones, two by the Gulshan court, Dhaka's additional district magistrate, SM Mahbubur Rahman, told New Age.

The courts started working on Tuesday and will continue until 12:00pm on Friday to ensure law and order, said the district administration.

On Wednesday the police nabbed eight activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir at Mirpur in the morning for allegedly beating up police officials and creating anarchy.

Witnesses said that a number of hartal supporters gathered near the Mirpur-10 intersection and got locked in a clash with the police when the latter tried to disperse them.

Later, the eight activists were produced before the court of executive magistrate Al Amin which was set up near the place of concurrence.

After hearing their submission one by one, the mgistrate jailed seven for different terms ranging from two to three months as they pleaded guilty and sought the court's compassion.

The court, after considering the nature of the offences, jailed Abdul Halim Bhuiyan, 50, for two months, Mahbub Kabir, 35, Habibur Rahman Sheikh, 59, and Rahmat Ali, 24, for three months each, and Badrul Alam, 22, Neyamat Ullah, 23, and Siddiqur Rahman, 40, for two months each.

After delivering the verdict, the magistrate sent them to jail.

One of the eight accused, Ishak Munshi, who did not plead guilty, was handed over the police after the magistrate asked them to send him to a Dhaka court.

The police in Lalbagh zone also arrested a total of six persons on charge of disrupting public order in the area, said officials.

Executive magistrate of the court, Abul Bashar Md Fakhruzzaman, convicted four of them and handed the other two of them over to the police, asking the latter to sue them in a regular case.

'Three were jailed for seven days each and one for two days,' said the magistrate.

The government used such mobile courts during the last 36-hour hartal enforced by the opposition parties.

Rights activists and eminent citizens said that conviction of picketers during hartal is totally unlawful, and raised questions about the way the courts were conducted.

Leading rights watchdog Ain o Salish Kendra once again expressed grave concern over the use of mobile courts.

It said that during the hartal on June 4 and 5 it was found that instant trial by mobile courts was depriving the accused persons of their right to a proper defence.

This process flouted the normal court system, made the transparency of the judiciary questionable and opened the door for harassment of innocent pedestrians, it added.

Source : New Age

3 former IOs sent to jail

The chief metropolitan magistrate's court in Dhaka on Wednesday sent three former investigation officers of the August 21 grenade attack case to the jail after they had surrendered in connection with the case.

The metropolitan sessions judge's curt posted for July 17 the hearing in charges in another case filed under the Explosive Substances Act.

In the attack on an Awami League rally in August 2004, 24 people, including Mahila Awami League president Ivy Rahman were killed and scores, including Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, now the prime minister, were wounded.

Magistrate Keshab Roy Chowdhury sent the three investigation officers of the case — former CID special superintendent Md Ruhul Amin and former assistant superintendents Abdur Rashid and Munshi Atiqur Rahman — to jail after rejecting prayers for their bail in the killing case in which the court on Sunday issued warrants for the arrest of them and 15 others.

Judge Mohammad Md Zahurul Haque posted the hearing in charges of the explosive substances case as the chief metropolitan magistrate, AKM Enamul Haque, had sent to the court the charge sheet of the case for trial.

The Criminal Investigation Department on Sunday submitted two supplementary charge sheets pressing charges against 30 more people, including Tarique Rahman, also the BNP's senior vice-chairman, the detained Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, former prime minister's political adviser Haris Chowdhury, current BNP lawmaker Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad, four retired army officers and eight former police officers in both the cases relating to the grenade attack.

Keshab Roy on Sunday also issued warrants for the arrests of the 18, including Tarique Rahman, out of the 30 accused, shown absconding in the charge sheet of the killing case.

The chief metropolitan magistrate kept the charge sheet in the explosive substances case to complete some procedures before sending it to the trial court.

With the latest surrender in the connection with the killing case, the numbers of police officers sent to jail on surrender increased to six.

On Monday the same court sent three former inspectors general of the police — M Asharaful Huda, Shahudul Haque and Khodabaksh Chowdhury — to jail after they had surrendered.

The police, however, failed to arrest the rest 12 people shown absconding in the case.

Seeking bails for Ruhul Amin, Abdur Rashid and Munshi Atiqur, their counsel Abdus Sobhan Tarafdar argued that the three could not be implicated in the grenade attack cases as they were facing a specific case on charge of diverting the investigations and destroying crimes evidence. In the case, which is now under investigation, the three were granted bail, the lawyer added.

Source : New Age

Ailing cooperative sector needs to be revamped

The ailing cooperatives sector needs a fresh lease of life as well-managed cooperatives can be the best way for both rural and urban people to improve their livings standard with wider and organised access to technology, finance and public property, economists and rights activists believe.

They stress the need for adequate support and strong monitoring by the government to protect cooperatives management and public property from the clutches of local vested interests.

'Market-oriented economic policy and philosophical guideline of the country are not conducive to development of cooperatives, which could be highly rewarding as at least 50 per cent of the people live below poverty line,' Professor Anu Muhammad, a teacher of economics in Jahangirnagar University, told New Age.  The cooperatives sector has always been kept as an ornamental instrument, he observed. 'Cooperatives require democratic culture that does not go with the state and the ruling class now.'

The state does not think that it has accountability to the citizens, he said.

Since 1904, cooperatives have officially been recognised as a series of organised activities with a common goal and have been referred to as economic enterprises for the benefit of their members and service users.

Bureaucratic hindrances, absence of true democratic spirit, bad reputation of many cooperatives organisations, lack of incentives, and, in many cases, politicisation, however, also held back the prospect of the cooperatives sector, which has the potentials to mobilise savings and finance commercial activities to generate income and employments, stabilising prices and supply chain of essential commodities for providing better living standards for the people, cooperatives people and experts said.

Anu said that successive governments had developed a mechanism in the name of privatisation to allow the people of the ruling class and their cronies to make money and grab public and common property.

'Powerful quarters grab water bodies in the name of cooperatives of fishermen,' the economist said.

He said that the people need to make cooperative efforts to create space for them to uphold their rights in the face of increasing monopoly and oligopoly.

Only about 18,000 out of about 170,000 registered cooperatives are now active, according to documents available with the Department of the Cooperatives.

There is a huge difference between the outlook of the government regarding cooperatives and what cooperatives actually mean, Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of the Power and Participation Research Centre, told New Age.

The idea of cooperatives is initiatives of individuals to grow together, he said. 'But the government considers cooperatives as a state initiative in which the cooperatives are made accountable to the Rural Development and Cooperatives Division instead of the members of the cooperatives.'

In fact, the role of the division should be to facilitate the cooperatives, Zillur, also a former adviser to the caretaker government, said.

Asked whether cooperatives can play a role in the current market-oriented and individualistic economic policy, he said, 'The answer is both yes and no.'

The state-controlled cooperatives will not bring benefit for the people, he said.

Cooperatives, if they are formed and democratically controlled by the members, can still play a role for the betterment of the members, he said, adding that small farmers' cooperatives are working well in the United States.

'Here we have not yet been able to develop an organised cooperative marketing system to market and sell the surplus produce of the members of the cooperative societies to benefit both the members and general consumers,' he said.

Quazi Faruque, president of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, said, 'Agriculture marketing is still a vast untapped area where cooperatives can ensure proper prices for the growers as well fair price for consumers.'

The government, however, needs to strengthen monitoring to protect cooperatives management and public property from the clutches of powerful vested interests, they said.

Successful cooperatives are already providing their members with access to technology, finance and public property, they said.

Source : New Age