Archive for August 11th, 2006
Friday, August 11th, 2006Indian Borders Security Force (BSF) and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) locked in a fierce firefight for about 14 hours until yesterday noon on Zakiganj border, exchanging around 10,000 bullets and 400 mortal shells.The gunfight that started at 10:40pm Wednesday night left at least 16 people including six BDR men and 10 civilians wounded.Around 15,000 inhabitants of 15 villages near the border left their homes for safer places yesterday.Troubles began around 10:40pm on Wednesday as the BSF started firing on BDR positions at Uttarkul and Amolshid borders without any provocation, BDR officials said. The BSF used conventional artillery to cause damage ...
(read more) Friday, August 11th, 2006Neutrality of some local election observers has come into question when they have yet to undertake the task of monitoring the next general election.Despite allegations of close links with the ruling parties, an alliance of 35 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) yesterday launched a platform styled Election Working Group (EWG) to observe the upcoming polls under the umbrella of The Asia Foundation.Sources said most of the members of this new grouping are backed by the ruling BNP-Jamaat government."Many of these NGOs had worked for the BNP candidates in the last election," said a senior opposition leader preferring anonymity.Naimul Islam Khan, president of ...
(read more) Friday, August 11th, 2006The BoI chief has shamed us all by his patriotism. Oh, how he loves Bangladesh. He said he will not allow anybody to harm his motherland and will resist any move to malign his beloved country even if it means taking eminent citizens to jail. Applause! Applause! He said on television on Wednesday that he represents Bangladesh to investors abroad and that any attempt to malign him is to malign Bangladesh. (He measures up to French Emperor Louis XIV here who said "L'Etat, c'est Moi" (The state is me).He called the CPD "Shameless, liars and traitors". On another occasion, he ...
(read more) Friday, August 11th, 2006The High Court (HC) yesterday granted ad interim anticipatory bail to five prominent citizens following issuance of arrest warrants against them in a defamation suit filed by Executive Chairman of the Board of Investment (BoI) Mahmudur Rahman on Wednesday. Upon a bail petition filed by them, a division bench of the HC also issued a rule on the government asking it to explain why regular bail should not be granted in the case. Mahmudur Rahman is also a respondent of the rule.All the five personalities appeared before the court while their counsels moved the bail prayer for them in a ...
(read more) Friday, August 11th, 2006The Election Commission (EC) has once again extended time for updating the voter list giving the field level staff 10 more days to complete the task.The EC however has not fixed any specific time for displaying the updated supplementary list for public inspection and filing objections before it is printed.The decision came yesterday as the field level staff could not complete the task of door-to-door visits within the stipulated time -- July 20 to August 10.The field workers will now continue visiting door to door until August 20. The time for preparing the supplementary list has also been extended ...
(read more) Friday, August 11th, 2006British police are holding 21 people in connection with what they said was a foiled plot to blow up several passenger planes flying between Britain and the United States, police said yesterday. Describing the plot as an attempt to cause "mass murder on an unimaginable scale," they said arrests had been made in the London area and in Britain's second city Birmingham.British police hinted Thursday that British Islamists were behind a major terrorist plot to blow up airlines flying to the United States.Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson, from London's Metropolitan Police, stressed that the plot concerned "people who might ...
(read more) Friday, August 11th, 2006Researchers of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) expressed shock and dismay over the events between Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and a high-level government functionary that have led to the filing of a criminal case involving eminent researchers and citizens.Board of Investment (BoI) Executive Chairman Mahmudur Rahman filed a defamation case against five members of the CPD board of trustees on Wednesday."As a research institute we feel bound to break our traditional silence in a situation that could threaten independent research and dissemination, as well as throttle freedom of speech and free thought," Dr Quazi Shahabuddin, director general ...
(read more) Friday, August 11th, 2006Experts at a consultation meeting yesterday identified lack of accountability, rampant corruption, frequent shift in policy and having almost no role of the specialised persons in the decision making as some of the problems that created a mess in the healthcare system. The Nagorik Committee 2006 organised the fourth expert group consultation meeting on 'Vision 2021 for Bangladesh: Goal 4: To have a health-endowed nation' at Cirdap auditorium in the capital. Prof Mahmuda Islam chaired the meeting.Speaking at the meeting, Prof Rehman Sobhan, convener of the Nagorik Committee 2006, said only a section of people are able to get ...
(read more) Friday, August 11th, 2006In blatant violation of the import policy, a section of vehicle importers are depriving the government of a huge amount of revenue counterfeiting import documents and tampering with engine and chassis numbers.Customs sources said around 10 percent of the annual import of about 12,000 cars are imported in fraudulent ways to evade taxes of around Tk 25 crore.In the last couple of months, Chittagong Customs House seized three consignments of cars imported evading taxes of around Tk 80 lakh. On July 10, it seized 60 buses imported this way.Some of the importers are importing old cars beyond the government ...
(read more) Friday, August 11th, 2006Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday pressed charges against 11 Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) leaders and activists arrested in connection with preventing participants from buying schedules and bidding in a tender at the Construction Maintenance Management Unit (CMMU) of the health ministry on July 30.The investigation officer (IO) dropped names of five others as their names and addresses, given by four accused in their confessional statements, were not correct.The four arrestees told a metropolitan magistrate on Sunday that two JCD leaders of Fazlul Haq Muslim Hall of Dhaka University -- Shaikot and Asad -- engaged them to obstruct buying and dropping ...
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