Archive for March 31st, 2007
Saturday, March 31st, 2007Six top militants including Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) supremo Abdur Rahman and his deputy Bangla Bhai were executed late Thursday night for killing two Jhalakathi judges. They swung from the gallows between 11:45pm and midnight at four different jails amid tight security, said prison sources.The executions mark in all probability the end of country's first overt militancy campaign that rattled the nation through a series of coordinated blasts and suicide bombings in 2005.They came within three years of the BNP-Jamaat alliance government's denying the existence of Islamic militancy. The ruling coalition high-ups even went on to describe JMB operations ...
(read more) Saturday, March 31st, 2007With the funerals of executed Istamist militant linchpins, many secrets and mysteries about the rise of the particular kind of militancy, its masterminds and patrons were also buried yesterday. Although the investigators since the August 17, 2005 orchestrated bomb blasts across the country had been saying that the mysteries behind the rise of Islamist militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and about its masterminds and patrons would be detected after the arrests of some sura members, the secrets were never disclosed even after JMB chief Abdur Rahman and his second-in-command Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai had been arrested.Although the ...
(read more) Saturday, March 31st, 2007JMB killed at least 64 people including Rajshahi University teacher Prof Mohammad Yunus and two Jhalakathi judges, and carried out more than a thousand bomb attacks across the country between 2000 and 2005. The militant Islamic fundamentalist group killed at least 22 people in Rajshahai division alone, according to Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and intelligence agencies.The identities of the people killed by JMB, ranges from common people to progressive teachers, intellectuals, judges, militant outlaws, religious persons and others, whomever it considered a barrier to establishing its Islamic state. The group killed its victims with bomb attacks, by slitting of throats ...
(read more) Saturday, March 31st, 2007Militant activities of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) came to spotlight in April 2004 when its vigilantes started operations and killing people in Rajshahi-Naogaon regions. The extremist organisation, however, had long been running its activities secretly.Local administration, lawmakers and a few ministers of the then BNP-led four-party coalition government were alleged for supporting the JMB activities.When newspapers started reporting on the activities of Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai and his Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) in the country's northern region in 2004, the government said it was false. It even blamed the media for creating the "fictitious" character of Bangla Bhai.The government, ...
(read more) Saturday, March 31st, 2007Security measures have been beefed up in the capital as well as elsewhere in the country on suspicion of reprisal from militants following the execution of six kingpins of the outlawed militant group Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) early yesterday."Security measures were stepped up and members of the law enforcement agencies have been asked to remain alert on suspicion of reprisal attacks from militant outfits," Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Naim Ahmed said."Around 90 police check posts including 30 inside the diplomatic zone of the capital and 114 mobile check posts have been set up in Dhaka to search people ...
(read more) Saturday, March 31st, 2007Leading lawyers, politicians, intellectuals and people of various sections of the society yesterday expressed satisfaction over the execution of six top Islamist militants and hoped that this would help establish and consolidate the rule of law in the country. In his immediate reaction to execution of the top militants, eminent Jurist Dr Kamal Hossain said the rule of law is being finally established in the country, and people are now quite satisfied. Court had awarded death penalty to the militants in accordance with law. All arrests, trial of offenders and court judgements on them would now be as per laws ...
(read more) Saturday, March 31st, 2007An upbeat Bangladesh face a stiff challenge when they launch their Super Eights campaign in the Cricket World Cup against defending champions Australia today at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.The Tigers are going through exciting time after their historic entry into the second round but it would be an acid test for them against the awesome Australians who have already issued warning by comprehensively beating the West Indies in their first game.The match will start at 7:30pm Bangladesh Time with state-run Bangladesh Television (BTV) and SET Max beaming live coverage from the Caribbean.Making the Super 8s is a ...
(read more) Saturday, March 31st, 2007The execution of six JMB militants, including its chief Abdur Rahman and second-in- command Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, proved that the media reports about the militants were right although the previous government repeatedly denied their existence.The immediate past BNP-Jamaat alliance government found the reports on JMB's militant activities very hard to swallow and termed those cooked up.Describing the newspaper reports as not based on facts, the then government said Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai are 'fictitious characters', and mere creation of the media. Even after the countrywide bomb blasts on August 17 in 2005, the BNP leaders of the ...
(read more) Saturday, March 31st, 2007 Four prominent businesspersons and corporate houses were honoured with the Bangladesh Business Awards 2006 in the city yesterday for outstanding performance in different fields last year.Managing Director of Pacific Jeans Limited Md Nasiruddin won the Business Person of the Year award while Zinet Fatema Jahan, proprietor of Jahan Metal, was named the Outstanding Woman in Business of the Year.Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) was adjudged the Best Financial Institution of 2006 while Acme Laboratories Ltd the Best Enterprise.This was the seventh consecutive year that the Bangladesh Business Awards, jointly introduced by The Daily Star and DHL Worldwide Express, were announced to ...
(read more) Saturday, March 31st, 2007Families of assassinated Jhalakathi judges Jagannath Pandey and Sohel Ahmed expressed their happiness about the execution of the killers and their masterminds. Suicide squad of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladseh (JMB) killed the two judges on November 14, 2005 in front of their quarters in Jhalakathi."I am delighted that we got justice in a relatvely short time," said Sohel Ahmed's wife Farhana Kanta, now an employee of Dhaka University.Kanta said she did not know even the name of any JMB leaders or about their activities as her whole world centred about her family. She sought blessing to properly raise their four ...
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