Monday, April 9th, 2007A complaint was lodged yesterday against four people including Rajshahi City Corporation Mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu and former post and telecommunications minister barrister Aminul Huq accusing them of aiding and abetting militants of the banned Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). The other two accused in the complaint are former deputy commissioner (DC) of Rajshahi Aziz Hasan and then Rajshahi superintendent of police (SP) Masud Miah (dismissed in 2006).Advocate Moazzem Hossain from Mollahpara of Rajshahi city lodged the complaint with Rajpara Police Station in Rajshahi at 4:00pm.Police officially received the complaint at 7:00pm and sent it for home ...
(read more) Sunday, April 8th, 2007The avian influenza virus was detected yesterday at another poultry farm in Savar. Chickens were being culled at the farm last night.Laboratory tests confirmed infection of the virus at Laura Poultry Farm at Aukpara in Savar yesterday evening. A total of 2,000 chickens were culled as of 10:00pm yesterday.All the chickens at the infected farm will be culled, Livestock Department Director Abdul Motaleb told reporters last night.The army and police cordoned off the infected farm.Suspicion arose that the farm was infected with avian influenza--bird flu--after a considerable number of chickens died there on Friday, sources in the Savar Upazila Livestock ...
(read more) Sunday, April 8th, 2007Nor'wester lashed five villages in Dhanbari upazila of Tangail district on Friday night.Upazila administration sources said the storm hit the villages at around 11:00pm and lasted for half an hour, injuring at least 100 people and damaging over 500 housesThe affected villages are Baoijan, Gangabar, Teriata, Saidarpara, and Sonamui Baduria.Besides, electric poles were uprooted by the storm, snapping power supply in the storm-hit villages.Immediately after the storm, members of the joint forces and upazila officials went to the villages, rescued the injured and sent them to Dhanbari Hospital, Madhupur Upazila Health Complex, Jamalpur General Hospital and Mymensingh ...
(read more) Friday, March 30th, 2007The district livestock administration has sealed off all 174 chicken farms and placed restrictions on transport of poultry products at Bandar upazila of Narayanganj following detection of bird flu at four local farms. Besides, it has been keeping the farms at the adjoining Sonargaon upazila under constant surveillance after abnormal death of fowls at Kadirganj village there.Elsewhere in the country, no case of bird flu has been reported yesterday, our correspondents report.Meanwhile, Fisheries and Livestock Adviser CS Karim yesterday called on the private TV channels and radio stations to help the government in its efforts to develop public ...
(read more) Thursday, March 15th, 2007The country's biggest gas field Titas in Brahmanbaria continues to face a possible disaster due to leakage of a dangerous amount of gas mixed with water and oil through thousands of holes and cracks on the ground there.A detailed report on the situation there, which is also endangering properties and lives of local residents, was published in The Daily Star as the lead story on February 7 this year but local residents alleged that the authorities concerned have yet to take any meaningful action to ameliorate the situation which has virtually become a ticking time bomb.Gas and the thick hot ...
(read more) Sunday, March 4th, 2007Failing to get fertiliser in this peak season for IRRI-Boro cultivation, aggrieved farmers barricaded highways and laid siege to upazila agricultural offices in Dinajpur, Pabna and Barisal in the last two days. In Dinajpur, several thousand farmers of Parbatipur and Chirirbandar upazilas put barricades at two points on Dinajpur-Bogra highway for hours yesterday leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded on both sides, reports our correspondent there.At around 9:00am, the agitating farmers blockaded the highway at Ambari point that lasted for nearly two hours.Informed, officer-in-charge (OC) of Parbatipur Police Station and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) officials of 15 Battalion rushed to the spot. ...
(read more) Thursday, February 22nd, 2007A large mangrove is in its death throes because of the greed of shrimp farmers. A land grabber syndicate has been annihilating the mangrove forest in Goldia Island of Cox's Bazar. Embankments are being constructed all over the island in order to make shrimp farms.When The Daily Star correspondent visited the area on February 15, approximately 200 workers were seen engaged in chopping down the mangrove forest, moving the timber somewhere else and building embankments for shrimp farms.Kashem Majhi, a labour leader, told The Daily Star that he had been leading 100 labourers to chop down the mangrove forest for ...
(read more) Friday, February 16th, 2007Chief Adviser (CA) Fakhruddin Ahmed yesterday called upon the public servants not to compromise on their need to be completely free from the influence of any individuals, vested groups or politics to regain the trust and respect of the people."As officials of the republic, you have to be completely free of individual, group or political influence. You (civil servants) have to be proactive in establishing an honest, impartial and neutral image. The people's trust and respect have to be earned. There is no scope for compromise on these issues," said Fakhruddin in his first address to deputy commissioners (DCs) and ...
(read more) Saturday, February 3rd, 2007The three-day Biswa Ijtema, the second largest Muslim gathering after Hajj, started yesterday on the bank of the Turag in the suburban town of Tongi amid the participation of a large number of devotees from home and abroad.Locals claim the number of devotees gathered there this year surpasses the number of devotees that gathered at Akheri Munajat (concluding prayers) last year.Several lakh devotees thronged the Ijtema ground since early yesterday morning from different places across the country to offer their Jum'a prayers turning the area around 20km off the capital into a human sea.Maulana Qwari Zobayer, Imam of ...
(read more) Friday, January 19th, 2007Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) and administration in several districts identified at least 600 fertiliser dealers in 16 northern districts as responsible for allegedly creating artificial crisis of fertiliser in the region.District administration sources said most of these dealers, including 31 of 163 dealers in Bogra, had been appointed during the tenure of the immediate past four-party coalition government.Meanwhile, police seized three cargos of TSP fertiliser at Baushia ghat near Meghna-Gomoti bridge in Gajaria upazila of Munshiganj yesterday.According to the BCIC and district administration, there are 1,449 fertiliser dealers in the northern districts.A large number of these dealers--mostly BNP and ...
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