Bangladesh News

Deal with Obaidul Karim’s venture faces cancellation

Sunday, February 4th, 2007 For contractual violation, the Power Development Board (PDB) is most likely to cancel, within February 22, the 490-megawatt Meghnaghat-2 power project deal that was awarded to Obaidul Karim's shell company BON Consortium. Besides, BON Consortium is unlikely to be able to arrange bank loans to finance this project, as Karim is wanted by the police in connection with different graft and criminal cases filed against him for swindling Tk 594 crore from Oriental Bank. Charges against him were based on a central bank investigation done at the fag end of the alliance government rule, making the case rock solid. Karim has ... (read more)

Big guns stay out of dragnet

Sunday, February 4th, 2007 Most of the listed top criminals, their patrons and the corruptionists still remain out of the dragnet of joint forces although the forces arrested a staggering number of people across the country since the declaration of state of emergency. A large number of the absconding criminal suspects, their godfathers and corrupt businessmen, who had established a reign of terror, monopolised different business sectors, and misappropriated public property during previous governments' regimes, either went into hiding or fled the country in absence of an anti-crime drive during the 76-day rule of the caretaker government led by President Iajuddin Ahmed. The joint forces comprising ... (read more)

2 clinics, fake blood bank sued

Monday, January 29th, 2007 A mobile court yesterday filed cases against two private clinics and an illegal blood bank in the city and also fined them hefty amounts after finding serious irregularities and dirty environment there. Led by Magistrate Rokon Ud Doula, the court first raided Crescent Hospital on Babar Road in Mohammadpur and found just a nurse for Operating Theatre (OT) there, but no doctor. The environment was dirty and thus unhygienic for the patients. None of the hospital staff were diploma holders, sources present with the court said. The hospital staff declined to show any medical samples to the court saying that there ... (read more)

Poor eviction victims live under open sky

Saturday, January 27th, 2007 Several thousand slum dwellers of all ages, who lost their shelter due to the ongoing eviction drive of Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and Bangladesh Railway, are passing their days amid utter suffering as they are yet to get any help from any quarters. The evicted slum dwellers in Bhasantek, Mirpur Kalshi, and near Karwan Bazar and Mohakhali railway tracks are passing the cold nights under the temporary shelters made of corrugated tin or polythene sheet. However, the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) distributed old clothes and rice among the dwellers of Mohammadpur Bashpatti slum that was gutted on Monday night. In Bhasantek slum, eviction-affected ... (read more)

Hawa Bhaban man Tinku arrested

Thursday, January 25th, 2007 The joint forces arrested former Jatiya Chhatra League president Jahangir Sattar Tinku, who is also close to Hawa Bhaban, and his business partner Abdur Razzak from their residences in the capital yesterday. The law enforces also arrested a Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) ward commissioner from his Mohammadpur residence in Dhaka. They recovered 29 firearms, 18 other weapons, 497 rounds of ammunition and 60 bombs during yesterday's countrywide drive. Meanwhile, police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested around 2,200 people on various charges in the 24 hours preceding 10:00pm yesterday. A police news release said about 2,043 persons were arrested on different charges in ... (read more)

Railway land freed from grabbers

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 The Bangladesh Railway, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) authorities conducted eviction drive yesterday, knocking down illegal structures and boundary walls, to recover lands that have been grabbed and to ease urban life in the capital. Bangladesh Railway authorities with the help of the army, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and police recovered 23 decimals of land in Shajahanpur area that local influential people grabbed years ago. Sources working with the railway department claimed Aolad Hossain grabbed the land and sold it to a local resident MA Bashar in 1994. Bashar made demarcation walls and a one-storey building ... (read more)

More raids made to catch ‘godfathers’

Sunday, January 14th, 2007 Law enforcers raided the Banani residence of Babul Kazi, a business partner of Giasuddin Al Mamun, on Friday night as part of a crackdown on 'corruptionists and godfathers of criminals' which started on Thursday night. Mamun is a close friend and business partner of BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Tarique Rahman. Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) members arrested Commissioner of Ward No 16 of Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) Quayum Khan from Kachukhet area in the capital on Friday night. Earlier, law enforcers arrested Commissioner of Ward No 25 ABM Enamul Haque Quayum. Meanwhile, sources in law enforcement agencies said the crackdown was suspended yesterday ... (read more)

100 hurt in first hartal of interim govt history

Friday, December 22nd, 2006 The army was used for the first time since HM Ershad's military regime to prevent picketing in the capital and Narayanganj during yesterday's hartal enforced by the Awami League (AL) led grand alliance, first of its kind during any caretaker government's tenure. More than 100 persons were injured in clashes between demonstrators and police and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) during the hartal in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country. The army, along with the police, chased pickets at Shyamoli and patrolled different streets in the city while they took position at several points on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway in Narayanganj. The police fired rubber bullets ... (read more)

Field visits end, yet many left off list

Tuesday, December 19th, 2006 The Election Commission's (EC) drive for correcting this year's updated voter list ended yesterday amid allegations of many eligible people's remaining out of the voter list while the field level EC staff did not turn up at many houses in the capital and elsewhere in the country. The drive that began on December 8 has also been mired with allegations of irregularities. A number of field level EC staff told The Daily Star that they could not register many people as voter due to serious shortage of voter registration form. Besides, they did not get any clear instruction from the EC. "The ... (read more)

Hanif laid to rest

Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 Veteran Awami League (AL) leader and former Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) mayor Mohammad Hanif was laid to eternal rest yesterday at Azimpur graveyard in the capital. The first of the three namaz-e-janazas of Mohammad Hanif was held at his Nazirabazar home in old Dhaka in the morning after the body was taken there from his Banani home. AL President Sheikh Hasina and thousands of people paid tribute to the leading organiser of the Liberation War. Around noon, Hanif's body was taken to Nagar Bhaban where officials and employees of the DCC paid their last tribute to the former mayor. Around 3:00pm, the body ... (read more)