Other Headlines

The operation of six international gateway (IGW) service providers will be suspended if they fail to pay their outstanding duties amounting to about Tk 300 crore to the BTRC (Bangladesh Tele­communication Regulatory Commission) by today. The companies include Mos 5, SM Communication, Firstcom and Sigma Telecom. BTRC?director Colonel Zakir Hossain told

Business and economic activities in both rural and urban areas have been badly affected by protracted blockades and political violence that paralysed transports across the country and reduced export-import trades at the main seaport.  Chamber leaders of Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna and Sylhet said business and trades in various sectors – agriculture, manufacturing,

Shipping minister Shajahan Khan on Monday said inter-district buses on all routes will be given police protection from Tuesday. The minister’s statement followed reports of vandalism and arson against state-run BRTC buses in Noakhali, Brahmanbaria and Bogra on the third day of the 83-hour transport blockade enforced by the BNP-led opposition

People asked to deposit firearms At least 50,000 members of the armed forces will be deployed in the country from December 26, ahead of January 5 parliamentary polls, to maintain law and order. The soldiers to be drawn from Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Air Force will remain on duty until January 9, a ... Read more

Foreign minister briefs ASEAN, SAARC envoys Against the backdrop of escalating violence, envoys of different countries have expressed concern over the safety of their people, students and members of the diplomatic staff living in the country. This occurred when foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali briefed the envoys from SAARC and ASEAN countries on the current situation ... Read more

Law enforcers are yet to make any headway in the Gopibagh six murder case, but family members and RAB suspect Harkat-ul Jihad (Huji) militants involvement in the killing. Unidentified assailants murdered Lutfur Rahman, a controversial Pir, along with his son and four disciples in a house at Gopibagh in the capital on Saturday. However, three ... Read more

Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh (HIB) has postponed its grand rally at Shapla Square in the city, scheduled for Tuesday, as it failed to get permission from the authorities. “Even though we made all preparations for a peaceful rally, we could not hold it as the government did not permit it,” said HIB nayeb-e-ameer and

The chief election commissioner, Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad, said on Monday that media and local observers would oversee the January 5 elections in absence of foreign observers. ‘We had invited them to observe the polls. But every organisation has its own guidelines and policy. They will decide whether they will send the observers

Even though water resources minister Anisul Islam Mahmud of the Jatiya Party (JP) has already submitted his resignation letter to his party chairman, he suddenly visited his office at the Secretariat at 12.30pm on Monday. This has exacerbated the confusion over the status of the JP ministers in the Cabinet. When officials of the ministry learnt ... Read more

United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernández-Taranco has submitted a report on his recent Bangladesh visit to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Taranco visited Bangladesh from December 6 to December 11 in an effort to resolve the political impasse in the country over the poll-time governance issue. A source familiar with

Personnel of the Detective Branch of the police early on Monday arrested seven people, including a local leader of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the students’ wing of the main Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), from a residential house at East Goran in Khilgaon area in the city along with eight kilograms of bomb-making materials. Those arrested ... Read more

As the nationwide siege by the opposition continues, it has taken a heavy toll on the country’s exports, imports and marketing of perishable commodities, leaving everyone — from producers to buyers — gasping. On Sunday night, only 100 to 150 container lorries rolled in and out the Chittagong Port, the country’s gateway to the world by ... Read more

Strikes, blockades do it Commercial party centres have suffered huge financial losses in the last few months due to ongoing political turmoil, businessmen said Monday. A number of owners said nearly 200 party centres in Dhaka city are now facing the biggest blow in their business operations this season as even

An 8-year old girl was allegedly raped and murdered in Shipaibagh area in the capital. Khilgaon police recovered the body of Antora from her aunt’s residence in Shipaibagh at around 9:00am Monday. Antora was a student of class two. She was the daughter of Ali Hossain, from Araihazar upazila in Narayanganj. The girl along with her ... Read more

Tazreen Fire Probe Tazreen Fashions owner Delwar, 12 others indicted Police on Sunday filed a charge sheet against 13 people for the fire at Tazreen Fashions in Savar last year. As many as 112 workers, most of them women, were killed in the blaze in the readymade garments factory at Nishchintapur of Ashulia in Savar ... Read more

The capital remained cut off from the rest of the country on the second day of the opposition-enforced fifth spell of blockade of roads, railway and waterways that passed off amid violence and drives of joint forces to arrest ‘anarchists’ across the country. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led opposition alliance began to enforce the fifth spell of ... Read more

The Rapid Action Battalion in a raid on a house at Uttara in the capital detained at least 37 foreigners and four Bangladeshis with huge VoIP equipment on Sunday night. Among the detainees, 32 were Taiwanese and five Chinese nationals, a RAB official said. Seven of the detainees were women, he said.

Law enforcers on Sunday were uncertain over the motive behind the murders of controversial pir Lutfur Rahman and five others in a flat in Dhaka’s Gopibagh area on Saturday evening. Investigators from the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and detective branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) suspected that the gruesome

Following the European Union’s (EU’s) suit, the United States and the Commonwealth have also decided not to send observers to monitor the Jan 5 Bangladesh elections. US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki announced the US decision in a press statement issued in Washington on Sunday. UNB adds:Commonwealth

The government will not allow the Hefazat-e-Islam, an Islamic outfit, to hold a rally at Shapla Chattar in the city, state minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs Quamrul Islam said on Sunday. “We’ve heard that the Hefazat is planning to hold a rally in the city on December 24. But we want to tell them ... Read more