News

The army led court of enquiry identified several reasons for the carnage at the Peelkhana BDR headquarters on February 25 and 26, the foremost being the deep resentment of BDR jawans against the ” Dal Bhat operation” launched during the last caretaker government. More facilities for the army personnel compared with BDR jawans, non-payment of ... Read more

Petty crimes — mugging, extortion and burglary — have spurted in the capital in the last few days and the criminals are having a free run in the absence of proper policing. It does not matter whether you are walking alone or in a crowd in the city, during the day or at night. Or ... Read more

A parliamentary panel on Thursday summoned the speaker, deputy speaker and chief whip of the eighth parliament early next month to defend themselves against charges of corruption being investigated by the panel. ‘We have decided to invite former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, former deputy speaker Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui and former chief whip Khandaker Delwar Hossain to ... Read more

MASSACRE AT BDR HQ Govt trying to hide real plotters: BNP The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Thursday vowed to continue movement until the real plotters and perpetrators of the Pilkhana massacre were identified and tried by way of impartial investigation. The party demanded that the probe reports of the killings at the BDR headquarters on ... Read more

Deal with millers yet to be signed The procurement of rice and paddy would not be completed during this season, as the food ministry as well as food department is yet to sign agreement with millers, said a source at the ministry. “The government had started countrywide procurement drive through local millers from May 1 ... Read more

Tax holiday to go gradually Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday unveiled the government’s plan to gradually scrap the tax holiday for the benefit for various sectors. Addressing the pre-budget consultation meeting organised by the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), the finance minister said that the sectors that had been awarded tax holiday for ... Read more

Bangladesh’s high court moved Thursday to plug a gaping hole in the country’s laws by introducing a first-ever ban on sexual harassment, an official said. The decision was immediately hailed by activists as a major step forward for the protection of women in the South Asian nation. Deputy Attorney-General Rajik Al Jalil told AFP the ... Read more

Five hundred more soldiers of the Bangladesh Rifles were arrested in different districts outside Dhaka and sent to jails on Thursday in connection with the February 25-26 rebellion. Satkania police in Chittagong arrested 100 soldiers from Baitul Ijjat Training Centre, Feni police arrested 64 jawans of 19 Rifles battalion at Jaylaskar, Jessore police detained 43 ... Read more

A provision of the Anti-Corruption Commission law is likely to be reinstated to curtail its power so that the watchdog body could not issue any arrest warrant against a government official without informing his higher authority. The country’s top bureaucrats, mainly the secretaries of different ministries, yesterday discussed the issue and adopted a proposal to ... Read more

Carjackers mostly work on greed of drivers, apply newer techniques, steal over 60 vehicles a month Over 60 carjacking incidents happen in the capital on an average month and those are used in various criminal activities including mugging, robbery and drug peddling while some are sold or disassembled and then sold in parts. During the ... Read more

Data entry operators in voter list project yet to see job hopes Over one lakh skilled data entry operators, who were trained by the Election Commission (EC) at a cost of around Tk 11 crore, remain unutilised since the voter list with photographs was readied last year. Neither the immediate past caretaker government nor the ... Read more

Bodies Of 904 Workers Arrived In 5 Months 44pc of them died of cardiac arrest Around 44 percent of the Bangladeshi migrant workers who returned home in coffins between January 1 and May 9 this year, had died of cardiac arrests in Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian countries, raising serious questions about the living standards ... Read more

Extortion case against Hasina The High Court (HC) yesterday vacated its earlier order staying the proceedings of the extortion case against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina filed by businessman Azam J Chowdhury. The HC bench of Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice Momtaj Uddin Ahmed passed the order following a petition moved by Barrister Rafique-ul Huq ... Read more

Stay on extortion case against PM vacated for its withdrawal Eventually the High Court agreed to hear on May 18 a writ challenging government notice which asked BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia to abandon her cantonment house. A division bench comprising Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Moinul Islam Chowdhury fixed the date after the ... Read more

BGMEA warns of forced shutdown of factories Hooligans are out again to create an unrest in the RMG sector ahead of holy Ramadan. According to an intelligence agency, 27 hooligans in Dhaka and Chittagong are directly involved with the unrest in RMG sector. But the government is yet to come up with any stringent measures ... Read more

The cabinet committee on public purchase yesterday approved procurement of 420 jeeps and ten speedboats for newly elected upazila chairmen who assumed office last week. Of the 420 fleet 180 will be coming in the current fiscal year while the rest will come in the next financial year. To this affect Tk 180 crore has ... Read more

Budget will have a new public-private partnership component: Muhith  Government plans Tk 30,500 crore Annual Development Programme (ADP) for fiscal 2009-10. This was disclosed by Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday. “The government will take up the challenge of implementing the big ADP to prove that it has the implementing capacity”, Muhith told reporters after a ... Read more

Peyara Begum’s son’s teacher attacked her with acid after she refused to return ‘the love’ he so undeservedly tried to bestow on her. Her face was burnt as was major portion of her body, and her entire face had to be reconstructed. To pay for this treatment Peyara had to sell all her properties. And ... Read more

Despite beefed up security measures and enhanced police vigilance, incidents of murder, robbery, extortion, snatching and mugging have increased in the city at an alarming rate, creating a sense of insecurity. Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner AKM Shahidul Haque expressed his concern in this regard and asked the police to control the law and order ... Read more

The government has planned to establish three more public universities and add three more private universities to a large number of varsities under private venture to take in rising numbers of students for higher education. “Government approval of the planned universities is in the final stage of processing,” University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Prof Nazrul ... Read more