SC stays case filing against torturer cop Masud

The Supreme Court today stayed a High Court order that directed police to file a case over cop torture on Bangladesh Bank official Golam Rabby.

Chamber judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hasan Foyez Siddique ordered the stay until January 25 and sent it for a full bench hearing on that day.

The High Court observes that sub-inspector Masud Shikder has committed a criminal offence by detaining and torturing bank official Golam Rabby.

His order came following a petition moved by the government seeking a stay on the High Court order, which had said that the torturer cop should be dismissed.

Masud, formerly a police sub-inspector of Mohammadpur, drew widespread flak after torturing Bangladesh Bank official Golam Rabby and asking for Tk 5 lakh bribe from him.

READ MORE: Tortured BB official recalls cop brutality

The policeman threatened to implicate the bank official in a narcotics case, kill him and frame him as a victim of a shootout if he failed to pay the bribe.

Following countrywide outrage after the incident, the policeman was first closed and later suspended. A writ petition was moved with the High Court in this regard.

The High Court had directed Mohammadpur police to record Rabby’s allegation as an FIR in response to the writ petition. The court observed that Masud should be dismissed.

AKM Ehsanur Rahman, one of the writ petitioners, told The Daily Star that the police cannot lodge a first information report (FIR) over torture on Golam Rabby until January 25 after the chamber judge’s order.

Singapore arrests 27 Bangladeshi Islamists, deports 26

Singapore, a wealthy multi-ethnic city state, arrested 27 Bangladeshi construction workers who supported Islamist groups including al Qaeda and Islamic State and deported 26 of them, the government said on Wednesday.

The 27 were arrested in November and December, the home ministry said. Twenty-six were deported, while the last one was jailed for attempting to leave Singapore illegally after hearing of the arrest of the others, the home ministry said.

The investigation revealed that several members of the group had considered carrying out armed violence overseas, but did not plan any attack in Singapore. Some of them had contemplated taking part in armed jihad in the Middle East, the ministry said.

“I appeal that we be more vigilant, whether against radical teachings and ideologies, or of any suspicious activities around us,” Minister-in-Charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim said on his Facebook page.

“At the same time, I hope we will remain united and not resort to discriminating (against) foreign workers here.”

Singapore broke up plots for militant attacks after the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on the United States. Recently, concern has been growing in countries around the world about individuals joining the cause of the Islamic State.

The Bangladeshis were encouraged to return home and wage armed jihad against the government in Dhaka, and tried to recruit other Bangladeshis to their group, the ministry said.

The announcement came a week after an attack by suicide bombers and gunmen in the heart of Jakarta, the capital of neighbouring Indonesia, highlighting the growing threat Southeast Asia faces from radicalised Muslims.

JP not splitting, Ershad declares

–JP not splitting, Ershad declares

–Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu removed as secy general

–Ruhul Amin Howlader replaces Bablu

A day into making his brother the co-chairman of Jatiya Party, HM Ershad today removed Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu as secretary general.

The JP chairman also appointed Ruhul Amin Howlader as the new secretary general of the party.

“No one can touch this party, I am its chairman. No one confuses anyone,” Ershad says. Photo: TV grab

“Impossible, Jatiya Party won’t split,” Ershad said after a press conference at his Banani residence today.

“No one can touch this party, I am its chairman. No one confuses anyone,” he said.

During the press conference, Ershad declared to remove his secretary general Ziauddin Bablu and made Ruhul Amin Howlader his new secretary general.

Also READ: Raushan calls press briefing too

The press conference was held at 2:00pm this afternoon after a much hyped rift within the party centering the appointment of Ershad’s brother GM Quader as the co-chairman.

The move displeased many leaders as they took it as an indication of Quader being the next chairman of Jatiya Party.

On the other hand, splitting is nothing new for Jatiya Party. It has already split four times with the last one of Kazi Zafar Ahmed “expelling” Ershad and joining hands with BNP.

Ershad, who is currently a special envoy of the prime minister, is also a known chameleon character who flip-flopped went back on his words countless times.

1971 war hero Jacob laid to eternal rest

Lt Gen J F R Jacob (retd), who negotiated the surrender of Pakistani troops in Dhaka following the 1971 war, was laid to rest in Delhi on Thursday.

Jacob died at the age of 92 due to “old age complications”. Jacob, who was also Governor of Punjab and Goa, breathed his last at the Army Hospital yesterday at around 8am.He was admitted to the Army’s Research and Referral Hospital since January 1 after suffering from pneumonia.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled his demise and said India will always remain grateful to Jacob for his impeccable service to the nation. He also recalled his association with him, reports UNB.

Jacob had negotiated the surrender of Pakistani troops in Dhaka after the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war when, as Major General, he served as the Chief of Staff of Indian Army’s Eastern Command.

Born in 1923 in Bengal Presidency under British India, Jacob joined the army at the age of 19 in 1942 and also fought in World War II and the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 before he retired in 1978.

Post retirement, he joined BJP and headed its ex-servicemen wing. He was appointed Governor of Goa during Vajpayee government and then Governor of Punjab.

He was also the Administrator of Union Territory of Chandigarh.During his stint as Punjab Governor and UT Administrator, he would often conduct check in government offices unannounced.

He authored two books – ‘Surrender at Dacca: Birth of a Nation’ and ‘An Odyssey in War and Peace: An Autobiography Lt Gen J F R Jacob’.

Madrasa students on the rampage in Brahmanbarhia

Madrasa students in Brahmanbarhia have gone on a rampage after the death of a fellow student who was injured earlier in a clash with law enforcers on Monday.

Police said the trouble began on Monday when a student of a madrasa got into an altercation with a mobile-phone shop employee in the town.

Other students of the madrasa turned up and vandalised the shop, then clashed with the police who tried to intervene.

Hafez Masudur Rahman, 20, a student of Jamia Islami Yunusia Madrasa, who was injured in the clash with law enforcers, succumbed to injuries at Brahmanbarhia Sadar Hospital early on Tuesday.

The hospital’s duty medical officer, Mainul Haque Upal, told bdnews24.com that Masudur Rahman had been seriously injured on the left side of his chest and abdomen.

As the news of his death spread, several hundred students went on a rampage in Brahmanbarhia town. They disrupted traffic and smashed several display gates.

They held angry demonstrations, attacked a train station and removed railway sleepers, and burnt tyres on the streets to block off several areas of the town.

The angry students vandalised the district unit office of the ruling Awami League, and a music college named after the renowned composer and music teacher Ustad Alauddin Khan. They set fire to a number of instruments at the college.

They also vandalised the district Shilpakala (Arts) Academy, a branch of Bank Asia in the Mukitijoddha Sangsad Complex, and the premises of a non-government organisation named Proshika.

Police had to fire rubber bullets and use tear gas to disperse the students.

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) was deployed on Tuesday morning amid mounting tension in the town.

The students have called a dawn-to-dusk shutdown in the district for Wednesday.

The assistant station master at Brahmanbarhia Railway Station, Mainul Islam, said train services through the town were suspended at about 11:15am after the railway sleepers had been removed.

“Train services on the Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Sylhet routes have been stopped, leaving the Subarna and Kalni express trains stranded,” he said.

However, Dhaka’s rail link with Chittagong and Sylhet was restored after a seven-hour suspension following the violence.

Islam said train services resumed at around 6:50pm after the rail tracks had been repaired.

Lt Col Nazrul Islam, the chief of the 12th batallion of the BGB based in Brahmanbarhia, said that two platoons of troops have been deployed in the town to maintain law and order.

At least 30 handmade bombs were exploded in different parts of the town during Monday’s clash in which about 20 people were injured.

One of them, a policeman named Rajib Chandra Das, 25, has been shifted to Dhaka for better treatment. The others are being treated locally.

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Earthquake hits India's Manipur state

An earthquake measuring 6.8 magnitude has hit northeast India, near its border with Myanmar and Bangladesh, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has said.

The quake hit at 04:35 local time (23:05 GMT Sunday) about 29km (18 miles) northwest of Imphal, the capital of Manipur state, according to USGS.

Strong tremors have been felt across the region. _87466115_indiamanipurimphal4640116

Our reporter in Dhaka says many people were seen fleeing their homes in Bangladesh.

USGS issued a yellow alert for casualties and damage, with a 35% likelihood of between one and 10 deaths from the tremor.

The earthquake was originally reported to have measured 6.8 magnitude.

The region has a history of powerful earthquakes caused by the northward collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates. They are moving towards each other at a rate of 4-5cm per year.

In 2005, a magnitude 7.6 quake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir left more than 75,000 people dead.

In April 2015, Nepal suffered its worst earthquake on record with 9,000 people killed and about 900,000 homes damaged or destroyed.

Death for Bangladesh blogger killers

Two students have been sentenced to death in Bangladesh for the killing of an atheist blogger there in 2013.

Six others were convicted of involvement in the murder of Ahmed Rajib Haider, who was hacked to death as he was returning home from a rally in the capital, Dhaka.

A five-year sentence was given to the head of Ansarullah Bangla, the group suspected of carrying out the attack.

Five more secular bloggers and writers were killed in Bangladesh in 2015.

The court said that one of the students sentenced to death, Faisal bin Nayeem, attacked Haider with a meat cleaver in front of the victim’s house.

The other was tried and sentenced in absentia.

Haider was among a group of bloggers who had called for the execution of Islamist leaders for crimes committed in the 1971 war.

The blogger’s father, Mohammad Nazim Uddin, said he was unhappy that only two men were given the death sentence.

“I’m not happy with the verdict. I reject this verdict. Five of them confessed their involvement in the killing. But only two were given death sentence. How is it possible?”, he said.

There have been several clashes in recent years between Islamists and supporters of the secular Awami League.

‘JMB man admits’ role in Iskcon temple attack

Suspected militant of banned Islamist outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) held over the attack on an Iskcon temple in Dinajpur is said to have confessed his role in the attack.

Detained Shariful Islam, 28, gave his confession before the Dinajpur chief judicial magistrate yesterday, our local correspondent reports quoting Redwanur Rahim, officer-in-charge of Detective Branch of police in Dinajpur district.

Shariful was caught red handed during the attack on Iskcon temple on December 10. He later confessed to have shot Italian pastor and doctor Piero Parolari in the district.

PM cautions against BDR mutiny like incident

Prime Minster Sheikh Hasina today asked BGB personnel to remain alert so that incident like the 2009 BDR mutiny does not recur in the future.

“BGB has turned into a dynamic and modern force with the sincere efforts of all. Through your hard labour, the reputation and dignity of this force have been restored…you must stay alert so that such suicidal incident cannot take place in the future,” she said.

The prime minister was addressing the formal parade of BGB Day-2015 held at the BGB (Border Guard Bangladesh) Headquarters in the city.

Terming the mutiny and killings at Peelkhana on February 25-26, 2009 as a black chapter of this force, Sheikh Hasina said she had to face the heinous and unstable situation like BDR mutiny and killings soon after assuming office and tackled it with the united efforts of the BGB members.

Mentioning that the BGB is now fully free form its stigma following the trial of its unruly and misleading personnel involved with the mutiny, she asked the BGB personnel to discharge their duties with utmost honesty and patriotism and thus gain the confidence and trust of people.

Bangladesh static in Human Development Index

Bangladesh’s position remains unchanged in the Human Development Index, according to the 2015 Human Development Report launched by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Bangladesh ranked 142 out of 188 countries in the index, while neighbouring India ranked at 130, Nepal at 145 and Pakistan at 147, the report, published today, said.

“Bangladesh has shown a positive trend in Human Development for the last couple of decades with an average annual increase of about 1.55 percent,” a press release in this regard reads.

UNDP launched the report titled “Work for Human Development” at NEC Conference Room at the Planning Commission today.

According to the report, despite extremely rapid technological adoption in recent years, as of 2014, 2.5 billion people in Asia and the Pacific did not have access to the internet (1.4 billion people in South Asia), the press release reads.

Mentioning that youth unemployment in Asia ranges between 8.7 percent in Bangladesh and 28.7 percent in Iran, the Human Development Report 2015 observed that fostering education, skills and entrepreneurship can facilitate a necessary labour market transformation.

“In order to ensure that the work-force is capable of adapting to rapidly changing demands, the governments need to make strategic investments into education and health care,” Haoliang Xu, assistant administrator and director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, told today’s programme.

The index was created to emphasise that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone.

It is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living.