ABC News Reports

Blasphemy lawsuit filed against ‘Atheist Note’ magazine

ABC News Reports — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 21:41:40 +0000

Yesterday a case was filed against a group of writers and bloggers who, according to the information, have been involved in Prophet’s ( Muslim’s Prophet Muhammad) and writing in support of homosexuality. It didn’t come as a surprise as many similar to these writers has been convicted of writing Anti-Islamic content on their websites and social media platforms in recent years in Bangladesh.

The complainant Hridoy Kazi has expressed his anger quite furiously, stating that there is no place for such conspiratorial sentiment against Islam in this country. In his words, he wished these “perverts and culprits” to be hanged for their crime; to which he would also add, ‘They belong in the pit of the hell’

Although the Committee head of the investigation Moniruzzaman Khan has not made any initial comment on the matter, the different religious organization has raised their opinions. Mufti Izharul Islam, the chairman of the Islamist party Islami Oikya Jote who is also a chairperson of the country’s biggest religious organization has said, ‘these bloggers made tremendous insult to our leader as well as the Prophet of our religion. And that will boil any Muslim blood if anyone tries to spread such malicious content about Islam. We demand this culprit to brought into justice and hang them to death because that’s what they deserve’

The defendants (whose name have bee disclosed) Mohammed Ashraful Islam, SM Mamun Talukther, Khairulla Khandaker, Md Asad Uzzaman Khan, Sraboni Sikder, Tanzila Taz Risa, Sujan Chandra Dev, Veronica Gomes, Chinmoy Debnath, Nilufar Haque, Quazi Wahiduzzaman, Anup Chakraborty, Arunangshu Chakraborty and including the co-ordinator of the magazine Muhaiminul Biswas Parvez and 62 other atheist writers and LGBT activists are demanded to be brought under justice.

Pressure has been created on the government to take immediate action against impinging religious sentiment by country’s conservative religious groups Hefazat-e-Islam.

Debts, Political Might, and their Ugly Combinations

ABC News Reports — Sat, 21 Sep 2019 10:09:25 +0000

The absence of adequate and fair debt-management system in Bangladesh has reared its ugly head again recently in a tragic development involving a BNP-supporting Hindu minority family. Mallik family from Nabagram borrowed heavily over the past decade to address their own financial woes caused by social and economic ostracisation because of their political links and to fund the business and personal expenditures of Sukanta Mallik, now residing in the UK. Sukanta Mallik’s elder brother is handicapped and has no earning or otherwise capacity. Treatment for this also requires huge sums of money, money that had to be borrowed. Most of the debts were in the family members’ names although most of it also had Mr. Sukanta Mallik’s name as well.

Failure to repay these debts was compounded by the fact that Mallik family’s prominent member, Late Swapan Mallik, was the General Secretary of Nabagram BNP Committee and this association scarred the family a great deal. The hostility is double-edged: one from the government-supported creditors with their underhanded means and might and the other from the Hindu community which consider the Mallik family a traitor given the Hindu minority has always been generally in favour of the ruling party, Awami League.

The family told this correspondent that whilst the family tried to carry on repaying the debts as long they could, given Sukanta’s poor financial circumstances in the UK and the lack of capable earners in Bangladesh, many repayments were missed. Sukanta Mallik has been unable to repay the funds on account of having faced harsh immigration decisions in the UK leading to a sharp decline in his earning capacity in the UK. But, the family came under fierce pressure from the creditors who often resorted to threats, intimidation and taunting in order to recoup the funds borrowed by Sukanta Mallik’s family. Legal actions have been threatened by the lending companies but the primary mode of action has been political.

This correspondent tried to contact some of the commercial creditors but they declined to comment. The family refused to name the other creditors in fear of repercussions.

The court that deals with unpaid debts has declined to comment on individual cases but this case surely highlights one of the most persistent social ills in Bangladesh in that there is no fair and equitable debt-management system. The government has no real initiative or legal redress to deal with issues such as this which turn a simply matter of debt into a matter of security, safety and life and death.

NABAGRAM’S MALLIK FAMILY – VICTIMS OF POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

ABC News Reports — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 21:01:05 +0000

In order to pay respects to the recently deceased Swapan Mallik, General Secretary of Nabagram BNP Committee until his death, a meeting was held yesterday. A handful of party activists gathered but the meeting was forcibly broken up after an hour when the police appeared and asked the gathering to be disbanded. Fearing atrocity, the already thin gathering dispersed immediately.

Such is the condition of BNP in suburban and rural Bangladesh now! A veteran in his own right, Swapan Mallik was a fearless campaigner and leader of Nabagram BNP. His life was marked by fearlessness, debts, fights, imprisonment, failure to rise to the top, and unyielding support from the BNP supporters in these parts.

But, his waywardness saw the family becoming crippled financially, taking out huge amount of loans – part of which was to set up and settle his cousin, Sukanta Mallik in the UK of whom he was said to have been very proud.

The Mallik family suffer from twin dangers: one from the Awami-sponsored creditors and the other is from the other Hindus in the area. For historical reason it is entrenched somewhat that Hindu and other minorities would generally support Awami League. Mallik family have been one of the rare exceptions in this regard. Laxmi Kanta Baul, related to the Mallik family through his marriage to this family, was a member of parliament for BNP thus cementing and inspiring the BNP-allegiance in the family. However, these affiliations, clearly, have come at a steep price given the allegations of harassment, discrimination, intimidation and taunting visited upon this family. Sukanta Mallik, for example, one of the family members said, would not be able to come to Bangladesh under the circumstances if he were to lead a normal life. Because, he lamented, this life is not normal here for them.

None of these problems were discussed in the meeting yesterday. It was the thin crowd that could not even mourn their departed leader long enough.

Iran risks return of all sanctions

ABC News Reports — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 10:24:00 +0000

Iran yesterday said it will boost its uranium enrichment in a few hours above a cap set by a landmark 2015 nuclear deal, a move that could eventually culminate in the return of all international sanctions on Tehran.

In a sign of heightening tensions, France, Germany and Britain — all parties to the deal — expressed concerns over Tehran’s decision.

In a live news conference, senior Iranian officials said Tehran would keep reducing its commitments every 60 days, unless European signatories of the pact protect it from US sanctions imposed by US President Trump.

“We are fully prepared to enrich uranium at any level and with any amount,” said Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation.

“In a few hours the technical process will come to an end and the enrichment beyond 3.67% will begin,” referring to the limit set in the 2015 agreement.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said the step was extremely dangerous and again called on Europe to impose punitive sanctions on Tehran, raising the prospect of fresh regional tensions. “The enrichment of uranium is made for one reason and one reason only – it’s for the creation of atomic bombs,” he said.

Tehran shows no sign of caving in to pressure from Trump in a confrontation that has taken on a military dimension, with Washington blaming Tehran for attacks on oil tankers, and Iran shooting down a US drone, prompting aborted US air strikes.

The Europeans, who object to Trump’s withdrawal from the deal last year, have so far failed to salvage the pact by shielding Iran’s limping economy from US sanctions.

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Iran’s decision as a “violation” of the pact which the United States pulled out of last year.

Iran has broken the terms of the deal and must immediately stop and reverse its activities, a spokesman for Britain’s Foreign Office said yesterday.

A German foreign ministry spokesman gave a similar response.

Iran did leave some room for negotiations. All measures taken by Iran to scale back its commitments to the nuclear deal were “reversible” if the European signatories of the pact fulfilled their obligations, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted yesterday.

The Iran nuclear deal dispute resolution mechanism will not be triggered for now, said a source at Macron’s Elysee office. The French government is giving itself until July 15 to try to get all parties talking again.

Under that so-called snapback, if a series of steps designed to resolve differences fails, sanctions in all previous UN resolutions would be re-imposed.

Daniel Byman, senior fellow for foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, said Iran was engaged in a tricky balancing act. “The step is meant to show domestic audiences that Iran is standing up to US pressure. It is also meant to convey a sense of risk to European audiences that Iran may provoke a crisis,” he said.

Under the pact, Iran can enrich uranium to 3.67% fissile material, well below the 20% it was reaching before the deal and the roughly 90% suitable for a nuclear weapon.

2 killed in Rangamati landslide

ABC News Reports — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 07:40:21 +0000

Two people have been buried under mud following a landslide triggered by heavy rainfall in Kaptai upazila of Rangamati.

The bodies of the two deceased — Tahmina Akhter, 25, and Uzzal Mallik, 4, — were recovered from the debris after the incident which took place at KPM area of the upazila around 1:30pm, our Rangamati correspondent reports quoting Asharaf Ahmed Russel, upazila nirbahi officer (UNO).

Members of fire service with the help of local people conducted a rescue operation at the spot, the correspondent said.

More to follow…

Steps taken to make capital market vibrant: PM

ABC News Reports — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 06:30:50 +0000

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said her government has taken various steps to ensure a vibrant capital market that will supplement its efforts to make Bangladesh a developed country by the year 2041.

“Various measures are being taken to protect the interests of investors which will ensure a conducive environment for a vibrant capital market,” she said.

The prime minister said this while inaugurating a regional seminar on ‘Financial Literacy and Investment Protection’.

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) jointly organised the seminar at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel here.

Sheikh Hasina said industrialisation is the key to employment generation in the country and it requires investors from home and abroad along with the investment capital.

The prime minister said the government believes that the capital market can play an important role in generating new entrepreneurs and investors through creating partnership with the common people.

“The more people will get involved in the capital market the more it’ll accelerate our industrialisation process.”

She said the present government is also working on creating a strong capital market, which will meet the long-term financing needs to the investors.

Hasina said, “In2019-20 fiscal year, the limit for tax-free dividend income has been raised from 25,000 to 50,000 for the investors in the market while a number of different bonds, including fixed income financial product, have been issued at our initiative while two rules have been adopted on Short Sale and Risk-based Capital Adequacy. Our government has continuously extended its all-out cooperation through providing policy support, law amendments, infrastructure building for creating a stronger capital market.”

She also mentioned that accountability and good governance has also been ensured to eradicate corruption at different levels in the capital market.

The prime minister mentioned that the government has taken initiatives for capacity building of the BSEC, including a new organogram with more human resources.

She said the government is implementing a promotional package successfully for protecting the small investors.” Inculcation of the strategic investors has been guaranteed at the Dhaka Stock Exchange. An increased participation of local and foreign investors is observed to form venture capital and impact fund.”

Hasina said a small capital plat form has been established at Dhaka Stock Exchange. As a result, she said, small and medium industries can enjoy the facility to receive capital and this will eventually create a great scope for enlistment of the start-up companies.

Mentioning that the capital market is still a retail investor-driven one, the Prime Minister emphasised making the capital market vibrant. “We need to increase the participation of institutional investors in our market.”

She said a countrywide programme on investment literacy has been launched to create a knowledge-based investor community. By this time, Bangladesh Academy for Securities Market (BASM) has been established.

To reduce the risk of individual investors, she said, the BSEC is running country-wide investment literacy program. Under this programme, the BSEC has already arranged financial literacy programme at divisional level which will gradually be extended to district level.

“In fact, investors are the main driving force of the capital market. If investors take informed decision, it will, on the one hand, help reduce investment risk and on the other hand, it will also act as a supplementary element in ensuring stability of the market.”

Hasina said the government believes that the knowledge and techniques of investment for all the related stakeholders of the capital market, including retail investors, will accelerate the process of financial inclusion. “Not only the small investors, all the stakeholders from different walks of life and policymakers in this regard should be well aware of this financial and investment tools and techniques to be included into this financial system.”

ADB Country Director Manmohan Parkash and BSEC Chairman Dr M Khairul Hossain also spoke at the programme.

Rickshaw-pullers block road protesting rickshaw ban on 3 major streets in Dhaka

ABC News Reports — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 06:15:32 +0000

A day after a ban was imposed on rickshaw on three major roads in Dhaka, hundreds of rickshaw-pullers took positions at several points from Uttara to Sayedabad in the capital this morning to protest the restriction.

They gathered and blockaded roads at Maniknagar, Mugda, Gulabbagh and Sayedabad points around 8:30am, halting traffic movements in the area, our staff correspondent reports quoting Anwar Hossain, deputy commissioner (DC) of police, Motijheel Division.

The pullers were chanting slogans demanding withdrawal of rickshaw ban by the authorities.

“This is a one-sided decision by the authorities without any consideration about the livelihood of the pullers who have been plying their vehicles on the route for a long time,” said a protesting rickshaw-puller, Saidur Rahman.

Another rickshaw-puller Md Tutul said that they cannot accept the ban. “If necessary, the authorities can make a third lane only for rickshaws,” he said.

The protest was continuing till 12:45pm when the report was filed.

Meanwhile, regular commuters were suffering immensely for lack of transportation. Many opted to reach their destination on foot.

DC Anwar Hosen said police were trying to resolve the issue peacefully.

“We are trying to convince the protesters so that they leave the road,” he added.

On July 3, a special committee led by Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sayeed Khokon decided that three major streets would be made off-limits to rickshaws, in a bid to ease traffic congestion in the areas.

The roads are: Kuril to Sayedabad via Rampura and Khilgaon; Gabtoli to Azimpur via Asad Gate; and Science Laboratory intersection to Shahbagh intersection.

Tea workers continue strike for basic needs

ABC News Reports — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 20:26:23 +0000

Around 250 to 300 tea workers of at least 90 indigenous families continued their strike for the second consecutive day yesterday, demanding most basic needs such as safe drinking water, sanitary toilet facilities and schooling for their children at Ayeshabagh Tea Garden in Moulvibazar’s Barlekha upazila.

The tea garden is located in an isolated area, 85 kilometres away from the town of Moulvibazar.

Living on a Tk 99-wage and 0.5-kg ration of rice or flour each day and staying in shanties scattered all over the hilly garden area, the workers are urging intervention of the government in realising their seven-point demand.

Their other demands include permission to cultivate rice and vegetables on unused land in the tea garden and keep goats or cattle and plant trees around their dwellings.

They are also demanding payment of festival bonus that remained unpaid for years.

The indigenous workers are deprived of necessary housing with facilities necessary for humans, thanks to the negligence of the authorities concerned, said Ajit Bunarji, president of the tea garden’s panchayat committee.

In the absence of adequate sanitary toilets, the workers most of the time defecate out in jungles, resulting in spread of diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases, he added.

Tea worker Suman Karmakar said the worker families living inside Ayeshabagh Tea Garden do not get any healthcare, education or other basic services provided by the government.

Mina Bauri, an elderly tea worker, said only five or six of their children now agree to walk three kilometres in the hilly area to reach the closest school, Pallarthal Government Primary School.

“I’m losing interest in school since it’s too hard for me to walk this long every day,” said fourth grader Moni Karmakar Kharia.

Apu Nayek, general secretary of Cha Bagan Panchayat Committee, said the tea workers placed the demands with the tea garden authorities back in 2014. Since those demands still remain unrealised, they decided to go on an indefinite strike on Friday.

“We hope that the government will intervene to ensure that our demands are met [by the tea garden authorities],” he also said.

Mizanur Rahman, manager of the garden, said, the workers’ demands were being looked into and discussed with the management.

HC refuses to grant Latif Siddique bail in graft case

ABC News Reports — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 16:28:00 +0000

The High Court today refused to grant bail to former textiles and jute minister Abdul Latif Siddique in a corruption case filed on charge of misuse of power in selling a government property.

The court, however, issued a rule asking the Anti-Corruption Commission and government to explain in four weeks why Latif Siddique, who was sent to jail last month, should not be granted bail in this case.

The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice KM Hafizul Alam came up with the rule following a petition filed by the former minister seeking bail in the case.

Abdul Latif Siddique cannot walk out of jail following the HC order, Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik told The Daily Star.

Advocate Yusuf Hossain Humayun appeared for Latif Siddique while Advocate Md Omar Faruk represented the ACC.

ACC Assistant Director Aminul Islam lodged the case with Adamdighi Police Station in Bogura on October 10, 2017. Jahanara Rashid, wife of late Harunur Rashid in Kalitala of Adamdighi upazila, was also made accused in the case.

According to the case statement, Jahanara leased a piece of land in Adamdighi, owned by Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation, for three years at Tk 1.2 lakh per year on May 13, 2010.

On November 13, 2011, Jahanara applied to the ministry for purchasing the land.

Later, then textiles and jute minister Abdul Latif Siddique, without floating any formal tender, awarded the land to Jahanara at Tk 23.94 lakh although its market price was Tk 64.63 lakh, resulting in a loss of Tk 40.69 lakh.

Following the incident, the ACC filed the case against Latif and Jahanara under the Penal Code and section 5(2) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act 1947.

On June 20 this year, a Bogura court Latif Siddique to jail in the case rejecting his bail petition.

Latif Siddique recently filed the bail petition with the HC in connection with the case.

Rape of 12 students: Fatullah madrasa principal remanded

ABC News Reports — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 12:28:02 +0000

Fatullah madrasa principal Al-Amin was placed on five-day remand today in connection with a case filed for raping around a dozen of female students.

Senior Judicial Magistrate of Narayanganj Judge Court Kausar Ahmed passed the order after police produced Al-Amin, founder principal of Baitul Huda Cadet Madrasa at Fatullah in Narayanganj, before the court with 10 days remand prayer.

Earlier on July 4, Rapid Action Battalion detained Al-Amin, 45, from the madrasa who is also imam of a local mosque.

On Sunday, Rab arrested Ariful Islam, 30, an assistant teacher of a private high school in Siddhirganj, for allegedly violating over 20 girls, said Alep Uddin, senior assistant director of Rab-11.

When the news of Ariful’s arrest went viral on Facebook, a student of Baitul Huda Cadet Madrasa saw it and asked her mother why the law enforcers did not arrest the principal of her madrasa, said the Rab official.

Hearing this, the mother asked her what did the principal do? Then she said the principal sexually harassed many girls at the madrasa, the official added.

Later, the mother informed Rab about the matter and then the elite force investigated the allegation and found the principal raped at least 10 to 12 girls since 2018 and tried to violate many others.

Pornography was found in his mobile and laptop, the official said.

The principal with his family lives in a quarter inside the madrasa.

When his wife remains absent at his home or the madrasa closed, he used to intimidate his female students with threats of beating or giving poor marks in exams, the Rab official said.

During primary interrogation, Principal Al Amin confessed that he had raped and sexually harassed girls, the official added.