Shopping also on SAARC Summit agenda!
PARVIN KHLAEDA
The spouses and the guests of the dignitaries to the 13th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation – pencilled in for November 12 and 13 – are expected to visit a select band of shopping complexes and outlets in the capital.
They will visit the Bashundhara City Complex at Panthapath, the Aarong outlet at Gulshan and some sari stores at Bailey Road besides the five souvenir shops on the lobby of the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.
Also, there will be a fair at the state guesthouse Padma – an official programme – where about 20 stalls will display traditional handicraft.
The souvenir shops at Sheraton have ‘already bought some new products such as jamdani sari, punjabi and fatua for the guests’, the hotel’s assistant director of marketing, Mahbubur Rahman, told New Age on Wednesday.
Aarong already has its ‘Eid collections in store and will have some products especially for the SAARC guests’, said its retail manager, Abu Sayed.
It will also take part in the fair at Padma and put nakshi kantha, sari, jewelleries and brass products on display, he added.
As VIPs, the spouses and the guests of the SAARC dignitaries will be entitled to special security arrangement, usually designated for heads of state and government, according to sources in the security forces.
And the shops have already had a taste of what is coming.
‘Security personnel have already visited our outlet at Gulshan and checked our security system,’ said Sayed.
The shopping complexes and outlets have, meanwhile, beefed up their own security arrangements.
‘More than 300 security personnel will be on duty with metal detectors and archways,’ said Zahidur Rahman, senior general manager of the Bashundhara City Complex. ‘There will also be closed-circuit TV cameras.’
AL-led alliance to review prep
for Nov 22 grand rally
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Senior leaders of the Awami League-led opposition alliance on Wednesday at a meeting decided to hold joint meetings with presidents and general secretaries of the component parties of districts adjacent to the capital to make the November 22 grand rally a success.
The meeting, held at the Awami League central office at Bangabandhu Avenue, reviewed preparation for the rally and vowed to gather thousands of people at the rally with the slogan ‘let us go to Dhaka’.
The joint meetings with the presidents and general secretaries of the Awami League and its allies of 12 districts around the capital will be held on November 14 in the city. Besides, four separate teams comprising central leaders will visit Dhaka and its adjacent districts on November 17, 18 and 19.
Awami League presidium member Abdur Razzak MP presided over the meeting while AL general secretary Abdul Jalil MP, Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon, general secretary Bimal Biswas, Gono Forum secretary Saifuddin Ahmed Manik, Jatiya Samajtantrick Dal president Hasanul Haq Inu, executive president Moinuddin Khan Badal, Ganotantri party president Nurul Islam, Samybadi Dal general secretary Dilip Barua, Gano Azadi League president Abdus Samad and 11-party coordinator Mafizul Islam Khan were present.
After the meeting that began at noon and continued for one hour and a half, Abdul Jalil at a press briefing alleged that leaders and activists of the opposition parties were being harassed and arrested in the name of ensuring security for the ensuing SAARC summit.
He said the opposition parties would combat all kinds of ‘conspiracy’ aimed at foiling the grand rally by the incumbent government.
Meanwhile, the Awami League has shifted the venue of its scheduled discussion meeting from Engineers Institution auditorium to Bangabandbhu Bhaban at Dhanmondi 32 so that security of the SAARC summit was not hampered.
The main opposition party will organise discussion meeting on November 12 to mark Jail Killing Day.
Convicted JCD leader held
from Jhenaidah
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The police arrested Ruhul Amin, a leader of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal convicted in a snatching case, from Jhenaidah early Wednesday.
Ruhul Amin, assistant general secretary of the JCD Dhaka College Unit, was sentenced to five years’ rigorous imprisonment by a speedy trial tribunal of Dhaka on October 26 for snatching Tk 12 lakh from the employee of a jewellry shop at Baitul Mukarram Market in Dhaka on June 19.
He was being interrogated at the Minto Road office of the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police till Wednesday night. He will be sent to the court on Thursday.
On June 19, Ruhul Amin, along with two others, Golam Wahab Liton and Azizul Hakim, abducted Abul Kashem, an employee of Uma Jewellers, from Baitul Mukarram mosque gate while he was going to deposit the money to bank.
Kashem raised alarm when their car was forced to stop at the Kakrail crossing and local people and on-duty police caught Liton and Hakim while Ruhul Amin managed to escape with the money.
Out of Tk 12 lakh, the police recovered Tk 10.05 lakh and a mobile phone set from a room of a Dhaka College dormitory the same night. But rest of the money is yet to be recovered.
After investigation, the police submitted charge sheet to the court on June 26, accusing Ruhul Amin, Liton and Hakim of the incident.
In its verdict, the tribunal sentenced Ruhul Amin to five years’ and the others to four years’ imprisonment after examining 17 witnesses.
Anwar Choudhury visits Sylhet
OUR CORRESPONDENT, Sylhet
British high commissioner Anwar Choudhury on Wednesday said the British immigration system for Bangladeshi nationals would be improved and made easier by next month.
‘Bangladesh has a significant importance to the British government which put a positive impact in increasing British allocation to different programmes of Bangladesh,’ Anwar Choudhury said while exchanging views with the local elites during his first visit to Sylhet after a grenade attack on him on May 21, 2004.
He also appreciated the government measures taken after the country wide bomb blasts of August 17.
Imam of JS mosque held
for violating niece
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The police Tuesday night arrested the imam of Jatiya Sangsad South Plaza Jam-e mosque for allegedly violating his niece on November 6.
The police produced the imam, Sirajul Islam, in the court from where he was sent to jail on Wednesday.
The police said Siraj had brought his 20-year-old niece to his Jatiya Sangad servants’ quarter from her husband’s Gajmahal residence at Hazaribagh on November 6.
He raped the woman in his quarter residence in the afternoon on the day, the victim alleged in her complaint.
RAJUK files case against Jalil
on charge of land grab
BDNEWS, Dhaka
RAJUK filed a case against the Awami League general secretary and Mercantile Bank chairman, Abdul Jalil, and the managing director of the bank on charges of grabbing its 20 katas of land by forgery in the capital’s Gulshan area.
The housing and public works minister, Mirza Abbas, disclosed it while talking to journalists at his ministry office on Wednesday.
He said a high-level committee headed by a housing and public works secretary would be formed to carry out investigation in this regard.
The minister said Mercantile Bank bought a 20-kata plot of CWN (C) block in Gulshan from Mushtari Begum on September 13.
He also said the papers shown by Mercantile Bank were not issued by RAJUK.
The minister said the allegation of forgery brought against the bank was not politically motivated.
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