Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

Most madrassahs and orphanages in Gazipur had poor collection of donation this Eid-ul-Azha after the bomb attacks by the banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh.
   The residents were dismayed at the Jamaatul Mujahideen activities, and many refrained from giving money, earned from the sale of rawhides of sacrificial animals, to madrassahs and orphanages.
   The students and teachers of the orphanages and madrassahs visited different places on the Eid day, but their collection was not up to expectations.
   The authorities of orphanages and madrassahs said the amount of money came down to a half this year as compared with the amount in past years.
   Sources said a number of madrassah teachers were looking for other jobs after the arrest of students and teachers by the police for their alleged link with Jamaatul Mujahideen.
   Some guardians were also thinking to send their children to schools from madrassahs.
   The sources said the JMB activities increased alarmingly after the bomb attacks in Gazipur on August 17, November 29, and December 1 that killed 10, including a suicide bomber and four lawyers, and injured more than a hundred.
   The JMB activists also issued threats to the deputy commissioner, police superintendent, and eight journalists which made the residents angry.
   The lawyers of the Gazipur Bar Association, meanwhile, decided not to deal with the cases filed against the JMB activists detained in police custody.
   The police picked up Enayetullah, the Dhaka division military commander of Jamaatul Mujahideen, along with his wife and son and based on his statement, they recovered huge arms and ammunition from different places in the district.
   Some students and teachers of orphanages and madrassahs were also picked up for their alleged link with Jamaatul Mujahideen. The intelligence agencies kept vigil on some orphanages and madrassahs.

Leaders and activists of a local faction of ruling BNP and its front organisations in Narsingdi on Saturday declared the local lawmaker Sardar Shakhawat Hossain Bakul persona nongrata in the locality (Manahardi-Belabo) for his alleged involvement in an attack on a business centre in the locality on Friday.
   They held a rally at Amlab Bazar area under Belabo upazila in the district in the afternoon, protesting at the attack.
   Speakers at the rally accused the lawmaker and the thana unit BNP president, Principal Sabdar Ali Mia, of the attack
   on the shop of one Tapan and declared both of them persona nongrata in the locality.
   Local BNP leader Abdul Aziz presided over the rally where the speakers said miscreants led by Sabdar Ali attacked the shop under the patronisation of Bakul, which resulted in the injury of 15
   persons.
   They also demanded immediate postponement of all the political activities of the leaders in the area.
   BNP leader and chairman of the Amlab union council Mahbubur Rahman Mukul, acting president of Belabo thana unit Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal Jakir Hossain and vice-president of Belabo thana unit Chhatra Dal Rafiqul Islam addressed the rally among others.

Seven people were killed and about 100 injured in road accidents across the country on Friday night and Saturday due to dense fog and rush driving by the drivers.
   Three of them were killed in Sirajganj while one each in Dhaka, Magura, Barisal, and Jessore.
   In Sirajganj, three people were killed and 50 others, including six policemen, injured in separate accidents on Friday night and Saturday. Seventeen of the injured were admitted to Sirajganj Sadar Hospital and local clinics.
   The police said an accident took place at about 4:30am on Saturday when two buses
   collided head-on amid dense fog at Jhaol under Kamarkhand upazila, leaving a woman,
   Dolna Begum, dead and 20 injured.
   In another accident, at least 20 people were injured when two buses collided head-on on the western side of the Jamuna Bridge at about 6:00am on Saturday.
   Due to thick fog, two auto-tempos collided head-on at Kutirchar in Kamarkhand early Saturday, leaving the driver of one of the vehicles dead and five injured.
   Besides, six policemen were injured when their pickup van turned turtle at Karitala bazar station on Friday night due to dense fog.
   In Dhaka, an old man was run over by a Dhaka-bound bus on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway near Hemayetpur under Savar upazila at about 9:00am on Saturday.
   In Barisal, Mohammad Hanif, driver of the Barisal-bound bus of Drooti Paribahan, was killed and 40 were injured when his vehicle collided head-on with the Dhaka-bound Sakura Paribahan bus near the Gournadi Fire Service Station at about 9:30am on Saturday.
   Five of the injured were admitted to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital while the others were given first aid at the local hospital.
   In Jessore, Lutfor Rahman Khokan, a leather trader, was killed and three others were injured when his car hit a roadside tree near Simakhali on the Dhaka-Jessore Highway at about 11:00am on Saturday.
   The trader was going to Jessore from Dhaka to buy rawhides. In another accident, four people were injured
   when their car hit a roadside tree on the Jessore-Narail Road at Bhanguara on Friday
   night. The injured were undergoing treatment at Jessore hospital.
   In Magura, a 30-year old woman was killed when a bus hit her on the Magura-Jhenaidah Road at Alamkhali on Friday night.

Raja, a young boy afflicted with cerebral palsy, got a new life after getting general education with normal children at the school of Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed at Savar.
   Raja was left by his parents at the Shahjalal’s shrine in Sylhet in mid 2004 because he was not normal and a burden to his family.
   Locals collected him from there and sent him to the government owned women and children’s safe residence in Sylhet. The centre took charge of Raja upon request.
   Raja is now a resident student at the centre’s inclusive school and leads a new life.
   The centre’s school, a special needs school, gives hope to get back a normal life to the children with cerebral palsy like Raja.
   The school named ‘The William and Marie Taylor School’ has been in operation since 1993 at Savar.
   A total of 212 children aged between four and ten years at the school and among them 31 suffer from cerebral palsy.
   Valerie Taylor, co-ordinator of the centre said the school has been in operation since 1993 with five disabled children and it turned into a full flagged school in 2005.
   She said the new school combines the centre’s special needs students and mainstream students mainly children of the centre’s staff members.
   Taylor said victims of cerebral palsy could overcome many barriers by interacting with normal children at an early stage.
   Cerebral palsy is a disease related to sensory motor problems and caused by disability from unsafe delivery, or from birth, said a physiotherapist of the centre.
   He said these children could get better if handled right at an early stage.
   This school follows the primary school curriculum including some extra-curricular activities.
   A total of seven teachers, a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist run the classes, said Nurul Islam Liton unit head of the centre’s special education.
   The school provides residential and non-residential facilities for students. Admission fees for residential students are Tk 4,300 and Tk 1,600 monthly while for non-residents it is Tk 1,500 and Tk 300 monthly.
   Liton said disabled children could get admitted to the school after a diagnosis of cerebral palsy by the centre’s therapist or any registered doctor.
   ‘We are giving free education and treatment to some underprivileged disabled and normal children,’ said Taylor.
   ‘Our plan is to expand this school up to the secondary level and also improve upon the standard of treatment. But these challenges depend on raising funds,’ she said.

Another suspected leader of the outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party was killed in ‘crossfire’ between the police and his associates at Bhutiamari Bil under Bagerhat sadar early Saturday, raising the ‘crossfire’ death toll to 468 since June 2004.
   The police said they arrested Goutam Das of village Jhenaikhali under Batiaghata from village Piljong of Fakirhat upazila in the district Friday afternoon.
   On his statement, a police team took Goutam to Bhutiamari Bil to recover his hidden firearms. As the team reached the area early Saturday, Goutam’s associates opened fire on the policemen, forcing them to fire back.
   Goutam was caught in ‘crossfire’ while trying to escape and died on the spot, the police claimed.
   Later, the police seized a revolver, a shutter gun, 11 bullets and a knife from the spot.
   The body was handed over to his relatives after the post-mortem examination at Bagerhat Hospital on Saturday.

Mystery shrouds the tragic end of two siblings. The younger brother committed suicide after slaughtering the elder in the town at dead of Friday night.
   Police and family suspected that Raju Sahani, 26, son of Lasmi Sahani, slaughtered his elder brother Ranjan Sahahi when he was asleep in their house on Station Road. And then Raju swallowed poison.
   To her utter surprise the mother found Raju vomiting near the toilet. She took him to the room of Ranjan where and saw him in a pool of blood. She raised a shrill cry that brought inmates of the house and neighbours. They found Ranjan lying slaughtered inside the quilt.
   Raju was taken to the District Modern Hospital under police custody where he died at 4pm on Saturday.
   The mother said both her sons were looking after their chanachur factory. None of the family or the neighbours could ascertain the motive.

At least 300 leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its front organisations have joined the Awami League Saturday at a meeting at Farayezi Bazar in Noakhali.
   Participating in the meeting, Obaidul Kader, the AL central joint general secretary, said the people of Bangladesh would resist February 15-style farcical election making false voter lists.
   He said ‘We won’t accept the general election without cancelling the false voter lists and resignation of the chief election commissioner.’
   The BNP cadres made false voter lists of about 25 to 30 thousand people in each constituency, he alleged.
   Kader said the voter list forms were not available in the AL-support bases and the areas inhabited by the minority people. The BNP cadres enlisted the teenagers and madrassah students as voters in the controversial fresh voter list, he alleged.
   In the meeting, he urged the AL leaders and workers of Noakhali to participate in the programmes protesting the preparation of fresh voter list ignoring the High Court directive on January 19.
   AL Sadar Purbachal president Mofizullah chaired the meeting.
   Among others, central Juba League joint secretary Mazibul Haque, Dhaka city North Juba League president Abul Bashar, Noakhali district AL general secretary Ekramul Karim Chowdhury and Belaluddin Kiran addressed the meeting.

The state minister for environment and forests, Jafrul Islam Chowdhury, on Friday inaugurated three new development projects, which were constructed at a cost of Tk 5.29 crore at Banshkhali upazlia in Chittagong.
   The projects include two roads stretching over 8 kilometres and a rural electric supply line.
   The Local Government and Engineering Department constructed the roads while the Chittagong Palli Biddyut Samity -1 built the power supply network.
   Addressing the functions at respective project sites, Jafrul Islam Chowdhury said the country had witnessed a significant progress during the last four years on all economic fronts and the present government was implementing many schemes to further improve the overall socio-economic condition of the country.
   'The government has laid much importance on the development of roads and power infrastructure as they are the most vital parts of the country's economic advancement,' he said and sought whole-hearted cooperation of the people towards the government's sincere efforts to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of the nation.
   Project officials as well as general secretary of BNP south district unit Shahidul Islam Chowdhury, other local BNP leaders and UP members also spoke on the occasion.
   About 500 families of Gondaramara union have been brought under electric supply network of the newly constructed 16.22 kms electric supply line.

Kamrul Ahsan Himu, regional leader of Sarbahara Zia Group, Rezaul Karim, member of Agorpur union, and Liton Kazi, vice-president of Babuganj Juba League, were handed over to the police on Friday night.
   The Rapid Action Battalion picked up Himu, also a former chairman of the union, and his associate Rezaul from Kabiraj Bari at Thakur Mallik village, and Liton from a tea stall at Rahmatpur under Babuganj upazila on Thursday night.