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

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The detained Khulna City Corporation mayor, Sheikh Tayebur Rahman, during interrogation in police custody has confessed to having links with extremists and underground politics in Khulna zone, police sources said.
   They said the mayor also admitted that he had been involved, directly and indirectly, in killings of a number of politicians and that he owned huge wealth at home and abroad.
   The sources said Tayebur had links with the killings of Jatiya Party leader Abul Kashem, Awami League leader Monjurul Imam, KCC mayor candidate SMA Rob, and Chhatra Dal leader Wahiduzzaman Chanchal. He had given money to a number of persons involved in the killings.
   Besides, the mayor used to maintain relations with Khulna divisional leaders of ultra-left parties, like Shoyeb, Sumon, BDR Altaf, and Rashid, all of whom have been killed in so-called incidents of crossfire, through his relatives and associates, the sources said, adding he used them against his rivals in Khulna BNP.
   According to the sources, he maintained a close relation with the notorious killer Ershad Shikdar, a KCC commissioner who walked the gallows in 2005.
   The sources quoted the mayor as admitting to interrogators that he also maintained contact with Asaduzzaman Litu, an alleged miscreant also killed in ‘crossfire’, and with KCC ward commissioner Mohammad Hossain Mukta, who is suspected by the police for a number of crimes, and used to take undue advantages from them.
   According to the sources, Tayebur confessed that he and his relatives have become wealthy by misusing his office. He has two houses in the USA in his daughter and granddaughter’s names, an apartment and two plots in Dhaka, and a huge amount of money deposited with eight to nine banks in the country. The mayor, however, said he repented his misdeeds and begged the countrymen to forgive him, the sources said.
   Tayebur obtained visa and confirmed his air ticket to go to Singapore on November 2, but the army-led joint forces arrested him at his Gulshan residence in Dhaka the same day, the sources said.
   He was remanded Thursday in police custody for three days in an arms case lodged with the Khulna sadar police, immediate after expiry of a 5-day remand granted in an extortion case.

The task force monitoring the Dhaka City Corporation activities has found inconsistency in the wealth statement submitted by some corporation officials and employees, said a source in the task force which had gathered information before it launched the drive.
   The task force team has ‘initially’ found inconsistency between the statements submitted and the actual wealth of about 35 corporation officials and employees, the source said, adding that there might be more such officials and employees after scrutiny.
   The source said the task force had some bits of information on corruption at the corporation.
   The corporation has 12,212 officials and employees. Of them, 345 are Class I officers, 183 Class II officers, 2,324 Class III employees and 2,088 are Class IV employees. In addition, 7,272 employees work on muster roll.
   Although the employees on muster roll are out of the purview of the order for the submission of wealth statement, many of them submitted statements through their department heads, the sources said.
   The corporation secretary, M Golam Mostafa, on October 24 issued the order, asking its officers and employees except for department heads and zonal executive officers, to submit wealth statements by October 31 after the task force of the joint forces had started keeping watch on Nagar Bhaban activities.
   All the department heads and zonal executives, except for the people working on deputation, were on October 28 also asked to submit their wealth statements by October 31, another official said.
   Seventeen officials — secretary, chief engineer, chief revenue officer, chief estate officer, chief conservancy officer, a magistrate, private secretary to the mayor and 10 zonal officers — have been working on deputation.
   The authorities concerned sent to the taskforce the list of the activities of the corporation departments carried out in five years.
   The task force started work at Nagar Bhaban on October 22 to ensure better service for city residents and to check corruption and anomalies.
   The task force put up a couple of complaint boxes with a telephone number (9563508) and asked the people to lodge complaints. They also introduced a system of registering the names of visitors and employees.

Visiting election commissioners Sohul Hussain and Brig Gen (retd) Sakhawat Hossain said expatriate Bangladeshis are being enlisted as voters so they could elect honest and competent candidates to parliament and actively participate in nation-building activities.
   Exchanging views with leaders of the Bangladeshi community at the
   Bangladesh Centre in West London Thursday, they said the caretaker government and the Election Commission have decided to enlist expatriate Bangladeshis in recognition of their patriotism and contributions during the war of liberation.
   Sohul Hussain said the Commission is preparing a fair voter list so that no one can rig the elections in the future. ‘This will be a people’s voter list, not of bureaucrats,’ he said.
   The EC executives explained the criteria to become a voter. Those expatriates who have their grandfathers, fathers or lands in Bangladesh will be eligible to become voters. Sohul said Bangladeshi expatriates living in different countries would be enlisted by 2011. Bangladesh high commissioner to the UK Shafi U Ahmed was present.
   The commissioners will also exchange views with Bangladeshi community leaders in Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh during their stay in the UK.