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Young people, who mainly come from rich families, are allegedly getting involved in serious crimes like robbery and snatching in Rajshahi city, police officials said.
   Sources in the Rajshahi Metropolitan Police informed that a group of young people, who come from well-off families, were the masterminds of at least two big robberies that took place in the city last month.
   The RMP officials cited the example of an armed robbery at the residence of a garage owner, Manik, in Gourhanga area on September 23. The robbers entered the residence breaking open the door and looted Tk 25,000 in cash, ornaments, mobile sets and other valuables worth about Tk 1.5 lakh.
   A team of detective branch police, led by assistant commissioner Mahfuzur Rahman, picked up one of the robbers Asgar Ali with a mobile set from Bandha Gate area on Wednesday.
   They also arrested Tiger Jony, Sohel, Sajib, Jyoti and Mosharraf at different places in the city and Charghat in the district on the same day. Based on their statements, the police later arrested Anik, son of garage owner Manik, at his aunt’s house in Pakrihat area under Godagari upazila.
   Anik admitted that he borrowed some Tk 40,000 from few persons for taking drugs and masterminded the robbery to repay the loan.
   A gang of robbers on September 27 looted cash and valuables worth about Tk 5 lakh from the house of a retired banker in the city’s Hatem Khan area.
   The robbers entered the residence of one Abul Kashem and held hostage the family members after they had responded to the doorbell.
   The robbers looted Tk 25,000, 17 tolas of gold ornaments, prize bond and five mobile sets. After the incident, the detective police arrested Selim Islam Munna, of Chandghat village under Nagarkanda in Faridpur, and Abul Kalam Azad, a student of Dhaka Medical College, from Hatem Khan area, Tushar, of Kazihata area and Suman, of Hargram area and another person from Barisal.
   Based on the statements of the arrestees, later the police arrested Hridi, son of Kashem, for his suspected involvement in the robbery, the police said.
   ‘We have planned to commit the robbery in my house as I failed to collect money from my parents,’ Hridi told reporters at the DB office. He also admitted that he had supplied the weapons used during the robbery.
   Assistant commissioner Mahfuzur Rahman said number of juvenile delinquents, who come from rich families, was increasing alarmingly in the city.
   ‘They also make friendship with girls and spend large amounts of money for the purpose,’ he said, adding that most of them get involved in serious crimes when they fail to get money from their parents.
   He also reminded an incident that took place here in 2004 when a college student killed his father Professor Nazrul Islam, vice-principal of Rajshahi Government City College, when he failed to get money for taking drugs. Later, the police arrested him with three of his friends.
   The family members usually don’t want to believe that their sons can be involved in such crimes but later they feel embarrassed about their crimes, said another police official.

Encroachment on the Khulna city canals goes on unabated, hampering smooth drainage of water in the city.
   Official sources in the Khulna City Corporation said 15 canals inside the city and seven by the side of the city play a key role in draining water from the city to the adjoining rivers — Rupsa and Bhairab.
   The canals inside the city are Khudia canal, River Moyur, Nirala canal, Mahibari canal, Matiyakhali canal, Mandar canal, Khetrokhali canal, Gallamari north canal, Labanchara sluice gate canal, Batkemari canal, Taltala canal, Sahebkhali canal, Mistripara canal, Truck terminal canal and Nabinagar canal, while the seven canals outside the city are Narkelbaria canal, Surimari canal, Dubir canal, Betbunia canal, Deyana canal, Aralbunia canal and Mallicker canal.
   The banks of the canals are being grabbed by a number of encroachers who are filling them with earth illegally to sell plots, the sources said, adding that some encroachers even have set up permanent establishments in the areas.
   On the other hand, a number of people have taken some parts of the canals on lease and are farming fish there by making dams, hindering smooth flow of water from the city, the sources added.
   The sources said to ensure smooth drainage of water from the city, the KCC authorities and Khulna district administration had evicted 14 dams from the canals under a joint illegal structures eviction programme on June 29-30.
   According to the sources, the eviction team during the drive found the canals at Nirala and Bagmara under occupation and the Khulna additional deputy commissioner (revenue), Shaikh Yusuf Harun, ordered the Batiyaghata upazila administration to take necessary steps to recover the lands, prepare a list of the encroachers and file case against them.
   According to the locals, the dams evicted during the June drive were rebuilt within a few days and earth filling in the banks of the canals resumed.
   KCC and district administration sources said the encroached lands were yet to be recovered and the list of the encroachers was yet to be prepared.
   Talking to New Age, the ADC, Shaikh Yusuf Harun, said a three-member committee comprising the Batiyaghat upazila assistant commissioner (land), was formed to probe the encroachment incidents.
   The Batiyaghata AC (land), Mohammad Abdul Kader Sheikh, however, told New Age that he was unaware about the probe committee.
   A KCC official told New Age that some parts of the canals had been given on lease by the district administration and on July 17 the KCC authorities had sent a letter to the district administration requesting not to give the canals on lease.
   The mayor, Talukder Abdul Khaleque, talking to New Age, said the corporation authorities would take immediate initiatives jointly with the district administration to evict the encroachers to ensure smooth drainage in the city.

The Department of Environment in a drive against vehicles using hydraulic horns on Sunday filed 20 cases and realised Tk 13,500 in fines at Shahbagh Crossing in the capital.
   A DoE team, led by deputy director (implementation) M Billal Hossain, stationed a court in front of Shahbagh police control room at around 10:30am and checked vehicles and filed 20 cases against them for using hydraulic horns, the team leader said.
   RAB executive magistrate M Anwar Pasha and officials of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police accompanied the drive.
   The DoE authorities decided to run a series of drives starting on October 19 till October 23 at different points in the city against sound pollution caused by hydraulic horns of motor vehicles and create awareness among the people about noise pollution.
   The drive will be conducted at Darus Salam crossing, Mirpur on today, at Kemal Ataturk Avenue, Banani on October 21, road adjacent to Notre Dame College, Arambagh on October 22 and at Pragati Sarani adjacent to the US embassy on October 23, sources in the department said.
   The DoE deputy director said, ‘Apart from running the drive, we are also doing some awareness activities such as distributing leaflets and posting stickers on the bodies of buses and other vehicles.’
   The drive will start at 10:30am every day.
   Due to lack of proper implementation of the Noise Pollution (control) Act, 2006, sound pollution has alarmingly increased in the capital city, posing serious health hazards to the city dwellers, the sources said.
   Sound pollution is mainly caused by honking of horns, mills and factories, stone and brick chip machines and playing of musical instruments loudly and indiscriminate use of loudspeakers.
   According to the rule, tolerable noise level in Dhaka city is 50 decibels at daytime while 40 decibels at night in silent zone that includes areas adjacent to hospitals and educational institutions.
   The tolerable limit of sound in residential areas is 55 decibels at daytime and 45 decibels at night while it is 60 decibels at daytime and 50 decibels at night in industrial areas.

Students and teachers of Madan Mohan College in the Sylhet city formed a human chain Sunday morning in demand of immediate arrest and exemplary punishment for the killers of one of their fellows.
   Several hundred students and teachers of the college participated in the human chain programme on Rikabibazar road in front of the college in the city.
   Among the teachers, principal of the college Brigadier General Ataur Rahman Pir, Professor Kripasindu Pal, Nilkanta Dey, Fazlul Haq, GKM Alamgir, Abul Fateh Fattah, Abinash Chowdhury, Jayanta Dash, Ahmed Hosen and Prodwip Kumar Dey, Syed Abdul Wadud, Rafiqul Islam, Akbar Hossain Chowdhury, Mobashwir Ali and Monirul Islam participated in the programme.
   In a short rally after the human chain, the college principal demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment for the killers of Fahim Abdullah Harun, a third-year accounting student.
   He was stabbed in the night of October 3 and died in the morning at Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital.
   Harun was stabbed allegedly in connection with rivalry between two factions of the college unit Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the campus sources said.

The Dhaka City Corporation has introduced community-based waste management in its Ward 44 setting up community groups to manage solid waste at the community level.
   The initiative was taken under a DCC project titled ‘Strengthening of solid waste management of Dhaka city’ which is being implemented from last year with the support of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, DCC sources said.
   Representatives of the community in Ward 44 organised a discussion meeting at Town Hall Market at the ward to mark the lunching of the community based waste management in their ward on Saturday.
   Deputy resident representative of JICA Hirosawa, project director of DCC’s landfill improvement project Tarique Bin Yusuf, commissioner of Ward 44 Arjuda Bashar Lucky, DCC officials, JICA expert team, and community representatives attended the meeting.
   Under the project, DCC has already introduced community based waste management system in several wards of the city through carrying out mass awareness campaign for waste disposal, said the sources.

The Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Alumni Association has honored its senior members who graduated in 1958 or earlier.
   The rare gesture was made at an Eid reunion of its members on Friday at the BUET auditorium, said a press release.
   BUET vice-chancellor AMM Safiullah, former VCs — Musharraf Husain Khan, Abdul Matin Patwari and Iqbal Mahmud — as well as BRAC University vice-chancellor Jamilur Reza Choudhury, also the president of BUETAA, attended the function.
   Speaking on the occasion, VC Safiullah said BUET must regularly upgrade its laboratory and research facilities to remain competitive with other international institutions of the world. The BUET alumni can play a positive role in that regard, he observed.
   Jamilur Reza Choudhury, who presided over the dialogue component of the program, stated that the BUET alumni are now playing important role in building the nation and many of them have earned rare distinctions abroad for their contributions.

The police arrested five young men at Mirpur and Darussalam areas in the city on Sunday and seized a loaded gun and three weapons from their possession.
   A Mirpur police team arrested four youths — Arif Hossain, 19, Rajib, 20, Manik, 18, and Tuhin, 18 — when they gathered near Concord Tower on Shamim Sarani in Shewrapara at 12:15am allegedly for mugging. The police seized three daggers from them.
   A Darussalam police team also picked up one Delwar Hossain, 30, from near the Purbachal fuel filling station on Darussalam Road at 6:00am and seized a local gun with four cartridges from his possession.

The Swiss high commissioner in Dhaka, Dora Rebold, said there is no alternative to skilled manpower for the development of Bangladesh.
   ‘People from all walks must be turned into skilled manpower for the concerted development of the country,’ she said.
   Inaugurating the UCEP-Hafiz Mazumdar Technical School as chief   guest Sunday afternoon in Sylhet, the Swiss envoy said there is a good relation between her country and Bangladesh since the War of Independence in 1971.
   She said her government always wants to extend all probable assistance to the people of Bangladesh to improve the quality of their livelihood.
   Former lawmaker and co-founder of the technical school, Hafiz Ahmed Mazumdar, UCEP chairman ABM Shamshul Kamal and others were present.

The Jagannath University is going to introduce three new departments under two faculties from the current academic year.
   According to the decisions of the academic council, department of law will be opened under the faculty of arts while department of mass communication and journalism, and department of anthropology will be introduced under the faculty of social science with 25 seats in each department, a university press said.
   Three more departments such as pharmacy, computer science and engineering and microbiology, and biotechnology will be opened from 2009-10 academic year. Besides, the centre for English language course (certificate and diploma) will be opened in this academic year.

Weather is likely to remain mainly dry with partly cloudy sky over the country having chances of light rain over the Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet divisions till 6:00pm today, said the Met Office in a forecast on Sunday.
   Day temperature may remain nearly unchanged. The highest temperature on Sunday, 36 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Sandwip and the lowest, 24.4 degrees Celsius, at Srimangal.
   The sun sets in the capital city today at 5:28pm and rises tomorrow at 5:59am.

The Election Commission on Sunday again filed an application with the High Court seeking to be vacated its order which had stayed the commission’s gazette notification which finalised the demarcation of the electoral constituencies for the forthcoming parliamentary polls.
   The commission’s counsel Shahdeen Malik filed the petition with the High Court bench of Justice Hasmat Ali and Justice Shamim Hasnain saying, ‘If the stay order is not vacated, the holding of the polls on December 18 will be jeopardised, pushing the whole nation into uncertainty.’
   Former attorney general Mahmudul Islam, another counsel of the commission, on October 14 withdrew the application from the High Court bench of Justice High Court bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui as the High Court bench of Justice Hasmat Ali and Justice Shamim Hasnain was scheduled on Sunday to hear the rule issued by another bench asking the commission to explain the legality of the electoral constituency demarcation.
   The hearing, however, could not start on Sunday as the case was at the 176th position on the list of cases for hearing.
   As the case is not likely to be heard soon as it is far down the list of cases for hearing, Shahdeen submitted the application seeking to be vacated the stay order and argued the application should be heard immediately.
   The High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Mashuque Hosain Ahmed on August 7 stayed for two months the commission’s July 10 gazette notification which finalised the electoral constituency demarcation.

The Truth and Accountability Commission Sunday heard pleas of seven corrupt individuals who applied for clemency in return for their ill-gotten wealth.
   Tac sources said those heard Sunday are employees of Housing Department, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited, previously known as Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board.
   The commission is scheduled to hear 10 more cases today.

Maj Gen (retd) Kazi Golam Dastagir, former director general of Bangladesh Rifles, died of old-age ailment at his residence on Friday at the age of 75.
   He is survived by his wife, one son and one daughter.
   His body was taken to Dhaka sector training field at Pilkhana where his first namaz-e-janaza was held. He was buried at Banani graveyard.

Freedom fighter and vice-president of Bangladesh Mahila Awami League Tahmina Khatun died of a heart attack at a hospital in Kolkata of India Saturday night, family members said. She was 54.
   Tahmina is survived by her husband and one daughter. She went to Kolkata on September 30 to have bypass operation in Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Hospital where she died at 11:30pm.
   Tahmina was also the joint secretary of the central executive committee of Bangladesh Mahila Samity, deputy director of Bangladesh National Society for the Blind and former president of Dhaka University’s Roquiah Hall unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League.

KM Mahmood Ur Rahman, chairman of High Speed Group, has received the prestigious World Maritime Day Award for 2008.
   Rahman, also president of Bangladesh Shipbuilders’ Association, Bangladesh Cargo Vessel Owners’ Association and Launch Owners Association, received the award for his outstanding contribution to the development of maritime sector in angladesh.
   Home and shipping adviser Abdul Matin handed over the award in the presence of distinguished personalities at a function here recently, a press release of Bangladesh Shipbuilders’ Association said on Sunday.
   Rahman has been involved in the country’s maritime sector development for the last 40 years, the press release added.

A two-member delegation, headed by Liaquatur Rahman, general manager of Therap (BD) Limited, called on Professor AMM Safiullah, vice-chancellor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, at his office in Dhaka on Sunday.
   During the meeting, they discussed matters of mutual interests, a BUET press release said.
   Liaquatur Rahman handed over two water filters to Professor Safiullah for the department of computer science and engineering.
   Professor M Kaykobad and Professor Saidur Rahman, among others, were present.

Speakers at a seminar on Sunday underscored the need for creating awareness among the youths about HIV/AIDS to safeguard the future generation from the deadly disease.
   They were speaking at a public seminar on ‘HIV/AIDS for students’ organised by the Center for Gender, Sexuality and HIV//AIDS, a UNAIDS collaborating center, at the James P Grant school of public health of BRAC University.
   Students from all the private and public universities, including Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, BRAC University, North South University, Independent University Bangladesh, East West and State University, attended the programme.
   The pro-vice-chancellor of BRAC University, Salehuddin Ahmed, inaugurated the event and gave the welcome address while a number of leading HIV/AIDS experts spoke on this occasion.
   Dr Nazneen Akhter of HASAB, Ezazul Islam of ICDDR,B, Bridget Job Johnson of UNICEF and Ezazul Haque of UNFPA were also present.

Chinese teacher
visits IU
Jiang Yin Lian, a professor of Yunnan University in China, has recently visited Islamic University in Kushtia. During her visit, Jiang Lian, also a teacher of Chinese language at North South University in Dhaka, met with IU vice- chancellor Professor Faez Mohammad Serajul Hoque and discussed issues relating to introduction of Chinese language course under the Institute of Islamic Education and Research at the university, said a press release on Sunday. Lian also delivered special lecture on ‘Chinese philosophy’ at department of politics and public administration and department of English. Deans and chairmen of different faculties and departments, senior teachers, officials and a good number of students were present at the programme.
— New Age

RUET admission forms available
from today
Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology will distribute admission forms from today. The test for the first year BSC engineering course of the academic session 2008-09 will be held at 9:00am on November 24, a press release said. The interested admission seekers will be able to collect and submit the forms from October 20 to November 6. The forms can be collected from the RUET Branch of Rupali Bank. A total of 485 students will be able to get admission to six departments this year.
— BSS