Bangladesh
Trader slaughtered in Cumilla
A trader was slaughtered by some miscreants at his house in Nurpur Chowmuhani area of Cumilla city Sunday night.
The deceased is Rafi Sarwar, son of late Anwar Hossain of the area. He was involved in the mobile recharge business.
Police said Rafi's mother Syda Aktar returned home from a relative's home and found his son's slaughtered body lying on bed around 9pm.
Read: 4 members of a Satkhira family found slaughtered
Later, police recovered the body at 10pm, said Sahidur Rahman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Kotwali Model Police Station.
The motive behind the murder is not yet known, said the OC.
The cause of the murder is being investigated. Criminal Investigation Department (CID) members collected several clues from the scene, the OC added.
US-Bangla launches Dhaka-Sharjah flights
Private carrier US-Bangla Airlines launched direct flights to the UAE's Sharjah at 9pm Sunday from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.
Initially, US-Bangla will operate flights on the Dhaka-Sharjah-Dhaka route six days a week.
The flights will leave Dhaka at 9pm daily, except Saturday, and reach Sharjah at 12.30am (local time).
Read: Launch of US-Bangla flights strengthened Dhaka-Male air connectivity: PM
The return flights will leave Sharjah for Dhaka on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1.30am (local time) and reach Dhaka at 8am.
The flights will also leave Sharjah for Chattogram at 1.30am on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and land in the port city at 8am.
US-Bangla started operating flights to the UAE's Dubai on February 1 last year.
Madrasa teacher lands in jail for raping 2 students in Panchagarh
A madrasa teacher in Panchagarh, arrested over raping two of his students, landed in jail on Sunday.
The accused is Abu Bakkar Siddique,24, resident of Dakkhin Jinnat Para village in the sadar upazila.
A panchagarh court sent Abu Bakkar to jail on Sunday after Boda station police arrested him from his own house on Saturday night and produced him before court.
Read: Khulna man sentenced in absentia to life for raping, killing minor
Police made the arrest followed by a rape case lodged at Panchagarh Sadar police station under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000, said Abdul Latif Mia, Officer-in-Charge of Panchagarh Sadar police station.
On January 27 and 28, Abu Bakkar raped those two resident students in the madrasa, according to the case statement.
As the locals and parents of the students got information and interrogated he accepted his crime, it said.
Gas supply suspended in B’Baria as pipeline gets damaged
Gas supply across Brahmanbaria district was suspended from Sunday noon after a pipeline was damaged during construction work.
The officials said the pipeline with 60 PSI capacity was damaged and gas started gushing out when an excavator machine hit it during the construction work of Ashuganj-Akhaura four lane highway.
Read: Consumers to experience low pressure in gas supply in Dhaka, Mymensingh
Immediately after the incident gas supply was shut across the district said, a Deputy General Manager of Bakhrabad Gas Distribution Company Limited.
Gas supply to some 24, 000 residential and commercial customers thus remained suspended, he said.
175 officials including MD of Barapukuria Coal Mine contract Covid; coal extraction suspended
Around 125 Bangladeshi officials and 50 Chinese officials of the Barapukuria Coal Mine, including the managing director, have tested positive for COVID-19.
Due to the situation, the coal extraction has been suspended temporarily from Thursday as the workers of the mine put on indefinite leave, said Engineer Kamruzzaman, Managing Director of Barapukuria Coal Mine.
Read:In its peak, Covid wave may continue for another 2 weeks in Bangladesh: Experts
Besides, of the 293 Chinese officials at Chinese contractors CMC and XMC, at least 50 were tested positive with Covid-19 after testing 184 workers.
The infected are in home isolation while others on leave to curb the covid spread, said the MD.
However, the coal based thermal power plant will not be affected as there is about 2.5 lakh tonnes of coal in stock, hoped the MD.
Meanwhile, Mahmud Al Mamun, executive engineer of Barapukuria Thermal Power Station, said that out of 3 units with a capacity of 525 MW, a unit with a capacity of 300 MW has been kept active at the coal-based thermal power plant and a unit consumes 2,000 metric tonnes of coal daily to generate electricity.
Read:Actually 5.48 lakh tons coal pilfered from Barapukuria: CAB
Besides, one of the two more units with a capacity of 125 MW has been overhauled (servicing) and the other has been closed, he added.
If the demand for electricity increases in the upcoming Boro season, all the three units will be active. However, it will be possible to keep power generation in coal and thermal power plants for another five months as there is no shortage of coal.
Madaripur road accident kills 5 as buses ram car from behind
At least five people were killed and four injured in Madaripur's Shibchar Saturday night as two buses rammed into the back of a car.
The deceased were identified as Khalil Matubbar, Mostafa Shikdar, Rokeya Begum, Litu and Mofazzel Hossain, Shibchar Highway Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Shakhawat Hossain said.
Read: 3 killed in Manikganj road crash
The injured are now undergoing treatment at Faridpur Medical College Hospital, he added.
The accident occurred at 8:30pm on Dhaka-Bhanga highway at Bachamara as a private car was heading towards Faridpur's Bhanga, the OC said. Suddenly a bus running at speed rammed into it from behind. The impact was enough to kill two of the people in the car on the spot.
Later with locals having gathered at the spot to help the victims, another bus came crashing through the crowd. This reckless assault killed three more people.
RAB uncovers another case of wrongful imprisonment; absconding convict arrested
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) have arrested an absconding convict from the capital who paid off a cousin to serve the life sentence he received for killing a man in 2010.
The arrestee was identified as Sohag alias Boro Sohag, 34, who was sentenced to life imprisonment on December 28, 2017.
According to a media release of Rab HQ, a team of Rab-10, tipped off, made the arrest conducting a drive Saturday night in the Sir Salimullah Medical College and Hospital area, where he had gone to get his Covid-19 vaccination done ahead of fleeing to the UAE with fake/false identity papers he had already obtained for the purpose.
Read:Two arrested with 3 gecko lizards in Jashore
Sohag shot a man named Humayun Kabir alias Titu in the Kodomtoli area of the city in November 2010 and got arrested in December in the same year. Four people including Shohag were made accused in the murder case. He secured bail in 2014, and soon after he jumped bail and has evaded law enforcement ever since. Eventually a Dhaka court sentenced him to life imprisonment in absentia.
Sohag has now confessed that he allured his 'drug addict' cousin Md Hossain, 35, to assume his identity and surrender before the court saying he would provide Tk 5,000 every month for serving his sentence. He also assured his cousin Hossain to get him out of the jail within 2/3 months. And the court ordered to send Hossain to jail, turning down the bail plea in 2018.
However, the court came to know about the forgery in 2021 following the report of a journalist about a 'Fake Sohag' in jail which was confirmed in a police report. The court later issued a warrant against Sohag, the release added.
Cleaner, greener production cannot come at free of cost: BGMEA chief
Cleaner and greener production cannot come at free of cost, Faruque Hassan, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said Sunday.
"There is a sharp disconnect between sustainability and pricing mechanisms. Supplying countries like Bangladesh have their challenges and constraints. So we need more strategic collaboration in this regard," he added.
Faruque was addressing the programme "Securing Green Transition of the Textile and Readymade Garments Sector in Bangladesh" organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in the city.
Also read: BGMEA urges LGRD Ministry to repair roads in industrial areas
"Environment sits at the top of our agenda at the BGMEA and the sector at large. Bangladesh has the highest number of LEED Green factories in the world, with 157 certified by the USGBC – 47 platinum rated, 96 gold rated," the BGMEA president said.
"These green factories are equipped with all the eco-friendly features and emit around 40 percent less carbon than a conventional factory. However, we need technical assistance with regard to access to technologies, and building capacity of our human resources to embrace the green technologies and processes."
Saber Hossain Chowdhury, member of parliament and chairman of the Standing Committee on Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, attended the programme as chief guest.
Christine Johansson, deputy head of mission and head of development co-operation at the Embassy of Sweden, also spoke while the programme was moderated by CPD Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun.
Also read: BGMEA seeks govt support in addressing RMG sector’s challenges
Mohammad Hatem, executive president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Shams Mahmud, former president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry and managing director of Shasha Denims, Md Fazlul Hoque, managing director of Plummy Fashions and former president of the Bangladesh Employers' Federation, also spoke.
Sylhet to get its own WASA: LGRD Minister
Sylhet WASA will be established soon to solve the problem of water and sewerage in Sylhet metropolis, said Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) Minister Md Tajul Islam.
The minister said, "There is a need to build environmentally friendly, sustainable and people-oriented drinking water supply and sanitary drainage systems for the people of the metropolis."
Sylhet is one of the most important cities in the country. Due to population and urbanisation, the dwellers need to be provided with much needed civic amenities, said the minister in a meeting on setting up of 'Water Supply and Sewerage Authority' (Sylhet WASA) in Sylhet City Corporation area as per 'Water Supply and Sewerage Authority 1996' organized virtually on Sunday.
Read:BGMEA urges LGRD Ministry to repair roads in industrial areas
Tajul Islam informed that necessary instructions have been given to the Ministries, Departments, Offices and Agencies concerned to take immediate action for issuing Gazette Notification, Organogram, Formulation of Employment Rules and other activities as initial steps for formation of Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Sylhet WASA) in Sylhet metropolis.
The Minister also expressed hope that it will be possible to establish Sylhet WASA very soon.
Stating his ministry is working tirelessly to protect the overall environment by adopting and implementing realistic sustainable projects for the development of drinking water supply management in urban and rural areas, he said the government has placed more emphasis on surface water use by reducing dependence on groundwater resources.
To this end, various steps have been taken to increase the use of river water in urban as well as rural areas, digging ponds, and using surface water through rainwater harvesting.
In this regard, he further said, in accordance with SDG, it has been assured to use 70% surface water by 2030. And Bangladesh will achieve the target before this time.
The LGRD minister said there are water problems in many countries of the world. "Being a riverine country, we have fewer problems with water than many other countries. Even after this capacity, we are working to ensure drinking water and a healthy sewerage system in remote areas of the country."
Mentioning that the country is moving forward under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he said that unprecedented success has been achieved in the development of all sectors due to collective work not only in water but also in other sectors.
Read:Recovered city canals will end waterlogging and add beauty: LGRD Minister
Meanwhile, taking part in the meeting, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said the population of Sylhet has increased many times over. So it became urgent to establish a WASA there.
He thanked the LGRD Minister for taking the initiative to establish Sylhet WASA from this realization and assured all possible assistance for its speedy implementation.
The meeting was attended by Senior Secretary of LGRD ministry Helal Uddin Ahmed, Mayor of Sylhet City Corporation Ariful Haque Choudhury and senior officials of the ministry concerned.
Ex-OC Pradeep appeals to HC challenging indictment order in graft case
Pradeep Kumar Das, former OC of Teknaf Police Station, has filed a petition in the High Court seeking the cancellation of an indictment order in a case over acquiring wealth illegally.
Advocate Masud Alam filed the petition on behalf of OC Pradeep, confirmed Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan on Sunday.
The petition also sought the suspension of the judicial proceedings of the case.
On December 15 last year, a Chattogram court indicted Pradeep in this case.
Also read: Court indicts ex-OC Pradeep in a graft case
Earlier on September 1, the court accepted a charge sheet in the graft case against the sacked OC and his wife Chumki.
ACC Chittagong Assistant Director Md Riaz Uddin submitted the charge sheet on July 26.
However, Chumki has been absconding since Pradeep's arrest.
On August 23 in 2020 ACC filed the case against Pradeep, now in jail and undergoing trial in Major (retd) Sinha murder case, and his wife for amassing wealth worth Tk 4 crore.
ACC sources said the anti-graft watchdog’s investigation against Pradeep started in 2018.
On April 20 last year, Pradeep and his wife were asked to submit their wealth statement and they submitted their wealth statements in June that year.
Also read: Ex-OC Pradeep denied bail again in ACC case
After a long investigation, the ACC found evidence that the couple acquired assets worth more than Tk 4 crore illegally.
On July 31 in 2020, Sinha was shot dead at the Shamlapur police check-post in Baharchhara Union of Cox's Bazar while returning to town after filming for a documentary.
On August 5, Sinha's sister, Sharmin Shahriar Ferdous, filed a case with Teknaf Senior Judicial Magistrate Court accusing nine members of law enforcement agencies of being involved in the killing, including Pradeep Kumar Das and Baharchhara police outpost inspector Liakat Ali.
On December 13, 2020, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) submitted a charge sheet against 15 people, including police source Ayaz and three APBn members, in connection with the case filed over Sinha's murder at a checkpost manned by APBn, where officers of the Teknaf police station intercepted Sinha's car.