Bangladesh
Commonwealth SG Patricia congratulates PM Hasina on her re-election
Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland congratulated Sheikh Hasina on her re-election as Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
In a congratulatory letter sent to the Prime Minister, Patricia said that she was encouraged by the vision that Sheikh Hasina outlined after assuming office, which emphasised the principles of transparency and accountability and she also recalled the exhortation of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, of ‘friendship to all, malice towards none’.
“The Secretariat stands ready to support you as Prime Minister of Bangladesh, in continuing your important work on these values,” she said.
“These values are mirrored in our Commonwealth Charter, which call for tolerance, respect and understanding and delivering the many facets of sustainable development,” she said.
The Commonwealth Secretary General mentioned that she was pleased to have deployed a Commonwealth Expert Team of independent observers for the recent elections, led by the former Prime Minister of Jamaica,
Bruce Golding.
“I look forward to receiving the Team’s report with its findings and recommendations, and to an opportunity to discuss these with you,” she added.
Read: Malaysian PM greets Sheikh Hasina on re-election
Patricia said that Bangladesh is a treasured member of the Commonwealth family.
“Our diverse nations are bound by the shared values that are reflected in our Charter, including those of peace, democracy, and sustainable development,” she said.
In this connection, she mentioned that Bangladesh’s active engagement and leadership in the Commonwealth is greatly appreciated by its members, including on issues of oceans stewardship and climate change, digital innovation, trade and investment, youth, gender equality, and mental health.
“We look forward to continuing and building on this collaboration, to support Bangladesh
in achieving its full range of priorities during your fifth term in office.”
Read: Bangladeshi origin Scottish MP greets PM Hasina on her re-election
She also said that she is conscious of the historical journey of Bangladesh for freedom, democracy and development.
“I also look forward to welcoming you back to Marlborough House in London, and
looking ahead, to meeting you at the next Commonwealth Heads of Government
Meeting (CHOGM), which will take place in Samoa in the week of 21 October 2024.”
Read more: Chinese President Xi Jinping greets Hasina on re-election as PM
Mild cold wave sweeps 3 northern districts: Met Office
A mild cold wave is sweeping some northern districts of the country and it may spread, said Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) on Saturday morning.
According to the regular weather bulletin, “Mild cold wave is sweeping over Naogaon, Dinajpur and Moulvibazar districts and it may spread.”
The lowest temperature in the country was recorded at 9.5 degrees Celsius in Sreemangal of Moulvibazr on Saturday while the highest temperature 27.5 degrees Celsius was recorded in Chattogram’s Sitakunda and Sandwip upazilas, Feni and Cox’s Bazar districts, reads the bulletin.
Read: Educational institutions shut in Kurigram due to cold wave
Temperature between 8 to 10 degrees Celsius is considered a mild cold wave, 6 to 8 degrees Celsius a moderate cold wave, and less than 6 degrees Celsius a severe cold wave.
Moderate to thick fog may occur over the country during midnight to morning and it may continue till noon at places.
Weather may remain dry with temporary partly cloudy sky over the country.
Night and day temperatures may fall slightly over the country, reads the bulletin.
Read: Mild cold wave sweeping over Kurigram with temperatures falling to 10.2 degrees Celsius
People of the country, especially in the northern part, have been experiencing severe cold for the last couple of days that has thrown normal life out of gear.
Day laborers, children, and the elderly are the worst sufferers of the shivering cold.
Read more: Double Trouble: Cold wave and heavy rains disrupt life in Chuadanga
Fire at two shops in Dhaka’s Chawkbazar under control
A fire that razed through two shops on the ground floor of a six storey building in Dhaka’s Chawkbazar area on Saturday morning has been brought under control around one hour.
Anwarul Islam, warehouse inspector of Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD) headquarters media cell, said the fire started in one of the shops of ‘Solaiman Tower’ in the area around 8:59 am.
On information, six firefighting units from Lalbagh, Palashi and Siddique Bazar stations rushed to the spot and tamed the flame around 9:50 am, he said.
The origin of the fire and damages caused by it could not be known immediately, the warehouse inspector added.
Four BCL activists dead as microbus plunges into roadside ditch in Sylhet
Four activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) were dead after a microbus carrying them plunged into a roadside ditch on Sylhet-Tamabil Road under Jaintapur upazila late last night, said police.
The deceased were identified as Jubayer Ahsan, 24, son of Jahurul Miah; Nihal Pal, 25, son of Ranadip Pal; Tamal, 24, son of Arju Miah; and Sumon Ahmed, 25, son of Harun Miah, hailing from Nijpat union of the upazila.
Though they did not hold any post, they were actively involved with Chhatra League.
Of the victims, Tamal was running for the post of general secretary of the upazila unit of BCL.
Read: BCL activist killed in Chattogram
District unit BCL General Secretary Rahel Siraj confirmed their involvement with BCL.
Wali Ullah Badrul, organizing secretary of Sylhet metropolitan unit of AL’s voluntary organization Swechasebak League, said the BCL activists were going to Jaflong from Nijpat by the microbus around 11:30 pm.
The microbus fell into the roadside ditch when the driver lost control of the vehicle near a bridge on the way to Jaflong, he said.
Read: BCL factional clash leaves 13 hurt at Bogura Azizul Haque College
Later, locals rescued them and sent them to Upazila Health Complex where two of the four young men were declared dead, Wali Ullah said, adding that the rest succumbed to their injuries on way to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital.
Confirming the matter, Jaintapur police station’s Officer-in-Charge Md Tajul Islam said the bodies were kept at Osmani Hospital morgue for autopsy.
Hearing the shocking news, Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Md Anwaruzzaman Chowdhury, district and metropolitan units of BCL presidents Nazmul Islam and Kishowar Jahan Sourav, general secretaries of the units Rahel Siraj and Nayeem Ahmad and hundreds of leaders and activists rushed to the hospital.
Read more: BCL activist electrocuted in Kurigram
Young woman gang-raped while looking for rented home in Ctg; 1 arrested
A young woman, aged 18, fell victim to gang-rape in Chattogram while searching for accommodation as she sought employment.
The incident occurred around 11 pm on Thursday (January 18) in the Shikalbaha area under Karnaphuli Police Station, Chattogram. The victim's family filed a rape case at the police station on the night of January 19.
The accused in the case have been identified as Md. Akash, Omar Faruq, Md. Soleman, Md. Raju, Md. Nazmun, Md. Jobaid, and Md. Asif. Md. Akash (19), the main suspect, has been arrested while the others remain at large. All the accused are from the Shikalbaha union area.
Read: 9th grader ‘gang-raped’ in Bagerhat, 2 arrested
Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Karnaphuli Police Station, Zahir Hossain, confirmed the details. He informed that the victim's grandmother filed the case against seven individuals. The police have arrested the main suspect, and efforts are ongoing to apprehend the remaining accused.
The victim, originally from Pekua upazila in Cox's Bazar, had traveled to Karnaphuli from Pekua on Thursday in search of a job. According to the case statement, she met a Mahindra driver named Md. Shawkat in the Moijjartek area of Karnaphuli that afternoon. After informing him of her intention to work in a local garment factory, she asked Shawkat to help find a rented house in Karnaphuli. Shawkat, along with two women he knew, accompanied the young woman to Shikalbaha to look for accommodation.
Read: Woman gang-raped, 2 main accused arrested in Pirojpur
Around 10:30 pm, when they reached the Billapara area in Shikalbaha, the accused assaulted them and forcibly took the victim into an auto-rickshaw. They then took her behind a local school where she was gang-raped. Upon realizing the situation, locals informed the police, who rescued the victim from the crime scene. Following this, a police operation led to the arrest of the main suspect, Akash.
Read more: Teen gang-raped in Faridpur; 3 arrested
2 arrested over murder attempt of a family
Two people were arrested in connection with the murder attempt case of five members of a family at Dhitpur area in the capital.
The arrestees, Mohammad Rubel and his accomplice Rana Mahmud, are the prime suspects of the case.
RAB-10 Company Commander KM Kausar Chowdhury said that they confessed to the incident during primary interrogation at a press conference at the RAB-10 camp in Munshiganj's Balasur on Friday.
When the family were asleep, Rubel along with his associates Rana and others locked the family members from outside the house and set fire in a pre-planned way, he said.
Locals broke the door of the house and rescued five members of the family and rushed them to hospital.
He had been hiding in different areas of the capital since the case was registered.
On January 18, a team of RAB-10 conducted a joint operation in the capital's Ashulia area and arrested Rubel. Later, following his tips, they were able to arrest Md. Rana Mahmud.
4 killed, 5 injured in Faridpur accident
Four people were killed and five others injured in a bus-Laguna collision in Faridpur's Bhanga Upazila.
Three of the deceased were identified as Mehedi Matubbar, 25, Hafizul Islam Habu, 40, and Sirajul Islam, 25.
The accident occurred on Dhaka-Khulna highway on Friday evening.
Read: BRTA's number of deaths from road accidents in 2023 shows significant departure from JKS
Bhanga Highway Police Station Officer in Charge Abu Sayeed Md Khairul Anam said, the accident took place when a Dhaka-bound bus of Sohag Paribahan collided with a leguna coming from the opposite direction.
Two of the injured, Rani Bala, 60, and Pabitra Bala, 35, were taken to Faridpur Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical College Hospital after their condition deteriorated.
Read more: 2 people killed in separate road accidents in Chattogram
2 dead, 6 injured in Moulvibazar road crash
Two people were killed and six others injured in a collision between a CNG-run autorickshaw and a minibus in Sadar upazila of Moulvibazar on Friday afternoon.
The deceased were identified as auto rickshaw driver Abas Miah, 65, a resident of Brahmanpara under Sadar upazila and passenger Madhu Miah, 60, of the same area.
The injured are Madhu Miah’s daughters Sumi Begum, 40, Meghna Begum, 42, granddaughters Mim Akhter, 18, Suma Begum, 12, Faiza, 3, and grandson Fahim, 12.
Read: 4 killed, 5 injured in Faridpur accident
Quoting locals, Moulvibazar Model Police Station’s Officer-in-Charge KM Nazrul said the accident happened around 2:45 pm when the speeding minibus knocked the autorickshaw from the opposite direction in Durlavpur area, leaving the two dead on the spot and six others critically injured.
Four of the injured were sent to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital while the rest were undergoing treatment at Moulvibazar 250-bed hospital, he said.
All victims except the auto driver were members of a family and they were going to a relative’s house, he added.
Read more: Motorcycle accident takes JnU student's life
Ferry capsize in Padma: sunken ferry, six more vehicles yet to be retrieved
Though the rescue vessel ‘Pratya’ arrived at Paturia ferry ghat in the Padma River on Friday afternoon, the operation to salvage the sunken ferry ‘Rajanigandha’ has not been started till evening due to overturned position of the ferry in the river.
On the other hand, the people who lost their vehicles including trucks and pickup vans in the capsize expressed anger over the headway of the rescue operation by the authorities concerned.
One of affected businessmen Mujibul Huq said they were earlier asked that the rest of the sunken vehicles would be retrieved upon arrival of the vessel ‘Pratya’.
Though the vessel arrived around 2 pm, the authorities could not start the salvation operation till Friday evening, he alleged.
Md Abdul Hamid, deputy director of Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD) in Manikganj, said they have so far retrieved three out of nine capsized vehicles from the river in this connection.
“We haven’t identified the position of the rest of the vehicles but now we are concentrating on the salvation of the sunken ferry,” he said.
Shah Jahan, director of the Bangladesh Inland and Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), said divers of the FSCD, navy and BIWTA were working together to rescue the missing vehicles.
He said they haven’t recovered the body one Humayun Kabir who went missing in the capsize till Friday.
Asked about the delay of starting the rescue operation, the BIWTA official said the position of a floating ferry and a sinking ferry is not the same. This sinking ferry is completely upside down. So there is a delay in conducting the operation. However, efforts were on to start the visible work of ferry rescue.
Commodore Arif Ahmed Mostafa, chairman of BIWTA said they worked to tie several solid parts of the sinking ferry with ropes since Friday morning.
Ten air lifting bags were dipped in the ferry while air will be entered in the bags to conduct the salvation operation, he said, adding that the main operation of the rescue has not been started till 4 pm on Friday.
He said they postponed the rescue operation for Friday at 6:30 pm while the rescue will start next morning.
On Wednesday morning, the ferry with pickup trucks and covered vans sank in the river.
Two separate probe bodies were formed over the ferry capsize on Wednesday.
Manikganj District Commissioner Rehana Akhter formed one of the committees while another was formed by the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC).
FM Hasan Mahmud to deliver national statement at NAM Summit
Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud joined the 19th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit on Friday.
He will deliver Bangladesh's national statement as the lead of delegation on behalf of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the summit.
The minister is also expected to have bilateral meetings with a good number of his counterparts.
He is also expected to have courtesy meetings with the UN Secretary-General and Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni inaugurated it as the new Chair of the Movement.
The inaugural ceremony of the summit was also addressed by the President of Azerbaijan, the outgoing Chair of the NAM, the President of the General Assembly, the Vice President Cuba as the Chair of the Group of 77 and China and the representatives of different regional groups.
The Foreign Minister also joined the State Banquet hosted by the President of Uganda.
Hasan Mahmud is accompanied by Masud Bin Momen, the Foreign Secretary, who led Bangladesh delegation to the ministerial meeting and the Senior Official meetings of the NAM, Ambassador Muhammad Abdul Muhith, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, and Ambassador Tareque Muhammad, Bangladesh High Commissioner to Kenya and concurrently accredited to Uganda.