NEWS ON DATE - 19-04-2024
Two motorcyclists killed, 3 injured in Rajshahi road crash
Two people were killed and three others sustained injuries after a dump truck hit two motorcycles in Rajshahi's Poba upazila on Friday.
The deceased are Julhas Uddin, 32, son of Rabiul Islam of Aliganj area of Damkura Thana and Rimon Hossain, 35 son of Manik Mia of New Kasba area of the same area.
6 die in road accidents in 3 districts
Ali Akbar, officer-in-charge (OC) of Damkura police station, said that 5 people on two motorcycles were heading towards the city around 4 pm.
Around 4:30 pm, when they reached Muralipur area, the dump truck knocked down the two motorcycles, leaving Julhas and Rimon dead on the spot.
Rickshawpuller injured in road accident dies at Dhaka hospital
The injured were rescued and admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. However, the condition of two of the injured is critical, doctors said.
On information, Damkura police and fire service personnel went to the spot and recovered the bodies, said the OC.
Retired army personnel dies in road accident in Rajshahi
The bodies were sent to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsies, he added.
Rakhine State once again becomes a battleground; civilians paying a heavy price: Turk
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today warned that intensified fighting in Rakhine State between the military and the Arakan Army, alongside tensions being fuelled between the Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine communities, pose a grave threat to the civilian population. He warned of a grave risk that past atrocities will be repeated.
Since the year-long informal ceasefire between the two sides broke down last November, 15 of Rakhine’s 17 townships have been affected by fighting, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries, and taking the number of displaced to well over 300,000.
“Rakhine State has once again become a battleground involving multiple actors, and civilians are paying a heavy price, with Rohingya at particular risk,” the High Commissioner said. “What is particularly disturbing is that whereas in 2017, the Rohingya were targeted by one group, they are now trapped between two armed factions who have a track record of killing them. We must not allow the Rohingya to be targeted again.”
The military has been fast losing ground to the Arakan Army (AA) throughout northern and central Rakhine. This has led to intensified fighting in the townships of Buthidaung and Maungdaw, ahead of an expected battle for the Rakhine State capital, Sittwe. The two townships are home to large Rohingya populations, putting them at grave risk.
“Facing defeat, the military has outrageously started to forcibly conscript, bribe and coerce Rohingya into joining their ranks. It is unconscionable that they should be targeted in this way, given the appalling events of six years ago, and the ongoing extreme discrimination against the Rohingya including the denial of citizenship,” Türk said.
Some reports say the military is forcing the Rohingya recruits or villagers to burn ethnic Rakhine homes, buildings or villages. Ethnic Rakhine villagers have allegedly responded in kind by burning Rohingya villages. The UN Human Rights Office is trying to verify all reports received, a task complicated by a communications blackout throughout the State.
Türk said disinformation and propaganda are also rife, pointing to claims that “Islamic terrorists” have taken Hindus and Buddhists hostage.
“This was the same kind of hateful narrative that fuelled communal violence in 2012 and the horrendous attacks against the Rohingya in 2017,” he said.
Since the start of the year, the AA has positioned itself in and around Rohingya villages effectively inviting military attacks on Rohingya civilians.
On 15 April, the Médecins Sans Frontières office and pharmacy were torched in Buthidaung, along with some 200 homes. Hundreds have fled and are reported to be taking refuge in a high school, the grounds of the former hospital, and along roads in Buthidaung town. With both the Maungdaw and Buthidaung hospitals having been shut by the military in March and with the conflict intensifying, there is effectively no medical treatment in northern Rakhine.
“The alarm bells are ringing, and we must not allow there to be a repeat of the past,” Türk said. “Countries with influence on the Myanmar military and armed groups involved must act now to protect all civilians in Rakhine State and prevent another episode of horrendous persecution of the Rohingya.”
State Minister Naheed shocked at Shib Narayan's death
Naheed Ezaher Khan, state minister of Cultural Affairs, has expressed profound shock at the death of the country's war-time national flag designer and valiant freedom fighter Shib Narayan Das.
In a condolence message, she prayed for the eternal peace of the departed soul and conveyed deep sympathy to the bereaved family members.
In her condolence message, the state minister said that Shib Narayan will stay forever in the hearts of people and will be remembered for his works. "In his death, the nation lost an ideal patriot."
Shib Narayan Das, who had designed the first flag of Bangladesh just before the independence, breathed his last on Friday morning at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in the capital.
He was born in Cumilla to a martyr's family. His father Satish Chandra Das was captured and killed by the Pakistani army during the liberation war in 1971. He is survived by his wife Gitashree Chowdhury and their son Arnab Das.
PM Hasina urges farmers to form cooperatives to boost agri production
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday stressed the need for promotion of cooperatives in the agricultural sector in order to boost food production in the country.
“In fact we’ve to go for cooperatives. Though there is production through cooperatives, its sustainability has not actually been built as an intuition,” she said.
The premier was addressing an event arranged in Ganabhaban to exchange views with the central committee members of Bangladesh Krishak League on the occasion of its 52th founding anniversary.
She asked the leaders of Bangladesh Krishak League, an associate body of Bangladesh Awami League, to encourage the people to cultivate lands forming cooperatives among them.
No political case filed against BNP men: PM Hasina
“If we can do it, then we’ll never have any shortage of food anymore,” said Hasina.
Explaining the cooperatives system, she said the lands would be cultivated under the management of cooperatives and agricultural machines would be purchased and maintained under the cooperatives.
Under the system, the land owners would get a certain portion of profits, while farmers or labourers would receive another specific portion and the remaining share of the margin would be under the cooperatives for the management of agricultural inputs including machines, fertilizers, seeds, cultivation and irrigation, she noted.
The PM said her government took up ‘My House My Farm’ and established Palli Sanchay Bank to promote cooperatives.
Focusing on her government’s success in the agricultural sector, she said the production of food grains increased to 4.92 crore metric tons now from 1.80 crore metric tons in 2006 and 79 lakh hectare of lands are now under cultivation, which was only 28 lakh hectare of land at that time.
During the period, the fish production went up to 53.14 lakh metric tons from 21 lakh metric tons, while the number of domesticated animals now stands at 7.99 crore, which was 4.23 crore in 2006.
The prime minister said Bangladesh has been most successful in the field of agricultural research.
Gas supply to remain suspended for 2 hours Saturday in Narayanganj, adjoining areas
She said the people were once concerned just to manage rice and salt or rice and pulse for their families, but now they are concerned with the prices of fish, meat, chicken and egg.
She said the people now talk about fish, meat, egg and chicken, which means a development. The life of people has gone up many notches, she said asking the critics of her government to admit it.
Noting that the government is now providing Tk 26,000 crore to the agricultural sector, she highlighted her government’s different steps taken in the sector.
PM Hasina, also the President of Bangladesh Awami League, called upon all not to leave a single inch of land uncultivated and exercise austerity during use of resources amid the current global situation.
She greeted the leaders and activists of Bangladesh Krishak League on the occasion of its founding anniversary.
In the function, Krishak League leaders led by its president Samir Chandra also greeted the prime minister with a flower bouquet.
The AL president, Sheikh Hasina, gifted various types of vegetables grown inside the Ganabhaban complex to the Krishak League leaders.
Bangladesh Krishak League, an associate body of Bangladesh Awami League, was established on April 19, 1972.
Chuadanga logs season’s highest temperature for 4th consecutive day
Amid the scorching heat in different parts of the country, Chuadanga recorded the highest temperature for the fourth consecutive day Friday.
Rakibul Hasan, a senior observer of Chuadanga First Class Meteorological Observatory said they recorded 41.3 Degrees Celsius at 3 pm on Friday.
Heatwave sweeps over 8 divisions as temperatures soar
Earlier, Chuadanga recorded 40.6, 40.8 and 40.4 Degrees Celsius, respectively on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, he said.
People are experiencing blistering heat as a severe heat wave is sweeping over the district.
Besides, the Meteorological Department has issued a heatwave warning for the next 72 hours.
Dr Aoliar Rahman, health and family planning officer for Chuadanga Sadar upazila, advised the residents to stay indoors because of the risk of heatstroke.
Heatwave to continue in Dhaka, 3 other divisions for 72 hours: BMD
He emphasised the importance of staying hydrated and consuming fruits as much as possible.
Bivas Chandra Saha, Deputy Director of Chuadanga Agricultural Extension Department, advised the farmers to protect their crops in the ongoing heatwaves.
"As the situation may persist for a few more days, farmers of this region were advised how they can save their crops," he added.
No More WB-IMF Loans to avoid debt catastrophe
As the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings got under way in Washington civil society groups worldwide on Friday launched protests saying money borrowed from the lenders must not lead to debt catastrophe.
As part of that, civil societies in Bangladesh also organised a protest rally in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka on Friday.
Lag in pvt investment and its minimal contribution to GDP critical concern for South Asia’s job market: World Bank Economist
In addition, the global civil society will create a Twitter storm by posting their protest messages on Twitter Friday at 8 pm Bangladesh time. Their primary demand is that the illegitimate debt imposed on the people should be canceled immediately because the World Bank and IMF have reparations to pay.
The protest rally in Dhaka, jointly organised by the Asian People's Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), Bangladesh Farmers Federation, Coast Foundation, Waterkeepers Bangladesh, and CPRD, was chaired by General Secretary of Bangladesh Farmers Federation Zayed Iqbal Khan and moderated by Coast Foundation Director Mustafa Kamal Akand.
Coast Foundation Deputy Executive Director Sanat Kumar Bhowmik said in his speech that Bangladesh is offered a loan for the development of local communities affected by the Rohingya refugees and to deal with climate change mitigation.
"We are not responsible in any part for such problems. So why should we take a loan for this? Those who are responsible for this should compensate us instead,"he added.
Nearly 1 mln Bangladeshis at risk of poverty: World Bank
Ferdous Ara Rumi, general secretary of the World Rural Women's Day Observation Committee, said that developed countries like Germany pay an average of 1.5% interest on loans, and America gives 3.1%. In comparison, African countries pay an average interest of 11.6%, and Asian countries pay 6.5%. The poorer the country, the higher its interest rate. Because they are taking these higher-interest loans from private institutions as public institutions no longer lend to them, she said.
Zayed Iqbal Khan of the Bangladesh Farmers' Federation said that developing countries repay their debts mainly from export earnings. In the last decade, they have lost that ability. In 2010, developing countries' debt accounted for 71% of their exports, rising to 112% in 2022. They have already incurred and continue to incur more debt than their income, he added Mostafa Kamal Akand of the Coast Foundation said that developing countries are exhausting their resources to pay the interest on their debts. The 139 World Bank-borrower countries spend 35% of their revenue budgets on debt repayment.
Bank mergers could be counterproductive without international best practices: World Bank
Low-income countries (LIC) and lower-middle-income countries (LMIC) pay 57.5% and 44.5%, respectively, he said.
Kamal Akand also said "we refuse this public debt imposed on the poor because the World Bank and the IMF are responsible for their poverty."
Among others, CPRD's Sheikh Noor Ataiah Rabbi, and Bangladesh Bhumihin Samity’s General Secretary Engineer Foyej Ahmed Khan also spoke at the protest rally.
COVID-19: Bangladesh reports 16 more cases in 24hrs
Bangladesh reported 16 more COVID-19 cases in 24 hours till Friday morning.
With the new numbers, the country's total COVID-19 caseload rose to 2,049,816, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
5 more dengue patients hospitalised in 24hrs
The official death toll from the disease remained unchanged at 29,494 as no new fatalities were reported during this period.
The daily case test positivity rate was 4.12 percent as 388 samples were tested, said the DGHS.
Diarrhoea breaks out in Joypurhat, over 550 hospitalised over past one week
The recovery and death rates stood at 98.41 percent and 1.44 per cent, respectively.
Gas supply to remain suspended for 2 hours Saturday in Narayanganj, adjoining areas
Gas supply will remain suspended for two hours from 12 noon to 2 pm on Saturday (April 20) at different areas in Narayanganj district.
Gas supply situation slightly improves, load shedding continues
According to Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd, the areas where gas supply will remain off cover Nayapur, Qutubpur, Araihazar Road, Madanpur to Nangalband Bridge, Bandar, Kanchpur and Jatrapur.
Petrobangla seeks to complete drilling of 48 wells by 2025 to add 618 MMCFD gas to national grid
Regretting the temporary inconvenience of the consumers, Titas Gas Authority said the adjoining areas may experience low pressure problem in gas supply during the period
Iran fires at apparent Israeli attack drones near Isfahan air base and nuclear site
An apparent Israeli drone attack on a major air base early near the central city of Isfahan activated Iranian air defenses early Friday. The strike came just days after Tehran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on Israel.
No Iranian official directly acknowledged the possibility that Israel had attacked, and the Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment. However, regional tensions have been high since the Saturday assault on Israel amid its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its own strikes targeting Iran in Syria.
Speaking at the G7 meeting in Capri, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the U.S. received “last-minute” information from Israel about the attack on Isfahan. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not dispute that, but said: "We were not involved in any offensive operations.”
The apparent attack came on Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's 85th birthday. Israeli politicians also made comments hinting that the country had launched an attack.
Air defense batteries fired in several provinces over reports of drones being in the air, state television reported. Iranian army commander Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi said crews targeted several flying objects.
“The explosion this morning in the sky of Isfahan was related to the shooting of air defense systems at a suspicious object that did not cause any damage,” Mousavi said. Others suggested the drones may be so-called quadcopters — four-rotor, small drones that are commercially available.
Authorities said air defenses fired at a major air base in Isfahan, which long has been home to Iran's fleet of American-made F-14 Tomcats — purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Tasnim news agency published a video from one of its reporters, who said he was in the southeastern Zerdenjan area of Isfahan, near its “nuclear energy mountain.” The footage showed two different anti-aircraft gun positions, and details of the video corresponded with known features of the site of Iran's Uranium Conversion Facility at Isfahan.
“At 4:45, we heard gunshots. There was nothing going on,” he said. “It was the air defense, these guys that you’re watching, and over there too.”
The facility at Isfahan operates three small Chinese-supplied research reactors, as well as handling fuel production and other activities for Iran's civilian nuclear program.
Isfahan also is home to sites associated with Iran's nuclear program, including its underground Natanz enrichment site, which has been repeatedly targeted by suspected Israeli sabotage attacks.
State television described all atomic sites in the area as “fully safe." The United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, also said “there is no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites” after the incident.
The IAEA “continues to call for extreme restraint from everybody and reiterates that nuclear facilities should never be a target in military conflicts,” the agency said.
Iran's nuclear program has rapidly advanced to producing enriched uranium at nearly weapons-grade levels since the collapse of its atomic deal with world powers after then-President Donald Trump withdrew America from the accord in 2018.
While Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes, Western nations and the IAEA say Tehran operated a secret military weapons program until 2003. The IAEA has warned that Iran now holds enough enriched uranium to build several nuclear weapons if it chose to do so — though the U.S. intelligence community maintains Tehran is not actively seeking the bomb.
Dubai-based carriers Emirates and FlyDubai began diverting around western Iran about 4:30 a.m. local time. They offered no explanation, though local warnings to aviators suggested the airspace may have been closed.
Iran then grounded commercial flights in Tehran and across areas of its western and central regions. Iran later restored normal flight service, authorities said.
Around the time of the incident in Iran, Syria's state-run SANA news agency quoted a military statement saying Israel carried out a missile strike targeting an air defense unit in its south and causing material damage. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the strike hit a military radar for government forces. It was not clear if there were casualties, the Observatory said.
That area of Syria is directly west of Isfahan, some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) away, and east of Israel.
Meanwhile in Iraq, where a number of Iranian-backed militias are based, residents of Baghdad reported hearing sounds of explosions, but the source of the noise was not immediately clear.
The incident Friday in Iran also sparked concerns about the conflict again escalating across the seas of the Middle East, which have been seeing attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen on shipping over the war in Gaza.
The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center warned ships in the region that they could see increased drone activity in the skies.
“There are currently no indications commercial vessels are the intended target,” it wrote.
The Houthis have launched at least 53 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.
Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen and as shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined over the threat.
The apparent attack also briefly spooked energy markets, sending benchmark Brent crude above $90 before it fell again in trading Friday.
However, Iranian state-run media sought to downplay the incident after the fact, airing footage of an otherwise-peaceful Isfahan morning. That could be intentional, particularly after Iranian officials for days have been threatening to retaliate for any Israeli retaliatory attack on the nation.
“As long as Iran continues to deny the attack and deflect attention from it and no further hits are seen, there is space for both sides to climb down the escalation ladder for now,” said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House.
AL govt is afraid of BNP, lacks popular support: Rizvi
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Friday said the government is depriving many leaders of the party of fresh air and day light by throwing them into the jails.
Rizvi said it in a sit-in programme in front of the National Press Club organised by Zia Projanmo Dal (ZPD) demanding the release of BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and other imprisoned leaders.
Not only BNP men, AL imprisoned country’s people too, says Rizvi
The jails have turned into permanent residence for many BNP leaders and activists as without any reason they have been imprisoned for months, he said.
“Top BNP leaders like the secretary general, standing committee members, vice- chairman, join secretary general have suffered prison terms for three-four month before their release recently," he alleged.
Sheikh Hasina’s policy to imprison BNP leaders and activists is not finished yet, he charged.
The PM, he said, is afraid of BNP and knows that there is no popular support for her.
State patronisation behind disappearances of Illias and others: Rizvi
A government lacking support of the people turns autocratic, Rizvi said adding, it suppresses the people when they raise their voice for rights.
“They resort to all means of suppression such as imprisonment , making ‘Ayana Ghar for torture, use law enforcement agencies to kill opponents and use party cadres to thrash the oppositions," said the BNP leader.
The Awami League government imprisoned 25 to 26 thousand BNP leaders and activists before January 7 dummy election, he claimed.
Number of Benazir-like wealthy people increased: Rizvi
A large number of BNP men still remains in prison while a few walked out after serving 3-4 months jail terms, he said.
Rizvi said does the government has any honest answer as to why so many BNP members are being put in jail.
The prime minister is doing this only to retain her illegally gained state power, he alleged.