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Launch fire: One owner held in Keraniganj
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have arrested Hamjalal Sheikh, one of the owners of launch MV ‘Avijan-10’, in connection with the deadly fire incident in the launch that left 41 people dead and many more injured.
ANM Imran Khan, Assistant Director (ASP) of Legal and Media Wing of Rab, said Hamjalal was held from Keraniganj early Monday.
Read: Arrest warrant issued against 8 including owners of MV Avijan-10
His arrest followed Dhaka Marine Court’s warrants for the arrest of four owners and four master drivers of the launch as a case filed by the Department of Shipping.
The accused in the case are four owners of the launch company, ‘Messars Al Araf and Company’, Md Hamjalal Sheikh, Md Shamim Ahmed, Md Rasel Ahmed, and Ferdous Hasan Rabby, in-charge master of Avijan-10 Md Riaz Sikder, in-charge driver Masum Billah, second master Khalilur Rahman, second driver Abul Kalam.
Aspiya rewrites ‘police story’ for landless families
Aspiya Islam Kajal cried a lot when she was dropped from the list of trainee recruit constables (TRCs) for having no permanent address.
Nurturing a childhood dream of being a policewoman, Aspiya did not give up.
A 'landless' college student from Hijla in Barishal, Aspiya has finally made it and got the appointment letter as a TRC. “I finally got the appointment letter,” a beaming Aspiya told UNB on Sunday.
Hijla police sub-inspector Md Mizan handed over the appointment letter signed by the district superintendent of police.
The appointment letter asks the final candidates, including Aspiya, to be present at the district police lines by 10 am on Tuesday with necessary papers. Once the formalities at the Sardah Police Academy in Rajshahi are completed, the female TRCs will be sent to Rangpur for a six-month training, police sources said.
Aspiya has thanked the Prime Minister and the media for helping her get the job.
Read: Viral on social media: Aspiya seeks PM's intervention for her job in police
Though Aspiya successfully went through all the tests needed for a trainee constable, she could not join as her family is landless and has no permanent address. A permanent address of the candidate is needed to get a job in the police department as per the regulation.
Later, on December 8, Aspiya went to Range DIG SM Akhtaruzzaman in Barishal District Police Lines. The DIG had expressed sympathy to Aspiya but could not promise to give her a job.
The DIG later came up with a status on his Facebook profile December 9 when the Aspiya issue went viral on social media.
In that post, Akhtaruzzaman mentioned a report regarding Aspiya’s problem of not getting a job in the police for lack of land. He said the issue has gone viral on social media and the tide was on Aspiya’s side.
The matter came to the notice of the Prime Minister. Later, the Prime Minister's Office directed the authorities concerned to give Aspiya a house with land and a job as per her qualifications, said Deputy Commissioner Jasim Uddin Haider.
According to her national identity card (NID), Aspiya Islam Kajal, is a resident of Matabbar Bari of Khunna Gobindopur village in Boro Jalia union of Hijla upazila of Barishal district.
According to locals, Aspiya’s father came from Charfason of Bhola district 25-30 years ago and started living in Hijla upazila, and started a business.
Khulna’s Meem shares the same story.
Global covid cases near 280mn as Omicron wave pounds hospitals
The global overall number of coronavirus cases is fast approaching 280 million with the new Covid-19 strain Omicron showing a spike in hospitalization.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total global case count mounted to 279,906,569 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,399,781 on Sunday morning.
The US has recorded 52,280,510 cases so far and more than 816,610 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.
In Britain, where the omicron variant has been dominant for days, government requirements have been largely voluntary and milder than those on the continent, but the Conservative government said it could impose new restrictions after Christmas. The U.K. hit a new high of 122,186 daily infections on Friday, but did not report figures for Christmas.
Read: Bangladesh all but certain to see Covid’s fresh wave
France has recorded more than 100,000 virus infections in a single day for the first time in the pandemic and Covid-19 hospitalizations have doubled over the past month, as the fast-spreading omicron variant complicates the French government’s efforts to stave off a new lockdown.
More than 1,000 people in France with the virus died over the past week, bringing the country's overall death toll to more than 122,000.
Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January, registered 22,243,266 cases as of Friday, while its Covid death toll rose to 618,732.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 34,786,802 on Sunday, as 6,987 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the health ministry's latest data.
Besides, as many as 162 deaths due to the pandemic were reported since Saturday morning, taking the total death toll to 479,682.
Meanwhile, India's Omicron tally has reached 422, out of which Maharashtra and Delhi have reported 108 and 79 cases, respectively. Till now 130 patients have been discharged after recovery, as per India’s Health Ministry's data.
Australia’s New South Wales state reported more than 6,000 new Covid-19 cases on Monday and confirmed its first death from the omicron variant.
New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, reported 6,324 new infections Monday, a fall of 70 from the record number a day before. There were 524 people in hospitals, including 55 in intensive care.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh logged four more Covid-linked deaths with 268 fresh infections in 24 hours till Sunday morning.
With the detection of the fresh cases after testing 17, 245 samples, the daily case positivity rate declined to 1.57 per cent from Saturday’s 2.01 per cent during the period, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Among the deceased, three were women and one was a man. Three of the fresh deaths were reported from Dhaka division while the other was from Rajshahi division.
The fresh numbers reported on Sunday took the country’s total fatalities to 28,060 while the caseload mounted to 15,83,253.
Read: Australia's New South Wales sets new daily COVID case record
Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained static at 1.77 per cent during the period.
Besides, the recovery rate remained static at 97.74 per cent with the recovery of 247 more patients during the 24-hour period.
On Sunday, Bangladesh logged one Covid-linked death with 275 fresh infections in 24 hours.
Though the deaths remained below five since December 13, the daily cases remained mostly over 250, according to data provided by the DGHS.
On December 9, Bangladesh again logged zero Covid-related death after nearly three weeks as the pandemic was apparently showing signs of easing.
The country reported this year’s first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.
Bangladesh reported the highest number of daily fatalities of 264 on August 5 this year, while the highest daily caseload was 16,230 on July 28 this year.
DU student 'assaulted' for missing BCL event ahead of hall conference
A residential student of Dhaka University's Jagannath Hall was "physically assaulted" Sunday for not attending a Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) programme, ahead of its much-vaunted hall conference.
Sagor, a Masters student at the Mathematics department, submitted a written complaint to hall administration against Satyajit Debnath, one of the candidates for the next BCL hall conference that will choose the committee members in each hall for the ruling party student front – a key process through which it maintains its vice-like grip over the student body at residential universities.
In the present atmosphere of student politics where BCL enjoys almost unbridled dominance, these committee places tend to be highly coveted, despite generally engaging in activities that have little to do with healthy student politics.
However, Satyajit, a student of the Geology department of session 2013-14 and BCL Jagannath Hall ICT secretary, flatly denied everything.
Jagannath Hall Provost Mihir Lal Shaha could only acknowledge that they received a written complaint, adding that they are "working on it."
Satyajit, who used to be an ally of BCL Jagannath Hall General Secretary Utpal Biswas, is now a follower of BCL General Secretary Lekhak Bhattacharjee.
"Satyajit Debnath came to my room at around 2.30pm with some of his followers and verbally abused me before physically assaulting me," Sagar said. "I could not attend BCL programmes regularly as my final exam is scheduled for December 29."
Utpal said: "I heard about the incident from a junior and do not know much about it. However, as far as I heard, it was a misunderstanding between Satyajit and Sagor."
Cox's Bazar gang rape: Prime accused Ashiq arrested
The prime accused in the case filed over the gang rape of a married tourist in the Cox’s Bazar last week has been arrested.
Accused Ashiqul Islam Ashiq was arrested from Madaripur district by Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), said Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of the paramilitary force’s Legal and Media Wing.
According to the police, there are 17 cases against the prime accused Ashiq, including for assaulting women, possessing drugs and illegal arms.
Also read: Cox's Bazar gang rape: 3 more arrested, although not prime accused
Earlier in the day, Cox’s Bazar Tourist Police arrested three more accused in the case- Rezaul Karim Sahabuddin, 25, Mehedi Hasan, 21, and Mamunur Rashid, 28, from different places in Cox’s Bazar district.
Police said the individuals arrested earlier today were found to be involved in the crime indirectly during investigation.
However two other prime accused in the case Esrafil Huda Joy and Mehedi Hasan Babu are still absconding. There are two police cases against Joy, said Additional DIG of Tourist Police of Chattogram Division Mohammad Moslemuddin.
Earlier on Saturday, Riaz Uddin Chhotan, manager of a hotel that was one of two locations where the woman was raped, was arrested and remanded for four days.
With Ashiq, five people have been arrested in the case.
On Friday, the court recorded the victim’s statement, said inspector Ruhul Amin, investigation officer in the case.
Also read: Cox's Bazar gang rape: Accomplice hotel manager placed on remand
On Thursday, the woman’s husband filed the case under the Prevention of Women & Children Repression Act at Cox's Bazar Sadar Model Police Station accusing seven people.
The 22-year-old woman checked into a Cox's Bazar hotel on Wednesday morning with her husband and their eight-month-old baby.
In the afternoon, the family went out for a stroll on the sea beach. At Laboni point, the husband had an altercation with one of the accused - thought to be Ashiq, who has an extensive criminal record and only got out of his last stint in jail 2 weeks ago -after they accidentally bumped into each other.
What started as a small argument soon snowballed into a major altercation and the young man called his accomplices to the spot. Later in the day they kidnapped the family in two auto-rickshaws and took them to a desolate place near the golf club where three of them allegedly violated the woman.
Her ordeal did not end there. The woman was taken to Zia Guest Inn, of which arrested manager Riaz Uddin was a friend of Ashiq's, and there the three accused again took turns to rape her for hours. They released her in the early hours of Thursday and allegedly threatened to kill her family if she narrated her ordeal to anyone.
Lieutenant Colonel Khairul Islam Sarkar, commanding officer of Rab-15, said their team rushed to the family's rescue soon after they got the call from the woman. Earlier calls to 999 proved futile.
Journalist Reazuddin Ahmed laid to rest
Veteran journalist Reazuddin Ahmed was laid to eternal rest in the capital on Sunday.
He was buried at Banani Graveyard after his third and final Namaz-e-janaza on the premises of a Baridhara mosque premises after Asr prayers.
Reazuddin Ahmed, the editor of the Financial Herald and a former president of the Jatiya Press Club (JPC), died of Covid-19 at a city hospital on Saturday at the age of 77. He was also the ex-president of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) and Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ).
His first namaz-e-janaza was held on the JPC premises around 11:30am.
Riaz Uddin Ahmed's son Mashroor Riaz said his father's body was flown to his village home in Narsingdi’s Monohardi upazila where his second janaza was held after Zohar prayers.
Later, the body was brought to his Baridhara residence and then his third janaza was held after Asr prayers.
Arrest warrant issued against 8 including owners of MV Avijan-10
Dhaka Marine Court on Sunday issued warrants to arrest four owners of the launch MV Avijan-10 where a fire broke out on Friday killing scores of people.
Followed by a case filed by the Department of Shipping, Dhaka Marine Court Judge Joynab Begum issued the arrest warrant against four owners and four master drivers of the launch, said Shafiqur Rahman, Chief Inspector of the Department of Shipping.Earlier in the day, Shafiqur filed the case with the court.
The accused in the case are four owners of the launch company Messars Al Araf and Company, Md Hamjalal Sheikh, Md Shamim Ahmed, Md Rasel Ahmed, and Ferdous Hasan Rabby, In-charge master of Avijan-10 Md Riaz Sikder, In-charge driver Masum Billah, second master Khalilur Rahman, second driver Abul Kalam, he said.
The shipping department has suspended the licenses of the launch and its drivers .
A three-member probe committee was formed on Sunday by the shipping department today that will submit a report within 15 working days after investigating the fire in the launch.
The blaze broke out at 3am on Friday on the Barguna-bound launch carrying some 800 passengers from Dhaka and it engulfed the entire vessel within 10 minutes.
The death toll from the fire incident climbed to 41 on Saturday night. Besides, over 70 people suffered injuries and many of them are undergoing treatment at different hospitals.
However, the exact number of passengers travelling by the launch and the missing passengers is yet to known.
3 dead as train crashes into bus at N’ganj level-crossing
Three people were killed, including a 7-year-old, and at least 20 others were injured when a train hit a bus stuck at a level-crossing on Nawab Sirajuddaula Road near Narayanganj railway station on Sunday.
The unidentified child body, missing a leg, was sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where the doctors announced his death at 8:30 pm, said Bacchu Mia, the in-charge of DMCH police outpost.
It means all three of the confirmed dead so far remain unidentified. They were all males.
Meanwhile two of the injured referred to DMCH for advanced treatment not available in the local hospitals have been admitted and are now receiving treatment according to Bacchu Mia. They include bus driver Nuru Mia, 38, and Manoranjan Saha, 40, a trader.
Also read: Motorcyclist killed in Chattogram road crash
Witnesses said the accident occurred around 6pm when the train, which was inbound towards Narayanganj railway station, hit the Ananda Poribahan bus carrying 10-15 passengers that got stuck on the level crossing due to traffic.
Police recovered two bodies from the spot, said Shah Zaman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Narayanganj Sadar Police Station.
Later, firefighters joined the police and started the rescue operation.
The injured were at first taken to Narayanganj General Hospital. Of them, three were sent to DMCH, one of them being the child declared dead, and six to National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR) in critical condition for advanced treatment.
Rail communication on the Dhaka-Narayanganj route resumed after the train line was cleared, the OC added.
Also read: Father, son killed in Panchagarh road crash
Meanwhile, Humayun, a shopkeeper in the area, said the rail gate could not be pulled down due to makeshift shops that have sprung up alongside the level crossing.
Central Police Hospital to upgrade quality services
Director of Central Police Hospital DIG Hasan-ul Haider on Sunday said that the efforts are being made to upgrade the quality of its services.
“We have equipped the hospital with the best machinery in Bangladesh and we have already set an example in providing quality services.he said while addressing a special welfare meeting held at the Bangladesh Police Auditorium In Rajarbagh Police Lines.
At the special welfare meeting, the director of CPH said, "We are working towards the goal that in the coming days, no member of the Bangladesh Police will have to go to any outside hospital for medical services."
Praising the steps taken by the DMP commissioner during the Corona pandemic Haider said that medical services were provided to the corona-infected policemen keeping them at various hotels and schools.
At that time, critical patients were given services through 45 ICUs. At present, the hospital has been providing medical services to police personnel and their families through 30 dialysis machines, the Director of the CPH added.
He said police personnel injured in the motorcycle accident have been receiving treatment at the hospital for the past one month. If necessary, we have plans to bring in specialist doctors from outside for the treatment of critically injured patients.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Police (Transport) Md. Jobaidur Rahman, DC (Welfare and Force) Mohammad Moazzem Hossain Bhuiya and other officials of DMP were present at the special welfare meeting.
Expatriate Rights Council demands cut in air fare for expatriates
Bangladesh Expatriate Rights Council has demanded that the air fare be reduced for the expatriates flying to the Middle-Eastern countries with jobs.
The council submitted a three-point demand to the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, said a release issued by the council on Sunday.
The immigration expenses have been increasing rapidly in accordance with the air fare hike adding to the plight of the expatriates.
The council also demanded that the number of flights to the Middle-East be increased. It said that a regulatory board should be set up to control the air fare hike.
For the last one month, the expatriates have been facing many problems due to the air fare surge for those travelling to the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the council also placed a 10-point demand to ensure the rights of the 1.20 crore Bangladeshi expatriates working in different countries of the world for their livelihood.