Law-&-Order
Police cordon off ‘militant den’ in Sunamganj
Sunamganj, Jan 8 (UNB) - Police cordoned off a house at Fechi Atghar in Jagannathpur upazila of Sunamganj district on Sunday, suspecting it to be a militant hideout.
Subhasish Dhar, additional superintendent of Sunamganj (Jagannathpur circle) police, said a team of police cordoned off the house Sunday morning on an information that there are a huge quantity of illegal firearms and bombs in the abandoned house.
Also Read: 6 ‘Al Qaeda-inspired militants’ arrested in city
The owner of the house is a resident of Sylhet city, he said.
A bomb disposal unit went to the spot.
Fardin's death: Bushra finally granted bail
A Dhaka court today (January 08, 2023) granted bail to Amatullah Bushra, a 3rd year student of East West University, in the case over the death of her friend, Buet student Fardin Noor Parash.
Judge Tahsin Iftekhar of Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court-7 passed the order after hearing the bail petition.
Earlier on January 5, the court set today's date for passing its order on the bail petition.
Bushra has been languishing in jail for almost two months in the case, despite investigation agencies failing to find any evidence connecting her to her friend's death.
Read more: DB to apprise court that Bushra has no link to Fardin’s death, says its chief
On December 15 last year, Additional Commissioner (Detective Branch) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Mohammad Harunur Rashid said they would give a report to the court that Bushra has no connection with the death of Fardin.
Bushra was arrested from her Banasree home in Dhaka on November 10, 2022, soon after the recovery of Fardin’s body. She was sent to jail after expiry of her five-day remand on November 16.
After a long 38-day investigation, the DB chief said on December 14 that Fardin roamed alone in different areas of Dhaka before he went missing.
“Fardin was not murdered, he committed suicide by jumping into the river from Sultana Kamal Bridge On November 4 out of desperation,” he said.
Read more: Fardin Noor Parash died by suicide: DB
Fardin was a 3rd year student of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology’s civil engineering department and a resident of Qutubpur area in Narayanganj's Fatullah.
Police recovered Fardin’s body from the Shitalakhkhya River, behind a cotton mill at Siddhirganj, on November 7, three days after he went missing.
Sheikh Farhad, a physician at Narayanganj General Hospital where the autopsy was done, said there were several injury marks on Fardin’s head and body.
Kazi Nuruddin Rana, Fardin’s father, filed a case in connection with his son’s killing with Rampura Police Station on the same day and the case was later transferred to Detective Branch (DB) Police.
Read More: Fardin Noor: Home Minister puts faith in RAB, DB investigation
SC upholds bail of Fakhrul and Abbas, no bar to release
The Appellate Division this morning (January 08, 2023) upheld the High Court order granting bail to BNP leaders Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Mirza Abbas in a case filed over the clash between police and the party activists at Nayapaltan on December 7 last year.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Hasan Foyez Siddiqui passed the order disposing of the state’s petition challenging the HC order.
The court also ordered to dispose of the High Court rule on a maintenance ground.
Read more: State files petition challenging HC bail to Fakhrul, Abbas
On January 4, Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Jahangir Hossain fixed today (Sunday) for the hearing of the petition at the full-bench of the Appellate Division.
The petition was filed on the same day with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court seeking stay on the High Court order granting bail to the two BNP leaders in the case.
The High Court granted six months' bail to Mirza Fakhrul and Mirza Abbas, in the case on January 3.
The HC also issued a rule asking the government to explain why the two BNP leaders should not be granted permanent bail.
Read more: Nayapaltan clash: Fakhrul, Abbas get 6-month HC bail
On December 21 last year, Dhaka Metropolitan Session Judge Asaduzzaman rejected the BNP leaders’ bail petitions for the fourth time.
On December 9, a team of Detective Branch (DB) of police picked up Fakhrul and Abbas from their homes in separate raids in the capital.
Later, they were shown arrested in a case over the clash between police and the party activists in the capital’s Nayapaltan. A Dhaka court sent them to jail rejecting their bail pleas.
Read More: With or without BNP, election to be held on time: Razzaque
Two policemen 'closed' on charges of extortion
Two policemen were closed on Friday night from the Companiganj police station on a charge of extortion from drivers of stone-laden trucks at Companiganj upazila in the district.The policemen are Md Suman Miah and Shahriar Hossain of the Companiganj police station.They were withdrawn from the Companiganj police station and attached to the district police line in Sylhet, according to a letter signed by Sylhet Additional Superintendent of Police Shahriar bin Saleh.Local people said that the drivers of stone-laden trucks in association with the local residents chased off Suman and Shahriar on December 24 night in Kalabari area under Companiganj upazila as they demanded extortion money from the drivers after stopping their stone-loaded vehicles.Bholaganj police outpost in-charge Shahab Uddin filed a general diary in this regard with the Companiganj police against constable Suman and Shahriar following a complaint from the local people.Later, the district police administration issued an order on Friday night asking for the withdrawal of the two constables from their workplace and to attach them to the police lines after the allegation brought against them was found true in the primary investigation.Read more: Consider police stations as 'service delivery centres' to provide better service: IGP
APBn detains Saudi resident with yaba at Dhaka Airport
Members of the Armed Police Battalion (APBn) on Saturday detained a Saudi Arabia resident with 15,400 yaba pills at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
The detainee has been identified as Md Rubel Hossain, originally from Chandpur district.
Additional SP of Airport Armed Police (AAP) Mohammad Ziaul Haque said they detained Rubel on suspicion in front of Gate No. 1 of the departure terminal this afternoon.
During preliminary interrogation, Masud revealed that he had kept 15,400 Yaba pills in his luggage which were recovered later, he added.
Legal action will be taken against him, said the ASP.
Read more: 2 held with Yaba worth over Tk 1 cr in Dhaka
Jamaat leader, activist arrested in Savar
Police have arrested a leader and an activist of Jamaat-e-Islam in Savar.
The arrestees are- Hasan Mahbub, 60, political secretary of Dhaka district north unit of Jamaat-e-Islam and a former councilor of Savar municipality, and Abul Bashar, 56, an activist of the party and also a teacher of Savar Girls High School.
Hasan Mahmud was arrested on Friday from his residence in Dagarmora area of Savar municipality while Abul Bashar from his house in Parbatinagar area of the same municipality, said Nayan Karkun, inspector of Savar model police station.
Hasan Mahbub was arrested for his involvement in sabotage, police said.
Assistant proctor, 8 others hurt in BCL infighting at CU
At least nine people including the assistant proctor of the Chittagong University have been injured in a clash between two factions of the Bangladesh Chhatra League of Chittagong University (CU) unit.
Dr. Shahidul Islam, assistant proctor of the university and eight BCL activists were injured in the clash that erupted between two BCL factions- “Sixty Nine” and “VX” -in front of Suhrawardy Hall at around 12 am Friday.
Police and the proctorial body brought members the situation under control at around 1 am, said Dr. Robiul Hasan Bhuiyan, Proctor of CU.
“Discussion is being held between the two groups to resolve the matter,” he added.
Md. Ataul Gani, a doctor at the university’s medical center, said the injured assistant proctor was given primary treatment.
One of the injured was sent to the Chittagong Medical College and Hospital for advanced treatment.
Read more: 15 injured in BCL factional clash at CU
Pradip Chakraborty Durjoy, leader of the VX group and vice president of CU BCL, said, “Members of ;Sixty Nine’ threw bricks at us. We retaliated against their attack.”
Previously, just a day before this clash, another clash erupted between the members of the same groups following a spat on the shuttle train.
On Thursday night, three BCL men were injured in the clash in the railway station area.
Read more: 3 CU BCL men hurt as Shuttle Train spat triggers clash
Court works independently: Law Minister
The government does not interfere in judiciary, the law minister said on Friday about the government's appeal against the High Court bail granted to BNP leaders Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Mirza Abbas.
“Court is making the decisions independently. There is no government interference in the release of Mirza Fakhrul and Mirza Abbas,” Law Minister Anisul Huq said at the Kasba press club in Brahmanbaria.
Quoting the attorney general, the minister said there was a violation of law in the bail process in the High Court for the two leaders. So a petition challenging the HC order was filed with the Appellate Division.
On December 9, a team of Detective Branch (DB) of police picked up Fakhrul and Abbas from their homes in separate raids in the capital.
Later, they were shown arrested in a case over the clash between police and the party activists in the capital’s Nayapaltan. A Dhaka court sent them to jail rejecting their bail pleas.
Read more: Bangladesh must not return to lawlessness again: PM Hasina
Regarding misconduct with the Judge at the Brahmanbaria courtroom, Anisul said judiciary is independent, now the High Court has taken the matter under its jurisdiction. “I will not comment on this now.”
“I have seen the video footage of the incident, and if it is true I am shocked. As a member of a lawyer family, I believe that all lawyers in Brahmanbaria cannot do such things.”
On Thursday, The HC bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil summoned three lawyers including Brahmanbaria Bar Association president for misbehaving with the district Woman and Child Repression Prevention Tribunal Judge Mohammad Faruq.
Those summoned are Bar Association president Advocate Tanvir Ahmed Bhuiyan, Secretary (Administration) Advocate Md Akkas Ali and Advocate Zubair Islam.
On January 4, the district Woman and Child Repression Prevention Tribunal Judge Mohammad Faruq sent a written complaint to the High Court to take action against those involved in this incident. Later, on the instructions of the Chief Justice, the Registrar General of the Supreme Court sent the written complaint of the judge to the HC bench.
Read more: BNP urges judiciary to work impartially, independently
On January 2, Bar Association president advocate Md Tanvir Bhuiyan, Secretary Advocate Md Akkas Ali and around 10-15 lawyers including Zubair Islam came and rudely asked the judge to leave the courtroom. Advocate Tanvir hurled abusive words at the court, as per the complaint.
Death of Fardin Noor: Order on Bushra's bail application Sunday
A Dhaka court set next Sunday (January 8) to pass its order on the latest bail application on behalf of Amatullah Bushra, who has been languishing in jail for almost two months now in a homicide case filed over the death of Buet student Fardin Noor (Parash), despite investigation agencies failing to find any evidence connecting her to her friend's death.
Judge Tahsin Iftekhar of Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court-7 set the date after hearing the bail petition, according to two members of Bushra’s legal team, lawyers Mokhesur Rahman and Abdur Rahman Hawladar.
Unlike Bushra's previous bail applications, which were opposed by the state on advice of the investigation agency - which was treating Fardin's death as a murder - this time the hearing took place in the context of both the Detective Branch, the court-appointed investigation agency, and the Rapid Action Battalion, which carried out its own 'shadow' investigation, having decisively shifted away from their earlier position that Fardin was murdered. Since mid-December, the two agencies have converged around a conclusion that Fardin committed suicide.
That did not stop the state from opposing Bushra's bail yet again today though.
Bushra, a 3rd year student of East West University who became friends with Fardin on the debate circuit, was the last known person to have seen Fardin on the day of his disappearance (Nov. 4). In fact they were together for hours before Fardin dropped her off at her student accommodation in Rampura close to 10pm - exactly as Bushra had said from the start and CCTV footage later confirmed.
Police picked her up on November 10, three days after Fardin's body washed up in the Shitalakkhya River, and hours after Fardin's father filed a case alleging murder - where the sole accused to be named was Bushra. It may be mentioned here that initial reports and even statements by forensic doctors who dealt with Fardin's body at Narayanganj General Hospital, made a very strong case for a homicide. Even the investigation agencies were bought on this version of events.
Bushra was taken on remand subsequently for five days, and her lawyers today reiterated how nothing untoward or suspicious was uncovered. Even the friendship the two shared was found to be platonic, her lawyers noted while talking to reporters outside the court premises. They prayed before the court for bail on humanitarian grounds.
State counsel Advocate Shamim Hasan, however, still found reason to oppose her bail petition - saying that if released despite being an accused in a murder investigation, she may "influence the witnesses of the case" while out on bail.
Fardin’s father Noor Uddin Rana was present at the court during the hearing, as it wrapped up without any order, nor any date for it. Later in the evening it was announced that an order would be passed on Sunday, the court's next working day.
Read more: DB to apprise court that Bushra has no link to Fardin’s death, says its chief
According to the investigation agencies' last version of how things transpired, Fardin committed suicide by jumping off the Sultana Kamal Bridge into the Shitalakkhya River around 2:37am on November 5, some 4-and-a-half hours after he dropped off Bushra. They have produced grainy, almost pitch dark CCTV footage in support of their claims, from an establishment at the bottom of the bridge. It shows an unrecognisable figure (too dark) appear at the side of the bridge at the said time, climb over the railing and dangle off it for some moments, before falling into the river. Fardin never learned to swim, according to DB.
But it's all very circumstantial. The only reason investigators can claim the dark figure falling into the river is Fardin, is because cellphone tracking of his phone number placed Fardin on the bridge at the time. Prior to that his phone had pinged various towers indicating his presence in Keraniganj, Johnson Road, Gulistan and Jatrabari. In Jatrabari police were able to get their hands on CCTV footage of him getting into a Laguna around 2:03am. His back is to the camera as he walks towards the laguna, which raised questions initially as to whether it is really him, but it's one of the few points on which the family agrees with the police.
Nooruddin Rana told UNB he does believe it is Fardin who gets on the Laguna, but adds: "The way he is walking shows he was tense, disturbed by something. He was in distress." Investigators have been less than convincing however, on what could have driven an intelligent young man with a seemingly bright future ahead of him to suicide. The DB chief's attempt at posthumous psychoanalysis came in for criticism as he brought up everything from Fardin's fondness for the novels of Albert Camus and Friedrich Nietzsche (nihilist philosophers) to random quotations attributed to Fardin, purportedly showing suicidal tendencies. Some of their interpretations clearly miss, or perhaps deliberately distort, what is meant, or overstate their significance, his friends say.
The Detective Branch also came across as insensitive when bringing up his family situation at home, and his supposedly slipping - although still far from disastrous - grades at BUET, as contributing factors to his suicide.
Read more: Fardin Noor: Home Minister puts faith in RAB, DB investigation
Confiscate Tarique, Zubaida's assets: Court
A Dhaka court on Thursday asked the police to confiscate all assets of BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman and his wife Dr Zubaida Rahman in a graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Md Asaduzzaman gave the order.
The court also asked the Cantonment Police Station officer-in-charge (OC) to submit a progress report on the implementation of the order by January 19, the date for the next hearing of the case.
On November 1, 2022, the same court issued arrest warrants against Tarique and Zubaida after accepting charges against them. It also asked the Cantonment Police Station OC to submit the progress report on the implementation of the arrest warrants by January 5.
According to the case statement, the ACC filed the case at Kafrul Police Station on September 26, 2007, against Tarique, his wife, and mother-in-law Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu for amassing wealth of around Tk4.82 crore beyond their known sources of income and for concealing information on wealth.
A charge sheet was submitted to the court against them in 2008.
Read more: Journalists criticise using photos of Khaleda, Tarique on ‘media card’ for covering BNP’s Rajshahi rally