bdnews24.com

Dhaka, Apr 24 (bdnews24.com)—Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel raided two residences in Dhaka on Monday night to find the ‘missing’ BNP leader M Ilias Ali.

However, the late night hunt around the capital failed to turn up any leads, spokesperson commander M Sohail told bdnews24.com. He declined to specify whose houses they raided.

“The raids were based on tip-off. We are actively searching for Ilias Ali,” he added.

Ilias Ali, one of the organising secretaries of BNP and the chief of the party’s Sylhet chapter, went missing last Wednesday. Law enforcers recovered his abandoned private car from Mohakhali.

His wife Tahsina Rushdir Luna filed a general diary with police and a petition with the High Court.

RAB personnel raided four residences at Gazipur’s Pubail on Apr 21 based on a tip-off from Luna. However, they did not find any lead on the missing leader in the three-hour long forage.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hassan Mahmood Khandker told bdnews24.com : “A number of RAB and DB [Detective Branch] are working separately on the case. We are continuing our attempts to rescue him.”

The BNP has enforced day-long countrywide shutdowns for three consecutive days since Sunday alleging that the government had a hand behind Ilias’s disappearance.

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Dhaka, Apr 24 (bdnews24.com) – Bangabir Quader Siddiqui on Tuesday urged the BNP to look for one or more alternatives to shutdowns to push the government to find allegedly abducted leader M ilias Ali.

The Krishak Sramik Janata League chief made the appeal when he met the acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at the party’s Naya Paltan headquarters.

After the meeting, Siddiqui lay down on a towel on the street claiming police had detained 11 of his party activists at the entrance to the BNP office.

He said he will not leave the street until the activists were released. His wife Nasrin Siddiqui is beside him.

“Democracy cannot be like this in the country,” he said and termed the incumbent Awami League-led government ‘uncivilised’.

He went to the BNP headquarters around 10:30am with around 20 of his party activists to hold discussions with the opposition on Ilias Ali’s disappearance, countrywide shutdown and the political situation. Police obstructed them while they tried to enter the party office.

The law enforcers detained several activists of the Krishak Sramik Janata League while Siddiqui tried to enter the BNP office with his wife and several other senior leaders.

During the half hour long meeting with Mirza Fakhrul, the gallant freedom fighter told the opposition, “Observe hunger strike, enforce strike instead of calling hartal. If need be, stage a sit-in in front of the prime minister’s residence.”

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Dhaka, Apr 24 (bdnews24.com)– Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Bikash Kumar Saha ordered exhuming the bodies of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi on Tuesday, 73 days after their brutal murder.

The order came upon on a petition by Rapid Action Battalion’s senior assistant superintendent of police Jafar Ullah, also the investigation officer, to conduct further forensic tests.

The court also ordered the Dhaka’s deputy commissioner to assign an executive magistrate to oversee the digging-up work.

The couple was killed at their rented apartment in Dhaka’s West Rajarbazar area on Feb 11. A case has been filed with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station. The law enforcers, however, failed to make any visible headway in the investigation into grisly killing.

The case has been shifted to RAB by the High Court after Detective Branch officials admitted that they have failed to make any progress in the investigation.

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Dhaka, Apr 23 (bdnews24.com)— Tanjim Ahmed, also known as Sohel Taj, who resigned as an MP Monday morning, told his constituency in a letter that the reasons that led him to make the decision cannot be enlarged.

After three years he had ‘resigned’ as a junior minister, Sohel Taj, the son of Bangladesh’s Liberation War-time prime minister, Tajuddin Ahmed, handed in his letter of resignation to the parliament secretariat through his Assistant Personal Secretary Abu Kawser.

A New York-based Bengali newspaper newsworld.com published the letter on its website on Monday.

Abu Kawser said Taj, who is currently living in the USA, has written to his supporters and well-wishers of Gazipur-4 constituency to explain the circumstances behind his resignation.

“I had to think a lot before reaching the decision of resigning from my position as a member of parliament,” Sohel Taj wrote.

He said he took into account expectations of the people, their love, affection and the sacrifices they have made for him. “I was compelled to resign considering reality,” Taj added.

“There was no way for me other than to resign to protect the honour of the people of Kapasia in Gazipur. Because, I believe, the dignity and honour of the people of Kapasia is inextricably related to me.

“I know my decision will hurt you, make you angry and you will protest. But I do not want the love and honour that you have given me get smeared. I cannot divulge the details to you for valid reasons.”

Without making clear what prompted him to stand down, Taj continued: “There is always something to add to what is said. There is a lot of hidden truth that should not be made public for sake of the country, people and party. And it cannot be said in public either. I can only tell you that I have had appropriate reasons relinquishing the offices of MP and minister.”

The son of the nation’s first prime minister claimed in the letter that he never strayed from ideology, oath and principles in his days in office.

He dropped a broad hint that he may not return to active politics, he said he would always stand beside his people.

“The Awami League established with the ideology of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and my father Tajuddin Ahmed is my last address,” he added.

He categorically said that it was for power, money and fame that he took to politics. “If that was my motive, I would have clung to the position of minister and member of parliament accepting everything,” he reasoned.

Sohel Taj joined prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet as the state minister for home on Jan 6, 2009. Only five months into taking of oath as a state minister, he had resigned on May 31 the same year.

After his resignation, the government had said that the president had not accepted the resignation.

The MP then sent a letter to the Cabinet Division on Apr 17, asking it to take back his salary and other allowances as a state minister debited into his bank account despite his resignation in 2009.

He also requested the Cabinet Division to issue a gazette notification for submitting his resignation.

“On May 31, 2009, I submitted my letter of resignation under the 58 (ka) article of the constitution to the prime minister. I sent the same letter of resignation to the prime minister’s office on June 1. Since then I have not signed in anything as a state minister,” Taj said in the letter sent to the cabinet.

Mentioning that he had spent most of the time during the BNP-led alliance government’s rule in the street waging movement, Taj said in the letter to his electorate, “I did not engage in any business activities. My politics was funded with the money I inherited from my paternal property.”

“I even sold my paternal property for politics. I lead a very simple life.

“Based on the prime minister’s assurance on assisting me, I had taken over the ministry which nobody wanted to take. It was a responsibility not only to hold the office of minister, but a challenge.

“I had always tried to build the police as a disciplined professional force, as a friend of the people. Until the last day as state minister, I continued to pursue that goal,” he added in the letter.

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Dhaka, Feb 12 (bdnews24.com) – The first-ever citizen journalism-based blog, blog.bdnews24.com, is celebrating its first year of practice of citizen journalism on its Bengali website.

Editor-in-chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi inaugurated the celebration at a function at the Public Library auditorium in the city on Sunday.

“While launching the blog a year ago, I had said that it won’t be like other blogs,” Khalidi, the chief guest of the function, said.

“Here, bloggers will not only comment on other incidents or issues, they will also give information. They will practise a type of journalism,” he added.

Referring to a cliché the proverb ‘comment is cheap, information expensive’, he said it is easy to comment but hard to collect or give information.

The work to present information has become easy due to easy access to information technology, he said.

“To me, scrutinising the information is a tougher job.”

“We need to be alert when the issue is responsibility,” Khalidi added.

He unveiled a publication containing a compilation of selected writings of bdnews24.com bloggers over the last year, called ‘Nagar Kabya’.

Ten bloggers, who have enriched the blog and made it an alternative medium through their contributions and strong opinions since its inception last year were given away Nagarik Sommanona Award.

The award recipients are Abu Sufian, Mottalib Darbari, Basanta Bishu, M Sahid, Nijhum Majumder, ‘Futurist’, Ilias Chowdhury, Nahuan Myth, Mamun M Aziz and Probir Bidhan.

Three bloggers were also given special awards. They are M Hashem, who contributed highest number of posts, Nahuan Myth, the highest commenter, and Ilias Chowdhury, who contributed the highest number of photo posts.

The site was inaugurated at the Little Mag Corner of the Amar Ekushey Gronthomela on Feb 11 last year.

“Here,” he continued, “the two sides will have to be responsible – you will give information as citizen journalists and the readers will check it.”

“We should keep in mind that everyone will have to suffer if fails to behave responsibly.

The issue of law or rules surfaces when freedom is misused, he felt.

“We may have to pay the price culturally, socially and politically for being irresponsible in [using] internet,” he said.

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With an aim to improve the socio-economic condition of the poor and disadvantaged and ensure people’s right to information, BRAC Community Empowerment Programme has formally launched Radio Pollikontho, 99.2 FM, a Community Radio in Maulvibazar District in Sylhet Division, as an effective communication medium for improving people’s access to information and building awareness of the marginalized, especially women. Details…

Dhaka, Jan 26 (bdnews24.com)—In a thinly veiled dig at the World Bank, prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday hinted that her government will not take money from the global lending agency to implement the Padma bridge project if the donor fails to prove charges of corruption it raised in the country’s biggest infrastructure project. Details…

Dhaka, Jan 19 (bdnews24.com)—The Bangladesh army has said it has foiled a plot by some hardline officers to topple the Sheikh Hasina government and that the process to bring the culprits to justice has begun. Details…

Ashik Hossain
bdnews24.com correspondent

Dhaka, Jan 13 (bdnews24.com)—Students and teachers of Jahanagirnagar University are pointing the finger at the vice-chancellor for his patronisation of a Bangladesh Chhatra League faction, alleging that it has led to the recent murder of a student. Details…

Cancer is an abnormal growth of cells caused by multiple changes in gene expression leading to deregulated balance of cell proliferation and cell death and ultimately evolving into a population of cells that can invade tissues and metastasize to distant sites, Details…