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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2015
BNP briefs diplomats about municipality polls
Journalist Sajib’s body found after three days
n Tribune Report
n Tribune Report
The BNP yesterday briefed diplomats working in Bangladesh about the upcoming municipality polls. A team led by BNP leader Abdul Moyeen Khan briefed the diplomats at party chairperson’s Gulshan office. After the meeting, Khan told journalists: “Already seven mayors and 150 councillors are elected [uncontested]... It is possible because the polls have become one-sided as opposition candidates were barred from submitting nomination papers,” he said. Khan alleged that in last week only, more than a thousand opposition leaders and activists were arrested.
Urging the government to hold fair polls, Khan said it would be good for the country and the Awami League. However, the diplomats denied making any comments on the topics of discussion. Envoys from Australia, Pakistan, Singapore, US, India, Sweden, Germany, Turkey, Canada, Nepal, Japan and the European Union attended the meeting. According to a source, the diplomats reportedly asked the BNP team whether they were going to pull out of the polls midway like they did in the city corporation elections earlier this year. In reply, the BNP team assured the diplomats that they would not do it this time. l
Police yesterday recovered the body of journalist Aurangzeb Sajib from Dhaleshwari River in Munshiganj, three days after he went missing. Locals saw the body in the afternoon and informed police, who later came and recovered it. Sajib’s wife Morsheda, his son Sohan and colleagues identified the body. Police said they had no idea how Sajib died but his family claimed he had been killed. Sajib worked for several print and electronic media organisations as a Dhaka Medical College Hospital correspondent. Morsheda claimed that her husband did not commit suicide. “Sajib was travelling to
Chandpur by a launch named MV Taqwa and was pushed off the vessel. It was a premeditated act.” She said Sajib had no plan to visit his ailing mother on Sunday, the day he went missing. Additional Superintendent of marine police Mokhlesur Rahman said the call lists of Sajib’s two mobile phones were checked. “The last call on one of his mobile phones was made by a girl at 7:20am on Sunday. After receiving the call, Sajib, who was at his workplace, finished his work and left. We suspect that the girl’s call is linked to his death. “We are still investigating and the identity of the girl cannot be revealed for the sake of investigation,” he added. l
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Police demand for election duty
Pak diplomat with militant links withdrawn
allot more than the Tk55 crore fixed for law and order expenses. The Home Ministry letter breaks down the advance allotment expenses in the following manner – Tk11.42 crore for allowances, Tk36.12 crore for transportation, Tk5.58 crore for dry food, Tk8.95 crore for intelligence operations and Tk6.50 crore for other expenses. The draft circular of the Home Ministry proposes 81 teams of Rapid Action Battalion and one platoon of BGB to be deployed in 102 municipalities. It also recommends deploying six Coast Guard platoons to six municipalities. Additionally, the draft proposes a striking force and a mobile team in every one of the 233 municipalities where polls will be held.
On November 29, the Detective Branch of police arrested four JMB members including a Pakistani national named Idris Sheikh from the capital. At that time, Monirul Islam, the joint commissioner of DB police, said that Idris had been spying in Bangladesh for a foreign intelligence agency for years. Idris used to maintain communication with official of the agency with “spy mobile phone,” Monir told a press briefing following the arrests. Idris and the other arrestees Mogbul Sharif, Md Salam and Mostafa Zaman – all Bangladeshis – had been visiting and staying in Pakistan for years. Soon after his arrest, Idris primarily informed about the diplomat’s name to the detectives and later told them about her keeping connection with the JMB men on behalf of the Pakistani intelligence agency. Idris was earlier arrested by police’s elite force Rapid Action Battalion on May 1, 2011 with 47 passports. After the latest arrest, detectives found in Idris’ mobile phone the number of Captain Ashim, an official of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan. The DB officials also found evidence of conversation between Idris and Ashim, who used to work in Pakistan Airport. Arshad’s name finally came clearly when Idris made confessional statement before a Dhaka court on December 6 in front of Metropolitan Magistrate Abdullah Al Masud. According to court sources, Idris disclosed in the confessional statement that beside having a good communication with him, she once gave him a ride on her car from Baitul Mukarram to Fakirerpool and
VIPs warned off polls code violations
Election Commissioner Md Shah Newaz yesterday warned Very Important Persons
(VIPs) – including lawmakers – not to violate the election code of conduct, at a press conference in his office in the EC secretariat in Dhaka. In response to allegations of code of conduct violations by VIPs, he said warning letters would not be issued against violators. Instead, returning officers were asked to take immediate action if needed. “We have asked returning officers to go for direct action through the magistrates if the code of conduct is violated as there is now no time to issue warning letters,” Shah Newaz said, adding: “The environment for the coming polls are under control. We have told our returning officers to take immediate action, no matter who the violators are. “They have our assurance that we will cooperate with them regarding any action they may take against violators.” l
Foreign powers backed contract killings instigated the murders. Kamal made the comments at a discussion held between the Dhaka Metropolitan Police and Islamic scholars at the capital’s Krishibid Institute auditorium. The comments were made hours before a Pakistani diplomat left Dhaka amid allegations over her involvement in militant activities in Bangladesh. The minister said that militants have started targeting Christian priests after failing to meet their goals through the murders of foreign nationals Cesare Tavella and Hoshi Kunio, attacks on police officials, and the bomb attack on Hossaini Dalan. Blaming activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir of playing a leading role in militancy, Kamal said the Jamaat-Shibir men who used to cut veins of people in the past were now carrying out the contract killings. “All of them are carrying out contract killings with an aim to destroy the peace and development of Bangladesh,” the minister said. On another note, he said it was not madrasa students or Islamic scholars who were murdering foreigners or involved with militant activities, but it was the students of private universities who were found to be involved in most cases. Jamaat-Shibir were misleading private
university students to become involved with the IS and the JMB, and consequently using them in the killings, the home minister said. Also speaking at the programme, Farid Uddin Masud, imam of the Sholakia Eidgah, said militancy cannot be defeated as long as Jamaat continues to exist. There was no need for the IS when Jamaat was still here, he added. Masud, also the secretary general of Jamaat-e-Ulema Maulana, also branded Ansarullah Bangla Team and Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) as offshoots of Jamaat. “Jamaat must be boycotted politically and socially. Their financial institutions are boosting militancy. Their properties should be seized,” he said. Food Minister Qamrul Islam said it was misguided individuals who were killing innocent people and were involved in terrorism in the name of religion. He also urged the mosque imams and Islamic scholars to discuss the issue of militancy on every jumma prayers on Fridays. Also addressing the discussion, DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Miah urged all to work together on a single platform to deal with militancy. The government has never asked the police to monitor madrasas and law enforcers wanted the situation to remain so, the DMP boss said. l
gave her Tk30,000. Besides, Idris had communicated with the diplomat several times over mobile phone between June and July this year. Quoting the statement, a high official of DB police, requesting not to be named, mentioned that Idris, however, did not disclose clearly for which reason Arshad had given him the money. However, Idris give an idea, how, he got close to Arshad, the official told the Dhaka Tribune. According to detectives, hailing from Bagerhat, Idris went to Pakistan first in 1985 through India. He also took part in election on behalf of Pak-Muslim Alliance once. He was staying in Pakistan for a long period and visited the country for a number of times. According to his passport, he visited the country nearly 48 times in the last two years. Idris married a Pakistani school teacher Shahnaj Begum in name and they have a son name Md Adil. Coming back to Bangladesh in 2000, he married another woman named Monowara Begum in Bagerhat. In the second married life, they have one son and two daughters. Idris started living in Dhaka in 2007 and was involved in cloth trading. In 2012, Idris involved in air ticketing and visa processing business, where he met a Pakistani citizen name Kamal, through cloth trader Babul. Kamal later informed Idris that he is a member of the ISI, and before leaving the country, Kamal gave him the phone number of Arshad. Since then, Idris was in touch with Arshad over different issues, according to the statement. l
Khaleda served for remark on number of 1971 martyrs and Supreme Court lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain had threatened to try everyone involvedwith the tribunal. Most of the war criminals facing trial are leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, a key ally of the BNP-led 20-party alliance. The official figures say that apart from the murder of 30,00,000 people, the Pakistani occupation forces and their local collaborators – Peace Committee members, razakars,
al-Badr, al-Shams – had raped over 2,50,000 women, tortured thousands of pro-liberation people and torched and looted many houses. Many Hindus were converted to Islam by the collaborators while many others forced to leave the country. The tribunal earlier condemned and warned British-born Bangladeshi journalist David Bergman for questioning the death figure during the war. l