Dhaka Archive

Dhaka, Oct 29 – Bangladesh’s national capital is going in for a facelift that will include a skyrail, flyovers, underground railways and orbital waterways as part of the effort to decongest the city’s roads.

Dhaka, which has a population of over 10 million, also aspires to be a regional tourism hub.

‘We are examining whether a regional tourism network can be built comprising Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Bhutan,’ Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told the Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) Wednesday.

A project to upgrade the Zia International Airport (ZIA), the country’s main entry point, was underway and a bridge linking some of the key points in the metropolis would provide better access to the airport, The Daily Star reported Thursday.

Besides the vehicles choking the city’s arteries, work will also be undertaken to remove encroachments on Buri Ganga, the river that surrounds much of Dhaka.

Established in 1608 and for long the seat of power of the Nawab of Dhaka, the city has witnessed a steep increase in population since it became the national capital in 1971.

Dhaka, Oct 29 – The Bangladesh government has accorded the status of ministers of state to its high commissioners in New Delhi and London and its ambassador in Washington.

The three envoys were hand-picked by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The ministerial status with all facilities is being accorded to Bangladesh’s US envoy Akramul Qader, High Commissioner to Britain M. Sayedur Rahman Khan and High Commissioner to India Ahmed Tarique Karim, as per a gazette notification issued last week, The Daily Star said Thursday.

Karim, an old India hand, is currently engaged in the preparations for Hasina’s visit to New Delhi, which is expected to take place later this year.

Prime minister’s adviser H.T. Imam said the three envoys were given the status as per the wishes of the prime minister.

Imam said the decision would not affect the chain of command in the foreign office.

Dhaka, Oct 26 – A festival of films starring legendary actress Suchitra Sen is being hosted in her Pabna hometown, where a lawmaker has demanded that her ancestral home be preserved for posterity.

The home of the actress is now under ‘illegal occupation’ and must be freed, demanded Bangladeshi actress and lawmaker Kobori Chowdhury who opened the week-long festival.

Chowdhury, along with film director Soovas Dutt, opened the festival to honour the screen legend who lives as a recluse in Kolkata, The Daily Star said Monday.

Along with the festival’s opening Friday, a rally was organised that was joined by thousands, including cultural activists and students. They marched through the streets before converging at the Town Hall premises for the festival.

‘Culture and cinema, in particular, are some of the best tools for social reform. It is essential that we patronise quality films,’ said Dutt.

The festival kicked off with the screening of ‘Harano Sur’, one of Suchitra’s better-known films.

Eight films, including ‘Agni Parikkha’, ‘Deep Jele Jai’, ‘Shilpi’, ‘Shath Pakey Bandha’, ‘Shap Mochon’ and ‘Shagorika’ will be screened at the festival.

Dhaka, Oct 25 – Bangladesh police are trying to identify the ship that carried 10 truck-loads of arms and ammunition meant for an Indian militant outfit in 2004, a media report said.

The police have been able to ferret out information from senior officials involved in shipping the contraband consignment, a media report said.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) say that the identity of the ship could help get the information about who sent the arms and ammunition, The Daily Star said Sunday.

Earlier reports have said the consignment was meant for the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) that operates in India’s Assam state.

Its top leaders are hiding in Bangladesh and operating bases from there, a charge Dhaka denied earlier but has now been pursuing vigorously since the change of government in January.

During the investigations and trial before a court in Chittagong town, the ship was said to belong to a company owned by Salahuddin Qader Chowdhury, a senior lawmaker belonging to former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Moniruzzaman Chowdhury, investigating officer of the case told BSS, the official news agency of Bangladesh, that though it was difficult to identify the vessel, they were trying hard to find it out by interrogating all suspects found involved in the process of unloading and transporting the smuggled consignment.

The consignment, reportedly purchased from China, was brought to the port by trawlers and the ship left the Bangladeshi waters April 1, 2004.

The authorities have jailed two former Bangladesh Army generals, Major General Rezaqul Hyder Chowdhury and Brigadier General Abdur Rahim who held top posts in the intelligence outfits – National Security Intelligence (NSI) and the Directorate General of Field intelligence (DGFI).

Among the civilian officers being interrogated is former home secretary Abdul Karim.

Dhaka, Oct 25 – Two people have been arrested as Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused killers of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, of organising a bomb attack on a lawmaker.

Mehnaz Rahman, who was detained Saturday, is the eldest daughter of Lt. Col. Khondkar Abdur Rashid, a fugitive condemned to death in the August 1975 killing of the country’s founding father. She said that her father is living in Libya with the rest of the family.

Mehnaz told investigators that her father received funds from Khaleda Zia’s husband General Ziaur Rahman, later president of Bangladesh, The Daily Star said.

She has been running the Freedom Party that her father set up with other officers who have publicly acknowledged their role in the killing of Sheikh Mujib.

Police officials said Mehnaz contested the parliamentary polls in 2001 and 2008 on Freedom Party ticket, but lost.

Also arrested earlier Thursday was Kamrul Haque Swapan, younger brother of Major (retd) Shariful Haq Dalim.

Dalim was the officer who had announced the killing of Sheikh Mujib, a score of his family members and political associates in a military-led putsch Aug 15, 1975.

Both Dalim and Rashid had been holed up abroad since their trial began in 1996. They have since been convicted in absentia and sentenced to death.

Mehnaz and Swapan were detained for their suspected links to Wednesday’s bomb attack on lawyer-lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh, the Daily Star said Sunday.

Taposh, whose parents were bludgeoned to death during the 1975 killings, is a nephew of the prime minister.

The arrests and their linking with the attack on Taposh give a new twist to the ongoing trial of Sheikh Mujib’s killers that entered the 15th day Sunday.

Hasina, who is in Stockholm, Sweden, to attend the global climate change conference, told a gathering of Bangladeshi expatriates Friday that whoever the attackers, ‘they would be identified through fair investigation and brought to book immediately’, United News of Bangladesh (UNB) news agency said.

‘When Taposh was only three-years old, his father and mother were brutally killed by the defeated force in 1975. Taposh, after years of hard work, established himself as a barrister. But the evil force is again out to kill him,’ Hasina said. ‘What is the guilt of a kid like Taposh?’

With the arrest of Mehnaz, Dhaka police have so far detained three leaders of Freedom Party in connection with the attempt on the life of Taposh.

The investigators, however, declined to say what exactly the charges against the three are.