Hartal called off, dist AL suspends all 22 accused party men

Slain Awami League (AL) leader Iqbal Azad's supporters who called a half-day hartal in Sarail upazila yesterday, withdrew it on Tuesday night.
Azad's family members decided to withdraw the programme considering the ongoing Durga Puja and upcoming Eid-ul-Azha, locals said.
Villagers were informed of the decision to call off the hartal through loud speakers in different areas at about 11pm.
Earlier, the supporters of Iqbal Azad on Tuesday called the hartal, demanding arrest of his killers.
They announced the hartal programme after Azad's namaj-e-janaza was held at Kuttapara playground in the afternoon.
AKM Iqbal Azad, vice president of Sarail upazila unit AL, was killed in an attack allegedly by his rivals in tempo stand area in the upazila on Sunday.
The attackers dragged him out of his car and stabbed him with sharp weapons when he was coming to Sarail upazila town from Kuttapara village.
The incident sparked waves of protests in the upazila.
Meanwhile, advocate Md Ashraf Uddin Manto, joint convener of Sarail upazila Jubo League, yesterday said they urged the authorities concerned to close officer in-charge (OC) of Sarail PS Md Gias Uddin soon as he is yet to arrest the killers.
On the other hand, district AL committee in an urgent meeting presided by its acting president Advocate Emdadul Bari, suspended 22 Sarail AL leaders who were accused in the Azad murder case.
Contacted, Md Helal Uddin, senior vice-president of district AL, said they have also sent a letter to the central committee to expel all the 22 accused AL leaders and activists from different posts of Sarail upazila AL and other party organisations.
The suspended leaders include Sarail upazila AL president M A Halim, general secretary Rafique Uddin Takhur and organising secretary Md Mahfuz Ali.

 

beshi boyoshe

Diesel price: LDF, BJP hartal hits normal life

Diesel price: LDF, BJP hartal hits normal life in Kerala The dawn-to-dusk hartal called by LDF and BJP to protest hike in diesel prices and curtail LPG subsidy hit normal life across Kerala. Reports from different districts said the hartal crippled mobility of people as public modes of transport kept off the roads and shops and hotels remained closed. There was no disruption of rail traffic. However, passengers who came by long-distance trains were caught unawares in many places as they found it difficult to get taxis or autorickshawas for their onward journeys. Police said no violence had been reported from anywhere.

Pro-left unions in transport sector has extended support to the protest. The state Human Rights Commission has warned the hartal supporters that cases would taken against them if they indulged in violence or attempted to forcibly close shops or caused damage to properties.

The hartal call was given separately by the LDF and the BJP.

Insight into reasons behind the june 27 hartal

BNP opted for street agitation as it feels it failed in its secret bid to reach an understanding with the government that the latter would not make a move on Khaleda Zia's Cantonment house, and would withdraw the cases against the party chairperson and her two sons.

A highly placed BNP source told The Daily Star, on condition of anonymity, that his party had offered to refrain from street agitation in exchange for an assurance from ruling Awami League that the government would withdraw the "false" cases.

Soon after AL came to power in January last year, BNP said it would not announce hartals, and blockades.

AL's initial response was positive, indicating that it would not embark on tough actions against Khaleda and her family -- if BNP refrained from street protests, and from bringing Tarique and Koko back to the country and politics.

The ruling party's expectations echoed the expectations of some European countries that also had been asking BNP to keep a distance from Jamaat, and to refrain from trying to bring back Tarique Rahman into politics because of his tainted image.

Accordingly, till a few months back, BNP maintained a distance from Jamaat, and refrained from harsh criticism against the government, and street agitations.

The "friendly" gesture faced its first major blow in April last year, when the cabinet decided to cancel the lease of Khaleda's Cantonment house on grounds of a faulty lease.

The government took the decision against the backdrop of the Pilkhana tragedy, as it had information that Khaleda was secretly meeting army officers in her residence right after the mutiny.

After some initial war of words between the two parties, BNP renewed its demand that the ruling party should not harass Khaleda over her Cantonment house.

Soon both parties again developed an understanding on the matter. The issue of the Cantonment house went to the court, and it did not proceed further.

Things however started heating up again in December when BNP activists, during the party's council, strongly demanded return of Tarique Rahman, and withdrawal of the cases against him.

In February the government decided to change the name of Zia International Airport, and removed the word Zia from the names of more than 50 organisations in one day.

Amid a growing bitterness between the two parties, ruling party parliamentarian Sheikh Selim, and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself made some adverse comments on Ziaur Rahman during the parliamentary session that ended in April this year.

By then, the internal power structure of BNP underwent a change. The right of centre party was now fully controlled and influenced by hardliner rightist leaders.

They succeeded in convincing Khaleda that the understanding with AL was not working, and it would not be wise for her to maintain the soft stance, and to keep away from Jamaat.

They also convinced her that the government would surely evict her from the Cantonment house, and would never allow Tarique to return to Bangladesh and join politics again.

They convinced her that the government would file more complicated cases against Tarique, implicating him in some heinous acts like the August 21 grenade attack that occurred during BNP's tenure.

These hardliners pursued Khaleda to restore ties with Jamaat to announce a hartal and other street agitations, in a bid to mount pressure on the government, so the move to evict her from the Cantonment house is halted; and the authorities, especially the Anti-corruption Commission, keeps away from proceeding with the cases against Tarique and Koko.

One of the hardliners, who is a prominent lawyer, convinced Khaleda that the court verdict regarding her Cantonment house might go against her, as the legal basis of the lease was indeed very weak, and the leasing was actually not done through due procedure.

That is why Khaleda's lawyers pressed for changing the court, and demonstrated inside the court to delay the verdict, BNP insiders said.

With the hardliners calling the shots in BNP, liberal leaders and workers of the party are now very unhappy with the recent rekindling of a warm relationship with Jamaat.

They feel it will not be possible for many of them to directly take a position in favour of BNP, as it restored its old ties with a party and people who have allegations of war crimes against them.

Meanwhile, BNP began a hectic move to develop its relationship with the diplomatic circle. Several former bureaucrats and diplomats have been assigned to regularly hold meetings with heads of foreign missions in Dhaka.

However, one of the important assigned leaders told this correspondent that they have yet to get any positive response from the foreign diplomats in favour of BNP's cause.

An East Asian country with a long history of relationship with BNP, rather advised the party leaders who met its diplomats, that they should reorganise the party on the basis of reconciliation.

Hartal: A characteristic feature of Bangladeshi politics

DHAKA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- "Hartal" is a term in many South Asian languages meaning strike action and is still commonly used in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka.
In Bangladesh, politically hartal (literally means "locking doors") is an important and strong instrument for opposition parties or other organizations to press the government for realizing their demands.
Bangladesh's present main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the ruling party Awami league (AL), which alternated in power for more than 20 years since 1991 after the fall of military strongman HM Ershad, both have wielded hartal as a weapon when in opposition.
The party that is out of power, and so the one to call a hartal, will explain that if the government is reasonable and if demands are accepted, there would be no hartal; while the one in power will always maintain that the demands are not logical to accept.
Both the parties have called hundreds of days of hartal against each other despite sensing very well how it takes toll on the economy as well as the life of mass people.
National Standing Committee Member of the BNP, Lieutenant General Mahbubur Rahman (retired), also the former Chief of Army Staff of Bangladesh Army, told Xinhua Tuesday his party's stance on hartal. He also explained reasons behind the recent hartals enforced by the BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance.
"Bangladesh is a poor country and a poor economy. If we call hartal, the production of factories will be stopped; School-going children, daily activities, among other things, will also be stopped. For a developing country, it is not a very good news," said the senior BNP leader.
Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's BNP enforced dawn-to-dusk hartals on April 22- 24 and April 29-30 to protest the "mysterious disappearance" of Elias Ali, the organizing secretary of the opposition party, who along with his driver went missing on April 17 night.
At least five people were killed in the anti-hartal violence and hundreds of people injured in a number of incidents of clashes in many parts of the South Asian country.
"The hartals, for few days we called, were all very spontaneous, successful hartals. But there were some violent incidents also. I can assure that this violence is not done by BNP cadres or BNP people. May be there are some agent provocateurs," Mahbubur said.
However, Bangladesh's economy counts a huge loss in every sector for each day hartal.
To avoid violence, economic losses and other negative effects on socio-economic life in Bangladesh on account of hartal, Mahbub said his party is also in favor of peaceful movements.
"Hartal, BNP never likes. We oppose hartal. We want to have peaceful demonstration, peaceful movement. It is the government that is forcing the party to go for hartal. But still we are trying our best not to declare hartal," Mahbubur said.
Apart from the latest hartals to press incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government to force the authorities to search for the party's organizing secretary M Ilias Ali and his driver, BNP and its allies including the key Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami called a series of strikes to protest against the annulment of the caretaker government system.
Mahbubur reiterated his party's demand for restoration of the non-party caretaker system for holding a free and fair national election slated for early 2014. He also expressed his fears over the conduct of a free and fair election under a political party.
"Bangladesh is a democratic country. The bottomline of democracy is a free, fair and impartial election. But we doubt whether the election can be free and fair," Mahbubur said.
BNP has been saying that when the country's now ruling party AL was in opposition, they called hundreds of days hartal. The party said it has called only 13 days of hartal since Hasina's AL came to power in January 2009.
During hartals in Bangladesh, main streets remain almost empty. Most people prefer to stay at home to avoid any kind of violence during hartal hours.
Hartal also adversely affects national education in all levels, which results in missing classes and disrupting exams.
Most people interviewed by Xinhua during the last week in different parts of Dhaka expressed their frustration over the continued hartals and urged the opposition parties not to enforce hartals.
They suggested the political parties use alternative programmes to hartal to exercise their democratic political right for the greater interest of the country. They also urged both the ruling and opposition parties to reach consensus over the disputed issues through dialogue.
Like many others, Milon Mahmud, a university student, has expressed his frustration over call of hartals, saying this should not be the option of political movement.
"In today's world, I don't think that hartal can be the language of political protest," said young man, about 24-year old.
"We miss our classes and exams due to hartals. I am a student of post-graduate final semester. I was supposed to complete my course by June this year, but today I have come to know that I cannot complete my course by this June," Milon added.
Abu Sufian, a about 38-year old service staff, also expressed his opposition against hartal.
"I think an alternative option needs to be considered. Hartals are hampering our economic development. And we, the public, are suffering a lot," Sufian said.
As Hartal hampers both domestic and foreign investments, the business community said they always hope political parties would resort to alternative activities to hartal to avoid negative impact on the economic sector.
Although Bangladesh's Readymade Garment (RMG) industry, which contributed nearly 79 percent to Bangladesh's about 23 billion U.S. dollars export earning in 2010-l1 fiscal year (July 2010-June 2011) , is exempted from the hartal purview, sector insiders said they face serious problem in continuing their production process, as vehicles used to transport raw materials are not exempted from the hartal purview.
The transportation sector also suffers due to hartal, causing the price hike of essentials in cities and towns across Bangladesh.
Sufian, like many others who raised voice against hartal, said political parties need to look for alternatives to hartal for exercising their democratic rights.
"Both the ruling party and the main opposition party of Bangladesh should sit together around the table for discussions to resolve disputed issues," Sufian added.
Most of the local people interviewed by Xinhua believe hartal is no more an effective option in the changing political scenario of the country. They said it is driving the country to the brink of innumerable problems.
Public rally, discussions in parliament, human chain could be alternatives to hartal, they said.
Shahidullah Shadu, the leader of a transport workers'union, urged political parties not to call hartal. "They (political parties) have the right to protest. But they should choose some other ways to protest so that we can avoid the losses of life and property," Shahidullah said.
Echoing a similar view, Rahmatul Kibria, the owner of a private passenger bus company, said hartal is not a way to protest. "It affects people on both personal and national levels. Those who are calling hartal have also been affected negatively by it," Kibria said, adding "Alternative methods of protest could be effective for realizing demands. And we can avoid all sorts of losses."

Ali Kayser, a trader of live birds in Dhaka, is completely disappointed about hartal. "We can't get our products in time and fewer customers come during hartal. And I cannot also supply products to my regular customers," Kayser said.

Nadir Shah in fixing scandal

Well-known Bangladesh ICC panel umpire Nadir Shah has been plunged into controversy after Indian television channel India TV conducted a sting operation that has revealed that six umpires from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Shah among them, were willing to give wrong decisions during a game in lieu of money.
The channel, which aired the footage of Shah yesterday, claimed that another Bangladesh umpire and a former national spinner, Sharfudoullah Ibne Shahid Shaikat who was also interviewed on Skype, refused to perform any favours in lieu of money offered by the undercover reporters.
It was reported that the footage was shot on July 25 in Delhi where Shah was supposed to sign a contract with a Sports Management Group (which was actually an undercover sting by reporters) so that he could officiate matches of the Sri Lankan Premier League (SLPL).
Although the questions in the footage were focused on what favours the umpires could do for them in the SLPL, Shah spoke on a number of issues without being prompted.
According to the video, Shah, who has officiated in 40 one-day internationals and three T20 Internationals, was ready to fix matches of the SLPL, international or domestic level. He also revealed that Pakistani batsman Nasir Jamshed "fixed" matches in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). Shah also stated that umpires from Bangladesh are always ready to 'help' their country's cricketers.
The other umpires named in the sting operation are Nadeem Ghauri and Anees Siddiqui of Pakistan, Sri Lanka's Gamini Dissanayake, Maurice Winston and Sagara Gallage.
In another video, Gallage agreed to leak information on the pitch, weather, toss, and the playing elevens of India and Pakistan ahead of their World Twenty20 warm-up match on September 17 for 50,000 rupees. He was the fourth umpire in the game.
Shah, who has been a frequent visitor to India reportedly to visit relatives, was learnt to be in Mumbai, but could not be reached for comments after repeated attempts to contact him at his local number in India.
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) media committee chairman Jalal Yunus, when contacted declined to comment on the issue saying, “We have also heard about this, but we cannot comment on the issue without looking into it further.”
Meanwhile the International Cricket Council (ICC) has requested India TV to hand over the video footage.

Grameenphone Federation Cup 2012

Muktis maul Noakhali in rematch

 

A depleted Muktijoddha Sangsad all but confirmed their quarterfinal berth in the Grameenphone Federation Cup when they handed an emphatic 7-1 defeat to Noakhali Football Academy in the rematch at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
The freedom fighters side just need a point from their last Group B match against Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club to ensure the last eight but they will be through before playing their last match if Noakhali FA lose to Sheikh Jamal on Thursday.
Veteran midfielder Azmal Hossain Biddut struck twice while Jewel Rana, Faisal Mahmud, Shihab, Mohammad Biplob and Shaymal Ahmed Rony netted one goal for Muktijoddha Sangsad while Murad scored a consolation goal for Noakhali FA.
Following the power outage at the BNS on Saturday, the match between Muktijoddha and Noakhali FA was called off with Muktijoddha Sangsad leading 2-0 until the 73rd minute. It looked like the rematch might turn into a potential banana skin as the Muktis failed to make much headway in the first half with a re-jigged team missing the likes of national stars like Zahid Hasan Emily, Mithun Chowdhury, Mamunul Islam, Shakil Ahmed, Ariful Islam and Rezaul Karim who hand all left the All Reds this season.
But the scenario totally changed in the second half and Muktijoddha Sangsad just toyed with the team from outside the capital and opened the floodgate six minutes into the second half through Jewel Rana before Biddut struck two successive goals inside six minutes to make it 3-0.
Faisal Mahmud joined the party with a curving cross that found the back of the Noakhali net in the 61st that forced Noakhali to bring a change under the post but the new goalkeeper Minhaz could not stop Muktijoddha and was sent off two minutes from time after handling the ball outside the box.
Substitute Shihab and Biplob widened the margin scoring in 74th and 75th minute before Noakhali pulled back one goal with Murad converting a penalty in the 79th minute.
Winger Shaymal Ahmed Rony sealed the match by scoring from a goal-mouth melee five minutes from time.