Jamaat discusses imminent trial of war criminals

Grassroots-level leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami on Friday asked the leaders of the party to ensure ‘legal protection’ against the government’s move to initiate trial of war criminals.
When asked if the members of the central Shura Majlish had discussed the parliament’s decision to hold ‘immediate trial of war criminals’, a central secretary admitted, ‘A number of delegates raised the issue. They advised the concerned Jamaat leaders to go for legal protection.’
An assistant secretary general of the party confirmed the secretary’s remarks. ‘They said the government must bring “genuine war criminals including Pakistani and Indian citizens” to book,’ he said.
They said this on the last day of the two-day meeting of the Shura Majlish at Jamaat’s Al-Falah auditorium in Maghbazar, chaired by Matiur Rahman Nizami, amir of the party.
Most of the members of the 265-strong highest policy-making body attended the meeting.
The Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution, backed by Awami League and its allies, to initiate the ‘immediate’ trial of war criminals.
Jamaat opposed Bangladesh’s War of Independence and many of its leaders, including Matiur Rahman Nizami and secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, were allegedly involved in heinous war crimes.
‘We are observing the situation,’ said Mojahid.
He claimed that there are no war criminals in Jamaat.
The party’s central executive committee held an emergency meeting on Friday evening to assess the situation and frame a strategy, according to Jamaat insiders.
On April 3, 2008, research organisation War Crimes Fact Finding Committee made public a list of 1,597 alleged war criminals responsible for mass killing, rape and other atrocities during the War of Liberation.
On November 5, the Sector Commanders Forum made public its preliminary list of 50 alleged war criminals.
Both the lists include Jamaat leaders Nizami, Mojahid and assistant secretary general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman.

Source: New Age

Rupee falls back by six paise to 48.97/98 Vs dlr

In sync with the weak stock market, the Indian rupee yesterday ended lower by six paise at 48.97/98 against the greenback. Continued capital outflows from the equity markets also affected the rupee sentiment.

In a rangebound trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit resumed lower at 48.95/96 a dollar but improved to a high of 48.88 on the back of initial firmness in equity markets. However, a negative turnaround in local share prices after midsession weighed on the rupee and it fell back to a low of 49.03 before ending the day at 48.97/98 a dollar, still lower from previous close of 48.91/93.

Indian benchmark Sensex Thursday ended lower by over 21 points or 0.23 per cent. Dealers attributed narrow breadth to alternate bouts of buying and selling on the last day of expiry of January contract at the currency futures exchange MCX-SX for the fall in rupee. Some dollar buying by state-run banks on behalf of their clients, mainly oil refiners, to meet their month-end requirements put pressure on the rupee, they added.

Also firm dollar against its major rivals in Asian trade Thursday also led the rupee fall. The euro fell Thursday against the dollar after the Obama administration approved stimulus package to stem the deepening recession.

The Reserve Bank of India, however, fixed the reference rate for the US dollar at Rs 48.90 and for the Single European Currency at Rs 64.10.

Source: AFP

Iran hopes for positive US policy change

Iran promised a positive response on Thursday if the United States makes genuine policy changes and held out hopes of a breakthrough in a long-running dispute over its nuclear ambitions.

Tehran’s comments brought international security to the fore on the second day of the World Economic Forum, which has been dominated by fears over financial instability in the worst global economic crisis in 80 years.

In new signs of the deepening economic woes, Turkey and the International Monetary Fund failed to break an impasse over a loan deal in talks at Davos, and Russian state bank VEB said Russian companies had asked it for $90 billion in aid.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported U.S. officials were drafting a letter to Tehran from President Barack Obama aimed at unfreezing relations and opening the way to direct talks.

The U.S. State Department has been working on drafts of the letter since Obama was elected in November, the report said. It was a response to a letter of congratulations sent by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after Obama’s victory.

“Most parts of the Islamic world unfortunately have been suffering because of past U.S. administrations,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told delegates in Davos.

“If President Obama is determined to change these policies certainly he will face the welcome of the Islamic world.”

He said he hoped the U.S. stance on Iran’s nuclear program would be among Obama’s changes of policy.

Source: Reuters

Turkish PM storms out of Gaza war debate

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out of a heated debate on the Gaza war with Israel’s President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum on Thursday.

In some of the most dramatic moments seen at the normally restrained Davos meetings, Erdogan marched off in front of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other panel members complaining that his comments on the conflict were cut short.

“I do not think I will be coming back to Davos after this because you do not let me speak,” the prime minister shouted as he left, though he said later he could reconsider.

Erdogan criticised the audience of international officials and corporate chiefs for applauding Peres’s emotional defence of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead.

Erdogan, who leads one of the few Muslim countries to have diplomatic relations with Israel and who has sought a peacemaker’s role in the Middle East conflict, said Israel had carried out “barbarian” actions in Gaza.

“I find it very sad that people applaud what you have said because many people have been killed,” he shouted at Peres before being halted by the moderator, Washington Post journalist David Ignatius.

“We can’t start the debate again we just don’t have time,” Ignatius pleaded as he remonstrated with the Turkish premier.

Peres, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his efforts to reconcile with Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organisation, had insisted that Israel had been forced into the offensive against Hamas by thousands of rockets and mortars fired into Israel.

“The tragedy of Gaza is not Israel, it is Hamas,” said Peres. “They created a dictatorship. A very dangerous one.”

Pointing a finger at Erdogan he said Turkey would have done the same if rockets had been fired at Istanbul.

Ban, Erdogan, Arab League secretary general Amr Mussa and Peres were sat alongside each other for the debate. All gave long impassioned statements on the conflict.

The UN secretary-general had called on Israel to end its blockade of Gaza, for Hamas to end its violence and for renewed Arab efforts to bring together divided Palestinian groups.

He had earlier launched an international appeal for more than 600 million dollars to buy emergency supplies for Gaza.

Source: AFP

N Korea ditches nonaggression pact with South Korea

North Korea said Friday it is ditching a nonaggression pact and all other peace agreements with South Korea, in an apparent attempt to use the threat of an armed clash to press Seoul to give up its “confrontational” stance.

The communist nation also said it will no longer respect a disputed sea border with the South, raising the prospect for an armed clash along the Yellow Sea boundary – the scene of deadly skirmishes between the two navies in 1999 and 2002.

South Korea said it regretted the North’s latest move and warned it won’t tolerate any attempt to violate the border. Analysts said Pyongyang’s threats could signal it is preparing for an armed confrontation, but only as a way of ratcheting up the pressure on Seoul to get the neighbor to soften its hard-line stance – and attracting President Barack Obama’s attention.

“This signals that North Korea will stage a provocation” – probably near the maritime border, said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Dongguk University.

The isolated regime could then use the threat of an armed clash to pressure Seoul to change course with the North, said Yang Moo-jin, an expert at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies.

But Kim added that any skirmish would be limited in scale and intensity because Pyongyang is aware that serious deadly clashes would irreparably harm relations with Seoul – and Obama’s new administration, whose attention the North is seeking, he said.

A Defense Ministry official said the military has stepped up vigilance along the land and sea borders with the North. The official, who declined to give his name citing department policy, said more guard posts have been installed along the land border, but could not offer details about what’s been done on the sea border.

Source: AFP

Offence registered against Adnan Sami for wife abuse

A non-cognisable offence has been registered against singer Adnan Sami for allegedly harassing and abusing his wife, Safa Galadhari at their residence in Lokhandwala, police said on Friday.

“Sami’s wife approached the police last night and complained that her husband had harassed and abused her. A non-cognisable offence was registered against him and she was advised to approach the court,” senior police inspector Kiran Sonone said.

Also, the singer has been warned not to engage in such kind of activities, he said. The offence has been registered at Oshiwara police station in suburban Andheri. – Zeenews

Debar fleeing war criminals: Govt directive to exit points

Home Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun yesterday said her ministry ordered all concerned authorities to guard all points so that no war criminal can flee the country.

“All relevant information about the war criminals has already been sent to the respective places,” she told journalists after attending the 23rd Annual Conference’08 of Bangladesh Law Association (BLA) at Kazi Motahar Hossain Bhaban in Dhaka University.

Replying to a query, the Home Minister said the recent incidents like murder of a businessman and stabbing of a DU student are being looked into seriously. “I ordered arrest of the criminals involved with the incidents.”

Asked about the clashes at the Baitul Mukarram national mosque over the appointment of ‘Khatib’, she said: “I told police not to raise their batons against any musallis (devotees).”

Addressing the conference as special guest, State Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Advocate M Quamrul Islam sought cooperation from the members of the Bangladesh Law Association in the trial of the war criminals, a major pre-election pledge of the present government.

“Without your cooperation, it would be difficult to hold the trial of the war criminals,” he said.

Earlier, in the morning, Dhaka University Vice Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique inaugurated the conference with outgoing BLA president M Abdur Rab Hawlader in the chair.

Prof Dr Mizanur Rahman of Dhaka University, Golam Mawla Rony MP, Adv ABM Waliur Rahman, Adv Nizamul Haq Mollah, judges from different districts, members of different bar associations, former and current students of the DU Law Faculty were present at the conference.

Source: The New Nation

DU student killed

A student was killed by a group of extortionists on Thursday night in front of Aziz Super Market.

The dead body was identified as ATM Foyzullah, reportedly student of Dhaka University.

Police sources said Foyzullah and his companion Shafique, a student of Kabi Nazrul Islam College, were attacked by the snatchers near Shahbag Aziz Super Market while they were going to Paltan from Kalabagan.

The snatchers cut the vein of the victims while they failed to take valuables from them.

The victims were rushed to the Islami Bank Hospital of Kakrail and later Foyzullah was shifted to the Dhaka medical College Hospital in critical condition where doctor declared him dead.

Medical sources said the brother of the dead received the body and he was buried at the family graveyard of Faridganj thana under Chandpur District.

Source: The New Nation

All limits of brutality exceeds: Body cut into 250 pieces, head recovered

Detective branch of police yesterday traced out the head of Asgar whose body in fourteen pieces was recovered from Lalbagh area in Dhaka city on Thursday.

Police suspect that alleged love affair of the deceased Asgar with Polly, wife of Zahirul Islam Zahir , who is now in police custody , led to his murder.

However,Nazimuddin Badsha, brother of victim Zahir, claimed that Asgar had a quarrel with Zahir on Wednesday morning in connection with his deceased’s cable business.

The bare pieces of the body were recovered by the police from a two- square kilometre area of Lalbagh.

Zahirul Islam Zahir engineered the plot to kill Asgar for his alleged involvement in love affair with Polly.

Zahir reportedly confessed to the killing of Asgar in his ( Zahir) own house at Lalbagh which is approximately half kilometer away from that of Asgar.

Zahir and deceased Asgar were close friends, police said.

Zahir narrated the gruesome murder of Asgar when he was produced before a team of reporters at the DB headquarters at Minto Road in the capital yesterday.

Zahir told reporters that on the fateful night of Wednesday Asgar and he were watching TV in a room of his house. His wife Polly was away from the house on that night, he said. Around 10:00 pm Rubel and Mohsin, two persons of dubious credentials of the locality, came to the room.Soon after Zahir left the room.As soon as Zahir left the room, notorious Rubel and Mohsin caught Zahir and strangled him with urna.

When the two killers confirmed that Asgar is dead, they took his body to the bath room and cut it into 250 pieces throughout the whole night.Afterwards, the pieces were put into fourteen poly bags.Zahir returned to his house when

Rubel and Mohsin were cutting the body Asgar into pieces, according to the confessional statement of Zahir.

In the early morning of Thursday, Zahir, Rubel and Mohsin dumped the Pieces of the Asgar’s body into several dustbins at different places of Lalbagh area.

Hearing about the recovery of a few pieces of a body Badsha had a look at the pieces and identified them to be his brother’s. He later went to Sir Salimullah Medical College Morgue to see the other pieces and became sure that his brother was brutally killed.

Police recorded a murder case early yesterday.

Asgar’s wife Eva, who is pregnant, fell sick on hearing the news of her husband’s murder. Later she was admitted to a local clinic. Asgar and Eva have a five-year-old boy.

Deputy commissioner of DB Auladah Hossain told the New Nation that Zahir was known as criminal. His relations with his wife Polly since were strained since their marriage 11 years ago.

Five years ago, businessman Shamsul Haque and his son Russel’s body were found dismembered in a similar way. Allegedly, a local BNP leader and criminal Kajol of Patuatuli in Old Dhaka murdered them.

Source: The New Nation

12 pieces of a body recovered

Police yesterday recovered 12 pieces of a body without head in the city’s Lalbagh area.

One Nazimuddin Badsha identified the chopped body as that of his brother Asgar.

Police arrested two persons, Jahir and Siful, from the Lalbagh area in connection with the murder.

Naba Jyoti Khisha, officer-in-charge of Lalbagh Police Station, told the New Nation, that Ajgar was a phone and Fax businessman and close friend of the arrested persons.

Badsha , victim’s brother, alleged that Jahir and Siful demanded a toll Tk 3 lakh from Ajgar.

But as Asgar did not comply with the demand they killed his brother.

Al least 500 people demonstrated in front the Lalbagh police station for exemplary punishment to the killers of Asgar.

Arrested Jahir and Siful told the police they were not involved in this killing.

Police sent the body to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital for autopsy.

A case has been filed with the Lalbagh police station in this connection.

Source: The New Nation