Veils a personal choice: Bangladesh court

The High Court of Bangladesh has ruled that no woman should be forced to wear a veil at educational institutions.

It was women’s personal choice whether they wore scarves or covered their heads, said the court.

The court directed the Education Ministry to ensure the implementation of its order.

The verdict is on a writ petition filed following a report that an education officer in Kurigram insulted a woman teacher last year by making a disgraceful remark.

“It is the personal choice of a women to wear a veil, if any person tries to compel a woman to wear a veil against her consent or will that amounts to a violation of her fundamental right as enshrined in the Constitution,” observed the court.

A two-judge bench, comprising Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Afsar Jahan, also asked the government to enforce its earlier guidelines to prevent sexual harassment of women and girls at educational institutions, offices, factories and other workplaces.

The court on May 14 last year had directed the authorities concerned to form five-member harassment complaint committees headed by women, and with women as majority members, at all workplaces and institutions to investigate allegations of harassment of women.

Husband’s life term upheld

The Supreme Court has upheld the commutation of banker Azam Reza’s death sentence to life imprisonment for the 2004 murder of his wife architect Jayanti Reza.

The murder caused a media sensation five years ago. Brother of noted actress Shampa Reza, Azam Reza’s initial death sentence was commuted to a life imprisonment by the High Court in 2008.

A four-member Appellate Division bench, headed by chief justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim, on Sunday dismissed a leave to appeal by the government against the High Court order commuting the death penalty.

It also dismissed a leave to appeal by Azam Reza challenging the High Court’s sentence.

Azam Reza married Jayanti, daughter of journalist M Sadekin in 2000. On Jan 9 2004 Jayanti was found murdered in their Banani home.

Jayanti’s mother Nusin Sadekin filed a murder case with Gulshan Police Station the next day. Police immediately arrested Azam Reza.

A Dhaka speedy trial tribunal handed down the death sentence to Azam Reza on Jan 14 2005. The High Court commuted the sentence to life imprisonment on July 21 2008.

At Sunday’s hearing, advocate AK Bodrul Haque stood for Azam Reza while deputy attorney general ASM Mubin stood for the government.

source: bdnews

Mutineers sued

Lalbagh police filed a case against over a thousand BDR mutineers Sunday, naming DAD Touhidul Alam and five others.

The Lalbagh Thana officer in charge, Nobojyoti Khisha, also named deputy assistant director (DAD) Nasiruddin Khan, DAD Mirza Mahbubur Rahman, Jawan Abdur Rahim, DAD Jalil (one name given) and jawan Selim, police said.

The news of registering a formal, legally cognizable complaint came immediately after the prime minister left the Dhaka cantonment after what appeared to be an emotion-charged encounter with middle-ranking military officers, who lost over a hundred of their colleagues during the two-day mutiny.

The case was however registered at 11:30pm Saturday, Khisha told bdnews24.com Sunday.

The Lalbagh police chief also accused “over a thousand” JCOs and NCOs but did not name them, duty officer Tariqul Islam said.

Source: Internet

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

Why Solidarity Day won’t be observed, HC asks govt

The High Court (HC) today issued a rule upon the government to show cause as to why they should not be directed to observe with due respect November 7 as “National Revolution and Solidarity Day”.

After hearing a writ petition, a division bench of the higher court comprising Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana and Justice Md Rezaul Haque asked the government to explain why its gazette notification scraping the public holiday on November 7 should not be declared without lawful authority.

Cabinet secretary, principal secretary to the Chief Adviser’s Office, law secretary, information secretary, education secretary and deputy secretary to the establishment ministry have been asked to reply to the rule within four weeks.

Abu Naser M Rahmatullah, president of Swadhinata Forum, filed the writ petition as public interest litigation (PIL) with the HC seeking a direction to the government to observe with due respect November 7 as National Revolution and Solidarity Day.

The petition challenged the gazette notification issued by the deputy secretary to the establishment ministry scrapping the November 7 National Revolution and Solidarity Day as a public holiday.

Source: The Daily Star

Mojaheed fails to surrender as deadline ends

Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed did not turn himself in at the trial court on Monday, a day after the High Court deadline for surrender expired.

The failure prompted state counsels to accuse the Jamaat stalwart of showing flagrant disregard for the court by disobeying the orders.

Mojaheed appealed for bail at the High Court in Barapukuria coal mine graft case on Oct. 19 but the court rejected his appeal and asked him to surrender in two weeks to the Special Judge’s Court-2 where the trial was pending.

His lawyer told the court Mojaheed had already pleaded with the High Court for more time to surrender. Besides, another petition for staying the proceedings against him has been pending.

The special judge, Amar Kumar Roy, instructed Mojaheed’s lawyer to produce the copies of High Court orders on Nov. 10 and adjourned the day’s hearing.

The judge set Monday for hearing the case after the state counsels filed a petition to his court on Oct. 29 to issue warrant of arrest against Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami and Mojaheed.

State attorney Mosharraf Hossain Kajol told the court, “By disobeying the court orders Mujaheed has disregarded the court of law.

He appealed for warrant of arrest against the Jamaat secretary general.

Mojaheed’s lawyer Abdur Razzak urged the court not to issue the warrant as hearing on his appeal was going on in the High Court.

“It is a sub-judice matter,” said the special judge amid protests from the state counsels.

The counsels argued that Mojaheed did not care to turn himself in despite the High Court order. Now he showed up in the court a day after the deadline for surrender to say that he had gone to the High Court to seek extension of the no-arrest, no-harassment order and a stay on the case.

So, they said, it could not be a sub-judice matter.

The special court also fixed Nov. 10 for hearing the appeal for warrant against Nizami.

The Anticorruption Commission on Feb 26 registered the case with Shahbagh Police Station against 16, including former prime minister Khaleda Zia and 10 of her cabinet members. They were charge-sheeted on Oct. 5.

The court on Oct. 6 issued warrant of arrest against Mujaheed but police failed to detain him.

The High Court has already stayed proceedings of the case against Khaleda.

Source: Bdews24

HC dismisses petitions; ‘no bar to schedule

The High Court has dismissed three separate writ petitions challenging the Election Commission’s gazette on the demarcation of parliamentary seats, which lawyers say clears the way for announcement of the schedule for elections.

The EC sat in an emergency meeting after the declaration of the verdict. The commission was originally set to declare the schedule on Nov 2 (Sunday), but was awaiting the High Court verdict.

The HC bench of justices Mir Hasmat Ali and Shamim Hasnain gave the verdict Sunday after concluding hearing of the petitions on Oct 30.

Shahdin Malik, lawyer for the EC, told bdnews24.com after the ruling that the court had ruled the commission’s gazette legal.

On voters being listed before the redrawing of 133 out of 300 constituencies—one of the main objections of the petitioner—the court said that the one had no relation to the other.

The ruling meant that the EC had no impediment to declaring the election schedule, Malik said, adding that the commission could announce the schedule any time it wished.

Bbarrister ABM Nurul Islam, lawyer for the petitioners, also told bdnews24.com that the HC ruling meant the commission could now declare the election schedule.

“But the decision whether we (the petitioners) will appeal against the verdict will be taken after discussions on the matter,” he said.

The High Court stayed the effectiveness of the gazette on demarcation of 300 parliamentary constituencies—which redrew the boundaries of 133 seats—for three months, on Aug 7.

Source: Bdnews24