Bangladesh in deal with UK navy

Bangladesh has bought two former British naval offshore patrol vessels.

The ships were in use for years as patrol ships for the Falkland Islands.

The HMS Dumbarton Castle and HMS Leeds Castle entered service in 1982 and entered long-term duty guarding the Falkland Islands after the war.

The two ships will be repaired by British ship repair yard A&P Tyne before Bangladesh takes possession.

The ships, which were retired by the British Navy in 2005, will be towed up to Tyneside next month to undergo a massive overhaul, which will include the vessels’ main engines, gearboxes, shafts and motors.

New diesel generators and an upgrade of the crew’s accommodation will also be attended to.

U-turn on Indian film screening

Users of Bangladesh mobile service warned

Concerned over the use of Bangladeshi mobile service in border areas, Union Minister Gurudas Kamat today said stringent action would be taken against those found using the services.

“It is a matter of concern. Security agencies are monitoring the situation. Stringent action will be taken if anyone is caught,” Kamat, the Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, told reporters here.

“We are making efforts to ensure that towers are set up to the borders. We are committed to provide proper connectivity to the last point of the border,” he said after a meeting with BSNL officials of the Northeastern region here.

“As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, it (BSNL) is ensuring that the services reach every common man,” he said.

Most people use the services of Bangla Grameen Mobile Company Ltd in border areas because of poor service by BSNL.

Bangladesh moves up economic liberty index

Bangladesh has made significant strides in the Index of Economic Freedom world rankings, making its economy the 137th freest in the world.

In the ranking, the country’s overall score was 51.1, which is 3.6 points higher than that of the last year, according to the report jointly prepared by USA-based think tank Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal.

In the Asia-Pacific region Bangladesh has been ranked 29th out of 41 countries.

“The gains reflect Bangladesh’s improvements in trade freedom and investment freedom,” according to the report.

In the index, the country for the first time graduated itself from the ‘Repressed’ category to the category of ‘Mostly Unfree’ countries.

Praising the country’s performance in last five years, the report said, “Bangladesh has enjoyed impressive economic growth of around 6 percent per year over the past five years driven mainly by its limited but growing services and industrial sectors.”

It, however, said, “Structural and institutional weaknesses remain serious impediments to sustaining such high economic growth rates.”

It said Bangladesh’s economy remains overly dependent on agriculture, which accounts for almost 20 percent of GDP and employs more than half of the labour force.

It also said the heavily politicised weak regulatory regime of the country often tends to crowd out private investment while corruption, coupled with onerous bureaucracy, is still perceived as pervasive.

This year the ranking covered 183 countries measuring 10 components of economic freedom. Score in each category ranged from 0 to 100.

The components were business freedom, trade freedom, fiscal freedom, government spending, monetary freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, property rights, freedom from corruption and labour freedom.

In the component business freedom Bangladesh scored 59.4 out of 100. The report said in Bangladesh it requires 44 days on average to start a business while the world average is 35 days. However, obtaining a business license requires less than the world average of 18 procedures.

Bangladesh’s score was 58 in trade freedom component. Import and export restrictions, numerous border taxes and fees, burdensome import licencing rules, export subsidies, government monopolies, inefficient and corrupt customs administration, among others, add to the cost of trade in the country, said the report.

Twenty points were deducted from Bangladesh’s trade freedom score to account for non-tariff barriers.

In the monetary freedom component where the country scored 66.6, a total of 15 points were deducted from this component to adjust for price-control measures that distort domestic prices for petroleum products, some pharmaceuticals, and goods produced in state-owned enterprises.

About the financial freedom the report said Bangladesh has made modest progress in recent years in its banking sector adding that the sector is underdeveloped and provides a limited range of banking services.

Bangladesh’s state-owned commercial banks, which account for more than 30 percent of total banking system assets, undermine the sector’s efficiency, it said. Bangladesh scored 20 in the financial freedom component.

In the global context Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia are the top three scorers in the index while North Korea, Zimbabwe and Cuba were top from the bottom.

In South Asian context Bangladesh’s position was only above Maldives whose rank is 148th. Bhutan’s position was the 103rd, Pakistan’s 117th, Sri Lanka’s 120th, India’s 124th, and Nepal’s 130th.

Though Afghanistan was covered in the index, it was not given any score.

Polythene returns

Polythene bags, banned eight years ago, are again being sold in large numbers in the markets across Dhaka.

Most businessmen in the capital’s New Market are selling their products in plastic bags, though the production of polythene with a thickness of less than 100 microns was banned on 1 Jan, 2002, except in relation to 14 sectors including those involving certain, foods, medicine, cement and fertiliser.

Polythene bags were also being openly sold in Begum Bazar, Chawk Bazar, and Chawk Mogaltuli Bazar markets.

The businessmen justified using them by saying that the alternatives – jute or net bags -were costly and there was limited supply.

Abdur Rahim, a fish-seller in the capital’s Palashi Bazar who uses polythene bags, said each jute bag costs Tk 8 and begins to decompose after some days, while the net bags found in the markets are not suitable for carrying products like fish or meat.

Polythene traders in Begumganj area said the wholesale prices of polythene bags, are Tk 45-Tk 90 per thousand, depending on their sizes.

Consumers said they were using polythene bags as there are some products that could not be carried without it.

Sukumar Bishwas, director-in-charge of the Dhaka Division of the Department of Environment, told bdnews24.com that there are many factories illegally producing polythene in the Mirpur, Lalbagh, and Debidasghat areas in Dhaka.

He said that mobile courts, almost every week, go to the areas where the illegal factories are located, and that in the previous year, 31 cases have so far been filed against such factories. Several businessmen have been fined.

However, one owner, on condition of anonymity, said that every week he has to bribe higher authorities with a lot money to keep his production operational.

“Polythene bags are smuggled from India. What is the problem then if we produce them in our country?” he asked.

The raw materials to make plastic bags are also easily on hand in old Dhaka, the factory owner said.

Businessmen said, it was very easy to ‘manage’ the customs officers and others to bring in these raw materials. This is why polythene bags are so easily available in Dhaka, they said.

Haji Asmat Ali, a trader of Islambag area, told bdnews24.com that raw materials are also produced by melting old polythene bags.

The maximum punishment for manufacturing or being otherwise involved in the distribution of plastic bags is a fine of Tk 5,000. A sentence of six months’ imprisonment can be imposed if the fine is not paid, Bishwas said.

Abu Naser Khan, chairman of Paribesh Bachao Andolan (Save the Environment Movement) told bdnews24.com that polythene bags are seriously polluting our environment. Biodiversity is facing grave danger.

Polythene bags are also responsible for disrupting the water drainage system in Dhaka, Naser said.

He said police and the department of environment should take stern actions as they are well aware of the illegal polythene factories.

Fight Indian pressure: Dhaka Jamaat leader

Calling India ‘big-brother,’ right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) chief Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami Friday called for opposition unity to fight external ‘pressures’ on the Sheikh Hasina government.

These ‘pressures’ had led to the government agreeing to India using the Chittagong and Mongla ports, he told a party gathering, United News of Bangladesh (UNB) reported.

Nizami also blamed India for pressuring the government for its move to hold ‘war circles’ trial of those who had killed unarmed civilians in the run-up to the 1971 freedom movement.

He asked why Hasina had not held such a trial during her earlier tenure (1996-2001).

Nizami and several top brass of the Jamaat are said to figure in the list of the accused.

JeI, the country’s biggest Islamist party, is ideologically opposed to India and calls it ‘enemy number one’. It had opposed the independence of Bangladesh.

Banned in the years following the independence in 1971, it was brought back to the political mainstream by military-led government generals Ziaur Rahman and H.M. Ershad.

His call was aimed at main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by two-term prime minister Khaleda Zia, that has distanced itself since the debacle in the December 2008 parliamentary elections, political analysts said.

BNP and Jamaat were allies and shared power during 2001-06.

Nizami criticized the International War Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973, under which the government is moving to hold the trial.

‘The act under which the trial of war crimes will be held is the blackest law in history. The trial of the war crimes under the act will be a great blunder. So far, not a single case has been tried under the act.’

He said both the moves – to impose a ban on Islamic parties and trial of the war crimes – are targeted to remove Jamaat from the political arena, Star Online said.

Nizami alleged that the government’s ‘fascist tendency’ indicated that it is going ahead to implement the one-party rule in the country in phases.

Mujibnagar Day observed

The government is observing the historic Mujibnagar Day on Saturday with many programmes.

The Bangladesh government was formed in Kushtia’s Meherpur area on this day in 1971 with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman named as the president, Syed Nazrul Islam as the vice president and acting president and Tajuddin Ahmed as the prime minister.

The government is for the first time holding programmes in Meherpur, as well as in Dhaka, to make the day.

Parliament deputy leader and Awami League presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, finance minister AMA Muhith and other central leaders laid floral tributes at the graves of three national leaders Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed and M Mansur Ali in Dhaka’s Banani in the morning.

In Meherpur, local government minister Syed Ashraful Islam, son of Syed Nazrul Islam, the state minister for liberation war affairs ABM Tajul Islam and other central and local leaders laid tributes at the Mujibnagar mausoleum at around 10am.

A meeting will be held beside the mausoleum later in the day with Syed Ashraf as the chief guest.

The Awami League has also organised a discussion in Dhaka’s Bangabandhu International Conference Centre. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina and AL chief Sheikh Hasina will be the chief guest there.

HuJI leader remanded for 4 days

Golam Mostafa, a radical Islamist and member of the banned outfit, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) has been sent to police remand for questioning.

A Dhaka court has allowed the police four days to question the Islamist radical.

Mostafa, was arrested for the second time on Friday from Sylhet for trying to organise and strengthen the banned outfit secretly.

Police took him to Dhaka’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court later in the day and appealed for 10 days’ remand but magistrate Abdus Salam granted four.

Mostafa is an enlisted militant with the British government.

He has a money laundering case and another under Terrorism Act filed against him in London, Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner AKM Shahidul Haque told a press briefing on Friday.

Golam Mostafa has lived in England for a long time.

Haque came to Bangladesh when the London police ran several drives to arrest him, said the DMP official.

The alleged militant was first arrested on Dec 2, 2007 from a house in the capital’s Bashundhara residential area, which is also Dhaka’s diplomatic zone.

A British passport, a pistol and five jihadist books were also recovered from his possession.

Mostafa was sentenced to 17 years in prison in Bangladesh but managed to get bail from the High Court.

The DMP commissioner said Mostafa started tidying up HuJI and became involved in different criminal acts after he got out of jail.

He also tried to free other HuJI leaders including its top-ranking leader Abdus Salam who is at present behind bars.

Mostafa directly participated in the war against Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

Bangladesh police will request the Interpol to provide more information on the alleged militant, Haque said.

The police, based on Mostafa’s information, have seized some jihad-related books from his father-in-law’s house in the capital’s Hazaribagh.

CU cancels classes, exams

Classes and exams at Chittagong University have been suspended for three days following the death of a Bangladesh Chhatra League activist.

BCL also called an indefinite strike after one of its activists, Md Asaduzzaman, died on Friday.

He died in hospital late Friday afternoon from injuries he had suffered during a clash with the locals earlier in the day.

The suspension of exams came after the vice chancellor of the university held an emergency meeting with the university administration on Friday night, pro VC Mohammad Alauddin told bdnews24.com.

He said all classes and exams of Saturday, Sunday and Monday will be postponed.

The shuttle train from the port city to the campus will also remain suspended these three days, he added.

Police said local residents of villages adjacent to the university attacked some students at the Station Chattar early Friday.

All five injured were members of the ruling Awami League’s student wing the Chhatra League, police said.

Md Moslehuddin, duty doctor of Chittagong Medical College Hospital, said that Asad died of his injuries at 5pm.

Following his death Chhatra League staged a demonstration in front of the hospital and general secretary of the university unit Ershad Hossain called the strike.

Meer Hossain Miraj, one of Asad’s companions, said that the group of students were quite engaged in a conversation amongst themselves when a group of people attacked them.

“All of us except Asaduzzaman managed to flee the scene.”

Sub inspector of the university police camp Md Alauddin told bdnews24.com that police took control of the situation after hearing of the clash.

Gunshots were also heard, he added.

Another police official, Rashid, said five students were held from the spot including one BCL leader and the police recovered choppers from them.

They are—deputy secretary for science and technology Zahidul Islam Jewel, and BCL members Akhtarul Huq, Russel Barua, Shantanu Mahajon and Mamun.

They were sent to jail through the court, said the police.

Gen Rafiq new BDR DG, Gen Mainul replaced: Change come at a time when several thousands mutineers on trial

Major General Rafiqul Islam, chief of Bangladesh Ansar and VDP, has been made the Director General of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), according to a government notification yesterday.

Major General Mainul Islam may be selected for a crucial posting in army as he was asked to report to the army headquarters.

An establishment ministry statement announced the appointment of Rafiqul Islam, the director general of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR who is currently the head of auxiliary or para-police Ansar and VDP force. The change came at a time when the BDR witnesses trial of several thousand rebel border guards for the February 25-26, 2009 mutiny.

The statement, however, did not mention about the new posting of Mainul Islam but official sources said he was selected for a crucial posting in army as he was asked to report to the army headquarters.

Mainul was entrusted with the task of reorganizing the paramilitary troops after his predecessor Major General Shakil Ahmed was killed in the February 25-26 carnage along with 56 other army officers serving the paramilitary force on deputation.

“BDR had witnessed a massive stroke on February 25-26, but now the organization is on its feet to perform its assigned task . . . I see a dream of a better future in the eyes of my BDR soldiers,” Mainul said.

The change, however, came as Mainul was heading six BDR courts to try the ordinary mutineers who did not take part in heinous crimes like killings under the paramilitary force’s own law that suggested the highest seven years of imprisonment for breaching discipline.

The culprits of the BDR massacre, however, are set to be tried under the tough Speedy Trial Tribunal under the civil penal code suggesting the highest death penalty while the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police said they nearly finalized their investigations. They said some 900 BDR soldiers out of around 2,100 detained ones are expected to be charged for their alleged involvement in killings and lootings keeping the family members of the army officers at their Peelkhana headquarters hostage.

Seventy-four people, including the 57 senior army officers, were killed in the 33-hour siege.

The border guards were provided with new uniforms in a bid to overcome the mutiny stigma while the government recently approved “in principle” a proposed law for massive reconstruction of the mutiny infested BDR border force renaming it as Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) and prescribing death penalty for such mutiny.

Trial completed in two places, Chapainawabganj and Thakurgaon, and all but one accused were sentenced to jail ranging up to seven years.

Pronouncing the verdict, Gen Mainul had said the court took a generous view to those who admitted their guilt.

Brig Gen Hasan Suhrawardy has been made the new Director General of Ansar and VDP.