TUESDAY
Dhaka: March 31, 2015; Chaitra 17, 1421 BS; Jamadi-us-Sani 9, 1436 hijri www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www. tbtlive.com Regd.No.Da~2065, Vol.13; No.195; 12 Pages~Tk.7.00
ENTERTAINMENT Emon-Mim together once again!
INTERNATIONAL Afghanistan’s president walks tightrope over US, Pakistan ties
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Burdwan blast case
4 Bangladeshi among 21 chargesheeted DHAKA : Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday formally submitted a chargesheet against 21 people, including four Bangladesh nationals, to a special court in Kolkata for their involvement in the Burdwan blast, according to Indian media reports, reports UNB. Banned militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) is suspected to be involved in the blast. Sources said 21 accused, including four Bangladeshi nationals, have been charged with offences relating to terrorist act, conspiracy, recruitment, funding and running terrorist training camps, possession of arms and explosives, offences of forgery, offences relat-
HSC, equivalent exams begin tomorrow
DHAKA : The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and its equivalent examinations of 2015 begin across the country on Wednesday, reports UNB. This year a total of 10,73,884 students under 10 educational boards, including one madrasah and one technical board, will sit for the examinations from 8,305 educational institutions. Of the total students, 5,70, 993 are boys and 5,02,891 are girls. The examinations will be held at 2,419 centres across the country. Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid briefed the media about the examinations at the secretariat on Monday. This year the number of total examinees has decreased by 67,490 from 11,41,374 last year. A total of 241 students will sit for the examinations from seven overseas centres, too. Besides, a total of 8,86,933 students will sit for the examinations from eight general education boards while 84,360 from madrasah board, 98,247 from vocational and 4,344 from DIBS. The written examinations will end on June 11 and the practical examinations are scheduled to begin on June 13 and end by June 22. During the press briefing, the minister said the HSC and its equivalent examinations will begin as per the schedule despite various obstacles, including hartal. The minister also urged the hartal enforcers to keep the examinations out of the purview of the shutdown.
Namaz Timings Today
Start Jamaat
Fajr 04:36 AM 05:30 AM Zohr 12:10 PM 01:30 PM Asr 04:30 PM 04:45 PM Magrib 06:18 PM 06:21 PM Esha 07:33 PM 08:00 PM Tahajjud after midnight Source: Islamic Foundation
SUNSET : 06:15 PM SUNRISE : 05:51 aM
SPORT McCullum not agonizing WC defeat
ing to foreigners act and passport act. The blast took place in a house in Khagragarh in Burdwan district on October 2, killing two JMB militants and injuring another. Probing the blast, the NIA has so far arrested 18 people from various parts India as well as Dhaka . The agency has claimed its investigation showed that the JMB had established its network in many districtsparticularly in Murshidabad, Nadia, Malda, Birbhum and Burdwan in Bengal, Barpeta in Assam, and Sahibganj and Pakur in Jharkhand. As many as 15 people suspected to be involved in the case are missing and on the run. The NIA took over the probe a few days after the explosion.
Parliament passes Youth Organization Bill, 2015 SANGSAD BHABAN : The Jatiya Sangsad yesterday passed the 'Youth Organization (Registration and Operation) Bill, 2015' in an amended form, reports BSS. State Minister for Youth and Sports Biren Sikder moved the bill in the House for its passage.
The bill is aimed at ensuring transparency and accountability in the activities of youth organizations in the country. According to the bill, provisions have been made for taking legal actions, including abolition of organizations, for establishing or enlisting youth organizations on the basis of false information or involving with
subversive activities and hampering public interest. The bill has a mandatory provision for youth organizations to have registration with the Youth Development Directorate. Earlier, State Minister for Youth and Sports Biren Sikder introduced the bill in the House on March 3 with a proposal of determining definition and purview of youth activities for ensuring discipline in the functioning of youth organizations. Later, the House sent the bill to the concerned parliamentary standing committee for scrutiny and report back within seven days. On March 22, member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Youth and Sports M Mahbub Ali placed the report on the bill in the House on behalf of committee Chairman M Zahid Ahsan Russel .
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Ershad urges party workers to work unitedly for Mayoral polls DHAKA : Jatiya Party Chairman and special assistant to the Prime Minister H M Ershad yesterday urged his party's leader and workers to work unitedly for the upcoming city corporation elections, reports BSS. "There is win or loss in the election. The Jatiya Party still exists as it participates in the elections," he said while speaking as the chief guest in the 32nd founding anniversary of National Chhatra Samaj at Engineers Institute in the capital.
99 % school-going children enlisted in schools: Nahid SANGSAD BHABAN : The number of schoolgoing children increased by two and a half times over the last six years with about 99 percent children already enlisted in schools, reports BSS. Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid told this while responding to a supplementary question of treasury bench member Abdul Matin during the question and answer session in the House with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair. The present government is trying to help these children stay in schools through various means, he said adding, "The government is relentlessly working to develop the quality of education and continue the trend of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)." Referring to infrastructural development in the last six years, Nahid said the present government already ensured 70 percent infrastructural development and rest of the primary schools would come under this development project in phases. Answering to another question of treasury bench member Nurul Islam Sujon, he said there are 6.50 crore members in the educated family and of them 5.52 crore are students.
Bill to collect surcharge on mobile phone cleared DHAKA : The Cabinet on Monday approved the draft of the 'Development Surcharge and Levy (impose and collection) Bill, 2015', subject to the Law Ministry's vetting, aiming to collect one percent surcharge on the use of SIM or RUIM cards of mobile phones, reports UNB. The approval was given at the regular weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the proposed surcharge on Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) or Removable User Identity Module (RUIM) cards will be collected from the mobile phone operators. An amount of TK 140 crore, he said, could be collected in revenue from it every year which would be used for the development of education and health sectors. He said under the proposed law, a schedule will be there which will determine in which rate and on which services development surcharge and levy would be imposed and collected. The government could amend this schedule from time to time as well as could change the rate of surcharge or incorporate new issues through gazette notifications. Earlier on September 15, 2014, the Cabinet endorsed a proposal for imposing one per cent surcharge on cell phone talk-time and other services to raise funds for
development activities in the country's health and education sectors. Mobile users will have to pay the tax while mobile operators will collect it and pay to the national exchequer. Currently, mobile users have to pay 15 percent valueadded tax for enjoying any mobile service provided by the operators. Answering to a question, the Cabinet Secretary said the development surcharge would be made affective once the bill is passed in parliament. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on June 29 last year expressed her intention in parliament that the fund to be generated through the move would be spent on education sector for its development. The Cabinet also directed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to review further the draft of the 'Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (amendment) Bill, 2015' by not approving it in principle today. The meeting approved a proposal for ratifying the 'Agreement on Security Cooperation between Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates' signed between the two countries. It also approved a proposal for post facto approval and ratification of the 'Agreement on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons between Bangladesh and the UAE'. This agreement was also signed between the two countries earlier.
Another blogger stabbed dead DHAKA : Barely five weeks after the killing of blogger Avijit Roy, another blogger was hacked to death by some unidentified assailants in broad daylight at South Begunbari in Tejgoan industrial area of the city on Monday, reports UNB. Police said Washiqur Rahman Babu, 26, a blogger and an employee of Far East Travels Ltd, was stabbed by a group of assailants, numbering at least three, near South Begunbari Jame Mosque around 9:30am, leaving him critically injured. Humayun Kabir, subinspector (SI) of the Tejgoan Industrial Police Station, said a patrol team of police rescued injured Washiqur as well as caught two assailants red-handed with three homemade sharp weapons as they were fleeing the scene after the incident. Washiqur was whisked off to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where doctors declared him dead around 11:00am, said SI Shahida of the police station. The arrestees were identified as Zikrullah, 20, a student of Hathajari Madrasah in Chittagong, and Ariful Islam, 20, a student of Mirpur Section 1 Darul Ulum Madrasah. Deputy Commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) (Tejgaon Zone) Biplob Kumar Sarkar at a press briefing at the Tejgaon
Police Station told reporters that the two arrestees confessed to their involvement in the killing of Washiqur. "They planned to murder him (Washiqur) for publishing write-ups hurting religious sentiments," he said. The duo also revealed the name of another cohort, Abu Taher. The details about Abu Taher could not yet be known. Among the arrestees, Zikrullah arrived in Dhaka from Chittagong on Sunday and stayed overnight at a mosque in Jatrabari area. The three alleged assailants also went to South Begunbari area on Sunday to make a scrutiny before implementing their murder plan. Earlier on February 26, blogger and writer Avijit Roy was killed and his wife Rafida Afrin Banya injured seriously as unidentified criminals stabbed them near TSC on the Dhaka University campus. Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested Shafiur Rahman Farabi from Jatrabari area in the city on March 2 in connection with the killing but the mystery behind the gruesome attack on the blogger and his wife is yet to be solved. Besides, another blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haidar, was stabbed to death near his house at Mirpur Palash Nagar in the capital on February 15, 2013.
BNP ‘forms committees’ to make maximum gains in city polls DHAKA : Eying the maximum ward councillor posts alongside all the mayoral ones, BNP was learned to have formed two separate committees for Dhaka North City Corporations (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) to ensure one party-blessed candidate at every ward of the two cities, reports UNB. BNP insiders said the committees will finalise two lists-one for the DSCC and another for the DNCC-of the party's potential councillor candidates and talk to the rebel ones so that they withdraw their nominations by April 9, the last date for withdrawal of nomination. According to the sources, a committee, headed by BNP's Dhaka city unit convener and its mayoral aspirant Mirza Abbas, has been constituted to pick the party's councillor candidates to contest the DSCC polls.
A BNP leader close to Abbas said the city BNP chief has started making a list of the party's prospective candidates and will complete it within a couple of days. "It'll be finalised after discussions with all the aspirants submitted nominations and ward unit BNP leaders," he said wishing not to be named. Another committee, led by BNP joint secretary general Barkatullah Bulu, has been formed to prepare the list of the potential councillor candidates to contest the DNCC. BNP Dhaka city unit member secretary Habibunnabi Khan Sohel and city leaders MA Quayum and SA Khalek will assist Bulu. Contacted, Bulu said, "Our party will extend support to only one candidate at every war. So, we'll request other party men to withdraw their nominations."