Says Muhith
Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday admitted the lack of coordination between prosecutors and investigators in the trial of war crimes.
The war crimes investigation agency will have its chief appointed soon so that it can carry out probe for the trial smoothly, he said while talking to reporters after a meeting on war crimes trial at his office yesterday.
Abdul Matin, the previous chief of the agency, resigned on May 5 amid controversy over his appointment and alleged affiliation with Islami Chhatra Sangha …

Detectives arrested a man yesterday on charge of sending e-mail to the information and communication technology ministry, threatening to blow up important installations of the country and to attack police unless the four top Jamaat leaders are released before the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr.
Detective Branch (DB) police arrested Maruf Raihan, a civil engineer and a manpower broker, at Natun Babupara in Saidpur upazila of Nilphamari district around 1:00am.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner AKM Shahidul Hoque disclosed this at a press conference at DB Headquarters …

The Jessore Road earned its name for being a crucial communication link between the eastern and western parts of Bengal. But it reappeared with a new significance in September 1971 when millions used it as a highway to life, defying natural calamities, to evade Pakistani atrocities.
Nearly 10 million people fled the country for a makeshift refuge in neighbouring India as Pakistani troops launched a cleansing campaign. Most of the people in the western region chose Jessore Road as a safe passage particularly in …

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday once again said her government is preparing a list of errant activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League to bring them to book.
On July 16, Sheikh Hasina issued Chhatra League activists the same warning at a Awami League Central Working Committee meeting.
The premier was yesterday speaking at a discussion organised by BCL at the capital’s Bangabandhu International Conference Centre marking the August 15.
“We are collecting information and preparing a list of Chhatra Shibir and Chhatra Dal activists who infiltrated into BCL …

A court in two separate cases yesterday sentenced nine militants of outlawed Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) to life term and 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment under Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act.
The convicts are Abdur Rashid alias Ashik, 22, son of Lutfar Rahman of Choksagar village of Bogra district, Ohidul Islam alias Sayem alias Al-Mamun, 22, son of Afzal Hossain of Dharma Sagor village of Thakurgaon, Mahfuzur Rahman alias Ibrahim, 26, son of Jafar Ali of Chhit Kutub village of Rangpur, Md Moniruzzaman alias …

Leaflets, training manual seized
Police arrested nine suspected members of banned militant outfit Allar Dal in Shariatpur Zila Stadium area on Monday evening.
The arrestees are Shafiqul Islam and Ziaul Karim of Pabna, Imdadul Talukder of Barisal, Sihabuddin of Madaripur, Abid Ahmed, Zahidul Islam, Md Sagar Sardar, Sakibuzzaman and Saidul Islam of Shariatpur Sadar upazila.
The law enforcers seized Leaflets, a training manual for militants and a diary containing guidelines to implement the organisation’s motto from the arrestees.
Acting on a tip-off, law enforcers cordoned the southern …

Dhaka city unit Jamaat Chief Rafiqul Islam Khan was shown arrested and remanded for two days yesterday in another vehicle torching case.

Rafiqul was charged with setting fire to a bus in the capital on the day before BNP’s June 27 hartal.

The parliament has largely lost its power and pre-eminence due to some changes brought to the constitution by the 4th, 5th, 12th and 13th amendments.

Although the original constitution of 1972 ensured the parliament’s supremacy over the executive and judicial branches of the state, the amendments brought by both military rulers and elected governments, not only eroded parliament’s power, it made the House subservient to the chief executive in some cases.

The House was originally structured to serve as the core of the parliamentary system of government. And accordingly, it was allowed sweeping authority to effectively hold the executive branch accountable.

Some reasonable restrictions were however imposed on members of the parliament, to prevent floor crossing, for the stability of the government.

Police arrested two Jamaat-e-Islami men from Nimtola Bazar in Gomostapur upazila of Chapainawabganj yesterday morning. The arrestees were identified as Tazer Hossain, 52, Jamaat ameer of Gomostapur upazila unit and Mohammad Shamsuzzoha, 52, a rokon of the party. Jahangir Hossain, officer-in-charge (OC) of Gomostapur police station, said Jamaat activists brought out a procession from their Noongola office around 11:00am. Police arrested Tazer and Shamsuzzoha at Nimtola Bazar as they tried to stage procession defying the order of the law enforcers.

Representatives of several Asian rights and women groups yesterday expressed solidarity with Bangladesh initiatives to try 1971 perpetrators of crimes against humanity particularly against women.

They expressed the solidarity on the concluding day of a three-day international workshop in the city.

“Rape and other forms of sexual violence against women in 1971 did constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity and/ or a constitutive act with respect to genocide’,” said a special resolution of the workshop.

The recent judgment of the Supreme Court cancelling the fifth amendment to the constitution has opened the door for challenging the legality of the controversial secret trial of Bir Uttam Colonel Abu Taher.

Taher’s relatives and the lawyer who moved the petition challenging the trial’s legality narrated the background of their coming forward. They said the perspective has changed after the Supreme Court’s historic verdict that declared illegal the governments and military rule and martial law regulations between the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975, and April 9, 1979.

Freedom fighters and local residents in Brahmanbaria yesterday said ex-Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam was the chief patron of Razakar, Al-badar and Al-shams — the forces collaborated with Pakitani army during Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971.

They gave the testimony before a three-member inquiry committee of International War Crime Tribunal that passed the second day of investigation on the war crime committed by former Jamaat chief at different spots in Brahmanbaria.