DT e-Paper, Friday, Decdember 13, 2017

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4 FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2017 DT ‘Govt conspiring to consolidate power using textbook mistakes’ • Shadma Malik and Arif Ahmed Professor Emeritus Serajul Islam Chowdhury claimed that the mistakes in the 2017 textbooks were intentionally placed by the government to consolidate its power. He said: “Of the three branches of our education stystem, the mainstream (Bangla) is highly mistreated by the ruling party where the remaining (Madrasa, English Medium) are handled gingerly.” A discussion titled “Scandal in textbooks and the future of Bangladesh” was organised by Bangladesh Chhatra Federation at the Munir Chowdhury auditorium in Dhaka University yesterday. The professor emeritus condemned the government, saying it had assented to the religious pressure group Hefazat-e-Islam’s demands. Prof Serajul claimed Hefazat’s recommendations regarding the textbook curriculum had been implemented by the government. he compared the textbook saga with former British and Pakistani regimes’ attempts at consolidating their power with so-called “education reforms.” “Where they failed, the ruli go ernment succeeded,” Prof Serajul stated. • News The strange case of the dead fugitive • Ashif Islam Shaon The International Crimes Tribunal came down heavily on its prosecution and investigation wing, as charges have been framed against an alleged war criminal who had died eight months before the trial started. The tribunal asked the prosecution to investigate the matter and collect information about deceased Md Wazuddin of Mymensingh. The bench comprised of Justice Md Shahinur Islam and Justice Md Suhrawardi passed the order on Thursday after a report aired on a private television channel drew their attention, said one of the prosecutors Syed Haider Ali. On December 11, 2016 charges were framed against Wazuddin, showing him fugitive and the tribunal asked to start trial appointing a state defense counsel for Wazuddin on government’s expense. Another accused Md Reaz Uddin Fakir is already in custody. However, according to the family members of Wazuddin, he died on May 7, 2016 at the age of 70. He was buried at Briddhananda village under Phulbaria upazila. His two brothers Muslem and Mozafar told the Dhaka Tribune that they had informed local union parisad Kaladoho chairman about their brother’s death. UP chairman Shahjahan Saju said the death certificate of Wazuddin had been handed over to police. Phulbaria Police Station’s Officer-in-Charge Rifat Khan Rajib informed that they forwarded the death certificate to the district police’s head office. Our Mymensingh correspondent reports that no officials at the police’s district unit wanted to make any comment on the issue that why they did not inform the International Crimes Tribunal about Wazuddin’s death. Prosecutor Rishikesh Saha said that after the arrest warrant had been issued against the duo on March 29, police on June 16 informed that Wazuddin was absconding. The tribunal was supposed to start the trial proceedings through opening statement on January 31 this year. Tribunal’s Registrar Shahidul Alam Jhinuk said following the tribunal’s order they received report from the Mymensingh Police Superintendent on Wazuddin’s death on Thursday. Before that, tribunal had no information about that. The letter was submitted to the tribunal. He said the tribunal was not liable for the incident. The law enforcers are to blame in this case. According to the charge framing order of the tribunal, formal charges against Wazuddin and Reaz were submitted to the tribunal by the prosecution. The court took the charges into cognisance on March 29, 2016. The hearing on charge framing took place on November 22 that year. On May 16, 2016, nine days into Wazuddin’s death, the tribunal had ordered publication of notice in two daily newspapers against the ‘absconding’ accused, as arrest warrant had been issued against him. The notice was published in two national dailies on 17th and 18th May. As Wazuddin ‘did not surrender’, the tribunal ordered holding trial in absentia against him and appointed a lawyer to defend the absconding accused. Prosecutor Syed Haider Ali said the tribunal expressed frustration over the matter. It termed the act of the prosecution and the investigation wing as an act of extreme negligence. The tribunal also said the matter has maligned the image of the tribunal. A trial cannot be conducted against a dead person. It is an unlawful act. According to the prosecution, Reaz was the local Al-Badar commander and Wazuddin a local Razakar during the War of Liberation in 1971. They along with their accomplices belonging to infamous Razakar Bahini and sometimes with the Pakistani occupation army had systematically and deliberately carried out atrocious activities directing pro-liberation civilians around the localities under Phulbaria Police Station, Mymensingh. Five charges were pressed against them including that of abduction, confinement, torture, murder and rape. • National Democratic movement declares central committee members • Tribune Desk Nationalist Democratic Movement (NDM) has declared its central committee in a meeting presided by Boby Hajjaj the party chairman on Wednesday. The 16 members of the central committee were selected and declared by the forum members after a discussion with the Secretary General ATM Golam Moula Chowdhury. The selected members are: Enayet kabir as vice-chair, Abu Sayed as vice-Chair, Abdullah Md Taher and Lucky Hussion as jointsecretaries, Syeda Sadia Mehjabin, ATM Momtazul Karim and Nizam Mohammed Uddin as organizing secretaries, Amirul Islam(Nayan Murad) as press & publication secretary, Nurul Kader Chawdhury as social welfare secretary, Nuruzzaman Hira, Zahirul Islam and Harun Ar Rashid as joint organizing secretaries, Abdullah Al Mamun as joint-labor welfare affairs secretary, Maulana Nurul Kader Siddique as joint-religious affairs secretary, Khaled Emtiaz Rahman as joint-sports affairs secretary and S K Seam Ali as executive member. • Experts: Find alternatives to mercury dental fillings • Tribune Desk At a meeting in Dhaka yesterday, dental professionals and environmental experts emphasised the need for education and hands on knowledge of mercury-free alternatives for the next generation of dentists. Mercury dental amalgam is a major source of toxicity. Many developed countries are now switching to safer alternatives. Authorities were urged to exclude amalgam from dental school curriculum. The statement was made at a roundtable meeting titled “Dental College Curriculum Revision and Adoption” jointly organised by Bangladesh Dental Society (BDS) and Environment and Social Development Organisation (ESDO) in Dhaka. Mercury dental amalgam is a health risk for children, pregnant women, nursing infants and people with impaired kidney functions. Due to mercury exposure from amalgam in the workplace, dentists, students and patients may suffer from elevated mercury levels in their blood. Many developed countries are now switching to safer alternatives. Syed Marghub Murshed, former secretary and chairperson of ESDO recommended that the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC) should take initiatives to change the education curriculum. BDS President Prof Abul Kashem said: “It is our duty and responsibility to protect the public from mercury pollution.” BDS Secretary General Dr Humayun Kabir Bulbul, ESDO Executive Director Siddika Sultana and World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry Executive Vice President Dr Shahriar Hossain also attended the meeting.•
News 5 FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2017 Time for Bangladesh media to focus fully on climate change • Abu Siddique As a low lying delta, Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to climate change where the effects can already be felt with increased droughts or more erratic storms – threatening to undermine decades of development gains, reports the UN. Experts at a discussion yesterday said although there had been quite a few reports on the issue, there seemed to be a lack of indepth long-term reporting that would help policymakers with appropriate adaptation measures. The discussion, styled “Climate in the media: Experience Sharing” was organsied by BBC Media Action and moderated by Country Director of BBC Media Action Richard Lace, brought together climate change experts and the media in a bid to further build awareness of the effects of global warming in Bangladesh. Dr Saleemul Huq, director of International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), spoke about the local media’s coverage on climate change, saying: “The Bangladeshi media has been giving the issue priority to some extent but it needs to be more in-depth.” Citing the example of media presence and coverage during the Conference of Parties 21 held in Paris, he said: “A good number of media had sent their reporters Plot to kill Joy: Submit probe report on Feb 9 • Md Sanaul Islam Tipu Dr Saleemul Huq, director of ICCCAD on the stage yesterday speaking at Inspiring Risilience conference with Dhaka Tribune Editor Zafar Sobhan and BBC Media Action Country Director Richard Lace MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU A Dhaka court fixed February 9 for submission of probe report in a case filed on charges of alleged attempts to abduct and murder Prime Minister’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy. Metropolitan Magistrate Md Sazzadur Rahman fixed the new date as police failed to submit the probe report before the court on Thursday, the scheduled date for the report. Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman’s counsel Md Joynul Abedin Mezbah filed a time petition before the court mentioning that he could not appear due to illness while Journalist Shafik Rehman was present. According to the case statement, Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sangstha (JASAS) vice-president Mohammad Ullah Mamun along with some top leaders of BNP and its allies met at different places in Bangladesh, including JASAS office, BNP office and the USA before September 2011 and conspired to abduct and kill Joy. On August 3, 2015, DB inspector Fazlur Rahman filed a case with Paltan police station against Mohammad Ullah Mamun, vice-president of JASAS, for his alleged involvement in a ‘conspiracy to abduct and kill Joy’. • there to write for the Bangladeshi readers, which indicates a high level of interest in the issue among the Bangladeshi people. “But very few of them, especially the print media, cover the issue throughout the year failing to dig out the more deeper issues. Most of them, especially the visual media, only give importance on the climate related events without further in-depth coverage of what is causing those weather events.” Dhaka Tribune Editor Zafar Sobhan also spoke at the discussion and reaffirmed the paper’s commitment to reporting climate change related news. He said: “Instead of avoiding the apparently dull and dry issues like climate change, we try to treat the issue as one of the core reporting areas of our paper as Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable nations to the negative impacts of climate change.” According to the fifth assessment report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Bangladesh has been identified as being at a specific risk from climate change due to its exposure to sea-level rise and extreme events like salinity intrusion, drought, erratic rainfall and tidal surge hampering food security and livelihood. Dhaka Tribune is currently publishing a weekly supplement page on climate change which is to become a monthly eight-page supplement with the support of the ICCCAD.• Benazir: Polarisation over militancy unacceptable • Arifur Rahman Rabbi DT Terming militancy a global problem, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Director General Benazir Ahmed yesterday said none would be allowed to use Bangladesh for militancy. “Political polarisation in this regard is not acceptable, nor is patronisation” he added. The RAB DG said these while addressing a solo photo exhibition of Ali Hossain Mintu, a photojournalist of the daily New Age, at Shilpakola Academy in Dhaka. He also warned that if anyone found to be involved in militancy will be arrested regardless of the person being a local or a foreigner. Asked about JMB’s capacity to launch a bigger terror attack, Benazir said: “The fact that there were conflicts between JMB and the New JBM over leadership and ideals surfaced in 2012. Later, New JMB, joined by a faction of JMB, started appearing with their militant activities in 2015.” They are now largely disintegrated thanks to the continuous drives by law enforcers. They do not have the capacity to launch such attacks, the DG said, adding: “However, we have no scope to be complacent as militancy is an ongoing phenomenon.” he also said a list of New JMB members was in progress. • PM’S FLIGHT GLITCH Court fixes Feb 19 for police report • Md Sanaul Islam Tipu A Dhaka court has given Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) until February 19 to file a report on the technical glitch that forced a flight carrying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to make an emergency landing en route to Hungary in November last year. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Golam Nabi fixed a new date on Thursday as DMP’s Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit Inspector Mahbubul Alam failed to submit the report as requested, and sought more time. On November 23 last year, the Boeing 777-300 ER was carrying the prime minister and delegation to a UN Water Summit in Budapest when it was required to make an emergency landing at Ashgabat International Airport in Turkmenistan. A technical glitch caused the fuel pressure of the aircraft to fall as it was flying over the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan border. The aircraft – inaugurated in March 2014 – was carrying 99 passengers including the premier, and four cockpit crews, 20 cabin crews and four aircraft engineers and was able to land safely Ashgabat airport for inspection and repairs. Three probe reports submitted to the government found human negligence caused the technical problem. The prime minister approved the filing of the case on December 19 after receiving the investigation reports filed by Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) and Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry. Biman Director (engineering and management) MAM Asaduzzaman filed a case on December 20 under the Special Powers Act with Airport police, accusing nine of its engineers who had been suspended based on preliminary findings. So far, 11 people have been arrested over the incident. Seven of them were sent to jail and four others are on remand. Two were produced before the court yesterday and have been sent to jail as well. • TEMPERATURE FORECAST FOR TODAY Dhaka 25 9 Chittagong 23 11 Rajshahi 22 6 Rangpur 22 5 Khulna 23 8 Barisal 25 10 Sylhet 24 7 Cox’s Bazar 24 14 DRY WEATHER FRIDAY, JANUARY 13 DHAKA TODAY TOMORROW SUN SETS 5:31PM SUN RISES 6:43AM YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW 27.6ºC 7.9ºC Chandpur Srimangal Source: Accuweather/UNB PRAYER TIMES Fajr: 6:05am | Zohr: 1:15pm Asr: 4:15pm | Magrib: 5:40pm Esha: 7:30pm Source: Islamic Foundation
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