15-09-2021

Wednesday, Dhaka: September 15, 2021; Bhadra 31, 1428 BS; Safar 7, 1443 Hijri
New police recruitment
policy focuses on merit
and physique:IGP
DHAKA : Bangladesh police force will hire
only qualified people with merit and good
physique as constables under a new
recruitment policy, the country's police
chief said on Tuesday, reports UNB.
The new policy has been formulated after
reviewing the policies in the neighbouring
countries and also of many developed
nations, said Inspector General of Police
Benazir Ahmed wrapping up a three-day
crime review meeting at the Hall of Integrity
at the Police Headquarters here.
Police constables are being appointed
under the new policy, he said adding subinspectors
and sergeants will soon be
recruited under its provision, the IGP said.
He said that "Under the clear direction
of the Hon'ble Prime Minister, we are
committed to building a corruption-free
police force for the welfare of the country
and the people."
Sounding a warning against use of drugs
Benazir said that strict action will be taken
against any police member if found
involved in drug consumption, drug
traders or drug trading.
DHAKA : Three more dengue patients
died and 288 others were hospitalised in
24 hours till Tuesday morning, said the
Directorate General of Health Services
(DGHS), reports UNB.
With the latest figure, the number of
fatalities from the mosquito-borne disease
rose to 57. Among the new patients, 232
were undergoing hospital treatment in
Dhaka while the remaining 56 cases were
reported from outside the division,
according to DGHS.
Some 1,256 patients diagnosed with
dengue fever are receiving treatment in
the country as of Tuesday morning.
Of them, 1,067 patients are receiving
treatment at different hospitals in the capital
while the remaining 189 were listed
outside Dhaka. Among the deceased, 53
"As a member of the police, nothing can
be done that harms the police force, harms
the country, harms the people of the country,"
he said.
He asked the senior police officials not to
compromise on maintaining the discipline
of the forces. "If any police member breaks
the discipline, exemplary strict action has
to be taken against him/her. We are also
trying our best to ensure their (police
members) welfare. He called for a change
in the police behaviour with ordinary people
and asked police members to refrain
from inhumane treatment of people.
Mentioning the main responsibility of
the police to investigate the case, the IGP
said that the quality of case investigation
has to be further enhanced. He directed
the field level officials to be very attentive
to the investigation and increase supervision.
The IGP asked the police officers to
bring pride in their service.
"For this we have to bring about mentality
and psychological change. We have to
have love for the job and then we will be
able to move forward," he said.
288 more dengue patients
detected in a day; 3 more die
died in Dhaka city alone, two in
Chattogram division, one in Khulna and
one in Rajshahi.
Some 14,509 patients have been admitted
to different hospitals with dengue
since January. So far, 13,196 dengue
patients have left hospitals after recovery,
said the DGHS.
The number of dengue patients hospitalized
in a single day was the highest with
343 patients on September 7.
In the month of August the country
recorded the highest number of 7,698
dengue cases of the current year. In July,
2,286 people were diagnosed with dengue
and 12 died while in June 272 cases were
recorded with no deaths. Health authorities
have been recording over 200 dengue
cases per day since August 1.
Foreign currencies worth Tk 12.51
crore seized at Dhaka airport
DHAKA : Members of Aviation
Security Force of Hazrat Shahjalal
International Airport on Monday
seized huge amount of foreign currencies
including 54.75 lakh Saudi riyals
and 20,200 Singapore dollars worth
Tk 12.51 crore from a carton at the
airport, reports UNB.
Group Captain AHM Touhid-ul-
Ahsan, executive director of the airport,
said the carton of a courier service
named 'Star Express Line' was
scheduled to go to Singapore from
Export cargo village of the airport.
Suspecting something wrong, a
member of the Aviation Security
Force checked the carton and found
the foreign currencies.
However, no one was arrested in
this connection.
CJ Sinha case
Judgment
on Oct 5
DHAKA : A Dhaka court on Tuesday
fixed October 5 for delivering its judgment
in a graft case filed against former
chief justice Surendra Kumar
Sinha and 10 others over laundering
Tk 4 crore, reports UNB.
Dhaka Special Judge Court-4 Sheikh
Nazmul Alam fixed the date after concluding
law point arguments from both
the state and the defence counsel.
Earlier, on August 29, seven of the
11 accused in the case defended themselves
as innocent, and hoped they
will get justice.
They are Mahbubul Haque Chisty,
former audit committee chairman of
Farmers Bank, former managing director
of the bank AKM Shamim, first vice
president Swapan Kumar Rat, VP Md
Lutful Haque, former SEVP Gazi
Salahudiin, Md Shahjahan and
Niranjan Chandra Saha.
On August 24, the defence lawyers
questioned the investigation officer of
the case Benazir Ahmed, director of the
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
So far, the court has recorded the
statements of 21 witnesses in this case.
On July 10, 2019, the ACC filed the
case accusing former chief justice SK
Sinha and 10 others of accumulating
illegal wealth and laundering Tk 4 crore.
On September 25, 2019, the antigraft
body summoned five officials of
the Farmers Bank Ltd for interrogation
over the deposit of Tk 4 crore in
SK Sinha's account with the Supreme
Court branch of Sonali Bank Ltd.
Bangladesh reports
35 Covid deaths,
lowest in 3 months
TBT RepoRT
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues
to ease, Bangladesh logged 35 more
deaths in 24 hours till Tuesday morning,
which is the lowest in around
three months. The country last saw 36
Covid deaths on June 9 this year.
Besides, the virus infected 2,074
more people during the 24-hour period,
detected after testing 31,724 samples,
said the Directorate General of
Health Services (DGHS).
The fresh numbers pushed the
country's Covid death tally to 27,007
while the caseload mounted to
1,534,440. The daily case positivity
rate dropped to 6.54% from Monday's
7.69%, said the DGHS.
Meanwhile, the case fatality rate
remained unchanged at 1.76 per cent
compared to the corresponding period.
The recovery rate slightly increased to
96.89% with the recovery of 3.735 more
patients, during the period.
The country has been seeing 49
deaths and 2,172 cases on average for
the last seven days. This indicates that
the pandemic in Bangladesh is easing
after the highest-ever 264 coronavirusrelated
deaths in August and 16,230
single-day cases in July this year.
BNP always looks for
back door:Hasan
DHAKA : Information and Broadcasting
Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Tuesday
said BNP's aim is not to join elections, in
fact their (BNP) intentions are to do
something from back door by creating
instability in the country.
"BNP was born through back door. And
for this, they always search for back door,"
he told newsmen at Awami League president
political office in city's Dhanmondi.
The minister said BNP had tried to foil
the 2014's elections. Even, they torched
about 500 voting centers and killed people
including polling officers, he added.
Hasan said they (BNP), at first, boycotted
the elections of 2018. But, later,
they joined the polls (2018), he added.
Replying to a query on investigations
into bank accounts of 11 journalists'
leaders, the minister said, "I saw the
news in the media. The government can
seek it. But, I will look into the matter
why it was done."
Replying to another query about the
cancellation of the declaration of 10 daily
newspapers, he said about 400 newspapers
are not published regularly. Many of
those (newspapers) were not submitted
to the Department of Films and
Publications (DFP) during the last two
years, said Hasan, also Awami League
joint general secretary.
He said many newspapers were published
when they got ads. The concerned
authorities have published only a few
copies and they distributed those at the
information ministry and some other
important ministries, he added.
Earlier, the minister virtually joined a
discussion organised by the Indian High
Commission to Dhaka in the memory of
Master Da Surya Sen and Pritilata
Waddedar.
Paying rich tribute to Master Da Surya
Sen, Pritilata Waddedar and others associates,
Hasan said their patriotism
encouraged him from his childhood.
Asaduzzaman Noor, MP, eminent
writer Selina Hossain, Chattogram
University Vice Chancellor Professor Dr
Shirin Akther, film producer Pradip
Ghose and Youth Opportunity co-founder
Dr Osama Bin Nur, among others, took
part in the discussion with Indian High
Commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram
Doraiswami in the chair.
BNP's unabated falsehood
reflects its fascist
mentality: Quader
DHAKA : Awami League General
Secretary and Road Transport and
Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday
said BNP's unabated falsehood is
part of their fascist mentality, reports
BSS.
"During BNP's government tenure,
they had practiced fascism," he told a
press briefing at his official residence
here. Quader called upon BNP to see
their own faces in the looking glass
before calling the Awami League government
a fascist one.
"If you see your own face in the mirror,
you can find you are inheriting fascism
and fascist mentalist lies in you," he said.
About BNP leaders' comment that the
government is lunching repression and
torture to hide its failure, the minister
said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's
government doesn't believe in repression
and torture rather it always welcomes
constructive criticism.
BNP is such a political party which
didn't see a single success or achievement
of the government in the last 13
years and saw only so-called failures, he
said. The AL general secretary said BNP
doesn't witness different development
works across the country including
Padma bridge, metro-rail, elevated
expressway, Karnaphuli tunnel, Bus
Rapid Transit (BRT), 22 flyovers and
around 20 underpasses.
Actually BNP feels increasing jealousy
by witnessing these development works,
he said. Quader said today the country
has been brought under cent percent
electricity coverage which is also one of
reasons of BNP's jealousy.
He said BNP cannot tolerate the country's
unprecedented progress as
Bangladesh's per capita income now
reached $2227.
Autumn
means the fair
of white clouds
in the blue sky.
The photo was
taken from
Raghunathpur
in Ballamjhar
union of
Gaibandha
Sadar upazila
on Tuesday.
photo: pBA
BB freezes journo
Sohel’s bank
account, passport
blocked
TBT RepoRT
Bangladesh Bank (BB) has frozen the
bank accounts of journalist Mizanur
Rahman Sohel over-involvement with
an online air ticketing platform. The special
branch of police also blocked his
passport at immigration.
Earlier on August 12, Bangladesh
Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU)
directed all commercial banks to freeze
the transaction aligned with the national
identity of Mizanur Rahman Sohel;
sources confirmed the matter. It is
learnt, Sohel owns 20 percent share of
an online air ticketing platform 24 TKT,
which stopped operations amid dues to
customers recently. Earlier in last year,
the 24 TKT chief executive officer
Pradyut Baran Chowdhury left the country,
resigning from the post.
In May this year, there was an allegation
of embezzling money against the
chairperson Nasrin Sultana, managing
director Abdur Razzak and finance
director Asadul Islam who belong to the
same family.
However, Sohel further claimed that
he was not involved in any decisionmaking
of the company. After pilling up
the allegations, Sohel tried to reach the
company directors over the phone and
email but failed to get any response.
Sohel filed a general diary with Kafrul
police station in the capital on May 19
and forwarded the case to court on June
1 after serving legal notice on May 24.
The case is now under Police Bureau
of Investigation. During this time, an
agent filed a case against five directors.
Meanwhile, Sohel, the fifth accused of
the case, is now on bail.
However, Sohel surprised at the freezing
of his bank account and passport. In
reply to a query on Sunday, journalist
Mizanur Rahman Sohel said there is no
reason behind the freezing of bank
account and passport.
"Since mid of last month (August), I
experienced that the debit and credit
cards didn't work with transaction
machine. I tried to communicate with
banks a couple of times; however, they
didn't give any information. My passport
was also frozen so far, I know," he added.
Regarding the issue, requesting not to
be named, an official of criminal investigation
department said that there was
run primary investigation and the
authorities will take action after the
investigative report. "To keep the accused
inside the country, the authorities con-
In the capital's Jatrabari Kajla area on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, indifference of Dhaka City
Corporation (South) has created a garbage dump. This is disrupting the movement of vehicles and
polluting the local environment.
photo: pBA
Survey vessel finds 457 sea creatures
in Bay of Bengal: Minister
DHAKA : The research and survey vessel,
'RV Meen Sandhani', has so far
detected 457 species of marine fish and
animals in the Bay of Bengal since
2016, said Fisheries and Livestock
Minister SM Rezaul Karim in
Parliament on Tuesday, reports UNB.
The survey ship is cruising since
2016-2017 to assess the stock of marine
resources and conduct researches and
surveys. It has so far conducted 31 surveying
cruises, he said replying to a
tabled question from Awami League
MP M Abdul Latif (Chattogram-11).
"A total of 457 species of fish and animals
were detected through the surveys,"
said the Minister.
Of these, 373 marine species are of
fishes, 24 shrimps, 21 sharks and rays,
21 crabs, 5 cuttlefishes, 5 squids, 4 octopuses,
3 lobsters and 1 squilla.
The survey vessel, equipped with the
latest technology of fisheries and other
oceanographic research, was procured
from Malaysia in 2016 after
Bangladesh got a vast sea area through
the disposal of longstanding disputes
with the two neighbouring countries -
India and Myanmar.
Besides, the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) and Institute of
Marine Research (IMR) conducted a
15-day acoustic survey cruise in the Bay
of Bengal by the latest marine research
vessel 'RV Dr Fridtjof Nansen' in
August 2018. Per capita fish consumption
is 62.58 gram a day:
In reply to another question from ruling
party lawmaker Shahiduzzaman
Sarker (Naogaon-2), the minister said
per capita fish consumption in
Bangladesh is 62.58 gram a day.