Author: Sumon Admin

Fake FF certificates of 31 more officials cancelled The liberation war affairs ministry has cancelled the fake provisional freedom fighter certificates of another 31 government officials as well as the gazette notifications about their freedom fighter status. The ministry issued a notification in this regard today, saying the provisional freedom fighter certificates and the gazette notifications of 29 out of the 31 government officials have been cancelled upon recommendation by the National Security Intelligence (NSI) based on their field investigations. The provisional freedom fighter certificates and gazette notifications of two other government officials were cancelled following the recommendations by the liberation war affairs minister and that of a deputy commissioner separately...

Health insurance for all by 2032? Govt embarks on ambitious 20-year scheme; financial details not clear yet Porimol Palma: In a major move to reform the country's health sector, the government has taken up an ambitious plan to bring all citizens under national health insurance coverage by 2032. The plan envisages quality healthcare for all without financial hardship to any, say officials of the Health Economics Unit (HEU) of the health and family welfare ministry. “The first target will be people below the poverty line, some 48 million now. The government will pay their premiums as subsidy,” HEU Director General Ashadul Islam has said. For this programme, the HEU has designed the Healthcare Finance Strategy 2012-2032. And the government is now drafting a law. However, the government...

Unique protest by adivasis News Desk: Indigenous people performing at the Central Shaheed Minar yesterday in observance of International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. Bangladesh Adivasi Forum organised the event where almost every banner and festoon had the word “adivasi” on it. "Shame on the state that turned me into a Bangalee! Shame on the state that called me tribal and what not! I say I am Munda, Santal, Lusai, Murong, Khiyang, Chakma, Mandi, Hajong, Marma, Tripura. I am Adivasi [indigenous]." The above is an extract from the Bangla song with which the celebration of International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, organised by Bangladesh Adivasi Forum, kicked off at the Central Shaheed Minar in the capital yesterday. First declared by the United Nations General Ass...

Hasina slams developed nations for their silence News Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressing a function at Osmani Memorial Auditorium marking the 84th birth anniversary of Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib, the wife of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was killed along with most of her family members, including Bangabandhu, on the fateful night of August 15, 1975. Strongly condemning the killings in Gaza by Israelis, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday came down heavily again on the developed nations and the human rights organisations at home and abroad for their silence over the offensive. “I’ve got stunned seeing the world conscience to remain silent. When one incident of death occurs here (Bangladesh) we receive letters from so many congressmen with pro...

News Desk: At least Seven people were killed and 10 others injured as a bus, microbus and motorbike, coming from three opposite directions, collided head-on in Bahubal upazila of Habiganj this afternoon. All the deceased -- four microbus passengers and two motorbike riders -- died on the spot, reports our Moulvibazar correspondent. The accident took place at Tudli intersection around 4:25pm as the Dhaka-bound passenger bus from Sylhet, Sylhet-bound microbus from Dhaka and the motorbike crashed from triangular directions on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway, Wahidur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Bahubal Police Station, told the correspondent. The killed motorbike riders -- Khokon, 28, and Rokan, 22 of Bahubal upazila, are siblings, the OC said. Identities of other deceased and injured could no...

News Desk: Around 500 Bangladeshis working for different South Korean companies in Libya may return home as their employers have started evacuating workers from the North African country due to intensive clashes between government forces and rebels. Daewoo Engineering and Construction (Daewoo E & C), a South Korean company, has already granted 169 Bangladeshis six months' leave without pay who are now waiting to return home, said Ahsan Kibria Siddique, first secretary of the Bangladesh mission in Tripoli. “The Korean companies have started evacuating their workers from Libya on a temporary basis due to security risks in workplaces,” he said. Bangladeshi workers in Libya are living in fear as the recent spate of clashes between the two forces has intensified. At least five Bangladeshi...

  News Desk: People condemn the Israeli aggression in Gaza, from a human chain organised by the National Human Rights Commission at Central Shaheed Minar in the capital yesterday. National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman Prof Mizanur Rahman yesterday accused the influential countries of encouraging Israel in its atrocities in Gaza. “We find that the big powers raise their voices and issue statements even in a case of trivial human rights violation in Bangladesh. But we are not seeing such statements and worries of those about the ongoing destruction and killing in Gaza," he said. "Rather, sometimes they are encouraging and supporting the killings and destruction by some statements," he told a rally, organised by the commission, at the capital's Central Shaheed Minar. The...

News Desk: This employee of a garment factory of Tuba Group got a call on her phone informing her of her mother-in-law's death yesterday. She had been on hunger strike inside her Badda factory demanding unpaid wages and Eid bonuses. When she came downstairs to leave for home, she found the gates locked. Owners of Tuba Group backed by police confined more than 1,000 agitating workers for hours yesterday in an apparent bid to quell their ongoing protests for full payment of arrears. The nine-hour confinement ends around noon when an unidentified man opened the gate of the building where the workers have been on hunger strike for ten days. But the workers refused to go to the BGMEA office to take partial payments promised earlier. "We went to the BGMEA office several times. But it did not...

Online Report: Many intellectuals were killed by Razakars and Al-Badrs at Rayerbazar killing ground prior to the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. The law minister today rejected a suggestion of holding trial of 1971 war crimes in another country, terming it "unrealistic" and "unreasonable". The lawyers of Jamaat-e-Islami leaders who are facing war crimes charges allegedly made the suggestion during their meeting with US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues Stephen Rapp at a hotel in Dhaka last night. Rapp met Law Minister Anisul Huq at the latter's office at Secretariat this morning. When he came out, reporters raised the issue with the law minister. "It is an unrealistic and unreasonable demand," he said. Talking about the meeting, the minister said Rapp has apparently exp...