Saima Hossain Putul, daughter of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, has once again invited global leaders to join her to bring smile to the autistic children and their families.
Reminding the 'responsibilities' of the people who are in 'unique' positions, the US-licensed school psychologist has also shed lights on the plights of families and children challenged by autism.
Putul, the chair of Bangladesh National Advisory Committee on Autism, was speaking at the Fourth Annual World Focus on Autism on Wednesday at The McCarton School in New York amid UN General Assembly.
Autism Speaks, the world's largest autism research and advocacy organisation, brought together first spouses, health ministers and other special guests at the event, which is an ongoing effort to raise global awareness and share best practices for nations, communities and families struggling with 'non-discriminative' autism disorder.
Dignitaries from Albania, Bangladesh, the Ivory Coast, Brazil, Cyprus, Finland, Grenada, Jamaica, Japan, Lesotho, México, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Saint Martin, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the United States, and Turkey heard Putul who also expressed her 'strong desire' to change the perception of mental health and neuro-developmental conditions in Bangladesh.
Ban Soon-taek, wife of the U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, was also present at the event hosted by the Autism Speaks' co-founders, Suzanne and Bob Wright.
Autism is a neuro-developmental disorder that robs one's social and communication skills.
Referring to the first-ever South Asian autism conference in Dhaka on July 25, Putul said launching of Autism Speak's Global Autism Public Health Initiative (GAPH) in Bangladesh was 'very well received'.
"Briefly, we formed the South Asia Autism Network (SAAN) and unanimously ratified the Dhaka Declaration on autism spectrum disorders."
Putul was the chief architect of the mega conference that brought together regional leaders including India's Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi.
She made appeal to all at the conference to join her in 'cooperation, collaboration and partnership' to bring smile to the autistic children.
After the conference, she had told bdnews24.com in an exclusive interview the conference was a 'biggest boost' for those working with disability and they garnered support from regional political leaders, experts and international institutions to generate greater awareness of autism.
During Wednesday's speech, she looked forward to many more opportunities for Bangladesh to partner with Autism Speaks to 'fully address the global public health crisis of autism.'
She said she always had a 'very strong' desire to change public perception of disability in Bangladesh, 'having had the opportunity to study psychology in the US and maintain close ties to my country.'
Portraying horrendous experiences of the autistic kids and their families, she said: "The lack of understanding, condemnation and personal guilt that parents with autism are made to experience, sometimes even by their own extended family members, deeply saddens and appals me.
"These misconceptions have to be changed.
"And everyone one of you here today are in a special position to make that change in your country.
"It is only by working together that we become more empowered and achieve great success."
Putul stressed building working partnerships between organisations and political leaders both within the country as well as regionally and internationally.
Building partnerships, Putul hoped can meet 'the daily challenges of those with fewer opportunities to become productive and independent members of society with the dignity and opportunities for a better life like the rest of us.'
The McCarton School provides an educational programme for children with autism by using an integrated one-to-one model of therapy grounded in Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) combined with speech and language therapy, motor skills training and peer interaction.
South Korea is going to set up a $12 million nursing college in the capital, Dhaka, to help Bangladesh make skilled nurses.
Korean ambassador to Dhaka Taiyoung Cho said on Monday that they are building the college at prime minister Sheikh Hasina's request.
"We will begin the process (of building nursing college) this year," he said at a knowledge-sharing seminar co-organised by KOICA-Bangladesh Alumni Association and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in the capital.
The ambassador said two female professors of the University of Korea and one 'very senior' nurse of his country had been in Dhaka for the project.
"They are highly qualified and trained from United States and dedicated to help Korea in making nurses.Now they will help Bangladesh," he said, adding they were here to build the college with their expertise.
Later, the ambassador told bdnews24.com that they would expedite the process of setting up the college.
"We hope to complete it by 2013. It may take some more time. But of course it would be completed by 2014."
"The college would be set up in the capital. It's a $12 million project.
"It will be a post-graduate institute for nurses," he said, adding, the college would create trainers for training in the country.
Dr Khaled Shamsul Islam, health ministry's National Focal Point for Human Resources Development welcomed the move.
He told that the government was trying to narrow down the huge gap in the doctor-nurse ratio.
"Currently, the doctor-nurse ratio is 1:0.48. But it should be 1:3 for Bangladesh, according to WHO," he said.
Bangladesh has nearly 28,000 nurses available in the country, 17,605 of whom are in the government job. An additional 3,000 are in overseas jobs, Dr Islam said.
According to him, six new nursing colleges are on the cards while the government will turn 15 nursing training institutes into nursing colleges 'soon'.
There are 43 nursing training institutes and eight nursing colleges in the country, he said.
Police have detained five Jamaat-e-Islami leaders from Chittagong, Chandpur, Kishoreganj, Barguna and Chuadanga districts on charges of involvement in destructive activities, including secret processions of the party and its student wing and programmes demanding release of senior leaders accused of war crimes.
The bdnews24.com Chittagong bureau of reported that the police have arrested Jan-e-Alam, Jamaat chief of Patenga area of the port city in the early hours of Monday from his residence in the area.
"Jan-e-Alam is not included in any first information report (FIR). But, he was arrested on suspicion of having ties to the Sep 19 clash between police and Jamaat activists at the port city," Panchlaish police chief Ismail Hossain said.
Jan-e-Alam has been taken to Panchlaish police station after his arrest and will be sent to court following questioning.
Meanwhile, Chandpur district Jamaat general secretary Abdur Rahim, also the principal of a Madrasah in Sadar Upazila, was detained from his residence at Madrasah Road in the district headquarters on Sunday night for questioning, bdnews24.com Chandpur correspondent reported.
Sadar police assistant sub inspector Rezaul Karim told bdnews24.com: "The detained is involved in trying to create anarchy in a bid to press for the release of war criminals. Process is ongoing to take legal steps against him."
Our Kishoreganj correspondent said that the district's Jamaat general secretary Mohammad Ramjan Ali, also the principal of the teachers training college, was arrested from his residence at Nogua area of the district headquarters by the Kishoreganj Model police. The police also raided residences of other leaders of the party but could not find them.
"Ramjan Ali was shown arrested in a case filed at Kishoreganj police station for the attack on police from a Jamaat procession on July 5 in support of a hartal," Kishoreganj police chief Mir Mosharraf Hossain said.
Police arrested seven activists of the Islamist party's student wing Chhatra Shibir in the case on Sep 20. The court permitted their release on bail on Sunday.
At Barguna, Patharghata police arrested the municipality Jamaat general secretary Bazlur Rahman on Sunday night from his residence at Iman Ali road, bdnews24.com Barguna correspondent reported.
"We raided residences of Barguna district Jamaat chief Abu Jafar Mohammad Saleh, Patharghata Upazila chief Abdul Kader, and Kathaltoli Union chief Jafar Sadeq and other upazila level leaders. But we could not find them at home," Patharghata police chief Ujjal Kumar Dey told bdnews24.com.
The Chudanga correspondent of bdnews24.com reported that Alamdanga police arrested Alamdanga Upazila former Jamaat chief Omar Faruk from his residence in Babupara area of the town while he was holding a meeting in the early hours of Monday.
Alamdanga police chief Motiar Rahman told bdnews24.com: "We raided his residence based on a tip off that Faruk was meeting with party activists to plan anarchy. His son, a member of Islamic University Chhatra Shibir was also there. He and his friends fled when they learnt of the raid."
Jamaat district chief Anowarul Haq Malik said, "Omar Faruk took responsibility as Alamdanga chief in 2004. He let go of his Jamaat membership in 2008."
On Sep 19, violent clashes took place between Jamaat-e-Islami activists and the police at Dhaka and Chittagong. The police detained three central leaders, including party's acting secretary general A T M Azharul Islam and publicity secretary Tasneem Alam, immediately after the incident. Following raids in various parts of the country have led to the arrest of hundreds of Jamaat-e-Islami activists.
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has decided to join all anti-government movements of opposition BNP.
President Oli Ahmed, who is now in the US, in a statement Monday night directed the leaders and activists of his party to attend Tuesday rally of Khaleda Zia.
In the statement, signed by party joint-secretary general Shahadat Hossain Selim, Oli said from Tuesday, LDP will join all the anti-government programmes announced by the BNP chairperson.
BNP is scheduled to hold a rally the road in front of its Naya Paltan headquarters in the city where Khaleda is set to spell out fresh agitation programmes for realising its demands including restoration of caretaker government system for holding general elections.
Oli said: "The people want freedom from the misrule. There is no rule of law in the country."
BNP has recently initiated a move to bring like-minded political parties together for launching a movement especially for reinstating the caretaker government system.
Oli, a founding member of BNP, left the party along with 13 other BNP lawmakers and floated LDP on Oct 26 in 2006, a day before the then BNP government completed its tenure. He blamed the BNP leadership for corruption and misrule.
LDP later sided with the Awami League but contested the general elections separately and won one parliamentary seat.
Power has been partly restored at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) following six hours of outage. Authorities are hopeful that it will be restored fully within another hour.
Medical services at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) were seriously hampered because of power outage since Tuesday dawn.
But some activities were carried out at the intensive and critical care units using alternative methods.
"Power has been restored at five of the six blocks in the hospital around 12pm," the hospital's director Abdul Majid Bhuiyan said.
He added, "There is still no supply at D-block. We are hopeful that the supply will be restored by 1pm."
Doctors said that the treatment facility for outdoor patients was closed for the power outage. Surgeries were also halted.
Specialist doctors were unable to visit various departments at the top floors of the high-rise complex as the lifts were not working.
Even though the authorities initially said that the power outage was caused by a transformer failure, they later said it was caused by damaged wires.
Even though trading at Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) began initially with a rise, the general index started falling slowly after a series of rapid fluctuations.
After three hours of trading on Tuesday, the premier bourse's general index shed 51.87 points to stand at 5939.5. Shares worth a total of Tk 33.55 billion have been traded by then with the prices of most shares falling.
Of the traded issues, prices of 218 fell, 31 rose and five remained unchanged.
The war crimes tribunal will decide on whether to frame charges against Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee on Oct 3.
The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) adjourned proceedings on Tuesday after the defence and prosecution had concluded their arguments for indicting the Jamaat's executive council member.
The defence reiterated its position that the charges against Sayedee were vague.
Counsel Tajul Islam arguing on behalf of Sayedee said that the prosecution had failed to show his client's modes of responsibility, or specific location of his crimes.
He also said that the prosecution's charges did not illustrate the purpose and intent of Sayedee's crimes, nor were there sufficient elements to substantiate the cases as crimes against humanity.
Syed Haider Ali arguing for the prosecution said that the charges were, on the contrary, quite concrete.
He accepted that there were some 'gaps' as regards the dates.
"But there are other documentary evidences to substantiate the chrages."
He said that the crimes committed almost 40 years ago did not remain fresh in people's memory.
"It is natural that there would be confusion over the exact date of the occurrences. But these gaps will be satisfactorily addressed by testimonies and other documents."
Haider Ali said that he believed there was sufficient evidence and that charges concrete enough for the indictment.
"I think the tribunal will have no problem in framing charges."
Tajul Islam argued that the tribunal could not assume the role of the prosecution and that the charges must be formed by the prosecution.
"It is on the basis of those charges that the court may decide on charge-framing."
The defence counsel also brought up the matter of investigation report, which would determine charge-framing to a large extent.
"Where is that investigation report?" Tajul asked, saying the defence had no such report.
He pointed out that the defence had the right to get all documents related to the trial.
The tribunal responded, "It is a report, not a document."
Tajul reacted, "But that is unheard of! How can you have a trial with the defence completely in the dark?"
The prosecution had on September 4 proposed framing charges against Sayedee on 31 counts of crimes against humanity and genocide in ICT Case-1/2011.
Sayedee's case is the first ever proceeding for indictment in war crimes involving the war.
Tajul concluded his arguments stating that the charges were not sufficient to proceed and as such should be dismissed and his client be discharged.
He also stated that the laws were insufficient to proceed with the case.
The tribunal of Justice Nizamul Haque, Justice ATM Fazle Kabir and Judge AKM Zahirul Ahmed adjourned the hearing until Oct 3.
Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and assistant secretaries general Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla are behind bars on war crimes charges.
BNP policy maker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, also an MP, has also been detained on similar charges that include murder, rape, arson, extermination, abduction and genocide.
However, the tribunal, had granted bail to another BNP man, Abdul Alim, on March 31 on certain conditions.