BANGLADESH

A three-day festival was underway on Friday to celebrate 175 years of the port city's renowned Chittagong Collegiate School.

Festival committee convenor Amir Humayun Mahmud Chowdhury told  the celebrations began around 3pm with a rally of the present and former students of the school.

"But the school's former student Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will officially inaugurate the programme on Saturday morning," he said.

At least 2,500 former students have already registered to join the festival, he added.

Shahjalal University of Engineering and Technology (SUST) professor and famous novelist Dr Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, former state ministrer Iqbal Mahmud, politicians Mosharraf Hossain, Akhtaruzzaman Chowdhury Babu, M Morshed Khan and Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury are likely to attend the programme, among the former students.

After the rally, 12 present students would be awarded with a scholarship.

The school is scheduled to hold a reception to honour Yunus Saturday morning. The day's later programmes include sharing the memories by the former students and a cultural prohgramme.

The festival will end with a series of programmes that include blood donation camp, discussion and reminiscence in the morning and cultural event Sunday afternoon.

Chittagong Collegiate School, established as Chittagong Government School in 1836, is one of the oldest schools in the country. The school was the first English medium high school in Chittagong.

Famous personalities like poet Nabinchandra Sen, scientist Abdullah Al Moti Sarfuddin, Kolkata City Corporation mayor Deshapriya Jatindra Mohan Sengupta were the school's students.

Celebrated novelist Humayun Ahmed, scientist Jamal Nazrul Islam, former Bangla Academy director general Mustafa Nurul Islam, actors Ataur Rahman and Abul Hayat also went to this school.

A three-day festival was underway on Friday to celebrate 175 years of the port city's renowned Chittagong Collegiate School.

Festival committee convenor Amir Humayun Mahmud Chowdhury told  the celebrations began around 3pm with a rally of the present and former students of the school.

"But the school's former student Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will officially inaugurate the programme on Saturday morning," he said.

At least 2,500 former students have already registered to join the festival, he added.

Shahjalal University of Engineering and Technology (SUST) professor and famous novelist Dr Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, former state ministrer Iqbal Mahmud, politicians Mosharraf Hossain, Akhtaruzzaman Chowdhury Babu, M Morshed Khan and Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury are likely to attend the programme, among the former students.

After the rally, 12 present students would be awarded with a scholarship.

The school is scheduled to hold a reception to honour Yunus Saturday morning. The day's later programmes include sharing the memories by the former students and a cultural prohgramme.

The festival will end with a series of programmes that include blood donation camp, discussion and reminiscence in the morning and cultural event Sunday afternoon.

Chittagong Collegiate School, established as Chittagong Government School in 1836, is one of the oldest schools in the country. The school was the first English medium high school in Chittagong.

Famous personalities like poet Nabinchandra Sen, scientist Abdullah Al Moti Sarfuddin, Kolkata City Corporation mayor Deshapriya Jatindra Mohan Sengupta were the school's students.

Celebrated novelist Humayun Ahmed, scientist Jamal Nazrul Islam, former Bangla Academy director general Mustafa Nurul Islam, actors Ataur Rahman and Abul Hayat also went to this school.

A foreign container ship ran aground on Friday in Chittagong port channel.

Officials, however, said the ship that stuck onto the ground was not hampering shipping movements in the port.

Deputy conservator of the port Captain Nazmul Alam told  that the Panama-flagged Hanjing Samarang ran aground in the middle of No 1 Buoy and No 2 Buoy of the port channel around 1pm.

"The ship came to Chittagong from Port Klang in Malaysia and it ran aground while coming to the port jetty from the outer anchorage," he added.

Port secretary Syed Farhad Uddin said that the ship will be brought to the port jetty at midnight during the high tide.

With the clock ticking for the first ever Textbook Festival scheduled to be held on the New Year's Day, around 10 million copies of textbooks are yet to reach the upazilas.

The government had planned to supply all schools in the country with textbooks by Jan 1. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina will formally inaugurate the Textbook Festival by handing over a set of books to one student of each class up to Class IX under the general, madrasa and technical education boards at Gano Bhaban at 10 am on Dec 29.

However, according to the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB), some 95 percent primary education-level textbooks and 96 percent secondary education level books have so far been supplied by Thursday. Khulna Sadar upazila and the upazilas under Rangpur division were yet to get the deliveries.

NCTB chairman Professor Mostafa Kamaluddin is, however, hopeful that all the remaining upazila headquarters will get textbooks within the stipulated period.

"Textbooks will reach all primary and secondary students on Jan 1, the day Textbook Festival is observed across the country," he said, adding that "some complication" had led to the delay.

The deadline for supplying textbooks in the upazila headquarters was Nov 30, but it was extended to Dec 8 in accordance to the demand of some printing publications. "Despite that, some publications could not supply books in time. Legal action will be taken against those who failed to supply textbooks in time by deferring their bills," Kamaluddin added.

The NCTB chairman said the government would distribute around 221 million textbooks this year free of cost among primary and secondary students.

Though free textbooks are given at primary level every year, the government distributed around 232 million textbooks free of cost among around 32.02 million students of the secondary school level in 2010 for the first time.

A total of 19 printing organisations, including three from India, have printed the textbooks this year through international tender invitation.

The 48-hour transport strike in eight districts of the Rangpur Division has been called off from 6pm Friday after 12 hours.

Vehicular movement on 26 inter-district and local routes resumed after the strike was withdrawn.

The strike was enforced by the Rangpur Divisional Road Transportation Workers' Federation from 6am.

Federation president Akther Hossain Badal told  that the transport strike was called off following discussion with executive president of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers' Federation Shajahan Khan, who is also the shipping minister.

Badal said that the minister assured them of taking legal actions against those responsible for the attack.

Rangpur district superintendent of police Saleh Mohammad Tanvir also confirmed the withdrawal of the strike.

The federation at a meeting on Thursday evening decided to enforce the strike after a clash between two groups of rival transport workers in Rangpur bus terminal area in the afternoon leaving at least 30 injured, including Rangpur Divisional Motor Workers' Association general secretary Abdul Majid.

It enforced the strike in protest at the attack and demanding removal of illegal encroachments from the terminal area.

The strike virtually snapped communication with the rest of the country from Friday morning to evening.

The strike left commuters to suffer. Many students from different districts failed to reach the examination centre Carmichael College to attend the admission test for the National University.

A large number of police were deployed at several key points of the town on Friday morning to avoid any unpleasant situation.

Abdur Razzak, MP, one of the leading organisers of the 1971 Liberation War, died at London hospital at 9:50pm Bangladesh Standard time (BdST) on Friday, an embassy official said.

Rashed Chowdhury, the press minister of the Bangladesh High Commission, told  of his death.

The 69-year-old was on life support for hours,  London correspondent said, contrary to the media reports that he had passed away.

Several news media announced around 6.30pm that the senior leader had died and also cited condolence messages from the president, prime minister and the opposition leader.

However, when contacted, the prime minister's office, Awami League office and opposition leader's office had no reactions.

His long-time political colleague Tofail Ahmed told  at 7pm he had contacted London around 6pm and the life support had not been taken off.

Razzak has long been suffering from liver diseases. Doctors at King's College Hospital were planning to transplant his liver on Dec 11 but later said his kidney needed to be transplanted, too. They had been planning to do both surgeries at a time.

A member of the ruling Awami League advisory council, Razzaq was minister for water resources during the 1996-2001 Hasina government, but failed to secure a Cabinet seat when the party returned to power in 2009.

Instead, he was made the chairman of the parliamentary committee on water resources ministry. He led a 10-strong parliamentary fact-finding mission on Tipaimukh dam project to India in late 2009 and in his report to parliament he said that the Indian government had assured the team that they would not implement any project that would harm Bangladesh.

He became general secretary of the Awami League in the post-1975 difficult days, but later broke away to resurrect BKSAL in the early 1980s when Sheikh Hasina had returned home to take over the reins of the troubled party.

The BKSAL, which he virtually led, merged with the mainstream Awami League in the late 1980s, but Razzaq never got back the coveted position of the general secretary. He was made a member of the policymaking presidium, became a minister when Awami League ended its 21-year wait for state power in 1996.

He was widely believed to be instrumental in making the Indo-Bangla 30-year water sharing treaty happen in 1996.

Razzak was arrested and imprisoned many times by the Ayub Khan government in 1964-65, then from 1967 to 1969 for participating in the Six-Point Movement. After the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, Razzaq was yet again arrested. His last imprisonment came in 1987 during H M Ershad's autocratic regime.