Wrong questions papers were distributed among the examinees in three districts on Wednesday, the first day of Secondary School Certificate examinations.
Though the test-takers were supplied with the correct ones in Habiganj one hour into the exams, more than 150 students at two centres in Rangpur and Barguna had to take the tests on the faulty question papers.
SSC and equivalent exams began across the country with 1,420,057 students sitting the school-leaving tests at 2,464 centres.
Rangpur correspondent said students taking Bangla first paper exams at Rangpur Zilla School centre under Dinajpur education board found that they were given question papers for last year's exams.
Some students said when they brought the matter to the duty teachers' notice and asked for correct question papers, the request went heeded.
Around 50 students from Police Lines School and College sat the tests at the Zilla School centre. There was a chaos after the exams were over when guardians came to know of the matter. Some students broke into tears before journalists.
Police Lines School and College principal Jalaluddin Akbar termed the incident a plot to damage the life of the students. He demanded immediate remedy of the mistake.
Salam Miah, a guardian, asked: "What will happen to my son, what is his future?"
"I heard they will give everyone the pass marks. But how can he get admitted to higher classes with so poor marks?"
Rangpur Zilla School headmaster Md Mizanur Rahman said the mistake happened in only two rooms. "It happened due to negligence of the people responsible."
He said the board's controller of examinations has been informed of the incident. "But he could not tell us what needs be done."
The students and guardians demanded that the Zilla School headmaster be punished and the Bangla test retaken.
According to Habiganj correspondent , last year's question papers were distributed among the examinees at Bamoi High School centre at Lakhai Upazila under Sylhet education board.
Correct questions papers were given after 45 minutes when the students brought the matter to the invigilator's attention. The students were given 45 minutes extra time to make up for the lost time.
Lakhai Upazila executive officer Mahbubur Rahman told journalists that he informed Sylhet board chairman and deputy commissioner of the district of the matter.
's Barguna correspondent said 86 casual students (of 2009-10) session were given question papers of the year 2002 at K M Secondary School in Patharghata Upazila though they were supposed to take the test on question papers for 2011.
Centre secretary and K M Secondary School headmaster Mustafizur Rahman admitted the mistake in question paper distribution. He said the Barisal board authorities were informed of the mistake.
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The Election Commission (EC) will get the fullest cooperation of the government when it uses electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the next general elections, the prime minister told parliament on Wednesday.
"The people have gladly accepted the new voting system (using EVM)," Sheikh Hasina said, in reply to a supplementary question from Sylhet-3 MP Mahmud Us Samad Chowdhury during her question session.
Appreciating the EC's initiative to use EVM in the modern voting management, she said, "EVM is a modern example in making the elections easy and transparent and in announcing the correct results within a short time.
"There have been instances where the use of EVM has been praised in many developed and developing countries of the world."
Parliament resumed its business at 6:30pm with speaker Abdul Hamid in the chair. The prime minister's question hour ran for more than half an hour at the start of the sitting.
After partial use of EVM in Narayanganj City Corporation and Chittagong City Corporation polls in 2010 and 2011, the EC used EVMs in all the polling centres in the Comilla City Corporation elections.
The Election Commission on several occasions announced that EVMs will be used in the next national elections but opposition BNP has been opposing its use from the beginning.
Two of the nine radical London militants who admitted a plot to detonate a bomb at the London Stock Exchange are Bangladeshi-born.
Their hardline group wanted to send five mail bombs to various targets during the run up to Christmas 2010 and discussed launching a 'Mumbai-style' atrocity, the nine admitted at Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday. They will be sentenced next week.
The British daily The Telegraph says there is a pair of Bangladeshis in the group, Mohammad Chowdhury, 21, and Shah Rahman, 28, from London.
A hit list found on one of the men listed the London mayor Boris Johnson, two rabbis, the American Embassy and the stock exchange.
In Nov 2010, detective police started tracking Mohammad and Rahman.
The group was made of nine - the London duo, three from Cardiff and four from Stoke. Though no firm dates were set and no homemade bombs created, London police said the defendants had the resources to do it.
Police said it had caught them before they could fix a date for their attack.
The four men from Stoke, who are Pakistanis, talked about leaving homemade bombs in the toilets of city pubs and discussed travelling abroad for terror training.
They also discussed how to make a pipe bomb.
The terrorists met each other through various hardcore Islamic groups of which they were members and communicated over the internet, through mobile phones and at meetings in parks to avoid the police eyes.
Chowdhury, and Rahman admitted planning to plant an improvised explosive device (IED) in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange.
Kolkata Book Fair cancelled the release of Taslima Nasreen's latest book, Nirbashan, which was scheduled at 3 pm Tuesday.
The organisers of the fair, Publishers and Booksellers Guild, telephoned the publisher to cancel the auditorium booking, The Times of India said.
"We were told that since the Kolkata Literary Meet ended late last night, the hall could not be prepared for our programme. But unofficially we have been told that since the book is Taslima's, and she is a banned author, it was blacked out," said Shibani Mukherjee, the publisher.
The book was, however, released at the stall a little while later by the publisher, ignoring the "insult meted out to us by the Guild."
The book was released by author Nabarun Bhattacharya, son of Mahasweta Devi. Among the others present were writer Ranjan Bandopadhyay and human rights activist Sujato Bhadra.
Immediately after the release, a group of activists belonging to the All India Minority Forum marched to the spot and started protesting against the release. A heated altercation took place between the publishers of the book and the demonstrators.
"Nasrin has written against Islam repeatedly. She is doing this at the insistence of the US. She will not be allowed here. We are upset that her publisher has ceremoniously organised release of her book. Such ceremony has been deliberately organised to insult our community," Abdul Aziz, a spokesperson for the forum, was quoted as saying by the paper.
The Guild clarified its stand in the evening by saying that it had taken the decision to cancel the release firstly because the hall was not ready and also because the release might have affected security of the thousands of visitors at the fair, The Times of India added.
The month-long Amar Ekushey Book Fair – the venue of which is a get-together of Bengalis, kicked off at the Bangla Academy premises on Wednesday.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the fair at around 4pm. The fair was opened to the public right after the prime minister's inaugural speech.
Eminent contemporary Bengali fiction writer and playwright Humayun Ahmed, who is undergoing treatment got colon cancer in New York, had his novel 'Megher Upor Bari' published on the first day of the fair.
Visitors in numbers, mostly young, started to crowd Dhaka University's TSC area, Suhrawardy Udyan and Doyel Chattar hours before the fair started.
"I am very disheartened that I will not be able to have Humayun Ahmed's autograph this year during the fair," one of the visitors, school student Imrul Hossain told .
"He should (if he can) come to the fair for at least one day," the fan added.
Dhaka University student Sadia Hasan Mim said February was the best time to get close to the writers.
"Everything changes with the arrival of February. The book fair influences our every work during the month. And Humayun Ahmed is the centre of attention at the month-long fair.
"I will be waiting for him to join the fair," she added.
Seven of Humayun Ahmed's books will be published in this fair.
'Megher Upor Bari', 'Himu Ebong Harvard PHD', 'Boltu Bhai', 'New Yorker Nil Akashe Jhakjhake Rod', 'Payer tolay Kharam, 'Dewal' and 'Bachai Golpo Rachanabalir 5th edition' have been published by Onno Prokash and Kakoli has published the other book.
Onno Prokash director Abdullah Naser believed that the absence of Humayun Ahmed would not have impact the fair. "Humayun Ahmed would come to the fair three or four times a month if he was staying in the country."
Naser told Ahmed would be present at the fair through his writings.
Foreign minister Dipu Moni hinted on Wednesday that Indian finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will visit Dhaka this month.
She told at the parliament building that the senior Indian minister will be coming 'soon'.
When asked whether the visit may happen this month, she replied, "It is possible."
On what this latest visit of Mukherjee would be about, Moni said, "He is an important minister of India. He is charged with overall development, especially the development of north-east India."
"We will discuss all the issues during his visit."