Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today reiterated her government's tough stance against terrorism and militancy and vowed that it (government) would never
compromise on this question.
She also called for united global efforts to curb the menaces as the terrorists and militants have no boundary.
The Prime Minister expressed the resolve when Canada's Special Envoy on Commonwealth Membership Renewal Senator Hugh Segal paid a courtesy call on her at her
office here this morning.
After the meeting, Press Secretary to the Prime Minister Abul Kalam Azad briefed reporters.
Sheikh Hasina informed the envoy that her government contained terrorism and militancy with an iron hand in the last three years. In this connection, she mentioned the
massive terrorist activities including the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka and series bomb explosions at 500 places across the country
simultaneously during the rule of the previous BNP-Jamaat alliance government.
The Prime Minister said incumbent President Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman, former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria, MP, and Ahsan Ullah Master,MP, were brutally
killed in the terrorist attacks during the period.
She also said her government is working tirelessly to further
strengthen the democratic system including the Election Commission and ensure human rights of the people.
"No country could achieve its desired goal without continuation of democracy and ensuring the human rights of the people," she added.
She mentioned that all elections, including 12 Jatiya Sangsad by-polls, city corporation, upazila, municipality and union council, staged under the present government, were
held in a free, fair and neutral manner with the spontaneous participation of all.
"No single allegation was raised about the polls from any corner," she added.
About bringing back of the convicted killer of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Maj (retd) Noor Chowdhury, who is residing in Canada, the Prime
Minister said Canada should return him (Noor Chowdhury) to Bangladesh to face justice.
In response, the envoy told the Prime Minister that he would convey her message on the issue to the appropriate authorities of the Canadian government.
Segal highly appreciated the dynamic and visionary leadership of Sheikh Hasina and the successes Bangladesh achieved in the last three years under her leadership. They
also held a detailed discussion on the preparation of the next Commonwealth Summit to be held in Sri Lanka.
Issues relating to the trial of war criminals, climate change, food security and poverty alleviation also came up prominently for discussion.
Ambassador-At-Large M Ziauddin, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Sheikh M Wahid Uz Zaman, PMO Secretary Molla Waheeduzzaman, Press Secretary Abul Kalam
Azad and Canadian High Commissioner in Dhaka Heather Cruden were present.
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Railway Minister Suranjit Sengupta today said he fired his assistant private secretary (APS) and ordered suspension of two railway officials and the
department's ongoing recruitment process as investigations were underway into the last week's midnight cash scandal.
Speaking at an unscheduled press briefing at his office, for the second time in three days, Sengupta also reiterated his earlier stance about the possible resignation saying, he would not hesitant to quit if investigations found his involvement in the scam.
"I told you earlier, it is not a big thing for a politician to earn a position and it is also to quit it," he said.
He said he fired his APS Omar Faruq as "I have the power to sack my APS" while the ministry suspended railway general manager Yusuf Ali Mridha and divisional commandant of its security force Enamul Huq on the basis of their statements before an investigation committee.
Sengupta said the trio would face departmental and judicial cases to be filed under the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules 1985 while officials familiar with the situation said Mridha and Haque were asked not leave Dhaka until further orders.
The development came hours after Mridha and Haque appeared before an investigation committee of the ministry as summoned for their statements while Faruq apparently preferred to ignore the summon as he did not appear for the committee headed by a joint secretary.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Bank officials said they were set to issue a directive asking all commercial banks to freeze Faruq's bank accounts and examine the accounts of the two others.
In a related development Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) today said it launched an investigation into the Monday night's scandal and the alleged "recruitment trade" in the railway ministry.
According to earlier reports Sengupta's official aide and the two railway officials were going to the minister's residence at around midnight Monday when their car driver suddenly pulled the vehicle over to the high security Border Guard Bangladesh's (BGB) Pilkhana headquarters where he told the border guards that there was stashes of bribe money inside the car.
An amount said to be as high as Taka 70 lakh with no known source of origin, was reportedly found in their possession but the border guards freed them along with the amount next morning after overnight grilling.
Meanwhile, approached by newsmen as he came out after giving statements before the committee, Mridha said the said amount did not belong to him and he was ready to face investigations of any kind about the allegations.
Sengupta, a veteran parliamentarian and senior leader of ruling Awami League, earlier said he had no link to the said stash of money and feared an organized gang
deliberately was orchestrating a campaign to dislodge him as he spearheads a campaign to uproot "40 years of accumulated anomalies and corruption in the railway".
Police in Bangladesh said Saturday they had arrested two school teachers on suspicion of staging a drama containing blasphemous remarks about the Prophet Mohammed.
The school's Muslim headmaster and a female Hindu teacher were detained on Friday as thousands protested the play following weekly prayers at Kaliganj, 250 kilometres (155 miles) southwest of the capital Dhaka, police chief Farid Uddin said.
"The drama contained blasphemous remarks about the Prophet, which angered Muslim villagers," the local police official told AFP,
He said the teachers had been accused of "hurting religious sentiment" for helping organise the drama at their school.
At least 3,000 demonstrators barricaded a key road and held noisy protests in front of the school and in other towns in the district on Friday.
Violence also erupted on Saturday as up to 7,000 Muslims shouted slogans and set ablaze the house of the drama's director, who has fled the remote area, another senior police official Zaiadul Haq told AFP.
"The situation is still volatile," he said.
Some 90 percent of Bangladesh's 150 million people are Muslim and Islam is country's state religion.
The country's secular government has dealt harshly with any event or publications seen as potentially upsetting religious feelings out of concern they could trigger protests by ultra-conservative Islamist outfits.
Last week, a Bangladesh court ordered authorities to shut down five Facebook pages and a website for displaying allegedly blasphemous content.
Bangladesh on Sunday agreed to tour Pakistan for a short one 50-over match and one Twenty20 international later this month, reviving international cricket suspended in the country three years ago.
"I am pleased to confirm the tour in which Bangladesh will play a one-day match on April 29 and a Twenty20 game the next day, both in Lahore," Bangladesh Cricket Board president Mustafa Kamal said in a press release.
International cricket has been suspended in Pakistan since a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in March 2009.
The attack left eight people dead and seven visiting players and their assistant coach wounded.
Pakistan's government had promised fool-proof security for the Bangladesh team after their security delegation assessed the situation here last month.
Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Zaka Ashraf said the confirmation is a good sign.
"I am extremely pleased that Bangladesh has confirmed the tour. Obviously this is very important for us and we will leave no stone unturned to ensure that this tour takes place in a befitting manner," said Ashraf.
Pakistan had been a 'no go' zone for international teams as they fear security of the players in a country where the national army is fighting militancy.
Both the countries had started to show signs of bitterness after Bangladesh showed reluctance over the tour and Pakistan threatened to review relations if the tour doesn't take place.
PCB further said the remaining matches of the FTP (Future Tours Programme) tour will be played at dates mutually agreed between the two Boards at venues including Bangladesh.
Bangladesh was due for a full tour of Pakistan under the International Cricket Council (ICC) FTP in 2012.
The ICC said it will need a comprehensive security plan from Pakistan to send match officials.
"The ICC Board were informed that the tour will take place and the Board, having due regard to its duty of care to match officials and other ICC staff, requested that the PCB to immediately provide a comprehensive security plan for consideration," the ICC said.
"Thereafter, the ICC?s Anti Corruption and Security Unit will commission a localised risk assessment to determine whether its officials and staff are appropriately protected by the proposed security plan, before any further decision is taken in relation to their appointment."
Last month, the ICC had announced a "special dispensation" to be made only in "exceptional circumstances" in order to ensure that a bilateral series take place even if the ruling body has determined it "unsafe" to appoint its officials for such series.
This would allow such series to be manned by "non-neutral match officials."
Kamal, who is a joint nominee of Pakistan-Bangladesh for the ICC vice president's post in 2012, said the series will give Pakistani people some cricket.
"The public of Pakistan have been deprived of cricket and we felt that we needed to support them. The reception we received when we toured Lahore and Karachi on our security visit was overwhelming.," said Kamal.
"This tour is taking place after 2009 and this short tour will hopefully demonstrate to the world that cricket should start taking place in Pakistan," said Kamal.
Pakistan last year invited Bangladesh for a three-match one-day series which was later changed to two ODIs and one Twenty20 international. Karachi and Rawalpindi were the other possible venues but Bangladesh have agreed to playing in Lahore only.
Even before the 2009 attacks foreign teams had refused to tour Pakistan since the war on terror began in the wake of 9-11 attacks in 2001 in the United States.
Australia have not toured Pakistan since 1998, forcing them to play in Sri Lanka and Sharjah (2002), 2009 (UAE) and England (2010).
Pakistan had also played their home series in New Zealand in 2009.
Celebrated British journalists Sir William Mark Tully and Simon Dring will reminisce on their experiences during Bangladesh's War of Independence at a programme on Monday.
One of the organisers, business leader Annisul Huq told bdnews24.com: "The two foreign journalists will start telling us about their war-time experiences from 7:30pm at Hotel Sonargaon."
Sir Mark Tully was BBC's India correspondent in 1971 and is still one of Britain's favourite broadcasters. During the war, the news media controlled by the then Pakistani junta used to carry out coverage for the military and their affiliates. Mark Tully's coverage of the war on BBC radio was the people's chief source of authentic information.
Covering the Liberation War of Bangladesh was a high point in Sir Mark's career; that he did extensively for the BBC and had the fortune to watch founding father of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from close quarters.
London-based Daily Telegraph's war correspondent Simon Dring was the first person who flashed out to the world the genocide carried out by the Pakistani forces on the Bengalis when Operation Searchlight was launched on the night of Mar 25, 1971.
All foreign correspondents and journalists had already been expelled from Dhaka by the military authorities and Dring was one of three correspondents who at the risk of their lives managed to stay in hiding – the other two being Arnold Zeitlin and Michael Laurent.
On Mar 31, Telegraph published Dring's eyewitness account of Operation Searchlight. Datelined Dhaka it was called "How Dhaka paid for a united Pakistan" and Dring's account of the army's attack on Dhaka University was horrifying and shocking but vivid and factual.
Business groups Mohammadi Group and Ha-Meem Group of current FBCCI president A K Azad, are sponsoring the programme titled 'Smriti 71'.
Sector commander and former army chief retired Maj Gen K M Shafiullah would be joining the two journalists in reflecting on the tumultuous days.
"We have invited all MPs, cabinet members, journalists and businessmen," Annisul Huq of Mohammadi Group said.
None without invite will be allowed, added the former FBCCI chief.
The programme, however, will be broadcast live on Desh Television and can be watched also on bdnews24.com.
Toufique Imrose Khalidi, editor-in-chief of the Bangladesh's first Internet newspaper, will moderate the programme.
Anyone can send their queries to the guests to this email address – smriti71@bdnews24.com
A previous attempt to bring the duo together to hear their stories was cancelled due to Sir Mark's illness.
Sir Mark, who reported the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the Bhopal gas tragedy and the destruction of the Babri Mosque by Hindu fanatics at Ayodhya, was awarded one of India's highest honours, the Padma Bhushan.
He will meet prime minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Ganabhaban before the programme.