BANGLADESH

Recruiting agency owner Sayeeduz Zaman Bachchu who confessed to killing a teenage girl in the city’s Hatirpool area was taken on a four-day remand on Sunday.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rezaul Karim passed the order after Detective Branch of police produced him before his court seeking a 10-day remand for questioning him.
Police recovered the body of a teenage girl sliced into 26 pieces from a multi-storey commercial building in the city’s Hatirpool area on Saturday.
Local people first found a leg of the female body at a narrow passage outside ‘Nahar Plaza’ and informed Shahbagh police.
Police reached the spot around 11:30 am and conducted simultaneous searches inside the building and its surrounding areas to recover the remaining parts of the remaining body up to 1:30 pm.Detectives picked up six people, including Bachchu, on Saturday following the recovery of the dismembered body of Rumi, 15, daughter of Saddam Fakir of Gazipur Kazipara village in Alfadanga upazila of Faridpur district.
During interrogation, Bachchu, 28, owner of Sonali Travels located on the 13th floor of the commercial building, told police that he got introduced with Rumi over mobile phone two and a half years back.
He brought the girl to his office from Mirpur-10 at about 6 pm on Friday and had sex with her there.
Later, he strangulated Rumi to death at night thinking that he would be in trouble if outsiders come to know about her presence in his office, a police officer quoted Bachchu as saying.
Later, Bachchu sliced the body into at least 26 pieces, detached flesh from the bones and threw those in different areas.

The head coach of Bangladesh Cricket team Richard Pybus is looking forward to perform better in the upcoming tri-nation T20 tournament in Zimbabwe through building a strong team work as well as a good relationship among the players.
Addressing the first press conference at the Media Centre of Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Monday, the newly appointed head coach of the Bangladesh cricket team Pybus said, “We are looking for additional talents identification that helps the team to play well”.
The new Bangladesh coach joined the Tigers on Monday and vowed to take the challenge of the tri-nation T20 tournament beginning on June 18 in Zimbabwe as his first assignment.
The 47-year-old Englishman gave his first appearance before the media here today.
Replying to a query regarding non-playing of test match by the Tigers for the last four months, Pybus said, it will not be too difficult to set with the pace and we can hope for better.
Pybus said he had been in Pakistan and experienced with the sub-continent weather; in addition, he had been experienced with the South African multi-cultural weather, both will help him to adjust with weather as well as the team.
AHM Mustafa Kamal MP, president of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and Mr. Nizamuddin Chowdhury, BCB’s acting chief executive officer (CEO), were also present at the conference.Mustafa Kamal said we believe that the glorious career of new coach will take forward the teams’ performance.
Asked by journalists BCB’s President said Pybus will have complete freedom within his working arena; the board will provide him all-out support and never hinder to gain his objectives, strategic plans and goals related to the team.
Pybus was appointed Bangladesh head coach for a two-year term on May 30, in place of Australian Stuart Law who resigned in last April.
He will be Bangladesh’s third coach in a year as Law had been in the post for only nine months after succeeding another Australian Jamie Siddons in July last year.
Pybus hasn’t been in charge of an international side since 2003 but had flown to Bangladesh earlier last month to appear in interview for the post.
He arrived in Dhaka on May 10 and spent the subsequent day holding meetings with BCB president AHM Mustafa Kamal as well as some of the board directors and a handful of national players.
Pybus, who took up coaching in his mid-twenties, was appointed Pakistan coach for their 1999 World Cup campaign before returning to the South African provincial side. He coached Pakistan again until the 2003 World Cup and had stints with Titans and Cape Cobras (South Africa), and Middlesex. He was with Cobras until March 2012 and was also linked to the South Africa job last year.

Five sustained burn injuries as a fire broke out at Ghorasal thermal power plant Monday suspending power generation in no-1 unit of the power plant.
Official sources said the fire originated from a generator circuit-breaker  at about 11 am when repair work was going on at unit 2 of the power plant.
The injured were-foreman Abdul Ahad, electricians Raja Miah, Al Amin, Babu Miah and Amin .They were first rushed to the clinic of the power plant and then shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital as their condition deteriorated. Condition of Abdul Ahad and Amin was stated to be critical.
Fire fighters of the power plant and a unit of Polash fire brigade extinguished the fire within 30 minutes.
Power generation at 55 megawatt no-1 unit of the power plant was suspended due to the fire incident.

The High Court on Monday asked the government why making public servants officers on special duty (OSD) without any specific reason and time limit should not be declared unlawful.

The bench of Justices Mirza Hussain Haider and Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarker issued the rule asking the Public Administration Secretary to respond within eight weeks.

The court issued the rule following a writ petition filed by former Secretary Asaf-ud-Daula.

It also ordered the Secretary to explain why the Public Administration Ministry should not make specific guidelines on OSD. He will also have to submit a report with a list of the officials of the ministry made OSD in past 10 years and the expenses the government had to bear for them.

The petitioner's lawyer Anik R Haque told the court that only the Public Administration Ministry has as many as 591 officials as OSD. Of them, three are Secretaries, 37 Additional Secretaries, 146 Joint Secretaries, 170 Deputy Secretaries, 190 Senior Assistant Secretaries and 45 Assistant Secretaries, according to him.

"These officials are paid Tk 15.031 million in basic salary every month. They are being paid from the taxes people pay," he said at the hearing.

In many cases, he added, skills of these officials were not used properly as they are made OSD.

He also said a circular issued in 1991 had explained that reasons behind OSD. "There has been no specific reason to make OSD 90 percent of those who are OSD now," he added.

OSD are usually political victims with having no work to do with either in the policy making or the implementation process of the government.

Sending officers on special duty is seen as a punishment because the government of the day feels no need to have them, mostly for political reason.

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have caught a member of Indian Border Security Force (BSF) on chargesof intruding into Bangladesh through Meherpur border.

BGB's Mirpur sector Assistant Commandant and 29 Battalion's Commander Maj Zahid said the trooper was arrested from Bajitpur on Monday afternoon.

He has been identified as Satya Paul Singh, a soldier from Shahpur camp under 119 Battalion of BSF.

BGB Bajitpur camp Commander Subedar Jalal Uddin said Satya intruded into Bangladesh while chasing a cattle trader.

As Satya crossed the border and came close to BGB's Bajitpur camp, he was detained, he added.

Maj Zahid told reporters that BSF 119 Battalion has been informed about the matter and the BSF member would be handed over to India at a flag meeting.

Jahedul Islam Sourav on Monday confessed in a court to having a role in the attack on internet newspaper bdnews24.com journalists and staff who are nursing their injuries at a private hospital.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Keshob Roy Chowdhury recorded Sourav's statement in his room under section 164 of Bangladesh Penal Code.

In his confession that took several hours, Sourav also named others involved in the attack.

After the confession, Sourav along with the other two, Ilias Master Sumon and Mir Hossain arrested in connection with the same attack, were sent to jail.

Sourav was produced taken to court after a four-day remand in police custody.

The court's General Recording Officer, police Sub-Inspector Farid Miah told bdnews24.com about Sourav's confession.

The other two arrestees will be produced before court for their statement on Tuesday, said investigation officer of the case Imdadul Islam, a Sub-Inspector of Banani Police Station.

The assailants stormed into the online newspaper's office premises at Amtoly in Mohakhali on May 28 night. The newspaper's English Desk Sub-Editor Newaz Mohammad Riffat and Correspondent Salauddin Wahed Pritom were stabbed during the attack. Office assistant Ruhul Amin was also knifed.

All of them were taken to the city's United Hospital, where they are still receiving treatment.

Police arrested Sourav, Sumon and Hossain the day after the attack had taken place.

On information gleaned from them, Rapid Action Battalion arrested Imran Molla, 20, and Yakub Ali, 22, from Savar for their alleged involvement in the attack.

Journalists have demanded that private TV station ATN Bangla's Chairman Mahfuzur Rahman be questioned in the homicide investigation of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi.

They said remarked recently in London that the couple victims to an extra-marital affair which were 'defamatory'.

They demanded that the ATN Bangla boss be interrogated following his claim that there is a video footage of the reason behind the murders.

The station's Senior Reporter Runi and Maasranga Television's News Editor Sagar were killed in their Rajabazar flat on Feb 11. As police failed to make any progress in the investigation, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were given the charge to investigate the murders.

The statement issued by the journalists' unions said, "Such remarks on ATN Bangla journalist Runi by the company's owner are inhumane, beyond courtesy and defamatory."

Presidents of two factions of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury and Ruhul Amin Gazi, General Secretary of one faction Abdul Jalil Bhuyian, Acting General Secretary of the other faction M Abdullah, President of two factions of Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) Abdus Shahid and Omar Faruq, General Secretaries Muhammad Baker Hossain and Shaban Mahmud, National Press Club President Kamal Uddin Sabuj and General Secretary Syed Abdal Ahmad, Dhaka Reporters' Unity President Shakhawat Hossain Badshah and General Secretary Sazzad Alam Khan Tapu signed the statement.

The journalists' unions have been demonstrating demanding arrest of the killers of the couple.

India will not build Tipaimukh multipurpose dam project on the Barak River in Manipur without the consent of Bangladesh, a top bureaucrat said on Monday in fresh assurance.

"If Bangladesh does not come along with us, we will not be going ahead with the construction (Tipaumukh project)," Secretary to India's Ministry of Water Resources Dhruv Bijai Singh told a group of Bangladeshi journalists in New Delhi.

The Bangladeshi media team will visit the Tipaimukh dam project site.

The Indian government has been saying that it would not take steps on the proposed project, which would adversely affect Bangladesh amid protests from opposition and environmental activists.

The sub-group of Joint Rivers Commission is going to meet at the end of this month to begin study of all aspects of the project with specific reference to the dam's probable impact on Bangladesh, the Secretary said.

India offered Bangladesh to invest in the $2 billion project and the sub-group will also study the partnership stake.

"Money is limited and if India finds the project problematic, it would build dam elsewhere, Singh said.

The Indian government has a plan to implement flood mitigation and hydro-power generation project in Tipaimukh, 210 kilometres from Sylhet border.

The Secretary said no construction work had begun on the site, refuting reports to the contrary.

Joint Rivers Commission

Indian Minister for Water Resources Pawan Kumar Bansal in the meeting with the journalists claimed that it was Bangladesh that proposed the Tipaimukh project in 1974.

When the journalists asked him for relevant documents, his office supplied the agreed minutes of the sixth JRC meeting held in November, 1973.

"The commission considered the study of Barak Dam project in the context of floods in India and Bangladesh and recommendation that this project be reviewed by the Superintending Engineers of Bangladesh and India, for flood moderation and protection to Sylhet, Cacher and adjoining areas," the minute said.

Bangladesh's High Commissioner to India Tareq A Karim in his meeting with journalists on the same day said between 1972 and 1982, the rhetoric was same but it was changed in 1982 when it was stated that the project would be harmful for Bangladesh.

There were 13 JRC meetings from 1972 to 1975, eight from 1978 to 1982 (during the BNP regime), 11 JRC meetings from 1982 to 1991, but none from 1991 to 1996 .

There were three JRC meetings between 1996 and 2001 while two JRC meetings were held from 2002 to 2006. During the period of the current government only one JRC meeting took place.

Electricity

The dam will create a reservoir of 22,000 hectares of land and it would be filled during flood time, Secretary Singh said. The standard practice is to fill up the reservoir when there is flood with excess water, he explained.

The reservoir can contain nine billion cubic metres of water and it is over six times larger than Kaptai lake reservoir.

The electricity production capacity of the project is 1,500 megawatt and depending on availability of water, the power generation will fluctuate, according to the senior official.

A highly placed source in the Indian diplomacy said given the existing technology, power unit cost is so high that the project would not be financially feasible.

No irrigation project

The Indian Secretary categorically said there would be no diversion of water as the project did not consist any irrigation component.

When asked about construction of barrage in Phuler Tal, he said there was no such project.

Phuler Tal is 100 kilometres down from Tipaimukh and in the case of a barrage, water is diverted to other areas.

Teesta deal

Water Resources Minister Bansal said there was political will from both the governments to sign the agreement and they were trying to sign the agreement 'as soon as possible'.

Bangladesh and India failed to sign the interim Teesta water-sharing agreement during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in September last year due to strong resistance from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.