Ads by Cash-71
A witness on Monday said he saw former BNP minister Abdul Alim order the killing of a bunch of Hindus sometime in May 1971.
The first prosecution witness against this former Muslim League leader, 71-year old Abdul Momen said he had also seen Alim addressing a 500-strong rally of Razakars and Peace Committee members and tell them to 'loot the belongings of Hindus'.
The second war crimes tribunal, set up to expedite trials of crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, saw the witness identify Alim as an active collaborator of Pakistan Army.
The witness, himself a former leader of the ruling Awami League's student wing, said Abdul Alim, who had joined the Convention Muslim League, and Abbas Ali Khan of Jamaat-e-Islami had lost the 1970 national elections against the Awami League candidate Dr Mafiz Chowdhury.
Abdul Alim's faction of Muslim League, of which he was the Joypurhat head, was led by former Pakistan National Assembly Speaker Fazlul Quader Chowdhury. Fazlul Quader's son Salauddin Quader is also behind bars on war crimes charges and was indicted for 23 charges on Apr 4 by the International Crimes Tribunal-1.
The three-judge International Crimes Tribunal-2 chaired by Justice A T M Fazle Kabir indicted Alim on 17 war crimes charges on Jun 11. He is alleged to have been involved in the murder of 585 people in 1971.
A few days before the Eid-ul-Fitr in 1971, Abdul Momen told the court, he saw Abdul Alim address a large rally of collaborators. "At first he translated for one Major Afzal."
Major Afzal, according to the charges, was the Pakistani officer for whom Alim had made arrangements in Joypurhat. Alim had also taken over the office of one Saonlal Bajla, a jute trader, and turned it into the office of the local Joypurhat Peace Committee. He was also involved with forming the local Razakar unit.
These vigilante outfits, along with the Al Badr and Al Shams militia, were involved with a large number of crimes against humanity and responsible for widespread atrocities in their effort to thwart the liberation movement.
The witness said Abdul Alim had told his audience on that day that they would have the next Eid congregation at the famous Garher Math in Kolkata. Momen also remembered the accused telling his followers, "Loot the belongings of Hindus."
When asked by the conducting prosecutor, Rana Dasgupta, the witness said he had stood about 30 or 40 yards away from the rally at a village under Khetlal Upazila.
Abdul Momen then went on that a few days later when he had visited the house of a Hindu acquaintance around the same place, he heard them saying that the Pakistan Army personnel, along with the collaborators belonging to Razakar and Peace Committee, had surrounded the Hindu neighbourhood.
Momen named several other Hindu acquaintances who had been detained from there and taken to the local Peace Committee office where they were tortured. "Then they were taken to the Joypurhat office."
It was here that Abdul Alim was present and came out to meet the prisoners. The witness said he followed the group the entire time and watched what happened since he knew them. Alim apparently ordered that the Hindus be murdered.
"They were then taken to the Khanjanpur Kuthibari riverbank where they were shot and buried."
Although the prosecutor asked him a number of times, the witness said he could not remember the specific time but it was most likely May.
This was followed by cross-examination by Abu Eusuf Mohammad Khalilur Rahman, a newly appointed defence counsel to handle Alim's trial.
The counsel's petition for a four-week adjournment at the start of the proceedings was brushed off by the tribunal before the witness deposition began.
But before he could begin cross-examination, the witness told the court that the defence counsel had been arrested and jailed along with Abdul Alim under the Collaborators Act soon after the Liberation War. "As such he should not have taken charge to conduct this trial."
The tribunal said that anyone Abdul Alim chose could represent him and had nothing to do with what had happened before.
The cross-examination remains incomplete and will resume on Aug 27.
Abdul Alim is the only one accused of war crimes who is out on bail.
The first prosecution witness against this former Muslim League leader, 71-year old Abdul Momen said he had also seen Alim addressing a 500-strong rally of Razakars and Peace Committee members and tell them to 'loot the belongings of Hindus'.
The second war crimes tribunal, set up to expedite trials of crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, saw the witness identify Alim as an active collaborator of Pakistan Army.
The witness, himself a former leader of the ruling Awami League's student wing, said Abdul Alim, who had joined the Convention Muslim League, and Abbas Ali Khan of Jamaat-e-Islami had lost the 1970 national elections against the Awami League candidate Dr Mafiz Chowdhury.
Abdul Alim's faction of Muslim League, of which he was the Joypurhat head, was led by former Pakistan National Assembly Speaker Fazlul Quader Chowdhury. Fazlul Quader's son Salauddin Quader is also behind bars on war crimes charges and was indicted for 23 charges on Apr 4 by the International Crimes Tribunal-1.
The three-judge International Crimes Tribunal-2 chaired by Justice A T M Fazle Kabir indicted Alim on 17 war crimes charges on Jun 11. He is alleged to have been involved in the murder of 585 people in 1971.
A few days before the Eid-ul-Fitr in 1971, Abdul Momen told the court, he saw Abdul Alim address a large rally of collaborators. "At first he translated for one Major Afzal."
Major Afzal, according to the charges, was the Pakistani officer for whom Alim had made arrangements in Joypurhat. Alim had also taken over the office of one Saonlal Bajla, a jute trader, and turned it into the office of the local Joypurhat Peace Committee. He was also involved with forming the local Razakar unit.
These vigilante outfits, along with the Al Badr and Al Shams militia, were involved with a large number of crimes against humanity and responsible for widespread atrocities in their effort to thwart the liberation movement.
The witness said Abdul Alim had told his audience on that day that they would have the next Eid congregation at the famous Garher Math in Kolkata. Momen also remembered the accused telling his followers, "Loot the belongings of Hindus."
When asked by the conducting prosecutor, Rana Dasgupta, the witness said he had stood about 30 or 40 yards away from the rally at a village under Khetlal Upazila.
Abdul Momen then went on that a few days later when he had visited the house of a Hindu acquaintance around the same place, he heard them saying that the Pakistan Army personnel, along with the collaborators belonging to Razakar and Peace Committee, had surrounded the Hindu neighbourhood.
Momen named several other Hindu acquaintances who had been detained from there and taken to the local Peace Committee office where they were tortured. "Then they were taken to the Joypurhat office."
It was here that Abdul Alim was present and came out to meet the prisoners. The witness said he followed the group the entire time and watched what happened since he knew them. Alim apparently ordered that the Hindus be murdered.
"They were then taken to the Khanjanpur Kuthibari riverbank where they were shot and buried."
Although the prosecutor asked him a number of times, the witness said he could not remember the specific time but it was most likely May.
This was followed by cross-examination by Abu Eusuf Mohammad Khalilur Rahman, a newly appointed defence counsel to handle Alim's trial.
The counsel's petition for a four-week adjournment at the start of the proceedings was brushed off by the tribunal before the witness deposition began.
But before he could begin cross-examination, the witness told the court that the defence counsel had been arrested and jailed along with Abdul Alim under the Collaborators Act soon after the Liberation War. "As such he should not have taken charge to conduct this trial."
The tribunal said that anyone Abdul Alim chose could represent him and had nothing to do with what had happened before.
The cross-examination remains incomplete and will resume on Aug 27.
Abdul Alim is the only one accused of war crimes who is out on bail.
NASA scientists hailed the Mars rover Curiosity's flawless descent and landing as a "miracle of engineering" on Monday as they scanned early images of an ancient crater that may hold clues about whether life took hold on Earth's planetary cousin.
The one-ton, six-wheeled laboratory nailed an intricate and risky touchdown late on Sunday, much to the relief and joy of scientists and engineers eager to conduct NASA's first astrobiology mission since the 1970s Viking probes.
"We trained ourselves for eight years to think the worst all the time," Curiosity lead engineer Miguel San Martin said. "You can never turn that off."
Mission control engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles erupted in cheers when confirmation was received that Curiosity, touted as the first full-fledged mobile science lab sent to a distant world, had landed on the Martian surface.
NASA engineers said the feat stands as the most challenging and elaborate achievement in the history of robotic spaceflight, and opens the door to a new era in planetary exploration.
President Barack Obama hailed the accomplishment as an historic "point of national pride."
The landing also marked a much-welcome success and a major milestone for a US space agency beset by budget cuts and the recent cancellation of its space shuttle program, NASA's centrepiece for 30 years.
The landing was a major initial hurdle for a two-year, $2.5 billion project whose primary focus is chemistry and geology. The daredevil nature of getting the rover to Mars captured the public's imagination.
Daredevil Descent
Encased in a capsule-like protective shell, the nuclear-powered rover capped an eight-month voyage as it streaked into the thin Martian atmosphere at 13,200 miles per-hour (21,243 kilometres per hour), 17 times the speed of sound.
Plunging through the top of the atmosphere at an angle producing aerodynamic lift, the capsule's "guided entry" system used jet thrusters to steer the craft as it fell, making small course corrections and burning off most of its downward speed.
Closer to the ground, the vessel was slowed further by a giant supersonic parachute before a jet backpack and flying "sky crane" took over to deliver Curiosity the last mile to the surface.
The rover, about the size of a small sports car, came to rest as planned at the bottom of a vast, ancient impact bowl called Gale Crater, and near a towering mound of layered rock called Mount Sharp, which rises from the floor of the basin.
A trio of orbiting satellites monitored what NASA had billed as the "seven minutes of terror," but the anxiety proved to be unfounded.
From an orbital perch 211 miles away, NASA's sharp-eyed Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped a stunning and serene picture of Curiosity gracefully riding beneath its massive parachute en route to Gale Crater, located near the planet's equator in its southern hemisphere.
At 10:32pm PDT on Sunday (1:32am EDT on Monday/0532 GMT on Monday) flight controllers at JPL received the equivalent of a text message from Curiosity that its journey of 352 million miles (566 million km) had ended safely.
Seven minutes later, the rover transmitted a picture, related by another Mars orbiter called Odyssey, showing one of Curiosity's wheels on the planet's gravel-strewn surface.
"When you see a picture of the surface of the planet with the spacecraft on it, that is the miracle of engineering," lead scientist John Grotzinger told reporters on Monday.
With the late-afternoon sun slipping behind the crater's rim, Curiosity relayed six more sample pictures and the results of initial health checks of some of its 10 scientific instruments before shutting down for the Martian night.
Landing Zone of Intrigue
Curiosity touched down about 6.2 miles from the foot of Mount Sharp, a monstrous formation of sedimentary rock that rises like a stack of cards three miles from the floor of Gale Crater. Taller from base to summit than California's Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the continental United States, Mount Sharp crests above the northern rim of the crater.
Scientists believe the mound may have formed from the remains of sediment that once completely filled the basin, offering a potentially valuable geologic record of the history of Mars, the planet most similar to Earth.
For that reason it is a key focus of interest for Curiosity scientists looking for evidence of Martian habitats that may have supported microbial life. It may be months, however, before Curiosity heads over to Mount Sharp.
"Our goal is not just to head for the hills," Grotzinger said.
Added project manager Pete Theisinger, "We have a priceless asset and we're not going to screw it up."
The rover comes equipped with an array of sophisticated instruments capable of analysing samples of soil, rocks and atmosphere on the spot and beaming results back to Earth.
One is a laser gun that can zap a rock from 23 feet away to create a spark whose spectral image is analyzed by a special telescope to discern the mineral's chemical composition.
Among Curiosity's first tasks will be to chemically analyse the soil near its landing site.
"We're on gravel plain of Mars, a somewhat familiar scene," Grotzinger said, noting that the gravel seemed to be quite uniform in size. "We're a complex spacecraft, and simple geology is a good thing to start off with."
Scientists are also eager to explore rocks and pebbles that appear to have been transported by flowing water to a fan-shaped region near the landing site.
On Monday, the rover was expected to unfurl its dish-shaped antenna so it could better communicate directly with Earth.
"The surface mission of Curiosity has now begun," mission manager Mike Watkins said. "We built this rover not just to be launched or not just to land on Mars, but to actually drive on Mars and execute a very complex and beautiful science mission."
The one-ton, six-wheeled laboratory nailed an intricate and risky touchdown late on Sunday, much to the relief and joy of scientists and engineers eager to conduct NASA's first astrobiology mission since the 1970s Viking probes.
"We trained ourselves for eight years to think the worst all the time," Curiosity lead engineer Miguel San Martin said. "You can never turn that off."
Mission control engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles erupted in cheers when confirmation was received that Curiosity, touted as the first full-fledged mobile science lab sent to a distant world, had landed on the Martian surface.
NASA engineers said the feat stands as the most challenging and elaborate achievement in the history of robotic spaceflight, and opens the door to a new era in planetary exploration.
President Barack Obama hailed the accomplishment as an historic "point of national pride."
The landing also marked a much-welcome success and a major milestone for a US space agency beset by budget cuts and the recent cancellation of its space shuttle program, NASA's centrepiece for 30 years.
The landing was a major initial hurdle for a two-year, $2.5 billion project whose primary focus is chemistry and geology. The daredevil nature of getting the rover to Mars captured the public's imagination.
Daredevil Descent
Encased in a capsule-like protective shell, the nuclear-powered rover capped an eight-month voyage as it streaked into the thin Martian atmosphere at 13,200 miles per-hour (21,243 kilometres per hour), 17 times the speed of sound.
Plunging through the top of the atmosphere at an angle producing aerodynamic lift, the capsule's "guided entry" system used jet thrusters to steer the craft as it fell, making small course corrections and burning off most of its downward speed.
Closer to the ground, the vessel was slowed further by a giant supersonic parachute before a jet backpack and flying "sky crane" took over to deliver Curiosity the last mile to the surface.
The rover, about the size of a small sports car, came to rest as planned at the bottom of a vast, ancient impact bowl called Gale Crater, and near a towering mound of layered rock called Mount Sharp, which rises from the floor of the basin.
A trio of orbiting satellites monitored what NASA had billed as the "seven minutes of terror," but the anxiety proved to be unfounded.
From an orbital perch 211 miles away, NASA's sharp-eyed Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped a stunning and serene picture of Curiosity gracefully riding beneath its massive parachute en route to Gale Crater, located near the planet's equator in its southern hemisphere.
At 10:32pm PDT on Sunday (1:32am EDT on Monday/0532 GMT on Monday) flight controllers at JPL received the equivalent of a text message from Curiosity that its journey of 352 million miles (566 million km) had ended safely.
Seven minutes later, the rover transmitted a picture, related by another Mars orbiter called Odyssey, showing one of Curiosity's wheels on the planet's gravel-strewn surface.
"When you see a picture of the surface of the planet with the spacecraft on it, that is the miracle of engineering," lead scientist John Grotzinger told reporters on Monday.
With the late-afternoon sun slipping behind the crater's rim, Curiosity relayed six more sample pictures and the results of initial health checks of some of its 10 scientific instruments before shutting down for the Martian night.
Landing Zone of Intrigue
Curiosity touched down about 6.2 miles from the foot of Mount Sharp, a monstrous formation of sedimentary rock that rises like a stack of cards three miles from the floor of Gale Crater. Taller from base to summit than California's Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the continental United States, Mount Sharp crests above the northern rim of the crater.
Scientists believe the mound may have formed from the remains of sediment that once completely filled the basin, offering a potentially valuable geologic record of the history of Mars, the planet most similar to Earth.
For that reason it is a key focus of interest for Curiosity scientists looking for evidence of Martian habitats that may have supported microbial life. It may be months, however, before Curiosity heads over to Mount Sharp.
"Our goal is not just to head for the hills," Grotzinger said.
Added project manager Pete Theisinger, "We have a priceless asset and we're not going to screw it up."
The rover comes equipped with an array of sophisticated instruments capable of analysing samples of soil, rocks and atmosphere on the spot and beaming results back to Earth.
One is a laser gun that can zap a rock from 23 feet away to create a spark whose spectral image is analyzed by a special telescope to discern the mineral's chemical composition.
Among Curiosity's first tasks will be to chemically analyse the soil near its landing site.
"We're on gravel plain of Mars, a somewhat familiar scene," Grotzinger said, noting that the gravel seemed to be quite uniform in size. "We're a complex spacecraft, and simple geology is a good thing to start off with."
Scientists are also eager to explore rocks and pebbles that appear to have been transported by flowing water to a fan-shaped region near the landing site.
On Monday, the rover was expected to unfurl its dish-shaped antenna so it could better communicate directly with Earth.
"The surface mission of Curiosity has now begun," mission manager Mike Watkins said. "We built this rover not just to be launched or not just to land on Mars, but to actually drive on Mars and execute a very complex and beautiful science mission."
The High Court on Monday halted for eight weeks proceedings of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-5, the court which was hearing the Apr 29 arson case against 18-Party opposition alliance leaders.
The bench of justices Naima Haider and Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar gave the order after hearing a petition by BNP leader Mahbub Uddin Khokon challenging the jurisdiction of the lower court.
It also questioned the legality of the formation of the tribunal and setting the jurisdiction of the judge through the order of the CMM, without issuing a gazette, and why the moves will not be declared conflicting with the Speedy Trial Tribunal's law.
The respondents, including the Law Secretary, Cabinet Secretary, Public Administration Secretary and Dhaka's Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Bikash Chandra Saha, have two weeks to answer the court.
Stay on tribunal, not case
After the order, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the court that criminals should not be allowed to walk free only because there was a procedural flaw in the case. "So it will not be right to give a stay order on the case."
In response, the judges said they had not stayed the proceedings of the case, but that of the tribunal.
After the hearing, defence lawyer Ahsanul Karim told journalists that the court has stayed judicial activities of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-5. "The proceedings of the case against the opposition leaders will remain halted also."
However, the Attorney General pointed out that the High Court had stayed the proceedings of the tribunal as they could not present the gazette of its formation. "I do not believe there is any problem in running the case in any other court."
Embarrassed
Earlier in the day, the bench of justices Mirza Hussain Haider and Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo started the hearing but asked the petitioner's lawyer to shift the case to another bench at one point of the proceedings.
After the hearing started at the first bench, Deputy Attorney General Al Amin Sarkar told the court: "The Attorney General is supposed to argue in the hearing. He will arrive at 12pm. Let the hearing start then."
At one point of the discussion between the senior judge and the prosecution lawyer, the junior judge of the bench felt 'embarrassed'. The senior judge then said, "One of us is feeling embarrassed. We are giving the permission to move the case to another bench."
The bench, on Sunday, had set the hearing for 11am after the prosecution urged for more time on behalf of the Attorney General.
After moving the case to the bench of justices Naima Haider and Khurshid Alam Sarkar, the defence pointed out that the lower court had scheduled hearing witness accounts in the case for Tuesday.
President of Supreme Court Bar Association Zainul Abedin filed the plea for BNP leader Mahbub Uddin Khokon.
Khokon had filed the plea with the High Court on July 29 for a halt in the case proceedings and questioned the jurisdiction of Dhaka's Speedy Trial Tribunal which framed the charges in the case. The accusations were levelled against the opposition leaders on Apr 29 at Tejgaon Police Station.
The bench of justices Naima Haider and Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar gave the order after hearing a petition by BNP leader Mahbub Uddin Khokon challenging the jurisdiction of the lower court.
It also questioned the legality of the formation of the tribunal and setting the jurisdiction of the judge through the order of the CMM, without issuing a gazette, and why the moves will not be declared conflicting with the Speedy Trial Tribunal's law.
The respondents, including the Law Secretary, Cabinet Secretary, Public Administration Secretary and Dhaka's Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Bikash Chandra Saha, have two weeks to answer the court.
Stay on tribunal, not case
After the order, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the court that criminals should not be allowed to walk free only because there was a procedural flaw in the case. "So it will not be right to give a stay order on the case."
In response, the judges said they had not stayed the proceedings of the case, but that of the tribunal.
After the hearing, defence lawyer Ahsanul Karim told journalists that the court has stayed judicial activities of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-5. "The proceedings of the case against the opposition leaders will remain halted also."
However, the Attorney General pointed out that the High Court had stayed the proceedings of the tribunal as they could not present the gazette of its formation. "I do not believe there is any problem in running the case in any other court."
Embarrassed
Earlier in the day, the bench of justices Mirza Hussain Haider and Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo started the hearing but asked the petitioner's lawyer to shift the case to another bench at one point of the proceedings.
After the hearing started at the first bench, Deputy Attorney General Al Amin Sarkar told the court: "The Attorney General is supposed to argue in the hearing. He will arrive at 12pm. Let the hearing start then."
At one point of the discussion between the senior judge and the prosecution lawyer, the junior judge of the bench felt 'embarrassed'. The senior judge then said, "One of us is feeling embarrassed. We are giving the permission to move the case to another bench."
The bench, on Sunday, had set the hearing for 11am after the prosecution urged for more time on behalf of the Attorney General.
After moving the case to the bench of justices Naima Haider and Khurshid Alam Sarkar, the defence pointed out that the lower court had scheduled hearing witness accounts in the case for Tuesday.
President of Supreme Court Bar Association Zainul Abedin filed the plea for BNP leader Mahbub Uddin Khokon.
Khokon had filed the plea with the High Court on July 29 for a halt in the case proceedings and questioned the jurisdiction of Dhaka's Speedy Trial Tribunal which framed the charges in the case. The accusations were levelled against the opposition leaders on Apr 29 at Tejgaon Police Station.
Without signing any memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the mobile phone operators to reach a consensus over 2G licence renewal, the government has decided to renew licences of four companies on Tuesday.
Post and Telecommunications Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed will hand over the licences, valid for the next 15 years, to the operators – Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Citycell – at a function in the main conference room of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) at 3:30pm.
BTRC Chairman Maj Gen (Retd) Zia Ahmed told bdnews24.com on Monday that no agreement would be signed between BTRC and the operators for the licence renewal.
He said that the 2G licences were being renewed as recommended by the government and the operators would have to pay the second instalment of fees and charges as per law.
Upon receiving a letter from the Post and Telecommunications Ministry, the telecom regulator on Aug 1 invited four mobile companies to renew their licences on Tuesday.
The ministry in its letter asked BTRC to issue licences to the operators within a week after settling issues with the operators, and sign a tripartite agreement with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the operators.
The BTRC chief on Aug 2 said that they were reviewing the draft of the agreement and the final decision on it would be taken after the review.
However, a senior BTRC official told bdnews24.com that the Commission would not proceed with the proposed agreement to avoid legal complexities in the licence renewal.
On July 26 this year, Finance Minister A M A Abdul Muhith, after a meeting with representatives from mobile-phone operators, BTRC and NBR, had said that 2G licences would be renewed by August. He also said that both parties were asked to withdraw from legal battle before the licences were renewed.
BTRC is currently screening the draft of 12 conditions discussed with the minister to reach a consensus with the mobile phone operators.
After a stand-off with BTRC for more than nine months, the telecom regulator on Thursday sent letters to the four mobile phone operators asking them to send their representatives to get their 2G licences renewed on Aug 7 for the next 15 years, as recommended by the telecom ministry.
On Sept 11 last year, the watchdog had published final guidelines on renewing the licences, two months before 2G licences of the four operators expired.
BTRC was supposed to renew the licences by Nov 10, but it did not, and the operators took the issue to the High Court which is yet to give its ruling on the matter.
In November last year, the four operators had deposited the first instalment of their renewal and frequency allocation fee. The second instalment was supposed to be paid by Aug 1, but the telecom regulator has extended the deadline by a month.
The four operators are paying Tk 75.63 billion for the renewal.
According to BTRC, over 90 million people are currently using mobile phone across the country.
Post and Telecommunications Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed will hand over the licences, valid for the next 15 years, to the operators – Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Citycell – at a function in the main conference room of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) at 3:30pm.
BTRC Chairman Maj Gen (Retd) Zia Ahmed told bdnews24.com on Monday that no agreement would be signed between BTRC and the operators for the licence renewal.
He said that the 2G licences were being renewed as recommended by the government and the operators would have to pay the second instalment of fees and charges as per law.
Upon receiving a letter from the Post and Telecommunications Ministry, the telecom regulator on Aug 1 invited four mobile companies to renew their licences on Tuesday.
The ministry in its letter asked BTRC to issue licences to the operators within a week after settling issues with the operators, and sign a tripartite agreement with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the operators.
The BTRC chief on Aug 2 said that they were reviewing the draft of the agreement and the final decision on it would be taken after the review.
However, a senior BTRC official told bdnews24.com that the Commission would not proceed with the proposed agreement to avoid legal complexities in the licence renewal.
On July 26 this year, Finance Minister A M A Abdul Muhith, after a meeting with representatives from mobile-phone operators, BTRC and NBR, had said that 2G licences would be renewed by August. He also said that both parties were asked to withdraw from legal battle before the licences were renewed.
BTRC is currently screening the draft of 12 conditions discussed with the minister to reach a consensus with the mobile phone operators.
After a stand-off with BTRC for more than nine months, the telecom regulator on Thursday sent letters to the four mobile phone operators asking them to send their representatives to get their 2G licences renewed on Aug 7 for the next 15 years, as recommended by the telecom ministry.
On Sept 11 last year, the watchdog had published final guidelines on renewing the licences, two months before 2G licences of the four operators expired.
BTRC was supposed to renew the licences by Nov 10, but it did not, and the operators took the issue to the High Court which is yet to give its ruling on the matter.
In November last year, the four operators had deposited the first instalment of their renewal and frequency allocation fee. The second instalment was supposed to be paid by Aug 1, but the telecom regulator has extended the deadline by a month.
The four operators are paying Tk 75.63 billion for the renewal.
According to BTRC, over 90 million people are currently using mobile phone across the country.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)