BANGLADESH

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has decided to move the High Court to seek judicial probe into what happened to Limon Hossain, the college student who had his leg amputated after being shot allegedly by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

NHRC Chairman Prof Mizanur Rahman made the announcement at a press conference on Monday.

"An appeal petition will be filed in the High Court seeking a judicial probe to ensure the rights of Limon," Rahman said.

A member of the NHRC, Fouzia Karim Firoz will file a petition next Sunday.

"If the High Court runs a judicial probe the allegations against Limon will be proved false. We believe Limon will get justice and get back to his normal life," the chairman added.

"We believe the High Court will consider our appeal and take necessary actions."

Replying to a question on why the NHRC did not file any case against RAB, Rahman said that he believed Limon would get justice even without the commission taking such measures.

"We can make recommendations on different matters. We don't have executive power," said Rahman answering whether the commission would file a case over the attack on Limon's family and then accusing them of murder.

But he said the commission would go to court if Limon was indicted in any of the cases.

Rahman defended the NHRC by referring to the steps they had taken to ensure justice to Limon. He said the commission wrote to the Home Ministry on July 11 regarding Limon.

"We haven't noticed any positive movement even after writing to the Home Minister. On the other hand, the situation is being vitiated filing cases against Limon, attacking him and filing a murder case against him," Rahman said.

Limon, a college student from Jhalkathi, had his leg amputated allegedly after being shot by RAB on March 23 last year.

RAB filed two cases against Limon accusing him of preventing law enforcers from carrying out their duties and for possessing illegal fire arms.

Limon's mother also filed a case against the RAB officials for shooting her son. On Aug 14, Rajapur police submitted the final report relieving the RAB of the allegations.

On Aug 20, the Eid day, Limon and his family members were attacked by a group of people allegedly led by one Ibrahim Howlader. Howladar was identified as a RAB source byLimon's family.

On Aug 23, Howlader accused Limon's father, mother, elder brother and uncle of murdering his brother-in-law.

Ever since he was shot, Limon and his family were not staying in their village home at Saturia in Jhalkathi and has rented a house at Kaukhali in Pirojpur.

Amid whispers ruling out a return for the World Bank in Padma bridge project, Malaysia on Monday submitted to Bangladesh its final proposal on construction of the bridge.

Now bridging the mighty river with assistance from Malaysia requires only the government's consent.

S Samy Vellu, special envoy of the Malaysian government for South Asia, formally handed over a copy of the final proposal to Communication Minister Obaidul Quader at the Setu Bhaban in Dhaka.

The minister said: "A technical committee will scrutinise the proposal and put forward its recommendations to the highest decision-making body."

He said construction would begin within this fiscal year.

Quader declined to disclose the content of the agreement or when the government would take decision on the Malaysian proposal.

"It is a draft agreement and Bangladesh will negotiate on the terms and conditions included in the proposal," the minister said.

Quader said if there was any agreement, the bridge would be built under a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis and Malaysian Exim Bank will be the lead arranger.

Bangladesh is desperately looking for alternatives to bridge the river Padma after the World Bank refused to lend $1.2 billion in June.

The minister said: "Economic and public interests will be given priority while considering the proposal and agreement will be signed if it doesn't go against national interest."

On the scope of a settlement with the World Bank, Quader said; "You better ask this to the Finance Minister or ERD Secretary."

"The door is still open to any party as we can't say that dispute with World Bank is over."

The global lender in October last year suspended its pledged $1.2 billion fund for the $2.9 billion project to build the first bridge raising corruption allegation. The funds pledged by the other donors also remain suspended.

After the suspension of the World Bank funds, the Malaysian government expressed its interest in the construction of the bridge.

The governments of Bangladesh and Malaysia on Apr 10 signed a memorandum of understanding in Kuala Lumpur on cooperation in the construction of the Padma Bridge and associated facilities.

The Detective Branch of police has efused to take custody of 'Kamal, 29, detained by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), saying he was not connected with the murder of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) leader Dr Narayan Chandra Datta Nitai.

Deputy Commissioner of DB, Molla Nazrul Islam, told bdnews24.com on Monday that RAB had detained one 'Kamal' on Saturday and handed him over to them on Sunday. "In the course of our investigation, we found out that the detained Kamal was not the one whose name came up in connection with the murder," he said.

He was handed over to RAB the same night, the DB police official added.

After nabbing Kamal, RAB had claimed that they found his association with the 48-year-old doctor's murder.

Dr Nitai was knifed to death in the early hours of Thursday at his home in Mahakhali's National Institute of Disease of the Chest and Hospital (NIDCH) residential area.

On Sunday, a Dhaka court granted the police five days to interrogate the four suspects detained in connection with the murder.

The police official said in the course of quizzing, they found proof of the detainees' involvement in the murder.

Officer-in-Charge of Banani Police Station Mahbub Hasan told bdnews24.com on Monday that RAB had handed over one 'Kamal' to them in the wee hours of Monday. "He was later shown arrested for wandering around in a suspicious manner and produced before court on Monday," he added.

RAB Media Wing Director M Sohail told bdnews24.com that they had merely assisted the DB with its probe. He said Kamal was detained for his suspected connection with Nitai murder case.

The RAB spokesperson said in primary questioning they had found Kamal's involvement with the murder and handed him over to the DB, the main investigator of the case.

Sohail said DB's investigation might not find Kamal's association with the murder.

Police had nabbed four suspected robbers over two days after the murder and produced them before the media on Saturday. The law enforcers said they had recovered looted gold ornaments and the knife used for killing the doctor.

Those detained are Masud alias Peda, 28, Saidul, 38, Pichchi Kamal, 35 and Faisal, 32.

'Faisal' had told journalists that they had one 'Kamal' and 'Mintoo' with them.

The law enforcers had been insisting that Nitai's murder took place during a burglary despite his family's belief that it was a premeditated murder over recruitment in a hospital.

The father of the deceased, Tarit Kanti Datta, had filed a case over the incident with the Banani police mentioning that Tk 500,000 was missing after the incident.

Nitai's brother-in-law Surash Chowdhury claimed that it was premeditated murder.

He alleged Nitai was being threatened over recruitment of class three and four employees at the NIDCH but failed to name anyone.

The High Court on Monday declared 'ineffective' and 'without legal basis' Speaker Abdul Hamid's previous ruling that Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury violated the Constitution by making derogatory comment on the Parliament.

The two-strong panel of justices Hasan Foez Siddique and ABM Altaf Hossain made the observation after a petition sought the court's intervention over the Speaker's June 18 ruling that Justice Choudhury violated Article 78 (1) of the Constitution.

On July 24, the High Court settled the writ petition but signed the written copy of its observations on Monday.

After the verdict, Deputy Attorney General Biswajit Roy, who represented the state, had told bdnews24.com that the court had given the verdict after hearing both sides. "The petition was settled with several observations."

Roy had said the observations would be elaborated in the written copy of the verdict.

On July 18, the bench of justices Naima Haider and Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar had felt embarrassed to hear the petition that sought an order to declare illegal the Speaker's ruling.

The petitioners also sought an order to ban issuance of any such ruling by the Speaker.

Speaker Hamid had given the ruling rather reluctantly in Parliament as MPs demanded steps after Justice Choudhury criticised the chief of the legislature and threatened to invoke the constitutional provision to impeach sitting judges.

The Speaker had hoped the Chief Justice would himself initiate measures in this regard and Parliament would support his decision.

The row began after the Speaker on May 29 made the statement that people might stand up against the judiciary if they are aggrieved by any verdict of the court. It involved an order of the High Court that had asked the Roads and Highways Department to return some land to the Supreme Court.

Justice Choudhury in response to the statement said on June 5 that the Speaker's such a comment was tantamount to sedition.

His comment triggered commotion in Parliament and MPs demanded ruling from the Speaker.

In his ruling, the Speaker said Justice Choudhury's comment was derogatory and a violation of the constitution.

Article 78 of the Constitution provides immunity to the speeches, actions and votes of MPs made within Parliament sessions, and holds them not answerable for any such actions of the court.