BANGLADESH

The country's two intelligence agencies, National Security Intelligence (NSI) and Detective Branch (DB) of police, are at loggerheads over the suspension of three DB inspector over allegations of bribery.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police's DB inspectors Shafiuddin Sheikh, Ruhul Amin and Gias Uddin were temporarily suspended on Thursday following their arrest by NSI officials in front of the Holy Family Hospital at Maghbazar.

NSI officials claimed that they set up a trap in front of the hospital to catch 'fake DB officials' following information from a businessman. The detectives were arrested as they entered the scene.

Meanwhile, DB police have alleged that NSI officials had taken the three officers in custody and tortured them even after they had identified themselves as police officers on the spot.

The suspended detectives are currently admitted at Rajarbagh Police Lines Hospital with injuries.

DB joint commissioner Mir Shahidul Islam, leading a committee investigating the matter, told bdnews24.com: "The committee will send a letter to NSI to present the businessman 'Jewel', who provided the information to NSI, before the committee."

He said, "I have already discussed the matter with an NSI official and we've also visited the spot."

Quoting his NSI co-worker, Islam said, "NSI conducted the raid that day as they had information that some people were committing acts of fraud by claiming themselves as DB officials."

"The investigation is now at the initial stage. The decision will be taken after scrutinising the allegations and statements of the detectives and NSI officials."

An NSI official, seeking anonymity, told bdnews24.com: "Those detectives didn't identify themselves on the spot. Though, they were arrested on Thursday, they had been contacting Jewel from two days ago. They were demanding extortion from him."

He claimed that the three directly fell in their trap which they had set up following the complaint Jewel filed with them on Wednesday.

"They identified themselves as DB officials after they were taken at the NSI headquarters. We handed them over to the DB authorities after contacting them."

He also said that DB's assistant commissioner Sanwar Hossain also linked with the three.

The intelligence officer refuted the allegation of torture. "These police officers have records of illegal activities."

At a press briefing on Sunday, DMP commissioner Benazir Ahmed said, "Investigations are underway against the police officers including Sanwar. Measures will be taken following probe report."

AC Sanwar dismissed the allegation against him and said, "I've talked to the detectives. They said they were beaten severely with sticks."

"Inspector Shafiuddin has received injuries in his left eye while doctors are keeping Ruhul Amin asleep as he got badly hurt in the head," he said.

A robbery has taken place at a bank employee's residence in the Capital's Jatrabari.

Police reported that the incident took place around 3am Sunday morning at Jatrabari's Kajir Ga in Matuyail Pashchimpara.

The law enforcement agency also said that the robbers had looted the family at gunpoint and escaped with Tk. 300,000 in cash and 50 'bhari' of gold.

Jatrabari police chief Abul Kashem told bdnews24.com that the bank employee, Haji Delowar Hossain, was injured when he was attacked with a meat-cleaver.

Kashem added that "a band of 15 to 20 robbers had broken through the main entrance to the house, and had robbed the family."

However, the police chief could name the bank in which Hossain was employed. He also said that no cases had been filed with the station yet.

At least three in ten people suffer from one form of mental illness or the other in Bangladesh, but most of them do not consider it as an 'illness', aggravating their condition, according to mental health experts.

"The number is increasing by the day as society and lifestyle change," Prof Golam Rabbani, director at the National Institute of Mental Health, told bdnews24.com on Sunday, a day before World Mental Health Day.

This year, the day's theme is to encourage investments in prevention, treatment and promoting awareness of mental illnesses.

"People with mental disorders are mostly neglected and traumatised," Rabbani said. On many occasions they believe it is not an illness and only see a psychologist or psychiatrist when things get worse.

Taslima Akhter who comes twice a week at the institute to take therapy for her diagnosed 'obsessive-compulsive disorder' said she did not realise at first that it was an illness.

"She used to wash and clean hands and cooking utensils again and again. Even she changes dishes quite often. Things were getting worse every day," her husband Moslem Ali told bdnews24.com. First, he too could not understand it was a disease.

"We saw a psychiatrist at one of our relatives' request," he said, adding the doctor said the condition had advanced.

Studies of the institute show 16 percent above 18 years of age go through some form of mental illnesses while the rate is 18 percent among children aged between five and 17 years.

The studies also found prevalence of the disease in rural Bangladesh too.

"Earlier families used to live together, but they are nuclear now. Their (people's) demand is growing, but most of the time they cannot fulfil them due to soaring costs.

"It raises the risk of mental illnesses," Rabbani said.

"But their depression and mode disorders remain unnoticed, until (the condition) aggravates."

One study found children of older parents, nuclear family and families with a mental disorder are more likely to do drugs.

Strong link was found between mental disorders and drug abuse in the study.

Father's low educational background, parents' mental disturbances and birth trauma are significantly linked with children's mental retardation and epilepsy, according to the institute of mental health's survey.

"Mental disorders not only cripple a person or a family, but also stand in the way of building a bright future generation," Rabbani said, They also adversely impact the whole healthcare system.

"It never received priority on the health agenda before as it gets now," he said.

"Earlier treatment was concentrated in larger hospitals. But now the government has decided to take it to the grassroots."

The director said health workers and doctors were being trained up and community health care centres would be equipped to offer primary treatment. The five-year sector plan for health integrated mental health with other physical illnesses.

"But the action should be consistent," he said, soliciting support from the private sector and NGOs to ensure 'a sound mind in a sound body', to all.

The Indian media says the four Kashmiri medical students who went 'missing' in Sylhet were in fact interrogated by the Indian intelligence, with support from Bangladeshi authorities.

The students were questioned in connection with Washim Ahmed, another Kashmiri student studying in Dhaka, who was arrested by National Intelligence Agency (NIA) with regard to the Delhi High Court blast, said Indian newspaper The Hindu on Sunday.

The paper quoting the Press Trust of India news agency said on its online edition the four hailed from Kishtwar in Kashmir valley, Washim's hometown.

Two interns and two students of private Ragib-Rabeya Medical College hailing from India, who were missing from Thursday, returned to the campus on Sunday.

The college authorities said plainclothes men who identified themselves as member of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) had taken them away for questioning from their hostels.

RAB and the police have so far denied any involvement.

The private medical college authorities kept the media from speaking to the students. The interns are Tosaddek Rashed and Amir Amin Reshmi and the students are Taosif Ahmed and Danesh Batt.

The Hindu said an NIA team came to Sylhet to question them to get details about Washim. But they were let off after the NIA team found nothing to back their investigation.

When asked about the incident, home minister Shahara Khatun declined to comment, saying the matter is 'sensitive'.

"Investigation into the matter is underway," she told reporters.

The opposition has accused the ruling Awami League of threatening BNP leaders and activists in some areas of Sylhet district ahead of its road march to the city.

Speaking at a press conference at the party's Naya Paltan headquarters in the city on Saturday, BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi alleged their leaders and activists were being threatened and provoked in Sreemongal and Moulvibazar areas.

"But such attempts of the ruling party (Awami League) won't work before mass gatherings," he added.

Rizvi said there would be huge human gatherings during their road march programme. "Our party leaders and activists have been received with great enthusiasm everywhere," he added.

The BNP leader said that party chief Khaleda Zia would address nine street rallies in Narayanganj, Kishoreganj, Brahmanbaria, Habiganj and Moulvibazar districts – which lie on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway – during the road march to Sylhet scheduled for Oct 10.

The opposition chief, who will lead the Dhaka-Sylhet road march, will address a public meeting on Sylhet Alia Madrasa ground the next day.

Khaleda is scheduled to start for the road march from her Gulshan residence at 9:30am on Monday.

Khaleda announced the road marches at a rally on Sep 27 as part of the party's agitation programme to protest holding of next general election without reinstating caretaker government.

Trading on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) has begun with the general index down by 80 points in the opening hour of the week's first business day.

The index lost 80.06 points or 1.39 percent to 5647.73 points around 12:01pm on Sunday.

Of the 226 issues traded until then, only 28 advanced, 193 declined and five remained unchanged.

THe turnover stood at Tk 754 million.

The index plummeted 57.68 points or 1.00 percent to 5670.11 around 11:38 am.

The stock market has been on a low for almost a year now, and no measure by regulators, government or major investors seems to be able to prop the market up.

Spiralling fall in the last two-and-a-half months has shaved 1000 points off the DSE general index.

The index has been falling since January. It turned around once in July but has since faced a massive fall.

Senior leaders of Awami League have separately met with ex-MP Shamim Osman and former Narayanganj municipality mayor Selina Hayat Ivy to choose one of them as a party candidate in the Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) polls.

They met the seniors at the parliament's deputy leader Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury's Gulshan residence on Sunday morning.

After the meeting Shamim told : "I can't say anything on the issue now as I've been asked not to [say anything]. I was alone there. She (Ivy) went there after [I left]"

The two leaders of the ruling party's Narayanganj unit are among the aspirants from Awami League who are vying for the mayoral post in the newly formed corporation.

After prime minister and party chief Sheikh Hasina met the central leaders to discuss the issue on Saturday, joint general secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif had said the two candidates would sit with Sajeda at 10am Sunday.

"Hopefully there will be a final decision on party support during this meeting," he had said.

The Jagannath University has opened after an extended Puja vacation with the celebration of the prime minister's assurance that the government will fund its academic activities.

The students on Sunday staged a large procession to celebrate the announcement to amend the Jagannath University Act -2005 by scrapping its Article 27 (4), which stipulates that the university will have to generate its own revenue to run its activities.

Following a news report that the government is moving to implement the act, the students got angry and resorted to street protests from Sep 25 demanding that authorities repeal the provision.

The chaos had triggered violent street protests and prompted police to detain at least 17 protestors who were later freed on bail.

The university authorities decided to advance the Durga Puja holidays and ordered the university shut from Sep 29 until Oct 6 to tame tension on the campus.

The students said the university increased their semester fees from Tk 3,500 to Tk 20,000 to raise its internal revenue as per the act.

Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday cleared her administration's position over the disputes when a delegation of the university led by its vice chancellor Mesbahuddin Ahmed met her.

Ashraful Islam, a student of political science department, told bdnews24.com on Sunday, "It's joyful since I find myself as a student of a fully-fledged public university."

Physics department student Billal Hossain said, "We were mentally stressed but we are relieved now."

Two of the Awami League's Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) mayoral candidates will meet parliament's deputy leader on Sunday morning to finalise who gets party support for the polls.

"The two candidates will sit with the parliament deputy leader at 10am Sunday at the party president's Dhanmondi office," the ruling party's joint general secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif told reporters on Saturday.

"Hopefully there will be a final decision on party support at this meeting," he said.

Former MP Shamim Osman and former Naryanganj municipality mayor Selina Hayat Ivy are among other Awami League members who submitted nomination papers for the elections to the newly formed NCC.

Prime minister and party chief Sheikh Hasina has already held a meeting with the two but failed to reach an accord.

Hasina sat at her political office at Dhanmondi on Saturday and held a meeting with the central leadership.

"She instructed us to strengthen the party at the grassroots," Hanif told the press in the evening.

Hasina approved of organising committees for two metropolitan and three district level conferences, he said.

"She also said Awami League believes in democracy and BNP should be able to observe its road march programme peacefully," Hanif said.

The investigations into the Sept 7 blast at the entrance to a court in Indian capital New Delhi has spread to Bangladesh, with tacit cooperation between the counterterrorism agencies of the two countries leading to the arrest of a key suspect in the case.

The arrest also once again brought under focus the terror networks of the extremist organization Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and Hizbul Mujahideen across the sub-continent.

Indian government officials, however, did not disclose if the purported disappearance and interrogation of four Kashmiri students from a medical college in Sylhet were also linked to the probe into the Delhi High Court blast.

After a Kashmiri student of a medical college in Bangladesh was arrested by India's National Investigation Agency in connection with the blast, his father claimed that he himself had asked his son to return to India and handed the latter over to the investigators at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi soon after his arrival from Dhaka.

The NIA produced Wasim Akram Malik to a court in Delhi on Friday and he was remanded to agency's custody until Oct 21. Wasim is the son of a government official based in Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir and he was studying in a medical college in Bangladesh.

Wasim's parents, however, said that an incarcerated Hizbul Mujahideen militant, whom they got arrested for kidnapping their other son Junaid in 2010, set police after their family after the blast in front of Delhi High Court. Jammu and Kashmir police, however, described Junaid, who is yet to be traced, as a militant of the Hizbul Mujahideen.

The blast at the entrance to the Delhi court killed at least 15 and left many others injured.

Kishtwar came under the focus after investigations revealed that an email purportedly circulated by HuJI among media organisations to claim responsibility for the blast had in fact been sent from the town in Jammu and Kashmir.

Wasim was the third Kashmiri to be arrested in connection with blast. Earlier, two youths, Aamir Abbas and Abid Hussain, were arrested in Kishtwar.

Wasim's father Riaz ul Hassan Malik, an employee of India's state-owned National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, told journalists that he had received a letter from police in Kishtwar informing him that the NIA wanted to question his son in connection with the Delhi High Court blast.

"I made arrangements so that the NIA officials can talk to my son Wasim, who was in Bangladesh, over telephone. He readily agreed to cooperate with the investigation and I asked him to return. I received him at the airport in Delhi and then handed him over to the NIA officials," said Riaz ul Hassan Malik, who had in November 2010 lodged a complaint with the Jammu and Kashmir police that his youngest son Junaid had been kidnapped by Hizbul Mujahideen militants.

Police action on the basis of his complaint had led to the unearthing of a recruitment module of the terrorist networks and three Hizbul Mujahideen operatives, including one Azhar Ali, had been arrested. Police, however, could not trace Junaid.

The NIA purportedly started suspecting Wasim's role in the Delhi High Court blast after they questioned incarcerated Azhar Ali in a jail in Kashmir.

Wasim's family claimed that he had been in Kishtwar on the day of the blast at Delhi High Court and had not only withdrawn money from bank ATMs but also shopped in the malls, where he might have been caught on CCTV.

"My son is innocent and he had nothing to do with the blast in Delhi," said his mother Shamima Begum, who is a headmistress of a government school in Kishtwar.

Wasim, who had been in Kishtwar on Eid vacation, had gone back to Bangladesh on Sept 9, just two days after the blast.

Due to tacit cooperation between the security agencies of Bangladesh and India earlier in 2009 and 2010, a number of top leaders of insurgent organisations active in northeastern Indian states of Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur had landed in the custody of the law-enforcing agencies of India.

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Sept 24, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh had upheld the security cooperation between his country and Bangladesh as an example.

"In South Asia, there are encouraging signs of cooperation in the area of security, as exemplified in India's growing cooperation with Bangladesh. Such cooperation is adding to the security of both our countries," he had said.

About 28.5 tonnes of Hilsa fish have been seized from the coastal area in Chittagong district on the second day of the 11-day ban on catching Hilsa.

The fisheries department and Chittagong zone coastguards conducted a special drive in the sea, adjacent to Kutubdia and Anwara areas in the early hours of Friday and seized the Hilsa and 12 fishing boats.

None was arrested in this connection.

Chittagong zone coastguard official Lt Commander Jasimuzzaman told that some of the seized Hilsa was distributed among orphanages and the remaining sold on auction.

He also said they seized 10,000 metres of fishing net worth Tk 70,000 from Kalatali and Himchhari areas of Cox's Bazar district on Thursday night.

A mobile court of the fisheries department conducted a drive in Karnaphuli Market at Sholoshahar in the port city for the second consecutive day on Friday morning.

District fisheries official Pravati Dey told that all sorts of transport, sale and stock of Hilsa and Jatka (juvenile Hilsa less than 23 centimetres in length) are prohibited during the 11-day ban on Hilsa catching.

She said they fined some Hilsa traders of Karnaphuli Market Tk 17,000 for defying the ban.

To increase Hilsa fish production, the government on Sept 27 imposed a ban on Hilsa catching at four points of seven districts for 11 days, starting from Oct 6, during the main breeding season.

The restricted four points, stretching 7,000 square kilometres of waters, are Shaherkhali-Haitkandi in Chittagong, Uttar Kutubdia-Gondamara in Cox's Bazaar, Uttar Tazumuddin-Pashchim Syed Awalia in Bhola and Latachapli in Patuakhali.

The government said the offenders would be jailed by the mobile court for one to six months with a minimum fine of Tk 1000. In case of violating the ban again after being convicted, the punishment would be double.

Mobile courts are conducting drives in the rivers and bazaars of Bhola, Patuakhali, Lakkhipur, Noakhali, Feni, Chittagong and Cox's Bazar districts to enforce the ban.

The opposition chief whip, who was injured in a clash with police, has returned to the country after receiving treatment in the United States.

Zainal Abedin Farroque landed in Dhaka at around 8.15pm Friday night where he was greeted by Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka and BNP MPs.

"No matter how much they torture me, they won't be able to silence me," Farroque told the press outside the airport.

"The government wanted to shut me up with torture. But I will remain with my leader and the anti-government movement to the end of my life," he said.

Farroque came under police attack when he was leading a procession of some 25 MPs from Farmgate to the parliament building on July 6, the first day of an opposition-sponsored 48-hour shutdown.

He received primary treatment at the United Hospital and was taken to the United States on July 13.

A couple has been killed in a traffic accident in the city.

Police said 'Mizan', and 'Lipi', were killed on the spot when a truck hit the motorcycle they were riding at Russel Square in Dhanmondi on Friday evening.

The incident took place around 10:30pm, Dhanmondi Police Station officer-in-charge Moniruzzaman told.

Investment in industries will be disrupted and the inflationary pressure will increase if the government continues taking loans from banks, economists say.

According to latest information of the Bangladesh Bank, the government borrowed Tk 78.92 billion in the first two and a half months of this fiscal, over 20 times more than it did in the same period last year. The central bank contributed Tk 41.02 billion and the commercial banks the remainder.

Over the same period in the last fiscal, the government borrowed Tk 3.61 billion.

Former finance advisor to the caretaker government A B Mirza Azizul Islam said, "The government has to buy fuel oil at a high price to feed the rental power plants. It is facing problem to provide the money and has to borrow from banks to resolve the problem."

According to the Bangladesh Bank, the rate of opening L/Cs (letters of credit) for fuel oil import increased 100 percent in July-September period.

Bangladesh Institute Development Studies (BIDS) director-general Mustafa K Mujeri said, "The government is borrowing money from the banks at an alarming rate. The flow of loans to the private sector will decrease if it continues. Industrialisation in the country will hamper."

Azizul said achieving the targeted seven percent GDP growth will be difficult because industrialists will not get much to borrow.

Both Mujeri and Azizul also were concerned that flow of money into the market will increase because of the government's taking loans from banks, causing inflation to spike even more.

"Prices of essentials will also rise," Azizul said.

Mujeri said, "Opportunities for the private sector to borrow money shrink when the government takes loans from commercial banks. On the other hand, new money hits the market if the government takes loans from the central bank, raising inflation."

The former chief economist of the Bangladesh Bank suggested the government see to it that it does not cross the limit of taking loans.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, inflation was 11.29 percent in August, highest in three years and six months.

The government borrows money from foreign and local sources to finance the budget deficit. The government set a target to borrow Tk 189.57 billion from banks to finance the shortfall in the current fiscal and Tk 156.80 billion in the last fiscal.

On the other hand, foreign loans worth around Tk 186.85 billion are expected in this fiscal: of this amount, Tk 56.27 billion will be spent to paying up loans taken earlier and their interests.

The expected foreign loan in last fiscal was Tk 109.2 billion. Like the last fiscal, the flow of foreign loan is not so good this fiscal.

According to the Economic Relations Division (ERD), most of the foreign loans received in the first two months of the fiscal have been spent on paying past loans and their interests.

Azizul said, "We saw in the past that the government had taken loans from banks to implement annual development programme (ADP). But the rate of implementing ADP is not so good at the start of the fiscal."

According to the latest information given by the planning ministry, only six percent of the Tk 460 billion ADP has been implemented in the first two months of this fiscal.

Bangladesh is most vulnerable to climate change, junior minister for environment and forests has said calling upon the developed nations to swing into action from dialogues on mitigation.

"We've repeated wake-up calls from nature through floods, droughts etc. But still we're busy talking," Hasan Mahmud told a dialogue in the capital on Tuesday.

He expects that the Nov Durban climate talks will help make substantial progress in this regard.

He also sought 'transparency' in global climate change fund disbursement.

International NGO Oxfam and Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (CSRL) organised the dialogue titled 'Expectations from Durban: UK and Bangladesh Perspectives' in cooperation with the European Union (EU) at CIRDAP auditorium.

Portraying Bangladesh's extra strain from climate change, the junior minister said a meter rise of the sea due to global warming would inundate a fifth of Bangladesh's landmass displacing over 30 million people.

He said: "Climate change is on us and we cannot afford wasting time."

"Developed nations should take quick mitigation actions to face climate change impacts. And there should be transparency in releasing climate change fund."

Mahmud said Bangladesh has been successful in establishing climate change fund. "We've established two funds - Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund and Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund on our own."

Extolling the role of the UK, Mahmud said the European country was the biggest donor of Bangladesh last year. "The UK and Bangladesh should work together in climate change-related areas."

Visiting UK MP of Bangladeshi origin Rushanara Ali, speaking at the dialogue, expressed her eagerness to work together with Bangladesh and suggested public pressure on government to raise climate fund.

She said her opposition Labour Party would be pushing the British government to play a proactive role in pressurising the international community for releasing the climate change fund as per their commitments.

Rushanara, who immigrated to East End of London with her family when she was 7 years of age in 1982, said she had a powerful memory about and strong connection with Bangladesh.

"In 1997, when the Labour Party was in power, we campaigned for increasing aid for Bangladesh.

"We committed more support for Bangladesh, but it's not being followed through [by the present government]," she said and pledged her party's full support to Bangladesh in climate change issues.

Chairman of all-party parliamentary group on agriculture and rural development Hasanul Haq Inu demanded pledges from the developed world in the upcoming Durban meet to rehabilitate climate refuges.

Putting forward an idea of three-tier planning for Bangladesh – global, regional and country-level – to face the climate change impacts, Inu also asked the advanced world to set up a climate change adaptation research institution in the country.

He said the global climate change fund should be given directly to the affected countries.

"We don't want it through the World Bank or the IMF [International Monetary Fund]. At least 70 percent of the total fund should be given to the LDCs."

Climate scientist Dr Ahsan Uddin Ahmed said the UK had committed 60 million pound for Bangladesh after a 2008 signing between the two countries.

"But delay in releasing the funds make its use less effective," he said urging the UK to play a strong role in supporting Bangladesh by providing financial support.

Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods' convener and former adviser to the caretaker government Dr C S Karim moderated the dialogue, also attended by Oxfam's country director in Bangladesh Gareth Price Jones.