Himu's Window

Friday, July 10, 2009 The top leaders of banned JMB's splinter Islam O Muslim Abdur Rahim alias Shahadat and Selim alias Saifullah designated each other as the chief of the offshoot organisation during remand, police said yesterday. Police said Shahadat, Selim and two others--Sajedur Rahman alias Hanif and Jalal Uddin--had already given important information but the police now need to put them face to face for interrogation. M Abdul Kuddus Chowdhury, additional superintendent of police in Rajshahi, said, "A face to face interrogation has now become crucial as Shahadat and Selim are pointing at each other as the chief of the new group." At the end of a five-day remand yesterday, Shahadat, Sajedur and Jalal were produced before the third court of judicial magistrate in Rajshahi in the afternoon. Police sought a seven-day fresh remand against them. The court of Asaf-ud-Doula granted only three day's fresh remand, said M Hedayetul Islam, acting court inspector of Rajshahi

Thursday, July 9, 2009 Rab personnel yesterday recovered six firearms and 10 bullets from Chapainawabganj and arrested four JMB militants, including two ehsars (fulltime members), in three districts. Based on arrested Selim alias Saifullah's statement, a team of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab)-5 raided Selim's father-in-law's house around 3:00am yesterday. Director of Rab-5 Lt Col Israt Hossain said the team recovered six local one-shot guns and ammunition digging around Selim's father-in-law Quamruzzaman's house. None was arrested during the operation, he added. Selim, chief military commander of JMB offshoot Islam O Muslim, was taken to Rajshahi Rab headquarters and was interrogated overnight after his arrest on Tuesday. They recovered a foreign 9mm pistol, nine bullets and two empty magazines from his possession. Meanwhile, Rab arrested another active member of JMB Delwar Hossain, 22, at his house in Jagadishpur under Gaibandha district following con

Wednesday, July 8, 2009 The government has taken initiatives to reopen two silk factories -- one in Rajshahi and the other in Thakurgaon under public-private partnership (PPP) by January next. The Tk27 crore loss-burdened Rajshahi Silk Factory was shut down in 2002, forcing 359 employees out of job. At that time, Thakurgaon Silk Factory was also closed. As per the prime minister's directive to the Ministry of Jute and Textile ministry to take immediate steps to reopen the factories, a high profile parliamentary body visited Rajshahi on Friday and Thakurgaon on Sunday to examine the feasibility of the move. The three-member team completed an inventory of the factory machineries and exchanged views with experts, businessmen, growers and officials of the Bangladesh Sericulture Board. "Local businessmen showed interest in running the factories under PPP," Kazi Abdul Wadud Dara, the committee chief and a lawmaker from Rajshahi-5 constituency, told The Daily St

Wednesday, July 8, 2009 Barrister Aminul Haque, one of the powerful ministers of the four-party government, was finally sent to jail yesterday in connection with a graft case in which he was earlier jailed for 10 years in absentia. Aminul, a key patron of banned Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in Rajshahi region during 2004-2005, was also sentenced to 31 years and six months' rigorous imprisonment for aiding and abetting militants. Judge Tanjina Ismail of the Special Judge-6 passed the order sending Aminul to jail after he along with his lawyers appeared before the court to seek bail. The defence submitted three petitions -- one for surrender to send him in jail, another for giving him first-class division in jail and the other for allowing him to go to jail on an ambulance. The prosecution did not oppose the petition for allowing the fugitive convict Aminul to go to jail on ambulance. After hearing both sides, the judge ordered to send Aminul to jail directing the jail a