Himu's Window

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 Family members of several Liberation War martyrs have demanded steps for protection and proper maintenance of Babla Bon mass grave site in Rajshahi city so that people can pay homage to the great sons of the soil, who were buried there. The Pakistani army with the help of their local collaborators picked up 17 people including intellectuals and politicians from their houses on the night of November 25 in 1971. Their bodies were found after local people discovered the mass grave near Boalia Club in the city on December 30. Bodies of the 17 martyrs including Prof Mir Abdul Quayyum of Rajshahi University, Nawrose-ud-Doula Khan, Taslim Uddin, Abul Hossain, Alauddin, Taiyab Ali, Mirja Sultan, Azizul Haque Chowdhury and Aminul Haque Chowdhury were dumped at the site. "I can still remember the day well when I went to the grave site riding a bicycle in the morning of December 30, 1971. I could identify my father's body by seeing the ring on

Monday, December 14, 2009 In mysterious incidents of a series of heists, criminals ransacked three more government offices in Natore early yesterday, just a day after similar incidents of robberies at two other public offices in Rajshahi. Tying up four on-duty night guards, the gang swooped on Natore District Secondary Education Office, Natore Technical School and College at Madrasa crossing and a warehouse of Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) at Kanaikhali in the town in between Saturday midnight and 2:00am yesterday. They also ransacked nine rooms of these government establishments. Officials concerned and police could not trace any clues to the incidents as nothing went missing from the offices except Tk 40,000 in cash from the technical school and college. Similarly, criminals broke into the offices of the Rajshahi Divisional Commissioner and LGED early Saturday and ransacked a total of 32 rooms. The officials concerned said nothing was missing

Sunday, December 13, 2009 Criminals broke into the offices of Rajshahi divisional commissioner and Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) in the city's Srirampur area early yesterday and ransacked 32 rooms of the two adjacent buildings. The gang tied up the on-duty night guard and confined him to the mosque on the ground floor of the three-storey LGED building and ransacked 20 rooms while other night guards were asleep during the incident. Police rescued the night guard, Khalilur Rahman, from the mosque at around 8:00am. Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Commissioner Nawsher Ali visited the scenes and told reporters that the criminals entered the rooms of the two building sometime between 3:00am and 4:00am. He declined to give details for the sake of investigation. According to sources, criminals broke into the divisional commissioner's office by breaking open the main collapsible gate. They broke door locks of 12 rooms on the ground, first and second floors

Friday, December 11, 2009 Young one of gharial, one of the most critically endangered crocodilians on the globe and a near extinct species in Bangladesh, was captured from River Padma in Rajshahi on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a new fishing cat was brought to the Rajshahi Zoo recently after Atghoria Upazila Nirbahi Officer rescued the animal that was caught and injured by villagers. After fishermen netted the two and a half feet-long baby gharial from Gohomabona under Godagari upazila on Wednesday morning, local youths Arifuzzaman and Ismail took it and handed over to Rajshahi Zoo, said Forhad Uddin, veterinary surgeon of the zoo. "It is too early to understand the baby gharial's gender. Male gharials have a knot on their snouts, and the knot develops in one year. It is being fed dead fishes as per food chart prescribed by Dhaka Zoo," he said. The creature is feigning dead in human presence, and seldom wandering in water as it is kept in the cage of tortoise, s

Tuesday, December 8, 2009    America Week opens in Rajshahi A three-day 'America Week', featuring activities of the US embassy and US agencies in Bangladesh begins in Rajshahi today. According to government officials, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister GM Quader is likely to inaugurate the colourful programme that will continue until December 10 at Parjatan Motel. On the inaugural day, US Ambassador to Bangladesh James F Moriarty will visit Martyrs' Memorial Archive at Rajshahi University and take part in a discussion with students on education in America and visa procedures, said RU sources. Youths in Rajshahi showed enthusiasm about the programme as many of them yesterday visited the Parjatan Motel. Following a tradition of past America week, people could visit more than 40 booths run by the US embassy, USAID and its development partners and some US business houses. In a press conference in November, Cultural Affairs Officer of the US embassy in

Monday, December 7, 2009 Passengers halted an intercity train for three hours at Panchbibi station in Joypurhat yesterday protesting carrying of smuggled goods in trains and alleged harassment by border troops in the name of raids. Hundreds of passengers got down from Barendra Express that runs between Nilphamari and Rajshahi when it arrived at Panchbibi station at around 10:00am and staged demonstration for three hours until 1:00pm. They sat on the rail track just in front of the locomotive of the express train and held a rally, said sources in the headquarters of Bangladesh Railway's west zone in Rajshahi. The agitators said the smugglers were carrying Indian fertiliser at different compartments of Barendra Express since it started from Nilphamari. Half an hour before the train reached Panchbibi, some members of Bangladesh Rifles challenged the smugglers, they said. At this stage, the smugglers spread the fertiliser inside the compartments by cutting sacks and t

Thursday, November 26, 2009 Ahle Hadith man held Detective Branch (DB) of police yesterday arrested the secretary general of Jamaat-e-Ahle Hadith, suspecting his hand in giving death threat to Attorney General Mahbubey Alam. Md Rezaul Karim, also a teacher of Bogra Government Azizul Haque College, was shown arrested under Section 54 and produced in Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, seeking a 10-day remand. Judge Ruhul Amin granted seven days' remand for Jamaat-e-Ahle Hadith leader. Talking to The Daily Star, Mahfuzur Rahman, Assistant Commissioner of DB of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, said a copy of the handwritten letter conveying the death threat to the attorney general was also posted to a local daily. "We took samples of Rejaul's handwriting and sent those to CID's handwriting experts two days ago. The experts verbally confirmed us that the samples matched", said Rahman. Police claimed they arrested Rejaul on secret info