Dhaka; The NHRC chairman on Monday termed the demand for the amendment of the constitution to disqualify war criminals for presidential clemency as logical. “It is a logical demand from the young generation and Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee,” said Mizanur Rahman, the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Nirmul Committee, works for elimination of the killers and collaborators of 1971, has been demanding amendment to the constitution blocking the president clemency for…
Posts published in “Bangladesh”
By Shakhawat Liton in Daily Star, Feb 18 Dhaka: In a major development, parliament has passed an amendment empowering the war crimes tribunals to hold trial of any organisation for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. The amendment, a key demand of campaigners for the war crimes trials and the Shahbagh protesters, was made during passage of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973, amendment bill yesterday. The bill also empowered the government, informants…
Dhaka- President Zillur Rahman signed the amended International Crimes Tribunal law on Monday, a day after the parliament passed some major changes in the act. Officials from the Parliament Secretariat went to Bangabhaban for the president’s approval to the law that empowered the tribunals to try various organisations alongside individuals for crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War. The amendment, a key demand of campaigners for the war crimes trials and the Shahbagh…
By Rejaul Karim Byron in Daily Star, Feb 17 Dhaka; India will release 92 percent of the $800 million line of credit this year, which was offered to Bangladesh for infrastructural development in 2010. “Dr Dipu Moni and I are satisfied at the pace of utilisation of the LoC extended by India,” Salman Khurshid, India’s external affairs minister, said at a joint press conference in Dhaka yesterday. To date, the Indian government has approved 13…
The Jamaat-e-Islami yesterday seemed to soften its anti-government stance in the face of strong opposition from people, especially youths, who expressed resentment at its leader Abdul Quader Mollah being awarded life term instead of capital punishment. On Monday, the day before the delivery of the verdict, Jamaat leaders issued threats of civil war and said they would enforce non-stop hartals if anything went against Quader Mollah. The party last night announced two-day protest programmes instead.…
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry is processing amendments in the Foreigners Act to tighten controls over alien Bengalis living illegally in the country. Representatives of the Ministry informed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior that these amendments became necessary as the question of aliens involved security and economic implications. The meeting of the Committee, held on October 18 in Islamabad, was also informed by the National Aliens Registration Authority (NARA) that over two million Bengalis were…
By Afsan Chowdhury in Dhaka Courier This year, Durga Puja in Bangladesh was one of the more violent ones as mandaps all over the country faced various forms of violence and intimidation. Although the Prime Minister thanked law enforcement agencies for ensuring a peaceful environment, the facts seem otherwise. Her statement that everyone in Bangladesh is at liberty to practice their own religion, rings hollow. Six cops were suspended in Sunamganj for attacking Hindu devotees…
DHAKA, Jan 4: All the Islamic political parties of Bangladesh should drop the name of Islam from their name and should stop using religion during campaigning, Law Minister Ahmad Shafique said on Monday. He said this following a Supreme Court ruling on Sunday, which upheld a 2005 ruling by the high court throwing out the fifth amendment of the constitution, which had allowed religion-based politics to flourish in the country since the late 1970s. “All…
Bangladesh is dropped from the US watch list on religious freedoms. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), government aided panel had placed Bangladesh on the list of countries deemed to violate minorities’ right to religious freedom for the past three years from 2005 to 2008. The Commission in its latest report released in Washington this past week noted that the election held last year end has brought about some qualitative difference. It…