Jamaat’s hartal resumes today

Jamaat sources said they were waiting for the verdict in Mir Quasem Ali’s case which is scheduled for today to enforce yet another spell of hartal.‘We will announce a fresh 24-hour hartal if Mir Quasem is awarded maximum punishment,’ an executive council member of Jamaat said.Meanwhile, over a hundred of activists of Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir were detained across the country ahead of the hartal on Saturday.Jamaat-Shibir men staged demonstrations and clashed with the police in Dhaka city and elsewhere on the day

Blackout all over as grid fails

The whole country on Saturday morning went into a rare power blackout which continued for hours together as the national grid collapsed after the 400kv power transmission line between India and Bangladesh tripped, officials said.The blackouts began at 11:27am and power could not be restored in most of the urban and rural areas until late into the night.

Fire burns Amar Desh office

Fire service director Mohammad Mahboob said, ‘We have already formed a five-member probe team headed by deputy director Mizanur Rahman to find out the cause of the fire.’The committee was asked to submit the probe report in seven working days, he added.BSEC authority also formed a five-member committee to investigate the incident.Industries minister Amir Hossain Amu, state minister for home affairs Asaduzzaman Khan and acting BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir visited the spot.Fakhrul suspected that there might have been a plot to permanently stop Amar Desh to suppress the criticisms of the government. The ministers also said that they would ensure proper investigation into the incident.

JMB coordinator, 4 others held by RAB

The five were basically leaders of Chapainawabganj and Pabna belt and now were regrouping the banned Islamist outfit under the supervision of its present chief Sohel Mahfuz, now in hiding, said the battalion’s intelligence wing director Abul Kalam Azad. He said that that a team the battalion arrested the five JMB members at Munsur Ali railway station in Shirajganj on early Friday when they were heading for Joydebpur in Gazipur by train.

MONEY LAUNDERING ENQUIRIES

ACC fears harassment of citizens if police involved.

Women workers welcome

UAE signs deal to recruit up to 2,000 a month; Bangladesh hopes manpower export to restart with it.