Posts Tagged ‘Dhaka’
Written by admin on 24 December 2009
Dhaka, Dec 24 – A chair and a teapot that Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore used have been found in Bangladesh, over six decades after the poet’s death.
Tagore enthusiasts, the department of archaeology and a museum dedicated to Tagore continue to receive memorabilia even as those in their custody are found neglected and in poor state, The Daily Star newspaper said after a correspondent visited the Patisar Kacharibari Museum.
The department’s employees say that some Tagore memorabilia have been lost and efforts are on to collect them in the interests of preservation.
Tagore enthusiast M. Matiur Rahman Mamun earlier collected a considerable number of memorabilia, including a rare letter, accounts register, a bed and two mirrors from villages of Naogaon and Natore districts which were placed in rooms at the proposed Patisar Katcharibari Museum without proper care.
Gaius Uddin, an employee of the department of archaeology said that Zahurul Haque of Maskipur village under Atri Upazila of Naogaon district recently handed over a broken folding chair that belonged to Tagore to the department for preservation at the museum.
Late Mubarak Hossain, father of Zahurul Haque, was an employee of Tagore, said M. Matiur Rahman.
Mohammad Abdus Samad, son of the late Amir Hossain of Sadnagore village under Singra Upazila in Natore district, handed over another wooden chair for preservation in July this year. M. Matiur Rahman Mamun collected a teapot from Maskipur village few months ago which lay in Patisar Katcharibari along with other uncared for memorabilia.
Many of the Tagore memorablia have been preserved at Santiniketan, the open university that Tagore set up in West Bengal, India. Of them, the medal he received along with the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature went missing some time back.
Tagore is respected in both Bangladesh and India, whose national anthems have been penned by him.
Tags: Dhaka
Posted in Asia | No Comments »
Written by admin on 24 December 2009
Dhaka, Dec 24 – It isn’t possible to work ‘keeping the eyes shut’ towards threats to other countries as everybody faces the threat of international terrorism, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said.
‘In the present times all have to face the threats of international terrorism. Now it is not possible to work keeping the eyes shut towards the threats to other countries’ sovereignty,’ Hasina said Wednesday while addressing military officers at the National Defence College.
A pact on fighting international terrorism is high on the agenda when Hasina visits India for summit level talks next month. Officials here said a draft on it has been finalised and sent to New Delhi.
Hasina’s Awami League, which swept the parliamentary poll last year, pledged a regional task force to fight terrorism. Mooted by her government, it has received an in-principle nod from India and the US.
Harking back to the country’s independence in 1971 and New Delhi’s role in it, Hasina recalled that her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had ‘lost no time’ in demanding that India withdraw its military personnel.
India did so within two months. ‘It is rare in the world history that after winning a war, foreign army is taken back to their country,’ she said.
Bangladesh became free after a joint military campaign at the end of which 93,000 Pakistani military personnel surrendered in December 1971.
Hasina told the officials that protecting geographical unity was not their only task as the security systems in the current world are undergoing changes.
‘Various matters, including food security, information security, business security and social security, are not possible to be faced by a lone country. That’s why various types of regional organisations are being formed,’ she was quoted as saying by New Age newspaper Thursday.
Hasina urged all the graduates of National Defence Course-2009 to attain capacity for forecasting security threats and hoped that they would devote themselves to collecting and analysing information in the interest of the people.
Besides 24 Bangladeshi armed forces officers, 20 officers from 11 countries – India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Nepal, Sudan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Indonesia, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia – attended the course.
Tags: Dhaka
Posted in Asia | No Comments »
Written by admin on 23 December 2009
Dhaka, Dec 23 – After a nod from India, Bangladesh is moving to open a new land route to Nepal and offer it the use of its Mongla port for export of goods to a third country.
Dhaka has sent the draft of a deal to Kathmandu, ahead of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India next month, to activate a 1976 transit treaty that would allow landlocked Nepal the use of Mongla port in the Bay of Bengal.
Nepal has so far been exporting its goods through Indian ports.
Bangladesh government officials here say Dhaka and Kathmandu are poised to sign the deal to activate the transit agreement, which will also allow goods-laden trucks and trains to enter each others’ territory.
‘Positive signs are also there that India will give landlocked Nepal the long-awaited approval on using a patch of territory as transit for transporting goods to Bangladesh,’ communications ministry officials told bdnews24.com website.
Bangladesh and Nepal must both have Indian approval to cross its territory before they implement the deal aimed at increasing trade volume between them.
India has in the past been for security reasons hesitant to allow this transit through the 23-km corridor, called `chicken’s neck’ in northern West bengal.
Delhi in September assured Dhaka of providing transit facilities to reach both Nepal and Bhutan through Indian territories.
In return, Dhaka agreed to allow India to carry heavy equipment via Bangladesh to one of its northeastern states to set up a power plant there.
‘The issue of third-country trade between Bangladesh and Nepal, and Bangladesh-Bhutan will be discussed during the prime minister’s upcoming Delhi visit,’ Foreign Secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes told the website.
‘We hope the deal with Nepal will be signed,’ he said.
The volume of Bangladesh-Nepal bilateral trade is negligible and the balance is highly in favour of Nepal. Bangladesh’s exports to Nepal were worth only $8.1 million against imports amounting to $69 million in fiscal 2008-09.
Bangladesh and landlocked Nepal in 1976 signed transit agreement to boost trade. But the deal could not become operational without Delhi’s approval.
‘Our ministry has drafted a deal to make the transit trade operational with Nepal,’ said Naim Ahmed Khan, a communications ministry official.
Railway sources say they have sent a draft of a rail transit agreement involving Bangladesh, India and Nepal to Indian authorities for finalisation.
As per the rail transit deal, India will allow Bangladesh Railway to use Rahanpur (Bangladesh)-Singhabad (India) rail route to reach India’s border stations Jogobani and Rauxal.
Tags: Dhaka
Posted in Bangladesh | No Comments »
Written by admin on 23 December 2009
Dhaka, Dec 23 – India’s Spice mobiles have debuted in the international market by launching four handsets in Bangladesh, the largest growing market for cellphones in the neighbourhood.
‘We chose to enter the international market with Bangladesh as the country offers great opportunities for mobile handset companies with huge untapped penetration,’ Kunal Ahooja, CEO of Spice Mobiles Ltd, said at the launch here Tuesday.
Mehboob Chowdhury, chairman of the South Asian Mobile Forum, said: ‘A greater cooperation is needed among the mobile phone manufacturers and operators of South Asia.’
‘I congratulate Spice, a major brand of the region, for focusing their attention on Bangladesh and hope they may work for the benefit of all the South Asian nations, ‘ bdnews24.com web site newspaper said.
The move comes amid reports that Bharati Telecom is also eyeing the Bangladeshi market where Grameen Telecom, the pioneer, is working to penetrate the large rural market.
Tags: Dhaka
Posted in Asia | No Comments »
Written by admin on 23 December 2009
Dhaka, Dec 23 – Back from the Copenhagen climate summit, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has mooted a new law that would deny bail to people responsible for rampant tree felling.
The prime minister instructed authorities concerned to include a non-bailable section in the law that must also provide for prior permission before taking action against the offenders.
She also suggested Tuesday that a provision be kept for punishing not only the offenders but also the people who buy or use those trees.
Hasina, who pleaded for special funds for her country at Copenhagen, has acted after several incidents of illegal tree-felling came to light in the last two months, some of them involving ‘influential people’ including members of her Awami League.
Talking to The Daily Star, State Minister for Forest and Environment Hasan Mahmud said the government is determined to take tough actions against those who are felling trees and even if ruling-party people were involved, they would not be spared.
Chief of the all-party parliamentary group on climate change and environment Saber Hossain Chowdhury said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s commitment to protect Bangladesh’s environment would be made clear through the new law.
Tags: Dhaka
Posted in Asia | No Comments »
Written by admin on 23 December 2009
Dhaka, Dec 23 – Former Bangladesh president H.M. Ershad’s son was beaten up by a mob here after his car rammed into a car and two auto-rickshaws, injuring five people.
‘A mob beat up Shad and damaged the car. We recovered the car from the place and took him in our custody,’ police sub-inspector Firoj Kabir told New Age newspaper.
Shad Ershad, 26, was earlier arrested for allegedly abducting a 14-year-old girl. In March 2000, he filed a lawsuit with the high court challenging the arrest.
H.M. Ershad was the country’s military strongman and longest-serving president 1982-90.
Tags: Dhaka
Posted in Asia | No Comments »
