Here is a brief recap of the news items throughout Bangladesh until Saturday morning
Fire at CRP, Mirpur
A fire broke out at the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) building in capital’s Mirpur 14 on Friday evening.
Fire Service control room duty officer Atiur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune that fire broke out at the 7th floor of the 14-storey building of CRP’s Mirpur centre around 6:20pm.
Seven fire fighting units rushed to the spot and were trying to douse the flame, he said.
36 ministries evade taxes of Tk1,690 crore
About 36 ministries and divisions of the government except for the Foreign Ministry have not paid land development tax to the land ministry for years.
As a result, the amount of unpaid taxes of those ministries and divisions stood at around Tk1,690 crore until February this year.
The ministry could collect only Tk102.42 crore in tax while the target was Tk1,792.57 crore.
Of the total 36 ministries and divisions, the environment and railway ministries evaded tax of a staggering TK900 crore while dues of full private sector are only Tk180 crore.
Bangladeshi worker wrongfully jailed in Malaysia
A Bangladeshi migrant worker in Malaysia yesterday filed a suit against the Malaysian authorities demanding three million Malaysian Ringgits (RM) in compensation for physical torture and wrongful incarceration.
Alamin Sheikh Badsha filed the suit with Penang High Court against the Malaysian government, immigration department director-general and investigation officer, inspector-general of police, the Penang police chief and the investigation officer, reported malaysiakini, a Malaysian news website, Friday.
EC for amending upazila parishad laws
The Election Commission is thinking about proposing amendment to the upazila parishad laws to hold the polls on a single day.
It observes that violence escalated in the fourth round of the latest upazila parishad polls across the country because of holding the elections in phases.
“We are thinking of asking the government to add a clause to the existing law that will stipulate that the Election Commission can hold local body polls anytime it deems suitable after the tenures of the parishads are over,” Election Commissioner Mohammad Abu Hafiz said Friday.
Moncho demands neutral probe into assault
Gonojagoron Moncho has asked the government to form a high-level probe committee over the assault of its activists on April 3 at Shahbagh by the pro-government cadres.
Imran H Sarkar, spokesperson of the platform, said: “We are surprised by the attacking attitude of both the police and the pro-government cadres.
2 more Tejgoan fire victims succumb
Two more victims, who received severe burns after a fire broke out at a shop in the capital’s Tejgaon area on Thursday, have succumbed to their injuries at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Friday afternoon.
The victims Shafiul Alam, 48, succumbed to 95 % burn injuries while Ibrahim Khalil, 35, succumbed to 91% burns around 1pm.
Earlier on Thursday, another victim van-pullar Abdul Latif, 50, succumbed to 96% burns.
8 injured in BCL factional clash at DU
Eight persons have been injured in a clash between two groups of Chhatra League activists in Surja Sen Hall of Dhaka University on Friday afternoon.
The clash erupted following an altercation between two first-year students of the hall who belong to two factions of the ruling party student affiliate while they were having lunch in the Jashim Uddin Hall cafeteria.
Ershad: Replacement made for curbing confusion
Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad said the replacement in party’s secretary general post has been made in a bid to curb the confusion among party members.
He said: “Many people, both the party insiders and outsiders, think that there had been a long-standing dispute between me and Rawshan.
I have made the decision of appointing Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu as the secretary general of the party, removing ABM Ruhul Amin Howlader, in order to curb the confusion.”
7.1 quake hits off Papua New Guinea
A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake jolted Papua New Guinea on Friday and was followed by a 6.7-magnitude tremor, AFP reports.
But no Pacific-wide tsunami warning was sounded, US officials said.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the first quake, originally put at 7.3 magnitude but later revised down, struck 57 kilometres off the town of Panguna on the remote and volcanic Bougainville island.
The second hit about an hour later 96 kilometres from Panguna, the USGS said, adding that both quakes had an estimated depth of about 50 kilometres.
