1 dead, 100 hurt in Savar clash

Savar, May 12 (sunnews24.com) - Police on Saturday fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse angry garment workers who blocked streets and smashed dozens of vehicles to protest against detention of a fellow worker, police and witnesses said.

One female worker died after she was run over by a bus during the hours-long violence. But the two-way clash between the protesters and the police left at least 100 people, including 10 police officials, injured after the chaos broke out at Savar.

The death occurred when the worker tried to flee the police action.

The disorder forced authorities to suspend operations at about 100 factories amid fear of further violence at the industrial hub where hundreds of garment factories are located.

The protesters said they began their protest in the morning for the release of a fellow worker of Hameem Group’s Artistic Design Limited who was detained on Thursday after he allegedly attacked an official of the group.

The melee broke out as the workers of Hameem Group first took to the streets. And responding to their call, workers from other factories joined the Hameem Group workers and attacked police after they charged them with batons to remove them from the streets.

“We’ve fired at least 1,000 rounds of rubber bullet and 100 shells of tear gas to bring the situation under control,” Industrial Police (Ashulia Zone) assistant director Mir Fusiar told bdnews24.com.

Six people were arrested over snatching of a shotgun from a constable, Fusiar said.

Faizul Kabir, deputy director of the Industrial Police at Savar, said he and nine other police officials were injured as the protesters threw brickbats at them.

Thursday’s detention of the worker followed an altercation with an official over talking on mobile phone during work.The authorities of Artistic Design handed over the worker to the police as he had allegedly beat up the official.

Hameem Group managing director and FBCCI President A K Azad told bdnews24.com that the disorder was created by spreading a rumour of death of the detained worker.

“We’ve taken step to produce him before the workers by releasing him on bail,” he added.

The protesters also smashed about 50 vehicles during the blockade on Dhaka-Tangail highway in protest against the detention, witnesses said.

Thirty-year-old ‘Nahar’ of Opex Sweater was crushed by a bus while she was reportedly fleeing the scene being chased by police.

Harun-or-Rashid, an assistant manager of local Women and Children Health Centre, said the agitated workers took away the body after she was declared dead.

HSBC to sell assets in South America

Mexico City, May 12 (sunnews24.com/Reuters) - HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBA.L) said on Friday that it had agreed to sell its operations in Colombia, Uruguay, Peru and Paraguay for $400 million (248.9 million pounds) in cash to Banco GNB Sudameris.

The Colombia and Peru deals are expected to close in the last quarter of this year and Uruguay and Paraguay should close in the first quarter of 2013, the company said in a statement released in Mexico City.

Banco GNB Sudameris is a financial group controlled by Grupo Gilinski, a family of Colombian bankers with a long record in the industry who had previously tried to buy assets in the region.

As of March, GNB Sudameris' assets were worth $5.7 billion and ranked No. 10 out of 23 banking groups based on asset worth. The bank was not immediately available for comment on the deal.

HSBC has been quitting smaller markets and businesses to cut costs and streamline operations under new CEO Stuart Gulliver.

The London-based bank operates in 85 countries and Gulliver is trying to sharpen its focus on fast-growing Asian markets. It has struck about 27 deals in the past year to cut more than $60 billion in risk-weighted assets from its balance sheet.

HSBC has 62 branches in the four Latin American countries it is leaving - 24 in Peru, 20 in Colombia, 11 in Uruguay and seven in Paraguay - out of more than 3,000 across the Americas.

As of December 2011, the four operations for sale had assets worth $4.4 billion, HSBC said.

The bank's Latin American operations made an underlying pre-tax profit of $2.2 billion last year, up 21 percent. Nevertheless, bad debts have been rising there and costs in the region are high and well above Gulliver's target.

HSBC this week said first-quarter earnings hit $6.8 billion, beating expectations due to a rebound in investment banking, growth in Asia and a fall in US bad debts

Chargesheet a 'mismatch': BNP

Dhaka, May 12 (sunnews24.com) –BNP leader Nazrul Islam Khan said on Saturday the chargesheet pressed by the Detective Branch of police against the party's acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and 44 others involving the Apr 29 violence was a mismatch.

He claimed that the First Information Report (FIR) of the case does not match the chargesheet pressed the court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate on Thursday.

"The chargesheet was submitted in a hurry and it does not go with the FIR," Khan, a BNP standing committee member, told a news conference.

He criticised the government for its failure in finding M Ilias Ali and killers of journalist couple Sagar-Runi.

"Those are very slow-paced but they are very fast when false cases come against the opposition leaders," he said.

"Accounts of the people who have been made witnesses have not been taken in the cases. Even the accounts of the bus driver and his assistant are not included in the chargesheet," he said.

He demanded withdrawal of the chargesheet against the leaders of BNP and its alliance while speaking at the briefing at party chief Khaleda Zia's Gulshan office.

Khaleda to address Gazipur rally

Dhaka, May 12 sunbdnews24 BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is scheduled to address a rally in Gazipur on Saturday afternoon. 

She will leave her Gulshan home at 2:30pm for the rally at Kapasia Chala Club ground, her Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan told bdnews24.com. 

The rally has been planned to gear up the opposition's campaign against the government. 
The BNP and its 17 other allies are out to strengthen its anti-government movement amid authorities' indifference to its demand for caretaker government. The opposition alliance also wants to rally support from the common people by protesting against the disappearance of M Ilias Ali and cases against opposition leaders and activists, saying the charges are false. 

After a Mar 12 rally in Dhaka, this is going to be the first rally to be addressed by Khaleda. She had given the government a deadline of June 10 to meet the demand for restoring the caretaker government system. 

Khaleda had told the Mar 12 rally that fresh agitations would be announced if the demand is not met within the deadline. 

The party, however, enforced five days of general strikes last month in protest against the disappearance of Ilias Ali, an organising secretary. A number of top BNP leaders have been sued in cases over violence during the strikes. 

Humayun Ahmed in his favourite haunt

Gazipur, May 11 (sunnews24.com)—Popular Bengali fiction writer Humayun Ahmed is spending time with family, friends and relatives at Nuhash Polli in Gazipur, his country retreat, after flying back home after eight months. 

He came back with wife Meher Afroz Shaon and their two sons 'Nishad' and 'Ninit' on Friday morning and headed straight for Nuhash Polli. The writer had been in New York for the last eight months for his colon cancer treatment and will return there for a surgery in three weeks' time. 

"What I missed most is my Nuhash Polli. I have missed the garden and the trees there. Then I missed my friends. Missed my mother and the relatives," said Ahmed as he talked with the journalists at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the morning. 

His friends and relatives could not help but throng Nuhash Polli too. 

Humayun's mother Ayesha Foyez, sisters Sufia Haider and Mamtaj Shaheed, mother-in-law Tahura Ali, architect friend Fazlul Karim and personal physician MA Karim were with him. 

Ayesha Foyez was ecstatic having her son back. 

"I pray to Allah for my son's recovery even in exchange for my own life," said Ayesha, who in the last eight months talked only with Shaon on the phone. 

Winner of The Ekushey Padak and The Bangla Academy award, Humayun walked around the garden he had grown at Nuhash Polli. He watched people catch fish from the pond he had made before going for a rest prescribed by the doctors. 

A large number of journalists thronged Nuhash Polli but could not reach him for comment as the writer has been advised to meet people sparingly. 

"Humayun is resting as he has travelled down a long way. Doctors have restriction over Humayun appearing in public places," said M A Karim. 

"He (Humayun) could not bear the pain of people and that's why he loathed to stay in the hospital. He even won't visit relatives in hospital. But this is what has become the routine of his life," sighed Humayun's sister Sufia Haider. 

Former vice-Principal of Kabi Nazrul Government College, Haider, however, believed people's love will get her brother back in good health. 

Besides relatives, the publication house Anyaprakash owner Majharul Islam and its director Sirajul Kabir Chowdhury also went to Nuhash Polli to meet the writer. 

Jewel Rana, Chief Assistant Director at Nuhash Films, the production house owned by the writer, told bdnews24.com Ahmed has brought along a screenplay he prepared while undergoing treatment in America. 

The screenplay was made from his own story 'Pipra' (Ants) and has been named as 'Pipilika'. Rana said that they expected to air the drama during the next Eid festival. 

Humayun had left country for cancer treatment on Sept 13 last year. 

After his brief return, the writer said after arriving at the airport, "If I had returned forever after getting done with my treatment, then I would have said I am very happy. But after setting my foot in the country today, I thought one of the 20 days have gone. Only 19 days are left." 

Doctors treating the writer have decided to operate on his colon as he has already taken twelve chemo-therapies to contain the spread of cancer.

Journos demo to protest Bibhash death

Dhaka, May 12  sunbdnews24 Journalists demonstrated in front of the National Press Club by blocking traffic on the street on Saturday to protest against Friday's death of a fellow in a road accident. 

Hundreds of journalists gathered in front of the club after expressing their last respects to Independent newspaper journalist Bibhash Chandra Saha at the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU). 

His relatives left the place with the body around 11am for cremation. 

His cremation will be held at Rajarbagh Crematory in the afternoon, his brother-in-law S N Bhakta told bdnews24.com. 

Bibhash, 45, a senior reporter with English-language daily The Independent, was killed as a bus knocked his motorcycle yards from his workplace in front of Star Kabab Restaurant on Road-2 of Dhanmondi. 

Addressing a street rally in front of the Press Club, DRU president Shakhawat Hossain Badshah criticised the government for its failure to take visible steps to improve road safety. 

Badshah, who was a member of a committee formed to investigate the death of journalist Dinesh Das in a similar road accident in January, said authorities seemed reluctant to implement recommendations to contain reckless driving by unskilled drivers. 

"We've proposed to give driving licences to only those who have passed fifth grade. We demanded an increase of punishment from three years to 10 years in jail for the responsible drivers," he said. 

He expressed his anger as the proposals had not been implemented. 

Journalist trade union leader Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury urged the government to compensate the family of Bibhash. 

Charge sheet politically-motivated: BNP

Dhaka, May 10  BNP on Thursday termed 'false' and 'politically-motivated' the charge sheet against senior party leaders in the Apr 29 shutdown arson case and demanded the case be withdrawn.
"The government has filed two false cases against senior opposition leaders to divert people's attention from the ongoing anti-government agitation. Charge sheet of one of the cases was submitted today. We condemn this," BNP standing committee member Khandker Mosharraf Hossain told a human chain programme in front of the National Press Club in the capital.
"We urge the government to withdraw the false cases and the charge sheet immediately," he added.
He also claimed that the people did not believe these cases and alleged that the government was 'neck-deep' into corruption and the cases intend to 'bury that flaw'.
Police filed two cases accusing senior opposition leaders over hurling bombs in the Secretariat, the centre of government administration, and torching of vehicle in front of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) during the Apr 29 general strike.

Police on Thursday pressed charges against BNP's acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and 44 others in the arson case claiming that their investigation found involvement of those. The charges said the accused leaders of the BNP-led 18-party alliance had backed the strikers who allegedly set the bus on fire in front of the PMO.

The case was filed by Tejgaon police amid growing tension on the street over the disappearance of BNP's organising secretary M Ilias Ali who has remained traceless since Apr 18.

In April, the BNP-led opposition alliance enforced five days of general strike to demand that the government 'return' Ilias amid accusation that security agencies have 'abducted' him. The government has denied the allegation, saying that it was 'a plot by the opposition to create anarchy' in the country.
Among the accused in the Apr 29 arson case, BNP's joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi was arrested and sent to jail, pending further order, while another joint secretary general Mahbubuddin Khokon was on bail until May 20.
The charge-sheeted accused also include BNP leaders MK Anwar, Hannan Shah, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Mirza Abbas, Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, Amanullah Aman, Ruhul Kuddus Talukdar Dulu, Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, Fazlul Haque Milon, Sharif Uddin Chowdhury Anne, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal president Sultan Salahuddin Tuku, Liberal Democratic Party president Oli Ahmed, Jamaat-e-Islami acting chief Mokbul Hossain, BJP President Andalib Rahman Partha and Swechchhasebak Dal president Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel.