Author: Asian Bangla

Asianbangla Desk : The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has notified the final results of the general election but withheld results of nine national and 17 provincial assembly seats for various reasons, stirring a new controversy before the formation of the next government. The strength of the Pakis­tan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in the National Assembly has gone down from 116 to 112 for now and its ally Balochistan Awami Party from four to three. The nine NA constituencies where the results have been withheld include NA-53 (Islamabad) and NA-131 (Lahore) from where prime minister-in-waiting Imran Khan had defeated former PM Shahid Khaqan…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : To stop buses racing on city streets, Dhaka Road Transport Owners Association yesterday decided to abolish the system of daily contracts with drivers and their helpers. Many bus owners rent out their vehicles to drivers on daily contracts. In this system, drivers pay a specific amount to the owner and to maximise profits, they drive recklessly to make as many trips as possible in a day, said Khondaker Enayet Ullah, general secretary of the association, a platform of Dhaka-based transport owners. He said the number of accidents is on the rise as drivers race on the streets and…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : Police last night launched a massive block raid in the capital’s Bashundhara Residential Area and its adjacent Kalachandpur to arrest “drug peddlers and criminals”. Equipped with armoured personnel carrier and dog squad, around 1,500 law enforcers, including members of Detective Branch (DB) of police, started the raid around 8:30pm, police said. The raid was underway when this report was filed around 1:30am today. The move came two days after a clash in the area between police and students demanding road safety measures. The law enforcers, however, claimed that the raid had nothing to do with the clash. SM…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : Vice-chancellors of several private universities yesterday urged the government to grant amnesty to students arrested in cases filed in connection with violence during the student movement for safe roads. At a views-exchanging meeting with Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, they said many of the students who took part in the protest for a legitimate cause were provoked into violence. They asked the government to release them. In reply, the minister said the law would take its own course. “Who are we to grant amnesty? No question of pardon comes here. The students joined the movement because of their…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : In a joint statement on Tuesday, 438 Indian photographers, artists, filmmakers, curators and writers appealed to Bangladesh authorities to release internationally acclaimed photographer Shahidul Alam, remanded in police custody. ‘We are deeply concerned and agitated by the news of the arbitrary and unreasonable detention of our colleague, friend and mentor, the photographer and educator Shahidul Alam, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, under provisions of the draconian ICT act,’ they said in the statement. ‘We demand his immediate, unconditional and honourable release from detention’, they said. ‘We totally refute the allegation that Shahidul Alam committed any crime by highlighting the utterly…

Lack of designated buses has not only exposed students to unsafe journey, accidents, harassment and misbehaviour from transport workers in capital but also increased education costs by way of travelling expenses. In absence of school bus services, students and their guardian rely on public transport, use car, rickshaw and auto-rickshaw, which empty guardians’ pocket, head teachers and principal of colleges of capital said. They, while talking in a views exchange programme with education minister Nurul Islam Nahid and others top official of the ministry in the capital on Sunday, demanded steps for arranging school bus service. They proposed dedicating…

Asianbangla Desk : Malaysian ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak, right, arrives at High Court of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Wednesday, August 8, 2018. Najib will face a new charge of money laundering over a multibillion-dollar graft scandal at a state investment fund, the anti-corruption agency said. Najib in July pleaded not guilty to abuse of power and three counts of criminal breach of trust, just two months after the scandal led to his stunning election defeat. Photo: Yam G-Jun/Associated Press AP, Kuala Lumpur Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak pleaded not guilty Wednesday to three new money-laundering charges related to…

Asianbangla Desk : An Army Major and three soldiers were killed in a gunfight with a large group of terrorists who were trying to infiltrate from Gurez in north Kashmir yesterday. The infiltration bid was foiled and two terrorists were also shot dead, the army said in a statement. According to sources, it was a group of six to eight terrorists that crossed the Line of Control or LoC at Gurez in north Kashmir’s Bandipore district, 125 km from Srinagar. They were intercepted by soldiers, leading to a fierce gunfight. The encounter was still going on and the army had called…

Asianbangla Desk : The death toll from a powerful earthquake that hit Indonesia’s tourist island of Lombok topped 100 yesterday as rescuers found victims under wrecked buildings, while thousands left homeless in the worst-affected areas waited for aid to arrive. A woman was pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed grocery store in the north, near the epicentre of Sunday’s 6.9 magnitude quake, the second tremor to rock the tropical island in a week. That was a rare piece of good news as hopes of finding more survivors faded and a humanitarian crisis loomed for thousands left homeless by the…

Asianbangla Desk : The U.S. is bracing for cyberattacks Iran could launch in retaliation for the re-imposition of sanctions this week by President Donald Trump, cybersecurity and intelligence experts say. AP Concern over that cyber threat has been rising since May, when Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal, under which the U.S. and other world powers eased economic sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. The experts say the threat would intensify following Washington’s move Tuesday to re-impose economic restrictions on Tehran. “While we have no specific threats, we have seen an increase in chatter related…