Author: Asian Bangla

Asianbangla, Sylhet : Three journalists were assaulted by activists of Awami League and its student wing BCL yesterday and another one was allegedly beaten up by police, while they were covering the city corporation polls in Sylhet. Masuk Hridoy and Dwoha Chowdhury from The Daily Star were assaulted at Jamia Modinatul Ulum Darussalam Madrasa polling centre while Misbah Uddin from the Bangla daily Prothom Alo was assaulted at Dorga Gate Government Primary School centre. Meanwhile, police beat up Abdullah Al Bappi, a photojournalist of Daily Naya Diganta, when he tried to take pictures of people casting their votes at Shahjalal…

Asianbangla, Dhaka: The ruling Awami League’s mayoral candidates won big in two city corporations and the BNP contender was leading in one in yesterday’s battle of ballots, marred by widespread electoral irregularities. In Barisal, the BNP and four other parties boycotted the polls, alleging ballot stuffing and ousting of their polling agents by the ruling party men. The polls in Sylhet were rejected by the BNP and two other parties on the same grounds. They demanded a re-election. In Rajshahi, the BNP mayoral candidate refused to cast his vote citing his frustration. The common picture of the three cities was…

Asianbangla Desk : Damage is seen following an earthquake in Lombok, Indonesia, July 29, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. Lalu Onank/Social Media via Reuters Damage is seen following an earthquake in Lombok, Indonesia, July 29, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. Lalu Onank/Social Media via Reuters A powerful 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the popular tourist island of Lombok in Indonesia on Sunday killing 14 people and sending villagers fleeing from their beds into open fields to avoid collapsing buildings. The quake, which rocked the island early in the morning when many people were still asleep,…

Asianbangla Desk : Former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif, jailed earlier this month over graft charges, has fallen sick inside prison and is being moved to hospital, a minister said Sunday. Sharif and his daughter were jailed on July 13 after a graft court sentenced them to 10 and seven years respectively over properties in Britain which emerged in the wake of Panama Papers revelations. Caretaker home minister for Punjab province Shaukat Javed said on state-run Pakistan Television that doctors had advised his transfer to hospital after an electrocardiogram had shown “variations”. “How many days he stays in hospital depends on…

Asianbangla Desk : Cambodia’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) said yesterday that it had won a general election that rights groups said was neither free nor fair due to voter intimidation and the absence of any significant challenger to Prime Minister Hun Sen. With no real opposition to speak of, Hun Sen was widely expected to win. But the election was widely criticized as a sham because of a campaign of intimidation by Hun Sen and his allies against critics and the dissolution of the main opposition last year. CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said the party won an estimated 100…

Asianbangla Desk : Dozens of US legislators are demanding that the Trump administration explain a recent agreement to allow the free distribution of plans for using 3D printers to make plastic handguns that will be easy to hide and almost impossible to control. After a lengthy legal battle, the government reached agreement last month with Cody Wilson, a militant gun rights advocate from Texas. He successfully argued that the US Constitution’s Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to private gun ownership, should extend to a person’s right to make guns at home — uncontrolled by authorities, since they will bear…

Kuldip Nayar : The army in Pakistan seems to have devised a way where a particular person is elected even without a valid cause. Imran Khan is a product of such phenomena. Long before the latest elections, his name was tossed around. One can now assume that probably nobody else fitted into the scheme of things which the army wanted. Nawaz Sharif had been elected in the past but was found wanting in the eyes of the army. Even the military regime of General Pervez Musharraf was not up to the mark. Why then has the army come into the…

Asianbangla Desk : There were grave concerns about the Tigers’ ability to put their dismal performances in the Test series, part of which was being bowled out for their lowest ever score of 43 in the first Test, behind them and stage a comeback in the ODI series against West Indies. It was a tough ask for inspirational ODI skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza to regroup the demoralised cricketers and start afresh in their favoured format. And it was once again the five pillars of Bangladesh — Mashrafe, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad — who took charge…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : uring a mad race between two buses for passengers, one of the drivers slammed on the brakes near the ramp of the Airport Road flyover adjacent to the Armed Forces Medical College in Kurmitola. While some people, mostly students, were about to get on the vehicle, the second bus came and ploughed into the crowd. To the horror of passersby, two students of Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College were killed on the spot. At least nine others were injured after being hit or run over. Immediately after the incident around 12:30pm yesterday, students of the college went…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : Drug dealers are now smuggling yaba from Myanmar into Bangladesh through the Indian border with three districts in greater Sylhet using Mizoram, Meghalaya and Assam as the conduit route. The crazy medicine first enters Mizoram, a northeastern state of India, through hill roads and then makes its way to Assam and Meghalaya states in cars, buses or motorbikes. The consignments finally cross over into Bangladesh mainly through four points — Zakiganj in Sylhet, Madhyanagar and Tekerghat in Sunamganj and Balla in Habiganj. Yaba dealers have recently started to take the route, already infamous for smuggling Phensedyl, heroin…