Author: Asian Bangla

The national development discourse in Bangladesh often mistakenly considers graduating from the Least Developed Country (LDC) category and becoming a middle-income country (MIC) as interchangeable. Senior-level policymakers continue to express their aspiration for the country to join the middle-income group by 2021, which marks the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence. However, this status has been achieved when Bangladesh joined the lower-middle-income country category on July 1, 2015. Conversely, graduation from the LDC group is almost certain, but not until 2024, if the country meets all the technical requirements in the coming years. To strategise the country’s direction effectively, it is…

Twenty-nine years after serving jail, two convicts in a cattle smuggling case were declared innocent by the High Court today. Abdul Quader and Mofizur Rahman were freed from jail in 1989 after serving three years in jail for smuggling into cattle from India. Among them, Quader is still alive while Mofizur has already died. The duo hailed from Jessore. According to the case statement, the case was filed against the two with Sharsha Police Station in Jessore in 1986 on charge of illegally smuggling six cattleinto Bangladesh from India. The case was filed by Lance Nayekof the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Amir…

Israel admitted for the first time Wednesday it was responsible for a top-secret 2007 air raid against a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor, a strike the intelligence minister says serves as a warning to Iran. Israel has long been assumed to have carried out the raid and had been named by other countries as being behind it, but it had never formally acknowledged the strike or divulged details. The admission along with the release of newly declassified material related to the raid comes as Israel intensifies its warnings over the presence of its main enemy Iran in neighbouring Syria. Israeli Prime…

Boko Haram militants freed scores of kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls on Wednesday, but some of the released students said five of their schoolmates had died in captivity and another was still being held. The Islamist fighters, some of them shouting ‘God is greatest’, drove the students back into the northeast town of Dapchi in a line of trucks in the morning, dropped them off then left, witnesses told Reuters. “Five among us taken away were dead. One is still with them because she is a Christian,” one of the freed girls, Khadija Grema, told Reuters. Dapchi resident Muhammad Bursari said his…

A man being sought over the Austin parcel bombings blew himself up early Wednesday inside his car as authorities moved in to arrest him, police said. “The suspect is deceased,” Austin police chief Brian Manley told a news conference. Manley said the suspect is believed to be responsible for all five bomb explosions that have killed two and wounded several more and put people on edge in the Texas capital since 2 March. Police had traced the man’s car to a hotel outside Austin as authorities waited for tactical teams to arrive, the man started to drive away. As police…

A suicide bomber on Wednesday killed at least 26 people, many of them teenagers, in front of Kabul University, officials said, as Afghans took to the streets to celebrate the Persian new year holiday. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the deadly attack — the fifth suicide bombing in the Afghan capital in recent weeks — but the Taliban denied involvement on Twitter. Another 18 people were wounded in the blast, interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said, “all of them civilians”. A suicide attacker on foot detonated himself in front of a hospital, Rahimi said. The hospital is…

Dhaka: The government has nominated two more distinguished personalities for the ‘Swadhinata Padak- 2018’ (Independence Award) in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the respective fields. The recipients are-Cultural Affairs Minister Assaduzzaman Noor (culture) and Channel I director Shykh Seraj (agricultural journalism). Earlier on March 6, the government nominated 16 distinguished personalities – late Kazi Zakir Hasan, martyred intellectual SMA Rashidul Hasan, late Shankar Gobinda Chowdhury, Bir Uttam Air Vice-marshal Sultan Mahmud, late M Abdur Rahim, late Bhupati Bhushan Chowdhury alias Manik Chowdhury, Shaheed Lt M Anwarul Azim, late Humayun Rashid Chowdhury, Shaheed Amanullah Mohammad Asaduzzaman, Shaheed Matiur Rahman Mallik,…

Bangladesh is going to construct ‘border roads’ in hilly areas along the India-Myanmar border aiming to ensure better security through improved road communications. The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday approved a project titled ‘Construction of Border Roads’ involving Tk 1,699.85 crore, reports the UNB. ECNEC Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting held at the NEC conference room, reports the UNB. While briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the Road and Highways Department and the Special Works Organisation of Bangladesh Army have been given the responsibility to implement…

Sylhet: Freedom Fighter Bir Protik Kakon Bibi was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital due to serious health complications on Monday night. Dr Mosaddek Hossain, a doctor of the hospital, said she was suffering from asthma and heart diseases for long and recently she got an attack of pneumonia. The freedom fighter was admitted under the observation of medicine expert Dr Nazmul Islam, said Dr Mosaddek adding, ‘Later, she was shifted to the intensive care unit under the observation of Dr Sabyasachi Roy.’ A medical board will be formed on Wednesday for her…

Barely one week into the US-Bangla Airlines plane crash in Nepal, a domestic flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines made an ‘emergency landing’ at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Tuesday following a technical glitch. ‘A Saidpur-bound flight of the national flag carrier with 67 passengers took off from the airport at 12:10pm. It came back and landed at the airportaround 12:50pm for the sake of passengers’ security after it received technical signal20 minutes into the takeoff,’ said Biman General Manger (public relations) Shakil Meraj, reports the UNB. ‘It’s not a major emergency problem. There might be technical glitch in a flight.…