AL, BNP leaders continue talks

Leaders of Awami League and BNP have held a second round of meeting on Wednesday in presence of UN Assistant Secretary-General Oscar Fernández-Taranco.

 The meeting continued for more than two hours starting from 12.30pm at the office of an UN-funded project at Gulshan.

None of the parties spoke to the media about what they discussed.

The UNDP's Dhaka office said that Fernández-Taranco will brief the media at 5.30pm at Hotel Sonargaon.

Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, Advisory Council members Amir Hossain Amu and Tofail Ahmed and Prime Minister's International Affairs Advisor Gowher Rizvi made up the ruling party’s delegation.

The BNP team included the party’s acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Standing Committee members Khandker Mosharraf Hossain and Abdul Moyeen Khan and Vice Chairman Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury.

Earlier, Industry Minister Tofail Ahmed said the talks are continuing.

He also did not provide any indication about the issues that might be raised in the discussions but they will surely center round the poll-time dispensation that has been the bone of contention so far.

The first round of discussions between the two battling alliances led by these parties took place on Tuesday after UN envoy Oscar Fernández-Taranco was able to get both sides to the table.

Amid much hide-and-seek with the media, senior leaders of both parties held the first round of talks at the residence of the UN resident coordinator Neal Walker.

“Both sides agreed to continue the dialogue in the spirit of good will, and compromise and to work constructively together to decrease tensions and build confidence," Fernandez-Taranco had said in a statement on Tuesday.

Fernández-Taranco also extended his stay in Bangladesh by a day and is likely to leave the country on Wednesday.

“At the invitation of the United Nations Secretary General, representatives of both parties have met and engaged in a dialogue,” he said. "I want to take the opportunity to applaud the decision to sit down and seize the opportunity."

“This (meeting) shows political leadership, responsibility and courage, and it is also an answer to the expectation of people of Bangladesh,” he continued.

Fernández-Taranco, who held more than twenty meetings since his arrival at Dhaka on Friday, did not take any questions, promising to address media queries before leaving on Wednesday.

Truant lawyers reach court

 

War crime and death row convict Quader Molla's defence lawyers have finally mustered courage to defy a strike and blockade to spring to Molla's defence in the Supreme Court.

 Quader Molla, the Jamaat-e-Islami Adssistant Secretary General, has been sentenced to death by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for war crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation War.

The defence lawyers had habitually skipped war crimes tribunal hearings, citing Opposition-backed shutdowns, thus delaying trial proceedings.

The tribunal judges had often censured them for playing truant but without much effect.

The lawyers, however, made it to the court unscathed on Wednesday to stall Molla's hanging, despite the Opposition's twin campaign of transport blockade and a shutdown being enforced with threats of violence.

The Jamaat-e-Islami is enforcing a daylong nationwide shutdown on Wednesday for the third consecutive day. The 18-Party Opposition-sponsored blockade is also on.

The Supreme Court Appellate Division's full bench, led by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain, started hearing the maintainability of Quader Molla’s review petition at 10am on Wednesday.

BNP Chairperson’s adviser and Bar Council Vice President Khandaker Mahbub Hossain and Jamaat leader and International Crimes Tribunal chief defence counsel Barrister Abdur Razzaq stood in Molla's defence.

Earlier, Razzaq was noted for his absence in the war crimes hearings of Jamaat leaders Delwar Hossain Sayedee, Quader Molla, Motiur Rahman Nizami and BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury as the dates often coincided with Opposition-backed shutdowns.

The absence of the senior defence lawyers had forced repeated adjournments of tribunal hearings.

The tribunal judges had warned the defence counsels but they seemed to pay no heed.

The Dhaka Central Jail authorities were ready to hang Molla at Tuesday midnight.

But defence counsel Abdur Razzq moved Supreme Court Chamber Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, managing to stay the execution amid the relentless blockades by the Opposition alliance.

The Chamber Justice stayed the execution until 10.30am on Wednesday.

Later on Tuesday night, Jamaat called a daylong general strike on Wednesday, demanding Molla' release.

 

Explosion in Ganajagaran Mancha

 

A bomb exploded near the Ganajagaran Mancha at Dhaka's Shahbagh intersection after people started gathering there to demand execution of war criminal Abdul Quader Molla.

 The Mancha activists nabbed a 17-year-old youth Rasel from the spot and handed him over to police.

bdnews24.com correspondent Sujon Mondol reported from the scene the handmade bomb exploded minutes before 3pm on Wednesday.

It was not known immediately whether anybody was hurt in the explosion.

 

Another Shahbagh victim dies

 

Bank employee Masuma Akter succumbed to severe burns on Wednesday after medical attention for 15 days.

 She was an employee of the State-owned Rupali Bank.

Her husband Mahbub Hossain told bdnews24.com that she died around 11.30am at a hospital in Dhaka.

She was badly burnt when a petrol-bomb was hurled at a bus in Dhaka's Shahbagh on Nov 28 during the Opposition blockade.

The bombing left 19 passengers injured.

Hossain said that he had shifted his wife to the 'Dhaka Burn Hospital' at Elephant Road after she was admitted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

A Dhaka University graduate, Akter is the fourth victim to die of burns sustained in that bombing.

On Dec 4, 22-year old Ohidur Rahman, a student of Dhaka College died at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital after suffering for six days.

On the day of the attack, Teenager Nahid Moral died while his cousin, a 22-year old garment factory worker Md Robin died the next day at DMCH.

All four were on the ill-fated bus when it was bombed at Shahbagh on Nov 28 by Opposition activists.

Fourteen persons have so far died at DMCH of burns suffered in violence during the Opposition's recent blockades and strikes.

 

Justice Sinha's house on fire

The ancestral house of Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha at Moulvibazar has been set on fire by Jamaat-e-Islami supporters, police said.

Justice Sinha was in the Appellate Division bench of the Supreme Court that revised Abdul Quader Molla's life sentence to death penalty.

Kamalganj police station OC Nihar Ranjan Debnath said the incident occurred around 5am on Wednesday at Ranirbazar village under Adampur union of Kamalganj upazila of the distrcit.

He said that miscreants poured petrol on the balcony of the house and set it alight.

Wooden furniture and window frames were damaged in the fire, the OC said.

Justice Sinha's sister-in-law Laxmirani Sinha said the Jamaat-Shibir activists were responsible for the arson.

She said the miscreants ran away leaving behind a sharp weapon as they woke up and raised an alarm.

A case is being filed over the arson.

BSF on 'high alert'

Escalating violence in Bangladesh has led to a spurt in smuggling of explosives from India into the neighbouring country-- if seizures by the border guards are an indication.

Between Saturday and Monday, 32 kg of explosives were seized in two different raids from Malda and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal, a senior official of the Border Security Force (BSF) said.
The latest seizure on Monday by troops of the 125 Battalion followed a raid near the Churiantpur BOP in the Kaliachak police station area of Malda.
Zaizul Haque (23), an Indian national from the local Mohabbatpur village was nabbed with nearly 12 kg of low-intensity explosive.
Haque was trying to send the consignment across the border into Bangladesh, BSF intelligence officials said.
"There was a similar raid near Nimtita border outpost in the Sutia police station area of Murshidabad on Friday.
Troops of the 20 Battalion seized nearly 20 kg of low-intensity explosive during the raid.

These explosives are used in the homemade bombs used by political activists to create panic for enforcing strikes.
On Wednesday, the 125 Battalion conducted another raid near Churiantpur and seized pistols and ammunition and apprehended two Indian nationals.
The two were identified as Sakir Hussain alias Bakir (40) and Abu Salam (18), both residents of Mohabbatpur village.
Two pistols, four magazines and fourteen rounds of live ammunition were seized from them besides 145 bottles of Phensedyl cough syrup.
BSF intelligence said these two are professional smugglers who have been earlier hauled up for smuggling in fake Indian currency that Pakistanis pump into Bangladesh to be smuggled into India.
The BSF headquarters in Delhi has sounded a high alert to all of its frontier headquarters covering the Bangladesh border to heighten vigil for preventing smuggling of weapons or movement of wanted criminals.

Bangladesh in Kerry-Sujatha talks

US Secretary of State John Kerry has held wide-ranging talks with visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh on key issues that included the regional situation following developments in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

No official statement followed the meeting.

But pictures of it were posted on the twitter feed of the South and Central Asia Bureau of the State Department.

However, officials aware of the content of the discussions, described it as a 'highly useful meeting.'

Kerry is believed to have "enjoyed a positive conversation" with Singh, which was followed by a series of meetings between the Indian foreign secretary and other top officials of the State Department, including Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Windy Sherman and Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal.

During the meeting, both sides discussed a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues, which among others included Afghanistan, Pakistan and the elections in Bangladesh, Indian officials said.

Kerry braved heavy snowfall in Washington to meet Singh, reflecting the significance he attaches to ties with India.

Singh, who arrived in Washington on Sunday, has also met Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel B Poneman on Monday, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James N Miller, Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken, Senator Mark Warner, Co-Chair of the Senate India Caucus.

She also had a round table at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an eminent American think-tank.

Singh's consultations at the State Department would continue during her four-day visit. She is also schedule to meet the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan James Dobbins and Senator Robert Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, among others.

The US trip by the Foreign Secretary comes just after the visit of Indian Army Chief General Bikram Singh.

This is to be followed by an India visit by Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal, sometime next year.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is scheduled to visit New Delhi in January for India-US Energy Dialogue. Officials are also planning for the next round of Afghan-India-US trilateral meeting in New Delhi next year.

India and the US have sharp differences on Bangladesh that have surfaced in spat between their Dhaka-based diplomats.

Indian diplomats have been on record saying Delhi is 'not on the same page' with Washington on Bangladesh, especially on issues of regional security.

US call for 'end to violence'

The US embassy in Dhaka called on those responsible to end violence immediately and put an end to the climate of “fear and insecurity”.

In a statement just a day after the two conflicting parties started talking, the US embassy said they were “encouraged”.

“…... With goodwill, the two parties can find a way to provide the elections that the Bangladeshi people want and deserve”, the statement said.

The statement reiterated US Assistant Secretary Nisha Desai Biswal’s call that “violence can never be part of the democratic process and is not acceptable, and must stop immediately”.
“The senseless violence of past days is extremely reprehensible as innocent people, including young children, have fallen victim to arson and bombs”.

“We believe all parties should have space to freely and peacefully express their views.

“The government bears responsibility to provide such space; the opposition parties bear responsibility to use such space in a peaceful manner,” the statement said.
The two bickering parties –ruling Awami League and opposition BNP – continued their dialogue on Wednesday after the ice melted with UN mediation a day before.

‘Will return home after Molla’s execution’

The Ganajagaran Mancha says it would occupy Shahbagh until war crimes convict Abdul Quader Molla's execution.

Mancha spokesperson Imran H Sarker made the announcement on Wednesday after the Appellate Division adjourned the hearing on the 'maintainability' of Quader Molla's review petition until Thursday.

It put on hold the execution of the war crimes convict until further notice.

“We will return home after a victory procession following (Molla’s) execution,” said Imran.

He vowed to launch a powerful movement to execute the verdict of the Jamaat leader if needed.

The Chamber Judge of the Supreme Court on Tuesday night had stopped the Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General’s execution until 10:30am Wednesday.

The full bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain started hearing the stay petition on the Jamaat-e-Islami leader’s execution around 10am on Wednesday.

Later, at 11.30am the Appellate Division started to hear on the 'maintainability' of the Molla's review petition.

It adjourned the hearing until Thursday.

The Ganajagaran Mancha occupied Shahbagh minutes after the Chamber Judge stopped Molla’s execution on Wednesday.

Shipping and Liberation War Affairs minister Shajahan Khan went to Shahbagh around 11.45am to express solidarity with the Mancha.

“We want trial of war criminals and we will go ahead with a movement for that if needed,” Shajahan said.

The sit-in at Shahbagh had caused an upsurge across Bangladesh 10 months ago when the International Crimes Tribunal had handed Molla the life sentence.

On Tuesday, as Dhaka Central Jail authorities were preparing to carry out Molla’s death sentence at one minute past Tuesday midnight, the Supreme Court Chamber Judge, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, stopped the hanging after the Jamaat leader's lawyers moved a petition.

Soon after the court order agitated Ganajagaran Mancha leaders and activists declared their 'indefinite occupation' of Shahbagh.

The second war crimes tribunal had sentenced the Jamaat leader to life in prison on Feb 5 for war crimes during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.

Of the six charges against Molla, the ICT-2 acquitted him of one, and sentenced him to life for murder and rape in two charges. For the rest, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The life term, widely considered light for the Jamaat leader, created a wave of anger and frustration, drawing people to Shahbagh for mass protest.

The spontaneous vigil that continued for several more weeks at the Shahbagh intersection drew tens of thousands of protesters, shutting off traffic through the busy thoroughfare.

The protest spread to other districts across the country as men, women and children demanded maximum penalty for war criminals from the rally, dubbed as Ganajagaran Mancha— meaning people’s awakening.

Following the protests, the government filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against the sentence on Mar 3. Molla also appealed for acquittal.

Later, on Sept 17, the apex court raised the sentence from life term to death sentence. A death warrant for him was also issued on Sunday hours after the tribunal received a full verdict on his death sentence from the Supreme Court.

Explosions near CMM court

Bombs exploded near the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in old Dhaka on Wednesday.

 

The explosions were reported when the hearing on the stay petition on Abdul Quader Molla’s execution was taking place in the Supreme Court.

Bombs were also hurled at Badda amid the Opposition-backed blockade and the Jamaat-e-Islami-sponsored shutdown.

Nobody was injured in the explosions.

Miscreants exploded several handmade bombs in front of the CMM court around 9am, Kotowali Police Station SI Manab Ghosh said.

Jamaat-Shibir activists exploded homemade bombs while taking out a procession in Badda’s Shahdatpur around 8.45am, police said.

The Opposition alliance is enforcing the blockade since Saturday rejecting polls while the Jamaat called the nationwide shutdown on Wednesday to stop of the execution of war crimes convict Abdul Quader Molla.

The Jamaat leader was set to be hanged one minute after Tuesday midnight but the Supreme Court Chamber Judge stayed it until 10.30am on Wednesday.

Jamaat-Shibir activists went berserk across the country as jail authorities got ready to hang Molla.

Security had been tightened all over the country including Dhaka to avert any trouble.

Hifazat threatens to cut off Chittagong

 

Hifazat-e Islam has threatened to cut off Chittagong from the rest of the country if they are not allowed to hold a 'convention' at the city's Jamiyatul Falah mosque.

Meanwhile, the local Awami League has warned of 'dire consequences' if the administration permits Hifazat to hold the 'convention' in the mosque.

A statement issued by Hifazat on Tuesday said that they have holding this convention since 2010.

"This is neither a political rally nor a political party's programme. If the government prevent this grand convention, then tens of thousands of 'Towhidis' have to take the streets," it said.

The statement threatened to cut off the port city from the rest of country, if not granted the permission.

It said the government would be liable for any 'unwanted situation'.

Meanwhile, the local Awami League has called upon the administration and police not to permit Hifazat to hold the convention at the Jamiyatul Falah mosque.

The party's Chittagong Metropolitan unit president ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury said in a statement that Hifazat-e Islam wants to turn Bangladesh into a 'terrorist state' using 'religion as a shield'.

"In the recent past, Hifazat people had held the port city to ransom by unleashing a wave of violence after being permitted to hold a rally. They had also thrown shoes at the Khatib of the Jamiyatul Falah mosque," Chowdhury said in the statement.

"They cannot enter the city to hold the rally. If they enter the consequence will be serious", Chowdhury said in the statement.

 

Police vans torched in Sylhet

The Jamaat-e-Islami activists have unleashed violence across the country during the day-long shutdown the party has called to stop execution of war crimes convict Abdul Quader Molla’s death sentence.

 

 Activists of Jamaat’s student front, Islami Chhatra Shibir, clashed with police in Sylhet’s Dewri on Wednesday morning.

The Jamaat-Shibir activists blocked the Sylhet-Sunamganj road by felling tree logs, SMP Additional Deputy Commissioner MD Ayub said.

When police intervened, the Jamaat activists hurled stones at the police.

They also torched two police vans parked in Ambarkhana.

Police fired rubber bullets and lobbed teargas canisters to control the situation.

Police and RAB personnel have been deployed at important points of the city.

Our Sirajganj Correspondent reported that two trucks overturned after being chased by Opposition activists on the western side of Bangabandhu Bridge early on Wednesday.

A poultry trader, who was in one of the trucks, was killed in the mishap.

Five more people were injured in the accident and they were admitted to Sadar Hospital.

The activists damaged 25 goods trucks and set ablaze three trucks on Tuesday night.

Firefighters rushed to the spot and put out the fire.

The miscreants also uprooted planks of the Bangabandhu Bridge and put up barricade on roads by felling tree logs.

NU exams suspended

The decision was taken after the BNP-led Opposition alliance on Monday extended its three-day blockade by another three days until 6am on Friday.

The university announced suspension in a statement without ‘unavoidable reasons’ for the move.

The fresh schedule for the day’s suspended exams will be published on www.nubd.info.

Jamaat calls strike for Tuesday

The Jamaat-e-Islami has called another daylong nationwide shutdown on Tuesday to protest against the issuing of a death warrant against its leader Abdul Quader Molla.

 

 

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The call came minutes after the end of its Monday shutdown, pressed for the same reason.

Jamaat's acting Secretary General Shafiqur Rahman issued a media statement in the evening, announcing the consecutive shutdown.

A war crimes tribunal issued Molla's death warrant on Sunday, soon after getting a copy of the full version of the Supreme Court verdict sentencing Molla to death for war crimes during the 1971 Liberation War.

The Jamaat-e-Islami, as a party, is itself under the scanner for its role during the War of Independence.

The Supreme Court had cancelled Jamaat's registration earlier this year, barring it from contesting the forthcoming general election.

Meanwhile, the shutdown has been called amid the Opposition's ongoing six-day transport blockade to press for a non-party government to supervise the national polls.

Bangladesh hailed in controlling Singapore riot

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Singapore’s Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam says he was glad that the Bangladesh High Commission has issued a clear statement following Sunday night's violence in ‘Little India’.

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In a post on his Facebook wall shortly before noon on Monday, Shanmugam said that "the rioters need to be dealt with in accordance with the law”, reports Channel NewsAsia.
His remarks followed a statement from the Bangladesh High Commissioner in Singapore in the morning.
In the statement, High Commissioner Mahbubuz Zaman had called on the Bangladesh community to exercise calm and restraint and cooperate fully with the law-enforcing agencies.
He had said the community was duty bound to help the authorities to maintain the rule of law, and added that this was necessary to maintain overall law and order.
Zaman had also dismissed reports that the violence last night was fuelled by an accident involving a Bangladeshi worker, saying the reports were not based on facts.
At least 18 people, including 10 police officers and four Singapore Civil Defence Force personnel, were injured in the riot that broke out in ‘Little India’ on Sunday night.
The Channel NewsAsia citing police said the trouble started after a private bus hit and killed a pedestrian around 9.20pm at the junction of Race Course Road and Hampshire Road.
A riot broke out shortly afterwards, involving a crowd of about 400 people, the report said.
Police then activated the Special Operations Command and Gurkha Contingent to the scene to bring the order, the report said.

Witness Momena is fake: Molla's wife

War crimes convict Abdul Quader Molla's family has claimed witness Momena Begum whose testimony got the Jamaat-e-Islami leader the gallows is 'fake'.

 Molla's wife Sanowar Jahan made the claim on Monday at a media conference, a day after a tribunal issued a death warrant for him.

The defence, too, had claimed that the Jamaat leader was not the Quader Molla who had committed the crimes.

Molla was given life imprisonment in February this year for his atrocities during Bangladesh's Liberation War but the Appellate Division later revised the verdict to a death sentence at the Prosecution's appeal.

The sixth charge had sealed the death verdict for Molla.

It accuses Molla of directing a band of men to shoot Hazrat Ali Lashkar, slaughter his wife and two daughters, and his two-year-old son on Mar 26, 1971 at their Mirpur Section 12 residence.

One of Lashkar’s daughters was also raped.

Prosecution said Molla received the maximum penalty based on Momena's testimony.

Speaking at a news conference at the Supreme Court, the Jamaat leader's wife claimed: "Momena Begum had not come to testify in court. Some other woman was played up as Momena who had testified in a secret camera trial.

"Our lawyers saw the picture of real Momena Begum and ascertained that the woman who had testified in the court was not Momena," she said.

Sanowara Jahan said her husband had been handed death sentence based on the deposition of a 'sham witnesses'.

She demanded the matter of 'forgery' be investigated.

"We believe the verdict is a wrong one. Abdul Quader Molla's death verdict can be altered by highlighting these issues if we get a chance to file a review petition as per the Constitution," she said.

The defence, too, had said they would file a review plea but the Prosecution said the constitutional provision would not be applicable in case of war crimes convict Molla.

The Constitution of Bangladesh says those convicted of genocide cannot be accorded basic rights.

Molla's wife alleged the government was trying to hurriedly execute his verdict.

"The attempts to execute the death sentence by denying the constitutional right to review verdict and not following the jail code are not only illegal but also contrary to universal human rights," she said.

Red notice for Tarique dropped

A Dhaka court has withdrawn a red notice it issued for BNP's Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman in a case over siphoning off money.

The order comes in the wake of Tarique's acquittal in the case last month.
A copy of the order had been sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said court clerk Ariful Islam, speaking to reporters.
Two copies of the order had also been to Banani and Gulshan police stations through the Deputy Commissioner of the Police’s Prosecution Division, he said.
Judge of the court Motahar Hossain had on 19 Nov acquitted Tarique of the money laundering case.

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He had ever since been on leave. After the leave, he resumed his office on Tuesday and issued the order to call off the red notice.Tarique, elder son of Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia, has been living in London since 2008 after securing bail from the Supreme Court on medical grounds.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had filed a case on Oct 26, 2009, accusing him and his business partner and friend Giasuddin Al Mamun of siphoning off Tk 204.1 million to Singapore between 2003 and 2007.
On Aug 8 last year, the court indicted Tarique and Mamun under the Money Laundering Act 2002 and issued an arrest warrant for Tarique.
According to the case details, Mamun had taken Tk 204.1 million as bribes from Khadiza Islam, Director of Nirman Construction Ltd, promising a contract for building an 80MW power plant at Tongi.
Mamun allegedly deposited the money in a Singapore bank, from where Tarique had withdrawn Tk 30.78 million.
A Dhaka court ordered Tarique’s arrest with Interpol's help in May this year.
The trial had begun in July 6, 2010, after the ACC pressed charges against them in court.
Tarique had got acquittal of the money laundering case amid the blockade and shutdown, called by the party-led 18-Party alliance.

The party has been agitating for a non-party caretaker government to oversee the next elections, due on Jan 5.
Tarique’s lawyer Joynal Abedin Mejbah had earlier told bdnews24.com that there had been 16 cases and a general diary against him.
Of them, four were sub-judice. They were Zia Orphanage Trust graft case, two cases over a grenade attack on Aug 21, 2004 and a loan default case filed by Sonali Bank Ltd, he had said.
He has been cleared in two cases, including the money laundering case in Singapore, and a general diary. Proceedings of 10 other cases had been suspended by the High Court, Mejbah had added.

Peaceful solution possible: UN envoy

UN assistant secretary-general Oscar Fernandez-Taranco has said a 'peaceful solution' is possible after a second meeting with the Chief Election Commissioner in as many days.

"There is a possibility of peaceful solution to the current deadlock," he said on Monday after a meeting with Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad.
"...if we have the political will, if we have good leadership, if we have an attitude to compromise and most importantly if we are able to engage in a peaceful dialogue."
This was Fernandez-Taranco's first response to media enquiries after three days of hectic parleys with leaders of political parties, civil society leaders and officials like the CEC.
The country's two major alliances have been at loggerheads over the nature of the poll-time dispensation.
The ruling party installed an 'all-party' cabinet for elections oversight but the opposition stayed away demanding a 'non-party' caretaker one.
The political conflicts erupted into violence during the relentless opposition sponsored strikes and blockades in which scores of innocent civilians were killed.
Amid the impasse, the UN Chief Ban Ki-moon who had been trying to broker the deal for long sent Fernandez-Taranco to mediate.
Days before his arrival on Dec 6 evening, the UN Human Rights Commission Chief Navi Pillay in a strong worded statement told Bangladeshi politicians to stop 'destructive brinkmanship' and reminded them of 'prosecution' of political leaders for perpetuating violence.

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Pillay pointed out that Bangladesh is a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.“In other situations, we have seen cases of political or election related violence where the perpetrators of such acts - including political leadership - have faced prosecution,” she said and insisted that the leaders should start talks to resolve the crisis.
Several countries also called for a dialogue to end the impasse.
Apart from meeting political leaders, Fernandez-Taranco also met the US, Russian and Indian envoys.

Blockade extended until Friday morning

BNP-led 18-Party alliance has extended its 72-hour blockade until Friday morning.

Its Joint Secretary General Salahuddin Ahmed said that the blockade throughout Bangladesh would now end at 6am on Friday.
The announcement came in form of a video message recorded at an undisclosed location.

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“The blockade of roads, railways and waterways will continue until 6am on Friday.“We are extending our programme as the government has not accepted our demand for a non-party caretaker dispensation [to supervise the polls] and the schedule for a unilateral general election has not been cancelled,” Salahuddin said.
The 72-hrblockade starting at 6am on Saturday was supposed to end at 6am on Tuesday.

PM wants women to be with her

 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has appealed to women to be with her in implementing war crimes verdicts.

“We have started their (war criminals) trials. I want cooperation from mothers and sisters to implement the verdicts,” she said while distributing the Begum Rokeya Awards on Monday.

Hasina recalled women’s contribution to the 1971 War of Independence.

“December is the month of victory of the Bengali nation," she said as she began her speech. "We clinched the final victory this month at the cost of three million martyrs and the sacrifice of 200,000 mothers and sisters.

“We hate the war criminals and their supporters, who were responsible for rape, violence and torture against women,” Hasina said.

She lambasted those trying to hinder the war crimes trials. “Do they believe in independence?”

She asked the Opposition to shun the politics of violence. "Today is Begum Rokeya's birth anniversary. If the Opposition Leader had chosen to withdraw her blockade campaign on this today, we would have been spared the taunt that this is essentially a fight between two women," Hasina said.

She reasoned that no one would have ever branded it a fight between two men had the parties been headed by them. "But now people say this is a fight of two women because both I and the Opposition Leader happen to be women."

The Prime Minister mentioned various development projects for women taken up by her government, including the National Women Development Policy 2011 and the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2010.

Hasina said women had proved that they were capable of working in any position.

She stressed the government had launched several projects to ensure women’s economic emancipation.

Paying rich tributes to the legacy of Begum Rokeya, Hasina said it was just not enough to raise slogans. “We must work for women’s emancipation.”

She said women were working in the judiciary, executive, army, navy and air force and the police department.

“How do women proceed if we don’t give them an opportunity?”

She handed over this year's Begum Rokeya Awards to Jharnadhara Chowdhury and Professor Hamida Banu for their contribution to female education and women empowerment.

Jharnadhara Chowdhury is the president of the Gandhi Memorial Institute. She was awarded Indian civilian Padma Shri award this year.

Hamida Banu was a former professor of physics department at the Chittagong University. She has worked in many government setups include the Public Service Commission.