Pintu held in BDR rebellion case Staff Correspondent (Politically tortueing report from Bangladesh)

Pintu held in BDR rebellion case
Staff Correspondent


Former BNP lawmaker, Nasir Uddin Ahmed Pintu, was arrested at the premises of the High Court on Tuesday on charge of helping rebel BDR soldiers flee their headquarters at Pilkhana on February 25-26.
A team of Detective Branch Police, with the help of Shahbagh police station, picked him up at around 5:15pm just after he came out of the High Court where he had gone to pursue a writ petition.
Monirul Islam, deputy commissioner of Detective Branch (South), confirming his arrest told New Age, ‘We have arrested Pintu and brought him in our custody on the basis of requisition from the Criminal Investigation Department which is investigating the BDR mutiny case.’
The 12-member national inquiry committee headed by former secretary Anisuzzaman Khan on May 21 submitted a 309-page report to the home ministry in which they revealed that Pintu had instigated the mutineers and helped them flee the scene after the carnage.
Court sources said Pintu’s lawyer Mahbub Uddin Khokon filed a writ petition with the bench of justice Tariqul Haqim and justice Azizul Haque on Sunday for no harassment or arrest of Pintu in the BDR mutiny case. But the bench didn’t give its ruling on Tuesday and his lawyer withdrew the petition.
Earlier, Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu had been sent to jail after he turned himself to a Dhaka court seeking bail in two cases for attempted murder and theft on February 15, 2007.
A former leader of JCD, the student wing of BNP, Pintu’s name is closely linked with several crimes and he had been evading arrest since the joint forces launched a countrywide hunt for top corrupt people and criminals in January 2007.
Former lawmaker Pinto had captured a room at the MP Hostel immediately after winning the 2001 parliamentary elections for Lalbagh-Kamrangirchar constituency (Dhaka-7) although no room had yet been allotted to him.
During his stint as a member of parliament, Pintu allegedly exerted political influence to grab public land, manipulated tenders, patronised local extortionists and criminal groups, and tortured activists of rival political parties as well as of rival factions in BNP.
He was once arrested during the 1996-2001 Awami League (AL) rule and even once during the immediate past BNP-led coalition government’s rule. But Pintu could never be brought to book due to government intervention.
Condemning the arrest, the secretary general of Bangladesh Nationalist Party Khandakar Delwar Hossain in a statement said the government was continuing repression on opposition leaders and activists to cover up its failure.
He demanded immediate and unconditional release of Pintu and his brother-in-law Mainur Rahman Apu.

(Source : The New Age)

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Experts oppose Indian
support for transport
Call for domestic resources for
regional connectivity
Raheed Ejaz
Allowing India to build infrastructures in Bangladesh for transit purposes might invite New Delhi’s unwarranted control over transport system here, foreign policy experts feel, suggesting the country should rather mobilise its own resources to invest in road, railway and ports.
New Delhi has long been pressing for a transit route through Bangladesh territory to carry goods from one part of India to another and has offered to invest in transport infrastructures here. The government is in negotiation with India for cooperation in transport sector, mainly railway.
Foreign policy experts suggest the government should mobilise domestic resources for development of infrastructures such as roads, railway network and river port, to keep Dhaka’s absolute command over the movement of vehicles through Bangladesh.
Scopes remain wide open for Dhaka to bargain hard with New Delhi on transit issue to maximise national interests on a long-term basis instead of any piecemeal arrangement, they point out.
‘We should thoroughly examine the requirements and modes of investments for a better regional connectivity. It is a question of our national interests, pride and dignity to develop our own infrastructures and I think we should afford the costs,’ Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, a former foreign secretary, told New Age Tuesday.
Imtiaz Ahmed, professor of international relations at Dhaka University, said Delhi realised it would not be able to develop India, especially the north-eastern region, without cooperation from Bangladesh.
‘So, we should try to cash in on India’s compulsion. We should think about long-term funding to establish regional connectivity, not merely India connectivity,’ he said.
A former diplomat who is now a member on the parliamentary standing committee on the foreign ministry, Mostafa Faruk Mohammad, however, did not see any problem in receiving Indian fund for development of road, railway and port infrastructures.
‘What is wrong if we take Indian investment as we are having investments from countries such as China and Japan in transport infrastructures?’ he asked.
As Bangladesh has resource constraints, it needs to have foreign capital, be it from India or any other country, to develop its infrastructures, Mostafa Faruk viewed.
Transport expert M Rahmatullah said no concrete assurance of funding was in sight either from international financing institutions or private investors for building overall connectivity.
‘We need not invest money right now in establishing connectivity with India as Indian multi-excel vehicles can transport goods from Akhaura to Agartala,’ he said, referring to Bangladesh’s decision on giving India access to the Ashuganj port to transport heavy consignments for the Palatana Power Project in Tripura.
Professor Imtiaz said the matter of water transit through Ashuganj should be considered a test case, but not the ‘one that fits all future cases.’
‘While giving India the much-needed access through Bangladesh, we have to think about a comprehensive deal keeping it open to review from time to time to ensure national interests and interests of the posterity,’ he pointed out.
Shamsher Mobin said Dhaka must examine the proposal put forward by Delhi seeking transit through the Bangladesh territory. ‘It is important who would control the route. When we will give a country access through our territory, its control should be absolutely ours,’ he insisted.
Dhaka agreed to allow India to use the Bangladesh territory to carry goods to Tripura during a meeting between the foreign minister, Dipu Moni, and her Indian counterpart SM Krishna in New Delhi on September 8.
The two countries are scheduled to sign a deal in May 2010 on India’s access to the Ashuganj Port.
The Indian authorities have, however, not yet made any offer of financial packages of benefits when they offered to invest in building required infrastructures, sources in the foreign ministry said.
Bangladesh will need an investment of $2.4 billion or Tk 16,800 crore for building infrastructures to effectively join the Asian Highway network, including transit to India, according to a study by the Asian Development Bank and its Tokyo-based institute.
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(Source : The Daily New Age)