RAB 'Grabs' Parts of Reserve Forest
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Falgun 28, 1420 Jamadiul Awal 11, 1435 Regd. No. DA 6238 Vol 1 No 349 THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2014 www.dhakatribune.com SECOND EDITION 20 pages | Price: Tk10 B1 | UKRAINE CRISIS HITS FOOD IMPORTERS 7 | PRESERVING OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE 12 | AR RAHMAN, AKON TO PERFORM TODAY 15 | DJOKOVIC AND LI ADVANCE RAB ‘grabs’ parts of reserve forest New Gazipur training centre driving away locals, hurting livelihoods n Ahmed Zayeef April 13, 1955 and November 15, 1984. To establish the permanent building of Elite force Rapid Action Battalion is RAB force’s training school, the govern- constructing a training centre, destroy- ment decided to withdraw the declara- ing a part of the reserve forest in Gazi- tion of this land.” pur. To pave the way, the government According to the gazette, the area is in a gazette noti cation earlier this situated in Baupara Beat of Bhawal Na- month cancelled declaration of the al- tional Park Range. A total of 19.97 acres located 20 acre land. of land have been declared as non-clas- Due to the sudden development, not si ed area. The government o cially only the forest but also the poor inhab- declared it as a national park in 1973. itants, their age-old accommodation, The RAB authorities have already education, property and assets have started their work. They marked the been threatened. RAB o cials have al- area with pillars and hung four sign- legedly been using forces to drive away boards that read: Entry prohibited; the locals from the place. area selected for RAB force’s training When contacted, top o cials of the school. district administration and the forest They also evacuated 27 landless department responded reluctantly, and families who had been living in the area for over 50 years. A non-govern- ment high school building and half of A cow grazes on the land that was acquired to set up a training school for the RAB forces in Porabari of Gazipur. The photo was taken yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN 27 landless families its playground also falls under the ac- who had been living quired area. Signs of destruction were seen all in the area for over over the area. Few dismantled mud- Plans to fence 50 years have been made houses were standing without Missing jet may have strayed roofs. Most of the landless families left parliament forced to leave the area on a short notice issued by the RAB personnel. Some of them are now toward Andaman Sea suspended did not give any details. On the other staying in the adjacent area by making hand, RAB brushed away the allega- temporary houses. n Reuters on Saturday, less than an hour after Agonising wait n Kamran Reza Chowdhury tions of intimidation. Day labour Yunus Ali told this cor- taking o from Kuala Lumpur, as According to the data from Rodzali, if The Dhaka Tribune reporter visited respondent that some RAB personnel Malaysia’s military has traced what it ew northeast across the mouth it was the missing plane it would have The authorities have temporarily halt- the area, Porabari village, on Monday. came to the area on January 3 this year, could have been the jetliner missing of the Gulf of Thailand bound for own for 45 minutes and lost only ed the move to erect security fence It is around seven kilometres from along with the local ward councillor for almost ve days to an area south of Beijing. about 5,000 feet in altitude. around the parliament building until Gazipur intersection, near the Porabari Delwar Hossain. the Thai holiday island of Phuket, hun- Malaysian Air Force Chief Rodzali There was no word on which di- the original master plan is collected Bazar, and only a 5-minute walking dis- “They gathered us in an open place dreds of miles from its last known po- Daud told a news conference that an rection it was headed and still no clue from the US. tance from Dhaka-Mymensingh high- and ordered us to leave the area imme- sition, the country’s air force chief said aircraft was plotted on military radar at what happened aboard, prolonging the Two weeks ago, Prime Minister way. diately. We urged them to give us some yesterday. 2:15am, 200 miles northwest of Penang agonising wait for news for hundreds Sheikh Hasina had a meeting with o - It is green, verdant, peaceful village. time, and they gave only 15 days. But After a series of at times con icting Island o Malaysia’s west coast. of relatives of those on board. cials of the Public Works Department, A pond named “Botgachiar Pukur” is at they came back before that and forced statements, the latest revelation under- It was not con rmed that the uni- A position 200 miles northwest of the Department of Architecture and the centre of the area. A lot of mango, us to leave.” lined that authorities remain uncertain denti ed plane was Flight MH370, but Penang, in the northern part of the security wing of the parliament, where banana, jackfruit, litchi, Shishu and eu- While talking to Yunus, few oth- even where to look for the plane, and Malaysia was sharing the data with Strait of Malacca, would put the plane she enquired about the construction of calyptus trees were seen in the area. er people gathered around a tea stall no closer to explaining what happened international civilian and military au- roughly south of Phuket and east of the the fence. The gazette issued on March 5 said: within a very short time. All of them to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 or thorities, Rodzali said. tip of Indonesia’s Aceh province and She also asked them whether the “According to the Forest Law of 1927, were eager to say something about the the 239 people on board. “We are corroborating this,” he add- India’s Nicobar island chain. fencing would hamper the proposed the land was declared as a reserve for- sudden evacuation. The ight disappeared from civilian ed. “We are still working with the ex- Indonesia and Thailand have said construction of the metro rail link that est through gazette noti cations of PAGE 2 COLUMN 1 radar screens shortly before 1:30am perts, it is an unidenti ed plot.” PAGE 2 COLUMN 1 PAGE 2 COLUMN 3 INSIDE Khoka now to quit city News 3 The prosecution yesterday completed its part of closing arguments against war leadership to ‘save face’ crimes accused Motiur Rahman Nizami seeking highest punishment for the His announcement stoked intra-par- “ring leader” of collaborators. ty feud and controversy among the party leaders and activists as many of Nation them think it was Khoka’s “face saving 6 Students of Nachol Madhabpur High trick”. School in Chapainawabganj fear they Khoka, who was in the helm of Dha- have to su er a lot in the coming days ka city BNP for the last 17 years, tried as the summer season is nearer. his best to cling to the post and to this end he held a meeting with the BNP International chairperson but eventually he failed to 8 EU member states have agreed manage the party chief, sources said. the wording of sanctions on Russia, Khaleda on March 9 in a standing including travel restrictions and asset n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla committee meeting decided to reor- freezes against those responsible for ganise the city committee. violating the sovereignty of Ukraine, Two days after BNP Chairperson Khale- Party sources said Khoka sat with according to a draft document seen da Zia’s decision to reconstitute the some of his colleagues on Tuesday by Reuters. Dhaka city unit for its failure to build night and decided to hold a press con- up any resistance against the January 5 ference which the senior leaders of the Op-Ed polls the committee Convener Sadeque party disagreed saying it would amount 11 While the entire Bangladesh banking Hossain Khoka yesterday hoped his to humiliating party decision. industry is struggling with ine ciency party would relieve him of his respon- Three senior leaders of the party and graft, many are thinking: How do sibility soon. PAGE 2 COLUMN 3 we ensure the migration of best practices to Bangladesh banking? Violence escalates NOTICE Dear readers: starting this week, we ahead of upazila polls shall be printing our Avenue T lifestyle supplement on Saturday instead of the n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla Election related violence slightly usual Thursday and Mohammad Zakaria increased compared to the last two phases, but the Election Commission Escalation of violence and violation was yet to take any measures to combat of electoral code of conduct across violence and create a congenial atmos- the country have marked the scenar- phere for voters. The EC only suspend- io ahead of the third phase of upazila ed polling in an upazila due to violence. parishad elections. Stray incidents of violence had also A total of 81 upazilas will go to the marked the rst phase while one per- polls on March 15. son was killed in the second phase of As the BNPJamaat-backed candi- the upazila polls. But one person has dates led the last two phases of the already been killed ahead of the third elections, the ruling Awami League has phase prompting the EC to postpone been trying hard to make its candidates voting in the upazila. win in the next phase. The BNP and Ja- The Awami League tried to ensure maat-e-Islami have also been trying to win of single candidates in more seats keep on winning the victory.