Rashidul Hasan

Festivity was in the air. Large flags, banners, festoons and portraits of Awami League leaders were everywhere at the capital’s Suhrawardy Udyan, where thousands of leaders and activists went to join the party’s 21st council yesterday.

Amid nationwide outrage and angry protests, the Liberation War affairs ministry yesterday suspended the controversial and flawed Razakars’ list three days after its publication.

With more names of freedom fighters cropping up on the Razakars’ list, the home and the Liberation War affairs ministers have traded blame over preparation of the list that has caused nationwide outrage.

They bravely fought in the Liberation War and one of them laid down his life to free the motherland from the clutches of the Pakistan army. They have been honoured by all as heroes since then.

At least 10 people, not needed for the job, are going to Seattle to bring two new Boeing 787-9s to Dhaka spending taxpayers’ money.

About 28,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia are still facing uncertainty over returning home within the December 31 amnesty deadline due to the high price of air tickets and a shortage of flights, said sources at the expatriates’ welfare ministry.

Around 30,000 undocumented Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia are seriously worried about returning home within the December 31 amnesty deadline as the prices of Kuala Lumpur-Dhaka air tickets have shot up due to a high demand, said sources at the expatriate welfare and civil aviation ministries.

The top authorities of Biman Bangladesh Airlines had clearly instructed its officials to realise an additional charge for handling each kilogram of incoming and outgoing cargo carried by non-scheduled freighters.

Last month, Monir Hossain, a garment factory owner, missed a deadline for exporting T-shirts to his UK buyer through the seaways.

A parliamentary watchdog yesterday asked the foreign ministry to prepare a specific work plan to stop torture and sexual harassment of female expatriate workers, saying that even a single such incident was not acceptable.

Tension is growing between the trustee board formed by late Jatiya Party chairman HM Ershad and his former wife Bidisha Sidiqque over the custody of their son Eric Ershad.

Twenty-eight out of 32 pilot cadets had failed the tests but Biman recruited them anyway.

The Public Works Department has served termination notices to GK Shamim’s construction firm GKB & Company Pvt Limited in a move to cancel the contracts signed with the company for implementing 15 large government projects.

He is an academician who teaches English literature at a private university in the capital.

The estimated cost of constructing a third terminal at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport has been increased by 40 percent. It is now a Tk-20,598 crore project.

The BNP is likely to participate in the Dhaka city polls, to be held in January next year. However, many leftist parties are yet to decide on contesting the elections.

A parliamentary body yesterday summoned the Anti-Corruption Commission chairman and ACC investigators concerned to explain as to why the anti-graft body did not take action against former BASIC Bank chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu for his alleged involvement in plundering around Tk 4,500 crore of the state-owned bank.

A parliamentary watchdog yesterday raised questions over the commerce ministry’s delay in importing onions to face the ongoing crisis, while another minister separately admitted the government’s “failure” in this regard.

Biman has finally got rid of the last of its two leased Boeing 777-200ER airplanes that have been causing the national flag carrier to incur huge losses for several years.

Workers Party suffered a blow as its former general secretary and current politburo member Bimol Biswas resigned from the left-leaning organisation, alleging that it was being run in an undemocratic manner.