US State Dept reports BD govt slow in prosecuting rights abuse

Bangladesh government took limited measures to investigate and prosecute cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, said the US State Department in its 2017 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. "There were reports of widespread impunity for security force abuses... public distrust of police and security services deterred many from approaching government forces for assistance or to report criminal incidents," it said. The annual report, released by the US Acting Secretary of State John J Sullivan in Washington on April 20, considered extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary or unlawful detentions, and forced disappearances by government security forces as the most significant human rights issues in Bangladesh.

Tarique sought asylum in UK

State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam caused an uproar by accusing Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of the BNP and living in London, of giving up his nationality by handing over his Bangladesh passport. The initial comments were made addressing a reception hosted by the UK Awami League in honour of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in London. Later in Dhaka, Alam at a press conference at his residence provided scanned copies of the passport Tarique apparently gave up, that had been forwarded to the Bangladesh High Commission in London by British authorities. Eventually it emerged that Tarique had indeed submitted his Bangladeshi passport to the British Home Office, as required of applicants for political asylum.

Sufia Kamal Hall students evicted in middle of night

Dhaka University's Kabi Sufia Kamal Hall authorities handed four female students over to their guardians late on April 19. According to other students, the four were driven out of the hall on the allegation that they had spread rumours using fake accounts on Facebook during the April 10 incident at the dormitory. Wishing anonymity, several students of the hall said they were intimidated and threatened by the authorities in the evening. Several students of the dormitory told reporters that the authorities had summoned eight students to the hall office around 5:30pm and seized their mobile phones. The authorities then told the students that they should leave the dormitory and called their local guardians to pick them up.

Turag bus staff held over sexually assaulting student

Police on April 23 arrested three staffers of a Turag Paribahan bus on the allegation of sexually harassing a private university student in the running bus on her way to campus at Uttara on Saturday. All the three -- bus driver Roman, 27, conductor Monir, 27, and helper Nayan, 29 -- were arrested from Sayedabad and seized the bus around 4:30pm, said Abu Bakar Siddique, officer-in-charge of Gulshan Police Station. During primary interrogation, they admitted sexually harassing the Uttara University student, he said. The agitating students stopped around 35 buses of Turag Paribahan on different streets in Uttara on Sunday. The passengers were requested to get off and the drivers were asked to park the buses near the university campus, said Parvez Hossain, one of the protesters.