Bangla fire kills 108

A devastating fire spread through several apartment complexes in Dhaka, killing at least 108 people and injuring more than 100 others, officials and local media said Friday.
Fire official Nazrul Islam said the blaze started when an electric transformer exploded late on Thursday, igniting a three-story apartment building in the Najirabazar area of old Dhaka. He said the blaze then spread to other buildings where 87 charred bodies were later recovered.
He said some injured people might have died later on the way to hospital or while there, but could not give an exact figure.
Citing officials at the scene and hospital doctors, ATN Bangla television station reported that at least 108 people had died, and that more than 100 others were injured.
"It has caused a huge devastation," Islam said.
He said the firefighters had the blaze under control and that a rescue operation was continuing Friday morning.
He said the victims included many guests of a wedding party on the roof of a building.
Bangla Vision TV station quoted unnamed fire officials as saying the fire spread to at least 20 apartment complexes.
TV footage showed firefighters and residents carrying injured by tricycle rickshaws to hospitals while many relatives of the victims were wailing.
At the state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital, medical staff struggled overnight to treat the injured as overwhelmed relatives and family members gathered there.
"I haven't seen such a scenario in my 40 years of career," Shamanta Lal Sen, the hospital's burns unit chief, told reporters.
Bangla Vision said the rescue effort was being hampered since the area is crammed with buildings and roads are narrow.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her shock at the incident and condolences to the families of the victims, and ordered authorities to provide all medical support to the injured.
Authorities have ordered an investigation.

Bangladesh blocks Facebook

Bangladesh has blocked social networking website Facebook over caricatures of Prophet Mohammed and “obnoxious” images of the Muslim-majority country's leaders, an official said on Sunday.

The move came after Pakistan banned access to Facebook, video website YouTube and 1,200 web pages over a row about “blasphemous” content on the Internet.

Facebook was blocked in Bangladesh late on Saturday, the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said.

The move was ordered as cartoons of the Mohammed on the popular website “hurt the religious sentiments of the country's Muslim population,” said BTRC acting chairman Hasan Mahmud Delwar.

“Some links in the website also contained obnoxious images of our leaders, including the father of the nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and the leader of the Opposition.” He said Facebook would be re-opened once Bangladesh had permanently blocked the offending pages.

The country's anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said it had arrested one man over the images of political leaders. “A special intelligence team arrested him and he has been charged with spreading malice,” senior RAB official Enamul Kabir said.

He said the arrested man used at least six Facebook accounts to post the images, but officials declined to give details of the depictions, which were not immediately showing up on the site on Sunday.

On Friday, thousands of Bangladeshis took to the streets of the capital Dhaka, demanding that the government ban Facebook over what they called “anti-Islamic propaganda.”

The protests were triggered by an “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” campaign on Facebook, which its anonymous promoters said was in defence of the freedom of expression. Muslims regard all depictions of Islam's founding prophet as blasphemous. “Drawing caricatures of Prophet Mohammed is an attack on Islam and extremely humiliating for Islam,” Dhaka protest organiser A.T.M. Hemayet Uddin told thousands of cheering supporters.

In a counter-demonstration, Dhaka University students held a rally on the campus late on Saturday, urging authorities to lift the Facebook block immediately, according to the Daily Star.

Pakistan has restored access to YouTube, but Facebook and 1,200 web pages remain blocked.

Last year, Bangladesh also blocked YouTube for several days after the website hosted a recording of an angry dispute between Ms. Hasina and Army officers over a deadly military mutiny.

Bangladesh has nearly one million Facebook account holders — a sixth of all Internet users, according to the BTRC. Ms. Hasina and Opposition leader Khaleda Zia have fan pages on Facebook.

'Pak should take effective action against anti-India groups'

Ahead of the Indo-Pak talks this week, India made it clear that process of normalisation of ties with Pakistan can be sustained only by "effective action" against groups there calling for jihad against India.

"...calls of jihad, hostility and aggression continue to be made openly against India. This reflects the real and tangible difficulties that we face in dealing with Pakistan," Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said, delivering the key note address at the 3rd International Institute of Strategic Studies-MEA Dialogue here on Monday.

She also emphasised that "effective action against such groups" by Pakistan is an "absolute must" if the process of normalisation that India desires with Pakistan was to happen.

Referring to the talks in New Delhi on Thursday with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir, Ms. Rao said India is making "another sincere attempt" to initiate dialogue with Pakistan.

"We hope we can build, in a graduated manner, better communication and a serious and responsive dialogue to address issues of concern between our two countries," she said.

Describing terrorism as the pivotal security challenge for India, Ms. Rao said terror groups implacably opposed to India continue to recruit, train and plot attacks "from safe havens across our borders."

Terming Pakistan's steps against terrorism as "selective," Ms. Rao demanded that the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror strikes are brought to justice expeditiously and act decisively to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism on its territory.

"Under pressure and faced with the threat of terrorism in its own country, Pakistan has initiated some steps to fight this scourge. But these steps are selective," the Foreign Secretary said, adding that distinctions between Taliban, Al Qaeda and terrorist outfits such as LeT were now meaningless.

"...they are now in effect fused both operationally and ideologically. We have consistently maintained that Pakistan should bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist attack to justice and in a transparent manner," she said.

Ms. Rao also noted that terror groups implacably opposed to India continue to recruit, train and plot attacks from "safe havens across our borders."

"The greatest threat to peace and stability in our region emanates from the shelter terrorists find in the border of Afghanistan-Pakistan and in Pakistan itself," she said.

To a question on what she expected from the talks, Ms. Rao said: "I think, I should leave any comment, till after the meeting."

Asked whether Kashmir would figure at the talks, she said "the issue of Jammu and Kashmir is something we must discuss bi-laterally and resolve peacefully. But at the talks our core concern is terrorism and it is essential to focus on it. We will move in a manner, slow and deliberately."

On Afghanistan

On Afghanistan, Ms. Rao said India's focus is on development activity with the aim to build indigenous Afghan capacities and institutions.

"This will enable an effective State system to improve the delivery of goods and services to Afghan people. Our assistance, now over US$ 1.3 billion, is spread over a large number of provinces in Afghanistan," she said.

To a question on clandestine activities in the neighbourhood in respect of "nuclear terrorism", Ms. Rao said India would tackle it through the U.N. process.

"India has initiated on the issue in cooperation with Russia. The matter has been moved to the US and US President Barack Obama is expected to endorse the initiative this year," she said.

On China

She said there is both competition and collaboration in the dynamic equilibrium of India's relationship with Beijing.

Key elements in the India-China relationship like imbalances in bilateral trade, the unresolved boundary question, our dialogue on water resources with regard to the trans-border rivers like the Brahmaputra and the Sutlej point to the complex and evolving nature of our dialogue, she said.

"In our own region, which remains geo-politically unstable, China has an enduring strategic relationship with Pakistan, and a growing presence in other neighbouring countries.

Ms. Rao said: "We are conscious of these leverages that China has developed in our region and realize fully that our relations with China cannot be uni-dimensional, or seen through a narrow prism."

Sri Lanka

Ms. Rao said India's political relations are close, trade and investment have increased exponentially, and there is broad-based engagement across all sectors of bilateral cooperation.

"We view the conclusion of the military operations against the LTTE as providing an opportunity to finally achieve a lasting political settlement acceptable to all communities, including the Tamils, within a united Sri Lanka," she said.

Bangladesh

"India's relations with Bangladesh have acquired further substance and scope in recent months, particularly after the very successful visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in January this year," Ms. Rao said.

"Our security related cooperation has developed positively as also our cooperation in infrastructural development in Bangladesh, for which we have announced a USD 1 billion concessional Line of Credit," she said.

India hunt down spirited tigers

There was a pleasing symmetry about this result. India expectedly won the opening Test, by a comfortable 113-run margin. In losing however, Bangladesh were not disgraced either. They fought well, scored in excess of 300 runs in their second innings, and wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim kept a buzzing Zahoor Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium entertained with the quickest Test hundred by a Bangladesh batsman.
India will travel to Dhaka for the second and final Test of the series in good frame of mind. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and key spinner Harbhajan Singh are expected to return to the playing XI, even though there is some doubt over the availability of Ishant Sharma, who has made a fine comeback into the Test ranks.
The positives therefore, were in plenty for the Indians. Other than Virender Sehwag shooting off his mouth on match-eve and the top order falling in an untidy heap the following day as if to prove him wrong, they did most things right.
The end of the match, an hour and 43 minutes before the scheduled close despite losing an hour to yet more fog this morning was indicative of the distance between these two teams. In all, over a full day’s playing time was gobbled up by the weather, more affirmation that Bangladesh will have to really stretch themselves in the second Test.
For parts of this match, they did enough to keep interest alive. The first innings bowling display was spot on, reducing the powerful Indian line-up to 243, their lowest ever against the Tigers. The fielding was supportive in both innings and the hosts found at least two batsmen willing to stand up and be counted.
Against the world’s top-ranked side, it was not enough. Too many rash shots meant a golden opportunity to take a first innings lead was squandered. When India batted a second time, the bowling just did not have enough sting to restrict the run-charge. These are areas that will worry skipper Shakib Al Hasan and coach Jamie Siddons ahead of the Dhaka Test, and there are just two days left to try and turn things around.
Thursday’s first session encapsulated these issues perfectly. Bangladesh needed at least two frontline batsmen to stay together for long but only Tamim Iqbal (52) at the top of the order and Mushfiqur (101) at the other end put their hands up. The rest came and went.
Credit for this, of course, goes to the Indian bowling. Marshalled by Zaheer Khan, they turned in two sterling performances, the first time to keep Bangladesh to below 243, and then to pack things up with time to spare on Thursday. To see the fiery Ishant (3/48, match figures of 5/95) bending his back and troubling the batsmen was a comforting sight.

SCOREBOARD
India (1st innings) 243
Bangladesh (1st innings) 242
India (2nd innings) 413/8 decl.

Bangladesh
(2nd innings,overnight 67/2)
Tamim Iqbal c Dravid b Sehwag 52, Imrul Kayes c Karthik b Khan 1, Shahriar Nafees c Sehwag b Ishant 21, Mohammad Ashraful c Dravid b Ishant 27, Raqibul Hasan lbw b Ishant 13, Shakib Al Hasan c Sehwag b Mishra 17, Mushfiqur Rahim c sub (Ojha) b Mishra 101, Mahmudullah c Karthik b Khan 20, Shahadat Hossain b Mishra 24, Shafiul Islam c&b Mishra 8, Rubel Hossain not out 4
Extras (b4, lb3, nb6) 13
Total (in 75.2 overs) 301
FoW: 1-8, 2-47, 3-79, 4-97, 5-135, 6-145, 7-170, 8-232, 9-258, 10-301
Bowling: Khan 20-5-90-2, Sreesanth 12.2-0-53-0 (nb3), Ishant 15-4-48-3, Mishra 22.2-3-92-4 (nb3), Sehwag 4-1-7-1, Yuvraj 1.4-1-4-0

 

Tendulkar scores century; India all out for 243

Put in to bat, India were all out for 243 in their first innings on the second day of the opening Test against Bangladesh here today.

Brief Score:

India 1st Innings: 243 all out in 70.5 overs (Sachin Tendulkar 105 not out, Virender Sehwag 52, Shakib Al Hasan 5/62, Shahadat Hossain 5/71).