Economic Times file photo

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia has been sentenced to five years in jail for corruption.

The verdict was read out in a court in Dhaka after police used tear gas to disperse thousands of her supporters, reports BBC.

Zia, 72, denies misusing international funds donated to a charitable children's trust.

The sentence means she is barred from parliamentary polls due this year. She said the charges were politically motivated.

The case is one of dozens pending against Zia, who has been a rival of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for decades.

"Since the court has been able to prove the charges against her and considering her social and physical status, Zia has been sentenced to five years in jail," the judge said.

The opposition leader, wearing a white sari, was led away to jail minutes after the verdict, bdnews24 reported.

"I will be back. Do not worry and be strong," she told weeping relatives, according to the Daily Star.

Zia's son Tarique Rahman was given 10 years in jail in absentia as he is in London. The same jail term was handed down to four of her aides.

Earlier there were clashes between security forces and opposition protesters who had defied security measures to escort the car taking the opposition leader to court.

Several police officers were injured in the violence a few kilometres from the court, reports said.

The trial against Ms Zia centred around $252,000 (£182,000) intended for an orphanage trust set up when she was prime minister.

The charges against her had already led to her boycotting elections in 2014, which triggered widespread protests at the time.

For Thursday's verdict there was heightened security across the capital and other cities. Many shops and schools were shut, reports said.

According to Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), hundreds of its supporters were arrested in the run-up to the verdict.

The Daily Star adds: BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia entered the premises of the old Central Jail in Nazimuddin Road after she was handed a five-year imprisonment in a graft case today.

She will be kept at the day care centre at the old central jail.

Khaleda, who is being accompanied by her domestic help, was taken to the jail on a white SUV surrounded by a contingent of law enforcers from the Special court at Bakshirbazar.

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Rohingyas arrive exhausted, hungry and usually with nothing more than clothes on their back. Photo: ICRC

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed a timeframe for repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled crackdowns from the military.

Myanmar has agreed to accept 1,500 Rohingya each week, Bangladesh says, adding that it aims to return all of them to Myanmar within two years, reports BBC.

More than 740,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh amid violence in Rakhine state in 2016 and 2017.

Aid agencies have raised concerns about forcibly repatriating them.

Bangladesh says it aims to repatriate families together, as well as orphans and "children born out of unwarranted incidence" - meaning children conceived as a result of rape.

However, displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh have expressed concerns about returning to Myanmar.

Sirajul Mostofa, a community leader in a camp in Cox's Bazaar, told the BBC: "We are still not clear about what agreement was signed.

"Our first priority is, they have to grant us citizenship as Rohingyas. Secondly, they have to give back our lands. Thirdly, our security must be ensured internationally. Otherwise, this is not good for us."

Bangladeshi foreign secretary Shahidul Haque told BBC Bangla that the government had wanted to repatriate the Rohingya more quickly.

"We asked them to take back 15,000 every week. But they said they will take back 300 people every day, so that makes 1,500 every week.

"So we compromised that we will start by sending 300 people each day, but there will be a review in three months' time and the number will be increased."

'MISTRUST AND FEAR'

At 1,500 refugees a week it would take almost 10 years to bring back all 740,000 who have left since October 2016. Bangladesh hopes that flow can be increased. But as matters stand it is difficult to see how.

Both countries have agreed the repatriation will be voluntary. And most refugees say they will only return if their safety can be assured, their homes rebuilt, and if they are no longer subjected to official discrimination. None of these conditions is in place.

Myanmar has started rebuilding, but mostly for non-Muslims. It is preparing two transit camps, the first able to accommodate 30,000 people. Beyond that not much has changed.

More than 350 villages, nearly all of them Rohingya, have been burned down, some recently. The military, which is accused of terrible human rights abuses, still runs northern Rakhine state. It has denied the abuses, denied access to independent investigators, and strictly limits access for aid agencies.

There is talk of closing the camps in which 130,000 Rohingyas are still confined, but not yet of ending restrictions on Rohingya movements. And nothing is yet happening to reduce the mistrust and fear of Rohingyas felt by the non-Muslim population, some of whom have vowed to fight against any large-scale refugee return.

Myanmar's foreign secretary U Myint Thu told BBC Burmese: "The repatriation process will commence on 23 January."

He said three more transit camps were "under construction", and there were plans to "build new villages".

A spokesperson from the UN High Commission for Refugees urged Myanmar to address the underlying causes of the crisis and said that refugees should only return when they feel it is safe for them to go back.

Andrej Mahecic said there were major challenges, including ensuring the Rohingya were "told about the situation in their areas of origin" and "consulted on their wishes, that their safety is ensured".

The agreement covers Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh following attacks by a Rohingya militant group on police posts in October 2016 and August 2017.

Those attacks triggered a military crackdown that led to widespread allegations of killings, rape and torture of Rohingya.

The agreement does not cover Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh prior to October 2016, under previous crackdowns and bouts of communal violence.

When the initial repatriation deal was signed in November, Amnesty International said it doubted there could be safe or dignified returns "while a system of apartheid remains" and added that it "hoped those who do not want to go home are not forced to do so".

The Rohingya are a stateless minority in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

IS REFUGEE CRISIS 'TEXTBOOK ETHNIC CLEANSING'?

The crisis has been described as ethnic cleansing by the UN and the US.

Despite widespread accusations of human rights violations, Myanmar has consistently denied persecuting its Rohingya minority.

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The central bank of Bangladesh. BBN file photo

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Bangladesh is getting tough with the nation’s bankers as it attempts to avert a looming crisis caused by rising bad loans and weak capital ratios, reports bloomberg.

The central bank on Tuesday said it ousted the chief executive officer of Farmers Bank, a small private-sector lender, accusing him of “gross irregularities in lending.” That followed the removal earlier in the month of the CEO of another small lender, NRB Commercial Bank, accused by Bangladesh Bank of “gross irregularities including reckless lending and forgery.”

Though the ousters could signal that financial regulators are finally waking up to risks in the banking system, more steps are required, bankers said.

“Immediate measures need to be taken to ensure that the governance around the banks is strengthened,” said Abrar A Anwar, who headed Standard Chartered Plc’s Bangladesh operation until November, when he transferred to Malaysia. “Otherwise this may create a systemic risk in the sector, which will have a long-term negative impact on the Bangladesh economy.”

Asset quality and capital adequacy ratios at Bangladesh’s banks are likely to continue declining due to mismanagement, a weak regulatory framework and economic headwinds, according to a recent report by BMI Research, a unit of Fitch Ratings Ltd.

Some 50 of the country’s 57 banks currently meet the Basel III capital adequacy ratios, BMI estimated. However, recent stress tests showed that only 37 of the banks would meet those standards in the event of a 15 percent rise in non-performing loans, BMI noted.

“It’s true that the NPL has slightly increased in recent times, and we are taking a hard look at the entire banking sector,” said Subhankar Saha, an executive director at Bangladesh Bank. “We will take action against any errant bank if and when necessary.”

Events at the two lenders sanctioned by the central bank point to the depth of the problem.

Former NRB Commercial Bank CEO Dewan Mujibur Rahman was removed after a Finance Ministry investigation accused him of forging the signatures of directors who were absent from board meetings, to back up his lending decisions. He approved 7 billion taka ($84 million) of loans that breached central bank rules, according to Bangladesh Bank. Rahman said he denies any wrongdoing, and has launched a legal action against the central bank seeking to reverse his ouster.

The central bank stepped in at Farmers Bank after a prolonged liquidity crisis threatened to undermine depositor confidence in the entire banking system, according to a report from the Finance Ministry’s Bank and Financial Institutions Division. The bank disbursed loans in excess of the central bank’s single borrower exposure limit and breached the maximum loan-to-deposit ratio of 85 percent, the report showed.

On Tuesday, the central bank ousted Farmers Bank CEO and managing director A.K.M. Shameem. Shameem didn’t respond to an email and calls to his mobile phone seeking comment.

Despite the latest moves, the central bank still needs to take additional steps to improve lending standards, some analysts say.

“There is a culture of impunity and lack of accountability for borrowers who default due to the poor legal framework and lengthy insolvency processes,” said Chua Han Teng, Singapore-based head of Asia Country Risk at BMI Research. “As a result, many of these soured loans are caused by habitual defaulters.”

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RPower project will significantly increase power generation and improve energy infrastructure in Bangladesh. Photo: The Hindu Business Line

Mumbai, India (BBN) - The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) board of directors has approved debt financing and partial risk guarantees totalling $583 million to develop Reliance Power's liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal and a 750-MW power project in Bangladesh.

The project, which includes a power generation facility to be located in Meghnaghat, near the capital city of Dhaka, and an LNG terminal near Kutubdia Island, south of Chiitagong, will significantly increase power generation and improve energy infrastructure in Bangladesh, reports The Hindu Business Line.

ADB’s financing package includes loans and partial risk guarantees for the power generation facility, as well as for the LNG terminal. The total project cost is approximately $1 billion.

The company shares were trading down by 0.95 per cent at Rs. 36.40 on the BSE.

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A British employment panel ruled Friday that Uber must offer its drivers minimum wage and paid time off. Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - US online taxi company Uber, which seems a little off the pace in some key markets in Asian and elsewhere in the world, sees opportunities to expand further in Bangladesh.

The firm, which has been celebrating its first year in Bangladesh, said here on Sunday that it has more than 200, 000 people took an Uber trip merely in November 2017, Xinhuanet.com.

It said it has more than 10,000 active driver partners every month with the joining of hundreds every day.
"There is opportunity for us to expand our operations in Bangladesh," said.

Pradeep Parameswaran, head of central operations, Uber India and South Asia, at a press briefing here Sunday.
"Dhaka presented us with a challenge of transforming the transportation landscape and creating alternatives to a city burdened with a growing population of cars on its roads," he said.

"With smartphones, technology that is already in our pockets, and utilizing the existing resources we can pave way for a Dhaka that moves with the lives of its people. We'd like to thank the government of Bangladesh, our business partners, riders and driver partners for their continued support and love in making this vision a reality in Dhaka."
Amit Jain, president of Uber India and South Asia, and Arpit Mundra, general manager of Uber East India and Dhaka, among others, were present at the press conference.
In its first year of operation in Dhaka, the firm said it launched new products, announced a strategic partnership and a safety initiative, to make riding with Uber a safe, reliable and comfortable experience for both riders and driver partners.
The firm said it was requested 1.5 million times in the month of November 2017.
"We've seen a diverse bunch of driver partners - from big fleet operators to a single car owner who drives full time, to professionals from telcos and banks putting their cars on Uber for some additional income, to students who've taken up driving on weekends to earn extra pocket money."
From the press briefing Sunday uber announced their Community Guidelines for both riders and driver-partners in Dhaka.
The guidelines explain the kind of behavior expected from both riders and drivers when using Uber.
Uber on Nov. 22 last year launched its operations in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.
Last month Uber announced the launch of its bike-sharing product, UberMOTO, in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka.
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Bangladesh is struggling to accommodate 500,000-plus Rohingya who have poured across the border in less than two months. It isn't recognizing them as refugees and would prefer to see them repatriated. Photo: Michael Sullivan for NPR

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - There are calls for Australia to lobby Bangladesh to abandon plans to house on a flood-prone island 100,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar.

More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state have fled to Bangladesh since late August, following military atrocities the United Nations has dubbed a "textbook case of ethnic cleansing", reports Australia base newspaper 9NEWS.

The Bangladesh government has allocated $US280 million ($A392 million) towards developing the uninhabitable Thenger Char in the Bay of Bengal.

Amnesty International has expressed grave concerns about the plan.
"It would be a terrible mistake to relocate the Rohingya refugees to an uninhabitable island that is far from other refugee settlements and vulnerable to flooding," spokesman Biraj Patnaik said.

Australian Greens senator Nick McKim, who has recently returned from multiple trips to Manus Island in Papua New Guinea where Australia detained asylum seekers and refugees, said the proposal was inappropriate.
"The island is simply not fit for human habitation, it's nothing more than an attempt to put 100,000 people out of sight and out of mind," he told AAP.
Australia should lobby Bangladesh not to go ahead with the plan, he said.
Senator McKim said the island had only emerged from beneath the ocean about a decade ago.
"It's extremely low lying, it's subject to monsoonal storms, cyclones, and tidal flooding," he said.
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BBN file photo

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Three militants blew themselves up following a security crackdown at their hideout in Bangladesh’s northwestern Chapainawabjag district bordering India, officials said on Tuesday.

The incident took place as security was stepped up ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to the country from November 30 to December 2, reports The Hindu.

A fire broke out at the tin-and-bamboo structure after a firefight and explosions, said Mahabub Alam, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-5 Commanding Officer.

The bodies of the three suspected militants were found by a bomb disposal unit among the debris after the fire died out, the official said.

Two pistols, three grenades, eight detonators and various bomb-making materials were recovered from inside the location, said RAB Media Wing Director Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan.
The elite anti-crime RAB has detained the building owner’s wife Nazma Begum, her father Khorshed Alam and mother Minara Begum from a village for questioning.
“We have wrapped up the operation... three bodies were found at the scene,” Mr. Mahmud said.
He said the three militants blew themselves up that also resulted in burning down of their den, a hay-made hut, defying calls for surrender this morning.
Officials said the Islamists rented the house at a remote shoal of the Padma river along the Indian border 15 days ago and identified them as migratory bird watchers.
Officials and witnesses said the scene was handed over to police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for collecting evidence for subsequent legal actions.
People in the neighboiurhood said two of the presumed militants were seen roaming around the area for the past several weeks and claimed that they were NGO workers.
RAB officials said they located the militant hideout based on information provided by militants captured earlier.
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BBN file photo

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Two militants were killed on Tuesday in a raid launched by Bangladesh's anti-crime elite force RAB on a militant hideout in the country's northwestern Chapainawabganj district, a police official said.

The militants were most likely killed in suicide explosions causing a fire in the house where they were hiding," said the official who declined to be named, reports xinhuanet.com.

He said security forces surrounded the house suspecting it a militant hideout early Tuesday.

The suspected militants inside exploded four to five bombs as the law enforcers asked them to surrender, he added.
At least three people, including owner of the house, were detained.

No further details were immediately available.
In the wake of the deadly July 1, 2016 cafe attack, Bangladesh has conducted a series of large-scale operations against militants.
Neo-JMB, an offshoot of the banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, has been blamed for an attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery, in which 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, were killed.
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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)

A three-judge panel of Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) handed down the capital punishment to the six members of the Jamaat-e-Islami saying, the charges against them were "proved beyond doubt," reports OutlookIndia.com.

"They be convicted accordingly and sentenced there under to death under section 20(2) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973," pronounced chair of the panel Justice Shahinur Islam.

The verdict came as Bangladesh nearly completed the long-delayed trial of 1971 war crimes since the high-powered tribunal was established in 2010.

The tribunal is charged with the task to try persons responsible for committing genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes under international law committed during the country's 1971 Liberation War.
The six men sentenced to death hail from northwestern Gaibandha and belong to fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, the party which was opposed to Bangladesh's 1971 independence and joined hands with Pakistani troops in carrying out the genocide.
But only one of the six convicts faced the trial in person while the rest, including former Jamaat lawmaker Abu Saleh Mohammad Abdul Aziz Mia, were tried in absentia as they were on the run.
Under a special law, the convicts, however, could challenge the judgement before the apex Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
Bangladesh has so far executed six 1971 war crimes convicts, five of them Jamaat leaders and one Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader, the main Opposition since the trial process began in 2010.
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Rohingya refugees describe Myanmar’s military as beating, sexually assaulting and shooting villagers, including children. Photo: Ismail Ferdous/Bloomberg News

Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh (BBN) - 'The crisis facing 800,000 refugees in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazaar today is alarming, but we’re on the brink of a large-scale health catastrophe if the situation isn’t turned around,' warned Benedicte Giæver, Director of the Norwegian Refugee Council’s expert deployment roster, NORCAP.

Giæver has just visited Kutupalong, the world’s most densely populated refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, reports Norwegian Refugee Council.

The camp houses more than 600,000 refugees from Myanmar, the majority of whom fled to Cox’s Bazar after violence escalated in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in August. Along with the refugees who fled from Myanmar before August, the total number of people sheltering in the camps is more than 800,000.

"A population equivalent to the entire population of the country of Bhutan is squeezed together in an area of about eight square kilometres. Tents are placed dangerously tightly together, jeopardising the health of hundreds of thousands of people,” said Giæver.

The rapid growth of the camps means that toilets and water sources were quickly constructed and not spaced out, enabling any disease outbreak to spread like wildfire.
“I’ve seen sewage flowing freely through the camps. Disease outbreak is a ticking time bomb waiting to happen. Children are drinking filthy water and parents are using stagnant water to wash kids.”
“We are facing the deadly prospect of a massive cholera or diarrhoea breakout if the situation isn’t turned around," warned Giæver. “The Bangladesh government has been incredibly welcoming to people seeking safety within its borders.
Local communities have also show tremendous hospitality, welcoming refugees with open arms. But we in the international aid system have failed to do enough because of the circumstances on the ground. We must step up our efforts.”
NORCAP has sent 17 aid experts to various UN organisations in Cox's Bazar to respond to the emergency. Their work includes constructing latrines and clean water supplies, providing children education and helping survivors of rape and sexual violence. Several staff are responsible for preparing camps for the rainy season and planning new settlements.
"We are discussing whether to build on higher ground to accommodate everyone. Currently, the danger of mudslides is too high for it to be done.
But we must work before the monsoon rains arrive next May. It's difficult to know how long the crisis will last and how many more people will arrive. People still cross the border every day, the total number vary from day to day,” said Giæver.
NORCAP’s director is also concerned about the children affected by the crisis. Many have lost their parents and other family members. Around 6000 children have to take care of younger siblings. "It's difficult to see so many orphans. People here feel powerless. This is a population that feel marginalized in Myanmar, and now they live in horrific conditions in Bangladesh. There is a desperate atmosphere in the camps, where capacity is far stretched and the needs enormous,” Giæver said.
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