DHAKA: Bangladesh yesterday slapped a ban on rallies for a month in the wake of deadly protests by Islamists that left dozens of people killed earlier this month.
Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan told reporters the government “will not allow any parties to hold rallies in the next one month” in line with plans to curb political violence.
Syed Ashraful Islam, deputy chief of the ruling Awami League party, said the ban would also help workers rebuild the coastal region, which was hit by a cyclone last week.
Shamsuzzaman Dudu, spokesman for the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, insisted the ban had in fact been in place since the death of 22 people following a rally by an Islamist group earlier this month in Dhaka.
Bangla factory owner can’t
leave country
DHAKA: A Bangladesh court yesterday banned the owner of a garment factory that was destroyed in a fire in November from leaving the country as anger builds up over a string of deadly incidents in which thousands have died.
The high court in Dhaka also directed that Delwar Hossain, owner of Tazreen Fashion, appear before it on May 30 to explain the circumstances in which 112 workers, mostly women, died in the fire on the outskirts of the capital last year.
At the time, a photographer found in the charred remains at the site of the fire clothes that were labelled for — among other big-brand retailers — Wal-Mart, Sears Holdings Inc and Walt Disney Co.
Thai Red Shirts
mark crackdown
BANGKOK: Around 20,000 Red Shirt protesters rallied in Bangkok yesterday to mark the third anniversary of a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests which exposed Thailand’s deep divisions, police said.
About 90 people were killed and nearly 1,900 wounded in a series of street clashes in May 2010 between demonstrators and security forces, which culminated in the military crackdown.
Roads were blocked yesterday as Red Shirts, loyal to ousted self-exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, massed at an intersection in Bangkok’s glitzy shopping district.
Central World, Thailand’s largest shopping mall which was torched in the final days of the 2010 protest, was also closed while the colourful rally took place.
Sailor dies during Sri Lanka parade
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s navy yesterday recovered the body of a sailor who drowned during a parade marking the fourth anniversary of the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels, an official said.
The body was found near a beach in Colombo where his small boat capsized while taking part in the victory celebrations presided over by President Mahinda Rajapakse on Saturday.
“The boat was salvaged on Saturday and four crewmen were rescued, but one officer went missing and his body was recovered only this morning,” a military official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the boat had got into trouble in choppy waters.
Agencies
