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Hello Jammu News at 9:23:00 PM 0


Beijing, Jun 25  :  Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will visit China in July first week, the first trip to Beijing after her re-election, during which the Asian giant may press for speeding up of the Bangladesh-China- India-Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor which has failed to take off.

With an estimated USD 31 billion investments, China has emerged as a major investor in Bangladesh - mainly in the infrastructure and energy sectors - raising concerns in India over growing Chinese influence in the region.

The rapid expansion of Chinese investments in Bangladesh were regarded as the second highest by Beijing after the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Hasina would visit China from July 3 to 5 during which she would hold talks with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and other top leaders on improving the bilateral ties and exchange views on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told the media here on Tuesday.

Hasina would also take part in the Summer Davos meeting at Dalian which would be inaugurated by Li, Geng said.

"Summer Davos", also known as the annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC), is organised every year in China by the World Economic Forum (WEF) which hosts annual meeting at Davos in Switzerland where world leaders gather to interact on the state of the global economy and investments.

This will be the first official visit of Prime Minister Hasina since her re-election and her visit provides an important opportunity for the two sides to charter the future course of the bilateral relations, Geng said.

He said both the countries are strategic cooperative partners. "In recent years, they enjoyed mutual political trust, economic cooperation and cultural exchanges," he said.

President Xi visited Bangladesh in 2016 during which the two leaders reached an important consensus, he said.

"We have been implementing that consensus and advancing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation projects bringing tangible benefits to our peoples. We look forward to this visit to consolidate our friendship and strengthen development strategies coordination, deepening cooperation and bring bilateral relations to a new high," he said.

The reference to the BRI was significant as China has been routing most of its investments through its multi-billion dollar global project aimed at financing and building infrastructure projects, especially in developing countries to enhance its influence across the world.

Both the CPEC and the BCIM were the components of the BRI which was mooted by President Xi when he came to power in 2013. The BRI aims to link Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa and Europe with a network of land and sea route.

While the CPEC regarded as the flagship project took off, the BCIM failed to make headway.

India has protested to China over the CPEC as it is being laid through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

China lately is making efforts to revive the BCIM.

After a long gap, Xi raised the BCIM project during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Bishkek on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit early this month.

"We need to expand cooperation channels, carry out cooperation in investment, production capacity and tourism, expand common interests, and jointly promote regional connectivity, including the development of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIM) so as to achieve better cooperation and common development," Xi said.

The 2800-km BCIM corridor proposes to link Kunming in China's Yunnan province with Kolkata, passing though nodes such as Mandalay in Myanmar and Dhaka in Bangladesh before heading to Kolkata.

China this month organised the BCIM Forum, an unofficial body of think-tanks from the respective countries at the just concluded China South Asia Business Forum in the Chinese city of Yuxi in Yunnan province.

It was expected to come up during Hasina's visit.

China's investments in Bangladesh included the construction of 6-km long bridge across the Padma river, as the Ganga is known in the country, costing about USD 3.7 billion and the USD 2.5 billion power plant at Payra near Dhaka, according to media reports.

The power plant was in news this month following clashes between Bangladeshi workers and their Chinese counterparts. One Chinese worker was killed and six others injured in the clashes.                                                                       [Agencies]
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Hello Jammu News at 5:47:00 PM 0


Dhaka, Oct 6 (PTI) Bangladesh's jailed former prime minister and opposition leader Khaleda Zia was admitted to hospital in Dhaka on Saturday following a court order as her health deteriorated, according to a media report. 

Zia, 73, is currently on trial for corruption charges in a makeshift courtroom inside a 19th-century British-built prison where she is the only inmate and in failing health.

The former prime minister had recently complained to the court that she was losing feeling in her hand and in a leg. 

In an order on Thursday, the High Court instructed that Zia be admitted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.

In response to a writ petition, the court had asked the authorities to form a fresh five-member medical board to examine Zia's health condition and start her treatment.

Zia was admitted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Saturday afternoon amid tight security, Daily Star reported. 

A police car brought the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief out of the prison. Many BNP activists were at the hospital to see Khaleda, but were blocked from approaching her by police. 

Zia was jailed for five years in February after being convicted of corruption, a sentence that triggered clashes between police and thousands of her supporters.

She was granted bail in a corruption case in May but remains in jail while she fights dozens of other violence and graft charges.

Zia was found guilty then of embezzling money intended for an orphanage, a charge she dismissed as politically motivated.

She is appealing against the verdict which bars her from standing in a general election to be held in December.

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Hello Jammu News at 1:54:00 PM 0

Rajshahi, Oct 4: Bangladesh's silk industry is one of the oldest in the world, with farmers in the northwestern border district of Rajshahi producing some of the most sought-after silk yarns.

They specialise in high-quality mulberry silk -- widely known as Bengal or Rajshahi silk -- produced by the larvae of moths fed on fresh mulberry leaves and used for luxurious items of clothing.

After around 40 days, the worms start to form cocoons -- by spitting out saliva around their bodies -- which are then placed in bamboo frames before being harvested.

The cocoons are then boiled in hot water, killing the worm inside and separating the ultra-thin threads, which are coiled on huge bobbins and hung out to dry.

"Each cocoon contains around 500 metres (1,600 feet) of thin thread," said Akhi Akter, a supervisor at the Sopura silk factory, one of the country's key silk producers.

The dried threads are sent to a mill where workers join several threads together and put them onto looms to make cloth.

This material is then boiled, washed and waxed before being sent to tailors to make mostly sarees, tunics and "dupattas", a kind of shawl-cum-scarf.

Bangladesh's silk industry was hit hard in the 1990s and 2000s by what officials called faulty government policy which flooded the market with cheap Chinese silk imports.

But now the country has initiated a multi-million-dollar plan to revitalise the industry and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

"Sericulture has a huge prospect if we could nurture it properly," Abdul Hakim, the head of the country's Silk Development Board, told AFP.

He said the number of silk farmers has plummeted to around 2,000 from 10,000 only a few years ago.

"Our plan is to bring in Chinese experts and train our farmers. It will increase our silk production," he said.

With the booming of the Bangladesh economy -- it grew over 7.5 percent last year -- demand for Rajshahi silk has increased several fold, Akter said.

An average quality Rajshahi silk saree now sells for some 100 and premium silk items can go for over 250 in the local market.

"There is a huge potential export market for our silk," she said.

"We just need to do it right. (AFP)
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Hello Jammu News at 12:16:00 PM 0
Washington, Sep 11 :  A group of some Indian-American organisations in the US has launched a campaign seeking Indian citizenship to Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh who have been left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

The group under the banner of organisations like SinghaBahini America, Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF) and NavaBanga are seeking support for the Citizenship Bill 2016, which seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to provide citizenship to persecuted minorities from India's neighbouring nations who have come to the country for safety.

The members of the group had met Indian leaders during the recently concluded World Hindu Congress in Chicago.

"In the light of the well-intended NRC to help identify the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who came as fortune seekers, it has come to light that a large number of Hindu population find themselves left out, said a media release issued by the group.

Based on estimates, around 1.4 million to 2.5 million Hindus find themselves in a position to be stripped of their Indian citizenship, it said.

"Forefathers of Hindu brothers and sisters had come to India because of the persecution they faced in Bangladesh, yet they had not given up their faith."

To ensure that the resources of India go to the citizens, NRC in every state is needed, but at the same time it is equally important that India protects poor Hindus from Bangladesh, the statement said.

"The Citizenship Bill, 2016 which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to persecuted minority Hindus, Sikhs and Jains who came from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till 2014 is thus a must to showcase a historic Hindu Unity to send a message to our own people, the group said.PTI
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Hello Jammu News at 1:37:00 PM 0

Dhaka, Aug 29: A woman journalist of a television channel in Bangladesh has been hacked to death with a sharp-edged weapon by some unidentified assailants at her home, media reports said today.

Subarna Nodi, 32, was a correspondent of private news channel Ananda TV and also worked for the Daily Jagroto Bangla newspaper, bdnews24.com reported.

She lived in Radhanagar area of Pabna district, some 150 kms from here.

Suborna, who is survived by a nine-year-old daughter, was awaiting divorce from her husband, the report said.

The assailants, said to be around 10 to 12, came riding motorcycles and rang the doorbell of her house at around 10:45 PM yesterday, it said.

When she answered the door, they indiscriminately hacked her and fled the spot, Pabna Additional Superintendent of Police Ibne Mizan said.

The assailants used a sharp-edged weapon to attack her, police said.

Some locals rushed her to hospital where she was declared brought dead.

Police have launched several teams to nab the culprits, Additional SP Gautam Kumar Biswas said.

Journalists in Pabna have condemned the killing and demanded that the murderers be immediately brought to justice. (PTI)
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Hello Jammu News at 3:12:00 PM 0

Dhaka, Aug 13: Five hardline Islamists were sentenced to death today by a special Bangladeshi tribunal for committing crimes against humanity and siding with the Pakistani troops in carrying out the genocide during the Liberation War in 1971.

A three-member panel of Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal led by Justice Shahinur Islam handed down the capital punishment to the five men for raping at least 15 women of Itabaria village of Patuakhali during the Liberation War.

They were also sentenced to death for killing 17 people, vandalism, arson, abduction and torture in the same village in 1971, the bdnews24 reported.

The judges said the convicts had used rape as a weapon and that their victims had to live with the repercussions of those attacks for the rest of their lives.

"These women are our true war heroes. It is time to recognise them, the tribunal said in the verdict.

Pronouncing its verdict, the said that the five convicts -- Md Esahaque Shikder, Abdul Gani alias Gani Howlader, Md Awal, Md A Sattar Pada and Solaiman Mridha alias Soleman Mridha -- should be hung until they were dead.

According to the prosecution, the convicts were supporters of the Conventional Muslim League (CML) prior to 1971, but they were involved with the local wing of the Bangladesh National Party at the time of their arrests in 2015.

The CML was a faction of the Pakistan Muslim League that split-off in 1962, in support of the military regime of the then Pakistani president General Ayub Khan.

The International Crimes Tribunal had indicted the five men on March 8 last year. (PTI)
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Hello Jammu News at 7:55:00 PM 0

Dhaka, Jul 14: Home Minister Rajnath Singh today held an "extremely fruitful" meeting with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during which the two leaders discussed issues of mutual concern, including the menace of terrorism.

Singh arrived here yesterday on a three-day visit.

"Had an extremely fruitful meeting with the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka today. We discussed a range of bilateral and regional issues of mutual interest," Singh tweeted after his meeting with Hasina at her official residence.

"It is possible to uproot militancy and terrorism if all the countries in the region join their hands," Singh told Hasina.

According to a Bangladesh prime minister's office spokesman Singh also told the prime minister, without naming any country, that the expected collaborative actions were not possible due to some nations in the region.

During the meeting, Hasina said that Bangladesh and India have so far settled several outstanding issues, including the land and boundary agreement, through dialogue.

"We expect that the other issues will be sorted out through talks as well," she added.

Hasina reiterated Bangladesh's stand of not allowing its soil to be used by terrorists to carry out their activities against any other country.

After his meeting with Hasina, Singh along with his Bangladeshi counterpart Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal inaugurated the largest Indian visa centre in the world at Dhaka's Jamuna Future Park.

The new integrated state-of-the-art Indian Visa Application Centre (IVAC), spread in an 18,500 square feet commercial area, will replace all the existing centres (Motijheel, Uttara, Gulshan and Mirpur Road) in Dhaka in two phases.

"The new facility would replace all four existing visa centres in different parts of the (Bangladesh) capital and it will be the lone visa centres to receive applications without any prior appointments," the Indian High Commission in Dhaka said in a statement.

Bangladeshis constitute one of the largest number of visitors from a single country to India. Last year, India had issued 1.4 million visas to Bangladeshi nationals, BD News reported.

Five Bangladeshi citizens were issued visas of different categories to mark the opening of the centre, which has 48 counters and other facilities, including food shops.

"The location of the new IVAC inside a spacious and secure shopping mall is expected to provide comfortable and seamless visa services to applicants and is expected to reduce waiting time considerably," the statement said.

During his visit, Singh will co-chair the 6th India-Bangladesh home minister-level talks tomorrow, along with his Bangladeshi counterpart Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal. (PTI)

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Hello Jammu News at 12:03:00 PM 0

United Nations, Jul 7 : About 900,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh will soon get credit card-sized plastic IDs that will help provide them another level of protection and preserve their right to voluntarily return to Myanmar in conducive conditions, according to the UN refugee agency.

As per the UN estimates, nearly 700,000 minority Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State since August 25 last year when the army launched a military crackdown.

Myanmar does not recognise Rohingya as an ethnic group and insists that they are Bangladeshi migrants living illegally in the country.

The exercise, which began at the end of June, is expected to take up to six months to complete.

It "will help consolidate a unified database for the purposes of protection, identity management, documentation, provision of assistance, population statistics and ultimately solutions for an estimated 900,000 refugees who have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh in successive waves of forced displacement," Charlie Yaxley, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in Geneva.

Since August last year, more than 720,000 have fled in what was one of the world's largest and fastest growing refugee emergencies in decades.

"The verification will play a key role in establishing refugees' identities and their declared places of origin in Myanmar," Yaxley said.

"It will help preserve their right to voluntarily return home, if and when they decide that the conditions are right to do so," he said.

The exercise will also help boost accurate refugee data supporting of the government and humanitarian partners to better understand their specific needs; plan, target and deliver protection and assistance; and avoid duplicating services.

"Biometric data, including iris scans and fingerprints as well as photographs, are used in the exercise to confirm individual identities for all refugees over the age of 12," Yaxley said.

The credit card-sized plastic IDs, issued jointly by the Bangladesh Government and the UNHCR, contain a number of anti-fraud features.

Since the start of the exercise on June 21, some 4,200 refugees have been verified. Despite heavy monsoon rains in recent days, most refugees attended their verification appointments, aware of the significance of having an identity card.

In addition to providing laptops, servers, wireless routers, biometric hardware and printing equipment, the UNHCR is also making available a special biometric registration software.

"Following his visit to Bangladesh this week, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said greater resources must be found to develop education, healthcare and infrastructure to build a more sustainable life for Rohingya refugees and their hosts," the spokesperson said.

Ten months into the Rohingya refugee crisis, the response continues to remain focused on addressing the massive humanitarian needs, and on mitigating the impact of monsoon rains in refugee settlements.

To date, the UN's Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya refugee situation in Bangladesh is only 26 per cent funded.

"Additional international support is needed to step up the assistance from purely humanitarian and day-to-day support towards medium-term and developmental assistance," said Yaxley.

The UN has described the atrocities by the Myanmar military on Rohingya refugees as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing while the rights groups called it a genocide.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar, however, rejects the charge, saying its security forces launched a counter-insurgency operation on August 25 in response to Rohingya militant attacks.PTI

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Hello Jammu News at 2:32:00 PM 0

Kolkata, Jun 28: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized exotic birds which were smuggled from Bangladesh into West Bengal, an agency statement said today.

Acting on a specific input, DRI officials intercepted a vehicle at a place along Kalyani Expressway near here and found three red and blue macaws, three eclectus parrots, eight pygmy falcons and seven white ducks, it said.

The birds were found badly crammed up in plastic bags kept in the boot of the car, the statement said.

These birds were illegally brought into the country from Bangladesh through Indo-Bangla border in North 24 Parganas district, it said.

The probe agency said it immediately contacted the office of the principal chief conservator of forests, West Bengal and also the director of Alipore zoo, Kolkata.

The birds were handed over by the DRI to the zoo.

In March this year, the agency had seized 214 Indian star tortoise in Kolkata.

Less than a month back, two hollock gibbons, an endangered species under the Wild life Protection Act, 1972 and two palm civets, another endangered species, along with a variety of exotic birds, which had been smuggled into the country from Bangladesh seized by the DRI.

"There is an urgent need to step up the fight against wild life crime, which has environmental, social and economic impact and a concerted effort is needed by all the law enforcement agencies in combating the same," the agency said. (PTI)
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Hello Jammu News at 6:52:00 PM 0
New Delhi, Jun 25 : Anti-terror cooperation and ways to check radicalisation of youths will be high on the agenda during Home Minister Rajnath Singh's visit to Bangladesh next month, officials said today.

During the three-day visit beginning July 14, the home minister is also expected to meet Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and discuss various bilateral issues.

In his meeting with Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, Singh will discuss how to strengthen the anti-terror mechanism between the two countries and check radicalisation of youths by terrorist groups, a home ministry official said.

Singh, who will be accompanied by top officials of the home ministry and Border Security Force, will also discuss how to strengthen the existing mechanism set up to check movement of illegal immigrants, smuggling of cattle, arms and ammunition, narcotics and other items through the porus Indo-Bangla border.

The Indian side is expected to take up the issue of the continuous inflow of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) from across the border and the attacks on its personnel by criminals based in Bangladesh.

The FICN with face value of about Rs 13.66 lakh have been seized along the border till March this year, another official said, adding the FICN with face value of more than Rs 68.96 lakh were confiscated last year.

The attacks on BSF personnel by criminals based in Bangladesh is expected to be flagged by the Indan side during the delegation level talks.

Two BSF men were killed and 122 injured in criminal attacks on this frontier last year. 109 personnel were injured in 2016, the official said.

All these issues are a big concern for India and for the overall security situation on the India-Bangladesh international border and the talks will aim at finding better solutions to reduce and stop these instances, the officer said.

The Bangladesh side is expected to raise the issue of their nationals being killed or injured in BSF firing at the border and the illegal transport of drugs into their territory from the Indian side.

India shares a 4,096-km-long border with Bangladesh.  PTI

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Hello Jammu News at 1:58:00 PM 0


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., May 11: SpaceX on Thursday aborted the launch of its planned first commercial flight of an updated Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on a mission to carry a satellite into orbit for the government of Bangladesh.
The countdown was halted less than a minute before blastoff, in the final stage of the launch sequence, due to an unspecified glitch. It was not immediately clear whether SpaceX would be able to resume the countdown and proceed with the maiden flight of its Block-5 Falcon 9 rocket or postpone the launch to another day. REUTERS
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Hello Jammu News at 1:22:00 PM 0


Cox’s Bazar (Bangladesh), Feb 21: Calling for continued efforts to further scale up health services for nearly 1.3 million people in Cox’s Bazar, Rohingyas and their surrounding host communities, the World Health Organisation Wednesday said six months after the start of the refugee crisis, the vulnerable populations remain at risk of several diseases and in need of critical services for survival.
“Commendable efforts have been made by the Government of Bangladesh and partner agencies to provide health services; prevent diseases such as cholera; and rapidly control outbreaks of measles and diphtheria. However, the challenges are huge, multiple and evolving. The magnitude of the crisis requires continued efforts and generous contributions by all partners to scale up health services for the vulnerable population,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director for WHO South-East Asia. An estimated 688 000 Rohingyas crossed over to Cox’s Bazar from Myanmar beginning 25 August 2017, joining nearly 212 500 others who had arrived in earlier waves, in one of the largest population movement in the shortest span, a WHO release here said. While majority of the refugees are living in Kutapalong and Balukhali mega camps and 11 other clusters of small and big settlements, about 79 000 are living with the host population. The mega camps are currently one of the world’s biggest refugee
settlement areas and also one of the world’s most densely populated areas. The health needs of this population continue to be immense. Women and young mothers need reproductive health services. An estimated 60 000 children are expected to be born in the camps in the next one year. Besides newborns, pregnant and young mothers; children, adults and the elderly need basic health services and that for injuries, trauma and various non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and mportantly, psychosocial support. 'Water and sanitation, and shelter continues to be far from optimum, increasing the risk of rapid spread of several communicable and water borne diseases,” the Regional Director said, stressing the need to accelerate efforts to address the key determinants of health on a priority.
The upcoming rainy season and the risk of cyclone and floods, increase the vulnerability of these people to waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and hepatitis, and vector borne diseases such as malaria, dengue and chikungunya. For keeping a close watch on the situation, WHO established the Early Warning and Response System (EWARS), early as the crisis started, to rapidly detect and respond to disease outbreak to minimize death and disease. Additionally, WHO has been periodically carrying
out risk assessments to enable Ministry of Health and partners take measures to detect potential health risks and take timely and appropriate measures.
The EWARS and risk assessments helped Bangladesh’s decision to carry out large scale vaccination campaigns with cholera, measles and rubella, polio and diphtheria vaccines. WHO has been working with the Ministry of Health and partners to plan, roll out and monitor vaccination campaigns to ensure all children are protected.
WHO continues to lead and coordinate efforts of over 100 partners managing more than 270 health facilities – health posts, hospitals, treatment centers and mobile clinics – while also providing medicines and medical equipment, diagnostics, guidelines and trainings and building laboratory capacity.
Despite efforts by government and partners, challenges are many. The affected population has distinct and unique culture and language, a major barrier in impacting health seeking and hygiene behavior. But the most impending challenge is finding a safe space to relocate the refugees in case of floods and cyclone during the upcoming rainy season, which may further impact their health. “The Government of Bangladesh has been extremely generous and forthcoming in hosting and providing for the Rohingyas. However, the health sector is grossly under-funded and grappling to meet the needs of the affected population,” Dr Khetrapal Singh said, appealing to international community to contribute generously and commit to support what clearly is set to be a protracted emergency. Reiterating WHO’s committed to work with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and partners to address health issues of the
vulnerable population, the Regional Director said concerted efforts by both national and international community is the need of the hour to strengthen and reinforce health services for both the Rohingyas and their host population in Cox’s Bazar. UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 12:55:00 PM 0


Dhaka, Dec 25: The sixth edition of the five-day long Bengal Classical Music Festival will begin here on Tuesday, wherein music maestros from India, including the likes of violinist L Subramaniam, Santoor exponent Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and renowned Hindustani classical vocalist Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar will perform.
The great musical extravaganza is being organised by Dhaka-based Bengal Foundation, a public trust, which is committed to the belief that exposure to the art and culture can help conserve tradition and allow diversity to bloom.
Bangladesh Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith and Cultural Affairs minister Asaduzzaman Noor will be present in the inaugural ceremony, organisers said here. 
High Commissioner of India in Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla is also likely to attend the function as one of special invitees. 
After the inaugural ceremony, a magnificent musical experience will be unfolded at the spacious Dhanmondi's Abahani Playground. Among others, legendary violinist L Subramaniam will set the ball rolling for a grand musical experience.
The performance by Symphonic orchestra of the State Academic Philharmony of Astana under the guidance of distinguished conductors will be a major highlight of the inaugural show.
Similarly, attractive will be the show by Bangladesh's popular sitar artiste Firoz Khan.
There will be also a flawless flute rendition by Rakesh Chaurasia and also equally attractive presentations by Khayal artistes like Supriya Das and Vidushi Padma Talwalkar.
On the inaugural evening, the musical bonanza will also be graced by Rajrupa Chowdhury, one of the few female Sarod players in India.
Kolkata-based Purbayan Chatterjee will also entertain the musical lovers with his skills on Sitar. He is noted for amalgamating traditional Indian classical music with contemporary world music genres.
During the five-day spectacle, other artistes who will perform include Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan (Sitar), Avijiit Kundu (Dhrupad), Abir Hossain (Sarod) and Gazi Abdul Hakim (Flute). 
Bengal Foundation has been organising the fest since 2012 aiming to revive the lost heritage of the rich classical music.
"There can be no better means of ensuring a bonding of people and of bringing them together, than through cultural exchange," says Abul Kair, chairman of Bengal Foundation. UNI 
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Hello Jammu News at 7:40:00 PM 0

JAMMU, OCTOBER 23: Deputy Chief Minister, Dr. Nirmal Singh, today congratulated the Indian hockey team for their emphatic victory in the Asia Cup Hockey 2017 played in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The Deputy CM hailed the outstanding performance of the players and the hard efforts of the coach behind the victory. “The Modi government is determined towards promotion of every game by ensuring complete support to nation’s sportspersons”, he maintained.  
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Hello Jammu News at 5:46:00 PM 0

Dhaka, Oct 21: Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will visit Bangladesh to attend the fourth Bangladesh-India Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting, reports in Bangladesh media said. According to reports, Ms Swaraj is also likely to meet Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka on Sunday, October 22. "The meeting is scheduled to take place at 6:30 pm at the Prime Minister’s official residence Ganabhaban," said a report in 'Dhaka Tribune'. According to diplomatic sources in Bangladesh capital, the JCC meeting would review the implementation and progress of decisions that were taken during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India in April this year. This will be Ms Swaraj’s second visit to Bangladesh. The Indian foreign minister last visited the neigbouring country in 2014. Ms Swaraj is also likely to inaugurate a number of projects financed by India. During Sheikh Hasina's visit to India in April earlier this year, India and Bangladesh had inked nearly two dozen pacts in key areas of defence and civil nuclear cooperation. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also had assured Ms Hasina of an “early solution” to the emotive Teesta water sharing issue, a pact on which has remained illusory for years. Prime Minister Modi had also tried to convince West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to accept the Teesta Water treaty as part of Government of India's international commitment first made in 1983. West Bengal Chief Minister has been insisting that the treaty should not harm her state's interest. Teesta is the fourth largest transboundary river shared between India and Bangladesh, and the water sharing issue does figure as a major election matter in Bangladesh. Ms Swaraj's visit also comes at a time when a large number of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have entered into Bangladesh. UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 7:53:00 PM 0
Bangladesh, Sept 8: An alarming and unprecedented influx of 270,000 Rohingya has sought refuge in Bangladesh over the past two weeks from violence in Myanmar, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday, a dramatic jump in the total as new pockets of people are found.
A rights group said satellite images showed about 450 buildings had been burned down in a Myanmar border town largely inhabited by Rohingya, as part of what the refugees say is a concerted effort to expel members of the Muslim minority.
Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said the estimated number of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh since violence erupted on Aug. 25 had surged from 164,000 on Thursday because aid workers doing a survey had found big groups of uncounted people in border areas.
"This does not necessarily reflect fresh arrivals within the past 24 hours but that we have identified more people in different areas that we were not aware of," she said, adding that the number was an estimate and there could be some double-counting.
But she added: "The numbers are so alarming - it really means that we have to step up our response and that the situation in Myanmar has to be addressed urgently."
The surge in the number of refugees, many sick or wounded, has strained the resources of aid agencies and communities which are already helping hundreds of thousands displaced by previous waves of violence in Myanmar. Many have no shelter, and aid agencies are racing to provide clean water, sanitation and food.
Two days ago, UNHCR had said the worst-case scenario was 300,000 refugees.
"We need to prepare for many more to come, I am afraid," said Shinni Kubo, the Bangladesh country manager for the agency. "We need huge financial resources. This is unprecedented. This is dramatic. It will continue for weeks and weeks."
Rohingya have been fleeing their homes in Myanmar since at least 400 people were killed after insurgent attacks in Rakhine State two weeks ago were followed by an army counter-offensive.
Myanmar says its security forces are fighting a legitimate campaign against "terrorists" it blames for a string of attacks on police posts and for burning homes and civilian deaths.
It says about 30,000 non-Muslims have been displaced by the violence.
About 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims living in Myanmar have long complained of persecution and are seen by many in the Buddhist-majority country as illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
"While most Rohingya refugees arrive on foot, mostly walking through the jungle and mountains for several days, thousands are braving long and risky voyages across the rough seas of the Bay of Bengal," the UNHCR said.
At least 300 boats arrived in Cox's Bazar on Wednesday, the International Organisation for Migration said.
BURNED BUILDINGS
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said satellite images taken last Saturday showed hundreds of burned buildings in Maungdaw, a district capital in Rakhine State, in areas primarily inhabited by Rohingya.
"The Burmese government has an obligation to protect everyone in the country, but if safety cannot even be found in area capitals, then no place may be safe," said Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
Several thousand people held a protest in Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital, after Friday prayers against the crackdown on the Rohingya.
Similar protests were held in Indonesia and Malaysia, also Muslim-majority countries. Scores of people also staged protests outside the Myanmar embassies in Tokyo and Manila.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he was considering raising the Rohingya issue when he holds talks with U.S. President Donald Trump next week.
Earlier, the head of Malaysia's coastguard said it would not turn away Rohingya and was willing to provide them temporary shelter, although it is unlikely any refugees would travel hundreds of kilometres south by sea during the monsoon season.
Najib told reporters the Rohingya issue had to be resolved "at the source".
"It is unfair for affected parties to inflict more cost to Malaysia to manage and to receive these people when they should be allowed fundamental and universal rights that have been denied to them," he said. 
Reuters 
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Hello Jammu News at 8:42:00 PM 0
YANGON/SHAMLAPUR, Bangladesh, Sept 6: Nearly 150,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh in less than two weeks, officials said on Wednesday after the United Nations chief warned there is a risk of ethnic cleansing in the former Burma that could destabilise the wider region.
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi blamed "terrorists" for "a huge iceberg of misinformation" on the violence in Rakhine state but she made no mention of the exodus of Rohingya since violence broke out there on Aug. 25.
She has come under increasing pressure from countries with Muslim populations, including Indonesia, where thousands led by Islamist groups held a rally in Jakarta on Wednesday, to demand that diplomatic ties with Buddhist-majority Myanmar be cut.
In a rare letter to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern that the violence in Rakhine could spiral into a "humanitarian catastrophe".
Reuters reporters in the impoverished Cox's Bazar region of neighbouring Bangladesh have witnessed boatloads of exhausted Rohingya arriving near the border village of Shamlapur.
According to the latest estimates issued by U.N. workers operating in Cox's Bazar, arrivals in just 12 days stood at 146,000. This brought to 233,000 the total number of Rohingya who have sought refuge in Bangladesh since last October.
Newly arrived Rohingyas told authorities that three boats carrying between them more than 100 people capsized in the early hours of Wednesday. Coast guard Commander M.S. Kabir said six bodies, including three children, had since washed ashore.
"FAKE INFORMATION"
The surge of refugees - many sick or wounded - has strained the resources of aid agencies and communities already helping hundreds of thousands from previous spasms of violence in Myanmar. Many have no shelter, and aid agencies are racing to provide clean water, sanitation and food.
"People have come with virtually nothing so there has to be food," a U.N. source working there said. "So this is now a huge concern – where is this food coming from for at least the elderly, the children, the women who have come over without their husbands?"
Suu Kyi spoke by telephone on Tuesday with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has pressed world leaders to do more to help a population of roughly 1.1 million he says are facing genocide.
In a statement issued by her office on Facebook, Suu Kyi said the government had "already started defending all the people in Rakhine in the best way possible" and warned against misinformation that could mar relations with other countries.
She referred to images on Twitter of killings posted by Turkey's deputy prime minister that he later deleted because they were not from Myanmar.
"She said that kind of fake information which was inflicted on the deputy prime minister was simply the tip of a huge iceberg of misinformation calculated to create a lot of problems between different countries and with the aim of promoting the interests of the terrorists," her office said in the statement.
Suu Kyi on Wednesday met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said he shared Myanmar's concern about "extremist violence" in Rakhine state. Modi's government has taken a strong stance on an influx into India of some 40,000 Rohingya from Myanmar over the years, vowing last month to deport them all.
REFUGEE ISLAND PLAN REVIVED
The latest violence in Rakhine state began when Rohingya insurgents attacked dozens of police posts and an army base. The ensuing clashes and a military counter-offensive killed at least 400 people and triggered the exodus of villagers to Bangladesh.
Suu Kyi has been accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the minority that has long complained of persecution, and some have called for the Nobel Peace Prize she won in 1991 as a champion of democracy to be revoked.
Myanmar says its security forces are fighting a legitimate campaign against "terrorists" responsible for a string of attacks on police posts and the army since last October.
Myanmar officials blame Rohingya militants for the burning of homes and civilian deaths. But rights monitors and Rohingya fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh say the Myanmar army is trying to force them out with a campaign of arson and killings.
Officials in Bangladesh said the government would press ahead with plans to develop an isolated, flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal to temporarily house tens of thousands of Rohingya.
The plan to develop the island and use it to house refugees was criticised by humanitarian workers when it was proposed in 2015 and revived last year. Bangladesh insists it alone has the right to decide where to shelter the refugees.
The U.N. source said Bangladesh may have revived the island plan to keep pressure on the international community, and not be left to handle the crisis on its own.
"Bangladesh is getting desperate in wanting to get some political traction on this Rohingya issue. They feel incredibly isolated," said the source, who declined to be identified.
Myanmar has been laying landmines across a section of its border with Bangladesh for the past three days, two government sources in Dhaka said, adding that the purpose may have been to prevent the return of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence.
Bangladesh will formally lodge a protest on Wednesday against the laying of land mines so close to the border, said the sources who had direct knowledge of the situation but asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
A Myanmar military source said landmines were laid along the border in the 1990s to prevent trespassing and the military had since tried to remove them, but none had been planted recently. REUTERS
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