Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque today (Monday) said reckless move of people to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr amid coronavirus outbreak is tantamount to suicide. “It is tantamount to suicide for those going to their village homes to celebrate Eid….A large of number of people are travelling one places to another places ignoring health rules,” he told a virtual meeting on “Doings of facing new Indian coronavirus variant.” Maleque said careless movement of people to celebrate Eid festival with their loved ones may spread faster in the country, an official release said. Referring to the devastating situation of COVID-19 in India, he said huge numbers of people are dying in India due to infecting of new variant of coronavirus. “New Indian variant has also affected badly Nepal… terrible situation has created there (Nepal) due to emergence of Indian new COVID-19 variant,” the health minister added. Recently, new cases of Indian variant are found in Bangladesh, he said adding, “We have to be careful alongside imposing strict restriction to control the deadly virus”. Source: BSS AH

Permission has been given to operate ferries on the river routes after boarding passengers. The information was delivered by Zillur Rahman, Deputy General Manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) on Monday afternoon. Meanwhile, ferry movement through Banglabazar-Shimulia river route has been normalized. Salauddin, Banglabazar ghat manager of BIWTC said, higher authority has made the ferry movement normal. All types of ferries will be in operation from now. Earlier, in a notice of BIWTC it was said that ferry movement through Paturia-Dawlatdia and Shimulia-Banglabazar river routes will remain suspended. AH

According to the government direction and to halt spread of coronavirus daytime ferry service will remain stop between the routes of Paturia-Daulatdia and Shimulia-Kanthal Bari from today. Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) informed that ferry service will remain operational in the night for goods laden transport. BIWTC Chairman Md. Tazul Islam confirmed the information at around 12:30 am on Friday. He said, the decision has been taken to avert transmission of coronavirus. Concerned authority including the law enforcing agency members will work from Saturday morning to implement the direction. From Friday morning it was seen that pressure of home bound people and transports increased through Paturia-Daulatdia river route. People were seen hustling on the ferries to reach their destination. According to the ghat authority, people are returning to their homes through the river routes keeping the Eid ahead. As the time went on crowd began to increase from the early morning and it turned a huge gathering at around 8:30 am. There are 20 ferries on Paturia-Daulatdia and Aricha-Kazirhat river route. The ghat authority keeps six small and four big ferries in operation. The ghat authority also said, pressure of passengers mounted on Shimulia-Banglabazar river route as launch and speed boat services are halted. Vehicle movements are being disrupted on the ferries. As a result more than a thousand personal and goods laden vehicles have been stranded at the ghat area. Currently 13 ferries are in operation for transport movement. AH    

On Wednesday, Germany announced that it was banning the Islamist organization Ansaar International, for financing terrorism worldwide through its donations. A German government spokesman said that “The network finances terrorism worldwide with donations,” and quoted Germany’s Interior Minister saying, “If you want to fight terror, you have to dry up its sources of money.” The banned organization had also solicited donations in the name of post-CAA riots. The Germany-based Islamist organization is accused of sending funds to multiple terrorist groups abroad including the Al-Nusra Front in Syria, the Palestinian Hamas (which is on an E.U. terrorism blacklist), and Al-Shabab in Somalia. Interestingly, the banned organization had also solicited donations in the name of the Delhi anti-Hindu riots. On their website, they had mentioned that they were soliciting funds for Muslims of India after these riots and had also admitted that they were providing local help to Muslims. The German Interior Ministry has claimed that some of the money donated to Ansaar International also went to projects that can be counted as “directly within the sphere of activity of one or another of these terrorist organizations.” This claim means that it is certainly possible that any donations Ansaar International collected in the name of anti-Hindu Delhi Riots could have gone to fund international terrorism. Raids against Ansaar International were conducted all across Germany on Wednesday morning, in ten different states to be exact. Ansaar International’s website says that its humanitarian projects help “people in need at home and abroad,” with projects in Lebanon, Sudan, and the Palestinian territories advertised. The Islamist organization has also distributed some relief materials to Indian Muslims affected by the anti-Hindu Delhi riots, with the materials carrying the tagline, “Wake Up Ummah!” German authorities had carried out a major raid on the Ansaar network two years ago in April 2019 during which extensive materials were seized, prompting a series of investigations that have now resulted in Ansaar International being declared unlawful. According to the German Interior Minister, Ansaar International “spread a Salafist world view and finance terror around the world under the guise of humanitarian aid.” Germany’s domestic intelligence said in the 2020 annual report that the country’s number of Salafists had increased to an all-time high of 12,150 in 2019, listing them being “Islamist extremists.” According to the report, the number of Salafists had more than tripled since 2011 and the Salafist scene in Germany was going through a “consolidation stage,” with followers keeping a low public profile. This is also a lesson for India and its intelligence/security apparatus to be more vigilant of foreign organizations or other assorted NGOs who don the cloak of humanitarianism but are instead funding terrorist groups worldwide. Source: OpIndia AH

In the last 24 hours 37 people died after being infected with coronavirus in the country. With this the number of deaths has reached at 11,833. Besides, in this period 1,682 new coronavirus cases were traced in the country. With this the number of infected people has surged at 7,70,842. The information was delivered through the regular press release of health directorate on Friday. The release said, in the last 24 hours 17,329 samples were collected countrywide and of those 17,013 samples were tested. In this period 2,178 people recovered from coronavirus. With this the number of recovered people has reached at 7,04,341. On the other hand, of the 37 deceased 19 were from Dhaka division, 11 from Chattogram, two from Rajshahi, one from Khulna, one from Barishal, two from Sylhet and one from Mymensingh. Of the deceased 23 were male and 14 were female. Of the total deceased (11,833) there were 8,589 male and 3,244 female. According to the age based analysis, of the deceased in past 24 hours 20 people were aged over 60s. Moreover, 11 were between 51 years to 60, five were between 41 to 50 ywars and one was aged varying from 31 to 40 years. Mentionable, three people were traced as coronavirus case in the country for the first time on March 8, last year. After 10 days the first news of death came on March 18, 2020. AH      

Bangladesh has handed over emergency medical equipments and medicines to India for preventing coronavirus. In the first consignment there were 10 thousand ampoules inject able antiviral-Remdesivir, medical equipments and other medicines. On Thursday Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner appointed in Kolkata handed over the emergency supports to Indian authority at the border port Petrapole. Foreign Ministry sources confirmed the information. The ministry said, corona pandemic has turned into a devastating look in India. Bangladesh has expressed sympathy and regret for the ongoing losses. As close neighbor Bangladesh wants to stand beside India in their bad times. It said, Beximco has offered the assistances to India on behalf of country people. As part of the process 10 thousand vial Remdesivir injections were given to India. AH   

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided that certain universities can hold the internal examinations using online platforms. The UGC and Vice Chancellors of different public universities have reached in this decision after holding a meeting through Zoom Platform on Thursday. In this regard the certain university has to decide the matter in its academic council meeting. The technical committee has given certain directions along with a guideline for holding examinations through online. After abiding by the matters universities have to take the examinations. If any student or university does not want to take part in the online examination then it should not be forced. If any university thinks that it would take the exams offline after situation improves then they will do that. That means it would not be forced upon anybody to hold the online examinations. In this regard UGC Secretary (additional responsibility) Dr. Ferdous Zaman said, decision has been taken to hold the examinations abiding by the international guidelines. But each university has to obtain approval from its syndicate and academic council. He said, viva would be given more priority. Universities were asked to maintain all types of strategies for holding the examinations in a transparent way. Discussions were held about developing software. Mentionable, according to the sources universities can arrange examinations using online platforms if they want after the Eid ul Fitr. AH