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Back into action
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After being granted bail by the Supreme Court on August 22 last year, Samrat made a show of strength as he along with several thousand Jubo League activists placed a wreath at the portrait of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on Road-32 in the capital’s Dhanmondi.
Party insiders said Samrat also tried to announce his presence by sending his followers to the Jubo League’s Golden Jubilee (founding anniversary) programme.
Khaled has also become active lately to get back his control over Jubo League politics in Motijheel-Kamalapur area, the insiders added.
AKM Mominul Haque Sayeed, former councillor of ward-9 of Dhaka South City Corporation, and then joint general secretary of Dhaka City (South) Jubo League, allegedly ran an illegal casino business at the Wanderers Club in Motijheel.
Mominul fled abroad after raids on some sporting clubs in Motijheel began in September of 2019.
He was also removed from the post of ward councillor for being “absent in meetings and staying abroad without permission”.
Mominul returned home in January this year, and was made the general secretary of Bangladesh Hockey Federation.
During the crackdown, two brothers Enamul Haque Bhuiyan alias Enu and Rupon Bhuiyan, leaders of Gendaria Thana AL, were arrested for their involvement in casino business.
Law enforcers recovered Tk 32 crore from their house in Gendaria. Investigators said the siblings own 22 houses and plots in the capital and five cars. They had Tk 19.11 crore in 91 bank accounts which were frozen by the Bangladesh Bank.
However, sources in Dhaka city AL said that a person loyal to the duo was made a top leader of the Dhaka City (South) Awami League. The Gendaria Thana AL leaders, who were allies of the siblings, are still holding their posts.
A section of AL leaders opined that since the expelled or relieved leaders did not lose their primary memberships in their respective organisations, there was no bar for them to get involved in politics again.
However, some other leaders said removal of controversial leaders didn’t weaken the party and that’s why there was no need to get them reinstated.
“We are following Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s instruction that no controversial person will have any place in any tier of the organisation. There is no bar for anyone to engage in politics, but including them [controversial leaders] in committees would mean giving them recognition. That will not happen,” Mainul Hossain Khan Nikhil, general secretary of Jubo League, told The Daily Star.
Meanwhile, Transparency International Bangladesh yesterday expressed grave concern over the reports on reinstatement of political leaders who were accused of being involved in casino scandal, and were subsequently relieved of party posts following the anti-casino drive.
Referring to reports run by the media, TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said, “What message do the government and the ruling party want to give to the countrymen? No matter whatever crime is committed, will the offender be able to get away with it if he is associated with the ruling party? The government and the ruling coalition must take the responsibility to counter this evil process of institutionalising muscle power and corruption in the political arena,” reads a statement issued by TIB.

Ukraine suffered
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unimaginably from an unprovoked full-scale attack on their nation.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russian President Vladimir Putin has “failed to achieve a single” goal.
During a televised address in Kyiv yesterday, Zelensky said: “We have become one family. There are no more strangers among us ... Ukrainians have sheltered Ukrainians, opened their homes and hearts to those who were forced to flee the war.”
“We withstand all threats, shelling, cluster bombs, cruise missiles, kamikaze drones, blackouts and cold,” he said. “And we will do everything to gain victory this year.”
Britain announced new sanctions on Russia, and other Western powers were expected to do so around the G7 online summit, led by Biden, who journeyed to Kyiv and gave a landmark speech in Warsaw this week to mark the anniversary.
The United States yesterday announced sweeping sanctions aimed at increasing economic pain for Russia, reports Reuters.
The new sanctions, which target sectors including banks, mining, and the defence industry, will hit “over 200 individuals and entities, including both Russian and third-country actors across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East that are supporting Russia’s war effort,” the White House said.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States would provide an additional $2 billion in assistance, and new G7 measures would target countries seeking to backfill products denied to Russia by sanctions.
German-made Leopard tanks from Warsaw arrived in Ukraine as Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki visited Kyiv to send a “clear and measurable signal of further support”.
In the latest reports from the battlefield, Russia’s Wagner private army claimed to have captured another village on the outskirts of Bakhmut, the small mining city in the east that is the focus of Moscow’s offensive.