The BNP could not nominate anyone within the deadline yesterday for contesting the chairman posts in at least 25 Union Parishads in the second phase of elections for a lack of interest among its grassroots.

A prosecution witness yesterday testified that former Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP lawmaker Shakhawat Hossain and his accomplices confined and tortured him at a Razakar camp in Jessore during the Liberation War in 1971.

Jatiya Party presidium member Anisul Islam Mahmud yesterday claimed that JP Chairman HM Ershad himself appointed him as the acting chairman of the party after the 1/11 political changeover in 2007 in a bid to “avoid arrest”.

Like the elections to other local government bodies, the upcoming polls to union parishad will see rebel candidates of the Awami League in many union parishads including the ones in the constituencies of the party president and general secretary.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia last night said if the government was sincere about trying the “architects” of the 1/11 changeover, it should arrest and put them behind bars.

The nine-member medical board, formed for treatment of tree man Abul Bajandar, in a meeting yesterday decided to perform another

Leader of the Opposition Raushan Ershad last night thanked President Abdul Hamid for his address to parliament saying his speech is “a clean document of development and progress” achieved by the Awami League-led government.

The March 28 national council of the ruling Awami League is set to be deferred for a couple of weeks due to union parishad polls. The 20th council might be held in mid-April, said party sources.

Jatiya Party (JP) Chairman HM Ershad yesterday branded his party's senior leader and Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud as one of the masterminds behind the 1/11 political changeover and demanded that he be tried.

Workers Party President and Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon yesterday in parliament sharply criticised the Election Commission for not playing its due role in arranging fair elections.

Police arrested four DB personel impersonators in Aminbazar area of Savar, outside the capital, on Saturday night.

None was arrested yet in connection with the looting incident at a jewellery shop at Baraiyer Hat in Mirsarai upazila of

The Supreme Court yesterday again refused to accept BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir's explanation of his reported comment on the judiciary.

Two Awami League lawmakers yesterday demanded in parliament that the government take legal measures for exemplary punishment to The Daily Star Editor and Publisher Mahfuz Anam for publishing “news against Sheikh Hasina” in 2007.

Health Minister Mohammed Nasim yesterday called for forming an investigation commission to find out the conspirators behind the 1/11 political changeover in 2007.

Reacting to the prime minister's Monday's speech blasting editors of two top newspapers, BNP leader Maj (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed yesterday said going after editors is an old habit of the Awami League.

A Dhaka court yesterday asked BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to appear before it on April 13 in connection with the Gatco graft case.

The BNP yesterday alleged that the government and the Election Commission are "working together" to hold the upcoming Union Parishad polls as per their will.

A Dhaka court yesterday granted BNP standing committee member MK Anwar bail in a case filed for an arson attack that killed a policeman near Matsya Bhaban in the capital last year.

Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) last night announced its 301-member full-fledged committee.