Suicide vest, grenades found at ‘JMB den’, 7 held

Law enforcers surround a building at Mirpur 1 under Shah Ali Police Station in Dhaka as they suspect that criminals are hiding inside. Photo: Palash Khan

Star Online Report

• Televised operation in broad daylight
• ‘7 held including 3 JMB men’
• High profile raid, say police
• 17 Homemade grenades, suicide vest seized
• Cops working to deactivate grenades Law enforcers claimed detention of six people and seized “a sack-full” of improvised grenades and suicide vests during a raid in Dhaka’s Mirpur-1 today.
  At least three of the detainees were key militants of banned Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), said Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of Detective Branch.
  The “high-profile” crackdown, that began from around 1:30am early today, continued till this afternoon – in a rare widely televised coverage throughout the day.
  
  
  

  The six men including three alleged militants are detained with explosives from the six-storey building in Mirpur 1 of Dhaka on Thursday. Photo: Shaheen Mollah
  The raid went without any casualties. However, there were explosions – carried out from both sides and police admitted of firing some bullets during the drive.
• AN OVERNIGHT WAIT BEFORE MORNING ARREST The detainees, whose identities were yet to be disclosed before the media, were living on the sixth floor of the Road 9, Block A as students for the past four months.
  Their information was obtained from an arrestee who was held last night, Monirul said while briefing reporters. Two people were held from one flat and the others from another adjacent.
  Police asked them to surrender repeatedly but there was no response from inside the flats. Some explosives were heard at scene. Those included some sound grenades of the police.
  The arrest was finally made late morning. Monirul Islam told reporters that there was “a sack-full of 17 handmade grenades,” inside the flats, including bomb making materials.
  
  
  

  Detectives dispose the bombs at a nearby plot at Mirpur1 on Thursday. At least 16 handmade bombs and other explosives were seized and 6 people were detained from a building there. Photo: Shaheen Mollah
  Detectives took away the detainees for further questioning; they were not shown to the media. The Daily Star obtained all its information from the briefing of Monirul Islam and Sanowar Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of DB and chief of bomb disposal squad.
  More details about the arrestees will be disclosed later after further questioning.
  
• 

  According to a Jamuna TV report on Thursday, the building (left) at Mirpur 1 under Shah Ali Police Station in Dhaka is being surrounded by law enforcers as they suspect that criminals are hiding inside. Photos grabbed from TV

BANGLADESH ON HUMAN DEV INDEX: Steady progress shows hope

Once upon a time in Afghanistan…

Star Online Report

Students at the Higher Teachers College of Kabul. Photo Courtesy: Dr. William Podlich

Afghan school girls. Photo Courtesy: Dr. William Podlich

Afghanistan, now paints a picture of a war struck country, destroyed and defeated in
every aspect.  Presently, it is one of the most challenging places in the world to be a woman.
85 percent of the country’s women have no formal education, life expectancy is a low 51,
and violence against women in the country is on the rise, having peaked in 2013 according to the Independent Human Rights Commission of Afghanistan (AIHRC), reports the Indian online daily, The Citizen

Although in recent years, there have been significant developments improving the condition of women in the war-torn country -- such as the 2009 Elimination of Violence against Women Act (EVAW), the country continues to face several challenges in terms
of women’s rights and safety, including challenges pertaining to the implementation of EVAW. The UN in 2012 made 71 recommendations to improve the implementation of
the law, but in a subsequent report found that only four of its proposals were had been implemented.

In fact, UN Women chief Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, has described violence against women in Afghanistan as “pandemic” with 87.2 percent of women experiencing some form of physical, psychological, sexual, economic or social violence.

However, Afghanistan was not always such a repressive country. Photographs from the 1950s and 60s depict a very different Afghanistan; one where female students sat next
 to their male peers, where girls scouts worked along with boy scouts, where, in parks
and playgrounds, buses and record stores, hospitals and schools, women were seen in equal numbers as men.

The Citizen compiles a collection of images which offer a rare insight into
Afghanistan’s past.

Phonograph record store in Kabul. Photo Courtesy: Facebook page: Afghanistan

 Is Beautiful

Women in the Faculty of Medicine, Kabul University. Photo Courtesy: “Afghanistan: 

Cockpit in High Asia, 1966,” by Peter King

A vaccine research center attached to a Kabul hospital in the 1960s. 

Photo Courtesy: Facebook page: Afghanistan Is Beautiful

Afghan girl scouts pictured in the 1950s or 60s. 

Photo Courtesy: Facebook page: Afghanistan Is Beautiful

A school playground. Photo Courtesy: Dr William Podlich

Student nurses at Maternity Hospital, Kabul. 

Photo Courtesy: Facebook page: Afghanistan Is Beautiful

Tourists at a park in Kabul. Photo Courtesy: Dr William Podlich