The last national council of the ruling Awami League (AL) was held on December 26, 2002 when Sheikh Hasina was re-elected president and Abdul Jalil, general secretary of the party.
This year's council of Awami League carries a special significance as the party in its pre-poll pledges to the nation assured that it would bring a change in the people's lot presenting a digital Bangladesh.
Since this would be the first council of a major party after the 1/11-triggered interlude, political analysts are eager to see whether the oldest party of the country would get any major policy and structural reforms through this council.
But the party insiders said that one should not expect any radical change in the party constitution as the so-called reform initiatives prescibed by the policymakers of the 1/11 phase were nothing but a "ploy to minus Hasina, the undisputed leader of the party, from the political scene".
There are also speculations that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's younger sister Sheikh Rehana and Prime Minister's son Sajib Wazed Joy might be included in the official structure of the party.
Sheikh Rehana may be given the post of a presidium member, sources said adding that there is also a proposal to offer her the post of the Executive president of the party after creating the position.
Though there is an intra-party presure to sideline the reformist leaders like Amir Hossain Amu, Suranjit Sengupta, Abdur Razzak and Tofail Ahmed for their role against the leadership of Hasina during the military-backed caretaker government (CG) rule, they are unlikely to be excluded from the formal structure of the party as the party president at this stage does not want to create any division inside the party, sources said.The rail communication between Chittagong and other districts remained
suspended for 11 hours due to the accident resulting in severe traffiche Indian minister of State for home affairs Mullappally Ramachandran
told the Rajya Sabha today, "Some Inputs suggest that United Liberation
Front of Assam Commander-in-chief Paresh Barua had moved out of
Bangladesh for some time. However, details in this regard are not
available."
In a written reply to the Upper House of Indian
parliament, Ramachandran said the banned terror outfit was procuring
its arms from outside India. He conceded ULFA did possess a large
number of sophisticated weapons. He confirmed the intelligence inputs
which suggested that these arms and explosives were mostly obtained by
the outfit from foreign countries and brought to India.
 Earlier,
IANS reported that the ULFA was looking to China for shelter following
mounting pressure from Myanmar and Bangladesh with the outfit's top
commander Paresh Barua now believed to be somewhere near the
Myanmar-China border scouting for help to relocate its bases,
intelligence officials said. Police and intelligence officials said
there could be up to 50 ULFA militants now holed up in China's Yunnan
Province led by its 'Lt' Partha Jyoti Gogoi.
snarl on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway as the road was blocked due to
the accident.
Meanwhile, two committees were formed by the BR
authority -- one led by Chief Engineer of Eastern Zone of BR and
another led by Divisional Transport Manager of BR to probe the
incident. The committees have already started the investigation.
A
total of five persons including the driver of the train were injured
severely. The injured persons were admitted to the Feni Medical College
Hospital.
The schedule of trains from Chittagong was disrupted
following the accident. The Dhaka bound Mohanagar Express which was
scheduled to start from Chittagong at 8 am, left Chittagong at 1 pm,
the Sylhet bound Paharika Express scheduled to leave Chittagong at 10
am, left Chittagong at 1.30 pm. Other train schedules were also
disrupted due to the accident, said BR sources.
It may be mentioned that the immediate past former general secVice captain Shakib Al Hasan, under whose stand-in
captaincy Bangladesh won the historic overseas Test series, will also
lead the team in the remaining ODI series and a Twenty20 match in place
of skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who received knee injury during the
first Test. Mashrafe along with three other players return home today.
The Tigers, however, have a dismal record against West Indies in the
ODI matches.
Bangladesh have not won against the Caribbean in the
last 13 ODI matches. Of the 13 ODIs, West Indies won 11 while there was
no result in the remaining two matches.
Bangladesh will play the
second ODI match on July 28, also at Dominica, and the 3rd match on
July 31 at St. Kitts before the only T20 match on August 2 at the same
venue. ;