At least 44 people, including men, women and children have been killed in a fire that broke out in a multi-storey building at Kachchi Bhai Restaurant on Bailey Road in the capital.  Health Minister Samanta Lal Sen confirmed that at least 43 people including women and children had been declared dead at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is monitoring the fire incident. Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Bangladesh Police, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun told reporters that another one victin died in the fire at Central Police Hospital, Rajarbag. The fire service rescued 75 people alive. Of them, 45 were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) in an unconscious state.  

Iranian teenager Armita Geravand, who was allegedly attacked by the country's morality police for not wearing the mandatory headscarf earlier this month, was reported "brain dead" on Sunday. The 16-year-old had been in a coma since at least October 4. "Follow-ups on the latest health condition of Armita Geravand indicate that her health condition as brain dead seems certain despite the efforts of the medical staff," the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran News Network said. What happened to Armita Geravand? According the Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw, which is based in Norway, Geravand was attacked by the country's morality police while she was riding on the Tehran subway without a headscarf. She suffered severe brain injuries and was hospitalized afterwards. Authorities had claimed Geravand fainted due to low blood pressure. The fragmented video of the teenage girl being dragged unconscious out of the subway car has been published by government media. But no video recording of the encounter itself was released. Still, the head of the Tehran Metro meanwhile pointed to security camera footage to claim that Geravand was not attacked by passengers or staff. The teenager is originally from the city of Kermanshah in Kurdish-populated western Iran but she lived in the capital. The incident occurred roughly one year after Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran's morality police after she was approached for not wearing a headscarf in public. Her death sparked unprecedented women's rights protests in Iran.

As Anantnag encounter against Pakistan-backed terrorists enters day 6 in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Shabir Choudhary, a PoK activist living in exile in London, said he had a foreboding that Pakistani terrorists could launch an attack on security forces in Kashmir. He revealed that he shared his premonition in advance. Dr Shabir said he told his friends, “Pakistan had started infiltration in Kashmir and subjects from Pakistan had started going to Kashmir to carry out Jihad, terrorism or for creating some kind of mayhem, consequently there could be conflict and restlessness among the people of (India’s Union Territory) Jammu and Kashmir. I had said it 8-10 days before the (Anantnag) incident and there were some activities happening there (Jammu and Kashmir (UT)) during that time”. Although the activist said, he had no prior information about the terrorist activity but his continuous analysis of the movements of Pakistani intruders in PoK and Gilgit Baltistan enabled him to make that premonition. The activist offered condolences to the bereaved families of the brave security forces personnel and condemned Pakistan for the terrorist activities it has been carrying out in border areas of Jammu and Kashmir. Dr. Shabir said, “When you critically look at any situation and do a forecast or a prediction or do some analysis, sometimes those analyses go right and sometimes wrong. It doesn’t mean that I had some information. So I said it during that time and my prediction was right”. He added, “Now also I am saying, there will be consequences of this action (Anantnag incident) and there is a price to be paid! Who is going to pay for it? The People of Jammu and Kashmir have been paying it since 22nd October 1947 but this time I am sure the culprits (Terrorists from Pakistan) behind this (Anantnag incident) who are behind this bloodshed and chaos (in Kashmir), will suffer and pay for it as well.” Dr Shabir Choudhary lambasted Pakistan against its infiltration activities in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, he asserted, “The culprits (Pak-backed terrorists) will pay the price.”  Source: The Print

The suspects are accused of hanging a mannequin of Real Madrid player Vinicius Junior in January. The news comes days after fans hurled racist abuse at the Brazilian soccer star, sparking an international outcry. Spanish police have detained four people suspected of hanging a mannequin of Black Brazilian soccer star Vinicius Junior from a bridge in January, officials said on Tuesday. The perpetrators used a black figure wearing Vinicius' No. 20 shirt, tied a rope around its neck and hanged it from a bridge near  Real Madrid's training ground on the morning of a derby against Atletico Madrid. It was accompanied by a banner that read: "Madrid hates Real." Authorities said three of the suspects were members of an ultra fan group for a Madrid football team, but did not specify which club. Police used security camera footage to identify the suspects, Spanish media reported, but no action had been taken until now. Vinicius targeted by racist abuse The arrests were announced two days after spectators in Valencia hurled racist insults at Vinicius during a match, sparking international outcry including from Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. FC Valencia banned one spectator for life for insulting Vinicius during the game. Real Madrid said the incident was a hate crime and lodged a criminal case with prosecutors. The Spanish league has filed nine criminal complaints of cases of racial abuse against Vinicius in the last two seasons. Most of these complaints have been shelved by prosecutors.

Terrible fire incident occurred in the capital's Nawabpur area. 14 units are working to control the fire. A terrible fire has occurred in a market in Nawabpur area of Old Dhaka in the capital. On Thursday night, April 13, the fire incident took place. Till the latest news, 14 units of fire service are working to control the fire. Fire Service Control Room Officer Rafi-Al Faruk said, "Fire service went to the spot after receiving information. The fire incident occurred in a godown at Nawabpur's Suritula at 10 pm. Currently, 14 units are working to control the fire. The initial cause of the fire was not known."

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has expressed grief over the incident of fire in the capital's Bangabazar Annexco Tower.  However, the Prime Minister did not say anything about the assistance to the fire victims, said Planning Minister MA Mannan. On Tuesday, April 4, a meeting was held at the NEC conference room in the capital's Sher-E-Bangla Nagar. The meeting was presided over by Prime Minister and ECNEC Chairperson Sheikh Hasina.  After the meeting, the Planning Minister MA Mannan gave this information through a press conference. The Planning Minister highlighted the directives of the Prime Minister and said, "Prime Minister has expressed grief and pain over the incident of fire in Bangabazar." He said, "These shops were not insured, that's why they will suffer. We need to increase the capacity of our fire service.  However, the Prime Minister did not say anything about the compensation of those who were affected in this incident."

Air India has been fined 3 million Indian rupees ($37,000) for its handling of an unruly passenger on one of its flights in November, India's aviation regulator said on Friday. The licence of the pilot-in-command on the New York-New Delhi flight, where the incident took place, was also suspended for three months while a penalty of 300,000 rupees was imposed on Air India's director-in-flight services, the regulator added in a statement. The ruling on the Tata group-owned airline followed from an incident on a November 26 flight in which a male passenger, while apparently inebriated, allegedly urinated on a female co-passenger. Air India, on Friday, said it was studying the regulator's order on the matter, but acknowledged that there were "gaps" in the airline's internal reporting and assured the "relevant steps" were being taken to address them. "We are also strengthening our crews' awareness of and compliance with policies on the handling of incidents involving unruly passengers," said a spokesperson. India's aviation regulator had earlier issued formal paperwork, named show cause notices, to some Air India staff, including the pilots and cabin crew of the flight involved in the incident, asking why enforcement action should not be taken against them. Air India had also issued show cause notices and de-rostered one pilot and four cabin crew as part of its investigation. The airline, on Thursday, also imposed a flying ban for four months on the passenger.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, each and every incident of vandalizing homes which were provided among homeless poor people as gift, constructed under government’s ‘Ashrayan project’ will be investigated. The premier also directed Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate the incident of vandalizing 300 homes. The Prime Minister said this while participating the concluding speech of 14th session of Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday. She said, I would ask ACC to investigate each of the incidents of vandalizing homes out of 300. They have to submit report. This is my words. The premier said, I will not accept this type of corruption. It should be investigated. What was their motive? Why they vandalized the homes? ACC must investigate the matter. Pointing out taking new strategies to construct homes for gift in the coming days, she said, we have decided to construct homes using concrete pillars and steel frames, so that those may not collapse. The Prime Minister said, we have found corruption in nine places. There were excessive rain in 10 to 12 places and landslides caused to damage. Mentioning that the situation in 300 places was different the premier said, I have photographs of each of the 300 homes. It was found that the doors and windows were hit by hammers. Floors were broken by using iron rod. I will show the photographs later. AH   

Bangladesh Awami League has claimed that the incident of attack on the election campaign of BNP mayoral candidate Ishraque Hossain is arranged and pre-planned by BNP itself. Party presidium member HT Imam said this at a press briefing after holding meeting with Election Commission (EC) on Monday. HT Imam said, yesterday’s whole incident was arranged and pre-planned. BNP cadres have done that in such way. He said, BNP terrorists originated arson attacks across the country during 2014-2015. Those released terrorists were brought to Dhaka. Besides, they have taken shelter in groups in Dhaka being armed. They may create such situation so that the election will be cancelled. He claimed, may be the key roles are being played by the armed cadres of Jamaat-Shibir. We have deposited the arms to the EC used in the yesterday’s attack. We have proofs about the bullet injured persons in the hospitals. He said, being in the ruling party, we want that free, fair and acceptable election will be held. The Awami League delegation team led by HT Imam held meeting with other Election Commissioners including CEC KM Nurul Huda from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm at the Election Commission on Monday. AH  

Newsmen of Dhaka have protested the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Newsmen as well as professionals also took part in the human chain formed in front of National Press Club on Friday under banner of ‘we demand ensuring free media and free flow of information’. The speaker at that time demanded unconditional release of Julian Assange. The speakers said, the demand that has risen throughout the world for ensuring free flow of information, Julian Assange is in the central character of that phenomenon. By leaking millions of secret documents of USA and its military alliance NATO this Australian national has showed how the powerful states are killing people and hatching conspiracies. They also said, the war monger leaders have not accepted the fight of Assange as normally. Through arresting him the western world has created obstacle to free flow of information. Assange is not only a person, he has turned into the leader of fight for information flow. The human chain participators protested Julian Assange’s arrest incident and also demanded release of this ‘public journalist’. Former general secretary of DRU Raju Ahmed, journalists Promothesh Shil, Mir Mosharraf Hossain, Anirban Shahriar, Abu Daud Khan, Abdul Mannan Dipta, Rabbi Siddiqi, Badhon Odhikari, Mujahidul Islam, Ahmed Ismam, DS Sourav among others were present in the program. AH