Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday asked the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to restrict smuggling apart from protecting the country's independence and sovereignty. "You’ve to love your country, its people and work for people," she said. The Prime Minister said this while virtually attending the course-completion parade of BGB 95th batch from her official residence Ganobhaban. The parade was held at BGB training Centre and College at Satkania, Chattogram. She asked the BGB personnel to discharge their duties and responsibilities adopting mentality of service towards the country and nation. Mentioning that discipline is very important for any force, Sheikh Hasina said, "Always remember that discipline is most important for any [disciplined] force." Hasina said the country has been liberated with an ideology in mind and all have to uphold that. She asked the BGB personnel to carry out the orders of seniors and be fearless in discharging duties, and work having sympathy for juniors. "All have to work so that the country can be developed further in the future." Hasina asked the newly-recruited BGB personnel to perform the basic four principles of the force -- morale, brotherhood, discipline and skill-- with sincerity and honesty. She said the Awami League government is continuing its efforts to establish BGB as an international standard and modern border force through its development and modernisation. “For that we’ve adopted the Border Guard Bangladesh Vision 2041.” "Recently, we’ve turned BGB as a three-dimensional force. BGB now attains its capacity to discharge its duties in water, land and air," she said. She said that the government has taken a plan to recruit more 15,000 manpower in phases. Besides as part of the smart border management ultramodern surveillance equipment, ATV and modern APC, helicopter, vehicle scanner and speedboat has been inducted apart from installing new BOPs and BSPs. Talking about the second wave of Covid-19, she urged all to stay alert about it and follow the health guidelines to keep safe from this deadly disease. She reiterated that the government has made advance payment to get vaccines for coronavirus to protect people from the fatal disease. The Prime Minister recalled the heroic contributions of the BGB, the then East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), members towards spreading the proclamation of Independence of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 25, 1971 and in the Liberation War. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and Senior Secretary of Public Security Division of Home Ministry Mostafa Kamal Uddin also spoke virtually at the programme from the Home Ministry. BGB Director General Major General Md Shafeenul Islam delivered the welcome speech. The BGB DG handed over various awards on behalf of the Prime Minister among the trainees for their outstanding performance during the training programme. Source: UNB AH

Bangladesh Junior Tigers restricted India to 177 runs in the final of the U-19 World Cup 2020 in South Africa. Shoriful Islam, Tanzid Hasan Sakib and Avishek Das bowled brilliantly to create a good chance for Bangladesh to lift the title for the first time in country’s history. The junior Tigers were tremendous with the ball in the first power play when they conceded only 23 runs taking a wicket. Opening bowling-pair Shoriful and Sakib were very accurate in their respective first spell. Shoriful conceded only seven runs in his three overs while Sakib gave away nine runs in his first five overs with three consecutive maidens. Bangladesh managed to hit the Indian batting line in the seventh over of the innings when Divyansh Saxena tried to drive Avishek Das towards the cover area, but the ball was moving away from his body and flew to the point where Mahmudul Hasan Joy took an easy catch. The wicket was the result of putting continuous pressure on the Indian openers. Before falling prey to Avishek, Saxena scored only two runs off 17 deliveries. In the second wicket, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Tilak Varma added 94 runs on the board. But it was not enough to put the pressure back to Bangladeshi bowling attack who were disciplined to keep the economy rate low. India had to bat to 28.2 overs to reach the 100-run mark. Sakib brought the breakthrough in the 29th over removing Tilak for 38 off 65 balls. The ball outside off stump and Tilak went to cut away but fell short at the boundary as Shoriful took a brilliant catch. Adding only 11 runs after the dismissal of Tilak, left-arm spinner RakibulHasan removed Indian captain PriyamGarg for seven. The ball was a flighted delivery and right-handed batsman Priyam just prodded the ball to Sakib who was at the cover area. In the fourth wicket stand, Jaiswal and wicketkeeper-batsman Dhruv Jurel added 42 runs on the board. This partnership was looking dangerous until Shoriful sent back the best Indian batsman Jaiswal during the 40th over for 88 off 121 with eight fours and one six. In the very next ball, Shoriful scalped the wicket of Siddhesh Veer off a full-toss delivery at the leg-stump. Veer tried to clear to the fine-leg area but failed to connect the ball. Going to  172 from 156, India lost four wickets. Two of them were taken by Shoriful, two fell by run-out efforts and the other two were taken by Avishek. India eventually ended on 177 all-out in 47.2 overs. Avishek bagged three wickets for 40 runs while Shoriful and Shakib took two wickets each in the match, and RakibulHasan took one wicket as well. Bangladesh now needs to score at an average of 3.56 runs. If they Junior Tigers manage to touch the Target of 178 runs, they will be the first Bangladesh side to win an ICC event. Source: UNB AH