Crime
Nagad organises workshop on money laundering & crime control
'Nagad,' one of the country’s leading mobile financial services, recently conducted a workshop for the entrepreneurs in Gaibandha district aiming at identifying, controlling and preventing money laundering in order to avert fraudulent activity and terrorism financing.
During the session, the speakers emphasized the importance of preventing money laundering and terrorist financing for conducting ‘Nagad’ business and identifying potential risk areas. The organisers also discussed the strategies for increasing awareness of the entrepreneurs, reporting suspicious transactions, and raising awareness about fraudulent activity.
Lt Col Md Kousar Soukat Ali (retd), Chief of External Affairs Officer of Nagad, said, “Nagad has always prioritised entrepreneurial awareness and a secure business framework. As part of our efforts, we will continue to organize such awareness events across the country.”
READ: NRB Islamic Life Insurance premiums can be paid through Nagad
Representatives of the Gaibandha District Police highlighted their expertise in conducting various criminal cases, including fraud, and relevant challenges, and drew attention to the areas of cooperation of the entrepreneurs at the workshop.
Md. Mahbub Alam, PPM, DIG (Retd.), Head Stakeholder Management of Nagad assured complete cooperation in the correct procedure of regulating with the assistance of Nagad. He also urged the police department to work cooperatively with the local ‘Nagad Uddoktas’.
Additionally, top authorities from 'Nagad' visited several ‘Uddokta points’ in Gaibandha, Rangpur and Nilphamari districts to apprise them of the importance of preventing money laundering and terrorism funding. The entrepreneurs of Nagad participated spontaneously in the inspection process and made several constructive proposals to address the different obstacles inherent in running the business.
Read Nagad training workshop with Postal officials held
The workshop was also attended by Gaibandha District Police representative and senior officials.
IGP urges police members to stay away from crime
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Benazir Ahmed on Wednesday warned that if any police member is found involved in crime, that person would be expelled from the police force.
The IGP was addressing a special welfare meeting with officers and forces of different ranks of all police units of Khulna Range at Jeshore Police Lines on Wednesday.
Chaired by Khulna Range DIG Khandker Mohit Uddin, Jeshore District Superintendent of Police (SP) Pralay Kumar Joardar gave a welcome address in the program.
Benazir said, "We will not commit crimes ourselves, we will not allow any senior or junior colleague to commit crimes either.".
The IGP urged the police personnel not to treat people inhumanely and unprofessionally.
Bangladesh will become a developed country through the implementation of Prime Minister's 'Vision-2041'. Bangladesh Police is also being developed as a modern police suitable for developed countries, he said.
READ: Police aviation wing will boost the agency’s capability: IGP
Referring to various steps taken to modernize the police, the IGP said that the state-of-the-art tactical belts, body worn cameras, etc. have already been added to the police. Everything that needs to be done in the future for the modernization of the police will be done for the welfare of the country and the people and to provide better services to the people.
He said that the police had gained the trust, love and trust of the people through firing the first bullet in the war of liberation. Once again, the police have been able to gain the trust of the people during Covid-19 epidemic. It is a very difficult challenge to keep the trust and confidence of the people up, he said.
The police chief formally inaugurated Jeshore Police Hospital, Inspectors' Quarters, Chougachha, Jeshore and Police Officers Mess.
He also laid the foundation stone of Jeshore District Police Multipurpose Building.
4 killed, 1 hurt in ‘ambush’ shooting at house party near LA
Four people were killed and one was wounded when multiple shooters opened fire at a house party near Los Angeles early Sunday, authorities said.
Police responded around 1:30 a.m. to reports of shots fired at a home in the city of Inglewood, Mayor James Butts told reporters.
Read: 3 teens killed, 1 injured in gas station shooting in U.S. Texas
Two women and two men were shot and killed and another man was hospitalized in critical condition and expected to survive, CBS2 reported.
Butts called the shooting an “ambush” involving multiple weapons including a rifle and a handgun. The mayor described the incident as the worst single shooting crime in Inglewood since the 1990s.
The victims appear to have been targeted, he added.
Butts urged the suspects to turn themselves in. “We will find you and prosecute you,” he said.
Authorities are searching for multiple suspects, he said. Officers interviewed witnesses and canvassed the neighborhood looking for possible security camera footage.
Read: 4 people injured after shooting at Chicago-area mall
The man who survived admitted being a member of a street gang in another city and investigators are trying to determine if the shooting was gang related, CBS2 said.
Inglewood is a city of about 100,000 people 10 miles (16 km) southeast of downtown Los Angeles. It’s home to SoFi Stadium, where the Super Bowl will be played next month.
UN investigator: Crimes against humanity under Myanmar junta
The head of the U.N. body investigating the most serious crimes in Myanmar said Friday that preliminary evidence collected since the military seized power on Feb. 1 shows a widespread and systematic attack on civilians “amounting to crimes against humanity.”
Nicholas Koumjian told U.N. reporters that the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, which he heads, has received over 200,000 communications since the army takeover and has collected over 1.5 million items of evidence that are being analyzed “so that one day those most responsible for the serious international crimes in Myanmar will be brought to account.”
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In determining that the crimes against civilians appear to be widespread and systematic, he said investigators saw patterns of violence -- a measured response by security forces to demonstrations in the first six weeks or so after the military takeover followed by “an uptick in violence and much more violent methods used to suppress the demonstrators.”
“This was happening in different places at the same time, indicating to us it would be logical to conclude this was from a central policy,” Koumjian said. “And, also, we saw that particular groups were targeted, especially for arrests and detentions that appear to be without due process of law. And this includes, of course, journalists, medical workers and political opponents.”
Myanmar for five decades had languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions. As the generals loosened their grip, culminating in Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s rise to leadership in 2015 elections, the international community responded by lifting most sanctions and pouring investment into the country.
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The Feb. 1 military takeover followed November elections which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won overwhelmingly and the military rejects as fraudulent. Since the takeover, Myanmar has been wracked by unrest, with peaceful demonstrations against the ruling generals morphing first into a low-level insurgency in many urban areas after security forces used deadly force and then into more serious combat in rural areas, especially in border regions where ethnic minority militias have been engaging in heavy clashes with government troops.
Christine Schraner Burgener told The Associated Press shortly before her 3 ½ year term as the U.N. special envoy for Myanmar ended on Oct. 31 that “civil war” has spread throughout the country.
The U.N. investigative body was established by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council in September 2018 with a mandate to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law committed in Myanmar.
Koumjian, an American lawyer who served as an international prosecutor of serious crimes committed in Cambodia, East Timor and Bosnia, was appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as its head in 2019 with instructions to prepare files that can facilitate criminal prosecutions in national, regional or international tribunals to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
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Koumjian said his team has been collecting evidence from a wide variety of sources including individuals, organizations, businesses and governments, and the evidence includes photographs, videos, testimonies and social media posts “that could be relevant to show that crimes happened and who is responsible for those crimes.”
The investigative body has received information from social media companies, which he wouldn't name except for Facebook because it had made its cooperation public.
“We began engaging with Facebook as soon as we were created in 2019, and they have been meeting with us regularly,” Koumjian said. “We have received some, but certainly not all, that we have requested. We continue to negotiate with them and actually I am hopeful that we are going to receive more information.”
He said the Human Rights Council specifically instructed the investigators to cooperate with the International Criminal Court's probe into crimes committed against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority and the case at the International Court of Justice brought by Gambia on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya.
“So we are sharing documents with those proceedings,” Koumjian said.
The court actions stem from the Myanmar military’s harsh counterinsurgency campaign against the Rohingya in August 2017 in response to an insurgent attack. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving mass rapes, killings and the torching of homes.
Koujian said: “All we’re doing is collecting evidence of the very worst violence, hopefully sending a message to perpetrators: `If you commit this, you run the risk that you will be held to account.’”
Catholic Church in France had 3,000 child abusers
An independent commission examining sex abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in France believes 3,000 child abusers — two-thirds of them priests — have worked in the church over the past 70 years.
The estimate was given by the commission president, Jean-Marc Sauvé, in an interview published Sunday in the newspaper Journal du Dimanche. The commission has been investigating for 2 1/2 years. Its full findings are scheduled to be released on Tuesday.
Read:Australian cardinal links graft to child abuse charges
In the interview, Sauvé did not give a figure on the number of sex abuse victims but said the report does include a new estimate.
Asked about the commission's work investigating child abusers, he said: “We evaluated their number at 3,000, out of 11,500 priests and church people since the 1950s. Two-thirds are diocesan priests."
He said 22 cases have been forwarded to prosecutors for alleged crimes that can still be pursued. More than 40 cases of alleged crimes that are too old to be prosecuted but that involve suspects who are still alive have been forwarded to church officials, Sauvé said.
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“From 1950 to 1970, the church is completely indifferent to the victims: They don't exist, the suffering inflicted on children is ignored,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “The periods that followed were different.”
He added: “Our objective is to furnish a concrete diagnosis of all the abuses, to identify the causes and draw all of the consequences."
4 get life term for killing Ruet driver
A Rajshahi court on Wednesday sentenced four people to life term jail for killing a bus driver of Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (Ruet) in 2018.
Justice Anup Kumar of the Rajshahi Speedy Trial Tribunal pronounced the verdict.
The convicts are- Sabbir Hossain,, Nur Nabi Hossain alias Hridoy, Sohail Rana alias Sohail and SM Sayem.
Read: It's settled: Life term means 30 yrs imprisonment
The court also fined them Tk 10000 each, in default, to suffer one month more RI.
There are two other accused in the case whose verdict is still pending with a separate juvenile court.
Read: 3 get life term for murder in Kushtia
Abdus Salam, a bus driver, was stabbed by the accused on the south-east side of Agrani School and College adjacent to RUET on April 23, 2018 while attempting to resolve a local conflict. Later, he died at Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital.
Abdus Salam's son Pias filed a case with Motihar police station against unidentified accused.
4 members of teen gang ‘Gazi group’ held in Dhaka
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) members arrested four members of a teen gang named ‘Gazi Group’ along with sharp weapons in the city’s Mohammadpur area on Saturday.
The arrestees were identified as Md Rubel,18, Md Shakil Khan,19, Md Nayeem,20, and Md Khairul Islam,20, said a press release of Rab-2.
Tipped off, a team of Rab-2 conducted a drive at Basila Tin Rastar More area around 1:15 pm and arrested the four members of the gang along with four knives and a mobile phone set.
Also read: 7 ‘teen gang members’ held in city
According to the investigation of Rab, the group members were involved in mugging, extortion and many crimes in the area.
Rab sources said the arrestees have many injury marks on their bodies which they sustained during clashes with other teen gangs in different times.
Process is underway to take legal action against them, said the release.
Also read: Man killed in attack by ‘teen gang members’ in Chattogram
AL activist hacked dead in Khulna
A 45-year-old man was hacked to death in Dighalia upazila of Khulna early Monday.
The deceased was identified as Yasin Sheikh, 45.
Read: 3 to die for murder in Khulna
He was an Awami League activist working for Farhana Halima, the party’s candidate in the upcoming Senhati Union Parishad poll.
The victim's family claimed that he was killed in an attack by rivals centering the election.
According to locals, he was stabbed at 3 am by unidentified criminals. Later they rushed him to Dighalia upazila health complex where a doctor declared him dead.
Officer-in charge of Dighalia Police Station(Investigation) said police have launched an operation to arrest the attackers.
Read: Another police informer murdered in Khulna
The body has been sent to the morgue of Khulna Medical College Hospital for autopsy, he added.
Man killed trying to resist snatcher in Dhaka
A man was killed near Badda post office in the city on Thursday as he was trying to resist a snatcher from taking his mobile phone, police said.
The deceased was identified as Shopon, 48. He was a driver of Victoria Transport, his nephew Parvez said.
Read: 'Hijacker' killed in Narayanganj mass beating
Sub-Inspector (SI) Hasmat Ali of Badda police station confirmed the information to UNB.
“ He was hit on the head with a bamboo stick and became unconscious at one stage of a scuffle with the hijacker,” he said.
“Police immediately recovered the body upon information and rushed it to the emergency unit of DMCH where the on-duty doctor declared him dead,” the SI added.
Ali added that the body of the deceased is currently at the morgue of DMCH for autopsy.
Our UNB correspondent reported citing police sources that at least one person has been detained by the law enforcer for questioning over the incident.
Shopon was a driver of Victoria Transport, his nephew Parvez told.
Fear shakes Mexico border city after violence leaves 18 dead
Fear has invaded the Mexican border city of Reynosa after gunmen in vehicles killed 14 people, including taxis drivers, workers and a nursing student, and security forces responded with operations that left four suspects dead.
While this city across the border from McAllen, Texas is used to cartel violence as a key trafficking point, the 14 victims in Saturday’s attacks appeared to be what Tamaulipas Gov. Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca called “innocent citizens” rather than members of one gang killed by a rival.
Local businessman Misael Chavarria Garza said many businesses closed early Saturday after the attacks and people were very scared as helicopters flew overhead. On Sunday, he said “the people were quiet as if nothing had happened, but with a feeling of anger because now crime has happened to innocent people.”
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“It’s not fair,” said taxi driver Rene Guevara, adding that among the dead were two of his fellow taxi drivers whom he defended and said were not involved in crime.
The attacks took place in several neighborhoods in eastern Reynosa, according to the Tamaulipas state agency that coordinates security forces, and sparked a deployment of the military, National Guard and state police across the city. Images posted on social media showed bodies in the streets.
Authorities say they are investigating the attacks and haven’t provided a motive.
But the area’s criminal activity has long been dominated by the Gulf Cartel and there have been fractures within that group. Experts say there has been an internal struggle within the group since 2017 to control key territories for drug and human trafficking. Apparently, one cell from a nearby town may have entered Reynosa to carry out the attacks.
Olga Ruiz, whose 19-year-old brother Fernando Ruiz was killed by the gunmen, said her sibling was working as a plumber and bricklayer in a company owned by his stepfather to pay for his studies.
Read: Mexico tops 155,000 COVID-19 deaths, may be 3rd highest
“They killed him in cold blood, he and two of his companions,” said Olga Ruiz, adding that the gunmen arrived where her brother was fixing a drain.
“They heard the gunshots from afar and my stepfather told him: ‘son, you have to take shelter.’ So he asked permission to enter a house but my brother and his companions were only about to enter when the vehicles arrived,” Ruiz said. “They stopped in front of them and started to shoot.”
On Saturday, authorities detained a person who was transporting two apparently kidnapped women in the trunk of a car.
Security is one of the great challenges facing the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He has assured Mexicans that he is fighting the root causes of the violence and since the beginning of his administration in December 2018, he has advocated “hugs, not bullets” in dealing with criminals. He also says he is fighting corruption to stop the infiltration of organized crime among authorities.
But the violence continues.
Read:Mexico's gang violence appears to rise during pandemic
“Criminal organizations must receive a clear, explicit and forceful signal from the Federal Government that there will be no room for impunity, nor tolerance for their reprehensible criminal behavior,” said García Cabeza de Vaca of the rival National Action Party. “In my government there will be no truce for the violent.”
But García Cabeza de Vaca himself is being investigated by the federal prosecutor’s office for organized crime and money laundering - accusations he says are part of plan by López Obrador’s government to attack him for being an opponent.
Tamaulipas - the state where the Zetas cartel arose and where the Gulf Cartel continues to operate - has seen several of its past governors from the Institutional Revolutionary Party accused of corruption and links to organized crime. One former governor, Tomás Yarrington, was extradited to the United States from Italy in 2018 on drug trafficking charges.