BNP chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia turns ‘76' on Saturday.

BNP has no scheduled programme to celebrate the day.

However, the party will arrange doa mahfils across the country on Saturday seeking long life and early recovery of Khaleda.

In a press release signed by BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Thursday urged their party’s all units, including the two Dhaka city units to arrange the doa and milad mahfils at their all offices also seeking salvation of the departed souls of party leaders and activists died of corona and other diseases and the early recovery of those suffering from the illness. But the party did not mention that it has chalked out the programmes to mark Khaleda’s birthday.

“We’ve not taken any programme to celebrate our chairperson’s birthday under the current situation of the country. We’ve not been celebrating it for the last few years with any programme as per Madam’s (Khaleda’s) directives. We only pray for her wellbeing on the day,” BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told UNB.

He said their party will arrange doa and milad mahfils on Saturday seeking divine blessings for the welfare of Khaleda and the country so that it gets rid of corona pandemic.  

Asked whether they backed off from celebrating the birthday on the National Mourning Day to avoid criticisms, he parried the question, saying Khaleda herself does not want to celebrate it under the current situation of the country.

As in previous four years, Fakhrul said BNP had no programme to cut any cake to celebrate the birthday in the early hours of Saturday.

Amid criticisms by Awami League leaders for celebrating her birthday on the National Mourning Day, BNP marked her 72nd and 73rd, 74th and & 75th birthdays through holding doa mahfils instead of cutting any cake.

Khaleda was sent to Old Dhaka Central Jail since her conviction in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case by a lower court on February 8, 2018.

On March 25 last, the BNP chief was released from jail for six months upon an executive order considering her age and humanitarian ground following an application by her family. The six-month tenure of the order will end on September 24.

Meanwhile, the nation is set to observe the National Mourning Day the same day commemorating the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members on August 15, 1975.

Khaleda and her party used to observe August 15 as her birthday since 1991, but there are controversies about her actual date of birth and even the birth year.

Various records suggest Khaleda Zia was born in 1945, but her party claimed in 2015 that her actual birth year is 1946. She also registered her birth year 1946 in her new passport.

According to Banglapedia and well-known encyclopedias Wikipedia and Britannica Khaleda was born to Iskandar Majumder, a businessman, and Taiyaba Majumder in Dinajpur district in 1945.

The biodata of Khaleda Zia submitted to the Parliament Secretariat when she was made the opposition leader last suggests that she was born on August 15, 1945.

Awami League leaders have long been claiming that her birthday is September 5, 1945 as per her marriage certificate while August 19, 1946 as per her first passport. Khaleda herself put the date as August 9, 1944 while registering for her matriculation exams, they said.

The Alumni Association of the Institute of Modern Languages at Dhaka University was established on Friday. 

It also nominated a seven-member executive committee, which named Ansarul Alam, Associate Professor of Japanese Language and Culture of IML as President and Naushaad Kabir, Assistant Professor of English Language at IML General Secretary.

The 52 ‘Founder Members’ are those who completed any Degree/Diploma/Certificate course from the IML since establishment. 

Bipul Chandra Debnath, Assistant Professor of French Language and Culture at that institute as Vice President of DUIMLAA.

An alumni of MA English Language Teaching (ELT) Mahmud Faisal Shovon has been selected as Treasurer, while 3 Lecturers of the IML, Jannatun Naher (Chinese), Sheuli Fateha (Korean) and Sharmi Barua (Bengali) selected as Executive Members.

According to the newly formed DUIMLAA Constitution, IML Director Professor Dr Shishir Bhattacharja is the Adviser of the association. 

The main objective of the DUIMLAA is to establish network between the alumni and current students, and carry out academic activities in the field of various languages and cultures, said a press release here.

A minor child drowned while taking bath in a local pond in Milgate area of Boda upazila on Friday.

The deceased was identified as Joya, 6, daughter of Jadu Bamman of Debiganj upazila.

Officer-in-charge of Boda Police Station Abu Haidar Md Ashrafuzzaman said Joya was visiting her relative’s house in Milgate area.

She went to take a bath along with other children in a local pond in the noon when she drowned, OC said.

Later, her body was spotted floating on the water when she was taken to Upazila Health Complex where doctor’s declared her dead, the cop said.

A nurse of Lalmonirhat Sadar Hospital has been allegedly performing duty at the children ward despite being infected by coronavirus.

The senior assistant nurse Sharmin Afroz confirmed the matter and alleged that she has been working with ailment due to the pressure of the hospital authorities.

Sharmin’s Covid-19 tests came positive on August 2, and she was in home isolation until August 8, she said.

“I have joined at the hospital on August 9,” she stated.

Hospital Director Dr Md Sirajul Islam said he is not aware of the matter and would take necessary steps after inquiring the matter.

Meanwhile, Dr Nirmalendu Roy, Civil Surgeon of Lalmonirhat said this can trigger acute risks among the patients, adding that he would take measures over the matter after talking with hospital authorities shortly.

Health authorities in Bangladesh on Friday reported the detection of 2,766 new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours taking the total number to 2,71, 881.  

Meanwhile, another 34 patients died of Covid-19 during the period raising the death tally to 3,591.

Over 86 labs tested 12,856 samples in the same period, and so the positivity or daily infection rate for Friday increased to 21.52 percent. According to criteria published by WHO in May, a positive rate of less than 5% is one indicator that the epidemic is under control in a country.

So far 13,28,757 samples have been tested in the country, and against the total number of tests, 20.46 percent have turned out to be positive (infection rate).

In the last 24 hours, 1,752 patients have recovered from the disease at hospitals and homes, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,56,623. The recovery rate in Bangladesh is 57.6 percent.

The overall fatality rate remained the same at 1.32 percent. 

These data were revealed via a press release sent by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

According to DGHS, so far, 2,841 men and 750 women have died in Bangladesh. 

Of the newly deceased reported today, 22 were aged above 60 years and 10 others aged between 41 and 60 years. The rest were below 40.
Among the new deaths, 33 died at hospitals and one at home.

Since March 18, 1718 died in Dhaka, 827 died in Chattogram, 233 in Rajshahi, 279 in Khulna, 139 in Barishal, 170 in Sylhet, 145 in Rangpur and 80 died in Mymensingh division so far.

Currently, over 18,000 people are in isolation while nearly 53,000 are home or institutionally quarantined in the country.