Bangladeshi border guards detain ex-supreme court judge near border with India
Dhaka, Aug 24: A retired judge of Bangladesh's Supreme Court was detained from the northeastern frontier with India in Sylhet while he was allegedly attempting to flee the country, the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) said late on Friday.
The report came hours after the arrest of Awami League leader ASM Firoz from his residence.
The BGB headquarters, in an SMS, informed reporters that they have detained former apex appellate division judge of the Supreme Court Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik as he was trying to cross over to India through Sylhet’s Kanaighat border.
Newspaper Prothom Alo said Manik was kept at a BGB outpost till midnight citing the camp’s in-charge.
Bangladesh descended into chaos after ousted premier Sheikh Hasina's government collapsed and she fled to India on August 5 amid violent protests over quota for government jobs, while the Army stepped in to fill the power vacuum.
Before that, anti-government protests had killed more than 500 people since mid-July. Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took oath as the Chief Adviser of the interim government on August 8.
Since August 5, a number of leaders of the deposed regime, including senior ministers, have been arrested -- many of them on murder charges.
The Bangladesh Army has earlier said that several hundred leaders of Hasina's Awami League and others have been sheltered in cantonments as their lives were at risk.
Former law minister Anisul Huq and the ex-premier’s private sector affairs adviser Salman F Rahman were the first to be arrested from Dhaka’s main river port Sadarghat terminal area as they were allegedly trying to leave Dhaka on a boat.
A number of members of Hasina's cabinet, including former foreign minister Hassan Mahmud and former social welfare minister Dipu Moni, several lawmakers and leaders of Awami League and its allies, including pro-left Workers Party chairman Rashed Khan Menon, and a number of recently sacked military and civil officials have been arrested.
This included sacked major general Ziaul Hassan, who was serving as the head of the government’s telecommunications system, and Chittagong Port Authority chairman rear admiral Mohammad Sohail, who once was the spokesman of the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion.
A TV journalist couple Farzana Rupa and her husband Shakil Ahmed have also been arrested.
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Cummins doubtful for T20 World Cup? It's quite grey right now, says Aus head coach
Melbourne (PTI): Australia skipper Pat Cummins' chances of playing at next year's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka are "quite grey at the moment" as he battles a back stress issue that has affected his participation in the ongoing Ashes series against England.
Cummins returned to play the third Ashes Test in Adelaide after missing the opening two matches, picking up six wickets to help Australia clinch the series 3-0.
However, the Australian Test and ODI skipper will take no further part in the series and even his participation at the T20 World Cup is also uncertain. All-rounder Mitchell Marsh is Australia's T20I captain.
"Looking forward to the World Cup, whether he will be there or not, I can't really say. It's quite grey at the moment. We're hopeful," head coach Andrew McDonald was quoted as saying by 'ESPNCricinfo'.
The fast bowler was diagnosed with a lumbar stress reaction during Australia's tour of the West Indies in July. He underwent rehabilitation before being cleared for a carefully managed return in Adelaide.
"He's pulled up fine. He won't play any part in the rest of the series and that was a discussion that we had a long time out around his return," McDonald said.
"We were taking on some risk and people that reported on that would understand the risk associated with that rebuild. We've now won the series and that was the goal.
"So, to position him for further risk and jeopardise him long-term is not something that we want to do and Pat's really comfortable with that," he added.
The T20 World Cup is scheduled to begin on February 7 across India and Sri Lanka with the summit clash set for March 8.
Australia's first match is on February 11 against Ireland at Colombo. Although Cummins captains the Test and ODI teams, all-rounder Mitch Marsh leads Australia in the shortest format.
