Home ministry sees another change

Within three days of appointment, the senior secretary to the public security division of the home ministry was changed again.
Md Mokabbir Hossain, the chairman (senior secretary) of the Bangladesh Energy and Power Research Council (BEPRC), was appointed as the senior secretary of the public security division on August 14, according to the Ministry of Public Administration circular.
But today, Mokabbir has been transferred as the senior secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology, reads a circular signed by Ziauddin Ahmed, deputy secretary of the public administration ministry.
Earlier, the public security division secretary of the home ministry Md Jahangir Alam was sent on retirement, as he completed 25 years in service.
The government has taken the decision for the public interest, according to a notification issued by the public administration ministry.
Mentionable, Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain was replaced as home adviser by Lt Gen (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury Friday night, hours after four new advisers, including Jahangir, were sworn into office.
Sakhawat was given the charge of the textiles and jute ministry as the interim government redistributed the portfolios of eight advisers, according to the chief adviser’s press wing.
Jahangir, the new home adviser, will also hold the portfolio of the agriculture ministry. He served as the director general of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) from January 21, 2003 to February 18, 2006.
Then quartermaster general of Bangladesh Army, Jahangir headed a 20-member army probe committee to investigate the carnage at the BDR’s Pilkhana headquarters on February 25-26 in 2009 that left 74 people, including 57 army officers, dead.
The service of Jahangir was placed in the foreign ministry in December 2009. He went into retirement a year later.
Brig Gen (retd) Sakhawat hogged the headlines for his various comments after assuming the office of the home adviser. A coordinator of Anti-Discrimination Student Movement criticised him for some comments while BNP and its three associate bodies demanded his resignation.
Sakhawat, also a former election commissioner, on August 11 warned all political parties and said, “Now, if you think you’ll take control of the markets and resort to extortion, you can go ahead and do it for a while. But I have requested the army chief to break your legs… I don’t care, go to hell.”
The next day, he advised the Awami League leaders and activists not to do anything that may put their lives in danger, and to reorganise the party with new faces.
“No one has banned your party [Awami League]. Banning any party is a bad culture,” he told reporters after visiting some injured Ansar members at the Combined Military Hospital in the capital.
Mentioning the contribution of AL to the country, the retired army official said, “We cannot deny it [AL’s contribution]. Reorganise the party and participate in the election whenever it is held.”
The same day, Hasnat Abdullah, one of the key coordinators of the student protests, at a rally said, “We have seen the advisers talking about rehabilitating the murderers [Sheikh Hasina and other Awami League leaders]. We want to remind those advisers that you have come to power through the student-people uprising.
“We will not hesitate to oust you the way we made you advisers.”