Blackout might be act of sabotage: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the government could not rule out the possibility that Saturday's 10-hour blackout was an act of sabotage following three crucial war crimes verdicts.

Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting at the Secretariat, she asked ministers and law enforcement agencies to reinforce watch in every district to thwart any possible act of sabotage centering on the judgments.   

The premier gave the observations and instructions after some ministers said war criminals and anti-liberation forces might be behind the blackout since verdicts were coming one after another.

Hasina said since a probe was going on the rare power failure, it would not be wise to draw a conclusion now, according to several cabinet members.

“But we are not ruling out any possibility. We have to keep every possibility in mind including a technical glitch and sabotage,” she was quoted by a minister as saying.

The prime minister said though such kind of blackout was rare in the country, the power division officials and employees restored electricity supply within a very short time working throughout the day and thus deserved thanks.         

Expressing happiness over the recent verdicts on war crimes, she said they were happy that the highest court upheld the death sentence on Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman on the jail killing day [November 3] when four key aides of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were murdered in Dhaka Central Jail in 1975.       

For 2015, the cabinet approved 23 public holidays, said Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan. He said the country would have two Eid-e-Miladunnabi holidays in 2015--January 4 and December 24--as per the Islamic calendar.