The 16-member team of private TV channel ATN Bangla won the award in the best international television production category for the documentary titled 'Amrao Pari' (We too can).

For the first time, any TV programme made in Bangladesh has achieved such an internationally acclaimed award, said ATN's Chief Advisor Saiful Bari yesterday at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters Unity.

A total of 30 countries from across the world with more than 100 TV programmes took part in the competition for the 32nd Emmy Award this year.

The jury board nominated four countries--Bangladesh, China, Korea and Laos, for the final round.

Chairman of the ATN Bangla Mahfuzur Rahman received the award at a ceremony at Hotel Hilton in New York yesterday.

The 25-minute documentary made in 2003 depicts a real life gallant act of a juvenile.

Abul Khair, a poor boy from Haziganj upazila of Comilla, out to collect snails like every other day in the water-submerged field along railway tracks on June 13,1996, came across a crack on a rail track. Sensing an imminent danger for trains of derailment, Khair instantly ran back home and brought a red cloth from his mother to hoist a danger signal.

Soon after, as a passenger train rushed to the faulty part of the track, he successfully signalled the train to stop and saved the lives of several hundred people aboard.

The juvenile team on its own did all the jobs including the script writing, shooting and planning for the documentary.

"I'm happy that a documentary has been made on the incident," said Abul Khair now in his twenties and working with the ATN.

Narrator and cameraman of the documentary, Fatema Akhtar and Rabiul Islam Raju, both second-year intermediate students, among other team members and ATN staff, were present at the press conference.

The documentary, sponsored by the UNICEF and Partex Group, is scheduled for screening on ATN Bangla today at 5:45 p.m.