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The Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh has recently turned out to be a source of potential disintegration of the ruling four-party alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
   Two smaller components of the alliance — the Bangladesh Jatiya Party led by Naziur Rahman Manjur and a faction of the Islami Oikya Jote led by Fazlul Haque Amini — have expressed resentment in public against the BNP high-ups for giving ‘undue importance’ to Jamaat.
   Naziur at a meeting of his party’s extended central committee on April 6 termed Jamaat ‘a fundamentalist organisation’ and commented that the BNP is ‘patronising the fundamentalist and extremist forces in the country’.
   Naziur and his confidants also blasted the government and the BNP high-ups for harbouring extremist elements and establishing an alternative power centre at Hawa Bhaban.
   Amini, chairman of an IOJ faction, has also made public statements against BNP and Jamaat leaders after the government’s drive to arrest Islamist extremists by raiding madrassahs, which, he said, have no connection with Islamist militancy.
   He publicly accused Jamaat of masterminding the drive and the BNP of giving indulgence to ‘the Jamaat project’.
   ‘We will not shoulder the responsibility for the activities of the government as we are not part of it,’ Amini said, claiming, however, that his party was very much part of the alliance.
   The Amini-led IOJ faction has already taken a move, inconsistent with the concept of alliance politics, by unilaterally fielding a mayoral candidate, Iqbal Bin Yaqub, in the forthcoming Chittagong City Corporation polls.
   Meanwhile, the BNP and Jamaat have launched a simultaneous move to strengthen the alliance by appeasing the top leadership of the two smaller partners.
   Muhammad Quamaruzzaman, assistant secretary-general of Jamaat, met Manjur on Saturday at the latter’s residence. He also talked to Amini over telephone.
   On March 8, three top BJP leaders, including its secretary-general Kazi Feroz Rashid, resigned from the party and joined the Jatiya Party of HM Ershad.
   Meanwhile, the BNP-Jamaat duo seems ready to see the two other components divided, if necessary, to keep the ‘four-party alliance’ technically alive.
   Apparently inspired by the BNP, four BJP lawmakers on Monday asked Manjur to either retract his recent remarks against the alliance or face disciplinary action.
   Manjur might be expelled from the alliance if he does not change his political stance, said sources in the alliance.
   ‘We will be bound to take action against him after discussing the matter in the party forum if he does not retract his recent remarks against both the alliance and government,’ said four MPs in a joint statement, made after a meeting with the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, at her office on Monday.
   They are Professor MA Matin (Sirajganj-4), Kazi Mohammad Anwar Hussain (Brahmanbaria-5), MM Aminuddin (Jessore-4) and Kazi Alauddin (Satkhira-4).
   ‘The prime minister wanted to know if the opinions expressed by Manjur were his own or represented the BJP stance,’ Matin told New Age Monday evening. ‘We told her that the statements were his own.’
   ‘Then you should be vocal and protest against his remarks,’ Matin quoted the prime minister as saying.
   ‘After that, we prepared a joint statement at the Prime Minister’s Office,’ he said.
   The meeting was held following a request of the prime minister, a BJP lawmaker told New Age.
   In the statement, the four MPs of BJP protested against the ‘misleading, motivated and frustrated’ statements of the party’s chairman against the four-party alliance and the elected government.
   Manjur ‘has no right’ to make such statements without the party’s permission, said the group of four BJP lawmakers who were elected from in the 2001 elections on the ruling alliance’s ticket.
   ‘He has violated the discipline of the party, and the alliance as well, by making false and misleading statements against the component parties of the alliance, using the party to vent his personal frustration at not being a beneficiary,’ they said.
   ‘His statements prove that he has made himself a “pawn of interested quarters”,’ the lawmakers alleged.
   ‘We want to clearly inform everyone that the four-party alliance was formed in the greater national interest, not in the interest of any individual or group.’
   They asserted that the BNP-led alliance would remain intact under the leadership of the prime minister and alliance leader Khaleda Zia by ‘thwarting all conspiracies’.
   They asked Manjur to withdraw his ‘personal comments’ made by using the party banner against the alliance and the government.
   Manjur, however, told New Age that he had not made any remark against the alliance.
   ‘I will take action against the four MPs according to the party’s constitution and the constitution of the country,’ he threatened.
   In another development, the Amini-led IOJ split formally on April 10 with the formation of a faction led by Mufti Izharul Islam Chowdhury.
   Making an oblique reference to Amini, Izharul, chairman of the new faction, said someone was engaged in secret activities that are detrimental to the alliance. He further said it was not expected of them.
   ‘The alliance was formed not to serve anyone’s personal interest, but to serve the country,’ he said.

Slow progress in rescue operation at the garment factory building at Savar that collapsed Monday night suggests that the authorities have neither the necessary equipment nor the preparedness for such disasters.
   Despite a frantic effort, rescuers managed to remove only a small portion of the huge pile of concrete rubble on Tuesday, the second day of rescue operation.
   They were able to pull out four bodies as they did not have necessary equipment, the rescuers said.
   They rescued five survivors on Tuesday, but around 100 workers are still missing. Almost 40 hours after the nine-storey building of the Spectrum Sweater and Knitting Factory had collapsed early Monday, rescuers believed that those trapped inside would die by that time from suffocation.
   The building did not have the approval of Rajuk and was reportedly built on an occupied government land with a faulty construction.
   ‘We badly need concrete cutters to step up operation, but we do not have any. This is why we are conducting operation manually, using compressors and vibration machines,’ Brigadier General Nizam Ahmed told New Age on Tuesday, leading his engineering corps in search for trapped workers.
   He said they would acquire one such cutter from a private firm. Some equipment of the army were also on their way from outside the capital.
   ‘Despite the limitations, we are carrying out the operation employing whatever equipment is available,’ said Nizam. He could not say how much time it would take to complete the rescue operation.
   The firefighters, engaged in rescue operations, said it would take at least seven days to completely remove the rubble. ‘Imagine how much time we would need. We could remove only a small portion of the concrete in two days,’ a firefighter told New Age.
   No one could confirm whether there were any survivors still trapped and what had happened to those who spoke with their relatives and rescuers on Monday from inside the rubble.
   There were no screams or cries for help on Tuesday and the rescuers believe they might have died.
   A strong stench seeped through the concrete and rescuers said the bodies had begun rotting. ‘The chances of finding more survivors are declining fast,’ said an army officer.
   The rescuers have been using small cutters unfit for such heavy work and breaking away parts of concrete slabs with shovels and hammers at a slow pace.
   They said they had been able to go to the fifth floor level by making holes at different points. Now they need to remove the slabs from the upper portion to go further down.
   The rescuers are also using cranes to remove concrete from both the south and north. But even that is going on at a slow pace as the cranes are not suitable for the job either, said an official of fire service.
   A large number of police personnel, and the members of the Armed Police Battalion, army and the Rapid Action Battalion have been guarding the whole area as thousands of onlookers, including relatives of missing workers, have been crowding the place.
   Every time a body or survivor came out, people rushed in. What surprised everyone was Palash’s survival.
   He crawled out of the rubble almost 32 hours after the collapse. He said he had fainted a few times because of injuries. But whenever he was conscious, Palash dug through the debris and removed concrete slabs.
   ‘It was dark everywhere and I did not know which way could lead to freedom.
   But in the morning, I could see a faint sunbeam leaking in,’ said Palash. He then began to crawl towards the light. He was under treatment in Combined Military Hospital at Savar till Tuesday.
   The state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, on Monday had said, ‘No one responsible for the incident will be spared.’ When asked whether the owner of the factory would be brought to book, he replied, ‘Of course!’
   But the owner of the factory, Shahriar Rahman, was not arrested till Tuesday night.

‘Mother, I will draw my wages and buy sweets for you tomorrow morning after my night-shift duty.’ These were the last few words 16-year-old Abdus Salam had uttered before leaving home for the Spectrum Sweater and Knitting Factory Sunday afternoon.
   The youth drew his first month’s salary but could not return home with sweets for his mother. He has been missing since the nine-storey factory building collapsed early Monday with about 300 workers inside.
   His mother, Fatema Begum, who was weeping continuously at Palashbari in Savar, said her son was forced to take the job after both the hands of his father were burnt while working in a hotel.
   ‘My son was studying in Class VIII, but he threw away his books and started working in the factory to feed and clothe our six-member family,’ said Fatema.
   After joining the factory, he sent his younger brother, Abdul Kader, and sister, Rabeya Khatun, to a school. ‘I had to stop studying but I want them to be educated,’ Salam had told his mother.
   ‘Please rescue my son…I won’t go home without him and will wait here until he is brought out of the collapsed building,’ implored Fatema as she looked helplessly at the debris of the collapsed building.
   Like Fatema, there were hundreds of others who came to the spot from various parts of the country, after hearing news of the tragic accident, to look for their missing dear and near ones.
   Sakhina Begum was looking for her son, Abu Kalam, who was a machine operator of the factory. She, along with another son, Jamir Ali, came from nearby Manikganj district with the hope that Kalam would be rescued or would manage to come out of the debris anytime.
   ‘I worked throughout Monday and rescued six trapped workers and brought out a dead body, but I could not find my brother despite all my efforts,’ said Ali.
   Mizanur Rahman of Madaripur was looking for his brother-in-law, Shafiqul Islam Alim. He said the body of Shaikot, who was working with Alim that night, was recovered on Monday but Shafiq was still missing.
   Moslema did not stop crying for even a minute. Her brother Nazrul has been missing since the incident but she believes he will be found alive.

Al Mamun Palash, 28, helper to the boiler conductor, of the Spectrum Sweater and Knitting Factory at Savar that collapsed Monday night, could save himself.
   He came alive out of the rubble Tuesday noon as, he said, the boiler did not explode.
   He came out at about 12:20pm, 32 hours after the collapse to the utter surprise of hundreds of rescuers and onlookers. Out of the rubble, he was about to run, and then fell on the ground.
   No one could imagine that there could be any survivor inside after so many hours.
   ‘No, the boiler did not explode. If it had been so, my body would have had burn scars,’ said Palash, who fainted at least four times after being trapped inside.
   ‘I first felt a mild jolt at around 1:30am. Within seconds, the whole building collapsed, and I fell down,’ said a pale Palash.
   ‘There was dark and I could hear cries all around,’ he said at Combined Military Hospital at Savar. ‘I thought I was dying. The faces I could recall, especially of my mother, inspired to fight on.’
   ‘First I tried to sit up. But I could feel the roof within the reach of a foot above. I grew thirsty and as soon as I tried to lick my lips, I tasted blood.’
   ‘Then I began crawling aimlessly. I fainted because of excessive heat, cries of my colleagues and tiredness,’ he told New Age.
   ‘I do not know how much time had passed since I fainted,’ the boiler helper, who was still haunted by the nightmare, said. ‘I regained sense to the sound of a cutter machine, and cry of the people.’
   ‘I got drenched as I sweated. I tried to lift my head and but failed. Then I started crawling and I do not know exactly when I fainted again.’
   ‘When I came to my senses again, I saw a man lying beside. I do not know whether he was alive,’ said Palash.
   ‘I then reached a place where I could barely sit. The more the time passed, the clearer I could hear the sound of the people. I continued to go forward in the deep dark. I fainted again.’
   ‘I regained sense again. I felt much weak as I was hungry, thirsty and tired. With a renewed spirit for survival, I started crawling again. Hours passed and I became unconscious again.’
   ‘This time when I regained sense, I was fortunate enough to see sunbeam through a hole inside the rubble. I thought I could see the sun. Encouraged, I began running. But I fell down again.’
   ‘After seconds, when I came to my senses, I crawled towards the hole and I could see sunlight.’
   ‘When I came out, I cried out, jubilant. Yes, I could beat death. I could —’ said the man.

The apparel industry may face more stringent queries on compliance issues from foreign buyers after Monday’s factory building collapse in Savar and see cuts in export orders.
   ‘We have not yet received any concern about the incident from the buyers. But, I think, the buyers will now be more sensitive on the compliance issues,’ the BGMEA president Annisul Huq told the private news agency United News of Bangladesh on Tuesday.
   ‘They [buyers] will be more alert in this regard,’ he said about the possible attitude of the buyers towards social and safety aspects of some 1.8 million workers in the RMG industry that accounts for 75 per cent of the export revenues.
   Industry insiders said the fatal incident took place at a time when the industry could have created some positive impression among their buyers over the compliance issues, especially checking the fire incidents that claimed 156 lives in 115 factories since 1990.
   The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association on Tuesday formed a five-member committee to probe into the factory-collapse incident.
   An emergency meeting chaired by Annisul decided that the association would make its membership conditional on the fact a new member has a factory approved by RAJUK or constructed following required engineering method.
   The committee headed by Ali Azam Khan, chairman of the BGMEA standing committee on safety measures, will place a report on the collapse of the garment factory building in seven days.
   The association also formed a four-member medical team to deliver treatment to the injured workers.
   The association president said his organisation will bear treatment cost of all injured workers, and according to the practice of the association, it will give some financial compensation to family of the dead workers.
   Earlier, RAJUK also formed a committee to investigate the collapse incident.

A unilateral Indian move to erect barbed-wire fences along the border and some other contentious issues are set to top the agenda at the four-day Indo-Bangla border talks that begin today.
   The Bangladesh Rifles director general, Major General Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, will lead the Bangladesh delegation at the talks.
   The Border Security Force director general, RS Mooshahary, will lead a 16-member Indian delegation, which includes high officials of home and external affairs ministries, inspectors general of police of different frontiers and staff officers of the BSF headquarters.
   Official sources said the director general-level meeting will discuss border management issues, trans-border crimes, cross-border smuggling of arms, ammunition, contraband drugs and other items.
   Bangladesh will raise strong objection against the Indian project of fencing within 150 yards of the zero-line, killing of innocent Bangladeshis by the BSF, sheltering of Bangladeshi criminals in India, among other issues, BDR sources said.
   On his arrival on Tuesday, Mooshahary denied Dhaka’s allegation of sheltering Bangladeshi criminals operating anti-Bangladesh activities from the Indian soil.
   ‘The claim is far from the truth,’ he told reporters at Zia International Airport.
   He said some criminals might go to India and hide in their relatives’ home, but it does not necessarily mean that any Indian authority shelters them.
   Mooshahary also denied allegation of killing innocent Bangladeshis by his force in the bordering areas. ‘The Border Security Force is not a force to kill innocent people.’
   He, however, admitted continuation of the Indian project of erecting barbed-wire fence along Indo-Bangla border lines, adding that the project was taken up a pretty long time back.
   Jahangir, who received the Indian delegation at the airport, accused the Indian side of violating the 1975 border agreement between the two forces.
   He pointed out that in many places, the BSF erected barbed-wire violating the agreement that stipulates none of the sides will take any defensive measures within 150 yards of the zero-line.
   He said over 300 Bangladeshi criminals had been sheltered in 90 camps. He also alleged that a quarter in India wants a part of Bangladesh to be ‘Hindu land’.
   Jahangir said issues like India’s move to fence the frontier with barbed wire would be raised in the meeting. ‘We will raise the issue as India, in some cases, violated the land boundary guideline of 1975,’ he told New Age on Monday.
   The border guards of the two countries traded gunshots in recent months to fence the border.
   Under the guideline no country is allowed to build any defensive structure within 150 yards from the borderline, but India doesn’t consider the fencing a defensive structure.
   Bangladesh earlier protested against it and said it (fencing) was very much a defensive structure.
   India and Bangladesh share a total 4,200 kilometres of border, 6.5 kilometres of which are yet to be demarcated.
   ‘We would lay emphasis on the issue of killing and injuring of Bangladeshi nationals by BSF and Indian citizen frequently,’ he said. ‘In recent months killings along the border by BSF have been raised alarmingly’.
   Indian media reported on Monday that the BSF would also raise the issue of ‘adverse media campaign in Bangladeshi newspapers against the BSF in particular and India in general’.
   It said the BSF would raise issues like prevention of illegal immigration of Bangladeshi nationals into India, use of Bangladeshi territory by Indian insurgents, trans-border crimes, fence breaching by Bangladeshi criminals and fencing of the border.
   The Indian side will also discuss obstruction to development works on Indian side of the border and coordinated patrolling by the BSF and the BDR.
   Such meetings are held twice a year to discuss issues related to guarding the India-Bangladesh border.
   The last two DG-level meetings were held in Dhaka in May and in New Delhi in September.

The Border Security Force of India shot dead a Bangladeshi youth on Beurjhari frontier under Baliadangi upazila of Thakurgaon, some 320km north-west of Dhaka, Monday night.
   Local sources said Anisul Islam, 25, of Dakhkhin Mridhapara village, tried to cross the border and the BSF shot him at about 9:30pm.
   The Indian border guards took away the body of Anisul and handed it over to the Indian police for autopsy.
   His body is expected to be handed over to the Bangladesh Rifles after a flag meeting today.
   A local source said Anisul tried to cross the border to collect jute-seeds.
   Meanwhile, another private news agency BDNEWS reports from Brahmanbaria that two flag meetings between the Bangladesh Rifles and the Border Security Force of India were held Tuesday over erection of barbed-wire fences by the BSF on the border.
   Though the meetings defused the tension a bit, the red alert declared recently by the BDR was still in force.
   BDR sources said when the BSF tried to erect barbed-wire fences on Salda river border under Kasba upazila, BDR personnel prohibited them verbally. But the BSF continued to build the fences.
   Then the BDR fired three blank shots. At first the BSF personnel fled but later with additional forces started building bunkers.
   A company commander-level meeting held in the morning that ended without any breakthrough. Later a battalion-level meeting was held in the afternoon.
   After long discussion the BSF agreed to suspend the erection of the fences.

Two Ashuganj power plant units will be overhauled to restore their full working capacity of 150 megawatts each at a cost of about Tk 500 crore.
   Units 4 and 5 of the 8-unit 735MW power plant were set up between 1987 and 1988, and are now producing only half their capacity due to deterioration of their condition.
   German lending agency KfW and the Japanese government will provide the fund of about 72 million euros as debt-relief grant assistance for the overhauling work, which will be carried out by an international consortium comprising two companies from Japan and Germany.
   Ashuganj Power Station Company Limited and the consortium of Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Company of Japan and ALSTOM Power Generation AG of Germany had already signed a contract for the work on January 5, which came into effect on March 22.
   Both the parties signed a protocol on modernisation and overhauling of the units at a ceremony, with the state minister for power, Iqbal Hasan Mahmood, present as chief guest, on Tuesday at Hotel Sheraton to begin the work.
   SR Khan, managing director of Ashuganj Power Station Company, a subsidiary of the Power Development Board, and Hideo Yamada, vice president of the Energy and Plant, a subsidiary of the Ishikawajima-Marima Heavy Industries Company Limited, signed the protocol.
   Japanese ambassador M Horiguchi and German ambassador Dietrich Andreas were also present on the occasion.
   The consortium will finish overhauling in 29 months. Overhauling of unit 4 will be completed by September 2006 and that of unit 5 is scheduled to be ended by July 2007, according to the work plan.
   The units, which are now producing only around 80MW each, will provide an additional amount of 120MW of power to the national grid after completion of the overhauling work, said SR Khan. He said the units would run for over 25 years after overhauling.
   Iqbal said the units should have been overhauled earlier but it was not possible to restore the full capacity of the units because of fund constraint.
   He called upon German and Japanese companies to take up joint financing of a new combined cycle power plant that may be set up at Ashuganj at a time when the country is about to face growing power shortage now and in future.
   The minister said, if both the development partners set up the new plant, it would serve as a model for total privatisation of the country’s power sector in the near future.
   ‘I make a special appeal to the governments of Germany and Japan to finance, perhaps jointly, the combined cycle power plant,’ he said.
   The German ambassador, Dietrich Andreas, emphasised the need for proper utilisation of development assistance that his country ‘gives mainly in the form of grants’.

UN Bangladeshi and South African contingents on Tuesday started disarming militiamen in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s north-eastern Ituri region, where aid workers reported a spread of cholera among displaced civilians, officials said.
   ‘This operation to cordon off, search and comb the area was launched at 10.00am, about 45 kilometres south of Bunia,’ said Kemal Saiki, spokesman for UN Mission in Congo.
   ‘It (the operation) aimed at arresting and disarming militiamen allied to Patriotic Resistance Front of Ituri,’ he said.
   Sikaki could not say how many militiamen they would disarm in the operation, which was set to end by 1600 GMT.
   ‘The operation was launched today (Tuesday) because it is a market day in Kadjoka when the militia send people to collect taxes,’ Saiki added.
   About 300 peacekeepers aboard helicopters were deployed for the operation in the same area, where nine peacekeepers were slain by militiamen operating in the restive region in February.
   Inter-ethnic clashes since 1999 in the country’s volatile Ituri have claimed at least 50,000 lives and displaced more than 500,000 others, most of whom are now facing the risk of a new cholera outbreak.
   Humanitarian groups in the region said the outbreak in the displaced people’s camps in the region, which erupted late March, has so far claimed 23 lives.
   More than 800 people have been infected, they said.
   ‘We have more than 800 cases of cholera so far, and 23 people have died, including three soldiers of the Congolese army,’ Modibo Traore of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said.
   He added that there had been in recent days ‘a fall in the curve of the epidemic’.

Leaders of the Ahmadiya Muslim Jamaat on Wednesday expressed their grave concern over a programme to lay siege to an Ahmadiya mosque in Satkhira on April 17 by certain Islamist activists.
   The leaders, at a media conference at the Ahmadiya Complex in the Dhaka city, urged the government to take necessary measures to stop persecution by Islamist extremists and to protect their places of worship.
   The International Khatme Nabuwat Movement, a forum of Islamist extremists, are distributing leaflets and calling upon the people to participate in the siege at Jyotindranagar village in Shyamnagar upazila.
   Mir Mobasser Ali, nayeb-e-amir-2 of the Ahmadiya Jamaat, said unabated persecution of Ahmadiyas by the religious fundamentalists is not only violating the rights of the sect but also tarnishing the image of the country at home and abroad. Earlier the law enforcers had hung a signboard on an Ahmadiya mosque, naming it as ‘upasanalaya’, at Bogra on March 11, he said.
   Another leader, Abdul Awal, said the police and local administration failed to tackle the mob as they were not prepared when the Bogra incident took place. He suspects that the local administration is also not well prepared to tackle any such situation at Shyamnagar. ‘Ahmadiyas want to see the rule of law,’ he said, adding that once there was social and religious harmony among different religious groups at Jyotindranagar. ‘Now there are 4,000 Ahmadiyas there who live in constant fear.’

The government decided Tuesday to issue licence to the Ekushey Television, airing of which went off three years ago following a Supreme Court verdict, enabling it to resume its operation, an information ministry official said.
   ‘It will take few more days to issue the license for its operation although the government decided on its licensing,’ the official told New Age on Tuesday.
   Launched on March 8, 2000, the ETV was the country’s first ever private-run television. It earned extra-ordinary popularity, especially with its reporting-based programmes. The channel had both the terrestrial and satellite facilities to air its programme to reach viewers every nook and corner of the country.
   It is not clear, however, whether or not the channel would be allowed to run its operation on terrestrial arrangement this time.
   The channel fought a lengthy legal battle over its terrestrial facilities and lost it. Following the court verdict, the channel went off air on August 29, 2002.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Tuesday reiterated that the next general election of 2007 would be held on time and according to the constitution.
   She criticised the opposition Awami League for reviving the settled questions on the systems of caretaker administration.
   Khaleda was addressing a public meeting at Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali College ground in Bagerhat in the afternoon.
   Referring to the demand on changing the caretaker system, Khaleda said the opposition had claimed it to be their idea and a unique one.
   Regarding the Election Commission, the prime minister said the present opposition, when in power, had appointed political people in the commission.
   In 2001, the present government had participated in the elections when the president, the caretaker administration and heads of other departments concerned including the police and the BDR were people of their (present opposition’s) choice.
   She said during the polling in 2001, the Awami League chief had told the media that voting was being held smoothly and in free and fair atmosphere. But when the results came out she changed her stance and alleged that there was ‘subtle rigging.’
   Presided over by MAH Selim MP, the meeting was also addressed by the health and family welfare minister, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, whip Ashraf Hossain, Khulna mayor Sheikh Tayebur Rahman and prime minister’s political secretary Haris Chowdhury.
   Khaleda said her government after coming to power had to carry out ‘Operation Clean Heart’ and form the Rapid Action Battalion to curb terrorism.
   Claiming her government’s success in containing the situation, she said, ‘People are in peace and doing business smoothly.’
   ‘The present development is being appreciated by other countries and the international organisations, including the World Bank, who have said that ‘a silent revolution was on in Bangladesh.’’
   ‘This is why the opposition is spreading false propaganda at home and abroad to tarnish the image of the country.’
   Earlier, the prime minister inaugurated the upgraded Kochua Upazila Health Complex. The 31-bed complex has been turned into a 50-bed hospital at a cost of Tk 3 crore.
   The prime minister also unveiled the plaque of the Doratan-Monigonj Town Protection Embankment-cum-Road on the eastern bank of the river Bhairab. The 4.75-kilometre road has been built at a cost of Tk 581 crore.
   She also laid the foundation of the extension building of Bagerhat Press Club.
   The prime minister also inaugurated the new Police Line of Bagerhat being built at a cost of about Tk 20 crore. She also unveiled the plaque and planted a neem sapling at the complex.

The government will soon bring a business method called multi-level marketing system under the legal framework to keep an eye on the activities of 50 companies engaged in such marketing, said sources in the commerce ministry.
   According to sources, some 11 lakh people are directly or indirectly involved in this business which entirely remains out of the legal coverage in the absence of a new, suitable law to deal with these companies’ business activities.
   Multi-level marketing system is a method of selling a company’s products through its distributors on the basis of commission.
   Allegations are there with the commerce ministry that some of the marginal distributors are being deprived of their due share of profit in what officials termed ‘this pyramid structure’ of business.
   The finance ministry on Monday sent letters, in this regard, to the commerce ministry and the home ministry to investigate the present status of the multi-level marketing system of business in Bangladesh.
   The letter asked the commerce ministry to find out how this business is being run and also point out whether it is being run in conformity with the memorandum of articles of the joint stock company.
   The finance ministry also asked the home ministry to ascertain if the customers are really being deprived of their share after purchasing the products of multi-level marketing companies.
   Earlier, the Bangladesh Bank informed the finance ministry that a huge amount of money is being transferred illegally, and in some cases this is being done by money laundering.
   The finance ministry, at a meeting with officials of other ministries and agencies last month, discussed the issue.
   The commerce ministry, in 2003, carried out an investigation into the multi-level marketing business. The ministry’s team could not trace the addresses of some companies which were accused of depriving the distributors of their share.
   The central bank, too, closed down the business of a firm named ITCL, which was marketing electronic goods, on charge of depriving its distributors of their due share. The Board of Investment also investigated the activities of the Global Guardian Network (Bangladesh), which is registered with the board. The company was reportedly doing business without investing $12 million as it had pledged.
   Apart from the Global Guardian Network, the names of such big companies include Destiny 2000 and Doorway.

A suspected criminal was killed in a ‘shootout’ between his associates and the police at a village under Kumarkhali upazila in Kushtia early Tuesday raising the crossfire toll to 264 since June, 2004.
   The police claimed that they arrested Rabiul Islam, a regional leader of underground Ganabahini, from his house in Bagulat union on Monday.
   The police took him to village Shalghar Madhua in search his hidden arms.
   As the team reached the spot at about 4:00am Tuesday, Rabiul’s associates opened fire and the police retaliated.
   Rabiul sustained serious injuries when he tried to escape and collapsed.

Sajib Wajed Joy, son of Sheikh Hasina, is likely to arrive tomorrow (Thursday) from the United States.
   Sources in the Awami League said Joy would stay in Bangladesh for about three weeks. Joy and his wife visited Bangladesh in December 2004.
   Joy will conduct research concerning the next general elections and collect information about the organisational condition of the Awami League and its front organisations, sources added.