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The major political parties, as in the past, are once again locked in a blame-game over Wednesday’s series of bomb explosions, apparently unaware of the fact that pointing fingers at each other will not uncover the truth.
   The real perpetrators, like those responsible for the numerous blasts in the past, will go off scot-free unless the blame-game is replaced by cooperation and sincere efforts to identify and apprehend the guilty persons or organisations.
   Awami League president and leader of the opposition in parliament Sheikh Hasina blamed the prime minister and BNP members for the bomb blasts, saying that since they are aware that they will lose the next election, they are trying to destabilise the country and create a situation where it will be impossible to hold elections.
   ‘The bomb attacks were made at the instigation of the prime minister. She left Dhaka for China after giving the green signal to carry out the attacks. The Khaleda-Nizami government must answer to the people,’ Hasina told the press.
   While talking to journalists on the ferry on her way back to Dhaka from Tungipara on Wednesday, Hasina, referring to Hawa Bhaban, said the bomb blasts took place under the direct patronage of that bhaban with government assistance.
   Some top BNP leaders blamed the opposition indirectly while its ally, Jamaat, held Awami League directly responsible.
   Leaders of Jamaat said the Awami League engineered the unprecedented blasts as part of a blueprint to make the country politically unstable.
   BNP secretary-general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan said at a rally on Wednesday afternoon, ‘We must be cautious of the forces that want to come to power by any means and do not believe in the politics of development and democracy.’
   At the same rally, BNP’s standing committee’s member, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, said, ‘They (meaning AL) want to prove that Bangladesh is a nursery of criminal bombers.’
   At least 150 innocent people were killed and 600 injured by bomb and grenade attacks in different places in the country since 1999. Some of the injured never recovered and became disabled while the rest are still traumatised.
   Starting from Udichi’s function in March 1999, the Awami League during its regime saw seven major explosions that left 73 people killed. Awami League blamed the fundamentalist forces that had joined hands with the BNP, but gave not a shred of proof. Investigations by police and intelligence agencies were either totally unsuccessful or were just meant for show and not intended to apprehend the perpetrators.
   Following the Udichi blast, Hasina told opposition, ‘Give up the politics of bomb explosions and come to the parliament.’ In response, the then opposition leader in parliament, Khaleda Zia, said, ‘The bombing was done by Awami League and it is now trying to frame the BNP.’
   After CPB bombing incident, Khaleda held the government responsible for the blast, and the then home minister Mohammad Nasim accused the BNP and Jamaat of the killings.
   In the wake of the explosions in the Mymensingh cinema halls in 2002, the alliance government arrested AL stalwarts and intellectuals within four hours.
   After the Narayanganj bombing that took place during the AL regime, cases were filed against a number of BNP activists. When the BNP took office, the police filed the final report saying that allegations against the accused could not be proved. But in a strange new twist, a new case was filed, accusing a number of AL activists!
   The biggest ever arms and ammunition haul in Chittagong, which shocked the whole country, was also sidelined because the BNP’s and AL’s blame-game. Till date, nobody knows who were behind the smuggling of such a huge amount of arms into the country, though suspicions are galore.
   The blame-game ties the hand of investigators, who do not probe into the incidents sincerely because they do not want to offend the government bigwigs who are pointing at their political opponents. Perhaps they have realised that the governments do not wants the guilty parties to be traced and arrested.

The senior leaders of the ruling BNP believe that it is high time for a dialogue between the government and the opposition on issues of national importance, including the recent series of blasts, and decided to urge the prime minister to call on the opposition to a dialogue on her return from China, said highly placed sources in the ruling party.
   The proposal, if made, may find a divided opposition.
   ‘We will strongly suggest that the prime minister, immediately after her arrival from China, should put out a call for dialogue on national issues, including the latest bomb blasts, with the opposition parties,’ a member of the PM’s kitchen cabinet told New Age on Friday. ‘I think, she will agree.’
   ‘The nation is in a crisis. I hope that there will be a dialogue between the ruling and the opposition party over the issue,’ KM Obaidur Rahman MP, a member of the BNP’s national standing committee, the highest policymaking body of the ruling party, told New Age on Friday. ‘All parties should reach a consensus now.’
   ‘I personally believe that the ruling and the opposition party should discuss national issues, including the latest countrywide bomb blasts,’ the environment and forest minister, Tariqul Islam MP, told New Age in his office Thursday afternoon.
   The leaders of the opposition parties would be divided over participating in a government-initiated dialogue.
   Meanwhile, the prime minister, who was on a five-day visit to China, was scheduled to reach in Dhaka Friday midnight after shortening her visit.
   Some leaders would suggest that the top opposition leaders, including the Awami League president and leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, should take a ‘reasonable stance’ about BNP’s plan for a dialogue.
   The deputy leader of the opposition in Jatiya Sangsad, Abdul Hamid, on Friday, said, ‘Let the government send official proposal for a dialogue first.’
   ‘We may discuss the proposal, if there is any, in Awami League,’ he said.
   ‘The government must clear its position on the extremist forces,’ Suranjit Sengupta MP, Awami League presidium member, told New Age on Friday.
   He said, ‘What will she [Khaleda] discuss with us keeping Jamaat-e-Islami ministers, who do not believe in democracy and constitutional politics, in the cabinet?’
   ‘If the government wants a fruitful dialogue, it must fulfil our demands, including arresting and punishing organisers of all blasts including the August 17 country-wide blasts, destructing all dens, networks and resource bases of all militant organisations and stopping infiltration of members of those organisations in the government,’ the Communist Party of Bangladesh general secretary, Mujahidul Islam Selim, told New Age on Friday. ‘We, however, would consider cooperation with an initiative, if there is any, to overcome the prevailing national crisis.’
   Anwar Hossain Monju MP, president of a faction of Jatiya Party, however, told New Age on Friday, ‘I do not see any utility of holding a dialogue between the ruling and opposition parties as neither the government nor the opposition parties were involved in the August 17 countrywide blasts.’
   ‘The ruling and opposition parties are blaming each other for the blasts. But none of us are pointing the finger at the third party, which really conducted the countrywide blasts,’ Monju, who was communications minister of the Awami League government, said.

The leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, outright rejected any possibility of dialogue with the government ‘as her party cannot sit with the bombers and killers’ who put the country’s security at stake.
   ‘Discussion with whom? With the killer government that unleashed the bomb attacks across the country simultaneously?’ she said, in an exclusive interview with the news agency in her Sudha Sadan residence Friday evening. Hasina said any dialogue with the government on the latest bomb attacks that took place on August 17 would only save the government’s image. ‘Should we sit for protecting the image of the killer government?’
   Hasina squarely blamed the government for the countrywide bomb attack and said the BNP-Jamaat alliance, using the state machinery, unleashed the attack to bar her party coming to power in next general elections.
   ‘How was live bomb found inside RAB training school? It cannot be that the intelligence agency will know nothing if the government itself is not involved in the incidents? Were they in deep sleep?’ said the former prime minister.
   Sheikh Hasina said after the latest attack, now it is clear that the country’s security is at stake at the hands of Khaleda Zia who is also in charge of the home and defence ministries. ‘She [Khaleda] will have to bear the responsibility.’
   She said, ‘Just see the relaxed faces of the ministers. The foreign minister and the foreign secretary said there is no reason that the prime minister will shorten her China trip cancelling the dinners and lunches. Announcement of her early return was announced only after I raised the issue at my news briefing.
   ‘The faces of the ministers and the prime minister’s reluctance to cut short the visit clearly indicated that they all knew it. They prepared the blueprint of the attack and they used the intelligence and law enforcing agencies,’ she said.
   Sheikh Hasina said such a well-orchestrated attack at 500 points is not possible ‘without the participation of the government and its machinery,’ she said elaborating why the BNP-Jamaat alliance took such a course.
   One reason, Hasina said, was to hold her responsible for the bomb blasts. ‘Even a banner was ready and the BNP leaders brought out a procession holding me responsible for the series of blasts.’
   Indicating Hawa Bhaban, the office of the BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, Hasina said, ‘We have information that the Bhaban is preparing a blueprint to unleash such attacks on mosques and schools.’
   Another reason for the countrywide bomb blasts, the former prime minister said, was to bring back the anti-Jamaat forces in their grip who went out their control over the years.
   ‘This government only knows money and power… It does not bother about people’s lives,’ Sheikh Hasina said, adding that the BNP-Jamaat alliance is out to prevent the Awami League from coming to power as they amassed huge wealth.

Different Islamist parties on Friday went out on demonstrations in the capital city in protest at Wednesday’s bomb attacks across the country that killed at least two persons and injured more than a hundred.
   The Islamic Constitution Movement, Islami Ain Bastabayan Committee, Zaker Party, Hijbut Tahrir, Islamic Buddhijibi Front and Allahar Dal in separate rallies blamed anti-Islam external forces, active in and outside the country, behind the incident and sought unity among the Muslims.
   The supporters of the Constitution Movement and the Bastabayan Committee, however, entered into a scuffle and hurled abuse at each other at the Paltan crossing. The trouble erupted when the processionists of the two parties became face to face, and it came under control with immediate police intervention.
   The Constitution Movement amir, Fazlul Karim, also known as Charmonai Pir, said the government should step down because of its failure to prevent the recurrence of bomb blasts.
   ‘The government, which could not even sense that there would be a massive bomb attack, has no right to cling to power,’ he told a rally at the north gate of Baitul Mukarram.
   The government has started harassing the teachers and students of madrassahs without any reason, said Fazlul and urged an end to it. ‘Stop harassment on madrassah teachers and student or you will have to face a dire consequence.’
   The Bastabayan Committee chairman, Fazlul Haq Amini MP, urged the law enforcing agencies not to arrest anyone from madrassahs without any evidence of their involvement in the attacks.
   ‘If you arrest anyone from madrassah or harass them without substantial evidences, it will be a great blunder,’ he told a rally at Baitul Mukarram.
   Recalling ‘repression on Islamist parties during the tenure of the immediate past Awami League government,’ Amini said, ‘It was the reason the Awami League lost in the last general elections.’
   The Zaker Party at a rally in Shapla Square blamed the Jamaat-e-Islami, a component of the BNP-led alliance, for Wednesday’s attacks and urged the government to alienate it.
   ‘As long as Jamaat remains in the alliance and in power, such incidents [bomb attacks] will continue to occur,’ said the party vice-chairman, Abdus Samad.
   Hijbut Tahrir, Islamic Buddhijibi Front and Allahar Dal also held separate rallies in the city denouncing the attacks.

The leaders of the Awami League and its allies at a protest rally in the capital city on Friday vowed to overthrow the government through a united movement to stop bomb blasts in the country.
   ‘If the BNP-Jamaat alliance remains in power, such kind of blasts would not be stopped. There is no option but to overthrow the coalition government to free the people from such a suffocating situation,’ the Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil, told the rally.
   As part of the countrywide programme, the Awami League-led opposition alliance organised the rally at Muktangan in protest at Wednesday’s serial bomb blasts across the country.
   Several hundred opposition activists took part in the rally and chanted slogans blaming the BNP for the blasts. A number of riot police and especially-trained dog squads were deployed to avert any untoward incidents.
   After the meeting, the opposition leaders and activists brought out a procession that ended at Malibagh, parading the city streets.
   Chaired by the acting president of Ganatantri Party, Azizul Islam Khan, the rally was addressed, among others, by the Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, president of a faction of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Hasanul Haq Inu, M Nurul Islam of Ganatantri Party, Zahirul Islam of Gana Forum, Abu Hamed Shahabuddin of Samyabadi Dal, Abdus Samad of Gana Azadi League, Zakir Hossain of Ganatantrik Majdur Party, MA Ghani of National Awami Party, and Awami League leaders Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak MP, Motia Chowdhury, Mohammad Hanif, and Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya.
   The alliance leaders held the government responsible for the blasts that killed two persons and injured about 200, saying that it patronised the criminals rather than arresting them despite adequate evidence in this regard.
   Jalil criticised the government for blaming the Awami League to cover its failure and said the investigations earlier proved that the BNP-Jamaat elements were involved in all the previous criminal activities.
   Amu said such attacks cannot be stopped until the BNP-Jamaat government was overthrown. ‘The ruling BNP conducted the blasts to distract the people’s attention from the opposition movement for reforms to the caretaker government system and the Election Commission.’
   Razzak said this government would be ‘forced to quit by striking repeated blows’ as the people and democracy are not safe under it.
   Menon blamed the fundamentalists for the incident and said that a pro-liberation democratic government must be established through a united movement overthrowing the anti-independence and communal BNP-Jamaat coalition. ‘Take vow to resist the people who want to establish communal regime in Bangladesh,’ he said.
   Inu called for waging a united movement to overthrow the government. He alleged that having failed to face the opposition’s proposals for the caretaker and electoral reforms politically, the government conducted blasts to divert public attention.

The Awami League, its allies and the Communist Party of Bangladesh will observe today a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal in protest at Wednesday’s series of blasts.
   At least two persons were killed and about 200 injured in the series of blasts in 63, out of the 64, districts.
   The government beefed up security measures from Friday night. Over 8,000 police and Bangladesh Rifles personnel will be deployed in the capital between 6:00am and 6:00pm of hartal hours, the police department said.
   The opposition parties brought out processions and held rallies in the city Friday afternoon to drum up support for the hartal, the second in a week after the half-day hartal on August 15.
   The main opposition party enforced the hartal in protest at the government’s decision of scrapping public holiday on August 15, the day the first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was assassinated.
   The Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil, announced today’s hartal programme at a briefing in the party chief’s Dhanmondi office on Wednesday where he held the government responsible for the blasts.
   The Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, president of a faction of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Hasanul Haque Inu, and leaders of different components of the 11-Party Alliance and the National Awami Party were also present.
   The Communist Party general secretary, Mujahidul Islam Selim, separately called the hartal at a news briefing in the party’s central office in Dhaka on Thursday.

The khatib of Baitul Mukarram, Obaidul Haque, on Friday urged the government not to harass madrassah teachers and students without ‘clear evidence’ of their link with Wednesday’s countrywide bomb blasts.
   Delivering sermon before the juma prayers, he also hoped that the leaders of the country would be much ‘reasonable’ to find out the criminals and find out whether it was the outcome of conspiracy by the anti-Islamic external forces to destabilise peace.
   The United States and its European allies and Israel, which have conspired to brand the Muslim countries as terrorist countries, might have been active behind the scene, he said.
   He prayed for the peace and well-being of the Muslims and for the present prime minister, Khaleda Zia, and the leader of opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, so that they could work together to find out criminals, instead of ‘slinging mud at each other.’ Obaidul also denounced the remark of the Indian high commissioner in Dhaka, Veena Sikri, who blamed Islamist fundamentalist forces for the blasts.
   Citing some verses from the Qur’an and the prophet’s sayings, he said the Muslims, who want implementation of Islamic laws, cannot hurl bombs at other Muslims.

At least six suspects of two Islamist outfits caught in the police dragnet after Wednesday’s wave of blasts that rattled the country were brought to Dhaka on Friday for quizzing by the joint interrogation cell.
   The suspects were brought to Dhaka from Satkhira, Khulna and Kushtia amid tight security and they were straight away taken to the office of the joint interrogation cell comprising members of the police, intelligent agencies and the army at Baridhara, police sources said.
   The six suspects brought to Dhaka were members of the outlawed Jamaatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh and Ahle Hadith Andolan. Police claimed the suspects had links with Wednesday’s serial bombings.
   Five teams of the joint interrogation cell will interrogate the suspects of the serial bombings, official sources said.
   Each team comprises two members, an official of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police told New Age on Friday.
   The massive search for the perpetrators involved in the serial bombings continued on Friday with 23 more arrests from different parts of the country.
   Police said they had detained about 100 suspects so far after more than 400 small bombs went off almost simultaneously in a span of less than an hour on Wednesday in 63 districts out of 64 of the country’s districts leaving two people killed and 150 others wounded.
   The panic caused by the serial bombings prevailed even on Friday as people called in police the in fear of bombs planted, but the police ultimately found them to be hoaxes and recovered bomb-like substances.
   In the capital, some people at Gausia Market became frightened when a street urchin found a bomb-like substance in a packet left by a rickshaw-passenger on the pavement on Friday morning.
   The police later took away the packet and after examining it they concluded that someone had left it to ‘fool’ the people. The police recovered some batteries and a paper reading ‘balad’ (meaning fool) from the packet.
   As the police continued the search, they arrested two young men, Amir Hossain, a vice-president of Dhaka north unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League, and Awlad Hossain, from the New Market on suspicion of their involvement in the serial blasts. Both the arrested were remanded for two days for interrogation in police custody.
   In Barisal, the police arrested four persons, including the imams of two mosques, early Friday on suspicion of their involvement in the blasts at the divisional town.
   The arrested persons were identified as Barisal district Juba League member Mohammad Kabir, Jatiya Party (Ershad) activist Azam Khan, Imam of Notun Bazar Jam-e Mosque Omar Faruq and Imam of Jagua Ward Mosque Mahfizur Rahman.
   The two militant suspects, Nasir Uddin Dafadar and Moniruzzaman Munna, who were arrested in Satkhira on Thursday, were sent to the joint interrogation cell in Dhaka on Friday.
   The local police claimed the two members of Jamaatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh admitted their involvement in the serial blasts in Satkhira.
   Plain clothes policemen arrested Nasir from his Bakal Islampur residence on a tip-off by a local rickshaw-puller. Based on Nasir’s statement, the police arrested Munna from his house in Itagacha area of the town.
   Munna reportedly told the police one Nayeem called him on his cell-phone for a job for the organisation on August 15. The man called him again at about 8:00am on August 17 and asked him to meet him at a lane behind the women and children’s court, police said.
   Munna, along with Nasir, went to the lane and found an unknown man with two bags waiting for them.
   Nasir took the bomb to the courthouse while Munna carried the other bag with bombs to the hospital crossing in town, local police said adding that Nayeem was still at large.
   The three arrested persons in Khulna, the district general secretary of Ahle Hadith Andolan Golam Moktadir Babu, and two other members Mujibur Rahman and Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad, were escorted to the capital on Friday and taken to the joint interrogation cell.
   The administration has deployed Bangladesh Rifles members at different key point installations in the city to gear up security.
   The vessels of the coastguards are also patrolling the river Bhairab to strengthen security of the Daulatpur depots of the three oil marketing companies.
   Besides, police vigilance on the Khanjahan Ali Bridge (Rupsha bridge) in Khulna city has been strengthened.
   In Kushtia, the arrested regional leader of Jamaatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh, Mohammad Alam, was sent to Dhaka for quizzing at the joint interrogation cell.
   The New Age correspondent in Jessore reports that the police claimed they had arrested a man, Tuhin, having link with the bombings in the south-western district town on Wednesday.
   The police arrested Tuhin from Lohagara in Narail early Friday following a statement of another arrested person, Tokai Sagar. The local police were interrogating Tuhin till Friday night.
   The New Age correspondent in Rajshahi reports, the police arrested seven members of Jagrata Muslim Janata, another outlawed Islamist outfit, on Thursday night.
   They were produced before a magistrate court and later they were sent to jail.
   Rapid Action Battalion personnel also detained nine suspected militants at Chapainawabganj and Jaipurhat districts on Thursday night.
   The suspected members of the Jamaatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh were being interrogated at the battalion’s Rajshahi headquarters.

The Criminal Investigation Department of the police has claimed that they have got substantive clues regarding the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally that left 22 people, including a front-ranking party leader, dead and over 200 others injured.
   The Awami League president and the leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, esca-ped the attack, but the blast went off too close to her for comfort.
   Claims of the investigation’s progress were made on the basis of the confessional statement made by one of the reported perpetrators, Jalal Ahmed George Miah.
   The police have so far arrested 15 people in connection with the attack but only one of them, George Miah, has made his
   confessional statement before the court on June 26.
   The police arrested George Miah from village Birkot under Senbagh police station in Noakhali district on June 9 and he was in the custody of CID police until his statement was recorded by the magistrate court. George Miah is now detained in jail.
   In his statement, George Miah named 11 people as the perpetrators of the attack and said seven others were involved in the attack but he could not name them.
   Fifteen of the accused left the country for India after the attack, the police said.
   Most of the perpetrators were inexperienced in using grenade but Mukul, who led the attack on the day, held a demonstration before them a few hours before the attack, George stated.
   George in his statement said they assembled near the Baitul Mukarram Market where Mukul gave them Tk 5,000 each and assured them of giving the remaining Tk 10,000. Later they started for the rally and left the place immediately after charging grenades on the rally.
   The CID police said the perpetrators hurled 13 grenades on the rally but eight of those went off while the police recovered the rest unexploded. One of the grenades was recovered from inside the Dhaka Central Jail the following day and the police suspect that it might have been thrown there in the darkness of night for use by associates who were detained in jail.
   George Miah also named Rabin, Subrata Bain, Tanvir Joy and Mollah Masud, some of the most wanted criminals of the capital, who are now reportedly living in Kolkata, India, as the masterminds of the attack.
   The special superintendent of CID police, Ruhul Amin, told New Age that they had already sent a list of criminals, including those involved in the August 21 attack, to Interpol. Their photographs were also sent along with the list, he said.
   But some of the fugitives told New Age over telephone late July that they had been maintaining constant communication with their ‘godfathers’ and have so far faced no problems in staying in Kolkata.
   ‘Everybody is here and we, forgetting our bitter conflicts, gather at a restaurant near Kolkata New Market once or twice a week to discuss our fate,’ said Subrata Bain, ridiculing newspapers for publishing misleading reports on the August 21 attack.
   Based on the confessional statement of George Miah, the investigators confirmed that professional criminal gangs were involved in the August 21 attack but they did not know who had provided them the money for the purpose.
   ‘Once we can interrogate the absconding criminals who have been named by George Miah, we will identify the culprits who provided them money to destabilise the country,’ Ruhul Amin said.

Tension mounted along the Indo-Bangla border as border guards of the two neighbours traded gunshots on Friday over a construction work for the protection of the banks of a common river.
   The gun battle began as the Indian troops fired on hundreds of Bangladeshi construction workers engaged in the job at the River Mahananda in the Bangladesh territory, said officials at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Dhaka.
   The Bangladeshi workers were throwing concrete block, sandbags, and geo-textile to prevent the Mahananda bank from erosion at about 10:00am.
   Responding to the BSF firing, the BDR personnel also opened fire, triggering off the fight that continued till evening, said witnesses.
   The BSF firing injured a villager, Bashir Ahmed, 35, who has been under treatment in Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.
   The revetment work to protect the bank of the cross-boundary rivers from erosion or flood is allowed without consulting the counterpart, said the BDR director (operation), Hasan Suhrawardi, according to the convention.
   ‘The Indian side opened gunshots to stop the work at our side while they had been continuing to throw spars in the river to protect the other side from erosion,’ Suhrawardi told New Age, holding the Indian Border Security Force responsible for the latest border tension.
   The development work at the bordering river, however, remained suspended after the exchange of firing, said BDR sources.
   Both the BDR and the BSF amassed additional troops along the frontier and kept their forces on high alert.
   The New Age correspondent in Chapainawabganj said the BDR and the BSF exchanged more than 500 gunshots throughout the day.
   Major Mahbubul Alam, the second in command of 28 Rifle Battalion in Naogan, said the members of the BSF at Adampur and Mousia camps of Maldah in India started firing at 10:00am when the BDR men along with members of the Water Development Board and workers went there for the construction work.
   The water board took a project of Tk. 6 crore to protect 1,200 metres of Mahananda riverbank from Polladanga to Gilabari.
   On Wednesday, the Bangladesh Rifles requested its counterpart to stop such activities at the other end, but the Indian side continued the work.
   Villagers in the Bholarhat frontier said the Indian side mobilised additional troops with heavy arms across the border. Fearing further escalation in border tension, many people left for safer places.
   Reuters news agency reported from Maldah that the fighting began a day after New Delhi had offered to help Dhaka to hunt for Islamist militants who set off hundreds of crude bombs across Bangladesh, killing two people and wounding more than 100.
   It reported, quoting an unnamed Indian officer, that the Indian troops opened fire after Bangladeshi authorities had ignored a request to stop disputed construction work on their side of the border, along a river that flows into the Bangladeshi territory from India.
   ‘We had to open fire this morning to stop permanent construction work along the border that violated international guidelines,’ Om Prakash Gaur, a senior officer with India’s Border Security Force, told Reuters.

The final version of the poverty reduction strategy paper has revised the export growth projection upward for the next three financial years, as recent export performance has made policymakers optimistic about the future.
   The mid-term macroeconomic framework, as incorporated into the revised strategy document, projects 14 per cent export growth for fiscal 2006 and 13 per cent for 2007, up from its previous 6 and 7 per cent.
   A double-digit export growth achieved in the last fiscal belied fears of a major setback due to the quota expiry from January 1 and inspired policymakers to revisit the previous projections.
   More importantly, the export growth for fiscal 2004-05 was nine per cent ‘considering a cautious view on the prospects of the garment sector combined with above-average growth of non-traditional export items.’
   But, proving all apprehensions wrong, exports posted a 14 per cent growth in the 2005 fiscal.
   The real export earnings amounted to $8.64 billion against the strategy papers’ projection of $8.12 billion.
   The latest version of the document also acknowledged the fact saying, ‘The export sector performed much better than anticipated and a 14 per cent growth was registered because of higher growth of knit exports to the EU.’
   Many economists and trade experts, had criticised the PRSP projection as ‘too apprehensive’ and ‘less ambitious’ for single digit growth projections.
   The draft, released in January 2005, mentioned that real shock would be in the fiscal 2006 and the current version also makes similar observations. ‘Since the international buyers did not change their source of imports immediately after the quota-free regime began from January 1, 2005, it is expected that the major impact of the changeover will come in FY06,’ it mentioned.
   ‘However, the export sector, specially the garment industry, is likely to adjust to the shock and overall exports will continue to grow at the same rate (14 per cent in current fiscal),’ it added. The Export Promotion Bureau had set a lower export target of about $9.6 billion for the current fiscal year with 12 per cent growth over the previous fiscal.
   The PRSP projection of exports in the current fiscal is $9.9 billion. ‘The growth rate of exports will decline to 13 per cent in FY07 and 12 percent in FY08.’
   The projection for import growth also overshoots, again largely reflecting a weak analysis of fiscal measures of the government. The draft’s projection was 14 per cent growth in import in the last fiscal although the 2004-05 budget drastically slashed import tariffs by lowering the highest slab to 25 per cent from 32.5 per cent.
   The Bangladesh Bank figure revealed that imports jumped by 21.2 per cent to $10.65 billion in July-May period of the last fiscal. The provisional estimation showed that import payment in the last 12 months of the fiscal was to the tune of $11.26 billion with a growth of above 20 per cent.

The Amnesty International has expressed deep concern over the attacks on opposition activists by members of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party on August 15 and demanded independent inquiry into the incident.
   Hundreds of Awami League supporters were reportedly injured as their gatherings were attacked by the ruling party activists.
   ‘On the day of the attack, Awami League supporters were observing the 30th anniversary of the killing of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated with most members of his family on August 15, 1975,’ said a statement of the AI.
   Among those injured were the Awami League lawmaker, Assaduzzamn Noor, and a local party leader, Mahboobur Rahman. The injured also included journalists while covering the events.
   In this context, the AI denounced the comments made by the communications minister, Nazmul Huda, at a BNP public meeting in Dohar, one of the scenes of the attacks, which may have instigated the attackers. Huda is reported in a national daily as having said, ‘No najat [salvation] day can be observed on the birthday of the prime minister,’ Huda said while addressing the public gathering.
   ‘So far, no action has been taken by the government to bring the alleged BNP perpetrators of the attack to justice. On the contrary, in an apparently discriminatory move, the police have reportedly filed cases against some 1,500 Awami League supporters, even though they have been the targets of the attacks,’ said the AI.
   The Amnesty International calls on the government to make an independent, competent and impartial inquiry into all the attacks; to make public the outcome of this investigation; to bring the alleged perpetrators of these attacks to justice and to take security measures for members of the opposition parties.

The BNP- and Jamaat-backed teachers’ group — the white panel — of Rajshahi University is facing a split over the spoils of power in administration, recruitments, privileges and representative authority.
   The Jamaat-adherents among the teachers call the shot in all matters of university autonomy, a euphemism for laissez faire to the exclusion of academic obligations and duties.
   Some 150 teachers of the Rajshahi campus, labelled as pro-BNP, met on Monday for five long hours at the Momtajuddin Arts Building Gallery to discuss what are given out as strategies to keep the Jamaat at bay.
   While this may sound like an ideological move away from the fundamentalist core group, with which a large number of teachers loyal to the Jatiyatabadi axis has been collaborating, the informal breach essentially centres around material privileges and jobbery.
   Abdul Hamid, professor of philosophy, chaired the meeting of the disenchanted teachers belonging to the disenchanted and the deprived faction of the White Panel. It was attended among others by teacher’s association president Nazrul Islam, Abdur Rahman Siddiqui, Abdul Hai Talukder, Enamul Haque, Azaher Ali, Shahed Zaman, Zahangir Alam, Golam Arif and others.
   The meeting decided to form an independent platform with only the pro-BNP section.
   The meeting also decided to form a 21-member committee. Official announcement would be made on September 1 and the committee would be recognised as ‘BNP panel’, said the White Panel dissenters.
   Abdur Rahman Siddiqui said, ‘Day by day, the Jatiyatabadi strength on the campus is being reduced to ‘a minority’ within its own leadership.
   The teachers said, ‘The BNP faction is in favour of participating in the next teacher’s association election under an independent panel.’ A number of top leaders among the pro-BNP teachers alleged that after the general elections in 2001, teachers loyal to the alliance partner, Jamaat, were nominated to vital administrative posts including hall provosts and house tutors.
   As most of the standing committee posts of the white panel went to the Jamaat teachers, the pro-BNP section was obliged to stand by their decisions.
   At the same time, the pro-Jamaat teacher-cadres were favoured and selected for recruitment. It is alleged that at least 150 teachers out of 200, recruited during the past Farouqui administration, were from Jamaat.
   Campus sources said, the newly appointed vice-chancellor, Altaf Hossain, also met with the Jamaat-backed teachers of the university several times. The BNP teachers said, the Jamaat section is virtually operating and controlling the administration and running a steamroller on the pro-BNP faction.
   During Farouqui’s tenure as the vice-chancellor, the Jamaati teachers were openly favoured depriving the members of the BNP faction. On February 26, both the teachers groups were locked in an altercation, resulting in a mild clash over the selection of the teacher representative at the office of the vice-chancellor.
   Besides, at a coordination committee meeting of the White Panel on July 24, both groups also entered a heated debate that ended in a clamorous fiasco.
   The meeting was adjourned. Following such incidents, the division between the two groups has become sharp.
   Speaking to newsmen, the teachers’ association president, Nazrul Islam, declined to elaborate other than admitting that there is a crisis in the white panel.
   Nurul Absar, acting convener of the white panel and former proctor said, both the groups are trying to solve the problem.
   A pro-Jamaat teacher Belal Hossain said, ‘We have nothing to do if anybody thinks he or she is deprived.’ Altaf Hossain said, ‘It is not the headache of the vice-chancellor to worry about who is unhappy and deprived or about a conflict in the white panel.’
   He denied that pro-Jamaat sections were bestowed with privileges.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Friday assured Chinese investors of all-out cooperation in their business endeavours as top Chinese companies expressed keen interest in investing in potential sectors, particularly in chemical, mining and power plants in Bangladesh.
   The interest was expressed when a select group of chief executives of some renowned Chinese companies met the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, at Kerry Centre in Beijing.
   The CEOs include the China Metallurgical Construction Corporation president, Shen Heting, the China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation vice-president, Ms Oin Ruijuan, the Sinosteel Corporation vice-president, He Lin, the China Huan Construction & Engineering Corporation vice-president, Wan Zhuovan, the China Eastern Airlines vice-president, Liu Jiangbo and the China Electronics Technology of Group Corporation vice-president, Guo Yadong.
   The Chinese business leaders later assembled at a seminar on ‘Business Opportunities in Bangladesh’ organised by China Council for the Promotion of International Trade at the auditorium of Kerry Centre. Khaleda Zia and the CCPIT chairman, Wan Jifei, addressed the seminar.
   Khaleda Zia said there was immense potential for Chinese private sector investments in Bangladesh. She said Bangladesh offer competitive costs of business on a global scale and had a most liberal investment regime in South Asia.
   ‘We have a growing economy of 14 million people. This provides a substantial domestic consumption base,’ she said, adding that Bangladesh enjoy duty-free access to the European Union, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
   On low cost and huge market potentials, she urged the Chinese business leaders to consider investment in readymade garments, textiles, man-made fibre, agro-processing, leather products, pharmaceuticals, ceramics, energy, power and infrastructure development.
   ‘The quality of Bangladesh origin products is getting international recognition due to their high quality and completive price,’ Khaleda said, adding that the Chinese trading companies might actively consider importing seafood, pharmaceuticals, footwear, ceramics, leather, jute goods and agricultural products from Bangladesh.
   The CCPIT chairman emphasised on identifying the potential sectors of mutual cooperation. He hoped that the business leaders could contribute to take trade relations between the two countries to new heights.
   After the seminar was over, Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Linmark Group Limited of China signed a MoU under which Linmark will import readymade garments from Bangladesh. The BGMEA president, Annisul Hoque, and the chairman of Linmark Group, LY Wang, signed the MoU in presence of the prime minister.

Brazil is sending its own team of investigators to Britain after London’s police chief Ian Blair denied any cover-up in the killing of a Brazilian man wrongly suspected of being a suicide bomber.
   The Brazilian foreign ministry said it wanted ‘ample explanations’ regarding the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes in the tense days after the London bombings last month.
   Its decision was prompted by revelations this week which radically contradicted the original version of how the innocent
   electrician was shot eight times in front of horrified commuters in a south London subway station by armed police who thought he might be a suicide bomber.
   ‘This news, accompanied by startling images, on the tragic circumstances surrounding the death of Brazilian citizen Jean Charles de Menezes, aggravates the Brazilian government’s
   sense of indignation,’ the foreign ministry said, referring to this week’s leaked documents and pictures.
   It said a Brazilian delegation, headed by deputy attorney general Wagner Goncalves, will travel to London on Monday to speak directly with British investigators.
   Brazil’s decision Thursday came a few hours after Blair, the most senior police officer in Britain, denied that the Metropolitan Police sought to cover up the facts behind the killing.
   ‘These allegations strike to the heart of the integrity of the police and integrity of the Met and I fundamentally reject them,’ he told the capital’s Evening Standard newspaper. ‘There is no cover-up.’
   De Menezes, 27, was shot dead in Stockwell subway station one day after a failed attempt by suspected Islamic extremists to repeat the London bombings of July 7 that left 56 people dead, including four apparent suicide bombers.
   His death brought to light a secret policy, adopted by Blair’s predecessor, empowering armed police to shoot and kill—on a superior officer’s say-so—a suspected suicide bomber in the head.
   Blair at the time linked the shooting to on-going anti-terrorist operations, amid reports—never denied by police at the time—that the victim was unseasonably dressed in a coat big enough to conceal a bomb, and that he jumped a ticket barrier as he ran from police.
   But leaked documents this week, revealed on ITV television, indicated that De Menezes did not run through the Stockwell Underground station to flee police, but rather to catch a waiting train.
   They also indicated that he was wearing a light denim jacket, and that he was restrained by an officer when he was repeatedly shot in the head.
   It also emerged Thursday that the Metropolitan Police ‘initially resisted’ what should have been an automatic referral of the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
   IPCC deputy head John Wadham confirmed press reports that the Metropolitan Police at first baulked at the IPCC taking on the case, apparently out of concern it would impede on its own anti-terrorist investigation.
   ‘It was an important victory for our independence,’ Wadham said. ‘This dispute has caused delay in us taking over the
   investigation, but we have worked hard to recover the lost ground.’

An alleged criminal and close aide of top terror Kala Jahangir was killed in crossfire between the Rapid Action Battalion and criminals suspected to be his accomplices at Tongi in Gazipur early Friday.
   With the death of Ponu Hawladar, 25, of Ibrahimpur under Kafrul police area who was accused in seven murder and six other criminal cases, the crossfire death count since June 2004 rose to 375.
   RAB said Ponu, also a close aide of Kala Jahangir who is one of the 23 most wanted criminals in the capital, received bullets as he tried to escape during
   the shootout on the Tongi Bishaw Ijtema ground at about 3:30am.
   Arrested from a Tongi house Thursday afternoon and taken there to recover arms and nab his gangsters as per his statement, Ponu died after receiving bullets of his partners during the shootout that took place after his accomplices had opened fire on RAB prompting them to retaliate, according to a press release.
   Two RAB members also sustained bullet injuries during the 20-minute shootout.
   After the gangsters fled the scene, RAB recovered a revolver, a local made shutter gun and three rounds of bullet from the spot, said the release.
   The RAB team earlier launched hunts at different places in the capital for his operatives and arms till 10:30pm Thursday.
   His body was sent to Tongi Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy. No case was filed till Friday evening.

Israeli planners behind the Gaza pullout have beaten the settlers at their own game: psychological warfare backed by strength in numbers.
   Not only did unarmed police and soldiers ram home the unstoppable nature of the evacuation by uprooting the largest settlement of Neve Dekalim first, months of training meant that security forces remained impassive throughout.
   ‘By starting with this (Neve Dekalim) settlement the army swiftly put paid to some people’s hopes that a ferocious resistance would develop,’ said Gabriel Horenczyk, specialist in conflict resolution at Jerusalem university.
   After only three days of the forceful evacuation, 18 out of 21 settlements were emptied by Friday, far ahead of schedule.
   ‘Our main purpose is not to subdue these people or to score a victory, our main purpose is to enforce the rule of law,’ Raanan Gissin, spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said on Thursday.
   ‘And the rule of law has been enforced to its best by forces that have been trained to handle the situation with sensitivity but with resolve, with determination to finish this evacuation peacefully.’
   Some 40,000 Israeli security forces have been mobilised for Israel’s largest-ever peacetime operation, which follows a string of massive anti-pullout demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of settler supporters.
   ‘The size of forces deployed on the ground is an integral part of the strategy,’ said military expert Joseph Alpher of Tel Aviv’s Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies.
   ‘Looking out of the window, the settlers could see soldiers everywhere. That’s a way of making them understand that nothing can stop the operation,’ he said.
   Even the decision to first deploy soldiers rather than police was a psychological one, said an Israeli army officer who requested anonymity.
   ‘Soldiers symbolise national unity and the settlers, who also do military service, are certainly more reluctant to hit soldiers than police,’ he said.
   ‘The settlers, world champions in psychological warfare, did everything, wept, shouted, shoved their babies in soldiers’ faces to make them feel guilty,’ said Moshe Lissak, expert in civilian-military relations at Jerusalem university.
   ‘But in the end they fulfilled their mission without refusing to carry out orders.’
   The operation’s success so far is down to months of preparation and training, said Horenczyk.
   ‘First and foremost they had a psychological training, much more than physical. There were lots of simulations. The army’s psychology department has been preparing this operation for months,’ he said.
   ‘The professional integrity and capability of the forces as well as ... the psychological element that preceded this evacuation (and) the demonstration of resolve and force prevented the need to actually use that force,’ said Gissin.
   Soldiers and police appeared restrained during the occasionally violent evacuation, listening to the rants of evacuated settlers while remaining impassive under the watchful eye of the world media.
   Only a handful of soldiers, usually young women, couldn’t stop themselves weeping with the settlers.
   The operation was planned to avoid clashes between settlers and security forces, with only two or three officers—older men able to resist settlers’ psychological pressure—qualified to talk to settlers in each group of 16.
   ‘I think the forces should be commended for the kind of way and sensitivity for which they handled a very difficult and excruciating painful situation,’ said Gissin.
   ‘It was nevertheless occasionally very difficult for the soldiers. Some collapsed afterwards. The army set up psychological units to help them overcome that moment,’ said the officer.

Two suspected extremists were killed in a bomb explosion while they were allegedly making bombs at village Tungi Gopalpur under Mujibnagar upazila in Meherpur Friday afternoon.
   The deceased were Aminur Rahman Momin, 30, and Hisab Ali, 28, of the same village.
   The police said both victims were killed on the spot in a bomb explosion while they were making bombs on the first floor of a house owned by one Haji Tasim Uddin at about 4:00pm.
   Soon after the incident, senior district administrative officials, including the additional deputy magistrate, visited the spot and extra police force was deployed.
   The police claimed that both Momin and Hisab were wanted in a number of criminal cases, including murders, but they have no link with Islamic militants.
   Tension prevailed among the locals following the explosion.

Eight officials of Mongla port have been suspended on charges of misappropriating over Tk 1.10 crore.
   The suspended port officials are former vice-president of Dock Sramik Management Board and currently director of traffic Muhammad Delwar Hossain, senior medical officer of Dock Sheikh Enamul Kabir, former secretary of Dock Sramik Management Board and finance & accounts officer Abul Kalam Azad, employee and welfare officer DM Raushan Ali, assistant finance & accounts officer Bishnupada Sarker, assistant welfare officer Muhammad Abu Taher, assistant finance & accounts officer Shahidul Hossain and assistant welfare officer (booking & inspection) Panna Lal Dey.
   The chairman of Mongla Port Authority, Muhammad Abu Taher, told the news agency on Friday that the eight officials were suspended Thursday on a directive from the shipping ministry for their alleged involvement in corruption, misappropriation of money and violation of office discipline.
   At the same time, the process is also on to file a departmental case against the eight suspended officials, he said.
   The suspended officials allegedly misappropriated over Tk 1.10 crore of government money while giving loans to the dock workers last year under a voluntary retirement programme of the Mongla Dock Sramik Management Board.

Chairman of his faction of the Jatiya Party, HM Ershad, also a former military dictator, left for Saudi Arabia on Friday morning by a Qatar Airways flight to perform umrah.
   Vice-chairman of the party, Golam Masih, is accompanying Ershad, said a party press release.
   Party presidium member Kazi Zafar Ahmed, secretary general ABM Ruhul Amin Hawlader, presidium member Sayeda Razia Foyez, Sayed Abu Hossain Babla, Abu Sufian and Shafiul Alam Pradhan were present to see off Ershad.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, left here Friday evening for Dhaka, concluding her official visit to China ahead of schedule.
   Khaleda arrived here Wednesday on a five-day visit to China, as originally planned, at the invitation of the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao.
   During her stay in Beijing, Khaleda met the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, and held talks with other Chinese leaders including top legislator, Wu Bangguo, the premier, Wen Jiabao and the vice-premier, Huang Ju.

Bangladesh and China on Friday agreed to form a friendship group between parliaments of the two countries to enhance bilateral cooperation.
   The agreement was reached at a meeting between the prime minister, Khaleda Zia and chairman of the National People’s Congress of China, Wu Bangguo, at the Great Hall of the People.
   Khaleda said a long-term strategic partnership should be built between Bangladesh and China in the interests of both the peoples.

The Maldives has named one of its top dissidents as the country’s new finance minister amid sweeping political reforms in the South Asian archipelago, an official said Friday.
   Ghasim Ibrahim was named finance minister on Thursday by president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, said a government official in the capital island Male.
   Ibrahim, a top businessman and a former member of the dissident Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), was among dozens arrested after anti-government riots in Male a year ago, government spokesman Mohamed H. Shareef said.