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The unprecedented serial bombing came just a day after the government had ordered a countrywide special operation from August 16 to check any subversive activities by any quarter ahead of the twice-postponed 13th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in November.
   The government took the decision to further improve the to ensure foolproof security for all the South Asian leaders, scheduled to meet in Dhaka for the SAARC summit on November 12 and 13.
   ‘The countrywide operation will be continued till the end of the two-day summit,’ a top home ministry official told New Age on Saturday.
   He said the home ministry was assigned to supervise the operation as per the plans of different law enforcing agencies so that no one can carry out any subversive activities and worsen the law and order situation before the end of the summit.
   As per the directive, all the wings of the police department, all the intelligence agencies, Rapid Action Battalion, Bangladesh Rifles, coastguards and Bangladesh Ansars have been asked to expand and intensify their operations.
   They were asked to increase their intelligence activities and remain vigilant all over the country through proper coordination and exchange of information among each other to check subversive and destructive activities by anyone or any quarter.
   They were also asked resist, at any cost, intrusion of any international terrorist or any militant group from the SAARC countries into Bangladesh till the end of the summit.
   Police and intelligence agencies will keep a keen eye on the movement of the criminals inside the country while the paramilitary forces will ensure that no criminal or terrorist can enter the country.
   As per the directive of the government, each of the battalions, sectors and border outposts of the Bangladesh Rifles will maintain utmost vigilance through round-the-clock patrols at all the frontier areas.
   ‘Bangladesh Rifles will consider two things especially till the end of the summit — one is stopping intrusion of international criminals and militant groups and the other is strict surveillance of local and international suspects in the country,’ says the draft of an elaborate BDR plan submitted to the home ministry.
   The BDR will also seek the cooperation of the Indian Border Security forces so that no criminals can enter Bangladesh.’
   Sources in the home ministry said though the government ordered it to begin the special operation on August 16, the operation could not be started as the ministry is yet to get operational plans from all the law enforcing agencies.
   ‘Had the operation been started in time, Wednesday’s serial bombing across the country would have been checked,’ said an official of the home ministry.
   ‘But it is very unfortunate that our police and other law enforcing agencies never take any government directive seriously,’ said the official regretfully.

The government is yet to establish who were behind Wednesday’s series of blasts across the country and what their motive was even three days after the incident in which two persons were killed and 150 wounded.
   ‘We are examining whether it is the task of the banned Islamic organisations or whether there is any involvement of any foreign power in it,’ said the home ministry’s join secretary (political) Mohammad Mohsin, briefing newsmen on Saturday.
   In the face of repeated questions from the newsmen, Mohsin, who addressed the briefing instead of the state minister for home affairs, as the spokesman for the ministry, declined to say anything about the arrested and their identity for the sake of investigation.
   ‘I just came to let you [journalists] know of the initiatives the government has taken following the series of bomb blasts,’ he said.
   He said the government had beefed up security measures immediately after the blasts and so far arrested 123 people. ‘Of them, some were caught red-handed from near the places of occurrence.’
   He said 26 were taken in the Joint Interrogation Cell in Dhaka and more would be interrogated for information on the attack and the attackers,’ said Mohsin.
   The spokesman said a seven-member committee formed to investigate the incident had been asked to collect evidences, examine the nature of blasts and identify the mastermind. The committee will submit its report within 15 days of its formation.
   ‘The committee has also been asked to make a recommendation on security measures so that the government can avert attack of such types in future, he said.
   Four hundred and thirty-four bombs were exploded across the country on August 17.
   The law enforcers recovered 51 unexploded bombs from different places, he told the press, refusing to make any comment on the identities of the people arrested.
   ‘It is too early to make comments on the arrested,’ he said.
   About the arrest of militant leaders, Bangla Bhai and his boss, Abdur Rahman, the spokesman said that they were still trying to arrest them.

As a consequence of simultaneous bomb blasts throughout the country on Wednesday, international pressure may mount on Bangladesh to toughen supervision of bank accounts and fund transactions to detect terrorism financing, said sources.
   They also apprehend that despite the government move to set up a Financial Intelligence Unit in line with international practices, to prevent illegal money transfers and financing terrorism, it would face further pressure to speed up the process.
   ‘We cannot rule out such possibility, although we are not sure what kind of pressure may be generated,’ a senior official of the finance ministry told New Age.
   A central bank official, however, observed that Bangladesh, as a member of the United Nations, is ready to act on any decision as long as it is under resolution 1267 to prevent terrorism financing.
   Meantime, under the provision of UN Security Council Resolution 1267, Bangladesh, along with other members of the UN, has received nearly 1,000 queries on individuals and entities belonging to or associated with the Taliban and al-Qaeda so far.
   In response to queries, Bangladesh Bank has so far closed down three bank accounts linked with international terrorism activities, as mentioned in the UN resolution.
   One bank account of Al-Haramine was detected in different branches of two Islamic banks in 2004.
   The bank authority had primarily failed to detect the accounts. Later, an investigation by the central bank detected the account and it was close down.
   The central bank, however, slapped a Tk 50,000 on each bank as penalty for concealing information, said sources in the central bank.
   Another account of Benevolence International Foundation was detected in a branch of a leading foreign bank and later closed down in 2003.
   The US-based foundation has links with Al-Qaeda and its operatives. Following the UN resolution 1267, adopted in 1999, a committee concerning Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and associated individuals and entities, regularly update suspect lists and ask member states to provide information regarding such links.
   The resolution asked the member states to ‘freeze funds and other financial resources, including funds derived or generated from property owned or controlled directly or indirectly by the Taliban, or by any undertaking owned or controlled by the Taliban.’
   Member states are also asked to ‘ensure that neither they nor any other funds or financial resources so designated are made available, by their nationals or by any persons within their territory, to or for the benefit of the Taliban or any undertaking owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the Taliban.’

‘The serial blasts that rocked the country on Wednesday will have a negative impact on both local and foreign investment, investor’s confidence and export performance,’ he told journalists after a meeting with members of the Planning Commission at the planning ministry. ‘However, we should be able to overcome the situation since the blasts were not deadly.’
   Saifur brushed aside the suggestion that a section of the four-party alliance government patronises fundamentalism. ‘I am not aware of any such patronisation. Any form of extremism, religious or otherwise, acts against the country’s interest by tarnishing its image abroad.’

More suspects of the August 17 countrywide bomb attacks have confessed their involvement with the blasts that killed two persons and injured over 150, the police said.
   They said all those who had given the confessional statements belong to banned Islamist group, Jamaatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh.
   The joint interrogation cell, meanwhile, started quizzing 32 suspects out of 123, most of them belonging to the Islamist group, at two JIC centres in Baridhara and Uttara on Saturday.
   Six of them were arrested from Dhaka and 26 from other districts after the wave of blasts.
   Two of the Mujaheedin activists — Moniruzzaman Munna and Nasiruddin Dafadar — confessed to planting the bombs, claimed the police.
   They said some other arrested Mujaheedin activists had also made confessions that they had carried out the blasts at the directive of the organisation chief, Shaikh Abdur Rahman, who has been on the run for more than a year.
   A home ministry spokesman told journalists that the law enforcers had arrested 123 people till Saturday evening in connection with the blasts.
   Meanwhile, people in Barisal became panicked again on the day following a bomb hoax in the city, the third in four days, and distribution of leaflets in the name of Jamaatul Mujaheedin at different offices in the division.
   In Natore, the police produced a suspected Mujaheedin activist, Abbas Ali, arrested from Dighirpar village Thursday night, before the magistrate’s court on Friday and sought a five-day remand but were granted a three-day remand.
   In Rajshahi, seven Mujaheedin activists, arrested from Bagmara early Friday, were placed on a five-day remand on Saturday.

The Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh amir, Motiur Rahman Nizami, on Saturday accused by name the Research and Analyses Wing of the Indian intelligence of setting up Jamaatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh to unleash militant activities to fit its propaganda offensive against Bangladesh and destabilise the polity.
   Nizami, a top leader of the BNP-led four-party ruling alliance, also blamed the main opposition Awami League for patronising the little-known Jamaatul Mujaheedin, which was banned along with Jagrata Muslim Janata in February.
   ‘The Indian intelligence agency RAW created Jamaatul Mujaheedin, which was primarily blamed for conducting the August 17 bomb blasts in Bangladesh,’ Nizami, also the industries minister, told a news conference at his party’s central office in Dhaka. ‘The Awami League is patronising the organisation.’
   Nizami said the Awami League had blamed Jamaat for the countrywide blasts to cover up the role of Jamaatul Mujaheedin in the incident.
   ‘Jamaatul Mujaheedin leader Abdur Rahman had been trained in India for 21 months by the Indian intelligence agency,’ he alleged.
   He said Israeli intelligence agencies had been playing the lead role to create militant organisations in some Muslim countries for conducting subversive activities.
   No-one can carry out such a series of blasts simultaneously at sensitive places in 63 districts without a strong network, he said.
   Nizami agreed that the blasts had been a massive subversive act threatening security of
   the country. ‘The August 17 blasts were more serious than the 9/11 attack on the Twin Tower in the United States.’
   He also raised question about the role of the Bangladesh intelligence agencies. ‘There are questions in people’s mind about the intelligence agencies’ role. The government should scrutinise it.’
   Nizami condemned the statement of Sheikh Hasina, who blamed the government and Jamaat for the blasts.
   ‘The nation does not expect an irresponsible, unwanted and uncalled for statement from the opposition leader. In fact, she was trying to create a smokescreen to hide the real culprits,’ he said. ‘The Awami League is a master in fishing in troubled water. This is dirty politics.’
   Nizami also criticised the Indian high commissioner in Dhaka, Veena Sikri, who had told Indian TV channel NDTV that the Islamic organisations, which wanted to rule Bangladesh, had conducted the August 17 blasts.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Saturday blasted the state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, for failure of his ministry, and the intelligence agencies in forewarning the August 17 series of blasts across the country.
   Khaleda also consulted the kitchen cabinet on the latest situation following the blasts.
   The minister for finance and planning, M Saifur Rahman, LGRD and cooperatives minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and health and family welfare minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossan attended the kitchen cabinet meeting.
   Khaleda also discussed relevant issues with foreign minister M Morshed Khan, her adviser on parliamentary affairs Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, housing and public works minister Mirza Abbas and the adviser to the foreign ministry, Reaz Rahman.
   She discussed the post-August 17 blasts issues, including failure and performance of the intelligence agencies, role of the main opposition Awami League and the statements of its president Sheikh Hasina, role of the neighbouring India, statements of the Indian ministers and Indian high commissioner in Dhaka, Veena Sikri, and the Indian press.
   She discussed the visit of the World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz and the preparation of the ministries concerned for the bank delegation.
   Before the meeting with the kitchen cabinet, Khaleda discussed issues related to the blasts, including steps for investigation and arrest of the criminals, with the state minister for home.

The government seems to have been completely dependent on Interpol in nabbing the culprits presumed to be involved in the gruesome August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally in 2004, while the investigating agency concerned will submit the charge sheet in the case only after the arrest of a few hardened criminals believed to be involved in the attack.
   ‘We have requested Interpol in the last week of July to help arrest certain accused in the August 21 grenade attack case, who are now in India,’ a highly-placed source in the government told New Age on Saturday. ‘The Interpol headquarters has already asked its men in India to nab the criminals, and we are optimistic of the Interpol success.’
   The source also said the law enforcing agencies have also been keeping close watch on the Indo-Bangla border to nab the accused if and when they enter the country. ‘The investigating agency will submit charge sheet in the case only after the arrest of the prime accused in the case.’
   The grenade attack on the AL rally killed 22 people, including Ivy Rahman, a front-ranking party leader. Besides, more than 200 people were injured in the deadly explosions.
   Sheikh Hasina, president of the Awami League and leader of the opposition in parliament, narrowly escaped the attack.
   The United States, the United Kingdom and India offered the government help investigate the grenade attacks through their expertise and logistic support. However, the government preferred seeking assistance from Interpol.
   Later, agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation joined in the probe. A source, close to the government high-ups, told New Age that the FBI agents seemed more interested to see whether there was any Islamist militancy behind the grenade attack or not, rather than helping to nab the criminals involved.
   However, the government source said, quoting the claims of the Criminal Investigation Department of the police, that they had substantive clues to the August 21 grenade attack case.
   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 George Miah has made a confessional statement before the court on June 26.
   The police arrested George Miah from village Birkot under Senbagh police station in Noakhali 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 also said they had assembled near the Baitul Mukarram Market where Mukul gave them Tk 5,000 each and assured them of Tk 10,000 more. Later, they started for the rally and left the place immediately after charging grenades on the rally.
   The CID police said the perpetrators had hurled 13 grenades on the rally — eight went off and 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 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 had been 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.

The government is yet to make public the judicial commission report on the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka that killed 22 persons and maimed dozens a year ago.
   The government set up a one-member judicial inquiry commission with a sitting judge of the High Court, Justice Md Joynul Abedin, on August 22, 2004. Asked why the government failed to make the report public, the minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs, Moudud Ahmed, told New Age on Saturday that ‘all the reports of public inquiries should be made public.’
   ‘It would be better for the nation if the reports of all such inquiries, including the judicial inquiry commissions, could be made public,’ he said.
   He said no legal binding is there on the government’s making public the reports of such judicial inquiry commissions.
   The government formed the commission on the August 21 attack with a three-point terms of reference — to identify the cause of and the motive behind the attack, to identify primarily the person/s or group involved in the attack and take legal action against them, and to recommend measures to stop recurrence of such attacks, including comments on other related issues.
   The commission was formed in accordance with the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1956. The Justice Joynul commission submitted its report to the government on October 2 the same year.
   The finding reportedly said that a foreign intelligence agency, which works independently, masterminded and implemented the August 21 grenade attack in association with a local quarter.
   Besides, the report said the motive behind the attack was to put a puppet government in place by creating a civil war.
   The Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association also instituted an ‘independent commission’ to investigate the incident.
   The bar’s independent commission accused the government of non-cooperation in conducting the investigation and said in its observation that the attack was aimed at Sheikh Hasina and the perpetrators were well-trained.
   Bangladesh, however, does not have any law on judicial inquiry commission and the government usually forms such commissions under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1956, in which the terms of reference for any inquiry is fixed.
   The act contains no mandatory provision for making public the report of such commissions.
   The act says there is no legal enforcement of the report of the commission. The government, if it thinks fit, may use any part of such report in the prosecution.
   Ordinarily, a judicial inquiry commission is set up through an executive order to inquire into a matter of public importance. The subject could be diverse as long as it is a matter of serious concern to public.
   The commission is required to investigate facts leading to a particular occurrence and make a report and appropriate recommendations.
   The commission is not a court of law, but is essentially a ‘fact-finding’ body to put forth recommendations to the government of the day.
   The recommendations, however, are not ‘judicial orders or verdicts.’ They are advisory in character for the government.
   In India, the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 has been amended making mandatory provisions for placing the report of judicial inquiry commissions before the parliament within six months of report submission.
   But in Bangladesh, the law does not have any such provisions and the report of any of the judicial inquiry commissions formed so far has not be made public.

The family members of the 22 deceased, who had fallen victim to the gruesome August 21 grenade attack on the opposition Awami League rally, bear with the terrible memories of loss after one year of fruitless passage from the killer occurrence on the day.
   On the first anniversary of this shocking, mournful event, the kiths and kin were reminded of the painful episode that was yet to see the light of justice, not to speak of the law at work.
   The culprits are yet to be traced, let alone justice done.
   ‘My pregnant wife was killed, and the whole world collapsed around our dreams of starting a family’, said Bashir Ahmed, husband of Awami League leader Hasina Momotaj Rina killed in the attack while carrying the unborn baby of two months in her womb.
   Rina, president of Mohila Awami League of a ward unit in the city, dreamed to be a mother, a decade after the death of her one day old first baby in 1992.
   ‘I do not want to live this painful life any more, passing each moment of my life in shock,’ he said. He could not even quench her dying thirst with cold drinking water—a last wish of his wife.
   Morjina Akther, who heard the news of the death of her husband — Awami League activist Nasir Uddin Sardar — three months after the incident.
   Unblissfully, she was away working in Kuwait as a domestic help during the carnage.
   ‘It was not until my return from Kuwait that I was informed of his (Nasir Uddin Sardar) death, which threw my put me and my two minor sons in financial quandary,’ Morjina told New Age, adding that now she was under pressure to repay the dues borrowed by her to go to the aboard.
   She also said that the situation worsened when the younger brother of her husband misappropriated the Tk one-lakh compensation given by the Awami League president Sheikh Hasina.
   Amena Begum, mother of another deceased, Adbul Kuddus, said that despite losing her son, who was a central Swechhasebak League leader, the administration and local ruling party cadres did not allow her to mourn the death of her son as they were harassing her another son, AL leader Humayun Patwari.
   ‘After the death of my youngest son, the police, at the insistence of ruling party men ousted my elder son Humayun, who is the president of Haimchar upazila unit of Awami League, from the locality,’ Amena said, adding that she does not need a trial but just wants to live peacefully.
   ‘Who will conduct the trial? I know they are not impartial,’ she added saying that, moreover, the trial would not bring back her son from the grave.
   The suffering of losing a dear one was quite different for Maksuda Begum compared to the families of the other victims, as she had to pass twenty days with her wounded husband Abul Kalam Azad.
   Azad, joint secretary of Balu Ghat unit of Awami League, was clinically dead for twenty days after the grenade attack, and finally succumbed to his injuries on September 10, 2004 at the Metropolitan Hospital in Mohakhali.
   ‘I am leading a tough life with my six year old daughter and three year old son, who often ask me about their father—a question that I cannot answer,’ Maksuda said. She lamented her husband’s wish to admit their child to school was yet to be realised, though she already got admission to BAF Shaheen School this year.
   Motaleb Mridha, who wanted his son, Mamun Mridha, to be an army officer, lost him in the carnage.
   ‘I have been preparing my son to join in army for the last 12 years but the grenade attack snatched away all of my hope,’ Motaleb, father of second year student of Kabi Nazrul Islam Government College, Mamun, rued.
   ‘I am yet to understand why he went to the place of occurrence in order to invite his own death, his nemesis,’’ he said.
   The elderly parents of Rijiya are now passing helpless days after the death of their daughter who was the only earning member of the family.
   Rijiya had aspired to become a midwife and living with her parents after being divorced by her husband.
   ‘After the divorce, my daughter had to work hard for us but the tragic end of Rijiya deprived us the benefit of the comfort,’ Afaz Uddin, father of  Rijiya, told New Age.
   The death of dedicated AL leader Rafiqul Islam alias Ada Chacha is mourned at his locality by people from all walks pf life.
   Though Ada Chacha, who was well known to all the people, specially the journalist community- was killed i n the carnage.But he remains alive in their minds for his cordial behavior and the extraordinary habit of providing ginger (ada in Bangla) to all.
   ‘After his death the enthusiasm of the people on political discussion or debates has evaporated in the Shipaibagh area,’ one of the locals Sadequr Rahman Bhuiyan told New Age on Wednesday adding that such kinds of discussion is no longer the spice of life in the locality for the last one year.
   Maya, daughter of Ada Chacha said that her father wanted to lead a very life of simple joys without harming any one; but the killer grenades deprived him even of that.
   ‘We are not in want or in other kind of crises; but how can the loss of my father be compensated?’ she said. The singular demand for her is bringing the culprits to book.
   The other deceased persons are Ivy Rahman, secretary for women’s affairs of AL, Lance Corporal Mahbubur Rashid, bodyguard to opposition leader Sheikh Hasina, Mostak Ahmed alias Kala Sentu, an AL leader of Rampal village in Piraopur, Abbasuddin Sikder alais Ratan Sikder, AL activist of Narayanganj, Litun MInshi alias Litu, president of Chattra League’s Husainpur village unit, Sufia Begum, joint secretary of ward unit 58 of Mohila AL (city), Ashrafudding Bellal, vice president of ward unit 69 of Jubo League, Atikullah Sarkar, activist of ward unit 84 of Jubo League, Aminul Islam, Sramik League activist of Jamalpur, Abul Kashem, Zahedur Rahman alias Zahed Ali, Mhammad Momen Ali, Mohammad Motaleb and Mohammad Abdur Rahim, all AL activists.
   The family members of some of these victims also spoke to New Age on the first anniversary of the carnage and posed a question: how long would they have to bear the pain without any redemption?

The Awami League and its front organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes for marking the first anniversary of the August 21 grenade attack on its rally today.
   On this day in 2004, twenty-two leaders and activists of the Awami League and its front organisations including party’s women affairs secretary, Ivy Rahman, were killed and over 200 wounded in the grenade attack on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital city.
   The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, also leader of the opposition in parliament, narrowly escaped the attack and received injuries in her ears.
   A series of blasts rocked the Bangabandhu Avenue area where Hasina was almost at the end of her speech before leading a procession in protest against the bomb blasts in Sylhet.
   The programmes include discussion meetings, photo and painting exhibitions, candle-lit vigils, formation of human chains, blood donation camps, mourning processions, and rallies in the capital as elsewhere across the country.
   An antiterrorism peace procession will be brought out from the Central Shaheed Minar towards the Awami League central office. Hasina will lead the procession at 5:22pm, the time of the grenade attacks on her public rally, to pay homage to those killed in the August 21 carnage. The peace procession will end on Bangabandhu Avenue where the participants will take oaths after lighting candles.
   Earlier, Hasina will inaugurate the plaque, built in memory of the martyrs, in front of the party office on Bangabandhu Avenue at 11:00am.
   The government, however, planned to take adequate security measures as the programmes, announced by the main opposition party, can be held smoothly.
   Sources in the security forces said additional police forces, RAB members, and Ansars would be deployed at different strategic points in the capital. The home ministry might deploy the Bangladesh Rifles, if needed.
   On the eve of the first anniversary of the attack, Hasina in a statement on Saturday said the attack on August 21 was a pre-planned by the powerful cliques.
   ‘The government has made the whole investigation a farce,’ she said adding that she wants a proper investigation, a trial, and bring the perpetrators to book.
   Unlike the past blasts, the August 21 carnage also witnessed a ‘blame-game’ where the Awami League accused the BNP-Jamaat alliance government of plotting the attack. Ruling party leaders pointed their fingers towards some AL leaders.
   After the incident, the government formed a one-member judicial inquiry commission with Justice M Joynul Abedin. The commission’s report was not made public.
   An independent inquiry commission of the Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association had investigated the incident, and made its observations that the attack was aimed at Sheikh Hasina, and the perpetrators were well-trained.
   The USA, the UK, and India offered Bangladesh government help in investigating the grenade attacks through their expertise and logistic supports, but the government preferred seeking assistance from the Interpol. Later FBI agents joined the investigation.
   However, the fate of the investigations by Interpol and FBI could not be known. Government’s own intelligence agencies have not yet disclosed their findings.

A former US deputy secretary of defence, the World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz who is scheduled to visit Dhaka today, has been dubbed as the primary architect of the Iraq invasion, advocating the war since the twin tower bombings in 2001.
   ‘The recommendation [for Wolfowitz to be the bank’s president] … is devastating,’ commented Michael Mueller, a frontline member of German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats on March 17. ‘The cold warrior has already proven he is an arsonist.’
   He said European leaders had to do everything possible to prevent Wolfowitz becoming the bank’s president.
   The move makes ‘perfect sense if the Bush administration intends to completely alienate the world community…and it betrays the [US] government’s practice of putting business and geopolitical interests above all else’, said Jim Vallette, research director for the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network at the Institute for Policy Studies, on March 18.
   Wolfowitz has been ‘a weapon of mass deception for corporate deception for corporate quests in Iraq’, he wrote.
   In fact, to ensure that the European quarters supported the Iraq invasion he made sure that the reconstruction contracts — booty, to be politically incorrect — went to corporations based in countries that supported the US in Iraq.
   That the Iraq invasion was all about oil and not at all about the so-called ‘weapons of mass destruction’ becomes clear from Wolfowitz’s own comments and also provides pointers as to how he might use his new position to further US oil interests.
   In his address to the delegates at an Asian security summit in Singapore on June 4, he said the real motive behind the Iraq invasion was that it was ‘swimming’ in oil.
   Asked why a nuclear power such as North Korea was treated differently from Iraq, where hardly any weapons of mass destruction had been found, Wolfowitz said, ‘Let us look at it simply. The most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea of oil.’
   The comments followed an interview in Vanity Fair, where he said, ‘For reasons that have a lot to do with the US government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on — weapons of mass destruction.’
   On March 21, Christian Aid said it was ‘appalled’ by the nomination. The aid agency said the appointment was a stark reminder of the undemocratic nature of some international financial institutions.
   There were sharp criticisms from other international non-governmental organisations including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Action Aid International and Oxfam.
   Official response, especially that from the EU, which matters the most, to the nomination was understandably diplomatic and guarded, except Britain.
   ‘The enthusiasm in old Europe is not exactly overwhelming,’ said Germany’s development minister, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul.
   A spokeswoman for the European Commission, Claude Veron-Reville, said the EU would seek to hold talks with Washington about the nomination.
   A French spokeswoman said France would ‘examine the candidacy in the spirit of friendship that exists between France and the United States and with regard to the capital mission that the World Bank fulfils in the service of development’.
   However, although initially rejected by the agency’s board, the members had to bow to the US pressure.
   On March 31, the 24-member board, where Europe has 30 per cent shares, confirmed Wolfowitz’s nomination.
   Insiders said the EU could have made life difficult for the US but had chosen not to since it needed the US support for various high-profile international posts.
   The EU at that time was pushing Pascal Lamy, its former trade commissioner, to lead the World Trade Organisation, while Britain was believed to be lobbying for Baroness Amos — formerly Labour’s leader of the House of Lords — to head the UN Development Programme.
   Traditionally, the US chooses the president of the World Bank and Europe the managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
   Now 61, Wolfowitz was born into a Polish Jewish immigrant family, and grew up mainly in Ithaca, New York, where his father was a professor of statistical theory at Cornell University.
   At 14 he spent a year in Israel while his father was a visiting professor in Haifa, and his sister emigrated to the country.
   Wolfowitz enrolled at Cornell where he studied maths, to please his father, and was offered a full scholarship. But he went on to pursue his own interests in political science, doing graduate studies at the University of Chicago.
   He began working in Washington in 1973 as an intern in the arms control and disarmament agency. He worked entirely in the government except for some years during Clinton’s presidency, when he headed the School of Advanced International Studies.
   Over the years he worked under six presidents, including Jimmy Carter.
   As a junior official at the Pentagon in 1977 he presided over a project which looked at the possibility of a Soviet seizure of Gulf oilfields. He also explored the consequences of an Iraqi attack on Saudi Arabia or Kuwait.
   During the 80s, Wolfowitz’s interests shifted from the Middle East to Asia, when he moved to the state department as assistant secretary for east Asia and then ambassador to Indonesia.
   Supporters say those years convinced him of the importance of using American might to promote democratic change, but opponents present a different picture.
   ‘It is really too much to claim that he played any kind of role in leading Indonesia to democracy,’ says Jeffrey Winters, an expert on Indonesia at Chicago’s Northwestern University, who was in the country at the time.
   ‘The real record when you dig into it is that he was very slow to respond to Indonesia’s movement for democracy. Indonesia’s citizens across the spectrum had been struggling against authoritarian rule. They had been tortured. They had been jailed. They had been ruined in various ways, and the Wolfowitz embassy didn’t speak up for them — not once.’
   He worked as the undersecretary of defence between 1989 and 1993 and went on to become the deputy defence secretary in 2001.

The World Bank has not helped development in Bangladesh. In the context of countrywide bomb blasts on Wednesday, presumably carried out by fundamentalists, speakers said World Bank and fundamentalism were inextricably linked.
   Economists and professionals addressing a roundtable discussion, World Bank in Bangladesh, organised by a research organisation, the Innovators, on Saturday at the National Press Club criticised the lending agency’s programmes and highlighted how they favoured the commercial interests of the main financiers of the agency.
   MM Akash, professor of economics at Dhaka University, said in the context of the recent bomb blasts, ‘The World Bank in its own way is fundamentalist.’ Quoting Joseph Stiglitz, a former chief economist of the agency, Akash said the bank believed in ‘market fundamentalism’.
   ‘It believes in the supreme authority of the market, free from any kind of interventions,’ he said.
   Regarding the development activities of the agency Akash said as far as the World Bank and its financiers are concerned, it is doing its perfectly well, looking after the corporate interests of those countries.
   He said, ‘It is only natural that the financiers of the lending agency would like to see a return on their investment. It is we who are in an illusion that the bank is a development agency.’
   Anu Muhammad, a professor of economic of Jahangirnagar University, initiating the discussion elaborated how the World Bank systematically dismantled and destroyed the energy and jute sectors.
   He said the World Bank, in a report, way back in 1982, advocated for downsizing Bapex, the exploration wing of Petrobangla and inviting International Oil Companies to invest in the sector. ‘These “feasibility studies” and “technical assistance programmes” are often the tools to substantiate the real agendas of the lending agencies.’
   Foreign investment in the energy sector has led to the explosion at Tengratila recently and Magurchhara a few years ago, said Anu. ‘None of the lending agency’s programmes have furthered the development of Bangladesh.’
   Abul Barakat, general secretary of the Bangladesh Economic Association, with a more pragmatic view said, ‘Fundamentalism and the World Bank have always had close links.’
   He said people like bin Laden and mullah Omar had been created with donor funds and agency loans that include institutions like the World Bank.
   Referring to the World Bank’s jute sector adjustment programme, Barakat said the very institution that advocated for closing down Adamjee Jute Mills while it provided funds to open three new ones in West Bengal, India. ‘Sometimes the will of the political masters also determine how the funds are going to be used.’
   Speakers agreed that the multilateral lending agencies thrived on the corruption in countries where they operate and are seldom interested in the development of their clients.
   Rashed Mahmud Titumir, of Innovators moderated the discussion.

The World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, is scheduled to arrive from India today on a visit that was shortened at the last minute.
   Sources in the Ministry of Finance said Saturday evening that Wolfowitz, originally scheduled to stay in Dhaka for two days as part of his South Asia tour, will only be staying for eight hours on Sunday.
   The August 17 serial blasts across the country may have pushed the bank authorities to make last minute changes to the schedule, the sources said.
   Wolfowitz will arrive at 10:30am today on a chartered flight. He will meet the finance minister at the latter’s office right after his arrival and then meet with World Bank staff in Dhaka.
   At 2:00pm the bank president will meet the prime minister, Kalaeda Zia — a meeting that was supposed to have taken place over breakfast on Monday. At 3:00pm he will meet the leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina.
   A field visit will take place between 4:00pm and 5:00pm, before Wolfowitz departs Dhaka at 6:30pm.
   The August 17 serial blasts will feature prominently at the talks alongside governance, law and order, aid management and corruption, said sources in the finance ministry.
   Bangladesh will seek enhanced financial cooperation from the bank to meet its millennium development goals, Saifur told journalists on Saturday. ‘The bank was supposed to extend enhanced aid to meet the goals. We will raise the issue despite its reluctance.’
   He said he expected Wolfowitz to raise questions about the August 17 blasts and the government’s response.
   Meanwhile, a number of political, workers’ and human rights organisations plan to stage demonstration and bring out procession against the World Bank president’s visit.
   The Communist Party of Bangladesh will bring out a black-flag procession from its central office to Muktangan in the capital at noon today.
   Jatiya Sramik Jote, a workers’ organisation, will stage a demonstration at and bring out a procession from Muktangan at 3:00pm.
   Some other political parties and human rights organisations also have plans to agitate against the visit of Wolfowitz, whose nomination for the World Bank presidency by the US president, George W Bush on March 16, sparked worldwide protests and criticisms. Even the bank’s employees rallied against his nomination.

A countrywide hartal, called and enforced Saturday by the Awami League and its allies in the opposition to protest against the serial blasts on August 17, drew more public support than similar programmes in the recent past.
   The opposition parties held the BNP-led government of the four-party alliance responsible and said it should stand down for its failure ensure public safety and security.
   The protesters took to the streets in the capital, under heavy guard of the police and paramilitary troopers, and elsewhere in the country three days after the blasts that killed two persons and injured more than 150. Extra police forces also guarded other major cities and towns.
   Road communications were disrupted while the rail, river and air routes functioned almost normally.
   Most public and private vehicles, except rickshaws, went off the streets while educational institutions and most of business establishments remained closed.
   Members of the law enforcing agencies clashed with Awami League activists in the city’s Dhanmondi and Mirpur areas leaving at least eight injured. The police also picked up about 20 pickets mostly women activists during the hartal hours.
   In Narayanganj, about 20 opposition activists were injured in a police attack.
   No untoward incidents were, however, reported from other divisional headquarters including Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna and Barisal.
   Witnesses said the police had swooped on the processions of the Awami Mahila League, women front of the Awami League, at Dhanmondi injuring to at least five activists.
   Fifteen women workers were detained. An injured woman activist, Sadia Tarek Britti was admitted to Bangladesh Medical College Hospital.
   The police charged batons on a procession of the Awami League and Juba League near Purabi Cinema Hall at Mirpur and picked up at least 10 people, including the City Juba League (north) president, Mainul Hossain Khan.
   First pro-hartal procession in the city was brought out by the Communist Party of Bangladesh at the city’s Paltan area at about 6:30am. The procession, led by the CPB general secretary, Mujahidul Islam Selim, marched downtown.
   The 11-party alliance brought out procession from the office of the Workers Party at about 9:00am.
   The police obstructed the procession at Paltan crossing. Later, they held a rally there.
   The police and the BDR resorted to baton charge to disperse processions brought out by the opposition parties leaving many people injured.
   According to the reports of our correspondents in Sylhet, Gazipur, Barisal, Bogra, Natore, Khulna, Pabna, Jhenidah, Sirajganj, Jamalpur, Jessore and Rangamati, regular activities were disrupted.
   In Sylhet, at least 20 leaders and activists including the city mayor Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran, also the president of the AL city unit were injured as police clubbed a procession. The police arrested three persons.
   Hartal supporters in Barisal brought out processions and damaged some rickshaws in different parts of the city in early morning. Police picked up three pickets from Khan Jahan Ali Road.
   All modes of vehicles stayed off on all the routes in Chittagong during hartal hours.

Most people, instead of going to their offices and workplaces, stayed at home during Saturday’s hartal, due to the apprehension that anything terrible may take place and also because of the feeling that the hartal had a legitimate, acceptable reason.
   ‘I didn’t go out because of the fear of terrorism,’ said Saad Ullah, driver of a CNG-powered baby-taxi. ‘Who can ensure my security when so many bombs could have been exploded throughout the country on Wednesday?’
   Saad said he had operated his vehicle during all the hartals which were called in the last two years excepting Saturday’s one. ‘My priority was to survive so that I could feed my six-member family.’
   Like him, Alam Miah, who has a telephone shop at Russel Square, did not open his shop. ‘Today I kept the shutters of my shop down because of the fear of police harassment. I might have been picked up by the police on my way to my shop, or if anyone exploded any bomb in my proximity the police would have taken me to jail and tortured me.’
   Shahadat Hossain, who was spending time watching television at his Free School Street residence at noon, said, ‘I stayed at home not for hartal, but for avoiding any possible trouble.’
   Shahadat, the owner of four travel agencies, said, ‘What the political leaders are doing or will do is not my headache. What really scared me was the ease with which hundreds of bombs were blasted throughout the country by hundreds of criminals, of whom all but a few escaped so easily. It is fear that kept me at home.’
   The presence of workers at Karim garments Ltd in Mirpur-10 was thin because of the option given by the authority to the workers. ‘The factory was open on Friday and the workers were given the option that whoever will work on Saturday will be given extra payment for overtime work,’ said the general manager, Afsar Uddin Chowdhury. ‘We did it because we saw that our female workers were afraid of bomb attacks.’
   A police sergeant, Sharif Ullah, in Russel Square at about 12:30pm used only a few words to explain the people’s positive response to Saturday’s hartal, ‘Most are afraid.’
   Compared to other hartals that took place earlier, Saturday’s one was extremely successful. Very few vehicles plied the streets, shutters of the shops remained closed, and the number of the people even in the government offices was very low. Many streets in the city, which had teemed with people during other hartals, wore a deserted look.
   The secretary to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, AFM Sarwar Kamal, admitted that there had been only a few visitors to his office, and said it was probably because of the ‘panic’ caused by Wednesday’s bomb blasts.
   Professor Ataur Rahman of the Department of Political Science of the Dhaka University, felt that the hartal had been so overwhelmingly successful because of two reasons. ‘Firstly, people were panicky because of the intensity and scale of the Wednesday’s bomb attacks, and secondly, the hartal has a legitimate reason, with which many people agreed.’

The draft of the Gas Act has proposed a maximum of three years’ rigorous imprisonment or a fine of up to Tk 50,000 or both for the person who steals gas or abets stealing or is otherwise involved in such acts.
   As the proposed section of the act for punishment of gas thieves contradicts a section of the Energy Regulatory Commission Act, 2003, experts on Saturday suggested consulting the law ministry on this issue.
   The ERC act empowers the commission to sentence a person involved in gas theft to a maximum of three years’ rigorous imprisonment or impose a fine up to Tk 5,000 or both for perpetrators of such offences.
   Energy experts, however, said on Saturday at a workshop at Petrobangla that Tk 5,000 is too a little amount for the persons who are involved in gas theft as they steals gas worth lakhs of taka a month.
   The Energy and Mineral Resources Division’s secretary, AMM Nasir Uddin, chaired the session, which was attended by experts from Petrobangla and its subsidiaries, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission, Bangladesh Energy Companies Association and Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries.
   According to the draft of the gas act, if the gas pilferage does not exceeds 2,500 cubic metres, the fine imposed on a first-time offender shall not be less than three times the money gained by stealing gas.
   The price of 1,000 cubic metre of gas is Tk 148.13 for industrial use and Tk 233.12 for commercial use at present.
   In the event of a second or subsequent conviction, the fine imposed shall not be less than six times the financial gain made from stealing of gas along with a prison term of minimum six months, the act says.
   If the gas stealing exceeds 2,500 cubic metres, the fine imposed for the first conviction shall not be less than three times the financial gains, and in the event of a second or subsequent conviction the sentence shall be imprisonment for a term of not less than one year, which may extend up to five years, along with a fine not less than six times the financial gain.
   One of the experts said ERC has the magistracy power to punish the offender for gas theft as per the ERC act, which provides a maximum of three years’ imprisonment or a fine of Tk 5,000.
   He told the workshop that such a section in the gas act would contradict the ERC act, so the meeting decided to send the matter to the legal experts.
   The meeting decided to form a three-member committee, headed by Petrobangla secretary Abu Mansur Md Azad, which would meet with the experts of the law ministry and consult them.
   Energy secretary Nasir Uddin said that the gas act needs to be enacted as soon as possible as it is one of the major conditions of the World Bank for extending development support credit.
   He said that they would hold another workshop for finalising the draft of the gas act. The title of the act will be Gas Act-2005 instead of Gas Act-2004, the workshop decided.
   The gas act will cover transmission, distribution, supply and storage of natural gas and associated liquid hydrocarbons.
   One of the experts felt that the gas act would not be a full-fledged act as the issues relating to exploration and production of gas were not included in it.
   Among others, SR Osmani, chairman of Petrobangla, Md Nurul Islam, director of the Institute of Appropriate Technology of BUET, M Tamim, chairman of the Petroleum Engineering Department of BUET and Azam J Chowdhury, vice-president of the Energy Companies’ Association spoke on the occasion.

The Rapid Action Battalion has recovered two sophisticated AK-47 rifles and arrested four persons, including two police sergeants, from Noakhali, Feni and Dhaka.
   These are the two out of six rifles the policemen — Helaluddin Bhuiyan of Bara Gabindapur in Chandina of Comilla and Alauddin of Krishnanagar in Sudharum — had stolen during the country’s biggest ever arms haul at CUFL jetty in Chittagong on April 2, 2004, RAB said.
   One of the rifles was sold to Piar Ahmed alias Akash, 30, of Nayanpur in Daganbhuiyan of Feni, and another was kept to Dulal Khandaker, 29, of Maizdi in Sudharum of Noakhali, said RAB.
   RAB said they arrested Akash along with an AK-47 rifle and a magazine at about 1:30pm on Thursday.
   Akash told RAB that he had recently bought the rifle from the policemen for Tk 1 lakh and paid the amount in cheque.
   RAB arrested Helal and Alauddin on Friday from their respective workplaces .
   RAB also seized the cheque from Alauddin, who along with Helal were posted to the Bandar police in Chittagong during the recovery of the arms and ammo.
   The RAB team later arrested Dulal and recovered another rifle at about 3:00am Saturday.
   The two sergeants admitted that they had stolen six AK-47 rifles from an engine boat during the night of recovery of the huge cache of arms and ammunition.
   Three of the rifles were sold to Delwar, an armed activist of Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s student front Islami Chhatra Shibir, at Tk 1.75 lakh each, one each to Akash and a leader of a criminal gang active in a northern district and one was kept to Dulal.
   RAB recovered the three rifles sold to Delwar, well known as Azrail Delwar, before his death in an encounter with them and is on drive to recover the rifle sold to the criminal gang, said RAB sources.

The parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs on Saturday recommended that the government extend the service age limit from 57 years to 65 for the freedom-fighters.
   The committee members also accused the officials of the Tabani Beverage Ltd, a subsidiary organisation of the Freedom-Fighters Welfare Trust, of incurring the huge loss of Tk 5.20 crore in fiscal year 2004-2005 for the first time, and recommended stern action against those responsible.
   The 12th meeting of the committee was held in the afternoon with its chairman, Salah Uddin Ahmed, acting as the moderator. In the meeting it was disclosed that the ministry had approved the final list of a total of 1,82,778 freedom-fighters of the country, which is nearly 50,000 lower than the previous list.
   State Minister for the Ministry of the Liberation War Affairs, Professor Mohammad Rezaul Karim, ruling party lawmaker, Mohammad Salek Chowdhury, secretary of the concerned ministry, MM Shaheen, Matiur Rahman and top officials of the Freedom-Fighters Welfare Trust and Tabani Beverage attended the meeting, among others.
   No member of the opposition parties, however, attended the meeting, said meeting sources.
   Sources said that the committee recommended that the government increase the age limit of the freedom-fighters in government service to 65 years from the existing 57 years, like that of the professors and justices.
   ‘As the committee unanimously took the decision, I assured them that effective measures would be taken in this regard,’ state minister for the liberation war affairs ministry, Mohammad Rezaul Karim, told New Age after the meeting.
   The state minister also said that the ministry had finalised the list of the freedom-fighters including the expatriates by excluding nearly 50,000 ‘false names’ which were included during the regime of the previous government.
   The committee members also recommended strict legal action against the persons responsible for preparing the ‘false list’, said sources.
   The meeting also asked genuine freedom-fighters, who had been overlooked, to include their names in the list through the respective district administrations by December this year.
   The committee members rejected the 23-point explanatory report of the Tabani Beverage officials on the huge loss in the last fiscal year which was placed in the meeting. Committee members pointed out that engaging 63 surplus officials, misusing fuel oil, falsely estimating overtime and giving extra bonuses were responsible for the loss.
   ‘We rejected the report because of its inconsistency and asked the officials to submit another, truer report in the next meeting,’ Salah Uddin Ahmed told New Age on Saturday evening.
   The chairman said that when the company had been earning profit of Tk 2 crore annually, the sudden loss was nothing but the result of irregularities by officials of the trust.
   He also said that the committee recommended that the government take stern legal action against the two officials who have been accused of irregularities.
   The committee also accused the Coca Cola Ltd of allowing the Pran group to set up a bottling plant instead of Tabani Beverage, violating the agreement with the Freedom-Fighters Welfare Trust, and recommended that the ministry concerned take necessary initiatives to set up a bottling plant for Tabani Beverage soon.

Several blasts rocked the Narsingdi town again on Saturday.
   Witnesses said that three bombs went off early in the morning at Satirpara, railway station and Narsingdi bazar.
   Later, two more bombs exploded near the shrine of Hazrat Kabul Shah at Taroa at about 10:30am.

The Pakistan president, general Pervez Musharraf, has condemned the serial bomb blasts in Bangladesh which claimed two lives and injured several others, and called on all countries of the South Asian region to work together to combat the menace of terrorism.
   Musharraf is said to have conveyed the sympathies of the Pakistan government to visiting Bangladesh foreign secretary Hemayetuddin, who met the former at Army House in Rawalpindi on Friday.
   According to the Daily Times, president Musharraf is said to have told Hemayetuddin that while Pakistan was making enormous efforts to neutralise this scourge, it was imperative to address the root causes of terrorism.
   He also agreed with the visiting dignitary that the forum of SAARC should be effectively used to forge better interaction among member countries.
   Pakistan, he said, was keen to establish close economic and trade ties with Bangladesh as vast potential to enhance volume of bilateral trade between the two sides existed.

Top leaders of the four-party ruling alliance on Saturday called on the government not to harass leaders or activists of any party, madrassah teachers and students over the August 17 blasts till the end of investigation.
   ‘It was a planned attack with an ill motive to deter constitutional continuation, prove the country as a failed and fundamentalist state and hinder investment and make political gain,’ the Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, also LGRD and cooperatives minister, told journalists after a 45-minute closed-door meeting.
   The Teachers and Employees’ United Alliance in a statement on the day, meanwhile, called on the government not to arrest people sporting beards and caps arbitrarily in connection with the August 17 blast.
   ‘Instead of such mass arrest, the government should find out the culprits,’ said a statement of the alliance, urging the government ‘to adopt an agenda through a national dialogue to defeat the evil forces active in the country.’
   Expressing concern about the random arrest of the bearded men, they urged the lawmakers to discuss the matter in Jatiya Sangsad.
   ‘If the government takes the series of blasts as merely a political incident, it would be a boomerang for them,’ said the alliance president, M Shariful Islam.
   The alliance — a combine of seven organisations of teachers and employees of non-government educational institutions, from secondary to master’s levels — has also condemned the attack.

The Indian Border Security Force continued firing at the personnel of the Bangladesh Rifles at Bholahat border till noon Saturday.
   The acting commanding officer of 28 Rifles Battalion at Naogaon, Major Mahbubul Alam, said the force had fired about 4,500-5,000 rounds between 8:25am and noon.
   Both sides stopped firing after 12:30pm. A flag meeting between the rifles and the force at the sector commander level is likely to be held on Sunday.
   Mahbub added that the force had fired at the BDR men in violation of international rules to show their muscle.
   Syed Monjur Hossain, lawmaker of Nachole, Bholahat and Gomostapur constituency, has asked the home ministry to send a protest note to the Indian high commissioner.
   Panic has gripped the locals of about 12 bordering villages of Bholaghat upazila including Gopinathpur, Imamnagar Bazar, Zadunagar, Chardharampur, Telipara, Bahadurganj, Fenci Bazar and Panchtkri.
   More than 500 families of villages Zadunagar and Chardhar-ampur have left their homes in fear.
   Locals said, Indian bullets were found at the Bholahat Rameshwar Pilot High School premises, adjacent to the upzila parishad compound.
   Bashir, 35, who received bullet injuries on Friday, is undergoing treatment.

Police in London modified slightly a shoot to kill policy after its first use last month took the life of an innocent Brazilian man, mistaken for a suicide bomber, Scotland Yard confirmed on Saturday.
   Scotland Yard ‘has reviewed the Operation Kratos shoot to kill strategy for dealing with suicide bombers and they made a small number of changes,’ a spokesman said, confirming reports in Saturday’s British press, without giving further details.
   The armed officers who shot dead Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, at a London Underground station in the tense days after July’s bombings in the capital were working under Operation Kratos, which authorises them to shoot to kill.
   Len Duvall, chairman of the authority that oversees London’s Metropolitan Police, told The Independent daily Saturday that a review was being carried out amid ‘growing pressure’ for a public inquiry into the lethal policy.
   The comments came as calls mounted for the head of the Metropolitan Police, Ian Blair, to resign over his handling of the mistaken killing of the Brazilian.
   Duvall told the newspaper: ‘I accept there is growing pressure for an inquiry. I have no objection to further scrutiny of the policy. If greater oversight of operations provides public reassurance then that can only be a good thing.
   ‘The MPA (Metropolitan Police Authority) will be looking at these issues and the Met (Metropolitan Police) are carrying out their own review. Ultimately, however, it is up to the government to set up a public inquiry.’