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Leaders of the apparel sector have conveyed their grave concern to the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, over the August 17 series of countrywide bomb blasts, which, they said, poses serious threats to the export sectors because foreign buyers have become apprehensive.
   ‘We have expressed our concern to the prime minister and urged the government and the opposition to be united to deal with the national crisis,’ MA Awal, president of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, told New Age on Monday after the meeting.
   He said the prime minister was aware that the blasts would have an adverse impact on the export sectors and assured the businessmen that government was serious in its intention to apprehend the perpetrators.
   ‘The prime minister told us that her government also wants to work with the opposition to fight the terrorists,’ said Awal.
   Mahmdur Rahman, advisor to the Energy and Mineral Resources Division and executive chairman of the Board of Investment, and Haris Chowdhury, political secretary to the prime minister, were present in the meeting.
   Exporters said they have sought an appointment to meet the leader of the opposition, Sheikh Hasina, for conveying their concern and urging unity to combat the terrorists. Earlier, the three apparel sector associations at a joint press conference stressed national unity to prevent such terrorist acts to improve the country’s image and save the export-driven economy.
   ‘The series of blasts has confused our buyers across the globe,’ said a statement issued jointly by the three associations — BGMEA, BKMEA and BTMA.
   ‘Such acts will seriously endanger the country’s export business,’ said Fazlul Haque, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, while reading out the statement.
   He was accompanied by Annisul Huq, president of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association, and Awal.
   ‘It’s a critical time for the nation, so the situation should be tackled through unity and consensus,’ said the statement, urging the government and the opposition to work hand-in-hand to prevent recurrence of such terrorist acts.
   ‘Otherwise terrorism will spread and put an end to the country’s development,’ it said.
   ‘Political parties should realise that the time to be united has come,’ said Annisul Huq.
   He referred to Sri Lanka’s experience of the hamstringing of its thriving apparel industry and the loss of its export market after the explosion of political unrest from the early ‘90s.
   ‘We are already facing stiff competition. If insecurity continues and terrorism is not contained, buyers will start leaving us and go to India, Pakistan, Vietnam and Cambodia or elsewhere,’ he warned.
   The BGMEA chief, however, said buyers have not yet stopped placing orders for Bangladesh’s apparels. ‘But they have become cautious and have asked their local staff to monitor the situation in Bangladesh.’

The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, said on Monday that her party would nominate Islamic leaders in the next general elections to take them to the parliament.
   Her assurance came as leaders of the Islami Sunni Oikya Jote called on her and expressed solidarity with the opposition’s anti-government movement.
   They urged her to wage a stronger movement along with the Islamic forces to resist the opportunist groups who were grabbing state property after going to the state power in the name of Islam.
   The meeting was held at Hasina’s Dhanmondi residence in the evening.
   They also accused Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and Islami Oikya Jote, two allies of the BNP-led alliance government, of carrying out Wednesday’s countrywide serial blasts.
   ‘The innocent Muslims are now under pressure following the terror act of some communal groups who should be resisted,’ said Hasina.
   Hasina, also the leader of the opposition in parliament, said the BNP made alliance with the fundamentalists groups like Jamaat and Islami Oikya Jote to resist the Awami League in its bid to establish Islam in the country; but she would like to take the real Islamic leaders to the parliament to resist the so-called Islamic groups who had tarnished the image of Islam.
   ‘Jamaat and its front organisations are also responsible for the bomb attacks at the shrine of Hazrat Shah Jalal (R) in Sylhet at the directive of a Jamaat lawmaker Delawar Hossain Sayedee,’ said Maulana Bahadur Shah, a leader of the Islamic group that met Hasina.
   AFM Farid Uddin, a leader of a forum of the Islamic spiritual leaders, said Islam was never a communal religion but for the parties like Jamaat people branded Islam as a communal religion.
   Sunni leaders Professor Mamtaz Uddin and Shah Mohammad Alamgir addressed the meeting where AL presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury was present.
   Earlier, Hasina met members of the families of those killed in the grenade attack on August 21, 2004 on Bangabandhu Avenue.
   She accused the government of patronising the Islamic militants.
   ‘The criminals with a serial blasts across the country wanted to repeat the August 21 carnage on Wednesday and such a big attempt could not be taken place without the help of the government,’ Hasina said.
   The meeting was organised to mark the first anniversary of August 21 grenade attacks where members of the families of 12 persons, out of 24 killed in the attack, met Sheikh Hasina.
   She also criticised the government for its failure to arrest any of the killers even after one year.
   ‘One year has already elapsed since the August 21 carnage but the killers are yet to be brought to book,’ Hasina said.
   She said that the government even did not take any action against the law enforcers and intelligence officials who failed to check the big carnage of August 21.
   Reiterating her demand for international probe into August 21 carnage, the people had no confidence in the government who had patronised the killers and destroyed the evidence of the grenade attacks.

A former director of the Islamic Foundation Bangladesh, Maulana Fariduddin Masud, was detained at Zia International Airport on Monday for suspected involvement in the August 17 serial bombings that left two people killed and more than 150 injured.
   The immigration police detained him at the departure lounge as he was about to board an Emirates Airlines flight to London in the morning.
   A police confirmed the detention and said Farid had been detained by immigration officials at the airport upon information from intelligence agencies.
   The government has imposed a restriction on his leaving the country, said the official.
   Intelligence officials were interrogating him at the airport, he added.
   Farid is among the top 17 suspects of the countrywide blasts and the police have asked authorities concerned to make sure that none of them can leave the country at the moment, said a police source.
   ‘In fact, such an embargo has been imposed on 100 persons who the police suspect may have link with the banned Islamist organisation Jamaatul Mujaheedin,’ the source added.
   The police have also sought assistance of Interpol for the interrogation of a number of top militant leaders.
   A list of 17 leaders, including the chief of Jamaatul Mujaheedin, has been sent to Interpol for their arrest, said a reliable source.
   The inspector general of police, Mohammad Abdul Quyyum, told the journalists at the home ministry Monday afternoon that the police had arrested a number of people upon the statements of the persons now being interrogated by the police and members of the joint interrogation cell.
   ‘We are on the right track in the investigation of the August 17 blasts,’ he said, brushing aside suggestion that the police were making indiscriminate arrests across the country.
   The state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, who held a series of meetings with the chiefs of different law enforcing agencies, also told the newsmen that the investigators had ‘achieved a lot’ as regards the blasts probe.
   Meanwhile, members of the joint interrogation cell continued the interrogation of 42 people arrested for suspected involvement in the serial blasts.
   The Khulna Metropolitan Police on Sunday afternoon arrested a clerk of the state-owned Jiban Bima Corporation, Maulana Abdus Salam.
   The police sources said Salam might have link to the Islami militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad and the police were quizzing Salam at the KMP headquarters.
   In Natore, a Jamaatul Mujaheedin activist, Abbas Ali, was again taken on a three-day remand on Monday. He revealed important information about the banned Islamist outfit, the police claimed to the court.
   The police also arrested an Awami League leader, Saidul Islam, Sunday night for suspected link with the banned Islamist outfit.
   However, local AL leader Hanif Ali Sheikh alleged that the police had arrested Saidul upon the direction of the deputy minister for land, Ruhul Quddus Talukdar Dulu.
   In the capital, a bomb hoax created panic among students of Tejgaon College on Monday.
   The students spotted an object wrapped in red tape on the basin of a toilet on the second floor of the administrative building at about 9:00am.
   The principal of the college, Qazi Fazlur Rahman, informed the Tejgaon police station who found the object was not a bomb.
   In Pabna, the police arrested three Juba League leaders upon allegations that they have links with the August 17 blasts. Local Awami League leaders condemned the arrest.
   In Barisal, the police started interrogating Sheikh Kabir, a Juba League leader, and Mohammad Azim, a Jatiya Party activist, after taking them on two-day remand.
   The police claimed that both had previous records of bomb making and explosions.
   The police arrested two other persons but they were sent to jail as suspects.

Heated debates on the opposition alliance’s proposal to reform the non-party caretaker government system have had the country abuzz, and surely the diaspora, stretching from Australia to the Americas, as well. Testament to the fact is the flood of e-mails and letters New Age has received in response to the series of interviews of political personalities on both sides of the divide that the paper ran last week. (The interviews are available in full at www.newagebd.com; selected letters are published in today’s Feedback page.)
   The focus of most people’s two-pence on the issue seems to be on the opposition proposal that the chief adviser of the caretaker government should be chosen on the basis of ‘consensus among all parties’, instead of the current practice of the immediate-past chief
   justice of the Supreme Court automatically taking up the post. The million-dollar-
   question seems to be: can two parties as maliciously and pathologically embroiled in confrontation as the Awami League and the BNP reach consensus on a person that each believes could seal their fate — either as the ruling party or not — for the subsequent five years?
   True to their unwavering allegiance to the party line, however irrational, each of our interviewees gamely offered the most predictable of answers to this question. The opposition camp has suddenly found faith in theirs, and their opposite numbers’, ability to first be civil to one another; then exchange contrary views across the table without spewing expletives or snide remarks even once; then swap what in the terminology of trade would be called negative lists of names of persons acceptable to each; and finally actually find a few similar-sounding names common in those lists and settle on one! The government side, on the other hand, is full of scoff for such a leap of faith and seems adamant to be uncivil and unaccommodating — just plain negative. (Funny how on the government’s plea that the opposition return to parliament, the positions are exactly reversed — the treasury wants us to believe that parliamentary exchanges can be civil, accommodating and, yes, lead to consensus, while the opposition believes the opposite!)
   The truth is, whether the two sides can reach a consensus is a question of circumstance, and the conditions of the circumstances the government and the opposition will find themselves in on the eve of the next caretaker government’s formation will depend largely on the pressures exerted then — internally of course by the electorate, but also, and let’s not kid ourselves here, by external forces. As both sides of our interviewees admitted, with differing levels of readiness, consensus is a destination that was safely reached both in 1990, when both the Awami League and the BNP were on even keel, and in 1996, when they most definitely were not.
   But still — however plausible, possible or probable — the largely unqualified ‘consensus among all parties’ clause remains too vague an idea to be endorsed as an enforceable constitutional provision. And hence it remains one that cannot be sanctioned wholeheartedly, at least not at this point in time, by an electorate already too suspicious of the two major parties’ motives, and too weary of their shenanigans, to risk a constitutional crisis over.
   A point that definitely needs to be pondered on at least, if not modified at the soonest, is the current practice of the immediate-past chief justice ascending to the throne, so to speak, as soon as the parliament is dissolved. During the interview series, New Age correspondents had, in fact, tried to lead the politicians into making a statement about how the judiciary has become a victim of the caretaker system. We thought at least the opposition leaders would take the bait, if for nothing else then for making their case for reforms stronger. But none did. Only Professor AK Azad Chowdhury, perhaps still not fully converted in his current role as a member of the Awami League’s advisory council, made the point.
   The sidestepping by the politicians is perhaps because both the parties in power since 1996 share the blame of blatantly and unapologetically interfering with the appointments and promotions of judges of the Supreme Court, nakedly putting allegiance over ability, party interest over widely-accepted traditions of the court. And the helpless, hapless victim has been the highest echelon of the country’s justice delivery system. Every opportunity to appoint a judge is seen as one to plant one’s ‘own man’ as a future chief adviser, and every opportunity to promote a judge over another more senior judge is seen as increasing the odds that a ‘friendly’ chief adviser presides over the next polls. The Awami League pioneered the practice soon after it had come to power in 1996, only to be outdone by the BNP this time around.
   All this power play inside the corridors of justice only means that the judiciary is being left vulnerable to be jaundiced (ironically by the same people who perhaps need to be brought to justice more than most others — for corruption, abuse of power, criminality and whatnot). Perhaps, the most important institution of the state, at least one that should be the most revered, is being dragged down the gutter, all for the control of that one ‘interim’ post that has not even been proven to sway the result of elections either way.
   If for nothing else, then for the reinstatement of the sacrosanct stature of the Supreme Court, the current provision of the immediate-past chief justice being appointed the chief adviser ought to be given a second thought. Ensuring the people’s right to franchise cannot be at the expense of the people’s right to justice.
   Another question that the academics (Azad Chowdhury and Professor M Ataur Rahman) chose to address, but the politicians chose only to answer with rhetoric that suited their current position, in or out of power, was about the apparent discontinuity of democratic order that the three-month-long interim caretaker government poses. In their efforts to argue that the army should be placed under the chief adviser, and not the president, opposition leaders said the chief advisor should have the same functions and powers as the prime minister ‘in the spirit of the parliamentary system’. In their rebuttal, ruling party leaders said the president, being the only elected office, should command the armed forces ‘in accordance with democratic practice’.
   What both sides conveniently forget is that the caretaker system is not only non-parliamentary, it is also non-democratic. Ataur, a professor of political science, rightly admitted in his interview that the caretaker government is for certain a break in the democratic order. He justified reverting to the system during elections by claiming that ‘credibility is the spirit’. Surely it is, but ought not democracy be too?
   Rashed Khan Menon, perhaps being the most far-removed from power of those politicians interviewed, alluded to the fact that the original proposal of the caretaker government, made and adopted in 1990, had been thought of as an interim solution to a constitutional vacuum created by the stepping down of a despotic president. Even in it being inserted into the constitution through the thirteenth amendment in 1996, the anticipation was surely not for it to be a perennial fix. The commitment of the political parties — explicitly made in 1990, more implicit in 1996 — was that the Election Commission would be strengthened and provided more autonomy during elections, and the caretaker government system would only act as a buffer until then.
   Unfortunately, neither the BNP in its two terms nor the Awami League sandwiched in between took any constructive steps to strengthen the Election Commission in any meaningful way, let alone make it more independent of the executive branch of the state.
   That, perhaps, has been the biggest betrayal of this whole saga centring the caretaker government system. That the political parties have made no efforts in the past fifteen years to build trust among each other, and hence failed to infuse faith among the electorate, is one thing. But that they have individually and collectively failed the quest for a greater democratic order by choosing to ignore the burning need for electoral reforms is quite another.
   In the first instance they betrayed themselves, in the second their electorate — but in either case the object most betrayed was democracy. There can be no greater insult to democracy than an indefinite need for a non-democratic regime to uphold the most democratic of rights to a free and fair election.

BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, also LGRD and cooperatives minister, on Monday said certain quarters were out to achieve political gains by diverting August 17 series of blasts in different direction to hide the criminals.
   He said the nation cannot be kept hostage to a handful of criminals, adding that criminals who explode bombs are enemies of the nation.
   They are also the enemies of democracy and progress and prosperity of the nation, he said, addressing a public rally at Muktangan in Dhaka on Monday.
   The Bangladesh Nationalist Party organised the rally in protest at the August 17 blasts that took place across the country.
   The Dhaka mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, also president of the city unit of the party, was in the chair.
   ‘Terrorists, bombers and conspirators will be resisted in cooperation with the common people. The government has already taken stern measures against those involved in the August 17 blasts,’ Bhuiyan said.
   He said the people would frustrate the conspiracy of the vested quarters to destroy the image of Bangladesh through creating anarchy.
   Referring to the general strike called by several political parties after the blasts, Bhuiyan said this strike caused immense sufferings to the people.
   He alleged that conspiracies are hatched in different dimensions to halt the pace of development.
   Bhuiyan said the government had been carrying forward the nation towards progress and prosperity, foiling all evil designs of criminals and conspirators.
   He also referred to the August 21, 2004 bomb blasts at an Awami League rally in Dhaka. He said the government took help and assistance from a number of foreign agencies to unearth the mystery behind August 21 grenade attacks.
   But, he said, despite repeated requests, some quarters did not extend any cooperation in finding out the culprits. ‘They rather created hindrances to investigation and left Bangladesh in the name of treatment.’
   Bhuiyan said nothing could be achieved through creating smokescreen. The government has taken appropriate steps to unearth the mystery of the August 21 grenade attacks. The charge sheet in the case will be submitted very soon, he said.
   He said the government is pledge-bound to carry forward the nation toward progress and prosperity.
   ‘People are with the BNP,’ he said, adding that in the forthcoming general elections, people would vote for the BNP to form government under the dynamic leadership of Khaleda Zia.
   BNP standing committee member and health and family welfare minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister Moudud Ahmed, BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mahbub Uddin, BNP joint secretary general and minister for housing and public works Mizra Abbas, joint secretary general and state minister for cultural affairs Begum Selima Rahman, joint secretary general Gayeshwar Roy, state minister for labour and employment Amanullah Aman, Juba Dal president and commerce ministry adviser Barkatullah Bulu, Salauddin Ahmed MP, BNP Dhaka city general secretary Abdus Salam, acting Sramik Dal president Abul Kashem Chowdhury, ward commissioner Kazi Abul Bashar, Krishak Dal general secretary Shamsuzzaman Dudu, Chhatra Dal president Azizul Bari Helal and general secretary Shafiul Bari Babu, Sramik Dal joint secretary BM Baker Hossain, Tanti Dal president Abdul Ali Mridha and JASAS general secretary Babul Ahmed also spoke.
   The BNP’s senior joint secretary general Tarique Rahman, commerce minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, science and ICT minister Abdul Moyeen Khan, state minister for LGRD and cooperatives Ziaul Haq Zia, state minister for sports and youth Fazlur Rahman, state minister for expatriate welfare and foreign employment Mohammad Kamrul Islam, deputy minister for land M Ruhul Kuddus Talukder Dulu, adviser to the BNP chairperson ZA Khan, Mohammad Mosaddak Ali MP, M Elias Ali MP and SA Khaleque MP were also attended.
   Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said Bangladesh is a country of communal harmony and amity. The people who want to overthrow the government in the name of bomb blasts will be resisted politically, he said.
   He said the bomb blasts were launched at a moment when Bangladesh is heading towards progress and prosperity and the economy was taking a better shape.
   He urged the people to be vigilant against the conspirators who are out to create terror.
   Moudud Ahmed termed the bomb attackers enemies of the country, nation, democracy, independence and sovereignty.
   He urged the patriotic, progressive and other forces that believe in democratic norms and values and non-communal ideals to thwart such evil forces.
   He said the bomb attacks were launched at a moment when the nation attained economic prosperity, enhanced export earning and achieved progress in all sectors.
   The sole objective of such heinous design was to create internal destabilisation to halt the nation’s march towards progress and development, he said.
   Khandaker Mahbub Uddin said the incident was caused by the vested forces to prove Bangladesh as a failed state and to destroy the rule of law. He said the attack was not aimed at any party or any quarter. ‘It was purely an attack against the nation.’
   Mirza Abbas said Bangladesh would survive and the democratic process would also continue despite conspiracies of the vested quarters. He called upon the party activists to keep vigilant against such criminals.
   Gayeshwar Roy termed the bomb attack a clear threat to independence and sovereignty. He called for the arrest of the offenders and exemplary punishment for them.
   Sadeque Hossain said the home ministry was trying to arrest the August 21 attackers. He hoped the home ministry would be able to put the offenders in dock soon.
   ‘We must resist politically anyone willing to destabilise the country for political gains from the bomb blast incidents,’ he said.
   The leaders and activists of the four-party alliance brought out a procession and held a street meeting in the capital city in the afternoon, to protest against August 17 blasts.

The National Board of Revenue issued a statutory regulatory order on Monday, restricting duty-free import of luxury cars by lawmakers to 3,000cc at the highest with an additional proviso that only a member of parliament, who has served a minimum of two years of parliamentary tenure from the day of taking oath, will be eligible for it.
   The revenue board issued another order on the same day, saying the ownership of such vehicles would henceforth be allowed to be transferred four years after import, instead of the current three-year limit.
   Forty-five women lawmakers, to be elected in the first quarter of October, will, therefore, come under the mischief of the tenurial requirement for import, an unprecedented privilege for the public representatives in a representative political order.
   The tenure of the current par- liament expires in October 2006, way under two years of available tenure for the women MPs.
   The government incurs revenue loss of Tk 70–75 crore per year because of the existing duty-free privilege to the lawmakers, which was introduced in 1988, sources in the board told New Age.
   Currently, lawmakers are allowed to import one duty-free vehicle per capita up to 6,000cc and a sedan car up to 1650cc.
   No change was made in respect of the sedan car, sources said.
   Under the privilege, a lawmaker is allowed to import a duty-free car or vehicle irrespective of his/her tenure in Jatiya Sangsad.
   Sources in the finance ministry said the main purpose of the new directive is to restrict the duty-free facility of vehicle import by the 45 new lawmakers to be elected soon.
   Lawmakers to be elected between now and the expiry of the current parliament’s tenure in the by-polls would also be subject to the restriction, sources said.
   According to the new regulations, lawmakers once availing the duty-free privilege, will be given the similar facility after seven years from the date of duty-free import, provided he or she remains a lawmaker at that time, the order mentioned.
   A similar facility is currently provided once after eight years, sources said.
   Currently, duties at import stage on vehicles range between 150 and 200 per cent on their value or Tk 80 lakh and Tk 1 crore.
   The lawmakers often import vehicles between 5,000cc and 6,000cc, most of which are sold to businessmen, it is alleged.

Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish negotiators on Monday finally agreed a draft constitution after weeks of tortuous talks and were to present it to parliament regardless of whether the minority Sunnis agree, sources said.
   ‘An agreement between the Shiites and the Kurds (the two main parliamentary blocs) have been reached...God willing, the draft will be presented in the parliament today,’ Shiite negotiator Jawad al-Maliki told AFP.
   Although the agreement appears to have been thrashed out over the heads of the Sunnis, the Kurds and Shiites have enough seats in parliament — 215 out of 275 — between them to have the constitution approved with a majority.
   Iraqi government spokesman Leith Kubba told CNN the minority Sunni Arabs, who were dominant in power under the rule of Saddam Hussein, had still not agreed to the draft.
   ‘The two largest blocs (Shiites and Kurds) have agreed to a draft. The Sunnis have to agree to it,’ he said.
   The Sunnis though could yet torpedo the whole agreement if their community resoundingly rejects the constitution when it is submitted to a referendum in October.
   Maliki, however, said the two groups have managed to win support from some of the disenchanted Sunni Arabs in favour of the draft.
   ‘Some Sunni brothers are with us, but some are still against federalism. We are trying to convince them too,’ he said.
   It was not immediately clear if the main stumbling blocks towards agreeing the constitution — federalism, sharing of oil wealth, and the role of Islam — had been resolved or left for discussion at a later date.
   Iraq missed an initial deadline last Monday but staved off the need for fresh elections by holding a last-minute parliamentary vote to extend the charter deadline until midnight on August 22.
   Increasing agreement between Shiites and the Kurds in previous days provoked Sunni Arabs to complain that a deal was being struck without their consent.
   Sunnis oppose a federal structure, fearing that it could rob them of an equal share in Iraq’s lucrative oil reserves which are mainly concentrated in the Kurdish north and Shiite south.
   Their negotiating position is weak as they hold few parliamentary seats after largely boycotting January’s elections, but, if sidelined, Sunni voters could defeat the charter in a scheduled mid-October referendum.
   The United States wants the draft to be finalised Monday.
   Kurdish negotiators have in recent days faced pressure from US officials to give up demands for self-determination, oil ownership and insistence on a secular constitution in a bid to reach agreement with the Shiites.
   Self-determination would have effectively given their de facto autonomous northern region the chance to secede from Iraq at a later date. But on Saturday Kurdish leaders offered to compromise.
   But their ambitions to have the oil centre of Kirkuk included within their territory and to seek a degree of control over the region’s oil reserves might have proven more difficult to assuage.
   Meanwhile, rebels killed 24 in separate attacks across the country, including eight policemen who died north of Baghdad when their bus was riddled with bullets by masked gunmen.

Awami League lawmaker Mohammad Nasim on Monday urged the speaker, Muhammad Jamiruddin Sircar, to convene a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the home ministry by exercising his authority as per the rules of procedure.
   Nasim, also a former home minister, made the call when a three-member delegation of the Awami League led by him met the speaker at his office.
   Other members of the delegation include the opposition chief whip, Abdus Shahid, and an Awami League member of the standing committee, Sheikh Helal Uddin. Adviser to the prime minister on parliamentary affairs, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, whips Rezaul Bari Dina and Fazlul Haque Afsia were also present.
   During the meeting, the speaker assured the delegation members of looking into the matter. He said he will talk to the committee chairman in this regard.
   The speaker told journalists that he has already informed the committee chairman of the matter, but he didn’t answer to anything.
   ‘I will inform him again, and if he doesn’t call the meeting without any legal grounds, then I will call the meeting through the secretary of the parliament as per the power entitled to the speaker.’
   Nasim also blamed the committee chairman, Mohammad Shahajahan, for not holding any meeting of the
   committee within the scheduled time specified in the rules of procedure.
   The committee had no meeting in the last four months, although the existing rules stipulate holding of at least one meeting in a month.
   The former home minister requested the speaker to take immediate measures under the Section of 248 of the rules of procedure.
   ‘The committee chairman had been trying to avoid the meeting to keep the public attention away from the security issues that need to be discussed in the committee,’ Nasim told reporters after the meeting.
   He said the pervious meeting on April 28 had decided to elaborately discuss on the issues relating all the grenade attacks occurred in the country in the last three years, killings of senior political leaders, and extra-judicial killings by the law enforcers.
   But the issues could not be discussed as the committee chairman didn’t fix any fresh date for the meeting despite repeated requests by the committee members to the chairman, he said.
   ‘Though I informed the speaker earlier through a letter on July 31, he didn’t take any step,’ Nasim said.
   It was mandatory to hold the meeting of the standing committee every month as per
   the Section of 248 of the rules of procedures of the parliament.
   He said the issues on the grenade attack and the country’s biggest-ever arms haul case in Chittagong were yet to be discussed in the parliamentary committee so that they requested the speaker to hold the meeting soon.

A police constable was arrested on the charge of collecting tolls from a shop employee at Motijheel in the Dhaka city on Monday.
   The arrested was identified as Shajahan Ali, 26, constable no-7900015364 of the Rajarbagh Police Lines.
   Local people said Shajahan waylaid Ripon, an employee of Victor Electronics of the Bangabandhu National Stadium Market, in front of Shilpa Bank Bhaban, when he was going to his work place in a rickshaw.
   The cop identifying himself as an officer of the special branch of the police and forced Ripon to go with him on the charge that he (Ripon) came from a residential hotel.
   As he forced Ripon repeatedly to go with him, he raised alarm for help. Hearing his screaming, local people rushed to the spot and caught the constable.
   The local people also beat him up until the police rescued him at around 11:30am.
   ‘The police caught me by the collar and asked me to go with him to meet with his sir,’ Ripon told New Age.
   ‘As Ripon was shouting at the top of his voice, local people and nearby shops keeper rushed to the spot and saw Shajahan was dragging him towards the bank gate,’ told Malek, who witnessed the incident.
   Later, he was handed over to the newly formed Paltan police station.
   Earlier, four policemen, including an assistant sub-inspector were held at Kotwali police station early July 21 on charge of mugging 13.5kg silver ornaments and Tk 28,000 from a businessman of Tantibazar area.

The government will suspend vehicle movement on the Megna and Daudkhandi bridges for one month each to repair their damaged spans.
   The communications minister, Nazmul Huda, told New Age on Monday that the repair work would begin in the first week of September and it might take about a month for each of the bridges.
   He said the Meghna Bridge over the river Meghna would be repaired first and then the Daudkhandi Bridge over the river Gumti.
   At least 10 ferries will be operated on both the Meghna and Gumti rivers during the period for smooth traffic on the busy road.
   ‘We have also a plan to keep one lane of the two lane bridges open for traffic,’ he said.
   The Roads and Highways Department sources said 13 spans of the Meghna Bridge and 17 of the Daudkhandi Bridge would be repaired.

Some 600 million Asian children live in poverty, failing to benefit from the region’s economic boom and globalisation, said Plan, a children’s aid and development agency, on Monday.
   About 350 million children, or a quarter of the region’s youngsters, are severely deprived of two or more basic needs such as food, drinking water, shelter or education, it said in a report.
   ‘The vast majority of these children will live in rural areas in South Asia, which has the world’s highest levels of child malnutrition, lack of sanitation and girls out of school,’ it said.
   Plan said reasons for the dire situation in Asia included increasing pressure on scarce raw materials, lack of access to education and health care, caste discrimination, poor governance and corruption.
   The agency said it would use its report as a blueprint to counter poverty by spending more than $1 billion in 12 Asian countries over 10 years, with 80 per cent of the funds coming from family sponsorships and the rest from governments and grants.
   Plan said the key to the success of poverty reduction projects — such as improving sanitation and water, education, and children and women’s protection — is getting poor children and their families directly involved.
   Tackling child poverty also requires governments to forgive billions of dollars in debt and to stop massive agricultural subsidies in the European Union, United States and Japan, it said.
   ‘Despite the G8 summit’s focus on African poverty, similar problem is also severe in Asia and its scale will have a serious impact on Asia’s future prospects, unless it is addressed now,’ Plan’s Asia director Michael Diamond said.
   Child poverty differs from adult poverty because the lack of access to basic needs is directly linked to the quality of relationships between the child and adults, be they parent or guardian.
   ‘Girls often do not go to school, not because of the lack of a school, but because of the attitudes of their parents,’ the report said.

At least 18 villages under Dumuria, Batiyaghata and Dakop upazilas in Khulna were affected as water entered the villages damaging the embankment and overflowing rivers.
   According to local people, the embankment of polder 29 of the Water Development Board was damaged at village Jaliakhali under Dumuria upazila, also by the side of river Bhadra, on Saturday evening and water entered five villages — Jaliakhali, Chandpur, Akra, Sundarmahal and Kodla.
   More than 70 feet of the embankment was damaged early Sunday and water entered the villages of Shambhunagar, Bahiakra, Fulbaria, Madna, Motdana, Ruhitana and southern part of Sharafpur, said local people.
   Water also entered villages Mothbaria, Shantinagar and Baraaria under Batiyaghata upazila.
   The locals said most of the families of the villages have taken shelter at higher ground and at the unaffected part of the embankment. Some of the earthen houses have already collapsed.
   The sources said hundreds of ponds and shrimp enclosures were washed away and the width damaging area of the embankment is increasing as water gushed in.
   Classes of educational institutions of the affected villages are suspended, said the locals.
   Sources in the Dumuria upazila administration said water is increasing in the river due to the full moon.
   The administration has sanctioned eight metric tonnes of rice for the affected people.
   Water board officials on Monday said they have already visited the spot. They said the board would repair the embankment within a short period with the help of the locals.
   Chhutarkhali, Nalian and Kalabogi villages under Dakop upazila went under water due to the overflowing, rivers Shipsha and Passur on Saturday night, said sources.

A police constable of the Double Mooring station in Chittagong sustained serious wounds as he was shot accidentally when another constable was loading his rifle.

At least 25 people, including six women, were injured in a police-mob clash that took place over the killing of a woman in a road accident at Hatra in Mohan-pur on the RajshahiNaogaon Highway Monday morning.
   The police said the clash ensued at about 9:00am when they tried to calm down the people who damaged two buses and laid a siege on the highway in protest against the killing of Fatema, 60.
   She was run over by a Rajshahi-bound bus when crossing the road at 8:40am.
   The mob that included a good number of woman, also assaulted the local union council chairman who accompanied the police and tried to remove the barricade.

Japan has not given up its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, but will not push for an early vote on its proposal along with Brazil, Germany and India to expand the council, a government official said Monday.
   A report by Sankei newspaper Sunday said Japan would soon hold talks with the three other countries to confirm that they are giving up their Group of Four bid, due to a lack of support in the UN General Assembly.

The National Board of Revenue on Monday appointed four pre-shipment inspection companies in five blocks for the next three years, sources said.
   The companies are SGS, Cotecna, Bureau Veritas and Intertake Testing Services.
   The tenure of the each company will begin on September 1, 2005 and end on August 31, 2008.
   According to the agreement, SGS has been assigned for inspection on imports to be made from Block A (India), Cotecna for Block B (China and other countries) and Block D (Japan, Australia and other countries), Bureau Veritas for Block C (Singapore, Malaysia and other countries) and Intertake Testing Services for Block ‘E’ (European and African countries), NBR sources told New Age.

The Jamaat-e-Islami leaders on Monday called upon all the political parties to reach a national consensus against violence in the country.
   The amir of the party and industries minister, Motiur Rahman Nizami, from a protest rally at the north gate of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque said ‘We might have differences in political opinion but we must be united to save the stability and sovereignty of the country’.
   Referring to the bomb blasts on August 17, Nizami said no Islamic political party in the country dreamed of establishing Islam through violence.
   The Dhaka city unit of the party organised the rally as part of the BNP-led four party alliance announced countrywide protest day against the blasts.
   Announcing countrywide protest day on August 28, Nizami said those, who are responsible for the blasts, want to destabilise the country.
   He called upon the Awami League to refrain from politics of confrontations, saying that loosing power the AL became furious and began ugly games in politics.
   With the help of foreign forces the enemies of the Islam had conducted the bomb blasts, Mujahid said.
   Two factions of Islamic Oikya Jote also held separate protest rallies at the Paltan crossing in the capital.
   The Islamic Oikya Jote leaders also blamed anti-Islamic forces for the series of bomb blasts.

A division bench of the High Court issued a rule nisi on eight persons on a writ petition filed by he Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association over environment pollution by Akij Bidi Factory at Lamonirhat.
   In a news release, the Rajshahi BELA office said the rule was issued on secretaries of environment and industries, Department of Environment director general, Lalmonirhat deputy commissioner, Rajshahi divisional deputy director of the Department of Environment, chief inspector of factories and establishment, managing director of the Akij Group of Industries, and Akij Bidi area manager at Lalmonirhat.