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Two powerful explosions, one carried out by suicide bombers, rocked the central-northern Netrakona and the southwestern Meherpur on Thursday, killing at least eight persons and injuring about 50 others.
   Seven people were killed and 50 wounded in Netrakona, ancestral town of the state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, when suicide bombers ploughed their bicycle into a crowd in front of the office of a cultural organisation where a bomb had gone off just an hour earlier.
   Rehearsal for Victory Day programmes, scheduled to start Friday, was on inside the Shatadal Gosthi’s office, adjacent to the office of Udichi Shilpi Gosthi, cultural wing of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, when the blast took place.
   Three persons died on the spot and four others on the way to or in hospitals in Mymensingh and Netrakona.
   Four of the deceased were identified as the Netrakona unit general secretary of Udichi, Khawaza Haider Hossain, Joynal Abedin and Jahanara Begum, residents of the area, and Jadav Biswas, a suspected bomber. The identity of the others was yet to be ascertained.
   Home ministry officials fear the death count may rise as the condition of some of the 44 people undergoing treatment is stated to be critical.
   The police found a leaflet from the scene of the explosion that says members of the banned Islamist organisation Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh carried out the attack, said the officials.
   Babar flew to his home down and visited the spot later in the day.
   Additional forces have been deployed after the suicide bomb attack, the fourth in less than one month. At least 16 persons were killed in previous suicide blasts in Jhalakati, Chittagong and Gazipur.
   The police detained 8 people in connection with the bomb blasts.
   In Meherpur, unidentified bombers exploded at least five powerful bombs at Gangni bazaar in the evening, killing one goldsmith, Mongol Das, on the spot and injuring at least five persons, said an on-duty officer at the Gangni police station Thursday night. The details of the explosion could not be known immediately.
   In Netrakona local people gathered in front of the Shatadal Goshti’s office at Azhar Road, the business and cultural hub of the district, after news broke that a bomb, wrapped in red tapes, had been found there at about 8:30am.
   The police arrived at the scene at about 8:45am and tried to control the crowd. A team of fire servicemen came half an hour later and tried to defuse the bomb by pouring water on it.
   The bomb went off when a fire fighter nudged it to soak it properly. One police constable, Zinnat Ali, was injured. He was hit in the ankle by splinters of the bomb that had exploded at least 20 metres away, said officials in Netrakona Adhunik Sadar Hospital.
   As the police were fighting to control the crowd, a cyclist, whose identity could not be known, tried to break through the police cordon.
   ‘He detonated a bomb planted in his body after being intercepted by the police,’ said Ali Hossain Fakir, superintendent of the Netrakona police. ‘The attack came seconds after I had left the scene.’
   The cyclist may have been waiting near the spot to launch a second attack after the first had failed, suspect the police and local people.
   ‘I saw a man slowly going to the police barricade and the explosion took place soon after he had crossed the barricade,’ said Subash Ranjan, a cement trader based at Azhar Road.
   Dozens of people, including policemen, fell down while others started running for cover after the blast had instantly killed Haider Hossain on the spot, he said.
   ‘I went there after I came to know that a bomb had been found there,’ said Ratan Karmakar of Chhota Bazar.
   ‘I was wounded in the second blast,’ he said as doctors treated him in Netrakona Adhunik Sadar Hospital.
   Three policemen and three others are under treatment there.
   ‘I lost conscious for a while and when I regained consciousness I found myself badly injured and saw many people crawling and screaming,’ said Ratan.
   Eight of the 36 admitted to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital remain in critical condition.
   Dr Mohammad Ali Siddiquie said three persons had died on the way to the hospital.
   The shops in the area pulled their shutters down immediately after the blast while schools were closed. Bus services from and to Netrakona remained suspended for several hours.
   Babar, who flew in in the afternoon, told journalists that the police and the Rapid Action Battalion were working day and night to arrest the bombers and seize explosives.
   ‘Suicide bombers cannot be stopped anywhere in the world, not only in Bangladesh,’ he said when asked about the government’s failure to ward such deadly attacks. ‘It’s a big challenge for us.’
   The inspector general of police, Abdul Quayyum, said primary investigations suggested that one of the suicide bombers had been killed and another wounded.
   Meanwhile, the death of Jadav Biswas stirred confusion in the area.
   The police claimed that the man, a motor mechanic of Muktarapara, might have been one of the suicide bombers, a claim many in the town refused to accept.
   His body was in Netrakona Adhunik Sadar Hospital. His right hand was blown off in the blast while his body was riddled with splinters.
   A hand-written leaflet, supposedly of the banned Islamist organisation Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, was found with the bomb.
   The leaflet urged everyone not to stand in the way as they try to establish the rule of Allah. ‘Don’t intercept us on our way to establish Allah's rule,' the leaflet waned the police and the Rapid Action Battalion.

A bomb attack by Islamist militants on a public gathering in the central-northern district of Netrakona on Thursday has added a new dimension to security threats for Bangladesh, said officials of the home ministry.
   ‘The attack clearly suggests that the banned Islamist organisation Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh has shifted its target from judges, lawyers and law enforcers to innocent people,’ said a top home ministry official when briefing journalists in the conference room of the Bangladesh Secretariat in the afternoon.
   ‘Another new trend is that one of the suspected bombers was called Jadav Biswas, apparently a non-Muslim,’ he said. ‘It [the use of a non-Muslim bomber] does not match with the organisation’s ideal.’
   He acknowledged, however, the possibility that the bomber might have used a fake identity and said the police were investigating whether it was his real name.
   Jadav died in Mymensingh Medical College Hospital and the police have found evidence that suggests he might have been a member of the JMB suicide squad. Local people said Jadav used to work in a motorcycle repairs workshop in Netrakona.
   Another suspected suicide bomber died on the spot. His identity could not be ascertained till afternoon.
   A yet-to-be-identified young man has, meanwhile, been under treatment in Netrakona district hospital. The police suspect that he had explosives wrapped around his body, the home ministry officials said.
   Local people spotted a bomb in front of the Udichi office at Azhar Road and informed it to the police. The police immediately cordoned off the area and fire servicemen tried to defuse the bomb by spraying water but it went off at about 9:30am. However, there was no casualty.
   An hour later, as curious people had gathered at the spot, the bombers ploughed their bicycle into the crowd and set off a bomb, injuring 50 people, including 10 policemen.
   Four of the injured were declared dead at the district hospital and two more in Mymensingh Medical College Hospital.
   The rest are undergoing treatment in the two hospitals. The death toll may rise as condition of a number of them was stated to be critical, said the officials.
   Jadav aside, joint general secretary of Udichi’s Netrakona unit Khawaza Haider Hossain, Joynal and Jahanara Begum, two residents of the area, were killed in the blast
   Additional security forces, including the Rapid Action Battalion and the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles, have been deployed since the blast.
   The home ministry officials said the suicide bombing had become a major worry worldwide and the government was trying to combat it with its limited resources.
   ‘It’s not possible to prevent the suicide bombers who are determined to sacrifice their lives but we’re hopeful that the law enforcers would root out the militancy,’ said one official.
   The officials said most of the militants detained so far were from poor families, educated in madrassahs and ‘brainwashed’.
   The additional home secretary, M Mohsin, the principal information officer, Abu Jafar, and the chief of the media cell, Khondokar Munirul Alam, were present at the news briefing.

the banned Islamist outfit, Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, have now targeted programmes marking Victory Day to be held on December 16.
   A letter sent in the name of JMB was received by the headmaster of Rasulpur High School in the south-western district town of Satkhira on Thursday marking Victory Day celebrations as bomb targets.
   The sender of the hand-written letter asked the headmaster not to send his students to the Victory Day rally to be held at the local stadium on December 16.
   ‘The letter has been sent giving prior warning so that the students of Kashempur, Thanaghata and Rasulpur areas do not fall victims to bomb attacks. We are fighting for establishing Islamic rule in the country,’ it read.
   In Shariatpur, suspected JMB members in letters and leaflets issued threats to blow up five schools in the sadar upazila by January 1, 2006 if the national flag is hoisted and the national anthem sung.
   The letters signed by the self-proclaimed ‘JMB sector-63 director’ Maulana A Rouf on December 7, alleged that the national flag of Bangladesh belonged to separatists and the national anthem was a ‘Hindu song’.
   It also claimed that the Islamist militants’ men were residing inside the school campus with bombs that could be detonated at any moment.
   Another Satkhira women’s college came under threat of bomb attack reportedly by the JMB if the college authority fails to comply with their instruction to introduce madrassah education within seven days.
   ‘We want to make Bangladesh an Islamic state,’ the letter read.
   Similar threats were also issued to the deputy commissioners of Panchagarh, Habiganj, upazila nirbahi officers of Birampur and Chirirbandar in Dinajpur.
   In the capital, suspected JMB activists in a hand-written letter on Thursday threatened the authorities of Fazilatunnesa Mujib Hall of Dhaka University not to allow their students to ‘sit around the hall premises at night’.
   The university authorities received another threat over phone that claimed to explode the university’s Curzon Hall on Thursday.
   Meanwhile, a bomb explosion injured three street urchins in Nilphamari while there was no casualty in the powerful blast in Khulna on Thursday.
   Besides, law enforcers recovered live bombs from Sirajganj, Nilphamari, Chittagong and Dinajpur on Thursday.
   In their continued hunt for the militants, law enforcers have detained 30 more people, including a suspected martial-art trainer of JMB, from across the country suspecting them to be members of the banned outfit.
   The JMB trainer, Nazrul Islam Rubel alias Jewel, along with four others, was arrested from Pallabi in the city on Wednesday night upon a tip received from two JMB members held in Chittagong and now being interrogated at the Joint Interrogation Cell.

As the nation remembers, on December 14, the intellectuals martyred by the selective killing regime of the occupation forces and their local collaborators during the war of independence in 1971, New Age runs a six-part series on the fate of the stop-start inquiry into the carnage. In the first instalment today, we go looking for a list of those martyred, but return without a comprehensive count.

The nation has observed Martyred Intellectuals Day on December 14 every year since 1972 to mark the selective killing of members of the Bengali intelligentsia by the Pakistani occupation forces and their local henchmen, armed gangs such as Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams, through the nine months of the war of the independence in 1971. The first prime minister of Bangladesh, the late Tajuddin Ahmed, declared December 14 Martyred Intellectuals’ Day as the largest number of abduction and subsequently murders of the intellectuals took place on December 14, two days before the surrender of the occupation forces. However, a comprehensive list of the martyred intellectuals is yet to be prepared, and so is an enquiry into the nature, dimension and extent of the selective killing.
   A spokesman of the Mujibnagar government said, in a statement on December 20, 1971, that the Pakistani occupation forces and their collaborators had killed 360 intellectuals before they surrendered on December 16. ‘Shaheed Buddhijibi Koshgrantha’, an encyclopaedia of martyred intellectuals published by the Bangla Academy and reprinted in 1994, put the number at 232 but said the list was neither complete nor comprehensive. The encyclopaedia defined martyrs as people who had been either killed by the Pakistani army or their collaborators or had gone missing between March 25, 1971 and January 31, 1972. It also defined intellectuals as writers, scientists, artists, singers, teachers of any level, researchers, journalists, lawyers, physicians, engineers, architects, sculptures, government and non-government staff, persons involved with film and theatre, and social and cultural workers. ‘Bangladesh’, a documentary publication of the government in 1972, said the Pakistani occupation forces and their henchmen had killed 637 primary and 270 secondary schoolteachers, and 59 college teachers during the war of independence.
   As it became clear that they were headed for a defeat, the occupation forces and their collaborators targeted the intelligentsia, dragging academics, journalists and professionals out of their homes, mostly on December 14, 1971, and killing them one after another. The objective was as definite as it was demonic: denude the nation intellectually. The daily newspapers carried reports on the missing intellectuals in the third and fourth week of December 1971. On the basis of information from secret sources, a group of journalists discovered a mass grave of rotting, decapitated bodies at Rayer Bazar, on the western fringe of Dhaka, on December 18. The tortured, decapitated bodies of the best of the Bengali minds lay in a huge ditch, dumped on upon the other, in grisly, inhuman heaps. The journalists also located a prison camp at the Physical Training Institute near Lalmatia, which used to be also a training centre for Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams.
   The decomposed bodies of Dhaka University teachers Abul Kalam Azad and Kamaluddin, physicians Fazle Rabbi, Abdul Alim Chowdhury and Abul Khair, and journalist Muhammad Akhtar by their families the same day. The body of journalist Selina Parvin was identified the next day. The dead bodies of Dhaka University teachers Santosh Chandra Bhttacharya, Sirajul Haque and Faizul Mohi, and physicians Ghulam Murtaza, Azharul Haque, Humayun Kabir and Mansur Ali, were also identified later on. Some members of the martyred intellectuals’ family fainted as they tried to identify the dead bodies. More such mass graves were located at Mirpur and Rayer Bazar, and on the premises of the training institute of the Agriculture Extension Department at Tejgaon and the TB hospital at Mohakhali in the capital, and elsewhere in the country. Some of the bodies were decomposed beyond recognition when the mass graves were located. The newspapers, meanwhile, continued their coverage of the missing intellectuals, who had either been arrested or abducted between late-November and mid-December.
   The list of the intellectuals abducted in November and December who had not been identified or found runs much longer and includes Dhaka University teachers ANM Munier Choudhury, Moffazzal Haidar Chowdhury, Anwar Pasha, MA Khair, Ghiasuddin Ahmed, SM Rashidul Hasan, Maniruzzaman, Begum Akhter Imam, Niyamuddin Ahmed, and Sadruddin, journalists Sirajuddin Hossain, Shahidulla Kaiser, ANM Golam Mustofa, Abdur Rauf Sardar, Nizamuddin Ahmed, Syed Abdul Mannan and Syed Nazmul Haque, scientists Siddique Ahmed, Aminuddin and Shamsul Alam, scientist Abul Kalam Azad (Institute for Advanced Science and Technology Teaching), Abdur Rauf (National Institute of Public Administration) Meer Abdul Quaiyum (Rajshahi University), AKM Lutfar Rahman (Brahmanbaria College), Shafiqur Rahman Bhuiyan (Rangamati College), Khabiruddin Miah (schoolteaher, Rajbari), Chadrodeb, (schoolteacher, Mymensingh), Maqsud Ahmed (head assistant teacher, Chittagong Women’s College), litterateurs Giasuddin Ahmed, Mizanur Rahman Mizu (Ghorashal), engineers Shamsuzzaman, Noor Hossain and so on.
   The Pakistani occupation army started killing the revered sons and daughters of the nation at the very onset of the genocide that began on March 25, 1971. Dhaka University became their first target and a number of professors were killed.
   Intellectuals were also killed throughout the nine months of the war. The killing of intellectuals by the collaborators of the Pakistani occupation army continued even in January 1972.
   Filmmaker Zahir Raihan was led up the garden path of hope as he tried to find his kidnapped brother Shahidullah Kaiser (supposedly killed) and went missing. He was last seen in a Mirpur ghetto of Biharis and deserters of the Pakistani army. He was heard of and seen no more.
   Journalist Golam Rahman was killed on January 11 and Dr Mansur Ali on December 21.
   The long list of the martyr intellectuals, killed during the war, includes Dhaka University teachers GC Dev, Jyotirmoy Guha Thakurata, Abdul Muqtadir, Fazlur Rahman Khan, ANM Maniruzzaman, Shahadat Ali, AR Khan Kadim, Muhammad Sadeque, Sharafat Ali, Rajshahi University teachers Shamsuz   Zoha, Abdul Qayyum, Habibur Rahman, Shree Sukha Ranjan Samadder, Agricultural University teacher Ashraful Islam Bhuiyan, Shamsul Haque Talukder, and Nazmul Ahsan, journalists Khondakar Abu Taleb. Shahid Saber, Abul Basar, Chisty Helalur Rahman and Shibsadan Chakravarty, litterateurs Rafiqul Haider Chowdhury, Purnendu Dastidar, Ferdous Dowla, Indu Saha and Meherunnessa, artists and professionals Altaf Mahmud, Ranada Prasad Saha, Jogesh Chandra Ghose, Dhirendra Nath Dutta, Shamsuzzaman, Mahbub Ahmed, Khurshid Alam, Nazrul Islam, Muzammel Haq Chowdhury, Mohsin Ali and Mujibul Haq, and lawyer Abdul Ahad and Mafizur Rahman.

The National Board of Revenue will introduce unique trade identifier in the next fiscal year, abolishing taxpayer’s identification number and business identification number, to check tax evasion, sources in the revenue board told New Age on Thursday.
   The introduction of a new identification system will be part of the NBR modernisation programme, suggested and supported by the World Bank.
   The British government has promised financial and technical assistance to help the revenue board introduce the new system, the sources said.
   The board currently uses TIN to identify income taxpayers and BIN for business entities that pay value-added tax.
   ‘The proposed identification system will significantly cut tax evasion as it will deal with both income tax and value-added tax,’ said AS Zahir Muhammed, member of the board’s income tax policy affairs, when talking to New Age on Thursday.
   A large number of people often conceal their businesses to evade income tax although they value-added tax to the customs department against their businesses, the sources said.
   ‘The introduction of a common number for income tax and VAT has become imperative as there is no internal mechanism to check the import volume or business activities when assessing his or her tax returns,’ said an NBR high official.
   ‘If a tax official knows that a particular company has paid, say, Tk 1 crore as VAT for a certain period, it will be easy for him or her to make a projection of its income during the assessment.’
   The unique trade identifier will be available online for all revenue officials which will make tax evasion quite difficult, the sources said.
   Currently, there are about 18 lakh TIN and 4 lakh BIN holders.
   A section of customs officials is said to be against the introduction of a new identification system. They believe the installation of a comprehensive computer network will be sufficient to contain tax evasion.
   The NBR sources, however, feel their opposition stems from the apprehension that any merger of operation system will eventually lead to the implementation of a long-standing NBR plan to merge the customs and income tax cadres.
   The multilateral lending agencies have also been pressing the government for long to merge the two cadres, a proposition the association of customs officials, the Bangladesh Civil Service (customs and excise), opposes, said the sources.

Bangladesh on Wednesday voiced the concerns of the least developing countries over climate change, calling for immediate actions to cut greenhouse gas emission, seeking adequate financial and technological support for the adaptation needs of the LDCs and demanding compensation for damages because of the adverse impacts of global warming.
   The ambassador to Canada, Rafiq Ahmed Khan, who is heading a 14-member Bangladesh delegation to the UN Climate Change Conference, which had a ceremonial opening on Wednesday, read out a statement on behalf of the LDCs.
   The United States once again found itself at an isolated corner as world leaders renewed the call for it to join the global effort to reduce the pace of climate change.
   ‘To the reticent nations, including the United States, I say there is such a thing as a global conscience and now is the time to listen to it,’ said the Canadian prime minister, Paul Martin, at a news conference after the ceremonial opening of the three-day conference.
   World environment ministers have converged on Montreal, as key issues on greenhouse gas emissions remain for the politicians to resolve after a week of backroom negotiations by experts and government officials that began on November 28.
   Martin criticised the nations opposing combined actions on climate change. ‘The time is past to seek comfort in denial. The time is past to pretend that any nation can stand alone, isolated from the global community.’
   Some Canadian journalists are of the opinion that the prime minister has taken his election campaign to the lofty platform of the UN conference in Montreal, which happens to be his hometown.
   The opening ceremony featured a performance by the Canadian folk singer Bruce Cockburn who strummed a tune about people being deaf to the sound of trees falling in forests.
   A choir of children wore monk-like hoods and robes, and held hands as they sang an environmental song.
   The French president, Jacques Chirac, sent a video message to the conference. ‘The international community must join together in commitment and in action against climate change while there is still time.’
   The European commissioner for the environment, Stavros Dimas, recalled that the US president, George W Bush, had signed a communiqué at the Gleneagles summit of the G-8 leaders, promising support to the Montreal. ‘I am looking forward to hearing from our American partners how they intend to translate this pledge into action.’
   To add to the embarrassment, Inuit, an indigenous community, formerly called Eskimos, accused the US of violating their rights by failing to do enough to fight the melt of the Arctic.
   ‘Because climate change is threatening lives, health, culture and livelihoods of the Inuit, it is the responsibility of the United States, as the largest source of greenhouse gases, to take immediate and effective action to protect the rights of the Inuit,’ said Mucktar Akumalik, leader of the community, at a news conference.
   The Inuit Circumpolar Conference also lodged a complaint before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that the US greenhouse emissions were destroying the Inuit culture.
   Although the US and Australia have pulled out of the Kyoto protocol, they are still attending the Montreal conference as they party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
   The US delegation to the conference has made it clear that Washington prefers dealing with other governments on a bilateral or regional basis, and on voluntary approaches to reduce emissions.
   ‘The United States will not agree to formalised discussions on climate issues even though it does accept that global worming is real,’ the US undersecretary, Paula Dobriansky, told a press conference. ’It is our belief that progress cannot be made through formalised discussions.’
   ‘We believe that the best approach, and the best way forward, is one that takes into account diversified approaches and differing opinions,’ she added. ‘One size does not fit all.’
   Dobriansky declined to comment on the Inuit complaint, saying she had not seen it.
   The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was set up under the Organisation of American States, and does not have a binding authority.
   The United States was, however, planning to meet four of the world’s biggest polluters, China, India, Japan and South Korea, in January and push their new forum, the Asia-Pacific Climate Alliance.
   The environmentalists say the timing of their meeting is a deliberate attempt to undermine the UN talks on climate change.
   Under the present protocol, signed in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, 35 industrial countries are required to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and five other gases, which act like a greenhouse trapping heat in the atmosphere, by 5.2 per cent from the 1990 levels by 2012.

The Bangladesh Bar Council, the statutory regulatory body of lawyers, is scheduled to hold an extended meeting at 9:00am today to discuss the spate of undeterred bomb attacks across the country.
   The meeting follows the Supreme Court Bar Association’s formal rejection on Thursday of the prime minister's letter inviting it to take part in the national dialogue on combating militancy.
   According to sources in the Bar Council, its extended meeting will chalk out an action plan to fight against the growing Islamist militancy that has gripped the nation.
   Presidents and secretaries of 82 bar associations across the country will attend the meeting that will be held in camera and discuss the recurring bomb attacks targeting courts and killing judges, lawyers, police and justice-seekers.
   However, the attorney general, AJ Mohammad Ali, ex-officio chairman of the Bar Council, has challenged the validity of convening such a meeting.
   In a note of dissent, the top law officer of the state pointed out that the Bar Council Order 1972 and its rules do not provide for convening such an extended meeting of the bar associations.
   ‘Although the chairman opposed the meeting, it will be held as per the schedule,’ the council’s elected vice-chairman, Rokanuddin Mahmud, told New Age Thursday evening over telephone.
   Meanwhile, the Supreme Court Bar Association, at an emergency general meeting held on Thursday, formally rejected the prime minister's letter inviting it to take part in the national dialogue on how to tackle Islamist militancy.
   The meeting, called in protest against Thursday’s bomb attacks in Netrakona, also reiterated the demand for the resignation of the government.
   Terming the letter undemocratic and a farce, the bar president, Mahbubey Alam, blamed the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, of plotting a drama to divert the attention of the nation.
   Establishing a ‘peoples' government’ through a free, fair and meaningful election under an acceptable non-partisan caretaker government and Election Commission is the demand of the time, Alam said.
   Khaleda sent the letter to the SCBA president on Wednesday inviting the leaders of the bar to take part in the national dialogue.
   The bar association also brought out a procession of lawyers in protest against the Netrakona bomb attacks.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Thursday expressed deep concern and shock at the repeated suicidal bomb attacks in the country.
   In a message from Saudi Arabia she expressed deep shock at the fresh bomb attack that killed at least eight people and sympathy to the injured persons.
   She also expressed sympathy to the members of the bereaved families and asked the authorities concerned to take necessary measures for proper treatment of the injured.
   Khaleda urged the people to remain calm and cautious as well as to get united saying the conspirators turned obstinate in the backdrop of all-out drive to combat the conspiratorial bomb attacks against the country and people.
   She said the masterminds of the conspiracy should be resisted with all force and sought support from all in this regard.
   The prime minister is schedule to return home this morning.

The leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, on Thursday blamed the government for its ‘wilful’ negligence in taking proper action against the militants saying that it led to death of innocent people in bomb blasts every day.
   ‘The country has become a slaughterhouse of the militant terrorists only due to the lack of the government’s honesty and sincerity,’ Hasina, also president of the Awami League, in her statement said.
   Terming the Netrakona blast as anti-Islam and anti-humanity, she said barbarous acts would continue unless the patrons of militancy within in the alliance government were put on trial.
   Hasina said when drastic action was needed to quell the militants, the government was killing time in the name of dialogue and discussion, allowing the evil forces to reorganise.
   ‘The ministers and MPs of the alliance government are accusing each other publicly. If the government has no links with the militants, it would have expelled the ministers against whom allegations have been brought.’
   The former prime minister said it was clear to the people that the defeated forces of the war of independence had engaged the militants in different names.
   Different front organisations of the Awami League, meanwhile, staged demonstrations in the capital protesting against the Netrakona blast.

The nation will celebrate Roquiah Day today marking the 125th birth and 73rd death anniversary of Roquiah Sakhawat Hossain, the pioneer of women’s enlightenment and emancipation in this pert of the subcontinent.
   Women activists along with socio-cultural and political organisations have taken up several programmes to observe the day. Roquiah, a legendary figure in women's education and empowerment, was born on December 9, 1880 and died on December 9, 1932.
   Awami League president and leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, in a message urged all to be inspired by the ideals of Roquiah and resist women’s oppression.
   ‘Awami League, during its regime, took many effective steps for empowering the women of our country,’ she said. ‘The women of all ages are now falling victims of torture and oppression by the BNP-Jamaat coalition government.’
   The Samajtantrik Mohila Forum, a front organisation of Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, will stage a rally and bring out a procession from Muktangan at 3:00pm to mark the day.
   The Biplabi Nari Sanghati will also bring out a procession from in front of the National Museum.
   Karmajibi Nari held a day-long ‘Roquiah Festival’ at the Institution of Engineers on Thursday, in which more than 2,000 women from different areas across the country participated.
   Speakers at the discussion recalled the generous contributions of Roquiah Sakhawat Hossain in educating, empowering and enlightening the women of the country, and said her achievement can be regarded as a milestone in any age.
   Women’s leader Hena Das, president of Dhaka University Teacher’s Association AAMS Arefin Siddique, president of Bangladesh Women’s Entrepreneurs Association Nasrin Awal Mintoo, professor Latifa Akanda, worker’s leader Shafiqur Rahman Majumdar, general secretary of Karmajibi Nari Sharmin Kabir and Ananya’s editor Tasmima Hossain spoke at the inaugural function of the festival.
   They also said that Begum Roquiah is remembered for her liberal thoughts, secular outlook and powerful writings.
   Her writings called upon all women to protest against injustices and break all the social barriers which discriminated against them. Her ‘Abarodhbashini’ is a spirited attack on the extreme forms of purdah that kept women away from mainstream life by confining them to their homes, said the speakers.
   Her noted works include ‘Matichur’, ‘Padmarag’ and ‘Sultana's Dream’, which was later translated into Bangla as ‘Sultanar Swapna’.
   Our Rangpur correspondent reports that the Roquiah Day will be observed in a befitting manner today in Rangpur, the ancestral district of the celebrated lady.
   The district administration has taken up a number of programmes for three days to mark Roquiah’s anniversary at her birthplace in Payeraband under Mithapukur upazila in Rangpur.
   The programmes include placing wreaths before the Roquiah memorial plaque in the morning, milad mahfil at noon and discussion meeting in the afternoon at Payeraband Begum Roquiah College d. The state minister for housing and public works, Alamgir Kabir, will attend the discussion as chief guest.
   Painting competition, recitation from her works and discussions will be held on the Saturday. The state minister for cultural affairs, Selina Rahman, will attend the last programme on Sunday.
   A three-day handicrafts fair has also been organised at Pairaband, and several hundred stalls are being set up for the fair.
   The village of Payeraband has been decorated in a colourful manner and a festive mood has seized the entire village.
   But many of the villagers apprehend that there will be fewer people in the fair due to fear of bomb blasts.
   Additional deputy commissioner of Rangpur, Helal Uddin Bhuiyan, told New Age that strict security measures have taken at Payeraband to prevent any untoward incident.

The World Bank on Thursday agreed in principle to provide a $150-million fund for two power plants in Bangladesh on the condition that contractors would be appointed for operation and maintenance of the plants for six years, said power officials.
   Power Division sources said a three-member delegation of the bank met officials of the Power Development Board and other power agencies, and agreed to finance the 150MW Shikalbaha plant and two 120MW units of the Siddhirganj plant.
   ‘However, they proposed that contractors, instead of the PDB, should in charge of operation and maintenance of the plants for six years,’ said a source. ‘Basically, the PDB will be asked to appoint contractors the bank chooses.’
   The delegation told the power officials that a high-powered team of the bank would visit Bangladesh in February and would have talks about the loan.
   The bank’s delegation met power officials as the government negotiates with the lending agencies for financial support for its three-year roadmap for power sector development.
   The delegation also suggested that the PDB should be turned into a holding company and all the zones and divisions should be corporatised within three years as stated in the roadmap.
   They, however, did not give any commitment about a $100-million fund for 10 small power plants. ‘They just told power officials to be more transparent in their procurement processes,’ said a source in the division.
   Regarding the three-year roadmap, the delegation told power officials to make it more ‘realistic’ and expressed interest in the proposed Sustainable Energy Development Authority.
   The roadmap has proposed the formation of SEDA to work on alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power.
   The delegation also suggested strengthening of the Power Cell, research and planning organ of the Power Division, as it is understaffed.

Muslim leaders from across the globe agreed Thursday on measures to combat terrorism and defend the image of Islam at a summit in the holy city of Makkah.
   The leaders wound up a two-day summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference pledging to ‘update national laws to criminalise all acts of terrorism as well as its financing and incitement’.
   In a Makkah Declaration read out in a final session, they also called upon their peoples to ‘combat forcefully the preachers of sedition and deviation, who aim to distort the peaceful principles of Islam’.
   The Saudi foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, said late Wednesday that Muslim leaders who met in Makkah, western Saudi Arabia, had agreed to ‘combat terrorism and extremism and stressed the moderate nature of Islam’.
   They stressed the need for stopping blaming outside forces for problems in the Muslim states and focus on cooperation, he said.
   ‘(They agreed) on stressing the importance of cooperation between Muslims and putting an end to complaints of foreign conspiracies, and concentrating on common efforts to face development challenges.’
   The summit opened with a call from regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia for moderation and tolerance and a rejection of extremist violence.
   ‘Islamic unity would not be reached through bloodshed as claimed by the deviants,’ said King Abdullah, whose country hosts the headquarters of the 57-member OIC.
   Abdullah was referring to Islamist extremists, notably the al-Qaeda network of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden which has claimed attacks across the globe, including in Saudi Arabia.
   He called on the Islamic jurisprudence arm of the OIC to ‘fulfil its historic role of combating extremism’.
   He also called for a reform of educational programmes in Islamic nations, which are facing US pressure to change school textbooks that Washington has criticised as intolerant.
   The United States has been pushing for an initiative to encourage democratic reform and economic liberalisation in Arab and Muslim countries in a bid to abate the frustration and poverty on which terror is thought to thrive.
   But Muslim leaders expressed concern over the ‘widespread phenomenon of hatred and antagonism against Islam’.
   They also called for ‘greater and coordinated international efforts’ to combat terrorism.
   The summit allowed the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Iran to meet for the first time since a public row over Riyadh’s accusations that Tehran was meddling in war-torn Iraq.

The scoreline flattered to deceive. Although Bangladesh opened their defence of the Fourth SAFF Championship with a comfortable 3-0 win over rank-outsiders Bhutan at the People’s Sports Complex Stadium here on Thursday, it was a case of domination not translating into goals.
   Striker forward Farhad grabbed a brace while young debutant forward Emily scored the third to earn full points.
   The Himalayan opponents, who only once threatened Bangladesh goal, packed their defence with seven players as the charges of Diego Cruciani found it hard to create the spaces.
   Bangladesh played better in the second half but took time to settle in the first half. The speedy Bhutanese players never let holders settle down and as a result the holders were guilty of committing scrappy passes and poor crosses in the initial moments.
   Bangladesh skipper Joy played a beautiful game as the defensive midfielder while experienced duo of Alfaz and Motiur Munna were the lynchpins behind every attack. Defender Titu was in brilliant form down the right flank.
   Bangladesh could have scored the first goal in the third minute as Farhad headed an Arman corner but the ball was cleared from the goalline. Farhad volleyed in the 8th minute off a Titu cross. In the 16th minute Alfaz in a solo effort hit the side bar from close range. Farhad broke the deadlock in the 43rd minute as he threw himself forward in the air to connect a Motiur Munna free-kick and the ball crashed into the net defying a valiant effort from Kinlye Wanchuk to clear.
   In injury time of the first half Bhutanese captain Wangay Darji curved a free-kick from the top of the box and Aminul at full stretch parried the ball for a corner. Bangladesh led 1-0 at the break.
   Farhad in the 58th minute dribbled past his marker with an Arman through and sensing the Bhutanese custodian skipper Jigme Singye out of the position curled a right-footer into the net from the right flank of the box. From then on the Bhutanese lost all the fighting spirit.
   In the 65th minute Wangay Dorji unleashed a cracker from the top of the box and the ball kissed the crosspiece. Emily who came on for Kanchan in the 75th minute, scored his maiden international goal after receiving a throw in from Titu and sent the ball curling over the diminutive Jigme Singye.
   Alfaz in injury time could have made it 4-0 with virtually only the goalkeeper in front of him. But he sent a placing shot off target.
   India- 2, Nepal-1
   In the day’s other match, India defeated Nepal 2-1 at the same venue.
   The two-time winners went ahead in the 6th minute through speedy midfielder Mehtab Hossain who fired a low drive. He doubled his tally in the 27th minute.
   Nepal reduced the margin thanks to Basnat Thapa with a neat header in the 36th minute.
   Indian star striker Baichung Bhutia, however, could have become the hero had he converted an 89th minute penalty but it was saved.

With the South Asian Free Trade Area agreement set to take effect on January 1, India insists that a bilateral free trade agreement with Bangladesh will be mutually rewarding.
   ‘Experiences of bilateral free trade agreements with different countries have proved that such agreements bring better benefits,’ the Indian high commissioner, Veena Sikri, told journalists on Thursday after a meeting with business leaders at the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
   New Delhi will pursue a bilateral FTA with Dhaka even after the implementation of SAFTA, she said. ‘It is now up to the willingness of the Bangladesh government.’
   Sikri was, however, optimistic that the implementation of the SAFTA and the BIMSTEC-FTA agreements on January 1 and July 1, 2006 would provide a major fillip to regional trade.
   She argued at the meeting, chaired by the FBCCI president, Mir Nasir Hossain, that infrastructure development, liberalisation of movement of vehicles through each other’s territories and direct river links were essential to reap maximum benefit of SAFTA.
   Although the apex trade bodies of Bangladesh and India agreed to the formation of a Bangladesh-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1999 to promote business and economic activities, the platform never took off, she complained.
   ‘Within Bangladesh itself, there should be a forum under the auspices of the BICCI or otherwise where interested entrepreneurs can talk common concerns and come up with recommendations for mutually beneficial solutions,’ Sikri said.
   She acknowledged the concerns raised by local businesspeople over the huge trade imbalance between Bangladesh and India. ‘We are deeply conscious of Bangladesh’s concerns and sensitivity over the adverse trade balance with India.’
   However, she argued that 70 per cent of Indian export consists of commodities and industrial raw materials which help Bangladesh’s export.

Shortly after boarding an Orlando-bound plane, passengers say, they saw a man bolt from his seat and run down the aisle, with his screaming wife and man in a Hawaiian shirt behind.
   ‘My husband! My husband!’ one passenger said she heard the wife cry.
   The chase ended moments later Wednesday in a Miami International Airport jetway, when authorities say Rigoberto Alpizar appeared to reach for his bag. He was shot to death by the man in the Hawaiian shirt and a second pursuer, both undercover air marshals.
   Before he ran off the plane he ‘uttered threatening words that included a sentence to the effect that he had a bomb,’ said James E Bauer, agent in charge of the Federal Air Marshal Service field office in Miami.
   No bomb was however found.

Twelve people were killed and more than 40 wounded on Thursday when a powerful bomb blast ripped through a bazaar in Pakistan’s restive tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, local officials said.
   The bomb was planted in a hotel restaurant in Jandola, the gateway town to the troubled region of South Waziristan, and destroyed nearby weapons shops and other businesses, military and civilian officials said.
   ‘I can confirm that it was a bomb blast,’ local administration official Sajid Salim said. ‘Twelve people were killed and more than 40 people were hurt.’
   The area was already tense after a series of incidents, including the reported killing of an al-Qaeda commander, the abduction and murder of two soldiers and a clash between militants and criminals in which 15 people died.
   ‘It was a terrorist attack, it was a targeted blast at a restaurant in a hotel,’ a military official said.
   However the official did not say whether the blast, which happened at around 9:00am (0400 GMT), was believed to be linked to the other violence in the troubled border region.

The Canadian Niko Resources on Thursday warned the government that the company would resume removal of a rig from the Tengratila gas field, if it was not allowed to start work on a production well by December 12.
   The company’s country manager, Brian J Adolph, in a letter to the energy and mineral resources adviser, Mahmudur Rahman, said Niko would not keep the rig after December 12, if it was not allowed to drill the well as it was expensive to leave the rig at the field.
   When Adolph requested Mahmud to allow them to start work on the production well, the adviser said the board of the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company would take the decision in this regard at a meeting scheduled to be held on Sunday.
   The Niko official told Mahmud that the company’s experts in Canada were scrutinising the compensation claim for the Tengratila blow-outs the government submitted to Niko.
   ‘Our experts may seek more information on how the gas and environmental damages have been calculated,’ Adolph said expressing the hope for an ‘amicable’ solution to the claim.
   Mahmud said Niko was positive about the claim for environmental damage worth Tk 84.55 crore, but they had some doubts about the amount of gas loss.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, will return home today after attending the 3rd extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Conference in Makkah.
   The prime minister may visit Madinah before returning home.
   Khaleda held bilateral meetings with the Sultan of Brunei, Hassan Bolkia, the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Maldives president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the Palestine prime minister, Ahmed Qorei, and the Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmad Abul-Gheit, at Al Safa Palace on the sidelines of the third extraordinary summit of the OIC.