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The Awami League staged demonstrations across the country on Friday protesting against the BNP’s attack on its leader Akhtaruzzaman in Gazipur, and death threat by Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh to its presidium member Suranjit Sengupta.
   AL organising secretary Akhtaruzzaman, among others, was injured when a procession of the Awami League-led opposition alliance came under attack near the Gazipur upazila parishad on December 27.
   As part of the agitation programme, the central committee organised a rally in front of the party office on Bangabandhu Avenue, and brought out a procession. Chaired by presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, the rally was addressed, among others, by Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Abdul Jalil, Obaidul Kader, Mohammad Hanif, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Haji Selim, and Habibur Rahman Khan.
   They blamed the four-party alliance government for unleashing repression on the opposition leaders and activists, and vowed to resist it.
   ‘All kinds of conspiracies to rig the next general elections, and tortures of the alliance government would be thwarted,’ said Sajeda.
   Razzak said, ‘Those who are branding the freedom fighters as seditionists are seditionists themselves. People know well about who are seditionists.’
   Jalil said the alliance government wanted to gag the voice of people through oppression, but it would be of no avail.

Children should be allowed freedom of speech, speakers said at an exchange of views on Friday.
   The Children’s Express, a children news agency, run by the Mass-line Media Centre and UNICEF, organised the meeting on ‘role of child journalists in protecting child rights’ in the CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka.
   The news agency, launched eight months ago, so far produced 646 child journalists across the country, organisers said adding that the little journalists made 287 in-depth reports on child rights, acid violence against children, child education and labour, and child related issues.
   Rahat Khan, acting editor of the daily Ittefaq, said the children who started working as journalists in the news agency might not continue with this profession in future, but they would have a sense of media.
   ‘Let them to do it and grow with a media sense,’ he said giving advice to the child journalists to write in easy language.
   The Sangbad executive editor, Manjurul Ahshan Bulbul, asked whether there was any necessity of child journalists. Referring surveys conducted in Sri Lanka, he said, ‘We can introduce subjects on media in the primary school level with a view to building a media oriented nation.’
   The News Today news editor, Shafiul Alam, stressed on the responsibility and constructive role of the media pointing out that the mobile phone operators captured huge spaces of the newspapers despite its little contribution to the development of society. Child issues should get more priority in the media, he said.
   Golam Rahman and AAMS Arefin Siddique, teachers of mass communication and journalism at Dhaka University, also addressed the meeting.

The 15th anniversary of death of Moni Singh, a former president of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, will be observed today.
   The CPB and its front organisations have chalked out programmes, and Comrade Moni Singh Mela Udjapan Committee has organised a five-day ‘Moni Mela’ at Susang Durgapur in Netrakona on the occasion of the death anniversary.
   The programmes include placing floral wreaths at the portrait of Moni Singh, bringing out procession, and holding discussion meetings. The national leaders will take part in the programmes.

Speakers at the annual convention of the Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir on Friday said a certain quarter was conspiring against Shibir as they wanted to eliminate Islam from the country.
   They alleged that a particular quarter was out to destroy Shibir, student front of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, by deliberately linking them to recent spate of bomb attacks.
   The Jamaat amir, Matiur Rahman Nizami, addressed the programme as the chief guest while the BNP leader Mirza Abbas, the housing and works minister, was special guest.
   The Jamaat general secretary, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, also the social welfare minister, Mainul Hosein, chairman of editorial board of the Ittefaq, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, MP, and Abu Sayeed Rahman, among others, spoke at the convention held at Bangladesh-China Friendship Centre.
   Mirza Abbas said, ‘I am neither a Jamaat activist nor Shibir, I am a BNP leader, but as a Muslim I will support any group who wants to fight anti-Islamic force in the country.

Former military ruler and the Jatiya Party chairman, HM Ershad, expressed his dismay over emergence of the third force and said it was an ominous sign for the country.
   He said, ‘Why does the idea of the third force arise where democracy is functional?’ adding, it is indicative of negative politics.
   He said all political parties together could form a democratic government.
   He was speaking as the chief guest at a discussion held in front of the party office at Segunbagicha in the capital on the occasion of the ‘National Youth Day on Friday organised by the Jatiya Juba Sanghati, a front organisation of the Jatiya Party. The president of the JJS, Liakat Hossain Khoka, chaired the discussion while it was addressed by Raushan Ershad, secretary general ABM Ruhul Amin Hawladar, presidium member TIM Fazle Rabbi, Abu Hossain Babla, Ahsan Habib Linkon, Golam Kibria Tipu and Aminul Islam Jhantu.
   An abnormal situation is prevailing in the country now, the JP chairman said, adding, the prime minister and the opposition leader were accusing each other of treason.
   The question has now surfaced if there are any patriots in the country though there are a plenty of patriotic people in the country, he said.
   He alleged that there were no people-oriented programmes in the manifestos of the political parties.

The Jatiya Mukti Council president, Badruddin Umar, on Friday said the two big political parties, BNP and Awami League, failed to meet the people’s aspiration and they were serving the purposes of the imperialists.
   The two parties were fighting with each other to gain power, he said while addressing a rally at Muktangan in the capital.
   Umar condemned the Jamaat chief Motiur Rahamn Nizami’s view that AL might be involved in the recent bomb blasts in the country.
   BNP and Jamaat may have involvement in the bombing as the parties would be befitted by it, Umar said.
   Chaired by Umar, the rally was addressed, among others, by the party general secretary, Foizul Hakim, and central leader Abul Kalam Azad.
   Earlier, Umar opened two-day seventh council of the Bangladesh Trade Union Federation at the same venue.
   Chaired by labour leader Abul Kalam Azad, the opening session was addressed, among others, by Foizul Hakim.
   The council session of the conference will be held today.

A young man was shot dead in the city’s Gulistan area on Friday night, despite tight security measures taken on the eve of New Year celebrations.
   Witnesses said the unidentified youth, aged about 30, was going to Postagola by a rickshaw from Rajuk Bhaban at Dilkusa at about 9.40pm.
   ‘A gunman stopped him near Mohanagar Natyamancha at Gulistan on his way to Postagola. The gangster fired at him and fled the scene,’ the police said in a spot account of the shooting.
   The youth was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where the on-duty doctors declared him dead.
   Detail was not available immediately.