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The ruling BNP-led four-party alliance on Thursday accused the opposition Awami League of influencing New Delhi to foil the 13th summit of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in Dhaka.
   The alliance also observed that New Delhi had ‘unilaterally’ decided not to join the summit and given a ‘lame excuse’.
   The alliance leaders, meanwhile, decided to hold rallies across the country on February 7 to protest against hartal, violence and conspiracy by vested interest quarters.
   ‘The Awami League is to be blamed for postponement of the SAARC Summit as it somehow convinced India not to join the summit,’ said the BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, at a press briefing. ‘The Awami League made various denunciatory statements and contacted various levels of Indian politicians to stall the summit.’
   Asked if the ruling party would use its workers to counter the opposition hartal, he replied, ‘The administration is strong enough to tackle the situation.’
   Some meeting insiders, however, said the government would take a hard line to tackle the movement of the Awami League and its allies. ‘What can we do without taking a hard line as they [AL] are constantly hatching conspiracies to unseat the elected government,’ a senior minister, who attended the meeting, told New Age on Thursday evening.
   The BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and a faction of Islami Oikya Jote will stage rallies in district headquarters and the capital on February 7.
   Bangladesher Jatiya Party and another faction of the Islami Oikya Jote, led by Fazlul Haq Amini, will not stage rallies as they are apparently aggrieved about their lack of participation in the government’s activities.
   At the meeting, presided over by the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, at her office, the alliance leaders condemned the Awami League for hatching a conspiracy to foil the summit.
   ‘The SAARC summit is not any single party’s conference. It is the prestige and pride of the country and the people,’ said Bhuiyan, who was flanked by the Jamaat secretary general, Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed, and the BJP secretary general, Kazi Firoz Rashid.
   ‘One of the opposition leaders on Wednesday remarked that it was good that the SAARC summit did not take place,’ he said to underpin his accusation.
   Bhuiyan recalled that Awami League had also called hartal during the SAARC summit in 1993 in Dhaka.
   This year, during the first schedule of January 9-11 for the deferred summit, they had enforced hartal on January 8 without any issue, he said, adding that now they had done so to prevent the summit ‘on the plea’ of the Kibria killing.
   ‘It seems that instead of wanting detection and trial of Kibria’s killers, their objective was to use the killing for political purposes and for thwarting the SAARC summit,’ he added.
   Dismissing New Delhi’s excuse for declining to join the summit, Bhuiyan said it was not acceptable that the law and order situation was unfavourable.
   ‘We did everything possible to ensure foolproof security for the SAARC leaders,’ he said, mentioning that an Indian security team was in Dhaka to evaluate the situation.
   A similar situation had arisen some time back before the Indian cricket team visited Bangladesh. The Indian security team visited Dhaka and gave the clearance and the cricket matches were held peacefully.
   ‘How could they [India] unilaterally decide to abstain from the summit while their security experts are still in Dhaka?’ asked Bhuiyan.
   Calling for a halt to destructive politics, including hartal, the government party leader sought the support of all parties, including the Awami League, in the effort to bring to book those responsible for the killing of former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria.
   Bhuiyan said the individual parties of the ruling alliance as well as the alliance would unitedly launch programmes to face the opposition politically.
   Jamaat-e-Islami amir Matiur Rahman Nizami, BNP standing committee member and Health Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, BNP vice-chairman and Information Minister M Shamsul Islam, BJP chairman Naziur Rahman Manzur and IOJ leaders Shaikhul Hadith Azizul Huq and Fazlul Huq Amini were also present at the meeting that lasted for nearly an hour.
   Later, the BNP and its front organisations decided, at a joint meeting held at Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan’s official residence, to hold rallies across the country on February 7 to protest against hartal, violence and conspiracy by vested quarters.
   In Dhaka the rally will be held at Muktangon, Bhuiyan said at a press briefing on Thursday evening.
   ‘We have not shown any eagerness to launch combined and identical programmes along with the coalition partners,’ Firoz told reporters at the PMO. ‘Let those who are in power be responsible for the programmes.’
   Mojaheed said his party had decided on the kind of programme they would launch at a party meeting on Wednesday evening.
   ‘We will not participate in any programme,’ Fazlul Haq Amini told New Age at his office in Lalbagh. ‘What can we do if someone [BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami] pretends not to realise the seriousness of the real situation, which is in fact not so good, in the country?’
   Meanwhile, the finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, also termed the excuse of the Indian government not to attend the summit ‘lame’, ‘unacceptable’ and ‘irrational’.
   ‘We are disappointed with India’s unexpected decision not to attend the SAARC summit after all preparations had been completed at the cost of a huge amount of money,’ he told journalists after holding a meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affaires.
   He said strengthening of bilateral relations was important for building up regional cooperation.
   Saifur, however, said the recent development would not affect relations with India.
   He also criticised the opposition parties for calling hartal prior to an international summit.

India Thursday defended its withdrawal from a South Asian summit in Dhaka saying it was not the only country to have raised concerns about the security situation in Bangladesh.
   ‘It is not correct to say that only India expressed concern over the security issue,’ India’s foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told the daily media briefing here.
   He added that European Union heads of mission had also issued a statement expressing concern about the security situation.
   Sarna also said India had not sought postponement of the summit ‘because of bilateral relations with any country’.
   India’s foreign ministry said Wednesday the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, had cancelled his attendance at the February 6-7 summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation because of concern over the ongoing security situation in the region.
   ‘The security situation in Dhaka has deteriorated in recent days following the fatal attack on the former finance minister of Bangladesh,’ it said.
   The situation in neighbouring Nepal, where king Gyanendra on Tuesday sacked the government and seized power, was another factor in the decision, the Indian foreign secretary, Shyam Saran, said later.
   Singh’s withdrawal led to the summit being postponed, angering host Bangladesh, with its foreign secretary, Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, saying the reasons given were unacceptable as comprehensive and blanket security arrangements had been made.
   ‘It is a sad commentary for South Asia that its largest member state should retract its commitment to the charter on this excuse,’ Chowdhury said.
   It was the second time in a month that the SAARC summit has been deferred.
   The meeting was originally planned for January 9-11 but was postponed after tsunamis devastated member states Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives.

Business leaders and economists said the postponement of the SAARC summit, scheduled for February 6-7, would have negative impact on regional trade and mutual confidence among governments and private sectors of the member countries.
   The president of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Kutub Uddin Ahmed, on Thursday said, ‘Postponement of the SARRC summit will affect the regional trade to some extent.’
   He said the postponement of the summit even after all the preparations would affect one’s confidence in another country in the region.
   However, Mahbubur Rahman, the president of the International Chambers of Commerce, declined to make any comment on the issue before assessing the episode.
   BDNews, a local news service on trial run, reports that the postponement of SAARC summit will affect trade and economic cooperation in the region ultimately delaying the implementation of SAFTA, scheduled to come into effect on January 1, 2006.
   The South Asian Free Trade Area accord was signed in the 12th SAARC summit in Islamabad last year to develop a free economic zone among the member-states–Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
   ‘Postponement of the summit for the second time is a setback for the regional economic cooperation. SAFTA was a very big and important issue for Bangladesh,” said Dr Atiur Rahman, chairman of the Unnoyon Shomunnoy.
   Atiur listed several other problems in successful implementation of the SAFTA. ‘We the people in South Asia still do not consider us as a community. Therefore, we are not following each other’s successful programmes.’
   He said the South Asian nations can share each other’s successes like micro credit programme of Bangladesh, local government policy of India and foreign export guideline of Sri Lanka.
   ‘If all the countries of the region share their successful policies, SAARC would be a strong economic force like the EU,’ he said.
   Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman, president of the Bangladesh Economics Association, echoed the view of Atiur. ‘Discussion is the main tool for progressing it further.’
   He said the summit was the main place for discussion for boosting regional trade and economic cooperation.
   Since SAARC is a framework, postponement of the summit will delay the implementation of the SAFTA, he added.
   However, he hoped that the postponement will not jeopardise SAFTA implementation ultimately.
   The 13th SAARC summit had been scheduled to sign two agreements on expanding investment in regional countries and increase administrative cooperation in revenue sector and two important parts for SAFTA implementation.
   Kholiquzzaman said the European countries also had conflicts among them for a long time, but ultimately overcame it to emerge as a union.

Sporadic clashes between the police and the pickets marked a countrywide dawn-to-dusk general strike on Thursday, leaving at least 70 people injured in the capital city and elsewhere in the country on Thursday.
   The Awami League and its allies called the shutdown to protest against the police repression on the opposition activists during their previous stoppage programme and the January 27 grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Habiganj that killed the former finance minister, Shah AMS Kibria, and four others.
   The strike was loosely observed in the capital amid sporadic clashes between the law enforcers and the pickets, leaving some 40 people, including newsmen and police, injured. Thirty others were reportedly injured in separate clashes in Pabna, Barguna, Comilla, and Pirojpur.
   In the capital, the police picked up more than three dozens of pro-strike demonstrators, including three former women lawmakers — Segufta Yasmin Emily, Shaheen Monwara Haque, and Meher Afroz Chumki. The lawmakers were arrested when they along with Awami League presidium member Motia Chowdhury arrived at Muktangan at about 10:30am.
   The police did not allow the opposition activists to assemble on the city streets. They charged with batons and lobbed teargas shells to disperse pickets at Muktangan, Bangabazar, Johnson Road, Science Laboratory Crossing, Arambagh, Badda, and many parts in Old Town.
   Three journalists – Mahbub Murshed of Naya Diganta, Sheikh Mamun of Amar Desh, and Abul Bashar Nuru of Amader Samay – were injured in police attacks at about 11:15am when they tried to enter Muktangan which had been ringed by the police since the morning.
   To protest against the police attack, the journalists instantly brought out a procession and demanded punishment for those responsible for the excesses committed by the law enforcers.
   The police charged batons and took away banners during a procession brought out by the Communist Party of Bangladesh at Paltan. The pro-strike pickets and the police locked in a clash near the deputy commissioner’s office on Johnson Road at about 10:30am. The police charged batons on the pickets who pelted brickbats at the law enforcers.
   A tense situation was prevailing when the police tried to nab a lawyer during the clash.
   Later the scattered processionists set ablaze a jeep, reportedly owned by Satkhira Palli Bidyut Samity, behind the DC’s office.
   ABM Sultan Ahmed, the officer-in-charge of the Kotwali police station, died of a heart attack when he was on-duty in the court area.
   The police arrested eight women activists from near the Science Laboratory Crossing during a procession of the Mahila Awami League, woman front of the Awami League.
   The police got very angry following a bomb blast that wounded two police constables — Habibur Rahman and Mohammad Janu — near Suritola Primary School on the North-South Road at about 3:00pm.
   The police swooped on different houses and charged batons indiscriminately in the locality, leaving at least 15 people injured.
   Soon after the incident, contingents of the police raided the houses close to the area. At one stage, witnesses said, the locals took to the street and clashed with the police for about an hour.
   Another bomb blast injured a rickshaw-puller, Mahamud, at Bangabazar. All the injured were undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   The Motijheel police arrested three youths from Arambagh Balurmath suspecting them to be involved in carrying nine cocktails recovered from the area at about 3:00pm.
   The New Age staff correspondent from Chittagong reports the shutdown was almost peaceful in the port city and its outskirts.
   The police control room sources said no unwanted incident was reported from any part of the city and district. The police rounded up 124 people from different areas on Wednesday night and early Thursday.
   The hartal supporters brought out separate processions at city’s important points amid tight police security but no incident of picketing was reported from any part of the city.
   Though all inter-city buses stayed off the road, a few city service buses, huge number of tempos, and auto-rickshaws plied on the city road. The intercity trains and local mail trains ran uninterruptedly with fewer passengers, railway sources said.
   Activities inside the Chittagong port were normal but transportation of goods to and from Chittagong remained stopped for non-availability of trucks and lorries, port sources said.
   In Khulna, the shutdown passed off almost peacefully except some untoward incidents.
   The pro-strike pickets damaged glasses of two trucks at Maniktala and two rickshaws at Moylapota in the city. The picketers also tried to stop movement of rickshaws at the main points of the city, witnesses said.
   Awami League alleged the policemen clubbed their activists at Maylapota and Maniktala in the city and did not allow them to bring out processions at different points of the city.
   In Pabna, the pickets damaged a number of shops and eight tempos in the town. Four people were injured in a clash between the pickets and the police at Radhanagar in the town.
   In Cox’s Bazar, some BNP activists ransacked their office at Pekua and stabbed three Awami League leaders. The injured leaders were later handed over to the police, witnesses said. The pro-strike pickets damaged some rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, and a number of shops during the hartal hours.
   The shutdown was, however, peaceful in Rajshahi, Barisal, Sylhet, Jessore, Jamalpur, Bagerhat, and Satkhira, according to reports of New Age correspondents. The shutdown was not observed in Rangamati.

Both the finance minister and the central bank governor on Thursday observed that demand-driven upswing of the dollar-taka exchange rates would be stable soon.
   ‘It is a temporary pressure of demand and exchange rate will be adjusted within the next week,’ the Bangladesh Bank governor, Fakhruddin Ahmed, told journalists following a meeting with the finance minister.
   The greenback traded at a range between Tk 63 and Tk 65 on Thursday as its exchange value jumped significantly from the pre-Eid level of Tk 59.
   In a similar vein the finance minister, Saifur Rahman, said the increasing demand for paying import bills had continued pushing the dollar price up against taka for the last couple of weeks.
   He also said importers had paid a large amount of dollar in the last one month against their import of capital machinery, fertiliser, industrial raw materials and edible and fuel oil. The last month fuel import increased by 40 per cent, capital machinery 60 per cent and industrial raw materials 40 per cent.
   To cool down the forex market, the Bangladesh Bank on Thursday released $10 million equally to the Sonali and Agrani Banks at a rate of Tk 63 each. The two nationalised banks, in turn, released the dollars on the inter-bank forex market at the same rate.
   The rate was Tk 62 on Wednesday when the central bank channelled $11 million into the money market. Moreover, the Sonali and Agrani banks sold one million dollars each from their own reserves on the inter-bank market at higher rates of Tk 63.40 and Tk 63.51 respectively.
   Fakhruddin, however, said the central bank had not issued any directive to control the heated forex market. He also ruled out any inflationary pressure due to the recent increase of dollar price against local currency.
   In the meeting with the finance minister, the central bank indicated that it would consider some administrative measures for reducing lending rates further, if its fresh sittings with commercial banks planned for next week failed to yield the cuts.
   Saifur, however, indicated an alternative rate-cut approach in view of the government’s limitations in a free-market economic environment to directly ask commercial banks to reduce the interest rates on loans. ‘It’s not possible to reduce the interest rates by enforcing hartal,’ he told the newsmen following the review meeting on banking sector at his Secretariat office in Dhaka.
   The government has been pursuing the banks to reduce their lending rates to single digit for the last two years in a bid to promote private investment and generate employment. The banks, by now, have reduced the rates around 2 percentage points in the last one year, but it still remained over 10 per cent.
   Deputy governors of the central bank and chief executives of the Sonali, Janata and Agrani banks were present at the meeting that reviewed the interest rates, credits and forex position.

The US ambassador, Harry K Thomas, on Thursday said Washington was considering Dhaka’s request to help investigate the January 27 grenade attack in Habiganj that left former finance minister and Awami League lawmaker, Shah AMS Kibria, and four others killed.
   ‘The State Department will shortly come up with a decision in this regard,’ he told a group of woman journalists at a ‘face-to-face’ programme, organised by the Bangladesh Centre for Development Journalism and Communication at the American Centre in Dhaka.
   He said they were waiting for a decision from the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, to send a Federal Bureau of Investigation team to Bangladesh to help investigate the attack.
   Thomas condemned the grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Habiganj. ‘This incident was an assault on the principle of free speech and peaceful political situation and the perpetrators clearly intended to undermine democracy in Bangladesh.’
   The Bangladesh government needs to quickly act to identify, arrest, and prosecute those responsible for political ‘terrorism’ and the series of attacks on the prominent leaders of the opposition party and civil society.
   The US envoy pointed out the problems of the investigation on repeated grenade attacks were the shortage of proper trainings of the investigation authorities in Bangladesh, which lacks laboratories like DNA and such others.
   All political parties of Bangladesh should come together on national issues, he said calling upon the Bangladeshi people to exercise maximum restraint to pursue their political objectives and their search for justice in a peaceful and lawful manner.
   Referring to a New York Times Magazine article titled ‘The Next Islamist Revolution?’ by Eliza Griswold, he said, ‘I am not predicting a revolution but it seems to me that almost everything that she reported in the magazine had been reported by the local press in Bangladesh.’ What damages Bangladesh’s reputation are the incidents that she (Griswold) reported, not the fact that she reported them, Thomas added.
   If there were any information which was incorrect that was error and error can be happened in any newspaper or any media, he said.
   Thomas said he was surprised at the postponement of the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was postponed. ‘We were optimistic about the summit especially on the issue of forming a free economic zone in south Asia.’ The Bangladesh centre president, Naimul Islam Khan, was present at the meeting.

Two young men arrested for suspected involvement in the January 27 grenade attack on the Awami League rally at Baidyer Bazar in Habiganj on January 27, were taken on an eight-day police remand on Thursday.
   The two — Joynal Abedin Jalal and Shah Alam of Habiganj — were produced before the magistrate court on Thursday and the court granted the eight-day remand.
   They were undergoing intensive interrogation along with another young man, Wahidur Rahman Sohel, also picked up as a suspect.
   The deputy inspector general of police of the Sylhet range, AKM Mahfuzul Haq, told New Age on Thursday that the police had got some information about their involvement.
   ‘We are trying to unearth the people claimed that both Shah Alam and Joynal Abedin came from Lashkarpur union where the incident took place.
   Alam is a former president of a union ward committee of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and Joynal is known as BNP activist.
   Earlier, the police picked up BNP’s ward-level student leader, Jamal Khan alias Kala Jamal, from Sylhet as a suspect but released him Thursday, saying they did not get any clue from him after interrogation.
   The DIG said clues so far available from the interrogations of different sections of the people were under scrutiny. He held out categorical assurance that none would be harassed unnecessarily.
   Former finance minister, Shah AMS Kibria, who was an Awami League lawmaker, and four other people were killed and over 150 wounded when unidentified assailants hurled a grenade on an AL rally at Baidyer Bazar.

More than 40 people were killed and eight injured when a train collided with a farm tractor pulling a trailer full of people at a level crossing in central India, police said Thursday.
   ‘Forty-two people have died and eight are injured and have been hospitalised,’ Pran Kankhade, superintendent of police for Indian Railways at Nagpur, said.
   The accident happened near the village of Kanan, 688 kilometres east of Mumbai in Maharashtra state.
   The tractor was pulling as many as 40 people who had attended a marriage and were passing from one village to another when the train struck them at the unmanned crossing, Kankhade said.
   The dead included a three-year-old boy.
   ‘The people travelling in the train coaches are largely unhurt,’ said Indian Railways spokesman Santosh Kumar.
   The injured have been taken to hospital in Kanan.
   In December, a head-on train collision killed 38 people and injured 52 because of a signalling fault in the northern state of Punjab.
   The December crash brought opposition party calls for the resignation of the railways minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, who is currently campaigning for state assembly polls in his native state of Bihar.
   Parliament is not sitting at present.
   India’s railways transport more than 13 million passengers daily on networks that sprawl 108,700 kilometres across a nation with a population of over one billion.
   The system records around 300 accidents every year.

Nepal’s new government, headed by King Gyanendra, called on Maoist rebels to hold peace talks or risk ‘alternate steps’, as the Himalayan nation entered its third day cut off from the outside world.
   ‘We ask the Maoists once again to come to the negotiation table and help to solve the present political crisis,’ said the home minister, Dan Bahadur Shahi, one of the 10-member pro-royalist cabinet sworn in.
   ‘If the Maoists do not come forward, we may have to think of alternate steps,’ Shahi said in comments aired on state television.
   Shahi did not elaborate on what action the government might take against the rebels, who have been waging an increasingly deadly nine-year campaign to topple the monarchy and set up a communist republic.
   In a move that has drawn worldwide condemnation, Gyanendra on Tuesday sacked a government he installed last June, saying it had not held elections and had failed to quell the revolt which has claimed 11,000 lives.
   The rebels had refused to hold talks with the previous government led by the prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, arguing that as it had been appointed rather than elected; only the king wielded executive power.
   The new home minister said the rebels should now be able to come to the negotiating table, ‘since the present government is constituted under the chairmanship of king Gyanendra and the government represents the king who holds sovereign authority and executive power.’
   There was no immediate rebel response to the ultimatum. But after the king’s seizure of power, Maoist leader Prachanda denounced the monarch as a ‘national betrayer’ and called on ‘the entire pro-people forces of the world to raise their voices against this autocratic step.’
   Prachanda, or ‘the fierce one’, said the rebels were prepared to take part in ‘a broad (political) front with all that are against feudal autocracy.’
   The rebels have been demanding elections for a constituent assembly that would draft a new constitution aimed at establishing a communist state. Two sets of previous peace talks have collapsed over the monarch’s future role.

The US president, George W Bush, says the goal of a Palestinian state living at peace with Israel is ‘within reach’ and proposed a new $350-million aid package to promote Palestinian reforms.
   In his State of the Union address, Bush singled out Syria and Iran as threats to Middle East stability and vowed to ‘confront regimes that continue to harbour terrorists and pursue weapons of mass murder’.
   He also issued a rare rebuke to two of the United States’ main allies in the region, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, challenging them to accelerate their democratic reforms.
   Bush delivered his annual speech to Congress at a time when hopes were rising for a revival of the US-backed ‘roadmap’ for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has claimed more than 4,700 lives since September 2000.
   ‘The goal of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace is within reach, and America will help them achieve that goal,’ the president said.
   Bush said his new secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, would discuss prospects for furthering the peace process and developing a Palestinian state when she visits the region early next week in the middle of a European tour.
   ‘To promote this democracy, I will ask Congress for 350 million dollars to support Palestinian political, economic, and security reforms,’ Bush said. The administration late last year had already promised some 60 million dollars.
   The White House, which had pulled back from the peace process as efforts to implement the roadmap faltered last year, has raised its profile since Mahmud Abbas was elected Palestinian president to replace the late Yasser Arafat.
   ‘The beginnings of reform and democracy in the Palestinian territories are showing the power of freedom to break old patterns of violence and failure,’ Bush said Wednesday.
   He also said the United States was committed to spreading democracy throughout the rest of the Middle East and issued new warnings to Syria and Iran.
   ‘Syria still allows its territory, and parts of Lebanon, to be used by terrorists who seek to destroy every chance of peace in the region,’ he said. ‘We expect the Syrian government to end all support for terror and open the door to freedom.’
   He said Washington was applying sanctions under the Syrian Accountability Act although US officials have said nothing new was immediately in the pipeline beyond a near-blanket ban on US exports to Syria imposed last May.
   The president, who included Iran in his famous ‘axis of evil’ in his State of the Union speech three years ago, said Wednesday the threat from Tehran had not diminished. ‘Today, Iran remains the world’s primary state sponsor of terror, pursuing nuclear weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve,’ he said.
   Bush said the United States was working with Britain, France and Germany to persuade the Islamic Republic to renounce its nuclear ambitions and end its support for terror. ‘And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you.’
   Bush also preached democracy to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, two of Washington’s strongest allies in the region, urging them to lead the way in spreading freedom throughout the region.
   ‘The government of Saudi Arabia can demonstrate its leadership in the region by expanding the role of its people in determining their future,’ he said.
   ‘And the great and proud nation of Egypt, which showed the way toward peace in the Middle East, can now show the way toward democracy in the Middle East.’
   His remarks came two weeks after his inaugural address vowing to take on undemocratic governments around the world. They appeared to be a response to sceptics who wondered whether he meant friendly as well as hostile regimes.

Eight private universities have set up outer campuses in different places across the country without the permission of the University Grants Commission, said sources in the commission.
   Following the education ministry’s request to submit a probe report on outer campuses of some private universities, the commission has recently found those campuses which were set up in violation of the rules.
   ‘If any private university wants to set up outer campuses in other places of the country they must seek the approval of the UGC. And after the UGC recommendation the education ministry gives the final approval,’ says the Private University Act (amendment) 1998.
   According to the act, it is mandatory to fulfil all the necessary conditions relating to academic, financial and infrastructural facilities on the main campus of a particular university before seeking permission for opening an outer campus.
   The commission, the apex body that regulates public and private universities, has prepared the probe report which is likely to be sent to the education ministry in a day or two, commission sources told New Age.
   The private universities which set up outer campuses are the Victoria University of Bangladesh, Asian University of Bangladesh, Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Shanto Marium University of Creative Technology, Prime University, Southeast University, Dhaka International University and the Northern University.
   BM Moinudin Chistee, chairman and founder of the Victoria University of Bangladesh, told New Age on Wednesday that they had submitted an application to the UGC for permission to set up outer campuses. ‘The UGC is making an unusual delay in giving permission for outer campuses. We are hopeful about getting permission of the two outer campuses — one at Dhanmondi and another at Uttara.’
   The vice chancellor of the Southeast University, Professor Dr M Shamsher Ali, said application had been submitted to set up outer campuses in three places.
   ‘These Dhaka-based universities have set up and run a number of outer campuses in Rajshahi, Tangail, Kishoreganj, Mymensingh and Rangpur, violating the rules of the Private University Act, ’ the UGC chairman, Professor M Asaduzzaman, told New Age. ‘All these universities are ranked at the bottom among the 52 private universities.’
   He brushed aside the allegations the commission was delaying approval for establishment of outer campuses.
   A high-powered committee on private universities, in its report submitted to the prime minister on October 17, also recommended that outer campuses of some universities, which were set up without the UGC approval, should be closed down.
   The government on July 15, 2003 formed the committee, headed by Asaduzzaman, to evaluate activities of and to probe into widespread allegations against 52 private universities.

The Department of Livestock Services has proposed to the government for increasing incentive support for the small livestock farmers to Tk 15 crore, three times higher than the previous year, said the department officials.
   This support aims to encourage the farmers in cattle rearing for raising production of milk and meat to meet the average nutritional demand.
   The department recently submitted the proposal to the ministry of fisheries and livestock. If the proposal gets the ministry’s nod, then it will go to the ministry of finance for allocation of fund.
   The department sources said in the 2003-2004 fiscal the government allocated Tk 5 crore for the farmers in 64 districts and the department disbursed Tk 4,99,86,000 among 4774 registered dairy owners.
   Under the incentive programme, if a farm produces at least 5 litres of milk and rears three to five cattle heads, it is entitled to get an incentive of minimum Tk 9,000 and maximum Tk 15,000 (Tk 3,000 for per cattle head).
   Sources said in the last year the number of government registered dairy farms was 15,926 and the number increased to 21,485 till December 2004 due to the effectiveness of such incentive programme.
   The department officials, however, alleged that in the 2003-04 financial year, the government released the fund at the end of the year which caused a serious setback to the disbursement of the money allocated for this purpose.
   ‘If the government releases the fund in between March and April, things will be easier,’ said an official of the department.
   Under the programme, the government distributed incentive support to the marginal dairy farmers who have at least 3 to 5 cows in each farm.
   The government initiated this programme in 1992 and it was continued up to 1995. During the period, the government disbursed Tk 15 crore among the dairy farmers.
   At that time, the government disbursed Tk 6,250 for each cow and it was increased up to Tk 1,56,250 in case of the farmers who had twenty-five cattle heads. But, according to some farmers, the programme was ultimately an unsuccessful one as maximum portion of the incentives was disbursed among big dairy owners.
   A source in the livestock department said as per rules all the registered dairy farms are supposed to get this incentive support substantially through the Bangladesh Krishi Bank and the Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank following proper monitoring and supervision by the ministry concerned and upazila and district committees.
   A high official of the department told New Age that such incentives would strengthen the sector and generate employment opportunities in future.
   ‘Under the facilities the government will inspire the people to establish farms, which will help them to meet the country’s nutritional demand and gradually come out of poverty trap’, said the official.
   According to the department, the country has to spend Tk 500 crore annually for import of milk powder as the total domestic milk output stands far below its demand.
   The domestic demand for milk is 57.60 lakh tonnes while its total production does not go above 19. 91 lakh tonnes, the source said further.

Elements of al-Qaeda remain in Pakistan, a senior US defence official said Thursday, adding that unless more was done to stop the flow of recruits into militant groups the war on terror would never be won.
   The US undersecretary for defence, Douglas Feith, in Pakistan for talks on security and defence issues, said disrupting and destroying terrorist networks was not enough.
   ‘We also have to address the flow of people into the ranks of the terrorists organisations,’ he told a news conference after talks with Pakistani defence officials in the garrison city of Rawalpindi adjoining Islamabad.
   ‘If we don’t stop that flow of people into the ranks of terrorist groups, then we are never going to win the war.’
   Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in the war on terrorism, has arrested more than 500 al-Qaeda and Taliban officials and handed them over to the United States.
   But hundreds of al-Qaeda militants are still hiding in Pakistan’s mountains bordering Afghanistan and in major cities.
   Feith said the Pakistani government was focused and quite active in tracking and pursuing the remnants of al-Qaeda, including those groups that
   fled from Afghanistan.
   But he added: ‘To win the war, we have to deny terrorists what they need to operate, we have to deny them what they need to survive.’
   Washington has poured in hundreds of millions of dollars into Pakistan for their common war on terror.
   ‘Pakistan has been developing various ideas about its priorities in defence trade,’ he said.
   The Pakistani defence secretary, Hamid Nawaz Khan, earlier told reporters the two sides had made tangible progress on many issues. He did not give any details.
   ‘There is a lot of hope in the air,’ Khan said.
   The Pentagon notified the US Congress in November of three proposed arms sales to Pakistan worth $1.2 billion, including eight P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft Islamabad says would be used in the hunt for militants on its border with Afghanistan.
   In June, Washington declared Pakistan to be a major non-NATO ally, making easier for it to acquire US arms.
   The United States had imposed economic and military sanctions on Pakistan after it conducted nuclear tests in 1998. It lifted most of them after Islamabad became a key ally in its war on terror following the September 11 attacks in 2001.
   Pakistan’s nuclear-armed neighbour India have criticised the planned sales, saying they would affect its relations with Washington and a slow-moving peace process with Pakistan.
   Pakistan says it needs to improve its conventional arms capabilities to keep a balance with India. The two have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

Some of the universe’s missing ‘normal’ matter has been found hiding in clouds of hot gas between galaxies, according to research published Thursday in the British scientific journal Nature.
   Just five per cent of the universe is believed to be made up of ‘normal’ matter such as atoms and molecules, but scientists have only be able to find about half the expected amount.
   Fabrizio Nicastro of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his colleagues looked at X-rays from a distant quasar called Markarian 421 as they passed through a region of warm gas.
   The X-rays were absorbed by ionised oxygen and nitrogen atoms there that are normally ‘invisible,’ and the scientists say there is enough matter in the gas to account for the missing mass.
   ‘It is difficult to know whether this region is typical of the entire universe,’ said Michael Shull of the University of Colorado in a separate commentary in this week’s Nature.
   ‘Unfortunately, most other quasars are not bright enough to provide such high-quality data.’
   Scientific models predict that 95 per cent of the universe is composed of dark matter and energy, the effects of which can be discerned from the gravitational motion of stars and galaxies.
   A quasar is a star-like body that may send out radio waves and other forms of energy.

A newly married couple were allegedly burnt to death at village Dohopukuria of Jhenaidah sadar.
   Nazrul Islam, 23, the husband died at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital on January 31 while his wife, Asma Khatun, 18, died in the morning of February 2.
   Asma Khatun, daughter of Akkas Ali of village Sahebnagar in Jhenaidah sadar, had been married to Nazrul Islam six month back.
   On the night of January 26, neighbours of the couple, after hearing scream, went to their house and found them burnt.
   Early next day, the couple was sent to Jhenaidah Sadar Hospital. On 31th January, Asma and Nazrul were shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in a critical state.
   Family members of the victims alleged that the killing of the couple was pre-planned to trespass their property. ‘The miscreants threw acid on them before setting fire to confirm the death,’ said a family member.
   It was known that after their marriage Nazrul’s father handed over huge property to him. Over the issue a dispute developed between him and his two brothers — Alauddin and Mortuza.
   Some of their family members suspected that Nazrul’s brothers could be involved in the killing.
   An unnatural death case was filed with the local police. It was alleged that the bodies were buried at the instruction of local influential people.
   The Jhenaidah police officer-in-charge, Azizul Haque, said they were informed of the fire incident, but later a request came from the family members requesting not to send the bodies for post-mortem.
   Several human rights organisations visited the spot and demanded exemplary punishments of the killers.

Mangesh Kumar Kanajia nicknamed Mukesh, a 14-year-old Indian who was abandoned in Bangladesh, is finally returning home.
   Aparajeyo Bangladesh, an NGO, which found him in police custody, is sending him home.
   Mukesh told New Age on Thursday that he lived in house no 114 at Nihal in Vihar in New Delhi. He entered Bangladesh on January 12 through the Bongaon border with one Kamal.
   He said Kamal, aged around 23, came to their residence in the first week of January and sought shelter from Gourak Nath — Mukesh’s father — for a few days. Mukesh and Kamal became intimate soon, he added.
   On January 10, Kamal asked Mukesh to collect some money for visiting Bangladesh, said Mukesh. Kamal also assured him that they would return in two days.
   They started for Bangladesh and reached Bongaon on January 12. The two entered Bangladesh after paying Rs 1,000 to the Indian Border Security Force.
   On January 13, they reached Motijheel by bus where Kamal kept him standing on the pavement, saying that he had to meet a friend, and absconded with all of Mukesh’s money.
   Hindi-speaking Mukesh, after a long wait, stopped a female passer-by and told her of his plight.
   The kind woman gave him shelter for the night and handed him over to the Motijheel police on January 14.
   Mukesh was kept in police custody for 15 hours after which the police handed him over to the NGO on January 15.
   The coordinator of Aparajeyo Bangladesh, Aminul Islam, told New Age on February 3 that Kamal might be a member of a child trafficking gang as the gang operates in the same manner as that of Kamal.
   The Motijheel police told New Age on Thursday that they got the boy on January 14 and handed him over to the NGO but did not know if he was trafficked or not.
   However, the NGO arranged for an Indian passport for Mukesh after contacting his parents through the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
   Mukesh expressed his gratitude to the NGO as he will be able to see his mother again.

Asma Kibria, wife of slain Awami League leader Shah AMS Kibria, on Thursday said she had no interest in politics now and was in movement to ensure trial of the killers of her husband.
   ‘I am neither a political personality nor have I any interest in politics at the moment. My movement is just to ensure trial of the killers and I deserve it as a citizen of an independent state,’ she said and urged the countrymen to make success today’s sit-in demonstrations to ensure free and neutral probe into the killing.
   Addressing a news conference at her Dhanmondi residence in the afternoon, she alleged that some unidentified quarters were giving indirect threats asking her family members not to move further in seeking arrest and trial of Kibria’s killers. She, however, did not explain the nature of threats.
   She blamed the government for not putting on trial those responsible for the killing of Kibria, also a former minister for finance, who was killed along with four others in the January 27 grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Habiganj.
   Rejecting the allegation of destroying the country’s image abroad, she said, ‘How is the country’s reputation destroyed by seeking justice? The government has already destroyed it through the killing of Kibria, who was not only an Awami League leader but also an international personality.’
   Replying to a query, she said, ‘We did not make any request to postpone the SAARC Summit. We only requested deferral of the summit for some days to pay respect to Kibria.’
   Kibria’s son Dr Reza Kibria, daughter Dr Nazli Kibria and Reza’s wife were also present.

The Awami League and its allies will bring out mourning processions separately in the city today (Friday) as part of fresh programmes to protest against the Habiganj grenade attacks that killed Shah AMS Kibria and four others, and to pressurise the resignation of the government.
   The Awami League will take out a procession and hold a rally at Muktangan this afternoon.
   The nine components of the 11-party alliance will also hold a condolence rally centrally in Dhaka alongside a nationwide similar programme today.
   The family members of slain Awami League leader Shah AMS Kibria will also begin today their non-political campaign for ensuring a free and neutral probe into the killing.
   Asma Kibria, the widow of Shah AMS Kibria at a press conference on Thursday urged the people across the country to join the sit-in programme today (Friday) to pressurise the authority to ensure a free and neutral probe into her husband’s killing.
   She also requested the countrymen to wear black badge and carry black flag from 3 pm to 3:30 pm.

Export and import through the Bhomra land port under Satkhira Sadar upazila has remained suspended since Thursday morning as the Clearing and Forwarding Agent Association on the Indian side stopped work in protest against the action of the Indian Border Security Force.

The Speedy Trial Tribunal of Dhaka on Thursday sentenced four accused to death and life imprisonment to another three in the sensational Gias Uddin murder case of Tangail.
   Five of the convicts, two with death sentences and three with life terms, have been absconding.
   Those who received death sentences are, Abul Quddus, Iqbal Kabir, Rafiq and Prince. The court also fined them Tk 10,000 each in default to suffer another six months in jail.
   The convicts awarded with life terms are Ripon, Arzoo and Nuru Miah of Tangail. The court also fined them Tk 5000 each, in default, to suffer another six months imprisonment.
   The court sources said on June 16, 2003, Gias while going to the town in Tangail for business from Nagarpur upazila on a motor cycle was shot and he died at the spot.
   The victim’s brother filed a murder case with the Nagarpur police station accusing the convicts the following day and the investigating officer submitted charge sheets against eight accused on December 2, 2003, the sources said.
   After recording statements of 24 prosecution witnesses out of 31 and examining other case records, the judge handed down the judgement.

At least 15 people were injured, three critically disturbing the traffic movement on Dhaka-Chittagong highway for an hour following a clash between two groups of villagers in the town on Wednesday.
   The local sources said a youth named Nur Kalam Parvez, while selling stolen iron rods was caught and handed over to the police.
   Regarding his arrest, the supporters of Parvez clashed with the opponents and later the villagers from the near by villages also joined the two groups and attacked each other.
   During the clash, two shops were ransacked and looted while about eight motor vehicles were damaged on the highway while the three critically injured were admitted to the hospital.
   Earlier on Tuesday, a clash between two groups over a land dispute in the village Dairapur under sadar upazila left about ten injured, four of them critically.

A suspected underground party activist was killed in a shootout with the police at village Padamdi in Jhenaidah on Wednesday morning.
   The deceased was identified as Tipul, 32, an activist of Sramajibi Mukti Andolon, a front of the underground Biplobi Communist Party. He was listed as a terrorist by the district special branch of police and wanted in a number of cases.
   The police recovered two pipe guns and four rounds of cartridges.