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The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, has said the BNP-Jamaat alliance government is ‘plagued with corruption’ and made public life unbearable by its failure to control price-hike, economic indiscipline and deteriorating law and order.
   The opposition leader said this when family members of a slain Awami League activist, Nabi Hossain, of Kishoreganj called on her at her party’s Dhanmondi office Saturday evening.
   Nabi was killed in police firing during an anti-government demonstration on February 7 when several other AL activists were also wounded. Some of those injured also called on Hasina.
   ‘All except BNP and Jamaat are united. We must wage a united movement till the downfall of this government.’
   She urged all classes of the people to unite with the current anti-government movement to oust the alliance government.
   The government is patronising extreme communal forces and criminals to eliminate her party’s popular grassroots leaders to cling in power, Hasina alleged. ‘But Awami League is an organisation of this land and no one can eliminate Awami League from here.’
   Referring to the coalition government, the AL leader said, ‘They were not voted to power in 2001 polls, rather they forcibly grabbed the power. Hence, they want to exterminate the Awami League to cling to power.’
   Referring to the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally, she said the alliance government was involved in the heinous attack and has destroyed all the evidences of the incident.
   Hasina later handed over a cheque for Tk 50,000 to the wife and mother of Nabi.

The US administration considers Bangladesh as an important partner and a role model of liberal democracy and moderate Muslim nation, the foreign ministry adviser, Reaz Rahman, said Saturday on his return from a mission in the United States.
   Talking to reporters at his office on the outcome of his meetings with the US assistant secretary for South Asian affairs, Christina Rocca, and the under secretary for political affairs, Marc Grossman, in Washington, he said he apprised them of Bangladesh government’s positions on issues like terrorism, grenade attacks, extremism and corruption.
   Reaz told them there is no religious radicalism in Bangladesh where people of all religious faiths are performing their respective religions having mosques, temples and churches for centuries.
   He said the government had already ordered the arrest of Bangla Bhai and banned his activities.
   He questioned how Bangladesh could be a country of Islamic radicals within three years’ time. ‘One can come here and see to find the truth behind the campaign.
   Bangladesh has achieved remarkable success in women empowerment and girls’ enrolment,’ he said.
   Reaz said Bangladesh needs support to enhance capacity building and more training of its police forces to deal with terrorism effectively. It is difficult for the police with its relatively small strength to deal with all criminals and terrorists in a country of 140 million people, he added.
   About FBI engagement to help investigate the January 27 grenade attack, he said they will come once the terms of reference is finalised.
   In reply to a question, Reaz said the US officials he had met appreciated Bangladesh government’s position on all these issues.

Leaders of the National Front of Teachers and Employees on Saturday announced a series of agitation programmes to press home their eight-point charter of demands.
   The front, a combine of eleven teachers and employees unions of non-government schools, colleges and madrassahs, will submit a memorandum to the prime minister through divisional commissioners and will hold rallies at divisional headquarters on February 24.
   The organisations that are associated with the front include Bangladesh College Teachers Association, Bangladesh Teach-ers Association, Bangladesh College-University Teachers Association, Bangladesh College Teachers Association, Bangla-desh Non-government College Principals Association, Bangla-desh Technical College Teachers Association, Secondary Assist-ant Teachers Council and Bangladesh Educational Institu-tions Employees Federation.
   The front leaders announced the agitation programmes at a press conference held at the National Press Club.
   They said they will lay siege to the office of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education on April 21.
   The teachers and employees will also organise rallies at all district headquarters and submit memorandum to the prime minister through deputy commissioners on February 28.
   The teachers will hold two press conferences at district and divisional headquarters on March 6 and March 11 respectively.
   The eight-point demand includes 30 per cent dearness allowance and immediate withdrawal of all circulars issued by the education ministry that are contrary to the interests of the teachers and employees, reinstatement of teachers and employees terminated on political grounds, formulation of a contemporary examination policy and re-introduction of the gratuity that was earlier given from the teachers’ and employees’ trust.
   The co-chairmen of the front, Kamruzzaman and Sheikh Amanullah, the convener and coordinator, Quazi Faruque Ahmad, the conveners, Mohammad Aizizul Islam and Mohammad Shahjahan, and the joint conveners, Asadul Haq and MA Sattar were present at the press conference.

A three-day international youth summit, entitled Beyond Borders Youth Summit, begins today in Dhaka under the joint auspices of the British Council, Bangladesh and DemocracyWatch.
   The state minister for youth and sports, Fazlur Rahman, will inaugurate the summit at 9:30 am at the auditorium of the DemocracyWatch.
   The British Council director, Dr June Rollinson, and the DemocracyWatch executive director, Taleya Rahman, will be present at the programme as special guests.
   The summit will be held under the youth leadership programme of the British Council across the world. About one hundred participants from India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom will attend the summit.
   Under the regional project of the British Council’s Global Initiative, a series of festivals and summits have been planned in these countries. The first of its kind was held in India on February 4-5. Two other festivals will be held in Pakistan and the UK in March.
   The project, Connecting Futures, aims to build mutual understanding, learning and respect among young people, who are in the age group of 18 to 22 years, in the UK, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
   The British Council assistant director, Tayaba Nasir, told a pre-summit news conference at the DemocracyWatch office on Saturday that the initiative would create a common platform for building up understanding among the new generation across the world.
   Taleya Rehman, Shabnaaz Zahereen, a programme officer of the British Council, Minhaj Alam, programme manager of the DemocracyWatch, 4 Pakistani youth delegates and Bangladeshi youth delegates were present at the news conference.
   Among various innovative and inspiring social and cultural events, the summit will feature forum theatre, quiz competition, interactive dialogues, parliamentary debate, jatra (folk theatre), fashion show and talent search.
   The participating youths of the summit will be briefed on February 21 about Bangladesh and the history of language movement in 1952. They will also be taken to the Central Shahid Minar on the day where they will pay their tributes to the language martyrs.

A single-engine cargo aircraft of a private airliner narrowly escaped a major accident at Cox’s Bazar airport Saturday afternoon.
   The BEA-103 cargo aircraft of Best Aviation Limited lost its nose-wheel shortly after take-off from the airport.
   The pilot noticed the fault when it was crossing Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong. He then sought permission for emergency landing.
   Sources at the control tower of Shah Amanat said they had received an emergency message from a cargo plane bound for Jessore at about 12:50pm.
   The air traffic control reportedly did not allow the aircraft for emergency landing as the airport was waiting for a number of domestic and international flights within an hour.
   Later, the aircraft flew back to Cox’s Bazar and skidded off the runway as it landed. The nose of the aircraft sustained major damage. Four crews reportedly survived unhurt.
   Civil Aviation officials and fire-fighters rescued the damaged aircraft.

The High Court on Saturday issued a rule nisi on the government to explain within three weeks why it would not be directed not to take an accused in the August 21 grenade attack case on any fresh remand.
   A High Court bench of Justice Md Joynul Abedin and Justice Miftahuddin Chowdhury passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed on behalf of Manir Hossain, who was arrested on August 21, 2004 from Gulistan after the grenade attack on an Awami League rally that killed 22 people including its central leader, Ivy Rahman.

Two inactive rocket launchers were recovered from the river Karatoya in Dhaoakolar under Sadar upazila in Bogra.
   According to a delayed report, the local people on Wednesday found the abandoned heavy weapons from the river and handed those over to the union parishad chairman, Solaiman Ali.
   The police later on information collected the weapons and found them to be inactive.

The two-day poetry festival organised by the National Poetry Council concluded amid tight security on the Dhaka University campus on Saturday.
   The festival featured two seminars in the morning on ‘life of a poet in Bangladesh’ and ‘poems in textbooks.’
   Rafiq Azad and Abul Momen read out the papers. Belal Chowdhury and Borhanuddin Khan Jahangir presided at the sessions.
   Rafiq in his paper said, ‘A poet leads a life full of struggles.’ He said poets need to overcome crises in life and talked of the contribution by poets to the war of independence.
   Momen said, ‘Bangla is in a state of frustration from the primary to the highest levels of education. No one of the 50 private universities has any space for research on Bangla.’
   ‘We become serious about the Bangla poems in February every year and our public universities offer degrees in Bangla,’ he said.
   The two-yearly council session of the Poetry Council was held at the Teachers-Student Centre of the Dhaka University in the afternoon with Rabiul Husain in the chair.
   Rabiul was re-elected president and Samudra Gupta general secretary for the next two years.
   Other office bearers of the 39-member executive committee were also elected.

The High Court on Saturday granted anticipatory bail to five Awami League leaders — former state ministers M Rahmat Ali MP and Obaidul Kader, Faruque Khan MP, Zahangir Kabir Nanak and Mirza Azam MP.
   Justice MA Rashid and Justice Syed Refat Ahmed also issued a rule nisi on the government to show cause as to why they would not be granted regular bail in connection with the criminal case filed against them for ‘entering the Dhaka cantonment area’ on February 28, 2004 to visit Professor Humayun Azad, who was then under treatment in Combined Military Hospital.
   Rokonuddin Mahmud told the court that they had not come to the court earlier, as there had been no move for their arrest in the case since February 2004.

The Border Security Force shot and wounded a labourer at village Mokabil under Kulaura upazila in Moulvibazar on Saturday.
   Harmun Ali, 30, was working well inside the Bangladesh territory when the Indian border guards at about 9:00am fired at him.

Arms and ammunition, including two light guns and a foreign revolver, were seized from the possession of a union parishad member at Kadamtali under Baghaichhari upazila in Rangamati on Saturday.
   Tipped off, the police and the Bangladesh Rifles launched a drive led by Lieutenant Colonel Azizur Rahman and raided a tea-stall in the area.
   They held Marisha Union Parishad member Nihar Bindu Chakma, 40, along with the arms and ammunition, the police said.

The suspended additional police super of Khulna, Mofazzal Hossain, was indicted in another case in Chittagong on Saturday for allegedly manhandling a woman.