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The government will soon enact a law against money laundering, including a provision for the prevention of terrorist financing to deal with the financial and economic crimes on one hand and to identify links of any clandestine funding or transaction by any terrorist group abroad on the other, central bank sources told New Age.
   An enforcement and prosecution bureau will be established to implement the proposed act under which a high-powered national council on money laundering and terrorist financing will be formed, according to the draft bill.
   Besides, an anti-money laundering strike force and a financial intelligence unit will also be formed under the act, the draft said.
   The Bangladesh Bank has recently prepared the draft following a directive from the finance ministry.
   The United States has long been pressing the government to enact such an act in line with its strategy to combat global terror activities, finance ministry sources told New Age.
   ‘Terrorist financing means knowingly or unknowingly providing or collecting funds or properties with the intention that such funds or properties be used, or with the knowledge that such funds or properties are to be used, in full or in part, in order to carry out a terrorist act within the meaning of section 190 A of chapter X-A of the penal code (Act XLV of 1860),’ reads the draft.
   The strike force to work under the proposed bureau will be empowered to investigate into any suspect transaction, suspend any banking transaction, cash transaction, confiscate or freeze any bank account of a suspected person involved in terrorist financing or money laundering, the draft said.
   The draft, however, has not mentioned about the formation of the force, which will conduct its activities as asked by the council.
   ‘An-inter-ministerial meeting, to be held soon under the chair of the finance and planning minister, will finalise the draft of the act along with the composition of the strike force,’ a high official in the finance ministry told New Age.
   A deputy governor of the central bank will be the convener of the council to comprise representatives from 14 ministries and government agencies.
   The prime responsibility of the council would be propose measures to address money laundering and terrorist financing activities as well as formulating a national strategy to combat the menace, the draft said.
   Representatives from the ministries of finance, home, commerce, law, foreign, social welfare, Bangladesh police, NGO Affairs Bureau, Securities and Exchange Commission, managing director of a nationalised commercial bank, association of bankers, registrar of joint stock and office of the attorney general will be on the council.
   The draft proposed the establishment of a separate money laundering and terrorist financing Court, which could pass the highest of three years’ sentence to imprisonment to a convict and order also order the confiscation of assets of the convicts.
   The intelligence unit will collect, analyse and disseminate information on suspicious financial transactions, a high official in the finance ministry said.
   The Bangladesh Bank will maintain the confiscated
   assets and funds, the draft said further.
   The draft would be sent to the law ministry for vetting after holding an inter-ministerial meeting in this connection for finalising the draft, prior to placing the bill in the parliament, sources said.

In an effort to divide the right-religious votes in the next general elections, the opposition Awami League is trying to mobilise a number of Islamist parties and groups to join its opposition alliance that has been formed to counter the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led ruling alliance consisting two major Islamist parties.
   The move is also aimed at bridging the perceived gap that exists between the party and Islamists, party insiders told New Age. The party, in particular, is looking to quell Islamists’ concerns that it will stand in the way of their goal of establishing ‘the ways of the Qu’ran’.
   The insiders said the party chief, Sheikh Hasina, has held meetings with some small Islamist parties, most of whom apparently oppose the political approach of the Islamist parties in the ruling alliance — Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and Islami Oikya Jote.
   Top ranking leaders of the main opposition party said they are planning to hold more meetings with Islamist parties, organisations and Muslim clerics.
   The religious affairs secretary of the Awami League, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, told New Age on Thursday that the initial hurdle was to make Islamist parties understand that the Awami League is ‘not an anti-Islamic organisation’.
   ‘The Muslim clerics and party leaders erroneously believed that the AL will stand in the way of establishing the ways of the Qu’ran and the Sunnah, but through deliberations we have succeed in making them understand that this prior impression they had of the AL was not correct,’ Abdullah said.
   Hasina, addressing a meeting of Muslim clerics and representatives of shrines at her Dhanmondi residence on July 13, sought cooperation of the clerics in order to rid the
   nation of the ‘repression of the BNP-Jamaat alliance government’.
   ‘They are the enemies of the country and Islam, and are using Islam for political purposes. You have to unmask them by preaching Islam correctly,’ she told the clerics and assured them of all sorts of cooperation from her party.
   Sources said some Olamaye-Mashayek, the Islamic Constitution Movement led by the Charmonai Peer Fazlul Haque, and the Zaker Party led by Mostafa Ameer Faisal have recently taken a stand against the Jamaat and some of its activities.
   Pouncing on the opportunity, AL high-ups have taken the initiative to establish a political relationship with these elements, as also with some Islamic thinkers, ahead of the next general election.
   AL policymakers have already sat with Islamic thinkers Maulana Habibur Rahman Juktibadi and Maulana Mohammad Ullah, Ameer of the Khelafat Movement Maulana Ahmad Ullah Ashraf who is also the son of the late Hafezzi Huzur, president of the Sufi Majlish Amirul Haque Chishti Hossain, and the representatives of some Olamaye-Mashayek and shrine organisations, AL sources said.
   The party’s religious affairs secretary said they have already received positive response
   from more than 10 organizations and Islamic thinkers since the talks.
   Abdullah further pointed out that a vested quarter had published a controversial poster vilifying Islamist organisations in the name of the Awami League prior to the last general election, which had created resentment among the leaders of some Islamist political parties and Olamaye-Mashayek organizations.
   ‘They also spread untrue rumours about the Awami League’s position on the arrest of Shaikhul Hadith Maulana Azizul Haque, which also had a negative impact in the election,’ he said.
   ‘We have targeted 10 or more Islamist organisations and 20 reputed Islamic thinkers and are maintaining communications with them regularly,’ Abdullah said, adding that as all of them have taken a rigid stand against the Jamaat, they might support the Awami League in the next polls.

The chief election commissioner, MA Aziz, has said the Election Commission will carry on its planned dialogue with political parties for preparation of the electoral roll for the next general elections even if the Awami League and its allies do not turn up.
   ‘A nation cannot wait forever for a particular political party,’ he told journalists at his office on Sunday when asked whether he would continue the discussion without the participation of the mainstream opposition parties.
   The commission has sent etters to 113 political parties to participate in the discussion n the preparation of the
   voter list for the next general elections that is scheduled for, at the latest, by January 2007.
   The commission will hold eight meetings in three days starting from July 26, where the political parties will give their opinions separately.
   The Bangladesh Nationalist Party will take part in the consultation while the opposition Awami League and its allies in the left and social democratic camps have declined to turn up.
   Besides, a number of small parties, which exist only in letterheads of pads and have no offices, have shown interest in the participating in the consultations.
   The commission has welcomed them in spite of their obscurity and insignificance.
   The last party on Sunday to register its name for discussion was the Forward Party, which Aziz smilingly termed ‘Talwar Party’ when talking to the journalists.
   He admitted that there are numerous tiny parties which want to have discussion with the commission. ‘And we cannot ignore them.’
   He hoped that he would be able to begin the huge task of preparing the voter’s roll some time next month after the consultation.
   When asked whether the commission would update the existing voters’ list or prepare a fresh one, Aziz said it depends upon the suggestions of the political parties.
   In addition to the preparation of the voters’ roll, the ommission will make proposals to the government seeking an independent EC Secretariat, revival of the commission’s authority to invalidate candidature for gross violation of electoral laws or code of conduct, and the provision of contempt of the commission for violation of its order, he said.
   Aziz said the commission may come up with a rise in the ceiling for electoral expenses to Tk 15,00,000 from the existing Tk 5,00,000.
   He said he may also suggest that a cell be formed for monitoring electoral expenses to check the use of black
   money and muscle power in election.
   But he again expressed doubt whether he would be able to get the right people for the task. ‘Where shall I get angels?’
   Aziz sees his initiative for a dialogue as a good initiative and has refuted the opposition’s allegation of hatching a conspiracy.
   ‘I don’t find any conspiracy here since I never believe in conspiracy.’
   He expressed his concerned over the mushroom growth of political parties in the country, saying so many parties are not found in the developed countries like Britain, American and Germany.
   ‘Many of these parties exist only in letterheads of pads,’ he said, adding that there
   should be a law stipulating mandatory registration of political parties.

The war has come to London. And you better believe it: it’s here to stay.
   You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out why London is being targeted by the latest string of terror attacks. So we won’t take your time in trying to either explain the Islamist-terrorist motive behind hitting the heart of western civilisation, or decode the life-sized ‘come hit me’ sign Tony Blair has been adamant on dangling, as a teaser, in the direction of those same terrorists.
   This paper has consistently and categorically expressed its views on the so-called war on terror: and that is that we find it to be an unsubstantiated and deceitful smokescreen for the illegal invasion of lands that in the first place were left in disarray through the intrigue of the same invading forces over the last decades.
   But what the London bombings of the last two weeks has driven home is that however much we like to term ‘the war on terror’ as a ‘so-called’ one, it is truly a state of war that we live in today.
   News of the thousands dying in Iraq — at a rate of 30 a day, by the latest estimates — crowd the column-inches of our newspapers and the satellite transmissions of our news bulletins every day.
   We, however, don’t feel vulnerable to the war.
   Far from it, over the last two years that Iraq has been occupied, most all of us have tuned it out, perhaps — desensitised to the casualty count and
   rather expecting a constant flow of bad news from the hallowed banks of the Euphrates and Tigris.
   And that’s the way Messrs Bush and Blair wanted it: to fight a phoney war, far away from our daily lives, with the dual purpose of revitalising western economies through defence contracts and gaining commercial control of much of Iraq’s oil resources.
   And we in the South, who cared enough to see through it all, were provided more moral high ground every day than we had feet to land on with.
   But suddenly, we don’t feel that invulnerable any more, do we? That’s because the war has arrived at our backyard and, whether on a moral pedestal or not, any one of us can be hit, by either side.
   Granted, London is hands down the most cosmopolitan city in the world (with apologies made to New York, which could otherwise lay claim to the title were it not for the occasional, yet unmistakable, betrayal of the pastoral outlook of its citizens that is inherent in those living on that side of the North Atlantic).
   But why this sudden feeling of vulnerability, sitting all the way here in Dhaka?
   Because London is a city many of us love and visit often. Because London is a city we have family and friends
   living in. But mostly because London is a city which corresponds with, and largely represents, our life and lifestyle — so much more than the culture or ideology of those who offended it.
   And London does not stand in isolation.
   The repercussions of a blast in the undergrounds of London are being felt in the madrassahs of Pakistan, for instance.
   This war is truly upon us, and as much as Bush and Blair tried to keep it away from their own shores — hoping to count only ‘worthless’ Iraqi and Afghan lives as casualty — they have played an equal, if not greater, part than the forces they insist on fighting in welcoming the war home.
   Perhaps this is not the time to point fingers — whether Bush is to blame or Laden, no one can bring back to life that poor Brazilian man who was shot dead by Scotland Yard on Friday.
   But in a wartime situation, sometimes you are forced to choose a side.
   And right now we would rather be travelling the Piccadilly Line to Leicester Square, taking a chance that the rucksack by the tube doors won’t blow up, than be seen in a madrassah in Pakistan.

The British police admitted Sunday a Brazilian electrician they shot dead in a crowded London underground train had nothing to do with the terror bombings, but they will stick to a policy of shooting suspected suicide bombers in the head.
   Brazil’s foreign ministry demanded an explanation into the ‘lamentable error’ which saw 27-year-old electrician Jean Charles de Menezes pursued through a subway station before being cornered and shot repeatedly in the head.
   Lord David Triesman, a Foreign Office minister, discussed the incident on Sunday with the Brazilian foreign minister, Celso Amorim, the Foreign Office said without giving immediate details.
   Former British foreign secretary Robin Cook, who quit Tony Blair’s government in protest against the Iraq war, told BBC television said the blunder dealt ‘a very serious blow to our relations’ with Brazil.
   London’s police chief Ian Blair conveyed the force’s ‘deep regrets’ to the family of the dead man which has made angry protests, but he urged people to understand the context of the killing.
   He said police first had to deal with the danger of stopping suicide bombers.
   Blair confirmed press reports that British police were pursuing a ‘shoot-to-kill-in-order-to-protect policy’ and could not guarantee that a similar mistake would not happen again.
   ‘There’s no point in shooting anywhere else because if they fall down they detonate bombs. It is drawn on the experience from other countries including Sri Lanka,’ he said.
   ‘The only way to deal with this is to shoot to the head,’ the Metropolitan police commissioner said.
   He also said the Brazilian was pursued because he had emerged from a block of apartments which police were watching as they hunted men who made a failed attempt to bomb subway trains and a bus last Thursday, he said.
   ‘It was not just a random event...It was firmly linked to the ongoing operation,’ said Blair, who is the commissioner Metropolitan Police.
   Britain’s Independent Police Complaints Commission is due to hold an investigation into the incident under standard procedure for all deaths following police action.
   British Islamic groups called for a public inquiry into the shooting, worried that the Asian ethnic origin of some of the bombers could see Muslims targeted by police.
   Massoud Shadjareh, head of the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission, demanded a full public inquiry.
   But newspapers and London’s mayor called for understanding.
   The carnage of the July 7 bombings and the near-miss Thursday when bombs used in a repeat attack seemingly failed to explode properly, meant police faced an impossible situation, they said.
   London’s mayor Ken Livingstone said police had done ‘what they believed necessary to protect the lives of the public’.
   Sunday’s newspaper agreed that however tragic the outcome it was difficult to blame police for taking the action they did.
   If a suicide bomber is merely wounded ‘he can massacre in his final seconds of consciousness’, the Mail on Sunday noted in its editorial.
   Meanwhile, police are still holding two suspects in connection with Thursday’s failed bomb attacks on London, but are continuing to hunt the four men believed to have carried the explosives, London’s police chief said on Sunday.
   ‘They are still with us and will be for some time I think, but we are still anxious for any sighting of the four individuals or any knowledge of them or where they have been,’ Blair told Sky News television.
   ‘There are inquiries all over London at the moment and indeed the rest of Britain.’
   Asked if the suspects were still in Britain, he said: ‘We have no reason to believe they are not.’

Egypt suffered a new bomb scare Sunday a day after multiple bombings killed 88 people in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, adding to global terror fears after the London attacks.
   Police arrested close to 100 people as they sought to root out those responsible for blasts that killed at least nine foreigners at the peak of the summer tourist season.
   Saturday’s pre-dawn attacks, which analysts said were an attempt to destabilise Egypt in the run-up to the first-ever competitive presidential election just weeks away, were claimed by an Al-Qaeda-linked group.
   The new scare came in the capital where police said a man was critically wounded by the accidental explosion of his own bomb.
   Sami Gamal Hegazi, 33, was critically wounded when he dropped the bag containing the home-made bomb in southern Cairo.
   Security forces have been sweeping the Sinai peninsula since Saturday’s explosions — two of them suicide car bombs — that struck a luxury seafront hotel, a car park and a busy market area, security sources said.
   The interior minister, Habib al-Adly, claimed investigators already had leads and suggested the attacks could be connected to deadly anti-Israeli bombings on October 7 last year in Taba further north on the Sinai coast.
   Security sources said DNA samples on the remains of one of the suicide car bombers would be compared to that of detained Taba suspects to establish whether they were related.
   The bombings were claimed by a group citing ties with Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.
   A group calling itself the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Levant and Egypt said it carried out the bombings as a ‘response against the global evil powers which are spilling the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Chechnya.’
   The authenticity of its Internet posting could not be verified.
   The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, called Mubarak and offered Egypt his country’s cooperation in the fight against ‘Islamic and extremist terrorism’.
   The trial of three men — one of them still at large — suspected of involvement in the Taba attacks resumed Sunday.
   Meanwhile, forensic experts continued to identify the victims of the blasts, the largest of which destroyed the Ghazala Garden hotel and accounted for around half of the victims.
   Medics said some bodies were burnt or mangled beyond recognition and that the identification process could take some time, while also warning that the death toll could rise further as many wounded were in critical condition.
   ‘I’ve never seen so many eviscerated people and terrible wounds in my life,’ said Rabab, 19, a nurse at the international hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh.
   Condemnation came from all four corners of the world with White House denouncing ‘in the strongest possible terms’ the ‘barbaric’ attacks. The US president, George W Bush, called Mubarak to extend his condolences and offer his support.
   The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, spoke of his ‘sorrow and anger.’ While deploring the blasts, Iran pointed a finger at US counter-terrorism policy in the region.
   Arab newspapers also printed unequivocal condemnations of the bombings. Jordan’s independent Al-Ghad argued that ‘killing innocent people in Sharm el-Sheikh will not contribute to the liberation of Palestine, and the killing of innocent Iraqis will not accelerate the American withdrawal.’
   ‘Arabs and Muslims should take a clear position against the terrorists.’

Two blow-outs at the Tengratila gas field in just over six months have put the schooling of children in nearby villages to a grinding halt.
   Students in the local schools complain that they have been able to concentrate in their studies since the first blow-out on January 7.
   ‘Everyone talks about the blow-out and the situation gets bad to worse every day,’ said Saif, a Class VIII student. ‘How do you concentrate in your studies when the rest of the family is talking about the disaster in a sombre mood?’
   Tengra Secondary School has been the worst hit. Located on the gas pressure line of 1,000 pounds per square inch, the school has, however, kept its academic activities on. The oppressive odour of methane, leaking all around the school building, makes it difficult for the students to attend classes.
   Officials of Niko Resources, the Canadian company which runs the operation at the gas field, have put a signboard on a wall of the building. ‘Danger! Keep Out! 1,000 PSI pressure line,’ reads the signboard.
   Not a single student of the school knows what PSI is or what the acronym stands for or what sort of danger it poses for them. All they know is they have chronic headache and are exposed to the obnoxious smell.
   The January 7 and June 24 blow-outs sparked panic among the students. The loud bangs and towering flames had them dumbfounded.
   The flame still blazes on although the intensity has decreased a little.
   Happy, a Class III student of the school, says the roaring sound at the nearby gas field is really scary.
   ‘I cannot study for the sound of gas emission from the tube-well at our house,’ she said.
   Her mother is also anxious. ‘She always tries to keep herself inside the house and seeks companion whenever she needs to go out.’
   Children in the locality complain rashes have developed on their skin after the blow-out.
   The families, who used to live within a one-kilometre radius of the field, were evacuated from their houses immediately after the blow-out.
   ‘Now we are living with one of our relatives at a village, miles away from here,’ said Shahabuddin. ‘How can I come to school every day?’
   A teacher of the school, Muhammad Azimuddin, told New Age that the school was renowned in the surrounding villages and the students would do better in the secondary finals than other schools.
   ‘No one had failed from the school in the past couple of years but this year a number of students came out unsuccessful,’ he said. ‘Most of them could not take the minimum preparation for the examinations.’
   The blow-outs have also led to the cancellation of many classes and Azimuddin said it would be tough for them to sort out the logjam.
   The teachers are now planning to take classes in two shifts a day to make up for the lost hours.

The president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Mahbubey Alam, in front of the chief justice and all the judges of the Supreme Court, questioned on Sunday the injunction that had been imposed by the High Court on lawyers’ movement.
   ‘If the movement of the country’s lawyers led by Shamsul Haque Chowdhury against the autocracy in 1982 to 1990 has not been illegal, it is not understandable to us for what reason our ongoing movement to uphold the dignity of the court may be illegal,’ said Mahbub at the full court reference of the Supreme Court, held on Sunday to commemorate the deaths of 22 lawyers including Justice Bimalendu Bikash Roy Chowdhury, Justice Abdul Mannan and Shamsul Haque Chowdhury.
   The full court reference, held in the chief justice’s courtroom, was also addressed by the chief justice, Syed JR Mudassir Husain, and the attorney general, AJ Mohammad Ali. All the judges of the Supreme Court were present on the ejlash, the stage for the judges.
   The chief justice, however, made no comment on the issue, said sources present.
   The High Court on May 23 issued the suo moto ex parte order slapping a bar on movements and public campaigns in any form.
   Commemorating the contribution of Shamsul Haque Chowdhury, Mahbub said, ‘The people will commemorate with honour the role he played in leading the country’s lawyers in the movement against autocracy in 1982 to 1990.’
   The lawyers across the country are in a movement for furtherance of the causes Chowdhury fought for, and the goals of the movement are upholding the dignity of the court and judges, establishing rule of law and ensuring separation and independence of the judiciary from the executive arm of the government.
   The chief justice urged the lawyers to follow the principles of Justice BB Roy Chowdhury, Justice Mannan and Shamsul Haque Chowdhury. ‘Through their contributions to the nation and especially to the judiciary, they have become individual institutions.’
   Ali said, ‘The best way to commemorate them is to follow their principles and consolidate their contributions.’

The law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister, Moudud Ahmed, told a press briefing on Sunday that the ministry did not recommend to provide presidential clemency to former leader of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal Mohiuddin Jintu, who had been awarded death penalty in a double-murder case.
   Like any other mercy-petition, the home ministry sent a summary to the law ministry seeking its opinion, he said. ‘We have just opined that it is the discretion of the President to give or not to give clemency to any convict.’
   The presidential clemency, granted since, raised a storm in the parliamentary committee on justice, law and parliamentary affairs ministry at its recent meeting that blamed the ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office for recommending amnesty to the president.
   Moudud denied the blame saying his ministry had gone by the summary of the home ministry wherein certain ‘facts were not mentioned’ and only gave opinion on the legal implications, if any, on relief.
   Recommendation for amnesty to the president was out of question, and that the PM simply signed on the dotted lines as the concerned officials did not deem it necessary to dig into the file.
   In the summary, the home ministry, only stated that Jintu was a leader of Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and had been implicated and tried in the a murder case on ‘political consideration’, though he had not been ‘named in the first information report’ of the case.
   It also mentioned that there was no eyewitness against Jintu in the case, Moudud said.
   The summary led the law ministry to believe that Jintu had been wrongly awarded death penalty in the case on ‘political consideration’ by a martial law court, against which there was no scope for appeal, said the law minister.
   ‘Even then’, he said, ‘we have not opined for the amnesty saying that the constitution has empowered the president to give or not to give any amnesty and it is the discretion of the president.’
   The summary did not mention that the death penalties of two co-convicts in the case had already been carried out, Moudud said. ‘Had it been mentioned, we would have definitely opined otherwise.’
   Though absconding from the court is a criminal offence and Jintu had been absconding for more than 20 years, the law ministry had not tried to get further information in the case before passing its opinion.
   ‘Obtaining the opinion of the law ministry on application for amnesty is a mere procedural motion and the ministry need not go beyond its jurisdiction in passing any opinion on any matter adjudged and referred to by the other ministries,’ said Moudud.
   ‘In giving any opinion, we just examine the legal issues involved in the matter and cannot go beyond that.’
   He denied involvement of his ministry in the issue. ‘We did not send any summary on the issue to any office and we cannot do so according to the constitution and rules of business of the government.’
   Moudud also thought that blaming the prime minister on the issue was wrong as ‘it is not possible for a prime minister to look into each and every file… In fact, the officers in charge of the Prime Minister’s office scrutinise the files and the prime minister just signs.’
   He also welcomed the initiative taken by the minister for local government, rural development and cooperatives, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, who is now in-charge of the home ministry, to investigate the issue. ‘His initiative to probe the incident will bring out the facts.’
   Earlier on Thursday, the parliamentary standing committee grilled the law ministry about its ‘shady opinion’ on the presidential amnesty granted to Jintu.
   Members of the committee observed that the presidential clemency was given in haste.
   Jintu, who was granted the presidential amnesty, claimed to be the founder president of the ruling BNP’s Sweden chapter.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, in January granted amnesty to Jintu, who was awarded death penalty 23 years ago in a double-murder case.
   After evading arrest by the law enforcers for more than two decades, he surrendered to the metropolitan sessions judge court, Dhaka on January 3. He was granted amnesty within 12 days of his surrender.

Southeast Asian officials recommended Sunday that Bangladesh should be admitted to Asia’s biggest security forum, the ASEAN Regional Forum.
   If Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers approve the recommendation, Bangladesh could join the forum by July next year, the Laotian deputy foreign minister Bounkeut Sangsomsack told reporters.
   The ASEAN ministers begin a series of meetings in Vientiane from Monday.
   If its application is successful, Bangladesh would become the forum’s 26th member.
   Fledgling nation East Timor will be formally admitted as the ARF’s 25th member this week.
   The forum is Asia’s biggest official platform in which the region’s top diplomats discuss security issues ranging from the North Korean nuclear crisis to tensions across the Taiwan Strait and terrorism.
   It gathers the ASEAN foreign ministers and their counterparts from such powers as the United States, the European Union,
   China, Japan, India, Pakistan, Russia, Canada and Australia.

The flood situation in the districts of Kurigram, Nilphamari, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Sirajganj and Netrokona continued to improve but remained unchanged in Gaibandha on Sunday.
   The low-lying areas in and around Dhaka, Narayanganj and Munshiganj continued to be inundated as the rain-fed rivers running through the central part of the country remained in spate, swollen by floodwater from upstream.
   Sunday’s bulletin of the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre said that although the Buriganga registered a fall of 4 cm at Dhaka, the Balu registered a further rise of 6 cm at Demra, flowing 40 cm above the danger level. Besides, the Turag registered a rise at Mirpur, the Tongi Khal at Tongi and the Dhaleswari at Rekabi Bazar.
   The bulletin said the Brahmaputra-Jamuna marked further fall at all points except at Aricha, the Ganges-Padma continued to rise at all points except at Goalundo while the rivers in the Meghna basin recorded both rise and fall. Waters of most of the rivers in the south-eastern hill basin receded further.
   Out of 86 monitoring points, water levels at 35 points marked a rise, at 38 a fall and at 4 points remained steady.
   Seven rivers were flowing above the danger level at different points — the Karotoa at Chakrahimpur, the Balu at Demra, the Padma at Goalundo and Bhagyakul, the Surma at Kanaighat, the Kushiyara at Amalshid and Sheola, the Kangsha at Jariajanjail and the Meghna at Chandpur.
   The New Age correspondent in Rangpur adds: Flood situation has been aggravated further in the district due to heavy rainfall for the last few days and onrush of waters from upstream, marooning at least 50,000 people.
   Two children and an elderly woman were drowned in floodwater in separate places in Gangachara upazila.
   Floodwater submerged about 50 kilometres of kutcha roads of the area, disrupting communication.
   The flood protection embankment at Chatra and Kabilpur unions under Pirganj upazila collapsed under the pressure of floodwater, marooning about 10 thousand people of the area.
   The New Age correspondent in Gaibandha adds: The flood situation of Gaibandha district remained unchanged as Ghaghot is still flowing 1 metre above the danger level and Karotoa is flowing 34 centimetres above the danger mark.
   More than five thousand families of 11 villages and municipal areas of Sadullapur and Gobindaganj upazilas have been marooned.
   Erosion at six points of the Gaibandha town protection embankment continued due to strong current of the Ghaghot.
   Different diseases including diarrhoea, dysentery, high fever and typhoid are spreading fast in the flood-affected areas.
   The New Age Sirajganj correspondent adds: The floodwater in the district started receding as the water level of the Jamuna marked a fall at all points.

The parliamentary committee on the commerce ministry asked the government on Sunday to take necessary steps to keep the prices of essential commodities within the reach of the commoners.
   Redwan Ahmed, chairman of the committee, disclosed this to New Age after a meeting of the committee at Sangsad Bhaban. ‘We suggested guarding against shortages in the supply of essential commodities to the market.’
   The committee issued several instructions to the ministry to rein in the prices of essentials which, it observed, have spiralled in the last one month, meeting sources said.
   According to the working paper of the meeting, the prices of rice, pulse, flour, onion, garlic, sugar and salt have been spiralling by the day in the preceding one month.
   However, Redwan claimed that the prices ‘were within the means of the consumers.’
   The meeting was told that the near-defunct Trading Corporation of Bangladesh has invited tender to import pulses and onion for keeping up market supplies and ensure stable prices during the upcoming month of Ramadan.
   ‘The shortage of commodities should be offset with imports without any delay,’ the committee suggested.
   The committee, however, blamed the middlemen for the dearness of essential commodities.
   The meeting was told of the governmental procurement of 6,50,500 tonnes of rice, now at hand, out of the targeted 10,00,000 tonnes to raise the stock of the staples in the country.
   Redwan, however, observed that the food and disaster management ministry was yet to procure sufficient food grains from the local market as the farmers do not want to sell their products. ‘They do not want to sell as their capacity to sustain without selling products has increased.’
   The committee also asked the government to start distributing food through VGF and VGD cards from September and to launch test relief activities at the end of September to keep the market price stable and hunger among the vulnerable groups away.
   Awami League lawmaker Rafiqul Anwar was learnt to have contradicted a price index presented by the TCB chairman at the meeting.
   Rafiq, however, told reporters, ‘We did not differ much with what the chairman stated.’
   The commerce minister, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, and Jatiya Party member Karim Uddin Bharosha were also present at the meeting.

The Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board has selected Hesfibel, a little known Turkish company for laying 165 kilometres of optical fibre cable from Cox’s Bazar to Chittagong.
   Hesfibel was established in Kayseri, Turkey in 1990 to produce fibre optic cable.
   Sources in the board said the 10-member technical evaluation committee headed by its chairman, Abdul Maleque Akhand, last week completed evaluating the offers of seven companies.
   The first tender was cancelled by the cabinet committee on purchase for irregularities.
   The purchase committee in March asked the board to float a fresh tender, rejecting the board’s proposal to award the contract to Siemens of Germany although it was the most expensive bidder.
   The committee also directed the telecom ministry to act against the officials involved in the tender manipulation.
   The board floated the fresh tender in April and opened the seven bids on May 8. The bidders, international telecom equipment manufacturers, include Alcatel of France, Hesfibel of Turkey, Siemens of Germany, Samsung of Korea, and Huawei Technologies, ZTE Corporation and China National Railway Construction of China.
   According to sources, among the bidders, the ZTE offered Tk 19.1 crore, national railway Tk 21.17 crore, Heisfibel Tk 28.78 crore, Huawei Tk 31.63 crore, Samsung Tk 36.89 crore, Alcatel Tk 36.94 crore and Siemens Tk 42 crore.
   The evaluation committee dropped two of the Chinese companies — ZTE and the national railway — in its initial screening.
   The board recommended Hesfibel to the posts and telecommunications ministry and asked its proposal to be forwarded to the purchase committee for approval.
   They said if the purchase committee approves Hesibel, the board will sign a deal with the company and it will be required to complete cable installation within six months of signing the deal.
   Sources said it was not possible for Bangladesh to join the submarine cable by the yearend even if the installation of 1,260km Bangladesh segment of SEA-ME-WE4 submarine cable concludes on time by October, unless the fibre optic link between Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong is in place.

The police are yet to ascertain whether millionaire businessman Jamal Uddin Ahmed, also a Bangladesh Nationalist Party Chittagong (south) unit leader, is alive or dead even two years after his abduction.
   The family members of Jamal who was abducted from the city’s Chawkbazar area on July 24, 2003 arranged a press conference at the Chittagong Press Club on Sunday to mark the second anniversary of his abduction.
   Jamal’s three sons — Chowdhury Forman Reza, Chowdhury Arman Reza, and Chowdhury Forkan Reza — accused Sarwar Jamal Nizam, a ruling party lawmaker of Anwara constituency, of the abduction, saying that Nizam had done it following a rivalry between Jamal and Nizam for the party nomination in the next general elections.
   They said Nizam had proposed them through a middleman to withdraw the case in exchange of the money they had so far spent, adding that it proved his connection in the abduction.
   They also expressed doubt if the fate of their father would be ever known as the two of the abduction squad, Amar Das and Mazhar, died in the police custody before giving any statement. The two abductors were killed deliberately to save the real culprits, they claimed.
   They expressed resentment as the assurance, given by the prime minister in November 4, 2003 to rescue their father, proved futile.
   Although Abdus Sobhan, a driver, in his statement named six abductors, but none of them were arrested, they alleged.
   They blamed the police for their failure to nab the prime accused and requested the prime minister to take stern measures in this regard.
   After the abduction of Jamal, the criminals demanded Tk 1 crore from his family as ransom. His sons said their father was not set free even after paying Tk 25 lakh to the abductors in consultation with the then Chittagong metropolitan police commissioner Shahidullah Khan.
   The investigation officer of the case has already been changed seven times. Anwar Hossain of Criminal Investigation Department, assigned as the eighth investigation officer, told New Age that he was trying his best to unearth the mystery behind the abduction and determine if Jamal is dead or alive.
   Two prime accused — Kashem chairman and Shahid chairman — remain at large, and 20 other accused out of 23 are on bail.

Detective police on Sunday recovered 13.5 kilograms of silver ornaments, looted by five Kotwali policemen on Wednesday.
   The ornaments were recovered from a restaurant at Tantibazar in Old Dhaka. The police also arrested three people.
   The DB police arrested a pick-up van driver Shahadat Hossain, from Kutubkhali at Demra early Sunday.
   On the basis of his statement, they arrested his assistants Mohammad Jasim and Ripon, manager of the Mukta Hotel and Restaurant, and recovered the ornaments from the restaurant.
   Shahadat removed the bag of ornaments while the corrupt policemen were busy distributing Tk 28,000 they had looted keeping it beside them in a small park on Wednesday.
   The money was snatched from Habibur Rahman, an employee of the City Silver House at Tantibazar.
   Taking the bag, Shahadat handed it over to his assistant Jasim who kept it with Ripon, the police said.
   Earlier, the police arrested four policemen, assistant sub-inspector Khalilullah, nayek Abdul Bari, and constables Shamsuzzaman and Korban Ali on Thursday in connection with the snatching of silver ornaments and cash from Habib.
   A total of Tk 25,100 was recovered from their possession.
   The rest of the money is yet to be recovered and is believed to be with the other member of the corrupt police team, Mohammad Rafiq, still at large.

The police on Sunday started investigation into the reported sexual harassment of about a dozen young girls during a river cruise on Friday.
   The police arrested 19 people, reportedly activists of Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal of Keraniganj and Lalbagh units, on their return from the trip on Friday night and sent them to jail on the following day.
   Al Amin, the master of the launch, MV Sabbir-3, used for the river cruise, filed a case with the Keraniganj police station stating that the accused had ransacked the motor vessel and assaulted its employees and on-duty Ansar personnel when resisted from driving the vessel.
   The accused also looted Tk 60,000 in cash from master’s cabin, the complainant claimed.
   Many newspapers reported that the unruly youths on the journey harassed young girls sexually, but the police said they had received no such complaints.
   Since there was an allegation, the police said they would investigate the matter.
   The investigation officer of the case, sub-inspector Kabir of Keraniganj police station, denied the allegation of sexual violation.
   He, however, said trouble began as some young people had tried to take photographs of some women bathing in the river in Chandpur.
   Later, they assaulted the launch employees of the vessel on their return journey and tried to anchor it at Islambagh in Lalbagh.
   Some of the employees, who were injured in Friday’s attack, told newsmen on Sunday that some of the young men had violated girls who were also on the pleasure trip that began from Swarighat in Lalbagh on Friday morning.
   ‘The trouble began when the employees tried to save the girls responding to their scream,’ an employee requesting not to be named.
   But none of the girls has lodged any complaint with the police till Sunday.
   On Friday, about 200 people under the banner Sabuj Bangla Krira left the city for Matlab in Chandpur on a river cruise.
   On their return journey the some of the group members took some young women to the cabin and allegedly violated them.
   Hearing the cry for help, employees of the vessel and the Ansars personnel on duty rushed to the cabin, but the young men beat the rescuers and snatched away the rifles from some of Ansars.
   The master of the launch, Al Amin, informed it to the police at Sadarghat terminal on their return and the police arrested 19 people.
   They are Asgar, Shahdat, Polash, Kamrul, Idris, Sohel, Abul, Imran, Mizan, Manik, Ridoy, Raihan, Rony, Pavel, Rocky, Selim, Masum, Hossain and Shahdat The injured Ansar man, Mahboob, and the launch employees Lutfar and Jahangir were admitted to Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital.

Another charge-sheeted accused in the Chittagong arms haul case surrendered Sunday in the metropolitan session judge court.
   Court sources said Abdus Sobhan had surrendered to the court of district and session judge Anwar Hossain in the morning and sought bail. However, the court rejected his appeal and ordered him to be sent to jail.
   Sobhan is the owner of one of the boats, SB Amanat, which carried the huge consignment of arms to the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Company jetty on April 2, 2004.
   With Sobhan, 11 of the 43 accused in the case have been sent to jail so far. Twenty-two are
   on bail while the rest including the prime suspects — Hafizur Rahman, Deen Mohammad and Hajji Abdus Sobhan — remain at large.
   The police found 4,930 different types of sophisticated firearms, 27,020 hand grenades, 840 rockets, 300 accessories of rocket launchers, 2,000 launching grenade tubes, 6,392 magazines and 11,40,520 rounds of ammunitions, stuffed in 1,463 wooden boxes of ten truckloads in the country’s biggest-ever arms haul.
   The investigation officer of the case, CID ASP AKM Kabiruddin, submitted the charge sheet to the metropolitan session judge court, accusing 43 persons and listing 114 others as witnesses on June 11, 2004. The court on April 23 framed charges against the 43.

The Bagmara police in association with other intelligence branches of the police have prepared a list of about 300 members of the Jagrata Muslim Janata.
   The Bagmara police said they would conduct drives to arrest the cadres of the militant outfit following directives from the administration.
   The police did not make any such list in the last 15 months, said sources. During this time the militant outfit, emerging at Bagmara, led by its self proclaimed leader Bangla Bhai, killed more than 22 persons and tortured more than 500 at Bagmara, Naogaon, Atrai and Naldanga.

The police on Sunday intercepted a procession, brought out by different left political parties under the banner of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Power and Port at the Paltan crossing in the capital while the activists were marching towards the Niko’s office.
   The national committee organised the programme demanding compensation for the losses caused by blow-outs in Tengratila gas field, expulsion of Niko from Bangladesh, and punishment for both the Niko and government officials responsible for the blow-outs.
   The police put barricade at the Paltan Crossing and stopped the procession brought out from Muktangan. Several hundred activists carrying banners and placards took part in the procession.
   Earlier the police had encircled Muktangan since morning and seized the microphone of the committee when its activists had gathered before bringing out the procession.
   At a brief rally there, the committee leader Professor Anu Muhammad called upon the government to immediately scrap all ‘unequal’ agreements signed with the multinational companies.
   Ruhin Hossain Prince said the committee will announce tougher action programmes to save the national wealth.
   The 11-Party Alliance, a combine of the left and democratic political parties, in a statement condemned the police attack.
   The Left Democratic Front, a combine of the left political parties, also condemned the attack.

Security forces and the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles are on red alert in Rangamati, in a bid to eliminate alien miscreants, gunrunners and their local accomplices amid continued recovery of arms and dismantling hideouts, said sources in the forces.
   Deploying additional forces of the rifles at all the seven border outposts and intensifying vigilance, the joint forces comprising army and rifles have been recovering arms and ammunition, and rounding up miscreants in the drive along the Bangladesh border with Myanmar in Naikhyangchhari, Thanchi and Ruma upazilas, said sources.
   The rifles recovered a buried cache of four anti-tank mines, two improvised guns and seven rounds of ammunition for M-16 and other firearms, at a jhum hut at Tarabunia under Naikhyangchhari Saturday.
   The search was conducted based on a confessional statement of a miscreant picked up from Naikhyangchhari on July 20, said sources.
   On the same day, the army recovered one mortar shell, two improvised guns, seven rounds of ammunition for M-16 and other firearms and materials used by miscreants from two jhum huts in the dense forests of Modak under Thanchi upazila.
   Early Friday, the army demolished another hideout at Chakmajhiri under Ruma and recovered two local guns, six loaded magazines of different weapons, a high-powered antenna, arms manufacturing materials and important documents, said the sources.
   Meanwhile, NASAKA, the border security forces of Myanmar, kidnapped two Bangladeshis from Ghumdhum frontier under Naikhyangchhari on Saturday at gunpoint, said sources in the rifles.
   The two were Ahmed Selim, 30 and Nurul Miah, 27.
   NASAKA entered Bangladesh territory and abducted the two when they worked on their crop field, said sources.

Close-circuit televisions have been installed in the city’s six police stations to monitor activities of on-duty officers.
   The six police stations are Motijheel, Sabujbagh, Paltan, Khilgaon, Demra and Shutrapur.
   The OCs of the police stations would now monitor all activities of his colleagues from their rooms through the CCTVs.
   According to the sources concerned, the initiative for installing the CCTVs has been taken to offer better service to the public by the police.
   The DMP commissioner, Mizanur Rahman, said, ‘We have planned to install CCTVs in all the police stations of the city and court areas to ensure better service and monitor movement of the people.’