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I refer to the news item on the front pages of the dailies on July 21. The police injured around 200 striking workers at Savar EPZ. More to that, the injured workers did not even attempt to go to the nearby hospitals fearing further police harassment. Then in another news item, over 600 ill fated Bangladesh nationals returned home empty handed from Saudi Arabia. Another report said, the bodies of seven Bangladeshi workers who died of suffocation in a fire smoke in Saudi Arabia had arrived.
   The situation could have been worse. The police could have killed some workers in Savar, thousands more could have been brought back along and the dead bodies might never have come back.
   Let us hope that our work force never faces this situation again. Maybe the time has not yet come to realise that a work force is one of the most important factors for Bangladesh to grow as a country. Let us wait as we do the hoping at the same time.
   Subhan Choudhury
   Dhaka

I find it quite disturbing when I find myself enjoying the commentaries on your paper’s front page. Because I always used to think that the front page should not have anything but the news. However in this paper’s case, I have found it to be quite appropriate that the paper’s stand should quite certainly be there.
   But, unlike his more succinct commentaries, I utterly failed to get Zayd Almer Khan’s point in his last one, ‘A world truly at war’. It probably would have been by far the best commentary published in your paper’s closest rival but for New Age, and by the standards you have set for yourselves, it was absolutely inadequate.
   Not only was it vague and convoluted, but Mr Khan seems to have become a bit more removed from the reality of the ‘streets’ than he normally is. I do not refer to those of London, which he seems to be in love with, but the rundown pavements of Dhaka, where I presume he lives.
   I really do not understand why being in some place in London should be better than some place in Pakistan. ‘Because London is a city many of us love and visit often?’ to quote Mr Khan. A Brazilian life is more precious than an Arab’s. And that has spawned so much discussion about the action.
   So I am still wondering, which world is at war? And how?
   Shaheen Mirza
   On e-mail

Our finance and planning minister told the press on July 18 that the price of fuel would not increase immediately in line with high prices in the international market. But the very next day the prices of petrol and octane increased by Tk. 1 to 36 and by Tk. 3 to 38 respectively. The international price of oil is now around US$ 57 per barrel which is more than double since the invasion of Iraq by the US and alliance.
   In this context, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation has incurred a loss of Tk 2700 crore. Due to the fuel subsidy in the previous fiscal year and the loss for the outgoing fiscal is about TK 3000 crore.
   The adviser to the energy and mineral resources division, Mahmudur Rahman, has dwelt on the fuel price readjusting day that ‘in India the price of per litre of octane is equal to Tk 68 while that of per litre of petrol is equal to Tk 64.’ Due to the huge fuel price gap and encompassing long zigzagging border with India, Bangladesh has been suffering reasonable amount of imported fuel leakage that ultimately lose the valuable foreign currency. On the other hand, the agricultural and industrial production cost has to be remained the same or lower by the reasonable fuel price and other applicable subsidy as well as the price of kerosene has to be kept within the purchase capacity of the rural people.
   With this scenario we, the general citizens of Bangladesh want cautious, prudent and consistent activity from the government.
   Saifuddin Ahmad
   North Badda, Dhaka

The victims of terrorist bombings in London, Baghdad and Sharm Al Sheikh are all innocent people and in the case of Baghdad and Sharm Al Sheikh bombings, the victims are mostly Iraqis and Egyptians. Why are religious fanatics who are claiming to be behind these terrorist attacks killing their own people in the name of fighting the west? It must be strange that terrorists are killing Iraqis to protest against the US-led invasion of Iraq. Why are the fanatics killing Egyptians to destroy tourist industry which is vital to the Egyptian economy?
   The answer lies in the fact that the fanatics are equally interested in terrorising their own people to impose their brutal rule over them. As we know from the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, how the Taliban government systematically murdered its own people, oppressed women and banned female education in the name of their version of an atavistic Islam. In Iraq, the fanatics belonging to the minority Sunni group, who once dominated the majority Shiites, want to terrorise their own Shiite compatriots into submission. It is obvious that the terrorists would like to resume the brutalisation of the Shiite majority as Saddam had done during his reign of terror. But they tend to forget that the Shiite majority and the Kurdish minority are now better armed and they are well prepared to thwart any new Baathist bid to dominate them. This is why the coalition forces must remain in Iraq till such time moderate Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds have found a way to live together. Otherwise, the terrorists would renew their attacks on the Shiite majority once the coalition forces leave, triggering a bloody civil war in which today’s violence might look like a child’s play.
   As for the British police’s decision to shoot-to-kill any terrorist suspect which led to the killing of an innocent Brazilian man, they may do well to remember the order of Lord William Bentinck, who wiped a terrorist group called ‘Thugees’ in 19th century India, to his military officers: ‘Shoot them if you must, but I would rather like to see them captured alive. If captured alive, one Thugee will lead me to another and I will be able to do most damage to them.’ Lord Benticnk wiped out a group of religious cultists who were murdering ordinary people in the name of religion. The only difference with today’s Al-Qaeda terrorists was that the Thugees belonged to a Hindu extremist cult and followers of Hindu goddess Kali. They wanted to drive out all non-Hindus from India which meant driving out the Muslim minority as much as the British. Lord Bentinck wiped them out with a policy of infiltration and ruthlessness mixed with moderation.
   Mahmood Elahi
   Ottawa, Canada