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A government intelligence agency in a recent report has listed the different rates of bribes that are regularly charged to sign off on files by a ring of officials and employees at the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, widely known as Shiksha Bhaban.
   The report detailing corruption and irregularities within the directorate recommends immediate transfer of 14 officials and employees who have developed a nexus of corruption over the years.
   The intelligence report, a copy of which has been secured by New Age, mentions that the rates of bribe, usually charged from teachers, range between Tk 300 to Tk 1 lakh for files relating to confirmations of service, transfer, posting, monthly pay order, gratuity, pension, etc.
   The report was submitted to the Ministry of Education earlier this year, which in turn issued a show-cause notice upon the director general of the directorate.
   The director general in reply pleaded innocent and squarely blamed the ring of officials and employees mentioned for the corruption and irregularities, if any, said sources in the ministry.
   ‘Shiksha Bhaban officials and employees charge between Tk 50,000 and Tk 1 lakh for transferring a teacher to Dhaka city from outside, Tk 50,000 for transfers to other cities, and Tk 10,000 for an audit report in favour of a teacher and Tk 5,000 in favour of an employee,’ reveals the report.
   The report mentions that for issuing monthly pay orders, a teacher has to pay Tk 10,000 to Tk 30,000 and for computer and housing loan Tk 12,000. Approval for a year’s education leave costs Tk 12,000, rising to Tk 24,000 for two years.
   ‘Officials and employees at all sections of the Shiksha Bhaban are more or less involved with corrupt practices and they do not and cannot do anything without taking bribe,’ says the report.
   Hundreds of teachers, employees and their well-wishers from across the country come to the Shiksha Bhaban every day for various purposes such as approval of institutions, time-scale, audit report, opening of new sections, recruitment of teachers, selection of seniority, and pension.
   Some officials and employees of the directorate told New Age that they were aware of the report.
   A record-keeper at the directorate who is also an office bearer of the Class III and Class IV government employees’ association topped the list of bribe takers in the intelligence report that recommends his immediate transfer.
   He is the owner of a private car and also uses a luxury SUV while travelling to the districts, according to the report.
   Other officials and employees named in the report include three upper division clerks, an office secretary, an auditor, two deputy directors, three assistant directors, and a project director.
   Only one of the accused has been transferred since the report was submitted to the ministry.
   ‘A number of lower division employees fix the bribe rates and collect on behalf of some high officials,’ the report claims.
   ‘A coordinated corruption of officials and employees in the directorate is responsible for failure to achieve the goals of education despite highest allocation in the notational budget in this sector,’ the report observes.
   The Shiksha Bhaban is entrusted to control the administration and management of around 30,000 secondary and higher secondary institutions, including madrassahs and other special types of educational institutions, across the country.
   It oversees the recruitment, promotion, salaries, and inspections of around five lakh teachers and employees of both government and non-government educational institutions across the country.

The India-Bangladesh joint-working group at its next meeting will look into the non-tariff barriers imposed by India in importing food items that hit Bangladesh hard, commerce ministry officials said.
   The body to resolve the non-tariff barriers, which last met in March 2004, will sit some time in the yearend, they said.
   The foreign secretary-level meeting between India and Bangladesh, which is likely to take place in late June or early July, may fix a date for the next meeting of the joint-working group, said the commerce ministry joint secretary, Elias Ahmed.
   Non-tariff barriers imposed by India in importing food item from Bangladesh result in the unnecessary delay to ship out Bangladeshi products in Indian market and harassment to the exporters.
   Against the backdrop of obstacles created by the Indian authorities in the name of adulteration test of export items, the commerce ministry had asked the International Trade Organisation cell in May to pursue India to solve the longstanding problem.
   Imposition of such barrier is contrary to international business and appears to be the means of deterioration of relations between the two close-door neighbours.
   The official said such practice, which was earlier done by India on two local products unsuccessfully, is narrowing the country’s prospect to enter its products into the market of its big neighbour.
   The issue came once again after Al-Amin group faced difficulty in exporting its item to India and appealed the government to resolve the problem to boost the export volume.
   Accordingly, the ministry assigned its ITO cell to use the existing mechanism to bail out the local food exporters from the grip of non-tariff barrier.
   Al-Amin group in its appeal said the Indian authorities unnecessarily delayed asking it to go for consignment-wise adulteration test for the items that usually takes between 15 and 20 days and costs additional Tk 3,000 for a single item.
   ‘We export our item to many other countries where no such problem occurs,’ the exporter said.
   Export of Bangladesh food items, including biscuits, juice, jam and jelly, on rising trend.
   The ITO is supposed to settle the issue through the existing joint working group, which did not meet in more than one year.
   Bangladesh, however, successfully solved two such issues with India in the past by campaigning in line with the World Trade Organisation rules and regulations.
   India imposed non-tariff barrier on the export of dry cell batteries and cement, but was forced to withdraw the barrier following the campaign, the ministry officials said.

Most mobile operators are planning to shift their focus on postpaid service to increase revenue earnings after attaining a rapid growth in the prepaid segment.
   An estimate said only a half a million out of the 6.4 million mobile subscribers use postpaid package, although average revenue per user is higher in the post-paid segment.
   An AKTel official said a prepaid customer usually spends Tk 300 a month on her mobile bill; but the bill is higher in the postpaid segment because of monthly line rent ranging between Tk 300 and Tk 150.
   All the four private mobile operators achieved a growth rate of about 100 per cent in the past two years because of their aggressive marketing.
   The operators are now shifting their focus on the postpaid segment and have been coming up with new features and packages.
   AKTel, the second largest mobile operator, was the first to announce a one-second pulse from the first minute for the existing and new postpaid customers under a package called ‘redefined postpaid.’
   The package also offers waiver of line rent based on airtime used. It made zonal, interzonal and nationwide roaming free and introduced a convenient payment system of postpaid bills through prepaid scratch cards and electronic refill system.
   Immediately after the AKTel announcement, GrameenPhone and CityCell followed suit. They announced one-second pulses from the first minute.
   Industry insiders said the one-second pulse would increase the number of postpaid subscribers, who are usually considered loyal as they seldom switch operators as the prepaid subscribers do.
   ‘Stiff competition and attractive prices often tempt prepaid customers to migrate to other operators,’ said a GrameenPhone official.
   The AKTel chief operating officer, Vijay Watson, at a briefing on May 23 said, ‘Our postpaid customers are one of the most valued stakeholders in our portfolio, as they are heavy and loyal users.’
   ‘Most companies are heavily investing on infrastructure to increase the number of subscribers. It is important for them to increase the average revenue per user which is lower in the prepaid segment,’ he said.
   AKTel marketing general manager Jose Ravee, who attended the briefing, said its target is to achieve a 100 per cent growth in the postpaid segment by this year from their current subscriber base of one lakh.
   ‘We will offer more features and facilities in postpaid packages,’ he said.
   CityCell senior marketing vice-president Intekhab Mahmud on June 1 told New Age that it had given more focus on the postpaid segment to increase the number of subscribers and to increase revenue per user.
   ‘Our target is to achieve more than 100 per cent growth in the postpaid segment by the yearend from our current base of 90,000 subscribers,’ he said.

The government lacks ‘consistency and prudence’ in making block allocation in the annual budget to meet the unexpected expenditures, officials at the finance ministry said.
   They said this kind of allocation, though made on an ad hoc basis, however, ensures some sorts of flexibility in meeting the unforeseen costs of contingency planning in a calamity-prone country like Bangladesh.
   During the current fiscal year, Tk 1,200 crore out of Tk 1,665 crore would go to unexpected expenses like the post-flood rehabilitation programme and to meet the implementation of the new pay scale.
   The expenditure may also be higher than the block allocation at the end of the fiscal, reversing the trend of the previous fiscal, the sources said.
   In the 2003-04 fiscal year, Tk 441 crore was spent against the block allocation of Tk 1,967 crore, according to the figures shown in the revised budget.
   However, an amount of Tk 20 crore, earmarked as a contingency measure for the rehabilitation of the displaced workers after the phase-out of the multi-fibre arrangement in January, has been returned to the finance ministry.
   A major portion of the money allocated for hosting the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit, which was scheduled for January and rescheduled for February, was not spent due to its postponement.
   The government is not going to keep any allocation for the seven-nation meet in the next fiscal and if Dhaka hosts the meet, the expenses will be met from the block allocation, the sources said.
   ‘We never know what will happen in the middle or end of the year. This is why, the government keeps money under block allocation so that unexpected expenditure could be met whenever needed within the very framework of the budget,’ a high official of the ministry said.
   Differing with the view, another official said excessive changes in the revised budget and the huge amount of block allocation exposed certain weakness of the government and deviation from the spirit of the parliamentary democracy.
   ‘Parliament has passed a bill giving the government a mandate to spend round the year on the basis of revenue
   earnings. This indicates lack of prudence in public expenditure,’ he said.
   In support of such allocation, another official said it is better to keep block allocation instead of giving the money to a ministry concerned, which sometimes cannot spend the money allocated for a particular purpose.
   ‘Such unutilised money is a net loss for the nation. Had the certain amount not been earmarked for a particular head of a ministry, the government could have spent it in a different project,’ he added.

England bowlers offered little respite to Bangladesh batsmen on Friday, the first day of the second and final Test, bundling the visitors out for 104 in only 39.5 overs.
   The visitors were once again at their suicidal best, playing at deliveries that should have been left alone and getting out cheaply in the process, after Michael Vaughan wo n the toss and decided to unleash his four-pronged pace attack on the Test minnows.
   Steven Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff picked up from where they had left off at Lord’s last week, making most of a perfect seaming condition.
   Harmison bowled with venom and his extra bounce and away swingers fetched him five wickets on his home ground.
   He started the route by removing Nafees Iqbal and then dislodging the bails of Habibul Bashar to unsettle Bangladesh.
   Ashraful, Rajin Saleh and Aftab scored 3, 2, 6 respectively as another humiliation for the visitors was clearly written on the war.
   Opener Javed Omar hanged around for 113 minutes for an 83-ball 36 before being beaten by a Hoggard away swinger that nicked his outside edge on the way Geraint Jones’s gloves.
   Khaled Mashud Pilot again showed his fighting spirits by scoring 22 and made sure Bangladesh were not bowled out before scoring 100.
   Harmison spent 38 runs for his victims and Hoggard 24 for his three.

The main opposition Awami League is likely to field a candidate under the banner of the Nagarik Committee in the Narsingdi-1 by-election.
   The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, on Thursday night initially decided that the party candidate would contest the polls under the banner of Nagarik Committee instead of contesting the polls as an Awami League candidate, party sources said.
   The party presidium, empowered to make the decision, will take the final decision in this regard on June 5, the last date for withdrawal of candidacy.
   ‘The final decision will be taken at the party presidium meeting on June 5,’ told Awami League presidium member Kazi Jafarullah MP on Friday night. He, however, observed that the party will go for the polls under the banner of the Nagarik Committee.
   Earlier, the Awami League at its central working committee meeting on June 1 entrusted the party presidium with taking the final decision in this regard as the meeting could not reach any conclusion whether it would contest the election directly with its party symbol ‘boat’. The meeting, however, decided to contest the election either directly or indirectly.
   Political secretary to the leader of the opposition on Friday night said that the party chief decided that M Asaduzzaman would vie for the parliament eat under the banner of Nagarik Committee and Shawkat Ali would withdraw his candidature.
   The Narsingdi district Awami League president, Mohammad Asaduzzaman, submitted his nomination as a combined opposition candidate under the banner of Nagarik Committee and vice-president of the district committee of the party, Mohammad Shawkat, submitted his nomination paper as an independent candidate.
   Hasina asked Asaduzzaman to get prepared for the polls as candidate of Nagarik Committee. During a meeting with Asaduzzaman on Thursday night at party’s Dhanmondi office, Hasina informed him that party would work for him.
   In the June 1 working committee meeting, most of the mid-ranking central leaders suggested fielding party candidate in the by-poll that fell vacant with the death of the BNP lawmaker Shamsuddin Ahmed Eshaq.
   With the withdrawal of candidature by the four, nine still remain in the race including a BNP rebel candidate Rokeya Ahmed Lucky, widow of Eshaq. The last date for withdrawal of the candidature is June 5.

A suspected criminal and boss of illegal arms trade, Gias Hazarika, was killed in an encounter of the Rapid Action Battalion and a suspected crime gang at Pomra of Rangunia in Chittagong early Friday, tallying the figure of crossfire death to 328 since June 2004.
   The battalion said Gias Uddin Iftekhar alias Gias Hazarika, 38, was shot dead when the battalion took him to the area for arms recovery at about 4:00am.
   Earlier, a Unit 7 squad of the battalion arrested Gias in his residence at Kuaish of Hathazari Thursday morning.
   The battalion claimed that after the arrest, it had taken Gias to Rangunia for arms recovery.
   When they reached Kalu Munshir Tila, a group of people, suspected to be associates of Hazarika, attacked the battalion, which forced it to fire back, the battalion members said.
   Both the groups traded more than 60 rounds of gunshots. The battalion admitted to firing 34 shots.
   Gias sustained serious injuries and was taken to Rangunia Health Complex where he was declared dead.
   The battalion recovered four firearms, including a double-barrel gun and a single-barrel gun, with 18 rounds of ammunition from the place.
   A battalion member, constable Abdur Rab, was also injured. He was admitted to the health complex, they claimed.
   The battalion said Gias was accused in a dozen of criminal cases, including three murders. He was involved in a number of sensational murders in Chittagong and its outskirts, including the double murder at Hathazari.
   He told the battalion that he had been in arms trade in Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and adjacent areas for long.
   Two cases were lodged with the police in this connection.
   Gias, head of a Shibir gang, had long been controlling illegal arms trade in Chittagong and adjacent districts.
   He had reportedly brought in modern firearms, including AK-47 and M-16. He was popular among the Shibir men for his peculiar hobbies such as fishing with an AK-47 and singings songs of Bhupen Hazarika. He released two cassettes of Bhupen’s songs sung by him, for which he came to be known as Gias Hazarika.
   He entered the crime world in the early 1090s when he came in contact with Nasir, a criminal of the Shibir gang, and began supplying arms to the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
   The police and the local residents said he used to bring arms from Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf through two of his agents and supplied it to Shibir men.
   Gias became notorious after he had killed a young man of the indigenous community over an arms feud in 200 and burnt the body. He killed another criminal Ledaiya, and became a professional killer.
   By this time he raised some groups in the locality and the members in heavy arms operation.
   After the arrest of Shibir Nasir, most other criminals loyal to Shibir, including Gittu Nasir, Habib Khan, Fayez Munna, Laden Sohel pledged their allegiance to Gias.
   He supplied all the arms used in the Bahaddarhat ‘eight-murder’ where eight leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League were killed on June 19, 2000.
   He left for Saudi Arabia in 2001 and returned the same year and began criminal activities by opening an arms training centre in his residence.
   He also led the killings of a businessman, Mohammad Solaiman, and an Awami League leader, Faruk Mahmud Siddiqui, which took place at Burichar at Hathazari on February 12, 2003, the police and the battalion said.
   Owner of a garment factory, Diamond Fabrics, Gias supplied arms to other areas of the country by truck, hiding the arms inside clothes and cotton.
   Accused in at least a dozen of cases, Gias was arrested several times by the police and the army during Operation Clean Heart; but he was freed on bail in all the cases.
   Trading in arms made him a millionaire in a short time; and he became a boss in the trade of arms in the south-east. He was known as ‘Dada Bhai’ to arms smugglers and Shibir criminals.
   He picked up a girl in Cox’s Bazar about two months ago and forced her to marry him.
   Two of his followers, Gittu Nasir and Fayez Munna, were also killed in crossfire of the battalion and their suspected associates.

A group of non-government organisations campaigning against the use of illegal firearms in Bangladesh said on Friday the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar had become a source of illegal arms for local criminals.
   Four armed Rohingya groups, led by Rohingya National Organisation or RNO, were active in Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong, the NGOs observed adding the foreign organisations largely dependent on foreign fund, smuggled sophisticated firearms to the country and sold many of them to local criminals.
   The NGOs found no presence of international terrorist group in Bangladesh other than foreign criminal groups of Rohingya refugees, but said there were some militant groups in the country and they had international connection either individually or institutionally.
   The Bangladesh Development Partnership Centre along with other NGOs including –– Nari O Manobadhikar Foundation and Bangladesh Coalition for Child Rights –– divulged their findings at a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club.
   In a deadly gunfight between Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh policemen left three people killed and more than 100 injured at Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhiya upazila in Cox’s Bazar on May 18. The police recovered huge arms and ammunition during the raid.
   The NGOs said Bangladesh was being used as a transit of arms smuggling and the recent seizures of huge cache of arms and ammunitions proved it and the government should be extra vigilant to check arms smuggling.
   The NGOs announced a month long campaign programme in the country against illegal use and trade of small arms to mark the upcoming UN biennial conference on the Illegal Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects, scheduled to be held on July 11 to 15 at the UN headquarters.
   Sharif A Kafi, director of the Bangladesh Development Partnership Centre, said some 400,000 illegal arms and about 25,000 legal arms were being used by the criminals in the country.
   He said though those criminals did not have any political goals, they were often being used by the activists of the country’s political parties.
   The NGOs estimated that there were at least 124 organised armed crime syndicates active in the country. In 2000, the NGOs estimated the number of such crime syndicates were 80.
   ‘Apart from using the illegal arms against political opponents these arms are used in tender snatching, extortion, mugging, robbery, land grabbing, illegal drug dealing, women kidnapping and,’ said Kafi.
   To mark the UN conference, the organisations has taken elaborate month-long programmes from June 3 to July 3 to massively campaign against the use and trade of illegal small arms.
   Kafi urged the government to ratify the UN firearms protocol that is a world agreement among the states to control the production, export, import and transit of the firearms.
   Among others, Lina Jambil, member secretary, NAMAF and Nadira Islam, member Bangladesh Coalition for Child Rights (BCCR) attended the conference.

President Carlos Mesa’s bid to defuse weeks of unrest over who will profit from impoverished Bolivia’s vast natural gas wealth so far has failed as demonstrators Friday blocked roads demanding nationalisation.
   Late Thursday Mesa, responding to some of protesters demands, set an October 16 date for electing an assembly to rewrite the constitution, and hold a binding referendum on regional autonomy sought by interests in the more prosperous east, where most gas reserves are located.
   ‘We are going to talk it over with the other (protest) leaders, but I do not think the protests will be called off because nationalisation of oil and gas is not in the (Mesa) message, and that was the focus for us,’ said Abel Mamani, head of a group from El Alto near the capital, one of the flashpoints of violent unrest.
   Mamani spoke as farmers, labourers and activists pressed their days-old effort to keep a stranglehold on the capital to pressure lawmakers and Mesa’s government.
   ‘The country is experiencing a very critical moment, a high risk confrontational situation and in this context we cannot wait until Tuesday,’ Mesa said late Thursday in a televised speech referring to a scheduled debate in Congress on constitutional reform and a referendum on autonomy.
   The president urged street protests to stop and called on the Roman Catholic Church to help set up a national dialogue to calm things down.
   Angry demonstrators here have been pushing for nationalisation of South America’s poorest country’s natural gas wealth and a rewrite of the constitution to balance the interests of the poor Andean highlands around La Paz and the more prosperous tropical eastern plains around Santa Cruz, which is keen to keep as much control possible over its natural resources and finances.
   Early Friday, a public transport strike kept most buses off the streets, and traffic was light as many feared gasoline (petrol) supply problems were soon to come.
   Residents of many capital area streets blocked them off in protests.
   The labour minister, Audalia Zurita, said she was still hopeful the president’s speech late Thursday would mean an end to the demonstrations.
   But pressure on the government remained intense.
   In a blow to Mesa’s cabinet, the economic development minister, Walter Kreidler, resigned Friday over Mesa’s move to call the constitutional assembly vote and autonomy referendum.
   The confrontation with the legislature and the government began May 17 when Congress approved an energy law giving Bolivia a greater stake in the country’s lucrative natural gas industry.

The commerce, home, as well as power, energy and mineral resources ministries have not yet submitted any proposal on the three conditions Dhaka plans to place formally before New Delhi for approval of the proposed trans-national gas pipeline from Myanmar to India through Bangladesh.
   An inter-ministerial meeting at the Energy and Mineral Resources Division decided on May 16 that the three ministries would submit their proposals within a week. However, till Friday, almost three weeks since the decision was made, none of the ministries has come up with any such proposal.
   Dhaka wants New Delhi to provide transit facilities to import hydroelectricity from Nepal and Bhutan, facilitate its trade with the two landlocked countries, and reduce the current bilateral trade imbalance in exchange for the right of way for the gas pipeline.
   The home ministry was supposed to submit a proposal on incorporating national security issues in the agreement and the commerce ministry on transit facilities for trade with Nepal and Bhutan, and reduction of trade imbalance with India.
   The Power Division was, meanwhile, scheduled to submit a proposal on the import of hydroelectricity from Nepal.
   Power Division and commerce ministry officials told New Age on Thursday that the proposals concerned ‘important national issues’ and that they needed more time to prepare them.
   A source in the Energy Division, however, claimed that the ministries were reluctant to submit the proposals as the government has decided to go slow on the gas pipeline issue.
   The state minister for energy and mineral resources, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, dismissed the suggestion.
   The government will pursue the trans-national gas pipeline issue, he said while admitting that none of the ministries had submitted any proposal on the conditions.
   He said the submission of proposals by the ministries might not be needed as he would hold another meeting to discuss the issue. ‘We will discuss the proposals in the meeting.’
   Mosharraf said he would call the meeting after he returns from a three-day ministerial meeting in Canada and seven-day vacation in the United States.
   Mosharraf is likely to leave Dhaka for Canada on
June 6.

The voyage began on May 12 from northern Lalmonirhat. Three young men took a 1,500-kilometre river route, from the north to the south, to explore Bangladesh.
   Daily Star special correspondent Morshed Ali Khan, Scottish freelance photographer Alistair MacDonald, and Bangladeshi consultant of London Tower Hamlet Masud Rahman crossed more than 1,100 kilometres of the 1,500 kilometres they had planned to travel in a single-engine boat.
   Speaking with New Age, Morshed said they may reach the Alipur point, the curtailed destination of the trip, on the Bay of Bengal sometime today.
   ‘We hope to reach Alipur by tomorrow and conclude the voyage,’ he said on Friday. ‘The rough sea will not allow the team to sail for Teknaf, the place they planned to travel to.
   The three voyagers hoisted flags of Bangladesh and Scotland on the Ashar Tari (vessel of hope) that left Patuakhali river port for Kuakata in the morning on June 3.
   The boat reached the River Kirtankhola in Barisal on Tuesday and reached Patuakhali on Thursday on its way to Kuakata, along the Bay of Bengal, nearing the end of its voyage. This voyage will set a record in Bangladesh.
   MacDonald’s wife Rashida Ahmed reached Barisal by road from Dhaka and joined the team on Wednesday.
   They began their journey on May 12 from Moghalghat in Lalmanirhat in the boat, which they had bought in Kurigram for Tk 29,000.
   The team reached Dhaka on May 25 crossing the Brahamaputra, Padma, Jamuna, Dhaleswari and the Buriganga.
   They left Dhaka after three days, on May 28, and anchored at village Char Maijari at Hijla in Barisal, crossing the Meghna and the Dakatia on May 30.
   Local fish trader Jasimuddin, along with 150 villagers, greeted the voyagers there and arranged an overnight cultural function under the open sky.
   ‘We have seen the beautiful green villages on the river banks. The people have been very hospitable and we are grateful,’ Morshed said.
   Macdonald said in his Bangla, ‘This country and its people are very beautiful.’
   Masud said, ‘We will try to make a documentary film on the trip and the 1,500km waterway. We have some video footage and still photos.’

An eerie silence reigned over the Dhaka University on Friday as Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal took a day’s respite from patrolling and the Bangladesh Chhatra League and its allies refrained from making any attempt to enter.
   Both the groups, however, were busy in chalking out the next course of action and plan to face the rivals.
   The Chhatra Dal, student wing of the ruling BNP, decided to file more cases against their rivals while the Chhatra League, the opposition Awami League’s student front, and allies decided to go for a student strike for indefinite period from June 1, the day the university opens after a month-long summer vacation, if their demands were not met by June 30.
   The Chhatra Dal activists ousted the activists of the Chhatra League and it six allies from the campus on May 31 and since then the first was on guard to prevent the latter’s from entering into the campus.
   The Chhatra Dal activists got a sigh of relief as the leaders did not call them for patrolling the entry-points under scorching sun.
   ‘Thanks God! They (leaders) did not call me,’ said a resident of Surya Sen Hall, who was stationed at Shabagh entry-point on Thursday.
   The Chhatra Dal on Thursday night lodged a case with the Ramna police under the explosives act against 20 Chhatra League leaders, including its president Liakat Sikder, accusing them of hurling bomb on their May 31 rally.
   They also decided to file more cases in connection with the rampage on the proctor’s office, violence at the Institute of Fine Art and instigating the ‘evil element’ to violence, the organisation leaders said.
   The Chhatra Dal activists also ousted the Dhaka University unit president of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-backed Chhatra League, Selim Uddin, from his Shahidullah Hall room, No 2028.
   The Chhatra League and its allies held a news briefing at the Colonel Taher auditorium in the JSD office and threatened to go for the student strike if their demands, including removal of the proctor, were not met.
   ‘If our demands are not met by June 30, we will have no way other than going for tougher programmes,’ said Shariful Kabir Swapan, president of the JSD-backed Chhatra League.
   They also announced nationwide demonstrations for today, a rally at the Central Shaheed Minar on June 6 and another one at the Muktangan on June 8.
   The Progressive Students’ Alliance, a unity of eight left student bodies, will lay siege to the office of the vice-chancellor today.
   The Bangladesh Chhatra Moitree will form a human chain at Muktangan wearing black masks.
   The recent incidents in the Dhaka University are taking a national shape with the Awami League and its 13 allies go for a nationwide demonstration on Sunday for what they said creating anarchy by the Chhatra Dal.
   Meanwhile, the inquiry committee, formed by the university syndicate and asked to submit its report within a week, meets for the first time today, five days after its formation.

Saudi Arabia and three other Gulf allies were added Friday to the US blacklist for trafficking in people in a report that also highlighted a ‘burgeoning’ use of slave children as camel jockeys.
   The critiques were contained in the state department’s fifth annual ‘Trafficking in Persons Report’ which analysed efforts in 150 countries to combat trafficking for forced labour, prostitution and other uses.
   The department focused on involuntary servitude trapping some 12.3 million people across the world, and added several states to its ‘Tier 3’ list of worst offenders largely for failing to crack down on forced labour.
   Saudi Arabia, one of the US administration’s closet allies in the Middle East, was listed among the 14 ‘Tier 3’ states that could face sanctions if they don’t improve their records.
   The Saudis were cited for a ‘lack of progress in anti-trafficking efforts,’ particularly their failure to protect men and women trafficked for labour and children thrown into begging.
   Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar made it to the ‘Tier 3’ list at least in part because of the traffic in young boys for use as jockeys in increasingly high stakes camel races.
   Despite promises to curb the practice, the report said ‘the trafficking and exploitation of South Asian and African children as camel jockeys has burgeoned in the Gulf states.’
   ‘Today, thousands of children, some as young as three or four years of age, are trafficked from Bangladesh, Pakistan and countries in East Africa, and sold into slavery to serve as camel jockeys.’ the report said.
   It said Qatar had done little to rescue the estimate 75-250 camel jockeys in the emirate; indeed Qatari officials owned animals running in races in which young boys rode.
   Also added to the ‘Tier 3’ category, defined as countries not even making significant efforts to deal with their trafficking problems, was Cambodia, Togo, Jamaica and Bolivia.
   Holdovers on the blacklist were North Korea, Burma,
   Cuba, Ecuador, Sudan and Venezuela, while Bangladesh, Sierre Leone, Equatorial Guinea and Guyana were taken off and upgraded.
   Nations deemed to be complying with US and international efforts to fight trafficking are placed in ‘Tier 1.’ More than half were placed this year in ‘Tier 2’ for making ‘significant efforts’ to deal with their problems.
   Last year the department created a ‘Tier 2 Watch List’ for more worrisome countries that were not ranked as ‘Tier 3.’ Four countries were added this year: China, Bahrain, South Africa and Uzbekistan.

The Power Development Board on Friday morning snapped power supply to all the 70 camps for stranded Pakistanis across the country.
   About 2.5 lakh stranded Pakistanis have been living in 70 camps for over three decades across the country.
   Hundreds of stranded Pakistanis under the banner of Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee at the Geneva camp instantly took to the streets following the power cut.
   They held rallies and brought out processions in the area and also announced to bring out a massive procession today from the Geneva camp and march towards the prime minister’s office.
   The youth movement of the stranded Pakistanis demonstrated on the streets in Mirpur throughout the day.
   They have decided to stay on the streets protesting against the harsh measure throughout the night. The organisation will also bring out a procession today at 11:00am from Mirpur 11 and march towards the relief ministry.
   Sadakat Khan, president of the youth movement, said on Friday evening, ‘We will fast until death if the minister refuses to ensure resumption of power supply.’
   The youth movement had met with the secretary of the relief ministry, Nazrul Islam, said Sadakat. He said Nazrul had assured them that the relief ministry had asked the power ministry not to sever the supply lines by a letter on May 15.
   Nazrul also said the letter had assured that the relief ministry would pay all the outstanding bills, said Sadakat.
   As per its earlier decision, the power board officials, escorted by the police, severed power lines in the morning, because of non-payment of outstanding bills by the ministry of relief and disaster management.
   Earlier, the power division sent a letter to the ministry to settle outstanding bills of Tk 44.28 crore on May 6, adding a warning that failure to pay the bills by May 15, would result in power supply suspension from May 16.
   The stranded Pakistanis also demonstrated in protest against of the government decision and submitted a memorandum to the ministry of relief and disaster management to take steps against the power division over this issue.

An alleged robber was beaten to death by a mob at Dhaghaldi village under Araihazar upazila early Friday.
   The dead was identified as Jahiruddin, 45, of Noagaon village under the same upazila.
   Local people said a gang of six armed robbers stormed the house of one Tajul Islam at about 4:00am, and tried to loot valuables after attacking a woman.
   As Tajul cried out for help, the villagers came forward and caught one of the robbers. They later beat him to death on the spot.

The United Liberation Front of Assam is running seven hotels of international standards in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet and also operating three bank accounts in Bangladesh, the Border Security Force of India claimed on Friday.
   The BSF inspector-general of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland frontier, SC Srivastava, at a news conference in Shillong named three hotels in Dhaka — Surma International at Taj Mahal Road, Hotel Mohammadia at Mirpur and Padma International at Banani, according to the Press Trust of India.
   The hotels are managed by Subal Barua alias Ahmed Satish Sharma alias Kamal and Ashish Deka alias Hossain, he said.
   In Sylhet, the militant group has two hotels — Keya International at Zinda Bazar managed by Dulal Roy alias Saidul and Yamuna at University Road managed by Anil Dey alias Sohal, he said.
   Another two — Hotel Basundhara managed by Subhash Deka alias Humayun and Raj King managed by Kanailal Barman alias Rubel — are located at Halishahar and Pahartali in Chittagong.
   Srivastava claimed that all the managers of the hotels were cadres of the proscribed outfit.
   He said the three accounts were traced to Arab Bangladesh Bank’s Farm Gate branch in Dhaka, Zinda Bazar branch in Sylhet and Al-Barakah Bank’s Pahartali branch in Chittagong.
   Meanwhile, BDNEWS, another private news agency, adds: the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner, M Mizanur Rahman, ruled out the allegation.
   Terming the allegation ‘false,’ he also said they were not informed or they did not have any trace about such hotels.

The expelled Jatiya Party presidium member and wife of HM Ershad, Bidisha, is now under intelligence surveillance.
   Police have been deployed Friday evening at ZH Shikdar Hospital at Gulshan, where Bidisha is undergoing treatment.
   Meanwhile, airport sources said the government has imposed restriction on Bidisha’s travelling abroad.
   Instructions have been given to immigration to seize her passport if she wants to travel.
   The government put Bidisha under vigilance following her return from India eight days ago.
   Eyewitnesses said nine law enforcers, including seven members of the police, four female ones and two detectives have, been posted at the hospital since Friday afternoon.
   There are allegations that Bidisha met high-ups of the Indian government, which the government deems as activities against the country.
   Bidisha is under medical care at room No. 406 of the hospital. Sources said she took admission to the Hospital to avoid arrest.
   Sub-inspector Babul, duty officer of the Gulshan Polie Station, told the BDNEWS that police have been deployed at the hospital.
   ‘As Bidisha is a political person, we deployed police there,’ he said.

Seventeen Iraqis were killed in the country’s latest round of unchecked violence, sources said Friday, as security forces pressed on with their operation to root out guerrillas in the capital.
   Five people, including a child and two Iraqi soldiers were killed in several attacks north of Baghdad, security forces said.
   In Samarra, guerrillas took on a police rapid reaction force in a firefight that killed the child and one other person, a senior officer said.
   Ten Iraqis were killed and 12 wounded Thursday in a suicide car bomb attack north of Baghdad, a US military source said.
   In southern Iraq, Shia cleric Ali Abdel Hussein was killed by gunmen in Basra overnight, his son and a hospital source said.
   Turkman police General Sabah Bahlul Goralton was assassinated as he left Friday prayers in northern Kirkuk, the second such killing in the ethnically tense oil hub in less than two weeks, the police said.
   His death came after Kurdish police general Ahmad Saleh al-Baranzanchi was murdered in late May in an attack claimed by al-Qaeda-linked militant group Ansar al-Sunna.
   Inhabited by Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Turkmen, Kirkuk was heavily Arabised under the regime of Saddam Hussein.
   Kurds now want the oil-rich city to be the capital of their autonomous region, while Arabs complain of harassment.
   In Baghdad, Iraqi authorities hailed Operation Lightning, a dragnet designed to snare guerrillas in the capital, saying Thursday that 700 had been arrested and 28 killed in five days of operations.
   But three explosions from a mortar attack shook the capital around midday Friday. No casualties were reported.

A Bangladeshi was shot dead by the Indian Border Security Force near the Singimari frontier in Lalmonirhat on Thursday.
   A flag meeting between the Bangladesh Rifles and the BSF was held at no man’s land between 1:00pm and 2:00pm on Friday, said BDR sources.
   The deceased was identified as Hafizul Islam, 30, son of Riyaz Uddin of village Singmari under Hatibandha.
   BDR sources said Hafizul went to his father-in-law Mofiz Uddin’s house at village Singimari near the spot.
   Hafizul was accompanied by his brother-in-law Khalek to the field to guard his boro paddy.
   At night, BSF men of Gabtola BOP under Sitai at Kuchbihar of West Bengal, shot Hafizul, killing him on.
   His body was recovered by BDR men of Singimari BDR BOP.