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Angry villagers detained 12 members of a joint force, comprising the police, Bangladesh Rifles and village defence party, for their suspected attempt to rob a businessman’s house at village Bara Bamundi under Gangni upazila in Meherpur early Thursday.
   Seven policemen, including a police camp in-charge, and the VDP member were arrested and detained at the Gangni police station.
   The officer-in-charge of the Gangni police was also withdrawn and closed to the police lines.
   Admitting the incident, the deputy inspector general of the Khulna range, Noor Mohammad, told New Age that punitive action would be taken against the offenders.
   According to information, the 12-member joint force, led by assistant sub-inspector Altaf Hossain of Elangi camp, encircled the house of one Idris Ali at about 3:00am and ordered him to open the door.
   As Idris opened the door, the team began looting valuables holding all inmates of the house hostage at gun point.
   But the villagers, responding to their cries for help, went to the spot and detained the team members in a primary school compound up to noon. The others, however, managed to escape.
   The detained law-enforcers were Altaf, police constables Mahfuz, Helal, Abul Bashar, Yunus, Bijoy Kumar and Habib and VDP member Shushanta.
   In the morning, more people from nearby villages thronged the school premises and demanded immediate punishment of the law enforcers.
   Upon being informed, the Gangi police also went to the spot but failed to bring the detained persons into their custody.
   Later, the additional deputy commissioner, Akteruzzaman Mohammad Mostafa Kamal and circle Assistant Superintendent of Police Israil Hossain Munshi went to the spot and
   calmed down the situation assuring the people that punitive action would be taken against them.
   The uniforms of the detained persons were stripped off and they were handcuffed before being taking away to the Gangni police station.
   Speaking to newsmen, Altaf denied the allegations of robbery and claimed that they raided the house to arrest an absconding underground outfit Kalam.
   But Idris alleged that the same group of policemen had also looted his house a few weeks ago and fled with Tk 26,000 in cash.
   Additional Deputy Inspector General Khulna range Sohrab Hossain on Thursday visited Gangni to gather first hand information about the incident.

The high command of the Rapid Action Battalion has asked all its members to behave after a number of number of ‘unexpected and controversial actions’ of some RAB personnel cast shadows on the elite crime-busting force.
   Twelve unexpected and unacceptable actions by RAB personnel have been detected while they were in operation or staying at their stations. A list of the questionable actions has been put on a large board in each RAB headquarters in the city.
   On the top of the list are misconduct with people, arrest of innocent people without specific accusations, intimidation over telephone for personal reasons or for anything beyond the RAB purview, and false allegations against someone for the sake of personal interest.
   Standing on one leg while on duty, wearing dirty uniforms or taking off berets or head scarves, eating on or beside the road, sleeping in vehicles, involving themselves in
   unnecessary discussions with people, getting involved in affairs beyond the battalion’s jurisdiction, initiating
   quarrels or developing unsavoury relations with members of other law enforcing agencies and not being able to maintain physical fitness are the other behavioural items that have been written on the boards.
   Sources in the battalion said following numerous allegations and complaints by people and even insiders, the RAB officers observed the activities of on-duty personnel and found that many complaints were based on fact.
   They said these actions were not only weakening the discipline of the force but were also making the RAB controversial in the eyes of people.
   ‘The list has been put on display at the entrance so that it can attract the attention each and every RAB member,’ said a battalion member.
   ‘This has been done so that they can see it in the beginning of each day and stick to the rules.’
   The battalion’s director-general, Azizur Rahman Sarker, however, denied that the display of the list was a result of public controversy.
   ‘The list is nothing but an effort to motivate the personnel and boost discipline in the battalion,’ he claimed.
   ‘This is part of our rules and it will help to increase the members’ enthusiasm for
   discharging their duty properly.’
   The Rapid Action Battalion has been widely criticised for various reasons by many people since the elite force hit the roads on March 26, 2004.
   The RAB has taken action against more than 200 of its members for their involvement in robbery, extortion and
   misconduct with people,
   and has sent back 125 members to their previous departments, said RAB sources.
   A member of RAB-4, Sergeant Atiqur Rahman, was caught red-handed by local people when he, along with
   six others, looted Tk 7.80 lakh from a cattle trader, Ratan, at his Kotbari, Mirpur residence on March 23 this year.
   Another member of RAB-3 was arrested by the other members of the battalion when he was collecting toll from a shop at Gopibagh recently.
   A RAB-3 team assaulted a photojournalist of the Bangla daily Jugantor, SM Gorki, when he was discharging his journalistic duty in front of the Baitul Mukarram Mosque in mid-March.

The World Bank has set a July 31 deadline for the government to carry out a number of reforms in the revenue administration, and trade, energy and banking sectors, to get $200 million in the third phase of the bank’s development support credit programme.
   The acting country director of the bank, Anthony Richard Howe Bottrill, has specified the areas where, the bank believes, there should be immediate reforms, in a letter to the finance secretary, Zakir Ahmed Khan.
   The letter, titled DSC III — Actions to be Taken and State of Play, specifies 14 areas for immediate reforms.
   Once the government completes reforms in these areas within the stipulated time, a proposal under the credit programme will be placed in the meeting of the bank’s board of directors in August, sources in the Economic Relations Division told New Age.
   The multilateral lending agency has asked the government to appoint advisors for human resource development, audit and information technology in the revenue department as part of its modernisation programme. The government is to run an advertisement for an international consultant for the modernisation programme by June 15, says the letter.
   ‘The government will confirm to the Bank in writing its approval of the NBR’s Modernisation Strategy and the TAPP. It will also issue by June 15 advertisements for an international consultant to advise on modernisation, a local counterpart, an advisor on human resources, an advisor on audit and an information technology manager to strengthen the NBR management team.’
   The National Board of Revenue has undertaken a modernisation strategy, which will be finalised soon, and will run an advertisement for the consultant by June, sources in the revenue board told New Age.
   The bank has also asked the government to ‘the remaining ban on imports of cartons and remove the requirement for additional permits on other goods, where import bans have been lifted’, says the letter. ‘There will be no additional trade categories subject to supplementary duties and no increase in the overall level of protection, including both customs tariffs and SD [supplementary duty].’
   The government has recently lifted the ban on fabrics of 13 categories while the World Trade Organisations has allowed Bangladesh to continue the ban on cartons up to 2009 taking into account the interest of local industries, said officials in the commerce ministry.
   ‘The WTO understands our problems but the World Bank has shown no respect to the WTO,’ a commerce ministry high official told New Age.
   However, the government is highly likely to withdraw the ban on cartons as it needs the World Bank credit, hinted the sources in the ministry.
   On June 7, the ERD secretary, Ismail Jabiullah, sent letters to the commerce, power and Internal Resources Division secretaries, the Bangladesh Bank governor, and the Anti-Corruption Commission chairman, requesting them to complete reforms in the areas as specified by the lending agency.
   ‘The implementation of the next annual development programme will face fund crisis, if the loans are not available in time,’ he wrote.
   Officials of the finance ministry are, however, hopeful that the bank would release the credit latest by September.
   ‘More than 90 per cent of reform activities, outlined by the lending agency, would be completed by July’ a high official of the ministry told New Age.
   The bank’s letter has also insisted that there should be a ‘fit and proper test’ for selection of potential investors of the Rupali Bank.
   The criteria under the ‘fit and proper test’ has already been finalised and will soon be issued by the Privatisation Commission, said officials of the Bangladesh Bank.
   The World Bank has also asked for appointment of a consultant by July 31 for drafting the financial reporting act.
   The appointment will be made before the deadline,
   said sources in the finance ministry.
   The lending agency has also insisted that the organogram for the Energy Regulatory Commission and the Anti-Corruption Commission should be finalised by June 30, the cabinet should approve the new procurement law by June 30 and the financial restructuring of the power sector should be completed by June 20.
   The bank earlier extended $500 million under the first two phases of the development support credit programme.

Ten leading chambers and business associations on Thursday urged the government to withdraw the budgetary provision for whitening black money and the tax on SIM cards of mobile phones.
   In a joint statement, the chamber leaders, however, said the government could give owners of black money a last chance for legitimising their booty, but at a much higher income tax.
   ‘At the most, the government can allow this facility for the very last time, provided a higher income tax of minimum 30-40 per cent is charged to whiten the black money, once and for all,’ said the statement.
   The business leaders observed that the continuation of the facility for whitening black money by paying only 7.5 per cent income tax is a reversal of the finance minister’s announced intention to introduce accountability and transparency in tax administration.
   ‘This provision will continue to provide encouragement to elements who have amassed ill-gotten wealth and at the same time cause frustration in the honest tax payers,’ said the statement. ‘This budgetary proposal should be dropped altogether to improve the image of the country, which regrettably is being rated for the last few years as the most corrupt country in the world.’
   The chamber leaders also strongly urged the government to withdraw the tax on SIM cards. ‘By withdrawing the tax on SIM cards, the revenue could be increased manifold every year as VAT from the new connections instead of collection of much smaller volumes of tax on SIM cards.’
   The business leaders argued that imposition of Tk 1,200 tax on SIM cards of mobile phones would not only cause reduction in the collection of VAT, import duties and corporate taxes from the mobile phone operators, but would also slow down the increase of tele-density and adversely affect investment in this most important sector. ‘Therefore, the government should consider withdrawing the tax on SIM cards.’
   The business leaders, at the same time, said the mobile phone operators should also ‘reduce their tariff structure and withdraw the charge on incoming calls, in line with the prevalent practice in neighbouring countries’.
   They, however, appreciated the decision of lowering tax on mobile sets as a positive step as this would stimulate market growth and also discourage smuggling.
   The business leaders termed the increase of corporate tax rates for non-listed companies ‘not an investment-friendly’ step.
   They also said the insurance sector would be badly hit by the budgetary provisions that restrict allowable management expenditures for insurance companies.
   Although the chamber leaders welcomed continuation of three-tier customs duty, they said duty rates have not been reduced to the requisite level for items essential to growth and attainment of competitiveness.
   Those who signed in the statement are: International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh president Mahbubur Rahman, Bangladesh Association of Banks chairman Syed Manzur Elahi, Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Mahbub Jamil, Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Kutubuddin Ahmed, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Sayeeful Islam, Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, Bangladesh Chamber of Industries president AK Azad, American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh president Aftub-ul Islam, Bangladesh Insurance Association chairman M Shamsul Islam, Bangladesh Jute Mills Association chairman M Ali Behrouze Ispahani.

The sale of mobile phones has dropped by around 20 per cent as many would-be customers have held off from buying new phones after imposition of the Tk 1,200 tax on SIM cards.
   Mobile phone sellers said because of the new tax imposed on SIM cards, the prospective customers are not buying new mobiles, which has resulted in a drastic fall of sales. Sales of mobiles largely depend on new connections sold by the five mobile phone operators in the country. Only 10 per cent of the existing 6 million sets are replaced by new ones every year.
   On the other hand, as the proposed budget has reduced duty on mobiles to Tk 300 from Tk 1,500, the customers are waiting for the brand new handsets at low prices with proper warranty.
   According to market sources, more than 80 per cent of the mobiles available in the market are smuggled and the vendors do not provide any warranty for those sets.
   Mobile sellers at Eastern Plaza, Motalib Plaza, Stadium Market and Bashundhara City Market, the major hubs of smuggled mobiles with around 220 shops altogether, said that they usually sold around 3,000 mobiles of different brands and models everyday, whose price range was Tk 3,000 to Tk 30,000, before the announcement of budget.
   The mobile sellers said that after the budget announcement, the sales fell to around 2,500 units a day because of the tax on SIM cards.
   Many customers are not buying new connections and the operators have also stopped distribution of SIM cards for two or three days after the budget announcement.
   The operators fear that the demand for mobiles will fall further if the tax on SIM cards is not withdrawn.
   ‘If there is a downtrend in connection sales, there must be a downtrend in mobile sales,’ said Nazrul Islam of Ratul Enterprise at Eastern Plaza.
   Sohel Hossain of Maple International Ltd at Eastern Plaza said that usually he sold around 30 to 40 sets a day, but now he can sell only 15 to 20.
   The vendors also said that the supply of mobiles to the market has also fallen as the importers are keeping a close eye on the market situation.
   They said that supply will be increased after three months when the new imported sets will be available in the market.
   ‘But demand for the mobiles will not increase due to the high price of SIM cards,’ said Sohel Hossain.
   The government collected import duty from only 6.26 lakh mobiles in the current
   fiscal year, though some 23 lakh SIM cards have been sold between July 2004 and
   May 2005. This caused the government a revenue loss of Tk 128 crore, said officials of the National Board of Revenue.
   The NBR officials said the rest of the sets, about 17 lakh mobiles, were smuggled into the country.
   The government has earned about Tk 100 crore from import duty on mobiles until May of the current fiscal year.

The bickering between supporters of two top leaders of the city Awami League deepened further after a number of city leaders of the largest opposition party received death threats over telephone in the past few days.
   Many of the leaders believe that the death threats were being given by their rivals within the party.
   One group led by the party’s city president, Mohammad Hanif, and the other by the general secretary, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, have been at loggerheads over the formation of thana and ward committees about a couple of months ago.
   The conflict reached its peak following the killing of the city legal affairs secretary, Khorshed Alam Bachchu, on May 17.
   The joint general secretary of the city unit, Hajji Mohammad Selim, the organising secretary, Kazi Mustak Elen, executive committee member Fazlur Rahman, the woman affairs secretary, Jahanara Begum, the Mohammadpur thana unit secretary, Habibur Rahman Mizan, and the Demra thana unit secretary, Habibur Rahman Munna, have received death threats in the last 10 days, according to party sources.
   Only Jahanara Begum filed a general diary with the Khilgaon police.
   Selim and Elen told New Age that they had received death threats several times since the murder of Bachchu.
   Barely ten days after the murder, the Awami League on May 26 suspended the Dhaka city committee to avert any possible clashes between the two groups.
   A city leader, preferring not to be named, told New Age had the infighting not been stopped, many other leaders might face dire consequence.
   Bachchu was a close aide to Maya who apparently lost his stand inside the party as Hanif approved committees dominated the city units. About 40 leaders out of 60 city level leaders also took stand against Maya.
   Maya blamed Hanif for the killing and called an instant strike in the city on May 19 to protest Banchhu’s murder. The killing made a way to retain his strength inside the city unit politics, said a city unit
   leader residing at Tejgaon area who has been receiving death threat.
   Meanwhile, no end to the deadlock is in sight, as the eight-member committee, assigned by the party to look into the disputes, made a little progress, party sources said.
   The Awami League central working committee at an emergency meeting with Sheikh Hasina in the chair on May 30 night reviewed the situation of the city unit and directed the committee members to submit reports in a month. The committee started functioning this weak.

When the finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, announced that he has allocated 54 per cent of the total budget for poverty reduction by both direct and indirect means, it seemed that the pattern of public spending would be in line with the poverty reduction strategy paper.
   However, Saifur did not mention to what extent poverty will decline in the next fiscal year through such ‘bulk’ budgetary allocation, and whether the poverty reduction rate will be in line with the targets outlined in the UN millennium development goals.
   The MDG set the target of poverty reduction at a rate of 1.35 per cent each year. But the preliminary report of the Poverty Monitoring Survey 2004 says the poverty rate has declined by 2.6 per cent in the last five years, showing an annual average reduction rate of about 0.52 per cent.
   ‘We have achieved a faster rate of reduction of poverty during the period of 2000-05,’ Saifur claimed in his budget speech, however.
   The budget also did not mention specifically at what rate poverty was reduced due to the finance minister’s previous budgetary measures.
   ‘It is very unclear how he has derived the figure and which ministries, agencies, programmes or projects are included in this,’ said Debapriya Bhattacharya, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue.
   The economist was of the view that the most important public development document of the country, the budget, lacks transparency regarding resource allocation to its most important objective.
   Referring to the PRSP, Saifur said, ‘Poverty can be reduced by creating extensive employment opportunities. The government’s basic principle is to aim at increased economic growth to create jobs for the poor to that end.’
   The PRSP has put employment generation at the top of the seven strategic agenda for achieving the goal of accelerated poverty reduction in Bangladesh.
   The proposed budget for 2005-06 failed to spell out to what extent the budgetary measures will create employment or reduce unemployment within a specific period of time.
   In his budget speech, Saifur did not even mention the unemployment level in the country, and he had earlier made the incredible claim that there was no unemployed person in Bangladesh.
   The latest Labour Force Survey of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, however, reveals that some 20 lakh people, constituting 4.3 per cent of the labour force, are unemployed.
   It also said over 1.51 crore people, or 34.2 per cent of the labour force, are under-employed due to limited working opportunities.
   Saifur proposed allocation of Tk 4,600 crore from the non-development budget for targeted poverty reduction, social safety net and employment generation programmes.
   Though there were several specific proposals in the budget like the Tk 831-crore special credit programmes for employment generation and Tk 50 crore for the seasonal unemployment reduction fund, there are no clear indications of how the resources will be used.
   However, one should not blame the finance minister for lack of clear guidelines for employment generation as per the priorities of the PRSP.
   In fact, the PRSP document has no clear guidelines for employment generation although it underscores the process as one of the core instruments.
   The PRSP has 18 policy matrices on different areas like macro-stability, food security and good governance, and many of the matrices are relevant with regard to employment generation.
   But there is no separate policy matrix on employment generation, no exercise on fixing the level of employment within a period of time and no benchmark indicators to measure reduction of poverty level through new employment.
   Even the fifth Five-Year Plan, abandoned in 2002, targeted employment generation programmes during the plan’s period.
   ‘The way the finance minister spoke about poverty and employment in the budget only reflected the government’s conceptual deficiency in these areas,’ said Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, president of the Bangladesh Economic Association.
   He was of the view that idea of employment generation by expanding micro-credit programmes will be of little use due to absence of long-term, targeted planning.

Marcus Trescothick marked his 100th one-day international by scoring 100 not out as England thrashed Bangladesh by 10 wickets in the opening NatWest Series triangular match at The Oval here Thursday.
   The 29-year-old Somerset opener, only the tenth England player to play in 100 one-dayers, faced 76 balls with 16 fours for his ninth limited overs international hundred. His fellow left-hander Andrew Strauss finished on 82 not out off 77 balls with one six and 10 fours as England, chasing 191 for victory, won with 25.1 overs to spare.
   It was only the second time in 414 matches that England had won a one-day international by 10 wickets after beating West Indies by the same margin in July 2000 at Durham’s Riverside ground.
   As runs flowed, first change Khaled Mahmud saw his opening over go for 21 runs with four fours and three no-balls.
   Trescothick, who scored 191 and 154 in England’s 2-0 Test series win against Bangladesh earlier this season, twice cut Mahmud over the head of wicket-keeper Khaled Mashud for cheeky fours.
   On 89 he almost holed out against left-arm spinner Mohammad Rafique, the ball dropping short of Tushar Imran, who was slow to run-in from long-on. All the Bangladesh bowlers suffered, with seamer Nazmul Hossain’s seven overs costing 61 runs.
   Even though they set a far from challenging target, Bangladesh - bottom of the world one-day international rankings - were lucky to have made 190 after their collapse to 76 for six having lost the toss.
   But Aftab Ahmed (51) and Rafique (30) doubled the score to 152 for seven.
   Then tail-enders Mashrafee bin Mortaza (29 not out) and Nazmul put on 31 for the last wicket. But despite the seam-bowler friendly, overcast, conditions Trescothick and Strauss cashed in against a wayward attack.
   Earlier, fast bowler Stephen Harmison took four for 39 while Jon Lewis, on his full one-day international debut, claimed three for 32 as he made short work of the Bangladesh top order.
   World champions Australia are due to make their series debut against Bangladesh in Cardiff on Saturday.

Third World countries ended their summit here Thursday with a call on rich nations to boost aid and the creation of a development fund with an initial 20 million dollar contribution from host country Qatar.
   Delegates unanimously approved Qatar’s proposal for setting up the ‘South Fund for Development and Humanitarian Aid’ and welcomed Doha’s contribution. The final communique, dubbed the Doha Declaration, also praised China and India for contributing two million dollars each and called on other ‘capable nations’ to contribute to the fund.
   The fund will be based in Doha. After the Group of 77 and China appealed to rich nations to ‘urgently meet the internationally agreed Official Development Assistance target of 0.7 per cent of donor countries’ Gross National Product.’
   The increase in ODA to 0.7 per cent would pump tens of billions of dollars into the poor nations, whose economies are crippled by lack of finance and huge foreign debt.
   Around 50 heads of state and other representatives of member-states in the G77 and China gathered in Doha for the two-day summit which tackled South-South cooperation, South-North relations and the huge debt crisis of poor nations.

Bidisha, estranged wife of HM Ershad, on Thursday got bail in the third case, but the police brought another charge, of money laundering, to keep her behind bars.
   A Dhaka court set the ad interim bail for Bidisha in a case for marrying Ershad without divorcing her first husband –– a British citizen.
   The fresh case of siphoning off money abroad against Bidisha –– the fourth since her arrest on June 4 –– was filed with the Gulshan police on Thursday.
   Earlier, Bidisha got bail in the first two cases –– one for theft, money embezzlement and attempt to murder case filed by Ershad and the other by the government for passport forgery.
   Arguing for bail in the adultery case on Thursday in the Dhaka District and Sessions Judge’s court, defence lawyers, Zahirul Islam and Kamruzzaman Mahbub, said that their client was seriously ill and not getting proper treatment at the prison cell of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital.
   The case lodged against her was bailable and she had been detained illegally, the lawyers said.
   The counsels submitted that as the divorce was not finalised yet, she was till wife of Ershad. Besides, Ershad took away her child Eric unlawfully.
   ‘Bidisha became a victim of politics and needs urgent treatment,’ they said and urged the court to grant her bail on humanitarian ground.
   Opposing the bail prayer, the public prosecutor, Mohammad Mohsin Miah, urged the court not to grant her bail
   saying that she should not get bail.
   ‘It is non-acceptable to grant bail on an incomplete revision petition,’ he submitted.
   The judge, Rafiqul Islam, however granted Bidisha an ad interim bail till June 23 at a bond of Tk 50,000.
   The judge fixed June 23 for detailed hearing of the petition.
   Earlier, two Dhaka District Magistrate courts declined to accept the bail petition on Tuesday and Wednesday on the charge of adultery brought against Bidisha by Ershad for marrying him without divorcing her first husband, Peter Stuart Whisson.
   As Bidisha was granted bail and awaited release on Thursday, she was again shown arrested in the afternoon in the fresh charge that said police detected Tk 21 crore in Bidisha’s banks both home and abroad which did not fit with her income.
   The case was filed with Gulshan police station and its officer-in-charge, Noor-e Alam, lodged the case upon the approval given by a Bangladesh Bank deputy director Bimal Chandra Banerjee on June 14.
   Moving the case before the court of metropolitan magistrate, Jagannath Das Khokan, the prosecution pleaded that Bidisha be sent to the jail from the prison cell of the hospital. The prosecution also sought permission of the court to interrogate her in the jail.
   The court ordered that the accused should be detained in the jail until the completion of the investigation into the case.
   The court fixed June 20 for passing order on the interrogation of the accused in jail custody and July 3 for next hearing of the case.
   Bidisha was arrested on June 4 when Ershad filed a theft, money embezzlement and attempt to murder case against her with Gulshan police station on the day.
   Before the arrest Ershad, chairman of a faction of the Jatiya Party, fired Bidisha from all her party portfolios and a day after the arrest, Ershad divorced Bidisha.

Technopromexport, a Russian firm which set up the 210 megawatt Siddhirganj Power Plant, has threatened to stop production if it is not paid Tk 20 crore in arrears by June 30.
   The chief of the company, Takarnikov, in a letter to the Power Development Board on Tuesday said it was quite impossible for them to carry on work without payment of the arrears amounting to Tk 20 crore.
   ‘If the government fails to pay the arrears by June 30, the company will stop production in the plant without serving further notice to the PDB,’ he added.
   The Russian company completed the construction of the plant in 2004, 10 years after it had signed a contract in 1994 to set up the plant within three years.
   Although the plant went into operation in December 2004, the company is engaged in production as the warranty period is yet to be over.
   If the production from the plant is being stopped it would be a blow to the power supply; especially the city would suffer acute load shedding, sources in the Power Division said.
   A highly placed source in the power division, however, blasted the Russian company, saying it has been blackmailing the government time and again.
   Although the project was taken up in 1991 with an estimated cost of Tk 580 crore, it was revised at Tk 1,080 crore in 1994 due to the delay in implementation, the division sources said.
   The project cost was raised to Tk 1,380 crore as the company had lingered the project missing at least six deadlines, they said and added that the company had provided Tk 544.89 crore in foreign currency as suppliers’ credit.
   The sources also said the company had illegally demanded the invoice money before the completion of the project.
   As the project has been delayed by several years, most of the metallic equipment got rusty, ineffective and out of order, and several items, as per the supply lists, had been found missing. Consequently, the PDB had to count a loss of about Tk 4 crore.
   The source termed the threat by the Russian company ‘irrational’ as it got many favours despite lingering the project for years.
   A high official of the division said the PDB was not in a position to handle the issue as it had not got any fund from the government.
   He said the state minister for power, Iqbal Hasan Mahmood, would soon invite the Russian ambassador in Dhaka to discuss the issue.

The UK-based Asia Energy Corporation (Bangladesh) estimated that the total reserve of coal at the Phulbari coalmine is about 522 million tonnes after completing a 10-month exploratory programme on Thursday.
   The company had bored a total of 107 holes during the period to establish a resource of 552 million tonnes of high quality coal, said a company release.
   The company drilled the final test hole on the Phulbari coal basin on Thursday after it began its current programme of drilling in September, 2004 as part of a feasibility study to determine the full extent of resource and quality of the coal with a view to starting mining operation in 2007.
   Mahmudur Rahman, executive chairman of the Board of Investment, visited the basin on Thursday to see drill workers pull coal from the last bore, a large diameter hole which will provide final samples for coal quality testing and design of the processing plant.
   In line with Australia’s Joint Ore Reserve Committee Code, the company said, 306 million tonnes of coal are measured, 72 million tonnes indicated, and the rest of 144 million tonnes are inferred.
   The company plans to mine the coal by open pit method as mainly the layer is close to the surface.
   At full production, the mine will produce 15 million tonnes of coal a year both for the local and export markets.
   Asia Energy is currently completing Social and Environmental Impact Assessments, and expects to deliver a Mining Scheme for approval by the Bangladesh government later sometime this year.
   The mine will generate sizeable tax and royalty to the Bangladesh government, and in all up to $1.4 billion will be invested in the national and regional economy over its 30-year life, the company said.

As the fiscal year nears its end, the engineers working at government agencies at Rangamati practically mint money as ‘percentages’ from development funds for projects already completed by contractors.
   ‘Engineers hunt for the opportunity since the contractors become desperate to receive their bills for the development projects they had completed or that are close to completion, before the end of the fiscal,’ said a clerk at the LGED office.
   ‘The regular percentage for the engineers is 40 per cent, with 10 per cent for the executive engineer, from the project funds,’ he said.
   ‘We become hostage to the engineers as we have to earn our livelihood from this business. Hence, we must fulfil their demand and there are no alternatives,’ said a contractor who went to the LGED office in Rangamati on Wednesday, to receive bill.
   Several other government bodies in Rangamati including the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board, Rangamati Hill District Council, Education Engineering Department, Department of Public Health Engineering and the Municipality, that are allotted yearly funds for development project have similar practice said contractors.
   They said tender bidding is no longer profitable if the practice cannot be stopped. ‘It not only harms us but also deprives the people,’ they said.
   The LGED executive engineer, Wahidul Alam, termed the practice a hard fact. ‘Everybody knows about this “reality” and that is how the system has come to be,’ he admitted.
   The executive engineers of the hill tracts development board, district council, and the education engineering declined to comment on the matter. The executive engineer of the public health engineering department, Md Abu Khaled, invited this correspondent for a cup of tea instead of making any comments.

George, arrested from Feni Saturday on charge of his involvement with the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally, was on Thursday taken on a seven-day fresh remand.
   The Criminal Investigation Department of the police earlier took him on a five-day remand that ended on the day.
   A Dhaka court granted the seven-day remand after the CID police had produced George, arrested as per the statement of Arman, one of the 23 most wanted criminal in the city now on RAB custody, and sought his 10-day fresh remand.
   ‘During interrogation, George disclosed some exclusive information regarding the attack and we need to cross-examine it.
   We also need more informati
   on in fresh remands,’ a CID high official told New Age.
   ‘We are sure that he was directly involvement with the attack as he was injured during the attack and went into hiding.’
   He, however, declined to disclose the information given by George ‘for the interest of the case’.
   Meanwhile, Mokhlesur Rahman, president of ward No 54 unit of the Awami League and a former commissioner of the ward, will be produced before the court on Friday on completion of his five-day remand that started on Sunday, the CID sources said.
   Mokhles was also picked up by the CID police from his Maghbazar residence on Friday following statement of Arman.
   The CID sources said they were interrogating Mokhles about his suspected involvement in harbouring the criminals, and also in the August 21 grenade attack that killed 23 people.

The US ambassador, Harry K Thomas, on Thursday said his country and other foreign diplomats want to do everything they can to make the next general elections in Bangladesh free, fair, and impartial.
   ‘I told her [Hasina] that we do everything we can to make the next the elections free and fair, the outgoing US envoy told journalists after he made a farewell call on the opposition leader, Sheikh Hasina, at her Sudha Sadan residence.
   During more than an hour-long meeting with Hasina, Thomas said he discussed about the next general elections, her health and safety, and the Kibria case.
   About the killing of Shah AMS Kibria, Thomas said, ‘I assured her that we are working diligently on the Kibria case.’
   Thomas also said he inquired about health of Hasina who is still suffering from wounds from the August 21 grenade attack and wished her all best.
   About his successor, Harry said the next US ambassador in Bangladesh will be appointed soon. ‘Whoever succeeds me the US role in development of Bangladesh would remain unchanged.’
   Briefing reporters on the meeting, the Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil, MP said the US and other foreign countries were planning a seminar on a long-term observation about the next general elections as part of their desire to see that the elections are free and impartial.
   About the investigation into the case of Kibria killing, Jalil said the US is ‘very serious’ as they feel that if the main accused in the case could be arrested, clues of other incidents, including the August 21 grenade attack, would be unearthed. ‘The US has been disappointed with the process of investigation into the August 21 grenade attack.’
   Jalil questioned the Criminal Investigation Department’s claim about the finding of clue about the August 21 attack 10 months after the incident when FBI and Interpole could not make any headway despite their repeated inquiry.
   The Awami League general secretary said the US envoy praised Hasina’s struggle for strengthening democracy in Bangladesh, and reiterated his country’s support to it.
   Whether the Awami League informed the US envoy of their party demand for early election and reforms to the caretaker government and electoral system, Jalil replied in the negative.

The government apparently does not give much importance to what the outgoing ambassador of the United States, Harry K Thomas, commented about Bangladesh.
   ‘We don’t give much importance to it…He has not said anything new,’ the law minister, Moudud Ahmed, told reporters on Thursday. ‘At best, it was an expression of his anxiety about the welfare of the people in the perspective of Bangladesh’s political culture.’
   Thomas, at a meeting with members of the Diplomatic Correspondents’ Association of Bangladesh on Tuesday, said, ‘If major parties do not work together on issues of national interest, the people will look for alternatives, which will not be good.’
   The government has no difference of opinion with him (Thomas), as it also feels that a sound political culture needs to be nurtured so that the democratic process can be maintained and further strengthened, said Moudud.
   About US Assistant Secretary for South Asian Affairs Chrtistina Rocca’s statement to the US House Subcommittee on Foreign Relations in Washington on Tuesday, he said, ‘We should not pick up isolated words, we should rather judge the statement in its entire context.’
   ‘Except one word or one sentence, 99 per cent of her statement made good comments about Bangladesh, so I do not want to give importance to one line of her statement.’
   When his attention was drawn to a report of the Human Rights Watch that said Bangladesh is being turned into an Islamic republic from a secular state by a certain quarter under the patronage of the four-party government, Moudud said, ‘Maybe it is their opinion…that does not matter.’
   ‘We are not suffering from any sort of bankruptcy. I think we are capable of looking after ourselves,’ concluded Moudud.

Six US soldiers and eight Iraqi police officers were killed in bomb attacks while a judge was assassinated in Iraq.
   A roadside bomb attack killed five US Marines, and gunfire killed an American sailor in a western Iraqi town, the US military said on Thursday.
   Also Thursday, a suicide car bomber slammed into a truck that was carrying policemen along the main road connecting Baghdad with its airport, killing at least eight officers and injuring at least 25, police and hospital officials said.
   The suicide bomber ploughed his black sedan at high speed into a truck carrying police officers from checkpoint to checkpoint along the road.
   The attacks came amid an upsurge in violence appeared to be aimed at derailing stepped-up efforts by Shia politicians to bring the disaffected Sunni Arab minority into the political process.
   The Marines died Wednesday after their vehicle was attacked near Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. Officials in Ramadi had reported a roadside bomb blast in the pre-dawn hours.
   A sailor attached to the Marines’ unit, the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, was also killed Wednesday in Ramadi by gunfire.
   The six US deaths raised Wednesday’s toll from guerrilla attacks to 58 killed, making it the deadliest day of violence in more than a month.
   At least 1,714 US military members have died since the war began in 2003, according to an AP count.
   An Iraqi judge and a former regime member were assassinated on Thursday, as 13 people were wounded in car bombs in the oil city of Kirkuk and in Baghdad.
   Judge Salem Mahmud Haj Ali was gunned down in Iraq’s third largest city Mosul along with his driver, said police and hospital sources in the restive mainly Sunni Arab city north of the capital.
   He was at least the second judge killed in Mosul since last year.
   Six masked gunmen in two cars blocked the road and sprayed the judge’s car with machine-gun fire, said Mosul court Judge Abdul al-Hassaniani and Bahaa al-Din al-Bakri of the city’s hospital. The officials identified the dead judge as Salim Mahmoud al-Haj Ali.
   Meanwhile, the police found the bodies of 11 people in two towns in the so-called Triangle of Death on Thursday, an official said. The corpses of five family members were discovered at a farm in Musayyib.

A union parishad member was abducted allegedly by the activists of the United People’s Democratic Front, a platform for indigenous people opposing the peace accord, from Bongoltali village under Baghaichhari upazila early Wednesday.
   Local people said some gunmen raided the residence of Aongata Chakma, 33, a member of the Bongoltali union, at about 4:00am, and abducted him.
   ‘The reason behind the abduction might be rivalry between the factions of indigenous people,’ said an intelligence official.
   Expressing ignorance about the incident, the police super, Maruf Hasan, told New Age that the police could not be aware of every incident unless complaints are filed with the police station as such many incidents take place in the region. ‘I’m looking into the matter.’

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia returned Dhaka on Thursday night after her three-day visit to Doha.
   She left Dhaka on Tuesday to attend the second South Summit in the capital of Qatar, which concluded today through the adoption of a joint declaration.

Twenty-six Bangladeshi job-seekers returned home on Wednesday night, one year after their travel agents had sent them to Myanmar promising jobs in Malaysia. They passed the one year in Myanmar jail.
   With the help of the government, they arrived at Zia International Airport by a Bangladesh Biman flight at 11:45pm.

The Inter-Service Public Relations has termed news reports on harassment of 18 Bengali leaders by the army in Rangamati baseless and misleading.
   In a statement Thursday, it said that a driver of a Rangamati-bound bus from Khagrachhari was manhandled by a group of miscreants at Naniarchar on June 12. Later, the army called 14 Benglis, not 18, for interrogation.
   ‘They were set free after interrogation, but the allegations of beating and misconduct is entirely baseless,’ claimed the statement.
   It further said a certain quarter as per its ill-motive is behind the circulation of the baseless and misleading news and requested the army to remain alert.

At least 20 people including two women were injured due to indiscriminate baton charge by the Kotwali police.
   A police constable injured himself by the bullet of his gun as he opened fire on the people at Khadimpara in the Sylhet city on Thursday afternoon.
   A sub-inspector was closed immediately and a divisional investigation committee was formed in this connection, said sources in the police.
   The injured constable and two women were admitted to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital in the evening.
   Locals said there was a longstanding dispute over a piece of land between residents of Bahar Colony and the principal of Zinnunine Madrassah for a long time. The rival groups came to face each other on Thursday afternoon at around 5:00pm to take possession of the land.
   A team of the Kotwali police led by sub-inspector Derick, reached the spot and charged batons indiscriminately on the people of Bahar Colony to disperse them. Constable Amal hit himself in the leg by his own gun, when he was trying to open fire on the mob. At that time, the angry police personnel charged batons on the residents of Bahar Colony, which left at least 20 injured.
   Later, another team of the Kotwali police reached the spot and brought the situation under control.

The Rapid Action Battalion arrested a man and recovered a grenade from his residence in the Amin Bazar area under the Savar police station in Dhaka early Thursday.
   The arrested was identified as Amzad Hossain alias Anju, 30, reportedly a close associate of listed criminal Nazrul Islam and also accused in several criminal cases, including Savar police sub-inspector Matiur Rahman killing in 2002.
   Earlier, on January 10 this year, a RAB 4 team raided the same village and recovered an Arges model grenade and an ivory. The team also arrested Mohammad Hossain, Rahim and Mamun in that connection.
   RAB sources said a team of RAB 4 raided the house of Anju at village Bordeshi at Amin Bazar at around 6:00am and arrested him. The team also recovered an Arges model Austria-made anti-personnel grenade lying abandoned in a bush behind his residence, the sources said.
   A RAB high official said the recovered grenade was an anti-personnel explosive of Arges model and its lot number is 02/01, 2001. The explosion capacity of the grenade is between 15 and 20 metres and it contains 4000 to 5000 steel balls.
   He also said the recovered grenade is similar to those recovered from the capital’s Kuril area under the Badda police station on November 30, 2004.
   A Badda police patrol team recovered a huge cache of sophisticated firearms and ammunition in four sacks, including 20 Arges model grenades, after a shootout between criminals and the police at a shop named Tulir Parash belonging to a BNP-backed ward commissioner Hazrat Ali at Kuril in the capital.