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The power contending political camps, led by the ruling BNP and the opposition Awami League, seem to have started fuelling their election machine to make sure that they win the next national polls scheduled for early 2007.
   This is clear from the fact that the leadership of both the ruling and opposition camps have begun issuing directives to the leaders of their different front organisations to begin the process of overt and covert electoral campaign.
   Besides, they have started ‘consultative meetings’ with the leaders of different layers of party organs, particularly to take care of the internecine conflicts that often appear to be the prime source of electoral debacle.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, also chairperson of the BNP and head of the four-party ruling alliance, and the leader of the opposition, Sheikh Hasina, who also forged some kind of unity with the left and left-leaning parties, apparently began their pre-electoral work on January 13.
   Khaleda sought people’s support for the alliance at a public meeting while the opposition leader had a meeting with the council of secretaries to minimise the intra-party conflicts.
   ‘Continuity of the present government for a second term is necessary to sustain peace and development,’ Khaleda told a huge rally in Chittagong, listing her government’s success stories in different sectors.
   She is learnt to have issued directive to the party organs to get prepared for the election side by side.
   The opposition leader, on the other hand, listed the government’s failure and directed the party ranks to prepare a list of prospective candidates for the next general elections. She sought reports from the organising secretaries regarding the party’s strengthen at this moment.
   The BNP started consultation with the field-level party leaders in October 2004 to boost organisational capacity and minimise intra-party conflicts, if any. Senior party leaders started visiting different areas to mobilise the people, especially the youths, for the next election.
   Although bad law and order dominated the first two and half years of the BNP-led alliance’s rule, the ruling workers are now satisfied with the situation after deployment of the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion to arrest unabated crime, and people are generally happy with current situation.
   Bringing the situation under control and bridging the gap in the party ranks would go together to get a better result in the next elections, said a political insider who worked in the campaign before the 2001 general elections that brought an overwhelming parliamentary majority for the BNP-led four-party alliance.
   Although it failed to exert any effective pressure on the government in the last three years, the Awami League, the main opposition party, has started putting its house in order.
   The opposition’s election subcommittee met on January 18 and is planning to sit again shortly to chalk out its strategy for the polls.
   The AL general secretary, Abdul Jalil, told New Age that a party like the Awami League should be prepared all the time so that it can take part in the elections at any time. ‘But we will not take part in election under a caretaker government as it was during the last polls. The election should be arranged as per the people’s demand.’
   Awami League sources said apart from the current alliance with the left and left-leaning parties, the party is individually chalking out its strategies for the next elections.
   Hasina also asked all 17 AL wings to work together to strengthen the party’s activities across the country, keeping in mind the next elections.
   On January 19 Hasina started consultation with party fronts, and she plans to finish the first round of consultation before leaving for the United States sometime next month.
   The party’s subcommittee on legal affairs, which was asked to prepare draft for amendments in the constitutional caretaker administration to conduct general election, also held meeting with Hasina recently. The meeting reviewed the progress of the task.
   The Jatiya Party, the second largest opposition grouping in parliament, has also started primary work for the election.
   The tasks include formation of committees, which has been pending for years, of the party and its fronts, organisational trips and more public contact, said a JP leader.
   ‘We have started working on the election, but not yet in full swing,’ said Ghulam Muhammad Quader, presidium member of the party.
   He observed that the ruling coalition started preparation much earlier which is why others should not sit idle.
   Asked whether the Jatiya Party would contest the election individually, the JP lawmaker said, ‘Perhaps not. There must be an alliance of the opposition parties before the next elections.’
   A senior leader of Bikalpadhara Bangladesh said they have concentrated on election work, especially constituency-wise research, as the government repeatedly barred them from going public with their programmes.
   ‘We are now doing the groundwork and will chalk out public programmes once the groundwork is done,’ said the leader.
   He added that Bikalpadhara would field candidates in all the 300 parliamentary constituencies.

The foreign minister, M Morshed Khan, on Monday said Dhaka would focus on review of progress in implementation of previous summit declarations, agreements and committments at the 13th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, scheduled for February 6-7 in Dhaka.
   ‘Two decades have already passed and SAARC would step into the third decade with the Dhaka summit and now we should start delivering the fruits of SAARC to the doorsteps of the common people,’ he told journalists at his office.
   Morshed told reporters that the schedule for the summit had been finalised and the pre-summit programmes would start on February 1.
   The programming committee comprising senior officials of the SAARC countries will meet on February 1-2, the standing committee comprising the foreign secretaries on February 3-4 and the council of ministers representing the foreign ministers on February 5, according to the schedule.
   ‘Time has come not to talk about ceremonial aspects of the summit,’ Morshed said. ‘We should be business-oriented and put our heads together for implementation of the commitments made by the member-countries for the cause of the betterment of the common people in the region, rather than merely adopting a declaration.’
   He said implementation of the commitments had been rather slow in the past decades.
   The Dhaka summit will concentrate on how to implement the South Asian Free Trade Area agreement and the SAARC Social Charter that encompasses everything relating to the welfare of the people in the region, he added.
   ‘We must find out how we can reduce the present level of poverty to half within 2015 in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals, how to make a standard of our goods for more trade, how to harmonise our customs and avoid double taxation among SAARC member-states,’ he said. ‘In fact, we want to create the forum a synergy for the welfare of the people in the region.’
   The heads of state and government from Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will start arriving from the afternoon of February 5.
   The forum leaders will visit the National Mausoleum at Savar to pay respects to the martyrs of the War of Independence. They will also visit the mazar of the late president Ziaur Rahman and unveil the plaque of the first letter wrote by him to the South Asian leaders for instituting the regional cooperation before the opening session of the summit on February 6.
   The opening session of the summit will be held at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Centre at 11:30am on February 6.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, will be elected the SAARC chair in the opening session for the next one year. After the opening session, time has been set for the SAARC leaders to hold bilateral talks.
   Khaleda will host a dinner in honour of summit leaders at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Centre.
   On February 7, the leaders will go for a nearly two-hour retreat at the state guesthouse Jamuna at 30 Hare Road in Dhaka and have their lunch there. After the retreat, they will call on the president at Bangabhaban.
   The one-hour closing ceremony will be held at the International Conference Centre where Dhaka Declaration will be adopted.
   The new SAARC chairperson, Khaleda, will address a post-summit press conference there at 4:30pm.
   The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, the Pakistan prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, and the Maldives president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, will leave Dhaka in the afternoon of February 7.
   The heads of the government and state of Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal will leave the following day.

Five suspected criminals, including two underground party members, were killed in crossfire between their associates and the police in Dhaka, Chittagong, Naogaon and Kushtia on Friday and Monday, raising the crossfire death figure to 187 since June, 2004.
   In Dhaka, two alleged muggers were killed in a shootout with the Demra police in Shyampur Friday night.
   The police said four muggers, boarding a taxicab, snatched over Tk 9,000 from a businessman, Solaiman Hakim, on his way home in Sonargaon upazila of Narayan-ganj at about 10:30pm Friday.
   Responding to his shouts, a patrol team of the Demra police chased the cab as it crossed Punam Cinema at Rayerbagh and drove towards Postogola at about 11:00pm.
   The muggers at one stage stopped their vehicle at Dakkhin Dania and opened fire on the policemen prompting them to retaliate.
   Two of the muggers died on the spot. Two others managed to flee, the police claimed and added that they recovered two revolvers and two bullets from the spot.
   They also rescued the businessman, injured in the head, and took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The bodies were sent to the Mitford Hospital morgue for autopsy.
   The New Age correspondent from Chittagong reports: A suspected ‘top-ranked criminal’, Kala Mia, 30, arrested from near Razarhat police outpost Sunday noon, was killed in encounter at Joynagar under Rangunia upazila early Monday.
   The gunfight took place when the police along with Kala reached to Sukhbila hilly area to recover firearms as per his statement and his associates opened fire.
   Kala died on the spot, but his associates managed to flee, claimed the police. The police recovered two light guns and 20 bullets from the scene.
   The New Age correspondent from Kushtia adds: A suspected leader of the underground Biplobi Communist Party, Aynal Hossain Mondal who was arrested from Mahishbathan village in Bhangura of Pabna on Wednesday, was killed at village Balarampur in KUshtia sadar on Friday.
   The shootout took place at about 3:30am when the police came under attack of the supporters of Aynal on their way to Balarampur to recover arms and ammunition as per his statement.
   Aynal was caught in the ‘crossfire’ and died instantly.
   New Age correspondent from Naogaon reports: An underground party leader, Shafiqul Islam, 38, who was arrested Friday afternoon at Omarpurhat in Nandigram upazila, was killed in encounter in Atrai upazila early Saturday.
   The clash occurred at about 4:30aqm near the Lalpur sluice-gate when Shafiq’s associates fired on the policemen prompting them to return fire. The law enforcers went there to recover arms based on Shafiq’s statement.
   Shafiq, also wanted in a number of criminal cases, was caught in the crossfire as he tried to escape and was killed on the spot, said the police.
   The police recovered a revolver, seven bullets and four machetes from the scene.

Four persons, including three members of Jagrata Muslim Janata, were killed and at least 55 people, including four policemen, injured as violence marred Bagmara villages Saturday night and Monday.
   The local Awami League has called for a half-day hartal in Tahirpur municipality today in protest against the killing of its publicity secretary, Mahbubur Rahman.
   Mahbubur was bombed to death by the Islamist group, led by Azizur Rahman alias Bangla Bhai, while its three activists lynched during the trouble at village Koira Saturday night, the police and the local people said.
   They said 30 people were also injured in the clash Saturday while 25 people injured in Monday’s clash between the Islamist group and the police at Bhabaniganj. They police arrested 66 of the group after Monday’s melee.
   The Saturday’s trouble ensued at about 9:00pm when 10 to 12 activists of the Islamist group chased and fired shots on Makbul Hossain Mridha, the Bhabaniganj municipal unit AL president and chairman of Sripur union parishad.
   Makbul, who came under the attack on his way back home after visiting a house of his colleague at a neighbouring village, received bullets in his leg and was admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.
   Hearing his cry for help, the villagers chased the attackers. People from the neighbouring villagers also joined them responding to the call made through the public announcement system of a local mosque.
   The Islamist activists then threw a bomb and started firing on the villagers to make their way for escape, leaving at least 31 people injured.
   The villagers managed to catch three of the attackers — Jahedul Islam Baki alias Roky , 25, of Pillapara in Adamdighi of Bogra, Abdur Rahman, 18, of Talghoria-Konabaria and Ibrahim Hossain, 17, of Tegachhi-Shanopara in Bagmara upazila — and beat them to death taking to a water body.
   The police recovered the bodies Sunday morning. They also recovered a country-made revolver and two knives.
   About 10 activists of the Islamist group received the bodies at the hospital morgue Monday.
   Among the villagers injured, Mahbub was admitted to Bagmara Upazila Health Complex and died on way to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, while Akkas Ali, Sahat Ali, Khorshed, Nazrul, Ashraful, Syed Ali, Sona Gazi, Afzal Hossain and Akbar Hossain were undergoing treatment at RMCH.
   In protest against the killing of their associates, about 500 Islamist activists tried to organise a protest rally on the Bhabaniganj High School premises at about 9:00am Monday.
   The clash took place when the police resisted them and restored to baton charge, the local people said and added that the protestors had also pelted brickbats on the law enforcers.
   At least 21 of the Islamist group and four policemen, including the officer-in-charge of Bagmara, ABM Golam Kibria, were injured.
   The Islamist activists also kept the law enforcers cordoned for about half an hour who were later rescued by reinforced police from five stations and Rapid Action Battalion.
   Sixty-six activists of the Islamist group were arrested from the spot.
   The Bagmara police have filed four cases in connections with the incidents. They also arrested two persons Sunday night in connection with the killing of the AL leader.
   The local AL, meanwhile, has called for a half-day hartal in Tahirpur municipality today in protest against the killing of Mahbubur. They will also hold a protest rally at Kuthibari market place on Wednesday.
   Several hundred people brought out a protest rally in Bagmara and submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner, Ehsanul Haque, at the Bagmara police station Sunday morning in presence of the DC, Rajshahi range DIG of police and the additional superintendent of police.
   In separate clashes over land dispute, the Bagmara police said, Rafiqul Islam, 19, and Jeker Ali, 25, of Telipukur village were killed on Saturday.

Government offices, including the administrative hub, the Bangladesh Secretariat, were in a holiday hangover on Monday, the first day of work after a four-day public holiday for Eid-ul-Azha.
   Most of the ministers stayed back in their constituencies as no cabinet meeting, usually pencilled in for Monday, was scheduled this week.
   The minister and secretaries, who rejoined work Monday, had a ‘relaxed’ day at office, sources in the secretariat said.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, was at the Prime Minister’s Office and did some paperwork, a PMO source said.
   A small number of civil servants and employees were present at the secretariat while the rest were on an extended leave to spend more time with family and friends, the sources said.
   Attendance at other government, semi-government and autonomous offices, state-run banks and commercial establishments was also less than usual. Transactions at banks and insurance companies, however, went as routine.
   Whoever was present at the government, semi-government and autonomous offices spent most of the work hours on Eid greetings and customary embraces. Sacrificial animals and other details of Eid celebrations apart, the discussions spun around killing of suspected criminals in crossfire with law enforcers and the political situation.
   As administrative work remained virtually suspended due to poor presence of officials and employees, the number of brokers and lobbyists at the secretariat and public offices was negligible. Work at government offices will resume in full swing in a day or two when the most of the officials and employees come back from extended Eid holidays.
   ‘No one expects work to resume in full swing on the first work day after the Eid holidays,’ the cabinet secretary, Saadat Hossain, told journalists Monday. ‘Attendance will be normal in a day or two.’

Bangladesh squandered a solid start for their second consecutive defeat in the one-day international cricket series against Zimbabwe at the MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong on Monday.
   Set to chase the Zimbabwe score of 237 for five in 50 overs, the hosts slumped to 206 all out in 47.1 overs from a comfortable 130 for two in the 30th over, giving the visitors a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
   The Zimbabweans, on the other hand, were in control of the match right from the start and, apart from a few nervous moments when Habibul Bashar and Nafees Iqbal were at the crease, never looked troubled.
   The bowlers kept steady line and length, and the fielders responded positively as the skipper, Tatenda Taibu, marshalled his attack to perfection.
   The hosts were off to a shaky start, losing opener Rajin Saleh and one-down Aftab Ahmed with only 40 on the board.
   The other opener, Nafees Iqbal, and the skipper, Bashar, then put together 90 runs for the third wicket to steady the innings.
   However, as they looked at ease and on course to take the side to series-levelling win, Bashar ran himself out for 41 after a horrendous mix-up.
   Nafees followed his skipper without any addition to the total, trapped leg before wicket by Douglas Hondo for 58.
   The twin dismissals opened the floodgate as the hosts lost their remaining six wickets for 76 runs.
   Earlier in the morning, Taibu won the toss, elected to bat and once again ended up playing a captain’s knock to take the side to a fighting total.
   Barney Rogers rattled the highest individual score of his innings and eventually the match. His career-best 66 came off 85 deliveries with nine boundaries.
   Taibu scored 64 off 80 deliveries, interspersed with three fours and as many sixes. He put on 84 runs in the last 9.1 overs with Elton Chigumbura for an unbroken sixth-wicket stand.
   The Bangladesh bowlers simply fell apart in the face of a late onslaught by Taibu and Chigumbura. Mashrafee, who gave away only nine runs in his first six overs, conceded 31 in his last three.
   The morning started with promise for the hosts as Aftab brilliantly ran Stuart Matsikenyeri out to the very first delivery of the match.
   Rogers and Dion Ebrahim, however, made sure that Bangladesh had to wait a while for their second success with a sensible 86-run stand for the second wicket.
   Ebrahim was dismissed after scoring 26 and Hamilton Masakadza was soon to follow, stumped by Khaled Mashud for three.
   When Enamul Haque Jr sent Rogers back with a smart return catch, it seemed the visitors were set for a dramatic collapse.
   However, Taibu was not ready to let go and with Chigumbura made sure that the hosts had nothing more to rejoice for the rest of their innings.
   Rogers was adjudged man of the match for his batting heroics plus useful bowling that returned figures of two for 55.
   The third match takes place at the same venue on Wednesday.

Almost 63 per cent of the six billion injections administered annually in India are unsafe, a doctor who conducted a country-wide study said Monday.
   ‘Approximately three billion to six billion injections are administered in the country every year, of which 1.9 billion to 3.8 billion are unsafe,’ said NK Arora, the doctor who conducted the research.
   It was commissioned by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India’s most prestigious state-run hospital, to assess injection practices.
   On average, an Indian took 2.9 to 5.8 injections a year; Arora said adding 48.1 per cent of all prescriptions recommended taking an injection.
   About 33 per cent of the unsafe injections, associated with reuse of syringes, risked the chance of infecting patients with blood-borne diseases including hepatitis and the Acquired Immune-Deficiency Syndrome, Arora said.
   ‘The rest of the injections were rendered unsafe due to wrong practices including faulty administration techniques,’ he said.
   About 74 per cent of injections administered under immunisation campaigns were unsafe, Arora said.
   The study comes after the federal health minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, himself a doctor, admitted in the Indian parliament last month that most of the injections administered in the county were unsafe.
   According to the minister, 69 per cent of the injections administered at government-run hospitals were unsafe.
   ‘In order to reduce unsafe injections, the government has taken a decision to introduce auto disable syringes (disposable) in all the immunisation clinics and central government hospitals from 2005,’ Ramadoss told parliament.
   Almost 75 per cent injections were administered by using plastic syringes and the rest by glass syringes which were more likely to be unsafe, the minister added.

The north-eastern United States was emerging from a snowstorm, ranked among the five worst in the past century, which was linked to at least 18 deaths across eight states.
   The storm, which started in the Midwest Friday, dumped 30 centimetres of snow in Detroit, 35 centimetres in New York City, and close to a meter in some parts of the state of Massachusetts.
   At least 18 deaths in eight states were linked to the storm, including that of a ten-year-old girl struck by a snowplough as she played on a snow bank in New York, media reports said.
   Five people collapsed while shovelling snow in New York, and one in Boston, apparently having suffered heart attacks, according to reports in The Washington Post and the New York Times.
   Storm-related deaths were also reported in Ohio, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Iowa.
   The governors of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey declared emergencies in their states, warning people to stay home to facilitate road clearance on Monday. Boston area schools were to be closed until Wednesday.
   Boston’s Logan International Airport remained closed early Monday. Thousands of flights were delayed or cancelled at airports in north-eastern and Midwestern US states as residents dug out from the first major snowstorm of the year.
   ‘The blizzard of 2005 will go down in history as one of the five top snowstorms for eastern New England,’ said James Wilson, a meteorologist with The Weather Channel.
   At one point Sunday, 20 centimetres of snow fell in 75 minutes in Chatham, Massachusetts, the channel said.
   Authorities were warning of brutal cold Monday up and down the east coast from the Great Lakes region down to Florida, with high winds sending temperatures well below zero degrees Fahrenheit in many areas.
   Airlines were still dealing with the fallout of thousands of flight delays and cancellations over the weekend in Chicago, New York, Boston and smaller cities.
   Philadelphia International Airport in Pennsylvania reopened on Sunday after being closed late Saturday because of poor visibility, but significant delays as well as flight cancellations were reported at other airports including some in New Jersey, Baltimore in Maryland, and Washington.
   British airports cancelled 31 flights to and from the United States’ northeast region, officials said in London on Sunday. London’s main Heathrow airport cancelled 29 arrivals and departures after heavy snowfall in New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
   US authorities begged people to stay off the roads as high winds blowing snow produced whiteout conditions from New York to Maine, bringing normally congested cities to a standstill.
   ‘Any travel is strongly discouraged,’ the National Weather Service warned Massachusetts residents early Sunday. ‘If you leave the safety of being indoors, you are putting your life at risk.’
   A large sector of downtown Toronto, Canada’s largest city, was without power Sunday after a water main burst, apparently from frigid temperatures a day after the giant storm hammered southern Canada.
   Several large hospitals used emergency power generators as repair crews braved temperatures as low as minus four degrees Fahrenheit trying to restore power.

Nine people were killed at different places of the country during the Eid holidays.
   Two each of the deaths were reported in Dhaka and Narsingdi and one each in Barisal, Khulna, Bagerhat, Gopalganj and Pabna.
   In the capital, Monir Hossain, 25, a bachelor student of management in Jagannath University, was beaten to death by devotees after he had swooped on the imam of Jakirulla Jam-e-Mosque at Jurain shortly before the Eid congregation.
   Monir, who was claimed to be mentally disoriented for failing to score expected marks in the IELTS, stormed into the mosque and threatened the devotees with a sharp lethal weapon at about 7:50am.
   At one stage, he stabbed Mohammad Yunus, the imam, indiscriminately and the devotees turned furious and beat him.
   The family members took Monir to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where the attending doctors declared him dead.
   In another incident, the police recovered the body of Babu, 30, a rickshaw-puller, from a drain at Nazimuddin Road in the city’s Lalbagh area on Saturday.
   Family sources said some local goons caught Babu on January 17 and confined him in a house on charge of mugging. ‘One Reaz, his wife, Israt, and their accomplices beat him with iron rods Friday night.’
   Reaz and Israt went into hiding after the incident. None was arrested till Monday.
   New Age Barisal correspondent reports: A middle-aged man, Abdul Barek, was hacked to death at South Tarabunia village in Rajapur upazila of Jhalakati on Saturday.
   The police said the criminals killed Barek in front of a house near Tarabunia marketplace from where he was chased after at about noon.
   The police suspected rivalry over land disputed as reason behind the murder.
   New Age correspondent from Khulna reports: Two people, including a minor boy, were killed in Khulna city and Bagerhat on Sunday night and early Friday.
   The Khanjahan Ali police said passengers caught and beat Pabitra Kumar, 25, of Tootpara area in Khulna city and a suspected highway robber, when he pointed a revolver towards a policeman while checking a bus at Pather Bazaar in the city at about 11:30pm Sunday.
   The police rescued him in a critical condition and took him to Khulna Medical College Hospital where he died after admission. The police recovered the revolver from the spot.
   In Bagerhat, unidentified assailants slit the throat of Farid Sheikh, 5, son of Araj Ali of Gangni in Mollarhat upazila, taking him to a place adjacent to their house early Friday.
   The Mollarhat police arrested two persons, Keramot, 35, and Shahid, 22, after Farid’s father had filed a case accusing five persons Friday.
   New Age correspondent from Pabna reports: Bablu, a suspected leader of the underground Purbo Banglar Communist Party (ML-Lalpataka) and wanted in a number of cases, was killed reportedly by his rivals at Bhitamoud village in Faridpur upazila on Friday night.
   The police said the assailants stormed into the Lakhsmipur home of Bablu and killed him taking to Bhitamoud field.
   The police recovered the beheaded body and sent it to the Pabna General Hospital morgue for autopsy.
   New Age correspondent from Gopalganj reports: Majid Hawlader, 30, a village farmer, was killed when unidentified assailants hurled bomb in his house at village East Naiarbari in Kotalipara at about 11:00pm Sunday.
   The police quoting the family members said Majid was sleeping when the attackers hurled the bomb over the ownership of a land.
   New Age correspondent from Narsingdi reports: Two young men — Masud Miah, 30, of Pipinagar Adiabad in Raipura and Hanif, 16, of Bhagyerpara in Palash — were killed on Friday night.
   The police said the assailants kidnapped Masud from his house and stabbed him to death taking to a place adjacent to his house.
   Hanif was called out of his residence by some local goons and strangled in a banana cluster.

At least 26 people, including three children, were killed and 162 were injured in separate road accidents across the country during the Eid holidays.
   Four people in a taxicab, the driver and three members of a family were killed in an accident at Uttara on Sunday.
   The police said a Tangail-bound bus rammed into a taxicab bound for Dhaka at Abdullahpur at about 2:00pm, killing the driver Shafiqul Islam on the spot.
   The injured Sudhin Kar, 35, and his son Tito, 4, died in a clinic while his daughter Sharupa, 10, died in Dhaka Medical College Hospital Sunday night.
   In Gazipur, three people, including two women, died and 22 others were injured in two separate accidents on Friday.
   The deceased are identified as Shufia, 40, wife of Abdus Salam of Kathalkandi of Ishwarganj upazila in Mymensingh, Nurunnhar, 22, of the area and an unidentified young man, 35.
   Sources said the accident took place when a Kapasia-bound bus collided with a Dhaka-bound truck near the Bhawal National Park on the Dhaka–Mymensingh Jighway at about 5:00am.
   Two women died on the spot. Eight of the injured were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Orthopedic Hospital; others were admitted to Gazipur Sadar Hospital.
   In another incident, an unidentified young man, 35, was killed when a North Bengal-bound bus knocked him at Konabari area on the Dhaka–Tangail Highway Friday morning.
   The body was sent to Gazipur Sadar Hospital morgue for post-mortem examination.
   Munna, 20, died on the spot and his friend, unidentified, was injured when a Narayanganj-bound bus knocked his bicycle at Demra on the Dhaka–Chittagong Highway at 7:30pm on Sunday.
   His friend was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where he was under treatment till Monday night.
   In Kushtia, Amirul Islam, 35, of village Nandiarchar in the sadar upazila was killed and 30 were injured when a truck carrying cattle traders fell into a ditch near the Kushtia Fish Hatchery at about 10:00am on Saturday.
   The injured were admitted to General Hospital in a critical condition.
   A minor girl was killed and another injured in am accident near Moukaran Bridge at Badarpur in the town Sunday morning.
   The deceased was identified as Moyna, 8. Injured Salma, 9, was taken to Patuakhali General Hospital.
   The police and local residents said Moyna and Salma were run over by a Barisal-bound bus at about 9:30am, killing Moyna on the spot.
   Local people vandalised 5 to 6 buses in protest at the incident. The police went to the place and brought the situation under control.
   The police seized the bus from Lebukhali ferry terminal.
   An unidentified man was killed and 20 were injured in am accident near a gas field on the Dhaka–Sylhet Highway at Rashidpur of Bahubal on Sunday.
   The police and local residents said the accident occurred at noon, when a Dhaka-bound bus fell into a ditch.
   The injured were admitted to Srimangal and Bahubal health complexes.
   In Noakhali, an unidentified pedestrian was killed in a mishap on the Choumohyni–Feni Road at Samir Munsir Bazar of Senbag Wednesday night.
   The police and residents said the victim, 35, was run over by a Choumohuni-bound bus from Feni at around 10:00pm. He died on the spot.
   The body was buried in the Sonapur graveyard after post-mortem examination in Noakhali General Hospital on Thursday.
   In another incident in Sherpur, three people were killed and nine injured as a bus rammed into a tempo at Nabinagar in the town on Monday.
   The deceased are identified as Abu Hanifa, 45, Sufia, 70, and Azizur Rahman, 12.
   The injured were admitted to Sadar Hospital. The condition of Masum, 7, and an unidentified man, 20, was critical.
   Tarun, 21, was injured when a truck knocked his motorcycle on the Sherpur–Dhaka Highway on Monday at around 11:30am.
   A boy, Saidee, 7, was also injured as a microbus ran him over in another accident at Bhatshala in the sadar upazila the same time.
   In Faridpur, a young man and a woman were killed and 25 were injured when a Dhaka-bound bus from Barisal tumbled into a ditch at Purba Sadardi near Bhanga Sunday night.
   Sultana Begum, 25; and Liton, 24, of Rajapur, Jhalakati were injured and died soon after they had been taken to Faridpur Medical College Hospital. The other injured were admitted to local hospital.
   In Khulna, a young man was killed in am accident at Gilatala in the Khanjahan Ali police area on Monday.
   The victim is identified as Shihab, 22, of Mistripara of the Khulna police area.
   The police said the accident took place when a Khulna-bound bus hit a rickshaw van on the Khulna– Jessore Highway at Gilatala, killing van passenger Shihab on the spot.
   The puller of the van was also injured. The police seized the bus and arrested the driver.
   In Jessore, three people, including a schoolteacher, were killed and 40 injured in an accident at Nawapara on Saturday.
   The deceased are identified as Jamuna Kasari, 32, a primary schoolteacher; Mokhtar Hossain, 40, a bus driver, and
   Rabiul Islam, 24, of Konakhola under Monirampur upazila in Jessore.
   The police said the accident took place when a Khulna-bound bus hit a tree on the Jessore–Khulna Highway at about 1:30pm.
   The schoolteacher and the driver died on the spot and Islam died on his way to hospital.
   The injured were admitted to Abhaynagar Upazila Health Complex and Khulna Medical College Hospital.
   In Manikganj, four people were killed and 11 were injured in an accident at Baniajuri on the Dhaka–Aricha Highway Monday evening.
   The deceased are identified as Jahangir Alam, 25, Faysal, 22, Rowshan Ara, 45, and Aynal, 50.
   The police said the accident took place when a Dhaka-bound bus from Khulna ran over a motorbike and a tempo at about 6:00pm at the Ghior bus stand.
   The motorbike passengers Jahangir Alam and Faysal died on the spot; pedestrians Rowshan Ara and Aynal died on their way to hospital.
   The injured tempo passengers were admitted to Manikganj Sadar Hospital and Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   The local people blocked the Dhaka–Aricha Highway for more than two hours protesting against the accident and demanding a speed-breaker at the place.

The paramount requirement in Bangladesh today is for a right balance to be struck among a strong political leadership, a strong and honest bureaucracy and an equally strong and vibrant private sector.
   It is such a triangle, believes Toru Shibuichi, until recently the country director of the Asian Development Bank, that will be instrumental in creating an enabling environment for the state to conduct business.
   Shibuichi has been noted for his criticism of what he has felt were governmental aberrations in the making and implementation of policy in Bangladesh. At the same time, he has little hesitation in pointing his finger at the divisive nature of national politics which he thinks has ultimately cast a shadow on Bangladesh’s economic prospects.
   For details of the comments by the former ADB Country Director, read Sayed Kamaluddin’s article (the first instalment of a two-part series) on the Op-Ed page today.

Key macroeconomic indicators suggest a better investment outlook for 2005, but prospect would depend much on the political climate that looks set to gather heat, says a trade chamber.
   ‘The prevailing circumstance does indicate better investment scenario in 2005,’ the International Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh says in the editorial of its quarterly newsletter for October-December 2004.
   It termed the economic trends in 2004 mixed, with major indicators being on the right track despite some inflationary pressure.
   ‘But much would depend on the state of the political climate that is under threat of being heated up in the coming months,’ it added.
   The year 2004 saw significant foreign investment proposals from some large multinational companies including Orascom and Tata, expected to come into the field this year.
   During the July-October period of 2004, Bangladesh received foreign investment of $121.64 million.
   The chamber, however, cautioned that inflationary pressure, which shows a rising trend, might continue in the current year.
   ‘The food and fuel price led inflationary pressure would continue to bother the consumers and the government as well throughout 2005,’ the chamber publication said.
   The general inflation in October 2004 was 7.92 per cent on point-to-point basis while on annual average it was 6.21 per cent in the same period.
   Data available with the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics revealed that food inflation in October 2004 crossed 10 per cent reflecting rising price of food items during post-flood period.
   The chamber mentioned that devastating flood followed by two heavy downpours in the months of August and September marred the economic prospect last year.
   ‘The production of main rice crop, Aman, suffered badly by the natural calamities,’ the chamber newsletter said.
   The preliminary estimation showed that Aman production was 10 per cent less than that of the previous year. In 2003, production of Aman was 11.52 million tonne.
   ‘The government and donor agencies revised downward the current fiscal year’s (2004-05) GDP growth projections from 6.0 per cent to 5.2 per cent,’ it added.
   The draft of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, the government’s handbook for development strategy, forecast that the economy would grow at a rate of 5.5 per cent this fiscal year, down from 6.5 per cent as envisaged in the interim-PRSP.
   The chamber was of the view that the effect of the withdrawal of quota facilities for readymade garments exports from January 1, 2005 on the economy may not be felt immediately.
   ‘But it surely will leave a negative impact on the country’s export earning and employment situation,’ it warned.
   The ICCB observed that businesses partly regained their confidence following substantial improvement in law and order in the later part of 2004.

The government has decided to issue monthly pay orders to 6,795 teachers and employees of 376 colleges, which were blacklisted by the education ministry for being upgraded to the degree level without its approval.
   The ministry found out in 2002 that the intermediate colleges had been upgraded to the degree level between June 1996 and July 2001 without its approval and had been drawing Tk 28.92 crore a year from the public exchequer.
   Teachers and employees, who were recruited to take the degree courses, have gone without salary since the colleges were blacklisted, sources in the ministry said.
   ‘A number of officials at the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education had a role in upgrading the intermediate colleges to the degree level and issuing MPOs to the teachers and employees,’ observed a meeting at the education ministry on January 8. The education minister, M Osman Farruk, presided over the meeting.
   ‘The teachers and employees of these institutions had enjoyed MPOs for a long time, and the faulty process was going on under the ministry jurisdiction,’ observed the meeting. ‘Now the ministry has agreed to give MPOs to the teachers and employees on humanitarian ground.’
   ‘But the matter cannot be cited as a precedent and tough punishment would be taken if similar incidents take place,’ resolved the meeting.
   The director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education would take necessary action against officials involved in inclusion in the MPO list of the teachers and employees.
   The meeting also decided to enclose a certification letter by the president and member-secretary of the managing committee of the institution with the bills of teachers and employees every month to ensure that there is no additional manpower in the institution.
   Meanwhile, leaders of the teachers’ organisations said it reflected the failure of the director general, not the fault of the teachers.
   Terming the decision ‘an endorsement’ of misdeeds by some officials of the directorate, the convenor and coordinator of the National Front pf Teachers and Employees, Quazi Faruque Ahmed, said the teachers and employees must be given their due salaries.
   The ministry, till filing this report, has not settled from which fund these teachers and employees of 376 colleges would be paid.

Eid-ul-Azha, the second largest religious festival for Muslims, was celebrated in Bangladesh on Saturday.
   The day’s programme began with Eid prayers in mosques, Eidgah and open spaces.
   Well-off Muslims then sacrificed millions of animals in the name of Allah and distributed meat among relatives, poor people and neighbours.
   The government announced a four-day public holiday from Thursday on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha.
   The main Eid congregation was held at the National Eidgah in the capital at 8:00am, with separate arrangement for women to offer their prayers.
   The speaker of Jatiya Sangsad, Jamiruddin Sircar, the chief justice, Syed JR Mudassir Hossain, the LGRD and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, and ministers, lawmakers, political leaders and others attended the prayer at the National Eidgah.
   Five jamaats were held at the Baitul Mukarram national Mosque at 7:30am, 8:30am, 9:30am, 10:30am and 11:15am.
   Eid congregations were also held in 361 grounds or mosques in 90 wards of the Dhaka City Corporation.
   Like previous years, the biggest Eid congregation was held at Solakia in Kishoreganj, attended by tens of thousands of Muslims.
   The otherwise crowded capital sported a relatively barren look, as a large part of the population left the city to spend Eid holidays with their relatives in other cities and on the countryside.
   National flags were hoisted atop major government and private buildings, which were also illuminated, while city streets were decorated with colourful miniature flags with Eid greetings inscribed.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, exchanged Eid greetings with people from all walks of life at the Pradhan Mantri Bhaban (her official residence) on Saturday morning.
   Ministers, lawmakers, educationists, intellectuals, senior civil and military officials, retired bureaucrats and military personnel, political leaders, cultural personalities, poets, artistes, freedom fighters, women activists, lawyers, journalists, physicians, labourers, vagrants, and slum dwellers came to exchange greetings with the prime minister.
   Earlier, she hosted a reception for members of the diplomatic missions and UN agencies based in Dhaka at the same venue.
   The prime minister also went to the mazaar of the late president Ziaur Rahman in the afternoon. She laid wreaths and offered prayers.
   The leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, exchanged Eid greetings with people from all walks of life at her Dhanmondi office.
   She also exchanged greetings with foreign diplomats including the US ambassador, Harry K Thomas, the British high commissioner, Anwar Choudhury, and representatives of international agencies.
   Senior AL leaders Abdus Samad Azad, Amir Hossain Amu, Sajeda Chowdhury, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Obaidul Kader and Saber Hossain Chowdhury were also present.
   The state-run Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar aired special programmes and so did private television channels — Channel-i, ATN Bangla and NTV.
   Improved diet was served at hospitals, jails, orphanages and vagrant centres.

Over one hundred cattle traders were robbed of an estimated Tk 50 lakh after being doped on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha, according to hospital sources.
   The Dhaka Medical College Hospital received over 70 unconscious patients between the night of January 20 and the morning of January 22 when cattle trading was at its peak.
   Rest of the patients were treated in Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital or private clinics.
   Abbas Ali, 35, and his father Anwar Hossain, 60, of Sirajganj had sold their cows in Narayanganj and were coming to Dhaka by bus on January 21 evening. They later discovered themselves in DMCH beds.
   Regaining his memory Abbas told New Age that he purchased some sweetmeat on the bus and could not recollect anything after that. When asked, he said he and his father had Tk 40 thousand tightly folded in their lungis. ‘We came as a group from my village and sold 17 cows in Narayanganj worth about Tk 3 lakh but I do not know what happened to the others,’ he said.
   Shampa Gupta, a DMCH intern on duty at the medicine ward 1 said there was a sudden rush of unconscious patients on the eve of eid. ‘And everybody looked for their money after regaining consciousness.’
   ‘The losses varied between Tk 50,000 to Tk 1,50,000 for each victim. There were 35 patients admitted in our ward,’ said Shampa.
   An emergency medical officer of the hospital said robbers doped the trades both individually and in groups. They were mostly carried to the hospital by the police.
   When asked he said, ‘The robbers managed to feed these people large doses of sedatives (benzodiazepine), which would make them sleepy at once.’

Election centres have been bombed, candidates and electoral officials threatened and even killed. With only a week to go, intimidation is turning Iraq’s landmark polls into a new kind of secret ballot.
   Some Iraqis don’t know who to vote for as most candidates keep their identities hidden, fearing for their lives.
   Those who’ve made up their minds don’t know where to cast their ballots, since the location of polling stations is being hushed up until the last minute to thwart election day attacks.
   Iraq’s first national election since Saddam Hussein’s fall will select a 275-seat National Assem-bly and 18 provincial assemblies.
   Voters will not be choosing individual politicians, but a list of candidates representing a party or coalition.
   However, threats mean most of the 7,500 candidates shy away from rallies. Only leading politicians dare appear on television.
   In Iraq’s third city of Mosul, the entire election staff resigned amid intimidation. Election officials in other cities have stepped down too. Seven have been killed, some dragged from their car in Baghdad in broad daylight and shot.
   Salama al-Khafaji, openly running on the United Iraqi Alliance list, has survived three attempts on her life.
   In the mixed Sunni and Shia province of Diyala, seven candidates have been killed in the past two months, said Governor Abdallah al-Jibouri, who is running in local polls and has himself survived 14 assassination attempts since mid-2003.
   Of the 15 lists in Diyala’s local election, only three blocs were campaigning openly.
   Four candidates were invited to join a televised election debate on Diyala TV this month. Two people showed up—the governor and a Communist Party official who was not running.
   The secrecy shrouding Iraq’s poll adds to confusion among a population that has almost no experience of choice in politics.
   Under Saddam Hussein, Iraqis had two options—yes or no.
   But the national ballot will offer a mind-boggling 111 lists, each comprising anywhere between 12 and 275 candidates.
   A Dec 26-Jan 7 survey by the US-funded International Republi-can Institute found that while 64.5 per cent of Iraqis were very likely to vote, 38.4 per cent thought they were electing a president.
   Racing to raise awareness, Iraq’s Electoral Commission has taken out full-page ads in newspapers. Illustrated with cartoons, they show each step of the process from registration to voting to having their hands marked with indelible ink to prevent anyone voting twice.

Ongoing heavy fighting in the thick jungles of Myanmar between government troops and Indian separatists has left at least five rebels and 10 soldiers dead, a rebel leader said Sunday.
   Kughalo Mulatonu, a leader of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, which is fighting for a tribal homeland in India’s north-eastern state of Nagaland, said the rebels were killed in intense shelling.
   The bombardment began late Wednesday and was continuing, he said.
   ‘Myanmarese soldiers attacked some of our bases with rocket launchers and mortars, killing five of our fighters,’ Mulatonu said.
   ‘We also killed 10 of their soldiers in retaliatory strikes.’
   He said the attacks were taking place along the Chindwin River in the north of Myanmar, close to the abandoned Second World War Shempuyang airport.
   He said the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, which was formed in 1980, has at least 50 camps with some 5,000 guerrilla fighters entrenched in fortified bunkers in the Sagaing Division of Myanmar.
   ‘Our fighters are prepared to die. We are not going to leave our bases,’ Mulatonu said.
   An Indian intelligence official said authorities were monitoring the clashes.
   ‘Keeping that in mind, we have put the border on alert and security has been beefed up at vulnerable points to prevent militants from sneaking in.’
   India and Myanmar share a 1,640 kilometre long unfenced border, allowing militants from the northeast to use the adjoining country as a springboard to carry out hit-and-run guerrilla strikes on federal soldiers.
   On a visit to India last October, Myanmar’s General Than Shwe pledged that his government would not let Indian rebels operate from its soil.
   The last time Myanmar launched a military operation against National Socialist Council of Nagaland and other Indian rebels was in 2001 when at least a dozen separatists were killed.
   More than 50,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the northeast since India’s independence in 1947.

The government speeded up the implementation of the seismological survey development programmes to link Bangladesh to international and regional early warning mechanism, especially in the wake of the earthquake-triggered tsunami that claimed more than 2,00,000 lives.
   A high-powered expert body, comprising leading scientists, under the Ministry of Defence reviewed Bangladesh’s earthquake preparedness and progress of the projects to set up three more seismic observatories in Dhaka, Sylhet and Rangpur. There is now only one seismic observatory in Chittagong.
   A recent ministry meeting, presided at by the secretary of the ministry, Mejbah Uddin Ahmed, recommended commissioning an earthquake research and development cell to be advised by a board from time to time.
   The meeting suggested integration of the observatories with the national and international warning networks so that Bangladesh can easily get early information on probable disasters.
   The meeting suggested linking Bangladesh to the International Coordination Group regarding tsunami warning.
   Bangladesh is considering link to the proposed Indian Ocean tsunami warning system, discussed in the Kobe conference on tsunami, said a meeting source.
   The government approved a scheme on the improvement in the seismic observatories in October 2003.
   Under the project, the authorities reinstalled equipment at the Chittagong observatory and undertook construction of three more centres, said an inter-service press release on Monday.

The third spell of the north Himalayan cold wave during the current season has made life miserable everywhere in the northern region for the past four days.
   Normal life remained almost paralysed during the past 36 hours till 4:00pm on Monday due to biting cold wave and showers at most places coupled with north and north-western winds.
   Met office sources said due to sharp falls of temperatures, the third spell of shivering cold wave began sweeping over the northern region from Friday.
   The average highest temperature fell by about five degrees Celsius to around 17 degrees on Sunday when the average minimum temperature remained about 11 degrees.

Professor Hashmat Ali, a senior teacher of the physics department of Dhaka University, was found dead in his room at International Hostel on Monday.
   The 65-year-old professor died of natural causes Monday morning after a prolonged ailment, the vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, said.
   Campus sources said Professor Ali, a bachelor, was seen lying on the floor of his room when the inmates of the hostel called a university doctor who declared him dead.
   Prof Ali was buried at Azimpur Graveyard in the afternoon after janaza at Dhaka University Central Mosque.

Actress Parveen Babi, who played the siren in dozens of Bollywood films, was found dead at her home on Saturday, a police officer said.
   Police broke into the Mumbai suburbs apartment where she lived alone after neighbours said her door had not been opened for two days, deputy commissioner Amitav Gupta said.
   Gupta said the actress, who once featured on the cover of Time magazine as the face of the modern Indian woman, appeared to have died of natural causes. Her age was not immediately known.
   Babi, famed for her unconventional western looks, starred in more than 50 Hindi films mostly in the 1970s and early 1980s.
   She was cast in her first Hindi film while still a student at the Ahmedabad University, and was best known for her roles alongside Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan.
   Babi came to represent the bohemian Indian woman on celluloid, unafraid to smoke or drink on camera, at a time when these were considered taboo.