Main Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

A special United Nations aircraft carrying the coffins of the nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers, who were killed in an ambush attack in Congo flew, in Monday night.
   Bangladesh will observe national mourning day today as a mark of respect for the fallen soldiers of Bangladeshi peacekeepers killed on February 25
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, Monday night received the coffins where the deceased heroes were given state honours on arrival at Zia International Airport.
   As bagpipe played, the fellow soldiers unloaded the coffins, wrapped in blue and green flags, from the UN special cargo plane.
   A gun salute was given as the coffins were lined up on the runway, where the ministers, chiefs of the three forces — army, navy and air force — senior military officials, UN representatives and a host of relatives of the deceased stood in silence.
   Khaleda placed floral wreaths on all the coffins, cased in silver boxes. After the 36-minute formality, Khaleda met the relatives of the soldiers. They wept when the bodies were taken out of the plane.
   Khaleda consoled the relatives and assured every support for the bereaved families.
   A squad of eight members to the ranks of the deceased soldiers took down the coffins, where a makeshift arrangement was made to receive them with full state honours.
   The bodies of Captain Shahid Ashraf Khan, Warrant Officer Sohrab Hossain Talukdar, Sergeant Sirajul Islam, Corporal Alam Rahman Sarkar and sepoys Mohammad Abdus Salam, Mohammad Abdus Salam (II), Mohammad Zahirul Islam and Mohammad Bellal Hossain of the army and Leading Seaman Nurul Islam of the navy were later taken to the army stadium in a military mourning procession.
   The Armed Forces Division earlier finished all the preparations to receive the coffins at the airport. The army personnel had a rehearsal Sunday night for receiving the bodies at the airport.
   The nine soldiers working on UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo were killed in an ambush attack by rebels in the Ituri province on Friday.
   The government has announced national morning day today to show respects to the soldiers.
   The national flag will be hoisted half-mast today to pay respect to the deceased. ‘The national flag will fly at half-mast atop all government, semi-government and autonomous institutions and Bangladesh missions abroad,’ said an official announcement on Monday.
   The janaza of the soldiers will be held at the army stadium this morning. The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, will attend the janaza, which will remain open to civilians.
   The UN aircraft started from the Ugandan capital, Kampala, where the bodies were kept for two days, carrying the coffins to Bangladesh.
   More than 1,300 Bangladeshi soldiers joined the UN Congo peacekeeping mission in August 2004. The rest of the soldiers in Congo are safe now.
   Bangladesh has more than 8,000 soldiers in 12 countries on UN peacekeeping missions.
   Sixty-one soldiers died after Bangladesh had joined the peacekeeping club in 1988.
   The highest number of 15 soldiers was killed in a plane crash in December, 2003 while they were returning home from Benin.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has said it will spare no effort in tracking down those behind Friday’s killing of nine Bangladeshi United Nations peacekeepers.
   The Congo’s defence minister, Adolphe Onusumba, said the time had passed when such acts would go unpunished.
   The minister was visiting the eastern Ituri province where the Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed in an ambush by gunmen.
   It was the deadliest attack against the UN mission in the strife-torn African country since it started work six years ago.
   Onusumba visited the provincial capital, Bunia, after the carnage, aiming to boost the morale of the peacekeepers ‘because what happened was deplorable.’
   ‘What took place cannot leave anyone indifferent, since how one can kill the same people who have voluntarily chosen to come and help us,’ he told reporters.
   ‘Those who committed these terrible acts should know henceforth that the time has passed for such acts to go unpunished.’
   ‘We are not going to spare any effort to ensure intelligence services are able to tell us what exactly took place.’ He said the army would work more closely with the UN mission to crush the gangs involved in the violence.
   Bangladesh, one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping operations across the world, has 1,300 troops in Congo.
   The soldiers’ deaths were the second-largest loss of life for the Bangladeshi army while on UN peacekeeping duties.
   In October 2003, 15 Bangladeshi officers died in a plane crash in the Republic of Benin in West Africa.

Dhaka has decided to push for 35 per cent value addition, instead of its earlier call for 30 per cent, at the seventh meeting of the experts committee on the South Asian Free Trade Area, pencilled in for March 22–24 in the Maldives capital of Male.
   It believes that the shift in its position will help strike a consensus among the member countries that are sharply divided over the issue, said sources in the commerce ministry.
   Bangladesh will, however, stick to its stance on a 10 per cent relaxation of the value-addition criterion for the least developed countries at the talks, originally slated for February 26–28 but was postponed after Pakistan had expressed inability to attend.
   The decisions came at an inter-ministerial meeting at the commerce ministry, presided over by the commerce secretary, Siddiqur Rahman Chowdhury, and attended by representatives from the foreign ministry, the Tariff Commission, the National Board of Revenue and the Export Promotion Bureau.
   ‘The decision could minimise the row on the value-addition criterion under the proposed rules of origin of the SAFTA agreement as developing and least developed member countries are sharply divided on the crucial issue,’ a commerce ministry high official told New Age. ‘The decision, if accepted by all, will pave the way for implementation of the SAFTA within January 2006.’
   The commerce ministry will make communications to other LDCs and the three developing nations on Dhaka’s latest decision before the start of the experts’ meeting in Male, the sources said.
   ‘I am hopeful of positive responses from other LDCs to Dhaka’s decision although the shift will be harmful for the LDCs to some extent,’ said another commerce ministry high official.
   He said the developing countries should also rethink their respective positions on the issue to implement the SAFTA agreement. ‘Negotiation is about compromise, which a trade negotiator must keep in mind.’
   Trade negotiations between signatories to the SAFTA agreement hit a dead end during the sixth meeting of the committee of experts in New Delhi in December on percentage of value addition.
   At the meeting, held between December 2 and 4, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives, which enjoy least developed country status, stuck to their demand for 30 per cent value addition with 10 per cent reduction for the LDCs.
   However, the developing countries in the economic block, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, came up with varying proposition. Sri Lanka favours 35 per cent value addition, India 40 per cent and Pakistan 50 per cent.
   Besides, Pakistan expressed reservation about 10 per cent reduction in value addition for the LDCs, favouring five per cent reduction instead. India and Sri Lanka were, however, flexible on the issue.
   Bangladesh and three other LDCs have been enjoying 30 per cent value addition and three developing countries 40 per cent under the existing South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement.

Siddiq Islam alias Bangla Bhai, operational commander of the banned Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, is now moving from one place to another in the northern region in a desperate bid to flee the country.
   According to some of his aides in Natore and Naogaon, he is keeping constant contacts with his mentors to escape the ongoing crackdown on Islamic outfits but is not getting due response from them.
   They said Bangla Bhai, who enjoyed unprecedented power and immunity during a ‘cleansing operation’ against underground parties, would use his links in and outside the country to make his way and reach a safer place like Afghanistan or Pakistan.
   ‘He never felt insecure even a week ago as he enjoyed all kinds of supports from the police and administration due to his mentors. But now he feels he may be arrested at any time,’ said an aide in Natore.
   He said Bangla Bhai was moving secretly in the region to find a way out but not getting due support from those who gave him the title and used to care for their personal interests few months ago.
   ‘Bangla Bhai never wanted to see him arrested and consider for surrender only if he sees all of his alternatives are closed,’ said another from Naogaon where the man is believed to be staying and discussing with his party leaders and workers about their duties in the changed situation.
   Sources in the intelligence said leaving country will not be as easy as it was before for him. Rather, they said, reaching Pakistan or Afghanistan through India will be very risky and he may be nabbed anywhere.
   ‘Surrender will be the best way for him than being arrested,’ said an intelligence official in Pabna. But Bangla Bhai would not like to be arrested by those police who had honoured him and ensured his protection for long, he added.
   Meanwhile, police denied that Bangla Bhai was moving in the north and hardly had any information about his movement, let alone his arrest.
   Both the police and intelligence agencies appeared to be not sincere enough to apprehend the man, blamed for carrying out a killing spree in Rajshahi, Natore and Pabna districts last year.
   According to locals, Bangla Bhai had a meeting at his brother-in-law’s house, Mahbubul Alam, in Naogaon on Friday where he discussed about their strategies to face the new situation. Rejecting this claim, the Naogaon police said that they were on a hunt to nab the man.
   The superintendent of police in Naogaon, Jamil Ahmed, told New Age last night that he was not aware of Bangla Bhai’s movement in his territory. He, however, said that he was in Dhaka for the last few days and would look into the matter.
   Bangla Bhai along with his cadres brutally tortured hundreds of people in different villages of the three districts in the name of outlaws cleansing and killed several dozens and maimed hundreds of them.
   Nobody dared to file any case or complaint against Bangla Bhai because of his connections with a couple of cabinet members besides lawmakers and top ranking leaders of the ruling BNP in the region, who having been supported by a influential quarter in the government used the man to protect their petty political and personal interests and helped in creating a congenial environment for the fast growth of the militants.
   Despite the latest order from the government to arrest the man and other militants, law enforcers and administration in this region are making little effort to nab Bangla Bhai fearing reprisal from his mentors.
   Intelligence officials said they had been instructed by their higher authorities to locate and contact Bangla Bhai and arrange his surrender, not arrest, but no real attempt had taken yet in this regard.
   ‘I know relatives of a deputy minister are keeping in touch with the man and they must know his location. So no one moved for his arrest,’ said an intelligence official in Natore. ‘I don’t want to be in the bad book of the minister.’
   Another intelligence official in Bogra said the man is still beyond the reach because three ministers of this region are behind him.
   Meanwhile, the New Age Rajshahi correspondent reports: there is a widespread rumour on Monday that Bangla Bhai has been staying in the Rajshahi city but police could not make any headway over nabbing the banned party leader.
   Local sources said Bangla Bhai could be arrested if his close persons were interrogated. The police, however, denied Bangla Bhai’s stay in the city and said it was nothing but a rumour.

The government of New South Wales decided to include Bangla as a second language for higher secondary examination with effect from 2008.
   The premier of the Australian state Bob Carr informed the Bangladesh high commissioner to Australia, Ashraf-ud-Doula, about the decision during a meeting on February 28, said a press note from the Press Information Department.
   Enrolment of students for the batch will start from the first term of 2006 for grades seven to ten.
   In 2002 expatriate Bangladeshis in Sydney requested the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, during her visit to Australia to urge the NSW premier to include Bangla as a second language for Bangladeshi students in the HSC curriculum.

A suicide bomber detonated a car near police recruits and a crowded market south of Baghdad Monday, killing 125 people and wounding 130 in the single bloodiest attack in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
   The bomber blew the car up next to a line of recruits waiting at a health centre to take an eye test so they could join the Iraqi police force in the town of Hilla, 100 kilometres south of the capital, witnesses said.
   Many of those killed were across the road, and were caught in the blast as they shopped at stalls in the morning sunshine.
   Reuters television footage showed a pile of bloodied bodies outside the building. Smoke rose from the wreckage of burned-out market stalls as bystanders loaded mangled corpses on to rickety wooden carts, usually used to carry fruit and vegetables.
   Others, their limbs ripped to shreds, were piled into the back of pick-up trucks. Nearby buildings were pockmarked by shrapnel. People wept, clutched their heads in despair and shouted ‘God is greatest’ as rescuers led the injured away.
   An official in Hilla’s health directorate said the death toll was 115 and could rise. Coalition forces in the area confirmed at least 110 dead.
   The official said existing patients had been moved out of hospitals to make way for victims of the blast. More than 30 doctors rushed to the city from nearby towns to treat the wounded and the Iraqi Red Crescent Society said it had sent emergency aid and medics to Hilla from Baghdad to help.
   The toll is the highest from a single attack since the fall of Saddam in April 2003, and makes Monday one of the bloodiest days of the two-year insurgency.
   Elsewhere in Iraq, another suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle in the town of Musayyib, just 30 kilometres from Hilla, but succeeded only in killing himself.
   A hospital official said one civilian was killed and two were wounded when insurgents fought with Iraqi troops in the town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.
   Two policemen were killed in the capital, one by a gunman and one by a roadside bomb, police sources and witnesses said.
   The US military said one of its soldiers was shot and killed in Baghdad while manning a traffic checkpoint. The death takes the number of US troops killed in action in Iraq since the March 2003 war to 1,137.
   Government sources gave details Monday about the capture of Saddam Hussein’s half-brother, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti, a top-level Baathist accused of directing the Iraqi insurgency from Syria.
   They said he was seized by Syrian Kurds in northeast Syria and handed to Iraqi Kurds before being taken into custody by Iraq’s forces. Since Syrian Kurds are tightly watched by Damascus, they may have received a green light for the seizure.

Asadullah al-Ghalib, chief of the Ahle Hadith Movement Bangladesh, claimed Monday that he had no involvements in recent attacks at different places across the country.
   Ghalib, also chief of the banned Jamaatul Mujahideen, a faction of the movement, is quoted to have told intelligence agencies during joint interrogation that he had a dispute with the chief of another faction.
   ‘I have no link with the subversive activities rather the other faction is in favour of militant activities,’ Ghalib was quoted to have said. The joint interrogation cell quizzed him all day long to get information on his mission and links at home and abroad.
   During interrogation in Dhaka, Ghalib also said the majority of the arrestees were supporters of the other faction.
   Ghalib, an Arabic teacher of Rajshahi University, was brought to Dhaka from Bogra on Sunday and placed on a 10-day remand to quiz by the joint interrogation cell.
   The police arrested him from the Ahle Hadith Complex at Naodapara in the Rajshahi city on February 23.
   He has so far been implicated in five cases — two of them filed by the Naogaon police and three by the Bogra police — related to explosives, bomb explosions and murders. Earlier he was brought to Bogra from the Rajshahi central jail on Saturday.
   Meanwhile the Rajshahi correspondent of New Age reports that three aides of Ghalib were shifted to the Gopalganj jail from Rajshahi on Monday amid tight security.
   The police said they were shown arrested in a robbery case filed with the Gopalganj police.
   The three — Abdus Samad Salafi, amir of the Ahle Hadith Andolon, ASM Azizullah, organising secretary of Ahle Hadith Juba Sangha central committee, and Nurul Islam, general secretary of Ahle Hadith central committee — were arrested along with Ghalib from the Ahle Hadith Complex in the Rajshahi city on February 23.
   Born at Alatuli village in Chapainawabganj, Salafi, one of the close associates of Ghalib, had worked with Chapainawabganj Jamia Islami Madrassah, Patadi Madrassah under Sapahar upazila in Naogaon, and Mohimaganj Kamil Madrassah in Bogra since 1966.
   Later Salafi went to Saudi Arabia for study at Madina University, and joined the Rajshahi Markajul Islami Salafi Madrassah in 1979.
   After coming back from Saudi Arabia, he became a rich man and built a complex on the Rajshahi housing estate, and made a close connection with Ghalib and his organisation.
   He also set up 17 mosques at Nundapur, Serepara, Sagrampara, Billi, Chhutipukur, Sarangpur, Gangobari, Railbazar, Mohisalbari, Achhua, Gorer Math, Jahanabad, Tulshipur, and Mohorapur in Godagari upazila.

The cabinet on Monday approved the proposal to form the sixth wage board for journalists, press employees, and general employees of newspapers and news agencies to review their wages, allowances, and other related facilities.
   The approval was given at the weekly regular meeting of the cabinet held at the Prime Minster’s Office on Monday with the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, in the chair.
   The cabinet also set a nine-month timeframe for the wage board to submit its report, meeting sources said.
   Now the information ministry will have to form the wage board as the finance ministry has already sanctioned a budget of Tk 6 lakh in this regard, sources added.
   Though all the five wage boards had been chaired by Supreme Court judges earlier, the cabinet decided that this time the board might be chaired either by a judge of the Supreme Court or any qualified person.
   The cabinet came up with the decision to form the wage board for re-fixation of wages, allowances and other benefits for the journalists, employees and press people as no such board has been formed and no review made since 1995.
   The meeting adopted an obituary motion on the death of nine Bangladeshi UN-peacekeepers ambushed by militiamen at trouble-torn Ituri province in Congo on Friday.
   To pay respects to the dead warriors, the cabinet also decided to observe Tuesday as National Mourning Day.
   Besides, special prayers will be offered in all mosques and other places of worship across the country on March 4, seeking divine blessing for their departed souls, an official announcement said quoting the cabinet decision.
   Captain Shahid Ashraf Khan, Warrant Officer Sohrab Hossain Talukder, Sergeant Sirajul Islam, Corporal Alam Rahman Sarker, Leading Seaman Nurul Islam and sepoys Mohammad Abdus Salam, Mohammad Abdus Salam (II), Mohammad Zahirul Islam and Mohammad Bellal Hossain were killed and several others injured in the militia ambush when they were on patrol in north-eastern Congo.
   Besides, the cabinet in principle approved the bill that sought amendment to the Power Act, 1910.
   It also asked the taskforce on information technology to recommend a policy on introduction of an efficient monitoring system for revenue collection and a mechanism to prevent tax evasion regarding voice over internet telephone, sources said.
   According to sources, the Power (Amendment) Bill, 2005 proposes a number of amendments to the age-old act. The proposed amendments include enhancement of punitive terms for various offences under the act including illegal connections of electricity and its pilferage, and negligence of the duties of the officials and employees in the power sector.
   The meeting was attended by cabinet members and state ministers concerned. The cabinet secretary, principal secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, and secretaries concerned were present.

People became panicked following erection of barbed wire fence by the Indian Border Security Force on Monday night along the Sharifpur border area under Kulaura upazila of Moulvibazar.
   A number of families have already left their villages as the BSF reinforced its manpower setting up four new camps.
   The Indians are constructing road filling up earth within 10 to 15 yards off the border pillars.
   Sources in the Bangladesh Rifles said the BSF had started erecting barbed wire fence a week ago but it was halted in the face of protest from the BDR.
   A company commander-level flag meeting between the two sides decided to start construction of the same. But the BSF constructed nine pillars at night on February 26.
   The construction again was stopped following another flag meeting on Sunday.
   But the witnesses said that the Indians were filling up earth with trucks and tractors along the border on Monday.
   A source said that BSF was trying to erect the fence at any cost while the BDR vowed to resist it.

The Border Security Force of India opened fire along the Patnitala border, about 60km from the Naogaon district headquarters, leaving two Bangladeshis dead Monday morning.
   The victims are Idris Ali and Hasan Ali of village Sukhankuri.
   The BSF took away the body of Idris while that of Hasan was lying on the no man’s land, the villagers said.
   Confirming the death of two young men a commander of the Bangladesh Rifles, lieutenant colonel, Zahid Hasan, said a flag meeting was held in the afternoon but the details were possible to be known.

Four children, including a newborn, accused in a case Monday appeared before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Chittagong for bail along with their parents.
   Sources said Samiruddin of Nandankanon area of the city filed a case with the Kotwali police on February 6 against nine persons, including the four children. Of the accused one had died in 2000.
   The case was filed under section 143 and 148 of the Criminal Procedure of Code over a land dispute.
   The accused are: Chittaranjan Nath and his two-year son Sagar, Dulal Kanti Nath who died in 2000, Sunil Kanti Nath and his one-month son Bijoy, Haradhan Nath and his one-year son Durjoy, and Sushil Kanti Nath and his 13-month old daughter Debi Nath.
   Metropolitan magistrate Ali Noor granted them a bail.

The Ministry of Finance has referred the issue of formation of a committee for reviewing the Pay Commission’s recommendations for a new pay scale for civil servants to the Cabinet Division for discussion at the cabinet meeting, said officials.
   The meeting, likely to be chaired by the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, will choose the chief of the committee and set the modality on how to implement recommendations made by the Mujibul Haque-led 6th Pay Commission. Its report was submitted to the prime minister on February 2.
   Finance ministry officials said the ministry is yet to find out tangible sources of money required for implementing the promised new pay scale this fiscal year, and the next one as well.
   The Finance Division has an amount of Tk 1,200 crore for meeting the need of additional money for implementing the pay scale, which requires some Tk 5,500 crore this fiscal year. The ministry, however, plans tightening of revenue expenditure in the next fiscal year.
   The review committee, to be formed by the cabinet, will try to strike a ‘balance between monetary requirement and availability of funds’. The new pay scale will be in force with retrospective effect from January 1, 2005.
   The finance secretary, Zakir Ahmed Khan, is expected to be the chief of the review committee, said the officials.
   The cabinet secretary, Saadat Hossain, may also be chosen.

A cocktail bomb exploded in front of the Grameen Bank office at Tahirpur under Bagmara on Sunday night.
   Sources said at around 10:00pm the bomb exploded with a big bang in front of the bank, 100 yards off the Tahirpur police post.
   Sattayandranath Roy, a sub-inspector of the police post, told newsmen Monday that a cracker had exploded there.
   Eight people — six employees of BRAC and two of Grameen Bank — have been injured in bomb attacks on two BRAC offices and a branch of the bank since February 13.
   In the last of these attacks, unidentified men on February 16 night hurled three bombs one after another at the Grameen Bank branch at Nabagram village in Ullapara upazila of Sirajganj district, leaving bank employees Kona Khatun and Nurul Islam wounded.
   A similar attack was made on the BRAC office in Porsha upazila in Naogaon on February 15 night that injured four of the office staff.
   Earlier on February 13, the BRAC office in Kalai upazila sadar in Jaipurhat came under bomb attack.

Celebrated Gano Sangeet (people’s song) maestro and folk singer Abdul Latif was laid to rest in the Martyred Intellectuals’ Graveyard at Mirpur in the capital on Sunday.
   Earlier, a huge number of people and leading cultural and literary personalities gathered to pay their last respects to the late singer, whose body was placed at the Central Shaheed Minar in the morning.
   His namaz-e-janaza was held at the Dhaka University mosque in the afternoon.
   The qul-khwani of the deceased will be held today at the Party Palace in Shyamoli.

The Jatiya Sangsad (Reserved Women Seat) Election (Amendment) Bill, 2005 was passed Monday making mandatory the holding of election to 45 reserved seats for women by March 7.
   The law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister, Moudud Ahmed, piloted the bill seeking extension to the mandatory period for holding elections to the reserved women’s seats to 90 days from 45 since the date of enforcement of the Jatiya Sangsad (Reserved Women Seat) Election Act, 2004.

Son of the chief whip, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, was picked up by the DB police from Old Dhaka Monday in connection with a gun attack on a shop a few days back.
   He was taken to the Detective Branch office in the evening for interrogation.
   On Feb 25, Paban along with his friends allegedly fired several shots at a phone shop at Bangshal in the capital following a dispute between the shop owner, Alamgir, and the security guard of the chief whip’s house over payment of mobile phone bill.
   A case was filed by the shop owner, Alamgir, on that day with the Kotwali police. But he accused none.

Lebanon’s pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karameh tendered his cabinet’s resignation Monday during a parliamentary debate on charges the government had a hand in his predecessor Rafiq Hariri’s murder.
   The announcement was greeted with laud applause in the national assembly, where the opposition was seeking a vote of no confidence to bring down the government.
   Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered at the nearby Martyrs’ Square, amid a sea of red and white Lebanese flags, broke into singing the national anthem on hearing the news.