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Nor’wester with thundershower and lightning across the country Tuesday night and on Wednesday killed at least 21 and injured about 400. Forty-three people went missing.
   Almost all the fights from all the airports across the country were delayed.
   Bikalpadhara Bangladesh secretary general Abdul Mannan sustained injuries when a helicopter he was travelling in crashed in bad weather at Ramgati in Lakshmipur Wednesday night.
   Sources in civil aviation said all the flights, including eight international, were delayed on Wednesday for bad weather.
   Inclement weather compelled two Bangladesh Biman flights to have emergency landing at Chittagong Shah Amanat International Airport.
   Two Dhaka-bound flights of Bangladesh Biman from Sylhet and Jessore made emergency landing in Chittagong — one Tuesday night and the other at noon on Wednesday.
   The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority suspended river transports across the country, including to and from Sadarghat in Dhaka. The Met Office issued cautionary danger signal 2. Only a rocket steamer left the Barisal terminal.
   Life came to a halt as thundershower swept many areas, including Dhaka. Rain submerged many city roads and streets as sewers and drains failed to flush out rainwater.
   Collected rainwater adversely affected traffic flow on most city roads. Office goers and students were the worst sufferers.
   The bad weather may last for two more days, the Met Office said. A statement of the Bikalpadhara said two other persons accompanying Mannan were injured when the copter was caught in fire and crashed at about 7:00pm when Mannan was on his way back to Maijdee from Noakhali. He was injured in the head.
   Mannan and the pilot managed to come out, but his companions were partially burnt in the fire. The copter later burned down, the statement said. The injured were rescued and taken to a local hospital.
   Lakshmipur deputy commissioner Abu Al Hossain told New Age Wednesday night that nothing serious had taken place. ‘As the copter was caught in bad weather, Mannan jumped out when the pilot was about to land, followed by the pilot.’
   He said the copter had malfunctioned, emitting black smoke. But there was no fire and crash at all.
   The New Age correspondent and the United News of Bangladesh and the BDNews reported on the situation from Chandpur, Shariatpur, Habiganj, Faridpur, Kishoreganj, Satkhira, Manikganj, Noakhali, Munshiganj, Jessore, Jhenaidah and Comilla.
   The reports said many trees and houses collapsed, standing crops were damaged and telecommunications at a number of places snapped. Electric supply was also affected.
   In Satkhira, housewife Rahima Khatun, 35, was killed struck by lightening at Raispur in sadar upazila when the early nor’wester lashed the area at about 8:00am.
   In Jheniadah, two persons were killed and 25 were injured in nor’wester swept Tuesday night.
   Rusell, 14, of Iswarba at Kaliganj, was killed as a branch of a tree fell down on him.
   Sarwar Mondal, 25, of Basudevpur in Harinakundu died when a three-wheeler scooter fell into a roadside ditch during the storm at Daulatpur.
   In Jessore, three people were killed and at least 150 injured. The deceased have been identified as Jharna, 45, of Bagharpara, and Shamsher Ali, 32, and Asgar Ali, 31, of Chowgacha.
   In Comilla, one person was killed and at least 50 were injured when nor’wester hit Muradnagar, Laksam, Manoharganj and Burichang Tuesday night.
   The victim has been identified as Hossain Mia, 50, of Bhanghar at Manoharganj. He was killed as a mud wall caved in and fell on him during the storm. At least 15 people were injured.
   In Shariatpur, one person, identified as Yunus Sardar, 60, went missing as a boat capsized during the nor’wester. At least 50 people were injured.
   In Chandpur, Rony, 3, of Ramdhanimura at Hajiganj, Rina Akter, 12, of Ragoi at Shahrasti and Sabura Khatun, 60, of Chalia at Faridganj died as their houses collapsed during the storm Tuesday night.
   Mafizur Rahman, 80, of Chandail at Shaharasti and madrassah teacher Habibur Rahman, 73, of Govindapur at Faridganj, died struck by lightning. More than 100 people were injured.
   In the River Meghna, three boats, carrying sand, capsized; two went missing. Eight more people went missing when their boat, sailing from Puranbazar to Bhedarganj, sank at about 8:00pm. In the River Dakatia, another boat capsized; three people went missing.
   In Narayanganj, at least two people were killed and 20 injured when nor’wester lashed Araihajar, Rupganj and Sonargaon at noon on Wednesday. Noab Ali was killed as a wall caved in; and Nagendra Das was killed struck by lightning.
   In Habiganj, four people, including a woman, died by lightning while working on fields at Ajmiriganj Wednesday morning.
   In Kishoreganj, Sufia Khatun, 25, died by lightning. Qaiyum, 13, was electrocuted when he came in touch with a live wire.
   In Faridpur, two people were killed and more than 50 injured as nor’wester lashed Boalmari, Bhanga, Nagarkanda, Sadarpur and sadar upazilas Tuesday night.
   In Munsiganj, one person was killed in Wednesday afternoon.
   In Noakhali, 30 fishermen went missing as several trawlers and boats capsized Tuesday night.

Local people caught a member of the Rapid Action Battalion in the capital’s Mirpur area for his alleged involvement in a robbery and handed him over to the police on Wednesday.
   Later, RAB also arrested a relative of the accused and another of its members in this connection.
   The arrested were identified as Atiqur Rahman and Waliullah, sergeants of Bangladesh Air Force and Taslim, a relative of Atiqur.
   According to the police, a gang of robbers raided the rented house of Ratan Miah, a cattle trader, at Kotbari in Gabtali area at about 12.30pm.
   Introducing themselves as RAB members and threatening to kill in ‘crossfire,’ they robbed the trader of Tk 7.80 lakh, the police said. As the robbers tried to flee, the local people responding to the victim’s cry for help caught Atiqur, while others managed to escape, the police added.
   The suspect was handed over to a patrol team of Mirpur police that reached the spot at that point of time and recovered Tk 80,000 from his possession.
   The RAB in a press release said preliminary investigations found Atiqur’s involvement in the robbery. According to his statement, RAB arrested his relative Taslim and the other RAB member, Waliullah and recovered Tk 2.50 lakh from their possession.

At least 70 people were injured on Wednesday in clashes between the police and activists of the opposition parties in Rangpur and Khulna during countrywide hunger processions of the Awami League and its allies.
   The opposition alliance also claimed that they could not bring out processions in many areas as the police intervened. The police and activists of the ruling BNP and its front organisations intercepted the processions at several places, they added.
   The Awami League and its allies — the 11-Party Alliance, a faction of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal and the National Awami Party — called the programme for what they said government’s failure to keep the prices of essentials within the buying capacity of the common people. The Bikalpadhara Bangladesh also extended its support to the programme.
   In the capital, the police stopped an Awami League procession at the Zero Point on its way to the Central Shaheed Minar from the Bangabandhu Avenue and did not allow the 11-Party Alliance, the Samajtantrik Dal and the National Awami Party to bring out the processions.
   Huge contingent of police took position around the central offices of the parties on the Bangabandhu Avenue, the Topkhana Road, at Paltan and the GPO crossing areas. The police also put barbed-wire fences in front of the AL office on the Bangabandhu Avenue.
   The Communist Party of Bangladesh, the Workers Party of Bangladesh and other members of the 11-Party Alliance, the Samajtantrik Dal and the Bikalpadhara could not bring out processions.
   The Awami League activists tried for the second time to bring out a procession from the Golap Shah Majar area at about 3:00pm, but the police chased them. The police also foiled a bid of some bank employees at Shapla Chattar in Motijheel.
   A group of AL women activists staged demonstrations on the road in front of Muktangan disrupting traffic from Paltan Crossing to GPO.
   The Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, general secretary, Bimal Biswas, and politburo member Anisur Rahman Mallik were kept confined in the office, party sources said.
   The police blocked the central office of the party, barred entrance and out-going of the activists in it and threatened them not to go for any procession, they added.
   The 11-Party Alliance coordinator Mohammad Nurul Islam, in a statement, condemned the confining of Menon and others inside the Workers Party office.
   Menon and Bimal, in another statement, said the opposition parties would be bound to call hartal as the government barred the peaceful programmes.
   New Age correspondent from Khulna adds: At least 36 people, including 13 policeman and a photo journalist, were injured in clash between the Awami League activists and the police.
   Witnesses said the clash took place as the police resisted the AL activists from bringing out a procession at 5:30pm. The police lobbed three tear gas canisters.
   Photojournalist Abdul Maleq of local daily Gramer Kagoj, two assistant commissioners and former whip SM Mostofa Rashidi Suja were among the injured.
   BDNEWS reported that at least 35 people, including a former MP, four policemen and two photojournalists, were injured in clashes between the police and the AL activists in Rangpur.
   The clash ensued when the police resorted to baton charge on the processionists at noon. The police lobbed 10 tear gas canisters and fired several rubber bullets.
   AL advisory council member and former lawmaker Siddiq Hossain, Krishak League convenor Moazzem Hossain Lablu, ASP Rfiqul Islam and photojournalists Selim Mahfuz and Golzar Hossain were among the injured.
   The Rajshahi correspondent of New Age reports: The police kept barricaded the AL city office and resisted the activists from bringing out a procession in the afternoon. A rally at Shaheb Bazaar Zero Point was later organised.
   In Barisal, the BNP activists tried to attack the AL activists, who gathered into the heavily police guarded Court Compound to bring the procession, but failed for police action. The police, however, did not allow the AL activists to bring out the procession.
   In Manikganj, the police intercepted a procession soon after it was brought out from the AL district unit office and was heading towards the press club.

The government on Wednesday formed a monitoring cell to identify and punish persons behind the widespread illegal exit of job-seekers, which damages the reputation of the country and impoverishes hundreds of poor people.
   The home secretary, Safar Raj Hossain, will head the committee, which was formed at an inter-ministerial meeting convened at the home ministry following the tragic death of 11 Bangladeshis while illegally crossing the Mediterranean on their way to Spain.
   Meeting sources said the persons responsible must be brought to justice as their illegal activities not only damage the image of the country but also hamper legal manpower export.
   The decision came a day after a parliamentary panel asked the government to take punitive action against the persons responsible for the miseries of the hundreds of Bangladeshi youths in different parts of the world.
   It found that an unscrupulous syndicate of travel agents, immigration and passport officials, airport staff and police officials were responsible for facilitating illegal exit of the workers, and for luring them with offers of better overseas jobs.
   The committee, comprising officials of different ministries and departments, will meet after every 15 days to monitor the situation and take action to reduce the illegal practice.
   It will also work to stop passport forgery, find out fake passports and coordinate activities of the two committees formed earlier for the same reason.
   ‘We are very worried over the situation, which we never expected,’ the state minister for expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment, Quamrul Islam, told journalists after the meeting.
   He said a powerful syndicate associated with some international brokers has been doing the illegal manpower business. ‘Besides the local culprits we will have to stop the international clique,’ he said. ‘We must unearth the quarter and take action against it to stop its activities from damaging our image.’
   The state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, told reporters that the meeting discussed the two tragic incidents and will put in all effort for preventing the recurrence of such tragedies.
   Enhancing registration fees for travel agents, amending the Bangladesh Travel Agencies Registration and Control Ordinance Act and reviewing the Passport Act are among the steps taken so far.
   Asked how the illegal job-seekers could cross the immigration checkpoints, Babar claimed that all of them had the required legal documents, but admitted that the illegal exits could not be stopped until the machine-readable passport is introduced. ‘I have already completed the preliminary procedures and expect to introduce the hi-tech passport within one year.’
   Referring to the unscrupulous officials of the immigration and passport department, the state minister said the committee would investigate the allegations and then take action.
   The other members of the committee are director-generals of the passport and labour and manpower directorate, assistant inspector general of the Special Branch, chairman of Civil Aviation of Bangladesh, managing director of Biman Bangladesh, a joint secretary of the expatriates’ welfare ministry and the president of the Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh.
   The meeting, attended among others by the home secretary, expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment secretary and other top officials of different government agencies, also formed a committee, with director-general of the passport department at its helm, to stop passport forgery.

The flyover at Khilgaon in Dhaka, the second in Bangladesh, was commissioned to traffic on Wednesday. The first flyover, at Mohakhali, was commissioned on October 4, 2004.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, opened the 1.9-kilometre flyover, by unveiling a plaque in a ceremony on the flyover at the joining point of its three wings, connecting Khilgaon with Rajarbagh in the south, Malibagh in the west and Sayedabad in the east.
   ‘Dhaka must have all the features of a present-day capital city… We have attached special importance to its beautification so that foreign entrepreneurs and investors get a positive impression,’ Khaleda said.
   The total cost of the flyover, 14 metres wide and having 543 piles, is about Tk 81.75 crore. The flyover has a 780-metre main bridge and three ramps. The length of the flyover towards Sayedabad is 303 metres, Malibagh 190 metres and Rajarbagh 285 metres.
   The ramp towards Sayedabad is 220 metres, Malibagh 202 metres and Rajarbagh 222 metres.
   Local firm Development Construction Limited built the flyover on internal funds. The Local Government Engineering Department implemented the project.
   Ministers, lawmakers, diplomats, political leaders and the elite were present. A large number of local people also attended the function.
   The minister for LGRD and cooperatives, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, minister for housing and public works Mirza Abbas, also a local lawmaker, Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka and the state minister for LGRD and cooperatives, Ziaul Haq Zia, also spoke.
   Khaleda stressed the need for the continuity of the government to sustain development. ‘It [continuity] is essential for smooth and complete implementation of the development activities.’
   By development, the government understands development of the people — the improvement of their lot and standards of living, she said.
   She said the flyover is a long-cherished desire of the people of Khilgaon, Goran, Sabujbagh, and Basabo. It will make easy communication between the south-eastern part and the other areas of the metropolis and will reduce traffic jam.
   She said the government has plans to build elevated expressway and underground railway for a better transport system.
   Khaleda said only renovation of roads and the construction of flyovers, underpasses and footbridges would not do. ‘Their proper use must be ensured.’
   ‘The vehicle owners and drivers must go by traffic rules. The pedestrians will need to walk along the footpath and use footbridges and underpasses to cross roads,’ she said.
   Khaleda said traffic congestion, black smoke and garbage here and there were common in the capital in the past.
   Traffic jam would create a negative impact on the economy and people thought that Dhaka would become uninhabitable because of environmental pollution, she said.
   The government first took the initiative to turn Dhaka into a clean city, with all modern facilities, she said, referring to steps such as cleanliness drives and banning old vehicles and two-stroke auto-rickshaws, banning polythene, three plantation, modernisation of traffic signals and renovation of roads.
   She talked about the construction of multi-storey parking lot at Motijheel, introduction of circular waterways and beautification of roads, footpaths, road islands and the Airport Road.
   Mannan Bhuiyan said the Awami League always tries to criticise every good work of the BNP government. ‘And this is why it is criticising the flyover construction.’
   He said the Awami League, which claims to have laid the foundation stone of the flyover, failed to do anything for its implementation, except for laying the foundation stone
   ‘The BNP government has done everything, from design to construction, including fund allocation and land acquisition,’ he said.
   Responding a criticism of the flyover by the Awami League, he said no design of a loop at Khilgaon has been changed. He requested the prime minister to take steps to construct a loop at the Khilgaon point.
   The mayor said the process for a seven-kilometre flyover from Jatrabari to Gulistan has begun. The foundation stone for the flyover is expected to be laid in the first week of April by the prime minister, he said.
   Mirza Abbas said the Awami League in its election pledges promised the flyover at Khilgaon, but it failed to do the job. ‘It just laid a foundation stone 43 days before of completion of its tenure.’

Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina’s political secretary Saber Hossain Chowdhury on Wednesday pointed out some technical flaws of the Khilgaon flyover and said an incomplete portion will deprive millions of people from reaping its full benefits. ‘With the change in the government, its model was also changed, dropping one loop towards Sabujbag that made the flyover “incomplete.” As a result, people at Khilgaon, Hajipara, Chowdhurypara, Meradia, Tilpapara and Rampura will not reap its benefits,’ Saber, a former lawmaker for the Dhaka 6 constituency, said at a briefing in his residence.
   Saber said he was happy to see the opening of the flyover that was initiated during the Awami League rule.
   ‘If Awami League comes back to power in future, we will complete the incomplete loop which will ease traffic movement on the flyover, and help the people of Khilgaon and other areas,’ he said.
   Saber, also the Awami League organising secretary, said the width of the flyover has also been reduced, which will not only slow down traffic movement, but will also cause traffic congestion on the approach roads.
   Saber said the flyover was supposed to be completed within 30 months of the project initiation, but it finally took 50 months, incurring an additional expenditure of Tk 15 to 20 crore.

Rift resurfaced in the three-member Anti-Corruption Commission on Wednesday as it decided — two votes to one — to send a letter to the Cabinet Division, asking it not to interfere with the commission’s activities and thus make the commission inoperative.
   The commission, which remains practically dysfunctional even four months after its formation, also observed that the Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2004 is incomplete and creating complications in its functioning. The decision and the observation came at a meeting of the commission, with the chairman, Justice Sultan Hossain Khan in the chair.
   The commission will sent the letter to the Cabinet Division with a note of dissent from Maniruzzaman Miah, a member of the commission, said sources in the anti-graft body.
   ‘A letter will be sent to the Cabinet Division, asking it not to interfere with the commission’s activities and thus make it inoperative,’ Sultan told reporters after the meeting.
   The letter will practically be a reply to the letter the division issued on March 21 that barred the commission from transferring staffers of the defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption, other letters and circulars of the division relating to the commission, he said.
   In the letter, the commission will inform the division that the March 21 letter and some other letters and circulars it issued are interference in the functioning of the commission and making the commission inoperative, to some extent, said Sultan. ‘It is also detrimental to the image of independence of the commission.’
   The Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2004 is an incomplete law and it creates some complications in the commission’s functioning, and the commission has to overcome the complications, he said. ‘No law can be complete,’ he hastened to add.
   Sultan said the commission would not recommend any amendment to the law at this moment. Miah, however, raised a note of dissent to the decision of the meeting.
   He told New Age that the commission was not in any need of sending the letter. ‘Although the commission does not feel comfortable with some actions of the Cabinet Division, it cannot be said the division has made the commission inoperative.
   ‘Instead, we have failed to do a number of urgent works including framing necessary rules and formulation of the procedure for screening of the staffers of the defunct bureau to appoint the fit ones in the commission.
   ‘We have also failed to fill up the 32 posts of staffs of the commission sanctioned by the government.’ He said the commission is independent but within the law and once the necessary rules are framed and the bureau staffers are appointed in the commission after proper screening, the commission will need not to depend on the government or on the division.
   According to sources in the meeting, Miah stood by the division’s stand on transfer of eight BAC officials now functioning in the commission under temporary attachment.
   A former director of the bureau, Abdul Hannan Mridha, on March 18 transferred eight bureau officials, using a non-existing designation of a director of Anti-Corruption Commission.
   The division issued a letter to the commission saying the bureau staffers are reserved staffs under the division and no other authority reserves the right to transfer them. The meeting was also divided over interpretation of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, the sources said.
   Miah told the meeting that the act was clear and the commission had to go for framing the rules and formulating the criteria for screening the bureau people before going for any other activities.
   The commission remains practically inoperative due to its dependency on a few of the bureau people instead of framing the rules, Miah was quoted to have said.
   On interpretation of the act, he observed that the bureau people would not be considered as staffers of the commission, as the act provides that the commission will appoint the fit ones of the bureau people in the commission after a proper screening on the basis of the rules and criteria to be framed by the commission.
   The chairman and other commissioner of the commission, however, stood by the opinion of the legal adviser of the commission, Abul Bashar Bhuiyan. According to Bhuiyan’s interpretation, the bureau staffers have been transferred to the commission on the dissolution of the bureau, as the act provides that all the powers and properties of the bureau will be vested upon the commission.
   The word ‘property’ includes the staffers also, he interpreted.
   Earlier on February 17, the commission decided to attach temporarily the bureau staffers to the commission.
   The cabinet division on February 28 made a notification not to attach or allow any bureau staff to work for the commission before the screening.

An additional number of wardens have been deployed in the Dhaka Central Jail, following a clash between two groups of prisoners on Tuesday that left several inmates injured.
   The wardens were deployed in front of all the cells, especially at Cell 10, said a jail warden.
   The jail authorities did not file any case till Wednesday evening in connection with Tuesday’s incident.
   On Tuesday, two groups of prisoners — one led by Zakir alias Kangali Zakir and another by Imran, nephew of Sweden Aslam — clashed over filing a complaint by followers of Imran on Monday after Zakir’s men had beat up Imran. The clash continued till late afternoon and the jail wardens had to charge baton to bring the situation under control, wardens said.
   The wardens also assaulted an inmate, Masum, convicted in the killing of Sabequnnahar Sony of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, at Cell 10. Sources in the central jail said both the groups often lock in clash over establishing supremacy and control in drug trade in the jail. Heroin, cannabis, phensidyl and even liquors are supplied to prisoners with the help of a section of wardens and visitors of the criminals, the sources alleged.
   The jail officials claimed that there was no drug inside the jail.
   About suspension of seven wardens on Tuesday, the jailor, Arifuzzaman, said they were suspended upon an earlier decision, not in connection with the Tuesday’s incident. The jailor admitted that conflicts between the two groups over establishing supremacy often take place. ‘But it never went beyond the control as on Tuesday,’ he said.

Cambodian prison guards shot dead at least 20 inmates Wednesday after they tried to escape by kidnapping four wardens and crashing cars through the gates, the police said.
   ‘At least 20 prisoners were killed when they tried to break out of the prison,’ the police chief of Pornhea Krek district, Em Sary, said.
   The prisoners, armed with knives, sticks and iron bars, overpowered four wardens and ordered them to drive cars through the gates at 1:30pm in the eastern province of Kompong Cham near the Vietnam border.
   ‘When they managed to break through the first prison gate, at the second gate the prison guards shot them. At least 20 prisoners were killed, while more than 30 fled,’ Em Sary said.
   All four wardens were rescued. Two of them were seriously injured and were evacuated to Vietnam for treatment, he added.
   ‘The situation is under control now,’ he said.
   The provincial police Chief, Kang Sokhorn, confirmed the killings and said two of the escaped prisoners had been rearrested.
   The prison holds more than 900 inmates, many of them hardened criminals serving terms of 20 years or longer, Kang Sokhorn said.

The foreign minister, M Morshed Khan, on Wednesday said the issue of terrorism is a global concern today, but the threat of terrorism in Bangladesh is not as severe as it is in the United States or in Europe.
   Replying to a question regarding others’ (foreign countries) concern over violence in Bangladesh, Morshed said, ‘Terrorism is a global concern and we’re also concerned.’
   He said Bangladesh did not have any experience of the extent of terrorism like 9/11 in the United States or the train bombing in Spain.
   Morshed made the remarks when he was briefing journalists on the outcome of prime minister Khaleda Zia’s three-day visit to Singapore.
   ‘But there is no room for us to be complacent and we must work together against global terrorism,’ he said.
   He said Bangladesh and Singapore agreed to cooperate in combating international terrorism and work in close collaboration in the Asia-Middle East Dialogue to eliminate doubts mixing religion and terrorism.
   ‘Global terrorism should not be identified on the basis of religion,’ he said.
   He said the 8 nations already joined the dialogue group.
   The countries in the group are Bangladesh, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain and Kuwait and member states would sit for the third meeting to evolve mechanism of combating terrorism and removing the misgivings about Islam.
   Morshed said Indonesia and Saudi Arabia would join the group shortly.

The visiting Federal Bureau of Investigation’s special agent Trung Vu, along with local investigators, secretly visited Baidyerbazar, spot of the 27 January grenade attack which left former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and four others killed.
   Sources claimed that BDNews they went to Baidyerbazar on Monday night and visited the spot Tuesday. They talked to some local people and law enforcing members. However, the Habiganj police super denied the claim.
   The government have sought FBI assistance in digging out the origin of the grenade used in the January 27 attack in Habiganj after it completes investigation into the Kibria murder case.
   A spokesman for the US Embassy told the United News of Bangladesh, ‘The Bangladesh Government states that the murder phase of the investigation is now completed, and that the one area where they still seek assistance is identifying the origin of the grenade used in the attack. We are discussing with home ministry officials how we can be responsive to this request.’
   He made the comment when asked about the outcome of the consultations between Vu and Bangladesh law enforcement officials.
   ‘The terms of reference have not yet been finalised,’ the spokesman said. ‘We began discussions on terms of reference to define and develop a framework for what was at one point a very broad request for assistance in the Kibria (killing) investigation.’
   Meanwhile, the Habiganj correspondent of BDNews said a court on Wednesday sent eight persons arrested in connection with the Kibria murder to jail.
   The eight, out of ten enlisted in the CID’s chargesheet, will be produced before the court on April 16.
   They are: AKM Abdul Kaiyum, Joinal Abedin Jalil, Joinal, also known as Momin, Shahed Ali, Selim Ahmed, Ayat Ali, Tajul Islam and Zamir Ali.
   The two other charge-sheeted accused, however, were absconding.

The senior joint secretary of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Tarique Rahman, escaped unhurt when an overloaded elevator in a Khulna hotel collapsed Wednesday evening.
   Two ruling party lawmakers — Ali Asgor Lobby and Habibur Rahman — sustained minor injuries as the elevator fell down.
   The BNP lawmakers and local leaders were with Tarique in the elevator when he was coming down to lobby from his second-floor room at the Royal International Hotel in the city.
   The hotel officials said 11 people were in the elevator, with the capacity to accommodate six people, which caused the accident.
   They said the ropes of the elevator tore apart and it suddenly fell down to the base without major damage.
   ‘The two lawmakers and the liftman sustained minor injures,’ said one of the hotel officials. Tarique came to Khulna to address his party’s union-level representatives. He stayed in the hotel in the evening after the programme.

The National Board of Revenue has taken an initiative to prepare lists of top tax defaulters and evaders, and recently instructed all its tax commissioners to identify them, said sources.
   All 16 tax commissioners of the revenue department have been asked to prepare lists of 100 taxpayers within their respective tax zones separately (which will make the total number 1,600), issue demand notes against them by April 30 and put in all-out effort to realise the tax money by June 30.
   Kazi Aslam Hossain, member (tax administration) of the board issued the directives to tax commissioners, and set a target of 10 per cent more tax generation than the target of the current fiscal year.
   The directives will be applicable to both individuals and companies, said sources.
   The directives also mentioned the need for review of the tax files of all potential taxpayers, and initiating comprehensive audit of the suspected evaders.
   Taxmen, if needed, have been asked to request the cooperation of officials concerned with customs and value added tax in order to make accurate tax assessment of tax evaders and top taxpayers.
   Sources in the revenue board told New Age that about Tk 500 crore has been lying unrealised from defaulting taxpayers for four to five years. The huge amount could not be realised due to lack of institutional initiative and evasive tactics of errant taxpayers.
   Under the current income tax regulations, any taxpayer disagreeing with any tax assessment by the tax officials is allowed to go to the tax appellate wing of the board for revision of the decision, followed by case in the tax tribunal if necessary.
   It is learnt that a handful of taxpayers resort to dilly-dallying in paying due taxes. They were in most cases allowed by the tribunal to pay the taxes in phases.
   Besides, a number of taxpayers often go to the High Court to appeal against tribunal’s decision. About Tk 600 crore have been lying unrealised due to the court’s ruling and stay order, said sources.
   According to a rough estimate of the board, the amount of taxes evaded is estimated at Tk 3,000 crore per year, as taxpayers, in connivance with a section of corrupt taxmen, have long been evading tax.
   ‘Tax evaders show lesser income, higher expenditure and low volume of production of their industries,’ a member in the revenue board told New Age.
   He admitted that such evasion has been taking place with the cooperation of a section of corrupt taxmen.
   Sources in the private sector told New Age that the move would yield good results for honest taxpayers by creating a level playing field, but demanded identification of corrupt tax officials as well.
   The target for income tax is Tk 6,277 crore for the current 2004-2005 fiscal year. Total earning from this head was Tk 2,709.42 crore during the July-February period of the current fiscal year. The revenue is 16.28 per cent or Tk 379.29 higher than that of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.
   The number of taxpayers’ identification number holders is about 16 lakh, of which only about eight lakh have submitted their tax returns in the current fiscal year.

Abed Ali was detected a tuberculosis case a few years ago, but he kept it secret from his family and avoided treatment.
   The 46-year old chain-smoking garment worker came to the tuberculosis treatment centre in Dhaka only after he fell seriously ill. Doctors told him it was too late.
   Abed lost 30 kilograms of weight from 57kg a few years back.
   ‘Doctors said I would be cured within two years. But now, after 13 months, the hospital seems like a jail to me,’ Abed said at the national institute of chest diseases and hospital Wednesday, the day before World Stop TB Day.
   Continued cough, crowded environment and excessive smoking are major causes of tuberculosis, said experts.
   Almost 70,000 people die of tuberculosis every year and more than 3,00,000 are attacked with the disease in Bangladesh that has the world’s fifth highest number of TB cases, according to a survey of National Tuberculosis Control Programme of Directorate General of Health Services.
   Tuberculosis is widespread both in Asia and Africa. The top four countries with the most prevalence of tuberculosis are India, China, Indonesia and Nigeria. About 5 lakh people die of tuberculosis in India and 20 lakh are attacked with the disease every year in India alone.
   One person dies every 10 minutes and one becomes sick every two minutes of tuberculosis in Bangladesh which is avoidable, said the programme manager of National Tuberculosis Control Programme, Vikarunnessa Begum, also an asthma, TB and chest specialist.
    ‘The $42 million Global Fund for the five-year programme will help reduce tuberculosis deaths,’ she hoped, talking to New Age on Wednesday,
   According to the World Health Organisation, the programme is aimed at giving appropriate treatment to TB patients, said Vikarrunnesa.
   ‘The case detection rate is 46 per cent 2004 and treatment success rate was 86 per cent,’ she said.
   The government is carrying out the programme across the country in partnership with non-governmental organisations and private clinics.
   Diagnosis and treatment of TB are free of charge at 460 upazila health complexes and other health service centres run by NGOs. Besides, there are is a tuberculosis hospital in each of the four divisional cities–– Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi and Sylhet.
   Director of National Institute of Diseases of Chest and Hospital, Falahuzzaman Khan, said, ‘Although the disease is completely curable, a large number of smear-positive patients abandon the treatment before completing the medication course. It leads to multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.’
   Treatment then becomes complicated and expensive as such patients have to stay in hospitals for one to two years for cure.
   Asif Mujtaba Mahmud, assistant professor of Respiratory Medicine of the institute said, ‘From 1998 there have been more than one hundred cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Among them 70 per cent became cured, 15 per cent died and the rest fled from the hospital because of the lengthy treatment.’
   Mohammad Enamul Haque, superintendent of TB Control and Training Institute at Chankharpul, said, ‘The number of patients coming to the control centre is between 250 and 300 every day.’

The education ministry on Wednesday formed a strategic planning committee and six expert groups to formulate a ten-year strategic plan for higher education as prescribed by the World Bank, sources in the ministry have told New Age.
   ‘The ministry in collaboration with the World Bank has decided to carry out an in-depth study of the present state of higher education and its future direction and formulate a strategic plan,’ according to an office order of the ministry.
   Headed by the University Grants Commission chairman, Professor M Asaduzzaman, the two-member committee also includes the commission secretary, Mohammad Mofakker.
   The main terms of references of the SPC are to review the existing legal framework for the management of higher education and prepare proposals for revision/amendments to the current policies, legal and administrative framework.
   The committee will also make suggestions for measures to improve the quality of higher education with relevance of the government’s financial and other support for public and private universities, according to the sources.
   Besides, it will suggest ways to increase the proportion of income of the public universities from non-public sources.
   In preparing the report the SPC will take assistance of the six expert groups and the secretariat will be located at the UGC.
   The six experts committees are on public university, private university, ministry of education, non-government organisations and civil society, private sector and planning commission.
   ‘World Bank will give financial assistance to formulate the planning,’ the education minister, Orman Farruk, said, expressing the hope that the committee would formulate a progressive and timely education plan which would drive out the existing crises in higher education.
   Earlier in December 2004, the World Bank had identified seven major crises in this sector and made some recommendations to the government conditioning its financial and technical support to develop the sector.
   The three-member World Bank mission identified the crises after a review and analysis of the present state of the public and private higher educational institutes following a visit to these institutions from December 3 to December 11.
   The analysis and review of the bank mission was followed by an education ministry request for assistance in developing a ten-year strategic plan for higher education.

The jumm people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts have been excluded from the history of liberation despite their active role in the 1971 independence war.
   The observation was made by the chairman of the Parbattya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti, Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, also known as Santu Larma, at a discussion on ‘Adivasi in Liberation War: Neglected History’ organised by the Bangladesh Adivasi Adhikar Andolan at the CIRDAP auditorium on Wednesday.
   Santu Larma said the liberation war history has bypassed the contribution of the subalterns as well as the adivasis — indigenous peoples.
   He said a group of feudal, imperialist and ultra-nationalists who are in the power, shape the history as they want. ‘The marginalised will be further marginalised if we cannot ensure people’s participation in power.’
   While speaking on the CHT crisis he said signing the peace accord proved that the people of the hill tracts are fighting for their survival. He expressed his anger on the reluctance of the government for not enforcing the peace treaty.
   Afsan Choudhury, a researcher on liberation war who presided over the discussion, said people are becoming poorer every day since independence.
   The adivasis who participated in the independence war never wanted to reap any benefits from the war. They are not in that position to do so, he said.
   Afsan called upon the researchers and historians to be more conscious so that the subaltern history is also included in the mainstream.
   Afsan also said in the process of preserving the history of independence war, the sorrier side of the Bengalis has been manipulated. ‘As Biharis conspired against and killed many Bengalis, at the same time Bengalis also killed a number of Biharis.’
   Quamrul Islam Bhuiyan, a writer and researcher on the history of independence war, said despite enormous sacrifice of small nations, groups and poor people, these records have been ignored while contributions of the richer sections highlighted. ‘People who live in the cities and are closer to the state power got the recognition but the marginalised, those who have a larger share of the contribution have hardly been recognised,’ he said.
   Mesbah Kamal, an associate professor of the history department of the Dhaka University, said the adivasis are absent in the 15 volumes of history published by the government despite their glorious efforts during the independence war in North Bengal.
   He cited a number of publications where the history of adivasi participation in the war was given passing mentions. He mentioned writers such as Quamrul Islam Bhuiyan and Anisul Haq as those who portrayed the adivasi history.

Dhaka on Wednesday eyed more investments from Singapore after the visit of the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, to Singapore during March 20–22.
   Briefing journalists on the outcome of the prime minister’s visit, the minister for foreign affairs, M Morshed Khan, termed the visit ‘most successful’ and said Singapore considered Bangladesh a bridge between South Asia and South East Asia.
   Morshed said three business deals were signed between Bangladeshi and Singaporean businessmen that included a deal with the Nitol Group for producing a kind of fuel (an alternative to gasoline) from molasses with an investment of Singapore $6 million.
   The businessmen of Singapore also struck deals for setting up a modern cold-storage in Bangladesh to export potato and other vegetables. Knitwear exporters signed agreement to export knitwear to Singapore initially of Singapore $1 million.
   Singapore has invested around US$ 700 million in different projects in Bangladesh and Bangladesh requested Singapore to invest more as Singapore was outsourcing its companies outside the country (Singapore).
   He said Bangladesh had offered Singapore full cooperation for investment in human resource development, hotels and hospitals.
   In reply to a question, Morshed said they had discussed FTA between Bangladesh and Singapore.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a US-based media watchdog, sent a letter to the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Tuesday expressing grave concern over numerous threats and attacks on journalists.
   It said the threats and attacks come from Islamic militants, outlawed political groups, criminal gangs, corrupt politicians and student groups in recent months.
   It requested the prime minister to take swift and decisive action to stop such relentless violence against journalists.
   ‘We are deeply concerned about this press freedom crisis, and join with our Bangladeshi colleagues in calling for swift and decisive action to stanch this relentless tide of violence against journalists,’ CPJ executive director Ann Cooper said.

Members of the Rapid Action Battalion on Wednesday arrested an Indian national from Rajshahi on charge of illegal intrusion into Bangladesh.
   Tipped-off, a RAB team raided the house of one Badruddin Sheikh at Rajpara in the Rajshahi city at noon and arrested Alauddin, 42, of Maldah district in West Bengal.
   The Indian national failed to show any valid document in support of his entry into Bangladesh.

Shaibal Saha Partha, who was accused of sending a death threat to Awami League president Sheikh Hasina through an email, was released on bail Wednesday.
   The executive director of Ain O Shalish Kendra, a legal aid organisation, moved for Partha’s bail at the High Court.
   He was received at the jail gate in presence of lawyers from the organisation and also the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust.
   He was driven to the organisation’s office at Purana Paltan Line from where he was sent to his sister’s Elephant Road residence.
   The release came about seven months after plainclothesmen had arrested him from a cyber café at Elephant Road on August 25, 2004.
   The police had also implicated him in the August 21 grenade attack on the AL rally that left 22 people killed including AL central leader Ivy Rahman.
   The two legal aid organisations filed writs with the High Court which granted bail to Partha in both the cases on March 15.
   The copy of the High Court order reached the office of the district magistrate on Tuesday; the additional district magistrate signed it on Wednesday.

The opposition Awami League and its allies on Wednesday curtailed the hartal hours for four hours in Dhaka.
   The parties decided that the hartal on March 31 would be enforced from 6:00am to 2:00pm in Dhaka and in other places across the country it would be enforced as per schedule from 6:00am to 6:00pm.
   The decision to curtail the hartal hours for Dhaka has been taken as it coincides with the programme of human chain called by the family members of the slain former finance minister, Shah AMS Kibria, said a press release. The Kibria's family will form human chain in front of the Jatiya Sangsad on March 31 afternoon in protest against the killing of Kibira.
   Earlier, the opposition parties shifted the hartal from March 27 to March 31 as it coincided with Easter Sunday.

The death toll in the Sunday’s nor’wester in Gaibandha and Rangpur rose to 55.
   Three nor’wester victims died in Gaibandha early Wednesday. They are Rehana, 35, of Taluk Sarbananda under Sundarganj upazila, Manju, 27, of Shabaj and Jarina, 57, of Rajibpur.
   The BNP senior joint secretary general, Tarique Rahman, on Tuesday granted 1,000 bags of rice for nor’wester affected families.
   Naldanga union BNP president Abdus Sobhan was assigned to distribute those bags among the affected people. But a faction of the union BNP alleged that Sobhan embezzled those relief materials.
   They, at one stage, chased Sobhan who took shelter in a local hotel.
   The agitated BNP activists launched an attack on him and ransacked the hotel. He received serious wounds in the attack and was now undergoing treatment.

Eight activists of the Jana Sanghati Samiti were abducted from Khullabari in Rangamati on Wednesday, claimed the police and witnesses.
   The police suspect armed activists of the United People’s Democratic Front, an anti-CHT Peace Treaty organisation, may have kidnapped Milon Bikash Chakma, Bilash Chandra Chakma, Prafulla Chakma, Shiyo Chakma, Dipayaon Chakma, Tajendra Chakma, Sardul Sarkar and Ripon Chakma at about 8:30am.
   The police could not know trace the whereabouts of the abducted eight.