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The Awami League has rejected the progress reports on the investigation of the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on its rally and the August 17 chain bombings across the country, saying that the reports were baseless, farcical and ‘nothing more than rumours’.
   The rejection was voiced at a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the home ministry to which the inspector general of police had submitted the report on Tuesday.
   The meeting was scheduled to discuss the major bomb attacks that the country had undergone in the past few years.
   Two opposition members in the ten-member committee also demanded an international probe into the bombing incidents. They also demanded that the judicial probe report, prepared by Justice Joynul Abedin who mentioned a foreign link in the August 21, 2004 blast on the opposition rally in Dhaka, be made public.
   IGP Abdul Quayyum submitted the progress report before the parliamentary standing committee in its 13th meeting, with Professor Mohammad Shahjahan Mia in the chair.
   The IGP, in his report on the August 21 grenade attack, said that the members of the law enforcing agencies have so far arrested a number of criminals involved in the attack and an extensive search to trace and apprehend the rest of the perpetrators was going on.
   ‘A large number of the accused have reportedly left the country and are now hiding in a neighbouring state or in other countries,’ said the IGP in his report, adding that the government has sought the cooperation of the Interpol to issue the red notice for arresting them.
   The report said that Interpol official Marc Mare Beauchemin, expert Gerry and FBI official Trung M Vu interrogated the arrested George Mia at the CID office in Dhaka, and the court recorded the confessional statement of the accused under Section 164.
   ‘Despite repeated requests we were not allowed to conduct chemical and ballistic examinations of the damaged portion of the jeep of the opposition leader, which was essential for the interest of the investigation,’ said the IGP in his report.
   He also said that the Interpol officials have already submitted their opinion report to the police by this time.
   The opinion report said, ‘No other evidence or materials were observed, identified, collected or submitted for examination that would indicate any type of explosive weapons or devices other than those identified in this report that were used at or in close proximity to the incident site.’
   The committee also recommended that the investigators continue the inquiry process until the criminals are found, and asked the police to submit the final charge sheet of the case to committee members, said meeting sources.
   But the AL lawmakers rejected the IGP’s report, saying that the police had arrested some ordinary people like George Mia, Mukul and Zahid as the government was trying to save the real criminals, said sources.
   The opposition lawmakers also pointed out that the government didn’t take adequate security measures at the venue of the August 21 rally, that the police didn’t do their duty during the attack, that the administration didn’t play a proper role after the incident and that there are huge inconsistencies in the investigation process, said sources.
   The AL lawmakers demanded intensive interrogation of the policemen who were present at the rally’s venue during the attack.
   ‘The attack was carried out in a pre-planned manner, and was master-minded by vested quarters for political reasons,’ one of the committee members, Mohammad Nasim, told New Age after the meeting.
   When the AL lawmakers blamed the committee’s chairman, Professor Mohammed Shahjahan Mia, for not holding the meeting for the last four and half months, he said that his illness and absence of the concerned state minister were the main reasons behind the delay.
   State minister for home affairs, Lutfuzzaman Babar, told New Age that the suspects of the case were being arrested almost everyday and the hunt would be continued.
   ‘We requested the opposition lawmakers to extend their cooperation for making the inquiry successful,’ said Babar.
   Committee chairman Shahjahan Mia said that the home ministry had been asked to prioritise the investigation of the August 21 grenade attack and the August 17 bomb blast cases.
   The AL lawmakers, however, gave a note of dissent to the recommendation and declined to express their solidarity in this regard.
   The IGP also submitted the inquiry progress report of the August 17 chain-bombing across the country. He said that a group of professional, skilled and technically trained people were involved in the attacks, and extensive measures have been taken to arrest them.
   The meeting also discussed the progress of the investigation of the bomb attack on the British High Commissioner and the allegations of sexual harassment of Bangladeshi women Ansar members in Saudi Arabia.
   Ruling party lawmakers Advocate Mujibur Rahman Sarwar, Mizanur Rahman Minu, Moazzem Hossain Alal, Riyasat Ali Biswas and AL lawmaker Sheikh Helal Uddin were present at the meeting, among others.

Plainclothes policemen on Monday night seized some Islamist books on jihad and compact discs from the business firm of AHM Shamim, son of Maulana Saidur Rahman, a former district amir of Jamaat-e-Islami, in Habiganj district town.
   The police arrested three more militants from Fatullah in Narayanganj on suspicion of being involved in the August 17 countrywide bomb blasts that killed three people and injured 150.
   A squad of the Detective Branch in Habiganj, led by district magistrate Parimal Sinha, raided IB Computer Training Centre at Tinkona Pukurpara, owned by Shamim, at about 11:00pm and seized 120 CDs, seven books on jihad, two computers, a cheque book, one telephone diary and cash.
   Shamim, who claimed to be the information technology expert of the banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, was arrested from his computer centre on September 7.
   Based on his statement, a joint force of the Rapid Action Battalion and Habiganj police recovered a large number of bomb-making materials, including 700 capacitors, and CDs after raiding a house, rented by JMB chief’s younger brother Ataur Rahman, at Basabo in the capital on September 8. Five more JMB militants, including a woman, were arrested from the house during the raid.
   Rahman was being interrogated at the Joint Interrogation Cell in Dhaka after being taken on remand for 14 days for being accused in two cases filed with Sabujbagh police station.
   Momtaz Kamal, owner of a workshop in Lalbagh from where the DB police seized bomb-heads on Monday, was taken on a seven-day remand on Tuesday.
   He was arrested in connection with the cases filed with Khilgaon police station on September 8 under the Explosive Substances Act, and the police produced him before the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court on Tuesday to seek a 10-day remand.
   In Narayanganj, the police, after being tipped off, arrested three suspected militants — Saju Miah, 25, Rafiqul Islam and Mehedi Hasan, 25 — from Billal Miah’s mess at Shashongaon in Panchabati under Fatullah on early Tuesday for their links with the blasts in Narayanganj on August 17.
   Police also recovered some booklets, leaflets and other documents from their possession.
   In Chittagong four JMB militants — Abdus Sattar Mollah, Mohammed Jahangir, Arshadul Alam and Sadrul Alam — in their confessional statements before the court on Monday admitted that they had carried out bomb attacks on August 17 after being ordered to do so by JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai. The latter is the chief of another banned outfit, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, which apparently aims to establish rule of Islam in the country.
   They also said that such attacks would be continued till the rule of Allah was established in the country.
   The police arrested them from Jhautala of Dakkhin Khulshi in the port city on July 31.
   Meanwhile in Pabna, the banned Purba Banglar Communist Party (ML Lal Pataka) sent letters to different government and newspaper offices on Tuesday denying their involvement in the August 17 blasts, and threatening to explode bombs again if the operation against the ultra-leftists was not stopped within seven days.
   In the letters, the anonymous writers threatened to kill eight people in bomb attacks at different places in the district if any of their members is killed in ‘crossfire’ in the seven days before the expiry of their ultimatum.
   The letters also abused the state minister for home affairs for initiating the drive against the leaders and activists of their organisation.
   The police superintendent, in response to a question by New Age, admitted that the letters had abused and threatened the state minister and said that necessary precautionary measurers would be taken in this regard.

The US Charge d’ Affaires, Judith A Chammas, on Tuesday said the August 17 attacks might overshadow Bangladesh’s economic growth and development, and cautioned that the next election in Bangladesh might be problematic.
   Speaking at a luncheon meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh, she said, ‘The August 17 attacks made international headlines and these reports of political and extremist violence tend to overshadow reports about economic growth and development in Bangladesh.’
   She said Bangladesh must address the concerns of international businesses about the political stability of the country.
   ‘To counter these concerns that Bangladesh is volatile and unstable, that it is even a so- called failing state, the government must mount a credible and effective effort to bring to justice the perpetrators of theses acts of political and terrorist violence.
   ‘While Bangladesh is recognised for conducting generally free and fair elections in the past, it should address concerns that the next election may be problematic,’ Chammas said at the meeting held at Hotel Sheraton.
   She recommended that political parties must engage in the political process and the government must ensure an environment that fosters constructive participation.
   ‘Political stalemate feeds uncertainty about the long term viability of political institutions and undermines the stable and predictable political environment that is necessary for robust economic growth,’ she added.
   Chammas lamented that the government procurement rules themselves often work against the best interest of the country, by placing undue emphasis on price, with only limited evaluation of technical merit.
   ‘In Bangladesh I have been dismayed to see US bidders with decades of experience ––world leaders in their products categories — lose tenders to competitors of dubious technical qualification,’ Chammas said adding, ‘I want to see Bangladesh to get the best possible value for its limited investment dollars.’
   The US envoy pointed out that Bangladesh should check corruption, improve infrastructures and supporting facilities to businesses to accelerate and sustain economic growth.
   ‘Businessmen tell me they spend 7 to 15 per cent of gross revenues in various facilitation and protection payment,’ said Chammas.
   Chammas said simplifying the tax system could improve revenue collection which is a priority of the Bangladesh government and recommended further reduction on tariff.
   She stressed on addressing the broader governance issues that affect overall investment climate.
   ‘Inefficiencies in the judicial system means commercial disputes may take years to resolve and often the costs far exceed any amount the parties might expect to recover,’ she said.
   The US envoy said the Bangladesh government should move swiftly to adopt regulations regarding intellectual property right as it is critical to business, especially to foreign investment.
   Chaired by the AmCham president, Aftabul Islam, the luncheon meeting was also attended by the USAID mission chief and the ADB country representative.

The unearthing of two bomb-making workshops in old Dhaka on September 12 is the latest block in the jigsaw puzzle that the Khaleda Zia administration has become.
   On the face of it, the discovery of the workshops is an extraordinary feat of the Detective Branch — this testifies to the efficacy of the police in handling the law and order situation. But in the context of the August 17 countrywide bombings, this police exploit deserves a closer scrutiny.
   The law enforcing agencies are obviously acting on the prime minister’s public policy statement that her government attaches the highest priority to the arrest and identifying of the bombers.
   These essential primary police duties may lead to bringing the bombers as individuals or groups to justice as terrorists or criminals but may not necessarily lead to the findings about the bombings if these were an act of politics as loudly claimed by leaflets found at the bombing sites.
   While terrorism as such is criminal action, it takes a political dimension when adopted as tactics for achieving any political purpose. And politics is beyond the sphere of the police or the administration in general.
   Only recently, George Bush and Tony Blair launched an aggression on Iraq ignoring the genuine reports of the British and American intelligence agencies that Iraq under Saddam did not possess weapons of mass destruction, nor did secular Iraq have links with al-Qaeda-type terrorist Islamist outfits or the 9/11 attacks on America, nor did Iraq pose any threat to the security of America.
   Here lies the crux of the problem.
   Newspapers have long been reporting, sometimes quoting intelligence agencies, that there exists in the country armed Islamist outfits which have adopted the tactics of terror to achieve their strategic goal of establishing an Islamic theocratic state here.
   The prime minister and other government leaders must be knowing about such reports, but have apparently decided to ignore those. Why?
   The prime minister is an intelligent and determined practitioner of power politics. She has formed strategic alliance with the Jamaat and Islamist forces in general as the most crucial element in her electoral fight against her rivals, the Awami League, which claims to champion secularism but also woos Islamist elements.
   To accept that the Islamist forces may have any other political agenda –– that too armed and terrorist in nature –– is to upset her election, that is, power strategy. This explains why she claimed in her September 8 speech in parliament that ‘the BNP has allied with all the religion-based parties which believe in democracy and constitutionalism’.
   That the prime minister is eager to present herself as the protector and the most reliable person on whom the Islamist forces may depend is evidenced by her politically eloquent silence on the August 17 bombings for long 22 days.
   Her stance may make an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as a measure of insensibility of a head of a government to take the people of the country into confidence about as serious a matter as the synchronised bombings on 500 sites which definitely comprise a threat to national security.
   But this, ironically, paid her immediate political dividends with the Islamist forces. During this period the dust settled down and her opposition exposed their weakness to mount any serious movement against the theocratic Islamist forces or her government.
   When she spoke, ultimately, on September 8 in parliament, she said many things but evidently felt no compulsion even to allude to the possibilities of the existence of any armed Islamist force in the country which may adopt tactics of terror to advance the cause of establishing an Islamic theocratic state.
   The prime minister, instead, reiterated her political refrain: those who want to depict Bangladesh as an extremist Islamic country and those who want to tarnish the image of the country as a moderate Muslim nation and those who do not want to see Bangladesh prosper [which, in the BNP’s political terminology, means India and the Awami League] are behind the bombings.
   She, however, regretted, this time the nefarious act was done ‘in the name of Islam’.
   Thus the prime minister has remained steadfast in her strategic alliance with the Islamist forces which necessitates defence of the Islamist forces and the denial of the existence of their armed and terrorist outfits in the country.
   The police and other law enforcing agencies are, on the other hand, arresting people who allegedly belong to such armed and terrorist Islamist outfits. Not only that, the government has even announced a bounty on the arrest of Abdur Rahman of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh and Bangla Bhai of Jagrata Muslim Janata, the alleged masterminds of the August 17 bombings.
   This apparent contradiction between the prime minister’s political stance on the armed and terrorist Islamist outfits and the police action against these outfits has added an element of surrealism in the governance of the country.

At the current rate of poverty reduction, Bangladesh will require 135 years to eliminate poverty in rural areas and 43 years to achieve the prime target of the Millennium Development Goals, a report prepared by a research organisation, Unnayan Onneshan, claims.
   ‘Overall poverty eradication in general would, however, take 81 years at the current rate and 24 years to reach the Millennium Development Goals,’ the Bangladesh Public Policy Watch 2005 report, presented at a press conference on Tuesday, stated.
   It said the current rate of poverty reduction ‘is about 0.52 percent on average per year while the rate is only 0.32 per cent per year for the rural economy’.
   The report was launched at a time when the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, is due to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where heads of governments and states would share their balance-sheets pertaining to the Millennium Development targeted for 2015.
   Bangladesh’s prime concern is poverty reduction. ‘Though the government of Bangladesh is hopeful of realising the best part of the goals by the stipulated time, official evidence shows that Bangladesh is not on track to eradicate poverty and achieve the MDG target,’ says the report.
   Bangladesh targets to reduce the proportion of population earning less than one US dollar (according to the purchasing power parity) a day from 50 percent in 2000 to about 29.4 percent, and the proportion of people in extreme poverty from 20 percent in 2000 to 14 percent by 2015.
   Recent Preliminary Report of the Poverty Monitoring Survey 2004 by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics shows that the incidence of poverty by head count ratio on the basis of Food Energy Intake was 42.1 per cent in 2004, which was 44.7 % in 1999.
   The poverty rate declined by 2.6 per cent in the last five years, amounting to an annual poverty reduction rate of about 0.52 per cent.
   In urban areas, the rate of poverty decreased by 5.4 per cent from 43.3 per cent to 37.9 per cent during the same period implying an annual reduction of 1.08 per cent, down from 44.9 per cent to 43.3 per cent with a yearly average of 0.32 per cent.
   According to the Direct Calorie Intake method, the household income expenditure survey of 2000 shows that poverty declined from 47.52 per cent in 1991/92 to 44.33 per cent in 2000.
   Despite this decline of the percentage ratio of population, the absolute number of people below the poverty line increased from 51.63 million in 1991/92 to 55.91 million in 2000.
   The percentage of these people — below the poverty line — was 70 per cent and the number of poor was about 30 million 30 years ago, said the report.
   The number has doubled to about 60 million in 2000 despite the declining percentage to about 44 per cent.
   Trends, in accordance with Food Energy Intake method, show that it will take about 81 years to eradicate poverty completely and 24 years to achieve the target of the millennium development goal.
   In rural areas, it would take 135 years to eradicate poverty and 43 years to achieve the target.
   Even if the official estimates are taken into credence, it will take about 50 years to eradicate poverty and about 20 years to achieve the target.
   Evidence shows that Bangladesh is not on track to eradicate poverty and achieve the target.
   Besides, the report showed a wide range of inconsistencies between the targets and progress to achieve the goals in areas as infant mortality, expansion of primary and secondary education, reduction of gender disparity, and eradication of hunger and child malnutrition.
   Jakir Hossain, principal researcher presented the report while Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir assisted him.

After three years of surplus balance, the country’s current account suffered a deficit of $518 million in the last fiscal, 2004-05, due to heavy merchandise trade along with deficit in service trade and income.
   The current account balance suffered a deficit worth $1.09 billion in fiscal 2001 but maintained a surplus for the consecutive three years later.
   The current account reflects trade and non-capital transactions in the balance of payments.
   Overall balance of payment, however, maintained a surplus trend for the fourth consecutive year due to a remarkable surplus in financial account worth $744 and capital account worth $163 million.
   The latest Bangladesh Bank Quarterly attributed the positive trend to ‘disbursement of sizable balance of payment budgetary assistance during the first quarter as a spillover from FY03.’
   The medium and long term loans worth $940 million and net foreign direct investment worth $540 million gave strong backup to the financial account while capital transfer worth $163 million kept the positive balance in capital account.
   Although, foreign investment figure varies with that of the Board of Investment’s figure by about $600 million, upward trend in FDI continued.
   The multilateral lending agencies also disbursed a good chunk of foreign currency in the form of soft-loans in the last fiscal. If the IMF had disbursed $98.5 million as the fourth installment of the poverty reduction growth facilities in the last fiscal, the BoP situation would have improved further.
   The net foreign direct investment and medium-long term loans in the earlier fiscals were $385 million and $544 million.
   The overall surplus, however, gradually declined since 2003 when it was $815 million. In the fiscal 2004, the surplus amount declined to $171 million as the net financial inflow also declined.
   Trades in goods was about $3.3 billion in the last year, due to 20.6 per cent growth in imports which funneled $11.8 billion foreign exchange to overseas against $8.57 billion export which recorded 14 per cent growth over the previous fiscal.
   Besides skyrocketing global oil price, additional spending in luxury items inflated the import bills in the last fiscal.
   In the face of excessive import surge pressuring the exchange rate, the central bank tightened its monetary policy and imposed stricter enforcement of existing import document requirements.
   Thus, import payments declined by 3.2 per cent during the last quarter of the fiscal year.
   Gap on income receipts and payments increased to $641 million in the last fiscal from $374 million in fiscal 2004 as payments in the form of salaries, dividends and others were higher than received.
   The deficit in trade in services, however, lowered marginally to $870 million in the fiscal 2005 against $874 million in the earlier fiscal year as receipts from services trade crossed $1 billion for the first time.
   As the three components of current account suffered deficits, robust growth in remittance worth $3.85 billion ‘almost solely’ contributed to maintaining $4.8 billion in current transfers.
   ‘A notable feature of the developments in the external sector in FY05 is continued expansion in the earning from remittances, which helped maintain low level of external current account deficit despite phenomenal growth in imports,’ said the latest Bangladesh Bank Quarterly.

Armed assailants shot dead a leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League backed by the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, at Mirpur in the Dhaka city on Tuesday morning allegedly over a land dispute.
   The deceased is Kamrul Islam Momin, 20, vicepresident of the Dhaka city unit of the Chhatra League. He is the son of Abdur Razzak of 155, North Ibrahimpur. Momin was a third year student of management at the Dhaka Commerce College.
   Witnesses said a gang of four waylaid Momin near the bus stand at sector 14, Mirpur and shot him point blank on the back of his head and body at about 7:15am as he was going to the college.
   Saiful Islam, an elder brother of the victim told New Age, 'Local criminals, led by Monir, Zia, Jafar, Shah Alam shot my brother as he was on his way to college and fled the scene without any resistance.'
   'Soon after the incident, locals and some of his friends took Momin to Dhaka Medical College Hospital but the authorities immediately shifted him the Mahakhali Chest Diseases Hospital. The chest hospital, after washing his blood shifted him back to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The duty doctors did not pay any heed to our repeated requests to attend him,' alleged Jewel, a friend of the victim.
   At the doctors' alleged negligence some students and the visitors attacked the hospital staff and damaged some window panes and furniture of the hospital. The police immediately went to the spot and brought the situation under control. College students, Ruma Khan Juhi, Rajib Alam, Faysal, and Babu, and hospital staff, Rajiya Sultana, Sarder Shawpan, and Taleb were injured during the clash.
   'A class IV employee declared him dead at about 12:30pm despite our requests to call a doctor for the declaration, so we started to vandalise the premises after failing to find a doctor,' another friend of the victim told New Age.
   Shamsul Islam, another elder brother of the victim alleged that Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of the Motijheel police station, with the help of some local miscreants tried to grab some of their land at Ibrahimpur two months ago and they resisted him. Then he sent the miscreants demanding a toll of Tk 5 lakh.
   He also said they had filed a case with the Kafrul police station and informed the Rapid Action Battalion-4 about the matter. As a result the battalion arrested Ponu, a close aide to Kala Jahangir, and he died in 'crossfire' in their custody at the Tongi Biswa Ejtema Field on August 19, said Shamsul.
   'After Ponu's death, who was a prime accused of seven murder cases with the Kafrul police, his brother Monir tried to take revenge on our family and carried out the attack on Momin,' said Shamsul. Saiful Islam received the body from the hospital morgue after a post mortem examination at about 3:15pm.
   Referring to the alleged land dispute, Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of the Motijheel police, said he did own some land adjacent to that of the victim's family. Denying the allegations, he said, 'These are only propaganda to taint my name.'
   Hasanul Huq Inu, president of a faction of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal visited the morgue and consoled family members of the victim. Meanwhile, presidents and general secretaries of the Awami League backed Bangladesh Chhatra League, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal backed Bangladesh Chhatra League, Bangladesh Chhatra Moitri, Jatiya Chhatra Dhara, Jatiya Chhatra Oikkyo, Bangladesh Chhatra Samiti, and the Bangladesh Chhatra Andolan condemned the murder and demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of the killers.

The outcome of this week’s UN world summit hung in the balance as the United States reported deadlock on human rights and UN management reform.
   Other delegations spoke of slow but steady progress overall and a core group of member states was to meet later Monday to examine a revised draft of the document that will be submitted to world leaders at their three day summit opening Wednesday.
   Despite pessimistic comments by the US delegation, Annan’s chief of staff Mark Malloch Brown said: ‘We’re slowing getting there.’
   ‘Deadlines are starting to loosen minds on positions,’ he noted. ‘Heads of State are starting to arrive and the summit begins on Wednesday morning... The wind's blowing slightly better than an hour or so ago.'
   After marathon overnight talks on seven contentious issues, a US spokesman said the discussions on setting up a revamped human rights council and on UN management reforms had fallen apart.
   'These two issues, management and human rights council, have currently collapsed,' the spokesman, Rick Grenell, told reporters as the core group raced against the clock to finalise a draft document for the summit.

On a day when president Bush declared ‘there is recovery on the way’ in New Orleans, officials made a ghastly discovery of more than 40 bodies inside an evacuated hospital.
   It was not immediately clear how the patients died. One hospital official said at least a few of the patients were dead before the storm, while another said the rising temperature in the hospital afterward likely contributed to some of the deaths.
   The discovery of the corpses, which raised Louisiana's official death toll to nearly 280, came as Bush got his first up-close look at the destruction in New Orleans and the embattled director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency resigned.
   Mike Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency who was vilified for the slow federal response to Katrina, stepped down. Brown was quickly replaced by R David Paulison, a top agency official with firefighting experience.
   Meanwhile, up to 200,000 families who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina may be forced to remain in emergency accommodations for three to five years, a US disaster official warned Monday.
   While the Federal Emergency Management Agency does not yet have any firm number of long-term refugees created by the storm, it is preparing to house 200,000 households for as long as five years, FEMA's housing area commander Brad Gair said.
   'For planning purposes, we are using approximately 300,000 families or households that we are starting to make some sort of provision for across the three states, with the bulk of them being here in Louisiana,' Gair said.

The Puthia upazila BNP called a half-day hartal for today demanding arrest of a local ruling party leader for his suspected involvement in the killing of a day-labourer.
   A section of Puthia BNP leaders and expelled Charhgat BNP president Abu Sayeed Chad at a public meeting at Banneser Tuesday evening announced the programme demanding the arrest of Alam for his suspected involvement the killing of Ujjal, of Charghat. He was killed on September 3.
   On September 9, the BNP men gave the authorities a 72-hour ultimatum for the arrest of Alam, a prime accused in the case.
   The Puthia police officer-in-charge, Salauddin, told newsmen that Ujjal had died after taking poison.
   The victim’s father, who filed the murder case, said some BNP leaders organised the meeting to harass their rivals.

Pakistan has offered Bangladesh duty-free excess of tea up to a quantum of 15,000 tonnes a year, up from 10,000 tonnes. The two countries agreed on Tuesday to create a joint fund for investment promotion activities at the concluding secession of the Joint Economic Commission.
   Commerce minister Altaf Hossain Choudhury led the country delegation while Salman Shah, adviser to the Pakistan prime minister for finance and revenue, was his counterpart at the eighth meeting of the commission. The meeting of the commission, beginning Sunday at the national economic council auditorium, concluded on Tuesday with the signing of agreed minutes by the delegation leaders.
   According to the signed minutes, Pakistan offered to enhance duty free market access to 15,000 metric tonnes of tea for imports.
   The notification for the duty-free facility would soon be issued by the Pakistan government, which will be effective from next year, meeting sources told New Age.
   Both the countries agreed to create a joint fund to undertake investment promotion activities in, the agreed document said.
   The modalities of setting up the funds and the operations funds would be finalised by the proposed joint working group, a high official attending the meeting told New Age.
   Both the parties, according to the minutes, set a target to raise the current level of trade volume up to $1 billion by 2007, establish a direct shipping link between Chittagong and Karachi to promote trade and commercial links and institutional linkages between the export processing agencies of the two countries.
   Both Bangladesh and Pakistan have agreed to hold trade fairs on reciprocal basis. It was also decided to encourage joint venture investment in both countries. The sectors include ICT, telecommunications, textiles and jute goods, electronics and light engineering, leather, agro-based industries, agriculture machinery and tourism.
   ‘There was an agreement to enhance trade to $1 billion by 2007. To achieve this target, we have agreed upon a detailed plan of action. For this purpose, a joint working group is being set up to implement the targets on trade and economic cooperation,’ Shah told newsmen after signing the document.
   ‘Achieving the target of $1 billion by 2007 is possible despite the fact that the target is ambitious,’ Shah added responding to a question.
   ‘Both countries have export and import potentials; now we have to put maximum efforts to realise the potentials.’
   Altaf also told newsmen, ‘This is not ambitious, but an appropriate and achievable target. We would start working on achieving the target from the very moment the meeting will be over.’
   Bangladesh has proposed to Pakistan a list of 104 items for duty-free access, including pharmaceuticals, plastic products, toiletries, ready-made garments, melamine and ceramic products.
   About SAFTA, he said both the countries are favouring to increase the volume of trade. ‘Bilateral trade and FTA are in the same direction of SAFTA,’ he added.
   This was the eighth meeting of the commission. The 7th meeting was held in Dhaka in 1998 and the 9th meeting will be held in Islamabad in September 2006.
   In 2003-04, Bangladesh export to Pakistan was $45 million against imports worth of $61 million. During July-December period of fiscal 2004-05, Bangladesh’s exports stood at only $13 million against its imports from Pakistan at $65 million.

The government will move to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court within a day or two seeking modification of the High Court order that directed the government to freeze all bank accounts of Niko Resources, an international oil and gas exploration company.
   Niko, operating two gas fields — Chhatak and Feni — experienced two blow outs in the same at Tengratila gas field under Chhatak on January 7 and June 24.
   According to the government’s prayer for modification, Niko might be allowed to operate its bank accounts in Bangladesh, but it would have to spend the money with prior consultation with its partner, Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company, a subsidiary of Petrobangla, said sources in the attorney general’s office.
   The government, however, will seek no stay on any other order of the High Court delivered on Monday.
   The decision was taken at a meeting between the attorney general, AJ Mohammad Ali, and chairman of Petrobangla, SR Osmani, on Tuesday at the attorney general’s office.
   Niko, however, will file a separate petition to the Appellate Division seeking stay of the High Court order, said its lawyer Rokanuddin Mahmud.
   According to sources, the government decided to seek for modification of the High Court order to freeze Niko’s bank accounts considering four probable consequences.
   According to government’s apprehension, Niko may stop production and supply of gas to the national grid from Feni, suspend drilling a relief well at Tengratila and stop the rehabilitation project for the people affected by the blow outs on the ground of fund constraint for freezing its accounts.
   It may also affect the process of realising of compensation for the blowouts from Niko and Niko may abandon the project altogether, apprehends quarters in the government. In such cases, the government will have to face disruption of gas supply and probable layoffs of Niko staffers.
   Niko’s lawyer, Rokanuddin Mahmud, also pointed to similar grounds for seeking the stay order, when he spoke to reporters on Tuesday.
   The High Court on Monday issued an injunction restraining the government from making any payment to Niko.
   The court also directed the government to freeze all bank accounts of Niko in Bangladesh.
   A vacation bench of the High Court comprising Justice M A Rashid and Justice Md Fazlur Rahman also issued a rule on the government and Niko to show cause within six weeks why the joint venture agreement, signed on October 16, 2003 between Niko and Bapex, would not be declared illegal and void.
   The rule asked the government and Niko to explain why the proceedings of the agreement should not be cancelled and proper legal action taken against Niko as the agreement was signed illegally.
   The government was directed to submit investigation reports to the court within 15 days and a report within 45 days specifying the measures taken against Niko to recover compensation.
   The rule also asked the government to explain why secretaries of the ministries of energy, law and environment and Bapex would not be directed to take effective legal measures to protect the public property — Feni and Chhatak gas fields — by requiring compliance from Niko, discharge statutory duties to mitigate the damage and losses caused by its failure to discharge its obligations and to refrain from asserting any rights under the agreement or receive any payment.
   The court passed the order after a two-day hearing of a public interest writ filed by three rights bodies — Bangladesh Environment Lawyers’ Association, Ain-O-Shalish Kendra and Odhikar.

Nazmul Huda, minister for communications, on Tuesday at a meeting with journalists said the government will announce a new fare chart today for buses and minibuses which will be acceptable to all concerned.
   Nazmul held the opinion exchange meeting at his ministry on raising transport fare following the recent increase of fuel prices to hear journalists’ views regarding the matter.
   He said the government planned to fix the fare so that it wound not be burdensome for people while the transport operators could also make up for their losses due to the recent price increase of fuel.
   The new fare chart is likely to be provided at a meeting with the transport operators today.
   Currently the government’s chart stipulates that buses charge Tk 0.72 per kilometre per head. The rate for minibuses is fixed at Tk 0.75.
   Nazmul said the new fare chart would be on display at all bus terminals, transports and the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority would monitor its implementation.
   ‘All vehicles must display the chart so that the commuters can challenge them in case extra fare is charged,’ said Nazmul.
   At the meeting, journalists told Nazmul that some buses charged extra although the government has yet to announce the new fares.
   Nazmul said he would certainly take action against the bus owners upon receipt of specific complaints.
   When journalists told him that a large number of buses ply across the country without route permits, Nazmul admitted the fact and said the authorities sometimes fail to monitor these buses due to the political interference.
   Emphasising on the need to combat extortion in the transport sector, Nazmul said a sub-committee headed by the communications secretary has prepared a report in this regard.
   The secretary for communications, Shafiqul Islam and chairman of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, MA Momen, were also present.

Seventeen fishermen went missing in three incidents of trawler capsize in the Bay of Bengal in Barguna and Patuakhali districts Monday.
   According to Patharghata Trawler Owners’ Association, two trawlers – AKB Monir and AKB Selim – sank near Fairway Buoys in Barguna along with 28 fishermen.
   Fifteen of the fishermen were rescued by the fellowmen of another trawler while the rest remained missing till filing of this report at about 7.30pm.
   Four fishermen remained missing when a trawler overturned in the bay near Kuakata beach.
   The SI of Kuakata river outpost, Moloy, confirmed the incidents and said search was on for the missing fishermen.

The state minister for religious affairs, Mosharef Hossain Shajahan, Tuesday admitted that irregularities and flaws made by some agencies engaged in hajj management had created resentment among pilgrims.
   ‘Well, some of the agencies responsible for hajj management housed the pilgrims at far distance from the Harem Sharif flouting the government directives,’ he said adding: In many cases they (agencies) accommodated more pilgrims in rooms than their capacities.

The treasury bench on Tuesday placed two bills in parliament seeking provisions to ensure punishment for manufacturing and selling adulterated and substandard foods and seeds.
   The LGRD and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, piloted the Bangladesh Pure Food (Amendment) Bill 2005 and the chair referred it to the standing committee on the ministry asking for its report within three days.
   The statements enclosed with the bill says the law enforcing agencies have been facing tremendous difficulties to curb selling, marketing of the adulterated and substandard food items as well as to take action against the culprits in absence of an effective law.
   Earlier, the cabinet approved the bill to amend the previous law ‘Pure Food Ordinance, 1959.
   According to the bill, an person, if found guilty, could be fined a maximum of Tk 3 lakh and sentenced to jail for three years in case of violation of the law, if enacted.
   Another bill was placed in parliament to ensure quality seeds for farmers.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, arrived here Monday night to address the world summit and the 60th session of UN General Assembly.
   The prime minister will address the high level plenary summit of the UN (world summit) on September 14 and is expected to seek international support and market access for the developing nations, including Bangladesh, to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.