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The numerous bomb attacks, including the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka and the attack on British High Commissioner, Anwar Choudhury, in Sylhet have remained unsolved.
   The people have been kept in the dark about the plotters and their motives.
   Although some progress has been made in the investigation of the attacks by the banned Islamist outfit, Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, police are yet to find out clues of other attacks in which the Islamist militants have denied involvement.
   They could not even say when they will finish their investigation of the several attacks that have claimed about 100 lives and maimed hundreds of others since the first bomb attack that took place at Udichi’s function in Jessore 16 years ago.
   ‘We could not make enough progress in our investigation of the August 21 grenade attack on Awami League. More time is required to do that,’ Ruhul Amin, special superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department who is probing the case, told New Age on Saturday.
   Besides the August 17 chain-bombing and the subsequent suicide attacks — two in Gazipur, one each in Chandpur, Chittagong and Jhalakati — JMB also claimed responsibility for the attacks on four cinema halls in Mymensingh on December 6, 2002, on a mazaar in Tangail on January 17, 2003, and a circus in Satkhira on September 28, 2000.
   But it denied involvement in attacks on Udichi’s function in Jessore on March 6, 1999, an Ahmadiyya mosque in Khulna on October 8, 1999, a rally of the Communist Party of Bangladesh at Paltan Maidan on January 20, 2001, Ramna Batamul on April 14, 2001, and a church at Baniarchar in Gopalganj on June 3, 2001
   The same is the case with the explosion at the Awami League office in Narayanganj on June 15, 2001, at AL’s public meeting at Mollarhat in Bagerhat on September 23, 2001, and an AL rally in Sunamganj on September 26, 2001.
   Nobody also knows who threw grenades on the British high commissioner at the shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal on May 21, 2004 and blasted a bomb at the shrine earlier in January and Gulshan Hotel in September in Sylhet the same year.
   ‘Since the groups that plotted these attacks are unknown to us, they still remain a threat and further attacks are not unlikely,’ said a senior official of the home ministry.
   Meanwhile, investigations in many of the cases have stopped halfway and proper investigations look increasingly unlikely.
   In most cases, the investigation officers are alleged to have implicated innocent people in their desperation to make the ruling quarters happy. The direction of investigation in some cases was changed and investigators ignored important leads for unknown reasons.
   The Udichi blast case, in which ten persons were killed, is an example of wrong or misdirected investigation as a court in Jessore on June 28 this year acquitted all the 23 accused.
   The special district and sessions judge was extremely critical of the police for failure to collect enough evidence to substantiate the prosecution’s case. He ordered re-investigation of the case and legal action against the investigation officer for flawed investigation and charge-sheet.
   The judge also expressed his astonishment over the absence of any mention of the reported confessional statement of Harkat-ul-Jihad leader Mufti Hannan in the charge-sheet.
   Munshi Atiq, an assistant superintendent of CID, who is presently investigation officer of the August 21 grenade attack case and four other blast cases, could not say when he would finish investigation.
   ‘I can’t say anything before the completion of my investigation but I can tell you it will take more time,’ he told New Age.

In its pursuit of self-sufficiency in food, especially rice, to feed growing population, the country has become rather more dependent on imports of other agri-produces such as pulses, oil seeds and onion, eventually inviting a dwindling state of agriculture.
   The country’s latest annual ‘shortfall’ of foodgrains has been recorded at a range of 30 lakh tonnes in official statistics, which, though, showed that food production has tripled since independence of Bangladesh in 1971.
   A sector that employs more than 50 per cent of the country’s total workforce, agriculture, inclusive of fisheries and forestry, contributed less than 22 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP) with a declining share over the years, shows a juxtaposition of various statistics of Bangladesh Economic Survey-2006.
   In 20 years between 1984-85 and 2004-05, the annual production of pulses decreased to 3,16,000 tonnes from 5,53,000 tonnes and that of oil seeds to 2,68,000 tonnes from 7,84,000 tonnes. Because, the statistics say, the cultivable area for pulses came down to 9,47,000 acres from 19,38,000 acres and oil seeds to 7,65,000 acres from 14,78,000 acres during the period.
   When asked, officials of the ministry of agriculture attributed it to expanding rice cultivation and increasing and unplanned urbanisation, rural habitation and industrialisation.
   The ministry has now been sitting on a broad-based agriculture sector review, which is to address the issue of farmland depletion at a rate of one per cent a year, among other critical issues.
   Inspired by the green revolution campaign, the country’s farmers raised the area of cultivation of boro rice, mostly high-yielding varieties, to 1,00,42,000 acres in 2004-05 from 38,91,000 acres in 1984-85.
   This has resulted in an additional farm output of about one crore tonnes of boro rice alone in 2004-05 on top of 38 lakh tonnes in 1984-05.
   The said 20 years also saw decline in cultivation and production of once the most important cash crop, jute, by 7-8 lakh acres and 5-7 lakh tonnes respectively, thanks to price fall as well as corruption and mismanagement in the state-run jute industries.
   However, the production and price of jute have increased this season following the previous year’s better price.
   The country witnessed a silent revolution in growing potato keeping pace with demand: A production of 11,59,000 tonnes of potato from 2,75,00 acres in 1984-85 has increased to 48,55,000 tonnes from 8,04,000 acres of land in 2004-05.
   During the same period, the cultivation and production of sugarcane has slightly declined, thanks again to the poor performance of state-owned sugar mills, but imports of sugar have surged for meeting the rising demands.
   Meantime, the cultivation of spices, including onion, in terms of land coverage rose to 7,47,000 acres with an output of 10,00,000 tonnes in 2004-05 from 3,62,000 acres with 2,99,000 tonnes production in 1984-85.
   But, most quanta of all spices are now being imported at the expense of hard-earned foreign exchange due to much higher demands.
   Interestingly, imports of foodgrains by the private sector marked significant increase since 1992-93, the year the country started lender-driven wholesale structural reforms to open up the economy.
   Since then, a gradual decline in food aid coincided with rise in private imports while the overall imports of foodgrains, including food aid, remained upwardly static in recent years at an average rate of 30 lakh tonnes, which is considered as the shortfall or difference between local production and demand for food.
   The country is expected to produce almost three crore tonnes of foodgrains with a bumper boro rice production in the last (2005-06) fiscal, but the trends of food imports of the fiscal indicated a similar quantum.
   ‘Never after the 1974 famine that led to the political death of a regime, successive governments allowed any crisis of foods, so food import continued,’ an official of the ministry of food and disaster management said.
   An agriculture ministry official refused to accept that the country is not sufficient in foodgrains since rice, potato and some other items both in raw and processed forms are also being exported.
   ‘In this free market economy, some people will be interested in importing foods, no matter whether the country really needs it in that particular year,’ he said expressing his views similar to those of the food ministry colleague.

Bitter rivalries in the leadership of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party have resurfaced after a meeting of the party joint secretaries general called for disciplinary action against two senior leaders.
   The new twist in the intra-party feud came when the BNP high command was struggling to put its house in order as well as to expand the four-party alliance by roping in HM Ershad’s Jatiya Party for ensuring victory in the next general elections.
   ‘It reflects a simmering tension between the party old guards and youngsters trying to come to the fore,’ a BNP vice chairman, who is also a senior minister in prime minister Khaleda Zia’s cabinet, told New Age on Saturday.
   He made the remarks on the decision of a meeting of the joint secretaries general of the BNP on Friday to place a demand before the party chairperson Khaleda Zia to take action against the party’s national standing committee member Oli Ahmed MP and Jatiya Sangsad whip Ashraf Hossain MP, also a joint secretary general of the BNP.
   Hinting at his discussion with some other party fellows on the issue, an organising secretary of the BNP, who looks after the party activities in a southern division, said, ‘we were not surprised at all hearing their decision to submit a petition (to Khaleda) to take disciplinary action against Oli and Ashraf, instead of taking action against the persons who have been identified as ‘bad elements’ and given an upper hand in decision-making in the party,’ he said.
   ‘These elements are also influencing government decisions, including lining up vital postings in the administration, awarding tender orders for purchase of power plants and construction of highways, for their personal gains.’
   ‘It is not surprising…the leaders are divided across the country and some party veterans think they have been deprived and sidelined,’ he said.
   A BNP central committee member, who is also general secretary of a district unit in Rajshahi division, echoed the organising secretary. ‘Yes, we have lost some [political] ground to the Jamaat-e-Islami. A group of newcomers have captured almost all committees of the party and its front organisations. Now we have to lose ground to the Jatiya Party,’ he said referring to Gayeshwar Chandra Roy’s remarks at the meeting of the joint secretaries’ general.
   ‘It will be a moral defeat for us if we incorporate the deposed autocrat Ershad in the
   coalition,’ Gayeshwar, a BNP joint secretary general, said at Friday’s meeting.
   ‘Such tussles and differences of opinion will harm the party in the run up to the elections,’ said a minister.
   Apart from the party chairperson’s ongoing consultations with the grassroots level leaders and ‘gram-march’ by her elder son and senior joint secretary general of the party, Tarique Rahman, the BNP will hold a ‘closed-door’ extended meeting of its national executive committee on August 26 at the PMO.
   According to the notice of the meeting, the party leaders will discuss issues relating to next general elections and current political situation.
   Criticising the party secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan’s indifference to the intra-party squabbling, the minister said, ‘some day they will criticise Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and demand his removal from the post of the party secretary general.’
   In a separate move, a faction of Khulna city BNP leaders, backed by Ashraf Hossain, on Saturday issued an ultimatum to the central leadership of the party to expel city BNP convener Ali Asgar Lobi MP, city mayor Sheikh Tayebur Rahman and district president Majedul Islam by August 23.
   ‘We urge the central committee to expel these three people who are responsible for intra-party feud here,’ the former general secretary of the city BNP, Nazrul Islam, told a press briefing at the local press club. ‘We will stage agitation on August 20-23 in protest against actions taken by the city convening committee against Ashraf Hossain MP and Nazrul Islam Manju.’
   Earlier, the convening committee, in an emergency meeting on Friday, declared Ashraf Hossain ‘persona non grata’ in the district for making ‘indecent remarks’ against Tarique Rahman. It also decided to expel Nazrul Islam Manju from the party on charge of anti-party activity.
   The BNP secretary general and LGRD and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, declined to comment on the bickering in the party.
   ‘Conflict of interests in the party is not unusual as BNP is a large political party,’ the health and family welfare minister and a policymaker of the government, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, told New Age.
   ‘Such rivalries will not harm the party and differences of opinion will be minimised once candidates are named for the constituencies’, he hoped.
   Oli, in his recent statements asked the party high-command to identify ‘corrupt ministers and criminals within the party’ and take action against them. ‘The party may face a debacle in the next election if it does not take actions against the bad elements,’ he warned.

Speculations are galore over confirmation of the services of 19 additional judges in the High Court, as the Supreme Court Bar Association has already said that confirmation of some of those judges will be disastrous for the highest court. According to informed sources the ministry has already sent a file to the Prime Minister’s Office for the decision of the prime minister on confirmation of the 19 judges’ services.
   The file also contains the recommendations made by the chief justice, Syed CR Mudassir Husain, with regard to confirmation.
   According to sources, the chief justice has not recommended quite a few of the 19 additional judges for appointment.
   The sources, however, refused to disclose the names and number of the additional judges who were not recommended by the chief justice.
   Certain sources and a number of senior lawyers of the Supreme Court told New Age on Saturday that the chief justice has recommended only 14 of those additional judges for appointment.
   Sources close to the policy-makers of the government, however, said that the government is thinking of appointing all the 19 additional judges, ignoring the chief justice’s recommendations and the protest of the bar association.
   The judges who will get appointment will have to take oath on August 23, as they did on August 23, 2004 after being appointed as additional judges.
   Those additional judges were appointed and sworn in on August 23, 2004 in spite of the protest of the bar association, forcing it to enforce boycott of the chief justice’s court on August 29 and all courts on August 31 and September 1, 2004.
   Two national dailies published reports on October 30, 2004, saying that one of the 19 judges, Justice Faisal Mahmud Fayezee, obtained his bachelor of law certificate by unfair means.
   The bar association demanded removal of the judge following the reports, and the chief justice dropped him from the bench on October 31, 2004.
   Justice Fayezee’s father, however, filed a contempt of court petition with the High Court on November 8, 2004 against the publishers, editors and reporters of the concerned dailies, and the High Court on March 21, 2005 convicted them for contempt of court charge.
   The Bar Council, the statutory regulatory body of the country’s lawyers, on April 25, 2005 cancelled the advocateship certificate of Fayezee for allegedly submitting false documents including a LLB certificate that was tampered with.
   Eighteen of those additional judges are Justice Syed Abu Kawsar Md Dabirussan, Justice Shahidul Islam, Justice Md Abdul Hye, Justice Qamrul Islam Siddiqui, Justice Md Fazlur Rahman, Justice Nirmalendu Dhar, Justice Mainul Islam Chowdhury, Justice Md Emdadul Haque, Justice Md Raisuddin, Justice Md Emdadul Haque Azad, Justice ABM Hatem Ali, Justice Md Ataur Rahman Khan, Justice Syed Mohammad Ziaul Karim, Justice Md Rezaul Haque, Justice Sheikh Abdul Awal, Justice Emdadul Haque, Justice Mamnun Rahman and Justice Farah Mahbub.

The extended deadline for door-to-door visits to update the voters’ roll will end today, leaving so many eligible people to be enlisted as voters on their own.
   Such people will need to go to the office of the enumerator in their locality for the enrolment from tomorrow.
   ‘After the expiry of the extended deadline, the people will have to enrol themselves in the voters’ roll by visiting the EC offices. There will be an open system through which one can become a voter at any time prior to the day of election,’ said the secretary to w voters’ roll was 37 lakh.
   The assistant officials said that the number of deletions will increase in the city as they are yet to erase all the names of those who were earlier enlisted as voters but have moved to new addresses. The AOs put a cross mark beside the name when a voter is not found in the registered address or if anybody informs the officers of the death of a voter or of a voter shifting to a new residence.
   ‘The AOs will delete those names after issuing a three-day notice to the concerned persons,’ Sarker had told reporters last week.
   Across the country, the number of voters has increased by over 1.58 crore till August 17, raising the total number in the existing voters’ roll to 8.86 crore. The total number of voters in the existing roll that was prepared in 2000 was 7,64,27,771, and the number of voters in the nullified fresh voters’ roll was 9,13,14,592.
   As soon as the work is completed, the draft lists will be kept at the offices of the district and upazila election officers, and also at union council, municipality and ward commissioner offices and at other suitable places for display, said Sarker. During the display of the list, the election officials will receive objections and claims and dispose of them on the spot.
   When asked about the possibility of further extension of time for updating the voters’ list, Sarker said, ‘We do not want to extend deadline after August 20, but the final decision lies with the commission.’
   The EC is scheduled to meet today to review the progress of the updating work. Although the campaign to update the voters’ list began on July 1, it started sending assistant officials from door to door for information collection from July 21, which was scheduled to be completed by August 10. Later, the commission extended the deadline by 10 more days.
   Sarker claimed several times that anyone can register his or her name in the voters’ list even one day before the polls start. But the Electoral Rolls Rules 1982 say that no amendment or correction of any electoral roll shall be made under this rule at any time after the notice of election has been issued and before such election has been held. The EC usually announces the election schedule at least 40 days before polling.
   Though the Electoral Ordinance 1982 provides the EC with powers to register any name in the voters’ roll at any time, it is simply impossible to do so after the announcement of the poll schedule as it involves a lengthy procedure.
   Besides, updating the electoral rolls through inclusion of eligible voters or exclusion of expired persons is a continuous process, but it is not done due to non-cooperation of the people as well as lack of awareness, according to election officials. Some field-level officials told New Age that people’s non-cooperation, illiteracy and lack of interest prevents them from updating the list regularly.

The Election Commission has requested the cabinet purchase committee to relax the Public Procurement Regulations 2003 to expedite the tender process for printing of the updated voters’ roll.
   The EC, in a letter on Tuesday, requested the purchase committee to relax the provision of time in the PPR, saying that it is expected to complete the printing of the updated voters’ roll by October.
   ‘We requested the cabinet purchase committee to exempt us from the provision of time in the PPR so that we can give work orders for printing of the list soon after completing the ongoing task of updating the list,’ said the secretary to the EC Secretariat, Abdur Rashid Sarker, on Saturday.
   Earlier the EC, at a meeting with the secretaries of the concerned ministries on August 7, took the decision of making such a request due to time constraint.
   The PPR makes it mandatory to follow the process prescribed in it for giving any work order involving Tk 1 crore or more. The printing of the voters’ roll will cost over Tk 15 crore.
   The government can decide to ignore PPR when it is needed in the interest of national
   security or because of any emergency.
   EC sources said it is not possible to complete the printing of the voters’ roll by October if the PPR has to be complied with fully. At least two months is needed to give work orders for the printing of the roll if the EC has to follow the provisions of PPR to the letter.
   The EC is going to invite tenders from private printing establishments for printing the voters’ roll.
   ‘If we can give printing orders after completing all the work, 30-45 days will be more than enough,’ said Sarker.

Israeli commandos staged Saturday an airborne operation deep inside eastern Lebanon and suffered casualties as they clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas on the sixth day of a UN-brokered ceasefire deal.
   The Israeli army confirmed that one of its officers was killed and two soldiers were wounded during a commando operation deep in Lebanon which it said was meant to prevent arms being delivered to Hezbollah by Iran and Syria.
   Meanwhile, about 50 French soldiers arrived by sea Saturday in the southern Lebanese coastal town of Naqura, the first troops to reinforce UN peacekeepers amid calls for France and other European nations to step up their contributions.
   France’s reinforcements arrived under a United Nations resolution that ended a 34-day war between Israel and the Shia Hezbollah militia which killed 1,150 people, mostly civilians, in Lebanon. Hezbollah killed 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
   The Lebanese prime minister, Fuad Siniora, and the foreign minister, Fawzi Sallukh, said they had complained to visiting UN envoys who pledged to the chief Lebanese diplomat that they would ask Israel to stop violating Lebanese territory.
   Siniora condemned the Israeli commando operation as ‘a flagrant violation of the agreement for a cessation of hostilities stipulated by the UN Security Council’ Resolution 1701.
   He vowed ‘to follow up the issue’ with UN chief Kofi Annan, and that he had informed the two UN envoys his ‘protest over the Israeli violation of Lebanese airspace,’ a statement from his office said.
   Lebanese military and Hezbollah spokesmen said the commandos clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas for about an hour before heading out of the region.
   Under the cover of mock raids by Israeli jets, helicopters landed two Hummer vehicles in the mountainous region of Afqa, about 30 kilometres east of Baalbek, the Lebanese military source said.
   Israeli forces then drove eastward to the nearby village of Buday where they clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas.
   The Israeli soldiers attacked a school in Buday, as helicopter gunships strafed the area with machine-gun fire and warplanes bombarded Hezbollah positions in the area.
   It was the first major incident since a UN-brokered ceasefire deal took effect early Monday
   to end month-long host-
   ilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
   Earlier this week, there were exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces in the border area that left at least four militants dead.
   Israeli aircraft repeatedly violated Lebanese airspace Thursday when Lebanese shepherds and about 100 sheep strayed into a disputed border area.
   ‘If violations continue, the responsibility will fall on the UN Security Council which will have to ask Israel to stop such aggressions,’ said the Lebanese foreign minister.
   Sallukh said ‘we discussed the issue of the Israeli violation (on Saturday) and we told them to ask Israel how it wants to implement Resolution 1701 while continuing to violate its terms every now and then.’
   Resolution 1701 ordered a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrilla group that went into effect early Monday.
   It stipulates the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive operations.
   An Israeli military spokesman said the ‘operation was aimed at preventing the delivery of weapons to Hezbollah from Iran and Syria,’ adding that ‘all goals were achieved’.
   ‘In the absence of a system monitoring the border (between Syria and Lebanon), Israel will continue operations to prevent the transfer of arms to Hezbollah,’ the army spokesman said.

India will seek deportation of ULFA leader Anup Chetia during talks between the Bangladesh Rifles and the Border Security Force of India scheduled for August 23 in Shillong.
   ‘Deportation of Anup Chetia, top leader of the United Liberation Front of Assam, is high on the agenda of talks with the BDR,’ the DIG of the BSF, MN Sajjan, said.
   The deputy director general of the BDR, Brigadier General Ghulam Mohammed Rabbani, will lead the Bangladesh
   side at the talks while the Indian side will be headed by the BSF inspector general, SK Dutta.
   The BSF will broach the issue of deportation of the ULFA leader, long held in custody in Bangladesh. It will also take up the issue of dismantling alleged camps run by the northern state-based insurgent groups in hill tracks of Bangladesh, officials said.
   Bangladesh has maintained that there are no such camps on its soil and asked India to provide details of such camps, if any.
   Dhaka has also asked the Indian government to send back the ‘terrors’ reportedly hiding in India.
   Meanwhile, in a major
   development, the ULFA has responded to the Indian
   government's offer of ceasefire and asked its cadres to stop action against Indian security forces.
   This was in response to the Indian government's decision to suspend operations against the ULFA cadres in various parts of Assam.
   The ULFA chairman, Arabinda Rajkhowa, in a statement said, ‘We expect the government of India to implement its promise to facilitate opening of channels of communication for direct talks.’
   He also claimed that the Indian government would soon release five top rebel leaders, which in turn would further facilitate holing direct talks between the government and the ULFA.
   Talks so far held with the ULFA through the People's Consultative Group headed by noted artist Indirani Goswami, is seen as the spadework for peace building.

A metropolitan judge court has shown one of the 23 most wanted criminals, Arman Khan, absconding in a Juba League leader murder case when he has been in jail after being convicted in another case, a New Age investigation finds.
   The same court of second additional judge Rabiul Hasan in September 2005 sentenced Arman to life imprisonment on charge of possessing illegal firearms. He was arrested in June 2005. He is now in the Kashimpur central jail in Gazipur.
   Arman was remanded in police custody immediately after the killing of Juba League leader Mahmudul Haq Khan Galib at Farmgate in Dhaka on March 27, 1997.
   Galib’s wife Shaheda Nasrin Shampa filed a case with the Tejgaon police on the day, accusing 10 to 12 people.
   But he was remanded on bail by the High Court shortly after his arrest. He then went into hiding until the Rapid Action Battalion arrested him at Dhanmondi on June 3, 2005.
   The court records show Rabiul Hasan this time was not informed that he had been arrested. Neither the police nor the public prosecutor had taken any initiative to know of the latest situation.
   ‘The police have not informed me of the arrest or the conviction of Arman,’ the metropolitan public prosecutor, Abdullah Mahmud Hasan,
   told New Age on Wednesday. ‘The bench assistant might have concealed the bit of information.’
   The bench assistant brushed aside the allegation saying, ‘The prosecutor is to blame for not informing the court of the matter.’
   Twenty people including Arman, his mentor Sweden Aslam, city Juba Dal leader Saiful Alam Nirab along with his associates Abdul Wadud Rahman Master, Anwaruzzam and Nabi Solaiman, were accused in the Galib murder case.
   Sweden Aslam and three of his associates Azizur Rahman Liton alias Kutta Liton, Badsha alias Baduzzaman and Commando Shahin are in custody. Nine are remanded on bail and seven are in hiding.
   Arman appears in two courts of the similar category at least once a week for a number of cases filed against him during the 1990s.
   He has been facing charges in eight cases but that of the Juba league leader’s murder.
   Galib’s wife and five others in 2001 told court that Galib was killed at Tejkunipara when he was on his way to a meeting of then ruling Awami League. The remaining 19 witnesses were not produced in court.

Nepal’s prime minister said Maoist rebels cannot be accepted as a political party unless they lay down their arms, state media said Saturday.
   The Maoists ‘cannot be given the status of a political party ... until they give up weapons,’ the prime minister, Girija Prasad Koirala, said in the eastern city of Biratnagar, the Rising Nepal newspaper reported.
   The rebels and an alliance of seven parties led mass protests in April that forced King Gyanendra to hand back power seized from lawmakers in February 2005. He has since been obliged to give up most of his powers.
   ‘The Maoists must lay down their arms and we are trying our best to create the right kind of environment for that,’ Koirala said.
   ‘Only after that they will be treated as the eighth party and only then will it be possible to move ahead jointly with them,’ he said.
   Koirala said the government was awaiting the arrival of a UN team to speed up the drive to establish lasting peace in the kingdom where the rebels began their deadly insurgency to install a communist republic in 1996.
   The Maoists have since said they were willing to accept multi-party democracy and join the political mainstream.
   ‘The UN team will arrive shortly to address the issue of arms management,’ said Koirala.
   Maoist rebels and the government earlier this month settled a row over monitoring each other’s fighters and weapons, a move which revives their peace process and power-sharing plans.
   Under the agreement, the rebels would confine their soldiers and weapons to camps in the countryside and the army would stay in barracks, while UN civilians would monitor both sides.

The National Poetry Council has chalked out a week-long programme to mourn the death of poet Shamsur Rahman from today.
   The programmes include opening condolence books at the Teachers-Students Centre of Dhaka University and Aziz Supermarket at Shahbagh on August 20, offering fateha at the mazar of the poet and visiting his family members on August 21 and joining a citizens’ condolence rally at Central Shaheed Minar in a procession from the TSC on August 22.
   Besides, recitation of poems devoted to the late poet will be held on August 23, discussion on poems and songs written by the poet himself on August 24 and video show at the TSC on August 25.
   On August 26, the council will observe a daylong mourning programme at the Central Shaheedd Minar.
   The council urged its all units and the poetry-loving people both at home and abroad to observe similar programmes to pay homage to the poet.

At least 111 bighas (14.9 hectares) of the city corporation land worth about Tk 200 crore remain encroached, said sources in the Dhaka City Corporation.
   Some corporation employees are involved in such occupation. Many have for years been running business after occupying corporation land in the name mosques and madrassahs, the sources said.
   Many vested interest groups have legally taken land allotment in the name of mosques and madrassahs and have constructed commercial establishment in many city areas to run business illegally, the sources said.
   A group of people after taking allotment and approval to set up a mosque in the Gulistan Park initiated to build a multi-storey building after taking Rajuk approval saying that one of the floors would house a mosque. The corporation frustrated the attempt for the time being, a corporation official said.
   The space now houses a mosque and has a sign urging people to donate for the development of the mosque.
   The corporation sources said many pieces of corporation land have been abused this way.
   Talking about the construction of commercial establishes after taking land allotment in the name of mosque, the corporation’s chief estate officer Abu Taleb said, ‘It is happening in Dhaka. In 2005, we pulled down two such mosques amid protest at Azimpur and Tejgaon.’
   The corporation reclaimed more than 51 bighas (6.8 hectares) of land from occupation during 2004–2005, the sources said.
   The city corporation now owns 375.8 hectares (1 bigha equals 0.1338 hectare or 0.3306 acre) of land, besides roads, drains and footpath, in the capital city, according to official statistics.
   Of the 14.9 hectares of land under occupation, 3.45 hectares have been grabbed straight away, and the remaining 11.45 hectares have remained under occupation with legal complications, the corporation officials said. Cases are pending on the 11.45 hectares of grabbed led against vested interest groups.
   Of the land reclaimed, more than 0.81 hectares belong to Osmani Udyan, and 0.81 hectares to the Tejgaon Industrial Area. About 0.5 hectares of the land were reclaimed at Sayedabad and about 0.81 hectares at Mirpur, 0.81 hectares in the Panthapath-Begunbari areas and the remaining in other corporation areas, a corporation official said.
   The corporation officials said real estate companies have also been among the grabbers.
   Real estate firm Tropical Homes Ltd, after grabbing 0.21 hectares (more than a bigha and a half) at Mirpur Section 2 in 2000, constructed blocks of flats. The corporation earlier received the land from the National Housing Authority, the sources said.
   The corporation during a recent department inquiry found several employees responsible for the Tropical Homes occupation of the land. The investigation suggested for action although most of them have either retired or died, the sources said.
   The investigation file is now with the corporation secretary Alamgir Hossain Khan, said an official. The secretary could not be reached for comments.
   The Tropical Homes managing director, Rabiul Haq, told New Age on Saturday, ‘It is a very old story and now the issue is pending in court. So I have northing to comment.’
   On Tropical Homes claim over the piece of corporation land, Rabiul said, ‘The land is our property.’
   Abu Taleb said, ‘We are gradually taking steps to reclaim the grabbed land. The drive will continue as many pieces of corporation land still remain encroached.’
   Asked about the corporation officials’ involvement in such occupation, he said ‘It is beyond our knowledge. If we find anyone involved, we will take action accordingly.’
   Set up in 1864 as the Dhaka Municipality, it became the Dhaka City Corporation in 1990. More than 1 crore people now live in 90 wards of the corporation.

A suspected operative of the outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party who was injured in Thursday’s gunfight with law enforcers at Sujanagar in Pabna, died on Friday night raising the number of deaths in the bloody shootout to 13.
   Eleven Maoist extremists were killed on the spot in the fierce gunfight with the police in village Nakharazpur-Sharishabhita under Sujanagar upazila of the district on Thursday.
   Panic gripped Nakharazpur-Sharishabhita village following the fighting and a large number of villagers fled their homes. The police could not arrest any of the absconding extremists till Saturday evening.
   The villagers fear that the extremists might come back in the area anytime. Tension is prevailing in the area.  Male members of most of the households in five villages have fled the area fearing arrest as a strong police force has been deployed there to keep the situation under control.
   The superintendent of police of Pabna, Mirza Abdullahil Baki on Saturday told New Age that locals seemed disinclined to cooperate with lawmen in arresting the Maoists as they feared reprisals by the extremists.
   The police will launch a combing operation in different areas of the district soon to arrest the extremists, he said.

The education ministry has asked the universities to ban smoking in open spaces on the campuses.
   The ministry in July directed the University Grants Commission to ask the universities to enforce the Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act 2005, said a source in the commission.
   The commission early August sent letters to 27 public and 54 private universities, who have yet to take any steps in this regard, a commission official said.
   Most major public and private universities, however, denied receiving any such letter.
   The Dhaka University vice-chancellor’s office could not confirm the receipt of such letter. The same was the situation with Jahangirnagar University and Rajshahi University.
   Only the Daffodil International University admitted to receiving the letter. The university chairman, MA Sabur Khan, said the university formed a volunteers’ committee to enforce the act on the campus.
   The grants commission chairman, M Asaduzzaman, said the instruction had been sent to all the universities, but they did little in this regard.
   The education minister, M Osman Farruk, said a campaign against smoking in public places among the students would be much effective than drives in other open places.
   The law was enacted on March 13, 2005 and it came into force on March 26 of the year.
   The law bans smoking in public places and public transports. People smoking in public places and transports will be fined Tk 50, according to the law.
   The act defines ‘public places’ as education institutions, government, semi-government and autonomous offices, libraries, lifts, hospitals and clinics, court buildings, airport buildings, seaport buildings, river port buildings, railway stations, bus terminals, ferries, cinemas, covered exhibition centres, theatre halls, shopping malls, public toilets, children’s parks and any other place designated by the government through gazette notification.
   According to the act, public transports mean motor car, bus, train, tram, ship, launch, all other mechanised public transport, aircraft and any other transport designated by the government through gazette notification.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, also the BNP chairperson, on Saturday urged her party’s field-level leaders to work together and gear up organisational activities.
   She also urged them to work unitedly for the candidates to be nominated by the party so that they could win the elections overwhelmingly.
   Khaleda made the call during an exchange of opinions meeting with presidents, general secretaries of district, thana and poura BNP units at her 30 Hare Road office on Saturday.
   Twenty-five leaders from Narayanganj and 19 from Chapainabaganj, including all the five MPs of Narayanganj and all three MPs of Chapainababganj, met the BNP chairperson.
   She advised them to project development activities before the people, increase mass contacts and strengthen the organisational activities.
   Khaleda wanted to know from them the political situation, development activities and organisational condition in their areas.
   The field-level leaders apprised her that the BNP would win all their respective constituencies of the two districts with bigger margins of vote compared to the last elections.
   The BNP chairperson also suggested them to be careful about the preparation of a flawless voters’ list.
   The BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, the BNP senior joint secretary general, Tarique Rahman and PM’s political secretary Haris Chowdhury were present.

The election officials have not been able to update the names of Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina and the other residents of her resident in the voters’ roll, as she did not return the filled-up forms to the EC.
   The election officials on Saturday visited Hasina’s Sudha Sadan residence twice, as they were asked to collect the forms supplied earlier to Hasina to include the names of herself and other voters of her house in the list.
   Hasina’s personal secretary Selima Khatun on Friday night received the forms from the election officials, when they went to Sudha Sadan as per
   a prior appointment with Hasina.
   After receiving copies of the forms — one for deleting names from the existing list and the other for inclusion of names in the updated roll — Selima asked the election officials to collect the forms at 9:30am Saturday.
   Selima also urged the officials to visit Sudhasadan Saturday evening to include the names of other voters of the house in the list.
   Hasina was the prime minister and staying in the Gana Bhaban when the voter list was prepared in 2000. So, her and her family’s address has to be updated in the list.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on the other hand, does not need to update her voter information as the address of her residence remains the same as it was in 2000.
   ‘According to the schedule, we went Sudhasadan on Saturday morning, but were asked to return in the evening to collect the forms signed by Hasina.
   In the evening, we filled eight forms to include the names of the inmates of the house, including Hasina’s son Sajib Wajed Joy and her sister Sheikh Rehana.
   But no forms have so far handed over to us,’ one of the election officials emerging from Sudhasadan told New Age.
   ‘We will be contacted later to collect these forms,’ assistant election officer Deen Mohammd quoted Selima as saying.
   Meanwhile, the Election Commission on Saturday urged people to update their status in the voters’ roll at their own initiative, as the extended time for updating the roll ends today.
   An EC press release said if any voter had failed to enlist his or her name during the door-to-door updating, he or she could incorporate the name by contacting the registration or assistant registration offices in the areas concerned.
   The eligible voters can make phone calls to local election offices for any cooperation regarding the voters’ list. The phone numbers for Dhaka offices are: 9348823 for Lalbagh, 9359255 for Kotwali, 9350566 for Sutrapur, 9354846 for Demra, 8313010 for Motijheel, 8356823 for Sabujbagh, 9115649 for Dhanmondi, 9114279 for Ramna, 8112056 for Gulshan, 8120519 for Dhaka Cantonment, 8115148 for Uttara, 9117916 for Mohammadpur, 8120104 for Tejgaon, 8126201 for Mirpur, and 8126202 for Pallabi.

People from all walks of life paid tribute on Saturday to Shamsur Rahman, a doyen of the Bangla poetry, in a prayer session of qul khwani seeking the salvation of his departed soul.
   They said Shamsur Rahman was a poet of diversified styles and forms.
   The prayers session was conducted by the Sobhanbagh Mosque khatib, Abdur Razzaque. A huge number of fans and well-wishers attended the session held in his Shyamali residence.
   The Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, actor Ramendu Majumder, former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Emajuddin Ahmed, Shamsur’s long-time acquaintance and critic Professor Zillur Rahman Siddiqi, Saleh Chowdhury, singers Shabnam Mushtari and Yasmin Mushtari, Privatisation Commission chairman Enam Ahmed Chaudhury, and playwright Nasiruddin Yusuff also attended the session.
   Shamsur Rahman died on Thursday evening at the age of 77.
   He was buried in the Banani graveyard in Dhaka on Friday afternoon.
   A citizen’s rally will be held at the Central Shaheed Minar on August 22 at 4:00pm to pay tribute to the late poet.

Golam Rabbani, the prime initiator of the peoples’ uprising at Kansat in February this year, wants to stand in the next general elections as he feels it is necessary to be involved in the lawmaking process.
   Rabbani, Kansat Palli Bidyut Unnayan Sangram Parishad convener, declined to say whether he would contest the polls on any party ticket or as an individual.
   He came to Dhaka to attend a meeting with some cultural organisations and left-leaning student bodies at Dhaka University on Saturday. The discussion was held under the banner of Progressive Students and Cultural Organisation at DUCSU.
   The unity of the people has once again proved that it is possible to realise their rights by launching an uncompromising movement, said Rabbani.
   The Kansat uprising was sparked off due to the undue realisation of line-rents by the Rural Electrification Board and prolonged load-shedding. The people’s movement forced the authorities to lower the electricity meter rent to Tk 10 and the minimum charge to Tk 78, he said.
   Rabbani said power is essential to the people of northern districts as they have to depend on it for irrigation and other agricultural work, which accounted for the intensity of the movement.
   Mosleh Uddin Masud, convener of the Greater Demra Pani O Bidyut Sangram Committee, also spoke.

It will be a different August 20 today for Mili Rahman who will be observing, along with her children, the 35th anniversary of the death of her husband, Bir Shreshtha Matiur Rahman, as his remains were brought home on June 24 from Pakistan, the country he fought against for his motherland, Bangladesh.
   Matiur Rahman, a Pakistan Air Force flight lieutenant, was killed on August 20, 1971, when he piloted a T-33 trainer aircraft from Karachi towards India in an attempted defection to join the Bangladesh war of independence.
   ‘Now I am not alone. I can feel the presence of Matiur Rahman in the air, sky and the soil,’ Mili, widow of the late hero, told New Age on Saturday.
   ‘When his remains lay in Pakistan, I felt like he was killed. But now I think he is with me and I can see him. I can touch him. He has now become my strength and inspiration, although I have always cherished him in my heart,’ she said.
   Matiur Rahman failed to complete his mission as his plane crashed when the other pilot, Rashid Minhas of Pakistan, tried to stop him from heading towards India. He had been buried at Masroor Air Force Base in Pakistan for 35 years.
   Back home, his remains were buried in the Intellectuals’ Graveyard at Mirpur with state honours.
   Matiur was born on October 29, 1942 and he joined the Pakistan Air Force in August 15, 1961 and was commissioned on June 23, 1963.
   Matiur left Bangladesh for West Pakistan on May 7, 1971 with his wife Mili Rahman and two minor daughters, Mahin Matiur and Tuhin Matiur.
   ‘I came to know of his death on August 21, 1971, and we returned to Bangladesh on September 29 in 1971,’ Mili recalled.
   She told newsmen she had plans to do something for the deprived freedom fighters. She set up Bir Shreshtha Matiur Rahman Foundation in July.
   She said she had decided to set up a mobile hospital for the deprived freedom fighters and it will be launched on December 16 at Raypura in Narsingdi, the parental home of the hero.
   Matiur’s daughter Mahin when he was killed was the only Bangladeshi to visit his grave in 1994.
   She grew up knowing that her father was one of the great heroes. It was not until she was 23 that she had the opportunity to visit her father’s grave.
   On her return, she officially applied to the government to relocate Matiur’s grave to Bangladesh. His remains were at last brought home this year.
   Mili said this would be the first anniversary of his death in his motherland and ‘so, the occasion is not only significant only for me but also for the pro-independence forces.’

The opposition alliance led by the Awami League will hold a 7km road march in the Jessore town today, demanding reforms of the Election Commission and toppling of the 4-party alliance government.
   The road march will begin from Palbari and end at Murali in the town, said party sources.
   Party sources said the Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil, Workers Party of Bangldesh president Rashed Khan Menon, JSD president Hasanul Haq Inu and CPB leader Enamul Haq will take part in the road march.

Pakistan will mull over a possible participation in a UN force in south Lebanon but will only send troops if they would be ‘welcomed’ by all parties to the conflict, its foreign minister said.
   ‘We are looking at how the UN Security Council resolution (that halted month-long fighting between Israel and Hezbollah) is unfolding,’ Khurshid Kasuri said in Dubai, where he stopped over after visits to Lebanon and Syria.
   Kasuri, who made the visits as part of a contact group of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, said that during talks in Beirut earlier this week, Lebanese prime minister Fuad Siniora stated that ‘he would be very happy if Pakistan were to contribute troops’ to the force.
   ‘He mentioned Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia in particular,’ Kasuri said on Friday.
   ‘I will be reporting to the president and the prime minister and we will then study the situation,’ he said.
   Kasuri said in addition to watching the implementation of Resolution 1701 that halted the hostilities on Monday, Islamabad would be ‘looking at the internal Lebanese dialogue’.
   ‘Pakistan is the world’s largest contributor to peacekeeping operations ... If we can help in Congo and other parts of Africa, Lebanon is closer home ... (But) we would only go if we felt that our troops would be genuinely welcomed,’ he said.

Bangladesh expressed readiness for immediate discussion with the UN authorities on providing up to two mechanised battalions for peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.
   ‘The ultimate size (of troops) will depend on the outcome of the consultations,’ the ambassador and permanent representative of Bangladesh to the UN, Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, told the UN authorities.
   A communiqué received from Bangladesh’s permanent mission to the UN, said the ambassador made the offer at a largely attended meeting at the UN Headquarters chaired by the deputy secretary general Mark Malloch Brown.
   Other Muslim countries that made firm commitments on sending troops to Lebanon are Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia, the message said.
   The UN is trying to raise 13,000 extra troops as soon as possible to strengthen the existing 2000 in UN Interim Force in Lebanon.