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The parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs on Monday expressed its concern about fragile law and order in the three hill districts.
   The committee at a meeting reviewed the crime reports of Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachari and recommended that the government should tighten security to restore congenial atmosphere to the districts, meeting sources said.
   The reports prepared by the deputy commissioners said the activities of the insurgents of India and Myanmar, clashes between the pro-peace treaty Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti and anti-treaty United People’s Democratic Front and sporadic political clashes were mainly responsible for dipping law and order.
   The reports pointed out the incidents of abduction and killing alarmingly increased in Khagrachhari and Bandarban while the political clashes between the BNP and the Awami League were also reported, the sources said.
   The deputy minister, Moni Swapan Dewan, told the meeting although some crimes take place in the areas, all of the reports of crimes published in newspapers were not totally true.
   He stressed the need for the proposed 53 Bangladesh Rifles outposts in the bordering areas to check the entry of insurgents from India and Myanmar.
   ‘If the outposts are set up in the bordering areas, the entry of Indian and Myanmar insurgents could be checked which will help to reduce crimes in the hill districts,’ Moni Swapan told New Age after the meeting.
   He said the clashes between the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti and the United People’s Democratic Front was nothing new and the law enforcers deployed in the areas were directed to play proper role to check the clashes.
   The committee chairman, Mosharraf Hossain, said they reviewed the reports of the district administration and recommended the government should take tight security measures in the hill districts.
   ‘The district administration is alert to keep law and order and we stressed the need for tightened security measures,’ he told New Age after the meeting.
   The meeting also recommended that the government should make the land commission effective to ensure fare land management.
   The ministry officials said the ministry formed a technical committee and would take steps after getting the committee report.
   The committee sought detailed reports on the distribution of 43,000 acres of government land in the districts and the report would be reviewed in the next meeting, the sources said.

Students on Monday gave a spontaneous response to the daylong student strike enforced by the opposition student bodies across the country in protest against the killing of five demonstrators in the police firing at Phulbari in Dinajpur on Saturday.
   Very few educational institutions were open as the students extended their support to the strike spontaneously, said the strike enforcers. Spontaneous support from the students showed that they were still conscious of political developments, they added.
   No classes were held at Dhaka, Jagannath and Jahangirnagar universities as well as major city colleges. The DU authorities cancelled all the examinations scheduled for the day.
   The administrative activities at Dhaka University were as usual, but the central library remained closed in the absence of readers. For the first time in past five years, the library remained closed during any strike.
   The Progressive Students’ Alliance brought out a procession on the campus in support of the strike. The alliance components also brought out separate processions. Some students blindfolded the characters of the statues at Aparajeya Bangla and Raju Memorial Monument and hoisted black flags.
   The Bangladesh Chhatra League and its allies brought out procession on the campus. The situation was the same at the colleges in the capital city. The New Age Rajshahi correspondent reported that the daylong student strike called by Progressive Students’ Alliance passed off peacefully at Rajshahi University.
   All academic activities came to near halt as the activists of leftist students’ alliance locked the main gate of the university as well as the gate of the administrative building. The agitating students demanded immediate cancellation of Phulbari Coalmine Project for the greater interest of the countrymen.
   University buses could not ply on any route resulting in poor attendance of the students.
   Chhatra Sangram Parishad expressed solidarity with the student strike and brought out a procession on the campus protesting at the killing of five persons at Phulbari.
   They also threatened to launch a fresh movement like Kansat and demanded proper investigation into the incident, compensation to the victims’ families and proper treatment of the injured people.
   Meanwhile, the students of Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology formed a long human chain in front of the administrative building.
   At a rally, the students demanded judicial investigation into the incident, compensation to the family members of the victims, and immediate cancellation of the coalmine project.

The owners and workers of transport of all types enforced a half-day strike in Natore on Monday, demanding and end to the movement of illegal human hauler, locally known as ‘bhutbhuti.’
   The united action council of the district bus, mini-bus, microbus, truck, rickshaw and rickshaw van owners and workers’ associations called for the strike
   They held a rally after the strike at the old bus stand in the town at about 10am. More than 5,000 owners and workers attended. The rickshaw and van workers’ association president, Sadek Ali, also convener of the united action council, chaired the programme.
   The district bus and minibus owners’ association president, Monjurul Alam Hasu, attended as chief guest.
   The Natore municipal chairman, Kazi Shah Alam, also president of the district transport workers’ union, was special guest.
   The speakers said they informed the administration several times of the matter; but no action was taken to stop the operation of the illegal human haulers.
   They asked the administration to stop the operation of such illegal human haulers in a week and threatened with transport strike in Natore otherwise.

Three offices of the ruling BNP and its front organisations were ransacked and looted at Hizla upazila in attacks and counter-attacks by two rival party factions on Monday afternoon, leaving five Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal members injured.
   The attacks came only a day after the prime minister at a meeting in Muladi named the incumbent BNP lawmaker Mosharraf Hossain Mongu for Hizla-Muladi (Barisal-3) constituency as the party candidate for the upcoming general election too.
   In an apparent showdown, the Mongu faction on Monday attacked and ransacked the offices of Jatiyatabadi Krishak Dal and Jatiyatabadi Swechhasebak Dal controlled by its rival faction led by Joynul Abedin, central BNP law secretary.
   In retaliation, the Joynul faction launched a counter-attack and ransacked and looted a BNP office controlled by the Mongu group, when at least five JCD activists loyal to the MP were injured. They are Kamal Sardar, Shamim Sardar, Rajon, Masud, and Mojibor, now under treatment at the Hizla Upazila Health Complex.
   Witnesses Mongu and his associates were going to Hizla from Muladi on Monday noon. On their way, they attacked and ransacked the Krishok Dal office at Pattonivanga at about 12:30pm and Swechhasebok Dal office at Hizlar Tek at 1:15pm.
   According to the witnesses, portraits of Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda Zia and Tarek Zia, and office furniture were damaged and dumped into the nearby canals during the attacks in presence of Mongu. He, however, denied the ransacking of party offices in his presence and said BNP activists furious at what he said were anti-disciplinary activities of Joynul might have done that.
   On news of the attacks, agitated followers of Joynul took position at Khunna Bazar of Hizla to waylay Mongu group on its way. However, Mongu passed the area under police escort at about 1:20pm.
   The followers of Joynul then attacked, ransacked and looted the Mongu-controlled BNP office at Kawria Bandar in Hizla at about 1:25pm. Joynul was not available for comment.
   Just the day before, on Sunday afternoon, clashes between Mongu and Joynul factions wounded at least 20 peoples including four policemen in the very ground where the prime minister addressed a public meeting in Muladi and introduced Mongu as the party candidate for the same constituency for the next parliamentary elections.
   The police visited only the ransacked BNP office but not the other two offices of the BNP’s front organisations.
   A tense situation was prevailing in the area and a case against the Joynul’s supporters was in the process of being lodged with the local police station till filing of this report on Monday evening.

A mob lynched a suspected robber at Soadhangora in the Sirajganj municipal area early Monday.
   The deceased was Mohammad Abdul Karim of Jamuna char at Chauhali.
   The police and the people said a group of bandits entered the house of Mohammad Rafiqul Islam at Soadhangora Madhyapara and looted valuables at gunpoint.
   As they are trying to get away, the people, who approached hearing cry for help, captured one of the bandits and beat him severely. He died on his way to hospital.
   The sent the body to Sirajganj General Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
   A case was filed with the Sadar police in this connection.