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Foreign airlines operating flights from Bangladesh on Sunday informed said at a civil aviation and tourism ministry meeting that they would not be able to offer extra flights for Hajj passengers.
   The ministry requested the representatives of the Qatar, Gulf, Saudia and Singapore airlines to operate extra flights to ferry Hajj pilgrims at the meeting chaired by civil aviation secretary Shahid Alam. Biman’s managing director MA Momen. The Hajj Agencies’ Association of Bangladesh president, Mohammad Faruk, attended the meeting.
   Performing Hajj this year has become uncertain for a half of the pilgrims because of alleged irregularities and neglect of the Hajj agencies and lack of supervision by the authorities concerned.
   The Biman Bangladesh Airlines has cancelled 19 Hajj flights for lack of passengers and therefore incurred huge financial losses. It has been alleged that Hajj agencies had rented substandard houses in violation of rules and at last failed to manage accommodation clearances from Saudi authorities making uncertain the performance of Hajj by about 35,000 pilgrims.
   Shahid Alam said the Hajj agencies were responsible for the crisis as they rented substandard houses to make additional profits. The Saudi Arabian government will not allow any Hajj passenger into the country after December 25 although Biman has been losing its slots for its cancelled flights to Jeddah, he said.
   ‘Most Hajj flights are not having an adequate number of passengers against the seats while 19 flights have so far been cancelled for lack of passengers. Now Biman has the capacity to carry 15,389 Hajj passengers only by December 22,’ MA Momen told New Age on Sunday.
   Mohammad Faruk, however, claimed they had managed accommodation clearances for 28,500 Hajj passengers. But he could not assure Biman that no Hajj flight would further be cancelled.
   Biman initially planned 67 Hajj flights — 33 by Boeing-747s and 34 by DC-10s — to ferry 32,000 pilgrims from Bangladesh by December 22. But it has so far carried only 9,239 pilgrims to Jeddah as the Hajj agencies failed to have necessary documents readied in time.

Assailants shot dead a hotel employee and injured seven in two separate attacks in two hotels at Moghbazar and Malibagh in Dhaka on Sunday.
   The deceased was Mohammad Ameer Hossain, 32, son of Mohammad Yunus Mia of Jatrabari of Sonargaon in Narayanganj, a cleaner of the Hotel Meghna International.
   Witnesses said a gang of five stormed into the hotel, housed on the second, third and forth floors of a building on the Outer Circular Road, at around 11:45am and fired on the hotel employees.
   Hearing the gunshots, local people went to the place and found five, including the deceased, lying on the floor.
   Waiters Monir Hossain, 32, Kabir Hossain, 35, Alamgir Hossain, 32 and Ameer Hossain, and sweeper Tara Mia, 40, were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where Ameer was declared dead.
   The hotel owners and all the employees went into hiding fearing arrest.
   The motive could not be immediately established; but the local people said the hotel management was involved in anti-social activities, including prostitution.
   The Ramna police officer-in-charge Obaidul Hoque told newsmen, ‘We suspect the gun attack to be resulting from extortion issue and stranglehold in the locality.’
   In another incident, assailants attacked the Hotel Sunrise International at Malibagh Chowdhurypara in Dhaka on Sunday in which three were injured.
   The injured were manager Subal Das, 40, waiter Rafiqul Islam, 35, and cleaner Akhter Hossain, 35.
   The victims said a gang of five entered the hotel at around 12:30pm and looked for the owners.
   As the manager said the owner was not at the hotel, the gang fired on the employees. The three were injured with bullet in the leg, abdomen and arm.
   The local residents took the three to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where Akhter was released after first aid treatment.
   The high officials of the police and the Rapid Action Battalion visited the place.
   The residents said the hotel was a well-known hideout of criminals and the owners, patronised by the criminals, had been continuing the trade of prostitution for long.
   Detective Branch inspector Nurul Alam, 36, and subinspector Alamgir Hossain, 35, were killed in a shootout with criminals in the hotel on May 14, 2003.

The Jatiya Party chairman Hussain Muhammad Ershad said on Sunday his party would join the AL-led combine if the latter agreed to reintroduce upazila system, decentralise power, create provinces and check the price hike.
   Addressing a discussion at the party’s local office in the evening he cited some ‘mistakes’ of the AL government during 1996-2001. ‘The AL govt made my party secretary a minister in its cabinet without consulting me,’ the JP chief said and cautioned the AL against repeating such mistakes in future.
   Every major decision should be taken after elaborate discussion and consultation with the alliance partners.
   Ershad said, the enthusiasm and spirits he noticed in the people of Rangpur proved that they wanted his party to forge an alliance with the AL-led combine.
   He said he would make a decision soon on which alliance his party would join adding, ‘I must take the opinion of Rangpur people before joining any alliance’.
   The JP chairman criticised the immediate past government led by the BNP for its corruption, bad governance and failure to check price hike.
   He said that about 700 government officials made OSD, who drew their salaries without doing work and 37 secretaries were appointed to contractual jobs on political consideration during the tenure of the BNP-led alliance.
   The BNP-led alliance govt used the government as its party activists and those who did not comply were made OSD, he alleged.
   He praised the role of the armed forces saying that they served the nation always at the moment of crisis and earned praise abroad as peace-keepers.
   He also said he was not afraid of the cases filed against him claiming he did not commit any crime. ‘Some recent verdicts of the court proved it’.

The High Court on Sunday stayed for two months the operation of gazette notifications making OSD some 353 officers who are awaiting next postings during the general elections.
   A HC division bench comprising Justice Syed M Dastagir Husain and Justice Mamnoon Rahman also issued rule upon the government asking it explain why the notifications regarding the postings of the officials, ranking from deputy secretary to secretary, should not be declared unconstitutional.
   The court orders came upon a writ petition challenging the validity of the notifications issued on December 4. The petitioner contended that that the notifications were issued in violation with the constitution.
   Moving the petition, Barrister Omar Sa’dat submitted that the notifications were issued by the interim caretaker government in violation of the Article 58D(1) of the constitution.
   The constitution has barred the interim government from making any policy decision like promotion of the civil servants, the counsel told the court, citing Article 58D(1).
   It says the non-party government shall discharge its functions as an interim government and shall carry on the routine functions of such government with the aid and assistance of persons in the services of the Republic. And, except in the case of necessity for the discharge of such functions, it shall not make any policy decision.

The government will buy 11 lakh tonnes of crude petroleum from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia shortly.
   The cabinet committee on public purchase at a meeting on on Sunday approved a proposal of the energy ministry for the fuel purchase for 2007, officials said.
   The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation will import crude petroleum from the two oil-rich Arab countries at a cost of about Tk 4,000 crore.

The US ambassador in Dhaka, Patricia A Butenis and the British high commissioner, Anwar Choudhury on Sunday called on the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, and the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, separately.
   The envoys met Hasina at her Sudha Sadhan residence Sunday morning and discussed the situation following the deployment of the armed forces.
   The envoys during the hour-long meeting with Hasina wanted to know the AL’s reaction to the troops deployment, meeting sources said.
   The AL viewed that the deployment was too early, meeting sources said adding that the two envoys expressed almost similar views.
   The AL presidium member Kazi Zafar Ullah, who was present at the meeting, told New Age that the AL president, like the advisers to the caretaker administration, observed that the time was not appropriate for troops deployment. Iajuddin Ahmed unilaterally decided to deploy troops, he said.
   ‘Hasina said leaders of the AL-led alliance also thought that the deployment of army was not necessary at the moment,’ Zafar added.
   They also discussed about the latest political situation in the country during the meeting.
   The AL and both the envoys avoided the journalists after the meeting and did not disclose anything about the talks.
   UNB adds: Butenis and Anwar Chowdhury together called on the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, at the latter’s Banani office Sunday evening.
   As both the sides avoided press, it could not be known what were the issues they discussed during nearly 45 minutes meeting from 6:40 pm.

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Moeen U Ahmed, called on the president and chief adviser, Iajuddin Ahmed, at Bangabhaban on Sunday.
   During the meeting, the president said that army has been deployed ‘in aid of the civil power’ to maintain law and order for holding a free and fair election in the country, a Bangabhaban spokesman told the news agency.
   The deployment of army has been necessitated in aid of the civil administration to sustain economic activities in the country and to maintain law and order ahead of the upcoming general elections.
   The president hoped that army would discharge responsibilities reposed on them in maintaining law and order like in the past.
   Moeen assured the president that army would discharge its responsibilities and also informed him that army personnel have already been deployed to maintain law and order after returning from the winter exercise.
   The Principal Staff Officer of the Armed Forces Division, Major General Jahangir Alam Chowdhury and the Home Secretary Mohammad Abdul Karim, also met the president.