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About 20,000 teaching positions in different non-government educational institutions have remained vacant for nearly a year because of delay in holding and publishing results of the first-ever certification test for teachers, according to sources in the government.
   The parliament passed the Non-Government Teachers’ Registration and Certification Authority Act 2005 on February 9 with a view to containing corruption in teacher recruitment. It came into effect on March 20.
   The act makes NTRCA certificate mandatory for any application for teaching position in non- government junior and high schools, colleges, madrassahs, and technical and business management institutions.
   The certification test is supposed to be held twice a year; however, the registration and certification authorities have so far conducted only one test, the result of which is yet to be published although it was due within 15 days of the examinations.
   The test had been deferred three times before it was eventually held on November 25-26 in six divisional headquarters. Some 77,000 candidates took the test in 64 centres in Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chittagong, Barisal, Sylhet and Khulna.
   A candidate has to score at least 40 out of 100 in both compulsory and elective examinations to be eligible for the NTRCA certificate, which will be valid for five years.
   Meanwhile, recruitment to teaching positions at different educational institutions has remained suspended since March 2005.
   ‘About 20,000 teachers will be recruited after the publication of certification test results,’ Professor Khorshed Alam, director (secondary) at the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, told New Age last week.
   One of the four top executives of the registration and certification body, Gazi Mohammad Ahsanul Kabir, admitted that the authorities were hard put to publish the results.
   ‘There is no chairman of the NTRCA at present,’ he told New Age. ‘Moreover, two other members have been transferred a few days back; so, we are in trouble.’
   ‘We are trying to hard to publish the results by January 20 and have sought the prime minister’s appointment to hand over the results to her,’ he said. ‘However, we will not be able to issue the certificates immediately after the publication of results.’
   Ahsanul Kabir also said the registration and certification body would soon hold another test ‘as soon as possible’.
   ‘This [the delay in holding the first test] has happened because we were in a hurry to formulate the examination rules,’ he explained.
   More than four lakh teachers are working for around 30,000 non-government educational institutions. The government provides 90 per cent of the salaries of teachers and staffs.

The Bangladesh Telecommuni-cations Regulatory Commission has asked mobile phone operators to discontinue free-call facilities late into the night, with a view to protecting ‘the young generation from the erosion of moral values’.
   The commission on Monday asked all the five operators to discontinue free-call facilities as it had received numerous complaints from guardians and others that the facilities were causing moral degradation and change in lifestyle among young people, said a highly placed BTRC source on Friday.
   ‘The commission has taken the decision as it received scores of telephone calls and written complaints from parents for end to such free late-night call facilities,’ said a BTRC policymaker.
   The official said parents had registered complaints to the commission that with free late-night call facilities, their children indulged in long chats with friends or romantic partners, which was hampering their studies and changing their lifestyle.
   ‘The free phone call offer does not conform with the country’s values and culture, put ill effect on young people and promote romantic relationship between opposite sexes which is usually frowned at by our Muslim-dominated society,’ said the official.
   Moreover, an intelligence agency of the government also pressed the commission to ban the free call on the same ground.
   Currently, two mobile phone operators — GrameenPhone and CityCell — are offering free phone calls for their ‘djuice’ and ‘Alap Super Plus’ packages respectively between 12:00am and 6:00am targeting the young segment of the population as part of their sales promotion campaign to boost the number of subscribers.
   Mobile phone operators said they were yet to receive any such directive from the commission.
   ‘GrameenPhone has not received any such directive,’ said a spokesman of the company.
   However, the mobile operators termed the government action as ‘ridiculous.’
   ‘The ground of ban is ridiculous, and if the government does so, it should also ban all the restaurants, fast food joints and universities on the same ground,’ said an official of GrameenPhone.
   ‘While mobile operators in Bangladesh battle to outdo one another by offering customers the best possible features, such a move would dampen the competition,’ said an official of CityCell.
   Bangladesh has seen a rapid surge in mobile phone subscriptions over the past three years with more than 100 per cent growth.
   Currently, five mobile operators have around one crore subscribers while the sixth, Warid Telecom, set to start its operation within nine months.

The country celebrated Eid-ul-Azha, the second largest Muslim festival, with due fervour and reverence on Wednesday amid chilling weather and dense fog.
   Thousands of people, stranded on their way home due to the dense fog, observed Eid either on roadsides or on motor vessels in the rivers.
   The fog disrupted all modes of communication and homebound passengers were on their way home for hours at a stretch. Some angry passengers, stranded for 14 hours in the river in central Chandpur district, damaged a motor vessel. Many of the launch passengers had to starve on their way as they had little preparation for food.
   The celebrations began with Eid congregations held in the morning amid the nipping cold followed by sacrifice of cattle in the name of Allah.
   The main Eid congregation was held at the National Eidgah where the president, Iajuddin Ahmed, ministers and top officials offered their prayers.
   The khatib of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, Ubaidul Haque, conducted the prayer at 8:00am.
   Considering the recent bombings in the country, the government took extra security measures at the major Eid congregations in the capital and district headquarters.
   Lawmen across the country remained alert and sufficient forces were deployed at the major congregation venues to maintain order. They scanned the devotees with metal detectors and kept a sharp eye on the crowd.
   Strict security measurers were also initiated to monitor trading of hides and skin of the sacrificial animals across the country. The Bangladesh Hides and Skin Merchants’ Association said the few days saw transactions over Tk 500 crore.
   The capital and major cities were decorated with national flag and flags inscribed with Eid Mubarak in Bangla and Arabic. Major architectural sites were illuminated marking the occasion.
   The Dhaka City Corporation organised 361 Eid congregations across its 90 wards with provisions for women also. Foreign diplomats and their spouses also attended the congregations.
   The largest congregation was held at Sholakia Eidgah near Kishoreganj town where above over one lakh devotees joined.
   The main congregation in Chittagong was held at Jamiatul Falah Mosque where several ministers offered their prayers. Chittagong had 222 congregations including at MA Aziz Statium, Andarkillah Shahi Jame Mosque, Laldhighi maidan, Parade maidan and Halishahar BDR Field.
   In Khulna, the main congregation was held at the Circuit House grounds and the second largest congregation was held at Khulna Town Jame Mosque. There were other congregations at Khulna Development Authority Staff Quarters Mosque, Sonadanga Sabujbag Jame Mosque and Dakbangla Jame Mosque.
   This Eid also had a political flavour, being the last Eid of BNP’s tenure. Many of the political leaders celebrated the Eid at their constituency, informally launching their election campaigns.
   Ironically, thousands of homebound passengers were compelled to celebrate their Eid only halfway home by the roads or aboard anchored vessels.
   The fog descended on rivers reducing visibility to near zero compelling vessels plying southern routes to anchor at different places between Chandpur and Hizla channels on river Meghna since early Wednesday.
   Ferry service on Paturia-Daulatdia and Parturia-Kazirhat routes and Mawa-Char Janajat and Mawa-Kathalbari routes remained suspended since Tuesday night to Wednesday noon.
   The stranded homebound passengers held Eid congregations on both banks of the river Padma especially at Mawa and Paturia.
   All 12 ferries at Mawa remained anchored from 10:00pm Tuesday to 10:00am Wednesday for the dense fog, said the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority. The ferries at Paturia remained anchored for nine hours.
   Buses, cars and cattle-laden trucks queued up for miles at the ferry terminals. The traffic congestion eased after Wednesday afternoon.
   The passengers, who began their journey, had to observe the festival buying food from makeshift shops and nearby households.
   As for passengers stranded on board vessels, their miseries knew no bounds. They held the Eid congregations on the vessels amid a dire scarcity of food as all the foodstuff was finished much before they reached the destinations.
   A passenger from a Barisal-bound vessel anchored near Haimchar of Chandpur said the three kilograms of apple that she had bought for her mother substituted their food on the launch.
   The long-route buses had to ply with headlights switched on and ran at a snail’s pace for the thick fog. Saiful, a Gopalganj-bound passenger, said his bus ran at 20 kilometres per hour as objects, barely 20 feet away, were invisible.
   The chilling cold caused much suffering for the stranded passengers compelling them passengers to wear all their clothing.
   New Age’s Barisal correspondent reported that more than 50 vessels plying on 28 routes of the southern districts from Dhaka were stranded on Meghna and its tributaries with above one lakh passengers aboard since 2:00am Wednesday.
   The vessels were bound for Barisal, Pirojpur, Patuakhali, Barguna, Bhola, Jhalakati, Khulna and Bagerhat districts and reached the destinations with at least eight to 12 hours of delay on the Eid day.
   New Age’s Rajshahi correspondent reported that the main congregation was held at Hazrat Shah Mokhdum Eid ground at 9.00am where the telecommunications minister, Aminul Haque, Rajshahi mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu, AL general secretary AHM Khairuzaman Liton, AL led-fourteen party leader Fazlay Hossain Badsha and other administrative personalities and high government officials joined.
   Eid congregations were also held at Shaheb Bazar Bara Rasta, Haji Lal Eidgah, University central mosque, divisional stadium and Rajshahi cantonment.
   On the eve of Eid, the city squares, various high-rise buildings and shopping centres were decorated with colourful lighting and banners.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, and other political leaders exchanged Eid greetings with people from all walks on the Eid day.

Ruling and opposition political leaders, inclusive of incumbent and prospective members of parliament, used the Eid-ul-Azha vacations to spend time with the electorate to enhance their prospect in the next general elections.
   They exchanged Eid greetings with their constituents, put up a huge number of posters and banners, inscribed with Eid messages, and sacrificed as many animals as they could to have a lasting impression.
   The political leaders regard religious festivals as important breaks to carry out mass contacts and tried to make most of the Eid vacations as they went back to their constituencies.
   ‘The incumbent and prospective members of parliament tried to give an impression that this year’s Eid-ul-Azha is the last biggest religious festival before the next general election,’ said Abdus Samad, a businessman of Chapainawabganj.
   The next Eid, Eid-ul-Fitr, is likely in October and Eid-ul-Azha in December before the country goes to the elections in January 2007.
   Most lawmakers sacrificed at least one cow or buffalo in each union of their parliamentary constituencies. They also sacrificed goats in areas, dominated by non-Muslim population, and distributed the meant among the poor.
   The leaderships of the ruling BNP and the main opposition Awami League earlier made it clear to the incumbent MPs and the prospective candidates in the next elections that they should be in their constituencies during the Eid vacations and meet as many voters as possible.
   The BNP secretary general, and local government, rural development and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, was in Dhaka on the Eid day and attended different programmes before going to his Shibpur constituency in Narsingdi the next day.
   He exchanged Eid greetings with local BNP leaders and people at large before coming back to the capital city the same day.
   The Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil MP, joined the Eid prayers in his Naogaon-5 constituency. He went there before Eid and stayed till Friday.
   ‘I have exchanged Eid greetings with party men and people on the Eid day,’ he told New Age Friday evening. ‘I am scheduled to participate in a local political programme later on.’
   The Workers Party of Bangladesh president, Rashed Khan Menon, joined Eid prayers in Dhaka before going to his Babuganj constituency in Barisal on Thursday.
   The Communist Party of Bangladesh president, Monzurul Ahsan Khan, performed his Eid prayers in his Islampur constituency in Jamalpur.
   The Workers Party general secretary, Bimal Biswas, and politburo member Fazle Hossain Badsha also remained in their respective constituencies in Narail and Rajshahi, the party sources said.

At least 61 people were killed and about 400 injured in a number of road accidents mainly caused by dense fog across the country in four days since Tuesday.
   Eighteen were killed at Savar on Friday, eight in Panchagarh, seven in Rangpur, five each in Mymensingh and Gaibandha, three each in Brahmanbaria and Khulna, two each in Sylhet, Jaipurhat and Feni and one each in Munshiganj and Kishoreganj.
   A passenger on board Lepcha was killed and 20 were injured when a motor launch hit the Dhaka-bound steamer mid-river on the Meghna near Chandpur Tuesday night. More than five passengers reportedly went missing.
   In Dhaka, at least 22 were killed and 25 injured when a Dhaka-bound bus from Dhamrai skidded off the road into a ditch near the Madhumati Model Town at Savar on Friday.
   The accident occurred at Baliarpur opposite the model town at 12:45pm when one of the wheels came off its base, said the police, quoting witnesses.
   The rescuers pulled out 18 bodies from the bus. Four more died in hospital at Savar.
   Ten of the injured were admitted to hospital at Savar and five to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in a critical condition. The rescuers salvaged the sunken bus at about 3:00pm.
   In Munshiganj, about 20 vehicles skidded off the road because of poor visibility in dense fog at Sirajdikhan on the Dhaka–Mawa Highway Thursday. A passenger was killed and more than 100 were injured.
   Witnesses and the police said a bus of Apan Paribahan collided head-on with a Mawa-bound bus and both the vehicles skidded off the road. Eleven more vehicles, speeding behind, added to the pile-up and plunged into the roadside ditch.
   Two other road accidents kept hundreds of vehicles stranded in congestion. The police could not confirm the number of casualties or vehicles affected.
   Three were killed and 35 injured in a road mishap on the Dhaka–Sylhet Highway near the Biswa Road crossing in Brahmanbaria Thursday afternoon.
   In Panchagarh, eight were killed in a road mishap early Wednesday.
   The police said a minibus from Bhaluka in Mymensingh collided head-on with a Dhaka-bound bus from Panchagarh at Bhasainagar on the Panchagar–Dinajpur Highway at Boda, killing six on the spot and injuring 35.
   All the victims were workers of the Badshah Textile Mills at Bhaluka and they were on their way home. Most were from Mathaphata at Tentulia.
   In Rangpur, at least seven people were killed and more than 60 injured in three accidents at Boldipukur under Mithapukur on Wednesday.
   In Chandpur, a young man was killed and 20 were injured in a head-on collision between a passenger launch and a steamer in the river Meghna at Shatnal under Matlab Tuesday night.
   The deceased was Mohsin, 22, of Karband. A child went missing. Six of the injured were admitted to Chandpur Sadar Hospital.
   The missing child, Tanha, is daughter of Kawsar Hossain, a senior official of the industries ministry.
   Witnesses said the collision took place when a Barisal-bound motor launch, Ababil, hit the Dhaka-bound steamer Lepcha damaging two of its cabins. The steamer and the launch, however, reached the Chandpur terminal.
   In Rajbari, a young man, Mahbub, was killed when he was on his way to Rajbari from Daulatdia in a tempo and slipped out of the vehicle after a bus had hit it near the Daulatdia union council office Thursday morning.
   In Nilphamari, about 50 people were injured on the Nilphamari-Syedpur bypass when a truck skidded off the road into a roadside ditch in dense fog.
   In Khulna, a speeding bus ran over a madrassah teacher, Amir Hossain, 65, at Sonadanga Wednesday noon.
   Soon after the incident, a mob caught the vehicle and set it on fire. The bus driver managed to get away. Two others were killed in separate accidents on Thursday.
   In Sylhet, two persons were killed in road accidents at Osmani Nagar on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway on Friday and Thursday.
   In protest, the local residents blocked the highway for about an hour after the accidents.
   In Sirajganj, more than 40 passengers were injured in a head-on collision to the west of the Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge. The collision took place because of foggy weather, the police said.
   In Feni, two persons were killed and 20 injured in a road accident at Tulatali of Dagonbhuiyan Friday morning.
   In Gaibandha, five persons were killed and over 50 injured in three road accidents, on Wednesday and Thursday.
   In Jaipurhat, two were killed and two injured critically in separate accidents on the Jaipurhat-Hilli Road on Friday and Thursday night.
   Five more were killed in two road accidents in Mymensingh on Friday and Thursday and one was killed and 10 were injured in an accident in Kishoreganj on Friday.

A biting cold and blinding fog that disrupted Eid-ul-Azha celebrations across the country will continue for a few more days, according to officials at the Department of Meteorology.
   The mild-to-moderate cold wave may continue in Rajshahi and Khulna divisions while moderate-to-heavy fog is likely to envelop Tangail, Faridpur, Madaripur, Barisal, Bhola and places in Rajshahi and Khulna divisions over the next few days, said the Met Office.
   The officials said the dense fog causing cold at daytime as the sun remains under the fog and night temperature might slightly rise comparing to the previous night.
   ‘The intensity of the cold wave may start reducing from tomorrow [Saturday] but the fog may continue throughout January,’ Azizur Rahman, duty forecast officer of the department, told New Age.
   He added that the density of fog may also fall in the last week of the month, but another spell of cold wave may sweep the country during then.
   Reports from Chapainawab-ganj said two newborn babies, Joy, 10 days, and Babu, one day, died of cold-related diseases in Sadar Hospital Monday evening.
   Rail, river, road and air communications were disrupted for hours during the Eid vacations and continued till Friday. People, who had left the city to spend the Eid with their families and friends, are finding it difficult to get back.
   More than 50 vessels plying on 28 routes of the southern region from Dhaka got stranded on Meghna and its tributaries on Wednesday but no measure was taken to avoid such sufferings till Friday, reports the Barisal correspondent of New Age.
   The Met Office recorded the lowest temperature of 7.4 degrees Celsius in Jessore and Chuadanga on Friday, while the highest temperature was 28.4 in Cox’s Bazar and Jessore.
   In Dhaka, the lowest temperature was 10.4 degrees and the highest 24.6.
   The Met Office forecasts that the sky will remain cloudy and the weather will remain dry for the next 24 hours. There is the possibility of a dense fog in the central and north-western parts of the country and light to medium fog in other areas.
   The New Age Khulna reports from Khulna that the continuing cold wave in the south-western region had been disrupting normal life for the past five days.
   Children and elderly people are especially suffering from cold-related diseases such as asthma, cough and pneumonia.
   Doctors in Khulna Shishu Hospital and Khulna Medical College Hospital had to attend to an increasing number of children and old-aged patients in the past few days, hospital sources said.
   People of lower-income group, especially slum dwellers and street people, are the worst sufferers, as they have no warm clothing.
   The New Age correspondent writes from Chapainawabganj that cold wave was sweeping the district over the past four days, crippling everyday life and cold-related diseases had broken out.
   Meanwhile, a government handout suggested that passengers should avoid ferries at Mawa and Paturia points, and use the Jamuna Brigdge and Lalan Shah Bridge.

Iran on Friday threatened to stop cooperating with the UN atomic watchdog, including possibly resuming uranium enrichment, if its controversial nuclear programme is referred to the Security Council.
   ‘If the dossier is sent to the Security Council, the European countries will lose the means which are currently at their disposal, because... the government will be obliged, in conformity with the law adopted by parliament, to end all its voluntary measures of cooperation,’ the foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
   Iran’s standoff with the international community escalated after Tehran on Tuesday resumed sensitive nuclear research linked to uranium enrichment, which produces fuel for nuclear power reactors but can also be used to make atomic bombs.
   The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, earlier accused Tehran of a ‘deliberate escalation’ of the dispute, and said it was in ‘dangerous defiance of the entire international community.’
   Europe’s three major powers responded by calling for an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, while the UN chief, Kofi Annan, said Iran was still keen on pursuing nuclear talks with European powers.
   The British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said consensus was growing among the international community, including Russia, for action but said the military option was not being considered.
   In December Iran’s hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, signed off on legislation that could limit UN inspections at Iran’s nuclear sites if its case is taken to the Security Council.
   The law obliges the government to ‘stop voluntary and non-legally binding measures and implement its scientific, research and executive programmes’ if the Security Council gets involved.
   Ahmadinejad has ordered Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency to be prepared to apply the law, the Fars news agency reported.
   The law does not refer to specific forms of retaliation, but counter-measures could include resumption of uranium enrichment as well as refusing to adhere to the additional protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which gives increased inspection powers to the IAEA.
   Meanwhile, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany will hold talks in London on Monday to plan a pivotal meeting on the Iran nuclear crisis, a European diplomat said.

A total of 362 pilgrims were killed in the stampede at the annual Hajj pilgrimage, a senior Saudi medical official said.
   Earlier estimates said at least 345 pilgrims were trampled to death and almost 300 injured Thursday.
   It was the latest in a succession of stampede tragedies to hit Hajj pilgrimage despite efforts by Saudi authorities to avoid a repeat of disasters like the one that killed 1,426 people in 1990.
   The head of rescue operations in the city of Makkah, Khaled Yassin, said the stampede took place around 1:00pm (0900 GMT) and that 70 ambulances rushed victims to seven hospitals in Mina and nearby Arafat.
   ‘We received some 600 casualties, many of whom were transferred to other hospitals,’ a medical source at Mina General Hospital said. Many of the bodies brought to hospital as well as the wounded were from South East Asian countries.
   The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel showed footage of the bodies of dozens of pilgrims lying on the ground covered with white shrouds.
   The interior ministry spokesman, Mansur Al-Turki, said the accident occurred ‘because of the luggage that fell and led to a rush at the eastern entrance of the Jamarat bridge,’ as the overpass is known in Arabic.
   Outside Mina hospital, a Palestinian pilgrim was rushing in to check on his wife who was wounded in the stampede.
   According to several Sunni Muslim fatwas (religious edicts) issued in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, pilgrims can perform the ritual from after midday until dawn Friday.
   At the site of the accident, bulldozers removed piles of luggage to clear the way, and a few hours later the scene returned to normal as pilgrims came back to stone the devil.
   The stoning of Satan is the riskiest episode of Hajj as the pilgrims jostle to make sure their pebbles touch the pillar.
   Of the dead, nearly 80 Asians are known to have died in the deadly stampede during Hajj and many more remain unaccounted for in the ensuing confusion, officials said Friday.
   Pakistan said at least 44 of its pilgrims were among the 362 people crushed to death on Thursday.
   ‘There are 44 bodies of Pakistanis who were killed in the incident,’ Pakistan’s religious affairs minister Ijazul Haq told the news agency.
   At least 28 pilgrims from neighbouring India were killed in the stampede, Indian foreign ministry spokesman, Navtej Sarna, said.
   Indian media reports said some 100 Indians were missing, but officials said many may have been separated from families and friends in the confusion and should not be presumed dead.
   At least two Indonesians were among those killed. However some 200,000 Indonesian pilgrims had been advised to perform the ritual in the late afternoon.
   Four Chinese citizens were also among the dead, a foreign ministry statement in Beijing said.
   Officials in Bangladesh, the world’s third biggest Muslim nation, said they were still checking in hospitals to find out whether there were any deaths among its 52,000 pilgrims.
   Malaysia said its pilgrims escaped because they were advised to perform the stoning ritual in the evening. The Philippines and Thailand said there were no indications any of its nationals had died.
   Afghanistan said it had no information yet on its pilgrims.
   The worst affected country appeared to be Egypt, which lost around 100 people.
   The latest tragedy comes one week after 76 people were killed when a hostel in the heart of Makkah collapsed.
   A total of 251 Muslim pilgrims were trampled to death in 2004 as people panicked during the ritual stoning.
   In 2003, 14 pilgrims were killed in a stampede during the first day of the stoning ritual, and 35 died in 2001, while in 1998 Hajj saw 118 killed and more than 180 hurt at Mina.
   The deadliest toll of the pilgrimage was in July 1990 when 1,426 pilgrims were trampled or asphyxiated to death in a stampede in a tunnel, also in Mina.
   Almost 60,000 security, health, emergency and other personnel were involved in organising and securing this year’s Hajj.

At least 13 Bangladeshi pilgrims were missing and 10 others receiving medical treatment following the Thursday’s terrible stampede during stoning of the devil at Mina, a Foreign Ministry official here said Friday.
   The official, who received information from Bangladesh hajj mission in Makkah, could not precisely say about the fate of the 13 hajis missing since the stampede that claimed 345 pilgrims on the last day of the hajj.
   ‘We don’t have any report of death of any Bangladeshi haji in the stampede,’ he told UNB at 6 pm Friday.
   According to a Foreign Ministry press release, the missing Bangladesh hajis are:
   1. Mohammad Jamshed Ali, 70, son of late Armamud Munshi of village Killapara, Nalitabari of Sherpur district (Pilgrim non. 990803)
   2. Joaher Ali, 60, son of late Moyezuddin, village Banipara Hemnagar, Gopalpur of Tangail district (pilgrim no. 990699)
   3. Danes Ali Fakir, 79, son of late Nowab Ali Fakir, village Banipara Hemnagar, Gopalpur of Tangail district (Pilgrim no. 990698)
   4. Abdul Malek, 71, son of late Shaheb Uddin, village Mahanandapur Abaadatnagar, Shakhipur of Tangail district (Pilgrim no. 990672)
   5. Abdul Motaleb Darjee, 70, son of late Shekai Darjee, village Jangalia, Kaliganj of Gazipur district (Pilgrim no. 990625)
   6. Monshi Fazlur Rahman, 61, son of late Alhaj Monshi Sona Miah, village Jajaerakuti, Kasba of Brahmanbaria district (Pilgrim no. 991449)
   7. Hamidur Rahman, 60, son of late Ayubullah Sarker, village Uttar Balubari, Sadar thana of Dinajpur district (Pilgrim no. 992110)
   8. Emadad Ali Shah, 59, son of late Ahshan Uddin Shah, house-66, plot-3, New Town B-2, Dinajpur Sadar (Pilgrim no 992107)
   9. Habibur Rahman, 68, son of late Ashir Uddin, Fulbari Bus Stand, Dinajpur Sadar (Pilgrim no. 992108)
   10. Mazedur Rahman Choudhury, 67, son of late Nasar Uddin Choudhury, village Middlebari, Dinajpur Sadar (Pilgrim no 992109)
   11. Abdullahil Kafi, 55, son of late Mojnu, village New Ghasipara, Dinajpur Sadar (Pilgrim no. 992085)
   12. Najbun Nehar, 40, wife of Abdullahil Kafi, village New Ghasipara, Dinajpur Sadar (Pilgrim no. 992086)
   13. Answer Uddin Khan, 70, son of late Azizuddin Khan, 30/1A Mathertek, Sabjubagh of Dhaka (Pilgrim no. 277022)
   List of the injured Bangladeshi hajis undergoing treatment at hospitals are as follows: Mina General Hospital: 1. Mahbub, 2. Beadi Begum; King Abdul Aziz Hospital: 1. Mozibur Rahman; Al Noor Hospital: 1. Mahamuda, 2. Fauzia; Jiad General Hospital: 1. Noorul Haque, 2. Ahmed Noor; Maternity Hospital, Makkah: 1. Hasina, 2. Asma; and Mina Al Jaseer Hospital: Mahamud.

Saudi Arabia blamed unruly pilgrims on Friday for the crush that killed at least 362 people in Hajj, but many Muslims said better security could have averted the worst disaster to befall the ritual in 16 years.
   The pilgrims were crushed on the last day of Hajj at the disaster-prone Jamarat Bridge in Mina, a narrow valley near the holy city of Makkah, as they jostled to perform a stoning ritual in the early afternoon.
   The legitimacy of Saudi Arabia’s ruling house rests in the eyes of many Muslims on its ability to host some 2.5 million Hajj pilgrims from all over the world every year.
   ‘The state has made every effort and done everything it should,’ the kingdom’s top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh said on state television, accusing pilgrims of being disorderly.
   Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz, as well as the kingdom’s interior minister, also blamed pilgrims who defied the rules and carried
   their belongings with them and ignored advice to per-form the ritual throughout the day.
   ‘It pains us that so many people died, but we must point out that the security forces averted many more disasters from happening and saved many lives,’ the state news agency SPA quoted the interior minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, as saying.
   Saudi Arabia has not announced the nationalities of the dead pilgrims, but India said at least 27 of its citizens were killed in the crush. Indonesia reported two of its pilgrims had died and Pakistan said it knew of six fatalities so far.
   ‘The Saudis are saying that most of those killed are Indians, Bangladeshis and Afghans, but I think there might be at least 30 to 40 Pakistanis among the dead,’ said Vakil Ahmad Khan, permanent secretary at Pakistan’s Ministry of Religious Affairs.
   Many pilgrims insist on following Prophet Mohammad’s example of stoning after noon prayers instead of staggering the ritual throughout the day as some clerics recommend. Saudi clerics who follow the strict Wahhabi branch of Sunni Islam have in the past advised stoning after noon.
   But some pilgrims said the authorities had failed to impose their own rules on the ritual, which has seen similar deadly stampedes in the past.
   Witnesses also said the tragedy was caused as the flow of pilgrims entering and leaving the Jamarat bridge clashed, ignoring instructions on huge notice boards, loudspeakers and pamphlets on how to perform the rites.
   ‘What’s the reason for what happened, that’s the question that must be answered,’ wrote columnist Raqiya Shabib in the Saudi-owned al-Hayat newspaper.
   ‘For this not to happen again the organisation has got to be rethought at the Jamarat area in particular.’
   Officials say around 300,000 Muslims who are already resident in Saudi Arabia slip into the Makkah area to join the some two million pilgrims taking part.
   This year’s Hajj had already been marred by the collapse of a Makkah hostel that killed 76 people last week.

Rawhide traders in particular and the leather industry in general had a brisk business during Eid-ul-Azha this year, with transactions in hides of sacrificial animals reaching about Tk 450 crore, according to unconfirmed estimation.
   The volume of rawhide from sacrificial animals rose at least 10 per cent to 2.2 million cows and buffalos and 12 million goats and sheep, said merchants at Posta in Old Town, a traditional hub for rawhide trade.
   The prices of rawhide also registered up to 15 per cent rise as tanners, bolstered by better market opportunities and stronger financial dispositions, bought more hides directly from people, they said.
   ‘The volume should be at least 10 per cent more and the prices up to 15 per cent higher than that of the previous year,’ said SM Azizur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Hides and Skin Merchants’ Association.
   A large-sized cowhide (around 35 feet) of fine grade sold at Posta for Tk 1,800-2,000 and an average-sized hide of fine grade from Tk 1,500-1,800.
   Fine-grade hides came mainly from Dhaka and surrounding districts, where about half a million cows were sacrificed this year, since comparatively people live there and usually buy larger and healthier sacrificial animals, the traders said.
   The price of rawhide of small cows ranged between Tk 1,000 and Tk 1,500 and of goatskin between Tk 100 and 150.
   Rawhide merchants usually appoint middlemen during Eid who make on-spot purchases from people. The middlemen usually take 10-15 per commission on each hide for carrying them to about 2,000 merchants at Posta and other wholesale markets.
   Merchants after procuring raw hides process them with salt and make their stocks and within a month they sell those to owners of tanneries and finished leather processing plants.
   Tannery owners buy significant numbers of rawhides directly from people through their agents during Eid, and market sources said increased direct purchase by tanners contributed to the increase in the prices this year.
   Market sources said tanners had bought more than 150,000 pieces directly from people this year.
   ‘Good demand, prices and market of leather abroad prompted the tannery owners to be more active this year,’ said Abul Hossain, an employee of Sarwar Leather Complex, a crust and finished lather processing plant at Hazaribagh where about 150 tanneries, 56 of which are in operation now, are located.
   Tannery owners received Tk 250 crore in bank loan, much higher than Tk 194 crore they had received in the previous year.
   Tipu Sultan, president of the Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters’ Association, said within a day or two the tannery owners would start formal procurement of leather from merchants.
   Citing market observation of his fellow businessmen, Tipu said production and market of hides this year was good.
   According to Tipu, Bangladesh produces 200 million square feet of leather every year and more than a third of it from hides of sacrificial animals.
   Export earning from finished leather, leather goods and footwear stood at Tk 1,900 crore in 2004-05, which was additional to products worth Tk 500 crore on the local market.

The University Grants Commission will hold talks with top executives of the private universities, sometime after the Eid vacation, to find out ways for implementing a uniform statute for the universities.
   The commission, which is in charge of monitoring the activities of public and private universities, had worked out a uniform statute for all private universities in August 2004.
   The education ministry in February 2004 requested the commission to prepare the draft of a statute for private universities in line with the rules of the Private University Act.
   The commission’s chairman, Professor M Asaduzzaman, said everyone at the universities agreed to the draft of the statute prepared earlier, but no meeting was held because of certain reasons.
   He hoped that the statute might be implemented within the shortest possible time after the his meeting with the vice-chancellors of the private universities.
   The private universities were given permission to begin operating in 1992 and the Private University Act was formulated, but there was no statute for running the universities.
   The number of private universities in the country is 54 at present.
   Section 17 of the Private University Act says that each university needs to formulate the statute for smooth running of syndicates, regency councils or trustee boards, boards of governors, syllabuses, curriculums, syllabus indices and other administrative functions after being approved by the chancellor. The act says that the president of the republic is chancellor of all the private universities.
   But only a few universities have their own statutes, which prompted the government to work out a uniform statute for all the private universities, said the commission’s chairman.
   A seven-member committee, headed by one of the full-time members of the commission, Professor Monirul Hoque, prepared the draft.
   The chairman said, ‘In most cases, the owners of the private universities have become vice-chancellors. The proposed statute says that all the universities must have vice-chancellors nominated by the chancellor.’ ’Most universities have no chairman of the syndicate or the owner of the university has been acting as chairman of the syndicate…
   The statute proposes that universities will need to have a chairman of the syndicate.’ Northern University’s vice-chancellor, Professor Mohammad Ali, a member of the committee, said that in the draft statute they have recommended a syndicate having a minimum of nine and a maximum of 17 members for each university.
   The vice-chancellor of the university concerned will have to be chairman of the syndicate, he said.
   The seven-member committee included the University of Information Technology and Science’s vice-chancellor Dr Abdul Mazid Khan, East West University’s vice-chancellor Dr Mohammad Farashuddin, and the commission’s full-time members Professor KM Mohsin, Professor Mahfuzul Huq and Professor M Mahbub Ullah.

The chief election commissioner, MA Aziz, did not till Friday comply with the High Court directives of convening a meeting to end the controversy over the voters’ roll preparation for the next general elections.
   The two election commissioners also failed to communicate with Aziz in three days as Aziz was reportedly ill.
   The commissioners failed to reach Aziz, they told New Age on Friday. One of them said the personal staff of Aziz answered the phone calls and told them Aziz had been ill and would not be available.
   A major portion of the enumeration for the fresh electoral roll has been compleed while Aziz is yet to decide on the next course of action on the enumeration in accordance with the court verdict.
   According to the High Court judgement of January 4, ‘The chief election commissioner should immediately call a meeting of the commission and the commission should decide and take all appropriate steps to implement the decision of August 6, 2005 in its meeting for the preparation of electoral roll in the light of this judgement. The commission should prepare electoral roll taking the existing roll maintained under section 7 (6) of the ordinance as a major basis.’
   One of the commissioners, AKM Mohammad Ali, on Friday told New Age that he had called Aziz’s residence to inquire about his health and to request him to convene the meeting. He was told that Aziz would not be able to talk as he was ill.
   ‘I failed to talk with him as a peon, who received the call, told me that [Aziz] was sick,’ Mohammad Ali told New Age.
   ‘[Aziz] can even convene the meeting in his residence. But we could not communicate with him,’ said the other commissioner, MM Munsef Ali.
   Aziz did not communicate with the commissioners after Monday after receiving the certified copy of the judgement. Aziz did not attend office on Monday and Tuesday, the last two working days before the Eid holidays, on health grounds.
   Sources in the commission said Aziz was not willing to call a meeting of the commission in line with the High Court directive until the appointment of two more election commissioners.
   According to a source, Aziz discussed the possible legal implications of moving the Appellate Division against the High Court verdict and appointing two new election commissioners.
   The preparation of a new voters’ roll that began on January 1 amid controversy, meanwhile, continued during the Eid holidays, without complying with the court ruling.

At least 18 people including women and children died when helicopters launched missiles on a village in Pakistan’s troubled tribal region bordering Afghanistan Friday, residents said.
   The incident in Mamund town in Bajur tribal zone comes days after Pakistan protested to the US military in Afghanistan over the deaths of another eight people in cross-border firing.
   Residents said a pair of helicopters launched missiles and a bomb early Friday, destroying three houses including that of Gul Zaman, member of an outlawed Islamic extremist group.
   ‘Two helicopters fired five missiles and dropped a bomb and the attack demolished three houses. Among the dead were five women, five children and eight men,’ resident Haji Bakhtullah said.
   Pakistani military spokesman major general Shaukat Sultan said that authorities had not confirmed the casualty toll in Bajur’s Mamund town because the area is very remote.
   ‘There have been one or two explosions but we don’t have details of what caused them. We have had heard reports of a death toll between 11 and 14 but we have no confirmation,’ Sultan said.
   Pakistan has pushed around 70,000 soldiers into the tribal areas to flush out al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion in late 2001.
   No one claimed responsibility for the latest attack but locals speculated that it was carried out by the US military. The US-led coalition in Afghanistan was not immediately available for comment.
   Bajur borders Afghanistan’s troubled Kunar province, where suspected Taliban rebels shot down a Chinook helicopter killing 16 US servicemen in June last year.
   Zaman belonged to a group called Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi which was outlawed by the president, Pervez Musharraf, in January 2002 after it sent thousands of volunteers to support the Taliban.
   On Monday Pakistan’s foreign ministry said it had lodged a strong protest with US forces in Afghanistan after eight people in North Waziristan tribal area were killed by gunfire across the border last weekend.
   Pakistan said a senior Egyptian al-Qaeda commander named Hamza Rabia died in North Waziristan in December when munitions exploded inside his house. Locals said he was killed by a missile fired from a US drone.

Internet users will have to wait till March to avail facilities of the submarine cable as construction of Cox’s Bazar-Chittagong optical fibre link will not be completed before then.
   Sources in the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board said although installation of fibre optic cable was expected to be completed by February, it will not be possible before March due to slow implementation.
   ‘The facilities of the submarine cable will be available in the national network after installation of an optic fibre link between Cox’s Bazar landing station and Chittagong,’ said and official of the board, the implementing agency of the project.
   A Turkish company, Hesfibel, won the Tk 28 crore contract to lay about 165 kilometres of fibre optic cable in a re-tender as the cabinet committee on public procurement citing corruption, rejected the offer of a German company, Siemens, which was selected from the first tender.
   The official said as per the contract, Hesfibel will complete the job by April, but the government wants to have it done by February.
   A coordination meeting of posts and telecommunications ministry in the last week of December, chaired by the telecommunications minister Aminul Haque, asked the board to speed up the process and finish in due time.
   Bangladesh has already been connected with the 16-party consortium of the 20,000km SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable project as the consortium members inaugurated the high capacity cable on December 13 in Dubai. The cable stretches from France to Singapore.
   As a consortium member, the state-owned Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board has to spend Tk 657 crore for laying the submarine cable.

The US senator, John Kerry, seen as a key player in getting Congress to approve a controversial deal giving India access to civilian nuclear technology, said he would back the accord.
   ‘In principle, I support this,’ said Kerry, a member of the influential US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a strong advocate of tightening non-proliferation controls. The agreement, signed in July by the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and the US president, George W Bush, would give India access to civilian nuclear technology in return for separating its civilian and military nuclear facilities.
   The separation is to ensure US nuclear cooperation does not aid India’s weapons programme.
   ‘It’s a positive game for India, the US and for the international community,’ the former Democratic presidential candidate told reporters on Thursday.
   His statements came a day after he held talks with Singh, during which the Indian leader solicited support for the deal, the national security adviser, MK Naraynan, and other top leaders.
   Indian newspapers had said New Delhi saw Kerry’s support for the deal was important in getting bipartisan Congressional backing for legislation amending anti-proliferation laws.
   ‘A supportive view by Kerry will count in building a positive climate’ for passing the legislation that the Bush administration plans to table soon, the Indian Express newspaper said. The agreement has been the target of loud criticism from some US lawmakers and proliferation experts, who complain it undermines international nuclear non-proliferation efforts and should be stricter.
   Energy-hungry New Delhi has been denied access to nuclear technology for over two decades since it first tested a nuclear weapon and refused to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
   Kerry said the agreement ‘creates adherence to international non-proliferation standards’.
   ‘It’s better to have India as part of the International Atomic Energy Agency programme than not to have it,’ said Kerry, who is on a 12-day swing through South Asia, West Asia and Europe.
   Kerry’s visit to India came ahead of a trip of Bush expected in late February or early March.
   Indian and US officials had been hoping to wrap up the nuclear deal before Bush’s arrival. But some officials have now rowed back on that timetable.
   India, which depends on fuel imports, is seeking to broaden its energy sources to sustain a booming economy. Washington views the agreement as a key step to improving ties with India which it regards increasingly as an important counterweight to China.

About one thousand retail rawhide buyers in Chittagong might incur huge losses as an organised syndicate of hoarders of animal hides was reportedly depriving them of fair price.
   Sources said the hoarders bought hides of a medium-sized cow between Tk 1200 and Tk 1400 on the Eid day, but they were offering the retail rawhide buyers between Tk 900 and Tk 1100 for the same size hides from Thursday.
   Hasan Mollah, who collected 70 cowhides from Raujan upazila, told New Age that the hoarders were offering him between Tk 200 and Tk 400 lower than the purchasing price for each hide.
   ‘It has forced me to preserve the rawhides with salt and its prices have increased by Tk 100 to Tk 150, but the hoarders are still offering the same price,’ he said.
   Many of the retail hide buyers especially those who collected hides from different upazilas of the district were seen waiting with stockpiles of rawhides beside the road at Aturar depot area on Friday.
   The sources said the retail buyers who collected hides from the city area had sold the hides on the Eid day, but most of the sufferers were the retail buyers from outside the city.
   ‘The syndicated hoarders are doing it just for depriving the hide collectors in remote areas of fair price as they know that we have to leave the city as early as possible after selling the hides,’ said Mohammad Harun, a retail hide buyer who collected hides from Chandanaish.
   The Chittagong Hide Traders’ Association president, Mohammad Muslim Uddin, however, denied the allegation and said the hides collected from different upazilas were smaller than that of those collected from the city area.
   He said they were offering low price for some hides from Thursday as these were not preserved properly or damaged partially.
   Meanwhile, local musclemen reportedly forced the city dwellers in different areas to sell the animal hides in lower price than that of their expectation.
   The sources said Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and the Bangladesh
   Chhatra League men controlled the hide trading on the Eid day at Halishahar, Nasirabad, Sher Shah Colony, and Firojshah Colony. A chase and counter-chase took place between the JCD and BCL men at Sher Shah Colony centring the hide collection, they said.

A court has lifted another lifestyle taboo in India by allowing women to serve liquor in bars.
   The Delhi High Court on Thursday ruled that section 30 of the Punjab Excise Act 1914, which prevented women from working in bars, was outdated.
   ‘It is undeniable that women have excelled in the hospitality industry not only in this country but worldwide and the feminine touch indeed lends grace and elegance to the industry,’ said the judgement given by divisional bench justices Mukul Mugdal and HR Malhotra.
   Counsel Arun Jaitley, representing the Hotel Association of India, pleaded that the ban was unconstitutional as it violated the basic right of women to choose their profession.
   The petitioners noted that the government was encouraging the liquor trade by extending opening times of state liquor shops.
   ‘Section 30 (Punjab Excise Act) is an antithesis to the contemporary era,’ the justices found.
   Counsel for the Indian government Avnish Ahlawi took the traditional line of protecting women.
   ‘The trade in liquor is not an ordinary trade and has the potential to cause mischief and even social problems including various sexual offences,’ he told the court.
   ‘The trade in liquor is not a fundamental right and provisions can be made and regulations can be imposed in the interest of public order and morality.’
   It was not clear if the government would appeal.

Jabed Iqbal alias Mohammed, the Chittagong regional operation commander of the banned Islamist outfit, Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, on Friday confessed his involvement in all bomb blasts in the port city since the countrywide blasts on August 17, 2005.
   The Rapid Action Battalion members produced Mohammed before the court of metropolitan magistrate, Muksedur Rahman, in the evening and the court recorded his statement under section 164 of criminal procedure court.
   The magistrate, after recording the statement, refrained from divulging anything about the confession of Mohammed to the journalists.
   Related sources, however, said Mohammed had confessed his involvement in killing people by blasting bombs to enforce Islamic rules and he was inspired by the outfit chief, Shaikh Abdur Rahman, and Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, chief of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh.
   Mohammed also confessed that Ataur Rahman Sunny,
   the JMB military chief and
   also the younger brother of Abdur Rahman, had coordinated all the bomb incidents
   across the country, the sources said.
   The battalion members arrested Mohammed on December 14, 2005 from Uttar Kattalli in the Chittagong
   city in possession of a huge quantity of explosives, including 29 kilograms of white gunpowder, three kilograms of black gunpowder, 3.5 kilograms of sulfur, eight kilograms of chemical explosives, 28 cans
   of ammonium nitride each containing 750 grams, 38 pieces of detonators, seven flux bombs, 14 hand bombs, 61 pieces of power jell explosives, two pieces of dummy AK-47 rifle, one revolver, two light guns and different sorts of other materials used in manufacturing bombs.
   Meanwhile, the battalion members seized two live grenades from behind a house at Akua Moralbari in the Mymensigh town on Tuesday afternoon.
   The police said local people found the grenades abandoned behind the house of Alauddin at about 4:00pm and informed the Kotwali police of it.
   A battalion team then went to the scene as the police sought their help and seized the grenades.
   Later, they put the two grenades in a bucket of water and left them in the custody of the Kotwali police.
   Earlier, on December 18, 2005, the battalion members seized a huge quantity of bombs, grenades and bomb-making materials after raiding a JMB den in the same area.

Three women, including a minor girl, died and nine others fell seriously ill from food poisoning after taking homemade `pitha’ (cake) at Fakirabad village under Sadar upazila in Habiganj early Thursday.
   The deceased were identified as Monu Begum, 35, her aunt Fulbanu, 60, and niece Soma Akhter, 6.
   Hospital sources said the family of Taher made `patisapta pitha’ with flour Wednesday night on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azah.
   Later, the family members along with other relatives ate those stuff and fell seriously ill.
   All the seriously ill people were admitted to local Modern Hospital where three of them died till 6:00am Thursday.
   The other sick persons were identified as Parul Begum, 35, Suhela, 8, Sabina, 4, Jobeda Khatun, 18, Shirin, 16, Sharifa Khatun, 25, Sujan, 8, Raju, 5, and Bithi, 2.