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Women are not finding place at policy-making levels at any of the country’s major political parties or in the bureaucracy, even though both the ruling BNP and the Awami League are headed by women.
   Ages-old social and religious prejudices and lack of political commitment are keeping the country’s leaders from allowing women to play a greater role in the decision-making process, say women’s rights leaders.
   There are only two women ministers including the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, and the women’s affairs minister, Khurshid Jahan Haque, among the 24 ministers in the alliance government. The state minister for cultural affairs, Selima Rahman, and the prime minister’s adviser for primary and mass education, Jahanara Begum, are among 29 state ministers and deputy ministers.
   BNP’s records show only one woman (Khaled) as standing committee member out of 15, and 12 women members in the 251-member national executive committee.
   The Awami League has four women (including the leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina) in the 15-member presidium and two women in the 31-member secretariat. There is no woman in the 18-member advisory council.
   Only seven female lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament are directly elected –– Khaleda, Hasina, Khurshid Jahan Haque, Hamida Banu, Rawshan Ershad, Khadiza Amin, and Ishrat Sultana alias Elen Bhutto.
   There are, however, 45 female lawmakers nominated to reserved seats by the different political parties except the Awami League. The major parties have repeatedly ignored calls for nominating women for directly contested elections, and also for having direct elections to the reserved seats.
   According to the NGO Coalition on Beijing Plus Five, Bangladesh, there were no female secretaries or additional secretaries among 117 such posts in the public administration till August 2004.
   Among 382 joint secretaries, only 13 are women, and among 734 deputy secretaries, only 48 are women, most of who come through the president’s quota and not the regular appointment and promotion processes.
   Of the nine lakh government employees in the country, only 11 per cent are female, that too mostly in Class III or Class IV positions.
   Khadiza Begum, joint secretary at the Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology defended this situation saying, ‘Promotion depends on an individual’s quality and efficiency, so if the women are not qualified for the post as secretary, how can the government appoint them as secretaries?’
   She felt women are more empowered in today’s Bangladesh compared to the early nineteen-nineties.
   There is no female judge in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. There are only three female judges –– Nazmun Ara Sultana, Zinat Ara and Farah Mahbub — out of 63 judges in the High Court Division while only 70 out of 742 in the subordinate judges’ courts are women.
   Bangladesh has only three female ambassadors, and there are no women vice-chancellors at any of the public universities in the country. ‘The situation is so lamentable that there has never been a woman member of the University Grants Commission,’ a source at the education ministry said.
   Meanwhile, the national literacy rate for women is only 43.2 per cent, much lower than the 61 per cent for men.
   The female labour force is 98,44,000 strong, involved in ready-made garment, pottery, agriculture, and different small industries, according to the Bangladesh Labour Force Survey of 2002-2003. Fifteen lakh are involved in the garment sector alone, according to the study.
   But millions of women contribute to the informal economy, and their invisible contributions neither draw recognition nor remuneration.
   As a result there are no specific numbers for women day labourers or domestic workers at the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
   According to the National Child Labour Survey of 2002-03, more than 1 crore 97 lakh girl children are involved in a wide array of jobs that are neither accounted for, nor regulated.
   In spite of this, the minister for women and children affairs, Khurshid Jahan Haque, told New Age, ‘The BNP government’s policy is to promote womenfolk and women are major targets of our development policy.’
   The government has revised the National Women Development Policy 2004 which includes all of the women’s affairs and rights, she claimed.
   Matia Chowdhury, a presidium member of the Awami League, told New Age, ‘The party has the intention to task women in policy making roles at all levels. The AL constitution also advocates stopping violence against women, to protect women’s rights, and to empower them by ensuring female participation in all spheres of the state and social life.’
   Mujahidul Islam Selim, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, told New Age ‘We have a plan to include fifty per cent women representatives at every level.’ He claimed that about 15 per cent of the Communist Party leadership are femal.
   Muhammad Quamaruzzaman, assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh, told New Age that the party’s highest policymaking body, the Majlis-e-Shura, ensures women’s participation in policymaking.
   Rawshan Ershad, a Jatiya Party leader, told New Age, ‘Our party is more sincere than any other political party in empowering women and encouraging their participation in policymaking. Many grassroots leaders of the party are female.’

Bangladesh has no laws to protect the thousands of domestic workers who are being raped and mutilated and often murdered by their employers every year, say human rights groups.
   Existing laws to combat repression on women and children are only being applied to those who face extreme forms of torture or are murdered by their employers, resulting in reports in the national media.
   But human rights groups are saying that domestic workers who are raped or mutilated or even severely beaten have no recourse to the law because they are typically captives in the household in which they work.
   ‘We don’t even have an accurate figure for the number of women and children who are working in households across the country, because they are part of the informal labour force,’ says child-rights activist Gita Chakrabarty of the NGO Ain-o-Shalish Kendra.
   According to Chakrabarty, while factory workers and their rights are protected by labour laws, domestic workers are an invisible workforce who are still not recognised as wage labourers and hence have no laws specifically governing their employers.
   ‘Not only are there no laws that specify the minimum wage they must be paid, there are no laws on how the employers must treat them,’ she says.
   According to ASK figures, there were 122 reported incidents of violence against child domestic workers in 2005, a figure that is significantly higher than the previous year’s.
   Of these, 24 children were reportedly murdered by their employers.
   But the reported cases are a tip of the ice-berg, say activists. In reality the figures are expected to be exponentially higher, as around 3 lakh children are estimated to be working as domestic help in the Dhaka metropolitan area alone.
   ‘Children are most vulnerable to abuse in these instances, because unlike adults they have nowhere to escape, and are often scared to tell other adults about the abuse,’ says Nina Goswami, a lawyer for ASK.
   ‘We often find cases where children have been tortured over a period of several months, their genitals scalded with hot water or their backs serrated with kitchen knives, forms of torture that would not be easy to inflict on adults,’ says Goswami.
   Even in cases of murder or violent rape which might result in criminal charges, police manipulate the evidence in favour of the employers in exchange of money, say human rights groups.
   ‘Frequently, if a domestic worker is murdered by her employers, the police initially record it as an unnatural death, sending the body for the post mortem to buy time, while they negotiate with the employers for a bribe,’ says one human rights lawyer.
   ‘In most cases the police can easily recorded the death as a murder based on the evidence of torture on the girl’s body, but this would weaken their bargaining strength in bribe-taking since the employers cannot deflect murder charges easily,’ he says.
   The plight of domestic workers is further worsened by the fact that NGOs are loathe to work in this sector since the work is difficult as families rarely allow their household help to talk to outsiders, say activists.

Readymade garments, for the last couple of decades, have been the lifeline of Bangladesh’s economy. At the last count, the sector accounted for nearly 80 per cent of export earnings. Consequently, it provides profits for the currently surging consumer class that drives the economy further forward and jobs for hundreds of thousands of semi-skilled workers, mostly women, who in turn provide livelihood for millions.
   The RMG sector was supposed to be facing a crisis this last year. As a result of a World Trade Organisation ruling that decreed that the multi-fibre agreement (a deal that somewhat guaranteed a certain market for Bangladeshi garment in the United States) would be phased out in 2005, there were fears that orders would plunge, factories would close, workers would be laid off, and the economy would be dealt a death-blow.
   None of that happened. To the contrary, in certain segments of the broadly-defined RMG sector, orders pouring into Bangladesh picked up significantly, and the threat of the Chinese usurpation of our export market was staved off, at least for the time being. (Another threat looms in 2008, when further restrictions on China are lifted).
   In news and analyses printed in New Age over the last year, major foreign buyers of RMG have repeatedly mentioned two reasons for their continued business in Bangladesh: that over the last three decades Bangladeshi semi-skilled workers have developed a specialisation in the sector; and that the cost of labour remains one of the lowest in the world.
   Both thanks to the women of Bangladesh.
   Indeed, the stitching revolution of Bangladesh has ridden on the shoulders of the women who unquestioningly and diligently provide cheap (the men would not work for so little, no way) yet productive labour that allows some of our products to be the most price-competitive anywhere.
   All those luxury apartments, all those Lexuses and BMWs, all those vacationing families, as well as some of the philanthropy (to give the devil his due) — those are all testament to the sweat and blood of our stitching women. And we applaud them.
   But RMG is not the only sector booming in Bangladesh.
   Another sector that has been spreading its wings all across the country and is proving very successful financially has been the micro-credit sector. Yes, all we hear about micro-credit is of the social-welfare angle to it, but make no mistake, it is a surging business that brings significant financial gains for both the lender and the borrower.
   Rural Bangladesh has, in fact, been transformed, some would even say revolutionised, by micro-credit. The collateral-free loans have meant that the previously ‘ultra-poor’ have access to capital, the previously unemployable have access to profits, and the previously disempowered can demand the most basic of rights.
   Again, this collateral-free revolution has been possible because of the women of Bangladesh. Almost all major micro-credit vendors claim that between 85 and 99 per cent of their borrowers are women, and not by default but by design. Part of the reason is that micro-credit, at its core, has a ‘development’ agenda, and playing a leading role in empowering women fits into that scheme very well. Another reason surely is that women, due to reasons of culture, mobility and social bonds, are less likely to default (and they rarely do).
   So there you have it, two sectors — one urban, the other rural; one export-driven, the other a local innovation — that have flourished so dramatically that they drive our economy forward even in these turbulent times. And in the drivers’ seat in both cases: the women who are the lifelines of each.
   But while the RMG and the micro-credit sectors wantonly ride on the back of the women of Bangladesh, the purveyors of neither seem to be too concerned about holding up the rights of the women they employ or lend to.
   The past week provided ample example of how RMG factory owners can be (and often are) wilful accomplices to murder. A visit to some of the more questionable RMG units will reveal conditions more associated with Dickensian times than the 21st century; workers are crammed in like sardines in rooms that have little more ventilation than an airtight jar; women are allowed one bathroom break per 10-hour shift; the entrances and exits are under lock and key, for fear or ‘seepage’, and the stairwells are narrow enough even without cartons stacked all along. And some of these buildings are not even built on solid foundations.
   The results are predictable: deaths, in the hundreds. Three hundred in 15 years, from factory fires or stampedes, hundreds more in building collapses. Uncounted more disabled for life, their families left without breadwinners.
   Cursory investigations take place, the reports go missing after a while, nobody pays for a single life lost, and life in the RMG sector goes on. Such is the attitude of these factory owners. But equally guilty of the murders and their cover-ups are their more ‘compliant’ peers who turn a blind eye, and the administration, whose shameless indifference is only outdone by the over-filled pockets.
   The women, those who survive, return to work, afraid to raise a voice, not wanting to bite the hand that feeds them. But the factory owners have no qualms doing the same, for they do not probably even realise, that it is these women who feed them.
   Micro-credit, to its credit, does not kill anyone. But what it does do in infringing on the rights of its benefactors, it does more subtly.
   The micro-credit industry in Bangladesh remains a largely unregulated sector. In fact, there is so much grey area relating to the legality of the activities of micro-credit providers, that it is almost a part of the informal sector.
   For one, there is no central oversight of micro-credit activities, there is barely any controlling of the interest rate regime, there is no ensuring the rights of property and even life of supposedly collateral-free borrowers who may default a payment, there is no mass awareness programme of borrowers’ rights, there is hardly any recourse for arbitration available to aggrieved borrowers, and there certainly isn’t anyone — a regulator or a consumer protection agency — looking out for the interest of these unwitting consumers.
   The grey area arises largely from the fact that the vendors are mostly NGOs — falling under the social welfare regime — that are doing informal banking — falling under the Bangladesh Bank regime. As it stands now, neither regime has been given the responsibility to oversee, so neither do. So micro-credit thrives basically governed by no specific laws, and with nobody to answer to. And the consumers who make it all happen — the women — are left with their rights infringed, without them even knowing it.
   The government, as with the mass murders in the RMG sector, stand indifferent. After all, these women may be driving the economy of Bangladesh, but if their labour comes cheap, so must their lives.
   The loans, of course, don’t.

Lawmakers elected to reserved seats for women in Jatiya Sangsad say they have less responsibilities and privileges than regular members of parliament although the constitution and the rules of procedure prohibit any such discrimination.
   ‘There is clear discrimination in terms of responsibility, authority and privilege,’ said Sarwari Rahman, who was elected to the reserved seats as a BNP member, when talking to New Age. ‘It is because we joined the house late.’
   Forty-five women were elected unopposed to the reserved seats in September 2005, almost four years after the constitution of the eighth parliament on October 28, 2001.
   The government should have moved for a constitutional provision to bring in reserved members much earlier, said Sarwari, a former state minister.
   Marina Rahman of the Jatiya Party was more cynical as she contested the prime minister’s statement that the election of 45 lawmakers to the reserved seats was part of the government’s efforts to empower women.
   ‘It is nothing but eyewash,’ she said. ‘It is only the beginning of a system.’
   The holders of reserved seats in the parliament have nothing to do other than participating in debates or raising questions, as they have no constituencies, said Marina. ‘We could have played some role if we had been included in the parliamentary standing committees.’
   The government should also have assigned specific responsibility as well as authority for them, she added.
   Rasheda Begum Hira of the BNP said there was no advantage for the lawmakers elected to the reserved seats. ‘Everything has been distributed among members elected earlier [to general seats]. We do not have any role to play to fulfil the demands of the people in our area.’
   The constitution and the rules of procedure do not make any discrimination among lawmakers, said Ferdous Akhter Wahida of the BNP. ‘The problem is that we are running against time as our election to the house was belated.’
   Wahida and some other women lawmakers believe every lawmaker, elected to general or reserved seats, should discharge their constitutional responsibilities to make law and formulate national policy.
   ‘In reality, the lawmakers only distribute wheat and allocate funds for maintenance of roads and schools in rural areas,’ she said. ‘It should have been the responsibility of the administration and the local government bodies.’
   Sultana Ahmed, Saimun Begum and some other members of the BNP, however, declined to make any comment lest it should result in reprisal from the party high command.
   ‘We cannot make any comment on our own,’ said Sultana.
   Saimun observed that the political situation was ‘highly sensitive’.

In spite of an array of tough laws to protect women against violence, the incidence of domestic violence, rape, dowry deaths, trafficking and other repression continues unabated in the country.
   According to data monitoring by the police, domestic violence against women is on the rise with 1,164 cases of domestic violence reported in 2004, compared to less than a quarter of that in the previous three years.
   The monitoring cell also revealed that there were 291 reported cases of rape, 136 reports of sexual harassment, 451 deaths related to dowry, and at least 100 other deaths resulting from violence perpetrated principally against women.
   These figures are significantly higher than those corresponding to the previous years, and activists say that this is only a glimpse of the much more widespread unreported violence that women face.
   According to the human rights coalition Odhikar’s recent report on violence against women, a total of 83 women and 32 girls were reported raped in the first two months of 2006. It also reported that 21 of those women were killed after rape, while another two committed suicide.
   Munira Rahman, executive director of the Acid Survivors Foundation told New Age on the eve of the celebration of International Women’s Day that acid violence was on the rise till 2002, but has been falling since.
   ‘Women are considered men’s property with income and labour being systematically controlled by the men in the family,’ said women’s rights leader Ayesha Khanam.
   The social expectations still pivot around child rearing and household management, she added.
   According to a Bangladesh National Women’s Lawyers Association study, there were over 10,000 reported cases of violence against women in 2004.
   Violence against women is a common occurrence in the country whether the violence is physical or mental, said the executive director of BNWLA, Salma Ali.

Women’s rights leaders believe that hypocrisy by successive governments and insincere implementation of laws has left the plight of their kind unchanged in modern-day Bangladesh.
   The fire tragedy at the KTS textiles mill in Chittagong in which 55 women workers were killed on February 23 is an example of the governments’ insincerity in addressing important women’s issues, the leaders said on the eve of International Women’s Day.
   Over 300 women garment workers have been killed in 24 incidents of fire at garment factories since 1990 according to the Dhaka-based women’s rights group Karmajibi Nari.
   A great number of these deaths occurred because the workers — mostly women — were locked into the factories, the NGO’s research has revealed.
   ‘The lock symbolises the discrimination and repression towards Bangladeshi women and we have to break the lock and put special focus on workplace security on this year’s Women’s Day,’ said Farida Akhtar of UBINIG — Policy Research for Development Alternative.
   Shirin Akhtar of Karmajibi Nari said the employers only think of their profit, putting the lives of thousands of women garment workers at risk. She also said this year’s International Women’s Day would see more focus on workplace security for women.
   Women endure discrimination and exploitation as subsequent governments continue to enact toothless laws, that too with insincere implementation, and political parties falsely promise to ensure women’s rights and to provide them with meaningful space in all spheres of society, the leaders said.
   It is out of their personal endeavours that women have emerged in individual entrepreneurship, fighting the social taboos of breaking out of their confinement to the household, they further observed.
   The baby step towards improvement that women leaders see in Bangladesh is that women are becoming more aware about their rights and do not accept repression as they once used to.
   Ayesha Khanam, president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, was less optimistic saying that women had seen no significant improvement of their lot during the rule of the incumbent alliance government.
   Women issues are getting more focus in the media and although the women’s day observance is more widespread with every year, this will bring no dividends if the observance remains just a formality, said Farida. ‘Observance of the day will have some meaning if the spirit of observing the day finds reflection in our everyday struggles,’ she added.
   Farida said she is not afraid of the increased discrimination as she thinks women in Bangladesh are passing through a transitional period. ‘The more women become conscious of their rights, the more the repression on them mounts and takes different shapes,’ she said.
   Farida expressed reservations about the phrase ‘women’s empowerment’ saying the connotation it carries among the NGO people could never empower women.
   ‘The idea of such empowerment was imposed by the donors or lending agencies. If you really want to empower women, it should be done in a bottom-to-top order,’ she said.

The capture of its chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman and second-in-command Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai may have weakened Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh but has, in no way, dismantled the banned Islamist organisation, believe officials of the police and different intelligence agencies.
   They said thousands of JMB activists, especially members of its suicide squad, remained beyond the reach of the police and were raring to carry out further attacks despite the arrests of key leaders of the organisation.
   Leadership in such an organisation is always changeable, they said, warning that those who had formed Jamaatul Mujahideen might continue their deadly activities in a different form under a different banner.
   ‘Many JMB activists remain at large and may resume their own activities once they regroup,’ said Abdul Aziz Sarkar, director general of the Rapid Action Battalion, after the arrest of Bangla Bhai on Monday. ‘We have to be on constant surveillance so that the militants cannot launch further attacks.’
   The state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, agreed that Jamaatul Mujahideen remained a threat. ‘Its network may have been weakened by the arrest of its top leaders but it is still active. There is no room for complacency.’
   Intelligence officials said the organisation had started its activities in the early 1990s and spread its network across the country.
   Its activities intensified in 2004 when it started killing people in greater Rajshahi in a so-called cleansing operation against the ultra-left Sarbahara, allegedly with the blessing from a section in the administration and some leaders in the ruling alliance.
   More than 20 people were killed and many maimed during the two-month vigilante operation, led by Bangla Bhai.
   The outfit also launched bomb attacks on cultural functions and non-government organisations in the northern region in 2004.
   The government initially denied any presence of militancy in Bangladesh but came around soon as it banned Jamaatul Mujahideen and its front organisation Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh on February 23, 2005.
   The militants then showed its strength by carrying out a series of bombings across the country on August 17, 2005, prompting the government to initiate an anti-militancy operation.
   As the drive began, the militants upped the ante, killing 30 people, including judges, lawyers and policemen, in successive bomb attacks late last year.
   The lawmen have so far detained 921 JMB militants, Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai.
   About 30,000 members remain attached with the outfit, the intelligence officials confirmed after questioning the JMB activists detained since the countrywide bombings.
   According to sources, the JMB organisational line-up consists of ‘Shaikh’ (religious leader) on the highest rung, a ‘majlish-e-shura’ of seven members, including Shaikh, who make the policies, ‘ehsar’ or full-time members who are known by their pseudonyms and ‘gair-e-ehsar’ or part-time members.
   Besides, ‘sathi’ or ‘sudhi’ are also recruited to carry out orders at the grassroots during special operations.
   The organisation has about 2,000 ehsar and over 5,000 gair-e ehsar while the rest are sathi or sudhi, said the sources.
   Of the detained militants, Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai, Ataur Rahman Sunny, Abdul Awal and Hafez Mahmud alias Rakib Hasan belong to majlish-e-shura.
   Two other shura members, Salehuddin alias Salahuddin and Khaled Saifullah, are still at large.
   Abdur Rahman told members of the taskforce for interrogation that Salahuddin had been given the charge of its military wing after the arrest of Sunny.
   Intelligence officials suspect that as the outfit is cadre-based, the arrest of its top leaders will result in someone at the subsequent level taking up the leadership.
   The inspector general of police, Abdul Quyyum, told the BBC Bangla Service on Tuesday night that 90 per cent of the organisational strength of Jamaatul Mujahideen had been destroyed.
   He also claimed that many of the JMB suicide members had been arrested.

The Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh chief, Shaikh Abdur Rahman, on Tuesday admitted to his relation with various Islamic leaders and organisations around the world to establish Islamic rule.
   He said he had received a huge amount of fund from them and invested the money to extend his organisational strength, but he denied disclosing names of the leaders and organisations, sources in the task force interrogating Rahman said.
   On the six day after his arrest in Sylhet in the morning on March 2, interrogators tried to extract information on Rahman’s financial sources and bank accounts at home and abroad.
   ‘We wanted to know who the donors are and who used to run the accounts, but he remained silent,’ a senior member of the task force, a combine of intelligence agencies and the Rapid Action Battalion, told New Age Tuesday night.
   ‘But he said he had good relations with a number of Islamic leaders while studying at the Madinah University and working with the Saudi embassy in Dhaka on his return,’ the member said.
   ‘I visited all over the world, mainly the Islamic countries, to establish relations with some Islamic leaders, who encouraged me to establish Islamic rule in Bangladesh, by providing
   mental and financial support,’ the member quoted Rahman as saying.
   Rahman once again told the interrogators that he had no regret for the countrywide bombings and killings of innocent people in the name of establishing Islamic rule. ‘I did what I did for Islam,’ he told the interrogators.
   He also told them, ‘I may be failed, but anyone must come forward who will be able to establish Islamic rule.’
   Rahman disclosed there were two groups in his organisation — dawati (preaching) group and isaba (action) group.
   The preachers’ group was in charge of recruitment and motivation while the action group, comprising 3,000 members, carried out operation.
   He said he did not have contact with the action group, but said about 1,500 action group members took part in the August 17 series of bombings. He said they carried bombs and left those to the designated places across the country.
   District-level leaders used to maintain contact with the action group under the direct supervision of Ataur Rahman Sunny,
   the military commander of the outfit.
   So far, about 900 field-level leaders and activists of the outfit have been arrested and a good number of them belonged to the action group.
   The task force was verifying whether Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh had any links with Jamaatul Mujahideen. ‘If we find any link, we will interrogate Ahle Hadith leader Asadullah al-Ghalib,’ said a source close to the task force.
   An Arabic teacher at Rajshahi University, al-Ghalib was arrested on February 23, 2005 on charge of bomb attacks on cultural programmes in the north. He is now in jail.

The condition of the second most wanted militant leader, Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, who is now undergoing treatment at the Bangladesh Rifles Hospital is improving, said hospital sources.
   He was operated upon twice on Monday for his multiple burn and splinter injuries after his admission there on Monday afternoon. He is being kept at the intensive care unit and is reportedly always under constant surveillance.
   Sources in the Rapid Action Battalion said that they had talked to Bangla Bhai, the second-in-command of banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, for some time on Tuesday. He has no trouble eating and sleeping but is not yet in a condition to be interrogated.
   Bangla Bhai and his bodyguard, Masud, were arrested after a brief clash at Rampur village under Muktagachha upazila of Mymensingh district on Monday morning. Both suffered severe but not critical injuries all over their bodies as an explosion took place in the house in which they were hiding.
   Bangla Bhai, who was first treated at the Mymensingh Medical College Hospital, was flown to Dhaka by a chopper at noon on Monday. His left hand and belly were badly lacerated. He has also sustained serious splinter injuries in his lower abdomen.
   The authorities are not giving any information about his treatment and latest condition. They have not only remained tight-lipped but have also barred journalists from going inside the hospital.
   Dozens of journalists gathered at the main entrance of BDR headquarters at Peelkhana from the morning but no one was allowed to enter the premises. The security guards there asked the journalists to stay away from the gate.
   The RAB’s media and legal wing’s director, Mashuk Hasan, confirmed to New Age that Bangla Bhai was improving gradually but doctors are keeping him under constant watch.
   ‘We talked to Bangla Bhai today.’ Mashuk said on Tuesday afternoon.
   Hospital sources said he is being kept inside a heavy security cordon. Anybody entering the hospital and those who live in Peelkhana are being body-searched and questioned by security guards.
   The condition of his bodyguard Masud, who is undergoing treatment at the Mymensingh Medical College Hospital, is stated to be critical. The doctors extracted two splinters from his body while operating upon him on Monday night. They said Masud was not out of danger yet.
   Bangla Bhai is infamous for his ruthless operation against ultra-leftists in northern Bangladesh in 2004. He and his cadres tortured to death more than twenty-four people and crippled hundreds of others.
   Hundreds of people throughout Tuesday crowded the remote village of Rampur from where Bangla Bhai and Masud were captured on Monday. People also gathered at the house on RK Mission Road in Mymensingh town from where Bangla Bhai’s young wife and baby daughter were picked up.

Different ministries and divisions are opposed to giving India transit facility without any reciprocation, sources in the government have told New Age.
   India should allow Nepal to use the Mongla port through its territory, eliminate trader barriers for and reduce trade deficit with Bangladesh, and take initiatives to develop infrastructure for the Chittagong port and different land ports before it is given any transit facility, they told a recent inter-ministerial meeting, presided over by the shipping minister, Akbar Hossain.
   Representatives from more than 10 ministries and divisions also stressed that disputes in these areas should be resolved before any political decision was made about transit facilities for and use of the Chittagong port by India, the sources said.
   Transit, use of the Chittagong port and tri-nation gas pipeline will feature prominently during bilateral talks between Dhaka and New Delhi when the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, visits India next month, sources in the foreign ministry told New Age.
   The commerce, communications, defence, foreign and home ministries, and Chittagong Port Authority, Bangladesh Land Port Authority, Mongla Port Authority, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, shipping department and some other government entities were represented at the inter-ministerial meeting.
   Muhammed Abu Taher, chairman of the Mongla port, said the issue of allowing Nepal to use the Mongla port through India needed to be resolved before any decision was made on providing India with the right to transit and use the Chittagong port.
   Brigadier General Iqbal, who represented the defence ministry, the issue of allowing the Mongla port and the possibility of using Bandarban for transhipment of Indian goods needed to be studied.
   A study should be conducted to find out whether the country’s infrastructure can take the load of such transhipment activities, he said.
   The home ministry representative said the existing rail and road network did not have the capacity of transporting Indian goods.
   The government may allow India to use the Chittagong port on the condition that it will provide fund for developing road and railway infrastructure in Bangladesh, he said.
   The communication ministry representative said the development of roads and bridges were imperative should Indian goods be carried from the Chittagong port to the Indian provinces adjacent to Comilla and Akhaura.
   The commerce ministry representative pointed out that the issue of non-tariff barriers often imposed by India on products from Bangladesh must be eliminated prior to any decision on transit.
   AKM Shafiqullah, director general of the shipping department, said the ‘risk factor’ must be taken into account if and when the government decided to allow Indian goods to be handled through the Chittagong port.
   The inter-ministerial meeting was arranged following a directive from the Prime Minister’s Office, as the shipping ministry sought a policy decision on India’s request, the sources said.
   Earlier, the shipping minister and the Indian High commissioner to Bangladesh, Veena Sikri, exchanged communications in September 2005 over the issue and agreed to sit for talks on the transit issue, the sources said.
   As Akbar showed interest, the shipping secretary, Rafiqul Islam, in late-September arranged another inter-ministerial meeting, which could not take any substantive decision towards the end.
   If Dhaka accepts New Delhi’s proposal, commodities from different parts of India will be unloaded at the New Mooring container terminal of the Chittagong port, scheduled to be completed by September 2006, and transported to seven northeastern provinces through land routes in Bangladesh.
   Sources in the shipping ministry said the capacity of the New Mooring terminal would be 5.3 lakh TEUs per annum, enhancing the total capacity of the port to 12.3 lakh TEUs.
   The container terminal is being built at a cost of Tk 433.41 crore.
   The government is completely financing the project.
   Sources in the commerce ministry said the cabinet had approved initiating talks with India on transit and transhipment issues during the past Awami League government.
   A high-profile committee, headed by former finance minister M Syeduzzaman and comprising economists and chamber leaders, was also formed.
   But the committee could not make much progress due to the unwillingness of the then ruling party amid criticism from different political and business bodies, the sources said.

The government on Tuesday gave Niko Resources 24 hours to resume production from the Feni gas field or hand over operation to its joint-venture partner, the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company.
   The energy and mineral resources adviser, Mahmudur Rahman, issued the ultimatum during a meeting with Brian J Adolph, country manager of the Canadian energy company, in the morning. He asked Niko to start production after scheduled meetings with Petrobangla and Bapex officials in the evening.
   ‘If it does not start production within 24 hours after the meeting of the joint management committee of Bapex and Niko officials, the government will take over the field through Bapex,’ Mahmud told journalists after his meeting with Adolph.
   ‘The government reserves the right to take over the field in the interest of the nation,’ he said. ‘Bapex officials will start the legal procedure by Wednesday morning and if Niko does not start production by the end of the day, the government will take over.’
   Mahmud claimed he had told Adolph that it was not acceptable that Niko had suspended gas production from Feni to put pressure on Petrobangla to pay outstanding bills and fix gas price.
   Niko stopped gas supply from Feni field on February 25 over non-payment of gas bills, dispute over gas pricing and non-approval of its proposal to drill two production wells at the Tengratila (Chhatak) gas field.
   ‘It is true that Petrobangla has not paid your bills. But the way you stopped gas supply from Feni was uncalled for. There is a joint management committee of Bapex and Niko but you have stopped gas supply unilaterally,’ Mahmud claimed to have told Adolph.
   Mahmud informed the Niko official that the prime minister had approved its proposal for drilling at Tengratila. ‘You must start gas production from the field within 24 hours after the JMC meeting in the evening. Otherwise, the government will take over the field.’
   He told journalists that he had informed Brian that the payment of gas bills was related to the compensation claim over the Tengratila blowouts.
   When asked whether it was appropriate to approve Niko’s proposal for further drilling at the Tengratila field when two blowouts had already taken place, Mahmud said the field had absorbed the shock of explosions and was ready for production.
   He said the country needed gas and Niko had already invested in the country.
   Mahmud claimed that Niko had agreed in principle to pay for the loss of 3 billion cubic feet of gas in the blowouts.
   Besides, the company sought documents for the basis of calculation of another 5bcf of gas damaged in the blowouts and Tk 85 crore in environmental damages, he said.
   Bapex officials later condemned Niko’s action to suspend the gas supply from the Feni field unilaterally at the JMC meeting in the evening.
   Bapex and Niko officials locked in heated debate over including the condemnation motion into the resolution of the meeting.
   Bapex officials said it was unlawful that the company had suspended gas supply without taking the approval of the committee.
   Niko officials said they thought they could suspend the gas supply unilaterally.
   Bapex officials requested Niko to start gas production by Wednesday morning.
   Petrobangla and Niko officials, however, could not reach a consensus on the gas price as both sides stuck to their respective positions.
   Petrobangla again offered $1.75 for 1000 cubic feet or one unit of gas while Niko demanded $2.35.
   Niko officials told Petrobangla that it would not supply gas from Feni unless an agreement on gas purchase and sales was signed.

The families of the blast victims in Netrakona on Tuesday demanded hanging of Shaikh Abdur Rahman, chief of the banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, and its second-in-command Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai.
   Shaikh Rahman and Bangla Bhai were the main accused in two cases of the suicide bomb blast that went off in front of the Udichi office in the Netrakona town on December 8. Eight people were killed and over 50 injured, including 10 policemen, in the bomb blast.
   Shahnaj Begum, wife of dead Udichi leader Khwaja Haider, said, ‘I want to see the hanging of Shaikh Rahman and Bangla Bhai because their men have killed my husband by suicide bomb blast.’
   Like Shahnaj, the family members of others victims of the blasts also demanded punishment for the two JMB supremos, and blamed the police for not arresting the JMB cadres in last three months.
   Meanwhile, Shaikh Rahman and Bangla Bhai were shown arrested in connection with the suicide bomb blast.
   The officer-in-charge of the Netrakona police station, Samiul Alam, told New Age that they would interrogate Shaikh Rahman and Bangla Bhai in the next week.
   ‘We will go to Dhaka to interrogate Shaikh Rahman and Bangla Bhai,’ he said hoped that they would be able to extract important information from them about the incident.

Power crisis worsened across the country on Tuesday as ‘gas crisis’ started affecting the power plants with the continuing phenomena of tripping of the plants and grid lines.
   Power Development Board officials said there was a shortfall of about 150 megawatt of power in three plants during the evening peak hours on the day due to shortage of about 20 million cubic feet of gas.
   At least eight power units and four grid lines tripped in last few days resulting in power outages across the country.
   The officials said the power generation of private 360MW Haripur power plant came down to 310MW during the evening peak hours on Tuesday while the PDB-run 33MW unit at Haripur power plant remained closed due to low pressure of gas.
   The overall generation of PDB was about 3200MW while the demand was around 4400MW.
   The PDB chairman, ANM Rizwan, told New Age that they informed Petrobangla of the low pressure of gas, and Petrobangla assured them that the gas situation would improve by two-three days.
   The Petrobangla chairman, Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, however, said there was no problem in the supply system, and shortage of gas supply should not be termed as ‘crisis’.
   ‘It is not a major issue. The demand of gas for the power plants has increased in the last few days. That is why,
   some plants might have been getting gas as expected by PDB,’ he said.
   The city continued to experience severe power outages due to suspension of power supply through Ulan-Dhanmondi underground gridline that tripped on Tuesday and closure of 80MW Tongi power plant.
   Dhaka Electric Supply Authority experts could not detect till Tuesday where the glitch took place in the line which might be needed about one and half months to be repaired.
   City’s Dhanmondi, Rajabazar, Paribagh, Karwan Bazar, Ramna, Motijheel, Kakrail, and some parts in Old Town were the worst sufferers of power outages due to suspension of power through the underground line.
   The DESA got around 1100MW of power in the evening against the demand of about 1800MW.
   The Tongi power plant that tripped two days back was scheduled to come into operation by Tuesday midnight.
   Though power outages continued in northern and south-western districts, intensity of outages reduced slightly as
   the 110MW Khulna power plant resumed production on Tuesday.
   ‘Less production of some plants for gas crisis marred the expectation of improved power supply after the resumption of Khulna power plant,’ said an official of PDB.

International Women’s Day will be observed today across the country as elsewhere in the world with pledges to uphold women’s rights. This year’s theme is ‘women in decision-making: meeting challenges, creating changes’.
   Different women’s and socio-cultural organisations, and government and non-government offices have taken elaborate programmes, including meetings, rallies and discussions to mark the day.
   March 8 was announced International Women’s Day at the 2nd International Socialist Women’s Conference in Copenhagen, after German socialist women leader Clara Jetkin placed a proposal at the conference held in 1910.
   Jetkin’s proposal was inspired by the historic movement of the female workers of a sewing factory in New York against low wage, 12 hours duty and unhygienic condition at the factory, which was exposed to the police repression.
   Later, in 1977, the United Nations resolved to observe the day as United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, prime minister Khaleda Zia and leader of the opposition in parliament Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages on the occasion.
   The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, in his statement said the proportion of women in national parliaments reached a new global high. There are now 11 women heads of state or government in countries on every continent. And three countries – Chile, Spain and Sweden – now have gender parity in government, he said.
   ‘But we have far, far more to do. The rate of progress overall is slow. Let us remember that in individual countries, the increase in the number of women in decision-making has not come by itself,’ the secretary general said. ‘Rather, it is often the result of institutional and electoral initiatives, such as the adoption of goals and quotas, political party commitment and sustained mobilisation.’
   Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal convener Khalequzzaman in a statement urged the womenfolk to expedite the movement for equality with men.
   The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs will hold programmes across the country.
   The Action Network to Combat Violence against Women will hold a rally and launch signature campaign and stage cultural programmes.
   Demanding implementation of thee National Development Policy of 1997, Karmajibi Nari will bring out a procession, hold a rally and cultural programmes near the Teachers-Students Centre at Dhaka University at 2:30pm.
   The Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies will hold a rally from Muktangan at 9:30am Wednesday.
   The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, will attend a seminar at the National Press Club Wednesday 3:30pm.
   The Jatiya Shramik League women’s unit will bring out a procession to be followed by a rally in the morning at the Bangabandhu Avenue.
   The Bangladesh Mahila Awami League will also organise a seminar at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh auditorium at 3:30pm on the day.
   The Mahila Gana Forum will hold a discussion in the Gana Forum office at 4:00pm.
   The Transparency International has organised a roundtable on the occasion. The Bangladesh Garments Sramik-Karmachari Federation held a demonstration at Dhanmondi Swimming Pool Complex on Tuesday
   The state-run Bangladesh Television, Bangladesh Betar and other private television channels will air special programmes and newspapers will publish supplements on the day.

At least three female garment workers were killed and more than 100 injured, 15 critically, in a stampede triggered by a false fire alarm at a multi-storey factory building at Kamarjuri in Gazipur sadar Monday night.
   Enraged at the incident, the local residents and the relatives of the workers rushed to the spot and vandalised the factory.
   The deceased were Lucky Begum, 22, of Jamalpur, Rafija Akhter, 38, of Mymensingh and Rahima Begum, 25, of Tangail.
   The incident took place when the workers of the Radiance Sweater Factory belonging to the Sayem Group tried to evacuate the building using the only narrow staircase, following a rumour of a fire after an explosion of an electric bulb on the sixth floor at around 8:30pm. More than 2,000 were working during the incident.
   The panicked workers, who rushed down the stairs, found the main collapsible gate closed.
   As the factory had no emergency exit and the stairs were dumped with cartons, the workers fell down, resulting in a stampede, while trying to come out of the building.
   At least two of the victims died on the spot and 100 others sustained injuries. Among the injured, one died on his way to hospital at about 9:30pm.
   As the workers started crying out for help, local people rushed to the spot and rescued the injured and took them to local Sultan General Hospital, Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Orthopaedic Hospital, where they were being treated.
   Soon after the incident, the officials of the factory left the place, and returned later.
   The authorities of the factory tried to hide the bodies and to hush up the matter.
   The Gazipur police went to the place at about 10.45pm and recovered the bodies.
   Other organisations also condemned the incident and demanded immediate arrest of and punishment for the owner.

A minor boy was killed and assets worth about Tk 30 lakh were burnt in a fire that broke out at a village market at Satkania upazila in Chittagong early Tuesday.
   The deceased was identified as Shahidul Islam, 13, son of the late Lal Mian of Purbo Billapara under the upazila.
   The Fire Service and Civil Defense officials said the fire broke out in a shop at Karanir Hat at around 00:30am from an electric short circuit and soon engulfed eight shops in the market.
   Three fire units from Patiya, Chokoria and Bandarban rushed to the spot and
   extinguished the fire at around 4:00am but two grocery shops, two sweetmeat shops, one book shop, a motor garage and two beauty salons were gutted and the minor boy was killed by this time, fire sources said.

Inadequate supply of fertiliser coupled with its price hike has been causing serious trouble for the farmers in the peak Irri-boro season that may lead to shortfalls in paddy output, an expert hinted on Tuesday.
   Khairul Alam Bhuiyan, an agronomist at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, told New Age that scarcity of fertiliser at the time may lead to shortfalls in paddy production by about 50 per cent, if the farmers fail to properly use fertiliser during the Irri-boro season.
   Also the growth and quantity of grains might fall drastically due to lack of fertiliser, he said adding that the farmers generally use fertiliser in three phases after transplantation of seedlings, and now it is very important time for them to use adequate fertiliser for a good yield.
   The farmers in some parts of the country are still facing serious crisis of fertiliser due to short supply while the supply situation in some areas like Pabna, and Natore have become normal, although the fertiliser price remains high there.
   The farmers claimed that though the fertiliser supply from the government level was not satisfactory, moreover, a section of dealers were creating artificial crisis to make a windfall profit, said an agriculture official of Natore.
   A section of dealers were receiving the fertiliser supply from the buffer stock and selling it at exorbitant price, the official said. In Natore, a sack of 50-kg fertiliser is selling at Tk 350.
   New Age Narail correspondent said the farmers in the district are facing serious crisis of fertiliser and queuing up for several hours every day to collect fertiliser as a section of dealers are creating artificial crisis of fertiliser. The price of per sack urea fertiliser ranged between Tk 350 and Tk 400.
   New Age Chapainawabganj correspondent said the demand of urea fertiliser in the district is around 7,000 bags per day while the buffer stock of the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation in Rajshahi is supplying only 600-700 bags after repacking.

The government is yet to invite bids for public-switched telecom network operations licence for the central telecom zone though the Supreme Court allowed the commission in August, 2005 to invite bids after cancelling the four-year exclusive right of UK-based Telco WorldTel to operate in the zone.
   The central zone, also called the Dhaka Multi-exchange area, is considered the most commercially viable zone with a huge number of unmet demand, far higher that that of other four zones. (Five zones were segmented throughout the country by the Bangladesh Telecommuni-cations Regulatory Commission.) Officials said that unmet demand for landline phones in the zone is around 25 lakh.
   The WorldTel obtained a licence in July 2001 from the government to provide 3,00,000 landlines in the capital city at an investment of about $300 million on a build-own-operate basis with four years’ exclusive right.
   The regulatory commission later cancelled the exclusive right, terming it anti-competition, which WorldTel challenged in the High Court.
   The commission finally won the long legal battle in August as the full bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld an April 23 the High Court’s verdict that had ordered cancellation of WorldTel’s exclusive right.
   Almost six months have elapsed after the verdict, but the commission has failed to make any progress in opening up the zone to other operators other than amending the licensing regulation of 2004.
   Earlier, at the 38th meeting of its board in October, the commission decided that there would be competitive bidding or auction instead of the existing open licensing system for the central zone after necessary changes have been made in the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (licensing procedure) Regulations 2004.
   Article 5 of the regulations says that the commission shall grant land phone licence only through an open licensing system. It stipulates that an applicant with sufficient financial and technical capability may be awarded the licence.
   BTRC officials said the commission had decided to amend article 5, incorporating ‘competitive bidding’ or auction in place of ‘open licensing system’ for getting the PSTN licence.
   Commission officials said though the decision to amend the article was taken five months back, the commission is yet to decide whether to open up the central zone through competitive bidding or auction.
   ‘We are working on the issue and hope to invite bids by June,’ said a top official of the commission.
   The official, however, said that licence will not be provided through the open licensing system in any circumstances.
   The central zone covers Dhaka city, Jinjira, Savar, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Tongi, and accounts for about 60 per cent of the total demand for fixed phones in Bangladesh and is thus considered the most commercially viable zone.
   The commission has so far awarded 35 licences to 17 companies for operations in four zones — north-east, south-east, north-west and south-west zones — after inviting bids on February 17 under the open licence system.
   It was not allowed to invite applications for the central zone because of the legal conflict with WorldTel.
   Private PSTN operators said that they are waiting for the opening up of the central zone as it is commercially the most viable of the zones and they will be able to do good business and sustain their companies.
   ‘Most of the private operators are willing to operate in the central zone to increase their business,’ said a top executive of a private land phone company.
   The commission had earlier fixed the licence fee for the central zone at Tk 5 crore.

The minister for foreign affairs, M Morshed Khan, on Tuesday said the nationwide jubilation after the arrest of the JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman should be demonstrations as extremism and hatred have no connection with Islam and no place in Bangladesh.
   Briefing the heads of diplomatic missions and international organisations at the State Guest House Padma, Morshed said the capture of Shaikh Abdur Rahman was quickly followed by the arrest of Siddqul Islam, widely known as Bangla Bhai.
   This is another step taken by the government to fulfil its pledge to the people to combat terrorism, he said.
   The state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, foreign affairs adviser Reaz Rahman, foreign secretary Hemayetuddin and the director general of external publicity Zahirul Huq also attended.
   There will be no complacency until the last terrorist is arrested, Morshed Khan said, adding that it was made clear by the prime minister in her address on electronic media.
   He said extremism and terror were tools of the cowards. Their victims are innocent people. The prime minister, he said, has described the August 17 bombings as an attack on democracy.
   Morshed referred to the position of the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on extremism at the OIC Summit in December in Qatar.
   Morshed said a democratically elected government is accountable to the people and has to uphold the trust reposed on it.
   Turning to the role of a section of opposition leaders, he said, they have rallied with anti-Bangladesh elements abroad to project the present-day Bangladesh as a failed sate.
   He said the western media were not interested in projecting ‘our positive developments; rather they will pounce on anything that is negative.’
   As for national election, Morshed said, ‘No sovereign country would welcome interference in its affairs from outside. Besides, outsiders cannot fully comprehend the intricacies and complexities of domestic politics.’

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday called for the records of the murder case of former finance minister, Shah AMS Kibria, to be submitted by the trial court.
   Calling for the records, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Syed JR Mudassir Husain, adjourned for a week the hearing of the petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court’s verdict that had backed the lower court’s orders rejecting the complainant’s plea for further inquiry into the case before trial.
   After hearing both sides for an hour, the court also exten-ded the stay on operation of the High Court’s verdict until the next hearing on March 14.
   Within three hours of the framing of charges by the Speedy Trial Tribunal of Sylhet against the ten persons accused of killing Kibria, the Appellate Division on February 7 stayed for three weeks all of the case’s proceedings following a petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court’s verdict.
   On November 21, 2005 the High Court discharged a writ petition that sought further investigation into the murder case, declaring that it has ‘no jurisdiction’ to order further inquiry into the case pending with the trial court.
   Petitioner Abdul Majid Khan, an advocate and the general secretary of Habiganj district Awami League, disagreed and filed an application before the magistrate for further investigation.
   After losing the legal battle for further inquiry in the magistrate’s court and High Court, Khan moved the Appellate Division for remedy.
   Kamal Hossain and Mahbubey Alam appeared for Khan while additional attorney general Abdur Rezak Khan stood for the state.
   Kibria, an Awami League lawmaker at the time he was slain, and four local leaders of the party were killed in a grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Baidderbazar in Habiganj on January 27, 2005.
   Within two months of the incident, senior assistant superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department, Munshi Atiqur Rahman, submitted the charge sheet against 10 suspects to the court. Many people allege that the accused are small fry and the masterminds, who are big fish, have not been included in the charge sheet.

The Awami League and its front organisations on Tuesday observed the historic March 7 in a befitting manner.
   On this day in 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founder-president of the country, addressed a huge public rally at the then Racecourse Maidan, now Suhrawardy Udyan, calling upon the Bangalis to launch an all out struggle for the independence of the country from the Pakistani rule.
   To mark the day, senior leaders of the party and its front organisations placed floral wreaths at the portrait of Sheikh Mujib on the Bangabandhu Bhaban premises in the morning. The AL hoisted the national and party flags atop its party offices across the country.
   The Awami League also organised a discussion meeting at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh in Dhaka on the occasion. Senior presidium member Zillur Rahman chaired the meeting while AAMS Arefin Siddique, executive member of the Dhaka University Teachers’ Association, presented a keynote paper at the discussion.
   Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon, president of a faction of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal Hasanul Huq Inu, Awami League leaders Abdul Jalil, Syeda Johra Tajuddin, Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Abdur Razzak MP, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta MP, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim MP, educationist BK Jahangir, and former vice-chancellor of Dhaka University Professor AK Azad Chowdhury, among others, took part in the discussion. They urged the people to get united with the 1971 spirit to dislodge the alliance government and establish non-communal Bangladesh.
   Menon said there is a need of unity of the progressive forces to establish a non-communal country and save it from the extremist groups.

One more injured worker in the Chittagong KTS garments fire incident died at Chittagong Medical College and Hospital on Monday night.
   The deceased, Jhumka Das, 18, daughter of Dulal Das of Dohazari area under Chanda-naish upazila in Chittagong died at the hospital at around 8:00pm.
   The death of Jhumka brings down the number of injured workers to 34 now going under treatment at the CMCH, but raises the death toll to 58.

Sri Lanka promised not to ease the pressure on Bangladesh for a split-second when the second and final Test of the GrameenPhone series starts at the Shaheed Chandu Stadum today.
   STAR Sports will telecast the match live from 9:30 am.
   ‘We want to come down really hard on Bangladesh like we did at Chittagong,’ said Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene at a press briefing here on Tuesday.
   The islanders lead the series 1-0 thanks to their eight-wicket win in the port city and another victory will see them whitewash the Tigers for the third successive Test series at home and away.
   The hosts, however, can draw inspiration from the ground where they ended a 15-match one-day losing streak two weeks earlier although Jayawardene was unfazed by the glitch.
   ‘It was a one-day game and if you don’t play well on a particular day you can easily end up as losers. We realised the mistakes we made and came back strongly in the third one-dayer and then finished a very good Test match in Chittagong,’ said Jayawardene.
   Sri Lankan coach Tom Moody ruled out any chances of giving a rest to star off-spinner Muttiah Muralithran, who is seven wickets shy of 600 Test wickets. ‘We cannot stop a player, who has 1,000 international wickets, from playing a Test match.’
   Bangladesh once again opted to go into the five-day battle without any third seamer as they left out Tapash Baisya, Aftab Ahmed and Alok Kapali from the 15-member squad.
   But Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar’s worries were elsewhere. ‘To get anything out of this match we have to do well in all three departments. But the most important thing is to bat well in the first innings. Without a good first innings total it will be very difficult for us to survive,’ he said.
   The home side beefed up its batting by inducting Mushfiqur Rahim, who recently led the country at the ICC U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka. Coach Dav Whatmore confirmed that Mushfiq was expected to bat at number six in place of Khaled Mashud.

At least six persons, including a newsman, were injured in bomb attack at Pagla Kanai crossing in the town on Tuesday.
   Witnesses and police said some unidentified criminals hurled three bombs targeting the Sikder Construction Firm at about 7:45pm leaving the six injured.
   Of the injured, two were identified as owner of the firm Sanjoy Sikder, firm employees Moslem Uddin and Mofizur Rahman. Three others are pedestrians. They are Alauddin Al Azad, correspondent of Bangla Daily Naya Diganta, Abdur Rashid and Abu Taher.
   They were admitted to the sadar hospital.
   The explosions also damaged fans and window glasses of the office.
   Another bomb was exploded at adjacent school premises about the same time. But none was hurt.

Human Rights Watch expressed concern Monday that the United States is secretly holding unacknowledged ‘ghost detainees’ at its Guantanamo Bay, Cuba prison camp even as it identified hundreds of other detainees last week.
   ‘Even though we now have names of some of the Guantanamo detainees, that is only a small piece of the picture and there are more people that are being held,’ HRW’s Katherine Newell Bierman told AFP.
   ‘We believe that the United States is holding people that it has not confirmed it is holding ... the so-called ghost detainees. The US refuses to confirm whether it holds these men or not,’ said Newell Bierman, who follows terrorism-related issues for the US-based rights group.
   ‘If you are going to detain someone at some point you have got to let people know you have them. These men have effectively disappeared.’
   HRW and other rights groups believe that the US Central Intelligence Agency is holding a number of unidentified and unacknowledged prisoners in secret locations.
   These ‘ghost detainees’ include for the most part high-level al-Qaeda officials, including Ramzi bin al-Shibh, believed to be one of the planners of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, and Khalid Shaikh Muhammad, the former al-Qaeda number three.
   In recent months US media have lifted a small corner of the curtain of secrecy surrounding the unknown detainees.