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More than 100 people, including journalists and police personnel, were wounded, as fierce clashes between opposition activists and law enforcers marked a sit-in of the Awami League-led alliance of opposition political parties around the Bangladesh Secretariat on Thursday.
   The clashes began at the end of the sit-in, organised to press home the opposition demand for reforms in the constitutional provision for caretaker government and the Election Commission, when some opposition activists tried to defy a Dhaka Metropolitan Police ban on gatherings around the secretariat.
   They started pelting stones and brickbats at the police, who, in turn, charged batons, lobbed teargas canisters and fire rubber pellets to disperse the rowdy lot, and within minutes the city centre turned into a battlefield.
   At least 100 teargas canisters were lobbed and several rounds of rubber pellets fired during the hour-long clashes in the Bangabandhu Avenue and Doel Chattar (square) areas in the capital city.
   The police action did not deter the opposition activists and they fought back with stones and brickbats. They also burnt furniture of roadside shops and old tyres, and smashed windscreens of a few vehicles.
   Several policemen and journalists, including Dhaka University correspondent of the daily Samakal Ishtiaq Hossain, STV cameraman Mamun, the DU correspondent of Manabzamin Riazul Islam, were wounded and so were city AL leaders Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya and Hajji Selim.
   Chase and counter-chase marked the clashes, one of the biggest in recent times, which began at about 12:45pm.
   Gulistan and surrounding areas virtually turned into a battlefield as the opposition activists threw brickbats and went on the rampage and the police chased the agitators charging batons, lobbing teargas canisters and firing rubber pellets. Pedestrians were not spared from the police action.
   At least 10 of the injured were given treatment in Dhaka Medical College Hospital while the others were admitted to different private clinics.
   Earlier, leaders and activists of the opposition alliance gathered at three points — in front of the south gate of Baitul Mukarram, the Matsya Bhaban roundabout and Doel Chattar — to stage the sit-in after they had been obstructed by the law enforcers from marching towards the secretariat.
   Several hundred opposition workers had gathered at the south gate of Baitul Mukarram since 10:00am.
   By noon, the road stretching from the Zero Point to the Gulistan roundabout was literally filled with opposition activists.
   As the sit-in drew closer to end, some AL activists started pelting stones and brickbats at the police, in defiance of an instruction from the alliance coordinator and AL general secretary, Abdul Jalil, against any confrontation.
   At a series of preparatory meetings in the past couple of days, Jalil warned city unit leaders to rein in overenthusiastic activists to avoid any clash with the police.
   However, the warning had little bearing on the event of the day.
   At the end of the rally, when the central leaders were leaving the spot, a section of opposition activists started pelting stones at the police in front of the General Post Office.
   At one stage, the police retaliated with brickbats and teargas shells.
   Later, the police jumped over the barricades they had put up to intercept the opposition leaders and activists and started charging batons on the crowd.
   A number of people were injured, including the organising secretary of the city Awami League, Mohammad Selim, and a minor boy.
   The agitators scattered around the Bangabandhu National Stadium and Gulistan area, trying to counter police action, but later retreated.
   At Doel Chattar, the trouble started as activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, student wing of the Awami League, tried to make their way through the police barricades.
   They also threw bricks at the police, who, in return, lobbed about 10 teargas shells.
   Assistant commissioner of police (patrol-south) Mizan, private satellite channel STV reporter Mamun and several BCL activists were injured during the clash.
   The police had earlier sealed off all entry points to the secretariat and in the National Press Club area since early morning by putting up barbed-wire barricades.
   An area of about four kilometres around the secretariat was cordoned off.
   People had to show their identity cards before entering into to the area. No vehicles were allowed.

The Awami League-led opposition alliance will stage a sit-in in front of the Primer Minister’s Office on April 19 as part of its movement for reforms to the caretaker government provision and Election Commission.
   The alliance will also stage demonstrations in the city today and across the country on Saturday in protest against the police ‘atrocities’ on the opposition activists during
   Thursday’s sit-in programme in front of the Bangladesh Secretariat.
   The Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil, also the alliance coordinator, announced the agitation programmes after a meeting of the opposition parties at the Awami League’s Dhanmondi office Thursday evening.
   Jalil told journalists the police had attacked the opposition activists without any provocation at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque gate and at Doyel Chattar leaving at least 200 injured.
   Meanwhile, the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, in a statement protested the police attacks on the opposition leaders and activists, and expressed her resentment over the incident.
   Hasina, also leader of the opposition in parliament, criticised the government for imposing restriction on holding their programme in the secretariat area and the police for attacking her innocent party men without any provocation.
   Warning the government of tougher movement, she said the opposition would force the government to accept the reforms proposal through the movement.

Leaders of the Awami League-led alliance of opposition political parties on Thursday vowed to wage a greater movement, involving the people of the country, to force the government into accepting their proposal for reforms in the constitutional provision for caretaker government and the Election Commission.
   They accused the government of obstructing a pre-scheduled, peaceful sit-in of the opposition parties by imposing section 144 at the programme venue and adjoining areas.
   ‘The demand of the opposition parties for reforms in the [constitutional provision for] caretaker government and the Election Commission have become a national demand and common people are joining us to force its implementation,’ Tofail Ahmed, a senior member of the AL presidium, said when addressing the sit-in at the south gate of Baitul Mukarram.
   Central leaders of the alliance had to stage the sit-in near the national mosque as they failed to reach the designated venue, in front of the Bangladesh Secretariat, in the face of police barricades. A makeshift dais was put up on the back of a truck.
   Tofail said the people were dissatisfied with and resented the ‘BNP-Jamaat’ alliance government because of its misrule, and preparing to stage a mass upsurge against the government as they had done in 1969.
   The coordinator of the alliance and AL general secretary, Abdul Jalil, said the government had proved that it was afraid of facing a mass movement by putting up barriers to a peaceful movement of the opposition parties.
   ‘The government tried to take refuge in section 144,’ he said. ‘But section 144 will not save the government as the people are now determined to realise the demands for reforms through the ouster of the BNP-Jamaat government.’
   The president of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, Rashed Khan Menon, accused the government of patronising the patrons of ultra-Islamist militant forces.
   He said the prime minister had shared the same dais with the alleged patrons of the militants at a meeting in Rajshahi recently.
   Menon demanded immediate expulsion of the ministers who had patronised the militants from the very beginning.
   Matia Chowdhury, another member of the AL presidium, said the day was not far off when ‘the government will be bound to bow to the people’s demands’.
   The general secretary of the Gana Forum, Saif Uddin Ahmed Manik, said the government had lost its popularity and was now trying to resist a popular movement by imposing restrictions. ‘People are now united to press home their demands and no restriction will save the government.’
   The president of the Ganatantri Party, Mohammad Nurul Islam, said the government had acted like an autocrat by denying the people’s democratic rights to peaceful demonstration.
   The executive president of a faction of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Moinuddin Khan Badal, said no government in the past had succeeded to resist popular movements imposing restriction and the present government would not succeed either.
   The general secretary of Samyabadi Dal, Dilip Barua, urged people to join the anti-government movement and pledged that the opposition alliance would form a pro-people government, if voted to power.
   Sit-ins were also staged at Doel Chattar (square) and the Matsya Bhaban crossing where opposition leaders vowed to oust the government through a vigorous movement.
   AL leader Mohammad Nasim led the programme at Matsya Bhaban and the president of the Krishak League, Mirza Jalil, at Doel Chattar.

The LGRD and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, on Thursday said the opposition’s sit-in programme around the secretariat would not affect atmosphere for any discussion.
   ‘It was unnecessary to observe programmes like Thursday’s one as atmosphere had already created to discuss their demands,’ he said this while replying to a question from a journalist at his secretariat office.
   He said although the opposition was holding the sit-in demonstration, but certainly it did not create any setback in the discussion between the government and the opposition.
   Responding to the letter of the 14-party combine, the BNP secretary general said, ‘The government would write to them very soon.’
   Bhuiyan, however, rejected the opposition’s allegations of killing time in the name of discussion.
   About the government measures during the opposition’s sit-in programme Bhuiyan said, ‘It is nothing new, rather all past governments had taken security measures during such programme.’
   He, however, said it did not make any blow to the democratic rights to anyone as the government did not ask them to withdraw their programme.

Officials and employees at the Bangladesh Secretariat were more curious than concerned on Thursday, as members of security and law-enforcement agencies practically besieged the administrative hub to enforce a ban on demonstration.
   The tight security at and around the secretariat did keep lobbyists and their middlemen at bay; however, there was little work inside the offices.
   Most of the officials and employees clocked in by 9:30am but spent the first few hours by relating to each other the difficulty they had faced on their way to office and the rest of the day by exchanging information and speculating about the opposition’s sit-in.
   A joint secretary told New Age over telephone that the law enforcers had not allowed him to go inside as he reached the secretariat at 9:35am. ‘They said I was late.’
   A number of officials and employees said they had to face a lot of trouble coming to work. They said they had to take
   a long walk and had been asked to produce their identity cards at different points by the law enforcers.
   Inside the secretariat, most of the officials and employees mobbed journalists to know the latest situation. Some made regular phone calls to know what was happening in the city.
   Most of the secretariat staffers New Age talked said they were not worried but curious about the opposition’s programme.
   They said they were sure that opposition activists would not be allowed to come near the secretariat and create any problem, similar to the ones in the early 1980s.
   There was no sign either of any secretariat staff joining the opposition sit-in. A number of officials and employees told New Age that there was no possibility of a repeat of the March 1996 Janatar Mancha (people’s platform).
   They said there was hardly any scope for unit among secretariat staffers in the absence of a leader.
   The government has already sent about 60 high officials, including deputy secretaries, joint secretaries and additional secretaries, who it believes have links with the opposition parties, they claimed.
   Officers of the 1973 batch, who were believed to have allegiance to the Awami League but were denied promotion during the previous AL government, have been neutralised, as the government promoted them to higher posts such as joint secretary, additional secretary and secretary in-charge, they said.
   A number of officials said they were worried about job security and about vigilance by intelligent agencies.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, blasted an opposition political party for, what she said, their destructive activities and attack on the police in the name sit-in around the secretariat in their covert bid to create unrest in the country.
   ‘The opposition is only out to unleash unrest in the country with destructive activities. They don’t want development and peace of the country. They create obstacle at every step so that people cannot stay sound,’ she told a big public meeting at Shaheed Ali Ahmad Memorial High School ground at Sagoria in Hatia on Thursday.
   Criticising the opposition’s various ‘anti-people’ and ‘anti development’ acts, the prime minister said the party had been demanding resignation of the alliance government since its assumption of office.
   ‘But the people did not respond to their call for toppling the democratically elected government,’ she told her audience amid applause from the crowd.
   Khaleda said when her government was carrying out development programmes in all sectors, investment-friendly atmosphere prevailing and foreign investment coming in a bigger way as well as the country advancing towards prosperity, the opposition resorted to vandalism, arson and damaging public property to halt the progress.
   The prime minister said the party did not do any development and welfare activities while in power but now remaining outside power they were obstructing development process carried out by her government.
   The opposition while in power had unleashed a reign of terror, Khaleda said adding that they created godfathers in every district who resorted to repression on BNP leaders and workers.

The leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, said on Thursday the alliance government had pushed the country towards conflict by slapping a ban on the assembly around the secretariat to foil the opposition’s peaceful sit-in programme.
   ‘The opposition has declared a sit-in demonstration in front of the secretariat, but the BNP-led alliance government blocked the secretariat in a bid to foil our programme. The government has made the opposition’s programme successful by slapping a ban around the secretariat,’ Hasina said on arrival at the Zia International Airport in the morning.
   The Awami League president returned home after a two-week visit to the United States. She left Dhaka on March 16 for the United States for treatment of her ears and later went to London from Washington on March 28.
   Criticising the Wednesday’s remarks of the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, at the Rajshahi divisional grand rally of the BNP, Hasina said on one hand the government sent a letter for discussion and on the other they said the opposition’s demand for electoral reforms was a pretext for creating an issue. ‘If they want discussion why they say such things.’
   She said: ‘Khaleda knows that without vote rigging they won’t return to power. So, they are conspiring to rig the upcoming national polls.’
   ‘No free and fair election will be possible under the next caretaker government headed by Justice KM Hasan,’ the opposition leader said. ‘So, the opposition wanted reform of the caretaker government system and the Election Commission.’
   Referring to the extension of the retirement age of the judges, Hasina said the government deliberately extended the retirement age of senior judges. ‘Why the government had extended the retirement age, if it had no ill motive?’

Commuters had to negotiate severe traffic jams on Thursday after the Dhaka Metropolitan police had sealed off a number of roads to the Bangladesh Secretariat hours before the Awami League-led alliance of opposition political parties were scheduled to stage a sit-in in front of the administrative hub.
   As vehicles scrambled for alternative routes, there were tailbacks on a number of major thoroughfares in the capital city.
   The police had put barricade at different points – Paltan, Shaheed Noor Hossain Chattar (square), Matsya Bhaban, Shahbagh, Abdul Ghani Road, High Court crossing and Doel Chattar – since early morning.
   The barricades resulted in the opposition parties staging sit-in wherever they had been obstructed, which only aggravated the traffic situation.
   There was bumper-to-bumper traffic on roads to and from Shahbagh, Kakrail, Shantinagar, Mouchak, Tikatuli, Jatrabari, Dhanmondi, Nilkhet, Gulistan, etc for hours on end because of the police barricade and the sit-in by the opposition. Many people got off their vehicles and walked to their destination because of the traffic jam, which was severe till 1:30pm.
   A resident of Pallabi said it took him an addition one hour and a half to get to Motijheel.
   A bus driver said he had to take the road from the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel to Kakrail because of the police barricade at Shahbagh since 6:00am.
   ‘I started for Motijheel from Mirpur 12 at 8:00am and reached there at 10:15am,’ said another bus driver. ‘It usually takes me about an hour to cover the distance.’
   Meanwhile, many schools had to suspend classes because of poor attendance, as parents and guardians preferred not to send their wards to schools. The schools that remained open had to do with very poor turnout.
   ‘My daughter’s school suspended classes as most of the students failed to turn up on time,’ said the guardian of a student of Kids Tutorial New at Eskatan.
   The guardian of a student of Little Jewels Nursery Infant and Junior School at Paltan said the school had to suspend classes for the day for the same reason.
   Students who lived a short distance away from the school could turn up on time but their number was very few, he said.
   The schools that remained open had poor attendance of students.
   ‘I did not send my daughter to her school at Dhanmondi in fear of untoward incidents,’ said a resident of Pallabi.

Bangladesh is unlikely to achieve the projected 7 per cent GDP growth if the government does not take strong steps to curb corruption, develop infrastructure and ensure good governance, predicted UNESCAP.
   The country may experience greater budget deficit, along with higher inflation and price levels this year, apprehended UN experts.
   This was revealed at the launching of the report on ‘Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2006’ at a press briefing on Thursday.
   According to the report, the country experienced negative trends in GDP and in the agriculture and service sectors last year.
   The 221-page report was launched in Dhaka as well as regionally and from New York and Geneva. The survey was conducted by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
   Former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mirza Azizul Islam, made the presentation on the survey at a press conference. The UNDP resident representative in Dhaka, Larry Maramis, and United Nations Information Centre officer-in-charge, Kazi Ali Reza, also spoke on the occasion.
   Mirza Azizul Islam, who was an ESCAP director, said that 21 countries out of 38 have recorded higher growth than Bangladesh.
   According to the report, real GDP of the country declined to 5.4 per cent last year from 6.3 per cent in 2004 due to floods that inundated more than a third of the country’s land surface. Total losses of assets and damage to standing crops by the floods were estimated at 3.8 per cent of the GDP.
   ESCAP, however, predicted that a strict monetary policy would be helpful to increase GDP growth to 6.5 per cent in the medium term.
   Agricultural growth declined sharply to 0.3 per cent last year from 4.1 per cent, said the report.
   Growth in the service sector declined to 5.9 per cent from 6.6 per cent. Much of the growth in the sector had originated from increased activity in wholesale and retail trade, transport, storage, communications and real estate.
   The country experienced high growth of 8.5 per cent in the industrial sector, despite the loss of preferential treatment for garments.
   The overall budget deficit went up to 4.2 per cent from 3.2 per cent, largely owing to the rehabilitation costs borne by the government in the wake of floods.
   Inflation rose to 6.5 per cent from 5.8 per cent, said the report.
   Azizul Islam apprehended that the budget deficit and inflation may increase this year.
   According to the report, earnings of the country from garments declined as prices were reduced due to the expiration of the Multi-fibre Agreement (MFA) on textiles and clothing.
   Import bills went up significantly as oil and commodity prices soared. Rising food imports and increased demand for investment goods added to the rise in the value of imports.
   The current account deficit was projected to be 1.7 per cent of the GDP, with gross international reserves falling to 2.4 months of import cover.
   ESCAP said a surge in oil and commodity prices, combined with the adverse effect of the floods, had pushed up the price levels.
   ESCAP said further increase in interest rates would be essential to bring down the inflation rate to 4.0 per cent as well as to maintain international competitiveness of the key export items of the country.
   The country needs continued reforms in the nationalised banking sector and state-owned enterprises and more efforts to increase revenue.
   Infrastructure development will have to be given higher priority and the major emphasis will have to put on the energy sector.
   The capacity of Chittagong Port was also expected to be increased in order to reduce infrastructural bottlenecks.
   Migrant worker-sending countries, including Bangladesh, need to devote sufficient resources to monitor the changing labour-demand patterns in receiving countries, and tighten up regulatory and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that their citizens do not fall prey to unscrupulous agents.
   Unemployment and underemployment will remain a challenge in Bangladesh unless proper policy measures, which include creation of new jobs and skilled labour-force and encouragement of women to work, are taken, said the UN body.
   To overcome the challenges that Bangladesh is facing, the government should make more efforts to curb corruption, develop infrastructure and ensure good governance, suggested Mirza Azizul Islam.
   ESCAP, however, did not include corruption issues, which have huge adverse impacts on economic and social issues.
   The survey focussed on growth performance, inflation, trade performance, capital flows, external debt and exchange rates and policy issues, said Larry Maramis.

Thousands of Bangladeshis living in the United Kingdom are worried about a new five-tier immigration scheme, scheduled to take effect in phases from 2008, although the British government insists the system will not affect the potential skilled manpower.
   ‘Immigration law is now a big issue here… I don’t think that the Bangladeshi community here will be greatly affected by the new law,’ Jim Fitzpatrick MP, a parliamentary undersecretary of state, said when talking to a group of Bangladeshi journalists in London on Wednesday.
   ‘It’s just to stop the bogus asylum seekers and those who are coming to Britain as economic migrant without any qualification or skill,’ he said.
   Fitzpatrick, who was elected from an East London constituency, where 10-15 per cent voters are Bangladeshis, said there were not many asylum seekers from Bangladesh.
   The Bangladeshi community is probably better placed because of its size, understanding of rules and culture, and establishment, he said.
   George Galloway MP of the Respect Party, who was elected from Bethnal Green and Bow in East London, which is dominated by the Bangladesh-British population, disagreed with the government’s view.
   The new immigration law, he said, would hit hard the Bangladeshi community and their restaurant business, which accounts for £4 billion a year, as workers from East European countries will phase out workers from Bangladesh.
   Galloway, who was sacked from the Labour Party before the last general elections for his criticism of the Blair government’s, only skilled chefs will have the work permit under the new scheme and semi-skilled workers will not get access to the UK for employment.
   The East European countries that have recently become members of the European Union will fill the vacant positions, he said.
   Fitzpatrick, a junior minister of the Blair government, dismissed the views of Galloway as ‘absolutely rubbish’.
   He also contested the Respect Party leader’s views that Muslims in Britain has been facing discrimination and harassment by the police since 9/11, especially after the 7/7 (London blasts).
   Galloway also spoke of a discriminatory attitude in the job sector. ‘If your name is Fatima, Mohammad or Ali, you won’t get a white-colour job in the city of London or Canary Wharf in East London, which is emerging as a huge economic hub.’
   British Muslims, especially women, are either unemployed or underemployed despite having the required educational qualification, he said.
   Only 88 out of hundreds of thousands of people from his constituency have employment in Canary Wharf, which falls under Fitzpatrick’s constituency, Galloway claimed.
   Fitzpatrick strongly disagreed with his contention and claimed that things have started changing and local people are getting job in Canary Wharf where leading banks, such as HSBC and Barclays, companies, hotels and restaurants have been relocated from the city of London.
   Many Bangladeshi people are working there and young people from Bangladeshi, Somali and other communities will hopefully get job in a greater number with required qualifications for different services, he said.
   It the employers who decide what kind of workforce they need to run their business, he said.
   Most of the East European workers are engaged in construction and technical sectors, which will not conflict with the interest of Bangladesh restaurant workers, Fitzpatrick argued.
   Meanwhile, a senior official of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who deals with the new immigration scheme, said the point-based system has been introduced to ensure transparency.
   It will help potential workers and students to know what he has and what type of job he may get based on his qualification, he said.
   The official, who asked not to be quoted, said the new legislation has five tiers like the system in Canada and Australia.
   The five categories include highly skilled people like PhD holders and brilliant academics, skilled workers with command over English language, sector-based low-skilled labours, students and Commonwealth holidaymakers.
   Employers will be able to recruit low-skilled labours through agencies, if there is a shortage of such workers in Britain.
   Individuals who do not believe in British values and cultures and rather spread hatred against the established institutions are unacceptable to society here and will be deported, he said.

Three state-run gas companies will embark on a joint venture to develop the Begumganj field at an investment of about Tk 300 crore.
   The Energy and Mineral Resources Division finalised a decision on Thursday that three Petrobangla subsidiaries – the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company, the Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Limited and the Sylhet Gas Fields Company Limited – would jointly develop the gas filed.
   It is the first time that state-run companies are set to enter into a joint venture for gas exploration.
   ‘A proposal on the joint venture will be sent to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who is also in-charge of the energy ministry, in 15 days for approval,’ the energy and mineral resources adviser, Mahmudur Rahman, told reporters after a meeting with energy officials.
   The joint venture will initially develop the field, owned by Bapex, at an investment of Tk 150 crore for gas production.
   It will then go for further exploration at an investment of Tk 150 crore, decided a meeting of the division, chaired by Mahmud.
   The field has a proven reserve of around 32 billion cubic feet but energy officials are hopeful that the reserve could well turn out to be over 400bcf.
   Bangladesh Gas and Sylhet Gas will provide Tk 150 crore each from their own resources and Bapex will be the working partner in the joint venture. Three companies will have equal shares.
   ‘The joint venture of three state run companies for developing a field will be a milestone in the gas sector.
   By this we are encouraging our own companies to develop gas fields by reducing dependence on foreign companies,’ Mahmud told reporters after the meeting.
   The meeting decided that the joint venture would sell gas to Petrobangla at a rate of Tk 50 for 1,000 cubic feet or one unit. The transaction will be on local currency.
   ‘The purchase of gas at a low price in local currency will benefit Petrobangla.
   ‘The international oil companies are selling gas to Petrobangla at a rate of $1.75
   [Tk 122.50] to $2.90 [Tk 203]. As Petrobangla pays them in foreign currency, it creates pressure on the forex reserve,’ Mahmud said.
   The meeting decided that the joint venture initially conduct a work-over programme at a production well in the field, which was discovered in 1977.
   ‘We are expecting to get around 10 million cubic feet of gas from the well, drilling of which would start in July. Simultaneously a gas processing plant, a 12-kilometre pipeline to take the gas from the field to the plant and another production well will be drilled,’ Mahmud said.
   It will then conduct seismic survey and drill exploratory wells in the second phase to find more gas, he said.
   The meeting decided that a joint venture agreement of the companies would be signed and a joint management committee, comprising of seven members, will be formed for supervision of the field activities.
   Two representatives from each company will be included in the committee.
   A Petrobangla official will fill the remaining slot.
   The joint venture will pay income tax to the government. The international oil companies in Bangladesh do not pay any income tax.
   Petrobangla will get service charge for gas supply and get a profit of Tk 6 on each unit of gas.
   Bangladesh Gas and Sylhet Gas will get 70 per cent of the gas price as cost recovery and the rest will be shared among the three companies.
   After the two companies recover their cost, the companies start sharing the returns from the sale of gas.
   Mahmud said no approval from the executive committee of the National Economic Council would be needed for the joint venture, as the companies would engage their own resources.
   He said they would request the finance ministry to relax the provision for value-added tax for the joint venture, as it did in the case of the international oil companies.

Each and every member joined Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh fully aware that they would face arrest and even death, the chief of the banned Islamist organisation, Shaikh Abdur Rahman, is learnt to have told a taskforce of investigators on Thursday.
   Abdur Rahman also told the taskforce, comprising members of different intelligence agencies and the Rapid Action Battalion, that betrayal by some members of the organisation, not the manhunt by law enforcement and security forces, had led to the arrest of top JMB leaders and operatives within seven months of the August 17 series of blasts.
   ‘We sensed the presence of betrayers first time when Abdul Awal was arrested along with his four associates from a bus in Thakurgaon on November 18 and the arrest of [Ataur Rahman] Sunny on December 14 proved their presence beyond doubt,’ he was quoted by a source in the taskforce as saying.
   A high official close to the taskforce said they were now crosschecking certain information relating to patronisation of the militants by some ruling party leaders. ‘We are trying to find out how far is the information they provided about patronisation by the ruling party leaders. We want to know whether the patronisation was political or financial as well.’
   The official said the taskforce had interrogated Abdur Rahman about some other bomb attacks that they had not claimed responsibility for. ‘We asked him about the bomb attack on an Ahmadiyya mosque in Khulna on October 8, 1999, Alal Pak Darbar Sharif in Faridpur on the same day, blast on Awami League rally at Mollarhat in Bagerhat on September 23, 2001, another AL rally in Sunamganj on September 26 and Satkhira circus on September 28, 2000.’
   The taskforce members declined to elaborate on Abdur Rahman’s response but said they had some significant information.
   The sources said they would seek remand of another militant leader Mufti Abdul Hannan of Harkat-ul-Jihad to get more information on the blasts.
   Sunny and Awal, younger brother and son-in-law of Abdur Rahman respectively, were taken on a seven-day fresh remand on Thursday in the same case.
   The two members of the organisation’s majlish-e-shura (highest policymaking body) are implicated in the case for their involvement with the bomb blasts near the Dhaka University Teachers-Students Centre on August 17, 2005.
   Sunny and Awal were produced in the court of the chief metropolitan magistrate court, with the Detective Branch of the police seeking an eight-day remand. The magistrate, Shamsul Alam, however, granted seven days.
   The New Age correspondent reports from Mymensingh that Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, operations commander of the organisation, was placed on a second remand for 10 days after he had been produced before in a court in Mymensingh on Thursday.
   The remand was granted in the second of the three cases filed against him following his arrest from Muktagachha on March 6. Earlier, he was put on a remand for ten days.
   Bangla Bhai was brought in from Dhaka at about 11:00am.
   As the court procedure was completed, Bangla Bhai was quickly taken to Dhaka. The RAB and police personnel escorting him allegedly behaved roughly with lawyers and people on the court premises.
   They had demonstrated and shouted slogans against the battalion, until ASP Abdullah Hel Baqi and ADM Ramzan Ali assured them of looking into the matter.
   The New Age correspondent reports from Rangpur that the battalion arrested two suspected JMB activists Wednesday night at Taxerhat under Badargonj Upazilla in Rangpur.
   A team of the fifth Rapid Action Battalion conducted a drive at Bisnupur union, Taxerhat area under Badarganj upazila and held Haider Ali, 46, and Shamsul Hoque, a former member of the armed forces.
   Shamsul Hoque was later released.
   The Comilla correspondent of New Age reports that a three-member of the battalion reached Comilla on Thursday for interrogating three accomplices of the JMB chief’s son Nabil Rahman, who were arrested on March 13.
   Intelligence sources said the team would interrogate Abdus Samad Mintu alias Rajib, Sohel and Alamgir Hossain, now on a second 10-day remand.

With governance at the heart of the World Bank’s aid programme, the board of directors of the multilateral lending agency on Thursday decided to provide Bangladesh with three billion dollars as loans for 2005-2006 to 2008-2009 fiscal periods, according to a statement of the Bank.
   The World Bank in a statement noted that the country has had both successes and failures in governance.
   ‘To explain this conundrum we must unbundle governance and recognise that Bangladesh has had both governance successes and governance failures,’ said Praful Patel, the World Bank Vice President for South Asia region.
   The lending programme has been declared through its new country assistance strategy for the country.
   ‘The (strategy) puts governance at centre-stage. Governance will be the core focus in every sector we engage, and sector governance reform will be the target of every bank-supported project,’ the World Bank’s country director Christine Wallich said in the statement.
   The World Bank said the country had recorded impressive economic and social gains in the past decade, outperforming most other low-income countries.
   But ‘there are also serious governance weaknesses across sectors and in core government functions. Addressing these is critical for improving the investment climate and enhancing growth,’ it said.
   It added that over the next four years the bank’s loans would target improving the investment climate, liberalising trade, improving the competitiveness of key industries, empowering the poor and reducing administrative barriers.
   On the success front, the Bank said, the country has shown important gains in public accountability, with three successive free elections, an assertive Supreme Court, sound public procurement regulations, an active civil society, and a relatively free media.
   ‘Successive governments have allocated substantial budget resources to areas such as health and education. Microfinance has expanded with strong government support and financial sector governance is improving. Government has also forged strong partnerships with NGOs, especially in health, nutrition and education, which have contributed to the development gains,’ the WB noted.
    ‘There are also serious governance weaknesses across sectors and in core government functions. Addressing these is critical for improving the investment climate, enhancing growth, increasing access to information, and improving delivery of government services,’ the statement said.
    The WB mentioned improving the investment climate, empowering the poor and addressing the core governance issues as three pillars of the new CAS.
   Governance problems related to the Comptroller and Auditor General, Public Accounts Committee, Bangladesh Bank, the Public Service Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as public financial and budgetary management, public procurement, the National Board of Revenue, and legal and judicial reform come within the purview of the Bank’s core governance agenda, according to the statement.

As many as 116 red telephones, including the one used by the president, Iajuddin Ahmed at Bangabhaban, went out of order on Wednesday night as a large portion of underground cables in the city’s Plassey area was stolen.
   Officials of the telephone board said that after being informed by the Secretariat, the heart of the country’s administration, in the morning about the disorder in red telephones, the board had so far restored about 20 telephones of the very very important persons including the president and some ministers through alternative way.
   A BTTB press release issued on Thursday night said some red telephones at the secretariat and its adjoining areas went out of order due to technical glitch in the underground cable line in Plassey area. The press release did not mention the number of telephones which had gone out of order.
   The chairman of the board, A Maleque Akhand said they had initially suspected technical glitch in the line as the reason for the disorder in the red telephones.
   But another high official confirmed that the reason for the disorder was stealing of underground cable and not technical fault.
   The board chairman, however, said that a two-member committee, headed by Lieutenant Colonel Ziaur Rashid Safdar, general manager, security and surveillance of the telephone board, was formed to investigate the actual reason for the incident.
   ‘The committee will submit its report within three days,’ said Maleque.
   About 300 red telephones, usually used by the president, the prime minister, the speaker, ministers and secretaries of the government are considered as very sensitive and secured.
   The red telephone exchange is located at and operated from the Prime Minister Office.

The parliamentary standing committee on the labour and employment ministry on Thursday finalised the ‘Labour Welfare Foundation Bill 2006’ for enactment in the next session of the parliament in spite of a note of dissent by the Awami League lawmakers who differed on a few specific points.
   The committee in a meeting reviewed the proposed bill bought for welfare of labour in both the formal and informal sectors and finalised it for enactment into a law, said meeting sources.
   Sources said that the Awami League lawmakers, Shahjahan Khan and Atiur Rahman Atik, gave a note of dissent on some specific points of the bill as the committee chairman did not accept their suggestion to amend them.
   There will be a board which will regulate the foundation which will be instituted for managing labour relations and welfare.
   The AL lawmakers suggested amendment of the sections which empowers the government to remove any member of the foundation, ensures the presence of at least one member each from the labour and owner sides in every meeting, and inclusion of more labour and owner representatives and two lawmakers in the foundation board.
   But the committee finalised the bill on basis of the opinions of the majority of members, which prompted the opposition lawmakers to give a note of dissent, said sources.
   ‘The number of board members has already reached 25 to ensure representation from every respective circle, so we did not recommend inclusion of more members in the board,’ committee chairman Mosharraf Hossain Mongu told New Age after the meeting.
   He also said that as per the opinion of the majority of the members, the committee did not bring any change in the section where the government was empowered to remove any board member at any time.
   The committee chairman also said that if the bill was enacted as a law it would be helpful for ensuring the various rights of, and providing facilities for, members of the labour force.

The Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) will discontinue its telex service from today as the service has become obsolete in the era of high-speed communications.
   The telephone board will, however, continue with its telegraph service through e-mail and fax, the board officials said.
   The service has been withdrawn because of its low use, they added saying that spare parts of the telex machine are also not available to repair the machines.
   The telephone board has a countrywide network of 800 telegraph and 91 telex offices.
   The board has already notified its commercial clients, including the Bangladesh Bank, private and nationalised commercial banks, and some government organisations, of the decision.
   Some 2,000 employees of the telegraph department will be absorbed in other departments of the board, which also offers land phone, internet, and data services.
   The British government introduced the telegraph service in the subcontinent in 1853.

The city as well as the country continued to experience frequent power outages on Thursday as there was a shortfall of around 1750MW.
   Load shedding in the city hampered activities of industries and CNG refuelling stations and caused sufferings to the city dwellers, secondary school certificate examines in particular.
   Almost all the city areas, including Motijheel, Kakrail, Tejgaon, Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi, Paribagh, Old Town, Banani, Uttara and Moghbazar, suffered from power outages for several times spanning from one to two hours.
   The Dhaka Electric Supply Authority could supply around 1150MW in the capital during the peak hours against the demand of around 1800MW.
   Although the power generation during the evening peak hours increased to 3250MW from around 3000MW on Wednesday, the overall situation did not improve as the demand rose to 5000MW.
   One 125MW unit of Barapukuria power plant and 110MW Khulna power plant resumed operation on Thursday while 210MW Raujan plant that tripped on Wednesday remained inoperative.
   The 80MW Tongi plant that tripped three days back also remained closed.

Bangladesh battalion working in the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission under United Nations Observer Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo foiled a possible attack of the rebel militias in the Ituri region of Congo on Wednesday.
   Acting on a trip-off, members of the Bangladesh Peacekeeping Mission attacked the militias when they were making preparation to attack the official forces of Congo at about 5:00am (local time) on Wednesday, an ISPR press release said here Thursday.
   The militias were forced to flee into the hilly jangles. Later, members of the peacekeeping mission recovered some bodies of the militias.

The holy Eid-e-Miladunnabi will be observed on April 11 commemorating the birth and death anniversary of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SM).
   This was decided at a meeting of the National Moon Sighting Committee held at the Islamic Foundation on Thursday.