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Uncertainty continues to persist in the political arena as the interim government and its military backers face continued resistance from the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, and the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, to their adamant plan to launch a new political order by keeping the two leaders out of the frame.
   Sunday saw a new twist in the saga, courtesy the courts, as a warrant for arrest was issued against Hasina in a murder case, on the one hand, and a High Court bench asked the government to explain within five days why the internment of Khaleda should not be declared illegal, on the other hand.
   The latter order comes hot on the heels of the reported readiness of the embroiled immediate-past prime minister to go into exile amid a political purge in the country during this interim period, while the warrant was issued the same day Hasina was denied passage to Dhaka at London’s Heathrow airport at instructions of the interim government.
   On Sunday evening, Khaleda was staunchly resisting intense persuasion from the powers that be to go into exile, and Hasina once again vowed to return home defying a government ban on her return.
   Leaders on both sides of the political divide on Sunday termed the machinations put in motion to send the two into exile nothing more than an attempt to destabilise the political order and subvert the political process.
   ‘The interim government’s steps barring Sheikh Hasina from entering the country and forcing Khaleda Zia into exile are against the law and democratic norms,’ the Workers Party of Bangladesh president, Rashed Khan Menon, told New Age Sunday.
   The Communist Party of Bangladesh general secretary, Mujahidul Islam Selim, said, ‘The interim government is playing a dangerous game in its handling of the two top leaders. The conspirators themselves may get caught in troubled water.’
   The Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal convener, Khalequzzaman, said, ‘Sending the two leaders out of the political process was not a vital issue for the people… If they are guilty they must be tried following the existing laws of the land.’
   Former Awami League whip Faruk Khan said, ‘This is a difficult time for politics. I personally believe that the two top leaders of the country should be allowed to stay or enter at home willingly.’
   A BNP vice-chairman said, ‘The agents of the interim powerbase are working to create controversies and confusion among the political parties and their leaders across the country. It is not new in Bangladesh politics.’
   The looming exile of Khaleda and Hasina, however, has jump-started the scramble, in both camps, to fill the vacuum that a prolonged absence of the two leaders will leave behind.
   The BNP’s unity has been put to the test by a former minister, Hannah Shah, claiming on Friday that Khaleda has
   decided to relieve the party’s secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan of his duties and Bhuiyan countering on Saturday with a show of force of the party leadership at his own residence.
   The Awami League is also seeing signs of discord with certain frontline leaders conspicuously absent from the charge sheet of the murder case that Hasina is accused in, and a presidium member, Suranjit Sengupta, on Saturday bringing to question the party’s current leadership.
   The interim government, on its part, is interpreting these moves that presume a time without Khaleda and Hasina in charge positively.
   In reference to the statements from aspirant leaders of the two camps adviser to the law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry, Mainul Hosein, on Sunday said if the political parties initiate steps to change the leadership as part of their reforms process, the government would relax the restriction on indoor politics to help the parties in this respect.
   ‘One of the main objectives of this government is to put politics on the right track,’ Mainul told reporters, adding that it is a good thing when politicians who are otherwise left suppressed speak up and vie for leadership.
   The army chief, Lieutenant General Moeen U Ahmed, on April 2 in a regional conference in Dhaka, asserted that the country must build its own new democratic system with new leadership at all levels.
   Earlier, all political activities were banned after the declaration of the state of emergency
   in the country on January
   11 as a result of the political turmoil before the parliamentary elections scheduled for January 22.

The interim government will consider the withdrawal of the state of emergency if the political parties initiate intra-party reforms and bring about ‘positive changes’ by exercising democracy within the parties, adviser to the interim government Mainul Hosein said on Sunday.
   ‘It will be easier for the government to withdraw the emergency and lift the ban on indoor politics if the political parties reform themselves and introduce intra-party democracy,’ the law adviser, Mainul, told reporters at his secretariat office.
   He said if the political parties initiate measures to change the leadership as part of their reform process, the government would relax the restriction on indoor politics to help the parties in this respect.
   ‘One of the main objectives of this government is to put politics on the right track,’ he told reporters.
   All political activities were banned after the declaration of the state of emergency in the country on January 11, apparently as the result of the political turmoil before the parliamentary elections which were scheduled for January 22.
   ‘It was a shame for the nation that the same person became the prime minister time and again,’ he said.
   ‘I am happy that both the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party have started changing themselves. Those who are real politicians are now thinking of political reforms,’ said Mainul, expressing his hope that the changes in the political parties would continue and those who were suppressed, but eligible, would gain leadership.
   ‘The government wants the parties to do honest politics and it will help those who do so,’ he said.
   ‘Most parties here did not have any real politics as allegiance to a particular person and dynasty was the dominant feature of party politics,’ he asserted, referring to the chiefs of the two major parties and their stranglehold of their parties.
   ‘It is a good sign that the political parties have started thinking of intra-party reforms…. We will help the process,’ he said.
   ‘The political leaders must understand the needs of this country and correct themselves,’ he said.
   When reporters mentioned Saturday’s informal meeting at the house of the BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, despite the restriction on indoor politics, Mainul said the government was trying to be considerate in this regard.
   When asked whether there was any progress in the formation of the reported ‘national government,’ the law adviser said, ‘I do not know even the meaning of national government.’
   ‘Is it an international government we belong to?’ he said. ‘It was a shame for all that the army was going to be used for helping to conduct the election. We do not want any more unpleasant incidents. The nation has fallen ill now.’
   Mainul declined to make any comments on the government’s move to keep the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, and the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, out of the country.

The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, on Sunday could not get on a plane back home as the British Airways denied her a boarding pass to fly from London’s Heathrow airport to Dhaka.
   Hasina, who vowed to return home defying a ban imposed by the interim government, went to the airport, but the airlines did not issue the boarding pass at an instruction from the Bangladesh government not to carry her, sources in London said.
   ‘We came to the airport at 1:45pm London time and waited till 3:25, the flight departure time, but the airlines authorities refused to issue her boarding pass showing the government order which has asked them to not carry the Awami League president,’ assistant secretary to the Awami League subcommittee on international affairs, Abdus Sobhan Golap, who is accompanying Hasina, told New Age over telephone Sunday night.
   He said the government also sent a copy of the warrant for her arrest issued by a Dkaka court on Sunday to the airlines along with Wednesday’s press note imposing a ban on her return home.
   ‘The Awami League president tried to make her point that she had a valid ticket and it is her right to return home,’ said Golap, adding two British lawmakers also tried to convince the airlines, but failed.
   He said the airlines finally handed Hasina a written statement, explaining the reasons for their inability to issue the boarding pass and she went back to the residence of her younger sister.
   ‘I need to return home and I need to find a way out,’ Golap quoted Hasina as saying. She expressed her firm determination to return home ‘at any cost.’
   Golap said several hundred expatriate Bangladeshis, who went to Heathrow airport to see the former Bangladesh prime minister off, were annoyed by the government decision to block her return.
   Hasina left Dhaka for the United States on March 15 on a personal visit. On April 19, she went to London in a British Airways flight en route to Dhaka amid reports that the government would block her entry.
   The interim government on April 18 issued an embargo on Hasina’s return claiming that her arrival might lead to confrontation and disorder in the country.
   ‘Hasina’s return might create further confusion and hatred among the people,’ said a press note issued on Wednesday by the home ministry that blamed Hasina for making ‘provocative statements’ to the media and political gatherings abroad.
   Awami League leaders in Dhaka expressed their concern about the government’s bid to block Hasina’s return to Bangladesh.
   The acting president of the Awami League, Zillur Rahman, on Sunday expressed his annoyance and disappointment at the imposition of a ban on party chief Sheikh Hasina’s return to the country.
   Terming the allegations levelled against Hasina in a press note issued by the government on Wednesday as baseless and unacceptable, the acting AL president called on the government not to try to block her return home and to let law take its own course.
   The AL gave its reaction to the embargo on Hasina’s return home for the first time since the interim government imposed the bar on Wednesday.
   Zillur rejected the allegation of ‘irresponsible activities’ levelled against the former prime minister and the AL in the press note which claimed that a state of emergency had to be imposed because of the AL’s non-stop movement. He said that such allegations were totally unacceptable.
   ‘The president explained the reason for the declaration of a state emergency in his address to the nation on January 11, 2007. The country’s democratic forces, under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, launched the movement to thwart a conspiracy for holding elections on the basis of a fake voters’ roll and to protect the people’s voting right,’ he said.
   ‘It is her [Hasina] fundamental and constitutional right to return home,’ Zillur said adding that cases were lodged against the AL president when she was abroad.

A court on Sunday issued warrants for arrest of the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, party leader Mohammad Nasim, and Dhaka city Juba League leader Abdul Malek Kiron on charge of killing six people in a political violence at Paltan in Dhaka in October 2006.
   The court of metropolitan magistrate Mir Ali Reza issued the warrants and asked the police to inform him on May 28 of the execution of the order.
   The court passed the order accepting the charge sheet submitted by the police on April 11, which showed the three as absconding and prayed for an order for their arrest and attachment of their property.
   The police at night on April 10 pressed murder charges against 46 leaders of the Awami League and some of its left-leaning allies. However, Hasina, who is now trying to return home from the United Kingdom defying a ban imposed by the interim government, was not named in the first information report on the case.
   Enamul Haq, a Detective Branch inspector and investigation officer of the case, in submitting the charge sheet, told the court that Sheikh Hasina was included among the defendants as an abettor.
   The Awami League’s acting president, Zillur Rahman, termed the warrant for arrest of Hasina unfortunate as ‘on the one hand the interim government is trying to block her return and on the other declaring her an absentee.’
   The Paltan unit Jamaat-e-Islami amir, ATM Sirajul Islam, lodged the case with the Paltan police on October 29, the day after the immediate-past BNP-led alliance government handed over power to the caretaker government led by the president, Iajuddin Ahmed.
   The High Court allowed all the defendants in the case, except Hasina, Nasim and Kiron to be remanded on bail. Of the three, Nasim was arrested under the Emergency Powers Rules. He is now in jail.
   ‘As the three have failed to obtain bail, the court issued the warrants for arrest,’ Quamrul Islam, a defence lawyer, told reporters.
   The warrants were sent to different police stations in Dhaka for execution, court source said.
   The magistrate, Mir Ali Reza, also asked the Awami League and left leaders, who are remanded on bail, to appear in court on May 28 for hearing in the case.
   The 43 others named on the charge sheet are Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal president Hasanul Huq Inu, Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil, Awami League leaders Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Shahara Khatun, Haji Mohammad Selim, and HBM Iqbal, Juba League president Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Juba League leaders and activists Abdus Salam Khan Selim, Sabuj, Ali, Mona, Ratan, Abul, Nazir Ahmed Babu, Zakir Hossain, Shafiqul Islam, Salauddin Khokon, Sultan Mia, Abul Kashem, Alamgir Hossain, Nowsher Ali, Abdul Latif alias Khepa, M Zakir Hossain, Sohel Shahriar alias Shotgun Sohel, Shahabuddin Kiron, Jahangir Haider Chowdhury alias Kangali Jahangir, Ashraf Hossain Talukdar, Shahin Latif Titu, Omar Faruk, Siddiq Nazmul Azam, Russel, Mojibur Rahman Maijja, Belayet Hossain, Abu Syed, Bashir Ahmed, Shahriar, and Jahangir Alam alias Khaki Jahangir, Bangladesh Chhatra League general secretary Mahfuzul Haider Chowdhury Roton, who is now in jail on another charge, and Chhatra League leaders and activists Sheikh Mostain Billah, Saiful Islam Bakul, Rai Mohon Shil, and Suman.
   The police, meanwhile, pressed charges against Jamaat amir Motiur Rahman Nizami and nine leaders of Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir in another case filed by the Dhaka city Workers Party secretary, Quamrul Ahsan, with the Paltan police on October 30 for killing a party activist in the same incident of political violence.
   About this case, the court said it was also ready for trial. He called on the chief metropolitan magistrate of Dhaka, Jalal Ahmed, to take necessary steps to begin the trial of the case.
   A Detective Branch inspector, AKM Idris Ali, submitted the charge sheet against the 10 Jamaat and Shibir leaders as the investigation officer of the case.
   Besides Nizami, the other accused in the case are Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, assistant secretary general Kamaruzzaman, and leaders Mokbul Ahmed, ATM Azharul Islam, M Rafiqul Islam, and ATM Sirajul Islam, Shibir president Shafiqul Islam Masud, secretary Zahid Hossain alias Zahir, and Dhaka University unit president Shishir Monir.

The High Court on Sunday issued a rule on the government to explain within five days why it would not be directed to produce former prime minister Khaleda Zia in court to show that she is not detained or confined in her cantonment house.
   A High Court bench of Justice MA Wahhab Mian and Justice M Emdadul Haque, however, passed no interim order, although the petitioner’s counsels sought an order on the interim government not to send the BNP chairperson, who governed the country for 10 years in two terms, out of the country.
   Seeking the interim order, the petitioner’s counsel Rafiqul Islam Miah told the court, referring to newspaper reports, that the government might force Khaleda to go abroad even before the final hearing in the case.
   ‘In that case, law will take its own course,’ the court said.
   The court issued the rule as additional attorney general Salahuddin Ahmed apparently failed to convince it that Khaleda was not detained or confined.
   The court’s order came hot on the heels of reported readiness of the embroiled former ruler to go abroad amid a cleansing operation against corruption during the period of the interim administration.
   The same bench on April 19 asked the additional attorney general to inform the court on Sunday whether former prime minister Khaleda Zia was illegally or improperly confined or detained in her house in the Dhaka cantonment.
   The court’s queries came on a habeas corpus petition filed by Babul Chowdhury, who identified himself as a member on the executive committee of the Jatiyatabadi Muktijoddha Dal, the freedom fighters’ wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
   As the matter came up for hearing on Sunday, Salahuddin told the court that Khaleda was neither detained nor confined. The court, however, did not accept his oral statement and asked him to reply the queries swearing an affidavit.
   The additional attorney general accordingly filed an affidavit after the lunch break of the court saying no detention order was issued against Khaleda Zia and she was not confined in her house.
   ‘But the petitioner categorically said she [Khaleda] was confined in the residence and was restrained from going out of the house to visit the National Martyrs’ Memorial on March 26 and to attend sessions of prayers after her party fellow KM Obayedur Rahman died,’ the court said, asking Salahuddin whether he could confirm in writing that there was no restriction on the free movement of Khaleda.
   ‘I will try to do so tomorrow,’ Salahuddin replied, saying the petitioner filed the petition based on newspaper reports while the same newspapers published reports on Sunday saying that Khaleda met her eldest son, Tarique Rahman, now in custody, on Saturday clearly showing the fact that she was not in confinement.
   Pleading for the petitioner, his counsel Azizul Haque told the court that Khaleda Zia was illegally and improperly confined or detained in her cantonment house. Former BNP leader Rafiqul Islam Miah and Mahbubuddin Khokan also appeared for the petitioner.
   The petition described in the court the former prime minister’s position as that of a ‘detenue,’ claiming that she was ‘unlawfully detained and confined to her Dhaka cantonment residence for an uncertain period.’
   The government has also restrained her from going out of, and others from entering, her house except for close relations, said the petition.
   The government has also severed the telephone connections to her house and she is ‘incommunicado to everybody in the country, including her relatives and well wishers,’ argued Azizul Haque.
   Although the law enforcers have not issued any formal order of detention against her, it is evident from media reports that she is being ‘illegally confined or detained in her residence,’ he said, referring to reports recently published by daily newspapers.
   He also alleged the government was putting ‘tremendous pressure’ on Khaleda Zia to leave the country as soon as possible.
   ‘The government has even tried to blackmail Khaleda Zia by arresting her youngest son, Arafat Rahman Koko, to force her to agree to leave Bangladesh.’
   ‘The detenue [Khaleda] in her statement to Reuters has said that she will not leave the country; she will rather face trial if she is guilty of any offence,’ said the petition.
   Citing media reports, the counsel submitted, as a case in point, that the government has also imposed an embargo on the return of the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, now on a private visit to the United States, to Bangladesh.
   ‘This way the government is trying to keep both the leaders outside the country,’ he said.

Uncertainty looms up over the plan of the ruling quarters to send the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, abroad after a High Court rule on the government on Sunday asking it to explain in five days why it would not be directed to produce her in court to show that she was not detained or confined.
   Khaleda, who was reportedly restrained from going out of the house or allowing anyone, except for her close relations, to visit her in the house in the Dhaka cantonment for three weeks, was struggling to avoid being sent abroad despite intense persuasion from the ruling quarters.
   She resisted such persuasion till Sunday evening and appeared to be trying to buy time on different pleas, including meeting her eldest son, Tarique Rahman, avoiding a chartered flight and refusing to fly with all the family members together.
   ‘She is yet to get a new flight schedule for her departure,’ a family source told New Age at about 7:45pm on Sunday.
   The High Court on Sunday issued a rule on the government to explain within five days why Khaleda should not be produced in court to show that she was not interned at her house in the Dhaka cantonment. The court order came on a petition filed challenging the alleged confinement of Khaleda and seeking a court order for the authorities not to send her abroad.
   Khaleda earlier refused to fly out in a special plane after the quarters had asked her to get ready to fly by Saturday evening. About a dozen of her family members were expected to accompany her in a Saudi Arabia-bound flight.
   The well-furnished house of Khaleda now looks lacklustre as she prepares to leave the country with her family members, family sources said.
   She gave away many household objects, utensils, her pet mynahs to relatives. Other birds caged in the house were set free.
   Khaleda went to bed in the morning, a family source said. ‘She passed the night saying her prayers. No one disturbed her till she woke up at about 3:00pm.’
   A family source in the evening on Sunday said she was suffering from fever. Her blood pressure and sugar level were also fluctuating.
   Khaleda’s family physician, Brigadier General Mahtab Uddin, visited her in the evening.
   She read newspapers earlier in the afternoon and passed time with her grand daughters — Zaima, Zahia and Zafia — in the balcony. No official statement on her possible departure was, however, available till the evening.

The Tk 26,000 crore annual development programme of the current fiscal year is likely to be trimmed to Tk 21,600 crore mainly due to poor internal revenue income and dismal state of foreign fund disbursements, sources said.
   The slash of Tk 4,400 crore, which is 16.92 per cent of the original outlay, will be the highest in a decade, showed the planning commission statistics.
   Finance and planning adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam recently approved the downward revision of the 2006-07 development outlay. Executive Committee of National Economic Council will decide on the revised ADP in its meeting expected later this month, planning commission sources said.
   Local currency component is going to see the bigger cut, from Tk 17,250 crore in the original outlay to Tk 13,650 crore in the revised one, reflecting the lackluster performance in the domestic revenue sector.
   Expectations for project aid from external sources have also been lowered to Tk 7950 crore from Tk 8750 crore in the original ADP.
   Internal revenue income has been estimated to total Tk 11,480 crore at the end of the fiscal year, Tk 3,200 crore less than the budgetary projection. Total external fund support is projected to be lower by about Tk 1200 crore from Tk 11,318 crore, expected in the original budget.
   Tk 102 crore was expected in the 1006-07 budget as food aid, whose prospect now looks bleak, planning officials said.
   The estimate of Tk 2070 crore in the head of development support credit in the original ADP will remain unchanged in the revised ADP, sources said.
   ‘Poor revenue performance and frustrating scenario of external aid are the reasons behind the downward revision of development budget,’ a high official in the planning commission told New Age.
   Disbursement of foreign aid was $532 million between July and February of the current fiscal compared to $718 million in the same period of the previous fiscal, sources in the finance ministry said.
   The revenue income up to March of the current fiscal year posted only nine per cent growth, while budgetary projection is 21 per cent growth, according to National Board of Revenue.
   The ADP saw slashed by 15.78 per cent in 2001-02 fiscal year, 10.93 per cent in 2002-03, 6.40 per cent in 2003-04, 6.81 per cent in 2004-05 and 13.95 per cent in 2005-06.
   ADPs were revised upward during the previous three fiscal years (from 1998-99 to 2000-01). But development outlays were slashed by 6.4 per cent in 1996-97 and 4.68 per cent in 1997-98 fiscal year.
   The finance and planning adviser at a recent seminar of the Economic Reporters’ Forum said both the revenue income and development expenditure targets set for the current fiscal year were ambitious.

South Africa received an injury scare ahead of their big semi-final against Australia, with their captain Graeme Smith suffering a minor knee injury ahead of the St Lucia clash on Wednesday.
   Smith hurt his knee while fielding in the match against England that enabled South Africa to qualify for the semi-final. According to a team spokesman, Smith did not play a full part in Saturday’s training session.
   ‘He has a niggle and thus didn’t train as intensively,’ the team spokesperson told Reuters, adding that Smith was advised by team physio Shane Jabbar to manage the problem through rest.
   The South African captain has scored 441 runs in the tournament so far at a strike rate of over a hundred. His
   five fifties include a 91 off only 65 deliveries against Scotland. Smith has also struck the second highest number of fours in this World Cup to date, second only to Australia’s Matthew Hayden.
   South Africa, ousted by Australia in the 1999 World Cup semi-final, are bidding to make it to their first-ever final of a World Cup. The only other time South Africa entered the last four was in 1992 when they went down to England, thanks largely to the rain rule prevalent at the time. In 1996 they lost to West Indies in the quarter-final while their 2003 home campaign ended disappointingly, with a first-round exit.
   Meanwhile, South Africa vice-captain Jacques Kallis has warned that Australia’s unbeaten record in the World Cup will count for nothing when the sides meet in the semi-final in St Lucia on Wednesday.
   ‘They’ve played some very good cricket in this tournament, being unbeaten, while we’ve had a few hiccups along the way,’ said Kallis.
   ‘But now it all doesn’t mean much. There’s all the hype before the game but carrying your points through doesn’t count for anything in a semi-final. It’s a game where who produces the goods on the day will win.’
   Kallis said both teams would go into the match with high expectations.
   ‘They’ll carry a lot of confidence through because of the way they’ve played but we’re also confident after a massive win against England.’
   Staying calm will be a focus of the South African team, according to Kallis.
   ‘There’s no need to stress the importance of the game. It’s important that we stay relaxed and calm. From our perspective the trip to the Caribbean has been a positive thing.
   ‘We’ve had some pressure situations, like when we faced possible elimination in the match against England. We’ve had some other close calls to deal with and we’ve managed to stay calm throughout.’
   Kallis is one of four survivors from the dramatic tied semi-final against Australia at the 1999 World Cup in Birmingham, together with former captain Shaun Pollock, wicketkeeper Mark Boucher and batsman Herschelle Gibbs.
   All four said after a team practice Saturday that they believed the experience of playing in what at the time was rated the greatest one-day game of all time would have positive benefits.
   ‘From our side we gained a lot of experience in that game,’ said Kallis.
   ‘Looking back there are a few things that we might have tried to do differently so the experience we’ve carried around for all these years will probably stand us in good stead.’

The High Court has the jurisdiction to dispose of bail petitions of any accused person in a criminal case under the apparently unassailable Emergency Powers Rules 2007.
   The High Court bench of Justice Nazrul Islam Chowdhury and Justice SM Emdadul Haque ruled so in its verdict delivered on Sunday, resolving the debate it invited on March 29 over the dilemma after revocation of the right to seek bail.
   The High Court has the jurisdiction to dispose of the bail petitions under Sections 497 and 498 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) even under the ongoing state of emergency, and the court has the discretionary power of granting or not granting bail to any accused person after considering the merits of the case, observed the court in the verdict.
   The issue first came up during the hearing of a bail petition by a High Court bench of Justice Nazrul and Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury on March 29, when the deputy attorney-general argued that the court was barred from dealing with bail prayers by the Emergency Powers Rules, which were amended on March 21 to bar accused persons from filing any petition with any court seeking bail during inquiry, investigation or trial of a case.
   The chief justice reconstituted the bench with Justice Nazrul and Justice Emdadul on April 15. When the new bench referred the matter to the chief justice for taking necessary steps, he ordered the bench on Wednesday to dispose of the case.
   Accordingly the new bench on Thursday re-opened the hearing of the issue. Kamal Hossain, MA Malek, Rafique-ul Huq, Mahmudul Islam, Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan and Rawshan Ali gave their arguments as amici curiae (court’s friends), and additional attorney-general Salahuddin Ahmed appeared for the government.
   After hearing the issue, the court on April 19 started delivering the verdict that was concluded on Sunday.
   All of the amici curiae argued that the restriction was imposed on ‘any court or tribunal’ and the Supreme Court was not included in the term ‘any court or tribunal’.
   If any restriction is imposed on the Supreme Court, the rules have to specifically mention the Supreme Court, as the term ‘court’ cannot include the Supreme Court, they contended.
   Since the Constitution has detailed provisions on ‘Supreme Court’, ‘lower courts’ and ‘tribunals’ in three different chapters, the term ‘any court or tribunal’ cannot include the Supreme Court, they argued.
   The amended rules say that notwithstanding any provisions contained in Sections 497 and 498 of the CrPC, no person will be allowed to seek bail from ‘any court or tribunal’.
   As the High Court deals with bail petitions under Section 498 of the CrPC, the court asked Kamal Hossain and MA Malek whether the clause bars the High Court from dealing with such petitions.
   Both of them answered in the negative, saying that the High Court was not barred from dealing with bail petitions, as the Supreme Court (including the High Court) has supervisory authority over the lower courts and tribunals and as the rules have not specifically mentioned the High Court.
   The courts, specially the High Court, have the inherent power to deal with the matters on which any law imposes restriction on the courts, they argued, citing a number of judgements delivered by different High Courts including the Supreme Court of India.
   Opposing the arguments of the amici curiae, additional attorney-general Salahuddin Ahmed argued that the restriction was also imposed on the High Court.
   Rule 19A of the rules stipulates that any court or tribunal will have to conclude the trial of any case under the rules within 45 days.
   Referring to Rule 19A, the court said that the expression ‘any court or tribunal’ mentioned in this rule definitely meant the trial court.
   Admitting the court’s contention, Salahuddin argued that the High Court was also a trial court.

The president’s men have fallen on hard times.
   With US president George W Bush already facing a tough second term with a dismal approval rating hovering around 30 per cent, his inner circle has been hit hard by scandals and a chorus of calls for resignations.
   Attorney general Alberto Gonzales has faced a barrage of criticism and calls for him to step down over his handling of the firing of top prosecutors.
   Bush’s political guru Karl Rove, a White House aide once dubbed ‘Bush’s Brain,’ has consistently been the target of animosity from the administration’s harshest critics who see his hand in many scandals.
   Even leaving the administration doesn’t leave one safe.
   The World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, the former Pentagon deputy chief, is hanging on to his job by a thread amid a favouritism scandal over a hefty pay raise to his girlfriend, a bank employee.
   Two of the most criticised ‘Bushies’–as the president’s loyal confidants are often called–have already lost their jobs after Democrats took control of Congress from Bush’s Republicans in November elections.
   Donald Rumsfeld, an architect of the Iraq war, resigned as defense secretary just a day after the November 7 elections that were marked by deep voter anger over the conflict.
   The next election casualty was John Bolton in December, a fellow hawk who was unable to stay on as UN ambassador as the Democratic-held Senate would have likely refused to confirm him at the post.
   Is the Bush White House crumbling with two years left in his term? ‘In one sense, yes,’ said political analyst Eric Davis.
   Gonzales, a longtime Bush aide who was his legal advisor during his term as Texas governor in the 1990s, was grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee this week to explain his role in the firing of eight US attorneys, which Democrats say was politically motivated.
   A top Republican, senator Tom Coburn, bluntly called for his resignation.
   White House foes want Rove to testify about his own role in the scandal.
   A Washington Post columnist questioned if Rove, Wolfowitz and Gonzales can be trusted.
   ‘Today’s topic is credibility–specifically, recent claims by certain high-ranking present, former and perhaps soon-to-be-former Bush administration officials,’ columnist Eugene Robinson wrote this week.
   But in the end, analysts say, when Bush and his inner circle have long left the White House, the scandals will only be a footnote under the issue that most worries Americans: Iraq.
   ‘In five, 10 years from now, when people talk about George W Bush, I think it’s going be about Iraq, not Alberto Gonzales, Paul Wolfowitz or Karl Rove,’ Davis said.

The Election Commission has recommended that the interim government should allocate Tk 450 crore in the next budget for the preparation of the electoral roll with photographs and the national identity cards.
   The recommendation was made when all the three election commissioners, led by the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, called on the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on Sunday.
   ‘We discussed the Election Commission budget and recommended that the government should allocate Tk 450 crore in the next budget for the electoral roll project,’ election commissioner Sakhawat Hussain told reporters in his office after the meeting with Fakhruddin.
   Sakhawat said the chief adviser had assured them of providing all sorts of assistance for the commission.
   The election commissioner said they also discussed the possibility of getting financial assistance from donors and lending agencies.
   Election commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain and acting EC secretary Humayun Kabir also attended the meeting at the Chief Adviser’s Office.
   The commission is, meanwhile, planning to hold dialogues with civil society groups at nine places across the country on the proposed electoral reforms. The commission will also hold dialogues at the national level on April 26.

The season’s first nor’wester, couple with driving rains, ripped through the capital city Sunday evening, causing power outages in many areas and tailbacks on the streets and lanes.
   Weather officials told New Age wind speed of the tropical storm, which continued for about four hours from 5:25pm, ranged between 35 and 37 kilometers per hour. A total of 63mm rainfall was recorded in the evening, disrupting normal life and causing sufferings to evening commuters unprepared for the sudden change in weather.
   A 33-kV grid substation at Moghbazar tripped plunging its adjoining areas into darkness. Power supply in different areas, including Karwanbazar, Mouchak, Kakrail, Satmasjid Road, Jatrabari, Demra, Tejgaon, Mirpur and in the old parts of the city was severely disrupted as power lines were snapped by the violent wind and fall of trees.
   Billboards collapsed and electric posts were blown away in some places.
   Electricity supply was restored in many areas within hours, officials said.
   No casualty was, however, reported so far.
   Khulna and Barisal divisions and parts of four other divisions are likely to witness stormy weather and rains with thundershower today. Day temperature will remain unchanged, met office told New Age.

The trial court deferred the hearing in the Tk 1 crore extortion case against Tarique Rahman, son of the former prime minister, Khaleda Zia, to May 8 as it was yet to receive the copy of the April 17 High Court order staying all proceedings in the case for the next six months. The court of Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Abdur Rouf Khan asked Tarique’s counsel to submit a copy of the High Court order on May 8.
   The High Court in its ruling on April 17 also asked the government to explain why the case against Tarique should not be quashed.
   The police did not produce the senior joint secretary general of BNP, who is now detained at Kashimpur jail, in the trial court due to the stay order.
   Before issuance of the stay order, the magistrate had deferred hearing of the charge framing against Tarique twice, on April 5 and 17, as the defence counsel, Sharfuddin Khan Mukul, informed him that they had filed a writ petition with the High Court praying to quash the case.
   Tarique was arrested on March 8 at his mother’s Dhaka Cantonment residence under the Emergency Powers Rules. Ahmed Amin, owner of
   Al-Amin Construction Foundation, later filed the extortion case with the Gulshan police against him.

The police filed a case against 2,500 jute mill workers Sunday for the recent violence in the district’s Khalishpur industrial zone in Khulna.
   Meanwhile, workers alleged that the police tortured the workers throughout Saturday night in the name of hunting for troublemakers at workers’ colonies.
   The police filed the case a day after the clashes between security officials and workers left about 100 people, including many policemen, injured.
   The workers of four temporarily closed state-owned jute mills fought street battles Saturday. The day’s protest stemmed from the closure of the mills and demand for unpaid salaries.
   The Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation Thursday temporarily shut Platinum Jubilee Jute Mills, Star Jute Mills, Crescent Jute Mills and People’s Jute Mills in Khalishpur after the workers held demonstrated for two days for arrears.
   BJMC secretary Fazlul Haque in a faxed message Thursday evening ordered to keep Platinum Jubilee Jute Mills closed for 45 days and Crescent Jute Mills, People’s Jute Mills and Star Jute Mills for 21 days. A total of 70 workers were arrested Saturday for the rampage. The Police sent them to jail Sunday.
   The workers alleged that the police swooped on them Saturday night during a house-to-house search. The police, however, denied the allegations.
   Crescent Jute Mill’s former trade union leader Joynal Abedin, a cancer patient, said the police beat him when they searched his house Saturday night.
   ‘Police mercilessly beat me after entering my house. Then they wanted to take me away. They spared me finally after I showed prescription and other papers of diagnosis,’ Abedin said.
   Many said they were not staying home fearing police attacks.
   The Khulna metropolitan police commissioner, Nazmul Haque, said they searched the houses Saturday night but he had no idea about the torture.
   ‘It is true that we have searched their homes for troublemakers. But we did not torture anybody,’ Haque told the news agency Sunday.
   The local police administration Sunday used loudspeakers to ask the workers to stay calm. The call however warned the workers, saying toughest action would be taken if anybody dared to criticise the government or shelter the troublemakers since a state of emergency is in force.

The authorities have decided in principle to use the so-called 'snubbing method' to 'kill off' (close or seal) the leaking well at the Titas gas-field as per the recommendations that an US expert made on Sunday.
   It will take at least one to two months to kill off the well by using the snubbing method, and burning of gas at a rate of 5 million cubic feet per day will continue till then, said officials of Petrobangla. That means the country will lose around $10,000 daily, since 1,000 cubic feet of gas is worth two to three dollars in the local market. (In the international market the price is considerably higher.)
   The expert, Bob Grace, of the US Company GSM, at a meeting with officials of Petrobangla, Bapex and BGFCL and energy experts on Sunday, recommended that either the snubbing method or drilling of a relief well could kill off the well to stop uncontrolled emission of gas.
   Sources present at the meeting said that although both the methods were expensive, they had decided in principle to use the snubbing method as drilling of a relief well is costlier and time-consuming.
   'The expert said that the well is under control and is being properly maintained by the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company. We are now diverting 30 million cubic feet of gas to the national grid and burning 5 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) emitted by the well,' said a source.
   To kill the well, last Monday Bapex started to pump in mud, which not only failed to work, but rather increased gas pressure, which forced the authorities to burn all the gas spewing out from the well at a rate of 30 to 35mmcfd in an uncontrolled manner in the first 54 hours.
   The well will have to be sealed to stop uncontrolled emission of gas which poses the risk of a blow-out, and also to determine whether gas leakage through cracks in the field has been occurring because of this troubled well.
   Snubbing is a method in which the drill string (small pipe) has to be pushed ('snubbed') in and out of the bore of the well repeatedly and under high pressure, said an expert.
   He said that mud will be pumped into the tubing of the well through small pipes to kill off the well. The pipes will be fixed one after another to create a long pipe gradually.
   Officials said that a snubbing unit will have to be brought from the US, which will take around one month to one and half months after completing all procedures.
   'After bringing the unit it may need one to two weeks to kill off the well if everything goes smoothly. But it if some complications arise in the well, you never know how long it will take as we are dealing with a highly technical issue,' said an official who was present at the meeting.
   He said that the cost of the unit and the operation charge of the crew, who will come from the US, will be very expensive.
   'We will know by tomorrow how much it will cost in total. Whatever the cost, we will have to kill off the well for the sake of the biggest gas-field of the country which has 15 other wells,' he said.
   'We are now burning gas worth $10,000 each day, whereas the field is producing 400 mmcfd gas worth $8,00,000. We have to save the field's total reserve of around 2 trillion cubic feet of gas, worth around $4-$6 billion,' he said.
   He said that the US expert would present a detailed proposal on using the snubbing method on Monday, and then the authorities would take the final decision.
   Officials, however, said that it was yet to be confirmed whether well no-3 of the Titas gas-field was the major source of gas leakage in the field.
   'If we find that the leakage has been reduced after killing off the third well, it will be confirmed that the third well was the reason. But if the leakage continues, we have to check the other wells to find the source of the leakage,' said an official.
   The authorities first noticed the huge cracks in the field and leaks in late December 2006, although many local people had said the cracks and bubbling out of gas were there for many years.

France voted Sunday in its most unpredictable presidential election in decades, with a dozen contenders jostling to be the man or woman who will satisfy the country’s burning desire for change.
   Rightwinger Nicolas Sarkozy and socialist Segolene Royal were favourites to make it through to the run-off ballot on May 6, but opinion polls showed millions were still undecided despite months of frenzied campaigning.
   So both centrist candidate Francois Bayrou and far-right veteran Jean-Marie Le Pen were still hopeful of a second round spot.
   ‘Anything can happen!’ declared the front-page headline of Le Parisien, while the Journal du Dimanche said: ‘Incredible suspense for an historic vote.’ Memories are vivid of the last presidential election in 2002, when the rabidly anti-immigrant Le Pen shocked France and the world by qualifying for round two.
   Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, has pushed a right-wing programme based on the themes of work and national identity. But his tough talk sparked fears he would divide rather than unite the nation.
   Royal, an army officer’s daughter with an almost permanent smile, has presented herself as a nurturing mother figure and has proposed a leftist economic programme that would keep France’s generous welfare system intact.
   Bayrou, a former Latin teacher, wants to end the left-right political divide by forming a national unity government.
   All three come from a new generation of politicians, and in a campaign that has been as much about personalities as policies, all claimed to represent a break from a discredited past.
   Whoever wins the presidency will have to deal with a huge public debt, stubbornly high unemployment and seething discontent in the high-immigration suburbs which in 2005 broke out into widespread rioting.
   He or she will also need to soothe French angst about factories closing and shifting to China or India.
   Around 44.5 million registered voters–an increase of 3.4 million on 2002 – were choosing a successor to Jacques Chirac, 74, who steps down next month after leading the country for 12 years.
   By midday, 31 per cent of voters had turned out to vote, election officials said, which was 10 percentage points higher than at the same time in the 2002 vote.
   Only the two front-runners qualify for the second round. Initial estimates of the result were expected the moment voting ends at 8:00pm (1800 GMT).
   Opinion polls have consistently given a clear first round lead to Sarkozy, the 52-year-old leader of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement, who on Sunday morning cast his vote along with his wife Cecilia at a polling station in a Paris suburb.
   Royal, 53, a former environment minister who wants to be France’s first woman president, has been in second place followed by Bayrou, 55, and the 78 year-old Le Pen.

Dhaka and Yangon are likely to sign two deals on the early commencement of the construction of the ‘Myanmar-Bangladesh Friendship Road’ and avoidance of double taxation, when both sides hold foreign minister-level talks on April 27.
   Officials of the ministries of communication and commerce told New Age on Sunday that foreign affairs adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury is scheduled to leave for Myanmar’s capital on April 25.
   ‘Chowdhury will be accompanied by communication secretary Mahbubur Rahman in his three-day tour,’ added an official of the communications ministry.
   According to the tentative schedule, Iftekhar will hold official talks with Nyan Win, his Myanmar counterpart. In the meeting both sides will discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations and are expected to sign two deals if they reach an agreement.
   Concerned officials said that apart from construction of the road, the issues of bilateral trade, contract farming and repatriation of the Rohingya refugees will feature prominently in the discussion.
   An agriculture ministry official said Dhaka is seriously thinking of striking a deal on contract farming with Myanmar.
   ‘We are trying to involve the private sector in this regard, and a business delegation will visit Yangon after the foreign adviser’s trip is concluded,’ the official added.
   Chowdhury is also scheduled to call on General Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council and the country’s top military ruler, and Prime Minister Soe Win.
   Responding to Yangon’s request, Dhaka will finance the construction of the first 23 kilometres of the proposed cross-border road (Gumdun to Bawalibazar inside Myanmar) including bridges and culverts. The estimated cost of the project is $20.20 million.
   The idea of building the Bangladesh-Myanmar road link was broached in 2003, when Myanmar’s prime minister and General Than Shwe held official talks with the then prime minister, Khaleda Zia, in Yangon.
   Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the road link between Dhaka and Yangon in April 2004.
   The foreign adviser is scheduled to return on April 29.

At least 42 civilians were killed on Sunday as clashes between Ethiopian forces and Islamist insurgents in the Somali capital raged for a fifth straight day.
   As rival forces exchanged artillery after a night of sporadic battles, demolishing buildings in northern and southern Mogadishu, scores of corpses lay abandoned in the streets as shooting barred residents from collecting them.
   Hundreds of terrified civilians continued to stream out of the city.
   The latest deaths brought the death toll from the past five days to 210, Sudan Ali Ahmed, head of the Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation that tracks casualty figures, said. Sixty-two injured civilians were taken to hospital.
   Residents said the toll could be much higher as many battlefields were still inaccessible and the wounded were crowded in the capital's hospitals, with many lying on corridors and outside.
   'Bodies are lying rotting in areas we cannot access,' Ahmed said, citing his teams on the ground. 'We are appealing to both sides to stop the fighting. This is unacceptable the civilians are bearing the brunt.'
   Residents said the clashes were continuing unabated.
   'We can see Ethiopian tanks firing artillery and mortar shells towards civilian areas. They are firing indiscriminately and the mortars are landing everywhere,' said Abdulkarim Ali, a resident of southern Mogadishu's Gupta area.
   'The fighting is going on heavily in this area. Both sides are using machine guns and anti-aircraft guns and many people are trapped in their houses,' said Mukhtar Mohamed, a resident of Fagah in northern Mogadishu.
   'May Allah save us because He is the only one who knows when this fighting will end,' he said, adding that casualties were 'apparently increasing in this neighbourhood and people are fleeing.'
   Four days of fighting earlier this month claimed at least 1,000 lives in clashes that were described as the worst bloodletting since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
   The UN says at least 321,000 people have fled Mogadishu since February. Many are camped under trees and makeshift hovels in the city's outskirts, without supplies and where disease outbreaks have been reported.
   Prospects for a ceasefire were shattered last week after the Ethiopian forces refused to meet elders from Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan until commanders of the insurgency attend.

The communications ministry will hold a presentation on the Asian Highway at the chief adviser’s office on Tuesday to apprise Fakhruddin Ahmed of the latest state of the United Nations-sponsored road network connecting 32 Asia
   Pacific countries from Tokyo to Ankara.
   Sources said that the chief adviser’s office recently asked the communications ministry to apprise it of the latest situation of the 1,40,000 km road network initiated by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in its 1992 session to facilitate investment in the region’s trade, commerce and tourism.
   ‘We will inform the chief adviser of the problems and benefits of joining the network,’ said a top official of the communications ministry.
   Bangladesh had earlier refused to ratify the road network agreement by December 31, 2005, the deadline for ratification, because of its ‘reservations’ about the proposed Route AH1 as both the entry and exit points of that route are in India, which the government feared would eventually turn out to be a ‘transit route for India’.
   The AH1 route proposed Benapole in Jessore or Banglabandha in Panchagarh as the entry point and Tamabil in Sylhet as the exit point of the Asian Highway.
   The government had preferred route AH41 to Teknaf as that route’s entry point would have been in India and the exit point in Myanmar.

A Tk 22,000 crore annual development programme could be realistic for the current fiscal year, given the poor revenue earning, lower-than-expected external funds and limited implementation capacity of the public sector agencies, the government's economic think-tank said.
   The implementation of the current year's annual development programme has been sluggish, with only 25 per cent of the allocated funds being used during the first half, a review report of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies revealed on Sunday.
   The BIDS review styled 'Meeting the challenges of macroeconomic stability and growth' said that the sustainability of high growth rate is facing the challenges from inadequate infrastructures, including power, port and transport, which hamper economic activities both in rural and urban areas.
   It stressed that measures should be taken up to ensure macroeconomic stability. Otherwise, it cautioned, adverse conditions might jeopardize the prospects of higher growth in the next fiscal year.
   The study said that poor revenue collection and lower-than-expected disbursement of external aid adversely affected the development financing and the government resorted to excessive domestic borrowing to bankroll the budget deficit.
   'These trends need to be restrained, otherwise the government is likely to overshoot the borrowing targets in the fiscal year 2007,' the report said.
   However, it noted that performance of external sector has been encouraging, with seven months' export revenue surging by 21 per cent over the year-ago period and inward remittance posting a 29 per cent growth in the first half.
   Remittances amounted to $4.8 billion in FY06, which was 25 per cent higher than the FY05 level.

A man was injured and two vehicles, heading towards Sat Rasta crossing from Moghbazar, were damaged when the intercity Trina Express rammed into the taxi cab and the van stranded on the railway at the Moghbazar level crossing at about 10:30pm Sunday.
   The injured was taken to hospital, but his identity could not be immediately established.
   Shamsu, who was in charge of the level crossing, said he had lowered the barriers five minutes before the train arrived, but the traffic congestion could not be cleared.
   A passenger of a cab was thrown out of the hind shields when the train hit the taxi. The driver of the taxi managed to get away.
   The driver and the helper of the covered van also jumped out of their vehicle, which was dragged for about twenty meters by the train.
   The entire Tongi Diversion road came to a halt for about an hour after the accident.

An extortion case was filed against former Jamaat MP Gazi Nazrul Islam with the Shyamnagar police station in Satkhira on Sunday.
   Jalaluddin Sardar, manager of an ice factory owned by AL leader Khwaja Nazimudin, filed the case accusing Nazrul of extorting Tk 2 lakh through his personal assistant Gausul Azam on May 2 last year.
   Eearlier, a fish trader had filed an extortion case against the Jamaat leader, who is already in custody on corruption charge.
   Another report from Sherpur said Hazrat Ali, health assistant of Sreebardi Upazila Health Complex, filed an extortion case against Mahbubul Haque Rupom, younger brother of former MP Mahmudul Haque Rubel for demanding Tk 1.82 lakh as extortion.

Iraqi militia groups have drawn up detailed plans to seize Prince Harry as a hostage when he arrives in Iraq next month, reports the Gurdian on Sunday.
   Some of the most notorious paramilitary factions in southern Iraq claim they have informants placed inside British military barracks in Iraq monitoring the third in line to the throne.
   The claims call into question the Ministry of Defence’s decision to allow Harry to serve in Iraq where he and his unit will be seen as a valuable target.
   Last night an MoD spokesman said: ‘We have not concealed the fact that Harry is going out there and the bad guys know that he’s coming, and we expect that they will consider him a high-profile scalp.’
   Despite the threats, Whitehall officials ruled out the possibility that the prince might not be sent to Maysan, the most volatile province in southern Iraq, where British casualties are mounting.
   Harry will serve with the Blues and Royals for a six-month tour of duty. He is trained as a troop leader to take command of four Scimitars and will be deployed in Iraq alongside 11 men who will serve under him.

The Narayanganj district judge’s court on Sunday framed corruption charge against Awami League leader Shamim Osman who remained fugitive.
   Senior special judge Abdul Kuddus Mia, framing the charge, said Shamim had failed to submit statement of his wealth as directed by the Anti-Corruption Commission to comply with in person within 72 hours of serving the notice.
   Deputy director of the district ACC filed the case, trial of which begins today in absence of Shamim.

Five persons were killed and at least 15 injured in a road accident on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway at Cholitatola Temunia under Bahubal upazila in Habiganj on Sunday.
   The police, quoting eyewitnesses, said the accident took place when a Sylhet-bound truck of Pritam Tavels loaded with bamboo skidded off the road, crushed a rickshwa and then rammed into a roadside tea stall.
   Three persons died on the spot and the other two died on way to hospital, the police said, adding the victims include a motor cycle rider and a rickshwapuller.
   The victims were identified as motor bike rider Debu Biswas, 55, of village Khoria, rickshwapuller Abed Ali, 40, of village Manika, Dhananjay Shukla Baidya, 22, of village Zaria and Foysal, 18, and Oli Mia, 28, of village Cholitatola Nowagaon.
   Seven critically injured persons, including Jitendra, 30, Ismail, 15, and Ustar Mia, 35, were admitted to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital. Kamal Mia, 50, and Awal, 40, were admitted to Bahubal Hospital, the police said.

A case was filed against former state minister MA Mannan, also the BNP’s joint secretary, and his former assistant private secretary Motalib with the Joydevpur police Saturday night.
   Subinspector Abdur Razzak filed the case on charge of misusing iron sheets meant for relief supplies which were seized from the house of Motalib at Bhawraid in the district headquarters.
   The police said MA Mannan gave the iron sheets to local Hazi Kadam Ali Forkania Madrassah.
   Motalib’s father Mohammad Ali told the joint forces that the 24 corrugated iron sheets, which were left over after the construction of the madrassah, were used in their house with the permission of MA Mannan.

Workers Party of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Trade Union Federation condemned the police attack on jute mill workers at Khalishpur industrial area in Khulna during the last four days particularly on Saturday.
   The workers were staging demonstrations in protest against the layoff of four jute mills in Khalishpur area and the police attack that left about 50 demonstrators injured, said the party’s politburo in a statement on Sunday.
   The police charged the protestors with batons and fired teargas shells to calm them down. The immediate-past government stopped allocation of funds for the production of the mills and did not pay the workers in arrears.
   The workers demanded that the interim government should take steps for running the mills. But it ordered to lay off the jute mills instead of taking any step in this regard, the politburo regretted.
   The World Bank and International Monetary Fund favoured the layoff of the mills and the interim government followed their prescriptions, the Workers Party said demanding withdrawal of the layoffs.
   Meanwhile, the federation president Abul Kalam Azad and general secretary Faizul Hakim in a statement also demanded withdrawal of the government’s decision to lay off the mills.
   They demanded immediate release of the arrested workers.