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The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Friday warned that the political parties boycotting the polls would be held responsible if the results of the January 22 elections appeared to lack any ‘acceptability’.
   Khaleda strongly criticised rival Awami League for its threat to resist the polls by enforcing blockade and laying siege of to the president’s office, and ‘pass the blame for holding a less-participated election’ on to the BNP.
   Referring to the idea of seeking an interpretation from the Supreme Court over holding the polls after the constitutionally mandated 90-day time-limit, she expressed her doubt whether the Awami League would accept the higher court’s interpretation, if there is any.
   ‘It is not the participating political parties, but the boycotting parties which will be held responsible if the results of the [forthcoming] elections appears to lack acceptability,’ Khaleda told a crowded press conference at the Sonargaon hotel.
   Along with the leaders of the BNP-led four-party alliance, Anwar Hossain Monju, chairman of his faction of the Jatiya Party, was present at the press conference. It was his first public appearance on the podium with top leaders of the BNP-led political camp.
   ‘By boycotting the forthcoming polls, the Awami League is trying to pass the blame for holding a less-participated election [on to the BNP],’ she said adding that the BNP had called on all political parties to contest the January 22 polls, as such participation could strengthen the democratic process in the country.
   Khaleda accused the Awami League of trying to make the BNP ‘a victim of an unstable situation’ by boycotting the polls. ‘The Awami League is trying to push the country, which is now election-oriented, towards anarchy, to divert the nation from prosperity to devastation.’
   ‘We have doubt whether they [Awami League] have any confidence in the Supreme Court? Have they demonstrated any such confidence [in the past]? We have confidence in the court,’ the immediate-past prime minister said without giving any hint whether her party would accept a probable deferred date for the polls. ‘We are certain the Supreme Court can interpret the constitution, but it cannot give any directive against or beyond the constitution.’
   She said her party always wanted election in accordance with the constitution and ‘that has been our only demand’. In this regard, she listed the demands that Awami League has so far made to the caretaker government and mentioned as to how many of them have so far been implemented.
   Khaleda questioned, ‘Who can say what the Awami League will be pleased with? The Awami League on December 23 agreed to participate in the January 22 polls. But suddenly, even after filing nominations, it announced the boycott on January 3. Now, who will guarantee that they will not do the same in future?’
   ‘They failed to provide any tenable reason for the sudden change of their mind,’ she said. ‘There may be only one reason — that is disqualification of the Jatiya Party chairman [HM Ershad] on legal ground to contest the polls.
   But the Awami League had participated the 2001 polls which he [Ershad] failed to contest on the same ground,’ she said.
   ‘In fact the Awami League, which seems to have lost its way after the ‘oar and stick violence’ on October 28, has declined to participate in the polls as it is yet to be assured of winning the polls,’ she said, adding: ‘They will continue to agitate until they get a foolproof means for victory.’
   Referring to Awami League’s demand for a ‘flawless voters’ roll’, she asserted that it was her government which took initiative to introduce national ID card with photographs of the voters on it. ‘But it was Awami League that stood in the ways of implementing the project’.
   Khaleda reiterated that her party and alliance would participate in the January 22 polls and hoped that the ‘peace loving and law-abiding people’ would vote her party back to power to lead the country to prosperity. ‘…We will contest the polls,’ she declared.
   She also sought all-out cooperation of the armed forces and law enforcing agencies including the Rapid Action Battalion and the police so that the polls could be held ‘peacefully’.
   Asked whether the BNP will give its consent to sending the matter of a possible polls date deferral to the Supreme Court as reference, the party’s secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, who replied to all queries for the chairperson, said a reference can be sent to the Supreme Court on a matter which may need clarification. ‘But there is no ambiguity in the constitution about holding the polls within 90 days. We want that the polls must be held within 90 days to maintain constitutional continuity, or there will be a vacuum.’
   Khaleda was flanked by the BNP standing committee members M Saifur Rahman, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Moudud Ahmed, Jatiya Party faction chairman Anwar Hossain Manju, Jamaat-e-Islami leaders Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid and Muhammad Quamaruzzaman, Bangladesh Jatiya Party faction chairman Naziur Rahman and Islami Oikya Jote faction chairmen Fazlul Haque Amini and Moulana Muhammad Ishaq.
   A host of leaders of the BNP and its allies and front organistions also attended the press conference.
   Asked about the Awami League’s allegation that the president and chief adviser, Iajuddin Ahmed, was playing a partisan role, Mannan Bhuiyan said, ‘the Awami League is used to term things impartial if it goes in favour of them only.’
   Replying to a query, he said the BNP would take steps to prepare a flawless voters’ roll and introduce voter identity card if it was voted to power in the forthcoming polls.
   Asked which party would act as the opposition in the 9th parliament as major parties had decided to boycott the polls, he said, ‘It is a post-election matter.’

The Awami League-led alliance on Friday straightaway dismissed the speech of the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, in which she pointed out the constitutional compulsion for holding an election within 90 days, ignoring the ‘repeated violations of the constitution’ by the caretaker administration.
   Terming the speech false, fabricated and self-contradictory, the alliance leaders also held Khaleda Zia responsible for delivering a ‘distorted’ speech that did not mention the flawed voters’ list which violates the provisions of the constitution. She is always mentioning the constitution, they said, but has never talked about the many violations of the constitution that she and her party are responsible for, including the flawed formation of the caretaker government and Iajuddin’s arbitrary assumption of the office of the chief adviser to the interim administration.
   ‘Khaleda Zia always brings up the constitution as an excuse for holding the election within ninety days, although a correct, comprehensive voters’ list is must for every locality as per the Section 121 of the constitution,’ said the coordinator of the alliance, Abdul Jalil, also AL’s general secretary, at a press conference at AL’s Bangabandhu Avenue office.
   ‘The voters’ list should be publicly displayed for 15 days for correction, but if the election is held on January 22 how can it be possible?’ he asked. ‘Is this not a violation of the constitution?’
   The BNP’s chairperson addressed a press conference in a hotel on Friday afternoon where she spoke about various issues related to the upcoming election and the withdrawal of candidatures by nominees of the AL-led alliance.
   Jalil also criticised Khaleda’s mentioning of seeking reference from the higher court about the constitutional explanation for the 90-day bar, and asked, ‘Who is Khaleda to seek reference as the president is responsible for the task?’
   The AL’s general secretary also questioned, ‘Where was the BNP chairperson when the president captured the post of the chief advisor to the caretaker administration, violating section 58 (ga) of the constitution?’ He also asked why the bench of the Supreme Court was dissolved just before delivering the verdict on the illegality or legality of Iajuddin being both president of the country and chief adviser.
   ‘The BNP chairperson said the US ambassador and the National Democratic Institute had said that this false and fabricated voters’ list was good enough for an election, which was not only untrue, but also tarnished the image of the country,’ said Jalil, adding that Khaleda had wilfully distorted the speech of the US ambassador and NDI.
   He also said that Khaleda had publicly supported the unconstitutional activities of the caretaker administration because it had followed her orders from the very beginning.
   Senior leaders of the alliance were present at the briefing along with others.

The leaders of the Awami League-led alliance on Friday said the caretaker government was preparing for holding an ‘illegal’ election in the country and reiterated that they would resist the one-sided polls scheduled for January 22.
   The Election Commission has failed to prepare a correct voters’ roll and holding elections without a proper voters’ list is ‘illegal’, the alliance leaders told a rally in the capital on Friday.
   ‘We shall resist the farcical elections at any cost,’ they said and called on the people to foil president Iajuddin Ahmed’s plan to ‘install BNP-Jamaat in power through a sham election.’
   The AL-led alliance on Friday staged countrywide demonstrations demanding resignation president Iajuddin Ahmed from the post of the chief of the caretaker government and a flawless voters’ roll for holding a free and fair election.
   Dhaka city unit of the alliance organised a protest rally in front of the Awami League central office on Bangabandhu Avenue.
   The Jatiya Party led by Hussain Muhammad Ershad and the Zaker Party, both components of the AL-led expanded alliance, held separate rallies at Segunbagicha and in front of Golap Shah Mazar respectively.
   Addressing the rally on Bangabandhu Avenue, AL presidium member Amir Hossain Amu said, ‘Most of the political parties will not take part in the January 22 election and the one-sided polls will not be acceptable at home and abroad.’
   The party presidium member Tofail Ahmed said, ‘We shall resist the election scheduled for January 22 by any means as it is going to be staged under a blueprint prepared by the BNP-Jamaat alliance.’
   Coordinator of the alliance and AL general secretary
   Abdul Jalil called upon the people to make the countrywide blockade on January 7 and 8 a success.
   The alliance leaders called upon president Iajuddin Ahmed to appoint a new chief of the caretaker government and take initiatives to announce a fresh election schedule after preparing a flawless voters’ roll.
   ‘We are never afraid of elections but it must reflect people’s mandate….we are ready to participate in a free and fair election with a correct voters’ roll,’ they said.
   Chaired by the AL Dhaka city unit general secretary Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, the rally was addressed, among others, by AL presidium members Abdur Razzak, Suranjit Sengupta and Matia Chowdhury, Workers Party general secretary Bimal Biswas, Samyabadi Dal general secretary Dilip Barua, Ganatantri Party presidium member Nurur Rahman Selim, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal central leader Shirin Akhter and National Awami Party leader MA Gani.
   Meanwhile the Liberal Democratic Party also announced a series of agitation programmes to resist the ‘farcical’ election on January 22 and demanded the resignation of president Iajuddin Ahmed from the post of the chief of the caretaker government.
   Following an emergency meeting of the party presidium, chaired by its president AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, the party secretary general Abdul Mannan announced the programme at a press briefing in the capital on Friday.
   The party will hold three grand rallies in three divisional headquarters including Dhaka on January 9, 10 and 11.
   The LDP initially announced a countrywide non-stop blocked for January 12-22 which would be finalised at the joint meeting with the Awami League-led alliance, Abdul Mannan said.
   The LDP will take part in the countrywide blockade announced by the AL- led alliance for January 7 and 8.
   Our correspondent from Sylhet informed that the AL-led grand alliance held a rally at the court point in the city on Friday afternoon in protest against the caretaker government’s plan to hold a sham election on January 22 and demanding resignation of the chief adviser Iajuddin Ahmed, proper update of the voters’ roll and rescheduling of the election.
   Alliance leader Abul Maal Abdul Muhit told the rally that all the 18 aspirants from the constituency, except Saifur Rahman, former finance and planning minister of the BNP-led alliance government, had withdrawn their nomination papers to identify the enemy of the mass people.
   ‘Iajuddin Ahmed must be ousted from the office of the chief adviser of the caretaker government as he has illegally bypassed the constitution to implement the blueprint of the BNP-Jamaat alliance in order to bring it back to power,’ Muhit said.
   Sylhet city mayor Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran said the AL never feared election, rather the Khaleda-Nizami alliance was trying to hold farcical polls with the help of Iajuddin as they knew the people would reject them.
   Urging the law enforcers including police and army to discharge their duty impartially, mayor Kamran warned the administration of Sylhet would be paralyzed if any leaders or activists of the grand alliance were arrested or harassed during the blockade on January 7 and 8.
   Principal Habibur Rahman, senior Nayeb-e-Amir of the Khelafat Majlish, said that his party had joined the grand alliance to foil the conspiracy of the Jamaat against the countrymen as well as against Islam.
   Chaired by ANM Shafiqul Haque, the rally was addressed, among others, by Arash Ali, Kalandar Ali, Abul Kashem Mantu, Bahar Khandakar and Misbah Uddin Siraj.
   Our Rajshahi correspondent reports: The AL-led alliance at a rally demanded resignation of the ‘self-proclaimed’ chief of the caretaker government and correction of voters’ roll.
   Speakers at the rally said the people wouldl not allow any farcical election to be held in the country and would resist it even at the cost of blood.
   Local leaders of AL, NAP, JSD, JP and LDP including AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, Nawsher Ali, Mustafizur Rahman Khan, Zulfiquar Mannan Jami, Abdullah Al Masud Shibly, Afzal Al Iqbal and Nurul Huda addressed the rally.
   Later, the alliance brought out a procession that paraded the main streets of the city.
   Our Rangpur Correspondent reports: The AL-led alliance brought out a huge procession in the town as part of its nationwide agitations demanding free and fair elections.
   After the procession, the alliance leaders from a rally at Payera Square called upon
   the people to foil any election campaigns anywhere in the district.
   Moazzem Hussein Lablu, Rafiqul Islam Dulal, Abdur Rouf Manik, Fakruzzaman Jahangir and former MP Moshiur Rahman Ranga spoke at the rally.

The expanded alliance led by the Awami League is planning a series of agitation programmes, including non-stop countrywide blockade next week, to stop the caretaker government from holding ‘one-sided’ general elections on January 22, alliance insiders said.
   Senior leaders of the AL-led alliance, which boycotted the polls citing lack of atmosphere conducive to fair polls, at a meeting Friday night reviewing the latest political situation, said they would completely halt the government through agitation before the polls.
   The meeting, chaired by Awami League presidium member Amir Hossain Amu, decided on holding a rally in Paltan Maidan on January 10, where the alliance would announce more agitation programmes against the interim government for not meeting the alliance demands for voters’ roll correction, polls reschedule, and resignation of Iajuddin Ahmed as chief adviser to the caretaker administration.
   It also decided to carry over the blockade, scheduled for Sunday and Monday, till Tuesday if the government try to foil the programmes, said the alliance coordinator, Abdul Jalil, also the Awami League general secretary, after the meeting.
   He also urged the officials to abstain from the activities of the ‘farcical’ elections.
   Asked about the nature of ‘tougher’ movement, an alliance leader told New Age the next course of action to be announced in the January 10 rally might include a weeklong nationwide blockade, coinciding with the polling day.
   The Liberal Democratic Party, one of the components of the expanded alliance, earlier announced a 10-day non-stop nationwide blockade beginning January 12.
   Asked whether the programme will be similar to that of the Liberal Democratic Party, Rashed Khan Menon, president of the Workers Party, another component of the alliance, said the programmes would be tougher.
   The meeting, at the Gulshan residence of Jalil, was attended by the leaders of the alliance components, including Ershad-led Jatiya Party, Liberal Democratic Party, Workers Party, Jatiya Samajtarik Dal, Ganatantri Party, Gana Forum and Zaker Party.
   At a news briefing earlier in the day, the Liberal Democratic Party announced to enforce the blockade to stop the January 22 elections.
   The party held the briefing after an emergency meeting of the party presidium, chaired by its president AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, in its presidium office in Dhaka. Secretary general Abdul Mannan addressed the briefing.

The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, has said a countrywide non-stop blockade for 10 days will be enforced to resist ‘vote thieves’ if the demands of her alliance for fair election are not met by January 7-8.
   Addressing a meeting of the Jatiya Sramik League at the AL’s Dhanmondi office on Friday evening, she urged the police, RAB and BDR to help people resist the vote thieves, ‘otherwise those who will cooperate with them will also be identified as thieves,’ reports the United News of Bangladesh.
   Earlier on the day at a meeting with the leaders of the Awami Shechchhasebak League at her Dhanmondi office Sheikh Hasina, reiterated that the people would resist the ‘one-sided election’ scheduled for January 22 by forcing the caretaker government to refrain from holding ‘the election as per the directives of the BNP-Jamaat alliance’.
   ‘The people will resist the one-sided election if it really takes place on January 22 and will struggle to get their voting rights,’ said Hasina while addressing a meeting to exchange views with the leaders of the Awami Shechchhasebak League.
   Criticising the BNP’s chairperson, Khaleda Zia, for giving the excuse of the constitutional provision to hold the elections within 90 days of power transfer, Hasina said that Khaleda had remained silent about the constitutional obligation of compiling an updated voters’ list before the polls.
   She also said that BNP had held a one-sided election on February 15, 1996, but the people had rejected it outright, and if any election takes place without the participation of the major parties, the people will reject it again.
   Hasina instructed the leaders and activists of the Shechchhasebak League to go to the people and make them aware of their voting rights.
   She urged the members of the armed forces, BDR, RAB, police and other law-enforcing agencies to stand by people, not the BNP-led alliance.
   Senior leaders of AL and Shechchhasebak League were present at the meeting, which was presided over by Bahauddin Nasim, the Shechchhasebak League’s president.
   They discussed the present political situation and the ways to wage a tougher movement to force the caretaker government to postpone the polls and announce a fresh date for election after properly updating the voters’ list and reconstituting the Election Commission.
   The United News of Bangladesh reported on Hasina’s meeting with the Jatiya Sramik League where she said ‘We have tried our best to participate in the election but we cannot step into a trap of a stage-managed election and give it legitimacy,’ she said.
   Hasina, also the leader of the AL-led expanded alliance, said the blueprint for rigging election was in place. To participate in such election means accepting a rigged election, she said, adding, ‘Our only task is to resist the vote thieves.’
   Criticising the president, she said after assuming office of the chief adviser by violating the constitution, Iajuddin Ahmed was now referring to the constitution for holding the election within 90 days.
   The AL chief warned the chief advisor of dire consequences of arrest and torture of her party leaders and activists.
   Sramik League president Abdul Matin Master was present at the meeting which was also addressed by its general secretary Roy Ramesh.

At least 29 more people died in cold wave and of cold-related diseases in 36 hours till Friday evening as the mild cold wave continued for the fifth day.
   The number of such deaths now stands at 71, mostly in the north, in the current spell of cold wave that began on January 1. The spell is likely to continue for one more day, the Met Office said.
   The Met Office in Dhaka said although the temperature started to slightly increase from Thursday night, cold still felt severe as the sun was not visible in many parts because of dense fog.
   The lowest temperature recorded on Friday was 7.7 degrees Celsius in Srimangal, a bit more than Thursday’s 7.2 degrees Celsius in Chuadanga and Jessore.
   The New Age correspondent in Pabna reported deaths of at least four from cold-related diseases on Friday.
   The dead are Afaz uddin, 75, of Charkurulia, Rabiul Miah, 65, of Charkatra, Chapra Begum, 58, of Majhgram at Ishwardi and Eajuddin, 74, of Bejpara at Chatmohar.
   Scores of people have been suffering from Rota virus, asthma, cough, diarrhoea and fever.
   The civil surgeon, Md Abdul Wadud Miah, said diseases caused by cold are spreading fast in villages. A number of elderly and children suffering from the diseases have been visiting hospitals and health complexes every day. The poorer section of the population is the worst affected of all.
   Poor people suffering from extreme cold have thronged in front of the offices of deputy commissioners and upazila nirbahi officers demanding blankets.
   The district administration distributed 4,200 blankets among the people. Twenty-five thousand more people in the district need warm clothes.
   Agriculturalists feared that rabi crops, including potato and wheat, might be severely affected if the chilly weather continues for some more days.
   The Pabna deputy commissioner, Mohammad Golam Mowla, said he had sent an emergency fax message earlier in the day to the food and disaster management ministry seeking 10,000 blankets for distribution.
   The United News of Bangladesh reported that six, including a week-old baby, died of diarrhoea, pneumonia and other cold-related diseases in Natore town in 24 hours till 5:00pm Friday.
   The deceased were Sudhir Karmakar, 90, of Palpara, Sirajul Islam, 65, and the infant of Patuapara, Rabijan Bewa, 75, of Shukulpatti, Mostafizur Rahman, 55, of Uttargachha, and Rezina Khatun of Hugalbaria.
   In Thakurgaon, six died from cold and of cold-related diseases in 36 hours till 5:00pm Friday.
   They are Yunus Ali, 45, and Kamala, 20, of Moshaldangi village in Haripur upazila, Harimohan Barman, 68, of Betbari in Ranisangkail, Nazimuddin, 52, of Dalpatipur, and Goyaram, 70, of Dopail in Pirganj.
   In Panchagarh, deaths of two women were reported in the district headquarters. They are Latifa Begum, 85, of Boleyapara, and Jasiman Nesa, 70, of Damupara.
   In Magura, Abdur Rauf, 82, of Barishat in the district headquarters died in cold on Friday.
   In Rajbari, Abdur Rahman Sardar, 90, of Bura Mollarpara at Goalunda, died of cold-related diseases in Goalunda Hospital early Friday. Six, including two infants, died of diarrhoea and other cold-related diseases in Satkhira.
   Of them, four-day old Babu died at Sharsha of Tala, and five-day old Majnu died in sadar hospital on Friday.
   Abul Bashar, 70, and Mobarak Ali, 69, of Jhapaghata, and Nasiruddi, 75, of Sonabaria, at Kalaroa, and Rahima Begum, 72, of the district town died on Thursday.
   Local health office sources said more than 100 children were admitted to sadar hospital and other clinics with complaints of pneumonia.
   The New Age correspondent in Chapainawabganj said two died of cold-related diseases in sadar hospital on Friday.
   They were Razia Sultana, 20, of Huzrapur in the Chapainawabganj town and Durul Huda 35 of Nabab Jaigir at Sundarpur in the district headquarters. They had suffered from pneumonia and asthma.
   The Nilphamari correspondent said an infant, Rina Begum, 3, died of pneumonia Thursday night in Dimla upazila health complex.
   People living in the chars of the Teesta suffered the most. They are passing their days with out warm clothes and even food. No non-governmental organisations or government departments have yet taken up any step to distribute warm clothes among the people.
   The deputy commissioner’s office in Nilphamari said it was yet to receive a reply to its fax sent to the ministry on January 3 seeking 10,000 blankets.
   Dense fog, meanwhile, disrupted movement of inter-district buses, ferries and launches and several international flights.
   The Manikganj correspondent sad dense fog disrupted ferry and motor launch services on the Paturia–Daulatdiea route from Thursday midnight to Friday morning.
   The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation sources said ferry service was disrupted for nine hours the route. Two ferries remained stranded in the mid-river.
   The Aricha area office of the water transport corporation said the ferry movement was hampered because of dense fog.
   Dense fog also delayed several flights, including two Biman flights for Hong Kong and Kathmandu, at Zia International Airport in Dhaka.

The Bangladesh Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikya Parishad is preparing to float a new political party within the next one month to voice the grievances and opinions of the religious minorities as well as to campaign for and ensure their rights and interests.
   Bangladesh is the home to about two crore religious minority people belonging to Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian faiths, who are generally considered as a traditional vote bank of the Awami League.
   ‘We are going to float the new political party to lend voice to and ensure the rights of the oppressed, humiliated, depressed, and poor religious minority communities. Our grievances remain unheard and uncared for as neither the Awami League nor the BNP speaks for us,’ Binod Bihari Chowdhury, BHBCOP Chittagong city president, told New Age on Friday.
   ‘We will hold a meeting of the community leaders of our forum very soon to finalise the preparations for launching the political platform,’ he said, adding, ‘I think our party will be announced within a month.’
   Binod and BHBCOP Chittagong city general secretary Rana Dasgupta had filed nomination papers on behalf of the forum to contest the upcoming general elections for Chittagong-9 (Kotwali) and Chittagong-8 (Double Mooring) constituencies but later withdrew the papers for what they said was the lack of an atmosphere congenial to free and fair polls.
   ‘We cannot contest the polls with a flawed voters’ roll. But there is a rumour that we have withdrawn from the electoral race in line with the decision of the mega combine led by the Awami League, which is not true at all,’ Binod said.
   ‘We went for the candidature in the polls for the first time just to send a test message to the nation that we are preparing to float a separate political platform to fight for our cause,’ Binod explained.
   He criticised both AL and BNP leaders saying they were involved in politics merely to capture the power, not to do serve the people or assuage their sufferings.
   A number of local AL and BNP leaders, however, denied the allegation.
   Binod, a veteran of anti-British movement, also said, ‘It is very unfortunate that the Awami League, known as a secular party, has struck a deal with an Islamic fundamentalist party like Khelafat Majlish. We seriously condemn the pact.’ He regretted that ‘nobody appreciates the sacrifices we made for the country’s independence from Pakistan as well as the British Raj. We have always been deprived of our due rights.’
   The new political party, if floated, will nominate candidates for many constituencies across the country in case the parliamentary polls are held under a deferred schedule and in a free and fair atmosphere, Binod added.
   Sources said the BHBCOP was planning to float the political party to use it as a body for bargaining with the mainstream political parties about the rights of the religious minorities and for special facilities for them.

The army troops stationed at district headquarters will be mobilised tonight, on the eve of the two-day blockade called by the Awami League-led grand alliance, with instructions to keep the commodity supply line smooth and facilitate normal passenger transportation across the country.
   According to sources in the armed forces, about 20,000 troops that had been called out of barracks last month to assist the civil and police administrations in maintaining law and order were ready for deployment from district to upazila level, at land, river and air ports, and on the major road, railway and river routes.
   They said troops would be posted at various strategic points on the major highways as well as at bus and railway terminals and important bridges to make sure the movement of commuters and transportation of goods remained uninterrupted.
   ‘This time the role of armed forces will be different. They will try to make the blockade ineffective by keeping the public life normal,’ an army officer told New Age on Friday.
   The number of troops may be doubled to cover the entire country, he said, ‘since the density of their deployment will be more, it requires more forces to be called in.’
   Apart from members of the armed forces, a large number of contingents of the police, Bangladesh Rifles, Rapid Action Battalion, and Armed Police Battalion will be deployed on the streets to foil any attempt by pickets to barricade roads.
   Home ministry sources said the military troops and the law enforcers were asked to be strict and keep the major communication routes in and outside the capital city clear. They will be aggressive in stance against the ‘violators of law and order’.
   In Dhaka, military troops will be stationed at numerous points shoulder to shoulder with law enforcers to thwart any untoward incident. They are instructed not to allow setting up of any barricade on the thoroughfares and interception of commuters and vehicles on road.

President George W Bush’s top advisers are split over sending more US troops to Iraq and over the reliability of prime minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government, the Washington Post reported Friday, citing officials familiar with the debate.
   The advisers fear Maliki’s government may not provide the military support and implement the political reforms necessary for US forces to eventually withdraw, the Post reported.
   The report comes as Bush prepares to announce an overhaul of his Iraq strategy next week, and after several top aides tied to the Iraq conflict are replaced.
   Bush is tentatively set to give the speech on Wednesday, with Maliki unveiling his own new security plan a day or two earlier, the Post reported.
   The president is likely going to announce sending between one and five US brigades to Iraq, or up to 20,000 troops, several US news media sources including the Post reported.
   But the Joint Chiefs of Staff–the top generals and admirals that advise the president on military policy–believe the possible dangers of sending more US troops to Iraq outweigh
   the benefits, according to the Post.
   The all-volunteer US military is already stretched thin with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those 20,000 soldiers could be obtained only by extending tours of duty, re-mobilising reserve units and accelerating planned deployments, according to the US media.
   Senior US officials also fear the Iraqi government will not–or cannot–crack down on radical Shia militias, and that the country’s governing Shias cannot organise a moderate political centre in Parliament and pass reforms that would benefit Iraq’s Sunni minority, the backbone of the anti-US insurgency.
   Also in doubt: Iraq’s military commitment to US-led operations, with US military officials pointing to the high rates of absenteeism and desertion among Iraqi troops, the Post reported.
   Meanwhile, an American and his two Iraqi interpreters were kidnapped near the southern Iraqi city of Basra Friday, Basra police chief said. ‘The three were kidnapped this morning from Al-Haritha area north of Basra,’ said Mohammed al-Mussawi.
   Another police officer from Basra said the three were travelling in a black Opel car when three other cars full of gunmen ‘ambushed them and kidnapped them’.
   US embassy spokesman Louis Fintor in Baghdad said the embassy was ‘looking into these reports’.

The United States has called on the caretaker administration to act ‘swiftly and impartially’ to create an atmosphere so that all political parties can take part in the country’s 9th parliamentary elections.
   ‘We urge the caretaker government and the Election Commission to act swiftly and impartially to create conditions under which all parties can participate,’ the US embassy in Dhaka said in a press statement on Friday, two days after one of the major political alliances announced boycott of the polls saying that the atmosphere was not conducive to holding credible elections.
   It also suggested that the parties concerned should join together in constructive dialogue to create an acceptable environment.
   ‘Likewise, we call on all parties to set aside narrow, partisan agendas and join together in serious, constructive dialogue to create an acceptable environment for participation by all major parties in the elections,’ added the statement.
   Elections need to take place in an open, peaceful atmosphere with the participation of all political parties so that the voters can have confidence in the outcome. The process as it is unfolding certainly shows many imperfections, observed the US.
   The Awami League-led alliance, candidates of which had filed nomination papers, later withdrew their candidature accusing the caretaker administration of president Iajuddin Ahmed of bias towards the immediate-past Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance. It also said the Election Commission had failed to prepare a correct voters’ roll and called on the people to resist the January 22 polls.
   The interim government on the other hand insists that it has no other option but to hold the election by January 25, the constitutionally mandated 90 days timeframe. Bangladesh constitution stipulates that the general elections be held within 90 days on expiry or dissolution of parliament.
   In the press statement, the US government regretted the decision of the Awami League and its alliance to boycott the election, and called upon its leaders to reconsider the decision and offer the voters a chance to choose. ‘The voters of Bangladesh deserve a choice.’
   It stated that the US had long recognised and welcomed Bangladesh’s strong democratic traditions. Elections that are free, fair and credible are a critical part of any democracy.
   The US said the past elections in Bangladesh were generally acknowledged to meet internationally recognised standards of fairness.
   The statement called on the government and the Election Commission to take immediate measures for creating an atmosphere conducive to peaceful polls and said, ‘Our own support and observation missions will depend on whether such conditions are created.’
   The US statement said violence had no place in a democratic society.
   ‘While political protest is an integral part of democracy, violence is not. We praise the political leaders for the restraint they have shown and we call on all parties to reject violence, conduct themselves peacefully, and refrain from provocation.’

The Election Commission, in anticipation of the Awami League-led grand alliance’s avowed attempt to prevent or disrupt the January 22 elections, on Friday discussed law and order with senior security officers and asked them to deploy an adequate number of law-enforcers, apparently to ensure the security of voters on polling day. ‘We discussed the role of different law-enforcing agencies including the army, police and ansar in maintaining order, mainly on the day of election,’ the secretary to the EC secretariat, Abdur Rashid Sarker, told reporters at a press briefing in his office.
   Principal staff officer of the Armed Forces Division, Major General Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Inspector General of Police, Khoda Baksh Chowdhury, and home secretary, Abdul Karim, were present at the meeting.
   Sources said the meeting discussed what kind of security measures would be needed for transporting election materials from the EC secretariat to different constituencies despite transport blockade declared by the AL-led alliance.
   The different aspects of army deployment, ways of ensuring protection of election officials and election materials were also discussed, sources added.
   The army will be deployed for 20 days from January 10 to help the civil administration to maintain law and order before and after the election.
   The election commissioners, at an unscheduled meeting on Friday afternoon, approved the work order of printing the ballot papers.
   When asked whether the commissioners in the meeting discussed the extension of the election timeframe or the possibility of a Supreme Court referral of the issue of extending the timeframe, Sarker said the commissioners did not discuss the issue.
   He said that the government printing presses had started printing ballot papers from Friday, and are expected to complete the work by January 18. He did not disclose the number of ballot papers to be printed, saying that he was not aware of the total number of voters. He, however, said the print orders were made according to returning officers’ requirements. The EC also asked the presses to print 1,000 ballot papers for postal ballot.
   The ballot papers of 273 parliamentary constituencies with the names of the candidates and the symbols allocated to them will be printed. There will be no need of ballot papers for 17 constituencies as the candidates of these constituencies have been elected unopposed. The EC secretary said they were fully prepared for the polls and had procured all the election materials and had printed and packed various election-related forms, which would be soon sent to the polling centres.

Law enforcers began blanket arrest in Dhaka before the Awami League-led alliance’s two-day countrywide transport blockade beginning tomorrow.
   The law men, including Rapid Action Battalion personnel, arrested more than 850 people in the city till 4:00pm Friday, police sources said.
   The media cell of the battalion, however, denied making any such blanket arrest.
   The alliance leaders said the law men had raided the houses of their leaders and activists and arrested more than 500 since Thursday night.
   They claimed the government had launched the blanket arrest of their activists to foil their agitation programmes.
   The law men also harassed family members when they failed to arrest the leaders and activists, they said.
   The arrested activists included ward-level leaders of the Awami League and its front organisations, and the alliance partners.
   Police sources said the police were asked to identify the political activists from among the people in custody.
   A meeting was held earlier at Thursday night at the police headquarters where senior officials of the police and battalion were present.
   The officers-in-charge of the city also attended another meeting held at the police headquarters the same night and discussed the political agitation programmes.
   Sources in the police said the police were asked to keep strictly law and order during the countrywide blockade.
   The highest number of leaders and activists, 71, was detained in Lalbagh, followed by Mohammadpur with 68 and Kamrangirchar with 65. There was no arrest made by the cantonment police.
   The police said the people were arrested ‘in a special drive,’ but senior officials of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police denied making any wholesale arrest and said it was a routine job.
   ‘The police began the drive at the instruction of higher authorities to keep law and order to create an atmosphere conducive to holding the general elections,’ he said. The High Court earlier ordered not to harass innocent people in the name of such anti-crime raids.

The United Nations has suspended four peacekeepers amid allegations of child sex abuse in Sudan, the Daily Telegraph reported Friday.
   One of the four Bangladeshis was accused of serious sexual assault on a minor and sent home, while three colleagues were repatriated for allegedly knowing of his actions but failing to act in line with policy, the paper said.
   Earlier this week, the Telegraph claimed that UN staff and peacekeepers have been accused of abusing children as young as 12 in southern Sudan.
   There are some 10,000 UN personnel in the area who arrived two years ago to help with reconstruction after a 23-year civil war.
   The UN said Thursday it was verifying the allegations to see if they are new or already under investigation. But a spokeswoman for new chief Ban Ki-moon stressed that the UN’s policy on the issue was ‘zero tolerance, meaning zero complacency and zero impunity’.

The US government has imposed sanctions on Chinese, Russian and North Korean companies for selling missiles and other weapons to Iran and Syria, the Washington Times reported Friday, citing US administration officials.
   The three Chinese state-run companies, three Russian firms and a North Korean mining company were sanctioned under the Iran and Syria Nonproliferation Act in 2005, the Times reported.
   The sanctions prevent US government business and support to the companies for two years, and blocks US firms from selling certain items to them, according to the Times.
   The newspaper described the sanctions as symbolic, but US officials said they have been effective in singling out the companies for public shaming.
   Officials told the Times the sales included missiles to Syria, and weapons and weapons-related sales to both Iran and Syria.

The US president, George W Bush, on Friday named a new spy chief and filled a critical diplomatic vacancy as he put the last touches on a retooled Iraq strategy that critics charge may escalate the war.
   Bush, expected to unveil his new plan as early as Wednesday, nominated director of national intelligence John Negroponte to be US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice’s deputy—a key post vacant since July 2006.
   ‘I have asked John Negroponte to serve in this vital position at this crucial moment,’ Bush said, stressing the former ambassador’s responsibility to help ensure ‘that America speaks to the world with one voice.’
   And Bush announced that he had chosen vice admiral Michael McConnell, a former head of the National Security Agency, to replace Negroponte at the head of all 16 US spy agencies, officials said.
   ‘Mike will report directly to me. And I am confident he will give me the best information and analysis that America’s intelligence community can provide,’ the US president said.
   The reshuffle—begun when he dumped defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, after opposition Democrats captured the US Congress in November elections—came days before Bush was to reveal his plans for the unpopular war in Iraq. ‘It is vital they take up their new responsibilities promptly,’ Bush said in a message aimed at shaping their Senate confirmation. ‘I would hope that they would be confirmed as quickly as possible.’
   The embattled US president, his job approval numbers in the cellar, was to unveil his new Iraq approach as early as Wednesday, after consultations with key world leaders and US lawmakers, the White House said.
   The president has left untouched his other core national security aides—vice-president Dick Cheney, Rice and national security adviser Stephen Hadley—leaving doubts about how far-reaching his Iraq overhaul would be.
   In addition to shifting Negroponte—the first US ambassador to post-Saddam Hussein Iraq—Bush was to nominate the current US ambassador there, Zalmay Khalilzad, to be US ambassador to the United Nations, a top aide said.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, on Thursday asked more than 30 top officials to offer their resignation so he can move quickly to take control of the world body’s bureaucracy, aides said.
   Letters were sent out asking all officials at the assistant secretary-general level and up to submit their resignations, the aides said.
   Most of the officials at the most senior levels work under contracts that expire at the end of February.
   But the letters signal that Ban wants to replace some of these even sooner, the aides said.
   Most of the officials affected by the request would be replaced in coming weeks but some would be asked to stay on, they said.
   ‘I can’t really say this is normal,’ said one senior official when asked about the letters.
   ‘We all have contracts until the end of February, and most secretaries-general have kept on most of the top staff,’ said this official.
   Jean-Marie Guehenno of France, the undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, is expected to be among those spared, at least for the coming months.
   One idea under consideration, UN sources said, is dividing the peacekeeping department in two, with perhaps an American heading one part of it and France the other.
   Another possible reorganisation would combine the existing disarmament and political affairs departments and put them under one undersecretary-general who would also be responsible for leading anti-terrorism programs, the sources said.
   Ban, a South Korean who succeeded Kofi Annan on January 1, has been trying to ensure balance in his choice of top aides among permanent Security Council members instrumental in his election and key developing nations.
   He has also promised to include women among his top appointees, including the key post of deputy secretary-general, which is expected to go to a woman from sub-Saharan Africa and be named next week.
   Ban to date has named only a handful of appointees, choosing veteran Indian diplomat Vijay Nambiar as his chief of staff, award-winning Haitian broadcast journalist Michele Montas as his spokeswoman, Mexican environmentalist
   Alicia Barcena Ibarra as undersecretary-general for administration and management,
   and senior British diplomat John Holmes as under- secretary-general for humanitarian affairs.
   All but Holmes had been UN staff members. Nambiar was an adviser to Annan, Barcena was Annan’s chief of staff and Montas worked in the UN broadcasting division.

The Power Division has shelved for the time being an unsolicited and highly controversial proposal of a US-Irish joint venture, Cadogan-Manning, for setting up the 450MW Meghnaghat III power plant.
   The Cadogan-Manning submitted the proposal for installing the independent power plant although it had not been put out to tender.
   Sources in the division said they would not place the proposal before the caretaker government. ‘The next elected government will decide what to do with it,’ said
   a high official of the division.
   The division, however, sent the proposal to the Cabinet Division at the fag end of the immediate past government but it was not tabled before the cabinet committee on public purchase following intense criticism from power experts and the media.
   Sources in the division and Power Cell, which evaluated the proposal the joint venture submitted in 2005, said, although the high-ups in the last government, particularly those in the Prime Minister’s Office, initially pushed the proposal forward, they later turned reluctant to approve it reportedly as a result of a dispute over sharing the ‘commission’ for the job.
   According to the sources, a relative and close aide to a former state minister who later deserted the BNP and joined the Liberal Democratic Party had lobbied vigorously with a certain ‘Bhaban’ to get the proposal cleared but failed at the last moment following wrangles over how much ‘commission’ should go to the Bhaban and how much to other quarters concerned.
   The unsolicited proposal for setting up the plant at a cost of about $300 million made by the inexperienced and obscure US-Irish company is in violation of the existing private sector power generation policy.
   Although many at the Power Division tried to justify the proposal saying that the power price, 2.78 cents per unit, offered by the Cadogan-Manning was one of the lowest, there were allegations of manipulation in the price offer and of taking other financial benefits from the project.
   Besides, there has so far been no precedence of any IPP being set up in the country without tender and power experts have doubts and reservations about the company’s ability to set up such a big plant and supply uninterrupted, quality power.

Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri called for Muslim fighters to head to Somalia and deploy guerrilla tactics used in Iraq following the rout of the Islamic courts, in an audio message released Friday.
   ‘I call on all Muslims to respond to the call for Jihad (holy war) in Somalia,’ Osama bin Laden’s deputy said in the message posted on a website normally used by al-Qaeda.
   ‘The real war will start with attacks against the Ethiopian forces of aggression,’ said the recording, whose authenticity could not be verified.
   Ethiopia controversially helped Somalia’s transitional government force Islamist forces out of Mogadishu and other strongholds late last month, with the former Islamist leaders now on the run.
   Zawahiri called on Islamists to use suicide attacks, mines and ambushes against the government and also implicated the United States, which has backed Ethiopia’s right to intervene in Somalia and is helping track down the fleeing fundamentalists.
   ‘Don’t be impressed by the force of America: you have defeated it in the past,’ he said. ‘The mujahedeen have broken its backbone in Afghanistan and Iraq.’
   The message was released as an international contact group on Somalia started talks in Nairobi on ways of stabilising the conflict stricken nation.
   The Egyptian-born Zawahiri is regarded as the ideological powerhouse behind al-Qaeda, which claimed the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. There is a 25-million-
   dollar US bounty for information leading to his arrest or death.
   ‘I call on the lions of Islam in Yemen, on the Arabian peninsula, in Egypt, in Sudan and the Arab Maghreb to come to the rescue of their Muslim brothers in Somalia’ by all means, he said.
   ‘I call on the Islamic nation in Somalia (the Islamic courts) to hold fast on this new battlefield between the crusade carried out by America, its allies and the United Nations against Islam and Muslims,’ he said.
   He denounced what he called ‘the complicity of the UN Security Council. It approved the invasion by a resolution authorising international forces to be sent to Somalia and refused to adopt a resolution on withdrawing Ethiopian forces from this country.’
   Zawahiri frequently speaks for al-Qaeda in video or audiotapes.

The Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, said in an interview published Friday that the execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was shameful, unthinkable, and turned the ex-dictator into a martyr.
   ‘It was shameful and very painful,’ Mubarak said in an interview with Israel’s mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily.
   The interview marked the first comments by the Egyptian leader on Saddam’s hanging at dawn on December 30, as Muslims began celebrating the Eid al-Adha festival (feast of sacrifice).
   ‘People are executed all over the world, but what happened in Baghdad on the first day of Eid al-Adha was unthinkable. I didn’t believe it was happening,’ he said.
   ‘In the end, no one will ever forget the circumstances and the way in which Saddam was executed. They turned him into a martyr, and the problems in Iraq remained.’
   Saddam’s hanging has sparked outrage among Sunni Muslims, for taking place on the first day of one of the most important Muslim holidays, and for the grainy video released afterward that showed he was taunted and mocked as he stood on the gallows.
   Meanwhile, thirty people were injured Friday when protesters, angered over the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, clashed with police in Indian Kashmir, the police said.
   Muslim youths poured into the streets of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, at over a dozen places after Friday prayers and clashed with police who tried to stop them from marching.
   They were chanting ‘Saddam lives in our hearts’ and ‘down with America’.
   The police fired rubber bullets, teargas and used batons to disperse the protesters, who retreated into narrow lanes and hurled stones at police.
   ‘At least 30 people, including 10 policemen, were wounded in the clashes,’ a police spokesman said.
   Several thousand Muslims in the northern town of Sopore also took to the streets after Friday prayers and chanted anti-US and pro-Islamic slogans, the spokesman said.
   Most shops and businesses were also shut in Srinagar, as traders held a strike to protest last week’s execution.
   The strike closed down Srinagar’s main business centre, Lal Chowk, and its adjoining areas. Shops were also closed in many other parts of Srinagar, an urban hub of
   Sunni Muslim militants waging an insurgency against Indian rule.
   In Agra, two people have been arrested for hurling stones at tourists during violent protests over the execution of Saddam, the police said Friday.
   A guide was injured when protesters attacked a bus bringing tourists from the coastal Goa state late Thursday, Agra police chief Anil Rai said, adding at least one of the tourists was an Australian national.
   ‘A report has been lodged and two men were arrested for attacking the tourist bus,’ Rai said, a week after another group of foreign tourists were hit in similar protests over the execution.

In possibly his first interview since his ouster in 2001, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar told The New York Times he has not seen Osama bin Laden in five years, and vowed to continue fighting to free Afghanistan from foreign troops.
   ‘I have neither seen him nor have made any effort to do so, but I pray for his health and safety,’ Omar said of the al-Qaeda leader with whom he said he shares the ‘common goal’ of driving US troops from Afghanistan.
   In the interview published Friday, Omar said he had not seen or contacted bin Laden since he left Kandahar in December 2001 fleeing a US-led coalition that avenged al-Qaeda’s September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
   In answer to questions sent through a Taliban spokesman who the daily said often speaks to reporters by telephone from an undisclosed location, Omar said he had no regrets in having harboured the terrorist mastermind in Afghanistan.
   ‘Our stand to grant refuge to Osama bin Laden was based on principles,’ he said.
   ‘If there were people who were opposed to us giving refuge to him, they should have done so with logic and reason, and not using bullying or threats,’ Omar said referring to the US-led coalition that deposed the Taliban.
   He denied reports that his Taliban fighters were receiving assistance and safe haven from Pakistan. ‘We have not received any assistance so far ... The leadership, resistance and shura (decisions) are all based here in Afghanistan.’
   Omar said Afghan president Hamid Karzai’s plan to convene a meeting between Afghan and Pakistani elders to forge a peace was a conspiracy by US intelligence agencies.
   ‘Only those people who have sold out to foreign forces will participate,’ he said. ‘Our participation is absolutely out of question.’
   ‘First of all, foreign troops should leave Afghanistan and then the institutions they have created should be dismantled,’ he said.
   ‘Unless that happens, the war will heat up further. It will not decrease.’
   The New York Times stressed it was impossible to verify claims that the replies to their questions came directly from Omar, who says he is hiding in Afghanistan but is widely believed to be in Pakistan.

The NATO-led force in Afghanistan has urged parents to tell their children not to play with toy guns around military patrols, warning they could be mistaken for the real thing.
   The plea comes after a series of incidents in which International Security Assistance Force soldiers, a target of Taliban attacks, have shot and killed civilians fearing they may have been attackers about to strike.
   ISAF said in a statement late Thursday its troops had reported an increase in the number of replica or toy guns being played with by children around military patrols, which was a concern for patrol commanders.
   The increase may have come after the just-ended Eid holidays, when children may have been given toy guns as presents, it said.
   ‘Playing with them and pointing them at patrolling ISAF troops is a dangerous practice, which could result in troops mistaking the replica weapons for real ones, and reacting to protect themselves,’ the statement said.
   ‘I would urge parents to ensure that their children do not play with toy guns around patrolling troops. Some of the toy guns are very lifelike and can easily be mistaken by troops as the real thing,’ spokesman Major Dominic Whyte said.
   ISAF, which has more than 33,000 troops from 37 countries across the country, said this week one of its biggest mistakes last year was that it killed too many civilians as it went after the Taliban and other rebels.
   Around 1,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed in Taliban-linked unrest last year, including suicide and roadside bomb blasts carried out by the rebels and foreign force air and ground strikes against suspected militants.

The United Nations will be ready to start registration later this month of Maoist and army weapons as part of an historic deal to end Nepal’s decade-long civil war, a UN official said Friday.
   Under the peace pact formalised in November that ended the bloody insurgency, the government agreed to let the Maoists join the government in return for placing their arms and fighters in camps under UN supervision.
   The deal also provided for the army to put one-third of its 93,000-strong force along with some weapons under UN supervision.
   ‘Teams provided by United Nations Development Program are on a standby position to begin registration from 15 January, initially of weapons and later of combatants,’ senior UN official Ian Martin told reporters here.
   Thirteen UN arms monitors had already arrived in Nepal and would operate in two teams, one from Kathmandu and the other from Nepalgunj, 510 kilometres west of the capital, starting Monday after completing training.
   The Nepal army has agreed to store its weapons in one of its barracks on the outskirts of Kathmandu, he said.
   More UN representatives were due to arrive in the next few days and the balance of the 35-member monitoring force so far approved would be ready for deployment as of January 15, he said.
   The UN official said 111 Nepali ex-servicemen who served in the Indian and British armies will be ‘deployed to the seven main cantonment sites late next week’ to enable a 24-hour presence at weapons storage sites until the arrival of a full UN team.
   Nepal’s government, former rebels and the UN had agreed to recruit the former soldiers so that the monitoring process could begin while the UN presence was being built up.
   The landmark peace deal formally ended 10 years of civil war in the impoverished Himalayan kingdom that claimed at least 12,500 lives.

Three suspected criminals were wounded in an explosion while making bombs at Kanyadah village in Chuadanga on Friday.
   Police sources said the blast occurred while three persons – Nur Hossain of Baghadanga village, Rabiul Islam and Amin Uddin of Dhalda village in Sharsha upazila – were making bombs in a garden.
   Villagers said four bombs exploded simultaneously with a big bang in the evening, leaving them injured. The right hand of Nur Hossain blew off in the blast.
   The three fled the scene immediately following the explosion, witnesses said.

Aruna Sen, one of pioneering women communists in the subcontinent, died of brain hemorrhage in Dhaka National Medical College Hospital early Friday. She was 96.
   The leaders of all streams of the communist movement in Bangladesh visited the hospital for last viewing.
   Aruna was one of the frontline communist activists in the Indian subcontinent after the 1940s.
   Working with the then East Pakistan Communist Party, she organised women from backward section of society.
   She worked for the party for five decades and was involved with Nari Sangram Parishad until her death.
   Wife of legendary communist leader Shanti Sen, Aruna was born at Palang in Shariatpur. She faced repression and was imprisoned for several times during her long political career.
   The Communist Party of Bangladesh general secretary, Mujahidul Islam Selim, Workers Party general secretary Bimal Biswas, Samyabadi Dal general secretary Dilip Barua, Gana Sangskriti Front president Haider Anwar Khan Juno, singer Quamruddin Absar, Gana Sanghati Andolan coordinator Jonaed Saki, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal leader Shubhrangshu Chakrabarti, and Biplabi Chhatra Moitree president Mahfuzur Rahman Samudra visited the hospital.
   The body was taken to her village home at Rambhadrapur in Shariatpur for funeral.
   Aruna is survived by her only son, Chanchal Sen, a frontline leader of the Gana Sangskriti Front.
   The Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, and general secretary Bimal Biswas in a statement offered condolences on the death of Aruna, saying it was a great loss for the communist movement.
   The 11-Party Alliance also offered condolences at the death of Aruna.

The Uttar Pradesh government will approach the Supreme Court to seek permission to allow tourists to have a closer look at the Taj Mahal during night viewing of the monument.
   Visitors are currently stopped 323 metres away from the 17th century monument during night viewing, which is allowed on five days a month.
   ‘We will soon move the apex court to allow tourists up to 127 metres so that they can have a better look at the monument,’ the state tourism minister, Kawkab Hameed, told reporters on Friday.
   The Uttar Pradesh government will also seek the court’s nod to enable tourists to book their tickets for night viewing on the same day, instead of
   the present stipulation that bookings be made a day in advance.
   The cost of the tickets is Rs 510 for Indian tourists and Rs 750 for foreigners. Night viewing of the monument was revived in 2005 after a gap of 20 years.
   There has been a steady increase in the flow of tourists to the historic city of Agra, home to three world heritage monuments, Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri and Agra Fort, said Hameed, who is on a visit to Hyderabad.
   The number of tourists visiting Agra rose from 13,000 in 2003 to about 55,000 last year, he said.
   Outlining the state’s initiatives to promote tourism, he said the Japan Bank of International Corporation recently sanctioned a soft loan of Rs 6.80 billion for developing a Buddhist circuit linking six centres of importance.

A 10 year-old boy accidentally killed himself imitating Saddam Hussein’s hanging after watching the video clip on television, the Houston Chronicle reported Thursday.
   The boy tied a slipknot around his neck while on a bunk bed on New Year’s eve, the paper said.
   The boy’s mother told police that he watched a report on Saddam’s death on the Spanish-language Telemundo news broadcast before the accident.
   The boy was curious about Saddam, and asked an uncle who was taking care of him and other children about the execution, according to the Chronicle.
   A while later one of the kids noticed the boy was missing, and the uncle found him dead in his room, according to the Chronicle.
   In Pakistan, a nine year-old boy hanged himself from a ceiling fan on January 1 also trying to copy hanging scenes from Saddam’s execution video.
   The two-and-half minute film of Saddam’s execution taken shot on a mobile telephone camera has spread like wildfire on the Internet.

Extremist party men killed two BNP activists at by slitting their throat at Amla Sadarpur of Mirpur in Kushtia at night on Thursday.
   The victims are Saheb Ali, 30, and Hashem Ali, 35, of Barabaria at Amla Sadarpur.
   Sources said, 10 to 12 extremist party men picked up the victims and killed them in a paddy field at Rajnagar.
   Purba Bangla Communist Party (ML–Lal Pataka) claimed responsibility for the killing by making phone calls to local daily newspapers. They also made calls to the police station.
   One Dilip Biswas, passing himself off as a regional commander of the party, said the two had been killed for working as agents of the Rapid Action Battalion and the police.
   The Kushtia BNP said the two were BNP activists.