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Over a week on since its assumption of office, the military-backed interim government of Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed has neither outlined the policy it plans to pursue nor spelled out how long it seeks to stay in power.
   The council of advisers does not have a clue about the tenure of the interim government.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, proclaimed a state of emergency and dissolved his cabinet on January 11, admitting to his caretaker government’s failure to prepare the ground for contested and credible general elections.
   Fakhruddin has maintained a low profile since his installation as the chief adviser on January 12, although the law adviser to the interim government, Mainul Hosein, told New Age Saturday that he might address the nation within a day or two.
   ‘The chief adviser will address the nation through radio and television soon. He has discussed with us the issues to be addressed,’ he said.
   Mainul said the government’s prime objective was to hold the election, for which law and order should first be improved. ‘The government is working on it.’
   The council of advisers has had two meetings so far. Matters related to the elections, such as reconstitution of the Election Commission, introduction of voters’/national identity card, preparation of a flawless electoral roll and creation of a level playing field for the political parties, are learnt to have been discussed in the meetings.
   However, officials say, the meetings yielded no consensus on any of the issues.
   The officials also claim that the plan to hold dialogue with the major political parties has not yet taken a shape, nor has a comprehensive proposal that the interim government said it would prepare.
   Clampdown on criminals with political links and demolition of unauthorised structures in the capital and elsewhere remain the only visible actions by the government.
   Over the past nine days, members of law-enforcement and security have carried out several raids across the country and detained more than 15,000 people.
   Also, an adviser to the interim government has recently told the media that there would soon be a massive campaign against corruption and corrupt people.
   As the interim government maintains silence over its tenure, most of the political parties, especially the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, have started voicing their demands for the elections to be held and power handed over to an elected government as soon as possible.
   They have also urged the government not to harass innocent people in the name of the anti-crime clampdown.
   Political analysts believe the issues that the interim government plans to deal with cannot be addressed or redressed overnight.
   The government should also discuss the issues with the major political parties, they say.
   In any case, the political parties would not allow the caretaker government to run the country for an indefinite period, said Professor Ataur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Political Science Association, when talking to New Age.
   ‘The tenure of the government should not be more than six months. It should finish necessary reforms within this timeframe,’ he said.
   Constitution expert M Zahir believes the government should make its position clear about the holding of the general elections, especially after the Iajuddin-led caretaker government’s failure to conduct the polls within the constitutionally stipulated 90-day timeframe.
   ‘I don’t know how they [the government headed by Fakhruddin Ahmed] will give a legal coverage [to its assumption of office]. Let the attorney general and advisers to the government give an explanation about the holding of the elections.’ Zahir said.
   The government has claimed that it is a non-party caretaker government, constituted in line with article 58C of the constitution.
   Asked about the tenure of the government under a state of emergency, the advisers have said that they are not given any idea as to how long they would be in power.
   ‘We will remain in the office as long as we need to hold a credible election. We will not be in office even for a moment after that,’ said the education adviser, Ayub Quadri.

It is ten days today that the president declared a state of emergency and stepped down from the position of chief adviser to the caretaker government. In his place was inducted a new chief adviser, ostensibly to another caretaker government. We say ostensibly because we really don’t know what the nature, form and legitimacy of this government really is. The government itself, and its chief adviser in particular, has not yet deigned it necessary to explain much, or anything for that matter, to us.
   According to the many vox pop interviews on TV, the opinions expressed by many a civil society leader (including the democratic politician-cum-human rights defender Dr Kamal Hossain) and the Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus himself, the people are apparently ‘jubilant’ about the state of emergency that ended ‘the possibility of civil war’ and brought back ‘stability to the economy’.
   Despite such unqualified enthusiasm expressed by such esteemed quarters and the man on the streets alike at the suspension of our fundamental rights — the freedoms of movement, assembly, association, thought and conscience, speech, profession and occupation, and the rights to property — this paper feels it its responsibility to ask a few questions to Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed’s government.
   Question one: Who are you? Except for a characteristically feeble apology of a statement read out by the president as he stepped down on January 11 saying that he would hand over power to a new chief adviser, and the live broadcast of Fakhruddin’s swearing in as the ‘chief adviser to the caretaker government’, there has been no indication given of precisely what legal and constitutional framework the incumbency of this government falls under.
   Question two: Who are you accountable to? While the fact that the government is backed by the military has been plainly obvious, there is no clear signal yet as to what role exactly the military is playing behind the scenes. It has been confirmed to us that the army headquarters had made some of the initial calls to those who were eventually installed as advisers to the government, with at least one confirmed incident of a top western diplomat making the call to a possible chief adviser appointee.
   Are we to assume then that Fakhruddin and his cabinet’s strings are being decisively pulled by a combination of the armed forces and our foreign ‘development partners’? All the signs thus far point precisely that way.
   Question three: What exactly are your intentions? The agenda for the government could range anywhere between the relatively straightforward — tabulating a truly representative voters’ roll and holding a free and fair election for the current political order, as it is, to participate in and then for the winner to be handed the reins of power — and the very complex — massively reforming the electoral process, depoliticising institutions of the state, tackling corruption and its symbiotic relationship with politics, thwarting the all-encompassing nature of arms and muscle, etc.
   The point is, there has to be an agenda. At least one that is laid out for the people to consider. And perhaps then the mandate, or lack thereof, for such actions could be discussed.
   Question four: Who gives you the right to have those intentions? The ‘development partners’ and the military, by the sheer fact of their covert and overt backing of the government, would clearly be buying into the agenda. But what about the political parties, and the people? Without their buy-in, how far-reaching and sustainable would any overhaul of the system be?
   Politicians, vilified as they may be, are by the nature of their profession bound to listen to at least some of the feeble voices that may reach them from among the cacophony of despair that emanate from the downtrodden, the all-but-disenfranchised. That is why farmers sometimes get electricity for irrigation over wedding lights in the city. That is why rickshaws remain, as do hawkers, because they have nothing else to resort to for their livelihood.
   But will this government, the military, the ‘development partners’ or even the ‘jubilant’ civil society be hearing those voices? And without those voices heard, can there be a real mandate?
   Question five: How long are you here for? Or otherwise, how long will an unelected, non-representative group of military-backed elite rule a populace of over 140 million people in the name of delivering democracy? A pertinent question indeed since not too far away a certain general Pervez Musharraf has only recently hinted at asking for five more years in office, a full six years after he assumed power in an effort to deliver democracy.
   Question six: Has anyone thought of an exit strategy? All these shenanigans in the name of stability, at the end of the day, will require ratification with two-thirds of the next parliament voting to do so. How much of the political feather can be ruffled in order to keep all concerned on board to ensure that stamp of approval? The last time such a dilemma afflicted a military government, the right-wing, ultra-elitist and ultimately self-serving Jatiya Party was born.
   If the current government wants to keep up the façade of constitutionality and the ‘greater good of democracy’ party line, then these are only but a few questions that they must answer to the public. And the civil society along with the media must ask them with candour.
   Now that politicians have been swept aside, at least for the time being, it is in vogue for members of the civil society and sections of the media to lambaste politicians and political parties for all the ills that have been ‘averted’ by the state of emergency. But the political system reaching breaking point also represents a failure on the part of that same civil society and the media, because in their eagerness to unquestioningly align themselves to the crude power play of the political parties, they have abdicated their duties as a pressure group.
   Instead of demanding democracy within the parties, instead of professionally and socially disassociating with practitioners of corrupt, bankrupt politics, instead of giving up the temptation to play advisers, consultants and confidants to partisan interests, they chose to toe the party line — whichever one suited them at whichever point.
   Just as it is shamelessly irresponsible of them today to exclusively denounce politics and ‘rejoice’ at the suspension of fundamental rights, if there is any intrigue coming our way by way of the current regime or any similar ones to follow, we will hold them party to it then.

The government’s bank borrowing in the first half of the current fiscal year hit a decade-high of Tk 6,364.81 crore as of January 8, banking sources said.
   A lacklustre revenue performance and a less-than-expected flow of external aid are the two main reasons that forced the government to borrow more than ever in the past one decade from the banking system, finance ministry officials told New Age.
   Of the total amount, Tk 3,852.35 crore was borrowed from scheduled banks, particularly the nationalised commercial banks, and the remaining Tk 2,512.46 crore from the Bangladesh Bank.
   ‘The income from local sources has not been up to our expectations and the same has been true for external sources, forcing the government to borrow massively from the banks to bear its budgetary expenditures,’ a high official at the ministry told New Age.
   BB sources said the government had never drawn more than Tk 5,800 crore from the banking system in the first half of any fiscal year since FY1995-96.
   ‘It is an abnormal situation, about which we have reminded the finance ministry repeatedly,’ a BB high official told New Age.
   The finance adviser, Mirza Azizul Islam, also confirmed in a recent interview with New Age that the budget implementation process was under pressure due to a lacklustre performance of the revenue board and a poor inflow of foreign aid.
   According to the latest statistics, the National Board of Revenue gathered Tk 15,823 crore in revenue in July-December 2006 against the targeted Tk 20,527 crore, posting a Tk 4,704-crore shortfall. The immediate-past government fixed a target of Tk 41,055 crore revenue income for FY07, which was Tk 35,652 crore in the previous fiscal year.
   NBR officials blamed what they termed an ambitious revenue target combined with a drawn-out political unrest in the country hampering business activities as the major reasons for the poor revenue generation.
   An NBR member hoped that ‘things would improve once normalcy returns to the political arena.’
   He emphasised introduction of national identification numbers to facilitate smooth and efficient value-added tax and income tax collection, which would also reduce tax evasions.
   The newly appointed NBR chairman, Sheikh AK Motahar Hossain, sat in a meeting on January 11 with senior officials of the board to find a fresh revenue collection strategy to avoid any revenue shortfall this fiscal year. This was his first meeting with the country’s top taxmen after taking over as the NBR chairman on January 8.
   Motahar directed the officials concerned to gear up their tax collection drive to shrink the existing revenue shortfall, meeting sources said.
   Besides, the first quarter of the current fiscal year saw only $128-million foreign aid coming in, which is almost half of the $258 million aid received in the corresponding quarter of FY06, sources in the Economic Relations Division said.
   Finance ministry officials said the government also had to borrow heavily from the banking system to arrange for the increased pay of its staff since July 2006.
   In addition to that, the government also had to bear the preparatory costs for the upcoming general elections, they pointed out, adding that the public exchequer also had to cough up the money to pay the two festival bonuses during the reporting period to government employees.
   The finance secretary, Siddiqur Rahman Chowdhury, however, opined that the banks were being benefited from the government’s borrowing as they possessed access liquidity. ‘The government’s bank borrowing has not affected the private sector either. The bank loan disbursement to the private sector rather has seen a considerable growth over the period compared to the corresponding half of the previous fiscal year,’ he told New Age.
   Analysts, however, said the government try hard to increase its revenue earnings and start dialogue with the multilateral lenders and donors to avert the shrinking aid inflow.

‘Dunia ingine inawezekena’ in Kiswahili means ‘another world is possible’. A large audience pledged their solidarity to aspire for such a world free of poverty and disparity, where justice rules and peace prevails.
   The Uhuru Park in Nairobi took on a festive look as organisers welcomed diverse groups and organisations to the World Social Forum of 2007 on Sunday afternoon.
   Thousands were scattered along the slope of the park, taking shelter in the cool shade of trees where missionary sisters, swaying to the beats of maddening African music, pledged their solidarity for Palestinians fighting for their freedom, and hardcore environmentalist vegetarians shared cigarettes with decidedly beef-eating, bullfighting Spaniards.
   Although this edition of the social forum has declared its general theme to be ‘People’s Struggles, People’s Alternatives’, issues that are more relevant to African social movements, including HIV/AIDS and women’s emancipation, will understandably rule the discussions during the six-day summit.
   Strings of seminars and discussions organised by groups across the world are scheduled to begin from Monday.
   Speakers hailed socialist movements and regimes committed to socialism including that of Latin America, asserting their stance against corporate globalisations, neo-liberalism, capitalism, wholesale privatisation of public utilities.
   The audience clapped to statements demanding the right to education, health, water, land and security.
   The social forum in Nairobi is also expected to include elaborate discussions and deliberations on militarisation and dictatorship, which has plagued the entire continent for decades and are regarded as a result of foreign intervention and consequence of the remnants of colonial times.
   Even as the social forum kicked off in Nairobi, its border with neighbouring Somalia, currently under a martial law regime, is sealed to prevent militant and extremist Islamist elements trying to escape the advancing Somalian army, backed by Ethiopia, which in turn is backed by the United States.
   Kenya itself suffers from a political vacuum with no parliament and is ruled by an interim government headed by a president. The constitution, newly written and approved through a people’s referendum, is expected to lead to elections sometime this year.
   But democratic polity, according to a civil society group, the Citizens Social Forum, is still far away. With more than half the population living in poverty and severe economic disparity, basic needs including access to education and basic healthcare continue to elude the common citizen, the citizen’s forum points out.
   The next five days will bring together diverse movements and groups in their stand against corporate globalisation and the neo-liberal paradigm. Some will forge larger alliances and some will draw on the experiences from the success of other movements while some others would try to devise a concerted strategy to globalise the social movements in a firm stand against imperialism.

Police arrested the so-called child ‘pir’ along with his father from the National Press Club in Dhaka on Saturday on charge of assaulting two Reuters photojournalists on Friday.
   Soon after the incident, hundreds of disciples of the so-called pir staged demonstrations and laid siege to Uttara and Turag police stations and clashed with the law enforcers in a bid to release their ‘pir’.
   The arrested were identified as Khorshed Alam, 10, and his father Aminul Islam, 40, of Badaldi village under Turag police station.
   Police said a team of Shahbagh police arrested the ‘pir’ along with his father when they came to the press club for a press conference at around 10:30pm.
   Witnesses said that Khorshed, a partially disabled boy who is now able to move and walk, started treating and exorcising the people since two months.
   Hundreds of people from different parts of the country started thronging Badaldi village in a bid to meet the ‘pir’ to be cured of their maladies.
   The ‘pir’, after going to the people on a motorbike, started treating his disciples, who were standing in a queue on the road for three four hours.
   On Friday noon, three newsmen went to Badaldi village to report on the event.
   When Rafiq started to take snaps with digital camera and shoot a film with his video-camera, the ‘pir’ attacked him with a stick.
   Seeing the ‘pir’s’ anger, hundreds of disciples along with local miscreants swooped on the photojournalists and severely beat them up.
   They also snatched away and damaged the cameras of the newsmen.
   The newsmen later filed a case with Turag police station, and the army-led joint force demolished the astana (seat) of the ‘pir’ after conducting several raids since early Saturday.
   Local people said that after the case was filed, police on Friday night arrested Harirampur Union Parishad member Joinal Abedin Milan, who is also the president of Zia Parishad of the Uttara police station.
   The police, after questioning Joinal, released him, but later the army-led joint force arrested him again. Acting on Joinal’s confessional statement, the joint force conducted raids in the area and demolished the astana of the ‘pir’.
   When the news spread, hundreds of disciples started demonstrating in front of the Uttara and Turag police stations and fought with the police.
   The joint force rushed to the scene and lathi-charged the mob and brought the situation under control. Police arrested more than 40 people in Turag and Uttara police stations during the clashes.
   A large contingent of police and RAB members were deployed in Badaldi village to prevent any untoward incident.
   Ali Hossain Faqir, deputy commissioner of the northern zone of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told newsmen, ‘The forces conducted the raids and arrested the pir because his disciples attacked the newsmen.’
   Shahbagh police said that they had handed over the ‘pir’ and his father to Turag police station as the case was filed there.

The Awami League has thanked the army for conducting joint operations against criminals and corrupt persons, but has alleged that in some places the law enforcing agencies have arrested some party leaders according to the ‘biased and motivated’ list of criminals prepared by the BNP-Jamaat regime.
   ‘We are glad that the joint drive has been launched, but are observing with concern that some of Awami League’s and front organisations’ leaders have also been arrested. Arresting people as per the criminal list prepared by the previous BNP-Jamaat government is a mistake as the BNP government included popular AL leaders in the list to make political gains,’ said Obaidul Kader at a press briefing at party chief’s Dhanmondi office on Saturday.
   He requested the army to cross-check the list of criminals at the local level and prepare a fresh list before they take action.
   He urged the army to arrest real criminals and corrupt persons who have plundered public money in the last five years under the protection of the BNP government.
   ‘We hope that the army will nab the 111 godfathers of BNP (AL had earlier prepared the list) and stop using the list of criminals which was prepared by the BNP government,’ said Kader, adding that his party welcomes the move of the army to nab real terrorists, corrupt elements and black-money holders.
   On behalf of the party, he called on the authorities concerned to ensure that no citizen is harassed or oppressed without a sound reason. He also urged the armed forces not to harass the party’s ‘innocent’ leaders only because of their political identity.
   Kader briefed the journalists after Sheikh Hasina’s meeting with the mother of slain Chhatra League leader Mizanur Rahman Tuhin of Amragachhia Union in Patuakhali.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Saturday demanded handover of power to an elected government through a fair election at the earliest rejecting the idea of an ‘unspecified tenure’ for the interim administration.
   Senior BNP leaders at a discussion marking the 71st anniversary of birth of the party’s founder, Ziaur Rahman, said that a state of emergency was a ‘a measure against democracy and a bad idea.’
   The party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, attended the function sitting in the audience at the Institution of Diploma Engineers auditorium. It was the first open programme of the BNP after the declaration of a state of emergency.
   Although there was instruction of not discussing political issues, few of the speakers went by it.
   The BNP leaders blamed ‘a particular section of political parties’ for the present situation saying that they had unleashed a reign of terror and taken position against constitution, democracy and election forcing the president to declare a state of emergency.
   The party secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, said he thought state of emergency was a temporary measure and it was imposed to tackle the ‘extremist actions’ of some political parties.
   He said election must be held soon and ‘the BNP will win it with people’s overwhelming support.’
   The party’s standing committee member Moudud Ahmed said, ‘The present council of advisers has no accountability to anyone as it is an unelected government.’
    ‘We want a rapid handover of power to an elected government through holding of a fair election,’ Moudud said.
   He rejected the idea of an ‘unspecified tenure’ for the interim government saying it was ‘contrary to the spirit of the constitution.’
   Referring to the constitutional provision that the council of advisers will be dissolved after an elected prime minister takes office, Moudud said that some people were trying to interpret this provision in a way as if the interim government could stay in power for an indefinite period.
   ‘The constitution stipulates 90-day timeframe [for the interim administration] to avoid any vacuum,’ he said adding: ‘We have been forced to step backward and now we have to move forward.’
   Another party standing committee member, RA Gani, described the situation as ‘one step backward from demo-
   cracy’ and recalled the ‘strategy of retreat before leaping forward.’
   Standing committee member Khondaker Delwar Hossain urged the leaders and activists of the party to be prepared for ‘movement’ for holding of a free and fair election.
   A number of party leaders also slammed Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus for his remarks on politicians.
   A prayer session was also held after the discussion seeking peace of the soul of Ziaur Rahman.

A ‘commander’ of the separatist United Liberation Front of Assam fighting for the freedom of the Indian state of Assam, has admitted that his group launched the grenade attack on a rally of the Awami League on August 21 2004, killing several party leaders, a senior police officer said.
   The self-styled commander of the ULFA, Pallav Saikia, arrested in the northeast Indian city of Shillong on December 14 last year, has told the Assam police special branch and India’s central intelligence bureau during interrogations that 11 ULFA fighters led by him tossed grenades and fired assault rifles into the Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka.
   Many AL supporters and leaders, including the chief of the Awami Mahila League, Ivy Rahman, were killed in the attack.
   The Assam police special branch chief, Khagen Sarmah, told the news agency that Pallav confessed that they had attacked the Awami League rally at the ‘explicit instruction’ of the ULFA military wing chief, Paresh Barua.
   ‘Some Bangladesh intelligence officials helped us plan the assault and even gave us the vehicles for the assault that morning, but I don’t know these Bangladeshis.’
   ‘They started interacting with us after Paresh briefed me on the mission on July 26 in a safe house in Gulshan in Dhaka,’ Pallav was quoted as saying during questioning.
   Khagen said Pallav named everyone in the group who accompanied him during the assault.
   ‘Rubul Ali was my second-in-command in that assault,’ Pallav is reported to have told his interrogators.
   Of the eleven, six are still alive and operating for the ULFA but Rubul was killed in an encounter with the Indian army in May last year.
   Pallav is believed to be close to the ULFA military wing chief and led a special unit of the group involved in high profile assassinations and acts of sabotage.
   Intelligence bureau officials say they can place Pallav for questioning by any Bangladeshi team, but they say they will sit in on the questioning so that there is ‘no confusion’.
   The Interpol was also welcome to question him, they said.
   Assam security analyst Jaideep Saikia, who has edited a book on Bangladesh last year, says: ‘We have always suspected that the ULFA was given shelter by the BNP regime despite furious Indian protests because it wanted to use them against the political opposition particularly the Awami League.’
   But the ULFA has denied the allegations.
   ‘Pallav is either saying all this nonsense under pressure or he has been bought over and forced to say all this. We don’t meddle in the politics of any other country, we are just fighting to liberate Assam from Indian colonial control,’ said the ULFA spokesperson, Rubi Bhuiyan.
   Bhuiyan said the ULFA had been targeted for some ‘aggressive psychological operations’ and Pallav’s purported revelations were all fabricated for that.
   The ministry of home affairs on Saturday said it was examining the information about ULFA’s involvement in the grenade attacks on the Awami League’s rally.
   The ministry spokesman, Shahenur Mia, told the news agency that the news had drawn their attention.
   ‘We are checking the authenticity of the information,’ Mia said. ‘If we find that the information is true, we’ll take necessary steps’.
   Senior Awami League leader Zillur Rahman, who lost his wife Ivy Rahman to the grisly attacks, on Saturday ruled out ULFA’s involvement.
   ‘This is absolutely baseless. There’s no reason for the ULFA to attack our leader Sheikh Hasina,’ Zillur told the news agency in a reaction to the news.
   He smelt ‘conspiracy’ behind such information.
   ‘Why will the ULFA attack us? We do not have any sort of link or deal with the outfit,’ Zillur said.

The US president, George W Bush, is a terrible leader who has done tremendous damage worldwide, Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus said in an interview published Saturday.
   ‘Bush is a terrible leader, not only for the United States but for the entire world,’ Yunus, a 66-year-old micro-credit pioneer and ‘banker to the poor’, told El Mundo newspaper.
   ‘He has led the world on a dangerous path and it will take a lot of time to take it back on the right one,’ he was quoted as saying. ‘Bush has caused tremendous damage. The cold war was over and with it all this wasted energy and mistrust of so many years. We were speaking about the dividends of peace,’ he added.
   ‘And then the war on terror started and the vengeance and again all this money was invested in war technology.’
   Asked by El Mundo about the responsibilities of the September 11, 2001 hijackers who flew passenger jets into targets in New York and Washington, Yunus said they were ‘no saints, they are evil’.
   ‘What I’m saying is that the military response to terrorism is not a solution.’
   Yunus and the Grameen Bank which he created have helped millions in Bangladesh extricate themselves from poverty through tiny, collateral-free loans.

The joint forces of the army and other law-enforcing agencies in Narail arrested Friday night the top district unit leaders of the BNP and the Awami League.
   A Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal leader died in Sherpur after he was released from the custody of the joint forces on Saturday.
   Three more died earlier
   after their arrest in the custody of the joint forces in Dhaka, Khulna and Noakhali.
   A suspect, Atikullah, after his arrest in Dhaka on Tuesday, was taken to a building for firearms recovery where he fell off the roof and died early Wednesday.
   Another, Sheikh Shafiul Alam, arrested in Khulna, died in Paikgachha upazila health complex on Wednesday. The third, Shamsuddoha, joint convener of the Maijdi town Juba League arrested in Noakhali, died Friday morning.
   A team led by the army clamped down on the Rupganj town club in Narail at about 9:30pm and arrested 53, including leaders of the BNP and the Awami League, crime suspects and a unionist, said the New Age correspondent in Narail.
   The district Awami League secretary, Mohammad Ali, district BNP secretary Abdul Kader Sidker, district Awami League joint secretary Shorab Hossain Biswas, also Narail municipality chairman, BNP organising secretary Zulfikar Ali, Awami League leader and chamber president Hasanuzzaman and the district bus-minibus workers’ union president, Jahangir Biswas, also municipality commissioner, are among the arrested.
   After the operation, Lieutenant Colonel Shamim told newsmen that they had been arrested on charge of gambling and patronising crimes. The forces seized Tk 1.65 lakh from the club.
   Shamim said gunshots were fired from inside the club when they approached to raid it. ‘We also fired back.’
   In another drive, the forces arrested a crime suspect, Motalib Hossain, at Kalia in the district.
   The arrested were sent to jail after they were produced in the country on Saturday.
   In Sherpur, a leader of the BNP’s student front Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, died in hospital after he was released, in a critical condition, by the joint forces.
   The deceased was Mazharul Islam Ranju, 32, younger brother of the town BNP president Mokhlesur Rahman Tara.
   The local residents said an army team arrested Ranju at his in-law’s at Kacharipara in the district town at about 11:15pm Thursday.
   Ranju was released at 4:00pm Friday in a critical condition. He was immediately admitted to Nakla Hospital with respiratory problems.
   He was later moved to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital where he died Saturday morning. His family said he died from torture.
   The Jessore correspondent said a union council chairman at Keshabpur in Jessore was arrested on Friday for his suspected involvement in crimes. Shahidul Islam, chairman of the Majidpur union council, is also an activist of the Awami League.
   The Netrakona correspondent said the army had arrested seven in the district on Saturday.
   The arrested are Holi Cinema manager Narayan Chandra Saha as a porn film was being screened in the hall.
   Kendua upazila Awami League leader Abul Hashem, Chhatra Dal leader Al-Mamun, and wanted criminals Ekhlasuddin, Phul Mia, Labu Mia and Nur Khan Mitu were also arrested at the town at night on Friday.
   The forces also arrested a store-keeper at Hatia upazila health complex. They arrested were sent to jail.
   The Rajshahi correspondent said the forces had arrested two traders of warm clothes at Ganakpara and seized two rounds of bullet and several hatchets from their shops.
   They are Babu, of Adamjee in Narayanganj, and Zaman, of Boalia in Rajshahi. Based on their statement, the forces carried out a raid on Ganakpara, but failed to seize any more firearms.
   The Chittagong correspondent said the army arrested 12 in the district for suspected involvement in crimes and seized firearms.
   The arrested are Abdul Alam, 50, of Patiya, Bakhtiar, 25, of Anwara, Wahiduzzaman, 35, of Panchlaish in the city, Imran Khan Mollah, 30, of Chandanaish, Sukriti Chakma of Rangamati, Fazlul Hoque, 45, of Anwara, Golam Mostofa, 29, of Anwara, Abdur Rahim, 35, of Matiranga, Hanif Hawlader, 45, of Matiranga, Kazi Mohiuddin, 40, of Sitakunda and Shamsul Huda alias Khokon, 28, of Pahartli in the city. The army also seized a light gun and a machete from Golam Mostofa.
   The forces of the navy and police in a drive at Maheskhali arrested four in possession of 10 firearms.
   Severn, including five robbers and one union council chairman, were arrested at Singra in Natore.

Leaders of the major political parties exchanged pleasantries and had informal talks at a diplomatic party in the capital on Saturday evening.
   BNP leaders M Saifur Rahman and Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Awami League leaders, Abdul Jalil and Kazi Zafarullah, and Jatiya Party president Hussein Muhmmad Ershad, were among the guests at the dinner hosted by the US ambassador, Patricia A Butenis, in observance of the birth anniversary of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
   Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, Barrister Moudud Ahmed and M Morshed Khan of BNP, Amir Hussain Amu and Tofail Ahmed of AL and Barrister Abdur Razzak of Jamaat-e-Islami, Mahfuz Anam, editor of the Daily Star, FBCCI president Mir Nasir and Debapriyo Bhattacharya of CPD also attended the party at the residence of the US ambassador, sources said.
   Diplomats of different countries including the British high commissioner, Anwar Chowdhury, the newly appointed Indian high commissioner, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, and the Pakistani high commissioner, Alamgir Bashar Khan Babar, were also guests at the party.
   Talking to United News of Bangladesh, AL presidium member Kazi Zafrullah said that they exchanged views with the BNP leaders on the necessity of holding early elections to parliament.
   ‘Our position is very much clear…we want the elections within 90 days,’ he said, adding that he had talked to BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan who also expressed his opinion in favour of holding the polls within the quickest possible time.
   In reply to a question, Zafrullah said since the present caretaker government was formed under Article 58 (c) of the constitution, ‘we are very much confident that the elections would be held within 90 days.’

Ashura will be observed on January 30 as the moon of the Arabic month Muharram was sighted on Saturday.
   The decision was taken at a meeting of the National Moon Sighting Committee held at Islamic Foundation conference room Saturday evening, said a press release.
   The president of the committee and adviser for religious affairs ministry, Mjor General (retd) ASM Matiur Rahman, presided over the meeting.
   Among others, the religious affairs secretary, M Ataur Rahman, the information secretary, Kamaluddin Ahmed, the DG of Islamic Foundation, Fazlur Rahman, the SPARSO chairman, Abdul Halim Hawlader, the Meteorological Department deputy director, Shah Alam, Kahtib of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, Maulana Obidul Haque, and other members the committee were present.

A couple were killed and their three children were injured Friday night when a wall collapsed on their rented tin-shed house at Pagara of Tongi in Gazipur.
   The deceased are Siddique, 40, a mason, and his wife, Zohra, 34. The injured children are Sajib, 5, Roksana, 10, and Raushan Ara, 18, who works with the Hamid Apparels.
   Local sources said one Dulal Dewan had erected a wall of his house about 20 to 25 years ago and he later set up some tin-shed rooms bordering the wall and began renting them out.
   Siddique rented a room about a month ago and started living there with his family. The wall collapsed when they were asleep at night. Siddique and Zohra died on the spot.
   The injured were taken to Tongi Hospital. Sajib, in a critical condition, was moved to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   Raushan Ara was admitted to Tongi Hospital and Rokshana was given first aid.
   The bodies were sent to Gazipur Sadar Hospital for post-mortem examinations.
   Siddique was a resident of Bugai Nagar at Gauripur in Mymensingh.

The business leaders have sought uninterrupted power and gas supply, and smooth operation of the Chittagong seaport to make up for the economic loss suffered for the political turmoil in the last couple of months.
   The presidents of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association made the demand.
   The trade body leaders called upon the interim government to solve their problems on priority basis in the greater interests of the country’s economy.
   ‘Facilities at Chittagong port should increase as this has now become an age-old port and cannot cope with the increasing demand,’ the FBCCI president, Mir Nasir Hossain, told the news agency.
   He asked for a quick resolution of the crisis with the New Mooring terminal and operation of gantry cranes at the Chittagong port, country’s commercial lifeline.
   The leader of the apex trade chamber also said the present government should take an immediate decision to minimise the persisting power crisis in the country — a problem having cascading adverse impacts on productive activity, life and livelihood.
   ‘Production will be hampered a lot due to erratic power supply across the country. The government should take some bold decisions in this regard as they don’t have pressure like the political governments,’ he said.
   Referring to the recent gas crisis, he noted that for many reasons foreign company Unocal could not supply gas. If they could supply gas, then the gas crisis might not have happened.
   The FBCCI chief also laid emphasis on massive infrastructure development across the country to exploit economic potential. ‘The government should look into this matter to reap long-term profit,’ he said.
   Thanking the new interim government for taking a bold decision on separation of the judiciary, Nasir said taking such decision for electricity and gas supply and port was now imperative to boost business activities as businesses suffered stumbling setbacks in the recent months for confrontational politics centring election.
   The BGMEA president, SM Fazlul Huq, added another task to the urgent agenda, as he asked for eradicating corruption ‘at once’ for the welfare of the businesses as well as the country.
   ‘My request to this government is to kill the bribery system at once in all government institutions,’ he said while talking to the news agency, adding that the vicious cycle of bribery ultimately compelling the mass people to pay higher price for any particular thing.
   He also urged the government to take necessary steps to increase production of electricity and gas.
   About the port problem, he said the Chittagong Port Authority did not have authority of its own to act — the present government should vest authority in the CPA.
   The BKMEA president, Fazlul Huq, pointing to the need for gas and electricity supply and smooth functioning of the port, said the present government should take necessary steps in this regard on an emergency basis.

A 16-year-old boy was shot to death in southeast Nepal and a dozen vehicles were torched by protesters opposed to the Maoist’s success in joining the government, the police said.
   The boy died of gunshot wounds Friday after the Mahadhesi’s Janadhikar Forum, fighting for land rights in the southern plains, stopped a vehicle carrying former Maoist rebels who then opened fire, the police said.
   The incident happened in Lahan Bazaar, around 350 kilometres southeast of Kathmandu, the police said.
   ‘As the violence flared up the local administration decided to impose a 10-hour-long curfew to bring the situation under control Friday night,’ he said.
   The group objects to the new interim constitution passed this week by Nepal’s parliament that paved the way for the former rebels, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), to join the legislature as a legitimate political party.

At least 50 per cent of the money charged from Malaysia-bound Bangladeshi workers is siphoned off through illegal hundi to the Malaysian middlemen, increasing burden on jobseekers and causing foreign exchange loss to the country.
   Sources in the recruiting agencies have told New Age that Bangladeshi agents have to pay the Malaysian middlemen an amount in their currency equivalent to Tk 105,000 for ‘buying’ each calling visa, a process that resumed in last October after a decade.
   This added cost eventually is passed on to the people intending to go to the Southeast Asian economic powerhouse that offers huge jobs and the aggregated cost stands at over Tk 180,000 for each of them, more than double the officially fixed amount at Tk 84,000.
   The country, too, is set to lose $42 million in foreign exchange in meeting the unauthorised cost of Malaysian middlemen when as many as 28,000 Bangladeshi workers are expected to seek a fortune in Malaysia under the current overseas employment arrangement.
   ‘The entire amount will go to Malaysia through illegal money transfer, known as hundi,’ the owner of a recruiting agency said.
   Officials of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment said they were unable to act upon the allegations without enough proofs in hand.
   A committee of the ministry has been investigating into the allegations of inflated costs for sending Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia, they said, but could not say for sure when the probe body would come up with its findings.
   The issue has so far been skipped by the anti-money laundering unit of the Bangladesh Bank and no inquest has been held into the alleged currency transfer to Malaysia through hundi.
   Some 10,000 people have so far made their way into the Southeast Asian country, which resumed recruiting manpower from Bangladesh after a pause of 10 years. Malaysian companies have been permitted to import 28,000 Bangladeshi workers in the first phase.
   Kuala Lumpur has also kept a provision for recruiting 50 per cent of foreign workers from Bangladeshis if Dhaka can fulfill conditions required for the purpose. The gesture followed a cabinet decision in Dhaka awarding Malaysian consortium the construction work for a ‘toll highway.’
   Malaysia’s construction and agriculture sectors suffered from shortage of workforce as the country last year launched a crackdown on illegal foreign workers.
   The Malaysian authorities then took fresh initiatives to fill in the gaps and signed deals with Asian countries including Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka for recruiting workforce under tighter rules.
   Private sector recruiters blamed the government and the Bangladesh high commission in Kuala Lumpur for failure to properly lobby with the Malaysian authorities in capturing a bigger share in Malaysia’s booming job market.
   Whatever efforts made in this regards mainly came from the private sector recruiters grouped in the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agents, they claimed.

British television star Jade Goody, accused at home and abroad of being a racist bully for her treatment of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, was evicted from the ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ show on Friday.
   The 25-year-old was favourite to be kicked out by public vote after she was cast as the villain of a programme that triggered protests and dominated headlines in Britain and India, prompted a sponsor to pull out and now threatens Goody’s career.
   After leaving the Big Brother House, which is cut off from the outside world, Goody appeared embarrassed after watching footage from the series and from recent news bulletins.
   ‘I can’t dignify myself because that video footage of myself is nasty,’ she said. ‘I’m not going to sit here and try and justify myself. Yes, I said those things and they were nasty.’
   But she denied she was a racist or a bully.
   ‘I am not a racist and I sincerely–apologise to anybody I’ve offended out there.’
   Goody, who rose to fame after a 2002 appearance on ‘Big Brother’, also hinted that she was concerned her career, built on reality television, could be in jeopardy.
   ‘It was the beginning of my career and it’s the end of my career,’ she said before leaving the house.
   Shetty, an A-list Indian star, was called a ‘dog’ on the show. Housemates refused to learn her name, referred to her as ‘the Indian’ and ‘Poppadom’, and model Danielle Lloyd said: ‘She should fuck off home. She can’t even speak English.’
   Internet chatrooms, newsrooms and newspapers have been abuzz with debate about whether what was said on the show constituted racism and to what extent Goody and her allies in the Big Brother House reflected prejudices in society at large.
   Top politicians have weighed into the row, which dogged a visit to India by finance minister Gordon Brown.
   ‘There is a lot of support for Shilpa,’ Brown told reporters after visiting Bollywood producer Yash Raj Chopra at a studio in a northern Mumbai suburb. ‘It is pretty clear we are getting the message across. Britain is a nation of tolerance and fairness.’
   But Trevor Phillips, head of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, was in no doubt that events on ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ were part of a broader problem.
   Some commentators argue that the issue is one of class more than race, while others consider events in the house as little more than bickering prompted by jealousy.
   Shetty herself rowed back from earlier comments suggesting she was a victim of racism, and she and Goody hugged and made up on Thursday and Friday.
   Channel 4, under pressure to limit the fallout, banned crowds gathering outside the house on Friday, meaning a surprised Goody was greeted by silence instead of the shouts and cheers she would have expected.

Spending more of the budget allocation on other heads than education in public universities has made it almost impossible to maintain and improve the quality of education, said the latest annual report of the University Grants Commission.
   The commission, which is the regulating authority of public and private universities, made a number of recommendations in its annual report 2005, which is expected to be published by Tuesday.
   The commission recommended that the government should take necessary steps to curb the misuse of autonomy by most public universities which are opening new departments, recruiting redundant and unfit teachers and employees and also promoting and providing them with extra-financial facilities.
   ‘Of the total recurring expenditure, the public universities at present spend 86 per cent for salaries, pension, electricity and transport, but only 14 per cent for education, and that has made it almost impossible to improve and maintain the quality of education,’ says the annual report.
   In fiscal year 2005-2006 the commission provided Tk 508.55 crore for 24 public universities, according to the report. In the same fiscal year, the net budget deficit of the public universities was Tk 9.02 crore.
   The report recommended that the universities should take steps to increase the income of the universities and allocate more funds for education. For increasing the university funds, it recommended involvement of international donor agencies, and local industrial and business enterprises in higher education.
   The public universities have been misusing a huge amount of money for transport, electricity, and schools and colleges on the campuses run by the universities. The commission recommends curbing such misuse.
   The commission, after evaluating the public university ordinances, recommends that the government should amend some of them. It recommends that the government should take necessary steps for introducing a national-level admission test as the existing system has failed to assess the really meritorious students.
   The commission recommends the implementation of a rating system through an accreditation council for making the degrees of our universities equal to those of other South Asian universities.
   The commission’s recommendations also include restructuring the commission’s organogram, increasing its manpower and improving the training of its personnel.
   It also recommends strengthening the commission and giving it more authority to amend the laws that have shortcomings.
   ‘The report was scheduled to be published by June 2006, but it was published late because of non-compliance in supplying information and statistics by most public and private universities,’ said the commission’s chairman, Professor M Asaduzzaman.
   Since its inception in 1973, the commission has been publishing annual reports with recommendations on different aspects of higher education. The reports, according to the rules, are submitted to the parliament which decides what the next course of action will be.

China came under growing pressure on Saturday to explain the shooting-down of a satellite as condemnation continued to pour in from around the globe.
   The United States and Australia both said they were waiting to hear from Beijing after it reportedly blasted one of its own weather satellites on January 11.
   ‘We’ve asked the Chinese to give us some greater details about what they did, why they did it, and explain it in greater detail to us simply because of the concerns that we have about this issue,’ said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.
   The Australian foreign affairs minister, Alexander Downer, who summoned the Chinese ambassador in protest, said he was still also waiting on Saturday to hear an official explanation.
   ‘The information we have is that a missile was fired at an old Chinese weather satellite and destroyed the weather satellite, and so we would like to hear what China has to say about it,’ Downer said.
   ‘The Chinese have always opposed the militarisation of outer space, so that’s why we look forward to hearing what they have to say about the issue,’ he added.
   ‘They’re not saying very much about it, I must say, at the moment.’
   The missile blast was reported by US officials but not confirmed by Beijing, which has played down fears of an extraterrestrial arms race.
   ‘There’s no need to feel threatened about this,’ foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said on Friday.
   ‘We are not going to get into any arms race in space,’ he said.
   If confirmed, it would be the first case since the 1980s when the Soviet Union and the United States both destroyed satellites in space.
   The test would mean China could now theoretically shoot down spy satellites operated by other nations.
   The United States, which condemned the strike on Friday, expressed worries that debris could endanger the manned International Space Station or orbiting satellites.

A Somali gunman opened fire on an Ethiopian military convoy in Mogadishu on Saturday, triggering a heavy shootout that caught civilians in the crossfire and killed at least four people, witnesses said.
   The attack–following mortar strikes on the presidential palace on Friday–was the latest in a guerrilla-style campaign against the Somali government and their Ethiopian military allies who drove Islamists out of the city.
   Witnesses said that after the Somali attacker began firing with an AK-47, the Ethiopian convoy travelling through north Mogadishu opened up with an anti-aircraft gun.
   Panicked bystanders fled for cover and a tank ran over a minibus in the bloody melee, they said.
   ‘We were just setting up our shops when this happened,’ said an injured woman, writhing from bullet wounds in her back at Mogadishu’s Medina hospital. ‘A single gunman opened fire at the Ethiopian convoy, and the Ethiopians returned heavy fire.’
   Four people died and about a dozen were injured, the witnesses said, indicating it was civilians who were mainly affected. It was not known if the gunman died.
   The African Union, which approved a peacekeeping force for Somalia late on Friday, said the unabated violence in Mogadishu showed the need for quick deployment.
   The AU’s peace and security council approved a 7,650-strong force, just minutes before attackers struck Mogadishu’s hilltop Villa Somalia with five mortars after dark on Friday.
   President Abdullahi Yusuf, who moved there after the recent ousting of Islamists who had controlled most of south Somalia for six months, was inside but unhurt, government sources said.
   A late-night gunfight ensued outside the palace between the guards and assailants, who melted back into the streets.
   ‘This shows the need for deployment as soon as possible,’ AU peace and security commissioner Said Djinnit said after the formal approval of a six-month peacekeeping mission.
   It has been in chaos since the 1991 ousting of a dictator and defied US and UN peacekeepers in the early 1990s in a mission shown in the ‘Black Hawk Down’ film.

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is fighting for his life, his friend and the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, said.
   ‘He’s back in Sierra Maestra and locked in a battle for his life,’ said Chavez, referring to Castro’s legendary guerrilla war that toppled Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and ushered in his Cuban Revolution.
   ‘There are those who want Fidel to die,’ Chavez said alluding to a recent Spanish press report that Castro, 80, was gravely ill following three failed operations.
   ‘But I spoke to him a few days ago ... We trust he will recover completely,’ Chavez told the Rio de Janeiro state legislature.
   Chavez has visited Castro and often speaks to him by telephone.
   There has been mounting speculation over the condition of Castro, who has not been seen in public since being taken ill in late July.
   Last week, a US intelligence chief said Castro was terminally ill and might have only days to live.
   ‘I don’t know when he’s going to die,’ said Chavez. ‘I hope he lives another 80 years, I hope he lives another 100 years, but Fidel Castro is one of those men who will never die.’
   ‘He’s like Che Guevara, the immortal Che,’ the leftist president said to the applause of some 500 people, in reference to the legendary guerrilla leader and Castro’s right-hand who was killed in Bolivia in 1967.
   After intestinal surgery, Castro transferred power temporarily to his 75-year-old brother Raul, who is defence minister, and the Cuban government since then has made his health a state secret.
   Chavez was in Rio de Janeiro to attend a two-day summit of the Mercosur trade bloc, of which Venezuela is a member along with Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.

The police faced stiff resistance from the inmates of a house at Uttara Model Town during an eviction drive Saturday afternoon.
   According to the police, they arrested the house owner, Dr Sultan Ahmed, and his son, Abdullah Al Murad, on charge of preventing them from doing their jobs.
   A team of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, led by magistrate Emdadul Haque Dastagir, conducted the drive to reclaim the government land on Road No 3 of Sector 11 in Uttara. A huge contingent of police was also deployed to fend off untoward incident.
   After evicting the occupants from the plot No 23 and 24, the team faced resistance from the inmates of the house at plot No 22 at about 3:30pm.
   The house owner locked in an altercation with the lawmen showing his document in favour of his claim on the plot, but the authorities concerned remained stick to eviction.
   At one stage, the inmates started pelting brickbats at the policemen who fired gunshots and later picked up the two from the house.

Democratic senator Hillary Clinton on Saturday took the first step toward a 2008 White House bid that could make her the first woman president of the United States, she announced on her website.
   ‘I’m in. And I’m in to win,’ Hillary, a former first lady now representing New York in the US Senate, said in a video on her site.
   ‘Today I am announcing that I will form an exploratory committee to run for president.
   ‘The stakes will be high when America chooses a new president in 2008.
   ‘As a senator, I will spend two years doing everything in my power to limit the damage George W Bush can do. But only a new president will be able to undo Bush’s mistakes and restore our hope and optimism,’ said Hillary, 59.
   ‘Only a new president can renew the promise of America–the idea that if you work hard, you can count on the health care, education and retirement security that you need to raise your family. These are the basic values of America that are under attack from this administration every day.’
   Hillary joins a field of six other Democratic hopefuls who have taken initial steps toward vying for their party’s nomination to run for president in 2008, including fellow senator Barack Obama.

Following an army intervention on Thursday night, vehicles now can cross the Teesta Bridge without paying any unauthorised toll to the so-called leaseholder of the bridge.
   An army team led by a lieutenant, Zahir, in a drive at about 9.30pm evicted the illegal toll collectors from both ends of the railway-cum-road bridge, a source at the Lalmonirhat Sadar police station said.
   Mostafizur Rahaman Biplob, a nephew of the immediate past deputy minister for food and disaster management, Asadul Habib Dulu, had been collecting unauthorised tolls from the drivers and owners of all vehicles crossing the bridge since the BNP-Jamaat-led government came to power.
   Flaunting his political clout, Biplob also used to let heavy vehicles to use the dilapidated bridge at night, violating specific order and several reminders given by the Bangladesh Railway authorities not to do so.
   Biplob managed to flee the spot during the army operation on Thursday night. Later he claimed to the army team over cellphone that he was the bridge’s leaseholder only in name but the entire operation of illegal toll collection used to be controlled by Lavlu Miah, elder brother of the former deputy minister.

The Workers Party of Bangladesh on Saturday lambasted Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus for his ‘sweeping and hostile remarks’ about the country’s politicians.
   The WP politburo in a press statement termed the attitude of Yunus unfortunate, regrettable, and unacceptable.
   Whenever a military or an unconstitutional regime takes over, certain quarters start criticising the politicians as corrupt and incompetent, the politburo observed.
   It asked Yunus to refrain from making such sweeping comments in the future as politicians played leading roles in every progressive movement.