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The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, has asked the incumbents to stop the intelligence agencies from indulging in excesses accusing them of trying to deconstruct and reconstruct political parties.
   She called on the government to run the country in conformity with the constitution.
   ‘Stop this nonsense. Ask the intelligence agencies to mind their own business. It is not their job to indulge in politics, break and rebuild political parties’, Hasina said while talking to reporters after visiting ailing singer Sabina Yasmin at a city hospital.
   The former prime minister she did not care what her party colleagues were being coerced into saying in detention.
   ‘I have asked the leaders and activists to say whatever they need to save their lives, even if they are asked to say anything against me,’ said Hasina asking the interim government to stop such activities.
   Hasina said the statements reportedly made by her detained party colleagues had no credibility.
   ‘It is not important what they are saying under pressure in DGFI (Directorate General of Forces Intelligence) custody…many people will say many things which have no credibility’, the AL president said when her comments were sought on her party general secretary Abdul Jalil’s statement in detention.
   Hasina, whose movement has apparently been restricted under the state of emergency, brushed aside the allegations that Jalil had reportedly brought against her. It cannot be acceptable in a civilised society that the intelligence will pick up political leaders and make the detainees say what they [intelligence] want them to.
   Renewing her call for immediate restoration of democracy in the country, Hasina said that the problems facing the people would not be solved until democratic order was restored.
   ‘If an unconstitutional government stays in state power for long, the problems facing the people cannot be solved, rather they will multiply’, she said.
   She also said it would not be democracy if things were done being preoccupied with the thought of who should assume state power.
   ‘The people will decide on who will come to power’, said Hasina expressing her doubt if the people would get the chance.
   The AL chief feared that there could be fresh plots to rig the next elections as the Election Commission had not completed the voters’ roll even after the passage of six months and taken no initiatives for introducing transparent ballot boxes.
   On the much-talked about reform moves in the political parties, Hasina said that the leaders and activists of the respective political parties would propose necessary reforms and the party working committee would decide on them.
   ‘Every leader has right to express their personal opinion but the working committee and council will take a final decision in this regard,’ she said on the reform proposals made by three senior leaders of the party recently.
   She warned that attempts were being made to divert the people’s attention in the name of reform.
   Hasina accused the government of failure to ensure adequate supply of fertiliser and demanded withdrawal of the case filed against about 5,000 farmers in Nachole.
   She also gave the interim government a seven-day ultimatum to ensure supply of fertiliser across the country, and warned that otherwise the government may not able to tackle the situation if the farmers waged a movement.
   Terming the detention of the daughter and wife of Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, a state minister of the immediate-past BNP-led government, as inhuman, Hasina said that such actions could not be accepted in a civilised society.
   ‘The wife and daughter of Tuku have been detained, a girl has been arrested. What kind of practice is it’, she asked adding that an accused should be arrested but ‘why try to create panic by arresting entire families’.

The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Sunday warned that the quarters working on the so-called minus-two formula were actually plotting to seize state power.
   Those who were sponsoring the minus-two formula were enemies of democracy, she said ‘Having no mass base, they are plotting to seize state power through the backdoor,’ the immediate-past prime minister told a group of expatriate activists of Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal in New York over telephone Sunday night.
   ‘The people who came to BNP from other parties are engaged in a deep conspiracy to destroy the party in the name of reforms under a state of emergency,’ Khaleda alleged.
   ‘They don’t love BNP, they only want to stay close to the centre of power by any means. They have no principles or ideals. The only thing they love is power,’ Khaleda was quoted by America News Agency and News World, two news agencies run by expatriate Bangladeshis, as telling her party activists.
   She termed party secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan’s reform proposals as his personal opinions.
   ‘I, too, want reforms, but that must be brought about following the party constitution. No reforms can be made violating the party rules; it would be a conspiracy to weaken the party,’ she told over telephone the expatriate activists who gathered at a New York restaurant.
   It was her fourth address to party activists in the United States in the past 14 days.
   Khaleda said although the party constitution made consulting the party chief obligatory on issues like reform, yet Mannan Bhuiyan paid no heed to it and was speaking about reforms and party council at his will.
   She said a congenial atmosphere was a must for holding a party council. ‘I would like to see that the ban on political activities was lifted. At least 3,000 delegates will attend the council, for which we need a free space and atmosphere, and for that we demand withdrawal of the ban on indoor politics.’

The Indian train, which is on a trial run to Dhaka, arrived at the Dhaka Cantonment station in the evening with a 31-member delegation to sit for the talks that are meant to finalise the commissioning of the Dhaka-Kolkata passenger train service.
   Shafiq Alam Mehdi, joint secretary of the communications ministry, accompanied by the director-general of the Bangladesh Railway, received the Indian delegation led by AE Ahmed, additional secretary of the Indian home ministry, at about 6.30pm.
   AE Ahmed will lead the 14-member Indian delegation in the two-day talks, while the 12-member home side will led by ATM Ismail, additional secretary of the communications ministry.
   The two-day talk will finalise the resumption of the train service after a lapse of 42 years. The main topics will be the necessary logistics and the introduction of box type fencing along the route on the border, and immigration procedures.
   The Dhaka-Kolkata train service was discontinued during the Indo-Pakistan war in 1965.
   The Indian train arrived at Darshana station in Chuadanga at about 11:15am on Sunday. It left Chitpur station near Shealdah of Kolkata for Bangladesh at 7:30am.
   Railway and customs officials, led by M Shahjahan, chief operations superintendent of Bangladesh Railway’s Rajshahi zone, received the guests from across the border and together inspected the arrangements for immigration and customs checks.
   The train left for Dhaka at about 11:50am on completion of immigration formalities.
   On its way to Dhaka, the train stopped at Ishwardi, Jamuna Bridge and Joydevpur, and Indian officials inspected the tracks as well as other technical matters.
   Foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury has welcomed the Dhaka-Kolkata train.
   ‘We welcome this event.
   We see it as a forward movement in our bilateral relations,’ he told newsmen at a briefing at the foreign ministry on Sunday evening.
   When asked what benefit Bangladesh would get from India for agreeing to New Delhi’s proposal for resumption of train service, acting foreign secretary Md Touhid Hossain said, ‘The introduction of the train service will be mutually beneficial for both the countries.’
   ‘It is a symbol of mutual understanding.
   It will increase people-to-people contact and improve relations in other areas,’ he added.
   Dismissing a rumour that Delhi is suspending export of rice to Bangladesh as retaliation against Dhaka’s stopping the export of Hilsa fish for six months, Touhid said that they had not received any information from the Indian government on this matter.
   He, however, said the commerce and the fisheries ministries are reviewing the situation after the government’s decision to suspend Hilsa exports to India.

The government’s borrowing from the banking system soared to a record high of Tk 6,486.06 crore in the 2006-07 fiscal year that ended on June 30, a Bangladesh Bank report shows.
   The amount exceeded the previous fiscal year’s public borrowings of Tk 6041.50 crore, which was the highest in a decade.
   According to the central bank report, the government borrowed Tk 1429.47 crore from Bangladesh Bank and Tk 4641.35 crore from scheduled banks, while it took Tk 415.24 crore from the market through treasury bonds and treasury bills.
   Lacklustre revenue performance along with slower-than-expected disbursement of external funds forced the government to borrow heavily from banks for the last two fiscal years, finance ministry officials said.
   The government’s borrowing from banks surged by almost five times in a decade, according to Bangladesh economic Survey 2007.
   The amount was Tk 1254.80 crore in 1997-98 and it rose to Tk 1976.60 crore and Tk 3524.30 crore in the following two fiscal years, before slowing down to Tk 2904.30 crore in 2000-01 and Tk 2568.40 crore in 2001-02.
   The 2002-03 was a unique fiscal year as the government paid back Tk 982.50 crore to banks, instead of borrowing.
   But it returned to borrowing track in the next fiscal, taking Tk 2,669.10 crore from banks and the amount soared to Tk 3683.90 crore in 2004-05.
   The figures made an abrupt jump in the 2005-06 and the trend continued in the just-concluded fiscal year.
   The revenue income target for the 2006-07 fiscal year was initially set at Tk 41,055 crore, which was downsized to Tk 37,297 crore in March in the backdrop of a poor revenue performance.
   National Board of Revenue chairman Badiur Rahman forecast that there would be a shortfall of Tk 2,000 crore when the figures of the whole fiscal year would be available later this month.
   Revenue income growth was 9.07 per cent in July-April period against the targeted 21 per cent.
   ‘Poor revenue performance forced us to borrow heavily from the banking sector to meet revenue and development expenditures,’ a high official in the finance ministry said.
   Economic Relations Division figures showed disbursement of external funds totaled about $1.20 billion in the just-concluded fiscal year, down from $1.56 billion in 2005-06 and $1.48 billion in 2004-05 fiscal years.
   Political volatility towards the end of 2006 and slow implementation of development projects resulted in the lower-than-expected disbursement of the pledged fund supports from abroad, ERD officials said.

The government has decided to set up a temporary jail in the city to house the bigwig prisoners now detained in different prisons and hospitals, said officials.
   They said initially only one such jail would be set up in a suitable place so that several dozens of the VIP prisoners could be kept there.
   ‘We have been instructed to set up a temporary jail,’ Brigadier General Md Zakir Hasan, the inspector-general of prisons, told New Age on Sunday.
   He said his officials, with the help of police, would start from Monday to look for houses in suitable places in the capital to be used as temporary jails.
   The prison directorate received a letter from the home ministry on Thursday, asking it to report to the ministry immediately with details of the location of the house to be used as a temporary jail.
   The ministry, however, did not say anything about the shortage of manpower and logistics that the prison authorities are facing.
   The home ministry on May asked the prison authorities whether the VIP prisoners should be kept in sub-jails since the regular prisons are grossly over-populated and the facilities are stretched too thin.
   But authorities of the severely understaffed and tremendously overcrowded prisons were not in favour of shifting the former ministers, lawmakers and businessmen to sub-jails for security reasons.
   They told the ministry that they would not be able to manage the proposed temporary jails with the existing manpower as the prison staff were already struggling to cope with the growing number of prisoners in the country’s 66 jails.
   But they were ready to establish only one such jail in the capital if the authorities provided them with the necessary manpower and facilities.
   ‘We will try to find a government building rather than a public one in a secure and less populated area,’ said the prison chief, adding that they would require at least two platoons to manage a temporary jail.
   There must be adequate accommodation for the security personnel, office rooms, ambulance garage and, above all, a primary medical centre at the temporary jail.
   ‘In fact, we need everything required for a full-fledged prison,’ said Zakir Hasan.
   Deputy inspector-general of prison, Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui, said they would send a complete proposal for a temporary jail which will start functioning soon after getting government’s nod.
   The home ministry’s move is aimed at easing the situation in the overcrowded jails already housing over 86,000 prisoners — three times their combined capacity — but shifting only dozens of them to a temporary jail would not have any real impact, believe jail officials.
   Some 80 politicians, businessmen and their family members have been detained in the ongoing drive against crime and corruption since the state of emergency was declared in the country on 11 January.
   The high-profile prisoners, used to live a lavish lifestyle, are confined in small rooms in the prisons where there are no air-conditioners and where the cuisine is neither nutritious nor delicious.

The Anti-Corruption Commission appealed on Sunday to the chief justice to constitute a separate bench of the High Court for expeditious disposal of appeals of graft cases.
   The commission chairman, Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, made the appeal when he met the chief justice, M Ruhul Amin, at the Supreme Court, a senior commission official told New Age on Sunday.
   Hasan Mashhud also met the attorney general, Fida M Kamal, at the Supreme Court and sought his cooperation in this regard, the official said.
   Later in the day, the law secretary, Kazi Habibul Awal, discussed the issue with the Hasan Mashhud at the commission headquarters, he said.
   According to him, the commission wants to ensure expeditious disposal of new appeals filed or to be filed against trail court verdicts on the graft cases of bigwig corruption suspects.
   It also wants speedy disposal of the petitions pending with the Supreme Court for long regarding old graft cases, the official said.
   Trials of at least 86 graft cases have been pending for years as the accused obtained stay orders from the High Court filing petitions for quashing the cases.
   Most of the cases were filed by the now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption against political bigwigs, including former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, former president HM Ershad and some top leaders of the AL and BNP.
   The commission wants expeditious disposal of the petitions so that the trial of the cases which might not be quashed by the High Court can be restarted.
   The commission is also considering taking appropriate steps for expeditious hearing in the graft cases pending with trial courts for long.
   More than 500 corruption cases are now pending with the trial courts of the metropolitan sessions’ judges of Dhaka, said sources in the commission.
   ‘We have sought support from the commission to ease the backlog of the appeals pending with the High court for years,’ the commission’s public prosecutor Fazlur Rahman Khan told New Age on Sunday.
   Of the cases, 101 were filed by the police and the rest by the now-defunct anti-corruption bureau, he said. The ACC has so far lodged 34 cases and filed charge sheets in 11 cases. Sixteen of the cases are under investigation.
   Special judge’s courts have so far ruled on seven corruption cases sentencing former state ministers Amanullah Aman and Mir Nasiruddin, Aman’s wife Sabera Aman, Nasir’s son Mir Helaluddin, former MP Ali Asgar Lobi, former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s political secretary Harris Chowdhury, former Awami League MPs Joynal Hazari and Shamim Osman, BNP’s senior joint secretary general Tarique Rahman’s close aide Giasuddin Al Mamun. Trials of 11 graft cases against bigwig corruption suspects are going on in the special judge’s courts.
   Five reports on inquiries into allegations against former communications minister Nazmul Huda, Awami League leader Lotus Kamal, former BNP MPs Salahuddin Ahmed and Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu and former housing minister Mirza Abbas have been submitted to the commission. The accused are likely to be sued soon. The commission is likely to file the charge sheet soon against the Orion Group chairman, Obaidul Karim, in a graft case. The commission on Sunday approved the charge sheet, the sources said.

Differences have surfaced in the reform-enthusiasts’ camp of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party over whether the party should convene a national council for democratisation of the party when political activities are banned under a state of emergency.
   Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, a party vice-chairman and unofficial spokesman for the dissidents, said, ‘The ban on political activities is not a hindrance to reforms as the government has said nothing obstructs the reforms process and the council can be convened under the state of emergency’.
   Asked about party chairperson Khaleda Zia’s plan to hold the council session after relaxation of restrictions on political activities, Hafiz, also a minister in her 1991-1996 and 2001-2006 cabinets, said, ‘She will agree to the early holding of the council as soon as she realises that there is overwhelming support for reforms’.
   Selima Rahman, a joint-secretary general of the party, said at first politics needed to be open and then comes the reforms. ‘The council will be a lively one if it is held after the ban on political activities is lifted,’ she said.
   Their conflicting views about the timing of the party council came after a meeting of the former BNP lawmakers with the party secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, at the latter’s Gulshan residence on reforms in the party.
   Selima, also a former state minister in Khaleda’s 2001-2006 cabinet, said, ‘We have a single appeal—to hold a representative, transparent and accountable council session in which all would be able to express their views and I came to inform the secretary general about it’.
   ‘We want a council jointly coordinated by the chairperson and the secretary general. The council should not be centred around an individual,’ she said.
   She ruled out the fear of a split in the party saying, ‘Why such questions should arise? Leaders and activists are coming here [at Mannan Bhuiyan’s place] as they cannot go to the chairperson’s place. When the chance comes they will go to both places’.
   Selima smelled deep conspiracies against the party. ‘The chairperson is the guardian of the party. Her popularity cannot be snatched’.
   She said, ‘The so-called “minus two” theory is not a theory at all. The council will decide on who will remain or who will be shown the door’.
   Other former party lawmakers present at the meeting were Dr Rustom Ali Farazi, Ishrat Sultana Elen Bhutto, Shah Mohammad Abul Hossain, Mosharraf Hossain Mangu, Nazim Uddin Alam, Zahir Uddin Swapan and Abdur Rahman Swapan.
   BNP standing committee member and former minister M Shamsul Islam and former state ministers Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Zafrul Islam Chowdhury also held separate informal discussions with the secretary general at the latter’s residence.
   Among others, eight out of 18 former BNP lawmakers of the Barisal division attended the meeting. Hafiz Uddin Ahmed quoted Mannan Bhuiyan as telling them that he would place a revised proposal for reforms soon.
   ‘We will seek permission of the government to hold the council after everything is ready. But before that the chairperson’s approval will be sought,’ he said.
   ‘If she disagrees, alternative measures will be taken,’ Hafiz added.

The joint forces Sunday morning rescued DANIDA official Hussain Sharif Sumon, abducted on June 25 from Thanchi in Bandarban, from Kedong Hill at Chhota Modak, after a 14-day combing operation.
   Sharif was flown to Combined Military Hospital in Chittagong for treatment as he was found weakened.
   The joint forces said the kidnappers, hunted by law enforcers, left for dense forest, leaving behind Sharif at Kedong, 70km of Thanchi.
   He became weak as he was taken away from one hill to another by the kidnappers under adverse circumstances amid incessant rain.
   He became normal after he had taken food and had been given first aid. Sharif was carried the hill to Chhota Modak in a bamboo basket as he could not walk, said sources in the joint forces.
   Troops built a makeshift helipad the place to take Sharif back to Bandarban as there was no space for the helicopter to land, said the sources.
   The joint forces conducted the search operation after cordoning off the hills and sealing off the frontier.
   Hussain Sharif, along with his driver, Mohammad Hanif, was kidnapped by a band of criminals when he was holding a meeting with the representatives of local DANIDA-funded NGOs at Kheburipara under Thanchi.
   Hanif escaped captivity on June 27.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Division has sent a proposal to increase the prices of gas and CNG to the Cabinet Division for government approval.
   The division on Thursday sent a summary to be placed before the council of advisers on the increase in gas prices for domestic consumption by around 25 to 36 per cent and for bulk consumption by about 10 per cent. It also proposed to increase CNG price by around 77 per cent.
   The energy division recommended that the gas price for a single-burner for domestic use should be increased to Tk 475 from the existing Tk 350 a month and for a double-burner to Tk 500 from Tk 400, sources in the division said.
   It recommended that the price for bulk users such as state-owned power and fertiliser plants, private industries and captive power plants should be increased by around 10 per cent.
   The unit (1000 cubic feet) price of gas for power plants now is Tk 73.91, for fertiliser plants Tk 63.41, other industries Tk 148.13, and commercial establishments Tk 233.12.
   The energy division proposal recommended that the price of compressed natural gas should be increased by around 77 per cent from Tk 8.5 to Tk 15 a cubic metre.
   ‘The division has sent the proposal to increase the gas prices as Petrobangla is counting a monthly loss of around Tk 80 crore by selling gas for lower than the purchase price. It is up to the council of advisers to decide whether the gas prices should be increased,’ said a source.
   Once a profitable organisation, Petrobangla has been incurring a loss of Tk 80 crore a month from the time it started buying around 200 million cubic feet of gas a day from the Bibiyana field, operated by the US-based Chevron, in March, energy division sources told New Age earlier.
   Petrobangla now supplies around 1,660mmcfd gas to the national grid. It takes around 714mmcfd of the total amount from international oil companies and the rest from its subsidiaries.
   It buys gas from its companies for Tk 7 per 1,000 cubic feet, or a unit, and from international oil companies for around Tk 192. Its average selling price of gas is around Tk 94.
   ‘CNG price was last increased in July 2004 and gas prices were last increased in January 2005. We need to increase the prices of gas and CNG for the survival of Petrobangla, as, otherwise, it will become a losing concern like the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation,’ said an energy official earlier.
   The increase in CNG price to Tk 15 will mean almost doubling the fuel cost of CNG-run vehicles.
   There are around 2 lakh CNG-run vehicles in the country most of which earlier used petrol or octane. They have been converted to run on CNG after a substantial increase in the price of octane or petrol.
   The official argued that most private cars had been converted to run on CNG and they enjoyed subsidies. ‘In 2004, the price of a litre of octane was Tk 35 and petrol Tk 33. But the present prices are Tk 67 and Tk 65. Compared with them, the price of CNG remains almost 500 per cent lower,’ said an energy division source.
   Domestic users of gas will also face a hard time if the gas price is increased by around Tk 100–125 as they are already reeling under a huge price increase of essential goods.
   The official argued most gas users lived in cities and had the capacity to pay gas bills ranging between Tk 475 and Tk 500.
   ‘A family in northern and south-western towns uses around one cylinder and a half of LPG worth around Tk 1,000 a month whereas a resident of Dhaka needs to pay only Tk 475 to Tk 500,’ he said.

The communications adviser, MA Matin, said on Sunday that the government was in no way involved in intra-party squabbles over reforms issues of major political parties.
   He hoped that something positive would come out of the split and reconstruction in politics.
   ‘Politicians will know the process better. The government is not involved in intra-party squabbles over reforms. But something positive always comes out of splits and reconstructions,’ Matin, also responsible for the shipping ministry, told reporters after an inter-ministry meeting at the secretariat.
   As for intra-party bickering over reforms issues, the adviser said, ‘It is a meaningful indication.’
   Pakistan was liberated from the British rule and then Bangladesh, which was a part of Pakistan, emerged as an
   independent state, he said, explaining ‘splits and reconstructions.’
   Asked whether the interim government was providing any guidelines on political party reforms, Matin replied in the negative. ‘We are not giving any guidelines on reforms. Our target is to hold an acceptable election, scheduled to be held by December 2008,’ he said, adding that the government was sticking to its decision.
   He asserted that the government would not form any political party. ‘It is the responsibility of the politicians to form parties.’
   Asked whether the Awami League chief, Sheikh Hasina, was put under house arrest, Matin, also a member on the advisory committee on law and order, said he knew nothing about any such matter. ‘I do not know whether she [Hasina] has been put under house arrest.’
   The inter-ministry meeting at the shipping ministry decided to form a two-member committee, involving officers of the land ministry and the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation, to report on formulating guidelines on leasing sand quarries and sand extraction.

Detained former BNP lawmaker Manjurul Ahsan Munshi’s wife Majeda Ahsan was sent to jail in the graft case filed against the couple and their two sons.
   However M Ashraf Hossain, the judge of the Special Judge’s Court 5 of Dhaka, could not frame charges against them on Sunday, as the charge hearing was prolonged by the debate on whether a lawmaker could be charged with abuse of public office.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission brought charges against Munshi for submission of false wealth statements and concealing wealth of Tk 3,13,93,199 and owning assets worth Tk 5,37,07,439, which is disproportionate to his and his family members’ known sources of income.
   The ACC has also indicted him for abusing power to amass wealth under Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947, which deals with the misconduct of public servants.
   His wife Majeda and sons Rizviul Ahsan and Rezwanul Ahsan were indicted on the charge of abetting him.
   Majeda was sent to jail as her bail, obtained from the High Court, had already expired. Their sons are being tried in absentia, as they are in hiding.
   During the charge hearing on Sunday, Munshi’s counsel Azmalul Hossain argued that he could not be charged with abuse of power. A lawmaker is not a public servant and cannot be charged with abuse of public office, he argued.
   ACC’s public prosecutor Syed Shamim Ahsan opposed the defence plea. He will make his detailed argument on the point today.
   However, another court chaired by Shahed Nooruddin on Sunday framed charges against former BNP lawmaker Ali Asgar Lobi and his wife Khoshnud Asgar after rejecting a similar plea by the defence counsel.
   The same counsel, standing for Khoshnud, resorted to the same plea to defend her against the charge of abusing power.
   ACC’s public prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajal opposed the defence plea, claiming that there was no bar on charging a lawmaker with abuse of power.
   A lawmaker is included within the definition of ‘public servant’ for the purpose of trial of graft cases and the Supreme Court has already ruled in favour of trying lawmakers on the charge of abusing power, he argued, citing a Supreme Court judgement.
   The court also rejected another defence petition, filed by Lobi’s counsel Sardar Zinat Ali, seeking his discharge from the case as Lobi was already convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for 13 years by the same court for dodging tax on his fixed deposit of Tk 22.25 crore, which is also a subject matter of the present case.
   Lobi was charged with concealing information about his wealth amounting to Tk 2,69,88,907 and amassing wealth of Tk 23,26,30,103, which is beyond his known sources of income.
   He was also charged with abusing his power in amassing the illegal wealth.
   Khoshnud was charged with abetting her husband.
   The formal trial of the case will begin on July 11 with the testimony of prosecution witnesses, ordered the court after framing the charges.
   The same court will start recording the testimony of defence witnesses on Tuesday in the case against former state minister Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir. He faces almost the same charges levelled against Lobi and his wife.
   After making a two-hour-long statement before the court on Sunday, Alamgir told the court that he would produce six witnesses in his defence.
   Alamgir claimed that he did not conceal any information about his assets in the wealth statements that he submitted to the ACC.
   ‘I own no assets which are disproportionate to my legitimate income,’ he claimed.
   The same court deferred to July 12 the recording of the testimony of prosecution witnesses in the case against former home and telecommunications minister Mohammad Nasim in the WorldTel graft case.
   Another court chaired by Shamsunnahar fixed Monday for hearing the arguments in the case against the suspended officer-in-charge of the Fatullah thana, Ashraful Islam, and two sub-inspectors, Miraj Al Mahmud and Enamul Haque, on charge of taking bribe of Tk 15 lakh from two employees of the Abul Khair Group for not prosecuting them for trying to sell rotten wheat.
   The court fixed the date for hearing the arguments after recording the statements of the accused police officers and the two employees on Sunday.
   All of the five accused persons, in their separate statements, claimed that they were the victims of circumstances.

Britain faces a 15-year battle against Islamist extremism, a former Royal Navy chief turned security minister said Sunday, as police got more time to question five suspects over three failed car bombings.
   Sir Alan West, who was appointed security and counter-terrorism minister by the prime minister, Gordon Brown, last month, told the Sunday Telegraph that Britain was facing its greatest threat yet.
   West, formerly head of the Royal Navy, added that new emphasis was needed, with prevention of radicalisation at its heart.
   ‘This is not a quick thing. I believe it will take 10 to 15 years. But I think it can be done as long as we as a nation apply ourselves to it and it’s done across the board,’ he was quoted as saying.
   His comments came as Brown called for more international information flow on potential terror suspects.
   ‘If there is information in one country about the potential recruitment or the actual recruitment of someone to a terrorist group, then that should be information that’s flowing to another country,’ he told Sky News television.
   ‘I think it is very important that we tighten this up and it is something we are looking at as a matter of urgency.’
   Just two days after Brown took over from Tony Blair, two car bombs were discovered in central London on June 29. A flaming Jeep Cherokee slammed into Glasgow airport’s main terminal the following day.
   A magistrate granted London’s Metropolitan Police an extra week Saturday to detain and question five people suspected of involvement in the three failed attacks.
   The police have up to 28 days to keep security suspects in custody, subject to regular judicial review, after which they must be either charged or released.
   They have charged a sixth man, 27-year-old Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdulla, who appeared before a London court Saturday accused of conspiring to cause explosions. He was remanded in custody.
   His court date came as London marked the second anniversary of the 2005 suicide attacks, which killed 52 commuters and the four bombers and injured more than 700 other people.
   A seventh suspect, 27-year-old Indian doctor Kafeel Ahmed, who was pulled from the burning wreckage of the Glasgow attack, remained in a critical condition under armed guard in a Scottish hospital.
   In further comments to the Sunday Telegraph, West hit out at the use of the phrase ‘war on terror’ – widely used in the Blair government but, according to the paper, abandoned by ministers since Brown took over.
   ‘I hate that expression,’ he was quoted as saying.
   ‘When I first heard it – I think it came over from the States – I thought it was totally the wrong thing. It’s not like a war in that sense at all.’
   His comments came as newspapers assessed the extent of the extremist threat facing Britain.
   The Sunday Telegraph reported that the former head of Britain’s domestic intelligence service MI5, Eliza Manningham-Buller, said there were more than 100 suspects awaiting trial in Britain on terrorism-related offences.
   Quoting from an article she wrote for the periodical Policing: A Journal of Policing and Practice, it said she considered a chemical, biological, radiological or even nuclear attack remained a ‘very real possibility’.
   The News of the World cited an MI5 document as saying the number of al-Qaeda cells in Britain had doubled in Britain in the last year and there were now 219 ‘hotspots of extremist activity’.
   ‘Cells are popping up everywhere. They’re spreading like a virus,’ one unnamed senior security service source was quoted as saying.

The interim government’s apparent unwillingness to give seed-money to the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation has made the purchase of raw jute for state-owned mills uncertain from the very beginning of the harvesting season.
   High officials of jute and textiles ministry have also cautioned the government that jute growers might not be able to sell their produce at fair prices unless an endowment fund of at least Tk 200 crore is made ready for buying jute.
   Despite the huge number of properties in its possession, the BJMC has become almost bankrupt over the years due to accumulated losses, huge burden of loans, erratic power supply, corruption and inefficiency in running the mills, admitted the officials concerned.
   The government is yet to fix a date for beginning jute purchase this year although the farmers have already been harvesting jute in different parts of the country. The BJMC is the major buyer of the jute produced by the farmers.
   ‘We have a lump sum only to start procurement but cannot continue buying jute even for a month because the sum is too small. We have perhaps failed to convince the government high-ups to give us enough money for buying jute,’ said a high official of the jute ministry which regulates the BJMC.
   The official added that the BJMC’s assets, especially the huge acreage of land, were so undervalued that it was not in a position to draw the required amount of loans from banks.
   In reference to this, the officials of the finance ministry said they were not in a position to take any decision on sectors such as jute without the approval of the Chief Adviser’s Office.
   The BJMC incurred an operating loss of Tk 304 crore in the 2006-07 fiscal year, even though the government had provided Tk 100 crore grant/subsidy to the BJMC the same year. Its accumulated loan amounts to more than Tk 2,000 crore, according to officials.
   When asked about the reasons for the sorry state of the BJMC’s finances, the jute ministry official pointed out that it had to forfeit 30 per cent of the money coming from sales to the banks for repaying loans, and the rates of interest went as high as around 20 per cent. ‘Added to this is the loss in the production system, including frequent power outages and high cost of labour,’ the official pointed out.
   The BJMC, in its plan of action submitted to the finance ministry and the Chief Adviser’s Office, has recently sought Tk 600 crore in the three fiscal years to make the public sector jute mills commercially viable in the fourth year.
   According to the official estimate, the government will have to bear liabilities worth Tk 9,000 crore if it disinvests the 22 existing mills. ‘What is the amount that the government will get by selling them? It will be very insignificant, and that is why the government should first make the mills financially sustainable in the long run,’ said an official concerned.
   The jute ministry is in the process of handing over four jute units — Karnaphuli and SKCF in Chittagong, Qaomi in Sirajganj and People’s Jute Mills in Khulna — to the Privatisation Commission to sell them through tenders. The ministry will also contract out two more jute mills in Chittagong.

The Indian high commissioner, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, on Sunday said a mutually satisfactory agreement was required for an Election Commission move to be successful in enlisting the inhabitants of Bangladesh enclaves
   in the Indian territory as
   voters.
   ‘If the task is done, we will be happy. I think there would be no problems with the small enclaves,’ Chakravarty told reporters regarding the commission’s move to register enclave inhabitants in Indian territories as voters.
   He said a formal proposal was required from the Bangladeshi side to move forward in this regard.
   The Bangladesh government has yet to send any such
   proposal.
   Chakravarty made the statement after a meeting with the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, at the Election Commission.
   They discussed the pilot project of the preparation of the electoral roll with photographs and national identity cards.
   He said they did not discuss the issue of the registration of Bangladeshis in the enclaves for the electoral roll as the issue was discussed at the recent secretary-level talks.
   Two election commissioners in the last week of June had a meeting with the foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, and requested the foreign ministry to inform the Indian authorities of the EC move when the Indian foreign secretary, Shivshankar Menon, visited Bangladesh during June 24–27.
   They also requested the foreign affairs adviser to seek cooperation of India regarding the move.
   Bangladesh ratified the 1974 Mujib-Indira boundary agreement and handed over a number of Indian enclaves in Bangladesh to New Delhi, but the Indian authorities have yet to reciprocate the move, officials said.
   Chakravarty said the land boundary agreement would not stand in the way of enclave dwellers for enlistment as voters.
   The estimated population in 51 Bangladeshi enclaves inside India would be between 3 lakh and 3.5 lakh.
   The people, officially branded as Bangladeshi citizens, virtually remain isolated from the Bangladesh territory.
   They have no access to civic amenities and are denied of fundamental rights.
   There are 111 Indian enclaves measuring 17,158 acres within the Bangladesh territory while India has 51 Bangladeshi enclaves with an area of about 7,110 acres.

Roger Federer emulated the legendary Bjorn Borg when he captured his fifth successive Wimbledon title with a 7-6 (9/7), 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 2-6, 6-2 win over Rafael Nadal in a thrilling final on Sunday.
   It was Federer’s 11th career Grand Slam title, taking him within three of Pete Sampras’s record of 14 and his 54th consecutive grasscourt win.
   The victory shattered Nadal’s hopes of becoming only the second Spanish winner of the men’s singles title to follow Manuel Santana in 1966.
   But Nadal came heartbreakingly close to adding the Wimbledon title to his three French Open crowns when Federer threatened to self-destruct at the end of the fourth set when he launched an uncharacteristic rage at the HawkEye replay technology.
   The world number one had beaten Nadal in the final in 2006 in four sets and he was quickly into the groove on Sunday.
   Federer, watched by Borg up in the Royal Box, swept into a 3-0 lead with a break in the second game, secured when Nadal netted a lazy forehand.
   But the Spaniard left-hander hit back in the fifth game with a blistering backhand pass before he was quickly on terms at 3-3 having served two consecutive love games.
   Two errors on either side by Nadal allowed Federer to carve out three set points in the tiebreak. Nadal saved them all helped by a successful HawkEye challenge on the third.
   Nadal then saved a fourth but Federer claimed the opener on his fifth set point with a confident volley.
   Federer saved two break points with successive aces in the sixth game of the second set.
   But Nadal, who came into the final having spent five hours more on court than Federer, levelled by taking the second set in the 10th game with another searing forehand pass.
   Serve dominated the third set but in the ensuing tiebreak Federer was on top taking a two sets to one lead thanks to another Nadal forehand error.
   Federer took a toilet break and probably wished he had stayed there as Nadal broke in the first game of the fourth set and repeated it to lead 3-0.
   But it came in controversial circumstances when the Spaniard successfully challenged another call under HawkEye, when a forehand was called long, which gave him the crucial break point.
   Federer complained to umpire Carlos Ramos and demanded HawkEye be switched off believing it to have made an error by calling the ball in.
   ‘It’s killing me today,’ Federer told Ramos before slipping to 0-4 down. The drama increased when Nadal called for treatment to his right knee when he was leading 4-1.
   But he remained unhindered taking the fourth set when Federer hit a weary backhand into the net.

Several telecommunications companies in India have invited the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board to join their undersea cable networks to complement its existing submarine cable link.
   Officials in the BTTB, which owns the SEA-ME-WE-4, the country’s only submarine cable link, said Reliance Communications of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Bharti Enterprises of Bharti Group, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd of Tata Group and the Indian government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd recently made the offer to the BTTB to join the networks to get better access to overseas telecommunications facilities.
   The BTTB’s officials said the government was examining the proposals of the companies to join any of the networks as it was very important for the BTTB to have a back-up link for its existing network.
   If the government approves the proposal of any of those companies, the fibre optic cable will pass through land routes at a point from Bangladesh to the landing station of the selected company in India, said the official.
   Bangladesh was connected to the undersea cable in May 2006 as part of a 16-party consortium, and Cox’s Bazaar is the landing station of the cable in Bangladesh.
   With just one submarine cable link, the BTTB cannot guarantee non-stop services to internet service providers and telecom companies, compelling them to rely on satellite links as emergency back-ups.
   ‘We badly need a back-up line to ensure uninterrupted telecommunication services in case of any disruption in the 20,000-km-long SEA-ME-WE-4 link,’ said the official.
   ‘A back-up link with any submarine cable will give the local telecommunications industry a seamless overseas connection if the existing cable links are snapped accidentally,’ he said.

Nearly 100 million Internet and phone voters chose seven ‘new’ wonders of the world overnight, even as the UN body for culture and Egypt distanced themselves from the initiative.
   Voters chose the Great Wall of China, India’s Taj Mahal, the centuries-old pink ruins of Petra in Jordan, the Colosseum in Rome, the statue of Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro, the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, and the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza in Mexico.
   British actor Ben Kingsley and US actress Hillary Swank hosted a ceremony at Lisbon’s Stadium of Light, broadcast in more than 170 countries to an estimated 1.6 billion viewers.
   A private Swiss foundation launched the contest in January, allowing voters to choose from 21 sites short-listed out of 77. It said it had gathered nearly 100 million votes by the end of polling at midnight Friday.
   Short-listed sites that missed the final cut included the Acropolis in Athens, Paris’ Eiffel Tower, the Easter Island statues, Britain’s Stonehenge, Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temples, New York’s Statue of Liberty, and the Alhambra in Spain.
   However, the UN cultural body that designates world heritage sites snubbed the event.
   ‘This campaign responds to other criteria and objectives than that of UNESCO in the field of heritage,’ UNESCO spokeswoman Sue Williams said.
   ‘We have a much broader vision,’ she said. Christian Manhart, UNESCO’s press officer, criticised the ballot, saying it sent out a ‘negative message to countries whose sites have not been retained.’
   Egypt meanwhile dismissed the new list as worthless. The pyramids of Giza remain the only one of the original seven wonders of the ancient world that still exists.
   ‘This contest will not detract from the value of the pyramids, which is the only real wonder of the world,’ Egypt’s antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass said.
   ‘This competition has no value because it is not the masses who write history,’ he added.
   China did not broadcast the event, leaving thousands of tourists at the Great Wall unaware of its new status.
   ‘As usual there are a lot of tourists here today, but I don’t think they came here because the Great Wall was chosen as one of the seven wonders of the world,’ Hu Yang, an official at the Badaling Great Wall near Beijing, said by telephone.
   ‘All the same it is a great honour for all of China.’
   Indians handed out sweets and set off fireworks outside the Taj Mahal, a 17th century marble mausoleum built by Mughal ruler in memory of his wife.
   ‘It’s a victory of love, the message which the Taj stands for,’ said Rakesh Chauhan, president of the Agra Hotel and Restaurant Association, announcing a 20 per cent cut in room rates in the town’s budget hotels for the next year.
   Jordan meanwhile said the flow of tourists to Petra would ‘double’ from its current level of 400,000 visitors a year.
   ‘The result reflected the importance of the red-rose city as a cultural, tourist and archaeological site,’ said Faruq Hadidi, the secretary general of Jordan’s tourism ministry.
   In Peru, hundreds gathered at 2,430 meters to greet the announcement that the ruins of Machu Picchu had made it on the new list.
   ‘The selection of Machu Picchu is an example of what Peruvians can achieve when we unite’ as they did in voting in favour of ‘the new marvel,’ the trade and tourism minister, Mercedes Araoz, told reporters after the announcement.
   Thousands also cheered, waved flags and broke into Mayan dances at the archaeological ruins on Mexico’s Yucatan, when Chichen Itza, which attracts more than one million tourists a year, made it to the final list.
   ‘Chichen, Chichen, ra, ra, ra,’ chanted a group of Mexicans in white flowing robes at the foot of the Kukulkan (The Castle), the central pyramid that dominates the ruins and was built 967-987.
   In Rio de Janeiro, which hosted one of the Live Earth concerts, hundreds of thousands of singing and dancing revelers broke into huge applause as they were told that the city’s landmark Christ the Redeemer statue was a new ‘wonder.’

Health condition of eminent singer Sabina Yasmin has improved slightly, physicians said on Sunday.
   The immunotherapy improved her liver function and increased her taste for food, they said, adding that Sabina was not getting fever on Sunday.
   Cancer and medicine specialist Dr Mohammad Mofazzel Hossain told New Age that they got some improvements in her liver function but the condition of some points of her liver worsened which was damaged seriously.
   Sabina suffering from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was admitted to LabAid Specialised Hospital in Dhaka on June 12. She is now under treatment of Dr Mofazzel.
   The physician also that they were getting a good response of using immunotherapy but it was too early to say any good news about the singer.
   Earlier, the members of the medical board said that the disease could be cured at early stage. As her condition deteriorated, they couldn’t use the cameo therapy, they added.

A DC-10 of Biman Bangladesh Airlines was grounded at Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong as it developed a technical glitch Sunday afternoon.
   The Dubai-Chittagong-Dhaka flight with 216 passengers on board found its wheels jammed while trying to land at the airport to drop 133 passengers at 2:00pm, Biman and civil aviation officials said.
   The passengers and crew on board the flight panicked as it was unable to land. But, to everyone’s relief, the wheels opened after about 30 long minutes, airport sources said.
   ‘After hovering for half an hour over the airport, the plane managed to touch down at 2:30pm. It was then declared grounded for repairs,’ said the airport manager, Sajjad Hossain.
   Another Dhaka-bound Biman flight from Kuala Lumpur landed at the Chittagong airport at 8:00pm and carried the 83 stranded passengers to Dhaka, a Biman official said.

A Dhaka court on Sunday sent Majeda Ahsan, wife of former BNP lawmaker Monjurul Ahsan Munshi to jail after she surrendered to a corruption case.
   Majeda turned herself in to the Special Judge’s Court-5 and judge Md Ashraf Hossain issued an order sending her
   to jail.

Former prime minister Chandra Shekhar died of cancer on Sunday in New Delhi at the age of 80, a hospital statement said.
   Chandra Shekhar, who headed a coalition government as India’s 11th prime minister from 1990 to 1991, was a socialist politician from Uttar Pradesh.
   ‘He had been suffering from multiple myeloma for the past few years and, unfortunately, succumbed to the illness and passed away at 8:45am,’ said a statement from Apollo Hospital, where he was being treated.
   Multiple myeloma is cancer of the plasma cell.
   The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, described Chandra Shekhar as a ‘truly secular nationalist, who worked for the people’s welfare and national development’.
   Chandra Shekhar was a sitting member of the lower house of parliament to which he was elected for an eighth term in 2004.
   He was a member of the ruling Congress party — which heads the present central coalition — until the 1970s.
   As a dissident Congress leader, he was imprisoned during the emergency rule in 1975-77 by then prime minister Indira Gandhi’s Congress government.
   Along with some other national leaders, he formed a new party called the Samajwadi Janata Party (The Socialist People’s Party) in 1990 after spending several years in the Janata Party, another socialist group that came to power after the emergency.
   Chandra Shekhar was known as a calming influence in India’s often raucous parliament and for his deep friendships with politicians across the political spectrum.

Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed on Sunday condemned Friday’s assassination attempt on Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf.
   ‘I have been deeply shocked at the news of the cowardly attempt on your Excellency’s life,’ Fakhruddin said in a message to Musharraf.
   ‘The government and people of Bangladesh join me in condemning this dastardly act. We thank Almighty Allah for protecting you and pray that He grants you long life and good health to serve the cause of peace,’ the message reads.
   President Musharraf survived an apparent assassination attempt on Friday when his aircraft was fired at as it left the Chaklala military airbase in Rawalpindi, a garrison town outside the capital, Islamabad.

The army chief, General Moeen U Ahmed, has been appointed chairman of the National Sports Council and its executive committee.
   The Youth and Sports Ministry on Sunday issued a notification to this effect. ‘The government has given the appointment under provision of section-5 of the National Sports Council (Amended) Act 1974,’ the ministry said.
   Former state minister for youth and sports M Fazlur Rahman Patal was the NSC chairman during the rule of the BNP government in 2001-06 period. After takeover by the present caretaker government, the youth and sports adviser, Tapan Chowdhury, acted as ex-officio chairman of the sports council.

The government on Sunday decided not to allow sand lifting from rivers before a hydrological survey is carried out.
   The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting at the shipping ministry with adviser MA Matin in the chair.
   A two-member committee has been formed to revise existing rules of river dredging and lifting sands from river beds.
   Sand lifting and dredging should be allowed in selected places, considering environmental impacts, and such activities should be strictly monitored for the sake of protection of environment, the meeting decided.