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The army-led joint forces arrested former prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina in a pre-dawn raid on her Sudha Sadan residence in the capital on Monday, sparking protest against the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed.
   She was driven in a dark-blue Nissan Patrol, amid tight security, straight to a lower court, which rejected her prayer for bail in an extortion case and ordered her to be sent to jail. Hasina was then taken to a makeshift jail in the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban complex at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.
   The law adviser to the interim government, Mainul Hosein, said the arrest was a ‘legal compulsion’.
   ‘Had she not been arrested, she would have been shown absconding,’ he told journalists in the evening.
   Mainul said 13 cases had been filed against Hasina and she had been arrested in a case filed by a ‘common citizen’. ‘There is no scope to consider the case a political one.’
   Nearly 100 lawyers represented Hasina in the jam-packed court of metropolitan magistrate Mosammat Kamrunnahar.
   The former prime minister, who has been critical of the interim government in recent times, spoke for more than 40 minutes on the dock.
   She alleged that the case was a ploy to disqualify her from running in the next general elections and accused the government of hatching a conspiracy against democracy.
   More than 1,000 uniformed and plainclothes members of different intelligence, law-enforcement and security forces cordoned Sudha Sadan on Dhanmondi Road No 5 at around 4:45am and arrested her at around 7:35am.
   No one was allowed into or out of the cordoned area. Hasina’s personal security men and a handful of AL leaders and workers were seen standing outside the cordon in heavy rain. Some women workers of the party burst into tears when she was driven away.
   The arrest came a month after Azam Jahangir Chowdhury, managing director of the East Coast Trading Limited, a private company, filed a case against Hasina, accusing her of extorting about Tk 3 crore from him during her tenure as the prime minister between 1996 and 2001.
   Hasina has denied the allegation and protested her innocence.
   As the court heard arguments for and against Hasina, several thousand people shouted anti-government slogans outside the court building and demanded that the former prime minister should be released immediately.
   They marched with the motorcade carrying Hasina when it came out of the court complex at around 10:30am. The police resorted to baton charge and opened fire to disperse the demonstrators who had taken to the street in violation of the emergency rules.
   The police also detained a few Awami League activists.
   AL presidium member Matia Chowdhury branded Hasina’s arrest as politically motivated and repressive.
   ‘Having failed to implement its agenda through a group of dissidents in the party, the government detained Hasina to alienate her from the people and the party,’ Matia, a former food and agriculture minister, said.
   Hasina initially had a good rapport with the interim government. She attended the oath-taking ceremony of Fakhruddin Ahmed and also said in mid-March that she would ratify his government’s actions if voted to power.
   However, when Fakhruddin announced that the stalled general elections would be held before the end of 2008, she was critical of the government for the ‘unnecessary delay’.
   In April, the government imposed a ban on her return home from a private visit to the United States and the United Kingdom after an extortion case was filed against her.
   It accused her of making ‘inflammatory statements’ about the interim government and said her return might ‘create confusion and chaos and trigger hatred among the people’.
   She was eventually allowed to return in the face of strong criticism at home and abroad.
   On June 16, the government did not allow her to leave for the United States to see her ailing daughter.
   As the news of her arrest broke out on Monday, a group of students, mostly members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, student front of the Awami League, brought out a procession on the Dhaka University campus, demanding her immediate release.
   Hasina’s son Sajib Wazed Joy, who lives in the United States, in a telephone phone interview with a private television channel termed the arrest a conspiracy against democracy and called upon the party leaders to remain united.
   During the anti-autocratic movement in February and November 1984, she was kept under house arrest twice. She was again put under house arrest for three months in 1975.
   A number of cases have been filed against Hasina since the interim government assumed office in early January.
   She was charged with murder while in the United States on April 11.
   On April 22, a Dhaka court issued a warrant of arrest against Hasina in a murder case filed by a Jamaat-e-Islami leader.
   The murder case involves the death of four activists of Jamaat-e-Islami in street agitation on October 28 in Dhaka. The warrant was later suspended.
   Tajul Islam Faruk, a businessman from Habiganj district, filed a Tk 3-crore extortion case against her on April 9.
   On June 13, businessman Noor Ali, also an aspiring AL candidate for the stalled January 22 polls, filed a Tk 5-crore extortion case with the Tejgaon police.
   Azam J Chowdhury filed another case with the Gulshan police, accusing Hasina and AL leader Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim of extorting Tk 2.99 crore from him.

Before she was arrested in the early morning raid on her residence Monday, the Awami League president and former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, urged the countrymen, leaders and workers of her party not to lose moral strength and stand against injustice.
   ‘Wherever you are, stand against injustice. Do not bow your head. Truth will ultimately prevail. I am with you and I will remain with you until my death,’ she stated in a pre-arrest message.
   In the statement, written in her own hand and addressed as ‘Dear countrymen’, she said, ‘Whatever consequence befalls me, you carry on the struggle for realising the rights of the people of Bangladesh. Victory of the people is a must.’
   She said, ‘We must build Sonar Bangla as dreamt by father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. We will bring smile to the helpless people.’
   The Awami League president said government arrested her but she did not know where she was being taken.
   ‘I have struggled all my life for realisation of people’s democratic rights and economic freedom. I never committed any wrongdoing in my life,’ said Hasina.
   Nevertheless, she regretted that ‘false’ cases had been filed against her. ‘I keep my trust on Almighty Allah and people of this country.’

The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Monday morning deplored the arrest of her arch political rival, the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina.
   Khaleda believes she may be arrested anytime soon.
   ‘She [Khaleda] has deplored the arrest of Sheikh Hasina,’ a family source told New Age Monday.
   ‘It [Hasina’s arrest] should not have happened,’ a family member quoted Khaleda as remarking at her Dhaka Cantonment residence in the morning.
   Another source close to the family said, ‘She [Khaleda] thinks she would be arrested shortly.’
   ‘It seems to me that she is mentally prepared for it [arrest],’ the source said adding, ‘She has asked family members, close relatives, well-wishers and house staff to maintain regular contact and extend cooperation to each other whenever necessary.’
   The government filed a petition case against Khaleda, her eldest son Tarique Rahman
   and 12 other BNP leaders,
   who were directors of Daily Dinkal Limited, for non-submission of service return of the company for the last several years.
   Badar Aziz Uddin, reportedly an activist of Cox’s Bazar unit of the Awami League, on June 5 filed a case with the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court in Dhaka against 28 people, including Khaleda Zia, her son Tarique Rahman and Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami on charge of plotting the grenade attack on an AL rally that left 24 people dead and many others injured.
   Meanwhile, Tarique was arrested on March 7 after a businessman filed an extortion case against him with Gulshan police station. Khaleda’s youngest son Arafat Rahman was also sued for extortion.

The activists of Awami League front organisations on Monday staged demonstrations and clashed with law enforcers near the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court in Dhaka, protesting against the arrest of the AL president, Sheikh Hasina.
   The law enforcers fired rubber bullets on the demonstrators and lathi-charged them when they were demonstrating. Five persons, including three policemen, were injured in the melee.
   The police also picked up five persons, including three female activists, in Dhaka and Kishoreganj for participating in the demonstrations.
   In Dhaka, some activists of Juba Mahila League brought out a procession at about 10:20am when Hasina, accused in an extortion case, was taken out of the court, and chanted slogans in protest against her arrest.
   As the demonstrators marched towards the vehicle taking Hasina to the sub-jail and damaged some vehicles in the Nayabazar crossing, the police fired two to three rubber bullets and also lathi-charged them, injuring two persons.
   The police also picked up Priti Kana Biswas, Nasima Ahmed and Parul Akhtar from the scene for vandalism.
   At Malitola, some AL activists brought out a procession in protest against the arrest and the police fired rubber bullets on the demonstrators to disperse them.
   The demonstrators retaliated by pelting the law enforcers with brickbats, injuring subinspector Sajjad Hossain, assistant subinspector Zahir Ali and constable Abdur Razzak, who were admitted to Sumona Clinic.
   Some Chhatra League leaders and activists staged demonstrations on the Dhaka University campus in protest at the arrest and demanded immediate and unconditional release of Sheikh Hasina.
   One hundred and thirty-one teachers of Rajshahi University, under the banner of Progressive Teachers’ Society, in a joint statement on Monday expressed their concern over the arrest of Hasina and demanded her immediate release.
   The teachers also expressed their concern and surprise that many corrupt ministers, lawmakers and patrons of militancy of the BNP-Jamaat government had not been arrested, whereas the interim government had implicated Hasina in false cases and arrested her.
   The New Age correspondent in Barisal reports that a procession of Chhatra League activists brought out a procession from the Barisal Law College campus to protest against her arrest. The procession was rapidly dispersed by the law enforcers, said witnesses.
   Patrolling by the Rapid Action Battalion and the police has been increased and extra forces have been deployed in 26 key points of the city.
   In Mymensingh, a group of youths vandalised several vehicles and pelted policemen with brickbats near the Mashkanda bus terminal, but the police soon brought the situation under control.
   The Chhatra League brought out a procession on the Phulbaria Degree College campus and demanded immediate release of Hasina. Additional forces have been deployed in the town to prevent any untoward incident.
   The correspondent in Sylhet reports that security measures in the city and its surrounding areas had been strengthened after Hasina’s arrest to prevent any disruptive incident, said sources in the Sylhet Metropolitan Police.
   In Noakhali, leaders and activists of the Chhatra League brought out two processions at the Noakahli Government University College and Chowmohoni SA College at around 9:30am in protest against Hasina’s arrest.
   In Khulna, leaders and activists of the Awami League and its front organisations brought out separate processions on the campuses of the City College and Sundarban College, Cemetery Road, KDA Avenue, Daulatpur and Shironam, demanding immediate release of Hasina.
   In Narsingdi, pro-Awami League lawyers brought out a procession at around 4:30pm, demanding that Hasina should be released immediately.
   In Kurigram, leaders and activists of the Awami League and its front organisations brought out separate processions at Ulipur, but the demonstrators dispersed immediately after being confronted by the law enforcers.
   In Kishoreganj, leaders and activists of the Awami League and its front organisations brought out a procession at Pakundia Sadar in protest against Hasina’s arrest, but the joint forces immediately dispersed them.
   The joint forces also detained Bazlur Rahman and Azizul Haque Hiron from the spot.
   The Pabna correspondent reports that leaders and activists of the Awami League and its front organisations brought out a procession in the Daibazar crossing and demanded immediate release of Hasina.
   In Ishwardi, agitated leaders and activists of the Awami League and its front organisations brought out separate processions at Shahipur and Salimpur to protest against Hasina’s arrest.

The Awami League on Monday denounced the arrest of its president Sheikh Hasina and demanded her immediate release.
   ‘The arrest is nothing but a ploy to implement the so-called plus-minus formula of the interim government,’ the acting AL president, Zillur Rahman, told journalists at his Gulshan residence in the afternoon.
   He said the government could have summoned Hasina instead of arresting her in ‘such a humiliating manner’.
   Zillur urged the government should ensure that she is treated with honour and dignity in jail.
   He wondered why the government, which he said was the outcome of a movement launched by the Awami League, had arrested Hasina although she had extended it her support.
   ‘She even assured that she would ratify the actions of the government if voted to power. I do not understand why the government arrested her,’ Zillur, also a senior presidium member of the party, said.
   He said the AL presidium would decide what action to take besides the legal battle at its next meeting and hoped that the charges brought against Hasina would be disproved in the court of law.
   Zillur urged leaders and activists of the party to remain united and exercise restraint.
   AL presidium member Matia Chowdhury accused the government of lodging ‘false’ cases against Hasina.
   ‘The government filed the false cases when issue of reforms within the political parties was raised,’ she told journalists at the court premises.
   The government arrested Hasina after the so-called reformists realised that they would not be successful in bringing about reforms in the party bypassing Hasina, Matia said.
   One of the dissident AL leaders, Abdur Razzak, termed the arrest unfortunate.
    ‘It is unfortunate that the Awami League president has been arrested but we will face the cases in the court of law,’ he told journalists at his NAM flat in the afternoon.
   Razzak, however, criticised some party leaders for making controversial remarks about the reforms process and urged the party men to remain united.
   ‘There may be differences of opinion among the leaders on some specific issues but everybody, including the party president, supports reforms,’ he said.
   As for Matia’s remarks, Razzak wondered why she should make confusing remarks about the reforms process at a time of crisis for the party.
   Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the only son of Hasina, termed the arrest of his mother a conspiracy to keep her away from politics.
   Joy, who lives in the United States, in an interview with a private television over telephone also said leaders and activists of the party across the world were in touch with him and had vowed to wage worldwide movement against the arrest besides fighting a legal battle.

The dissidents in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party have said they are prepared to face up to any action by chairperson Khaleda Zia against them for their move to convene a national council session of the party which apparently aims at driving her out of leadership.
   They are also planning not to accept a conformist if named by Khaleda Zia as acting party chairperson in case the interim government detains her.
   ‘It seems that she [Khaleda] may take disciplinary action against us for our move to hold a national council session to put an end to dynastic politics,’ a top BNP leader close to party secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan told New Age.
   He said, ‘The reformists will not abide by her order if she appoints a “controversial” person, possibly a hardliner, as acting party chairperson if the interim government detains her.’
   Asked if he thought there was a move to detain her, a BNP joint-secretary general said, ‘It is now a matter of time.’
   A section of conformist leaders were advising Khaleda Zia to expel top dissident leaders, including Mannan Bhuiyan, or to dissolve the standing committee and the national executive committee of the party.
   Some other loyalists in a message to the chairperson Monday morning requested her not to take action against the dissident leaders. ‘We have told her that political decisions should not be influenced by emotion or anger,’ a secretary of the party’s national executive committee told New Age in the evening.
   Mannan Bhuiyan on Saturday said he would go for a requisition council if the chairperson disagreed with their [dissidents] plan for holding a council session.
   He announced a 15-point plan for democratisation of the party on June 25 and a revised 14-point proposal for reforms in politics and state institutions on July 12.
   The plan suggests that a person will not discharge duty either as party chairperson or secretary general for more that two terms [each of three years] or six years.
   Khaleda Zia had expelled KM Obaidur Rahman, the then secretary general, and dissolved the standing committee in 1988 when a section of party leaders were in a move to join the government led by HM Ershad.

The planned second unit of the Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company has become uncertain because of a difference of opinion among the representatives of Bangladesh and other countries on the KAFCO board centring site selection.
   Sources in the government said the representatives of three countries — Japan, the Netherlands and Denmark — at the latest KAFCO board meeting in Tangail on July 13 rejected the government offer to set up the plant in Sirajganj.
   The government representatives also made it clear that the government would not accept the KAFCO offer to set up the plant in Chittagong as there was a shortage of gas in the region, they said.
   KAFCO, where the government has 43 per cent of the shares, has recently planned to set up a second unit with a production capacity of about 3,000 tonnes of urea a day. The existing unit in Chittagong produces about 2,000 tonnes.
   ‘It seems that they will not agree to set up the plant in Sirajganj. In that case, we will drop the plan to extend KAFCO. The government rather will set up a fertiliser plant in Sirajganj,’ said a source in the government.
   He said the members on the board from other countries wanted to set up the second unit in Chittagong to get the infrastructure facilities of the first unit and the transport facilities for urea and ammonia.
   ‘But the government in now way will be able to supply additional gas to Chittagong, which has been facing a gas shortage for months. We also need to develop infrastructure in northern districts,’ said the source.
   The sources said Bangladesh assured KAFCO that it would buy the entire production of the second unit so that the company would not need to export any urea from Sirajganj.
   They said the KAFCO board members were taken to Sirajganj after the board meeting to show them the gas supply and transport facilities at the place.
   When contacted, the energy secretary, AMM Nasir
   Uddin, a member on the KAFCO board, told New Age that although the issue of site selection for the second unit had become complex, they were still hopeful that the parties would reach a consensus on the issue.
   He said the government would not agree to set up the unit in Chittagong because of gas crisis.

The Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, Monday dropped one of the charges he has levelled against the country’s ousted top judge, who has become an icon of opposition to his military rule.
   The move came days before the Supreme Court is expected to decide whether to allow or overturn the March 9 suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who drew thousands of supporters Sunday in one of a string of pro-democracy rallies.
   The judicial misconduct charge withdrawn Monday centred on claims that the judge’s verbal orders in some court cases varied from subsequent written orders.
   The charge said that large amounts of money were involved in the cases.
   ‘The president and the prime minister have instructed that the paragraphs dealing with the subject be deleted,’ chief government lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada told the Supreme Court.
   Chaudhry’s lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, said the move ‘shows the retreat of the government.’
   However Musharraf’s allegations that Chaudhry abused his position to secure top jobs for his son, privately used official vehicles and spied on other judges still stand.
   Chaudhry’s defenders say he was ousted because he may have stood in the way of Musharraf’s bid to get re-elected by the outgoing parliament this year as president while also staying on as army chief, in defiance of the constitution.
   Chaudhry has denied the charges and challenged his suspension.
   Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999.

The joint forces confiscated a bullet-proof jeep, two mobile phones, a computer, some CDs, and some personal diaries and documents of the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, from Sudha Sadan during a three-hour raid Monday morning.
   About 400 personnel of the police, Rapid Action Battalion, National Security Intelligence and the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence reached Hasina’s house at about 4:45am and cordoned off about two square kilometres of area around Sudha Sadan.
   The forces reached the place in more than 30 vehicles. They had a prison van, an ambulance and a dog squad with them.
   The security people, who snapped all the telephone lines of Sudha Sadan beforehand, entered the house and informed Hasina’s personal security staff that they had gone there to arrest Hasina on specific charges.
   They confined all the members on Hasina’s personal security staff and Sudha Sadan employees to a room and seized all their mobiles.
   They also huddled all the eight dogs of the house in a place and began a search of all the rooms of the four floors of the house.
   When the joint forces were conducting search on the ground floor, Hasina, who was then in a room on the first floor, made a call over mobile to the law adviser, Mainul Hosein, and wanted to know the reason for the raid, one on her personal security staff quoted a domestic help, then present in the room, as saying.
   Hasina later said the fazr prayers and recited from the Qur’an for some time. She then asked the joint forces to search her room.
   Hasina’s personal security staff said she had sensed the raid coming Sunday night as she had talked about it with her men.
   ‘The Awami League chief last [Sunday] night told us that she might be arrested at night,’ one on her personal security staff told New Age.
   The security guards also said the joint forces personnel who entered Sudha Sadan wore no nameplates. They were either in plain clothes or in bullet-proof jackets.
   The joint forces searched all the rooms and checked all the cupboards and shelves, Hasina’s staff said after the joint forces had left the house.
   After the raid, some law enforcers headed for the metropolitan magistrate’s court in a jeep with Hasina at about 7:35am. The law men who stayed back continued the search till 3:00pm.
   Members on Hasina’s personal staff at Sudha Sadan were released at about 11:00am. They also assisted the law enforces in preparing the seizure list.
   The security people kept Sudha Sadan cordoned off till 1:00pm. But the law enforcers did not let anyone but Hasina’s personal staff in Sudha Sadan on Monday although security was relaxed in the afternoon.
   A number of journalists started to gather near Sudha Sadan from early morning at the news of a probable raid on the house.
   They law enforcers did not allow anyone to cross the three-layer barricade which also inconvenienced the residents of the neighbouring houses.

The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, accused on Monday the interim government of carrying out a ploy to disqualify her from standing for the next parliament with sentences in false cases one after another.
   ‘They [the government] are hatching a conspiracy to destroy democracy. They understand that I will secure more than 80 per cent of votes if the elections take place now… and that is why they want to disqualify me,’ Hasina said.
   The former prime minister made the comment when she was taken to a metropolitan magistrate’s court after her arrest at Sudha Sadan in the morning in a case filed by the East Coast Trading Limited managing director, Azam Jahangir Chowdhury.
   Azam, in the case lodged with the Gulshan police on June 13, accused Hasina and her cousin, Sheikh Selim, of extorting Tk 2.99 crore centring the permission for a power plant installation at Siddhirganj.
   Azam reportedly paid the sum to Selim at his house at Banani in Dhaka between June 2000 and February 2001.
   Before her counsels had defended her in the case and her bail petition had been rejected, Hasina spoke for about 40 minutes on various issues in the court of Mosammat Kamrunnahar.
   Hasina said the government was implicating her in false cases one after another out of political motives.
   ‘My fault is that I always stand by the hapless. I speak for their rights,’ she said, adding that there was no democracy in the country. ‘If freedom of speech is thwarted, rule of law will cease to be.’
   She termed unfortunate the interim government move to replace political forces with something else.
   ‘Sometimes such things are imposed on the people. But people never make a mistake in making their decision,’ Hasina said, referring to the post-1975 political scenario of Bangladesh when, according to her, a handful of people captured the state power illegally and formed political parties.
   The Election Commission is yet to prepare the electoral roll although six months have elapsed. The commission also could not set any date for elections although it announced a polls roadmap on Sunday, she said in the courtroom.
   Hasina told the court, ‘I know you have noting to do but to obey the instruction of the higher authorities, but I have my rights to seek justice. I am innocent. I seek justice as the case is false, fabricated and motivated.’
   Nearly a hundred lawyers defended her in the court. Only one lawyer was with her when she was produced in court at about 7:50am.
   Other lawyers joined in in the argument in the courtroom on the second floor of the four-storey building as the hearing continued till 10:12am.
   During the hearing, Hasina, in a white sari and holding prayer beads, sat on the front bench in the courtroom and drank water from a bottle kept with an additional superintendent of police who led the escort of Hasina.
   Before the hearing, the police requested her to sit in the dock where they had placed a chair, but Hasina refused to do so and said she would stand in the dock when the court would ask her to.
   She also attended two calls made to the mobile of one of her counsels, Sahara Khatun, when the hearing was going on.
   Hasina was later joined in by senior party leader Matia Chowdhury and lawyers and party colleagues Abdul Matin Khasru, Sahara Khatun, Kamrul Islam and Sanjida Khatun.
   Hasina told presidium member Matia that Zillur Rahman would run the party in her absence. She also asked the lawyers to move the Supreme Court in connection with the extortion charges.
   Lawyers argued in the case for about an hour.
   ‘We suspect that Hasina is involved in extortion based on the statement of Selim made to magistrate ABM Abdul Fattah on June 21,’ assistant commissioner (prosecution) Makbul Hossain told the court, opposing the prayer for Hasina’s bail.
   Opposing the police petition, Hasina’s counsels said that she should be remanded on bail as the lawsuit did not mention any extortion.
   After the hearing, the court rejected the prayer for Hasina’s bail and ordered her to be sent to jail.
   As the court left the bench at about 10:10am, the lawyers held protests in the courtroom.
   The law men drove Hasina in a jeep to the sub jail set up on the national assembly complex at 10:22am.
   Some women activists of the Awami League brought out a procession in the presence of law enforcers deployed on the court premises from 4:00am, soon after the arrest of Hasina.
   A large number of journalists also gathered at the court, but their entry was restricted by the law enforcers. The lawyers were initially stopped from entering the courtroom, but they were let in later after a debate.

BNP joint secretary-general Ashraf Hossain, one of the stalwart dissidents in the party, refused Monday to make any comment on the arrest of Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, saying he did not know the reason for the action.
   ‘We have heard that the former prime minister and Awami League president was arrested in the morning, but I should not say anything about it as I do not know the reason for the arrest,’ he told a group of journalists at the residence of BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan.
   The dissident leaders in the BNP held a meeting at Bhuiyan’s Gulshan residence following Hasina’s arrest but none of them agreed to talk to the media. Only Ashraf, on a strong appeal from the assemble television crew, made the one-sentence remark.

Law adviser Mainul Hosein has said Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina has been arrested following a ‘primary investigation’ in connection with an ‘extortion’ case as a charge sheet has to be filed in the case.
   ‘Former prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina has been arrested in connection with an extortion case in order to file a charge sheet. Had Hasina not been arrested, it would have been necessary to show her absconding,’ Mainul said while briefing reporters at the secretariat on Monday.
   The AL chief was arrested at her Sudha Sadan residence at around 7:30 am Monday in connection with an ‘extortion’ case and sent to jail on a court order.
   ‘The case has been filed against her under the emergency powers rules to ensure a speedy trial,’ he said, adding that there were a total of 13 cases against Hasina.
   In a ‘confessional statement’, detained AL leader Sheikh Selim, also a close relation of Hasina, admitted to have extorted about Tk 3 crore and handed over a share of the amount to Hasina at Gana Bhaban, the law adviser said.
   Terming the arrest of Hasina a ‘compulsion of law’, he said, she [Hasina] was arrested as she could not be shown absconding.
   One Azam Jahangir Chowdhury, a contractor, lodged a complaint against Hasina with the Gulshan thana for allegedly extorting Tk 2.99 crore from him. The money was paid by eight cheques, he claimed.
   Asked whether the immediate past prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia would also be arrested in connection with any corruption charges, the law adviser said it would not be right to make speculations. ‘Government will not bar anybody from filing cases against her [Khaleda] if there are allegations of corruption or extortion against her.’
   When his attention was drawn to the comments of AL presidium member Matia Chowdhury that Hasina was arrested to promote the so-called reformists in the party, Mainul said, it was for politicians to make political statements.
   ‘This government does not have any political ambition,’ he asserted.
   ‘She [Hasina] would be tried in the court of law. If the allegation is not proved, she will be freed,’ he said.
   He declared the government would not allow people’s property to be looted.
   Asked whether the government feared that law and order could deteriorate following the arrest of Hasina, the law adviser, also the convenor of the advisory committee on law and order, said they believed in rule of law. ‘Law will take its own course.’
   He claimed that the government did not have a hand in the filing of the extortion case against Hasina.
   The case against the AL chief had been filed under the emergency powers rules so that the trial process was not prolonged, the law adviser said, adding that the court rejected her bail as per law and she was sent to a sub-jail

The temporary sub-jail on the Jatiya Sangsad complex where former prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been imprisoned, is equipped with the facilities usually enjoyed by the VIP prisoners provided with division facilities as per the Jail Code.
   Dhaka division deputy inspector general of prisons, Major Shamsul Haider Siddique, told New Age that the 10-room house allocated to the whip of the eighth Jatiya Sangsad, Wahidul Alam, has been refurbished with beds, dressing table, sofa sets, ceiling fans and other equipment over a couple of days to convert it into a sub-jail fit for VIP prisoners.
   The Awami League president, Hasina, will also be allowed to take her personal television set to the sub-jail, said the source.
   ‘Sheikh Hasina was not looking perturbed; rather she was smiling when she was taken to the sub-jail, and she was telling her new attendants about her daily requirements,’ said Siddique, adding that the she was accommodated in a south-facing room that has plenty of air and light.
   He also said Hasina was served rice, lentil, vegetables and Pangas fish for lunch, and rice, chicken, lentil and vegetables for dinner on Monday. He said the security personnel already deployed in the sub-jail took care of Hasina. Dr Mahmuda Akhtar Shiuli, a physician of Rajarbagh Police Hospital, attended her in the morning.
   Besides, the Awami League chief’s personal physician, Dr Lutfa Ali, will be allowed to attend her regularly during her detention.
   The security in and around the sub-jail was beefed up by the deployment of two platoons, each drawn from the Rapid Action Battalion and the police, and some jail guards, 20 of them male and five women, under the jurisdiction of deputy jailer Faruque Ahmed.

The authorities have issued security alert across the country, especially in the capital, amid apprehension of widespread protests against the arrest of former prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina early Monday.
   More than 15,000 lawmen comprising members of army, police, Rapid Action Battalion, paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles and Armed Police Battalion were on patrol in Dhaka city to prevent any trouble.
   Strict security measures are in force with law enforcers guarding key-point installations and sensitive establishments, following sporadic protests demonstrations in different places of the country including the capital.
   Additional measures have been taken in and around the capital to prevent any violent protests while administrations in some districts have alerted law enforcers.
   The police headquarters have also issued security alert in all districts after people staged demonstrations in protest against the arrest of Sheikh Hasina.
   ‘We have directed our forces to be on high alert and to take necessary measures against any attempts at disturbing peace,’ an official of Dhaka Metropolitan Police told New Age.
   ‘DMP has deployed additional forces in all major installations in the capital,’ he added.
   Supreme Court and lower courts, airport, bus and launch terminals, railway stations, shopping malls, commercial buildings, banks, mosques, foreign missions and other sensitive places in Dhaka have been placed under special surveillance.
   Rapid Action Battalion has also deployed additional forces in all districts as part of the security measures.
   ‘We have already deployed forces in all districts with instructions to prevent any violence,’ an official of RAB told New Age.
   Detective Branch police in uniform and plainclothes have also been deployed at sensitive points in the capital. ‘Our teams are on watch,’ said Abdul Jalil, joint commissioner of DB police.

Former law minister Moudud Ahmed on Monday filed a writ petition with the High Court, challenging the notice issued by the Anti-Corruption Commission on July 3 to submit his wealth statements within seven working days.
   A High Court bench of Justice ABM Khairul Huq and Justice Ashfaqul Islam is likely to pass its order today after further hearing in the writ petition.
   Pleading for Moudud, his counsel Rafique-Ul Huq told the court that Moudud was asked to submit his wealth statements when he was arrested, and the army-led joint forces seized his bank statements and other related documents on April 13.
   ‘It’s not possible for Moudud to submit the wealth statements without those documents,’ he argued.
   The former law minister has also filed an application to the ACC, seeking extension of the deadline for seven more working days.
   Earlier on July 10, the same bench after hearing another writ petition asked the IFIC Bank to provide Moudud with the bank statements and fixed deposit receipts within five working days.
   The National Board of Revenue, suspecting income tax evasion, on March 5 directed the bank to freeze Moudud’s accounts. Moudud filed a writ petition against the NBR’s directive and the High Court on March 8 stayed the order for a month.
   The High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice MA Awal also ordered that the notice issued by the NBR for freezing the accounts of Moudud’s wife Hasna Moudud and providing information about her banking transaction, would have no legal effect.
   The court passed the interim order, issuing a rule on the government to explain within four weeks why the NBR’s action in directing the banks to freeze Moudud’s accounts and to provide information about his banking
   transaction would not be declared illegal.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on Monday categorically said none was above the law and any proven corrupt or lawbreaker, whoever he or she might be, would be brought to justice.
   Explaining his caretaker government’s stand against corruption, the chief adviser said the present government was following two principles in the combat against corruption — a drive under which many powerful persons had already been arrested.
   Fakhruddin said the first principal was that the trial of corruption suspects would be held under the law of the land and already the trial of some corruption cases had been accomplished.
   The second principal is none is above the law and, under this principle, if allegation of corruption against anyone proves true or anyone violates law, whoever he or she may be, would be brought to justice, he added.
   The head of the caretaker government explained his government’s stand while addressing an exchange of views with people of different professions and government officials in the Shilpakala Academy auditorium in Munshiganj in the morning. The meet was organised by the district administration.
   He called upon the people to come forward and extend active cooperation to the government crusade against corruption, saying it was not possible for the government alone to eliminate corruption from the country.
   ‘Hate corruption and raise your voice against corruption,’ he said and noted that a handful of people thrives on this vice while the majority suffers.
   Also, government exchequer does not get revenue for such corruption and, as a result, people are deprived of government services, including school, hospital, agriculture and other sorts of development and services.
   Fakhruddin said, ‘Those who have committed corruption and plundered wealth and are enjoying them have to account for that as all of us are claimant for that wealth.’
   He said the Anti-Corruption Commission would take up short, mid and long-term steps to curb corruption, which brought bad repute for the country.
   Extending support to the election roadmap announced by the chief election commissioner, the chief adviser reaffirmed that the present government was determined to hold the parliamentary elections by December 2008 in a free, fair and neutral manner.
   He said the government was carrying out efforts, including institutional and policy reforms, as per aspiration of the people to create a level playing field so that honest, dedicated and competent people could contest the polls.
   Fakhruddin said he was sure that the Election Commission would be able to hold elections following the path of the roadmap and the government would provide all-out support to the EC to this end.
   He noted that the Election Commission was also formulating electoral policy guidelines and other related matters and would consult all sections of people and others concerned for holding a free and fair election to give democracy a strong footing.
   With this end in view, honest, dedicated and qualified people would be encouraged to contest the elections.
   He said a flawless voter list with photographs was a major prerequisite for fair election, which was a longstanding demand of all, and the EC was working for it.
   On local government, he said the government was determined to enhance the powers of local government and increase its working capability, as establishing good governance was essential.
   He said a committee had been formed, most of the members of which were from private sector, to formulate recommendations in three months and the government would consider the suggestions with importance.
   The chief adviser called upon people to extend cooperation to the government efforts and goal in upholding democracy.
   Fisheries and livestock adviser CS Karim, Munshiganj DC Mohammad Muniruddin, municipal chairman, union parshad chairmen, female members of union parishads, representatives of cold storage association, potato farmers, business chamber, press, and freedom fighters took part in the exchange of opinion.
   The chief adviser asked government officials to discharge their duties honestly and neutrally without yielding to any unwarranted pressure or interference.
   He also asked them to engage people in implementing government programmes and to take opinion of people of all classes, particularly grassroots ones, in their planning and thinking and to reflect people’s aspiration in their activities.
   He reminded the field-level administration that the image of the government depended on efficient discharge of the responsibilities of government officials and urged them to play as supportive role.
   Fakhruddin, who earlier inaugurated a countywide indigenous species fish preservation and expansion campaign, said the present government was very friendly in the welfare of fishermen and development of fish resources.
   The government wants to create mass awareness of protecting indigenous species of fish and its expansion and to inspire rural people, including fishermen, to cultivate home-grown fish, he told his audience.
   He said nearly five per cent of national income come from the fisheries sector and 1.30 crore people of the country directly or indirectly depend on fisheries.
   The chief adviser observed that availability of fish in the country was declining because of unplanned harnessing of fish from open waterbodies, limitless use of chemicals and insecticides for agricultural production and poisonous effluents from mills, factories and tanneries.
   So, the fishermen will have to be motivated for development of fish cultivation in ponds, floodplains and rivers through applying environment-friendly durable technology.
   He said production of hilsa fish had increased remarkably following the recent steps taken by the government and jatka protection programme had been taken up to deter jatka destruction.
   Responding to demands made by the local speakers, he assured that his government would try to meet the demands and carry out development works as far as possible.
   He said he had discussed with ministries concerned and lenders the construction of Padma Bridge and hoped it would be materialised.
   The chief adviser himself took note of the demands, proposals and problems raised by the locals.
   Principal secretary to the chief adviser Ali Imam Majumdar and home secretary Abdul Karim also took note.

The United States, the United Kingdom and Germany Monday urged Bangladesh’s interim government to ensure due process of law and international standards in dealing with the case of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, arrested earlier in the day.
   The US mission in Dhaka in a statement said, ‘We are aware that former prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been arrested.’
   Emphasising fair treatment as well as respect for international standard in dealing with the case of the Awami League president, it said, ‘All individuals should be treated fairly and receive the full range of their legal and constitutional rights.’
   ‘We are following all cases to see if they meet international standards of due process,’ the statement added.
   In an identical statement, the British High Commission in Dhaka said, ‘We call upon the government to ensure that due process is followed and the rule of law upheld.’
   German ambassador Frank Meyke observed that the arrest of former prime minister is a legal and internal matter of Bangladesh, feeling it incumbent on the government to prove its case in the court of law.
   A spokesman of India’s external affairs ministry said India was closely monitoring the internal developments in Bangladesh including arrests of high level politicians, according to a website.
   ‘In all such cases, it must be ensured that there is no violation of due process as established by law and that basic individual rights are fully respected,’ the spokesman said at a briefing in New Delhi Monday.
   Asian Centre for Human Rights condemned the arrest of Hasina and termed it as ‘a premeditated conspiracy to keep her out’ of the political process.
   The New Delhi-based human rights body urged the international community and the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights to intervene to persuade the government of Bangladesh into immediately releasing Sheikh Hasina as well as withdrawing the ban on political rallies, paving the way for holding dialogues with the political parties on the election roadmap at the soonest possible time.

Dr M Wazed Miah, husband of detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, was admitted to LabAid Cardiac Hospital Monday noon.
   The retired nuclear scientist, who is suffering from cardiac and rheumatic ailments, is now under the supervision of Dr APM Sohrabuzzaman at the hospital.
   ‘He has been suffering from these ailments for a long time and I’ve treated him in the past also,’ Zaman said in the afternoon.
   ‘After his wife was detained in the morning, he was feeling lonely and somewhat unwell. Later, he was admitted to the hospital,’ said the doctor.
   To suggestions as to
   whether the hospitalisation had anything to do with the morning arrest, Zaman replied, ‘I don’t think so. I told you that he has been ill for quite sometime.’
   The hospital authorities have notified that that Dr Wazed is in cabin 602.
   The Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil, under treatment in the same hospital, is in the neighbouring cabin 601.

The International Long Distance Telecommunications Services Policy 2007 approved by the interim government on Saturday recommended that locally owned telecoms firms should be preferred for licences to provide overseas calls through VoIP, official sources said.
   Sources in the telecoms ministry and the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission said the recommendation was made amid the allegation that foreign telecoms firms, especially mobile operators, siphoned off a huge amount of money from Bangladesh in the past in the name of profit repatriation.
   The foreign direct investment policy, however, allows a hundred per cent profit repatriation of any foreign-owned companies operating in Bangladesh.
   ‘We want to stop the draining of money out of the country and that is why we have recommended granting licences only to local companies,’ said a member on the committee on the formulation of a policy guideline on Voice over Internet Protocol legalisation.
   The regulatory commission chairman, Manzurul Alam, who was convener of the seven-member committee, gave a presentation at the advisory council meeting on the policy on VoIP, which means transfer of voice conversations over the internet or through any other IP-based network.
   ‘If the new policy comes into effect without any changes, the five private mobile operators will be automatically left out from ILDTS licensing regime as all of them are either fully or partially owned by foreign companies,’ said a committee member. The number of mobile users in the country stood at 27.72 million at the end of June.
   The recommendation, however, sparked off a debate at the council meeting as some advisers raised questions about it and wanted the policy redressed to accommodate all, said sources in the Cabinet Division.
   Apart from giving preference to local companies, the policy also stipulated that the service providers would need to use the infrastructure of the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board although they could build their international gateway to route overseas calls.
   ‘The objective of the policy is to increase the use of the capacity of the BTTB submarine cable to make it commercially viable,’ said the member. Only 5 per cent of the total 10Gbps capacity of the cable is now used.
   The policy also stipulated that security agencies could monitor the VoIP traffic which would be passing through four common platform exchanges to be built by the telephone board in Dhaka, Chittagong, Bogra and Sylhat.
   Firms will need to have internet service provider’s licences to be eligible for the ILDTS licence. The regulatory commission will set the licence fee in consultation with the telecoms ministry. The licence holders could set their own tariff.
   The policy also addressed all the technology options set to dominate the telecoms sector in a few years so that no one could exploit any new technology taking the advantage of any ambiguity in the policy.
   VoIP has till now been illegal in Bangladesh. The cabinet of Khaleda Zia approved the legalisation of the internet telephony in November 2003, but the government failed to issue licences to private sector operators.
   Because of poor oversight during the tenure of the past government, illegal VoIP operators mushroomed and earned more than Tk 3,000 crore in five years, according to an unofficial estimate, as the state-owned BTTB, which is solely responsible for overseas calls, lost about Tk 600 crore a year in revenue.
   According to the telecoms policy 1998, the telephone board is the sole provider of international calls to and from Bangladesh and other operators must carry their overseas calls through the international gateway of the telephone board.
   The Rapid Action Battalion, meanwhile, continued to raid illegal VoIP centres. In the latest raid on Saturday, the battalion seized VoIP equipment from landline operator Bay Phones in Chittagong.
   The battalion began conducting raids on illegal VoIP centres in December and have busted a dozen such centres since then.

A suicide bomber slaughtered at least 76 people and wounded scores more when he slammed his booby-trapped truck into a Kurdish political office in Iraq’s northern oil city of Kirkuk on Monday.
   Two more car bombs exploded nearby, killing a policeman, adding to the carnage and spreading panic through the already tense ethnic flashpoint city.
   The attacks were seen as an attempt to further divide Kirkuk, which ethnic Kurdish leaders want to absorb into their autonomous region in the teeth of furious opposition from Arab and Turkmen residents.
   At least 185 bystanders were wounded when a bomber drove his deadly payload past security barriers next to an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani’s party.
   ‘Most of the wounded, which include women and children, are in critical condition because they are suffering from burns,’ said major general Barhan Habib Tayyib, Kirkuk’s chief of police.
   After the explosion, police cars could be seen driving through emptied streets using loudspeakers to urge people to donate blood. Residents thronged outside hospitals, asking about the fate of loved ones.
   Witnesses said many nearby buildings had collapsed, and rescue crews were scrambling to pull bodies from the wreckage.
   ‘I categorically condemn these attacks,’ said Abdul Rahman Mustafa, the provincial governor, blaming ‘takfiri’ or Sunni extremists.
   ‘Regrettably, terrorists have committed another cowardly act to be added to their previous criminal operations as happened in Emerli,’ he said, referring to last week’s bombing of a remote village that killed more than 150 people.
   The police said two more car bombs went off after the first attack.
   One exploded in a market and wounded a civilian, while another targeted a police patrol and killed an officer and wounded three patrolmen in the southern Ras Domaiz intersection on the edge of town, the police said.
   The office targeted in the first attack housed some local non-governmental organisations, including the city’s Olympic committee, but was probably targeted as a symbol of Kurdish power in the city.
   Meanwhile, thousands of US and Iraqi troops launched a massive assault on al-Qaeda strongholds south of Baghdad in and around the Sunni town of Jurf al-Sakhr, US military spokeswoman major Alayne Conway said.
   In the southern oil city of Basra, around 300 oil workers gathered to protest against a draft law they said would allow foreigners to pillage the country’s wealth.
   ‘If this is endorsed by the parliament it would abolish sovereignty and hand over the wealth of this generation and the generations to come as a gift to the occupier,’ protest organisers said in a statement.
   Insurgents killed two more American soldiers in Iraq over the past two days, the US military said Monday.
   A soldier was attacked during combat operations in the northern Nineveh province on Sunday, while another died in a roadside bomb attack near Baghdad on Saturday.

The advisory committee on the draft coal policy has not started work since its formation on June 21 and it is unlikely to hold any meeting before July 24.
   The eight-member committee, given 30 working days to finalise the draft, is unlikely to start work before July 24 as the committee chairman, former BUET vice-chancellor Abdul Matin Patwari, is abroad.
   The energy adviser, Tapan Chowdhury, told reporters on Sunday that Patwari was expected back home on June 24 and the committee would start work after his return.
   The division has formed the committee to finalise the policy following controversy about it. There are allegations that the policy has been drafted to favour foreign companies such as the controversial Asia Energy.
   The committee also includes University Grants Commission chairman Professor Nazrul Islam, journalist Ataus Samad, defence representative Major General Ismail Faruk Chowdhury, geologist Professor Badrul Imam of Dhaka University, Centre for Policy Dialogue research director Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Petrobangla director Maqbul-E-Elahi and Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Centre chief executive officer Nazrul Islam.
   Sources in the division said the deadline for the committee would be extended.

Britain will expel four Russian diplomats over the Kremlin’s refusal to extradite the key suspect in the murder of a former KGB agent fatally poisoned in London, the foreign secretary said on Monday.
   David Miliband told Parliament he had taken the steps because the Kremlin had failed to properly respond to the ‘horrifying and lingering’ death of Alexander Litvinenko.
   It was the first time since 1996 that Britain had used the sanction, which Russia vowed ‘will not go unanswered.’
   ‘The Russian government has failed to register either how seriously we treat this case or the seriousness of the issues involved, despite lobbying at the highest level and clear explanations of our need for a satisfactory response,’ Miliband told lawmakers at the House of Commons.
   Moscow has refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, a Russian businessman and former KGB agent, to stand trial in London over the killing. Lugovoi has been named by British prosecutors as the chief suspect in the case.
   Russia’s formal rejection was received a week ago by Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service, which in turn spurned a Russian offer to try Lugovoi in Russia.
   ‘The heinous crime of murder does require justice,’ Miliband said. ‘This response is proportional and it is clear at whom it is aimed.’
   In Moscow, Mikhail Kamynin, a spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said ‘the provocative actions conceived by the British authorities will not go unanswered and cannot fail to produce the most serious consequences for Russian-British relations as a whole.’
   Kamynin said the expulsions were ‘a well-staged action to politicise the Litvinenko case’ and claimed the British government was trying to justify its own refusal to extradite two prominent Kremlin opponents with asylum in Britain: tycoon Boris Berezovsky and Chechen separatist figure Akhmed Zakayev.
   Britain’s foreign office declined to specify the rank or position of the four Russian diplomats to be expelled, who had yet to leave the country.

A Dhaka court on Monday deferred until August 26 the hearing in the case filed against former prime minister Khaleda Zia, her son Tarique Rahman and 11 others for not submitting financial statements of daily Dinkal for 2000 to 2007 to the authorities concerned.
   Metropolitan Magistrate AJM Abdullahel Baki passed the order on time petitions filed by the defence counsels.
   The summons issued by the court was not served on Khaleda Zia and although two of the accused were dead yet the police did not submit any death report to the court, the lawyers pointed out and pleaded for more time.
   The court on June 13 summoned the 13 people after Abdul Mannan, deputy registrar (current charge) of the joint stock companies, had filed the case against them.
   The plaintiff told the court that the accused were directors of Daily Dinkal Limited, a company registered with the office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies.
   They committed a crime under Section 36(5) of the Companies Act by not furnishing the registrar’s office with detailed information on the company’s income and expenditure for 2000 to 2007.
   The others accused in the case are Giasuddin Al Mamun, Sheikh Razzak Ali, barrister Abdus Salam Talukder, barrister Nazmul Huda, Major (retd) MA Mannan, Manjurul Ahsan Munshi, Fazlul Azim, Nurul Amin Talukder, Ali Asghar Lobi, Rokonuddin Molla, and AKM Mosharraf Hossain.
   Of them Abdus Salam Talukder, a former BNP secretary general, and Nurul Amin Talukder, a former lawmaker for a Netrokona constituency, died a few years ago.
   If the charges are proved under the law, the accused will be fined Tk 200 per day for the default period. There is no provision for imprisonment in the law for such an offence.
   This is the second case filed against Khaleda since formation of the present interim government on January 12.
   Last week, Khaleda, 26 members of her cabinet, and Tarique were made defendants in a murder case filed in connection with the grenade attack on the Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 on Bangabandhu Avenue that killed 24 people and maimed scores of others.
   One of the injured in the attack lodged the case with the court of chief metropolitan magistrate of Dhaka. The court ordered the Paltan police to take legal steps against the accused after proper investigation.
   The AL, however, denied any link with filing of the case.

Low-cost British clothing retailer Asda, owned by US giant Wal-Mart, has launched an investigation into allegations that its production facilities in Bangladesh were abusing the rights of their workers, The Guardian reported on Monday.
   The newspaper, which interviewed workers from seven different factories in the country, said that the factories, which also supplied retailers Tesco and Primark, forced workers to work up to 84-hours a week for low wages under difficult conditions.
   The three factories make up about 43 per cent of Britain’s 7.8 billion-pound (11.5 billion-euro, 15.9 billion-dollar) value-clothing market.
   Workers from the factories reportedly said they were refused access to trade unions and claimed that four workers had been fired within the past month for trying to organise a union.
   Among the accounts quoted by The Guardian were that of Azizul, 28, who said he was sacked from his factory because he took two days off to take his baby to the hospital, and Parvin, 25, who said she felt ‘threatened and frightened’ after a supervisor slapped a colleague for not meeting a target.
   The Guardian said that workers at the factories had wages so low that, despite working up to 84 hours a week, they were struggling to provide enough for their families.
   A spokesman for Asda said that the retailer would re-audit all of its facilities in Bangladesh, telling the paper: ‘We find abuse of any kind unacceptable.’
   ‘It appears that one of our approved factories, which are audited up to three times a year, has subcontracted this work to another factory without our knowledge and against our wishes.’
   Primark said that it had already audited all of its Bangladeshi suppliers within the previous six months and had ‘agreed a programme of remediation’ with those falling short of its code of conduct.
   Tesco, meanwhile, said that it could not act on the allegations made in The Guardian because the newspaper did not specify in which factories the abuses occurred. A spokesman added that the retailer had recently conducted unannounced audits of all its Bangladeshi production facilities.
   The Guardian quoted a factory owner in Bangladesh, who supplies only the United States and Germany, as saying that buyers left him with no choice but to keep wages low: ‘Buyers who come to Bangladesh tell us, ‘We are businessmen, we want to make money. If we see cheaper prices in China, we will go there.’

Senior Awami League presidium member Zillur Rahman will act as party president in the absence of the party chief, Sheikh Hasina.
   Hasina named Zillur as acting party chief on the court premises after the metropolitan magistrate’s court had rejected her petition for bail.
   Hasina, while she was talking with presidium member Matia Chowdhury for a short time on the court premises, left her instruction with Matia for Zillur to act as party president.
   ‘Awami League president Sheikh Hasina announced the name of Zillur Rahman as acting party president during the period of her detention,’ Matia told reporters.
   Some Awami League leaders, mostly conformists, went to Zillur’s house at Gulshan in the afternoon and reviewed the situation after Hasina’s arrest.
   Sheikh Hasina was arrested at Sudha Sadan Monday morning.

The army-led joint forces on Monday arrested an assistant inspector of the Anti-Corruption Commission, Nizamuddin, for extortion.
   Nizam, stationed in Chittagong, was held at a Dhaka hotel. He was caught red-handed taking Tk 50,000 by extortion from Shamsuddin, a businessman of Mohammadpur, the ACC secretary, Mokhlesur Rahman, told a press briefing.
   The forces handed over the ACC official to the Shahbag police and an extortion case was filed against him, the secretary said.
   The Internal Corruption Prevention Committee of the commission on June 4 initiated the first-ever inquiry into allegations of corruption against one of its own officials, a deputy director. The commission also launched investigations into allegations of corruption against two other ACC deputy directors on July 12.

Business leaders on Monday avoided commenting on the arrest of Awami League president Sheikh Hasin, describing the issue ‘difficult and highly sensitive.’
   ‘No comment,’ Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told New Age over telephone from New Delhi Monday.
   ‘It is difficult to understand how things are going on,’ the apparel industry leader briefly said. ‘In don’t want to make comment on this (arrest of Hasina),’ said Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed, president of Chittangong Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
   He said it is a highly sensitive political matter.
   ‘It is a very high-level issue what we can not understand in open eyes,’ said Abul Hashem, a trader of Maulavibazar wholesale market in the city.
   ‘Businesses here don’t bother about anything until they are disturbed by clashes and protests that block movements of people and goods,’ he said, when asked about impacts of political developments on businesses.

The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, underwent a medical check-up at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore on Monday.
   After thorough tests of the reports and physical examination, cardiologist Maurice Choo said the president is ‘in very good health’, according to a release from Bangabhaban.

A city service bus caught fire in front of the General Post Office at Shaheed Noor Square in the city on Monday night.
   No injury was reported in the incident.
   The police and fire brigade sources said that the gas-driven Gulshan-bound Modhumoti Paribahan bus from Kamalapur suddenly caught fire after it stopped at the traffic signal at about 8:30pm. A few passengers, who were on board, hurriedly left the vehicle as the fire spread to some seats in the middle portion.
   Fire fighters reached the spot and doused the flames within few minutes. The police, quoting the driver and helper of the bus, said that the fire might have been originated from the spark of gas.

Former BNP minister Shahjahan Siraj, his wife Rabeya Siraj and son Rajib Siraj was sued on Monday for tax evasion, as part of the government’s ongoing anti-corruption drive.
   The National Board of Revenue filed separate cases against them with the metropolitan sessions Judge’s court on charge of tax evasion, NBR sources said.
   Judge Azizul Huq issued warrants for arrest against the alleged tax evaders. Earlier, on Thursday, the court issued arrest warrant against Farzana Khan, wife of Rajib Siraj, on a similar charge.
   The NBR accused Shahjahan Siraj, his wife and son of submitting false income statement and of concealing income under sections 165 and 166 of the Income Tax Ordinance 1984.
   Shahjahan Siraj allegedly evaded tax of Tk 2.47 lakh by concealing income of Tk 9.19 lakh while his wife evaded tax of Tk 2.90 lakh concealing Tk 14.78 lakh and his son evaded tax of Tk 22.65 lakh by concealing income of Tk 97.30 lakh.

Five persons, including two of a family, were killed and three injured in a road accident at Mithachara under Mirsarai upazila in Chittagong early Monday.
   The police said that the accident occurred at about 4:15am when a bus of Sonia Paribahan hit another bus of Unique Paribahan at Banta Pukurpar.
   The dead were identified as Renet Gomez, 45, Kazi SM Jahangir, 50, his daughter Kazi Samia Arefin, 15, Ziaul Haque, 45 and Nazrul Islam, 35.
   Kazi Osman, 14, son of SM Jahangir, and Halima, 35, were among the injured. Osman was admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital in critical condition.
   The Mirsarai police seized both the buses. The driver of the bus of Sonia Paribahan managed to flee the scene.

The High Court on Monday granted ad interim bail for four weeks to Hannan Shah, adviser to the BNP’s chairperson Khaleda Zia, and his son Shah Rezaul Hannan in two separate extortion cases.
   After having been granted bail, they will be released
   from jail as they are neither wanted in any other case nor do they face any detention order, their counsel Mahbubuddin Khokan told reporters after the court order was issued.
   A High Court bench of Justice Anwarul Haque and Justice AFM Abdur Rahman also issued a rule on the government to explain why they would not be granted regular bail.
   The court passed the orders after hearing two separate petitions, filed by Hannan Shah and his son, seeking bail.
   Former minister Hannan Shah and his son were arrested from their DOHS residence in Mohakhali on May 14.
   A case was lodged against them on May 12 with Kapasia police station for allegedly abusing power in leasing out a water body and extorting Tk 50 lakh.
   They were also sued by a teacher of Kapasia Degree College on charge of extorting Tk 2 lakh.