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The government has ordered a fresh 30-day detention for 30 of the arrested politicians and businessmen as the first month of their detention expired on Sunday and Monday.
   The home ministry on Saturday issued the order and informed the prison authorities about the persons detained by the military-led joint forces on charge of corruption and now kept in different jails.
   The corrupt suspects, ordered to be kept in fresh detention, are—former communications minister, Nazmul Huda, former parliamentary affairs adviser to Khaleda Zia, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, former state minister for civil aviation and tourism, Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin, former state minister for power, Iqbal Hasan Mahmood, former state minister for labour and manpower Amanullah Aman, ex-lawmaker and Khaleda’s political secretary, Mosaddek Ali Falu, former state minister for planning, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, former home minister, Mohammad Nasim, Sheikh Hasina’s privatisation affairs adviser, Salman F Rahman and former lawmakers Mostafa Kamal (Lotus Kamal), Naser Rahman, Salahuddin Ahmed, Ali Asgar Lobi, Mufti Shahidul Islam and Manjurul Ahsan Munshi.
   The others are—BNP-backed telephone employees’ union leader Firoz Mia, Swechchhasebak League general secretary Pankaj Devnath, Hasina’s assistant private secretary Awlad Hossain, Mohammad Hossain Babul, Abdus Sattar Tinku, Abdur Razzak, Mohammad Hasan, Haji Mohammad Shoeb Sayed, Abdul Hashim, Abdur Rouf Mia, Rafizuddin, Mokhlesur Rahman, Monir Hossain and Nabi Solaiman.
   ‘We received instruction from the higher authorities on Saturday that detention of the arrested persons had been extended by another one month,’ the inspector general of prison, brigadier general Md Zakir Hasan, told New Age.
   Most of them were detained during the ongoing drive against corruption and others surrendered to the courts and the joint forces. The government also announced a list of 50 corrupt people asking them to submit wealth statements. Of them, 32 people are in jails.
   So far, the police brought money laundering charges against Nazmul Huda, Salman F Rahman, Mirza Abbas, Salauddin and Giasuddin as foreign currencies were seized from their residences during raids.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission is preparing to file corruption cases against Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir and Amanullah Aman for submitting false statements about their wealth.
   Specific cases are yet to be filed against others but sources in the home ministry and Anti-Corruption Commission said that process to bring changes against them was underway.
   Asked whether there were charges against others, the deputy commissioner (prosecution), Shahidul Haq Bhuiyan replied in the negative.
   Meanwhile, the court of metropolitan sessions judge, Dhaka, on Monday rejected bail prayers of 12 BNP leaders—Nazmul Huda, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, Amanullah Aman, Mir Nasiruddin, Iqbal Hasan Mahmood, Naser Rahman, Ali Asgar Lobi, Manjurul Ahsan Munshi, Mosaddek Ali Falu, Salahuddin Ahmed, Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan and Firoz Mia.
   Judge Mohammad Momin Ullah turned down the bail petitions filed by their counsels.
   ‘The people were sent to jail with one-month detention under the emergency powers act and their detention expired on Monday’, defence lawyer Sanaullah Miah told the court.
   Opposing the bail petitions, the assistant commissioner (prosecution), Makbul Hossain, told the court that they should be kept in jail until investigations of the general diaries pending with different police stations against the arrested people were done.

National Board of Revenue has asked all scheduled banks to freeze the accounts of former law minister Moudud Ahmed and central publication secretary of Bangladesh Nationalist Party Mazedul Islam on suspicion of hiding real incomes and dodging tax payment.
   The freezing order will also apply to their close relations including father, mother, wife and children, according to the revenue board’s directive.
   The order, signed by Mustaque Ahmed, director general of NBR’s central intelligence cell, was made available to all banks on Sunday, asking them to stop all withdrawals and transfers of money from the bank accounts until further notice, banking sources confirmed.
   According to sources in the tax department, Mazedul, also a businessman, mentioned bank deposits of Tk 27 lakh in his latest tax return, while Moudud mentioned ‘nil’.
   Asked, Moudud declined to comment on the account freeze order.
   ‘I am not yet aware of any official order relating to freezing of bank accounts,’ the former law minister told New Age.
   Mazedul could not be contacted for comment.
   NBR last week froze bank accounts of 53 corrupt suspects and their family members. The suspects are mainly politicians and businessmen, while a few retired bureaucrats were also on the list.
   The directives were given as per the clause 4 of section 117 of Income Tax Ordinance 1984 that empowers the revenue board to restrict banking transactions of suspected tax-dodgers as or when required.

The interim government is eager to resume talks with India over the proposed tri-national gas pipeline issue without tagging on the three conditions put forward by the immediate past BNP-led government.
   Power and energy adviser Tapan Chowdhury, who is scheduled to leave Dhaka for Delhi today to attend the SAARC energy ministers’ meeting, told New Age on Monday that he would discuss with his Indian counterpart the issues relating to the proposed gas pipeline from Myanmar to India through Bangladesh.
   ‘Definitely the tri-national pipeline issue will come up for discussion. But there will be no conditions tagged with the pipeline. If it is beneficial for us economically we will move forward,’ he said.
   Discussion between Dhaka and New Delhi on the tri-national gas pipeline has remained stalled for over a year after Delhi refused to fulfil Dhaka’s demand for importing hydro-electricity from Nepal and Bhutan, providing the two Himalayan countries with transit facilities and reducing the trade gap with Bangladesh.
   When asked what would happen to the three conditions the immediate past BNP-led government had tagged with the pipeline project, Tapan replied, ‘Those issues [conditions] are separate issues and they should not be tagged with the pipeline. We will discuss those issues on a priority basis.’
   ‘Their priority issue will be the gas pipeline and our priority issues will be these conditions [mentioned above].’
   When asked whether Dhaka would accept Delhi’s priority issue even if Delhi does not address Dhaka’s priority issues, Tapan again said, ‘Both the issues are separate. We will see what economic benefit, like wheeling charge, we get from the gas pipeline.’
   He said Dhaka would take the opportunity to place a formal proposal for importing Nepal’s and Bhutan’s ‘surplus’ electricity through India in the SAARC energy ministers meeting on March 7.
   The then state minister for energy, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, tagged three conditions with the installation of the pipeline at a meeting with energy ministers of India and Myanmar in Yangon on January 13-14, 2005.
   The then government asked Mosharraf to tag the conditions with the pipeline project as Delhi had never paid any heed to Dhaka’s requests to import hydro-electricity from Nepal and Bhutan through India, and had done little to reduce the massive trade gap of over $2 billion.
   Although the then Indian petroleum minister, Mani Sankar Aiyar, during a visit in September, 2006 assured Dhaka that he would discuss the conditions with his government, the Indian foreign ministry reportedly opposed the idea of fulfilling the conditions and the gas pipeline issue remained stalled.
   The then government decided not to proceed on the gas pipeline issue unless India made an acceptable offer.
   India, in the meantime, planned several options, including installation of a pipeline from Myanmar to India bypassing Bangladesh or importing gas from Myanmar in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG), but could not implement any of these plans.
   A number of senior officials of the power and energy ministry told New Age that they felt that Dhaka should focus on the tri-national gas pipeline separately.
   ‘It was not a right decision on the previous government’s part to incorporate three conditions with the pipeline issue,’ said a high official of energy division. His statement was in sheer contrast to what the energy officials had said in the BNP-Jamaat government’s tenure.
   He said that Bangladesh should only focus on what financial benefit it will get by giving right of way to India, what wheeling charge it will get and whether local gas can be supplied from one part of the country to another by using that pipeline.
   When asked whether Delhi had made any move on the tri-national gas pipeline issue or whether Dhaka would make its move first, he said, ‘We should make the move first. But we are feeling shy as we have tagged the conditions.’

Wholesale drive against corruption might trigger a surge in cash withdrawal from banks and lead to massive outflow of money from the country, which, if not checked, would stall investment and put the economy in trouble, economists have cautioned.
   They suggested that the government put a ‘practical formula’ in place to bring huge black money into the mainstream economy, bringing the real culprits to book.
   ‘About two lakh families, which have ill-gotten properties worth hundreds of thousands of crores of taka, are all panicked, so there may be a tendency to withdraw bank money and siphon off those to foreign countries,’ said Abul Barkat, professor of Dhaka University’s economics department.
   To prevent capital from flying out of the country, the economist suggested that the government should catch the multinational banks and the big shots, who have accounts with those banks.
   When contacted, the finance adviser, AB Mirza Azizul Islam, said Bangladesh Bank has similar rules for both foreign and local banks in this regard. ‘People expect actions against black money holders, while some others talk about its bad impact on investment. What is to be done then?’ he asked.
   Dwelling on allegations against multinational banks for having a role in possible currency flight, Mamun Rashid, chief executive officer of Citibank NA, termed impractical the possibility of capital flight by banks that are carrying out wholesale banking. ‘The compliance of foreign banks is better than the local ones,’ he said in defence of foreign banks operating here.
   Mamun expressed the hope that the Bangladesh Bank’s anti-money laundering act would now be more effective in checking
   capital flight and other trans-boundary financial crimes.
   ‘Why doesn’t the government catch the pre-shipment inspection companies and customs officials too?’ he asked.
   Some economists also warned that wholesale drives against all kinds of encroachments and unauthorized businesses without considering the level of crimes would have adverse impact on economic and business activities.
   ‘Those who are bulldozing the illegal structures failed to understand the difference between big crimes and livelihood of hawkers and slum dwellers and their linkage with the economy. My fear is that the economy may face a severe consequence because of mishandling by the authorities concerned,’ said economist Atiur Rahman.
   He said those who amassed huge illegal properties must be brought to the book, but the money they earned should be diverted to major productive economic activities by penalising the lawbreakers.
   Development economist Hossain Zillur Rahman insisted on making the drives specific to each category of land grabbing and illegal businesses, and proposed that the interim government should hold a ‘focused consultation’ with experts to work out ways and means to bring the black money to economic activities that are beneficial to the people in general.
   ‘Governance must improve and we (as a nation) can in no way support immoral way of making money. The powerful people, who flouted social norms, must be punished, but scopes need to be there for using the black money for welfare purposes,’ he said.
   However, the finance adviser ruled out the proposal for giving scope for whitening black money and holding a broader consultation although he welcomed suggestions from anyone in society to improve the situation.
   ‘There is no consensus about the process of whitening black money and the economists and others have recommend no other acceptable means to bring the ill-gotten money into the mainstream economy,’ Mirza Aziz said.

Members of the intelligentsia, especially economists, have suggested that the interim government should formulate a full-year budget for the 2007-08 fiscal year that is realistic instead of following the earlier practice of setting ambitious targets that can never be achieved.
   At a pre-budget consultation meeting, they recommended restructuring of the whole package of fiscal incentives, such as tax exemption and cash subsidy, to streamline revenue earning as well as to increase mobilisation of foreign aid to make up for the budgetary deficit.
   Suggestions were also made for diverting indirect subsidy money to the poor in cash form, discouraging block allocations and reviewing the budgetary expenses through a review commission to ensure quality of the budget implementation process.
   ‘We have to set realistic revenue targets and expenditure outlay which can be achieved without difficulty. I feel we should maintain transparency in the budget-making process,’ finance and planning adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam told journalists after the meeting.
   Noted economist Rehman Sobhan said the Ministry of Finance should set an example of transparency in fiscal matters ‘not only for this government but also the coming governments’.
   His colleague at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, Debapriya Bhattacharya, expressed views in favour of a full-year budget with medium-term targets and said that when a political government assumes office, it will be to review the budget.
   ‘This government, before preparing the next budget, has to bring about fiscal discipline in the remaining three months of the current fiscal year…The main mantra of the next budget should be to keep the price level of essential commodities stable,’ said the economist. He also called for dropping politically motivated projects and expediting the implementation of foreign aided projects.
   The participants, underlining the need for strengthening the social safety net, suggested that the government should divert the allocation for food for work programmes to the vulnerable group feeding programmes.
   The finance adviser mentioned that the members of the present advisory council have no political ambition, so they will be guided only by the concept of public welfare in allocating money to various sectors. He could not say how the next budget would be presented.
   Welcoming the recommendations made by the economists and assuring them that their suggestions would be taken into account, Mirza Aziz said, ‘I have no right to waste my time and the valuable time of all these very important persons.’
   ‘I agree to their suggestion for lessening dependency on domestic bank borrowing for deficit financing through aid mobilisation in order to maintain fiscal discipline,’ he added.
   When he was asked about possible drives to reduce the means of earning black money, the adviser said the government departments concerned should also be streamlined and officials and employees should be motivated by behavioural incentives to improve the level of their efficiency and integrity.
   Fixation of an economic growth rate target between 6.5 per cent to 7 per cent was suggested, along with providing the poorer segment of the society the benefit of budgetary coverage.
   The economists also recommended that the government should try to enhance the ratio between tax and gross domestic product to a higher percentage from the current rate of below 11 per cent to ensure welfare measures for citizens by the state.
   Another suggestion was made for taking action against the so-called syndicates to ensure fair play in the market, and activating the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh for effective market intervention in times of emergency.
   Mohammad Farashuddin, a former governor of the Bangladesh Bank, stressed the need for enhancing credit flow to the agriculture sector, to ensure welfare of the farmers, and to small and medium enterprises.
   Former adviser to the caretaker government, Mainul Islam, spoke up against wholesale privatisation of the state-owned enterprises and cited the example of foreign state-owned entities, such as Singapore Airlines, that had become profitable concerns.

Aminbazar on the outskirt of the city has become a safe haven for criminals and operatives of outlawed and underground political outfits.
   It tops the six unions under Savar upazila widely known as strongholds of criminals and terrorists, where there are abundant hideouts for listed criminals of the capital city as well as other areas of the country on the run.
   Terrorists also use the upazila turned into a bourgeoning industrial belt as a kind of remote-control centre for planning and conducting terrorist operations across the country under the protection of certain local political leaders who ensure that they remain undetected by the police.
   Saturday’s murders of an officer and a constable of the Rapid Action Battalion at Aminbazar were but the lasts on a long list of killings of law enforcers in this area, proving again its apparent invulnerability to law enforcement.
   A large number of the approximately 20 lakh people currently living in the 12 unions under Savar are outsiders, coming from all walks of life. So terrorists find it an easy place to blend in and hide, posing as garment workers, officials or businessmen of the Dhaka Export Processing Zone located here.
   Typically, the terrorists and political extremists prefer to stay in the areas closest to Dhaka so as to easily slip into the city if law enforcers happen to start hunting for them, intelligence sources said.
   The criminals’ choice in this regard includes the remote parts of Bhakurta, Kaundia, Biralia, Ashulia, Yearpur and Aminbazar — six unions of Savar bordering Keraniganj, Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Tongi and Uttara of Dhaka.
   Among them, Aminbazar and Biralia have long been notorious as the two most popular sanctuaries of criminals and also the busiest transit points of drugs and arms.
   Numerous rackets of diehard criminals have put down deep and strong roots here allegedly under the patronage of two former lawmakers of the immediate past BNP-led alliance government.
   Criminals frequently use Niribili, a village adjacent to the National Memorial, as well as Gazirchat and Sreepur of Dhamsuna union and a village resort of another former BNP lawmaker from Dhaka city in Shimulia union as their meeting places, sources said.
   Meanwhile, Fantasy Kingdom, Demra, Tentuljhora, Imandipur, Mazidpur, Aminbazar and some areas around the Savar municipality have become heavily infested with crime and drug-peddling rackets under alleged patronage of local activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal, the student and youth wings of BNP.
   Criminals have chosen the areas for crimes like mugging, drug peddling and even killing as they can easily flee the scenes after committing crimes and as the law enforcers are yet to nab or punish any of them, locals alleged.
   ‘The criminals move freely about after committing crimes but nobody dares to utter a single word against them as the law enforcers also remain inactive against them because of lack of information,’ said a resident of Bardeshi.
   After the murder of Mamun, a notorious drug peddler, in 2001, his second wife Kalpana took over the drug racket with the help of Mamun’s accomplice Hatkata Tikka, who she married soon.
   Besides them, Shamsu Member, Anar, Gulzar of Bardeshi, Aslam, Nihar, Minto of Agargaon, Rab, Asad, Anowar, and Masud are also running a number of other drug rackets in the area. Each of these drug barons maintains his own gang of musclemen and crooks to run the drug peddling and other criminal operations.
   According to the police, at least 50 people were injured in a bloody clash between the locals and drugs peddlers at Aminbazar on August 5, 1996.
   In another gunfight between the police and criminals on November 18 the same year, six gangsters and a police constable named Ali Hossain sustained bullet injuries.
   Also in 1996, the Delowar Group killed Almas, a close aid of Gulzar, after a bloody gun fight on the night of December 16.
   On September 4, 1998, a gang led by Mamun and Shamsu Member attacked a police outpost, in which Shahjahan, a police sub-inspector, was severely wounded.
   On April 10 next year, a gang shot Shafi Member and Kajol dead during a meeting at Salehpur.
   The same gang shot dead Nurul Islam, 27, on May 23, 2001 as he tried to put an end to drug peddling in Aminbazar area.
   Assailants shot dead police sub-inspector Matiur Rahman on August 5, 2002 when he tried to arrest a drug peddler named Nazrul.
   Nazrul was later killed in an encounter with the RAB in 2006.
   Two police and six gangsters sustained bullet injuries in a skirmish between a joint contingent of RAB and police personnel and drug peddlers at Aminbazar on April 10, 2004.
   The next day the RAB arrested seven suspected criminals along with a large quantity of firearms.
   In another gunfight between the RAB and gangsters on November 20 the same year, a drug peddler named Ruhul Amin was killed on the spot.
   When a RAB team conducted a raid on the same gang on September 27, 2005, the criminals switched off electricity supply to the area and then opened fire on the RAB members, injuring two of them.
   Talking to New Age, Murtaza Kabir, acting officer-in-charge of Savar police station, however, claimed, ‘There is no doubt, it [Aminbazar] was a crime zone in the past as it is in the bordering area of four police stations but the situation has improved much since then.’
   ‘We with the help of the RAB, Criminal Investigation Department and Detective Branch have been conducting a massive manhunt to rout the criminals from the area as soon as possible,’ he added.

The interim government is considering shifting Kamalapur Railway Station to outside the capital city, preferably to Tongi, to ease the city’s traffic congestion.
   It is also planning to relocate the SAARC Fountain at the Karwan Bazar intersection to elsewhere in the city for smoother traffic movement on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue and Panthapath, two of the city’s busiest thoroughfares.
   According to a study of the traffic department of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Kamalapur Railway Station is one of the main reasons for traffic congestions in the city. ‘Trains intercept the city’s road traffic 72 times at various level crossings,’ the report said.
   ‘The government is considering transferring Kamalapur Railway Station to Tongi. If the station is shifted from Kamalapur, the railways inside the city will be turned into roads to facilitate better vehicular movement,’ the LGRD and cooperatives adviser, Anwarul Iqbal, told a press briefing at the secretariat on Monday.
   Towards the same end, the Dhaka City Corporation has also initiated the process to undertake a Tk 15-crore project to construct an 80-mitre-long Banani-Gulshan link bridge with four lanes to connect Banani Road 11 with Gulshan Road 41, the adviser said.
   ‘The tender process for the proposed bridge is already underway and the DCC aims to complete the project within nine months, he added.
   Replying to a query, Anwarul Iqbal said he was not aware whether the BGMEA Bhaban and other proposed buildings including the undergoing expansion of Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel on filled-up bed of the Begunbari canal were approved by the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha or not.
   He, however, said no one would be allowed to construct any more structure on the canal bed, although he did not mention any specific decision about the structures already built there in violation of the Water Bodies Protection Act.
   The adviser said a 3.3 km elevated expressway would be established across the Begunbari canal and Hatirjheel connecting Panthapath and Pragati Sarani in Rampura at the cost of Tk 530 crore.
   The Japanese government has already committed to provide Tk 300 crore for project and the Bangladesh government will bear the remaining Tk 230-crore cost, he told the press, adding the project proposal would be tabled at the meeting of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council this week for final approval.
   Anwar also said the Rangs Bhaban at the end of Bijoy Sarani should be demolished to smooth the city’s traffic movement.

The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion, in its first legal action, will sue three former state ministers and two of their close relations on charge of submitting false statements of their wealth and of owning properties disproportionate to their legitimate incomes.
   The commission on Monday approved the proposals for the filing of three cases against former state minister for planning of the Awami League government, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, former state minister for labour of the past BNP-Jamaat government, Amanullah Aman, his wife, Sabera Aman, former state minister for civil aviation and tourism of the same government, Mir Nasiruddin, and his son, Mir Helaluddin.
   Commissioner Habibur Rahman, who is in charge of the commission in the absence of chairman Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, on Monaday gave reporters the above information.
   ‘The cases are likely to be filed tonight or tomorrow [Tuesday] with the Gulshan police station,’ he said.
   Deputy director of the commission, Sharmin Ferdous, will file the case against Mir Nasir and his son Mir Helal, accusing them of submitting false wealth statements, concealing their wealth amounting to Tk 3,22,11,000, and for owning properties beyond the purchasing power of their legitimate incomes.
   Aman and his wife Sabera will be sued by deputy director of the commission, Abdullah Al Zahid, on charge of submitting false wealth statements and concealing their wealth of Tk 8,28,47,232 and for possessing properties disproportionate to their legitimate incomes.
   Deputy director of the commission, Jiban Krishna Roy, will sue Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir for submitting false wealth statements and concealing his fixed deposits of Tk 1.17 crore.
   Alamgir, however, will not be charged for possessing properties disproportionate to his legitimate income.
   The cases will be filed under Rule 15(D)(5) of the Emergency Powers Rules and under Section 26(2) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act.
   The Rule stipulates that if any person does not file a wealth statement after being notified to do so, s/he will be punished with imprisonment for three to five years and all of his/her properties will be confiscated by the government.
   The Rule also stipulates that if any person submits any false statement or any false records or documents on his/her wealth, he/she will face the same punishment.
   Section 26(2) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act stipulates that punishment for the same offences will be imprisonment for three years.
   The commission will continue further investigation of those three accused persons to find out whether they own any more assets, said Habibur Rahman.
   Similar cases will be filed soon against others who have submitted false wealth statements and own properties that are beyond the purchasing power of their legitimate incomes.
   The commission, however, is yet to decide its next course of action against the 15 persons who did not file their wealth statements, defying the notices issued on February 18 to submit their statements personally within 72 hours.
   ‘We are yet to get any response from the government to the letter we sent it regarding those 15 persons,’ said Habibur Rahman.
   He said, in reply to a query, that the commission had empowered its officials in some districts — including Chittagong, Bogra, Mymensingh and Netrokona — to investigate the allegations against some political activists.
   They have also been empowered to ask some of those people to submit their statements of assets, giving them a 72-hour deadline in accordance with the Emergency Powers Rules and the Anti-Corruption Commission Act.
   When he was asked about the new list of people who will be asked to submit their wealth statements, Habibur Rahman said, ‘Similar notices may be issued to more people asking for explanation of their wealth and incomes, but not right now as the commission has decided to take effective measures to prosecute the first batch of 50 targeted people.’
   Commissioner Abul Hasan Manjur Mannan, when asked about any future list, said, ‘There is no list right now and we have not received any list yet.’
   However, answering another question, he said, ‘Maybe a list is being prepared…We may be preparing a list.’

A state of emergency has been declared in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu after two days of ethnic violence in the capital Port Vila, the police said Monday.
   The prime minister, Ham Lini, invoked the special powers to help restore law and order on advice from the council of ministers, community chiefs and the police, superintendent Willy Ben Calo said.
   The proclamation issued late Sunday prohibited ‘all assemblies and demonstrations’ and would be in place for two weeks, Calo said.
   At least two people have died in violent clashes between rival groups of islanders in the Vanuatu capital, sparked by a dispute between residents of two of the archipelago’s 83 islands.
   Calo said ‘Operation Black Spirit’ had been launched to restore order in the capital, with some 160 police and paramilitary members from the Vanuatu Mobile Force on patrol and seeking to arrest ringleaders.
   ‘We have declared a state of emergency for the next two weeks, up to March 18, to give police powers necessary to stop any more trouble,’ he said.
   ‘There is no curfew at this stage and we are providing protection to communities who need it, including the business community.’
   He said there was no need for foreign assistance in the impoverished country at this stage.
   Early Monday more than 100 heavily armed police and VMF members raided the Blacksands area on the outskirts of the capital and detained more than 100 men for questioning.
   Blacksands is home to one of the largest communities of Tannese islanders, many of whom were involved in the weekend violence in which five houses belonging to Ambrym islanders were burnt down on Sunday.
   The detained men were being held at the VMF compound, where 159 women and children have sought refuge amidst fears of retaliation.
   Port Vila and surrounds were calm Monday, as a combination of rain and a public holiday kept most people off the streets.
   Cases of serious communal violence in Vanuatu are rare, but there is growing concern about the numbers of people moving to the capital from outer islands. Unemployment and rising crime are adding pressure on city authorities.
   The Red Cross and Vanuatua’s National Disaster Committee have been approached to help provide rice and other emergency assistance to those displaced by the violence.

High Court judge Faisal Mahmud Fayezee went on a two-week leave as the chief justice, M Ruhul Amin, removed him from the bench on Monday after Chittagong University on Saturday stripped him of his Bachelor of Law degree on the charge of having a doctored mark sheet.
   Secretary to the chief justice for the High Court Division, Mahfuzul Karim Akhand, told reporters that Fayezee had submitted an application seeking two weeks of leave on Monday.
   He did so after his name was dropped from Monday’s ‘cause list’, the list of the benches of the Supreme Court and the cases to be dealt with by them.
   Fayezee, who did not go to work on Sunday also, went to his chamber in the Supreme Court on Monday, but did not go to his courtroom for dispensation of justice, said sources in the Supreme Court.
   The Chittagong University syndicate on Saturday scrapped the Bachelor of Law degree certificates and graduation certificates of about 2,400 students, including Fayezee, awarded over a decade (1983-92).
   The syndicate also decided to immediately issue letters to the persons whose certificates have been cancelled, and ask those, who have already collected their certificates, to return them.
   Fayezee may plunge into another legal battle by challenging the decision of the university syndicate, and he will decide the nature of the legal battle after he receives the official letter, said a source close to him.
   Two major national dailies published reports on October 30, 2004, saying that Justice Faisal Mahmud Fayezee, who was then an additional judge of the High Court, had obtained his Bachelor of Law certificate by unfair means. Needless to say, he denied the allegation.
   According to reports, Fayezee had bribed officers to tamper with his mark sheet. He had obtained 29 in the examination on Muslim Law for which he sat in the Chittagong Law College in 1989, but later the number was increased by ten to 39.
   The Bangladesh Bar Council, the statutory regulatory body for lawyers, on April 24, 2004 cancelled the advocateship licence of Fayezee because of the allegation that he had obtained the licence by producing doctored LLB results and false date of birth.
   However, the High Court on May 7, 2005 stayed the operation of the council’s decision and issued a rule on it, asking it to explain within eight weeks why cancellation of the advocateship certificate of Justice Fayezee would not be declared illegal. The rule is yet to be disposed of.
   Justice Fayezee’s father filed a contempt of court petition with the High Court on November 8, 2004 against the publishers, editors and reporters of two major dailies, and the High Court on March 21, 2005 convicted them of contempt of court.
   The chief justice, in response to protests by the Supreme Court Bar Association, removed Fayezee from the bench on October 31, 2004, and he has been out of the bench for a long time.
   His service as a judge of the High Court was confirmed by President Iajuddin, who reportedly ignored the chief justice’s adverse recommendation, on August 22, 2006.
   The president’s decision led the bar association to begin agitating to press home the demand for cancellation of Fayzee’s appointment.

University Grants Commission will form a probe committee soon to find out the persons involved with mark sheets tampering and certificate forgery scam at the Chittagong University and bring the culprits to book, chairman of the university regulatory body said.
   ‘Former vice-chancellors, academic council members, examination controllers and examination committee members of Chittagong University should be blamed for doctoring mark sheets and certificates of about 2,400 students,’ said commission chairman professor M Asaduzzaman Monday evening.
   Chittagong University syndicate on Saturday scrapped the Bachelor of Laws degree certificates and graduation certificates of about 2,400 students, including High Court judge Faisal Mahmud Fayezee. These certificated were awarded between 1983 and 1992. The syndicate also decided to recall those certificates.

The preparation of voter identity cards for about nine crore eligible voters in the country will take nearly a year, according to a report prepared by an expert committee.
   The eight-member committee, which the interim government had formed to make an assessment of time and money to be required to prepare the multi-purpose cards, in its report submitted on Sunday recommended initially for creating a voters’ database with provision to upgrade it as a national database for national ID cards.
   ‘It will take four months to complete the preparatory work for the commencement of the voter ID card project and another eight months will be needed to produce the ID cards,’ the report said.
   The committee headed by Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury estimated that the preparation of voter ID cards would cost the national exchequer Tk 385 crore. The card should be bio-metric and laminated, it suggested.
   The cost could be reduced by Taka 50 crore if a list with photographs is prepared and cards are not distributed immediately, the report says.
   The interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed and the Election Commission had been waiting for the expert committee report, based on which they would take their next course of action regarding holding of the next parliamentary polls.
   The report suggested that the ministry of home affairs could be the authority responsible for maintaining the database—a job so far done by the Election Commission.
   Science and ICT adviser Tapan Chowdhury to whom the report was submitted, on Monday said, the report would be placed before the chief adviser. He said he would sit with the chief election commissioner and other election commissioners to discuss the issue.
   In reply to a question, the adviser said, ‘the EC is fully authorised to take the decision on whether there will be voter ID cards and how.
   ATM Shamsul Huda, after assuming office on February 5 as the country’s 10th chief election commissioner, said that he would look into the report of the expert committee on voter ID cards and then the EC would start preparation for the next election.
   The interim government on February 1 formed the expert committee. Headed by Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, the committee comprised secretary to the ministry of science and ICT Wahid-uz-Zaman, IT specialist Mostafa Jabbar, executive director of Bangladesh Computer Council and representatives from BUET, army and ministries concerned.
   The committee has gone through all reports prepared at different times by the BUET expert committee, the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) as well the as the Armed Forces’ proposal to prepare voter ID cards within six to eight months costing only Tk 350 crore.
   ‘After examining all these reports, the expert committee report has recommended preparing a voter database with an option for a national database subsequently,’ said a member of the committee.

The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, and the Jamaat-e-Islami amir, Matiur Rahman Nizami, on Monday discussed the present political situation and the interim administration’s anti-corruption drives.
   ‘The two top leaders of the four-party alliance reviewed the present political situation,’ a senior BNP leader told New Age on Monday night.
   Activities of the interim government, including its drives against corruption and move for electoral reforms, also came for discussion, he said.
   The two leaders also discussed about the ways to carry on political activities.
   The secretaries general of the two parties, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, BNP standing committee member Khandakar Delwar Hossain and joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan were present at the meeting held at Khaleda’s Banani office.

The HM Ershad-led Jatiya Party disagreed with the Awami League’s demands for holding general elections by June, and expressed its readiness to give as much time as the Election Commission needs for holding the ninth parliamentary elections after completing its reforms agenda.
   ‘We disagree with the Awami League’s demand for holding general elections by June. The demand was raised without consulting us…We are ready to give whatever time the Election Commission needs for preparing to hold fair elections,’ JP chairman HM Ershad told reporters after an hour-long meeting with the chief election commissioner, Dr ATM Shamsul Huda, on Monday.
   He said that the JP thought the Election Commission could take whatever time is needed for implementing electoral reforms, preparing the electoral roll with photographs, distributing voters’ ID cards and reshuffling the civil administration for conducting a credible election.
   ‘We think they [EC] will hold elections when they are prepared…We didn’t discuss anything about the time required,’ said Ershad.
   When he was asked if JP will agree if the Election Commission take two years for election preparation, Ershad replied that he does not think such a long time is needed.
   When the EC’s reported move to bar the black-money holders and corrupt persons from contesting the elections and reducing the number of seats that one candidate can stand in from five to three, he said the JP has no objection but rather welcomes the move.
   ‘Black-money holders and corrupt people have to be banned from contesting the polls. If reforms are not made then there will no benefit to the country,’ he added.
   When he was asked about the corruption allegations against him, Ershad said there is no such allegation. ‘Everyone in the world knows I’m not corrupt…Now you are seeing who the really corrupt people are.’
   A seven-member JP delegation led by former dictator Ershad met the CEC and the two election commissioners, M Sohul Hossain and M Sakhawat Hossain.
   JP leaders Ruhul Amin Hawlader, Kazi Firoz Rashid, Anisul Hoq Mahmud, Ziauddin Bablu, HMA Gaffar and MA Sattar were the other delegation members.

One more suspect was detained while the court granted five-day remand for three arrested in connection of Saturday’s murder of two members of Rapid Action Battalion.
   Law enforcers on Monday suspected that the two RAB personnel, murdered at Aminbazar near the capital on Saturday, might be victims of vengeful act of accomplices of ‘crossfire’ victims or drug peddlers, who are on the run amid intensified anti-crime drive.
   The investigators also claimed that they traced the killers of the two RAB men and believed they came in two groups—each having six members.
   Humayun Kabir, a deputy assistant director of the Rapid Action Battalion, and Phul Mia, a constable of the Rapid Action Battalion-11 were found dead at a brickfield at Salehpur Uttar Kaundi, at Aminbazar Saturday.
   Law enforcers produced brickfield owner Tajul Islam alias Tara Mia, his son Faisal and manager Mohsin before the chief metropolitan magistrate court of Kamrunnahar Siddiquee seeking a seven-day remand on Monday.
   The court granted a five-day police remand.
   RAB members on Monday detained one of the prime suspects, Mostaq Hossain, from Pakuria area under sadar upzila in Sherpur.
   A high official of Sherpur police confirmed the detention of Mostaq, but could not say for sure whether he was nabbed in connection with the RAB men killing or for links with the banned Islamist outfit, JMB.
   One of the investigators preferring anonymity told New Age, ‘We have confirmed after interrogating the arrested that six people directly carried out the operation while six others assisted them.’
   The three-member joint probe committee, formed on Saturday comprising ASP Motiur Rahman, detective branch inspector Akhterzuzzaman and RAB sub-inspector Ibrahim, continued their interrogation of the arrested persons on Monday to crosscheck some collected information and evidences.
   The investigators went to the Savar police station on Monday and extensively interrogated arrested Abu Saleh and Nurul Islam, who were detained on Sunday from Aminbazar area.
   ‘We have already ascertained the motive behind the killing and traced the killers and their associates,’ inspector Akhteruzzaman said.
   Our Barisal correspondent reports, Humayun Kabir, one of the two slain RAB members, was buried in his Bokshir Char village home under Babuganj upazila on Monday.

Former deputy minister for land Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu was implicated in an abduction and extortion case in Natore, while two peacocks were seized on Monday from the emptied Gulshan house of Haris Chowdhury, political secretary to BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia.
   The army-led joint forces seized more corrugated iron sheets, meant for relief, from the houses of a BNP leader in Bogra and a former army man in Bhola.
   In their anti-crime drive, the forces arrested about 1,500 people from across the country in 24 hours ending at 6:00am Monday.
   In Dhaka, the forest department officials, along with the forces, raided Haris Chowdhury’s residence at Road No 53 of Gulshan-2 at about 5:00pm Monday and seized the two peacocks. None was present at the house during the raid. Keeping peacocks in personal possession is illegal as per wildlife conservation act. Earlier, 15 spotted deer were seized from a holiday resort of former BNP lawmaker Mosaddek Ali Falu.
   Chowdhury, one of the 50 corrupt suspects listed by Anti-corruption Commission, went into hiding.
   In Natore, ex-deputy minister Dulu was shown accused in an abduction case filed by Chand Mohammad, a resident of Naldanga.
   The complainant alleged that cadres of Dulu abducted him and took him to the torture cell of Islamist militant leader, Bangla Bhai, at Ramsar Kazipur, where he was tortured and pressed for withdrawing a case filed earlier against Dulu. He was then asked to pay Tk one lakh and then sent to jail as he failed to pay the sum, Chand alleged.
   With the latest case on Monday, a total of 11 cases have been filed against Dulu.
   In Bogra, the Rapid Action Battalion verbally asked the transport owners to submit statements of their wealth, political identities and vehicles.
   The local battalion commander, Osman Shafi, said the statements would have to be submitted within a short time.
   The forces on Monday seized 15 pieces of relief CI sheets from the roof of the house of Dupchanchia municipal unit BNP president, Tozammel Hossain Tozam, at Chowdhuryara in Bogra. They also sealed off the leather warehouse of Tozam, who has been absconding since the declaration of state of emergency on January 11.
   In Bhola, the forces, in separate drives, seized 54 pieces of relief CI sheets from the houses of retired army man Mostafa Kamal and one Faruque at Tagi village under Borhanuddin upazila on Monday.
   They also held Mostafa Kamal.
   In Shariatpur, the forces recovered six hand bombs and a pipe gun from a graveyard at Char Khamar village under Jajira upazila on Monday.
   In Rajshahi, the joint forces arrested Shahadat Hossain Shahu, commissioner of ward-17 of Rajshahi City Corporation, from his Naodapara residence in the city for his alleged involvement in corruption and land document forgery.

The police on Monday evening pressed charges against former BNP lawmaker Salahuddin Ahmed, now in jail, and five of his associates in an extortion case lodged on February 14 with Shyampur police station under the Speedy Trial Tribunal Act.
   The same day Salahuddin’s wife, sons and daughter filed separate petitions with the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Dhaka to return four of the six vehicles seized from their Shyampur residence on February 22.
   In the charge sheet filed with the CMM court, the other five accused are Rashed Ahmed Badsha, Anwar Hossain Anu, Mohammad Roni, Rabiul Hasan Dipu, and Shahabuddin Ahmed. All of them live in Muradnagar Madrassah Road of Shyampur.
   The plaintiff, Kafil Uddin, a trader and resident of the same area, alleged the former lawmaker and his five accomplices assaulted him and grabbed 16 decimal land owned by him in January 2005 as he had failed to pay them a toll of Tk 20 lakh, the police said.
   Salahuddin was sent to jail after he had surrendered to the CMM court on February 12, seeking bail in two other cases filed earlier with Jatrabari police station under the Money Laundering Prevention Act and the arms act, which are still under investigation.
   He was also one of the first 50 corruption suspects listed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   In the other development on Monday, his wife Shamsun Nahar, sons Tanvir Ahmed and Kimula Ahmed, and daughter Farzana Sharmin in their petition to the CMM court claimed that they, not Salahuddin, were the real owners of four of the six luxurious vehicles seized by the army-led joint forces.
   ‘Though the vehicles were not owned by Salahuddin Ahmed, law-enforcer seized them and kept them at the police station under the open sky. These expensive cars will be destroyed if they remain like this for long,’ argued the petitioners.
   After hearing the petition, metropolitan magistrate Mamun-Al-Rashid said he would issue an order in this regard today.

Several hundred farmers laid siege to the upazila agriculture offices at Bhangura, Chatmahor and Faridpur in Pabna on Monday demanding supply of fertiliser.
   Though the upazila nirbahi officers assured them of providing fertiliser as per their requirement, a good number of farmers returned empty-handed because the dealers had no sufficient stock.
   In Chatmahor, the police charged the agitating farmers with truncheons and arrested three of them as they thronged the agriculture office to get fertilisers.
   A frustrated farmer of Chhaikula village in Chatmahor upazila said, ‘We need at least 10 sacks of urea fertiliser but we have so far got only one sack.’
   Chatmohar upazila agriculture officer Md Azhar Ali said the dealers have so far received 145 tonnes of fertiliser as against the demand of 793 tonnes in March. ‘Urea crisis has further deepened as the stock for the previous month is exhausted by February 20.’
   In Bhangura, only two out of 10 dealers could collect allotted fertilisers this year resulting in shortage of supply, sources in the agriculture department said.
   Only 2,908 tonnes of fertiliser had been supplied in the district as against the total demand of 17,728 tonnes for January, February and March.
   IRRI-Boro cultivation was being hampered in Pabna and the target of paddy output might not be achieved this year due to acute scarcity of fertiliser, said the agriculture officials and the farmers.
   A scheme had been taken up to bring 65,100 hectares of land under IRRI-Boro cultivation in nine upazilas of the district, the officials said.

A car bomb ripped through Baghdad’s oldest book market on Monday, killing 26 people and wounding dozens in the latest assault on a US-Iraqi plan aimed at stemming bloodshed in the capital.
   The attack struck the symbolic heart of Iraq’s intellectual life, Mutanabi Street, an ancient centre of learning and culture and a rare diversion for the capital’s war-weary citizens.
   Acrid dust enveloped the streets and the minarets of a nearby mosque, as dark plumes of smoke stained the blue spring skies over the Tigris.
   Many shops packed with the dry pages of books caught fire and the market was littered with body parts and blood-splattered pages.
   One witness, Mohammed Salman, was searching for his brother.
   ‘I hope he’s in the hospital,’ Salman said. ‘There are many body parts all around. It is impossible to identify them.’
   According to him, the bomb exploded right outside a cultural centre where many people had gathered as usual to discuss politics and literature.
   Book store owner Naim al-Shatry was in tears.
   ‘The killing of books is worse than the killing of people because people have only limited life whereas books live forever,’ he said.
   ‘The terrorists are trying to kill knowledge,’ he added. ‘Today they have killed the books in our oldest market.’
   Another witness said Al-Mutanabi was famed throughout the world.
   ‘It has been a place where many of our Arab and foreign friends come to visit. Now it is destroyed.’
   Another bookstore owner, Mohammed Hamid, was distraught.
   ‘My library is destroyed completely,’ he said. ‘I had so many encyclopaedias and historical books but they are all destroyed.’
   Iraqis regard Al-Mutanabi, crammed with bookshops and frequented by writers, poets and artists, as one of the most important centres in the literary world.
   It was opened in 1932 by King Faisal II, and is named after Arab poet Abu Taib al-Mutanabi.
   The blast came despite a massive Iraqi-US security operation involving more than 90,000 troops, launched just over two weeks ago and aimed at quelling sectarian violence that has ravaged Baghdad for more than a year.
   As part of the operation, hundreds of Iraqi and US troops are conducting search operations in Sadr City, once a no-go zone controlled by Shiite militias that has been the scene of running street battles.
   The house-to-house searches are testing the resolve of prime minister Nuri al-Maliki to back US-led forces in going after militants in the stronghold of one of his allies, radical anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
   Al-Sadr’s militiamen have disappeared into the shadows since a joint operation by Iraqi and US forces was launched in Baghdad more than two weeks ago to flush out Sunni insurgents and Shia militiamen.
   The operation in Sadr City, which on its first day on Sunday drew no resistance but also saw no arrests, is sweeping through the same streets where US-led forces engaged Shia militias in bitter battles in 2004.
   Iraqi and coalition forces caught 36 suspected terrorists in raids around Iraq on Monday, the US military said.

The Supreme Court on Monday extended its order, which stayed the High Court verdicts declaring illegal the detention of former Awami League lawmaker Kamal Ahmed Majumder and three others, by another week.
   The six-member full court of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, headed by chief justice M Ruhul Amin, passed the order as attorney general Fida M Kamal sought time for hearing of the government’s petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court rulings.
   The attorney general told the court that his office needed time as it was yet to get the certified copy of the High Court verdict.
   The hearing will resume on March 12, the court ordered.
   A High Court bench of Justice MA Wahhab Mian and Justice M Emdadul Haque on February 26 delivered the judgments after a long legal battle over whether the High Court could exercise its jurisdiction on habeas corpus writs challenging detention orders issued under a law providing for preventive detention especially in a state of emergency.
   Turning down the Attorney General’s arguments, the High Court observed that the powers of the High Court to examine whether the legal provisions had been followed accordingly in issuing a detention order even under laws on preventive detention and to issue certain orders and directives could not be taken away under any circumstances.
   The army-led joint forces detained Kamal Majumder, ward commissioner of Kafrul, Quaiyum Khan, director of Proshika, Aminul Islam, deputy director of the same non-government organisation and Abul Quashem Palash from the capital hours after a state of emergency was proclaimed on January 11 and sent them to Dhaka central jail with 30 days’ detention.
   Close relations of the detainees moved to the High Court and filed habeas corpus petitions challenging their detention.

The country’s gross domestic product will increase by one per cent and foreign trade by 20 per cent if inland water, rail and road transport between Dhaka and Chittagong can be upgraded to the global standard.
   This encouraging projection was made in a draft report presented at a stakeholders’ workshop at the Asian Development Bank on Sunday. It was conducted under the ADB-funded technical assistance programme and was titled ‘Improving the Efficiency of Transport Logistics in the Dhaka-Chittagong Corridor’.
   Although currently the bulk of freight traffic in the corridor is by road, transport by rail and waterway may be cheaper and more energy efficient, according to the report prepared by a US firm. However, it found that rail and road links between the port and Dhaka to be ‘costly compared to international standards’.
   A news release issued by ADB’s Dhaka mission said that a wide range of public and private sector stakeholders involved in transport and logistics in Bangladesh had participated in the workshop.
   Analysing transport and logistics systems in the corridor from the viewpoint of shippers, importers and exporters, the study observed that overall informal payments and other inefficiencies add up to 40 per cent to transport costs for imports, adversely impacting on international trade on a significant scale.
   Its key recommendations include streamlining export-import documentation and procedures, improving port operations, establishment of more inland container depots in Dhaka by the private sector, building four lanes in the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, double-tracking of the existing single railway line, and improving railway management.
   The participants attached great importance to encouraging the private sector to increase the capacity of inland container depots and related infrastructure in both ends of the corridor.
   Stakeholders suggested that a policy decision is needed to move all the container handling activities, other than loading and unloading vessels, outside the port and to complete the information link between port authorities and shippers and freight forwarders.

The newly appointed Chief Justice, M Ruhul Amin, on Monday made a courtesy call on the president, Iajuddin Ahmed, at Bangabhaban and apprised the head of state of different issues concerning the judiciary.
   Wishing him all the best, Iajuddin called on the Chief Justice to work for ‘establishing the rule of law and upholding the dignity of the judiciary’.
   The Chief Justice especially apprised the president of different issues of the Supreme Court which recently witnessed a chain of unwarranted happenings.
   The Chief Justice pledged before the president that he would be resolutely working towards ‘establishing the rule of law and upholding the supreme image of the Supreme Court along with the lower judiciary’.
   Iajuddin welcomed the Chief Justice and exchanged pleasantries with him at the outset of the meeting. President’s military secretary Major General M Aminul Karim and secretary M Sirajul Islam were present.

The government on Monday decided to ratify SAARC agreement on mutual administrative assistance on customs matters.
   The council of advisers to the caretaker government took the decision at its weekly meeting chaired by the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed.
   The decision will be placed at the forthcoming summit in India for its implementation.
   The agreement on mutual administrative assistance on customs matters was signed at the last SAARC summit in Dhaka for enhancing trade and commerce in the region.
   The meeting also decided to hold regular weekly council meeting on Saturdays instead of Mondays. The next meeting of the advisory council will be held on Saturday morning, chief adviser’s press secretary Syed Fahim Munaim told newsmen.
   The meeting also discussed the outsourcing of Chittagong Shah Amanat International Airport and reviewed an earlier agreement with Thai Airlines on operation and maintenance of the airport.
   The advisory council asked the authorities concerned to ‘examine minutely the legal and economic aspects’ of the deal in the context of the introduction of open-sky system for Shah Amanat Airport. The authorities have been asked to place comprehensive report before the council of advisers.
   The agreement with the Thai airways was signed in 2005 for 10 years when the airport had not got the open-sky status.

The government has decided to bring back 29 Bangladeshis stranded in Chad.
   The government would take stern action against the travel agency that sent them to the Mid-African country resorting to deception, adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury told reporters on Monday.

Properties worth over Tk 5 crore were gutted in a devastating fire at a textile mills in Chittagong Export Processing Zone at Patenga area of the port city on Monday afternoon. No casualty was reported.
   The Fire Service and Civil Defence officials said the fire originated from an electric short circuit at the spinning section of Tareque-Azim Textile Mills at the block-4 of the EPZ at around 3:55pm and soon engulfed the other sections of the mills.
   They said ten of their fire extinguishing units brought the fire under control at about 8:30pm in cooperation of the army and Rapid Action Battalion personnel and fire unit of the Chittagong Port.
   The general manager of the mills, Alamgir Hossain Majumder, claimed damages from the blaze to be more than Tk 5 crore.
   The Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority has formed a five-member committee to investigate into the incident.

A task force of the Anti-Corruption Commission on Monday ordered freeze of an account of Tk one crore of former Awami League leader Joynal Hazari deposited with the Rupali Bank.
   On investigation the task force found Hazari fixed deposited the money in the name of his sister Khodeza Begum.
   Hazari, now living in self-exile in India, is one of 50 politicians listed by the Anti-Corruption Commission who were asked to submit statement of their wealth.
   Expelled from Awami League, Hazari, a former MP and godfather, fled the country in August 2001 in the wake of BDR-police drive against terrorists.