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Retired major AKM Mohiduddin Ahmed, condemned killer of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is wanted in a case filed in connection with the mortar attack at a Mohammadpur neighbourhood on the night of August 15, 1975 that left 14 people dead.
   Fourth additional sessions judge Mohammad Amanullah is expected to record the statement of Mohammad Ali, the complainant on Monday, as the judge earlier asked Ali to appear in the court on the day.
   Mohiuddin, who fled Bangladesh after the Awami League won the 1996 parliamentary election, was detained in the United States on March 13.
   Mohammad Ali, a businessman of Borhanuddin in the southern Bhola district, lodged the case on November 29, 1996 accusing 18 persons of the mortar attack. Fifteen of them were later convicted in the Mujib killing case.
   The court of fourth additional Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge, in November, 2006 framed the murder charges against 18 people, five years after the police submitted charge sheet against them on April 30, 2001.
   In the case Ali said that the accused fired mortar shells targeting the Dhanmondi Road 32 house of the then president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. But the target was missed and the mortar shells hit two residential houses at Sher Shah Suri Road at Mohammadpur. Ali was also injured in the attack.
   Of the 18 accused, four— lieutenant colonels Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan and Muhiuddin Ahmed and retired major Bazlul Huda have been in condemned cell in the Dhaka Central Jail since 1996 in Mujib murder case.
   The fugitives are: Risalder Moslehuddin, Lt Col Khondader Abdur Rashid, Lt Col Shariful Haq Dalim, Lt Col SHMB Noor Chowdhury and Lt Col AM Rashed Chowdhury, Maj Ahmed Shariful Hossain, Lt Col Abdul Aziz Pasha, Capt Abdul Majed, Capt Mohammad Kismat Hasem, Capt Nazmul Hossain, Dafadar Marfat Ali Shah and Dafadar Mohammad Abdul Hashem Mridha. Of them, Aziz Pasha died in Zimbabwe in 2002.
   Former minister Taher Uddin Thakur, the lone civilian accused in the case, is now on bail.

A three-day cultural festival of the ethnic minorities of Bangladesh began at the Shaukat Osman Auditorium of the Central Public Library in Dhaka on Saturday.
   Organised by the Society for Environment and Human Development, the festival was inaugurated by Basundhara Dewan, the first woman headman in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the Bazar Chowdhury, custodian of market place, of Naniarchar in Rangamati.
   Professor Anisuzzaman attended as chief guest while Professor Rafiqul Islam and former lawmaker Promode Mankin, also a human right activist, were present as special guests.
   The SEHD chairman, Professor Sakhawat Ali Khan, presided over the opening session and Fillip Gain of the organisation delivered the welcome speech.
   The speakers stressed on the importance of cultural, religious and ethnic diversity.
   Basundhara hoped the festival would be successful and people, irrespective of caste, creed and colour, would enjoy it.
   Anisuzzaman said, ‘During the Pakistan period, we were busy upholding the spirit of only Bengali nationalism, but after the war of independence, we had not paid much attention to the ethnic minority groups… for that reason, we have faced uprising and insurgency in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.’
   He also said the government should take necessary steps to establish the rights of the ethnic minorities. ‘We can enrich our culture through diversity.’
   Promode said the government should recognise the rights of ethnic minorities, particularly, their rights to land. ‘The ethnic groups have been denied their rights and being displaced.’
   He also said the areas, populated by ethnic minorities, are mired in problems. ‘Few development works have been done in such areas.’
   Professor Rafiqul Islam demanded that the culture and the language of ethnic minorities should be protected by the government. He also demanded that ethnic minority children should be provided with primary education in their language.
   ‘Many ethnic groups and their languages have already become extinct with the passage of time. We should preserve the cultures and languages of the existing groups,’ he said.
   Fillip Gain said the nation is paying respect to the cultural diversity of ethnic groups through the festival.
   Sakhawat Ali said the festival ground has become a platform for both the Bengalis and the ethnic minority people.
   The festival organisers brought out a rally from the library compound in the morning.
   An exhibition featuring the artefacts and photographs of the ethnic minorities has been arranged in the exhibition gallery. It will remain open between 10:00am and 8:00pm.
   In the second part of the inaugural programme, cultural troupes, including Santals, Khasis, Tanchangyas and Bawms, presented their cultural performances.
   The programmes will begin at 4:00pm every day and will continue till March 19.

The city people, especially the low-income group, are flocking to sales centres opened by Bangladesh Rifles in different parts of the capital to get some respite from the skyrocketing prices of essentials.
   The BDR has been operating 17 makeshift fair price shops, selling lentil, potato, onion, garlic and ginger. Rice and some vegetables like pumpkin and cucumber will also be available from today, said a BDR official.
   ‘We have started selling essentials directly to consumers. So far, we have got a very good response,’ he said.
   Apart from running their own shops, the para-military border guards will also give assistance to some 25 private traders to set up such sales outlets from next week.
   Consumers welcomed the BDR’s initiative, like the one the force had during the month of Ramzan.
   The BDR shop in front of Titumir College at Mohakhali saw about 300 customers Saturday.
   A customer, Muhammad Hamid, looked happy as he could buy a kilogram of lentil for Tk 46, potato Tk 14, onion Tk 21, garlic Tk 40 and ginger Tk 22. He found prices lower than those in kitchen markets.
   ‘I have stopped going to kitchen markets for the last four months and opted for buying things from Karwan Bazar,’ he said.
    ‘I am so happy to get lentil at Tk 63 (local), which my wife had bought for Tk 74 from a shop last week’.
   The sales outlets, which started retailing essentials at fixed prices from March 16, remain open from 7:00am to 6:00pm.
   The fair price centres are located at different city points including Nurania Islamia Madrassah field, Pallabi Community Centre, Agargaon Sher-e-Bangal Community Centre, Muhammadpur Krishi Super Market, Water Pump filed at Sir Salimullah Road, Pallima School at Khilgaon, Gulshan Community Centre, Uttara High School at sector Utara-7, Titumir College at Mohakhali, Model School at Kachukhet Cantonment, TT para at Kamlapur, T&T Field at Sangsad Bhaban, Dhanmondi Club Field, Dhanmondi Eid-gah math, Azimpur Colony community centre, Bakshibazar Alia Madrassah and Hazaribagh Children’s Park.

The administration on Saturday suspended a Mirpur police subinspector for negligence in duty during an extortion incident Friday afternoon.
   The police said sub-inspector Aslam was on duty when a group of three — Sumon, Jahangir and Prince — stopped one Monir Hossain near the Circle 1 roundabout at about 5:30pm on Friday.
   The three passed themselves off as police informers and asked Tk 1,500 from Monir, threatening him with implicating in a case and the three took away Tk 1,600 from him.
   Passers-by and neighbours captured them and a police team, led by Aslam, took the three and the victim to the police station, but the office did not take any step till 10:30pm.

Maha Baruni Snan, a bathing festival of the Hindus, along with a three-day fair called Baruni Mela, began at the Aricha point on the River Jamuna at Shibalaya in Manikganj on Saturday.
   Thousands of Hindus from different areas in the district attended the festival.
   Women and children started visiting the fair.

Bangladesh Chhatra League activists on Friday ransacked at least 15 rooms of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activists and damaged valuables at Jagannath Hall of Dhaka University after Friday’s clash.
   The Chhatra Dal activists, however, left the hall after Friday’s clash of Chhatra League activists with Chhatra Dal, centring on the visit of a female friend of a Chhatra Dal activist to the hall. Two Chhatra League activists were injured in the incident.
   Chhatra League men also occupied a number of rooms of Chhatra Dal activists and locked up some rooms.
   The ransacked rooms are 444, 463, 367, 468 of the October Memorial Building; 337 (Ka), 337 (Kha), 340, 363 (Ka), 385 (Ka) 395 and 329 of the East Building; 222, 227, 252 of the South Building and 141 of the North Building of the hall.
   Sources in the hall said a group of Chhatra League men, led by Hemanta Bepari, launched the move at the four buildings at around 11:30pm Friday.
   Boarders said the house tutors were yet to visit the rooms. A house tutor, Soumitra Shekhar, said he was told that some Chhatra League men ransacked some rooms. Proctor Aka Firoz Ahmed said he had heard of the incident.
   Central Chhatra League joint secretary Ripon Poddar, also the hall unit general secretary, brushed aside the allegation of ransacking the hall rooms by Chhatra League activists.

Retired Maj Gen Anwarul Kabir has become acting secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party.
   Anwarul Kabir, presidium member of the party, took the responsibility on Saturday three days after LDP secretary general retired Major Abdul Mannan left for Singapore.

Manzarul Islam Rana, a former national team cricketer killed in a road accident,
   was buried Saturday at the courtyard of his Quazibari house of Mujgunni area in the city.
   His fellow traveller Sajjadul Islam Setu, also a first-class cricketer, was buried at Tootpara graveyard on the day.
   The two died in a motorbike accident at Baliakhali area of Dumuria on Khulna-Satkhira highway on Friday.
   Both the bodies were brought to the outer stadium in the city for namaj-e-
   janaza, joined by thousands of mourners wearing black badges.
   Deputy commissioner SM Firoz Alam covered Rana’s body with national flag and Setu’s body with the flag of Khulna District Krira Sangstha.
   A pall of gloom descended on Rana’s Quazibari house when his father Quazi Monirul Islam returned from Mumbai, India in the afternoon Saturday, cutting short his health tour.

Researchers at a seminar on Saturday underscored the need for reduction in military budget in South Asia.
   Ahead of the upcoming 14th SAARC Summit, a panel of researchers also said the total military budget was $ 31756.7 million. With this money, poverty of 150 million poor people in South Asia could be eliminated and all children could be sent to school by 2015, they noted.
   They hoped that the summit would focus on poverty reduction, foreign investment, reduction of military budget and food safety rather than organising SAARC car rally with the support of foreign companies.
   Seven papers on issues regarding interest of the poor in South Asia were presented at the seminar organised by Sushasaner Proyojone (SUPRO) at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity.
   Md Zakaria, Syed Aminul Huq, Barkat Ullah Maruf, Md Shamsuddoha and Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, among others, addressed the seminar.
   It is necessary to have civil society’s representation in the summit to be held on April 3-4 in New Delhi as many pro-people agendas are not placed in the government level discussions, the speakers felt.
   They said the SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Agreement) has failed to achieve its goal rather it has increased trade deficiency of Tk 160 crore in the 2005-06 fiscal year.
   The agendas initiated in the 13th summit could meet the targets accordingly. Out of 1.49 billion populations in South Asian countries, 400 million are living below the poverty line.
   During 2001 to 2005, total inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) was $ 218.5 crore. On the other hand, investors withdrew $ 274.4 crore. Thus they took back 126 per cent of total investment from Bangladesh. SAARC should take it under consideration for protecting the interest of the people in the region, they opined.

The information adviser, Mainul Hosein, on Saturday said the government would lift the ban on indoor politics soon.
   He said this while addressing the BBC Bangladesh Sanglap at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Dhaka. ‘We did not ban indoor politics; rather we suspended it until further notice and it will resume soon.’
   Two senior leaders of the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party said it was not right to impose a ban on indoor politics by the government, said a BBC release.
   The BBC World Service Trust and the BBC Bangla Service organised the Sanglap where Kamal Ahmed of BBC Bangla moderated the discussion.
   Mainul Hosein also said the government imposed the ban on it as political parties were trying to create untoward situation and uncertainties by taking the chance of government’s ‘liberal attitude.’
   ‘The government should allow political parties to resume indoor politics as the politicians have lots of contribution to the country which would not be right to forget,’ said former commerce and water resources minister, Hafizuddin Ahmed, also a vice-chairman of the BNP.
   Awami League advisory council member Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said it was not right to impose the ban on indoor politics. ‘It was not a good sign.’
   Another discussant, Nijera Kori coordinator Khushi Kabir, echoed the demand put forth by the Awami League and the BNP.
   Replying to a question over legitimising the present government’s activities by an elected government, Mainul Hosein said it was not wise to raise question in this regard right now.
   ‘It is the emergency rules which legitimise our activities,’ he said in response to Awami League president Sheikh Hasina’s remarks made before her departure for the United States on Wednesday that the party, if voted to power, would give legitimacy to the present government’s activities.
   He said raising any question about legitimacy of the interim government’s activities is not legal as per laws under the state of emergency. Mainul said Sheikh Hasina’s remarks were political comments.
   Muhith said the interim government could be in power for many days, but it is supposed to hold the elections.
   Hafizuddin said they did not want the interim government to see it as illegal and the questions of giving legitimacy to the government would be raised after observing its activities until its end.

Directorate of relief and rehabilitation has failed to respond to queries from food and disaster management ministry on alleged misuse of Tk 75 crore allocated for the risk mitigation programme for disaster victims.
   Officials said the ministry had sent two reminders to director general of the directorate in the last two months asking for details of distribution of fund among farmers affected by natural calamities.
   The directorate has also been asked to state about the refund of the credit as the scheme required the borrowers to start repaying the money after six months and complete the refund in two years from disbursement.
   ‘The major portion of the money under the programme was distributed during the June-July period last year, but so far the directorate could not elaborate the status of distribution and refund,’ a food ministry official said.
   The money was meant for distribution among the farmers of the upazilas and districts affected by natural disasters, but the allocation focussed mainly on constituencies of the lawmakers of the partners of the immediate past BNP-led four-party government, officials at the ministry alleged.
   The loan ranged from Tlk 10,000 to Tk 20,000 for an individual affected by natural calamity. A borrower would get a 20-25 per cent waiver while refunding the money.
   Mohammad Abdul Bari Khan, additional secretary of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management, said that he was still unaware of any irregularity in the fund and said the allegations would be investigated.

A young man committed suicide after killing his elder sister and injuring three nieces in a village under Chokoria upazila in the district Friday evening.
   The injured were admitted to the Chittagong Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.
   According to the police and witnesses, Tarek Rahman, 20, son of Hajee Nurul Kabir of Satkania upazila in Chittagong, came to the house of his elder sister, Farida Yasmin, 42, at Mazerfari village under Chakoria upazila in Cox’s Bazar on March 14.
   On Friday, Tarek attacked Farida with a sharp weapon. He hacked Farida and also his three nieces, Nasrin Sultana Jarin, 20, Fatima Begum, 16, and Nusrat Jahan, 9, who tried to save their mother in the evening.
   Farida died on the spot while her three daughters sustained critical injuries in the attack.
   Later, Tarek also hit on his head with the machete and jumped into the adjacent pond. He died on the spot.
   Family members claimed that Tarek was suffering from mental disease for the last few years.
   On receipt of the information, the police reached the spot and sent bodies to the Cox’s Bazar hospital morgue for post-mortem examinations.
   A case was filed with the Chakoria police in this connection.