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The board of the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company on Tuesday approved a new organogram for the company, getting rid of ‘excess’ permanent posts of 600 employees and workers and increasing about 90 posts for experts to ‘bring about production-oriented efficiency’.
   The new organogram has kept a provision for 1,445 posts of officials and employees, of which 588 permanent posts have been kept for officials and 398 for employees, while 459 posts have been kept as contractual posts.
   The existing organogram of BAPEX has 1,642 permanent posts, of which 501 are for officials and 1,141 for employees.
   None of the employees and workers of those 600 posts, however, will lose their jobs and their posts will be under the ‘supernumerary’ category, decided the board in a meeting, which was presided over by its chairman, energy and mineral resources secretary AMM Nasir Uddin.
   Each of these posts will be abolished once the employees retire or leave their jobs or die, said sources present at the meeting.
   ‘These employees will get all the benefits of regular jobs,’ said a source, adding that it would take years for the new organogram to come into full effect.
   ‘The company has an excessive number of employees like carpenters, guards, bearers, cooks and drivers. A technology-oriented, modern gas exploration and production company should not have such excess manpower,’ he said.
   He said that in some cases BAPEX could easily outsource employees and workers. ‘Often it is be seen that an employee sits idle for hours each day, in some cases day after day, though s/he is taking full salary. The company can hire employees on contract on an hourly or daily basis.’
   A section of employees, however, expressed resentment over the planned organogram, claiming that BAPEX’s production wing would be weakened by trimming down ‘skilled manpower’.
   They claimed international oil companies would take over the gas exploration and production activities if BAPEX’s manpower was reduced.
   A board member, however, dismissed the claim, saying that the new organogram has included a wing called ‘production division’ and about 70 officials — occupying the proposed increased posts — would be engaged with this division.
   ‘A section of leaders of the employees’ association are opposing the new organogram as their influence on the employees and workers, and illegal activities like appointing an employee by taking bribe, will be reduced,’ said another member.
   The BAPEX, which was created by separating Petrobangla’s exploration division in 1989, is currently engaged in production and development of three gas-fields belonging to BAPEX— Saldanandi, Fenchuganj and Shahbazpur.
   It is also engaged in exploration work in Block 9 and has successfully drilled a number of production wells in different gas-fields of other Petrobangla companies like the Bangladesh Gas Field Company
   The company has geographic, geophysical, drilling, engineering, laboratory, planning and administrative divisions.
   ‘The new organogram is flexible and has the option of increasing the number of posts if BAPEX gets a new gas-field or purchases a new rig. It will increase production-related efficiency as officials and employees will get more benefits and bonuses,’ said the member.
   The company’s directors — Professor Nurul Islam of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Professor Abu Ahmed of Dhaka University, Petrobangla chairman Sheikh Abdur Rashid, BAPEX’s managing director Jamal Uddin and Deputy Secretary Meshkat Ahmed Chowdhury — were present at the meeting.

The law enforcers have intensified hunt for militants of the banned Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh following confessions made by a top operative of its ‘military wing’ that the outfit is plotting to carry out terror attacks ahead of the execution of six condemned militant kingpins, intelligence sources said.
   The law enforcing agencies have set up checkpoints in different areas under the 33 city police stations under the supervision of deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners of the DMP The checkpoints have been operating round the clock since Sunday to ensure security.
   According to intelligence reports, operatives of different militant outfits are now staying at different rented houses in Dhaka. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police have set up the checkpoints in different areas including the entrances to the city to prevent militant infiltration.
   Earlier, the government alerted law enforcing agencies following intelligence reports that militants were trying to regroup and strike. In subsequent drives they hunted down more than a hundred militants from different parts of the country.
   The DMP commissioner, Nayeem Ahmed, told New Age Tuesday afternoon, ‘We have established checkpoints in all 33 city police stations which are on alert round the clock to prevent possible subversive activities.’
   ‘The checkpoints will continue to work till the threat remains,’ he added.
   Meanwhile, Mustafizur Rahman Shaheen, the second-in-command of the ‘military wing’ of the Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh was brought to Dhaka on Tuesday for interrogation at the joint interrogation cell after completion of his five-day police remand.
   A team of RAB-12, detained Shaheen from Gopalpur village under sadar upazila in Pabna on March 14, and produced him in the court on the following day seeking a 12-day police remand. The court granted a five-day remand.
   An official of RAB-12 told New Age, ‘During interrogation Shaheen confessed that more than 5,000 trained JMB operatives are ready in 17 districts to carry out fresh attacks ahead of the execution of six top militants.’
   Iqbal Shafiq, officer-in-charge of Pabna sadar police station brought Shaheen to Dhaka after producing him in the court.
   An official of the Rapid Action Battalion, close to joint interrogation cell told New Age, ‘We will interrogate him to crosscheck some information provided by the militants arrested earlier and about their next plan.’
   Meanwhile four teachers of the Open University received death threats from JMB commander Abdul Marfi on Tuesday morning.
   In a letter Marfi said that the Majlish-e-Shura had pronounced ‘death penalty’ for the four teachers—Mamtaz Uddin Patwary, Mohammed Abdur Rashid, Abul Hossain Ahmed Bhuiyan and Anisur Rahman.

The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion on Tuesday sued BTTB’s CBA leader Firoz Miah and his wife Rawshan Ara for owning assets worth Tk 1.35 crore, which are disproportionate to their legitimate incomes.
   Deputy director of the commission, Mubara Khanam, filed the case with Ramna police station.
   Earlier, on March 6, the commission sued former state minister of the AL government Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir,
   former state ministers of the BNP-Jamaat government Amanullah Aman and
   Mir Nasir Uddin for submitting false wealth statements and owning properties disproportionate to their legitimate incomes.
   The commission is also likely to soon sue former home minister of the Awami League government Mohammad Nasim, former communication minister of the BNP-Jamaat government Nazmul Huda, former state minister of BNP-Jamaat government Iqbal Hasan Mahmud, former BNP lawmaker Wadud Bhuiyan and AL leader Pankaj Debnath for submitting false wealth statements and owning assets disproportionate to their legitimate incomes.
   The commission on Monday night approved the proposals for filing the cases against them, said sources in the commission.
   The commission has
   already completed investigation of former works minister Mirza Abbas and have
   found out that he has submitted false wealth statements and owns assets disproportionate to his legitimate income, said the sources, adding that he would also be sued on these charges.
   The commission is also preparing to file cases against most of the 35 persons who had submitted their wealth statements to the commission, the sources added.
   The commission is preparing documents for suing 12 persons for not submitting their wealth statements in defiance of the commission’s notices issued on February 18, said the sources.

Two election commissioners on Tuesday said that they were still in favour of a voters’ list with photographs, but are also keeping in mind the possibility of introducing voters’ or national identity cards.
   ‘We, in principle, have tentatively agreed to go for a voters’ list with photographs. But the final decision is yet to be taken…We will also look into the feasibility of other options like the voters’ or national ID cards. Voters’ ID cards could come as a by-product along with the national ID cards,’ Election Commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain told a group of reporters at his office.
   Another election commissioner, M Sakhawat Hossain, said, ‘If we primarily prepare voters’ list with photographs and create a database, it will help us later in preparing voters’ or national ID cards.’
   ‘National and voters’ ID cards can be prepared by inserting some more information into the voters’ list with accompanying photographs,’ he said.
   Sohul said that the EC would start preparing the voters’ list after reforming the electoral laws by July.
   Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda and two other commissioners on Tuesday met Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed and apprised him of the progress they have made so far in preparing reforms to electoral laws.
   The EC has decided to examine the issue of the expatriates’ voting right. ‘We have in principle agreed that they should get the right to vote if there are no legal complications. We are examining how and to what extent we can give the voting right to them,’ said Sohul.
   He said that the EC would try to fashion a mechanism to enable the expatriates to cast their votes before taking the final decision in this regard.
   According to existing system of registration of voters, registration officers assigned to any particular area register the names, through door-to-door visits, of eligible voters deemed to be residents of that constituency.
   Section 8 of the Electoral Rolls Ordinance 1982 defines a resident: ‘A person shall be deemed to be a resident [in a constituency] if he ordinarily [mainly] resides in that area.’

The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Tuesday said the caretaker government should set a timeframe for holding the stalled parliamentary elections so that there be no confusion in people’s mind.
   Khaleda made the remark when the visiting Common-wealth secretary general, Donald McKinnon, met her at her cantonment residence and exchanged views with her.
   Talking to the news agency after the talks, BNP spokesman Nazrul Islam Khan said the party chairperson told McKinnon that Bangladesh was a democratic country and the people established democracy through a movement.
   ‘The people of this country want to see an elected government of their choice through an election,’ Khaleda was quoted as telling the Commonwealth chief executive.
   The former prime minister sought cooperation from the Commonwealth countries and its secretariat in the holding of free and fair elections as well as overall development of the country. McKinnon assured cooperation in this respect.
   Nazrul said McKinnon appreciated Khaleda’s leadership in socioeconomic development of Bangladesh.
   The adviser to the BNP chairperson, Reaz Rahman, and Maj Gen (retd) ZA Khan and party office secretary Nazrul Islam Khan were present at the meeting that lasted an hour.

Bangladesh take the field against Sri Lanka tonight in a crucial Group B encounter in the World Cup. A win will guarantee the Tigers a place in the super eights stage of the competition, which would represent Bangladesh’s greatest sporting achievement till date. However, beating Sri Lanka will undoubtedly prove difficult for the Tigers, even after their magnificent five-wicket win against India on Saturday.
   Bangladesh can be sure that Sri Lanka will approach the match against Bangladesh far more seriously and with far greater respect for their opponents than India had. Where India had taken Bangladesh lightly, Sri Lanka will prepare with great diligence and play with greater intensity to ensure their progress to the next round. As former champions and a team with a great deal of experience and quality, Sri Lanka will know to be clinical and methodical in their approach. Sri Lanka go into the match as clear favourites and will in all likelihood come out of the match with their desired two points.
   Yet, the Tigers proved in the match against India that, on their day, they can make one of the strongest teams in the world look ordinary. The sense of purpose with which Bangladesh played and the way in which the players, especially the younger ones, handled the pressures of a World Cup match bodes well for the future of Bangladesh cricket, in this tournament and beyond. There is every reason to hope that the Tigers will be able to prevail over Sri Lanka tonight as well, just as they had in Bogra last year, and no doubt that the team has the talent to be able to do so.
   However, winning the match against Sri Lanka will require far more than precocious talent. Having caught India off-guard on Saturday and played a brand of cricket which was at the same time attractive as it was effective, there is now heightened expectations from the Bangladesh team. Whereas reaching the super eights was a mere dream before the game against India, it is now a real possibility. Can the Bangladeshi players, most of whom are very young and highly inexperienced, handle that new kind of pressure? Can they remain as composed and as true to their potential as they had against India, or will the increased expectations get the better of them this time around? Ultimately, that might make the difference tonight between victory and defeat.
   One cannot help but feel that it is the role of the lately forgotten man of Bangladesh cricket, coach Dav Whatmore, who unlike some other coaches has shown such tremendous grace and magnanimity to remain in the background while allowing his players to take all the credit for the team’s successes, which will be so critical in the build-up to the game tonight. Whatmore has already tried to play down the hype, saying that the win against India was just one victory, and the job has only just started for the Tigers in this tournament. No doubt, the message was as much for his players as for everyone else. It is up to Whatmore now to keep his players’ feet planted firmly on the ground, and to impress upon them the fact that when they start against Sri Lanka, it is a new match in which nothing they achieved on Saturday will count. His young charges will have to start all over again, and play with as much intensity, courage and adventurism that they demonstrated against India.
   Even if the Tigers do not win against Sri Lanka tonight, there is still good chance that Bangladesh will go through. For that to happen, either Sri Lanka will have to beat India, a fairly likely scenario, or Bangladesh will have to batter Bermuda in the last group match to stay afloat on net run rates.
   However, the match against Sri Lanka presents the Bangladesh team an amazing opportunity to go through to the super eights as group champions and leave India and Sri Lanka to worry about 400-plus scores against Bermuda and net run rates. It provides the Tigers the chance to be the masters of their own fate, rather than having to rely on factors beyond their control. That, more than anything, should inspire Bangladesh to victory!

Captain Graeme Smith just missed out his first World Cup century but still led South Africa to a seven-wicket win over Scotland and into the World Cup Super Eights on Tuesday.
   Left-handed opener Smith smashed an attractive 65-ball 91 as the world number one team made short shrift of Scotland who were left with the consolation of having reached their highest World Cup score of 186-8.
   The win, wrapped up in the 24th over, may have looked like easy for the Proteas, but they failed to bowl out Scotland inside 50 overs which could be a worry for them in the second round.
   Smith went on the attack from the outset, reaching his fifty off just 36 balls with ten boundaries.
   His previous best World Cup score of 67 was made against the Netherlands last week.
   Fellow opener AB de Villiers, who scored 62, made up for his nought against the Netherlands by hitting two consecutive sixes off left-armer spinner Glenn Rogers before holing out in the same over. He also hit nine fours.
   “That was a clinical win and that’s exactly what the coach asked for,” said the 23-year-old de Villiers.
   “We’ve had a couple of dodgy warm-up games, it was better against the Netherlands (a 221-run win) and it was clinical today.
   “We’ve had a couple of good nets, we’re taking it ball by ball and I’m enjoying myself.”
   Ashwell Prince, promoted to number three to get practice, seemed to get distracted by a 25-minute rain break and was caught for 21. After the break, Smith, in a hurry to reach his hundred, also lost his wicket to off-spinner Majid Haq who finished with 2-43.
   Smith hit 13 boundaries and a six.
   Earlier, the South Africa skipper put Scotland in to give his bowlers a chance before their crunch match against Australia on March 24.
   Andrew Hall (3-48) and fellow paceman Charl Langeveldt (2-48) enjoyed a good work out.
   Dougie Brown, who top-scored with 45 not out, and John Blain (23) gave the Scots’ total some respectability with a 50-run stand for the seventh wicket. Brown hit three boundaries during his 64-ball knock.
   Stand-in Scotland captain Ryan Watson made 31.
   Watson, replacing regular captain Craig Wright who had gone home to attend a family funeral, hit four boundaries during his 50-ball knock.
   Openers Fraser Watson (24) and Majid Haq (13) gave Scotland a confident start of 31 before both were removed in the space of five overs.
   Hall struck twice to remove Haq and Gavin Hamilton (four) to stop Scotland’s progress, while Langeveldt got rid of Watts.
   Scotland, whose previous highest score in the World Cup was 181 against Australia at Worcester in 1999, batted with resolve to complete their quota of 50 overs.
   Paceman Makhaya Ntini, who replaced fellow paceman Andre Nel as the only change from South Africa’s 221-run win over the Netherlands in their first match, failed to get a wicket in his nine overs before leaving the field with cramps.
   Ntini missed the first match after joining the team late due to the birth of his daughter back home.
   The two sides observed a minute’s silence in memory of the late Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer before the start of the match.
   They also wore black arm bands to mourn Woolmer’s death of Sunday.
   Woolmer, a former England batsman, also coached South Africa from 1994 to 1999.

New Zealand were on the verge of a comprehensive victory over Kenya on Tuesday which would see them book their place in the Super Eight phase of the Cricket World Cup.
   Kenya’s top-order quartet David Obuya, Maurice Ouma, Steve Tikolo and Tanmay Mishra all fell early, while Collins Obuya was comically run out.
   Top scorer Ravi Shah (71) fell to a return catch by Daniel Vettori and they soon reached 163-7 after 40 overs.
   Ross Taylor, Stephen Fleming, Scott Styris and Craig McMillan earlier hit half-centuries in New Zealand’s 331-7.
   Kenya captain Tikolo had elected to field after winning the toss in the Group C encounter on a slow-looking wicket, and Thomas Odoyo had opener Lou Vincent caught at slip for a duck in the first over.
   But then Fleming and Taylor put on 105, and the Kiwi skipper hit three huge sixes and seven fours before running himself out - going for a run as non-striker when there was never a run there.
   Mishra, who had dropped Taylor in the fourth over, then spilled a seemingly comfortable catch from Styris off the bowling of Tikolo when he was on 20.
   The Kiwis’ total was also boosted as Kenya, whose out-cricket was questionable at times, sent down 21 wides.
   Taylor pulled up with what appeared to be a hamstring problem while 72 not out and required treatment. Vincent briefly re-emerged as his runner, and Taylor lofted a six over midwicket before he pushed a soft return catch to Tikolo’s gentle off-spin for 85.
   It left Styris and McMillan to push the score along before Styris holed out in the deep for 63 off 62 balls.
   The bearded McMillan’s destructive qualities took the score over 300 with his 71, including five sixes, coming from just 48 balls, leaving them on course to book their place in the Super 8 phase.
   Seamer Michael Mason, preferred to spinner Jeetan Patel in the line-up, struck early for the Kiwis when he trapped David Obuya lbw in the third over.
   Ouma was then superbly run out by a direct hit from Vincent as Kenya pushed for a quick single in the sixth.
   The underdogs were lucky not to suffer more run-outs before they had reached double figures as they took on the Kiwis’ superb fielding.
   Despite a couple of brief rain delays, Mason soon claimed the key wicket of Tikolo, who spooned a catch to Vettori.
   Mishra failed to atone for his fielding errors by edging James Franklin and although keeper Brendon McCullum could only get a hand to it, Fleming completed the catch one-handed.
   As New Zealand hurried on to make sure the game reached the 20-over mark in order to constitute a match, it left Kenya vulnerable to a heavy defeat under the Duckworth-Lewis formula if the rain came again.
   Obuya then became the second run-out victim of the innings when he went for a second run but Shah stayed in his crease as the Kiwis removed the bails with both batsmen stranded at the same end.
   Shah and Odoyo gave the score respectability, but Shah’s dismissal at 122-6 left Kenya looking unlikely to force an upset.
   Jimmy Kamande was then bowled by a slower ball from Vettori while aiming an agricultural swipe across the line.

The Commonwealth’s secretary-general, Donald McKinnon, has made enquiries about Bangladesh’s plan for holding its next general election, which was deferred after promulgation of a state of emergency in January.
   Foreign ministry officials said that the visiting Commonwealth chief executive made the queries about polls during a meeting with foreign affairs adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury at the state guest house, Padma, on Tuesday.
   Chowdhury, however, told newsmen that the timing of election did not figure prominently in the discussion. The topic came up when the secretary-general offered his multi-national organisation’s cooperation and technical assistance for projects related to election and democracy.
   A source in the Foreign Office said that Chowdhury had apprised McKinnon of the government’s efforts to hold a credible and participatory general election. The efforts, he mentioned, included reconstitution of the Election Commission, updating of the electoral roll as well as introduction of voters’ identity card, and reforms to certain election-related laws.
   The Commonwealth’s secretary-general was also informed that it would take some time to implement those plans.
   McKinnon opined that the people of Bangladesh as well as the international community do not want the present situation to be unnecessarily prolonged, so the country should hold election ‘as early as possible’.
   Chowdhury informed McKinnon of the entire reforms agenda undertaken by Fakhruddin Ahmed’s interim administration.
   The adviser claimed that the Commonwealth chief lauded the initiatives of the government including the recent drives against corruption as well as the decision to form a Human Rights Commission.
   Dwelling on the issue of election, Chowdhury said, ‘I informed him of the initiatives taken by the government as part of preparation for holding the election.’
   ‘If we seek any help they will come forward [to assist us],’ he added.
   Later, in the afternoon, Don McKinnon paid a courtesy call on the chief of the interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, at the latter’s office.
   In the evening, an Awami League delegation headed by its general secretary Abdul Jalil met McKinnon at Hotel Sonargaon.
   Talking to newsmen after the meeting, Jalil said, ‘Basically it was a courtesy call.’
   The AL’s delegation included Zillur Rahman, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta and Saber Hossain Chowdhury.

The High Court on Tuesday issued a rule on the government to explain within 10 days the legality of the detention of the eldest son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and senior joint secretary-general of BNP, Tarique Rahman.
   A High Court bench of Justice MA Wahhab Mian and Justice M Emdadul Huq issued the rule, asking the government to explain why it would not be directed to produce Tarique before the court to demonstrate that he was not being held illegally.
   The court passed the order after hearing a habeas corpus writ petition filed by Tarique’s wife, Dr Zubaida Rahman, challenging his detention.
   Tarique was arrested by the army-led joint forces on March 7 from the cantonment residence of Khaleda Zia.
   He was produced before the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court of Dhaka on March 8, and the magistrate allowed the police to take him into their custody under a 4-day remand in an extortion case.
   After expiry of the remand, Tarique was produced before the court on March 12 and was sent to jail.
   The government on March 14 gave him 30 days of detention under the Special Powers Act 1974.
   Khandker Mahbubuddin Ahmad with Ruhul Quddus moved the writ petition for Tarique.

Goshairhat Police of Shariatput traveled nine kilometers to village Kodalpur on Tuesday afternoon to execute a court order for confiscating property of Miah Nuruddin Apu, a close associate of BNP senior joint secretary general Tarique Rahman.
   Two almirahs, two sofa sets, a pair of chairs, five quilts, three cots, two tables and a hanger were among the assets attached from Apu’s ancestral home.
   Sub-inspector Ashraf led the team to the remote village across the river Padma carrying the arrest warrant and attachment orders. A sister-in-law of Apu and his cousins were present during the attachment of the property.
   The police, who were still on their way back to the thana when last contacted at about 9:30pm, said they went to Mridhapara in Kodalpur at about 3:30pm and used trolleys and boats to bring the confiscated furniture.
   Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Abdur Rouf Khan on Monday issued the warrant against Apu and ordered for attachment of his moveable and immovable property. The trial court also asked the police to submit report in this regard on March 29. Absconding Apu is a co-accused in the Tk one crore extortion case filed by a housing businessman against Tarique Rahman.

Iraq sent another of Saddam Hussein’s former henchmen to the gallows on Tuesday as the nation marked the fourth anniversary of the US-led war still battling a raging insurgency and sectarian conflict.
   Before dawn broke on Tuesday, Iraq executed Saddam’s former vice- president Taha Yassin Ramadan for crimes against humanity, less than three months after the feared former leader was himself hanged.
   ‘Ramadan was hanged at 3:05am on Tuesday,’ an official from prime minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office said.
   ‘The execution was smooth with no violation,’ he said, after an international outcry over the manner of the previous hangings of Saddam and his former cohorts.
   Ramadan was the fourth former regime official to be executed for his role in the killings of 148 people from the Shia village of Dujail after an attempt on Saddam’s life there in 1982.
   ‘He was very calm and composed. He asked his family and friends to pray for him and said that he was not afraid of death,’ defence lawyer Badie Aref said on Monday.
   Ridha said Ramadan’s clothes and other belongings were handed over to his lawyer and his body would be delivered to relatives later on Tuesday.
   An appeals court had on Thursday confirmed the death sentence first imposed against Ramadan on February 12 by the Iraqi High Tribunal which is trying former regime officials.
   He was originally given a life sentence in November, but the prosecution filed a petition demanding that he too be executed.
   On hearing the February verdict, Ramadan swore his innocence, saying: ‘May God take revenge against everyone who rendered me injustice.’
   Associated Press from San Francisco adds: Anti-war activists draped themselves in white sheets and laid down in the street to symbolise Iraq’s dead, halting traffic in the heart of the city and leading to 57 arrests on the fourth anniversary of the US invasion, the police said.
   The ‘die-in’ was one of several protests around the country Monday, including anti-war rallies in Seattle; Salt Lake City and Trenton, NJ.
   Other protests took a more artistic bent: 4,000 white flags were placed along the waterfront in Louisville, Ky, and an exhibit of shiny black boots was arranged in the Capitol in St Paul, Minn.
   In San Francisco, students, grandparents and clergy members were among those who gathered to read the names of Iraqis and US troops killed in the war and call for an immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
   ‘This is what they do in Iraq – just lay the bodies on the side of the street,’ said Joey Vaughan, 20, of San Francisco, as he lay on the sidewalk. ‘I just think it’s time people pay attention.’
   About three dozen protesters blocked entrances to the offices of senator Dianne Feinstein, before moving into the intersection of Market Street and Montgomery Street.
   The protests also included a vigil outside House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home. Critics have called on Pelosi and Feinstein to push more aggressively for an end to the war.
   The police arrested 57 protesters who they said refused to leave the street after being ordered to do so. Most were released after being issued tickets for refusing a police order and being a pedestrian in the roadway, said police Sgt Steven Mannina.
   The rallies Monday capped a three-day series of protests from New York to Los Angeles, and came a day after a demonstration in Portland, Ore, ended in with scuffles and police using pepper spray. On Monday, 44 people were arrested outside the New York Stock Exchange on disorderly conduct charges.
   In televised remarks from the White House, president Bush asked for patience, saying his plan to stabilise Baghdad with more combat and support troops needs time to work.
   More than 3,200 members of the US military have been killed in the war. Iraqi civilian deaths are estimated at more than 54,000, possibly much higher.
   Amid a 32-degree wind chill in New Jersey on Monday, about 100 protested in front of the Statehouse, waving signs and calling for an end to the conflict.

Water resources adviser ASM Matiur Rahman said the government would do whatever required for constructing a counter-barrage on the river Padma to protect it from adverse impacts of the Farakka Barrage, built by India on the upper stream.
   The adviser was exchanging views with the representatives of the Water Reporters’ Forum, Bangladesh led by Sakhawat Hossain at the ministry on Tuesday.
   Water resources secretary Syed Mohammad Zobair and director general of Bangladesh Water Development Board Mozadded Al Faruk were also present.
   The secretary said several surveys have already been conducted on the proposed Padma barrage.
   The adviser expressed concern over India’s plan to construct a dam on the river Borak at Tipaimukh to generate hydroelectricity.

The government has nominated the Bangladesh Army and BRAC, an NGO, for Indepen-dence (Swadhinata) Award-2007 for their contributions.
   An official announcement on Tuesday said, ‘The award has been given to the army in recognition of their glorious and outstanding contributions to war of independence as well as nation-building work, including public service.’
   BRAC has been chosen for the award for its outstanding social service.
   The chief adviser to the caretaker government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, will give away the award to the nominated institutions at a function at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the city 11:30am on March 25.

The inspector general of police, Nur Muhammad, on Tuesday said the police force was working more independently and neutrally than previously.
   ‘The police can now do many things they could not do in periods of political governments,’ he said.
   His observations came at a views-exchange meeting with journalists and members of the elite in Habiganj.
   He said political governments had not helped the police in the past. ‘The police rather had to face obstructions in carrying out their duties independently. That time is over’, Nur Mohammad said.
   ‘If any member of the police force is found engaged in wrongdoing, he has to either go to jail or quit the job. No mercy for the wrongdoing’, he said.
   ‘The period of remaining silent is over. Everybody will have to come forward,’ the IGP said adding that steps were underway to prove that that the police were truly friends of the people.
   In reply to a question, the police chief said they were quite alert with regard to any JMB terrorist act ahead of the execution of the top militants. He vowed to root out militancy adding that the JMB was no longer a threat.

Al-Qaeda militants and pro-government tribesmen in northwest Pakistan fought pitched battles that left at least 46 people dead including four children, officials said Tuesday.
   Heavy exchanges of rocket and mortar fire rang out for a second day around Kalusha town in the mountainous tribal region of South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan, security officials said.
   The fighting started after ex-Taliban commander Mullah Nazir, who backs president Pervez Musharraf’s moves to expel foreign fighters from the troubled area, ordered followers of Uzbek militant Tahir Yuldashev to disarm.
   Yuldashev, the head of a group called the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, was sentenced to death in absentia for bombings in the Uzbek capital Tashkent. Security officials say he had links to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
   A mortar round hit a group of private school students who had been left outside the town by a bus driver because of the violence. Four were killed and 27 were wounded, the security officials said.
   Thirty-three of Yuldashev’s supporters were killed and 22 were detained, the officials said, while nine local tribesmen including some of Nazir’s men also died, the officials said.
   Residents said tribesmen told the foreign insurgents late Tuesday to lay down their arms by midnight or be killed,
   while announcements over mosque loudspeakers urged locals to be ready for more fighting.
   Meanwhile hundreds of Uzbek militants and their supporters blocked the road from Wana, the main city in South Waziristan, to the town of Angoor Adda in order to ‘show their strength against their rivals,’ officials said.

A US army sergeant was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a military court Monday after being convicted of negligent homicide in the killing of unarmed Iraqi detainees in May 2006.
   Staff sergeant Raymond Girouard, 24, avoided the more serious charge of premeditated murder, which could have sent him to life in prison, when the court convicted him Friday at the Fort Campbell military base in Kentucky.
   Instead, he was found guilty of three counts of negligent homicide, conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice and violation of a general order.
   ‘Girouard was sentenced on Monday to 10 years in confinement, a dishonourable discharge, reduction to Private (E-1), and forfeiture of all pay and allowances,’ said master sergeant Terry Webster, a Fort Campbell spokesman.
   ‘Girouard’s was the fourth and final case that stemmed from the killing of three male detainees on May 9, 2006, during the 101st Airborne Division’s deployment to Iraq,’ Webster said in a statement.

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation has achieved ‘very little’ progress in partnership in the areas of poverty reduction and agriculture development for the benefit of peoples despite such pledges being repeated for over two decades.
   Making the observation, participants at a dialogue in Dhaka on Tuesday called for establishing a strong regional network of experts, stakeholders and relevant institutions under the eight-nation forum for sharing knowledge and expertise on agriculture, which is one of the major tools for poverty reduction.
   A regional group that has entered its third decade since inception during the Dhaka summit two years back, the SAARC should effectively deal with issues of regional cooperation and come up with fruitful initiatives on agriculture based on common grounds, said the speakers at the discussion organised by Centre for Policy Dialogue.
   Presenting the keynote, Uttam Kumar Dev, a senior research fellow of the centre, identified five areas of cooperation — agriculture research and technology development, technology exchange, capacity building through training, harmonisation of policies and acts and participation in the World Trade Organisation negotiations in agriculture.
   Agriculture contributes 26 per cent to the total gross domestic product of South Asia and employs three-fourths of total labour force, he said adding that the region’s agricultural trade amounting to $26 billion in 2003 was only about four per cent of the global agricultural trade.
   CS Karim, the agriculture adviser to the interim government, underlined the need for rationalisation of tariff structure and subsidy provided for agricultural products in order to discourage cross-border smuggling.
   He appreciated the concept of regional food grains bank floated in recent times and urged the countries of the region to exchange research findings and expertise in diversity of areas of agriculture to help reduce of costs of farming.
   Acting foreign affairs secretary Touhid Hossain said projects of collaborative efforts on agriculture would be put on the negotiation table during the upcoming SAARC summit.
   ‘The third decade of SAARC will be a decade of progress,’ he said with confidence in response to comment of research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Kazi Shahabuddin Ahmed, whether the New Delhi summit would be ceremonial or functional.
   Agriculture secretary M Abdul Aziz said promises of cooperation at the SAARC are now followed up properly while his colleague Syed Nakib Muslim stressed on sharing country-specific experiences in agriculture with each other under broader SAARC framework
   Mesbah Uddin Ahmed, member of the Planning Commission, referred to the pledge India made two years back for making $50 million available for poverty reduction. ‘But nothing happened,’ he added, though he believed that funding would not be a problem in undertaking regional-level projects.
   Presiding over the session, former finance minister M Syeduzzaman forecast that it was unlikely that South Asian counties would be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals given the declining agriculture, unresolved water sharing disputes, problem of environmental degradation and declining public spending in agricultural research.

One hundred and fourteen more deputy secretaries got fresh postings Tuesday as the interim government initiated a move to clear the backlog of officers on special duty.
    The number of OSDs at the establishment ministry rose to over 600 and many of these senior administrative officers were kept on waiting for months or years together for suitable postings.
   The establishment ministry issued two separate gazette notifications on Tuesday, specifying their new assignments. Earlier on Sunday, 100 deputy secretaries, who were also OSDs, were given postings to different ministries.
   Bangladesh Rural Develop-ment Board director general AKM Abdul Awal Majumder has been transferred to the education ministry as additional secretary, said another official announcement Tuesday.
   Member of the Land Appeal Board Dewan Zakir Hossain has been made acting chairman of the board.
   Moazzem Hosain, additional deputy commissioner of Pirojpur, has been sent to Khulna to replace ANM Qudrat-e-Khuda, who has been made an officer on special duty at the establishment ministry.
   Earlier on Monday, the government suspended Jayanta Kumar Sikder, thana nirbahi ifficer of Hatibandha, Lalmonirhat, with effective from March 4, the day he was arrested by army-led joint forces on charges of corruption.
   A case was filed against Sikder with the local thana, according to an establishment ministry gazette notification.
   Mahfuzul Haque, ADC of Rangamati, Mahbubul Islam, ADC of Gaibandha, and Golam Mostafa Khan, ADC of Norail, were withdrawn from the district administration and made OSDs.

Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on the demolition of Babri mosque on Tuesday drew flak from friends and foes alike, with the Bharatiya Janata Party terming it an insult to ‘Hindu sentiments’ while the Communist Party of India- Marxist (CPI-M) saying there was no point in raising the ‘historical’ issue now.
   The main opposition expressed outrage and shock over the Amethi MP’s remarks that the Babri mosque would not have been demolished had his family been active in politics in 1992.
   ‘We are shocked to see how this young man and his party can stoop so low to please Muslims that they can go all out to insult sentiments of the Hindu community,’ senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra said here.
   Rahul’s ‘remarks show that his family is now all opposed to construction of a Ram temple at that site which is highly condemnable,’ he said recalling that it was Rajiv Gandhi who opened its gates to Hindu worshippers as prime minister.

More than 62 Russian pensioners, almost half of them bed-ridden, died Tuesday in a blaze at a retirement home that flouted fire safety regulations and was located an hour’s drive from the nearest fire station.
   The residents of the two-storey brick building in the village of Kamyshevatskaya, in rural southern Russia, were asleep when the fire broke out, according to the emergency situations ministry.

The army-led joint forces arrested two suspected members of the banned Islamist outfit, Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, in Rangpur Monday night.
   Security sources suspected that Morshedul Islam, 34, and Sirajul Islam, 50, picked up from a house at Kuribiswa Dulapur village under Gongachhara upazila, were trying to regroup in the district to create violence before the execution of death sentence of Khaled Saifullah, a top JMB kingpin, who is kept in Rangpur Jail.
   Six deer were rescued from the ‘mini zoo’ set up by Haris Chowdhury, political secretary to former prime minister Khaleda Zia, in his village home at Kanaighat in Sylhet.
   Forest department official Abu Naser led the drive at Chow-dhury’s village home in collaboration with the Kanaighat police.
   Security people arrested a former union parishad chairman, Anwar Hossain alias Kosai Anwar, who is also the president of Gokunda union BNP under sadar upazila of Lalmonirhat, from his house at Teesta village Monday night and recovered a hijacked motorbike.
   The police said that Lemon, organising secretary of Lalmonirhat district Chhatra Dal, hijacked the motorcycle from Rowmari in Kurigram and handed it over to Anwar. Lemon went into hiding since the joint forces seized huge quantity of CI sheets from his home two weeks ago.
   Anwar was produced to Lalmonirhat court and sent to jail Tuesday.
   In their anti-crime drive, the forces arrested over 1,500 people across the country in 24 hours ending at 6:00am Tuesday.
   In Comilla, the joint forces seized 65 corrugated iron sheets, meant for relief, from the house of a BNP leader Mohiuddin at Baluapara village under Nangalkot upazila on Tuesday.