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The government has ordered the law enforcement agencies to keep vigil so that the conditions under which the ban on indoor politics has been lifted are not violated.
   The instruction was given at the 12th meeting of the cabinet committee on law and order at the home ministry on Thursday.
   ‘The law enforcement agencies have been instructed to ensure that the conditions on indoor politics are maintained,’ the home secretary, Abdul Karim, told reporters after the meeting.
   The move for strict adherence to the conditions on indoor politics under the state of emergency came a day after the leaders of the Saifur-Hafiz faction in the BNP had faced the wrath of their party men on Wednesday when they went to place flowers at the grave of the party founder, the late president Ziaur Rahman.
   The party activists assaulted the newest member on the party standing committee, former army chief Mahbubur Rahman.
   They also chased the Dhaka mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, and the party chief’s adviser ZA Khan and pelted them with stones and threw shoes at their vehicles when they were leaving the place after placing flowers at Zia’s grave.
   On September 12, only two days after the ban on indoor politics had been lifted, four Awami League leaders, known for their dissidence in the party, were assaulted by the activists in front of the party’s Dhanmondi office after its working committee meeting.
   Awami League activists assaulted Mukul Bose, then acting party secretary, organising secretary Abdul Mannan and former state ministers Abu Sayeed and AKM Jahangir.
   The government on September 10 amended, for the fourth time, the Emergency Powers Rules and lifted the restrictions on indoor politics on certain conditions.
   The Emergency Powers Rules 2007 was framed on January 25 ordering the ban on any kind of political activities with retrospective effect from January 11, the day the president, Iajuddin Ahmed, declared the state of emergency to quell political turmoil over the suspended January 22 general elections.
   The restrictions on ‘indoor politics’ were lifted to facilitate the dialogues of the Election Commission with political parties on electoral reforms.
   The cabinet committee also ordered the law enforcement agencies to play an active role in curbing the spiralling prices of essential commodities and in ensuring uninterrupted the distribution of fertiliser.
   Briefing newsmen on the meeting, the home secretary, however, claimed law and order was satisfactory although an increased number of cases were filed with the police as no one was holding people back from filing cases.
   The meeting, presided over by the law adviser, Mainul Hosein, discussed the spiralling prices of essential goods and the recent attacks on politicians and policemen. The meeting also directed the agencies concerned to take all such issues seriously.
   The education adviser, Ayub Quadri, and senior law enforcement officials attended the meeting.
   The meeting asked the authorities concerned not to consider the attacks on policemen or politicians isolated incidents.
   The committee suggested various measures such as reduction in tariff and revitalisation of the operation of Bangladesh Rifles to curb increase in the prices of essential goods.
   Asked whether the increase in essential goods prices could affect law and order, the home secretary said, ‘We have asked the law enforcers to keep law and order so that it does not affect commodity prices.’
   Asked about the attacks on dissident leaders in the BNP by their party men on Wednesday, Karim said it was a stray incident.
   The cabinet committee has allowed the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, Bangladesh Medical Association and the film associations to hold their elections this month.
   The meeting, however, has not allowed the holding of the general meeting of the Union Parishad Forum on November 17 and asked for further scrutiny of the proposal. It has allowed the authorities to demolish slums at Uttara Sector 12 in Dhaka.

Agitated farmers blocked Dhaka-Aricha Highway at Uthuli for about one-and-half-hour and assaulted Shibalaya upazila nirbahi officer in Manikganj on Thursday demanding smooth supply of urea fertiliser.
   They also besieged the UNO, Soleman Khan and a fertiliser dealer until joint forces and district administration officials rushed to the spot and rescued them pledging to ease fertiliser supply.
   Officer in charge of Shibalaya Police Station Abdul Hamid said the farmers blocked the road at 11:50 am and continued their agitation till 1:20 pm.
   Farmers of Uthuli union became furious as designated fertiliser dealer Ashraful Islam Raja refused to sell urea to them on the pretext of want of coupons.
   One of the farmers said he was madly looking for urea fertiliser for seven days, but could not manage even a sack till Thursday.
   Another farmer alleged that chairman and members of Uthuli union were delaying distribution of coupons. Some others alleged that the dealer told them in daytime that urea was in short supply, but sold it at higher prices at night.
   Angry farmers, numbering at least 500 including some women, started agitating on the road, suspending communication between Dhaka and south and south-western districts for about two hours, police said.
   As UNO Soleman Khan rushed to the spot, angry farmers assaulted him while an agriculture extension official managed to flee. The farmers also confined the UNO and a fertiliser dealer in two separate shops, administration officials said.
   Later, a team from Manikganj district administration comprising Assistant Deputy Commissioner (ADC general) Salauddin Ahmed and DAE deputy director Mokbul Hossain Talukder rushed to the spot at around 1:20 pm and brought the situation under control with the help of police assuring that fertiliser will be supplied properly.
   They also rescued the UNO from a shop. Law enforcers then cleared the road and put the traffic in order.
   The district administration officials tried to sit with the farmers to discuss the matter, but angry farmers walked out and started agitating and chanting slogan ‘We want fertilisers, not dialogue or anything else.’
   Some farmers shouted at ADC Salauddin Ahmed as he was trying to calm the situation.
   DAE official Mokbul Hossain Talukder assured the farmers that there are sufficient stocks of fertiliser and the supply would be streamlined soon.
   Joint Forces commander Lt. Col. Fakhrul Ahsan and other army officers also talked to the agitating farmers and rescued the fertiliser dealer from a shop.
   He advised the UNO to immediately distribute 200 sacks of urea to each of 9 wards in the Uthuli union.
   The UNO faced the farmers’ wrath again at Nayabari where he went to supervise fertiliser distribution in the evening.

The government has approved purchase of 3.75 lakh tonnes of urea fertiliser and 1.13 lakh tonnes of rice as a buffer against possible shortfall in future.
   The advisory committee on public purchase, headed by finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam, gave the approval at a meeting at the cabinet division on Thursday.
   ‘There is no crisis of fertiliser in the country. Yet we are importing to avoid any future crisis,’ Aziz told reporters after the meeting.
   Of the total quantity of rice, 93,000 tonnes will be imported as boiled while the rest 20,000 tonnes will be non-boiled.
   The approved import price of per kg rice is between Tk 24.44 and Tk 26.90, meeting sources said.
   For a tonne, the price would stand around $359 and $396, well below the benchmark price set by the Indian authorities for rice to be exported to Bangladesh.
   India, a key cost-effective and less-time consuming source of rice for Bangladesh, on November 4 raised export price of rice by $115 per tonne to $425.
   The increase was announced a few days after India relaxed a ban on rice export. Indian traders shipped about 38,424 tonnes of rice in October at prices ranging between $310 and $315 per tonne.
   Bangladeshi importers and wholesalers forecast that sudden increase in Indian rice price would have a negative impact on the retail market of rice.
   The import price band fixed by the government on Thursday would force the importers to look for cheaper sources than India, market sources said.
   Thursday’s meeting also set the import price for urea fertiliser at a range between $410 and $422 per tonne. The government would have to import 9 lakh tonnes of urea to meet the local demand estimated at 28 lakh tonnes, a senior official of state-run Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation said.
   Most of the urea fertiliser would come from China and selected suppliers would be given work order soon, he said.

The BNP chairman’s adviser, ASM Hannan Shah, and three of his followers on Thursday were placed on a three-day remand for interrogation in a case for breaching the Emergency Powers Rules by chanting slogans at the tomb of the party’s founder, Ziaur Rahman, and assaulting a senior leader.
   Metropolitan magistrate Habibur Rahman Siddiqui issued the order for remand.
   The police arrested Hannan Shah from his DOHS residence late on Wednesday, and the three others — Ashraf Hossain, a Juba Dal leader, Zakir Hossain, leader of the Saudi Arabian unit of Sramik Dal, and Abul Bashar, a student of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology — from the tomb’s premises on Wednesday.
   They were all implicated in a case lodged with the Tejgaon police station in the evening by sub-inspector Abdul Mabud for violating the emergency rules by gathering people, chanting slogans and assaulting some leaders at and around Zia’s tomb during observance of the National Revolution and Solidarity Day.
   The police, producing them in the jam-packed courtroom at about 3:55pm, sought remand for seven days for each of the three, and argued that the detainees would be interrogated to find out the reasons for the attack on reformist leaders including Mahbubur Rahman, who was once the army chief.
   ‘Twenty to twenty-five leaders and activists led by Hannan Shah chanted slogans in the tomb’s premises and created chaos by assaulting senior leader Mahbubur Rahman. We need to remand them to identify and arrest others attackers, and to discover the motive behind the attack,’ said Asaduzzaman, the investigation officer of the case, while seeking the remand.
   Hannan, refuting the police’s report, told the court, ‘I went to the spot at 11:55am as high officials of the administration had requested me to come to the grave at noon. I do not know what happened before my arrival.’
   Hannan, a very vocal leader, also said that the case was motivated and lodged only to harass him politically. He claimed that the police had gone to him and told him that they could not control the crowd and had asked for his help. When he told them that his voice was not working properly and he could not shout, they gave him a loud-speaker, which he used to calm down the BNP activists and restore some discipline. Before he left the scene the police officers thanked him profusely for helping them. Then he uttered an incomprehensible sentence about the ‘colour of falsehood being black, but the lies against him were white’.
   He was interrupted by the magistrate who requested him to stop. More than a hundred lawyers present during the hearing, and some of them argued for cancellation of the remand of Hannan and his followers.
   Sanaullah Miah, another counsel for Hannam, a former minister, told the court, ‘The leaders did not commit any crime, such as violation of Emergency Powers Rule under the Section 3(2) or 4.’ The maximum punishment for such violation is five years in jail, and the minimum is two years.
   The counsel also alleged that Hannan was arrested as he was successfully leading the BNP with exemplary firmness after the arrest of the party chief, Khaleda Zia, on September 3.
   ‘My client was not present at the time of the disturbance which took place at about 10.30am,’ said Nawshad Jamir Sircar, one of Hannan’s counsels.
   When the court rejected the defence counsel’s appeal for cancellation of remand, many lawyers chanted slogans against the magistrate, Habibur Rahman Siddiqui, calling him a ‘fake’, which prompted the magistrate to leave the courtroom.
   Several hundred lawyers and activists, believed to be followers of Delwar Hossain, the party’s ailing secretary-general, and the Hannan Shah-led faction had gathered in the court’s premises since the morning. They assured Hannan of their help.
   A large contingent of policemen and officers, both in uniform and plainclothes, were busy controlling the activists before Hannan and his three detained followers were sent on remand at about 4:50pm.

The Khandaker Delwar Hossain-led faction of BNP on Thursday dismissed claims that the party activists were involved in Wednesday’s incident at Bijoy Sarani in Dhaka, in which standing committee member Mahbubur Rahman was assaulted.
   The faction demanded immediate release of ASM Hannan Shah, an adviser to the party chairperson Khaleda Zia, who was detained on Wednesday night following the incident.
   The faction led by M Saifur Rahman and Hafizuddin Ahmed, however, blamed a quarter, which was active to harm the party, for the incident.
   ‘We demand immediate release of Hannan Shah and withdrawal of the case against him and other leaders,’ the acting office secretary of the Delwar-led faction, Rizvi Ahmed, said at a press briefing on Thursday.
   He said the case lodged against Hannan Shah and six others was ‘part of a conspiracy hatched by certain quarters’ to destroy the BNP and the nationalist forces.
   ‘The arrest of Hannan Shah under emergency power rules was conspiratorial,’ Rizvi told the briefing at Delwar’s apartment at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar. ‘They are trying to destroy the party by arresting the senior leaders and filing false cases against our activists but their plan will not succeed.’
   He said the leaders and activists of the party had visited the grave of Ziaur Rahman to pay their tributes abiding by the conditions set by the administration for observing November 7. ‘We, along with our leader, Hannan Shah, went there at noon, the time set by the administration for our turn to place flowers. The activists were also disciplined and entered the complex not more that 50 people at a time.’
   ‘But a case was lodged with police that Hannan Shah and other leaders had incited troubles there. Even a person, who is not involved with the organisational activities of the party, was also implicated in the case,’ he said.
   ‘They are trying to blame Hannan Shah and other leaders for an isolated incident in which no party activists were involved,’ he said.
   A statement of 47 former party lawmakers was also read out at the briefing demanding release of Hannan Shah.
   On the other hand, M Hafizuddin Ahmed, made the acting secretary general by the October 29 meeting of the BNP standing committee, put the blame for the brawl at Zia’s grave on those ‘who do not want the BNP to remain united’. He demanded trial of the people involved in the attack on standing committee member Mahbubur Rahman.
   Hafiz vowed to continue the unity process despite such ‘provocations’.
   ‘The unity process is continuing and we will sit at the party’s central office at Naya Paltan after ensuring the unity.’
   ‘Senior leaders of the party are discussing the issue of maintaining unity and we hope that the BNP will participate in the next elections as a single party,’ Hafiz said claiming that the faction they were leading was the party’s mainstream.
   Hafiz declined to accept Hannan Shah as a senior leader of the party as he [Hannan] was neither a member of the standing committee nor a vice-president of the party.
   He dismissed as false the claim that Ziaur Rahman was involved in the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
   ‘Ziaur Rahman was never involved in any conspiracy’, Hafiz said adding that the motive for spreading such falsehood was to tarnish the image of BNP.

Inquiry reports on allegations of corruption and irregularities against two former prime ministers Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina and others serving their governments in signing deals with Niko were submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   The filing of case based on the inquiry reports is under consideration of the ACC.
   ‘The question of filing first information report in case of Niko is still under consideration of the commission. No FIR has yet been filed in this regard,’ the ACC director general (admin), Col Hanif Iqbal, told reporters at a regular briefing on Thursday afternoon.
   On October 18, the ACC secretary, Mokhles ur Rahman, told a press briefing that inquiries had begun about 2-3 weeks ago into graft allegations against persons during the tenures of the two governments including those of Khaleda and Hasina in signing contracts with Canadian company Niko.
   Involvement of all, starting from the heads of government to ministers and bureaucrats would be inquired, he had stated on that day.
   Asked to comment on media reports that the inquiry reports found corruption of two former prime ministers in the deals with Niko, the director general said, ‘If anything is under the process of law, it will not be right to make any comment in advance.’
   ‘Inquiry reports have been submitted and (they) are being scrutinised accordingly. Firstly, it will depend on the court to decide who is guilty who is not. What the commission will do is that it will take next legal measures based on inquiry or investigation reports.
   Therefore, it will not be right to talk about it in advance until the measures taken,’ he said.
   When informed that the ACC secretary had admitted that the involvement of the two former prime ministers was found, Hanif advised the reporters to better talk to the secretary in this regard.
   ‘What I am saying is the version of the commission.’ About GATCO case, he said the commission was very carefully examining the investigation report before taking next steps.
   Hanif said statements from some 80 individuals had been taken in this regard and 50-60 files seized. ‘All these are parts of the investigation and it is the responsibility of the commission to scrutinise it.’
   Asked to comment on report that eight former ministers have been exempted from the case, he said the reports about the case were not based on correct information.
   To another question, Hanif said notices had not yet been served on 11 corruption suspects including the Dhaka mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, AL presidium members Tofail Ahmed and Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury and former adviser to caretaker government Justice Fazlul Haque and they would be asked to submit their wealth statements.
   Primary inquiry reports are scrutinised thoroughly and notices would be sent in due time, he said.
   About the proposed Truth Commission, Hanif said if it was formed it would be done through law and before formation it would not be right to speak about the terms of reference of the proposed commission.
   Terming the transfers of ACC officials as normal procedure, he said in last few days, 23 deputy directors and 33 assistant directors had been transferred.
   He said lodging appeal against the High Court stay order on the barge-mounted power plant case was under process.

Pakistan will hold elections by February 15, military ruler Pervez Musharraf said Thursday, hours after the US president, George W Bush, urged him to hold the polls on time and end a state of emergency.
   Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, made the announcement to stem a tide of global and domestic outrage over earlier hints that the parliamentary vote originally due in January could be suspended for a year.
   Former premier Benazir Bhutto however denounced the ‘vague’ statement by the army general and pledged to continue with plans to lead thousands of her supporters onto the streets of Rawalpindi near Islamabad on Friday.
   ‘There is no doubt in my mind that elections must be held, and it has been calculated that elections must be held before the 15th of February, 2008,’ Musharraf said in a brief interview with state television after chairing a meeting of Pakistan’s national security council.
   Musharraf, Washington’s key ally in the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, also pledged to give up his controversial military uniform before beginning his second term as president.
   Nerves over a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of his October 6 re-election as president are thought to have prompted the emergency, but Musharraf has purged the court of its chief justice and other hostile judges.
   Musharraf said that when his re-election is confirmed by the new court, ‘that is the time I can take my oath as president and I can remove my uniform as I have said some two months back.’
   Musharraf cited growing Islamic militancy in the nuclear-armed nation and a meddlesome judiciary as the primary reasons for his emergency declaration. He suspended the constitution and clamped curbs on the media.
   The report of an election date came hours after the attorney general, Malik Mohammad Qayyum, said the polls would be in February and the state of emergency lifted in ‘one or two months.’
   The police meanwhile stepped up a crackdown on the opposition, rounding up hundreds of Benazir’s supporters and charging four people with treason – an offence punishable by death.
   ‘Well over 600 party activists have been arrested and many of our leaders have gone underground. The crackdown is continuing,’ senior party leader Raza Rabbani said. The police only confirmed 140 PPP arrests.
   The police chief of Rawalpindi, Saud Aziz, meanwhile warned that up to eight suicide bombers had infiltrated the city ahead of Benazir’s planned protest.
   In Karachi, three politicians from small opposition parties and a trade union leader were charged with sedition for making speeches against Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule, court officials said.
   The four were remanded in custody for two weeks by a court.
   Benazir said Musharraf’s vow was insufficient and said he must quit as army chief by next week. In addition to a protest in Rawalpindi on Friday, she has pledged a ‘long march’ from Lahore to Islamabad on November 13.
   ‘We want an exact election date, schedule of elections and a clear date of Musharraf hanging up his uniform,’ Benazir told reporters. ‘This is yet another vague announcement. We want him to hang up his uniform by November 15.’
   Many in Pakistan regard Benazir’s confrontational stance with scepticism, expecting she will still reach a proposed power-sharing deal with Musharraf that would bring two US-friendly political leaders under one banner.

The Commonwealth will reassess its promotion of fundamental political values including good governance, accountability, human rights and curbing corruption when the top leaders of the group of 53 nations sit for a three-day meeting in Uganda, starting from November 23.
   Apart from touching upon the issue of democracy, Commonwealth leaders will also discuss global economic development, climate change and international trade negotiation under the World Trade Organisation, a foreign ministry official told New Age.
   ‘The issue of taking a common stance for convening a review summit within years of the millennium development goals (MDG) may also come up in the meeting,’ the official added.
   Officials in Dhaka said that Bangladesh, along with other member countries, felt that a review meeting should be convened for the MDG as the parties concerned were far away from achieving those global targets for improvement of the quality of the people’s lives.
   Nobel laureate Amartya Sen will present a paper on ‘Promoting respect and tolerance’ as part of the Commonwealth’s effort to minimise extremism and promote progressivenes.
   Foreign ministry officials said that chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed would lead the 10-member Bangladesh delegation that includes foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and foreign secretary Touhid Hossain.
   The opening session of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and the first executive session will be held at the Kampala Serena conference centre on 23 November, and will be preceded by a foreign ministers’ meet on November 21 and 22.
   The foreign secretaries of the group will sit for a meeting on November 20.
   The Commonwealth countries will chose the successor of Don McKinnon, the present secretary-general of the group, from some candidates on November 25.
   Three candidates including the foreign minister of Malta, Michael Frendo, are vying for the top post of the 53-nation group.
   The two other candidates are former Indian high commissioner in the United Kingdom, Kamlesh Sharma, and Mohan Kaul, a non-resident Indian holding a British passport.
   Elaborating on the issues arising from the fundamentals of the Commonwealth’s political values, a foreign ministry official said that top leaders would discuss governance, accountability, anti-corruption, money-laundering and human rights trafficking.
   ‘Recovery of assets of illegal origin will come under the topic,’ he added.
   Regarding global trade issues, the leaders will discuss the taking of a common stance for terming the ongoing trade negotiation as development because the talks of the WTO are yet to make any headway for ensuring the rights of most of the nations.

Abdul Awal Mintoo, former president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, was freed on bail on Thursday.
   The army-led joint forces arrested him in Dhaka on May 29.
   He is the second leading businessman to walk free on bail in the last two days. Abul Khair Litu, chief of Bengal Group, was released on Wednesday.
   Mintoo, chairman of Multimode Group, came out of the Dhaka Central Jail at about 6:30 pm. His family and senior executives of his business house received him at the jail gate.
   He was put on a four-day remand after his arrest and quizzed intensively before he was sent to jail on June 4. He was shown arrested in an extortion case.
   The High Court granted him bail on August 7 in the case and stayed his detention order. But the bail was stayed on a government appeal.
   Later, the High Court granted him bail on Tuesday and the order reached the jail authority Wednesday evening.

The Awami League’s acting president, Zillur Rahman, on Thursday reiterated his demand for immediate withdrawal of the state emergency and lifting of the ban on politics across the rest of the country.
   ‘The emergency rule was imposed as it was felt to be necessary at that time. But many days have gone by since
   then and there is no necessity to continue it any longer,’
   said Zillur, urging the government to lift the emergency immediately.
   The acting AL president made the remarks while addressing the people gathered at the ceremonious according of membership of the AL to a former bureaucrat at Zillur’s Gulshan residence in the afternoon.
   ‘We also demand that the government should now lift the ban on politics throughout the whole country,’ he said, adding that no unwanted incident had taken place in the capital after the interim government lifted the ban on politics, so there was no reason to retain the ban in other parts of the country.
   Terming the ongoing emergency a difficult situation, Zillur said that even the nations friendly to Bangladesh would not support the continuation of the emergency.
   Replying to a query on the interview of a convict of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case by a private television channel, he said that it had mystified the people of the country.
   ‘What a self-confessed killer has said does not matter either to Bangabandhu or the nation,’ he said, adding that there is no doubt that several ‘killers’ are still at large as they could not be brought to trial.
   Replying to another query, he said that his party was yet to prepare for the upcoming local government elections but had started the process of reshuffling the AL’s various front organisations at the metropolitan level.
   ‘There is a possibility that AL will be participating in the city corporation elections, but the party’s central working committee will take the final decision in this regard,’ he said.
   He said that the Dhaka city unit’s president and former mayor of Dhaka, Mohammad Hanif, died in 2006 and a number of leaders are absconding, which has prompted the party to reorganise the various organisations and committees.
   He also demanded immediate release of all the leaders and activists of the AL and its front organisations who have been imprisoned without any specific charges.
   A former deputy secretary, Shamsul Haque, joined the AL and presented a floral bouquet to the acting president of the party.
   Zillur appreciated his joining the AL at such a critical time and said that his membership and involvement would strengthen the party’s activities, especially in his home district, Mirswarai, in Chittagong.
   AL advisory council’s member Rahmat Ali and central leader Khairuzzaman Liton were present on the occasion, along with others.

Tense situation was prevailing at different knit garment factories in Fatulla Industrial Area following the agitation of workers.
   The police foiled a pre-scheduled agitation programme of the workers Wednesday morning.
   Four platoons of police were also deployed at main gates of different garment factories such as Liberty, Polmol, Metro, Mishwar, Time Sweater and Kattex in Katherpool area to fend off untoward incidents.
   Garment workers in Dapa, Katherpool and Sastapur areas had been continuing the agitation programme in recent days to press home their various demands.
   As none of workers’ leaders was joining with them in fear of arrest by the joint forces, owners of the garment factories were reluctant to meet
   their demands, some workers said.
   Earlier, the workers of Marina Apparels staged demonstration on October 29. They ransacked several garment factories and blocked Dhaka- Narayanganj link road. Later the law enforcers brought the situation under control.
   The workers of Urotex and seven other factories also staged demonstration on November 5.
   Leaders of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, district administration officials and workers’ representatives held meetings but failed to reach a consensus on the issues.
   BKMEA vice-president Zahidul Haq Bhuiyan said a vested quarter was trying to destroy the export-oriented knitwear sector by instigating the workers.
   Hafizul Islam, vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Trade Union Centre, told New Age that some miscreants hired by factory owners were creating troubles.
   The workers were peacefully holding their programmes after they failed to realise the demands, he added.

The Indian ambassador to Austria, Sheel Kant Sharma, also permanent representative of all international organisations in Vienna, is going to be the ninth secretary general of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
   The Indian diplomat, also renowned as a disarmament expert, will replace Chenkyab Dorji as the top executive of the regional bloc for the next three years.
   In keeping with the SAARC charter, India, in an alphabetical order, has named Sharma as the SAARC secretary general.
   ‘India has already nominated Sharma as the next secretary general and sent his curriculum vitae to the SAARC secretariat,’ said a diplomatic source on Thursday.
   The source said the SAARC council of ministers’ meet scheduled for December 7–8 in Delhi would endorse the nomination.
   ‘As Chenkyab Dorji serves out his three-year tenure in February, Sharma will replace him early March,’ the source said.
   Sharma, who received his PhD degree in high energy physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, will soon go on leave preparatory to retirement. He joined his assignment in Vienna in July 2004.
   Apart from working with different desks of the Indian external affairs ministry, he also served his country in various capacities in Indian missions in Geneva, Algiers, Riyadh and Kuwait City.
   He had also worked on deputation with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna for six years between 1994 and 2000.

A Madaripur lawyer on Thursday filed a case against Abdul Quader Mollah, assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, for his defamatory comment against the war of independence.
   Lawyer M Obaidur Rahman Khan filed the case with the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Madaripur.
   The magistrate sent the case to Madaripur Sadar Police Station to open an investigation.
   The lawyer moved the case on the basis of a newspaper report in which Mollah was quoted to have said some people had joined the war to fight against the Pakistani army in 1971 to have ‘beautiful women, some others for property and some to protect Indian interests’.
   Daily Ittefaq editor Anwar Hossain, acting editor Rahat Khan, publisher Saju Hossain and three others have been made witnesses in the case since the report was published in the leading newspaper on October 31, according to case documents.
   Mollah had reportedly made the statement at a discussion on the life and work of late Baitul Mukarram Khatib Obaidul Huq in Dhaka.
   Obaidur Rahman accused Mollah of trying to destroy peace of the people through such a statement.
   He also called the senior Jamaat leader ‘a cheat and fanatic’.
   Mollah’s statement, Obaidur said, has humiliated the freedom fighters who had joined the war of independence to earn freedom.
   His statement has created unease in the country, Obaidur said.

Secretaries SM Zafar Ullah and Md Shahid Alam, detained on corruption charges, have been suspended.
   The establishment ministry issued a gazette notification to the effect on Thursday with effect from October 1. They were earlier made officers on special duty.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission lodged corruption cases with the Motijheel police on March 29 against former housing and public works secretary Zafar Ullah and former civil aviation and tourism secretary Shahid Alam, who also worked as chairman of Rajdhani Unnayan Katripakkha.
   Both of them surrendered in court on October 1 after warrants for arrest were issued against them on September 26.
   An anti-graft task force earlier on April 30 interrogated the two secretaries along with two joint secretaries at the secretariat on allegations of irregularities against them in selling 18 government-owned houses in Dhaka.

The number of extra-judicial killings in the country has risen to 162 in the 300 days since the declaration of the ongoing state of emergency on January 11 to November 7, said Odhikar, a human rights organisation, on Thursday.
   In the last 30 days till Monday, nine people were killed extra-judicially by the law enforcers, according to the report released by Odhikar on the state of human rights in Bangladesh.
   Of the 162 slain people, the Rapid Action Battalion killed 81, the police 57, RAB and the police jointly three, the army-led joint forces seven, the army seven, the navy three, the jail police one, the Department of Narcotics Control one, the Coast Guard one and the Bangladesh Rifles one, said the report.
   Of the deceased, 111 people were killed in so-called crossfire, 26 were tortured to death, 14 were shot dead, and the remaining 11 were killed in other circumstances, the report added.
   The report also mentioned that the police initiated an inquiry into the death of Morshed Rana, who died at Narsingdi model police station on October 28. This is the sole example of an inquiry into an extra-judicial death after emergency was imposed.
   ‘Disregard for the due process of law and the selective application of the laws are violations of the people’s human rights. There is serious and widespread cause for concern that the actions of this government in many aspects of policy — prosecution and judicial process, judicial inquiries and the impunity of law enforcement agencies — are dictated less and less by the law,’ said Odhikar in the report.
   The report said the controversial decision of the Election Commission to send an invitation for dialogue to the Saifur Rahman-led BNP faction has led sections of the media to question its neutrality.
   Odhikar urged the EC to work independently, without being unduly influenced by the government or any other quarter.
   The print and electronic media, which have a reputation for freedom and impartiality, have been under significant pressure from the government to refrain from reporting news or comments that are critical of it, said the report.
   In the 300 days of the emergency, the authorities have conducted several eviction drives against unauthorised constructions, buildings and habitations, without making provisions for the resettlement of the displaced poor people, said the report.
   Arresting university teachers in August without warrants, holding them incommunicado for nearly 40 hours at an unknown location before being brought to a court, violating the constitution and detaining them in the Joint Interrogation Cell, have caused concern that their rights under national and international laws are not being respected by the authorities, and the due process of law is not being followed, the report mentioned.
   Throughout the 300 days of the emergency, many workers of jute mills and garment factories have protested while demanding full payment of the wages to which they are entitled. Many of these workers have been arrested for violating the state of emergency, the report said.

The cabinet committee on law and order on Thursday instructed the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to block mobile connections with fake addresses used in criminal activities.
   ‘We have decided to ask the commission to block mobile SIMs if the addresses of the holders of the connections are found fake,’ said the home secretary, Abdul Karim, after a review meeting on law and order chaired by the law and information adviser, Mainul Hosein, at the home ministry.
   The law enforcement agencies will provide the commission with information on connections used in criminal activities, said the officials present at the meeting.
   The home ministry officials said the decision to block mobile SIMs used in wrongdoing was made as complaints have been lodged with the law enforcement agencies about receiving mobile calls in which money have been demanded or death and other types of threat have been made.
   The number of mobile users in Bangladesh is around 32 million provided by the six operators, but most such connections were not properly registered for lack of a clear-cut policy.
   The regulatory commission in February 2006, however, made a regulation making provisions for the subscribers to provide certain bits of information at the time of purchase of connections. It also instructed the mobile operators to re-register the connections bought before February 2006. The re-registration process of about 1 million subscribers was later delayed.
   The commission in July instructed the operators to complete the re-registration of the mobile connections within two months, beginning in August 16, in accordance with the regulation to help the intelligence agencies to keep track of mobile users and to check, through tapping, whether they use them in unlawful activities. The commission later extended the re-registration deadline by two more months, scheduled to expire on December 16.
   The commission in July also imposed a fine of $10 on each SIM for mobile operators if it finds the operators selling connections without registering the subscribers.

Nordic countries continue to lead the way in equal opportunities for women, but the gender gap in the United States is widening, a survey released Thursday showed.
   The United States dropped six places to 31st in the World Economic Forum’s gender gap index, because of an erosion of women’s participation in the economy and persistent shortcomings in public affairs.
   ‘Where the United States underperforms is political empowerment. It has a lower than world average, that pulls down its world ranking,’ said Saadia Zahidi, the co-author of the Forum’s report.
   The United States scored 70 per cent in the 128 nation table, where 100 represents no disparity between men and women.
   Top-ranked Sweden scored 81.46 per cent, while bottom placed Yemen scored 45.1 per cent.
   ‘Countries that are not capitalising upon the talent pool available in their countries – that’s one half of the talent pool available – are going to be undermining their competitive potential in the long run,’ she told journalists.
   Globally, progress has been made since last year in narrowing the gap between women and men in economic participation, but on health it grew, according to the Forum.
   The Philippines (6th) and New Zealand (5th) broke European dominance of the top ten, while Baltic states Latvia (13th) and Lithuania (14th) were the fastest rising of the top ranked countries due to the growing economic and political prominence of women, according to the Forum.
   Most Asian countries, apart from Sri Lanka (15th), Vietnam (42nd) and Thailand (52nd) were in the lower half of the ranking with scores below 67 per cent.

Growing resistance to available tuberculosis drugs is threatening the world with a new untreatable strain of the deadly disease, experts said at a global lung health conference on Thursday.
   ‘The danger is real,’ Mario Raviglione, director of the World Health Organisation’s Stop tuberculosis department, said on the sidelines of the gathering of some 3,000 health experts in Cape Town.
   ‘Scenarios of an apocalyptic nature are not likely ... but not impossible,’ said Raviglione.
   Raviglione said two or three cases were recently reported in Italy of TB resistant to all currently available drugs. All were fatal.
   ‘There are situations that push us back to the pre-antibiotic era of 1943 ... when there was nothing against tuberculosis except bed rest, and in Europe and North America sanatoria and good nutrition and things like that.’
   Some two billion people worldwide are infected with TB, about 450,000 of them with a drug resistant strain. About 1.6 million die each year.
   A total of 41 countries have reported at least one case of extreme-drug resistant TB. This figure may be higher, as many African countries lack laboratories capable of detecting this hard-to-treat strain.
   TB drug resistance develops when patients fail to complete their treatment, and can also be directly transmitted from person to person.
   Patients with multi-drug resistant TB fail to react to the two most powerful and commonly used drugs, while those with XDR TB also showed resistance to at least one of three injectable higher level drugs.
   Raviglione said that as long as the treatment remained inadequate and cure rates lower than the required 85 per cent, more and more drug resistance would develop.
   ‘If the cure rate of drug resistance remains also low, then the spreading continues,’ he said.
   There was a chance of less than five per cent of a completely drug resistant strain becoming dominant, he added.
   ‘However, if you start inputting into the mathematical model a cure rate as low as it is in many countries of Africa today and the XDR epidemic not being addressed with a higher cure rate ... obviously that five per cent becomes much more easily reachable.’
   Raviglione said it was difficult to predict whether new drugs would be developed in time to prevent large-scale resistance, or when.
   ‘You really have to think about a new regimen. We have one (drug) in the pipeline that is already lost – we must have at least another three or four classes of antibiotics to be safe on this.
   ‘I don’t foresee that anything like that will be available before 2015,’ he said, adding that XDR TB would in the meantime continue spreading in places like the former Soviet Union and in Africa, hand-in-hand with AIDS.

Six foreign companies and joint ventures have applied for pre-qualification to participate in the tender for the installation of 450MW Bibiyana independent power plant.
   The applicants are the Korea Electric Power Corporation of South Korea, the AES Corporation of the United States, a consortium of the Summit Industrial Mercantile Corporation Limited of Bangladesh and the GE Energy of the United States, Chevron Corporation of the United States, a consortium of the Powertek Berhad of Malaysia and the Siemens Project Ventures GmbH of Germany and the YTL Power International Berhad of Malaysia.
   The Power Cell received applications of the companies and joint ventures till Thursday, when submission closed. It invited pre-qualification application on September 8.
   The Power Cell director general, Abdul Jalil, told New Age they were satisfied at the response of the bidders as all the applicants are reputed power companies.
   A seven-member tender evaluation committee, headed by Jalil, will begin evaluating the applications on Sunday. Pre-qualified bidders will be named in two weeks.
   Companies meeting the pre-qualification criteria will be allowed to participate in the tender, expected to take place in the first quarter of 2008, to select a developer for the power plant, said Jalil.
   The 450MW plant will be set up on a build, own and operate scheme and the Power Development Board will sign a power purchase agreement with the developer for 22 years.
   The interim government expects to complete the tender procedure and sign the agreements for the Bibiyana power plant along with two other large IPP projects of Sirajganj 450MW and Meghnaghat-III 450MW by 2008.

UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari met Myanmar’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday after warning the junta against a return to the status quo before mass pro-democracy protests shook the nation.
   Gambari met with the Nobel peace laureate at a government guest house in the main city of Yangon, a Myanmar official said. No details of their meeting were immediately available.
   The UN envoy then departed for Singapore with no apparent breakthrough from his trip and Aung San Suu Kyi was driven back to the lakeside home where she has spent 12 of the past 18 years under house arrest, witnesses said.
   Gambari earlier met with members of her National League for Democracy in the isolated capital Naypyidaw, the United Nations and Myanmar officials said.
   However, his latest mission to push for reforms after the regime’s bloody September crackdown on protests appears to have met with little success, as the generals ruled out a three-way meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, known here as The Lady.
   Gambari pushed for the lifting of restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in his talks Tuesday with the information minister, brigadier general Kyaw Hsan.
   But the junta stuck to its position that she must first abandon her support for international sanctions against the regime if she wants any concessions from the generals who have ruled this country since 1962.
   ‘As the government made efforts in building national reconciliation, it was necessary for the other side to give response to such measure. The minister asked Gambari to explain this point to her,’ the state-run New Light of Myanmar said Wednesday.
   Gambari failed to secure a meeting with powerful junta chief senior general Than Shwe during this trip, his second to Myanmar since the crackdown six weeks ago which lead to further US and EU sanctions against the regime.
   The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has already expressed concern about the lack of progress during his special envoy’s mission.
   However, Gambari would not have expected immediate results, analyst Trevor Wilson, a former Australian ambassador to Myanmar, said.
   Gambari on Wednesday pressed prime minister lieutenant general Thein Sein on the need to work with the United Nations to improve Myanmar’s human rights situation and tackle poverty.
   Meanwhile, Suu Kyi will Friday meet members of her National League for Democracy party and a senior junta official, state television reported late Thursday.
   It will be her second meeting with the labour minister, Aung Kyi, since he was appointed by the junta in late October to liaise with the opposition in military-run Myanmar.
   ‘The relations minister Aung Kyi will meet again with Aung San Suu Kyi Friday,’ state television reported.

Pakistani singer Shehzad Roy and Bangladesh pop star James enthralled an audience at a concert at Sheraton Hotel by their performances on Thursday.
   James, who shot into fame with his smashing Bhigi Bhigi Raat, presented a number of his other hits including Diwana Diwana, Ami Tomar Diwana, Dash Mas Dash Din and Chal Chaley Apna Ghar.
   After his performance, Shehzad came on the stage. The singer thanked the organisers and said, ‘This is for the first time I am here to perform’.
   The audience turned wild as he presented his popular numbers including Ye Jo Aag Hai Teri, Teri Kangna and Tera Pyarse.
   Macomm Resolve organised the concert sponsored by Warid Telecom, in association with Panasonic, Nestle Bangladesh Limited, Cathay Pacific and Dragonair.
   Bangla Vision, Radio Foorti and Amader Gaan were the official partners of the concert.
   The event was divided into two phases. The high commission of Pakistan organised the first phase of the programme which began at 4:00pm.
   Shehzad and James performed in the second phase, beginning at 7:00pm.
   Along with his super star image in Pakistan, Shehzad is equally popular in India.
   The organisers said that some proceeds from the show would be donated to a charity organisation working for the welfare of physically challenged children in Bangladesh.

Australians living in Bangladesh are taking preparation to cast their vote from Dhaka in the forthcoming federal elections scheduled for November 24.
   The Australian high commission in Dhaka offers pre-poll voting for eligible Australians between November 11 and November 22 during office hours, said a press statement issued by the mission on Thursday. The mission will, however, not be opened for voting on November 16.
   ‘If you are living in Dhaka or just visiting, you can still have a voice in the 2007 election by lodging a pre-poll vote,’ said Douglas Foskett, the Australian high commissioner in Dhaka.
   Australians are eligible to vote early if on polling day they are unable to get to a polling place in their home state or territory.
   Reasons for this could include being interstate or overseas, more than 8 kilometres from a polling place, approaching childbirth, seriously ill or caring for someone or is unable to attend a polling place because of religious beliefs, and disability or work commitments.
   Voting is compulsory in Australia and there is a small financial penalty for failing to cast vote.
   The turnout at Australian elections has never fallen below 90 per cent since the introduction of compulsory voting in 1924, the release said.
   The Australian high commission will be one of approximately 100 overseas polling places for the 2007 election.

Restriction on rice export from India is not a country specific measure as suggested by some news reports, said a press release of Indian High Commission in Dhaka Thursday.
   India imposed the restriction on rice export on October 9 after considering availability of non-basmati rice in the domestic market, it said.
   The restriction is neither applicable to exports under food aid programmes nor import letters of credit opened before October 9.
   Any Indian trader is free to export non-basmati rice at prices not less than $425 per tonne as freight on board price, the release added.

The mayor of Khulna City Corporation, Sheikh Tayebur Rahman, was placed on fresh 3-day remand.
   He was produced before the court Thursday on expiry of five-day remand in connection with arms case.
   The court rejected his bail petition.
   The police filed the arms case against the mayor after the law enforcers recovered pipe gun along with some ammunition from his residence on November 3. He was arrested earlier on November 1 from Gulshan, Dhaka.
   Tayebur, also a BNP leader, faces eight cases of extortion, corruption, drug and illegal arms.

Younus Khan hit a superb third one-day century as Pakistan beat India by four wickets to level their series 1-1.
   A wayward display in the field allowed India to rack up 321-9, with Sachin Tendulkar making 99, Gautam Gambhir 57 and Harbhajan Singh an unbeaten 38.
   Harbhajan then took two wickets to leave Pakistan in trouble on 174-4.
   But Younus smacked two sixes and nine fours in his 117 off 110 balls, before Shahid Afridi belted 29 not out off 14 to seal victory with a ball to spare.
   It was the ninth highest successful chase in one-dayers and keeps the series very much on the boil.
   Such a dramatic finale did not look on the cards when Tendulkar and Gambhir unfurled a series of blistering strokes to put on 173 after coming to terms with a lively surface which offered pace and bounce.
   Tendulkar was ruthless on anything which strayed down the leg-side and was equally effective through the cover-point region.
   Gambhir, who had initially been content to nudge the ball around, showed he too could wield the willow to good effect as he scythed several boundaries off Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik’s off-spin.
   When Tendulkar drove leg-spinner Afridi over long-off for six, his 42nd one-day century - and first since January - seemed a formality but he fell one short for the third time this year as Umar Gul returned to have him caught behind.
   Gambhir tamely flicked the seamer to mid-wicket shortly after but Virender Sehwag (25) and Yuvraj Singh (34) kept the scoreboard ticking thanks to more indiscipline from Pakistan’s bowlers, who conceded 31 runs in wides.
   The tourists prevented total carnage by picking up five wickets for 39 runs, in which Shoaib deservedly claimed two to reward two spells of genuine hostitlity.

Former deputy minister for industries Hasibur Rahman Swapan, also former Awami League lawmaker and the Shahzadpur AL unit president, and Sakim Uddin, a lease holder of the Talgachi market palce at Shahzadpur in Sirajganj were sent to jail on Thursday.
   District and sessions judge Biplob Goshami gave the verdict rejecting the prayer for their bail and ordered the case to be transferred to the special judge’s court in Pabna.
   According to the prosecution Hasibur Rahman illegally leased out the market place to Sikim Uddin at a lower rate of Tk. 14.5 lakh in 2004. The Anti-Corruption Commission in Sirajganj said the lease caused the government a loss of at least Tk. 11.6 lakh, compared with the lease money fore the preceding year.
   The commission’s assistant director Mosharaf Hossain Mridha filed a case against them with the Shahzadpur police on February 6, 2007. The case was later transferred to the Sirajganj court.

A Sirajganj court on Thursday sentenced a man to death, four to life imprisonment and another to rigorous imprisonment for a year in a murder case.
   The court also fined the convicts imprisoned for life Tk 10, 000 each, in default to suffer two more years of rigorous imprisonment. The court fined the man jailed for a year Tk 500, in default to suffer one more month in jail.
   Bellal Hossain, 28, was sentenced to death, Sultan Ali, 27, Abdus sabur, 29, Hanif Uddin, 32 and Hassen Ali, 35, to life imprisonment and Samidul, 26, to one year of imprisonment.
   According to the prosecution, the convicts killed Kader Khan, 50, with sharp weapons at the Betua High School on July 29, 2001 over a feud.
   The deceased’s brother, Wahab Ali, later filed a case with the sadar police. The police filed the charge sheet accusing 18.
   The court acquitted 12 others. The district and sessions judge, Biplob Goshami, gave the verdict.