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The first elections under the military-controlled interim government to four city corporations and nine municipalities will be held today under the state of emergency and amid heightened security.
   The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, on Sunday claimed the state of emergency would not hamper smooth polling; it would rather ensure foolproof security for voters.
   He urged the voters to cast their vote for honest and competent candidates and hoped the elections to the city corporations and municipalities would be good.
   The four city corporations where elections will be held are Rajshahi, Barisal, Sylhet and Khulna. The nine municipalities are Naohata in Rajshahi, Dupchanchia in Bogra, Sreepur in Gazipur, Phulbaria in Mymensingh, Golapganj in Sylhet, Sitakunda in Chittagong, and Chuadanga, Manikganj and Shariatpur district headquarters.
   The Awami League, which fielded mayoral candidates in all the four city polls, at a briefing at the house of the party’s acting president Zillur Rahman at Gulshan on Sunday, expressed doubts whether the polls would be free and fair.
   Zillur, however, said the Awami League-led alliance nominees would be clear winners if the polls were free and fair.
   The party leaders also alleged the caretaker government and the Election Commission were trying to twist the results of the polls.
   A total of 13,67,622 voters are likely to cast votes in 715 polling centres from 8:00am to 4:00pm without any break to elect 278 local government representatives, including four city and nine municipal mayors.
   The government earlier declared a general holiday today in the election areas for smooth polling. The district election administrations sent all polling materials to the centres on Sunday evening.
   The emergency rules went back in force automatically from midnight past Saturday as the government had relaxed the emergency only for electioneering for 21 days.
   It is the first election to be conducted by the reconstituted Election Commission and under new local government and electoral laws, and code of conduct. The candidates this time rampantly violated the electoral code of conduct and exceeded the expenditure limit set by the commission while the commission could hardly take any steps to stop such violations.
   A three-tier security measure has been in place in and around the polling centres to ensure peaceful voting with an electoral roll with photographs for the first time.
   Some 20,000 law enforcers would be on duty to stave off any untoward incidents during polling. No Bangladesh Rifles or army personnel will be deployed during poling, but they will be available, if necessary, on call, said Shahinoor Miah, senior information officer at the home affairs ministry.
   According to the commission, a ban has been imposed on the movement of all types of motor vehicles in the constituencies for 24 hours beginning midnight past Sunday. The ban on vehicles would not be applicable to the vehicles of the candidates, their agents, observers and officials engaged in election duty and emergency services.
   Sixteen hundred candidates are now in the electoral race. Of them 992 are contesting elections to the city corporations — 46 for the four mayoral posts, 752 for the posts of councillor and 194 for the posts of councillor in the seats reserved for women.
   Six hundred and eight candidates are in the race for the elections to the nine municipalities — 59 for the mayoral posts, 429 for the posts of councillor and 120 for the posts of councillor in the reserved seat.
   The Awami League-led alliance formally fielded candidates and BNP-led alliance rejected the polls. Local BNP leaders in all the four city corporations, however, are contesting in the polls and local leaders of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh are working for their party candidates.
   Law enforcement agency personnel have been deployed on election duty since August 1 for seven days in the areas where polls are taking place. Around 100 mobile courts, each with an executive magistrate, were instituted to try electoral offences. Carrying of any firearms, even licensed, were prohibited in the election areas from August 2 midnight to August 5.
   More than 5,000 observers, including 119 foreign observers, will monitor the elections.
   The commission on June 20 announced the polls schedule and the government on the same day relaxed the Emergency Powers Rules to allow rallies and processions in the areas going to polls.
   The home affairs ministry has set up a control room to monitor law and order. The control room will remain open till 8:00pm tomorrow. People can provide the control room with information on law and order in the polling areas by dialling 9571686 and sending faxes to 9571682.

The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, on Sunday claimed the state of emergency, instead of creating problem, would ensure extra security for voters on the polling day.
   ‘The election campaign seems to have gone well. Now it is the matter of casting votes. The state of emergency will ensure more security on the polling day for voters,’ Shamsul told reporters as he was asked about his view on Monday’s elections to four city corporations and nine municipalities under emergency.
   About the election environment, Shamsul said the election environment was better now than at any time in the past. ‘We did not get any news of major violence from election areas,’ he said.
   He urged voters to cast their vote for honest and competent candidates, hoping the elections to the city corporations and municipalities to be good.
   He said three-tier security measures were put in place in election areas from Saturday to ensure free and fair polls.
   As for risky polling centres, Shamsul said a 30 member-team of law enforcers would stand guard at each centre to keep law and order.
   The candidates are going by the electoral rules and the codes of conduct, he said, adding the Election Commission has not yet found any major violations anywhere. ‘Everything is going well. There is no problem.’

The elections to four city corporations are expected to be a face-off between the local leaders of two major political parties – the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party – though the latter is officially boycotting the polls.
   The Awami League-led alliance has formally fielded candidates for the four city mayors and the BNP-led alliance has rejected the polls. Local leaders of the BNP in all the four cities, however, are contesting the polls and the local units of the party and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami are working – overtly or covertly – for their candidates.
   The local units of all major parties, however, are plagued by bickering over endorsing mayoral candidates. In all the four city corporations, more than one candidate from both the AL and the BNP are in the fray for mayoral posts.
   Though the flocks include candidates of other political parties and independent contestants, today’s elections to four city corporations are seen by many as a face-off between the mayoral candidates of arch-rivals AL and BNP. A total of 46 candidates are contesting the polls for four mayoral posts of the cities of Rajshahi, Barisal, Sylhet and Khulna.
   The EC this time formulated a new code of conduct for polls terming the local polls as non-partisan and warned the candidates not to use their political identities and barred central leaders of parties from electioneering for their candidates. But the High Court on July 31 scrapped the EC rules enabling political parties to campaign for their candidates at the eleventh hour.
   In Rajshai city corporation polls, close contest is likely between AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, the mayoral candidate of the Awami League-led alliance, and BNP-backed candidate Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul.
   In Khulna, it is expected to be a face-off between AL-nominated candidate Talukder Abdul Khaleque and local BNP leader Moniruzzaman Moni although there are four other candidates contesting the poll. Jatiya Party and Bikalpadhara Bangladesh have thrown their weights behind Khaleque. AL’s votes may be divided as another local leader of the party – Advocate Enayet Ali – is also in the race. Besides, Communist Party of Bangladesh has fielded Advocate Firoze Ahmed as its candidate for mayor. Local Jamaat-e-Islami and the BNP’s splinter group have, meanwhile, extended their support to Moni, the acting mayor of KCC.
   In Sylhet, detained mayor Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran will fight it out with BNP-backed mayoral candidate MA Haque. AFM Kamal, a former BNP leader, is also in the race as an independent candidate. In Barisal tough fight is likely between AL-backed Shawkat Hossain Hiron and expelled BNP leader Ahsan Habib Kamal.

Two advisers to the interim government on Sunday expressed their satisfaction with the Election Commission’s preparation for elections to the four city corporations and nine municipalities under the state of emergency today.
   ‘We are very much satisfied in all respects at the preparations for the polls. Everything has been going on smoothly as the state of emergency has been relaxed the way we wanted it for holding the elections,’ the communications adviser, Ghulam Quader, told reporters at the secretariat.
   He claimed work for the elections was going on properly and no disputes had so far been reported by any side. ‘You can go to the field to see for yourselves how the work is going on.’
   In reply to reporters’ queries at the secretariat, the LGRD and cooperatives adviser, Anwarul Iqbal, said the candidates had not yet complained against the state of emergency.
   ‘We have not received any complaints so far from the candidates that they are facing any problems in electioneering because of the state of emergency,’ he said, hoping that the voters would cast their vote carefully so that competent candidates could be elected.
   As for candidates, Ghulam Quader, however, said, it would mean a success for the government if the voters cast their vote for the candidates they consider ‘honest and competent.’
   ‘It depends on the voters which candidates will win although the Election Commission has set some rules and regulations for candidature.’
   Asked whether the government would launch any campaign to motivate the voters so that honest and competent candidates should win, Quader, also a retired army official, said it was everyone’s responsibility to do the job.
   The adviser, however, said the government had always been interested in holding talks with all stakeholders.
   ‘It is beyond question that we will not discuss [with the BNP]. We always want to hold talks with them… We will discuss with them whenever they will come to the dialogue,’ he said when his attention was called to the statement of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain that the party wanted to hold talks with the government.
   The government wanted such fair elections where all parties would take part and efforts were on to this end, the adviser said. ‘We are working for 18 hours a day… Insaallah, see what happens.’
   When he was asked whether the government would talk with the BNP secretary general to bring the party to the dialogue with the government, he said it was not an appropriate time to answer the question.
   As for release of the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, and her son Tarique Rahman from jail, he said, the process for their release was progressing as usual.
   ‘I do not want to make any comment beforehand… You will see if there are any results of the efforts.’

The northern city of Rajshahi is all set to go to polls today to elect a new mayor and 266 councillors with a medley of emotions running high among the voters after days of hectic campaigns which ended Saturday night.
   ‘The state of emergency has deprived the elections of what could have been a festive occasion. There is a sense of fear and uncertainty because of the emergency’, Alamgir Hossain, a salesperson at a veterinary medicine shop in Meherchandi area of the city, told New Age on Sunday, the day before the polls as the contestants, election authorities and voters in general were getting prepared for the polls.
   ‘It [the state of emergency] gives us a feeling of security…We will be able to go to the polling centre without fear…’, said Akbar Ali, a worker at a rickshaw workshop near Rajshahi University. Like many others who have little or no idea of what a state of emergency is all about.
   To him a state of emergency is nothing but security measures.
   Azizul Haq, a resident of the neighbourhood, said the elections lacked festivity as the candidates could not spend much money this time around because of restrictions.
   Mohsin Khan, who is working for Fair Election Monitoring Alliance, an organisation monitoring the polls, said conducting elections under the emergency would be difficult, but it was not impossible.
   The Election Commission headed by ATM Shamsul Huda is conducting elections to four city corporations and nine municipalities under a state of emergency, declared on January 11, 2007, suspending civil and political rights on the heels of political turmoil.
   The emergency, which had been relaxed for three weeks before the polls to facilitate electioneering in the four cities and nine municipalities, came into force again in the areas from mid-night Sunday as soon as the campaigns stopped in line with the electoral laws.
   The authorities will throw a security blanket for peaceful holding of the Rajshahi city corporation elections with deployment of nearly 4,500 law enforcers on the polling day for 129 polling centres, 56 of which have been marked as vulnerable.
   Sayed Muhammad Musa, returning officer for the RCC polls, expressed satisfaction with the preparations saying that all quarters concerned had extended cooperation to him.
   He said his office would apply the electoral laws in case the rules were violated. A total of 15 candidates are vying for the city mayor while 266 others are contesting the polls for 40 councillor posts, including 10 reserved for women. Some 2.58 lakh voters, enrolled in the new list with photographs, will exercise their franchise.
   The candidates were busy all day Sunday visiting door to door seeking vote.
   Leaders of major political parties also spent a hectic time with rank and file and seeking vote for candidates, particularly for their respective mayoral candidates.
   Three mayoral candidates – AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, contesting the polls as the citizens’ committee nominee, Masudul Haque Dulu, and Nasir Ahmed Biddut –are loyal to the Awami League while Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul, who identifies himself as the nominee of Ganatantrik Oikya Parishad, Enamul Haque and Rezaun Nabi Dudu, the acting RCC mayor, are loyal to the BNP which, along with its allies, has officially boycotted the elections.
   Like in the past, the contest is expected to be confined to the two major parties – the AL and the BNP, according to voters who talked to New Age.
   Nine more candidates are also in the fray for the mayoral post. Five of them –Siddiqur Rahman, Ruhul Kuddus Tunu, Abul Kalam Azad, Abdul Khalek and Farman Ali – are independent candidates while Raihanur Rahman is contesting the polls on Progressive Democratic Party ticket, Akhtaruzzaman Bablu on Bikalpadhara Bangladesh ticket and Abdul Matin Khan is in the race under the banner of Aamra Rajshahi Bashi.

Voters in the Barisal City Corporation area have become divided into two political camps — of the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
   A number of people of various profession groups on Sunday said they had found almost no impact of the drive against serious crimes and corruption, conducted by the military-controlled interim government, on the polls process.
   ‘I will cast vote on political considerations,’ said a manager of a private firm at Naziarpool in the city. ‘I have noticed some changes in the campaign in comparison with the campaign in the past. As there was were restrictions related to the use of PA system and processions, the city residents had a bit of relief,’ said a teacher of a government primary school at Kawania.
   Election campaign became a matter of resistance against either the Awami League or the Bangladesh Nationalist Party for the political activists. The Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh towards the end of the electioneering decided to extend support for Ahsan Habib Kamal of the BNP. Ahsan brought out a big procession Saturday afternoon.
   The Jatiya Party Friday night changed its decision and withdrew the support for the mayoral candidate Ahsan Habib Kamal, the city BNP president expelled earlier. The Jatiya Party announced its support for the Awami League-led alliance candidate Shawkat Hossain Hiron. Local and district leaders of the Jatiya Party became divided over the issue.

The vote battle in the Khulna City Corporation elections looks set to confine to two mayoral candidates – Talukder Abdul Khaleque and Moniruzzaman Moni, both dogged by feuds within the parties they represent, but buoyed by supports from allies.
   Six candidates – Khulna City Awami League President Talukder Abdul Khaleque, acting KCC mayor and local BNP leader Moniruzzaman Moni, former Khulna city CPB president advocate Firoz Ahmed, local AL leader advocate Enayet Ali, advocate SM Moslem Uddin Ahmod and trader Tayabur Rahman – are vying for the post of KCC mayor
   Local units of Jatiya Party (Ershad) extended supports to AL nominee Talukder Abdul Khaleque.
   Though Moniruzzaman Moni is vying for the mayoral post defying the party decision, he enjoys supports from local leaders and activists loyal to both factions of BNP and also Khulna chapter of Muktijoddha Sangsad.
   Of late, Khulna unit of Jamaat–e–Islami extended their support to Moniruzzaman.
   Poll observers said victory of either Khaleque or Moni would depend on the last-minute unity within their respective party line-ups and alliance partners as both AL and BNP suffered from factional feuds in the city.
   They said Moni would gain from erosion of Khaleque’s vote bank by Enayet and Firoz — the latter three belonging to the same camp.
   Industrial workers remained as a headache for Moni as three nationalised mills including Khulna Newsprint Mills Limited of Khalsihpur were closed during the BNP–Jamaat regime, throwing several hundred workers out of jobs.
   Among the candidates, Enayet Ali and Firoz Ahmed contested the last KCC elections on April 25 in 2002 and got 79,328 and 28,327 votes respectively. BNP candidate Sheikh Tayebur Rahman won the race bagging 1,35,773 votes.
   AL had boycotted the elections, but local leaders and workers supported Enayet Ali who was an independent candidate then.
   About 8200 police and Ansar members will be deployed in Khulna metropolitan area to ensure fair voting today.
   Khulna City Corporation with an area of about 18 square miles has a total of 3,99,398 voters who will elect their mayor, 31 general ward councillors and 10 female councillors for reserved seats.
   Apart from six mayoral candidates, 207 are vying for 31 posts of councillors and 46 candidates for 10 reserved seats for female.

The law and order situation for the Sylhet city corporation elections scheduled for today is under control, with the Election Commission, the police expecting a peaceful ballot.
   Officials said about 4,500 law-enforcement agency personnel would be deployed on the polls day.
   Sylhet City Corporation returning officer and deputy election commissioner Khandker Mizanur Rahman told the news agency, ‘All preparations have been made for holding a fair election. This time the situation is far better compared with the one during the previous elections.
   ‘Law and order situation is under control. Though rumours are there that votes are being bought, we have no proof of that.’
   ‘Until now the law and order situation is quite okay. No election-related violence has taken place here. However, 50 party supporters have been arrested for violating electoral code of conduct,’ Sylhet Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner Israil Halder told the news agency on Monday.
   He said on the election day 2,000 police and 2,100 Ansars members would be deployed to maintain the law and order. In a general polling centre 28 and in a risky polling centre 30 police and Ansars personnel would be posted. Halder said 63 out of 120 polling centres in Sylhet are risky. ‘Outside the polling centres seven striking mobile courts each led by an executive magistrate and 14 special mobile courts would be on duty.
   ‘They would conduct trial on the spot, if needed. Besides, traditional mobile court would also remain active. There will be 10 to 15 police personnel with each mobile court.’
   Search outposts at 20 centres in the city, three striking forces each comprising 25 policemen and a 50-strong contingency force would be in action.
   Director of RAB-9 Lieutenant Colonel Md Ferdous Khan told the news agency that they were happy with the law and order situation.
   ‘Thirty-eight detective teams of RAB are working in the city. Each team comprises four RAB personnel. There are 14 striking team comprising 10 RAB members each. Each of seven other teams is working under a first class officer. Besides, a RAB monitoring team is also working.’
   Nazmul Haq, chief coordinator in Sylhet of Election Working Group, an election observing agency, said, ‘There has been no violence in the lead-up to this year’s election. We have not seen buying of voters, either.’
   Fifteen people are gunning to become mayor, 197 contesting for councillor posts in 27 general wards and 46 for councillor in nine reserved wards. The number of total voters is 2,56,237.

The 15th SAARC Summit ended in Colombo on Sunday with the adoption of the Colombo Declaration with a call for collective efforts to face the challenge of energy security, climate change and terrorism, to facilitate trade and to increase economic growth for the betterment of South Asian nations.
   The leaders of the eight-nation regional bloc for the first time in its history also adopted a separate statement on food security with an emphasis on the establishment of food granary and adoption of long-term measures to tackle food crisis.
   In the closing ceremony at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall in Colombo, SAARC leaders expressed their satisfaction with the signing of four deals and hoped they would be effective tools to address the issues for the improvement of the region.
   Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai, Bhutan’s prime minister Jigmi Y Thinlei, India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh, Maldives’ president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Nepal’s prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, Pakistan’s prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Bangladesh’s interim government chief Fakhruddin Ahmed and host Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa attended the closing session.
   The summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation decided that the 16th summit would be held in Male, the capital of the Maldives.
   The 41-point Colombo Declaration also called for in regional connectivity to facilitate economic, social and people-to-people contact.
   In this context, the leaders stressed the need of a uniformly applicable low-tariff for international direct dialling calls within the region.
   The declaration called for an inter-governmental group on transport to examine and finalise the draft of the motor vehicle agreement for regularisation of passenger and cargo vehicular traffic among the SAARC states.
   It suggested developing the drafts of a regional transport and transit agreement and a regional multilateral railway agreement.
   In his concluding remarks, Mahinda Rajapaksa said, ‘All the regional cooperation efforts, including in South Asia, have all their objective, prosperity and equitable development. Our deliberations have, therefore, had a strong focus on economic and commercial cooperation.’
   Gayoom, who gave the vote of thanks, welcomed all the members to the Maldives next year.
   As for energy security, the leaders stressed the need for access to energy which is critical for the growth and development of South Asia.
   The leaders observed the oil price increase threatens both the energy security of the region and the economic growth. They recognised the need to develop the regional hydroelectric potential, grid connectivity and gas pipeline.
   They stressed the need for cooperation within an expanded regional environmental protection framework to deal with climate change issues.
   They also noted the urgency of the immediate need for dealing with the impact of climate change and resolved to work together to prevent and address the threats to the livelihoods of the peoples and to provide them with access to remedies when such rights are violated. They also resolved to find out an equitable distribution of responsibilities and rights among the members.
   South Asian leaders also emphasised the need for the assessment and management of the risks and impact of climate change.
   In this regard, they called for an in-depth study on ‘climate justice: the human dimension of climate change’ to come up with a rights-based approach that would highlight the human impact on the response to climate change.
   Focusing on poverty alleviation, the leaders resolved to continue to combat poverty through all available means, including people’s empowerment.
   They made commitment to continue sharing each other’s experiences and success stories of pro-poor poverty reduction strategies such as micro-credit systems, community-driven initiatives and the creation of awareness among the poor of their rights to resources and development.
   The declaration emphasised putting in sustained efforts, including development and implementation of regional and sub-regional projects, towards the achievement of SAARC Development Goals.
   Leaders of the South Asian nation noted that the decision by the ministers on poverty alleviation to obtain an inter-governmental mid-term review of the achievement of the SDG should be completed by 2009.
   They expressed satisfaction with the signing of the Charter of the SAARC Development Fund and the finalisation of its bye-laws and called for an early ratification of the SDF charter.
   They also welcomed an early activation of fund with the available funds and iterated their commitment to expedite their financial contributions to the fund.
   As for trade across the region, the declaration called for an early implementation of the decision to revise the sensitive lists by the SAFTA ministerial council.
   The leaders asked the SAFTA committee of experts to quickly resolve the issue of non-tariff and para-tariff measures to enhance the trade under SAFTA.
   In the declaration, the leaders strongly condemned all forms of terrorist violence and expressed their concerns about the serious threat posed by terrorism to the peace, stability and security of the region.
   They expressed satisfaction with the finalisation of the text of the SAARC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters at the summit and its signing.
   They also appreciated the manner in which the negotiations were conducted by the member states to provide each other with the widest measures of mutual assistance in criminal matters to ensure a greater sense of security within the region. The heads of state or the government urged an early ratification and implementation of the convention.
   The leaders welcomed the present observers and appreciated their participation in the summit. They also welcomed Australia and Myanmar to be associated as observers to SAARC.
   They approved the guidelines for cooperation with observers and looked forward to working with them in common pursuit of the partnership for growth.
   On the statement of food security, the leaders pledged to ensure region-wide food security and make South Asia, once again, the granary of the world.
   Considering the emerging global situation of reduced food availability and worldwide increase in food prices, the leaders decided to convene an extraordinary meeting of the agriculture ministers in New Delhi in November.
   They focused on evolving and implementing a people-centred short- to medium-term regional strategy and collaborative projects that would, among others, lead to increase in food production, investment in agriculture and agro-based industries, agriculture research and prevention of soil health degradation, development and sharing of agricultural technologies, sharing of best practices in procurement and distribution and management of the climatic and disease-related risks in agriculture.
   ‘We direct that the SAARC Food Bank be urgently operationalised. We also emphasise early drawing up of the SAARC Agriculture Perspective 2020,’ the statement said.
   The leaders further directed that the SAARC region should forge a greater cooperation with the international community to ensure food availability and nutrition security in South Asia.
   The closing ceremony began with the signing of four agreements — the SDF charter, Agreement on the Establishment of South Asian Standards Organisation, SAARC Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and the protocol of Accession of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area.

The Colombo Declaration adopted on Sunday, the concluding day of the 15th SAARC summit, contained many of the suggestions made by Bangladesh.
   Addressing the opening session of the summit at the Bandarnaike Memorial International Conference Hall, the chief adviser to Bangladesh’s interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, urged other South Asian leaders to work out a roadmap to fight against poverty and hunger and achieve accelerated economic and social growth for the benefit of the people.
   He also stressed the need for cooperation to develop short- and long-term programmes to ensure food security, fight against terrorism, explore alternative sources of energy, face the challenges of climate change and increase trade for the establishment of the South Asian Economic Union.
   ‘Global economic slowdown, soaring oil and food prices and the growing threats of climate change are driving the destitute people of the region even further below the poverty line,’ said Fakhruddin.
   ‘It is incumbent on us who have gathered here today to clearly chart out a roadmap for SAARC for attaining greater prosperity and welfare of the peoples of South Asia,’ he added.
   The 41-point Colombo Declaration as well the separate statement on food security has accentuated the resolve for collective regional efforts to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development to promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia and improve their quality of life, thereby contributing to peace, stability, amity and progress in the region.
   Addressing the issue of food security, the statement stressed the need for making the SAARC Food Bank operational with contributions from the member-states and suggested short- and long-term measures to tackle the deficit of food-grains, especially rice.
   Touching on the issue of climate change, the Colombo Declaration stressed the necessity of adopting the SAARC Action Plan and Dhaka Declaration on Climate Change.
   It called for regional cooperation for capacity building, development of Clean Development Mechanism projects and mass awareness. For addressing the growing energy crisis, the leaders called for developing the regional hydro potential, grid connectivity and gas pipelines.
   On trade issues the declaration asked for quickly resolving the issue of non-tariff and para-tariff measures to enhance trade under SAFTA.
   On the issue of terrorism, the Colombo Declaration calls for strong regional cooperation in the fight against terrorism, and also organized transnational criminals, by law enforcing agencies of the member-states.

The government has decided not to return about Tk 758 crore, impounded from businesses during the drive against corruption and tax evasion, to the persons concerned or adjust it to their tax accounts.
   The National Board of Revenue, following an advice from an intelligence agency, earlier proposed that the money, deposited with the Bangladesh Bank under the government’s consolidated fund, could be adjusted to the advance tax accounts of the errant businesses.
   Finance authorities had expressed their reservations about such fund transfers and adjustments, arguing that advance tax could be paid only for the running fiscal year, not for years to come.
   ‘The finance ministry has asked us not to act upon the advice of the intelligence agency and go for any adjustment of the said money to advance income tax and value added tax deemed paid by the businesses concerned,’ a top official of the central bank told New Age.
   The NBR also changed its mind and sent a letter to the central bank recently withdrawing its earlier request for fund transfer, he added.
   Finance bureaucrats believed that fear of image crisis prevented the interim government from taking a decision in favour of adjusting or returning the money, suspected to have been siphoned off from the country and later recovered during the anti-graft drive since January 2007.
   The intelligence agency, in its latest advice, said the revenue authorities should adjust about Tk 400 crore, collected from a number of top businessmen, to their tax files, sources said.
   The businessmen include Abdul Awal Mintoo, Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, Salimul Hoque Kamal, Nurul Islam Babul and Farid Ahmed Manik.
   Earlier, it made similar proposal for about Tk 238 crore, collected from eight businessmen and groups in connection with the sale of the Finaly Tea Company. The amount was believed to have been taken out of the country and was recovered in an out-of-court settlement in local currency from the businesses concerned.
   The deal involved Ispahani Limited, Mirzapore Tea Estate, Pedrollo NK Ltd, Uttara Automobiles, Consolidated Tea and Baraora Tea and businessmen Azam Jahangir, Showkat Ali Chowdhury, Anis Ahmed and Mujibur Rahman,.
   Besides, the agency had proposed adjustment of Tk 60 crore of S Alam Group and Tk 40.51 crore of Noor Ali of Unique Group in the same way.
   The NBR had sent the proposals to the central bank, which forwarded those to the finance ministry, putting the financial authorities in a dilemma for the last one month.
   ‘We would no longer proceed with any such proposal,’ a top central banker said.
   According to the Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance, which gave the legal base for Truth and Accountability Commission, the ill-gotten money already deposited with the state exchequer during the state of emergency will be considered deposited under the ordinance and the persons concerned could seek clemency from the commission, unless any proceedings are drawn or investigations initiated by Anti-Corruption Commission or other law enforcement agencies.
   The commission started functioning on Sunday.

The legality of the ordinance promulgated on April 28, 2007 bringing about changes in the Anti-Corruption Commission Act was challenged in the High Court on Sunday.
   Supreme Court lawyer Ahsanul Karim filed the writ petition challenging the legality of the Anti-Corruption Commission (Amendment) Ordinance 2008.
   The petition is likely to be heard by the High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Mashuque Hossain Ahmed today, Ahsanul told reporters after filing the petition.
   The petitioner said the military-controlled interim government had the ordinance promulgated by the president giving more muscle to the commission in violation of the constitution as the caretaker government cannot make any ordinance not directly related to the holding of elections.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission (Amendment) Ordinance was promulgated empowering any officer of the commission to arrest anyone on suspicion of corruption without any warrant and even before filing of a case against the person.
   The ordinance also changed the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, declaring any offence under the act cognisable and non-bailable, meaning that no graft suspect arrested or sued by the commission could be granted bail.
   The ordinance also empowered the commission to give ex post facto approval of the action taken by any officer of the commission between February 7 and February 24, 2007 without its prior approval.
   The law was so amended to ratify the action, including notifying 50 corruption suspects asking them to submit wealth statements, taken by the then secretary of the commission during the period, when no commissioner was there.
   The ordinance removed the requirement of the commission’s approval for preliminary inquiry or investigation of any graft case, but such an approval would be needed before the submission of the charge sheet.

The High Court on Sunday granted interim bail for six months to former finance minister M Saifur Rahman in the GATCO graft case.
   The High Court bench of Justice Sharif Uddin Chakladar and Justice Emdadul Haque Azad passed the order after hearing a petition filed by Saifur Rahman, who returned from abroad in the early hours on Sunday.
   The same bench also granted interim bail to former BNP lawmakers Shahidul Islam and Abdul Khayer Bhuiyan, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal’s president Azizul Bari Helal and Khulna’s mayor Sheikh Tayebur Rahman’s wife Laila Arzuda Banu in separate cases.
   The court also issued rules on the government to explain why they would not be granted regular bail.
   Moving the bail petition for Saifur, his counsel Abdur Rezzaque Khan told the court that the Dhaka Metropolitan Court’s senior special judge M Azizul Haque on May 15 issued a warrant for arrest of Saifur as the Anti-Corruption Commission pressed charges in the GATCO graft case against him, along with detained former premier Khaleda Zia and 22 others on May 13.
   Saifur went to Singapore on May 7 and since then has remained abroad for medical treatment, said the counsel, adding that he was admitted to Apollo Hospital when he returned as he suffers from various medical complications.
   Saifur came to know about the warrant for his arrest in the hospital and immediately came to the court to seek bail, pointed out the counsel.
   Saifur, an aged person, is seriously ill and cannot move about without a wheelchair, said the counsel.
   If the he is granted bail, he will face trial in the GATCO graft case now pending with a Special Judge’s Court, said Rezzaque Khan.
   He also argued that the shipping secretary, after preparing the GATCO report, submitted it to the Cabinet secretary, who later placed it in the Cabinet meeting. But the Cabinet secretary was not named in the case, said the counsel.
   The ACC’s counsel, Anisul Huq, opposed the bail prayer, saying, ‘Earlier, the same court denied anticipatory bail to Awami Juba League’s secretary Mirza Azam and asked him to surrender to the trial court as it had issued a warrant for his arrest.’
   The court, however, granted anticipatory bail to Saifur, reportedly because of the precarious state of his health and old age.
   The same court granted bail to at least 20 high-profile politicians like Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Matiur Rahman Nizami, MK Anwar, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, M Shamsul Islam and Mosharraf Hossain.
   The High Court on July 7 first granted anticipatory bail to Sadeque Hossain, to Nizami on July 14, Anwar on July 20, and Mannan and Shamul on July 28 in the GATCO graft case. Of them Mannan, Shamsul, Anwar and Nizami, who were arrested earlier in the GATCO case, were released on bail.
   Khaleda Zia and 23 others, including eight of her Cabinet colleagues and her younger son Arafat Rahman, were accused of causing a loss of more than Tk 14.56 crore to the state exchequer by awarding a contract to an ‘incompetent and unfit’ firm, Global Agro Trade Company, to handle containers at the Inland Container Depot in Dhaka and Chittagong Port, allegedly in return for hefty bribes.
   Khaleda and her two Cabinet colleges — Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain and AKM Mosharraf Hossain — are in jail because of the GATCO scam case, while Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury remains aboard.

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Sunday left it to the voters to decide whether they would go to the polling stations and cast votes in today’s city corporation polls, avoiding any directives to the party rank and file.
   ‘It is up to the voters to decide, how can I determine their decision’, Delwar said when asked by reporters what the party activists would do when four city corporations and nine municipalities go to polls today.
   After a meeting of the BNP-led alliance at his Sher-e-Bangla Nagar flat, Delwar said the BNP and the alliance stuck to their position of boycotting any elections before parliamentary polls and disowned any candidature from the party or alliance.
   ‘We have not nominated any candidate from the party or alliance. If it were so, there would be a single candidate of BNP in a constituency instead of a number of candidates identifying themselves as BNP activists. They are contesting the polls on their own… The party will take action against them…’, he said.
   Delwar said the interim government had no authority to hold local government polls. ‘Whatever this government will do before holding parliamentary elections will be illegal’, he said.
   The alliance leaders at the meeting reiterated their demand for release of Khaleda Zia, sending Tarique Rahman abroad for treatment, lifting of the state of emergency, immediate holding of parliamentary polls, containing the price spiral and effective measures to address the problems of Bangladeshis working in the Gulf countries and elsewhere.
   The alliance decided to hold rallies on August 10 across the country to press for the demands.
   Delwar announced that besides organisational tour of districts by BNP leaders, the four-party alliance would visit at least the divisional headquarters.
   Delwar censured the government for its complete failure in addressing the plight of Bangladeshi workers abroad and protecting their interests.
   He said the four-party alliance had also endorsed the BNP’s demand for declaring May 30, the day Ziaur Rahman was assassinated, a national mourning day and restoring November 7 as the national revolution and solidarity day and a public holiday.
   Delwar said that Ziaur Rahman had ‘declared independence’ of Bangladesh, ‘liberated’ the country being on the front line during the independence war and made ‘tremendous contribution’ to the building of the nation. ‘The day he was assassinated should be officially declared a national mourning day.’
   Responding to a question, Delwar said their demand should not be construed as a move parallel to the Awami League’s demand [over August 15]. ‘Both Ziaur Rahman and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had made great contributions to the nation and both deserve due honours.’
   Asked whether the party would go to the court to have November 7 restored as a public holiday, Delwar said, ‘We have made the demand and time will determine the next course…’
   About communications adviser Ghulam Quader’s remarks on dialogue with the BNP, Delwar said, ‘We have said time and again that we are ready to join the dialogues and participate in the polls in presence of Khaleda Zia. But the dialogue should be aimed at holding free, fair and acceptable parliamentary elections and we will take part in it under Khaleda’s leadership.’
   Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, Bangladesh Jatiya Party chairman Andaleeve Rahman, Islami Oikya Jote secretary general Abdul Latif Nezami, Khelafat Majlis secretary general Ahmad Abdul Kader and Bangladesh Jatiya Party secretary general Shamim Al Mamun were present at the briefing.

The Truth and Accountability Commission on the first day of its functioning on Sunday issued a public notification asking people to voluntarily admit corruption, deposit their ill-gotten wealth and assets to the state exchequer and be forgiven.
   To take such advantage of the Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance, the corruption suspects will need to make a formal appeal to the commission to make making voluntary disclosure by filling in a form before September 1, according to the notification.
   The commission issued the notification as it started functioning on Sunday for five months in accordance with the Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance 2008, promulgated on June 5.
   The commission chairman, Justice Habibur Rahman Khan, a former High Court judge, held a meeting with the two members, former comptroller and auditor general Asif Ali and retired major general Manzur Rashid Chowdhury, in its office on Hare Road in the morning.
   The 26 officials and employees, deputed to the commission, were briefed on the objectives and activities of the commission and also the role they will need to play.
   Justice Habibur told newsmen that the persons willing to voluntarily disclose their ill-gotten wealth will be exempted from prosecution and imprisonment if they surrender their ill-gotten property or deposit an amount of money commensurate with the property to the state exchequer.
   The commission may grant mercy to corruption suspects if they file petitions with the commission for voluntary disclosure of their ill-gotten money or property.
   If any person, while making the voluntary disclosure, names another person guilty of corruption, the commission will notify the latter to make voluntary disclosure and may grant mercy to him after his confession, he said.
   The commission will also have the power to deal with the cases referred to it by the National Coordination Committee on Prevention of Serious Crimes and Corruption and the Anti-Corruption Commission if the person concerned applies to them for making voluntary disclosure.
   If any corruption suspect applies for voluntary disclosure before the framing of charges against him or her, the court will refer the matter to the commission after adjourning the proceedings in the case for 30 days, said Justice Habibur. But according to the Ordinance, no person already charged with corruption or convicted in a graft case will have the right to apply for voluntary disclosure.
   The ill-gotten money already deposited in the state exchequer during the state of emergency will be considered to be deposited under the Ordinance, and the person who has deposited the ill-gotten money will be granted mercy by the commission unless any proceedings are drawn or investigations initiated in connection with the offence by the National Coordination Committee, Anti-Corruption Commission or law enforcement agencies, said Habibur.
   If any proceedings are drawn or investigations initiated in connection with the offence by the National Coordination Committee, Anti-Corruption Commission or law enforcement agencies, the commission may deal with the case subject to reference from such authorities.
   The commission will not generally sentence anyone confessing their corruption to any prison term, but the violation of the commission’s directives will constitute an offence punishable with imprisonment.
   Persons disclosing their corruption will be debarred from national or local elections for five years and from holding any public office, executive positions in any collective bargaining agents, associations or banks or financial institutions.
   The commission may record the voluntary disclosures of a corruption suspect behind closed doors if the person wishes and if the reasons are enough to satisfy the commission that it ought to do so, he said, adding that none of the commission’s officials and employees would disclose any such information.
   ‘The idea of forming the Truth and Accountability Commission has been borrowed from other countries as such commissions were set up in more than 20 developing countries. Such a commission was also formed in Germany, and the most recent one was formed in South Africa, which contributed a lot to the development of those countries,’ said the chairman.

IN THE worst-ever temple tragedy in Himachal Pradesh, 145 devotees, including 30 children, were killed and more than 50 injured Sunday in a stampede at the Naina Devi shrine triggered by rumours of a landslide, reports the Press Trust of India.
   The Agence France-Presse said more than 120 Hindu worshippers were killed Sunday in a stampede during a religious festival in the northern Indian hill state of Himachal Pradesh, the police said.
   Most people died of suffocation, and about 30 of the dead were children, officials said.
   ‘One hundred and twenty-three people have died,’ said DS Minhas, the state’s additional director general of police.
   The accident took place at the famed Naina Devi temple, situated about 150 kilometres from state capital Shimla and where tens of thousands of people have been gathering for the festival that began Saturday.
   The stampede occurred after a railing at the popular shrine collapsed under the weight of devotees, sending many people falling down a narrow, steep staircase leading to the hilltop temple. A major panic and crush ensued.
   The bodies of devotees were piled up on the road leading to the temple, witnesses said.
   The police said nearly 50,000 worshippers were expected daily during the week-long festival, but many more had turned up Sunday, leading to a massive rush at the pilgrimage centre in the foothills of the Himalayas.
   Many of the deceased were from neighbouring Punjab state and had already been taken to their home state when the police arrived at the scene.
   Additional police from Punjab had been requested to help at the site, where relief work was hampered by rain.
   Television pictures showed that the temple — where pilgrims offer prayers to the goddess Nanda Devi — was massively overcrowded.
   ‘A lot of people were confined in a small area,’ said district deputy commissioner CP Verma.
   Temple crushes are common during festivities in India, where crowd control management is often rudimentary at best.
   Six people died in a similar accident at a popular Hindu festival in July in the eastern state of Orissa, where about a million people had gathered in Puri town for an annual celebration.
   In March, nine people were killed and many more injured at a religious gathering in central India when a railing broke at the temple premises, leading to a stampede among 100,000 devotees.

Former army chief General Mustafizur Rahman died in Dhaka Combined Military Hospital early Sunday.
   He was 70.
   Mustafiz, who was decorated with gallantry title Bir Bikram as a valiant freedom fighter, had been suffering from pancreatic cancer. He breathed his last at about 5:00am. He left behind his wife and three daughters to mourn his death.
   Mustafiz passed away at a time when he was on trial as one of the co-accused with former prime minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina in the MiG-29 scam case.
   The police arrested him at a city hospital, where he was undergoing treatment, in connection with the case on May 25 this year.
   A special court on May 28 granted bail to the ailing former army chief. Later, on July 16, the court exempted him from personal appearance in the special trial court.
   The now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption filed the case in December 2001 against Sheikh Hasina and six others, including Mustafiz.
   He had served as army chief for about three years during the last regime of the Awami League.
   On December 18, 2000, the then government had promoted army chief Lieutenant General Mustafizur Rahman to a full-fledged four-star general on the day of his retirement.
   Meanwhile, his first janaza was held at the Central Army Mosque at Dhaka Cantonment at about 11:00am while the second at Mohakhali DOHS after Zohr prayers. He was buried at Banani Military Graveyard with state honours at about 5:00pm.
   The chief of army staff, General Moeen U Ahmed, placed wreaths at the grave of the Mustafiz, the BSS said citing ISPR sources.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, and the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, expressed deep shock at the death of the former army chief.
   In a condolence message, the president said Mustafiz had contributed a lot to establishing the independent and sovereign Bangladesh by actively participating in the Liberation War 1971.
   ‘The nation will always remember his contribution in developing the Bangladesh Army and the country through his skill and working experience.’
   He prayed for salvation of the departed soul and also conveyed his heartfelt sympathy to the bereaved family members.
   The chief adviser, currently visiting Colombo for attending the SAARC Summit, conveyed his deep sympathy to the members of the bereaved family. Fakhruddin also prayed for salvation of the departed soul, said the BSS.
   The speaker, M Jamiruddin Sircar, and the deputy speaker, Akhter Hamid Siddiqui, also condoled on the death of Mustafiz.
   In a joint condolence message, they recalled contribution of the former chief army to national life as a ‘patriotic military official and freedom fighter.’

Awami League leaders have expressed doubts over the neutrality of the city corporation polls and alleged the caretaker government was preparing to twist polls results.
   Presidium members Abdur Razzak and Matia Chowdhury expressed the doubts and made the allegation after visiting city corporation areas on Saturday.
   ‘The voters are being threatened and rumours are spread to that end,’ said Matia at a briefing at the house of the party’s acting president, Zillur Rahman, at Gulshan on Sunday.
   Razzak, who visited the Rajshahi City Corporation area, said voters were panicked in some of areas.
   Matia, who visited Khulna, alleged the caretaker government was preparing to twist the results of the polls.
   Zillur said if the elections were fair, the Awami
   League-led alliance candidates would certainly emerge as winners.
   Razzak said he had requested the local administration to keep the situation under control during polls.
   ‘I have asked the authorities not to create any situation that could frighten people.’

FOUR persons were killed Sunday in a ‘crude bomb’ blast in a slum in India’s eastern city of Kolkata, the police said.
   The police said the device was left at a garbage dump in a slum, but ruled out the possibility of an organised terrorist attack.
   ‘Four rag pickers were killed and several were injured in the blast. It appears to be an explosion of a crude bomb,’ said city police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakraborti. ‘But there is no need to panic.’
   Indian cities have been hit by a wave of bombings in recent weeks.
   About 50 people died last weekend in 20 blasts in western Ahmedabad city, a day after a string of bombs went off in the southern high-tech city of Bangalore, killing one person and injuring eight.

The Power Division has drafted ‘merchant power plant’ policy that aims to hand over some of the old power plants to private hands and allow the private sector to use the national transmission network for selling electricity to consumers directly.
   The draft policy, which was presented at a meeting Sunday, has highlighted three options including renovation of inefficient power plants of the Power Development Board and handing over those to private parties.
   The draft also keeps an option to renovate the shabby plants or replace those with new ones though public-private partnerships.
   It also says that the private sector can set up power plants to sell electricity directly to consumers using transmission network of the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh.
   It states that these power plants must not be gas-fuelled and power producers will have to pay charges to the state-owned transmission company.
   PDB and PGCB officials, however, observed that such a policy would complicate things and make it difficult to determine the electricity that private sector would transmit, particularly the extent of transmission loss.
   ‘If a private power plant in Chittagong generates 50MW and the electricity is transmitted to Khulna, end consumers will receive 40MW. Who will bear the transmission loss of 10MW?’ asked a PDB official.
   Besides, consumers of the private power company would continue to get electricity from the common grid even if the plant shut generation for any reason. This will complicate the transmission and distribution systems which cannot segregate electricity coming from the public and private plants, officials explained.
   PDB officials also opposed the idea of handing over the power plants to the private sector.
   Power secretary M Fouzul Kabir Khan, who chaired the meeting, told New Age, ‘We have not taken any decision yet on these issues. The draft is still in the stage of working paper. Further recommendations will be included in the draft and we have many more things to work out.’
   He said that they would hold a meeting on August 20 with the private sector stakeholders to take their opinions on the issue.

Tensions between India and Pakistan overshadowed a South Asian summit that ended in Sri Lanka Sunday, but the two nuclear-armed rivals vowed to work together and save a tenuous peace process.
   In the highest level talks between New Delhi and Islamabad in over a year, the Pakistan premier, Yousuf Raza Gilani, agreed to look into allegations his spy service was behind last month’s suicide bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul.
   The US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, who is attending the summit as an observer, said he believed Gilani was determined to ‘conquer the problems of extremism and terrorism.’
   ‘We welcome the statement he made about looking into the causes and sources of the Kabul bombing,’ Boucher told reporters, adding that Pakistan’s new government needed more time to tackle terrorism.
   ‘I do remember it’s a new government. There are enormous challenges,’ he told reporters on the sidelines of the eight-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in the Sri Lankan capital.
   On Saturday the Indian and Pakistan premiers agreed that the bombing of India’s embassy in the Afghan capital, plus a string of clashes along the Line of Control dividing the Himalayan region of Kashmir, had ‘cast a pall’ on the four-year-old peace drive, Indian foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said.
   The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, who met Gilani at a luxury hotel overlooking the Indian Ocean, ‘was relatively frank in expressing his views,’ said Menon.
   But ‘both prime ministers said we need to overcome these (problems) and move forward,’ Menon told reporters, adding Gilani had ‘stressed that across the board in Pakistan, all political parties want improved relations.’
   The summit is routinely eclipsed by tensions between India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since the post-colonial partition of the subcontinent.
   Gilani also met with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, on Sunday, and ‘the two sides agreed to coordinate their efforts to stop cross border terrorism,’ a joint statement said.
   Foreign ministers of Pakistan and Afghanistan would meet soon ‘to prepare grounds for a framework for close and constructive engagement between (the) two countries to build confidence and develop a common strategy at the political, military and intelligence levels,’ the statement added.
   Karzai accuses Islamabad of backing Taliban militants, and Afghan officials have also linked Pakistan’s shadowy Inter Services Intelligence to the Indian embassy bombing – a charge Islamabad has denied as ‘rubbish.’
   At the end of the summit, Singh shook hands with Gilani and Karzai besides other leaders before leaving in a bullet-proof car he brought with him from India despite Sri Lanka saying it was offering ‘ultimate’ security.
   Karzai said terrorism was the most ‘menacing’ challenge faced by SAARC, which groups Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
   A draft summit declaration called for collective action to combat ‘all forms of terrorist violence’ that was threatening their ‘peace, stability and security.’
   The leaders agreed to implement a regional trade pact – signed in 1995 but never fully implemented – ’in letter and in spirit’ to ensure a free flow of goods and services between the region of 1.5 billion people.
   SAARC members also noted the urgent need to develop energy and food security, and to look at cutting international telephone call charges within the region to foster closer economic ties.

The US assistant secretary of state, Richard Boucher, has hailed the elections to the four city corporations, scheduled to be held today, as a first step towards restoration of democracy in Bangladesh and reiterated that his country wanted to see free, fair and transparent general elections on time.
   The senior official of the US state department said that the interim government of Bangladesh had undertaken various reform measures, including fighting corruption, but reminded it that its major task was to hold elections for restoring democracy.
   ‘We want to see that it [interim government] accomplishes the task [holding of general elections] timely and that is why we are working with Bangladesh’, he said while briefing reporters at Trans-Asia Hotel in Colombo on Sunday.
   Boucher also touched on some burning issues facing the region, including terrorism and democracy.
   He arrived in the Sri Lankan capital on August 1 to represent his country at the SAARC summit as an observer.
   Responding to a query, Boucher said, ‘Bangladesh’s election should be held in such a situation where people can express their views freely and media has freedom to act.’
   About the charge brought by Afghanistan that Pakistan was involved in the July 7 blast in war-ravaged country, he said, ‘Pakistan prime minister Gilani’s assurance that his government will look into the sources and causes of the Kabul blast is very welcoming.’
   He stressed the need for strengthening democracy to effectively fight terrorism.
   ‘It is not possible for a divided society to fight against terrorism. It is important for Pakistan to line up and work in the same direction’, Boucher added.
   On the civil war Sri Lanka, the state department official felt that there were some human rights violations that needed to be addressed.
   Boucher said, ‘We have concern over reported abduction, intimidation of media and illegal detention. Those need to be addressed and we want to work with Sri Lanka for achieving high standard of democracy.’

A drug used to fight tuberculosis also hampers the effectiveness of an HIV treatment widely used in Africa, the world’s worst AIDS-hit region, a study published on Sunday said.
   The antibiotic rifampicin reduces concentrations in the blood of nevirapine, a low-cost agent that is part of the frontline therapy against HIV in poor countries, especially Africa.
   The study was presented ahead of the start of the 17th International AIDS Conference, which runs in Mexico City until Friday.
   The evidence comes from a study, unfolding in South Africa between 2001 and 2006, among 2,035 individuals who began their treatment with efavirenz, 1,074 of whom had TB, and 1,935 others who initiated with nevaripine, of whom 209 also had TB.
   In the nevaripine group, 16.3 per cent patients with TB were nearly twice as likely to have elevated levels of HIV in their blood at a six-month follow-up check compared to only 8.3 per cent among those without TB.
   They were also twice as likely to develop treatment failure faster than patients who did not have TB.
   However, a large majority – 80 per cent – of TB patients using nevirapine also succeeded in suppressing the virus at an 18-month checkup.
   The findings are of high importance for sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to two-thirds of the 33 million people infected by the human immunodeficiency virus.
   Around the world, an estimated one-third of the persons living with HIV are coinfected with TB.
   For reasons that are poorly understood, coinfection can cause a lightning-fast decline in health, especially if the TB strain is resistant to frontline antibiotics. The death rate among cases of co-infection is five times higher than for tuberculosis alone.
   The JAMA study, led by Andrew Boulle of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, said it was unclear why rifampicin had such an impact on nevaripine.
   One possible reason could be a shared toxicity. Another could be a drug interaction, caused by rifampicin, when the patient started to receive early doses of the antiretroviral.
   Anti-HIV drugs suppress the virus but do not eradicate it completely. If the drugs are halted, the AIDS rebounds.

At least nine mountaineers died near the summit of K2 when a huge chunk of ice sheared off the mountain and hit them, and several more climbers are missing, Pakistani tour operators said Sunday.
   Three South Koreans, two Nepalese, a Dutch, a Serb, a Norwegian and a Pakistani climber were killed on the notoriously treacherous Himalayan peak, the world’s second highest mountain after Mount Everest.
   ‘I can confirm nine dead and three missing,’ Nazir Sabir, a celebrated Pakistani climber and chief of Nazir Sabir Expeditions, said.
   ‘It is the worst tragedy on K2 since 1986, when 12 climbers were killed due to exposure,’ said Sabir, who scaled K2 in 1981 and Everest in 2000 and whose company organised one of the expeditions.
   The missing were from France, Pakistan and Austria, he said.
   Mohammad Akram, vice president of the company that organised another of the expeditions, said the group was hit by the falling ice as they made their descent on Friday.
   An air search had been called in to try to find the missing climbers, he said.
   The avalanche apparently struck an area of the mountain known as the ‘Bottleneck,’ Akram said.
   ‘Three Koreans and two Nepalese have died at Bottleneck,’ Ghulam Muhammad, owner of tour operator Blue Sky Trekking and Travel, said. ‘The liaison officer at base confirmed the casualties.’
   The pyramid-shaped K2, which sits on the border between Pakistan and China, is considered by mountaineers to be by far the hardest of the 14 summits over 8,000 metres to scale.
   Weather patterns in the high-altitude Karakorum range where the mountain is located are also extremely volatile.
   The number killed or missing was unclear Sunday, with Spanish media reporting up to 11 people may have been swept away by the avalanche, citing a blog linked to an 18-member expedition.
   Basque daily Gara quoted Basque climber Alberto Zerain as saying he had reached the summit of K2 on Friday evening but a ‘drama’ had hit several members of his expedition.
   Swedish climber Fredrik Straeng, who told Swedish news agency TT he has been helping with the rescue work, said 11 climbers have died.
   ‘I have carried down both living and dead people from the mountain. I panicked when a Pakistani high-altitude carrier fell straight onto my back with his entire weight.
   ‘I was terrified that he would pull us all off the cliff and screamed to him to use his ice axe, but he lost his grip and plummeted off a 300-metre cliff,’ Straeng told TT.
   Straeng said a large number of climbers decided to leave their camp at just over 7,000 metres to try to reach the peak after the skies cleared following a long period of poor weather.
   ‘We had a feeling this would not turn out well and decided to turn around. The accident could have been prevented. These mountains lure out way too inexperienced and naive people,’ he said.
   Norwegian media are reporting that climber Rolf Bae, 33, died in the avalanche, citing a spokesman for a four-person expedition, while his wife is reportedly trying to make her way down with two other Norwegians.
   Separately, government officials said Saturday that the Serbian mountaineer Dren Mandic and another unidentified member of his expedition died after falling into a crevasse on K2 last month.
   The deputy commissioner of Skardu town, Wazir Ishfaq, said the expedition group, which began its climb in June, had informed the authorities of the casualties on its return.
   K2, known in the local language as Chogori or King of Mountains, has a ratio of climbers to deaths of 27 per cent, three times that of Everest.
   Italian climbers Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli first scaled the mountain on July 31, 1954. Between that first ascent and 2007, there were 284 successful ascents and 66 fatalities.
   Over the years, K2 has claimed the lives of some of the world’s most accomplished mountaineers, including Britain’s Nicholas Estcourt, Alan Rouse, Julie Tullis and Alison Hargreaves, American Rob Slater and France’s Lilliane and Maurice Barrard.

The Dhaka University authorities on Sunday demolished a slum opposite the Fazlul Huq Hall on the campus as they initiated the process to construct a hall of residence for the girl students.
   About 800 people were rendered shelter-less due to the demolition of about 250 shanties in the slum. The authorities later burnt the remnants so that no one set up any structure at the site.
   The slum dwellers said detained ward commissioner Chowdhury Alam, also a local leader of BNP, had helped them to build the shanties on the barren land.
   Kamruzzman said they had helped the university authorities to take possession of the land by evicting the slum dwellers and it was now the responsibility of the university to protect it.
   Magistrate Kamruzzman led the demolition drive. The university proctor, Aka Firowz Ahmed, and chief security officer, Kamrul Ahsan, were also present during the drive.
   The DU vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, told newsmen that they had evicted the slum dwellers to begin construction of the hall as the girls in the university were suffering from acute accommodation crisis.
   An official of the university said they had hurriedly demolished the slum following fear of withdrawal of the fund, Tk 6.5 crore, allocated for the construction of the hall for failing to meet the deadline.
   The government in 2003 had allocated the piece of land, owned by the Bangladesh Railway.
   The university syndicate in 2005 had decided to name the hall after the then prime minister Khaleda Zia, raising debates arose the country by student bodies, including Bangladesh Chhatra League.
   The government had allocated Tk 13 crore to construct the hall in two instalments. In first instalment the university got Tk 6.5.

A Bogra court on Sunday issued an order on the Bangladesh Rifles director general and the Netrakona BDR battalion commander to hand over the persons accused of killing a teenage girl to the police.
   The chief judicial magistrate of Bogra issued the order on a petition of subinspector Zakir, also the investigation officer of the case.
   The accused are nayek subedar Mahfuzar Rahman Sarker, his wife Mini Begum, two sons Mehedi Hasan and Masum and their two friends Shimul and Harun.
   The police said the victim, Tahrima Akter Jhumur, 17, daughter of Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank officer Abdul Gafur, also an HSC student of the Bogra Government Mujibur Rahman Women’s College, was abducted by Mehedi and his men on her way to the college on April 24.
   The girl was forced to marry Mehedi and reside in the official residence of Mahfuzar Rahman at 16 Rifles Battalion in Netrakona.
   Gafur tried to take his daughter back through negotiation but the attempt failed. He later filed a case with the Bogra Women and Children Repression (Prevention) Court against the six persons on May 26.
   He also complained that the accused had tortured his daughter to death and told him over phone on July 27 that Jhumur had committed suicide. The body had marks of injuries, he alleged.
   The investigation officer, Zakir, said they could not arrest the accused and appealed to the court to hand over the accused to the police.
   The copies of the court order were sent to the BDR director general, battalion commanding officer, deputy commissioner and police superintendent of Netrakona.

The government has suspended poultry imports from Arkansas after avian influenza outbreak was reported in the US state last week.
   In a circular issued Sunday, the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries said import of day-old chick, egg, frozen chicken and other poultry products as well as pet and wild birds from Arkansas would remain suspended until further notice.
   Earlier, the ministry imposed temporary suspension on imports of poultry products from 63 countries, including Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysian, China, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, South Korea, Ghana, Togo and Portugal.
   Salehuddin Khan, director of livestock department told New Age, ‘We want to prevent imports of poultry products from the bird flu-affected countries.’
   Bangladesh saw a fresh wave of bird flu outbreaks from early 2007, but no case of avian influenza was reported in last three months, livestock officials said.
   They said bird flu was found in 93 farms in February, which came down to 60 in March, showing signs that bird flu situation was easing.
   The director, however, added that the country lacked modern laboratory services to readily detect avian influenza in fowls in remote areas.
   Bangladesh’s first human case of avian flu was detected in May, months after the 16-month boy was cured of the illness.
   The Directorate General of Health Services, as part of its routine surveillance, sent a swab with samples from naso-pharyngeal of the boy to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta which confirmed the presence of H5N1, a strain of bird flu virus that attacks humans.

Concerns about China’s human rights record and its polluted air have dampened public interest around the world in the Beijing Olympics, a research group said.
   The survey by Sport+Markt – based on 1,000 telephone interviews with people aged between 16 and 69 per country – showed the level of ‘interest’ in the Olympics had decreased across the world over the last four years.
   ‘The event in Tibet this spring as well as protests regarding the torch relay was a worldwide negative campaign for the Olympics in Beijing,’ Hartmut Zastrow, executive director at Sport+Markt, said in a note released on Friday.
   In Britain, enthusiasm for the Games slumped to about a third from 52 per cent compared to the Athens Games four years ago.
   ‘Interest’ in the Games also dropped in Germany (58 per cent), France (45 per cent), Spain (40 per cent) and Italy (56 per cent) as well as Japan, China, Russia and the United States.