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The government is going to monitor and coordinate tapping of telephone calls through a national monitoring centre, comprising officials of intelligence agencies, under the home ministry while a writ petition challenging telephone tapping has been pending with the High Court for 27 months.
   According to sources in the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, a national monitoring centre will be set up under the home ministry to coordinate the tapping of phone calls and monitor call activities.
   The centre will be run by a committee with representatives of the commission, Rapid Action Battalion, the police and two intelligence agencies.
   The commission chairman, Manzurul Alam, however, told New Age on Monday the committee would have no representation of the commission.
   Asked about telephone tapping, Manzurul said, ‘The national monitoring centre, which will work under the home ministry, will monitor call activities, if felt required.
   He also said a brigadier general of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence will head the centre.
   The national monitoring centre will record calls with the set-up provided by telephony companies, and interconnection exchange and international gateway operators, said sources in the commission and the operators.
   Three private international gateways, six interconnection exchanges and one international internet gateway recently started operation under the commission’s international long distance telecommunications system policy.
   According to the policy, interconnection exchanges and international gateways, access network service providers (mobile operators), and internet telephony and VSAT hub operators will provide the commission with necessary connections, equipment, instruments and software for online and off-line monitoring.
   ‘The operators will provide access for the law enforcement agency for “lawful interception” as per the Bangladesh Telecommunications Act 2001 including necessary equipment and software,’ the policy said.
   Telephony operators will also provide call details record or any other monitoring facilities of voice and data calls, or both, for online and off-line monitoring by the commission, the policy said, adding the commission would set up a monitoring centre at the submarine cable landing stations, if required.
   ‘Monitoring facilities will be established by respective operators for voice and data communications using international private leased circuit. IPLC monitoring facilities should also be extended to the commission and the law enforcement agency for online and off-line monitoring including necessary equipment and software by respective operators,’ said the policy.
   Sources in the commission and the international gateway and interconnection exchange operators said the process was on to set up teletapping equipment which might go into operation by December.
   ‘We have held a series of meetings with an intelligence agency, with representation in the national monitoring centre, at its headquarters regarding teletapping,’ a senior technology officer of interconnection exchange operator M&H Telecom, which recently started operation, told New Age.
   He, however, said the national monitoring centre was yet to get into its full shape.
   Asked exactly how and to what extent call activities would be recorded by the national monitoring centre, he said, ‘The equipment of the national monitoring centre, to be set up at the headquarters of an intelligence agency, will have connectivity with each of the telecom, mobile, interconnection exchange and international gateway operators.’
   A senior technology officer of an international gateway operator said, ‘The process of procuring the tapping equipment is now in the final stages and they will be set up at the headquarters of an intelligence agency.’
   It has now been easier to record voice calls with the commissioning of six private telephony operators which will handle especially overseas calls as the country did not have such technology earlier, he said.
   ‘Law enforcement agencies will tap voice calls only when the authorities concerned will allow them to,’ he said.
   Although the government has finalised the teletapping process, it is yet to submit its reply to two rules issued by the High Court asking it to explain the legality of the provisions for telephone tapping.
   ‘No reply to the rules has yet been filed with the court,’ a law officer in the attorney general’s office told New Age on Tuesday.
   ‘If the case is enlisted for hearing, we will submit the reply to the rules to the court,’ said the state attorney.
   A High Court bench of Justice M Awlad Ali and Justice Zinat Ara on May 18, 2006 issued the rule on the government to explain why the Telecommunications (Amendment) Act 2006, made on February 16, 2006 making provisions for telephone tapping, should not be declared unconstitutional.
   The government and the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission were also asked to explain the legality of the action taken by the commission in issuing the guidelines on March 16, 2006 tagging new conditions to licence of telephone operators under the amended law.
   The court passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by the New Age editor, Nurul Kabir, and the treasurer of the human rights coalition Odhikar, Tasneem Siddiqui.

The Election Commission on Tuesday issued a notice inviting political parties to apply for registration in a prescribed form along with a number of documents including party’s bank statements and income sources.
   Although major political parties rejected the August 27–October 15 registration timeframe and said it was absurd in view of time constraints and the state of emergency, the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, on Tuesday iterated that ‘party registration is a must to contest the next polls.’
   Shamsul thought the registration of the political parties was imperative as it would be hard for the commission to deal with 100 to 150 political parties in the parliamentary elections.
   ‘The parties must complete the registration within the period to contest the next polls as it is not possible for the commission to deal with about 100 to 150 political parties during the polls,’ he told a group of reporters after attending a debate competition as chief guest at St Gregory’s High School.
   As for reservations of the parties about the short timeframe to complete all related tasks and to meet the criteria to contest the general elections planned for December, he said the commission will hold talks with political parties, hear their problems and suggestions and try to address the problems. But they must register by October 15,’ Shamsul said.
   According to the notice, the parties willing to be registered will need to apply to the commission by October 15 and submit nine documents and information including name of the party with address, constitution and rules of the party, election manifesto of the party, if any, photograph of the party flag and log and all names with portfolios of the members on the central or similar committee. The parties will also need to submit party’s bank account numbers and bank statements with detailed sources of income.
   The commission on Monday set October 15 as the deadline for registration of political parties. The commission will publish the notice today in national daily newspapers inviting the parties to apply for registration.
   According to the commission timeline for registration, the parties will get just one month and a half to amend their constitutions and institute new committees by holding council sessions to meet the proposed criteria for registration. The amendment to the Representation of the People Order 1972 was promulgated on August 19 and made public on August 21 setting the criteria for party registration.
   According to Clause [b] [1] of Article 90B of the RPO, every political party will need to fulfil one of three conditions for registration. The conditions are securing at least one seat with its electoral symbol in any parliamentary elections held since the independence of Bangladesh, or five per cent of total votes cast in the constituencies in which its candidate took part in any such parliamentary elections, or establishment of a functional central office, by whatever name it may be called, with a central committee and district offices in at least 50 upazilas or metropolitan thanas.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, has said the Election Commission is the legal competent body to announce the schedule for general election and observed that the schedule might not be announced before finalisation of the voters’ list across the country.
   Briefing reporters after a meeting of the council of advisers at Khulna Circuit House in on Tuesday afternoon, he said it was the responsibility of the Election Commission to conduct all elections, including the parliamentary polls, and announce the schedules in time.
   ‘So far I know, it may not be possible for the Election Commission to announce the schedule for general election until the voters’ list is finalised throughout the country,’ he told a correspondent.
   About the timeframe of the election to the ninth parliament, stalled following the January 11, 2007 changeover amid a political crisis, the chief adviser said since he had already stated about the timeframe (3rd week of December), he wouldn’t repeat it.
   The questions cropped up as major political parties are insisting on immediate announcement of the election schedule and advancing the polls to October by jumping the timeline set in the EC-set roadmap.
   About oath of the newly elected mayors of the city corporations, the LGRD adviser, Anwarul Iqbal, said usually, the elected mayors are supposed to take oath after a month of the elections.
   He said the LGRD ministry sent a summary to the chief adviser with a request to him to administer the oath to the city mayors, and his response is awaited.
   Besides, the adviser said the mayors-elect would have to submit the affidavit of their statements of wealth before taking oath of office.
   In reply to a question, Iqbal said, ‘The government would consider applications for parole to take oath by the elected mayors now in jail.’
   It was the fifth and last meeting of the council of advisers at the divisional headquarters. Tuesday’s meeting, chaired by Fakhruddin, approved in principle the Union Parishad Ordinance 2008 subject to some improvements.
   The meeting also endorsed a 37-point development plan for Khulna division.
   Asked about the disbursement of money for buying jute for jute mills, the chief adviser said the funds were being released.
   Last year, Tk 150 crore was released during the winter to buy jute as he said the government wanted timely purchase of jute for the jute mills. However, he said the jute mill corporation must be accountable for this.
   About the reopening of closed jute mills, Fakhruddin said the government wanted the jute mills to be in production under private management. ‘Since the public-sector jute industries incur losses, some mills in Chittagong were leased and the same policy could be adopted in Khulna.’
   The chief adviser said the government paid off the outstanding wages of the workers and it needs to be monitored whether the money was properly distributed.
   About the operation of Khulna airport, he said it was difficult for the government if it is not financially viable. He noted that airports in Barisal and Rajshahi were closed down on the same grounds. He posed a counter-question whether it is possible to run an institution by giving subsidy.
   The 37-point development plan to be implemented includes construction of Padma Bridge, development of roads, education, health, modernisation of Mongla port, resolving problems of water logging, electricity, rural infrastructure, forest and environment, and sports and culture.
   Anwarul Iqbal, who briefed the press on the development plan, said the government decided to activate Mongla seaport, and fertilisers and reconditioned cars would be imported through this port to increase its economic activities.
   He said steps would be taken to increase the navigability of the Mongla port.
   The adviser said two projects with estimated costs of Tk 628.70 crore and Tk 342.18 crore with assistance of the ADB were now under implementation to supply gas to 21 south-western districts, including Khulna.
   Iqbal said production had started from 40MW rental power station in Khulna and the electricity problem here would be eased with the commissioning of the 34.5MW power station in Bhola.
   The adviser said the bridge over the River Chitra in Narail was completed. It will be named after renowned artist SM Sultan.
   He said work on the Padma Bridge would start in July 2010 and its design would be submitted in 2009. The project involves a cost of Tk 10,161 crore.
   Iqbal said a medical college would be set up in Jessore, and land acquisition had started.
   About forest and environment, he said the European Commission had pledged $10 million for implementation of the Sunderban Environmental and Livelihood Security Project.
   He further informed that the government has already finalised the draft National Shrimp Policy for flourishing the major export-earning industry.
   Advisers, special assistants, cabinet secretary, press secretary to the chief adviser and secretaries concerned were present at the council-of-advisers meeting that lasted two and a half hours from 11:00am.

Memories of three major incidents of building collapse, which killed at least 109 people and maimed dozens others, are fizzling out with little or no progress made in probe and trial of the occurrences.
   The victims’ families were given a lump sum and left with an uncertain future with their main earners crushed to death at unsafe workplaces, while authorities failed to identify and punish the culprits to stop rerun of such tragedies.
   Of the three building collapse incidents, investigation is yet to complete in a case and one has been under trial for about two years, while no case was filed for the rest one.
   The three incidents — collapse of Spectrum Sweater and Knitting Factory in Savar, of Phoenix Building at Tejgaon and of Rangs Bhaban on Bijoy Sarani in the capital city — took place between April 2005 and December 2007, revealing a sorry state of construction of high rises and failures of the government authorities to ensure workplace safety and save workers’ life.
   The nine-storey building of the Spectrum Sweater and Knitting Factory Limited at Palashbari, Savar collapsed on April 11, 2005, leaving 76 people killed and 84 others injured.
    The factory authority tried to pass the incident as the result of boiler explosion, but the truth came to light when its assistant boiler operator was rescued 32 hours after the collapse.
   Several probe committees came up with similar observations: faulty design, faulty construction, bad workmanship and extra load had caused the collapse.
   Among the deceased, the 64 families of the dead workers each received Tk 100,000 as compensation from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
   Savar police on April 12, 2005 filed a case against Shahriar Hossain Sayeed, the owner and Abul Hashem Fakir, director of the factory, and both of them surrendered to a Dhaka court on May 8, 2005.
   They were sent to jail, but freed on bail in two weeks.
   Detective branch police submitted the charge sheet accusing the owner and the director along with site engineer Lutfor Rahman Liton and contractor Mohammad Alauddin on September 27, 2006.
   A Dhaka court framed charges against the four in October 2006. The trial of the case, however, is yet to complete, as the witnesses are reluctant to appear in the court for the recording of their depositions, court sources said.
   A manager of the Spectrum Group told New Age, ‘We don’t know why the trial process is being delayed, but our owner and director regularly appeared in the court.’
   The second incident killed 21 people and injured 50 others when the five-storied Phoenix Building collapsed during conversion into a hospital on February 25, 2006.
   Army, fire service, RAB, DCC and some private organisations conducted combined rescue operations for six days and recovered 21 bodies and 50 workers trapped in the rubbles.
   Probe committees said the Phoenix building, which earlier housed a garment factory, had serious structural flaws and the owners did not follow proper technical measures for reconstruction.
   Tejgaon police filed a case accusing eight people, including Deen Mohammad, the owner of the building, Shoyebur Rahman, MA Mazid, Dr Jahangir Alam, SA Hasan, Delwar Hossain, Sirajul Islam and Rezaul Karim Faruq.
   Deen Mohammad and six others obtained bail from a Dhaka court after depositing Tk 1.20 crore as compensation for the victims on March 27, 2006 while only arrested accused Rezaul Karim Faruq obtained bail on March 19.
   The authority gave Tk 3 lakh to each of the deceased’s family, Tk 2 lakh each of the seriously injured while Tk 50,000 who suffered minor injuries from the deposited money.
   The investigation officer in the case has so far been changed for four times. The fourth investigation officer inspector Nasir Ullah of Detective Branch told New Age on Friday that the charge sheet would be filed in a month.
   ‘We have completed most of the necessary tasks to submit the charge sheet against first information report naming eight people, including the owner, in a month,’ the DB officer said.
    A manager of the Phoenix Fabrics Limited told New Age, ‘We paid the highest compensation to the deceased and victims according to the court order. We have no objection if the court punishes us examining the evidence.’
   In third deadliest incident since 2005, 12 people were killed and 36 others injured when the top floors of the 22-storey Rangs Bhaban at Bijoy Sarani in the city partially caved in on December 8, 2007 night during demolition.
   The building had been being demolished after the Supreme Court on August 3, 2007 ruled the construction of the floors above the sixth illegal.
   The government engaged a private firm, Six Star Corporation, to demolish the unauthorised floors.
   Four committees had been formed to probe the incident and according to their reports, lack of experience and adopting no proper plans in demolishing the 22-storey Rangs Bhaban caused the disaster.
   The incident also exposed the personnel and logistic inadequacies of the emergency services as most of the bodies were badly decomposed and the relatives identified the barely recognisable bodies in hospital morgue by their clothes.
   No case was filed in this connection, but a general diary and an unnatural death case were filed with Tejgaon police station.
   Each of the families of the deceased received only Tk 1 lakh as compensation to erase the memories of their dear ones.
   Officer-in-charge of the Tejgaon police station Lutfar Rahman told New Age, ‘We have nothing to do as no case was filed against the responsible.’
   ‘The collapse incidents raised the sense of awareness among factory owners and the government too, making them feel about the importance of workplace safety,’ said Aminul Hauque Amin, general secretary of the Bangladesh National Garment Workers Federation.
   ‘But measures and actions from the industry and the government in monitoring and preventing such accidents are unsatisfactory,’ he alleged.
   Executive director of the human rights watchdog Ain O Salish Kendra, Sultana Kamal told New Age, ‘In a incident of collapse, many individuals
   like RAJUK, engineers, contractors and the owners are involved and so it is tough to identify and punish the real culprits.’
   Executive director of the Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights (BSEHR) advocate Alina Khan said, ‘Wealthy people think that Tk 1 lakh is enough as the price of a life and to satisfy the victim’s family, but we should change the trend by bringing the offenders to book.’
   Inspector general of police Noor Mohammad said, ‘Police always try to punish the criminals, but involvement of so many persons may create barriers to punishing the responsible.’
   ‘We will look into the incidents now to bring the real culprits to book,’ he added.

The Power Division has drafted guidelines on public-private partnership in the power sector with a provision that the private investors, who will set up power plants based on fuels other than gas, will have priority in developing coal mines.
   The draft ‘Guidelines for Introducing Competition and Furthering Public Private Partnership in the Power Sector’ says that private investors can set up private power plants on their own obtaining license from the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission and sell the power to their own buyers.
   Public power agencies can also purchase electricity from these plants, says the draft that will be placed before the stakeholders on August 31 for their opinions.
   The draft says given the depleting domestic natural gas reserve, the new power plants should rely on coal, imported gas, liquid fuel, or renewable energy sources like solar, wind, hydro, biomass and municipal waste as fuels, instead of the domestic natural gas.
   ‘Any fuel supply or source of energy has to be arranged by developers of such power plants without government involvement. However, such private investors will have priority for development of coal mines and [getting] supply of coal from the existing coal mines,’ says the draft.
   The draft coal policy, which is awaiting government approval, however, said any public sector company could take the private investors as partners through competitive bidding for exploration and development of coal field. The coal policy also made it mandatory that the licensee would install coal-based power plants.
   The guidelines also say the Power Grid Company Bangladesh and all distribution utilities should provide ‘non-discriminatory open access’ to their transmission or distribution system for the private power plant or its buyers by paying wheeling and any other charges fixed by the BERC.
   Power experts, however, feel that if the term ‘non-discriminatory open access’ is used, the Power Development Board will have to compete with the private players for transmitting its own electricity through the PGCB lines.
   The private investors will have to pay royalty or surcharge to the government along with the wheeling charge to cover cross subsidy and will have to sell 20 per cent of its electricity produced to the public sector utilities at a regulated tariff fixed by the BERC.
   ‘At present power utilities main revenue comes from large electricity consumers like industries. If the private investors grab these consumers, the government will not be able to sell electricity to the general consumers at a subsidised rate. That’s why royalty rate had been proposed in the guidelines,’ said a power division official, adding that the rate would be fixed in consultation with the stakeholders.
   The draft also says that some of the old and inefficient power plants of the public sector could be handed over to the Bangladeshi private investors on a ‘rehabilitation, own and operate’ or ‘rehabilitation, own and transfer’ basis. The investors would be selected through open tenders and successful bidders will be required to pay the value of the existing assets of the power plants or it might be adjusted to the tariff proposed by the bidders subject to the government approval.
   ‘In case a joint venture/partnership form of private power plant is adopted, the equity contribution of the Public Sector Power Utilities could include monetised value of project land, existing machineries, etc as valued by an independent assessor,’ says the draft.
   Power development board officials, however, feel that the government should not formulate a policy that will hand over the power plants from public sector entirely to the private sector. ‘The share of private power in the total supply is increasing day by day with the installation of independent power plants, small independent power plant and rental power plants. If the government now decides to hand over public sector power plants to private hands, it will be alarming,’ observed an official.
   A high official of the power division told New Age on Monday that the draft guidelines would be finalised after taking the opinions of different stakeholders, including business people.
   The draft guidelines also include a provision for installing new power plants with public-private partnership to encourage private investment.

BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, now detained in a sub-jail on the parliament complex, has become upset after knowing about head injuries of her ailing son Tarique Rahman, according to a prison source.
   ‘She is upset,’ the source said adding, ‘She was informed on Monday evening about the incident.’
   Tarique Rahman, who sustained head injuries from a bathroom fall at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital’s prison cell Monday, is suffering from fever, but his overall health condition is stable, says a physician.
   ‘Tarique Rahman caught fever last night and the right side of his head has swelled,’ BSMMU orthopaedic specialist Kazi Mazharul Islam Dolon told New Age after visiting Tarique at 12:30 pm Thursday.
   The BNP senior joint secretary general and the eldest son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia on Monday sustained injuries in the head and other parts of the body as he fell in a bathroom of the BSMMU prison cell — an incident that sparked immediate protests in the Dhaka University and adjoining areas in the capital as well as some other parts of the country.
   ‘He is still under observation for 48 hours after the incident,’ said Dr. Dolon, a member of BSMMU team formed for Tarique’s treatment.
   Meanwhile, a comment of inspector general of prisons Brigadier General Zakir Hasan has stirred up confusion over the status of Tarique.
   ‘Tarique is not under prisons authorities now. He is under supervision of the doctors at the PG [BSMMU] hospital. Doctors are providing him with necessary treatment,’ Zakir Hasan told reporters after a meeting with home secretary Abdul Karim at the secretariat Tuesday.
   He said Tarique was staying in a cabin, not in the prison cell of the hospital. ‘He is not under our responsibility. He is rather under supervision of the doctors there.’
   When his attention was drawn to the statement of IG prisons, the home affairs secretary said Tarique was staying in the hospital as per the jail code.
   Tarique was arrested on March 7, 2007 and implicated in a number of extortion and corruption cases. He was taken to the BSMMU with multiple health complications on January 31 and has been there in a prison cell since then.
   As news spread that Tarique was hurt in the head after falling in BSMMU bathroom, angry members of BNP’s student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal Monday rampaged through the Dhaka University campus and adjacent areas, damaging vehicles and causing death to a shopkeeper. Protests also flared up in other parts of the country with demonstrators complaining that Tarique was not allowed to go out of the BSMMU for a CT [computed tomography] scan of his head injuries. The IG prisons Tuesday said Tarique had been kept under 48-hour observation and might have a CT scan, if necessary. ‘We are depending on doctors in this regard. We have nothing to do here.’
   Asked whether the BNP leader would be sent abroad for better medical treatment, the prisons official said it was not their concern. Deputy inspector general of prisons Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui told reporters Tuesday that all preparations had been made for taking Tarique out for a CT scan, according to BDnews24.com.
   ‘However, Tarique Rahman refused to go [for scan on the day],’ he said.
   Dr. Dolon said, ‘We have suggested that he should undergo the test after he improves further but the prisons authorities wanted to do the test Tuesday.’
   BSMMU authorities said their CT scan machine had been inoperative.
   ‘It is usual that such machine can go out of order anytime anywhere,’ Professor M Tahir, vice chancellor of the medical university, told a private television channel.

The High Court on Tuesday granted bail to former prime minister Khaleda Zia and her eldest son Tarique Rahman in the latest case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission for misappropriating Tk 2.1 crore of the Zia Orphanage Trust fund.
   The court in separate cases also granted bail to Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Matiur Rahman, Khaleda’s parliamentary affairs adviser Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, human right activist Siga Huda and businessman Giasuddin Al Mamun.
   The High Court bench of Justice Sharif Uddin Chaklader and Md Emdadul Haque Azad issued the bail order after hearing separate petitions filed by the six people.
   Khaleda, also the chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and the party’s senior joint secretary general Tarique, were granted interim bail for four months in the orphanage trust case.
   The court also asked the commission to explain why she should not be granted regular bail. It also stayed for six months the proceeding against Tarique asking the commission to explain why the case would not be quashed. Tarique also sought the case to be quashed.
   On July 23, Khaleda and Tarique were shown arrested in the orphanage trust case filed by the commission’s assistant director Harun ur Rashid with the Ramna police on July 3.
   ‘Khaleda Zia had no connection with the Zia Orphanage Trust. So, she may be granted bail in the case,’ Khaleda’s chief counsel Khondker Mahbubuddin told the court.
   Opposing the bail prayer, the commission’s senior counsel Anisul Huq argued, ‘The former prime minister should not be released on bail as she was accused of serious graft charges.’
   ‘When a former prime minister can tour foreign countries after release on parole by an executive order, why should Khaleda Zia be kept behind bars?’ Mahbubuddin told the court.
   Another of her counsels Nasiruddin Ahmed told reporters prayers for bail to Khaleda ZIa in the rest three cases — Niko, Gatco and Barapukuria coal mine — would also be submitted to the High Court in a day or two. Six other petitions for bail to Tarique in the cases are scheduled to be heard today, he said.
   The court granted anticipatory bail to Matiur Rahman Nizami until the acceptance of the charge sheet by the trial court in the Barapukuria coalmine graft case filed with the Shahbagh police on February 16. Nizami, one of the 24 others accused in the coalmine case, appeared before the High Court bench seeking bail.
   Salauddin Quader Chowdhury was granted interim bail in three separate extortion cases filed against him in 2007. The court also stayed for six months the processing of the cases filed in February, March and April 2007 with the Rangulia police in Chittagong.
   The court granted anticipatory bail for four months to Sigma Huda, also the wife of former communications minister Nazmul Huda, in the latest case filed against her with the Motijheel police on June 18 for allegedly taking Tk 6,00,000 in bribe.
   Mamun, also a close aide to Tarique Rahman, was granted interim bail in the extortion case filed against him with the Gulshan police on March 27, 2007.

Panic gripped the students of Dhaka University, on Tuesday, after two cases were filed against around 340 unnamed persons in connection with the Monday’s violence on the campus and in surrounding areas.
   Fearing that another wholesale arrest like the one in August 2007 would take place, the frontline leaders of the Chhatra Dal went into hiding.
   The junior activists of the Chhatra Dal were found least eager to attend the party programmes as they feared the police could implicate anybody in the cases.
   At Dhaka College, the college unit of the Chhatra Dal could not hold the scheduled programme of the day as they were scared of getting implicated in the charge of murder.
   Gopal Kumar Das, the driver of the taxicab, burnt in front of the Roquiah Hall, filed a case with the Shahbagh police accusing between 200 and 300 unnamed persons under sections 143, 435 and 427 of the penal code.
   Alamgir Hossain, younger brother of the deceased shopkeeper Jahangir Hossian, filed another case with the New Market police accusing between 30 and 40 unnamed persons of killing his brother. He filed the case under sections 302 and 304 of the penal code.

The chairman of a faction of the Jatiya Party, Anwar Hossain Manju, was on Tuesday jailed again for 13 years for amassing illegal wealth and hiding assets in his wealth statement submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission. AKM Arifur Rahman, judge of the special judge’s court 10 set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, also ordered confiscation of Manju’s assets of about Tk 2.11 crore that was found disproportionate to his known sources of income.
   The court also fined him Tk 10 lakh and if he fails to pay the fine, he will need to serve one more year in jail. The court jailed Manju, already jailed for 19 years in three cases, for 10 years for amassing illegal wealth and for three years for hiding assets in the wealth statement.
   The court ordered consecutive execution of the sentences, meaning Manju will need to serve a total 13 years in jail. The sentences will come into execution after his arrest or surrender as he his still on the run.
   This is the fourth conviction of Manju after the declaration of the state of emergency on January 11, 2007. A special court on June 10 jailed Manju to rigorous imprisonment for seven years and his wife Tasmima Hossain and cousin Mahmud Hossain for two years each on bribery charges.
   On May 18, Manju was jailed for seven years, Tasmima for five years and Mahmud Hossain for five years in another bribery case.
   A metropolitan special tribunal on June 26, 2007 sentenced Manju to imprisonment for five years for keeping 21 bottles of contraband liquor in his house at Dhanmondi.

Today is the 32nd anniversary of death of national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.
   Government, socio-cultural and political organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes to observe the day.
   The programmes will begin with the laying of flowers and wreaths at the rebel poet’s mouseleum on the Dhaka University premises at 7:00am.
   Nazrul, who died in 1976 in Dhaka, is best known for his rebelious expressions against social, traditional and political injustice and oppression. Popularly known as ‘Bidrohee Kobi’, he is equally popular as a composer and lyricist.
   The rebel poet in his works has protested agaisnt all forms of repression, including slavery, communalism, feudalism and colonialism. He has also condemned all forms of religious bigotry and upheld the cause of the downtrodden.
   Nazrul’s protest forced the then British rule to ban many of his books and compilations. He was also sent to jail for his rebellious writings.
   Nazrul Islam was born on May 25 in 1899 at Churulia in Burdwan of West Bengal. He is best known for his fiery poems that inspired the Bengalis to rise against the British colonial rule.
   Nazrul’s songs and poems were also a great source of inspiration for the freedom-fighters during Bnagladesh’s War of Independence. He is officially recognised as the national poet of Bangladesh and also widely honoured in India.
   His poems and more than 2,000 songs have remained a source of inspiration for all, particularly for the youths, at all times.
   The poet, who lived in India, was brought to Bangladesh in 1972 and was honoured as the national poet of the newborn nation.
   The Nazrul Academy will arrange a discussion and cultural programme to observe the poet’s anniversary of death on the institute premises at Maghbazar.
   The academy members will place wreaths at his tomb at 7:00am and will arrange a prayer session at 9:00am at the academy.
   A discussion on the life and works of the poet will be held at 5:30pm. Noted litterateur Professor Abdul Mannan Syed, writer M Mijanur Rahman, Nazrul Academy ganeral secretary Mintu Rahamn will take part in the discussion with Professor Abdul Gafur in the chair. Teachers and students of Nazrul Academy will participate in the cultural part of the programme.
   The Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy will hold a programme featuring discussion, recitation and cultural shows on its premises at 6:00pm. Abdul Qaiyum, Asadul Haque and Bulbul Mahalnabish will take part in the discussion.
   Teachers, students and employees of Dhaka University, led by vice-chancellor SMA Faiz, will place wreaths at the poet’s tomb at 7:00am. The DU authorities in the morning will also hold a discussion on the poet’s works.
   A seminar on Nazrul’s endeavour for inter-religious harmony will be at 4:00pm at the Centre for Advanced Research in Humanities of Dhaka University.
   Bangla department’s associate professor Saumitra Shekhor will present the key-note paper while Professor ATM Nurur Rahman Khan and Professor Khondakar Ashraf Hossain will take part in the discussion. Professor Aminul Islam will chair the programme.
   Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote will also place wreaths at the tomb of the poet at 8:00am.

The Awami League is likely to hold talks with the Election Commission on September 4 to discuss a number of issues mainly related to polls.
   The acting Awami League general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, said this as he addressed a discussion on Tuesday.
   The party received a reply from the commission on Monday to its letter which sought a schedule for another round of talks. In the letter, the commission said it was ready for talks with the Awami League during September 1–4 and asked the party to inform the commission of the agenda.
   The Awami League on August 20 sent separate letters to the Chief Adviser’s Office and the Election Commission seeking schedules for another round of talks.
   Ashraful said they would discuss the timeframe of the national elections, specific date for the withdrawal of the state of emergency and the party’s stand on the upazila polls before the parliamentary elections.
   On August 20, Mostafa Faruq, private secretary to the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, telephone the Awami League’s assistant office secretary ABM Mozammel Huq, who requested Mostafa to set a date in the first week of September for the talks. Ashraful on Tuesday said the caretaker government was yet to communicate with the party on the letter the party had sent to the Chief Adviser’s Office.

Authorities imposed a curfew in parts of Orissa on Tuesday after two people were burnt to death and more than a dozen churches torched by suspected Hindus angry over the murder of their leader.
   Hundreds of police were deployed in three towns in Orissa’s rural Kandhamal district as they tried to end two days of violence in which a Christian orphanage was also torched by suspected Hindu mobs.
   Violence erupted after armed men killed a Hindu leader linked to the main opposition Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and four others last week, an attack Hindus blamed on Christians.
   The leader had been heading a local campaign to reconvert Hindus and tribal people from Christianity.
   ‘We have clamped curfew in three places — Baliguda, Phulbani and Tumudibandh,’ said Kishan Kumar, Kandhamal’s chief official.
   Local TV stations showed an angry mob vandalising a church, throwing away furniture and setting them on fire. Villagers blocked roads with logs and boulders to stop police from entering the trouble spots.
   A top body of Indian bishops counted 32 incidents of violence against Christians in Orissa over the past two days. In protest, it said some 25,000 Catholic schools and colleges in India would be closed on Friday. ‘People are totally harassed, driven away from their homes, beaten up and institutions destroyed,’ Archbishop Vincent Concessao of Delhi told a press conference.
   India’s constitution is secular, but most of its billion-plus citizens are Hindu. About 2.5 per cent of Indians are Christians.
   The remote and forested Kandhamal region is rife with religious tension. Hardline Hindus accuse Christian priests of bribing poor tribes and low-caste Hindus to change their faith. Christian groups say lower-caste Hindus who convert do so willingly to escape the highly stratified and oppressive Hindu caste system.
   There have been attacks on Christians in Orissa and other parts of India in previous years. In 1999, a Hindu mob killed Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two children by burning them in their car in Orissa.
   Christians in eastern India have condemned this week’s killing of the Hindu leader.
   The police blamed the killings on local Maoist rebels taking sides in a controversy over religious conversions, but Hindus say Christians were to blame for the killings.
   The police say by attacking Hindus the Maoists were trying to win support among the region’s poor tribes, most of whom had converted to Christianity.

The military-controlled government’s pledge to rehabilitate some 60,000 slum dwellers sounds hollow after more than a year and a half into their eviction from makeshift squats in the capital city.
   Government insiders and development activists have said that the process has stuck in a bureaucratic tangle despite the chief adviser’s instructions.
   ‘We gave the government list of probable sites for rehabilitation, but the progress has so far been frustrating,’ said Mostafa Quaium Khan, executive director of the Coalition of Urban Poor, a network of over 50 non-governmental organisations working for the urban poor, told New Age on Monday.
   Quaium, one of the members of the government-appointed rehabilitation committee, said they had suggested rehabilitation sites twice, but the ministry concerned repeatedly expressed its inability to give the land for building homes for the evicted poor people.
   Immediately after the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed took over, the army-led joint forces demolished 33 slumps on the government land in the city, rendering some 12,000 families homeless.
   In the face of media criticism against the unwarranted eviction before arranging alternative shelters, the government had stopped the eviction drive in late February 2007 and convened human rights and development activists to a meeting to discuss the rehabilitation.
   Advisers concerned had assured on several occasions that the evicted slum people would be rehabilitated duly.
   Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed also pledged rehabilitation of the 12,000 evicted families and formed an eight-member committee incorporating government officials and development activists to suggest measures.
   After the need assessment, the committee spotted 120 acres of government land where these evicted people could be relocated with better accommodation facilities.
   But the housing and public works ministry, the owner of the spotted lands, said they were not ready to spare 120 acres of area for rehabilitation purpose and offered only seven acres in Mirpur and Mohakhali areas.
   But the ministry changed its mind and its secretary in December last year announced at a meeting that the government could give at best five acres of land somewhere in Mirpur.
   But the site has never been spotted and the rehabilitation process has stalled since then.
   Coalition of Urban Poor in a recent letter reminded the chief adviser of his pledge and requested him for speeding up the rehabilitation process.
   The chief adviser invited a group of rights activists and the committee members at his office in July and reiterated his pledge for the slum-dwellers’ resettlement.
   Housing and public works ministry officials said that implementation of the scheme would take several months as the process involved a number of ministries and authorities.
   The countrywide cleansing drive launched by the interim government in January 2007 evicted thousands of people living in or doing small businesses on the government land in cities, towns and even in rural marketplaces and on roadsides.
   The action was widely criticised for rendering a huge number of people without homes and jobs, and destroying the chain of informal economy.

The Truth and Accountability Commission has no legitimacy as there can be no alternative to courts and tribunals for the trial of a criminal offence, the High Court was on Tuesday told by the counsel of the petitioners of a writ petition which on Monday challenged the commission’s legality.
   The hearing in the petition remains inconclusive and the High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Mashuque Hosein Ahmed will resume the hearing this morning when the petitioners’ counsel Taufique Newaz will make his argument.
   The court also told the attorney general, Salahuddin Ahmed, who was present during the Tuesday hearing, that it would hear him after the conclusion of Taufique’s argument.
   Supreme Court lawyer Adilur Rahman Khan, women’s organisation Nari Grantha Probartana executive director Farida Akhter, physician-turned-politician Dipu Moni and rights organisation Odhikar’s acting director ASM Nasiruddin Elan filed the writ petition on Monday challenging the constitutionality of the Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance 2008, under which the commission was formed on July 30 to let people voluntarily admit to their corruption and get mercy by depositing ill-gotten wealth to the state exchequer.
   The petitioners sought a stay order on the functioning of the commission as an interim measure and finally cancellation of the ordinance and termination of the commission.
   The preamble and some other clauses of the ordinance said the government had promulgated the ordinance (on June 5) to ‘remove corruption’ by means other than criminal trial and to reduce the burden of trials on the state.
   Referring to the preamble, Taufique argued the objective of the ordinance was contrary to the constitutional provisions.
   According to the constitution, an alleged offender can be handed punishment after a fair trial by a competent court or tribunal and there can be no alternative to the courts or tribunals for holding trial of a criminal offence, the counsel said.
   The commission set up under the ordinance is neither a court nor a tribunal established by any law, he contended. ‘Even the Supreme Court has ceased to have its supervisory authority, granted by the constitution, over the decision of the commission.’
   He said the ordinance was made in violation of the constitutional provision of ‘equality before law’ as the ordinance empowered the commission to pick and choose corruption suspects for its mercy.
   Discrimination against individuals is contrary to Article 27 of the constitution that guarantees equal rights before law, the petition said.

The interim government on Tuesday directed law enforcing agencies to guard against any incident of violation of Emergency Powers Rules, and maintain law and order ahead of Ramadan.
   The directives came following Monday’s protest in the Dhaka University area and ahead of BNP’s countrywide human-chain programme today demanding release of its chief Khaleda Zia and her ailing son Tarique Rahman.
   The police have been asked for reinforcements in probable hot spots to avert unwanted gatherings and keep the situation under control, said an official who attended the meeting on law and order with home affairs secretary Abdul Karim in the chair.
   ‘It is a regular meeting to review law and order. Law enforcers have been asked for measures to maintain order ahead of Ramadan,’ the home secretary said at the secretariat.
   About the Monday’s protests that left an innocent person killed in Dhaka with a state of emergency still in force, the secretary said law would take its own course.
   Inspector general of police Nur Mohammad, who also attended the meeting, denied any failure of the police to keep the Monday’s situation under control.
   ‘They [police] have discharged their duties …They had to check the incidents from flaring up further.’
   On Monday, a shopkeeper was killed and a number of vehicles were damaged as activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, BNP’s student wing, rampaged through Dhaka University campus and adjacent areas after the news that BNP leader Tarique Rahman had sustained injuries in the hospital prison cell.
   The police boss said that two cases were filed in this connection. He, however, admitted the fact that the students were allowed to gather on a limited scale only in the campus area.
   The IGP said no directives were given so far to restrict the BNP’s human-chain programme today.

Myanmar’s detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has started refusing food deliveries, her party said Tuesday, but the ruling junta denied rumours she had launched a hunger strike.
   Exiled dissidents in India and Thailand reported that the Nobel Peace Prize winner last accepted fresh food supplies on August 15 but her National League for Democracy said the circumstances remained unclear.
   ‘I cannot confirm whether she is on hunger strike, but we heard she didn’t collect her food since two weeks ago. We are very worried about this situation as we have no direct contact with her at all,’ said NLD spokesman Nyan Win.
   ‘We also heard she gave demands to the authorities two weeks ago. We don’t know what her demands were but it is likely they were regarding her detention.’
   A Myanmar government official, however, dismissed the reports of a hunger strike.
   ‘It is just rumours, it is not true,’ he said, refusing to be named. ‘We have not got any (political) demands from her.’
   Still, the rumours were persistent enough to spread to Western diplomatic circles, with one diplomat who requested anonymity telling AFP: ‘We are trying to know more. The only person who has seen her is the doctor.’
   Aung San Suu Kyi’s doctor and lawyer were permitted to visit her on August 17 when she was given a medical checkup, her first since February.
   One exiled opposition party based on the Thai-Myanmar border said it had heard Aung San Suu Kyi’s weekly food supplies were last accepted on August 15 but were turned away on
   August 22.
   Aung San Suu Kyi, 63, has spent most of the past 19 years confined to her lakeside Yangon home. Her latest detention began more than five years ago.
   She has been allowed little contact with the outside world — she met her lawyer, Kyi Win, twice in August but that was their first meeting since 2004.
   Last week the junta said Aung San Suu Kyi had refused to meet visiting UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, and state television aired images of his two aides standing in vain outside her compound waiting for a response.
   In an attempt to soothe international outrage after a violent crackdown on anti-junta protests last September, the generals appointed a liaison, labour minister Aung Kyi, to negotiate with Aung San Suu Kyi.

The military offensive against Taliban militants in a restive Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border has displaced more than 260,000 people, UN and local officials said Tuesday.
   Pakistani forces moved into Bajaur, a known hub of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, earlier this month. The government says at least 500 militants have been killed since then, though this could not be independently confirmed.
   ‘There are 264,011 people displaced by the military operation in Bajaur,’ a spokesman for the UN Resident Coordinator’s office, Fawad Hussain, said.
   A provincial government official also confirmed that the military offensive had displaced 264,000 people over the last three weeks.
   ‘The government is taking necessary steps to provide relief and shelter to these people,’ said Muhammad Ehsan, an official in the provincial relief commissioner office.
   The UN has set up 34 camps in North West Frontier Province for those fleeing the violence.

Barack Obama’s wife Michelle pledged allegiance to the ‘blessing’ of the American dream at the opening of the Democratic convention before attention turned to vanquished presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.
   Hillary will grab the limelight with a primetime speech Tuesday after vowing to back Obama following their bruising, and sometimes bitter, primary battle for the nomination.
   But the stage Monday belonged to the Obama family, with Michelle drawing cheers as the historic Democratic convention opened in a pageant of political symbolism.
   On a night of piercing emotion, cancer-stricken liberal icon Edward Kennedy also spoke to pass his dynasty’s torch of idealism to Obama, who will be anointed as the first black nominee of a major party on Thursday night.
   Kennedy, 76, made a surprise appearance at the political extravaganza, barely three months after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour.
   ‘This November, the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans, so with Barack Obama, and for you, and me, our country will be committed to his cause,’ roared the Massachusetts senator.
   ‘The work will begin anew, the hope will rise again, and the dream lives on,’ said Kennedy, the elder statesman of America’s most fabled political dynasty.
   Michelle Obama, who some conservatives claim lacks the values of heartland America, portrayed her husband as a crusader for justice and said his showdown with Republican John McCain came at a pivotal moment in US history.
   ‘I stand here today at the cross-currents of that history, knowing that my piece of the American Dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me,’ said the aspiring first lady.
   And she paid a pointed tribute to Hillary as rumours rumbled of discord between the two camps at the start of the convention.
   She lauded ‘people like Hillary Clinton, who put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, so that our daughters, and sons can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher.’
   Earlier, Hillary made a fresh attempt to rally her millions of primary voters behind the Democratic presumptive nominee.
   ‘Let there be no mistake about it, we are united,’ Hillary said, ahead of the convention which will confirm Obama’s stunning rise to the pinnacle of US politics after less than four years in the Senate.
   Opinion polls still show that despite Hillary’s repeated public shows of support for Obama, many of her voters are still not reconciled to voting for her former rival.
   ‘Hillary wants us to support Obama the same we supported her, and that’s what we are going to do.’
   Republicans made new attempts to spoil the party, with an advertisement featuring Hillary saying during the primary battle that she and McCain had a lifetime of experience, while Obama had only a speech he gave in 2004.

The Progressive Democratic Party, floated under the state of emergency, on Tuesday said the government could take more time to hold free and fair elections and did not need to go by the electoral roadmap as announced by the Election Commission.
   The party chairman, Ferdaus Ahmad Quarishi, at a briefing in its office at Segun Baghicha said it was not mandatory for the caretaker government to hold the elections in keeping with the commission’s roadmap.
   ‘We want that the government should the elections in a free and fair manner and for that, the government can time to ensure a level playing field,’ Quarishi said.
   The government must continue with its drive against serious crimes and corruption and complete the trials of the arrested before the elections, he said.
   The caretaker government has already crossed its tenure of three months to hold the elections and it would not do any harm ‘if we give it more time to hold the elections in a free and fair manner.
   Referring to the result of the ballot count of the August 4 local government polls, Quarishi said irregularities took place in the count of votes for the election to the Barisal mayoral position.
   ‘If the interim government fails to ensure a level playing field, we could form another government,’ Quarishi said.

The BNP and its allies will form human chains across the country today, demanding release of the party chief, Khaleda Zia, and treatment of her son Tarique Rahman abroad.
   Leaders and activists of the parties will form hour-long human chains starting at 4:45pm at 12 points in the Dhaka city form Jatrabari to Gabtali.
   The secretaries general of the parties will take part in the programmes in turn.
   The grassroots units of the parties will also form human chains in their localities.
   A preparatory meeting in this regard was held at the city office of Jamaat-e-Islami with its city unit ameer Rafiqul Islam Khan in the chair on Tuesday. The meeting finalised venues of the programme.

Senior officials in the administration of the US president, George W Bush, have questioned US ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad over ‘unauthorised’ ties to Pakistan’s Asif Ali Zardari, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
   US officials, who have insisted on their neutrality in the Pakistan political process, are puzzled and angry over Khalilzad’s frequent contact with Zardari, the widower of Benzir Bhutto and a presidential contender, the report said.
   Khalilzad had spoken with Zardari by phone ‘several times a week for the past month until he was confronted about the unauthorised contacts,’ The Times quoted a senior US official as saying.
   According to the text of an email obtained by the newspaper, assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher asked Khalilzad about the nature of his contacts after learning that Khalilzad sought to provide Zardari with ‘advice and help.’
   ‘Can I ask what sort of ‘advice and help’ you are providing?’ the email said. ‘What sort of channel is this? Government, private, personal?’
   Khalilzad, who was a close ally of Benazir’s before she was slain last year, cancelled a meeting with Zardari planned for next Tuesday.

The probe committee, formed after the August 18 landslide that killed 11 slum dwellers, on Tuesday submitted its report to the acting mayor of the Chittagong City Corporation.
   The report held local influential people and corrupt government officials responsible for the landslide, CCC officials said.
   The probe body strongly recommended taking action against those influential people who, in connivance with a section of corrupt officials of WASA, railway, CDA, environment department, police and other bodies, took the hillside lands on lease and rented shacks built on the lands to the poor, CCC officials added.
   The five-member probe body, formed by the CCC and headed by its chief revenue officer Mohiuddin Ahmed, also gave 15 other recommendations for implementation to avert incidents of landslides, they informed.
   The acting CCC mayor, Monjurul Alam, said, ‘We received the probe report and would take steps in line with its recommendations to avert landslide in the port city.’
   Head of the probe body informed that 40 people, directly or indirectly involved with the August 18 landslide at Motijharna of Lalkhan Bazar in the city, were quizzed in a week-long investigation.
   ‘We found link between local influential people and a section of corrupt government officials who erected the shacks after grabbing lands on hill slopes to mint money’, he said, adding, ‘Such practice cannot be stopped without any tough action.’
   ‘We recommended that people living in the shacks at the bottom of hills should be relocated to other places under low-cost housing schemes,’ he added.
   Demarcation of redline on the vulnerable hillside areas, afforestation in and around the hills and other maintenance works to preserve the hills as well as checking hill cutting have been recommended by the probe committee.

Five people, including a shopkeeper, were injured in bomb explosion at Roy Saheb Bazar Crossing in Old Town of Dhaka Tuesday night.
   The injured are Habul, 37, a labourer, Abdul Kader, 35, a pushcart puller, Mohammad Khalil, 40, a shopkeeper, and two unidentified pedestrians.
   Witnesses said unidentified people exploded several crackers in front of Shuvo Hardwire Store at Roy Saheb Bazar Crossing at about 7:45pm.
   Local people took Habul, Kader and Khalil to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where they were undergoing treatment till Tuesday night.