Main Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The police on Wednesday charged into crowds of demonstrators of the BNP-led alliance as they attempted to form human chains in the capital and elsewhere in the country to press the alliance’s five-point demand, including unconditional release of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia.
   The police charged batons to disperse the alliance activists from streets at different places and took away banners and placards inscribed with slogans demanding immediate release of Khaleda and her ailing son Tarique Rahman.
   In protest, the alliance announced rallies across the country for September 2.
   The other demands of the alliance include lifting of the state of emergency, holding of parliamentary election by October this year, sending Tarique Rahman for abroad for treatment and release of political detainees in general and alliance leaders in particular.
   Large contingents of police were deployed in different cities and towns on the day to foil the protest programme. As the activists lined along the roads to form human chains, police asked them to disperse triggering altercations and scuffles between the activists and law enforcers.
   Top leaders of the alliance along with their activists tried to form a human chain in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka but police did not allow them to come out of the club premises.
   The leaders, including BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain, Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, Bangladesh Jatiya Party chairman Andaleeve Rahman and secretary general Shamim al Mamun, Islami Oikya Jote secretary general Abdul Latif Nezami, and Khelafat Majlish secretary general Ahmad Abdul Quader came to the press club at around 4:30pm.
   Waiting till 5:25pm in the lobby of the club, they came out braving rain but the police stopped them at the club’s main gate and refused them permission to form a human chain along the pavement.
   In the face of police obstruction, the alliance leaders held an impromptu rally on the club compound as it rained.
   Khandaker Delwar Hossain denounced the government’s ‘attempts to silence protests’ and demanded immediate release of Khaleda Zia, also former prime minister, and sending Tarique abroad for treatment.
   He said the people would not accept the government’s repressive measures and warned that the BNP and its allies would go for tougher action programmes to realise the demands.
   He demanded immediate lifting of the state of emergency, holding of parliamentary elections first and release of all political detainees.
   The BNP secretary general announced that the alliance would hold rallies across the country on September 2 in protest against Wednesday’s police actions.
   The alliance will also hold prayer sessions at all mosques after juma prayers on Friday seeking early recovery of Tarique Rahman.
   Police took away banners when a group of alliance activists tried to form a chain in front of Bangladesh Medical Association.
   A crowd of protesters were dispersed from in front of the bar council.
   BNP standing committee member Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui and joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan stood at Motijheel
   along with a number of activists but left the place as it started raining.
   After their departure, some activists brought out a procession and damaged a number of vehicles. Police picked up a Juba Dal activist from the spot.
   Some activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal gathered in front of the Institution of Engineers but police did not allow them to stand on the pavement.
   In the face of police obstruction, they returned to Dhaka University campus and formed human chains on the pavement along the TSC and Fine Art faculty.
   More than a hundred activists of Jatiyatabadi Mahila Dal, the women wing of BNP, under the leadership of BNP joint secretary general Selima Rahman, formed a chain at Asad Gate.
   They stood there until the end of the programme defying police obstruction and heavy rain.
   Scuffles between the police and the protesters broke out at about 5:30 pm when the women members of the police snatched away banners and placards from the activists. The activists chanted slogans demanding release of Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman.
   Leaders and activists of the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami formed chains at Farmgate, Shyamali and Gabtali. Police used batons to disperse the demonstrators at Shyamali and Gabtali leaving at least 10 activists injured.
   The BNP units in Barisal, Khulna, Rajshahi, Bogra, Narayanganj, Kishoreganj and Pabna formed human chains, according to New Age correspondents and BDnews24.com.
   But the police charged batons, took away banners to disperse the activists. Protesters hurled stones at the police at some places, including Khulna city.
   In Sylhet the police did not allow the BNP activists to form human chains, according to New Age correspondent in the north-eastern city.
   In Chittagong, the BNP-led alliance did not observe the human chain programme, according to New Age correspondent in the port city.

The government has asked the mayors- and councillors-elect to the Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet city corporations and nine municipalities to resign from their party posts and inform the government of the resignation by 5.00pm today.
   They will also need to submit their wealth statements detailing all their assets, in their names or in the name of family members, by today.
   Divisional office directors of the local government directorate on Tuesday issued the letters to the mayors- and councillors-elect concerned asking them to relinquish party posts.
   The mayors- and councillors-elect on Wednesday told New Age the letters were sent to them by special messengers and they had received the letters Tuesday night.
   Amir Hossain Amu, presidium member of the Awami League, which won elections to all the four corporations and eight of the nine municipalities that went to polls on August 4, on Wednesday told New Age, ‘Such a direction of the government is completely undemocratic and contrary to the mandate given to the winners by the people.’
   ‘The provision of relinquishing the party posts of the mayors and councillors is unconstitutional and undemocratic. We have demanded cancellation of the provision,’ he said.
   The mayors- and councillors-elect contested the polls as political party leaders by seeking votes using their party positions and the people elected them considering the parties they are affiliated to, Amu said. ‘Now the government cannot ask them to give up the party positions as it will be a complete violation of the people’s mandate.’
   He also said the political parties had joined the elections in accordance with the High Court verdict delivered on July 31 that had scrapped the Election Commission rules that barred political parties from participating in local government polls.
   Referring to the verdict, Amu said the government directive was also made in violation of the High Court verdict.
   The Rajshahi mayor-elect Khairuzzaman Liton told New Age he would send a copy of the letter to the Awami League’s central committee and go by the decision of the party headquarters.
   The Khulna mayor-elect Talukder Abdul Khaleque
   said he would send his resignation letter to the central committee of the Awami League today and would inform the local government directorate of his resigning from the party post.
   The Sylhet mayor-elect Badaruddin Ahmed Kamran, also the incumbent mayor, is in jail.
   His wife, Asma Kamran, said she was yet to inform Kamran of the letter.
   The Barisal mayor-elect Shawkat Hossain Hiron, however, on Wednesday submitted a bond to the divisional
   office of the local government directorate saying he
   would resign from the party before taking oath of office as mayor.
   All the 40 councillors-elect to the Barisal City Corporation and some of the councillors of the other three city corporations also submitted similar bonds.
   According to Section 7(3) of the Local Government (City Corporations) Ordinance 2008, any elected mayor or councillor needs to resign from the post of any political party, if the person holds such office, before taking oath of office.

The Election Commission is going to hold the third round of talks in the second week of September with political parties in an effort to reach a consensus on party registration by October 15 as specified by the commission.
   The commission on Wednesday in principle decided to invite political parties to the third round of dialogue. The final decision on the date for the talks is likely to be made today.
   The commission will in a day or two send letters to the parties, with whom the commission had earlier held two rounds of dialogue on electoral law reforms, inviting them to the dialogue, said sources at the commission.
   The commission made the decision as major political parties rejected the October 15 deadline for party registration and said it was absurd in view of time constraints and the state of emergency.
   ‘The main agenda of the talks is the registration of political parties. If the parties want, others election issues might also be discussed,’ election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain said on Wednesday evening.
   Just after the amended Representation of the People Order 1972 had been put into force through a gazette notification on August 21 setting the conditions for registration of political parties with the commission, politicians argued the parities were not in a position to comply with the tough conditions for registration at the moment.
   Major political parties, with their chiefs and key leaders in jail, find it an uphill task to fulfil the criteria, including forming elected committees from the centre down to union parishad level, regularising national council sessions and amending party constitutions.
   The commission in its letter will urge the parties to respond in a week specifying the problems they might face in completing all related tasks and in meet the criteria for registration before the national polls in December.
   The commission will not send any invitation to the Awami League as a possible date for talks with the party has already been decided. The commission is, however, yet to decide which of the splinter and the mainstream Bangladesh Nationalist Party will be invited to the fresh talks.
   The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, on Tuesday 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.’
   Sources said the forthcoming round of talks would be limited to the issue of registration and the commission might decide on relaxing the rules after the fresh round of talks with political parties. The commission will then promulgate the rules by exercising the power vested in it by the Representation of the People Order.
   The parties with which the commission earlier had two rounds of talks and is now planning to invite are Samyabadi Dal, Workers Party of Bangladesh, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Jatiya Party, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu), National Awami Party (Mozaffar), Jamaat-e-Islami, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Rab), Jatiya Party (Manju), Ganatantri Party, Krishak Sramik Janata League, Islami Oikya Jote, Bikalpadhara Bangladesh and the Liberal Democratic Party. The commission also earlier held talks with the splinter group of the BNP.
   The 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.
   The commission also published the notice on Wednesday in national daily newspapers setting October 15 as the deadline.
   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 of
   headquarter, 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.
   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 criteria for registration.

The Election Commission in pursuit for holding polls to about 250 upazilas in the last week of October is now working to finalise the list of upazilas which will go to polls in the first phase.
   Although major political parties are strongly opposed to holding any other election before the parliamentary polls which the government has pledged to hold in December, the commission on Monday discussed preparations for the upazila parishad polls and decided to hold the balloting on two days.
   The commission at its next meeting is likely to finalise the list of the upazilas which will go to polls in the first phase. The commission plans to hold polls to the remaining 482 upazilas in the second phase soon after the national elections.
   Asked about the tentatively set balloting for upazila elections on October 23, the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, on Tuesday said the commission was moving ahead to hold the upazila elections on the date, but the number of upazilas going to polls was not yet finalised.
   Commission sources said it would finalise the date to announce the schedule for the local body polls after getting the upazila electoral rules, now pending a law ministry vetting.
   The commission has dropped off its rules and the code of conduct the provision to keep political parties out of the process of the local government polls.
   In the initial draft of the code of conduct and the electoral rules for upazila polls, the commission made the upazila polls non-partisan and barred political parties from contesting the polls and participating in electioneering.
   It brought about changes in the draft after the High Court had scrapped similar rules prepared for city corporation and municipal polls which barred political parties from participating in local government elections.
   The commission’s plan to keep political parties out of the August 4 polls to four city corporations and nine municipalities fell through after the July 31 High Court ruling which allowed political parties to participate in local government elections.
   According to the revised draft of the upazila electoral rules and the code of conduct, political parties will be able to contest the forthcoming upazila elections.
   The interim government on June 30, 2008 promulgated the Local Government (Upazila Parishad) Ordinance 2008 which said the candidates must resign from their posts in political parties, if they hold any, before taking oath to the elected parishads.
   The upazila parishad elections have not been held for nearly two decades. The Jatiya Party government of HM Ershad introduced the system in 1982.
   The first elections to this tier of the local government took place in 1984, followed by another in 1988. The three governments elected after 1991 could not hold elections to the local institutions for a number of legal complexities.
   This time the unelected interim government wants to hold elections to upazila parishads before the national polls, but major political parties have opposed the decision.
   As of August 20, the commission has made a list of 333 upazilas for elections in the first phase based on the completion of the electoral roll. The commission is now selecting about 250 upazilas which will go to polls in October.

Former premier Khaleda Zia’s detained son Tarique Rahman, also the BNP’s senior joint secretary-general, can be released from jail if the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court grants his prayer for bail in the case that is scheduled to be heard today.
   The High Court on Wednesday granted interim bail for six months to Tarique in five cases, three of them filed on extortion charges. The court had earlier granted Tarique interim bail in seven other cases.
   ‘Tarique now remains on bail in 12 cases except one case filed against him for the Bashundhara murder/bribery charge,’ Mahbududdin, one of his lawyers, told reporters after the latest High Court orders. The proceedings in the 13 cases filed against Tarique after his arrest on March 8, 2007 have also been stayed by the High Court, he added.
   The High Court bench of Justice Sharif Uddin Chakladar and Justice M Emdadul Haque Azad issued the latest orders, granting bail to Tarique in five cases.
   Of the cases, two were filed with the Gulshan thana on March 27 and May 4, 2007 and one with the Kafrul thana on March 27, 2007 on extortion charges. Of the remaining two cases, one was filed with the Dhaka Judges’ Court on August 4 on tax evasion charges, and the other was filed with the Kafrul thana on September 26, 2007 on corruption charge.
   The same court on Wednesday stayed for six months the proceedings in the Bashundhara bribery case, the lone case that is under trial, which is now pending with a Special Judge’s Court set up in the Jatiya Sangsad Complex.
   The High Court on Wednesday refused to accept Tarique’s bail prayer in the Bashundhara bribery case as the matter had been earlier scheduled to be heard by the Appellate Division today. The same court on Tuesday granted bail to Tarique in the latest case filed against him for misappropriating Tk 2.1 crore from the Zia Orphanage Trust’s fund.
   Another High Court bench of Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Sheikh Abdul Awal on Monday granted bail to Tarique in the first case filed against him on March 8, 2007 by a construction firm owner, Amin Ahmed, for extorting Tk 1 crore from him. The High Court on April 17, 2007 stayed the proceedings of the case.
   The High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice Shahidul Islam on March 4 granted bail to Tarique in two extortion cases and stayed the proceedings of those cases.
   The police implicated Tarique in a case of extorting Tk 1.32 crore, filed with the Gulshan thana by Khan Mohammad Aftabuddin of Reza Construction, on March 27, 2007. The case was filed primarily against Tarique’s business partner and crony, Giasuddin Al Mamun.
   Tarique was also implicated in another case against Mamun filed with the same thana on May 5, 2007 by Abu Shahed Saleh, project co-ordinator of Al-Amin Construction and Reza Construction, for extortion of Tk 4.89 crore from the firm.
   Though the alleged extortion took place before the proclamation of the state of emergency, the government placed the case under the Emergency Powers Rules, which was a violation of the Constitution according to Tarique’s lawyers.
   The same court on December 10, 2007 granted Tarique bail in the Tk 81 lakh extortion case filed against him by Harun Ferdousi, the Marshal Distilleries’ managing director, with the Gulshan thana on March 27, 2007. The court also stayed the proceedings of that case.
   The High Court on December 2, 2007 granted bail to Tarique in two extortion cases filed with the Dhanmondi thana on April 1, 2007, and Shahbagh thana on April 9, 2007. The court, on December 3, 2007 also granted bail to Tarique in the case filed by Aftabuddin with the Kafrul thana on March 27, 2007 for extortion of Tk 16 lakh from him.
   Tarique has been shown arrested in all the extortion cases after the High Court on April 17, 2007 stayed the trial proceedings of the Tk 1 crore extortion case filed with the Gulshan thana against him on March 8.

The home affairs adviser, MA Matin, on Wednesday claimed there was headway in the process for the release of BNP leader Tarique Rahman, now being treated in a prison cell at Bangbandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital, to allow him go abroad for better treatment.
   ‘There is progress in the release process of Tarique… But everything cannot be disclosed now,’ Matin said in reply to queries of reporters at the home ministry.
   Asked whether any move was taken for better treatment for Tarique, the adviser said Tarique was under medical care in keeping with the jail code.
   In reply to a question, Matin said there was no legal barrier to the release of former prime minister Khaleda Zia and her ailing son Tarique Rahman to allow them go abroad for better medical treatment.
   Talking to reporters after a short meeting with the adviser, the inspector general (prisons), Zakir Hasan, retreated from his Tuesday’s statement saying Tarique was receiving treatment in the hospital in jail custody.
   ‘He [Tarique] is under the supervision of doctors in jail custody… He is staying in the hospital’s cabin, but all the responsibilities of his security lie with the jail authorities,’ Zakir said, making a shift from his Tuesday’s stand when he said Tarique was not under the jail authorities.
   He was rather under the supervision of the doctors and the jail authorities had
   nothing to do with it, Zakir
   said on Tuesday at the secretariat in reply to questions of reporters.
   ‘Tarique is not under the prison authorities now. He is under the supervision of doctors at the PG [BSMMU] Hospital…,’ Zakir said, adding Tarique was staying in a cabin, not in the prison cell of the hospital.
   Tarique Rahman, the BNP’s senior joint secretary general and the eldest son of the party’s chairperson Khaleda Zia, sustained injuries in the head and other parts of the body as he slipped in the bathroom of the prison cell at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital on Monday which immediately sparked off violent protests at Dhaka University and in adjoining areas.
   Arrested on March 7, 2007 and later implicated in a number of extortion and corruption cases, Tarique was taken to the BSMMU with multiple health complications on January 31 and has been there in a prison cell since then.

A top businessman and Awami League leader, Salman F Rahman, was released from Kashimpur jail on Wednesday afternoon, a week after the High Court granted him bail in the IFIC Bank corruption case on August 20.
   The government released Salman only after his lawyer, Barrister Rafique-ul-Huq, filed a contempt of court petition in the High Court on Wednesday morning, complaining that the government was not complying with the court’s order. On Tuesday the lawyer had threatened to file a contempt of court case against the jail authorities if Salman was not released by Wednesday morning.
   The army-led joint forces arrested Salman, also former president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI), from his Dhanmondi residence in February 2007 under the Emergency Powers Rules. Subsequently, seven corruption cases were filed against him.
   However, as there was no sign of releasing Salman on Wednesday morning, his lawyer moved at 10:20am with a contempt of court petition against the jail authorities in the court of Justice Sharif Uddin Chakladar and Justice M Emdadul Haque Azad, alleging that Salman was not released from the Kashimpur jail although the court had granted him bail on August 20 in the IFIC Bank corruption case, clearing the way for his release. Notably, Salman earlier got bail from the High Court in some half a dozen corruption cases.
   The lawyer pointed out to the High Court bench that the court, while granting him bail on August 20, had said, ‘If any hindrance was created by any law enforcing agency to frustrate the order of the court in any manner, it would take serious exception to that effrontery.’
   He argued that the inspector-general (Prisons), deputy inspector-general (Prisons) and the superintendent of the Kashimpur jail had violated the apex court’s order by hindering Salman from getting released, although he was granted bail in all the cases filed against him.
   Subsequently, the High Court bench summoned the attorney-general and asked him to explain the reason for the delay in releasing Salman. The attorney-general attributed the delay to ‘procedural complications’
   The court asked the attorney-general what he meant by ‘procedure’.
   Rafique helped the court by saying that the attorney-general meant that the government is likely to appeal to the Appellate Division’s chamber judge to seek stay on the bail order granted by the High Court on August 20.
   At this point, the court asked the attorney-general to produce Salman before the judges after releasing him from jail.
   ‘If Salman is not produced before us in an hour, you [attorney-general] and others, including the home affairs adviser, will be summoned and sent to jail,’ said a judge.
   At about 12:45pm, the court further asked the attorney-general to reveal the whereabouts of Salman. He replied, ‘Salman has been freed on bail from the Kashimpur jail at 12:30pm.’
   The court then asked the attorney-general to produce Salman before the court, but eventually gave the attorney-general respite in this regard in response to a request by Salman’s lawyer.
   In a similar move, the government delayed the release of Awami League leader Engineer. Mosharraf Hossain by almost two weeks. Mosharraf, arrested under the Special Powers Act in February 2007, got bail from the court and the court order reached the jail authorities on August 1, 2008. He was then released 17 hours after the authorities had received the order only to be arrested immediately after his stepping out of the jail gate without any warrant arrest.
   Mosharraf’s re-arrest was challenged in the High Court on August 10. The court found the government action illegal and ordered that he should be harassed.
   Mosharraf was eventually released August 12 midnight, and that too a few hours after a lawyer had sent a legal notice to threatening to file a contempt of court case against the jail authorities.

Six people sustained injuries in a gun attack by assailants at Karail Slum in the city’s Gulshan area on Wednesday apparently over refusal to pay toll.
   The injured were identified as rickshaw garage owner Mosharraf Hossain, 38, its employee Mohammad Shahin, 18, rickshaw pullers Joynal Abedin, 30 and Zahirul Islam, 20, garments employee Abdul Jalil, 18 and rickshaw van puller Ali Akbar, 40.
   According to the victims, two assailants went to the spot near Karail Jamia Mohammadia Islamia Madrassah in a motorbike at 1:20pm and indiscriminately opened fire on Mosharraf at point-blank while he was having a cup of tea.
   ‘Soon after struck by two bullets in the hip and waist, I jumped into nearby water body to save my life but the assailants continued spraying bullets targeting others present at the place,’ Mosharraf told New Age.
   All the victims received at least two or more bullets in different parts of their bodies and instantly collapsed on the ground. Hearing the gunshots and screams of the victims, local people rushed to the scene and took them to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where they were undergoing treatment till Wednesday night.
   Reasons behind the attack couldn’t be ascertained immediately. Mosharraf, however, told newsmen that some local extortionists demanded money from him earlier. ‘I think that the gunmen have launched the attack on me as I refused to pay them toll. But I couldn’t understand why they shot at innocent rickshaw pullers,’ he said.
   Gulshan Ara, duty officer of the Gulshan police station, said no case was filed till Wednesday evening. Several teams were conducting drives at different parts in the city to hunt down the criminals, she added.

The ultra-left Sarbahara men will not get any chance to surrender to the law enforcers; it is time to pull out their roots, said inspector general of police Nur Mohammed on Wednesday.
   ‘We’ll not give the Sarbahara people any chance to surrender. We’ll pull out their roots so that they cannot reorganise themselves,’ said the IGP as chief guest in a meeting with local people held at Taherpur High School field under Bagmara in Rajshahi.
   The Rapid Action Battalion-5 arranged the meeting, where a huge crowd vowed to stand against the Sarbahara killers.
   Hasan Mahmud Khandaker, director general of the Rapid Action Battalion, addressed the meeting as special guest while Moklesur Rahman, deputy inspector general of police of Rajshahi Range, and Sahabuddin Khan, police super of Rajshahi, addressed the meeting presided over by Lieutenant Colonel Israt Hossain, commander of RAB-5.
   Nur Mohammed urged the people to wage movement against members of the ultra-left organisation. ‘If you [people] do not work with the law enforcers, it will be tough for us to curb the underground party men,’ he said.
   He blamed that the elected political leaders did not take any initiatives to root out the Sarbahara members; they only set up police stations and police camps besides their residences to protect their own life.
   Hasan Mahmud Khandaker, director general of RAB, said the Sarbahara members, after fulfilling their terms of conviction, engaged in destructive activities with even more enthusiasm.
   ‘So, brining them to book is not a permanent measure. If their roots are not pulled out, their activities will never be stopped,’ he added.
   ‘The law will be amended, if needed, to pull out the Sarbahara people from the region,’ Rajshahi police super Sahabuddin Ahmed said.
   One Zahidul Islam, who was tortured by the Sarbahara men, Professor Nur Mohammed Sarker, principal of Taherpur Degree College, and Abu Nayeem Mohammed Shamsur Rahman, mayor of Taherpur municipality, also addressed the meeting.

An ultra-left Purba Banglar Communist Party (ML–Red Flag) leader was killed in ‘crossfire’ early Wednesday at Goalkandi of Baghmara in Rajshahi.
   The PBCP operative was Sirajul Islam, 30, a resident of Goalkandi at Baghmara.
   Three police personnel were hurt in the gunfight between the associates of the operative and the lawmen, the police said.
   The injured policemen are subinspector Nasir Uddin, and constables Moniruzzaman and Rafiqul Islam. One of them was admitted to hospital.
   The police said one of its teams arrested Sirajul at his house Tuesday afternoon. The police then took him to a place to recover firearms at about 4:30am.
   As they reached Goalkandi Maddhyapara, Sirajul’s associates fired on the lawmen, prompting them to fire back.
   After the gunfight that last for half an hour, Sirajul’s associates managed to get away. The police found Sirajul dead and three policemen injured after the fight. The police also recovered some firearms and ammunition from the place.
   Sirajul, a regional commander of the ultra-left outfit, had five cases against him, the police said.
   The body was handed over to Sirajul’s family.

Eight judges among dozens sacked by Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf were reappointed by the government Wednesday, a move condemned by many lawyers as a political stunt.
   The decision comes two days after former prime minister Nawaz Sharif quit the government over differences with leading coalition partner Asif Ali Zardari over the issue of the sackings, which set off months of political turmoil.
   The legal community described the move as a ‘conspiracy’ to harm their demands for the restoration of all judges,
   including independent-minded chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
   Chaudhry was among dozens of superior judges fired by Musharraf last year under emergency rule.
   ‘Eight former judges of the Sindh High Court took oath today,’ provincial law secretary Agha Rafiq told reporters in Karachi.
   They have not been reinstated but freshly appointed, he said, a technicality that allows the government to hold off on any change to the status of the sacked judges.
   ‘This is a conspiracy aimed at dividing the judges and lawyers,’ Karachi bar council leader Rashid Razvi said.
   The judges had previously refused offers to return to their jobs, insisting on reinstatement of all including chief justice Chaudhry.
   ‘We are deeply sad and disappointed,’ he said, said Aitezaz Ahsan, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and a leader of the lawyers’ movement.
   He said the eight who took office ‘gave up when our victory was in sight.’
   Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, deposed dozens of judges under a state of emergency last November when it appeared they would challenge his re-election as president the previous month.
   The sackings sparked large and sometimes violent protests by Pakistan’s influential lawyers.
   Musharraf, whose allies were trounced in February elections, resigned under threat of impeachment last week, but the ruling coalition has since collapsed after failing to agree on how to restore the judges.

The Truth and Accountability Commission has yet to receive any case files of politicians from the Anti-Corruption Commission or the National Coordination Committee against corruption and serious crimes, the TAC chairman said on Wednesday.
   The TAC has so far received records of about 182 cases, filed against 184 people, Justice Habibur Rahman Khan said at a press briefing in his Hare Road office.
   Most of the case files the TAC has received so far involve graft charges against officials of the Rural Electrification Board, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd, Roads and Highways Department, Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd, Dhaka Electric Supply Authority, Department of Land Registration, Forest Department, Chittagong Port and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.
   Only two cases involve businessmen, while one involves the principal of a college.
   Khan said fifteen out of a total of 23 forms issued by the commission so far have been submitted. The 15 applications for clemency will be heard on September 1.
   Asked why he thought no records of politicians had been sent by the ACC or NCC, the TAC chief avoided a direct reply, but answered that the bar for graft convicts from contesting polls might be a reason behind politicians staying away from the commission.
   According to electoral laws, people convicted of crime would not be eligible for contesting any election for five years.
   Justice Khan pointed out that people facing graft cases could apply to the Truth and Accountability Commission at any point before charges were framed against them in a court.
   But only those who deposited their illegally gotten gains to the state coffers would be eligible for clemency by the TAC, he added.
   Members of the commission, retired major general Manzur Rashid Khan and Asif Ali, were present at the press briefing.

The Asian Legal Resource Centre has said that the prolonged state of emergency is threatening the work of the judiciary and human rights defenders in Bangladesh and consequently there has been a significant rise in violation of human rights. ‘Human rights’ defenders and professionals, including those of the media, are regularly being monitored, threatened and intimidated by the personnel of the country’s armed forces and various intelligence agencies,’ said the ALRC, a forum of eminent jurist and rights activists from countries across Asia that enjoys consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, in a statement issued on Wednesday through the internet.
   The ALRC said that Bangladesh has been plunged into a period in which human rights have been severely undermined and violations have increased significantly in the last 20 months of the state of emergency, promulgated on January 11, 2007.
   Furthermore, the military-controlled government has been promulgating arbitrary laws that have led directly to further abuses of human rights and further obstruction of all avenues available to victims seeking redress, said the ALRC.
   It listed a massive number of arbitrary arrests and detentions, rampant ill-treatment and torture, and a significant increase in extra-judicial killings as major violations.
   ‘The authorities have been institutionalising extra-constitutional practices that undermine the institutions of the rule of law, and cause damage to the fabric of the state that will remain for years,’ said the statement, expressing anger over the silence of many international bodies and communities over the crisis.
   It called upon the UN Human Rights Commission to prove that it does not operate selectively and does not have double standards by taking all necessary measures to ensure that the tidal wave of gross violations of human rights in Bangladesh is brought to a halt.
   The ALRC urged the government of Bangladesh to lift the unjustifiable and counter-productive state of emergency immediately and scrap all the Ordinances promulgated by it as they violate the country’s Constitution.
   It observed that Bangladesh’s membership in the Human Rights Council continues to be an embarrassment to the world’s apex human rights body.
   The ALRC mentioned that the government has also begun releasing selected persons through executive orders, bypassing and undermining the courts and the judiciary.
   It alleged that the subordinate magistrates and sessions courts are being used as ‘tools’ by the government to arrest and detain targeted persons, and also to release whomever the government wishes to be free.
   The ALRC was also critical of the promulgation of the Anti-Terror Ordinance, apprehending that it might be abused, and the formation of the Truth and Accountability Commission because of the lack of transparency in the system.

More than 37 million Americans live in poverty and nearly 46 million have no health insurance, with children bearing a disproportionate share of the burden, an official report showed Tuesday.
   Highlighting key issues in the race for the presidency, an annual report by the Census Bureau showed that some 37.3 million Americans lived in poverty in the United States in 2007, an increase from the 36.5 million people in 2006.
   While the numbers of poor people rose, numbers without health insurance paradoxically fell to 45.7 million people in 2007 from 47 million in 2006, the ‘Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage Report’ showed.
   But the decline in numbers of Americans who make do without health insurance gave little cause for optimism, and the poverty statistics were based on a flawed point of departure, experts said.
   ‘What the report shows is that there has been some change but it’s pretty minor,’ said Paul Fronstin, a senior research associate at the Employee Benefits Research Institute.
   ‘This isn’t progress. The changes are insignificant and we would need to see this happen for 10 years to say there has been progress,’ he said.
   ‘If you look at the numbers, there’s bad news in the story,’ said Kathleen Stoll, deputy executive director of Families USA, a non-profit group that advocates for high-quality, affordable healthcare for Americans.
   The rising cost of living, unemployment, and a tough economic situation in the United States are forcing many families with children into lower income brackets ‘and even into poverty where they are caught by the public healthcare programme safety net,’ she said.
   The Census Bureau report showed that the percentage of Americans covered by government health insurance rose to 83 million last year from 80 million in 2006, or, in percentage terms, to 27.8 percent from 27.0 per cent.
   The percentage of Americans on employer-based insurance — the main source of health coverage for Americans — fell from 59.7 per cent in 2006 to 59.3 per cent last year, with the number remaining statistically unchanged at around 177 million.
   The poverty threshold is currently set at 21,000 dollars (14,360 euros) for a family of four, but experts lamented that the 1960s-set standard was out of date.
   ‘It doesn’t capture what it costs to meet some of a family’s basic necessities,’ said Stoll.
   ‘Even using those low standards, more families, especially with children, are sliding into poverty and becoming eligible for public programmes,’ she said.
   Mike Laracy of the Casey Foundation, a non-profit group that tries to lift families out of poverty, also called for the poverty measure to be updated.
   ‘It still assumes that American families spend about one-third of their budget on food, but what’s really punishing American families are housing and energy costs,’ Laracy said.
   Poverty hits American children disproportionately hard, with 18 per cent of under-18s living below the poverty threshold, compared with 11 per cent of adults aged 18-64, and just under 10 per cent of senior citizens.
   Children of poor families are more likely to be placed in care or to fail to achieve academic standards, said Laracy.
   Poor children are also more likely to be uninsured, according to the Census Bureau report, which is based on data gathered last year for the American Community Survey and the Current Population Survey — before the downturn in the US economy.
   That gave another reason for the experts to mute their cheers over the report.
   ‘By every measure, 2008 is going to be worse. Clearly, there are going to be increasing problems, growth in poverty and higher unemployment especially among unskilled workers,’ said Rebecca Blank, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think-tank and a co-director of the National Poverty Centre.
   An overwhelming majority of Americans — 82 per cent — want the health care system completely overhauled, and nine out of 10 Americans want the 2008 presidential candidates to address health care reform, a survey released this month by the Commonwealth Fund showed.
   Poverty is also high on the list of concerns of Americans, who ‘want to hear what their political leaders are going to do to reduce it,’ said Laracy.
   ‘As more Americans struggle to make ends meet, we have seen a growing willingness among political leaders from both parties to talk about how to come up with concrete and workable solutions,’ he said.

A Dhaka court on Wednesday sentenced land ministry stenographer Kutubuddin Ahmed to rigorous imprisonment for 13 years for amassing illegal wealth and hiding assets in his wealth statement submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   Tanzina Ismail, judge of the special judge’s court 6 set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, also ordered confiscation of Kutub’s assets of about Tk 1.44 crore 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 Kutub, also known as Land Kutub, for 10 years for amassing illegal wealth and three years for hiding assets in the wealth statement. The court ordered concurrent execution of the sentences, meaning Kutub would need to serve the sentence for a maximum of 10 years.
   The commission’s assistant director Mahfuza Khatun filed the case with Ramna police against Kutub.
   Kutub was in the dock as the court delivered the judgement.

The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation has sought Tk 2,119 crore from the finance ministry to enable it to meet deficit financing and repay the loans for importing fuel oils, sources said.
   The amount has been sought to bear the contingency cost for next September and October, according to a letter sent to the finance ministry by the BPC chairman Anwarul Karim on August 26.
   The amount sought by the corporation will be spent on importing 3,84,000 metric tonnes of diesel, 40,000 MT of kerosene, 60,000 MT of jet fuel and 16,000 MT of octane
   at higher prices from international markets, the letter said.
   The difference between the import and selling prices of petroleum products on the domestic market have been estimated at Tk 982.94 crore for the next two months to be counted as loss to the corporation, it elaborated.
   Besides, the BPC has to repay a loan of Tk 696.06 crore to the Islamic Development Bank over the next two months and Tk 440 crore in the head of import duties to the revenue board.
   ‘The loan repayment and deferred payments for fuel imports will take place after the government disburses the fund’, a high official at the energy and mineral resources ministry told New Age.
   When approached, an official at the finance ministry said they would soon submit the proposal to the finance adviser, AB Mirza Azizul Islam.
   Officials in the finance division said they had disbursed Tk 1,100 crore to the BPC in July, while it also gave guarantee to three state lenders for Tk 8,500 crore in trade loans to the corporation for fuel oil imports.
   The government gave about Tk 7,800 crore subsidy to the BPC in the last fiscal year, which could be halved in the current fiscal year due to the recent price adjustment, finance officials said.
   Besides, the finance ministry guaranteed a Tk 6,000 crore loan to the BPC from the Sonali Bank, Tk 2,500 crore from the Janata Bank and Tk 750 crore from the Agrani Bank in 2007, sources said.
   On the other hand, BPC officials said they had to count a loss of Tk 1,000 crore to Tk 1,100 crore per month before the price adjustment took effect, and the loss had come down to Tk 450-480 crore per month following the price adjustment.
   ‘We had no option but to take the BPC’s liabilities to keep fuel supplies uninterrupted’, a high official at the finance division told New Age.
   The government heavily subsidises the BPC which sells fuel oils to local market at much lower rates than import prices, officials said.

The state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation has been locked in fresh row with Kuwait Petroleum Corporation as the latter claimed a demurrage for about $2.5 million against fuel supply, sources in oil sector said.
   The row began after KPC had started hammering on BPC to settle the claims, they added.
   A senior official of BPC informed that KPC claimed $2.5 million as compensation against the consignments of fuels carried by 34 ships.
   KPC claimed the money for the delay in settlement of  payments against letter of credit opened by BPC for importing fuel which caused overstay of  the vessels that arrived in Chittagong port for discharging the cargo, he said.
   The claims were made during the period from July, 2007 to date, he added, saying that now they were trying to settle the claims of KPC to avoid any hassle.
   ‘A two-member team has already arrived here and held talks with our officials asking for the demurrage. So the decision may be taken soon to pay off the money claimed by KPC.’
   Some of the ships which brought fuels from KPC to supply it to BPC were delayed in discharging the cargo due to fund crisis. ‘We couldn’t send the LC money timely,’ the official said.
   He informed that they also paid $1.5 million as demurrage to KPC against 28 fuel-laden vessels during the period from August 2005 to June 2007.
   The cash-strapped BPC secured a loan of $250 million from Islamic Development Bank to meet its increasing fuel import costs, BPC sources   said.
   KPC is the major supplier of fuel to BPC that annually imports 3.8 million metric tonnes of petroleum products. BPC is also looking for alternative countries to get the fuel supply to reduce dependence on KPC, the sources added.

Indian authorities ordered police to shoot on sight and rushed in reinforcements to quell clashes that have left at least seven dead since the murder of a Hindu religious leader, an official said Wednesday.
   Kandhamal and other areas of the eastern state of Orissa have been plagued by Hindu-Christian violence since the holy man and four other people were shot dead by unidentified killers.
   ‘We issued shoot-on-sight orders in the wake of large-scale violence in curfew-bound areas of Kandhamal,’ district administrator Satyabrata Sahu said, adding that anti-riot police and paramilitary troopers had been rushed to the area.
   The orders were issued after mobs armed with sticks and other crude weapons defied the curfew, staging arson and other attacks, Sahu said.
   The police have blamed the death of the holy man, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, and the others on Maoist guerrillas.
   However, hardline Hindus accuse minority Christians of responsibility for the killings in Kandhamal, 300 kilometres southwest of the state capital Bhubaneswar.
   The death toll in clashes since Saraswati’s murder is seven, including four men in a gunbattle in Kandhamal, the chief minister, Navin Patnaik, told the state legislature.
   The Press Trust of India quoted state officials as saying the toll had hit nine.
   Among those killed have been a woman working at an orphanage who was burnt to death when the Christian-run facility was torched by a Hindu mob.
   Saraswati campaigned against what he branded as the ‘forced’ conversion of low-caste Hindus to Christianity.
   Radical Hindus accuse missionaries of converting tribals and Dalits — the name adopted by ‘untouchables,’ who still face discrimination from the higher castes — through pressure or by offering lures such as free education.
   Meanwhile a national body of bishops has asked 25,000 Catholic-run schools and colleges to close Friday to protest the violence in Orissa.
   The state is where Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were burnt alive in 1999, for which a Hindu man is serving life in jail.
   Sectarian clashes erupt periodically in India where only 2.3 per cent of the more than 1.1 billion population are practising Christians.

Pakistani troops Wednesday killed up to 50 militants, including foreign fighters, near the troubled Afghan border amid an upsurge in Taliban-inspired bloodshed, security officials said.
   More than 30 rebels died in the Bajaur tribal district, a hub of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, where government forces have for three weeks been conducting an extensive operation to destroy their hideouts.
   ‘Security forces killed 25-30 militants, including some important commanders and foreigners in Bajaur’s Raghan region,’ a security official said.
   In another clash, Pakistani helicopter gunships pounded militant hideouts on Wednesday in a different part of Bajaur bordering Afghanistan, killing eight rebels and wounding 12 others, a separate security official said.
   Pakistani forces moved into Bajaur earlier this month.
   But violence linked to the country’s role in the ‘war on terror’ has killed nearly 1,200 people in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan in the past year.
   The army said in a statement Wednesday that 11 militants were killed in a gunbattle that broke out after a military checkpost came under rebel attack in the restive South Waziristan tribal region.
   ‘Around 75-100 militants attacked a checkpost on the night of August 26-27. Security forces effectively repulsed the attack. Reportedly 11 militants were killed and 15-20 others injured,’ the statement said.

The Awami League on Wednesday termed the Election Commission to be the main threat to holding parliamentary polls in keeping with the electoral roadmap and alleged the commission was conspiring to foil the timely holding of the national elections.
   It demanded that the government should announce the parliamentary polls schedule in October or November after withdrawal the state of emergency. The leaders said the Awami League would not contest any polls before the parliamentary elections.
   The party also termed the Representation of the People Order (Amendment) 1972 anti-people and accused the commission of formulating some provisions only to depoliticise the country.
   The commission will need to be accountable for formulating such anti-people provisions, the Awami League said, urging cancellation of the RPO amendment.
   The party leaders said this at a discussion marking National Mourning Day on the occasion of the death anniversary of Bangladesh’s first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The Dhaka city Awami League organised the programme in the auditorium of the Institution of Engineers.
   The acting Awami League president, Zillur Rahman, demanded the national elections schedule in October–November and said the party would not contest any elections before the parliamentary polls.
   He said the Awami League would not also contest any polls under the state of emergency and with party chief Sheikh Hasina out of the electoral process.
   Presidium member Amir Hossain Amu alleged the caretaker government was hatching a conspiracy against the national elections by wasting time with upazila polls.
   He accused the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, of making controver-
   sial statements over several issues and said the nation expected responsible remarks from him.
   Presidium member Matia Chowdhury alleged the caretaker government was violating the constitution at every step. She gave a warning that the government would need to bear all the responsibilities for the violation the constitution.
   The acting Awami League general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, termed the RPO (Amendment) 1972 anti-people and demanded cancellation of the order. ‘The Election Commission has formulated the RPO to depoliticise the country and the commission will need to be accountable for formulating such undemocratic provisions.’
   Ashraful requested the government not to hatch conspiracy against democracy and not to make national elections uncertain.
   He said the Awami League was opposed to any confrontation with the Election Commission and the party would try to reach a consensus with the commission through discussions.
   The acting Dhaka city Awami League president, MA Aziz, chaired the discussion, joined in by economist Abul Barakat and Awami League leaders Mukul Bose, Abdul Mannan and Mostofa Jalal Mohiuddin and city unit leaders Quamrul Islam, Faizuddin Mia, Mukul Chowdhury, Gazi Lutfur Kabir Ranu, Awlad Hossain and Abdul Huq Sabuj.

Sri Lanka lost a second consecutive home one-day series for the first time in their history as India beat them by 46 runs at the Premadasa stadium on Wednesday.
   India captain Mahendra Dhoni continued his fine form, hitting 71 and putting on 143 from 141 balls with Suresh Raina (76) as India were all out for 258.
   Left-arm seamer Thilan Thushara took a career-best 5-47 for Sri Lanka.
   But despite a blistering 60 from the veteran Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka’s batsmen were dismissed for 212.
   India, who had won the
   previous two games in the
   five-game series after losing
   the opener, put in a fine bowling performance to steal the series.
   Harbhajan Singh found excessive turn under the floodlights in Colombo, and his figures of 3-40 were instrumental in providing India with the cutting edge they needed to press home their advantage.
   As the innings unravelled, Sri Lanka lost regular wickets and never got on top of the required run rate, and four lbw decisions went India’s way.
   Thushara completed a fine personal peformance with a battling knock of 40 off 29 balls, including two sixes in one over from Yuvraj Singh.
   But he was last man out to Zaheer Khan in the 47th over to kickstart India’s celebrations.
   The touring side’s batsmen had encountered far less trouble against Sri Lanka’s spinners, who had been so successful in the Test series.
   Muttiah Muralitharan took 1-56 and Ajantha Mendis 1-43.

Lebanon has issued an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Moammer Gaddafi over the disappearance 30 years ago of a senior Shia Muslim cleric after a visit to Libya, officials said on Wednesday.
   Gaddafi was also indicted for allegedly ‘inciting the abduction’ of Imam Mussa Sadr, the spiritual guide of Lebanon’s Shia community, investigating magistrate Samih el-Hajj said in a charge sheet.
   An ‘arrest warrant’ was issued for Gaddafi and six other Libyan suspects who were also indicted for taking part in the alleged abduction, according to a copy of the charge sheet obtained by AFP.
   Sadr, who founded the opposition Amal movement now led by parliament speaker Nabih Berri, disappeared while in Libya with two companions Mohammed Yacoub and Abbas Badreddin in 1978.
   There has been no trace of the three men since.
   Libya maintains that the trio left for Italy on August 31, 1978 after their stay in Tripoli and that it has no idea what happened to them afterwards.
   The arrest warrant against Gaddafi was issued in virtue of Lebanese law which allows magistrates to take such measures against suspects who fail to respond to an official summons.
   In February, a Lebanese court had given Gaddafi two months to appear for questioning over the disappearance of Sadr, after an official summons sent to Libya through diplomatic channels was not heeded by the Libyan leader.
   Lebanon reopened the case in 2004 after relatives of Sadr and his companions lodged several complaints with the authorities demanding action and amid accusations by the influential Shia Hezbollah movement of Libyan involvement.

The foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, also in charge of the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry, is scheduled to visit Kuwait in September 3-4 to resolve Bangladeshi workers’ problems in Gulf state.
   Iftekhar will meet local leaders and Bangladeshis in Kuwait to address the problems of workers triggered off by the July protests demanding better wages and working condition.
   South Asian workers in Kuwait, including Bangladeshis, went on strike and out on demonstrations at the end of July, demanding higher pay and better working condition.
   The Kuwait police on July 28 arrested at least 800 Bangladeshis during the demonstrations, and deported more than 1,100 workers in phases.
   Some of the workers were deported for illegal stay after their work permits had expired.
   Bangladeshi workers in the Gulf state got back to work as the employers agreed to increase their salary and the Kuwaiti authorities assured them of taking stern action against the companies who failed to keep their promises.
   A release of the foreign ministry on Wednesday said Iftekhar would discuss issues related to Bangladeshi workers with the Kuwait authorities.

BRAC has been selected for the Conrad N Hilton Humanitarian Award this year for its humanitarian services, the BRAC chairperson, Fazle Hasan Abed, said at a news briefing on Wednesday.
   The award of $1.5 million will be given to BRAC, the world’s largest non-governmental organisation, on October 20 in Geneva, Switzerland.
   ‘To receive the Hilton Prize is a great honour and tremendous validation of our work. Billions of people in the world today live in extreme poverty, and it is our goal to transition the poor aid to controlling their own destinies,’ said Fazle Hasan Abed, also BRAC founder, at the news briefing held at BRAC Centre in Dhaka.
   The Conrad N Hilton award is the world’s largest humanitarian award. The prize is presented each year in conjunction with the annual Hilton Humanitarian Symposium which gathers policymakers and world leaders in the humanitarian field to address critical challenges.
   This year’s theme is ‘The Bottom Billion: Is there a Tipping Point?’
   BRAC has been chosen from 225 organisations for the award this year.