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The state of emergency declared on January 11, 2007 suspending fundamental rights and stalling the elections to the ninth parliament has been revoked with effect from today.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, has issued a proclamation revoking the emergency and promulgated an ordinance repealing the Emergency Powers Ordinance 2007 and the Emergency Powers Rules 2007.
   Although the gazette notifications of the proclamation and the Emergency Powers (Repeal) Ordinance 2008 were issued on December 15, a day after the council of advisers of the military-controlled interim government had approved the ordinance to withdraw the emergency, they were made available on Tuesday.
   ‘Whereas the president is satisfied that it is expedient and necessary to revoke the state of emergency proclaimed in exercise of the powers conferred by Article 141A(1) of the constitution, the president does, hereby, revoke the state of emergency, proclaimed on January 11, 2007, in exercise of the powers conferred by Article 141A(2)(a) of the constitution,’ the proclamation reads.
   It also said the proclamation would come into effect on December 17.
   The ordinance, which also comes into effect today, repealed the Emergency Powers Ordinance 2007 and the Emergency Powers Rules 2007.
   It, however, said the proceedings disposed of under the rules would be maintained as if the rules had not been repealed.
   It further said the inquiry, investigation, trial and appeal pending under the rules would continue in their respective stages as if the rules had not been repealed. For their disposal, the laws and rules would be applicable which could have been applicable if the rules had not been framed.
   The ordinance also dissolved the national coordination committee on corruption and serious crimes formed on March 8, 2007. The home adviser was the committee chief.
   The committee, however, may continue with its administrative functions, still pending, till January 1, 2009 and all its activities will cease to function on expiry of the date, the ordinance said.
   The ordinance, however, said the indemnity given by Section 6 of the Emergency Powers Ordinance would be maintained as if the ordinance had not been repealed.
   The section said no case could be filed or no proceedings could be drawn against persons for anything done by them in good faith in pursuant of any order given under the emergency powers ordinance and rules.
   The president declared the state of emergency on January 11, 2007 amid political crisis. The declaration of emergency postponed the general elections and suspended civil and political rights. He also stepped down as chief adviser to the caretaker government and formed a new interim government led by Fakhruddin Ahmed as chief adviser on January 12, 2007.
   Curfew was ordered on January 11, 2007 on all metropolitan cities and district towns between 11:00pm and 5:00am everyday until further order. The curfew, however, was withdrawn the next day although the troops, deployed on December 9, 2006 on election duties, were kept on the field.
   Although the troops were withdrawn on November 4, 2008, they will come out of the barracks again on Wednesday, a day after the withdrawal of the emergency, for election duty beginning on December 20, election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain told reporters on Monday.
   Another round of curfew was ordered on all metropolitan cities at 8:00pm on August 22, 2007 following student protests sparked by assault of a Dhaka University student by an army man in the university playground on August 20. The government withdrew curfew on all the six cities on August 27, 2007. The cities had remained under curfew for 51 hours in full enforcement in six days.
   In the face of continuous demand from national and international quarters, including almost all political parties and rights groups, for a complete withdrawal of the emergency, the government on December 10 announced the emergency would be withdrawn on December 17.
   The alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party asked the government on December 8 to meet two demands — withdrawal of the state of emergency and suspension of Article 91E of the Representation of the People Order which empowers the Election Commission to cancel candidature at any stage of the polls — by December 10 or face consequences.
   Immediately after the declaration of emergency, the government launched drives against corruption mainly targeted at politicians.
   It detained more than 200 leading politicians, including Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, as part of a reported move to keep the two top leaders off politics and send them into exile.
   Many politicians left the country amid the government’s drive.
   The interim government on February 22, 2007 reconstituted the Anti-Corruption Commission and appointed former army chief Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury its chairman.
   It also formed the national coordination committee on March 8, 2007 to deal with corruption and serious crimes and then formed army-led task forces.
   More than 2000 cases have so far been filed under the emergency rules mainly against politicians and businessmen on various charges including corruption, tax evasion and extortion. The Anti-Corruption Commission filed 472 cases and other authorities 710 on corruption charges.
   The government also set up 10 special judge’s courts on the Jatiya Sangsad complex for the trial of the corruption cases under the emergency rules.
   More than 300 people, including about 60 politicians and their close relations, have been convicted under the emergency rules. The convict politicians include former ministers and lawmakers.
   Three Dhaka University teachers, four Rajshahi University teachers and a number of students of both the universities were also jailed during the emergency on charge of breaching emergency rules during the August 2007 campus protests. They were, however, released on suo moto presidential clemencies amid protests against the convictions.
   Although the emergency kept the right to go to court to establish the rights, a number of emergency provisions, action taken under the emergency rules and even the proclamation of the emergency have been challenged in the Supreme Court.
   More than 100 politicians and businessmen could be released from jail obtaining orders from the Supreme Court for their bail in recent months.
   The High Court bench of Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice Md Abdul Hye on December 4 declared illegal and void four provisions of emergency powers ordinance and rules, especially related to the restriction on seeking bail, appeals against lower court orders and stay on the sentences.
   The court delivered the verdict on a public interest litigation writ petition filed by the New Age editor, Nurul Kabir, rights activist Sultana Kamal, also a former adviser to the caretaker government, and Dhaka University law teacher Hafizur Rahman Karzon on June 5.
   The High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Mashuque Hossain Ahmed on July 27 issued a rule asking the government to explain the legality of the state of emergency including its proclamation.
   The court passed the order after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyers M Saleem Ullah, Mohsen Rashid, Nahid Sultana Juthi and Abdul Mannan Khan on July 14. The rule is yet to be disposed of.
   The government has so far promulgated 99 ordinances making new laws or amending the existing ones during the emergency although the High Court has ruled the interim government has no power to promulgate any ordinance making provisions not directly related to the holding of elections.
   The High Court bench of Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice M Abu Tariq on July 13 first came up with the observation in its verdict on a writ petition filed by the Marriage Registrars’ Association president, Peerjada Syed Shariatullah, and five other marriage registrars challenging the legality of the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Ordinance 2008.
   The court also cancelled the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Ordinance, promulgated on February 18.
   The same bench on July 24, after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyers M Shamsul Haque and Tajul Islam and a rule issued suo moto by the court asking the government to explain the constitutionality of the Contempt of Courts Ordinance, cancelled the ordinance with a similar observation.

Tens of thousands of people thronged the National Martyrs Memorial to pay homage to the liberation war heroes on Tuesday, while veterans called for the war criminals of 1971 to be brought to justice.
   Celebrating the nation‘s 38th Victory Day, they also urged the electorate to refrain from voting for war criminals, some of whom have become politicians and are running for national elections set for December 29.
   The people in general vowed for restoration of a democratic system, ending nearly two years of military-led emergency rule through the general elections.
   The Bangladesh Sector Commanders’ Forum – a group of war veterans campaigning for prosecution of those who committed crimes against humanity during the war – has said 14 candidates contesting the polls were identified as war criminals, among more than 11,000, after the independence.
   Most of them are contesting the polls on the tickets of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, a religion-based party that opposed the independence and is now a major partner in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led electoral alliance.
   ‘I want the collaborators to be tried for their crimes’, said Maleka Begum, the mother of Birshrestha Mostafa Kamal. She joined the human stream to place wreaths at the memorial at Savar.
   A rally of war wounded freedom fighters chanted slogans asking the government to execute war criminals. They also urged the people not to vote for the war criminals, whichever party they belonged to.
   Three million people were killed and more than 2,00,000 women were violated by the Pakistani forces and their local collaborators during the nine-month armed struggle that ended with the surrender of the occupation forces on December 16, 1971.
   The war ended with the emergence of independent Bangladesh led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of the country.
   On this day in 1971, the chief of the Pakistani occupation forces, general AAK Niazi, along with 93,000 troops, surrendered after being defeated by the joint forces of Mukti Bahini and Indian army, led by general Jagjit Singh Aurora at the then Race Course maidan, now Suhrawardy Udyan, in Dhaka.
   At Tuesday’s ceremony, president Iajuddin Ahmed, chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, and liberation war veterans joined thousands of people to pay homage to war heroes who had laid down their lives for the nation’s independence.
   The day’s programmes began with 31 gun salutes at the old airport in Tejgaon.
   The president and the chief adviser placed wreaths at the Savar memorial in the morning followed by the members of the council of advisers, foreign diplomats, politicians and people in general.
   Representatives of various political, social and cultural organisations visited the memorial to pay respect to the liberation was martyrs. People from all walks of life streamed into the memorial complex all day long.
   The president and chief adviser greeted the people on the occasion. The day was a public holiday. Important establishments were illuminated in the night while national flag was hoisted atop of almost all buildings.
   All state-run and private media, both electronic and print, undertook special programmes to highlight the day. The government served special meals at the hospitals, orphanages and jails on the occasion.
   Awami League president Sheikh Hasina placed flower at the martyrs’ memorial at about 7:00am, before starting her journey to southern districts for electioneering.
   Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia paid her tribute to the martyrs in the afternoon on her way back to Dhaka from election campaigns in the southern districts. She later placed flowers at the grave of late president Ziaur Rahman, the founder of BNP.
   Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed inaugurated the Victory Day rally and parade of children and juveniles at the Bangabandhu National Stadium. He also hoisted the national flag and took salute from boys and girls who took part in the Victory Day parade from different institutions.
   Different organisations took up elaborate programmes, including discussions, essay and drawing competitions, concerts and fairs to mark the 38th Victory Day.

As the nation celebrated Victory Day Tuesday, the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, called for combined dedicated efforts of all to build up a happy, prosperous and self-reliant Bangladesh to materialise the objective of attaining independence.
   The head of the caretaker government made the call inaugurating the rally and parade of children and juvenile marking Victory Day 2008 at Bangabandhu National Stadium.
   The chief adviser opened the event by releasing pigeons and a bunch of colourful balloons into the air-symbolic of an aspiration for peace and plenty. He also hoisted the national flag.
   Boys and girls of some 70 institutions, including schools, children and juvenile organisations, scouts, girls guide and orphanages from Dhaka and some adjacent districts, took part in the Victory Day parade.
   The chief adviser inspected the parade from a decorated open jeep around the big bowl.
   The students, wearing their respective uniforms, presented impressive march-past and gave salute to the chief adviser. Flanked by liberation war affairs adviser MA Matin, the chief adviser took the salutes of the parade contingents from a decorated podium.
   The stadium galleries were packed with different sections of people of all ages and genders who enjoyed the event on this occasion of national glory.
   Chief adviser’s wife, Neena Ahmed, advisers, special assistants to chief adviser, diplomats and personalities of different professions were also present at the function.
   Addressing the function, the chief adviser urged the children and juvenile to make preparation from now on to lead the country in the future towards the desired destination, marked off with the blood of the martyrs of the War of Independence.
   ‘Groom yourselves as honest persons of character, patriotic, educated, well-disciplined, active and efficient citizens. The country’s future would depend on how much you become honest and efficient,’ Fakhruddin, whose interim regime carried out a purge for a fresh start in socio-political life, told the innocuous assembly of children.
   He said children would have to know the country’s history, tradition and overall ballad of glory of the independence struggle in order to build them up as true patriotic citizens.
   The chief adviser noted that not only this single day of the year is enough to preserve the real history of independence, tradition and flourish sprit and values, but all have to carry out works relentlessly so that everybody can enjoy fruits of independence in all the 365 days.
   ‘So,’ he said, ‘all have to make contribution from everybody’s respective position.’
   The Victory Day pageantry was rounded off with splendid displays demonstrated by students of some institutions. The chief adviser witnessed the callisthenic displays.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Tuesday pledged to fight against corruption and violence if her party voted to power in the general elections slated for December 29.
   Khaleda also called on the people to cast their vote for the party candidates in the ensuing national elections for what she said ‘to get rid of sufferings caused by the interim government and its political backers’.
   ‘We will take stern action against the persons, whoever they are, involved in corruption and violence,’ she told a rally at Bhasantek in the capital Tuesday evening. The incumbent government had tried to depoliticise the country in the name of anti-corruption drive, she added.
   The former prime minister also addressed rallies in places, including Karwanbazar, Kalabagan, Hazaribagh, Lalbagh and Armanitola, and sought vote for party candidates — ASM Hannan Shah, Khandakar Mahbub Uddin Ahmed, Sahabuddin Ahmed, Nasir Uddin Ahmed Pintu, Habibun Nabi Khan Sohel and Shirin Akhter.
   Several thousand people, including some curious onlookers, were present at each of the meeting venues, nearby roads and roofs as well as verandas.
   Party men shouted slogans, welcoming their leader as it was her first visit to those areas after her release from one year imprisonment.
   ‘Beware of those who claimed that the present government was the outcome of their movement. In fact, they are carrying out the state affairs and forcing the people to buy rice at Tk 40 a kilogram and edible oil at Tk 120 a litre. If they come to power, such a situation will continue,’ Khaleda said.
   ‘So cast your vote for the BNP candidates as the December 29 election is an opportunity to get rid of sufferings created by the incumbents and their [political] backers.’
   In last two years, the incumbent government had pushed the country towards a place as it was 20 years ago, she said. ‘Hundreds of thousands of people hardly get food every day because most of them are unemployed and essentials have become costlier.’
   Without naming her arch political rival, Khaleda said they started doing ‘destructive’ politics to go to power by any means.
   ‘There was a party conspiring to foil the January 22 [2007] elections. Due to a lot of support for BNP-led alliance candidates across the country and fearing debacle in the ensuing polls, now they are hatching conspiracy to foil the December 29 elections,’ she said.

The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, on Tuesday said that her government in 1996-2001 had refrained from exporting natural gas for the greater national interest despite pressure from international quarters.
   ‘As the daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, I cannot give in to any pressure and I did not agree to sell the country’s gas resource’, she told rallies on her campaign trail.
   The AL chief addressed rallies on her way to Tungipara in Gopalganj on the first leg of her three-day tour of south-western districts for her party’s campaigns for the December 29 parliamentary polls.
   She was accompanied by her younger sister Sheikh Rehana and Rehana’s daughter Azmina Siddiqui Rupanti.
    Addressing a rally at Srinagar Stadium in Munshiganj 1 constituency, the AL chief said her party, if voted to power, would make the best use of the country’s natural resources, for domestic purposes.
   She said the AL would take measures to determine the actual gas reserves and then plan for its proper use.
   The AL chief addressed five election rallies seeking votes for the candidates of the AL-led alliance and pledged to establish Bangladesh as the most peaceful nation in South Asia.
   ‘You will have to make a choice – whether you want anarchy and terrorism or peace and stability, whether you want food deficit or self-sufficiency in food….and cast your votes after taking a decision,’ said Hasina adding, ‘If you want to see a modern and developed Bangladesh, stamp the symbol of boat on the ballot.’
   While addressing a series of rallies at Munshiganj, Hasina pledged that, if voted to power, her government would construct the Padma bridge and would take effective steps to save Munshiganj district from erosion through river dredging.
   She also made a commitment to set up factories for processing food and agricultural products in Munshiganj, a major potato-growing region.
   The former prime minister assured the electorate to reduce prices of essentials, free education up to graduation level, set up new schools and colleges and bring an end to water, power and gas crises. She also vowed to curb terrorism, provide agricultural loans and subsidies, generate new jobs and ensure uninterrupted power supply.
   Hasina castigated the previous BNP-Jamaat alliance government for plundering national wealth.
   She told the young generation that the Awami League-led grand alliance had set ‘vision 2021’ for the youth and wanted to build a digital Bangladesh to face the challenge of the 21st century.
   The AL chief announced her election manifesto titled ‘charter for change’ on December 12 which she dedicated to the young generation setting a vision for 2021.
   Her niece Ruponti, who also addressed some of the rallies, urged the first-time voters to stamp the symbol of boat in the elections in order to make their dream come true.
   Hasina addressed rallies at Balurmath at Shyampur in Dhaka 4 constituency, Srinagar stadium in Munshiganj 1, Baligao high school ground in Munshiganj 2, Bhanga Maligram school ground in Faridpur 4 and Moksedpur in Gopalganj 1 and introduced the party and alliance candidates Sanjida Khanam, Sukumar Ranjan Ghosh, Sagupta Yasmin Emili, Nilufer Zafarullah and Faruque Khan.
   People in their large numbers, including party leaders, activists and supporters attended the rallies carrying the AL’s electoral symbol ‘boat’ and chanted slogans in support of Sheikh Hasina and the grand alliance.

The Election Commission is likely move the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for the final hearing in earlier court orders which asked the commission to accept the candidatures of at least four aspirants for the December 29 general elections.
   The commission Monday evening decided to not to allow to contest at least three aspirants of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and one of the Awami League after the High Court and the Appellate Division had asked the commission to accept their candidature, said an official of the EC Secretariat. The commission had earlier rejected the candidature of the four aspirants.
   The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, however, on December 14 announced the final list of 1,538 candidates with symbols and said candidature of the aspirants would be accepted if the High Court asks it to do so.
   ‘Some candidates have filed appeals with the High Court challenging the commission decision which cancelled their candidature. If the court accepts the appeals, the total number of candidates will increase, but not by more than three or four,’ Shamsul told reporters.
   The Appellate Division on Sunday asked the commission to accept the candidature of retired major Manzur Kader of the BNP for the Sirajganj 5 constituency and Shahidul Alam Talukder, a BNP aspirant for the Patuahkali 1 constituency. The commission declared invalid the candidatures of the persons as the Bangladesh Bank identified them as loan defaulters, lawyers said.
   The High Court also asked the commission to accept the candidature of Golam Mawla Khan Bablu of the BNP for the Sirajganj 5 constituency and Ataur Rahman Shamim of the Awami League for the Moulvibazar 2 constituency.
   The High Court, meanwhile, summarily rejected election writ petitions of the Awami League’s Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, Jatiya Party presidium member Kazi Zafar Ahmed, and BNP aspirants for the Barishal 1 constituency Abdus Sobhan and Md Abdul Hannan for Chandpur 4.
   The commission, earlier, allegedly delayed the issuance of the certified copies of the judgements, especially the rejection of appeals against or validation of candidatures, to stop the aggrieved from seeking justice in courts, aspirants and their counsels alleged.
   The commission heard 380 appeals against rejection and validation of candidature by returning officers in four days till December 11. But most of the people, whose appeals were rejected by the three-member commission, headed by Shamsul, did not get copies of the decision in the first three of the four days.
   Shamsul, however, put the matter down to time constraints and said it was not humanly possible to write in two or three days all the judgements they had made in four days of the hearing in 398 appeals.

Calling someone the ‘son of a shoe’ is one of the worst insults in Iraq. But the lowly shoe and the Iraqi who threw both of his at president Bush, with widely admired aim, were embraced around the Arab world on Monday as symbols of rage at a still unpopular war, reports New York Times.
   In Saudi Arabia, a newspaper reported that a man had offered $10 million to buy just one of what has almost certainly become the world’s most famous pair of black dress shoes.
   A daughter of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, reportedly awarded the shoe thrower, Muntader al-Zaidi, a 29-year-old journalist, a medal of courage.
   In the Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City, people calling for an immediate American withdrawal removed their footwear and placed the shoes and sandals at the end of long poles, waving them high in the air. And in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf, people threw their shoes at a passing American convoy.
   In street-corner conversations, on television and in internet chat rooms, the subject of shoes was inescapable throughout much of the Middle East on Monday, as was the defiant act that inspired the interest: a huge and spontaneous eruption of anger at president Bush on Sunday in his final visit to Iraq. Some deplored Zaidi’s act as a breach of respect or of traditional Arab hospitality toward guests, even if they shared the sentiment. (Bush, having demonstrated his quick reflexes, then brushed it off as an expression of democracy.)
   ‘Although that action was not expressed in a civilised manner, it showed the Iraqi feelings, which is to object to the American occupation,’ said Qutaiba Rajaa, a 58-year-old physician in Samarra, a Sunni stronghold north of Baghdad.
   But many more expressed undiluted pleasure. ‘I swear by God that all Iraqis with their different nationalities are glad about this act,’ said Yaareb Yousif Matti, a 45-year-old teacher from Mosul, in northern Iraq.
   Zaidi, who remained in custody Monday, provided a rare moment of unity in a region often at odds with itself. Glee, even if thinly veiled, could be discerned in much of the reporting, especially in places where anti-American sentiment runs deepest.
   In Syria, Zaidi’s picture was shown all day on state television, with Syrians calling in to share their admiration for his gesture and his bravery. In central Damascus, a huge banner hung over a street, reading, ‘Oh, heroic journalist, thank you so much for what you have done.’
   In Lebanon, reactions varied by political affiliation, but curiosity about the episode was universal. An American visitor to a school in Beirut’s southern suburb, where the Shia militant group Hezbollah is popular, was besieged with questions from teachers and students alike, who wanted to know what Americans thought about the insult.
   ‘It’s the talk of the city,’ said Ibrahim Mousawi, a Beirut journalist and political analyst affiliated with Hezbollah. ‘Everyone is proud of this man, and they’re saying he did it in our name.’
   The instantly mythic moment took place Sunday night at a news conference by president Bush and the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, in Baghdad’s Green Zone, a session meant partly to trumpet recent security gains in Iraq.
   As Bush was speaking, Zaidi rose abruptly from about 12 feet away, reared his right arm and fired a shoe at the president’s head while shouting in Arabic: ‘This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!’
   Bush deftly ducked and the shoe narrowly missed him. A few seconds later, the journalist tossed his other shoe, again with great force, this time shouting, ‘This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!’ Again, the shoe sailed over the president’s head.
   Zaidi was subdued by a fellow journalist and then beaten by members of the prime minister’s security detail, who hauled him out of the room in his white socks. Zaidi’s cries could be heard from a nearby room as the news conference continued.
   A number of Iraqis said they were dismayed by what Zaidi had done. Ahmad Abu Risha, the head of the Awakening Council in Anbar Province, a group of tribal leaders that started a wave of popular opposition to fighters linked to al-Qaeda, condemned the move.
   Zaidi, who has not been formally charged, faces up to seven years in prison for committing an act of aggression against a visiting head of state. It was unclear whether his popularity would prompt Maliki’s government to lighten his punishment.
   A statement from Maliki’s government described the shoe-throwing as a ‘shameful, savage act that is not related to journalism in any way.’ It called on Al Baghdadia, the Cairo-based satellite television network for which Zaidi works, to publicly apologise.
   But as of Monday night, no apology from the network had been forthcoming. Instead, it posted an image of Zaidi in a corner of the screen for much of the day. When viewers were invited to phone in, the vast majority approved of his actions.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s ‘two-nation theory’ was quite appropriate for the times prior to creating the two countries — Pakistan and India — in 1947 and its applicability did not wear out even in the case of an independent Bangladesh, said the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami chief, Matiur Rahman Nizami, on Tuesday.
   He made the observation at a discussion organised by the party’s Dhaka city chapter at Moghbazar Al-Falah auditorium on the occasion of Victory Day.
   Referring to Pakistan’s founding governor general Jinnah, an elitist British-educated lawyer, as ‘Quaid-e-Azam’ meaning ‘father of the nation’, Nizami said, ‘After December 16, 1971, the Indian radio ‘Akashbani’ preached that the ‘two-nation theory’ of Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, had proved wrong.’
   ‘On the other hand, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the architect of Bangladesh had declared as soon as he set foot in the newly-emerged independent country on January 10, 1972 that Bangladesh was the second largest Muslim state in the world,’ Nizami said.
   ‘Though discouraged by India and Russia (then USSR), Mujib joined the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Countries) summit in 1974. These establish that ‘Quaid-e-Azam’ Jinnah’s theory was right and Akashbani was wrong,’ the Jamaat chief said.
   He reiterated, ‘The hostile attitude demonstrated by India towards Bangladesh through the past 37 years also proves that the two-nation theory was absolutely right.’
   ‘The Indians do not like us Bangladeshis because we are Muslims,’ Nizami said.
   ‘The Indian soldiers plundered our country indiscriminately during the War of Independence,’ he said.
   ‘[They] took away not only the arms and ammunition abandoned by the Pakistani troops, but also stripped our factories down to the nuts and bolts and robbed educational institutions of their laboratory equipment and decamped with even bags of blood from the blood banks,’ Nizami alleged.
   Calling Sheikh Mujib ‘a crafty politician’, Nizami said immediately after declaring the four state principles in India, on return home Mujib had joined ranks with the Muslim ummah.
   Mujib had started his political career as a Muslim League volunteer, the Jamaat-e-Islami chief said, and along with his close comrade Tajuddin Ahmed had fought championing the two-nation theory.
   He continued, ‘Sheikh Hasina is now vowing that they will not make any legislation which might contradict the Qur’an or the Sunnah, which nullifies all their messages on secularism delivered so far!’
   Nizami said, ‘Hasina is also claiming that they will go by the provisions of the 1972 constitution, if voted to power this time, which will mean they will recourse to laws that would contradict the Qur’an and the Sunnah!’
   He said the country had traversed backward during the emergency rule, for which the grand alliance and its leader Hasina had been responsible.
   She now has to bear the brunt of the misrule wrought by the caretaker government, Nizami declared.
   Calling upon the audience to make the four-party alliance victor in the forthcoming polls, he said, ‘There is no alternative to the four-party alliance at this critical juncture if you want to see this nation free from all shackles.’

The chief of army staff, General Moeen U Ahmed, has said the army is happy to return to barrack after accomplishing their assigned tasks, as they had no intention to impose martial law in the country.
   In a TV interview on Tuesday he said many, particularly diplomats, came to him in 2006 to know when he was going to declare martial law.
   ‘But I said Bangladesh army would neither follow our neighbours nor our predecessors. We won’t declare martial law,’ he said.
   The army chief said he believed that the problem facing the country was a political one and it should be resolved politically. ‘And for that we didn’t step in. We came in aid of the civil administration,’
   He said whenever the government asked the army to get back to barrack ‘we came back happily’.
   About withdrawal of the army this time, Gen Moeen said he also requested the government to send them back since they were on the ground for a long time causing damage to the training of the army. ‘Now we want to prepare to do our primary duty.’
   He said since the government realised it and gave a quick decision, the army returned to the barrack. ‘We’re happy on our return and doing our day-to-day works.’
   The army chief said successful accomplishment of tasks given by the government in the last two years would be evaluated and praised by people in the future.
   He said whenever the country had faced any disaster and whichever government was in power, the army stood by the people at the call of the government.
   General Moeen said the army responded to the government call to assist the civil administration and successfully curbed terrorism, recovering illegal arms, prepared national ID cards and the voters’ list with photos.
   Besides, the army made all-out efforts in tackling the aftermaths of floods and Cyclone Sidr, and saved humanity in 2006 and ‘07. He said the army also encouraged farmers and gave them various incentives after the floods to go for production with renewed vigour.
   Speaking on the occasion of laying the foundation stone of a golf club house complex, the army chief said army would assist every voter so they can cast their votes according to their wishes. He said the army would remain as striking force during the elections.

The chief of army staff, General Moeen U Ahmed, while exchanging views with the newsmen at a function at Chittagong Bhatiary Golf Club on December 6 had spoken about deployment of army for the forthcoming parliamentary elections.
   In this connection the army chief said, ‘Army will be deployed from December 20 as striking force,’ quoting the letter of the Election Commission issued on November 30, 2008, an ISPR press release said in Dhaka Tuesday.

India said Tuesday its peace process with Pakistan had been put on hold in the wake of last month’s Islamic militant attacks on Mumbai, but asserted it was not preparing for war.
   The Indian government said the future of relations between the two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals depended on how Pakistan responded to demands for action against the alleged plotters of the attacks.
   ‘I do admit there is a pause in the composite dialogue process because of the attacks on Mumbai,’ the foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, told reporters in Srinagar, the main city in volatile Indian Kashmir.
   ‘What we expect, and what we have pointed out to Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi, is that Pakistan should fulfil its commitment of not allowing its territory for terrorist attacks against India.’
   Last month’s attacks in Mumbai killed 172 people and wounded nearly 300 others. India says the gunmen were trained and sent by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.
   Abdullah Ghaznavi, a spokesman for the LeT, on Tuesday again denied it was behind the carnage, but vowed the group would fight on against Indian rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir.
   ‘Our fight for Kashmir’s freedom will continue,’ he said, adding ‘we are not in any way involved in the Mumbai attacks.’
   Immediately after the Mumbai siege, Indian officials signalled the government was considering suspending the peace process with Pakistan — although no official suspension has been announced.
   The dialogue had already been under serious strain following the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul in July — which New Delhi directly blamed on Islamabad.
   The two countries have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947. They agreed on a ceasefire along their heavily militarised border in 2003, and launched a peace process the following year.

Secretary of state nominee Hillary Clinton has said she loves Bangladesh and looking forward to visiting the country.
   ‘Election in Bangladesh should be free and fair and democracy is cultured in that country,’ she said while speaking at her first public appearance at the Manhattan Centre Ballroom in New York on Monday after being nominated as secretary of state by president-elect Barack Obama.
   Talking to America-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries president Giash Ahmed and secretary Hasanuzzaman Hasan at the function Hillary said ‘I love Bangladesh and would visit the country in near future’.
   The aim of this event was to raise fund for Hillary Clinton’s debt that she incurred while running for the presidency earlier this year.
   As a secretary of state, Hillary hopes to recover the image of America which was damaged across the world in the past eight years.

The government has selected five local private companies for taking part in the bidding process to handover electricity generation, transmission and distribution systems at three islands — Hatiya, Sandwip and Kutubdia — to private investors.
   The successful private investors will take over the existing not-so-significant power supply systems of the remote islands, so far not connected with the national power grid, and will install necessary power plants, transmission lines and distribution systems to supply power to the inhabitants, power officials said.
   For Hatiya in Noakhali, four companies — Association of KEL, GBB, Navana and Global — have been pre-qualified
   for taking part in the final bidding likely to be held in February, officials of the Power Cell said.
   Another company, Energypac, along with GBB and Association of KEL, was pre-qualified for Sandwip and Kutubdia.
   The cell, research and planning wing of the Power Division, in June invited the private investors to submit applications for pre-qualification for development and operation of the power supply systems at the three islands on build-own-operate basis, as per the Guidelines for Remote Area Power Supply System.
   ‘The islands virtually do not have any power supply system at present. The company or the companies, which will come out as successful bidder in the final bidding in January-February, will have to invest to develop the entire electricity generation, transmission and distribution systems,’ said a cell official.
   Electricity is being supplied to some areas of these islands, especially to the government offices, two to three hours a day from a small number of diesel-run generators of the Power Development Board while some residences have installed solar panels to get electricity.
   The number of population of 1508 square-kilometre Hatia is around 4-5 lakh, of 762sq km Sandwip in Chittagong around 3-4 lakh and of 215sq km Kutubdia in Cox’s Bazar around 1-1.5 lakh.
   ‘Very few people in these areas have electricity connections. Those who have connections get electricity four to five hours a week. It is not possible to connect these islands with the national grid as hundreds of crores of taka will be needed to install overhead or submarine electricity transmission lines,’ said a power division official.
   He said the selected bidder will install fuel oil-based or renewable energy-based power plants to supply electricity to the consumers.
   The interim government in March 2007 approved the RAPSS guidelines to allow private sector investors to take over electricity distribution systems and set up mini-power plants in 15 remote areas, which were out of the national grid, as per the suggestion of international lenders.
   Many power officials, however, feel that handing over such power supply system to private sector would create discrimination among the consumers of these rural islands as they might have to pay higher electricity price than the affluent people of the urban areas.
   A high official of the Power Division said they would create a special fund, as suggested in the RAPSS guideline, to give to the private sponsors so that they could supply electricity at an affordable price.

US military operations, including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, have cost $904 billion since 2001 and could top $1.7 trillion by 2018, even with big cuts in overseas troop deployments, a report said Monday.
   A new study released by the nonpartisan Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, or CSBA, said the Iraq conflict’s $687 billion price tag alone now exceeds the cost of every past US war except for Second World War, when expenditures are adjusted for inflation.
   With another $184 billion in spending for Afghanistan included, the two conflicts surpass the cost of the Vietnam War by about 50 per cent, the report said.
   CSBA said US military operations have already reached $904 billion since 2001, including the two wars as well as stepped-up military security activities at home and the payout in war-related veterans’ benefits. The estimate includes allocated spending into 2009.
   In contrast, a separate Government Accountability Office study released on Monday said Congress has provided the Pentagon with $808 billion for the Bush administration’s global war on terrorism from 2001 through September 30, 2008, including $508 billion for Iraq and $118 billion for Afghanistan, the Philippines and the Horn of Africa.
   The CSBA study said US taxpayers could pay another $416 billion to $817 billion over the next decade, even if the combined troop deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan were slashed to between 30,000 and 75,000.
   That would bring the cost for both wars to between $1.3 trillion and $1.72 trillion for 2001 through 2018, and
   even higher when federal borrowing costs are included, CSBA said.
   The United States has 143,000 troops in Iraq and 31,000 in Afghanistan. Washington has agreed to withdraw its forces from Iraq by the end of 2011, under a newly signed agreement with the Iraqi government. But US officials are planning to add more than 20,000 forces in Afghanistan within 12 to 18 months.

Six members of two families, five of them children under 16, died when a fire sparked by a suspected short circuit gutted several homes in Khagrachari on Monday night.
   Khadiza Akhter Sonia,16, Sakina Akhter Tania, 14, and Jannatul Ferdous Tuli, 9, daughters of Joynal Abedin were among the dead. Saidul Islam, 12, Salma Akhter, 10, and Harisa Khatun, the children and wife of Joynal’s brother Solaiman were also killed in the fire at a Roads and Highways residential colony at Dighinala upazila.
   Brothers and neighbours Joynal and Solaiman are both employees of the Roads and Highways department.
   A traumatised Joynal told reporters Tuesday that his family were all sleeping when the devastating fire broke out.
   It spread to a nearby haystack and then two nearby houses, as residents failed to tame the flames, witnesses said.
   Employed as a night guard, Solaiman said the incident took place at about 11:00pm when his son Saidul was burnt alive before his eyes.
   Fireman Rocky Chakma said an electrical short circuit could be the cause of the fire as the colony’s wiring was reported faulty for months.
   Khagrachari district council chairman in-charge Ruithi Karbari said the district council would give the victims’ surviving family members Tk 10,000 each.
   A general diary has been registered with Dighinala police, OC Subhash Chandra Paul said.

Armed assailants in a gun attack injured a businessman at Purana Paltan in Dhaka early Tuesday over reported refusal to pay tolls to extortionists.
   The victim, Amzad Hossain Shaheen, the owner of the Shameem Telecom Centre at Purana Paltan, was shot at by a group of four as he was entering his business concern at 12:15am, the family said. He was injured in the right hand and in the head.
   Local people took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he was being treated till Tuesday night.
   The police suspected he might have been attacked as
   he refused to pay tolls to extortionists.
   The family said local gangster Babu demanded a huge amount of money from him and he reused to pay any money.
   A case was filed with the Paltan police in this connection.

The academic council closed the Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology for an indefinite period and vacated the student dormitories on Tuesday following a clash between students and local people.
   CUET sources said the
   academic council decided to close the university for indefinite period in a meeting with the vice-chancellor, Shamol Kanti Biswas, in the chair at noon.
   The students were locked in a clash with the local traders on Sunday when a university bus hit an auto-rickshaw in the Brhamhanhat bridge area on Sunday, sources said, adding that at least 12 students had been injured in the clash.
   The students blockaded the Kaptai Road on Monday in protest against the incident, suspending traffic for four hours.
   They also vandalised five vehicles and ransacked more than 10 shops in the locality.

Intense fighting in northern Sri Lanka on Tuesday left at least 25 government troops and 120 Tamil Tigers dead in ongoing battles for the rebels’ political capital, a military spokesman said.
   Security forces carried out simultaneous attacks against Tamil Tiger strong-points near the town of Kilinochchi, and also on the Jaffna peninsula, military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said.
   In a rare statement announcing casualty figures, he said that another 160 government soldiers and an estimated 250 rebels were wounded. The military said 10 of its soldiers were also missing after Tuesday’s fighting.
   The defence ministry decided in October to stop revealing daily casualty figures, saying they would affect military operations.
   Nanayakkara said troops were consolidating positions they had captured from the Tigers, who have offered stiff resistance to government forces advancing on Kilinochchi, 330 kilometres north of Colombo.
   The defence ministry said Mi-24 helicopter gunships were deployed to destroy a Tamil Tiger boat which had been attacking troops operating in a coastal area in the northern mainland on Tuesday.
   There was no immediate comment from the Tamil Tigers, but the pro-rebel Tamilnet website said at least 40 government soldiers were killed and another 120 wounded on the Jaffna peninsula alone.
   The web site said fighting went on for nine hours, adding the Tigers had beaten back the military’s advance in the peninsula, but it made no reference to the fighting in the Kilinochchi area.
   Security forces this week escalated their ground attacks against Tamil Tiger guerrillas after heavy aerial attacks using jets and helicopter gunships.
   Soldiers captured the village of Ampakamam, southeast of Kilinochchi, from the Tigers on Monday and a road leading to the rebel military base of Mullaittivu on Tuesday, the ministry said.
   The government of the president, Mahinda Rajapakse, has been predicting the imminent fall of Kilinochchi for several months and the military recently said it was within ‘kissing distance’ of the town.

The Indian government on Tuesday sought parliament’s approval for a national agency to investigate major militant attacks such as last month’s assaults on Mumbai.
   The proposed agency would come after decades of opposition from India’s 29 states, which have long argued such a body would allow the national government to usurp their local law enforcement powers.
   The home minister, P Chidambaram, introduced the bill which, if turned into law, would establish a National Investigations Agency, styled on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
   ‘There have been innumerable incidents of attacks, not only in militancy and insurgency-affected areas... but also in the form of terrorist attacks and bomb blasts in various parts of the hinterland and major cities,’ Chidambaram said.
   New Delhi has said Islamic militants who were trained and armed in Pakistan staged the November 26 attacks, in which gunmen killed 163 people. Nine of the attackers were also killed.
   Chidambaram also sought the approval of the lower house for new anti-terror legislation which would give provincial and federal police increased powers to investigate militant attacks.

Printing of ballot papers for the December 29 parliamentary polls is expected to be completed by December 23, an Election Commission official said in Dhaka Tuesday.
   Talking to reporters, the EC deputy secretary, Mihir Sarwar Morshed, said printing of 20 per cent ballot papers for
   299 constituencies completed so far. Rest of the printing is continuing in full swing,
   he said.
   He also said six mobile teams had been working throughout the country to identify and punish the violators of Election Code of Conduct.
   The total number of voters with photographs is 8,10,58,698 including 3,98,22,449 males and 4,12,29,149 females, Mihir said adding that the electorates would caste their votes in 1,77,107 booths of 35,216 polling centres.
   A total of 35,216 presiding officers, 1,77,107 assistant presiding officers and 3,54,214 polling officers will conduct the polls, the EC deputy secretary said.
   The indelible ink with other materials will reach the EC headquarters by December 23, he also said.