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The Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Saturday said democracy and development were synonymous with BNP and its election symbol ‘paddy sheaf’ and urged the people to vote the party to power again and step into the New Year in a free and democratic environment.
   She admitted that her government had made some mistakes while in power and asked for forgiveness. She assured the voters that, if elected to office this time, her alliance would run the administration by taking lessons from past mistakes.
   The BNP chief also called for an end to the politics of hartal and blockade and urged all parties to work together for the welfare of the people forgetting the past bitterness.
   ‘The nation steps into a new year after the elections. Cast your vote for paddy sheaf so that the people can have a nationalist government in the new year and start their life afresh with freedom in a democratic environment’, Khaleda Zia said at a mammoth rally at the Paltan ground in Dhaka. ‘The BNP and paddy sheaf are synonymous with democracy and development.’
   Expressing her desire for a new start, the immediate-past prime minister said, ‘We were in power. We may have made some mistakes. I regret this. I offer an apology. We will work in future taking lessons from the past mistakes…We want to have a new start if we are voted to power once again.’
   Offering her political rivals an olive branch, she said, ‘Whichever party we belong to, the country should be most important to all of us. Let us forget whatever happened in the past. We may have differences and it is nothing unusual. Let us work together for the betterment of the people and the nation’, she said adding, ‘We need to work together’, she said asking her opponents not to harbour any grudge.
   Seeking support of the new and young voters, she said, ‘As a mother, I make a promise that, if you vote us to power again, we will work for making your future brighter…There is no time to look back. We will have to march forward.’
   In her 55-minute address starting at 4:30pm, Khaleda pledged to curb corruption and crime and contain prices of essentials and agricultural inputs and free education for all up to degree level.
   Khaleda said her party wanted to establish rule of law, multi-party democracy, an effective parliament and peaceful educational institutions.
   She, however, alleged that conspiracies were on to thwart BNP’s return to power.
   Recalling her ordeals in the last two years, Khaleda said she was pressured after her arrest to leave the country. ‘But I did not give in to the pressure. I told them that I would never leave my people and my country since I do not have any address outside the country. But some leaders fled the country leaving the people in distress behind.’
   Giving an account of the ‘sufferings’ of the people during the regimes of Awami League in 1972-1975 and 1996-2001 and Jatiya Party in 1984-1990, Khaleda said they should not talk about democracy and freedom of press as the Awami League had imposed a one-party Baksal rule and closed all but four newspapers which they kept under government control.
   In reply to Awami League’s allegations that the BNP had harboured criminals and militants, she said the people knew well under which regime terrorism had flourished. ‘They [AL] had a godfather in each district. People know the godfathers who reigned supreme in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Feni during their rule.’
   Khaleda said that it was not fitting for them [Hasina and Ershad] to talk about corruption. Quoting TIB a report she said that during the Awami League’s rule, corruption amounting to Tk 17,192 crore was revealed. The amount was gradually brought down to Tk 526 crore in 2005.
   She alleged the then prime minister had taken ‘commission’ for the MiG-29 deal.
   Branding Ershad ‘thief of the world’, the BNP chief said he [Ershad] was convicted for corruption not by any special court but under normal law. ‘He still faces many corruption cases and will be convicted.’
   She introduced her party’s candidates for the 19 constituencies in Dhaka to the audience and sought vote for them.
   The meeting started at 3:15pm with recitation from the Holy Qur’an. Khaleda Zia’s address was interrupted frequently by slogans and claps from the audience.
   The rally was also addressed by, among others, BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish amir Maulana Mohammad Ishaq, Islami Oikya Jote secretary general Abdul Latif Nezami, Bangladesh Jatiya Party secretary general Shamim Al Mamun and Jamaat-e-Islami’s assistant secretary general barrister Abdur Razzak.
   The BNP chief began her electioneering on December 12 after visiting the shrines of Hazrat Shahjalal, Hazrat Shah Paran and Hazrat Gazi Burhanuddin in Sylhet.

Thousands of people in seemingly endless processions surged into the Paltan ground in Dhaka on Saturday to witness the conclusion of the BNP-led alliance’s campaign for the elections to the ninth parliament, where the alliance supremo, Khaleda Zia, called for concerted efforts to build a prosperous Bangladesh.
   Large and small processions from different parts of the city poured into the meeting venue, chanting slogans seeking vote for the alliance candidates, and carrying colourful banners, inscribed with the alliance candidates’ portraits, festoons with black and white posters, paddy sheaf, and large replicas of scales, the polls symbol of the BNP’s major ally, Jamaat-e-Islami.
   Stringent security measures were taken at the venue where all the people entering the ground were frisked by the security personnel. The four-layer security arrangements ranged from manual checking to scanning by the metal detector.
   As many as 4,000 security personnel from the police, the Rapid Action Battalion, Armed Police Battalion, Ansars, Presidential Guard Regiment, Special Security Force and the Dog Squad were deployed in and around the venue as streams of masses engulfed the surrounding areas of Motijheel, Zero Point, Purana Paltan and Gulistan during the rally. A team of strategic weapon and tactics of the detective branch of police was put on alert.
   Although there was a bullet-proof screen in front of Khaleda Zia when she took her seat on the stage, there was no such screen before her when she was addressing the rally from the podium. Party sources said the BNP chief was not interested in addressing people from behind a bullet-proof screen.
   About a dozen members of the special security force cordoned off Khaleda, forming a human shield from three sides.
   The large front of the back-screen was inscribed with the BNP’s election theme ‘save the country, save the people’ along with a large portrait of Ziaur Rahman, the founder of the party.
   The audience spreading from the Dainik Bangla crossing to the Bangabandhu Avenue alongside the Paltan ground got startled for a few seconds when Khaleda apologised for mistakes during her immediate past regime but then burst into a thunderous applause appreciating her attitude.
   ‘She has done it! This confession will change the situation,’ said Abdul Alim of Mirpur, standing in front of the Jiban Bima Bhaban.
   Youngsters including boys and girls also responded cheerfully when she sought their votes as a mother and assured them of taking initiatives to build a prosperous future for them.

Candidates and their supporters put in all their efforts in the last-minute campaigns on Saturday to seek votes in their favour.
   Electioneering ended midnight past Saturday, 32 hours before the polling begins at 8:00am Monday. The members of the law enforcement agencies have started patrolling the cities and towns.
   The Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, concluded her formal electioneering with a rally in Paltan Maidan in Dhaka while her archrival Awami League president Sheikh Hasina winded up her election campaigns with a rally in Laldighi Maidan in Chittagong.
   The Election Commission is all set to hold elections under the state of emergency. Election materials, including ballot boxes, will be sent to polling centres today.
   As the commission set the stage for voting in the national elections, both the electoral alliance led by the Awami League and the BNP on Saturday placed their final checklist with their demands before the commission polls — one complaining that the administration is pitted against them and the other seeking fair results.
   One thousand, five hundred and fifty-five candidates of 39 political parties are contesting the polls for 299 constituencies. The elections to the Noakhali 1 constituency have been suspended because of the death of the Awami League-led alliance candidate, Ganatantri Party chief Nurul Islam, for the constituency.
   About 13 lakh people including 5,66,537 polling officers, 4.25 lakh Ansars members, and 2 lakh personnel of law enforcement agencies were readied for polls duty, the commission officials said.
   According to a commission release, the commission has imposed restrictions on the plying of auto-rickshaws, taxicabs, microbuses, jeeps, pickups, cars, buses, trucks, human haulers, launches, and all mechanised boats between midnight past Sunday and midnight past Monday.
   The release said the ban would not be applicable to vehicles plying highways. It said the ban had been imposed on taxicabs, microbuses, jeeps, pickups only for metropolitan areas.
   The release, however, said the ban would not be applicable to authorised and identified local and foreign election observers and journalists, employees on election duty, members of the law enforcement agencies, ambulances and the vehicles engaged in electricity, gas, telephone and postal services.
   A five-member delegation of the BNP-led alliance led by the BNP’s joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan had a meeting with the commission Saturday morning at the EC Secretariat when they alleged some administration officials were working in favour of their rival alliance.
   After the meeting, Nazrul Islam told journalists the officials were working in favour of their rival Awami League-led alliance before the elections. ‘It is a violation of the code of conduct and barrier to holding free and fair elections.’
   ‘We have received such allegations from our candidates and placed them before the commission,’ he said, adding the commission assured them that it would take immediate measures.
   In reply to a question, he said the civil and the police administrations were helping the rival candidates who were contesting the elections for some constituencies. ‘Our candidates have been beaten and their posters were torn in some areas.’
   He alleged the returning officers had invited some people, including the chairmen of union councils, to dinner party in some areas and told them what they should not have done.
   A seven-member delegation led by Awami League leader HT Imam later had a meeting with the commission at the EC secretariat and demanded publication of the elections results without distortion.
   HT Imam told reporters the previous administration and the commission were not neutral.
   He said the Election Commission should be aware of the secretaries who he said were discharging duties in favour of a vested-interest quarter and received their promotion.
   He said the returning officers would need to publish the results after collecting the results from all presiding officers and to send them to the Election Commission so that ‘no distortion of fact is made midway.’

The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, on Saturday sought a mandate from the electorate for her party’s ‘charter for change’ in Monday’s parliamentary elections urging the voters not to let their conscience be sold out to black money on offer.
   ‘They are out with sackfuls of money they plundered during their rule to buy vote at the final moments. Please do not sell out your conscience to the black money, cast your vote for the Awami League-led alliance and we will present you with a prosperous Bangladesh’, Hasina told a huge gathering at Laldighi ground in the port city of Chittagong as she wrapped up her barnstorming two-week hustings for Monday’s parliamentary polls.
   ‘You must remain alert…The money they will offer you were looted from you during the rule of the BNP-Jamaat alliance… Reject them in the ballot to ensure you live in peace in the next five years’, the AL chief said amid thunderous applause from the audience.
   Terming the December 29 elections the moment of truth for the nation, Hasina asked the officials, to be deployed on election duty, to act impartially during the polls and help conduct a free and fair election in order to restore democracy. 
   She branded the Khaleda Zia-led alliance a mafia of corrupt elements who had harboured and nurtured criminals and militants over the past years and said that they were now desperate to manipulate the elections to their favour.
   The former prime minister called upon the voters to choose the right candidates and stand guard at the polling centre until the vote count was completed.
   On the final day of her election campaigns, which she began on December 11 after saying prayers at the shrine of Shah Jalal, a 13th century Muslim saint, in north-eastern Sylhet, Hasina addressed eight election rallies on her way to Chittagong. She started from Dhaka in the morning and arrived at Laldighi ground in Chittagong after sunset. 
   Hasina was greeted by people and supporters along the way. They waited by the waysides at numerous points for hours to welcome the former prime minister who sought a second chance to run the country, pledging a ‘digital Bangladesh’ by 2021.
   The people carried banners, the AL’s election symbol ‘boat’ and posters with portraits of the party candidates in the December 29 polls. 
   Hasina addressed wayside rallies at Meghna bridge point, Chandina, Comilla by-pass, Feni, Chhagalnaiya, Mirsarai and Sitakunda before arriving at the Laldighi ground in Chittagong, which turned into a city of processions Saturday to welcome the AL chief and also because of the last minute electioneering by the parties and candidates.
   Streams of masses started pouring into the Laldighi ground from midday from different parts of the city and elsewhere in the district to listen to Sheikh Hasina.
   Hasina said she was concluding her electioneering in Chittagong to meet the residents of the port city. She pledged to turn Chittagong into Bangladesh’s commercial capital with all modern facilities.
   ‘If we are voted to power, we will ensure all modern civic amenities in Chittagong. Apart from setting up a deep sea port, we will turn Chittagong port into the gateway to Asia’, she said vowing to address the problems like scarcity of water and electricity in the city.
   She introduced 15 candidates contesting the polls for the constituencies in Chittagong district on Awami League’s tickets. The AL-led alliance candidate Morshed Murad Ibrahim, who is in the race with Jatiya Party’s election symbol ‘plough’, was absent. 
   Hasina sought vote for all alliance candidates saying that she had taken the ‘plough’ on ‘boat’. ‘This election is a battle between the good and the evil. It is a fight for peace against militancy and a fight for development against corruption.’
   ‘Let me reassure you that we will give you peace and prosperity. I leave it to you to make a choice’, Hasina told the gathering urging the voters to stamp the symbols of ‘boat’ and ‘plough’ on the ballot in the December 29 elections to enable Bangladesh to face the challenges of the 21st century.
   City Awami League president AMB Mohiuddin Chowdhury presided over the meeting, which was addressed by local leaders of the party.
   Hasina iterated the pledges made in AL’s 2008 election manifesto, including infrastructure development, free education up to the degree level and employment guarantee scheme for youths.

The Election Commission suddenly on Saturday decided to confine the judicial magistrates to their offices after it had deployed them on polls duty to deal with electoral offences and summary trial in the 299 constituencies in accordance with a Supreme Court opinion.
   The commission’s latest decision came after the judicial magistrates had requested its secretariat to immediately issue instructions to district administrations to cooperate with them in discharging their duties.
   The judicial magistrates earlier sought commission’s directive to resolve the problems in connection with discharging their duties of trying electoral offences because of non-cooperation of local administration.
   Instead of asking deputy commissioners, now working as returning officers, to cooperate with judicial magistrates, the commission secretariat in letters to chief judicial magistrates asked them to conduct trial sitting inside their offices.
   ‘There is no plan that judicial magistrates will conduct mobile courts. The commission has decided that judicial magistrates will conduct trials sitting inside their offices,’ the letter, signed by Mihir Sarwar Morshed, deputy secretary of the EC secretariat, said.
   As the Supreme Court rejected the move of both the home ministry and Election Commission to invest executive magistrates with powers to try electoral offences during the December 29 general elections, the commission sent a requisition letter to the government seeking judicial magistrates.
   The law and parliamentary affairs ministry assigned the judicial magistrates and sent a list of 286 such magistrates to the commission six hours inside the commission’s requisition.
   After the Supreme Court approval, the commission on December 24 assigned 286 judicial magistrates. But the EC Secretariat took two days to get the gazette notification published.
   In keeping with the gazette notification, judicial magistrates will take cognisance of electoral offences till December 31. They will hold summary trials in their designated constituencies.
   In keeping with the Representation of the People Order, judicial magistrates are assigned to hold trial of electoral offences which include interfering or attempting to interfere when a voter casts vote, defaces or destroys ballot, obstructs polling or counting of votes, resorts to violence, and intimidates voters or those involved in polls activities or duties
   The establishment ministry earlier appointed 319 executive magistrates to run mobile courts to hold trial of electoral offences. But the executive magistrates have no authority to award imprisonment for any offences and they can only fine individuals.
   The commission on November 27 decided to empower executive magistrates to hold trials of electoral offences. It sent a letter to the establishment ministry asking it to obtain Supreme Court permission for the implementation of the decision.
   In the letter, the commission also mentioned the limitations of the executive magistrates in holding summary trials of electoral offences unless they were given powers to try such offences.
   The home ministry on December 7 issued a circular on election security, saying the divisional commissioners and district magistrates would take necessary steps to engage executive magistrates when the establishment ministry got the Supreme Court permission for giving them electoral offence trial authority.
   As the Code of Criminal Procedure does not allow executive magistrates to do the job, both the commission and the home ministry asked the establishment ministry to seek Supreme Court permission in this regard.
   The Supreme Court rejected the move of both the home ministry and the commission to invest executive magistrates with powers to try electoral offences.
   The law ministry on November 16 amended the Mobile Court Ordinance to include the offences laid out in the Representation of the People Order under the jurisdiction of mobile courts run by executive magistrates.

Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan claimed 5-48 to leave hosts Bangladesh struggling at 177 for nine at close on the second day of the first Test at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Saturday.
   Wickets fell at regular interval after Bangladesh made a confident start with the opening pair putting on 44 runs in reply to Sri Lanka’s first innings total of 293 as Muralitharan ripped through their batting line-up.
   Muralitharan made the breakthrough with his second delivery of the match with Tamim Iqbal being caught at forward short-leg by Malinda Warnapura for 17.
   He added three more wickets around the tea interval before completing his 66th five-wicket haul in Tests overall and the 11th against Bangladesh with the dismissal of Shahadat Hossain, who was stumped by wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene minutes before bad light stopped the day’s play.
   Chaminda Vaas chipped in with 2-33 and in the process completed his 350th Test wicket when he had Bangladesh skipper Mohammad Ashraful caught by a diving Tillakaratne Dilshan at cover.
   Vaas also had opener Imrul Kayes caught behind after the 21-year-old opener had made a Test-best 33, the highest of the Bangladesh’s innings.
   Bangladesh went for tea on 95-4 with Junaed Siddique also returning to the dressing room making 29. Mehrab Hossain Jr and Sakib al Hasan began the rescue act confidently, but could not sustain for long having been dismissed for 29 and 26 runs respectively.
   Earlier, Sakib completed his fourth five-wicket haul in five matches to help Bangladesh dismiss Sri Lanka under 300 runs. Sri Lanka’s 293 is their lowest total in an innings against Bangladesh.
   After resuming on their overnight score of 172-6, Thilan Samaraweera led a lower-order recovery for the visitors making 90 runs off 141 balls before Bangladesh struck back on the stroke of lunch.
   Samaraweera, who reached his 16th Test half-century by pushing a full length delivery from Mehrab Hossain to the cover area for a single, shared a 99-run partnership with Vaas for the seventh wicket as Sri Lanka grew in confidence.
   However, the second new ball helped Bangladesh get their first success of the morning after the duo had batted brilliantly and the rest of the tail succumbed rather quickly.
   Vaas edged Mashrafee bin Murtaza to wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim on 37 before Sakib trapped Dammika Prasad lbw for three to leave the visitors on 285-8.
   Rangana Herath was then run out for one before Sakib had Samaraweera caught by Siddique in the next over to end the innings and return with figures of 5-70.

Israel hammered Hamas targets in Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 205 people in retaliation for ongoing rocket fire in one of the bloodiest days of the decades-long Middle East conflict.
   The Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, said ‘Operation Cast Lead,’ which has also left some 300 wounded, would continue ‘as long as necessary.’
   ‘The battle will be long and difficult, but the time has come to act and to fight,’ he said.
   Following the mid-morning wave of attacks, which saw some 60 aircraft bomb the impoverished, overcrowded territory, Hamas swiftly responded by firing several dozen rockets into the Jewish state, killing one Israeli.
   The Islamist movement, which seized control of Gaza from forces loyal to moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas last year, warned Israelis living near Gaza to ‘prepare the funeral shrouds.’
   Air strikes continued sporadically throughout the day and into the evening, with no immediate reports of casualties.
   The Palestinian leadership slammed the ‘massacre,’ and the European Union, Russia, Britain and France urged both sides to stop fighting.
   The United States said Israel should avoid civilian casualties, while the Arab League and several Middle Eastern states slammed Israel for the strikes.
   In Gaza, thick clouds of smoke billowed into the sky. Mangled, bloodied and often charred corpses littered the pavement around Hamas security compounds, and frantic relatives flooded hospitals.
   Ambulances and private cars rushed the wounded and dead to Al-Shifa hospital, where staff used sheets as makeshift stretchers for some.
   There was no space left in the morgue and bodies were piled up in the emergency room and in the corridors, as many of the wounded screamed in pain.
   Medics said civilians had been hit, but the majority of the victims appeared to be members of Hamas, branded a terror group by Israel and the West.
   At least 205 Palestinians were killed and some 300 others wounded, said Dr Moawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services.
   The bombardment - which marked one of the bloodiest single days in the 60-year Israeli-Palestinian conflict - came after days of spiralling violence, with militants firing rockets and Israel vowing a fiery response.
   Abbas told AFP from Saudi Arabia that he was in ‘urgent contact’ with numerous countries to stop ‘the cowardly aggressions and massacres in the Gaza Strip.’
   Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who brokered a six-month Israeli-Hamas truce that expired on December 19, slammed the ‘Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip and blames Israel, as an occupying force, for the victims and the wounded.’
   He ordered the Rafah crossing - the only one that bypasses Israel - to be opened to allow the evacuation of the wounded, dozens of whom had passed through by mid-afternoon, state news agency Mena reported.
   Hamas militants warned Israelis living near the border to ‘prepare the funeral shrouds,’ vowing that the Islamists’ response ‘was on its way.’

Regretting ‘past mistakes’ the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, in a televised speech Saturday evening, promised if elected that curbing prices would be her alliance’s number one task.
   ‘Stern actions against corruption and terrorism, and transforming parliament into an effective institution, will also get priority,’ she said.
   Khaleda’s recorded speech was aired on state-owned Bangladesh Television and Radio at around 9:15pm, immediately following one by her rival Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina.
   ‘We made mistakes during some massive development projects, for which we are sincerely sorry and hope that you will forgive our failures and mistakes.’
   ‘We request you to believe that we won’t repeat them as we’ve learned from the past mistakes.’
   The four-party alliance chief said, ‘Our first task will be to quickly bring the prices down to people’s reach then to raise output by reducing production costs, if necessary, with subsidies so that people get essentials like rice, lentil, flour, edible oil at reasonable prices.’
   ‘I today firmly promise that we’ll be tough with the corrupt and with terrorists,’ said the former prime minister.
   ‘The December 29 election is very important for the country. Make ‘sheaf of paddy’ a winner for protecting the country’s democracy and sovereignty,’ urged Khaleda.
   The two former prime ministers had earlier addressed the two largest rallies of the campaign period on consecutive days, Friday and Saturday at Paltan Maidan.

The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, in a televised speech on Saturday vowed to establish a Bangladesh free from hunger and poverty, and called for a ‘transparent political culture’ taking lessons from the past.
   Hasina called upon all, ‘Let us put an end to the politics of confrontation for the sake of highest state interests.’
   ‘Let us all, ranging from government party and opposition, create a transparent political culture.’
   Campaigns for the ninth parliamentary elections come to an end on December 27 midnight with the two major alliance chiefs Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia delivering televised speeches to the nation on Saturday evening.
   State-run Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar broadcast the recorded speech at 8:30pm and Khaleda’s appeared on TV soon after Hasina’s ended.
   In her speech, Hasina recounted the birth of Bangladesh, the ups and downs of the country’s history, before saying, ‘I’ve described the past incidents in order to march forward taking a lesson from those experiences.’
   The former prime minister renewed the pledges of her party’s manifesto, the ‘Charter for Change’ unveiled on December 12 at the start of her election campaign.
   ‘We’ve received such tremendous support from people for our manifesto and Vision 2021 that it has become a national charter,’ she said.
   The AL chief came down hard on the rival BNP-Jamaat alliance by saying that the growth and flourish of militancy in the country occurred under the patronisation of the four-party alliance government.
   ‘They created 111 godfathers across the country to establish a state of anarchy, while Hawa Bhaban ran a parallel government and parliament was total ineffective.’
   Hasina called upon government officials to work neutrally during polling and members of law enforcing agencies to take measures so that people can vote without any fears.
   The two former prime ministers had earlier addressed the two largest rallies of the campaign period on consecutive days, Friday and Saturday at Paltan Maidan.

Indian survey vessels, which Thursday night entered the Bangladesh waters in the Bay of Bengal left the area Saturday evening, said a release issued by the Inter Service Public Relations.
   ‘The three ships have moved towards west leaving the Bangladesh waters and now they are doing survey in the Indian territories in the west of the Bangladesh waters,’ the release said.
   Earlier in the morning, the Indian high commissioner in Dhaka, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, told reporters, ‘The ships have their own work, and they will do whatever work they have and then move out soon.’
   Chakravarty made the comment after a meeting after he had been summoned to the foreign ministry.
   The government on Saturday summoned him to the foreign ministry to lodge a protest against India’s hydrocarbon exploration in the Bay, intruding Bangladesh’s territorial waters.
   The foreign secretary, Touhid Hossain, handed the formal protest note over to the Indian diplomat urging stopping any survey until the maritime delimitation issue was resolved on a mutual agreement and taking back Indian vessels from the Bangladesh waters.
   Touhid told reporters he hoped India would stop hydrocarbon exploration and leave the area in the Bay.
   He said the Indian high commissioner had proposed that Bangladesh should send a technical team to India as soon as possible to discuss the maritime issue as the two countries started talks on delimitation of the maritime boundary in September after a gap of 22 years.
   Pinak said the survey ships were not Indian. He said they were Jamaican ships chartered by a private company having licence from the Indian government to conduct the survey.
   Pinak observed this was an overlapping zone and both India and Bangladesh claim to the zone.
   Asked how the survey could be conducted in the disputed zone, he said, ‘Bangladesh has offered this area for international bidding knowing full well there were overlapping claims. When negotiations are on, why did the Bangladesh government put out to international bidding?’
   The Indian high commissioner said, ‘We want a Bangladesh team to go to Delhi to sort out the issues. The overlapping claims will, otherwise, remain and ships from both sides will come.’
   The foreign secretary said the proposal for discussion was ‘positive’ and Bangladesh would send the technical team to Delhi towards the end of January at the earliest. But no date for the meeting has been proposed.
   A Bangladesh navy vessel which earlier spotted the Indian survey ship during patrol asked the survey ship to leave the Bangladesh waters.
   While the survey ship initially moved towards Indian waters, they returned to its earlier location where they were again positioned in the afternoon of December 25.

THE activists of an independent candidate for the Rangpur-2 constituency and a former parliament member of Jatiya Party from the seat on Saturday swooped on the motorcade of Jatiya Party chairman HM Ershad at Badarganj Sadar in Rangpur.
   The activists of the independent candidate, Mohammad Ali Sarker, ransacked five microbuses of the motorcade of JP chief Hussein Mohammad Ershad and left 25 people, including five journalists, injured in the attack.
   Witnesses said the activists of Mohammad Ali attacked the supporters of the Awami League-led grand alliance candidate, Anisul Islam Mandol of Jatya Party.
   Of the injured, five were rushed to Badarganj Upazila Health Complex while others were given first aid.
   Police and witnesses said after addressing an election rally from the Ziten Dutta Mancha at Badarganj Sadar at about 11.00am, Ershad went to the house of former AL minister Anisul Haq Chowdhury.
   While Ershad was staying at the house, the activists of Mohammad Ali suddenly swooped on the motorcade of JP chief. The vehicles in the motorcade were carrying the supporters of Anisul Islam Mandol and the journalists
   The attack by the unruly activists of Mohammad Ali led chase and counter-chase between the two groups in rivalry over the national polling on Monday.
   Police brought the situation under control, charging batons on the supporters of the two the clashing groups.
   Later, more police personnel rushed to the scene and they escorted the Ershad’s motorcade to Laldhigi Pirpal College ground in Rangpur, where he addressed another polls rally as part of his massive election campaigns for the victory of the grand alliance’s candidates.

The police Saturday morning found two transparent ballot boxes abandoned on a city road near the Kakali point at Banani in Dhaka.
   The police said rickshaw-van puller Rustam Ali had seen the ballot boxes at around 4:00am and handed them over to the Tejgaon police when he was passing by.
   The Tejgaon police officer-in-charge, Luthfor Rahman Khan, told New Age, ‘The ballot boxes numbered BEC-230199 and BEC 003664 were handed over to the Election Commission at around 1:30pm.’
   Dhaka divisional deputy election commissioner Biswas Luthfar Rahman told New Age, ‘The ballot boxes might have fallen off the vehicle as they were carried to polling centres.’

The Awami League-led alliance candidate Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin and the BNP-led combine candidate Nasiruddin Ahmad Pintu, both contesting the December 29 polls for the Dhaka 7 constituency kept seeking votes promising development of the area on the last day of electioneering on Saturday.
   Nasiruddin, who obtained bail in all the nine cases filed against him, began campaigns after his release from the jail on Wednesday.
   Pintu’s wife Nasima Akter Kalpana had sought votes on his behalf as he was behind bars on corruption, extortion and murder charges.
   Parts of Lalbagh and Kotwali in Old Town of Dhaka comprise the constituency having 2,75,7061 voters. Kamrangir Char, which was earlier part of the constituency, was dropped of during the latest demarcation of electoral constituencies by the Election Commission.
   Local residents said the Awami League-led alliance candidate was on a sound footing as and the BNP-led alliance candidate had been behind bars for long.
   The voters said they would first consider the quality and educational qualifications of the candidates in casting their vote. They want their representative to parliament to be educated with a clean past record.
   Mobiur Rahman, a resident of Haranath Ghosh Road, told New Age, ‘We will vote for honest candidate.’
   The area needs to be developed, he said listing the common problems of the area such as shabby state of the roads, disruption in power and water supply and poor drainage.
   ‘I receive good response from voters,’ Mostafa Jalal, a former student leader and physician , told New Age Sunday noon.
   As for his election pledges, he said he would try to improve the area in Old Town, which is also a business centre.
   He will initiate to improve the education and health care for the residents. He said he would also try to improve power and water supply to area.
   Nasiruddin said, ‘I initiated development works in the area during my last tenure as lawmaker. I seek vote from the people so that I can continue with my efforts.’
   As for his election pledges, he said he would do rid his constituency of drugs and extortion.
   Nigar Sultana, a college student living in New Paltan who became ecome voter for the first time, said she felt excited about polling. She said she would vote for the competent of the two candidates.
   Another first-time voter, Zillur Rahman, also a college student of Lalbagh, said she might stamp ‘no vote’ on the ballot. ‘I have found no competent candidate contesting polls his time.’
   Thirteen candidates, either on party tickets or independently, are contesting the polls for the constituency.
   Other candidates are Azmeri Begum Chhanda of the Bikalpadhara Bangladesh, M Ibrahim Adil Khan of the Bangladesh Kalyan Party, Md Zafaratullah Khan of the Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan, Md Yahyia Ahmed (independent), Md Nurul Amin of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Md Monirul Islam Shikder of the Bangldesh Jatiya Party, Md Mostofa Mahmud of the Bangladesh National Awami Party, Mohammad Rahim of the Krishak Sramik Janata League, Sharafat Ali Hira of the Ganatantri Party, Sarwar Hossain of the Jatiya Party and Shayeda Amir of the Gana Forum.

The Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, said Saturday his country would act to rein in extremist groups but warned India not to dictate the terms of such action following the Mumbai attacks.
   ‘We shall do it because we need it, not because you want it,’ Zardari said at the family home in Naudero of his dead wife, former premier Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated one year ago in a gun and suicide attack.
   Zardari said war was not the solution to the region’s problems and pleaded for dialogue, amid a growing perception here among top officials that India could carry out limited military strikes on militant hideouts in Pakistan.
   ‘In case there are people in the region who feel they want to test our mettle, I would like to tell them this mettle has been tested many times. Please do not test it again,’ he said in remarks broadcast on state television.