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Several hundred trucks carrying rice bound for Bangladesh were stranded in Indian border points as New Delhi suddenly restricted rice export to Dhaka through private channels.
   Quoting a commerce ministry statement, Indian daily The Hindu on Saturday reported that the government, with immediate effect, prohibited any export of non-basmati rice through transitional arrangements. The authorities on Friday announced withdrawal of concessions given to rice exporters to stop export and strengthen domestic supply of the staple food.
   Both Dhaka and New Delhi claimed that the decision would not hamper the on-going process of exporting 5 lakh tonnes of rice to Bangladesh at the government level.
   Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, while in Dhaka in December last year, pledged to sell the amount to help Bangladesh meet post-cyclone Sidr food exigency. But the export has not yet taken place due to procedural delays on Indian side, officials said.
   Ayub Mian, acting food and disaster management secretary, told New Age that he was not yet aware of India’s latest restriction on rice export in the private sector.
   ‘But it will not hamper the ongoing process of importing 5 lakh tonnes of rice,’ he added.
   Sudhakor Dalela, minister, commercial at the Indian High Commission in Dhaka Saturday also pleaded ignorance about the New Delhi’s latest rice export ban, but said even if there was any such decision, it would not affect the official rice export to Bangladesh.
   ‘Such restriction was even there when Indian external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee had been in Dhaka on December 1 and announced waiver of the ban to facilitate export of 5 lakh tonnes rice to Bangladesh,’ the trade official recalled.
   The sudden restriction has landed Bangladeshi rice importers in trouble as Indian traders failed to deliver the rice ordered much before the latest ban came.
    Rice-laden trucks stood motionless in long queues on the Indian side of southwest and northern land ports, port officials and traders said.
   Quoting Indian rice exporter Nirmal Shikari, news agency UNB said that the ban came as a surprise to Indian rice traders as well and they would take legal course seeking permission for deliveries of the consignments for which L/Cs were opened before the order issued on February 7.
   Another report from Hili land port in Dinajpur said the ban on rice export to Bangladesh by private exporters was issued on Thursday as the millers refused to sell 50 per cent of their products to the government to ensure smooth supply to domestic market.
   Indian government fixed the rice procurement price at Rs 11.30 kg when
   the market price is more than Rs 13, prompting many millers to sell rice to exporters for higher prices.
   ’This prompted the Indian government to ban rice export,’ said Ganesh Prosad, secretary of importers association at Hilli land port.
   The millers at Bardwan, Gangarampur, Gazal and Mehedipara of India’s West Bengal state demonstrated last week against the low procurement price.
   India earlier imposed ban on export of non-basmati rice on October 10 last year, but later eased the restriction to allow exports under valid irrevocable commercial letters of credit. The latest notification prohibits rice exports even against such L/Cs.

The BNP’s secretary-general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Saturday said the October 29 meeting of some standing committee members and their decisions were the only barrier to the unity of the party.
   He asked the leaders of the pro-government faction of the party to come forward to negotiate after declaring that meeting and its proceedings void.
   ‘I welcome you. Clear your mind. Break away with them. Feel free to talk, but first undo what you have done on the night of October 29, 2007,’ said Delwar, pointing at the followers of the Saifur Rahman-led faction.
   Despite making such a call, Delwar said the pro-government faction is unable to take a decision on their own.
   ‘In fact you have no power to reach any decision. First you discuss with the people who control you and try to understand what they want. If they agree and you have the authority then you talk and negotiate. If you are unable to do so, please do not confuse the people,’ said Delwar.
   No settlement between the party and the Saifur Rahman-led faction can take place if the October 29, 2007 meeting and its proceedings are maintained to be valid, said Delwar in response to reporters’ questions.
   ‘It will not be possible on my part to make any settlement while the meeting of October 29 and its decisions are regarded as valid by the faction’s leaders…I have several times told them to declare the meeting and its decisions void and then come forward for negotiation,’ Delwar told reporters at his NAM flat.
   ‘They want settlement without making any compromise. The validity of the meeting of October 29 is the bone of contention.
   At my age, I am not ready to compromise at the cost of the party and its chairperson and thus frustrate the people and activists,’ he said.
   ‘The unity of BNP is intact at home and abroad under the leadership of Khaleda Zia. Some people have been derailed but there is no bar if they want to return to the party.
   Such things have taken place in the past and they can follow the procedure that was followed then. It [departure and return] can take place now and in the future too,’ Delwar added.
   Delwar demanded immediate withdrawal of the state of emergency and withdrawal of laws that violate basic human rights and are contrary to the Constitution.
   ‘The government is abusing the Emergency Powers Rules by curbing basic human rights that are enshrined in the Constitution. The emergency is being used as a tool of political torture and the politicians have become the victims,’ said Delwar.
   He also denounced the detention of the party chief’s adviser ASM Hannan Shah and Juba Dal’s general secretary Moazzem Hossain Alal.
   ‘They re-arrested Hannan Shah when he was just coming out of jail because on the excuse that he had violated the emergency rules by trying to address a gathering at Fatullah, which is far away from the jail’s gate,’ he said.
   He referred to a recent High Court ruling that declared that no law can be made against the Constitution.
   Delwar also demanded proper medical treatment for BNP’s senior joint secretary-general Tarique Rahman and his brother Arafat Rahman. ‘Tarique was tortured in remand. His medical report has proved that,’ Delwar alleged.
   He also demanded a probe into the death of Dhaka City Corporation’s ward commissioner Qaiyum Khan who died in Dhaka Central Jail on Friday.

Visiting British foreign secretary David Miliband on Saturday said it was mutual responsibilities of the interim government, political parties, civil society and the media to contribute to dialogues towards a speedy transition of Bangladesh to ‘genuine democracy.’
   He said it was an important year for Bangladesh for a speedy transition to genuine democracy through free and fair elections.
   Briefing newsmen at the British high commissioner’s residence in Dhaka, Miliband said he had been assured by the Bangladesh army chief that the military would remain separated from politics, helping the nation towards a transition to democracy.
   Miliband encouraged positive and constructive dialogues between the government and political parties on building up democratic institutions and the future of Bangladesh.
   He also gave a reminder about mutual responsibilities of the caretaker government, political parties, civil society and the media to contribute to the transition to full democracy.
   ‘He [army chief Moeen U Ahmed] was very committed to the idea that the army should stand above and separate from politics,’ Miliband said.
   Praising the role of the caretaker government, he said, ‘I was struck by the commitment and sincerity of the chief adviser and others I had discussions with to the return to democracy and democratic rule.’
   Asked if he had received any specific indication about any timeframe for the withdrawal of the state of emergency in the discussions, Miliband said, ‘We think it is important to lift the state of emergency to all intent possible and the message is received as well.’
   As for transparency in trial process, he said they wanted that charges and cases were dealt with without any deterrent and without any discrimination and law applied without fear or favour, without considering one’s position in society.
   In reply to a question, he said Britain was not monitoring, but carefully following up on the cases to see due process is upheld and law is applied without any discrimination.
   Asked how Britain justifies a non-elected government, Miliband said the United Kingdom’s foreign policy was to build strong and sustainable institutions, rather than backing individuals.
   Particularly in Bangladesh, he noted, Britain supports at all stages a speedy transition to democracy.
   ‘In our discussions with the caretaker government in the past 13 months, we have always been focussed not on how they came to power, but how they can get out of power and how a clean, fair and effective democracy can be achieved in Bangladesh,’ said Miliband, at the end of his two-day tour.
   He encouraged positive and constructive dialogues between the caretaker government and political parties on building up democratic institutions and the future of Bangladesh.
   Miliband, who came to Bangladesh on Friday, said his visit to Dhaka was based on themes such as politics, governance, rule of law and human rights, economic development, climate change, and tackling extremism.
   The British high commissioner in Dhaka, Anwar Choudhury, was also present at the briefing.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on Saturday apprised the visiting British foreign secretary, David Miliband, of the measures taken by his interim government for holding elections in a free, fair and credible manner.
   During a meeting at the Chief Adviser’s Office, Fakhruddin also informed the British minister of the institutional reforms being carried out in pursuance of the objective of holding fair elections according to the polls roadmap.
   Miliband, who arrived here on Friday on a two-day visit, stated that he had received useful briefings on these issues from the chief election commissioner and the foreign adviser earlier.
   He asserted that the British government would support the goals set by the caretaker government of Bangladesh.
   The British foreign secretary appreciated the information provided on the dialogue with the political parties, who, the chief adviser said, are not ‘opponents of the caretaker government’. The role of the government in the political process leading to the election would only be that of a ‘facilitator’, he said.
   Miliband was ‘deeply impressed’ by the achievements of the caretaker government under the leadership of the chief adviser during the past 12 months, said an official release on the discussions, held when he paid a courtesy call on the chief adviser.
   The British foreign minister observed that this leadership was given to the nation under very difficult circumstances. ‘Britain was proud of her links with Bangladesh,’ he said.
   Miliband referred to the close relationship between Bangladesh and the UK on such issues as climatechange, counter-terrorism and the attainments of the millennium development goals set by the United Nations.
   He lauded Bangladesh’s active role on climate change and thanked the chief adviser for the active supportgiven to the UK on the subject in international fora.
   He said the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, was also ‘passionate’ on the issue of climate change.
   The chief adviser spoke of the adverse effects of the floods and cyclone Sidr on the country’s economy and also on the price hike of commodities, including rice, and thanked the development partners, including the UK, for their ‘friendly contributions.’
   They discussed the possibilities of a meeting in London, supported by the World Bank, on the broad areas of climate change and development.
   Miliband also praised the Bangladeshi diaspora in the UK, saying that their role is a source of pride for both the UK and Bangladesh.
   He also expressed his own observation that the media in Bangladesh were both ‘free and polite.’
   The foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Chief Adviser’s Office secretary Kazi M Aminul Islam, press secretary Syed Fahim Munaim, Bangladesh high commissioner in London Shafi U Ahmed and British high commissioner in Dhaka Anwar Choudhury were also present at the meeting.

A three-member committee was on Saturday formed to investigate the death of the detained Dhaka city ward commissioner, Qaiyum Khan, also a city BNP leader, who died on his way to Dhaka Medical College Hospital Friday morning.
   The committee, headed by deputy inspector general (prisons) Shamsul Haider Siddique, was formed after the BNP leaders and Qaiyum’s relatives had so demanded.
   Others on the committee are Narayanganj jail superintendent Tipu Sultan and deputy jailer Abu Taleb. The committee has been asked to submit the report in three days. The committee started work on Saturday.
   The committee asked four jail guards who were on duty at the time when Qaiyum fell down in the bathroom. The members also interrogated the detained Awami League leader Jahangir Sattar Tinku, who attended Qaiyum in the jail.
   The committee also visited Dhaka Medical College Hospital and questioned some of physicians who attended Qaiyum.
   Shamsul Haider told New Age, ‘We have started investigation into the death of Qaiyum. We will perform our duties neutrally. We will complete the investigation in three days. We will punish anyone found guilty.’
   Qaiyum’s wife Majeda Parveen told New Age, ‘My husband had not received proper treatment in jail for 13 months although he was a patient of heart disease and he died of the disease.’
   She said, ‘Why was Qaiyum arrested as there were no cases against him? Why was he not released as the High Court granted him bail? Why did he have to die for mental torture and for lack of proper treatment?’ She demanded punishment for the people responsible for the death.
   Qaiyum’s sister Samina Begum also claimed her brother had died for mental torture and for lack of proper treatment. She also demanded punishment for the people responsible for her bother’s death.
   Qaiyum fell sick at about 7:45am on Friday and fell down in the jail bathroom. Dr Jahangir Sattar Tinku, also detained in jail, and jail physician Habib attended him, jail sources said. He died on his way to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   BNP leaders including the general secretary Kahndaker Delwar Hossain, and Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, alleged Qaiyum Khan had died for lack of proper treatment. They demanded a high-powered committee to investigate the reasons for the death.
   Qaiyum Khan, commissioner of ward 16, covering Kafrul, was arrested by the joint forces on January 12, 2007 a day after the state of emergency had been called.
   He was arrested again
   at the jail gate on January 10 this year, a few minutes after he had been released from the jail on bail he was granted by the High Court.

Some Bangladesh Chhatra League leaders, who went on forced retirement and were excluded from the present committee due to age bar, felt undervalued and demanded due places in the hierarchy of the party or any of its wings.
   They vented their frustration and anger at a chaotic meeting with senior Awami League leaders at the residence of acting president Zillur Rahman on Saturday.
   Some of them bitterly criticised the former BCL president and some AL leaders for their role in fixing the upper age limit for Chhatra League leadership at 29 years. The step was designed to cripple the party’s student wing and hand the leadership over to a band of ‘inexperienced and unqualified’ people in the name of bringing in fresh blood in the leadership, they alleged.
   The acting president and general secretary of the party gave a patience hearing to the retired student leaders and assured them of reviewing their cases in the next central working committee meeting. The party would give them due recognition and try to accommodate them in suitable places either in AL or any other front organisation.
   ‘A number of experienced student leaders, who were hoping for top posts, were suddenly dropped from the committee citing that they were overage. The decision led to an irreparable leadership vacuum,’ former vice president of BCL Rafiqul Islam Kotwal said, demanding prestigious portfolio for the former student leaders.
   As AL organising secretary Abdul Mannan attempted to say something, former student leaders stopped and shouted at him, identifying him as one of the plotters.
   Mazhar Anam, who retired as BCL organising secretary, alleged some vested leaders in AL misguided party president Sheikh Hasina to form such an ‘inactive’ committee to destroy the student wing which has a long and glorious history of movement.
   Another leader Hemayet Uddin said that as the party decided to exclude the overage leaders, it should hold the council
   regularly to change leadership.
   AL organising secretary Mannan asked why the retired student leaders failed to raise the points to Hasina before she was taken to jail.
   As the situation turned a bit chaotic, Zillur Rahman and Syed Ashraful Islam intervened and brought the situation under control.
   ‘We will work out ways to rehabilitate you in the party mainstream politics with due honour,’ Ashraf said. ‘I will tell the acting general secretary to include the issue in the agenda for next central working committee,’ Zillur told the former BCL leaders.
   He however said portfolio was not important for working for the party and the people. ‘You need to get Sheikh Hasina freed first of all and then we will sit together to resolve the issues your pointed out,’ he was quoted as saying in the meeting.
   The last committee of Bangladesh Chhatra League was formed in 2006, keeping leaders, who crossed 29 years, at bay.
   The age bar was fixed amid long-standing demands for freeing the student politics from overage leaders and welcomed by many in and outside the party.

Politicians, business leaders and journalists on Saturday emphasised that the politicians should exchange ideas to reach a consensus before joining dialogues with the military-controlled interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed to hold credible national elections.
   The politicians attending the roundtable, however, remained divided over the formation of a national government before joining the national elections.
   ‘Dialogues should be held among political parties as well as between the government and political parties on holding credible elections,’ the Gana Forum president, Kamal Hossain, said at the roundtable at the National Press Club marking the first anniversary of Manabzamin publication Janatar Chokh.
   Beginning the discussion, former Bangladesh Today editor M Asafuddowla said interference of the military in politics must be totally stopped.
   Awami League presidium member Amir Hossain Amu said the party would work out a coordinated proposal by holding talks with like-minded parties. He criticised the law adviser, Hassan Ariff, for his statement in which he nullified the constitutionality of a national government.
   The Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, gave a warning saying forming a national government before holding the general elections would be an act of short-sightedness bypassing the constitution.
   Criticising ‘civil-military relation,’ he said the role of the military is defined in the constitution.
   Awami League presidium member Matia Chowdhury demanded release of detained former prime ministers, Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League and Khaleda Zia of the BNP, so that people could decide on their (Hasina and Khaleda’s) fate.
   The Communist Party general secretary, Mujahidul Islam Selim, said it would be difficult to restore democracy without an uprising.
   The president of a Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal faction, Hasanul Haq Inu, said political parties should hold dialogues among themselves to reach a consensus on the formation of a national government to implement specific programmes within a specific period.
   Barrister Rafiqul Haque criticised foreigners, including British foreign secretary David Miliband and high commissioner Anwar Choudhury, Indian high commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarti and US chargé d’affaires Geeta Pasi, for interfering in the politics of Bangladesh.
   He hoped good senses would prevail on the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. ‘Unfortunately, we do not know whether there are weaknesses of the Appellate Division. I hope good senses would prevail on them [the Appellate Division].’
   The Regulatory Reforms Commission chairman, Akbar Ali Khan, said both the government and politicians must discharge their responsibilities to resolve the political crisis to get rid of economic predicaments as a constitutionally fragile situation is prevailing now.
   Rifiqul and Akbar also said the state of emergency should go as the ordinance is no longer needed.
   The acting Jatiya Party chairman, Anisul Islam Mahmud, said political parties should hold discussions among themselves before holding dialogues with the government.
   Barrister Abdur Razzak, an assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami, said politicians must play their roles, with foresight, to resolve the political crisis.
   The Progressive Democratic Party convener, Ferdaus Ahmad Quarishi, supported the activities of the military-controlled government. ‘Some happenings may be oppressive. But a number of incidents of corruption, including the one related to the “king of the forests,” have been exposed.’
   Journalist Mahfuz Ullah said politicians should tell whether they would come forward to restore democracy, leaving behind their corrupt colleagues.
   The New Age editor, Nurul Kabir, criticised the government for its attempts to restrain people’s voice when the country needs free discussions. ‘The country is in a crisis — political, economic and cultural. It is necessary to hold more discussions now. But, unfortunately, the press has been suppressed more this time in one way or the other.’
   Reposing trust in people, who, according to him, are the highest authority of the country, he said, ‘The people had chosen the correct path in the past whenever the country plunged into a crisis. I believe they would come forward once again, on time, to resolve the present crisis.’
   Journalist Amir Khasru criticised the creation of a number of alternative informal power centres within and outside the government.

The agriculture adviser, CS Karim, on Saturday said the government would provide cash subsidy for the farmers in the middle of the current Boro season to help them reduce their irrigation cost.
   He announced the government’s subsidy plan at a dialogue on ‘Input strategy for Boro production’, organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue at CIRDAP auditorium.
   He, however, declined to disclose the strategy as to how the cash subsidy would be distributed among the farmers.
   ‘Please, wait and see… the government is working on it,’ he told reporters after addressing the dialogue.
   Chaired by the CPD chairman, Professor Rehman Sobhan, the discussion was also addressed by food adviser, M Shawkat Ali.
   As per the adviser’s announcement, cash subsidy will reach the farmers in the middle of March or April.
   Participating in the dialogue, former agriculture minister and Awami League leader Matia Chowdhury said farmers need to be provided with cash subsidy right now, not in March-April.
   ‘They (government) have no experience at all in dealing with the farmers’ needs… The reality is quite different. Usually, the farmers go through a cash crisis when they start Boro plantation. So, any kind of cash support will help them a lot,’ said the former agriculture minister.
   The interim government in earlier announcement said that the farmers would be provided with a total of Tk 850 crore as cash subsidy to support the irrigation.
   As per the plan, each farmer is supposed to get Tk 700 per acre of land.
   CPD researcher Dr Uttam Deb presented the keynote paper at the discussion. He said the government has set a target to produce 1.75 crore tonnes of Boro rice on 45 lakh hectares of land against the last year’s target of 1.50 crore tones.
   He said Boro paddy has so far been planted on only two-thirds of the targeted areas and 19 districts are still below the target.
   Uttam said the farmers are not getting agriculture inputs, particularly fertiliser and it would ultimately hamper the efforts to achieve the output target.
   ‘The government should reach fertilisers to the farmers. Otherwise, the target will not be achieved,’ the researcher said.
   The agriculture adviser said the government would distribute fertilisers among the farmers through 4,500 dealers at 16,000 centres across the country. ‘One dealer will cover 900 farmers on average.’
   Defending the idea for providing cash subsidy in the middle of Boro season, he said this was planned so that the real farmers can get the subsidy, not the middlemen of the pump operators.
   ‘If we provide cash in advance, it might go to the pump operators, not the farmers,’ he said.
   Motia alleged, ‘There is a total mess in fertiliser distribution, there is no discipline. Most of the farmers are not getting fertiliser.
   Those who get they have to buy it for Tk 1950 instead of the actual price of Tk 700.
   The farmers are still in doubt about whether they will at all get fertiliser in the current season.’
   She, however, opposed the idea of privatising the fertiliser distribution system..
   Citing the experience of dismantling the Bangladesh Agricultural Distribution Corporation from fertiliser distribution task, she said this was done to comply with the donors’ prescription.
   ‘After that about 18 farmers were killed as they demonstrated demanding fertiliser, but no donor then come forward in aid of them,’ she said.
   BIDS research fellow Dr Asaduzzaman, agronomist Dr Z Karim, Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council director MM Reza also spoke at the function.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at an opposition election rally in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 20 people and wounding 25, government and party officials said.
   The attacker struck as hundreds of people gathered for a meeting of the Awami National Party, a nationalist ethnic Pashtun party, in the town of Charsadda in troubled North West Frontier Province, they said.
   The bombing has further raised fears for the security of general elections on February 18, which have already been delayed by the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto at a rally in December.
   ‘According to initial reports 20 people were killed and 25 were injured. One of the injured told me in hospital that it was a suicide attack but I cannot confirm it officially,’ provincial health minister Syed Kamal Shah said.
   The interior minister, Hamid Nawaz, linked the attack to a wave of other bombings blamed on al-Qaeda and Taliban militants that have claimed more than 70 lives this year.
   ‘Yes, it was most probably a suicide attack. It was close to the stage but none of the ANP leaders there were hurt,’ Nawaz told AFP. He said that 14 people were dead and 24 injured.
   Last year former interior minister Aftab Sherpao survived two suicide attacks in Charsadda that left dozens of people dead, the most recent being in December.
   But an ANP spokesman said he believed Pakistani government intelligence agencies were behind the blast, which he confirmed was by a suicide bomber.
   ‘We blame security agencies for the attack. The agencies want to create civil war and want to support dictatorship,’ spokesman Zahid Khan said.
   ‘The bomber blew himself up very near the stage, the party’s provincial candidate was slightly injured.
   But it was a meeting which was not held in the open, but inside four walls, so how come the bomber was conveniently able to enter?’
   The attack comes three days after gunmen on a motorbike shot dead the ANP’s vice-president, Fazalur Rehman Atakhel, in the southern city of Karachi, sparking riots by supporters.
   Election rallies have been sparse since Benazir’s death in a suicide bomb and gun attack in Rawalpindi on December 27 and after the government issued a ‘security advisory’ for candidates to avoid big gatherings.
   Meanwhile, the widower of Benazir hit the campaign trail Saturday for the first major party rally since the former prime minister’s assassination.
   Thousands of people were gathering at Thatta, a rural town in Benazir’s home province of Sindh, amid tight security following 40 days of mourning since she was killed in Rawalpindi.
   Her successor Asif Ali Zardari vowed to complete her mission to establish democracy when mourning ended Thursday with large crowds at a ceremony around Benazir’s grave in the ancestral village of Khari Khuda Baksh.
   On Saturday, more than 2,000 police deployed around the public meeting venue at Thatta following repeated warnings by the government that terrorists could target main political leaders to derail the democratic process.
   Pakistan People’s Party guards were also on hand to protect the gathering to be followed by similar public meetings attended by Zardari across the country including the most populous central Punjab province.
   However, the police used tear-gas and water cannon Saturday to disperse hundreds of lawyers who tried to reach the residence of the deposed chief justice in Islamabad, witnesses said.
   The demonstrators chanted slogans against Musharraf who sacked top judge Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on November 3 under a state of emergency.
   Chaudhry remains under detention despite the lifting of the emergency in mid-December.

The acting president of Awami League, Zillur Rahman, on Saturday said that the next general elections should be held by April after updating the existing voters’ list if the process of preparing a fresh list could not be completed by that time.
   Terming the concept of the formation of a national government as ill-motivated and unconstitutional, the AL leader said that his party would not join it.
   ‘The national elections should be held by April to avoid the rainy and stormy weather of June-July. The elections should be held by updating the existing voters’ list in consideration of the emergency situation if the fresh list cannot completed by that time,’ he said while addressing the former leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra League at his Gulshan residence in the afternoon.
   He said that the country was undergoing an undesirable state of emergency and the only way to restore democracy was to hold free, fair and credible elections.
   ‘The concept of a national government violates the Constitution. Awami League is the biggest party of the country so it cannot be formed without us,’ he said, adding that his party would not join it and confusion was being created among the people on the plea of forming a national government.
   He also said that the AL’s president, Sheikh Hasina, was arrested intentionally because of the vindictive ill-motive of certain quarters and hoped that she would be freed finally.
   ‘Nineteen false cases have been lodged against her, which proves that she is a victim of vindictiveness,’ he said.
   He also urged the leaders and activists of the AL and its front organisations to make all-out efforts to free Sheikh Hasina.

The Jatiya Party (JP-Manju) chairman, Anwar Hossain Manju, now in the USA, wants to return home soon, surrender to court and join politics.
   ‘I was not supposed to come to the USA. I’ve come to take refuge here. Insha-Allah, I will return home soon,’ he told the news agency over phone from Washington on Saturday.
   Replying to a question about his five-year jail term for possessing wine, Manju said he would surrender to court, seek bail and move petition for quashing the case.
   He left the country after the imposition of the state of emergency on January 11 last year and was tried in absentia.
   ‘Those who used to taunt me are not in the government now… why should I be tried for possessing wine under the Special Powers Act?’ Asked whether he would join politics, Manju said he is still the chairman of the JP, as his party had not accepted his retirement. ‘In fact, none can retire from politics. All humans are rational and political beings.’
   About lifting of the state of emergency, he said all are speaking about its withdrawal and those in power are also saying that emergency will go.
   Asked about elections, Manju said holding of elections would depend on the situation. ‘As of today, election will be held, but it will depend how things take shape tomorrow.’
   On political party reforms, he said it is a continuous process and it should be left to the respective parties. On `minus two’, `plus two’ formula, Manju again said the matter should be left to the people and democratic process.
   ‘I cannot be excluded if people of my Bhandaria (constituency) vote for me and send me to parliament.’
   About the country’s economic situation, he said those, who are in power, will attribute it to price-hike of oil and food in international market, inflation or slowdown of US economy. ‘But common people won’t listen to it.’
   Asked about the prevailing situation in the country, he, however, said Bangladesh is now better than in 1976-77.

The Criminal Investigation Department in Jessore on Friday filed the charge sheet in an extortion case of Tk 50 lakh filed against former BNP lawmaker Mashiur Rahman and eight others.
   Others accused in the case are Asaduzzaman, Zahid Hossain, Baro Majid, Chhoto Majid, Akter Hossain, Jahiduzzaman Mona, Showkat Akbar and Kamal Azad Pannu.
   A building contractor, Subodh Kumar Kundu, filed the case against the nine on September 16, 2007 with the police alleging that Mashiur with his associates extorted Tk 50 lakh from him in connection with construction jobs. The complainant submitted a document in favour of his allegation.
   The case was transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department and a CID inspector filed the charge sheet against all the accused, court sources said.
   The complainant of the case was shot dead on October 4, 2007 near Castle Bridge at Arappur in the town.
   The case which the police recorded in connection with the killing was also transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department.

Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar and their top commanders are hiding in Pakistan, posing a ‘huge challenge’ to the security of the country and neighbouring Afghanistan, a senior US administration official said Friday.
   ‘There is no question that the iconic leaders of al-Qaeda – Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden ... are in the tribal areas of Pakistan,’ the official said at a media briefing.
   ‘We believe that the Taliban’s shura (consultation) council leaders led by Mullah Omar reside in Quetta in Pakistan,’ he said, referring to the capital of rugged Baluchistan province bordering Afghanistan.
   The sanctuaries were not only helping Taliban fight the insurgency against Afghan
   president Hamid Karzai’s administration, which is backed by US and NATO troops, but also posing a threat to Pakistan and beyond central Asia, the official said.
   ‘There is a threat to the east into Pakistan, in the west into Afghanistan and there is threat beyond Central Asia to the extent that al-Qaeda has reach,’ he said.
   ‘Just as Mullah Omar is giving strategic direction for the Taliban from Quetta, the al-Qaeda senior leadership is in the FATA doing its planning,’ he said.
   Pakistan’s federally administrated tribal areas borders Afghanistan.
   It is among the clearest statements by the United States on the location of the al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.
   Pakistan has repeatedly denied the presence of bin Laden or Omar in its territory. Washington has placed multi-million dollar rewards for their heads.
   Meanwhile, Pakistan dismissed the report.
   ‘The claim by an unnamed official is baseless,’ said foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq, who said Islamabad would take action if the US provided it with intelligence to support the statement.
   The Taliban was ousted in a US-led invasion in 2001, after the September 11 terror attacks masterminded by bin Laden, who was provided sanctuary by the extremist regime in Kabul at that time.
   More than six years after the ouster, US and NATO-led troops are still waging an uphill battle against the Taliban.
   The US official said the United States had seen clear links between the insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan through the Pashtun group, an ethnic minority mostly living along the troubled Afghan-Pakistani border.
   ‘We also know that there are very clear Pashtun tribal links up through the FATA, especially in north and south Waziristan, where Pashtuns who live in Pakistan are supporting Pashtuns, who are fighting in Afghanistan.
   ‘In some cases, they are the one and same people – they live in Pakistan, they commute to the fight, they fight for a while in Afghanistan and retreat back into safe haven inside Waziristan,’ the official said.
   He said that the Taliban and al-Qaeda over the last six months had not only taken up their fight from their ‘safe haven’ west into Afghanistan but also into the east, into the areas of Pakistan itself.
   Underscoring concerns over the militant groups’ logistical gains was the December assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi, a city where the army has its headquarters, about seven miles from the capital Islamabad, he said.

The interim government on Saturday transferred eight senior officials, including three secretaries.
   Ashfaq Hamid, labour and employment secretary, has been sent to the Parliament Secretariat as secretary to replace ATM Ataur Rahman who has been made an officer on special duty.
   Md Abdus Sabur, Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs secretary, has been transferred to the Privatisation Commission as member while Mahfuzul Haq, chief controller of insurance, has been made acting secretary to the labour and employment ministry.
   Md Shahidul Haque, additional secretary of the Economic Relations Division, has been made acting secretary to the CHT affairs ministry, Syed Naqib Muslim, additional secretary of the agriculture ministry, has been sent to the Tariff Commission as acting chairman and Afatb Hasan, chairman of the Land Port Authority, has been transferred to the agriculture ministry as additional
   secretary to replace CQK Mustaq Ahmed, who has been transferred as acting secretary to the liberation war affairs ministry.
   The establishment ministry issued two gazette notifications to the effect on the day.

Former US president Bill Clinton admitted he had learned a lesson from the bitter exchanges provoked by his comments during presidential campaigning for his wife, Hillary.
   ‘I think the mistake that I made is to think that I was a spouse like any other spouse who could defend his candidate,’ Clinton told a local news channel while campaigning Thursday in Portland, Maine.
   ‘I think I can promote Hillary, but not defend her because I was president.
   I have to let her defend herself or have someone else defend her.’
   The ex-president fueled some of the harshest squabbling between his wife’s campaign and that of her Democratic presidential
   rival Barack Obama with comments he made in her support during campaigning last month.
   He drew fire when he dismissed as a ‘fairy tale’ Obama’s claims that he outshone
   Clinton in opposing the Iraq war from the start, with critics interpreting it as a snub to Obama’s bid to be the first black president.
   He then stepped in to the mudslinging ahead of the South Carolina primary nominating vote – in which Obama benefited from support in the large black electorate – comparing the Illinois senator’s bid to the unsuccessful campaign of an earlier black presidential hopeful, Jesse Jackson.
   Bill Clinton said
   however that some of the reporting on his comments
   was ‘factually inaccurate,’
   insisting: ‘I did not ever criticise senator Obama in South Carolina.’
   ‘I think whenever I defend her, A, I risk being misquoted and B, risk being the story,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to be the story.’
   From now on, ‘I will do what I’m asked to do. I will not be in cabinet, I will not be on the staff full-time,’ he added.
   ‘I will do what we’ve always done for each other. I will let her bounce ideas off of me.’

If Barack Obama becomes the next US president he will surely be assassinated, British Nobel literature laureate Doris Lessing predicted in a newspaper interview published here Saturday.
   Obama, who is vying to become the first black president in US history, ‘would certainly not last long, a black man in the position of president. They would murder him,’ Lessing, 88, told the Dagens Nyheter daily.
   Lessing, who won the 2007 Nobel Literature Prize, said it might be better if Obama’s Democratic rival Hillary
   Clinton were to succeed
   in her bid to become the first woman president of the United States.
   ‘The best thing would be if they (Clinton and Obama) were to run together. Hillary is a very sharp lady. It might be calmer if she were to win, and not Obama,’ she said.

Leaders of ethnic minority groups battling for more autonomy in southern Nepal announced plans Saturday for strikes and other protests next week to press the government to bow to their demands.
   Ethnic Mahadhesis from the lowland Terai region bordering India have been demonstrating for greater representation in
   national politics by holding protests in their region that have left at least 200 dead in the past year.
   ‘We’ll organise indefinite nationwide strikes and peaceful protests from Wednesday to fight for the rights of Mahadhesi people,’ Mahanta Thakur, chairman of the Terai Mahadhes Democratic Party, told reporters in Kathmandu.
   Thakur said three major activist groups had formed a new joint alliance – the United Democratic Mahadhes Front – on Saturday to kick off their protest in what they called ‘a final revolt’ against the government.
   Since former rebel Maoists and the government signed a peace deal in November 2006, around two-dozen armed ethnic groups have emerged in the southern Terai region.
   Home to around half of Nepal’s 27 million population, the Terai region is known as the country’s bread basket and has traditionally been under-represented in national politics.
   The United Nations says ethnic unrest in southern Nepal needs to be tackled before crucial polls in April to decide Nepal’s political future.
   The new assembly representatives are expected to write a new constitution that will turn the country into a republic, formally ending a 239-year-old monarchy led by unpopular King Gyanendra.
   ‘The Mahadhesi people want the government to guarantee a federal state structure with greater autonomy and the right to self determination before the polls,’ said Rajendra Mahato, leader of Nepal Sadbhawana Party.
   There have been a series of bomb attacks at election rallies in the tense region.
   ‘Elections in the region are impossible unless these demands are fulfilled. As part of the protest programme, we will also ask people to stop paying taxes to the government and close the border (with India),’ Mahato said.
   Upendra Yadav, leader of Mahadhesi People’s Right Forum, accused the government of breaching past agreements and vowed that ‘the Mahadhesi people will boycott the elections as their political representation has not been guaranteed.’

A nursing student shot two women to death and killed herself in front of horrified classmates at a college in the southern US state of Louisiana on Friday, the police said.
   Investigators still did not have a motive for the early morning killings at the Louisiana Technical College in the state capital, Baton Rouge, the police spokesman L’Jean McKneely said.
   Details such as the names of the victims and the type of weapon used have not yet been released.
   Blake Thibodeaux, 20, a drafting student at the college who was in a nearby classroom, said he heard what he initially thought was a door slamming and asked his teacher if he could investigate.
   ‘I ran towards it and was at the door of the classroom when she shot off the last few rounds,’ he said, adding that the other students streamed in terror out of the room, many crying.
   The police spent hours at the school gathering witness testimony and in the early afternoon were still not allowing people to enter the campus. Crowds of bystanders quietly milled around across the street.
   The shootings came just hours after a gunman killed two police officers and three city officials on Thursday night when he stormed into a city council meeting in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. He was later shot dead by the police.
   Mass shootings are not particularly rare in the United States, where the gun-ownership lobby is politically influential and gun control is far less strict than in many countries.
   In the worst shooting rampage in modern US history, a student with a history of mental illness killed 32 people at Virginia Tech university in April 2007 before turning one of his guns on himself.
   In December, a 19-year-old gunman in Omaha, Nebraska, killed eight people and then himself at a shopping mall. On Saturday, a man robbing a clothing store outside Chicago shot five women to death.

Adori Begum, 40, a widow and mother of eight children, has at last got a place to settle for a while. Tired of fighting with floods and river erosions and moving here and there for a home and livelihood, she now feels safe to live in Baliapara char in Sirajganj.
   Adori is one of 54 ultra-poor households that got homes and courtyards in the shoal, made livable for floating people under the UK government aided Chars Livelihood Programme (CLP).
   She now lives in a hut, grows vegetable on a piece of land and rears a cow.
    ‘They [DFID] gave us training and other support for livestock farming and growing vegetables. They give us money for a livelihood and arranged safe water and hygiene sanitation,’ said the woman.
   People rehabilitated there raised their land to keep floods at bay.
   The resilience amazed British secretary of state of foreign and commonwealth affairs David Miliband, who had been there in the foggy and wintry Saturday morning.
   ‘This is the real example of adaptation to the climate change and how people make simple but effective programme to raise the land level,’ he said.
   He walked along the shoal and enquired about the people’s life and livelihood there. During his hour-long stay at Baliapara char of Belkuchi upazila of the district, he was accompanied by British high commissioner Anwar Choudhury and country representative of the UK Department for International Development Chris Austin.
   ‘Global warming is an issue the whole world is facing now, and Bangladeshis are not alone in their concerns,’ Miliband said,
   He told newsmen that his government had already contributed £120 million to Bangladesh’s efforts for development.
   A part of the fund is being used for the Chars Livelihoods Programme to elevate land in the shoals of the Jamuna river, which devours huge chunk of land on its banks and renders thousands homeless every year.
   DFID is targeting to fund £250 million to a range of projects in Bangladesh to reduce extreme poverty over the next 10 years. Chars Livelihoods Programme (CLP), started in February 2005, is one of them, officials said.
   The project aims at helping at least one lakh extremely poor households (out of a population of 170,000 households exposed to floods and erosions) in seven years.
   From July 2005 to December 2007, the CLP helped people raise 43,500 homesteads at least 60 cm above previous record high flood levels.
   The programme also ensures hygiene sanitation and access to safe drinking water for the char dwellers.
   Over 20,000 households have received their income generating assets (most recipients are female), while 58,000 others were given training on animal rearing, crop diversification and homestead gardening.
   The project gave some four lakh person-days of daily labour, contributing to the mitigation of monga (seasonal joblessness) that affects the northern districts every year.
   Through selling of milk, eggs and vegetables, the char people are raising their monthly incomes from their initial assets and many of them are rising above the poverty line for the first time in their lifetime.

Sudan and the African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission for Darfur signed an agreement on Saturday determining how the joint force will operate, capping weeks of drawn-out negotiations.
   The Status of Forces Agreement was signed in a ceremony in Khartoum by the foreign minister, Deng Alor, and the head of the UNAMID force, Rodolphe Adada.
   It sets out the legal framework for the mission to operate in Sudan and the western region of Darfur, where at least 200,000 people have died and more than two million have fled their homes since rebellion broke out five years ago.
   The signing should allow the mission – comprising only 9,000 personnel of the 26,000 ultimately envisaged – to become fully operational.
   The agreement deals with UNAMID funds, property, communications facilities, the freedom of movement of its personnel, their safety and security, privileges and immunities, entry into, and exit from Sudan.
   Adada described the agreement as ‘an important milestone’ in the deployment of UNAMID in war-torn Darfur, expressing the hope that its negotiations will serve as a model for future cooperation between UNAMID and Sudan.
   ‘As a government, we have the responsibility to protect our people,’ Alor said, describing the agreement as the beginning of an endeavour by both parties to help the people of Darfur ‘who have suffered a lot.’
   The United Nations has long called on Khartoum to accept non-African contingents of UNAMID, facilitate access to land and water as necessary, grant flight clearances and issue visas without undue delay to UNAMID personnel.
   Asked at the ceremony about the participation of non-African troops, the Sudanese foreign minister said: ‘The forces will be predominantly African’.
   ‘We are committed to deploying non-African forces as we go along, in consultation with UNAMID,’ he added.
   The AU-UN mission took over peacekeeping efforts in Darfur following a largely symbolic ceremony on December 31, replacing a now defunct AU mission which had failed to stem the conflict.
   The Security Council authorised UNAMID in July but its short life has been blighted by accusations that Khartoum has been stalling and that contributing countries are not supplying enough hardware, in particular helicopters.
   When it reaches full capacity, UNAMID will be the UN’s largest peacekeeping operation, deployed five years after ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Sudan’s Arab-dominated regime in February 2003.

Myanmar will hold a referendum on a new constitution in May, the ruling junta said Saturday, promising to then have multi-party elections in 2010.
   The announcement on state television came amid mounting international pressure on Myanmar over its bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in September, when the United Nations estimates at least 31 people were killed.
   It also came nearly two decades after democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party comfortably won a nationwide vote which was then rejected by the military.
   Last autumn’s protests, led by Buddhist monks, were the biggest challenge to military rule in nearly 20 years.
   ‘The referendum on the new constitution will be held in May 2008,’ said the government statement, read over state television. No exact date was announced.
   ‘Multi-party democratic elections will be held in 2010, according to the new constitution,’ it added.
   ‘It is suitable to change the military administration to a democratic, civil administrative system, as good fundamentals have been established,’ it said.
   ‘The country’s basic infrastructure has been built, although there is still more to do in striving for the welfare of the nation,’ it added.
   Myanmar last held elections in 1990, when Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won in a landslide, but the ruling junta has never recognised the result. NLD spokesman Nyan Win said the party was surprised by the announcement, especially since no one has seen the final version of the constitution that the military plans to bring before voters.
   ‘I am surprised that they set a date for an election,’ Nyan Win said.
   ‘We have to see the results of the referendum on the constitution. How can they know if it will be a success? It is still early to talk about an election.’
   The junta organised the last elections in Myanmar after public frustrations at political repression and economic troubles erupted into protests in 1988.
   Aung San Suu Kyi first took to the public stage during that uprising, which was far larger than the demonstrations last year. The military responded by confining her to her home in 1989, but the newly formed NLD still won a landslide victory when the junta held elections the following year.
   Instead of recognising her victory, the military insisted on drafting a new constitution and convened a National Convention in 1993, which spent the next 14 years in fitful meetings laying out the guidelines for a new charter.
   In the early stages, the NLD participated in the talks, but the party later boycotted the National Convention in protest at Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest.
   The Nobel peace prize winner has spent a total of 12 years locked in her rambling lakeside home in Yangon, allowed little contact with the outside world.
   The charter talks, held in secret by 1,000 delegates chosen by the regime, finally concluded on September 3, 2007, just weeks after anti-government demonstrations began appearing in Yangon in protest at an overnight hike in fuel prices. By the end of September, the protests had snowballed into the largest anti-government demonstrations since 1988. The military responded with a deadly crackdown in which security forces opened fire on crowds, killing dozens.
   The junta’s unexpected announcement late Saturday was its first significant gesture to Myanamr’s pro-democracy forces since the protests.

Farmers of Sangalsi and Sona Roy in the Nilphamari district headquarters on Saturday blocked the Nilphamari– Saidpur Road for three hours demanding fertiliser for boro farming.
   The farmers said most of them who were cultivating IRRI and boro failed to get urea even after efforts for about a week. The crops faded as the farmers failed to apply fertiliser in time.
   Frustrated, the farmers blocked the road at Kazir Hat point at 7:00am. They called off the blockade at 10:00am at the intervention of the police.
   The Nilphamari sadar police officer-in-charge, Zahedur Rahman Chowdhury, said a few farmers were trying to block the road, but the police dispersed them and brought situation under control.