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Teachers at Dhaka University on Wednesday announced agitation programmes to push for the release of all the teachers and students detained in connection with the August campus protests and the withdrawal of all cases filed in this regard.
   A requisitioned meeting of the Dhaka University Teachers’ Association at night decided not to hold the admission tests of Unit B (arts and social sciences) and D (combined) as the deans of the arts and social sciences, Sadrul Amin and Harun-or-Rashid, are in jail.
   They announced a three-hour token hunger strike at Aparajeya Bangla on January 21, a solidarity rally of teachers, students, and guardians on January 23, hoisting black flags, creation of funds for the treatment of students injured by the law enforcers and sending a letter to the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council to cancel the registration of a jail physician who assaulted a student as he sought treatment.
   Economics teacher Shafiquzzman chaired the requisitioned meeting, convened by him, history teacher Mesbah Kamal and social welfare teacher Muhammad Samad.
   About 100 teachers, belonging to the Blue Panel loyal to the Awami League and the left-leaning Pink Panel, attended the meeting where 14 teachers joined the discussions. The White Panel loyal to the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami did not attend the meeting, terming it unlawful.
   The three, on behalf of 49 teachers, on January 5 convened the requisitioned meeting as the present leadership of the association continued avoiding the issue of the release of the detained. Signatures of 25 teachers are required to convene a requisitioned meeting.
   Former teachers’ association president AAMS Arefin Siddique, now on the association’s executive committee, after the meeting said, ‘We now move forward with a single demand — withdrawal of all cases and subsequent release of the teachers and students. We are respectful to the court and it will proceed along its course.’
   ‘We want to believe that the judiciary has been independent and we have nothing say about what the court would do. We place our demands before the government,’ he said.
   Responding to the request the home affairs adviser, Abdul Matin, made on Wednesday for not taking tougher agitation programmes, Muntassir Mamun said ‘This meeting restrained from announcing any “tougher” agitation programmes at the call of the government. We expect that the government will ensure a congenial academic atmosphere by withdrawing all the cases.’
   Mesbah Kamal said, ‘we demand unconditional release of all the teachers and students with dignity. Their dignity can only be ensured by withdrawing the cases filed in connection with the August 20-22 campus protests.’
   The acting association president, Tajmeri SA Islam, and the acting general secretary, Mamun Ahmed, both of the White Panel, in a statement said the association had no relation to the meting as the requisition letter was faulty. ‘No date was mentioned in the letter for the requisitioned meeting which is a violation of Article 8 (Kha) 2 of the association’s constitution,’ the statement said.
   As for statement of the acting association president and the acting general secretary, Muhammad Samad, who is one of the three who convened the meeting, said, ‘Today’s meeting also discussed and rejected their “fictitious” statement.’
   The teachers will hoist black flag atop the Arts Building this morning and the students will continue boycott classes for two hours. The students said they would also form human chain in front of all academic buildings.
   The students on Wednesday threatened with violating the state of emergency if the detained teachers and students of the university are not freed by January 18, the deadline they earlier set for the government.
   They said they had been staging peaceful demonstrations for a week to press home their demand for unconditional release of all the detained teachers and students and withdrawal all the cases, but it seemed the government was not heeding their demands.

Student at Rajshahi University walked in a silent procession on the campus on Wednesday as part of the demonstrations to push for unconditional release of 10 students and an employee detained in connection with the August campus protests.
   The Students against Repression also initiated a signature campaign and collected the signatures of about 200 students in front of the mass communications and journalism department between 7:00am and 2:00pm. They will continue collecting signatures today.
   The students also held campaigns with drawings in various places on the campus to push for their demands.
   The Students against Repression decided to join the Students against Authoritarianism, which also brought out a silent procession on the campus on Wednesday. They formed a human chain at noon in front of the central library on the campus.
   About 500 students, tying their mouths with black cloths, joined the human chain agitation programme.
   Mass communications and journalism teacher Abdullah Al Mamun, who was released from jail facing a conviction in connection with the campus protests, Professor Susmita Chakrabarti and some freedom fighters joined the human chain. After the human chain, they paraded the campus.
   They announced Thursday’s programme at the university Shaheed Minar on Wednesday. They planned to boycott classes between 11:00m and 1:00pm today.
   They will today hold a rally at 11:30am and hoist black flags at different places on the campus.
   A large number of law enforcers, in uniforms and plainclothes, stood guard on the campus.
   Arzu Begum, mother of the detained university employee Ataur Rahman, requested to the government to release her son and the 10 students.
   She said Ataur’s family was passing their days in hardship as he is the only bread-earner of the family.

MA Matin, just after assuming office of the home affairs ministry, on Wednesday sought some more time from the Dhaka University teachers and students, now rallying for the release of the detained over campus protests, to work out a graceful solution.
   ‘It is our humble request to them to give the government a few more days to work out a graceful solution,’ Matin said in his office as he answered questions of reporters on the ongoing protests at Dhaka University for unconditional release of teachers and students.
   He said the government was also considering options to resolve the cases even outside the court.
   ‘We need a day or two more for a graceful solution to the crisis as there are weekly holidays [Friday and Saturday] and a single working day is left before the January 18 deadline for the release of the teachers and students,’ Matin said, adding that the time limit is very short to work out a solution.
   Teachers and students have at Dhaka University continued rallying for unconditional release of the teachers and students detained in connection with the August 2007 campus protests and withdrawal of all cases against them by February 18.
   They also threatened the government with tougher movements in case the government fails to release the detained by the time.
   Matin, a retired army officer, said the Dhaka University crisis and the labour unrest in the readymade garments sector were on his priority list at the home affairs ministry.
   Asked whether the government was waiting for the court verdict in connection with the release of the detained, Matin said, ‘I do not think so.’
   As for media report that the students were tortured in jail, he said, ‘It is very sad, if such things have happened. I will request the authorities so that such incidents of torture do not take place.’
   Matin hoped that they would work out a ‘wonderful’ solution to the Dhaka University issue.
   ‘The teachers are respected personalities and the students are also dear to us. We have respects for and sympathy with all of them…. Initiatives have already been taken for a graceful solution,’ he said, adding that the number of witnesses in the case was reduced to expedite the process.
   In a major reshuffle in the interim cabinet on Tuesday, Matin, also adviser to shipping, land and liberation war affairs ministries, was given the charge of the home affairs ministry, which had traditionally been held by the chief adviser to he past caretaker governments since 1990.
   The home ministry had been in the jurisdiction of the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, since his assumption of office on January 12, 2007.
   Matin termed the home ministry a sensitive and challenging wing of the government.
   Asked whether the Dhaka University movement and the labour unrest would lead the government into a greater crisis, he said there might be problems which they would deal with patience.

Detained Dhaka University teacher Anwar Hossain on Wednesday said charges pressed against them were actually against the ‘conscience of the nation’.
   ‘The case against us is not ordinary. We — the four teachers and one student present in court — and 14 other fugitive students are not the real accused. It’s Dhaka University that has been put in the dock.’
   ‘The accused are the conscience of the nation,’ Professor Anwar told a court in the capital where he defended himself against the charges of violating emergency rules during campus violence in August.
   Anwar said an intelligence agency was playing the main role in linking some teachers and students to the August violence.
   ‘It seems a Shahbag police official is the complainant of the case. But we as well people know who were against the conscience of the nation, against the Dhaka University and against the teachers and students,’ he said.
   ‘The members of the military intelligence agency have played the main role in framing charges. Not only that, they even attend this court regularly,’ Anwar alleged.
   He said the charges were meant to malign the ‘conscience of the nation’.
   His statement came in the court of metropolitan magistrate M Golam Rabbani during the hearing of the defence statements by the accused.
   Anwar read out a 10-page statement to the court where he described the context of the August violence.
   He said they were not responsible for the violence and they had just stood by the students against injustice.
   The three other teachers and the student also pleaded innocent.
   Professor Harun-or-Rashid said, ‘Nobody is above law. We are no different. Punish us if we are found guilty. Charges have been brought against us as if we have violated emergency rules. But the government would not bring any charge against fundamentalists and anti-liberation forces who went on the rampages and brought out processions after the publication of a satire cartoon in Prothom Alo.’
   ‘We have reviewed all papers of this case. It seems to me that all including the police official gave their statements under pressure,’ he said.
   ‘We have limited wealth and powers. We cultivate knowledge. We compete for acquiring knowledge. We hope any person or any agency would not adopt any cruel measures against us. This is our country. Give us scope to build a beautiful country. I am innocent and I want fair justice,’ he told the court.
   Nimchandra Bhowmik and Sadrul Amin also claimed to be innocent.
   They said their names had not been included initially but they were included later ‘intentionally to malign us’.
   They said they had not been on the scene and did not give any statement during the volatile days.
   Student Sardar Moniruzzaman Rubel also said he demanded ‘fair justice’.
   The violence had erupted over a chaos between the students and some troops camped at the university gymnasium.
   The melee began during a football match. After some troops reportedly beat a student, the university students burst into protests, spilling over onto the streets of Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.
   The court resumes Thursday for hearing of the arguments.

Ten Rajshahi University students, convicted of setting fire to an army vehicle during the campus unrest on August 22, made an appeal to the district and sessions judge’s court on Wednesday.
   Their counsel Abdus Samad filed the appeal on behalf of the convicted students.
   Judge AR Masud asked for the case documents for hearing on the appeal petition.
   Another convict Ataur Rahman, an employee of the university, also lodged his appeal to the court.
   Rajshahi Speedy Trial Tribunal on December 12 sentenced the students and the employee to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined them Tk 5,000 each.
   The convicted students are Chhatra League RU unit general secretary Ayenuddin, Dipayan Sarkar Deep, Mizanur Rahman Mithu, Sardar Ayaz, SM Fakhrul Islam Raihan, Abu Sayem, Shamim Ahmed, Kazi Abdul Latif, Shakhawat Hossain and Aziz Bin Kamal Uzzal.
   Sayem surrendered to the court on January 6 while nine others on January 7.
   The court also acquitted Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan Sajal and Golam Sabbir Sattar Tapu, teachers of geology and mining department, and Sadequl Islam, university’s deputy chief information officer, of the charge.

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Wednesday alleged that the party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, was suffering mental torture in the special jail on the Jatiya Sangsad complex.
   ‘She is being mentally tortured as she is in solitary confinement. It is not acceptable at all,’ Delwar said as the jail authorities did not allow the three lawyers of Khaleda to visit her together in the special jail.
   The three lawyers, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, also BNP secretary general, Sanaullah Mian and Naushad Jamir Sircar, went to the security checkpoint on the complex after having an order from a Dhaka court to visit Khaleda. Several hundred leaders and activists of the party and its front organisations gathered there on the occasion.
   The jail authorities agreed to allow two lawyers, Sanaullah and Naushad, to visit Khaleda at a time. But the counsels demanded that all three be allowed in.
   Nine lawyers appealed to the court of additional metropolitan magistrate M Golam Rabbani for permission to meet Khaleda, also the immediate-past prime minister. The court, on January 7, asked the jail authorities to allow Delwar, Sanaullah and Naushad to meet her.
   Delwar, visibly upset by the refusal, told reporters that the prison authorities did not allow him to visit Khaleda although he had gone there as her lawyer. ‘Carrying a court order, I went to the jail to visit her as a lawyer, not as the party secretary general. But they did not allow me.’
   ‘Even no jail official met me to explain the reason for not allowing me there. Rather they sent a piece of paper through a sepoy allowing Barrister Naushad Jamir and Advocate Sanaullah Mian to meet her,’ Delwar said at his Sher-e-Bangla Nagar residence.
   He alleged that the courts are tied up with the emergency rules. ‘It is the duty of every citizen to abide by court orders. But the government has violated the court order by not allowing me to see her [Khaleda] although the judiciary has been separated from the executive,’ he said adding, ‘It is an unprecedented incident.’
   Delwar said he had doubt if Khaleda and her two sons, Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman, would get justice. ‘How Begum Zia will get justice if her lawyers cannot meet and consult her about the cases filled against her?’
   ‘It seems to us that she is being mentally tortured in solitary confinement’, he said.
   He said that he would inform the court that its order had not been ‘honoured’ by the government.
   Delwar expressed doubt if there would be transition to democracy from the present state of emergency. ‘Doubts persist in public mind as to whether there will be transition to democracy.’
   The BNP leader also alleged that the government of Fakhruddin Ahmed was trying to hold an ‘arranged election’ keeping his faction out of the race through a ‘secret entente’.
   ‘The government is not treating the two groups of BNP equally. Rather it has been trying to divide the party,’ he said.
   He termed the Election Commission’s plan to redraw the parliamentary constituencies ‘ill motivated’.
   Bdnews24.com adds: The deputy inspector general of prisons, Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui, said Delwar was asked to apply to meet Khaleda, but he did not do it.
   ‘The other two were allowed to meet her, but all three wanted to go inside together but it was not possible as per the jail code,’ he said.
   Siddiqui said the court did not order that three lawyers should be allowed to visit her at the same time. ‘Jails have some rules and regulations. We respect the court order and that was why we gave them the chance.’

Indefinite suspension of the people’s fundamental rights under a state of emergency, arbitrary actions by the military-controlled interim government, instances of alleged torture and death in custody, covert and overt attempts to curb media freedom induced a climate of fear in society in the past one year, rights activists say.
   The situation turned so grave that even the human rights organisations hesitated to speak up against rights violations, they say.
   ‘The year 2007 was a big blow to human rights, freedom of expression and conscience,’ Shahriar Kabir, a writer and rights activist, says.
   The way the government suppressed people’s right to express their opinions freely, restrict their freedom of movement, assembly and thought as well as register protest against injustice was unprecedented, he adds. ‘Blanket arrest, detention without trial, etc were matters of grave concerns.’
   During the political regimes people at least had the right seek bail and defend themselves in a court of law but now lawyers do not dare take up such cases, he observes.
   The joint forces detained about 4.5 lakh people – half of them on suspicion – in the drive against crime and corruption, which began immediately after the interim government came to power, according to official statistics.
   Thousands of the detainees were allegedly subjected to torture and harassment in custody and later put behind bars prior to their trial.
   In many cases when the courts granted the accused bail the government did not release them and brought fresh charges or obtained stay orders against the bail.
   In August, after violence spread across the country following the alleged manhandling of a Dhaka University student by an army personnel, the government implicated 86,000 people, including students and teachers, in 53 cases.
   Two dozens teachers and students of Dhaka and Rajshahi universities were arrested on charge of violating Emergency Powers Rule. Four RU teachers were released only after being convicted in a case while the rest are still in jail.
   AAMS Arefin Siddiqui, a professor of mass communication and journalism at Dhaka University, believes the media faces a huge challenge due to pressure and intimidation by the government machineries, detention of journalists and their harassment.
   These are meant to suppress the voice of media so that it cannot criticise the government for its irregularities and extra-constitutional actions, he says.
   Some journalists were beaten by members of the joint forces on the night of August 22 while they were returning home from work.
   ‘The people are in a hostage-like situation because of the prolonged emergency. They do not feel safe making comments – personal or political – about the actions of the government,’ Arefin says.
   Sultana Kamal of Ain O Salish Kendra believes incidents of human rights violation took place in different ways through the first year of emergency.
   The people, especially the rights activists, should take the issue to the government and put pressure on it to check further violation and ensure freedom of expression and thought, she says.
   Withdrawal of the state of emergency is a prerequisite for democracy, says Sultana, a former adviser to the caretaker government.
   Violation of human rights occurred during the previous governments; however, under the interim government, it has assumed ominous proportions, she adds.
   Various local and international rights organisations expressed concern over deteriorating rights situation and stressed the importance of respecting human rights through the year.

Five statuettes said to be dating back to the Pal and the Sen era have been illegally kept at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel for more than two decades without documentation.
   The priceless artefacts are also moved from one place to another at times in apparent fear of theft, an investigation showed.
   Neither the hotel operators nor any officials of the National Museum and the Department of Archaeology know how the black, stone statuettes found their way to the hotel and who looked after them.
   During an investigation, New Age obtained some documents and information which indicate the operation of a racket of national and international agents to smuggle the objects out of the hotel.
   It could not be established whether the genuine statuettes had already been stolen and the artefacts now in the hotel are replicas, and many on the hotel staff are apprehensive of misappropriation because of suspicious handling of the artefacts by a few high executives.
   ‘I believe there was an orchestrated conspiracy to steal the statuettes,’ said a former hotel executive, a witness to many incidents during his 20 years of career at the hotel. ‘If you investigate, you will get to know something is wrong somewhere.’
   The investigation showed that the pieces were taken to the hotel for display within a few years after it had been inaugurated in 1981. But its overseas operators, Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts, did not log where the artefacts came from, their prices and the insurance value in case they go missing.
   Law requires anyone willing to keep artefacts to inform the authorities concerned, document them properly and ensure the security of the objects which the hotel authorities have never bothered about.
   Information available on artefacts as recorded with the Hotel International Limited, the owning authority, says there are five ‘black stone’ statuettes kept in the lobby, two of them on top of wooden boxes. The recording was made on January 1, 1993, years after the artefacts had been taken to the hotel.
   The Hotel International also estimated the prices of the artefacts at Tk 1,45,000 in its audit report and the amount indicates that the authorities were ignorant of the prices of the objects.
   A whiff has been in the air for 12 years at the hotel that the objects could go missing, but the authorities have never taken the matter seriously. They have never tried to trace the source of the objects and hand them over to proper authorities.
   But they have now become desperate to hand the artefacts over to the archaeology department, apparently not to court any troubles in the wake of the theft of two Vishnu statuettes from Zia International Airport in December.
   ‘I know nothing about the statuettes other than providing the security for them,’ said the chief of security of the hotel, retired lieutenant colonel Zillur Rahman, who has been working there since 1999.
   He declined to talk when he was asked where the statuettes had come from and the issue of theft. He referred to the Hotel International. The managing director, Meshbaul Alam, had no information on this and the secretary, Shawkat Hasan, avoided making comments.
   Approached for comments in the past week, Shawkat through his personal officer said he was busy and an appointment needed to be fixed. But he did not receive any phone calls after that. His personal officer, Pratima Das, said, ‘Sir was busy and asked me to listen to what you say.’
   Documents show one Suraiya I Hossain, who identified herself as an interior designer, had laid her claim to one of the artefacts. He wrote to then managing director, A Zaman, on June 25, 2000 to return the ‘Vishnu statue’ she gave the hotel for a display.
   ‘This sculpture is part of a family heirloom. I had loaned it on request from interior designer Nasreen Zamir, who was refurbishing the interior of your hotel in 1988,’ the letter read.
   The hotel authorities referred the matter to the archaeology department which asked them to hand the Vishnu statue to the department. ‘Neither we nor you [Suraiya] own such archaeological objects. We are preparing to hand over the artefact to the archaeology department,’ Ali Eskander Ahmed, then secretary of the Hotel International, informed the woman on July 26, 2000.
   But the statue is still on display in the hotel.
   Archaeology department director Shafiqul Alam on Sunday said he was not aware of the artefacts, but assured New Age of an inquiry soon. He was surprised to know that five statuettes are kept at the Sonargaon Hotel. He later inquired about the statuettes and said the artefacts could date back to the 10th to the 11th century, which is classified as the Sen era. They could also date back even earlier, to the Pal era, he said.
   Some hotel officials claimed that the artefacts had come from the National Mueum when Dr Enamul Haque was director general, but Enamul brushed aside the claim.
   ‘The hotel authorities might have brought them from private collectors,’ he said, adding that he heard of a woman who gave one of the artefacts to the hotel. He claimed ignorance of other issues.
   Samar Chandra Pal, now director general of the museum, also has also no idea about where the statuettes came from.
   Nobody at the hotel could say anything specific about the artefacts and provided conflicting information. Some say there were seven statuettes while others there were five. But everyone tried to avoid talking on the issue.
   A three-member committee, headed by human resources director of the hotel, Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed, was formed in April 2007 amid allegations that two of the statuettes went missing.
   The committee found five statuettes at the place and failed to get any authenticity of the allegation. It recommended that the archaeology department should be informed of the statuettes.
   ‘There should have been a regular catalogue of the artefacts,’ suggested the committee. ‘As the statuettes are ancient, a proper guideline should be given to the proper authorities on how to maintain them professionally.’
   It also questioned the justification of keeping the artefacts on display in a hotel. Kazi Rakibuddin said, ‘No statue has gone missing.’
   Both the retired and serving members on the hotel staff said the artefacts kept in the lobby were moved many times, from one place to another.
   ‘Frequent change in the location of the artefacts was very suspicious,’ said a senior official. He said an artefact was taken to the isolated Pacific Floor Lounge on the sixth floor with an “ill motive”.’
   No record or relevant data was maintained about the shifting of the artefacts. Sources in the hotel said the shifting took place on oral instructions given by the general managers.
   ‘I cannot say anything about it, but I have been seeing them since my joining in 1994,’ said housekeeper Mizanur Rahman.
   Many members on the hotel staff talked about suspicious activities centring on the artefacts. They pointed out the activities of the immediate-past general manager, Grant Gaskin, who stayed in the hotel with his wife and son.
   A New Zealander, Gaskin joined the hotel in August 2002 and left Bangladesh in August 2006. But his wife had left a month earlier, almost without being noticed. It is known that she took with her 40 bags in a Homebound van.
   ‘Most of us had good relations with them as they stayed here for three years. We were astonished when she left in secret,’ said one, who worked for the family.
   An official, who closely worked with Gaskin, said a few people had known about her departure.
   Some, however, claimed misappropriation might take place before Gaskin had joined the hotel.
   ‘I am convinced that the Pacific Floor Lounge had been used to replace the artefacts with replicas,’ suspected an intelligence agency official, who was assigned at the hotel for many years. ‘Taking one of the artefacts to the isolated room indicates something else.’
   Dr Nazimuddin, a former archaeology department director, said making replicas of rare artefacts are not difficult in Bangladesh.
   Many, after the theft of two Vishnu statuettes from airport, believe the hotel might have been used as a transit for smuggling of museum pieces.
   Two of the artefacts are now kept by the elevator for the guests, one in front of the fountain gate, one next to stairs and the other on the Pacific Floor lounge.
   Two wooden frames were found on the hotel premises in the past year. A carpenter said the frames were made to keep the statuettes, but none of the frames were used for reasons unknown.
   The investigation found some top hotel executives had been in touch with few members of the local elite and foreigners, including the wife a French citizen, who runs a private hospital in Dhaka.
   An influential businessman, who is also leader of the Ismailia community, also used to meet a general manager of the hotel at night, which appeared suspicious to many officials.
   The photos of the statues taken at the initial stage have also gone missing and there is no closed-circuit television camera footage that can help to identify the location of the artefacts. All such issues add to the suspicion.
   Experts said many precious artefacts had been smuggled out of Bangladesh and the malpractice continued. Smugglers usually buy artefacts from private collectors, they said.
   As the hotel authorities have now been desperate to hand over the statuettes to the government department concerned, the archaeology department said it needs to examine the pieces before taking them in its custody

The Awami League has in principle agreed to participate in the proposed dialogue with the government following a phone call made by an adviser to the interim government and is now waiting for a formal proposal.
   The AL will discuss the matter at its presidium meeting scheduled for Friday at the residence of the acting party president, Zillur Rahman, the party’s senior leaders said.
   The two factions of the BNP, on the other hand, expressed mixed reaction to the government’s move for holding dialogues with the political parties.
   As the AL first made the demand for talks between the government and the political parities to resolve the existing political crisis, the party in principle agreed to take part in the proposed dialogue, the party leaders said.
   The party will hold the dialogue on the basis of the 31-point proposal announced by the AL-led alliance in July, 2005, they said adding that the issue of the release of the party president, Sheikh Hasina, would top the agenda.
   The government on Tuesday started communicating with politicians for holding dialogues with the political parties as per the offer made by chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed.
   Food and health adviser AMM Shawkat Ali made a phone call to Awami League presidium member Matia Chowdhury and sought to know about the Awami League’s position on the proposed dialogue.
   After Shawkat’s phone call the party decided to discuss the issue in its presidium. Matia will reply to the call after the presidium gives her instructions in this regard although the senior leaders have termed the offer informal.
   ‘I will reply to the adviser after getting the party’s instruction in this regard’, Matia told New Age on Wednesday, adding that the reply would be given after Friday.
   Another senior leader said that the AL-led alliance still existed and the dialogue would be held on the basis of its 31-point proposal if the party decided to take part in the dialogue.
   ‘We are always in favour of dialogue…We first made the demand for holding talks and so the AL in principle agrees to take part in the dialogue if a formal proposal is made’, the acting general secretary of the party, Syed Ashraful Islam told New Age on Wednesday, adding that the party presidium called a meeting on Friday to discuss the issue.
   He, however, said that at first the AL should get a formal proposal from the government and there were some other formalities like pre-dialogue communications and fixing up the agenda for the talks.
   ‘A formal proposal should come first as we have to review the terms and conditions of the proposal and the agenda before making a final decision in this regard’, the acting president of AL, Zillur Rahman, told New Age on Wednesday, adding the party would participate in the talks if every necessary formalities were completed accordingly.
   Zillur, however, said that an adviser’s phone call seeking to know the party’s position could not be regarded as a proposal for dialogue.
   Asked about the government’s plan to hold dialogues with political parties, the BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, expressed his doubt if the incumbents really wanted to hold credible elections. ‘I do not understand what they have really meant by offering dialogues when they are plotting to hold an “arranged election” keeping the BNP out of the race through a “secret entente”.’
   ‘The government is not treating the two groups of BNP equally. Rather it has been trying to divide the party,’ he alleged.
   Nazrul Islam Khan, a joint secretary general of the party, asked what would be the outcome of the proposed dialogue if the government invited the political parties by intimidating someone and favouring others’.
   ‘Earlier the Election Commission failed to remain above such attitude. What would be the outcome of the dialogue if same thing happens during the [government-proposed] dialogue?’
   The acting secretary general of the Saifur Rahman-led faction of BNP, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, however, welcomed the government’s move for holding dialogue with the political parties.

Hundreds of Islamist militants captured a Pakistani paramilitary fort near the Afghan border on Wednesday, sparking fierce fighting that left seven troops and up to 50 rebels dead, the army said.
   Security officials said another 20 troops were missing after insurgents armed with rocket launchers blasted their way into the outpost at Sararogha town in the rugged South Waziristan tribal district.
   The area is said to be a stronghold of Baitullah Mehsud, a tribal warlord with alleged links to al-Qaeda who is accused by the government of masterminding the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
   ‘Around midnight 400 miscreants attacked the Frontier Corps at Sararogha. The fort was captured by militants, we are taking stock of the situation,’ chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told the news agency.
   ‘There are reports of 40 to 50 dead miscreants, while seven personnel embraced martyrdom.’
   The attack highlighted growing insecurity in Pakistan ahead of crucial elections on February 18, which were postponed because of widespread unrest sparked by Benazir’s killing.
   Military sources said the Islamist fighters besieged the remote fort in darkness before blowing up part of the walls, storming inside and taking control of the building.
   Abbas said that of 42 troops manning the fort, 15 had escaped and reported back to a separate base while the whereabouts of the rest were not known.
   ‘There are reports that they are returning to scattered posts,’ he said.
   A senior security official however said the 20 troops were still missing. The capture of the fort came two days after the army said seven troops and 23 militants were killed in a clash in Mohmand, another of Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
   Last week the military said it repulsed a further attack in South Waziristan involving around 300 militants, killing around 50 of them. Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militancy has intensified in the tribal areas since Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf ordered troops to crush an uprising at a radical mosque in Islamabad in July.
   Insurgent leader Mehsud is accused by the government of ordering most of those attacks from his hideout in South Waziristan, including Benazir’s killing at an election rally on December 27.
   He has denied any role in Benazir’s assassination.
   Militants also took over swathes of the Swat valley, also in northwest Pakistan, and proclaimed Islamic law before being chased into the mountains by troops. The violence in Pakistan has raised fears for the stability of the nuclear-armed US ally in the ‘war on terror’ ahead of the general elections.
   The polls are billed as a key step towards full democracy nine years after Musharraf seized power in a military coup.

The Election Commission has asked its lawyer Dr Kamal Hossain to take steps for an expeditious hearing in former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s writ petition challenging the EC’s decision to invite the government-backed faction of the BNP, led by Saifur Rahman, to the talks on electoral reforms.
   ‘We asked our lawyer Dr Kamal Hossain yesterday [Tuesday] to take steps for an expeditious hearing and disposal of the writ petition to settle the issue,’ election commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain told reporters at his office on Wednesday.
   The election commissioner made the statement when he was asked whether the EC was deliberately delaying settlement of the issue as about one and a half months ago the commissioners had repeatedly said that they would request the High Court for a speedy hearing, but did not do so.
   Sources said that the EC was yet to request the High Court for an expeditious hearing and disposal of the writ petition.
   When asked why the EC was still not requesting the HC for an expeditious hearing, Sohul referred to Monday’s development in which a High Court bench had made out-of-list an appeal for extending a court order that stayed the operation of the EC’s invitation to the government-backed faction of the BNP.
   When it was pointed out that the HC’s decision making the appeal out-of-list and contesting the writ petition filed by the detained BNP chairperson was not the same, an angry Sohul said, ‘Why are you insisting on this issue.’
   Earlier on December 2, Sohul told reporters that the commission would request the High Court to resolve the matter in four weeks as it would be in trouble if the dialogues with the political parties were not completed by the stipulated time.
   On December 9, Sohul said that the EC would request the court for a speedy hearing and disposal of the writ petition before the High Court went on vacation [on December 13].
   Despite repeated statements the commission had failed to request the HC for an expeditious hearing before the court went on winter vacation.
   The High Court on November 18 stayed the commission’s November 22 dialogue with the government-backed BNP faction and issued a rule on the commission to explain in three weeks why the invitation should not be declared illegal and void.
   Khaleda on November 13 issued a legal notice to the commission, asking for withdrawal of its invitation to Hafiz Uddin Ahmad sent on November 5. The commission in its reply on November 13 refused to cancel the invitation.
   A day after the invitation letter had been sent to Hafiz, the chief election commissioner, Shamsul Huda, said the ‘doctrine of necessity’ had prompted the commission to invite the Saifur-led faction of the BNP to the dialogue.
   On January 2, a petition was filed on behalf of Khaleda with the HC bench comprising Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice Abdul Awal to extend its (HC) stay order. The bench on Monday made out-of-list an appeal for extending the HC order as Khaleda’s counsels did not take steps for hearing.

The police have filed a case against 10 leaders of garment workers’ organisations over the clashes that took place at Mirpur and Kachukhet in Dhaka on Monday and Tuesday.
   About a hundred workers were injured in the clashes as the police charged at them with truncheons and fired teargas shells. Several factories were damaged and a few vehicles vandalised.
   Five more cases have been filed with the Kafrul police against the workers in connection with the clashes.
   The police said four of the cases were filed in connection with the violation of the Emergency Powers Rules and one was filed over the assault of lawmen.
   The other case in connection with vandalising garment factories and vehicles was filed against the leaders.
   Six subinspectors of the Kafrul police — Rafiqul Islam, Mojibur Rahman, Momin Ahmed, Habibul Alam, Shahbuddin Ahmed and Moniruzzaman — filed the cases as complainants.
   ‘We have named some worker leaders as we have found them involved in the clashes after seeing the video footage aired by television channels,’ said a subinspector who filed the case.
   The police early Wednesday arrested garment waste traders Moktar Hossain, 40 and Mehedi Hasan, 42, at their houses at Ibrahimpur.
   One of the investigation officers told New Age, ‘We have arrested them as they have been controlling the trade in garment wastes at Shewrapara, Kazipara, Mirpur and Kachukhet for long.’
   All the garments factories at Shewrapara, Kazipara, Mirpur Section 10, 11, 12 and 13 and Kachukhet resumed operation Wednesday morning.
   A worker of the MBM Garments, Kayes, told New Age, ‘We joined work by 8:00am, but the authorities directed us to join work on Thursday.’
   Police deployment at the areas was reinforced on Wednesday.

A determined son of a martyred freedom-fighter has ended his painful 16-year mission, finally discovering where his missing father was killed and buried after being abducted by the Pakistani army during Bangladesh’s War of Liberation 36 years ago.
   Nadeem Qadir, a journalist by profession, started the mission in 1991 to trace the whereabouts of the remains of his father Lt Col MA Qadir, of the corps of engineers, who went missing after his arrest by the occupation forces in April 1971.
   Nadeem, a young boy at that time, and his pregnant mother and a sister only saw Col Qadir being picked up by the Pakistani soldiers in the early morning on April 17 from their Panchlaish residence, but failed to trace his father’s body’s whereabouts until he concluded the mission recently.
   He is now confirmed that his father lies in a mass grave in Chittagong.
   ‘After a 16-year search I stumbled on a clue that finally led me to a mass grave in Panchlaish. The grave is very close to our Panchlaish residence in 1971,’ Nadeem told New Age on Wednesday, adding that the bodies of 18 other freedom-fighters were dumped at the mass grave.
   Construction work was underway on the site of the mass grave when Nadeem completed his investigation. After being requested by the army, the authorities kept the construction work suspended from January 10, 2008.
   Officials at the army headquarters say that it is a matter of pride that they could finally trace the grave of a valiant son of the soil.
   ‘We will do whatever is needed to honour the martyr of the War of Liberation,’ a senior army officer told New Age.
   Nadeem interviewed a host of people during his investigation, including many involved in the freedom struggle whom Col Qadir had helped to defend his country in the initial period of the War of Liberation in Chittagong.
   Nadeem said the tracing agency of the Red Cross stated in 1974 that he [Col. Qadir] was ‘missing, believed killed’ on April 17, 1971.
   But that was not enough to satisfy his family as nobody could say certainly where he was killed. There was information that the Pakistanis killed Qadir near Foy’s Lake, where his eldest son used to go to pray and place floral wreaths every year.
   But not being convinced by the unsupported information from various sources, Nadeem started his fact-finding mission afresh in 1991. He visited Panchlaish and its environs several times, taking his father’s picture to show the people who might have known or seen him.
   No one could say anything about his father at that time.
   Nadeem, failing to get any dependable information, almost abandoned his plan in 2004.
   But he got a big clue in 2007.
   During a lecture to a Sudan-bound peace mission of the armed forces, Lt Col Bayezid of the Chittagong Brigade showed him a book called Bangalir Jatiyatabadi Sangram, Muktijudhhe Chattagram. The book by Dr Mahfuzur Rahman, a physician-cum-researcher, stated that Col Qadir was killed, along with 35 others, in Panchlaish behind the Apollo Poly Clinic in front of Chittagong Medical College.
   Rahman took him to the main witness, Nurul Islam, a businessman who was a member of Awami League’s Chittagong chapter’s working committee in 1971.
   Islam confirmed that he knew Col Qadir and had buried him, along with at least 18 others killed by the Pakistani army, in a vacant plot in Panchlaish on April 17, 1971.
   ‘Col Qadir lay on his back and took at least five bullets,’ Mannan was quoted to have said. He added that Col Qadir gave explosives to freedom-fighters from the store of his office (Oil and Gas Development Corporation, now Petrobangla) and raised the Bangladesh flag in his office in March, 1971.
   He said it was part of the party’s plan to gear up support from people like Col Qadir. ‘I went to his office and also to his residence, which was close by, almost regularly since the stalemate over the 1970 elections started.’
   ‘Islam, now partly paralyzed, took me to the spot — (Dar us Salam, 34/A Panchlaish) — on part of which stands Dar us Salam and on the other a new construction has been going on,’ said Nadeem.
   That is where the mass grave is, Islam said, recalling that he heard shots at around 2pm. ‘I went to see the bodies later at great risk ...There were a few others who had come to see...We called in the Imam of the local Makkhi Masjid to recite the last prayers.’
   ‘It was to be done quickly, quietly, and ensuring that the dead received their last rites as far as possible,’ Islam told Nadeem, adding that the janaza was offered and they were buried close to the major drain flowing through the area on the plot, which was vacant at that time.
   A building is being constructed on that land and the owners did not say anything on finding any remains there as they had reburied them with concrete.

Former energy secretary Toufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury was on Wednesday sent to jail after he surrendered in court in the Khulna power plant ‘bribery’ case.
   Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge M Azizul Haque issued the order after Toufiq, escorted by his counsels, had appeared in the court and sought bail.
   He is facing charges of corruption along with seven others, including the imprisoned former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, for allegedly taking Tk 3 crore in kickbacks from officials of three power companies.
   The court issued warrants for the arrest of the six absconding accused as they failed to appear for hearing in the case.
   The six are – former Power Development Board chairman Noor Uddin Mahmud Kamal, Summit Corporation’s managing director Mohammad Aziz Khan and its director Mohammad Farid Khan, United Group chairman Hasan Mahmud Raja and its director Abul Kalam Azad and Bangabandhu Memorial Museum curator Syed Siddiqur Rahman.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission on January 10 submitted charge sheet to the court indicting Hasina and the seven others. The case was lodged with the Tejgaon police station on September 2 against seven people. Syed Siddiq was not named in the FIR.
   Three companies allegedly paid the kickback after winning the work order for installation of a 100 megawatts barge-mounted power plant depriving the lowest bidder. The amount was spent for buying a house at Dhanmondi for the Bangabandhu Memorial Trust, according to the charge sheet.
   Wartsila Power Development Ltd Consortium and its partners Summit Group and United Group won the deal while Hasina was the prime minister.
   The kickback was allegedly paid in instalments between October 7 and November 24, 1997 in exchange for permission to set up the power plant.
   The Power Development Board floated an international tender on October 24, 1996 for installation of three barge-mounted plants at Haripur, Shikalbaha and Khulna. Fifteen firms submitted 25 tenders, of which 18 were primarily selected.

The US president, George W Bush, wrapped up a tour of the Middle East on Wednesday after failing to win full backing from Arab allies for his efforts to seal a peace deal and isolate Iran.
   Bush made only a flying visit to Egypt for talks with the president, Hosni Mubarak, who welcomed the US leader in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh without ceremony in a sign of cooling ties between the two allies.
   After their meeting, Bush again took aim at Iran – this time over its alleged interference in Lebanon – and called on Egypt to take a leading role in boosting democracy in the Middle East.
   The US president had arrived from Saudi Arabia, saying he hoped OPEC would increase output to help ease recession fears at home, saying the ‘very high’ prices were tough on the US economy.
   OPEC is due to meet in Vienna on February 1 under pressure to calm prices which hit 100 dollars a barrel at the start of the year, and a White House spokeswoman said Bush raised the issue directly with King Abdullah on Tuesday.
   ‘The president said there’s a hope that as a result of these conversations that OPEC would be encouraged to authorise an increase in production,’ Dana Perino said.
   The three-hour stop was the final leg of a tour which has seen Bush try to drum up support for his goal of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the time he leaves office in January 2009 as well as Washington’s face-off with Iran.
   Relations with Egypt have faltered over Washington’s criticism of Cairo’s perceived failure to secure its border with the Gaza Strip, now run by the Islamist Hamas movement regarded as a terror group by Israel and the West.
   The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, has, along with Israel, urged Cairo to do more to stop arms smuggling into the impoverished Palestinian territory.
   The US Congress last month froze 100 million dollars in aid until Rice could certify that Cairo was doing enough to stem the arms flow.
   Egypt, the most populous Arab country, was the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and has frequently acted as a peace mediator, but relations remain tense.
   Protesters set fire to American flags in Cairo while the opposition Al-Ahaly newspaper told the US leader simply to ‘Get out.’
   Bush launched a new attack on Iran, telling Tehran and its close regional ally Syria to stop ‘interfering’ in the affairs of Lebanon and urged the country to vote for a new president.
   His comments came a day after three people were killed in an attack on a US embassy vehicle in Beirut.
   In Saudi Arabia Bush faced difficulty in convincing his hosts to wholeheartedly support the twin pillars of his tour – greater backing for the Middle East peace process and a willingness to confront the ‘threat’ of Iran.
   The Saudi foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, gave a cool response to Bush’s call for Arab states to ‘reach out’ to Israel, which has signed peace treaties only with Egypt and Jordan.
   ‘I don’t know what more outreach we can give to the Israelis,’ he said.
   On Iran, Faisal said: ‘Iran is a neighbouring country, an important country in the region. Naturally we have nothing bad against Iran.’
   Saudi Arabia, like other Gulf states, is determined to avoid further conflict after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, which served to strengthen the regime in the Islamic republic.

Teachers, students and employees of Bangladesh Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday demanded that the law enforcers should step up efforts to trace BMC surgery department registrar Mofakkharul Ahmed, who went missing on January 11.
   ‘We demand that he should be traced immediately,’ Professor Abu Ahmed Chowdhury, director of the Bangladesh Medical Studies and Research Institute, said at a news conference at Dhanmondi.
   ‘We appeal to the police, the Rapid Action Battalion, intelligence agencies and the army, to step up efforts to rescue our teacher,’ he said.
   Mofakkhar, a confirmed bachelor, went out of his residence at West Dhanmondi at about 9:00am on January 11 and since then has been missing.
   He was living there along with his parents, Professor Ahmed said.
   The BMSRI authorities lodged a general diary with Dhanmondi police the following day and sub-inspector Reazuddin was made the investigation officer.
   The RAB picked up the caretaker of Mofakkhar’s house, Saiful, and interrogated him but could make no headway.
   ‘The police recovered the body of an unidentified person in Gaibandha but we came to know that he was not Mofakkhar’, he said.
   BMSRI secretary CH Kabir, BMC principal MA Zaman, Uttara Medical College principal Hasan Shaid Suhrawardy, Bangladesh Dental College vice-principal Niaz Ahmed Chowdhury and heads of different departments of BMC were present at the news conference.
   Earlier, teachers, students and employees of the BMCH formed a human chain at Satmasjid Road in front of the college demanding all-out efforts to rescue Mofak Kharul.
   Meanwhile, SI Reazuddin told that they were trying their best to trace the missing teacher.

The army chief, General Moeen U Ahmed, has said the army has no intention to grab power and he does not ‘wish’ to be the country’s president.
   In an interview broadcast on Channel i Wednesday night, the army chief said, ‘In this age, the world does not welcome a martial law.’
   The TV station aired part of the interview for talk-show Tritio Matra in its prime news bulletin.
   Everybody should perform their duties rested upon them,’ Moeen said.
   He has reassured that the country is going to hold the elections by the end of 2008.
   ‘If everybody makes an effort, it is even possible to hold the voting well ahead of December,’ he said.
   On the trial of war criminals, Moeen said it should have been settled in the past 36 years after independence but the previous governments did not do so.
   About the freedom of Dhaka University teachers, he said the court would settle the matter.
   Asked if an adviser’s statement that the teachers would be freed whatever the verdict might be went against the spirit of the rule of law, Moeen said, ‘The verdict will come from the court. Still, the government has the mandate to forgive.’

The government on Wednesday announced the names of the chiefs and members of five thematic working groups formed for assisting the Better Business Forum to improve the business climate, increase confidence and provide facilities to investors.
   The groups will act as liaison between the government and the private sector, said the executive chairman of the Board of Investment, Kamal Uddin Ahmed, while briefing reporters about the latest developments of the forum at the Press Information Department.
   The forum held its first meeting in December. The interim government’s initiative of forming the forum was a response to the slump in both local and foreign investment.
   The BoI is today scheduled to hold its 19th board meeting, which will be chaired by Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed.
   ‘Whatever the prevailing situation is, the problems related to business and investment can be solved through private-public partnership,’ the BoI chief told a questioner.
   He said that the working groups would identify the various problems and prospects of business and investment and make recommendations, and the Better Business Forum would then take measures.
   When asked about the inclusion, as one of two co-chairs in a working group on business financing, of Latifur Rahman whom the Anti-Corruption Commission had asked to submit his wealth statement, Kamal Uddin replied, ‘Those who are concerned about such things will look into it.’
   The deputy governor of the Bangladesh Bank, Nazrul Huda, has been made co-chair, from the government side, of the group on business financing. Each group comprises two government officials and at least three members from the private sector.
   The president of the International Chamber of Commerce, Mahbubur Rahman, has been made the private sector co-chair of the group on business entry and operation while the commerce secretary, Feroz Ahmed, is the other co-chair from the government side.
   Professor M Ali Taslim of Dhaka University and finance secretary Mohammed Tareq have been made co-chairs of the group on macro-economic policy from the private and public sectors respectively. The president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Hossain Khalid, and a member Planning Commission, AMM Nasiruddin, are the co-chairs of the group on infrastructure.
   Salauddin Qasem Khan of AKTEL, one of the country’s the telecom companies, and the education secretary, Momtajul Islam, have been made co-chairs of the working group on skill development.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry warned on Wednesday that any unauthorised military strike by international forces against al-Qaeda militants on Pakistani soil would be considered an ‘enemy act.’
   The warning came days after president Pervez Musharraf, a key US ally, said in a newspaper interview that an incursion by the US-led coalition in Afghanistan without permission would be treated as an invasion.
   Growing Islamist militancy in Pakistan’s tribal areas has raised concerns in the United States, with reports that Washington is considering giving the Pentagon and the CIA new authority to conduct covert operations.
   ‘Without Pakistan’s permission, without Pakistan’s involvement, any action by a foreign government on Pakistan’s territory will be an enemy act,’ foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told a weekly briefing.
   Sadiq said Pakistan welcomed any international help in the fight against terrorism, but would not allow foreign troops to take direct action on its territory, he said.
   ‘We have cooperation with the international community in (the) war on terror and in... intelligence sharing, training, technical cooperation and provision of equipment and armament,’ he said.
   ‘So that is the area of cooperation, where we allow the international community to help us and support us because that facilitates our war on terror.’
   Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militancy has intensified in the tribal areas since Musharraf ordered troops to crush an uprising at a radical mosque in Islamabad in July.
   US military chief Admiral Michael Mullen last week expressed ‘grave concern’ over al-Qaeda’s use of the Pakistani tribal areas as safe havens, saying they posed a ‘significant’ security threat to Afghanistan and Pakistan itself.

The Power Development Board on Wednesday signed agreements with two companies for the installation of five costly rental power plants within 120 days to add 200 MW of electricity to the national grid by this summer, when the demand for power reaches its peak.
   However, the fate of the agreements for two other rental plants with a combined capacity of 60 MW has become uncertain as the two other selected companies demanded changes in some terms of the agreements at the last moment before signing them.
   The representatives of the PDB and a consortium of Energy Prima, Hosaf Meter Industry and Geo-Spectrum Group signed four agreements for the installation of the Shahjibazar 50 MW, Kumargaon 50 MW, Fenchuganj 50 MW and Bogra 20 MW power plants on a build-own-operate basis, while the representatives of the board and a joint venture of Kaltimax Energy and GBB Power signed an agreement for setting up the 30 MW Bhola power plant.
   The newly appointed special assistant to the chief adviser for the power and energy ministry, M Tamim, the power secretary, M Fouzul Kabir Khan, and other high officials of the Power Division, PDB and Power Cell were present at the signing
   ceremony at DESA Bhaban.
   The signing of agreements for two diesel-run rental power plants — the 40 MW Khulna and 20 MW Bherama plants — could not be completed on Wednesday as the two selected companies, Agreeko International Projects and Alstom Power International, demanded changes in some terms of the agreement on penalty issues.
   The representatives of Alstom and Agreeko were discussing the terms of the agreements with their headquarters in the USA and Singapore till the filing of this report at 9pm.
   Fouzul told reporters that they had completed negotiations with all the four companies for setting up seven power plants with a combined capacity of 260 MW. ‘I hope that agreements for the two other plants will be signed soon. We have made our position clear to the selected companies and are not going to change it. They have to drop their demands if they want the work order,’ he told reporters.
   Fouzul said that around 260 MW of electricity would be added to the national grid by mid-May from these seven power plants.
   The PDB will pay 4.517 US cents for each unit of power to Shahjibazar, 4.148 cents to Kumargaon, 4.65 cents to Fenchuganj, 3.6 cents to Bogra, 5.198 cents to Bhola, 19.71 cents to Khulna and 21.77 cents to Bheramara power plants.
   Fouzul said that although they know the electricity from these plants will be costly in comparison with the price paid to PDB’s own power plants, they had no other option but to set up the plants to tackle the electricity crisis in the summer. ‘A number of large power plants will come into operation by the next two to three years. In the meantime we need emergency supply of electricity to reduce power shortage,’ he said.
   Tamim said that the price of the electricity of short-term power plants was usually higher than that of long-term power plants that are set up for twenty years. ‘I think these contracts are not bad as the prices of electricity from these rental plants are not that high,’ he said.
   Both Tamim and Fouzul hoped that they would be able to mitigate somewhat the electricity crisis in the summer with the help of these plants.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday again asked the government to fulfil the requirements of the judicial magistracy and submit the compliance report by January 30.
   The full court of all the seven judges of the Appellate Division re-issued the order after the government had missed the January 14 deadline.
   The court also adjourned till January 31 the hearing on the contempt of court proceedings drawn against 14 bureaucrats, including four secretaries, for their procrastination in implementing the court’s 12-point directive on the separation of the judiciary, for distorting the directives and making adverse observations about the orders.
   The court on December 12, 2007 passed the order asking the government to equip judicial magistrates with all their requirements, including vehicles and manpower, and submit the necessary compliance report by January 14.
   During the hearing on the issue Wednesday, attorney general Fida M Kamal submitted a letter issued by the establishment ministry on December 18, 2007. He said the ministry
   in the letter asked the law ministry for the proposals to institute additional positions of judicial magistrates and their assistance.
   Expressing dissatisfaction over the issue the court said, ‘Without complying with the highest court’s order, the government is providing the judicial magistrates with bundles of cases instead of necessary logistic supports, including vehicles and required manpower.’
   ‘It appears to us that the government is trying to be cunning. We ordered them a month back to provide the judicial magistrates with logistic support and manpower. Still you are in rigmarole. You are killing time without complying with our order,’ the court told the attorney general.
   Fida said, ‘The separation of judiciary has already come into effect partly, there is no reason to delay the process.’
   ‘Please cut the processing rigmarole short while dealing with the proposals forwarded as required and to implement
   the separation of judiciary quickly and effectively,’ said the court.
   ‘The judicial magistrates find it difficult to function satisfactorily without the necessary vehicles and manpower they have asked for,’ the court said, adding, ‘This is adversely affecting the litigants.’
   The attorney general pronounced that the government must now complete the process with no scope for any procrastination on anybody’s part in this connection.
   Amirul Islam, counsel of the petitioner of contempt of court proceedings, argued that employment of manpower for the judicial magistracy still came under the authority of the establishment ministry.
   ‘It contradicts the spirit of the verdict in the Masder Hossain case,’ he added, saying that such employment should be within the jurisdiction of the Judicial Service Commission. The court also agreed with Amirul on this point.
   The judiciary began functioning independently from the executive branch on November 1, 2007 in accordance with the 12-point directives issued by the Appellate Division in its verdict in the Masder Hossain case, widely known as separation of judiciary case, on December 2, 1999.

Playwright Selim Al-Deen was buried after the asr prayers on Wednesday in the graveyard near the mosque at Jahangirnagar University where he had taught drama and dramatics for 30 years.
   The body was taken to the gate of the National Museum from the BIRDEM mortuary at 9am yesterday. Selim died in LabAid Cardiac Hospital in Dhaka on Monday afternoon.
   A mourning procession carried the coffin from the museum’s gate to the Central Shaheed Minar for public viewing till 12:45pm. The set of Dhaka Theatre’s play production, Nimojjon, was used for placing the coffin of its playwright Selim Al-Deen.
   The stage was specially made to set off the body of country’s drama icon. The words — ‘See me as I am floating in space, I gain a shape and instantly disappear’ — were written, quoting Selim Al-Deen, on the black background of the stage.
   Before carrying his coffin to DU mosque, Sammilito Sanskritik Jote’s president and the director most of Selim Al-Deen’s plays, Nasir Uddin Yousuff, said, ‘Selim Al-Deen is the name of an epic and a river. The epic tells the tales of all the people in the country. The river which emerged from the Himalayas flowed to the Bay of Bengal, providing the land with natural prosperity.’
   ‘Selim Al-Deen, along with his friends like Nasir Uddin Yousuff, planned to found a World Cultural Institute. He agreed to be its principal and wanted to make it an examination-free centre studying different countries’ cultural studies and practices,’ Nasir continued.
   The first namaz-e-janaza was held at the central mosque of Dhaka University after the zuhr prayers before the body was taken to the Jahangirnagar University’s campus.
   Hundreds of academics, writers, cultural activists, gram-theatre activists, leaders of different political parties and socio-cultural organisations on Wednesday paid rich tributes to Selim at the Shaheed Minar and expressed their shock and grief at his untimely death.
   They included deputy chief commander in the 1971War of Independence AK Khandakar, primary and mass education affairs adviser Rasheda K Chowdhury, Professor Anisuzzaman, DU vice-chancellor SMA Faiz, JU vice-chancellor Khandakar Mostahidur Rahman, Awami League presidium members Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury and Abdur Razzak, its acting general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, Communist Party of Bangladesh’s president Manzurul Ahsan Khan, its general secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim, Workers Party’s president Rashed Khan Menon, poet Rafiq Azad, Professor Zillur Rahman Siddiqui, Samakal’s editor Abed Khan, actors Aly Zaker, Ramendu Majumdar, Asaduzzaman Noor, Kamaluddin Nilu, representatives of the Bangla Academy, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Bangladesh Chhatra League, Bangladesh College University Teachers Association and various theatre groups.
   Jahanagirnagar University will hold a commemoration meeting on Professor Selim Al-Deen at its central auditorium at 11am on Saturday.

The Cuban president, Fidel Castro, is in ‘impeccable’ health and ‘ready to take on his political role in Cuba,’ the Brazilian president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, said Tuesday after visiting Castro.
   ‘I think Fidel is ready to take on his political role in Cuba and his historical role before the world,’ Lula said, adding that the 81-year-old ‘has incredible lucidity and impeccable health.’
   Castro underwent gastrointestinal surgery in late July 2006, and handed over power ‘temporarily’ to his brother Raul Castro, 76. He has not been seen in public since, but has appeared on television and publishes weekly commentaries in official dailies.
   Lula said he met with Castro for two-and-a-half hours and talked with him ‘about all possible subjects.
   ‘He’s as lucid as ever,’ the Brazilian president said.
   Before Lula’s comments on Castro, photographs of the two men together were distributed to reporters at Havana’s airport before the president boarded his flight out of Cuba.
   In the first pictures of Fidel in three months, he could be seen dressed in a track suit, sitting down and pointing a camera toward Lula.
   In another picture, Lula is taking a snapshot of the Cuban leader, and a third photo had both men sitting down and talking as an interpreter looks on.
   Lula did not say where he met Castro, whose place of recovery has been kept a tight secret all these months.
   Although Fidel’s future has been a matter of speculation given the lack of official information, Castro on December 17 gave his strongest hint he would not return to power, in a letter of his read on television.
   ‘My basic duty is not to cling to office, nor even more so to obstruct the rise of people much younger, but to pass on experiences and ideas whose modest value arises from the exceptional era in which I lived,’ Castro said in his signed letter.
   Some political observers took the letter as a hint that Castro would leave the country’s top leadership to his brother Raul.

A roadside bomb tore through a Sri Lankan bus killing 26 people and wounding dozens Wednesday, officials said, as a six-year ceasefire between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels formally expires.
   The ministry of defence said a large number of schoolchildren were on the bus at the time of the blast in the central district of Moneragala, around 150 miles east of Colombo.
   Hospital officials said they were treating seven children for minor injuries while a 14-year-old girl who suffered a head wound was flown to Colombo and was in intensive care. They said no children were killed.
   Schools in the surrounding province of Uva were temporarily closed following the attack, which the military blamed on the LTTE.
   The bus attack, in the town of Buttala, was the latest in a series of roadside bomb attacks blamed on the rebels, who are fighting to create an independent state in the island’s north and east.
   ‘This is a brazen demonstration to the whole world of (the Tigers’) unchanged commitment to terrorism and the absolute rejection of democracy and all norms of civilised behaviour, in the pursuit of its unacceptable goal of separation, which threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka,’ the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, said in a statement.
   The defence ministry posted photographs of blood-soaked corpses of some of the victims on its web site. Local television broadcast footage of the bus, showing bloodstains on the floor and personal belongings strewn inside and out.
   Government defence spokes-man Keheliya Rambukwella said Tiger fighters shot four farmers in the area as they fled after the attack.
   A second blast targeted an army armoured personnel carrier 12 miles south of the first attack, wounding three soldiers, the military said.
   A 2002 ceasefire, which broke down on the ground two years ago, formally ends later on Wednesday after Rajapaksa’s government announced a fortnight ago it was scrapping the pact, triggering fears that the fighting will worsen.
   Rambukwella said the military’s aim was to eliminate shadowy rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran as part of a declared plan to defeat the rebels by the end of the year.

Undernutrition is to blame for 3.5 million deaths among children aged under five each year, but most of the fatalities occur in 20 countries, where targeted aid programmes could swiftly address the problem, researchers say.
   Most of the deaths are inflicted indirectly by stunting and poor resistance to disease, and two of the biggest culprits are lack of vitamin A and zinc during the mother’s pregnancy and the child’s first two years of life, they say.
   Mortality from undernutrition accounts for more than a third of child deaths worldwide, they add.
   The five studies are published online Thursday by the British health journal The Lancet.
   The one-off series also puts the spotlight on 20 countries where 80 per cent of the world’s undernourished children live.
   Most of these countries are in tropical Africa and South Asia, as well Myanmar, North Korea and Indonesia.
   By focussing efforts on these countries, governments could meet three UN Millennium Goals on children health and maternal mortality, the authors say.
   One of the papers looks at data from major studies carried out in Brazil, Guatemala, India, the Philippines and South Africa.
   It finds a direct link between maternal and early childhood undernutrition and adult health.
   Undernutrition is the term for deficiencies in key proteins, vitamins and minerals, usually caused by a lack of food.
   In contrast, malnutrition is an imbalance in diet that causes deficiencies. Malnutrition thus includes overeating or consumption of foods that are too fatty or sugary.
   The worse the nutrition, the likelier the child would be shorter in adult height, do poorly at school, end up among the low paid and have offspring with low birthweight, it says.
   ‘Damage suffered in early life leads to permanent impairment, and might also affected future generations,’ says this paper, led by Cesar Victoria of Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil.
   ‘Its prevention will probably bring about important health, education and economic benefits. Chronic diseases are especially common in undernourished children who experience rapid weight gain after infancy.

Bangladesh Society in New York has formed a lobbying committee titled ‘Committee to Legalise Non-Documented Disaster Victims of Bangladesh in the USA’ for bringing the illegal Bangladeshis under Temporary Protected Status programme.
   The Bangladesh Society president, Nargis Ahmed, and member Joynal Abedin have made convenor and member secretary of the lobbying committee respectively.
   After forming the committee, the society, in a statement, said a poor country like Bangladesh will not be able to bear the load if the non-documented Bangladeshis were returned home as the recent cyclone Sidr caused an extensive damage to a huge area.
   Earlier, some countries including Ethiopia, Somalia and Honduras were incorporated in the TPS programme. The newly formed committee will lobby every authority concerned including the US state department, the foreign secretary and president Bush for the purpose.

The formal trial of the detained former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana and cousin Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, in the Tk 2.99 crore ‘extortion’ case is set to begin this morning in the makeshift courtroom on the Jatiya Sangsad complex.
   The trial is expected to start with recording of the deposition of complainant Azam J Chowdhury, managing director of East Coast Trading Private Ltd.
   Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge Azizul Haque on January 13 fixed the date for the commencement of the trial after charges were framed against the three in the case.
   Hasina and Selim claimed themselves innocent as the court read out the charges against them. Rehana, now in London, was charged in absentia.
   The High Court on January 14 summarily rejected the petition filed by Sheikh Rehana’s counsel Azmalul Hossain seeking permission to defend her in the extortion case, although she was a fugitive.
   Azam J Chowdhury filed the case with Gulshan police station on June 13, 2007 alleging that the former prime minister, aided by her sister and cousin, had extorted Tk 2.99 crore from him for awarding the contract for installation of a power plant in 2001. Hasina was arrested on July 16, 2007.
   This is for the first time a former prime minister of the country has been indicted and is being tried in an extortion case under sections 384 and 385 along with section 34 of the Penal Code.

Britain’s intelligence services are investigating an Islamist web site that says it is establishing a branch of al-Qaeda in Britain, BBC television reported on Tuesday.
   According to the report, security experts fear a posting on the site, www.alekhlaas.net, declaring ‘the creation of the al-Qaeda organisation in Britain’ may be genuine.
   ‘You don’t ignore this sort of thing,’ Pauline Neville-Jones, the former head of the British joint intelligence committee, told the programme.
   ‘It may not be a threat from an existing cell... but it does represent a move in the propaganda game and the propaganda game is not something we should ignore. This is after all a struggle over ideology.’
   The posting urges young Muslim men to rise up
   against infidels such as ‘prime minister Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.’ It was put up on January 2.
   Britain’s home office (interior ministry) and security services were not immediately available to comment on the TV report or site.
   In July 2005, Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people in coordinated attacks on London’s public transport system.

The National Board of Revenue on Wednesday froze the bank accounts of former minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, his family and his four business organisations, sources said.
   The board’s central intelligence cell issued directives to all scheduled banks to freeze the accounts immediately.
   The order asked the banks to inform the board soon of the details of the accounts of Mosharraf and his family and his business concerns.
   The cell also asked all the banks to look for accounts of former lawmaker Dhirendranath Saha and his four family members immediately.

The British government’s cultural arm on Wednesday closed its St Petersburg office because all of its Russian staff have been called in by the authorities for discussions, the British consulate said.
   ’The St Petersburg office of the British Council is physically unable to work today because all Russian staff were called in for discussions in various Russian official agencies,’ the British consulate in St Petersburg said in a statement.
   ‘Due to the action taken against us by the Russian authorities our office in St Petersburg is temporarily closed,’ a spokeswoman for the British Council in London said in an e-mailed statement.