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The government on Monday decided to withdraw three cases, one of them partially, against students allegedly involved in the August 2007 campus protests.
   The government decided to withdraw charges against 18 students, out of the 25, who were implicated in the case regarding setting fire to a military vehicle.
   Three official handouts released Monday evening said the government had instructed the public prosecutors concerned to take appropriate steps for the withdrawal of the cases related to the campus protests.
   The government decision on the withdrawal of the cases came a few hours after a Dhaka court had acquitted four Dhaka University teachers and 11 students of the charges and jailed four students, now in hiding, for two years each in the case concerning the August 21 campus protests.
   In the ruling on the case for the August 21 campus protests, the judge of the Dhaka speedy trial court, M Habibur Rahman Siddiqui, also fined the four convicts — university unit Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal president Hasan Al Mamun, general secretary Saiful Islam Feroz, activist Kamrul Islam Kochi and university unit Chhatra Union leader Azizul Hasan — Tk 1,000 each.
   Another speedy trial court of Golam Rabbani on Monday posted for today the delivery of the verdict in the case concerning the August 22 campus protests against the 19.
   Ten Rajshahi University students and an employee, jailed for setting fire to a vehicle of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, were released from the Rajshahi jail on a presidential clemency on Monday.
   Two official handouts said the president remitted the sentences and fines against the four Dhaka University students in the case concerning the August 21 campus protests and the 10 Rajshahi University students and an employee.
   None of the convicts, however, applied for the presidential clemency, said their families.
   Dhaka University students rejected Monday’s verdict and the government move for the withdrawal of the three cases, including one partially.
   Leaders of the Students against Repression and the Students Movement to Resist Repression, the two platforms that are holding protests, said they would continue with protests until all the cases against the students regarding the campus protests and the subsequent flare-up are withdrawn.
   Dhaka University teachers on Monday went on a token hunger strike on the campus to push for the withdrawal of the cases. They are scheduled to hold a solidarity rally today on the campus. They are set to announce the next programmes at the rally.
   Professor Anwar Hossain, one of the four teachers acquitted of charges on Monday, told his lawyers after the verdict that the students convicted must be freed after being cleared of the charges.
   According to his counsels and family members present in the courtroom, Anwar told his lawyers that the verdict had proved that the teachers and 11 students were innocent for which no students should be prosecuted.
   In the afternoon, the education adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, told reporters, ‘The government is finalising all the administrative processes for the release of 14 convicted students of Dhaka and Rajshahi universities on a presidential clemency.’
   As for other cases, he said, ‘The government is considering withdrawal of the cases for which the charge sheets have not been filed.’
   ‘The government is respectful to the court verdict…. Appropriate measures will be taken to pardon the four students who are sentenced to two years’ imprisonment,’ the home affairs adviser, MA Matin, told reporters at the home ministry after an inter-ministry meeting on Monday.
   He requested the Dhaka University teachers and students, now demanding unconditional release of the detained teachers and students, not to continue with their movement. ‘We will soon reach a very graceful solution to the crisis,’ he said, adding that the government believes in the rule of law.
   Teachers and students assumed the detained teachers might be released after today’s verdict as the education adviser earlier said they would be released whatever the verdict might be.
   The teacher and students, however, are not certain about the release of the students accused in a number of cases regarding the campus protests as the cases are still pending.
   The cases to be withdrawn include the one lodged with the Shahbagh police in Dhaka on August 24, 2007 for vandalism on the campus. The police filed the charge sheet against 12 students in the case on September 9, 2007.
   The case filed by the Rajshahi University authorities with the Motihar police on August 22, 2007 against 10 students for vandalism on the campus during the protests will also be withdrawn.
   According to an official handout, the government will withdraw the case filed with the Shahbagh police on August 23 for setting fire to a military vehicle during the August 21 demonstrations at Shahbagh in Dhaka against 18 out of 25 students named on the charge sheet.
   The police on January 7 filed the charge sheet against 25 Dhaka University students for their alleged involvement in setting the vehicle on fire. A Dhaka court is scheduled to hear the acceptability of the charges on February 7.
   According to the handout, the government will continue with the prosecution of seven other students in the case — mass communications second-year student Deen Islam Angel, Muhsin Hall resident Rafiqul Islam Sujan, master’s student of mathematics Asaduzzaman, also resident of Ekushey Hall, Kazi Zahidul Islam Biplob, Deen Islam, Rashedul Habib and Abdul Hasan. Of them, Biplob, Angel, Deen Islam, Sujan, and Asaduzzaman are now detained in jail.
   The 18 students not to be prosecuted are Mohammad Liton Mahmud, Chhatra Union president Manabendra Dev, AKM Mahabub Alam Shyamal, Mohammad Ibrahim, Mohamamd Enamul Haque, Golam Azam Khomeni, Kashed Ali, Chanchal Karmakar, ABM Shamsudduza Shazen, Siddiqui Nazmul Alam, Quamruzzaman, Mohammad Sohel Rana Tipu, Abdul Karim alias Teheri Karim, Arifuzzaman, Mohammad Delwar Rahman Dipu, Mizanur Rahman, Mohammad Rashedul Mahmud alias Russell, and Sarwar Alam. Of them, Liton and Manabendra are in jail.
   A number of students of Dhaka University and other educational institutions are also facing a number of cases concerning the campus protests and the subsequent flare-up.
   The police on September 9, 2007 also pressed charges against 17 students of different educational institutions in Dhaka in 10 cases.
   No decision on the withdrawal of the cases has so far been made. Thirty-nine more cases are still under investigation.
   The students and the employee who were released on a presidential clemency on Monday are not named in any other cases.
   Dhaka speedy trail court judge M Habibur Rahman Siddiqui jailed the four students, acquitting Dhaka University Teachers’ Association president Sadrul Amin and general secretary Anwar Hossain, social sciences dean Harun-Or-Rashid and applied physics and electronics department chair Neem Chandra Bhowmick and 11 students of the charges.
   In the verdict, the court observed that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against the 15 beyond any reasonable doubt.
   The court, however, convicted the four students, who are in hiding, observing that the charges were proved against them beyond any reasonable doubt.
   The defence counsels told New Age the name of the convicts came up specifically in neither depositions nor other documentary evidence.

Teachers and students of Dhaka University said their ongoing protests would continue as long as even one single student or teacher remains behind bars over their role in the violent anti-government protests that racked the campus in August last year.
   The students rejected Monday’s verdict which acquitted a number of teachers and students, but convicted four absconding students. The protesting students demanded withdrawal of all cases filed against students and teachers anywhere in the country in connection with the August 2007 campus protests.
   The teachers and students went out on massive demonstrations on the campus demanding all the teachers and students be set free and all cases filed against them are withdrawn.
   More than fifty teachers joined in a token hunger strike from 10:00am to 1:00pm at the Battala of the university as per the decision of a requisitioned meeting of the university teachers association.
   As the news of the acquittal of four teachers in the courts spread among the faculty, they expressed their respect for the courts, saying the verdict proved that the teachers did nothing wrong.
   ‘The court acquitted teachers but at the same time four students have been convicted. We will continue our programmes till a single student or teacher remains behind bars,’ said Muhammad Samad, one of the conveners of a requisitioned meeting.
   Former president of the teachers’ association, AAMS Arefin Siddique, said the verdict proved that the teachers did no wrong but asked who would take the responsibility for their being behind bars for five months.
   The Students against Repression laid siege to the vice-chancellor’s office in the morning and later said they would accept nothing but withdrawal of all the cases filed anywhere in the country in connection with the August protests.
   The students did no wrong and all the cases were filed to harass them, the organisation said in its briefing.
   For the first time in the current spell of demonstrations, the students brought out processions chanting slogans. Another group of students, under the banner of Students Movement to Resist Repression [nirjatan pratirodh chhatra andolan] rallied through the campus in protest.
   Some other students under the banner of Chhatra Bandhu paraded the campus chanting slogans that demanded the immediate release of the students and teachers.
   Students at Rajshahi University on Monday walked in a procession, carrying black flags and a token coffin, to push for the release of the 10 students and an employee convicted on December 12 for setting fire to a military vehicle on August 22, reports our correspondent at the university.
   The students were joined by the families of the convicted as they continued rallying under the banner of the Students against Repression to push for the release. They also skipped classes for two hours, laid siege to the administrative building for half an hour and called on the university authorities to withdraw the case filed by the university registrar on August 23.
   They also threatened go on strike at the university, if their demands are not met and announced a boycott of classes and examinations from Tuesday.
   The Students against Repression observed a token hunger strike for two hours wearing black ribbons in front of the library, staged a symbolic prison cell at the place as part of the protests, and painted graffiti on the campus roads as a mark of protest.
   Police deployment on the campus remained strong all day long.
   Teachers and students of Jahangirnagar University expressed their solidarity with the movement of Dhaka University students and teachers programs holding sit-ins and wearing black badges on the campus on Monday.
   The members of Jahangirnagar Universty Teachers Association held a sit-in in front of university Shaheed Minar for one hour since 9:00am while the Students against Repression wore black budges on the day and announced two-day programs including forming human chain at Amar Ekushey monument at the university today (Tuesday) and one hour class boycott program on Wednesday.
   The Students of Government Brajamohan College in Barisal brought out silent processions wearing black badges and boycotted classes for one hour extending their support to the movement of Dhaka University teachers and students. They declared that their protest programs would continue until the release of the arrested teachers and students.

A Dhaka court will today rule on one of the two cases filed against four Dhaka University teachers and 15 students over the August campus protests, concerning the campus protests on August 22, 2007.
   In the other case filed in connection with the breach of the Emergency Powers Rules, concerning the campus protests on August 21, 2007, four of the students were jailed for two years on Monday. Others were acquitted.
   Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Golam Rabbani on Monday posted for Tuesday the delivery of the judgement in the case filed with the Shahbagh police on August 23, 2007.
   ‘The teachers face charges of making provocative statements against the government, but the nature of provocations did not come up in the cross-examination,’ the magistrate told the defence counsels on Monday.
   The counsels argued that the prosecution named floating people as witnesses. Twelve, out of the 26 witnesses, did not name any teachers and students being involved in the campus protests on August 22, the counsels said.
   The accused are all charged under the Emergency Powers Rules for bringing out processions and going out on demonstrations, and making provocative remarks against the government. According to the rule, such offences are punishable with two to five years’ imprisonment, or with fine, or both.
   According to the prosecution, the students, at the instigation of the teachers, gathered at Aparajeya Bangla at about 11:00am on August 22 and they, along with about 2,000 to 3,000 students, later paraded the campus and held a rally at the Central Shaheed Minar to embarrass the government centring on the August 20 incident at the university playground.
   The student leaders along with the people assaulted policemen on duty as the lawmen stopped them from laying siege to the army camp set up at the university gymnasium, the prosecution said. They also tried to set fire to the Nilkhet police box.

The 10 students and an employee of Rajshahi University jailed on December 12 for three years in a case of setting a military vehicle on fire during August campus protests were on Monday released on a presidential clemency.
   The students released are university unit Chhatra League 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 Ujjwal. Ataur Rahman, driver of the former vice-chancellor Faisul Islam Faruqi, was also released.
   The jail authorities in Rajshahi said they had released the convicted after the home ministry order had reached them at about 6.00pm.
   A large number of students, joined in by the families of the convicted, gathered at the jail gate at the news of presidential clemency.
   Law enforcers in uniforms and plain clothes were deployed at the jail gate in the afternoon. The convicted were released at about 6:15pm.
   The students and the employee, after the release, went to the grave of the martyred Dr Shamsujjoha on the university campus to pay their homage.
   The students and teachers at the university, joined in by the families of the convicted, earlier on the day continued rallying on the campus to push for unconditional release of the convicted.
   They earlier held rallies, organised news briefings and set memorandums to the president, the chief adviser and the education adviser in this connection.
   The speedy trial tribunal in Rajshahi in December jailed the students and the employee and fined them Tk 5,000 each.
   The court acquitted Professor Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan Sajal and Professor Golam Sabbir Sattar Tapu of geology and mining, and Sadequl Islam, the deputy chief information officer of the university, of the charge.
   The case was filed with the police on August 23 in connection with the vehicle of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence being set on fire on August 22 during the campus protests which flared off similar protests at Dhaka University beginning August 20.
   Nine of the students surrendered in the court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate on January 7 and Abu Sayem surrendered in court on January 6.
   The defence counsels, after the conviction, on January 15 filed an appeal with higher court against the conviction.
   The same court on December 4 sentenced Professor Moloy Kumar Bhowmik of management, and Professor Selim Reza Newton, Professor Dulal Chandra Biswas and Professor Abdullah Al Mamun of mass communications to two years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined them Tk 1,000 each on charge of violating Emergency Powers Rule during the campus protests.
   The teachers were released from jail on a presidential clemency on December 10.
   The families of the students and the employee released on Monday said they were happy about the release.
   The vice-chancellor, Professor Altaf Hossain, said, ‘I am very happy about the release.’ The students will start attending their classes on Tuesday, he said.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on Monday affirmed that his government would start dialogue with political parties when both sides are ready, as they need time for preparation.
   He said dialogues between the Election Commission and the political parties were going on successfully and hoped that it would end successfully soon, facilitating talks between the government and the political parties.
   The chief adviser made the remarks while talking to newsmen after he and his wife Neena Ahmed enrolled their names as voters with photographs and fingerprints at Gulshan Model School and College at Gulshan-2 in Dhaka.
   Replying to a question about the possibility of holding elections ahead of the targeted timeframe, the head of the caretaker government said it depended on how the government could complete the preparatory works for the polls.
   ‘And if those activities are accomplished in time, the elections could be held ahead of the targeted time,’ the chief adviser told the newsmen.
   The chief adviser expressed his satisfaction over the progress of voter listing with photographs through applying modern technology.
   He looked glad as he registered his name as voter in transparent manner. The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, was present on the occasion.
   Referring to the progress in the voter listing work, Fakhruddin said the job would be completed smoothly and fairly, and ‘There is no doubt about it as preparing a fair electoral roll was the demand of all.’
   He said so far 2.70 crore people had been registered as voters and the registration work was gradually getting momentum.
   Fakhruddin said the Election Commission along with support of others like the army was carrying out the voter listing work in ‘Char’ and remote areas of the country.
   He expressed happiness and optimism that the Election Commission with the support of the government would
   complete the task fairly, which is a precondition to holding a fair, transparent, neutral and acceptable election in time. ‘And this is being ensured,’ he observed.

The Awami League’s acting president, Zillur Rahman, on Monday said that abnormal delay in beginning the proposed dialogue between the government and the political parties might create confusion and doubt about the holding of the upcoming national elections as per the Election Commissions’ roadmap.
   ‘If the government abnormally delays the dialogue, it may create confusion,’ Zillur told reporters while replying to a query on whether the delay in initiating the dialogue would have any negative impact on the election roadmap announced by the EC.
   He, however, said that the AL still believed in holding the dialogue and hoped that the government would not delay anymore in doing so.
   ‘We are waiting for a formal proposal from the government and will review the terms and conditions if the proposal is made,’ he said, adding that dialogue should be held without any preconditions.
   Zillur said that agitation on various issues was going on across the country but proper measures were not being taken to resolve the various crises, although it was essential to do so.
   He said that agitation was continuing at Dhaka University for release of the detained teachers and students, in the garments sector for payment of overdue salaries, in the jute mills for payment of arrears, in educational institutions against leakage of question papers, in the agriculture sector for supply of fertilizers, in the media for materialisation of the Sixth Wage Board Award and in the artist and intellectual community to protest against sending historical artefacts abroad, but proper measures were not taken to resolve these crises.
   ‘The Dhaka University crisis remains alive as four of the students were convicted,’ he said, and demanded unconditional release of all the detained teachers and students.
   Replying to another query, he said that questions might be raised about the role of the judiciary in the process used to free the teachers and students of the universities of Dhaka and Rajshahi.
   Protesting against the anti-hawker drive by the interim government, the AL leader also demanded immediate rehabilitation of the ousted hawkers.
   Earlier, the leaders of Awami Hawkers League handed over cash money and clothes to the acting AL president for the cyclone-affected people.
   The Awami Hawkers League’s president, Zakaria Hanif, and general secretary, Zahed Ali, were present on the occasion, along with others.

The interim government has decided not to issue environmental clearance certificates that allow construction of industrial units inside the Bhawal National Park, which lies north of Dhaka, where some factories have already been built flouting existing laws.
   The council of advisers, however, remained undecided at its weekly meeting over whether it would bring the existing industries inside the park under legal cover or have them demolished, as they were built encroaching forest land by a handful of influential people over the past years, according to an official.
   ‘The government asked the authorities concerned to further examine the options to settle the matter as it has already become very complicated,’ Syed Fahim Munaim, the spokesman to the government told reporters after the weekly cabinet meet at the Chief Adviser’s Office on Monday.
   Presided over by the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, the meeting also approved an amendment to the 1983 ordinance that created Grameen Bank, allowing the bank to expand its micro-credit schemes to urban areas. The council sent back for further examination a proposed amendment to the government’s rules of business.
   The meeting attended by eight advisers and five special assistants to the chief adviser as well as relevant officials, reportedly discussed the current socio-economic conditions prevailing in the country.
   The meeting was informed that an inter-ministerial meeting had imposed a ban on construction of any sort of structure or industrial units on eight mouzas of the Bhawal national park in 1990. The government subsequently followed it up with a circular to this effect in 1999 under environment law, the gazette notification for which was published in 2006.
   Taking advantage of the delayed enforcement of the government decision, a number of influential people
   illegally occupied the
   government land and constructed factories, which are posing a serious threat to the forest.
   The government had earlier formed a committee headed by the director general of the department of environment, and the chief conservator of forests to determine the number of illegal installations in the national park.
   The committee had
   recommended that the government should recover the grabbed land by evicting the occupiers.
   Meanwhile, an official said, a group of businessmen
   tried to convince the government that they have bought the land from private owners and constructed buildings as per the law. They said these industries employ many workers as well, and it would not be wise to evict those industrial units from the Bhawal park areas.
   The industrial units now want to obtain environment clearance certificates from the department of environment. In this context the government asked the officials concerned to see how they could resolve the matter.
   A parliamentary committee report in 2004 revealed that most of the 25,000 acres land, donated to the forest department by the Bhawal Raja and Dhaka’s Nawab family who were the original owners, have been sold or leased out by a section of unscrupulous forest department officials.
   The report said that the land had illegally been grabbed by some real estate developers and individuals in the name various industrial units with the help of government officials of Dhaka and Gazipur districts.

The prospect of employment in South Korea hangs in the balance as most of the registered Bangladeshi jobseekers lack Korean language proficiency and the final decision lies on employers of that country.
   As per the memorandum of understanding signed between Dhaka and Seoul under South Korean employment permit system, job aspirants must qualify the language proficiency test.
   Officials of the expatriate welfare and overseas employment ministry and Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited told New Age Monday that they were still unaware about how many people would be recruited and when the recruitment process would start.
   Registration of some 6,600 Bangladeshi jobseekers, which started Sunday, is scheduled to end Tuesday. Those job aspirants had booked their names last week for language skill test.
   ‘According to the schedule, registered jobseekers will have to appear in South Korean language proficiency test on February 22 under the supervision of human resource department of that country’s labour ministry,’ Mansur Raja Chowdhury, joint secretary of the ministry said.
   He said that the answer scripts would be handed over to the South Korean authorities and results would be known within next two weeks.
   The ministry official could not say when the final recruitment process would begin.
   BOESL managing director Mahbubur Rahman told New Age that knowledge of South Korean language was not the only criterion for getting job in the Asian economic powerhouse.
   ‘Jobseekers, who will qualify the language test, will be sent to South Korea for scrutiny by probable employers there. Their fate will be decided by Seoul authorities and employers,’ the top official of the public recruiting agency explained.
   Mahbub said most Bangladeshi jobseekers, who registered their names on ‘first come first get’ basis, did not know even the ABC of South Korean language.
   ‘It is difficult for us now to say how many people will finally get jobs in South Korea as a large number of the applicants lack language skill, which is a must for getting jobs there.’
   Seoul opened its job market for Bangladesh and three other countries in 2007 under a new recruitment policy styled ‘employment permit system.’
   Dhaka and Seoul signed a memorandum of understanding in June 2007 during the visit of foreign affairs adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury to South Korea.

The government on Monday appointed two more special assistants to the chief adviser to further reduce the council of advisers’ workload, according to official sources.
   With the fresh appointments of businessman Mahbub Jamil and former bureaucrat Manik Lal Samaddar, the number of special assistants to the chief adviser has risen to five.
   Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed appointed three other special aides for himself on January 10, in addition to reshuffling the interim cabinet after the ‘resignation’ of four advisers on January 8.
   When asked whether the government plans to appoint more special aides to the chief adviser, an official spokesman did not dismiss the possibility.
   ‘One or two more special assistants might be appointed, depending upon the chief adviser’s willingness,’ Syed Fahim Munaim, press secretary to the chief adviser, told reporters.
   Mahbub, the chairman of Singer Bangladesh, has been given the rank of a minister while Manik Lal, the former secretary to the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division, will hold the rank of a state minister.
   The appointments were made in keeping with the amendment to the Rules of Business to accommodate
   special assistants to ease the workload on the 11-member cabinet that deals with more than 40 ministries and divisions.
   Mahbub was given charge of the industries, civil aviation and tourism and youth and sports affairs ministries.
   Manik Lal was assigned the fisheries and livestock, science and information and communication technology ministries, according to an official announcement.
   The law, justice and parliamentary affairs adviser, Hassan Ariff, was also given the responsibility of the land ministry. Rasheda K Chowdhury, the primary and mass education adviser, was also tasked with the ministry of cultural affairs, previously held by Ayub Quadri before his resignation on December 26 when he morally shouldered the responsibility of the theft of ancient Vishnu statuettes from the Zia International Airport.
   Earlier, the government appointed former Power Development Board’s chairman Brigadier General (retd) MA Malek, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology’s professor M Tamim and ethnic minority leader Debashish Roy as special assistants to the chief adviser.

The Supreme Court chamber judge on Monday refrained from issuing stay on the operation of High Court order that stalled the trial of detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina on an extortion charge.
   Brushing aside the government plea for stay, Justice MA Matin of the chamber court passed an order that the matter would be heard ‘in full court’ of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
   The government petition for stay on the operation of the High Court order would come up on the Supreme Court hearing list Thursday. The government moved the petition preferring leave to appeal against the January 17 High Court orders.
   The High Court order had come within two hours after the Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge’s court set up at the parliament-building complex adjourned for three days the commencement of trial with the deposition by the complainant in the Tk 3-crore extortion case.
   The High Court, following defence application, had also passed an order upgrading the cause list for early hearings of its pending rule that had asked the government to explain why the placing of the extortion case under the Emergency Powers Rules should not be declared ‘without lawful authority’.
   The case was filed by Azam J Chowdhury, managing director of the East Coast Trading Pvt Ltd, a private power company, as a purge against corruption of the past times has been underway in the interim period.
   Hasina’s younger sister, Sheikh Rehana, living in London, and cousin detained ex-minister Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim are also made accused in the case. Barrister Shafique Ahmed appeared for Hasina, while Additional Attorney General Mansur Habib stood for the government.

Jail authorities brought Dhaka University student Rafiqul Islam Sujan, accused of setting a military vehicle on fire during the August campus protests, to BSMMU Hospital for treatment after he had complained of severe pain in different parts of the body on Monday.
   The deputy inspector general of prisons, Shamsul Haider Siddiqui, told New Age on Monday: ‘After primary treatment and some investigations in the hospital, we brought him [Sujan] to jail the same day and his physical condition is now quite good.’
   Sujan’s cousin, Shah Alam, who accompanied Sujan on Monday told New Age in the evening, ‘Sujan was so sick that he could not even talk. His eyes were bloodshot and he told the doctor that he could not breathe properly and had severe chest pains.’
   Sources in the hospital said the investigation report showed Sujan had some health complications in the chest.
   Shah Alam also said the physician had asked the jail authorities and Sujan’s relatives that he needed prolonged treatment.
   Sujan suffered from fever and a cough in December, said Sujan’s elder sister, Dulali.
   Sujan is son of Abdul Halim and Halima Begum, residents of Bashail, Tongi Bari in Munshiganj.
   Sujan, first-year student of Islamic history and culture at Dhaka University, was arrested on September 9 at his village in Munshiganj, implicated in two cases, one for setting the military vehicle on fire and other for attacking army personnel in front of the Aziz Super Market in Dhaka on August 21, 2007.
   Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique along with other teachers met the vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, and demanded proper treatment for the student.

The Shahjalal University of Science and Technology student accused in a case of breaching the Emergency Powers Rules on the campus was on Monday sent in jail custody after his surrender in a Sylhet court.
   Mostafizur Rahman Raju, a master’s student of political studies and public administration, was the only one named on the charge sheet in the case filed in connection with the teacher and student protests on the SUST campus following the student protests at Dhaka University.
   Mostafizur, also the organising secretary of the university unit Chhatra League, surrendered in the court of a judicial magistrate at noon on Monday.
   The magistrate, Matiyar Rahman, ordered him to be sent to jail. The student had been in hiding for more than three months after the filing of the case, court sources said.
   Students at the university on the day attended classes and took examinations wearing black badges to push for an immediate withdrawal of the cases filed against Mostafizur and the teachers and students of Dhaka and Rajshahi universities.
   They also planned to form a human chain in front of the library on the campus on Tuesday to push for their demands.
   Teachers and students on August 21 brought out a silence procession wearing black badges on the campus in protest at police atrocities on the Dhaka University campus.
   The Kotwali police filed a case on September 5 in connection with the demonstration against Mostafizur and 30 more unnamed students on charge of breaching the Emergency Powers Rules 13 days after the incident.
   The police filed the charge sheet with court against Mostafizur in the case. The court was scheduled to hear the case on Monday, the sources said.
   The defence counsel, Misbah Uddin Siraj, said there was no ground for the case to be filed against Mostafizur.
   ‘According to the Emergency Powers Rules, a case should be filed immediately after the occurrence,’ he said, adding that this case was filed 13 days after the incident.

Interim president Raul Castro said Sunday the National Assembly would elect Cuba’s next president February 24, amid speculation ailing Fidel Castro might not be its choice for the first time in almost five decades.
   In a bid to lay to rest doubts about Fidel Castro’s political future, his younger brother Raul announced the date as Cubans on Sunday ratified a new National Assembly in uncontested elections.
   Fidel Castro, 81, who has been sidelined from power for nearly 18 months following major intestinal surgery, was among 614 uncontested candidates for the legislature, which will name 31 lawmakers to the Council of State that chooses the president.
   ‘This election is very important,’ said Raul Castro, who took over as president temporarily after Fidel underwent surgery on July 31, 2006.
   ‘We are choosing a new assembly at a complex stage, when we are confronted with different situations and great decisions,’ Raul Castro said.
   Well before polls closed at 2300 GMT, electoral authorities estimated turnout at about 90 per cent. Dissidents dismissed the voting exercise as a farce.
   More than eight million of the country’s 11 million population were eligible to cast ballots for the exclusively Communist Party candidates for the National Assembly.
   ‘I can say in advance that I am going to vote for him,’ vice president Carlos Lage, 56,
   often mentioned as a likely successor to Fidel Castro, said when reporters asked if the leader of the Cuban revolution would be back at the country’s helm.
   Cubans for months have been anxious for news on whether Fidel Castro would resume power or formally step aside.
   Some speculate the defence chief and regime number-two Raul Castro might become president on a permanent
   basis or that another top regime official might move up the ladder technically ending Fidel Castro’s official dominance of the regime – though few doubt he would remain influential.
   State-run television reported that the Cuban leader cast an absentee ballot for the entire bloc of candidates, which includes his own name.
   His future has been in
   question since he handed power to his brother Raul, on July 31, 2006, on an temporary basis while he recovers from surgery.
   The aging revolutionary, who took power in 1959, has given less-than-clear signals about his plans.
   In December, he announced for the first time that he
   would not ‘cling to power’ or block the rise of a new generation of leaders, after not appearing in public for several months.
   The foreign minister, Felipe Perez Roque, also mentioned as a potential Castro successor, insisted on state television
   the communist government would outlive its founding generation.

The home and liberation war affairs adviser MA Matin on Monday said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the architect of Bangladesh and former president Ziaur Rahman was the one who made the proclamation of independence.
   ‘I said it earlier that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is the architect of Bangladesh, but former president Ziaur Rahman declared its independence…. There is no doubt about it,’ Matin said, answering reporters at the home ministry after an inter-ministry meeting on the preparation for the celebrations of the 37th Independence Day on March 26.
   The Independence Day programme will be organised centrally in the National Parade Square, he said.
   The meeting formed five committees on the preparation issues, including security, cleanliness of the venue, supply of water and power, traffic control and events of the day. All the events would be aired on Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar.
   Preparations on the programmes will be completed by March 21, Matin said, adding all the ministries had been asked to project their histories and achievements during the parade.
   He said the arrangement of floats for various ministries had been cancelled this year because of fund crunch. ‘We have dropped this event this time as each of the floats costs more than Tk 3 lakh.’
   The number of seats for the invited guests will be increased to 20,000 this year with an increase in the budget for the programme, the adviser said.
   Asked whether the politicians would be invited to the national programme in keeping with the tradition, he said the invitation cards would be distributed among the politicians and formers ministers as is the custom.
   The adviser said the government could not organise programmes at the upazila level on the occasion of Independence Day for lack of fund. ‘But will organise the programmes at the district level on a limited scale.’
   He said the authorities concerned had been asked to take measures to set up large television screens in some public places in the city so that the people can watch the Parade Square programmes.

Thailand’s crown prince on Monday opened the country’s first elected parliament since a coup 16 months ago, with allies of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra back in charge under the People Power Party.
   Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, representing 80-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, urged a return to stability and national unity as he formally opened parliament in front of lawmakers wearing immaculate white ceremonial uniforms.
   ‘Parliament convening is a sign of the good beginning of democracy in our country,’ the prince said in a brief ceremony.
   ‘I am confident that the members of this parliament ... see there are still some problems threatening our nation. Your mission is very important – to restore stability and make the country unite, with stability and peace.’
   Thaksin’s allies in the People Power Party dominate the body after winning 233 of 480 seats in last month’s elections and forming a coalition with five smaller parties.
   The opening day is largely ceremonial, with real work getting underway Tuesday with the election of the house speaker.
   On Friday, parties will nominate and vote for Thailand’s 25th prime minister, widely expected to the PPP’s bullish leader Samak Sundaravej.
   One of the new government’s first big tasks will be to restore confidence in an economy bashed by instability and a series of policy blunders by the previous, junta-appointed government.
   Jockeying is also underway for the top cabinet posts, with analysts and local press predicting battles between the coalition partners, which share 315 seats, and also with the military, which is keen to hold on to its influence.
   ‘The government is comprised of many parties, which will bargain for the best ministries, and they will come up with different policies,’ said Sukhum Chaleysub, an analyst from Bangkok’s Rajabhat Suan Dusit university.
   Much press speculation has focused on the defence ministry, with reports of a back-room deal reached between the new government and the junta to have former army chief General Prawit Wongsuwan at the helm.
   Analysts have said the junta will also try to retain its influence by populating the Senate with allies. The nomination process for the Senate’s 150 seats, nearly half of which are appointed, also began Monday.
   The local press has also touted Surapong Suebwonglee, a former government spokesman under Thaksin and one of his close confidants, as finance minister.
   Surapong, now PPP secretary general, refused to confirm or deny whether he had been approached for the post, but told reporters that the finance role was of key importance.
   ‘The talk of a cabinet line-up will be more serious after we know who will be the prime minister. All earlier news is speculation,’ he said.
   ‘All positions related to economics are important positions, which will solve the crisis and drive the country,’ he added.
   The PPP has in recent weeks been tight-lipped about its policies, but ran on a platform almost identical to Thai Rak Thai, the party formed by Thaksin but dissolved by a junta-appointed tribunal after his ouster.
   Thaksin, who has been living in self-imposed exile in England since his ouster, has said he plans to return to the kingdom by April, where he faces arrest over two corruption cases.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, leaves Dhaka today for Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum’ s annual meeting.
   The 3-day event will take place in Davos from January 23.
   This is for the first time Bangladesh has been invited to attend at the head of government-level the famous annual gathering of world’s top financiers, bankers, leaders of commerce and industry, academics, thinkers, politicians and statesmen.
   The foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, on Monday said the participation of Fakhruddin at the World Economic Forum in Davos would greatly enhance the
   international image of Bangladesh.
   ‘This invitation has been issued because today the World Economic Forum believes that Bangladesh has a good story to tell the global audience, a story of positive social transformation and development reforms and innovative changes through ideas that have evolved domestically,’ he said.
   Fakhruddin will take part in a plenary discussion at the Davos Congress Centre on January 24 on ‘the quest for peace
   and stability’ along with some key leaders of South and Central Asia.
   He will hold meetings with European, American and Asian political and business leaders, as well as with leaders of some fellow least developed countries mainly from Asia.
   Bangladesh is currently the chair of the LDCs and Fakhruddin is expected to use this occasion to press for duty-free, quota-free access for LDC products in world markets.
   He will also meet with international media personalities, and host working lunches and breakfasts for potential investors in Bangladesh.
   Iftekhar said Davos was a unique event and not a structured international multilateral conference like the United Nations General Assembly.
   He said participants
   were drawn from all walks of social, economic and political life, and interacts with
   one another largely informally. ‘Only those who are seen
   as key global players are present.’
   The chief adviser, in his various discussions and meetings, will focus on such issues as institutional reforms for
   sustainable democracy, the fight against corruption, the requirement of peace to achieve development, climate change and its impact on developing countries and food security.
   He will also stress the need for greater market access for LDC products, the importance of education and women’s empowerment in social change and on the special responsibility of the developed countries towards those who are less developed.
   Fakhruddin will also highlight Bangladesh’s responsible international role as a major UN peacekeeper in stabilising strife-torn parts of the world, particularly Africa.
   The chief adviser will attend meetings in Davos on January 24 and 25.
   He is scheduled to return home on January 26.
   Foreign adviser and press secretary to the chief adviser Syed Fahim Munaim are on the chief adviser’s delegation.
   They will be joined in Davos by permanent representative of Bangladesh to Geneva Debapriya Bhattacharya.

The High Court on Monday stayed all proceedings of twin tax-dodge cases against Janakantha owner Atiqullah Khan Masud.
   The court also asked the government and the National Board of Revenue to explain why the cases are not illegal.
   A panel of Justice Md Abdur Rashid and Justice Miftahuddin Chowdhury made the rule upon two writ petitions by Masud’s brother M Mizanur Rahman Khan.
   Masud’s lawyer Khandaker Mahbub Hossain argued in court that the cases had been filed against his client without following a proper legal course.
   Masud’s wife Shamima A Khan, two sons Mishal Khan and Jishal Khan are also accused in the cases.
   NBR officials Ayesha Siddiqui Shoily and Syed Zakir Hossain filed the cases on January 6.
   Security officials arrested Masud on March 7 but they failed to arrest his wife and sons.
   On January 9, a Dhaka judge ordered the authorities to attach all moveable and immovable property owned by Globe Janakantha Shilpa Paribar, a business group of seven companies.
   On January 20, police sealed six floors of the Janakantha Bhaban on New Easkaton Road.

Former deputy minister for industries, Abdus Salam Pintu and Islamist militancy suspect Maulana Tamim were jointly interrogated by members of task force for interrogation on Monday, in connection with the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21 in 2004.
   Pintu was arrested on January 18 in Dhaka and is now being held on a three-day remand. The remand ended on Monday but police are expected to seek further remand when they produce Pintu at the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court on Tuesday.
   Tamim was taken by the police on a fresh four-day remand on Sunday after his earlier five-day remand expired on Saturday.
   The police plan to bring several other militants, including banned Harkatul Jihad al
   Islami leader Mufti Mohammad Hannan, on fresh remand,
   to be jointly interrogated with Pintu at the TFI cell, sources said.
   The security forces are looking for the former deputy minister’s passport to check his movements abroad.
   Meanwhile, some former officials of the Criminal Investigation Department said that the original investigators of the August 21 grenade attacks had deliberately dragged their feet on the investigation until Mufti Hannan was arrested on October 1, 2005 and he confessed his involvement.
   The investigators then
   tried to distract from Hannan’s confession by accusing
   one George Miah, who was picked up in Noakhali in June 2006, as being the key organiser of the attacks, the former officials said.
   The investigation officials, special superintendent Ruhul Amin, ASP Abdur Rashid and ASP Munshi Atiqur Rahman reportedly plotted this distraction under directives from former state minister for home, Lutfozzaman Babar.
   The trio also reportedly received a handsome amount of money for the purpose, the official claimed.
   The erstwhile additional special superintendent of police Fazlul Karim and
   ASP Sayedul Islam, who were in the city zone, opposed the arrest of George Miah but the then chief Khoda Bux Chowdhury – who later became inspector general of police – withdrew Fazlul Karim from the city zone and transferred Sayedul to Barisal zone to conceal it, the former official said.

The government has revised the boro production target upward to 17.5 million tonnes from 45 lakh hectares of land, including hybrid paddy on 12 lakh hectares, aiming to offset the aman production deficit, agriculture ministry officials said.
   The target was earlier 16.9 million tonnes on 43.75 lakh hectares of land. The targeted area for hybrid rice cultivation was 10 lakh hectares.
   The government has also formed a taskforce to oversee the boro farming and ensure maximum output.
   ‘The taskforce mainly will work at the field level to respond to all possible problems faced by the farmers during the peak boro season’, said taskforce chief Lutfur Rahman, a joint secretary of the agriculture ministry.
   Recurring floods and the devastating cyclone Sidr have pounded colossal damages to aman crops, requiring the government to make extra efforts for a higher boro output to make up for the losses and reduce food import bills.
   The taskforce would identify the problems faced by the farmers during peak season almost every year and suggest quick remedies. ‘Boro monitoring cell’ will keep watch on field level farming activities and supplies of inputs including fertiliser and diesel, ministry officials said.
   The six-member taskforce, which has already started its work, includes deputy secretary (extension) Azimuddin Ahmed Chowdhury, deputy secretary (research) Kamrunnahar, deputy chief (AER) Showkat Ali, deputy chief Prashanta Kumar Chakrwarty, seed technologist Rafiqul Islam and deputy secretary (inputs) Mosarraf Hossain.
   The taskforce’s responsibilities include ensuring coordination among agriculture ministry and related agencies to facilitate boro farming and achieve the revised output target.
   Besides, the agriculture ministry has involved some thirty officials ranking from the assistant chief to deputy secretary to oversee overall boro production in particular districts across the country.
   The officials would monitor allocation and distribution of urea and other fertilisers, diesel supply and payments of subsidy to the farmers and irrigation activities in districts.
   Last year, boro was cultivated on 43 lakh hectares and the production was about 15.5 million tonnes.
   Demand for urea has been estimated at 12 lakh tonnes for the current January-March boro season. Annual demand for urea stands around 28 lakh tonnes.
   The country has about 13,26,000 irrigation pumps and some eighty-five per cent of the pumps are operated by diesel due to poor rural electricity coverage. Estimated demand for diesel for irrigation purpose is about 1.2 million tonnes during the boro season.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Division will today send the Cabinet Division the draft production sharing contract (PSC) and tender documents for the third round of bidding for offshore blocks, which will place it before the council of advisers, said officials.
   An inter-ministry committee, headed by the energy secretary Mohammad Mohsin, completed the scrutiny of the draft on Monday as per the directives of the council of advisers’ economic affairs committee.
   ‘We have completed the scrutiny of the draft. We are trying to send it to the Cabinet Division by this evening. If the draft is not sent today, it will be sent on Tuesday,’ Mohsin told New Age on Monday afternoon.
   Sources in the division, however, said in the evening that the draft would be sent on Tuesday as they could not complete the file work.
   The economic affairs committee, headed by finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam, on January 8 formed the inter-ministry committee comprised of representatives of the Finance Division, IMED, NBR and the navy to scrutinise by 15 days the draft that the division placed before the committee for approval.
   The economic affairs committee also directed the energy division to place the drafts, along with the report of the inter-ministry committee, before the council of advisers, headed by Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, for approval.
   Once the council approves the draft, Petrobangla will invite tenders for allocating 28 offshore blocks to the international oil companies for hydrocarbon exploration.
   Petrobangla and the energy division had earlier hoped to hold the third round bidding, titled ‘Offshore Bidding Round 2007’, by December 2007 and award the contracts to the international oil companies by August so that gas exploration could be started in the next dry season, which stretches from November to April.
   But the tender process is now unlikely to begin soon because of the indecision of different organs of the government. This has dealt a blow to Petrobangla’s hope to start gas exploration in the next dry season.

The Sunsari district in eastern Nepal imposed ban Monday on poultry products from India due to fear of bird flu.
   According to a leading we bsite, eKantipur.com report, the daily import of poultry and eggs via Sunsari custom office, Devanjang, Ghantabari, Laukahi, Kusaha, Magadhwa and other ports have been banned, said border security director Rajesh Ghimire.
   Poultry products worth 500,000 Nepali rupees (some $8,064) are imported daily from Bihar, India.
   Meanwhile, Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in eastern Nepal, some 200 km east of Kathmandu, home to the largest variety of birds in the world, has been on high alert.
   An official of the reserve’s Administration Committee, Rabin Ghimire, said that the high alert was necessary as hundreds of birds from India migrate to the reserve in this season.
   An earlier report said the threat of bird flu spread in Jhapa district in eastern Nepal had increased after the finding of avian influenza cases in Dinajpur and Birbhum areas of West Bengal of India.
   According to the National News Agency RSS report, experts said the threat was more real due to the open border between Nepal and India.
   Acting chief at the kakarvitta Quarantine Post Kaushalendra Jha said more caution was needed to prevent the entry of the disease.
   He said bird flu cases had been reported on Sunday by Indian media in Siliguri as well. Siliguri is just 50 km far from the border.

A court punished 11 Hindus with life in prison Monday for gang-raping a pregnant Muslim woman and murdering her family during one of India’s worst riots in which hundreds of people, mostly Muslims, were slaughtered.
   The court also jailed a policeman for three years for falsifying evidence in a trial seen as testing whether Muslim victims of the 2002 riots in Gujarat could get justice.
   A special court, which heard the case in Mumbai, found 13 men guilty of a variety of crimes from rape and gang rape to murder and destruction or falsification of evidence. One accused has since died.
   ‘The court handed life sentence to 11 of the accused and three years for the policeman,’ defence counsel Rajendra Shirodkar told Reuters.
   ‘We will appeal against the verdicts within a fortnight.’
   Human rights groups say about 2,500 people were hacked, beaten or burned to death in the riots that started after 59 Hindu activists burned to death inside a train in Gujarat.
   Hindu groups blamed a Muslim mob for the train fire, but a subsequent inquiry panel said it was an accident.
   Thousands of cases were filed by Muslim victims but a couple of them came to be seen as key to winning justice for hundreds of women who have sexual assault cases pending from the riots.
   One of them was Bilkis Bano, a young Muslim mother who was gang-raped when, her lawyers say, she was three months pregnant.
   Her attackers also burned to death 12 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter.
   In 2004, the Supreme
   Court moved the trial to Maharashtra in response to pleas that a fair trial was impossible in Gujarat, ruled by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
   The failure of the Gujarat government to stop the riots was slammed by the Supreme Court as well which compared its chief minister Narendra Modi to the Roman emperor Nero, said to have played the lyre while Rome burned.
   Bano said her family in Gujarat still lived in fear of being attacked.

Malaysia wants to cut its army of foreign workers, sending home at least 200,000 by 2009, as it tries to reduce dependence on overseas labour and free up jobs for locals, a local newspaper said on Sunday.
   ‘We are in the stage of calling together large companies, associations that represent industry and outsourcing companies for talks to reduce the number,’ Raja Azahar Raja Abdul Manap, the top civil servant in Malaysia’s home ministry, told the Star.
   But the construction, manufacturing and plantation industries, which require foreign workers because Malaysians dislike jobs involving manual labour, would be exempted from the ruling, the paper said.
   Malaysia has about 2.3 million foreign workers now and wants to rein in their numbers to 1.8 million, Raja Azahar said, adding that the country’s economic planning unit had worked out a plan to cut the number further, to 1.5 million, by 2015.
   In another sign of the growing unease over foreign workers, the paper quoted the Malaysian commodities minister, Peter Chin, as saying they were rapidly ‘colonising’ plantations and estates all over the country.
   ‘Foreigners are taking over jobs in plantations and estates,’ Chin told a function in eastern Sarawak state on Borneo island, adding that buoyant commodities prices worldwide had led to better working conditions for workers in the sector.
   Foreigners make up more than 500,000 of the 800,000 workers now employed on Malaysian rubber, timber and palm oil plantations and estates, the paper added.

Heartened by another win in her White House quest, Hillary Clinton is making a major play for African American voters, a vital Democratic powerbase leaning towards her top rival Barack Obama.
   On a perilous fault line of race and politics, the former first lady and the Illinois senator hoping to be America’s first black president, delicately renewed hostilities Sunday before the January 26 South Carolina primary.
   For Hillary, the contest is a chance to appeal to African Americans in the state and nearly two-dozen others which vote on the closely contested Democratic race in a blitz of contests on ‘super-duper Tuesday’ February 5.
   For Obama, who triumphed in the opening nominating clash in Iowa, but fell to Hillary in New Hampshire and Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, South Carolina is close to a must-win encounter.
   It is also his first chance to benefit from a large turnout of African Americans, in a unique position as the first black candidate with a realistic hope of the presidency.
   Both Hillary and Obama attempted to symbolically frame the week of campaigning in South Carolina Sunday, among African American worshippers.
   In Harlem, Hillary accepted the endorsement of Reverend Calvin Butts, pastor of New York state’s oldest African American Baptist Church.
   Butts said someone asked him ‘why on earth as a black man in this country, I had chosen to announce my support for a white woman?’
   ‘Well beloved ... this was not and is not and will not become a race based decision for me,’ Butts said.
   Obama Sunday made a symbolic appearance in Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, the launchpad for civil rights icon Martin Luther King’s crusade.
   ‘I ask you to walk with me, and march with me, and join your voice with mine,’ Obama told the faithful.
   ‘Together, we will sing the song that tears down the walls that divide us, and lift up an America that is truly indivisible, with liberty, and justice, for all,’ he said.
   Hillary will pay homage to King on Monday, at a service and march on the public holiday marking King’s birthday, in South Carolina, before clashing with Obama in a televised debate.
   African American voters – around half of the Democratic electorate in South Carolina – helped Bill Clinton to twice win the White House.
   And the man often dubbed ‘the first black president’ is expected to try to recreate the mystique with a personal campaign swing for his wife this week.
   Race issues are always perilous, but tensions will be especially acute, as only last week, senator Hillary and Obama smoothed over a row triggered by her remarks about King, considered offensive by some in the black community.
   With a white American mother and a Kenyan father, Obama’s political promise lies in his vow to heal America’s political and social divisions.
   He articulated his racial balancing act in his speech, sympathising with the black community, but also chiding it as an insider, as he strove to appeal across racial divides.

The World Bank has endorsed the names of seven out of 16 bankers, which were forwarded by the Finance Division, from whom the future managing director and chief executive officer of the state-owned Agrani Bank will be appointed.
   Ministry sources said that the multilateral lending agency, in a recent letter, gave its consent for appointment of Agrani’s MD which will be made under a project titled ‘Enterprise Growth and Bank Modernisation Project’.
   The Finance Division had earlier sent a list of 16 senior bankers, whom it thought eligible for the post, to the World Bank’s local office after the term of the Agrani’s first such MD and CEO, Syed Abu Naser Bakhtiar Ahmed, expired last year.
   When asked about the justification of the World Bank’s involvement in the appointment, a Finance Division official said the reason was that the government and the global lending agency are partners in the project. The previous government signed the deal for getting the WB’s loans.
   The WB’s letter, signed by senior private sector development specialist GM Khurshid Alam, informed the Finance Division that the International Development Association, a window of the WB, had ‘no objection to the short-list’.
   However, Syed Abu Naser Bakhtiar Ahmed has been considered for the post in the Agrani Bank for another term.
   Six others who are included in the WB-made short-list are Mohammad Abdul Hamid Miah, Mohammad Humayun Kabir, Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, Mohammad Mukhtar Hussain, Mohammad Nurul Amin and Shah Mohammad Nurul Amin.
   Those who have not been chosen by the WB are ASM Imdadul Haque, FRM Hafizul Islam, Moahammad Amanullah, Mohammad Asaduzzaman Khan, Mohammad Jasim Uddin, Yasin Ali, Nurul Huda Chowdhury, Rabiul Hussain and Syed Abdul Hamid.
   The Finance Division will finalise the appointment after completing viva voce with the short-listed people.
   Agrani Bank has, in the meantime, been corporatised along with two other state-owned banks — Sonali and Janata. The other nationalised commercial bank, Rupali Bank, has long been caught in a stalemate over the move to offload its shares at an aggregate rate of $458 million to Prince Bandar of the Saudi Arabian royal family.

Bangladesh government has alerted border guards for taking necessary measures to check entry of avian flu from the West Bengal of India where the deadly disease breaks out in an epidemic form.
   Talking to the news agency, the fisheries and livestock secretary, Syed Ataur Rahman, Monday night said they had asked the BDR authorities to take necessary steps to check any illegal entrance of any poultry birds and eggs from the other side of the border.
   ‘Today, we will again review the latest situation,’ he said.

Khandaker Abdul Hamid Khan Paban, son of secretary general of a faction of BNP Khandaker Delwar Hossain, was arrested again soon after his release on bail Monday evening.
   Deputy inspector general of prisons Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui said Paban was released from Dhaka Central Jail at about 6:30 pm. The police again arrested Paban just after he stepped out of the jail gate. He was taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital when he fell sick at the Lalbagh police station.

Armed assailants riding a motorbike shot a local BNP leader to death in Sailkupa of the district Monday evening, police and witnesses said.
   The victim, Idris Ali, 47, son of Afil Shah at village Kancherkole of Sailkupa upazila, was the organising secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s Sailkupa thana unit. Police said two gunmen onboard a motorbike fired three shots from a close range at Ali in front of Sailkupa Degree College, just behind the local police station at about 5:30 pm. They fired another shot in the air to disperse the crowd and flee the place safely. Ali was then talking to a group of people there.
   Acting superintendent of police TM Mujahidul Islam confirmed the murder and said the assassins fled towards Khalkula by the speeding motor cycle. Ali, once a leader of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal’s cadre group Ganabahini, joined BNP in 1990s. He sustained injuries in a bomb attack at Kabirpur in the local municipality in 2006.
   His brother Abu Bakkar Mohammad Jamal, chairman of Kancherkole union parishad, came under a bomb attack few weeks back. The acting SP said they were yet to get any clue to the murder. None of the underground parties, which are active in the region, has so far claimed the responsibility of the killing.
   Army, RAB and police have been patrolling the town.

A fast-track court, trying high-profile corrupt suspects, on Monday sentenced fugitive Shahrin Islam Tuhin, nephew of detained BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, to eight years for tax evasion.
   Judge Tanzina Ismail of the special court, set up at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban complex, also fined Tuhin Tk 92 lakh, in default, to suffer nine months more in jail. The sentence will be effective the day he will be arrested or when he surrenders to the court, court sources said.
   Deputy tax commissioner Golam Kabir of the National Board of Revenue filed the case against Tuhin nearly two months ago, accusing him of evading Tk 8.18 lakh income tax between fiscal years 1998 and 2007 and concealing Tk 3.29 crore in his wealth information submitted to the NBR.