Main Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Tuesday said the proclamation of a state of emergency and the events of January 11, 2007 were made to happen to fulfill the ambitions of a few people.
   ‘They are mad about clinging to power and are trying to hold elections with hand-picked people keeping the popular political leaders out of the race’, she said.
   Khaleda termed the ongoing dialogue [between the government and the political parties and others] a farce.
   ‘The events of January 11 [2007] were made to happen to fulfill the ambition of some people’, she said as the government produced her in a special court for hearing in the framing of charges against her and 23 others in the GATCO graft case.
   Standing in the dock the immediate-past prime minister made a strongly-worded statement with the help of some written points for about 17 minutes on the present political and economic situation, although the court allowed her to speak for five minutes regarding the case.
   She said the government had filed ‘false’ cases against popular leaders branding them corrupt with an aim to keep them out of the elections. ‘It is trying to create an atmosphere so that major political parties cannot contest the polls.’
   Khaleda alleged that cooked up cases had been filed against her and her sons with an aim to malign and destroy the family.
   ‘They have ruined my family’, she said adding, ‘We have been charged with corruption although we did no wrong.’
   She said the government was trying to cling to power with the help of its sycophants.
   These quarters are plotting to split the political parties, especially the nationalist forces and the BNP, she said and warned, ‘They will not be able to manage things with the help of “Dalals”.’
   The BNP chairperson said the caretaker government was mandated to hold office for three months only to hold the general elections and hand over power to an elected government. ‘But they are now trying to divert attention of the people on different pleas and planning to hold local government polls before national elections.’
   ‘They have accused us of abusing power, but they are trying to hold local government polls violating the constitution, for which they have no constitutional mandate’, she said and asked, ‘Then, who are abusing power?’
   She warned that the ‘blueprint for making the country a client state cannot be implemented as the people are alert’.
   ‘A similar blueprint was foiled by the people and soldiers on November 7 [1975].’
   Khaleda also warned that the persons to be found involved in corruption in the present regime will have to stand trial. ‘They will be punished,’ she said.
   She renewed her call for lifting the state of emergency by June and holding of the polls by October ensuring that political parties participate in the elections.
   As Khaleda was speaking, the court, which allowed her to speak for five minutes, asked her to make statement on the GATCO case only.
   She alleged that judges could not give verdict independently. ‘They are dictated from certain places’.
   At this point, judge Shahed Nuruddin said, ‘I am not dictated from anywhere. I am independent.’
   Khaleda urged the court to give judgment in the cases independently and demanded an open trial under existing laws in the cases instead of ‘trial in camera’.
   It was her second appearance in the court since she was arrested nearly nine months ago on September 3, 2007. She was produced in the court for the first time on June 1.
   Wearing a light-cream chiffon saree, Khaleda looked confident as she entered the crowded courtroom amid tight security at about 11:00am. She was taken back to the special jail on the parliament complex at about 1:40pm.
   The court set June 10 for charge hearing in the GATCO graft case after defence lawyers prayed for time on the plea that they could not yet go through the FIR and charge sheet in the case.
   Khaleda is, however, scheduled to appear before another special court on June 8 for charge hearing in the Niko graft case.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission filed three cases against Khaleda Zia on charges of corruption.

The BNP’s chairperson, Khaleda Zia became emotional when she saw her youngest son, Arafat Rahman, in a wheelchair beside the dock in the court during the hearing of charges in the GATCO scam case on Wednesday.
   She forgot everything around her and rushed to her son, and hugged Arafat with tears rolling down her cheeks. Her son also could not hold back his tears.
   Khaleda looked confident as she entered the high-security but crowded courtroom on Wednesday. She waved to her lawyers and the co-accused and exchanged greetings with them as she walked to the dock.
   But she broke into tears the moment she saw Arafat. She enquired about his health from the doctor-in-waiting and asked Arafat to have patience.
   It was the first meeting of mother and son since they were arrested at their Dhaka Cantonment residence on September 3 last year.
   Khaleda asked Arafat, sitting a metre off, if he was alright. He made a faint gesture indicating that he was okay.
   Arafat, suffering from multiple ailments, was brought to the court from the prison cell of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital by ambulance. During the hearing, he had breathing problems and was provided with an oxygen mask.
   Khaleda and Arafat, co-accused in the GATCO graft case, were produced in the special court in the Jatiya Sangsad complex for the hearing of charges.
   Arafat was taken out of the courtroom after Khaleda and their lawyers — Khandakar Delwar Hossain and Mahbub Uddin Khokon — drew the court’s attention to his sorry physical condition. Subsequently he was taken back to the hospital.
   Khaleda, standing in the dock, urged the court to pass an order to send Arafat abroad for better treatment.

The BNP’s expelled secretary-general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, on Wednesday met the party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, after a year’s gap, but Khaleda did not respond when Mannan tried to talk with her several times.
   They spent about an hour in the dock in the special judge’s court-3, set up in the Jatiya Sangsad complex, along with five other former ministers and 10 others on Wednesday, when all of them were produced in court in connection with the hearing in the framing of charges in the GATCO graft case.
   When Khaleda, also the immediate-past prime minister, entered the courtroom, Mannan, along with others in the dock, stood up and salaamed her. Khaleda responded to all but Mannan, who was her cabinet colleague for two terms.
   After the court proceedings, Khaleda talked with her ex-cabinet colleagues M Shamsul Islam, MK Anwar, Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, AKM Mosharraf Hossain and Matiur Rahman Nizami, also Jamaat-e-Islami’s amir, but not with Mannan.
   Khaleda exchanged pleasantries with her former
   cabinet colleagues and said, ‘Do not worry…As you are politicians, you need to face this situation.’
   Mannan tried to draw her attention by giving salaam several times, but Khaleda ignored him although she talked with the others who were behind Mannan.
   This was the first meeting of the BNP chief with her deputy in a year. They last met on May 30, 2007 when they went to pay homage to the party’s founder, Ziaur Rahman, at his grave in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.
   After the last meeting, Mannan put forth a ‘proposal for intra-party reforms’ in
   a news briefing on June 25, 2007.

The country’s gross domestic product is projected to grow by 6.5 per cent to Tk 6131.11 billion in the next fiscal year, while inflation has been estimated at 9 per cent, top sources in the government have told New Age.
   Gross investment and savings (public and private) have been projected at Tk 1494.47 billion in the 2008-09 fiscal year beginning on July 1, while total revenue earnings and expenditures have been estimated at Tk 693.81 billion and Tk 999.62 billion respectively, leaving a deficit of Tk 305.81 billion, they said quoting budgetary estimates and targets of medium term macroeconomic framework.
   To bankroll the deficit, Tk 135.81 billion has been expected as external finances while net domestic financing has been estimated at Tk 170 billion, according to the documents.
   The GDP growth in the outgoing 2007-08 fiscal was originally estimated at 7.1 per cent, which has been revised downward to six per cent.
   The government expects tax revenue incomes of Tk 567.89 billion, and Tk 125.92 billion from non-tax sources in the next fiscal year.
   Tax incomes from National Board of Revenue have been estimated at Tk 545 billion, according to the budgetary projections, which could see some changes before the budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year is announced on Monday, June 9, sources said.
   Subsidies would account for Tk 185.24 billion of the revenue expenditures estimated at Tk 744.62 billion, while the annual development expenditures would be Tk 255 billion.
   Interest payment would amount to Tk 125.65 billion and block allocation Tk 28.18 billion in the next budget.
   The amount of block allocation — always a concern of economists who say it creates scopes for unseen expenditures — earmarked in the current budget was Tk 6.04 billion.
   The domestic borrowing target of the government for the current fiscal year was Tk 117.53 billion, which shot to Tk 139 billion in eight months to February.
   Finance and planning adviser Mirza Azizul Islam, who has been on a foreign tour, is scheduled to arrive today (Thursday), sources said.
   The projections could go through some changes at a meeting of council of advisers expected on Friday or Saturday before the budget documents get ready for presentation, they hinted.

The military-controlled government is contemplating formation of a commission to review the constitution aiming at what it says removing inconsistencies and contradictions in the state’s guiding principles formulated in 1972.
   ‘What we are thinking about is a review exercise of the constitution…not of its prime spirit but of certain articles. The matter is being discussed on the basis of specific proposals’, the commerce and education adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, a key figure in the ongoing dialogues between the political parties and the government, said on Wednesday.
   He was talking to reporters at a joint press briefing after a dialogue with Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal at the Chief Adviser’s Office.
   Ever since the dialogues began on May 22, the government has been talking about consensus on a number of issues in line with chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed’s proposal for formulating a national charter for transition to democracy.
   ‘It is high time we initiated the process of a fair review of the constitution. There should be a commission or team of experts, drawn on the basis of consensus, for the purpose’, the commerce adviser said adding that the next parliament could take up the recommendations of the commission.
   The next parliament would be the deciding authority, he added.
   Different governments, civil and military alike, amended the country’s constitution for 14 times over the last 36 years in the name of ‘public interest’ and stability. But the impoverished nation is still struggling to attain political and economic stability.
   The BSD made a number of observations and suggestions at the dialogue, in which the chief adviser led government side and the BSD president Khalequzzaman led his party. The talks lasted for more than one and a half hours.
   The BDS said that there had been a culture of violation of constitutional provisions. One government after another had made decisions in contravention of many provisions of the constitution. But there has been no discussion over it.
   ‘Either do away with those provisions or follow them sincerely as long as they are part of our constitution’, the BSD president told the briefing citing a few examples of violation of constitutional provisions.
   He said the constitution stipulates that there should be ‘a planned economy’ in the country, but the government pursues policy of a free market economy. Instead of a universal education system the government pursues a policy of uni-track education. There are provisions that no authority will resort to brutality or cruelty, but the authorities are not careful about them.
   He said there were too many provisions in the constitution that were contradictory to good governance.
   The BSD president, however, did not agree to the government’s proposal for a balance of power between the president and the prime minister. He said it might cause further chaos unless the other elected authorities – like local government bodies and parliament – were empowered.
   On market economy, Hossain Zillur Rahman invoked the doctrine of necessity in defending the shift in the policy.
   ‘We should not see it as a violation of the constitution. We can update it reviewing the situation’, he said.
   When asked how long the government-sponsored talks would continue as the authorities wanted to take it to the grassroots level, the commerce adviser said that they wanted to finish it by this month.
   But with the extend arrangement, he added, it would be completed within a reasonable time. ‘It will not stand in the way of the process of elections… the Election Commission is taking preparations for polls.’

The military-controlled interim government has arrested about 14,000 people, including local leaders and activists of major political parties, local government representatives and journalists, till Wednesday morning in a crackdown that began midnight past Friday.
   Some 2,000 people were detained in 24 hours till Wednesday morning at places across the country.
   Police headquarters, however, said 1,729 people were arrested in 24 hours from Tuesday morning. In Dhaka at least 130 people were rounded up during the period.
   Forty people were detained at Rangpur on Tuesday night – the highest number of arrests made in a town outside the capital in the past 24 hours.
   Political leaders and activists at places across the country have already gone into hiding to avoid possible arrest, as the joint forces continued to raid their houses.
   According to sources at Dhaka Metropolitan Police headquarters, 25 people were arrested under warrants for their arrest, one convict, 59 in specific cases, and 45 others were detained on different charges.
   Most of them have been shown arrested under Emergency Powers Rules and sent to jail.
   Twenty-nine firearms, 10 bombs and 86 rounds of bullet were recovered in 24 hours till Wednesday morning, police said.
   According to New Age correspondents, in Pirojpur, Jatiya Party (JP-Anwar Hossain Manju) leader Akhteruzzaman Dulal, also a union parishad chairman, in Patuakhali, Juba Dal president Saiful Alam Mridha and former district Chhatra Dal leader Rimanul Islam Rimu, in Bogra Awami League leader Zahirul Islam with four others, in Jhenaidah, outlawed Revolutionary Communist Party leader Hanif, in Feni, Parshuram upazila BNP vice-president Habibur Rahman, Jamaat activist Enamul Haque Kowser, and in Kushtia, channel-i district correspondent Tariqul Islam were arrested
   by the joint forces during the period.
   New Age correspondent in Pirojpur reported that
   chairmen of three municipalities and 51 union parishads had gone into hiding to avoid arrest leaving the local administrations
   in a mess.
   In Borhanuddin upazila of Bhola, the joint forces arrested Jubo League activist Saidur Rahman Mitu and BNP activists Rafique and Jasim and five others in the past 24 hours.
   In Sylhet, the forces detained city BNP publicity secretary Syed Moinuddin Sohel.
   In Sunamganj, Chhatak pourasava ward commissioner Farook Ahmed was arrested on Tuesday night.

World Environment Day will be observed in the country as elsewhere in the world today through different programmes to change the habit towards low carbon emission.
   This year’s theme of the day is ‘Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy’. The day highlights resources and initiatives that promote low carbon economies and lifestyles such as improved energy efficiency, alternative energy sources, forest conservation and eco-friendly consumption.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed and the chief
   advisor, Fakhruddin Ahmed, issued separate messages highlighting the importance of the day.
   They urged the people to wage a movement for preventing environmental pollution and protecting the environments for the sake of the future generations.
   The United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of environment and enhances political attention and action on this day.
   UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in his message said that the poor would be hardest hit by weather-related disasters and soaring price inflation for staple foods, but even the richest nations face the prospect of economic recession and a world in conflict over diminishing resources.
   ‘Mitigating climate change, eradicating poverty and promoting economic and political stability all demand the same solution that the people must kick the carbon habit,’ he said.
   To mark the day, various government and non-governmental organisations have drawn up elaborate programmes.
   The environment and forest ministry will hold an environment fair at Osmani Memorial Hall. Debashish Roy, special assistant to the chief adviser, will inaugurate the fair at 10:15am.
   Department of Environment will bring out a procession from National Museum at 7:00am that will end at National Press Club.
   It will also organise a seminar on ‘unlocking mitigation potential through renewable energy technologies in Bangladesh’ at Osmani Memorial auditorium.
   Geography and Environment Department of Dhaka University will hold a seminar on the theme of the day at its seminar room while Sociology Department will hold a rally at the foot of Aparajeya Bangla at 10:00am.
   Save the Youth Forum in association with two other organisations will hold a discussion at National Press Club at 4:00pm.
   United Nations Association of Bangladesh will hold an open discussion at Scouts Bhaban in Kakrail at 4:00pm.
   A seminar styled ‘necessity of environmentally-friendly sanitation for sustainable agriculture’ will be held at CIRDAP auditorium at 3:00pm.
   Drik Gallery will organise a photo exhibition on climate change at the gallery which will start at 4:00pm.

The chief adviser’s special assistant for the environment and forest ministry, Raja Debashish Roy, on Wednesday cautioned the industrialists that severe legal action would be taken for polluting the environment.
   ‘We want the industrialists in and around the city to voluntarily set up effluent treatment plants to check environment pollution…Stern legal actions will be taken if they fail to do this by June 30, 2008,’ said Debashish at a press briefing in the secretariat on the eve of the World Environment Day.
   He said the factory owners should give a clear picture of how many of them were able to install effluent treatment plants by the deadline in order to make the industries environment-friendly.
   ‘If the industrialists do not abide by the law and continue to pollute the environment, their gas and power supplies will be disconnected and other legal action will also follow,’ warned the special assistant.
   Director-general of the Department of Environment, Khandakar Rashedul Haque, said that they do not have any statistics as to how many factories across the country are presently polluting the environment, mainly air, water and soil.
   He, however, said that
   a recent survey by the
   department showed that only 120, out of 695 factories in and around the city, had effluent treatment plants, although at least 471 of them were severely polluting the water and soil by discharging liquid wastes.
   The objective of the environmental laws was not to close down the industries, said Haque while giving the reasons for poor enforcement of the laws and exposing the rivers and canals to pollution by industrial wastes.
   The environment and
   forest secretary, AHM Rezaul Kabir, said that his ministry is trying to find a new mechanism for operating mobile courts against the industries which are violating environmental laws and causing pollution, as the judiciary has now been separated from the executive.
   He, however, said that a taskforce was in operation, especially to check river pollution. ‘All development work by the government will be planned in keeping with the environment factors.’
   The theme of World Environment Day 2008 is ‘Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy’.

Democrat Barack Obama plunged Wednesday into a five-month election battle with Republican John McCain after making history by becoming the first black presidential nominee of a major US party.
   The Illinois senator’s giant-killing win over Hillary Clinton came at the climax late Tuesday of the longest, most expensive and spellbinding nominating epic ever.
   But Hillary refused to concede, and even as the president, George W Bush, joined worldwide plaudits of Obama’s stunning success, her supporters strove to bounce the new Democratic standard-bearer into choosing her as his running mate.
   Together, they would be ‘unstoppable,’ the New York senator’s campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, told MSNBC television. ‘I think we would have the White House for 16 years.’
   In a speech that was splashed across newspaper front-pages across the world, Obama declared to 19,000 baying supporters in St. Paul, Minnesota late Tuesday: ‘America, this is our moment.
   ‘This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past,’ the 46-year-old Chicagoan said, tweaking the Republicans by speaking at the venue of their presidential convention in September.
   ‘Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.’
   Obama’s momentous victory, five months since his shock win over Hillary in the very first nominating contest in Iowa, set up an intriguing general election clash with McCain, the 71-year-old Republican senator from Arizona.
   On November 4, voters must pick between Obama, a freshman senator and charismatic mixed-race standard-bearer of a new political generation, and McCain, a wounded Vietnam war hero asking for one final call to service.
   White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said ‘President Bush congratulates senator Obama.’
   Bush ‘knows from personal experience that the presidential nominating process is a gruelling one, and senator Obama came a long way in becoming his party’s nominee,’ he told reporters.
   ‘And his historic achievement reflects the fact that our country has come a long way, too.’
   Both Obama and Hillary were Wednesday addressing an influential pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington, giving the new presumptive nominee a chance to stake out his appeal for a new diplomacy in the Middle East.
   Aides to the two Democrats declined to say if they might meet privately on the sidelines of the Washington conference, after Hillary told New York lawmakers that she was open to serving as Obama’s vice presidential nominee.
   ‘The vice presidential process is a serious process that will begin in earnest now, as we have become the presumptive nominee,’ Obama’s communications director Robert Gibbs told NBC.
   ‘I feel confident in saying that this party will be unified in moving forward, to make sure we have a Democratic president come November,’ he said.
   Hillary, thwarted in her own historic quest to be the first female president, refused to explicitly admit defeat and said she would consult with supporters and party leaders ‘in the coming days’ on the way forward.
   Occasionally elegiac but more often defiant in her own speech at a Manhattan sports college, Hillary described how every one of her nearly 18 million votes had felt like ‘a prayer for the nation.’
   Failing an outright concession from the New York senator, the Democratic Party’s seniormost figures are reportedly set to go public with an appeal to the last undeclared ‘superdelegates’ to declare their preferred candidate.
   House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean were to release a statement Wednesday urging the party to close ranks against McCain, the Huffington Post web site and CNN reported.
   Obama, who must now mend his divided party, paid lavish tribute to Hillary as ‘a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength.’
   ‘Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honour to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton.’
   Obama captured the final primary in Montana, after a flood of endorsements from Democratic superdelegates during the day, and vaulted over the winning post of 2,118 delegates needed at the party’s August nominating convention.
   According to RealClearPolitics.com, Obama now has 2,165 delegates to the former first lady’s 1,923.
   Hillary snapped up a consolation victory in South Dakota’s primary, as Obama turned his full fire on McCain at the start of what promises to be a gripping general election campaign.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld, for the time being, the High Court’s order that stayed the proceedings of a corruption case against detained former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s eldest son, Tarique Rahman, who is also in jail.
   The full court of all the present Appellate Division judges, chaired by Chief Justice MM Ruhul Amin, also asked the Anti-Corruption Commission’s counsel to get the writ petition filed by Tarique which was heard by the High Court.
   The court, however, said that the hearing on ACC’s appeal against the High Court’s order would remain stalled till disposal of the rule, issued by the High Court on October 1, 2007, asking the ACC to explain why the case should not be quashed.
   The court issued the order after hearing two petitions filed by the ACC, seeking stay on the High Court’s order that has halted the proceedings of the case against Tarique, the senior joint secretary-general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
   The Appellate Division on October 4, 2007 stayed for three weeks the High Court’s order and directed the ACC to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court’s order.
   Failing to file the regular petition within three weeks, the ACC’s lawyers on April 16 sought extension of the stay on the High Court’s order.
   The High Court on April 8 also stayed, for two months, the proceedings against Zubaida Rahman, Tarique’s wife, after she challenged the case. The court also issued a rule upon the ACC, asking it to explain why the case against Zubaida ‘should not be quashed’.
   The Appellate Division had earlier also asked the ACC to dispose of the High Court’s rule as the ACC appealed to it to clear way for proceeding against Zubaida. Her mother is still absconding in the case.
   The ACC on September 26, 2007 filed the case with the Kafrul police station against Tarique, his wife and mother-in-law Iqbalmand Banu for allegedly amassing ill-gotten wealth and concealing information about their assets.
   The ACC on March 31 submitted the charge-sheet against them to the court of Dhaka’s chief metropolitan magistrate, but the proceedings of the case remain stalled as the magistrate’s court has received no order to start the proceedings.
   According to the charge-sheet, Tarique concealed assets worth about Tk 2.17 crore in his wealth statement, and also amassed about Tk 2.75 crore beyond his known sources of income. His wife and mother-in-law were accused of abetting him in protecting the ill-gotten wealth.
   Advocate Anisul Huq appeared for the ACC, while Barrister Rafique-ul Huq defended Tarique.

Syeda Shamila Rahman, wife of former Prime Minister Kaleda Zia’s detained youngest son Arafat Rahman, has sought permission to take her ailing husband abroad for treatment.
   Arafat Rahman has been undergoing treatment in a prison cell of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital since his arrest on September 3, 2007. He is facing a number of graft cases including the much-talked-about GATCO scam case in which Khaleda Zia is also an accused.
   In an application submitted to the home ministry on May 24, Shamila said that her husband was suffering from various ailments including bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. He is also suffering from ischemic heart disease, bilateral emphysema, benign essential tremor and bilateral sacralization.
   ‘Arafat was admitted to the university hospital upon the order of chief metropolitan magistrate’s court after his arrest, and a medical board of the hospital has detected the diseases in him,’ said Shamila.
   ‘Although Arafat has been provided the best treatment at the hospital, his condition is deteriorating fast day by day. Now it has become difficult for him to move alone and he often faints due to heart problems,’ she said, adding that Arafat is badly in need of an angiogram but there is no qualified non-invasive test system in the country.
   Before his arrest, Arafat was undergoing treatment at Praram 9 Hospital in Thailand, and to save his life the family is ready to take him there again for treatment if the government permits. Shamila, in the application, humbly requested the secretary of home affairs to expedite his release and give permission to take him to Thailand.

The Awami League has taken up a 10-day countrywide tour aimed at reorganising the party’s grassroots units and eliciting their opinions on the next course of action.
   The party has formed 18 teams of central leaders for the organisational tours and sent the names of the team members to relevant district unit presidents and general secretaries.
   The central leaders will attend the extended committee meetings scheduled of the district units between June 20 and June 30.
   During the tour, the central leaders will exchange views with grassroots leaders, resolve disputes, if any, and evaluate the overall organisational activities. They will submit reports of their assessment to the acting party president, Zillur Rahman.
   The party in its central working committee meeting on May 28 decided on the tours of district units by central leaders to reactivate the grassroots activists and fronts. The party will decide on the next course of agitation programmes after evaluating the reports to be submitted by the central leadership.
   Presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury will lead a team to Tangail and Manikganj, Amir Hossain Amu to Greater Barisal, and Abdur Razzak to Shariatpur and Munshiganj.
   Presidium member Tofail Ahmed will lead a team to Bhola, Gazipur and Narsingdi and Suranjit Sengupta to Dhaka and Narayanganj. Matia Chowdhury will lead her team to Comilla, Chandpur and Brahmanbaria.
   The acting general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, will tour Chittagong, Bandarban, Khagrachari and Cox’s Bazar. Organising secretary Saber Hosain Chowdhury will visit Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Sherpur, Netrakona and Kishoreganj.
   Organising secretary Abdul Mannan will visit Khulna, Bagerhat and Satkhira and Mahamudur Rahman Manna will visit Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Rangpur, Kurigram and Gaibandha. Aktaruzzaman will tour Rajshahi, Naogaon, Natore and Chapainawabganj.
   Organizing secretary Abdur Rahman will attend extended committee meetings in Greater Sylhet and Bir Bahadur will visit Noakhali. The party’s commerce and industry secretary Faruq Khan will visit Rajbari, Faridpur, Gopalganj and Madaripur.
   The party’s treasurer HN Ashiqur Rahman will visit Greater Dinajpur and the agriculture secretary, Abdur Razzak, will tour Kushtia. The relief and social welfare secretary, Nazma Rahman, will visit Pabna, Sirajganj, Bogra and Jaipurhat.
   Central leader Abdul Latif Siddiqui will visit Jhenaidah, Magura, Jessore and Narail.
   Presidium member Matia Chowdhury told New Age they would brief grassroots leaders and activists on the current political situation and mobilise public support for their six-point demand which includes an unconditional release of the detained party chief Sheikh Hasina.
   ‘We will reactivate our leaders and activists and rejuvenate organisational activities,’ she said.
   Mahmudur Rahman Manna said they would exchange views and try to get the opinions and recommendations of leaders in districts and upazilas about the next course of action. They will also try to reorganise the party leaders and activists to strengthen the party’s organisational base.
   Abdul Latif Siddiqui, who will lead a team to four districts, told New Age their main responsibility would be to strengthen organizational activities. ‘We will mend the weaknesses and mobilise local leaders and activists aimed at the six-point demand.’

The BNP’s secretary-general, Khandakar Delwar Hossain, on Wednesday dissolved the Dhaka city unit of party for the sake of ‘gearing up organisational activities’.
   A press release signed by the party’s acting office secretary, Rizvi Ahmed, said, ‘The committee, which has served out its tenure, has become idle and ineffective. And some members of the committee, including its president and general secretary, have indulged in activities against the party’s interest and have breached discipline. In such a situation the party’s secretary-general, Khandakar Delwar Hossain, has dissolved the committee.’
   The committee, headed by Dhaka’s former mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka and Abdus Salam, became idle after the imposition of the state of emergency on January 11. Some of the members of the committee even joined the pro-government, so-called ‘reformist’, faction of the party.
   Khoka told New Age that he was not aware of such a decision when he was asked at 8:00pm on Wednesday.
   ‘Khandakar Delwar may dissolve the committee as its tenure has already expired. But we have to see whether the party’s chairperson has consented to the decision,’ said Khoka when asked to give his reaction to the sudden move.
   Delwar’s decision, however, was made after he met the party’s detained chairperson, Khaleda Zia, and had a one-to-one talk with her at the special judge’s court where she was brought for the hearing of the framing of charges in the GATCO scam case.

The hearing in the framing of charges in the GATCO graft case against former prime minister Khaleda Zia, her youngest son Arafat Rahman, eight of her cabinet colleagues and 14 others was on Wednesday deferred till June 10.
   Shahed Nooruddin, the judge of the special judge’s court 3 set up on the national assembly complex, passed the order after hearing the petitions filed by the defence counsels for the 17 accused detained in the case seeking time for the hearing, saying they were yet to get and examine the documents.
   The court also ordered the prosecution to provide the defence counsels immediately with the copies of the statements of the prosecution witnesses recorded by the investigation officer of the case.
   The court also ordered the defence counsels to examine the case documents. It also allowed the defence counsels to consult their clients about the case for half an hour after the proceedings on the day, although the defence counsels sought more time for consultations.
   Pleading for Khaleda, also the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, her counsel Abdur Rezaque Khan argued the Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge took cognisance of the case in violation of the law as neither the case records nor the accused persons were produced in court.
   Global Agro Trade Company directors Syed Galib Ahmed and Syed Tanvir Ahmed, two brothers, submitted separate petitions seeking retraction of the statements they had made in the case.
   In the petitions, they said they were arrested by the joint forces and tortured by them immediately after the arrest and also during the remand in custody in the name of interrogation. The joint forces also threatened them with killing in the ‘crossfire’ and the brothers were compelled to make the statements in line with the dictation of the joint forces, they alleged.
   The court, however, did not give any ruling on the issue, but kept the petitions on the record in accordance with the law.
   After the proceedings, the court also allowed Khaleda to address the court for five minutes regarding the case. Khaleda, however, made a 17-minute deliberation on the ongoing political situations.
   Khaleda was produced in court at about 11:00am from the special jail set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, where she has been detained since her arrest on September 3, 2007.
   Her son Arafat had been produced in court from the prison cell at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University a few minutes before she was taken there. He entered the courtroom in a wheel chair.
   Former agriculture minister MK Anwar, former information minister M Shamsul Islam, former LGRD and cooperatives minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, also expelled the expelled BNP secretary general, former industries minister Matiur Rahman Nizami, also the Jamaat-e-Islami amir, former health minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain and nine other accused were in the dock along with Khaleda.
   Former finance minister M Saifur Rahman and former state minister for commerce Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, who are also accused in the case, are abroad.
   The investigation officer, Mohammad Zahirul Huda, also a deputy director of the Anti-Corruption Commission, on May 13 pressed charges against the 24.
   Charges were pressed against the 24 for the award of a contract to the Global Agro Trade Company to handle containers at the Inland Container Depot in Dhaka and at Chittagong port allegedly in exchange for bribe causing a loss of more than Tk 14.56 crore to the state exchequer.
   All of the accused former ministers were members on the cabinet committee on purchase that had approved the proposal for the award of the contract to GATCO. All but Amir Khasru gave their deposition in the case before an investigation team.
   Charges were also pressed against former shipping secretary Zulfikar Haider Chowdhury, former Chittagong Port Authority engineer AKM Rashid Uddin Ahmed, and GATCO director Shahjahan M Hasib.
   The eight ministers and Zulfikar Haider Chowdhury, AKM Rashid Uddin Ahmed, M Hasib were not named in the first information report lodged by the commission’s deputy director Golam Shahriar Chowdhury with the Tejgaon police on September 2, 2007 against 13 persons amid a crackdown in the interim period on former ruling politicians.
   The commission pressed charges against former Chittagong Port Authority chairmen Zulfiquar Ali and AMM Shahadat Hossain, former CPA director (transport) MA Sanwar Hossain, its chief accounts officer Ahmed Abul Kashem, former CPA member Lutful Kabir, GATCO directors Syed Galib Ahmed, Syed Tanvir Ahmed and AKM Musa Kajal, former shipping minister Akbar Hossain’s wife Jahanara Akbar and his son Ismail Hossain, and Ismail’s friend Ehsan Yusuf. All of them were named in the first information report.
   The late shipping minister Akbar Hossain’s son Ismail Hossain Simon and Arafat Rahman took Tk 2,19,99,736 in bribe from GATCO for the award of the contact, according to the charge sheet.
   Saifur, also the acting chairperson of the government-backed splinter group of the BNP, on May 7, a day before his departure for Singapore on Wednesday night for treatment, made a U-turn and conceded that his leadership had become ineffective as most of the available standing committee members officially invalidated the meeting which made him the party chief.
   The commission on September 18, 2007 placed the case under the Emergency Powers Rules 2007, terming it a serious case of public interest.
   The GATCO case is the second corruption case in which Khaleda is now facing hearing in the framing of charges.

Wildlife and nature conservation and management department director Tapan Kanti Dey, wanted in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission, surrendered in a Chittagong court on Wednesday.
   The metropolitan sessions judge, ANM Bashirullah, sent the official, who had been in hiding since the declaration of the state of emergency, to jail rejecting his bail prayer after his surrender at around 11:00am.
   The joint forces seized
   Tk 13 lakh in cash from his office room at Sholashahar on May 13, 2007 and the authorities suspended him the next day.
   The commission filed the case against the official in December 2007 as he did not submit his wealth statement even after being notified and the investigation officer filed the charge sheet in the case on May 27.

US special envoy to OIC Sada Cumber said on Wednesday the United States was planning to provide resources for Organisation of Islamic Conference especially for some recognised institutions and universities of the member states.
   Cumber, who had a meeting with foreign secretary Touhid Hossain at his office, told reporters that he made a proposal to the OIC and Bangladesh to sign a memorandum of understanding for extending support in three areas like science and technology, education and healthcare.
   ‘The US also wants to install digital laboratories in 10 least developed countries of the OIC to help students and learners.’ This support was to enhance the economic development of the designated countries where better societies and good opportunities could be created, Cumber said.
   ‘President Bush and the US are committed to bringing peace and stability in South Asia and the Middle Eastern region.’
   He said the US had deep respect for Islam. ‘It’s not a question of clash of civilisation but it is out of ignorance for misperception about great religion Islam.’
   Earlier the special envoy visited Islamic University of Technology and exchanged views with its vice-chancellor and faculty members.

Pakistan’s president Pervez Musharraf, threatened by possible impeachment, is reconciled to stepping down before he is hounded out of office, according to a senior adviser to the new government.
   US ally Musharraf, who came to power as a general after a coup in 1999, has probably got a matter of weeks, at most a few months, before the curtain falls, political insiders say.
   ‘He is prepared to go and go with dignity,’ said the source close to the leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party, which heads the 2-month-old coalition government.
   ‘We will try to make it very dignified,’ the PPP source said, adding it was politically difficult to be seen helping the disliked president as such a stance risked losing popular support.
   Although Musharraf has been a staunch ally in the US-led ‘war on terror’ and launched a peace initiative with India, his exit is unlikely to disturb either so long as Pakistan stabilises.
   The United States has good communications with Musharraf’s successor as army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, and the PPP-led government is following through on the peace process.
   Foreign allies, including both the United States and Saudi Arabia, are pressing for a transition to civilian-led democracy which avoids further upheaval in nuclear-armed Pakistan.
   The army has ruled Pakistan for more than half the country’s history since it was carved out of British-ruled India in 1947.
   In the post-Musharraf era Pakistan faces challenges beyond the constant threat from Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
   The new government is grappling with a deteriorating macro-economic situation, and the stock market and rupee have fallen sharply in recent weeks.
   PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari, the widower and political successor of the late Benazir Bhutto, has proposed a constitutional package that would strip Musharraf of power, but possibly afford him legal protection from foes who want to see him humiliated.
   The PPP hopes to buy time to settle terms for the president’s departure and steal the thunder from coalition partner Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf overthrew. Sharif wants his usurper impeached or tried for treason.
   Officials say Musharraf wants indemnity for his actions on November 3, when he suspended the constitution and imposed emergency rule to purge the judiciary before it could rule illegal his re-election the previous month while still army chief.
   Some segments of the media have intensified calls for Musharraf to resign, and a lawyers movement that sprang up last year in defence of the judiciary plans a mass protest on June 10, the same day the government is due to present its budget.
   Independent analyst Nasim Zehra saw few options left for Musharraf.
   ‘I think he has no cards left,’ she said. ‘General Musharraf may be compelled to think of resigning sooner rather than later.’
   A general election on February 18 swept away Musharraf’s parliamentary support and resulted in an uneasy alliance between Zardari and Sharif.
   To add to Musharraf’s sense of isolation, retired generals, including some who served under him, have publicly criticised him and called for him to go.
   Under Kayani the army has adopted a more constitutional role, though it won’t want its former chief humiliated.
   The United States has told the new government it wouldn’t want to see Musharraf dragged through the courts, as he has been a staunch ally and survived several al-Qaeda-inspired assassination attempts.
   Beyond that, Washington has given assurances it will not play any role in Pakistan’s internal affairs, the adviser to the PPP leadership said.
   Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has asked Sharif to let Musharraf leave peacefully without pressing too hard for him to be put on trial, according to Pakistani officials.
   Before leaving for London on Tuesday, Sharif again called for Musharraf to be put on trial for treason or impeached.

The number of students taking up science subjects in the secondary school and higher secondary courses has been decreasing for about two decades, according to statistics available with the education ministry.
   The statistics also show that the number of business management students has been increasing for years.
   In the higher secondary certificate exams of 1990, the percentage of science examinees was 28.13, but in HSC exams in 2008, the figure decreased to 19.41.
   The percentage of business studies examinees, in contrast, showed a significant increase during the period. In the HSC exams of 1990, the percentage of business studies examinees was 19.41; the figure stands at 31.79 in 2008.
   In the HSC exams of 1990, the percentage of humanities examinees was 52.06 and it has decreased to 48.79 this year, according to the statistics.
   A total of 2,94,391 examinees took the HSC exams in 1990 under the seven general education boards and the figure is 502,796 in this year’s exams that has begun on May 29.
   As the number of students in the science stream decreases, the ministry in May 2007 decided not to supply non-government schools and colleges with scientific equipment from the ministry funds.
   The interim government has decided not to buy scientific equipment worth an estimated Tk 9 crore a year, as has been done in the past.
   The Bangladesh Non-Government College Principals’ Council president, Mazharul Hannan, criticized the decision. ‘It is nothing but the government’s indifference towards education.’
   ‘Some schools and colleges in rural areas have no scientific equipment,’ he said.
   A professor of computer science and engineering at Shahjahal University of Science and Technology, Muhammad Zafar Iqbal on Wednesday told New Age, ‘It is a dangerous sign that as a nation we are walking backwards while other nations are fast developing with science-based basic education.’
   ‘The existing HSC syllabus for science courses is too complicated and it includes many unnecessary topics. Such syllabuses prompt students to commit to memory physics and chemistry topics and not to understand them to develop analytical faculty,’ he said. ‘Practical exams in science subjects carry 25 per cent marks, but there are no colleges in Bangladesh where students have access to sufficient laboratory facilities.’
   ‘The government needs to take steps the way it has taken rehabilitation programmes after the cyclone Sidr or any natural disasters to address the situation. The government will need to understand that this is a problem.’
   As in the case of higher secondary exams, the percentage of science examinees in secondary school certificate exams of 1990 was 42.21; and the figure declined to 23.76 in 2008 exams held between March and April. The percentage of humanities examinees was 57.19 in 1990; and the figure has declined to 44.09 this year.
   In the existing system, a student needs choose from science, humanities and business studies courses in Class IX. And students take SSC exams after two years of studies in the courses.
   There had been only two streams — science and humanities — in SSC exams till 1997. The percentage of business studies examinees is 32.14 this year, and it was only 7.30 in the SSC exams of 1998 when the stream was introduced.
   Of about 14,500 secondary schools under the seven general education boards, 7,047 schools offer no business studies courses, 228 no humanities courses and 1,512 no science courses.
   ‘Students in rural areas are afraid of taking science subjects as there is a shortage of teachers for science subjects and they need to take private tuition. These are the major reasons for the decline in the number of science students,’ Zafar Iqbal said.
   He suggested assuring jobs opportunities for science students and recruitment of teachers in schools and colleges. Besides the government will need to take steps so that science students should not think that science subjects are difficult.
   ‘If the situation continues, science subjects will have a few students in near future,’ the education secretary, M Momtajul Islam, said.

Another victim of Sunday night’s twin explosions at a city hotel died in hospital on Wednesday.
   The deceased was identified as Meer Hossain Miron, 25, son of Mohammad Abul Hossain, of Simbaoya under Chatkhil upazila in Noakhali and also an employee of Hotel Orchard Plaza in Naya Paltan area.
   Miron, who sustained critical burn injuries in the second explosion in room 702 of the 12-storey hotel, was admitted to Burn and Surgery Unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital late Sunday night where he died at around 10:30am on Wednesday. His body was sent to the hospital morgue for autopsy.
   Earlier Mohammad Ali Azam, 40, a housekeeping supervisor of the hotel, died from his wounds at City Hospital in Mohammadpur.
   At least 50 people, including two Sri Lankan citizens, several law enforcers, journalists and pedestrians, were injured in the two explosions.
   The condition of critically injured Sri Lankan citizen AR Samantilak, 43, a boarder of room number 602 where the first explosion occurred, remained unchanged. He was undergoing treatment at City Hospital.
   Hospital sources said he was kept on life support till Wednesday night.
   Two other seriously injured — hotel employee Jafar Iqbal Moin, 30 and a private university student Hasan Ahmed Chowdhury, 27 — were also in critical at Burn and Surgery Unit, DMCH sources said.

The Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company’s seven-year programme to revitalise the company is set to get a boost as the Japan Bank of International Cooperation is likely to provide Tk 340 crore for four gas projects.
   Officials of Petrobangla said that the JBIC, which was likely to arrange the funds for the projects in the next three to four years from the Japan Debt Cancellation Fund, has already pledged to provide Tk 72 crore in the next fiscal year.
   The projects include procurement of seismic survey equipments, purchase of a work-over rig and drilling equipments and installation of a 60-kilometre gas transmission line from Semutang gas-field to the Bakhrabad gas distribution system.
   Bapex and Petrobangla officials disclosed the information at a meeting with the special assistant to the chief adviser, M Tamim, at Petrobangla’s office on Tuesday.
   The state-run gas exploration company recently formulated a seven-year programme — to make the company a self-sufficient and independent concern — that will need Tk 3,200 crore to be implemented. The Bapex sought Tk 2,000 crore for its programme from the government in phases over a period of seven years.
   The government had earlier assured Bapex that around Tk 600 crore might be available for projects like drilling exploration wells at Kapasia, Srikail and Sundalpur structures and developing the Semutang and Shahbazpur gas-fields, he added.
   Bapex will be able to invest Tk 600 crore in the sixth or seventh year of the programme when it stands on its own feet, according to the programme.
   The government in April approved the programme in principle and asked Bapex to work with the concerned ministries to find out how much fund could be given to Bapex for implementing the programme.
   ‘If Bapex gets the JBIC’s fund, it will help the government to provide the company Tk 2,000 crore in phases,’ said a Petrobangla official.
   The government also agreed in principle that the price of Bapex’s gas should also be increased to Tk 25-Tk 50 per 1,000 cubic feet in phases from the existing Tk 7.

The US government is set to announce Tuesday tighter visa restrictions for short-term travellers from Japan and Western Europe, a department of homeland security official said.
   DHS secretary Michael Chertoff is to unveil the change at 11:00am (1500 GMT), which applies to nationals of the 27 countries currently listed under the visa waiver programme, a DHS official said.
   The new rules, to take effect in January, will require three days’ advance registration and aim to make it more difficult for potential terrorists to enter the United States from places such as France, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Singapore, New Zealand, Japan and Australia.
   The government will ask for the same information that travellers currently fill out on the I-94 card which is handed out on the plane and turned in to customs on arrival in the United States, the official said.
   That includes such information as passport number,
   country of residence, disclo-sure of communicable diseases or involvement in terror activities.
   The Wall Street Journal quoted a separate homeland security official as saying: ‘We’re not asking for new information. We’re just getting it earlier.’
   Travelers may register with the US government beginning in August, and the information will remain valid for two years so that it is not necessary to repeat the same process in that time period.
   The visa waiver programme was created in 1986 ‘with the objective of eliminating unnecessary barriers to travel, stimulating the tourism industry,’ and allowing the government to ‘focus consular resources in other areas,’ according to the state department web site.
   Critics of the rule have raised concerns about the possibility of reduced tourism and difficulties with last-minute business travel.

A suicide bomb rocked Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 15 people, while US troops suffered their biggest single loss in a month, bringing to an end a relative lull in violence, officials said.
   A powerful truck bomb in the capital targeted the home of a senior police officer coordinating security operations with the military in the capital of six million people, the police said.
   Fifteen people were killed, including the officer’s nephew. At least 65 more were wounded, with three of them being relatives of the intended target. The victims were rushed to two hospitals in central Baghdad.
   The police said the officer, whose name was not given, was not at home when the bomber struck.
   Eight other homes in the Al-Shab neighbourhood were also destroyed by the powerful attack.
   They said the huge attack came as another bombing of police in Salaheddin province, north of Baghdad, killed four policemen, including an officer.
   Earlier in the day, three American soldiers were killed by small arms fire in the mainly Sunni Arab town of Hawijah, near the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk, the US military said.
   The US deaths on Wednesday raised to 4,090 the number of American troops killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, according to an AFP tally based on the independent web site.
   Wednesday’s attack produced the highest single loss for American troops since four marines died in a mine attack in the former Sunni rebel bastion of Anbar province on May 4.
   Meanwhile, the US military said its troops together with local police found a water-filled mass grave in an eastern neighbourhood of Baghdad on Tuesday. Local officials said there were 55 bodies at the site.
   ‘Based on the varying states of decay, it appears that the remains are approximately two years old,’ a statement said. The Iraqi police officials are investigating the incident.
   ‘Our hearts go out to the families and friends of the Iraqi citizens found in this despicable grave,’ a spokeswoman said.
   The local police officer Lieutenant Hazem al-Rubaye said they found 55 bodies in the mass grave and eight of them were of women.
   In the central holy city of Karbala, the police reported the arrest of five men wanted in connection with the murders of 721 people over an 18-month period.

Nepal’s deposed king is to move from his main palace in the heart of the capital into a former royal hunting lodge on the edge of Kathmandu, a minister said Wednesday.
   Ousted monarch Gyanendra officially lost his crown last week when a Maoist-dominated constitutional assembly made Nepal a republic after an overwhelming vote in favour of ending the 240-year-old monarchy.
   The assembly also issued a 15-day deadline for Gyanendra to vacate the sprawling Narayanhiti palace, now slated to be turned into a national museum.
   ‘The cabinet meeting on Wednesday decided to provide Nagarjun palace to the ex-king Gyanendra for accommodation for the time being,’ Nepal’s peace minister, Ram Chandra Poudel, said.
   Nagarjun palace is one of seven royal properties nationalised last year. It is situated in an army-protected forest reserve eight kilometres north of the centre of Kathmandu.
   The move is a temporary measure until the king can make other arrangements, Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said.
   ‘He won’t be able to stay there for a life-long period. He will have to find another place for himself eventually,’ he said.
   The government is currently auditing property inside the king’s main palace which contains national treasures including a crown studded with diamonds and ringed with huge emeralds.
   A security review is also under way and the government has agreed to provide the ousted king with police protection. It chose not to use the army to guard the ex-king as it is seen as an institution dominated by pro-royals.
   ‘He won’t be getting any military security. We will arrange security from the police if he requests it,’ the Maoist spokesman said.
   Later on Wednesday, around 100 student activists rallied in central Kathmandu, shouting anti-government slogans and demanding that the government refuse to allow the king to use the palace.
   ‘The decision is against the people’s mandate. The former king should not be given any palace,’ said Ijan Baral, a student linked with the youth wing of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist).
   ‘There’s no point giving the ex-monarch a nationalised property for accommodation. It raises suspicions the government is trying to give some kind of space to the former king,’ Baral said.
   The ex-king told the government earlier this week that he respected the decision to end his reign, and local media reported he was consulting astrologers to determine the most auspicious day to move before the June 12 deadline.
   Gyanendra ascended the throne in June 2001 after a palace massacre in which his nephew, Crown Prince Dipendra, gunned down most of the royal family after being prevented from marrying the woman he loved.
   Already less popular than the slain king because of the antics of his playboy son Paras, Gyanendra’s decisions following his crowning sealed the fate of the world’s last Hindu monarchy.
   In 2005 he sacked the government and took direct control of the impoverished Himalayan nation, claiming the move was needed because politicians were inept and corrupt and had failed to tackle a bloody Maoist insurgency.
   The move pushed the mainstream parties and rebels into an alliance and together they organised the massive nationwide protests in April 2006 that forced the king to end his much criticised, autocratic rule.
   The parties and Maoists signed a peace deal in late 2006, and in April 2008 held elections to vote for a body to rewrite Nepal’s constitution.

Additional Attorney General Hasan Fayez Siddiqui on Wednesday submitted his resignation through the Attorney General.
   Siddiqui submitted his resignation letter addressed to the president with the Attorney General’s office at 11:00am.
   ‘I’m resigning from my office as of late I’ve been finding it increasingly difficult to discharge my duties as an Additional Attorney General,’ Siddiqui said in his letter of resignation.
   Abdul Quddus, administrative officer of the Attorney General’s office told reporters, ‘after conducting an Appellate Division case in the morning, Hasan Fayez Siddiqui tendered his resignation. A special messenger carried the letter to the law ministry.’
   Siddiqui was appointed an Additional Attorney General on December 24.
   Earlier on June 1, Deputy Attorney General Anwarul Azim Khair Manna resigned his office.

At least 15 workers were injured in a clash between two groups at the Shejads Sweater Factory at Telerchala of Kaliakair in Gazipur on Wednesday.
   The workers damaged the window panes and furniture of the factory, which prompted the authorities to announce closure of the factory.
   Local sources said the workers had for a few days been going out on demonstrations, including strike, demanding an increase in pay. The authorities, in consultation with a section of leaders, on Tuesday increased the pay less than what the workers had demanded.
   A section of workers joined work on Wednesday. But they heard a rumour that some workers from Dhaka reached the factory to attack the workers who joined work in the morning.
   A clash then took place between two groups of workers. The clash continued till noon. At least 15 workers of the both group were injured. The workers also damaged the window panes and furniture.

The Bangladesh Rifles on Tuesday seized a truckload of television equipment and dish antennas worth an estimated Tk 54,95,980 at the Benapole port for evasion of import duties.
   Sources in the customs and the Bangladesh Rifles said the Aropa Enterprise of Dhaka had imported 127 cartons of television and dish antenna equipment from India.
   The actual price of the goods was $78,514, but the document showed the price to be $5,000.

Lieutenant general Abu Taib Mohammad Zahirul Alam has been deputed to the foreign affairs ministry for appointment as ambassador.
   The establishment ministry issued a gazette notification to the effect on Wednesday.
   Wing commander Taunid Aziz Khan, general manager (security) of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines, has been withdrawn from Biman.
   The ministry by another order on the day suspended until November 22 the transfer order of Mahmudul Karim, economic minister (joint secretary) at Bangladesh’s permanent mission to the United Nations, to the establishment ministry as an officer on special duty. The OSD order was issued on February 11, 2008.
   Bazlur Rahman, deputy secretary of the textiles and jute ministry, has been transferred to the Energy Regulatory Commission as project director while Mir Mohammad Aslam Uddin, assistant press secretary to the president, has been transferred to the information ministry.
   Major Nurul Amin and Major Anisur Rahman have been deputed to the directorate of survey as assistant survey officers.

Three were killed and six injured in a road accident in Sirajganj early Wednesday.
   The deceased were the bus driver’s assistant Nayon, 32, Md Sukur Ali, 28, and Abdul Kuddus, 35.
   The police said the accident took place a s Dhaka-bound Keya Paribahan bus from Saidpur collided head-on with a Maymensingh-bound truck carrying fish on the Bogra-Nagarbari Highway at Bhuiyanganti of Raiganj at around 4:00am, killing two on the spot.

Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, out of jail on bail for a weapons conviction, is considering a move into politics in forthcoming general elections, a report said Wednesday.
   Dutt’s family has had a long association with politics and his father, Sunil, spent almost two decades in parliament as an MP for the Congress party and also served as a federal sports minister before his death in 2005.
   ‘My father has done social work all his life. Why shouldn’t I too do the same as a social servant? Why should I be deprived of an opportunity?’ Dutt told the Times of India newspaper.
   Sanjay’s sister Priya Dutt was elected as a Congress MP for her father’s constituency in northwest Mumbai, where India’s prolific film industry is based.
   ‘I am sure the party (Congress) will give both of us tickets from two different seats,’ Dutt was quoted as saying.
   Dutt, known for his roles as a tough guy, is one of Bollywood’s most popular and bankable stars – despite his criminal conviction.
   Last year the 48-year-old, a former heavy drug user, was found guilty of possessing illegal weapons that he bought from men accused of plotting serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993, which killed more than 250 people.
   He was sentenced to six years in jail, but is out on bail pending an appeal.
   Last week there were reports that some Mumbai residents had started a petition against Dutt standing for elections because of his conviction.
   But he dismissed any whiff of a scandal.
   ‘This theory has been started by people with vested interests. If I get a chance, I will do my best for the people of these areas,’ he told the paper.
   Convicted criminals are not barred from standing for office in India.
   A study by an Indian watchdog found that nearly a quarter of the 542 people elected to the federal parliament in 2004 had faced criminal charges, including murder and rape.