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The Anti-Corruption Commission will start probe into the allegations of corruption, irregularities and abuse of power against the officials working in Bangladesh missions abroad.
   The ACC director general (admin) Col Hanif Iqbal made the disclosure at the regular briefing of the anti-crime watchdog on Thursday.
   Initially, the commission will conduct inquiries into allegations of corruption, misuse of government money and abuse of power against officials at the Bangladesh embassy in Abu Dhabi, including the ambassador, he said.
   ‘In the primary inquiries, documentary and verbal evidence of irregularities, misuse and abuse of power were found against officials of Bangladesh embassy in Abu Dhabi.’
   The commission has decided to initiate inquiries into the allegations against the officials of missions abroad as per the rules,’ Hanif said.
   Replying to a question, he said the primary inquiries have been carried out in Bangladeshi embassy in Abu Dhabi, based on a specific allegation. In future, if the commission thinks it is necessary to investigate corruption at other missions abroad and elsewhere, it would be done, he added.
   Explaining why primary inquiry was conducted in the particular embassy, Hanif said that out of about 60,000 complaints from commoners pending with the commission, about 17,000 complaints have been scrutinised in last 53 working days and 40 of them deserve primary inquiry.
   The complaints are against the people from all professions including at Bangladesh missions abroad, he said.
   He added that based on a specific complaint, the ACC deputy director, Abdullah Al Zahid, conducted primary inquiries from February 13-20 at the embassy in Abu Dhabi.
   There are allegations of financial irregularities and abuse of power against officials of that particular embassy ranging from highest official to officials at different levels, the ACC director general said.
   ‘The inquiries will be carried out into alleged irregularities during the current and previous fiscal years.’
   Asked to name the officials facing the allegations, he said it would not be proper to disclose the names before the completion of inquiry.
   About the next steps, Hanif said if anything is found against whom allegations were made, actions will be taken as per law and rules of the Commission.
   About the funding of such primary inquiries, he said the funding comes from the commission’s budget.
   The foreign affairs ministry has been informed of these developments, he told a questioner.
   On a question about submitting wealth statements by government employees, he said the government had set February 28 as the deadline to submit their wealth statements. ‘The ACC hopes the government will take measures against those who did not comply with the directives.’
   Hanif also said the Commission might take a decision to remind the government to get the wealth statements of the government employees.

The Communist Party of Bangladesh and the Bikalpadhara Bangladesh on Thursday urged the caretaker government to initiate dialogues immediately with the political parties to overcome the present crisis.
   After a meeting at the Communist Party central office, leaders of the two parties said that they had reached agreements on some issues after reviewing the present situation.
   After the meeting that lasted for two hours and a half, CPB president Manzurul Ahsan Khan and Bikapadhara chief AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury briefed reporters.
   ‘The government should initiate dialogues with the political parties immediately to resolve the crisis’, Monzurul Ahsan Khan said.
   ‘The ongoing drives against corruption must continue to rid the society of the vice’, B Chowdhury said.
   ‘We will continue dialogues with progressive and democratic political parties to reduce differences among the parties on various issues,’ the CPB president said.
   The two leaders expressed their dismay at the government’s failure to contain the runaway prices of essential commodities.
   CPB general secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim, Bikalpadhara secretary general Abdul Mannan and other leaders of the two parties attended the meeting.

Several hundred jewellers of Tantibazar, Shankharibazar, Kotwali Road and Islampur areas in old part of the Dhaka city went on a wildcat shutdown Thursday protesting against the arrest of eight gold merchants and seizure of 660 tolas of ornaments.
   The Rapid Action Battalion arrested Dulal Ghosh, Harunur Rashid, Nazrul Islam, Narayan Ghosh, Alok Das, Suranjit Sur, Sukumar Nandi and Sagar Ghosh. A team of RAB also raided five gold shops — KC Bullion Store, Harun Bullion, Ma Gold House, Ajay Bullion Store and Tanmay Bullion Store— in Tantibazar and seized 660 tolas of gold ornaments Wednesday night.
   RAB-10 officer Humayun Kabir, who led the raid, said they had seized the ornaments as the sellers failed to produce any invoices as a proof of valid purchase.
   The official suspected that the arrested traders had links with illegal gold business. The shops had been engaged in buying stolen gold ornaments and reselling them after moulding and remodelling, he claimed.
   In an instant protest, jewellers in the city lowered their shutters in a wildcat strike demanding immediate release of their fellow businessmen.
   More than 1200 jewellery shops located at Tantibazar, Shakharibazar, Kotwali Road, Islampur and adjacent areas remained closed since the raid.
   Several hundreds gold merchants and shop employees went out on demonstrations and chanted slogans demanding proper investigation of the incident and exemplary punishment of those responsible for the harassment.
   Jewellers claimed that the traditional gold trade continued generation after generation without any purchase documents and there was no such official rule making purchase documents or invoices mandatory for raw materials.
   President of the Bangladesh Jeweler’s Samity, MA Wadud Khan, told New Age, ‘We don’t believe that any gold merchant can be engaged in unethical trade. We must take punitive actions against our members if the law enforcers provide any proof in support of the allegations.’
   ‘We will continue our strike until the government takes initiative to resolve the matter as it is a question of our image,’ Wadud added.
   The drive followed the recovery of some ornaments, believed to be stolen from BRAC Bank’s Dhanmondi branch on January 5, from a gold shop at the city’s Rajdhani Super Market. Masuk, a key suspect arrested from Keraniganj a couple of days back, divulged the names of some gold jewellers having links with burglars, Detective Branch police told the media.
   The Detective Branch police, however, said they were dealing with the BRAC Bank gold heist separately. ‘The DB is investigating the case from the beginning and we will submit the charge sheet as soon as possible,’ said the branch’s deputy commissioner (north zone), Mainul Hasan.

Academics at a commemoration meeting on Thursday paid rich tributes to the deceased editor of the Sangbad, Bazlur Rahman, and urged the younger generation to acquire and uphold his spirit and moral strength.
   Bazlur Rahman will live for long in the hearts of the people for his noble work and selflessness, said the speakers at the meeting organised by the Department of Mass Communications and Journalism of the Dhaka University.
   The DU’s vice-chancellor, Professor SMA Faiz, was the chief guest at the meeting at the RC Majumdar auditorium of Lecture Theatre of the university which was attended by journalists, professionals, media personalities and students. Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique of the journalism department chaired the commemoration meeting.
   Speaking on the occasion, the VC said, ‘We have lost an important person who was a towering personality and maintained high moral strength.’
   The nation is proud of such an idealistic person and we will remember him with great respect for his honesty, courage and objectivity in journalism, he added.
   Rahman was a freedom-fighter, journalist as well as a humanitarian who made a great contribution to his profession, said Professor Arefin.
   His death is an irreparable loss for the country, especially for the secular and progressive movements, Arefin added.
   The Sangbad’s executive editor, Manzurul Ahsan Bulbul, said that Bazlur Rahman was simultaneously a newsman, guardian, teacher and a leader in the field of journalism.
   ‘Though Rahman was soft-spoken he relentlessly worked for establishing the rights of the journalists,’ Manzurul added.
   Robaet Ferdous, an associate professor of the Department of Mass Communications and Journalism, said Bazlur Rahman was a peace-loving person. ‘We will remember him for his secularism and his dream of a democratic and a just society,’ Robaet added.
   The meeting was also attended by the Rahman’s wife, political leader and former minister Matia Chowdhury, and addressed by other teachers and students of the journalism department.

The Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies will form a specialised wing, styled Bangladesh Centre for Terrorism Research, on Sunday with the goal of reducing the threat of terrorism and minimising its impact on society.
   The BCTR will study the goals, tactics, resources
   and strategies of terrorists, analyse terrorist threats and risks and develop responses to it, said a press release on Thursday.
   It will also work for developing counter-ideological tools and finding ways of using
   them in various fields to tackle the rise of radicalism and terrorism in Bangladesh, the release added.
   The organisers said the prevailing threats and possibilities of the rise of terrorism and extremism in the country have compelled the BIPSS to establish this specialised centre on terrorism.
   The centre is a collaborative effort between specialised terrorism research centres in South-East Asia, Europe and the BIPSS.
   Headed by ANM Muniruzzaman, the BIPSS's mission is to create a dynamic hub of anti-terrorist activity that includes the communities of academics, researchers and policymakers; to bring together people from every relevant
   discipline as well as from different platforms who study
   regional and international peace and security issues; to produce a new generation of scholars, analysts, and policymakers that is fully aware of the complexities of international peace and security problems.

The Bangladesh Bank has instructed all the scheduled banks to follow uniform method for calculating lending and deposit rate gaps.
   The central bank in a circular explained the new formula to calculate weighted average interest rates on deposit and lending.
   The weighted average interest rate on advances will be calculated by dividing total advances by total loan interest earned, and weighted average interest rate on deposit would be determined by dividing total deposit by total interest paid, according to the central bank letter.
   The spread will be the gap between WAIRA and WAIRD, the letter added.
   The central bank earlier formed a committee to formulate a uniform spread calculation method for all the
   banks. The new method
   will come into effect from March.
   Following constant persuasion of Bangladesh Bank, the country’s private banks on March 3 came with their proposals to reduce the interest rate gap to 5 per cent and cap industrial lending at 14.75 per cent and working capital at 14.5 per cent, keeping deposit rates unchanged.
   The banks would comply with the proposals within three months.

The probe committee formed to find out the reason for the tragic launch accident on February 28 that claimed the lives of at least 49 people, submitted its report to the government on Thursday, blaming the masters of the launch and sand-carrying barge, a surveyor of the shipping department, faulty construction and overloading of the launch for the accident.
   As the launch was overloaded and was not constructed according to the original design, it was unstable, which is one of the main reasons why it sunk after being hit by a barge, said the report.
   The report which was sent to the secretary to the shipping ministry on Thursday also blamed two inspectors, two berthing sarengs (helmsmen) of the BIWTA and two surveyors of the shipping department for irregularities and gross negligence, said sources.
   The government on February 28 formed the five-member probe committee, headed by joint secretary to the shipping ministry Abdul Matin, to investigate the accident and find out the reason(s). The committee’s members were asked to submit the report by March 6.
   The report said Shourav-1, which sank on February 28 in the Buriganga near Hasnabad Ghat in Keraniganj, causing the death of 49 people (mostly women and children), had an approved capacity of carrying 67 passengers, but the owners illegally made seating arrangements for more then 120 passengers.
   The launch was also not constructed according to the approved design, which made it unstable, said the report. The committee blamed engineer surveyor Fakhrul Islam for giving survey certificate to the launch.
   Moreover, the Shourav-1 did not have the BIWTA’s route permit to ply the river, said the report.
   Both the master of the launch and sand-carrying barge had no certificates, said the report.
   The sand-carrying barge, MV Al Amin-1, also increased its length illegally after being registered, for which the committee blamed the surveyor of the shipping department, Shahriar, who gave it the survey certificate.
   The committee recommended formation of a police force under the BIWTA, like police force of the Bangladesh Railway, which will control the traffic on the rivers and prevent unstable and weakly constructed launches from plying any of the routes.
   The report also suggested forming a Permanent Prevention and Enquiry Cell which will find out the reason for any accident, make recommendations and also monitor their implementation.
   The report also suggested that the shipping department arrange training programmes for the masters and sarengs of launches and vessels to increase the level of their skill.
   The sand-carrying barges have no permission to ply the river routes at night but they do so with impunity. To further reduce the possibility of accidents, the report suggested that these barges be permitted to ply the river routes only for six hours between 8:00am and 2:00pm.

The Sylhet kotwali police arrested a vice-president of the sadar unit Bangladesh Nationalist Party early Thursday on charge of grabbing a piece of land of a mosque in the city.
   The police said Osman Miah, widely known as Razakar Osman, a resident of Akhalia in the city and vice-president of the sadar unit BNP, was arrested on allegations of grabbing pieces of land, government and privately owned, including a piece of land of the Akhalia Nababi Mosque and a large portion of the Road and Highway Department land worth about Tk 9 crore.
   The mosque secretary, Haji Sunu Miah, filed a case with the police on June 10, 2007 against Osman in this connection, the police said.
   Tipped off, a police team early Thursday raided a house at Neharipara in the city and arrested Osman Miah.
   The police produced Osman in a district judicial magistrate’s court and the court on Thursday sent him to jail.
   The police said Osman
   was shown arrested in connection with grabbing land and misappropriating the mosque fund.

Leaders of Udichi Shilpi Goshthi demanded re-investigation of the Udichi bomb blasts in 1999 in which 10 people were killed and over 200 people injured at the cultural function of the 12th annual national conference at Jessore Munshi Meherullah Maidan.
   This demand was made at a press conference in Udichi’s office on Thursday noon.
   On the night of March 7 two powerful bombs were blasted at the Maidan at around 1am.
   SM Quamruzzaman Chunnu, convener of Udichi Shilpi Goshthi in Jessore, read out the written statement in the presence of the member secretary of the organization.
   The press conference was arranged to observe the 9th anniversary of the bomb blast.
   Several programmes were chalked out to mark the day.

A Dhaka court on Wednesday dismissed a World Bank petition seeking revision of the court order in a case filed in 2001 by a terminated local official of the lender.
   This was the latest of a series of court rejection of petitions the global lender filed during the last seven years since former external affairs officer of World Bank’s Dhaka office Ismet Zerin Khan used the lender challenging her termination.
   The lending agency appealed to the High Court in 2001 claiming that it should enjoy immunity from any lawsuit in Bangladesh and secured a stay order on the case.
   On 9 August 2005, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court disposed an appeal filed by the Bank and ordered the trial court to hear the suit on all aspects of facts and law. The Appellate Division had also ordered the trial court to dispose of the case in six months.
   Additional district judge’s court on Wednesday dismissed the petition filed by the bank in 2007, seeking revision of the order of an assistant judge’s court that had rejected a petition of the bank which claimed that Ismet Zerin’s case challenging her termination was not maintainable due to ‘insufficient court fee.’
    Almost a dozen petitions of the World Bank have so far been rejected by courts in the last seven years and the Bank still continued to bring out frivolous issues to distract and delay the hearing of the main suit, Ismet Zerin Khan told New Age on Thursday.
   She had subsequently won a case in the World Bank’s own administrative tribunal in July 2003.

Thieves early Thursday broke into the residence of the chief judicial magistrate of Chapai-nawabganj, Basudev Roy, and stole a cooking pot made of brass.
   The house is close to the residences of the police superintendent and additional police superintendent in the town.
   The police said the thief broke into the kitchen on the first floor of the building and stole the pot.
   No case was filed in this connection till Thursday evening.

Some irrigated land in the environs of the Barapukuria coal-field in Dinajpur subsided by six to twelve inches in the last few days, apparently because of coal extraction from the underground mine.
   Although local farmers said that the total farm-land where subsidence took place between Monday and Wednesday would be around 15 acres, the mine authorities after visiting the area estimated that subsidence had occurred in only around two acres.
   The paddy fields are over phase number 1,103 of the underground mine, from where the Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd has been extracting coal for the last few months.
   ‘There is no reason to be panicked as land subsidence is common when underground mining takes place. The subsidence of land will continue with the continued extraction of coal. We are identifying the places where subsidence will take a serious turn,’ managing director of the BCMCL, Muhammad Aziz Khan, told New Age on Thursday.
   He said that the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (BAPEX) has been conducting a survey for the last six months to identify the vulnerable areas that will subside.
   When asked whether they had enough preparation to tackle subsidence as it had also taken place earlier, Aziz Khan replied, ‘Subsidence is inevitable in underground coal mining. Basically we took the steps to conduct the study after the previous subsidence that took place in 2006.’
   Aziz said that the study would find out which areas — whether paddy-fields or other farm-lands, barren lands or residential areas — were vulnerable. ‘After we get the study report, we will take steps. We may acquire the land or try to prevent subsidence or fill the area that has subsided, if possible. ’
   The mining company will extract coal from the mine for 30 years from an area spanning over 300 hectares. The thickness of the Barapukuria coal seam is around 36 metres. The total proven coal reserve is around 303 million tonnes.
   The miners slice the coal seam horizontally and the thickness of each slice is around three metres.
   According to the mining experts, theoretically for one-metre slice of coal seam, there will be subsidence of 50 to 70 per cent or 0.5 to 0.7 metres for each slice.
   ‘The subsidence rate, however, depends on the structure or type of land of the upper layer of the coal seam,’ said an expert.
   As around 20 to 30 per cent coal of Barapukuria can be extracted by underground mining, it is likely that the total thickness of the extracted coal will be around 9-10 metres, he said. ‘Theoretically, it is possible that there will be a subsidence of 5-6 metres in 30 years if 20 to 30 per cent coal of the mine is extracted. But in reality, no one knows at the moment whether the subsidence will be so severe,’ he said.