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Criminal activities like drug peddling, car lifting and use of illegal arms have increased in the capital, acknowledged Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Naim Ahmed on Saturday.
   ‘Incidents of drug peddling and car lifting, and use of illegal arms have marked a rise in September. The performance of law enforcers in terms of seizure of illegal arms and contraband drugs and recovery of stolen cars was also better than that of the previous month,’ he told journalists after the monthly crime review meeting at the Rajarbagh Police Lines.
   He, however, claimed that the city’s law and order situation was under control.
   According to the DMP statistics, 394 drug-related and 32 illegal arms-related cases were recorded in September against 363 and 30 in August respectively. The number of cases recorded in connection with car lifting in September was 69, up by 4 than that of August.
   ‘The police have proved their better performance seizing more firearms and drugs, recovering stolen cars and nabbing more criminals,’ the DMP
   chief said.
   The law enforcers seized five firearms, 16 others weapons and 20 rounds of bullet, 5,063 bottles and 523 litres of Phensidyl syrup, 37.61 kilograms of marijuana, 313 bottles of and 223 litres of liquor, 571 cans of beer, 148 pieces of Yaba tablets, 299 ampoules injections, and arrested 15 suspected criminals in
   connection with the recovery of arms and 217 suspected drugs peddlers.
   They also recovered four stolen microbuses, one truck, one bus, 11 cars, five taxicabs, nine CNG-run auto-rickshaws, 12 motorbikes and one mishuk, engine-run three wheelers, and arrested 39 people in these connections.
   According to DMP, 101 cases of snatching were recorded in September and 162 suspected muggers were detained.
   On some recent sensational crimes, he said they had already arrested the suspected killers of taxicab driver Abu Hossain at Kafrul, of Shohag Paribahan peon Parvez at Kalyanpur and of garment factory owner Abdus Salam Babu at Paltan.

The Anti-Corruption Commission chairman, Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, has said it is the government to decide whether the convicts in graft cases could participate in the upcoming general elections.
   ‘It’s the government that will decide whether they (convicts) can participate in the polls. But the decision has to be acceptable and as per the law,’ the ACC chairman told a news briefing replying to a volley of questions from reporters on Saturday.
   The big issue here is what effects it will have on the elections and how it would be dealt with by the Election Commission, he said.
   Mashhud, a former army chief, admitted that he was intentionally avoiding the issue during the briefing as legal aspects were involved in it.
   He was of the opinion that lower courts verdicts should stand until the final decisions on appeals were pronounced.
   Asked about ACC’s position if the convicts participate in the elections, Mashhud said, ‘If you want to know if there’ll be any feeling of burning in our body…Yes there’ll be a little bit. But, we’ll have nothing to do. We’ll have to accept it if the corrupts win the elections.’
   About the withdrawal of cases against individuals, including former prime ministers Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina as part of any possible amnesty, he said, ‘The question has not yet been raised and it’s irrelevant at the moment.’
   On wealth statements submitted by Khaleda and Hasina over a year ago, the ACC chairman said the commission was working on them and a decision would be taken very soon. He blamed legal wrangling for the delay in taking decisions in this regard.
   Replying to a question, he said in the future the anti-graft watchdog would take initiatives to sit with political parties and business leaders to engage everyone in the anti-corruption campaign.
   Asked about ACC’s relationship with the future political government, the former adviser to the caretaker government said initiatives would be taken to engage the next government as no organisation, not even the ACC, could function sidestepping it (government ).
   Sought comments on how the commission would work with the politicians sued by it for grafts, he said, ‘If we see that actions will have to be taken against certain individuals, we’ll show the government the evidences. I can hear that the fight against corruption will continue.’
   After the vacation of the Supreme Court, the ACC chairman said, the commission would start the fight against the graft cases that have been stayed. ‘We would like to take forward the legal battles ahead flawlessly. Preparations have already been taken and coordination has been ensured.’
   He said the ACC would continue public relations so that the issue of anti-corruption did not go behind the scene in the run-up to the elections, which would be dominated in public domain and media. Mashhud said he would start visiting Barisal region today to have meetings at district and upazila levels.
   He said as part of the campaign to root out institutional corruption, the ACC would start holding meetings with senior officials of different ministries this month. Initially, they will have meetings with Local Government Division, land ministry, health ministry and communications ministry.
   Regarding the annual report submitted to the president, the ACC chairman said different aspects like problems, impediments to fighting corruption, legal processes, past activities and future planning have been highlighted in the report.
   On the Truth and Accountability Commission, he said it would have to be evaluated if the clemency seekers were speaking the truth. ‘As per the law, those who will not speak the truth will have to face punishment.’

Speakers at a discussion on Saturday termed the proposed multi donor trust fund for Bangladesh to finance long-term climate change mitigation and adaptation an evil strategy.
   They also opposed the World Bank’s involvement in the climate change fund management.
   They were speaking at a discussion styled ‘Climate Change Fund Management and the World Bank’ organised by the Equity and Justice Group at the national press club.
   ‘Formation of such a special fund for Bangladesh to adapt to the climate change will push the country out of the movement for the reduction of carbon emission and securing compensation from the developed countries which are the major polluters,’ Md Shamsuddoha, secretary general of Equity and Justice Group, told the discussion in his keynote speech.
   He said all climate funding should be through the existing government and non-government channels, adding that there should not be any separate body like the World Bank for channelling the fund and overseeing the management of the fund.
   He said any aid in this regard should be given directly to the government and for that there was no need to form a separate trust fund. The aid should be given as compensation, he added.
   The only principle of the fund should be ‘polluter pay and exploiter pay principle’, that is the developed countries which are responsible for climate change should pay compensations to the sufferer countries, he said.
   Rejecting the ‘Climate Change Strategy and Action for Bangladesh’ of the government, Oxfam GB director, Ziaul Haque said the strategy paper was prepared according to the advice of the WB local representatives.
   ‘The strategy paper is a collection of proposals. It cannot be treated as an effective strategy to face climatic change as the government did not consult any concerned individuals before preparing the paper,’ he said.
   Haque said the government had received nothing positive from the UK Bangladesh Conference on climate change as it reached a consensus that the polluter countries would reduce only 50 per cent of their total carbon emission by 2050, which is considered by the scientists insignificant.
   He urged the government not to refer to this term in the next UN convention on climate change.
   Equity and Justice Group adviser, Tofael Ahmed said, ‘The country should think of the climate change issue seriously as it is at the forefront of the countries affected by climate changes. It is a question of existence of the country.’
   ‘We should bargain for reduction of the carbon emission by the developed countries instead of looking for compensations,’ he observed.
   The speakers also urged the government to keep in mind the condition of migrated people while formulating the planning as 2.20 crore people of the country will be environmental migrants by 2050 for climatic disaster.

Lions Clubs International, Bangladesh, has begun to observe the month of October as a month of service providing health aids to the people including the blind and visually impaired, said the Bangladesh chapter of Lions Clubs International on Saturday.
   Although they had activities round the year, October would be observed as a month for service, said Nishat Parveen Huq, district governor of the Lions Clubs International, Dhaka, at a press conference at the National Press Club.
   The services of the month will include vision testing programmes at different schools, vision screening for the disabled, organising the 21st Lions International peace poster contest, distribution of white sticks among the blind, handover of bed-sheets and wheelchairs to the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed, Savar, holding health boards in the city’s parks for providing healthcare information, symposiums on health issues, and providing scholarships to the poor students.
   They will also run some awareness programmes on drugs and disabilities in children and adolescents.
   Nishat said the first international convention of Lions Clubs was held in Dallas of the USA on October 8, 1917. Since then the month of October has been recognised as the World Lions Service Month.
   Lions in Bangladesh have been putting efforts to eradicate preventable blindness by holding eye camps, she said adding, ‘We urge all to join hands with us to expand our service-oriented activities.’
   Apart from holding these programmes, the club will bring out processions in Sylhet and Dhaka on October 17 and 24 respectively. The closing session of the service month will be held on October 30, which will include an award giving ceremony, the organisers said.
   Among others, lion Gazi Abul Kalam, and former district governor for Dhaka, Md. Mazibul Huq Chunnu were present at the conference.

Classes at Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College resumes today. The institution remained closed for 50 days over the killing of a plumber on the campus. The college hostels were reopened on Saturday.
   The academic council of the college on October 6 decided to reopen the institution in police protection, the principal, Zahid Hossain, said on Saturday.
   As decided, lawmen have been deployed on the campus on Saturday and in the three hostels for male students and two for female students.
   The college was closed for an indefinite period on 25 after the students and the local residents clashed over the killing of a plumber named Murad Hossain on the campus on August 24.
   The authorities formed an investigation committee, which is yet to submit the report.
   Murad’s father Kamal Mistri lodged a murder case with the police against five students of the college. No one has so far been arrested in this connection.
   Assistant commissioner of the Barisal Metropolitan Police Hayatul Islam said the college authorities had assured of all necessary help for the punishment of the killers in legal process.
   Subinspector Shishir Kumar Pal, the investigation officer of the case, said investigation was going on.

The police filed a case against 3,000 to 4,000 unnamed villagers of Dhandia union at Patkelghata in Satkhira Friday night in connection with vandalism and looting of and setting fire to the houses of two local BNP leaders.
   The police arrested 12 villagers of the union the same night for their alleged involvement in the incidents and produced them in the Satkhira court on Saturday, according to the Patkelghata police.
   Male members of most families of the villages — Dhandia, Senergati, Phulbari, Panchpara, Gorerdanga and Manikhar — of the union went into hiding to avoid police harassment, said the local people.
   The arrested sent to court are Shamsuddin Gazi, 40, Aksad, 25, Abul Hasan, 36, Kamrul, 25, Akkas Sardar, 20 and Lutfor Rahman, 55 of Senergati, Golam Rasul, 20, Amir Gazi, 55 and Sher Ali Mollah, 30 of Panchpara and Chanchal Sardar, 27 and Paritosh Rishi, 32 of Manikhar, the police said.
   The police said about 3,000 to 4,000 villagers vandalized, looted and set fire to the houses of BNP leaders Ruhul Quddus and Abdul Maleq Lalu in the wake of Wednesday’s killing of the Dhandia union council chairman, Arifuzzaman Chancal, also a BNP leader, by robbers. Arifuzzaman’s house was also looted.
   Patkelghata police subinspector Ziaur Rahman lodged the case against the villagers, the police said.
   The police said they had launched a drive to arrest the attackers and to recover the looted goods, arrested 12 at three villages and recovered six cattle and looted rice.
   Ziaur Rahman said the situation in the villages was ‘absolutely normal and under control.’

Human rights organisation Odhikar held an exchange of views on human rights movements in Dhaka on Saturday to mark its 14th anniversary on Friday.
   The Odhikar chairman, CR Abrar, chaired the 11th annual general meeting of the organisation the same day. Odhikar’s secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and treasurer Tasnim Siddiqi also spoke on the occasion, said a release on Saturday.
   The non-governmental organisation has been closely monitoring human rights situation in Bangladesh under the state of emergency since January 11, 2007. It promotes civic and political rights in association with regional and international organisations.
   Odhikar, according to the release, investigates extrajudicial killings by law enforcement agencies and publishes reports on the incidents. It also provides training in human rights issues.

Eva Luise Kohler, wife of German president Horst Kohler and patroness of German National Committee for UNICEF, arrives in Dhaka tomorrow on a five-day visit to Bangladesh to see the situation of children, women and families.
   She will be accompanied by Dr Juergen Heraeus, the chair of UNICEF Germany.
   Ms Kohler will be visiting UNICEF projects in Narsingdi and Brahmanbaria and slums in Dhaka. Outside Dhaka, her visit will be mostly to see water, sanitation and hygiene projects and education for urban working children project.
   In August 2004, Ms Kohler assumed the patronage of UNICEF Germany. Traditionally, the wife of the German president inherits this honorary office.

The director general of Ansar and Village Defence Party, Major General Abdul Hafiz,
   has been attached to the foreign ministry for appointment as a diplomat on deputation while Major General ATM
   Amin has been deputed to the Ansar and VDP as director general.
   The establishment ministry on Saturday issued two gazette notifications to these effects.
   Earlier on Wednesday, Amin was promoted to the rank of major general.
   Besides, Brigadier General Abu Belal Mohammad Safiul Haque has been appointed as the director general of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, according to another official order issued Saturday.

Weather may remain mainly dry with partly cloudy sky over the country during the 24 hours period till 6:00pm today.
   The day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country, the Met Office said.
   The country’s highest temperature on Saturday, 34.3 degrees Celsius, was recorded in Cox’s Bazar and the lowest, 22.2 degrees Celsius, at Srimangal.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 5:34pm and rises tomorrow at 5:55am.