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The military-controlled interim government is now worried about the deterioration of the law and order situation ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr and Durga Puja, and also the general elections scheduled for December.
   The adviser to the home affairs ministry, MA Matin, while presiding over a meeting to review the law and order situation at his office on Monday, expressed concern over the downslide in law and order in recent days despite the state of emergency. He cited a number newspaper reports on the abrupt rise in the rate of crime, including mugging and extortion.
   The police, however, informed the meeting that they were alert against any untoward incidents in the country following the serial bombings in neighbouring India.
   ‘Law enforcement agencies have been asked to be tougher on the miscreants to maintain law and order from tomorrow,’ Matin told reporters after the meeting.
   He said the lawmen, if necessary, would apprehend and arrest those responsible for any deterioration of the law and order situation across the country.
   Numerous miscreants had come out from their hide-outs ahead of the religious festivals — Eid and Puja — and the elections, the adviser mentioned.
   Matin informed the meeting that incidents of extortion were on the rise ahead of Eid, especially in the transport sector, as the miscreants were hoping that the state of emergency would be relaxed further and they could resume their criminal activities, according to a meeting source.
   The home affairs ministry called the meeting following the increased incidence of mugging and killing in the capital. On Sunday, armed criminals robbed around Tk 51 lakh in the city and also shot an assistant manager of a company, while in separate incidents three people including a businessman were killed on Monday.
   ‘Some are even extorting money and giving receipts…We cannot let this situation continue,’ a source quoted the adviser as saying.
   The home adviser also expressed concern over the growing unrest in the readymade garments sector.
   A total of 4,000 policemen, 2,000 Rapid Action Battalion personnel and 14 female teams of the Detective Branch, along with 171 ‘orange teams’ of the police, have been deployed to maintain law and order in the capital throughout the month of Ramadan and also some period after the Eid.
   The secretaries to the home affairs, information and power ministries, senior officials of law enforcement agencies and leaders of the Hindu community, along with others, were present at the meeting.
   Leaders of the Hindu community said the number of puja mandaps would be more than 21,000 this year. They called on the government to ensure security at the puja venues.

Unidentified assailants shot a garments factory owner dead at Purana Paltan in Dhaka Monday morning.
   The deceased was Abdus Salam alias Babu, 45, son of Hazi Abdus Samad and also director of the Yolk Group at 64/A Purana Paltan.
   Quoting witnesses, the police said a gang of three assailants had intercepted Salam’s car just 100 yards off his Purana Paltan Lane office at around 7:30am when he reached there after dropping his son at school. The assailants opened shots at his face, chest and throat through the windshield of the car, which left him critically injured.
   Hearing the gunshot, the local people rushed to the spot and rescued Salam.
   He was first taken to the Islami Bank Hospital and later shifted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital where the on-duty doctors declared him dead.
   The police suspect that conflict over waste clothes (Jhut) business might be the reason behind the killing.
   The victim’s elder brother S M Sultan Alam told newsmen that his brother had managed to establish four garments factories in a couple of years by dint of hard work, which made many people jealous in the business arena.
   The Paltan police station officer-in-charge, Farid Uddin Ahmed, told New Age, ‘We are investigating the killing from all possible angles to trace the killers.’
   ‘We have picked up eight people for quizzing and hope that clue about the killing should be unearthed soon,’ Farid added. The process was underway to file a case in connection with the killing, the police said.

The Election Commission hopes to complete the dialogue with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party this week and announce specific dates for the upazila, Dhaka City Corporation and parliamentary elections.
   ‘We will not announce the schedule and other electoral details now, but after completing the dialogue with the BNP we will simultaneously announce the particular dates for all the elections,’ Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda told reporters at the EC secretariat on Monday.
   He, however, said that if required the EC would announce the schedule of any elections two or three days after announcing the dates for the particular polls.
   The CEC made the statement soon after a BNP delegation handed over the party’s letter to him, demanding a dialogue soon for the sake of meaningful and fruitful election-related decisions.
   The letter was handed over by the BNP’s joint secretary-general, Nazrul Islam Khan, and office secretary, Rizvi Ahmed. After handing over the letter, Nazrul said the BNP wants to discuss all matters relating to elections with the EC, although the EC mentioned in its invitation letter that it wants to discuss only party registration.
   The BNP-led four party alliance will meet at the secretary-general level today at BNP’s central office to discuss the dialogue with the government and Election Commission in which they will insist that the parliamentary elections be held ahead of the elections to local bodies.
   The meeting is likely to decide the dates for the dialogues with the government and Election Commission.
   Nazrul said the BNP thinks that the Voters’ List Ordinance and delimitation of the parliamentary constituencies are election-related issues. ‘So it is necessary for the authorities concerned to discuss all these issues with us.’ He hoped that the EC would agree to discuss these issues and soon hold a dialogue with the BNP. ‘We hope that the dialogue will be held within a day or two,’ he said in reply to a question.
   In the letter signed by joint secretary-general Nazrul Islam Khan on behalf of secretary-general Khandkar Delwar Hossain, the BNP wrote that it was not clear in the EC’s letter whether it would discuss all the election-related matters.
   The Voters’ List Ordinance 2007, the Voters’ List Rules 2008 and delimitation of the parliamentary constituencies, which were not discussed with the political parties, should be part of the agenda of our talks with the EC and government said the letter.
   ‘We think that it’s necessary to remove the confusion and the disagreements about these matters,’ said BNP, which had previously boycotted the EC’s dialogue with political parties through which the revised politico-electoral rules were formulated.
   The BNP stated that the election laws, rules and even the Constitution to some extent might need to be amended to implement the Ordinances and Rules promulgated by the interim government and the Election Commission, which is not possible at this moment.
   ‘So discussion is essential to reach an acceptable, realistic and constructive solution after deeply reviewing such matters,’ the party proposed to the Election Commission in its letter.
   ‘…We were and we are willing to participate in the dialogue for finding a rational and acceptable solution after discussing the entire gamut of matters related to holding the parliamentary elections first,’ said the BNP.
   When questioned about the BNP’s condition to amend some RPO provisions, Huda said the EC does not want to amend the present RPO again as it has already been revised and amended several times.

The military-controlled interim government is trying to persuade the two top leaders and arch political rivals Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina to sit together and open a dialogue in order to end the political stalemate, said a government adviser.
   ‘We are continuing our efforts to open dialogue between them [Khaleda and Hasina] to resolve political deadlock. If necessary, they would be pressured,’ commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman told reporters in Chittagong Monday, according to television channel ATN Bangla.
   The adviser did not elaborate the nature of ‘pressure’.
   He said the government wanted to restore political faith and democratic norms by trying to get the two top leaders in the
   dialogue, according to BDnews24.com.
   ‘Making arrangement to bring the two leaders to table is not the government’s only task. But it has a symbolic significance,’ he said at Chittagong Circuit House after a review meeting on the development of the port city.
   ‘People will be able to rely on the politicians and a positive attitude will be created if it is done,’ he said. With reference to the recent comments of the leaders of the two rival political parties, he said, ‘The government will try to stop the tendency from proliferating further.’
   Barrister Rafique-ul-Huq, who defends both Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina in court against corruption charges, first floated the idea to take the two leaders across the table and the government reportedly requested him to use his good office to hold the talk.
   After visiting Khaleda Zia at her Dhaka Cantonment residence on Friday, Hossain Zillur claimed that she had agreed in principle to the proposal for a tripartite dialogue with the government and Sheikh Hasina.
   Khaleda and Hasina, leading BNP and Awami League respectively, alternated as prime minister over 15 years, but they hardly talked to each other most of the time.
   The adviser’s statement seems to have been significant as some politicians were found sceptical about the government proposed top-level talks while BNP reportedly in principle agreed to sit with Awami League.
   Awami League acting president Zillur Rahman on Sunday raised question about the necessity of a dialogue between Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina.
   Tofail Ahmed, a presidium member of the party, on Monday said, ‘It is not possible for Awami League to sit with those who want to kill Sheikh Hasina,’ according to BDnews24.com.
   Amir Hossain Amu, another presidium member, said, ‘There is some motive behind comparing Sheikh Hasina with Khaleda Zia. It is part of the conspiracy to take the country in another direction.’
   Another presidium member Abdur Razzak said there should be no meeting or consensus with those who forged an alliance with ‘war criminals’. He also said that any meeting could be held only after completion of the trial of those who committed war crimes.
   Gano Forum president Dr Kamal Hossain, who was supportive of almost all activities of the interim government, also raised questions about the government’s plans to bring the two former prime ministers together.
   BNP spokesman Nazrul Islam Khan was cautious about making statement on the proposed talks. ‘She [Khaleda Zia] has reportedly said that she in principle agrees to participate in discussions if it serves interests of the country and if it helps to restore democracy. And it is our position.’ Khan, also joint secretary general of the party, told New Age Monday evening.
   Asked about the statements of senior Awami League leaders questioning necessity of such a talk, he said, ‘It is important how people take our [AL and BNP] statements. We [BNP] do not prefer to retaliate.’

Dhaka has claimed the country’s rights over exclusive economic zone for extraction of marine resources in the Bay of Bengal as experts and officials of Bangladesh and India on Monday began three-day talks on delimitation of maritime boundary.
   The two sides discussed the issue of ‘starting point’ on how to mark from the coastline the exclusive economic zone that has apparently overlapped claims of Bangladesh, India and Myanmar due to the funnel-like shape of the Bay of Bengal, meeting sources told New Age.
   A country is supposed to enjoy its right to fish and other marine resources as well as extraction of mineral resources in exclusive economic zone, an area of 200 nautical miles into an adjacent sea, according to international maritime law.
   ‘We have a fruitful discussion and hope for a positive outcome at the end of the talks on Wednesday,’ said MAK Mahmood, additional foreign secretary, who led a 15-member Bangladesh delegation in the meeting. BR Rao led the seven-member Indian team at the talks being held in Dhaka.
   Officials in Dhaka saw this meeting as a breakthrough in resolving the maritime dispute as the neighbours agreed to hold talks after a lapse of 28 years.
   In absence of an accepted exclusive economic zone, India and Myanmar recently opposed Bangladesh’s offshore block bidding for exploration of oil and gas even within the territorial sea of the country.
   The two sides touched upon the issue of changing course of the Hariabhanga river at the estuary near the disputed Talpatty island in the Bay of Bengal, said the officials.
   Also came up for discussion was the issue of continental shelves in the Bay. The United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea allows a country to claim 350 nautical miles as its continental shelve.
   Bangladesh and India had last held talks in 1980 to iron out differences on the contentious maritime boundary in the resource-rich Bay of Bengal.
   Until recently, the process of direct talks remained stalled due to New Delhi’s lukewarm response to proposal for coming to negotiation table as well as lack of adequate preparations on the part of Dhaka to handle the issue, officials admitted.
   As signatories to the UN convention, Dhaka and New Delhi must submit their claims to the United Nations by 2011 and 2009 respectively.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, has said his caretaker government is almost at the end of achieving its goal of holding free, fair and credible general elections by December, as the prerequisites are already in place.
   ‘We hope and believe that the elections will be held by December this year,’ the head of the interim government told his audience Monday at a reception hosted in his honour at Bangladesh House (Bangladesh Embassy) in the Chinese capital.
   Bangladeshi students, businessmen, experts of different professions living, working and studying in China, officials of the embassy as well as Chinese elite were present at the function.
   The chief adviser said the Election Commission had already completed the voters’ list with photographs of more than 80 million voters. ‘Such a gigantic task in a short time is a remarkable achievement,’ he said, adding that he did not know whether any other country had done such a task in such a short time.
   On economy, Fakhruddin said the economy had had difficult times in the last several months for the rise in prices of petroleum products and food on the international market. ‘We have really overcome the situation.’
   Referring to the meeting on Sunday of the Bangladesh Better Business Forum in Dhaka to mark its first founding anniversary, he said the forum was formed last year to forge a strong public-private partnership. ‘We have made some progress in this sector,’ he told the function.
   He said private sector was the engine of growth and government was the facilitator.
   Despite a difficult situation on the economic front last year, he said, ‘we have done well’.
   Mentioning China’s economic boom, he said China remained as an example to Bangladesh. Economic relations with China are also very strong and growing day by day, he noted. Many Chinese businessmen are investing in Bangladesh.
   He urged the Bangladeshi students studying in China to learn what China was able to do for its economy and its people and hoped that the students, after completing their studies, would be able to contribute to socioeconomic progress in Bangladesh.
   Referring to the existing excellent relationship between Bangladesh and China, he said the strong bond of friendship between the two countries dated back in history. He hoped the bond of friendship between Bangladesh and China would become stronger.
   ‘China is an important development partner of Bangladesh and invested in many sectors, particularly in infrastructure,’ Fakhruddin said.
   The Bangladeshi community in China welcomed the chief adviser and he exchanged pleasantries with them. Many of them took photos with him.
   Chief adviser’s wife Neena Ahmed was also present at the reception. The foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, foreign secretary, M Touhid Hossain, Chinese ambassador in Dhaka, Zheng Qingdian, secretary of the Chief Adviser’s Office, Kazi M Aminul Islam, chief adviser’s press secretary, Syed Fahim Munaim, and Bangladesh ambassador in Beijing, Munshi Faiz Ahmed, were also present at the function.
   Earlier, a red-carpet reception was accorded to Fakhruddin, as he arrived in Beijing Monday morning on a four-day official visit.
   The Chinese assistant foreign minister, Hu Zhengyue, received the chief adviser. Two tiny tots presented bouquets to Fakhruddin and his wife.
   Fakhruddin is scheduled to have official talks with the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, and call on the president, Hu Jintao, today.
   The chief adviser is also scheduled to attend the closing ceremony of Paralympics Beijing 2008 tomorrow.

Police overpowered workers of three state-owned jute mills attempting self-immolation for wages at Khalishpur on Monday morning.
   After a huge protest rally of the workers on the premises of the Crescent Jute Mills, some of the labour leaders doused themselves with kerosene and petrol before the police snatched the containers and firemen unwrapped their hoses and doused them with water.
   Tension spread over the industrial belt as several thousand workers of Crescent, Platinum Jubilee and Star jute mills gathered on the CJM premises where 27 leaders of the three mill committees had been waiting for self- immolation wearing shrouds and holding kerosene and petrol containers.
   The gathering turned into a rally at around 10:45am. The committee convener Gazi Masum, Sohrab Hossain, Matiar Munshi, Sadeque Ali, Quazi Golam Farukh, Abul Bashar, Mohammad Gaffar, Nurul Islam and Abdul Haque addressed the workers.
   The leaders accused the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation authorities and the government of breaking the promise of fulfilling their demands and conspiring to close down the mills.
   ‘We are passing days half-fed or without food, our parents are dying without treatment and our children have stopped going to schools…’, they said.
   At 11:30am the 27 labour leaders came in front of the CJM administrative building and prepared for self-immolation while members of their families and colleagues, who formed a three-tier human wall around them in a bid to prevent the police from approaching, burst into tears.
   Scuffles broke out as the police swung into action to prevent the labour leaders from self-immolation. The police overpowered the protesters and snatched petrol containers from them while fire engines turned on the hose and doused them with water.
   The workers suspended their protest programmes till September 27 after the administration assured them that their major demands would be met by the deadline.
   The workers of the three jute mills on September 4 declared the protest programme for back pay and other demands.
   The labourers of the mills have been on agitation under the banner of ‘State-owned Jute Mills Labourers Development Committee’ for the last five months to press home their eight-point demands, including payment of their arrears and abolition of the system of hiring labourers on daily basis.
   The demands also include providing gate passes to all temporary labourers, increasing wages of the daily basis labourers, stopping the activities of corrupt CBA in the mills, payment for overtime work and allocation of enough funds to save the jute mills.

The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, has demanded immediate declaration of parliamentary polls date to resolve the existing crises of Bangladesh.
   ‘There is no alternative but to hold the national elections to resolve the existing crises of the country,’ she told at a reception accorded to her by the New York Awami League at the Crown Plaza restaurant at Queens in New York in the United States on Sunday.
   Hasina said: ‘What we need urgently is Jatiya Sangsad elections, not upazila elections.’
   She appreciated the role of the migrated Bangladeshis in the USA in the development process of Bangladesh by sending foreign currencies. The migrated Bangladeshis take part in most of the emergency situations of the country by raising their voices from abroad, she observed.
   Hasina said: ‘I am making preparation to return to Bangladesh and before that I’ve come here to express my gratitude to the Bangladeshi New Yorkers.
   ‘I don’t know what would be my fate after returning to Bangladesh. But I am not scared of anything, not even death. I’ll always raise my voice for the freedom of the people of Bangladesh.’
   She said the people of Bangladesh were now suffering a lot due to the abnormal price hike of essential commodities. ‘The people even do not have fundamental rights, which Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had dreamt to ensure.’
   Hasina said she was arrested for raising her voice on behalf of the masses of the country.
   ‘I am hopeful and with that hope I am working to implement my goal ‘vision 2020’,’ she said, adding that she would fulfil her goal by 2021, during the golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence, making Bangladesh a developed country by eradicating poverty.
   The former prime minister said the Awami League was the most popular party in Bangladesh and it was proved in the elections in 2001. ‘The Awami League had won the elections in terms of popular vote, but the conspirators forced us to defeat.’
   She urged all her party members to remain alert against the ‘conspirators.’
   Referring to the post January 11 scenario, she said politicians and people were arrested en masse that time in the name of eliminating corruption and now released en masse.
   ‘I’m sure it is part of a plan to establish the corrupt people again.’
   In her speech, Hasina gave an outline of the party’s election manifesto that included several important points relating to the development of Bangladesh.
   She mentioned that if the Awami League was elected in the next elections, her government would work for eradicating illiteracy as well as ensuring food sufficiency, health, education and infrastructural development, local government empowerment and power decentralisation, industrialisation and resolving the problems of the Bangladeshis abroad, including giving them right to vote.
   Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajib Wajed and other senior members of the New York Awami League also spoke at the reception.

Petrobangla on Sunday approved UK-based Cairn Energy’s proposal to hire two compressors spending $4.5 million to continue gas production at Sangu gas field for two years beyond 2009.
   The state-run oil and gas corporation at a joint management committee meeting with Cairn officials approved the proposal after Cairn had made it clear that there was 20 to 40 per cent probability of the continuation of production till 2011 if the compressors were installed.
   Petrobangla, however, sought further clarification from the company’s another proposal to carry out perforation of two gas producing wells at the offshore plant at a cost of around $2.41 million for the same purpose.
   ‘Although we know it is a risky venture that the project might not be successful, we have approved the proposal to install the compressors considering gas crisis in Chittagong,’ said a high official of Petrobangla.
   He said the compressors, to be installed at the plant in Chittagong, would come into operation by July 2009.
   ‘The company earlier projected that gas supply from Sangu would come down to around 20 million cubic feet per day in 2009 from 50mmcfd at present and by September 2009 the gas field might stop production,’ he said.
   Cairn in its proposal said if the compressors were installed and intervention works were carried out at two wells, the field could supply around 30mmcfd of gas till September 2011.
   Cairn proposed either to purchase the compressors at a cost of $6.5 million or to rent those for $4.5 million. Petrobangla approved renting of the compressors as after Sangu stops production, there will be no use of the compressors in the country, said the Petrobangla official.
   Cairn will invest the amount, which will be adjusted with the gas price of Petrobangla’s share if it can continue gas production till 2011.
   ‘We have taken the risk of allowing the company to invest the money as it will be helpful for us whatever gas we can supply to Chittagong from Sangu after 2009. If Cairns cannot supply gas after 2009 even after installing the compressors, it will also suffer loss,’ said another official.
   Sangu could produce around 200mmcfd of gas to be the major source of gas supply for Chittagong and Comilla regions.
   Cairn on August 13 had informed Petrobangla that a recoverable gas reserve of only 14 billion cubic feet was left in the field now and it would be exhausted by September 2009.
   The company in its proposal, submitted to Petrobangla recently, expressed its willingness to invest $7.31 to $9.30 million in the field to produce 9.30 bcf more gas from September 2009 to 2011.
   But Petrobangla sought clarifications from the company on some points, including the probability of continuation of gas supply and risk factor after the installation of the compressors and perforation of two wells.
   After getting clarification from Cairn, the proposal to hire compressors has been approved, said Petrobangla officials, adding that they would take decision of the well intervention plan after getting clarifications on how much the works would be risky for the gas reservoir.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on Monday blamed Republicans for the ‘most serious financial crisis’ since the 1930s after Wall Street debt woes sent global markets into meltdown.
   Republican candidate John McCain meanwhile blamed a faulty patchwork of regulatory oversight for causing shocks like the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy which forced central banks to pump billions into the money markets.
   ‘The challenges facing our financial system today are more evidence that too many folks in Washington and on Wall Street weren’t minding the store,’ Obama said in a statement.
   ‘Eight years of policies that have shredded consumer protections, loosened oversight and regulation, and encouraged outsized bonuses to CEOs while ignoring middle-class Americans have brought us to the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression,’ he said.
   Squarely blaming Republican president George W Bush’s administration for the crisis, Obama warned ‘this turmoil is a major threat to our economy and its ability to create good-paying jobs and help working Americans pay their bills, save for their future, and make their mortgage payments.’
   McCain called the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers ‘the latest reminder of ineffective regulation and management.’
   Ensuring the United States remains the world’s pre-eminent financial market would be the ‘highest priority’ of a McCain administration, he said in a statement.
   ‘In order to do this, major reform must be made in Washington and on Wall Street. We cannot tolerate a system that handicaps our markets and our banks and places at risk the savings of hard-working Americans and investors.’
   He said his administration would ‘replace the outdated and ineffective patchwork quilt of regulatory oversight in Washington and bring transparency and accountability to Wall Street. We will rebuild confidence in our markets and restore our leadership in the financial world.’
   The statements came after US investment giant Lehman Brothers declared itself bankrupt and Wall Street rival Merrill Lynch had to be taken over in a new financial earthquake that sent global markets into a slump.
   Lehman Brothers said it would file for bankruptcy on Monday after a frantic weekend of negotiations failed to arrange a rescue.
   In the fallout, Bank of America took over Merrill Lynch in a 50 billion dollar deal, insurance giant AIG was reported to have sought a massive emergency loan to head off its own crisis and a group of banks set up a 70-billion-dollar global emergency fund.
   The US Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of England injected tens of billions of dollars into money markets after the fall of the banking titans under the weight of the massive financing of bad loans.

Americans strongly oppose giving the president more power at the expense of Congress or the courts, even to enhance national security or the economy, according to a new poll.
   The Associated Press-National Constitution Centre poll of views on the Constitution found people wary of governmental authority after years of controversy over the Bush administration’s expansion of executive power, and especially sceptical of increasing the president’s powers.
   ‘There is clearly a concern about executive power and the balance of power that comes out in a couple of different ways,’ said Joseph Torsella, president of the Philadelphia-based organisation. The non-partisan centre is dedicated to educating the public about the Constitution.
   Torsella said he believes the polls reflect long-standing scepticism of presidential power. ‘I think it’s a basic chord in the American song and it gets louder and stronger depending on what’s happening in the headlines,’ he said.
   The survey also found overwhelming opposition to the government’s power to take private property for redevelopment and to amending the Constitution to allow foreign-born citizens to be president. Americans are divided over government recognition of gay marriage, but younger people are far more likely to support it.
   President Bush and Congress are at record low approval ratings in recent polls, with Congress even less popular than the president. But in the new poll, the public is more reluctant to expand the president’s powers than those of Congress.
   Two-thirds of Americans oppose altering the balance of power among the three branches of government to strengthen the presidency, even when they thought that doing so would improve the economy or national security. People were more evenly split over giving Congress more power in the same circumstances.
   ‘The Constitution sets up three branches of government and to increase the power of one at the expense of the others endangers the fundamental structure,’ said poll participant James Crowder, 74, of Cockeysville, Md., a Baltimore suburb. ‘This current president and his vice president have distorted the office of president so much that it will take an enormous amount of time, if ever, for us to recover from that.’ Crowder is a Democrat and a retired Episcopal priest.
   In one area, the poll found Americans clearly on Congress’ side. They said Congress should have the power to require senior presidential aides to testify before House and Senate committees — a topic currently wending its way through the courts. The administration is trying to prevent former White House counsel Harriet Miers from testifying about the firing of nine US attorneys.
   The government’s power to take private property for redevelopment had little support in the poll, not even when owners are paid a fair price and the project creates local jobs.
   Participants said they consider private property rights conferred by the Constitution as important as freedom of speech and religion.
   The Fifth Amendment allows the government to seize property for public use with just compensation.
   In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that governments may seize people’s homes and businesses — even against their will — for private economic development when there is a corresponding public purpose of bringing more jobs and tax revenue.
   In the new poll of people’s views on the Constitution, 75 per cent disagreed. Opposition to the government power known as eminent domain was as strong among liberals as conservatives.
   Cities, backed by some liberals, generally see the power to seize private property as an important tool for urban renewal projects crucial to revitalising cities.
   Many conservatives — particularly in the West — have called the high court decision a dangerous interpretation of the Constitution that would lead to abuse of individual rights.
   Since the ruling, 39 states have enacted legislation or passed ballot measures restricting the government’s power to take property, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
   The poll also found a split on whether governments should recognize gay marriage. But a majority said same-sex couples should be entitled to the same benefits as married, heterosexual couples.
   The answers to these questions revealed a sharp generational split. More than two-thirds of people under 35 favour recognition of gay marriage, compared with less than 40 per cent of those 35 and older.
   Majorities also favour following the rule of law, even if that sometimes comes at the expense of short-term public safety considerations and protecting the rights of everyone in the face of majority opposition.
   The public broadly supports government aid to religious organizations for social service programs. But that support drops sharply when organisations also promote their religious beliefs while providing help to the homeless and other social services.
   The AP-National Constitution Centre poll involved telephone interviews with 1,000 adults nationwide. The survey was conducted Aug. 22-29 by Abt SRBI Inc. and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The interim government on Monday began implementing the Tk 2,000-crore budgetary scheme for rural job creation across the country amid apprehensions about quality of works and proper distribution of money among the hardcore poor.
   The guidelines for the 100-day employment generation programme have not specified standards of works under the scheme and responsibility of government agencies engaged in infrastructure building.
   The issue of possible misuse of resources has also been ignored although 1.58 lakh projects have been identified in the official progress report for creating jobs mainly for seasonally unemployed farm labourers.
   Food adviser AMM Shawkat Ali also has not ruled out the possibility of pilferage in the implementation process and insisted that there should be strong monitoring by the government agencies, local people, non-government agencies and the media to reduce the scope for misappropriation of public money.
   ‘Guidelines do not specify everything with eventuality. Law will take its own course if anybody is found guilty of misappropriating the money,’ he said at a press briefing on the launching of the programme in 480 upazilas on Monday.
   Emphasising the importance of agricultural activities, the scheme identified a number of works including digging of ponds and canals, construction and repairing of road and other infrastructures, building embankment, tree plantation, making composed fertiliser, repairing of different establishment affected by floods and earth works near public institutions.
   The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has been requested to make an appraisal report on the employment scheme for following up the programme, whose first phase is being implemented with Tk 1,200 crore allocation for two moths and a half period till November.
   The interim government has undertaken the employment guarantee scheme in the current budget in the light of rural employment guarantee act in India amid concerns among financial planners about the quality of works and the long-term impact of the scheme on the rural development.
   ‘Since it is public money, its proper spending must be ensured. The quality of works to be done under the programme should be ensured so that the programme becomes effective,’ said an official of the finance ministry.
   However, the adviser expressed high hopes about the effectiveness of the biggest safety-net programmes in Bangladesh’s history, saying that it would create opportunities for the rural hardcore poor, addressing the problem of seasonal unemployment.
   The number of beneficiaries [almost 20 lakh enlisted jobseekers plus their families] is estimated at 1 crore out of 4 crore people living in extreme poverty, as identified in the light of poverty map. In all, the government’s safety-net programmes are expected to cover 5.75 crore beneficiaries, Shawkat told newsmen at the conference room of the Press Information Department.
   Asked about probable impact of cash flow into rural economy on the already soaring inflation, the adviser said it would rather increase purchasing capacity of the rural poor and shield them from price shocks.
   ‘I am worried about inflation since these people have no money at their hand during the lean season,’ he added. Offsetting the effects of inflation on the poor is said to be one of the major objectives of the programme.
   About continuity of the programme, he said its second phase spanning March-April-May would be implemented by the next government and it would depend on the success of the current phase. ‘It is up to the next government whether the scheme will continue,’ he said.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Monday refused to vacate the High Court orders that extended the stay on the proceedings of the Niko and barge-mounted power plant graft cases against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
   The vacation bench of the Appellate Division chamber judge, Justice M Joynul Abedin, however, posted for October 13 the full-court hearing on the appeal filed by the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission against the High Court orders.
   The chamber judge also upheld the bail granted by the High Court to former lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu and Mosaddek Ali in separate cases. The judge, however, vacated the High Court stay on the two cases filed against Pintu for misappropriation of government’s relief supplies.
   The High Court bench of Justice Sheikh Rezwan Ali and Justice Md Rais Uddin on August 26 adjourned till October 14, the hearing in the rule issued earlier on the government asking it to explain the legality of the two graft cases against Hasina. The court also extended till October 14 the period of stay on the proceedings of the graft cases.
   The government and the commission on Monday moved the Appellate Division against the High Court orders for extension of the stay of the proceedings.
   The High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Mashuque Hosain Ahmed on July 7 stayed for two months the proceedings in the Niko and power plant cases against Hasina, also the Awami League president.
   After hearing separate petitions, filed by Hasina, the High Court had also asked the government and the commission to explain in four weeks why the cases should not be quashed.
   The government on July 8 filed two petitions seeking permission to appeal against the High Court orders. In the petitions, the government also sought stay on the High Court orders.
   After hearing the appeal, the Appellate Division on August 13 upheld the High Court orders staying the proceedings in the barge-mounted power plant and Niko corruption cases. The court asked both the parties in the cases to get the rules – issued by the High Court on July 7– heard and disposed of by the High Court expeditiously.

The police said on Monday they were closing in on several Muslim suspects after bombs killed 21 people in New Delhi at the weekend, but anger and frustration grew over their failure to prevent recent attacks.
   Police identified Abdul Subhan Qureshi, a convent-educated computer expert and member of a banned Islamic students’ group, as the chief suspect in the New Delhi attack, and said he was also involved in bombing Ahmedabad in July.
   They are also looking for a man they named as Qayamuddin, also known as Ashfaque.
   ‘We are close to cracking the case,’ Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said. ‘We have picked up some people.’
   The Indian media did not echo the optimism of the police after bombings in four major cities killed more than 150 people in recent months. In each case, suspects were named and Muslims were rounded up, but the attacks continue.
   ‘What’s changed?’ asked an editorial in the Indian Express newspaper on Monday.
   Police are massively understaffed and under-resourced. There is no central database of militant suspects and little time for meticulous investigations.
   ‘We have not had a dedicated task force to look into the deficiencies in our counter-terrorism mechanism,’ said B Raman, a former head of India’s spy agency RAW.
   ‘We need a central investigation agency for counter-terrorism to build up a cadre of dedicated investigation officers.’
   Others say part of the problem stems from a sense of alienation among India’s minority Muslims, many of whom feel government efforts to stamp out Islamist militancy often victimise the entire community.
   Alienation was also fuelled by communal riots in Gujarat in 2002, when around 2,500 people, mostly Muslims, were hacked and burnt to death. Little has been done to catch the culprits despite a national outcry.
   ‘Immediately after the Delhi blasts, the government has again started persecuting innocent Muslims by dragging them from their homes for questioning,’ Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the chief cleric of Jama Masjid, India’s largest mosque, told Reuters.
   ‘Please stop this immediately across India or face the anger of Muslims in India.’
   Experts say politicians need to understand that India’s Muslim population is beginning to provide recruits for militant groups, especially after the Gujarat riots.
   They say politicians often skirt the issue because they want Muslim support.
   India’s main Hindu-nationalist opposition, which accuses the centrist Congress party-led government of following a policy of appeasement, wants the reinstatement of a tough anti-terrorism law it promoted when it was in power.
   Indian newspapers also want strong action.
   ‘We are at war,’ said an editorial in the Times of India. ‘When the country is at war, there cannot be any half measures to hit back and contain the enemy.’
   Congress says the earlier law was misused to harass Muslims under the previous Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government.
   Recurrent militant attacks, analysts say, could offer the opposition BJP a campaign plank for national polls due next year.
   ‘There is a mood of insecurity among people in the cities,’ said Mahesh Rangarajan, a political analyst.
   ‘So many incidents have happened that people might identify with what the BJP is saying. But it is too early to say how voters will react.’ Related story on Page-5

Banks are now extra cautious about making fresh investment in the edible oil trade as local importers and refiners are under pressure from global price fall and exposed to significant loss.
   Industry sources fear cooking oil importers would lose several hundred crores of taka if they are to adjust their prices to the steep fall in prices of soya bean and palm oils in the international market.
   Worried about the recovery of the money they invested in the edible oil trade, many banks are now thinking twice before opening letters of credit for cooking oil imports.
   Traders and refiners, who had stockpiled cooking oils in the hope of Ramadan sales boom, are likely to be the worst losers as edible oils they had imported earlier lost their value by 55 per cent by this time.
   This may force a good number of edible oil importers and traders into bankruptcy, warn both bankers and industry people.
   ‘We fear most edible oil importers and traders will face difficulty in repaying their loans and in worse cases, some of them may even go bankrupt,’ said a senior official at a foreign bank that is extensively engaged in commodity trade financing.
   After rallying for a couple of years, global prices of edible oils, especially palm which is most used in Bangladesh, started falling sharply from early July, when major Bangladeshi importers almost completed booking of orders.
   Although millers tried to keep prices artificially high in the local market, mill-gate and wholesale prices started falling slowly from mid-July. Super palm oil prices declined from Tk 3,980 per maund (37.3 kilogram) to Tk 2,580, or Tk 37.5 per kilogram, in Dhaka’s Maulavibazar wholesale market between July 14 and September 14.
   Consumer level price of palm oil declined Tk 25 per kilogram to Tk 75 level in a month.
   However, impact on soya bean price was slower, as retail prices of different brands of bottled oil declined only by Tk 5 per kg to Tk 116, market data showed.
   'Some parties, which have already made windfall profits, may sustain the shocks, but many other traders, who still have enough oil in their stock, will be the real losers,' said a top official of a private sector commercial bank.
   Prices started falling in international market shortly after major traders had completed procurement of extra stocks eyeing Ramadan, when edible oil consumption doubles.
   ‘Some importers were so desperate that they rushed for building bigger stocks relying on forecast that petroleum price would further rise and influence global commodity prices,’ said the banker.
   Bangladesh Edible Oil Refiners Association president A Rouf Choudhury criticised the banks for putting extra pressures on edible oil importers, who were now walking a tightrope, for loan repayment.
   'It is unjustified that bankers are acting like Kabuliwalas. They have forgotten that edible oil importers gave them a good business by opening more and more LCs when prices were soaring,' he said.
   Industry sources said around a dozen large players, having their own refineries in Dhaka and Chittagong, were controlling the edible oil imports and some of them incurred loss amounting to a range of Tk 20 crore to Tk 100 crore each during the past couple of months.
   Bangladesh imports 1.2 million tonnes of edible oils, with palm oil consisting more than two thirds. Cooking oil import bills amounted to more than Tk 6,000 crore in the 2007-08 fiscal that ended in June.

The government has drafted a tentative annual work plan for expediting the implementation of development projects by different ministries and divisions, officials said.
   'The finance ministry has prepared an annual work plan setting quarterly targets for ministries and divisions, which will be sent to all implementing agencies concerned,' said a high official of the ministry.
   The official said that ministries and divisions would have to complete their respective work as specified for each quarter in the annual plan.
   'If any ministry or division fails to implement their development project as per the schedule, the allocated money should be returned to the finance ministry,' the official added.
   The implementation rate of the annual development programme was only one per cent in the first month of the current fiscal year 2008-09.
   Of the Tk 25,600 crore development outlay set for the whole fiscal year, only Tk 321.97 crore was spent in July though Tk 794 crore or 6 per cent of the total outlay was disbursed.
   In the 2007-08 fiscal year, the original outlay of Tk 25,000 crore was trimmed to Tk 22,500 crore towards the end of the fiscal year, but implementation was only 82 per cent of the revised one.
   Planning officials said development works in Bangladesh traditionally gathered pace in the second half of the fiscal year, creating a huge backlog of work and a rat run for spending money at the fag end of the fiscal year.
   Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed recently called for expediting the ADP implementation, which trails behind the target year after year for, what officials said, procedural delays, slower disbursement of fund and poor capacities of the implementing agencies.
   Finance secretary Mohammad Tareq will send a letter on Monday to all ministries and secretaries to go by the annual development work plan for expediting ADP implementation, officials said.
   The letter, a copy of which was obtained by New Age, referred to the practice of go-slow in the first quarter and a surge in spending of money in the last quarter. It also revealed that the efficiency of the government officials and employees deteriorated, slowing down the development works.
   Inordinate delay in disbursement of the allocated funds for development projects by the ministries adds to the government's debt burden, it pointed out, asking the ministries and divisions to strictly follow the annual work plan and use the allocated money on quarterly basis.
   The finance ministry's annual work plan highlighted eight points which include payment of utility bills of the ministries and divisions by the end of each month.
   Collection of resources and foreign assistance and grants will have to be done in the first quarter and all the ministries and division will have to place their requisitions for motor vehicles within the first quarter of the fiscal too, the letter stated.

Nepal's new Maoist premier Prachanda on Monday promised new business-friendly policies as he urged Indian companies to invest in agriculture, tourism and infrastructure in his impoverished nation.
   Prachanda, on his first visit in New Delhi as prime minister, said he would set up a panel 'to introduce the necessary reforms in industrial policy and ... simplify processes of setting up a business in Nepal.'
   'We will do all we can to ensure industrial security in Nepal,' said the 53-year-old, dressed in a crisp business suit and looking at home at a meeting organised by three major Indian chambers of commerce.
   Prachanda has set a target of double-digit economic growth and harnessing 10,000 megawatts of hydropower for Nepal in the next decade.
   But India's business community expressed concerns about investing in the neighbouring country.
   'The biggest issue is of security,' said Harsh Pati Singhania, senior vice-president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
   'This has become a big deterrent to additional investment by Indian companies and also for existing companies, which are finding their operations more and more difficult,' he said.
   Labour unrest and an uneven tax structure were other problems dampening business interest in Nepal, Singhania said.
   In his response, Prachanda promised 'receptive policies for foreign investment' that would create 'a homelike environment for engaging in business,' inviting Indians to invest in areas including power projects.
   A former schoolteacher, Prachanda whose real name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, led a decade-long insurgency against Nepal's monarchy before signing up for peace in 2006 and embracing multi-party democracy.
   Prachanda, who visited giant northern neighbour China soon after becoming premier, called ties with India 'crucial and vital,' adding this was inevitable given the 'specific cultural, historical and tradition of economic interdependence.'
   'The geo-proximity and close cooperative relationship between Nepal and India should help us realise the dream of being together and growing together,' he said, pointing to other investment opportunities such as in health and information technology.
   Nepal also wanted relations with China, he said, but added ties with New Delhi and Beijing 'cannot be compared.'
   'There is no question of comparison,' he stressed.
   India is a lifeline to landlocked Nepal as its lone fuel supplier and key trading partner. However, during their revolt, the Maoists frequently voiced anti-India views.
   FICCI's Singhania said bilateral trade stood at two billion dollars in 2007-2008, with Indian businessmen investing about 800 million dollars in Nepal during the same period.
   Prachanda, who arrived Sunday in New Delhi, was due to meet his Indian host prime minister Manmohan Singh later Monday.
   Flood control was expected to be high on the agenda, an Indian official said, after the Kosi river breached its embankments in Nepal and submerged large swathes of northeast India last month.

Millions of people remained without power and water Monday as deadly Hurricane Ike barrelled up from the Gulf Coast into the Midwest, reportedly leaving more than 15 dead across nine states.
   Massive search and recovery operations were ongoing in storm-battered Texas, with nearly 4,000 people rescued across the state.
   Texas governor Rick Perry said Monday it could be 'weeks' before residents can return to Galveston, the devastated island city in the eye of the storm's surge, and they were urged to stay away until the situation improves.
   The death toll would also likely rise as the clean-up continued, officials said.
   An estimated 20,000 people on the Texas coast ignored evacuation orders and tried to ride out Ike when it made landfall early Saturday, bringing with it a wall of water and ferocious 110-mph winds.
   The Category Two storm carved a path of destruction from the Mississippi Valley to the Great Lakes, with hurricane-force winds hitting Kentucky and flooding reported as far north as Chicago, Illinois.
   In southern Texas and Louisiana alone 2.6 million homes and businesses were
   left without power, according to the US Department of Energy.
   Rubble-strewn Houston, the fourth most populous US city, has imposed a week-long night curfew because of flooding and the danger of downed power lines.
   Simon Chabel of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told AFP that as of late Sunday 3,743 people had been rescued throughout Texas after Ike blew the roofs off houses, felled trees, and flooded roads.
   Officials advised residents sheltering outside the region to stay away until conditions improved.
   'Galveston has been hit hard. We have no power. We have no gas. We have no communications. We're not sure when
   any of that will be up and running,' mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said.
   'Do not come back to Galveston,' she said in a plea to her city's residents. 'You cannot live here at this time.'
   President George W Bush said he would travel to Texas
   on Tuesday to witness the
   devastation at first hand, and promised food and water deliveries after meeting FEMA director David Paulison in Washington.
   Three US-based risk
   assessment firms tagged the onshore damage at any-
   where between eight and 18 billion dollars (5.6-12.7 billion euros).
   Houston mayor Bill White
   on Sunday questioned why FEMA had not yet begun
   delivering vital food, water and ice to residents of his stricken city.
   'We expect FEMA to deliver those supplies and we will hold them accountable in this community,' White said.
   Officials said Sunday at least 10 offshore oil platforms were damaged in the storm, while Houston-area oil refineries that produce 20 per cent of the nation's gasoline remained shuttered and offline, causing fears to mount of an impending gasoline crunch.
   Authorities warned it could be weeks before electricity was restored to some customers, prompting authorities in Houston to announce a dusk-to-dawn curfew to prevent looting and help prevent accidents on roads strewn with fallen trees and live power lines.
   More than 2.2 million residents across the area fled inland to avoid Ike's wrath, but more than 100,000 residents of low-lying areas - including 20,000 in Galveston - decided to ride out the storm despite warnings of 'certain death' from the national weather service.
   Crude oil prices fell nearly two dollars on Sunday in New York, dipping below 100 dollars to 99.30 dollars, as traders
   were reassured that refineries and rigs had been spared the worst.
   Gasoline prices at pump stations, however, spiked in the south-eastern US and officials warned they would punish firms engaged in price-gouging.
   Heavy rain overnight Sunday in Houston aggravated flood-ing and authorities advised evacuees to hold off on returning home while roads were
   still blocked and traffic lights out.
   'We're asking people just to be patient,' FEMA director Paulison told CNN on Sunday.
   'Don't be in a hurry. If you're in a safe place, whether a shelter or hotel or motel, or staying with friends and family, just stay right there.'

Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is malnourished after refusing most food supplies for four weeks, her lawyer said Monday after meeting her doctor.
   'Although Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was not on a hunger strike, she was eating little because she hasn't accepted food supplies since August 16,' her lawyer Kyi Win said, using an honorific before her name.
   'Recently she has become malnourished. After she met with her doctor Sunday, she is eating more nutritiously,' he said.
   Her doctor Tin Myo Win spent four-and-a-half hours Sunday at Aung San Suu Kyi's lakeside home, where she has been confined for most of the last 19 years, but he refused to give details on her health.
   Kyi Win said the 63-year-old Nobel peace prize winner was not staging a hunger strike but had stopped accepting her daily rations from the military regime to demand greater rights for Myanmar's people.
   She has been surviving the last month mainly on small stocks of food that she had in her home, Kyi Win added.
   'The reason for not accepting food like this was not only for her but to demand the prevalence of law and order in the country and to win the rights that all people should be granted,' he said.
   Nyan Win, spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, said she had agreed to start accepting food supplies from Monday but he could not say if the rations had already been delivered.
   'She will accept her food supplies from today,' Nyan Win said.
   Neither the lawyer nor the spokesman could confirm if she had been granted any concessions from the regime, such as permission to receive mail or for her two maids to move freely in and out of the house.
   Kyi Win said Friday he had held 'positive' talks with the government on relaxing the terms of her confinement so that she could receive mail and monthly visits from her doctor.
   He has also been allowed to meet her to discuss a legal appeal of her detention.

Debapriya Bhattacharya, permanent representative of Bangladesh in Geneva, Monday took over as the president of the trade and development board of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development for one year.
   Ambassador Debapriya was unanimously elected by the 193 UN member states to this post, said a message received in Dhaka on Monday.
   As president of the TDB, Debapriya will lead UNCTAD in implementing the instructions and guidelines provided by heads of states and governments and the ministers during the UNCTAD conference held in Accra of Ghana earlier this year.
   He will also give leadership to inter-governmental and inter-agency dialogues on current issues of critical concerns in the areas of trade and development.
   Debapriya, who will represent UNCTAD Membership in all UN events, is the first Bangladeshi ambassador to be elected to this post.
   The TDB is the highest policy-making body after the quadrennial ministerial conferences of the UNCTAD, a Geneva-based organ of the United Nations General Assembly.

Top leaders of the BNP-led alliance will hold a meeting today to discuss crucial issues like joining dialogues with the interim government and the Election Commission, and contesting the elections.
   BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia is scheduled to preside over the meeting at the party's central office at Nayapaltan in the city at 3:30 pm.
   It will be her first formal meeting with the alliance leaders since her release from one-year detention on September 11.
   The schedules and the delegations for the dialogues will be set after today's meeting, secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain said.
   Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed Friday formally invited Khaleda and her party to dialogue with the interim government.
   Earlier, the Election Commission invited BNP to talks on electoral laws after the party boycotted the talks scheduled for the first week of this month.
   The party demanded withdrawal of emergency and holding of the parliamentary elections first.

Nearly 3,000 cases and complaints against government officials and employees have been lying pending with the Anti-Corruption Commission, its spokesman Hanif Iqbal said on Monday.
   Some 1,049 cases, filed between 1986 and 2007, are now pending for investigation and 1,914 complaints, filed between 1989 and 2007 are pending for inquiry, Hanif, also the commission's director general (admin) told a news briefing at the commission headquarters in Dhaka.
   Of the cases, 913 were filed by now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption and 136 by the commission, led by Justice Sultan Hossain Khan, he said, adding 1,801 complaints were lodged by the BAC while 113 during the tenure of the previous commission, he said.
   Hanif said the commission, as per the law, would have to settle the cases and complaints it had inherited, and it had taken initiatives to dispose of the huge pending complaints and cases.
   The commission has already formed two committees, which will put forward recommendations after verifying the importance and authenticity of the complaints, he said.
   'The commission has also decided to undertake all legal measures, including appointment of investigation officers after prioritising the cases, to dispose of the unsettled cases.'
   He also informed that 698 cases against government officials and employees filed by the BAC and 28 by the previous commission were under trial.

The Truth and Accountability Commission has so far heard the pleas of 64 corrupt individuals who have agreed to pay more than Tk 15 crore to the national exchequer in return for clemency.
   The commission on Monday heard the clemency pleas of seven corrupt individuals taking the total number to 64 since the hearing began two weeks ago.
   The amount pledged by the corrupt individuals so far stands at Tk 15,31,98,833.
   Those heard Monday are officials of Titas Gas, according to official concerned.

A fisherman was killed in an attack by a tiger at Kateshwar under the Sundarban west zone in Satkhira o Monday.
   The deceased was Sirajul Sheikh, 42, of village Sor of the area.
   Local people said a tiger attacked and killed Sirajul when he was catching crab at Kateshwar Chora canal at about 9:30am.
   Later, Sirajul's friends with the help of Kateshwar Forest Camp officer-in-charge Nazmul Hasan recovered the body.