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The Sector Commanders’ Forum, a platform of independence war generals, on Friday urged the government to publish a list of 1971 war criminals by October 15.
   Otherwise, the forum said it would prepare the list.
   Coordinator of the forum former army chief retired lieutenant general Harunur Rashid made the demand in an exchange of views with editors and senior journalists at Dhaka Club.
   He said, ‘If the government does not publish the list of war criminals by October 15 the forum will publish the list based on the information and evidence it has.’
   He dismissed the Election Commission’s announcement that the war criminals would not be allowed to run elections as a ‘trick’.
   Because, he said, the commission had only made the announcement without identifying the war criminals.
   ‘As a nation we will have to decide whether the war criminals will come to power through next elections. The list of the war criminals will be prepared so that they cannot participate in the elections and the people will be motivated not to vote them.’
   General Harun referred to chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda’s recent comment after dialogue with the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh where he said, ‘Oh my God, what do I hear from the hujoors (religious leaders) in the holy month of Ramadan!’
   He said, ‘Since its birth the Jamaat has been involved with unholy activities in the name of religion. They speak one thing and do another. This is their character.’
   The Jammat-e-Islami has long been accused by freedom fighters, politicians and historians of harbouring war criminals who collaborated with the Pakistani occupation forces in the genocide in the county’s independence struggle, said the forum. The party and its top brass are also accused of siding with the Pakistani rulers, it said.
   The forum said if any political party forged electoral alliance with the war criminals, they would boycott that party. President of the organisation retired air vice-marshal AK Khandker said, ‘After 1991 the nation has now reached a juncture which is important for the future generation.
   ‘We will have to remain alert so that those who do not believe in our independence, those who opposed our liberation war cannot come to power.’
   ‘We will make the list of war criminals with evidence so that it sustains.’ He asked the editors not to publish the news of the war criminals. ‘We seek all-out cooperation of the media.’
   The deputy chief of the Liberation War stressed on motivating people with two slogans — ‘We will not vote for war criminals’ and ‘We will not vote for anti-liberation elements.’
   Retired major generals KM Shafiullah and CR Dutta, journalists Golam Sarwar, Hasan Shahriar, Jaglul Ahmed Chowdhury, Baby Moudud, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Manzurul Ahsan Bulbul, Farid Hossain, Harun Habib, Saiful Alam, Shyamol Dutta, M Hamid and retired brigadier Khurshid Alam were present.

Residents of a cluster of congested houses apparently floating on the marshland, Ayesha and Champa, two middle-aged women could not say which of them was less poor. They have no assets or fixed income to make a safe living.
   Ayesha, a mother of four children, is grappling with uncertainty as her husband remains sick more often than not and her only grown-up son was injured in an accident.
   Her neighbour Champa, a wid-ow, cannot always manage even food for her five children. Parul, Sokhina, Seefarul, Helena and Seema are among the poor women of Trimohani village on Dhaka’s periphery, in fact under Khilgaon police station, which remains maro-oned for six months a year because of rain and the flow of river water.
   For the people of this low-lying area between the rivers Norai and Balu, boats are the only means of communication during the rainy season. They are compelled to move on foot across the farmland owned by influential people during the dry season.
   And if there is flooding, they are obliged to take refuge in temporary shelter centres away from their homes. One of the common features of these women belonging to about 25 families is the absence of permanent livelihoods that could support them round the year with food, let alone to meet other basic needs.
   ‘We eat whenever some of us earn something and we starve if there is no income for a few days. All of us here in this para [cluster of houses] are extremely poor,’ Ayesha said drawing the attention to the signs of malnutrition on the faces of men and women in her neighbourhood.
   Champa said her eldest son ran the six-member family by rowing a boat, ‘But his income is not sufficient enough to meet the costs of living as the prices of essential commodities are very high.’ Seema said they could not keep body and soul together with her husband’s ‘uncertain’ income from fishing in the area. Under the present circumstances, they had no scope to do anything else to support the family, she said.
   Salma, a widow with two children, is the only woman there who is covered by the social safety net programme called vulnerable group development and who draws 25 kilograms of rice a month from Nasirabad Union. She, too, complained about occasional hunger, saying, ‘We used to cook only once a day and took the food thrice. In the absence of anything to eat, we along with children silently starved.’
   Salma rarely earns anything by sewing old kanthas as the orders are irregular and the wage is Tk 40 per kantha. Non-government organisations do not take women like her into consideration as they are too poor to be covered by the micro-credit programmes, found a New Age investigation.
   ‘It is a part of Dhaka city only in name; we all are in fact beggars,’ relatively younger Sakhina said in her anguish. The area they live in is within 10 kilometres of Bangabhaban, the official residence of the country’s president.
   When asked about the poverty in the cluster, Union Parishad member Mohammad Hiron Miah said employment opportunities were limited for men and almost none for women in the area. ‘The people of my ward are the poorest of the poor and the assistance provided through UP is far from adequate,’ said the member who represents about 1,100 voters.
   Like Ayesha, Champa, Salma and Sokhina, many of the poor across the country are still exposed to hunger and malnutrition — a vicious cycle — although the government’s safety-net programmes are expected to cover about 5.75 crore beneficiaries. While launching the Tk 2000-crore new employment generation scheme, food adviser, AMM Showkat Ali said they were trying to ensure transparency in selecting the beneficiaries so that those who were entitled could only have access to this programme.
   ‘The poor do not have the means to produce the food necessary to make a good living and are more vulnerable to destitution in the event of adverse shocks,’ noted a joint mid-term report, prepared by the government and the UNDP, on achieving the Millennium Development Goal-1 in Bangladesh.
   In Bagerhat’s Uttar Southkhali, a village devastated by the 2007 cyclone Sidr, a 60-year-old widow Rizia Begum and a fifty-year-old fisherman Mofazzal Howlader lost their houses and most of the belongings. Reports have it recently that they are yet to come out of the shocks they sustained in terms of the damages to their shelters and livelihoods.
   About 2.3 million households were affected by the hurricane and about one million of which were devastated because of loss of livelihoods, according to the assessment by Bangladesh’s development partners.
   But in the remote village of Purbashib Bari Madhyapara in Ulipur upazila of monga-prone Kurigram district, Purnima Rani showed true grit by coming out of the shackles of poverty with the supports she received in the form of training and asset transfer. A regional organisation, the Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service gave her a sewing machine and she now saves about Tk 1,500 a month.
   The United Nations Develop-ment Programme, under the Chittagong Hill Tracts Develop-ment Facility, supported many families like the one of Momong Marma, a young tribal woman from Khyangdong Para village in Khagrachhari district, who opened a grocery shop and stopped selling her labour to eke out a living.
   Similarly, the UK Department for International Development rehabilitated Adori Begum, a widow and a mother of eight children, and 53 more poor households in Baliapara char in Sirajganj under the Chars Livelihood Programme with housing and livelihoods facilities.
   Floods, illness, dowry and wedding expenses are the shocks that make the poor vulnerable, showed a recent research jointly conducted by Chronic Poverty Research Centre, Data Analysis and Technical Assistance Ltd and the International Food Policy Research Institute. It mentioned that about 36 million people of Bangladesh population still faced acute poverty and hunger.
   According to a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme, spiralling food prices have caused the number of the poor in Bang-ladesh to rise by 7.5 million despite a bumper Boro paddy harvest.
   The National Food Policy argues it is necessary to protect the poor farmers and the low-income group people through carefully managed food procurement and distribution programmes.
   ‘Although the market availability of food-grains in 2007-08 was higher than the demand, high prices — rice and wheat were up by about 50-60% in 2007-08 — hindered the process of gaining food security for all,’ noted the Asian Development Bank’s latest Asian Development Outlook.
   Bangladesh’s target in MDG-1 is to bring down the percentage of people who live on less than a dollar a day to 29 by 2015 whereas studies show a rise in the number of poor people in the country.
   The inhabitants of char, haor, coastal belt and monga-prone areas, the ethnic minority people, and the people with disabilities are more vulnerable to poverty, said MA Momin, poverty adviser to a foreign-aided project, who felt that extreme poverty had not been adequately focused in Bangladesh.
   The expert suggested that transfer of assets, cash or investment capital, targeted distribution of khas land and promotion of market linkage for rural produces should be ensured to raise the real income of the poor and reduce the income inequality.
   ‘Assessments of the conditions of the poor are exposing ugly faces of poverty implying that Bangladesh’s efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals are facing serious challenges,’ Shamunnay chairman economist Atiur Rahman observed.

A suspected criminal was killed in an encounter between the Rapid Action Battalion and a band of his cohorts in Holan under Dakkhinkhan police station in the capital on early Friday.
   The deceased was identified as Syeed Mohammad Shihab, 35, son of late Syeed Md Shaheed and also the ringleader of notorious Shihab gang, and the close associate of one of the most wanted 23 listed criminals, Subrata Bain, who is now a fugitive.
   RAB sources said that a
   team of RAB-1, after receiving information, raided a hide-out in Badda area at around 8:00pm and arrested Shihab from the scene on Thursday.
   Soon after, the team immediately took him to RAB-1’s headquarters and extensively interrogated him in order to seize his firearms and arrest his accomplices.
   Based on his information the RAB team, along with Shihab, went to Holan at around 2:00am to seize the illegal firearms and nab his cohorts.
   As soon as the team reached the scene, Shihab’s accomplices indiscriminately opened
   fire on the RAB personnel, forcing them to retaliate, and a fierce shootout ensued between the criminals and lawmen.
   At one stage Shihab was reportedly caught in the crossfire and killed on the spot, but his accomplices managed to flee the scene.
   The RAB team seized a pistol, a revolver and some bullets from the scene of battle.
   The police said Shihab hailed from Nasirnagar upazila in Brahmanbaria and had been residing near the Mirpur Intellectual Graveyard. He was wanted in 15 cases, including six murder cases.
   He began his criminal activities at Mirpur, Kafrul, Ibrahimpur and the cantonment area, and was aided by some of the most wanted criminals of who had fled to India.
   The elder brother of the deceased, Syeed Mohammad Shahin, told newsmen at the hospital morgue that Shihab was released from jail recently after getting bail in all the cases filed against him.

Kuwait has assured Bangladesh of providing necessary financial support for construction of the long-awaited Padma Bridge, as the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, made the request during a meeting with the premier of the oil-rich Gulf state.
   The prime minister of Kuwait, Sheikh Nas’r Muhammad Al-Sabah, gave the assurance at the bilateral meeting with the chief adviser on the sidelines of the 63rd session of UN General Assembly at the UN Headquarters on Thursday evening.
   The meeting over, the chief adviser’s press secretary, Syed Fahim Munaim, told newsman that the Kuwaiti premier told the chief adviser that his country was willing to provide with financial assistance from the Kuwait Fund.
   He requested sending details of the bridge project for processing the financial assistance.
   He also said the government of Kuwait had taken steps to enact new laws to protect the rights of foreign workers, and Bangladeshi workforce would be benefited from the legal protection.
   Terming the meeting warm and cordial, the chief adviser said, ‘Kuwait has been a long-lasting friend of Bangladesh.’
   He said foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury’s recent visit to Kuwait was very fruitful, as a number of good decisions were taken during that time.
   Among others, foreign adviser Iftekhar, the Kuwaiti foreign minister and the Bangladesh permanent representative to the UN Ismat Jahan were present.

The Unity for Political Reform coordinator, ASM Abdur Rab, on Friday said the people must reach a national consensus to resolve the ongoing political crisis.
   He called on the government to reopen the closed mills and factories to create jobs for workers. Corruptions must be stopped in sate-owned sectors.
   He was addressing a discussion meeting, organised by the Dhaka city unit of Samajtantrik Sramik Jote, in its central office.
   The Sramik Jote president, Abul Khaer Sajjad, joint secretary Abdul Khaleque, Abdur Razzak and others took part in the discussion. The discussion was followed by iftar.

Juma’tul Wida, the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, was observed across the country with religious fervour and sanctity.
   Large number of Muslims attended the juma prayers at different mosques seeking divine blessings for peace and progress of Bangladesh and unity of the Muslims.
   The largest Juma’tul Wida congregation was held at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in the capital. Thousands of devotees took part in the congregation and sought the blessing of Allah for salvation of the departed souls of their near and dear ones and also for the peace and prosperity of the Muslims.
   Special arrangements were made to accommodate the extraordinary surge of devotees in all mosques in various parts of the city. The management of mosques in many places had erected tents outside the main mosque buildings to create additional space for offering of prayers.
   At many places, the devotees even offered prayers on roads. Khateebs and ulema delivered special sermons highlighting the significance of the day. They urged the Muslims to submit themselves to the will of Almighty Allah to seek His mercy and blessings. They called for greater unity among the Muslims to counter the present-day challenges.
   Juma’tul Wida has a special significance since it is a prelude to the departure of the holy month of Ramadan marked by the showering of divine blessings.

The Detective Branch have arrested two suspects at Shyamali and Mohammadpur in Dhaka on charge of killing an employee of the Sohag Paribahan at its Kalyanpur counter on September 11 over refusal to pay toll.
   The arrested were Sumon
   of Shekher Tek at Mohammadpur and Faruk Hossain of Darus Salam Road at Shah Ali.
   The police team also seized two foreign-made revolvers, seven bullets and a pistol with four bullets, believed to have been uses in the killing, from Faruk.
   The officials at a briefing in the Detective Branch office on Friday said they had first arrested Sumon from Shyamali on September 23 on suspicion of killing Sohag employee Parvez and
   interrogated him.
   During interrogation, Sumon admitted to being involved in the killing and named his associates who also took part in the killing.
   According to the statement, plainclothes policemen arrested Faruq at a house on Babar Road at Mohammadpur on September 24.
   According to the confessional statements of the arrested, four extortionists attacked the Kalyanpur ticket counter of the Sohag Paribahan on September 11 soon after Parvez had opened the counter at about 5:45am. They shot dead Parvez and got away.
   The law enforcers are also conducting hunt to arrest two others, Biplob and Dulal.
   Extortionists had demanded a huge amount of money from the Sohag Paribahan owner for two to three months and carried out several gun attacks, the police said.

The government has extended the time for procuring boro paddy and rice during the current season till October 31.
   The season’s procurement was scheduled to end on September 30, an official handout said on Friday.

An information hub on a boat, named ‘Tathya Tari’ started providing livelihood information among communities of haor region in Dirai upazila of Sunamganj.
   Mobile operator Grameenphone and CARE Bangladesh jointly launched the information boat project on September 22 with the aim to educate and empower the rural people, especially the poor and marginalised, with the necessary information for their livelihoods.
   The boat moves from one place to another by turns to meet the communication needs of the people having limited access to up-to-date livelihood and other information that includes agriculture.
   The boat is equipped with computers, Internet and email facilities, photocopiers, fax machines, printers, video, scanners and more depending on the needs of the communities.
   Grameenphone’s head of corporate social responsibilities Shuvashish Priya Barua and CARE’s assistant country director Stav Zotalis were present at the project launching ceremony, said a release.
   More information boats will be launched in different parts of the country under the project, it said.

The Chittagong unit of the National Garment Workers’ Federation demanded payment of wages and festival allowance to the workers in all garment factories before Eid.
   The demand was made at a briefing at the Chittagong Press Club on Friday.
   The divisional unit president of the federation, Fayez Ahmed, vice-president Abdur Razzak, Mohammed Mainuddin and Nilufer Yasmin were present, among others, at the briefing while Emdadul Haque read out a statement.
   The federation leaders said most of the garment factories in Chittagong were yet to pay wages and festival allowance to the workers and urged the owners to make the payment immediately to mitigate the sufferings of the workers.
   They threatened tougher movements if they would not be paid the wages and the allowance in time.
   They said the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association had recently claimed implementation of minimum wages in more than 95 per cent factories, which was ‘absolutely false’.

The Communist Party of Bangladesh demanded that workers should be paid festival allowance equal to the minimum wage for a month.
   The party’s president Monzurul Ahsan Khan and general secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim in a statement on Friday said workers must get the festival allowance on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr and Duga Puja.
   The workers of all mills and factories and of the transport sector must get the festival allowance, they said. The provision for festival allowance for workers has been introduced after movement, but the workers in most cases are not paid the allowance, they said.
   In garment industries, the workers are not paid festival allowances, and in some case, the authorities are not paying the workers their salaries in arrears, they said.

The police seized 1.4 tonnes of rice, meant for VGF programme, from near Gayeshpur parishad office in Pabna on Thursday.
   They raided the area and recovered the rice at about 11:00pm when it was being loaded into a human hauler.
   Acting chairman of the Gayeshpur union parishad Abul Hossain, secretary Sayeduz-zaman, member Abdus Sabur and night guard Momtaj were engaged in loading the rice.
   They fled away sensing the arrival of the police.

A suspected leader of an underground party was killed in a shootout between his cohorts and the police near Zia Khal under Damurhuda upazila in Chuadanga early Friday.
   The deceased was identified as Farid, 30, of village Lakshmipur under the upazila, and a regional commander of the Purba Banglar Communist Party (ML).
   The police said they went to the area following a tip-off that a gang of 10-12 members of the party was holding a secret meeting at Zia Khal near Valaipur–Kalabari Road at about 2:30am.