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The government has asked the law enforcement agencies to closely watch the activities of 12 militant outfits, active in the country, it listed earlier, said sources in the home affairs ministry.
   The ministry in an earlier report submitted to the cabinet on March 16 named the 12 organisations as militant outfits.
   The cabinet then rejected the report as incomplete. The ministry said it was updating the list and by this time had asked the law enforcers to keep watch on the organisations, ministry sources said.
   The outfits are Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Hizbut Towhid, Ulama Anjuman al Baiyenat, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Islami Democratic Party, Islami Samaj, Touhid Trust, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, Shahadat-e-al-Hikma Party Bangladesh, Tamira ad-Din Bangladesh (Hizb-e-Abu Omar) and Allahr Dal.
   The Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government earlier banned four of the organisations — Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and Shahadat-e-al-Hikma.
   The ministry is now working to update the report on militancy, information on the patrons of militants, funding, present activities, organograms, links to political parties, operations, recruitment system, international connection and training, the state minister for home affairs, Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj, told New Age on Friday.
   He claimed many political parties were running militant activities with their front organisations and the ministry was trying to identify political organisations having links with militancy. ‘The report will cover such issues,’ he said.
   The report will be placed in the cabinet soon after its completion, but he could not give any specific deadline.
   The government will also seek cooperation from friendly countries to tackle militancy, if required, and it is now preparing guidelines on foreign assistance in dealing with the issue, Sohel Taj said.
   ‘Militancy has no border. It is a problem around the world. We need cooperation from each other to root out militancy. So, we will seek assistance, if required, from friendly nations in this regard,’ he said.
   A framework is required to seek such assistance, he said, and the government is working on such a framework.
   The ruling Awami League, in its election manifesto, pledged to initiate a regional platform, a South Asian task force, to address the challenge of terrorism and militancy.
   The Indian high commissioner in Dhaka, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, meanwhile on Thursday stressed the need for fighting together, exchanging information and helping each other to tackle militancy.
   The United States also earlier expressed its willingness to cooperate with Bangladesh in fight against militancy.
   The ministry has formed a 17-member high-profile committee headed by Sohel Taj to tackle militancy, but the committee members are yet to hold any meeting.
   Although the people are generally against militancy, Sohel Taj said the main objective of the committee would be to mobilise public opinions and create awareness so that there could be a social resistance against militant activities.
   The committee will collect information on militant activities, analyse them, and work out strategies and issue directives to fight against militancy, according to its terms of reference.
   The committee will also evaluate the procedure for investigation of all major subversive activities carried out in the country in the recent past, the state minister said.

The lording of the lawmakers over the functioning of local government institutions will be disastrous for the local government system, said experts and local government representatives.
   It will constitute a violation of the constitution regarding decentralisation of power, Supreme Court verdict and electoral pledges of major political parties having representation in the parliament if lawmakers are allowed to have authority over local government institutions.
   It will also create an administrative chaos and scopes for corruption, which will hinder the process of development in cities, districts, upazilas and even in unions.
   They said this when the elected upazila representatives are sitting idle because they cannot start work in the absence of relevant laws and rules while lawmakers remain busy finding ways to meddle with the functioning of local government bodies.
   Confrontation between the lawmakers, elected in the December 29, 2008 general elections, and upazila representatives, elected in the January 22 elections, persists over the sweeping authority of lawmakers over upazila parishads.
   The upazila representatives are planning movement to push for changes in certain provisions in the Upazila Parishad (Reintroduction of the Repealed Act and Amendment) Act, unanimously passed by the parliament on April 6, and repeal of the provisions which gave the lawmakers authority to control the decisions made and work done by upazila parishads.
   The representatives of other local government bodies such as city corporations, municipalities and union parishads have also been worried about discharging their duties because of lawmakers’ move for influencing local government institutions.
   The lawmakers also initiated a move to ensure their involvement in the task of city corporations, another tier of the local government system.
   Two state ministers and parliamentarians elected for the Dhaka city constituencies on April 22 asked the Dhaka mayor to engage the lawmakers in the corporation activities in their constituencies.
   Asked about the lawmakers’ move for a role in the functioning of the city corporation, the Sylhet mayor, Badaruddin Ahmed Kamran, on Friday told New Age, ‘There is no scope for lawmakers to interfere into the activities of city corporations.’
   ‘There are councillors elected for each ward to see the development and wellbeing of the citizens of their areas. It will be unwise and will weaken the local government system if lawmakers want to engage themselves in city corporation projects,’ Badaruddin, also a ruling Awami League leader, said.
   The Municipal Association of Bangladesh president, Azmat Ullah Khan, also Tongi’s municipal mayor, on Friday said, ‘There are scopes for the central administration to interfere in the functioning of municipalities and union parishads as such institutions are yet to be made autonomous.’
   ‘The municipalities and union parishads have still been caught in the tangle of bureaucracy and central administration,’ he said.
   Salahuddin M Aminuazzaman, who teaches public administration in Dhaka University, said lawmakers’ engagement in local government activities would be a clear violation of the constitution and Supreme Court verdicts.
   The Supreme Court in a verdict delivered on April 27, 2006 said, ‘The members of parliament are entitled to ask for any information and raise grievances against any of their electorates in the house, but cannot interfere with the local administration.’
   The verdict also said the scheme of the constitution was that the members of parliament and the ministers would perform their functions centrally, keeping in broad view the necessity of the country as a whole while functioning of the local government bodies envisaged under Article 59 and 60, will be confined to the needs of the local area.
   ‘The members of parliament have got no direct role or function, in respect of either development or maintenance of law and order, in the district or in other local administrative units,’ said the High Court division of the Supreme Court in the verdict on a writ petition known as Anwar Hossain Manju versus the government, he said.
   Article 59 and 60 of the constitution empower the local government institutions to prepare and implement plans related to public services and economic development, work out their budgets, maintain funds, impose taxes for local purposes and maintain public order.
   The Awami League, which has more than three-fourths majority in the parliament, promised in its electoral manifesto to strengthen local government units in districts, upazilas and unions with decentralisation of powers.
   Badiul Alam Majumder, secretary of the non-governmental organisation Campaign for Good Governance, said lawmakers were trying to establish feudalism by grabbing more powers.
   ‘It [the lawmakers’ move for roles in local government bodies] is an ominous sign which will destroy the status of upazila parishad as an independent local government body,’ he said.
   Muhibur Rahman, the Bangladesh Upazila Chairmen’s Forum convener, said, ‘We cannot work despite being elected. The ministry in a circular is going to give the task invested with us to lawmakers. The lawmakers are running programmes such as Vulnerable Group Development, Vulnerable Group Feeding, Food for Work, Test Relief and payment of old-age allowances through their party activists.’
   The Bhanga upazila chairman, Sudhin Kumar Sarker, said, ‘We cannot start work as the upazila act is yet to be gazetted. It [the new law] is a clear violation of the constitution and non-fulfilment of the Awami League’s electoral pledge. It will destroy the status of upazila parishad as an independent local government body.’

As farmers across the country have begun harvesting boro rice fearing lower prices, the government is considering a procurement price of around Tk 23 per kilogram with a target of purchasing 7-8 lakh tonnes this season, say official sources.
   The price of a maund [about 37 kg] of the newly harvested paddy has come down between Tk 350 and Tk 280 at markets in the harvesting areas while many of the farmers still have stocks of previous year’s boro and aman paddy.
   Farmers in the northern region where irrigation is costly claimed that the cost of production of a maund of rice this year was more than Tk 500 and the growers in the relatively marshy Sylhet region put it at Tk 400 a maund.
   Against the backdrop, the government’s food planning and monitoring committee is scheduled to sit for a meeting tomorrow (Sunday) to fix the price of rice during the procurement drives beginning May 1 and set a price for boro with a view to giving the farmers price support for their produces.
   Sources in the food and disaster management ministry said they were working on a price between Tk 22 and Tk 24 for a kg of rice, which, the government believed, would benefit the farmers directly and indirectly.
   However, in view of storage problems, the government this year is likely to procure much less quantum of rice than that of the previous year when the interim government purchased about 12 lakh tonnes of rice [inclusive of three lakh tonnes of paddy] at a rate of Tk 28 a kg for rice. Market price of paddy was more than Tk 800 a maund in the year.
   Economist Anu Muhammad said the farmers in general would be losers if they were not offered a price of more than Tk 500 a maund. ‘Price support protects the farmers and keeps the market stable even when crops flood the market,’ he told New Age.
   Terming bumper production of rice following higher prices a ‘cobweb effect’, the professor of economics at Jahangirnagzar University pointed out that the government should go for higher procurement to support farmers and also to increase the stocks for food security.
   Economist Mahbub Hossain earlier said that unless the government procured 30 lakh tonnes of rice, the procurement would not make any significant impact on the markets in protecting the interests of the farmers. At present, the government has more than 8 lakh tonnes of rice in its grain silos even after food distribution under the safety net programmes.
   A group of farmers of Rajapur village under Birai upazila of Sunamganj district held a rally on Thursday evening, to express their resentment at the dwindling paddy prices. Price of boro paddy fell to less than Tk 300 after harvest in the area began about two weeks ago, New Age Sylhet correspondent Zaman Munir reported.
   ‘Our production cost is approximately Tk 400 a maund and we think the price per maund should be more than Tk 500,’ said Mujibur Rahman, a local farmer.
   Sabur Miah, a farmer of Sudampara village in Nagarpur upazila under Tangail district, cultivated early variety rice on five acres expecting a higher price as witnessed traditionally in this time of the year. But to his utter dismay, the price has slumped to Tk 350. ‘We fear the price will fall further when most of the farmers will harvest their rice,’ he said.
   In the same village, Santosh Khan had 300 maunds and Gulam Ali 200 maunds of paddy produced in the past year in their stocks. ‘We kept additional quantity of rice for both our consumption and to get a better price. Now, we are counting losses,’ said Abdur Razzak, a farmer of neighbouring Mamudnagar village. The price of the old stock of dry paddy is more than Tk 400 a maund whereas the price was Tk 800 maund in the previous year.
   Nurul Huq, a farmer of Mitthapukur in Rangpur district said he had not separated from straw at least 100 maunds of paddy produced during the previous aman season due to the price fall. ‘It is absurd to sell paddy at rates lower than the cost of production of more than Tk 480 a maund,’ he said.
   The Department of Agriculture Extension, Bogra, has estimated the production cost for per kg of paddy at Tk 13 while farmers of region put it at Tk 14.

The Bangladesh Tariff Commission has recommended reduction of tariff on import of copper rod, yellow brass wire, baby food, fruits, while it suggested increased tax on metallic flat yarn in the upcoming budget to protect the local industries from the bites of global recession, official sources said.
   The commission recently sent 10 recommendations to the ministry of commerce for incorporating them in the national budget 2009-10.
   ‘We have examined the local production cost against the import cost of the products on the basis of effective rate of protectionism and domestic cost,’ BTC member Ruknud–Deen Ahmed told New Age.
   He also said because of the fall in local demand for some products due to recession, the local industries may be affected and they need tariff advantage on the import of their raw materials.
   The BTC has suggested imposing 25 per cent tariff on the import of metallic flat yarn as the local metallic flat yarn producers are facing tough competition. At present, the existing tariff on imported metallic flat yarn is only 12 per cent.
   The standard of the local textile products has fallen as the producers are now using polyester instead of viscous rayon, the import cost of which is still very high. The commission wants to reduce the import tax on viscous rayon from 7 per cent to 3 per cent.
   The commission has also sought reduction of import tax on copper rod, one of raw materials of local cable wire, to 3 per cent from 12 per cent.
   At least nine industries are producing glass frames in the country and the BTC found that the effective rate of protection in their case is negative. The commission has suggested the import tax on yellow brass wire to be reduced to 7 per cent from the existing 12 per cent.
   The import of complete built-in power tillers is affecting the local assembling industries and so the BTC wants to raise import tax on power tillers from 3 percent to 12 per cent. Besides, the commission also wants to reduce import duties on engines for power tillers to zero from the existing 3 per cent.
   The commission wants to provide some relief to the local food chain producers by imposing 20 per cent supplementary duties on import of bulk baby food. International baby food product like Maltova, Boost and Viva are now being produced in the country.
   The BTC recommended reduction of import tax on apple and grapes from 25 per cent to 12 per cent and withdrawal of 20 per cent supplementary duties on the items.

The leader of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels is trapped in a small strip of jungle and intends to make a final stand with his surviving forces, an army commander said on Friday.
   The commander said a rebel spokesman who surrendered to government troops earlier in the week had reported that Velupillai Prabhakaran, 54, was still in charge of his cornered and depleted separatist army in the island’s northeast.
   The Tamil Tiger spokesman ‘says that Prabhakaran was living inside and that he will be there until the last moment,’ Brigadier Shavendra Silva told reporters.
   ‘But, even at the last minute, he will try to escape,’ said the commander, who is spearheading the offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who have fought for decades for a separate Tamil homeland.
   Prabhakaran has not been seen for 18 months, and speculation has been rife that he may have been killed or already fled the island.
   The fighting has sparked a wave of international concern for the fate of 50,000 people still said by the United Nations to be trapped in the conflict zone.
   The UN also estimates that as many as 6,500 civilians may have been killed and another 14,000 wounded in the fighting so far this year, diplomats said.
   Reporters taken by the military to the front line at Puttumatalan, about an hour’s drive along a bombed out road from the former Tiger capital Kilinochchi, saw smoke rising from the last patch of land where the rebels are encircled.
   Intermittent gunfire and explosions could be heard in the area, but journalists were not allowed to speak with any of the tens of thousands of civilians who managed to escape the conflict zone earlier this week.
   Silva told reporters in Kilinochchi, 330 kilometres north of the capital Colombo, that many guerrillas wanted to surrender.
   The army says the remnants of the LTTE — who once controlled a third of the island — are now confined to a 10 square kilometre strip of coastline.
   ‘My soldiers are suffering casualties because they cannot fire [heavy weapons],’ Silva told reporters, insisting his troops were under instructions to ‘maintain zero civilian casualties.’
   The LTTE have been widely accused of using civilians as human shields. Sri Lanka’s hawkish administration is also facing mounting international demands for a truce as a way to spare civilian lives.
   ‘We urge the government to exercise extreme caution in its military actions and call upon the LTTE to allow displaced people to leave the area immediately,’ the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement.
   The government, however, has resisted appeals to end its offensive, and has also turned down requests to send humanitarian teams into the area.
   Instead it named the army’s number-two, Major General GA Chandrasiri, as taking charge of relief operations, officials said on Friday.
   As well as blocking most aid agencies, the Sri Lankan authorities have herded escaping Tamil civilians into closely-guarded internment camps so they can weed out suspected rebels.
   However, a Sri Lankan government official who declined to be named acknowledged Colombo was under ‘tremendous international pressure’ — with neighbour India sending an emergency diplomatic mission on Friday.
   Indian foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon and national security adviser MK Narayanan held talks on Friday with the president Mahinda Rajapakse, and New Delhi said the officials would stress the severity of the humanitarian crisis.
   ‘These killings must stop. The Sri Lankan government has a responsibility to protect its own citizens and the LTTE must stop its barbaric attempt to hold civilians hostage,’ Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a statement.
   Official sources here said the Indians had discussed the humanitarian situation, but did not directly press for a ceasefire. There was no immediate comment from the Indian side.
   India is in the middle of a month-long general election and the government is under pressure to respond to the concerns of some 60 million Tamils in Tamil Nadu — a key swing state in the south — over the fate of their fellow Tamils in Sri Lanka.
   There have been widespread protests by Tamils in foreign capitals, including the latest in Berlin where up to 7,000 Tamils staged an anti-Sri Lankan protest.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, is scheduled to return home this afternoon ending a five-day visit to Saudi Arabia.
   During her first overseas trip after the Awami League-led alliance assumed office on January 6, Hasina met the Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud and the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud Al Faisal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud.
   Following her meeting with high authorities in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi cabinet approved a decision that from now on Bangladeshi workers could transfer their work permit.
   She also performed umrah at Makkah, Hasina, also the ruling Awami League president, said prayers at Masjid-e-Nababi and visited the grave of the Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SM).
   Hasina met also attended a reception organised by the Bangladeshi expatriates in Saudi Arabia in a hotel in Makkah where she said her government decided to establish an expatriate welfare bank for safe migration of the Bangladeshi workers and proper use of foreign exchange.
   Hasina left Dhaka Monday night for Riyadh in a regular flight of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines. A 42-strong entourage is accompanying the prime minister.
   The prime minister’s entourage includes her younger sister Sheikh Rehana and son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, foreign minister Dipu Moni and state minister for foreign affairs Hasan Mahmud, expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, state minister for labour and employment Munnujan Sufian and Awami League presidium member Kazi Zafarullah.

Assailants shot at three people, including two ruling Awami League activists, at Phulbari Railway Colony opposite the Bangabazar police headquarters in Dhaka on Friday.
   The victims were identified as Ruhul Amin alias Ruhul, 40, joint convener of 56 Ward Awami League, his sister local Awami League activist Jahanara Begum Janu, 45, and their nephew Mohammad Jasim, 32, also general secretary of the Juba League 56 ward unit.
   Witnesses said three people in a motorbike arrived at Phulbaria Railway Colony and opened fires targeting the 56 Ward unit Awami League office at around 3:15pm.
   As Ruhul rushed to the scene hearing the gunshots, the assailants shot him in the left thigh but he managed to flee the scene jumping over the boundary wall of the colony.
   When Jasim came to save his maternal uncle, the assailants shot him in the left leg and hand, leaving him critically injured.
   Sensing trouble, Janu started running to save Jasim, the assailants also shot her in the abdomen and fled the scene.
   Local people took the three injured to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where they were undergoing treatment till Friday night.
   Reasons behind the gun attack could not be known immediately, but local people alleged that Ruhul and Jasim were unleashing criminal activities in the locality after the parliament election.
   They also evicted two families from the colony and were holding gambling for collecting toll.
   The gambling session was stopped Thursday night over intra-party conflict and the gun attack was a sequel to the conflict, they said.
   The Shahbagh police officer-in-charge, Rezaul Karim, told New Age, ‘We have already managed to trace out the attackers and we will soon be able to nab them.’
   A case was filed with the Shahbagh police in this connection.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has said it fears there are covert attempts to make the party to move out of its present central office at Naya Paltan.
   ‘All these are being done to harass the party and in the same way the party chairperson Khaleda Zia is being harassed over her house,’ BNP spokesperson Nazrul Islam Khan told NewAge Friday referring to the title suit filed by one Mamtaz Begum over the building which houses the BNP central office.
   A court on Thursday extended the stay order on its earlier order for evacuating the building that also houses the party’s associate organisations.
   Earlier on April 16, the same court stayed till April 23 the operation of its previous order for evacuation of the building.
   The court of assistant sessions judge Mustafizur Rahman on Thursday further extended the stay till May 5.
   When asked if the party central office would shift in case anything happened to its present premises, Nazrul Islam Khan also said the under-construction building of the Ziaur Rahman Charitable Trust had no relation with the party’s central office. ‘We have more offices in the city and they are not alternative to each other,’ he said.
   The BNP and its associate bodies have been using the building [28/1 Inner Circular Road at Naya Paltan] as its central offices since 1979.
   The party was ejected from the building during the regime of HM Ershad in 1982. The BNP, however, took possession of the building in 1991 after it assumed state power. Psyche Glass House authorities officially transferred the ownership of the building to the Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Memorial Trust in 1993.
   One Rezia Begum filed a lawsuit claiming partial ownership of the building the same year. The case is pending in court.
   Meanwhile, the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, has taken the first step towards a legal battle over her Dhaka cantonment house by serving a legal notice on the government Thursday asking it to withdraw by five days the notice served on her earlier to vacate the Shaheed Mainul Road house.
   Khaleda Zia was on April 20 served with a notice by the Directorate of Military Land and Cantonment to vacate the house by 15 days. The notice, handed over to a caretaker at the gate of the house, by the administrator of military lands, Muhibul Hossain, cited five grounds for which Khaleda should vacate the premises.
   Earlier on April 8, the cabinet decided to cancel the lease of the house.
   The BNP and its front organisations are staging street protests against the government’s decision and subsequent steps to evict the party chief from the house.
   The party will hold rallies and processions in district and upazila headquarters on Saturday to press for withdrawal of the government notice.

Thai premier Abhisit Vejjajiva on Friday lifted a state of emergency imposed in Bangkok amid violent protests, but said troops would stay on the streets to boost international confidence in the country.
   Abhisit said he had ended 12 days of emergency rule both to foster reconciliation with supporters of ousted former leader Thaksin Shinawatra and also to show the world that the troubled kingdom was back to normal.
   ‘We will send a signal to the international community that normalcy has been restored,’ Abhisit said at his offices in Bangkok’s Government House, which were at the epicentre of the protests by the pro-Thaksin ‘Red Shirts’.
   He declared an emergency in the capital and five surrounding provinces on April 12, a day after demonstrators forced the cancellation of a summit of Asian leaders in the coastal city of Pattaya.
   Two people were killed and 123 injured as protesters later fought running battles with troops across Bangkok for two days, before finally dispersing on April 14 in the face of a threatened military crackdown.
   Tensions also rose a week ago after an assassination attempt in Bangkok on the founder of the anti-Thaksin ‘Yellow Shirts’ movement, Sondhi Limthongkul, who led a crippling blockade of the capital’s airports last year.
   Terrestrial television channels all interrupted normal programming at midday (0500 GMT) to show an official announcement of the end of the state of emergency.
   Abhisit said he was confident the international community would accept that it was ‘crucial to maintain troops’ in areas where there was still public concern and where the police were overstretched.
   ‘Foreigners will understand as they closely monitor the rallies,’ he said.
   Thailand’s image as a ‘Land of Smiles’ for tourists has taken a major hit from the recent disturbances, including the airport blockade, which left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded.
   Businesses had also pressed the government to lift the emergency, with state-controlled Thai Airways suffering a 20 per cent drop in bookings — mainly from Asian countries — since it was imposed, the Nation newspaper reported.
   During a parliamentary debate overnight, Abhisit had said he would lift the emergency as part of wider efforts to end
   the years of political turmoil since Thaksin was ousted in a military coup in 2006.
   The Red Shirts want Abhisit to quit and call elections, saying that the Democrat Party leader came to power unfairly in December after a court toppled Thaksin’s allies from power.
   ‘Lifting the state of emergency is part of measures to find a solution for the country. The government wants to show its sincerity, that the government wants reconciliation and to make the country move forwards,’ he said.
   But Abhisit faces a major challenge to heal the deep rifts in Thai society between the largely rural poor — many of whom still love the populist Thaksin, — and powerful Bangkok cliques in the palace, military and bureaucracy.
   A new Red Shirt rally is planned for Saturday in Samut Sakhon province, 36 kilometres outside Bangkok. A television report also said that there would be one in downtown Bangkok.
   The situation has been further inflamed by the issue last week of warrants for Thaksin — who lives in exile to avoid a jail sentence for corruption — and 12 other allies for allegedly inciting the protests in Pattaya.
   Jakrapob Penkair, a senior Red Shirt leader, told AFP from an unknown foreign location on Monday that the group would continue their campaign against Abhisit.
   Thailand’s murky politics were also complicated by the attack on media mogul Sondhi — whose movement blamed ‘men in uniform’ and not the rival Red Shirts.
   The country’s army chief admitted on Thursday that some of the bullets used in the assault had come from the military.

The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority on Friday asked power authorities to ensure proper electric supply to water pumps in four vulnerable city areas as frequent power outages continue to play havoc with water extraction.
   The residents in the city also continued to suffer in the sweltering heat at the weekend as there was no respite from frequent power cuts even after the authorities had claimed they had diverted 200MW of ‘additional’ electricity to the city.
   WASA officials at a meeting with officials of the Dhaka Power Distribution Company and the Dhaka Electric Supply Company at DESA Bhaban on Friday said water pumps in the Lalmatia-Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Gulshan-Baridhara and Uttara zones faced power cuts of the worst level while other areas also faced outages.
   WASA officials, led by the agency’s managing director Shahjahan Ali Mollah, said supply water situation in the city was seriously disrupted as many water pumps remained idle for more than half a day because of power outages. WASA has 502 deep tube wells in the city.
   They said although many deep tube wells had back-up generators, it had become impossible for them to run the pumps for 12–14 hours a day on generators.
   They asked the power companies to provide electricity for the power pumps also from alternative feeder lines so that the pumps could get uninterrupted power supply once outages would take place in the main feeder line.
   The DPDC managing director, Ataul Masud, and the DESCO managing director, Saleh Ahmed, led the power officials to the meeting.
   The meeting decided that field-level power and water officials would visit each of the water pumps in vulnerable areas to inspect whether it was possible to provide dual power line for them.
   The officials will also find out the availability of generators and whether outages could be minimised in the feeder lines that provide connections to the pumps.
   After the meeting, Ataul Masud told New Age they would try to provide dual power connections to pumps in the Lalmatia-Mohammadpur area. ‘But it will be a huge task as each of the water pumps need about 60KW of electricity. Additional transformers will need to be installed to provide the pumps with alternative connections. We will try,’ he said.
   Saleh Ahmed said field-level water and power officials would try to prepare a new load shedding schedule for feeder lines with connections for deep tube wells. ‘They will establish when WASA can run its generators. We will impose load shedding when WASA will be able to run generators at the deep tube wells,’ he said.
   Saleh, however, said it would take time to install dual lines for deep tube wells.
   City residents, meanwhile, faced power cuts for six to eight hours on Friday although the authorities claimed to have diverted 200MW of additional electricity to the city.
   ‘Although we have been told we would get 200MW of additional electricity, in true sense, we did not get any additional electricity on Thursday. We got around 140MW of additional electricity on Friday, but we are not certain whether we will continue to get the additional amount on weekdays,’ said a DPDC official.
   He said the DPDC had officially got around 1,250MW–1,290MW of electricity during evening peak hours in the last few weeks and around 1,290MW from Tuesday to Wednesday. ‘But we got around 1,310MW of electricity on Thursday although we have been told by the higher authorities we will get additional 200MW of electricity,’ he said.
   He said the DPDC had got 1,417MW of electricity on Friday. ‘Unusually, at the weekends, we get additional supply as many industries remain shut. We are not certain though whether we will continue to get more then 1,400MW of electricity from Sunday,’ he said.
   The electric supply at day time also increased to 1200MW on Friday from around 1,100MW-1,150MW.
   Officials said even if the DPDC could get around 1,200MW at day time and 1,400MW during evening hours, there would be six to eight hours of power outage in the city as the demand for power ranged between around 1,600MW and 1,800MW at day time and hovers around 2,000MW during evening hours.

Heat that has been intensifying for a few days reached 38.5 degrees Celsius in Dhaka on Friday, so far the highest temperature of the season, making life strenuous, especially for day-labourers, rickshaw-pullers and floating people.
   The Met Office said there could be no immediate respite from the sweltering, humid weather as the heat wave sweeping over a half of the country might continue for a few more days.
   A moderate-to-severe heat wave is sweeping over the Khulna division and the regions of Dhaka, Tangail, Faridpur, Rajshahi and Ishwardi and a mild-to-moderate heat wave over the Rajshahi division and the regions of Mymensingh, Madaripur, Rangpur, Chandpur, Barisal and Patuakhali.
   The weathermen on Friday said day temperature would remain nearly unchanged today. Heat waves are usually followed by heavy rains, but there are little chances of rain in a few days, meteorologists said.
   The day’s highest temperature, 41.6 degrees Celsius, was recorded in Jessore. It was 40.2 degrees in Khulna, 40.0 degrees in Rajshahi, 33.3 degrees in Chittagong, 36.1 degrees in Barisal and 33.8 degrees in Sylhet. The lowest temperature, 21.8 degrees, was recorded in Rangpur.
   There were a few people on the city roads at noon and the rickshaw-pullers or auto-rickshaw drivers charged much higher than the usual fares.
   Mokbul Hossain, 50, who pulls a rickshaw in Dhaka, said, ‘It has become extremely difficult for me to pull the rickshaw for hours on end. I had to take rest for half an hour after each trip and my earning has dropped.’
   Shahidul Islam, who needs to travel downtown by bus from Mirpur every day, said he would keep open the window of the bus for some air, but
   he could not do so on Friday as heat gushed in as soon as he opened the window.
   Schoolteacher Samira Khan was happy that it was weekend. She would need to suspend classes, otherwise, as it could be tough for her students to stay in classrooms for hours in the sweltering heat.
   The northern town of Bogra also faced the season’s highest temperature, 37.4 degrees Celsius, on Friday.
   People in the town suffered much for the heat and were forced to stay indoors. The people of low-income group suffered most.
   Reports from Rajshahi said scorching heat had made life strenuous for city residents for four days.
   ‘In the absence of rain, humidity increased in the morning abnormally and decreased in the afternoon, making weather intolerable,’ a meteorologist in the Rajshahi Met Office said. Humidity was 95 per cent in the morning and 19 per cent in the afternoon.
   The Met Office recorded the temperature in Rajshahi at 40.0 degrees Celsius on Friday, 41.02 degrees on Thursday and 38.06 degrees on Wednesday.
   People in Pabna said special prayers for rain.

Extreme summer heat is causing not only diarrhoea but also other problems like heat stroke, cramps, dehydration, itching and jaundice, doctors and hospital sources said on Friday.
   According to the directorate of health services’ control room and International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh, at least 18 people died and more than 55,500 diarrhoea patients were admitted to hospitals in the country in the past 30 days.
   A total of 751 patients from in and around Dhaka were admitted to the ICDDR,B hospital at Mohakhali till 8:00pm on Friday and the number is feared to cross a thousand by mid-night, said Dr Azharul Islam Khan, head of the ICDDR,B short stay unit.
   Medical experts said people are also suffering from other forms of heat related diseases –– dehydration, heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
   On Friday, the highest temperature in the country was recorded in Jessore at 41.6 degree Celsius while Dhaka experienced so far the year’s highest temperature of 38.5 degree Celsius in the city, said Abdur Rahman, duty forecasting officer of the meteorology department.
   Jessore General Hospital’s paediatrician Mahfuzur Rahman said during the last one week he had received more than 70 children with respiratory problems due to excessive sweating.
   Rajsjahi Medical College Hospital’s Dr Azizul Huq said cases of diarrhoea and other heat-related diseases have increased significantly but could not provide the number.
   A large number of people, particularly day-labourers and rickshaw pullers, reported to different hospitals in the capital and other places with heat exhaustion symptoms including paleness, nausea, extreme fatigue, dizziness, light-headedness, vomiting, fainting and a cool clammy skin.
   Heat cramps can be uncomfortable, though it is not life threatening, said Professor Abul Kalam Azad, of Specialised Doctor’s Care in Dhaka.
   Heat stroke, however, needs immediate medical attention as it is more fatal than heat cramps, Azad added.
   Professor of medicine of Dinajpur Medical College Hospital FM Siddiqui said heat exhaustion could be a serious illness and should be carefully monitored. Cool, shady environments, liquids, cool rags placed on various areas of the body and replacement of electrolytes (such as those found in sports drinks) are used to treat this condition, he said.
   Heat often causes people to sweat excessively, leading to dehydration and can cause serious heat-related disease such as diarrhoea, vomiting and fever, said Dr Shahadat Hussain of the ICDDR,B.
   He also said the symptoms of dehydration include intense thirst, less-frequent urination, dry skin, fatigue, light-headedness, dizziness, confusion, dry mouth and mucous membranes, increased heart rate and breathing.
   For children, additional symptoms may include dry mouth and tongue, no tears while crying, no wet diapers for more than three hours, sunken abdomen, eyes or cheeks, high fever, listlessness, irritability and a skin that does not flatten when pinched and released, said Dr Taskina at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
   M Abid Hossain Mollah, professor of paediatrics at Dhaka Medial College, said he has been receiving patients with heat-related sickness including cramps three time higher than usual.
   He said heat cramps are associated to the lack of fluids in the body; loss of salt through sweating may also be a cause. ‘This can be treated with water, cool air and rest. Cold beverage containing minerals are also helpful’, he said.
   If a person becomes dehydrated and cannot sweat enough to cool their body, his internal temperature may rise to dangerously high levels, causing heat stroke, said FM Siddiqui, a professor of medicine of Dinajpur Medical College Hospoital.
   The first sign to look for in a victim of heat stroke is red, flushed skin, no sweat, high temperature, seizures, headache, rapid pulse, dizziness, disorientation, agitation or confusion, sluggishness or fatigue, hot, dry skin that is flushed but not sweaty, loss of consciousness, rapid heart beat and hallucinations.

The opposition should not stay away from parliament over an extra-parliamentary issue, the speaker, Abdul Hamid, said Friday in the face of a boycott threat from BNP protesting at the government notice served on its chief to leave her Dhaka cantonment house.
   ‘Everything could be discussed in parliament, but it would not be right for the opposition to boycott parliament over an extra-parliamentary issue,’ Hamid told reporters after attending a convention of Lions Club International.
   The BNP lawmaker, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, warned of a parliament boycott after the government served a notice on the opposition leader, Khaleda Zia, on April 20 to vacate the cantonment residence, which she got on a lease.
   Addressing the convention, the speaker said, ‘The ruling and opposition parties will have to work together to continue with the democratic process.’

A clash between the activists of the ruling Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party at a village under Harinakundo upazila in Jhenidah on Thursday left 10 of them injured critically.
   In separate incident, a local leader of AL took away the paddy from the field of a BNP leader at village Kripalpur at Shailkupa upazila in the district.
   Police and locals said AL leader Samir of village of Kalishangkarpur demanded Tk eight from BNP activists Siraj, Moslem and Badar Uddin as extortion as a sequel to previous enmity. Samir was given Tk 50,000 extortion a few days back.
   The officer-in-charge of the Harinakundo police station helped them to reach an understanding that they would not attack each other several days ago.
   But they locked in a clash on Thursday over a trivial matter of damaging a betel leaf garden by goats.
   AL activists led by local leader Samir equipped with sharp weapons attacked the BNP activists, leaving Babul, Jahangir Alam, Ukil Uddin, Abdul Wahed, Abul Kashem, Adil and Tizarat injured. They are BNP men.
   Of them, Jahangir Alam and Ukil Uddin were sent to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital in critical condition. The rest five were admitted to Harinakundo Upazila Health Complex with serious injuries. Three AL activists were also injured in the clash and they were rushed to the local upazila hospital.
   After the clash, AL men set on fire a betel leaf garden of BNP leader Babul. They also vandalised the house of a BNP activist Jalil at the village.
   Police arrested AL leader Samir and BNP leader Babul. Additional police were deployed at village Kalishangkarpur.
   The officer-in-charge of the Harinakundo police station, Jahangir Alam, confirmed the incident and said the clash might have been occurred between the activists of AL and BNP as a sequel to their previous enmity.
   In another incident on Thursday, an AL leader took away the paddy from a field of a BNP leader Anwar Joarder of village Kripalpur at Shailkupa upazila in the district. On information, police rushed to the spot and recovered the paddy.
   A case was lodged with the Shailkupa police station in this connection.

Pakistan’s army chief on Friday insisted the military was ready for the threat posed by Taliban insurgents, saying its decision not to deploy in a militant-infested area was tactical.
   The statement by chief of army staff General Ashfaq Kayani coincided with the Taliban’s announcement that it was withdrawing from north-western Buner district, which they entered a few days ago to broaden their control.
   ‘The operational pause, meant to give the reconciliatory forces a chance, must not be taken for a concession to the militants,’ a military statement quoted Kayani as saying at a meeting in the army’s General Headquarters.
   Taliban militants announced their withdrawal from Buner following an all-party conference in the north-western city of Peshawar which vowed to implement shariah justice in the Swat valley.
   Kayani rebuffed doubts cast on the ability of the armed forces to fight militancy in the country.
   General Kayani ‘made it clear that the Pakistan army never has and never will hesitate to sacrifice, whatever it may take, to ensure the safety and well-being of the people of Pakistan and country’s territorial integrity,’ the statement said.
   Taliban fighters on Friday began evacuating the district where the government deployed extra forces to stop hardliners advancing closer to the capital, officials said.
   Taliban militants armed with Kalashnikovs had patrolled for three days in the district of Buner, 100 kilometres from Islamabad, before the fighters and a local government official confirmed they had begun to leave.
   ‘They are now withdrawing from Buner,’ announced North West Frontier Province information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain after officials convened crisis talks to decide how to counter the advancing Islamist menace.
   Muslim Khan, the main Taliban spokesman in the area, confirmed the pullout, telling AFP, ‘The decision has been taken to withdraw from Buner. Taliban have already withdrawn from some areas.’
   Local residents told AFP that they had seen Taliban fighters leaving some areas, while television footage showed armed militants in black turbans and traditional white shalwar kameez outfits boarding mini-buses and trucks.
   The extremists’ withdrawal came as officials said they would fully implement a controversial deal — ratified less than two weeks ago by the president, Asif Ali Zardari, — to put a large part of northwest Pakistan under Islamic law.

The Jamaat-e-Islami Friday warned that any step against the country’s Islamic institutions would not be tolerated.
   ‘People will not tolerate any attack on the country’s Islamic institutions, including quomi madrassah,’ the Jamaat secretary general, Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, told a council of party representatives in Sylhet in the morning, said a press release.
   Mujahid also threatened to launch a movement from Sylhet if India builds Tipaimukh Dam.
   Terming the present time both for his party and the country critical, he urged Jamaat workers to have patience and seek help from Almighty Allah.
   Mujahid also suggested his party colleagues to study Qu’ran and Hadith for having proper guidance to live in peace and face any difficulties.

The Rapid Action Battalion arrested a woman with smuggled explosives and gunpowder from bordering Shewratala village
   under Gangni upazila in Meherpur Friday morning.
   The police said the elite force arrested Sajeda Khatun, 28, wife of Naharul while going to upazila headquarters with the smuggled explosives at about 10:00am.
   On interrogation, she confessed that she was involved in smuggling of the explosives into the country from neighbouring India.

A man was killed by unnamed assailants in the Tepakhola bus stand area in the Faridpur town on Thursday.
   The deceased was Labhlu Mia, 28, a human hauler driver and resident of Bhajondanga at Aliabad in the district headquarters.
   The police quoting local residents said he was seriously injured when a gang attacked him at about 7:30pm.
   He was first taken to Faridpur General Hospital and then moved to Faridpur Medical College Hospital where he died.
   The body was sent for a post-mortem examination. His widow, Sajeda Begum, filed a case in this connection.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, said Juma prayers at Masjid-e-Nababi in Madinah Friday.
   She also performed ziarat at the Rawza Mubarak of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SM) and fateha there.
   The prime minister prayed for peace, progress and prosperity of the country as well as the Muslim nations.
   After saying Juma prayers, Hasina left Madinah for Jeddah by a Saudi royal aircraft.

The Bangladesh Rifles and the Border Security Force of India at a meeting Friday agreed to work together to check cross-border crimes and resolve other problems.
   Held in the Sultanpur border area under Kalaroa upazila of Satkhira, the company commander-level meeting discussed matters relating to killing and kidnapping of innocent Bangladeshi nationals, smuggling of arms, explosives and drugs, human trafficking, insurgency and cross-border crimes.
   BDR Hijoldi company commander subedar Munsur Helal led the six-member BDR team while acting company commander of BSF Gobindapur Company SI Ram Das headed the six-member BSF side at the meeting.
   Both the BDR and BSF sides handed over documents of joint border checking.
   The BDR alleged that BSF men had been killing innocent Bangladeshi nationals along the border areas rather than arresting.
   The leader of the Indian delegation assured the BDR that necessary actions would be taken against those found involved in killings and kidnappings of innocent Bangladeshi nationals.
   The BSF officials showed positive attitude in resolving disputes through talks, a BDR official said.
   Deputy assistant director of BDR 41 Rifles Battalion Mahbubur Rashid said some decisions were made to avert untoward incidents.