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The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Wednesday urged the students to be attentive to their studies, devote themselves to the development of the country and refrain from getting involved in crimes, extortion and violence in the name of student politics.
   ‘The students will need to go by rules and regulations. The students who will violate laws and get involved in extortion and violence will be arrested and expelled from the organisation,’ said Hasina as she addressed a Bangladesh Chhatra League reunion in Paltan Maidan.
   The ruling Awami League’s associate body of students organised the reunion marking its 61st founding anniversary
   Before Hasina, who is also the Awami League president, reached there, several hundred Chhatra League activists had clashed for an hour when they threw chairs at each other.
   Chhatra League activists of the Dhaka College and Titumir College units first clashed over who would sit close to the stage.
   Former Chhatra League leaders and the law enforcers controlled the students. The clash began at about 11:00am, when the prime minister was scheduled to reach the programme, but the clash delayed her arrival till about 12:50pm.
   Standing behind a bullet-proof shield, Hasina said, ‘I asked the students to keep peace and they followed my directive. And the leaders of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the opposition BNP, observed the founding anniversary of organisation by cutting cakes in Madhu’s Canteen in Dhaka University only two days after the national elections.’
   ‘If the BNP had won the elections, could Chhatra League activists have gone to Madhu’s canteen?’ she said.
   Hasina said Chhatra League activists would be controlled, but no excesses by any other organisations would also be tolerated.
   Without referring to media reports on Chhatra League infighting in Jahangirnagar University, Hasina said, ‘People had not forgotten what happened after the October 1, 2001 general elections. But the media then did not run reports on the incidents considering that the new government should be given a year to set things on the right track. But now they do not want to give us only a month.’
   ‘I want to tell the newspapers that during the BNP-led alliance government, 21,000 Awami League leaders and activist were killed, pieces of land grabbed and residence halls of students captured,’ she said, urging the media to compare the present situation with that after the 2001 elections neutrally and honestly.
   Hasina said the media should now take the responsibility of returning the pieces of land grabbed during the BNP-led government to the owners.
   ‘During the Awami League’s previous term, a journalist was harassed and then the newspapers strongly protested at the incident, but during the BNP-led coalition government, 14 journalists were killed, but then the media were not so vocal against such incidents,’ Hasina said. ‘Why is this discrimination? I can understand.’
   ‘In fact, after failing to implement the ‘minus two’ theory, they [the media] have now started giving vent to their anger directed towards us,’ she said.
   She said it would not be ethical for anyone to think that everything could be done in a month as the government has no magic lamp.
   As for power generation, she said the past government had not added a single megawatt of power and the people would need to wait for two to three years for fresh power generation.
   Hasina was also critical of the immediate-past military-controlled interim government saying it had set out well, but it failed in its mission because of its pursuance of the ‘minus two’ formula.
   She, however, thanked the caretaker administration for preparing an appropriate electoral roll and holding the elections in a free and fair manner.
   She urged the party leaders and activists to be aware of the people who always want to join the party in power. ‘Do not give them any such scope as they will create trouble after their joining… We cannot take the responsibility for such elements. We need no more activists as we have people’s mandate,’ she said.
   Hasina told the Chhatra League leaders and activist that the conference of the organisation would be held soon and genuine students would be in the leadership through elections by ballot.
   She inaugurated the ceremony by hoisting the national and the party flag and releasing balloons and white pigeons into the air.
   Ministers, top party leaders and former Chhatra League presidents and secretaries attended the programme.
   The Chhatra League president, Mahmud Hasan Ripon, who presided over the reunion, said the organisation activists were involved in all the movements in the past and they would continue to do so in the coming days under the directive of their leader Sheikh Hasina.
   He also said there was no conflict among the Chhatra League leaders and activists and they all were united under Hasina’s leadership.
   The Chhatra League general secretary, Mahafuz Haider Chowdhury Roton, conducted the programme.

Leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the Awami League’s associate body of students, on Wednesday clashed over who would sit close to the stage during its the 61st founding anniversary reunion in Paltan Maidan in Dhaka.
   More than a hundred Chhatra League had clashed for an hour when they threw chairs at each other.
   Central Awami League and Chhatra League leaders several times tried to stop them, but failed to do so.
   The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, who was invited as chief guest to the programme, got on the stage at about 12:50pm although she was scheduled to arrive at 11:00am.
   The clash began at about 11:00am between the Chhatra League activists of Dhaka College and Titumir College.
   The Chhatra League activists of the units of Jagannath University, Dhaka City (north and south), Tajgaon College and Jatrabari and Demra joined the clash.
   After the clash, eight students were given first-aid treatment in Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   Former Chhatra League leaders and the law enforcement agencies controlled the clashes.
   Chhatra League leaders on stage several times requested the warring students to keep their calm. Former Chhatra League general secretary Ajoy Kar Khokan later announced that the people throwing chairs at each other would be treated as the party enemy and requested the law enforcers to identify the people and arrest them.
   Ministers, top Awami League leaders, the party lawmakers and former Chhatra League leaders, sitting in the front row, expressed their disappointment about the current activities of the Chhatra League.
   During the clash, many Chhatra League activists ran for shelter. Shopkeepers in the surroundings pulled down their shutters.
   Central Chhatra League leaders on stage shouted out at the warring groups asking them to keep their calm.
   The Chhatra League formed a committee to investigate the incident, the organisation’s president Mahmud Hasan Ripon
   told New Age in the evening.
   Chhatra League factions earlier clashed in many educational institutions, including Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Rajshahi University and Khulna BL College.

The Election Commission is planning to hold elections to the Dhaka City Corporation, which have been long overdue, in the last week of April without updating the electoral roll or redrawing the ward boundaries.
   ‘We want to hold Dhaka City Corporation elections in April. The commission will send a proposal to the local government ministry in this regards,’ the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, told a group of reporters after a commission meeting.
   Officials in the EC secretariat said after getting the government opinion on a tentative date for the elections, the commission would set the schedule.
   The officials said that commission would not update the electoral roll or redraw the city wards. Now the numbers of voters in the wards vary between the lowest of 20,000 and the highest of more than 1,00,000, according to the 1993 delimitation.
   According to the law, the local government ministry is now the authority to redraw city corporation wards, but it has no plans to do that in the capital before the city corporation polls, the officials said.
   The commission last delimited the wards in 1998, increasing the number to 100 from 90. But five cases were filed challenging the demarcation, after which the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government in 2001 scrapped the delimitation.
   The cancellation of the delimitation pushed the erstwhile commission to hold the latest April 27, 2002 DCC elections under the 1993 ward delimitation.
   Sources in the EC Secretariat said the commission at a meeting on Wednesday decided to hold DCC polls sometime between the Secondary School Certificate and Higher Secondary Certificate examinations.
   The commission will the polls using the current electoral roll with photographs, prepared in August 2008.
   The commission on January 14 decided to begin updating the electoral roll after May or June on completion of the polls to the Dhaka City Corporation, the municipalities, and the union parishads, the sources said.
   The local government and rural development ministry towards the end of January sent a letter to the Election Commission urging it to hold the DCC elections soon as the polls have been due for the a year and a half. The five-year tenure of the DCC administration expired on May 14, 2007.
   The commission has prepared a list of possible polling centres for the city corporation elections.
   Ninety councillors will be elected from the same number of wards, having equal authority to run their activities.

Severe air pollution is choking the citizens in the Dhaka and Chittagong cities with poisonous particles in the air exceeding the permissible level of human toleration. The citizens are at a serious health risk due to the highly-polluted air.
   ‘Many patients, both elderly and young, are coming to us these days with serious respiratory and pulmonary problems,’ Dr Ali Hossain of National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital told New Age.
   ‘Breathing polluted air is a major cause for the increase in the number of patients suffering from lung inflammatory reactions, bronchitis, respiratory troubles and adverse effects on the cardiovascular system,’ he said, citing a study conducted by the hospital.
   He said short-term health hazards like respiratory problem, cough and headache can occur within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. ‘It may even lead to cancer,’ Dr Hossain warned.
   People in general and children in particular are more susceptible to acute air pollution in places like Tejgaon and Old Town because of severe traffic congestions, noise from construction works and industrial emission, he said.
   SM Imamul Huq of the department of soil, water and environmental science of Dhaka University said air pollution has long-term effects on human health if they remain exposed to polluted air for long.
   ‘Air pollution also damages living environment including plants and animals,’ he said, adding, ‘It also reduces agricultural productivity by limiting the process of photosynthesis.’
   Faulty vehicles with old engines, diesel-run human haulers, buses, trucks, covered vans, tempos, uncontrolled traffic congestion, brick kilns, industrial emission and unprotected construction works are among the main sources of air pollution, Mohammad Nasiruddin, project director of the Air Quality Monitoring Project under the Department of Environment, told New Age.
   The number one cause for air pollution in Dhaka city is traffic congestion and faulty vehicles add to it, he said.
   ‘PM10, mostly emitted by vehicles, brick kilns and industries, is the dominating poison in the air in and around Dhaka city, containing on an average 340 to 345 micrograms of the deadly particulate, including poisonous carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide,’ he said.
   ‘PM10 is more than double on the permissible level in Dhaka. The permissible limit for PM10 is 150 micrograms.’
   He said the amount of PM2.5, which is equally dangerous, is 180 micrograms in each cubic metre in the capital, a city of more than 120 million people. ‘It is about three times above the permissible limit of 65 micrograms’, Nasiruddin said.
   According to experts, due to increased PM10 and PM2.5, people lose lung function and suffer from chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Carbon monoxide reduces delivery of oxygen into the human body, creates severe headache and decreases visual capability and manual dexterity, while nitrogen dioxide increase risks of bronchitis, pneumonia and respiratory infections.
   Nasiruddin said there are about 1,000 brick kilns around the Dhaka city, 500 around the Chittagong city and 5000 across the country. ‘Almost all the kilns use low-quality coal, wood and use tyres, emitting poisonous particles, including sulphur, into the air.’
   He said the country needs to revise its emission standard. ‘Emission standard here is 1000 PPM, but in India it is 300 PPM,’ he added.
   He said the government is considering initiating Clean Air and Sustainable Development Project which would help cut emission.
   According to the AQMP survey, faulty vehicles are the main source of air pollution, as diesel-run vehicles, mainly buses and trucks, alone contribute to 60 per cent of poisonous particles beyond the permissible limit in the air.
   About 70 per cent of the motorised vehicles, which have fitness certificates, are polluting the air because of their faulty engines, AQMP sources said.
   According to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, new motorised vehicles were increasing at a rate of about 10 per cent every year across the country. A total of 1,21,272 mechanised vehicles were registered across the country in 2007, raising the total number of vehicles to 1,054,057. Of them, 5,25,751 were covered van, 2,15,456 motor car, jeep and microbus and 34,645 buses.
   A total of 36,942 vehicles were registered in Dhaka in 2007, pushing up the total number of vehicles to 4,12,540. Of them, 1,73,637 were motor cycle, 1,62,608 motor car, jeep and microbus, 25,193 trucks and 6,152 buses.
   The BRTA director, Rafiqul Islam, claimed that they have started taking measures against issuing fitness certificate to faulty vehicles.

A special court in Dhaka Wednesday afternoon sent former state minister for local government, rural development and cooperatives Ziaul Haq Zia to jail, after he was arrested at an apartment near Geneva Camp at Mohammadpur in the capital the same day.
   The police said a team of the Rapid Action Battalion had conducted a raid on the apartment at around 4:00am and arrested Zia as he was convicted in three cases.
   The officer-in-charge of the Mohammadpur police station, Azizul Islam told New Age, ‘The law enforcers arrested him as he was convicted in a forgery and two graft cases. He was handed over to the police’.
   The law enforcers produced him in the special court of judge, Jesmin Anwar at around 3:20pm and the judge passed the order at around 4:00pm.
   A special court sentenced Zia to 13 years’ rigorous imprisonment on July 30, 2007 for amassing illegal wealth and hiding information from his wealth statement.
   Judge M Sirajul Islam of special court 7, set up on the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises, also fined him Tk 10 lakh, or in default to suffer one year more in jail.
   His wife, Nasima Haq and son, Mushfiqul Haq Joy, the other accused, were sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment each. They were fined Tk 1 lakh each or in default to suffer six months more in jail.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case against Zia on November 22, 2007 last year, on charge of making a fortune of over Tk 12.81 crore illegally and hiding information about Tk 5.36 crore from his wealth statement.
   His wife and son were accused of aiding him in the crime.
   Zia got 10 years’ RI for accumulating illegal wealth and three years’ RI for concealing information.
   The court ordered the authorities concerned to confiscate his ill-gotten wealth.
   The BNP leader went into hiding after the army-led interim government had launched its crackdown on corruption.

At least 50 civilians were killed and many more wounded Wednesday in air attacks in northeastern Sri Lanka where Tamil Tiger guerrillas have been cornered, a pro-rebel web site reported.
   The Tamilnet.com web site said the attack took place at the village of Aananthapuram, but the Sri Lankan military rejected the charge and said aircraft had engaged ‘identified resisting points of the Tigers.’
   Government military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakka said the Tamilnet report was a ‘fabrication.’
   ‘We have carried out attacks against resisting points of the Tigers and not in areas where there are civilians,’ he said.
   Independent verification of claims and counter-claims is not possible as the authorities have severely restricted access to the region by relief agencies, diplomats and independent journalists.
   Meanwhile, Sri Lanka rejected a fresh call on Wednesday for a truce with the Tamil Tigers as troops took another village from rebel control and concern mounted for thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone. The government’s defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said the government was firmly committed to
   wiping out ‘terrorism’
   and described the demand for a ceasefire from a
   Tamil Tiger proxy as ‘laughable.’
   ‘We have taken a policy decision to completely root out terrorism,’ Rambukwella told reporters here. ‘There will be no ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.’
   The ceasefire appeal from the Tamil National Alliance echoed calls from Sri Lanka’s key international financial backers, including the United States, European Union and Japan, for a ‘no-fire period’ to allow civilians to get out of harm’s way.
   A pro-government Tamil legislator, V Anandasangari, said on Tuesday 288 civilians had been killed during one week this month while nearly 800 were wounded in crossfire in the shrinking territory still under rebel control.
   However Sri Lanka announced it was opening its doors to the UN’s top envoy for humanitarian affairs, John Holmes, who is due in Colombo on Thursday to assess relief operations.
   The visit comes after UN-appointed experts expressed concern earlier this month over ‘rapidly deteriorating conditions’ and the ‘significant number of civilian casualties.’
   ‘We look forward to his visit which is at our invitation,’ the Sri Lankan foreign minister, Rohitha Bogollagama, said. ‘This is an opportunity for us to showcase what we have been doing.’
   During his previous visit to Sri Lanka in August 2007, Holmes described the island as one of the world’s most dangerous places for aid workers and noted that more than 30 relief workers had been killed since early 2006.
   The latest fighting has provoked a strong reaction in neighbouring India, where 62 million Tamils in the state of Tamil Nadu share close cultural and religious links with the ethnic Tamil minority in Sri Lanka.
   The Indian parliament was in uproar Wednesday when India’s external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee accused the Tigers of causing ‘much damage’ to the wider Tamil community.
   He stressed the importance of a ‘negotiated political settlement’ acceptable to all in neighbouring Sri Lanka.
   Indian Tamils have been staging protests condemning Sri Lanka’s military offensive with at least two men burning themselves to death this month. Indian Tamils have also urged New Delhi to broker a ceasefire on the island.
   In other developments, Australia, home to a sizeable number of Tamils, said it was giving 2.55 million US dollars to the International Committee of the Red Cross to help those displaced by the war, adding to a similar-sized donation late last year for food aid.
   Sri Lankan troops are on the verge of crushing the LTTE and ending their 37-year campaign for an independent Tamil homeland after pushing the rebels back into a small stretch of coastal jungle — less than 100 square kilometres in size — in the island’s northeast.
   A senior military official said security forces had taken another village that was previously under Tiger control.
   The LTTE on Wednesday denied United Nations allegations that it had stepped up the forcible recruitment of child soldiers ahead of a final showdown with the advancing government troops.

The parliament on Wednesday night formed 11 more parliamentary committees, of which two were headed by the lawmakers of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, to oversee the activities of the concerned ministries.
   With formation of the committees, the number of parliamentary standing committees stood at 21 and four of them were headed by the lawmakers other than the ruling Awami League.
   Chief whip Abdus Shahid on behalf of the leader of the House and prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, proposed formation of the committees and those were passed by voice votes in the parliament.
   BNP man, MK Anwar, was elected chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of environment and forest. The members of the committee are Mostafizur Rahman, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Ekabbar Hossain, Sohrab Ali Sana, Bir Bahadur, Giasuddin Ahmed, Goalm Sabur and MA Jabbar.
   Another BNP man, Joynal Abedin, was elected chairman of the standing committee on the fisheries and livestock ministry. The committee members are Abdul Latif Biswas, Moslem Uddin, Zillul Hakim, Mokbu Hossain, Iyas Uddin Mollah, Monzur Kader Qu, Mir Shawkat Ali and Zafor Iqbal Siddiqui.
   The House elected KH Rashiduzzaman chairman of the Public Accounts Commitee, the most important parliamentary committee which oversee the government’s income and expenditure. The other members of the 15-member committee are Khan Tipu Sultan, TIM Fazle Rabbi, Md Ali Ashraf, Imajuddin Pramanik, Sayedul Haq, AKM Rahmatullah, Khandaker Asaduzzaman, Dhirendra Debnath Shambhu, Abdus Salam, Hafiz Ahmed Majumder and Enamul Haq. Two members will be drawn from the BNP while one from the women reserved seats.
   Shahjahan Khan was elected chairman of the standing committee on labour and manpower ministry. The members of the committee are: Begum Munnujan Sifian, Nasim Osman, Abdus Satter, Shahiduzzaman Sarker, Monoranjan Shil Gopal, Israfil Alam, and Nanigopal mandal.
   Engineer Mosharraf Hossain was elected chairman of the standing committee on civil aviation and tourism ministry. The members of the committee are GM Quader, Mojibul Haq, Mahfuzur Rahman, Mainuddin Khan Badal, Syed Mohshin Ali, Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury and Fazlul Haq Khan.
   Sheikh Mojibur Rahman was elected chairman of the standing committee on communications. The committee members are Syed Abul Hossain, Zillul Hakim, HM Golam Reza, Golam Mawla Rony, Abu Zahir and Ekramul Karim Chowdhury.
   Whip Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury was elected chairman of the standing committee on shipping ministry. The committee members are Afsarul Amin, Shah Alam, Majharul Haq Pradhan, Habibunnahar, Shamsul Haq Chowdhury, Nazrul Islam and Golam Kibria Tipu.
   Retired army officer-turned politician, Subid Ali Bhuiyan, was elected chairman of the standing committee on power, energy and mineral resources ministry. The committee members are Shamsul Haq Tuku, Abdus Shahid, Abdul Matin Khasru, Majibur Rahman Fakir, Sheikh Fazle Noor Tapas, Enamul Haq and Abdul Kader Khan.
   Meher Afroz was elected chairman of the standing committee on women and children affairs ministry. The committee members are Sheikh Hasina, Sirajul Akbar, MA Mannan, Rebeka Momen and Sultana Tarun. Three more members from the women reserved seats to be included after their election. One of them will be a BNP member.
   Sayadul Haq was elected chairman of the standing committee on food and disaster management ministry. The committee members are Abdur Razzak, Atiur Rahman Atik, Narayan Chandra Chandu, Iqbalur Rahim, Afzal Hossain and Akram Hossain Chowdhury.
   Akhtaruzzamn Chowdhury was elected chairman of the standing committee on jute and textile ministry. The committee members are Abdul Latif Siddiqui, Chayon Islam, Tipu Munshi, Mollah Jalal uddin, Hayatur Rahman Khan, Abdul Wadud and Shafiqul Islam.

State minister for home affairs Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj on Wednesday said acts of sabotage were taking place as some quarters were plotting to disrupt peace.
   ‘Some quarters are engaged in acts of subversion and their aim is to destabilise the situation...We will take stringent measures to tackle the situation and no one will be spared,’ the state minister told reporters at the secretariat after a meeting of the monitoring cell for reviewing sensational cases.
   Referring to the recent deterioration in law and order and Monday’s clashes between rival factions of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the ruling party’s associate organisation, at Jahangirnagar University, Tanjim warned that tough actions would be taken against whoever would be found engaged in acts of sabotage. He reminded all that no one was above law.
   Gunfight between rival factions of Chhatra League on the JU campus over establishing dominance left at least 35 activists injured on Monday.
   Tanjim said that the law enforcers had already conducted raids in the university halls and arrested some of those involved in the violence.
   He indicated that outsiders and so-called students had infiltrated the campuses and were trying to stoke up troubles.
   The state minister denied allegation that the lawmen deployed on the JU campus were inactive when fighting was raging between the two groups of Chhatra League. ‘Police and RAB are doing their jobs with responsibilities.’
   He said that the government was committed to establishing justice in the society.
   The government would not be able to live up to the expectations of the people if the law and order could not be maintained effectively, Tanjim said.
   The meeting chaired by home minister Sahara Khatun expressed dissatisfaction over progress in the investigation of sensational cases.
   Ten cases, including the murder of former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and bomb attack on an Udichi programme in Jessore that kiiled 10 people were discussed at the monitoring cell’s meeting.
   The meeting was informed that the charge sheet in the Kibria murder case would be submitted soon.
   The home ministry has referred the case of terror attack on the Udichi programme to the law ministry for opinion whether the case could be revived since the accused have already been acquitted, said an official who attended the meeting.

Dhaka has come to an agreement with India to hand over Anup Chetia, the United Liberation Front of Asom leader who has been in a Bangladeshi jail since 1996, the state minister for foreign affairs, Hasan Mahmud, told an Indian news network this week.
   ‘We have mutually agreed on the handover, now we have to decide on the formalities of how to hand him over. It will also include handover of Bangladeshi criminals who have fled to India,’ Mahmud told CNN-IBN in an interview aired on Wednesday.
   Mahmud, who is also a special assistant to the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, told CNN-IBN that past Bangladeshi governments since 2001 had indeed sponsored terrorism.
   ‘Since 2001, the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami had ministers in their government who chanted slogans to turn Bangladesh into Afghanistan. So they nurtured a range of terrorist organisations.
   ‘Terrorism in Bangladesh started and then flourished under that government,’ said Mahmud.
   The junior minister also admitted to cross-border linkages of terrorist groups based in Bangladesh.
   India has long accused Bangladesh of harbouring anti-India insurgents and terrorists, an allegation Bangladesh had denied.
   Mahmud said terror groups like the banned extremist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad Al-Islam, Bangladesh still existed in underground pockets in Bangladesh.
   ‘They are banned, but they are in hideouts now,’ he said.
   Asked whether the Bangladesh government was trying to trace Harkat hideouts, Mahmud said: ‘Definitely, we are trying to find out their locations.’
   He promised a Bangladeshi crackdown on militant groups.
   ‘Since terrorist attacks have been happening in the region in the past few months, even in Mumbai, there are cross-border linkages of these terrorists,’ said Mahmud.
   ‘Not only Lashker ((Laskhar-e-Taiba) and Harkat, but other terror organisations also.
   ‘They trained in Afghanistan, they were in Pakistan, then they came here. It’s dangerous.
   ‘They cooperate among themselves, now we have to cooperate among ourselves in the region to combat them,’ Mahmud said.
   The US blacklisted Harkat last year as a ‘global terrorist organisation’.
   A statement signed by then US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said Harkat chief Mufti Abdul Hannan, arrested by Bangladesh authorities, had been ‘implicated in a number of attacks in Bangladesh and abroad.’
   The US also praised Dhaka’s anti-militant campaign at the time, saying ‘Bangladesh has been a strong partner of the United States in fighting terrorism, and has taken effective action to bring Harkat terrorists to justice and to prevent further attacks.’
   Mahmud told CNN-IBN Wednesday that the newly elected Awami League government is working for ‘a new Bangladesh.’

Narsingdi BNP leaders on Wednesday jostled in front of the party’s central office in Dhaka over the presence of followers of the expelled party secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan during the interview with grassroots leaders.
   The leaders and activists of Narsingdi, home district of Mannan Bhuiyan, chased some leaders who were known to be close to Mannan and both the groups had a brawl and chased each other. The senior leaders later controlled the situation.
   The acting Palash unit BNP Nur Mohammad Bhuiyan said grassroots leaders did not accept the people who had acted against the party during its bad days and the incident was the reflection of their anger.
   Abdul Hye Khan, who was president of the same unit before January 11, 2007, said the party was united under the leadership of Khaleda Zia, the BNP chairperson, and there should not be any branding like reformists or conformists.
   After the brawl, the Dhaka division team leader, Abdullah Al Noman, also a joint secretary general of the party, said such incidents were unwarranted.
   Earlier on Monday, a group of BNP activists of the Chandanaish unit, led by MA Hashem Raju, attacked the Chittagong south district unit president, Ahmed Khalil Khan, and the acting general secretary Sheikh Mohammad Mohiuddin for not inviting Hashem to the interview.
   The BNP organisational committees on Wednesday interviewed leaders of Comilla and Narsingdi.
   The interview began on February 3 and the committees will submit their reports by February 28. The committee for the Sylhet division completed interviewing grassroots leaders.
   Leaders who came to face the committees were vocal against local leaders for inciting feuds.
   They also informed the central leaders of the Awami League’s reprisal in their localities and many of them burst into tears as they described the violence.

Bangladesh must establish a ‘new political discourse’ on national issues and resolve differences among parties as a new government has been installed through free, fair and transparent elections, said UN assistant secretary general Ajay Chibber on Wednesday.
   At a briefing before he left Dhaka wrapping up his five-day visit to Bangladesh, he had said Bangladesh leaders should focus on development issues, current economic recession and impact of changes in climate and find solutions of the problems.
   Chibber said, ‘It’s time to change the cycle that has been followed in the
   past and to look forward rather than looking at the past.’
   Emphasising the need for good governance, the UNDP regional director said it was very critical for Bangladesh to have strong and transparent institutions including the
   Anti-Corruption Commission and the local government.
   The UN official said the government must ensure that changes so far made should not make the institutions weaker by less politicisation.
   He said, ‘This is a great opportunity for Bangladesh to set a new discourse and strong and functioning institutions for better governance.’
   On UN assistance to Bangladesh in holding war crimes trial, Chibber said, ‘It is for Bangladesh to decide and if it wants to go ahead with the war crimes issue, the United Nations can share its experience with Bangladesh.’
   He said the UN helped other countries in such issues in the past and ‘we continue to do so today.’
   It is important to collect all previous experiences on war crimes trials and make them available to the Bangladesh government to study how the issue was tackled in other parts of the world.
   Chibber said every country was different and every situation was different. ‘We are prepared to share our experiences with the government. And after that, the Bangladesh government can decide how it wants to proceed with all such issues.’

The High Court on Wednesday asked the government to submit a list of the unprotected level crossings across the country to the Supreme Court’s registrar within four weeks.
   The court also asked the government to explain why a directive should not be made to take steps for sufficient traffic system in the level crossings by this period.
   The High Court bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui passed the order after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Manzill Murshid drawing the court’s
   attention to Tuesday’s Jaipurhat train accident in which 14 were killed and 50 injured.
   The railway director general has been asked to submit the list of the level crossings to the Supreme Court registrar’s office.
   Manzill Murshid argued train accidents took place frequently across the country for lack of sufficient traffic system in the level crossings.

The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission is not likely to allow the Dhaka Electric Supply Company to increase the price of electricity for consumers, commission officials told New Age after a public hearing on Wednesday on the company’s proposal to hike power price.
   ‘Most of the participants at the hearing opposed the DESCO proposal to hike the electricity price for consumers by 10-14.77 per cent as the company has been making huge profits selling electricity. We also think that there is no need to increase the power price at the moment,’ said an official of the commission.
   The commission chairman, Ghulam Rahman, conducted the hearing at his office.
   An official told New Age that there was a ‘huge chance’ that the commission would not allow DESCO to increase electricity tariff when it passed its order by May 15.
   ‘However, the ultimate decision on whether the company will be allowed to increase electricity tariffs will be taken after the company submits its post-hearing comments by February 28,’ he said.
   The DESCO recently filed an application with the commission to increase the power price for consumers after the commission in October 2008 allowed the Power Development Board to increase by around 16 per cent the price of electricity which DESCO purchases from the board to supply to the consumers.
   Sources in the commission said that the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, recently had indicated to the commission that the government would not like any price hike of electricity for consumers in near future.
   The official, however, said that the commission’s decision ‘would not depend on what the government likes or dislikes’. ‘We are an independent commission. As we have found that DESCO is still making a profit of Tk 0.5 per unit of electricity after the PDB hiked the price, we may not allow DESCO to increase the price for the consumers,’ he said.
   Participants including the representatives of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Consumers Trust, opposed the DESCO proposal to hike the power price.
   DESCO managing director, Saleh Ahmed said that they wanted to hike the price as the company was counting additional monthly electricity bills of Tk 9 crore after the PDB increased the price.
   He said that they would expand the supply network and renovate the existing ones if the electricity price was hiked. ‘We have reduced the system loss, which now stands at 10.92 per cent and if the supply system can be renovated the system loss will come down,’ he claimed.
   CAB representatives said that DESCO had earned about Tk 207 crore in 2007-2008 and there was no need to allow the company to make further profits.
   DCCI representatives said that if the electricity price was increased the cost of production of industries would also increase, which meant that the Bangladeshi products would lose competitiveness in the world market.
   A commissioner told New Age although it was commendable that the company had decreased the system loss to 10.92 per cent from over 20 per cent, it should decrease the system loss further. ‘We will give directives to DESCO when we announce the verdict on the DESCO application,’ he said.
   The commission will hold more public hearing next month on the proposals of the Dhaka Power Distribution Company and the West Zone Power Distribution Company to hike electricity prices for their consumers.

The finance minister had some tough words for loan defaulters on Wednesday, warning them of ‘drastic’ measures.
   ‘I don’t want to see loan defaulters getting away. The government is going to get harsh in dealing with them,’ AMA Muhith told reporters after a meeting at the Bangladesh Bank.
   ‘I was the first finance minister to identify the 10 top loan defaulters in 1982,’ said the finance minister.
   The minister said, ‘I know so-called ‘pressure groups’ are active in the matter. Maybe it will be tougher dealing with them now than it was in 1982.’
   ‘But I am going to launch all-out efforts to wipe out defaulters.’
   Asked if ruling party defaulters would get the same treatment, Muhith said, ‘I’ve already told you, I will not tolerate any loan defaulters. All of them will be dealt with drastically irrespective of their affiliations.’
   According to Bangladesh Bank data, the total amount of ‘classified’ loans as of September 30, 2008 stands at a little over Tk 25,000 crore (Tk 250 billion).
   On the government’s deliberations over revising the pay scale of Bangladesh Bank officials and employees, the minister said, ‘I quite endorse the concept of introducing a separate pay scale for central bank officials and employees.’

A mugger stabbed to death a police sub-inspector and wounded three others at Natal junction in Bhairab Wednesday night.
   Sub-inspector Mustafizur Rahman, 45, died on way to a hospital and SI Mizanur Rahman, havildar Ruhul Amin and constable Al Mamoon wounded by knife were undergoing treatment.
   The police said Ruhul Amin and Al Mamoon of Reserve Police at Bhairab Bridge were walking through the Monamara in the town at about 7:00pm. Mamoon, an identified mugger, intercepted them. Ruhul grabbed him. But the mugger stabbed him. The constable was also stabbed when he came to help the havildar.
   As the information reached Bhairab thana, two sub-inspectors rushed out in motorbike and managed to arrest mugger Mamoon from Bhairabpur area at about 8:00pm. As they were bringing him to the thana, Mamoon brought out his dagger and indiscriminately stabbed both the police officers.
   Fatally wounded SI Mustafizur Rahman died on way to the hospital.
   The police were frantically looking for the killer.

The government has deiced to publish one crore more secondary textbooks at the earliest to resolve the book crisis, the education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, told newsmen in his office Wednesday.
   ‘An emergency tender will be floated for the printing and marketing of one crore more textbooks. The people who earlier failed to print and market the textbooks by the deadline set earlier will be barred from taking part in the fresh tender,’ the minister told reporters after a meeting on the textbook crisis at the ministry.
   ‘A national committee will also be formed soon. The committee will find out ways to resolve the recurring textbook crisis,’ the minister said adding, ‘Deputy commissioners and district education officers will be involved in assessing the actual demand for secondary textbooks.’
   The government now needs to depend on the statistics furnished by the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics for the assessment of the actual demand for textbooks.
   ‘The secondary textbooks will also be made available on the textbook board web site from the next academic year in portable document format (*.pdf),’ the education minister said.
   The minister avoided answering why no action had been taken against the publishing houses which missed the deadline for the printing and marketing of 2.62 crore textbooks.
   After assuming office of the education ministry on January 6, lawmaker Nahid paid a sudden visit to the Banglabazar book market in Dhaka on January 11 and found the crisis of secondary textbooks to be artificial.
   Secondary textbook supply shortage now prevails almost everywhere. The government is supposed to publish secondary textbooks and make them available on the market at the beginning of the academic year on January 1.

In an unexpected twist to the economic crisis, several US states are weighing whether to abolish the death penalty as the execution process proves too great a drain on dwindling resources.
   Death penalty laws remain on the books of 36 of the 50 US states, and capital punishment is supported by some two-thirds of the American public.
   But across the nation, states as diverse and far-flung as Montana, Kansas, New Mexico and Maryland are among those actively considering abolishing capital punishment in a bid to overcome ballooning budget shortfalls.
   ‘It is quite unusual that we’ve seen this blossoming of state legislative activity this year. It’s because there is a renewed inspection of the death penalty,’ Steve Hall, director of the anti-capital punishment group Standdown, said.

A Pakistani television journalist covering a peace mission by a pro-Taliban cleric was killed on Wednesday in the restive northwestern Swat valley, the channel’s management said.
   ‘We have received reports that Musa Khan Khel has been killed somewhere near Matta town,’ Azhar Abbas, managing director of Pakistan’s private Geo TV, said.
   ‘We do not know as yet whether he was shot dead or how he was killed, but Musa’s brother Essa Khan Khel called us and confirmed that Musa is dead.’
   Meanwhile, suspected Taliban fighters blew up two girls’ schools on Wednesday while eight militants were killed in clashes with the military in northwest Pakistan, an official said.
   The two primary schools were detonated in the Nawagai and Salarzai areas of Bajaur, where the Pakistani military has waged a massive offensive designed to clear the area of extremist Islamists.
   ‘There was no loss of life in the twin attacks, as girls schools are closed in the region,’ said local government official Farooq Khan.
   Militants have destroyed 30 schools, most of them for girls, in different areas of Bajaur since August 2008, Khan said.
   Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt has become a stronghold for hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.
   On Wednesday, Khan said Pakistani government troops killed eight militants in battles with extremist rebels.
   ‘Troops targeted rebel hideouts in an operation killing eight militants,’ he said.

The 23rd Jatiya Kabita Utsab began Wednesday with the slogan ‘Hail People, Hail Poems.’
   Poet Syed Shamsul Huq inaugurated the festival by hoisting the national flag on the Dhaka University central library premises.
   Before the start of the programme, Jatiya Kabita Parishad members placed flowers on the graves of the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin, Patua Quamrul Hasan and at the Central Shaheed Minar.
   Shamsul Huq urged the new-generation poets to be part of the positive social change like the poets of the previous decades who had a great contribution to various movements, including the language movement and the independence war.
   The Kabita Parishad president, Habibullah Sirazi, hoisted the organisation’s flag. He said terrorism and fundamentalism was the main enemies of poetry.
   The festival convener, Rabiul Hossain, demanded the government should adopt the festival as a national occasion and declare February 1 as ‘national poetry day.’
   He also demanded a separate institution with all the facilities for studies and researches on poetry.
   Swati Chattopaddhyay, Anjali Bandopaddhyay, Amir Maiti, Dhananjay Ghoshal, Rahul Dev Barman and many more West Bengal poets joined the festival.
   Aslam Sani moved a condolence motion on the poets who died between the festivals of this and the past year. Mohan Raihan read out the declaration after the inauguration of the programme.
   The festival has been dedicated to the memories of poets Samudra Gupta and Khaleda Edib Choudhury.

The founder of Facebook says the social network will return to its previous terms of service regarding user data, according to BBC Online.
   In a blog post Mark Zuckerberg said the move was temporary ‘while we resolve the issues that people have raised’.
   Users had complained after new terms of service seemed to suggest Facebook would retain personal data even if someone deleted their account.
   Originally defending the changes, Zuckerberg had said it was to better reflect how people used the site.
   He had said the changes were made to ensure that if a user deleted his or her account any comments or messages he or she had left on a friend’s Facebook page would not also disappear.
   In his updated blog entry, Zuckerberg said: ‘the past couple of days, we received a lot of questions and comments about the changes and what they mean for people and their information. Based on this feedback, we have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.’
   Facebook users were advised on the change with a notice posted to their pages when logging in to the service.
   He added: ‘Our next version will be a substantial revision from where we are now. It will reflect the principles I described Tuesday around how people share and control their information, and it will be written clearly in language everyone can understand.’
   He said Facebook would draw up a new governing document in conjunction with its users.
   The row and reaction to the Facebook changes to its terms of service reflect a wider issue about user data and who owns the personal information — from comments, to photos and videos — stored on social network accounts, and what happens to it if a user decides to leave a service.
   Simon Davies of Privacy International called the change ‘a breach of faith by Facebook’.
   ‘People are entitled to be outraged. It flies in the face of the commitments that the company made to protect user privacy and to improve user controls,’ he told BBC News.
   Davies criticised the company for allowing commercial and legal concerns to override its commitment to users, saying: ‘It appears to going down the same road as Google. Its halo is starting to slip.’
   ‘Now, there are other kids on the block, like Twitter, Facebook can only survive a certain number of disasters like this. It will only last three years if it continues to make these errors.’
   Facebook should commit to a privacy policy that would allow users to delete all data from its systems, including back-ups, within a specified time period, recommended Davies.

The deputy minister for economic development of the Russian Federation, Anna Popova, arrived in Dhaka Wednesday at the head of a nine-member delegation for a four-day visit to Bangladesh.
   Fostering collaboration with Grameen Bank is among matters on their agenda. They will see Grameen Bank operations and legal structure for the non-formal banking for the poor, with a view to replicating it in Russia, the former communist country.
   Nobel laureate and managing director of the Grameen Bank professor Muhammad Yunus, received the minister on her arrival at Zia International Airport.
   Gennady P Trotsenko, ambassador of the Russian Federation to Bangladesh, was also present.
   The visit of the Russian delegation is a follow-up to Yunus’s tour of Moscow in April 2008 at the invitation of Moscow city mayor YM Luzhkov and the National Association of Microfinance.
   ‘The minister and her team will visit Grameen Bank branches and have discussions with borrowers, besides having meetings with Yunus and senior officials of the bank,’ says a Grameen Bank release.