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The Election Commission on Tuesday suspended the results of seven upazilas, although, according to sources, it found proof of irregularities, stuffing of
   ballot boxes, capturing of polling centres and intimidation in at least 41 upazilas.
   The seven upazilas are Banchharampur in Brahmanbaria, Araihajar in Narayanganj, Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar, Kaliganj in Gazipur, Mehendiganj in Barisal, Muradnagar in Comilla and Raipura in Narsingdi. Awami League backed candidates were declared elected chairmen in all seven upazials.
   The commission during polling hours suspended elections to four, out of the 481 upazilas, on January 22. The upazilas are sadar in Brahmanbaria, Ramganj in Lakshmippur, Barura in Comilla and Belkuchi in Sirajganj.
   The commission early January 22, eight hours before the polling, postponed elections to the Ukhia upazila parishad in Cox’s Bazar over the snatching of ballot boxes and papers.
   The commission on January 15 suspended elections to the Dighinala upazila parishad in Khagrachari as a chairman candidate was forced to withdraw his candidature.
   ‘The commission has now also decided to suspend the publication of gazette notifications on the polls results of seven upazilas based on allegations of irregularities,’ election commissioner M Sakhawat Hossain said Tuesday.
   He said the commission would launch investigation by judicial magistrates in connection with the allegations where results and elections were suspended or postponed. ‘A fully-fledged public inquiry will be carried out in the seven upazilas where poll results were suspended,’ he said.
   Sakhawat also said the allegations against ministers and lawmakers for influencing the elections also will be investigated.
   Asked when the investigation reports are expected, the commissioners declined to answer the question.
   The Election Commission decided to suspend the polls results of seven upazilas on the second day of its looking into the complaints lodged by candidates.
   The commission secretariat on Tuesday continued receiving complaints from defeated candidates in upazila elections. About 170 complaints have been lodged by candidates demanding re-elections to a number of polling centres or to all the centres in some cases.
   Highly placed sources in the commission secretariat told New Age the commission till Monday had found missive irregularities, including stuffing of ballot boxes, capturing of polling centres, intimidation, tempering result sheets in at least 41 upazilas. The commission earlier in principle decided to cancel the results of 20 upazials and some centres in other upazilas, the sources said.
   The upazila elections, marked by violence, intimidation, assaults and harassment of election officials, capturing of polling centres and stuffing and snatching of ballot boxes, had more than 71 per cent voter turnout, according to the Election Commission’s initial tally. Poll observers, election officials and voters observed such a high turnout could not match the reality.

A meeting between the speaker and the chief whips of the treasury and opposition benches over rearrangement of seating in the house ended inconclusively on Tuesday, intensifying the row over parliamentary seat plans.
   But the parliament speaker, Abdul Hamid, on Tuesday said he must settle the ‘difficult’ task before the parliament session resumes Wednesday afternoon. The session is scheduled to resume at 4:45pm.
   ‘It is difficult to make happy both the sides. But I will try to resolve the matter by accommodating both sides reasonably as much as I can,’ the speaker told reporters after the meeting he presided over in his office.
   The treasury bench suggested rearrangement of the seating plan proportionately while the opposition wanted continuation of the seating plan as worked out by the immediate-past speaker.
   ‘Let us see how to resolve the issue,’ Hamid said, adding the opposition bench is supposed to get three seats on the front row to the left of the presiding officer in the house.
   The immediate-past speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, who presided over the inaugural sitting of the session on Sunday, allocated 10, out of the 29 seats, of the front row to the opposition bench. He argued the opposition bench members should be to the left of the speaker.
   At Tuesday’s meeting, the opposition chief whip, Joynal Abedin Faruk, who represents the BNP-led alliance, demanded continuation of the previous seating plans.
   He said his party lawmakers would not accept any change in the arrangement. ‘We will not accept anything but the arrangement made by the previous speaker,’ Joynal told reporters, adding he would discuss the matter with senior BNP lawmakers, including the leader of the opposition, Khaleda Zia.
   The opposition whip alleged the new speaker proposed that the opposition lawmakers should be sent to the back benches.
   ‘I gave a note of dissent to the proposal moved by the speaker in changing the seating arranged by the immediate-past speaker,’ he said.
   The chief whip of Jatiya Sangsad, Abdus Shahid, who represents the ruling Awami League-led alliance with 258 parliamentary seats, said the previous seating plan was unilaterally made by Jamiruddin Sircar.
   ‘He did not consider our suggestions,’ the chief whip said, adding the opposition lawmakers would be given their proportionate share in the house.
   According to the proportion, the main opposition party gets three out of the 29 seats on the front row. They will sit to the left of the presiding officer of the house.
   ‘The speaker sought suggestions from us. And I requested him to make it on the basis of seat proportion in the parliament.’
   According to the rules of procedure, the speaker makes the seating arrangement of the lawmakers conventionally taking suggestions from both the treasury and opposition benches.
   The prime minister will answer question in the second sitting of the ninth parliament. The first 30 minutes will be allocated for the prime minister to answer question of lawmakers on the floor, according to the order of business of the day.
   It will also form a number of parliamentary committees today.

Jagannath University was closed for an indefinite period on Tuesday following violent clashes of the varsity students with policemen that left around 100 people injured.
   Of the injured, 15 were admitted to National Medical College Hospital, 20 to Sumona Clinic and the rest took primary treatment at different hospitals and clinics in the capital.
   Witnesses said several hundreds students of the varsity gathered in front of the Shahid Minar on the campus as per their pre-scheduled demonstration programme at around 9:30am.
   At one stage, a group of students were trying to march towards Bangabhaban to lay siege to Bangabhaban to realise their demand for vacating 12 dormitories of the varsity, which are occupied by influential persons.
   The clash ensued when the law enforcers intercepted the marching students and charged batons on them. The agitated students locked in brick battle with the police men for two hours.
   Police lobbed more than 117 teargas shells and fired rubber bullets to disperse the demonstrating students who took to the streets in protest against the illegal occupation of 12 dormitories of the varsity by influential people.
   The old Dhaka turned into a battle field during the clashes between the students and the police personnel for two hours.
   Later, the unruly students damaged a number of vehicles and roadside business establishments, and attacked the vice-chancellor’s office and a branch office of Bangladesh Bank in old Dhaka, blockading the busy Sadarghat-Johnson road which caused a severe traffic jam till 3:00pm.
   Soon the clash spread to the surrounding lanes and alleys, forcing the shop owners to shut their establishments in panic.
   The students reorganised and held a rally in front of the Shahid Minar protesting at the police actions.
   The aggrieved general students left the scene when the leaders of the student wings of the ruling Awami League and BNP tried to address the rally.
   Being enraged at this, the activists of BCL attacked the general students. Police again charged batons to disperse the agitating students. During the mayhem, police arrested six students of the university and detained them in Kotwali police station.
   ‘We were staging our peaceful demonstration to evict the occupants from the student dormitories, but police swung into action without any provocations,’ Mamunur Rashid, a second year student of History department of the varsity told New Age.
   The students of Jagannath University in Old Dhaka were staging demonstration and bringing out procession everyday, demanding immediate eviction of the occupants from 12 dormitories since Saturday.
   A huge contingent of law enforcers was deployed on the campus to avert any further clashes as a tense situation was prevailing in the areas.
   A four-member probe committee, headed by chairman of Chemistry department of the varsity, Nuruddin Ahmed, was formed to investigate the incident.
   The Jagannath University syndicate in an emergency meeting, chaired by vice-chancellor, Sirajul Islam Khan, decided to close the varsity for an indefinite period, proctor of the varsity, Kazi Asaduzzaman, told New Age.
   Meanwhile, a group of students of Dhaka College locked in clashes with another group of students of Imperial College on Tuesday noon disrupting traffic movement on the busy Mirpur road for half-an-hour.
   Police immediately rushed to the scene and brought the situation under control.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, Tuesday sought help of the United Nations in holding trial of the war criminals as she said prosecuting them had become a national demand.
   As her newly elected government took the move for war-crime trial, the prime minister placed the request when resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme and UN coordinator in Bangladesh Renata Lok Dessallien called on her at the Gana Bhaban.
   ‘Prosecuting the war criminals has become a national demand and we have included the issue in our election manifesto,’ Hasina, whose Awami League and allies won a thumping majority in the December 29 general election, told the UN country chief.
   In reply, Renata suggested that her government should make deep study on how other countries across the world handled the issue of war criminals so that Bangladesh can avoid any ‘unfortunate’ experiences.
   Hasina and Renata also discussed role of local government for sustainable development in the grassroots level, now that election to the most functional local body-upazila parishad, has also been held after the lapse of nearly two decades and the question of coordination between the lawmakers and the local executives arose in all circles.
   The prime minister said in the upazila system, the parliament members should have some role in its activities for the welfare of the people as well as overall development of the country.
   Hasina also sought UNDP assistance in imparting training to the new members of parliament for making the parliamentary system more effective, as a substantial number of them are young debutants.
   About the post of deputy speaker from the major opposition party in the house, she said the opposition did not propose a candidate for the post before the election of the speaker and the deputy speaker according to the Rules of Business. ‘We cannot propose on behalf of them,’ said the prime minister.
   About post-poll incidents she said, from the very first day after the election, her party leaders and activists had been asked to show restraint and not to take the law into their own hands.
   She however pointed out that during the rule of the 4-party alliance government, her party leaders and workers were subjected to inhuman torture and repression.
   As such, ‘It was very difficult for me to keep them calm. But they obeyed my order and did not go for reprisal,’ the prime minister informed the UN coordinator.
   Dessallien stressed reconciliation among political parties through bringing qualitative changes. ‘It would be very challenging for the new government to bring back the pace of development as the country was under an undemocratic government for long,’ she remarked.
   In response, the prime minister said it would not be that difficult for the government as her government believes in the strength of the people who are the source of all power. She is confident about carrying out development on all socioeconomic fronts.
   In this context, she referred to the 1996-2001 tenure of her Awami League government and said despite consecutive hartals by the opposition, her government had achieved a tremendous success in developing the country in all sectors.
   Gana Bhaban secretary Kazi Aminul Islam and press secretary to the prime minister Abul Kalam Azad were present.

Sri Lankan troops Tuesday battled Tamil Tiger fighters for control of the last stretch of rebel-held coastline, as international fears mounted for civilians caught in the conflict.
   Soldiers backed by tanks and air cover fought to capture 30 kilometres of seafront, the only territory still controlled by the retreating rebels, Brigadier Nandana Udawatte told reporters taken to the area.
   As the government said its offensive to end the separatists’ decades-long campaign was entering its final stages, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, expressed deep concern over the fate of civilians trapped in the war zone.
   At least 178 civilians were killed in Sri Lanka’s embattled north in January as government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels were locked in combat, according to figures compiled at one hospital alone.
   The government has been insisting there has been ‘zero civilian casualties’ in its operation to crush the rebels in their last remaining bastion of Mullaittivu district.
   But doctors on the ground say this is far from the case.
   ‘It’s terrible, it’s a tragedy,’ T Satyamurthy, director of Udaiyaarkaddu hospital, said by telephone Tuesday from Tamil-dominated Mullaittivu, placing the civilian death toll at 178 so far this year at his hospital.
   More than 740 people were also admitted to the hospital with injuries during the month so far, said Satyamurthy, who put together the casualty toll.
   ‘Three dead bodies of civilians were brought in on Tuesday and 15 more admitted injured due to the heavy shelling,’ he said as sounds of artillery fire were heard in the background.
   He could not say who was responsible for the firing.
   Most of Mullaittivu district is under government control after a year-long battle by Sri Lankan troops to seize the area.
   Satyamurthy stressed the number of civilian deaths that he knew about were only at his hospital and that there had been more ‘as many bodies are lying unclaimed by the roadside.’
   Other bodies have been buried by relatives, he said.
   It was difficult to obtain an official toll as medical officials said they had been ordered by the health ministry in Colombo not to reveal casualty figures and no journalists are allowed into combat zones on their own.
   The defence ministry said clashes between troops and Tamil Tigers continued across the Mullaittivu district.
   Sri Lanka’s army chief Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka has expressed hopes of defeating the Tiger rebels completely by April.
   The whereabouts of rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is not known, but a spokesman for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was reported as saying that he was still in Mullaittivu district and had vowed to fight back.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s chairperson and leader of the opposition, Khaleda Zia, is likely to form consultative committees outside the parliament to monitor the work being done by each ministry, said a party leader close to her on Tuesday.
   These committees will assist the leader and representatives of the opposition when they work in the parliamentary standing committees, he said.
   ‘This time the BNP has to shoulder the important responsibility, with the small number of opposition lawmakers, of monitoring the functioning of the government,’ said the BNP leader.
   Since a good number of the BNP’s MPs are inexperienced, Khaleda feels the need for forming consultative committees outside the parliament to assist her and keep her informed of the functioning of all the ministries,’ he said.
   ‘Senior party leaders and former ministers are likely to head the committees and experts will be included as members,’ said the leader.
   A BNP lawmaker also confirmed the decision to form the consultative committees.
   There are 39 ministries of the government. The Jatiya Sangsad will form a parliamentary committee on each ministry by the second session to watch the work of those ministries.
   The BNP-led alliance has only 31 lawmakers in the 294-strong parliament. The remaining six seats have been vacated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, BNP’s chairperson Khaleda Zia and Jatiya Party’s chairman HM Ershad, and elections will held soon for those vacated seats.

The Awami League-led government will take a holistic approach to implement the 1997 accord between the government and the hill people to remove mistrust in the once conflict-battered Chittagong Hill Tracts, home to 12 ethnic minority groups.
   ‘We consider a holistic implementation of the treaty. Piecemeal implementation of the accord will not help to improve the situation,’ Dipankar Talukdar, the newly appointed state minister for CHT affairs, told New Age in an interview in his office on Monday.
   Dipankar said he would consult all the stakeholders to ensure a balanced growth of the area, prioritising economic empowerment of the poor ethnic minority groups, employment generation, furtherance in agriculture, education, health services and infrastructure for the overall development of the hill distiricts.
   ‘The government will also sit with the lawmakers of the two other constituencies of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, representatives of the district councils, regional council and local political groups to work out a development programme for the area,’ said Dipankar, elected lawmaker for the Rangamati constituency. He was given the charge of a ministry for the first time.
   The government will honour people’s expectations and is pledge-bound to establish their rights to in the hill tracts, said Dipankar, who was earlier also elected lawmaker on the Awami League ticket for the Rangamati constituency in 1991, 1996 and 2001.
   ‘We must get united irrespective of ethnicity to implement the 1997 peace treaty. The treaty will, otherwise, not be fulfilled,’ the minister said, calling on the CHT people to work together for their development.
   The Chittagong Hill Tracts accounts for one-tenth of the country’s total land area, inhibited mainly by ethnic minority people, but the influx of people from the plains is set to outnumber the ethnic minority people in the terrain, now inhabited by an estimated 1,300,000 people.
   The 1997 treaty between the hill people and then Awami League government ended more than two decades’ armed struggle by Shanti Bahini, the armed wing of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti, which were fighting for self-rule. Most of the clauses in the treaty are yet to be implemented.
   After more than a decade, it has been proved the signing of the treaty was badly required for the CHT people although the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance had then opposed the accord, said Dipankar.
   ‘They [BNP-Jamaat alliance] did not scrap the treaty although they pledged to do so in their 2001 election manifesto and it proved that the Awami League decision was right,’ he said.
   The state minister blamed the BNP-Jamaat government in power between 2001 and 2006 for not taking any measures for the implementation of the treaty.
   The people have now given mandate to the Awami League again for full implementation of the treaty, he said, adding his party also put in its manifesto that it would take measures for the full implementation of the treaty and ensure the rights of ethnic minority groups.
   Asked whether his government will take any immediate measures to close down the temporary army camps, set up in the hills during the armed struggle, the minister said the government was looking into the matter in a holistic way.
   ‘The implementation of the treaty will be a package deal. Anything stated in the treaty will be implemented,’ Dipankar said.
   The state minister said the agriculture development in the Chittagong Hill Tracts should be given a high priority for poverty reduction and a few laws may need to be relaxed for the existence of the ethnic minority people who live basically on forest resources.
   Measures for small and cottage industries, and creation of market of local products will also be taken, said the state minister. ‘We will encourage new investments in the private sector.’
   Although a few infrastructural developments have taken place in the CHT following the signing of the treaty, the minister said more projects should be undertaken to establish a better communications network.
   In his last election campaign, Dipankar promised establishment of a university of science and technology, a medical college and hospital and a 10-bed hospital on the premises of the district civil surgeon office in Rangamati.
   He also assured his constituency of full implementation of the CHT accord if he could be elected lawmaker.
   Dipankar, the president of the Rangamati district Awami League, played a crucial role during the signing of the CHT accord in the late 1997.

The High Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami amir Matiur Rahman Nizami and the party’s secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid to explain in six weeks why the registration of Jamaat as a political party would not be declared illegal.
   The High Court bench of Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice M Abdul Hye passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by 25 people, including Tarikat Federation general secretary Syed Rezaul Haque Chandpuri, Zaker Party secretary general Munshi Latif and Sammilita Islamic Jote vice-president Maulana Ziaul Hasan.
   Moving the petition, the petitioners’ counsel Tania Amir argued the commission on November 4, 2008 registered Jamaat as a political party in violation of the Representation of the People Order.
   ‘Jamaat is disqualified from being registered with the commission according to Article 90C of the Representation of the People Order, ’ Tania said.
   According to Article 90C(1)(b) of the order, as amended on August 19, 2008, a political party will be disqualified for registration if ‘any discrimination regarding religion, race, caste, language or sex is apparent in its constitution.’
   Referring to the article, the counsel argued, ‘The constitution of Jamaat discriminates against membership of all non-Muslims as well as many practising Muslims and women, which is violative of fundamental tenets of the constitution of the republic.’
   Article 90C(1)(c) of the order stipulates a party will be disqualified for registration if ‘by name, flag, symbol or any other activity it threatens to destroy communal harmony or leads the country to territorial disintegration.’
   The name, flag, symbol and activities of Jamaat threaten to destroy communal harmony purporting to divide the country and also distort the constitutional and religious values, the counsel said.
   Tania with Ziad al Malum and Asaduzzaman moved the public interest litigation writ petition.

The government is set to pledge to ‘not support’ extrajudicial killing in the future when it attends the UN human rights forum in Geneva on February 3, said foreign ministry sources.
   They also told New Age on Tuesday that the government would also focus on the people’s ‘right to development’ rather than highlight only the political issues at the global forum.
   The foreign affairs minister, Dipu Moni, is expected to lead a 10-member Bangladesh delegation at the fourth session of the Universal Periodic Review, a forum for reviewing the human rights situation in UN member states.
   Human rights defenders, however, argued that not supporting extrajudicial killing was not enough for upholding rights.
   Rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra’s executive director Sultana Kamal said, ‘Not supporting extrajudicial killing and stopping such killing do not have the same connotations. We want the government to say that it will stop extrajudicial killing.’
   The former adviser of the caretaker government of President Iajuddin Ahmed said that the government must clear its position on whether it would give impunity to the perpetrators of those extrajudicial killings in the last four years.
   Bangladesh submitted its national report on human rights in November 2008 and the Human Rights Forum of Bangladesh, a coalition of 17 rights and development organizations, submitted its report in September the same year.
   Criticising the national report, Sultana Kamal said that the government had made voluntary pledges in it, but had not described any concrete course of action to address the issues concerned.
   ‘We want to know when and how the government will fulfil the pledges given to the United Nations,’ she said.
   Officials of the foreign ministry said that the government’s line of argument would focus on the ‘right to development’ and food security, apart from its pledge to stop supporting extrajudicial killing.
   They argued that if the right to food, education, employment and empowerment of women were ensured, that would contribute significantly to the improvement of the country’s rights situation in the days ahead.
   Touching on the issue of the government’s argument for the right to development, Sultana felt that civil and political liberty are very important issues as the government has mainly violated the rights enshrined in them.
   ‘If the government wants to put emphasis on development rights, it should clearly say how it will address the basic needs of food, shelter, health and education for the marginalized people,’ said Sultana.
   An official there said that as Bangladesh wants to be re-elected as a member of the global rights body whose election is scheduled to be held in May, it will clearly work out its plan to improve the country’s rights scenario in the future.
   The official said that the UN human rights council would make a summary report based on earlier submitted reports and ask the parties concerned to explain their positions.
   The forum is a body established by the UN General Assembly on March 15, 2006 to improve the human rights situation in all the 192 member states.
   According to the statistics of Odhikar, a rights organisation, the number of extrajudicial killings in the period from 2007 to 2008 was 322, which was a slight improvement since the figure was 352 and 377 in 2006 and 2005 respectively.

An ethnic minority school teacher was killed and two others were injured by highway robbers Monday evening at Barabydh of Madhupur upazila in Tangail.
   The deceased is Basanti Mangsang, 48, headmistress of Gayra Missionary Primary School.
   The injured are Monika Nokrek, 30, and Dhijani Nokrek, 38, both of them teachers of the same school.
   As the news of the killing of Basanti spread in the locality, local residents vandalised a police check-post at Pochis-mile of the upazila at night.
   Local ethnic minority people blocaded the Tangail-Mymensingh Highway at Telki since Tuesday morning, disrupting the traffic.
   The ethnic minority leaders and the police said the incident took place when the three teachers on their way to residence got on a bus of Prantik Paribahan after participating a meeting at Jolsatro mission under Madhupur. Basanti was stabbed during the robbery.
   Indigenous leader Ajay Mree told New Age that they took the three critically injured to Jalsatro Missionary Hospital. Basanti was transferred to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital as her condition worsened. She died at the hospital.
   The other injured were released after primary treatment. The Madhupur officer-in-charge, ANM Golam Mostofa, said the police had started a raid to arrest the robbers.
   A case was filed in this connection.

The government on Tuesday decided to form Market Intelligence Unit teams for the divisional cities of Chittagong, Rajashahi and Khulna also to monitor the market prices of essential commodities, said official sources.
   On Monday the commerce ministry issued a circular announcing the revival of the MIU after 16 years, and formed three teams to monitor a number of markets in the capital.
   The MIU teams will monitor the prices of nine essential commodities — rice, wheat, flour, soybean oil, powdered milk, onion, potato, salt and sugar — in various markets of the cities, sources added.
   ‘We will also try to find out the real causes of the abnormal price-hike of essentials,’ said a senior official of the commerce ministry on Tuesday. Under the World Trade Organisation’s rules, member countries are not allowed to check the prices of commodities in markets through bodies like the Market Intelligence Unit, but may set up such units in the case of abnormal price-hike in the country’s kitchen markets, said the official.
   ‘The WTO authorities have relaxed their earlier rigid position of not allowing the formation of any type of market intelligence units to monitor the price-hike of commodities, and most of the member countries over the years have formed such teams to monitor the markets,’ he added.
   In the circular issued on Tuesday, the commerce ministry asked the state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh to form three MIU teams for the other divisional cities to monitor the nine commodities in kitchen markets and also drew up the terms of reference.
   The MIU teams will monitor the markets everyday expect the weekly holidays on Friday and Saturday, and gather the wholesale and retail prices and information on the stocks of various commodities held by the traders.
   The MIU teams will hold monthly meetings with the TCB before finalising and submitting their report to the concerned authorities. If necessary, the MIU will seal its report and send it to the ministers and secretaries concerned, suggesting necessary action.

The mayor of Chittagong city corporation, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, has made a fresh call for giving transit facility to the neighbouring countries through the Chittagong port for spearheading the nation towards economic prosperity.
   Mohiuddin made the call while addressing a reception as chief guest in the port city, which was hosted by the Indian high commission office in Chittagong, on Monday night marking the 59th anniversary of the republic day of India.
   ‘Bangladesh can earn huge revenue through giving transit facility to the neighbours and spearhead its economic advancement,’ he observed.
   ‘The river Karnaphully that provides a harbour to Chittagong port is a blessing for us as it is adjacent
   to the sea. We can make
   the best use of the river through giving transit facility to our neighbours,’ he observed.
   ‘We see a huge prospect of generating economic activities in the country with the revenue if the neighbours are allowed to use the Chittagong port,’ he noted.
   ‘But a thorough study should be conducted on the feasibility of giving transit to the neighbours,’ Mohiuddin said, adding ‘I urge the government to
   conduct the feasibility study without any further delay.’
   He pointed out that some quarters were misinterpreting the issue of giving
   transit facility to the neighbours just out of their ignorance.’
   In this regard, the CCC mayor cited the example of Singapore that was earning huge revenue from its port through providing transit to the cargo vessels.
   He also recalled the support and cooperation which were extended to Bangalees by the Indian government during the country’s war of liberation in 1971.
   Speaking at the function, assistant high commissioner of India in Chittagong, Subrata Bhattacharjee, said that an excellent friendly relation was existing between the two close-door neighbours.

Internationally acclaimed archaeologist, historian and linguist professor Dr Ahmad Hasan Dani died in Islamabad on Monday morning, reports Dawn.
   He was 88.
   Dani was a world renowned historian. He was regarded as an authority on archaeology, culture, linguistics, Buddhism and Central Asian archaeology and history. He was professor of Emeritus at the Quaid-i-Azam University, a distinction bestowed on him after his retirement as dean of the social sciences department in recognition of his contributions. He was founding director of the Taxila Institute of Asian Civilisations of the university since its establishment in 1997 and founding director of the Islamabad Museum.
   During his long career, Dani had held various academic positions and international fellowships and conducted archaeological excavations and research. He received a number of civil awards in Pakistan and abroad. As a recognised linguist, he was proficient in more than 14 national and international languages and dialects.
   An ethnic Kashmiri, Dani was born in Basna, in the district Raipur in India, on July 20, 1920. He did his Masters in 1944 and became the first Muslim graduate of Banaras Hindu University. In 1945, Dani started work as an archaeologist with Sir Mortimer Wheeler and took part in excavations in Taxila and Moenjodaro. He was subsequently posted at the department of archaeology of British India at Taj Mahal.
   After partition, he moved to Dhaka and worked as assistant superintendent of the department of archaeology. At that time, he rectified the Verandra Museum in Rajshahi. In 1950, he was promoted to the position of superintendent-in-charge of archaeology. For 12 years (1950-62), Dani worked as associate professor of history at the University of Dhaka and also as curator at Dhaka Museum. During this period, he carried out archaeological research on the Muslim history of Bengal.
   Dani was awarded honorary fellowships of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (1969), German Archaeolo-gical Institute (1981), Ismeo, Rome (1986) and Royal Asiatic Society (1991).
   He moved to the University of Peshawar in 1962 as professor of archaeology and remained there till 1971. He conducted a number of archaeological explorations and excavations on the Stone Age and Gandhara civilisation in the Northern Areas and guided the resetting and renovation of Lahore and Peshawar museums.
   Dani took part in exclusive excavation works on the pre-Indus civilisation site of Rehman Dheri in northern Pakistan. He also made a number of discoveries of Gandhara sites in Peshawar and Swat and worked on Indo-Greek sites in Dir.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday extended bail for five months to Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s chairperson Khaleda Zia’s eldest son, Tarique Rahman, in connection with the Tk 21 crore bribery case.
   The four-member Appellate Division bench, chaired by Chief Justice MM Ruhul Amin, passed the order after hearing a petition filed by Tarique’s counsel, Rafiqul Islam.
   The court on August 28, 2008 granted bail for six months to Tarique in the case involving the murder of Bashundhara Group’s director Humayun Kabir Sabbir.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission’s deputy assistant director, Abul Kashem, on October 4, 2008 filed the bribery case with the Ramna police station against six persons including former State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar.
   Tarique and former BNP lawmaker Qazi Saleemul Huq Kamal were implicated in the charge sheet of the bribery case for their involvement in clearing Shafiat Sobhan Sanvir, son of Bashundhara Group’s chairman, Ahmed Akbar Sobhan alias Shah Alam, from charges of killing Sabbir.

Former Indian president R Venkataraman died on Tuesday, officials said. He was 98.
   Venkataraman, who served as the country’s head of state for five years till 1992, had been admitted to a city hospital in critical condition on January 12.
   A member of the Congress party, Venkataraman held several important posts at the Centre and was the country’s minister of defence and finance before becoming vice-president in 1984.

Bangladesh and Germany hold foreign secretary-level consultations in Dhaka today focusing on investment, trade and development cooperation, officials said.
   The state secretary for the foreign ministry of Germany, Reinhard Silberberg, arrived here Tuesday afternoon to lead his delegation to the talks. The foreign secretary, Touhid Hossain, will lead the host side.
   The Dhaka-Berlin consultations are taking place only four weeks after the December 29 parliamentary elections that brought a new government in office here through democratic transition. ‘This clearly signals the importance Germany attaches to its relations with Bangladesh,’ said a release from the German embassy.