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Five more soldiers of Bangladesh Rifles made their confessional statements to the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court in Dhaka on Sunday in connection with the February 25-26 carnage at the BDR headquarters at Pilkhana in the city.
   The criminal investigation department of police, assigned to investigate the case filed with New Market police station, produced the five soldiers before five separate metropolitan magistrate’s courts in the afternoon.
   After recording their statements, the courts sent the soldiers to Dhaka Central Jail at about 8:30pm, court sources said.
   Police also produced 65 soldiers in court on Sunday afternoon after the end of their five-day remand on the previous day. The court sent them to the jail as police did not seek further remand for them.
   Two more soldiers, deputy assistant director Touhidul Islam and Habibur Rahman, were produced before the court of metropolitan magistrate Mominul Hasan on Sunday afternoon after the end of their eight-day remand on the previous day in connection with arms recovery case filed with Sabujbagh police station. Police sought further five-day remand for them but the court granted three days for interrogation.
   Police, meanwhile, produced another person, Abdul Hamid, a retired BDR solider, before the same court with a plea to show him arrested in connection with BDR rebellion and sought a 10-day remand for him.
   After hearing, the court granted five days remand for Abdul Hamid.
   A total of 1,419 people, most of them soldiers, have so far been arrested in connection with the BDR rebellion at Pilkhana headquarters and 114 of them, including three civilians, have so far made their confessional statements to the court.
   A total of 150 people are now on remand under the custody of CID police in Dhaka.
   Outside the capital, a total of 1,723 soldiers have so far been arrested in 30 districts for their suspected involvement in the rebellion at their respective battalions and sector headquarters.

The World No Tobacco Day was observed on Sunday in the country as elsewhere in the world with a demand for pictorial warnings on the packets of cigarette and bidi.
   This year the theme of the day was ‘Tobacco Health Warnings.’
   Apart from the government, different socio-cultural organisations organised various programmes to mark the day.
   The Bangladesh Anti-Tobacco Alliance arranged a discussion on the tobacco control activities and organised a colourful procession of chariots in the city.
   The ADHUNIK, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, organised a discussion at the National Press Club.
   Information minister, Abul Kalam Azad, addressed the discussion as chief guest while the TIB chairman, professor Muzaffer Ahmad, spoke on the occasion as guest of honour.
   M Mostafa Zaman, national professional officer of WHO and Nawazish Ali Khan, adviser of the ATN Bangla, were also present on the occasion.
   In observance of the day, ADHUNIK also brought out a procession from the press club premises at 8:00am.
   The Consumers Association of Bangladesh formed a human chain along the road stretching from Farmgate to Shahbagh aiming at creating awareness among the people about the consequences of smoking.
   The Pratyasha, an anti-drug association, also brought out a colourful procession of chariots from the Shahbagh.
   The MANAS organised a discussion at the Begum Sufia Kamal auditorium of the National Museum in the capital. A number of personalities were awarded for their contributions to the anti-tobacco movement.
   The Manobik, an anti-tobacco and anti-drug organisation, arranged a boat procession on the Dhanmondi lake and distributed leaflets among the people.
   The anti-tobacco campaigners asked the authorities concerned to make pictorial warnings covering 50 per cent space of the cigarette and bidi packets mandatory for the tobacco companies to make the smokers aware of the consequence of smoking.

The government has increased ration for the Bangladesh Rifles jawans to 100 per cent from the existing 60 per cent.
   A government order on 100 per cent ration for BDR soldiers has already been issued with effect from May 17, a senior official at the home affairs ministry told New Age on Sunday.
   The finance ministry earlier approved a home ministry proposal for the increase in the BDR ration, but sent it back with some queries about the proposal for hiking the allowance for the soldiers while posted on the borders, the official added.
   The government in a week after the February 25-26 rebellion and killings at the BDR headquarters in Dhaka took initiatives for increasing facilities for the members of the paramilitary force.
   In early March, the home ministry sent a letter to the finance ministry proposing an increase in the monthly border allowance for BDR soldiers to Tk 500 from Tk 260.
   The ministry also proposed for raising the ration for the BDR jawans to 100 per cent from the existing 60 per cent.
   The finance ministry wanted to know the number of BDR members with designations and the date from which the jawans were receiving Tk 260 as monthly border allowance.
   ‘A similar proposal from the home ministry was rejected by the finance ministry about 10 months back during the tenure of the interim government,’ said an official source.
   The BDR organogram shows there are 44,004 members in the Bangladesh Rifles, including 446 officers, of them 386 are deputed from the army.
   The government on May 27 made public the home ministry’s probe report on the BDR rebellion, which recommended striking a balance in the facilities for the military, paramilitary and law enforcement agencies.
   Describing the background of the bloody mutiny, the probe committee led by retired secretary Anis-uz Zaman Khan, said the grievances the BDR soldiers had harboured against their commanding officers from the army, were the immediate reason for the rebellion.
   ‘The committee identified the soldiers’ grievances and their demand for increased allowances as the primary reason for the mutiny…Besides, Dal Bhat Programme, punishments meted out to jawans, irregularities in running the BDR shops and schools and officers’ luxurious living fuelled the discontent,’ Anis-uz Zaman said while reading out a synopsis of the 309- page report at the home ministry.
   Home secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder said on the same day that the government had started taking measures in keeping with the recommendations.

Re-polling in some polling centres in seven upazilas where polls were postponed during the countrywide elections for the local body on January 22 due to irregularities will be held today.
   The upazilas are Ukhia (Cox’s Bazar), Chandina and Muradnagar (Comilla), Chhagalnaiya (Feni), Atpara (Netrakona) and Pakundia (Kishoreganj) districts.
   Voting would start at 8:00am and continue until 4:00pm.
   Meanwhile, the Election Commission withheld the result publication of a total of 47 upazilas on January 22 after finding some irregularities and it finally fixed the number of withheld upazilas at 16 through investigations.
   On May 13, the EC made decision to publish the election results of these 16 upazilas too after judicial investigations.

The cremation of the anti-British movement veteran and close aide of Mahatma Gandhi, Suhasini Devi, was held in Sylhet Sunday afternoon.
   The funeral was held at the city’s Chalibandar crematory in the evening. Her body was taken to the Central Shaheed Minar at Zindabazar at 2:30pm for the people to pay their tribute to the deceased.
   Hundreds of people from all walks of life flocked to the Shaheed Minar to have a glimpse of her. Suhasini Devi died of old age complication at a private clinic in the city at about 7:30pm on Saturday. She was 95.
   Her body was taken to Umeshchandra Nirmalbala Chhatrabas at Chalibandar where she spent the last years of her life as superintendent of the hostel. Suhasini Devi joined the Indian Congress in the 30’s of the last century and later took part in the anti-British movement led by Mahatma Gandhi to free Indian from the British rule.
   Suhasini’s only daughter Nilima Devi is living in the United Kingdom along with her family members.

The government’s social safety net programmes exclude a number of disadvantaged groups such as urban workers in informal sectors who are exposed to income uncertainty.
   There is no social security scheme for them in case of job loss, income erosion, business failure or in the event of natural calamities — a situation that keeps the poor in a cycle of poverty, economists and researchers observed.
   Speaking at a function on Sunday on the occasion of launching two books on poverty reduction, they mooted the idea of ‘social audit’ to ensure better results from welfare programmes.
   Given the extensive poverty incidence and poor spending on safety net programmes, the governor of Bangladesh Bank, Atiur Rahman, underlined the importance of framing a social protection strategy to properly cover the poor with programmes meant for their graduation to welfare.
   ‘Social safety net programmes exclude many sectors like the whole range of informal sectors. Unlike the practice in north European countries, nothing is done here for social protection of the poor,’ former central bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed told the function, held at the Spectra Convention Centre in the city.
   In the wake of the global recession, he cautioned, vulnerable groups, including women and children, might suffer more and suggested that these groups should be provided with additional protection measures.
   Hossain Zillur Rahman, a former adviser to the interim government, called on the present government to introduce a budgetary scheme on protection of the ‘unorganised urban workers’ to address the rising poverty incidence in the metropolitan areas.
   He suggested continuation of the 100-day employment guarantee scheme and school meal programme, saying that the first one can help address rural unemployment and the second one can address dropout from schools.
   Emphasising the need for more poverty-focussed macroeconomic regime, the director general of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Mustafa Muzeri, said, ‘Social protection measures are more important than short-term safety net programmes.’ He pointed out that policymakers need to take ‘complementary actions’ to make the social protection programmes effective.
   ‘Social safety net programmes should be home-grown and owned by the government to deliver effective results,’ said Atiur Rahman, also a development economist.
   The BB governor called for international assistance for funding investments to protect the poor who are now exposed to external shocks due to globalisation. ’The world as a whole has a stake in committing more funds to support social safety net programmes.’
   The country, with more than 40 per cent of its population living below the poverty line, spends less than one per cent of its gross domestic product for social safety net programmes, compared to average 2 per cent spending by other countries.
   Lauding Bangladesh for scaling up safety net programmes, the country director of the World Bank, Xian Zhu, stressed the need for increasing investments in schemes on safety nets, using the recently-prepared poverty map and national identity cards.
   The World Bank and Power and Participation Research Centre jointly organised the function to launch the two books — ‘For Protection and Promotion Designs and Implementation of Effective Safety Nets’ and ‘Conditional Cash Transfer: Reducing Present and Future Poverty’.

Members of a parliamentary panel on Sunday suggested the taking of strict action against a section of ‘crooked’ officials who are allegedly responsible for excluding a good number of aspirants for public jobs who had passed the 27th BCS examination.
   A ‘vicious circle’ in the Public Service Commission has been controlling the agency for public recruitment, said a member of the parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Establishment, which at a meeting favoured reinstatement of some 1,022 candidates who came out successful in the 27th BCS examination.
   The committee was told that 326 of the 1,114 rejected candidates were children of freedom-fighters who deserve a special quota for themselves.
   Three hundred others were female, 200 belong to the minority community and five belong to indigenous groups, according to the members of a sub-committee formed by the standing committee to look into anomalies in the recruiting process, said an official who had attended the meeting.
   ‘Those who manipulated the examination and tampered with the results should be punished,’ said Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, a member of the committee, as quoted by the official.
   The meeting, presided over by Khandakar Asaduzzaman, was of the view that the deprived candidates should be appointed to public service.
   It asked the sub-committee to submit its report on its findings immediately. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on May 5 sent a letter to the PSC, asking it to settle the dispute over the appointments.

Bangladesh has sought British support so that it can have access to ‘relevant archives and records’ to make war crimes trial more transparent and fair.
   The foreign minister, Dipu Moni, has asked for the support when she the British minister of international defence and security, Baroness Ann Taylor Bolton, in Singapore on the sidelines of security summit Shangri-La Dialogue, said a foreign ministry statement on Sunday.
   It said the foreign minister had also met the US secretary of defence, Robert Gates, who assured her of providing cooperation.
   During her meeting with the UK minister, Dipu Moni told her about the government’s efforts to hold war crimes trial in Bangladesh and said relevant archives and old records available with the United Kingdom could be useful.

The government would soon reconstitute the Chittagong Hill Tracts Land Commission to resolve land problem issues for all ethnic minorities in the hill districts, state minister for Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Dipankar Talukder has said.
   The state minister hoped that the Land Commission would start its works as soon as it is reconstituted.
   About the provision of appointing a retired judge as the chairman of the Commission, he said, ‘We have to consider the physical and mental capability of the chairman… We have to see whether a judge after his retirement at the age of 67 years would be able to carry out the activities of the Commission as he would often require to visit the hilly region.’
   Dipankar said the present government is working to create the atmosphere for the indigenous people in plain land and the hilly regions to live with honour and dignity.
   He also said the government would allocate funds in the budget for the indigenous people and would expedite implementation of the CHT peace treaty.
   Dipankar was addressing a workshop on ‘Livelihood Situation of Indigenous Communities in Plain Land and CHT of Bangladesh : The Constraints and Probable Solutions’.
   ActionAid Bangladesh in collaboration with Alternative Movement for Resources and Freedom Society and PRA Promoters Society organized the workshop at the CIRDAP auditorium.
   Discussants at the workshop earlier stressed the need for full implementation of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) peace accord and immediate reactivation of the CHT Land Commission to solve the land problems faced by the indigenous people.
   The workshop was moderated by ActionAid Bangladesh country director Farah Kabir and attended among others by former adviser to the caretaker government Sultana Kamal, writer Selina Hossain, Dhaka University professors Dr Dalem Chandra Barman and Dr Mesbah Kamal and leader of Garo ethnic community from Madhupur Maloti Nokrek.
   Abu Naser, coordinator of PRA Promoters Society and Partha Hafaz Shaihk of ActionAid Bangladesh jointly presented a study report on Livelihood Situation of Indigenous Communities in CHT.

Leaders of the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh have identified extortion over telephone as one of the main obstacles they are facing in the sector.
   The leaders raised the issue at a meeting with the commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police at the city police headquarters on Sunday.
   ‘Everyday, unidentified callers demand tolls from our members at different places in the city, especially in Kazipara and greater Mirpur areas. We cannot run our business without paying them toll,’ said a police official quoting one of the REHAB leaders.
   In many cases, the victims did not have any other options but to give in to the extortionists, the REHAB leader said in the meeting.
   In reply, the DMP commissioner, AKM Shahidul Haque, assured the REHAB leaders of going tough against the extortionists.
   ‘We have formed a cell to deal with the incident and you feel free to call the cell whenever you receive such demands through telephone or by any other means,’ the commissioner told the meeting, the official said. Telephone numbers of the central extortion prevention cell were provided to the REHAB members.
   The deputy commissioners of zones concerned were also asked to provide assistance to the REHAB members.
   The REHAB president, Tanvirul Haque Prabal, vice-president and former additional inspector general Abdur Rahim Khan and general secretary Khaled Mohammad Jewel Mollah were, among others, present at the meeting on behalf of the real estate developers.
   Senior police officers, including additional commissioner Abul Kashem, attended the meeting.

Alhaj Mohammed Solaiman, former superintendent of the Primary Training Institute in Rajshahi, died of old-age ailments in his house on Sunday. He was 90.
   He will be buried in the Mahisbathan graveyard after his namaz-e-janaza at the same place on Monday.
   Mohammed Solaiman was father of the former Shahjalal University vice-chancellor Aminul Islam.

The High Court on Sunday directed the government not to disturb or stop former BNP lawmaker Sayeed Iskander from going abroad for medical check-up and thereafter re-enter Bangla-desh for three months.
   Passing the interim order upon a writ petition filed by Iskander, an HC division bench comprising Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Justice M Azizul Haque issued a rule upon the government in this regard.
   Mahbubuddin Khokon MP appeared for Iskander, also younger brother of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia.

A physician and a health assistant were assaulted by agitated people early Sunday at Dimla Upazila Health Complex in Nilphamari after a patient died allegedly for negligence of the doctor.
   Witnesses said one Noor Islam, 60, of village Uttar Titpara of Dimla upazila in Lalmonirhat was brought to the upazila health complex at around 11:00pm on Saturday with cardiac complications.
   He died allegedly due to negligence of the duty doctor Abu Taher, who arrived reportedly at 12:30am as he was sleeping at home despite calls from a health assistant Khorshed Alam, who could only provide oxygen for the patient, some 30 minutes after his arrival.
   It infuriated the attendants of the patient, who charged the doctor, accusing him of utter negligence to attend the patient on time, which led to his death.
   The angry shouts of the attendants also brought in the locals, who joined the fray, accusing the doctor and the hospital staff of habitual negligence to take care of the patients. Ultimately they started assaulting doctor Abu Taher and Khorshed Alam.
   Police rushed to the hospital, receiving information from the hospital authorities, and brought the situation under control.
   The upazila health and family welfare officer, Deen Mohammad, however, claimed that the patient died as he had acute cardiac problems.
   Police were deployed at the health complex, he added.

RAB arrested three persons and recovered huge railway slippers and electric polls worth around Tk 4 crore from Jhenaidah town on Sunday.
   The arrested persons are Ripon of village Arappur and Siron of Dasmile of Jhenaidah, and Motiar Rahman of Chuadanga.
   RAB commander Major Tarik said on a tip off they seized a human hauler loaded with stolen railway slippers at Jhenaidah town and arrested two persons in this connection.
   According to their confessional statement, the elite force arrested Siron from Dasmile and on the basis of his statement they recovered at least eight tons of slippers and electric polls valued at around Tk 4 crore from village Arappur.
   The RAB commander added that they were interrogating the arrested persons.

A Dhaka court on Sunday rejected a petition filed by Qazi Faruque Ahmed, who was removed as Proshika Manabik Unnayan Kendra chairman on May 24, seeking a ban on the nine-member new board of directors.
   Assistant metropolitan judge Sheikh Marina Sultana, however, posted for June 28 the hearing in another petition filed by Faruque to declare illegal the board’s decision which removed him as the organisation’s chairman.
   In his petition, Faruque said the meeting was illegal as only the chairman could convene such a meeting, according to Proshika’s constitution.
   According to Article 27 of Proshika’s constitution, the post of the chairman or any member will be vacated only if she or he is convicted by a criminal court or removed by a general meeting, Faruque claimed.
   He said the governing board had no power to remove him as the body is part of the management committee.
   The board at a requisitioned meeting on May 24 unanimously appointed Md Abdul Wadud its chairman after removing the founder chief, accused of corruption and politicisation of the organisation. Faruque was requested to attend the meeting, but he kept off.
   The board decided to remove Faruque to save the 33-year-old organisation which provides bread and butter to thousands of employees and their families.
   The meeting was attended by Mahbub Ul-Karim, Abdul Matin, Mashrurul Islam, Renuka Biswas, Golapi Bewa, Shahjahan Halder, Sultana Ahmed and Abdul Wadud.
   The meeting also appointed a five-member panel of Sirajul Islam, Sirajul Haque, Abdur Rab, Mahbubul Alam and Altaf Hossain Talukdar to assist the chief executive of the organisation.
   The board also decided to hold its annual general meeting on June 9, said the new chairman as he address a briefing at the Dhaka Reporter’s Unity on May 24.

The activists of the ruling Awami League-backed Bangladesh Chhatra League on Sunday vandalised the elections camp of the Jatiyatabadi Oikya Parishad, a panel contesting in the Dhaka University Senate polls, in Faridpur.
   The elections was held at the Government Rajendra College centre in Faridpur town to chose 25 representatives from the contesting registered graduates of the DU.
   Delwar Hossain Dila, a registered graduate of DU and supporter of the Jatiyatabadi Oikya Parishad panel, alleged that a group of BCL activists vandalised their elections camp at 11:00am to create panic among the supporters and voters of their panel.
   They also abused the voters and supporters of the Jatiyatabadi Oikya Parishad panel so that they leave the centre without casting their votes.
   He said that a group of about 10-12 BCL activists, led by one Titu, entered the college campus and forced the voters and supporters of the Jatiyatabadi Oikyo Parishad to leave the campus. At one stage, police and local senior leaders tried to make them calm.
   Julfikar Ali Juel, joint-organising secretary of the Faridpur district unit of BNP told reporters that the BCL activists vandalised the elections camp in the presence of lawmen.
   Jibon Kumar Mitra, presiding officer at the polling centre, said out of the total 484 voters, 256 cast their votes.

The Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Ziku), will hold its 13th central council at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, in Dhaka on June 25.
   Earlier, the council was scheduled for June 4, but it has been shifted to June 25 due to the strike of the south-western districts of the country by the cyclone Aila, the general secretary of the party, Abdul Malek Ratan, said at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters Unity on Sunday.
   A 43-member preparatory committee was formed for holding the council with Abdul Malek Ratan as its convenor and party’s central leaders Ataul Karim Faruq, Sharif Mohammad Khan, Siraj Miah and Nurul Akhter as joint conveners.
   The founding general secretary of the party, ASM Abdur Rab, will come back to the party’s leadership at the council, Ratan told the reporters. Earlier, Rab left the party leadership, but worked for the party keeping himself outside the any party committee, he added.
   ‘We must bring qualitative changes in the political system to change the lot of the people,’ said Rab, who was present at the press conference.
   He reiterated his demands including, division of the country into eight provinces, a bi-chamber parliament and setting up of metropolitan governments in six city corporations.
   The executive president of the party, Mohammad Shafique, also spoke on the occasion.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has said her government will spend Tk 450 crore over the next five years on a forestation programme that includes restoring mangrove forests along the coast to shield from cyclones, tidal waves and rising sea levels.
   ‘Forest resources are decreasing as the population increases,’ said the prime minister inaugurating the three-month-long National Tree Plantation Movement and month-long Tree Fair 2009 on Sunday.
   ‘Bangladesh is losing its natural beauty and environment,’ she said.
   Hasina formally launched the tree plantation drive by planting a Nageshwar sapling at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre.
   ‘We have to integrate our vast population into the programme to turn tree plantation into a social movement,’ she said.
   The government is taking a set of steps to encourage people to plant trees and become more conscious about the utility of trees to make the tree plantation drive a success, said the prime minister.
   ‘The government has turned the tree plantation into a social afforestation project.’
   She said the nation and its people faced annual disasters, especially in the coastal regions where cyclones, tidal bores, floods and rising sea levels were causing losses of lives and property each year.
   The impact of global warming, causing annual temperature rises of 0.4 degrees Celsius in Bangladesh, was resulting in greater frequency and intensity of cyclonic storms, said the prime minister.
   The sea level was also rising by 4 millimetres every year, more than the global rate, she said.
   Hasina stressed the need to create and protect mangrove forests to shield the coastal regions.
   She also urged people to plant more domestic tree species for timber, herbal and fruit to save the country’s bio-diversity.
   The state minister for forests and environment, Mostafizur Rahman, presided over the inauguration, also addressed by the forests and environment secretary, Mihir Kanti Majumder, and the chief conservator of forests, M Abdul Motaleb.
   During the function, the prime minister released a Tk 3 denomination commemorative postal stamp and a first day cover of Tk 6 denomination, marking the National Tree Plantation Movement 2009.
   The prime minister also handed out crests and cheques among the award winners of 2008’s National Tree Plantation Movement.
   The award was introduced in 1993 for tree plantation by individuals and organisations in 16 categories, and includes a first prize of Tk 20,000, second prize of Tk 15,000, third prize of Tk 10,000 along with a certificate for each winner.
   The beneficiaries of the government’s social forestation programmes also received cheques from the prime minister.

The sacked employees of the Grameen Phone, a leading cell phone operator in the country, again went for a fast-unto-death programme in front of its corporate office in the city on Sunday demanding their reinstatement.
   One of the demonstrators, seeking anonymity, said that the cell phone operator had sacked about 350 employees during the June-November period in 2008 on the plea of austerity measure.
   ‘We went for a fast-unto-death programme on the Central Shahid Minar premises following the dismissal of our jobs when the Grameenphone authorities assured us that the sacked employees would be reinstated within three days. But they did not comply with their assurance,’ he said.
   ‘We have been staging various protest programmes during the last five months to get our jobs back and the mobile phone operator promised to reinstate us on several occasions.
   Referring to the age bar, he said they would not get government job now as their age had already crossed the limit due to working for the company for four-five years.
   The sacked Grameen Phone employees in a press statement alleged that the company had dismissed their jobs without giving any prior notice.
   Earlier, they also submitted memorandum to the prime minister, post and telecommunications minister, and labour and employment minister.

Abahani Club director Syed Shahed Reza has been appointed ambassador to Kuwait under a three-year contract, according to an official notification issued by the establishment ministry on Sunday.
   Through another order, the contractual appointment of Shahed Akhter as principal of the Foreign Service Academy has been cancelled.