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A section of leaders and activists of the ruling Awami League and its associate organisations are encroaching on the land of Bangladesh Railway, Dhaka City Corporation and other government institutions in different city places to set up their offices.
   These offices, it is alleged by local residents, are used to carry out ‘anti-social activities.’
   The interim government demolished most of such unauthorised establishments in the city. But with return of a political government, the ruling Awami Legue, its coalition partners and in some cases ‘influential’ opposition men have again started to encroach upon government land to set up such offices.
   Local people of Motijheel, Moghbazar, Fakirapool, Mohammadpur, Farmgate, Hajaribagh, Maniknagar and Gopibagh areas alleged that those offices are being used as den of anti-social activities, including gambling as well as planning of tender manipulation and extortions.
   Earlier, during the tenure of the BNP-led government, leaders and activists of the ruling quarters had also set up such offices, grabbing the public land. With the change of government, the ruling AL men have occupied such spots.
   However, Awami League joint general secretary, Obaidul Kader, on Thursday told New Age, ‘If any activists of our party are found erecting illegal offices encroaching any public property, stern action will be taken against them and the lands will be returned to the authorities concerned.’
   Local people said a section of ruling Awami League activists occupied the local BNP office that had been illegally erected on the land of Dhaka City Corporation near Fakirapool Mosque and put up a signboard of 32 Ward Unit Swechchhasebak League office. They also handed over a little space adjacent to the office to a tea stall in exchange of a monthly rent of Tk. 3000 to meet their office expenses.
   In Motijheel, just opposite Motijhel Ideal School, they set up an AL office within Motijheel T&T colony. The office had been closed during the tenure of four-party alliance government, but now it has been opened again.
   Motijheel Thana unit AL president Nasu Mia told New Age, ‘We couldn’t sit in our offices in last seven years as they implicated us in several false cases.’
   Just a few yards away, AL Sechchhasebak League activists built a shed near the school gate for the pedestrians. Local Sechchhasebak League leader Abul Kalam told New Age, ‘We all use the shed as AL office after evening and allow the guardians of school children to use it during school hours.’
   In Segun Bagicha, Nazrul Islam, 35, president of Swechchhasebak Ward-56 unit, had set up an office on the footpath in front of the National Board of Revenue office during the tenure of the four-party alliance.
   Local people said that after the election, local AL leaders and activists tried to forcibly occupy the office and in course of clashes Nazrul was shot dead and one of his associates, Mahjuddin, received bullet wounds inflicted by unidentified assailants at Bijoynagar area on January 5.
   On Aurangzeb Road in Mohamadpur, near the deputy commissioner (traffic) west zone office, nearly two bighas of vacant land owned by DCC and public works ministry was in the possession of the ruling party men who erected structures and rented them out.
   Earlier, BNP men had set up an office of the 45 Ward Unit, which the caretaker government later demolished. DCC afterwards established some shops on the land the name of Samabay Bazar. But local AL leaders put up a signboard of 45 Ward AL office, illegally occupying one of the shops.
   The secretary of the 45 Ward Unit Awami League Zaman Hossain told this newspaper, ‘We are using one of the shops as our party office because all the shops are still vacant.’
   BNP men had earlier established an office at the southside of the main entrance of the Suhrawardy Hospital which the interim government demolished. But AL people have now occupied the place and set up their office after last election.
   In Sher-e-Banglanagar, inside the Government officer’s and Staff Quarters, local BNP men had erected their office near the community centre, later demolished by the interim government. Local people said that AL men are now trying to erect an office there.
   In Agargaon, in front of the National Museum of Science, Juba Dal, Motorchalok League and Awami League established three offices at the same place. The Juba Dal and Motorchalok League erected their offices at the south side of the playground while 41 Ward Unit AL established their office at the west side.
   In Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, near the Agriculture University, BNP men had set up an office which was later demolished by the interim government. But in January this year, the AL men erected an office at the same place.
   In Hazaribagh, on City Protection Embankment, several offices have been erected by the ruling party and its front organisations. A Krishak League office was erected there recently which, local people alleged, is often used by drug addicts in the evening.

Dhaka may not have sovereign authority over the proposed multi-donor trust fund for addressing climate change challenges in view of the involvement of aid agencies in the operation of the compensation package, said highly placed sources in the government.
   Also, the policy council and the management committee, conceived to oversee the fund, have strong bias for bureaucracy in their composition apart from the authority of the donor representatives in managing the fund meant for the country, which is widely believed to be in peril due to global warming.
   The secretariat for operating the trust fund should be based in the World Bank office in Dhaka and made up of a mix of international and national staff, according to the draft concept note prepared by the government earlier. It also proposed that the staff might include a ‘possible secondment from development partner organisations as well as staff members of the government of Bangladesh on lien’.
   The concept note has been prepared with a slight adjustment after the World Bank had been authorised to operate the multi-donor trust fund during the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed — a move that sparked off controversies and resentments.
   Instead, the concept note has proposed a 15-member policy council headed by the planning secretary. Ten of them are secretaries of different ministries, three from development partners and two from the civil society.
   ‘The policy council will endorse overall priorities, provide strategic guidance to the MDTF [multi-donor trust fund] and ensure that the fund provides coherent support to Bangladesh’s CCSAP [Climate Change Strategies and Action Plan],’ reads the note, which gives the ‘final say’ to donor representatives stipulating a consensus for taking decisions.
   The proposed management committee, headed by the secretary of the economic relations division, will be comprised mostly of bureaucrats to the rank not below joint secretary and representatives of donors, including the UK Department for International Development, DANIDA, the European Commission and the Netherlands.
   ‘It would be a crime to give authority of operating a fund meant for the people of Bangladesh to an external organisation like the World Bank. We should exercise our sovereign authority to operate the trust fund,’ said Ananya Raihan, executive director of research organisation D-Net.
   He said that projects on climate change should be undertaken through a broader national consultation with all stakeholders, including the victims and vulnerable people in different parts of the country.
   Although the concept note on trust fund has considered all contributions and payments to the fund as grants, it has kept the provision for involvement of the donors on the basis of the amount they donate.
   A development partner contributing a cumulative amount between $5 million and $9.9 million will get a seat in the management committee while a development partner contributing a cumulative amount of $10 million and above will get a seat in the policy council.
   Asked about operation of the fund, the state minister for environment and forest, Mustafizur Rahman, said the modality for operating the trust fund would be finalised alongside the Climate Change Strategies and Action Plan which a government committee was reviewing.
   ‘The government of Bangladesh will operate it and all concerned, including the development partners, will be involved in the process to ensure proper utilisation of the fund,’ he told New Age in the past week.
   The action plan would be ready in a week or so for subsequent course of action, the state minister pointed out, adding that the government was trying to work out ways and means to utilise the budgetary fund on climate change for which an amount of Tk 300 crore has been earmarked in the current budget.

Common people feel annoyed at the brawl of both the treasury and the opposition bench lawmakers over the seat row which results into abstention of opposition lawmakers from Jatiya Sangsad proceedings.
   The BNP-led opposition lawmakers abstained from the parliamentary proceedings on the first day of the budget session on Thursday in protest at the seating arrangement in the house.
   The BNP lawmakers earlier also boycotted the first session of the ninth parliament protesting against the seating arrangement made by the speaker, allocating four seats in the front row to opposition lawmakers, including one to Oli Ahmed of the Liberal Democratic Party.
   They later attended the first session on assurance from the speaker that their demand for more seats in the front row would be considered before the budget session.
   The speaker accommodated two senior BNP leaders — former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar and former law minister Moudud Ahmed — sending BNP lawmaker Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad from the first to the second row and Bangladesh Jatiya Party lawmaker Andalib Rahman from the second to the third row.
   The people New Age talked with on Friday also feel cheated as the lawmakers have indulged themselves in such a debate instead of concentrating on their duties for which the people have voted them.
   Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal, a physician in Bogra, Nur Alam Sarder, an engineer at Uttara in Dhaka, Nazmul Huda, a non-government college teacher at Dhanmondi, Hekmat Ali, a former union council chairman in Kushtia, Jahanara Begum, a housewife at Mohammadpur, Shamsul Alam, a grocer at Adabar, and Kamal Hossain, a transport worker at Mohammadpur, expressed similar views.
   Although Nazmul finds some valid grounds in arguments of both the sides, all of them think the debate is unnecessary and it should be immediately resolved accommodating each others through discussions.
   The opposition lawmakers cannot abstain from attending the parliamentary proceedings to raise people’s voice in the house only on the grounds of giving them seats in the back rows while the government cannot afford keeping the opposition out of the house only on the grounds of proportional accommodation in the front row or precedence, they observed.
   ‘The seat row exposes that the first preference of both the government and opposition lawmakers is to establish their ego instead of considering national interests,’ Abu Hana said.
   Nur Alam said, ‘The government should be more accommodative and the opposition must attend the session in national interests instead of giving preference to the location of their seats.’
   An efficient lawmaker can raise the voice of the people even sitting in the back bench, observed the engineer.
   ‘Both the sides have points in their arguments, but there must be a compromise deal as the issue has frustrated the nation,’ Nazmul said.
   Hekmat said, ‘We have not voted the lawmakers to seat in the front rows, but to raise our vice in the parliament to ensure framing of pro-people laws and policies.’
   Jahanara said, ‘The seat row exposes the lawmakers to have appeared as musclemen to captures sand bars in rivers.’
   Shamsul said, ‘We have voted the lawmakers to ensure national development, but they are now looking after their own interests.’
   ‘If every lawmaker wants to sit in the front row, the sessions can be held at the stadium putting all the lawmakers in the first row of in the gallery,’ said Kamal.

The government has decided not to allocate any fund in the upcoming budget for creating jobs for the ultra-poor and for financing small entrepreneurs, said official sources.
   ‘We will not allocate any fund in the next budget to create jobs for the hardcore poor in the villages as the fund given to the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation is enough to ensure jobs for the rural people,’ said a senior official of finance ministry.
   The PKSF, a government-owned organisation, has given the concerned NGOs loans to create jobs for the ultra-poor and finance small entrepreneurs from its two revolving funds, the official added.
   He said the PKSF is disbursing loans from two of the revolving funds: Tk 416 crore for creating employment for the ultra-poor and Tk 375 crore for giving loans to small entrepreneurs at a low interest rate.
   The PKSF has informed the finance ministry that it has enough funds for the purposes mentioned above.
   Sources in the finance ministry said that the government, in order to assist the agriculture-based industries, has decided to raise the concerned fund from the present fiscal year’s Tk 100 crore to Tk 150 crore in the next fiscal year’s budget.
   The fund will be disbursed through the specialised government-owned banks — Bangladesh Krishi Bank, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank, Karmasangsthan Bank and Basic Bank.
   The government has also decided to keep two funds — Tk 100 crore for agriculture and Tk 200 crore for entrepreneurs in the information technology sector — in the next budget.
   The present budget has an allocation of Tk 100 crore each for the entrepreneurs in the agricultural and IT sectors. These two funds, called equity entrepreneur funds, will be operated by the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh though the Bangladesh Bank has administered them since the creation of the funds.
   The government has disbursed Tk 570 crore to the agriculture sector and Tk 120 crore to the IT sector since 2002-03, according to the Bangladesh Bank’s 2007-08 annual report.

A suicide bomb ripped through a mosque packed with worshippers in northwest Pakistan Friday, killing 38 people and wounding dozens more in the deadliest such attack in more than two months.
   The bomb exploded at the mosque in the remote, mountainous village of Hayagai Sharqai in Upper Dir, which borders the district of Swat, where the military has focused its blistering air and ground assault against the Taliban.
   The police said the attack occurred during weekly Muslim prayers, which convene Friday afternoon and generally see mosques filled with people.
   Malik Naveed Khan, police chief of North West Frontier Province, said 38 people were killed and 50 wounded in the explosion.
   ‘We fear the death toll may rise to 45 because people are still trapped under the debris. Rescue work is under way,’ Atif-ur-Rehman, the top government official in Upper Dir, said by telephone.
   ‘The mosque courtyard is littered with blood and human flesh,’ he added.
   Rehman said the bomber entered the mosque shortly before prayers.
   ‘While he was trying to enter the crowd some people suspected and tried to pounce on him. During the scuffle he detonated himself,’ Rehman said.
   ‘Villagers, even women, came out of their homes and they’re having to identify their dead relatives through their clothes,’ he added.
   The police official Ataullah Khan said 32 dead had been identified and put the number of wounded at 70.
   ‘Still we are pulling out dead bodies and body parts,’ he said, describing the mosque as ‘severely damaged’.
   Bombs regularly target mosques in Pakistan, where more than 1,900 people have been killed in a wave of extremist bombings across the country since government troops besieged gunmen in a radical Islamabad mosque in July 2007.
   On March 27, a suicide bomber in Jamrud, also in northwest Pakistan, killed about 50 people in one of the deadliest such mosque attacks at Friday prayers in the country.
   There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday’s blast, but there has been a surge of bombings in North West Frontier Province since the military assault against militants began in late April, heightening fears of a growing militant backlash.
   On Thursday, army chief General Ashfaq Kayani announced that the battle in Swat was turning in the military’s favour.
   ‘The tide in Swat has decisively turned: major population centres and roads leading to the valley have been largely cleared of organised resistance by the terrorists,’ he was quoted as saying in a statement.
   The United States has strongly supported the operation, which was launched under pressure from Washington and amid warnings that Islamist militants posed an existential threat to the country and were plotting attacks on the West.
   Three soldiers were killed and two wounded Friday when a roadside bomb struck a patrol in the lawless South Waziristan tribal area between Jandola and Spinka Raghzai, a military official said.
   On Thursday, a similar bomb attack killed five policemen and an army officer near the northwest town of Mardan, an area where many of the two million people who fled Pakistan’s military offensive are now sheltering in camps.
   Civilians again streamed out of homes in Swat on Friday, following evacuation orders from the military and taking advantage of a curfew break ahead of possible operations concentrated in their villages, officials said.
   Military helicopters dropped leaflets overnight in the villages within five kilometres of Swat’s
   main town Mingora, which the military said was won back from the Taliban last Saturday, officials said.
   The military launched its offensive in the northwest six weeks ago after Taliban fighters advanced to within 100 kilometres of Islamabad, in violation
   of a deal agreed in February to put the region’s three million people under sharia law in exchange for peace.
   The deputy and spokesman of the hardline Islamist cleric who negotiated that deal were arrested on Thursday, officials said.

Two hundred and fifty-two out of the 317 government secondary schools have been running without headmasters for about four years, hampering academic activities, official statistics said.
   Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education officials on Thursday also said 273 posts of assistant headmasters and more than 600 posts of assistant teachers were vacant.
   Out of the total 8,445 posts in the 317 government schools, 317 are of headmasters, 364 of assistant headmasters and 7,764 of teachers, the officials said. Some 70 schools have double shifts. They also said there were about 2 lakh students in the schools.
   ‘Some senior teachers are doubling up as headmasters and assistant headmasters. In some cases, we find no teacher to man the post,’ said Professor Noman Ur Rashid, director general of the DSHE.
   Some de facto headmasters told New Age they faced difficulties in discharging their duties as most of the colleagues did not obey them. ‘We cannot also deal with the administration efficiently. We find it difficult to prepare academic plans properly because of non-cooperation by many senior teachers.’
   Ss senior teachers need to remain busy with administrative jobs, they cannot take classes. In some cases, senior teachers of English, mathematics and science subjects remain busy with private tuition at home instead of discharging the additional duty in schools.
   Explaining the reasons behind the shortage of head teachers and assistant head teachers, the officials of the DSHE concerned blamed the administrative logjam and reluctance of the ministry officials to address the issue.
   ‘Because of the rules set by an SRO issued in 2004, we cannot appoint the required number of assistant headmasters. Three years’ job experience as assistant headmaster is mandatory to become a headmaster,’ said a deputy director of the DSHE.
   ‘As we cannot appoint the required number of assistant headmasters, we find no teacher fit for appointment as headmaster,’ he said.
   The statutory regulatory order stipulates 50 per cent of assistant headmasters from direct recruitment and 50 per cent from promotion.
   ‘Since the late 2005, we have sent proposals to the education ministry several times seeking amendment to the statutory regulatory order to resolve the problem, but the ministry officials concerned have been neither able nor willing to do so,’ he said. ‘The ministry officials are more interested in foreign tours or transfer of teachers of the schools.’
   Headmaster of such a school in the capital said if the SRO was cancelled and the rules which were in place before issuance of the SRO in 2004 was restored, more than 90 per cent of the problems could be solved.
   ‘Assistant teachers of public schools have neither prestige nor they get handsome salary. The post of assistant teacher of government secondary school is equivalent to Class III government employee,’ a DSHE official said.
   ‘We have recently advertised for recruiting about 500 assistant teachers. But we found that 60 of the selected teachers had not joined the job while 50 more resigned three months inside joining,’ he said.
   The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, said the government would soon take steps to resolve the problem of headmasters and assistant headmasters.

The severely degraded river systems will be reverted to their past grandeur whatever the cost, the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, declared on Friday.
   She pledged assistance of her administration to multidimensional researches into modes of combating environmental disasters.
   In the same breath, the prime minister urged Bangladeshis to prepare to live with the gradually changing climate regime and to engage in environment-friendly activities only in everyday life.
   Hasina made the call when she addressed a programme convened by the Department of Environment, the ministry of environment and forest, at the Osmani Memorial Hall in observance of World Environment Day 2009.
   ‘All our rivers today have lost the free flows they had in the past due to heavy silt deposition.
   ‘Once the rivers are given back their original beds, the frequent overflowing will cease, reducing the negative impacts of the global climate change in our region.’
   Since time immemorial, the ample river systems have maintained the environmental balance in Bangladesh, she said.
   The rivers have been losing their water-retention capacity due to heavy siltation and unbridled encroachment, she said and called on all to resolve to do their best to save the dying rivers.
   The quality of water of the rivers contiguous to Dhaka has so deteriorated that they are no more fit for any use, she observed.
   Therefore, the prime minister said, the government’s pledge on World Environment Day is: We must save the rivers.
   ‘This is going to be a huge, time consuming and challenging project. But we must do it,’ Hasina said.
   She said her administration received good responses from international agencies after knocking at other nations’ doors for assistance.
   All the rivers will be brought under the project, she said, starting with work on the River Jamuna.
   ‘Whatever the costs be, we’ll do the job and save people from imminent catastrophe.’
   She stressed dredging, river training and adopting erosion countering measures to save the rivers.
   As a component of the complex food security issue, Hasina stressed the need for storing at least two to three years’ food crops as a first step.
   ‘We must ensure food security for all despite the fact that our population is growing and we will be visited by floods, cyclones, pest attacks etc.’
   ‘Arrangements must be in place to raise a buffer stock good enough to meet the nation’s need through two-three years. We’ll do it through increasing food production.’
   Hasina stressed raising green belts across the country especially along the coasts.
   ‘We all must plant trees and nurture green belts to protect our people and resources against natural disasters such as the recurrent cyclonic storms and tidal surges.’
   The prime minister handed out environment medals awarded to recipients in four categories — environment conservation, environmental pollution control, environmental research and technology innovation, and environmental education and campaign.
   Three individuals and one organisation received the awards.
   ‘This incentive has been introduced to raise environmental awareness among people and to encourage them to undertake environment friendly actions.’
   She next inaugurated a two-day environment fair organised by the ministry.

The administration on Friday said that the on-going demolition drive along the River Turag would continue until all structures built illegally on its banks were pulled down.
   ‘We will continue the drive along the stretch under our jurisdiction until all the structures identified to have been erected illegally are knocked down,’ said magistrate Abul Bashar Md Amiruddin who was working with the demolition team in Gazipur.
   About 60 per cent of the illegal structures have been demolished during a three-day drive that was supposed to end on Friday, he said. But the authorities have decided to continue the drive, he added.
   The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority along with Dhaka and Gazipur district administrations started the drive on Wednesday to demolish 127 illegal structures – 60 in Gazipur and 67 in Dhaka – on the banks of the river.
   Though illegal structures on the river banks are being removed, the water of Turag continues to be polluted by industrial wastes, locals said.
   The authorities concerned should also take measures to compel the industries to stop dumping wastes in the river, they said.
   When asked about the five illegal structures which remained out of the purview of the drive, an official of Gazipur district administration said, ‘We will give an explanation to the High Court.’
   The High Court on Thursday asked the Dhaka City Corporation chief executive officer, Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority chairman, and deputy commissioners of Dhaka, Narayanganj, Munshiganj and Gazipur to appear before it on June 8 to suggest how encroachment on the rivers around the capital could be effectively stopped.
   About 100 labourers, dividing into three groups, continued knocking down the illegal establishments on both the banks of Turag into Friday with five vessels, including a tug boat of the BIWTA.
   About 30 structures were pulled down on Friday, BIWTA deputy director Saiful Islam said.
   The drive will continue until the river banks are rid of illegal structures that choke the river, said Sazedur Rahman, an assistant engineer of BIWTA. ‘The authorities will take permanent measures so that encroachers cannot return to grab the river.’
   Members of the Gazipur district administration, including its assistant deputy commissioner (revenue) Subrata Pal Chowdhury, upazila nirbahi officer AKM Tipu Sultan and BIWTA officials were present, among others, during the drive.
   A large number of law enforcers, including armed police, have been deployed there to avert troubles during the demolition drive.

The government will have the coal policy reviewed by a group of ‘expatriate Bangladeshi experts’ at an expense of around Tk 80 lakh, most of which will be donated by an organisation from a European country that allegedly campaigns for open-pit coal-mining.
   Sources in the energy ministry and Petrobangla said that the four-day programme, from June 15-18, will include a brainstorming meeting at the Jamuna Resort in Tangail for thrashing out ideas and a visit to coal-fields in Dinajpur for gathering first-hand data before making any recommendations on the coal policy.
   Apart from ‘expatriate experts’, members of the parliamentary standing committee on the power and energy ministry and officials of various government agencies, like the Geological Survey of Bangladesh and Department of Environment, might attend the discussions organised by Petrobangla.
   Sources said that a European organisation that has sponsored a number of roundtables and seminars to promote open-pit mining, and the controversial Asia Energy’s Phulbari project, would provide around $1 lakh for the programme.
   They said that so far nine ‘expatriate experts’, including one who vehemently supports Asia Energy’s proposed open-pit mining at Phulbari, have consented to participate in the programme. ‘All their air fares and other expenses will be paid by the organiser of the programme,’ said a source.
   The ‘experts’ will review the latest draft of the coal policy, which was slightly changed by the interim government after an advisory committee, headed by the BUET’s former vice-chancellor Abdul Matin Patwari, finalised the draft.
   Many energy experts, economists and rights activists, while talking to New Age, have expressed concern over the government’s move to review the policy, expressing the apprehension that the move has been taken to ‘legitimise open-pit mining and Asia Energy’s Phulbari coal project’.
   Petrobangla’s chairman Muktadir Ali, however, dismissed the allegation that, by reviewing the policy, they were trying to favour any specific mining method or any particular company.
   ‘The motive of the move to review the draft of the coal policy by some so-called experts is clear. The government wants to legitimise open-pit mining and Asia Energy’s project through the coal policy,’ said a member of the Patwari committee.
   He said that the Patwari committee’s draft was appreciated by almost all sections of experts in the country, apart from some foreign companies. ‘The committee also consisted of people with different opinions and the report was prepared after a prolonged debate that continued day after day,’ he said.
   Professor Anu Mohammad, member secretary of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port, told New Age on Friday, ‘We think this is a ploy to legitimise Asia Energy’s project in Bangladesh. We have learnt that a European organisation that supports open-pit mining, and some of the so-called experts who campaigned for the Phulbari project, will review the coal policy. So we are very concerned.’
   Muktadir, however, said, ‘The expatriate experts will just share their experiences with us on coal mining in different countries. It is the government which will ultimately decide which recommendations it will accept.’
   ‘Besides, the coal policy is in the final stage. There is no scope anymore to favour any company or any mining method. If any good suggestions come up from the experts, the government will mull them over,’ he said.

Law enforcers have found a list of 50 Indian gangsters working under the notorious Daud Ibrahim, the Dubai-based mafia don.
   The Detective Branch picked up Abdul Rauf alias Daud Merchant and his accomplice Zahid on May 27 from Dakkhin Mourali in Brahmanbaria.
   A high official of the Detective Branch on Friday told New Age, ‘We have found a four-page list of 50 Indian gangsters, along with their local addresses, who often visit Bangladesh and enjoy the blessings of some influential political leaders.’
   The list of gangsters was found after raiding the rented house of Zahid Sheikh alias Muzahid at Shekhertak in Mohammadpur on Thursday, he said.
   ‘After seeing the addresses in the list we conducted raids in different parts of the city and its outskirts on Friday,’ said the official. ‘Two of the 50 Indian gangsters have been staying in Khulna for a long time.’
   The Detective Branch’s assistant deputy commissioner, Mahbub Alam, told New Age, ‘We interrogated a commissioner of Brahmanbaria municipality on Thursday as he provided the documents, identifying Zahid and Rauf as Bangladeshi nationals, to enable them to get passports, and we will interrogate the mayor on Sunday.’
   ‘Zahid admitted during interrogation that he had given all sorts of aid to Indian gangsters when they took shelter in Bangladesh, and had provided them with local contacts and addresses,’ Alam added.

Bangladesh are seriously thinking to gamble with pace bowler Shahadat Hossain when they take on India in their first match of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup at Trent Bridge today.
   The match will kick off at 11:00pm (Bangladesh Standard Time) and will be telecast by STAR Cricket and Bangladesh Television live from the venue.
   Bangladesh have targeted the match to fulfil their dream of reaching the Super Eight stage of the competition, but the freakish English weather has compelled them to rethink their strategy.
   Shahadat was out of frame since the team arrived in England as he has not been picked for any of the five warm-up matches. The initial plan was to go into the match with three pacers – Mashrafee bin Murtaza, Rubel Hossain and Syed Rasel – whom the team tried in the warm-up matches.
   But in most cases Rasel failed to get any swing without which coach Jamie Siddons believes the left-hander is ineffective as he does not have enough pace. It made Siddons doubtful about his success against India and so he has started looking for other options.
   The best option available to him was picking Abdur Razzak, the only player to have played in Bangladesh’s all 10 previous Twenty20 internationals, as the second specialist spinner besides Sakib al Hasan.
   But after knowing the weather forecast, which predicted rain before the match, and India’s ability against spin, Siddons is also against playing a second spinner which means his only remaining option is Shahadat Hossain.
   Siddons is against picking Razzak for this match as he has some other options of spin bowling in Mahmudullah Riyad and Naeem Islam, who are obvious choices for this match.
   The spinner duo can come as a back up if any of the regular bowlers fail, something which is also encouraging Siddons to take Shahadat, otherwise a controversial choice as the bowler proved too costly many times.
   ‘Definitely he is worth of a gamble. We have a few good options of spin bowling, so if he does not do that well in his first couple of overs, we can easily take him off and go for spin,’ said Siddons.
   ‘We are expecting to play in the Super Eights and we would love to do it beating India and making our next match against Ireland only a practice game,’ said the Australian later at a press conference
   The good news he received from the team physio, Michael Henry, before the match is that both Sakib al Hasan and skipper Mohammad Ashraful, who had a injury scare a day earlier, have been declared fit.

The number of makeshift shanties on both sides of the highways in southwest was increasing everyday with most part of the region still remaining inundated 11 days after the tidal surge associated with cyclone Aila on May 25.
   In southern Patuakhali, people were struggling to cope with the flood water twice a day as the damaged embankments were yet to be repaired. The croplands and yards of their houses go under water during high tides and often water enters into their houses.
   People who have taken shelter on both sides of Paikgachha-Koyra Road in Khulna said most of them lost the homesteads and took refuge in the shanties to draw attention of relief workers as no relief reached the remote villages.
   More than 1.5 lakh people in six unions in Koyra have become homeless and almost every family in the area has been badly affected by the tidal surge, said the upazila administration.
   Flood control embankment stretching more than four kilometres around four villages of Kalapara in Patuakhali was completely washed away on May 25, which caused regular inundation of 17 villages.
   About 80 per cent dwelling houses in the villages face inundation twice a day as saline water submerges the villages during high tides.
   Md Julfikar Ali of village Kalna of Koyra made his shanty beside the road collecting palm and coconut leaves, broken branches of trees and discarded plastic sheets and cartons. ‘I have lost everything including two cottages, two cows and seven poultry birds and now living in the shanty,’ he said.
   ‘People in the inundated villages need relief most, but the relief workers distribute it among the people staying in the roadside shanties and at the upazila headquarters,’ said Shamshur Rahman, chairman of Dakhkhin Bedkashi union council.
   Sheraj Uddin Mridha, a farmer of Nawapara at Kalapara in Patuakhali, said if the flood-protection dams were not repaired, it will not be possible to cultivate paddy during the current aman season.

International leaders hailed president Barack Obama’s speech on ties with the Muslim world as opening a ‘new page’ but arch foes called for Washington to deliver action rather than words.
   Washington’s closest allies in the Middle East greeted Obama’s speech in Cairo with hope while its most bitter rivals expressed scepticism at his call for a ‘new beginning’ to end a cycle of ‘suspicion and discord’.
   The US leader laid out a new US blueprint for the Middle East, including a new Palestinian state and efforts to defuse a nuclear showdown with Iran.
   The UN chief, Ban Ki-moon, expressed hope that the speech would have a ‘positive impact’ on the moribund Middle East peace process and ‘herald the opening of a new chapter in relations between the United States and the Islamic world.’
   The EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, hailed it as a ‘remarkable speech’ that ‘without any doubt is going to open a new page in the relation with the Arab-Muslim world and I hope in the problems we have in so many theatres in the region.’
   Israel, the top US ally in the region, said it hoped Obama’s ‘important speech’ would spark a ‘new kind of reconciliation’ between Arabs and Israelis, but warned that its security was key in any peace drive.
   The Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers cautiously welcomed Obama’s speech, in which he also urged the militant group to recognise Israel’s right to exist, but it called for his words to be followed by action.
   But another Islamist movement on a US list of terror organisations, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, said Obama offered ‘no real change’ to US policy in the Middle East.
   ‘The Islamic and Arab world does not need lectures, but real acts starting with a radical change toward the Palestinian cause,’ Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah lawmaker, said.
   ‘The problem of Arabs and Muslims lies with Washington’s support for Israeli aggression in the region, especially on the people of Lebanon and Palestine.’
   Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei did not mention Obama’s address, but in his own speech said the United States was detested across the Middle East.
   Iraq welcomed the ‘positive direction’ showcased in Obama’s speech, saying it would help fight extremist ideology in the Middle East.
   But Iraq’s radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said he would trust Obama ‘only after their (US) withdrawal from our beloved Iraq and Muslim Afghanistan and their withdrawal of support for the Israeli enemy, and I hope for this from him.’
   Obama’s speech was greeted with optimism in other parts of the Islamic world.
   ‘The relationship between the West and Islam — the years of tension and confrontation should come to an end now,’ the Arab League chief, Amr Moussa, told the BBC.
   Afghan president Hamid Karzai’s office said the speech would be received positively in Afghanistan since it ‘asks for restarting relations with the Islamic world based on mutual trust and mutual interest’.

The budget session of the ninth parliament will resume at 7:30pm instead of 4:00pm on Sunday.
   The parliament speaker, Abdul Hamid, rescheduled the time, according to Rule 23 of the Rules of Procedure of the parliament, a government handout said.
   The budget session started Thursday afternoon.

The Supreme Court goes on summer vacation for two weeks from Sunday.
   The chief justice, MM Ruhul Amin, constituted a single-member bench with Justice M Emdadul Hoque to hear the urgent cases on June 8, 10, 14 and 15, said sources in the court. The court will re-open on June 22.

The high-energy biscuits manufactured for the World Food Programme in Bangladesh are completely safe for consumption, claimed the Dhaka office of the global body, brushing aside allegations of the presence of harmful germs and/or ingredients in the biscuits.
   The WFP made the announcement on Friday after receiving the report of an initial laboratory test of the fortified biscuits carried out by the Institute of Food Science and Technology of the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
   ‘No pathogenic (harmful) bacteria have been detected in the biscuits,’ claimed the WFP’s release. The levels of vitamin A and iron were found to be higher than the levels stipulated by WFP, but were still well below the level that may cause side-effects.
   The WFP’s experts at its headquarters in Rome also concluded that there is nothing to suggest that the fortified biscuits could have been harmful for school-children, claimed the press release.