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An influential quarter has allegedly taken control of Merul Badda kitchen market and adjoining Sonar Bangla fish market in the city driving away dozens of traders following the murder of a local businessman in January.
   The quarter dubbed by locals as ‘Gopalganj residents’ allegedly occupied the markets and set up an office in the name of Sheikh Abu Naser – uncle of prime minister Sheikh Hasina – who was killed by a group of army personnel on August 15, 1975.
   Setting up the office is nothing but a ploy to collect illegal toll from the traders of the markets, alleged local people, including Awami League leaders.
   Residents of the area said that local land owners Kashem Haji, Joynal Abedin, Abul Kalam Azad, Mohammad Hanif, Selim and Delwar developed the market filling up ditches beside the Rampura Jheel [wetland] in 1998 while Khorshed Alam and Kenu Das, along with more 100 fish traders, set up the fish market on the land.
   The market was demolished in 2003 without notice but the traders continued their businesses in the open space. Mir Bakhtiar Uddin of Gopalganj started his business at the fish market in 2003 and the traders formed an association the same year with Khorshed Alam as its president, Mir Bakhtiar Uddin vice-president and Kenu Das general secretary of the association.
   An ‘influential group’ killed Bakhtiar Uddin and injured his brother Fakhrul Alam on January 28 three weeks after the Awami League government assumed office on January 6.
   A police officer of Gulshan division said the police suspected that accomplices of notorious gangster Zeesan, who was on the run, had committed the murder and that local traders had no hand in it.
   ‘But the influential quarter with the help of a section of the police is trying to divert the investigation and implicate the traders in the case,’ the police officer said.
   They set up the office with a signboard which read ‘Sheikh Abu Naser Smriti Sangsad’ at the market and it was inaugurated by retired additional inspector general of police, Abdur Rahim Khan.
   Deputy commissioner of Gulshan division, AKM Hafiz Akter, said that he had instructed the police to investigate the incident.
   An elderly Awami League leader of the locality said that he was very upset that a quarter had engaged in extortion ‘using the name of Bangabandhu’s slain brother.’ He demanded punishment to the persons involved.

Left leaders on Friday demanded all-the-year-round work opportunity for the farm labourers and promulgation of a labour law for all labourers as per the International Labour Organisation convention.
   In the national convention of Bangladesh Khetmajur Union at Segun Bagicha in Dhaka, they made a call for establishing fair wage structure for the labourers, same wage for the male and the female labourers, resumption of the 100-day employment generation programme without irregularities and block allocation in the forthcoming budget for the farm labourers.
   It also demanded increase in subsidy for the agriculture and rural sector, fair price of crops, landless farm labourers’ rights to khas lands, steps to reform agriculture and land and year-long ration for the poor.
   Former justice Golam Rabbani was chief guest of the programme.
   Revolutionary Workers Party general secretary Saiful Haque, Biplabi Krishak Samiti secretary Abdus Salam, Communist Party of Bangladesh convener Badrul Alam, National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port convener Sheikh Md Shahidullah, Professor Anu Muhammad of Jahangirnagar University and Gana Sanghati leader Zonaed Saki addressed the convention among others.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has urged all including the parents to administer their children Vitamin A plus capsule to fight blindness and other health hazards caused by malnutrition.
   Hasina made the call while formally opening the National Vitamin A plus campaign-2009 by administering Vitamin A capsules and de-worming tablets to a number of children at her official residence Jamuna in Dhaka Friday morning.
   The countrywide campaign begins today with a view to administering Vitamin A capsules to over 20 million children aged between one and five and de-worming tablets to 19 million two to five years children.
   Addressing the nation over Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar on the occasion, the prime minister urged the parents to take part in the government’s Vitamin A campaign on a regular basis that helps the children become healthy, sound and talented human beings.
   The health adviser to the prime minister, Syed Modasser Ali, prime minister’s press secretary Abul Kalam Azad and heath and family welfare secretary Sheikh Altaf Ali, director general of Heath Directorate Shah Monir Hossain and DG of family planning Abdul Qayum were present.

A three-member committee has been formed to investigate the diarrhoeal infection of more then a hundred children of one to four years of age under Charbhadrasan in Faridpur on Friday.
   The committee members comprise physician Shanjoy Kumar, Syad Odaidul Rahman and Foysal who have already visited village Charhazarbigha and Chars-halipur under Charhoriram-pur union of the upazila.
   They talked to the parents of the affected children and collected used packages of the vitamins and tablets.
   Sources with the investigation committee said they are trying to find out why the health officials went to the remote char areas two days before the campaign was launched.
   The sources also said parents of the affected children complained to the investigation team that their children were administered date-expired medicine.
   Talking to New Age, district civil surgeon Bosirul Islam said the committee would submit the report tomorrow and claimed that the vitamins and medicines used are not date-expired; they have another year time for use.
   They are also questioning health assistant Harun-ur Rashid why he went to the area before the schedule date.
   Till Friday afternoon, at least 23 babies were being treated in the diarrhoea unit of Faridpur General Hospital and many more were treated at home.

The left political personalities, academicians and progressive intellectuals at a convention in the capital on Friday floated an anti-fascism and imperialism platform to organise the people to fight the fascist and imperialist forces and their local collaborators, aiming at freeing the nation from the clutches of the imperialist US.
   A 13-member working committee with Badruddin Umar and Akmal Hossain as its president and general secretary respectively, and 52-member national committee of the newly floated platform styled Anti Fascism and Imperialism National Committee were formed at the afternoon session of the convention.
   Earlier, the convener of the anti fascism and imperialism convention preparatory committee, Badruddin Umar in his opening address at the morning session focussed on the activities of the fascist and imperialist forces during the last three centuries.

World Environment Day was observed in the country as elsewhere in the world on Friday through different programmes with a promise to make the planet greener and cleaner.
   The theme of this year’s World Environment Day is ‘Your planet needs you’.
   The day was instituted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference
   on the Human Environment.
   Different government, non-governmental and environmental organisations chalked out elaborate programmes to observe the day.
   The Ministry of Environment and Forest organised a programme at Osmani Memorial Hall in observance of World Environment Day 2009 with the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, as chief guest.
   Environmental organisations also organised various programmes including rallies, processions, discussions, painting competitions and road shows to mark the day.
   The green activists asked the government for taking realistic and quick steps to save the environment of the country.
   The Rural Services Foundation organised RSF Environment Festival at Mirpur Indoor Stadium.
   The Coalition for the Urban Poor brought out a procession from Shabagh at 10:00am and marched up to the Central Shaheed Minar.
   The Pallima Sangsad of Khilgaon held a rally in front of its office and brought out an aware-
   ness procession in the locality.
   The Rupganj Paribesh Andolan organised a road show at Murapara Degree College.
   The Project to Ensure Food and Shelter for Birds and the Loknatya Gosthi staged a play Pakhi Keno Bandhu at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
   Save the Youth Forum arranged a discussion and cultural programme at the National Press Club, marking the day.
   The Green Bangla Coalition held a programme on the Dhaka University campus on the occasion.
   The United Nations Association of Bangladesh organised an open discussion on climate change.
   Save the Environment Movement, Green Voice and Dhakabashi held separate programmes, including memo submission, rallies and human chains, demanding immediate government steps to stop grabbing of rivers surrounding Dhaka.

The central working committee of Awami League will hold a meeting at the party’s Dhanmondi office Saturday morning.
   AL president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina will preside over the meeting.
   The central leaders of the ruling party are likely to review the latest socio-political and economic scenario of the country apart from discussing the various organisational issues, a member of the AL working committee said.

Three units of Ashuganj Thermal Power Plant went out of operation due to a glitch in gas supply line at around 10:00am on Friday.
   The managing director of the power plant, Abdul Khaleq, said the units would resume operation soon after overhauling was complete.
   Out of the total eight units, the three closed units are Gas Turbine (GT)-1, Gas Turbine-2 both with 56 megawatt capacity and Steam Turbine (ST) with 34MW capacity, he said.

At least 20 persons were injured in a clash between activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League and Islami Chhatra Shibir over holding meeting in a venue at Aharud Ullah Pradhan Senior Madrassah under Patgram in Lalmonirhat on Friday.
   Chhatra Shibir workers Asad Islam, Lilu, Mizanur, Anisur and Badsha were injured critically. Some of the injured were taken to Rangpur Medical College Hospital and some others to Patgram Upazila Health Complex, local sources said.
   The police said the Patgram upazila Chhatra Shibir arranged a rally at Aharud Ullah Pradhan Senior Madrassah, while a ward unit of BCL also called a meeting at the same venue Friday noon.
   At least 15 workers of Chhatra Shibir and five workers of Chatra League were injured when they clashed, the sources said.
   The police and local AL leaders rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.

The Awami League-led alliance government will install water treatment plants throughout the city to treat and decontaminate water from rivers surrounding the capital to make it safe for consumption in order to reduce dependence on ground-water.
   ‘Continuous falling of the ground-water level every year is alarming and so we will have to reduce pressure on the tube-wells. This is the reason why the government will install water treatment plants throughout Dhaka city to treat and cleanse the waters of the rivers around the capital city,’ said the LGRD and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, on Friday.
   Ashraf was addressing a discussion at the AL’s central office on Bangabandhu Avenue, organised by the party’s forest and environment affairs sub-committee to mark the World Environment Day. It was chaired by MA Mannan, a member of AL’s advisory council.
   The Awami League leaders stressed the need for a social movement to create public awareness against global warming in order to tackle the dire effects of climate change and neutralise the environmental hazards.
   Ashraf, also the AL’s official spokesperson, said the government was committed to prevent encroachment on rivers and would demolish the illegal structures on the banks of the rivers around the capital.
   The AL’s presidium member, Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, stressed the need for saving and reviving the dying rivers. ‘There is a mayor of the Dhaka City Corporation but he does nothing for the city…It is mandatory to hold elections to the Dhaka City Corporation immediately,’ she said.
   Agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury said that natural calamities like cyclones, tidal surges, heavy rains and droughts are increasing day by day due to global warming, for which only the industrial and rich countries are responsible. ‘So they have to come forward to save the country from the effects of global warming,’ she said.
   Matia, also a presidium member of the AL, said that both government and private initiatives are essential to protect the environment. ‘It is not possible to check environment pollution only through the government’s initiatives in any over-populated country like Bangladesh,’ she said.
   The state minister for foreign affairs, Hasan Mahmud, who is also the AL’s environment affairs secretary, said that the government would take strong initiatives to protect bio-diversity.
   The state minister for forest and environment, Mostafizur Rahman, said that the country will have to suffer natural calamities every year due to global warming, and only plantation of trees can save the country. He urged everyone to plant trees.
   The programme was addressed by the AL’s labour and manpower secretary Habibur Rahman Siraj and AL’s Dhaka city unit’s acting president MA Aziz, along with others.

The government is thinking of returning the vested properties to the owners or their heirs by the end of this year after amending the Vested Property (Restoration) Act 2001 in order to resolve the long disputed issue once and for all.
   ‘The government has recognised the issue as a national problem and is committed to bring an end to the long-standing dispute over vested property,’ said AKM Mozammel Haque, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the land ministry, while addressing a seminar on vested property.
   Nijera Kori and the Association for Land Reform and Development organised the seminar, titled ‘Context and requirements in implementation of the Vested Properties (Restoration) Act, 2001’, at the National Press Club with Dhaka University’s vice-chancellor, AAMS Arefin Siddique, as the chief guest.
   A book of Abul Barkat — Bangladeshe Sankhalaghu Hindu Samprodayer Banchana: Arpita Sampattir Sathe Basobas — was launched on the occasion.
   Mozammel said there were some inconsistencies and discrepancies in the Vested Property (Restoration) Act, 2001.
   ‘The government will examine the issue with the reality in mind as many people have been suffering a lot, having been deprived of their rights for so long,’ he said.
   ‘We will try to table a bill proposing amendments to the vested property act in the ongoing budget session of the parliament, and the vested property will be returned to the owners and their successors,’ said Mozammel.
   ‘All the problems regarding the vested property act will be solved if we refer to The Enemy Property (Continuance of Emergency Provisions) (Repeal) Act 1974 enacted by Bangabandhu’s government in 1974,’ said AAMS Arefin Siddique.
   Columnist Syed Abul Maksud said that the vested property act has divided the nation into two parts. ‘Thus this black law has harmed the nation both socially and politically.’
   Tobarak Hossain, a Supreme Court lawyer, asked the government not to incorporate more lands in the list of vested properties, and also demanded publication of a gazette of the vested properties which were listed in 1974. He demanded cancellation of the list of vested properties prepared after 1974.
   Sara Hossain was of the view that criminalisation of politics was responsible for depriving the Hindus and other minority communities of their rights. ‘The cases of members of the minority communities are still gathering dust in the courts. The judiciary is still being influenced by the political elite. Even the courts could not be freed of political influence in the last six months,’ observed Sara.
   Lawyer Subrata Chowdhury said that vested property has been known in Pakistan times as ‘enemy property’ after the 1965 Indo-Pak war. Though the proclamation of independence on 10th April, 1971 clearly says that all existing laws inconsistent with the norms, spirit and ideology of Bangladesh’s liberation war shall be void, the law relating to the administration of enemy property remained in force by virtue of the Laws Continuance Enforcement Order 1971.’
   The country’s president promulgated an order on 26 March, 1972, changing the name of the Enemy Properties Act to the Vested Property Act, he said.
   Abul Barkat said that some 12 lakh or 44 per cent of the 27 lakh Hindu households in the country were adversely affected by the Enemy Property Act 1965 and its post-independence version, the Vested Property Act 1974.
   Some 12 lakh Hindus lost a total of 26 lakh acres of their land and houses over the long period of 43 years since the promulgation of the enemy property act in 1965.

Bangladesh Chhatra League activists Thursday night assaulted Rajshahi College teachers and vandalised the office of a hostel super over eviction of illegal students from the hostel.
   The authorities said they had allocated seats according to the merit list after reopening the campus on May 6.
   But the students who were given seats afresh could not check in as some unauthorised students were occupying them.
   After failing to recover their seats, the students informed the authorities of the matter. The authorities with the help of the police recently launched a drive to evict the unauthorised students.
   The college sources said some 20 to 25 BCL activists, along with some outsiders, entered the office of Muslim Hostel super Moazzem Hossain at about 8:30pm. The hostel super and some other teachers were present at that time.
   The BCL activists assaulted the teachers and hostel super Moazzem Hossain and vandalised the office.
   The college principal, Ali Reza Muhammed Abdul Majid, and a police team brought the situation under control.
   The principal said the attackers had been collecting tolls from the students.
   They assaulted the teachers and vandalised hostel super’s room as the authorities evicted unauthorised students from the hostels, the principal said.

The production at the Natural Gas Fertiliser Factory at Fenchuganj in Sylhet was yet to resume production till 6:00pm on Friday, 24 hours after its shutdown because of suspension of power generation due to technical glitch at its own power plant.
   ‘The main gas compressor of the factory has been restarted at about 3:0pm, but it will take 2-3 hours more to resume production,’ NGFF official said on Friday evening.
   He said that the production at the factory remained suspended since 6:00pm Thursday as the power generation at the plant remained shutdown due to the technical fault.
   Additional chief engineer of the NGFF, Iskander Ali, admitting the suspension of production at the factory said Friday afternoon that the power generation had resumed at noon, after necessary repair of the fault.
   ‘But it will take some more time to resume production at the factory,’ he added.
   The technical fault was developed a day after the visit of industry minister Dilip Barua to the factory.
   During his visit to the factory on Wednesday, Dilip Barua said that one more fertiliser factory would be set up in the region.

Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, former BNP lawmaker from the Lalbagh constituency arrested in connection with the February 25-26 carnage case at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters, has stuck to his earlier statement.
   Pintu was being grilled by the members of the taskforce interrogation cell with deputy assistant director of the BDR, Touhid Alam, in front of him on Friday.
   Pintu was taken into police custody on a five-day remand and Friday was the second day of his remand, and Touhid was brought on a fresh two-day remand which ended on Friday.
   Sources close to the investigators said that Pintu continued to deny his involvement in the bloody massacre, and also denied his involvement in assisting the soldiers to escape from the Pilkhana after the rebellion.
   It was alleged that many of the fleeing BDR rebels took shelter in the residences of Pintu’s followers at Hazaribagh and also in the residence of Awami League leader Torab Ali.
   The police’s Detective Branch arrested Pitnu from near the Shikkha Bhaban at around 5:00pm on Tuesday when he was sneaking out of the High Court after the hearing of his plea ‘to not arrest or harass’ him in the Pilkhana carnage case.
   Pintu, a former president of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the BNP’s student front, moved the HC to seek anticipatory bail on Tuesday, apprehending that he might be arrested in connection with the February 25-26 BDR mutiny that eliminated nearly the entire command of the border force.
   But Pintu’s counsel withdrew the petition halfway through the hearing, said court sources. He did not explain why he had done so.
   Meanwhile home minister Sahara Khatun, at a seminar organised by the Bangladesh Primary Teachers Association in the National Press Club on Friday, said that the investigators can arrest anyone whose name surfaces in connection with the case.
   The government’s inquiry committee has already submitted its report, and most of it has been published. The investigators can take help from the inquiry report if they need to do so, she said.
   A total of 1,438 people, most of them soldiers, have so far been arrested, and 140 of them, including three civilians, have made their confessional statements to the court in connection with the BDR carnage case.

First ever Marine Safety Week begins in the country today to make people aware of safe river journey and safety of the vessels to save life and property.
   The shipping minister, Afsarul Amin, will in-augurate the Marine Safe- ty Week-2009 at Sadarg- hat terminal in the morning.
   The theme of the week is ‘River is a unique gift of nature, safe riverine route is our right’.
   The chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the shipping ministry, Nur-e-Alam Chowdhury, will attend the function as the special guest.
   The president, Zillur Rahman, and the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, in separate messages welcomed the initiative to observe the Marine Security Week.

The maritime ports of Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Mongla have been advised to keep hoisted local cautionary signal 3, a weather bulletin said on Friday.
   The squally weather may affect the maritime ports as a monsoon low that is likely to intensify lies over north-western Bay of Bengal and adjoining area, the bulletin added.
   All fishing boats and trawlers over north Bay have been advised to stay close to the coast and move with caution.
   Monsoon is moderate to strong elsewhere over north Bay.

The orientation of summer 2009 semester of Master of Public Health and Master of Science in Biotechnology programmes was held on Friday at North South University.
   North South University Foundation chairman MA Awal was present as chief guest while vice-chancellor Hafiz GA Siddiqi and director of HIV/AIDs Programme Nizam Uddin Ahmed, also adviser, South Asia, Save the Children-USA as special guests.
   Chaired by pro vice-chancellor and dean of School of Life Science SAM Khairul Bashar, the function was addressed by GU Ahsan, chairman of Public Health Department, Abdul Khaleque, chairman of Life Sciences Department, registrar M Rashedul Islam and student representative Tahrima.
   Awal congratulated the new students and said North South University has a vision and a strategic plan to make it a seat of learning that will excel in imparting world-class education in South Asia, a press release said.
   Hafiz welcomed the new graduate students and mentioned that highly qualified faculties and
   students are the strength
   of North South University.
   Dr SAM Khairul Bashar gave an overview of Biotechnology and Public Health programmes and said that the objectives of public health and biotechnology programmes are to facilitate the cutting edge of science and technology in molicular biology.
   The faculty members and the newly enrolled students also attended the programme.'

The Bangladesh Kidney Foundation has secured the third place in the 10th annual conference of the International Federation of Kidney Foundation for its overall activities.
   Canada and Argentina became first and second respectively in the conference of IFKF held in the Turkish city of Istanbul on May 17-20.
   The IFKF president, Paul Bar Kins, handed over a certificate and crest to the president of Bangladesh Kidney Foundation, Professor Harun-Ur-Rashid.
   Thirty-six IFKF-member states, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Bangladesh took part in the conference where they projected their overall activities.
   Professor Harun on behalf of the Bangladesh Kidney Foundation projected its last six years activities and successes.
   Later, the evaluation committee adjudged the Bangladesh Kidney Foundation third place by praising its performance in kidney treatment in Bangladesh.
   The award was given by evaluating prevention of kidney diseases, dialysis cost and success of transplantation and fund raising of the foundation, Professor Harun, who is also chairman of Department of Nephrology of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, told the news agency Friday.
   He said the Bangladesh Kidney Foundation did 118 kidney transplants in two years of which the surgical success was 98 per cent.
   In the foundation, he said, 12,000 dialysis, 2,000 suggestions by the specialists and 60,000 laboratory services are provided annually. As a result, Tk 5 crore is saved by the patients a year, he added.

A bomb went off at Binnakuri under Muktagachha upazila in Mymensingh early Friday, injuring a woman and her son.
   Zarina Khatun, 35, and son Zahid Hasan, 9, were admitted to Mymensingh Medical College with wounds in the lower parts of their legs.
   Zarina said she was sleeping along with her two sons and suddenly woke up at the sound of a blast at around 3:00am to see the entire room filled with smoke.
   Hearing her scream, people of the house rescued them. The other son was fine, she added.
   ‘We are trying to find out whether they themselves detonated the bomb or some other people attacked them,’ Major Amin of RAB-9 said.
   On March 6, 2006, Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, the military commander of banned Islamist group Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, was arrested from that area of Muktagachha.