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The first terminal examinations scheduled for a mid-April start are likely to be deferred as secondary students have yet to get the textbooks, teachers of some schools told New Age on Saturday.
   The textbook board has said all the textbooks are expected to hit the market by April 30. But the academic calendar prepared by the government schedules the start of the first terminal examinations in all of the 18,500 secondary schools between April 15 and April 18 and the calendar says the results should be published by May 14.
   'Most of my students attend classes without textbooks. The government is, however, supposed to make the textbooks available at the beginning of the academic year on January 1,' said a teacher of a government secondary school in Khulna.
   'As the textbooks on compulsory subjects such as English, Bangla and mathematics are yet to be available, the students have collected some recycled books,' said another teacher in Rangpur. 'We cannot, in principle, force the students to take the exams as most of them have not yet got the books and this is why we are considering deferment of the exams,' he said.
   'Getting new textbooks at the beginning of the academic year is a matter of joy for students, but they are now unhappy as they have not got the books even 60 days inside the academic year,' educationist Serajul Islam Choudhury said.
   Authorities of some schools have said they will soon contact the officials of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education regarding deferment of the exams and amend the academic calendar. The government made it mandatory to take approval, in case of deferment of any exams, of the directorate, which is the regulatory body of such schools.
   The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, on Friday said, 'We have been trying our best so that the textbooks can be printed and made available at the earliest.'
   There are about one crore students in 18,500 secondary schools and about 6,685 dakhil madrassahs, according to government statistics. Most students use recycled textbooks.

The incidence of violence against women was still high despite a downtrend over the past few years.
   The causes are mainly dowry, wedding, and land dispute, said women leaders and activists working to promote and ensure women's rights.
   The Bangladesh Mahila Parishad secretary general, Ayesha Khanam, on Wednesday told New Age, 'Violence against women continues, but the character of torture has changed. Earlier males beat females; now the males throw acid on females and threaten them over mobile and in text messages or by e-mail.'
   But violence against women still continuing in the country should be immediately stopped and the government should take the steps first, said Ayesha, who has been working on women's rights for three decades.
   This year's theme of the day is 'Women and men united - to end violence against women and girls.'
   According to the human rights organisation Odhikar, 454 women, including 252 children, were raped in 2008. One hundred and ten women and 70 girl children were gang-raped, 68 women and 30 children were killed after rape and five women and four children committed suicide after rape in 2008.
   An Odhikar report puts the number women and children raped in 2007 at 459. Two hundred and thirteen of them are women and 246 children. One hundred and nineteen women and 72 girl child were gang-raped, 56 women and 23 children were killed after rape and one committed suicide after rape in 2007.
   In 2006, the number of rape victims was 639 - 412 women and 227 children. One hundred and twenty-six women were killed after rape and 13 committed suicide rape in 2006, the report said.
   Five women were raped in 2008 and three women in 2006 raped by law enforcers, according to the Odhikar report.
   Acid violence against women has also been on a downtrend. According to the Acid Survivors' Foundation, 2,808 women, children and men were victims in 2,196 incidents of acid violence between May 1999 and December 2008.
   The annual casualty of acid violence has continued to come down -- 176 in 2008, 192 in 2007, 221 in 2006 and 272 in 2005.
   Women continued to be the major targets of acid attacks, with the reasons such as dowry and poverty, said the foundation's executive director Monira Rahman.
   Between May 1999 and 2008, 1,405 women, 714 children and 690 men were victims in 2,196 incidents of acid violence, according to the foundation statistics.
   Although the trend might come down, the status of hundreds of thousands of women in Bangladesh, especially in the north, is worse, said Farida Akhter, a leader of Sammilita Nari Samaj.
   Dowry, divorce, polygamy, early marriage, hilla marriage (an interim marriage of a woman with a third person for reunification with the former husband after divorce), repression of women within family, and rape become commonplace in all backward villages, said Farida, also the executive director of Ubinig.
   According to statistics compiled by Bangladesh Mahila Parishad based on newspaper reports, 1,379 women were killed and 3,150 became victims of incidents of violence against women in 2008.
   The incidents include rape, killing after rape, torture for dowry, suicide and harassment of women.
   Five hundred and fifty three women were raped, 132 gang-raped, 98 abducted, 266 women and children trafficked in 2008, the report said.
   One hundred and eleven women were harassed, 104 became victims of acid violence, 29 sold in prostitution, 272 tortured for dowry and 170 were killed for dowry in 2008. Seventeen cases of fatwa were reported in the year.
   The Department of Women's Affairs director general, Rowshan Begum, on Thursday told New Age, 'We hope to end all sorts of violence against women, and we seek cooperation of all in this regard.'

International Women’s Day will be observed in the country today as elsewhere around the world with a fresh vow to end violence against women and girls.
   On this day in 1857, female workers of a sewing factory in New York got into a fight with the police while protesting a 12-hour workday, low pay and unhealthy condition at workplaces.
   Later, the day was declared International Women’s Day during the second International Socialist Women’s Conference in Copenhagen in 1910 following a proposal by German Socialist Movement leader Klara Jatekin.
   The theme ‘Women
   and men united to end violence against women and girls’ has been chosen to observe the day in Bangladesh where millions have fallen victim to the social scourge over the years.
   The president, Zillur Rahman, and the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, have issued separate messages on the occasion.
   In his message, Zillur said all kinds of discrimination against women
   and girls should be eliminated to ensure their participation in the mainstream of development activities.
   Hasina said women have to live amid many odds and these have been hindering their participation in the mainstream of national development and depriving them of basic human rights.
   She urged all to ensure equal rights and participation of women in all spheres of national life by ending violence against women and girls.
   A number of local women rights groups and non-government organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes to observe the day.

The Awami League-led alliance government is yet to come up with any directives on the implementation of the Women Development Policy adopted by the interim administration of Fakhruddin Ahmed in 2008.
   'We have not received any directives from the government as yet on the implementation of the Women Development Policy as the government has been in office for about two months,' joint secretary of the women and children affairs ministry Aziz Hasan told New Age Wednesday.
   The policy framed by the caretaker government might now be re-examined or updated, he said.
   The official said the authorities were expecting a decision on the policy soon as the prime minister is in charge of the ministry.
   He indicated the government might form a committee to review legal aspects of the policy, seeking recommendations for further improvements in various areas in keeping with global advancements.
   In its 2008 election manifesto, the Awami League said the Women Development Policy formulated by the party in 1997 would be revived to ensure women's empowerment and equality in rights and opportunities.
   'The number of reserved seats for women by direct election in the parliament will be increased to 100. Necessary measures will be taken for the appointment of women in senior positions in the administration and in all spheres of employment,' said the manifesto.
   'Strictest legal measures will be taken to stop oppression on women. Discriminatory laws against the interest of women will be rectified,' it said.
   The interim government earlier backtracked from executing its own policy amid protests by Islamist groups which termed some of the provisions anti-Islamic, according to officials.
   The chief adviser to the immediate past interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on March 8, 2008, announced the National Women Development Policy 2008 in a programme marking International Women's Day in Dhaka.
   It seemed the government tried to please some international donors by framing a document on women development through the National Women Development Policy which was later shelved, Farida Akter, a women rights activist, told New Age.
   She said the interim government's attitude towards the policy was questionable as the authorities allowed the Islamist groups to protest at the government move during the state of emergency while the rights groups were barred from being vocal against such protests.
   The policy has suggested the government should make coordinated efforts at national, district and grassroots levels, and work with national and international non-governmental organisations for women's empowerment.
   It also recommended one-third of the parliament should be represented by women and equity should be ensured between men and women in all spheres of national life.
   The policy also advocated the establishment of women's human rights, their emancipation from poverty cycle, elimination of discrimination against girls, adequate nutrition for them, enough support to help their aptitude and talent to flourish and extension o maternity leave to five months.

Women keep facing harassment and discrimination in many forms at work although they hold some key positions of the country, according to rights activists.
   The activists blame a male chauvinism and lack of necessary legislation for the sorry state of women at work, and even at homes.
   Talking with New Age, a number of working women complained of discrimination in appointment, wages, training, promotion and social security.
   They also complained of harassment by their male colleagues in different forms.
   The rights defenders urged the government to create a women-friendly atmosphere at work.
   'If needed, laws should be made to end harassment at workplace,' said Shirin Sultana, president of non-governmental organisation Karmajibi Nari.
   She hopes the government to do so as women are now holding some key positions - the prime minister, leader of the opposition in parliament, deputy leader of the house, home minister and foreign minister.
   Bangladesh has approximately 1,600,000 women working in formal sectors while 9,700,000 in informal sectors.
   Many who were interviewed complained of sexual harassment at work by their colleagues which slows down their productivity. They also complained of being paid wages less than what their male counterparts get.
   Harassment against women is reportedly high in garment factories where more than 80 per cent of the workers are female.
   A survey conducted in 2007 by non-governmental organisation Sustainable Development Networking Programme on the state of women workers in garment factories says 40 per cent of the workers were sexually exploited.
   'Workers usually do not lodge complain fearing job losses, retaliation and stigma,' it said, adding 47 per cent of the workers reported sexual harassment had harmed their productivity.
   'Such sorts of violation are not always taken care of by law, but there should have been laws and awareness as well to prevent them,' said Salma Ali, director of the Bangladesh Women Lawyers' Association, which works for women rights.
   Another survey conducted by the association which interviewed 200 female workers of different categories, both formal and informal sectors, says 45 per cent of the respondents were harassed in some way or the other at work.
   Published in 2007, the survey report said about 36 per cent of the females were harassed by their immediate bosses while 19 per cent by their male colleagues.
   Seeking justice by the harassed or raped women is sometimes burdensome for them.
   'As I lodged a case against my boss who raped me at office, my husband left me and I lost my job as well,' said Fatima (name changed), who was from a non-governmental organisation, in November 2008.
   The case is being dealt by lawyer Dilruba Sharmin, of the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, who told New Age on Friday there were several other cases of similar nature pending trial. She said most of such cases remained unreported.
   In the absence of a code of conduct, there has been an extremely negative environment for women at work, said Farida Akhter, a women rights activist. Women are regularly harassed at work, she said.
   Although women account for 37 per cent of the total labour force, 'the environment is still brutally discriminatory,' said Nazmunnesa Mahtab, a professor of gender and women studies in Dhaka University, referring to a report by the World Bank.
   Working women facing hostile reaction from men who do not know how to deal with women at work, said Geeti Ara Nasrin, a professor of mass communication and journalism in Dhaka University.

Expressing concerns over violence against women, which is still high, human rights organisation Odhikar urged the government to take effective measures to stop it.
   ‘The government must be pro-active in bringing perpetrators under the law and offer practical assistance to victims,’ Odhikar said in its report on the state of women’s rights released on Saturday.
   Although the government enacted the Prevention of Repression against Women and Children Act 2000, the offenders go unpunished for either non-application of law or loopholes in it, the report said.
   According to the report, the most serious form of violence against women was that stemming from dowry demands. In 2008, 269 women became victims of dowry violence.
   During 2008, 454 women and girl children were raped; 202 of them were women and 252 were girls. Of them, 68 women and 30 girls were killed after being raped, 110 women and 70 girls were gang-raped and 5 women and 4 girls committed suicide after being raped, the report said.
   The report, however, said in January and February 2009, the number of rape was less than that covering the same period in 2008. During January and February, 42 women and girl children were raped; 20 of them were women and 22 were girls. Among them, 5 women and 3 girls were killed after being raped and 4 women and 2 girls were gang-raped.
   In January and February 2008, the total number of rape was 51, including 23 women and 28 girls. Of them, 10 women and 3 girls were killed after rape.
   The decrease in the number of rape in 2009 is a welcoming sign and it is hoped the downward trend would continue, the report said.
   Odhikar’s fact-finding missions found five rape incidents involving law enforcers as perpetrators in 2008. Out of the 454 rape incidents, six involved ethnic minority women and 10 involved women belonging to religious minorities.
   In 2008, at least 99, including 73 women and 26 girls were victims of acid attacks, the report said, adding seven women were victims of acid attacks in January and February 2009.
   According to the report, in many cases, the perpetrators throw acid on women when they decline marriage proposals or refuse to have sexual or illicit relations. Other reasons for acid attacks also include land disputes, personal feuds, jealousy, dowry and domestic violence.
   Despite the relevant laws, figures on reported incidents of rape and acid violence remain high, said the report, which also recommended government action for arresting violence against women.
   The recommendations include ensuring protection of the victims and witnesses, pro-active role of law enforcers and proper implementation of laws.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Saturday said that the February 25 rebellion at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters was part of a conspiracy to set off a civil war and asserted that her government had successfully tackled the crisis and saved the nation from the brink.
   She also urged all to be alert so that the perpetrators could not carry out similar crimes again to destroy the country's nascent democracy.
   Sheikh Hasina, also president of the ruling Awami League, was addressing a discussion organised by the party at the Engineers' Institution commemorating the historic March 7, 1971 address delivered by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, calling on the nation to launch a decisive struggle for independence from Pakistani rule.
   'The aim of the conspirators, who had staged the bloody incidents at BDR headquarters killing scores of brilliant army officers, was to trigger anarchy and push the country to the brink of a civil war…My government has done everything necessary to head off the danger and we have successfully tackled the situation,' the prime minister said.
   She called on everyone to refrain from making any remarks that might provoke further confrontation. 'Those who are making provocative utterances to destabilise the situation, had links to the carnage at the BDR headquarters…They still want to set off a civil war.'
   Referring to the criticism of the negotiated settlement of the crisis, Hasina said, 'We have saved the country from the danger of a civil war, is it our fault?'
   The prime minister reiterated that the BDR incidents would be investigated thoroughly and tough action would be taken against the real culprits.
   'The tragic incident took place at a time when the government was preparing to hold trial of the Bangabandhu murder, war criminals, grenade attacks and the smuggling of 10 truckloads of weapons in which many big fish are said to have been involved …The [BDR] events were staged in order to block the [trial] processes,' she said.
   Hasina warned that the activities of the conspirators had not ceased and urged the people to unite against those who had captured state power time and again 'by spilling the blood of soldiers.'
   About the ongoing power outages all over the country, the AL chief said her government had taken several initiatives to resolve the power crisis adding that it was not possible to find a solution overnight. 'It is a long-term process.'
   Suranjit Sengupta MP, also presidium member of the AL, accused the opposition leader Khaleda Zia of doing politics with a national crisis and urged her not to gamble with the future of the country, democracy and the armed forces.
   Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon MP wondered how the CDs containing the conversation between the prime minister and the army officers at the Dhaka Cantonment on March 1[during her visit to Senakunja to console the mourners] had slipped through.
   'Same CDs were distributed after the January 11, 2007 political changeover. Who are distributing such CDs? Are they hatching plots against democracy? We, along with the people, will thwart their plots,' he said.
   'Many attempts were made in the past two years to impose a controlled democracy in the country but democracy has been established through the December 29 polls. The BDR rebellion was staged to disrupt democracy…,' Menon said.
   The discussion was also addressed by AL leaders Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Matia Chowdhury, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal president Hasanul Huq Inu, Dhaka University Teachers Association president Bazlul Huq and former DU VC AK Azad Chowdhury.
   Earlier in the morning, Hasina, along with senior party leaders, placed flowers at the portrait of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in front of the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi.
   Different units of the AL and its associate bodies as well as different political and socio-cultural organisations observed the historic March 7 across the country.

THE Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Saturday said perpetrators of the crimes at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters must be handed exemplary punishment.
   While visiting the families of an army officer and a university student who were killed during the BDR rebellion, she demanded neutral investigations into the February 25 massacre.
   Khaleda, also the leader of the opposition in parliament, first went to the residence of slain Lt Col Enshad Ibne Amin at Dhanmondi in the afternoon.
   She talked to his wife Mariana Enshad and consoled the family members.
   The BNP chief also went to the house of Khondoker M Tareq Aziz Sajib, a BBA student of the People University, at Talarbag of Mirpur.
   While talking to Khaleda, Sajib’s mother Wahida Akhter and father AMM Shamsuddin demanded trial of the killers of their son.
   Khaleda assured them that she and her party would continue to press the government for neutral investigations of the killings, trial of the real culprits and their exemplary punishment.
   BNP’s joint secretary general Selima Rahman and chairperson’s security affairs adviser Fazle Elahi Akbar accompanied the party chairperson.
   More than seventy persons, including 59 army personnel, were killed in the carnage.
   In the evening, Khaleda held a meeting with the leaders of the Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum at her Gulshan office seemingly to draw a strategy for the ensuing election to the Supreme Court Bar Association.
   She asked them to remain united as the country was passing a crucial time.
   Former justice TH Khan, Moudud Ahmed, Khandakar Mahbub Uddin Ahmed, Khandakar Mahbub Hossain, Rafiqul Islam Mia, Abdur Rezzak Khan, AM Mahbubuddin Khokan MP and Kaisar Kamal were, among others, present there.

One person was killed and 50 were injured as workers of a knitwear factory clashed with hired goons at Gorgoria under Sreepur in Gazipur on Saturday.
   The workers put barricade on the Dhaka-Tangail highway, suspending all kinds of vehicular movements for about three hours.
   Local people and witnesses said the clash ensued at around 9:00am when a gang of hired goons equipped with lethal weapons attacked laid off workers of Pandora Sweater factory, who were trying to enter the factory demanding their arrears and due salary.
   The factory authorities fired 137 workers four weeks ago. The workers were demonstrating for their reinstatement for the past few days.
   On Saturday, as the workers tried to enter the factory, hired goons attacked them, triggering a fierce clash that lasted for three and half an hour. A man was killed and 50 were injured.
   Witnesses said soon after the attack, several hundreds garment workers with the help of the neighbouring factory workers, equipped with iron rod, bamboo sticks and others lethal weapons, attacked the hired goons and factory authorities.
   The workers also put barricade on the Dhaka-Tangail highway and asked all the workers of the neighbouring factories to join them.
   As the workers of the Denimax Apparels did not respond to their call, several hundred agitating workers tried to damage the factory.
   The local people, Denimax workers and the adjacent shop keepers tried to resist the workers, leaving at least 50 people injured.
   A huge contingent of police and members of the Rapid Action Battalion rushed to the scene. They charged batons, fired teargas canisters and gunshots to bring the situation under control.
   The law enforcers also picked Rumana, Shohag, Anis and Azizul from the spot at around 1:15pm.
   In presence of the law enforcers, local people rescued the critically injured and took them to Sreepur Upazila Health Complex and Dhaka Medical College Hospital where the on-duty doctors declared shop keeper Saiful Islam dead.
   Hearing the death news, local traders and villagers also got furious and took to the streets. They held a protest meeting at CNB bazaar bus-stand.
   The officer-in-charge of the Sreepur police station, Monjur Kader, told New Age, ‘We have to fire 14 rounds of teargas canisters and 14 rounds gun shots to disperse the agitators and the situation is now under control.’
   A tense situation is mounting in the area and additional police forces were deployed to avert any untoward incident.

Three separate bombings killed 15 people in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, while authorities investigated reports that a pilotless US drone crashed elsewhere in the militant-plagued region bordering Afghanistan.
   The bombings, coming days after gunmen attacked Sri Lanka's visiting cricket team, were a fresh reminder of the militant threat in Pakistan, where Western leaders worry that a growing political feud could distract the government from tackling the extremists head on.
   Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are believed to use pockets of Pakistan's northwest as bases to plan attacks on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The US has used drones to fire missile strikes against militants in the area, prompting protests from Pakistani officials who say the attacks fuel anti-American sentiment.
   Saturday's reports of a drone crash came from Angoor Ada village in South Waziristan, a tribal region where the main Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, is based.
   Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said authorities were investigating the reports. Two intelligence officials said their informants and agents had yet to locate wreckage.
   The US rarely discusses the missile operations, and the drones are believed to be CIA-operated. Colonel Greg Julian, the top US military spokesman in Afghanistan, declined to comment on reports of the crash.
   Militants have staged numerous attacks against Pakistani security forces in recent years, but one Saturday - a car bombing - was unusual in that a body was used to lure police, officials said.
   Local police chief Rahim Shah said police went to the Badaber area after an unknown caller told them of a body in a parked car. Residents and police had recently evicted militants from the area, prompting threats of retaliation.
   'They found the white car. They also saw a body inside, but when they were pulling it out, the car bomb went off,' Shah said. Seven police and a bystander were killed.
   Meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed three civilians and wounded four troops Saturday in the town of Darra Adam Khel.
   In the Khyber tribal region, a suicide bomber killed four people and wounded five at a mosque that served as a headquarters for the militant group Ansarul Islam, government official Sadiq Khan said. Ansarul Islam is the rival of another extremist group, Lashkar-e-Islam, Khan said.
   Pakistan has staged military offensives in parts of its northwest, recently declaring it had defeated insurgents in the Bajur tribal region, but is also pursuing peace talks with militants in the region's Swat Valley, where it has promised to impose Islamic law.
   Western leaders worry that Swat could turn into a militant haven, but Pakistan has persisted with the talks. On Saturday a top regional official said authorities decided to release 12 Taliban militants.
   The 12 had been arrested 'on charges of extremism,' Syed Mohammad Javed said. 'We are now setting them free.'
   In violence elsewhere in Pakistan, heavily armed gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in the eastern city of Lahore last Tuesday, killing six police and a driver and wounding several players before fleeing unscathed.
   The assault bore some resemblance to November's terrorist rampage in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai. The Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba has been blamed for that attack, in which 172 people were killed.
   The group's chief spokesman, Abdullah Ghaznavi, in a call Saturday to The Associated Press denied it was involved in the attack on the Sri Lankans. The group also denies involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

After a long lay-off, the 360MW Haripur independent power plant resumed operation on Saturday amid severe load shedding across the country.
   Electricity generation at one of the two units of Haripur IPP, which tripped on February 5 because of electrical fault and was under maintenance, resumed Saturday evening.
   The 240MW gas turbine unit was producing around 100MW of electricity till 9:00pm and the power officials expected that the plant would go into full generation by today.
   The Power Development Board officials, however, feared that the total electricity generation might not increase once Haripur IPP came into full operation as the PDB might have to reduce power generation at other power plants because of gas shortage.
   Although the overall generation of electricity increased to 3460MW by around 100MW Saturday evening against 3350MW on Friday, there was a gap of around 1500MW between demand and supply. The electricity demand was around 5000MW during the weekend.
   Most of the city faced around three to four hours of load shedding throughout Saturday while other parts of the country faced six to 12 hours of load shedding.
   Although there was no under-frequency related problem at the eastern part of the city, the power outages continued because of a gap in demand and supply.
   The power officials are grappling with the huge shortage as they can neither meet the full demand of the city nor that in the rural areas for irrigation.
   The Dhaka Power Distribution Company got around 1030MW during day time while around 1180MW during evening hours against the demand of about 1500MW-1800MW.
   Power officials hoped that the power situation might improve slightly once the Haripur plant came into full operation and the 210MW Shiddhirganj plant came into operation on March 12 after a month-long outage.
   ‘Even after that the power situation will remain in grave crisis as the demand of electricity this summer will be around 5500-6000MW while the highest generation could be around 3800-4000MW if we get proper gas supply,’ said a PDB official.
   Power officials said because of gas shortage the electricity generation was around 500MW less.

Police on Saturday showed eight more Bangladesh Rifles soldiers arrested, bringing the number of arrests in connection with the February 25 troop rebellion at BDR headquarters to 36.
   ‘We have captured two from outside the headquarters while shown arrested six others who had been in the barracks,’ said Abdul Kahhar Akond, senior assistant superintendent of police at the Criminal Investigation Department, after visiting the scene.
   When asked about the progress in investigation, the investigation officer of the case said good progress had been made so far. More than 1,000 unnamed soldiers have been named in the case filed in connection with the carnage in which scores of army
   officers deputed to the BDR were slain by marauding hordes of rebel jawans.
   ‘We are also getting witnesses, leads and evidence… We are still gathering evidence for examination,’ he said.
   The IO parried the question whether the authorities had found any link of external or militant groups to the bloody events. ‘We won’t tell anything more at the moment.’
   Earlier, the investigators remanded seven soldiers, including the prime mutiny suspect Syed Tawhidul Alam, in custody for interrogation.
   Sources at the CID said that Tawhid had given some leads about the crimes and the investigators were working on that.
   Tawhid, a deputy assistant director of the BDR, and six others were
   being interrogated by investigators from different forces under a seven-day remand.
   The investigators have started examining the evidence collected since the February 25 massacre of army officers in the BDR headquarters.
   Nabajyoti Khisha, officer in charge of Lalbagh police station, lodged the case levelling charges against more than 1,000 soldiers and a few officials of the border guards.
   Apart from the CID, the army is conducting its own investigation while the home ministry has launched another inquiry by a high-powered committee with a retired secretary at its head.

The car of the New Age editor, Nurul Kabir, was chased by unknown armed motorbike riders on Thursday evening. Nurul Kabir, however, was not in the car.
   His driver Mohammad Mehedi Hasan Al Mamun Nazib filed a general diary with the Khilkhet police in this regard on Friday.
   In the diary, Nazib said he was headed for Nurul Kabir's house at Uttara on the Airport Road at around 10:00pm. As he passed the Bishwa Road crossing at Khilkhet, three young men, wearing helmets, on a motorcycle, chased the car and waved at the driver to pull over. Nazib became frightened and drove away at a high speed.
   Three more young men, in jackets and helmets, riding on another motorcycle, heading towards the car, also tried to stop the vehicle, Nazib said, adding all of the six young men appeared to have been carrying guns.
   Nazib, however, could manage to dodge the motorcycles after taking several turns at Uttara and entering a house.
   The frightened Nazib then saw a car of the Rapid Action Battalion and sought help. The battalion personnel, after patrolling for some time, told him there would be no more troubles and he could go.
   In the general diary, Nazib sought legal action in this regard.

India has said neighbouring Pakistan could become a ‘failed state’, with doubts emerging about who is in control of the country, a report said Saturday.
   The government also warned no part of the world would be safe from what the foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, called the ‘flames being ignited there,’ the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
   The government’s assessment came from the home minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, and Mukherjee at two separate events on Friday.
   ‘It (Pakistan) is not a failed state, but it’s threatening to become one,’ Chidambaram told a seminar in India’s financial hub Mumbai.
   ‘A great concern is weighing on our minds. In Pakistan, with regret, I would say we don’t know who is in control there,’ he said.
   ‘Whether it is the army or the president or the government... We are in a difficult situation (as Pakistan’s neighbours).’
   His statements come after a brazen commando attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team earlier in the week in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, near the Indian border.
   Eight Pakistanis were killed and seven Sri Lankan players and an assistant coach, as well as a Pakistani umpire, were wounded when they were ambushed by gunmen firing automatic weapons, grenades and a rocket launcher.
   The attack has subjected nuclear-armed Pakistan, teetering on political and economic crisis, to mounting international concern about its ability to combat Taliban- and al-Qaeda-linked militants holed up in its tribal areas.
   New Delhi has blamed the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the Mumbai attacks last November in which 172 people died and has said Pakistan must step up efforts to clamp down on extremist activity on its soil.
   Lashkar has denied involvement in the carnage in Mumbai.
   Chidambaram told Pakistan it must fully dismantle ‘the terror infrastructure’ in the country, saying large swathes of Pakistan were under Taliban control.
   Mukherjee meanwhile appealed to the world community to ensure the threat emanating from Pakistan was ‘eliminated on an urgent basis.’
   ‘Otherwise, no part of the world will remain immune to the flames being ignited there,’ Mukherjee told a conference in New Delhi on Friday.

Law minister Shafique Ahmed on Saturday said the government now awaited the investigation reports on the last week’s rebellion at the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles headquarters to fix the trial mode of the culprits.
   ‘They [culprits] can be tried under special tribunal, speedy trial tribunal and even in court marshal but we need to wait for the investigation report to fix the procedure of the trial and the forum of the trial,’ he told BSS.
   Shafique said the Army Act 1952 empowered the government to use the tough law for any disciplined forces, carrying weapons including the paramilitary BDR troops, by constituting military courts to try rebels.
   ‘But if the investigators come up with the finding that outsiders or people other than soldiers [were involved], it may appear difficult to court marshal them,’ the minister said.
   He rejected the idea of trying the rebellious soldiers under the BDR Act saying it did not incorporate any provision to try rebels.
   ‘Under the BDR Act, a soldier could be jailed for as high as seven years on normal disciplinary grounds,’ Shafique said.
   The minister’s comments came as investigators said they suspected that outsiders in uniform took part in last week’s massacre of army officers serving the paramilitary force, as BDR soldiers who reported back to work claimed ‘masked’ soldiers forced them to join them to stage the rebellion.
   The police earlier filed a case against 1,000 rebel soldiers naming six, including BDR’s deputy assistant director Touhidul Alam as their ringleader, charging them with treason, murder, arson and looting. Touhidul and four others were now being interrogated as they were remanded in custody for seven days by a court.
   Bangladesh has formally sought United Nations assistance for investigation into the last week’s massacre while officials said Dhaka expected the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and British Scotland Yard teams to reach Dhaka ‘soon’ responding to a request by Bangladesh.

The ongoing global recession coupled with the recent happenings at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters has made tougher the government challenge to meet the current year’s budget deficit, said finance ministry officials.
   As the country’s foreign funds are likely to crunch by 15 per cent and the revenue income dropped to 13 per cent from 18 per cent in the past seven months, it will be more difficult for the government to meet the budget deficit.
   The officials said the country’s budget deficit in October was 3.1 per cent while the estimated deficit was 4.9 per cent of the GDP. At the end of the fiscal, the country’s GDP is likely to fall to 6.5 per cent from 7 per cent calculated in the budget.
   Besides, the GDP growth in the 2009-10 fiscal is likely to drop to 5.5 per cent because of decline in exports as the GDP in the importing countries is feared to fall owing to the ongoing global recession, a senior finance ministry official said.
   ‘We have better harvest of the last two crops — aman and aush —, which will push up the country’s agriculture growth to 8 per cent from the existing 3 per cent,’ the official said, adding that the agricultural growth would contribute to about 20 per cent of the total GDP of the current year.
   The official, however, said the government would closely monitor export and import, foreign assistance and aid situation in the next three months to have a clear concept before drawing the next year’s budget.
   The government will also announce a package of huge amount to protect the sectors vulnerable to the global financial meltdown, he said.
   A March 12 budget monitoring and resources committee meeting, to be presided over by finance minister AMA Muhith, would discuss the probable resources for the revised budget and ADP of 2008-09 and 2009-10 fiscal years.
   Besides, the meeting’s agenda also includes determining possible expenditure limit for 2009-10 and 2011-12 fiscal years under the mid-term budgetary framework, the official said.
   Meanwhile, the finance ministry sources said the resource crunch and ADP’s poor performance are likely to force the government to trim the current budget by nearly 7 per cent or Tk 7,000 crore. The current budget originally stood at Tk 99,962 crore.
   The revised ADP is likely to be cut by 15 per cent to Tk 22,500 crore as against the original ADP figure of Tk 25,600 crore for the current 2008-09 fiscal.
   The finance ministry officials said they were planning to keep the next year’s budget figures within Tk l lakh 10 thousand crore, an increase of about 11.96 per cent compared to the current fiscal year’s original budget.
   The ADP for 2009-10 fiscal has been calculated at Tk 28, 000 crore, an increase by 9.37 per cent compared to the original ADP of the current fiscal.
   The Bangladesh Economic Association president, Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, told New Age that the government would have to prepare the budget with a view to protecting the country from the ongoing global financial crisis.
   ‘Some of the fund in the budget has to be allocated for guarding the vulnerable economic sectors,’ he added.

The Sudanese president, Omar al-Beshir, is to travel to Darfur on Sunday, in his first visit since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the western region.
   Beshir will visit the North Darfur state capital El-Fasher, an information ministry official said on Saturday.
   The trip is seen as a calculated show of defiance by Beshir in the face of mounting Western criticism of his government’s expulsion of 13 aid agencies following the ICC’s announcement of the warrant on Wednesday.
   Beshir has vowed the ICC warrant will ‘not change anything’ in the government’s plans and dismissed it as a ‘neo-colonial plot’.
   On Saturday he danced in front of supporters from south Sudan at a rally in Khartoum, wearing a traditional feathered headdress and colourful beads.
   The United Nations say that thousands of lives have been put at risk by the decision to expel the aid groups, and warns that more than a million people will be without food, water or healthcare.
   Khartoum claims the shortfall can be replaced by national aid agencies — despite also ordering the closure of three Sudanese organisations.
   Officials said that a 100 medics and a 100 tonnes of medicines will be sent to Darfur to ‘bridge any medical gap there’, according to the Sudanese Media Centre, a web site close to the security services.
   But a joint statement released on Friday by UN agencies warned that the expulsion of key aid groups would have ‘devastating implications’.
   ‘Aid operations in North Sudan, the largest humanitarian emergency in the world costing over 2 billion dollars annually, will be irrevocably damaged,’ the statement said.
   The expelled agencies account for ‘more than half’ the capacity of the aid operation in Darfur, carrying out much of the United Nations’ work on the ground, it said.
   ‘If the life-saving assistance these agencies were providing is not restored shortly, it will have immediate, lasting and profound impacts on the well-being of millions of Sudanese citizens,’ it added.
   ‘It is not possible, in any reasonable time frame, to replace the capacity and expertise these agencies have provided over an extended period of time.’
   The United Nations says that 300,000 people have died — many from disease and hunger — and 2.7 million made homeless by the conflict in Sudan which erupted in February 2003.
   ‘Without these organisations much of the aid operation literally comes to a halt,’ the statement added.

An employee of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, who was shot at allegedly by his friend in front of CAAB staff quarters in the Dhaka city Friday night, died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital early Saturday.
   The deceased, identified as Asaduzzaman Sanju, 34, son of Mohammad Ali, was an assistant operator of the CAAB. He was from village Dupuria under Mirzapur in Tangail.
   Police and family members said Asad had an
   altercation with his friend Kabir when they were
   chatting along with two others, Julhas and Fazlu, outside the staff quarter area at about 10:30pm Friday.
   At one stage, Kabir opened fire on Asad, leaving him critically wounded on the spot.
   Asad was first taken to a private hospital at Uttara and later shifted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he died at about 5:00am Saturday.
   None was arrested till Saturday evening in connection with the incident.
   In another incident, the police recovered the headless body of an unidentified man, aged about 35, from Kalapatti of Uttar Jatrabari in the city on Saturday.
   The body was found in front of the house of one Mobarak Hossain at about 7:00am and the police sent it to the Mitford Hospital morgue.
   The police suspect that the assailants had dumped the body on the spot after killing the victim elsewhere.

Deputy speaker Shawkat Ali on Saturday backed the idea of an all-party parliamentary inquiry committee on the BDR rebellion.
   ‘I believe it’s a very legitimate demand, if all the parties agree, such a committee can be constituted,’ he told reporters after emerging from a programme at the National Press Club in Dhaka.
   ‘It isn’t a bad idea. All parties will have representation in the committee if it is formed,’ he said.