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The law ministry will form as many tribunals as the home ministry may recommend for war crimes trial under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 in consultation with the Supreme Court.
   The tribunals, likely to be formed soon to try war crime suspects, will need neither any eye witness nor traditional witness in some cases, said criminal law experts.
   ‘The home ministry will send a letter to us for the formation of tribunals under the 1973 act. Immediately after receiving the letter, we will form the tribunals in consultation with the Supreme Court,’ the law minister, Shafique Ahmed, told New Age on Friday.
   Asked about the number of tribunals, he said it would be decided by the home ministry.
   According to Section 6 of the act, the government may set up one or more tribunals, each consisting of a chairman and not less than two and not more than four other members.
   Any person who is, or is qualified to be, a judge of the Supreme Court or has been a judge of the High Court any time in the territory which now comprises Bangladesh or who is qualified to be a member of the General Court Martial under any service law may be appointed a chairman or member of a tribunal.
   According to Section 19, a tribunal will not be bound by technical rules of evidence; and it will adopt and apply to the greatest possible extent expeditious and non-technical procedure, and may admit any evidence, including reports and photographs published in newspapers, periodicals and magazines, films and tape-recordings and other materials as may be tendered before it.
   A tribunal will not require proof of facts of common knowledge but will take judicial notice thereof and it will take judicial notice of official governmental documents and reports of the United Nations and its subsidiary agencies or other international bodies including non-governmental organisations, the section stipulates.
   Referring to the section, Supreme Court lawyers Bazlur Rahman, also a former High Court judge, and Anisul Huq told New Age a tribunal would not need eye witness or traditional witness in trying a war crime suspect.
   According sections 22 and 23, a tribunal will have the power to regulate its own procedures and the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code 1898 and the Evidence Act 1872 will not apply to any proceedings under the act, they explained.
   Now, according to Section 7 and 8, the government needs to appoint prosecutors and an investigation agency, the legal experts said.
   The provisions stipulated in the act regarding the appointment of prosecutors and investigation agency are being examined, Shafique said, adding any of the Criminal Investigation Department, Special Branch and National Security Intelligent might be engaged as the investigation agency.
   During Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan’s occupation forces in 1971, according to historians, three million people were killed, 2,69,000 women were raped and tens of thousands of homes were torched by the Pakistani forces and their local collaborators.
   Section 3 of the act empowers a tribunal to try and punish any person who, being a member of any armed, defence or auxiliary forces, commits or has committed, in the territory of Bangladesh, whether before or after the commencement of the act, any crimes specified in the act.
   According to the act, war crimes include violation of laws or customs of war which include but are not limited to murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labour or for any other purpose of civilian population in the territory of Bangladesh, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages and detainees, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.
   Crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, abduction, confinement, torture, rape or other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population or persecutions on political, racial, ethnic or religious grounds, whether or not in violation of the domestic law, will also come under the tribunal jurisdiction.
   The tribunal will have the powers to try any crimes against peace including planning, preparation, and initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances.
   Genocide, including killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, forcibly transferring children of the group to another group, will also come under the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
   The jurisdiction of the tribunal also includes violation of any humanitarian rules applicable to armed conflicts laid down in the Geneva Conventions of 1949, any other crimes under international law, attempt, abetment or conspiracy to commit any such crimes, and complicity in or failure to prevent commission of any such crimes.
   According to Section 4 of the act, if any crime is committed by several persons, each of such people is liable for that crime in the same manner as if it were done by him alone.
   Referring to Section 21, the experts said a convict of any crime under the act would have the right of appeal against the conviction, but the appeal must be filed directly to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in 60 days after the judgement.
   Section 24 stipulates, no order, judgement or sentence of a tribunal will be called in question in any manner whatsoever in or before any court or other authority in any legal proceedings excepting an appeal against the final verdict of the tribunal.
   The authorities had sufficient evidences of war crimes committed during the independence war along with the list of the auxiliary forces of the Pakistani troops, according to the law minister.
   ‘We have adequate evidences of crimes against humanity during the independence war… The names of the auxiliary forces which collaborated with the Pakistani military were in gazettes of the time,’ said Shafique, also a legal expert.
   He said the people who committed crimes against humanity in 1971 and were involved in killing, violation and arson would obviously face the trial.
   ‘The names of the local collaborators were on official records... First, initiatives will be taken to carry out investigations and then charges sheets will be submitted to begin the trial process,’ said the minister.

Investigators have started examining the video footages and audio records seized from the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters after last month’s troop rebellion that left many army officers killed, officials said.
   The footages would resolve many questions puzzling the investigators ever since they launched the probe into the 33-hour rebellion that ended on February 26, they hoped.
   The authorities have prepared a list of soldiers who are on the run, along with their photographs to be sent to the lawmen across the country to expedite their capture. An army-led joint force is already in the field to hunt them down.
   These soldiers did not respond to the government’s order to return to the barracks or report to the nearest police stations after the mutiny ended.
   The BDR director general, brigadier general Mainul Islam, put the number at as many as 1,800.
   The CID investigators, however, said they could not show them [soldiers who have not reported] as fugitives, according to the law, until they were included in the list of the accused in the case filed in this regard.
   When asked about the progress in investigation, the CID’s chief investigation officer Abdul Kahhar Akond said that interrogation of the BDR soldiers, remanded in custody, was on.
   ‘A team visited the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters Friday to collect more evidence for investigation,’ he said.
   Investigators said that interrogation of a large number of BDR soldiers would take time. ‘The process of taking statements of all the soldiers, staying inside the headquarters, continues,’ he added.
   They said that the video footages, collected from the BDR headquarters, would make their tasks a bit easy to work out the investigation. The images were captured by closed-circuit television cameras at the armouries and the BDR’s photography unit.
   The CCTV footages show the BDR soldiers on a looting spree on February 25, the day the bloody rebellion broke out. They are seen taking arms and ammunition from the armoury, loading them on a truck while some others are seen firing in the air.
   A group called Operation Rebel Hunt with the popular face book website posted 37 new photographs on the mutiny on Thursday.
   The photographs, believed to have been taken at the initial stage of the mutiny, show how the operation began inside the Durbar Hall. One photograph shows a soldier, who reportedly came from behind the curtain and pointed his gun at the slain Director General Shakil Ahmed, eventually slumps to the ground in a faint after failing to open fire.
   In other photographs the officers, seemingly terrified, are seen huddle together on the podium while one soldier calls someone from outside.
   The photos also show the soldiers in masks and in different actions.
   Three probe bodies are working to dig out the February 25-26 massacre. The committee commissioned by the home ministry and headed by retired bureaucrat, Anis-uz-Zaman Khan is scheduled to submit its report on Sunday. The army’s separate investigation led by lieutenant general Jahangir Alam is also in progress.
   The investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department, which is being assisted by two international agencies – Scotland Yard of Britain and Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States – will be taken for trial of the carnage.
   The police have arrested as many as 700 soldiers suspected to have been involved in the mutiny. Eighty of them were remanded in custody for interrogation.

Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club made history when they became the first team to win a prize money of Tk 1 crore with a 1-0 victory over their arch-rivals Dhaka Abahani in the final of the Citycell Super Cup at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on Friday.
   The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, distributed the prizes in front of a capacity crowd of 45000 and a few thousand waiting outside. Runners-up Abahani took home a purse of Tk 20 lakh.
   Mohammedan put in a balanced performance to restrict their opponents who missed their key midfielders Joy and Pranatosh and were stunned to see their attacking lynchpin Emily limping off with a muscle sprain late in the first half. Abahani pushed forward after the break but the Mohammedan defence kept Abahani’s main striker Ghanaian Awudu Ibrahim in check. Ibrahim found a very few spaces throughout the 90 minutes and was often the lone prowler in the opposition defence.
   After taking the early lead Mohammedan looked a little defensive and snuffed out the Abahani attack in the midfield. Goalkeeper Aminul, veteran defender Rajani, Nigerian defender Emmanuel Dami and Egyptian midfielder Hazem Mahmood fought their hearts out to bring glory to the traditional black-and-white outfit.
   Abahani launched the first attack in the fifth minute but Mamun’s curling free-kick missed the crossbar by a few inches. Awudu Ibrahim produced one of his trademark solo runs in the 6th minute but shot the ball straight at Aminul from ten yards.
   Mohammedan hit back and Nigerian forward Alamu Bukola Olalekan’s back-heel from a Nasir cross went wide.
   Mohammedan took the lead through Nigerian John Goodwin in the 21st minute. Egyptian midfielder Hazem Mahmood curved a lob from the midfield and Bukola received the ball in the left flank and lost his marker and sent a cross to Goodwin who blasted the ball into the top corner from ten yards.
   Abul, who came on for Emily, headed an Awudu cross wide in the 35th minute with Aminul alone under the bar.
   After the restart Abahani surged ahead in search of a goal and Emeka Christian, who surprisingly was doing a defensive job in the first half, blasted the ball over from close range in the 53rd minute.
   Aminul’s vigilance paid off in the 56th minute as he parried an Awudu grounder diving to his right.
   Abahani piled up the pressure and in the 76th minute Shujon headed a Wali Faisal free-kick intended for Awudu but Aminul rushed forward and made a fingertip save.
   Abahani realised the day did not belong to them as Abul’s goal-bound header from a Awudu Ibrahim cross in the 79th minute was headed to safety by a diving Dami Emmanuele.
   Abahani forward Emily won the red 700cc Cherry car as the most valuable player of the tournament, Aminul Huq scooped Tk 1 lakh as the best goalkeeper, Abdul Hannan Miron was richer by Tk 50,000 as the best referee.
   State minister for youth and sports Ahad Ali Sarker, Chief of Army Staff and NSC chairman General Moeen U Ahmed, BFF president Kazi Salahuddin and Citycell CEO Michael Seymour were present at the prize distribution ceremony.

The Awami League-led government will allow three errant rental power companies more time to install four plants, initiated by the interim government, after the companies missed three extended deadlines for the jobs, power officials said.
   ‘The new government is set to follow the interim government in extending the deadlines to bring the four power plants into operation by taking additional performance guarantee without cancelling the agreements despite repeated failures of the companies,’ said a source in the division.
   Although the inexperienced companies, selected by the interim government amid controversy, were supposed to bring the costly rental power plants into operation within three months after contracts had been signed they have failed to install the plants in 14 months.
   The Energy Prima missed the latest deadline for the operation of the 50MW Fenchuganj power plant on February 28 and is set to miss the 31 March deadline to put into operation the 20MW Bogra power plant.
   The GBB (Venture Energy) missed the latest deadline on February 28 to bring into operation the 30MW Bhola plant while the Green Power is likely to miss deadline of March 31 for the 50MW Ashuganj power plant.
   Three power plants were supposed to start operation in May 2008 while the Ashuganj power plant was supposed to start operation in July 2008. The interim government extended the contracts just two days before it left office after it had extended the contracts in October 2008.
   The power division in the past wee held a meeting, chaired by the power secretary, Nasiruddin Ahmed, to discuss what course of action it would take regarding the power plants.
   Sources said the meeting had discussed the progress regarding the plants and how installation of the plants could be expedited. ‘The Power Development Board was asked to submit the latest reports on each plants and say whether the companies would give additional penalty for the delay after discussing with the companies,’ said the source adding the companies would be given more time if they would agree to pay the penalty.
   ‘We do not want to cancel the agreement with the companies as they had invested tens of crores of takas. This time the government may not set any deadline if the companies agree to pay penalty for the delays,’ said an official
   The sources said the companies were engaged in hectic lobbying with the government for agreement extension.
   The interim government took steps to install such short-term power plants within four months. Despite high power price, the government claimed it had taken steps to meet the demand for electricity during the summer in 2008.
   Many PDB officials questioned whether the power plants were needed as they were unlikely to come into operation this summer as well. The country faces around 1500MW of load shedding at present.
   ‘If the contracts of the plants were cancelled after the expiry in August 2008, the government could have completed another tender procedure to select experienced companies and have the plants installed by now,’ observed a PDB official.

A suicide bomber blew himself up during Friday prayers at a packed Pakistani mosque, leaving more than 50 dead and scores wounded in one of the bloodiest recent attacks in the nation.
   Blood-soaked caps, shoes and shirts lay around the flattened mosque, where dazed survivors looked on as rescue workers plucked bodies out of the rubble, splashed with pools of blood.
   It came just hours before US president Barack Obama was to announce a new offensive against terror havens in Afghanistan and nuclear-armed Pakistan, in the hope of dealing a fatal blow to al-Qaeda more than seven years after the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States.
   The bomb on the weekly Muslim day of rest went off in Jamrud, a town in the restive northwest Khyber tribal region that is located on a key road used to ferry supplies to Western troops across the border in Afghanistan.
   ‘More than 50 people were killed and over 100 others were wounded in the attack. Twenty five of the wounded are in a critical condition,’ Fida Mohammad Bangash, a senior administration official in Khyber, told AFP at the scene.
   Only two minarets were left intact at the mosque, which is frequented by tribal police and paramilitary officers fighting against the Taliban and other Islamist militants in Khyber.
   ‘The whole of the mosque collapsed and only two pillars remain. People were crying,’ said Waheed Khan, a tribal policeman who was on guard duty across the road at the time.
   ‘I haven’t seen such devastation in my life,’ he told AFP.
   ‘At the same time that the imam said Allahu Akbar [God is greater], the suicide bomber exploded. It was a huge explosion. Even the vehicles standing outside the mosque were damaged.’
   Tariq Hayat, the top official in the semi-autonomous tribal district, had earlier put the death toll at 48 but warned that many others could be still be trapped under the rubble after the roof of the mosque caved in.
   ‘More than 70 people were wounded. There may be many more dead,’ he said.
   The president, Asif Ali Zardari, and the prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, ‘strongly condemned the suicide attack’ and vowed the perpetrators would be brought to justice, according to separate government statements.
   There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
   It was the deadliest bombing in Pakistan, a frontline state in the US-led ‘war on terror’, since 60 people died in a suicide truck bomb at the five-star Marriott Hotel in Islamabad last September.
   US officials say northwest Pakistan has degenerated into a safe haven for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion of late 2001 and have since regrouped to launch attacks on foreign troops in that country.
   Pakistani security officials said they suspected Friday’s bombing was to avenge operations against Taliban fighters and other Islamist militants to secure NATO supplies into Afghanistan.
   The bulk of supplies and equipment required by NATO and US-led forces who are battling a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan is shipped through Pakistan, and the fabled Khyber pass is the principal land route.
   Extremists opposed to the Pakistani government’s decision to side with the United States in its ‘war on terror’ have carried out a series of bombings and other attacks that have killed more than 1,600 people in less than two years.
   The unrest has fanned international fears about deteriorating stability in the country, where Obama has said extremists — like in Afghanistan — pose a grave threat.
   To win a war which aides said was ‘adrift’, Obama plans to dispatch 4,000 extra troops to train the Afghan army, on top of 17,000 deployments that have already been authorised.
   Obama also will stump up billions of dollars of extra aid to help Pakistan secure its democracy, senior administration officials have said.

The finance ministry is going to ask the education ministry to cancel monthly payment order for the leading private schools at the district level across the country to ensure proper utilisation of public fund.
   Through such recommendations, the finance ministry wants to clear its position that leading private schools in the districts like Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, and Sylhet do not require MPO.
   This is one of the four suggestions which has been put in a position paper of the finance ministry, following a directive by its minister AMA Muhith, official sources said.
   The finance ministry position paper, to be sent to the education ministry within a week, will also ask it not to allow more than one school in a certain area, or merge them.
   Another main aim of such recommendations is that the finance ministry wants the education ministry to revise the PMO programme to curb abuse of the fund and address educational disparity between rural and urban areas, the sources added.
   The finance ministry prepared such position paper last week after the education ministry demanded additional Tk 600 crore in the next fiscal budget to meet the demand for MPO.
   Some Tk 3,043 crore is spent for running the MPO programme each year. Apart from the schools, the education ministry is also providing MPO for hundreds of non-government colleges and madrassahs.
   In the current fiscal, Tk 1,834 crore has been earmarked for 6,486 MPO school teachers alone across the country.
   Nearly 5,125 institutions are now entitled to get MPO although the number should not be more than 3,063, according to a last year study by the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics.
   The education ministry and the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, known as Shiksha Bhaban, approved additional institutions due to various factors including pressure from the successive political governments.
   A school, college or madrassah will not be eligible for MPO if there is another such institution within three kilometres in the rural areas and one kilometre in urban areas.
   Besides, an institution catering for a population of minimum 8,000 can apply for MPO.
   These rules along with many others were grossly violated in the past, the sources said.
   However, the finance ministry wants the education ministry to maintain MPO criteria strictly and exclude the educational institutions which failed to fulfil the criteria.
   The sources said some 1,700 schools might face cancellation as they have failed to fulfil criteria.

A cabinet minister in India’s western state of Gujarat surrendered to the police on Friday over charges that she incited a mob during 2002 anti-Muslim riots that left at least 2,000 dead.
   Women and child welfare minister Maya Kodnani is the highest-ranking Gujarat official to be arrested in the wake of the riots.
   She is accused of leading a mob that killed more than 100 people during some of the worst religious riots since India’s independence in 1947, but denies all charges.
   The arrest is a major embarrassment for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the run-up to national elections, where the BJP is contesting as the main opposition party.
   Kodnani turned herself in to a special investigation team in the city of Ahmedabad, where a court had previously cancelled the anticipatory bail which had kept her out of jail until now.
   At least 2,000 Muslims were hacked, beaten, shot or burnt to death in the 2002 riots, which erupted after 59 Hindu pilgrims died in a train fire first blamed on a Muslim mob, but which an inquiry later concluded was accidental.
   In March 2008 the Supreme Court ordered a fresh probe, after accusations that the Gujarat government was dragging its feet.
   Human rights activist Teesta Setalvad said she welcomed the news, telling the CNN-IBN network that ‘finally the Gujarat government has bowed down to the Indian constitution and Indian law.’

The Amnesty International has called on the Bangladesh authorities to constitute an independent, impartial and competent body to investigate the deaths of four detained border guards in the past two weeks.
   The four BDR members were among hundreds of detained BDR personnel interrogated on suspicion of involvement in the killing of more than 70 people, including at least 55 army officers, during a two-day BDR rebellion in February 25–26.
   The Amnesty International said nayek subedar Mozammel Haq died on March 9, BDR member Waheduzzaman died on March 15, sepoy Monir Hossain died on March 17 and lance nayek Mobarak Hossain died in custody on March 22.
   It said there are credible reports suggesting that the detained may have died as a result of torture.
   Government officials have said the first two committed suicide and the other two died of heart attack.
   Hospital sources have, however, noted the wrists, arms, knees and shoulders of the latest victim were swollen and badly bruised.
   The Amnesty International has called on the Bangladesh government to ensure that the detained are not subjected to torture, that they have access to lawyers, family visits and courts and that they can challenge the legality of their detention.
   All the detained should be promptly released unless charged with recognisable criminal offences and remanded by an independent court. ‘The government must act immediately to ensure that anyone detained in need of medical attention receives treatment they require,’ said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia director.
   ‘The investigation must be rigorous in establishing the causes of these deaths, and anyone found to have been responsible for their death, including those with command responsibility, should be brought to justice in accordance with international fair trial standards, and without the imposition of the death penalty,’ it said.
   ‘An impartial investigation is needed in the government’s interest to build trust and confidence within the armed forces and avoid a repeat of this situation,’ it added.

The British Charity Commission in the United Kingdom has launched a formal inquiry into the alleged British link with the seizure of arms, ammunition and explosives from the Green Crescent Madrassah at Borhanuddin in Bangladesh.
   The lawmen are yet to acknowledge the reported arrest of the founder and financier of the madrassah, Ikramul Kabir Faisal alias Faisal Mustafiz, 40, a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin in London.
   A spokesperson for the Charity Commission on Thursday told the British Broadcasting Corporation they were investigating the ‘very serious’ allegations.
   Faisal’s father, Golam Mostafa, told BBC Radio on Friday that they came to know, through relatives and well-wishers, that Faisal was arrested in Dhaka on Wednesday.
   Faisal, however, has not yet been named as an accused in any of the two cases filed in connection with the recovery of firearms, ammunition and explosives from Green Crescent Madrassah on Tuesday.
   The officer-in-charge of the Borhanuddin thana, Rafiqul Islam, who is the investigation officer of the cases, told New Age that he had gone through the documents of the cases but could not find Faisal’s name anywhere.
   Sheikh Muhammad Ali, deputy assistant director of RAB-8, filed two criminal cases with the Borhanuddin thana on Wednesday night against 11 persons, including the four suspected militants arrested under the Arms and Explosives Act and the Anti-Terrorism Ordinance 2008.
   Law enforcing officials including the investigation officer explained that since they had not yet found Faisal’s involvement in the stockpiling of arms and ammunition in the madrassah, he was not made an accused in the arms haul cases.
   The commander of RAB-8, Lt Col Manirul Haque, said Faisal was not named as an accused as none of the arrestees has admitted that they had met him.
   He, however, added that Faisal’s name would be included in the charge-sheet if the arrestees gave any information connecting him to the cache of weapons and bombs.
   Bhola’s deputy commissioner, Mesbahul Islam, and police superintendent, GM Azizur Rahman, said that since the busting of the militants’ den and mini-ordinance factory, the police have intensified surveillance of all qoumi madrassahs and Islamic NGOs in the area.
   On Tuesday the RAB seized 10 firearms, 2,500 bullets, 3,000 grenade ball splinters, 200 grams of gunpowder, different sorts of ammunition and 72 books on Islami jihad, Abu Al Moududi and Osama bin Laden.
   The four arrestees are Maulana Mohammad Russell, Jashim, Abul Kalam and Abdul Halim. The law enforcers started interrogating them on Friday.
   Green Crescent Madrassah’s teacher, Mohammad Russell, who is also the alleged trainer, was grilled by a Taskforce Interrogation Cell.
   The law enforcers on Friday clamed that they had found that at least seven more persons — Mufti Mohiuddin, Saifuddin Badal, Humayun Ahmed, Abul Kalam, Hasan Saifuddin, Yunus Sharif and Mizanur Rahman — to have links with Green Crescent. They were also made accused in the cases.
   The investigation officer, Rafiqul Islam, said that he produced the arrestees before a court on Thursday and judicial magistrate Mohammad Zakaria remanded them in custody for 10 days for interrogation.
   The assistant police superintendent, Azimul Huq, who is the chief of the six-member interrogation team, said that interrogation started on Friday.
   Azimul and Lt Col Manirul said that three of the arrestees were being interrogated at Borhanuddin thana.
   The investigation officer brought Russel to Dhaka to be grilled by the Taskforce Interrogation Cell, they added.
   ‘We suspect that the militants were being trained in the madrassah at night, and perhaps they used the identity of students as a cover,’ said the interrogation team’s leader.
   The Green Crescent was founded in 1998 at Faisal’s home in Green Pastures, Heaton Mersey, Stockport, and had an income of £63,000 for ‘long-term educational and health projects’.
   Sources said that the funds spent to construct the building for the Green Crescent Madrassah in Ramkeshob came from London and the Dubai-based Human Appeal International, an organisation that collects funds from Arab countries to distribute to various charities.
   The Human Appeal International is thought to have links with Hamas and Iraqi insurgents and has offices all over the world.
   Andreas Tzortzis, a UK-based Islamist speaker and lecturer of Hizb ut-Tahrir is also connected with Human Appeal International and is a trustee of Green Crescent.
   When Faisal Mostafiz, known to the locals as a Bangladeshi expatriate in London, bought land from his father-in-law in 2005, he told the locals that a social welfare organisation would be constructed there.
   But when construction began in 2007 labourers from a nearby area, not the locality, were employed for construction, and no local students were given admission when the madrassah opened, said the locals.
   Locals said after the madrassah started they saw more than 50 students of different ages, both male and female, (the males with turbans on their heads and the females with their faces covered with veils) frequently visiting the madrassah at night and leaving early in the morning.
   According to reports of the BBC, British media and various websites, the chief of UK-based NGO Green Crescent, Dr Faisal Mostafa, was cleared twice of terrorist charges in 1996 and 2002 in the UK. He was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for possessing illegal arms and for another 56 days in November for trying to board an aircraft with a gun.
   The founder of the madrassah, 44-year-old Faisal, is a chemistry graduate. He is the son of Mustafizur Rahman alias Golam Mustafa of Char Umed village in Lalmohan upazila.

The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha will complete the process of allotting the plots of the Uttara (Third Phase) and Purbachal New Town projects by next June. The new deadline for submission of applications has been reset at April 30 after changing it several times, said officials.
   Rajuk has received some 1,80,000 applications from various categories of professionals, ministers and MPs vying for 8,500 plots, said the sources.
   ‘We will complete all the various stages of the process of allotting the plots, including sorting the applications, fixing the price of the plots and holding a lottery within two months after the date of submitting applications expires,’ said the State Minister for Housing and Public Works, Abdul Mannan Khan, while visiting the site of the Bijoy Sarani-Tejgaon Link Road in the capital on Friday.
   The newly appointed chairman of the Rajuk, Nurul Huda, and top officials of the ministry accompanied the state minister during his visit.
   Mannan also hoped that the city-dwellers would be able to use the much-awaited Bijoy Sarani-Tejgaon Link Road from January next year as the construction work is expected to be completed by December.
   Rajuk, during the tenure of the military-backed interim government, had solicited applications from the aspirants for plots in the Uttara (Third Phase) and Purbachhal New Town projects and had started distributing application forms from November 30.
   RAJUK invited applications for around 7,000 plots in four categories in Purbachal (3, 5, 7.5 and 10 kathas) and for the 1,500 plots in Uttara in two categories (3 and 5 kathas).
   Though January 15 was the last date of submitting application forms, Rajuk extended the deadline up to April 30 when the Awami League-led government took office. The last date for collecting forms is now April 29 and for submitting them is April 30
   Around 1,80,000 people have submitted applications so far for the plots in Rajuk’s projects in Purbachal New Town and Uttara Model Town, said inside sources on Friday.
   Rajuk in 2004 allotted about 15,500 plots in the Purbachal project to government and private sector employees, justices, journalists, expatriates and lawmakers.
   People in 12 categories — including ministers, MPs, judges, journalists, civil servants, autonomous bodies’ employees, armed forces personnel, artistes, sportspersons, businesspersons, private service holders and wage earners — will be able to apply.
   The proposed Uttara Residential Model Town (3rd Phase) Project, situated on the western side of the Uttara Model Town (2nd Phase) Project, is about 20km from Zero Point in Dhaka city.

The central working committee of the ruling Awami League, which will meet today, is likely to set a tentative date for the next council of the party which is expected to bring about significant changes in the national committee.
   The meeting will focus mainly on the present political situation but the party high-ups will discuss about organisational activities. The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, also the AL president, will preside over the meeting to be held at her Dhanmondi office in the capital.
   ‘The meeting will set a date for the national council of the party…If we cannot set a specific date, we will finalise a tentative timeline for the council,’ AL presidium member Matia Chowdhury told New Age.
   When asked about possible changes to the party presidium, the highest policymaking body of the party, Matia said, ‘Of course there will be some changes…Its [presidium] member Sayeda Johra Tajuddin is not physically fit enough to continue political activities, Abdus Samad Azad is dead and Zillur Rahman left the party posts before taking oath as the president of the republic.’
   AL sources said the party, through its national council likely to be held in June, wanted to give chances to young, honest and energetic leaders in the national committee. The party is considering holding of its national council session first, to be followed by councils of its grassroots units.
   By holding the council, the AL will also strengthen its organisational activities that have apparently come to a standstill after the party’s landslide victory in the December 29, 2008 general elections and forming of the government.
   Although the tenure of the AL national committee is three years, its national council, which was due to be held in 2005, could not be arranged till now. The AL’s previous council session was held on December 26, 2002 when Sheikh Hasina was re-elected the party president and Abdul Jalil the general secretary.
   Besides, the AL has to ratify the changes in its constitution made by the central working committee for registration with the Election Commission. It will also have to ratify the provisions for national council sessions six months inside the first sitting of the ninth parliament, according to the Representation of the People (Second Amendment) Order. The first session of the ninth parliament began on January 25.
   The party executive committee will comprise a total of 73 members, including the party president, presidium members, general secretary, secretaries of the executive committee and treasurer and 26 members, to be nominated by the AL president in consultation with the presidium members.
   Out of the AL’s 73 organisational districts, councils of 67 districts have been held. Conference of the rest six district units – Comilla (north and south), Kishoreganj, Narayanganj, Feni and Rangpur – will be completed before the national council.
   Besides, tenures of the committees of ten associate bodies of the party – Awami Juba League, Swechchasebak League, Chhatra League, Mahila League, Sramik League, Krishak League, Awami Ainjibi Parishad, Tanti League, Swadhinata Chikitshak Parishad and Juba Mahila League – have expired. Their councils will be held in phase and conferences of its units in thana and union levels after conclusion of its national council.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is preparing to dissolve all its district units soon to allow new leadership to rise through elections as part of the initiative to revitalise the party which is still reeling due to the electoral debacle.
   The party’s secretary-general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Friday said the process of dissolving the committees, which have exhausted their tenure, has already begun, and convening committees will be formed immediately to conduct council sessions to elect the new committees.
   He said all the committees, from the level of the Union Parishad to district units, will be reconstituted through elections.
   The party’s chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on January 10 announced in Comilla that all the committees of all tiers of the party and its associate bodies would be dissolved and reconstituted through elections.
   After her announcement the party’s top policymaking body, the standing committee, on February 1 decided to reconstitute all the committees from the grassroots to the national level in a bottom-up manner and formed six committees, headed by party’s joint secretaries-general, to hear the opinions of the leaders of the lower units. The committees concerned interviewed leaders of upazila and municipality units between February 3 and February 24.
   After getting the reports of the six committees in early March, the standing committee sat in a series of meetings since March 22 and is now reviewing the reports. It has already reviewed the reports of Chittagong and Dhaka divisions.
   Members of the standing committee said they were preparing to reconstitute all the district units through secret ballots. They said they are expected to finalise everything by the first week of April.
   The tenure of almost all that committees has already expired as the BNP did not hold elections to the committees in the last two years. The tenure of most of the committees is generally two years.
   The party held its last central council session in 1993, although, according to its constitution, it is supposed to hold council sessions every two years.
   The party held a representatives’ meeting with the participation of the members of the national executive committee in 2006.
   As per the amended Representation of the People Order, political parties registered with the Election Commission have to hold their council sessions by July 25 this year.

The global meltdown has made Bangladesh’s planned manpower export to South Korea uncertain with Asia’s fourth largest economy bracing for an economic slump and announcing 200,000 job cuts in 2009, an official said.
   ‘It would be difficult for South Korean employers to recruit many Bangladeshi workers as they are facing the fallout of the global financial crisis,’ the South Korean ambassador to Bangladesh, Suk-Bum Park, told New Age on Thursday.
   Korea planned recruitment of some 5,000 Bangladeshi semi-skilled workers in 2009 as per an agreement signed between Seoul and Dhaka in June 2007.
   The Korean government had designated Bangladesh as a partner country in its ‘Employment Permit Scheme’ (EPS) to import manpower.
   But the prospect looks bleak after the Korean finance minister Yoon Jeung-hyun warned that the country’s economy could shrink by 2 percent and cut 200,000 jobs in 2009. He also said that the recovery could take longer than it did during the financial crisis that affected most of Asia a decade ago.
   Under the agreement signed during the military-backed government of Fakhruddin Ahmed, the Korean authorities recruited nearly 1,500 workers on a three-year term.
   A pass in Korean language test has been made mandatory to be eligible for getting a job in South Korea.
   Once a job seeker passes the test, his name would be put on certain website to let the employers choose suitable persons for their firms and sign up contacts, explained the ambassador.
   After recruitment of only 300 Bangladeshis in January, the process remained halted in February and March, according to Suk-Bum Park.
   Bangladesh earned $9.79 million as remittance from South Korea in July-January period and $19.69 million the 2008-09 fiscal year, according to the central bank data.
   The country earns nearly $9 billion as remittance sent by Bangladeshis working in different parts of the world.
   With financial crisis erupting in September last year, many Bangladeshi workers were forced to return home without completing their contacts.
   Malaysia, a major destination for Bangladesh’s manpower export, earlier cancelled visas for over 55,000 workers who were waiting for going to that country with jobs. Besides, deportation of several hundred Bangladeshi workers from different countries has put Bangladesh’s future remittance in-flow at risk.
   The government has, however, launched diplomatic efforts to restore its job market in Malaysia while it is eyeing new markets in Eastern Europe and Africa.

A dam burst its banks near the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Friday, drowning at least 58 people in a torrent of muddy water that flooded hundreds of homes, officials said.
   Dozens remained missing after a huge wall of water broke through the man-made earthen dam as residents slept, giving them little chance to flee their low-lying homes.
   One resident compared it to a tsunami, recalling the 2004 disaster that killed 1,68,000 people in Indonesia.
   Houses and concrete buildings were flattened and buckled by the force of the water, which left many survivors in the suburbs of Cireundeu and Ciputat trapped on rooftops waiting to be rescued.
   ‘This disaster happened so suddenly,’ said Danang Susanto, an official with the health ministry’s crisis centre. ‘Because people were sleeping, they couldn’t get away.’
   He estimated up to 500 homes were destroyed or submerged after heavy rains caused the breach in the dam at the edge of Situ Gintung lake in Cireundeu.
   The flooding in some places was six metres high.
   Crisis centre head Rustam Pakaya put the death toll at 58, saying dozens more were injured.
   A nearby university assembly hall was converted into a makeshift morgue, where mud-smeared residents searched for missing loved ones among the bodies of the dead lined up on the floor.
   Ghufron, a 17-year-old student, said he narrowly escaped waters that crashed into his home, but an uncle was dead and three other relatives were missing.

The city dwellers have a rare respite in the last two days from the nagging outages as power generation increased because of availability of gas while many industries remained shut during the holidays.
   The relief, however, is expected to be short-lived as the three-day holiday ends today and power generation is likely to decrease and demand increase from Sunday.
   Although production of 140 million cubic feet gas from the Jalalabad field was suspended on Thursday for three days for increasing gas production from the field, power plants received adequate gas supply because of less consumption by industries.
   ‘The lower demand for electricity because of the three-day holiday and higher power production resulted in little or no load shedding across the country in last two days,’ said a Power Development Board official.
   On the first day of the three-day weekend, power generation increased to over 3,800MW on Thursday, a national holiday for Independence Day, from around 3,700 on Wednesday. The generation increased further to 3,987MW on Friday.
   Most of the city areas experienced only two hours of load shedding on Thursday whereas there had been 4-6 hours of load shedding a day over the last few weeks. There was no official load shedding on Friday because of increase in power generation.
   The frequency of load shedding in other parts of the country was also minimal because of increase in generation and the holidays, officials said. ‘The demand for electricity came down to around 4,000-4,500MW because of the holidays. Besides, the weather also remained cool and breezy resulting in less consumption of power,’ said the official.
   ‘It proves that we can generate around 4,000MW of electricity if gas supply is stable,’ said the official.
   He, however, feared that the power situation could worsen again from Sunday as power generation might slump to around 3,700MW and demand go up to 5,000-5,500MW.
   Petrobangla officials said that they could maintain a good supply of gas to power plants despite the closure of Jalalabad field by increasing gas production at Bibiyana.
   ‘Usually the demand for gas during holiday or weekend is about 100mmcfd less than any working day. Although we lost 140mmcfd from Jalalabad, we have produced around 1,800mmcfd in the last two days against the usual production of 1,890mmcfd by increasing gas production at Bibiyana to over 650mmcfd,’ said a Petrobangla official.
   The production will be over 1,890mmcfd on March 29 when Jalalabad comes into production, he said. The gas field is expected to produce around 230mmcfd from March 29.
   Petrobangla officials, however, could not confirm whether the total production would cross 1,890mmcfd as the Bibiyana was expected to lower its production to around 600mmcfd.
   Petrobangla experts earlier warned that the production at Bibiyana field should not cross 450mmcfd as an increase in production could lead to its early shut-down.

US president Barack Obama on Friday warned al-Qaeda was a ‘cancer’ that could devour nuclear-armed Pakistan, unveiling a sweeping new strategy for the ‘increasingly perilous’ Afghan war.
   Obama vowed to ‘disrupt, dismantle and defeat’ Osama bin Laden’s group, which he said was plotting deadly new assaults and made Pakistan the epicentre of the new US approach, more than seven years after the September 11 attacks.
   He said he would plunge 4,000 more US troops into the unfinished war, triple US aid to Pakistan to $7.5 billion over five years, attempt to peel away more moderate Taliban factions and lead a global civilian surge to Afghanistan.
   The president candidly spelled out expectations of the United States, its allies and Pakistan, raising the stakes in a war that is killing more Americans than Iraq and reaping a rising civilian toll.
   ‘Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al-Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the US homeland from its safe-haven in Pakistan,’ Obama said in a sober televised speech.
   ‘We have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan and to prevent their return to either country in the future,’ he said as he released results of a 60-day policy review.
   ‘That is a cause that could not be more just. And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same: we will defeat you.’
   Flanked by secretary of state Hillary Clinton and secretary of defence Robert Gates, Obama backed a Senate bill to triple US aid to Pakistan’s democratic government to $1.5 billion a year over five years.
   ‘Make no mistake, al-Qaeda and its extremist allies are a cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within,’ he said, hours after a suicide bomb at a mosque in Pakistan killed more than 50 people and wounded 50 more. But he warned Pakistan must play a more active role in eliminating the terrorists on its soil.
   ‘After years of mixed results, we will not and cannot provide a blank check.
   ‘Pakistan must demonstrate its commitment to rooting out al-Qaeda and the violent extremists within its borders.
   ‘We will insist that action be taken, one way or another, when we have intelligence about high-level terrorist targets.’
   Obama proposed setting up a new contact group on Afghanistan including long-standing US foe Iran to help find ways of quelling the bloody al-Qaeda insurgency.
   ‘Together with the United Nations, we will forge a new Contact Group for Afghanistan and Pakistan that brings together all who should have a stake in the security of the region,’ said Obama.
   He said the group should include ‘our NATO allies and other partners, but also the Central Asian states, the Gulf nations and Iran; Russia, India and China.’
   The United States and Iran have not had full diplomatic ties for almost three decades, but in a message to mark Persian New Year earlier this month Obama offered to turn the page on years of hostility.

The South African president, Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe, will visit Bangladesh towards the end of this year, said a foreign ministry release on Wednesday.
   Non-resident high commissioner of South Africa Buyisiwe Maureen Pheto
   informed this when she called on the foreign minister, Dipu Moni, at the latter’s office Wednesday afternoon.
   During the meeting, they also discussed senior officials’ meeting (foreign secretary level) scheduled to be held in Dhaka in June this year.
   The meeting also informed that prior to South African president’s tour, the foreign minister would also visit Pretoria between July and August.
   Through the high commissioner, the foreign minister requested the South African authorities to introduce ‘on-arrival visa’ system for Bangladeshi officials, businessmen and participants and members of delegations to seminars and conferences.
   She said it is ‘really troublesome’ for the aspirant visitors of the country to collect visa from the South African high commission in Colombo.

The home minister, Sahara Khatun, on Friday said the country was infested with militancy, terrorism and extortion and the government would contain them with an iron hand.
   She said government and people know very well who patronised militancy, terrorism and smuggling and the government would take a tough stance against them. The home minister sought cooperation of all in this regard.
   Sahara was addressing a discussion organised by the ruling Awami League marking the 38th anniversary of Independence Day in the Institution of Engineers in Dhaka. The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, presided over the discussion.
   The home minister said the investigation of the BDR rebellion was in final stages and the government would soon publish the report. ‘We want to give exemplary punishment to the killers and their patrons of the incident after identifying them,’ she said.

Bangladesh will discuss with its neighbours in South Asia to explore means to stop terrorist financing and fight militancy, the state minister for home affairs, Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj, said in Dhaka on Friday.
   ‘We will discuss with the neighbouring and friendly countries to find ways to strengthen efforts in tackling financial supports for extremists and in combating terrorism,’ he told newsmen before his departure for the United States to join the 15th annual Command Council for Asia Pacific region on March 29 in Hawaii. He added Dhaka would also raise its earlier proposal of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, for constituting a regional task force to fight terrorism in South Asia under an intensified regional cooperation.
   Sohel Taj, however, said terrorist activities of the extremist religious groups were now under control despite as an intensified security campaign was under way to uproot militancy.
   The Awami League in its election manifesto suggested formation of a South Asian task force to fight militancy while the new government in February okayed a tough anti-terrorism ordinance enacted by the past interim government to fight terrorism suggesting death penalties to terrorists after trial in special speedy tribunals.
   The Anti-Terrorism Ordinance also empowered the Bangladesh Bank to freeze accounts of suspected terrorists and their monetary transactions through banking systems.