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The portrait of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh, along with the prime minister’s will be hung in all government and semi-government offices, courts, educational institutions and Bangladesh missions abroad.
   The weekly meeting of the cabinet at the Cabinet Division in the secretariat, presided over by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Monday decided to display Sheikh Mujib’s portrait in government and semi-government offices, courts, educational institutions and Bangladesh missions abroad.
   The prime minister’s press secretary Abul Kalam Azad disclosed the decision as he briefed newsmen after the meeting.
   Asked about the prime minister’s portrait, Azad said, ‘The prime minister’s portrait will also be displayed.’
   Article 4A of the constitution says, ‘Portrait of the President shall be preserved and displayed at the offices of the president, prime minister and speaker, and all embassies and missions of Bangladesh abroad.’
   ‘In addition, portrait of only the prime minister shall be preserved and displayed at the offices of the president and the speaker, and in head and branch offices of all government and semi-government offices, autonomous bodies, statutory public authorities, government educational institutions, embassies and missions of Bangladesh abroad.’
   Azad said the cabinet had approved the National Information and Communications Technology Policy 2009, Insurance Control Authority Bill 2009 and the Insurance Bill 2009.
   The Awami League government in January 2001 enacted the Preservation and Display of Father of the Nation’s Portrait Act 2001 making provisions for the display of Sheikh Mujib’s portrait in every office.
   The act, however, was repealed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government on March 21, 2002.
   Hasina also floated a proposal for the display of Sheikh Mujib’s portrait along with the portrait of the president as head of the state, and not of the head of the government, a minister told New Age.
   According to the minister, a secretary pointed out the cabinet could not make such a provision as the display of prime minister’s portrait is a constitutional provision.
   The prime minister, however, told the cabinet the constitutional provisions should be amended by the parliament.
   The BNP-led alliance government inserted Article 4A into the constitution through the 14th amendment to the constitution on May 16, 2004.
   The prime minister once again asked her cabinet colleagues to carry out their duties with the needed pace and said the laws which might hold them back from performing their duties would be amended.
   ‘Law is not the barrier to the implementation of decisions. If needed, we will change laws. If any law holds you back from discharging your duties with the needed pace, come to me and I will give you a solution. You will need to work sincerely,’ a minister quoted Hasina as saying.
   Hasina, also the ruling Awami League president, made the remarks in connection with an allegation levelled by a minister at the meeting that they could not discharge their duties with the needed pace because of various laws.
   Hasina also asked the home ministry to take every possible initiative so that the investigation of the February 25–26 rebellion in the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters could be conducted perfectly and all bits of information behind the rebellion could be revealed as many things depend on the investigation findings, a meeting insider said.
   ‘There was a failure of intelligence agencies, including the BDR’s own intelligence. Why did not they know anything two to three hours before the massacre, otherwise?’ she said, addressing the minister and the state minister, a minister told New Age.
   Hasina also said the home ministry, if required, could employ the latest technology to trace the attackers from the video footage captured by closed-circuit television cameras, sources said.
   As for National Information and Communications Technology Policy, Azad said it envisages elevation of Bangladesh to a middle-income group country in 10 years and to the rank of developed country in 30 years by exploiting ICT potential.
   He said the previous Awami League government in 1997 initiated to set up transparent and accountable government and to improve information and communications technology, establish social equality, increase productivity, generate employments, develop exports and improve environment management.
   Under the policy, the government would take short-, mid- and long-term plans to attain the development goals.
   As for national insurance, Azad said the cabinet had approved the acts by bringing about changes in and making new provisions for the insurance industry.
   The new law provides for the formation of a five-member insurance regulatory authority headed by the chairman for a three-year term. The authorities will need to submit reports to government every year on the activities of private and public insurance companies.
   ‘The authorities can register, renew and cancel insurance,’ says a provision in the act.
   Under the provision of the National Insurance Act, Azad said life and non-life insurance would now take the place of life and general insurance, doing away with the general insurance.
   A new governing body will be formed to expand insurance to remote areas and ensure public welfare by investing the money collected in an insurance fund.

After interrogating a front-ranking leader of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, officials at the Criminal Investigation Department said Monday that they would question more big guns in connection with last month’s rebellion and killings at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Dhaka.
   ‘Many people were interrogated for the sake of investigation. Many others, including politicians, will be questioned, if needed,’ Nesar-ul-Arif, special superintendent of the CID and also supervising officer of the BDR rebellion case, told reporters after questioning Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general Abdur Razzaq.
   Razzaq, who was summoned to the CID headquarters for interrogation over the February 25-26 rebellion that killed 81 people, spent three hours and a half there to answer queries.
   Coming out of the CID headquarters after interrogation, the Jamaat leader said that the CID had summoned him to taint his political image.
   CID officials denied the charge of harassment saying that it was necessary for proper investigation.
   ‘We have verified information obtained from the soldiers in custody. We may call some other people for proper investigation into the rebellion and killings,’ Abdul Kahhar Akond, the investigation officer of the case, who interrogated the Jamaat leader, said.
   Razzaq was the first politician interrogated in the case in connection with the BDR mutiny since the CID began investigation of the mutiny a month ago.
   Razzaq, a lawyer by profession, said that he was in the High Court on February 25, the day the BDR mutiny broke out. He alleged that the government had harassed him repeatedly by preventing him from going abroad and filing a ‘false’ case, the proceedings of which was stayed by the High Court.
   It was reported that he was one of the persons who had been contacted by some BDR personnel during rebellion, and the government imposed a ban on his travel abroad.
   The Jamaat leader denied the allegation.
   As Razzaq sought legal protection, the High Court asked the authorities not to harass or arrest or prevent him from travelling abroad until April 5.
   When asked about the type of interrogation at the CID headquarters, the Jamaat leader said they had asked him about his whereabouts during the February 25-26 mutiny, about his education, family and overseas trips.
   ‘They questioned me in accordance with the High Court directives,’ he said adding that the officials had examined his passport but did not seize it.
   The CID officials also took his contact address and telephone numbers.
   Razzaq said that he had requested the CID officials not to harass anyone on political ground, and carry out a proper investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.
   The investigators, being assisted by agents from US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Scotland Yard of Britain, arrested as many as 750 BDR soldiers suspected to have been involved in the troop rebellion against their commanders.
   The Dhaka court of chief metropolitan magistrate on Monday granted remand for nine more suspects, including a civilian, for interrogation.
   Metropolitan magistrate Tofael Ahmed passed the order after hearing separate applications filed by Abdul Kahhar Akanda, investigation officer of the case.
   Two soldiers – sepoys Alim Reza and Habibur Rahman, civilian Hafizur Rahman of village Satbai under Fakirhat upazilla in Bagerhat – were remanded in custody for three days while another soldier, havilder Jalal Uddin, for seven days.
   The four were produced in the chief metropolitan magistrate court from the Dhaka Central Jail as the investigation officers had filed separate petitions seeking remands for them.
   The court also allowed the investigation officer to interrogate havilders Masud Iqbal and Yousuf Ali, sepoy Bazlur Rashid, lance nayek Anwarul Islam and nayek Abdul Quiyum in custody for three more days.

The government on Monday extended the timeframe for the investigation of the February 25-26 rebellion and killing in the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters by one more month as the investigation committee found it hard to delve into the facts, officials said.
   ‘The task is very tough. It cannot be accomplished in a short span of time. We are thankful to the government for allowing us time to complete the inquiry,’ Anis-uz-Zaman Khan, the chief of the committee formed by the home ministry, told New Age after further extension to the deadline for report submission.
   The inquiry committee, which was reconstituted on March 2 by replacing the home affairs minister, Sahara Khatun, with the retired bureaucrat, Anis-uz-Zaman Khan, was initially given seven days to complete the task.
   The committee, originally formed on February 26, missed the third deadline on Sunday.
   It was asked to look into the reasons behind the rebellion and come up with recommendations.
   On an application of the committee, the government extended the deadline for the fourth time, giving it 30 working days to report back, according to an official notification issued by the home ministry.
   Asked about the progress, the committee chief said they had interrogated a number of people, including politicians, on the incident.
   ‘We are getting cooperation from all authorities. Not only politicians, but others concerned are also being interrogated,’ he said in reply to a question. Aniz-uz-Zaman claimed the committee was not facing any pressure.
   The head of the 11-member committee was, initially, hoped to finish the task within the time given by the government.
   The committee, comprising the law secretary, additional secretary to the home ministry, BDR director general, Cabinet Division representatives, Armed Forces Division, Prime Minister’s Office and the police, was asked to complete its report within a week after the rebellion in which 81 persons, mostly army officers, were killed.
   On February 26, the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, assigned a six-member committee, led by Sahara Khatun, to investigate the incident.
   Two more committees, one of the army and the other of the Criminal Investigation Department, are still investigating the BDR rebellion.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is preparing for a massive overhaul of the party on demands from grassroots level to reorganise and strengthen the organisation.
   While reviewing the reports of the committees formed to gather information of lower units by interviewing grassroots leaders, the party’s top policymaking body, the national standing committee, assigned some leaders to form convening committees for holding council sessions of the units.
   After completing the review of all six reports, the district committees will be dissolved and the assigned conveners will form committees to hold council sessions of the units in a bottom-up approach preferably by secret ballot, said members of the standing committee.
   The party secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Friday said the process to dissolve the district committees had already been initiated and convening committees would be formed to hold council sessions in respective units.
   Three of the members of the standing committee on Monday told New Age that they were discussing formation of convening committees for the district units and trying to choose the fittest persons to carry out the tasks as conveners. According to them, conveners for around 40 districts had already been selected but the names would not be made public before a formal announcement.
   Party sources said conveners had already been selected for major units, especially the units plagued by internal conflicts and that they had been asked to form convening committees in a month.
   Former minister for commerce, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, has been given the charge of trouble-torn Chittagong city unit.
   Talking to New Age, Khasru said ‘I have just been asked to carry out the task and do not know anything more yet.’ When asked what would be his mode of operation, he said initially convening committees would be formed and then the committees would be elected by holding council sessions from the lowest units to the city unit.
   The standing committee also kept in mind the legal binding about holding the national council session by July 25 as per the revised Representation of the People Order for parties which had failed to hold the sessions before registering with the Election Commission.
   ‘We are working hard to reorganise the party and every aspect comes for discussion.
   After discussing all the reports on grassroots units, the district committees will be dissolved and they will be reorganised through council sessions,’ said standing committee member Mahbubur Rahman.
   About the mandatory rule of the RPO, standing committee member M Shamsul Islam said, ‘July is still far away… I think we would be able to get things fixed by then.’
   The party chairperson Khaleda Zia, had announced in Comilla on January 10 that all the committees of all tiers of the party and its associate bodies would be dissolved and reorganised through elections.
   After her announcement, the standing committee, on February 1, decided to reconstitute all the committees from grassroots to national levels in a bottom-up approach and formed six committees headed by the party’s joint-secretaries general to get opinions of the leaders of lower tiers and the committees interviewed leaders of upazila and municipality unit leaders in February 3-24.
   After getting reports of the six committees early March, the party standing committee held a series of meetings since March 22 for reviewing the reports.
   Gayeshwar Roy, a joint-secretary general of the party, who headed the team for Chittagong division, said, ‘We have submitted our reports to the standing committee and it is now up to them to take decisions.’
   The party had held its last central council session 15 years ago, in 1993 at Manik Mia Avenue in the capital, although, according to its constitution it is supposed to hold council session every two years.
   The party had held a representatives’ meeting with the participation of the members of the national executive committee in 2006.

Militants holed up in a police training centre in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday after storming the complex and mowing down cadets, killing, according to private TV station Geo, at least 26 and wounding 90 others.
   Interior ministry chief Rehman Malik said 52 police were wounded in the attack but gave no word on the number killed.
   The Punjab governor, Salman Taseer, said the authorities had reports of four people confirmed killed, though television news channels put the number of dead at over 20.
   Army and paramilitary troops laid siege, firing from rooftops of surrounding buildings, while the gunmen returned fire and threw grenades to keep security forces at bay.
   ‘Our elite squad has surrounded the area. God willing, now we will get into the building,’ Mushtaq Sukhera, a senior police official, told journalists at the scene.
   ‘I have counted 12 bodies but I don’t know exactly how many have been killed,’ said Mohammad Raza, another police officer.
   Governor Taseer said up to 10 gunmen carried out the assault, though one wounded policeman told Geo News channel there were up to 20 gunmen in the compound. It was unclear if any police were being held hostage.
   The assault came less than a month after a dozen gunmen attacked Sri Lanka’s cricket team in the city, killing six police guards and a bus driver. Those gunmen escaped.
   The training centre is on the outskirts of the city, on the road to the nearby border with India.
   ‘It’s a continuation of the series of attacks carried out by the terrorists,’ Taseer told journalists, adding that a curfew has been imposed in the area.
   The latest brazen attack will inevitably heighten fears about the mounting insecurity in nuclear-armed Pakistan.
   Islamist militants have launched a campaign of violence to destabilise the Muslim state of 170 million people and the one-year-old civilian government’s ability to meet the challenge.
   The US president, Barack Obama, made support for president Asif Ali Zardari’s government a centrepiece of a review of policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan that was announced on Friday, and which made annihilation of al-Qaeda the United States’ principle objective.
   The police official Sukhera said around 850 young cadets attended the training centre but the police were unsure how many were inside at the time of the attack, which began at around 7.30am (0230 GMT).
   Television channels said several hundred trainees were at the centre when the attackers, some dressed as policemen, struck. Taseer said some were in civilian clothes and wore masks.
   An eyewitness said the gunmen attacked in groups of three or four from four sides, and lobbed grenades before opening sweeping fire on cadets assembled on the parade ground.
   The attack came as the police recruits were doing their routine morning drills, said a police officer.
   A police armoured personnel carrier entered the compound and an exchange of fire, including what appeared to be a grenade explosion, broke out, a Reuters photographer at the scene said. The APC then withdrew.
   One television station showed about a dozen police lying on a parade ground. Some appeared lifeless while others were crawling to cover.
   An army helicopter circled overhead, and police and soldiers were seen carrying wounded to ambulances.
   Militant violence has surged in Pakistan since mid-2007, with numerous attacks on the security forces and government and Western targets.

Agonising power outages forced prime minister Sheikh Hasina to spend about 50 minutes in darkness when a programme was in progress at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi on Monday evening.
   Hasina, who is also the minister in-charge for energy and power, arrived at the museum at around 6:40pm to attend a milad mahfil marking the death anniversary of her grandfather Sheikh Lutfar Rahman.
   The entire area plunged into darkness when the prime minister’s motorcade entered the museum, once the residence of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
   The museum, which does not have a power generator, could not even manage to have candles for the programme and the members of the security forces flashed their torches to light up the venue to complete the programme.
   The security men said the power went off about a minute before Hasina arrived at the venue in rainstorm and electricity supply was restored just four minutes before she left the premises for the parliament at about 7:30pm.
   Officials at Dhaka Power Distribution Company said that power supply in the area was disrupted following an ‘earth fault’ on Dhanmondi road number 14.
   ‘The fault occurred as some cables were torn off by gusty wind during storm and torrential rain in the area in the evening,’ said an official.
   He said that the private secretary of one of the advisers of the prime minister had first informed the officials of DPDC that the prime minister was at the Awami League office at road number 3/A and that there was no electricity.
   ‘Our engineers started for the AL office but mid-way through, we received information from the private secretary of the state minister for power and energy that the prime minister was at Dhanmondi 32 [Bangabandhu Museum] and we rushed there,’ said the official.
   Officials at DPDC said that they had fixed the problem in the cable later.
   The managing director of DPDC, Ataul Masud, told New Age that they would submit a written clarification for the incident to the ministry. ‘The glitch occurred because of storm and torrential rain,’ he said.

The Criminal Investigation Department on Sunday filed a case against three investigation officers of the case filed in connection with the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally for their attempts at manipulating the investigation.
   The police on Monday submitted the case records to the court of metropolitan magistrate Syeda Minhajun Monira, who posted for April 30 the submission of inquiry report on the case.
   Assistant superintendent of police Fazlul Kabir of the Criminal Investigation Department filed the case with the Paltan police against three former investigators, assistant superintendent of police Munshi Atikur Rahman, assistant superintendent of police Abdur Rashid and special superintendent Ruhul Amin.
   The police said all the accused had retired as police officers. They were made investigation officers in the case when they had worked with the Criminal Investigation Department.
   The plaintiff, Fazlul Kabir, filed the case against the three with the Paltan police at 12:30pm Sunday.
   A band of operatives of the banned Islamist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami on August 21, 2004 carried out the attack on an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue where then the leader of the opposition, Sheikh Hasina, now the prime minister, was present.
   Twenty-two people, including the Awami League’s woman affairs secretary Ivy Rahman, were killed and 200 injured.
   During the BNP-led alliance government, the investigators arrested some suspects in connection with the August 21 incident.
   One of the arrested, George Mia, who is a petty criminal, gave statement in a court saying that an underworld gang, Seven-Star Group led by the most wanted criminal Subrata Bain Shubhro, had carried out the attack.
   Inconsistency and contradictions in George Mia’s statement on June 26, 2005, ‘disclosing the plans and action of the August 21 grenade attacks’ caused widespread criticism.
   The loosely-knit story of George lacks rationality and has raised doubts about its accuracy.
   The statement does not mention who ordered the attack and why and who had brought the grenades and where the grenades were from. George even told the magistrate he did not know the difference between grenades and ordinary bombs.
   The validity of George’s statement was seriously questioned when one of his sisters told journalists the Criminal Investigation Department, which was investigating the case, had paid George’s family Tk 2,500 a month.
   The military-controlled interim government initiated a review of 12 sensational cases, including the August 21 grenade attack case.

Pakistan Monday lifted central rule in country’s most politically important province, the government said.
   A notification issued by the cabinet division of government just after the deadly attacks against police outside Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, said the grounds on which central rule was imposed ‘have ceased to exist.’
   ‘Now, therefore, in pursuance of clause (1) of Article 236 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the president is pleased to revoke the aforesaid Proclamation,’ it said.
   Addressing parliament Saturday, the president, Asif Ali Zardari, called for an end to governor’s rule — a form of direct rule from central government, which Zardari slapped on Punjab late last month in a move that contributed to the worst political crisis of his tenure.
   The unpopular Zardari came under Western pressure to defuse a damaging standoff with opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, whose power base is Punjab, and pull the frontline state in the ‘war on terror’ back from the brink of chaos.
   The president put Punjab, which controls more than 60 per cent of parliament, in the hands of one of his allies on February 25 when a court disqualified Sharif, head of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N party.
   The governor, a member of Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party, replaced Shahbaz Sharif, the hugely popular chief minister, who was kicked out of office when the supreme court handed down the ruling.
   His brother, Nawaz Sharif, who was similarly disqualified, urged supporters to march on the capital and join forces with lawyers demanding the government reinstate top judge Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, sparking fears of violence.
   Political parties have long battled for control of the huge province, where the PPP had wanted to establish its own government.
   Constitutional procedures will now get under way to appoint a new chief minister from within the provincial parliament.
   The Punjab assembly has been summoned for Wednesday to elect the leader of the house, or chief minister, following the lifting of governor’s rule, an official at the governor’s house said.

Dhaka has sought an ‘official version’ from Yangon on its fencing along a stretch of some 40 kilometres of its border with Bangladesh as such a move renews tension and heightens confusion between the neighbouring countries.
   ‘The Myanmar ambassador in Dhaka today [Monday] informed the foreign ministry that the distance of fencing from the zero point will be 100 metres into the Myanmar territory. In view of this situation, we have sought an official communication about the location of the fencing,’ the state minister for foreign affairs, Hasan Mahmud, told reporters during a briefing at his office on Monday.
   He said Bangladesh had sought an official communication about the fencing as Yangon gives varied versions regarding its location.
   Touching on whether Bangladesh is concerned about Myanmar’s fencing in its territory, Hasan said if the fence was constructed 100 metres inside Myanmar from zero point, then it would be ‘within diplomatic norms and we would not have any concerns.’
   In reply to a question whether Bangladesh and Myanmar have any agreement on a particular stretch of area for not putting either fencing or construction of any infrastructure, the minister did not say whether the two countries had any such agreement.
   Foreign ministry officials said the move of fencing had already created confusion among Bangladesh officials as U Phae Thann Oo, the Myanmar ambassador in Dhaka, gave several versions on Sunday when he met the foreign secretary, Touhid Hossain, in the ministry and later talked with the ministry over telephone.
   Thann Oo told the Bangladesh foreign secretary Yangon had decided to put up barbed-wire fence in its territory, 13km off no man’s land, to stop trafficking in humans and smuggling.
   Thann Oo had gone to inform the ministry of the latest situation on border fencing as Dhaka had earlier requested Yangon to let it know if Myanmar would go ahead with any such move.
   But on Sunday evening, the diplomat told the ministry the fencing was in fact just 13m off no man’s land and not 13km.
   Myanmar early March started stockpiling fencing material along the Bangladesh border which gave rise to tension between the two neighbours after a scuffle in the Bay of Bengal over Myanmar’s intrusion into Bangladesh’s territorial waters for hydrocarbon exploration.

The Election Commission on Monday completed sending of election materials including ballot papers for the by-elections to six vacated parliamentary constituencies.
   The electioneering, meanwhile, will end at midnight past today in the areas where by-polls are scheduled for April 2.
   The six parliamentary seats, which were vacated by Zillur Rahman, now the president of the republic, Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, the leader of the opposition, and HM Ershad, the Jatiya Party chairman, are Kishoreganj 6, Rangpur 6, Bogra 6, Bogra 7, Kurigram 2 and Rangpur 3.
   Two aspirants in the Bogra 6, three in Bogra 7, four in Rangpur 3, three in Rangpur 6, four in Kurigram 2, and two in the Kishoreganj 6 constituencies are contesting the by-polls.
   The candidates vying in the by-elections, however, failed to create enthusiasm in voters although they are trying to keep in touch with the voters. The leaders and activists of major political parties are also less enthusiastic about the polls because of internal feud of the parties.
   Officials at the EC secretariat said all the election materials including ballot papers, inkpads, rubber stamps and markers were sent to the concerned district headquarters on Monday.
   The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda on Sunday assured that the polls would be free, fair and neutral. The BNP office secretary, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at a press briefing on the same day said the Awami League activists in cooperation with the local administrations were threatening and harassing the BNP activists in the by-election areas.
   The CEC on Monday exchanged views with the election officials and local elite in Kurigram and hoped that no untoward incident would take place in the polls. ‘I heard some problems from the presiding officers about vote centres and suggested how to solve,’ he added.

Encountered with the challenge of marshalling resources and increasing investment to offset a possible financial downturn, the finance minister, Abul Maal Abdul Muhit, on Monday termed electricity the biggest obstacle to development. He said he did not see any hope of solving the power crisis in the next three years.
   Yet, he said, the size of the next budget would be larger than the current one in order to accommodate demands for enhanced allocation for agriculture, energy, social safety net programmes, employment schemes and subsidies including cash incentives to export sectors as well as to meet obligations of debt servicing and increasing salaries of public servants.
   The finance minister told economic reporters at a pre-budget consultation that the government would have to strengthen domestic revenue collection in spite of the scope for raising deficit financing, to meet development expenditures in line with the Awami League’s election manifesto. However, he added, the flow of foreign funds, overseas development assistance in particular, is expected to rise in the next fiscal.
   ‘The crisis of electricity is the crux of all problems. I don’t know when electricity production would become available to be able to meet requirements. Now I guess we will not be able to solve it in the next three years,’ said Muhith, one of the key figures in preparing the ruling party pre-polls pledges that gave it a landslide victory in December 29, 2008 general elections. He described the plight of the power and energy sector as compensation of inaction in the past seven years.
   The party’s manifesto reads, ‘In the next three years or by 2011 power production will be increased to 5000 megawatt and by 2013 it will be further increased to 7000 megawatt... By 2015, electricity production will be increased to 8000 megawatt.’
   Muhith once again expressed his frustration at the level of inefficiency, lack of commitment and patriotism of the public servants in carrying out the government’s development programmes as, he pointed out, had been reflected in the poor implementation of annual development programmes over the years. ‘Commitment and dedication of the officials of the administration are no more there.’
   Only 34 per cent of the annual development programme worth Tk 25,600 crore has been implemented in eights months [till February] of the current fiscal, said officials concerned. Poor performance of 10 key ministries was blamed for this sluggish pace of implementation.
   The finance minister mentioned that implementation of the annual development programme would be 10 per cent less than the allocated money while the average rate of implementation in the past eight years was 80 per cent.
   In view of the reality, the government is likely to downsize the current budget to Tk 95,000 crore or Tk 96,000 from the original outlay of about Tk 100,000 crore, said Muhit.
   The finance secretary, Mohammad Tarique, pointed out that quality of education in institutions outside Dhaka declined drastically in the past 15-20 years, creating a clear divide between urban and rural areas. ‘Education is limited to children of the urban gentlemen like me,’ he said and requested the finance minister to look into the matter in conformity with the charter of change of the present government.
   He also raised the issue of strengthening Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics to help improve policymaking process by providing up-to-date data and information — a proposal which was strongly supported by the finance and planning adviser to the prime minister, Masihur Rahman.
   ‘It is essential to take an initiative for strengthening the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Since the government has no direct control in the free market economy, there should be interventions based on accurate information and data,’ said Rahman.
   He further emphasised the importance of modernising the railway and said there was enormous scope for commercially profitable operations between Dhaka and Chittagong.
   Suggestions that came from members of the delegation of the Economic Reporters Forum included involving upazila chairmen and vice chairmen in the budget consultation process, correction of taxpayers’ identification numbers and strengthening collection of value-added tax through mandatory electronic cash registration, quick decision on investment proposals and creating congenial atmosphere, focus on labour-intensive industries, plugging the process of creation of black money and reducing duties on newspapers.
   The chairman of the national revenue board, Mohammad Abdul Mazid, said the board was taking corrective measures considering the ground reality.
   Asked how the government would ensure fair price of farm produce, the finance minister said they were planning to take certain measures such as procurement, ahead of the upcoming boro harvesting season.
   The president of the forum, Nazmul Ahsan, its vice president Kawser Rahman, general secretary Sajjad Alam Khan, finance secretary SM Jahangir, former presidents Zakaria Kajal and Monwar Hossain and former general secretary Badiul Alam were present among others at the consultation at the National Economic Council.

British forces will officially start to pull out of Iraq today (Tuesday), signalling the end of six years of military operations that began with the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
   The British-led coalition base in Basra will lower its flag and transfer to US control as American soldiers arrive to take up a new role that includes the training of Iraq’s fledgling police force.
   ‘It will be a significant day because it signals the completion of Britain’s military tasks here,’ Major General Andy Salmon, the outgoing British commander of the base, said ahead of the pull out.
   ‘We have had some difficult times but we look ahead to the future with a huge amount of optimism for Iraq.’
   Britain, under then prime minister Tony Blair, was America’s key ally when president George W Bush ordered his forces to invade Iraq in March 2003.
   British troop numbers in the campaign were the second largest, peaking at 46,000 in March and April six years ago during the US-led invasion, and 179 of its servicemen and women have died in the country.
   A deal signed by Baghdad and London last year agreed the remaining 4,100 British soldiers would complete their mission — primarily training the Iraqi army — by June, before a complete withdrawal from the country in late July.
   The British contribution to the war and subsequent reconstruction effort was recognised by both American and Iraqi officers ahead of Tuesday’s handover.
   Basra, Iraq’s third-largest city and a strategic oil hub, had been under British control since the invasion, but the province and its airport returned to Iraqi sovereignty three months ago.
   The British pull out comes as the US military also steps up preparations to leave Iraq.
   Under a US-Iraqi security agreement signed in November last year, US troops are to withdraw from major towns and cities by June 30 and from the whole country by the end of 2011.
   The president, Barack Obama, has ordered an end to US combat operations in Iraq by August 31 next year, but says 50,000 troops will remain under a new mission.

A heavily-armed gunman shot dead eight people, many elderly and infirm patients, in a North Carolina nursing home Sunday, authorities said, announcing that the shooter was in custody.
   They identified the alleged gunman as 45-year-old Robert Stewart, but shed no light on why he went on a shooting spree at the Pine Lake nursing home in Carthage, North Carolina, a village of just 2,000 people.
   ‘This morning a lone gunman came to the Pine Lake nursing home in Carthage and as a result of his actions today, he is facing eight counts of first degree murder,’ said Maureen Krueger, the Moore county district attorney.
   She said the victims included a 98-year-old patient, four victims in their 80s, two in their 70s, and a nurse.
   The killings stunned tiny Carthage, the seat of a bucolic south central North Carolina county. Officials said at a press conference that the town has a police force of 18, just two of whom were on duty at the time of the violence.
   Carthage police chief Chris McKenzie said he had never encountered anything like in 20 years as a police officer.
   ‘I don’t know that the emotion has entirely set in,’ McKenzie said. ‘This is a small community built on faith and faith will get us through.’
   He said the Red Cross and the county department of social services and mental health were providing help to families of the victims and the staff of the nursing home, and the town’s First Baptist Church had opened its doors to those affected by the tragedy.

Crops on huge tracts of land and households across the country were damaged while one person was killed, one remained missing and two were injured in the hailstorm on Sunday, according to information from different sources on Monday.
   Accompanied with rain and gusty wind, the hailstorm caused a partial damage of boro crops on more than 50,000 hectares of land out of two lakh hectares in different districts such as Moulvibazar, Pabna, Patuakhali, Lakshipur, Bhola and Tangail, Department of Agricultural Extension sources said on the day.
   Besides, other crops like watermelon, green chilli, pulses, cucumber (khira) and bangi on almost 30,000 hectares of land were also damaged in the hailstorm, said the DAE report.
   Meanwhile, our Sylhet Correspondent said that the boro crops at three upazilas in Sunamganj were damaged in the early Sunday’s hailstorm.
   According to local administration, heavy hailstorm, accompanied with rain, at Derai, Jagannathpur and Shalla upazilas damaged the boro crops on more than 20,000 hectares of land.
   The hailstorm and gusty wind damaged boro crops on more than 10,000 hectares of land at Karimpur, Kulanj and Taral unions at Derai and crops on another 10,000 hectares of land at Naluar Haor, Maiyar Haor and Tanguar Haor under Jagannathpur and Shalla upazila were damaged.
   Apart from damages of crops, at least 1,000 mud-made and semi-brick houses were damaged and trees and electric poles were uprooted in gusty wind, the sources added.
   One Ibrahim Ali, 45, of village Taral under Derai went missing during the hailstorm and he remained untraced till Monday 5:00pm.
   Power supply to the upazila headquarters also remained collapsed since early Sunday, they said.
   Our Nilphamari Correspondent said heavy rainfall with hails in the district started at 1:45am and lasted for one hour. Non-brick houses at six upazilas were damaged in the storm.
   The rainfall was beneficial to boro crops but it caused damaged to tobacco and chilli crops.
   Our Pabna Correspondent said at least one person was killed and two others were injured and scores of houses and trees and huge amount of crops were damaged because of the rainfall and hailstorm accompanied with gusty winds.
   The deceased was identified as Abdur Rashid Pramanik, 45, of Aminpur under Bera.
   Local people said thunderbolt struck Abdur Rashid when he and his sons were in their kitchen at around 8:30pm. Two sons of the deceased — Rezaul Islam, 10, and Rubel, 8, — were injured seriously. They were admitted to the upazila health complex in a critical condition.
   The DAE office sources said maize, wheat, litchi and others crops of vast area were damaged in the hailstorm.
   The affected upazilas are Sujanagar, sadar, Atghoria, Ishwardi and Bera. Tin-roofed houses in different villages of the upazilas were blown away, agriculture office and locals said.
   Our Kushtia Correspondent said the Sunday’s hailstorm, accompanied by rain, started in the evening and continued till about midnight.
   Crop fields, non-brick houses, trees and power supply lines were damaged. Ripening wheat, growing paddy, tobacco and mango buds were badly damaged in the hailstorm.
   Electricity supply remained suspended almost all the night at different parts of the district.

The prisoners of Barisal central jail protested at misbehaviour of police inside the prison-van and showed agitation on court compound on Monday morning.
   Police boarded Khokan and Anwar, two prisoners convicted in a dacoity case, on a prison-van at the Barisal central jail gate at about 9:30am Monday to produce before the court as they were wanted by the court in another case.
   They were beaten by police as they locked in an altercation with the prison-van driver, constable Nasir, over the sitting arrangement in the vehicle.
   About 50 prisoners inside the prison-van protested at the police action and refused to leave the prison-van after reaching the court compound.
   They chanted slogan on the way and the court compound against police torture on them.
   SI Anwar, acting officer-in-charge of the Barisal Kotwali police station, tackled the situation after a try for half-an hour requesting the prisoners to place their allegations before the court.
   The prisoners later alleged that police did not supplied lunch and also not allowed their visitors to talk with them following the incident.
   Barisal central jail authorities admitted the prisoners’ agitation, adding that police authority was responsible for transporting the prisoners from jail to court and due to shortage of transports, the accommodation problem was existing inside the only prison-van of the jail.

A woman was killed allegedly by her husband at Aganagar of South Keraniganj in Dhaka early Monday.
   The police said Helal beat his wife Rashida Begum, 25, to death at about 4:30am as she refused to bring dowry from her parents.
   After the incident, local people caught Helal and handed him over to the police.

Several hundred police cordoned the parade square in the Chittagong city on Monday after the local administration banned an Islamic rally to be addressed by Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, imposition section 144 in the area.
   Jamaat-backed Islami Samaj Kalyan Parishad organised the five-day rally (tafsir mahfil) scheduled to begin at the parade square on Monday evening.
   The Chittagong Metropolitan Police commissioner, Moniruzzaman Chowdhury, told New Age that section 144 was imposed in the area, fearing deterioration of law and order against the backdrop of a tense situation in the city.
   ‘We took such a step to avert any incidents of violence during the rally as freedom fighters, Sector Commanders’ Forum and some other bodies opposed the programme,’ he added.
   ‘To maintain law and order in the city, we cannot allow the rally here. I was also ordered by the higher authorities of the government to impose section 144 on the programme,’ he also added.
   Announcement of section 144 was made on Sunday midnight, the police said.
   Meanwhile, secretary of ISKP, Chittagong unit, MA Taher, in a hurriedly called press meet in the city voiced protest against imposition of section 144 over holding of the rally at the parade square and condemned the move.
   Holding of Islamic rally by Delwar Hossain Sayeedi in the port city was also not allowed during the tenure of army-controlled interim government fearing outbreak of violence, the police said.

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro criticised the US vice president, Joe Biden, on Sunday for saying that the United States will not lift its 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba.
   Castro, in a column published on the internet, said it was ‘fun to see how the guts of the empire (US) churn, filled with problems and insurmountable contradictions with the people of Latin America.’
   Biden told reporters during a political summit in Chile on Saturday a ‘transition’ is needed in US policy toward the communist-ruled island, but replied in the negative when asked if the embargo would be ended.
   He said he and the president, Barack Obama, ‘think that Cuban people should determine their own fate and they should be able to live in freedom and with some prospect of economic prosperity.’

The police arrested a member of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh from his residence under Baghmara in Rajshahi Sunday night.
   Acting on a tip-off, a police team conducted a raid at the village home of Fazlur Rahman, 28, who was in hiding for a long time, and arrested him.
   Fazlur was a close associate of Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, the police said.
   He was sent to jail after producing him before the court Monday afternoon, the police said.