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Some 200 soldiers of the Bangladesh Rifles were arrested on Monday in seven northern districts for supporting the February 25-26 mutiny at the border guards’ headquarters in Pilkhana.
   All the arrested BDR soldiers were sent to district jails the same day.
   Of them, 15 soldiers were held in Lalmonirhat, 34 in Kurigram, 22 in Panchagarh, 25 in Thakurgaon, 51 in Dinajpur, 33 in Rangpur and 20 in Jaipurhat.
   In Dinajpur 14 soldiers were held in the sector headquarters, 17 in 2 Rifles Battalion headquarters in Dinajpur Sadar and 20 in 40 Rifles Battalion headquarters in Phulbari in connection with two separate sedition cases filed against them.
   Six more cases were filed against the soldiers in the other six districts, according to information available in Dhaka.
   Thanchi police filed a case with the Bandarban magistrate’s court against 234 BDR solders, and 108 of them were arrested and sent to jail on Sunday.
   The concerned officers-in-charge of the concerned police stations were granted permission by the home ministry to file the cases for revolt on February 26.
   In Dhaka the Criminal Investigation Department, assigned to investigate the BDR rebellion case, produced 37 soldiers before the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court and sought a 10-day remand for them.
   Of them, 30 soldiers were brought from the Dhaka Central Jail and seven were produced before the court on Monday after the end of their five-day remand.
   After the hearing, metropolitan magistrate Mominul Hasan remanded the 37 soldiers in police custody for 5 days.
   Meanwhile, a lawyer sought bail for a BDR soldier for the first time in the BDR carnage case.
   A total of 1,367 people, most of them soldiers, have so far been arrested in connection with the BDR carnage case filed with the New Market police station, and 66 of them, including two civilians, made judicial statements to the court. Ninety-two of them are now on police remand under the custody of the CID.
   Emdadul Haque Lal, the lawyer, submitted an application of bail for Sepoy Abdullah Al Mamun to the Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge’s Court on Monday after being denied bail by the Dhaka metropolitan magistrate’s Court.
   The judge, ANM Bashir Ullah, set May 18 for hearing Mamun’s petition.
   ‘Mamun was produced before the court on March 12, six days after his arrest in the BDR mutiny case,’ said the lawyer.

The Fire Service and Civil Defence will soon get some more modern fire fighting equipment to add to its fire fighting capacity.
   ‘We are buying a good number of equipment from European countries and Japan to enhance the existing strength of the force,’ said a director of the department.
   ‘The department has about 141 types of equipment…Despite these equipment, we still lack some specialised equipment to fight fire,’ he added.
   Among the equipment to be imported are four 54-metre aerial platform ladders, 53 vehicles for carrying water, five chemical tenders, five emergency tender, one light unit, three fire floats, three coal cart system and 198 breathing apparatuses, said the director.
   ‘We have already signed agreements with different companies and paid the money for the equipment that will arrive soon,’ he said.
   According to the fire service statistics, more than 9,300 fire incidents took place across the country in 2008.
   Of them, 43 per cent were caused by short circuit, 25 per cent from oven and 10 per cent from burning cigarette butts while the remaining originated from different sources, including lamps.
   About 7,475 fire incidents took place in 2006 while more than 9,500 in 2007, according to the FSCD statistic.
   ‘The new equipment will help us to combat the fire incidents more efficiently,’ said a fire-fighting official.
   The official also urged people for installing built-in fire-fighting system in multi-storey buildings to avoid any major damage and loss of life by fire incidents.
   He also mentioned that fire-fighting vehicles cannot reach some spots in the absence of spacious roads and this also accounts for huge damage and casualties.

A clash between students of Jagannath University and locals left about 20 people hurt at Bangshal in Old Town of Dhaka on Monday.
   Campus sources and police said the students, travelling in two buses of the university, were en route to Mirpur after their classes.
   Trouble flared up when one of the buses hit a motorbike amid a tailback near the Suritola Government Primary School at about 2:00pm.
   The motorcyclists immediately got into an altercation with the bus helper. At one stage, some of the local people reportedly hurled abusive remarks on female students in the buses.
   Male students in the buses protested at the remarks, triggering a clash there, with more locals joining the fracas.
   Both the groups chased each other, throwing brickbats during the clash that lasted for about half an hour. Two university buses and some other vehicles were damaged during the clash, due to which traffic came to a grinding halt on the busy road in Old Town.
   The clash ended before police could reach the spot, said the officer-in-charge of Kotwali police station, Salahuddin Ahmed.
   Of the injured, students were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital while the locals to National Medical College Hospital.
   No case was filed, police said.

Three more bodies were recovered on Monday, taking the death toll to eight after a trawler with 150 people on board sank on Sunday in the River Meghna at Uttar Matlab upazila in Chandpur, the police said.
   Only one of the three bodies was identified, that of Barek Bepari, 35. The other two unidentified bodies of the boat passengers were rescued from Lognimara under the Sadar upazila.
   The upazila’s Mohonpur river police camp chief, Mizanur Rahman, told the news agency on Sunday that five bodies were recovered until 6:30pm.
   Five passengers were rescued on Sunday — Jalil, 50, Fazilat, 70, Rahima Khatun, 45, Dudh Nahar, 60 and Mehedi Hasan, 18 months.
   Mizanur Rahman said the body of Bepari, rescued by fishermen in the morning from the Meghna, hailed from Char Umed of Jahirabad union.
   He said Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority’s salvage vessel Agrapathik and two divers were continuing efforts to salvage the sunken vessel.
   Upazila’s Jahirabad Union Parishad chairman Kamal Uddin Patwari quoting local people said another 20 of the passengers may be still missing.
   The deputy commissioner, Biswas Muhammad Azimuddin, police superintendent Krishnapada Roy and other district officials were present at the spot at 11:00am.
   The ferry had started from Jahirabad carrying passengers who were returning homes at Char Umed after collecting rice for the government’s Vulnerable Group Feeding programme.

Desperate to give a boost to its revenue collection, the National Board of Revenue is set to send a letter today to all ministries, embassies, high commissions and donor agencies to know the whereabouts of duty-free imported vehicles.
   The NBR has taken the move to know the actual positions of the duty-free luxurious cars apprehending that those are being used on other purposes avoiding taxes.
   ‘Yes, we’ve prepared a letter and we’ll release it tomorrow (Tuesday) morning,’ an NBR official told the news agency.
   According to the existing law, embassies, high commissions and donor agencies, and projects taken under these institutions, can enjoy the privilege of duty-free import of vehicles. But the vehicles must be used for the purpose for which those have been imported. And even the donor-funded projects under any ministry cannot use those for the ministerial purpose.
   ‘We’ve evidences that the duty-free imported vehicles are being used for other purposes by ministries, embassies, high commissions and donor-agency offices,’ the NBR official said.
   He said after the particular job (for which the vehicle was imported) it has to be exported or it can ply local roads after properly clearing duty and other taxes. ‘Even the vehicle cannot be included in the vehicle pool of government as it (govt) cannot buy old vehicles,’ he said.
   After response from the ministries, embassies, high commissions and donor agencies regarding the vehicles, the NBR will then examine whether those are in right condition.
   ‘And then we’ll impose duty and tax on the concerned ministries, embassies, high commissions and donor agencies if they are not using the vehicles in proper way or using those on completion of the projects,’ he said.
   He said the government allowed the embassies and high commissions to import duty-free vehicles for their offices in line with the Geneva Convention. ‘That doesn’t mean that the duty-free imported vehicles will be used on other purposes,’ he said.
   The NBR is now desperate to increase its revenue collection from all possible areas as the collection up to April 26 of the current fiscal falls short of its target. It earned Tk 35,126 crore which is 64.45 per cent of the total target with 12.21 per cent growth. The target for the fiscal 2008-09 fiscal is Tk 54,500 crore.
   During the period (as of April 26), the revenue earnings from import duty stood at Tk 6,540 crore with 1.55 per cent growth, while VAT at import level at Tk 6,391 crore with 12.10 per cent growth and supplementary duty at import level at Tk 1,634 crore with 25.60 per cent growth.
   The earnings from excise duty stood at Tk 233 crore with 9.93 per cent growth, while VAT at local level at Tk 7,395 crore with 18.79 per cent growth and supplementary duty at local level is Tk 4,431 crore with 2.59 per cent growth.
   The NBR earned Tk 8,180 crore from income tax with 21.13 per cent growth during the period.

Bangladesh, which is vying for a post in the United Nations Human Rights Council, faced the Human Rights Forum’s fire on Monday when the latter criticised the government for ambiguity in its election pledges.
   The election of the UN human rights body is scheduled to be held on May 12, and Bangladesh is vying for one of the five posts, allocated for Asia, whose tenure will last for the next three years.
   China, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh are among the five countries competing for those five posts. The defenders of human rights in the country on Monday in a statement said that unlike its previous election pledges in 2006, this year Bangladesh had not precisely made any pro-human rights pledges but had rather described some initiatives of the incumbent government in a vague manner.
   The rights defenders hoped that a government that has won a free and fair election with an overwhelming majority would shun the traditional stance of the previous regimes and make precise commitments to uphold human rights.

About 2,500 chickens were culled after bird flu was detected at Pahartali in Cox’s Bazar Sunday night.
   Cox’s Bazar district livestock officer Dr Md Jaker Ulla led the culling of the chicken after flu was detected in a poultry farm owned by Rasheda Begum at Pahartali near Rahamania Madrasha of the town.
   Some five hundred chickens had recently died in other farms of the area and the owners were allegedly selling the ill chickens at local markets. After local people informed the matter to district livestock department, a number of ill chickens were sent to the Regional Livestock Research Centre laboratory in Feni for examination which confirmed the disease on Sunday.
   The district livestock officer said they had hoisted red flags and banners in the affected areas and restricted public entrance there.

Officer-in-charge of Monohardi thana was accused of confinement and physical torture of a villager in a case filed Monday.
   Abul Hashem of village Paratola filed the case with senior judicial magistrate court against the OC, Sayed Abdullah, and five others.
   The court ordered the additional police super for investigation and report.
   In his petition Abul Hashem submitted that he was called to the thana on April 27, confined and meted out physical torture until he signed a document giving away his 5 decimal land in the name of Awal Nabi.

The election commissioner, Muhammed Sohul Hussain, on Monday said that the Election Commission would soon discuss with the government some amendments to the laws in connection with sharing control of the commission secretariat.
   The Election Commission Secretariat Act 2009, enacted on February 24, gives the chief election commissioner full control over the secretariat. The two commissioners have for long been arguing that it is the commission which should have full control of the secretariat and a single individual should not be entrusted with total authority. The election commissioners at present have no power to ensure the accountability of the EC secretariat.
   Section 5(1) of the Act says the full control over the EC secretariat will remain with the chief election commissioner and the EC secretary will be the administrative head of the secretariat.
   Sohul Hussain on May 3, giving vent to the simmering discontent over the perceived lack of balance of power, had termed the act unconstitutional.
   ‘The outmoded law must be amended as a recently-passed law gives the chief election commissioner full control over the secretariat,’ said Sohul.
   He said that the commission would not be able to work properly in the future if the law is not amended as there are some flaws in Section 5 of the laws.
   Sohul made the statement after the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, criticised his colleagues’ statement expressing discontent over the vesting all the power in a single hand and asked them to go to the government.
   ‘If they do not like the law, they can approach the law minister. Talking with the media will not bring about any fruitful result. They had better go to the government,’ Shamsul told reporters on May 7.

Experts, rights activists and journalists have demanded due sharing of waters of trans-boundary rivers including the Ganges to ensure that Bangladesh gets its due share and India does not disturb the flow of common rivers.
   In a roundtable on water sharing problem on Monday, they also urged the government to demand compensation from New Delhi for causing damage to Bangladesh by unilaterally withdrawing Ganges water through Farakka barrages.
   The speakers condemned India’s strategy of building dam at Tipaimukh on the confluence of Barak and Tuivai rivers in the Indian state of Manipur, saying that such a dam would accelerate the process of drying up of the rivers flowing into Bangladesh.
   ‘India is trying to divert the water flow of about 20 rivers that came from Bhutan by constructing dam to supply water to the dry states like Hariana and Rajsthan,’ former United Nations green specialist SI Khan told the roundtable.
   Former secretary Asafuddowla identified four major weaknesses in the 30-year Ganges Water Sharing Treaty between Bangladesh and India.
   ‘The government should go to the international court in order to press India to pay compensation for the damages of our irrigation and ecology, and also create international awareness of the problem,’ he said.
   ‘They should also ask the Indian government to set a particular amount of water-flow during both the monsoon and the dry seasons,’ he added.
   The roundtable also criticised the Ganges barrage plan of the Bangladesh government.
   The Bangladesh Centre for International Studies, a research group, organised the roundtable on ‘the ways to face India’s green dominance’ at National Press Club in Dhaka.
   BCIS president Mahbubullah, former Jahangirnagar University vice-chancellor Jasim Uddin Ahmad, former Bangladesh Agriculture University vice-chancellor Mosharraf Hossain Miah, former Patualkhali University of Science and Technology vice-chancellor Abdul Latif Mamun, former additional inspector general of police Moin Uddin Chishty, Jahangirnagar University professor Dilara Chowdhury, green activist Inam-Al-Huq and poet Abdul Hai Shikdar, also spoke, among others.

Activists from the non-government organisations and the media at a meeting on Monday underlined the need for launching a campaign to make people aware of separate roles of the local government institutions and lawmakers in the government’s development activities.
   Wave Foundation, a non-government organisation, organised the meeting in the capital to exchange views with mass media on local government.
   The participants said that the local government bodies could not function properly unless the traditional mindset of members of the parliament changed. They observed that the lawmakers should rather concentrate on framing laws and national policies for the overall development of the country.
   ‘The latest upazila parisad law has made the local government bodies dependent on the MPs…It may create a conflicting situation between the lawmakers and the upazila parisads,’ executive director of Wave Foundation, Mohsin Ali said in his written statement.
   He demanded further amendment to the upazila parisad law enacted on April 8 and also framing
   of a national decentra-
   lisation policy to empower the local government bodies.
   Journalist Ajoy Dasgupta said the upazila parisad should be authorised to impose and collect taxes for making the local government body financially independent.
   Director of CARE Bangladesh, Jamil Ahmed said media had an important role to play in strengthening the local government bodies through creating mass awareness on the issue.
   The Wave Foundation in the written statement demanded fresh measures to set up a local government commission which was earlier established by the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed in 2008 to stop direct control of the LGRD and cooperatives ministry over the local government bodies—union parisads, upazila parisads, zila parisads, municipalities and city corporations.

The Democratic Left Alliance, a combine of 11 left leaning political parties, on Monday demanded immediate arrest of the culprits who launched attacks on the landless people at Newchar under Haimchar upazila in Chandpur and Chehelgazi union in Dinajpur.
   Badrul Alam, coordinator of the DLA, at a press conference at the Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal office in the city read out a written statement.
   He alleged that the local landlords and their haired goons launched attacks on the landless people at Newchar on May 7 and torched over 200 houses of them.
   More than 100 landless people, mostly women, were wounded in the attacks and the attackers looted the houses, he claimed.
   Police did not take any actions against the attackers.
   Moreover, the landlords filed false case with the local police station against the landless poor.
   More than 600 landless families were living at Newchar on the khash lands since long.
   Badrul also alleged that the pro-Awami League landlords launched attacks on the landless people living on the khashlands at Chehelgazi union in Dinajpur on April 19.
   The combine leaders Khalequzzaman, Tipu Biswas, Abdus Salam, Saiful Huq, and Mushrefa Mishu, among others, were present at the press conference.

A parliamentary panel on Monday asked the officials of the Water and Sewerage Authority, Dhaka City Corporation, Local Government Engineering Department and the state-run Milk Vita to submit reports on the irregularities committed in those organisations in the last seven years.
   ‘Because we have reason to believe that there is widespread corruption in the departments under the LGRD ministry, we have asked the officials concerned to come up with reports on irregularities,’ Rahmat Ali, the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the local government, told reporters after a meeting.
   He went so far as to say that corruption is unlimited in those departments. The committee intends to root out corruption from the public offices.
   He said that the DCC is like a hive of corruption.
   ‘We have asked top officials to prepare a brief on the activities of the corporation as there has been hardly any monitoring in the last seven years,’ said the chairman.
   The local government, rural development and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, who attended the meeting assured them of his unstinting cooperation in curbing the endemic corruption.
   Committee members and the concerned top officials attended the meeting held at the parliament building.

The High Court on Monday asked the government not to bar former state minister for power, Iqbal Hassan Mahmood Tuku, from going abroad for medical treatment.
   The High Court bench of Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Justice M Azizul Haque also issued a rule on the government to explain why any attempt to stop the petitioner from going abroad for treatment would not be declared illegal.
   The home secretary, director-general of immigration, inspector-general of police and officer-in-charge of the airport police station were made respondents to the rule. The court passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by Tuku, seeking a directive from the government to prevent the concerned authorities from barring him from foreign journeys.
   Tuku’s counsel Ajmalul Hossain, while moving the petition, told the court that the government on May 2 barred Tuku from going to Singapore.
   According to the counsel, Tuku reached the airport at about 10:00pm on May 2 at night, and the immigration officials stopped him 10 minutes before boarding the plane, telling him that he was not allowed to go abroad as per the directive of the higher authorities.

A GROUP of Rohingya refugees attacked and damaged the offices of two NGOs at Ledha under Teknaf police station on Monday, shortly after a high-level European Union delegation visited there in the morning.
   A total of 15 persons were injured in the incident. During the trouble the Rohingyas reportedly looted 14 embroidery machines from the women training centre there, which was established by Islamic Relief. Later the Teknaf police rushed to the camp and brought the situation under control.
   According to the witnesses and the police, some refugees, led by one Nurul Absar, suspected to be a leader of the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation, attacked the offices of Muslim Aid and Islamic Relief in the area at about 2:00 pm.
   A 15-member high-level European Union delegation, led by Dr Stefan Frowein, visited the Mochoni Rohingya camp area at Teknaf early in the morning.
   The delegation visited the two NGO offices, the ECO market and the women embroidery training centre and exchanged views with the NGO officials.
   But the delegation did not enter the camp to exchange views with the Rohingyas, sources said.
   As the NGO officials were indifferent to the problems of the Rohingyas and were least interested to discuss their issues, they had attacked and damaged the offices, said local sources, quoting Nurul Absar as saying.
   Earlier, the EU delegation visited the Nayapara refugee camp at Teknaf.
   During the visit the delegates were greeted by the Rohingya refugees with banners, inscribed with their seven-point demand.
   The Delegation visited all three Rohingya refugee camps at Kutupalong under Ukhiya Upazila and the Nayapara camp under Teknaf upazila. The unregistered Mochoni camp is located at Teknaf.
   More than 12,000 Rohingyas are living at Mochoni camp without government assistance.
   The EU delegation included ambassadors of Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Swedan and the UK.

A member of a martyred family on Monday filed a case with the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Natore accusing six alleged collaborators of Pakistani occupation forces for killing 3 persons at Laxmipur village of Sadar Upazila, in 1971.
   Abul Hasan Bhuyan, in his petition said the accused had killed his father Nasir Uddin Bhuyan and his two brothers, Akhtaruzzaman Bhuyan and Tamiz Uddin Bhuyan.
   The accused are Abu Bokkor alias Tara Mia and Sultan Mia of village Laxmipur, Newaz Ali of Halsa, Abdul Mannan of Uttor Patuapara, Faizuddin of Dattapara and Nuruzzaman of Arkandi under Singra upazilla of the district.
   The complainant said that the accused stormed into their house at Laxmipur village in the early hours of April 27, 1971, looted valuables and picked up his father Nasir Uddin Bhyyan at gunpoint.
   He said the accused handed his father to the Pakistani occupation forces who killed him on the day.
   Abul Hasan also said the accused had later attacked their house again and picked up his two brothers and shot them dead.

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Monday said reconstitution of the party’s district committees would be completed this month.
   He was talking to reporters after visiting Hafizur Rahman, a leader of the Dhaka University unit of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, at Islamic Bank Central Hospital.
   Hafiz was injured in an attack allegedly by the activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League on Dhaka University campus on Sunday.
   About the issue of the cantonment residence of the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, Delwar said every citizen was entitled to justice and according to that the BNP chairperson had the right to get justice.
   ‘We expect justice. We hope the judiciary will uphold its tradition,’ he said.
   About the judges being embarrassed to hear Khaleda’s writ petition challenging the legality of the notice asking her to vacate the cantonment house, the BNP secretary general said, ‘I don’t want to comment since the matter is subjudice. But I don’t know if there is any precedence of so many judges feeling embarrassed.’
   He said the government should not interfere in the activities of educational institutions or important organisations.
   Demanding congenial atmosphere on the campuses, Delwar said some 82 persons had been injured so far in Dhaka University after the present government took office. ‘Many educational institutions remain closed and a frightening situation has been created on the campuses.’

The body of a foreign national was recovered on Sunday night from Gulshan in the capital, the police said.
   The police believe the young man who could not be immediately identified bumped into muggers who make people unconscious by giving them food or any other substance.
   Shafiqul Islam, sub inspector of Gulshan police station, said the body of the black man, aged around 35, was recovered from a road in front of a house on road no 94 at Gulshan-2 at about 9.30pm.
   The youth in jeans and a full shirt had curly short hair, Shafiqul said.
   The prima facie report mentioned him as a foreigner. His left eye had marks of bite with his right eye swollen and black marks on the throat.

Director general of the department of environment Mohammad Nojibur Rahman has been appointed economic minister to the Bangladesh permanent mission to the United Nations in New York.
   The establishment ministry issued a gazette notification to the effect on Monday.
   Earlier on December 23, the military-controlled interim government appointed joint secretary to the housing and public works ministry, Akhter Ahmed, to the post, which was later cancelled by the Awami League-led government before Akhter could join.

Sajib Wazed, son of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and MA Wazed Miah who died on Saturday, arrived in Dhaka on Monday morning from the United States.
   Sajib drove straight to her mother’s official residence, Jamuna, the Awami League deputy publicity secretary, Ashim Kumar Ukil, confirmed Sajib’s arrival.
   Wazed, 66, a nuclear physicist, died after prolonged illness in Dhaka on Saturday. He was buried at his family graveyard in his village home at Pirganj in Rangpur on Sunday.
   Sajib had come to the capital in the first week of April to see his ailing father.
   He was among the entourage of the prime minister during her tour of Saudi Arabia. He returned to the US after performing umrah.
   Daughter Saima Wazed Putul said she could not come because she and her newborn were sick, a family friend told the news agency on Saturday.

Students of the Bangladesh Survey Institute in Rajshahi on Monday held demonstrations to press home their demand that their degree should be given second grade status in the job sectors like other diplomas.
   Their other demands include appointment of the survey diploma holders as public surveyor, sub-assistant settlement officer, deputy assistant land surveyor, building inspector, sub-assistant engineer (survey) and taxation officer.
   Several hundred students of the institute brought out a procession on the institute premises at Sonadighi in the city at about 12:00pm. After the procession, they blocked the main road at Saheb Bazar Zero Point and held a rally there.

Unidentified assailants shot and hacked to death a suspected activist of ultra-left Purba Banglar Communist Party (ML-Janajuddha), also a local Awami League activist, in village Shibpur of Atgharia upazila in Pabna on Monday.
   The deceased was Jamal Uddin, 30, of village Sunapur-Durgapur of the upazila and a local AL activist, said the police.
   The police and local people said the assailants shot Jamal and hacked him to death in a crowded market.
   The police sent the body to the Pabna General Hospital morgue.
   A case was filed.