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The High Court on Thursday laid down a set of guidelines, including installation of complaint centres headed by women, to prevent sexual harassment of women and girls at educational institutions, offices, factories and other workplaces.
   The High Court bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui issued the directives after the final hearing of a public interest litigation writ petition filed by the Bangladesh Jatiya Mahila Ainjibi Samity on August 7, 2008.
   The guidelines are as follows: formation of anti-harassment committees with a minimum of five members, most of whom have to be women, in every institution, along with a complaint centre; complaints can be lodged through any law-enforcer or lawyer; women can file their complaints with the complaint centre or the committee separately; identities of complainant and accused should not be disclosed till the allegation is proved to be true; security of complainant has to be ensured; it must be ensured that no female complainant faces any hostility; women shall not be placed in a disadvantaged position in comparison to male colleagues; information on sexual harassment should be circulated through proper forum.
   The government has been asked to treat the guidelines as law until necessary laws are enacted by the parliament on the basis of the guidelines, said the court.
   The court imposed the guidelines on the respondents: the law secretary, women and children affairs secretary, education secretary, labour secretary, University Grants Commission, authorities of Dhaka University and Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, police, Bangladesh Bar Council and the information ministry.
   ‘Any kind of provocation through phone calls or e-mail, lewd gestures, showing of pornography, lurid stares, physical contact or molestation, stalking, vulgar sounds or any display of a derogatory nature will be tantamount to sexual misdemeanour,’ said the court.
   The court also said that eve-teasing through email or telephone amounts to criminal acts. It prohibited both mental and physical harassment.
   The same court on August, 7, 2008 asked the respondents to explain in a week their failure to punish or take action against those who sexually harass women and girls in workplace, educational institutions and other places.
   Moving the petition, the petitioner’s counsel Fawzia Karim told the court that the offences had been rampant and the victims could not make any complaints in the absence of any law or procedure to address sexual harassment.
   She also said that the writ petition was filed with the High Court as the issue of sexual harassment, especially in the educational institutions, had became the ‘talk of the country’. The University Grants Commission formed a committee and drafted a set of guidelines on October, 7, 2008, and named it ‘Guidelines to combat sexual harassment in educational institutes and workplaces 2008.’
   ‘The court is the appropriate forum to provide protection for human rights, especially to protect women and children from sexual harassment by providing the necessary guidelines,’ she argued.
   Salma Ali, who is also president of the Jatiya Mahila Ainjibi Samity, said, ‘Sexually suggestive remarks made directly or on the phone, indecent email, indecent looks and calling someone ‘sundori’ [beautiful] in a bad sense will be treated as sexual harassment.’
   She also said that the court’s ‘revolutionary’ verdict would work as an amulet in preventing sexual harassment.
   The punishment for sexual harassment can be both fine and imprisonment, said Fawzia Karim, the petitioner’s lawyer.

Rights defenders and campaigners against sexual harassment on Thursday hailed the High Court’s verdict setting a guideline to deal with the issue and making it mandatory for all to go by the guideline till a law was enacted.
   The High Court laid down a set of guidelines to prevent sexual harassment of women and children at workplaces, educational institutions and on the streets defining the harassment and said compliance of the guidelines was mandatory until those were passed into a law in parliament.
   Writer and anthropologist Rahnuma Ahmed described the verdict a major victory of the long struggle against sexual harassment and called for making it into a law immediately.
   ‘The verdict has recognised the rationale of the struggle of women but still we have to go a long way,’ she said.
   Rahnuma said that before enacting the law, views of women from every stratum of the society, including the working class, should be taken into account.
   Vocalist Krishnakali viewed that mere court verdicts or enactment of laws would not be enough to stop harassment of women. She stressed the need for proper political approach to change the mindset of the society. ‘I do not think much could be achieved by simply enacting laws and keeping the society as it is. The political structure of a country defines the character of an individual. So, the structure should be altered to achieve the goal,’ she said.
   Anu Muhammad, a professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University, said such guidelines should have set much earlier. ‘However, we now have a guideline and look forward to a law,’ he said and recalled that a draft guideline in this regard was set by teachers of his university which was later adopted by the University Grants Commission.
   Ganasanghati Andolan central coordinator Zonayed Saki said the guideline was the result of a long struggle…The High Court has accepted the rationale of the struggle.
   ‘But the more important thing is implementation of such guidelines or laws. When the state itself patronises patriarchal attitudes and thoughts, doubts remain whether the verdict could be implemented. We think it needs more struggle to achieve the goal,’ he said.
   Rights watchdog Odhikar secretary Adilur Rahman, also a former deputy attorney general, said the High Court verdict was a very positive development as it would prevent tendency, especially among the youths, to violate individual rights. He said the rights groups had much to do in implementation of the verdict.
   Swadhin Sen, an assistant professor at Jahangirnagar University, hailed the verdict but said he preferred separate guidelines for different sectors to a uniform guideline.
   Masuda Munmun, a student of English at East West University, observed that the court verdict would safeguard women and girls from harassment.

The court of inquiry formed by the army found no link of militancy and politics to the February 25-26 soldiers’ rebellion at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters.
   The court of inquiry in its report submitted to the army chief, General Moeen U Ahmed on May 10, identified a dozen reasons, including soldiers’ grievances and misunderstanding, for the rebellion.
   The summary of the report, a copy of which New Age obtained on Thursday, however, said no link of any civilian and political personalities to the rebellion could be found because of limitations in collecting evidence, verifying obtained information and confirming information sources.
   The government inquiry committee, formed to investigate the rebellion is, however, yet to submit its report. The report is ready and is likely to be submitted on Sunday, said sources in the home ministry.
   A copy of the report of the army’s court of inquiry will also be submitted soon to the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, who is also the defence minister.
   Reasons behind the rebellion as identified in the report includes wrong impression about the facilities of the army, lack of transparency in establishing and running BDR shops, delay in payment of duty allowances for the 2008 national elections, misunderstanding about lease and contracts of different works in the BDR headquarters, admission to schools in the headquarters and wrong impression about the BDR’s director general Shakil Ahmed, his wife Nazneen Shakil and Dhaka sector commander Mujubul Haque’s alleged involvement in the irregularities, and delay made by the home and finance ministries in resolving BDR problems.
   The report identified the operation ‘dal bhat’ as a major reason for the rebellion. It said punishment of some BDR soldiers for irregularities in the programme, getting blank or several forms signed by the soldiers for administrative requirement although they were entitled to get allowances for the programme, denial of their leaves and over-work had caused resentment among the soldiers.
   Curbing financial irregularities of the BDR soldiers by their officers from the army also instigated their resentment, the report said.
   As the army officers deputed to the BDR did not take any initiatives to correct the wrong impressions created among the soldiers about the officers, some of the soldiers could obtain support of others for the rebellion by distributing leaflets on February 21, the report observed.
   It also said undue interference in the administration by the families, friends and staff of some officers also caused resentment among the soldiers.
   The report said no evidence, information, documentary evidence and forecast of direct or indirect link of any local or external militant organisation to the rebellion could yet be found.
   As for any political links to the rebellion, it said some soldiers had contacted some civil personalities and political leaders before the national elections in 2008 to press home their demands violating the rules and regulations.
   It is presumable that certain civil and political personalities were naturally aggrieved by the army’s role in aid of the civil administration during the immediate-past government.
   As some soldiers contacted civil and political personalities hoping to have their commitment to realising their demands, the civilian and political personalities could have used the soldiers as a weapon to take revenge.
   The report said local leader Torab Ali, also a former subehdar, his son Liton and former nayeb subehdar Kanchan’s son Zakir were very much involved with the rebellion. As Liton is an illegal arms dealer, he could have helped the rebels to get arms of the Bangladesh Rifles.
   The report recommended a high-level inquiry by the intelligence agencies to look into the link of any other organisations, institutions and personalities to the rebellion.
   It observed the intelligence agencies had completely failed to inform the authorities of the meetings of the soldiers with certain civilian and political personalities.
   As the members of the BDR intelligence agency, Rifles Security Unit, were directly involved with the rebellion, they did not inform their authorities of the rebellion.
   On political negotiations, the report praised the home affairs minister, Sahara Khatun, state minister for LGRD and cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanak and other members of the teams for their highly courageous move to quell the rebellion.
   It, however, observed they had failed to take any timely measure for lack of their experience in quelling such rebellions and military matters.
   The report observed the scope for quelling the rebels before they could get organised could not be used as 350 Rapid Action Battalion members, who reached the three gates of the headquarters by 10:10am on February 25, were not allowed by their headquarters to conduct operations.
   Although the rebellion broke out at 9:30am, the rebels were not organised and they did not set up heavy weapons at the gates of the headquarters until 11:00am.
   Regarding the activities of the army, the report said the army personnel could not be deployed in time as they could not carry out any reconnaissance because of time constraint and necessary military weapons (armoured personnel carriers and tanks) were not readied in the Dhaka cantonment.
   The report, moreover, added the 46 Brigade could not play its role as the political personalities sought time to resolve the matter through negotiations.
   Although the army personnel were deployed around the BDR headquarters at 10:50am on February 25, they were ordered to go out of sight from the headquarters and the rebels got time to get organised.
   At 12:45pm on February 26, in the presence of army, air force and battalion personnel in the army headquarters, a plan was chalked up for military operation against the rebels. An H-hour, when a military operation begins, was set at 4:00pm in accordance with directives issued by the army chief’s office at 1:30pm.
   As the home minister and her team were holding a meeting with the rebels in the BDR headquarters, the H-hour was changed repeatedly and finally the operation was cancelled at 5:50pm.
   According to the report, a team of 30 to 35 soldiers, in several groups, killed the officers in the Durbar Hall and the residence of the director general. Killing elsewhere was carried out later. The plan for the killing was initially limited to a few soldiers.
   Physical torture on the wives of the officers was planned and the list of the wives to be tortured had also been prepared before the rebellion broke out, the report said.
   The report observed immediately after the national elections, politicians, intellectuals and other personalities, in the parliament and television talk-shows, started character assassination of army officers, evaluating their activities of the preceding two years and it instigated the rebellion.
   The Inter Service Public Relations, public relations office of the army, failed to play any effective role in projecting correct information vis-à-vis the propaganda made by BDR soldiers who were giving wrong information, the report observed.
   It said 74 people — 57 army officers, 9 soldiers and 8 civilians — were killed in the rebellion.
   The report recommended exemplary punishment of the perpetrators under the Army Act and expeditious trial of the civilians, who might be found involved with the rebellion.
   It also recommended formation of a high-level court of inquiry to investigate the involvement of civilian personalities and institutions with the rebellion observing that the court of inquiry could not obtain information on them because of its limitations.
   It recommended that the name of the Bangladesh Rifles should be reorganised, by changing its name, uniform and infrastructure.

The government’s probe committee headed by former bureaucrat Anis-us Zaman, which missed another deadline, is going to submit the report ‘very soon’.
   Anis-uz-Zaman told New Age on Thursday, ‘We are ready to submit the probe report as it has already been competed. It will be submitted any time the government desires to see it.’
   Another source said that the report is likely to be submitted to the home affairs ministry on Sunday.
   Anis-us Zaman declined to share any of the findings before submitting the report to the government.
   Sources close to the committee said that the committee had appreciated the steps taken by the government to quell the mutineers, saying that the right decision had been taken at the right time.
   ‘If the government had been on the offensive, there would have been far more casualties in the BDR headquarters and in the densely populated localities that surround the Pilkhana since the rebel BDR soldiers had already taken possession of a huge quantity of arms and ammunition and would have retaliated desperately if they had been attacked,’ said a source quoting the report.
   After thorough investigation, the committee had become sure that such a nefarious massacre in the Pilkhana had not taken place only because of the soldiers’ ‘deprivation’ and for realisation of their various demands, including introduction of 100 per cent rationing system, but was a pre-planned massacre. The committee members also realised that outsiders had entered the Pilkhana during the mutiny, said sources.
   The committee also came to know that all the army officers were killed deliberately and not in the heat of the moment, and their houses were looted and torched and inmates subjected to inhuman torture as part of an evil conspiracy.
   Apart from this, the rebels were frantically hunting for one former RAB officer who had played a prominent role in the anti-militancy drive and later was sent on deputation to the BDR, and they called him by his name from a hide-out during the carnage and brutally tortured him to death, mentioned the committee in its report according to sources.
   The committee also observed that the main motive behind the BDR rebellion was to weaken the national economy and foil the trial of war criminals.
   The committee suggested the stepping up of counter-intelligence activities in the future to prevent the recurrence of such a kind of tragedy.
   It also recommended reconstitution of the BDR but cautioned that no innocent member of the BDR should lose his job.
   Sources told New Age that the committee interviewed several hundred people including rescued army officers and their family members, BDR soldiers and residents of the localities surrounding the Pilkhana before completing the report.
   The committee also examined the intelligence reports written before and after the mutiny and information extracted from the BDR men during interrogation at the Task Force Intelligence Cell.
   It also examined the information obtained from the call lists of the cell phones used by the BDR men, said sources.
   The committee, which missed its fourth deadline on Tuesday, completed its probe report on Wednesday and has now sought a date for submitting the much-awaited probe report to the government.
   It was given 30 more working days after it missed the deadline for the third time on March 29.
   The probe committee, which was reconstituted on March 2 by replacing home affairs minister Sahara Khatun with Anis-uz-Zaman as its chief, was initially given seven days to complete the task. The deadline was later extended by another seven days following an application by the committee.
   On expiry of that deadline, the government on March 23 allowed the committee to submit the report within four more working days.
   The eleven-member committee — comprising the law secretary, additional secretary to the home ministry, director-general of the BDR, representatives from the Cabinet Division, the armed forces, the Prime Minister’s Office and the police — was asked to report within a week after the mutiny that left 75 persons, including 57 army officials, dead.
   Another probe committee of the Bangladesh Army headed by the quartermaster general, Lieutenant General Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, submitted its report to army chief General Moyeen U Ahmed on May 11, blaming ‘Operation Dal-Bhat’ as the main reason behind the carnage.
   The 20-member committee also found several other reasons behind the mayhem such as deprivation of facilities, disparity between BDR and army soldiers, non-payment of allowances during the general elections, controlling of tenders in the BDR headquarters and admission to BDR schools.

Five hundred more soldiers of the Bangladesh Rifles were arrested in different districts outside Dhaka and sent to jails on Thursday in connection with the February 25-26 rebellion.
   Satkania police in Chittagong arrested 100 soldiers from Baitul Ijjat Training Centre, Feni police arrested 64 jawans of 19 Rifles battalion at Jaylaskar, Jessore police detained 43 soldiers at 22 Rifles battalion, Kushtia police arrested 42 at Mirpur sector headquarters, Khulna police held 49 jawans, Khagrachhari police arrested 102 soldiers of different battalions, Bandarban police arrested 40 soldiers, 62 jawans were held in Satkhira, 23 in Brahmanbaria and 12 in Chuadanga.
   All the soldiers were arrested in connection with 12 cases filed with the police in different districts for rebellion at their respective battalion and sector headquarters on the second day of the mutiny that broke out at the BDR headquarters in the capital on February 25 and was quelled on February 26.
   In Chittagong, the Satkania police detained 100 border guards from Baitul Izzat Training Centre on Thursday morning.
   Officer-in-charge of Satkania police station, Aslam Hossain, said
   that the arrestees were taken to a Chittagong court which sent them to the jail.
   In Khagrachhari, the police arrested 102 BDR members at Matiranga and Ramgarh on Wednesday night.
   Among the arrestees, 45 were from 29 Rifles Battalion at Chhedachhera under Matiranga upazila and the rest 57 from 11 Rifles Battalion in Ramgarh.
   Two sedition cases were filed against them with Matiranga and Ramgarh police stations.
   In Dhaka, the Criminal Investigation Department of police, assigned to investigate the BDR carnage case, detained
   9 more soldiers at the
   BDR headquarters at Pilkhana on Thursday. The police will produce them in the chief
   metropolitan magistrate’s court on Friday with a prayer for showing them arrested in the case and also seek remand for them.
   The police also produced three soldiers in the CMM court and
   two of them were remanded in police custody for three days while the other was sent to jail on Thursday.
   With them, a total of 105 people are now in the custody of CID police on remand.
   With the latest, a total of 1,048 soldiers have been arrested in connection with 25 cases filed in 21 districts outside the capital while in Dhaka, the lawmen arrested a total of 1,386 people, most of them soldiers, in connection with the BDR carnage case filed
   with the New Market police station. Some 75 people, including three civilians, have so far made confessional statements in the courts.

A parliamentary panel on Thursday summoned the speaker, deputy speaker and chief whip of the eighth parliament early next month to defend themselves against charges of corruption being investigated by the panel.
   ‘We have decided to invite former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, former deputy speaker Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui and former chief whip Khandaker Delwar Hossain to make their statements before the committee on June 10,’ Fazle Rabbi Mia, the head of the parliamentary investigation committee, told reporters after its meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
   The 11-member committee, formed on March 19 by the House, was assigned to investigate alleged corruption by the former speaker, and other alleged irregularities in the parliament secretariat during the seven-year term of Jamiruddin Sircar.
   The committee was asked to report back to the House with recommendations.
   The panel formed three sub-committees to look into the various allegations against the former speaker.
   Two of the sub-committees have already submitted their reports, suggesting five measures against Jamiruddin Sircar, Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui and Khandaker Delwar Hossain. They also suggested that the parliamentary membership of the former speaker should be scrapped and legal action taken against him, Akhtar and Delwar.
   At Thursday’s meeting the committee questioned a number of officials of the parliament secretariat as witnesses of the alleged corruption, and decided also to listen to the accused.
   ‘The committee’s report will not be complete without listening to the accused. We hope they will turn up to help the investigation committee to prepare a final report,’ said the chairman of the committee.
   Jamiruddin Sircar, at a press conference, said that he would only go to the committee as a witness, not as an accused.
   ‘Let me get the letter, and then I will make my decision,’ said the former speaker, dismissing the allegations of graft against him.
   The allegations against him were baseless and part of a plot against him and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, claimed Jamiruddin.
   The committee’s chairman said that the members assigned to investigate the alleged corruption have almost completed their work. Much evidence has been collected and the committee will prepare its report after hearing the accused defend themselves.
   When asked what would happen if the accused refused to appear before the investigation committee, Fazle Rabbi said that they would have no other option but to submit the report without their statements.
   The report will be submitted to the House during the budget session.
   Three parliamentary sub-committees investigated allegations of irregularities, abuse of power and wastage of public money during the seven-year term of Jamiruddin Sircar.
   Awami League lawmaker SK Baker was one of those who investigated the irregularities and ‘unlawful’ expenses incurred for medical treatment of the former speaker, who also approved medical treatment of the deputy speaker and the chief whip at the state’s expense.
   Sircar spent over Tk 27,00,000 for medical expenses without the government’s approval, according to a report of one of the sub-committees.
   Mujibul Haq Chunnu looked into alleged irregularities in recruitment of the parliament secretariat’s employees. It has been alleged that Sircar appointed 341 people to various positions in clear violation of the rules.
   The third sub-committee, headed by Shahjahan Khan, is investigating the purchase deals and government money spent for maintenance of trees in the parliament’s premises. He is yet to submit his report.
   On March 19 the parliament assigned an ‘all-party’ committee to investigate the alleged corruption by Sircar. But members of the opposition BNP decided not to join it, saying that the government intended to carry out a biased investigation against the former speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Thursday vowed to continue movement until the real plotters and perpetrators of the Pilkhana massacre were identified and tried by way of impartial investigation.
   The party demanded that the probe reports of the killings at the BDR headquarters on February 25 should be made public immediately after they were submitted and called for immediate trial of the real perpetrators.
   As part of its month-long protest programmes, the party formed human chains in cities, district and upazila headquarters across the country on the day to denounce the government’s ‘vengeful attitude’ towards the opposition and its ‘attempt to divert public attention’ from the Pilkhana incidents.
   The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, standing in a human chain in front of the National Press Club said, ‘We want a proper and neutral investigation into the incidents at the Pilkhana but the government is trying to divert people’s attention by delaying the probe to hide the real culprits.’
   Delwar suddenly fell ill while talking to media. He was immediately taken to BIRDEM Hospital.
   Party standing committee member Moudud Ahmed, standing in front of the Supreme Court said the party would continue the movement until the culprits were brought to book.
   In Dhaka, several thousand leaders and activists of the party formed human chains at 19 spots from Jatrabri to Gabtali. Senior party leaders addressed the gatherings.
   Reports from Chittagong said the city unit f the BNP formed a human chain in front of Chittagong Press Club followed by a rally presided over by city unit convener Sayad Wahidul Alam.
   Abdullah Al Noman, Rosy Kabir, AMM Nazim Uddin, MA Sabur, Nazim Uddin and Shahadat Hossain addressed the rally, among others.
   New Age correspondent in Khulna said the district and city units of the BNP formed a human chain at Dak Bungalow crossing.
   Chaired by Khulna city BNP president M Nurul Islam, also former lawmaker, the gathering was addressed by Nazrul Islam Monju MP, Shafiqul Islam Mona, Moniruzzaman Moni and Jalil Khan Kalam.
   In Rajshahi, the city unit BNP formed a human chain in the afternoon at Saheb Bazar. Former city mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu, party leaders Azizur Rahman, Alauddin Ahmed, Shafiqul Huq Milan and Mosaddek Hossain Bulu and former pro-vice-chancellor of Rajshahi University Mamnunul Keramat addressed the programme.
   Sylhet district and city units of BNP formed a human chain in front of the Central Shaheed Minar as part of the party’s countrywide programme.
   Speakers demanded that the government should take effective steps to make India stop construction of Tipaimukh Dam upstream of Meghna.
   MA Haq, Abdul Gaffar, Dildar Hossain Selim, Noman Mahmud, Kamrul Huda Jaygirdar, Saiful Islam Babul and Mahbubur Rab Faysal, among others, attended the protest programme.
   Barisal district and city units of BNP formed a human chain in front of Aswini Kumar Town Hall as a part of the party’s countrywide programme.
   Party lawmaker Mesbahuddin Farhad, district unit secretary Nazrul Islam, city unit president Mahmud Golam Salek and city unit secretary Asaduzzaman Khasru joined in the programme along with other leaders and activists.
   In Jessore, the district unit BNP formed a human chain at Daratana intersection demanding immediate action against the real plotters of the Pilkhana carnage. Leaders of the party, including former minister Tariqul Islam, took part in the programme in the morning.
   The BNP will also hold protest rallies on May 19 in the metropolitan cities, district and upazila towns to protest against law and order deterioration.

India’s main political parties went hunting for friends Thursday, armed with exit polls suggesting month-long elections had delivered another stalemate that only new allies could break.
   As the world’s largest democracy breathed a collective sigh of relief that its marathon ballot had concluded without major incident, it fast became clear another huge task remained in building a viable government.
   Half a dozen polls by news channels gave the ruling alliance led by the secular centre-left Congress party a slight edge over the main opposition bloc headed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
   The predicted margin was between five and 20 seats, but neither grouping had anywhere near the 272 seats needed for a parliamentary majority.
   Exit polls have proved wildly inaccurate in past votes but until the Election Commission declares the official result Saturday, they will lend Congress a slight psychological advantage in its coalition-building battle with the BJP.
   By tradition, the party winning the most seats has first right to try to form a government.
   With both sides needing around 70 extra seats, the challenge is not only to find new allies among India’s myriad regional parties, but also to ensure existing partners are not lured away by promises of power.
   ‘Past commitments, positions or loyalties count for very little,’ said analyst Subhash Agarwal, of India Focus, a political risk publication.
   Congress leaders met at the home of party president Sonia Gandhi for strategy talks Thursday while the controversial BJP chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, huddled with Hindu nationalist chiefs.
   ‘I’m here to take part in the post-poll political process,’ said Modi, a smooth-talking campaign star tipped as a future premier but shadowed by accusations he turned a blind eye to the massacre of Muslims during 2002 riots in his state.
   Congress has been making overtures to its ex-communist allies and has also reportedly been in touch by telephone with the powerful chief minister of Bihar state, Nitish Kumar, who is supposed to be tied up with the BJP.
   In a potential boost to Congress, communist leader Prakash Karat told the Economic Times newspaper that the Left was ‘determined not to give the BJP any scope to exploit the post-polls numbers game to form a government.’
   The cloak-and-dagger nature of the horse-trading was highlighted earlier this week when the head of the Janata Dal regional party, HD Kumaraswamy, drove to Gandhi’s home with his face covered.
   Until now, he has insisted his loyalties lie with the only viable alternative to the two main blocs — a so-called ‘Third Front’ of regional parties.
   The BJP’s dealmakers have also been busy, picking up partners and sometimes jettisoning old ones in the process.
   ‘We lost one ally but got five,’ the party’s candidate for prime minister LK Advani proudly told a recent rally.
   The worry that principle may be sacrificed on the altar of expediency has been a theme of newspaper editorials and TV debates.
   ‘It’s open season for building and breaking alliances,’ said the Mail Today in a story headlined: ‘Anybody’s game now.’
   Even by India’s standards of ‘ideological easy accommodation, there’s a certain Alice-in-Wonderland quality to these elections,’ said Agarwal. Parties ‘are increasingly ambiguous regarding their position on major policy issues.’
   If the two main alliances fail to make a breakthrough, the path to power might open up for the Third Front, but such a coalition would suffer from the large number of disparate parties it would need to form a government.
   ‘This is the outcome the investment community dreads — a Third Front victory and the negative consequences for business and political instability,’ said Deepak Lalwani, India director of brokerage Astaire and Partners.
   The wheeling and dealing is likely to last some time with June 2 the constitutional deadline for forming the new government.

The government has once again extended the deadline, this time to May 31, for submission of prayers to cancel cases filed for ‘political harassment’.
   The home ministry on Thursday issued a circular, its public relations officer Md Shahenoor Miah Shaheen told the news agency.
   Earlier, in April, the deadline had been extended until May 17.
   District-level scrutiny committees are reviewing cases filed under previous governments to persecute politicians.
   The four-member district-level scrutiny panels, led by district magistrates, are also composed of a police superintendent, additional district magistrate and public prosecutor.
   The central seven-member body, formed on February 22 and headed by the law minister, will review the reports sent by the district-level panels.
   The central six-member body, headed by the law minister, will review the reports sent by the district-level panels.
   The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has appealed to quash four cases filed during the 2007-2008 military-installed caretaker government’s rule. Former prime minister Khaleda Zia has also applied for cancellation of four cases against her, her elder son Tarique Rahman for 11 and younger son Arafat Rahman for three.

Foreign minister Dipu Moni left for Myanmar Thursday afternoon on a four-day goodwill trip to discuss with officials there some bilateral issues including maritime delimitation, early commissioning of cross-border highway and measures for enhancing trade.
   The foreign minister is also expected to request Myanmar officials not to mobilise troops along the border to maintain peaceful relations as they have already started fencing the frontier, foreign ministry officials told New Age on Wednesday.
   Dipu Moni, in her first bilateral trip since she assumed her office in January, is scheduled to meet Myanmar prime minister Thein Sein, foreign minister Nyan Win and some other key officials on May 16 and 17 in Naypyidaw, the new capital of the military regime.
   The four-day trip, according to the foreign ministry officials, will substantially contribute to improving relations between the two next door neighbours after recent tensions between Dhaka and Yangon over the territorial water and land border.
   The standoff in the Bay of Bengal resulted from Myanmar’s unilateral intrusion into Bangladesh’s territorial water for oil and gas exploration in November, 2008. Bilateral tension also erupted when Myanmar recently began to put up a barbed wire fence along the border with Bangladesh.
   There is another thorny and longstanding bilateral issue—the issue of repatriation of Rohingya refugees. But an official here said that Bangladesh would prefer to maintain a low key over the subject.
   Talks with Myanmar officials, sources at the foreign ministry said, would focus on immediate beginning of the construction of the Bangladesh-Myanmar Friendship Road, a 25 kilometres international highway, stretching from Gumdun of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh to Bawalibazar inside Myanmar.
   Once the road is completed it would pave the way for Bangladesh to subsequently link up with the Asian Highway through Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and also Kunming in China, said officials.
   ‘As prime minister Sheikh Hasina has recently said that the country wants to be connected on the Asian highway, we will request Myanmar to immediately begin construction of friendship road,’ said an official.
   Dhaka has already requested Yangon to provide to extend a helping hand for paving Bangladesh’s access to the Asian highway and railway network.
   Dhaka will also seek bilateral cooperation in the energy sector, lease of Myanmar land for contract farming and agricultural cooperation, export of more Bangladeshi goods to Myanmar as well as other issues concerning bilateral trade.
   The foreign minister is scheduled to return home on May 18.

Pakistan has urged Bangladesh to let bygones be bygones with regard to atrocities committed by the Pakistani army in 1971.
   The foreign office spokesman, Abdul Basit, at his weekly briefing on Thursday said the Bangladesh foreign minister, Dipu Moni, had asked Pakistan to apologise for the war crimes.
   Quoting the spokesman, the Dawn, a Pakistan national daily, said Pakistan believes the matter was settled under the April 1974 tripartite agreement between Pakistan, India and Bangladesh in which Pakistan condemned and regretted any atrocities committed.
   In 2002, the then president of Pakistan had also regretted any wrongs committed in 1971, the spokesman added.
   He said Pakistan gave great importance to good relations with Bangladesh, and it was better for both countries to move forward instead of being frozen in the past.

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes will hold on Monday the first hearing on the arbitration suit in London, which the US company Chevorn had lodged against Bangladesh over the row on wheeling charge for the Jalalabad Gas Field.
   Legal expert, Dr Kamal Hossain and his associates will contest the case on behalf of the government on May 18, 19 and 21 while energy secretary, Mohammad Mohsin is supposed to represent the government and Petrobangla’s acting chairman, Muktedir Ali to represent Petrobangla.
   The interim government in July, 2008 took the decision to face the arbitration suit filed by Chevron with the ICSID, a member of the World Bank group, demanding back 4 per cent from the gas sale proceeds of the Jalalabad Gas Field it (Chevron) had paid to Petrobangla, in wheeling charge worth millions of dollars over the years.
   Petrobangla deducts 4 per cent from the gas bills it pays to Chevron, saying the agreement stipulates that the company is supposed to pay the wheeling or transmission charge for supplying the Jalalabad gas to domestic markets.
   Chevron claims the agreement does not have the provision and Chevron should not pay the wheeling charge as it is Petrobangla’s duty to supply gas to domestic market, although the company and its predecessors have allowed Petrobangla to deduct the charge.
   Sources in Petrobangla said that Muktedir had left Dhaka for London Thursday morning, although the hearing is scheduled for Monday. Dr Kamal is abroad and will join the team there in time, they said.
   Sources in the energy division said that there was still uncertainty over the participation of the energy secretary Mohsin who is now in Denmark to attend the board meeting of the Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company.
   The division on Thursday got the permission from the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, for Mohsin to attend the hearing in London.
   ‘The energy secretary will apply for the UK visa today or sometime tomorrow from Denmark. As he has only two working days left in Denmark, we are still unsure weather he will be able to manage the UK visa from a third country in only two days,’ said a source.
   Sources in Petrobangla and the division said if Mohsin did not get the visa in time, it might affect the hearing as he would be a witness from the government in the case.
   Officials of Petrobangla and division said that Petrobangla had an ‘outstanding chance’ to win the suit as the agreement with Chevron supported Ptrobangla’s claim.
   ‘Apart from the deal, the predecessors of Chevron, Unocal and Occidental of US, had paid the wheeling charge for four years without filing any complaint, after Petrobangla dismissed an Occidental objection to deducting the wheeling charge,’ said an official.
   The interim government in 2008 withdrew a case Petrobangla had filed against Chevron with a Dhaka court in April 2007, seeking injunction on Chevron’s move to go to the international dispute settlement centre.
   There had been a pressure on the government from the United States and other development partners to withdraw the case against Chevron and go to the international court.
   If the government loses the arbitration suit, Chevron will get millions of dollars in monetary terms from the Jalalabad gas field, Moulvibazar and Bibiyana fields which have a combined reserve of more than 3.5 trillion cubic feet. Moulvibazar and Bibiyana have the same disputes over wheeling charges.

The meetings of US envoy to India Peter Burleigh with BJP leader LK Advani, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and some other leaders just ahead of counting of votes has triggered a controversy with left parties on Thursday branding it as ‘brazen interference’ in India’s internal affairs.
   The strong reaction by left parties came in the wake of reports that Burleigh had suggested to the TDP leader to ensure that Communist parties do not have any role to play in the next government as the US is worried about the future of civil nuclear deal and other aspects of strategic ties.
   ‘Reports suggest that parties are being advised whom to support and which government should be formed in India, etc. If this is the case, I think this is gross interference in our internal affairs,’ CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury told reporters in New Delhi.
   He said, ‘The US has revealed its character once again through its brazen interference in internal affairs of other independent countries. That cannot be tolerated.’ Yechury said he had ‘heard’ that ‘TDP strongly condemned such suggestions. He was told with quite degree of certainty and unceremoniously not to interfere in India’s internal affairs. That is the way it should be.’

A provision of the Anti-Corruption Commission law is likely to be reinstated to curtail its power so that the watchdog body could not issue any arrest warrant against a government official without informing his higher authority.
   The country’s top bureaucrats, mainly the secretaries of different ministries, Thursday discussed the issue and adopted a proposal to put forward to the cabinet for amending the rules of the ACC, which had booked many bigwigs, including top politicians and bureaucrats, amid an anti-graft purge during the past interim regime under state of emergency.
   The cabinet secretary, Abdul Aziz, presided over the meeting at Cabinet Division.
   The immediate-past caretaker government had inserted the provision in the ACC rules giving it mandate to conduct investigation and issue arrest warrant against any civil servants without informing his/her highest authority.
   ‘Some of the secretaries have discussed the issue and recommended amending the existing law to curtail the ACC’s such power. Because, they feel that, in many cases, government officials make decision for the interest of their own organisations. It might not be his individual decision,’ Aziz told reporters while briefing about the meeting.
   He noted that originally such a safeguard provision was in the defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption Rule-1977 so that it should not issue such warrant. But later the provision was dropped during the caretaker government while the ACC law was enacted.
   The secretaries’ meeting also discussed and made a proposal for introducing a no-meeting day and a visitor-free day in the Bangladesh Secretariat to improve the working atmosphere.
   In recent days, after the political government assumed office, the number of visitors has significantly increased, which sometimes creates disturbance for the administration.
   The meeting also discussed an option that the minister, state minister and the secretary of a ministry should not be abroad at a time because it ‘hampers the decision-making process’.
   The meeting discussed and recommended reintroduction of mobile courts to contain crimes, particularly adulteration of food and other consumer products, as there have been reports of widespread offence of this sort once again.
   After separation of the judiciary, the operation of mobile courts was squeezed as the administration cadre service was stripped of magistracy powers.
   ‘If such mobile courts are reintroduced, it will be within the
   spirit of the separation of judiciary—there will be no contrast or contradiction,’ the cabinet secretary said.
   He noted that the home secretary placed a proposal in the meeting for arming the law-enforcing agencies with powers to do mobile-phone tracking.
   ‘We discussed the matter mainly to contain the threat issued by miscreants through mobile phones. This power will give them authority to quickly identify the miscreants and take action against them,’ Aziz said.
   Meanwhile, a cabinet subcommittee held a meeting at the Cabinet Division to discuss proposals for amending the Public Procurement Regulations 2008 to expedite government procurement process.
   The meeting, presided over by the finance minister, AMA Muhith, ended inconclusively, sources said, adding that more meetings will be held in this regard.

Myanmar’s military junta charged pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi Thursday with breaching the terms of her house arrest over a bizarre incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside house.
   The 63-year-old goes on trial on Monday on the charges, which carry a jail term of up to five years and would stretch her detention past its supposed expiry date this month and through controversial elections due in 2010.
   The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and her two maids appeared in court at the notorious Insein Prison near Yangon, hours after the police whisked her from the residence where she has been detained for most of the past two decades.
   ‘The authorities have charged Aung San Suu Kyi and her two maids’ under the Law Safeguarding the State from the Dangers of Subversive Elements, one of her lawyers, Hla Myo Myint, told reporters outside the prison.
   The law governs the conditions under which Aung San Suu Kyi is held under house arrest. Legal sources said she was accused of violating the law by communicating with foreigners.
   US national John Yettaw, who was held last week for sneaking into her house and staying there for two days before he was caught, was also charged with breaking the security law and immigration conditions, Hla Myo Myint said.
   Yettaw, 53, apparently used a pair of homemade flippers to swim across a lake to her crumbling residence in an apparent show of solidarity, but Aung San Suu Kyi’s main lawyer Kyi Win said they had asked him to leave.
   ‘We have to blame him,’ Kyi Win said. ‘He is a fool.’
   Aung San Suu Kyi would not be allowed to return home but would be held at a special house on the grounds of the prison while proceedings were under way, Kyi Win added.
   Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, which won a landslide election victory in 1990, but was never allowed to govern, said it ‘strongly denounces’ the charges against its leader.
   ‘She did not commit any crime,’ it said in a statement.
   The charges against her provoked international anger, with the US state department describing them as ‘troubling’ and European Union special envoy Piero Fassino saying that there was ‘no justification’.

More than 834,000 civilians have now fled a relentless military assault on Taliban holed up in Pakistan’s rugged northwest, where artillery pounded rebel bastions Thursday in fierce battles.
   Pakistan vowed success in the 19-day campaign to rid the scenic Swat valley and surrounding areas of Islamist fighters, who have waged a brutal insurgency to impose sharia law and expand their control in the nuclear-armed country.
   ‘The ongoing operation in Swat will be successful... The army is fighting in Swat to secure a better future for Pakistan,’ the prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, told parliament.
   As he spoke, more war-weary civilians poured into camps. The new influx join more than 500,000 people who fled fighting last year, with Pakistan facing a crisis of more than 1.3 million displaced people.
   ‘Some 834,000 internally displaced persons have been registered so far. This is a massive, massive displacement in the world today,’ said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.
   ‘Pakistan is passing through a difficult period,’ he added as he toured the Yar Hussain camp in Swabi district.
   Artillery batteries shelled suspected hideouts in Swat and the neighbouring district of Lower Dir, with the military claiming to have killed 54 militants in the last 24 hours. Nine soldiers have been killed, they said.
   Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani toured the frontlines in Swat, his first reported visit to the area since the bombardment began.
   Residents trapped in Swat’s main city of Mingora fear a deadly battle for the town looms, telling AFP that armed Taliban have mined roads and dug trenches around up to 200,000 civilians encircled by Pakistani troops.
   The military has reported ‘heavy fighting’ in the valley’s northern mountains at Peochar, the suspected stronghold of firebrand Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah, where airborne commandos this week opened a new front.

The government on Thursday recalled Golam Sarwar, Bangladesh consul general in Jeddah mission following allegations that he was indifferent to the problems of Bangladeshis working in Saudi Arabia, foreign ministry officials told New Age.
   Sarwar took charge as the head of the mission in Jeddah, an important destination for Bangladeshi workers, some six months back from Washington.
   Foreign secretary Touhid Hossain, however, did not confirm whether an order was issued on Thursday asking Sarwar to return though, he said, the ministry was in the process to do that.
   Officials at the foreign ministry said that the decision to recall the consul general indicated that Bangladesh ambassador to Saudi Arabia Fazlul Karim might also be called back as the expatriates lodged similar complaints against him.
   During her recent trip to Saudi Arabia, prime minister Sheikh Hasina heard from the expatriates about indifferent and unhelpful attitude of Bangladeshi diplomats posted in the kingdom.
   On her return home, the prime minister on April 27 discussed the issue with officials and directed the foreign ministry to keep an eye on the activities of the Bangladesh missions abroad as similar allegations were made against diplomats in other missions.
   Sheikh Hasina at a cabinet meeting said that the kind of allegation was not only against our mission in Saudi Arabia but other missions as well.
   ‘The diplomats should change their mindset and pay more attention to the wellbeing of the expatriates,’ she added.
   Hasina visited Saudi Arabia in April 20-24.

At least 20 people were injured in a clash between Awami League and BNP supporters at Mandartala village under Sharsha upazila in Jessore Thursday.
   Witnesses said the clash ensued in the afternoon over a sequel to Wednesday’s fistfight between AL activist Milon and BNP worker Billal.

The results of the Secondary School Certificate and equivalent dakhil and vocational examinations of 2009 under the 10 education boards will be published on May 26, chairman of one of the education boards told New Age on Thursday.
   ‘We were ready to publish the results on May 18 or 19, but Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given a schedule for formal handover of the results in her office on May 26,’ he said.
   ‘Accompanied by the education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, the chairmen of the boards are scheduled to hand over the results to the prime minister on the day,’ an education ministry official said. ‘The results will be available with the institutions after the handover.’
   The results of eight general education boards, Madrassah Education Board and the Technical Education Board will also be available on http: //www.educationboard.gov.bd, but not with the education board or newspaper offices.
   The examinations began on February 15 and ended on March 19. More than 10 lakh examinees had registered to take the exams.

The government will form a separate pay commission for teachers, the education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, said on Thursday.
   ‘We want to show special honour to teachers. We want to form a separate pay commission and a recruitment board for them,’ Nahid said at the launch of an education project at the Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka.
   ‘We have already started working to this end. The teachers should work with dedication,’ he said. ‘Forty per cent of the students are now provided with stipends and textbooks will be given free to secondary students from the next academic year.’
   ‘The five-year project, ‘Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project,’ launched as part of the government’s plan to enhance the quality of higher education in the country,’ he said.
   The Tk 681 crore project, financed by the government and the World Bank, is launched as part of the University Grants Commi-ssion’s 20-year strategic plan for higher education in Bangladesh from 2006 to 2026.
   The main objective of the project is to improve the quality of teaching, research and teaching method in higher educational institutions.
   The University Grants Commission chairman, Professor Nazrul Islam, said the project was aimed at developing academic and research activities in higher studies.
   The project is designed to contribute to generating eligible and qualified human resources.

Unnamed assailants injured a school student by stabbing him indiscriminately on the Technical Training Centre campus in Rangamati Wednesday night, said the police and hospital sources.
   Injured Al Amin, 15, a Class X student of the insitutition, was admitted to Rangamati General Hospital. He was reported to be in a critical condition. A case was filed, said the police.
   Parbatya Chattagram Bengali Chhatra Parishad and Rangamati sadar unit Parbatya Chattagram Sama Odhikar Andolan submitted separate memorandums to the deputy commissioner urging immediate arrest of the attackers and security of the Bengali students.