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The police on Wednesday arrested Kabirul Islam Bharasha, son of former Jatiya Party lawmaker Karim Uddin Bharasha, at a rehabilitation centre of Uttar Khan in Dhaka allegedly for killing his younger brother Khairul Islam Bharasha in their office at Bijoynagar on April 27.
   Tipped off, a team of the Paltan police arrested Kabirul Islam Bharasha alias Kabir at the Hope of Life drug rehabilitation centre at Kachkura at about 12:30pm.
   The police also seized the pistol, used in killing Khairul, from the especially made dashboard of his car which was seized on the day of the incident.
   Kabir told newsmen at the Paltan police station on Wednesday afternoon that he had shot his younger brother as he (Kabir) was denied an amount (Tk 75 lakh) for the construction of a cold storage.
   ‘On the day, I took a number of Yaba tablets, went to his office and shot him with my pistol as he was not giving me the amount,’ Kabir said. ‘I fired all the bullets the pistol had.’
   ‘After the incident, I went to Gazipur and got myself admitted to the drug rehabilitation centre the same night,’ he said.
   But Khairul’s brother-in-law Delwar Hossain doubted his admission to the drug rehabilitation centre.
   ‘How can an addict drive such a long distance and get himself admitted to the drug rehabilitation centre?’ Delwar said.
   He suspected someone influential might have been involved in the incident.
   Khairul, the third son from the second wife of Karimuddin and managing director of the New Age Tobacco, was working in his office when his elder brother entered the chamber and locked in an altercation.
   At one point, Kabirul pulled out his gun and shot Khairul point-blank. Kabirul got away, leaving his car behind as the employees tried to stop him.
   Khairul was taken to nearby Islami Bank Hospital and was then shifted to Square Hospital where he was declared dead.
   Khairul’s brother-in-law Imran Hossain filed a murder case with the Paltan police the same night.
   The complainant said Kabir was a drug addict and used to take money from the office. The feud over money might have led to the murder, he suspected.

Jamaat-e-Islami’s chief Matiur Rahman Nizami on Wednesday asked the government to disclose the army’s actual report of the investigation of the February 25-26 BDR rebellion in the Pilkhana to the nation.
   It seems that the government is not interested in unveiling report, he alleged, adding that different remarks by the cabinet members about the rebellion and army’s report had created a smoke-screen as well as raised questions in the public mind.
   ‘The government should reveal the full report to the nation as the countrymen want to know the facts,’ said Nizami while addressing a public greatening at Paltan Maidan.
   Jamaat’s Dhaka city unit organised the rally in protest against the Indian government’s move to build a dam on the river Barak at Tipaimukh. Rafikul Islam Khan, amir of Jamaat’s city unit, presided over the rally.
   ‘Some ministers’ statements on the BDR rebellion report have raised questions in the people and created a smoke-screen around the findings of the report,’ Nizami said.
   He said a fair investigation could have been conducted by the army who had lost many brilliant colleagues in the carnage, but it was restricted from launching a really thorough investigation.
   ‘The army should conduct a fair investigation and submit the report for apprising the people of the facts and the reasons for the mutiny,’ he said, and urged the government to let the army investigate the incident properly by not imposing any restriction.
   ‘The government has failed to save the lives of the army officers…Killings took place because the government did not take the appropriate decisions at the right time, due to which the country’s defence system has been destroyed,’ he said.
   Referring to the Tipaimukh dam, Nizami said that Bangladesh would be turned into a desert and its economy would be destroyed if the dam is constructed, so India should be stopped from building it.
   He called upon the government to solve the problem by holding bilateral talks with India. ‘Otherwise, the government should go to the United Nations to resolve the issue.’
   Nizami said Farakka and Tipaimukh dams violate the laws on international rivers and environment, so Bangladesh will win if the dispute is submitted to the International Court.
   He criticized the government for dividing the nation, saying that it is the government’s responsibility to unite the nation.
   Nizami accused the government of failing to ensure the people’s fundamental rights and stopping terrorism, corruption and extortion ‘The government has failed to meet the people’s desire as it is busy unsettling the settled issues,’ he said.
   The Jamaat’s secretary-general, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, alleged that the parliamentary democracy of the country and its independence and sovereignty were being threatened under the rule of the Awami League-led alliance government. He urged all to remain united and forge a greater movement to preserve the country’s sovereignty.
   The rally was addressed, along with others, by Jamaat leaders Makbul Ahmed, Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, Barrister Abdur Razzak, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, Abdul Kader Mollah, Azharul Islam, Mujibur Rahman, Shafiqur Rahman, Shamsul Islam MP, Golam Porwar, Mojammel Hossain Helal, Hamidur Rahman Azad MP and Chhatra Shibir president Rezaul Karim.

THE chairman of the Parbatya Chattagram Jano Sanghati Samity, Jyotirindra Bodhipriyo Larma alias Santu Larma, warned that the ethnic people of the hilly region might go back to their abandoned arms struggles, if the CHT peace accord was not implemented properly for their long-cherished autonomy.
   Santu Larma gave the warning while addressing the opening session of the 20th annual conference of the Pahari Chhatra Parishad, loyal to the PCJSS, at the auditorium of Rangamati Gymnasium on Wednesday.
   He urged the government to take necessary steps to implement fully the Chittagong Hill Tracts peace accord by the tenure of this Awami League-led coalition government.
   The present government has done nothing to implement the peace accord although four months have elapsed, said Santu, adding that the PCJSS had signed the CHT peace agreement with the AL-led government in 1997, surrendering their arms.
   It is the responsibility of the present government, led by Sheikh Hasina, to establish peace in the CHT region by implementing the accord fully.
   The AL leaders speak about implementing the peace accord at meetings on different occasions in one hand and a section people in the government on the other hand patronise the anti-peace accord activists, Santu, also the chairman of the CHT Regional Council alleged.
   He demanded ban on the political activities of the United Peoples Democratic Front that opposed the signing of the CHT accord, jeopardising the peace process in the hilly region.
   President of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, Rashed Khan Menon, MP, president of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, Manzurul Ahsan Khan, presidium member of the Gano Forum, Pankaj Bhattacharya, and the leaders of the PCJSS and the Pahari Chhatra Parishad, addressed the conference with the PCP president Udayan Tripura in the chair.
   Menon said the CHT accord was signed to restore peace in the hilly region.
   He urged the government to withdraw the army personnel from the CHT as the pro-accord government now was in power.
   A central committee of the PCP will be formed at the conference.

As many as 1,000 Rohingyas of Myanmar entered Bangladesh through border points in Cox’s Bazar in the last three days, although the Bangladesh Rifles pushed back some 200 ethnic minorities from Myanmar.
   Ukhiya and Nikhyongchari border sources said that more than 1,000 Rohingyas had intruded into Nikhyongchari and Ukiah upazilas of Cox’s Bazar district.
   Those Rohingyas told locals that they were evicted from their home recently as Myanmar military administration would set up garrisons at Tumbrow and Dakiboniha, adjacent to Bangladesh border. As the Myanmar army have burned down five houses to evict them, they have crossed the border and ente-red Bangladesh, they said.
   Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, assistant superintendent of police, said that around 450 Rohingyas had entered Bangladesh in the last three days.
   Hamidul Hoque Chowdhury, general secretary of the Ukiah upazila unit of the Awami League, said that Rohingyas were damaging the forest and cutting the hills to build temporary shanties for living.

The foreign minister, Dipu Moni, from London telephoned the Indian external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee, Tuesday evening and congratulated him on Congress-led UPA’s victory in Lok Sabha elections.
   She expressed the hope that discussions on issues of mutual interest would continue with the return of UPA to power, according to a message received from Bangladesh high commission in London.
   Dipu Moni said Bangladesh would work closely with the new government of India.
   She said, despite immense potentials, South Asia was the least integrated area in the world. To harness the potentials she stressed on people-to-people contact and cooperation among the countries of the region.
   Pranab Mukherjee invited Dipu Moni to visit New Delhi at a ‘convenient time immediately after her return from London,’ according to the release.
   Accepting the invitation, she said the visit would take place at a mutually convenient time.

The High Court on Wednesday granted bail to former Khulna mayor Sheikh Tayebur Rahman in a money embezzlement case.
   The bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Rais Uddin passed the order after hearing a bail petition filed by the former mayor.
   City corporation employee SM Hafizur Rahman filed the case with the Khulna police on April 14, 2008 accusing Tayebur Rahman of misappropriating Tk 10 crore of the funds of several corporation projects.
   Tayebur’s counsel Ruhul Kuddus Kajal told reporters there was no legal bar now on his release as the court had earlier granted him bail in other cases.
   Tayebur faced nine cases after the joint forces had arrested him at a house at Gulshan in Dhaka on November 2, 2007.

Two people were killed and 10 injured in a bloody clash between two rival groups at village Kalyanpur in Lakshmipur Sadar upazila Wednesday over a patch of disputed land.
   The dead were Lokman Hossain, 70, and Mizan, 30.
   The injured 10 people were admitted to Noakhali and Lakshmipur hospitals.
   ‘Both the groups used lethal weapons during the clash, leaving 12 seriously injured,’ says a spot account of the rioting. Of the injured, Mizan and Lokman died on way to hospital.

A minor boy was killed and 30 others were injured in separate road accidents at Rishatala on the Dhaka-Khulna Highway and Jashutala on the Muksudpur-Khandarpar Road of Muksudpur upazila in Gopalanj on Wednesday.
   The deceased is Ibrahim, 12, who died at Rishatala.

A parliamentary watchdog on local government could not finalise its recommendations on changes to a bill on city corporation because of diverse opinions among its members.
   Some MPs at Wednesday’s meeting said the present Dhaka City Corporation area should be divided in two parts — north and south.
   Some others proposed making hugely populated Gazipur and Narayanganj town into cities in addition to dividing Dhaka into two zones, Rahmat Ali, the committee chairman, told reporters after the meeting at parliament building.
   The Election Commission has been waiting for the passage of the city corporation bill to hold the long overdue Dhaka city polls.
   The standing committee, however, made final recommendations on the bill on poura sabha or municipality, making the MPs ex-officio advisers to the local government bodies.
   ‘We have heard but not finalised the recommendations,’ Ali said and added the committee would continue the deliberations to make final recommendations.
   On recommendations on poura sabha bill, Ali said, ‘We have inserted a provision making the MPs ex-officio advisers to the poura sabha.
   But, unlike the upazila act, the suggestions of the MPs will not be mandatory for the chief of local government bodies to follow.
   He said the committee also recommended creating posts of two deputy mayors — at least one for woman — in the poura sabha bill set to be passed in the upcoming budget session.
   Parliament, when in session, will discuss the bill in the recommended form before its passage.
   The military-installed caretaker government made two ordinances to change the city corporation and poura sabha acts which were presented in parliament for validation.
   The Awami League government in principle accepted the laws and placed those in parliament as new bills.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has said Bangladesh is fully committed to regional and international peace and working with other Asian nations to maintain peace and stability in this region.
   Terming poverty the main enemy of this region, Hasina said Bangladesh would play a significant role in eradicating poverty by boosting its food production.
   The prime minister expressed this view while the newly appointed ambassador of Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea Sing Hong Chol called on her at the Prime Minister’s Office in Dhaka on Wednesday.
   Welcoming the DPRK’s new ambassador, the prime minister assured him of all kinds cooperation of her government during his tenure in Bangladesh.
   Hasina recalled North Korea’s support towards Bangladesh people during the country’s great War of Independence in 1971 and said Bangladesh always put emphasis on relations between the two countries.
   They also discussed matters of mutual interest between Bangladesh and North Korea while common international issues including economy, trade, and commerce came up for discussion.
   North Korean ambassador said Bangladesh would achieve sustainable development and progress under the leadership of Hasina.
   The envoy expressed the hope that the people of Bangladesh would also achieve progress and prosperity in the days ahead.
   Secretary of the PMO Mollah Waheeduzzaman, PM’s press secretary Abul Kalam Azad and former ambassador Ziauddin were present.

The finance minister, AMA Muhith, Wednesday night hinted that an announcement on pay hike for government employees and officers would come in the budget 2009-10 he is going to place in parliament next month.
   ‘I can’t guarantee you that it (pay rise) will not put pressure on the price situation, despite all efforts for stabilising the prices,’ he told a live TV programme on budget at Sonargaon Hotel.
   Setting forth some cardinal features of the budget of the new government, he indicated that the budget would contain some fiscal measures, reduced interest rate, reduced price of agri-inputs and some other incentives to stimulate agricultural production and stabilise prices.
   The finance minister also mentioned that TCB would be revitalised to supply 10 per cent of essential items as part of the market-stabilisation measures. The budget would also look into the possibilities of support for non-agricultural activities like household dairy, poultry and backyard farming of vegetables to help increase production in the rural areas.
   Agriculture activities share 40 per cent of rural household incomes while 50 per cent of incomes come from non-agricultural activities. ‘The budget will consider how incentives can be provided to the non-farm income activities,’ he said.
   Fiscal measures will also be considered for further reducing import costs of essential commodities.
   The commerce minister, Faruk Khan, and the FBCCI president, Annisul Huq, were also presenter at the programme. Panellists at the programme were Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman, former agriculture minister and BNP vice-chairperson MK Anwar, Bangladesh Economic Association president Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmed, former finance and planning adviser Mirza Azizul Islam, economist Debapriya Bhattacharya and former FBCCI president Salman F Rahman.
   Ntv and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry jointly organised the TV talk titled ‘Kemon Budget Chai’ broadcast live from 8:00pm simultaneously from four venues—Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, and Dhamrai in Manikganj.
   Noted economists, businessmen, bankers and another few hundred people were present at the four venues.

Police arrested the main suspect, Din Islam Reza, 35, from Mawna in Gazipur on Wednesday on charge of murdering two female garment factory workers at a flat in Khilgaon on Tuesday.
   Reza reportedly told the police that he had killed his sister, Shanta Islam Moyna, 21, and her roommate and cousin Halima Akhtar, 19, and injured the other tenant of the flat, Ohirunnessa Brishty, 25, with a knife which he had brought from outside to murder his sister Shanta because she was engaged in anti-social activities.
   She had also brought Halima from their village and engaged her in anti-social activities, Reza claimed, and alleged that the other tenant of the flat, Brishty, was also engaged in the same profession.
   ‘I chatted with my sister up to 1:00am on Tuesday and after that Shanta went to bed. When she fell fast asleep I stabbed her,’ Reza told reporters at the office of deputy commissioner of the Motijheel zone in Purana Paltan on Wednesday.
   ‘But as Shanta woke up and cried for help, I pressed her mouth and cut her throat. Halima also woke up due to Shanta’s screams but she fainted after seeing all the blood,’ said Reza, adding that he had then slaughtered Halima as well.
   ‘The other tenant, Brishty, who was sleeping in other room, woke up due to the shouts of the two women and tried to see what was happening. I stabbed her also before leaving the flat,’ Reza told reporters.
   Police said that Reza had changed his dress after the murders and gone to his home at Mawna very early in the morning with the two mobile telephone sets he had taken from the women. He told his wife Zaheda that he was going to their village home at Chitalmari in Bagerhat but he stayed at a foam factory, Bang Zing National Ltd, in Gazipur.
   The Khilgaon police collected Reza’s telephone number after questioning his brother-in-law, Sagar, who works at a garment factory at Khilgaon, and tracked his cellular phone.
   At one stage the police picked up his wife Zaheda in Mawna and then arrested Reza from the foam factory on Wednesday morning. They also found the blood-stained knife in the toilet of his residence and recovered the two mobile telephone sets from his possession.
   He was being interrogated at the Khilgaon police station on Wednesday.

Shrimp processing plant workers, rights group and economists have rejected Tk 2,510 as the monthly minimum wage fixed by the board on minimum wage for shrimp industry workers and labourers.
   The labour and employment ministry formed the six-member board through a gazette notification on November 17, 2008.
   The board at a meeting on Monday in its office in Dhaka set Tk 2,510 as the minimum monthly wage for the workers, sources said.
   The wage structure has seven grades with Tk 2,510 as the monthly salary for the lowest grade and Tk 5,500 for the highest grade. Members on the non-administrative staff have been divided into five grades where the fifth grade staff will get Tk 2,510 and the first grade staff Tk 5,500 as monthly salary.
   Shrimp industry workers in Khulna said they needed at least Tk 7,500 a month to run a family of four to five members and Tk 2510 was only a third of the amount they needed.
   They said the labourers in processing plants received between Tk 1,500 and Tk 4,500 a month, depending on their work experiences. Their condition will not improve even if the proposed wage structure is implemented, they said.
   A woman labourer the Jahanabad Sea Food Limited at Rupsha said she needed at least Tk 7,000 a month to run her family of three.
   ‘I earn Tk 2,600 a month and my husband, who works in another plant, also earns Tk 2,800. Sometimes we need to work overtime to earn more and take help from our relations,’ she said. ‘If the minimum wage is set at Tk 2,510, we will be in trouble and we will need to stop sending our child to school to save Tk 1,200 a month.’
   The Khulna Shrimp Industry Labourer Interest Preservation Coordination Committee convener, Firoz Ahmed, rejected Tk 2,510 as the monthly minimum wage. He demanded that the amount should be Tk 7,500, including Tk 4500 in basic wage.
   Khulna University economics teacher Shahnewaz Nazimuddin said Tk 2,510 as monthly minimum wage for shrimp industry workers and labourers was not acceptable in the present situation with spiralling goods prices.
   Nazimuddin said the amount could not be accepted as the recent government pay commission had recommended Tk 4,000 as the minimum wage for the lowest grade employees in public sector.
   A board member, S Humayun Kabir, also the managing director of the Amam Sea Food Limited, told New Age the board at Monday’s meeting set Tk 2,510 as the minimum monthly wage for labourers working in shrimp industries and people having objection to the amount could send in their complaints in writing to the board in 14 days after the publication of the gazette.
   He said on complaints, the board would sit again to decide the amount and if no objection was received, the amount would be finalised as the minimum wage. He said the gazette had been sent to the BG Press for printing.

The parliamentary standing committee on labour and employment ministry is likely to recommend formation of a wage commission to review the existing wages of the garment workers.
   ‘The JS panel will sit on May 26 to discuss the issue and recommend formation of a wage commission to review wages for the garment workers,’ the committee president, Shahjahan Khan told a roundtable on Wednesday in Dhaka.
   The government should revise the wages every three years, taking into consideration the market prices, he said.
   The Shadhin Bangla Garments Sramik Karmachari Federation organised the roundtable at the CIRDAP auditorium, styled ‘Implementation of minimum living wages for the RMG workers for poverty alleviation of 2.5 million families’.
   Good relationship between the owners and employees can play an important role in enhancing the quality of the production, said Shahjahan, adding, ‘We have to save the owners while protecting the rights of the workers.’
   Admitting that the last wage commission award had some anomalies, he asked the owners and workers to send their proposals to the committee soon.

The authorities closed the Bangladesh Survey Institute in Comilla for an indefinite period on Wednesday after clashes between the students and the police in which 16 were students and 5 policemen were injured.
   The acting principal M Shamsul Haque said they had closed the institute for an indefinite period to fend off further troubles and asked the students to vacate the hostels by 5:00pm.
   Witnesses said the students had brought out a procession on the campus to push for their demand for direct recruitment of diploma-in-survey degree holders to the post of assistant settlement officers in the institute.
   The protesters damaged office furniture and accessories and vandalised the academic building and the registrar’s office.
   The police charged at the demonstrators with truncheons to control the situation. The students then hit the police with sticks and pelted them with stones.
   Eleven people who were critically injured were admitted to hospital. Police deployment was reinforced on the campus after the clash.

A POLICE official was sued by his mother-in-law for killing his wife Sonia Sultana, an official of non government organisation Action Aid.
   Sonia’s mother Noor Jahan filed the case with the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal in Jessore against Jessore Kotwali police sub-inspector Abdul Halim on Monday.
   According to the case statement, Abdul Halim killed his wife on May 8 for dowry. Sonia was working in Dhaka and used to come to Jessore every week.
   They were married on May 2, 2008. After marriage, she was under pressure from her husband to give him some of money as dowry. Taka three lakh was given to him at the time of marriage.
   Recently the police official demanded Tk 5 lakh from her and began to torture her as she refused to give the money.
   Sonia came to Jessore on May 7 and her body was recovered the next day from their residence. Mother of the deceased filed the case on May 19, accusing Halim of strangulating her to death.

The Bangladesh Rifles personnel rounded up two armed nationals of Myanmar at Dhiler Diba under Naikhiongchhari in Bandarbun while they were moving suspiciously Tuesday evening, the police said, quoting the BDR.
   The BDR men recovered a German-made pistol and a country-made one barrel gun from the possession of Amiyo Kumi, 25, and Aung Singh Mro, 38, said the sources.
   The arrested and the arms were handed over to the Naikhiongchhari police on Wednesday for taking further legal measure, the police said.
   A case for illegal entry into Bangladesh and possessing of unauthorised arms was lodged against the arrested, said the Naikhiongchhari police officer-in-charge, Obayedul Haque.

The Rajshahi University campus became tense on Wednesday as Islami Chhatra Shibir activists, along with outsiders, gathered in separate places in police presence.
   Tension mounted on the campus as Shibir men occupied the tent of the Bangladesh Chhatra League.
   Witnesses said the university unit Shibir activists, along with a number of outsiders, held rallies in four places in the presence of policemen and the university proctor.
   A group of Shibir activists at about 12:30pm occupied the Chhatra League tent on the campus and stayed there for two hours. In the meantime, the Chhatra League activists informed the police and university proctor of the matter, but the police did not take any action.
   University unit Chhatra League leader Ershad said Shibir had tried to panic general students.
   Many teachers criticised the proctor and police administration as the proctor’s office earlier imposed restrictions on processions, rallies, meetings and gatherings on the campus for an indefinite period.
   They called on the university authorities and the police administration to take immediate take action against the Shibir activists who rallied on the campus.
   The proctor’s office on April 23 worked out a 15-point action policy to keep the campus free of violence.
   The proctor, Professor Chowdhury Mohammed Zakaria, said he was not aware of the rallies held by Shibir activists.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, was admitted to BIRDEM Hospital in Dhaka on Tuesday night for medical check-up.
   He has been sent to hospital with complaints of increase in blood sugar levels, according to a family source.
   His family urged all to pray for his early recovery.

Former executive member of Dhaka Reporters Unity and senior reporter of Daily Bhorer Dak Arif Rahman died of cardiac arrest in Holy Family Hospital in the Dhaka city on Wednesday. He was 40.
   His namaz-e-janaza was held on the Dhaka Reporters Unity premises Wednesday afternoon. His body was later taken to his village home in Bogra and buried in his family graveyard.
   Arif is survived by his wife and one daughter.
   The home minister, Sahara Khatun, and the state minister for home, Tanjim Ahmed, mourned his death. They prayed for his departed soul and extended sympathy for the bereaved family.
   BFUJ president Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, secretary general Altaf Mahmud, Dhaka Union of Journalists president Shah Alamgir, general secretary Omar Faruq, DRU president Shamim Ahmed mourned his death and sympathised with the bereaved family.

The chief of Chhooykuribil mauza, Bashundhara Dewan, died of old-age complications in her house at Naniarchar Bazar in Rangmati on Tuesday. She was 80.
   She was the widow of Chunilal Dewan, renowned artiste of the ethnic minority.
   The body was cremated at Naniarchar Wednesday morning.

Establishment of effective trade unions is central to eliminating child labour from the world including Bangladesh, rights activists said on Wednesday.
   They were speaking at the inaugural ceremony of an international review meeting on child labour in Dhaka.
   They stressed the importance of creating awareness among the general people, particularly the poor people, saying lack of awareness among parents was one of the major causes of child labour.
   The Asia Pacific Zone of International Trade Union Confederation, located in Vienna, organized the two-day conference at the Hotel Purbani in Dilkusha.
   While addressing the inaugural ceremony as chief guest, the state minister for labour and employment, Begum Munnujan Sufian made the commitment of her government to eradicating child labour from Bangladesh. ‘The government is firmly committed to eliminating child labour from the country and it is reflected in the initiatives we have taken.’
   She said that Bangladesh had already ratified the ILO convention 182, a convention concerning the prohibition and action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour, and it had also finalised the child labour policy which would be passed soon.
   She asked the delegates to discuss and find out ways and means of eradicating child labour by sharing experiences and assured that the government would pay due attention to the output of the meeting.
   ITUC-AP general secretary, Noriyaki Suzuki emphasised the role of trade union, saying, ‘Trade unions can launch campaigns and closely watch the activities of the industries to stop child labour.’
   Roy Ramesh Chandra, secretary general of ITUC in Bangladesh, said, ‘Parents’ unawareness causes most of the children to get into hazardous works. Even poor parents, who are conscious, are unwilling to make their children land into those works.’
   Some 30 participants of 10 Asian countries are attending the conference and they will submit reports and discuss child labour aiming to find out plans to eradicate it.

Historically documenting Major Ziaur Rahman as the proclaimer of Bangladesh’s independence is a violation of the law and the constitution, a lawyer contended in the High Court as hearings on the dispute began Wednesday.
   The rule hearings on a public interest litigation writ petition challenging the validity of official documentation of Zia as the proclaimer of independence began in a High Court division bench.
   On April 20, the High Court issued a twin-rule asking the government to explain why direction should not be given to proscribe the impugned 2004 edition of the Bangladesh War of Liberation inserting Major Ziaur Rahman as the proclaimer of Bangladesh independence on March 26 in 1971.
   It also had asked the government to explain why legal action should not be taken against those responsible for distorting the real history of the declaration of independence that was made by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
   During the past BNP-led alliance government, a chapter was interpolated into ‘History of Bangladesh War of Liberation’ through its June 2004 edition on a new thought that Major Ziaur Rahman made the declaration of independence on March 26 in 1971.
   During the hearing in the High Court bench of Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice M Momtazuddin Ahmed, ex-army chief Lieutenant General (retd) Harun-or-Rashid filed an application on behalf of the Sector Commanders Forum for added party in the case.
   While making submission, Manzill Murshid, the counsel for PIL petitioner MA Salam, a freedom fighter, told the court that the proclamation of independence was a legal document protected by the article 150 and the 4th schedule of the constitution.
   The constitutional clauses recognise declaration of Bangladesh’s independence made by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 26 in 1971.
   ‘So the latest insertion in the official documentation introducing Major Ziaur Rahman as the proclaimer of independence is in violation of the law and the constitution as well,’ the counsel contended.
   Before making his submissions, M Amir-Ul Islam, appearing as amicus curiae in aid of the court, placed the background of the declaration of independence.
   The hearings remained inconclusive to resume today.

Fishing in the Kaptai Lake is going on unabated despite the routine ban imposed on fishing in the lake on the 1st May for a period of three months.
   Fishes of the lake are also being sold openly at the markets in Rangamati, said local observers.
   ‘We are trying hard to prevent people from fishing in the lake during the ban,’ said the project manager of the Kaptai Lake Development and Marketing Project, a unit of the BFDC, Mohammad Zahangir Hussain on Tuesday. ‘Our teams have been patrolling the markets and the lake in the morning and evening and at night to stop selling and fishing,’ said the manager.
   ‘Our people seized about 75 kg fish on Sunday, waylaying a three-wheeler on the Rangamati - Chittagong highway at Manikchhari on the outskirts of the town when fishes were being taken to Chittagong,’ said Zahangir, adding that six persons including two constables were injured by unlawful fishermen when they resisted the fishermen from catching fish at night the same day.
   Zahangir said he had requested the Rangamati Deputy Commissioner to run a mobile court led by a magistrate to combat fishing during the ban. The DC had agreed to his proposal, he added.
   ‘We don’t have sufficient number of water-crafts and manpower to patrol the lake and stop sales of the fishes caught from the lake,’ Zahangir said.

The president, Zillur Rahman, has said Bhutan may consider exporting hydropower to Bangladesh as the country has a vast potential of generating about 30,000MW of hydroelectricity.
   ‘Bhutan could export hydropower to Bangladesh to help us mitigating the current power shortage,’ the president said while the newly appointed Bhutanese ambassador to Bangladesh, Dasho Bap Kesang, presented his credentials to him at Bangabhaban in Dhaka on Wednesday.
   Welcoming the new envoy at Bangabhaban, Zillur said Bangladesh considered Bhutan as one of its closest friends. He also expressed his satisfaction over the existing excellent bilateral relations between the two countries.
   Referring to the poor volume of trade between the two countries, he said Bhutan could import world standard pharmaceuticals and ceramics of Bangladesh to increase the trade volume.
   He stressed the need for exchange of visits at various levels and said people-to-people contacts could explore new areas of cooperation between the two countries.
   The new ambassador sought cooperation from the president in discharging his duties and assured that he would do his level best in increasing trade volume between the two countries.
   Secretary of the president’s office Mohammad Shafiul Alam, military secretary to the president Major General Md Ehtesham Ul Haque and president’s press secretary Abdul Awal Howlader were present during the meeting.