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More than three months after the parliament adopted a resolution for expeditious trial of the 1971 war criminals, the government has initiated a process to amend the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973.
   ‘The Act needs to be amended for the effective trial of the war criminals…We have already referred it to the Law Commission from which we expect recommendations for necessary changes in the Act,’ said law minister Shafique Ahmed at a press briefing on Thursday.
   The minister said the law, which was written in English, would be translated into Bangla to make it more comprehensible to the people.
   The Sector Commanders’ Forum’s leader KM Shafiullah, on Thursday evening told New Age the latest move to amend the act might further delay the process of the trial of war criminals.
   ‘The existing law incorporates everything necessary for trial of war crimes, so far as I know…This [amendments] should not be used as an excuse for further delaying the process,’ he said.
   The amendments to check any loopholes in the law, if necessary, should be made without delay and the government should have done it earlier, he added.
   The minister, however, denied that the amendments to the act might delay the trial process.
   The minister, in reply to a query, said the latest move of the government for amending the law would not delay or hamper the process initiated for holding trial of the war criminals.
   ‘There is no legal bar on investigating the war crimes before amending the law,’ said Shafique.
   The minister also denied that any influence had been exerted by any quarter to stop the trial of war criminals.
   He said that the government was fully committed to conducting the trial of war criminals and would do so come what may.
   Formation of an investigative agency and appointment of prosecutors for the war crimes trials are almost at the final stage, claimed the minister.
   ‘The ministry is preparing to provide logistical support and infrastructural facilities for an investigative agency, prosecutors and tribunals as part of preparation for the trials,’ he told reporters.
   The process is time-consuming as the ministry needs to appoint a registrar, bench officers and other office staff of the tribunal before holding the trials, he added.
   An inter-ministry meeting on April 9 decided to set up an investigative agency, appoint prosecutors and establish tribunals within two weeks for trial of those Bangladeshis who collaborated with the Pakistani occupation forces in killing, raping, looting and burning in violation of the International Crimes [Tribunals] Act 1973.
   Shafique Ahmed had said early this month that the trial of war criminals would begin with one tribunal and, if necessary, more tribunals would be set up.
   On April 20 the government deferred the announcement of the names of the members of the investigative agency and the prosecution team on security grounds and other reasons.
   The state minister for law, Quamrul Islam, on several occasions, had told reporters that the trial of the war criminals would complete by December.
   The parliament on January 29 approved unanimously, in the absence of the opposition lawmakers, a resolution seeking speedy prosecution of the 1971 war criminals.
   The proposal was moved by Mahmud-us Samad Chowdhury, Awami League lawmaker for the Sylhet-3 constituency.

After investigating the late February rebellion at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Dhaka for nearly two months and a half, the home ministry committee on Thursday submitted its report to the government without disclosing its findings.
   The home minister, Sahara Khatun, who received the 309-page report, however, pledged that the government would make the report public shortly.
   ‘We are pledge-bound to make the report public so that the people come to know the facts,’ Sahara told a press conference at her office after a high-level national committee, headed by a former secretary, handed over the report to her after more than ten weeks of investigation.
   But she did not give any timeline for making the report public on the late February troop mutiny against their commanders that left many army officers killed at the Pilkhana.
   The committee, reconstituted on March 2, was asked to determine the reasons behind the mutiny, give a background description and come up with recommendations on related issues. The committee’s timeline was extended four times to complete the tasks.
   The home minister said that no probe reports in the past had been made public, but the government of Sheikh Hasina was working sincerely to let the people know the facts.
   The bloody February 25-26 rebellion at the BDR headquarters had left as many as 75 people killed, including 57 army officers.
   Handing over the sealed report wrapped in a white packet, the head of the 12-member committee Anis uz-Zaman Khan said that he and his team members had worked sincerely to come up with an unbiased report.
   ‘We prepared the report on the basis of statements we heard, whatever we have seen and whatever we have perceived; it is not based on hypothesis and hearsay,’ said Zaman, a former bureaucrat.
   He expressed his gratitude to his team members for the cooperation they had extended despite many limitations.
   The home minister also thanked the committee for accomplishing the task in the shortest possible time.
   Briefing newsmen at the home ministry, the minister said it would be difficult to read out the report before you.
   ‘We will shortly come up with the report to you to let the people know the facts,’ she said hoping that the report would greatly help the Criminal Investigation Department of police, whose investigation would be taken for trial of the carnage.
   When asked for the executive summary of the report, the minister avoided the question on the plea that the report was sealed.
   The committee chairman said that the report was with the government now and the members had nothing to do.
   ‘We are under certain obligations, and we cannot make comments right now,’ said a member of the 12-man committee. He, however, mentioned that irregularities in the BDR’s ‘daal-bhaat’ programme, wage disparity and intelligence failure were among the reasons for the mutiny.
   He declined comments when asked if the committee had found any political links to the carnage.
   The government had formed three committees – one by the army, another by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police and a third by the home ministry – to investigate the BDR rebellion.
   The army’s committee has submitted its report but its findings have not been disclosed to the media. The army’s probe reportedly found no political links to the incident but suggested further investigation to look into whether it had any such links.
   The CID’s investigation, being assisted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Scotland Yard, is still continuing.
   The authorities have so far arrested more than 3,000 BDR troops in connection with the mutiny. As many as 20 soldiers died reportedly in custody.
   The government has initiated an inquiry into the unnatural deaths of BDR soldiers in custody amid mounting criticism by rights groups of the reported deaths in custody.

The Criminal Investigation Department on Thursday sent former director general of the National Security Intelligence retired brigadier general Abdur Rahim to the Task Force Interrogation cell in Dhaka for further interrogation in connection with Chittagong arms haul case.
   CID sources said they took Rahim out of the Chittagong Central Jail at about 10:30am and sent him to Dhaka for interrogation by the TFI cell.
   CID’s special superintendent Mohammed Moslem said they might send the other arrested, former NSI chief retired major general Rezakul Haider Chowdhury to the TFI cell in Dhaka today. He, however, added that it depended on the decision of the higher authorities.
   Meanwhile, the investigators of the 10-truck arms haul case with the help of local police conducted a raid at the residence of Abdur Rahim at Old DOHS in Dhaka Thursday night.
   An official of the CID told New Age, ‘A team of the department along with Gulshan police conducted at search at the residence for some documents at around 8:45pm.’
   He declined to give further details.
   The CID arrested Rahim at his residence at DOHS and Rezakul at his Dhanmondi house in Dhaka on May 16 following the confessional statement of former NSI director wing commander Shahabuddin Ahmed.
   The two former NSI chiefs were remanded in CID’s custody for three days for interrogation in the case when they were produced in the court of Chittagong metropolitan magistrate Mahbubur Rahman on May 18.
   The CID, on completion of their three-day remand, on Wednesday produced Rahim and Rezakul in the court of metropolitan magistrate Osman Gani who granted a fresh six-day remand for their further interrogation by the TFI cell in Dhaka.
   The CID police arrested Shahabuddin in Dhaka on May 2 following the confessional statement of Akbar Hossain, a field officer of NSI, implicating his former boss in the incident.
   Shahabuddin gave a confessional statement under section 164 before the court of Chittagong metropolitan magistrate Abu Hannan on May 15 on completion of a three-day remand in Chittagong followed by a six-day remand for interrogation by the TFI cell in Dhaka.
   Police seized 4,930 different types of firearms, 27,020 grenades, 840 rocket launchers, 300 accessories of rocket launchers, 2,000 grenade launching tubes, 6,392 magazines and 11,40,520 bullets, when the weapons and ammunition were being loaded on 10 trucks from two engine boats at the jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited on April 2, 2004.
   The case, filed with the Karnaphuli police station, got a new start following the confessional statements of two prime accused Hafizuddin and Deen Mohammed recorded on March 2.

Organisational activities of the ruling Awami League showed signs of stagnation with most senior leaders, who were left out of the mainstream role under the government of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, staying away from the party offices.
   Party insiders have acknowledged that most of the political ‘heavyweights’ of the ruling party became disillusioned after being excluded from the government’s inner circle. ‘They are staying away because the party failed to provide them any political incentive,’ said a top AL leader who wanted not to be quoted.
   As a result, he observed, the 60-year-old party—the country’s largest political group—is facing organisational weakness at the field levels.
   Analysts feared such political apathy on the part of the top nautches could prove detrimental not only to the party itself but also to the country’s parlous state of democracy, which is yet to take firm roots.
   When asked about organisational lethargy, some mid-ranking AL leaders waiting in the wings to take up future leadership, told New Age that holding of the party’s long-awaited national council could help boost organisational activities.
   The AL had last held its national council as early as 2002. A meeting of the party’s central working committee on March 28 was held to fix a date for holding the council, but failed to come up with a date for the same.
   Top AL leaders like Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Abdul Jalil and Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir visit the party offices only when there is a meeting convened by the party president Sheikh Hasina, sources close to them admitted.
   These high-profile leaders, they pointed out, might have been suffering from frustration that kept them away from organisational activities.
   Sheikh Hasina herself has never gone to the AL central office at Bangabandhu Avenue since she took oath of office as the prime minister, party insiders said. While she was in opposition, she often used to attend meetings at the central office.
   Abdul Jalil, while talking to some reporters on April 21, had alleged that the organisational activities of AL were now limping as most of the senior leaders had been made inactive, keeping them out of the party mainstream.
   Mizanur Rahman Shelley, chairman of the Centre for Development Research, Bangladesh, said the ruling party leaders usually tend to shun party activities as they become more interested in government affairs. ‘This is a result of weakness in our politics and party system,’ he said.
   ‘Party leaders become busy with government activities and give little time to attend party activities, leaving the ruling party inactive,’ he pointed out when he was approached to explain the trend.
   When asked for their comments on the organisational status of the ruling party, most senior leaders of AL pointed their finger at Syed Ashraful Islam, the acting party general secretary who in the recent past acted as the party spokesperson, for clarifying it.
   However, Ashraf could be contacted after repeated attempts as he did not take the phone calls. Ashraf earlier announced that he would attend the Dhanmondi office regularly, but he was hardly seen there.
   Those who frequently go to party’s Dhanmondi office include party leaders Obaidul Kader, Abdul Mannan Khan, Asim Kumar Ukil, BM Mozammel Huq, Mrinal Kanti Das and Swechchhasebak League president Bahauddin Nasim.
   While talking to New Age, Obaidul Keder said he attends party office regularly under the directive of his leader Sheikh Hasina to meet with the district-level and grassroots level leaders and workers who come to Dhaka to discuss organisational problems.
   He hoped the party activities would be strengthen after the budget session of the parliament.
   Sheikh Hasina, after taking over power, decided to attend her ‘political’ office at Dhanmondi every Saturday to meet grassroots level leaders and also common people. But in last few weeks, she did not visit the office.

The president, Barack Obama, Thursday vowed not to back down on closing Guantanamo Bay despite raging controversy, branding the camp a ‘mess’ and decrying Bush-era anti-terror tactics as based on fear.
   In a major speech designed to grab back control of the debate over national security policies, Obama also raised the prospect of holding the most dangerous al-Qaeda detainees indefinitely in US ‘super-max’ jails.
   He also pleaded with Americans to turn away from recriminations about the anti-terror tactics of the Bush years to come together to find solutions to ‘some of the most complicated questions that a democracy can face.’
   Within minutes of the Obama speech ending, former vice president Dick Cheney was set to mount a vigorous defence of the former administration, in his own highly public televised speech at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank.
   Obama insisted he had been right to order the closure of the ‘war on terror’ detention camp in Cuba within one year, saying it had stained the US image abroad, infringed bedrock US values and was a recruiting tool for al-Qaeda.
   ‘By any measure, the costs of keeping it open far exceed the complications involved in closing it,’ Obama said at the National Archives, in the literal and metaphorical shadow of the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
   Obama said the camp, and related anti-terror policies of the Bush administration, had left his administration with a deep, and daily political headache.
   ‘We are cleaning up something that is quite simply — a mess — a misguided experiment that has left in its wake a flood of legal challenges.’
   Obama also took aim at the harsh anti-terror methods the Bush administration adopted after the September 11 attacks in 2001, and promised to tell the American people the truth and to encourage oversight of his decisions.
   ‘I also believe that all too often our government made decisions based on fear rather than foresight,’ said Obama, who has banned harsh CIA interrogation tactics branded by critics as torture.
   ‘All too often, our government trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions.’
   Obama also said his administration may seek to transfer some of the most dangerous al-Qaeda detainees at Guantanamo Bay to US ‘super-max’ top security jails — a step highly unpopular with Democrats and Republicans in Congress.
   ‘We are not going to release anyone if it would endanger our national security, nor will we release detainees within the United States who endanger the American people,’ Obama said.
   ‘Where demanded by justice and national security, we will seek to transfer some detainees to the same type of facilities in which we hold all manner of dangerous and violent criminals within our borders.’
   The president also rejected the notion, popular with many in his own Democratic Party that a kind of independent truth commission should be set up to probe anti-terror abuses in the Bush era.
   ‘I have opposed the creation of such a commission because I believe that our existing democratic institutions are strong enough to deliver accountability,’ he said.
   ‘The Congress can review abuses of our values, and there are ongoing inquiries by the Congress into matters like enhanced interrogation techniques.
   ‘The Department of Justice and our courts can work through and punish any violations of our laws,’ he said.
   Cheney was set to hit back in a compelling back and forth between present and former administrations.
   ‘When president Obama makes wise decisions,’ Cheney will say, according to ABC News ‘he deserves our support. When he mischaracterises the decisions we made, he deserves an answer.’
   Cheney will lay out the ‘strategic thinking that drove our policies’ the ABC report said.
   The administration also Thursday announced that the US government will bring a top al-Qaeda suspect held at the detention centre to trial in New York.
   Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian accused in 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, would be the first former detainee at the US naval base where some 240 terror suspects are held, to face trial in a civilian court in the United States.

The number of child sex workers in the country is 18,902, with 52.8 percent of them taking to the profession because of poverty, according to a government survey.
   Of the total child sex workers, 83.1 percent are girls and 9.1 percent are eunuchs while 7.9 percent are boys, said the survey of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children 2008.
   The number of girl sex workers in rural areas is more than double the number in urban areas because of the vicious cycle of poverty. The BBS found that 68.8 percent girl prostitutes were engaged in rural and 31.2 percent in urban.
   Apart from poverty, the BBS survey revealed that 13.9 percent girls were forced to take up the profession owing to torture of their husbands and 2.8 percent owing to parents’ torture.
   Nearly 3.5 percent girls were lured into the profession by the brokers or middlemen.
   The findings of the survey, which are expected to be released on May 26, also said 46 percent girl sex workers were street-based. Some 21.6 percent run their business in residences, 13.2 percent in hotels and 2.2 percent in brothels.
   The BBS director general, AYM Ekramul Hoque said this was the first survey of its kind conducted to know the actual position of the child sex workers in the country.
   ‘Involvement of children in sex work is a social disease which should be addressed in no time,’ he told New Age.
   The government needs detailed information to rehabilitate them by taking corrective measures for these children, he added.
   The BBS study revealed that the girl sex workers were subjected to abuses by musclemen, policemen, brokers and clients.
   Most of the abuses were, however, committed by musclemen (49.4 percent) and policemen (39.7 percent), it added.
   The Bangladesh Shishu Odikhar Forum chairperson, Wahida Banu said a mass awareness programme and enforcement of the existing law by the state machinery were a must to stop sex trade by children.
   ‘Direct financial support and monitoring should be enhanced in the rural areas so that poor parents refrain from sending their children to sex trade,’ she said.
   She said counseling is indispensable while taking corrective measures for their rehabilitation as the BBS survey found that 82.3 percent girl prostitutes were ready to quit their job voluntarily.
   More than 17 percent, however, had shown negative attitude.
   The average daily income of each of the girl prostitutes is Tk 382 and each girl deals with at least four clients. They, however, work four days a weak on an average, said the BBS survey.

The communication ministry in a meeting on Thursday decided to seek the Cabinet’s approval to ratify the intergovernmental agreement on the Asian Highway network as per recommendations of the UNESCAP.
   ‘We have decided to join the other Asian nations by signing the Asian Highway network agreement,’ said communications minister Abul Hossain after emerging from the meeting.
   The ministry will seek final approval from the Cabinet next week and place the country’s latest position in the meeting of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia next September, he added.
   The government of the BNP-led four party alliance, however, did not sign the multi-national deal as it had objections to the proposed routes.
   It was of the opinion that the routes wee not suitable for the country, and believed that acceptance of the proposed routes would give India the opportunity to use the country as a transport ‘corridor’.
   Abul Hossain said the previous government could not sign the agreement due to indecision, in spite of the danger that refusal to do so might isolate the country from the rest of the Asia.
   ‘The present government will make no such mistake and will join the highway network,’ he said.
   There are three proposed routes. Two are the main routes which connect India and Bangladesh. The third one, connecting India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, is described as a regional route.
   The BNP-Jamaat government wanted the third one to be the main route as it would bolster the country’s much cherished ‘Look East Policy’ and expedite economic cooperation with Myanmar, China, Cambodia and Vietnam
   The UNESCAP, however, insisted on ratification of the treaty before Bangladesh places proposals for any change of routes.
   The first proposed route, known as AH 1, will connect Tamabil, Sylhet, Kanchpur, Dhaka, Jessore and Benapol. The AH 2 will connect Banglabandha of Panchagarh, Hati-Kamrul of Sirajganj, Dhaka, Kanchpur and Tamabil.
   The third one, known as AH 41, will link Mongla in Bagerhat, Jessore, Dhaka and Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar.
   The Asian Highway network, which will stretch for 1,41,000 kilometres and cross 32 Asian countries after completion, is also linked with Europe. So far 28 Asian countries have ratified the agreement, according to the UNESCAP.

Taliban hardliners are warning people against wearing Western clothes in the capital of Pakistan’s northwest region where the military is battling Islamists, residents said Thursday.
   ‘I received a piece of paper written in Pushto, saying that doctors and medical workers are wearing unIslamic dress which should be stopped,’ said Abdul Hammed Afridi, chief executive of Peshawar’s main government hospital.
   ‘It was from Tehrek-e-Taliban because the back of the envelope was marked TTP,’ he said. ‘I have not issued any order to change dress. Anybody is free to wear whatever clothes he likes,’ Afridi added.
   But people working at smaller, private companies said they were steering clear of Western-style trousers and shirts, instead donning traditional loose-fitting shalwar khamis after colleagues were beaten up in the streets.
   ‘My office advised me in writing to stop wearing western dress and start wearing shalwar khamis after incidents of violence,’ Mohammad Saghir, who works for a private company, said.
   ‘Last week one of our colleagues was kidnapped by the Taliban, beaten and warned that pharmaceutical staff should stop wearing western dress,’ said Mohammad Nasir Khan, president of a medical representatives organisation.
   ‘They put a warning letter in his pocket after beating him,’ he said.
   ‘One employee of our courier company was beaten on Tuesday and militants warned him to stop wearing T-shirts and trousers,’ an employee at a private company also said.
   Peshawar, the gateway to Pakistan’s tribal badlands on the Afghan border where the United States says Taliban and al-Qaeda extremists have carved out safe havens to plot new attacks on the West, has become increasingly volatile.
   Pakistan is pressing an offensive against the Taliban in three districts of North West Frontier Province, of which Peshawar is the capital, and from where the UN refugee agency said around 1.5 million people have fled since May 2.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Wednesday asked the party men to stop mudslinging among themselves as, she said, it was tarnishing the image of the party.
   Khaleda Zia, also the opposition leader in the parliament, was addressing a closed-door meeting with the founding members of the Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal, the party’s associate organisation for the youth, at her Gulshan office.
   The meeting starting at 8:30pm continued till 12:10am in which the party chairperson listened to the allegations, suggestions and recommendations from the former and incumbent leaders of Jubo Dal.
   Earlier on Tuesday, the founding members of the Juba Dal had organised a discussion meeting to mark the 28th death anniversary of BNP’s founder and former president Ziaur Rahman. Khaleda was present on the podium, but did not participate in the discussion.
   Most of the leaders who spoke at Tuesday’s gathering accused each other of corruption and betraying the party’s cause and demanded that Khaleda take action against corruption suspects in the party and include only those who were honest, dedicated and tested leaders in the party’s committees.
   Against this backdrop, Khaleda called them in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday and briefed them on how to proceed in the coming days.
   ‘We are branding ourselves as corrupt and pointing the finger at each other publicly. Do not do so again for the sake of the party’s image,’ a former Jubo Dal leader, who attended the meeting, told New Age quoting Khaleda Zia.
   ‘I know well what each of you are. We have tried this time to form the convening committees with honest and dedicated leaders. Even after that there may not be cent per cent honest leaders in the committees and many good leaders may be out of the committees. However, I assure you that the honest and competent leaders will be recognised in the party,’ the BNP chairperson was quoted by another Jubo Dal leader as saying.
   Referring to the BNP’s election debacle, Khaleda said, ‘I knew how many seats they would give us in the parliamentary elections and that’s why I did not want to take part in the polls. But I had to give in to the pressure of some of the senior party leaders and Jamaat.’
   She also said, ‘I know which leaders played what role during the interim government. Some of the senior party [BNP] leaders were behind the political changeover on January 11, 2007.’
   She, however, asked the party leaders to maintain discipline and not to harass any of the ‘reformists’ anywhere, especially at her Gulshan office.
   Describing the conspiracy that, she said, started during Ziaur Rahman’s rule, Khaleda said, ‘The conspiracy against BNP as well as against the country still continues. It is the nationalist forces who will foil the conspiracies to save the country.’
   The meeting was addressed, among others, by the party secretaries general Mirza Abbas and Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Jubo Dal secretary Moazzem Hossain Alal and former Jubo Dal leader Kazi Moniruzzaman.

The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, who has presided over the process of transition from the military-backed interim regime through the last general election, said Thursday that army would no longer be needed in holding future polls.
   He said, ‘No elections would be held across the country on a single day.’ Elite force RAB will be deployed along with police for maintaining law and order in election.
   The CEC came in Shariatpur to visit the proposed places of server station for electoral database in six upazilas. He made the remarks while talking to media men at the local circuit house at about 10:00am about the deployment of army in ensuing city corporation, municipality and union parishd elections.
   ‘The Election Commission is contemplating making laws for keeping the next elections free from the influence of ministers, MPs and other people of equivalent status,’ Huda told the newsmen.
   He mentioned that the EC had sent letter to the speaker requesting him to take steps so that ministers and MPs didn’t use their influence in constituencies in last elections. ‘The ruling party complied with the request while the opposition ignored,’ the CEC regretted.
   In reply to a query, he said more reforms would be brought in the electoral laws. But, ‘we alone don’t want to do anything.’
   Huda said electoral laws had been reformed after holding talks with 16 political parties earlier and it would also be done in the future by holding talks with political parties.
   Referring to irregularities in upazila polls, he said 481 upazila elections were held simultaneously across the country. ‘Hence, some irregularities might have happened,’ said the CEC, adding that departmental investigation was launched wherever allegations came from.
   The CEC later went to visit the proposed sites of server station in Sadar, Gosairhat, Damuda, Bhedorganj, Naria and Jazira upazilas.

The University of Dhaka hands over the bachelor’s exams certificate of 1952 Language Moment martyr Abul Barkat to his family today, 57 years after his martyrdom.
   The vice-chancellor, AAMS Arefin Siddique, will hand over the certificate and mark sheet to Barkat’s cousin in his office in an unceremonial programme at the request of the family.
   Barkat ranked fourth in second class in bachelor’s exams of political science in the university in 1951. During his martyrdom in 1952, Barkat was a master’s student.
   Barkat was killed in police firing on students rallying for the recognition of Bangla as one of the state languages of Pakistan. Several students and common people were killed.
   Barkat was buried in the Azimpur graveyard. In recognition of his sacrifice, he was awarded Ekushey Padak posthumously in 2000.
   Abul Barkat was born in 1927 at Babla of Bharatpur in Murshidabad, India. After the partition of India, he came to Dhaka in 1948.
   The event will be recorded as part of a documentary on the Language Movement, according to the university.

Foreign ministers of the Bay of Bengal rim will decide the location of the permanent BIMSTEC secretariat as they meet in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, in September.
   The two-day joint working group meeting on the establishment of the secretariat ended in Dhaka on Thursday, with discussions on its structure, functions, locations, remuneration packages and financial mechanism.
   ‘We have discussed various proposals and decided to leave it for the foreign ministers to give the final nod,’ Kazi Imtiaz Hossain, director general of the SAARC wing in the foreign ministry, told New Age after the meeting.
   Dhaka and Colombo are vying to house the secretariat of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.
   Imtiaz, who chaired the senior officials’ meet in Dhaka, said Bangladesh had argued in favour of its proposal. ‘The secretariat will initially be set up in a rented house for a short period until a suitable place is found to house the office permanently.’
   ‘Once the organisation agrees Bangladesh’s proposal, we will hope to build a permanent secretariat in a suitable place in three years,’ he said.
   Dhaka hopes to get the opportunity to house the secretariat as major players of the grouping hinted at their support for Bangladesh.
   Colombo, on the other hand, proposed to house the secretariat within the premise of the Bandarnaike Centre for International Studies, a statutory institute of the country.
   Sri Lanka at the meeting also said as the civil war had been over, they could now easily house the secretariat as some member countries earlier expressed their reservations about Colombo in view of its internal security in the wake of civil war.
   In reply to a question on the proposals for funding mechanism of the grouping, Imtiaz said various proposed modes including equal sharing and proportionate share on the basis of the economic growth as well as population came up for discussion.
   ‘But we have decided the foreign ministers at their meeting will finalise the issue,’ he said.
   As for structure of the BIMSTEC secretariat, the senior officials observed it would have between 10 and 15 people, including the secretary general and at least four officials of the rank of director, in the initial stage.
   According to the proposal, the foreign ministry estimates the monthly rent for the secretariat to range between Tk 1 lakh and Tk 1.5 lakh, office decoration and furnishing to cost about Tk 20 lakh and vehicles for the office to cost about Tk 50 lakh.
   Established in 1997, the regional forum has now seven members — Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal, and Bhutan.