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The police in Kushtia arrested the district Mahila Awami League general secretary and four others in possession of an AK-47 Rifle Monday night and the Jhenaidah police seized 17 modern firearms and arrested two others on Tuesday.
   Senior police officials in both the districts said the arrested were involved in gun running.
   In Kushtia, the New Age correspondent said, the district unit Mahila Awami League general secretary, Taslima Khan Ankhi, also a ward commissioner, was arrested when she was carrying the AK-47 Rifle, a shotgun and ammunition.
   Taslima’s associates — Daulatpur unit Awami League leader Abdur Razzak, party activist Rani and microbus driver Shahin — were also arrested when the police intercepted their microbus at Trimohani near the entrance to the Kushtia town.
   The police also found 66 AK-47 bullets and 16 shotgun bullets Taslima was carrying by fastening them to the body.
   Tipped off, a police team about 11:00pm stopped the microbus in which the four were going to the district town from bordering upazila of Daulatpur.
   The police said the arrested were involved in trading in illegal arms with extremist group Gana Mukti Fauz.
   Immediately after the seizure, the police and the Rapid Action Battalion raided different places at Daulatpur and arrested one Akkas Ali suspected of being involved in illegal arms trading.
   The Kushtia police superintendent, Shahabuddin Khan, at a briefing on Tuesday said the arms that were seized were brought to carry out political killings and tender-related violence in the district.
   Taslima, wife of former Kushtia ward commissioner Kohinoor Khan, is accused in the killing of Kushtia Juba League leader Jamirul Islam in her house. She was arrested on October 30, 2006 and was released on bail in a week.
   The correspondent in Jhenaidah said the police Tuesday morning arrested two others suspected of being involved in arms trading in possession of 17 modern firearms at Arappur. They were headed for Rajshahi in a bus from Jessore, the police said.
   The arrested are Azad Hossain, and Saidul Islam, residents of Andulia at Chowgachha in Jessore.
   The police superintendent, Rezaul Karim, said a contingent of police, tipped off, intercepted the bus at the Arappur bus stand and seized the arms.
   The Jhenaidah police officer-in-charge, Matiur Rahman, said the arrested were involved in illegal arms trade.
   The arrested, now in police custody for further interrogation, were involved in manufacturing firearms used by extremist groups in the locality, the police superintendent said.

The High Court on Tuesday ordered the inspector general of police and the Dhaka metropolitan police commissioner to stop in 48 hours dirt-filling in and encroachment on the River Turag.
   The High Court bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui also asked the government to stop dirt-filling in and encroachment on the Buriganga, Turag, Balu and Sitalakhya until the ongoing survey of the rivers, as directed earlier by the High Court, is completed.
   The bench passed the order after hearing a petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Manzill Murshid on behalf of the rights organisation Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh pursuant to the High Court verdict delivered on June 25 detailing a series of directives to stop encroachment on the four rivers surrounding Dhaka.
   The same bench on October 8, after a preliminary hearing in the petition, asked the Dhaka metropolitan police commissioner, Dhaka deputy commissioner, environment department director general and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority chairman to submit a report on the encroachment and dirt-filling in the Buriganga and Turag rivers at Mirpur and Hazaribagh to the Supreme Court registrar in seven days after the visiting the rivers.
   After reviewing the report and hearing the petition, the court came up with the orders on Tuesday.
   Moving the petition, Manzill told the court the High Court on June 25 had delivered a judgment ordering demolition of all illegal structures and removal of the dirt dumped inside the rivers.
   Because of negligence of the officials, encroachment on and dirt-filing in the rivers is still going on, he said, referring to newspaper reports that covered the incidents of encroachment on the Turag and Buriganga.
   In the verdict, the High Court bench of Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice M Mamtaz Uddin Ahmed asked the government to demarcate the four rivers surrounding Dhaka — Balu, Turag, Buriganga and Sitalakhya — according to the cadastral survey in four months and report on the matter to the court by December 15.
   The court had ordered on-site demarcation of river boundaries by erecting pillars, demolishing all illegal structures and removing the dirt dumped from inside the boundaries without any discrimination by May 31, 2010.
   The costs of the demolition of illegal structures and removal of dirt dumped unlawfully may be recovered from the offenders under the Public Demands Recovery Act, the court had said.
   The court ordered the construction of boundary walls and walkways along the river and planting of trees in rows by May 31, 2011.
   It also asked the Dhaka City Corporation, municipalities concerned and the Public Works Department to plant trees along the river areas in their jurisdiction.
   The officials will be responsible individually if the works are not completed on time, the court had said.
   The court also ordered the environment and forest ministry to declare the four river areas ecologically critical areas under Section 5 of the Environment Conservation Act 1995.
   It had ordered the land ministry to hand over the land within the port limit to the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority so that it could take necessary step to look after the river land.
   The court observed considering the sources of the four rivers and their flow needs, the government should as well dredge the Bangshi and the Dhaleswari and also the link canals of Tongi, Pungli and Karnapara in five years.
   The government should form a committee to recommend ways to protect all navigable rivers, it observed.

The government has formed a one-man judicial commission to investigate corruption that took place in five public universities between 2001 and 2008, according to a gazette notification.
   ‘The government in line with Section 3 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act 1956 has formed the one-member judicial inquiry commission with Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, a High Court judge,’ the gazette, published on October 18, said.
   The gazette notification said there were numerous allegations of financial and administrative corruption against the authorities of public universities and newspapers carried several reports on such corruption.
   The terms of reference of the commission are to investigate financial and administrative corruption that took place in Rajshahi University, National University, Bangladesh Open University, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology and Maulana Bhasani University between 2001 and 2008.
   The commission will also put forth recommendations to the government in this regard.
   The commission has been asked to submit its report to the education ministry in three months. A University Grants Commission official will discharge the secretarial duties of the commission, the notification said.
   The education ministry on October 26 sent a letter to the registrar of the Supreme Court informing him of the formation of the commission and requested him to take further steps.
   Asked when the commission will start work, the education ministry official who sent the letter to the Supreme Court said it was for the commission to decide.
   The UGC chairman, Professor Nazrul Islam, told New Age on Tuesday they were ready to provide the commission with logistic support. ‘No one in favour of the judicial commission has contacted us till date on the issue. We have also not contacted the commission till today. But we are ready to provide it with all kinds of support,’ he said.
   The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, early February initiated the move to form the judicial commission.
   There are 31 public universities in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh restricted Zimbabwe to a humiliating 44 runs to post a six-wicket win, taking the five-match series with an unassailable 3-1 lead at the Chittagong divisional stadium on Tuesday.
   On a track that was supposed to be a batting paradise, the spinners ruled the roost to surprise the batsmen of both the sides, but Zimbabwe had to pay the penalty having totally misread it and opting to bat first.
   Zimbabwe also struggled against a controlled display of out-swing bowling by Nazmul Hossain and with Abdur Razzak generating turn from his very first over, they were thrown into a deep sea.
   Peter Chingoka, the long-standing president of Zimbabwe Cricket, had reached Chittagong in the morning before the game started and by the time he came to the ground, both Nazmul and Razzak had struck twice to reduce Zimbabwe to four for eight runs.
   If Naeem Islam could hold on to a catch of Malcolm Waller off Nazmul at cover point, it would have further reduced Zimbabwe to five for nine, something that one-day cricket has witnessed only once and that too courtesy of Bangladesh and Tuesday’s man-of-the-match Nazmul Hossain.
   A similarly outstanding spell of Nazmul had helped Bangladesh reduce Sri Lanka to 5 for six in the tri-nation final in January, which was the first and only instance in an ODI so far for a team to lose five wickets before their score reached a double digit.
   Bangladesh had still lost the game with Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara playing an outstanding innings. Zimbabwe may have avoided the ignominy, but they could not avoid a defeat as Enamul Haque Jr and Sakib al Hasan took control of the game soon.
   This time, the duo had Zimbabwe middle- and lower-order reeling taking three wickets each for 16 and eight runs respectively as the tourists were all out for 44 runs in 24.5 overs, the fifth lowest total in an ODI. This was for the third time Zimbabwe were all out under 50 runs.
   It was also the lowest total by any team against Bangladesh after Hong Kong’s 105 at Asia Cup 2004 in Colombo.
   Bangladesh have never won a game by 10 wickets batting second, so everybody was hoping that openers Tamim Iqbal and Junaed Siddique would achieve that feat and they were well on course racing to 33 in 6.3 overs.
   Tamim first gave Zimbabwe a chance to make the wicket an excuse by sweeping Raymond Price to be caught at square leg by Graeme Cremer to end his innings on 22. Three balls later in the same over, Mohammad Ashraful missed the flight of a straight delivery and was duly adjudged lbw for a duck.
   Naeem Islam, having been promoted in the batting line-up, was caught at deep square leg by Chibhabha off Cremer, who also later claimed the wicket of struggling opener Junaed Siddique, earning some consolation for Zimbabwe, who have now lost five straight series to Bangladesh.
   Roqibul Hassan finished the game with a huge six off Cremer over the long-on boundary taking the hosts to 49-4 in 11.5 overs, the quickest ever successful run chase by Bangladesh bettering the previous record of 17.3 overs against Bermuda in World Cup 2007.

Nepal’s army and the police have been placed on high alert, a government minister said Tuesday, after the opposition Maoist party announced plans to blockade the capital and shut down the main airport.
   The finance minister, Surendra Pandey, said the Maoists’ plans were in breach of the 2006 peace agreement signed by the former guerrillas, who have held regular protests in Nepal since their government fell in May.
   ‘The government has placed all the security agencies on high alert in view of the protests,’ said Pandey.
   ‘The Maoists have violated the spirit of the comprehensive peace accord by announcing plans to blockade the Kathmandu Valley and shut down the airport. This is not a democratic way to press for their demands.’
   The Maoists, who fought a 10-year civil war against the state before winning landmark elections in 2008, last week announced a fortnight of nationwide protests aimed at destabilising the new coalition government.
   They have vowed to bring Kathmandu to a standstill on November 10 by shutting the country’s only international airport during the peak tourist season and blocking all roads into the capital.
   They are calling for the president to apologise for blocking Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s attempt to sack the head of the army, a move they say was unconstitutional.
   Maoist spokesman Dinanath Sharma denied the protests were in breach of the peace agreement, which prohibits the ‘spread of social disharmony in any manner, including acts of incitement and instigation.’
   ‘We have the right to organise peaceful protests. We have been forced into this because the government is not listening to our demands,’ he said.

The assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was not an act of mutiny but of murder and hence the guilty army officers could certainly be tried in a conventional court, the chief state counsel said Tuesday to refute the defence plea for their retrial in a court-martial.
   ‘Even if it is agreed for the sake of argument, though not conceded, that there was a predawn mutiny on August 15, 1975, no wrong had been committed by trying the accused persons in the Mujib murder case in the civil courts because, along with mutiny, there was murder,’ Anis said before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court while making his arguments for a second straight day in the appeal hearings.
   The state counsel said mutiny was exclusively triable by court-martial, but, in the case of murder, the Army Act of 1952 provides concurrent jurisdiction to both a court-martial and an ordinary criminal court.
   In that case, the prescribed laws under the Army Act and legal procedures under CrPC should be complied with, the state lawyer added.
   Referring to the leave granting order whether it was a mutiny leading to murder or murder simpliciter, he termed it misconceived because whichever way or manner it is looked at there had been murder and for
   murder there is concurrent jurisdiction subject to section 59(2) of the Army Act.
   Section 59 (2) says: A case of murder cannot be tried under the Army Act if the victims are not subject to service law unless he commits the offence.
   Anis viewed that since the state had fully complied with the provisions of the Army Act and CrPC during the trial process, no illegality was done and in no way the accused were prejudiced as they got to defend them by engaging lawyers. ‘Even the fugitives were provided state lawyers.’
   Rebutting the defence plea that the first information report was lodged after a long lapse of 21 years that speaks of ill intention and a design on part of the prosecution to falsely implicate the convict petitioners in the occurrence on the basis of concocted and manipulated evidence to prejudice of the convicts, the state counsel made a vivid pen picture in this regard as to how the lodging of FIR was delayed.
   Anis said, ‘It was an unfolded story of neglect, the story of discrimination and the story of lawlessness.’
   He went on: Long after the guns fell silent, the machinations for denying recourse to justice kept rolling —’a man, maimed and pained, stood resolute and poured out the tale of blood. That is what we call the FIR in Bangabandhu murder case’.
   Anis said, ‘The post-75 successive governments overtly or covertly prevented lodging FIR and bringing charge against the self-confessed killers of Bangabandhu by keeping in force the Indemnity Ordinance 1975 that protected the August 15 perpetrators from trial’.
   Besides, Prosecution Witness No-1 AFM Mohitul Islam, who lodged the FIR, could not file the FIR with Lalbagh police station in due time because of fear of his life as the accused persons had been active in society and political arena for long.
   Anis said dismissed Syed Faruque Rahman, now on of the condemned prisoners, and condemned-fugitive Khondaker Abdur Rashid were allowed to float a political party named Freedom Party in 1982.
   Later, Faruque contested the presidential elections. Rashid contested the farcical February 1996 parliamentary elections from Chandina in Comilla and, on being elected, was made leader of the opposition in parliament, he stated.
   ‘Under the facts and circumstances, it was not possible for any person or a layman to lodge an FIR,’ the state counsel viewed.
   Anis told the court that mere delay in lodging a complaint was not a ground for quashing a proceeding as there were varying circumstances in which the lodging of any information as to the commission of an offence may be delayed.
   Citing decisions the state counsel said law is settled that mere delay in filing the FIR cannot be fatal to a criminal prosecution when explanation offered in the FIR as to delay appeared to be very much plausible and acceptable.
   ‘So the question of prosecution case cannot be blown away simply because there had been a delay in lodging the FIR,’ Anis argued.
   He further contended that there was no hard and fast rule about lodging FIR. ‘It is not barred by limitation subject to reasonable explanation,’ he said.
   The hearing session was adjourned till today.

The BNP’s secretary-general, Khandakar Delwar Hossain, on Tuesday said that the recent amendments to the Representation of the People Order were meant to keep his party out of politics, and accused the government of conspiring to foil his party’s National Council Session which is scheduled for December 8.
   ‘The provision of cancelling the registration of political parties was kept in the RPO in a bid to oust the BNP from politics. The past government, with the help of the military, attempted to split the BNP into fragments but was not successful. This government, along with the Election Commission, is continuing the effort to cancel the registration of BNP,’ claimed Delwar while talking to reporters at BNP’s central office in Naya Paltan.
   The Jatiya Sangsad on Monday passed the Representation of the People (Second Amendment) Bill that has made it mandatory for all political parties to submit their Constitutions, duly approved by the council sessions, and the parties failing to meet the requirement will lose registration.
   ‘There was no provision of cancelling any party’s registration but they added this provision and passed the amendment though an independent member had opposed it,’ he said
   Delwar said the government was attempting to foil the party’s National Council Session but the people would not let that happen. ‘We will hold a successful council session, thwarting all their conspiracies,’ he said.
   ‘The Election Commission is also plotting to cancel the BNP’s registration by taking advantage of the loopholes in the law. All the elections in the country were held under the RPO 1972 but interim government amended it by incorporating clauses to control the political parties. We had opposed this from very beginning,’ he said.
   Pointing to the prime minister’s remarks in the House involving BNP with the bomb attack on AL lawmaker Sheikh Fazle Noor Tapash, Delwar said such statements before the trial hinder the investigation process.
   ‘We condemned the attack on Tapash and again condemn it. The Awami League has a habit of blaming others and is doing so in Tapash’s case,’ he said.
   ‘It is a matter of shame for the nation that the prime minister herself wants to put the blame on BNP before any investigation has been carried out. Speaking against someone to involve him wrongfully is against the law,’ he said.
   BNP’s vice-chairman Tariqul Islam and office secretary Rizvi Ahmed were also present on the occasion.

The British delegation of lawmakers on Tuesday stressed the need for constructive engagement between the treasury and opposition benches in the Bangladesh parliament for ensuring sustainable livelihood for the poor people.
   They said the opposition party ‘needs to be engaged’ in the parliamentary process ‘fully and constructively’.
   They also said it should be ensured that British money is being spent correctly and effectively by the government and the non-government organisations.
   ‘A constructive engagement between the government and the opposition will be helpful to improve the governance situation and ensure sustainable livelihood for the poor people,’ said Malcolm Bruce MP, chairman of the International Development Committee of the British Parliament, at a press briefing on Tuesday.
   He said the opposition parties need to play an effective role to make the parliament effective.
   He also said ‘democratic politics’ should replace ‘dirty politics’ in order to improve governance.
   The nine-member International Development Committee delegation was on a week-long visit to scrutinise the UK’s aid partnership with Bangladesh and the work of the Department of International Development of the British government. The IDC is responsible for overseeing their development activities throughout the world.
   When asked what impression they have of the projects implemented by British funds, Malcolm, a liberal democrat, said they prefer to provide budgetary support for development. ‘But the situation in Bangladesh is different. That’s why we fund projects through local development partners,’ he said. ‘But ensuring checks and balance is essential.’
   He told a questioner that funding would be stopped or withheld if the money is not spent in the right manner.
   Nigel Evans, who is a lawmaker from the opposition Conservative Party, echoed Malcolm. ‘We would love to provide budgetary support, but we can’t just because the mechanisms are not available. We need to find out alternatives as we need to see that all the money sent by British citizens is being spent effectively.’
   Marsha Singh MP, who represents a good number of Bangladeshi immigrants living in his constituency, said, ‘Long-term engagement will continue…My own view is very optimistic.’
   They said they would submit a report to the (British) parliament upon their return to the UK.
   They appreciated Bangladesh’s role in the global negotiations on climate change.
   Chris Austin, chief of DFID Dhaka, also spoke on the occasion.

Opposing extra-judicial killing in the name of ‘cross-fire’ in Bangladesh, a group of European parliamentarians Tuesday called for bringing to book the persons responsible for taking law into their own hands.
   The leader of a five-member delegation of European Parliament, Niraj Deva, viewed that there should be no ‘impunity’ to perpetrators and that nobody should be kept above the law.
   He, however, said they were told that the number of ‘cross-fire’ came down in recent times and the European parliamentarians were eagerly waiting to see Human Rights Commission as an important step in this regard.
   ‘There are people who took law into their hands and they must be brought to book. Rule of law must be paramount and no one is above law,’ Deva told newsmen at BRAC-Inn Centre.
   On the functioning of Bangladesh’s parliament amid boycott of the opposition, he emphasised the importance of criticisms and debates in parliament to make it a centre of policymaking.
   ‘The Bengalees as a nation love to debate. And if there is no debate, it sounds very unlikely,’ said Deva, a Sri Lankan-origin British member of the European Parliament.

Ministries spent only 10 per cent of the their allocations of the annual development programme in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, showing no visible impact of the much-hyped steps said to have been taken to improve the public project implementation status.
   The ADP money spending rate of the July-September period was slightly higher than the pace seen during the same period of the last two fiscal years under emergency rules, but down from that of the last fiscal year of the immediate past political regime, planning ministry data showed.
   Wholesale drive against corruption and the interim government's little obligation to take up development ventures brought down the ADP fund spending to its lowest rates in years.
   The rate of development fund spending was seven per cent in 2007-08 fiscal and nine per cent in 2008-09 fiscal, but it was 11 per cent in 2006-07 under the previous political government, according to a comparative study done by the planning ministry's Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division.
   The poor implementation rate did not match up with the expansionary public investment plans envisaged in the 2009-10 budget to give enough stimuli to the domestic economy to ward off global recession impacts and chase a growth target of 6 per cent or beyond.
   Analysts said a higher growth is a must for reducing poverty, which is the prime target of most of the announced development goals of the Awami League-led alliance government. To achieve that target, more public spending is needed to boost domestic production, demand and employment, they felt.
   A number of steps were planned or taken up to accelerate fund release and public procurement, but no dividend was seen as yet. Planning officials, however, said development works traditionally get a faster pace in the second half and reach their climax with the fiscal year nearing its end.
   Whatever fund was released, the ministries' capacity remained as poor as it was. A total of Tk Tk 3125 crore of the Tk 30,500 crore ADP was spent during July-September period of 2009-10 fiscal.
   'If such trend continues in the coming months, the goals of increasing domestic demands will be jeopardized,' Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies senior research fellow Zaid Bakth told New Age.
   Moreover, economic growth might slow down further, the economist forewarned.
   The country's gross domestic product grew only 5.8 per cent in the last fiscal year, lowest in past five years.
   The latest International Monetary Fund mission forecast that Bangladesh's economic growth will slow down to 5 per cent because of global recession impacts while continued problems in ADP implementation would hold back the overall investment activities.
   Finance minister AMA Muhith, however, contested the forecast, saying, 'We think it should not be less than 6 per cent, if not more.'
   Huge idle money lying with commercial banks indicates that the private sector investment has also been stymied.
   Commercial banks have been wallowing in idle money worth Tk 35,000 crore as of June, compared with Tk 13,000 crore in June 2008 due to slowing demand for credit from the private sector.
   In the first quarter, local government, communications, energy, health, primary education, education, water Resources, agriculture and housing were the major spending ministries. These ministries and divisions use up 76 per cent of the development outlay.
   The IMED study showed that the housing and public works ministry could spend only one per cent of its ADP allocation in the first three months of the fiscal, while water resources ministry ended up with three per cent, and communications and health ministries seven per cent each.
   A number of big projects, including expressway and improvement of public healthcare system, have been planned under the communications and health ministries, but those are still in paper.
   The Energy and Mineral Resources Division emerged as the highest spending with 19 per cent, followed by agriculture with 18 per cent, primary and mass education 17, education ministry 16, Local Government Division 15 and Power Division 11.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has urged the member-countries of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to assist Bangladesh in its grim fight against the perils of global climate change as the country needs international cooperation in protecting the people.
   She made the call when the visiting OIC secretary general, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, paid a courtesy call on her at the Prime Minister's Office Tuesday and discussed with her various issues, including terrorism, trade, tariff, education, and science and technology.
   The OIC secretary general lauded prime minister's role in the international forums in the matter of tackling the challenges stemming from the climate change, caused by global warming due to excessive carbon emissions.
   Hasina, in reply, said the present government had chalked up an action plan on its own capacity to protect its people from the natural calamities.
   'But Bangladesh needs international cooperation in successfully facing the challenges of the global warming,' the deputy press secretary to the prime minister, Mahbubul Hoque Shakil, quoted her as saying.
   The OIC chief said the forum of Muslim countries was now working on priority basis against international terrorism and for development of education, science, technology, and health sectors and increasing trade and business in its member-countries.
   In this context, Ekmeleddin highly praised Bangladesh government's development initiatives and expressed the hope that living standard of its people would be developed under the able leadership of Hasina.
   On the issue of international terrorism, the prime minister said, 'The land of Bangladesh will never be allowed to be used for any terrorist activity.'
   The OIC secretary general congratulated Hasina on the Bangladesh Awami League-led alliance's landslide victory at the December 29, 2008 parliamentary polls.

The government on Tuesday placed a bill in the parliament seeking effective control over transmission, distribution, marketing and storage of natural gas proposing provisions for jail terms and financial penalties.
   The state minister for power, energy and mineral resources, Mohammad Enamul Haq, placed the bill, Bangladesh Gas Bill 2009, focused on trade in natural gas. He said enactment of the law would help the government to regulate sales of gas and establish rights to unmeasured gas resources.
   'There was no law on transmission, distribution, marketing, supply and storage of gas. Now we feel the need for an act to facilitate trade in gas,' the state minister said.
   Under the proposed law, any individual or business entity could run the business of gas transmission by fulfilling certain conditions.
   Businessmen or organisations must take licences from the Energy Regularity Commission, according to the proposed law, and must follow international standards and strategies in transmission of natural gas to consumers.
   The bill proposes that the licensed commercial bodies will have the authority to lay out pipelines in designated areas for transmission, distribution, supply and storage of gas. They will also have the authority over the pipelines, the bill says.
   The bill specified nine categories of gas subscribers, based on usage - household, commercial, industrial, seasonal, compressed natural gas, tea garden users, electricity, fertiliser and captive power units.
   It proposes up to a year's imprisonment or Tk 100,000 in financial penalty for the people who will cheat consumers by selling CNG in violation of the gas pressure set by the government or by tempering meters.
   For acts of sabotage in any from, the bill also stipulates a maximum of five years in jail and Tk 1 million in financial penalty for the people involved in subversive activities.
   The bill proposes a maximum of two years' imprisonment and a maximum of Tk 2,00,000 in penalty for setting up gas line without permission.

The Dhaka University authorities Tuesday suspended five of its students and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League on charge of tarnishing image of the university.
   The five suspended students are – Md Mehrab, Qudrat-e-Khuda, Khan Muhammad Jahid, Ruman Hossain Sunny and Muhammad Zaman.
   Earlier, they were arrested on charge of snatching valuables, including Tk 1,800 cash and a cell-phone set, from a flower trader on the Dhaka University campus early Saturday.
   DU Proctor KM Saiful Islam Khan said the proctor office will move further to make the suspension order permanent.

Armed criminals assaulted the director of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Professor AKM Muhibullah, and vandalised windowpanes and furniture of his office at Sher-e-Banglanagar in the capital on Tuesday.
   In an instant protest, the physicians and employees of the hospital went out on demonstrations, demanding arrest and punishment of the attackers. All kinds of operational activities remained suspended for about one hour following the incident.
   Witnesses said, a gang of armed criminals numbering 8/10 with the help of a section of dishonest employees of the hospital stormed into the office room of Professor AKM Muhibullah and hurled abusive words on him and disconnected the fixed phone line at around 10:30am.
   At one stage, the attackers swooped on Muhibullah and manhandled and massively vandalised and ransacked the glasses, documents furniture and office equipments.
   The gangsters snatched away the personal cell phone of the director before fleeing the scene.
   Professor AKM Muhibullah told New Age, ‘The incident took place as he had been trying to resist a gang of criminals from doing illegal activities at his institute for the past two and a half years.’
   Mohammad Riaz Hossain, officer-in-charge of Sher-e-Banglanagar police station, told New Age, ‘A case was filed in this connection against Monir, Titu, Munna and Fazlu and we are trying to nab the suspects.’

The central bank has told a parliamentary committee that all companies of the Beximco Group, one of Bangladesh's biggest business conglomerates, have been off the list of loan defaulters since the quarter ending in June.
   On Nov 1, the Bangladesh Bank wrote back to the finance ministry committee to say none of the many companies of the Group, according to the June quarterly and Sept monthly database for this year, had had any loans classified.
   The Group has bounced back spectacularly since the release of Salman Rahman late last year from detention by the military-installed emergency government.
   After years of stagnation and poor growth, the Group is believed to have repaid in less than a year bank loans worth hundreds of crore of takas through adjustments such as offloading hemorrhaging concerns.
   The central bank letter, obtained by bdnews24.com, was in response to an Oct 15 letter from A H M Mustafa Kamal, MP.
   Kamal, the finance committee chief, told bdnews24.com that he had asked the Bangladesh Bank to furnish him with debt details of the Beximco companies. "The data the central bank has sent clearly show none of the Beximco companies are defaulting any more," Kamal said.
   The Bank letter to the MP read: "According to the latest Credit Information Bureau (CIB) database updated by banks and financial institutions, the June 2009 quarterly and Sept 2009 monthly credit information reports show that all concerned Beximco companies are free from any loan default."
   On July 5, the finance minister, A M A Muhith, caused a furore by publishing a list of 2196 defaulting companies in parliament.
   These companies, including several Beximco ones topping the list, together had a commercial bank debt of nearly Tk 15,500 crore.
   Days later, on July 9, the minister clarified that his list, which made big headlines in the papers, had been based on months-old data. Muhith also admitted the publication of the flawed list caused damage to these companies' brands and promised updated information soon.

A passenger train smashed into a cargo train on the edge of Pakistan's financial capital Karachi on Tuesday killing 16 people, including women and children, authorities said.
   'We have received two more dead bodies. With this, now I can confirm that 16 people are dead, including three children and three women. There are more than 45 injured,' doctor Seemi Jamali of Jinnah Hospital said. Most of the casualties had been travelling in the passenger train.
   The police and rescue workers said they were still working to retrieve bodies and survivors from the wreckage of the passenger train hours after the crash.
   The accident took place at Juma Goth, in the suburbs of Karachi, when the driver of the Karachi-bound Allama Iqbal express ignored a traffic signal and collided with the goods train, senior railway official Aftab Memon said. Most of the casualties occurred in one passenger coach of the train, which was coming from the eastern city of Lahore, he said.