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Unsubstantiated statements by top leaders of the ruling Awami League and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party are fuelling politics of confrontation and standing in the way of a healthy democratic culture, said politicians, political scientists and economists.
   They believe that the Awami League should take its main political opponent in confidence, and the BNP lawmakers should return to Jatiya Sangsad to discharge their responsibilities as a watchdog in parliamentary democracy.
   ‘The situation is not encouraging at all as there are hardly any signs of improvement in the political culture. Moreover, unproven claims are marring chances for democratic culture to flourish,’ political scientist professor Talukder Moniruzzaman told New Age.
   He said some ruling party leaders were making ‘unproven’ statements involving the opposition leaders in different cases and incidents. ‘It will not help improve political situation,’ he said.
   When asked what role he expected from the BNP, Moniruzzaman, a teacher of political science at Dhaka University, said, ‘They should return to the parliament if the government addresses some of their issues.’
   He said that the ruling party should show a ‘liberal’ attitude towards the opposition’s viewpoints. ‘What’s wrong in leaving some seats for the opposition in the house,’ he asked.
   Deputy speaker, Shawkat Ali, on October 30 directly accused BNP’s founder Ziaur Rahman of killing the country’s founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. ‘Zia not only killed Sheikh Mujib but also patronised his killers,’ he said while addression the 31st founding anniversary of the Muktijoddha Sanghati Parishad at Ramna Batamul.
   Senior Awami League lawmakers Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Amir Hossain Amu and Suranjit Sengupta on October 29 accused the opposition leader, Khaleda Zia of being a party to the conspiracy behind the October 21 bomb attack on AL lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh.
   The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Monday advised the BNP to refrain from supporting the ‘killers and war criminals’. She put out the call in parliament when she spoke on a motion censuring the attack on Awami League lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh on October 21.
   The BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on October 24 said the present government should be shown the door before it served out its term as it was ‘put in power to implement conspiracies.’
   The party’s secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, said on October 28 the chances for the opposition’s return to the parliament was diminishing because of the government’s ‘autocratic attitude.’
   Referring to the prime minister’s remarks in the house linking the BNP to the bomb attack on AL lawmaker Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, Delwar on Wednesday said the Awami League has a habit of blaming others and is doing so in Taposh’s case.
   The lawmakers of the BNP-led alliance have been refraining from joining the house after the first session as, according to them, the treasury bench was depriving them of most of the front row seats to the left to the speaker.
   Economist professor Anu Muhammad was highly critical about the political culture in the two major political parties, Awami League and BNP.
   ‘The Awami League and the BNP are the major political forces here, but they are inclined to feudal culture,’ he said. ‘When they are in power, they think they have the licence to do whatever they like. They also think the people will believe whatever they say.’
   Anu Muhammad, also a teacher of economics at Jahangirnagar University, said the statements, made recently without providing any evidence or proper investigations, were only helping further deterioration of political culture.
   ‘The government and the security agencies, no matter which party is in power, sometimes “cook up” stories to support their claims or justify their actions. But, ultimately, such stories prove to be untrue,’ he said. ‘The present government is no exception.’
   He observed that the BNP, which was staying out of parliament, was unable to mobilise people against the misdeeds of the government.
   ‘The BNP decided to stay out of parliament as it was a part of its political culture. Now they are making excuses to justify the decision,’ he said.
   ‘I see no signs the situation will improve,’ he said.
   A section of politicians believe ‘offensive statements’ by both the ruling and opposition parties would encourage ‘politics of confrontation’.
   ‘When we are talking about building a national consensus, such offensive remarks from the two major political parties would only fuel confrontation between the two sides,’ Awami League presidium member Obaidul Kader told New Age.
   He warned that ‘such attitudes’ of the politicians would also encourage undemocratic forces.
   When asked about the BNP’s absence in the parliament, Kader said the Awami League should take initiatives to bring the opposition back to the house.
   The BNP’s joint secretary general Abdullah Al Noman said, ‘Democratic culture hardly exists in or outside the parliament.’
   ‘They [ruling party leaders] are manufacturing stories involving the opposition leaders in different incidents and cases,’ he said. He also blamed some of the ruling party’s steps for the people’s eroding confidence in the judiciary and the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   Kader and Noman said the major political parties should reach a minimum understanding for greater interest of the country which was facing many challenges.
   ‘Militancy is a major problem in our sub-continent. Maybe Bangladesh is their next target…To face religious militancy, unity among the major political parties is essential and there is no alternative…,’ Kader, a former student leader, said. ‘We need unity also to bargain with the foreigners.’
   Noman said the ruling party should take the opposition into confidence ‘to tackle problems like maritime boundary disputes with India and Myanmar, India’s Tipaimukh dam project and soaring prices of essentials.’

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that that some of the constitutional provisions, excepting a few sensitive ones inserted by the ‘unconstitutional regimes’, should be annulled in line with ‘people’s expectation’.
   ‘There are many provisions in the constitution that need to be amended. A proposal in line with the public’s aspirations should be submitted to the Sangsad,’ the prime minister told the parliament on Wednesday while addressing its members on the country’s Constitution Day.
   ‘We will take the sensitive provisions into due consideration,’ she said, adding that the unconstitutional regimes in the past had amended the constitution many times to increase their power. They had distorted the constitution time and again to perpetuate their political authority.
   Bangladesh ratified its constitution on 4 November, 1972 and since then the day has been observed as Constitution Day.
   At the beginning of the day’s business, Speaker Abdul Hamid, one of the signatories of the constitution, recalled the contribution of the people who had played their part in ratifying it.
   Before she began parliamentary work — the weekly prime minister’s question-answer-session — Hasina paid tributes to those who had contributed to the formation of the constitution and said that the country’s 1972 constitution had reflected the people’s aspiration for independence and revolution.
   The ’72 constitution had ensured all the basic human rights, but it was violated time and again.
   ‘We could have become one of the respected nations in the last 38 years if the constitutional provisions had not been violated,’ said the prime minister.
   The incidents on 15 August, 1975 [assassination of founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman] and of 3 November, 1975 [killing of the four national leaders in prison] had slowed down national development, she said.
   The prime minister requested the surviving parliamentarians who had signed the constitution to stand up and be seen by everyone. Among them social welfare minister Enamul Haq Mostafa Shahid, jute and textile minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui, lawmakers Amir Hossain Amu were present in the house. Emajuddin Pramanik, Tofail Ahmed, Abdur Razzak and Dewan Farid Gazi were absent.
   The speaker mentioned the name of the Suranjit Sengupta as a signatory, but the prime minister objected, saying that he had not signed it.
   Later Suranjit Sengupta explained that he had not signed it because he wanted free education up to Class VIII. But he said that the place kept vacant for his signature is still empty and he will sign it anytime since the government has at last introduced free education.

A Dhaka court has given the CID police another four days to question former state minister for home, Lutfozzaman Babar, in connection with the August 21, 2004 grenade blast case.
   Additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Habibur Rahman Siddiqui, made the order on Wednesday rejecting the prayer for another 10 days’ remand by investigation officer, Abdul Kahhar Akand.
   The High Court will rule on November 11 the two petitions filed on Sunday seeking orders to be quizzed at jail gate and for proper medical treatment.
   The CID police remanded the BNP leader on October 29 in connection with the case after the Supreme Court put a seven-day halt on a High Court stay order regarding remanding Babar.
   Babar, already behind bars since March this year, serving 17 years on an arms conviction, was shown arrested in the grenade attack case on Monday.
   The grenade attack on the rally at Bangabandhu Avenue killed at least 23 people and left scores injured, including the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, who was then opposition leader.
   Some 22 people stand charged in the cases, including former BNP state minister Abdus Salam Pintu, his brother Maolana Tajuddin, also the alleged grenade supplier, and Mufti Hannan, leader of banned Islamist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami.

The Prime Minister’s Office has asked all the secretaries and chiefs of divisions to prepare a list of government decisions along with the state of their implementation and to send it to the PMO by November 15.
   ‘The government is going to complete its one year [in office] on January 6, 2010. The government is working sincerely to establish a digital Bangladesh and implement the election pledges. Various steps have, meanwhile, been taken,’ said the letter, dated October 25, signed by the PMO secretary, Mollah Waheduzzaman.
   The letter has asked the secretaries and the chiefs of divisions ‘to send details of different steps, state of their implementation and other activities to the PMO by November 15.’
   Secretaries of several ministries said they had received the letter and started collecting information from different wings under the ministries concerned.
   The education secretary, Syed Ataur Rahman, told New Age on Tuesday heads of all the directorates and education boards under his ministry had been asked to send detail of their activities by November 8. ‘We will send it to the PMO in a couple of days after we receive it.’

The chief prosecutor on Wednesday told the Appellate Division that the condemned convicts had hatched the conspiracy to kill the country’s founding President, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and his family members and relatives, not to overthrow his government.
   Prior to Sheikh Mujib’s killing, the convicts had killed his brother-in-law Abdur Rab Serniabat and nephew Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni at their official residences, said chief prosecutor Anisul Huq on the third day of his argument on the 23rd day of the hearing of the appeals against the High Court’s verdict that had upheld the death sentences of 12 former army men.
   ‘The conspiracy was meant to kill Sheikh Mujib and his family, not to overthrow the government through mutiny, as neither the then Vice-President Syed Nazrul Islam nor the then Prime Minister M Mansur Ali were attacked on that day,’ Anis argued.
   Anis presented his argument to refute the earlier submission by the counsels for Death Row convicts Bazlul Huda and AKM Mohiuddin, who said that Sheikh Mujib was killed as a part of a mutiny that had been hatched in the Dhaka Cantonment to overthrow the then government.
   Anis also said that all activities of the convicts at the cantonment, the residences of Sheikh Mujib and his relatives, radio station and Bangabhaban were linked to the killing as their common intention was to slay Sheikh Mujib, his family and relatives.
   ‘Whether in pursuance of the agreement the conspirators committed the offence individually or adopted illegal means to do a legal act which has a link with the object of conspiracy, all of them will be liable for such offences even if some of them have not actively participated in the commission of the those offences,’ said Anis, referring to the judgment delivered by the Indian Supreme Court in the State versus Nalini case.
   Terming the defence’s submission as ‘ridiculous’, Anis emotionally asked the court that if the convicts want to depose Sheikh Mujib, they would not have killed his 10-year old son, Sheikh Russel. ‘Was Russel a part of the government or was he likely to become a president after the killing?’
   To substantiate his argument that the offence was a criminal conspiracy for killing Sheikh Mujib, Anis argued, ‘Before the killing of the then president, the convicts did not tell him that he would be arrested, which was necessary to make people believe that the conspiracy was to depose him.’
   Referring to the deposition of some prosecution witnesses, Anis said that the convicts had killed Sheikh Mujib and his family without any provocation or resistance. ‘The attackers met no resistance in Sheikh Mujib’s house when they went to murder him and his family,’ he pointed out.
   He also said that those who were killed on 15 August, 1975 had not begged for mercy.
   The court will hear Anis today also as his submission has not been completed.

A top US official held talks with Aung San Suu Kyi Wednesday after Myanmar’s ruling junta gave the democracy icon a rare break from house arrest during Washington’s highest-level visit here for 14 years.
   The assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell, also met the Myanmar prime minister, Thein Sein, as part of efforts by the Obama administration to re-engage with the hardline military regime.
   Nobel Laureate Suu Kyi met Campbell for two hours at a luxury hotel in Yangon — the first time she had appeared in front of the media other than at her home or in prison since her current period of detention began in 2003.
   Dressed in a pink and maroon traditional outfit, the 64-year-old smiled but did not answer questions as she headed into the talks with the US diplomat and his deputy, Scot Marciel.
   ‘Am I beautiful when I smile?’ Suu Kyi joked with the media after the talks, adding: ‘Hello to all of you.’
   Suu Kyi has spent most of the last two decades in detention and the junta gave her an extra 18 months of house arrest in August, effectively ruling her out of elections due in 2010 that critics say are a sham.
   The opposition leader was sentenced after being found guilty of harbouring an American man who swam to her lakeside house earlier in the year. Journalists saw her in prison at the trial but were not allowed to take pictures.
   Campbell and Marciel held talks earlier on Wednesday with premier Thein Sein in the remote administrative capital Naypyidaw, Myanmar officials said.
   Myanmar officials said the US delegation was not expected to meet reclusive junta leader Than Shwe. State media said that when the US envoys arrived he was in southern Myanmar inspecting aid efforts after last year’s Cyclone Nargis.
   The US duo also met with senior members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which won Myanmar’s last elections in 1990 but was prevented from taking power by the army. They were due to leave Wednesday night.
   ‘The meeting was positive,’ NLD spokesman Khin Maung Swe, who attended the talks at party headquarters in Yangon, said.
   ‘We discussed the transition to democracy and focused on the dialogue between Aung San Suu Kyi and senior General Than Shwe. From their side they didn’t say much, they just listened,’ he said.
   Campbell is the highest ranking US official to travel to Myanmar — formerly known as Burma — since Madeleine Albright went as US ambassador to the United Nations in 1995 during Bill Clinton’s presidency.
   The two-day trip is a follow-up to discussions in New York in September between US and Myanmar officials, the highest-level US contact with the regime in nearly a decade.
   President Barack Obama’s administration in September announced a dramatic change in US policy because isolating Myanmar had failed, but said it would not ease sanctions without progress on democracy and human rights.
   US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly overnight described the visit as a ‘fact-finding mission’ and said it was the ‘the second step in the beginning of a dialogue with Burma.’

Bangladesh will look to finish one of their most successful years in cricket history on a high when they will play the fifth and final one-day match at the Chittagong divisional stadium today.
   The match will start at 9:30pm and will be televised by SUPER SPORT 5 and BTV.
   The Tigers have hold the highest success rate among all the Test-playing nations in 2009 winning 72 per cent of their one-day matches (18 matches, 13 wins and five defeats) and another win in today’s match can only improve their statistics.
   Only Australia and India have won more matches than Bangladesh, but their 21 and 14 wins came against 37 and 24 matches respectively. Bangladesh had won 17 ODIs in 2006, which has remained their most successful season so far.
   But this time they have played fewer matches and have not lost any of the four series they played, which made the year most memorable. Three of Bangladesh’s four series victory came against Zimbabwe and one against a depleted West Indies side, but coach Jamie Siddons said it cannot take away anything from them.
   ‘I have said all along that this team is getting better but no one believed me. We’re yet to play the world’s best teams this year. We played what was probably a West Indies A team and Zimbabwe who are ranked below us. We were expected to do well against those sides but the hard part is doing that,’ he said.
   ‘Zimbabwe are a good team and the West Indies team we played against was a good team as well. We had to play really good cricket to win those games. We’ve done that. I predict that we’ll do better and we will. We still have a lot of improvement to make over the next two months and the next two years,’ added the Australian.
   ‘It is good to be winning. The players are getting used to winning and that’s a good thing. When we play India and Sri Lanka we’ll know how to win and they’ll need to play their best cricket to beat us. That’s the beauty of what’s happening to us at the moment,’ said Siddons.
   The hunger for success has left the coach in no mood to show any mercy to Zimbabwe in the fifth match despite the rubber has already become a dead one with Bangladesh leading it 3-1.
   An unchanged squad comprising three spinners is expected to take the field, though at times the team management had thought about giving skipper Sakib al Hasan a rest.
   ‘We have been resting him like yesterday [Tuesday] we didn’t send him out to bat. In the game before we held him back and let the other guys go and bat. He is still not a hundred per cent fit. His rehabilitation would probably take another six months. I don’t think we’ll rest him tomorrow [Thursday] but probably get him to do a little bit less work,’ said Siddons.
   The coach also expects some of the underperformers like Mohammad Ashraful, Mahmudullah and Naeem Islam will use the opportunity of the pressure-less game to prove their mettle.
   ‘It feels great to have won the series with one game to go. I guess you can relax a bit but we still have a lot of players who are underperforming,’ said the 45-year old coach.
   ‘Ashraful has made one score in four hits. Riyad (Mahmud Ullah), Naeem (Islam) and Zunaed (Siddique) have done nothing in this series. So, we have a lot of room for improvement,’ he added.
   ‘Some of our middle of the road players, not some of our better players, will get another opportunity to step up and perform tomorrow [Thursday]. We need them to perform to do well as a team against better oppositions,’ he said.

The United Liberation Front of Asom’s foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury and finance secretary Chitrabon Hazarika were reportedly abducted from Uttara in Dhaka about midnight past Sunday.
   A statement, issued by the ULFA’s military spokesman Raju barua on Wednesday, said seven to eight unknown persons dressed in civil outfit went to a house at Uttara where one of its leaders was living with his family.
   Without revealing their identity, the abductors claimed they had been sent by some ‘high authority’ in order to take the two leaders with them. Abductors searched the house and took the passport and the voter identity card along with them.
   It is suspected that both of them had already been handed over to India, the statement said. Shasha Choudhury is from Helosa in Nalbari and Chitrabon Hazarika is from Jokholabondha in Nagaon in Asom.
   The abduction of Sasha Choudhury and Chitrabon Hazarika in a midnight operation is of serious human rights concerns as they have not returned yet, the statement said.
   In the statement, the ULFA appealed to the Bangladesh government to immediately inform the organisation of the whereabouts of Sasha Choudhury and Chitrabon Hazarika.
   The ULFA also appealed to the international community of human rights defenders to stand by the human right of Sasha Choudhury and Chitrabon Hazarika.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Wednesday told the parliament that the lawmakers of the main opposition seemed to be eager to return to the house but were staying out because of their leaders.
   ‘Although the opposition [lawmakers] are not physically present in the parliament, they are participating in its proceedings indirectly. As I have come to know from you [speaker] that the opposition lawmakers are making requests to you as to who should raise their respective questions on their behalf during the [prime minister’s] question-answer session,’ she said.
   The speaker acknowledged that the opposition lawmakers were approaching him with such requests.
   A total of six questions were raised in the house for the prime minister to answer, of them four questions were from the opposition bench.
   Hasina said the indirect presence of the opposition in the house proved that their lawmakers were eager to return but could not do so as yet because of their leaders.
   She made the comments when Jatiya Party lawmaker Mujibul Huq Chunnu raised a question on behalf of absentee BNP lawmaker Zafrul Islam Chowdhury of Chittagong-15 constituency during the question-answer hour scheduled for the prime minister in the house, with the speaker, Abdul Hamid in the chair.
   Replying to a question raised on behalf of absentee BNP lawmaker, Nazim Uddin Ahmed, Hasina assured the house that the people would get rid of power crisis by 2011 and as outlined in her government’s vision the country would be self-reliant in electricity by the year 2021 when the entire population would be brought under electricity facilities.
   She also informed the house that the government had formulated a plan to increase power generation taking into consideration the prevailing gas crisis in order to meet the ever-increasing demand for power.
   Under the current plan, the prime minister said a total of 3,462 megawatts of power would be added to the national grid by 2014 which included 667 MW by December this year, 900 MW by June, 2012 and 1,895 MW by June, 2014.
   Answering a question from JP’s Mujibul Huq Chunnu, Hasina said her government had a plan to turn the tourist resorts in Cox’s Bazar, Sundarban and Kuakata into world class ones to attract more foreign tourists. She said that the government was considering package tour programmes for foreign tourists in Bangladesh.
   Replying to AL MP Mahfuza Mandal, she said the government had already taken steps for dredging of the rivers to restore their navigability and the shipping ministry has undertaken a grand plan in this regard. Initially, a development project worth Tk 12,000 crore has been approved by the planning commission for the purpose, she said.
   Replying to a question raised on behalf of BNP’s legislator, Adul Khayer Bhuiyan, the prime minister said her government had taken up programmes to create jobs to tackle the unemployment problem and hoped unemployment would be brought down to 15 per cent from the present 40 per cent by 2021.
   To a supplementary question from JP’s Anisul Huq Mandal, she said the people of the northern region would forget the word ‘Monga’ [starvation] as her government had taken extensive initiatives for employment in the region.
   Answering a question by BNP’s Ashraf Uddin, the prime minister said the National Housing Authority would build 17,677 flats in next five years for the middle and low income people in order to ease the accommodation problem. Besides, the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha has taken up a plan to construct 52,512 flats for low and middle income people.

The irrational increase in educational fees has caused demonstrations and violent protests by student in private universities in the last few years, said the latest annual report of the University Grants Commission.
   'Most private universities have no rules and regulations with regard to their income and expenditure. As a result there exists an illogical difference between universities in charging admission fees, tuition fees, teachers' salaries and other forms of expenditure,' said the report of the UGC which is the regulator of public and private universities.
   'Besides, the authorities charge exorbitant fees for providing students with academic transcripts, certificates and testimonials. The irrational increase in fees has caused violent demonstrations and protests by students in the last few years, which has become a matter of concern for all quarters,' observed the report which is scheduled to be submitted to President Zillur Rahman within a couple of days.
   The UGC Act requires submission of the annual report to the president first and then to the Jatiya Sangsad.
   UGC's chairman Professor Nazrul Islam told New Age that they were waiting for the green signal from the Bangabhaban to submit the report, and later on it would be made public.
   In the report the UGC also recommended that the government should take steps to compel the university authorities to charge tolerable fees.
   'Even the rules and regulations set by the UGC for admitting students and running the education and administrative affairs are not being complied with. The authorities should abide by the rules set by the commission in recruiting teachers,' said the report.
   'The private universities should open departments and enroll students in Bangla literature, history, geography, political science and sociology. We have a proud history of the language movement in 1952 but it is unfortunate that only 3 to 4 private universities have departments that teach Bangla,' said the report.
   The report said that there were 1,82,641 students and 8,364 teachers in the 2008 academic year in all the 51 private universities. Of the total number of teachers, 4,821 were full-timers and 3,543 part-timers.
   Of the 51 universities 47 were able to provide degrees to 32,701 students.
   The highest number of students was in the American International University of Bangladesh with 19,596 students, while lowest number, 100, was in the newly-formed East Delta University in Chittagong.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary-general, Khandaker Delwar, alleged that the Awami League, not BNP, pursues the politics of killing freedom-fighters and opposition leaders.
   He said that the Awami League is attempting to commemorate November 7 as 'freedom-fighter killing day' to rob it of its real significance and thus make it meaningless.
   'It is not the BNP, but the Awami League and its Rakkhi Bahini (dissolved paramilitary force) that were responsible for killing freedom-fighters and opposition leaders,' he said at a press briefing held after a meeting of the national committee for commemorating the 'National revolutionary and solidarity day' at the party's central office on Wednesday.
   'Now the Awami League is commemorating the day under a different name in an attempt to taint the day which marks the resistance to the conspiracy to establish authoritarianism,' the BNP leader alleged.
   He said that the Awami League tried to stifle democracy by establishing the one-party BAKSAL rule. Ziaur Rahman brought an end to that system and established multi-party democracy. 'That is why Awami League cancelled the November 7 holiday when it came to power. Why the former caretaker government did the same is clear to the people now.'
   He said that celebrating the day properly is vital in view of the current political situation. 'The way Awami League is trying to distort the meaning of the day is nothing but propaganda. It shows their undemocratic mindset.'
   He said that the BNP and its associate organisations have taken steps to celebrate the day with due fervour all over the country this year.
   He urged BNP leaders and workers all over the country to commemorate the day befittingly.
   The BNP celebrates the day as the 'National revolutionary and solidarity day' and declared it a public holiday when it was in office.
   In a statement on Wednesday, Delwar demanded that the government take immediate legal action against the director of the Folk Art and Crafts Foundation at Sonargaon in Narayanganj district for damaging the assets of the foundation by burning valuable books.
   The foundation's authorities reportedly burnt books on former President Ziaur Rahman and 'Bangladeshi nationalism'.
   Delwar dubbed the burning of the books as part of a conspiracy to distort the country's history.

An Afghan policeman has shot dead five British soldiers at a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, the defence ministry in London said on Wednesday.
   The men, three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police, were killed at a police checkpoint at a military compound in Helmand province on Tuesday.
   'An Afghan national policeman from the checkpoint started firing without warning before anyone could really respond,' a defence ministry spokesman said. 'Every effort is being put into hunting him down.'
   A British military spokesman in Kabul said the gunman may have been working with another man and the British Royal Military Police and the Afghan National Directorate of Security were investigating.
   The prime minister, Gordon Brown, said the whole country would mourn the loss of the soldiers.
   'The death of five brave soldiers in a single incident is a terrible loss. My thoughts, condolences and sympathies go to their families, loved ones and colleagues,' Brown said.
   'They fought to make Afghanistan more secure, but above all to make Britain safer from the terrorism and extremism which continues to threaten us from the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.'
   Afghan election officials cancelled a presidential run-off election on Monday after Afghan president Hamid Karzai's rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew citing serious concerns about the election.
   'It is my highest priority to ensure our heroic troops have the best possible support and equipment - and the right strategy, backed by our international partners, and by a new Afghan government ready to play its part in confronting the challenges Afghanistan faces,' Brown added in his statement.

The police on Wednesday arrested Ataul Huda, nephew of Bazlul Huda, one of the death row convicts in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case, in the case of bomb attack on Awami League lawmaker Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh.
   Five relatives of four death row convicts in the Sheikh Mujib murder case and two others have so far been arrested following the case filed by Taposh.
   The Chuadanga police superintendent, Mohammed Abdul Baten, told bdnews24.com a Detective Branch team from Dhaka and the Alamdanga police arrested Ataul in a drive at Haatboalia about dawn on Wednesday.
   The 38-year-old Ataul is son of Bazlul Huda's cousin.
   Sons of former lieutenant colonel Mohiuddin Ahmed, Mohammed Nazmul Hassan Sohel and Mahbubul Hassan were arrested on October 27.
   The police arrested fugitive death convict retired lieutenant colonel Abdur Rashid's daughter Khandaker Mehnaz Rashid on October 24 and another convict Shariful Haque Dalim's brother Quamrul Haque Swapan on October 19.
   On the other hand, Mehnaz Rashid was on Wednesday placed on a three-day remand for interrogation in connection with the bomb attack case.
   Taposh was attacked at night on 21 October just after he emerged from his office. He was not hurt but 12 others were injured by the blast.
   After completion of her second remand for four days, the Detective Branch produced Mehnaz before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court and sought a fresh six-day remand but Magistrate Rahman Siddique granted only three days of remand.
   This is the third time that she has been remanded.
   The investigation officer of the case, assistant commissioner Akbar Ali, in his remand petition said that Mehnaz's link with the bomb attack was found in the primary interrogation, and the police needed more time for grilling her to get more important information and evidence.
   Taposh, a nephew of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is involved with the legal team that is assisting the state's counsels in the appeals proceedings. His parents, Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni and Arzoo Moni, were murdered on 15 August, 1975.
   Taposh said on Thursday that he had filed a case with the Motijheel police on October 22, mentioning no names, but alleging that the relatives and associates of those convicted of the August 15 killings were involved in the attack as they wanted to derail the appeals process in the Supreme Court.
   The case's details said they attacked him in a premeditated manner to kill him in order to disrupt the final outcome of the trial of the killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
   Sub-inspector Arzu Mia of Motijheel police station was assigned to investigate the case.
   The Detective Branch received the case docket and documents on early October 24 and assistant commissioner Akbar Ali was made investigation officer of the case.
   A total of six people have so far been arrested till Wednesday evening in connection with the bomb attack.
   The lawmen on early 27 arrested Death Row convict former Lt Col Mohiuddin Ahmed's two sons, Nazmul Hassan Sohel and Mahbubul Hassan Imran, in this connection.
   The police arrested Sheikh Shafiullah Safu, a leader of the now-defunct Freedom Party, on early October 25.
   On October 22, the police arrested Kamrul Haque Swapan Bir Bikram, younger brother of retired major Shariful Haq Dalim, and Freedom Party leader Abdur Rahim in this connection. All the arrested are now being grilled in police custody.

The five persons who were arrested Monday night with arms and ammunition, including a Mahila Awami League leader, were taken on five days' remand Wednesday for interrogation about the gunrunning.
   The police produced Taslima Khan Ankhi, general secretary of Kushtia District Mahila Awami League, and her four associates before the court of chief judicial magistrate, Abdul Aziz Mandal, with a prayer for a seven-day remand.
   However, the court granted five days time for grilling the arrested persons.
   Acting on secret information, a police team intercepted a town-bound microbus from Daulatpur at about 11:00pm on Monday at Barkhada Trimohoni check-post and searched the vehicle. They found out an AK-47 rifle, a shotgun and 82 rounds of bullet and arrested four in the micro.
   According to Ankhi's statement the police conducted raid on a house at Dangmorka of Daulatpur and arrested another suspect, Akkas Ali.

The Indian high commission in Dhaka will introduce a digital 'e-token' system to further ease the visa application submission process by Bangladeshi citizens.
   Bangladeshi passport holders applying for visas at India Visa Application Centres at Gulshan and Motijheel of Dhaka will get the benefit from November 15, said a Indian HC press release Wednesday.
   The passport holders wishing to apply for visas to travel to India must visit web site www.ivacbd.com and log on to 'E-Token system'. This service will be available from November 11.

The Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, Wednesday warned of a greater movement if the government takes any step against country's interest, such as transfer of the management of ports and airports to aliens.
   'A greater movement would be built up if the government tries to hand over the management of Zia International Airport and Chittagong seaport to foreigners,' he said addressing his party's Gazipur district-unit conference, ahead of their national congress.
   Menon, also president of the parliamentary standing committee on education ministry, said his party doesn't support any decision leasing out mineral resources of the country to foreign firms without discussion in parliament.
   He said if the government takes any anti-nation step, his party would protest and resist it along with the countrymen.
   The Workers Party is in the national coalition of protestors now in movement against leasing out gas blocks in the Bay to foreign companies.

A student of Jahangir-nagar University was stabbed by unidentified miscreants at the main gate of the university Tuesday night.
   The victim was Samiul Basir Bin Hossain alias Sami, a masters student of anthropology department of JU.
   Sami is now undergoing treatment at a local clinic with critical injuries on his head and neck.
   The miscreants could not be identified yet.

Two women school teachers were killed Wednesday when armed Islamist militants ambushed their car in Pakistan's troubled tribal region bordering Afghanis-tan, local officials said.
   The women were travelling from the school they taught at in Khar - the main town in the northwestern tribal district of Bajaur - when insurgents bearing automatic weapons sprayed the vehicle with bullets.